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Those of you who have been punk record nerds for at least a decade might remember when Ugly Pop Records reissued two records by Sweden’s P.F. Commando in the mid-2010’s: 1979’s album Manipulerade Mongon and their 1980 single Nu Ska Vi Ha Kul!. According to Ugly Pop, some people consider Manipulerade Mongon the first Swedish punk album, but that’s a conversation for someone with a deep knowledge of 1970s Swedish record release dates, and I am not that person. What I can tell you is that P.F. Commando rips, and I’ve continued to revisit those two records since Ugly Pop reissued them. Manipulerade Mongon is as definitive a first-wave European punk album as you’ll find. It always reminded me of the Dead Boys’ Young, Loud, and Snotty. The records are similar in that you feel you’re hearing punk rock being invented in real time. I’m sure P.F. Commando and the Dead Boys were working from a similar set of high-energy rock and roll influences, and both bands seemed to think to themselves, “what if we twist the anger and aggression knobs until they break?” Both records are snarling, menacing, and malignant. They also both bear an audible debt to the Stooges’ Raw Power with their hard-charging rhythms, piercing guitar sounds, and dramatically clashing chord changes. It’s the good shit.
The Ugly Pop reissues are where my knowledge of P.F. Commando began and ended until this summer, when I came across a copy of P.F. Commando’s second album while I was in Sweden:
P.F. Commando: Jag En Duva LP (Mamma, 1980)
This was a total blind buy for me… I did not know P.F. Commando had other records or whether they were any good. The copyright date on Jag En Duva is 1980 and the cover art is interesting (minimal and punk-looking, just like Manipulerade Mongon, though the back cover looks kind of like a vintage wedding invitation), so I figured that, unless the band took a major stylistic left turn, I’d probably hear at least something I like.
It turns out that I needn’t have worried… Jag En Duva totally rules! That being said, it’s a very different record than Manipulerade Mongon. That sense of menace is largely gone, and the band has grown tighter and more confident. The songs are still high-energy and rooted in the same rock and roll tradition as, say, the Raw Records bands in the UK, but there’s more of a sheen on it this time, with chiming guitars bringing a lot to the table, adding another layer of depth and textural richness to the songs. Jag En Duva reminds me of the early records by the Boys, high-energy and rocking, but embracing melody and letting go of some of punk’s default toughness. Maybe some hardcore folks will think they’re watering things down, but I think they gain more than they lose here.
Interestingly, while the band has expanded its horizons, the singer really hasn’t. There isn’t as much grit and rasp in his vocals on Jag En Duva, but they’re still mostly shouted and mostly out of tune. I wonder what the band thought about that at the time? They were clearly working toward something more composed and approachable, yet the singer still seems hell-bent on just howling. I actually think it really works, though, even if the contrast is striking at some points. There’s annoyingly out of tune and charmingly out of tune, and this falls decidedly in the latter camp for me. Unlike Manipulerade Mongon, though, the lyrics on Jag En Duva are entirely in Swedish, so I don’t know if they’re still as provocative as first-album cuts like “Auschwitz,” “Failed Abortion,” and the classic “Get Fucked.” One can only hope.
One track from the single Ugly Pop reissued, the title track from Nu Ska Vi Ha Kul!, appears on Jag En Duva. That song is kind of an oddball for the band with its ska rhythm, but otherwise it’s a pretty good indicator of how Jag En Duva smooths out the first album’s rough edges. If you have that Ugly Pop single, you can revisit that track for a sense of where things went on Jag En Duva (the cut “Rough Sound” from that single, though, is much more like the first album). It might be easier, though, to just dial Jag En Duva up on your favorite streaming service… even though the record has never been reissued in any physical version, it’s available (along with the first album and Nu Ska Vi Ha Kul! single) everywhere.
Now that I’ve heard the main part of P.F. Commando’s discography, I’m interested in checking out what else is out there. There’s a 1979 cassette-only release called In a Pose that contains over 45 minutes of music. It’s on YouTube and dipping my toe in makes me want to grab a copy of the vinyl reissue, which came out in 1997 (I don’t see an original cassette copy falling in my lap). There’s also P.F. Commando’s first release, 1978’s Svenne Pop EP, which Ken Rock reissued in 2012. (I wouldn’t be surprised if Sorry State carried that when it came out, though I can’t remember at the moment). Despite the title, it sounds (and looks!) pretty fucking punk to me. They even, like their peers in the Rude Kids, have a song about Raggare. It looks like I’ll be hunting for a reissue of this one too, as it looks like originals sell in the $500 range.