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Penniless
anola

Penniless grew up in a small town called Nakkila (some twenty kilometers south of Pori) on the west coast of Finland. They released three albums as Penniless People Of Bulgaria, but dropped the people after being fed up with more or less silly questions and hostile messages. This kind of excile lead to more boring inquiries, though.

During the years Penniless has been compared with many an American alternative rock group, but as Marc the Shark of Rocket.FM in Stockholm put it: "Penniless does have one thing these other bands do not have... a sense of humor and a strangely becoming childlike naiveté in the songwriting. Songs like Adam’s Apple Pie or Imbecile sure prove that. They also have great melodies. The track Never Forget You is fantastic pop and the pre-LP Beautiful was one of the best singles of the year 2000."*

Since 1997 Penniless are signed only to A West Side Fabrication. They had the first album as simply Penniless out a year later. "Joe" got splendid critics near and far, and also honoured the band with a dream come true, a gig at Roskilde Festival in Denmark. This adventure produced the material for a video, "Beautiful", which was sort of a hit on MTV Nordic's "Alternative Nation".

In 1999 they followed up their huge European tour of 1996 with two weeks of gigging in Germany. In November 2001 Penniless toured in Finland, Sweden, and Norway together with label mates The Bear Quartet.

The recent album "Anola" has been well received in Scandinavia, with fine critics in the press, more air play than before ("Adam's Apple Pie was a hit on Radiomafia/Finnish Broadcasting Company, "Save" on Radio X3M/ Finnish Broadcasting Company: third most played song in 2001, while P3/SR in Sweden rotated "Adam's Apple Pie" and "Never Forget You". Swedish student radio stations tasted the delicious pie as well... No wonder; go and have a bite at www.penniless.sci.fi/applepie), and the video "Never Forget You" took over the relay-race baton from "Beautiful" with much grace, being a hit on MTV Nordic's "Alternative Nation" too.

In October came a new single from Penniless, "Imbecile". It got even more air play on Swedish student radio stations than "Adam's Apple Pie", and was also playlisted in Finland on Radio X3M. A month later this wonderful pop song was playlisted in London for sex weeks, on Xfm (Capital Radio group). "Imbecile" was also seen as a video, and Finnish "Q", monthly music magazine Soundi, nominated it as video of the month in November in the webb version. MTV Nordic's "Alternative Nation" was another channel where you could go "Imbecile".

Penniless albums has been released in east and west, and "Anola" will surely not be any exception from that rule. In 2002 Berlinbased label ulfTone music will release "Anola" in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Meanwhile for example Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, KindaMuzik have been spreading the word**, and Steve Lamacq has been heard playing some Penniless on Radio One/BBC. And these are not the only good feedbacks - "Anola" was album of the month in March 2001 on Planète Indie in Belgium and in October 2001 on Popscene in Netherlands.

And why not! "Anola" is a complete dozen of wonderful pop melodies and solid rock guitars. This album deserves to be spread in every country with an ear or two for powerful music. And the other way around too - the world still deserves "Anola". We all need guitars anyway!

*) www.rocket.fm ("Anola" reviewed)
**) "The single "Adams Apple Pie" and the hard driving "Never Forget You" tell you what Penniless are all about - savage melodies thrown over shifting, unpredictable frames. "Save" and "Addicted" are two more songs that thunder along, and it´s only on very rare occasions that a tendency towards continental fare spoils things. They may have shortened their name, but I doubt they´ll stay penniless for long." (Kerrang!, UK 4/5)
" in recent years, mainland Europe has thrived in noteworthy alternative bands, Kent, Soulwax, and dEUS to name but a few. Make Finnish quintet Penniless an indispensable addition to that list, right now" (Metal Hammer, UK 8/10)
"'Anola' by Penniless is one of the best records of 2001. With wonderful pop melodies, rocking guitars, and a lot of humour, Penniless will storm the world. ..But they definitively have their own sound. This record is made for alternative radio and college radio stations. I don't know how, but these guys know how to blend 20 years of alternative rock into a mix that both features great melodies and advanced rock." (Kindamuzik, Netherlands)

Tracklisting:

1. black crows
2. beautiful
3. adam's apple pie
4. never forget you
5. beauty of dreaming
6. imbecile
7. my points
8. heaven is a lie
9. save
10. addict
11. summer
12. lullabies

Penniless are:
Lasse Alisaari - drums
Ossi Alisaari - vocals, guitar
Pekka Alisaari - vocals, guitar
Kimmo Kurittu - bass guitar
Mikko Pere - guitar

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