Sometimes I wish I were like you, so why won’t you let me show who I am?

Eight years has passed since Sweden’s punk rock golden boys Millencolin have released their iconic full-length Pennybridge Pioneers, and looking back, we can see there is a certain tinge of irony lurking within Nikola Sarcevic’s self-deprecating lyrics (like the excerpt above from “Stop to Think”) that intersperse cold hard truths with dry, quirky humor.

Hailing from the Swedish town of Örebro (which translates quite literally to “pennybridge” in English), Millencolin rose to fame in the early 90’s as part of the skate punk revolution, quickly being snatched up and signed by Epitaph Records. With a new millennium came a new horizon for the band that had gained a fair amount of popularity and praise in Europe and Australia but had yet to capitalize on the success labelmates Rancid, NOFX, and The Offspring had found in America. Epitaph head (and Bad Religion guitarist/co-songwriter) Brett Gurewitz took the band under his wing and produced Pennybridge Pioneers, their highest selling album to date, taking them from outside their comfort zone in the rolling hills of Sweden to record in the rolling hills of Hollywood.