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Ken Stringfellow’s Foreign Correspondence: Tiger Of Sweden

You probably know Ken Stringfellow as the co-leader of Northwestern power-pop all-timers the Posies or as a sideman for R.E.M. or latter-day Big Star. He’s also a solo artist (we’re particularly fond of the soft-rock American beauty that is 2001’s Touched) and is currently preparing the debut by his Norwegian garage-rock band, the DiSCiPLiNES. Each day last week, magnetmagazine.com guest editor Stringfellow filed reports from his home on the European continent. We liked his stuff so much, we asked him for one more.

tiger550Stringfellow: Tiger Of Sweden was started more than a century ago in a small town north of Gothenburg and now manages to really cover a lot of very cool ground. Not only do they make clothes for the generally old-school business guy, but some really rock ‘n’ roll stuff for young people (who can afford it; it’s not cheap). They use Italian factories for their coats and other fine items. By covering the conservative and the hip ends of the spectrum, they are ubiquitous in Oslo, though they only sell at their own boutique on Parkveien and one other store. They have a few other concept stores in Scandinavia and Germany and are distributed in the States. In Norway, they are working with bands quite often, names familiar to Europeans but not the Septic Tanks (Cockney rhyming slang for Yanks) like Kaizers Orchestra. So, by virtue of the fact about every third Norwegian you see on the street in Oslo is wearing this brand, I felt it worthy of inclusion as a Norwegian cultural hallmark of distinction. It’s also becoming a French one, as I swan about in their gear on a daily basis. Oh, except now that I have a studio at home, I never go outside anymore.