ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Viagra Boys

Viagra Boys are Sebastian Murphy, Benjamin Vallé, Henrik Höckert, Oskar Carls, Tor Sjödén, and Martin Ehrencrona.

Sometimes the music we listen to tends to get a little stale.  It happens to all of us.  Especially if the main source of your music consumption is the radio.  The radio does a fantastic job of killing one’s enjoyment of a song—No matter how great it is, with how much they overplay the fifteen to twenty songs they have on rotation, it inevitably becomes overkill.  That’s why it’s important to have friends like myself and to keep up with what ANCHR is sharing in discovery.  Both ANCHR and I, personally, care about your aural pleasure.  That being said, this week’s AOTW is a band you can bet your bottom dollar you’ll never hear on top 40 radio: Viagra Boys. 

Viagra Boys are a sextet from Stockholm, Sweden that formed in 2015.  Viagra Boys’ music is raw, humorous, eccentric, while maintaining a punk sound. Once you stop giggling at their name and begin to listen to their music you’ll probably exclaim the same reaction that I had, which was: “Dang, these guys sound pretty good!” They’re the type of band you’re going to catch at the Bottle, Old Style in hand. (Unless, of course, you’re one of those cowboys that gets Lonestar). With two albums under their belt it’s probably best you start with Street Worms. You’ll listen to “Sports” about ten times, share it with all your other music friends, and move on to their latest release Welfare Jazz so that you can listen to one of my favorite covers of the past couple years; “In Spite of Ourselves”, which is of course a John Prine song (RIP). 

The only time I was able to catch these Swedes was during Wicker Park Fest in 2019.  All five bandmates that were on instruments were great musicians, but Sebastian Murphy (vocals) was especially entertaining. I wasn’t able to tell if it was part of the act or if it was genuine, but Murphy appeared to be inebriated the entire performance. He was comical in his banter, dancing, and singing performance. He would drink beer while singing and at times would shout the lyrics into the microphone while his mouth was full of beer. I wondered if the photographers below were getting annoyed because of the spittle that would get all over them…Hazard of the job, I guess.  By the end of the show, Murphy had stripped down all the way to his boxer briefs revealing his whole body covered in tattoos, including his impressive beer belly.  Go see them if you get the chance.  

Speaking of their live shows, the band does have some concerts announced for later on in the year. Check out their tour dates (which hopefully don’t need to be pushed back again) here.