That’s why I was so excited to discover Anika’s new single, a cover of The Chromatics’ “In the City.” It has the same bewitching beauty of previous Anika songs: imperfect rhythm structures working alongside Anika’s haunting vocals – cold and distant, like they were recorded in an abandoned warehouse. But the instrumentation is surprisingly upbeat, keeping Anika’s usually drained, drawn-out singing a bit more concise. The synth soars, wavering imperfectly, along with her despondent moans. The simplistic beats, optimistic guitar notes flickering above insistent percussion, provide the most human of melodies in contrast with Anika’s vocals. It’s kind of great that way: downtrodden but upbeat, intrepid yet inconsolable. I think Passion of the Weiss described it best, dubbing it “industrial disco”. Yeah, that’s exactly what it is.

Interested? Listen to it here: Anika – “In the City”

So, Happy Tuesday, folks. This is just a taste of what’s to come from Anika’s forthcoming EP on Stones Throw.

I had been released from my afternoon obligations earlier than I expected, so there was still an hour or two before my Kuudes Aisti weekend would start. For other festival goers, the party started the previous evening (Friday) but Saturday would be my intro to the event. Slowly I made my way to the festival area which was wedged in the courtyard of some red brick industrial buildings along one of Helsinki’s busiest traffic arteries. I grabbed a kebab (which I later regretted), drank a coffee, and perused the day’s line-up, making careful mental tick-marks next to the artists I planned to see. Kim Gordon & Ikue Mori were chronologically first on my list, playing right on the main stage. I couldn’t put off entering the grounds anymore, but there was still more than an hour before anything would happen. I figured I would explore a little and I meandered almost aimlessly within the grounds, converting the cartoonish festival map into a more practical mental representation: the bathrooms are over there, food here, beer more or less everywhere. Still 45 minutes to kill. I was anxious to kick this thing off. “Screw it I’ll have a beer.”

Finally Kim Gordon lumbered onto the main stage followed shortly thereafter by Ikue, who planted herself behind a laptop. It was blisteringly hot and the crowd was not even at half capacity. Then the first “chords” were sounded. I use that term loosely. It was more of a discordant affiliation of notes, bleeps, bloops, and processed loops. If you took the soundtrack from an LSD film montage and mixed it with that of a heroin film montage, this is what you might get. Wait, this is what I was expecting. I was aware of the highly experimental nature of Kim Gordon & Ikue Mori. I guess I was just so eager to get things started that I had built up a little tension, tension that would not be released from this.

It was about the time when Kim Gordon theatrically collapsed on stage that I stopped feeling bad about refusing to call it “music”, opting for the term “performance art” instead. Eager to take advantage of my photo pass and its “first three songs” rule, I snapped a few pictures. But, wait a minute – as far as I could tell, she only played three “songs”. Three 15-minute “songs”. The crowd mimicked my confusion, wearing awkward expressions on their faces which read, “Is this when I am supposed to clap?” while looking around to see if anyone else was about to clap.

I felt rude and ashamed for wanting to leave, but it just wasn’t for me. Perhaps under different circumstances it would have been better. I was hot and I could feel my scalp burning in the sun. I wanted to get the party started and it was clear it wasn’t going to happen here. After the 45 minute set, I felt just as awkward as I did earlier when I was just killing time.

Words and photos by Tuomas Brock.

The Kuudes Aisti festival took place July 27th-29th in Helsinki. Find out more at http://www.kuudesaisti.org/.

But enter The Splits, a relatively new all-girl Finnish rock ‘n’ roll troupe. They are putting the fuzz back in my fuzzy memories of being a teen and getting my recommended weekly exercise on the dance floors of the local punk clubs. This is what Finland needs. A much-awaited break from synthesizers and cookie-cutter indie-pop boys who spent hours mastering those guitar licks. We need attitude. We need our throats to hurt. It reminds me of a time when being in a band meant getting your friends together in your parents’ garage and learning to play as you went along. Ad nauseam solos never did anyone any good anyway and I miss the plug-in-and-play mentality. These days it seems you need a degree in electrical engineering just to make sense of the 50 pedals with which bands arm themselves. But not The Splits: think Bikini Kill with tinges of a dirty Best Coast.  The vocals vacillate between cute poppiness and a snarl that would give Kathleen Hanna a run for her money. I think I’m in love.

I haven’t yet seen them live, but I will get a chance on May 27th when they open up for Oakland’s Hunx and His Punx at Kuudes Linja in Helsinki. I’ll be there and I would ask you to come along but, “you don’t like rock ‘n’ roll and I don’t like you.”

Words by Tuomas Brock. Check out The Splits and listen to the Ghosts/Crazy for You seven-inch here.

The group is hard to pin down, mostly because they combine a variety of seemingly unrelated genres, giving their punk music a welcome sense of diversity. It’s not like your average hyphenated mess, where it seems like a band just can’t decide. The Men expertly weave the genres together, to provide unpredictable but elegant songs: hear some hardcore, psych, shoegaze, and even (like with the new album’s title track), a more pop sensibility.

But also be sure that this will not be a show for the feeble. Don’t expect to leave this gig like you walked in. You’ll likely be sweaty (or covered in someone else’s smelly secretions), with the prospect of lovely bruises that will only appear in the morning, like presents under the Christmas tree. Cheesy simile, I admit, but The Men (like Santa) are sure to spread some cheer tonight.

Listen to “( )” from The Men’s 2011 release, Leave Home, here.

The Men perform tonight, March 7, at 285 Kent in Brooklyn, NY. $8, 8 pm. Open Your Heart is out now, on Sacred Bones Records.

 (See the photo and read the rest of NPR’s piece here.)

It’s of Berlusconi holding a note that reads: “308, -8 traitors; Government upturn; Vote; Take note; Resignation; Italian President; One solution; Let’s move”

Che bello!