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Laika & The Cosmonauts was founded in 1987 by Mikko Lankinen (guitar), Janne Haavisto (drums), Matti Pitsinki (organ and guitar) and Tom Nyman (bass). Their first album "C'mon Do The Laika" was released already in 1988. The group has since then released five more studio albums, all with the same line-up.Their popularity in Finland and the rest of the Europe began to rise, surprisingly, only after they had made themselves a household name among the surf/garage/punk/alternative audience in The USA! There this foursome has released three original CD's ("Instruments of Terror", "The Amazing Colossal Band" and "Absurdistan") as well as a compilation of their early stuff (from "C'mon do the Laika" and "Surfs you right!"). For these records they got rave reviews, good amount of airplay on the radio and won over the hearts of many famed musicians from "the king of surf guitar" Dick Dale to Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench. Other well-known Laika fans are Mike Palm from the surf-punk legend Agent Orange and John Jorgenson from The Hellecasters who, also played with Elton John for several years!In US they have done six nationwide tours, one of which was as a supporting act for The Ministry on their "Filth Pig" tour. The singer of Ministry, Al Jourgensen wanted Laika & The Cosmonauts to join the stadium tour because, in his words; "They are the best f***ing band in the world!" Just check out their superb live album "Laika Sex Machine" (2000) and you'll come to the same conclusion yourself.The music of the band has been also included in number of movies including Flipper, LA Without A Map, Fox Hunt, Blood and Donuts, The Iron Horsemen. Since the members are big fans of movies and soundtrack albums one of the main goals is to get the Laika-music on the big screen.Laika & The Cosmonauts is also continually touring Europe and their home country. They have done dozens of TV appearances (including a live TV-show shown all over Europe called "Absolut Live") and hundreds of radio interviews/shows in the USA as well as in Europe. In Japan some people might even know the band members from their work as record producers with artists such as "Lemonator", "Super", "The JP's", "Värttinä".