The Soundtrack of Our Lives, often abbreviated T.S.O.O.L., was a Swedish

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band that formed in

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

in 1995 and disbanded in 2012. The band's style draws heavily from sixties and seventies rock and

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

, such as

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

and

Iggy and the Stooges The Stooges, originally billed as the Psychedelic Stooges, also known as Iggy and the Stooges, was an American rock band formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1967 by singer Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton, drummer Scott Asheton, and bassist Dave ...

Psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

is another strong influence for the band, and psychedelic and mystical references are also prominent in the band's lyrics and aesthetics. The abbreviation 'OEOC', which features on all their albums, refers to the phrase "as above, so below" from

Hermeticism Hermeticism, or Hermetism, is a philosophical system that is primarily based on the purported teachings of Hermes Trismegistus (a legendary Hellenistic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth). These teachings are containe ...

Formation

The Soundtrack of Our Lives was originally formed by Torbjörn "Ebbot" Lundberg, Björn Olsson, Ian Person, Kalle Gustafsson Jerneholm, Fredrik Sandsten and Martin Hederos. Several members, including vocalist Ebbot Lundberg, had previously played in the

rock band

Union Carbide Productions Union Carbide Productions was a Swedish rock band formed by Ebbot Lundberg (vocals), Patrik Caganis, Björn Olsson, Per Helm and Henrik Rylander in 1986. Their music can be described as a fusion of psychedelic rock and raw Stooges-esque rock 'n' ...

while Jerneholm had previously released an album with

grunge rockers Electric Eskimoes. Olsson, who as guitar player had helped craft the band's sound, left T.S.O.O.L. after its first release, ''Welcome to the Infant Freebase'', to pursue a solo career. He was replaced by Mattias Bärjed, who, like other members, has also engaged in solo and spinoff projects.

Band members

* Ebbot Lundberg – vocals (1995–2012) * Ian Person – guitar (1995–2012) * Martin Hederos – keyboards (1995–2012) * Kalle Gustafsson Jerneholm – bass guitar (1995-2012) * Fredrik Sandsten – drums (1995–2012) * Mattias Bärjed – guitar (1997–2012) Apart from those mentioned instruments, they all played other instruments such as mellotron, dulcimer, cello, piano, sitar, cembalo and others. Former band member: * Björn Olsson – guitar (1995–1997)

Tours and releases

The band found critical success in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 2002, with their third album ''

Behind the Music ''Behind the Music'' is a documentary television series on VH1. Each episode profiles and interviews a popular musical artist or group. The program examines the beginning of their career, their road to success, and the hardships they may have ...

'', released the previous year in Sweden and in the rest of Europe. It was nominated for the Best Alternative Album award at the

2003 Grammy Awards The 45th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 23, 2003 at Madison Square Garden in New York City honoring the best in music for the recording of the year beginning from October 1, 2001 through September 30, 2002. Musicians accomplishments ...

. They toured the US in 2002 with

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

in support of their album ''

''. Their double album '' Communion'' was released in November 2008. After a tour of the US the band announced that they were working on their next record ''Throw It Into the Universe''. In October 2010, the band announced it would be releasing their first 'best of' compilation entitled ''Golden Greats no. 1''. According to a statement on their website: "The band has spent much of the summer of 2010 in Svenska Grammofonstudion where they remastered the original recordings and in part picked up nuances that somehow went missing. With the carefully restored and remastered versions we are invited to TSOOL classics in a way we never heard them before." In early 2012, the band announced on their website that their latest album, ''Throw It to the Universe'', was complete. The album was released on 18 April 2012. Lead singer Ebbot Lundberg stated in an interview with ''Intro Magazine'' that ''Throw It to the Universe'' would be the band's final album, stating that he felt it completed the band's journey. The band performed its last show on 12 December 2012 in Stockholm.

Songs featured in popular culture

Their track "Instant Repeater 99" is played during the closing credits of the 2002 film ''

Spun ''Spun'' is a 2002 American black comedy crime drama film directed by Jonas Åkerlund from an original screenplay by William De Los Santos and Creighton Vero, based on three days of De Los Santos's life in the Eugene, Oregon, drug subculture. The ...

''. Their track "Sister Surround" was included on the "jukebox" of

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" ...

MVP Baseball 2003 ''MVP Baseball'' was a baseball game series published by EA Sports, running from 2003 to 2007 with five games produced. In 2003, ''MVP'' became the official successor to EA's long-running ''Triple Play Baseball'' series, and it simulated Major L ...

while "Karmageddon" is featured on EA Sports' ''

NHL 2005 ''NHL 2005'' is an ice hockey video game released in 2004, the successor to ''NHL 2004''. Features Improvements/flaws ''NHL 2005'' features ''Open Ice Control'', including moving players without the puck and also a complete World Cup mode where ...

'' and ''

FIFA Football 2005 ''FIFA Football 2005'', also known as ''FIFA Soccer 2005'' in North America or simply ''FIFA 2005'', is a football simulation video game released in 2004. It was developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts. It was released for the Pl ...

video games. and in the movie Grand Theft Parsons. "Sister Surround" was also featured in an episode of Six Feet Under. Their track "Babel On" was featured in MLB 10: The Show. Their track "Bigtime" featured as the theme of ''

WrestleMania 21 WrestleMania 21 was the 21st annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown! brand divisions. The event too ...

'' and on the soundtrack of the

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

version of ''

Gran Turismo 4 ''Gran Turismo 4'' is a 2004 racing video game for the PlayStation 2, the fourth installment in the main ''Gran Turismo'' series and the sixth for the overall series. It was developed by Polyphony Digital and published by Sony Computer Entertai ...

''. Their track "Mother One Track Mind" was also featured on the ''Gran Turismo 4'' soundtrack. T.S.O.O.L. songs "Sister Surround" and "Ten Years Ahead" both appear on the '' In Good Company'' soundtrack as well. The song "Second Life Replay" was featured during an episode of the fourth season of ''

Californication Californication may refer to: *Californication (word), an expression that refers to the influx of Californians into various western states in the U.S. * ''Californication'' (album), a 1999 album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers ** "Californication" (son ...

'' and "What's Your Story" in season six.

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

EPs

Singles

References

External links

Official site

VH1 artist site

MTV artist site

June 2009 Interview
with

L.A. Record ''L.A. Record'' is an independent music magazine originally published weekly as a broadsheet poster. The poster usually depicts a local Los Angeles musicians and according to the magazine editors is meant to recreate an iconic album cover. In Mar ...

The Soundtrack of Our Lives collection
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

's live music archive
The Soundtrack of Our Lives
at

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soundtrack Of Our Lives Swedish rock music groups Swedish alternative rock groups Musical groups established in 1995 English-language singers from Sweden People from Gothenburg