Year 2011 Round-up Part 7: Favourite Finnish songs vol 2.

Moving on to Finnish songs that actually came out on a label. More about many of these when I write that albums of the year 2011 list. Not in any order except that Samae Koskinen’s Hän, jolla on kaikki is definitely my favourite Finnish song of the year and Mirel Wagner’s No Death was the clear #2. Otherwise I didn’t think about the order. I also went with the easy route and just picked my favourite songs that were easily available (youtube / soundcloud). In few cases I might have picked a different song from the album, but I do love all these. A proper top 10 songs of the year list might or might not appear. The album list is first on the agenda.

Samae Koskinen – Hän, jolla on kaikki (from the album Kuuluuko, kuuntelen)

Mirel Wagner – No Death (from the album Mirel Wagner)

Burning Hearts – Into the Wilderness (from the EP Into The Wilderness)

NT’s White Trash – You & Me (from the album Mourning Becomes Electric)

The New Tigers – Velvet Jam (from the album The New Tigers)

Regina – Unessa (from the album Soita mulle)

TV-Resistori – Ilta aikaa (from the album TV-Resistori)

 
Hi-Lo & In Between – A Clear Silence (from the album We Are Not The Wind)

 
Mummypowder – Part of the Fun (from the album Centuries Later)

 
22-Pistepirkko – Sweet Rodeo Heart (from the album Lime Green Delorean)

 

And last but not least. Finally “a new” The Sugarrush song surfaced on the Miettinen box set and I have to mention this great track even though I can only give a spotify link to it.

The Sugarrush – Posterboy (available on the Miettinen Box set)

Posterboy at Spotify

Joe Algeri & The Sugarbrits – Merry Christmas (around the world)

The countdown for Christmas has officially begun, because Joe Algeri’s yearly Christmas song is out and available. The writer of the (should-be) legendary holiday tunes Chris Hillman Christmas and I Saw Santa With A Gun is back with a new song entitled Merry Christmas (around the world). This time the song has a Finnish ingredient as well, because Joe recruited The Sugarrush boys Andy, Coma and Paati to the task. The other guests on this international pop christmas are Lars Brusell (Sweden), Terry Munslow-Davies (Australia) and Joe’s Britannicas colleague Herb Eimerman (USA).

Merry Christmas (around the world) by JOE ALGERI & THE SUGARBRITS

Oh and there’s another international pop hit that should have gotten its own blog post a week or two ago, but I was too busy with the day job. Joe Algeri and Herb Eimerman are also behind this along with the power pop wizard Dom Mariani (DM3, Stems, Someloves) and Stefan Johansson. Their name is Green Beatles and The Basement is the name of this stunning pop song.

The Basement by GREEN BEETLES

FOTM presents: One Chord to Another 10th Anniversary – The Genuine Fakes (Sweden), The Sugarrush, The Wonderminer

Flavour Of The Month and One Chord to Another joined forces and are celebrating their anniversaries at Pikku-Torre, Turku on saturday 3rd of september. The host of the evening, Flavour Of The Month club turns 13 years old and this little blog is celebrating 10th anniversary. And we have something very special to offer. Two fabulous Finnish pop bands/artists The Sugarrush and The Wonderminers sharing the stage with our Swedish friends, the wonderful Stockholm-based power pop group, The Genuine Fakes.

FLAVOUR OF THE MONTH presents:

One Chord to Another 10th anniversary / Flavour of the Month 13th anniversary
The Genuine Fakes (Sweden)
The Sugarrush
The Wonderminers
la 3.9.2011 klo 21-03
Pikku-Torre, Yliopistonkatu 30, Turku
liput 4€

The Genuine Fakes (Sweden)

The Genuine Fakes from Stockholm, Sweden will headline the evening. They are one of the best nordic power pop bands at the moment and actually their debut album entitled The Striped Album is even one of the best power pop albums I’ve heard during the recent years. I’m extremely excited that they are coming to Finland (update: The Helsinki concert didn’t work out, So they will only play in Turku on 3.9.2011). They are marvelous and remind me of Popsicle, The Posies, The Merrymakers.

The Genuine Fakes Website

The Sugarrush

A huge favourite of mine and it was totally obvious that if there will be some kind of onechord.net party, The Sugarrush had to play there if they were willing and able to. Thankfully they were and it will be so great to see this hardest rockin’ pop band in the world play a live concert.

The Wonderminers

And last we have The Wonderminers going solo. Their drummer Olli Moilanen is currently investigating the indie pop scene in Bangladesh, but Petri Nakari from The Wonderminers is able to create a lot of pop magic also on his own and will start the evening with some high quality guitar pop songs.

The Wonderminers Website

And the FOTM DJ Team will also be there playing (for example) a whole lot of nordic power pop, finnish pop music. See you there.

And the Finnish press release:

FLAVOUR OF THE MONTHISSA JUHLITAAN KYMMENVUOTIASTA ONECHORD-BLOGIA

Turkulaisen Flavour Of The Monthin syyskausi käynnistyy lauantaina 3.9. juhlatunnelmissa, kun klubi itse täyttää 13 vuotta ja klubin DJ-ryhmään kuuluvan Vesa Lautamäen One Chord to Another-blogi juhlistaa kymmentä toimintavuottaan kolmen live-esiintyjän voimin. Lautamäen kuratoimassa tapahtumassa esiintyvät tukholmalainen The Genuine Fakes, vaasalais-helsinkiläinen The Sugarrush sekä vielä varmistamattomalla kokoonpanolla esiintyvä pääkaupunkilainen The Wonderminers.

One Chord to Another aloitti suomalaista kitarapoppia käsittelevänä nettisivustona ja muuntui blogiksi muutama vuosi sitten. Erityisesti blogivuosina sivustolla on käsitelty enenevässä määrin myös ulkomaista musiikkia, kuten vaikkapa ruotsalaista Genuine Fakesiä, jota voitaisiin kuvailla sekä Flavour Of The Monthin että One Chordin prototyyppisuosikiksi. Kvartetti työstää häpeilemättömän klassista, yltiömelodista powerpoppia, jonka ilmeisiä vaikutteita (Popsicle, Merrymakers, Wannadies, The Posies jne.) bändi ei pahemmin peittele.

The Sugarrush puolestaan on vuosien varrella esiintynyt FOTMissa useasti ja Lautamäen kaikkien aikojen lempibändinä itsestään selvä valinta illan esiintyjäkaartiin. The Wonderminersin jäsenet ovat niin ikään esiintyneet eri kokoonpanoissa (mm. Red Carpet ja Sister Flo) FOTM:ssa useasti ja edustavat osaltaan One Chordin ja FOTM:n käsitystä laadukkaasta popmusiikista.

tapahtumatiedot:
FLAVOUR OF THE MONTH esittää
ONE CHORD TO ANOTHER 10 V!
THE GENUINE FAKES (SWE)
THE SUGARRUSH
THE WONDERMINERS
+ Flavour Of The Month DJ team
Pikku-Torre, Yliopistonkatu 30, Turku
La 3.9. klo 21-03
Liput: 4€

10 years & 10 reasons: The Sugarrush

If you red the first chapter of this 10 years & 10 reasons thing, you already know that The Sugarrush from Vaasa is the dearest band in the world to me (along with Bridget).  The love affair started once again thanks to Miettinen who started a guitar pop / power pop label called Popatak, signed The Sugarrush, Cartoon Tree & Ben’s Diapers and released a seven inch single from each of them back in 1998 (and a Popatak CD compilation with 2 songs from each band).  A year earlier I had fallen in love with power pop and I was in the process of getting to know all these great 90’s power pop groups. Yeah, even though I often talk about 90’s power pop in a nostalgic way, I wasn’t really there when most of it happened (maybe that sounds too much like 90’s power pop was a huge thing in the world, it wasn’t). I didn’t buy Amazing Disgrace, Grand Prix, Girlfriend or Lacquer the day they hit the record stores. In fact I didn’t knew they even existed at that point in time. I found all this great pop music in early 1997 thanks to Miettinen (Räkärodeo), Jukka Väänänen (Rumba), Lasse Kurki (Lemonator) and Mikko Lappalainen (Elysium zine, Ben’s Diapers). Without those four guys my music taste could be very different and onechord.net probably wouldn’t exist. Especially finding Miettinen & Räkärodeo in the spring of 1997 pretty much changed everything and I bought all the The Posies, Popsicle, Teenage Fanclub, Matthew Sweet, The Jayhawks, Sloan, Jellyfish etc back catalogues between 1997-2000. So 1998 was definitely the right time for the Popatak bands to find a place in my heart and they all succeeded in it. So even though The Sugarrush became my biggest favourite, all of them are very important to me.

The Sugarrush: Blackie’s Wig (Popatak, 1999)

The Sugarrush’s debut album Blackie’s Wig was produced by swedish Kjell Nästen (who had produced plenty of swedish guitar pop classics during the 90’s) and it was released in 1999. It was just the kind of music I had fallen in love with during the last couple of years. Full of catchy songs, power chords and gorgeous singing. I was so extremely excited about it when it arrived and I’m sure that the excitement also reached stupid heights. For example I remember writing to Miettinen that it’s the best pop album ever released. But hey that’s me and hey, I still almost agree with my past self. After all, I think Amazing Disgrace by The Posies is the only album I’ve listened to more in my life than Blackie’s Wig. Sure all those Pet Sounds and Odessey & Oracles are technically better (even The Sugarrush’s second album Mirrorball Ballerinas might be), but no matter how much I adore  them, they’ve never been even half as influential in my life as Blackie’s Wig and The Sugarrush. I still know every song and every chord by heart. Therefore Blackie’s Wig still hold a place in my all stars line up and Rubber Soul and Pet Sounds has to settle for a place on the substitute bench.

Why do I love The Sugarrush so much? Well basicly they make me happy. I know that some of the readers might think that I mostly enjoy sad whining and it’s true that I enjoy all kind of sad country and pop songs and being miserable is one of the few things I’m really good at. But that’s only a part of the truth.. and maybe part of the reason that power pop is so dear to me. I love power pop and I love The Sugarrush because they make the world so damn bright and enjoyable. Listen to Blackie’s Wig and you can feel the summer in your heart even during the darkest november days. Here’s one onechord.net description of the band:

“Hardest rockin’ pop band in the world and one of my huge favourites. Want some power chords, killer hooks and bunch of great pop tunes. It doesn’t get much better than this if you are lookin’ for pop that actually rocks. They just make you smile, they might even make you shake your booty. It’s like power pop for the masses. Dynamic songs. Powerful melodies, strong vocals and wonderful harmonies. It is catchy as hell. They are like the boy band with guitars and better songs and have been influenced by The Posies, Matthew Sweet, Lemonheads, Teenage Fanclub. Not forgetting those swedish bands like Popsicle and Wannadies. Looking for sing-along pop anthems or gorgeous rockin’ pop music. Well look no further.”

Blackie’s Wig isn’t the only wonderful The Sugarrush release. I love pretty much everything they’ve done. The follow-up Mirrorball Ballerinas is equally wonderful and We Rock Heavy and Useless Information are killer EPs. There’s also a new excellent The Sugarrush album coming up at some point. Hopefully during 2011, but maybe it’s not yet advisable to go camping outside a record store because this pretty baby has been in the working state for quite some time. Anyway, if you are not yet familiar with The Sugarrush, get started with these two videos. The first one Stereo is the opening track of Mirrorball Ballerinas (2001) and 90’s Salute is an outtake from their latest release, Useless Information EP (2005).

The Sugarrush at myspace

The Soft Rabbit

The Sugarrush boys Andy J. Prinkkilä, Coma Silvennoinen and Paati Wägar have featured in lots of great bands and I won’t go through all of them, because this post is already longer than anyone wants to read. But I have to mention The Soft Rabbit in every possible situation. The Soft Rabbit is Coma from The Sugarrush and he delivers some of the finest pop singer-songwriter stuff this country of ours has to offer. The real crime is that none of it has ever been officially released, but the songs have been on his myspace for a couple of years and they are so beautiful (or I’m not sure can you say that Your Street is beautiful, that’s pretty fucked up stuff but so damn brilliant nevertheless). I demand at least a digital release. I want to write a review and I want to give full five hearts. Absolutely wonderful material.

The Soft Rabbit at myspace

(The reason why I started making One Chord To Another was the fact that I had totally fallen in love with Finnish guitar pop / power pop bands and wanted to make them better known. Nowadays onechord.net seem to cover a lot of obscure country bands from all over the globe, but Finnish pop was the starting point and still is the main reason this website/blog exists. One Chord To Another becomes 10 years old on 17th of september, 2011. It’s been a long journey and therefore I think I’m allowed to feel a little nostalgic. This not-so-cleverly named 10 years & 10 reasons writing series is meant to select 10 albums/releases that were a huge reason why I either started making One Chord To Another or why I’m still making it. So basicly just 10 finnish releases that will always have a huge place in my heart. One every month I think, so it will be december until the nostalgia is over. Bear with me

Next month: well it’s difficult to see that far ahead, because I see only shadows).

Finnish music videos from the vaults part 1: The Sugarrush & Elliot Scale

Maybe this linking of youtube videos is getting out of hand in this blog, but I’m still going to start this new section and add some old or new finnish pop videos once or twice in a week. It’s an easy & quick way to praise the bands that you love. And on the plus side I also remember to watch these videos of songs that once meant a lot to me. And well still do, because I just end up watching that Sugarrush video about ten times in a row.

 

The Sugarrush:  Stereo

The best way to start is throwing in The Sugarrush’s Stereo. A video that I’ve probably seen hundreds of times and I don’t even think that’s an exaggeration. The Sugarrush is the hardest rockin’ pop band in the world and one of my own huge favourites.  Stereo is an opening track of their second album Mirrorball Ballerinas that was released back in 2001.
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The Sugarrush at myspace
 
 
Elliot Scale: Innerspace

Elliot Scale’s Innerspace featured in the Meet The Scene compilation, but unfortunately the rest of Elliot Scale’s excellent song material was never officially released, because sadly Olli Linna (aka Elliot Scale) passed away way ahead of his time in 2002. Olli Linna was a great musician, producer and an all around nice guy.  He featured in bands like Time Flies and Cartoon Tree, but Elliot Scale was his solo project. It’s a shame that he never had the chance to finish that Elliot Scale material, because he had a lot of great pop songs. I lost those mp3s in a hard drive failure few years back, but thankfully Innerspace is still available at youtube.
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