Show #138 August 8, 2015

This one goes out to Emily and The Trade- marks!

Emily- Sylvain Sylvain Sylvain Sylvain 
The Sixteens- The Sweet The Collection
Greater Threat- Greg Pope Fanboy 
All My Love Always- Dead End Kids Breakout 
I Can See- SVT Extended Play
The Hard Way- The Sonics This Is The Sonics
Boomerang- The Paley Brothers The Complete Recordings 
Voice Of America- The Front Lines Where Do We Go From Here? EP
^17- Avril Lavigne Avril Lavigne 
Phenobarbital Love- The Chevelles Rollerball Candy 
War On the East Coast- The New Pornographers Brill Bruisers 
Can't Erase This Feeling- Warm Soda Symbolic Dream
And So It Goes On- Beagle Sound On Sound 
Fragile- Wire Pink Flag 
*Thirteen- Big Star #1 Record 
*Fourteen- The Vandals Look What I Almost Stepped In...
*Fifteen- Eater The Compleat Eater
*Sixteen- Iggy Pop Lust for Life 
*Seventeen- The CRY! Dangerous Game
*Eighteen- Rome Eighteen
*Nineteen- Tegan and Sara The Con
R-I-G-H-T-S- The Fleshtones It's Super Rock Time! 
It's Up To You- The Trademarks Take It Magazine Flexi Disc 
Dose Of You- Nick Lowe Labour Of Lust 
Lead Me To It- The Grip Weeds How I Won The War 
No Regrets- City Limits Dancing In The Heat
The Rumble Under My Hood- The Rubinoos The Rumble Under My Hood 
>Seventeen- Sex Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols 
Money Talk- The Negatives Shake Some Action Vol 3
I'll Get You Back- Arlis Titan: It's All Pop!
Love Will Lead the Way- Wyatt Funderburk Novel and Profane 
Girls Aren't Just Girls- Z-Cars This Is Z-Cars 7" EP 
Sixteen Blue (Outtake-Alternate Vocal)- The Replacements Let It Be

^Power Pop Peak:  #4 South Korean Goan Chart 11/1/13

*SacroSet:  Songs About Our Teen Years

>Power Pop Prototype:  1977

As readers of this blog know I was not popular in high

Disclaimer:  No one was
murdered at my prom

school.  I had managed to get a girlfriend by my junior year however and empowered by this momentous turn of events, I tried something never before attempted (and no, I'm not talking about with my girlfriend).  After realizing I would be going to the prom, I decided to join the entertainment committee.  My thinking was, if I'm going I should at least try to insure the prom has good music.  This was back in the days when even our regular school dances had live bands so for a prom there was significant money in the budget, though they never told me how much.  


The first meeting that fall was at this especially mean girl's house and I think everyone had the same question:  why is Rick Love here?  For the first time I was with the popular crowd and it didn't feel right to anyone, especially me.  Luckily the chair of the prom committee was a girl name Lauren who, despite being

The Neighborhoods

popular, actually liked good music and even favored the new wave fashions of the time, angular designs, red and black, etc.  We were in the same Spanish class and had talked about music a couple of times.  Even so, I was surprised when Lauren told me about the prom meeting and asked if I wanted to come.  I brought a cassette of several Boston bands with me and remember playing The Neighborhoods for them, who were deemed "too punk."  (In 1981 people associated punk rock more with vomit than music- damn you Sex Pistols

Peter Dayton

for killing punk's already slim chance of commercial success in America!)  I also played Peter Dayton Band for them who were labelled "too weird."  (They were probably right about that one.)  I had perversely thought of blowing everyone's mind with Human Sexual Response's "What Does Sex Mean To Me."  I still smile thinking about how Duxbury's best and brightest circa 1981 would have reacted to the second verse:  

I put my finger to my tongue
And I taste vagina
I licked Betty Ford's boots (it's true)
She wore 'em all over China

Human Sexual Response

In the end I went conservative with my third offering.  I'd like to say it was my plan all along:  start with two bands I knew they wouldn't go for thereby making the third more palatable, but I think it was just dumb luck.  The third group I played in Missy's living room that day was The Trademarks.  I had seen them already so I knew they were great live and I had a sense that they would be professional- providing a safe, fun, vomit-free experience.

The Trademarks
 I wonder if they got their shirts the same place as Peter Dayton?

That was the last prom committee meeting I attended-somehow I was never told where or when subsequent meetings were held.  After talking to Trademarks keyboard player Jack Moran at a show I passed along his information to the prom committee and that was it.  I didn't hear anything again until after Christmas when Lauren told me the The Trademarks were going to play our Junior Prom!  Needless to say, I was shocked- by that time I figured the prom band would be a bunch of longhairs playing stuff like "Dazed And Confused," the guitarist busting out his violin bow in the 17th minute.  (Seriously, has anyone EVER successfully danced to "Dazed And Confused?").  But no, we had The Trademarks and they were AMAZING! 

The prom was at Christo's in Brockton, Mass and the first

person my girlfriend Gina and I saw when we walked in that night was Jack Moran- not only did he remember who I was but he told me I looked great.  (Nice of him to say, but I've seen the pictures and I have to disagree- top hat and tails on a shy 16 year old is not a good fit.  As you will see, the suit was wearing me).   The Trademarks on the other hand looked incredible in matching suits that they changed at each break!  They played originals, including "Magic In Her Eyes," which several of us knew as I'd convinced some friends to buy their single (shown at the top of this post) along with "It's Up To You," featured on tonight's show.  Knowing how important familiar music is at a dance, they also played a great selection of 60's rock and roll covers- Beatles, Stones, Dave Clark Five, Paul Revere and The Raiders and more. Even the teachers and chaperones seemed to be loving it.

The Trademarks were super tight and their vocal harmonies were perfect but the best thing about the band was the way they engaged the audience- energetically jumping around the stage while making eye contact with each of us.  The Trademarks were the greatest band in the world that night.  Don't believe me?  Check out this clip of them playing in January 1981, five months before our prom:



That video was recorded in an empty studio, now picture them playing in front of a few hundred sex crazed teenagers at a prom.  

The Trademarks were not to everyone's taste of course, I

The Trademarks

overheard one girl telling her date "I HATE them- they're punk" but I don't recall seeing her or anyone else in their seats during the band's final set.  Our prom theme that year was "We've Got Tonight" by Bob Seger which I'm happy to say the band did not perform though that irritated a few people too.  Still my friends and I were up front on the dancefloor for every song.  When many of their girls went back to the table, Gina stayed on the dancefloor with me earning major girlfriend points.  It was such an amazing night that I was even okay with the fact that she had to be home at 11:30.  After her mom picked her up I sat in my dark living room and thought about how I had helped make The Trademarks at our prom happen.  No one knew it outside a small group of people but I did, and it felt awesome.  Thinking about it now, I bet sticking my neck out like that, even just the one time in high school helped me become the person I'd be in college.

And okay, here are the prom photos (sigh):

Why yes, I am wearing white gloves, why do you ask?

A walking stick, naturally, completes the ensemble.  (I love the look she is
giving me, no wonder she went home at 11:30.)

No one warned me about "Top Hat Hair"

Here are the links to this week's show, click to stream or right click and "Save Link As" to download:
Hour 1
Hour 2

Show #137 July 18, 2015

For Beth and Kids In Satanic Service!

Beth- No Use For A Name Making Friends 
Room Service- Kiss Dressed to Kill 
Heart Stops Beating- Nick Piunti Beyond The Static 
Daddy's Gone For Good- Ben Vaughn Mood Swings 
I've Got Your Number- Nick Gilder Rock America 
*Hard Luck Woman- The Hold Steady Rags 
*Getaway- The Carburetors Gods of Thunder - A Norwegian Tribute to Kiss 
*Christine Sixteen- Gin Blossoms Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved 
Mix Tape- Richie Parsons Honey and Tears 
FOH- Superchunk I Hate Music 
Goodbye Princess- Cheepskates It Wings Above 
*Strutter- The Donnas Strutter 
*Goin' Blind- Dinosaur Jr. Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved 
*Rock 'n Roll All Nite- The Summer Set Punk Goes Classic Rock 
Take It Easy- Sloan Commonwealth 
Don't Like Your Face- The Heats Have An Idea 
What's The Matter With Mary- Little Murders Stop Plus Singles 1978-1986 
*Deuce- Redd Kross Teen Babes From Monsanto 
*Do You Love Me- Girlschool Running Wild 
*Plaster Caster- The Lemonheads Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved
Could Be Worse- Bleu Redhead 
Mystery to Me- The Talk Not Just Hearsay 
*C'mon And Love Me- Smalltown Rockets Gods of Thunder - A Norwegian Tribute to Kiss 
*Black Diamond- The Replacements Let It Be
*Shout It Out Loud- Motorhead Larger Than Life 3 
>God Gave Rock And Roll To You- Argent God Gave Rock And Roll To You 
*Detroit Rock City- The Mighty Mighty Bosstones Detroit Rock City 
*All American Man- The Hellacopters Cream Of The Crap Vol. 2 
Rock Bottom- Kiss Dressed to Kill 

^Power Pop Prototype:  (Kiss Version) #15 Billboard Hot 100 2/26/77

*SacroSet[s]:  Songs Kiss Taught Us

>Power Pop Prototype:  1973 (Kiss Version 1991)

When I was in the 4th Grade we moved from Brockton to Duxbury, Mass and it was a culture shock.  I was used to kids making fun of me for what I looked like or how I acted but it took some time to get used to kids making fun of me for the shoes and clothes I was wearing.  This is doubtless a "white people problem," but when everyone is in Adidas and Levi's while you're rocking no-name sneakers and Toughskins it can seem pretty bleak.  We had the money but my Mom, true to her Scottish heritage, drew the line at what were then $40 sneakers and $20 pants and she wasn't budging.

Needless to say, a few months later I was overjoyed to find what appeared to be the perfect pair of sneakers one town over at the Marshall's in Marshfield.  I'd finally have what everyone else had!  I proudly wore my new shoes to school the next day and wasn't in the door 30 seconds before some douche pointed out that my "Adidas" had an extra stripe.  

Four Stripes BAD!

I immediately saw what he was talking about and it was humiliating.  What's worse, I had to wear them the rest of the day and then try to explain to my mom why I couldn't wear them ever again.  She wasn't having any of it.  I ended up wearing the shoes for another two weeks before losing one "in the woods," but the damage was done.  Even years later in Intermediate School a kid name Sean McDonough would remind everyone about my four stripe "Adidas."

As a perennial outsider, I was always looking for a way "in" with the kids in my school.  A huge rock and roll fan, I'd been buying records for a few years when I started hearing other kids talk about music.  J. Geils Band and Bruce Springsteen were two names I'd often hear in the hallway.  I didn't like these particular artists but in my twisted imagination I thought I could parlay my passion for rock and roll into some kind of popularity.   My favorite band at the time was Kiss.  Cousin Rich had turned me on to the Destroyer album and I loved that record.  My dad, who always kept a keen eye on my interests, bought me my first rock and roll poster that year- for the Kiss Spirit of'76 tour. I'd listen to the album over and over and just stare at that poster.  I loved everything about it- the makeup, the clothes, the patriotic tableau which I'd seen in school and especially the looks on their faces.

A picture is worth 1000 words...

Paul seems pouty and defiant, Peter looks dazed (perhaps because of the head wound), Gene is summoning Satan and Ace is just happy to be along for the ride- he was probably late for the photo shoot and squeezed in at the last minute.  Of course at the time I had no idea that my initial reaction was spot-on, perfectly capturing the personality of each guy.
 
I was ready with my hard-earned paper route money when Rock And Roll Over was released on November 11, 1976.  Imagine putting out Destroyer in March, heading out on the Spirit of '76 Tour from July through September, releasing Rock And Roll Over in November and then starting a tour for that record-  Kiss owned our Bicentennial Year!!  I was incredibly jealous that Cousin Rich got to see Kiss on the Spirit of '76 tour on July 11, 1976 at the Cape Cod Coliseum- their opening act was a young upstart out of Detroit named... wait for it... Bob Seger!  Jealousy aside, the seed was planted and I resolved to see Kiss before I died, which I did for the first time on February 2, 1978 at the Providence Civic Center.  They were even better than I imagined- that show still ranks among my all-time favorites.

Back in 7th Grade I failed to realize that "what" you loved was as, if not more, important than how much you loved it.  Kiss were great about including extra stuff in their albums (posters, booklets, tattoos, a Love Gun) and Rock And Roll Over came with a cool segmented sticker of the album cover.  I loved all these extras and kept them in pristine condition so it was a big deal for me when I decided to actually use the Rock And Roll Over sticker.  During Christmas break I painstakingly applied it to my school notebook, spacing out the segments perfectly, all the while picturing how cool I'd look walking down the halls of Duxbury Intermediate School with this awesome three-ring binder under my arm.  That first day it went about as well as it did with my fake "Adidas."  I wasn't 20 feet down the hall before someone yelled "KISS SUCKS!" and a bunch of kids laughed.  The rest of that year I kept the sticker side of the binder against my body so no one could see it.

Even Eddie couldn't make me cool

Kiss were the biggest rock and roll band in the world that year yet the kids in my school seemed to HATE them- I was really shocked it went down this way. At the time I thought it was because I wasn't cool so by association nothing I liked could be either.  The following year I brought Van Halen's first album to school to play Eddie's earth shattering solo "Eruption" for my 8th Grade music class and they made fun of me too.  (A year later in high school I'd see Van Halen shirts everywhere but by then I'd moved on to The Ramones and The Clash.)  

Can I give you my card?

I've since decided that while I would've been crapped on for whatever I liked, the hatred Kiss inspired was a different animal.  I'd later learn that most rock critics hated Kiss too- yet I don't think my 7th Grade classmates were reading Robert Christgau so that wasn't it.  No, I now realize that the few people I knew who liked Kiss shared one thing in common:  we are all first born children.  We didn't have older brothers and sisters telling us that Kiss were a joke, as opposed to "serious" bands like Yes and Led Zeppelin.  Free to like what whatever we wanted, Gene Simmons' vision of the ultimate rock and roll band proved irresistible.  That said, all the theatrics and tchotchkes aside, the music still stands on it own which is why 38 years after I bought my first Kiss album I'm doing a radio show of bands from around the world covering their songs.  Clearly I'm not the only one who loves "the hottest band in the world... KISS!!!"

Photos by Nica Love

As a postscript, I should point out that in 1994 I found a copy of Rock And Roll Over with the sticker included at Rocket Records in San Francisco- it cost me $30 bucks and was worth every penny!  

Also, as I write this I think it's important for you to know that I am wearing ... well let me just show you...

Three Stripes GOOD!

Dig those sweet Adidas Superstars... as Charlie Sheen would say:  WINNING!

Here are the links for this week's show, click to stream or to download, right click and "Save Link As:"
Hour 1
Hour 2

Show #136 June 13, 2015

Our Planetary Power Pop show is dedicated to Barbarella and the great Jenny Agutter!

Barbarella- The Glitterhouse Barbarella 
Another Girl, Another Planet- The Only Ones Special View 
Help Yourself- Greg Pope Fanboy 
Dead or Alive- John Cale Honi Soit 
Partied Out- Kurt Baker Brand New Beat 
On the Weekend- The Reducers Last Tracks and Lost Songs 
Revolution in Apt. 29- Wayne Kramer The Return of Citizen Wayne 
N.D.- Runarounds Waiting For The Hurricane 
^Under The Milky Way- The Church Under The Milky Way 
Probably Me- The Jellybricks Youngstown Tune-Up 
Space Age Love- Zolar X Timeless 
*Planet Mercury- Gruppo Sportivo Pop! Goes The Brain/Design Moderne 
*Destination Venus- The Rezillos Can't Stand the Rezillos: The (Almost) Complete Rezillos 
*Heaven And Earth- The Grip Weeds How I Won The War 
*Rocket To Mars- Lisa Mychols Sweet Sinsations 
*Moons of Jupiter- Scruffy The Cat Time Never Forgets: The Anthology ('86-'88) 
*Saturn- Neats 1981-84 The Ace of Hearts Years 
*Anus Of Uranus- Klaatu 3:47 E.S.T. 
*Neptune- Glenn Tilbrook Transatlantic Ping Pong 
*Hallucinating Pluto- The B-52's Hallucinating Pluto 
If I Ever Wanted Easier- Wyatt Funderburk Novel and Profane 
Fall To Bits- DM3 Dig it the Most 
I Know The Cure- Warm Soda Symbolic Dream 
>Marquee Moon- Television Marquee Moon 
Under The Gun- Rob Bonfiglio Freeway 
Please Believe Me- LMNOP Elemen Opee Elpee 
We'll Inherit the Earth- The Replacements Don't Tell a Soul

^Power Pop Peak:  #24 Billboard Hot 100 4/9/88 

*SacroSet:  Solar System Songs

>Power Pop Prototype:  1977

In the summer of 1978 I was lucky enough to see the movie Barbarella at the Kingston Drive-In, unlucky enough to be in the same car with my mom and sister the night I saw it.  What was Mum thinking- Barbarella gets naked before the opening credits are even done!  Even now, I'm squinching in my seat as I think about watching Barbarella in the Excessive Machine- designed to "pleasure" her to death, it was no match for her voracious

An Immersive Experience

sexual appetite- with Mum and Sarah beside me.  So there we are, the three of us trying not to make a sound, our eyes locked on the screen for fear of making eye contact with each other.  Youch!  Even in these uncomfortable circumstances I could see how undeniably sexy Jane Fonda is in the movie.  Yet, as taken as I was with Barbarella, my heart belonged to another outer space hottie- the great Jenny Agutter. 

Even a year after seeing it, my next door neighbor Steven Manning couldn't stop talking about the movie Logan's Run.  

Steven was two years older than me and saw the movie the

How did this fashion not catch on?!?

week it came out as well as several times during its theatrical run.  The story sounded awesome to me- a world of sex and drugs where everything is cool until you turn 30, then they kill you.  Truth be told, what really piqued my interest was Steven's description of Jessica, the female lead played by the lovely Jenny Agutter- particularly the fact that she TAKES HER CLOTHES OFF IN THE MOVIE!  I had never heard of

PG in '81, Sex Offender Registry Today!

such a thing!  This was back in the 70's when you could have a nice bit of nudity in a PG picture.  (I'll never forget showing Clash of The Titans to 10 year old Jack and 7 year old Nica- Jaime screaming as a naked Perseus and his mom walk down the beach). 

Anyway, I didn't know about Logan's Run when it was in theaters during the

Oh, Jenny!

summer of 1976 and had resigned myself to never seeing Jenny Agutter's- or any woman's- breasts for the rest of my sad, pitiful life.  Sure I'd sneaked peeks at Playboy at my Uncle Bob's house in Maryland, but these were living, breathing 3-D breasts!  What's worse in the summer of 1977 they were planning on showing Logan's Run on TV... stupid breast-free TV!  Then, something miraculous happened.  I saw in the Boston Globe, the paper I delivered each morning, that Logan's Run was playing at the South Shore Twin Drive-In in Braintree!  This was a year after its theatrical release and two weeks before it was going to be on TV but

Michael York, Farrah Fawcett, Jenny Agutter

there it was.  I begged my parents to go and they agreed so I finally got to see Jenny Agutter naked!  The nude scene is two seconds long and pretty unsexy (she is changing out of her soaking wet sideless dress) but it was still very cool.  I loved the movie too- I'm a sucker for a good finger-wagging science fiction dystopia, from the Planet Of The Apes movies to Westworld to Soylent Green (spoiler alert! the latter is people).  I was so taken with Jenny

She doesn't really mean it.

Agutter I barely registered that Farrah Fawcett was also in Logan's Run. And this was AFTER her iconic poster, which I later learned is what got her the role in to begin with.  Have to say I've always thought her smile seemed super-fake, so I've never cared for Farrah's poster.  Yes, I noticed her other "assets" but the fake smile was a deal-breaker.  In any case, I was never a guy who had posters of girls on his walls- all my posters were of dudes with guitars.

Leia in her Hutt-kini

As an aside, the next year when Star Wars came out I remember thinking "good movie, but where's all the sex?" After sexy movies like Barbarella and Logan's Run it seemed like there was something missing from Star Wars.  We had to wait for the underwhelming Return of the Jedi to get anything close to sex, and you only see Leia in her Hutt-kini for less than a minute.  Fanboys have been drooling over this scene for a generation- I imagine their heads would've exploded if there had actually been bare breasts.  Instead we get taken to a world of Teddy Bears....TEDDY BEARS!  Damn you George Lucas- I blame you for taking the sex out of science-fiction movies!  But I digress...

Donald and Jenny

After Logan's Run I realized I had seen Jenny Agutter in The Eagle Has Landed- at the time my favorite WW II movie (Donald Sutherland is pure psycho).  The next film I saw her in was An American Werewolf In London- my favorite movie of 1981 and another in which she takes her clothes off (though that's not the only reason I like it).  None of this had prepared me for the home video revolution a few years later.  Now actively searching for Jenny Agutter movies on video I found one called Walkabout that came out in 1971.  Jenny is 16 in the movie, a couple of years younger than I was at the time- so for the first time I was no longer watching an older woman.  Walkabout is a great film about a brother and sister lost in the Australian outback after their father ruins a picnic by going nuts, setting the car on fire and shooting himself.  They

Luc (the director's son) and Jenny

are helped out by an Aboriginal boy.  The most striking scene in the film- one I was in no way prepared for- is five minutes of the girl and her brother skinny dipping in a river.  Five minutes of a fully naked Jenny Agutter!  You'd think I'd be in heaven but it kind of weirded me out.  I had lusted after this woman as a boy but as a young man it made me uncomfortable seeing her as a naked 16 year old girl.  Freud would have a field day with that.  Not surprising, the skinny dipping scene was originally cut out of the original American theatrical release then put back in for home video.  

Jenny on Call The Midwife

My wife Jaime was watching Call The Midwife the other night and I was very happy to see Jenny Agutter appear on screen.  She's still acting and still beautiful and thanks to the show is working more now than at any other point in her career.  We'll always have Logan's Run Jenny!

Pluto- the 9th PLANET dammit!!

There's one other thing I want to mention about tonight's SacroSets of Planetary Power Pop.  I played three sets of three songs each for the nine, yes NINE planets in our Solar System.  I don't want to hear any bulls**t about Pluto not being a planet.  Dwarf planet my ass!  Moon of Neptune- get bent!  My only hope is that NASA's New Horizons mission will end all this nonsense and restore Pluto to it's rightful place.  We've already heard more about Pluto in the last two weeks than at anytime since the mendacious downgrade of its rightful status as the ninth planet in our solar system.  How important is this issue to me?  My sister Sarah knows, she bought me this awesome shirt

Which is so cool it even glows in the dark!

HAIL PLUTO!

Download this week's show below (Click to stream or to download, right click and "SAVE TARGET AS")
ALL KINDSA GIRLS #136

Show #135 May 23, 2015

The Finland Show is dedicated to Josephine Geraldine!

Josephine Geraldine- Ben's Diapers Middle Eights For Modern Lovers 
Full Moon Turn My Head Around- Off Broadway On 
Seven Days a Week- Nick Piunti Beyond The Static 
Feel Like Dirt- Kevin K Band Rule The Heart 
Run Now- Tommy Keene Songs From The Film 
Spend the Night- The Sonics This Is The Sonics 
Baby It's You- Phil Seymour Archives Series Vol 1 
Take A Life- Dirty Looks Dirty Looks 
^Vuonna '85- Eppu Normaali Vuonna '85 
Every Boy and Every Girl- Sylvain Sylvain Sylvain Sylvain 
Nearly Human- The Rezillos Zero 
*Dead By X'Mas- Hanoi Rocks Self Destruction Blues 
*Spotlight. Now!- Hundred Million Martians Marsbars 
*So Much For You- Jalla Jalla Crumelur/Jalla Jalla 
*Tapan Aikaa- Problems? Tapan Aikaa 
*Astraaliprojektio- Kaupungin Valot Huomiseen 
*Kirjoituksia kellarista- Kollaa Kestaa Kirjoituksia kellarista 7" 
*Stereo- The Sugarrush Mirrorball Ballerinas 
*Save Rock 'n' Roll- The Flaming Sideburns Sky Pilots 
*I Know- The Splits LP II 
Slowdown- Farrah Farrah 
Is There Someone Out There?- Z-Cars This Is Z-Cars 7" EP 
Whoever's Around- Linus Of Hollywood Something Good 
Love Letter- Richie Parsons Honey and Tears 
Shimmy, Shimmy- Jo Allen And The Shapes 415 Music 
Secret Ride- The Bye Bye Blackbirds We Need The Rain 
>Get On- Hurriganes Get On 
Until I Get You- Hanoi Rocks Back to the Mystery City

^Power Pop Peak:  #1 on Finnish Charts January 1986

*SacroSet:  Finland Rock and Roll

>Power Pop Prototype:  1974 


Sweden and Norway have given the world lots of great rock and roll over the years.  Back in August 2010, Show #38 featured the music of Sweden and the following year Norway got the star treatment in Show #62.  So, fellow Nordic country Finland's time in the spotlight is way past due.  Part of the reason for the delay is that unlike Sweden and Norway, far fewer Finnish bands have cultivated international appeal,

Hanoi Rocks

and most of those who have play heavy metal (HIM, Nightwish, 69 Eyes, Children of Bodom, etc.)  Another factor is that many Finnish artists choose to sing in their native language rather than switch to English in a grab for international fame.  Hanoi Rocks may have started a trend of singing in English in the 1980's (inspiring many of the aforementioned metal bands) but most of their top selling countrymen still sing in Finnish.  (I've written about Hanoi Rocks before, most recently in the post for Show #123 last summer.) 

"Speedo" Matinez (center)

While Hanoi Rocks was an obvious starting point for this show, finding the rest of the artists took some research. Over the years I've seen numerous records by Helsinki garage rockers Flaming Sideburns in stores, often wondering why one of the dudes looks Latino.  Turns out lead singer Jorge Eduardo "Speedo" Martinez  is an Argentinian expatriate.  Cousin Rich hipped me to Hundred Million Martians from Turku, Finland a few years back and he also supplied tonight's Yalla Yalla song.  The rest of it required some deeper digging.  

One great find is the 1979 song "Kirjoi- tuksia Kellarista" by the band Kollaa Kestaa.  The song title translates into "Writings From The Basement" and the band's name has a cool origin.  In the Battle of Kollaa during the Winter War of 1940 outnumbered Finnish forces were defending against a Soviet attack.  When asked by his superior, "Will Kollaa hold? (Kestääkö Kollaa?)", Lieutenant Aarne Juutilainen replied, "Kollaa will hold (Kollaa kestää), unless the orders are to run away."  According to Wikipedia, "this simple question and reply entered the Finnish lexicon as an expression of perseverance and resolve in the face of impending difficulty or crisis."  Kollaa Kestaa are a very influential group in Finland.  In fact, Kaupungin Valot ("City Lights") from tonight's show are named after a Kollaa Kestaa song.

The Legendary "Tapan Aikaa" Sleeve

Another Finnish record I turned up is by a band who chose the English name Problems?  Their 1979 single "Tapan Aikaa" ("Killing Time" or the more literal and my preferred translation "I'll Kill Time") is awesome and the picture sleeve is so iconic it was used on the cover of one of the Power Pearls compilations a few years back.  At this very minute in Seattle and Portland alone there are about 100 dudes aping the style of the guy on the cover of "Tapan Aikaa."  (I can't say I blame them- if I could pull it off I probably would too.)

1978

Of all the bands I researched for this show, the one with the most interesting back story is Eppu Normaali.  Coming together in 1976 in Ylöjärvi, a suburb of Tampere in southern Finland, the band's name came from one of my favorite movies when I was a kid.  Here's what Wikipedia says:  

The band took its name from Mel Brooks' movie Young Frankenstein, and the subtitler translated the name Abby Normal (abnormal) into Eppu Normaali (epänormaali, roughly 'abnormal'; a Finnish equivalent of the original play on words).



Eppu Normaali's first album Aknepop (no translation necessary) is pretty standard three chord punk that sounds good at first but gets a little tiring since I can't understand a word singer Martti Syrjä is barking at me.  By the early 80's Syrja is actually singing (still in Finnish, of course) and the songs sound much more polished and commercial, a mix of Power Pop and mainstream rock.  Then an amazing thing happens; between

1985

1984 and 1986 the band releases a trio of smash hit albums that sell over 300,000 copies in Finland- which by my calculations represents about 6% of the country's population at the time.  1985's Kahdeksas Ihme (Eighth Wonder) includes tonight's Power Pop Peak "Vuonna '85" ("In The Year '85") which is still in regular rotation on Finnish radio today.  The band is still going strong, releasing their most recent album Mutala in 2011.

Eppu Normaali Today

Eppu Normaali is Finland's top selling recording artist of all time... and to think they started as a punk rock band!  What's more, four of five members have been in the group since 1976.  They are on their third bass player and that's it for turnover in nearly 40 years!  Maybe it's just me, but in our cynical market-driven times, I find Eppu Normaali's story inspiring.  I've been trying to think of an American equivalent but there just isn't one- maybe if Green Day can hang in there for ten more years!

(I couldn't resist one last "I"gor photo)

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ALL KINDSA GIRLS #135