Check out The Royalties' "Music for Cooking with Gas""The Royalties started as a joke. Or, more accurately, a series of jokes between friends – an ill-fated punk band, a cheesy covers group, and a handful of failed/funny projects that never really took off, but served as fine launching pads for vocalist/bassist Tommy Haltbakk and drummer BK Rambjør. Today, however, The Royalties are no punchline. Finally crystallizing in late 2005, the duo of Haltbakk and Rambjør released their debut-album to a cavalcade of critical praise, and even landed a Norwegian Grammy nomination for Best Pop Album in 2007. No laugh-track for those kind of accolades. Earlier this year, the band followed up their initial success with their rousing sophomore offering, The Lost Royalties, produced by Haltbakk, and bearing the new contributions of Mari Persen. Here’s the part where we’d lay out all the stellar press quotes about the album, but, you know, they’re all in Norwegian. "