Little Dragon

Is prepared to be your new favorite band

By Brent T. Ingram

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To say that Gothenburg, Sweden's Little Dragon, has come out of nowhere is a bit misleading. They haven't even gotten to nowhere yet.

"We haven't licensed our album to America yet," says singer Yukimi Nagano over the phone from a stop in San Francisco. "We just have the European and Japanese releases. We even have our second album almost finished. We weren't sure if it was better to just go with the second album for the US."

In this day and age, having a label only means assistance in promotion and publicity—I literally just bought their self-titled debut off iTunes (it's downloading now). But schmancy LA radio station KCRW was the first on the bandwagon. "Music has always been our passion, but we're not so good with business," says Nagano, in nearly perfect English. As a result, releasing their music on their own is not much of an option. "I think that pays off when you're already famous. We're definitely not Radiohead," she says with a laugh.

The quartet, friends from high school, had a friend release a lone 7-inch, which went on to being the pick of the week at torch-bearing record store Rough Trade in London. That, in turn, brought the attention of Peacefrog Records in London, who had already discovered another Swedish act named ... José González.

Before the release of their second album, they're taking some time off. "I'm going to go to Japan and Fredrick, the bass player, is going to Mexico," says Nagano, "Erik, the drummer, is going to South Africa and Håkan, the keyboardist, is going to Turkey." Undoubtedly to relax before their first album blows up in the US.

Which is done downloading.

LITTLE DRAGON

WITH PEARL AND THE BEARD

AND THE EARTH PEOPLE ORCHESTRA

TUESDAY 12.2.08

CAFE 939

939 BOYLSTON ST.,

BOSTON

617.576.6260

8PM/ALL AGES/$12

CAFE939.COM

LITTLE-DRAGON.SE