News entries for the year 2004
31.12.2004 A Sugarrush rehearsal late last night so I'm sleepy as hell right now. We strummed through the setlist of tonight's Amarillo gig (you are most invited, mah peoples!) and proceeded to jam new songs with our new project (which is called "Palm's" for now) with guest percussionist (and ex-Graceskuller) Ilkka. I don't know if we're ever going to fully realize this project but I have to tell you that some of the songs sounded pretty good last night, I guess the music of Palm's resembles somewhat that of Karabastu's (that's the one-off project where we played improvised songs in a car) but then again some of the songs sound nothing like it. Well, you'll see. Right now I'm listening to the mixed and mastered Conquistadors album on my laptop, so admittedly it's not the best way to check out a mix but I have to say it sounds like some hot shit despite the speakers not being that grand. Can't wait to get some of this in your ears, ladies and gentlemen...
30.12.2004 From the reports I got from the boys I think the Conquistadors album should be mixed and mastered right about now. The work on it had been pretty smooth and according to Mikko everything sounds just amazing. We're going to have a listen to the mixes tomorrow since the Firevision boys won't be getting back from southern Finland until later on tonight because of the mastering job to their Eurovision song contest contribution.
23.12.2004 Seasons greetings from Graceskull and the whole Nature Sucks Anyway famiglia! Hope you get all get more presents than you can carry.
22.12.2004 I witnessed a solo performance by Ken Stringfellow (The Posies, R.E.M., yada yada) in Helsinki's Tavastia last night and quite a show he put up for us. Much like his visit to Finland in 2000 with Jon Auer, the main focus of the show was in keeping the audience happy and if it means getting a few of them on stage to play intruments with him, Ken has no problem with that. The best part of the show was indeed when he got first a guitar player on stage from the audience and then a little after that he also welcomed a pianist to jam some tunes. Amazingly it sounded fantastic and not some drunken shit at all. Apart from those bits I have to admit that there were some numbers on which I though his piano playing was a bit off and all over the place tempo-wise but that said, there were a couple of gems (especially from his previous solo album) dropped here and there too. Anyway, if you get a chance to see this man, do just that because the experience is something you've surely never come across.
20.12.2004 After last Friday spent at Petting Room studios I am happy to announce that the recordings for the Conquistadors album are done. We worked on "I Alone" for most of the day and fixed some details in a couple of other songs. We also coughed up a possible tracklist for the record but since it has not been tested, it's still subject to change. The mixing of the album will take place next week in Lahti with Firevision's sound mastermind Arttu behind the sliders but unfortunately I can't be there so it's up to Mikko and Arttu (and possibly Paati if he makes it) to shine this diamond to its full shine. As for the release date, I really can't say the exact date but I'd put my money on February/March since there's some record label bullshit we have to get done. Anyway, here's the very possible "Mil Mascaras" (that's the title of the album) tracklist:
1. Tinkerbell
2. Daydreamer
3. Con Queso
4. Started A Fire
5. Greying Out
6. I Alone
7. Santiago's Funeral
8. Everyone Knows
9. Something Good
10. Madrigal
17.12.2004 Just one more song to report, homies. Yesterday's five minutes on the old acoustic axe produced a song which I'm calling "Remains of You" for now and no, it most certainly won't have that name once you'll get the chance to hear it. Have a funky weekend, my dears.
16.12.2004 A little session with the Bullets yesterday. Not all of the Bullets though since Mr. Colt had a day off due to a tropical disease (or a hangover if you will) he had acquired. We kicked some new jams and got at least one tune in order, I guess it was called "Seven Days". There were a couple of other ones we jammed on also but they failed to form into real songs, in this session at least.
10.12.2004 In the studio yesterday with Mikko and Arttu, we made some finishing touches to the Conquistador album's vocals and some other minor stuff. ProTools kept on crashing (due to the plugin we used for the vocal tracks) but Arttu fought his way through the bunch of songs and the results were excellent. Many things that had bothered me in my takes were swiped away and others were just made better, he's a monster robot on ProTools that Arttu. There are plans to get the album mixed later this month but they aren't that solid just yet.
09.12.2004 Just a little info on the future, babes. A gig was confirmed for Sunday March 6th 2005 in El Gringo, Vaasa. So mark that in your calendar and go get yourself a mugfull of glögi.
07.12.2004 Three different aliases used this past streched (due to the Finnish independence day) weekend; on Saturday I wrote some snippets to a new Graceskull song that might be called "In the Morning Light", really basic chords and stuff for a change, this might turn out pretty pleasant - or then totally forgotten. On Sunday I was a Conquistador and recorded supposedly the final vocals for the upcoming album (entitled "Mil Mascaras" by the way) for the track "Greying Out". As with the previous session in which we tried to record it, this was no easy evening but the final result was well worth it. We had Firevision's Arttu behind the machinery since Mikko was suffering from a gargantuan hangover and was unable to arise from the sofa on which he lied all evening under a cover. After all work was done for the day, we proceeded to listen to the whole album with Mikko and I think it's going to be surprisingly good - and surprising, too. Can't wait to let y'all hear it but there's still some work to be done with the mixing and all that stuff. On Monday night I did a radio interview for a Swedish student radio station in my Gunther "Fast Glove" Uzi persona since they were doing a piece on the Bullets - not so serious shit then, you know. It was a bit late so I was a bit tired and so were the jokes, hurhur. I hope I'll get the piece later on, if it's something worth not-censoring maybe even you peeps in the Internet-land get to hear it.
03.12.2004 If you have been reading the local papers here in Vaasa you should know by now that our good friends Firevision have made it to the semi-finals of the Finnish Eurovision contest. And if you really have been paying attention you should also know that the FV duo have chosen to take the Sugarrush as their backing band which pretty much means that you'll also be seeing my ugly face playing bass (not my usual 'Rush duty though so it's not quite the Superjussi lineup known to the millions...and millions, hurhur) and singing backup vocals in the telecast in February - or that is at least the plan for now. The eerie Graceskull connections to Eurovision contest don't end just here yet, our dear axemeister Jocke Kulju has also brought his old outfit Place-2-Go from hybernation for the Eurovision contest and their gig on the telly should be in mid-January. So keep your eyes peeled for these exclusives.
29.11.2004 Back to the better days in studio, Saturday's Conquistadors vocals sessions were just great. We managed to get two songs' vox on tape in under 4 hours which I think was a job well done. The two were "Started A Fire" and "Something Good", the latter of which I had been fearing because the demo vocal I had done was a bit of a stinker. My fears were proved unnecessary though since the shit came out quite easily, I guess the strategy of recording "Started A Fire" first was succesful (I got to use up my "morning voice" during that one and so I had the ol' throat lubricated just right when we strated doing "Something Good"). So I think we have just one song left without vocals now...
26.11.2004 A little rehearsal thingy with Julius yesterday. We sorted out some new ideas (like that we need someone with saw-playing skills for "Wake Up Homeboy") and played some songs we haven't played in a while (ie. "Morning Came" and "Hollywood") but as usual we also spent a good percentage of rehearsal time to listening the like sof Mercury Rev and Neil Young. Towards the end of the rehearsal we even got one new idea on tape but we were too tired to know if it was any good - damn this darkness, it really drains me of all energy.
24.11.2004 An active yesterday, I first wrote the remainder of lyrics to the aforementioned Atyd song (which is now called "No More A Secret") and also recorded three tracks worth of vocals for it. I might have to do one more backup vocal track for it for the choruses but I have to say it sounds pretty good right about now, considering that I had a bit of a hard time getting it going in the right direction. After this session I strolled on over to the rehearsal facility and had a Bullets rehearsal. We tried out a handful of new ideas for songs but none of them seemed to really catch any wind so we moved on to finishing an older track "Last Call Alcohol". So the music is now about done and we even got some incredibly deep (yeah, right) lyrics to the chorus done and I have to say I like this one a lot. After the rehearsal we spent a couple of minutes discussing a possible feature film about the Bullets and had some great (or terrible, whatever) ideas about some scenes - so this baby is coming to a video rental place near you in...well, let's say 2010 so you won't be dissappointed.
22.11.2004 I got some sense into this one song that has been playing in my head a couple of weeks now this last weekend - and the fact that I haven't forgot all about is very promising sign of its possible quality, usually if I don't record my ideas straight off the bat there's no trace of them left in my brain a few seconds later. The working title, you may ask? "Wake Up Homeboy" - that must be some of my better ones, hurhur. On Sunday I worked a little on this one tune for Atyd that also has been dangling a good while. I basically rewrote the tune because I didn't much like the version I had demoed and so now I'd need to rewrite the lyrics too. But at least I'm pretty pleased with the melody and stuff so it shouldn't be an impossible task.
17.11.2004 Up in Petting Room studios yesterday just like I warned ya. But unfortunately we left with not a trace of the sessions left on tape (we tried recording "Greying Out") since I was just too tired to hit the right notes and my voice was just about gone in the end so we decided to try it out some other day. You can't win 'em all and stuff...
16.11.2004 Finished what I started - the lyrics to "Something Good" that is. I think they're alright considering how crap my first version of them was. I also think that tonight we're recording some more Conquistador-vocals.
15.11.2004 A Conquistadors weekend then. On Saturday we spent our working day recording bass and vocals for "Daydreamer" (title could still change). This was the first time I used my Rickenbacker for any real work and I can say it sounded just fucking fantastic (Mikko though so too so it's not just me being sentimental). The vocals seemed to come out pretty good too, at last a tune that's exactly compatible with my pitch, hurhur. To close things off we even re-did the chorus for "Madrigal" and I think it was far better than the one we had before, I think they're closer and more laid back as they should be. On Sunday I started work on the lyrics for "Something Good" and got about half of it done but it's really hard to get the right angle for the song, I'm not at all used to writing stuff to songs this positive in mood.
12.11.2004 A Sugarrush gig in Tampere yesterday, after a night porrly slept my recollections are that it was quite an OK one. It was a Thursday night which in Finland often means that there's probably two people in the audience if you're lucky but yesterday was a nice surprise as I'd call the place half full. I'm sure our playing was a bit uneven but at least the crowd seemed to appreciate our sweatin' (and spitting, I think it must've looked like a contest between us) and we got two encores, in the latter of which we annihilated the audience's excitement with a cover of Klamydia's "Vaasalaiset on homeperseitä" - sorry 'bout that. The other bands on the bill were Spank My Jones and Radar Station. I was not that fond of the latter's Doors-inspired jamrock but Spank My Jones really put on a show and they had the songs to back their shit up. I really could see them billed with the Bullets someplace sometime in the near future, hope they're up for it.
11.11.2004 Instruments galore. I received a long awaited package in the mail yesterday when my beautiful Rickenbacker 4001 bass (that's a vintage Fireglo 1982, dude) arrived - this time it's even the real deal and not some replica. I only got a few minutes worth of playing on it yesterday but it was certainly a joy to play and to my amazement the sound of the bass was distinctly different to the (Coma's) Fender I've been playing mostly (I always though the sound of basses was about the same, stoopid me). So it does require some getting used to and adjusting the sound but it sure is a beauty, I tell ya! On a sidenote The Sugarrush are hitting Tampere's YO-talo tonight so you might wanna check it out!
10.11.2004 Back once again at the Fireworks studios yesterday (or perhaps I should call the complex by its current name "Petting Room") we got one more Conquistadors vocal track done. This time it was "Madrigal" which was most worked on and I have to tell you that despite me thinking that this one was going to be easy, it was anything but. The chorus sounds simple but to get it just right it took us plenty of tries and approaches before we settled with the one that's now on tape. A change in our usual scheme was that we got bot Mikko's and Paati's voices in there as well; Paati's falsettoe was recorded for the backing track at the end of "Madrigal" and Mikko punched some more energy into "Everyone Knows"' verse. I also finally started to get an idea on the lyrics for "Something Good", they've been dangling awhile now but I'm pretty sure I'm onto something finally.
08.11.2004 Dang, 'twas indeed a music filled weekend. On Friday the Bullets played in two different venues and on Saturday and Sunday I rehearsed with the Sugarrush. Friday's first Bullets gig in Doo-Bop was pretty good I think, I've heard pleasant things about the sound at least so a bif thank you to Tony who mixed the gig(s). The un-drunk crowd (there was no booze sold there) was a bit lazy though but it didn't bother me at all really, I had good fun. Some minutes after we had finished our set at Doo-Bop we were on stage in Nuoriska where I have to say that the sound was terrible due to too small PA system, it just echoed all over. I though I would be totally squashed physically after the first gig but that wasn't really the case which was nice. Towards the end of the gig things started to get a little out of hand when some drunks got on stage and started singing our final song of the evening "Rock'n'roll Soldiers" in chorus quite terribly...no cigars, sisters. Oh well, who gives a shit really but I was a bit irritated by these fuckers, I have to admit that. The Sugarrush rehearsals went just fine, especially on Sunday, despite Paati having only one cymbal stand left from yesternight's gig. On Saturday we even formed a new band - called Palm's (sic) - on the basis of a few jams we did. One of these jams was even a real song which sounded just fantastic to me but unfortunately Coma forgot the vocal melody. So we're just hoping now that he does some deep meditating and finds that tune inside his head.
04.11.2004 A Bullets rehearsal yesterday. If ya didn't already know, the Bullets are playing two gigs in Vaasa this Friday, in Doo-Bop Club and Nuoriska respectfully. Yesterday we got our gear in Doo-Bop Cluib and instead of doing it in our own little hole, we rehearsed there. This was due to Tony - our sound supremo - wanting to get the sounds just right now already so we don't have to panic on Friday. All went just dandy and we were in fine form, tight as a motherfucker I'd say. We'll just see tomorrow then how this tightness holds up, now won't we?
03.11.2004 Back in the Fireworks studio with the Conquistadors yesterday. We worked hard and got "I Alone" vocalized, it was far harder to get it done right than what I figured it would be - I've written a pretty fucking difficult melody to sing for the verses, at least when you have my vocal range. Mikko also got out a pretty good mix of the song in the process which means less work when it's time for the final mix. We were aiming to also get "Madrigal" done but we were all so tired that we decided to call it a day.
02.11.2004 And as promised, we deliver you the pictures from Loska3. The behind the lens was none other than Mikko Tamminen so a big hearty Graceskull-thank-you goes out to him. Enjoi.
01.11.2004 With Loska 3 now but a fond memory, I can tell you that it went just smoothly. We had a real piano hired (which we had some troubles getting mic'ed) which made a great addition to the feel of the two man lineup that we had and despite me being nervous as hell, I think we pulled off the set (which consisted very heavily of new stuff) quite nicely - at least that was the impression I got. Many of the songs really only got their full form on the gig - I guess the tension always adds another dimension to the interpretation - with "Independence Days" being probably the best example, Julius pulled some funky shit right out of his ass in the finale. Behind the decks it was the usual suspects of me, Andy J. and Paati (with Julius choosing some kool kuts in between) and it was great fun to DJ for the first time in a long while - especially when we could play whatever the hell we wanted. A perfect example of that was closing the night with Eino Grön's version of "My Way", that's "Minun Tieni" of course. I have a few pictures coming up later in the week but for now you'll have to do with the setlist and the deejay song list. Backtrackibg to Saturday then, we began work on the vocals for the Conquistadors album. It was just me and Mikko in the studio and we got down about two songs (I think), "Tinkerbell" and "Everyone Knows". "Tinkerbell" got some pretty cool harmonies to the songs and two tracks' worth of whispering so it sounded quite schizophenic even at times. I think we're doing some more this week probably, as usual I'm-a letcha know.
29.10.2004 Okay, peeps! This is the final reminder that you need to come to Vaasa's DOM this Sunday - it's Loska-time. The lights are dim, the candles are lit and the music's just right - Graceskull will provide for a DJ set and an acoustic performance so don't miss this shit, baby.
28.10.2004 Rehearsing with Julius yesterday, I think we're getting pretty much ready for "Loska". A couple of arrangement details and a supposed setlist were agreed on but mostly we just played through the heap of songs. I think I'm going to have a pretty hard time with remembering some of these lyrics (both old songs' and new ones' too) but I'm-a work hard on them, I promise.
27.10.2004 A little rehearsal with the Bullets yesterday. We did some further work on "Soulshaker" and after trying out a shitload of versions we got out the (probably) definitive one. We've seriously not worked on any song this long ever but I'm glad to have gotten this out, it's some good shit as usual, hurhur.
26.10.2004 Working on lyrics some more then, I got three songs' worth done yesterday. And for your voyeuristic pleasure I got them up here: "Nightmares (Here Right Now)", "The Light Is Changing" and "Independence Days". "Nightmares" is the tune that was called "Behind A Fire" before and "Independence Days" used to be "You Have To Win Me Over", I'm really all that sure whether that latter title change was crap or not but it shall remain as such until I think of a better one.
25.10.2004 More lyricwriting done during the weekend - much needed at that since there's a couple of tunes we intend to premiere on this Sunday's gig that are missing some stuff. I worked on "You Have To Win Me Over" (due for a title change any day now) and "The Light Is Changing" mostly while I got some ideas for other ditties too (but not really anything down on paper). On Sunday we had ourselves a little rehearsal which was a bit shaky since Julius was really tired after working all day on some shit down in what could be called his moat (my condolences, boy!) Luckily we have now the arrangements pretty much done so we just need to get the tunes into our heads now.
22.10.2004 Got myself a new guitar yesterday. It's a second-hand Epiphone Firebird that I found in this pawn-shop down a block from my place. I've been looking for a suitable Firebird for quite some time now and I'm very glad to have gotten this baby (and cheap too). Sure enough it needs some work and today I'm going to see if I could find some new tuning pegs for it.
21.10.2004 Just a little bit of lyric writing yesterday, peeps. I got about half of "Behind A Fire" done, the crucial half because I now (somewhat) know what the song's about.
19.10.2004 A little rehearsal with the Bullets for a change. Although Jocke kept breaking strings we managed to get this one new song "Soulshaker" done (it needs some detail work still though). We probably have two gigs coming up in November with the Bullets and it seems that they're on the same day so there'll be some logistics to figure out before that date.
18.10.2004 Media first (after all it's the 21st century): Here is the poster for our Loska gig. I did some minor writing here and there during the weekend but mostly just recorded a couple of song ideas (by the names of "Faith" and "I Know Where You Sleep Tonight" and one unnamed one). On Saturday we had a grand 7 hour rehearsal at Julle's and it was a load of fun. Of course we didn't play for seven hours straight but instead spent time listening to some good records by the likes of the Carpenters, Marvin Gaye and Al Jarreau (and some bad shit by Tom Jones, hurhur). We even managed to get the new song "Behind A Fire" in pretty good shape, it's almost a full song now and I like it pretty much. Yay. We also decided that we're gonna do the Loska gig with just the two of us on stage - it's been a while since we've done that so it's a bit scary but I hope we'll pull it off. Before our rehearsal on Saturday I also paid a visit to Firevision's studios where the guys wanted me to play a bassline to this new hit-song they were working on, so I did just that and it seemed to work pretty good. They only had the bare bones of the song ready so I don't even know how the melody goes but hopefully I get to hear the tune this week when we start working on the Conquistadors album's vocals.
14.10.2004 Just a bit of work on the lyrics of the Conquistadors song previously titled "F.A.G." yesterday. Surprisingly I got it all done in one sitting and it's now called "Everone Knows". So now you know.
13.10.2004 Some studiowork with the Conquistadors yesterday, we got some crucial shit done which took a whole lot of weight from my (and I think Mikko's also) shoulders. We got "Greying Out" all sorted out, added a whole lot of piano on the fucker plus boosted the drum sounds and now it's just beautiful, man. Then we proceeded to do some adjustments to "Somethin' Good"'s structure and especially it's bridges and it's working a whole lot better now too. Actually when we went through the pile of songs the only major thing besides recording the vocals is that we need to play "Daydreamer"'s bassline with an instrument that's actually in tune so it looks pretty promising, my lovelies.
11.10.2004 Last Wednesday took me to the sickbed, so hard was the impact of WWE Raw wrestlers' show on Hartwall Arena. I've been to a couple of these WWE shows now but I believe this was the best so far; Triple H, Nature Boy Ric Flair, HBK, Kane, Chris Jericho, Edge, Eugene...What can ya say? Well, one thing I can say is that I have now seen the Nature Boy's bare bottom, to have him bare his 60-year-old behind for us shows how much he's willing to put into a show to entertain the crowd. Fantastic, amazing, great. But as I said, it was more than my poor body could bear and thus I spent the latter part of last week sick (which should explain the shitty updating front). On Saturday I began to feel some regaining of strength finally and managed to write this teeny-weeny tune - I think one of those one verse long ones, you know - which I called "Ain't Telling You". This week I think we'll be working to get some sense into the upcoming set at the Loska partay - and I hope we'll also start the finalisation work on the Conquistadors album but we'll see how my voice heals from this hoarse croaking.
06.10.2004 Was over at Julius's yesterday and we sorted through some songs we'd like to play at the upcoming DOM gig. After getting a dozen or so songs on the list we proceeded to do some writing and a song called "Behind the Fire" emerged. The chorus of the song was left hanging though because it was getting a bit late but the verse and bridge sections came out pretty good, I think.
05.10.2004 Announcement time, peeps! Graceskull will be performing at the annual Loska party on Sunday 31st of October in Vaasa's DOM. As usual we'll also be DJ:ing the slowest and beautifullest (sic) tunes all night so come in black and shed a tear while we get you in the mood for luv.
04.10.2004 Okay, homeboys and babydolls, the mack is back. What I mean is that if you have been wondering the absence of updates in this little newsfeed the answer is that I've been in Rome, Italy for the past week and thus not connected to the Internet. While it was purely a leisureminded trip, I tried to find myself a guitar (or a bass) but unluckily no real gems (apart from a fine 1965 Fender Jazzmaster which was economically out of my reach) came my way. So I came home with only some photos of big and disintegrating buildings and a belly full of pizza (not to mention the amazing ice cream they had!) But to backtrack a little, all the way to the evening before my departure, I'm happy to announce that the Conquistadors album is now musically done. After some difficulties and false starts, we managed to get this pretty uplifting tune "Somethin' Good" done on that particular Friday and all that now remains to be written is the lyrics for that song and "F.A.G." and then it should be pretty much downhill, recording vocals and adding some minor stuff. So I think it's pretty safe to say that the album will be out for the Christmas market.
24.09.2004 Continued on lyrics to "You Have To Win Me Over" yesterday but my flow was apparently not quite as good as I though it was - or maybe I was just forcing it too much - anyway, I only came up with one usable verse. I think I need pretty much stuff for this one to sort out. I also got down an idea on what could be an intro tune (or some small ditty in between songs) for the other project's album (the one with Firevision's Mikko and The Sugarrush's Paati) which we as of now will call The Conquistadors. So keep an eye out for that name, baby. Oh yeah, and that ditty is probably called "No Mas Mascaras".
23.09.2004 Just a little lyricwriting goin' on, mah babies. I wrote a couple of verses to "You Have To Win Me Over" (and yeah, that's probably not the title for that song anymore) and I believe I got some decent shit out, too - I think I've been somewhat on a roll with lyric writing recently, I only hope to get some of these things finished too so one could really tell if they're worth something. One good line does not a good song make (okay, sometimes it's enough but hardly so with me being the author).
22.09.2004 Over at Julius's place yesterday we worked on a couple of songs, mainly "You Have To Win Me Over" and "You Are My Own" ("you" this and "you" that, yah yah yah). Again we found some cool chords for the chorus of the first mentioned tune - I never really coul find these at home, ya know - and so it turned out a bit weirder than I had though but good anyway. I think we're gonna add some soul flava for the both of them when we get around to recording, at least in the drum/percussion tracks (Bill Withers was on the speakers and those 1/8th hi-hats got the best of us). We also dug up an oldie which sounded hella good, "For The Remnant" that is. It's strange how some older tunes sound quite different to how one remembers them, I guess perspective can add some value to a song - they're sometimes like wine, right? Sure, Ove, sure.
21.09.2004 And there it was, the first Bullets gig. While it was a bit hard for me to rock out with my new instrument (I haven't played a bass on stage before), I thought it all went okay and judging from the feedback we've received the audience liked it too. We had acquired matching black imitation leather (well actually they looked 100% vinyl to me) jackets which didn't let any air through it so it was also a physical task to get through the gig as it was a musical one. Andy J. (or Indy "Easy Target" Kivääri as he was called) filled in on the percussions, FLB got on stage midst "The Shot" dresssed as the worst Nikki Sixx -look-a-like E.V.E.R. (still looking cooler than...Jesus?) and Julius helped Arttu (from Firevision) to get the best out of the semi-crummy soundsystem so we got the whole crew onboard which made it even more fun. I even handed out some of my plectrums after the gig (one to the guy from the front row I accidentally and most probably spat on some dozen times during the gig, sorry sport) so it couldn't have gone all that bad for a first gig and all. To be continued then. I've been working on a couple of a new Graceskull ditties during the latter half of last week, one's called "You Have to Win Me Over" and the other one is still untitled (and pretty much in the beginning tsages too) - and between all this I've also figured out the most of "The Light Is Changing"'s lyrics although nothing's really on paper just yet (cause time has been somewhat a commodity I haven't been able to afford lately).
16.09.2004 And a final Bullets rehearsal before the storm. All was well aside a few mistakes here and there but nothing serious. I think we got a good grip on our shit and tomorrow you'll see just how good. We even spent some money on a vibraslap for Andy J. to play (he's the percussion dude for the gig), it's the rattlesnake sound you're gonna hear when you show up at the gig tomorrow in Papin Nenä. Come on, baby!
15.09.2004 Back on track could one say, perhaps. I spent yesterevening over at Julius's place where we had a look at some new songs with Julius behind his trusty piano (of course candles lit on the thing) and me wielding my acoustic (for a change). We definitely got the most out of "The Light Is Changing" since it now is a mountain of a song if you ask me. The trick was that Julius found some chords for the chorus which made a world of difference and turned the chorus - if not the whole song - inside out. If I only can produce some of my better lyrics for this one it might be up there with the best shit we've ever done. Grreat. We also pitched ideas for "Gift of Solitude" (needs a band to get the arrangement in shape) and "Home" (neither of us really knew where this one is headed but at least Julius changed the rhythm for the better) but we ran out of time with those since the Swedish Idols came on the telly and you can't miss that, brotha!
14.09.2004 Yay, just a little rock'n'roll rehearsal ála the Bullets yesterday. We were twice as good as we were last time around and I hope on Friday we'll be even better.
13.09.2004 Back in the rehearsals of the Bullets on Friday, you know we have our very first gig coming up this Friday in Papin Nenä, baby. While it took a while to get ourselves jumpstarted, I think we pretty much started to remember how the songs should be played the second time around the set. In addition to just rehearsing we also planned out stupid stunts and gimmicks to our show but the vast majority of them were of course out of our proportions - we'll see if we come up with something we could actually pull off. On Saturday I got the lyrics to that one song "Madrigal" penned (maybe short of one line) and I think they turned out quite good. Maybe the thought-provoking characteristic of seeing "Fahrenheit 9/11" came to aid, maybe not - but whatever the case, I suggest you go see that movie if you already haven't.
10.09.2004 Back at the Fireworks studios yesterday. Mikko had forgotten his hard drive at home so we didn't finish the song we started last time around (that would be, err..."F.A.G.") but instead got one newbie done almost completely. We built this one super fast, in just a few hours time we had very nearly everything done bar a part of the lyrics. This one is called "Madrigal" (and this time I'm sticking to the title!!!) and I'm pretty sure it will be the final track on the album. Earlier on I also recorded some demo vocals on how the chorus on "F.A.G." should sund like and at least Mikko liked them so I hope we got that one also pretty much wrapped musically.
06.09.2004 Okay, I admit I drove a couple of hundred miles to see a Scorpions this past weekend but the ticket was for free, dude. Besides, their drummer rocked heavily on his drumsolo part of the show and tried to break a bottle of spirits on his head during it. Yeah, the hits still sounded like the great songs they are. And yeah, they had replaced Rudolf Schenker with some stand in who looked just like him and played a Flying V - well, actually he played about a dozen of them - and it was a bit of a let down. But who gives a shit, the trip was fun as fuck as it was the whole (minus Andy J who was tanning his full skin body in Greece or something) Choose Life posse was on the move and surprisingly enough someone had gotten hold of a CD containing the soundbord recording of the majority of the Choose Life gig - which was just fantastic, never mind the few hiccups here and there. Yah yah yah, let's all just backtrack to Friday then because I have to report that I wrote some verses to "The Light Is Changing" in the middle of the night. We might try out this one later in the week even, me and Julius agreed on doing some rehearsing and shit some day this week - and you know I'm-a spill my beans over all dat as soon as we get there, baby.
30.08.2004 Whiplash, baby. Still aching after two gigs on the Sugarrush bandwagon. I thought both went just dandy, I played sloppier than fuck but rocked to the max so I guess the balance was about right. The highlight of the trip to Turku was probably playing Idols-boardgame that Ilkka had brought with him (he hitched a ride with us back to Vaasa). The most frightening thing that emerged from playing the game was that it's actually frighteningly hard to remember the lyrics to even your favourite album in the whole wide world (I was embarassed even though I probably got most of them right) though in the end it didnät even matter 'cause Coma won the whole damn thing without remembering a single line on his chosen record (he'd forgotten his favourite one at home). Saturday's gig was at Welmu's 25th birthday and in all honesty I just have to say that I was pretty fucking amazed about the half-assed attendance figures - promotional flaws and ridiculous ticket prices would be my guess as to why. Well anyway everybody seemed to like the gig and so did I. Sweatmaster were the headliner of the evening and they were extraordinarily tight as usual, especially their drummer is a sight to behold (I even saw him warming up before the gig in the backstage, streching and shit - surely serious about his sport in question, that boy). A rocking evening 'twas, ladies and gentlemen. Come Sunday morning then my neck was aching like a mo'fucker, so why not write some Graceskull stuff - well, actually I just wrote some more stuff to "The Light Is Changing", a chorus or some climax section, heaven knows. The tune is slowly beginning to find its shape, I hope I'll get some lyrics for it done soon, I at least have the basic idea in my head already so it should be that difficult to get it spilt on paper.
27.08.2004 Apparently as the Autumn's first leaves are starting to drop, so are the Graceskull tunes too - it's true, I got one down yesterday again. Pretty happy with this one so far since it has a mood change in the middle of the verse quite unlike anything I'd have done before (I'm only guessing but I think that no one else is gonna even notice that, harhar). Working title for the ditty is also an Autumn-esque one, "The Light Is Changing." And then it's time to holler at the Turku peeps; The Sugarrush is performing at your Päiväkoti venue tonight so why not attend and get your head blown up. Same goes for tomorrow and Vaasa's Club25 where the Sug's are honoring Welmu's 25th birthday.
26.08.2004 Some minor press to report as in today's Vasabladet newspaper there was a story about the 25th birthday of the local rock association Welmu. In the story the peeps at Welmu were asked to state their top three gigs they've witnessed in the association's own Club25 and one Panu Savinainen placed Graceskull in his top three. We're sincerely honored, peace out dude. Click the above link to Vasabladet to read the story and get the fucked up news about the town chiefs wanting to sell the aforementioned Club25. Bastards.
25.08.2004 Back in the Fireworks studios yesterday and boy was it nice to get recording and writing again. We jumpstarted pretty much accidentally with a riff that jumped out of Mikko's keyboard and ended up with something unexpected. The song (working title "FAG"...that's because of the chord progression, dude!) brought some DJ Shadow flashbacks (not to mention the LL Cool J ones!) at least to my mind but I guess it was mainly because of the rough beat. We didn't get it all done though since the night crept up on us and so we still are in need of a melody for the chorus. Hope we get back on dat ass next week.
24.08.2004 Whoohaw, baby! Thanks a lot boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, we have now passed the certified 30000 visitor mark and keep on goin' strong. Oh yeah, and on a sidenote; the Bullets' debut gig will be happening on September 17th in Papin Nenä, Vaasa. Don't ya dare miss it, hombre!
23.08.2004 This last weekend this one old song popped back into my head and I spent just about all the vacant moments in my brain arranging the song and whatnot. So at least now that it's only in my head, "I WIll Still Be Here" sounds fantastic and I even got some lyrics down to paper come late Sunday night (mainly stuff for the chorus came out since I'm not that sure about the verse just yet). When I had my pen and paper already about, I continued to write the lyrics for a Hills (of Vaasa) song which is, for now, called "Trouble".
16.08.2004 While I spent the better part of the weekend just chillin, homes, I did however activate myself for Friday night when I first penned the music for a future Graceskull song (working title "I Can't Be Around For Long") and then proceeded to rehearse with the Sugarrush. A basic rehearsal I'd say except we did agree on a whole lot of different transitions and stuff for the upcoming gig in Turku in two weeks' time - it however remains to be seen whether we'll remember any of them, hardyhar.
13.08.2004 At the Fireworks studio yesterday for some percussive stuff for the upcoming Sugarrush EP (which might - or might not - end up being called "NylonBeatLesPaulSimonLeBonJovi auki ja heti"). I did a couple of tambourine tracks and banged the hell out of a cowbell for one ditty but mostly I just laughed my ass off because of Mikko's jokes. I guess it's all pretty much recorded now and they'll start mixing the shit soon - jus' sum inside info for ya 'Rush fans out there.
11.08.2004 So ya wanna know about the Bullets' week in the studio then? Well, apparently it went just fine until I showed up...naw, I'm just kidding - well, kind of. To recap some things for ya, other boys in the band had already driven up to Haparanda on Sunday to start on the drum and rhythm guitar parts and after I'd gotten my busniess ready I joined them pretty late on Tuesday. Within a couple of hours of arriving I'd finished my bass stuff, it came out pretty easily although some arrangements had been altered in my absence. There was only one song which the boys hadn't managed to record without the bass and so once the other songs were done we tried the song - called "Got To Go" - with Paati still failing to get it sounding like we wanted it. So after some heated discussion (I think Paati felt like it was his fault the song wasn't working but it was just that our live arrangement didn't work for a studio recording) we decided to leave it off the record. I guess this was the reason for some pretty sour faces the next morning (add some foul air of yesternight's alcohol) by the whole band bar myself, and I think we got pretty little done that day because of the bad air around. We finally got things going when the night fell and the percussions were brought out because that percussion stuff is always the most fun stuff to record. Most of the percussions this time around were played by our producer Tony, which even left me behind the knobs for a couple of minutes, but I have the bruises to prove that I also played some tambourine on the faster tracks. The following days we spent on getting the lead guitars and vocals done - and as always it was great fun to watch Jocke play the solos, there's gonna be some super solos on the record, I tell ya. Great fun was also recording the backing vocals since we did that "the old way" ie. all four of us in a room, each with his own mic in x-formation so we could all see each other. Great shouts and footie-choirs and late hours, harhar. We got the shit pretty much wrapped up at midnite on Friday and proceeded to drive back down to Vaasa in the middle of the night of which I have little memories (apart from listening to Hassan CD's - pretty much the funniest shit I've ever heard) even though I even drove a good while. Yeah, so now we must wait some time before Tony gets his magic done mixing and that shit but I guess the record's gonna come out later this year. So get your X-mas stocking out, girl!
02.08.2004 Indeed as I reported The Bullets are in the studio this week recording tracks for our full length album to be released ater this year. Actually I'm still here in Vaasa because of some business affairs while the other boys are already in Haparanda laying down drumtracks as we speak. I will be joining them tomorrow and sure enough it will be good fun to return to the studio where we did the three tracks earlier this year. So as for updates this week, there won't be any but I'm-a tell ya all about the trip when I get back home next week. Stay cool, mah babies!
29.07.2004 A special Bullets rehearsal yesterday as we prepared ourselves for entering the studio next week to record the remaining 6-8 songs for the upcoming album. Most of the time we spent writing lyrics which was quite a funny task since there were four of us, each with a line more stupid than the previous. There's still a couple of tunes without any sensible lyrics but I'm sure we'll get them done in time for the recording. It's only rock'n'roll, ya know. And as for Julius, well, I got a call from him yesterday and as some of you might remember, he had gotten the Hammond he has been working on just about ready but now he was saying that he'd ordered the insides of another, better one which he'd insert into the body he has now. So like many a time before, it's back to the drawing board for old J.Lo's Hammond project - it better sound better than the one he had ready 'cause it was sounding just beautiful to me at least.
26.07.2004 Back behind the keyboard, mi chicas. And I'm so tired from the trip I did with the Sugarrush this weekend that I haven't really got the energy to write the whole story about my week so I'll probably be brief. After the last entry I spent a Friday in Fireworks studio where our new project finished (bar vocals) a song called "Started a Fire" and I have to tell you that it was great to be involved in getting it on tape. I sincerely think it's one of the best stuff I've ever been part of, me and Mikko were quite moved when we listened to the mix at the end of the day. Hope you'll get the chance to hear it soon, friends. During the next week I attended a few rehearsals for a Sugarrush gig but in between them me and Coma did some recording of our own which will make it's way out there sometime in the near future. We operate under the title "Hills (of Vaasa)" and plan to do all recording for the future EP outdoors. What we did on Wednesday was that we wrote four songs and demoed them on a stretch of grass right by the ocean. It was great although Coma burned the left side of his face in the sun and I burned my left knee because of a hole in my jeans - but what wouldn't we give for music? On Friday the Sugarrush hit Mikkeli for a gig which was nice enough to play (thanks to the cool sound guys there) but a bit lacking in the physical aspect for some reason. The next day we drove off to the boys' former label boss Miettinen's house for a Christmas party (yeah, you read it correct) and it was loads of fun although a night spent in the van wasn't exactly the climax of the trip. Thanks for Miettinen alongside his wife for putting up with our shit. Was this a short report then after all...no?
14.07.2004 Yah, yah, yah! I know the updates have been few but it's goddamn summer outside and even we at Graceskull headquarters need some days off, ya know. But we've not been just sitting on our lazy asses, oh no sir - instead we've done some hard manual labour at Julius' studio (taking it apart to build it up again basically, going on all week), writing lyrics to the new sideproject's song "We Can Keep On Dreaming" (that'd be late on Friday night), doing some demo sketching for "Surely" (Monday) and working at the Fireworks studios with the new project yesterday. So yesterday brought more form and tracks onto the "Dreaming..." song and we also got started on a whole new song sometime after midnite (and probably due to the lateness of the hour it's called "Zorbas (My Greek Brother)" for now). It still sounded fantastic this morning though, kinda slow, gritty and dirty with great strings and piano stuff. We'll try to record some more probably later on in the week, I'll keep ya posted, babies.
05.07.2004 The sideprojects have been running amok once again as on Friday I did a rehearsal session with the Bullets and on Saturday I found myself writing/recording some more stuff at the Fireworks studios with Paati and Mikko. The Bullets rehearsals were a bit special in the sense that we recorded most of the songs we have live with just one mic. It was merely a test because I think we'll have to get another mic in to demo the stuff were aiming to record sometime late Summer/early Fall for the upcoming album. Well anyway I thought even these elementary recordings of the songs sounded pretty good so I'd be prepared to jump into a studio any day now, it's just a matter of getting all our schedules in check. On Saturday we (again, it's me, Mikko from Firevision and Paati I'm talking about) worked on three different new songs. The first one is an instrumental which we got all finished, I don't have a name for it yet but the working title was "Viaje por Andalucía". Then we started working on this other tune which I think wasn't all shit but we really didn't feel like it fit the feel of the project - maybe too poppy or something. So we dumped that song and started on another which turned out to quite a rocker (despite our intention to write a slow song because it was raining all day). At first I wasn't that convinced that the song worked but it was probably only because I'd had my ego bruised after the other tune didn't get off the ground. Now after hearing the tune (with yet again a useless working title for a song: "Humpin' in the Ceiling", harhar) with fresh ears the next day I can say that it does really work and definitely rock! So we're really not that many songs from getting the album recorded but at least the next few days in the studio are booked for the Sugarrush so we'll be continuing our journey later on in the month.
02.07.2004 Got a morning song out of me today which was filed with the name "None Wiser" - maybe aptly so. Have no idea if it was a good one or not since, as the songwriters among ya must know, there's always the hazard that those type of songs, the ones that come to you like a flash in the morning, can often be terrible. But we'll hope it's one of those nicey good ones, right? Ta, mate.
01.07.2004 I got two more song ideas down yesterday as working titles of "Home" and "Light Across My Way" came into being. Both are a little different in some ways compared to the classic Graceskull blueprint but I don't quite know how, maybe they just feel like that to me. Maybe it's in the chords or chord progression - maybe it's something else.
30.06.2004 Yet another rehash of an old - well not that old really - demo to report. I meant to start demoing "Surely" yesterday but decided to let it be until I get the lyrics all done and so with a couple of hours in my hands I added some stuff to "Monologue". So now it sounds more like the song sounds in my head - not quite like it but more like it. So check it out over at the audio-section, I promise to have some new demo stuff recorded next week when I have more time on my hands. Maybe.
28.06.2004 I spent most of Friday re-vamping the demo of "Kings and Queens" for some reason which I must've forgot by now. So there are drums and some piano on the demo now which you can hear over at the songs-section. I also have been developing the ideas of the two new songs on which I reported about last week and I'm really enthusiastic about these two, I have to just get some lyrics down and then I can get on demoing them, wahey. Yup. Latter part of Friday was spent over at Julius' house where we had ourselves a Graceskull Midsummer BBQ fest - the food was excellent and music was rocking and fun was most certainly had. J.Lo had finally had a piano tuning guy over, by the way, so his 19th century beauty sounded just great - I am bound to stop by at his house for a jam sometime soon. Julius even reminded me of an almost forgotten tune "Locket" by playing the opening riff which sounded just marvellous on that piano. Yeah. On Sunday I was the usual addition to the Sugarrush liveset over at SkyBar in Vaasa but instead of rocking a guitar I was behind my trusty ol' xylophone (or glockenspiel, whatev's) and some percussions. Amazingly enough I played the plinky-plonky instrument of mine pretty decently and I think it may have evn sounded pretty good - who knows.
24.06.2004 A few new songs emerged from the back of my head yesterday, prospective titles for them would be "Surely" (or possibly "Sure and May") and "Keep 'Em Down". I once again hope that I could have more time on my hands so that I could demo this stuff and get some songs finished too (I had a whole heap of unfinished ones just waiting for lyrics and some details, I noticed yesterday when I went through my pile of demos/ideas). Also yesterday was a Bullets rehearsal which I kinda spoiled by singing and playing like shit but luckily the other guys rocked as usual so the outcome wasn't that bad.
21.06.2004 Jeez whiz. I didn't expect much - if indeed anything at all - from this year's Provinssirock since the lineup wasn't exactly something to brag about but luckily in the end I was thrown on my ass by three different gigs during my two-day visit (yeah, I missed Bowie unfortunately). First up were the Roots who I'd had seen already in '96 or something and then only four man strong they rocked heavily. I had the feeling that maybe time had passed their greatness by since the new single seemed to be pretty dull but I was proven very wrong. There was not a second of silence during the 90 minute set and these guys' musicianship just blew me away; in their solo sections my head was very nearly blown off my shoulders, especially when the bass and the percussion were concerned. They just had their shit together so tight that it was unbelievable. After a night poorly slept I tried to get into the solo set of Teitur but I guess the time and the place wasn't quite right for his singer-songwriter stuff - in a murky club twi minutes to midnite I'd have probably loved it but in daylight with Kemopetrol's bassdrum pumping in my right ear it just didn't do anything to me. After a few hours of waiting it was the Hives who took the stage and looked like they owned it. Hownlin' Pelle is a frontman like no other and his banter just fucking worked, even if it was a stage as big as this. They also played much tighter than the stuff I'd seen on TV so it was a triumph, aw yeah. After their set ended I sprang like hell to catch Air who I figured wouldn't work at all after that exploding rock'n'roll extravaganza I had just witnessed but boy, was I wrong again. A definite highlight of the festival, it was a goosebump experience definitely. What made the whole experince even better was that the every single member of the massive audience was feeling the gig just like I was, I seriously never knew that they had this many fans in Finland. And I think they didn't know it either 'cause they seemed to be in a very cheerful mood, those cheeky French bastards. A beautiful gig which was made even more beautiful by the fact that they never showed up for an encore although they surely were the first band on the festival to really deserved it; the crowd was still cheering and clapping some ten minutes after they'd left the stage. Thanks guys and also thanks to the usual suspects who kept me greatest of great company during the fest, luvya boyzz.
17.06.2004 I wrote the lyrics to the aforementioned "Fading Out" yesterday and instead of fading, it's about "Greying Out" now.
16.06.2004 Yesterday spent within Fireworks studios again with the new project. We got another new song down - called "Fading Out" (title about to change) - but this time it needed some real work but boy, were we pleased with the results. Paati didn't have time to stay at the studio long enough that we'd gotten the drumtracks down so we demoed the track with programmed drums and already it sounds fantastic. I'm hoping on getting it recorded proper sometime next week. We also made a decision that the release we're going to put out will be a full length - why not if the songs keep coming up at this rate? I hope we'll get the recording part wrapped in July so August should probably be apt time to put it out if the mixing won't turn out to be a nightmare.
15.06.2004 Just some minor lyricwriting yesterday. FV's Mikko called me up and asked if I'd be interested in trying out some lyricwriting for a couple of songs they've got written for their next album. So I got down to it and wrote I guess three quarters of the other song and half of the other. I don't know whether they are the kind of stuff they wanted but it was interesting to try to write to someone else's music.
14.06.2004 Keeping busy, weekend saw me lose a streetgolf game, record some vocals for a future Atyd track, rehearse with the Sugarrush for their midsummer gig(behind some percussions and a glockenspiel) and record a demo of "Starship Destroyers". And well since I'm new to the equipment (and especially MIDI programming), it took me ages to get the demo done and it came out shit in the end anyway and I only today realized I should've been using a different setting for the mic. Maybe I'll try it tonight again if my nerves are relaxed enough.
11.06.2004 Today's breaking news is that Nature Sucks Anyway Records - that's our label, ya know - has finally opened their website so you can get the full picture on the fine music they release there. The label future is also looking pretty bright at the moment with possibly up to three of their artists going into the studio in July! You can find it all right here: www.naturesucksanyway.com . And back to the usual stuff, the Bullets rehearsed some yesterday and we got one new song start out of the session - I don't know what it might be called but there was a whole helluva lot of screaming on it. Luvly. After the rehearsal I also got one song of Graceskull's started which in turn had no screaming at all on it. The pendulum of life, indeed.
10.06.2004 So a night spent at the Fireworks studios yesterday. We got it just about done, "Tinkerbell" I mean and it sounds great - maybe even more Massive Attack-ish than the demo, but still it's got something of it's own. We had a bit of trouble getting the live take of drums and keys down since Paati had been living the rock'n'roll lifestyle the night before but after a couple of takes we nailed it down and proceeded to fill the song up with some eerily cool stuff. I still don't know what this all will amount to but an EP at least is imminent. An album? Well, you never know, do ya...
09.06.2004 I started working on the lyrics for "Tinkerbell" - the tune number three that Mikko, Paati and I demoed on Saturday - late yesterday, actually after 12 o'clock so that our method of only writing on the day of recording should be obeyed. Yeah, that means that we're going to record it properly today and maybe work on some details on the other songs. I think we're doing at least one more song sooner or later to get a complete EPs worth of stuff but Idon't know when that's going to happen just yet. Keep your eyes peeled!
07.06.2004 While Julius was vacationing in Stockholm, I spent the Saturday most refreshingly at the Fireworks studio's with Paati and Firevision's Mikko (Arttu also was there to help us out on this and that tech details, thank ye boy!) We had an idea that we pretty much carried out according to plan which means that we wrote and recorded three songs (the aim was four but three good uns was more than enough) from scratch - we even didn't have an idea what kind of music we'd do. And it really couldn't have really worked out any better, the songs came out easily and so did everything else, it was just making music the easy way! The first one we wrote was quite a poppy number, the second was dare I say druggy and the third (which wasn't completely finished) was maybe Massive Attack-ish. Se we're talking electronic music but not in a programmed sense since we played everything on it live. Paati did the drums (apart from the second song which I did since Paati hadn't shown up yet), I sang and played some acoustic and Mikko played the keys - his basslines on this Roland were just grreat! I guess we'll return for a session or two more in the not so distant future and the outcome will be an EP maybe next month. It's well worth waiting for, I tell ya. And then back onto the vacation boy, Julius can be spotted on TV alongside our axe hero Jocke tonight in Bettina S. program's musical extra which should be airing on YLE at about 8:20PM. It's not the number that was already aired earlier this year but "some rock number from G", says J-Lo himself. Peep that shit, baby!
04.06.2004 Announcing the Bullets' self-titled debut EP! The first edition arrived today so next week you should be able to order them from Nature Sucks Anyway and soon they'll find their way onto at least Vaasa's Anttila Top Ten. In Graceskull news however I got a parcel in the mail yesterday and in it was a heap of new recording equipment; mics, MIDI-keyboards and whatnot. So in the future I hope my demos will be a bit better, at least when I'll learn using this stuff. I think these will also help us record and tweak some of the real recordings so I'm very eager to learn how to operate every knob. Well almost every knob. And then I also did a brief interview for a French site earlier today which they might be posting in the near future, you'll hear about it here as always.
03.06.2004 A photoshoot yesterday with the Bullets. We took some shots that are bound to appear on the sleeve on the upcoming EP. If we're lucky it will be in our hands as soon as on Satuday, so better spare some of that allowance on rock'n'rock'n'rock'n'roll, baby. More info on the product soon.
31.05.2004 Sorry for the lengthy update breach but I spent the better part of last week in Helsinki city where internet access was unattainable. Instead I opted to enjoy Bad Cash Quartet and their warm-up act Padington DC live in Tavastia on Thursday. Well sadly I have to say that enjoy was the wrong choice of a word here since I thought that both of the shows were crap. Padington DC was this dude with a guitar singing songs that sounded like they were made hastily backstage just seconds before the performance. And the Quartet, well I never was a number one fan of Brit-Pop and I certainly am not one now so their bland '95 Swedeyfied whine-with-a-smile fell very flat if you ask me. Sorry. When arriving back to Vaasa on a sunny Friday night my task at hand was to pull four songs out of my ass while on-stage with Atyd because Ilkka really couldn't get his ass here. To my surprise my bottom was apparently in quite a nice condition that night since whatever I pulled out of it, it seemed to work pretty well. Micke had done quite a job in assembling a video montage to benefit the show and I think it worked pretty good too - the audience was baffled but I think that was the whole point (if there indeed was a point). To close today's entry off before speculating this and that even further I just have make a recommendation: if you haven't seen "School of Rock" yet, go see it now! I caught the fucker yesterday and it just might be one of the funniest things I've ever seen. "Roll your eyes back in your head like there's something wrong with you!"
25.05.2004 Just a standard Bullets rehearsal yesterday, we rocked hard and surely the songs are going smoother all the time. By the way, I reported the new song's title all wrong last time; it's actually called "Manwhore (Get Ready To Pay)" - of course, it is - and it surely is my favourite Bullets ditty at the moment.
24.05.2004 "L-O! V-E!" Friday night. Turku city. Over 2000 metalheads. Chandeliers in the ceiling. And one neon metal god. Oh yes, we witnessed W.A.S.P. live on stage and lived to tell the tale of Blackie Lawless and his crazy mic-stand. I would just like to say that the set was just as good as a veteran band doing promo for their new album could have: a could of newbies dropped righ in the middle of the set between a couple of handfuls of solid steel metal classics. And as for Blackie - sure he's had a few drinks in his day and it shows on his body but surely not in his performance; he sings exactly as brutally as on the very first recordings and runs across the stage and climbs/swings on the extremely cool mic-stand especially built for the man. And then some. The high point of the show was when they performed a song in total darkness until mister Lawless started rubbing bright green neon paint all over his body and face until he looked like the most evil thing you've ever seen in this dimension. Check out these pictures and you'll maybe see some of what I'm talking about. A classic show, no less. On Sunday having come back to reality I worked on this Friday's Atyd set with Mr Wägar and got it somewhat sorted out though I only have two songs worked out so far. And as there is a chance that Ilkka might not make it all the way from England to the gig, I should have some backup plans for all the remaining set. Jeez. It's as exciting for me as it is for the audience to see just what is going to happen at the gig...
21.05.2004 There appeared a news story of sorts about the Bullets' excursion to Papin Nenä's ladies room in Vaasan Ylioppilaslehti (which is a magazine for students at the Vaasa university). If you're interested like crazy the article is available right now at The Bullets'/The Toilets' website. Thursday brought a new song to the table, I called it "Distorted Ghost" but I'll change it in due time cause Sparklehorse has already an EP by the same name available (and quite a good one at that, too). In the meanwhile Julius has been getting some new Hammond parts of all kind of different types and for the looks of it he's basically building up indeed a Hammond of his likin'. That's the news for now, thank you.
19.05.2004 Spent yesterday eve writing a melody and lyrics to another Atyd tune. I think I got it just about done and the song is called "Scorched Garden". The ditty will be premiered live on the Friday a week from now in Papin Nenä where a rare sighting of Atyd will be available. It's going to be quite interesting since I will be probably singing three songs and our former Graceskull colleague Ilkka Kujansivu will perform another three. So don't ya dare miss it.
18.05.2004 A Bullets rehearsal yesterday. Or maybe it was more like a song writing session since most of the time was spent on getting this one new tune done. Well we got it done and geez-whiz, is it a good one! Surely the heaviest thing the Bullets have done, the song is called "He's a Whore" (and it's better than Cheap Trick's or Big Black's songs of the same name, hurhur) and I just fucking loved playing this song, can't wait to let you hear it. We also discussed a prospect of getting an album done instead of just releasing an EP - I'm not exactly sure if it's going to happen but I think there's a fatter than slight chance of it really happening. I'm-a letcha know, as always.
17.05.2004 The Streetgolf season of 2004 was kickstarted some moments before midnite on Friday. Though it had been pissing down a bit we decided to swing the introductory swings of the year and I'm glad we did since the game was just super and it seemed like no-one had had a break whatsoever from this sport of the champions. As good as everyone played it was a grand surprise to see Andy J. (or Gig-Antti as he's been called recently here at camp Graceskull) on the top podium since it has most often been quite a contrary position he's placed himself in in the past. Also a welcome placing was that I became second which also could easily be categorized as a surprise. I clearly had almost forgot just how fun a game Streetgolf is, I hope we'll get to take the clubs out soon again. Aside from the sports news, I ordered some new gear (soundcard, mic, midi-keyboard etc.) during the weekend that is going to help me bring some more life into my demoing and maybe also help our basic recording a bit, at least it should make some parts of it more mobile.
13.05.2004 Amazing. Desperate times call for desperate measures which for the Bullets meant playing a non-stop set of over three hours yesterday in the tiny ladies room of Papin Nenä. No, really. Not a bad place to do your first gig, I can tell you. We played under a bogus name of the Toilets in all black suits and it very much seemed like everyone loved it, us included. Even more so when the band started getting really drunk in the latter stages of the mammoth set that comprised of some reworked Bullets material, some stuff we just made up right there and then and a couple of requests/covers. I think we could have fitted in a full fourth hour into the set but Jocke's guitar string broke and he was unable to change it - not only because he was intoxicated but also because there was only one spare string available but it wasn't the right one, harhar. The only song we played twice (due to requests) was the new Bullets number "Rock'n'Roll Soldiers" which ended in a massive singalong. After the gig some reporter even wanted an interview with us but I'm not exactly sure whether she got anything sensible from us at that point of the evening, well shoot. It was very much fun, kissy kiss to everyone who laughed with us, not at us. Very few pics are in here (hey, I was operating the bass and not the camera, man!)
12.05.2004 Bad news on the Bullets front, we're most probably forced to cancel the gig on May 22nd at Club25 due to Jocke's uncancellable duties elsewhere. I'm really sorry about this but what can ya do? We're still looking for some ways to make up for the gig but it'll doubtfully happen before September/October. We did rehearse though yesterday and nailed one cover song for our setlist, we'll just see when you get to hear it then. But there are some (hopefully) good news also on the gigging front, let me just put it like this: something is going to happen in Papin Nenä's ladies' room tonight. No, it is not the Bullets nor is it Graceskull, the Sugarrush or Choose Life either - frankly, my dears, I don't know what it's going to be.
11.05.2004 Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you yesterday that the pictures of the Choose Life project's night of mayhem have appeared at the website so check 'em out and be amazed of the beautiful men.
10.05.2004 After one newbie popped in my head and was transferred onto my laptop on Friday night, I decided to check out one of my favourite bands some 10 years ago, Deep Turtle, live on stage at Club25. To my amazement they had a "support act" that drew nearly all of my amazement basically on Deep Turtle's very own means; weirdness would be one of these. The act's name was Sabot and they were an American married couple who now live in the Czech Republic and who have been playing about 15 years as an instrumental two-headed monster. Let's just state the facts and say that the female part of the equasion rocked everyone's nuts off playing drums and I can't say a bad word about her husband either - one could see that he knew his instrument perfectly since every sound came out just right. The music was kinda proggy, I think, but it also brought some Tortoise flashback's into mind. Anyway, go see them if you ever get the chance, they're just amazing. Deep Turtle were quite alright, too. They play tighter a mosquito's cunt and the rhythm they pull out of their collective ass are just rockin' but somehow after Sabot their impact wasn't quite the one I had been hoping for. I intended to write a few lines' worth of text about me seeing Kill Bill Vol.2 on Saturday but since I rambled on about that gig already I won't take more of you're time today. Yeah, it was cool.
05.05.2004 And back to the Bullets then, we rehearsed yesterday and after a bit downtempoed beginning we got back to rocking just like we're used to. The night ended with a new song "Goodbye to the Rock'n'Roll Soldiers" that is a bit of a departure from the usual Bullets style of rocking, I'd say that it was more indie-ish a song than what we're now used to doing. And I think it's going to be the final number on the upcoming gig.
03.05.2004 Life is life, baby - and at times it's even more than that. I'm talking about Friday night when the Choose Life project finally materialized on stage at Vaasa's Amarillo. I sincerely think it couldn't have been any better even if Limahl himself would've gotten on stage with us - we had so much fun that it's surely impossible to get it transcribed here. The audience was great, the sound was great, our outfits were indeed great...apart from a few bum notes and some disconnected cables it was all good. I think it's very rare that a band comes off the stage and every member thinks the gig went great but this time it surely was so. I'd like to extend a great big arm out to everyone who made this possible, especially to all the guys in the band: you rock! Here's the setlist for you who weren't there to sing along:
1. Self Control (Laura Branigan)
2. Touch Me (Samantha Fox)
3. Dancing with Tears in My Eyes (Ultravox)
4. Hungry Like A Wolf (Duran Duran)
5. When Will I Be Famous (Bros)
6. Forever Young (Alphaville)
7. She Drives Me Crazy (Fine Young Cannibals)
8. Rock Me Amadeus (Falco)
9. 99 Luftballons (Nena)
10. Danger Zone (Kenny Loggins)
11. Don't You Want Me (Human League)
12. I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight (Cutting Crew)
13. Life Is Life (Opus)
---
14. Word Up (Cameo)
15. Boys of Summer (Don Henley)
16. We Are the World (USA For Africa)
The highlights for me were at least when the FLB let loose 99 balloons (okay maybe there were only 75 of them) at the beginning of "99 Luftballons" and when we sang "We Are the World" all the way into the backstage where our warm-up act joined in (the audience was of course still singing it then). The most peculiar thing was that when I had my gear on along with the stupid hairstyle and when I got on stage, all irony was dropped and I think one could say that I became the character I was playing - it was a wonderful feeling. Irony can be humorous at times but I feel (and at least judging by a few faces in the audience, this is correct) that the crowd also managed to get over it and have fun with us and not so much at us. Well it's a nice thought at least - I'm ever the idealist, hurhur. I hope to get some pictures up later on this week so stay tuned for some beautiful men. Love all y'all.
30.04.2004 The final rehearsal for Choose Life took place yesterday. For this ultimate round we dragged along our stage attire and I can truly say there were some amazingly handsome and sharp dressed young men vacating our rehearsal space - enough good things can't be said about Arttu's jean jacket or Andy's loafers. Not only that but we rocked through the set galantly too so I think we're ready to take this challenge on. I command thee; Vaasa's Amarillo tonight, after midnite - you can't miss, baby!
29.04.2004 A short run through of the Choose Life set yesterday, we're nearly ready for action now. I however have to learn one song's lyrics before tomorrow but it's not such a toughie so I'll surely manage it. Andy had fixed this Stratocaster replica of Mikko's (that actually once upon a time was the first guitar I've had) and borrowed himself one that looked almost exactly like it so it looked hella cool with two pitch black Strats under our chins. But that of course wasn't enough and so Mikki showed up at the rehearsal with a black Stratocaster too - stunning! After the rehearsal we jammed a bit with just me, Andy and Mikko and it was nice to do something that relaxed for a change, something without a set goal. We should do a whole lot more of that type stuff, at least one of the jams sounded to me like a song worth making.
28.04.2004 I made a vocal contribution of the odder varity yesterday when we vocodered the hell outta my voice for the intro tape to the Choose Life show. I very nearly sounded like the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica and thus the intro came out really good. Just a few days now and this shit will explode.
26.04.2004 Ho hum, a lot of Choose Life rehearsing this past weekend - we had sessions on both Friday and Saturday and I think we're getting closer to nailing those songs. There's still some fine tuning to be made but I think we'll be able to pull it off. Friday ain't that far away no more, mah babies.
23.04.2004 Unfortunately we had to cancel the Kuopio gig that was scheduled for May 5th but we are hoping to make good for it in the coming Fall. So check back when the leaves start falling.
22.04.2004 And yet another Choose Life rehearsal yesterday with a couple of missing members. We went through a couple of new songs and a whole bunch of already learned ones (which we had to learn again basically, hurhur) and I think we're going to do some of that latter function quite a lot in the coming days. Also pretty much secured a debut gig for The Bullets which should be happening 22nd May in Vaasa's Club25 (where else could it have been?) We've been briefly talking about arrangements with Julius in the past few days - to get back to Graceskull for a while - so even though we aren't spending time in the studio physically it doesn't mean that our brains are ever removed from it. Maybe we should get these ideas on paper so that we could actually remeber them when we get our actual bodyparts in the studio somewhere down the line - Julius was at least bringing back the Clavinet for the next record and I have thought about it too, it was missing on "Happiness" so it's about time for a return.
19.04.2004 Whoa Wilbur! A hefty dose of musical activity this past weekend for yours truly. It all began with Friday night's Graceskull gig which has to be one of my favourites thus far. I was pretty worried that no-one would show up for this gig since every bar in town seemed to have some (more popular than us) band playing but once we took the stage at around 1:30AM one could say that the place was packed. So I just guess that the people that are interested in our music are not a big followers of Timo Rautiainen or Scandinavian Music Group - good for you. Well anyway, we figured out in the soundcheck that "Monologue" - though intended to be played - wasn't quite as good as we'd have liked it to be so we decided to drop it from the list (a jam of the Afghan Whigs' "Step Into the Light" was however nearly inserted since it sounded like magic, unfortunately we just didn't have the time to learn it). The other newbie - "There Must Be A Way" which is to be called "Dying Days" from today onwards - went just splendidly as did the rest of the set. We even threw in two encore numbers instead of the traditional one, "Lover" was the surprise song even to us since we haven't played it in maybe six months - no, not even in rehearsals. All in all, I at least had a great time so a great big thank you goes out to everyone who dropped by (extra thank you should go out to the boys from Lapko who had apparently invited the peeps on their gig in Club25 to see us after their set). The setlist of our gig is here. On Saturday I attended Club25 and got me an earfull of Disco Ensemble and No Shame. No Shame really caught me off-guard, amazing and energetic set combined with great light show from the club locals equalled a most enjoyable live sensation. The most incredible aspect of the band was surely the bass-player's right hand - there is surely none faster (bar Steve Harris maybe), I tell you no lie. Then on to Disco Ensemble who I have witnessed many a time but I think this was the best set I have seen by them yet. There aren't many bands in Finland who as much a Band as these guys and their precision and craftsmanship is just unbelievable. I've probably said something about Endstand's axemeister being the best this country has to offer when it comes to original playing but most certainly Disco Ensemble's Jussi is right up there with him - he just knows his instrument and how to get just the right sounds out of the fucker. Okay sure, one could always make some stupid ass comment about a certain band called At The Drive-In but since they're now defunct I have no objection to Disco rocking my world in a similar style - who gives a crock if the shit works. Man. Yeah, then on to Sunday. We had a Choose Life rehearsal with limited personnel since Firevision's Arttu was out of town and Mikko had some important personal stuff he had to take care of. Nonetheless we managed to get two new songs sorted out including the epic final number that I just can't reveal yet. A lot of links in today's entry but all of them useful click 'em, homegirl!
16.04.2004 A lot of new stuff in my head, it seems...and some of it even comes out. Yesterday a newbie by the name of "Gift of Solitude" emerged from out of nowhere and in the break of dawn today I even got some words on paper for it. Yay. Dontcha forget to drop by Papin Nenä tonight, by the way, cause we're playing there and there should be a couple of other new uns in the set. We're probably hitting the stage at about 01:00 so don't be late, baby.
15.04.2004 I managed to get some work done to a couple of ditties-in-progress - lyricwise, that is. I made some additions and fixes to "Sway" (got also some fresh ideas on the arrangement side of the song which just might rescue it from utter blandness, I hope) and completed a song which I had just about done already some months ago, it was actually missing just two lines but I guess I had to distance myself from the subject before I could get it worked out. Anyway the completed one is strangely enough called "No Name" and you can find its lyrics right where you'd figured they would be: the lyric archive.
14.04.2004 A Bullets rehearsal yesterday. We made use of the song Jocke had writen the week before and revamped from its original metal-ish form, it became quite a fuckin' rocker. I think it is called "The Truth (Hit the Lights)" and it has some of the more hilarious lines of the Bullets songbook, the bridge at least made me laugh every time I sang it. Once driving back to town I had a sudden surge of inspiration in the middle of a dark Vaskiluoto road and luckily had my laptop with me so there I was at the side of the road singing and snapping my fingers in the wee hours of the morning - while it may sound stupid, it felt just super. Long live technology, mah babes!
13.04.2004 That was the Easter then. I did catch Jesus on celluloid nearly right on time, just a day early and I quite liked the film (bar a few scenes at the very end). After sharing this cinematic pleasure with Andy J., Coma and the FLB we made our way to the rehearsal space with Paati joining us later on to run through the songs for the Sugarrush's Friday night gig. The rehearsal went just splendidly so it was quite a surprise that once we took the stage of Royal Night the next day we just plainly sucked. Things weren't made any better by the fact that apparently the mix of the gig was bad - well we should've been aware that something fishy was going on when the mixer guy put on a Khaled CD during the soundcheck. Having gone through a day long forgetting process I decided to check out Magyar Posse and Kuusumun Profeetta at Club25. Having arrived halfway through Kuumusun Profeetta's set I am still not really sure whether I liked it or not - what I can admit to was being impressed with the way they carried the music. Some of the heavier aspects of the set really didn't do much for me but the more Tindersticksian sides sure worked fine. The last time I caught Magyar Posse I thought their set was impressive but unfortunately less so this time, I have to say. It might be that their element of surprise had already been lost with me but I just felt like they were playing the same song over - until their encore that is, the first tune of the encore was just great. I could also blame the not-that-great feeling of the set to their latest addition, a female violinist dressed up in a bright red blouse in the middle of the stage who didn't add anything noteworthy to the songs in my opinion. Sorry boys, maybe it's just me. Waking up on Sunday I had to get my shit together pretty fast since we had an early rehearsal with Choose Life - that's "early" in rock'n'roll terms by the way. We got a couple of new tunes added to our repertoire and got the already learned ones into better shape. I think we still have a couple of ones to add but time is running out since there's only a few weeks until showtime. On Monday we made yet another return to the rehearsal space as it was time for a Graceskull rehearsal - at last, one could say, hurhur. Once again it was noted that we play the "oldies" pretty good even if we'd not played them in months and so we set our sails for two new songs, namely "Monologue" and "There Must Be A Way". "There Must Be A Way" formed out pretty nice and easy, my favourite part of it being Paati's oddly accented beat. "Monologue" came up in the last leg of the session but since it seemed quite easy to do, we decided to add it into the list. We'll just see if we can remember on how the songs went come Friday since we couldn't fit our schedules into having a second rehearsal. Wish us luck!
08.04.2004 Got some sort of form to the newbie "There Must Be A Way"'s lyrics - the second verse still isn't quite what I was after but it'll have to do for now (I'm thinking of fixing it for real this time...but we'll see if that ever happens). I also wrote something that might become an instrumental of sorts, sounded a teeny weeny bit like Jose Gonzalez I think. Oh yeah, I almost forgot: Bring your sweet bottom to Royal Night in Vaasa tomorrow 'cause the Sugarrush will be a-rockin' the stage sometime after midnite.
07.04.2004 Here we have the poster for next week's Papin Nenä gig. Meanwhile I've been trying to get lyrics done to the song previously known as "Alien Escapes" - I think I'm one verse and half a chorus short. Also some ideas on the breakdown section of the song have emerged, I hope that we could play this one on the upcoming gig. The present working title for it is "There Must Be A Way" by the way.
05.04.2004 A Bullets rehearsal took place on Friday as scheduled. Once having taken a look at the weary faces of the boys I anticipated that we'd get fuck-all done, so the surprise was more than pleasant when we started the rehearsals off with "The Show" and it rocked like a mutha with tightness of an anchovy's cunt (TM Greg Dulli). The rest of the session proceeded in similar fashion, "the oldies" were played with precision and the new ones found much of their intended flavors. The only fullsized newbie we managed to cough up was developed from Macke's chorus and I quite liked this one with all its falsetto backing vox and stuff. The rest of our "tunes of agreement" were tried and tested but they didn't really make instant waves - Jocke had a full song though, but we weren't exactly sure if it was a Bullets tune since it had some heavy hard rock leanings. I think he had an epiphany at the end of the rehearsals on how we could get it working for the Bullets so we'll se what happens come the next session.
02.04.2004 It was decided at the previous Bullets' rehearsal session that we would each write a song in time for the next rehearsals and I did my share yesterday. I'm not exactly sure if it's a completely working tune but we should figure it out later on tonight when we're scheduled to get together. I also wrote some more music to "Starship Destroyers", a kind of an outro or something. Then I checked out the final edit of "The Christening" video by Atyd which I'm singing on, you should also get a peek next week when Michael Wägar - that's Mr. Atyd himself - promised to have the clip online. So I'll get back to you on that.
31.03.2004 Yesterday I finally finished the lyrics to the song with the funny name; it's been called "Starship Waltz" and "Alderaan Blues" - among other similar titles - before but now I've settled with "Starship Destroyers" - for better or for worse. I've also been getting some more ideas on the music department of the song and I'm hoping to get a demo of this 'un done sometime pretty soon. The finished lyric sheet is hereby viewable for your pleasure, monsieurs et madames: click me pleeze.
30.03.2004 Okay, in lack of better content here is the demo for "Monologue" I put down in yesterday's news entry. Enjoy or just plain puke.
29.03.2004 Yet another Choose Life rehearsal on Saturday and boy was it a big 'un! The seven of us were cramped in our rehearsal space for about eight - yes, eight - straight hours handling different oft-electronic instruments. I guess the favourite instrument was the drumpad Mikko came to the rehearsals with, everyone wanted to bang on it all the time. On some tunes (like "When Will I Be Famous") it even worked in providing the eigties type of whiteboy funk into the mix. There's a lot of "first times" this gig is going to provide for the memebers of the project, like for instance in my case it will be the first time I play a tune that's sung in German (guess which one!) - luckily I'm not the one who's singing it - and the first time I'll be playing slap bass on stage. I think we now have about ten songs in the bag but there are definitely a few good ones we're looking into - and thanks for the input on the website. Apart from the rehearsal session I made a demo recording of "Monologue" earlier on Saturday but it didn't come out that good, I think. Made in too much a hurry probably and I think the song needs a bit more flesh around it instead of just an acoustic guitar and - you guessed it! - a glockenspiel. I might put it up on the site for you to judge later this week if I still feel up for it when I get the conversion to an MP3 made, we'll see.
25.03.2004 A Choose Life rehearsal yesterday. Well, actually not so much a rehearsal but more a let's-see-how-this-song-goes session. We managed to get the rough idea of five or so songs through our thick skulls which is good news since we are having a large scale practise session this weekend (there were only four - well Paati made a brief visit actually - of us yesterday).
24.03.2004 A Bullets rehearsal yesterday with some tired men. Nonetheless we managed to squeeze out a new tune that travelled around the speed of light, I don't remember if it had a title or not. We also worked on "Gimme a Scream" but didn't get the solo section working despite the many a try. Back in the world of Graceskull, in the past couple of days I've been working on lyrics for several songs new and old. Mostly it has been just minor stuff but some of the older ones are missing just that, for example "Starship Destroyers" (or whatever it may be called when I finish it) is just missing a line or two and there are a couple of other ones like that. I hope I get the time soon to do the finishing touches lyricwise, it would be nice to get to play these ditties...
23.03.2004 Choose Life - the eighties hit machine featuring members from Graceskull, Firevision and the Sugarrush - seem to have gotten a little webpage of their own yesterday, please pay a visit and request a tune: mokomaki.com/chooselife ! Some audiovisual work also yesterday since Mr. Wägar of Atyd shot a video for the song on which I am featured doing vocals. We did a very simple and minimalistic shoot that proved some stylish looking material. He should be editing the vid as we speak and as it appears on the net, I'm-a let ya know. And so J.Lo was on the telly alongside our axemeister Jocke in the backing band for Hasse Westergård and they did Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a Wire". I thought the boys handled their shit just great (and Julle's Crumar-organ looked hella cool on its original stand) but I have to be a bit critical towards the vocal artist since I thought his singing didn't really carry the tune as it should. Okay, it ain't easy to do Lenny's stuff since you can only do it his way or then completely differently, so I think this version dropped somewhere in between those opposites.
22.03.2004 Ho hum, the Julius/Aatu gig on Friday was fun to witness. Not only did the rhythm machine of this old burned keyboard they used give me the laughs of the century but it was nice to hear Julius play from the other side of the stage for a change. I once again realised that Rhodes is the most beautiful instrument around and J.Lo surely plays the fucker accordingly. Okay, it was not their fault but the set I thought was a bit too long and so we only managed to catch a few remaining songs of TKK&Setä Tamu's live set at a couple blocks down in Papin Nenä. The crowd seemingly loved their stuff and I think someone even yelled out a request for the song "Pojalleni" on their album on which I am featured. The weekend continued with Setä onboard on Saturday morning when we had a rehearsal for the "secret project" on which the boys from Firevision are rocking with me and the Sugarrush. I might as well draw the curtain up since it's only a month from now when we have the gig for the project and the rehearsals promised some rockin' stuff; Choose Life is the name and greatest of the 80's is our game. I know that our love for 80's metal has been widely documented but this time we're claiming our passion for the classic tracks from the decade so many want to forget (is it the high cut jeans or the shoulder padding, you decide). This spectacle will be happening on April 30th (that's Vappuaatto for ya natives out there) in Vaasa's Amarillo so don't ya dare miss it! Now that the cat is out of the bag I can say that these rehearsals went splendidly, probably cause we were only missing one member (Coma) of the lineup and even had added musicianship in Firevision's gig guitarmeister Mikki. So the whole lineup is going to be:
Arttu Peljo (Firevision): Vocals, keyboards and percussions
Andy J. Prinkkilä The Sugarrush): Vocals, guitar and keyboards
Ove Ritola (Graceskull): Vocals, guitar and bass
Coma Silvennoinen (The Sugarrush): Vocals and bass
Mikki Somppi (Firevision): Guitar
Mikko Tamminen (Firevision): Vocals and keyboards
Paati Wägar (The Sugarrush): Electric drums and vocals
We have now about 7 songs ready for action and I think we're aiming for at least the same amount more in the coming rehearsals - my favourite ditty from Saturday was probably "When Will I Be Famous" by Bros, a sure proof that the producers from the eigthies were out of their heads (the chord changes and the breakdown sections are just crazy). Enough of bullshit, I'll end with yet another Julius reminder; he's on the telly tonight on YLE2 and FST's Bettina S. at around half past 8 so peep it, baby!
19.03.2004 This is the last reminder that Julius will be performing alongside his ex-bandmate from Kimi Shelter, Aatu, at Amarillo tonight. If you haven't got the message through your thick skull yet, I have to say I am disappointed. While tired after a long day yesterday at YLE studios, Julius reported that their two song gig on the telly went just dandy and one of the songs should be aired this Monday on the talkshow Bettina S. (that's at 20:20 on YLE2 and FST) with the other one airing on a music special of the same show sometime in the near future. Meanwhile the Atyd track "The Christening" I sang on Wednesday appeared on the Skithund records' site yesterday and you can take a peek right here.
18.03.2004 An active Wednesday. First off I paid a visit to Atyd's studio where I made a vocal contribution to a track called "The Christening". I think it came out alright though I am yet to hear the final mix. I think there's another Atyd ditty that I am supposed to do for the upcoming album but I'm not exacxtly sure yet about what kind of melody should fit the song. Oh well, we'll see what happens. After the session I drove down to our rehearsal quarters (where Julius was just finishing his rehearsal with Aatu for their this Friday's set in Amarillo) for a Bullets songwriting session. Out came one completely finished song (okay, we're missing a couple of lines of lyrics ) called "Back on the Streets" and two half-baked ones, that's "The Snake" and "Gimme a Scream". It may well be that "The Snake" will worm its way out of the Bullets repertoire since we couldn't really get a good chorus going. Anyway I loved playing "Back on the Streets", there's many a fine gimmick on it and it's surprisingly the first Bullets song without a guitar solo! Yup. Today J.Lo and Jocke are heading down to Pasila with the Rubbish Bros (I think) to tape a song or two for the talk show Bettina S. It should appear on your screens on Monday on YLE2 at around half past eight but I may as well have it all wrong so check back to see if I have some more accurate details on the broadcast tomorrow or on Monday.
17.03.2004 This may be of interest to very few but I've been inserting the stuff on these pages into a database in the last few days and while a lot of stuff still awaits transformation, I got the main parts done. The only change you will see is that the news section and the guestbook are now searchable, there a little search box at the end of these pages which you can use to easily locate the drunken 3AM guestbook entry you wrote way back in 2002. Or something. Back tomorrow with a more music-oriented approach to the news, stay cool, babies.
15.03.2004 ...You lose some. I am pissed off. Yeah, it's a Monday morning but I'm pissed off more than usual since sometime in the wee hours of Saturday morning some poor fucker had broken into the offices of Mokomaki (to those unknowing, it's the design etc. venture of myself and Coma from the Sugarrush) and stolen our computers along with the backups of all the stuff we've done. Now, you can always buy new 'pooters but you can't buy back the work we had saved on that hard-drive and those CDs. Fuckers. So anyway, a call would be appreciated if you would possibly know anything new about the incident. On the sunny side of town however Julius got his low-end Leslie amp together and he said that it's working like a charm. And the best of news was that it doesn't even weigh that much (if you've never carried J.Lo's gigging gear you can't appreciate that fact like the rest of us who have).
12.03.2004 Yup. A new song yesterday. "I Got a Sickness" it's called, maybe this time I'll even keep the title. Now proceed with whatever you were doing.
11.03.2004 We had the first rehearsal of the new hush hush project yesterday. I think it went a-OK but there's a lot of rehearsing to be done before we get these songs working like they should, some are naturally a bit easier but some require a lot of hard work. It will probably be easier when we get the whole lineup in the same room at the same time, yesterday it was just me, Paati, Andy and Mikko from Firevision so we were missing probably three more dudes.
10.03.2004 I feel like repeating myself but the Bullets stuff is now online so click yourself over to the website and listen to dat shit. And if you have a hard time figuring out on which song I'm singing on, it's number 3 ie. "Never Get Me Whole". Enjoi, baby.
09.03.2004 A new song emerged maybe a second before I wandered off to slumberland yesterday and it's under the working title of "Alien Escapes" (I don't know where I got that from, mind you I was half asleep, but I think it might be something derived from a Sparklehorse lyric). Oh yeah and I forgot to mention yesterday that me and Macke might've written a Graceskull tune in the middle of the night in the studio when the other boys were mixing or something. At least it sounded like a Graceskull tune - it felt good to ease things down after the turned-to-eleven guitars had been ringing in our ears for hours...and it was nice to get back to the turned-to-eleven guitars after that, hurhur. The Bullets previews are downloadable from tomorrow onwards by the way so check back in 24 hours, homes.
08.03.2004 Whoa, easing into the real world is quite hard after the work and fun filled weekend the Bullets spent in a Haparanda studio. But surely the outcome is well worth this out of place feeling, I really couldn't be more satisfied with the results - a rock EP that rocks like rock should! We started logically off on Friday with the drums, bass and rhythm guitar stuff which rolled onto the tape quite easily, the boys behind the mixing desk - that's Leopold Delloria's Tony and Jocki - sure as hell knew what they were doing and I thought the sound was already great even without the mixing. I also thought when we had gotten the rhythm stuff done that it was time for sleep but instead we moved forth with the vocals at about three in the morning. Au naturelle this being a trip to Sweden I had managed to catch me a cold and when it was time for me to sing my stuff they woke me from my fevered sleep from the studio floor and off I went. This state of mine might account for some curious ad libs here and there. Macke was also feeling some signs of a cold but I think it just added to his sound and I must say that I think his vocals came out hella good (although we found it a bit odd and amusing when he started replacing "come on" shouts with "jawohl" ones, hurhur). One clear sign of his devotion was that once he had recorded all his parts, he had to retire to the house where we were staying at and proceed to puke his guts out the rest of the night. We stayed at the studio to about 6.30AM and after a few hours of sleep and a Kotipizza, we were at it again. On Saturday it was time for backing vocals, percussion and lead guitars, which I think were the highpoint of the whole session. Jocke tried every solo out a couple of times and every go was 110% amazing, he's an animal on the axe, I shit you not. Recording of the percussions probably gave us the best laughs that weekend with some extraordinary techniques used and a couple of bruises on the way. They had a fantastic perc thingy there on the studio which Jocke fell in love with that I don't know the name of, it had a sound of a rattlesnake and looked like a piece of modern art - I think we have to get one in time for our gigs. The last track we recorded was an ad lib vocal contribution from Tony's girlfriend - aka Samantha Winchester - for the outro of "Never Get Me Whole" and after that we proceeded to mix until about 6.30AM again while Macke was back at the casa concentrating on barfing. Again a few hours of sleep and more mixing, compressing and cleaning up on Sunday, and after a closing Kotipizza we were off with the EP. The producer duo are going to work on the mix some more so the finished product should be coming out in the near future, I'll be back atcha with a date when I get one. I have to say a big thank you to the dynamic duo Tony and Jocki for a good time, a good sound and a good stamina - I don't think anyone else would've put up with our crap jokes at six in the morning like you. Hugz'n'stuff. There might be some soundclips appearing on the Bullets site later on this week so stay awake, baby. Meanwhile in Vaasa, J.Lo has been playing with his old buddy Aatu from the band Kimi Shelter this past weekend and they're gonna do a set of peculiar covers and Shelter originals in Vaasa's Amarillo on the Friday a week'n'a-half from now. This is going to be some shit you don't wanna miss cause these dudes haven't played together in maybe five years or something - and if they're going to be doing Mikko Alatalo songs as rumoured, it's even more so unmissable!
04.03.2004 Today I'm off to a studio in Haparanda, Sweden to record some ditties with the Bullets so on Monday I should have a report on that for you and maybe even a soundclip if things turn out well. Seeyas.
03.03.2004 Okie dokie, here are the pics from our gig at Club25 a week back - as promised. The images are courtesy of Fläbinovich aka the FLB, so a big stank you over to him.
02.03.2004 There's a funky snowstorm in Vaasa but we won't let that stop the Graceskull news machine from gushing forth. Yesterday there were two sidestepping activities happening since we first transferred Firevision's electronic drumset over to our rehearsal space with a special new coming up project in mind (I think we'll start rehearsing next week) and then proceeded to smash things up with a Bullets rehearsal. This was the final rehearsal before entering the studio with the boys a couple of days from now, Thursday that is, and I reckon we're about ready for the task. Things started off with a bit of re-arrangements - some major ones included - that were made to two of the three songs that we are about to record. At the end of the night we got the shit together quite well and even got started on a new song somewhere in there. Good fun once again and I can't wait to get into a studio, it's been quite a while since I last entered one. And on a closing note I can promise you some visual treats (maybe not quite though) cause we'll probably have some pictures from Graceskull's last gig up tomorrow so keep tuned!
26.02.2004 In between other chores (such as moving Julius' fridge etc. around his house) I managed to finish one the Bullets song's lyrics yesterday. Some immortal poetry they're definitely not but hey, it's rock'n'roll we're talking about. It was surely about time to finish 'em too since we're scheduled to dive into a studio next week. The title of the song? We'll I haven't really figured it out yet as usual, maybe it's "Never Get Me Whole" or "Tonight (Shake It Up)" or maybe something else.
23.02.2004 Weekend recap, folks. On Friday I got on stage with the Sugarrush in Papin Nenä after witnessing the majority of a Leopold Delloria show in another club which might have something to do with the fact that our gig went just splendid, so thank ye boys. I don't really believe I've played a Sugarrush gig better than this and apart from Paati the rest of the band also enjoyed the gig. The audience seemed to be no exception either, judging from the smiles and many a nice comment after the gig. Kissy kiss. After a few hours of sleep and some logistics Graceskull got on stage a couple of blocks from yesternight's venue on Saturday night at Club25 and against all odds (great rehearsals and a great Sugarrush set the night before) we manages to pull a nice gig too. Surely there were some stuff that didn't work as nicely as it did in the rehearsals (like "Kings and Queens" on which I had some guitar troubles) but all in all I felt pretty good about the complete picture and sure enough some nice peeps shared some nice words with us so what can ya say. Turku boys Daisy took the stage after us and seemed to go well down for the Vaasa audience even though it was their first visit. I saw Julius keeping an eye out for their Wurlitzer the whole damn gig, I think he was making plans for a grand theft piano but I noticed the next day that it was still Daisy's possession luckily - but any time you guys want to sell it, give us a call! To close things off for today I have to give props firstly to Mr. Kaikkonen who handled the sound for both the gigs this weekend - a nice guy if there ever was one - and to Club25's Mikael who took care of the lights for our show - they were fucking tremendous, dude I tell ya. Oh yeah, here's the setlist.
20.02.2004 Come on down to Papin Nenä tonight, baby and see the incredible Sugarrush perform with me behind the axe. ALso don't forget to drag your bottom over to Club25 tomorrow - that's Saturday - where it's us rockin' first and then letting the Turku band Daisy do their stuff.
19.02.2004 Had ourselves a mandatory pre-gig rehearsal yesterday and apart from a sketchy rendition of "Surrender" (it was the first song we tried, mind you) I thought it was just dandy. There were new songs and new versions of older songs played, my favourite probably being the v1.5 of "Found My Place" (Paati had some great hi-hat shit going on there). It was very much fun to play since it had been a while since the last time and things got quite jammy here'n'there, like on a Mew-esque version of "Dark Don't Care" (which we're not going to play however, some laughs are best kept strictly to the rehearsal quarters). I just hope all this good stuff doesn't mean that we'll suck octopus testicle come Saturday, if it does you'll at least know that we were great a couple of days earlier, hurhur. Yeah.
18.02.2004 Gig updates, mi hermano. The Papin Nenä gig is now set for April 16th and our Kuopio date was pulled back one day, so it's now on May 5th.
17.02.2004 Some songwriting tidbits yesterday, one melodically quite ready song emerged and I also tried to write lyrics to the Bullets song I am supposed to sing - it's about half done.
16.02.2004 A weekend spent in Tampere, both playing and attending a few shows. On Friday I played the part of the usual Sugarrush add-on guitar player and while it felt nice to get on stage with the boys, I don't think Telakka - the venue - was exactly the right kind of place for a rock group like the 'Rush, more so I think Graceskull would've been right at home there, a likeable place anyway. Friday the 13th kicked in after a couple songs when strings started snapping and tunings escaped among other things. I reckon there were people who enjoyed the show (at least I heard such rumors) but we unfortunately felt like it wasn't really up to our standards (which standards, one might ask, hurhur). Anyway a packed house and nice people - among them the Rollstons who were the other band that night and the staff of whom the soundguy was just amazingly great - brightened things up so ends well, all's well. The next day after the a most idea-filled meal session (some of which you might hear about later on, in a year or two...or three) we made a return to Telakka, to catch George Lee throwing a nice little acoustic set. Well nice apart from the backing vocals by Bitch Alert's Heinie, I'm afraid to say, 'cause for some reason or other sang the backing stuff as badly as she did do it loud. Since I have nothing good to say about the other two bands there that night - namely Puk and Aloha Junction - I'll let my silence do the talking (although Puk's guitar player got some points for his Neil Young-isms). Props out to mister Tamminen of George Lee for putting up with our antics for the rest of the night - and morning, good times all the same.
13.02.2004 Friday the 13th then, hiyas to Mr. Voorhees. I'm hopping on the Sugarrush van for a ride to Tampere - and more precisely Telakka - where we are playing a gig tonight with the boys from the Rollstons. So "come on down to the corner, baby, I got something I want you to see".
12.02.2004 So we were on the radio yesterday and I totally missed it (due to some pretty valid reasons, though). I called up Julius to check if we should keep a low profile now that they've aired it but he said it had been alright and there was no real reason for embarassment so I guess that's just dandy then. I'm hoping to get the copy of the show from the deejays soon so I can make up my own mind.
11.02.2004 And here is the poster for ya. We were over to our rehearsal space yesterday and Julius previewed his new Leslie for me. I though it sounded hella good and when J.Lo gets the low-end amp for it done, it will surely sound like a trillion bucks.
10.02.2004 Gig rumors abound, it is very possible that we'll be playing alongside the Turku pop group Daisy in Vaasa's Club25 in just under two weeks time - February 21st - I just ned to clear this with the club's booking dept (which isn't always that easy, let me tell you). Another Vaasa gig is aimed for Papin Nenä in April, I don't have the specific date set yet but I reckon it is a Friday in the first half of the month. Check back for more details.
04.02.2004 A Bullets rehearsal yesterday. We ran through a couple of times the three songs we're going to record later this Spring (in fact we even decided on a date, it's up to the stutio now to see if they have a suitable gap in their schedule) and it seems that we pretty much have them wrapped. Sure, there's still room left for arranging details but the main thingies are all there. Rest of the time we spent trying out old metal and rock classics ála Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix, it seemed that Jocke knew them all and we just tried to hang along for the ride. So even though I would've appreciated a tab or two, it was mucho fun. Julius had made an order for a new Leslie-amp which should be arriving this week, we'll see what this baby is capable of.
02.02.2004 After entering our rehearsal space on Saturday Julius spent most of the time switching between different keyboards and instruments in search of an arrangement for the Al Green cover we were supposed to play at our radio session the next day. So the rehearsing bit was pretty much left to the minimum, we just ran through the ditty - "Simply Beautiful" - one and a half times maybe and decided that the other song we'd do would be "Wish I Was Drunk". The main interest in the rehearsal was put on the "drum machine" good ol' J.Lo had ripped out of an ancient Viggen-organ, we tried out it both with and without a delay pedal and after Julius got mediaval on its circuits, it produced a funky bossanova we were most satisfied with. On Sunday Julius at last made us his mind and dragged his heap of stuff up to RadioVaasa where we were first interviewed by the dynamic duo of "Vaasa Underground" and then proceeded to play "Simply Beautiful" and...well, of course not "Wish I was Drunk" but "Seasons" because "Drunk" sounded like shit when we tried it. I think both songs went a bit so-so but considering the recording circumstances it was ok and the main thing was that the boys from the program seemed to be satisfied. The show will be airing on Wednesday February 11th at 21.00 so switch on to RadioVaasa at 99.5mHz, homeboy.
30.01.2004 I've been trying to get lyrics done to this song that thus far goes by the name of "Starship Waltz" (hey, that's just another one of those working titles that have come out of my mumbling, so stop snickering, we'll change it in due time) but I've failed to get the last verse in there for some reason. I mean I have a heap of small snippets for it but nothing that feels really suitable. Oh well, I'm sure a great verse will emerge eventually - if not, I'll steal one, harhar. Julius had had a brainstrom while listening to his old soul records that we should do an unexpected cover for the RadioVaasa appearance on Sunday (I still don't know when it is going to air) so I guess we'll try it out at our rehearsal tomorrow and see if it works.
28.01.2004 Julius called me up and told me that we're supposed to do an interview for RadioVaasa on Sunday and apparently there has been talk of maybe doing a number or two live, too. More info on this as it arrives, when it will be out and stuff, you know. Julius has been sidetracking this week, too as he's been rehearsing with the heap I think is called Rubbish Bros. He has a gig with the gang coming up on February 7th in Waild (oh, he has entered the adult world now, hasn't he, hardyhar) so get the tie your cat puked on out of the closet and drag your ass over there for some classic rock stuff.
26.01.2004 A deepest apology for my repeated absence from the virtual world but my reasons for this behavior are most valid; first off, I've had the flu get the best of me and secondly, I was over to Stockholm to catch the god-like Greg Dulli on stage with his band the Twilight Singers. Those who know me must also know how I feel for the work of this "savior of misbehavior" in both the Afghan Whigs and now in the Twilight Singers, but to those who are not so familiar with my likings, let's just say that I'd part more gladly of my left foot than some of his records. So my 1000km trip to see him live for the very first time was akin more to a pilgrimage than your normal gig experience and I'm very happy to announce that it was well worth the wait and the travel. It wasn't all smiles from the start, though, as the night before I was meant to drive myself along with Sami from the Varjoprovinssi organization and Andy J. to the Turku ferry in the wee hours, I found myself in fever and an all around flu'd up state. With the help of bad jokes, Finrexin and sleep on the boat over to Sweden I managed to drag my ass over to the venue, Debaser, which was a helluva nice rock club somewhere under the bridges of southern Stockholm. After getting shivers from just seeing the man emerge from the backstage (exactly as the DJ put Prince's "Cream" on) I realised that that alone was worth the price of the ticket and that the autograph I had fantasized on getting was out of the picture - there was no way I could approach this deity. After this it was easy for him to blow my mind with the gig but shit, there was no way someone could've seen this gig and not lift it among the best they've seen. The band was shit-hot (with the I guess the crazy ass drummer being my favorite of the co-stars) and the tightness of playing was unheard of. To top this off, even the sound was dynamite from the first fucking note which was odd since I think it was Debaser's sound guy behind the desk and not the band's own. Mr. Dulli is famous for his banter during gigs and so it was a surprise to me that especially in the beginning of the gig he barely said a word but as the evening drew closer to its end, the jokes and hilarious comments came out more and more. My favourites among the funnier parts of the show were him calling the bass player "you ex-junkie motherfucker", the duscussion he had with a dude that tried to get on the stage ("Sir, are you in the show business?" "No" "Well get the fuck off my stage!") and the eerily accurate Gollum impression ("Oh, the hobbits have taken over the stage" after the band came back for the encore). The funniest thing (not in the hah-ha manner, though) was however that the Afghan Whigs covers that I had probably most waited for weren't the highlight of the gig and neither was a cover of Outkast's "Hey Ya!", it was the damn Twilight Singers songs that rocked my world. They'd refreshed most of the first Singers album's songs into a more rockin' format and some of them made sense a whooole lot more now than on the album, best example being "Annie Mae" which I haven't liked all that much before. I could ramble on about the gig for 10 pages more but to sum it all up, it was an experience of a lifetime; the opening bars of "If I Were Going", the beautiful cover of "A Love Supreme", the power of "Decatur St.", the new adaptation of "That's Just How That Bird Sings" and the earth-moving climax of "Faded" which brought the set to a close with a smiling Dulli prompting us all to "now go tell the mountains". It brings me shivers now to even think about it, damn. Sami and Andy even exchanged a few words with the man and got themselves an autograph and a guitar pick respectively but I could go near the dude, "I'm not worthy" one could say perhaps. Maybe there were some other reasons too but they're maybe valid for me only. Laugh if you like but then again, you weren't there motherfucker.
19.01.2004 Julius had dug up some new software during the last week and on Sunday we tried to get some of it going. We mainly played around with a set of Mellotron samples (yeah, we don't have the 20000€ needed to get a real one) and at least the flute seemed to work just dandy. I hope that we get the strings going too cause I think we haven't had that much string stuff on our songs before - at least stuff that would've been that cool sounding as a Mellotron. I also got started on some new songs during the weekend, I think I have about thirty or so song starts now that need work.
13.01.2004 Release news boy. There's a new album called "Kylpyammeellinen hittejä" out by the Vaasa OGs Kuningas Pähkinä & Setä Tamu on which the closing song is called "Pojalleni". On that particular song there are some vocals from a person insisting on calling himself Jesus Telia, who is somewhat closely connected to Graceskull - you do the math. Go buy the disc at your local store or order it via Kaverikerho and get your booty a-shakin'!
12.01.2004 So it was Hanna who took home the victory for Idols. Bugger. Well, they both were good on Friday so what the hell. But let's just rewind a bit, about a half an hour before the show, because I got hit by alien signals before the boys came over to check out the finals and got about five ideas for a song down - one could say back-to-back, pretty much. One of them was a western stylee instrumental which we even played the next day in the Sugarrush rehearsals (it rocked in its own "Cecilia Ann"-ish kinda way, methinks). The rehearsal was full of new songs (some of which I'd played before but my memory's like a sieve) which were fun to play and at the end of the night I think I got them down pretty much okay. Let's see how my memory serves me when the next 'Rush gig arrives in a couple of weeks' time. On Sunday I continued recording some new snippets of songs and even got some lyrical ideas on paper for some of these ditties. Let's see when the time and energy is available for me to get some real work done with these newies.
05.01.2004 Got my ass off the couch and did a demo of "Kings and Queens" on Saturday morning. As I hadn't done a demo on my new-ish equipment before, it took some time before I got the hang of things and got something recorded but the outcome is a bit low on the volume (I didn't find a proper compressor on the new software I was using) and I think the quality of the soundcard on this 'pooter sucks donkey dick (audible at least in the vocals). I'd also like to mention that I never did call myself the king of improvisation which you can witness yourselves from the glockenspiel solo at the end of the tune. But hey, it's just a demo so I'll let myself off the hook and let you judge the ditty yourself: Download "Kings and Queens" here (and turn up the volume).
02.01.2004 A fun New Year's gig it was although the crowd didn't catch fire until our encore of "Hey Ya!" - I think it was more rockin' this time than in Turku some months back. My contribution to the gig - in addition to providing the falsetto to the aforementioned song - was mainly to shake this and that percussive instrument plus a few organ and backing vocal parts. My favorite moment of the gig was doin' this song that Coma came up with the night before that we practised in the sauna just barely an hour before the gig. He called it "Happy New Year" for the occasion but I hope the song will live on despite its novelty subject, it was a beautiful ditty with all four of us singing in the finale.
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