Backdoor Men

Forming in 1982, Swedes Hans Ingemansson, Ismail Samie and Stefan Nilsson played their rendition of mod rock under the guise of the Pow that never really lifted off until 1984, when Robert Jelinek joined the band. A founding member of the seminal Swedish garage band the Creeps, Jelinek rounded out the line-up and the band changed their name to the Backdoor Men. From there, the quartet took classics by Chocolate Watch Band, Music Machine and Standells as inspiration and made some beautifully boisterous and harmonious jangling garage rock. Available for the first time in 20 years, Sodra Esplanaden 3 nicely compiles the Backdoor Men’s music from the small selection of cassettes and seven-inches they released during their brief existence. The limitations of their recordings, unfortunately, give this a real compilation feel that suffers at time from desperation. Of course, for the die-hard garage enthusiasts it will be easily to overlook, as these are some real gems that no doubt paved the way for the Swede garage explosion of recent years. Those in the know will already know, but anyone in search of some quality mid-’80s garage pop would be wise to invest in this assortment of rarities.