Flaming Sideburns

High energy ’60s/’70s-style Finnish garagers the Flaming Sideburns are back with their third full-length album. Sky Pilots finds the boys in a cleaner, slightly psychedelic mode adding some Who-ish tricks to their already Stones and MC5-lined magic bag. "Invisible Hands" and "Pictures Far Behind" are both excellent tracks in this more refined direction and they highlight the evolving and distinctive voice of Argentinean-accented singer Eddie Martinez. There are still enough similarities in sound here to their fellow Radio Birdman/Stooges-obsessed Norsemen to link these guys into what now can be called the classic Scandinavian rock sound, like "Since The Beginning.” The extremely well-crafted production job that all these bands seem to have also totally "outs" the band as true blue Viking rockers. What's refreshing about the Sideburns is that they've managed to make a name for themselves without ever relying on any matching suit gimmick (Hives) or biker/tough guy schtick (Hellacopters) and just let their solid, tasty music do the talking.