Like the first flowers in Spring which remind us that there’s still hope in the world and that good times are just around the corner, Norwegian pop-punk band Oslo Ess are a breath of fresh air for the Norwegian music industry. The band, based of course in Oslo, were formed in 2009 featuring members of Silver, Upstrokes and All Friday amongst their ranks, played their first shows in May 2010. The band almost instantaneously began to attract attention from all the right quarters and after only their second show were already booked for key summer festival Øyafestivalen. The band’s debut L.P. is now hotly anticipated, and is slated for release in early 2011. Oslo Ess initially look to Californian punk bands like Rancid, Social Distortion and Bad Religion for inspiration. But the band are by no means one dimensional, their sound also encompassing elements of classic rock, drawing from acts such as The Stones, Springsteen and Tom Petty. That coupled with the use of instruments that you wouldn’t typically see used by a punk band like organ and harmonica give the band a very accessible sound. Enthusiastic frontman Åsmund Lande is what looks like a cross between Jokke and Tim Armstrong and sings in Norwegian about life, love, the world and the people that inhabit it. The band’s style and mentality of life on the underside, on the fringes of the law perhaps is part and parcel of all things punk rock. Live the band deliver with such verve and charm that they never fail to move an audience.
http://bylarm.no/nor/artists/7528
