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my loveliest vinyl, part 23
Eppu Normaali – Poliisi pamputtaa taas 7″ (Poko Rekords PIS-002, 1978)

No matter what you think, this is world class punk rock, 1978. This 7″ did put Finland as one of the homes of punk firmly on the map, many great bands followed defining punk and whole new genres. But this one stands out. Forever.

Eppu Normaali started in 1976 in small town Finland (outside Tampere) and went to fame big time in Finland. Not with their early punk style but their later rock stuff but they are still tongue-in-check and street-credible (but, yes, a rock band). The 7″ title song is also on their debut album “Aknepop” and they make some play around the theme – one song is “Poliisi pamputtaa” (Cops beat with batons) and this is the “follow up”: “Poliisi pamputtaa taas” (Cops beat with batons again) – nice one!

The verdict:

1977 – yes, yes, yes – would have been on Top of the Pops in UK
published by a cool lable – Poko (an EMI subprint) released a lot of the early punk in SF
found in a cool shop – Konneckschen, where else?
catching sound – Ramones. What else?
The lyrics – obviously about police brutality but given i can not fathom finish i can’t say – ACAB instead of ABBA?

The words are great sing-a-long stuff (and no clue of below is correct suomi):
```
Poliisi ajaa sinisellä autolla, uaa, sinisellä autolla 
Poliisilla on pillit katolla, uaa, pillit katolla 
Poliisi pamputtaa kumisella pampulla, uaa, kumisella pampulla 
Poliisi uhkaa ihmisiä putkalla, uaa, ihmisiä putkalla 

On mukavaa ajaa sinisellä autolla, uaa, sinisellä autolla 
Mukavaa pamputtaa kumisella pampulla, uaa, kumisella pampulla 
Systeemin vartija se poliisin on työ 
Poliisi hippejä pampulla lyö 

On mukavaa ajaa sinisellä autolla, uaa, sinisellä autolla 
Mukavaa pamputtaa kumisella pampulla, uaa, kumisella pampulla 

Poliisi ajaa sinisellä autolla, uaa, sinisellä autolla 
Poliisilla on pillit katolla, uaa, pillit katolla 
Poliisi pamputtaa kumisella pampulla, uaa, kumisella pampulla 
Poliisi uhkaa ihmisiä putkalla, uaa, ihmisiä putkalla

(c) 1978 Eppu Normaali / Poko Records
```
English rough translation thanks to my finish friends:
```
The polices drives in a blue car, uaa, in a blue car. 
The police has whistles on the roof, uaa, whistles on the roof. 
The police beats with a rubber baton, uaa, with a rubber baton. 
The police threatens people with jail, uaa, people with jail. 

It’s nice to drive in a blue car, uaa, in a blue car. 
Nice to beat with a rubber baton, uaa, with a rubber baton.
The guardian of the System, that’s the police’s job. 
Police beats hippies with a baton. 

It’s nice to drive in a blue car, uaa, in a blue car. 
Nice to beat with a rubber baton, uaa, with a rubber baton.

The polices drives in a blue car, uaa, in a blue car. 
The police has whistles on the roof, uaa, whistles on the roof. 
The police beats with a rubber baton, uaa, with a rubber baton. 
The police threatens people with jail, uaa, people with jail.
```
See some rare live footage in this finish punk documentary (click on the pic below, will open in new window):

Eppu Normaali – rare live footage in finish punk documentary (links to vimeo.com)

And this is a great cover version by the Italian band “The Zen Circus” transporting the song into 2012 – at perfect pace and confirming the timeless beauty of this ultimate gem:

But not only the Italians cover this, Hamburgs own Napalm (soon featured here too) dig that song too – see Witte, Reder, Lui & Arne live in London 02.10.2011:

Suomi Punk rules!
2012/07/06
my loveliest vinyl, part 22
The Bags – Rock Starve (Restless 2233-1, 1987)

Now this is different as this is not my normal piece of cake and this record made it into my collection in 1987 based upon other considerations like it was on Restless (who put some good stuff out), it was from Boston (where many many great bands came from, even back then eg. Gang Green, The Freeze etc etc) and it had a unique sound. Wasn’t realy US H/C but did catch the ear. They ventured on to become a decent hardrock band and disbanded eventually. And they left a song behind that is one of greatest tunes of that period: “Love Sick Diane”.

The verdict:

1977 – nope, “post punk hard rock” (aka slow songs can be great songs)
published by a cool lable – Restless (subsidiary of Enigma) wasn’t particularly cool but released some key US stuff. Later got sold over and over and went down.
found in a cool shop – not sure, could have been Michelle Records in Hamburg.
catching sound – heavy-duty with thrust and soley carried by the great vocals! Quote: “The Bags fall somewhere among the Ramones, Hüsker Dü, and early KISS” – no further definition required!
The lyrics – mmhhhh – great build up to the unique “nananana” (and frank i’d like to know who Diane was – seldom a “fuck off” was worded that cool)
```
no more patience no more
no more relationship no more
and i won't call you my own
i won't call you at all

and now i'm going wild again
and i'm not feeling anything
and you're feeling love sick diane
you feel love sick diane

your aren't true and your a liar
and i leave you love sick and tiered
don't say you're sorry that i'm upset
just be sorry for your selfishness

and now i'm going wild again
and i'm not feeling anything
and you're feeling love sick diane
you feel love sick diane

nanananaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
nanananaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

and when i say no 
i mean no no no more)

and now i'm going wild again
and i'm not feeling anything
and you're feeling love sick diane
you're feeling love sick diane
you're feeling love sick diane
and you feel love sick diane

(c) The Bags 1987
```
And now listen loud (and if your bored jump to 1:43 – that is the line that will get stuck in your ear!):

And no, this is not The Bags from LA, they disbanded 1981 already, as you can see below:

The Bags (LA, 1979 (c) Flipside Fanzine)
2012/07/06
my loveliest vinyl, part 21
Rudi – Crimson (Jamming! Records Create 3, 1982)

Rudi…long lost, long forgotten i dare to say! To me the forefathers of all bands that aimed to integrate Pop and Punk and that tried to mix eg. Beach Boys vocals with Punk (Travoltas, Windowsills and others). They where great, they where up against time and they lost it all due to … who’s fault was it anyway? Formed in pre-Punk Belfast in 1975 (if you want to list to the full account, go here – a Radio show about the history of Belfast punk) they quickly singned to the local Punk lable “Good Vibrations” and later went down to London, where it was all … already over.

When Good Vibrations missed to put their signature Song “The Pressures On” into 7″ vinyl (only released as bootleg in the 1990’s) and their fame with Paul Weller’s Jamming! Records took a death toll when Jam disbanded in 1982 they simply gave up!

The verdict:

1977 – naa, but a pure pop punk gem!
published by a cool lable – Ok, back then a rock star (Paul Weller of Jam) running his own lable for small bands was realy cool!
found in a cool shop – yes, sure – Konnekschen again (and again and again)
catching sound – great guitar taking vocal like leads, catching breaks, a splendid bridge towards the end and lovely altering of vocals style – a real sweet gem! With a better production it could have been a real hit! No, it is already, but could have made charts!
The lyrics – dark, tearfull and somewhat out of time (back then)

Read for yerself:
```
call out an ambulance
call out the police force

suddenly in the kind of life
the friendship takes
spicefull light
the closing door
of fading hope
is just beyond my reach

tears that run
tears that run
tears that run
crimson

in marching from
my dormant cell
the changing attitudes of life
change was strong
only to the weak
and its just beyond my reach

tears that run
tears that run
tears that run
crimson

one way out
use it use it
one way out
use it use it
crimson is the color of my life

tears that run
tears that run
tears that run
crimson
crimson
crimson

(c) 1982 Jamming! Records
```
Listen to the 7″ version – a different version was mixed for the Rodney on the ROQ 3 Compilation:

And their signature song, here live and announcing the Good Vibrations 7″ that never arrived – “Hit or Miss?” – sure Hit:

The lads folded and went on to play in many ventures. Brian Young (Rudi 6-string man) comments on Crimson:

“Ronnie, Grimmy and I wrote it when we were still a 3 piece and the riff and intro were originally part of a song called ‘Murder on The Second Floor’ which never quite came off.. A few months later as if by magic we’d kicked it into shape and Crimson was born..!

Unlike most bands we did write our songs together..words and music..it just worked better that way.. We used to get slagged for writing ‘obscure’ lyrics – well they weren’t obscure to us – but we hated the dumb sloganeering that was so prevalent at the time (and we’d done some ourselves when we were starting out..!)..so we let people figure it our for themselves..

Crimson, like a lot of our later songs was political – but with a small ‘p’…not silly party political crap but I suppose what people would call personal politics..though we never sat down and figured that out!

Idiot English journalists used to criticize us and the Undertones for not writing about the situation here – we always did but we avoided all the dumb clichés so I guess they missed the point..as if we cared! Anyways the way we put it was that we couldn’t have written the songs we did living anywhere else but Belfast…

Crimson was our quirky way of saying that if you wanna do something with your life, or change your life or whatever, that it was up to you to do it..and that no one else would do it for ya..but that there was always hope..even when it looked impossible…we where kinda optimistic back then!”

Love you guys!
2012/07/02