TEDDYBEARS
Devil's Music - (2010)

Notable for their eclectic musical style as much as for wearing large bear heads, Teddybears were formed in Sweden in the early '90s. Although the group — whose members also direct videos, short films, and commercials — takes on a variety of genres including electronic, dance, rock, and reggae, Teddybears' original incarnation was as a grindcore band. Members Patrik Arve and Joakim Åhlund (who is also guitarist for the Caesars) had met in art school in Stockholm, soon adding Åhlund's brother Klas on guitar. In defiance of typical grindcore band names, the group switched its first name, Skull, to Teddybears, named after a band from the '50s featuring Phil Spector. After Teddybears' drummer left, the other members relied upon drum machines, guitars, and vocoders. The result was the electronic-leaning Rock 'n' Roll Highschool in 2000, followed by Fresh in 2005. Signing on with Atlantic, the band's first U.S. release, Soft Machine, came out in September 2006 and featured guests Iggy Pop, Annie, Neneh Cherry, Mad Cobra, and Ebbot Lundberg of the Soundtrack of Our Lives. Devil's Music followed in 2010.

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TEDDYBEARS
Soft Machine - (2006)

Though the members of the Teddybears used to be in a Swedish grindcore band together back in the '90s, you would be hard-pressed to hear those harder, noisier influences in Soft Machine, their first U.S. release. Instead, brothers Jaokim and Klas Ahlund and Patrick Arve use drum machines, methodically layered electric guitars, keyboards, and a whole lot of bass to propel their alternative dance-fueled music forward. The album is a high-energy, rhythm-driven affair, with synthy basslines and rock-solid beats holding down the tracks while sloshing guitars lay out circular, effects-laden riffs. Many will probably be familiar with the Teddybears' sound thanks to the appearance of their song, the Fatboy Slim-esque "Cobrastyle" in a 2006 Heineken commercial, which combines guest vocalist Mad Cobra's simple, catchy lyrics with handclaps and head-nodding made-for-road-trips chord breaks, and the rest of the record pretty much follows suit, which is both a good and a bad thing. Good because the band has hit upon an effective kind of brightly nocturnal dance-rock that plays nicely, but bad because as Soft Machine progresses, the formula they use becomes more and more apparent, and just a little less fun every time; by the time "Little Stereo" comes around, the poppy reggae melodies and straightforward drums are a bit tiresome in their predictability. This isn't to say that the album's without its strengths — Iggy Pop helps to give a convincing Killers treatment to "Punkrocker," and though he sounds a bit stilted at times, Osterberg's voice is as strong as it's been in a long time, while "Automatic Lover" features a great plodding vocoder and plenty of cascading electronic bleeps, and everything moves along well. No, Soft Machine isn't any more groundbreaking than any of the other 21st century alternative dance albums out there, but it covers the basics — beat and melody — well enough to make it enjoyable nonetheless. (allmusic.com)

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