Xmas 2011

Another christmas behind and what a short one it was this year. I´ve always tried to combine the holidays with some days off, unfortunately this time around it wasn´t possible. So it felt like a long weekend but who am I to complain? I´m happy that I got that työharjoittelu going right know and as a consequence I had to be back at work by Tuesday.

Christmas in Pori was great nonetheless, good food (much of it), a relaxed and celebrative atmosphere with my girlfriend´s family. Christmas Eve got so comfy that we accidently stayed up until 7am the next morning, chatting away, listening to Johnny Cash and Elvis. Maybe we had a drink or two. Suffice it to say, we used the few time that we had in the best possible way.

Many people here will remember Xmas 2011 because of the storm that came on the 25th and went wild over the South of Finland. Storm warning was given also for the 26th, the day we went home by car through exactly that region. The storm though had gone already when we went on our trip to Helsinki. On the radio we heard that 200.000 people where without electricity and all those fallen trees on our way where a tell-tale sign of how bad that storm had raged. We were relieved to find our flat where we had left it and we could switch on the light, too.

Anyway, the clock is ticking away the last hours of 2011, a year that I have spend sowing the seeds. Extensive language courses, job trainings, many sent applications and a job interview. Many rehearsals and demo recordings with my band. The band has a name now but I´m gonna tell you all next year. My hope for 2012 is that it´s gonna be a year in which I can start to finally harvest what I have sowed. Let´s see...

But for now: GUTEN RUTSCH!!!

Happy birthday, Lemmy!

Today the living, breathing, drinking, smoking speedfreak and rolemodel for all of us rockers, the epitome of rock ´n´roll itself, Lemmy Kilmister, turns 66. Too old to rock? Nope! Lem´s own Motörhead is currently on a tour that also brought them to Helsinki just a couple of days ago, unfortunately I couldn´t make it to the gig. Well, I must have seen them already at least ten times and it feels like there´s always a next chance as Lemmy just doesn´t seem to get tired of playing around the globe.

Motörhead and/or Lemmy will always have a very special place in my heart. When I heard the "No sleep ´til Hammersmith" album for the first time some 24 years ago, a whole new world opened up before me and everything changed for good. They are the embodiment of my three fave genres in music: punk, metal and rock ´n´roll. All under one roof, so to speak. Lem was born Ian Fraser Kilmister on the 24th of December, 1945 in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Come christmas, I´ve been raising the glass for many years to honor the man and this year I will not make an exception.

So without further ado, here´s to you, Lemmy!

Many happy returns, looks like you´re gonna outlive us all!

POST SCRIPTUM: Oh yes, and merry christmas to all my blogheads out there! Have a good one!

SONGS FOR TODAY:

Motörhead - No Class (Live from No sleep ´til Hammersmith)

Billy Idol - Yellin´ at the Christmas Tree

Fill in the gaps

Here´s a little cull from the archives, just to show you a bit of what happened during the big silence on this blog.

Laskiaissunnuntai, 6th of March

The skipper, moments before busting his knee

Laskiainen is celebrated on both a Sunday and a Tuesday. The Tuesday announces the beginning of the fasting period and the 40 day countdown to Easter, so it´s like Veilchendienstag in Germany, just without the carnival. I don´t have a clue what the Sunday has to do with it, but maybe the Finns just want a bit of the fun happening during the weekend, too. It wouldn´t be the only holiday which exact date they´d fix just a little to make it fit their needs. But maybe the Sunday has a fundamental meaning in the religious calender, I´m clueless. Nowadays Laskiainen is associated more with outdoor activities and fun in the snow anyway. You grab your sledge and take some hot cocoa, pea stew and delicious laskiaispulla to the nearest hill. There you meet your friends and feel like a kid again - at least I did on that day.

Yippie!

Riku, Marika, Susu, Minna and Jaana enjoying some cocoa.

28th of March

Winter had us still in a tight grip. Here´s a picture of the alley leading to my language school. It´s called Edupoli and is located in Herttoniemi. Takes me about 20 minutes to go there.

30th of May

When the snow had finally melted, despite a few piles here and there, some drivers seemed to have severe difficulties adjusting to the altered road conditions. Especially parking posed a problem as you can see in the following picture:

Good attempt, better luck next time. The red building is my school Edupoli. 

Juhannus, 25th of June

Juhannus is the celebration of midsummer. Officially speaking it is the second most important holiday, only topped by christmas. I wonder if all Finns would agree to that ranking. Originally called Ukon Juhla (after the Finnish god Ukko), it was later on christianized (like so many other traditions) and was named after John the baptist (Finnish = Johannes Kastaja). Anyway, many Finns go absolutely berzerk on Juhannus weekend. Depending on where you are in the country the sun doesn´t set at all during the night. Whoever can leaves the city and spends the weekend in a summer cottage (mökki). Bonfires (kokko, sing.) are burned at lakesites and the sea. Sauna, swimming, Bbq and heavy (HEAVY!) drinking are on the schedule, which can lead to certain problems, for example death. After Juhannus 2011 you heard on the news that this year only 8 people died. I think last year it was 22. Lots of drowning, a bit of good ol´ stabbing and the occasional drunken accident. But no worries, I figure that for every death on Juhannus at least one child is conceived in Suomi. I didn´t take it to any of these extremes and rather followed the general schedule at a nice mökki nearby Pori, with my girlfriend and three good friends.

Finns like their nearest neighbor to be not near at all. We used the boat a lot.

The old bridge to the sauna.

Hyvät löylyt! Good steam!

Susu having a nice swim after sauna.

In the beginning of July I had an awesome trip to Germany, two weeks of meeting friends and family for the first time in one year! The spookiest thing was that I arrived at the airport in Düsseldorf exactly (!) one year later after leaving the country with a one-way ticket in my pocket.

Finally in August we had Lutz visiting us. Lutz is one of my best friends, lives nowadays in New Zealand of all places and stupid old me did not take one single picture. In-cre-di-bly stupid!!    

Christmas Chronicles

Yet another christmas behind and this time it was the first in Finland after four years. It was really about time! As mentioned before we spent it in Pori and I can say that we enjoyed every minute of it. Perfect mix of family visits, leisure time, good traditional food and beverages in a setting that emphasized the christmas spirit with lots of snow and temperatures peaking at minus 23. This might be so far the lowest I have ever experienced and now I finally came behind the meaning of the "nostril hair test". It´s a funny thing: below minus fifteen the nostril hair somehow reacts as if it would freeze, quite a strange feeling. Nothing you couldn´t cure with some vodka fuelled glögi, though. Here are some pics from a chilling walk to the cemetery on the 24th:

After such a walk you realize that the best Finnish invention by far is the sauna but due to a frozen plumbing system in the outdoor sauna we had to let this option pass and so it was back to glögi. As soon as we could feel our toes again we prepared everything for the christmas evening. I already mentioned the traditional food and some of you might wonder what traditional finnish christmas food actually is. Well, I would say that most importantly you have joulukinkku, the christmas ham, which is baked for hours depending on its weight (1h per kilo) and is eaten warm or cold. You´ll find salmon and potatoes on the table, maybe meatballs as well. Then you have different casseroles, for example with carrots or rutabaga.Yes, rutabaga! Since my blog is read to over 90 % by people (like me) whose mother tongue is NOT English I want to share this small anecdote with you. Some christmases ago, also in Finland, we sat at the table about to eat. Back then I didn´t know all the goodies on the table, so my polite Finnish family wanted to explain to me what is inside this one casserole. But what is lanttu in English? They described the contained vegetable to me and I had a hunch it might be Steckrübe in German. But I didn´t have a clue what that translates to in English either. We did the next best thing and checked the dictionary. I think it was my girlfriend´s sister who victoriously read the answer to our question out loud: "It´s Rutabaga!" We all looked at her like cows seeing a lightning, not understanding how this could be the solution to our problem. The word didn´t sound English at all, rather like some language from Africa.
But the dictionary´s cover read Suomi - Englanti, so it was official. All bursted into laughter and we started to imitate tribal chants like Rutabaga - Rutabaga - Ruta - Ruta - RUTABAGA! and transformed the last words of Elvis´ Burning Love (I´m just a hunk, a hunk of burning love...) into Rutabaga Burning Love! 
It´s a running gag ever since.

I would like to use this opportunity to thank everybody once more for the nice christmas cards, messages and gifts. Some of them came very surprising, as they were totally unexpected (a terrible word in this context since you should not expect anything). It´s just heartwarming to see who has you on their list in a time which is meant to remember the ones who are somehow important to you. The presents were all great and I don´t really want to highlight one in particular. But I received a gift that means a lot to me in a special way because it has to do with the foundations of my taste in music.
The Sex Pistols Never mind the Bullocks! On Tape! I think I was 13 when I bought it as a vinyl re-issue in a meanwhile defunct departement store chain. This here was bought and sold in Finland round 1980. Now it´s mine, yeah! And by the way: when Johnny Rotten sang I was waiting for the communist call in 1977, it sent shivers up some Finnish spines! For real!

Feast your eyes on this!

SONGS FOR TODAY:

Sex Pistols - 1. Holidays In The Sun 2. Bodies 3. No Feelings
Sex Pistols - 4. Liar 5. God Save The Queen 6. Problems
Sex Pistols - 7. Seventeen 8. Anarchy In The U.K. 9. Submission
Sex Pistols - 10. Pretty Vacant 11. New York 12. E.M.I.
Elvis Presley - Burning Love
                    (Karaoke version, sing RUTABAGA as loud as you can!)

Message from the Underworld

Hey boys and girls, sorry for the long time of silence here on this blog. Some of you expressed their worries I might have died a sudden death caused by a lethal overdose of gingerbread and vodka or simply complained about the shortage of new material. There is only one reason for my writing hiatus and it is pretty simple: I just didn´t have the time to sit down and type it away. The annual christmas hassle took its toll and some personal obligations had to be taken care of. I was in Pori for a couple of days last week, went back to Helsinki only to get ill and returned to Pori now again, fit enough to spend Xmas. Most of what went on during this time has no place on this blog but worry not, dear friends, as I have quite a lot of stuff on my mind that will find its way here in the near future. You will have to stay tuned for that. I know your patience is already strained beyond limits waiting for Santa Clause / Joulupukki / den Weihnachtsmann but isn´t Vorfreude die schönste Freude? Good things come to those who wait and I promise that it won´t be long!

SONG FOR THE DAY:

The Weirdos - Message from the Underworld

Back to the future (Part 1)

To kick things off I gotta take you for a ride down memory lane. 

I paved that lane for three months now so it´s gonna be a short trip, and safe 
- the Finns have serious speed limits, especially when compared to the "too much is not enough" attitude on the German Autobahn.

After leaving my own band behind in Germany (more about that in an upcoming post) I had already something to look forward to: Good old friend Jyri had two gigs coming up with his band Los Dynamos. Drummer Veikko wasn´t able to play these shows so Jyri asked me if I could help out. I gladly took the offer.

The boys in the Dynamos are somewhat older than me and play a good blend of Blues/R´n´R with a little bit of country thrown in. No originals there but do not be fooled: you can´t dismiss those guys as what would be “Feierabend-Rocker” in German. Although they don´t write own songs they love every note they play and their knowledge about music put together would fill libraries! Plus they are able to put the band´s imprint on each tune. First time we met up together was at Jyri´s birthday bash, needless to say a musical happening to a large extend.

At one point I was asked to join them on stage for a few songs. It ended up being what you could call our first rehearsal because we played for two hours, me performing both guitar and drumming duties.

It was a blast for both us and the audience! This experience gave things to come a pretty positive outlook.

Yours truly having a pretty positive outlook and Pasi doing his magic.

Los Dynamos are from Pori, a town approximately 250 kilometers north-east from Helsinki. (Pori will be mentioned on this blog every now and then for several reasons.) Of course I went there a couple of times for “real” rehearsals in their small space. Immediately their professional approach started to show.

And good humor, I might add. I learned the songs as fast as I could. No rocket science when you have a feel for that type of music, which I think I do. They just were quite many because the gig in Tampere had two sets. We put lots of effort into the short time we had and even crammed seeing a football match in the tight schedule.

Me on the far left, next to Jyri giving it up for his team Pori Jazz.

Our first show took place in Pori´s Café Jazz with only a set of 45+ mins. We played with two other bands that night, Blues Bone and Hill Street Blues. Despite their ridiculous band names the guys in both bands were very talented. Blues Bone(r)´s guitarist seems to study his instrument (no pun intended) in Boston, America.

I guess his teachers will have other names than Al Barile, Chris Doherty or Steve Grimes (a little gag for those of you in-the-know), his playing rather went in the Stevie Ray Vaughn-on-acid direction.

We played next, and it went great! Any musician will tell you that when playing with two other bands, the middle spot is the best. Unless you are a big number or something…

During the first band people have the chance to warm up, how is entirely up to them. If the odds are good the audience is in a good spirit and ready to shake it as soon as you enter the stage next. The energy level is just perfect and sometimes (!) the following and last band can only pick up what´s left of that energy. We got lucky and our audience was groovin´ and movin´, rockin´ and rollin´, it was real fun.

Next up was Hill Street Blues. Again much talent on stage but I didn´t buy it. They were an act and came across like some Top 40 band whose biggest concern was to look good on stage. Sorry guys, I like it ugly and real, not pretty and fake.

For the record: That´s only me talking here, the guys in Los Dynamos are no bad mouths with vicious tongues like me.  But we all were a little disappointed that they didn´t play the Hill Street Blues Theme. What can you do…

To end the Café Jazz episode here comes some trivia for you. The owner is the guitar player in Appendix, Pori´s punk rock veterans! To quote John Joseph of Cro-Mags fame: “That ain´t punk!” 

Only pic I have from Café Jazz. Let´s cope with the lo-res.

Tampere was due the next weekend and there´s a little less to tell because we where the only band that night. It was great to drive with the guys from Pori to Tampere (a bit more than 100 kilometers). We went there in singer/guitarist/blues harp player Pasi´s van. Broken windshield, totally packed with gear and musicians, music from the tape player – wonderful! That´s the way it´s supposed to be!

The place was called Pub Vinyyli. You don´t have to be able to speak Finnish to get the meaning. I´m a vinyl junkie, CDs don´t mean anything to me. Nothing. I was happy that the bartender was able to show off with a collection of at least 1.500 records, talking ´bout vinyl! No “retro” disguise here to appear “cool” and then listen to only CDs. I think there is nothing wrong with listening to CDs, I´m just not into this “all style, no substance” – bullshit that´s going on for quite a while now, if you know what I mean…

We had to set up our gear on the terrace which worried us a bit. Although it was a nice summer day the weather forecast had given a thunderstorm warning for the evening, especially the Tampere region and there was no tent, no roof, no nothing.

Luckily both sets went fine in front of a rather small but good audience and we managed to play the last song with the first upcoming drizzle. We had a couple of drinks (well, two of us had and one of them was me.) before hitting the road back to Pori. Somehow we escaped the thunderstorm and nothing happened on our way home. Next day we heard that just shortly after our departure in Tampere all hell had really broken loose.  Us lucky bastards…

Make sure to check out:

www.losdynamos.com