Go visit Umeå in Sweden!

The city of Umeå in Sweden is one of this year's European Capitals of Culture (the other one is Riga in Latvia). For me Umeå is a very important place, because many bands that I was listening to as a teenager were from Umeå where there is not much else to do than to form a band (there is even a genre called Umeå hardcore); they basically brought me up and educated me, especially Refused and The (International) Noise Conspiracy. You probably know that Against Me!'s current bass player Inge Johansson is from Umeå, too.

As European Capital of Culture Umeå has a lot to offer in 2014. And the great thing about Umeå in 2014, they haven't forgotten about their hardcore and punk history. As a result you can find punk concerts and other related events in the program. There is, for example, the exhibition Umeå – The European Capital of Hardcore 1989-2000 in the The Archive of Umeå Hardcore, or a recomposed orchestral version of Refused's The Shape of Punk to Come by the NorrlandsOperan, the local opera company.

So if you ever wanted to find out where Against Me!'s newest member comes from, visit Europe in 2014, or transcend your restricted "East Coast"/"West Coast"-ways of thinking,

Go visit Umeå in Sweden!

(I will.)

Välkommen till Umeå!

can I trust you?? you're from the "evil part of Europe" mom always said never trust evil people

Mom's right, but Sweden is the very best part of Europe: beautiful people, good music and the most hilarious naval accident in history of seafaring. Just don't go anywhere else.

If i get into a school in helsinki ill check it out

Finland is even better, apparently. Every time we Dutch people think we're the best at anything in Europe, it's always Finland pipping us to the first place.

Haha, like in "the funniest languages of Europe"?

"Most difficult to pronounce surnames of Europe"

Tim wrote:

"Most difficult to pronounce surnames of Europe"

Seriously their names have like 4 vowels in a row! How are you supposed to pronounce that?

how do finnish/Swedish girls stack up against girls from eastern Europe and the Balkans? ive been to those places and they're fucking hot and nice. can expect ugly, mean bitches?

cooljayhu wrote:

Tim wrote:

"Most difficult to pronounce surnames of Europe"

Seriously their names have like 4 vowels in a row! How are you supposed to pronounce that?

Well, we Finns have to deal with all those pesky foreign names with like 4 consonants in a row! How are you supposed to pronounce that? (More vowels please!)

Ooookaaaay