Indie Battle: Scandinavia

Scandinavia seems to have been an important part of the Indie scene for a long time. Each country producing important music as they joyfully hold hands and skip through the meadow that is Indie culture. Now the time has finally come to drop the namby-pamby hand-holding and fight for coveted "Super Indie Heavy Weight of Scandinavia 2008" title. This is and award so indie that no one knows who even won last years title. Let's welcome the contenders:
Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and the Indie wild card Aland.

Round 1: Finland vs. Aland


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The Finnish have more then just angry suicidal metal heads, they also have a very lively indie pop scene; many are Indie Pop bands documented on One Chord To Another. Thats not all, in case you're one of the many Indie Rock Folk, free Finnish music is at your fingertips here.
As for Aland... well as you may have guessed they don't have much to offer in the way of an "Indie Scene" but with a population of just 20,000 it also doesn't have much of any scene. Which, when combined with the fact that no one knows it exists makes it pretty damn indie indeed. So due to Finlands overly popular indie scene it hands the victory to Aland.

Round 2: Norway vs. Iceland

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Both very strong contenders here. Both with a strong indie scene, both rejecting EU membership in favour of fishing and of course neither with much imagination as far as flag design is concerned. With these countries sharing so much in common there is only one way to settle this. A hypothetical fight between the country's respective Indie heavyweights. Sigur Ros vs Kings of Convenience. While it could be assumed that the 4 Icelandic guys would kick the 2 lanky Norwegians around the ring pretty easily, these of course are 4 very pretentious, highest order arty-farty Icelandic guys and it's unlikely they know what a fight looks like. Victory Norway, likely to be the first and only guys to land a punch.

Round 3. Sweden vs Denmark

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This battle would be a hard one to watch. Denmark brutishly beaten in almost every department of indie from the merciless indie pop of Billie the Vision to the soulful Female vocals of Anna Ternheim. Sweden still looking for blood as they throw in the electro-synth duo The Knife. Denmark aren't out yet, they unleash their long time Indie heavy weight Kashmir. Sadly there isn't much they can do to change the Danish fortunes. Sweden walks away with the victory.

Join me next time for the FINAL where:

Sweden will take on Norway and people will once again forget not only where Aland is, but that it ever existed.