Much Nothing About Ado

Let´s face it- the summertime seems to be a bit uninspiring for my blog writing, which is kinda odd cause things DO happen here and topics keep on poppin´up. Strange.
Last year we witnessed the same phenomenon, and it even turned into a half-year hiatus. Actually I don´t want this to happen again, still I can´t bring myself to update frequently lately, basically due to the same lame excuses. A lot of work, weekends filled with all kinds of activities and of course the whole band business.
And no summer holiday, I might add!

Anyhow, to not let this month pass by without a single word from the author, lemme just say that, besides all that stress, I´m doing pretty well.  I survived last weekend´s Juhannus, 16 others didn´t. That must be the lowest death toll in years, just a couple of stabbings, shootings and the classic drowning (beer+schnapps+sausages+sauna+swimming=death).

Tomorrow I´m off to the Tuska Festival here in Helsinki. Metal up your ass, brothers and sisters! It´s held over the whole weekend and brings us Exodus, Overkill, Megadeth, Ministry, Saint Vitus and whatnot. Best thing is - the festival aria is in walking distance from casa del JottEff. Less money for cab rides, more money for beer, hell yeah!

If I survive this one, too, we´ll hear again on this channel.

Make sure to check out:

Tuska Festival 2012

You need two to tango

But two times two hundred are better, as you can see in the pic above! I took it on Vapunaatto, which is celebrated by students and everyone else who´s thirsty on the last of April. Yes, one day before the 1st of May, the Workers´ Day, or Vappu, as the Finns call it. That way, they figured, you have two (days) to tango. Those Finns are smart! And thirsty! And they like their Tango!

So what you see in the pic is just becoming a new Vappu tradition here in Helsinki. For the third consecutive year the district Vallila invited everybody to have a little dance, Tango of course! A funny and interesting spectacle that surprisingly attracts mostly younger people than one would expect. Also the band, that churned out timeless classics by the number, was far away from being old farts.

I felt very much like a student (because I was so thirsty) and enjoyed myself tremendously (later that night I almost felt like a professor). So much more relaxed than the annual war in the city center with intoxicated teenagers and flying fists.

SONG FOR TODAY:

Eino Grön - Illan viimeisen tango

Metal up your ass

I know, I know, I´m late again. The Judas Priest show in Jäähalli took place already a week ago but what are a couple of days compared to the incredible longevity of that lot of leather-lads. Formed 1699, er..1969 in Birmingham, England they have preached the word of heavy metal for over 40 years!

Now in 2012 the band was said to scream their last goodbye on JP´s Epitaph farewell tour. Lately it seems though that the Priest is far from demitting as the metal gods are writing new material, plan to record their 17th studio album AND tour, if only on a smaller scale than touring the world for two years. Maybe this is a first hint that the Mayan predictions about this year´s end of the world are not true at all.

Anyway, the show in Jäähalli was obviously designed to be their swansong and for two and a half hours we got a best-of program spiced with over-the-top bombast like changing back-drops, animated visuals, the trademark motorcycle bit, lasers and explosions!
Wham-bam, thank you, ma´am!

Pic by Arno Pokkari for Imperiumi.

The sound was quite good but it didn´t sit well with me that Richie Faulkner, new hotshot on second guitar and replacement for original member K.K. Downing, was so much louder than Glenn Tipton. Tipton is an absolutely underrated guitar player that helped shape the sound of heavy metal as we know it. Plus when it comes to soloing, he doesn´t need to hide behind all those new "shredders".

Rob Halford´s voice was strong and clear, the metal god presented himself in good shape. Only the very high notes, of which I´m not a huge fan anyway, seemed a bit ot of reach. Other than that - no complains. The setlist may not have pleased everyone, but that´s impossible if you have to cram 40 years into 2,5 hours. I enjoyed the gig very much, sometimes because it was so cool, all of the time because it was so corny.

Judas Priest is larger than life and the line between marvellous and unintentionally hilarious paper thin. They make use of almost every heavy metal cliché, just bare in mind that they invented or cultivated a big bunch of those chlichés themselves.

Pic by Arno Pokkari for Imperiumi.

When they launched into Starbreaker, the back-drop changed of course to the Sin After Sin cover with it´s temple pillars. Susu immediately screamed "Stonehenge" into my ear and I howled "Spinal Tap" back into hers. And guess what: the previous week YLE Teema had shown the Classic Albums episode for JP´s British Steel, in which Halford admits that when he saw the Spinal Tap movie for the first time, he thought it was a genuine documentary. He didn´t get the joke at all because everything that flick makes fun of was so close to his everyday life in his own band. Yeah!

Sing-a-long followed sing-a-long that night and songs like Metal Gods, Hellbent For Leather and Breaking The Law (no sing-a-long but a sing-it-yourself with Halford pointing his mic to the crowd) are nothing but all-time classics. The crowd favorite Turbolover will always make me smile because I have to imagine all these mustached, homophobic metal fans, yelling the chorus for 12 years until developing serious ablutomania in 1998, the year Halford came out of the closet. Ha ha!

To wrap things up I only gotta say that the whole spectacle turned out to be exactly THE heavy metal extravaganzy everyone had come for. Judas Priest proved that they can still deliver the goods 40 years after their foundation and corny or not - I´m looking forward to hearing the new material asap.

Make sure to check out:

Judas Priest 

Imperiumi 
(Finnish online metal magazine I "borrowed" the pics from.
There´s also a great review of that night. In Finnish, of course)

Major setback

U-turn...

Irony of fate:

Although blessed with a great timing, our drummer decided to leave the band remarkably untimely.

Now that we finally have the much anticipated demo ready to score us gigs, record deals, shit loads of money and - in the long run - world domination, [di: unru:] finds itself one member short.

All dressed up and nowhere to go.

...but I don´t

I made a decision, too:

No way I´m gonna cave in.
I will continue this one way or another.


JETZT ERST RECHT.

So if you consider yourself a good drummer, you´re living in / around Helsinki and you dig this, hit me up at di.unru@hotmail.com.

Out of sight, out of mind?

I´m back with a question: How fucking patronising has this society become?
I don´t need anybody to think for me, I regard myself as an adult, mature enough to make my own decisions. And if those decisons are good or bad for me should also be my concern only, especially when what I choose to do is legal.

So what drives me up the wall here?
Well, who knows me a bit might be surprised: it´s about smoking. Many got to know me as a nonsmoker and in a way, that´s what I am. Never bought a pack of cigarettes in my life. Probably never will. But from time to time I do enjoy puffing away a cigar or cigarillo. And those I do buy occasionally. Yesterday I was in the mood for some Moods or Sweets or something like it again, so I went to a K-Market in order to get my fix. Like a good boy I lined up at the cash desk and when it was my turn I asked if they sell cigarillos.

Now there´s one thing you should know in case you´re not living here:
From the first of January this year it is prohibited by law in Finland to display tobacco products. This led to the following scenario:

JottEff: "Hi, do you sell cigarillos?"
Clerk:   "Yes. What brand?"
              Opens the storage box containing the packs of smokes.
JottEff: "Er, I don´t know yet. What do you have?"
              I try to sneak a peek. Clerk closes the box again.
Clerk:   "I´m not sure, I don´t know much about cigarillos."
JottEff: "So could you show me your selection then?"
              Clerk appears now stressed out.
Clerk:   "No, sorry. I´m not allowed to do that."
              Now I start feeling stressed.
JottEff: "But how can I choose something from your selection when I don´t know your
             selection?"
Clerk:   "Well, I would have a list here. Maybe you find what you want on that list."

By now at least five customers where waiting behind me and the situation started to get uncomfortable. Did I want to make everybody wait even more while reading that long list? With the possibility of NOT finding anything I want?

JottEff:   "No, thanks."

My appetite was gone, which I guess is the exact desired effect of that stupid law. I didn´t blame the clerk, she was just playing by the rules. It´s only that these new rules for that old game suck pretty hard. Out of sight, out of mind?
Fuck you!

Commercial Break

Roller, cutter and a dead beat expression - the holy trinity of signmaking.

I am a signmaker by profession. Here you see our patron saint, the holy signmaker.
He died for our sins of making real bad advertisement. Happy Easter, I´m off to Pori now.

It´s happening...

...again!
We thought we were over with it,
but no - takatalvi! That means winter came back with temperatures below zero and lately also a lot of snow. Here in Helsinki it comes most of the time overnight and melts during the day, when all that stuff starts falling from the roofs kamikaze style. Look at that lovely picture. I took it yesterday from a store window and lucky me was peeping out instead of in. I didn´t see the lump of ice crashing into the car but I damn sure heard the impact. Must have been the owners fortunate day cause the ice didn´t only kill his rear window but he had also placed his car in a no-parking zone. I wonder what the insurance company is gonna say about that. Well, you can have a window replaced, it gets more difficult with your head.

SONG FOR TODAY:

Scream - Came Without Warning

Tombstoned in Baltimor

Last Friday I went to Lepakkomies for the (on my behalf) highly anticipated Baltimor show. I was pretty thrilled to see them again on stage after their great gig at Pub Sir Oliver a bit more than a month ago. Back then I had never heard of them and I was in for a surprise! They stood out like a sore thumb AND stole the show that night with their punk fused metal attack. Absolutely great stuff and I wanted more of that. Friday the time had finally come, so off I went to pay Batman (that´s what Lepakkomies means) an overdue visit.

As appetizer and counter point to the upcoming metal madness J. Kiesi broke the first ground. Quite stylishly sitting on a chair he and his acoustic guitar lured the audience into a world of Finnish sung folk and country, which I bet was unknown territory for some of the spectators.

By the way: he should not remain the only musician sitting on stage that night.

But back to Kiersi: despite the total contrast to everything that was yet to come he managed to draw a good crowd that was obviously digging his songs. And I did, too. Nice to see some open-mindedness in action, a virtue the metal scene is often claimed not to have. But with his well-crafted songs he had them eating out of the palm of his hand. Way to go, J.

Next up was United Seafood, what a name. A little birdy told me right before their set that the band is a side project of friends who all play in other combos. Birdy also told me this was going to be their first show ever and that they´re shaking like a leaf with stage fright.

Although you could tell that the Seafood boys were a bit nervous, there was actually no reason for it. Their performance was real solid and old school metal was the name of the game. The set was short but sweet and I guess we´ll be hearing from United Seafood soon again. Gladly so.

Then it was time for dooooooooooooom! The event was sold out when Tombstoned hit the stage. And with them came a wall of sound, the sound of Sabbath meets Vitus meets Cheer and they fucking delivered the goods!

I give you a blurry one cause my flash killed their projection on the wall.

How can you play doom metal without sounding just a bit like the aforementioned bands? You can´t. But you can be just a lame copy or you can have something unique and the latter is definitely the category Tombstoned belong to. Hypnotic, heavy and unstoppable like a slow locomotive. The projections emphasized the hypnotic element even more! I can only say that Tombstoned was truly mind-blowing that night. Had a little chat with the drummer and the bass player who confirmed that soon two 7" are being released. Plus there is an obscure tape coming out- in France of all places!

Then the mighty Baltimor took the crowd by storm. Double bass thunder, distorted bass, twin lead guitar lines and singer Iro´s gnarly growl. A marriage made in heaven! (Or was it the other direction?) I dig them so much because they mix the right amounts of old school metal with a snotty punk attitude and shake it up to an explosive molotov cocktail. Obviously I wasn´t the only one with that notion as the crowd went absolutely bananas!

Baltimor´s bass man fought through the show with a broken leg, a result of a skateboarding stunt gone bad. Talk about street credibility! Although he had a chair to rest on in-between songs, he just couldn´t sit during their assault - and believe me, nobody could! The set felt like a big party, fists in the air, beer squirting across the room, sing-along! Later the guys told me that there would be enough material for a full-length but no label yet to put it out. Somebody give them a deal already! I want that on vinyl!!

Make sure to check out:

J. Kiesi
United Seafood
Tombstoned
Baltimor

Best trip ever?

At least this was last Saturday´s mantra when Marika, Riku, Susu and yours truly jumped on the ferry to Tallinn. The weather forecast hadn´t been very promising, so we´d made a pact that no cloud, neither literal nor figurative, shall overshadow our little getaway.
This was going to be the best trip ever, period.

In good spirits on the ferry. Best trip ever!

The Estonian capitol on the other side of the pond is a popular destination among the Finns. With only about two and a half hours by boat it´s pretty close and the language is as close to Finnish as it can possibly get. Although most of Tallinn still looks like Sovjet Russia in the 80ties, the city can boast about a beautiful historic downtown that makes you forget its dismal surroundings instantly.

Another thing makes a trip to Tallinn so attractive: compared to Finland the prices over there are ridiculously low, especially for food and drinks. Naturally the "alcohol tourism" is at an all-time high, whole vans that accommodated maybe a pair of knickers and a toothbrush when crossing over to Estonia return brimful with beer & booze, frame sparking on the floor. That wasn´t our agenda, we set out to have a fun weekend, go shopping, eat well and have maybe a beer or two...maybe three.

Best view ever.

When we set foot on Estonian ground it was raining and to spill the beans, it should not stop raining until we where on the ferry back to Helsinki the next day. So what...best trip ever!
Due to the constant drizzle I didn´t take as many pictures as I had planned but here´s a nice view over parts of the old town. On the left you see St. Olaf´s Church, in the distance on the right is the harbor with the big ferries connecting Tallinn with Mariehamn, Stockholm, Rostock, St. Petersburg and of course Helsinki.

All of us had been to Tallinn before so sightseeing didn´t have top priority anyway. While the ladies went on a little shopping spree, Riku and me tried to find a record store called World Clinic. It had popped up on the net a couple of days earlier when I´d been searching for good places to score some vinyl in Tallinn. The shop´s blog looked interesting so I was keen to comb through its shelves. On our arrival at the World Clinic we were somehow reminded how small this world actually can be, and if you, dear reader, recall what the initials "WC" usually stand for, you will also get a good idea of the store size. So what...best trip ever. The shop guy was friendly and apparently active in Tallinn´s underground scene and I think that should always be supported. Riku stepped into the breach and bought a CD. Well done!

On our way to meet the girls we saw the most bizarre vehicle, a weird hybrid between tram and bus that announced itself with rattling chains on the asphalt:

Environment friendly and brings you to wherever is a contact wire. Best bus ever.

The light sign in the window reads "1" but this Trans-Siberian transformer looks rather like a number two. Check out the roof thingies connecting it to the electronic grid. Obviously the chains we heard were grounding this beauty!

Two beds, one tv. Best hotel room ever.

Re-united with the female part of our crew we first quenched our thirst with a couple of brews in a bar before going back to our hotel. We were checked into City Hotel Portas, located directly at the harbor. It´s cheap but clean and peaceful, and that´s all I ask for when staying just for one night (basically a couple of hours). On arrival we had stored our small luggage in the lobby, now it was time to bring our belongings (old and new) to our rooms and take a refreshing shower. Everyone was pretty hungry when we left again for the old town. The plan was to eat out opulently but we had not yet decided where to do so. After scanning the streets for a while we made our choice and it was a good one:
The restaurant Elevant. If you´re ever in Tallinn, go there! Placed nicely on the second floor of an historic house and decorated tastefully, a friendly staff serves you marvellous indian food in a chilled-out atmosphere. So chilled-out in fact, that we were the last customers to leave. Best trip ever, or what?

Hot indian food makes you thirsty, so we tried to find a couple of bars we had heard about. This endeavor proved to be a bit difficult even with that microscopic map of ours. Try to orientate yourself in dark narrow streets and pouring rain. Not an easy task but thus we managed to put more bars to the list than we already had.

Best...oh well.

We had a lot of fun until we called it a very long day around 3am (or 4am? Clock changed to summertime that night). Next morning started with a humble breakfast, then we had to already get packed and check out. On the ferry we all agreed that we had had a splendid time, despite the constant rain, which stopped exactly now to give way to beautiful sunlight. One of our crew members could even update the status of a missing mobile phone from lost to found. Best trip ever indeed!

Make sure to check out:

World Clinic (in Estonian)

Elevant (in English)
City Hotel Portus (in English)
Hell Hunt (in English)
Drink Bar & Grill (in English, stupid name, great bar)
Must Puudel (in Estonian)

Tom Sawyer Guantanamera

Bela & Boris have nothing to do with Tom, but you gotta have a backround, right?

I´m long out of language courses now and for quite some time knee-deep in working life. That means speaking Finnish everyday without the grammatic safety belt, helmet or parachute only a teacher can provide. This beautiful language is like an electric eel, once you think you can grasp it, you´ll be left behind in shock.

Of course I can make myself understood most of the time and I also took a leap foreward concerning my puhekieli. I have noticed though that many grammatical forms have slipped my mind, I even start to forget how things are written correctly.

How do you conjugate verbityyppi 4 in past tense?
How many ä´s has this or that word?
And what is it´s monikon partitiivi?
K-p-t vaihtelu...aaaargh!

High time to do something about it!
Since I didn´t get around yet to check on upcoming courses suitable for my level this has to do the trick for the moment: Tom Sawyer´s adventures in basic Finnish!
Didn´t start reading yet but the blurb was surprisingly easy for my to understand. With this book I hope to combine entertainment with a learning effect. Infotainment, so to speak. Let´s see if my plan pans out.

SONG FOR TODAY:

Die Toten Hosen - Cunt in a Mirror

Chapeau!

I don´t care much for brands and labels, but this, ladies and gentlemen, is a real Stetson! The mad hatter across the street is having sales right now and the headgear is going for incredibly small money.

Had been wanting to check out the tiny shop anyway for a long time. Some days ago I finally did and after a little pirouette I decided on this cool flat cap. When being asked about the price the mad hatter hammered a few digits into her calculator.

"Well, it´s 70% off, that would be 14€ then."

Ha!
14€ for a Stetson, that´s almost for free!
Hats off to the mad hatter, long may she live.

D.I.Y. or die - Osuuskunta 82

Osuuskunta 82 is something I most definitely support! And if you live in the area (or the country, what does it matter) and want an independent venue that is unique, far away from corporate bullshit and in it for the cause, then you should, too. At the moment the cooperative is organizing gigs in Helsinki to raise money for a nice place to go insane. I caught a great punk extravaganza almost three weeks ago.

Fuck man, the leap year bestowed an extra day upon us and still I wasn´t able to eke out a review of that show. It took place in Merihaka, easily one of the ugliest parts of town and only a ten minute walk for me away. Go figure, haha! I was badly prepared that night, had left my camera at home and relied on the crappy substitute in my cellphone - big mistake.

Click to enlarge 

That´s not only a bummer because the "venue" Sir Oliver was quite a sight (a shabby corner bar amongst the concrete jungle) filled with punks and crusties, it of course also means no pictures from the bands playing that night.
Won´t happen again, that´s a promise!

Due to a growing Korsakoff´s syndrome it´s a bit too late for a proper review anyway, so I only give you this:

Check out Baltimor if you dig Iron Maiden on speed with growling punk vocals (my fave that night!), give Perikato a try if you are into speedcore à la Siege and D.R.I. (a-ma-zing drummer!), feast on Särkyneet if female-fronted power pop in Finnish is to your taste (very tight combo!) and absolutely lose it with Ydinperhe if you crave old school hardcore as much as I do (Finnish lyrics, 2 gals + 2 guys and did I already mention OLD SCHOOL?!).

Well, you´ll find all links below as usual but let´s go back to the main topic:
Osuuskunta 82. I guess I´ll put them on a pedestal now and instead of paraphrasing their pamphlet, I´ll give you the original flyer which was given to me at the show:

Make sure to check out:

Osuuskunta 82 (in Finnish)
Baltimor
Perikato (their complete tape on YouTube)
Särkyneet
Ydinperhe

Jackpot

Breaking news, everybody!
I´m pleased as punch to announce that I got a job!! I got a fucking JOB!!!
Still can´t believe it myself but just signed a contract for six months in the same place where I got my työelämänvalmennus (second part of my job training). That´s done with on March 13th, the next day I will become a regular duunari (worker).

This means a lot to me for many reasons.
Needless to say that I get way more money for exactly the same work I´ve done before in that company. Needless to say that life gets so much easier when you don´t have to watch every penny anymore. I don´t have to deal with the mothership KELA anymore. I don´t have to sit up and beg at the employment office for foreigners anymore. But most important:

This means a huge leap forward in my integration process. It feels like a real achievement.

At this point I´d like to emphasize how well the Finnish integration system works if you use what´s being offered and give your best. That´s what I did and at the very least I can say that the system worked for me. I went to the language courses, I took part in the job training and after they didn´t / couldn´t give me a job in the first place, I went there again for a second job training. Spoke my retarded Finnish everyday and everyday it got less retarded. Tried everyday to prove myself as a good worker and easy-going workmate.
And it worked out!

Six months don´t sound much and of course I´m still not able to plan my life-in-hel far ahead but I can´t tell you how happy I am for this new development! I was told that there´s hope my contract will be renewed. Let´s see, I´m not gonna worry about this now.
All what counts at the moment is:
I got a fucking job!

Cheap Czech

Apparently some Czech prankster has tagged Helsinki´s tuomiokirkko over the weekend.
He or she stomped this cryptic text into the snow-covered stairs in front of the cathedral. Pica (can´t find this special c character on my keyboard) is Czech for vittu, cunt or Fotze.
The message of HELSINKI PICA escapes me.

ADDENDUM 04.03.2012:

My Czech blogheads brought some light into the darkness. Looks like the tag translates to "Helsinki fuck yeah!" and that´s something I can most certainly relate to. Thanx a lot, guys!

Old salt makes you thirsty

What a weekend! What a month actually...a lot of music related things have happened in February and if you are following this blog regularly you know that me like music very mucho. The right answer to my little quiz comes of course also from the world of sound: Last Friday my old rockabilly band Black Raven was in town for the second installment of their Worldwide Rockers Tour. Their gig in Bar Dubrovnik wasn´t only the first of the tour, it was also the very first gig for new drummer Jensemann with the band!

It was a running gag to cover Jensemann´s face on all pics.

Not bad at all to have your trial by fire in Helsinki. My first gig with the Raven guys was in Langenhagen, Germany and in case you´ve never heard about that town before, trust me - there´s a reason! Jensemann just replaced my own successor Fritzo, who´d been in the band for about five years and has parted ways with Julian and Torsten only a few weeks ago due to artistic differences. I met Jensemann for the first time that Friday and I´m really happy for the two founding members because they found a new member who fits to the band like a glove. A real nice and humble guy with a good sense of humor - the latter being absolutely mandatory in Black Raven.

And there he is uncovered. He can´t believe that he just signed his first autograph.

I had not seen the band since August 2010, when they played here in Finland (the review was my fourth post on this blog). Time flies, man. It was so cool to hang out with them before the show and realize that they had not changed a bit, it was immediately like the good old days. The first of two personal highlights from that night was Black Raven meeting my band guys who had come to see the show. My original plan to have a picture taken with both bands went awry cause in all this Wiedersehen commotion I simply forgot about it. We also missed most of the other band´s shows, at least we had a glimpse here and there.

First on stage was Pavulon Twist from Poland. They had already been part of the first Worldwide Rockers Tour in 2009 when I enjoyed them in Düsseldorf. Blues harp - yeah!
Next up were The Limiteds from Finland, an all-star project so to speak. I knew almost all the guys from their previous bands (Ellis & The Angry Teens, Cast Iron Arms, The Beetle Crushers). A little wonder that singer Ville was able to perform after some unfortunate encounter that left him with a broken jaw a few weeks back. I liked most of what I caught from their set, I didn´t like that they played "The Punk Bashing Boogie" - and they know it.

Whatever. Finally it was Black Raven´s turn to rock out. Jensemann had been a little nervous prior to the show but you couldn´t tell when he started to massage the skins. Rather on the contrary, he seemed to enjoy himself pretty much. Of course he made some minor mistakes but that´s how it goes. I still remember my own first gig with the band in said Langenhagen and oh boy, that was far from perfect. For a first show Jensemann did very well and I predict that they will have a great time together.

The second highlight for me came after the first half of their set, when they asked me to join them on stage. That was awesome! Although I´ve never regretted my decision to leave the band, I have harbored the secret wish to just play a couple of songs with the guys for quite a while. It was so cool that it happened now in my new hometown as we played
"Don´t Look Back", "Bird Doggin" and "Shaking All Over".

I guess that´s my little solo in "Shaking All Over". Pic by Susu.

After this intermezzo Jensemann took over again and BR rocked and rolled until 2.30am, when the dreaded light sign forced the show to come to an end. Nearly impossible to find an open bar at that point of time so we did the next best thing and translocated our binge to Ville´s hotel room. Must have been 5am when Susu and me took a cab home. Sentimental goodbyes included. Black Raven went the next day to Kouvola for a second gig. Later that day I had a short phone call with Julian in which we confirmed each other how cooool last night had been. And guess what: He told me that Pavulon Twist´s singer DID find an open bar, what the fuck?! What a local tour guide am I?
Sorry boys, next time...

Make sure to check out:

Black Raven
The Limiteds
Pavulon Twist

Quiz Time

Guess who´s gonna be in town,
guess who I´m gonna join on stage,
guess who´s gonna be pretty damn thirsty
...and all of that already tomorrow?

Here are a few hints for you:

-They are celebrating their 20th anniversary

-They are neither from Italy nor Russia

-They are always the last men standing

-Although their name suggests something else,
 their favorite color is blue...

Weeeell, any ideas?


SONG FOR TODAY:

Jeopardy - Think Music

Snow White ante portas

Just took this snapshot on Helsinginkatu.

We´re not only blessed with t-shirt weather today (0 degrees) in Helsinki, we´re also under snowfall since midnight. Pretty nice to look at taking a Sunday stroll, let´s see how nice it is on a Monday morning heading to work. Worst case scenario for me though is that my bus is late. I still enjoy this, too much is not enough. But I certainly understand everyone who has to drive in these conditions and wishes all this white stuff would go to hell and melt. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Helsinki Collarbone Massacre

I can´t say that I ever was a fan of Leatherface which doesn´t mean I did not like them. Although the name was always around and I was aware of the band, I just had never listened to their music. For no particular reason that is. This changed when our bass player, a huge fan of Leatherface, introduced me to their stuff and hooked me up with three of their albums during one week only. Quite an overdose of an overview of the band´s output. But listening to albums like their much-lauded "Mush" pleased my ear holes and got me interested in Leatherface´s somehow unique punk rock approach.

I heard a lot of pub rock there, sometimes the music even reminded me of singer/songwriter stuff like e.g. Billy Bragg. The cool twist about their style is that the guitar(s) are cranked up to the max, they throw in a good chunk of hc/(post) punk and "singer"/ mastermind Frankie Stubbs sounds like Lemmy´s little brother. The guy must gargle with rusty nails and whiskey before coughing into a mic. And still he has great melodic vocal lines - miraculous!

Needless to say that our bass man was pretty wired about their upcoming show in Bar Loose, and when he asked me to join in on the fun I didn´t have to think about it more than two seconds. I wanted to hear that live!

Bar Loose is always a nice place to see a show, check out this post if you wanna know a bit more about the venue. First up were the locals of Cigarette Crossfire, who delivered the goods with an energetic gig. The four-piece was in constant motion, so all I got is a blurry pic from their gig - better than nothing and who wants to see a static punk rock show, anyway? It´s not Kraftwerk...

The Crossfire boys had a great sound and were a pretty tight unit. You could tell that they have been around the block a couple of times before releasing (what I guess is) their debut album last October on Helsinki-based Combat Rock Industry. A bit too emo for my taste but still a good opener for the evening´s main act, that started precisely at 22:30.
Man, I gotta say that when they tell you here in Helsinki that the band starts at 22:30, the band starts at 22:30. You can set your fucking watch to it. I consider this a great thing, cause this way you can see a gig during the week, even have a couple of brews AND go to work the next day without looking and smelling like you have recently died. At least not more than usual.

When Leatherface took the stage, they did it with a little surprise for the mostly unexpecting audience. Mr. Stubbs, who also takes care of at least half the guitar duties, had broken his collarbone shortly before the tour took off and thus was unable to play. It´s exactly what happened to yours truly many moons ago when I had just started to play and let me tell you - it fucking sucked! Well, Stubbs made the best out of the situation, moving restlessly (and obviously annoyed by this limitation) all over the stage in his typical epileptic manner. Backed up by Dickie Hammond (a fitting name when you know that dick means fat in German) and some new guy on guitars they provided a great wall of sound that made up twice for the loss.

Blurry again but check out the right corner. Picture in Picture - this is the new age.

Now it became apparent that the place was sold out, it got nicely packed. Fists were raised, choruses yelled, even some minor crowd surfing was spotted. And maybe twenty minutes into the set, in between all of this, I realized that this band finally had me. There is a certain honesty and urgency in their songs that is overwhelming, especially live. Emotional lyrics without being the slightest bit emo, just in your face and to the point. Yeah! I also bumped into some familiar people that I hadn´t seen for a long time - a nice add-on for an overall great evening. After a bit more than an hour the fun was over (at least one encore was played) and I had to split immediately to catch the last tram home, which I successfully did by displaying a Guiness-book-of-records sprint.

Make sure to check out:

Leatherface
Cigarette Crossfire
Combat Rock Industry

Leatherface

You can run but you can´t hide! Put your head between your legs and say your prayers, bolts and ghouls, for the Leatherface cometh! Britpunks Leatherface are playing Bar Loose tonight, supported by Cigarette Crossfire from Finland. Their gigs will mark as the first punk show I get to see in Finland since I moved here. Pathetic!
High time to get a double dose of 1,2,3,4...
See you later at the bar!

POST SCRIPTUM:
R.I.P. "Otus" Tonmi Lillman

Stay tuned!

Long time, no post, so what´s new in Funland? Weeeell, as you might have heard we have

a new president...

Sauli Niinistö tried his luck already during the last election six years ago and got defeated by Tarja Halonen (obviously). Her victory back then was thin as paper and this time around Niinistö, who belongs to the conservative Kokoomus party, won over Pekka Haavisto (Green Party) with sixty something percent of the votes. Maybe not a huge surprise regarding his popularity during his last attempt. Somehow interesting though that many liked what his opponent Haavisto had to say - but didn´t vote him cause he´s gay.

a new Miss Finland...

Sara Chafak shed many a tear of joy when being crowned Miss Suomi and doesn´t she look exactly like you imagine a Finnish lady? She´s of Moroccan heritage and reigns now from Helsinki of all places, Vuosaari to be exact. Strange enough as I have friends there but never bumped into her 84-63-91(cm) when buying beer at the local S-Market before drinking with my buddies. Weird...

 and I got a new pedal!

Will the two of us become friends?

 I´m playing guitar now for almost 25 years and this is my very first stage tuner pedal. I always thought I don´t need to spend money on a machine that does something my ears still can do pretty well for free. Also somehow regarded those things as definitely NOT punk rock. Never bought into the "he who tunes is a coward" motto either but you know...it was never really needed. Until now.
In my new band I have my guitar always tuned down a whole step which allows it to easily go out of tune. Then a good chunk of the songs are in drop D tuning (so actually drop C tuning, whole step down, remember?) which makes it even worse.
I´m basically tuning all the time, be it for the sake of the song´s key or to avoid sounding shitty.
In order to avoid annoying the fuck out of an audience going bim - bim...bim - bim...bim - bem mmiiiuuiiuuiiiiii... after every little ditty I got the TU-3 now, which cuts off the signal while in use. Although I still look sceptical in the pic, I´m actually quite happy about this latest arrival. Combined with my chorus and delay pedals it doesn´t make me a shoegazer yet but I have to pay a bit more attention now on what I´m stepping there in the dark...There´s a reason why I bought the tuner at this particular point of time. I´ll post about this reason very soon, so stay tuned!