the band i'm from barcelona is chock full of contradictions:  1. the "i" referred to in the title is not in fact from barcelona, but rather sweden.  2. the "i" is in fact, not an "i" but rather 30 or so i's!  actually, i'm not quite sure how many members make up the band, to tell you the truth, i'm not sure they know.  i've read articles that claim between 28 and 30.  i've even read 30+ members, i think the size is determined by how many can meet at any given time.

as you can imagine, a band of that size affords the opportunity to experiment with a wide variety of instruments, including: clarinets, saxophones, flutes, trumpets, banjos, accordions, kazoos, guitars, drums, keyboards etc.  most members provide backing vocals, but emanuel lundgren (founder, principal songwriter) is the lead singer for the group.

you can thank sweden's generous labor laws for i'm from barcelona's success.  emanuel, just like all swede's, is given FOUR paid weeks of vacation annually.  so in the summer of 2005 he decided to invite all of his friends (many not professional musicians) to help him make an e.p. titled don't give up on your dreams, buddy!  the rest is enormous-band history. 

their name comes from the classic british sitcom fawlty towers.  "i'm from barcelona" was the catch phrase of an incompetent waiter.  their second album, who killed harry houdini? released october 14, 2008, to critical acclaim.  in fact, time magazine named them one of the ten best live performances of 2007.

click here to listen to to listen to a bunch of i'm from barcelona tracks.  don't forget, the album cover image always links to sample songs and the band's image to their website.

i'm from barcelona have a ton of european dates scheduled.  click here to see if they are playing anywhere near you.

as always, please buy this album from your local independent music store by people who know and love music and not from retailers like wal-mart (soulless, globally-homogenizing, community-killers) or i-tunes (albums should be listened to as an entire composition with album cover and liner notes in hand).  incidentally, these two companies sell more music than any other retailer in the united states.  that my friend, bites.