Into the gutter

The Gutter Twins, that is Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan, finally arrived in Helsinki last week to present their first release, Saturnalia. They hit the stage in Tavastia almost two years after Dulli’s band, The Twilight Singers, did it, also with Lanegan as a special guest sitting in several songs. At that time, the band had a fantastic time in Finland. They did some studio recording at the Seawolf Studios in Suomenlinna for the EP A Stich in Time and their show in Tavastia was epic, with Greg Dulli having a real good time, drinking a lot of wine and partying as anyone else in a full house.

{mosimage}Two years later, the story is repeated with a different title. The band is similar to the Twilight Singers line-up of 2006. But now they are The Gutter Twins and they have a new record to support. Therefore it was to be expected that the show’s setlist would relay heavily on Saturnalia and so it did. It also included some covers and songs from their former bands.

Both frontmen took their expected role. As usual, not saying a word, Lanegan stood still holding the mic stand, just letting his deep voice sing. Dulli played guitar, piano and talked to the audience. He showed his emotions while Lanegan hid them behind the lights.

The show started like the album, with the guitar notes of The Stations building up the song and the mood for the whole show. A mood that drifts from the film-like atmosphere decorated with electronic loops to sharp and aggressive guitars, underlined by Lanegan's voice.

Apart of songs from Saturnalia, the Twins played a set of interesting covers, including José González’s Down the Line and Flow Like a River, a heartfelt tribute to Eleven’s keyboard player Natasha Shneider, who recently passed away. They also played Primal Scream’s Deep Hit of Morning Sun, a cover that will be included in the band’s next ep Adorata, to be released soon. Dulli and Lanegan bring these covers to their territory and the songs flow seamlessly in the set.

One of the highlights of the show was Screaming Tree’s rare single Change Has Come. The song was very well received by the audience. It came to show how much Lanegan’s old band is missed.

On paper it looks like it was a very good concert. It was, but it was not excellent, especially not compared to the Twilight Singers show in 2006, which Greg Dulli himself also remembered as a great night. This time, Dulli did not seem to be very much into the show. The former Afghan Whigs’ leader did not seem to be having such a good time. Perhaps it was the effect of the jet lag and the beginning of the European leg of the tour (Helsinki was the first stop). Or perhaps it was the smoke-free venue. Or the lack of drinks on stage. To the big surprise of keyboardist / guitar player Jeff Klein, Dulli told the band to leave the stage one song earlier that it was planned in the written setlist, not playing the planned set closer Front Street.

However, a 25-minute encore followed and it was excellent, although it was almost cut short when someone from the audience threw a plastic glass to the stage that almost hit Dulli. As it can be seen in youtube, after a touching rendition of Shadow of the Season, Dulli said that the band would not played any longer until the person who threw the glass would apologize. Either that or the audience should sing Finland’s national anthem. That is what happened in the end. It was surreal.

The encore included two songs from Lanegan’s latest solo album Bubblegum that took the show one step up. Number Nine, the ballad that perfectly blends Lanegan and Dulli’s voices, was a beautiful end for the night. It was a very high point in the show and a real pity that it did not continue. The moment felt interrupted. But what a great moment.

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Venom – Hell

 {mosimage}From the very depths of hell Venom is back with a new album! 

Venom set a precedent in dark metal scene with their first two studio albums. Years later and after many changes in its formation, they are back on the track with the unmistakable voice of their singer Cronos, mastering the album from the initial track Straight to Hell and shouting like the devil itself in the fifth track Hell.  

Good drums work all around the album by Antony Lant like in The Power and the Glory or Hand of God, but sometimes the guitar riffs do not sound as brilliant as they should.

Die hard fans will be certainly pleased with Hell, although not the best album from Venom, a good effort. For others not so familiar with the band this will be simply a good album to add to their collection and a splendid way to discover and review older material from the Englishmen.  

 

Rating 3/5.

Uriah Heep – Wake the sleeper

 {mosimage}Mick Box and company pull out a new studio album with an excellent CD artwork. 

One of the reference bands when talking about rock, prog and metal, Uriah Heep, is back with another studio album after one decade.

A rotund start with the heavy first track Wake the Sleeper that sounds powerful and sharp gets mixed with some other songs more in line with the classic sound of the band during the 70s, like Angles Walk Within or War Child, showing once more that Trevor, their bass player, has great songwriting skills, while Bernie´s vocals are standing out all over the album. And added to all this Ioannis ´artwork for the CD is classy and splendid.  

In summary, an album that ranks high in the long Uriah Heep´s career. Surely new and old fans will be pleased with the comeback.

 

Rating 4/5.

Savages

{mosimage}The Savages are a brother and a sister who have to face the difficult task of taking care of their aging father.

Director Tamara Jenkins puts on the table a topic that affects to most of us at same point of our busy lives: how to take care of our aging parents. In this case, the brother and sister affected are no others than Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Both splendid in their roles, I must confess that although I am a big fan of Seymour, in this movie is Linney who steals most of the attention from the camera.

There are some raw moments in the film like at the beginning with the father playing with his excrements, but there is also a place for some dark sense of humor. It is actually quite funny how the brother and sister are so absorbed trying to kick off their careers, so most of the time looks like the old sick father (Philip Bosco) is the one with more common sense of the Savages.

A good movie with good doses of human touch, something often missed in Hollywood. A plot that make us reflect that sometimes we are forgetting the most important things in life, as family is, for getting artificial successes in our lives.

Rating 3/5.

Iron Maiden at the Stadium

{mosimage}Having sold out the Helsinki’s Olympic Stadium’s 44,000 tickets in minutes (Tampere’s 26,000 took longer), it goes without saying that this British band is popular in Finland. Their heavy rock/light metal mix has not only an adoring audience here, but one that transcends generations to the point where parents go to the same concerts with sons and daughters. 

Many may have thought the youthful contingent was noticed by singer Bruce Dickinson when thanking the audience, he noted that “We're gonna play songs from the past 25 years tonight and from the looks of it, many of you weren't even born then!” However, he apparently says that every time. It seems time has marched on and been noticed. Still a good time was guaranteed to be had by the Iron Maiden heads and after all these years (decades in fact), the sextet know how to work a crowd: stoking the mass up into a synchronised choral frenzy with arms pointing skywards in unison when it seemed to flag with another golden oldie supported by stage antics.

 

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And Finns are able to have a good time without being filled up (though many had obviously whetted their whistles before entry judging by the  rubbish tip outside). This virtuous patience was illustrated by a full house at Pori Jazz years ago patiently waiting an hour while James Brown had his cup of tea backstage and readied himself for the exertions ahead. 

For nearly two hours on stage, Iron Maiden rolled out their composition compendium, blasted out by walls of speakers with the stage flanked by two huge screens. Unfortunately, in parts the sound system went wonky as guitar riffs clashed with the laws of electronics, which spoilt the result occasionally, if not the enjoyment. No such criticism could be aimed at the singer: BD’s voice has held up despite the years of over-exertion – unlike some aged screamers whose chords have cracked at high pitch in Helsinki in the last couple of years. He belted out every note, not one missed or compromised. In addition to the full-on singing he leapt about the stage impressively in a variety of uniforms ranging from British Boer War soldier waving a Union Jack to voodoo witchdoctor according to the number. 

The other band members, bassist and founder Steve Harris plus guitarists Janick Gers, Adrian Smith and Dave Murray – all hair and tattoos aplenty, no beards though – went through their paces in time-trusted fashion, finger dexterity on display with each able to have a small solo, though not the drummer Nicko McBrain. Possibly this was his punishment for not living up to a promise to buy the whole stadium a drink. He was hidden by what was possibly the world’s largest drum kit and had to stand to be seen and had a separate camera inside his percussion castle. 

{mosimage}As sweat rolled down off and on the stage, BD led the way and was soaked after the first three songs: Aces High, 2 Minutes To Midnight and The Trooper. Fortunately, the enclosure in front of the stage was watered regularly as the security defied their appearance to gently hand out paper cups of thirst-quenching liquid. It’s hard work playing and enjoying a good live rock gig and it’s good to see everyone wanting to give and get their money’s worth. 

Unusually for these large open air shows, the stage scenery changed too from ancient Egyptian spirits to a thing that looked like the “Creature from the Deep” (aka Eddie the Head) to a 5-metre tall skinless cyberman that moved around the stage briefly. This was something those who left before the encore missed.  So after Fear of the dark, Rime of The Ancient Mariner (before which a large seagull flew timely around above the audience, BD is talismanic too it seems), Wasted years and so on, everyone left for a bar to talk about seeing rock legends alive. Many no doubt were looking forward to Tampere the next day…… 

Photos: Eduardo Alonso

Get on board and run wild

All the way from the land of Rose Tattoo and AC/DC, Airbourne is a very young band that will carry the tradition of Australian hard rock in the years to come. Earlier this year, Airbourne published its first album, Runnin’ Wild, but the band has toured extensively in the past few years, opening for The Rolling Stones, Motörhead and Mötley Crüe, which its music is feature in the soundtrack of many hit videogames. Airbourne was the band that opened this year’s Sauna Open Air festival in Tampere. A few hours before its afternoon set, FREE! met drummer Ryan O'Keeffe at the lobby of the hotel near the festival. Still a bit sleepy and with the need of morning coffee (or beer), Ryan professionally replied to a few questions.

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Things are happening very fast for Airbourne, how do you feel about this success?

This is what we always wanted to do since my brother Joel [vocals and guitar] and I were kids. We wanted to tour the world. At the moment we are touring Europe and the UK.

You are young, but experienced, when did you start playing?

I was 11 or 12 when I started playing. Now I’m 22.

Why dd you choose to play drums?

My brother got the guitar and my parents  to get me entertain they got me the drums.

There is a tradition in rock that tells that the brother that form a band are always fighting. How is your relation with your brother? Do you fight a lot?

Not really. I guess we do resolve issues quicker. Our relation is ok. Also with the rest of the band. We al four get along very well. We’ve spent a lot of time together rehearsing and recording the album. Now we all live together in a house in New Jersey.

In the 1970s and 1980s, it was usual that bands live together for some time. Now it does not seem to happen so much.

Yeah, it’s true, but I’m glad we are one of those bands.

How was the recording of Runnin’ Wild?

We recorded the album with Capitol Records in LA. They merged with Virgin and suddenly there were two catalogues that they needed to support. They were already struggling financially, so they had to dropped some bands. 70% of the catalogue had to go, including big artists. So we got the album back to us and they said good luck. We found this new deal with Roadrunner Records.

Did you feel very disappointed with this change?

No we just kept going. If this is what you feel doing, you don’t give up.

The album came out internationally this year, but you recorded much earlier, in 2006.

It took a while to finish with previous label and it took a while to organize deals with the new record label It was another little downer, but we could continue touring, so it was not that bad.

How was the recording process?

We pretty much had all the songs when we went to the studio. When we were in America for recording, we decide if we could go jumble through the songs that we had (Heartbreaker, etc). We just wanted to make a jumble of different things to make sure that we would make the best album possible.

How do you feel about playing festivals, when sometimes you need to pay as early as 3pm, like today?

We’ve been playing for a long time, so I guess we played already at any time possible and different kind of shows. We played gigs at 7am. We did some morning radio shows. You just do it. Nothing is never perfect.

Do you do anything special before the gig? Do you have any rituals?

We just hang around, have a couple of beers, even if it’s 7am.. to get in the mood.

How is life on the road for you?

Basically, we don’t really have much time. If we have, we usually spend it drinking. But we love working and taking care of the band.

Do you have many groupies?

In the last year and a half, there have been a few women, yes. It is good to meet some girls, from different places. It goes with the profession.

You opened for The Rolling Stones, how was it?

We met some of them, like The Rolling Stones. They are very good boys, really down to earth. We had a drink and that was all. We met Lemmy and the other guys of Motörhead. Also Rose Tattoo. It’s great to meet the royalty of rock and roll.

Your music has been featured on many videogames, how do you like it?

Yes, they have managed to fit our songs in everything from football to car racing.

Do you like playing?

We get the chance to play them, but we don’t have that much time as we woud like to.

Are you already preparing new songs?

Yes, al the time. Charles has a notepad with him al the time. We jam new songs at soundcheck.

Do you have any special music you like travelling with?

We carry the usual stuff: Rose Tattoo, Mötorhead…

Name one of your favourite drummers?

Phil Rudd.

Positively negative

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Jonne Aaron is one of the most famous rock singers in Finland, apart from a notorious sex symbol. Girls dream about him, guys imitate his style and press follows his steps. But the person I find sitting in front of me at Klubi in Tampere is just a normal young talkative guy, a person quite down to earth who enjoys also doing housework, not ashamed of his past and looking at the future with the illusion of a child in a candy shop.

Hello Jonne. Negative has recently released a new album, Karma Killer. What can the new and old fans expect about it?

I think the album itself is really positive. If you compare it to the previous one, Anorectic, it was really depressive, to me at least personally. It was made through very difficult times. In Karma Killer otherwise I just concentrated on what is going on now and the future. When we started many people were putting us in the same group with other bands like H.I.M, but I think that now with Karma Killer we have achieved the kind of sound we wanted. It shows the direction to follow in the future.

The album is positive but there is also quite an angry track: Motherfucker (just like you). Do you meet many motherfuckers in everyday life?

Hehehe… Of course!  Sometimes…  It is about anger, it has a lot of hate but it is also about not giving up. I have worked hard to make this band to be one of the best known all over the crowd, so if I would give up, this song would be for me! It would be the “easy escape” to leave everything and just take drugs or shit like that. You know what I mean.

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You have lived all your life in Tampere. Do you like it here?

It is really nice. People have been asking for many years the same question, why I do not move to Helsinki where there is more promotion. But I have rally strong roots over here, I like it here! People are quite down to earth. In Helsinki it seems to be important what you are doing, where do you come from…

I was assisting to the contest for choosing the Festbabe in Tammerfest and one question asked to the girls is how they would react if they would meet you. How do you deal with this image of sex symbol in Finland? Is your life keeping up with the rock stereotype of sex, drugs and rock, or how is a normal day in your life?

Well, sometimes it can be glamorous. It depends; I have a lot of friends who can organize parties wherever I am, but usually my life is quite boring, hehehe. I like to wash dishes myself; I like to clean my house…. Every time I came back from the road first things first, I need to clean my place and then it is time to relax. I like watching movies, listening to music, playing guitar, writing songs at home. I avoid a bit crowded places. At the beginning I liked it, I was driven by people´s attention, but now I prefer to stay at home.

And we cannot forget that you are just 24 now. When Negative started you were very young!

Yeah, I was just 18. I must confess at the beginning I lost a bit myself. Who wouldn´t? When your albums are selling gold, platinum… And you have even more shows to do than days in the week and good looking girls are all the time around. But it was just for a while. I allowed that for myself, because there were so many years that I was dreaming with these kind of things… like for example to get a record deal, to get a record company behind Negative it was one of the main things that happened in our career.

When I come home from the road, the first thing I like to do is cleaning everything and washing the dishes -Jonne Aaron; singer of Negative-

And actually the promotion of your last album is huge inside Finland, with ads everywhere. Do you have any specific target in the international market?

The whole Europe. We are going to concentrate on that and I think for the next one there is going to be a lot of worldwide promotion. Let´s see. Now we are going to make a wide tour in Europe with 45 shows. So step by step, album by album.

You have many fans in Spain and South America from the beginning!

Yeah, we have played in Mexico and Argentina. And I think Spain is also included in our tour. As I said, step by step. I am still very young so we have time to become bigger. Actually next week I am going to start with Larry working in the next album. We have a working title that is something like “super trooper”! hehehe. We want to make that kind of album that make people fall of their chairs!

I want to ask you also about the problems of the band in the past, and the recently leave of Sir Christus from the band.

Well, we have been so many years together in the band, but then sometimes people start to go in different ways. I would compare him and this situation to Brian Jones and the Rolling Stones. But well, of course I hope he won´t die. It came from our side, since he was not able to keep up together. He had some personal problems and complicated things and it was really difficult for all of us. We gave him a last chance but nothing happened, no improvement, things kept just going down and down. We started to rehearse for Karma Killer and he did not show up! So in some ways I think the decision was kind of relieving for everybody.

I heard that you are going to the studio today in Tampere after this interview.

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Yeah, we are going to make a cover of a Dingo´s album: Sinä ja Minä. It is going to be interesting!

How was to record the DVD In the Eye of the Hurricane here in Pakkahuone?

Oh, it was all crowded. There were people actually in the show from all over Europe. Of course it is special. The concert from my side is not the best one; I was pushing the voices too high. I was a bit nervous for the recording of the DVD. Actually I am already nervous for the concert tomorrow (Negative was playing next day in Tammerfest at 15:00 and Jonne did not like much to have to play so early).

You were playing in Sweden Rock this summer that counts with an amazing band list. How was there?

Yeah, we played between Deff Leppard and Whitesnake! I was even barely born when these two bands were popular! The audience was very nice, it was the first gig for Negative in Sweden, and we saw a lot of Swedish tits! (Jonne lifts up his t-shirt imitating the ladies in the Swedish audience who showed their charms)

So what are your future plans?

We have a few festivals here, and then we will continue to Europe and then let´s see. We are living quite interesting times; a big record company is coming behind Negative so promotion is going to be even better!

And  the interview was over with me in a hurry to take the train to Helsinki to see “The Boss”, Bruce Springsteen, and Jonne heading to the studio to record the Dingo´s cover and feeling in his own words “jealous” because he could not go to see Springsteen too. Well, as he said, he is still very young and will have many chances to see and give amazing performances on stage. 

Negative´s discography commented by Jonne Aaron

{mosimage}War of Love (2003): It is a collection of war love, demo tapes. All songs were written in many years, from 1997 to 2003. It is our first official album.

{mosimage}Sweet and Deceitful (2004): It is really beautiful, high sensitive, probably one of the most beautiful albums we have released.

{mosimage}Anorectic: It was quite dark, a little bit too depressing. I see that we decided as a band to take a big step and not to do the same kind of album than the previous ones, so we decided to go in a new direction. It would be even better album, deeper musically, but still it is quite good, it has a lot of stuff and information inside.

{mosimage}Karma Killer: It is very positive. There are the elements we represent, you take all what we want in rock and you put it together and here it is. I take it also as a new step for the band, we have to climb higher and higher and the development as a band has been huge. this is the album I am most satisfied with 

Cult of Luna – Eternal Kingdom

{mosimage}From Sweden comes one of the last sensations in experimental rock and black metal.

If you like dark sounds and experimental music, you are going to be happy with this new release of Cult of Luna. Their new work is just much more than a collection of songs, but a conceptual album with a very interesting background story: As Johannes Persson explains himself; the idea comes while they were rehearsing in an old mental institution and got in contact with a little book from and old patient called Holger Nilsson, sentenced for his wife´s murdered.

So here you find a personal representation of Nilsson´s paranoia in the hands of these talented Swedish musicians. Listen to tracks like Owlwood, The Great Migration or Following Betulas and get knocked by their power; although raw, their lyrics are pretty listenable, so Cult of Luna is definitely a band that can reach quite a wide range of potential followers.

Although I must confess I prefer usually more classic metal stuff, this Eternal Kingdom is a good album and Cult of Luna an interesting band that will surely add a lot of good things to the genre.

Rating 3/5

The rough guide to the music of Japan

{mosimage}Lovers of traveling and enjoying new cultures must be happy with the series of music rough guides, centered this one in Japan.

Japan: an amazing country that combines history with modernity. But also the cradle for a huge and often unknown music scene. Trying to shine a light and spreading some more knowledge of Japanese music, The Rough Guide has edited this year their musical guide to Japan. Far from genres like pop, rock or no theater, the 18 tracks that combine the album are predominantly focused on a pseudo-folk style. I could highlight as some of my favorite tracks Subayado Bushi by Nami Makiota or East of Kunashiri by OKI Dub Ainu Band.

The eclecticism of the album is good and bad at the same time, because you can pass instantly from listening to the saddest of the melodies to a new one full of joy. As in every compilation where many different bands are gathered, this probably will disappoint those of you who already have some knowledge about Japanese music and want to go deeper, but it will be an excellent first contact for the other many (me included) who still have to learn a lot about the fascinating Japanese music scene.

Rating 3/5 

Deuteronomium – From the midst of the battle

{mosimage}The legendary Christian death metal band from Jyväskylä is back on the road with new album and new European Tour.

Formed in 1993, the guys of Deuteronomium have been around for quite a long time. After having a split of 6 years from 2000 to 2006, now they strike back after signing a new contract with Bullroser Records and feature this From the Midst of The Battle.

What you are going to find here are cutting riffs, a powerful work in the drums pushing the lyrics sang raw by Miika Partala, and in general good doses of old death metal for nostalgic and newcomers equally. Try to listen to the introductory Fields of War or to Defending the Faith (in the most pure Catholic death metal style).

Well, I was never a fan of mixing religion and metal music, but if the mix floats your boat, surely you will definitely enjoy with the comeback of this veteran band. And if you want to see them on live in Finland, you will have a chance soon because they will be playing the 23 of August in Tampere.

Rating 3/5

Lust, Caution

{mosimage}After Brockeback Mountain, director Ang Lee comes back to his native China to narrate a drama during the II World War.

In a couple of moments along the film I could not less than find comparisons between this new Ang Lee´s film and some others from the master Wong Kar Wai. Maybe this has to do with the appearance also here of one of the fetish actors for Wai; Tony Leung. His presence all along the movie is astonishing; an actor who does not need much than just the gaze of his eyes and the smoke running away slowly from his languid cigarettes to transmit a lot of passion. He is superb in the film, mastering all kind of roles of his complex character: husband, cheater, powerful military man, lover, cruel secret policeman… An incredible palette!  Matching perfectly with him, the sensuality of Wei Tang, who makes her debut in the big screen.  She looks totally lovely, transmitting innocence but also determination.

There are a couple of weak moments in the script, since the behavior of the gang of revolutionary students sometimes turns to be pretty annoying, but in general this is a classic great black dram that has nothing to envy to older films of espionage and twisted love relations.

One bad feature is that the film is in Chinese with only Nordic languages subtitles, not including English. I hope someday in the future the distributors will understand how important is to include at least always the English option in every DVD released internationally. Apart from that detail, the film is enjoyable, but be also ready to assist also to some scenes of high sex voltage.

Rating 4/5.  

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

{mosimage}Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter gather together again in the dark streets of London.

Many fans of Tim Burton, me included, were very excited when they knew that Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter would be the main characters in one of his films. This new product has all the features that you can expect from a classic Burton´s movie: dark scenarios, a taste for a macabre sense of humor, a collection of freaks trying to find their own habitat, and of course blood and revenge. But added to all this film enters the musical genre, and we can see during good part of the action to Depp and Carter singing about their lives, loves, hates and revenges.

I was never a great fan of the musical genre, but certainly the film is most of the time pretty enjoyable, although sometimes too many songs can be a bit disturbing. Atmosphere is greatly created, and Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall are the villains are frankly superb. There is also the chance to see Sacha Baron Cohen in a new register as an Italian (with Spanish features) barber, but maybe his appearance is too histrionic; all the opposite to the sweetness of Jayne Wisener as Johanna.

Not a bad film though, and certainly a new brick in the consistent wall of Burton´s career, but with a couple less of songs and with a final a bit less predictable, the result could have been improved.

Rating 3/5. 

There will be blood

{mosimage}Greed, religious fanatics, money, oil…  an explosive mix for this adaption of the novel by Upton Sinclair.

There will be blood gives us the chance to see once more to Daniel Day Lewis in a main character role. Not easy to forget his past amazing characters in films like Gangs of New York, In the Name of the Father of The Last of The Mohicans. Being one of the best and most solid actors of the last decades, it seemed that the role of the greedy oil tycoon Daniel Plainview will suit him like a glove. And nobody can´t deny his skills as an actor. But this time the combination does not work.  Director Paul Thomas Anderson wanted to create that kind of character “bigger than life” and he ended up with a boring film full of too much histrionic performances.

The first twenty minutes are really promising, when we see the developments of Plainview from a simple silver searcher to an successful oilman, but putting all the efforts in trying to create a role big enough for Day Lewis to get the academic award, Anderson forgot how to put the rest of the details together in the film. Rhythm is too slow, the relation with the secondary characters could have been much more improved and the final more than shocking, looks ridiculous. 

I had to stop a couple of times the DVD to make a break and smoke a cigarette not to fall asleep. The film is receiving very positive reviews all over the world, so maybe it is just my personal distorted perception, but I can just say “There will be blood…and there will be boredom”.

Rating 2/5.