IDAHO

Today is the International Day Against Homophobia. An awareness day to celebrate the great variety we humans come in and to communicate that everyone has the right to love and be loved equally.

Eurovision has stirred up some controversy on this front, as Georgia and Greece have reacted negatively at Finland's Krista Siegfrids kissing her female backup singer at the end of the performance. Now, this is a competition where there are no rules when it comes to who people can be - the most obvious example being a trans woman from Israel, Dana International, who won the competition in 1998. That's a decade and a half ago! Attitudes have changed a lot since then, and still being gay is incredibly hard in this world for far too many people, and several westerns countries, that are seemingly very tolerant, are still making a fuss over equal marriage and finding too many excuses not to start amending the marriage law.

The Culture & Arts sector has throughout history attracted a big variety of different people with different interests, personalities and values - one similarity being that they are creative souls and willing to push the boundaries of what is considered acceptable. The Eurovision Song Contest is no exception. Every year we see entrants from all walks of life, and from all cultures (naturally). Some can be obnoxiously camp, others sensibly open-minded, and some plain vanilla, and they are all equal on that stage (let's forget neighbour-favouritism for this). That's what it's about.

Giant moths, stalker girlfriends and rocky horror opera dubstep

So... I was having dinner during the first four performances, so my notes on them aren't quite as extensive as the rest of it. And because I have a 6.30am alarm tomorrow morning again I can't be arsed to google and re-watch just for the sake of writing a better blog post. So there. But overall I can say that this was the real semifinal. Tuesday must've been just a test run, a little warm up.

I don't think there are no ladies who will give you cuter babies.

Latvia. Mirror ball Jedward.

San Marino. Red cult lady.

Macedonia. What the hell happened!?

Azerbaijan. Hey, it's Eric Saade! Finalist.

Finland! YAYY! It's super catchy, I've had the song stuck in my head for a week already. OH-OH OH-OH-OH DING DONG! (And ps. I know the girl who kissed her) Finalist.

Malta. I'd listen to this on a summer picnic! Very much a feelgood tune. Finalist.

Bulgaria. Giant moth headpiece.

Iceland. Hot man. Probably a really lovely song if I understood any of it. Iceland is good at emotional big melodies, anthemic slow songs. Finalist.

In Greece alcohol is free. Making a mental note to add Greece to holiday destinations list. And you get to drink listening to ska. I will have fun on this holiday! They're like less colourful Gogol Bordello. Finalist.

Israel. That's a very tight dress. I wish I knew what she's singing about because some corny lyrics might be able to salvage this from boring.

Eurovision rock from Armenia! The lead man could be Kevin Richardson's (of the Backstreet Boys fame) twin and the band could be Creed. Finalist. (Really now? Who voted?!)

Hungary is quite sweet. The guy looks like a radio DJ. Finalist.

Norway has brought an actually a good song that could stand on its own, not restrained by Eurovision bubble. Finalist.

Albania has lots of men who look metal (by Eurovision standards) but the sounds doesn't live up to their looks. I don't know what this sounds like, it's a bit of folk, bit of Disney, bit of rock, lot of Eurovision. Although they have a fire shooting guitar.

Georgia. Duet ballad. Rather boring. Finalist.

Switz. AWWW of the old guy playing fat bass* he's 95. The song is quite pleasant, if not too 'even' from beginning to end - it doesn't travel at all and gets boring quickly. *I've been informed it's actually called double bass in English but I don't care, I prefer my Finglish fat bass.

Romania. Man in a dress, finally! And lots of sequins! Naked dancers. He's invented a new genre: transvestite-opera-dubstep. I wonder if he's seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show a few too many times.  It kinda sounded like he's actually singing Bon Jovi's It's My Life but deceiving everyone with opera! Finalist. (would be a crime if he wasn't)

I remember doing the time warp

In memory of rapping spacemen

It has begun! The annual festival of kitsch. THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST!

My ramblings while watching the live show tonight. It was the first semi-final and so this is just a quick one. Will write a more thoughtfully (well, technically this is 100% thoughts running through my head, but you get me!)  constructed post about the final on Saturday. It's a damn shame that Montenergo isn't there. Or Serbia.

We're in space. Rapping to dubstep.

Austria. She's The Voice winner. There are a few of those this year (Finland on Thursday!). Quite a tame start. I'm slightly disappointed, this is too normal!

Estonia threw a pregnant lady on stage. The song was nice, if not unlike a million slow songs in this world. She had fog and wind though, like any self-respecting Eurovision entrant should. Finalist.

Oh dear, Eurovision dubstep by Slovenia. With a trio of dancing iron masks. And she's dressed head to toe in club wear leather. Here we go, this is Eurovision! I wonder if dubstep will be this year's fad genre to try at ESC.

Croatia has a male choir wearing something Napolean. I do not mean the city in Italy, but the short man with the white horse. The song was called "Misery" apparently, but sounds very tame and peaceful.

Seizure coming up! Denmark warns us about strobe lights and flashing. The girls is channeling Shakira on her knees, interestingly. The flashing wasn't very noticeable, if you ask me. Finalist.

Russia. The Voice winner again, they apparently call her the new Adele. What's up with this abundance of female singers with ballady songs and big melodies and ball gowns? A ballad won't win unless it's Irish. Finalist.

Ukraine. A giant carries this pocket rocket of a girl on stage and here we go, another woman in a long dress but this one's got more of a beat to it. This strangely reminds me of Lion King. There was a disturbing lack of Giant Igor (I learned his name is) after the very first few seconds. Finalist.

The Netherlands brought back Anouk! She seems to have grown out of her Nobody's Wife days. This could be on a movie soundtrack, featuring Thom Yorke. It's interestingly different for this event. Finalist.

Montenegro has recruited... wait for it... SPACEMEN! Rapping astronauts! Oh yes. And a little space fairy with a powerhouse voice. I like the greenness on stage. Hmm, quite like fairy washing liquid. Another Eurovision dubstep entry but far better than the other one, whoever that was.

Lithuania. Is this going to be Eurovision rock? He looks like a British musician, and it's kind of trying to be Eurovision rock but his voice isn't powerful enough. This is ... average. Although, he did sing "because of the shoes I'm wearing today, one is love the other is pain." That earns him some Eurovision points. Finalist.

Belarus. Now this is more like it, the whole show seems to have picked up now and we're firmly on Eurovision territory. Underwear model looking girl in a tiny shiny dress and Jessica Simpsonesque dance skills. Finalist.

Moldova's girl's hair looks like lasagne and she has the white backup dancers that are a compulsory accessory for at least four performances each year. Up she goes! I've seen this trick on Super Sweet Sixteen. Finalist.

Ireland has a younger Adam Lambert! I like the shirtless drummers, who are probably actually not drummers but male models, but that's not important. Finalist

Belgium's dancers were weirdly protective of their ovaries in between of imitating chicken walk. The song sounds like something you'd hear on the radio but never remember who sings it. Finalist.

Serbia. Now these girls are rocking the Eurovision uniform! They've sort of dressed up like creepy living candy floss. I'd imagine Japanese Bratz dolls to look similar. What exactly is going on? It looks like there's some sort of story to this song, there's a bit of drama and sudden dance moves. It's like a pantomime where you can't understand a word!

Oh yes I'm wearing marshmallow, what of it?

Staying live

This post is long overdue, my apologies. I haven't felt very motivated lately. Today after a Facebook chat with my boyfriend, Chris, he said I should definitely give blogging a real go and even write for a career, so I decided to post something. That was probably the best compliment I have ever had.

A while ago I saw someone post on Facebook how sad it is that so many venues can not afford to run their live music night anymore because there's no audience, and then urging people to support live music and going to their local venue - who knows what they'll find! I then proceeded to bounce ideas off of my fellow university students of the same major. This post is a collection of thoughts and ideas inspired by our chat. I also consulted Chris and as biased as I may be, he is a very wise individual and an enthusiastic musician who has to deal with the problems of gigging regularly with his band. (check 'em out!)

Fair enough, you might stumble upon something great - your future favourite band ever - one night at the rock bar on the corner of your neighbourhood. But the chances that you'll instead be bombarded by an endless supply of mediocre "I've heard this a billion times" delivered to you by a group of bored indie boys who are so above playing that gig to a mere handful of people are far more probable than hearing something actually engaging AND of decent quality. Sounds cynical and pessimistic but that's what the live music scene here does to you; puts you off live music.

I'm playing the devil's advocate here as I have quite honestly been put off by going to live music nights because of the sheer amount of horrible that enters my ears and the awkwardness that goes on on the stage. I do not want to listen to or watch that. And I definitely don't want to spend my money on that. I'll go see a band I already know and like but I will stay well away from live music venues if I don't recognise any of the names on the poster. It's not that I don't want to support live music. It's just that the majority of live music out there doesn't deserve my support.

Is there a reason that people aren't interested anymore? Are there too many mediocre bands putting on mediocre shows that don't excite people and that's why they don't have an audience in the first place? Shouldn't it also be the venue's responsibility to book interesting bands and offer good quality entertainment and not just the audience's duty to support the utterly boring and technically challenged musician wannabes who are trying to "make it"?

Also, I've noticed that as getting gigs has gotten easier to do on your own, lot of bands go out there and play way before they're ready, way before they're "good enough". And if the bands themselves don't care too much about being worth people's money then why should people support that? Chris agrees: "It almost is too easy to form a band and do some gigs, thus lowering the general quality of unsigned music."

Fellow students said: "I can't stand listening to a bad band. I'll rather choose another bar of my liking."

"I think that bands should make sure they are ready to try their wings before they hit the stages, and if the venues held some kind of quality standards the band could maybe realize that they are not ready if they are constantly rejected and go and practice some more."

I think what it ultimately boils down to is that the responsibility of paying to see bands shouldn't solely lie on the shoulders of the audience. It should also be the promoters' responsibility to offer something worth paying for.

The bands that are worth it are still "making it". Local bands, if good enough, have a local following and are known by everyone in their community and draw an audience in that area. But only if they're good enough to draw people's interest. That's where it all starts. No bond or sense of community will be strong enough to pull the weight of a shit band. If a band one day wakes up to the reality that they don't have any fans and no one goes to their gigs, it isn't the audience's fault. They're just not likeable.

"It's then a challenge for the better bands to find a way to stand out and not get lost in the mess of crap bands. There's no excuse for that if they're really that good." - Chris, 2012

It's a jungle out there. There's no arguing that things were easier when musicians could concentrate on playing music and writing songs and the business side was taken care of by business professionals. Now bands need to do their own PR, social media, gig bookings, branding, and quite often also recording and mixing. All in addition to the musician-y stuff that comes with the gig. There was also an unspoken promise that bands that get booked to play a gig are at least of decent quality and have a backing from the industry. Such promises are now far gone and the collection of clueless are taking over the stages. People aren't interested because they're not being offered anything interesting.

Born this gay - London Pride 2012

London Pride. I was a first timer - In Finland you'd need to find your way all the way to Helsinki for that. This time I happened to be in the same city and happened to see someone post about it on Facebook in the same morning. I had no other plans so decided to go check it out. After all, I fully support equal rights for everyone - and really wanted to see Boy George and Corey Hart. I convinced my flatmate Hanna and her friend Seamus to come too! He got chatted up a lot while us girlies were left alone. The situation got rectified later on in Roxy Club where, to put it nicely, all the guys seemed to be lonely. Ugh, I again remembered why I don't go out that much. Funnily it doesn't take long to forget these things again.

There was only one entrance gate into Trafalgar Square which was a bit shit honestly. The queue was horrendous and moved reeeeaaalllyyy sloooowwlyyy. Yet there were at least three "exit only" gates. I didn't get to hear Karma Chameleon, either because he didn't sing it or he started with it and we weren't in the area yet. Do You Really Want To Hurt Me was heard. He was fabulous in his sparkly hat and strong eyeliner!

How awesome is he!

I was so ready for it too! Shame I missed the song.

Corey Hart didn't disappoint - Sunglasses At Night remix version was incredibly fun! For those of you who aren't so well educated about 80's cheese, he's the guy who invented duckface.

Then we popped into a pub for a drink and the table next to us invited us over in their company. Then we spotted some, apparently hot, lonely man in the table behind us and took him in. He'd been stood up by his friend and was stranded in this strange city all by himself. All the way from Italy, poor guy. We then proceeded to go find a club - wandered in the general direction of Heaven to notice that the queue was about 7 miles long - then came up with a plan B and found Bar 101 for a drink and then moved on to Roxy. Roxy was fun! Completely packed full which was annoying but the music was good! No standard club music, more indie rock and oldies.

Such a fun night! Great time was had by all, almost everyone hooked up with someone, love was all around. And bright colours.

Indie Con - no cosplay involved

I'm on my last month of interning! Well, kind of. Full time until the end of July and part time for August while I also (hopefully) earn some actual money. The sooner I find a job the better. I can't do maths and will be trouble with bank balances unless I start receiving a paycheck.

I met with a recruitment agent who specializes in helping Finns find jobs. Apparently we have a good reputation and the Brits have a bad reputation when it comes to employment so she's now marketing us as the amazing, intelligent super worker bees that we are. Fair enough, I'll take advantage of that if I can ;) Hire me, I'm Scandinavian! True Aryan as well, if that's something you value. I can't really pull the minority card though, so that's an obstacle. Or maybe I'll convert to lesbianism for the sake of getting a job. (Disclaimer: I do think it's a bit silly to use my nationality - or any other unrelated issue - for advantage in the job market.)


Then the interesting stuff: Indie Con, a "unique new conference devised for independent labels and artists", kicked off Thursday and went on until Friday lunch time. So, simply put, a day and a half little thingy.

Thursday was really useful and interesting for me as I'm leaning towards marketing and PR with my career aspirations. I can't really say any of it was really new, but I got some ideas that I hadn't thought of yet and got good reminders of things I know but have neglected lately. But as they say, repetition is the mother of learning. It was also great to get some validation as the things they'd done with their campaigns were very similar to ours. Builds confidence.

The first panel was about online marketing and fan engagement. We heard from five marketing professionals about their campaigns that they've recently done for their artists and how it worked. Most of them were quite new up and coming acts with small budgets which was great since that's where we're at. One presentation was about Prodigy's campaign around this year's Download festival and while interesting, I have a feeling I won't be doing promotions for bands that caliber any time soon.

Later in the day we got to hear from music journalists and how they wish to be approached by PR. No surprises here but nice reminders that we shouldn't be dazzled by shiny, pretty newsletters that are easy to send to entire lists of email addresses but to keep it simple and personal. I've always known that but have been ignoring it because it just is so much easier and more fun to create a pretty newsletter with beautiful colors and pictures than manually send normal emails.

Friday I went to listen to a more political discussion about US visa issues (which is incredibly unfair!) and quick visit to Google and illegal download sites. I never thought it'd be as interesting as it was. Touring in the USA is currently pretty much impossible unless you have a lot of money and influential friends where American bands can just trot over and do a tour. Going to the States to play requires months of paperwork; to first apply for a permission to apply for a visa, then apply for the actual visa which costs substantial amount of money. Then you need letters from respected members of the industry proving that you're a significant artist (this caused Adele some problems as she was such an overnight success that she didn't have a great back catalogue of achievements and press coverage). You might have convinced some journalists to feature you and your music, media might even love you but when you ask them to write a letter of recommendation as a favour to you, they probably don't have the time. It's a nightmare.

I really enjoyed these day and a half! I'll definitely go again next year. You should too.

All I Know is that the office is getting crowded

It's been a while again! I've been busy and away and lazy. I went to visit friends and family in Finland in the beginning of June and straight from there I flew to sunny Spain for a friend's wedding. It was absolutely lovely!

First dance in action. My camera is awesome.

Last week I made a comeback to work to find that we have about a million new interns! They all are apparently mostly doing social media stuff, one of them is taking care of new releases and I'm still doing newsletters and press releases and bugging media people. All is well.

I do like that we now have new blood around here. Sometimes the office can get a bit quiet if all the other interns, who mostly are here 2 days a week, are gone. Now with this many new people I'm assuming such a day will never be again! At the moment most of them are quite scared and quiet but that should change once we get to know each other more.

Then I got hit by some annoying stomach flu and was out of the game for the better part of three days (and the previous weekend). The longest stomach upset ever! I was on a solid diet of yoghurt, bananas, white rice, coconut water and peppermint tea for about three days. Yum. When I felt well enough to have tasty food again I nearly went on a binge and made myself sick again (that was the plan) but ended up in a pub eating a sandwich and sipping wine. All went better than expected!

Now that I'm back in action we've been busy busy bees with promotion campaigns for a single 'All I Know' by iremembertapes. They're like the lovechild of Scissor Sisters and Joy Division. Makes me wanna boogie. As of yesterday (Thursday June 28) morning the track has been available on iTunes and other platforms worldwide! Get on it!

Gay or European? The annual Festival of Kitch

This post is about Eurovision Song Contest. If you don't appreciate the ridiculousness, hilarity and excessive use of glitter in ESC, stop reading.

Eurovision week is over. Congratulations to this year's winner, Sweden's Loreen with her song 'Euphoria'! And speedy recovery to all ESC drinking game players. To be honest, I was quite surprised by Loreen's victory. Normally these conventionally good quality songs that will go on to play at clubs and radio, don't succeed that well in Eurovision. Euphoria has already topped the charts in Nordic countries and now will no doubt do just that also elsewhere.

On the day of the second semi-final, Thursday that is, Eric Saade started trending on Twitter as soon as Norway had performed. The similarities between Sweden's last year's performance and Norway's show this year were incredible. The guys look the same, the backup dancers look the same - if you ignore the gender upgrade - and the songs could be by the same artist. Norway came in last in the final with only 7 points.

As Norway's poor performance showed us, it's not a good idea to resemble another (famous) artist too much. Yet this mistake is made every year. This year Italy's artist was clearly channeling Amy Winehouse and Denmark's girl sounded a lot like Alanis Morissette. Denmark only scored points from six countries, coming to a total of 21 points, while Italy did considerably better with 101 points and 9th place.

I am sailing, across the stage

The gayest show this year was Turkey, no contest! Their leather wearing seaman and his batman-inspired backup dancers managed to be exceptionally camp, even by the Eurovision standards. And then their capes transformed into an outline of a boat and made me giggle uncontrollably. Most fun this year, however, was Malta's little foot dance! They also had a pretend-DJ on stage. 0:55 is when the fun begins.

The UK's Engelbert "The Hump" Humperdinck came second to last with only 12 points despite his huge global success and large fan base. The BBC offers this as explanation: "Historically no-one who has opened the contest has gone on to win, as viewers often tune in late and miss the early contenders." which is of course complete bollocks. While he came across as sympathetic and sweet, his song 'Love Will Set You Free' (yes, really) was utterly boring, as the title would have you think. In this freak circus such a ballad will go unnoticed, unless it's Ireland. And even they've had bad luck lately. Of course, they've also had a turkey.

Speaking of Ireland, I liked Jedward's 'Waterline' much better than 'Lipstick' last year. The audience, however, seemed to disagree. I don't blame them, the whole reason even I watch this show is for the WTF-reactions and the exciting shows these artists throw at us. Seeing the same performers year after year is dumb and boring.

Special mention goes to Georgia for providing the most ridiculous performance, in the true spirit of Eurovision Song Contest! I would have definitely wanted to see them in the final.

Another special mention to the Slovakian Eurovision Hair Metal band with shirtless lead man. That should be a genre; it's a classic Eurovision song disguised as hard rock/glam metal. Listen to it and you'll know what I mean (ignore the beginning, it gets more Eurovision-y come chorus). Belarus also had a Eurovision rock band with members who looked like they jumped on the stage straight from the TV show The Tribe. Yep, "Eurovision rock" needs to be a genre. Not limited to only bands who've been in ESC.

The BBC commentators made this year so much better for me (that's where the headline for this post came from). The Finnish commentators have some good jokes and say funny things but hold back much much more than the guys at BBC. It was a joy listening to them. I'm also extremely happy to have learned about the existence of Dr. Eurovision! Isn't it marvelous! Academic expert, has a PhD in Eurovision. I don't know if that's incredibly cool or just incredibly ridiculous. Or both. Awesome dude either way.

What were your favorite moments this year?

Bright lights and bright minds in Brighton

My camera is amazing

The Great Escape came and went. It was a really fun weekend and even though interesting comments and statements were rare and everything the panels discussed I already knew*, I did still learn. And it was nice to notice that I really do know something about what I'm doing and even the top players aren't that much more knowledgeable, they just have the years of experience and reputation behind them. The thing where you put the knowledge into action and make something of it. This was more of a trial run though and next year, if I go, I'll get much more out of it.

*For bands to be ready for a label they need to practice, write songs, play gigs and have a fan base. If they want to work with a brand they should do their research and find a brand with the right image. Oh, and bands are brands too. All fascinating bits of information if you've never really been near anything music industry related and are a bit simple and clueless, but pretty self-explanatory to everyone else.

Despite there being millions of gigs all through the weekend, we only saw a handful of them. Our own night took up all of Friday night and during the days we went to the conferences rather than watch some band we've never heard of. So we only pretty much had Thursday and Saturday nights to check out some live music.

On Thursday the highlight of the night was Kids In Glass Houses despite the front man's very geeky-in-an-uncool-way t-shirt. Come on, bands, look like a band! They had energy, they had attitude and they had catchy punk rock tunes. Their sound is quite American which for anyone who knows me is a sure sign that I'll like it. Very enjoyable to watch too. I really also liked the venue they were playing, Concorde 2. Magner's cider was only £3,80/pint which for a Finn is very impressive and exciting!

I'll just skip right to Saturday since I feel I've highlighted our bands' greatness enough already. I have nothing to add. They're great. They're always great. They even might have been a bit greater than before. And they look like bands. And they are: The Manic Shine, Violet Bones and iremembertapes.

Saturday we hunted down a band called Billy Vincent because someone knew someone who knew someone or something. They were instantly likable and their music made me happy. The last song really made the night. I'm a sucker for some violin and folky sounds, though, and may have let that affect my judgement. Not to mention that they looked good.

Such attractive lads

After that we headed down to a launderette with our new friends from The Icarus Youth to catch a band called The Computers. There we were climbing on washing machines and watching this amazing group of punkrock dudes ooze pure energy and thrills. They should, however, get some hairstylin' tips from Jedward; their cool rockabilly quiffs were pretty much ruined after 15 seconds into their set. That was very possibly the coolest gig I've ever been to!

YYYEEEEAAAAHHH!

Crammed in.

TGE

It's been a while, sorry. Nothing worth reporting has really happened. Still promoting, still updating contact lists, still designing newsletters, still sending those newsletters out.

But this Thursday we will grab our backpacks, take our eagerness to learn, aim our concentration towards the speakers and unleash the excitement at The Great Escape festival in Brighton! On Friday we're putting on our The Animal Farm showcase and the rest of the time we'll go from conference to conference, one gig to another and take in as much as we can. This year's theme is DIY which is quite fitting as that is how things are done at the Farm.

Our line up is:
19.00 - 19.30 The Rocket Dolls
19.45 - 20.15 Little Signals
20.30 - 21.00 Violet Bones
21.15 - 21.45 iremembertapes.
22.00 - 23.00 The Manic Shine

It's going to be fantastic! I will obviously give a full report next week of how amazing it was.

I found a website for a company called City Academy who have musical theatre classes and singing classes and dance classes and such. I really really want to go to a musical theatre class! The beginners classes that last 6-10 weeks are between £200-300 so a bit much for my finances. Maybe I should try one of those online money raising sites and have people fund me! If even a handful of people would pitch in, it would help tremendously. I'm thinking of doing it around my birthday so there's that going for me instead of just randomly asking people for money ;)

I also had a quick meeting on Skype with my academic instructor and it seems that I will eventually graduate (I knew that, now it's just more real). My thesis idea was approved at this time, but it is just a vague idea still and needs a lot of work. And academic backing. I need to hit the library and start researching. Oh dear, soon enough I will have a degree and have to let go of my student-ness and need to find a grown up job with a grown up salary and grown up responsibilities. Scary thought!

Here's a very awesome video from our very awesome The Manic Shine!

The Animal Farm Club Night

The Animal Farm Club Night happened last night at the fabulous Zigfrid von Underbelly of Hoxton Square. It was a night of fantastic music, good wine and great company! I don't have photos (still happened!) because my camera battery is dead and my adapter for the plug is temperamental and refuses to work. Also because I'm lazy and haven't bothered to buy a new charger with an English plug. But YouTube has videos.

The first band to take the stage was The Counterpoints; new band from Reading releasing their first single April 30th. That's an exciting release as we're releasing five songs from five bands on the same day as a collaborative effort on everyone's part. Their music was good but stage presence is something they still need to work on a lot which isn't surprising for a new band; no one is born a master. Warning: the following song will get stuck in your head. That's an earworm if I ever heard one.

Next up was Red N Pink, two loud chicks from London town. To be honest, I didn't like them too much before. I thought they were a bit in-your-face trying too hard to be tough and cool. But seeing them live has now changed my opinion completely! They sounded great, were very comfortable on stage, interacted with the audience well and delivered a good show overall.

Then it was Violet Bones' turn. As always (she says based on two shows) they were fantastic! I liked them a lot last time but now that I have their album on my iPod and know all the songs, it was ever better. They have awesome energy, fun! The album is a great exercise soundtrack! Those kettlebells are getting it! Although it feels slightly wrong to be swinging them around while my iPod is blasting "let's get drunk and stay that way forever!" into my ears.

Wrapping up the night we had iremembertapes. and their fun electro-indie set and slightly homosexual dancing. We went to see them in St Albans the night before; a gig where no one in the audience remembers tapes. That was enjoyable despite some technical difficulties but last night was about 127 times better! They should definitely play more dancey clubs instead of standard rock gig venues; places where people will actually move their tush instead of standing and watching in admiration (to be fair, they're nice to look at). They're touring atm, coming back to London on Monday. Check out the website or this picture for all dates and go to a show! Here's their 80's influenced (as opposed to everything else) latest single 'All I Know'.

And here's a bonus tribute to some band who also played at St Albans and whose lead man reminded me of Corey Hart. The fact that I know Corey Hart and this song so well that random people remind me of it is probably a sign that I need to stop watching VH1's I Love The 80's. Then again, nah.

Proper music post!

There's this thing called Ja Ja Ja club where Nordic bands and artists play tunes and it's organized (bi?)monthly at The Lexington. I like this idea and think I'll go again and keep track of what's happening! This Thursday was the day. I heard about it at about 4pm on Thursday when my boss asked if I wanted to go and introduce myself to the Musex UK project manager. Yeah, why not. So I went to see Manna (FIN), Freja Loeb (DEN) and Útidúr (ICE). (I apologize for linking to MySpace but they don't seem to have websites!) Had a few words with the guy, he was very tall. After Manna's set I was already really tired and had a headache so I was getting ready to leave when I saw one of the boys from the next band carry a saxophone on stage and decided to stay for a bit. I stayed for two more songs and headed out. Bummed that I didn't get to see the last band but as I was very disoriented (getting lost on straight hallways, almost missing my tube stop - twice, bumping into people, etc.) on my way home it was probably for the best that I left. By the time I was home I just and just managed put on my pajamas before crashing. Slept like a.... thing that sleeps very deeply.

Anyway, I liked Manna. I've never heard any of her songs before even though she's been in the media quite a bit in Finland for the past, I don't know, maybe couple of years? I'm very bad with time. I was very positively surprised as I was expecting just another female singer-songwriter that we're all getting a bit bored of, amirite? But she had just enough rock and just enough groove to be interesting. I have to say, they (she?) were more intriguing on stage than on record and I spent a lot of time trying to find a video that would do them (her?) justice. This one's alright but still lacks something that was there during a live performance. Wine, perhaps...

The next group, Freja Loeb, were essentially the exact same thing as Manna. Same cereal, different packaging. There's a band, there's the girl, the group's name is her name, they play indie, both girls wore leggings as pants and red lipstick, you get the idea. Manna had the advantage of being first so people (me) weren't yet bored with that. And in my mind she was more likable anyway, more real. Her voice was also definitely stronger while I couldn't really even hear Freja for a big chunk of the time. But they had the sax and that alone is cause for mad props in my book. I also realize that had Freja been first on stage, I'd be comparing them in reverse and that might affect how I feel.

As I already mentioned, I didn't stay long enough to catch the last band, Útidúr from Iceland, but I've since checked them out on YouTube. My first thought was that they sound very Icelandic. Not really my cuppa tea normally, but I'm strangely fascinated anyway. I can picture a time and place for this and will make a mental note to listen to this more when that time and place present themselves. Beautiful sounds and I do love me a bit of violin and trumpets. For a fraction of a second they remind me of a chilled out and slowed down version of Katzenjammer (NOR).

I wish I'd seen them live but no can do.

For a bonus, here's Katzenjammer with A Bar In Amsterdam. 

No Place Like London

Let me just say, Jamie's Italian is a beautiful restaurant. My feelings may have been enhanced by those two bottles of wine we had during the course of the night, but it was good wine! And the fact that I really like Jamie, I think he's fun and has the right attitude towards food and cooking.

That was last Sunday. Also the day I realized that I love this city. I've been perfectly content here all this time but now I'm starting to really grasp the magnificence of this place. We spent the day having Sunday roast at a pub, then just strolling down the street by Thames, visiting Tate Modern, admiring the view and then had great - yet affordable - food.

I started making a list. List of things to do when my friend Maria is coming for a visit. I'm getting really excited about that even though it's still five weeks away. There's so much to do and see!

There's these little quirky things that are so interesting about this city! Like wandering around London Bridge area (sort of city centre) and stumbling upon some little cottage that looks like it's been teleported here from some idyllic little village on the countryside. Huge office building towering over it on the background. And going to Canary Wharf for the first time to be amazed by how it seems like a completely different city. Completely different country even! And this guy and his guitar:

Rockin' by the River

One of our bands released their new single on Monday. Check out the video here. (I would embed the whole thing but for some reason YouTube search can't find it) They're such a fun band, I really like them. Also, we're releasing five new singles from five new bands from five different cities on April 30th. Now it's relentless promoting of that for the next five weeks. Five seems to be the magic number here. That gives me a flimsy excuse to do this:

Weird science

I read an article about how aging affects the brain and how that affects our musical tastes. Dopamine, one of the important chemicals that affect the brain's reward centre and gives us chills when we hear new catchy hooks and exciting tunes, has a lesser effect when we get older. Thus, no more insane excitement over the newest fad in the musical world, and more nostalgia driven choices of playlists. Nostalgia is a natural antidepressant and evolutionally important in that remembering the 'good ole days' will prevent you from dwelling in your cave and whimpering about how life is hard and then dying of hunger or getting mauled by a saber tooth tiger.

Conclusion: Today's music is not shit and older music is not decidedly better, our brains just react differently to them because of actual physical differences. Our tastes do not become more refined and sophisticated because we get older and wiser but because our brain chemistry is different.

Dopamine is also the reason why our brains are secretly into Justin Bieber, no matter how carefully hipster our existence or how loyally hard rock we pretend to be. Predictable pop music is physically addictive, fo realz.

Special thanks to Cracked.com for introducing me to these articles.

Russell Brand is a giant

This week started off with going to a band competition, Hard Rock Rising, to show our great affection and support for our fellow intern whose band was battling for a chance to win this thing. They didn't. You may as well still check them out. Apparently it came really close between them and the winning band, which doesn't surprise me.

There's been a lot of promotion going on. There are many new releases coming up, quite a few tours happening and other exciting news for our bands so we've been sending out press releases like crazy. If you want to keep track of what's happening here, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. One mention worthy thing (because I thought it was funny) would be taking over the promotion for Athletes In Paris' new single release after Linda up and left. I stumbled upon this little quote in one of the music blogs that has featured them "What I think they sound like: a dancey rock band (I was going to describe them as "Scissor Sisters Without The Camp" but thought that may be a tad unfair to both bands." I personally quite like that.

I bet he's taller than you thought. 

Saturday I went to Madame Tussaud's with two other Finnish girls who are also doing their internships here. Afterwards we went to a pub to get some food and hang out and then two of us decided to go out for the night. First we stumbled into this really cool, kinda bohemian, artsy little tavern where the 'Madame' gave us a kiss on the hand when we ordered our first drinks, then dragged some guy hurriedly into the disabled toilet with her. It was a beautiful place and I must go there again! Finding a club proved to be a bit more difficult since people kept giving us wrong directions. We were gonna meet up with a colleague of mine at a club called 'Mother' in Shoreditch. Once we found the right street, we asked some guys which way it was. They warned us to stay far away from that awful place but we didn't listen. We finally got there and it was pretty much as horrible as the guys made it sound, but free entrance. We had one drink there and headed off to find something else. Someone recommended Plastic People but as the queue was long and the entrance £10 we didn't bother. Now that I've googled it and it is said to be the birthplace of dubstep I'm glad we didn't. Instead we noticed a bar across the street and went there. The music was bad and people looked well-groomed, but at least it wasn't too expensive. We ended up having a good night after all.

See how ridiculously tall he is!

Buses here are a constant headache for me. I can never find the right stop! I know for a fact that my bus goes to Shoreditch and I was probably quite close to the right stop but just couldn't find it! I ended up walking way longer than I should've and then found a bus that took me to Trafalgar Square and from there I can always find the right bus. But that's way more complicated than it should've been.

I was first a bit annoyed that clubs close around 2-3am here but now I'm glad they do since I get way lighter hangovers. Not that mine have ever been exceptionally bad but now they're pretty much nonexistent. When I first open my eyes after a night out I keep expecting to feel somewhat queazy but quickly notice that I'm absolutely fine. This has happened two-three times now so I'm definitely safe saying it's more a rule than an exception.

I finally managed to open a bank account! Cheers, Churchill, for abolishing identity cards to "set people free" and making things so complicated. National Identity Register is a GOOD thing, Brits. Now I'm waiting for them to activate my card so I can start using it too.

*Oh, hey, attention! There's a little easter egg hidden somewhere in the links, can you find it? It's not exceptionally hard.

Brian stew

I joined a boxing gym. Bought a 3 month membership, got the rest of this month free. Fucking finally! I've been feeling so bad about myself for not working out and eating unhealthy and just not taking care of myself like I used to. So Tuesday morning I got up a bit earlier and went for a little jog, popped in, had a quick look around and decided to start training there.

The owner is a middle aged Irish bloke with a really strong accent so I'm not quite a 100% sure what I've gotten myself into and what my membership actually includes. But the place seemed like a good place for getting the most out of the workout. It was old school, it was sweaty, it was rough. Not some girly fitness gym where women wear pretty things and smell like flowers. Saturday noon I went for my first ever ladies only boxing fitness class! It was so fun and so hard. Although I thought it'd be a lot harder on me since it's been about a month since I've really exercised but I came to realize that a few week break really isn't the end of the world when you've been working out actively before that, it doesn't just disappear in a few weeks time.

On Tuesday night the girls from the office got our pretty brains together and took part in a pub quiz. They had difficult questions about capital cities, mediocre questions about random shit and easy intros in the music round. There was only one song we weren't absolutely sure about so we randomly guessed it right! It sounded a lot like a boy band song so we picked Westlife. Then we randomly picked the word "love" for the song title. It actually was Westlife and the song was My Love! Good instincts.

Franco chillin'

Si of Violet Bones rockin'

On Thursday a bunch of us went to see Franco and the Dreadnought in Camden and on Saturday I went to see Violet Bones in Buffalo Bar, Islington. Franco gig was fun enough and the guy is very likable and I really enjoyed that night even though I'm not much into all that "guy and a guitar" sweetness. Then on Saturday the Violet Bones were soooooo good! And attractive. They could well be in my top-something list of my favorite bands, and probably will be eventually. First I need to hear more. I'm so glad I get to work with them. They had cassettes on sale at the merch table but I forgot to buy one. Yes, forgot. I don't know what happened, apparently my brian went "PRIII" and everything I was about to do was just suddenly gone. I remember walking towards the table and then got distracted and went home instead. I'll have to ask around if I can get one somewhere still. This is the video for their latest single "Chamicals".

On the weekend I finally got into the flow of some retail therapy. Saturday I went to King's mall and Sunday to Oxford street. I now have such pretty things in bright colours! There's still some stuff I didn't have time to look for but there's always next weekend! Now that I still have money I might as well put it to use and buy lasting things instead of spending it all on takeout indian food and everything else that's bad for me. I definitely need shoes. To go with my new pretty things. Which reminds me:

I'm a farm girl now

My first week of interning for The Animal Farm has gone so quickly! People at the office are nice and chill, but professional of course. The atmosphere is relaxed but the environment stimulates hard work. Really an ideal place to gain work experience as the first step into the harsh music industry world. She says after one week.

So far I have: googled a lot, browsed Twitter a lot, listened to boring bands a lot to find few good ones, sent emails a lot and laughed a lot.

On Friday we went to Kensington Roof Gardens where one of the bands the company works with - Athletes in Paris - were playing. Dress code: "No effort, no entry" so I put on a skirt and heels - my new Irregular Choices. It was a super posh place, and very very beautiful. I'd imagine it'll be amazing in the summer! As the name indicates, it is a garden on a rooftop. They'd built a sort of tent around it tho so we weren't exactly outside the whole night - only about half outside. The gig was very enjoyable, they're such a fun band and a bunch of nice guys. And I really like their music too. Drinks were expensive. I paid over £10 for a GT and £8,45 for a glass of wine!

Athletes In Paris

Other great things have happened this week too: We got a new dishwasher to replace the old broken one! We couldn't use it at first, though, because it couldn't be plugged in. But we didn't have to endure that for too long as the plumbers showed up to rescue us from the mountains of dirty dishes the very next day! A dishwasher really does make life a little bit simpler.

Fun fact: There's a pretty respected rehearsal studio in the building complex and lots of famous people use it. I've heard exciting stories of celebrity spotting around there! And then I got to witness some of it myself; Little Mix came into the café to get lunch one day.

Taking care of business

These are the practical thingies that I need to do before I board the plane.This listing is more for me to remember and maybe you to check through if you're thinking about interning abroad. For the rest of you this post might not be very interesting to read.

Paperwork: There's the Practical Training Agreement, Training Agreement and Quality Commitment for Erasmus student placements, (rest are quite freely translated) another Erasmus training agreement, scholarship application for practical training completed abroad, certificate of semester abroad, proof of summer studies for KELA (the government office that gives me money for being in school) and another form for KELA letting them know I'll be spending a semester abroad. That's seven documents that I need to write and fill out before the end of the year at the very latest. I'm going to try to get them ready in a month so there's enough time for them to be processed.

Apartment (FIN): I was battling between terminating my lease and moving out completely and leasing my room furnished for 6 months to ensure I have a place to come back to if I need it. I decided to move out. At the end of December I'll be moving to my parent's house for a few weeks before taking off to London town. Before that I'll need to go through all my belongings, treasures and trinkets and haul most of it to a second hand shop, give away to friends or strangers or throw out. Things need to be get rid of. And that's a bigger job than you'd imagine. Going through my clothes alone will take longer than life. And I also need to decide what to do with all my furniture. Most of them are giveaways anyway so I can pass them on or leave them here if roomies need them but things such as my bed and some shelves that I'd like to keep will need a temporary home.

Apartment (UK): I'll need a roof over my head in my new location. I hear it rains a lot and four walls and a ceiling would probably do the best job at keeping me dry. I'll need to buy an umbrella too. I've been browsing gumtree and posted an ad on finn-guild's forum (Finnish-British organization) but it seems that I probably won't find a place for January until December. The ones that are being advertised now are free from the end of this month or from the beginning of November.

Shopping: I don't need too much (just somebody to loooove), only some bigger things like a new laptop. Well, want would be more accurate as this one is still working. But I want a smaller and lighter one that'd be easier to carry around. This one is also starting to slow down a bit but that could probably be fixed by installing Windows 7 on it. I don't care, I want a new one and it will be cuter. I'm also considering getting a smart phone to make it easier to document and organize my life. I used to think I'd never miss having one if I never get used to it but now it's just been one too many times that I've had to curse having a regular phone. If any of you have any suggestions for either, I'll be happy to hear them! I have one restriction for the phone though; it can't be sim-locked as I won't be using it with my Finnish plan. And the umbrella I already mentioned.

Bills and Memberships: Electricity and Internet bills need to be switched to my roomie's name. I also need to terminate my gym membership. I hope all goes smoothly as the Internet plan and my gym membership are fixed-term contracts.

Insurances: I'll need a travel insurance, obviously. Also getting a European Health Insurance Card could be a good idea even though travel insurance also covers health issues. The European blah blah is anyway free of charge so might as well. I'll need to look more into all of this with someone who actually understands something about insurances.

Plane tickets: Pretty obvious. I'm not in a rush with these since there's always cheap flights going to London. Also depends on when I'll have a place to go to. I'll try to rent from mid-Jan. so I'd have a couple of weeks to ride on the tube before I start work. It's a bit bigger a city than what I'm used to so getting around might be a bit more complicated and needs to be rehearsed before I have any actual responsibilites. I'll also need to find out how much luggage those cheap flights allow me to carry and how much extra bags cost.

NI number and other shit: I haven't yet had time to find out about all these British social security things, if I need them or not and if I should get it done even if I don't absolutely need it. I'll find this out soonish. I anyway can't really do anything about it until I'm in the country.


Now I'm going to call it a night and stard reading 100 facts about pandas. Or Book of General Ignorance. Listening to 75 boy band songs everyone should listen to before they die.

Wknd of leisure

It's contact free week now, fall break if you will. I don't actually get a whole week off but I had a full weekend of fun. I went to visit my friend Maria in Porvoo and took my mind off all of this school/interning chaos.

Friday was awesome! We went to Britney's show, both of us old school Britney fans. Crossed that off my bucket list! It was great, really. I've read quite a few reviews where they criticized her performing playback. Of course she's gonna use playback! That's what she's always done and always will. Going to her show and expecting live music and live singing is just delusional and stupid. She always sings little bits live and has the playback supporting her and that was the case now too.

SOON! At this point we were shaking of anticipation

It was a show, I'll say that. There were exceptional dancers, costume changes, elaborate props and everything. One thing I was a bit disappointed with was her dancing; it was a bit lazy and unfocused. Otherwise it was exactly what anyone could have expected, if they'd actually ever paid any attention to how her shows are constructed. After the show we headed back to Porvoo and stopped at a locad Irish pub for a drink. There was an Oktoberfest weekend going on, people were dressed up and singing German drinking songs (or so I suspect, I didn't understand any of it). Fun night.

On Saturday we went shopping. I had no money to spend but I made myself useful as a consultant when Maria was trying on clothes. We also stopped for a coffee and cake. I had ana amazing and amazingly huge slice of Tiramisu. Then we took the doggy for a walk, had an awesome meal and started getting ready for the night. She had Singstar she'd never played before so we took advantage of that and practiced for our future pop-stardom.

On the left: Our dinner - karelian hot pot and yellow turnip mash. On the right: Tiramisu in the front, After Eight cake and quark cake in the back.

Maria's cutesy giant shetland sheepdog Tito ready to conquer the fields of their back yard

After we started losing our voices we transferred our presence to a local nightclub. It's been ages since I've been to a proper dance club. The one I always go to is more indie/rock kind of a place with a dancefloor. I didn't really recognize many of the songs until at the end of the night when the DJ played some old school hiphop. That was so fun! We were sweating like little piggies after bouncing around like idiots for the duration of maybe seven songs.

Sunday was relaxing day. We watched the newest episodes of Gossip Girl and Fresh Meat, ate some chips and just lounged on the couch until I had to leave to catch my ride back to JKL.

Now it's time to get back to my life of filling out loads of paperwork.