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Dirty Fingernails are Sami and Päivi Salo who are originally from Kajaani in Finland. After a move to the capital Helsinki (Sami tells me that the Five Corners is the place to go for bars and record shops; as in Five Corners Quintet - with new track on Peterson’s show this week, see below) and then a further move to London, their debut album Greetings From Finsbury Park, N4 is now out. When I met Sami, he stressed that there’s no jazz influence on the album. He’s spot on about that as it’s purely sophisticated pop with a touch of The Clash here, a touch of the Beatles there and a good time synth-pop party all over the place.

The other member of Dirty Fingers is a ‘sister’ that isn’t related to them at all. Sami tells me that they were playing at the Joiners (that’s in Southampton, a 300 capacity club where headline bands like Oasis earn their dues on a wet Monday night; I was last there to see the much missed Eighteenth Day Of May), “this guy comes out of the of the crowd promptly joins the band as the drummer”. This guy turns out to be Charlie and it’s the stuff of rock ‘n’ roll legend al a Keith Moon and The Who.

I was talking to Sami and Päivi at the Big Chill Christmas bash (see HERE). Charlie turned up later and I must declare a slight interest, we went to the same school. But back to the album, it’s released on Northern Swing (sounds like it should be a jazz label) which is a sub-label of Finish EMI partner, Poko Rekords.

The first single ‘Bruno’ gives you a good idea of their upbeat synth-pop-punk side.

The lyrics are quite obtuse and I get the impression that it’s quite clever (like who calls a pop song ‘Bruno’? I there’s certainly some poetic message going on here.

The rest of the album is similar is style with other stand-out tracks like ‘Chop Suey’ (which is very upbeat and in total contrast to ‘Bruno’), the dreamy, ‘Marianne Faithfull’ (she being the sixties sex kitten icon) where he asks her to “stay faithful” (made me laugh). Talking of beautiful women, Päivi is not just the eye candy on keyboards either and she features prominently throughout but notable on tracks like ‘Misery Is Easy’ and the subtle Floydesque Radioheadish track that ends the album, ‘The World Comes For A Visit’ (featuring the trumpet of Tommi Kolunen; the closest we get to jazz).

At best this album reminds me of ‘pop’ Harpsichord Treacle (by The Superimposers) that was released at the start of the year. With any luck they’ll be appearing at this year’s <a href=”Big Chill (watch this SPACE) and there was talk of remixes by a well know band (yet to be confirmed).

I’m not keen on dirty fingers as a rule, by this lot happen to be great fun and thoroughly recommended. Dirty Fingernails send you all seasons greetings from Finsbury Park or as they might say back home, “popin vaihto-oppilaat”.

Reviewed: Dirty Fingernails - Greetings From Finsbury Park, N4 Cat. No. NORTHCD1 Release date: October 2008
Tracklisting:
1 A European Scream (5:02)
2 Bruno (3:47)
3 The Man The Myth The Music (4:09)
4 Marianne Faithfull (4:11)
5 That Kick (3:24)
6 Midatlantic (3:16)
7 Misery Is Easy (2:39)
8 Chop Suey (4:07)
9 American Teeth (3:18)
10 Objectives Of The Heart (4:28)
11 The World Comes For A Visit (6:24)

Links
www.myspace.com/yourfavouriteband
dirtyfingernails.fi
Watch great documentary about the band here: www.youtube.com
www.poko.fi
Gilles Peterson :: 4th December 2008 :: DJ Fitchie (Fat Freddy’s Drop) Interview/ BBC Introducing…The Mighty Jeddo & Robert Mitchell Trio
The Five Corners Quintet - ‘Easy Digging’ (Ricky Tick)