22-Pistepirkko

22-Pistepirkko are easily one of Northern Europe's most eccentric and evocative pop acts. The band’s sound and diabolical dynamic is a luminous, surreal, guitar-based electro-pop and proto-garage-psychedelia blended with elements of acoustic folk and spaced-out bohemian blues-rock.

” 22-Pistepirkko operates with the skewed perspective that´s only gained at a vast distance from the beating heart of rock. What they play is a pop of a kind with no allegiance to any particular era, but of vaguely maverick bent.” (Stuart Maconie, Q MAGAZINE, UK)

” Everything 22-Pistepirkko touch turns stangely familiar. It´s like a lot...but there´s nothing like it.” (Taylor Parkes, MELODY MAKER, UK)

(Rolling Stone's David Fricke about 22PP live:)
"It was a gas to see 22-Pistepirkko, after hearing so much about them and the handful of records that have made it here over the years. They were dark, taut and gritty – great blues-noir. Next time, I’d like to see a whole set – 40 minutes was not enough."

“This trio are renegades. They´re from Finland and they always dazzle and confuse in equal measure. They love the blues, they love pop music. They mine 60s psychedelia but they make their own waves. (...) Call them neo primitive, they use things like Farfisa organs to wonderful effect and it isn´t retro, that´s the amazing thing about them. And they sing in beautifully crafted English for Heavens sakes! The kind of band that become a cult when they´re gone. It would be a shame if that was their fate. Investigate.” (ZOOT,UK)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
From Utarjärvi, Finland. 2 brothers and a friend, doing their thing. since 30 years.

22-Pistepirkko consists of brothers Asko and PK Keränen and childhood friend Espe Haverinen. Founded in small village Utarjärvi, Finland, the band has been around for 30 years. Starting off as a Ramones-Coverband, but on the search for something of their own after a while, their first album, which was sung mainly in Finnish and having been played and recorded “pretty minimalistic” dropped like a bomb within the music scene of Finland. According to the band it was somehow influenced by Velvet Underground, even if this was hard to tell. They got awarded as best new finnish band, to the shock of many musician collegues. They’ve been just too far out from the rest.

With the following album they’ve switched to english vocals only and have started the foundation of their signature sound. “Kings Of Hong Kong” (‘87) was a speedy garage rock’n’roll album, mixing Bo Diddley beat, with Shangri-La Pop and cinematic sound effects.

The next album “Bare Bone Nest” in 1989 integrated the blues into their sound. It was the first which got some good attention outside of Finland. The song “Frankenstein” even turned into some Underground-Club-Hit, UK music press started to investigate about them and the band have played first tours outside of Finland.

Attention and success was topped by the bigger production of “Big Lupu”, which went straight up to the Finnish sales charts, also featuring the single “Birdy”, still one of their classic Pop-Songs. The band played even more outside of their homecountry, especially well received in France, Germany and Benelux and had good spots at big Festivals, like Roskilde a.o..

Various turmoils in management and record label set up accompanied their following years. Though the band kept together, active and made some remarkably beautiful albums, by digging deeper into the pleasures of using electronic devices for their music. They also got fascinated by hiphop or west-african guitar music, without missing their initial interest in Garage, Blues, Pop, Rock. So somehow they designed an eclectic pop sound of their own, before acts like Beck got famous with such.

Studio albums of this period were “Rumble City Lala Land” (’94, feat. “Just A Little Bit More”, a late underground hit in the USA, after appearing on a Snowboard DVD), “Eleven” and the related “Downhill City” soundtrack. And finally, their peak in electronic produced 22pp Pop, “Rally Of Love” (2001), kind of their Europopdream, produced with the help of some Swedish specialists. Extensive touring from this period was documented by danish filmdirector Andreas Christiansen, and compiled later to a compelling inside view about the trio.

The experiences with Rally of Love also made them rethink their approach and they’ve decided to go back to a more reduced, plain and rocking trio playing. Without skipping their prior achievements during their trip through the pop music universe, the songwriting got a slight new twist towards early recordings in american folk. When they had their regular coffee meetings they used to listen a lot to Alan Lomax’ grand “Anthology of American Folk Music” in those days. It was also during those coffee (strong, black, sweet, good) meetings that they’ve simplified their release set-up, going strictly independent. Their