This unique Swedish band was formed in autumn 1991 in Stockholm. The band is very popular in all of Scandinavia and has a very “hardcore” fans base there. Many consider bob hund a “cult” band - especially because of its attitude towards the (mass) media. They are not interested in getting publicity if it means appearing on crap TV shows! The band’s line-up has not changed since early 1992 and they took their name from the cartoon figure Bob the Dog. The band consists of Thomas Öberg (b. 1967 – lead singer, traffic horn and more), Jonas Jonasson (b. 1967 - synthesizer, vocals and more), Conny Nimmersjö (b. 1967 – guitar), John Essing (b. 1964 – guitar), Mats Hellquist (b. 1964 – bass) and Mats Andersson (b. 1964 – drums).

In the early 90’s, the band did a lot of gigs in Sweden and quickly built up a solid fan base and an amazing live reputation. In 1993, Silence Records signed the band and in November that year, they released their debut mini album bob hund [1]. The following year saw the release of their second album (full-lenght) bob hund [2] and also, the band won a Grammy for being Best Live Band. Everyone wanted to see the band with the energetic lead singer who jumped 5 meters up in the air! Since then, the band has become more and more popular and have released a number of albums; including the live recordings on bob hund sover aldrig which was out in 1999. bob hund has played the largest stages on some of the biggest Scandinavian festivals including Roskilde Festival (Denmark), Hultsfred (Sweden), Ruisrock (Finland) and Quart (Norway).

The band won another Grammy in 1996, this time for its clever lyrics written by Öberg. These are lyrics that brilliantly render every day trivialities and situations such as making coffee and watching TV. bob hund has got a very distinctive style and a sound of their own which is difficult to describe: an amazing mixture of mad and lively guitars and spacey synthesizer sounds. Öberg grew up in Helsingborg and, as a consequence, his wonderful Skåne accent has become one of the band’s trademarks. Although bob hund's sound is quite unique, the band has been compared to the likes of Pixies, Sonic Youth and Iggy Pop.

bob hund’s famous logo (the pipe smoking dog; see above) was designed by their friend through many years, Martin Kann, who is also responsible for their covers and promotion material. In 1999, Kann won a prize for his brilliant cover work for bob hund’s album Jag rear ut min själ! Allt skall bort!!! (released in 1998).

As bob hund's popularity contiued to grow, 2000 saw the beginning of a new bob hund project - this time in English. The project was named Bergman Rock and its main focus was/is new material in English (e.i., not just bob hund's stuff translated from Swedish). So far nothing has been released from Bergman Rock. When bob hund released their latest album Stenalderen kan börja [The Stone Age can begin] last year, the band's name had now for the first time ever been capitalised: Bob Hund. The explanation that followed was that "In the Stone Age there was no such thing as lower case letters!" - a typical bob hund explanation.
On an ending note, I strongly recommend bob hund live. An absolutely amazing experience that cannot be missed!
Also, if you're into comics, check out 2000AD's Prog 1303 (7 Aug 02) in which there is a very explicit reference to this great Swedish band! (I was quite surprised when I saw this).

For further information on this band, please make use of the links below - they are in Swedish and Danish though!