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What’s up Sorry Staters?
Man, what a 3-day weekend I just had. Here we are on Thursday afternoon, and I think I’m still recuperating. I just had the best time in Minneapolis. Maybe it’s just a midwestern thing, but whether it was punks that we met or just random people on the street, everybody in that city was so friendly. Like, genuinely. Will from Desolate Records and his partner Bretton were the top-tier, greatest hosts. They put us up in their beautiful house full of elderly cats for several nights and hung out hard with us every single day. They rule.
The Vans skate event at Familia skate shop was so killer. I honestly wish we’d made it over to the skate park earlier, because I think people had already been skating for a while it seemed like. Ronnie Sandoval was totally shredding for a while, going for huge ass tricks, but then he took a pretty gnarly slam. The demo kinda fizzled out after that. Elijah Berle was ripping it too. I got to briefly meet Tony Trujillo. All the rest of our crew was getting photos with him and stuff, but I was too nervous haha. He was mad cool though. It was kinda cool just to see all these more behind the scenes dudes either filming or taking photos that I recognized from watching King of The Road. The afterparty gig we played was rad too. It was in this weird big open event space that kinda felt like a huge wedding venue, but it was still cool. It was also rad just kickin’ it and goofing off with the Electric Chair dudes—visiting sex shops where everyone could ride a giant mechanical dick. You know, that kinda thing. Then we all went to this late-night swimming spot where I realized that everyone was just super comfortable with being nekkid. Just bodies of all shapes and sizes jumping into the lake. Totally non-sexual… just free, queer, accepting and comfortable. It was a beautiful thing. I, for one, stayed fully clothed and drank beer.
Public Acid all flew back on Sunday afternoon. Then I drove back to Raleigh from Richmond and arrived home at around 4am. THEN, I went to work on Monday morning, and John Scott came and bailed me out so Scarecrow could go play a rad gig with the Subhumans that night. Pretty killer weekend, if you ask me. More mellow this coming weekend, but there’s more fun times on the horizon. I’m stoked.
Anyway, that’s enough gushing about me. Now let’s talk about records you readers need to buy. Usually, Usman is the ambassador of all things Finnish hardcore. But this week, I’ll take a stab at a little write-up about some Finnish stuff that I personally think is killer. You’ll often hear people talk about Kaaos or Riistetyt or whichever band, but I don’t often hear people reference Aivoproteesi. In all fairness, the band never released a proper EP or album during their existence in the early/mid-80s. Aivoproteesi’s most notable contribution to the legacy of Finnish punk is their appearance on the classic Yalta Hi-Life compilation from 1984. Upon first hearing this comp back in the day, the Aivoproteesi songs always stood out to me. As much as love Terveet Kadet and Varaus’s tracks on this comp, for years you could always catch me saying, “Oh, the Aivoproteesi songs are the best thing on that comp.”
Sometimes I’m frustrated when I think bands from the 80s are so killer, but there’s nothing besides a compilation that I can get my hands on. I would’ve loved if Aivoproteesi put out a 7” or something. But nope. My fascination with these comp tracks got me always wondering if this band ever recorded anything else besides the session that appears on the compilation. I tracked down the BCT tape that had all Barabbas Records bands on it, but alas, it was just the Yalta Hi-Life songs. But after years, eureka! In 2020, an EP was released with unreleased Aivoproteesi songs. I managed to get my hands on one, finding out later it was limited to like 80 copies or something crazy. I was bummed when I found out it was a lathe cut, but it actually sounded alright. Now FINALLY, in our lord’s year 2023, a comprehensive compilation LP of Aivoproteesi recordings is now available. The LP is a split release between several labels, including the ever-reliable Hohnie Records, and also Final Doomsday here in the US. The record contains 10 songs from a studio session (including the songs used for Yalta Hi-Life), 4-track demos, and some miscellaneous live recordings. Your classic “throw everything on there” style compilation. I ain’t complaining. It’s not my favorite packaging I’ve ever seen, but the cover art looks kinda cool. It’s a thick gatefold sleeve, and the inside gatefold has a widespread collage of nice looking full-color photos that I’ve never seen before. I kinda wish there was a booklet included instead so all the photos were larger… But hey, beggars can’t be choosers.
If you love all things Finnish punk and are unfamiliar with this Aivoproteesi, I highly recommend you dig into this missing piece of your puzzle. Anyway, that’s all I’ve got. As always, thanks for reading.
‘Til next week,
-Jeff