We set up a light and made something decadent for you in good old black and white. Enjoy!
Category Archives: Music
March Cocktail Recipe: Stepping on Roses
Well, technically it’s not March anymore, we know. The reason for our tardiness is that originally we wanted to do something quite different for March, but couldn’t find a single bottle of Kirchwasser in all of Helsinki. Perhaps we’ll get some on our tour, and can supply you with some unaccurate historical reproductions in May!
Stepping on Roses is a variation of both the Mimosa and the Bellini. Drinks like these are often served at weddings, or as hair-of-the-dog drinks at other daytime parties. For us, it’s a staple welcome cocktail and a salvage for less agreeable sparkling wines. The rose fragrance is luxurious, and if you can find jam with petals, it gets even better.
♦ Stepping on Roses ♦
2 parts Rose petal jam
1 part Fresh orange juice
6 parts Dry sparkling wine
Place the rose jam and orange juice in a tall champagne flute. Stir well to mix the two. Pour in the sparkling wine, and stir very gently, not to lose the effervesence of the sparkling wine. Take your shoes off. Have a ball.
The name comes from our song The Mascot Moth, of course:
Why don’t you
Stop dangling from the chandelier, don’t go
Stepping on roses if your feet are bare, silly bear
Make no mistake, I am the hunter and you are the deer
Here’s the deal: If you sink to despair, search for me.
Listen to the song here:
Mimosas and Bellinis are usually served without garnishes but they are a festive detail. The function of the garnish in a coctail is not purely visual – with Stepping on Roses you might try decorating the drink with either rose petals or strips of orange peel, and see how the different garnishes affect the senses.
Ah, and we have just the cocktail in mind for April: The beautiful Maja with all the grace of a Polish belle! Be back soon!
– Laura & Jere
Strawberry Gin – Live!
Another live video from the album release, this time it’s Strawberry Gin – and that’s what the ladies are drinking to the right of the camera! Our lovely Vilac toy piano makes a comeback, this time played by Martiina Laaksonen.
Happy Women’s Day ladies, don’t give up the fight for your Love’s Last Adieu!
-Laura
Filed under Live performances, Music
News Item N:o 2 – Live footage!
We played our 1920’s inspired News Item N:o 2 for the first time with the whole band at the Mascot Moth release party. Not bad, huh?
Notice the dancing flappers and the opportune moment the bartender has selected for shaking a Strawberry Gin cocktail! Oh, what a night it was. We’ll have to host these kinds of parties more often.
Time for some song trivia! The title of the song is an allusion to a two-line poem by Dorothy Parker:
News Item
Men seldom make passes
At girls who wear glasses.– Dorothy Parker
– Laura
Filed under Inspiration, Live performances, Music
February Cocktail Recipe: Strawberry Gin
Ah, it was Valentine’s Day! To celebrate, here’s the recipe for Strawberry Gin from our new cocktail booklet. This one is named after one of our songs, which came about as we were modelling for a portrait painting course last Winter. We were sitting motionless for over a week, Jere posing with his guitar, so we had plenty of practice and time on our hands – and no cocktail in sight!
The resulting lamentation can be heard here:
Since the cocktail plays such a prominent part in the song, it simply had to become reality. I think Strawberry Gin was the reason we thought of making a cocktail booklet in the first place: The word combination was simply too scrumptuous to let pass. So here’s what our heartbroken heroine is ordering:
♦ Strawberry Gin ♦
3 parts Gin
1 part Cointreau
1 part Fresh lemon juice
1 part Strawberry juice or purée
Shake the ingredients and strain into a cocktail glass. If you wish to make an impresion on a certain someone, dry marascino cherries in the oven on a low temperature, crush them into powder and decorate the rim with it.
Sip for Byronesque heartache.
Strawberry and gin is a suprisingly smooth combination, and this is a potentially perilous drink. The savviest cocktail concocters will notice that it is a variation of the classic White Lady, which in turn is a Sidecar made with gin instead of brandy. You may have to adjust the recipe slightly depending on your strawberry ingredient: We’ve been using slightly sweetened juice, but Bar Suola’s version with strawberry purée was equally delicious.
Strawberry Gin has a solid fan base after it was served in our album release party. Drink a solitary glass for Valentine’s blues or order a couple to share with your sweetheart!
Two Strawberry Gins at our album release party.
Digital download and novelties
Great news! You can now listen to the entire album on Bandcamp. Enjoy!
The digital download is now available at the same place, and you can order both the physical copy and our beautiful cocktail booklet and postcards to accompany it. They make a nice gift set too!
The cocktail booklet is here! That’s One Man’s Sweetheart and Another Man’s Whore on the cover. Birds of a feather!
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- The cocktail booklet includes 12 delicious recipes by Jere and Laura.
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- This is Cynara! The beautiful pictures are by Laura.
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- The physical album includes a 16-page booklet with lyrics.
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- The beautiful cardboard Jakebox mechanism is eco-conscious as well.
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- The album and the cocktail booklet are the same size.
Mascot Moth album release party!
Last Tuesday we were celebrating the release of Mascot Moth in 1920’s speakeasy style in Ravintola Suola, Helsinki. What a wonderful evening filled with cocktails, charleston and chanson! The bartenders were mixing three of our custom cocktails for our speakeasy guests: Café de Abejas, Strawberry Gin and Stepping on Roses.
After our set the lovely ladies from Helsinki Traditional Jazz Dance Company showed us how to do the Charleston in style. Needless to say, we partied like we were in the silent movies! This was the first time we played live together with both Ilari and Saara, and it felt just wonderful – we’ll be posting some ex tempore live material soon. Here are a few pictures by the wonderful Saara Olkkonen. You can see more photos from the party here.
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- Saara preparing for the speakeasy.
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- The gents are enjoying our custom cocktails.
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- Strawberry Gin!
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- One last moment of quiet decadence.
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- What a stylish crowd!
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- The flappers from Helsinki Traditional Jazz Dance Company…
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- …got the whole crowd shimmy shakin’!
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- Laura’s dressmaker partied in style.
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- The last… tango? With Noora Korppi from Kabarena.
– Laura & Jere
Filed under Cocktails, Live performances, Music, News
Smitten with la reina
We are just completely smitten with Spanish copla in general and Imperio Argentina in particular. And the orchestration here is wonderful!
Filed under Inspiration, Music
Close and Open Harmony
We are working in close harmony, arranging some of our songs for the cello. First Jere gets an idea for a phrase. It’s perfect, but one note should be flat instead of sharp because that brings new spice into my melody. Ah, but then it should move against the rythm slightly on that note to bring it out. He does something amazing and I note it down. And there it is!
More often than not, harmony is not about being able to keep your own pitch perfect. It’s about being able to listen, seeing the whole, and being open to new contrasts. I’m happy about our flexibility, and the way we’re excited about each other’s ideas instead of clinging onto our own. The songs turn out better for it: Instead of making compromises and concessions, we’re both aiming for a harmonious mélange where the song comes first.
We’re also listening to close harmony girl trios from the Thirties, because we want some of that vintage sound in one of the songs. Somehow, I find this piece particularly engaging, both because of the lyrics and the wonderful wah-wah effect at the end:
This was discovered via Radio Dismuke, a gold mine of 20´s and 30´s music. It´s a free web radio treat for a real Sunday afternoon.
– Laura
Filed under Inspiration, Music, Recording diary
Café de Abejas 