News entries for the year 2003
31.12.2003 Hopefully you got over the fact that we forgot to wish you a
merry Christmas and stuff but I've been busy travelling, watching Indiana Jones
flicks and eating a whole bunch of delicacies. We can now however wish you a
happy New Year, so lose that sad, sad face, baby! And while on the subject of New
Year's Eve, I invite you to join the Sugarrush (featuring yours truly) at Vaasa's
Amarillo tonight for an acoustic treat. We rehearsed well into the wee hours last
night (not because it was an epic session but because we started late) and I believe
it will be a somewhat varied set tonight with golden oldies, titan newies and bad
covers...The reason for the rehearsal starting late was that the rehearsal room was
used for the Bullets'
practise session earlier in the night. We had finally Mr.
Kulju back on board and it was clearly audible in the blazing solos he injected into
the songs. One of the songs that we'd played with in the last rehearsal got turned
upside down which included the change of lead vocalist to yours truly in the track.
I reckoned my voice wasn't suited for rock'n'roll singing and howling but the boys
insisted that I handle it so what the fuck. There are now three songs that we aim
to record probably in February in a studio in Sweden, we even got a hilarious narrative
concept to the bunch which might or might not materialize when we get the shit on
a disc. More on this project probably later on in the new year. Soooo anyway, don't
forget to drag your ass down to Amarillo tonight, I might even reward your troubles
with a Graceskull badge if you don't already have one. Just grab me by the sleeve and
whisper the secret code "I love your band" into my ear and the badge pictured below is
all yours.
19.12.2003 
Grab your jeans vest, dig deep for 1,50€ in coins and send 'em over!
We've got a whole new addition to the Graceskull product-range and it is the button
you see before you (or alternatively and in further detail in the
shop-section). For a special X-mas offer you get four buttons when you send us
a crisp 5€ bill, so there's no need to let your buddy go without. Just peep
the ordering info and move!
17.12.2003 Phew. Since I've had this whole bunch of songs just lying around half finished for quite some time now, it was nice to actually get two of them done yesterday. I worked out the outlines for arrangements and wrote the lyrics for both "Monologue" and "Kings and Queens" and I think the latter one might be one of my better accomplishments where lyrics are concerned. That is however an opinion which might change over the course of time considering that I currently rank "Trains Pass By" as the only decent set of words I've done - well okay, "Building Blocks" and "Found My Place" (but this is still a newbie!) might have some substance to them too. Anyway, the words to these two newbies are to be found over at the lyrics archive so get yer ass over there, punk.
15.12.2003 Got some tinnitus action courtesy of Endstand, Rotten Sound and Nine on Saturday at Club 25 accompanied by Andy J. Endstand's set proved once again that they're one of the best bands in Finland and their axeman (the original one whose name unfortunately escapes me at this point in time) is one of the best guitar players in the aforementioned country, he just blows me away every damn time with his stylish brand of playing whether it is a melody or a hard hitting riff he's squeezing out of his SG. Mucho respekk! Rotten Sound's music may be somewhat unlistenable to my ol' ears but it's always fun to see them play (especially now that they have this surf haired dude called Toni handling the bass). The main focus on their gigs is always on their drummer since he's another playa who's truly magnificent on his chosen instrument, faster than lightning and technical as a microchip - at times I thought that the smoke on the stage came from his kick drum pedals, if he'd been on a bicycle doing the same he would've ended up in China by the end of the gig. The headliner Nine (from Sweden) was pleasant enough but couldn't quite reach the expectations their last year's Club 25 appearance had set. I think they were in a too good mood and that they played too late to get the right kind of ...umm, well, mystique and tightness that had made the previous gig such a working set.
10.12.2003 Worked on one of the two Atyd tracks I have promised to contribute on yesterday and got the melody and the lyrics down. The track's called "The Christening" and we'll be recording the vocals probably some time next week.
09.12.2003 It's just slouchin' here in camp Graceskull, I've managed to scribble down some bits of lyrics but that's about it. Not to say the pre-Christmastime is hectic but you know how it goes. However there have been slight ideas on a minor addition to our product line which I might have some more info on later this week.
05.12.2003 More work on the "Dark" song (which might end up being called "Erase Tonight"), I rewrote the verse and got some lyrics down. I also ended up with a new bit of another tune in the process which might develop into a real song someday. Maybe.
03.12.2003 A tune surfaced yesterday which I was most happy with, it has a chorus unlike any I've written before (at least that's what I think) and a special feel to it that I can't really put into words. It gained a working title of "The Dark Consumes Me" since I've been pretty down due to the lack of sun or any kind of light recently, I'm just fucking fed up with this shit. So anyone with an extra UV lamp or plane ticket to the Bahamas, give me a holler. And fear not, the title of the song will change once I have the lyrics all done, that working title really doesn't fit the song - luckily. I've also been given two tracks by the band Atyd that now require my lyrics along with my vocals, too. The couple is supposed appear on a fortcoming vinyl release by the name of "Christian Family Album" that's in the pipeline. It's some difficult work since the tracks are quite different to the stuff I'm accustomed to mumbling over, there's hardly any melody at all. We'll just see how I'm going to figure this out but I guess the pissed-offness due to the winter must help in the task since the music is pretty dark stuff.
01.12.2003 Not much action during the weekend, just a rehearsal with Macke and Paati. Our rock'n'roll project has been named Bullets so keep that in mind for future reference. We got four songs pretty much figured out but there are still blank whereas the breakdown sections and song endings are concerned. Jocke should be in Vaasa this coming weekend so maybe we'll get some real rehearsing done in the not-so-distant future, too.
28.11.2003 Assessed some audio products with Julius yesterday. I'm in need of some audio equipment so that I could do some more efficient demoing on my laptop and we ran trough a couple of user's manuals in search of mind boggling (to me, that is) facts about latencies and whatnot. I believe we now have a strong contender that'll maybe get ordered in the coming weeks if I get my economy straight.
25.11.2003 Just reporting back on some lyric writing activities of yesterday. Over'n'out, bleep.
24.11.2003 Thank you Kuopio! We've sure had a fun trip to Central Finland, although I have to admit that our Friday night rehearsals we're better performed than our actual gig. Not to say that we threw bum notes by the pound at the crowd but I think we just rocked the rehearsal in the best of moods and it just clicked. Anyway, we were cramped between two more or less metal bands' sets in Henry's Pub which might have had something to do with the slightly gaping mouths of Kuopio peeps but after the gig we recieved some kind words from a whole lot of people so the gaping wasn't all in a negative sense, at least. While in Kuopio we decided to pass the time between the soundcheck and our set by checking out "Kill Bill" at the cinema and it proved to be quite a damn film - the story, the music, the way the story was told, it all worked like a charm. And it was strange that our whole crew digged it so go see the fucker if you haven't already (and if you have, go see it again). On the way back to Vaasa there was a strange spiritual thing going on when Julius pulled out the harmonicas and we spent an hour or so singing falsettoes and handclapping away into the night - hilarious stuff, I can assure you. After getting home at around eight in the morning I got a few hours of shut-eye (while Julius and Andy J. dragged their tired asses and bloodshot eyes to work nearly straight after getting out of the van) after which I worked on the new songs again and resurrected this one older song that I've called "Jubilee" earlier, the resurrected version was renamed as "Monologue" at least for the time being. I wrote some lyrics down (nothing finished yet though) and figured out arrangements and stuff - it was fun, I haven't had this much err...well, inspiration to work on the songs for a while and it feels damn good. Hopefully I'll get around to finding the choruses for these songs soon so I could maybe demo them and you'd get to hear 'em too. Alright, that should be all for now, thanks to Tuomas af Rockinn again for hooking us up with the gig (and also thanks to Henry's Pub's Jani for booking us for May). Here's the setlist of the gig for ya setspotters.
21.11.2003 I worked on the few newbies some more yesterday and the untitled one is slowly shaping most pleasantly into a song. I even got some lyrics down for the fucker, I believe it's gonna be called "Kings and Queens". It's one of those songs that has a stronger verse than the chorus (yeah, we're quite well stocked on that department) or then I've yet to find a proper chorus for it. Julius has been working on a new amp for his gigging needs, he split his old Leslie in half basically and has constructed a smaller version that he's gonna try out tonight at our rehearsal. It was missing some finishing aesthetic details yesterday still but I believe the final touches will be in place for our gig tomorrow. So don't forget to come by to Henry's Pub in Kuopio tomorrow 'cause we'll be blowin' (or implodin') up the spot.
20.11.2003 Just reporting that I've been writing a couple of new songs, if you can call that strumming and humming writing, that is. The other one is still untitled while the other goes by the name of "Jukujukumaa" for reasons unknown to even myself.
19.11.2003 A rehearsal day yesterday, I believe the first ever with this four-man lineup (that's Jocke missing because of his axe duties elsewhere). With the usual rough beginning the rehearsal turned out quite a good one, we tried out some nearly forgotten songs too (ie. "Splinter" with me on the electric guitar for a change). It was just fun to play this stuff which was probably also due to Julius's efforts in getting our rehearsal space PA to work more properly. I'm now trying to figure out some kind of a setlist for this Saturday's gig which we'll run through briefly on Friday - why rehearse when the shit works, hurhur. See ya's in Kuopio!
14.11.2003 I spent last night laughing, singing and playin' the ol' acoustic at Fireworks studios (home of Firevision) recording my part of a song that's gonna be released later this year on an album by TKK & Setä Tamu. By the time I arrived on location Setä Tamu informed me that he had written the song during his bicycle ride over and about 6 hours later it was all done. The song is called "Pojalleni" and is pretty fucking hilarious with TKK spitting out rhymes like "neuvolapaino siinä kokispullon luokkaa / olit kääpiö, vittu, mutten hävennyt sua". It has some pisstake tendencies towards a certain Finnish singer-songwriter and the guitar and vocal bits that I did hide under the moniker of Jesus Telia. Keep your eyes peeled for the record coming out soon-ish.
12.11.2003 Yeah, the cover gig is now done and I have to say I had a lot of fun on stage with the boys although there were some less admiring mistakes made but let's just say that they were all made in the name of rock'n'roll (and not really rehearsing that much). It was my very first gig on bass and my first gig playing a guitar instrument with gloves in my hands so I guess it could've gone worse, at least the crowd seemed to be excited.
10.11.2003 The Sugarrush gig went fine and the Turku peeps seemed to like the show. It's hard to explain what happened at the end of the show so that it would make any sense (maybe it just didn't) but let's just say that a character dressed in a cow mask, cow-skin cape and bright white gloves appeared on stage and first off played a suitcase organ he'd brought with him in "Kirkkobiisi" and then proceeded to help the boys out vocally in a cover of Outkast's "Hey Ya!" You can make guesses about the true identity of this character if you'd like. On to Sunday then, we rehearsed for the second and last time with the Leopold Delloria/Sugarrush faction for this Tuesday's cover gig and had a fun time. Lots of screaming at each other but most of it in the name of comedy. It remains to be seen whether we'll pull these songs off tomorrow in the El Gringo bar but at least they sounded pretty good the last time around yesterday.
07.11.2003 Announcement time: The Sugarrush is doing an acoustic set in Turku's Pikku-Torre tonight, so be there or be somewhere I ain't. Finally got the new Twilight Singers album yesterday and it was well worth the wait. I must admit that I thought that Greg Dulli's (musicwise) magic had vanished into thin air after the Afghan Whigs split but fuck that - Blackberry Belle is a wonderful record. I can't be arsed to analyze it more than that (since I have to go and listen to it one more time), just go out and buy the fucker!
06.11.2003 Something different yesterday when I found myself playing bass at our rehearsal space with 2/5 of Leopold Delloria and 2/3 of the Sugarrush. Okay, so the only dude I hadn't played with before was Leopold's Andy. Well anyway, we had to rehearse for a gig that Paati had booked for us at a VIP-party next Tuesday because the Sugarrush weren't all available for the job. So here I was again playing unrehearsed cover tunes but this actually was a lot of fun this time, don't know why. Most probably it will suck once we play the gig but fun rehearsals at least even things out...somewhat.
05.11.2003 And the media won't stop coming in. Today's portion is kindly provided by Aki Karlsson who has a truckload of gigphotos from both last Sunday's Loska appearance and last May's Papin Nenä show up at his website so clickety click and then click some more. A song jumped in my head yesterday after visiting Julius's house (and almost pissing myself laughing at his apparently jazz-loving baby) and I managed to hold on to it all the way home where I taped it, I even did the lyrics for the first verse whilst driving back. For future reference I'm calling this one "Black Road".
04.11.2003 So here it is, ladies and gentlemen, the Found My Place video! Just one thing before you click: the song is not the final version of the track since we're only halfway in recording the album so the vocal tracks are demos and there are quite a few things that we've even not recorded yet for the track. But I guess you get some kind of a picture on the song. Boy, do I look evil there in the second chorus! (Hosting services graciously provided by Burning Brain Productions and the needed codec is DivX 4, install it ie. here).
03.11.2003 Oh, the cold November rain. So Loska's all done now and despite the fact that it wasn't as pleasant as the first one (sequels rarely are), we had fun. This was probably the most unrehearsed gig we've ever had (some songs were never played at rehearsals and Julius heard some new arrangements in the soundcheck) but I guess it still sounded somewhat like music. After finishing the set with the newie "Seasons" we sat down in front of some beverages for a second and let the people that had to get up in the morning escape to their comfy beds - then it was time to unleash the evil side of Graceskull on the remaining crowd's asses. I think I'll let it stay a secret what this actually meant, but let's just say we played a few improvisational ditties. Whether the crowd had as much fun as we did, I doubt it but at least they got their money's worth of Graceskull that night (yeah, there was no entrance fee). To top it all we spinned the best of discs in between sets of which you can peep the documentation right here. Also the main setlist is up and visible now, the second shall only remain a shadow in the minds of those present. Oh yeah, I almost forgot that I sat in Sugarrush's rehearsal on Saturday and played Julius's suitcase organ which was a lot of fun although I wasn't quite sure of my reasons for doing so - oh well, "reasons like seasons, they always change"...
31.10.2003 I was down to Mr. Wägar's studio yesterday where we made the finishing touches to the video for "Found My Place". It was supposed to be previewed today but unfortunately there were some technical difficulties in getting the AVI-file to work properly so most probably it will appear in a few days' time. On a final note, just want to remind you to get your ass over to DOM on Sunday for Loska where we DJ our bottoms off and play a live set to boot!
28.10.2003 After the fantasticular exploding start of the week yesterday with the news of Papa Julius newfound fatherhood, it's hard to bring back events from last weekend but I'll try nonetheless. Friday night, after witnessing camp Graceskull favourite Idols contender make his way to the finals, we caught some live action courtesy of the Duke and Leopold Delloria at Vaasa's Doo-Bop club. The Duke have proclaimed to be a highly nostalgic band on their website but at least the impression I got was less so. Sure there were some prog rock and 70's riffs sprinkled here and there but I thought their aspirations lie more in trying to end up as the Finnish Ark or something more modern like that. Speculations aside they put on a nice show and I was most impressed by their arrangements which were quite well developed, just sometimes maybe even so much that the songs tended to hide behind the gimmicks. Most gimmicked up were their drummer who sure as hell had some skills but kinda let the skills get in the way of keeping time at times, fine fills and stuff nonetheless. I'm getting very analytical now which I didn't mean to do but since the band's singer asked me if I was to put up a review of their gig here, I just couldn't help myself. Any-fucking-way, a pleasant gig. Leopold fellaz had their Swede-imports flown in and with no rust of scarce rehearsing in sight, began their set with a song that really rocked my nuts - I failed to catch the title but it sure was great. They've gotten a bit more rock'n'roll since I last saw 'em, at least it felt that way and some song they'd written just some days earlier that they played, only seemed to enforce my claim. Any-fucking-way, an enjoyable set. On Saturday it was time for yours truly to get his ass on stage with the Sugarrush in Papin Nenä and for this occasion Leopold's Macke most generously agreed to let me use his beau-ti-ful natural white Epiphone Firebird. So on that basis alone it was a nice gig since the axe was great to play and it looked like a million dollars. I think it was a cool gig otherwise too and only to prove it, some nerds from Helsinki had complained that we played too loud - well, baby, that's the shit they call rock'n'roll. It was originally meant that Julius would've mixed the gig but since the baby had shown some interest in getting out into the wide world, it was decided that Firevision's Arttu would get his ass behind the mixing desk since he had shown interest in getting us to sound good. It was a pleasure working with him and having a friend behind the knobs really added to the atmosphere and made not only the gig but also the soundcheck most enjoyable. So thanks alot. After the gig we proceeded to the DJ booth of Papin Nenä and whored our hearts out with some shitty discs, throwing in some diamonds inbetween. And if you were wondering how many times we spinned Outkast's "Hey Ya", the answer would be seven times - it's one motherfucking great song, boys and girls.
27.10.2003 Fanfares! Fireworks! At daybreak today Julius - of course with significant help from his better half Jonna - became a father to a little baby girl (although I'm sure Jonna wouldn't agree on the little-part). The working title of Felix Thölix must sadly thus be shoved out of the window and replaced hopefully with something more humane and less humorous. Humongous congratulations to all parties concerned!
24.10.2003 Well I didn't mean to tell you this but I guess some stupid glitch in my head told me to be honest. The thing I left out of yesterday's news entry that following hearing the news I went home and out came a song that probably has some relation to the subject of the news. I know that kinda shit is corny but it just happened. Knowing it comes off as stupid at least right now, I won't post the lyrics until later on, probably unannounced since I'm not confident enough about whether it's an appropriate "tribute" or not. There, said it. To brighten things up a little bit I have a clip you'd probably like to see; the Karabastu postrockumentary is now online for your viewing pleasure. Just click yourself over to Burning Brain Productions (it's DivX4 so get your player updated, honey) and peep that shit. Aaand on a final note, don't forget to come and see the Sugarrush play in Vaasa's Papin Nenä tomorrow (stagetime at around midnight) if your in the vicinity.
23.10.2003 It's strange if you haven't heard it by now but one of my favourite singers, Elliott Smith, died on Tuesday night. It's truly a sad thing to happen but considering the reports of his condition of late maybe he's better off now. I have to say that having long loved Elliott Smith's music was one of the reasons Graceskull came to sound like it does, maybe it's not directly audible in the songs and stuff but moodwise, I'd like think so. A great, great talent sorely missed, R.I.P.
22.10.2003 Rehearsed for the Loska-thingy yesterday. I must admit that we were a bit rusty, yours truly most probably the rustiest of all, but towards the end of the session it was beginning to sound like it should (although in the very end when we came up with an odd cover I'm not that sure if that was the case, heh). For me the most pleasant bit was when we took on the new song "Seasons", I just started playing and the boys instinctively built it up to a wonderous thing. Jocke's guitar bits were as great as always and Paati's breakdown bit's odd beat added just what I had been searching for the song. We ran through a heap of songs old'n'new and kinda decided to figure out later on what we're to play. Earlier in the day I also managed to somewhat finish the song meant for the Stefan Spade -soundtrack, it might be called "A Stupid Vein" and the lyrics are now available right here.
21.10.2003 Wintertime, wintertime, get yr sleighbells out! We treated ourselves to a nice little road trip to this countryside village called Peräseinäjoki yesterday, to pick up the Hammond spinet organ that Julius had bought. And there it was in a garage in the middle of nowhere just waiting for a good home, lying unfortunately just opposite a Hammond B3 (the most organ of them all - wood carvings and all that shit, you know) which made Julius a bit pissed off on the way back but I'm sure he agrees that he got himself a bargain on that thing that he did buy, for it is a fine contraption (although it weighed something like two tons!) I also got to see the Vox J.Lo had purchased and damn, did it look fine and kitschy! Now all Julius needs is a Wurlitzer, anybody with an extra one?
20.10.2003 A large deal of my weekend was spent with the Sugarrush rehearsing for their next Saturday's gig in Papin Nenä, Vaasa. I guess I got the hang of most new songs but I still have a week to forget all about 'em so we'll see what happens come stagetime. After Saturday's rehearsal we surprised ourselves with checking out Ronnie Starr at Club25. First off I kinda thought the gig was alright but after they'd had their 45 minute run of nostalgy-heavy 70's classic poor rip-offs (why would anyone try to claim the opening riff of the Beatles' "Come Together" as their own?!), I felt like going home and listening to some CCR instead. Not that I'd ever do something that desparate though, but just so that you get the picture. So sorry boys. Their opening act (we came in halfway through their set so I have no idea what they were called) was a more interesting band though, although with a change of the lead singer they could have been even more so. They had a kind of Crazy Horse thing going for them except for the vocals and I especially liked the guitar solos which is a rare thing for me but they were simplistic but played very good and made sense which the majority of solos don't. Julius pointed out that they'd have needed a keyboard man there which I also can agree on. Anyhow, now it's time for the visual aspect of today's entry and we have the (yet un-OK'ed by the head of venue) poster from our Loska "party" happening in a couple of weeks' time - just clicky here and slit your eyelids.
17.10.2003 Still feeling like the boat is rockin', I really can't say that I'm much of a fan of these cruise ships. Since I only had myself a few hours to wander round the city, the record shops I found in Riga didn't gather a whole lot of more excitement either on my part and so I stepped back on the boat with only an Eels single and a few Radiohead cassettes. Nice cathedrals though. While on the boat I amazingly managed to get some lyric work done to this song I've kinda promised to do to a short film called Stefan Spade by Jens Carp and Michael Wägar. I'm missing some bits here and there though so I'm-a get back to the subject later on. Meanwhile back in Vaasa Julius had had a profound sensation of not having enough old keyboards (and too much dough, apparently) and had made a deal on a Hammond organ which we are scheduled now to pick up on Sunday or Monday. He told me that it weighs as much as a grown man's carcass so I'm just hoping he won't get overtly excited about the instrument and start demanding that we have to bring it along to gigs. Anyway I'll give an update on the looks of this instrument early on next week 'cause I know you're all anxious for one. Yup, yup.
13.10.2003 Julius got his Vox alright and although I haven't seen it, I'm pretty sure it's a looker - it at least has inverted colors on the keys which I consider one sure hint of beauty. But a brief moment is needed here now to give you some briefing into what I have seen - WWE Passport to Pain. Last Thursday I stuffed myself into the infamous FLB's car which he then navigated to venue of Turku's Elysee Arena with also Andy J. and Mokomaki CEO Arttu onboard. On location we were escorted to our ringside seats by Coma, having himself just arrived from Helsinki City. I was trembling in excitement and having witnessed Andy J.'s shaking hands, I wasn't the only one - it's strange to now realise that no rock show has ever moved me like these wrestling events, it's probably due to the fact that one hardly gets to participate in the rock shows like one does in a wrestling one. And boy did we participate. Not to mention the fact that we'd reduced our voices to hisses by our screaming, we brought our large arsenal of signs with us, either intended on cheering for or dissing the superstars (as they rightfully like to call themselves). Not to go into morbid details, we got handshakes and props from the majority of the dudes out in the ring but a definite highlight was when during the final match of the evening between the legendary Undertaker and the heap-o-muscle Brock Lesnar, Brock suddenly got very upset about our dissing chant aimed at him and grabbed Andy's sign extremely aggressively and tore it to pieces before our very eyes. I must admit to being scared shitless but in the best of ways so. Other highlights were Rhyno (another huge scary bad guy) calling us "cocksuckers" and the whole comedy of John Cena/Big Show vs. Kurt Angle/Chris Benoit match - the funniest guys in the bisness. A great show it was, far better than last year's one in Helsinki. Okay, that'll do for wrestling commentary now. I did attend a Sugarrush rehearsal on Sunday, to get back to the music side of things, and we ran through a plethora of new songs which of most I hadn't even heard before. I especially digged the newbie that might be called "Caledonia", "Macedonia" or some other European region. Just a warning to the regulars to end today's entry; I'll be away for a few days again to check out the Latvian capitol of Riga's record shops. See you soon.
09.10.2003 While I'm trying very hard not to forget the few new song ideas I've come across in the last few days, Julius has been digging in some vintage stuff stores and had set his eyes on yet another organ on Tuesday. I believe it was some Vox keyboard and if you're even a teeny bit interested in musical equipment you should know that the Vox brand is definitely a legend among manufacturers. So I believe J.Lo should be acquiring the instrument pretty much as we speak.
07.10.2003 Some minor snippets of new songs made their way onto my hard disk this weekend but as I meant to start working on the full blown demo of "Seasons" the fucker crashed. So until the smurfs get the 'pooter together it's up to my natural memory to remember my new ditties. Scary. Aren't we slaves to the tech now, I kinda miss the tape deck I stole from my sister I used to record all my ideas on - the soothing hiss of the analogue cassette, ahh...
03.10.2003 A few days have flown past like a Nazgul with me up to my neck in unnecessary bullshit. But there's no such pile of bullshit which wouldn't have a lollipop sticking out of it and thus the lollipop of my pile was my trip on Tuesday down to our dear stinkin' rehearsal space with Paati and Leopold Delloria's Macke. Had a great time playing bass (although it makes my arms and fingers hurt like hell - what an amateur!) and putting together the couple of songs Macke had in his back pocket. I even got to throw some backing vocals (which in this case means pretty much some falsetto squeals and more manly yeah-yeah-yeahs) in there which I thought worked pretty good. It's always good to rock out once in a while, boys and girls.
30.09.2003 Those who receive their "First Time Again" CDs in the mail this week can consider themselves lucky because yesterday's shipments contained the last discs of the print. So no more "First Time Again" in the shop, boys'n'girls - apparently Nature Sucks Anyway Records are not even considering a new print anytime soon so if you haven't heard our debut offering by now, you'll have to get an old BASF C-60 and call up a friend. Muchos gracias to everyone who bought it!
29.09.2003 Moved the rest of Julius' belongings to his new house on Saturday and boy was there alot of stuff. But in all honesty I've been involved with significantly worse moving operations (one of Ilkka's springs to mind when me and the FLB dragged Ilkka's falling apart book shelf up six stories in a stairway more narrow than default caucasian female behind - memories, them memories). More related to music however were my actions on Friday night and this morning when I finally got my pen down and wrote down the lyrics to "Seasons". They had been bouncing back and forth in my head for a good few days now so it was about time, you can peep them at the lyric archive as usual. I'm not sure to whether that's the final version though, there might be a break down section needed for the song and it might need lyrics but then again, there just as well might not. And finally, some news from our merchandise apartment; After a noteworthy wait, we've finally got the t-shirts from the printers and shipment is due today so you'll be getting the garments this week for sure.
26.09.2003 I'm sorry to repeat the same topics again and again but yesterday's newsworthy items again revolve around songwriting and the video. I really can't express in text how damn great it has felt to have these songs come to me after a long dry season, even if time would prove them shit tunes I sure have "gotten my money's worth" already. Yesterday again a new ditty found its way to me and a quite a nice one too, I might add. I'm calling it "Keep On" for now but it can be added to the list of songs due for a change of title when finished. Later on in the night I made a brief visit to Mr. Michael Wägar's place in Karabastu related business only to be surprised by the fact that he had the Graceskull video very nearly in the wraps already. And it was way better than I had imagined, he had dropped most of the shit we had filmed and made the video very slow and dreamy which suits the song very well. There were still a couple of shots that were out of sync and some other finetuning but I'm expecting to present it to you pretty soon.
25.09.2003 Loaded all of Julius' equipment in the back of his Volvo and drove 'em to their new home yesterday. It's gonna be a long time before we get to set 'em up and use them though since the house is very much still "in production" and since the rest of the house is meant for living, the studio section is au naturelle the last one to get in shape. So a warning to all those who were expecting to give our next disc as a Christmas gift to their mother: it's not happening, folks. Whatever the state of the new studio, we have at least a name for it as of yesterday: Killing Music Studios. It seems appropriate in more ways than one, hardy-har. And the last piece of info today comes in a numerical form: 20000. That's how many people have visited this site during its existence, so a hefty thank you to all of ya!
24.09.2003 I got to see the v1.0 of the Ahlroos cut of the video and I must say that he had gotten some flesh on the fragile bones that was our footage. But as said yesterday we've got two more edits on the way so I'm hoping that they'll turn up ever better. The vid aside, there was a slight skew in the recent anemic writing schema as I got a couple of promising tunes-in-progress down. Really felt good. The other one was more of a rocker which I later on got arranged to the direction of Dinosaur Jr's "Whatever's Cool With Me" or "Naughty Boy" by Killer (no, fuck you - it's a great song) in my head. Probably will turn on its head before the final version, though. For future reference I'm calling it "Decatur, IL" because that's what it sounded like I was singing to the chorus in the demo. The other one - which most likely will keep its title of "Seasons" - was more of a traditional GRCSKL number, slow and that shit but it felt good to come up with that one since it was one of those rare packages (at least in my recent experiences in songwriting) that come with both the musical and the lyrical idea all at once.
23.09.2003 Back from the dirty south and tanned as a polar bear, I have to report that I failed to find zero good record stores in big ol' Barcelona and thus I had to come home with only two recordings in my backpack (although finding Radiohead's Amnesiac on cassette made me very happy). The weather, zoo and architecture were however a sight to see so a good trip, all in all I have to say. In the meantime Julius has been starting to relocate his things over to his new house and tomorrow we should be moving in his studio stuff and heap o' instruments (Julius gracefully lets the professionals take care of his piano, however). We have also had one edit of the video done by Peter Ahlroos which I haven't seen yet but he apparently had had a brainstorm and promised a new version in the near future. The man behind the camera Michael Wägar has also started work on his edit so we'll see if either gets our messy stuff into a releaseworthy state. And al finalmente, we've semi-secured a gig at the next installment of Rockinn festival in Kuopio this November, date to be confirmed...
11.09.2003 Some minor songwriting went down yesterday but all in all I must admit to having quite a writer's block, maybe it's because I have basically no one to expose to the stuff since we're not in the studio and we're not rehearsing either. Julle's been hinting that we could try out rehearsing even without a gig looming above our heads so maybe we'll try that shit out one day. And we now have a gig closing in on us so...But yeah, the gig is that of Loska-partay, to be held in 2.11. in Vaasa's DOM. Most probably it'll be a mainly acoustic affair but who the fuck knows. And finally a warning to the frequent visitors; I will deport to Spain for a week's stay tomorrow morning so don't expect that many updates to hit the site during that time. See ya soon.
10.09.2003 So we shot the video yesterday. I must admit being even more suspicious about the finished product now than I was yesterday. We had too little time to do everything, mainly shoot, so it must be visible from the footage too. I guess there were a couple of nice shots but they won't exactly cover for all of the four minutes so there must be some crappy stuff there inbetween too. Oh well, it's up to the editing man to make it shine 'cause we couldn't. Or maybe this is the last time we'll ever discuss this subject.
09.09.2003 Did some location scouting yesterday and we did find a location that we were okay with but I'm not exactly sure whether we'll get a permission to shoot the video there. So I've been thinking damn hard of other places to film but none have surfaced so far. I don't even know if this all will be worth the trouble but unfortunately it's a bit of a done deal already so we must shoot something and it would be mighty fine if it would actually be of some use to us even. Oh well. One bright spot today has however been Julius new mix of the song the video's for, "Found My Place". I think he had tinkered with some mastering tool to have the song sound just great, all the sounds seem clearer and stronger etc. I just wish we could continue with the recordings soon, get back to what we know.
08.09.2003 I've been out of town so the updating has been somewhat scarce...excuses, excuses. Anyway, while on the road when not buying some great new records I've worked on the idea for the video we're getting ready to shoot any day now. We worked out some kind of a plot for the thing with Michael Wägar who's gonna be behind the camera but I think there's plenty of room in it for improvisation. Which means that we have little clues to how it will all turn out but at least we have something to start with now.
03.09.2003 Due to some unprecedented business I haven't been able to update for a few days so please excuse me. On Saturday we packed our gear in a huuuge rented vehicle - which I would call a bus if it were not registered as something else at the DMV - and surprisingly got Andy J. behind the wheel to drive us down to Helsinki city. The venue we played at - Ravintolalaiva Wäiski - is an old boat which they've transformed into a restaurant operating on three floors and for whatever reason it seemed to be tilted slightly so that you'd have the piss drunk experince even with no alcohol in your blood, at least balancewise. Fortunately we managed to stay in an upright position all through the gig and I thought it was a fun gig which also the audience seemed to like. Once we had returned to play the encore, they kept on clapping and so it was time to pull out the "Jee-Jee-Jeesus" song out of our back pockets and two of the birthday boys even joined us on stage to sing the uplifting hymn. Having gotten our behinds on the road at 7AM that morning meant that the tiredness kept us from enjoying the party to its fullest but enough bad jokes and great food was around to make up for the most of the wear of the road. Surprisingly the best part - or parts - of the whole trip was actually the transitions to Helsinki and back, Ilkka came up with the idea of a on-road "Levyraati" (a Finnish TV classic where a handful of guests review a handful of songs) and this proved to be a most enjoyable way to pass the time in the car. On the way to our capital we judged the CDs we had brought along for the ride which was fun enough but far more interesting was reviewing songs on the radio on the way back to Vaasa. Interesting stories and a whole lot of swear words provided great entertainment for the whole six hour ride so I'm sure we'll build a tradition out of this. Ilkka promised to post the results of our "Levyraati" on his website but at least so far nothing has turned up. Get your ass off the couch man!
29.08.2003 Just a shameless plug today (but I have been working on a couple song ideas in the meantime, so dontcha get the wrong ideas about my lazy ass getting the best of me): The Sugarrush are rocking Ravintolalaiva Wäiski in Helsinki tomorrow and the best news is that it's free entrance to everyone. The showtime is scheduled to be after 22.00 hours. Before that ten o'clock bell we'll be celebrating a couple of good friends' birthdays on the very same boat and I believe some good times and humongous verbal lows will be experienced. But do come on by if you're in the neighborhood.
26.08.2003 Popped in just to tell ya that we had a preview of the Karabastu documentary yesterday in the filmmaker Michael Wägar's lair and the outcome of his work was truly a sight to behold. It fitted perfectly into the fold with other irrationalities concerning this project and I'm glad to announce that Nature Sucks Anyway Records are going to release the damn thing on limited edition DVD. Apparently the scheduled release date was set for September but since there's a lot to be done I wouldn't be surprised if it was pushed back a month.
25.08.2003 Indeed some hundred people witnessed the last wedding gig of my life last Saturday when we (me plus the Sugarrush's Andy J. and Coma all on acoustic guitars) performed at our friend - and fellow Mokomaki conspirator - Arttu's wedding. We did two songs - a rocked up (well as rocked as the acoustic guitars gave way) rendition of the Fiddler on the Roof tune "Sunrise, Sunset" and Noitalinna Huraa's "Pikkuveli" - and despite our minimal practise they went just dandy, I think I even spotted a tear or two in the audience. On Sunday the Sugarrush blockheads dragged my bottom to a rehearsal for next Saturday's Helsinki gig and considering I hadn't been playing with these guys for months we did more than okay. Who needs practise anyway? Now that we've got the diary shit all on the screen, I might as well get to the real news of the day; I just received a phone call concerning the Karabastu "documentary" from Burning Brain Productions' headquarters and indeed, they've just finished editing the darn thing! It might be that we'll release it in some form (possibly DVD) but it will be at least available on BBP's video archive (which might happen as soon as later this week). A lot of uncertainties yet again but it'll all turn out for the best, just trust me children.
22.08.2003 Brief moments in songwriting been happening this week, I feel that some of the ideas have even been pretty strong which probably has something to do with the Fall closing in. There have also been some talks of gigs but nothing all that certain yet that I'd dare to post it up here aside from a pretty sure re-installment of last year's Loska-"party" in Vaasa's DOM. Loska should be coming our way at the end of October and those who don't know what I'm talking about; Loska is a dark themed night where Graceskull play some songs with a semi-acoustic setup and also provide the DJing services so it's all good music all night.
19.08.2003 So how was the wedding gig? Well it wasn't quite as bad as I reckoned but didn't exactly leave me wanting more of them on my schedule either. It's such a different world that should only be occupied by professional musicians. But I have to admit to getting a kick from playing Roy Orbison's "Blue Bayou", there's just that little something in ol' Roy's songs that works for me. Meanwhile Julius had found some gear for sale that might as well be as old as Mr. Orbison and after some auction action he managed to score a handful of new stuff which he didn't quite know what to do with yet - but he assured me they looked hella cool so I'm pleased to know the fundamentals are at least in place.
15.08.2003 I've been doing some brainwork, pondering a title for the upcoming record and even some ideas for a possible video have been going through my head. I think I have a strong contender on the album title made up but I have to run it through Julius and see it he likes it or has any ideas of his own. The video ideas are pretty blurred as of now but quite possibly we are doing one this fall even if the ideas won't get any clearer since we've been offered help in shooting and editing as a part of some project I'm not in the mood to offer any more details about. But more on these later this month, dear children.
13.08.2003 Been working on a few new tracks, just the music side of things though. I've felt a little drained on the lyrics department lately, don't know why that is, I guess it could be due to not having enough time to do that shit. It's odd that everyone seems to be in void of time nowadays and when they're not, they're just bored out their heads - I have to claim not to be one of those people though, I cherish every vacant moment I get. Aaaanyway, had an odd rehearsal yesterday with Paati, Andy and a dude they call Suku. We had to rehearse a few generic cover band songs for our streetgolf buddy Kena's wedding which takes place this weekend. And boy, did we suck! Suku did however sing well but it couldn't help the fact that we're just not built to perform other people's songs - a conclusion which me and Andy came to after the rehearsal when analysing what the heck had just happened. It's crystal clear that we're no musicians but we've learned to cope with our short-comings where our own bands and projects are concerned. Take a three chord Beatles classic however and see our gruesome true colors. I just hope we won't spoil the whole party with our racket. I swear to Afghan Whigs' "Black Love" that I'm never playing at a wedding again. Aww fuck, I have another coming one week after this one...so consider this promise to be valid after that. Damn, damn, damn.
08.08.2003 Phew, for a minute there...The Karabastu experiment is over now and I'm very pleased to tell you
that despite my murky suspicions it went extremely well. We started our journey from
the docks of Vaasa having had a van carrying the amps drag our "stage" there (and all
over the city later on). The main goal for this first gig was to get some kind of a
soundcheck done with as little audience as possible. Well five people showed up
and witnessed the historical first gig of Karabastu and the only ones to ever get
to hear "Where is the Love?" cause we didn't play that on any of the other gigs.
After being very pleased with the fact that it all seemed to work technically speaking
(although it was very difficult to play a guitar inside the car having the neck of
my guitar basically up Coma's nostril and my right elbow hitting Andy where it hurts)
we packed the van and took a course to Sisäsatama which was the main venue for
Taiteiden Yö. There were some old farts playing CCR on the main stage so we decided
to give the audience sitting in the park a real art experience and parked
our vehicles some 50 meters facing the main stage and started jammin'. This gig
was on my opinion evening's finest with especially "4" working like a charm although
the real hit of the gig was the closing number "+2" which we wrote on the previous
gig. It had me playing the car horn and gas pedal for the most and however suspicious
it might sound, it did resemble a real song a whole lot. We
pulled quite a bit of audience too and the look on their faces was a joyous sight -
dumbfounded but smiling. And I guess that was exactly the reaction we had been hoping
for. Next stop was in front of the city hall where on arrival there were maybe two
persons. But once Paati had climbed on the roof of the Volkswagen to start the set
with "1" the passers by were beginning to take notice and we soon had a good crowd
of which some were even dancing! This final gig of Karabastu came almost to an early
stop when we were halfway into "+2" and I tried to start the car to get some sound
effects. However in the heat of the gig I had placed my foot on the wrong pedal and
once turning the key, the whole car abruptly jumped forward. We inside folks couldn't
have cared less but I think Paati missed a few beats there on the roof nearly dropping
on his neck on the cold cement sidewalk. Luckily I got the pedals sorted and Paati
didn't get a cardiac arrest so we finished the gig according to plan (what plan...?).
Our trusty cameraman FLB had unfortunately fallen ill earlier yesterday so we didn't
get much of photos but here are some shots from the first show Michael Wägar took whilst
taking a break on the video cam. And finally below are the setlists from the gigs, thanks
a lot to everyone who came to see our racket and especially to our dear ol' Ilkka who
got us hooked with the tech shit.
Vaasan Satama, Vaskiluoto
1. 1
2. 2
3. Where is the Love?
4. 4
5. +2
Sisäsatama
1. 1
2. 4
3. +2
Vaasan Satama, Vaskiluoto
1. 1
2. 2
3. 4
4. +2
07.08.2003 Okay, tonight's the night, as they say. Karabastu will be blasting its yet-nearly-non-existing songs all over Vaasa and you will be there gasping in amazement. The plan is to play a different set on each performance which means there'll be tunes that are going to be heard only one time and a couple which might get a few renditions but since I don't quite remember how they went - and I'm sure the other boys' recollections aren't that much more vivid - even the ones we'll play a few times are going to differ from version to version. Lord only knows what the devil this will all add up to - as of course will you tomorrow when the thing is over and done with. Most likely we'll have Michael Wägar from Atyd/Skithundrecords filming the whole process and based on the results we'll maybe figure out something special we're going to do with the footage. Exciting times, boys and girls, exciting times.
06.08.2003 Karabastu approachin'! We have all the major details worked
now - all but the songs themselves, I think - and the schedule is as follows:
21:00 Vaasan satama, Vaskiluoto
22:00 Sisäsatama
23:00 Kaupungintalo
These gigs aside we'll also probably be playing wherever the fuck we want, so be
alert. Yesterday we even tested out if Paati does really fit onto the roof of the
car with his drums and much to everyone's amazement, he did. We just have to get
some ropes to keep him and the stuff from falling - we've all seen the way this
boy treats his kit. Now backing up a few days to last weekend, I was fortunate to
attend my old bandmate (from the Contrast days) Sakke's wedding in Turku. He is the first of all my
friends to tie the knot and I must say that the ceremony was moving even to this
here old bastard who has always been somewhat sceptic towards people shedding
tears in weddings. Also the afterparty was very joyous but unfortunately for me
it was brought to halt because I had to start driving back to Vaasa at it was
already 01:00 which meant that my tired ass was back home at about 6 in the morning.
Despite my tired eyes, I even managed to catch a glimpse of a moose on two occasions
during the drive. But before this nature documenting gets out of hand I want to conclude
today's entry by once again congratulating Sakke and Jenniina. L'Chaim!
01.08.2003 Alright, motherfuckers, Graceskull's back online as promised. Much due to the exhausting weather still upon us, we've managed to fully enjoy the vacation since we've done pretty damn close to nothing related to the band during this time. Sure, I've got a handful of new song ideas out of the last four weeks but that's about it. Even heavier contribution to our recording halt was brought by Julius buying himself a new studio with a house attached to it. So currently Julius is up to his neck bringing down walls, setting up plumbing and painting the house anew. I'm not exactly sure when we're going to get back to work but I'm sure it won't quite be right away. I'm hoping to have time next week to drive up there to help him even though I'm not sure if I'm qualified to do any of that renovating stuff. In the meanwhile I'm glad however to announce the latest music project I've been working on: Karabastu! This is a one off project which I along with the boys from Sugarrush are taking head on come August 7th ie. Vaasa's Night of the Arts. We are going to be playing semi-improvised instrumental songs in a car all over Vaasa. I am not shitting you, the posters even read "Karabastu - The postrocking Volkswagen Polo '83". How we are going to pull this off, I have no idea but I'm sure we'll work the details out before next Thursday. There are no exact showtimes yet (a lot of uncertainties concerning this thingy) but I'll post them up here as soon as we have them confirmed. However it's quite certain that we'll kick off our tour of Vaasa in the harbour in Vaskiluoto (Vaasan satama) at 21:00 and continue on to the inner harbour of our beautiful town (Sisäsatama). The poster for this event is right here if you'd like to have a peek (but notice that the showtimes can change).
18.07.2003 Dontcha worry baby, we're only on vacation. Even melancholy rockers need their sun come summertime to our northern home. We'll get back by August for sure. Kissy kiss.
04.07.2003 While the workerbees are still buzzing busily around the new
offices of Nature Sucks Anyway Records, the location is slowly starting to look like
proper headquarters of a record company of their proportions. The contact address
for the new office is new while the phonelines still connect to the same ol'
number. The new postal address is:
Nature Sucks Anyway Records
Kauppapuistikko 33 A 3
65100 VAASA, FINLAND
NSARec is ready for your love so start sending those big bucks and perfumed letters
now!
01.07.2003 Friday saw some of our current personnel dig down into our underground rehearsal facility and play some rock'n'roll. Paati and Leopold Delloria's Marcus had had a brainstorm some late night about starting a rock band since the latter had a pile of appropriate riffs lying about and so they got Jocke and me on board to try this shit out. It was basically a jam session (I switched on to the bass and let the boys do the axing and sing...well, screaming) but in the end we came out with a few real songs too. So you better watch out, don't say I didn't warn ya. And while on the subject of Big Poppa Kulju, he is now a proud father of a baby girl (and actually has already been for a week or so). He's slowly getting his band together it seems - this newest, second addition is apparently destined to sit on a drumstool behind the cans if you ask Jocke. Congratulations!
27.06.2003 Some fresh winds of relocation blowing in the Graceskull camp. As Julius has been on the lookout for a new studio location (he's checking out the latest possibility later on today), the Nature Sucks Anyway offices will be moving a couple of blocks up the street in the coming weeks. I'll post the new address when we have all the cubicles up and it's all systems go.
26.06.2003 We decided to grab ourselves by the bollocks and get some real recording done which means that we're supposed to start taping the ideas and basic tracks we've thrown into the songs for real instead of the half-assed takes. So then of course we started off yesterday's studio session by playing around with some slide parts for "For the Remnant" which absolutely wasn't planned. But we got some good ideas out of it anyway and since Julius had worked on my old guitar and its intonations, it was nice to try the fucker out. We did get some intended real work done too, we recorded pretty much all of "Stifle"'s acoustic guitars and also the bass part. Plus the afore mentioned stuff we also did some editing of Julius' previous session's harmonica tracks and also tried to get the sample on the track tuned to the right note but were unsuccesful in the attempt (it's a vibratoed choir thingy so it's hard to get it just right - your help is needed, Mr. Josh Davis).
24.06.2003 Sorry to be boring but again yesterday - hold your breath - I made a song. It is a more aggressive song than the ones I've been doing lately, that's aggressive on a Graceskull scale mind you. I also kinda sorta finished the music for the one song I kinda sorta demoed at Julius' a while back so there's a whole heap of songs just waiting for the lyrics beam down from the mothership. I don't know why I've not been writing words in a while, I guess I just haven't had time to sit down and reflect on anything in several months. Luckily the holidays are upon us so maybe I'll find some vacant moments then for this particular purpose.
23.06.2003 As I suspected, it was a low flying weekend musicwise due to the midsummer festivities. I rehashed the recently written tune though by rewriting the verse completely. This happened at about 2 o'clock Thursday night just seconds away from falling asleep, so I had to get my naked ass up from the bed and record the idea for it would've been all forgotten by ext morning otherwise. The other musical happening of the weekend came as late as Sunday night when the Sugarrush played their traditional midsummer's acoustic set at SkyBar and I got to stand in the audience for a chance. Paati had been pouring this and that down his throat for the whole weekend so it was quite a fun gig to watch, not to mention the ending far too strange to even try to explain here.
19.06.2003 A new song emerged from the depths of my Landola acoustic yesterday. No lyrics to it as of yet. A jangly tune that I'm not sure is a Graceskull song.
18.06.2003 Back on dat ass of "For the Remnant". We recorded Julius's great harmonica stuff and some guitars on it. Then we added some creaking sounds to it so now it sounds like it would've been recorded on a 14th century slaveship...or something. Anyway it's my current favourite of the new bunch of songs, really acoustic and er, earthy. While trying to find another sound to compliment the ship creaking noise and give the tune some rhythm, we accidentally stumbled on a great sample that we'll probably add to the chorus (after some editing since it was a bit off-key). We found it on a too-fucking-cool record which I can't reveal here because you never know if the copyright authorities might be reading. It's unfortunate to have these midsummer activities getting in the way since I'm very eager to get back into the studio to do some more work. Blah.
16.06.2003 "Mitä jos sei tykkää musta?" Yet another standards lowering Provinssirock behind us and I can truly say it was a great one. I could try and recite the bad jokes here but I think it would be utterly useless so I'll just snicker here by myself instead and give you some opinions about the bands we saw. Friday night started off with Audioslave who - to put it bluntly - sucked. Four asskickin' guys in their own right on the stage with no songs whatsoever. The fact that their cover of White Stripes' "7 Nation Army" was the best song in the set should prove my point. However their awfulness probably added to the greatness of the following act Raveonettes which was a total surprise for me at least. Sure, I've been diggin' "Attack of the Ghost Riders" as much as the next guy but that they could pull this kind of a gig out of their ass wasn't in the cards I'd been looking at. The added bonus of this gig was absolutely their guitar extra who rocked it like there was no tomorrow and looked dead cool while doing it - and I'm sorry, Andy, but I'd trade you with Sharin anyday. Saturday's highlites (apart from Ohio Total's mindblowing set at Varjoprovinssi) were Queens of the Stone Age and Massive Attack. I had just woken up before QOTSA so it took some moments before I got into the whole vibe of the gig but in the end of the set I was convinced that this was one of the best gigs I've seen. Great Spandex-tight playing with great little details sprinkled here and there. There were just two facts that disturbed me in the gig; first, the drummer didn't play the fill we all wanted to hear in "No One Knows" and second, who the fuck was that picture of in the side of Nick Oliveri's bass amp? And as for Massive Attack, what can you say? I have no idea whether it was a gig I witnessed or what, I think I spent more of my attention looking at their info screen and lightshow than on listening to the songs but when I did use my ears I could not hear anything that would've taken away from the experience. "Experience" is quite probably the best word to use about the whole thing, just amazing one it was. After the worst jokes in the history of our Provinssirock visits, Sunday came with all its usual tiredness which doesn't much improve the gig going experience although I have to say that I liked the Dandy Warhols' day closing set quite a lot. I could give a few comments on ol' Dave Gahan's performance here too but I rather not since Paati - who thought it was the best show of the festival - might be reading this. But I'm sure even Paati would agree that the Brittish football dad they'd dragged behind the drums was...well, now I'm just being mean. Anyway, a great big thank you is due to Mr. Sami Rumpunen who against all reason kindly gave us a roof to sleep under once again. "Huomenna!"
13.06.2003 Studio day yesterday, we got busy with some bass and piano stuff. The bass was laid to "Hollywood" - where we did about half and half of the duties with Julius - and "For the Remnant" on which the piano track was also recorded to. "For the Remnant" - sadly still lacking a better title - now has this fine sleepy bass that doesn't much even sound like a bass, I guess the song is shaping up to be a more chirpy distant cousin of "Beautifullest Lie". Today we're headed over to Provinssirock to experience a head of bad jokes, some great company, sleeplessness and even a couple of bands on stage, too.
09.06.2003 While I got one song about ready bar the lyrics, the weekends musical focal point was however Radiohead's new album "Hail to the Thief". While I won't go into full blown analysis here, I must admit that upon the first listen I considered the album to be - in a word - shit and thus angered at the sheepish reviewers who had been giving top marks for this gigantic disappointment of an album. After a couple of more listens I began to ease up though and at the moment I can even say that I like the beginning of the record. Even if I would be praising the album by the end of the week, I have to wonder why is it so hard for dear Thom to find the more pleasant melodies these songs could easily contain. He seems to have a fully utilized list of top 50 most annoying note changes always at hand while recording nowadays. Anyway, as for the record buying public I'd more heartily suggest getting the latest Tindersticks record - once again it's basically 10 tracks of the same song they've played for the last ten years or so but it just happens to be one damn fine song. That's it for this week's music review update.
06.06.2003 Once again not much else to report than a few new ideas for songs. There were at least two yesterday of which the other one sounded more like an instrumental intro piece or something like that.
05.06.2003 Still out of the studio since I had to spend a good part of this week in Jyväskylä due to some business. I managed to acquire the new Eels record however (plus some great DVDs, that's Scarface and Shawshank Redemption to be more precise) while there and man, it was surprisingly good. I had listened to it on the net before it was released and felt that it was a bit weak of an album but once I had it on my headphones, I realised it was everything but. Goes on to show that it's a whole different thing listening to stuff in front of a computer compared to the "traditional" way of listening - this counts for me at least. But one thing I have to criticise, dear Uncle E, is that the booklet lacked lyrics to the songs. Although I rarely have trouble understanding what's been said in a song it's always nicer to follow the songs from the booklet - it makes the process of listening more concentrated on my part at least. That's why we also want to include the lyrics in the sleeves however unwise in some cases it might be (ie. "Dark Don't Care").
02.06.2003 Summertime. While I got some minor ideas on tape, most of the weekend was spent Streetgolfing. It was ups and downs for team Graceskull as I surprised everyone - including myself - by becoming third on Saturday's most pleasant course but reality hit on Sunday with a disappointing last place, behind even Ilkka and Andy J. Back to swing practise, yeah.
29.05.2003 At last back in the studio yesterday. We got some guitars and clavinet recorded plus did some finetuning on sounds and stuff here and there. Acoustic guitars were recorded to "Breed" and "Locket" and it was "Bring Me Love" that got the funky clavinet treatment - Julle did his with a firm hand and I also tried out some lines but they were left there mainly for idea purposes only. Then we also added some Hammond on the song that spiced it up and even tried some congas so in the end I don't know what to think of the song now. It does need at least quite a bit of work. Later on in the day Andy and Paati came over and we listened through some older and newer demos which resulted in "For the Remnant" - I think I really have to change the title though - ending up on the production list. It's going to be a piano driven thing with no drums whatsoever I think, Julius played around with it on his upright and it sounded fantastic. I've been getting a lot of new song ideas and riffs and pieces of songs in my head lately so I hope to have time soon to unpack this stuff and develop these bits into songs. I still think we need a new song or two on the record...maybe - other boys might disagree though. And on a final note I got some more pics from our Papin Nenä gig courtesy of Aki Karlsson and I probably will add them to the photo section next week, so stay tuned.
27.05.2003 So here are the pictures I promised ya. They were taken by Coma and feature some red hot action...or red hot cheeks at least, those candles really threw some warmth at us.
26.05.2003 A fine summer morning to ya, boys and girls. Friday night's gig was surprisingly pleasant, nice, wonderful and all that good stuff. People were a-plenty and they seemed to enjoy the - in my opinion - lengthy set (they even demanded an encore) despite my voice being a bit shot due to either allergies or nervousness. We even had some people dancing to some songs which is as rare a sight at our gigs as a woolly mammoth, I wonder if it was due to Papin Nenä's special drinks or the fact that this probably was our most rocking gig thus far. Before and after the gig I spent hardly a handful of minutes behind the decks but fortunately the FLB and Coma were there to cover my busy ass with some fine discs (Paati and Andy also spinned some here and there). The evidence from this evening should drip in to the site all through the week - we have some pics and the DJ setlist on the way - but right now all we have to present is the gig's setlist.
23.05.2003 Just a reminder to get your ass over to Papin Nenä tonight for an evening of great music (if we suck, I can at least guarantee that the records we'll be playing are top notch).
22.05.2003 There were a couple of lines about us in the latest edition of Vaasan ylioppilaslehti - a university campus newspaper or something like that - in an article called "Rock City Vaasa". We even made it to the article's (which also referred to the Sugarrush as the best looking band in Finland hurhur) illustration which is one of the pictures by Aki Karlsson from our "Loska" appearance in DOM last Fall. The article can be read over at the press section.
21.05.2003 Rehearsal day yesterday and it was a basic good rehearsal although my throat wasn't really happy about singing a couple of songs. I have to say that it's really great to play with these guys though; if we can play several new songs on a gig with our minds at ease with just two rehearsals behind us, something must be going right with this lineup. Not only must I credit the new vigorous version of "Found My Place" to the boys in the band but Paati and Jocke had also come up with an idea of a cover that we must try out (we meant to try it out yesterday already but managed to forget about it later on). The song in question is Jocke's old band Numbah Ten's hit "Emily", I had a hard time first seeing this grunge tune as a gentle Graceskull ballad but after Jocke strummed it on a guitar I realised that it probably would work. But more on that a bit later after we've had time to arrange it good.
19.05.2003 Ahem, ahem. Due to some unfortunate events we've been occupied with other things than music lately. Julius has however been looking for a new location for his studio and most probably has found it too. The move to this new location has been planned for late summer by which time I hope we have the songs we've started work on in quite good shape. Yesterday we caught some live action courtesy of Creamstar and Lemonator at Vaasa's Amarillo. Creamstar played quite a short set but one thing that really managed to catch my ear was Teemu's most pleasant guitar sounds - Vox amps, what can you say. Lemonator however played a full set and managed to convince the audience of the magnitude of their hit arsenal. It seemed they really enjoyed playing and that made its mark since they really sounded hella good, Sunday night or not. Four thumbs up.
14.05.2003 "It's the demons who drag you down but the angels pull you up." May your sleep be blessed, Eva.
12.05.2003 Hey-ho! The weekend started early on Saturday morning (that's "early" in rock'n'roll terms, I am not talking about 6AM or that type of crap) with me recording a demo of "For the Remnant". It turned out okay aside from some minor mishaps here and there but considering I had never even tried to sing and play it in its entirety before, I can be pretty pleased. Later on in the day I found myself at Julius' where we did some extreme editing for "Sparrow" and I think we got it in pretty good shape, we replaced the beat in the end with a sound experiment we had done in the studio, recording the ride cymbal up very close - it sounded...well, special. After the studio sessions it was time - at last! - for the opening Street Golf game of the season. We have a new technical element added this season with new balls (the ones we play the game with, sorry ladies) bringing more excitement to the game. A fun game this time too, although I got fourth place beating only Andy J. who after missing the "hole" some dozens of times eventually gave up. On Sunday it was time for the first Graceskull rehearsal in a looong time. I must admit I was afraid a bit that it had been too long a time but fuck that; the rehearsal went just dandy! We rehearsed three new songs ("Hush", "Locket" and "Found My Place") and went through a whole lot of oldies which sounded surprisingly good even though I didn't quite remember all the words and stuff. It was also great to get to sing again since the focus has been on the drums for so long now that I haven't been exactly stretching my vocal chords. The strangest/greatest moment of the rehearsals were when "Found My Place" was basically turned on its head with a version quite unlike any Graceskull song before, can't wait to play that one on stage!
09.05.2003 So here is the poster for our next gig: clickety click! While I dabbled with some upstart songs a bit yesterday, Julius had been more useful as he had done more mixing and editing and had gotten some sense into "Sparrow" which used to only have my sporadic drumfills and demo on it but now has more structure and from what I could decipher through the phone, it sounded more like a real song than it has done before. It's always pleasant to discover the songs within my...errr, well, songs.
08.05.2003 Scribbled lyrics to a half finished song and uploaded them to the lyrics archive. It's called "For the Remnant". I think they need some retouching once again but I'm not up for it now so I'm-a have to get back to you on that. I also did some sketching of the poster for our next gig but I'm awaiting comments on it from involved parties before I unleash it on ya. Julius had been working on the drumtracks' sound to get the right boom out of the speakers and according to him he had got it nailed too. I think he had been working on "Hush" only but it's basically the same settings for every song so the groundwork is at least done.
07.05.2003 End drum session 1. We packed our stuff and drove them back from the Sugarfactory Megastudios to our townhouse studio location yesterday after recording the drums for "Hush". I was behind the cans again since Paati was preoccupied with some ice-hockey match but we managed to get a decent result while there may be some minor details that still need fixing in the final take. It's damn fun to get back to recording again, can't wait for the next session.
05.05.2003 Some fun gigs last weekend although I am not sure whether my neck would agree. On Friday the Sugarrush rolled onto Vaasa's Club25 stage where we played a highly physical show, we had an eleven song set but I was ready to go home at around song number 7 and after the gig most of the boys had felt exactly the same. We still managed to get the last few remaining bits of energy utilized and finished the set as planned. Maybe we should get some track practise or something - maybe not. After a healthy breakfast of pizza and donuts alongside the FLB next morning we jumped in the car and drove down to Turku's Old School to reenact that set. It was much like Club25's set with possibly a bit less explosive elements and more water spat at each other. After the gig we spent some quality time with Joe Algeri and the Ben's Diapers boys at Hundred Million Martians' and the Crash's rehearsal quarters, playing some brilliant and some not so brilliant songs on the ol' acoustic. Quite a showman, that Mr. Algeri (nowadays also apparently known as Dj Ripuli), I'd reckon that not just anyone would get a bunch of hardcore pop enthusiasts to sing along to "Hämä-hämäkki kiipes langalle" and the like. But I guess there were also other substances that contributed to these around-the-campfire antics. I could write a couple more hundred words about the gigs and all but I am afraid I'm too tired to do so - Monday morning effect - but feel free to ask about anything.
02.05.2003 Wednesday night was spent in the studio for the most part on our behalf, we got most of the remaining drumtracks for this session sorted and edited. There were a couple of tracks we did some work on but the most enjoybale of the bunch was "Bring Me Love". I had only played the demo drums on it but once listening to it again we decided that we were going to use the take since it was damn close to how it should be. So we just edited out a couple of over-eager hits on the kickdrum and voilá, the drumtrack was there. These kind of surprises are very precious indeed. Julle also did something to the snare sound which turned it upside down - we had had a malfunctioning mic or something which distorted the sound of the snare but he EQed it to sound just butter! Anyway, after this most pleasant session we drove Julle's Volvo to Club25 where they had a heavy metal covers night. Of the three bands that night the one doing Mötley Crüe's stuff was absolute numero uno! These guys looked like auto or computer repair men but once the sliders went up, they rocked our butts off. The best gig I've witnessed in a while, for sure. Yesterday it was Sugarrush rehearsals time again and a nice one it was too which might - or might not - give good prospects for tonight's gig at Vaasa's Club25. Also Turku's Old School is going to get the same treatment tomorrow so if you're in the neighborhood, please stop by. Continuing on the subject of the Sugarrush, they also have a brand new split 7 inch out today on Rhythm Barrel. The flipside has a couple of ditties by the Australian gentleman Joe Algeri so it's well worth your money, baby. Joe is also performing on both the gigs this weekend as is Ben's Diapers.
30.04.2003 I forgot to mention that I also added the song list from our latest deejay gig to the DJ-lists section. This gig was in Papin Nenä two weeks back so just weep if you weren't there.
29.04.2003 Back as promised! Chicago was indeed a nice town - to visit at least - with the aforementioned fine food and record shop qualities being the most notifiable aspects of my visit. Also the second hand clothes shops were a-rockin' but sadly not carrying much stuff in my size, there were a couple of extremely handsome leather jackets that remained sadly on the recks because they were short an inch here or there. There would've also been a shitload of records to take home but the handful I afforded are visible in my recordlist. I am most proud of getting my hands on that ancient Radiohead "Stop Whispering" single since it has their absolutely most terrible song "Pop Is Dead" as a B-side! I hadn't heard it for a couple of years so it was truly nice to once again verify that it still is just awful - I suggest you get your hands on the tune if you haven't heard it yet - or even better, the video (it is at least as bad as the song)! I also managed to purchase the Wilco documentary "I am Trying to Break Your Heart" on DVD which was nice since I've wanted to see this film for quite some time now. Another Wilco related incident in my visit was that I noticed that the buildings on the sleeve of their "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" are located in Chicago and like a true tourist I even managed to get a snapshot of these towers. Yeah, I guess I'll stop this before I start showing you the slides...But I do have some news on Graceskull too; a special night with Graceskull is to be held at Vaasa's Papin Nenä on May 23rd. This means we'll be deejaying and also playing a gig at some point during the night. We've been planning something special for the gig but I'm not sure if we'll be able to pull it off but at least we try to make it differ from the normal set in some way so do come around, baby!
23.04.2003 Just a brief newsflash, I am now in Chicago so the update front will be a bit lazy for at least till next Tuesday. The record shops are magnificent, the pizza is awesome and my feet are killing me. See ya next week.
16.04.2003 First off a note to all the people who have ordered or are planning to order our T-shirts; we've had some problems with the printer of the shirts which finally have been cleared today so the new edition of navy blue shirts is now really on its way. Deliveries are being made in a couple of weeks' time since I will be spending next week in business in Chicago. So back to the same ol' then; me and Paati spent a few late hours at the studio and recorded drums for "Hollywood". We also had a couple of thousand tries at "Demons" but just couldn't get there for some reason - it's strange that we have so many problems with this tune since it's one of the few songs that Paati has actually played before the sessions. After the numerous takes we dug up some of the songs that have had less interest pointed towards them and did demo drums for "Bring Me Love" (with me behind the cans for a change) and "Another Round". It was a pleasant surprise that "Bring Me Love" started to sound like a song again after we had the drumtracks in place since I had kinda given up on it some time back because I couldn't really see what to do with it.
14.04.2003 On Friday we dropped off the drums back to the studio and set them up. When we had them up and ready we decided to give "Demons" a go. We had a couple of semi-good takes but Paati didn't have all the fills just ready so after the computer tilted we ended the weekend's only sessions. After the studio we headed over to Papin Nenä where Dregen from Backyard Babies was deejaying at. It was quite an enjoyable night with hit tunes ranging from Slayer classics to Prince's "Sexy MF" (not to mention a fabulous country cover of Judas Priest's immortal "Breaking the Law" - if anyone has a hunch who this cover was by, please drop me a line at ove@graceskull.com) (and it wasn't Slim Jim & The Mad Cows, their version ain't as good the one heard in Papin Nenä although the CB radio stuff in the breakdown section was quite rockin'). Ilkka had also come back for a little vacation from his music biz studies in England which was nice enough.
10.04.2003 Julius has dropped by the studio yesterday to lay some bass on "A Day Away". Actually he was there to rehearse some rock'n'roll ditties for a shady gig he's having tonight in an undisclosed location. Also in attendance was Jocke, Paati and another ex Graceskull bass man El Tero-Teró accompanied by his father. That's surely gonna be quite some gig! Meanwhile I just had another song idea slip from tongue that I'm afraid I spoilt with a crappy chorus. I'll have to get back to that song and see if the damage can be repaired with another chorus or something.
09.04.2003 "A Day Away" got some amusingly shitty guitars on it yesterday but incredibly enough they did serve their purpose as we finally got the picture down on what the rhythm track should be like. And I think it's gonna be quite a good one since it gave us pretty good vibes with just the extremely scarce instrumentation the demo now has. Our work was however cut short since the studio was needed for rehearsal purposes, 3/5 of Leopold Delloria with Paati and Jocke from our troops have an upcoming gig doing Kent covers next week. When Mr. Kulju hadn't showed up by the time Julius and me were leaving, the boys tried to talk me over into playing the second guitar. I don't know whether they were out of their minds or just didn't know how bad I am playing the guitar (they should know by now, ehehhe) but whichever the case I had to refuse the honor since I really am not up to the task. Anyway, it's not like they'd have to worry about Jocke, he could rock a song even if he had just heard it two minutes before playing it. Once back at home I strummed on the ol' acoustic some more and what do ya know, a song came out. Or at least a start of a song or something but since I have no recollection of the tune I don't know if it's one for the bin or not.
08.04.2003 So I got taken down by Paati's flu (Julius also caught it but he's more a brave trooper than me so he wasn't bedbound) and the only work done this weekend was that Julius had finished cutting "Locket"'s drums and he also had fiddled with some electronics I think. Today we're scheduled to re-enter Sugarfactory Megastudios however to record at least some guitars for "A Day Away" (demo ones probably but you never know to what use they might come to). Listening to the new Mew album now, it's got some wonderful noise...
04.04.2003 A break from the studiowork yesterday but I sat down and finished the lyrics for "Hush". I'm not sure about the song's structure yet but I have a strong gut feeling that it will be quite simple. The lyrics are archived here like you knew they would be.
03.04.2003 A bit different day yesterday compared to the last few days in the studio. We did work on the drums still but the focus was on choosing best takes and editing stuff. "Stifle" and "The Passenger" are basically a-ok now drumwise and "Locket" needs just a bit of editing. Paati even did a couple more takes on the final part of that song since he wasn't pleased with the ones we had and it does sound better now, I have to admit.
02.04.2003 As promised, even mo' drums yesterday. We did some for "Found My Place" (the breaks seemed nearly as hard for Paati as they did for me so I guess I don't suck that hard) and even more on "Locket" (sounding great) and "Into". That last one we had practically no idea how it should be done when we entered the studio but we scraped together some good ideas and now we're only unsure about the drums on the verses. I guess we'll be doing some demo guitars to it before we decide on how it should be done, they might give us a better angle on it since the acoustic fumble that's on the current demo just isn't what it should be. And still on the subject of "Into", I finished the lyrics (maybe apart from some minor future changes) for it yesterday too and so from this moment on it shall be known as "A Day Away". The lyrics are up at the archive as usual.
01.04.2003 It's April Fools Day but Graceskull.com won't be amusing you with such shenanigans (mainly due to the fact that I nearly got mad when Greenplastic's news about Radiohead recording a new version "Pablo Honey" got me so good). Paati had shed the fever off his body so we did a lot of drum recording yesterday. The nice boys from Firevision borrowed us some equipment which made setting up a real control room possible which helped a lot in shaping the sounds just right. The main thing that affected the recordings in a positive way was however Paati's drumming which was hella good. So we now have drums ready for "Stifle", "The Passenger" and "Promise". We also kinda sorta demoed the new version of "Demons" for which I should come up with some witty title. The highlight of the session was Paati's madcap break at the end of "Passenger" - can't wait to let you hear it! We are planning on continuing today with at least "Hollywood" and "Into", I guess.
31.03.2003 The weekend was largely spent on, behind and under drums. On Friday we set up our gear at the Sugarfactory Megastudios and began working on the sounds. Quite quickly we realised that we needed to dampen down the sound of the drums so my inner MacGyver got some t-shirts that were lying around and placed them on top of the snare and the tom toms (later on I was informed by Andy J. that Ringo Starr had used this technique also). This proved to be a helluva solution for the sound (but the playing was of course a bit more awkward), especially the snare was sounding just butta. The only sound that we seemed to have a little problem with was the hi-hat which has a kinda nasty sound to it to the start with so I don't really know how we'll get that sounding the way we want just yet. I believe we even recorded some takes on "Sparrow" but they were mostly for the sound testing purposes only - maybe we could edit them to get a complete drumtrack, I don't know. On Saturday we returned at daybreak - or maybe it was around 11 o'clock - to first off record some demo guitars and vocals so that it would be easier to know just where we are at in the song when drumming. Demos were done for at least "Stifle" (which had not fully recovered from the hard disk mixup of last week) and "The Passenger". Then we recorded some more drum takes, of which "Hollywood" must've been the most coherent and complete. Some drum breaks were also done to "Found My Place" but I think Paati will have to do a couple more of them sooner or later. The plan was to get Paati behind the set evening come but unfortunately he had caught a flu of some sort and had one damn of a fever so both Saturday's and Sunday's further sessions had to be canceled. On Sunday Julius had still made a trip to the studios to mix a little and when returning he said that the drums still sounded fantastic although the tom toms had been a bit too dry - he especially had liked the fills we'd done to "Found My Place". I hope that Paati gets better soon so that we can get back down to business.
28.03.2003 Goddamn computers, it's so hard to believe that someone really hassles with them for a living. Yesterday we had our fair share of data related troubles. Firstly Julius managed to erase all our new recordings from his old hard disk while moving the stuff to a new one. It took a couple hours worth of headaches for us to get them restored but some hefty phews were in order as we got back every last bit. But then enter night and I'm supposed to get a couple of demos on a CD for Paati so he could get some drum ideas sorted, but whatdoyaknow my CD writer won't cooperate probably due to the fact that we had Julius' old harddisk connected to the machine for a while when we tried to get the files back and so the damn thing is confused by the absence of the disk. At that point of the day my nerves were beginning to draw near to an overheating point so I just went to bed with a dark cloud of pissed-off-ness over my head and thus this problem still lies uncorrected which means I can't get my demos out of the machine. Sorry for the profound tech talk, folks but I had to get this off my chest. (Oh yeah, I did write some more lyrics to "Into", the verses and the bridge sections should be good to go.)
27.03.2003 ...And so I demoed the song yesterday. Having just two lines worth of lyrics made the demo a bit repetitive but I guess it serves its purpose. I believe the words for the chorus might be difficult to come up with since I started writing the song from the verse, it's always more difficult that way - for me at least, it is. The working title for the tune is "Into" but I have a strong feeling that it will change when I deliver the goods in all their glory.
26.03.2003 New song dabblings yesterday. I wrote a whole new tune's worth of music yesterday and this time I think the results are a bit better than with "Liar". Quite an energetic and fast tune, at least considering the usual Graceskull standards, we'll have to wait and see if we can pull this baby off.
25.03.2003 Worked on "Found My Place", "The Worst Liar In Town" and "Bring Me Love" yesterday. Of this bunch "Found My Place" was most benefitted, we got some airplane sound FX sorted and also recorded some keys. "Liar" we just kinda demoed but unfortunately it kinda sounded worse every time I heard it on tape - maybe it was my crap guitar playing or maybe it was just that the song wasn't that good. Anyway, I have a hard time seeing it on this album so we won't probably working on that again anytime soon. "Bring Me Love" was just barely touched on, Julius tried this arpeggio thingy on it but we didn't get it working right. We are most likely going to record drums and such next weekend which is a new direction for us since usually drums have been nearly the last thing we've gotten on tape for the albums. It makes at least loads more sense to do it this way so let's hope everything goes according to plan.
24.03.2003 Maxing and relaxing this last weekend. I believe we meant to enter the studio each day but didn't because of sheer lazyness which was fine by me since I got some reading done (see current faves for more detailed info). On Saturday I still managed to get my bottom off the couch for a couple of hours when I stumbled down to this venue called Nuoriska to see if this band called Division of Laura Lee were as good as the papers said. Due to the aforementioned troubles in moving my ass this weekend I unfortunately missed one of the opening acts, Cats on Fire, which I had meant to catch but was just in time for the strapping young lads of Leopold Delloria's "comeback" show. I'm sorry to say that I had a really hard time enjoying the gig since the sound was just downright shitty, they played a lot of new songs which I would've liked to hear but instead the songs came at me through the crapblander of the apparently too small PA. Better luck next time, I hope. When the headliners jumped on the stage, the sound situation wasn't that much improved but fortunately their stuff isn't that much dependant on the clarity of the sound (and the sound even improved later in the gig). Having just heard a couple of their tunes before this gig it was unprecidented that I was pretty much all smiles after the gig. They had a great drummer, a great bass player (who also looked pretty fucking cool) and a lead guitar player who really loved his pedals (delay in particular) which in total meant that there was earcandy a plenty. The part of the gig I most enjoyed, however was not any of their aural stunts; at the end of their encore only the drummer was left on the stage beating the drums like a demon when their bassmeister ran from backstage and rammed the drummer at full speed. It looked hella cool but probably didn't feel as nice as they remained stooped on the floor for quite some time before getting up to a hefty applause. Boy, have I witnessed some kickass gigs in the last couple of weeks.
21.03.2003 Back in the studio yesterday, we started "Bring Me Love" anew since we decided that the verses needed to be a couple BPM slower than the choruses. Lots of tempo changes going on lately, hmm...After getting the basic demo tracks and tempo stuff sorted we listened to some Bill Withers which amounted to a slight depressive state on my part since I got the feeling that our stuff couldn't come close to this shit, the production and genius within the songs was just something two white men from the Arctic Circle (fuck off, we're close enough) could never get to. Luckily we started listening to the new songs we've done so far and they improved my state of mind a couple hundred percent - I guess it made me realise that our shit can be quite nice in its own way, trying to ape soul giants and creating something different and more our own in failing to achive those heights. I also made a small discovery pillaging on the studio computer - Julius had started work on "Sparrow" a while back and kinda forgotten about it. He hadn't done that much but the simple little chiming he had put on the fucker was just wonderful, it brought a great deal of new ideas to the surface for this song. After this good vibes studio session we decided to go down to Amarillo to check out Lab and Firevision on stage. Lab was nice enough, we even got some hearty laughs out of the show but didn't really set me on fire. Great sounds though. Firevision on the other hand were just plain magnificent. Our boys are taking over the charts here, there'n'everywhere and in Amarillo last night it was crystal clear just why. Having seen at least half a dozen of their live shows (and even been a part of one of them) it's great to see how they've developed into this stageshow machine with just the right ingredients. A minor surprise was to see that Mikko has even started singing the harmonies on stage, a tremendous addition in my opinion. I kinda got the feeling the boys also liked the show and the positive mood really suits them and the whole show. Okay, another long review then, sorry - but check 'em out in a town near you, I command thee!
20.03.2003 This must be getting a bit dull for you, dear reader, but yesterday's activities still concentrated on the new songs. I wrote some lyrics to the song I mentioned on Tuesday and it's now called "Try To Keep Myself From Coming Apart". Also the Buffalo Tom vibed song got some lyrics (working title for this ditty is "Hush"). Then evening come I also tried to get "The Worst Liar In Town"'s music done and ended up changing the verse a bit and think I had an idea about the breakdown section too - possibly. A new number also appeared while strumming on the acoustic, it has no real vocal melody but a spoken word kinda thing going on in the verses and the choruses - if you can call 'em that - are instrumental. Maybe this will find its way to the garbage bin but it's nice to get something done that isn't quite of the classic Graceskull blueprint.
19.03.2003 New song blah blah blah. Yeah but I even got a title for this one, it's called "The Worst Liar In Town". It's a country-ish tune at least for now and I even managed to get some lyrics down for it. There is some work to be done with the different parts and even the basic melody and stuff but I'll get it worked even though it includes some chords and chord progressions that are quite rarely heard in Graceskull songs - but absolutely no progressive shit, I guarantee. What's unusual for me is bread and butter for the rest of the world, you know.
18.03.2003 The springtime weather made a nice little tune pop in my head on my way home yesterday. I believe it's a bit different to the normal stuff, at least it's poppier but I fear it's going to take a lot of effort for me to sing it like it should be sung. Maybe it's good to stretch your limits once in awhile, I just hope my limits will stretch that far. Hopefully more on this song later.
17.03.2003 Spent the rest of week on the road and caught the Ark once more on stage in Helsinki's Tavastia club. The gig was brilliant but of course not to the extent of the Vaasa gig. Ola was having some problems with his throat and thus the set was a couple of songs shorter which also meant that Jepson didn't get a chance to show that he really can rock "Tell Me This Night is Over"'s solo (which I have absolutely no doubt he can). In Graceskull news however, we are toplisted in Rockmusica as number one among current indie discs (or whatever). Nicey nice.
14.03.2003 Rock'n'roll was saved last night at Vaasa's Amarillo (of all places). Pretty tired, I hauled my ass to catch The Ark on stage and after the first microseconds there wasn't an ounce of my tiredness left. These boys know how to put on a show and they've got the songs to boot! Usually this venue's sound is bad, shit even, but there was no trace of this during their set and another unusually nice bonus was that the Vaasa audience sang to the songs extremely accurately. This being a Thursday night they probably hadn't had that much to drink and could still find the correct keys. The finest moment of the gig was however much linked to wrong keys; after a minor absence from the stage during a piano led rendition of "Tell Me This Night Is Over" the band's lead guitar player - Jepson - got on stage to perform a solo. With cock rock arrogance written all over his face he pulled a crunching bended note out of his guitar - unfortunately it was a totally different note that he had thought of and his timing also left a thing or two to desire. After this the piano player was somewhat comatosed for a second but then Ola Salo - the singer - grabbed the song by the nuts so end's well, all's well. While jazz police may have thought differently, I loved that moment of confusion and partricularly how they managed to get back to the song and finish it with their eye shadow intact. A lot of babble about this gig, I know, but I still have to make two further comments; their singing of harmonies truly rocked my testicles and I'm sure that Julius would like to point out that he got goose bumps from Jepson's amazing Orange guitar sound. Over and out, catch the Ark if you can.
13.03.2003 Yesterday I spent mucho hours on demoing "Locket", the new ditty. I probably even spent too many hours on it but didn't realize it before I had started on a backwards guitar track. Well I had nothing else to do so why not. When I played it to Julius later on, he liked it but said that it was missing a chorus - and he had a point there. I've done pretty many songs recently that have had only a guitar hook or something acting as a chorus instead of a good ol' repeated three words, maybe I should attend this matter. Maybe.
12.03.2003 Finished "Locket"'s lyrics yesterday (although as usual, I'm not really sure about a thing or two in there, mainly the chorus might need some work still) and they're can be seen right here.
11.03.2003 Added some guitar on the demo of "Going Down" yesterday and also made a demo of one of our shorter tracks "Alright" - I found that tune lying about and quite liked it although (or maybe because of) it's very tiny. I also continued work on the new tune I was enthusiastic about on Sunday, I really like where it's going. I got the music done pretty much and dare I say majority of the lyrics too - it might be called "Locket".
10.03.2003 The weekend started on a lazy foot on Friday as me and Julius attempted to work in the studio. We came practically nowhere even though we managed to get a couple of crappy guitar takes on "Bring Me Love". Both of us were really, really tired - I fell asleep on the couch while Julius stepped out for a cig - so we decided to proceed at a better time. On Saturday I got forced to the Sugarrush's rehearsals pretty late at night and also then my energy levels were nothing to brag about but it was quite a nice rehearsal anyway. On Sunday I got started on a couple of new songs of which especially the latter I got really excited about. I don't know where we are going to get the massive strings for that baby though but we'll surely figure out something.
07.03.2003 Recorded a demo of "Going Down" yesterday eve though I think I have to go back to it someday since there might be room for one more guitar in there (there usually is, right?) I also spent some time struggling with a new song's lyrics but didn't really go anywhere with them, so I have to return to those too in the near future.
06.03.2003 Yesterday there we had a strange but fun rehearsal session. Strange because we had no gig to prepare for so it was notably more freeform than usual. We tried out new and half cooked songs and especially "Bring Me Love" stuck out as a promising ditty according to the boys. I also enjoyed jamming on the new song I had been working on earlier that night, it had a bit of a Buffalo Tom vibe so it was no wonder I liked it. Andy also presented the guitar bits he had come up with for "Stifle" and they were just fantastic, I hope we'll get them recorded soon. The night ended with some dope blues and classic rock jamming with Julius on the guitar and me behind the keyboards. Despite my near to nonexisting keyboard talents I manage to hit surprisingly many correct keys and the jam was confusingly amusingly a-rockin'. We also got to hear the infamous amp Julius has been building for the first time and the sound was just butter. A problem still lies in that the maximum volume level for the thing is quite low. But we're dead sure on it being on the next record - the tremolo it produces, mmmm-good.
05.03.2003 From tech to remix as I got the most recent version of Vapaapudotus' "Demons" remix yesterday and it still sounds mighty good. We're going to do the vocals for it maybe this weekend and send them back to Myyrä and let him do whatever he likes with them. A quite similar story is applicable also to the version by a mysterious man insisting on being called Jari Kalma. I received his track yesterday too and it's a heavy kickdrum packing tune, the song he assaulted is "Silence Makes Us Strong". This one will be a bit harder to get the vocals to fit to because it doesn't follow the original that much but listening to it last night got me a few noteworthy ideas.
04.03.2003 Tech updates as Julius was busy with the six string repairs yesterday. He had bought some new parts to both acoustic and electric axes that have been lying around in the studio so maybe now we'll get some benefit out of those. He had also bought new tubes to the amp he has been building that seemed to have worked fine, now he's only having some troubles in getting the volume of the thing high enough. Cleching our buttocks, we await what kind of a machine it'll end up being.
03.03.2003 During the weekend Julius did fix me a new mic (yet untested though) but a lot of other things were fixed. On Saturday we proceeded to work with "Found My Place" but only minor changes were made. The main subject of interest that day was however "Stifle" on which we recorded quite a lot of tracks - mainly acoustic guitars but also piano, organs, bass and vocals were done. I was very pleased with the stuff we did that day, "Stifle" really started to take form partly due to some nice guitar details etc. and "Found My Place" still sounded very good. On Sunday we continued on "Stifle" with some more guitar (on a borrowed nice acoustic axe courtesy of the Sugarrush's Coma), another take at the vocals (still demo ones) and finetuning of the organ tracks. Come sundown I was beginning to feel some Sunday tiredness but we still managed to scrape together the backbone for "I Wish I Was Drunk" on a couple of untuned guitars. Getting the structure and the rhythm track done for this song is really crucial since it contains some tempo changes and stuff so I'm really glad we got it done that easily (the last try we had at building the song was somewhat more tireing).
28.02.2003 Yesterday evening was spent on trying to fix some new software on my computer so that I could do demos a bit more easily and handily. Some veins surely popped but we got the shit working about right, there's just some unfortunate noise slipping in through the microphone which I could do without but I guess I'll manage. Or maybe I'll get ol' J.Lo to fix me up a new mic with a proper cord, now that's an idea.
26.02.2003 Studiowork yesterday. We got the structure basically built for "Found My Place" and also recorded demo vocals (which were kinda off since it's such a new song that I don't know how to approach the thing), bass and some airplane sound effects. It's building up to be quite a nice track, we just need to add the correct spices to the soup and it's done. I think our approach to this record is "less is more" at least for now and as grand as the song might sound, there's not that much stuff on it. But I really want to emphasize the word "yet". At the end of the day I also found myself strumming a new tune over at Julius' place which we also got on tape, the bare chords and melody of the song that is. I can't remember how it went anymore but I have the feeling that the riff was quite pleasant at least. We'll just see what happens with this one.
25.02.2003 Oh, I forgot to mention it yesterday but we've now had 15000 visitors on this site. Thanks for coming by. And now I nearly forgot to mention that I got the texts for "Found My Place" done too so they're sitting in the lyric archive waiting for you to have a look. I'm considering some changes though so it probably isn't the final version but they rarely are on the first try, aren't they.
24.02.2003 I am happy to announce that we started work on a new album on Saturday. The sessions started with us listening to Neil Young's "Harvest" and also our very own "Breed" that Julius had digged from the archives and remixed (it sounded surprisingly fresh and good). Then we moved onto real work and while figuring out what to do with "Hollywood", we were hit on the head by a completely new tune which occupied us for the rest of the day. I really liked the largely piano driven tune and come midnite I had the lyrics done too bar some two lines. The working title for the song is "Found My Place" and its place will probably be at the end of the record due to its closing song qualities. Backtracking to Friday and another near finished set of lyrics then, I also have the texts for the song that I wrote on Thursday done minus a few lines and finetuning. This one's probably called "Sway". And then we now finally have the latest reviews of "Happiness" - quite nice ones, I might add - from Soundi and Sue magazines posted over at the reviews section.
21.02.2003 Instead of going to the kiosk for the articles, I spent most of my active time on writing stuff yesterday. I finished "Whether I Was Wrong"'s lyrics (or they might be some changes still to come but version 1.0 is in wraps at least) and you can read them over at the fountain of song lyrics. I also had a few great solos for the song in my head but they were whisked away by the near-Spring wind of the Brändö bridge while I walked back home so I just have to wait for them to resurface at a more convenient time ie. when a tape recorder is present. I had some minor "am-I-having-a-writer's-block" -angst going on later in the night when I tried to force good songs out of the ol' acoustic but the feeling quite quickly withered away as I laid the axe down for a few minutes and grabbed me an Edam covered hapankorppu (if I'd make a explanation on what a "hapankorppu" is, you wouldn't believe me). I got the melodies and stuff sketched out roughly (although I'm not really 100% sure about the bridge and chorus) and even got the words for the first verse or two written. I was pretty pleased with the lyrics, actually so pleased that when my crappy Nokia Communicator on which I had written them on had sent every single letter into bit heaven in the morning, I actually remembered it all. That surely must be a sign that it wasn't just the same old "miss-you-hug-you" crap that my lyrics normally tend to be. But I shouldn't talk them up that much yet, there's still quite a lot of room in the song for me to fuck it up.
20.02.2003 Sorry, dear readers. After being on the road for the rest of last week, I acquired a flu - thank you, Julius - and have now spent four days lying in a semi-coma'd state. On the road meant mainly getting on stage in Turku for a Sugarrush gig, a fun gig it was too but even funnier was the headlining band - on stage and especially off. The Leroys from Fame - consisting of one Swede, one Scotsman and one mad Texan - rocked both the horizontal and the vertical, and manage to squeeze a hefty amount of laughs in the process. I suggest you check 'em out if the opportunity arises. Back to Graceskull news however, I had some review info - mucho better ones this time - thrown at me while fevered outta my head so I can't quite replicate them 100% accurately here but I'm pretty sure both Soundi and Sue gave us four out of five. A funny little detail in the Soundi review was that just when I had suggested Rumba's reviewer to listen to the record when going to bed, the Soundi review ended with basically that same suggestion. I'll be posting them here when I get my greasy hands on the articles, which is probably tomorrow. Also in miniscule news it could be pointed out that Julius has once again been up to his old tech tricks and has been up to his elbows in reconstructing some old amp. And yesterday I came up with something I called "the tune after the intro on our next record" to Julius. Which it may or may not be. Hope we'll get back to work soon.
13.02.2003 "This is the fresh feeling." Having spent some too many hours cramped up in a van with three tons of equipment and five other guys it's impossible not to appreciate the sweet sensation of a shower. So we did a gig in Helsinki. We arrived late, did a miniscule soundcheck and after watching the Frost play their nice set, got on stage. I think this was probably our best gig yet technically speaking but since it was after midnite on a Wednesday, a greater spiritual uplifting was put on hold. I did however enjoy the gig and apparently so did the brave people still left who even kept on clapping for an encore after our last song. We complimented the clapping with me and Julius doing Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" - it's a really good tune, boys and girls, no matter what you say. The full setlist can be found over here. While in Helsinki we also did some minor business which resulted at least in the fact that "Happiness" is now also available in Helsinki, from Stupido Shop. Once back home I stumbled on our first straight up bad review in the fresh issue of Rumba magazine. Well I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later and since it seemed that Tomi Palsa - the reviewer - had really put effort into listening the record, it's quite alright. The feedback we've gotten on the record has often been that people like to listen to it when they're going to sleep so - if you're reading this, Tomi - maybe you could try that approach and even save a hefty euro on sleeping pills in the process. The review is also stored on our site, you can read it in the reviews section.
10.02.2003 I think my ears are still ringing. Having attended three rehearsals during this past weekend, I finally believe that rock'n'roll really can damage one's hearing. On Friday it was time for a Sugarrush rehearsal and it was quite a joyous occasion. In between some fine new tunes (including "The Nineties (Salute the Boys)", one of the best 'Rush songs ever) we played some heavily post-rockish improvisations and as strange as that is, the even more strange part was that some of them were quite good. It's better still that we didn't record them or anything 'cause now we can just rely on our memory that they were good - reality is a bitch sometimes, ya know. On Saturday there was another Sugarrush rehearsal, this time not that art-faggy, more like just playing through coming Saturday's set (there's a gig in Turku's Säätämö). In the evening when I was waiting for the FLB to pick me up for some hanging around in bars I had a case of sudden lightningbolt inspiration and wrote a new song. Some of the lyrics are still missing though but I was pretty pleased with the ones I had time to scribble on paper. I guess the song is a bit like Spain's "Spiritual" - even namedrops Jesus - but I bet Julius's production will lead this ditty somewhere else so the resemblance doesn't bother me that much. Anyway, if you're aping a song, why not ape a good one, harhar. I considered calling it "Scar Tissue" but since Red Hot Chili Peppers had that hit by that name not too long ago, I think it'll be entitled "Whether I was Wrong" instead. Maybe. Onto Sunday then, we rehearsed with the full live band for the first time since December and it went okay. The first round we did with the intended songs for next Wednesday's gig was a bit slow and lazy (hey, it was a Sunday, ya know) but after hitting "Demons" again, the pace picked up and the second round was much better - also my voice got a bit better, which was a relief for me. Even the organ that Julius has been having problems with worked all through the set so the prospects are good, dear boys and dear girls.
09.02.2003 Whoa, quite an action packed weekend that literally started with a bang. Me and Paati had packed our bags for Helsinki with intention to catch Kraftwerk on stage but we very nearly didn't make it since about 30 seconds into our journey a BMW'd motherfucker drove his vehicle straight into the left-hand side of ours. While a bit shaken by the crash we still didn't ditch the plans and after a change of automobiles we managed to succeed in the rest of the journey, hope the insurance company just covers for the car, apparently it got so badly messed up that there's no way fixing it. I'm just glad no-one got hurt. Anyway, the Kraftwerk show was quite cool, I could argue that the setlist had been badly planned but we got to hear the songs that we wanted to hear so what the hell. Also the lightshow and whatnot was terrific and I have to say that I got a little much more excited about their music after witnessing the gig than I ever have been (I've never been a fullblown fan like Paati). Once having driven back up to Vaasa on Saturday, we had a Sugarrush rehearsal and a planning session for an upcoming project which I will tell you probably more about later this month (let's just say that if you got something planned for Vappuaatto, you better scrap it now). Then I proceeded to sleep for a few hours and get up for another Sugarrush rehearsal - and still I feel like I don't know the new songs that well, I don't know what is wrong with me. While I had hit the sack, Julius had gotten on stage with the Rubbish Bros and sprinkled his keyboard magic all over some rock'n'roll classics...well most of them anyway, because after blasting his stuff for about six songs he blew a fuse which basically left him miming for the rest of the set. Apparently he had enjoyed rocking out for a change which I can fully understand - we don't get to rock out that heavily in Graceskull, no sirree bob. He had played the set with his fresh Leslie and reported that it was mighty fine (and light, praise the Lord), can't wait to hear it in action.
07.02.2003 Just a bit of songwriting went on yesterday. I had this tune going on which I beat the acoustic guitar with my fingers and so apart from the percussive element there was also a chord sound made in the process. The melody was almost inaudible with this guitar though so I guess if we ever record it, it has to be with a different axe.
06.02.2003 First of all some medical news starring once again our gig-axemeister Jocke. He's now sporting a cast again, this time on his elbow, after having lost his balance a bit more than slightly. Luckily for us his wrist was unaffected by the fall and he is able to play next week's gig in Helsinki city (according to his own words at least). While the unspeakably hairy cast expert of Vaasan keskussairaala was covering Jocke's elbow in plaster, me and Julius found our way to the rehearsal quarters to jam around or something. In fact I myself don't even really know why we went there, maybe it had something to do with the fact that we hadn't been playing or doing anything musicwise for a long time. Probably. Well, anyway we played around with some new bits and pieces including an Air-ish slow song that was based around Julius's Rhodes riff that was quite nice. At some point the FLB showed up and strapped on a bass and we played through some of the older songs and also a couple of interesting covers which I can't name because of the hazard of loosing a surprise element if we decide to play the sometime. It was nice to get to play again, can't wait till Sunday's rehearsal where the whole live band will be present.
05.02.2003 Whoa hey, a review of "Happiness" has been posted over at One Chord To Another website which is a most enjoyable read. The album gets full 5 out of 5 rating and the accompanying words are just as pleasing. If you find it hard to believe, just read it for yourself over at their site or then peep it in our very own the reviews section.
04.02.2003 I couldn't get that song I mentioned yesterday out of my head so at the end of the day I had lyrics to it and I think the music's about done too. I had to call Andy J. because I couldn't find the damn chords for the song on the fretboard and I got the feeling he wasn't all that happy I stole the riff. So Andy - if you're reading this - you can keep the riff, I'm just borrowing it for now. Kissy kiss. The lyrics for "Going Down" (I wish I had a better title but you have to bear with that one for now at least) are over at the lyric archive, as usual. I also had another song occupy my head which I strummed on quite a lot yesterday but I really can't tell you what it is. I can only reveal that it is a cover which we may (or may not) be playing in near future.
03.02.2003 After a week of wandering in Mexico in search of some obscure keyboard, Julius found his way back home to Finland yesterday. After some minor encounters with black market salesmen and even the long arm of the law, he decided the damn thing wasn't worth the trouble and seated himself into a jet with only a couple of fine winebottles and a case of cigars on his lap. Apparently also the paint job on the instrument had been quite poor which had made him even more hesitant about the buy. I guess some of you would be eager for a bit more specific story about all that went on but we'll save that for the Graceskull biography by Nicholas Pegg coming your way in early 2018. Meanwhile back in Vaasa I headed up to Radio Vaasa's studios pretty late on Saturday night with Coma and Andy J. of the Sugarrush plus the FLB. I guess the plan was to record some Sugarrush demos but in the end just one demo was recorded and most of the time we just laughed together some two second old tunes. One of these I really did like (I guess it was based on some riff Andy had already been playing around with for quite some time) and even threatened to obduct it into Graceskull's repertoire.
31.01.2003 Locked and loaded with a pocketful of media today. I got off my arse and recorded a demo of "Hollywood" yesterday which can be now found over at the audio archive in all its distorted glory. I even got round to dusting the old glockenspiel for the track, admitted that my playing throughout the demo would've probably needed the dusting a whole lot more. The other media I have to present is the tiny interview that was published in Rumba that came out yesterday. It was a part of an article about 2003's most promising bands (lets hope we live up to those promises) and is now to be found in the press section of this site. Enjoy, brothers and sisters.
29.01.2003 I strummed on my own back home for the first time in a long time yesterday and think I even made some little arranging to "Hollywood". I got a bit of a downer since not really singing or playing in a long time has clearly left its mark on me, especially voice-wise I was slightly fucked. I think I have to get my act together and start rehearsing on my own again since the near future does not hold many a day when the full live band would be in the same town. On a positive side of things I've recently rediscovered my love for the Boo Radleys - a band which none of my friends have ever liked but a band which I have held dear for probably a decade now. I really think their tunesmith Martin Carr must be one of the most underrated songwriters of the last century, just check out the greatness of "Lazarus", "Everything is Sorrow", "Wilder" and a few dozen more. Right now their "From the Bench at Belvidere EP" is spinning its 15 millionth spin of the day in my CD player and I don't expect it to stop rotating anytime soon. I even spent most of my yesterday's strum session trying to play their stuff but unfortunately my vocal range is quite different to that of Sice's (that's their singer) so it proved to be quite difficult (especially since transposing is very nearly like quantum physics to me). Well I've always said I wasn't made for performing other artist's songs. Except for a little cover here and there, of course - hardyhar.
28.01.2003 "Happiness" is moving up the charts. It can be found in at a respectable number five position on Vaasa's album chart.
27.01.2003 So we got in the Dio blasting van - one with nice Miami Vice decorations - on Friday afternoon and headed down to Helsinki for a Sugarrush gig in the infamous Semifinal Club. Julius tagged along as a mixer but while surfing around Ebay on his laptop he found some obscure super organ being on sale dead cheap in Mexico and thus decided to part ways with us once we got to Helsinki. We dropped him off at the airport where he managed to book some standby tickets to Mexico City and off he went. I really hope the organ's worth the trouble, the planetickets alone were quite an investment. He said he'd be back in a week, lets just hope he doesn't get scammed and stabbed in the eyeball. The rest of our crew proceeded to the venue however and played quite a fun gig. Sure there were broken notes and strings but the overall feeling was very positive when we got offstage. Next day after scoring some fabrics and records we got back in the van with home sweet Vaasa in our sights. But a couple of hundred miles later the sights were beginning to get a bit blurred after our van fell asleep on - luckily - this gas station's parking lot. The charger for the battery was blown and - this being a Saturday night - the tech help needed was nowhere in sight. The locals were super nice though and helped us all they could, we got the van in a local garage where they said it would be back in shape on Monday. So we had to leave all our precious gear in a Jalasjärvi garage and proceed the remaining miles home in a taxi. After being on the road the whole goddamn day and paying 125€ for the taxiride, Amarillo's burgers sure tasted heavensent.
24.01.2003 Helsinki City is being bombarded by the Sugarrush tonight and I'm tagging along for some axe axion so get your bottom over to Semifinal, baby.
23.01.2003 I finally finished "Hollywood" yesterday and although I spent quite some time pondering if it is too clumsily exotic to use that city name in the song considering we still are several thousand miles away in nutfreezing Finland, I decided to give in to my rock'n'roll self and keep the title and the reference since it really isn't a song about "Hollywood" - quelle surprise. So anyway, peep the lyrics at the lyric archive if you must. Later on in the night we had a little rehearsal with Andy J. for the Friday's Sugarrush gig, just went through the songs with acoustic guitars after which we digged into downloading some wrestling clips of stuff you don't get on Finnish TV. We got some diamond shit on disc like The Rock's first ever WWF match (that's some crazy hairdo he has got), can't wait to see the rest of the pile.
22.01.2003 Gig news abound as we're heading over to our capitol of Helsinki with Graceskull for the very first time on Wednesday February 12th. The venue is Bar Alahuone which will host a Marsu on paras club that night. We're sharing the stage with a band called the Frost, the MP3's on their website sound quite nice so you better check 'em out. Yesterday I continued to work on the new song with the working title "Hollywood". I damn near finished the lyrics - just a few lines missing here and there - and the music is just about done. I think it's going to be quite a nice tune. In the meanwhile Julius has been up to his neck in amp reconstruction and has made quite some progress with this old funny looking box. I think we're going to use it for guitar at least on the next record, at least that's what Julius told me, I am yet to hear even a hiss from the damn thing. And al finalmente there are some news approaching us from the continent that "The Building Blocks of Falling Apart" has been played on the radio in the Netherlands in a show called Popscene.
20.01.2003 This weekend was largely spent on vacation from Graceskull things which I guess is a good thing to do once in a while. My most music related event of the weekend was shooting some promo pictures for Atyd while Julius has been locked up in his quarters speding all his waking moments mentally or physically working with amps of this or that sort. As a minor apology to this short weekend update, I bring you another demo-vault finding - check out "Sparrow" over at the audio section.
17.01.2003 Lo and behold, the information highway. There is a 2-in-1 review of both "First Time Again" and "Happiness" over at Rockmusica.net and quite a good one it is too. Continuing on the media front, yesterday me and Julius did this little interview thing for Rumba-magazine. It will appear in the next issue of the magazine in an article about 2003's most promising bands. Thanks for the compliments, oh thee of the printed (whether on paper or screen) word.
16.01.2003 Wow, although being quite a last minute entry, our "Happiness" has sneaked in at number two on the pop site One Chord To Another's best albums of the year 2002 list! A great honor since there were many fine records on that list - and this probably means I finally have to get the Get Up Kids' record since they were numero uno. Also peep "Surrender" at number 12 on their best songs list.
15.01.2003 We got the promo packages sorted out yesterday and they should be heading towards all four corners of the world by now. In absence of anything more newsworthy and entertaining I decided to unleash one more demo on yo asses. Check the audio section now for the demo of "Natural" and reminisce the long gone endless summer nights you spent sitting at the beach dreaming of that special unattainable someone. Aww, how sweet.
13.01.2003 This last weekend was spent mainly with the Sugarrush boys on my part. We rehearsed on Friday and Sunday, both pretty enjoyable rehearsals. Andy had this new tune which was hella good, at least until we constructed a profoundly ridiculous ending to it. On Sunday me and Julius also spent an hour or two relocating his incredibly heavy keyboards from the rehearsal quarters to the studio and back. He is getting the studio into shape, it's been moved to a bigger room and we're supposed to get it organized and whatnot in the near future, maybe even this week.
10.01.2003 Julius got his heap of new stuff a couple of days back and so we tried out and tested them yesterday. There were quite a bunch of mics that we tried, mainly for the drums, and also this box which cut out feedback or something like that. I guess the box will end up at the end of my acoustic guitar's cord but it'll take some time before we (read: Julius) can get the hang of this thing and working like it should. Moving along on the new song front too, I finished the lyrics for the song previously known as "Nova" as well as the lyrics for "Wrecking Ball". The namechanger one's now called "(We Only Can) Pretend" and I'm proud to say that it is our first song that features parenthesis on its title - must be alert that I won't start using them too often though. Both song's lyrics can be found in the lyric archive. Also some hints of a new song were abound, I got some kind of a verse and chorus going but as usual it's yet to be seen whether or not it goes anywhere.
09.01.2003 Even further work with the convenience levels of the site yesterday when the cross-browser element was looked in on. So now even Netscape users should be able to get all the info on the site, though their interface isn't as "flashy" as that of the IE or Opera users. Please note that I am talking about the latest versions of these browsers. But enough of tech bullshit. Grown tired of writing those stupid promotional biographies to accompany the discs sent out to media, we scraped together a different kind of promo slip (with the trusty aid of Mokomaki Designs, au naturelle) which I added here to your pleasure. It does shed a slightly different light to our humble beginnings, now doesn't it. And to close things off, there is another multimedia treat for you waiting in the audio section where I inserted this demo MP3 of the very nearly forgotten "This Easy Life" I stumbled across while throwing old demo files into the bin. There were a couple more "interesting" finds, we'll see if I have the courage to share 'em with ya.
08.01.2003 Now nearly all of our webstuff reside on a new server which will hopefully improve loading times, service stability and whatnot. Let us know of possible malfunctioning parts.
07.01.2003 I'm truly very sorry about the delays in updates of late but our server's been having major problems and I'm afraid it still is but I will try to get the most urgent updates done anyway. Also all the mail you've sent us over the holidays should be now answered since we're "back in the office". A lot of things have gone on in the last week and it's hard for my tiny brain to remeber it all but let us start with the Sugarrush gig that went on on New Year's Eve. I don't know whether it was the sauna before the gig or the fact that I had been ill for nearly a couple of weeks but I damn near was unable to finish the gig due to getting hella exhausted about halfway between the gig. We had a stupid surprise planned that Paati would ditch the drumming in favor of getting a drink in the middle of the set and I would take over on the drums for one song but unfortunately for me it was just then that my exhaustion kicked in which resulted in me playing the drums so damn terribly that you can't imagine, I just couldn't lift my arms enough to hit the bloody things! Luckily our stage manager, the FLB, got me some mucho needed H2O so I could finish the set. I think we all thought it was a bad gig for us (also due to the smallish crowd, it was -25 degrees Celsius outside so it wasn't that much of a wonder) but then again, a drunken Julius at least seemed to have liked it and it was fun to play those new Sugarrush hits. Come weekend I dipped my nose into songwriting, going through some idea-tapes and lyric sketches. I sorta finished the music part of three songs - working titles "Nova", "Hollywood" and "Wrecking Ball" - and also wrote most of the lyrics for them but at least "Wrecking Ball"'s lyrics I have to rewrite completely because they were quite crap. But they came to use however when I did demos on an exceptionally prolific Sunday, I demoed four ditties and even got started on "Hollywood" but hunger got the best of me there. The demos I did were a bit rough because they are intended mainly for Julius' ears only so they probably won't appear up here anytime soon. However I withold the rights to change my mind. Anyway the demos were of "Another Round", "The Silver Haze", "Nova" and "Wrecking Ball". Yesterday was spent mainly on planning marketing and promoing strategies and doing the necessary paper work to the copyright authorities on the new album. So exciting stuff there, maybe we'll get a video clip of us filling out forms up here so you can see for yourself, hardy har.
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