Categories
Art Features

A Finnish souvenir – Aalvar Aalto decorative bowls

Iittala, one of the most prestigious Finnish design companies, has taken the famous design of Aalvar Aalto for trays and vases and applied it to mini bowls, very suitable to place all kind of objects like candles, chocolates or snacks into it.

Aalto bowl

Alvar Aalto (1898-1996) is probably the best well-known Finnish architecture and designer. His particular designs of vases were first presented in 1937, and they have become one of the world´s most famous glassware, due to the simplicity of its forms and sensual plasticity as well as the multiple uses that the customers can find for it.

If you visit Finland and want to bring with you a sample of tasty national design, or if you need to buy a refined present for a relative or a friend, a decorative bowl is an excellent choice to pursue as souvenir. Easy to transport and suitable in all kind of environments, it is just the perfect choice to carry a little piece of Finland with you!

For more information, you can visit:

http://www.iittala.com/web/Iittalaweb.nsf/en/products_decorating_alvar_aalto_collection

Categories
Albums Music

Ufo Mustonen – Kuudes Aisti

Mustonen is a Finnish violinist who has collaborated with some top Finnish orchestras and artists like Kauko Röyhkä. Here he introduce us his solo album.

Ufo Mustonen

If you like nice melodies to chill out in the relaxed environment of a small club or café, you are going to dig the songs of Ufo Mustonen. With a music of great quality, and accompanied by other 6 talented musicians,  Mustonen offers a collection of 11 tracks with great lyrics. For fans of introspective Finnish music, like for example the last work of  Samuli Putro of Zen Café, this is an excellent way of discovering the lights and darks of the Finnish soul. Great tracks like Hopeakylkinen or Villiä Lempeä will hit you instantly. For others, especially if you do not understand Finnish language or prefer more danceable or stronger rhythms, this can make you bored.

At least give it a try. It can be the perfect soundtrack for a first date in a dark café, or enjoying a glass of wine at home while talking about the goals in life.

Rating 4/5

Categories
Albums Music

Järjestyshäiriö: Lopullinen Ratkaisu

Third studio album for the Finnish band from Jyväskyla.

If there is something that Finland does not lack of, it is young rock bands. It seems that every time you kick one stone in any Finnish city or town, twenty new bands show off.  That has its good and bad sides: the circuit is big, the people have great appreciation for rock and metal and there are always musicians to jam with. But on the other hand, if a band wants to break through, it has to show “something” extra than the others.

band promo

I do not find that extra in Järjestyshäiriö. Certainly they sound compact and professional, but basically like many other dozens of rock bands that sing in Finnish with softer rhythms easier to like also for the female audience. When the band goes a bit more experimental, like in the third track Koneet, the quality boost up. But for most of the album, it just sounds like another average Finnish pop-rock band. If you like bands like Liekki, you can enjoy this one. But for an over saturated Finnish market, being a third album, I would say that this is not enough.

Rating 2/5

Categories
Albums Music

Amoral – Show your colors

With Ari Koivunen, the young former winner of Finnish Idols replacing Niko Kalliojärvi, no doubt this is one of the most awaited and polemic Finnish metal albums of the year.

Amoral

After the introductory instrumental track Random Words, the first sentence that comes out of Ari´s mouth in the album is “There is going to be some changes” in the second track Release. Certainly if there is something you can say about this Show your Colors, is that it is an album full of changes. Starting from the change of vocalist and basically continuing with the change in the style of the band. Because if Amoral was before well known as one of the most promising Finnish bands in death metal, here they approach closely power metal.  Basically, they have adapted their style to Koivunen´s vocal skills (and he really has them, Idols or not Idols in the middle). Is the result bad? Well, that depends on your point of view. I understand that for many fans of the “old” Amoral, this can be a change that they did not deserve. They could have basically ended up with Amoral´s name and started a new and fresh band. On the other hand, for fans of power metal and for those open minded metal followers, this album is good. The orchestration is great and some tracks like Year of the Suckerpunch sound like instant classics.

If you want to forget about Amoral´s previous works and welcome a new great metal band, you will enjoy this. If you are a hardcore Amoral´s fan, probably you can feel betrayed with the turn of style. My advice:  be open minded and enjoy with the great quality of the new album. The old Amoral´s works will be always there for you if you feel nostalgic.

Rating 4/5

Categories
Cinema DVD

American Buffalo

into the big screen of David Mamet´s play with Dustin Hoffman and Dennis Franz offering an amazing acting duel.

Certainly American Buffalo is not the typical Hollywood movie. Due to being an adaptation of a theatre play, you do not see many characters on screen, actually most basically you just see 3 all the time (and the shoe cleaner at the beginning). But the dialogues keep catching you deeper and deeper until you find yourself enjoying the film almost by surprise.

American Buffalo

The acting is top class, and the story is full of nice dark humor and smart sentences.  Director Michael Corrente is able to transmit strong values and feelings all over the movie: characters that get lost in the small problems and details and miss the big picture of life.

If you enjoy philosophical essays about life and the nature of human beings, this one is going to touch your soul. For other kind of audience, maybe its small pace can desperate them before they truly learn to appreciate its quality.

Rating 3/5

The best: Sean Nelson scamming dollar after dollar from the two main characters

The worst: The movie is from 1996, so for some spectators it can smell too “old”.

The detail: Franz has been one of the stars for many years in the TV series NYPD Blue.

Categories
Cinema DVD

Frost/Nixon

Based on true events, here comes decades later a new reminder of what the Watergate scandal supposed to America.

FrostNixon

That a film is based on true events does not mean that everything that tells is 100% true. Surely the Richard Nixon portrayed here is far from the real Nixon, but … who cares? The point is that this Frost/Nixon offers much more to the spectator than the eye can catch at the beginning. A beautiful story that shows that no human is totally good or bad. Both Langella and Sheen /Nixon and Frost are far from perfect, but with a determination that makes them “dangerous” and always on the edge.

The movie has many wonderful moments, like Nixon´s sentences before the shooting to try to make Frost lose concentration, or the amazing telephone conversation with Nixon drunk that leads to the turn of the events. On top of that, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell and Kevin Bacon are superb in their secondary roles.

I thought before starting to watch the movie that this would be have another boring political plot, but far from it, it was smart, well directed, with rhythm and with superb acting skills, especially for Frank Langella who could have perfectly got the Academy Award for his personification. Good cinema!

Rating 4/5

The best: Frank Langella and his sharp comments (it does not matter if Nixon did not have sense of humor in real life)

The worst: Many will think that Nixon´s figure should have been more demonized.

The detail: Both Langella and Sheen had had the same roles in the theatre play before shooting this for the big screen.

Official trailer:

Categories
Misc News

Placebo back in Finland

Categories
Cover story Misc

Estonia’s soul singers

{mosimage}For a small country, it has a big voice – many thousands of them. While most nations measure their international prestige in sporting or economic terms, Estonia prides itself on its singing. 

 

T

he 25th Song Celebration (Laulupidu), titled “To breathe as one”, was held at Lauluväljak (Tallinn Song Festival Grounds) on 2-5 July and its importance to the Estonian psyche cannot be exaggerated. The last in 2004 attracted a crowd of over 200,000 plus 35,000 choral singers and 2,000 musicians raising their voices  in traditional and modern song. 

Fittingly, a statue of Gustav Ernesaks (1908-1993), 'the Father of the Festival', has looked down over the vast field since 2004 to the huge arched roof  under which the choirs perform. He was the event's head organiser and chief choirmaster for nearly 50 years as well as being a noted composer who put to music Mu isamaa on minu arm (My country is my love) the poem by Estonia’s pre-eminent female poet Lydia Koidula. 

“This song is very important for all Estonians, it’s the symbol of our freedom,” says Margot Holts, Lauluväljak’s Marketing Director. 

2009 marked the festival’s 140th anniversary and it has mushroomed in significance and size from its origins in the city of Tarttu, where a small  museum traces its history. Naturally, during Estonia's Russian and Soviet periods, it acted as a siren for the Estonian soul. So why was it allowed when Estonia was part of the Soviet Union from 1944 to1991? (The current TSFG was even built in 1959 although the then radical design was by Estonian architects Kotli and Sepmann) 

Blissful Ignorance

{mosimage}"The powers in  Moscow saw it as a cultural event only. They were so far removed that they didn’t realize it was so totemic for us,” explains Mall Oja of Tallinn’s Tourist Bureau.   

During occupation, it was held with red flag flying, while the throng defiantly sang for freedom. Before independence came in 1991, the last Soviet event attended by 300,000 in 1988 was dubbed ‘The singing revolution’. This and the subsequent one in 1992 exhaled pride and joy which was breathed in deeply by the entire nation.

Plucked young, matured carefully

Since 1934, the festival has been combined with the Dance Celebration (at nearby Kalev Stadium) that has now had its 18th edition. Over 50,000 choir and 20,000 dancing applications (from abroad too) were received, which were whittled down – only the best will do.  

Estonian choristry skims off the cream from an early age – mirroring the process of the sports world. Choristers from village to city join a major choir as young as five years old. The gifted are trialled, selected and trained at such elite bodies as the Estonian National Opera Boys’ Choir. 

{mosimage}Under the professional tutelage of ENOBC's Artistic Director Hirvo Surva and others, they are trained in breathing, singing and timing. Estonian choirs have received applause and awards abroad from the Llangollen Choir Competition and Hungary’s Cantemus Choral Festival among others. Singers and dancers this year came from North America, the Nordics, UK, Ukraine, Hungary and Russia. 

A typical participant was Feliks Mägus, Chairman of the Nordic Hotel s group who joined a choir aged 7 and then sang until he graduated, literally, to the Tarttu men's choir Akadeemiline Emajõgi. As he puts it “The Song Festival has always been a place to enjoy singing and to feel that all Estonians are as one nation.”   

But the sound and atmosphere created by 100,000 voices is unforgettable in the ten or so songs that are performed together en masse. “Our programme always includes difficult pieces which require balance and careful rehearsal,” comments Surva. “And we always start with Koit and finish with Mu isamaa on mu arm for the older generation.” 

Held every four years like the Olympics and other great sporting occasions, this mean that those who take part have an indelible experience. Although not everyone who wishes can attend in person, the volume and atmosphere produced by the ensemble when singing together means that their voices carry far beyond the sound limits and into the hearts and souls of absentees too. 

Categories
Interviews Music

Interview with Ginger of The Wildhearts

The Wildhearts are usual visitors in Finland. The band from Newcastle has gone through good and tough times during their career, but after two decades, they are still on the road, more alive than ever. They recently visited Estonia for first time to play at Rabarock, the biggest summer festival of the Baltic state, and we had a long and very interesting talk with Ginger, their leader and founder, after they performed an amazing gig. Without doubt, this must be one of the most interesting interviews ever published at FREE! Magazine, so do not miss it!

The Wildhearts

The Estonian audience was not very big during the concert, but The Wildhearts did not seem to mind. You could notice how they were having fun on stage and feeling at ease (maybe helped by the view of some Estonian beauties around). But honestly, I did not know what to expect when accessing the backstage of the festival to meet Ginger. Organization’s rules were so strict that my photographer could not even step with me inside. But same than Ginger defined during the interview Lemmy from Motörhead as a real gentleman, I could say the same about him. He was funny, friendly, polite and intelligent in his comments; A man who has seen the dark side of rock & roll, and was able to go through it and be reborn stronger than ever.  I think this must be one of the best interviews I have ever had so far while doing FREE! Magazine. It was easy and natural to talk to Ginger while smoking cigarettes and having a beer, sitting at the sofa of the backstage, and if it would have not been for the hurry of the organizers, we could have continued talking long after the recorder was turned off. Apart from a great interview, I came back home with a set list signed by the entire band, a guitar pick, and a great hug goodbye from Ginger. You cannot ask for more from one guy who is a true legend of the dirtiest and more mischievous side of hard rock!

Ginger

Thanks a lot for attending us Ginger! What do you think of Rabarock festival, here in Estonia, after your performance?

This festival? I loved it! It is so cool; there are so many pretty girls! My mind is blowing! They are so beautiful. For me, and for the rest of the band, coming from England, it is a bit of a shock!

When did you arrive?

Just last night

Is your first time in Estonia?

Yes. And I want to come back! I liked the atmosphere; they know how to have a good time. So I am very happy with the experience.

You are also usual visitors in Finland. How the atmosphere is when you play there, compared to Estonia?

Kind of the same, it is very open. A lot of countries are very dedicated to what they listen to, and some other countries are very open. If it sounds good, it is good. And I like that about Finland, I like that about Estonia. Some countries you go to, and it is hard to get through them.

Some other foreign bands I have interviewed said that audience can be a bit cold in these countries, but they know how to appreciate the music. Do you have that same feeling?

Yes, as long as the music provokes something in the people, then there is a relationship. The music is not just what is going onstage and selling something. It has never been like that. We go onstage and people want to have some fun and you know, as many other bands, we have had hard times, we have had drug problems, we have had things going really wrong, but the heart of the band is still to have fun; to enjoy life, to be positive.

How do you feel about those tough and hard times, if you look back into the past now? Do you see life with a different perspective?

Well, I think that when you get older, your perspective improves. And you always have hard times; everyone has hard times, now there is a recession going on around the whole world, so your perspective changes and you find also some good and positive sides in everything. Back in the days, back in the 90s, we didn´t find anything positive, we would always have a very negative vibe.

Why?

Because we were all… drug addicts… hehehe So everything was bad, and then you got the drugs and everything was good, and then everything went bad again.

Actually I just read the book by Nikki Sixxx

Ah the Heroin Diaries!

Yeah, it was amazing how he describes so well that you could have everything, fame, money, women, but still feeling so bad and empty.

That is why I tried to remember all the time, just because you have no money, just because you have problems in your relationships, etc do not feel that you are alone, because that is happening all over, you know, you can have good times and bad times, but it is all about how you make it. There is a great Chinese proverb that says that it is not about how a man falls, it is about how a man gets over it, and I always believe that. Things can go wrong, but it is about how you find something positive in that. That is what my attitude is all about these days.

Rabarock

Yeah, people from outside can think “oh people in rock bands have everything we dream of”! But in the end everybody has the same kind of problems, isn’t it?

Look, relationships problems are always the same, either if you are broke or if you have money. Problems with your confidence… etc. It is all about finding something good, remembering something that you love, little tricks like that. This morning I woke up and I was in a terrible mood, and my girlfriend told me “remember the things that you love”. Tell somebody that you love them!, and that will make you feel better.

So do you believe in karma?

Well, I understand karma as meaning “action”. Karma is not something that comes back to you; karma is about something that you do. And that why people get it wrong, so I think that karma is how you behave. If you are being negative, and things keep going wrong, it is awful, but when you are positive, things start to improve, it really is the truth.

I am going to make a long jump in time to the 80s, when The Quireboys, your former band, got started. You were sacked from the band. What do you remember of it?

Well, I was a fucking crazy bastard! I was drinking, I was taking so many drugs, I mean, I would have sacked myself from the band!

Were you pissed off with the decision at that time?

Ohh, yeah, I was pissed off at that time, but because I thought the entire whole world was against me. Then I just realized that I was being unprofessional while they were trying to go to the next level. And they did go to the next level! The band became very successful; it could have not made that step with me at that time. And The Wildhearts screwed it so bad many times because of me in the past.

Ginger: I would have sacked myself from The Quireboys!

Have you been in the situation of taking the phone and telling the guys “sorry guys, I was behaving like an asshole”?

Oh yeah, I have seen the guys of The Quireboys since, I have seen Spike and he understands that we were too young and crazy. Let’s face it, if in your life you are going to have a period acting crazy, you better do it when you are young! Because then you can possibly get over it. I had all my crazy acts at the time when I should have been crazy. In my 20s and my early 30s. Now I am in my 40s and I cannot be crazy no more. I have got babies, I have go responsibilities! But you know, I have no regrets, I have had a fantastic time and one day I will write a book and the “crazy times” will be the “good chapters” in the book, where people go like “oh my god, oh my god”!

Now you have a new album, Chutzpah! What can we expect form it?

Oh, it sounds so great! We worked with a producer called Jacob Hansen, who has produced Volbeat, and we are all very big fans of Volbeat, and he is just an incredible producer, so talented! It sounds like a very expensive record.

You recorded 19 songs for it, didn’t you?

Yes, we recorded 19 songs but the album has just 10 songs. But what we are going to do is, and we talked about this just yesterday, is that we hope that we are going to have a limited edition where everyone in the band makes their own cover and everyone in the band has their personal bonus track. So for the first thousand copies of the album we would have that bonus track and a band cover.

Years ago, when I was basically a child, albums used to have 15-16 songs. Now all the new albums have 10-11. Is that trend ok for u or would you like the albums released to be longer?

Well, like I said, I like to keep up with the times. And now there is so much music out there that people do not have time to pay attention. Doing a longer album now is expecting too much. You have to make them short but make the people really listen to the band. Then maybe they will listen to the whole album. I still love albums, I still buy albums. I do not download songs. I still need real albums. But I also understand that people do not need albums anymore. They need a kind of “soundtrack to their busy lives”. But they still need the live experience, they still need to go to the concerts; they still need to meet people, they still need to meet partners. And the music and the concerts make possible more people meet and have sex and socialize. That is actually the main thing! It always was and it always will be, and not marketing things or selling albums or whatever.

The Wildhearts band

I know that you are a very active blogger in the official site of The Wildhearts. How do you see the impact of the new technologies and the possibilities of keeping closer contact with the fans?

Oh yeah! I use Twitter all the time as well, keeping it as part of the fun. I think now it is the most important time in music ever because I came into this as a punk, and punk was all about sharing, talking to the people and then the 80s turned out and it was all about glam rock and not talking to the people, it was about being mysterious. I am not very good at being mysterious, I like talking to the people. I love to talk and find that we are all the same, that we all love music, that we have the same spirit.

You shared tour with The Darkness and you have always spoken very well of them. They were advertised as “the next big band”, but then we all know the problems they had gone through. Why is so difficult for new bands to break through, is it really so difficult to be original nowadays?

Well, to go from being a small band to headlining in festivals should take around 10 years. There is a theory about 10000 hours so well, you go to work 10000 hours to be good, to consider yourself good at what you do. Some people can get confident and success really quickly, but it is not natural. With The Darkness, it just happened too quickly. If the people just allow them to be a small band, or at least a big band playing small venues, but when we toured with them in America, the first half was in small venues and they were sold out completely. They got to play for a complete week at a venue and it was always sold out. So the second half of the tour were big venues and was not sold out. That hit the band’s confidence. The band was not the same band after that. And that is what I meant, people pushed them too quick. People do not remember that Led Zeppelin or The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, they did not make it in a year or in two years. 10 years is a nice period to make it.

Ginger: I am not very good at being mysterious. I like talking to the people

It just seems that people are a bit too desperate to find the “next big thing”. Since Guns & Roses, people do not see big new hard rock bands.

Well, everyone gets a change now. It is all about how good you are. It is not about how good your record company is, or how good your marketing team is or your management. It is about how good you are on stage in front of people. I am talking about something that has been since music first began. It is about communication. When a band understands communication, which is where the bands are making the money now. Bands just go onstage and it is like watching a movie, people do not feel anything for that. And people do not have so much money now, so they are going to be selective about what they spend money on. When recession is over, people will be confident again to spend money, but when that takes place, you better know how to speak to the audience instead of trying to sell something. A good show is not selling anything apart from a good time.

Well, it is interesting now that you talk about the audience that you released not so long time ago the DVD Live in the Studio, where The Wildhearts are just there playing alone with no audience. Where the ideas come from? Was just a kind of “fuck you and we do what we want” to everybody?

Well, that was actually from our good friend Tim Smith, he directed that, and he wanted to have a very close and personal DVD, about us playing in the studio, just showing the band being able to play. And I must admit that I did not like the idea at first. But I think it has a charm, it has a beauty in it. It is a bit strange, and I like things that are strange, because they make you think. Any art should make people think. Maybe people in 100 or 200 years will look back at it and will say “That was such a crazy and brave thing to do!”

And the sense of humor around the DVD was great, with a lot of edgy comments

Yeah, it was strange but I liked it. The same, we had an album called Endless Nameless, which is my favorite Wildhearts’ album, and it is such a strange one, because it is so noisy, but I love it! The fans hate it! But I think it still works well as an artistic statement. It makes people think.

You will play in Finland, England… what is next for 2009?

Japan. Then I have a solo album to record on Christmas and a solo tour. I am very busy and I am happy that I am busy.

Chutzpah!

Q&A with Ginger

Favorite drink?

Irish Whisky. Jameson or Black Bush or Bushmills. Anything from that family.

Favorite city in the world?

New York.

Craziest thing that has happened on or offstage through the years?

The last time we played at Bulldog Bash I was attacked by one of the Hells Angels, who was doing security, because he misheard something I said. He put his hand on my neck and that was pretty crazy, I thought I was going to die! Luckily the rest of the Hells Angels came and were like “hey, he did not say that!”

Is it true that you saw ghosts at Tutbury Castle during your stay there?

We saw some strange things. We were filming in the room one day and we saw little white lights glowing around. It was really strange. But I must say it was not so paranormal. I have had a lot of paranormal experiences, me and Scott were in a ranch in Malibu in 2005 and that was very paranormal! There was a lot of weird shit going on! A lot of crazy noises coming from anywhere. There are things we don´t know, and it is nothing sinister, it is just… something.

You said about the song “Yoni” and you have had a very promiscuous life. You have traveled and being around, so where do you think that are the hottest girls in the world?

Well, I must say that some of the girls here in Estonia are fucking hot, but I must say that the hottest girls in the world are in New York City, because they are from all over the world

Do you remember the last album you bought?

Yes, the last CD I bought was… And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Death by the homonymous band. Wonderful, wonderful album!

Best band to tour with?

AC/DC and Motörhead, especially with Lemmy. He represents all the good sides of a rock musician: he is intelligent, funny and a gentleman.

Photos of Rabarock gig by Tarvet Kullman

Related articles:

The Wildhearts – 3 gigs in Finland
The Wildhearts – Live in the Studio

Categories
Interviews Music

Interview with Vanilla Ninja

Having access to the backstage of a festival has its good and bad sides. The bad ones is that you pay for a coffee or a beer more than outside, the good one is that you never know whom you can find sitting close to you. During last Rabarock festival in Estonia, I unexpectedly crossed my way with Lenna and Piret of Vanilla Ninja, one of the most international Estonian bands and did not waste the chance to shoot a few questions at them!
It is not common to catalogue girls who hardly reach 25 years of age as “veteran musicians”, but the young and beautiful girls of Vanilla Ninja can certainly say that they have been around, starting their career at a very tender age. Now, with more clear ideas about the business, but still having fun, they seem to be sure about what they want for their present and their future. I met them just minutes before they went onstage to participate in the project B.D.Ö., the biggest metal band in the world, that condensed many famous Estonian singers gathered together. Full of sympathy and energy, they were eager to answer a few questions about their band and their views on Estonian music scene.

I suppose the weather is not the best one to play today. Have you played before at Rabarock?

Piret and Lenna: No, actually I think that it is a good experience because the rock fans get a bit scared if they invite us, so now we got invited.

Vanilla Ninja

Do you still go by the name Vanilla Ninja?

Piret: We had some legal issues with the name.
Lenna: we were 1 year in court but now everything is back to normal.

You are one of the few Estonian bands that broke through internationally. Why does not happen more often?

Both: I don´t know, there is no answer.

Piret: You need to have good connections and we were very very lucky as we had one guy who was working with one Estonian band and we started talking and then we had the chance to go to Germany, but it does not happen really often, like never…

Lenna: I think it happens everywhere, like for example in Germany also, you have many good bands but they are on their own, so the question mark “why” not to go to other country and take competition from there, there is a tough competition.

Piret: Now there are a few bands that have played abroad like Bedwetters, they made an album in Sweden, and Kerli. She has bigger plans.

Vanilla Ninja

But at the beginning she was much criticized for going to USA, people telling that she would never achieve anything important…

Both: Well, it is always like this. At the beginning everybody is like “ohh buhh”, and then after when they get a number 1 the same people are like “oh my god, you were so big in the beginning”

I know you do other projects apart from your musical careers, for example Piret was working for MTV…

Piret: Yes, I was working with them. Yeah, we are doing other projects, we have been doing Vanilla Ninja for 7 years, when we started we were very young, and now we all have the feeling that we would like to have a little rest from music and try different things and then come back to it after a few years or something.

How old were you when you started?

Piret: I was 17.

Lenna: Yeah I was 16

“We want to take a little break from the band to keep it fresh”

How was when you were teenagers and people recognized you in the streets?

Piret: It was crazy of course!

Lenna: But it was also fun!

Piret: It was fun most of the time, but the longer we do the more we see how hard it is.

Lenna: But actually that is also one reason why we are so grateful because we were so young that we were willing to take all the risks and then when somebody offers to do those things, we say “no way”. At the beginning we were “yeah yeah, let´s do it!”

Piret: I think it was good that we started so young and so naïve.

Now you are young but with a lot of experience!

Both: Yeah, for sure!

What Estonian bands that you would recommend to foreign listeners?

Piret: I really like Kosmikud.

Lenna: I am fond of PopIdiot and Stella.

Piret: Popidiot is really good and I really liked their last album.

Vanilla Ninja

What are the future projects for you?

Lenna: As Piret said, we want to take a little break. We do not want to break up with the band, we are making concerts but we are not making any new album at the moment, we are not planning it. We are gonna take it easy and have some fun and try new projects.

Piret: Just to keep ourselves fresh and experience different stuff. For the last seven years we have done the same kind of music and we cannot change it in Vanilla Ninja, the style has to stay the same, because the fans expect that and otherwise do not like it.

But it is always the change, isn´t it? If you change, people criticize and if you keep the same they also criticize.

Piret: But you know, for ourselves we decided that we do not want to do the same thing right now. We need some change, but I think that after 3 or 5 years or so it would be nice to come back to the roots of the band.

Photo 3: Tarvet Kullman

http://www.myspace.com/vanillaninjaofficial

Categories
Cinema DVD

The Spirit

After the success of Sin City and 300, Frank Miller goes behind the camera to act as director in this new adaptation of one of his most famous comic books.

The Spirit

Visually, The Spirit is wonderfully produced. The comic atmosphere is once again perfectly transported into the big screen. But a movie needs some more “salt” than just a wonderful photography. Gabriel Macht is credible in his role of cheeky superhero, but many of the big names that go with him in the cast are really dreadful: Samuel L. Jackson as Octopus is on the edge of being ridiculous, not mentioning the poor additions of the two female roles incarnated by Eva Mendes and Scarlet Johansson; surely they will shine in the cover of any fashion magazine, but they still need to learn a couple of things about comic adaptations. The dialogues have some funny moments, mixed up with some silly parts, and the action scenes are really nothing special.

Resuming, the movie does not really add anything to the overcrowded genre of comic adaptations, and although is still watchable, does not fulfill the minimum requirements to pass the exam of the viewers. A weak one, could have been much better polishing the plot and the characters!  

Rating 2/5

The best: Eva Mendes making a photocopy of her ass.

The worst: Scarlett Johansson. Her role is totally to be forgotten.

The detail: Frank Miller is supposedly to produce Sin City 3 in 2012.

The Spirit Trailer

Categories
Albums Music

Stereochemistry – Märka!

Stereochemistry is a young new band from Tartu that has just released their debut studio album Märka! after having played together for about 4 years.

Following their musical dream and taking advantage of having reached the finals of Eesti Laul 2009, the Estonian foursome formed by  Holger and Siim on the vocals/guitar, Indrek on the bass and Keio on the drums deliver 11 shots of good rock in a notable first effort to break through the Estonian music scene.

Stereochemistry

The first couple of tracks, Ainult armastus on ju päriselt meie and Öösiti kõndides, give a good sample of what you are going to find in the rest of the CD: smart lyrics, edgy riffs and pop-rock rhythms easy to follow and dance to. Holger vocal skills suit perfectly on the songs, although maybe it would be nice to notice a bit more of experimentation on his notes, because most of the songs are sung at the same vocal levels, not putting his throat at risk. The orchestration sounds fluent and compact, highlighting the excellent skills of Keio, the drummer, who really pushes the songs higher and higher with his effort, something you can really notice when the band plays on live. I had the chance to see them during the presentation of their album at PlinkPlonk Club in Tartu, where you could really notice that the tracks work perfectly well on stage, with the audience having a good time and getting warmer and warmer song after song.  The fourth  track Märka!, homonymous of the album title, marks a perfect inflection in the album, sounding slower and a bit sadder at the beginning to explode later in a hooky chorus, being impossible not to feel moved by it.

On the other hand, the most melancholic moment of the album comes maybe by Eile, although the band never let themselves fall into the dark and more twisted side of pop, and add in every song a colorful note of hope and fun. Different to the style of many similar styled Finnish pop-rock bands that choose a darker and more melancholic style, Stereochemistry bets for the lighter side of rock, songs to enjoy at a gig or a party with good friends and a beer in a hand, while moving your feet.

If I have to put a “but” to the album, I would say that the artwork of the CD and booklet feel a little bit too amateurish, but being this the debut work, is a detail totally forgivable. The question to decide is if the band will be able to break through from playing in small venues and pubs to bigger audiences. Their style, a bit similar to other Estonian bands that were able to become mainstream like The Smilers, is perfect to catch the attention of the masses wherever they play, and luckily there are venues enough in Estonia to welcome them on stage around the country, but if they just do not want to be labeled as just one more Estonian pop-rock band, maybe they would need to go a bit more experimental and risky in follow-up works. For the moment, Märka! represents a very good promising debut for the young guys!

Rating 4/5

Categories
Albums Music

Agent Kooper – Head + Heart

After their debut album in 2007 and a few changes, AK is back with a follow up album that seems to kick ass!

Agent Kooper

The Turku based trio is back after a couple of years, with a new drummer from Florida, Jake McMullen; the new addition of the band maybe has a lot to do with the American essence that this Head + Heart exhales. Far from typical Finnish rock or metal albums with always the same riffs and the same melancholic lyrics, Agent Kooper does really sound fresh and full of experimentation, it can sound like a military whining march like in Let It Slide or it can sound closer to bands like Kings of Lion in the track Alive & New.

Dirty guitars, good background vocals and a mischievous attitude that can put them close to some dessert rock bands like their beloved Queens of the Stone Age. The album is a little jewel that you need to listen to for several times to fully appreciate all its layers. Good one!

Rating 4/5

Categories
Albums Music

Katie Melua – Live at the o2 Arena

Recorded in November 2008 during Pictures World Tour, here you can find a good collection of the best Melua´s tracks since she released her first work in 2003.

Katie Melua

19 songs composed this live album that gives a good sample of what you can expect in a Katie Melua´s performance.  The quality of her voice and the sound in general is excellent, starting with the moving Piece by Piece and flourishing it with the cover of Janis Joplin’s Kosmic Blues. An outstanding female voice, as she shows singing alone in tracks like Lilac Wine or I Cried For You.

If you want an album to enjoy some intimate moments surrounded by the fading light of some candles, this album is for you; Sweet and touching.

Rating 4/5

Categories
Cinema DVD

Quarantine

A TV reporter and her cameraman are going to live a very disturbing night when they find themselves locked in a building full of dangers.

Many people considered this movie the best horror movie ever (being by the way the remake of the Spanish film (REC)) I honestly do not understand what is going on in the brains of the audience lately, because I considered this one just a very poor average horror one. The beginning is promising, and the acting is plausible, but in the end it just turns predictable, falling into the category of “run away from the zombies… or infected”, whatever you want to call them.

Quarantine

It would have been nice to dig deeper in the relations of the reporter, Jessica Carpenter, with her cameraman and the firemen that go with her (obviously was openly flirting during the beginning when they are at the fire station), but the director prefers to throw to the spectator good doses of adrenaline every 30 seconds. Well, in some ways the movie is plausible enough to follow it until the end, but on the other hand, there was no big surprise here, even the not so sweet ending could be foreseen miles away. 

From my humble point of view, another American remake that does not catch up with the original. It can entertain, but do not expect any masterpiece. 

Rating 2/5

The best: The oppressive atmosphere inside the building.

The worst: The plot is not much original after invasion after invasion of zombies and infected beings we suffer every year.

The detail: The incredible Doug Jones, famous for his incarnations of monsters in Guillermo Del Toro´s movies, plays the role of the Thin Infected Man in the end of the movie.

Quarantine Trailer