click pics to enlarge		The Confusions were one of the few glimmers of hope of the SXSW that young people are still making good music. Unfortunately, these guys are from Sweden. At least they're doing it right somewhere. The Confusions have been playing since the early 90's in Europe. They decided to travel all the way to Texas just for little ol' SXSW. I ran into them at an industry listen-in panel that had panelists from Subpop, Virgin , and Nail Distribution. When they played the song The Pilot from their three song demo, my jaw dropped. I immediately leaned back two rows to ask for a CD, almost knocking over the badly upholstered folding chairs behind me. They said that they were playing that night, so I went. I thought they sounded good live, but there is something about that one song that automatically allows me to accept what ever else they do. This song has a real early sixties quality to it. I don't want to compare it to Smashmouth's Walking on the Sun because I think they use a leslie speaker and a hammond organ, but it sort of has this catchy guitar riff in the beginning, with a crunched out tremelo chorusy fender twin reverb effect that really hooks you in right away. It's infectious, but in a good way. The Confusions adhere to classic pop harmonies with some definite Bowie influence. I can hear Byrds, Beatles, and even some Simon and Garfunkel. Somehow, these guys still manage to sound modern. Their live show is pretty energetic too, and their keyboard player Zarah is easy on the eyes as well. Good, solid, retro-pop.