22 Pistepirkko

The mail brought 3 cds from Finland today - the latest from 22 Pistepirkko, "(Well You Know) Stuff Is Like We Yeah!", their first EP "Ou Wee!" and "Monochromeset" by their cover version alter-egos, The Others which, quite brilliantly, opens with a rare Ray Davies classic "This Strange Effect". Somewhere in the back of my mind, I have a nagging feeling I might have brought this song to their manager, Tiina, a long time ago but don't take my word for it. Those days are hazy and I could be imagining it. I suggested this song to a few people back in the early 90s. Anyway, they do a terrific version (likely to chart next week!) and I'm going to enjoy listening to the rest of the package over the next few days. I once went to Helsinki to see 22P and they were fantastic. Lovely people, too. I did all the usual tourist stuff. Ate venison, drank lager, bought Stones bootlegs. They liked all the right music (Buddy, Beefheart, the blues, the Velvet Underground) and managed to sound like nothing I'd ever heard, then or since. I saw them in Amsterdam (they were good) and when they came to NYC in 91 to play a "Finland Rocks" night at CBGBs for the New Music Seminar, they managed to sound lost and out of place. Somehow that night, they couldn't find the magic and I couldn't persuade Elektra to open the chequebook. Too bad. They've released a series of wonderful records since the late 80's and regular listeners will recognize songs like "Swamp Blues", "Texacoson", "Birdy","Frankenstein", "Don't Play Cello", "Don't Say I'm So Evil", "This Time" and "Rally Of Love" when they hear them. Suicide's Martin Rev told me last month that he did some work on "Swamp Blues" so if anybody out there has a spare copy of their (now deleted) remix album, "Zipcode", let me know how much.