It’s a pity Yeah Bop Station never made it due to the changing musical climate but they were good enough to release an album that still sounds decent for its time.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Yeah Bop Station
ALBUM: Upfront
LABEL: Blue Metal
SERIAL: BMCD-001
YEAR: 1992
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Sweden
LINEUP: Mia Kempff – lead vocals, bass * Thomas Larsson – guitars, lead and backing vocals * Clara Kempff – drums, backing vocals
TRACK LISTING: 01 Run From Your Money * 02 Don’t Turn Your Back On Me * 03 Don’t Like To Work * 04 Blue Moon * 05 Rhythm Machine * 06 Over And Done * 07 Scream Out Loud * 08 Still Want You * 09 Rolling Ace * 10 Flashback Rabbits * 11 H.H.H. * 12 Easy Living
WEBLINK: NA
Background
This is an early 90’s Swedish band that came from the same era as other outfits such as Masquerade, Shotgun Messiah, It’s Alive, Bam Bam Boys, Renegade and Great King Rat. The band was a trio, with sisters Mia and Clara Kempff and guitar god Thomas Larsson (previously with Glenn Hughes, Six Feet Under and Baltimoore). YBS played together between 1987 and 1993.
Prior to that, Mia and Clara along with their third sister Ackie were part of a vocal group called Chattanooga that operated between 1981 and 1986 and released two pop albums in their native Swedish language. Yeah Bop Station released just this one album with twelve tracks, let’s dive in and take a listen.
The Songs
The trio deliver a hard hitting brand of melodic rock with a blues edge underpinned by Mia Kempff’s smokey vocal and Thomas Larsson’s creative six string mastery, he also does lead vocals too. YBS set sail with the rollicking ‘Run From Your Money’ a good scene setter, with Larsson’s fingers flyin’ at solo time. ‘Don’t Turn Your Back On Me’ features a load of overdriven guitar from Thomas and tough vocals from Mia.
Thomas sings lead on ‘Don’t Like To Work’, yes that is a mantra I could get used to in our fragmented corporate world. Maybe he’s singing about universal basic income? Regardless, there is some great riffing to be found here. ‘Blue Moon’ is a track that I single out as an album highlight, the chorus is familiar but I can’t recall where I’ve heard it before.
‘Rhythm Machine’ is the tale of a woman that’s too hot to touch, and as the band say: ‘she’s the most dangerous thing that you’ve seen’. For something different, the trio tap into slow cruise and blues mode on ‘Over And Done’. Nicely done. Yeah Bop Station work back to mainstream melodic rock with ‘Scream Out Loud’, featuring a rowdy chorus and stinging guitar work. ‘Still Want You’ offers another change in direction, a tune that sounds like a boogie driven number done Swedish style.
‘Rolling Ace’ is another bluesy number which could knock a few skittles off the bowling lane with ease. ‘Flashback Rabbits’ on the other hand is an instrumental, that sounds like some of the material off the 1989 debut from fellow Swedes Shotgun Messiah. ‘H.H.H.’ (or Holding My Head Up High) is a very commercial track as you can hear/see from the video below. The band rock out to the end with ‘Easy Living’, another track that demonstrates the ability of this trio.
In Summary
There are a few rough live videos of the band on YouTube going back to 1990 plus 1992. It’s a pity Yeah Bop Station never made it due to the changing musical climate but they were good enough to release an album that still sounds decent for its time. All are still active in the Swedish music scene but it’s highly unlikely they’ll reform unless they get asked to perform at Sweden Rock Fest (SRF) for instance. Stranger things have happened!
Yeah Bop Station on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
