Jeg elsker Patrick Wolf

Anyway… Names in Scandinavia, I’ve decided, are just different than they are here. Not that that’s a bad thing; in fact, one of the hardest things I’ve done in the past year was resign myself to the fact that, if I remain in the US, if/when I have children, I will be unable to name any of them Sune (possibly my favorite name ever). That would be cruel. It’s interesting because in the US, you can call your child anything you want to, while in Denmark, I know, there’s a sort of name register-type list of things you are and aren’t allowed to call your child.

But anyway, all of this is relevant because yesterday I got out and, for the first time, listened to this new (to me) CD by Thunderbear. Before I put it in my computer and saw the track lengths, I thought it was an EP; there are only five songs. However, it’s an album -- nearly 60 minutes long. Anyway, as I was perusing the liner, I noticed that some of the names were familiar. About half the members of Thunderbear are also members of Under Byen; in fact, Thunderbear is actually the side project of Under Byen pianist and composer Thorbjørn Krogshede.

So, then, I was thinking about Thorbjørn’s awesome name, and how I’d been meaning for months to look it up and see what it means, since there were no English cognates -- for either part -- that I could think of. Just as I was going to do that, I happened to look at the name of the band again. It suddenly clicked, and I thought -- wait… doesn’t bjørn mean bear? (It does.) And it quickly followed that I remembered Thor, the Norse god of thunder. (Yes, thunder. Don’t laugh. I’d rather be the god of thunder than the goddess of the hearth, like Hestia was. Admittedly, Hestia was Greek; perhaps the Greeks were a little less entertaining. Even so…) True, the modern Danish (I don’t know about Norwegian or Swedish) is torden, but essentially, the name Thor is going to be associated with thunder.

Which means, basically, this guy’s name means Thunderbear. (Okay, technically, I think it’s supposed to mean Thor’s bear, but Thunderbear is more interesting so I’m going to pretend that.) And not ‘means’ like Sara means princess – those are what the words really mean. If I wanted to convey the word princess to a Danish speaker, saying ‘Sara’ would get me nowhere. But if I wanted (for whatever reason) to convey Thunderbear, I could say Thorbjørn and they would get it. (I think.) This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard of. Although Thorbjørn Krogshede is the only person I know of with quite that name, I’ve heard of a few Thors and a whole bunch of Bjørns, so I assume it’s something acceptable. Which is just so neat.

People in the US (unless, perhaps, they’re very famous) do not name their kids things like Thunderbear. (Or even Bear -- which, again, is what Bjørn would be.) It just doesn’t happen. In fact, the possibility makes the idea of calling a child Sune seem quite reasonable. Which is too bad, because not only are both Thorbjørn and Thunderbear awesome names…

Oh -- and the band sounds good, too. The songs are all instrumental, and all unique. I suppose you could, if really pressed, compare them to groups like Sigur Rós, and you can of course hear bits of Under Byen here and there. The first connection I made, though, was to Patrick Wolf. Oddly enough. The second song, Pas på du ikke falder i!, sounds a lot like Patrick Wolf’s softer music, minus, of course, words. And the not-quite-tangible glitter and sparkles and sticker books (because I like to associate Patrick Wolf with Technicolor unicorns) feel Patrick Wolf brings. Maybe I’m just associating songs with really good piano-ish parts -- but either way, the piano on the Thunderbear album is really good -- and so are all the other instruments.

It’s not at all what I expected, going by the name and the album cover, but I wasn’t disappointed at all. In fact, I was kind of pleased -- Thunderbear almost made my headache go away, and what I was expecting probably would have made it worse. I love this album.

You can stream Thunderbear (the album) in full on last.fm, as well as download the last track, Røv. But be warned -- don’t try to look for them anywhere else. There’s no website, although you might find a bit of information from time to time at Morningside. But what I really mean is um myspace -- the Thunderbear you’ll find on there is a different band, and they’re bad. Really bad. Don’t let that fool you.

--DL--
Røv (Thunderbear)