Miike Snow's Electro-Pop Anthems Heat Up SXSW

Posted on Mar 20th 2010 1:15PM by Joshua Ostroff

SXSW makes the music world seem topsy-turvy. The indie-centric festival floods Austin with so many hardcore music fans that even the smallest buzz band can seem like full-blown rock stars and the death of Alex Chilton can resound like Michael Jackson's.

But after watching Miike Snow play the Spin@Stubbs dayparty -- Spin magazine's 25th anniversary celebration headlined by Hole was one of several showcases for the electro-pop outfit -- it's inexplicable why their music isn't all over pop radio.

Sure, greasy-haired American lead singer Andrew Wyatt sports a bushy Charles Manson-esque beard which creates a bit of cognitive dissonance between his appearance and candy-sweet falsetto.

But that voice is as endlessly accessible as Miike Snow's music, which comes courtesy of Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, the Swedish pop geniuses also known as Avant and Bloodshy who brought us Britney Spears' 'Toxic.'

Perhaps if Britney were voicing these pop gems, they might break through to the wider public, but for the time being they seem to be the exclusive purview of the indie scene. Maybe it's just a matter of time for songs like the aching 'Silvia' and the anthemic 'Animal' to soak into the pop-cult consciousness like Postal Service once did.

It will help if Miike Snow keep playing them out live. When they first hit the road as a trio last fall, the band was a little underwhelming live. But beefed up to a six-piece -- and with several more months of public performances under their belts -- their music took on a welcome new momentum.

As Wyatt crooned and bounced between rocking out on his guitar and playing keyboards and a ginger-haired drummer bashed away from behind, Wyatt's Swedish compatriots gave their swirling synthscapes and digi-beats an epic rave-like urgency.

What separates Miike Snow from many other electro acts is their pop songwriting chops: the soaring vocals and melencholy lyrics matter as much as the monster beats. Now that they're getting their live show down, and should enjoy a push from being one of SXSW's more buzzed-about bands, perhaps one day soon Miike Snow will be joining their old pal Britney on the pop charts.