Monsters of Pop Sept 6th - Day Three

I just love writing when you don’t have a deadline – except for the final deadline, your own actual death. However, here’s the final part of my MOP report.

Ville Särmä is known from the Finnish rock band Kevin. This time Särmä performed his new solo material under the name Ville Särmän illuusio. While Kevin’s latest album was psych-garage-oriented, Särmä’s new material is more folky and melancholic and features careful arrangements and progressive song structures. It was actually very melancholic music. Särmä channelled his inner melancholy through his music, and the result was beautiful and organic.

Then came that moment.. Suddenly I felt like I was at the IPO. It’s not like I know what it’s like to be at the IPO, but this was definitely the band that would have suited to that festival better than any other act of MOP ‘08. The stage was taken over by Forest & Crispian, a Swedish trio that performed very cool garage-influenced music that the band calls new wave barber shop rock. The guys had practised their three-part harmonies carefully, and there indeed was something quite new wavey in the group’s exciting melodies and lead singer/standup drummer Adam Hjertström’s excellent vocals. Band members chatted with the audience in a lovely way. It’s really important, in my opinion, that the performer talks to the audience between songs.

After F&C’s gig, I thought to myself: “We have a winner.” Those songs, that energy.. Wow! Forest & Crispian’s gig was my favourite performance of the entire festival.

Joose Keskitalo performed at MOP together with Risto Ylihärsilä two years ago. Now it was time for a Joose Keskitalo show with his band Kolmas maailmanpalo. Keskitalo’s songs sounded once again really good, although they did sound quite dark right after Forest & Crispian’s happy high-energy gig. The audience, however, seemed to be even more excited about Joose Keskitalo than it had been during F&C’s performance.

The final act of the day, occurring at Klubi, was Swedish Familjen who had recently toured with another Swedish band, Kent. Familjen comes from Skåne, Southern Sweden, where people speak a lovely, incomprehensible dialect. Johan T Karlsson sang in Skånska, and along with the cool electronic beats it really sounded easy-going. A female guest vocalist was also a really good addition to the set.

All in all, it was a good festival. It wasn’t perfect this time either, but the majority of shows were top-class. If I just could decide which bands play next year.. Seriously, the number of powerpop acts was for the third time in a row ZERO. Gee, what kind of a pop festival is that?

A not so bad one, really.
But I have to do something about the powerpop statistics of MOP. Until next year..

Mosters of Pop Website

Hops and Pop

Monsters of Pop Indie Festival was good, as always.. Goodnight Monsters played some catchy Beach Boys-esque pop treats, and the gorgeous Swedish band Forest & Crispian (probably my next favourite band) did the same thing, especially with their last song. There will be a full Monsters of Pop report as soon as I get the inspiration. When I listen to bands play, there are always cool review lines spinning in my head. To write them down later at home is not as easy as reviewing a concert in my head while listening bands play live.

My head seems to be stuck in (a) decade(s) I’ve never actually lived. I watched 16 episodes of Happy Days, I listen to fifties and sixties pop bands all the time, I buy 60s and 50s compilations.. I also grabbed the official soundtrack for a cool film, American Graffiti. It is a two-disc collection of some of the coolest vocal pop, rock’n’roll, doo wop and other r&b of the 50s and early 60s featuring Chuck Berry, The Platters, Buddy Holly, and The Beach Boys, of course, and other top class stuff.

I guess I’m quite happy at the moment. I’m starting my Swedish studies (one of the most wonderful languages there are), listening to cool pop and watching cool TV shows. Also, I walked into the record store Jukeboss today, and The Sun Sawed in 1/2 was being played there.. That was so cool that I couldn’t believe it. Thanks, Bruce Brodeen, for sending those CDs to circulate in used-CD bins in Finland (and no one wants to buy them, even though Fizzy Lift is the coolest album ever)..

When will people come to their senses and realize that The Sun Sawed in 1/2 is/was the most wonderful and gorgeous band in the world? I guess it might help if I spread the word..