Lodger (Finnish band)

Lodger
Origin Helsinki, Tampere, Finland
Genres Indie rock, alternative rock
Years active 2002–present
Labels Urbanited music
Members Teemu Merilä
Panu Riikonen
Hannes Häyhä
Juho Viljanen

Lodger is a Finnish rock band, formed by Teemu Merilä in 2002. Although largely unknown outside of Finland, they have established a cult-following on the internet due to the popularity of their flash music videos. The song "Floozy With An Uzi" is taken from the novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon.

History

In the latter half of 2002 singer/songwriter Teemu Merilä created Lodger as a vehicle for his music, bringing together Jyri Riikonen on keyboards, Hannes Häyhä on bass, Antti Laari on drums, and London-based Richard Anderson on guitar.[1] During the summer of 2003, the group recorded a self-financed demo of Hi-Fi High Lights Down Low. Shortly thereafter, Häyhä created a flash music video for "Doorsteps" featuring a hapless one-eyed stick man. That year, "Doorsteps" went on to win "best flash" in the Bradford Animation Festival, as well as winning the Oulu Music Video Festival. In fact, these "One-Eyed Films" would prove so popular that the group went on to adopt a one-eyed skull and crossbones as its logo.

In 2004, Anderson returned to Britain, and was replaced by guitarist Panu Riikonen. Hi-Fi High was made available for purchase within Finland and the response was overwhelmingly positive - Lodger's debut release was the best-selling album at Stupido (a Finish record retailer) for 2004. Häyhä went on to create a second One-Eyed Film, "I Love Death" which proved to be even more popular than "Doorsteps".

2005 saw Lodger release two One-Eyed Films in the form of advertisements: "God Has Rejected the Western World" for Sabotaz spray paints, and "24h Candy Machine" for idea-protector.com. In September, a remastered version of Hi-Fi High Lights Down Low was made available for sale. This remastered version contained a slightly different track list than the 2004 offering; although it included "24h Candy Machine", "Everyone Got to Go" and "Divine Right" were conspicuously absent.

In 2007, Lodger finished work on their second album, How Vulgar. How Vulgar was released in Finland, Germany, Switzerland and Austria on March 14, 2007. No other release dates have been announced.

After almost a year of apparent hiatus, from summer of 2007 to spring of 2008, Lodger released three new songs and redesigned their website. Their third album, "Honeymoon is Over" was released on November 19, 2008.[2]

In June 2009, Lodger indicated via Twitter that their next album would be titled Sunday of a Male Shouvinist.[3] However, in February 2012, the band announced a new website which stated their next album would be titled Low Blue Flame and would be available to download for free. After a while, they made two songs from the new album available for listening on their website. On December 25, 2013, the other 8 songs of Low Blue Flame was made available for listening on their site.[4] On January 9, 2014, the band put up a mastered version of Low Blue Flame for free download on their website.[5] The band has also stated that the album would see a CD-release some time in the future.[6]

Style

Lodger's lyrics are often cynical and nihilistic; their discography includes such titles as "I Love Death" which details the drudgery in life of the average person and "God Has Rejected the Western World", an anthem decrying the superficiality of western society. Their unabashed attitude is most apparent in their music videos, which prominently features smoking, drinking, sex, masturbation, rape and death.

In Low Blue Flame, the same cynical style was applied to Biblical figures. For instance, Song of Job is a written monologue by the titular character from the Book of Job.

Discography

Hi-Fi High Lights Down Low (2004)

  1. "Two Smiles is a Long Walk"
  2. "Fickle"
  3. "Bad Place to Earn a Living"
  4. "I Love Death"
  5. "Short Man on TV"
  6. "Radio"
  7. "Ordinary Men Make Ordinary Music"
  8. "Doorsteps"
  9. "Everyone Got to Go"
  10. "Divine Right"
  11. "Big Day"
  12. "When I Was Six"
  13. "Siamese Cats"

Hi-Fi High Lights Down Low (Remastered) (2005)

  1. "Two Smiles is a Long Walk"
  2. "24h Candy Machine"
  3. "Bad Place to Earn a Living"
  4. "I Love Death"
  5. "Radio"
  6. "Doorsteps"
  7. "Short Man on TV"
  8. "Ordinary Men Make Ordinary Music"
  9. "Fickle"
  10. "Big Day"
  11. "When I Was Six"
  12. "Siamese Cats"

How Vulgar (2007)

  1. "Truck Driver"
  2. "Friends"
  3. "Satan"
  4. "Floozy With an Uzi"
  5. "Steal & Lie"
  6. "Wrong Bus"
  7. "Under One God"
  8. "Escape Plan"
  9. "I Would Like to Fulfill Your Dreams"
  10. "Brunswick Centre"
  11. "Don't Go Home Tonight"
  12. "Whatever the Weather"

Honeymoon Is Over (2008)

  1. "Requiem"
  2. "Chemicals"
  3. "Nostalgia"
  4. "Hairdo"
  5. "Recovering Alcoholic Visits Musso & Frank"
  6. "So Long"
  7. "I Was Young I Needed the Money"
  8. "Prefontaine"
  9. "Problems With Fat"
  10. "Girlfriend"
  11. "Go"

Low Blue Flame (2013)

  1. "All in this World"
  2. "Song of Job"
  3. "Son Father Holy Ghost"
  4. "Smoking for Jesus"
  5. "Lord is my Feeder"
  6. "Devil's Mind"
  7. "Lets get Married"
  8. "Every God Damn Morning"
  9. "When Our Days"
  10. "Silent Friend"

Music videos

References

  1. ↑ LODGER: HI-FI ONE EYE SEES ALL, Amplifier Magazine, Retrieved March 31, 2011
  2. ↑ Strand, Heini (20 November 2008). Lodger: Honeymoon Is Over, MTV3 (in Finnish)
  3. ↑ (19 June 2009). Tweet ("is writing songs for the next album (Sunday of a male shouvinist) and waiting when their GO-video is ready to meet the world.")
  4. ↑ (Low Blue Flame)
  5. ↑ https://twitter.com/LODGERtheBand/status/421311019370414080 ("Now it's offical! Mastered version of Low Blue Flame is ready! GO TO http://www.lodger.fi and download it for FREE!")
  6. ↑ https://twitter.com/LODGERtheBand/status/415801240527069184 ("after the master is done we are going to release a CD. Don't know about LPs or digital releases.")
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