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What’s up Sorry Staters?
Welcome back! I would have to assume that most of our regular weekly readers are suffering through Sorry State Newsletter withdrawal right now. I know I am, and I fuckin’ work here! To be fair, while our last newsletter dropped in mid-November, I did not contribute a staff pick for that particular week either. Whoops!
It feels crazy to me that we’re already more than halfway through December. And the holidays are approaching already too? Before we know it, I guess in the next couple weeks we’ll be coming up with our “best of 2024” or “year in review” lists. My brain is not prepared for such things.
But what’s been going on with me lately, you ask? Well, to be honest, it’s been a not-so-great last several weeks. I was lucky enough to sustain an injury in November. I had a stupid mishap where I managed to fracture the bone right around where my knee joint happens to be, and as a result, I’ve been getting around on crutches while I recover. I’m not currently in any pain, but I still can’t put enough weight on my bad knee to be able to walk. It totally sucks. It’s more majorly inconvenient than anything else. Like just not being able to do normal human things… like being able to hold doors open in order to pass through them, for example haha. I’ve been spending a lot of time on the couch not doing much of anything, so it feels like I don’t have any awareness of what’s been going on in the world around me for the last month or so. Life has been feeling a lot like Groundhog Day over at my house… I even had to miss out on the string of shows that Public Acid did with Dillinger 4 and Paint It Black. That was a bummer. Luckily, all my friends, family, and co-workers have been very accommodating while I’m in my current state. Needless to say, I can’t wait to be back on my feet soon.
Sorry for the big crybaby confessional back there! Granted, things could be much worse, but I haven’t been in the greatest frame of mind as of late. But you know what makes me feel like I can’t help but get a big smile on my face? Listening to the new Tiikeri 7”.
While lying around at home with my knee propped up, our buddy Lucas from Vidro sent a video to Scarecrow’s group chat, informing us that he was in Turku, Finland at a gig watching Tiikeri play. I was mad jealous. I later jokingly posted a picture with the new Tiikeri record along with the caption “it turns all your bad feelings into good feelings!” Maija, a friend who lives in Finland, responded and said, “Just had that energy spike tonight!,” having been at the same show as Lucas. See!? Tiikeri heals us all.
Sorry State has already had this new 4-song 7” from the Finnish songsmiths in stock for several weeks. I still feel like I’m playing catch-up, and now I feel like I’ve compulsively listened to this EP enough times to feel like I’ve digested the songs properly. Readers who are already familiar with Tiikeri, don’t fear! This new record will not venture into wildly unexpected territory. We know what to expect with this band: saccharinely sweet, melodic punk tunes in the finest traditions of ‘77/KBD style Finnish punk, but with an inevitable injection of more modern pop punk influences.
This new EP, titled Tee Se Itse, which I believe translates to “Do It Yourself”, is quite appropriately titled, having been self-released by the band. Tiikeri’s imagery and graphic design has always grabbed my attention. Daniel illuminated something to me, a discovery he made during his more recent deep dive into early Finnish punk: Tiikeri’s signature use of cartoony imagery and graphic design is heavily influenced by the Hilse LP, a classic early Finnish punk compilation. When I saw the layout for the zine that accompanies this compilation LP, I was I like “IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW.” Pretty cool to learn.
Tee Se Itse is a new leap for the band visually, showing their first dose of color use in the cover art! For me, that classic black and white aesthetic with a single “spot color” is always a classy look. The cover design is also filled up wall-to-wall with pop-art text displayed in several different fonts. Now, I personally can’t read Finnish, so I did my best to translate. It basically says “this is a 17.5 cm record (which is funny, because I had no idea in metric that this measurement is basically 7 inches), which plays at 45 RPM.” Then it says something like “genuine DIY price of 5 euros, specific to the punk EP. DO NOT PAY MORE!! It’s not punk.” Hilarious, because Sorry State sells the record for $10. Guess we didn’t get the memo? Tiikeri’s sort of devout attitude about “do it yourself” and “punk is love” and all this seems to be delivered with an exaggerated sense of earnestness. But the heavy-handed punk mythos feels so pure-hearted, yet dogmatic, that to a certain point, do I detect a tiny feeling of “winking at the camera” from Tiikeri? I dunno, maybe a little bit. I think the band may secretly be super cheeky and funny.
Enough about the artwork. Let’s talk about the songs. “Kyytiä Kihoille”, the first track on the A-side, boldly opens with basically a capella vocals with a lone clean guitar as accompaniment. Ordinarily, I’d probably react like, “what the fuck?” But somehow, with Tiikeri making this choice, I accept this vulnerable introduction just before the band launches into their signature up-tempo ’77-punk attack! “Punkkari Oon” is maybe my favorite track on the record, with an amazing chorus with swooning “oohs and aahs” backing vocals—a song so catchy that you’ll find yourself infected with the melody for days afterward. The lyrics in the chorus declare, “Let others shout otherwise, I’m still always a punk.” Hell yeah, I can relate.
The first track on the B-side is titled “Rokenrollia”, which I can only assume translates into something to do with rock’n’roll. This is probably the main song that feels like it’s hitting a new stride with the songwriting. Appropriately titled, it opens with a proper rockin’ sounding riff and groove, and to me it sounds like Tiikeri is dipping their toe into a bit of power pop influence. The opening sounds kinda like the Exploding Hearts or something! This song definitely feels fresh from Tiikeri, and I wouldn’t mind if they wrote some more rockin’ tunes like this on records to come. Then the title track, “Tee Se Itse”, closes out the record. The singer checks his tuning in a “doe-rae-me” sort of fashion before it launches right into the vocal hook. A song that feels like fans of the band will IMMEDIATELY be singing along to at their gigs. Hell, I know I would be. You ever listen to a band that sings in an unfamiliar language and the hooks are so catchy you find yourself singing along even though you have no idea what they’re saying? Just me? Alright, well, Tiikeri generates this effect on me.
A bit long-winded to musically describe a band that I’m sure anyone who’s interested has already devoured. Yeah, sure. But it’s been a while, so I had to return with excessive verbiage. Anyway, I’ll leave you now. As always, thanks for reading. Punk is love, baby.
‘Til next week (year?),
-Jeff