Mastering Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät / Hard Skin “Me Ollaan Runkkareita / Why Won’t Anyone Understand?” on JT Classics.
“Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät have been called “the last real punk band in the world”. Statements like this tend to reveal more about the person making them than the band, but in this instance it’s not completely trite and useless. Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät are four learning disabled Finns who formed six years ago in a workshop for learning disabled Finns; this is not in itself remarkable, but also not something you’d expect to travel much beyond the confines of the workshop. PKN, however, have released singles and cassettes at a prodigious rate since 2010, and have found an exponentially growing audience for their lo-fi, midpaced punk anthems. Significant points on this journey have included the 2012 release of The Punk Syndrome, a documentary movie about the band which has won awards at SXSW and elsewhere; Coffee Not Tea, a 2013 compilation released by the wholly commendable Constant Flux [http://constantflux.co.uk] to coincide with PKN’s first UK tour; a book of poetry by Pertti Kurikan himself (written about in fascinating detail here); and the band’s attempt to represent Finland at this year’s Eurovision. Lest you assume this is a daft publicity grab with zero chance of success, they’ve reached the national final and will be competing against eight other acts on Finnish TV this Saturday (as I write). This, all must agree, is a more exquisitely correct destination for the world’s last real punk band than a fucking bank.
Amongst all this palaver, PKN have somehow found time to release three seven-inches in the last few months. The first is a split single with London’s esteemed sons of Oi!, Hard Skin, released by JT Classics and sold on their joint tour in December (the Bristol date of which was a perfect way to spend a Friday night). Each band covers a song by the other, adapting the lyrics to their own language in doing so, although cursory dicking around with Google Translate indicates that PKN have ditched most of the sentiment of ‘We Are The Wankers’. The chucking-out-time chorus remains intact, however, and more yobbo streetpunk thumpers could be improved by a Moog solo, as this is. Hard Skin take a shot at PKN’s ‘Miks Ei Kukaan Ymmärrä’ (‘Why Won’t Anyone Understand?’), which is an excellent choice, as it requires Sean ‘Fat Bob’ Forbes to sing about the trauma of going to the pedicurist.”
Buy it here!