"Can you cure village idiocy?" asked Kumikameli on the final track of their latest album Kinahmo (2004). One answer to that very apt question is Kumikameli's own career, which has lasted now for almost twenty years: at least in Eastern Finland, village idiocy seems to be incurable. Even if the line-up of the band has somewhat changed over the years, their pursuit for positive lunacy is going strong.
Kumikameli has during its entire career been an inexhaustible source for project bands, the most known of which is undoubtedly the humppa band Eläkeläiset. Sometimes – as in the case of Eläkeläiset – these projects steal all the attention from the main band. That is a crying shame, as Kumikameli's punkish music has always been sharp, angry and uncompromising, and the singer-guitarist Toppo Koponen must be one of the most underestimated rock lyricists in Finland. His texts are a delightful mixture of justified misanthropy and good old taking the piss.
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