B

Dear diary.

We have been bad and haven't written into you in a long time. That's because nothing too special has happened. Activated again after recovering from Semifinal gig and have been working on some old and also new songs. Sounds promising, a mix of Finnish iskelmä-sound with a punk -chorus. Erm, actually that sounds rather bad when written but it's much better in audio, trust us.

And soon it's pikkujoulu-time again. We about 50€ worth of gig money stashed into a secret location and will spend that on beer, wine and probably do a "let's play cover songs until we can't play no more" -rehearsal again. Nice. And after that it's karaoke-time in Musta Härkä. Uuh, creepy. Stay away from Vallila next Saturday if you value your sanity...

B

Oh, our poor blog, it has been so neglegted lately. Just wanted to tell you about the most rock'n'roll moment of our spring. Was it the 'Big In Tampere' competition? Playing 'You used to be so cool'? Wresting and boozing in the rehearsal room? Hell, no.

Yesterday I was a bit late from our reheasal and since I was the current keeper of the holy rehearsal room key, the other guys couldn't get in. So when I arrived I found the guys in downstairs restaurant Musta Härkä. What were they doing? Drinking tequila? Playing pinball? No, the guys were playing bingo with the locals. Bingo. Bingo! Oh, I wish I had had my camera with me. And we didn't even win any coffee....

B

Did a live studio session on Friday and recorded a rough demo of eight songs: seven totally new pieces of art and one old old tune. Nice stuff, everything needs still some work but sounds already ok. Don't know if we'll release any of these in some form (myspace?), as I said they sound rough and are not really mixed as such. But things are looking pretty good for the next gig. So the set is gonna be made almost completely out of new stuff, but that's ok, because most people haven't heard the old stuff either :-)

Meanwhile enjoy a guy who sings worse than Bartsi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkTRV7vz06k Yeah, it's old but my stomach still hurts from laughing after seeing that for the forth time so...

More new content coming up this evening so stay tuned.

B

Well, now it looks that we have some new decent gigs and things look good on song front too.

Mara brought one new song to rehearsal one day and we asked Ville if he had any new songs. "Yeah, maybe." And in the next reheasal Ville brought in 5 new songs and a couple of reheasals later still 1 more. So we have been quite busy lately learning some new stuff and the set list might be very different for the gigs around new year. Which is nice. New things happen.

B

This website has been neglected lately! Very few updates and site hits are nearly at all time low. Why? Because we've hanging around in Myspace. Addictive stuff, must get mooooore friends. But there are updates coming here also, dramatic tales of the rites of spring etc. Oh and a new gallery function. And a new layout, perhaps..?

Got a nice review from my son today: we're supposed to play in a wedding and do a cover song and I was listening to it my car while taking kids to park. 9-year old son: "Daddy, I think that you are not advanced enough to play stuff like this. I mean, this is played by professionals." Okaay... :-D

B

Been awhile since last update... Well, what's new? We've been rehearsing pretty steadily and got a couple of new songs that sound great. One of them, Laundry Lines, continues our ongoing clothing item theme started with Custom Clothes. Sounds really good, a probable new live favourite

Also got this Valter Cafe gig coming up and a couple of others in planning stages. What's amusing is that we'll be the first band ever to bring drums in Vater Cafe, the previous performers have been all acoustic/percussion based. "Hope that you are pretty quiet band" said the gig organizer and we thought we were until the last rehearsal where volume and alcohol levels steadily rose though the roof. Hmm, must play a bit softer next time. Well, actually, this is not a heavy metal band and B (me!) is a rather soft hitter so it should be too hard. But it will still be a electric full gig, not one of those "acoustic guitars and drums with brushes" MTV Unplugged type of thing.

B

Hmm, some interband tension going on but who really gives a fuck when there's stuff like The Magic Numbers live

B

Went to see Mara & The Scaras (now there's a name for a band...) do a set of Joy Division in Semifinal on Saturday. Funny experience to see a rather sunny psychedelic pop band suddenly transform into something completely different and perform some of the grimmest and most desperate music ever. Like watching the band in an alternative timeline where they had taken a couple of steps to different direction. And they did it real well, too. Respect! (as Ali G would say)

Perhaps this is what bands should do from time to time. Not play Joy Division, I mean that they should do something completely different from time to time. Someone should start a regular Club NotFuckingLikely, where a couple of bands would play music that would be fully uncharacteristic to them. Streetcar plays Mötörhead? Erm, nevermind.

B

Yesterday evening I could have been at home watching the first episode of Lost or updating this site or reading a good book or I could have been in Kuudes Linja watching Barefoot Brothers or something but fuck no. Where was I? I was driving around Helsinki all night and setting my stupid (and very heavy) drums up in the studio. Sacrifice!

Yes, it's studio time again today, we're going to do a couple of faster numbers: Laura and Tonite. A weekend session, will mix on Sunday so there's probably new songs here next week. Probably.

B

Oh yeah! Probably the best Streetcar gig ever. Maximum non-rock'n'roll. If you weren't there then fuck you and see you next time.

And I fell into my drum kit at the end of Universe & Sunshine and burst my finger open. Blood everywhere. Rok! But that didn't stop the encore. Maximum rok! Thank you all. Thank you Mendocino!

B

I'm mad at tecnology! My digital camera went crazy and destroyed half of our souveniers from Ilokivi gig. Luckily, most pics were in Ville's camera. Still some wonderful shots were destroyed and sent to digital heaven. Irritating!

Jyväskylä. I'm having flashbacks:

• The neverending pitch dark road to Jyväskylä
• the chaos of everything
• big audience, that actually seemed to like us
• we were liked by old ladies, too
• a bizarre bar with 4 different rooms
• the biggest burger in the world
• WWF wrestling live in our room at 5AM
• Ville walking past reception wearing nothing but shoes and a towel and blasting Nirvana from handheld speaker on his way to morning sauna.

What a trip. More soon...

B

Yeah, another gig happening on friday and the first one outside Helsinki. Not a financially sensible operation but it'll be fun and band sounds great on rehearsals. A couple of new songs on the set, which is not surprizing since it's been a while since the last gig. Funny how time flies. Yeah! Rok on Helsinki, rok on Jyväskylä!

Music link: The Monks: Monk Chant / Oh, How To Do Now, Boys Are Boys. Weird 60's garage rock and strange haircuts. Wonderful. The band is actually still around, the Monks today.

B

Nice practice today. New song 'Laura' looks almost certain to recorded in January. It was almost perfect after a few runs and that's always a good sign.

Funny how songs always return to their roots. 'Hold on tight' is again a slow soul number after months of playing it with a new faster arraingement and now there was some talk about playing 'Curtains' again with brushes and a slower mood. Perhaps the way you play a song naturally without really thinking about a cool arraingement is almost always the best foundation. Well, at least for us it seems to be.

Must add cowbell to some song...

B

Streetcar supports The Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster.

And we also believe that the end of this site will come any day now, an armageddon will happen and a new purer site will arise from the ashes. Intelligent design, evolution or a touch of a noodly appendix, who knows. But it will happen. Halleluja. Se on taytetty.

B

Oh, you know, the usual. One day the music sounds the greatest ever, the next day it's shit, the next day it's the greatest ever. etc. etc. Bah, it's all good. Expect last rehearsal. That was pretty bad.

Tracks almost mixxxed now, The Unnamed song/Tonite pt.2/Whateveritiscalled still needs some work. Probably it'll end up released, too. Should we still add one acoustic track to demo? Dunno. At least we have a pretty nice artwork ready.

Another nice link: Beta Band's former frontman Steve Mason goes solo under the name of King Biscuit Time and here's the video for C I Am 15. Excellent!

B

We did it! Everything is great! (Expect Curtains that sucks but you can't have them all) More to follow, soon. Oh, yeah!

B

4 days to studio! Someone (Jeppe, actually) talked some sense into us and the band is going to record 4 songs that seem to be The Unnamed Song (possible re-christened to Tonite pt. 2), Galvatron, Curtains and Custom Clothes. So demo is going to be part rock, part country and 2 parts something else. Just like us, really.

Loads of häslinki going on, timetables have to be fixed, gear moved, drumheads bought etc. etc. Still one rehearsal left before the studio just to make some final adjustments to songs. Probably we'll change every arrangement and the forget all about them the next day.

Oh, and promo pics will soon be ready for display, now that we have kind of agreed what pics to use. Here's some preliminary samples:

B

Just noticed that someone has been reading these pages through an automatic English-Japanise translation machine. Arigato! We hope that the results weren't something like Star War, Episode III: The Backstroke of The West. (I'm a nerd desperatily trying to stuff in any Star Wars references.)

Went to see Lapko and Ceebrolistics in Tavastia yesterday. Great bands with loads of personality, but didn't really understand either. The first was just not my music (I relaxed years ago, no additional angst needed) and the second one was just trying to be too artsyfartsy and weird. Well, can't like them all...

14 days to studio. Tension builds. It seems that we'll do 5 songs unless someone talks any sense into us.

B

Whoa! 250 pics taken. Loads of stiff posing and forced smiles. Soon available here. Well, not all them, just the good ones. And the really bad ones...

(and thank god we changed the time to 12:00)

B

Honestly. Had a rehearsal today and suddenly the spirits of Stooges, 22-Pistepirkko & Jesus and Mary Chain came floating above us and we created a new hi-energy garage rock number on the fly as we played. Hopefully we'll remember it next time, but how hard is it really to remember two chords? Now on our next gig we can play 2 garage tunes live, or perhaps 3 if we count UaUa. Hurra! Soon we will paint flame patterns and eightballs to our instruments and start to wear black. Rok!!, as we say in Streetcarland. Oh, the next gig? In december (details soon-ish), if we don't arrange something else. And we will. Erm, really.

If you see some tired looking people carrying 60's furniture around Herttoniemi (Helsinki) next Saturday around 6am in the morning, don't worry, it's just us. The first official Streetcar foto session will take place in that ghastly hour. But the light is the best then, says the fotographer, and she's a pro, so whatever she says goes. So expect some really nicely lit pics of people with black rings around their eyes. Hmm, goth? Soon. We have enough ideas for 3 photo sessions, let's see what's gonna come out. Hopefully not something boring.

Tried to give you some examples of the world's best band photos but the google-search of 'best band photos' just brought this. Oh well, too tired to search for anything specific, here's just Anton Corbjin and I'm off to bed. Oh and I kind of like this photo, too. So Devo.

B

Studio coming up and we really should decide which songs to record. 4 songs from 20? Yes, very easy to choose, just 4 best unrecorded songs: The Unnamed song, Custom clothes, Outside, Lonesome skies, Galvatron, Friday, California haircut, 9 lives, A bit the same, Hold on tight (fast version)... nonono, wait that's already 10. Erm, we have some problems here. Why can't we just make an album? :-)

Been doing some preliminary demos with Ville's portable Mac. Recording process looks really technical with a small mixer and some mics and loads of staring into the computer monitor, but actually it's a de-evolutionary process. Ville's nice homemade demos gradually erase when all those nice synths are replaced with jangly guitars and drums loops with B's stiff shuffing beats. Sounds rather nice, though, but they still need some work. Maybe some of them will surface here later, too.

Obligatory feel-good link. The Hazzards: Gay boyfriend

B

Just a quick update to give you the:

TOP 10 MOST RIDICULOUS BLACK METAL PICS OF ALL TIME and
THE OTHER TOP 10 MOST RIDICULOUS BLACK METAL PICS OF ALL TIME.

Satan666BelzebuubTr00!! Oh, and we have a new song, 'California haircut', that came to Ville in a Twin Peaks -like dream. Spooky.

B

Well, summer's almost over and it's back to business here at SC HQ. Had the first rehersal in 3 weeks yesterday. Since it was the only reharsal in June, each played song cost about 5€ in reheasal room rent. But it was worth every cent.

At first there was some rustiness present but it gradually melted away. Even tried a new Mara song, which might or might not be called 'Galvatron' (depending on if Mara agrees to irrational naming suggestions). Great song, a trip-hop verse and an oompah-oopah chorus.

Holidaying band members (sorry, Mara) went to see Zacharias Carls Group later in the evening. Excellent stuff, especially in the end. Punk music, Shadows, Bruce Springsteen and Crazy Horse all mashed up together. Go check them out.

Other recommendations: It seems that two bandmembers have bought Grandaddy's (again!) Below The Radio -compilation. Loads of Jason Lytle's favourite artists, both famous and obscure. Excellent stuff. Tracklisting:

1. Beck - We Live Again
2. Beulah - Burned By The Sun
3. Earlimart - Color Bars
4. Snow Patrol - Run
5. Goldenboy - Wild Was The Night
6. Giant Sand - Bottom Line Man
7. Fruit Bats - The Little Acorn
8. Home - Comin' Up Empty Again
9. Jackpot - If We Could Go Backwards
10. The Handsome Family - I Fell
11. Little Wings - Sand Canyon
12. Pavement - Motion Suggests
13. Blonde Redhead - For the Damaged
14. Virgil Shaw - Twisted Layer
15. Grandaddy - Nature Anthem

No idea who half of the bands are, but all are great. I have especially fallen in love with Little Wings, Must get more of their stuff.

Also the latest issue of Uncut comes with 3 different cds compiled by members of R.E.M. Peter Buck's cd is very highly recommended.

B

Our very own blog! How do we start? Well, this is Streetblog, our own Speakers Corner, where the word is free for band members.

Stuff in here could range from band diaries to general music mumbojumbo and to everything that we can think of. Let's see how this'll turn out, I have no idea, expect that I'm probably going to be a pretty active writer. Probably. I was also going to practice my drumming in summer. *hohum* Well, "vielä on kesää jäljellä", as Mamba (graah!) sings.

Oh yeah, and while we are at it, here's a link to the wonderful Grandaddy summer anthem: The Nature Anthem (.mov ~4.8mB ). Most joyful video ever!

Oh, and you can COMMENT this shit. If you don't want to, fine. But if you like, you can. Freedom of choice!!

(More to come...)