Not long after the release of their second album, 2007’s Our Ill Wills, and months of relentless touring, Sweden’s Shout Out Louds decided to take a six-month break, and its five members—frontman Adam Olenius, bassist Ted Malmros, guitarist Carl Von Arbin, drummer Eric Edman and keyboardist Bebban Stenborg—spread out between Melbourne, Los Angeles and Stockholm. However, despite the distance, it wasn’t long before Olenius was writing new material and sending it out to his bandmates, who all contributed from their remote locations. As a result, the quintet has returned with a fresh, simple sound on third full-length Work (out now on Merge), which the band is currently supporting on a tour of North America and Europe. Shout Out Louds will be guest-editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with Olenius and our 2007 feature on the band.
Stenborg: If you have any elderly or disabled people with gardens in your neighborhood—or just overworked baby boomers—then I have the best advice you’ll get this year, so listen up! Ask them if they need help mowing their lawn, raking leaves, shoveling snow, digging holes or cutting down shrubs. I think it does a person a world of good to be outdoors, and it’s mind-blowingly good for your soul to see leaves pile up and feel your hair getting sweaty from physical labor rather than from indulging in whatever body-image problem you might worry over in some rotten gym. And you’ll be helping someone out while doing it. Things just can’t get any more clever than that. Maybe I should add that you should do it for no other reward than a glass of water. Last summer when I got back from a gardening excursion, my boyfriend asked how much I made, and I suddenly felt strangely humiliated. If you’re not 12 years old, you can help someone out for free for crap’s sake, right?
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvFSgXpyhoM
