Finnish music

Jill Nissinen, Olento & Kaseva

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Olento: Jill Nissinen
 
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLJR9Kb9fxM]

Thank you goes to Darwin and Räkärodeo mailing list for this one. He praised this song there and I went and check it out once, twice.. well about twenty times. I’m definitely in love with this song. I think it captures all that was great in the finest finnish 60’s/70’s pop/”iskelmä” ballads. I could picture someone like Kaseva singing this back then and that is as high as a praise can get. The mood of the song is a perfect match with the lyrics and that voice is so warm that it will melt your heart even if you have built an iceberg around it. I don’t know anything about Olento or Jukka Kokkonen (apparently the man behing Olento), but Jill Nissinen is starting to feel like a close friend after listening to this song over and over again.

Olento at myspace
 
 
Kaseva:  Turhaan huudat mua
 
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvaEdGH3n5g]

Because Olento somehow brought Kaseva to my mind, I checked out whether there were any Kaseva videos at youtube. There was and this one above took my breath away. Now that is what I call singing and that’s something that I would like to see nowadays as well. Just drum set behind and four guys in front all singing their hearts out. For me harmony vocals is the most important part in music and therefore seeing something like that just completely blows my mind away. The clip is from Yle 1 program Pop-Liisa from 1976.

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Finnish music, Finnish music videos

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

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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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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMAWnGGmIfY]

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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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK0w8vi9cWs]

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Finnish music

Big White Monkees: Stockholm

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It’s time for a nostalgic trip to Stockholm. Farkkujanne has done a good deed by adding some Big White Monkees classics to youtube. My favourite song by them was always Stockholm. Maybe it’s just a nice little tune, but I’ve always loved it and it still recalls lots of good memories like audiences trying to force Saku to play Stockholm as an encore (thankfully he usually did end up playing it).

Anyway, back then I was always excited about my trips to Turku and several times a year I travelled to Turku just to see bands like Big White Monkees, Bridget, Ben’s Diapers, Since November, Hundred Million Martians, Boomhauer play live. A lot has happened since and nowadays I live in Turku and often find myself pondering whether I have the energy to walk 15 minutes to Dynamo to see a good pop band play a concert. Listening to Stockholm now and recalling all those fine moments I spent at various places in Turku makes me want to shout to myself that “get a grip man/boy/whatever and drag your lazy ass to those concerts that fine people organize. It’s what you love and it’s what you want to support. Heck, you used to travel 7 hours in a train to see one great pop concert and now you can’t walk 15 bloody minutes”. Anyway. Here it is. Big White Monkees and Stockholm. A song that would definitely make the list, if I had to choose ten songs that are dearest to me.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z43blJjrOzw]

There’s also other great Big White Monkees songs at youtube:

Wherever
Travellin’
Falling From The Ride

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