Before I go on to the playlist, I will introduce a couple of bands who are not on Spotify:
Magyar Posse
Magyar Posse plays instrumental and highly original progressive post-rock with electronic elements and electric guitars with strange effects. Their songs are quite long and they include a variety of different kinds of musical parts.
Sur-Rur
Sur-Rur is a grunge/punk band that plays interesting songs with progressive elements. It's sung in Finnish, but the sound is probably interesting even if you don't understand the lyrics. It varies from slow and quiet hypnotic parts to full-on screams.
And then for the actual playlist:
22-Pistepirkko
This is one of the best and most original bands that have ever come out of Finland. These three silent and shy guys from a tiny village called Utajärvi have made a number of excellent albums combining influences from rock n' roll, indie rock, electronica and country. The lyrics don't always make that much sense, but the melodies are excellent and the nasal vocals sound really cool.
Cats on Fire
This indie pop group was founded in Vaasa. Their music bows to many alternative rock and pop artists mainly in UK. The most apparent influence is The Smiths. Their melodic songs are skilfully played and even the lyrics are a lot better than with most Finnish bands singing in English.
The Crash
This has been one of the most promising bands that have ever appeared in the Finnish music scene. The Turku-based band played melodic 90's style indie pop tunes with melodramatic songs filled with sad tones. It's not all sadness though, since they have also made some disco style songs that are excellent for dancing. The lead singer, Teemu Brunila, works nowadays mainly as a producer and songwriter.
Magenta Skycode
Magenta Skycode is a creation of one of the best songwriters and producers in Finland. For a long time, Jori Sjöroos was mainly known for his role as a producer, but this is his own band and it is excellent. The songs are dreamy indie pop-rock with some elements of post-rock. The high pitched vocals are excellent.
Office Building
Office Building plays beautiful and melodic indie pop-rock with stylish 90's style electric guitars and indie aesthetics. The songs are fairly simple in their town, but the melodies are so catchy that I have to appreciate their music quite a lot.
Burning Hearts
Burning Hearts is one of the cool indie acts that appeared in the rise of indie boom in Finland. Their sounds are quite modern, combining electronic sounds and more traditional band instruments. The melodies are great, but the main reason why this sounds so cool are the excellent sounds.
Goodnight Monsters
Goodnight Monsters plays melodic indie pop-rock or power-pop that has clear influences from 90's alternative scene in the US. Bands like The Posies and Lemonheads. The melodies are simple but catchy enough to dance along to.
The Phonies
Kokkola is an unlikely place to be the hometown for a fantastic power pop/indie rock band. The Phonies play melodic pop-rock tunes with cheery feel. Their sound bears some resemblance to bands like Teenage Fanclub.
Penniless
Penniless plays guitar driven indie pop-rock with some post-rock influences. The drumming is quite heavy compared to other sounds. Guitars blink high notes with low overdrive while the vocals are filled with classy harmonies.
The Scenes
The Scenes is a classy act from the beginning to the end. Their vocals are a bit out of tune in just the right way for this kind of indie rock band taking some aesthetic influences from 80's post-punk. The sound is not lo-fi, but you can also hear the instruments' natural sound.
The New Tigers
The New Tigers play dreamy and hypnotic indie-pop with brilliantly strange effects in the guitars. The vocals have quite a lot of echo and the guitars even more so. The melodies are catchy happy. The drums and bass are just doing their prompt work on the background without too much hassle.
Getawaycab
Getawaycab plays endearing indie-rock with fragile vocals and simple and sparkling electric guitars. The songs have a sense of drama with rising patterns where the subtle and quiet parts switch into full-on screams.
This Empty Flow
This Empty Flow is the previous band of Jori Sjöroos who I mentioned earlier. Their music is beautiful and calm post-rock with clear and sad guitars. The main focus is on the echoey and dreamy sounds and the vocals are left to the background.
Traffic Island
Traffic Island plays stylish indie-rock with skilfully played electric guitars and cool vocal harmonies. The songs also have a great sense of drama with rising and descending parts, variety of different effects and vocal styles.
Jolly Jumpers
Jolly Jumpers plays indie rock n' roll with some elements from 60's psychedelic rock. The guitars have metallic rock sound without too much overdrive resembling bands like The Soundtrack of our Lives. The vocals are kind of untrained, but it doesn't really matter in this kind of music.
Rödsögården
This band that was formed in Kokkola plays massive and ambitious indie rock with big sounds. The overall feel is a bit too produced for my taste, but it's still quite pleasant to listen to. Their songs have great melodies and the guitars growl beautifully.
Satellite Stories
This Oulu-based band plays guitar driven modern indie rock with interesting beats on the drums. Their general sound is a bit like that of Vampire Weekend's. The fast indie beats are great for dancing and partying.
Half Apple
Another great example of musical know-how from Turku. The production is world-class and their music, for some reason, sounds a bit Scottish. Their guitar driven indie rock also has big organ sound waves on the background and post-punk revival style drumming with occasional rhythm switches.
Lapko
This band is born with the clear influences from late 90's emo-bands such as Placebo. Their music is not quite as original, but if you like melancholic melodies and depressing guitars, this is very well done music. I for one like to listen to this kind of music when I'm angry about something.
Softengine
This indie rock band from Seinäjoki represented Finland in Eurovision last year. For once it was refreshing not to be too ashamed of Finland's entry. Their indie disco rock is a bit tacky, but works still quite well in its own genre. Disco drums, electric guitars and bass with a lot of treble.
Disco Ensemble
This has become one of the most well-known indie bands in Finland. They are very skilled in what they do, even if I think their sound is not the most original one. They rely on post-punk revival aesthetics, fast drumming and electric guitars.
Manboy
Manboy is slightly more chilled version of the couple of bands I have mentioned above. The guitars don't have quite as much overdrive and the drums take more pauses. In choruses the music rises to huge sound walls from quite delicate sounds in the verses.
The Prisondream
The Prisondream is a post-rock band with indie rock kind of vocals. The sounds are quite heavy resembling grunge, but the rhythms and melodies are more progressive. The high-pitched male vocals shatter in higher notes, but it all just adds to the credibility of this band.
Sweatmaster
Sweat master plays rock n' roll with hard rock attitude. The sounds are quite garage. There are quite a lot of bands like this in Finland that in the 90's used to give a bit more credible alternative to heavy bands that took themselves really seriously.
Boomhauer
Like the band above, Boomhauer also plays garage rock n' roll with lo-fi vocals and authentic sounding overdriven guitars. The melodies could maybe be a bit better, but the attitude is just right. This is the kind of music to drink to.
M.A. Numminen
It is impossible to say in few words what this artist is all about, but I'll try. He started his career playing Finnish versions of old swing classics, sometimes with political and humorous lyrics. He has also sung various instructional materials and philosophical essays in his distinctive nasal style. He is famous for singing directly out of a Wittgenstein book. He has covered pretty much any genre there is from jazz to swing, and from children's songs to rock and techno.
Le Futur Pompiste
This band is a class act of indie-pop with some psychedelic sounds. The rock organs and electric guitars would suggest a bit different kind of attitude with their sounds, but they actually come out even better in this kind of original sounding easygoing indie pop.
Streak & The Raven
This electronic band plays ambient sounds on top of which, electronic machines and echoey vocals build magical sounds. They also use vocal harmonies and electric drums to give the songs a bit more beef, but it's still all very hypnotic and calm.
Eleanoora Rosenholm
Eleonore Rosenholm is one of the most original sounding Finnish musicians. Her dreamy vocals sing strange lyrics over electronica music. The melodies are quite dark and melancholic. The sounds are really stylish.
Itkevä Tyttö
Itkevä Tyttö plays generally quite rough emo-rock, but they also have some more chilled tunes, which I think reveal their best material. The lyrics are in Finnish, but they're not the main point here so I'm sure this will be interesting to non-Finns as well.
Joosua
This indie rock band plays echoey guitar based indie rock where psychedelic sounding organs also play a huge part. The songs are quite catchy and simple despite of a little progressive element in their rhythms.
Wojciech
This band is one of the classiest bands I've heard who sing in Finnish. Their music could be described as dreamy indie rock with some progressive elements. The guitars are clear and high-pitched vocals soar high above the clouds.
Tv-Resistori
This lo-fi electronica band plays original sounding indie-pop with strange Finnish lyrics. They use a variety of different instruments, which results in a very pleasant, yet strange, concoction of space sounds and endearing home-recording sounding beats.
Kuusumun Profeetta
Kuusumun Profeetta is one of the most original bands in Finland's music world. Their dreamy and hypnotic indie songs are topped with high-pitched echoey vocals that don't really seem to fit into the beats. This is complete psychedelia with hypnotic qualities.
Musta Valo
The backgrounds of this band sound a lot like post-punk revival, but the style of singing and the lyrics are known very well in a genre called Suomi-rock (Finland rock). This music is very well done indie rock with strings and all, but still some element of deep Finnishness in their sound puts me off a bit.
Noitalinna Huraa!
This band's name is 'Which Castle, Hurrah!' in English. If you think that's weird, you should listen to their lyrics. Still, musically, their songs are very interesting and their choices of instruments as well. I guess this is something you can only fully understand if you're Finnish.
Ruotomieli
Ruotomieli plays Finnish rock music with credible indie sounds. They play quite a lot of different styles, so it's difficult to describe their music in just a few lines. It's all very skilfully played, but also so very Finnish.
Kuolleet Intiaanit
This band plays strange psychedelic rock music that combines shouting singing with peculiar electric guitars and quite heavy drumming. Even if you're not a fan of this band, I suggest you give it a try, since I doubt there's anything quite like it anywhere else.
Kakkahätä-77
This punk band plays honest punk music, which sounds a lot like the first wave of punk, yet still they have more hard rock kind of sounds in some of their songs. The melodies are quite melancholic as you can almost take as a given from a Finnish band.
Rauli Badding Somerjoki
Badding is one of the absolute classics of Finnish music. He had an excellent rock n' roll voice, but he also sung a lot of ballads and schlager. He's also very questionably known for breaking the rule of rock idols being sex symbols. He maybe wasn't particularly good looking, but he is one of the most beloved singers in Finland's music history.
Kauko Röyhkä
Kauko Röyhkä is a very well known musician in Finnish circles. His music is quite basic Finland rock which pretty much relies on lyrics rather than interesting sounds or melodies. Therefore, it may not be that interesting to non-Finns.
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