The roots of the band’s style were evident in those first recordings, according to Jocke: “We listened a lot to garage rock and psychedelia like the 13th Floor Elevators and Billy Childish and the Sonics and stuff like that, but also Sonic Youth and Pavement. In the beginning our sound was a little different from today. A lot rawer, but still with some great melodies somewhere underneath all those fuzzed out guitars. We didn’t have the organ at that stage, and since I’d just started to learn to play the guitar, I couldn’t play and sing at the same time, so there are none of those beautiful Beach Boys harmonies that we got to use later. But it’s still good stuff, and it’s not light years apart from what we’re doing now, just an earlier, more primitive version of what later became the Caesars' sound." Their first album, 1998’s Youth Is Wasted On The Young saw that early rawness tempered with just enough studio know how to result in a catchy, wickedly fun romp of an album. It was licensed in the U.S. by indie Minty Fresh Records, who christened the band the “12 Caesars”, to further confuse matters. “We wanted to call ourselves The Caesarians,” Åhlund remembers. “But they thought that was too vulgar or something. But we got stuck with the Twelve Caesars and now we’re just the Caesars and it’s all very confusing for all the 200 people who may have bought the first record!" Cherry Kicks could be played in its entirety at a party. You could dance, fall in love to it or just sit alone on the couch watching others having fun, while you pity yourself.
