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THE FINNISH HARDCORE PUNK

Oh man, the finnish hc-punk..? Isn't that the kind of fucked up, lightning fast noise those leather jacketed drunken teenage boys play over there in the snow at the border to Russia?? The kind of "music" where they scream and shout at some weird fucking language? Yeah, I guess those stereotypes are somewhat true when it comes down to describing the musical landscape of the original finnish hardcore punk in it's so-called golden days of the early eighties. As far as I know (from what I've read, heard and seen from the photos and videos) the early finnish hc-scene was a crazy phenomenon indeed! Finnish punks were taking the Discharge-influence to it's extreme (which of course has been furthened many times since then) and they did (well, many of them anyway) drink a whole lot of booze... But since those infamous glory days of bands like Terveet K�det, Kaaos, Riistetyt, Appendix, Tampere SS, Kansan Uutiset, Unicef and Bastards things have definitely changed a lot in the finnish punk-scene. I don't wanna try to judge if things are better or worse (hell, I wasn't even in the scene 20 or 25 years ago) now, all I can say they're different. There's a whole lot more variety when it comes to hc/punk music, ideas, attitudes and even something like dressing (mohawks and leather jackets are not compulsory anymore...).

But although things have changed many ways since the old days, there are also lots of things that have remained in some form or other from the years that the whole punk/hc-thing first got started. Hardcore punks are still very much anti-establishment, rebellious and confrontational types who don't take shit from nobody (well, that's what they say anyway...), and bands still sing about war and drinking. DIY ethics are also held in high esteem. But what surprises me maybe the most is all the old bands that are still around. Okay, most of them have reformed lately, during the late 90's or early 00's or are not as active as the younger bands, but it's still weird to see all those old bands from the 80's still kicking around like they never went away. I know it's not just Finland, old bands have been popping up everywhere around the world. Anyway, it's still kind of weird. When I started to get into punk/hc (15-16 years ago) it seemed like all the really great bands (like Misfits, Minor Threat, Discharge, Dead Kennedys etc.) were all dead and buried a good while ago and it seemed certain there was no way those bands would ever got together again. That's what I thought anyway. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong, since a lot of those bands have reformed during the last 10 years. I'm not gonna go into discussing whether it's a good or a bad thing that those bands have started to play again (okay, most of those "comebacks" seem pretty lame...), I guess they can do whatever they want and if they want to destroy the mystery and reputation that some of those have gained over the years in the process, that's fine with me. So, many of those old finnish bands have picked up their instruments and are playing again, bands like Riistetyt (their comeback has proven to be pretty successful, their new records are actually good), Kaaos (although they supposedly played their last show a short while ago), Maho Neitsyt (I don't think they ever broke up, but I could be wrong), Terveet K�det (they haven't been too active for awhile, but I've read they're getting it together once again), Kohu-63 (not sure if they ever really broke up), Rattus (they got back together a couple of years ago and fortunately kicked out their awful singer Annikki before their US tour, now they're back to their original trio line-up with guitarist Jake handling the vocal duties) and Appendix (they're not too active). I just heard that even Lama (in my opinion the best finnish punk/hc band from the early 80's) will play a few shows this summer, that will be great!

Why are all those old bands popping up then? Well, I guess there's many reasons for that. I'm sure there's some demand for them to start playing again, maybe they have seen that people actually like and appreciate what those bands have done 20+ years ago and want to see with their own eyes what those bands were all about. I think people have once again begun to respect more those trailblazer bands that have laid the basics for this whole genre of music. Through mountains of reissues of old records and demos people have been able to hear bands that they never even knew existed. Maybe those old bands have also noticed that they still get a big kick out of playing hardcore punk music. Or maybe they're just trying to relive the past glories or just want to get some easy money (ha ha, that won't happen anyway), I don't fucking know. As long as they aren't just riding the trends or hope to make a quick buck playing some big shows and are honest and genuinely into playing, I guess it's cool that those bands are playing around again. I don't really mind seeing some bands that have helped to create this thing we call hc-punk. Of course there's some reunited bands that seem just lame attempts at cashing in, I mean, DK without Jello or Misfits without Danzig?? C'mon...

All those finnish punk/hc bands from the early 80's were defining the finnish hardcore for many many years to come and many people still think about bands like Terveet K�det and Kaaos when they're asked about finnish punk. And it must be said that there wasn't that many memorable hc-bands in Finland after the initial hc-explosion of 1980-1984, so it's understandable that people still talk about those ancient bands. But things have really changed a lot in the last 5-10 years. There's a whole lot of new exciting bands that are redefining what finnish hardcore/punk is. These new bands are really putting the finnish punk back on the map, so to speak. Whereas the old bands didn't tour much outside of Finland (not that they played that much inside the finnish borders either), many of these new finnish punk bands seem to tour like crazy. In the eighties it was hard to get gigs in Finland, let alone tour other countries. Still a few bands like Rattus, Lama and Bastards get to do some touring abroad. Terveet K�det, which was one of the most well known finnish hc-bands (and I guess they still are), even had a US tour scheduled in 1985, but that fell through (another try in 1990 didn't work out either). Riistetyt had done a controversial US tour with Raw Power in 1984, at the time when the band didn't quite know whether they were to call themselves Riistetyt or Holy Dolls (which was used as the name for the more glam-rock oriented stuff they had started to experiment with). In the nineties finnish bands were touring other countries a lot more than in 80's and nowadays it's pretty common that all kinds of punk/hc bands are going abroad. More experienced bands have learned a lot from touring in different countries and that knowledge is being passed on to younger/more unexperienced bands. So bands encourage each other to tour that way. Bands like Endstand, Forca Macabra, Selfish, Wasted and Manifesto Jukebox have done excessive touring all over the world, from eastern Europe to Mexico and from Japan to Brazil. And lots of other, maybe not that well known bands have a tour or two under their belt. Riistetyt were the only finnish punk to tour USA for well over 15 years, but now finnish bands have started to go there too more frequently; Selfish and Manifesto Jukebox were there in 2002, Hero Dishonest, Forca Macabra and old timers Rattus toured there last year and Selfish is going over for the second time this summer. And just at this moment as I write this Riistetyt is playing there... So, touring Europe isn't enough for finnish punks anymore, there is a definite need (and demand?) for going all different kind of places around the world. And some of you englishmen might have noticed that quite many finnish bands have played there in the past few years (bands like Wasted, Selfish, The Phoenix Foundation, Forca Macabra, The Stakeout (the band I sang for), Unkind and I Walk The Line).

It goes the other way round too, in the sense that a lot more foreign bands do touring in Finland than in the past. In the 80's very few bands played here and we finns didn't get to see many of the more well known bands of the times, for example Dead Kennedys (who played here in '81) were really the only american hc/punk band that played here in first part of the 80's (not that american bands did that much touring in Europe in the early 80's anyway). If you would have wanted to see some the "bigger" punk, let alone hardcore bands of the times, Finland was not the place to live in... Things changed in the 90's when more and more foreign bands started to play here too, although many of the better bands still didn't visit Finland, for some reason or other (Finland must have seemed like a far corner of the world to most touring bands). In the last few years we have seen quite a few foreign bands here, even some american bands like Out Cold (twice), Tragedy (twice), Fugazi (they first played here in '95), From Ashes Rise (twice) and Sick Of It All. So, I don't think Finland is in that sense nearly as isolated as 15 or 20 years ago. One thing that has helped the situation here is that the whole global DIY punk/hc scene seem to be working quite well right now. There's a lot of communication between people and scenes in different countries. Records are spreading all over the world, bands are touring pretty much everywhere (well, there's still places like Far East etc. where bands don't go too often) and it's not too hard to keep up to date with what's happening in punk/hc. I think things are great in that sense, not only because of Internet and the help it has brought to communication, but probably also because the scene has just progressed into this well-working network comprised of passionate and dedicated people, who (often) know what they're doing. It might be exaggeration to say that there are these "professional DIY punk rockers" all over the world who have a crucial part in keeping this house of cards standing, but it must be said that without all those people who have strong beliefs and are intensely committed to the cause of DIY hc/punk, we wouldn't have nearly as powerful a network as we do now.

Well, what are some of the better new bands from Finland right now? There's many promising, up-and-coming bands, from many different punk subgenres. Drowning Nation is a fairly new band from Helsinki who released their first 7" ("Thrown to the wolves") a while ago and it's a real cool slab of fast and angry hardcore punk. They sound a bit like "Pick your king" -era Poison Idea mixed with Confront. Well worth checking out. Lighthouse Project is a new band who blew me away with their hi-energy live set a month ago. They're more in the vein of 90's hardcore, I guess their sound has influences from different types of hardcore bands and they are not that easy to pigeonhole. It didn't took long for Combat Rock Industry (who are the biggest punk label in Finland) to sign them, so look out for their first record sometime sooner or later. War Of Words are fairly melodic punk trio, who have some UK anarcho influences in their music, but they also cover Girlschool! All I can say they're great band. The Heartburns from Turku are masters of early 80's California/Ramones/KBD-style punk rock. They have gotten a lot of recognition lately (everybody seems to love them) and for a good reason. Crazy live shows too. Strangely enough they signed to Fullhouse records, which is a finnish label specialized in metallic tough guy hc... Armageddon Clock is not exactly that new band (they have some 7" records out), but they released their first full-lenght album (full on fast hc/punk, with some melody and politically charged lyrics) last year and they have also gotten a lot more recognition lately. They're a kick-ass live band as well.

Besides some cool bands (and some shitty ones too, just like everywhere else), we have lots of DIY punk labels (too many to mention here) and some great zines as well (Palokka, Clouds Will Move, 82MM and of course Toinen Vaihtoehto, which is a monthly newsletter type of zine (really, they're more like a "real" zine w/interviews, columns, reviews etc.) which has been around for over 15 years!). Combat Rock Industry also opened up a record store (Combat Rock Shop) here in Helsinki last year, that's definitely a place to visit if you come to Finland. And we have some cool live venues too, but we could use some more too. Vuoritalo in Helsinki is an underground DIY place located in an old fire station. They put up shows on weekly basis. Vastavirta in Tampere is another cool regularly used place for punk shows. Places to have all ages shows are sometimes hard to come by in Finland.

Hmm, this column seemed to turn almost a finnish scene report, but I guess that's alright, since I'm sure not all of you are that well-educated when it comes to finnish punk, right?? Now you know a bit more about it, but if you really want know what's happening here I strongily suggest you to get your hands on some records by finnish bands or check out some finnish bands live if you get a chance.

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FROZEN IN FINLAND

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MISERABLE DAYS

"Lookin' through a wet window at a cold and dready outside thinkin' about the sun that the winter left behind

Not a lot to do, maybe sit by the fire and wish for the sun but the rumble of the rain puts an end to that thought

the sun peaks through but it won't stay another misery day and I can't play I think winter has reared it's chilly head so there's a few months of stayin indoors ahead

Not a soul in the winter smiles the trees don't own a single leaf I can't imagine the warm when the ground is covered in snow"

I pretty much hate the winter. This winter has been expectionally warm, but still a pain in the ass, that's for sure. Right now it's already almost April, but there's still a lot of snow on the ground. It's also very dark and windy all the time, so you really just can't enjoy being outside of your home. Uh, I really really look forward to summer, which is only a few months away, if we're lucky... Maybe in a month or so I can go out skating, which would be fun. Here in Finland you can't really skate outdoors (and who wants to skate in skate halls anyway?) between October and April, which use to upset me a lot when I was younger, it just didn't seem fair. Those lyrics by Jailcell Recipes (from their song "Miserable days" on their LP Two years of toothache) used to really sum up my feelings and I guess they still do...

-Jussi, March 2005