This Soundtrack Is Entirely Swedish

The game: Swedish rock and pop.

Marquee players: The Soundtrack of Our Lives, a psych-rock sextet that last month won best artist at the Swedish Grammis (and which appears Tuesday at the Roxy in West Hollywood).

Unlikely cheerleaders: Parasol Records, a Midwestern independent label and mail-order house. Parasol has been touting TSOOL since last summer, when it landed U.S. distribution rights from the band’s Swedish label, Telegram/Warner. Mostly through www.parasol.com, TSOOL’s third album, “Behind the Music,” has sold about 2,000 copies.

Because we liked ‘em: Why go after a major Swedish band? The label’s other Swedish connections are small bands. But nobody’s music seemed to hog the stereo at Parasol headquarters like TSOOL. “We were just trying to get some visibility for our favorite band,” label spokesman Michael Roux said. “Parasol should not have been involved in a record [that big].”

Sweet sounds of Scandinavia: Fans of melodic pop, take note--in the last month alone, four bands signed to Parasol’s labels have released albums. Starlet’s third album, “When the Sun Falls on My Feet,” offers jangly guitar pop in the vein of Wilco. Club 8’s “Spring Came, Rain Fell” brims with gentle dream-pop that suggests a muted version of Swedish forebears the Cardigans. Lasse Lindh’s “You Wake Up at Sea Tac” sprinkles hard-edged guitar into singer-songwriter melodramas. And the Acid House Kings’ “Mondays Are Like Tuesdays and Tuesdays Are Like Wednesdays” applies cinematic flourishes to strummed ballads.

The invasion: TSOOL’s Tuesday appearance is part of a North American tour that began with a 10-band Swedish showcase in New York. Who’s promoting this tuneful deluge? The Swedish government, for one, as well as Export Music Sweden, an industry cooperative. Engagements in Montreal and Austin, Texas, for the South by Southwest festival, preceded the L.A. gig.

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Kevin Bronson is a Times staff writer.