Categories
Interviews Music

H.O.G. is in the game

{mosimage}There is heavy metal at the other side of
the Baltic Sea! House of Games has many
bonds with Finland:
they have toured with The Rasmus, recorded with famous producer Hiili
Hiilesmaa and are visiting Helsinki
to unload their music for 2 consecutive gigs.

Erik Meremaa,
the singer and main composer of the Estonian band, kindly attended the
questions of FREE! Magazine about their first steps, the new album
recently released and the incoming concerts that will include touring again
with WASP in United
Kingdom.

For some of our readers you can be quite
an unknown band. Can you explain a bit the origins and roots of the band?

The roots of HOG go back to the year 1993,
when young musicians hoped to make the band that enables them to satisfy the
hunger to make music. Of course we all wanted to make it right and in “very
special way”. Thinking now back to these years and to the skills we had at that
time – well, it makes me smile. Now we know how to analyze better the music we
did. But every brave start is positive, a developing experience.

Finland is living a golden era in rock and heavy metal bands with
international projection. Why in Estonia things are so different,
being geographically so near? Do you think that Estonian bands will begin to
break out in the international rock scene in the near future?

First of all there are 4 to 5 times more
inhabitants in Finland
as there are in Estonia
(we have only around 1, 4 million).

Secondly, Estonia regained independence on
1991 – up to that time we were occupied by Russians and the life was more (very
much) complicated. The borders were closed, there was an iron curtain hanging
over us. Now, as we have been only 16 years free and we live in very (!!)
liberal society, the situation is different. Finland declared its independence in 1917 – so
there is a huge difference.

About the very
strong  metal and rock bands in Finland – well,
the soil seems to be very fertile for this genre. This suits them very well.
And when comparing them to the rest of the music scene around, Finland seems to
be the most powerful rock and metal empires in the world. I am sure that there
will be internationally very strong Estonian rock and metal bands. It is only
very hard to predict when it all will happen.

How would you define the musical style of your band?

In general it is possible to classify House
of Games as melodic rock band, but we don’t like this classification, the
“framing” system. And we definitely don’t know what will look like and sound of
our next album. Music means us the movement of sound – without boundaries and
limits.

The lineup of the band changed last
spring, and you added a new bass player and a drummer. Why those changes?

Evidently sometimes somebody ‘s strength
will end and the everyday life generates some kind of void – that happened to
our ex-bass player and ex- drummer. It is very sad, as it all happened just
before the more positive and progressive changes we faced in our career (the
European release etc). We grew up and tight together creatively,
as we played music together for 7 last years.Yes, it is all sad, but that ´s life and
there is nothing we can do about it. For sure we remained friends.

How
was the experience of recording some songs in USA with Kevin (Caveman) Shirley?
How did you get in contact with him?

All these experiences are very tutorial and
instructive when you have possibility to work with the producer from such a
league as Kevin is from.

But in general it is very hard business to
find the producer – the “outsider”, who is able to adjust to the band and to
take and change etc ones “child” – as music is very delicate matter and the
concerned parties’ views can be very different. 
Sometimes band can ´t accept the changes the producer makes.

Fortunately that was not the case with us
and Kevin. The co-operation with Mr. Caveman 
 was positive and we hoped to
mould and form HOG songs with him some day in future.

We get acquainted with Kevin in classical
way – HOG wanted to work with him, Kevin listened to our songs, he liked them,
we agreed the timelines – he had just ended the album producing for John Petrucci
(Suspended Animation), the guitarist from Dream Theater and there
was the possible recording period for us before he went to UK to produce Iron
Maiden.

What the listeners can expect from your
recently released album, Rise and Shine?

I hope – we all do – that people get
positive load from our songs. They are ALL made from the deep of our hearts. It
is worth mentioning, that there are actually tracks from the period of 6-7
years time. There are plenty of different musical and creative movements.

As Spanish, I could not be less than curious
when I listened the song Spanish man, about Cortés, the conqueror. Is it
a trend you want to continue, similar to other bands like Iron Maiden, where
historical events have always a strong role in the songwriting?

Probably it is interesting for you to
observe the song like Spanish Man, as it speaks about Spaniards. I
really hope that we didn’t insult anybody’s feelings. Spanish Man is the
song that dates back some years ago and doesn’t have any contact and connection
with other songs. The message of this song is somehow important for me – as the
history itself. Thos particular track is one of a kind on our album Rise and
Shine. This is no trend for us.

You seem to have quite many links with Finland. You
have recorded the album at Suomenlinna with the famous producer Hiili
Hiilesmaa. How this collaboration came out?

As you definitely know, Estonia and Finland are
very close to each other. Connections arise very easily and smoothly. And it is
the same story with Seawolf Studio. We have recorded there many times
and we are always very satisfied with the results and as well with the
atmosphere there. With Hiili Hiilesmaa we met years ago in Finland and we
spoke about the co-operation. But at that time nothing specific. Then later
when we started to record Rise and Shine, we wanted to see and hear his
hand on our songs.  Unfortunately he was
very busy (he is always) and booked with many projects ahead. Luckily he
contacted us later and he managed to make the arrangements in his working
schedule and it suited with our schedule ideally. We are very and very
satisfied with his work – and definitely we’ll work together in future.

 

And you have also shared tour with The
Rasmus a couple of years ago. Was it a nice experience?

We all remember the tour as very pleasant
one. The guys and their team are all very friendly and pleasant people. As well
their manager, Seppo Vesterinen. We definitely look forward to meet with
them on the road again. 

Last year you toured with the legendary
band WASP, and it seems that they must be very happy with the experience, since
you are going to repeat tour with them in the following months during Crimson
Idol tour. What are your feelings about it?

 It seems yes, that our co-operation was good and smooth. And now in October – November we tour
together on the stages of UK.
We wait for this trip, as UK
is very good place to go be around. Very pleasant country with warm people. We
hope that audience and we all will get positive emotions from that tour.

What can the Finnish audience expect for
your incoming gigs in Helsinki?

What we always wish they’ll get: good music
and good emotions.
 

23.10 – London Pub, Helsinki – 10pm
24.10 – Semifinal, Helsinki – 10pm

www.houseofgames.org

Categories
Albums Music

Viikate – Marraskuun Lauluja

{mosimage}If Marraskuun lauluja I was released on last January, it was normal that the second part would not find any other better month to hit the market than November.

Viikate's fans have not had to wait very long for getting the second studio album of the band during 2007. Arvo, Ervo, Simeoni and  Kaarle  deliver more of the same formula that have made the band achieve a personal and idiosyncratic style in the Finnish music system: melancholic lyrics and poetry turned into music with constant references to the past and the loneliness. Great instrumentation work in the songs and the always particular voice of Kaarle turns this into another album 100% Viikate.

An excellent album if you want to go deeper into the melancholic spirit in Finnish music and Finnish society in general when November comes and the light turns to be a precious luxury to enjoy for only few hours a day. Understanding Finnish language can be a great help for capturing the essence of the band, although not essential, nevertheless music and feelings are universal. Hallamaat or Ensimmäinen runo (a great cover from Amorphis) are some of the highlighted songs of an album not made for those used just to easy listening music.

If winter makes you feel depressed, maybe wait for a better occasion to discover Viikate's work; but if on the other hand, coldness provides you with an exceptional occasion to work harder at home, enjoy a good glass of wine and listen some good Finnish music in the background, do not think it twice and get both volumes of Marraskuun lauluja.

Rating: 3/5

Categories
Misc News

Mika Kaurismäki opens Brazilian restaurant

The restaurant will have a capacity of about 300 people and will offer Brazilian food, wine, beer and other drinks.

There will also be live music on offer at Bossa, starting with Brazilian music about once a week. Later on, Kaurismäki would also like to programme a wider range of music performances.

Mika Kaurismäki is the elder brother of director Aki Kaurismäki. Unlike Aki, he is especially known for his international co-productions.  During the past five years, Mika, who has lived in Rio de Janeiro since the early nineties, has delivered several films that focused on music and Brazil, such as Moro no Brasil (2002) and Brasileirinho (2005). His latest documentary, Sonic Mirror, explores different cultures through music and is centred around legendary jazz fusion drummer Billy Cobham.

Mika Kaurismäki earlier co-founded the well-known Moskova and Corono bars in the centre of Helsinki. Between 1999 and 2001, he also used to run a music club in Rio de Janeiro: Mika's Bar.

Bossa will likely officially open around the 15th of November, although the bar side of the restaurant will be taken into use already some time earlier.

Related:

Watching the sound – FREE!'s interview with Mika Kaurismäki 

Mika Kaurismäki – Official website

Categories
Cinema Features

A helluva life

{mosimage}For the last couple of weeks I have
been hooked with the autobiography of the American writer and filmmaker
Samuel Fuller. It reads like a novel. A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting and Filmmaking
was written just a couple of years before his death in 1997 and is an
exciting tale of a very exciting life – or it would be better to say of
four or five different lives in one.

Samuel
Fuller, born in 1912, is better known by his movies, but before going
behind the camera he was a screenwriter, a pulp novel author, a
volunteer in the 1st Infantry Division during World War II, a teenage
crime reporter and a copyboy for Hearst’s New York Journal American. Yes, in his eighties, by the time he started writing his autobiography, he had some good stories to tell.

The
first chapters are dedicated to Fuller’s devotion to journalism in the
1920s and 1930s. He was just a kid when he began working as a paperboy
and a copyboy, running up and down the legendary Park Row of New York,
delivering messages to Mr. Hearst’s kitchen. The author was in love
with newspapers and writing. It was the golden age of journalism and
the reader can easily recall the smell of the ink and the linotype
machine. Many years later in 1952, Fuller recreated and paid tribute to
the era in his movie Park Row, one of his most popular films.

In
his teenage years, Fuller dreamt of becoming a reporter and so he did
when he turned 17. He became a crime reporter, no less, going from
school to the morgue and the most dangerous suburbs. Samuel even had a
little encounter with Al Capone.

Like
Kerouac in the 1930s, the young journalist left New York and travelled
across America with his typewriter portraying the country and the
economic crisis. He started drawing cartoons, writing books and even
being a ghostwriter for a popular author, whose name Fuller promised
never to disclose in his life.

Despite
being a published author much earlier than a filmmaker, Samuel Fuller
is known for his movies. Just like many other filmmakers, he arrived in
Hollywood as a screenwriter. He wrote many unaccredited stories, but
soon he started thinking about filming too, but his plans were
interrupted by the war. The United States entered World War II and
Fuller decided to enlist in the infantry. He admits that he did it
because he wanted to cover the war from the front line, even when he
was offered a less risky position in the news department.

As
a soldier, Fuller had an outstanding role in the campaigns in North
Africa and Sicily, and he also participated in the Normandy invasion.
His wartime memories are vivid, realistic and raw, like his movies.
There is no room for useless metaphors or distractions. In his
recollection, war is not a time for heroes and soldiers had only two
options: being killed or going nuts. A blood taste prevails in his
writing.

The Big Red One
is probably Fuller’s most ambitious film. It was his lifetime project.
Made in 1980, it is an epic tale about his experiences during the war.
It features Lee Marvin, Mark “Luke Skywalker” Hamill and a group of
unknown young actors. It reconstructs the fears and the camaraderie of
the soldiers and the stories, and it is far more realistic than other
spectacular films, such as Saving Private Ryan.

Unfortunately,
producers cut the movie by 40 minutes, so at the time of its release it
didn’t have the impact it deserved and Fuller was unhappy with the
result. His first cut of the movie ran to four and a half hours. In
2004 the film was re-edited and reconstructed to be more faithful to
Fuller’s original vision. The new cut clocks in at 160-minutes and it’s
the version currently released on DVD.

Almost
ten years after his death, Samuel Fuller remains a cult filmmaker. His
films were never blockbusters, they didn’t receive many awards or have
a high budget – he didn’t need them. Nowadays his work is praised by
contemporary directors like Martin Scorsese (who wrote the foreword of
the autobiography), Jim Jarmusch, Quentin Tarantino and, Finland’s
finest, Aki and Mika Kaurismäki, who, incidentally, counted upon the
participation of Fuller in a little role on a couple of his films.

Other
trivia for the Finnish reader is that Samuel Fuller was a guest at the
first edition of Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä in 1986. In
the center of the town, a street was renamed in his honour: Samuel
Fullerin katu (Samuel Fuller’s street).

Do
yourself a favour and watch Samuel Fuller’s films and, if you have the
time, read his autobiography. It is the tale of a genuine storyteller.

Categories
Albums Music

McQueen – Break the Silence

{mosimage}The female rockers from Brighton release their debut studio; a good dose of punk/grunge/rock.

Named after their idol, actor Steve McQueen, the British McQueen can feel proud of having toured, since their formation in 2003, with bands such as Foo Fighters, Juliette & the Licks, (my particularly beloved) Aerosmith, WASP or The Almighty. Do not expect to find much place for softness here, because these four young girls really mean the title of their album: Break the Silence. Songs that go from grunge in the introductory Neurotic, to garage rock in Dirt or more classic hard rock guitar riffs in Numb. Leah Duorsin, the vocalist, shows that she can explode many vocal registers, for some moments tender and melodic while reaching at same other points in the album really hardcore levels that could remind you of an enraged Phil Anselmo, in tracks like Break the Silence or Bitch.

Maybe the first time you listen to the album you can feel surprised by the rawness of their rock, but give you some time to appreciate that there is a real big musical spirit rocking behind this debut album. Aggressive vocals, aggressive riffs and aggressive lyrics for a band that is not afraid to carry the torch previously lighted by Vixen or The Donnas. I cannot wait to see them on live, since I have the impression that the songs will work even better with the four girls on stage.

Rating: 4/5

Categories
Misc News

Next Bond theme by Ville Valo?

According to Daily Star columnist Kim Dawson, long-time Bond soundtrack writers Don Black and David Arnold have dumped British singer Amy Winehouse as their favourite to record the next 007 theme and now want Valo instead.

The Finnish rock singer was approached by the Bond team during a dinner at the BMI Awards in London on Tuesday (16.10), the tabloid’s columnist claimed. Valo attended the ceremony to collect an award for HIM’s hit song Wings of a Butterfly.

“David Arnold and Don Black were in deep conversation with Ville on the night,” Dawnson quoted a source she referred to only as ‘a slightly shaken but not stirred BMI spy’. “They love the song that won him an award. They think he has just the right ear to write a classic Bond hit with them.”

HIM manager Seppo Vesterinen only heard of the claims when he was asked for his comments by a Finnish journalist. “If the matter would have been under discussion, I would presume that I would know about it,” Vesterinen told STT from the United States.

HIM is currently on tour in North America. Earlier this year, Valo recorded Summer Wine, the soundtrack of German film Das Wilde Leben (2007), with Polish-born German actress Natalia Avelon.

The spy who shoved me – the column by Daily Star columnist Kim Dawson

HIM – official website
HIM – MySpace

Summer Wine – by Ville Valo & Natalia Avelon (YouTube)

Categories
Albums Music

José González – In Our Nature

{mosimage}For all those who still don’t know, José González is not from Spain or South America and he’s music is nothing similar to the typical Latin pop star. As a matter of fact, José Gonzalez is an intimate singer and songwriter from Sweden.

Born in Gothenburg to Argentine parents, González has slowly built international popularity with his first album, Veneer, released in 2003 in Sweden, but which didn’t make it to the UK and US markets until 2005. Since then, his career has been a success with his songs reaching the top of the charts and even getting into the popular television series The O.C.

This success can be considered quite unexpected for a collection of acoustic folk songs. But José González seems to ride on the same wave that is taking to popularity to other singer songwriters like Devendra Banhart. Hippie folk is hype again.

After this success, it could be expected that the follow up to Veneer could compromise the songwriting of the young Swedish singer and force him to be more commercial. But little has changed and In Our Nature shows the same characteristics: a minimalistic intimate sound built around the acoustic guitar and vocal melody, with the occasional addition of mild percussion and synthesizer.

The sound will remember classic folk singers like Crosby, Still and Nash, Tim Buckley or Leonard Cohen while the lyrics tend to refer to nature, love and certain doctrine that seems to denounce the selfish nature of human being “How long are you willing to go before you reach all your selfish goals”, the singer asks in the first verse of the album.

Surprisingly, José González decided to include in this album a cover of Massive Attack’s hit Teardrop. That seems to be a wise choice because the song really fits in the context of the album.

With In Our Nature, José González will overcome the always-difficult second album. But it will not be groundbreaking because of its many similarities to the first album. In the future, he will need to expand to sounds to avoid repeating himself. Before that happens, In Our Nature is a very enjoyable album and people will love it as it shows the already sold out show at Tavastia next December.

Rating 3/5

Categories
Albums Music

The Hives – The Black and White album

{mosimage}The smartest rock band on Earth are back. Swedish The Hives know how to wear a suit on stage while make the people shake their assess with their direct rock and roll better than nobody else. I still remember their last appearance in Provinssirock, where I can admit that it was the gig I had the best time during the whole festival. After the huge success of Tyrannosaurs Hives (2004), it was about time to come back. For that, they have counted with the help of international acclaimed producer Pharrel Williams.

The band members claim that this album offers very new aspects in their music and more reflected melodies. Well, hard to believe when you go to explore the track list and get immersed in the album: songs of 3-4 minutes, straight to your head. A good dosis of rock and roll shot straight to blow your brain. But why should it be otherwise? The formula had worked before, and works again. From the starting Tick Tick Boom or the irreverent Hey Little World, you just feel like your feet cannot stop moving.

The Hives recorded good part of the album in Mississippi, and the American sound is very present all over the album. Not much time for Nordic reflective approach to music. The bass this time has a more notorious role that in previous albums, so Dr. Matt Destruction, the bass player, can feel happy about it. The Hives are back and they sound great again!

Rating 4/5

Categories
Albums Music

Steve Earle – Washington Square Serenade

{mosimage}In his long career, Steve Earle has never played safe. Every new album adds a risky and unexpected element, either if that is the punk rock of the Supersuckers, the bluegrass of the Del McCoury band or the political protest of his previous albums Jerusalem (2002) and The Revolution Starts Now (2004).

This trend is not different with his latest release, Washington Square Serenade. Earle invited Dust Brother John King to produce the album. Yes, one of the producers behind Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique and Beck’s Odelay.

With John King behind the controls, Washington Square Serenade presents an array of contemporary sounds that collide with Earle’s traditional songwriting. Many hardcore fans might get annoyed by the samples and drum loops on top of Steve’s folkie guitar and harmonica, or the mandolins and the dobros.

But this production should not scare anyone. It’s the same old Steve Earle, anyway, and he offers a bunch of good songs whether he stays behind traditional sounds like Jericho Road  or he raps on top of drum loops like in Satellite Radio.

As usual, there is a duet with a female voice. After Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris and Stacey Earle, it was the time for Steve’s new wife, singer Allison Moorer, to be featured in the traditional duet that Earle includes in his albums.

Closing this new album is the cover that the singer did of Tom Waits’ Way Down in the Hole as the theme song of the last season of the series The Wire, where Steve Earle did a little acting too. This version fully embraces hip hop and it feels more like a bonus track that part of the beautiful poem to New York that is Washington Square Serenade as a whole.

Rating 4/5 

Categories
Albums Music

Neil Young – Chrome Dreams II

{mosimage}Neil Young releases the follow up of an album
that never saw the light. In 1976 in a fire at his house, the Canadian
songwriter lost the tapes of his project Chromes Dreams, an album that was
intended to include classics like Powderfinger, Like a Hurricane or Too Far
Gone. That project was lost and all those songs popped up later on in different
albums.

Chromes Dreams II does not have much to do with that project, and it
presents Neil's music wandering in different forms like acoustic ballads or
long guitar-driving epic songs.

This new album is built around an old song.
Young opens his archives and brings back Ordinary People, an 18-minute song,
recorded during the sessions of the This Note's for You in 1988. It was only
played live a dozen times at the time and since then it has been a favourite
among hardcore fans. It includes very good narrative lyrics and horns. It
reminds some of those long Dylan songs.

That’s not
the only unusually long song. No Hidden Path goes beyond 14 minutes. Not with
Crazy Horse this time, but it brings back the atmosphere of the underrated
album Sleep With Angels (1994).

But Chromes
Dreams II is an album of many different sounds, that evoke all the signatures of
the Canadian. There’s a bit of country (Beautiful Bluebird is a sweet opening),
pop (The Believer), rock (Dirty Old Man) and a surprise waltz tune with a
children’s chorus to end the album (This Way).

Even though
it might lack the wildness and the energy of a younger Young (no pun intended),
Chromes Dreams II will satisfy all the fans as it presents the most surprising
and diverse Neil Young album in many years.

Rating 4/5 

 

Categories
Misc News

New Finlandia prize for comics

The prize is partially funded by the City of Tampere‘s Luova Tampere (Creative Tampere) programme.

The winner of the prize is chosen in the same way as the receiver of its big namesake, the prestigious Finlandia Prize for Literature. Every year, the Tampere Kuplii comics association will name a selection committee that will choose a maximum of ten candidates from all the submitted comic works. The committee will then appoint a person who will make the final selection from the nominated works.

Anyone can propose a Finnish or Swedish language comic album from Finland for the prize. Also works in other languages will be taken into consideration by the committee.

The first Sarjakuva Finlandia will be presented on the 20th of April during the 2008 edition of the Tampere Kuplii (Tampere is bubbling) comics festival.

Sarjakuva Finlandia (in Finnish only)

Tampere Kuplii (mostly in Finnish)

Categories
Albums Music

Apulanta – Eikä vieläkään ole edes ilta

{mosimage}Half a year after
Apulanta released their new studio album: Eikä vieläkään ole edes ilta,
here comes a new double album in version digipak that includes a live concert
added to the studio version.

Great design
for this digipack version, with a second booklet where you can follow a diary
handwritten by the members of Apulanta. In the 15 songs of the live album you
can find all the ones that compose the studio album, although some of them with
a new approach, shorter and straighter to the point, trying to find a closer
contact with the audience. A contact that Apulanta usually achieves, being one
of the Finnish bands that keeps a better relation with their followers. The
connection with the fans is clear when you hear the live album, although
sometimes Toni’s vocals fail a bit, like in Karmaan Laina while other
times works pretty well like in the acoustic version of Koneeseen Kadonnut.

But the band
has enough experience to offer a good and consistent show that mixes perfectly the
raw punk rhythms of their beginnings with softer melodies. For those of you who
already bought the studio album, maybe there is not much point in pursuing this
new extended version, but for those who were not yet decided, and want to
discover Apulanta´s music, this is an excellent opportunity to experience their
direct melodies and honest attitude towards the audience. It comes indeed a bit
too soon after the release of the studio album.

Rating: 3/5

Toni and Sipe talk about Eikä vieläkään ole edes ilta.

Read the whole interview with FREE! here

Toni: The greatest thing with this album… well, with Kiila, the eight
album, was the biggest commercial success, nobody expected to be so big, and
with this one the big surprise is that …we did not write the same album again.
Of course it sounds like Apulanta, but it s at same time very different. It is
like revitalizing shot you can take. And it is great punk.


Sipe: I like the most the opening song: Viisaus ei
asu meissä.

Toni: I think that is the kick ass punk rock song. Sometimes when you
get it, you really know it, and well, when you write something, you really know
“hey this is good shit”, everything feels so right and it is great to make a
video for it. We went to Rovaniemi. We shot the video outside, in t shirts, and
it was freezing… Sipe was feeling it in the fingers for a couple of weeks. That
was a hardcore video! But it turned out absolutely great. Viisaus ei asu
meissä is the best video after 16 years. I had not been so happy about a
video like with this one.

The first single: Koneseen pudonnut is a lot better in the album.
For me it does not work as a single, I don’t know why, it does not reflect the
feeling of the album.

When we decided the first single there were only 5 songs done. Sometimes
choosing the first single is something you have to do with a limited amount of
material. I think it does not represent the album well, but I cannot complain.
The track that ends the album, Ylijäämävalumaa
is my other favourite

Sipe: And one thing in Apulanta is that we try not to have “fillers”
tracks in the album.

Categories
Interviews Music

Teenage sensation

{mosimage}

They
are young, they are pretty, they rock. Stalingrad
Cowgirls are the new teenage sensation. These three young ladies from Salla, a small town 60
km North of the Artic Circle
might not be allowed to enter the night clubs yet but they have already
released their first album, opened for Iggy Pop and The Stooges and
been on the cover of the most popular music magazines. Bassist Henna
tells FREE! about it.

Stalingrad Cowgirls practice some basic and fun music: Ramones oriented punk rock like other young girl groups like The Donnas or Swedish Sahara Hotnights. While still being in high school, they keep on touring across Finland and being rock stars.

How was opening for Iggy Pop? He could be your grandfather! 

As young rocker
girls we felt very humble! Iggy is very old but he has also an
amazing amount of energy. It makes you realize how long he had been
doing his thing and how well he can do it. We have very much respect
for him. Two of us met Iggy after the gig. Unfortunately our drummer
went already home by train. We got good comments and feedback from
him. He watched our performance. We put the advice behind the ear.

Why did you decide to start a band? 

We live in a small
village in the North. There are about 5000 inhabitants in Salla.
There the possibility to do things is very limited, you can do only
sports or music. We are not that sporty, and we have classical
background of music, so it felt natural to start a band.

How did you come up with such a name for the band? 

This is a long
story! We were going to one of our first gigs in the Youth Culture
Train event. There were performing people from Sweden, Norway, Russia
and Finland. One performance was in Russia, in Murmansk, and this was
the biggest reason for choosing the name Stalingrad Cowgirls. Indeed,
we didn’t invent the name, it was proposed by one friend of ours.

Two of you are not even twenty, isn't everything going very fast?

No. We could have
sit and wait in the training place for that for 10 years! But we
wanted to save the feeling of this moment and this huge energy what
comes out of us to the record, and it has nothing to do with the age.
We have so much time to do this for so long time!!

How was the recording of Somewhere High?

Making of our first
record was very interesting. Fortunately we had a very relaxed
producer with who we came along very well. It wasn’t anything about
“ok, now I press this red button and you play the bass”. We
learned so much all different kinds of thing and next time when we go
to the studio, we might not be so lost and stupid.

If you wouldn't have recorded an album already, would you dare to go to Idols?

Not at all, in any
point! In Idols, the people go there, who
want to sing, we want to play and be a band.

What are your favourite bands?

Everybody has their
own, but we also share some favourites. Like Sahara Hotnights,
Backyard Babies, Hardcore Superstar, The Donnas and also some older
bands like Rainbow, Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy.

 

 www.stalingradcowgirls.com
www.myspace.com/stalingradcowgirls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Misc News

Fox days in Andorra

In
total, the festival will show 154 different films, (chosen from the
316 sent to the competition), that will compete to get the classical
prize Hinku and Vinku,
consisting of a picture and flowers for the winners. The prizes are
given for those considered as the best in fiction and documentaries,
with the categories sub-divided between professionals and amateurs.
As well, short films of less than three minutes of duration are shown
for the FoxOff competition, being the subject of the present year
“temptation”. Kari Yli-Annala will be on charge also of
choosing the best experimental film during the festival.

During
Fox Days the visitors will have the chance also to see
a selection of the best music videos from the past Oulu festival, and
a review of the films made in other Nordic countries in the “Nordisk
Panorama” screenings. Other topics that acquire importance during
this year is the region of Karjala with Iris Olsson´s
film Kesän lapsi and KJ Kosken´s Unerlmana Karjala,
or the problems of the teenagers when growing up and facing adult’s
life in the films Heavy Metal by Zaida Bergrothin, Elää
by Reeta Aallon and Lilli by Oliwia Tonteri.

 

24th
Kettupäivät. 7.-10.11.2207
At
Andorra cultural centre (Eerikinkatu 11. Helsinki)
Ticket
for 1 screening: 3 euro.
Ticket
for 10 screenings: 20 euro.
For
more information visit: www.kettupaivat.fi

 

Categories
Cinema DVD

Fun on ice

{sidebar id=38}{mosimage}The new and hilarious comedy from Will Ferrell will not let his fans down. This time, he sets the ice rink on fire as the ultimate sex bomb on skates.

I must admit that I am getting more and more hooked with Will Ferrell’s movies. When it is about time to see comedies with not much farther aims than just spending a couple of hours relaxed and having some healthy good laughs, his movies are great. I liked a lot when I watched Talladega Nights for a second time and I enjoyed Anchorman too. In Blades of Glory, Ferrell, as the wild Chazz Michael Michaels (I really love that name!) is back together with Jon Heder (you may remember him from Napoleon Dynamite, one of the nicest surprises from 2004) and both work as a great duo of actors, everyone with a personality that frontally collides with the other. Their dialogues and interaction are hilarious with an excellent chemistry.

Special mention for the scriptwriters that were able to twist once more the comedy genre and take advantage of a sport that had not been enough exploded in the big screen, although some scandals in real life were pretty notorious, like the Nancy Kerrigan’s case (who, by the way, makes a cameo during the film, as many other real skaters).

A movie that knows perfectly how to take advantage of the jealousy and personal competitions that happen in real life, but at the same time resolves exquisitely the non-easy task of putting two heterosexual men skating together. For the detail lovers, you must know that both actors had to learn how to skate almost as professionals with many hard hours of training. Jon Heder broke one rib while shooting the film and the moment when he answers in perfect Japanese a question from a journalist comes from the real Japanese knowledge that he has, after having lived a couple of years in the Asian country while being a Mormon missionary.

If you do not like Will Ferrell’s previous films, forget to watch this DVD, since it goes pretty much in the same line. But if you enjoyed their special gestures and sketches, you will not feel disappointed with this movie.

Rating 4/5