The Scaramangas gives you some beautiful pop-psychedelia. They certainly are capable of creating those pop hits too, but mostly they tend to soak are hearts in captivating and magical moods and then dry them with sometimes dark but always warm sounds. The music might give you glimpses of early Pink Floyd or hints of the last years of The Beatles. Add some modern indie sounds and finnish melancholy and you might be somewhere around the same neighbourhood as The Scaramangas. Excellent material if you are into retro-ish and psychedelic pop music that holds a lot of warmness inside.


Scaramangas Website
Scaramangas at myspace

Two young boys playing guitars and singing their hearts out. They are in the very early stage of their career, but they've already won my heart over and I've basicly loved all the songs I've heard. Beautiful tunes based on gentle guitar playing and soft voices. Think of things like Elliot Smith, Simon & Garfunkel, Nick Drake. Just beautiful. At the moment only available at myspace, but hopefully there will be some kind of releases in the near future.


Sidelines at myspace

The bigger audience know Tomi as an ex-member of The Crash, but hopefully that will eventually change. Since November has been more or less alive for ten years. First as guitar pop group that made some good demos back in the late 90's and nowadays as Tomi's solo project. Since November debut album is build around a space theme and you can hear some songs from the album on this myspace. It's not yet out and available, but the early promo single Houston, Changing Manual created a lot of interest and received good amount of airplay.


Since November Website
Since November at myspace

Sister Flo has been one of the best bands in Finland for several years. This is beautiful and wonderfully arranged pop music. Music that will appeal both to fans of more challenging pop music and to fans of simple pop music. The key reasons why I love them so passionately are Samae's whispering vocals that sound perfect each and every time and the colourful and beautiful arrangements of the songs. This is sincere, and captivating pop music. Pure magic one could say.


Sister Flo Website
Sister Flo at myspace

Snow Coloured Kid is a talented singer-songwriter and he is capable of crafting really good pop songs. His lovely pop music caught the eye of a french indie pop label Anorak Records and they released his debut EP in spring 2007. This is sweet and melodic guitar pop. At times like bedroom Weezer. At times something completely different, but always really good. Snow Coloured Kid is rising talent who is already able to create really enjoyable pop music.


Snow Coloured Kid at myspace

Starflower writes beautiful, warm and melodic pop music. Sometimes sunny, sometimes mellow, always moving. Well I don't think that came as a huge surprise and it's even a smaller surprise that they are incredibly good at it. The debut was released by swedish indie pop label Music is My Girlfriend and contained lots of great pop tunes. It was also released in Taiwan, so they better start printing those Big In Taiwan t-shirt in the near future. Eventhough it's easy to categorize them as an indie pop group, Starflower's pop music shouldn't be too indie or too obscure for bigger audiences either.


Starflower Website
Starflower at myspace

Streetcar is a Helsinki-based melodic guitar pop group. There's a fair amount of country and folk in there as well. The 60's and 70's influences make appearances and rock is not a curse word either. Nowadays the focus still seem to be on slower and more beautiful material. I admit that I didn't love them much during the early days, but now I'm begin to love and each new song seem to be a little better than the one before. Hit the links below and form your own opinion.



Streetcar Website
Streetcar at myspace

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. Just hit the links below.

The Sugarrush website
The Sugarrush at myspace

Power pop, catchy tunes, strong playing carrying pretty melodies.. and not forgetting some beautiful harmonies. Sounds like the best kind of music there is. Kokkola-based Supernova Crush might not yet be the best band in the genre, but they are definitely really really good pop group. No full-lenght yet available, but early EPs contain some fabulous pop tunes. I'm looking forward for more.


Supernova Crush Website
Supernova Crush at myspace

You might be able to find pop troubadour Tapes aka Jukka Salminen rockin' out in groups such as Laurila and Tigerbombs, but his own Tapes material reveals the softest side of his heart. This is acoustic-based fragile, serene and beautiful music. Just gently strumming the strings of acoustic guitar and layering a beautiful vocal melody on top of it is enough to create wonderful songs if you know what you are doing. And Tapes certainly does know and has become one of the finest pop troubadours in the country. If you are into pop singer-songwriters like Jose Gonzales, it's time to get acquainted with Tapes.

Tapes Website
Tapes at myspace

Tink is a finnish pop singer-songwriter who has released some excellent little discs. Few years ago he made an EP trilogy by himself that received good feedback from the people who were lucky enough to hear it and in 2007 he returned with a first officially released EP. Tink's music is quite traditional pop music. This is definitely classic pop craftmanship. Being able to create something simple that still holds so much magic underneath. Very heartwarming and colourful material that ranges from janglier guitar pop tunes to beautiful balladry. I'm in love with his songs.


Tink at myspace

Looking for catchy as hell pop music. Well look no further. This is a whole lotta love.. well that too, but I meant to say a whole lot of fun. Addictive melodies, joyful approach, lots of killer hooks and choruses. It's true that pop music can break your heart, but Tigerbombs shows that it also can and should make you smile. This is a blast. Gorgeous guitars shine, organs bring happiness and sunny vocals flavours the already sugary cake. Perfect recept for fans of garagepop and powerpop.

Tigerbombs website
Tigerbombs at myspace

Tolbiac started out as Veli's solo thing, but recently his friends Samuli and Janne joined in and nowadays it's a full band. As all finnish guitar pop fans know, Tolbiac is an excellent pop tunesmith and therefore the songwriting department is in great shape. So you can again expect lots of great pop melodies, but this time they've given themselves a chance to experiment and don't take it too seriously. So their concerts might not be full beautiful pop melodies, but I can guarantee that it will be a whole lot of fun.


Tolbiac Website
Tolbiac at myspace

Treeball was born after british ex-supermodel member Nick Triani moved to Finland. Nowadays the band contains also american Michael McDonald. Anyway, this is timeless pop music and contains lots of stunningly beautiful male-female duets by Nick Triani and Astrid Swan. Think of classic pop craftmanship in the vein of McLennan-Forster. A real supergroup too. Astrid, Nick and Michael all have solo careers and Janne Lehtinen is the frontman of another great group Mummypowder.

Mr. Nick Triani also works as record producer and has his own excellent radio program 8 1/2 on radio helsinki.

Treeball website
Treeball at myspace

Wonderful pop group that leans towards 60's pop music. Sunny pop music, gorgeous playing and amazing harmonies. The Tunes are american Rikki London and three finnish pop heroes Knipi, Markus Nordenstren and Heikki Tikka. If you need sunshine, these tunes will inject that into your heart even on stormy day. It is thougthfully arranged guitar pop with a hefty dose of love and rickenbackers. Leaning towards seventies, Byrds, west coast, Gene Clark and why not Crosby, Stills & Nash.Their debut album Bright Yellow Sun is something that I want to call as a perfect pop album.


The Tunes Website
The Tunes at myspace

TV-Resistori comes from Turku and is probably the coolest band in Finland (I know the band members heavily disagree). Lyrics are quite witty, sincere and unique. Sometimes naiive but still artistic pop music. Sometimes intentionally clumsy always incredibly catchy. It's definitely cute, lovely and heartfelt music, but not without great songwriting, thoughtful arrangements and really good sounds. During the recent years some of that naiive side has been replaced by slower and beautiful pop treats.


TV-Resistori website
TV-Resistori at myspace

Joensuu's popsters are back with another group. First it was Maryland, then Ville Härkönen & Velvet and now it is time for Samettivallankumous. This time they've changed the language to finnish, but musicwise they are on the same path as Velvet. No more disco pop hits for them. The country addiction has taken it's toll and it seems that we are closer to kantri-iskelmä if you don't mind me using such a silly finnish term. I suppose it's too early to say, because I've only seen one short concert. We'll have to wait for actual releases, but at least flashes of Ville Leinonen & Valumo and Calexico (only one song though) came to my mind while watching the concert.

Samettivallankumous Website

The Sininen is an international pop group. Giacomo Botta is italian, Philippe Santraine is french and Liisa Henriksson is finnish and the band is based in Helsinki, Finland. It proves to be a good mix of different cultures and The Sininen is able to create really beautiful pop music. It has a kind of loungy feeling in it. Like a lighter version of Divine Comedy perhaps. And the male vocalist does sound a lot like Matti Eräsaari (Harry Hunks). Not a bad thing because Matti is one of the loveliest people on earth.

The Sininen Website
The Sininen at myspace

The Soft Rabbit is Coma's solo project. Coma is also member of the hardest rockin pop band in the world The Sugarrush, but he has decided to make something different for a change and it seems he has lost the rock gear in the process. A pop fan doesn't mind, because this is really wonderful singer-songwriter stuff. There are no releases available at this point, but I certainly hope that it will change soon.


The Soft Rabbit at myspace

Sweeties is one of the rising bands in the country that has proved to be an excellent live group. 90`s Britpop, poppunkbubblegum and 60`s easy beat they describe themselves. It's very addictive material. Lots of killer choruses and great melodies. Perhaps, somewhere between Cosmobile and Tigerbombs if you think of finnish bands. A bit twisted like Cosmobile, but that joyful garagepop of Tigerbombs is also around. Great stuff definitely. A debut EP is out, hopefully a full-lenght will follow in the not-so-distant future.

Sweeties at myspace

There's always room for some folk singer-songwriters if they are good enough. And Topi Saha is. This rising talent hasn't released anything officially, but there's some really great songs on his myspace like Hämeentie 61. I've listened to it dozens of times and it just continues to charm me each and every time. If you are looking singer-songwriters who writes beautiful folky tunes, you better get acquainted with Topi Saha.

Topi Saha at myspace