Pills Of Sweden

Photo by Hanna Liden

When I was going through my "classic rock" phase, I asked my mom if she was a hippie in the 60s and if it had been awesome. "No, I was not a ‘hippie,' and no, it most certainly was not ‘awesome,'" she spat. "People called them hippies, but I just called them BUMS. They never bathed and they would lay in the gutter half-naked on drugs asking you for money." So I was all, "You suck, mom! The hippies took awesome drugs and they made awesome drug music and I wish I was never born!" Then I threw my Hair soundtrack at her and ran out of the room sobbing. Dungen sounds like all my retarded teenage ideas about hippieness. It's all awesome psychedelic freak-out jams with fruity flute solos to give it that mystical forest vibe. It's actually shocking that it was made now and not circa 1969. Bonus: Dungen's main guy, Gustav Ejstes, is a hot Swedish boy with Robert Plant hair who is studying Swedish folk music. Bonus #2: He sings in Swedish so you don't have to deal with embarrassing lyrics about minotaurs ‘n' such. I met up with Gustav, along with bandmates Reine, Andreas, Fredrik, and their manager Stefan (who runs the awesome Subliminal Sounds label), when they were visiting New York for their first time ever. Since this is the Design Issue, I asked them about, um…drugs. VICE: What's the best-looking drug? Reine: It is always the marijuana leaf. Stefan: We went to the Psychedelic Solution shop here yesterday. They have an amazing blotter acid art collection. It used to be real acid, but the galleries that showed them were getting busted so now they take the acid out with ultraviolet light.
 
I think pills are the prettiest. Gustav: We had many pills today. I have problems with headache and I take really strong painkillers called Citodon. This [pulls out some pills] is called Rosenrot. It means the "root of roses." It is for high concentration and focus. Also, I had a friend who was at the sex shop in Stockholm and she said to the man in the shop, "I cannot get horny," and he said, "Take four of these before the act." But I had no idea. I have just been eating these for two years now for the studies. It's great to study on this. Do you want one? You should have one! You will get filled of lust! Dungen's Ta Det Lugnt is out now on Subliminal Sounds.