Here’s another band I’ve discovered thanks to Satomi’s mix CDs and it’s one that seems to be impossible to google thanks to, of course, Belle & Sebastian. But I’ve managed to collect some information, sadly it seems that it is quite impossible to find a physical copy of the album “Blue” which seems to have been there only release! What is most exciting about this discovery is that the band was from the Czech Republic of all places!
Sebastians were formed according to the CD inserts by Ian Von Czechticky on bass, Stephen Young on guitar, DL Beauty on guitar, Paul Penal on drums and David Wrdisty on vocals. According to last.fm Sebastians were formed by Dusan Lipert (today Colorfactory, Ohm Square), David Volenc (vocals, Colorfactory) Jan Čechtický (bass, Ohm Square), John Lukes (guitar) and Dan Mrlík (drums). Lukes was later replaced Stephen Tuma (Liquid Harmony), and Pelan Mrlík Paul. Wonder which is the right lineup!
Their first release was a demo tape called Romanian Songs and their first proper release was the “Blue” album that was released in 1993 by the Bonton Music label out of their home country and it was produced by Colin Stuart who had produced some singles for Kirsty MacColl. In this album there’s also a collaboration by some of the members of the Ecstasy of St Theresa, arguably the Czech Republic’s most well-known indie band, like Jan Gregar doing some “bass space” & “feedback vibrations” or Jan Muchow doing some “ambient vibrations”. Overall the album is a beautiful sun-bleached shoegazy 10-tracker, with the high point, for me, their indiepoppy “Am I the One” that reminds me to the more recent Long Beach band Silver Screen. Another fantastic track you don’t want to miss is “Our New Kind of Love” that may as well be a lost Venus Peter song!
“Silversurfer” the first song on the album, which is perhaps the most experimental of the bunch, appeared on two compilations in the past decade. In 2000 it appeared on the “Czech that Sound!” and in 2003 on “Hurá, Kytary!”. Both of these compilations were samplers of Czech indie music. Wonder if any of the other bands in it were as good as Sebastians!
So as I love going through tangents, I looked up where the name Sebastian comes from to learn:
Sebastian is a masculine given name. It comes from the Latin name Sebastianus meaning ‘from Sebaste’. Sebaste is the name of a town in Asia Minor (present-day Sivas), derived from the Greek word σεβαστός (sebastos), “venerable”, which comes from σέβας (sebas), “awe, reverence, dread”,[ in turn from the verb σέβομαι (sebomai), “feel awe, scruple, be ashamed”. Sebastos was the Greek translation of the title Augustus, which was used for Roman emperors. Sebastian became a widely used name because it was the name of Saint Sebastian, a third century Christian martyr.Saint Sebastian in Ilpendam North-Holland.
Interesting, right? Anyways, aside from what I’ve written above, there seems to be no other information about the band. The CD seems very had to find but who knows, maybe it’s easy to grab one at a record store in Prague still? I haven’t had any lucky finding any of the band members. And even less luck finding any sort of other releases by the band. Listening to this soothing record I start questioning again how the music crowd works, what if Sebastians had been British? I’m sure I’d find their album on ebay or amazon, Im sure they’d be remembered and would have played a reunion gig already. That’s how it is. The way of the world.
If anyone has any more information about the band, or how I can get a copy of their Blue album, please let me know!
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Listen
Sebastians – Am I The One
2 Responses to “:: Sebastians”
well umm…brilliant!!ive been trying to find my album,blue.by my once checa bonton boy band,the sabastans!i was jamming one happy day,down at >the bunker,one of pragas oldest cool chill out cafes slash,lve band underground clubs!with my mate alex.when we stoped playing,there were 3 or 4 young guys crouching and standing,just lstening.they asked me if i would sing backing vocals on there new album release>blue!!they were flipping with my singing,it was a great feeling!so i said ide do it!we arranged a date,i think it was for ,the 9th or 9th of february,and my birthday was on the 13th of feb!so i said,yeh man sure why not,ide just finished touring checaslovacia,selling my 100 9 songed tape debu>lou.and was just off back to amsterdam,as i was and am a traveller,back then i was living and treckng round europe,in my so much so looooved,bella vista,1963 bus!!the fixed date to meet the guys and the rest of the band in praga,was 9 months ahead!!and it was literaly…ill meet you all in the metro,at 7.15am then boys,i will be there!!9 months later alot had gone on and by.yet there i was,standing freezing my fingers off at this metro stop,to record an album?,and there they emrged,with there producer,who was an english guy,so me being of irish decent,found some comon ground on which to catch up!!i sang backing vocals on every track,in this tiny studio in the middle of nowhere.then we reproduced the allmost finished product,at the most famos studio in praga,it recorded most of the greatest classical music in the whole of eastern and western europe!!wow,they were gooooood times man!!i had my name on the album blue,recorded on shiny hallucanagenic pink viynol!and even the cd,s were pink!so thats just some of the history we shared.i allso became an oficial member of the band,going on to perform our debu performance of blue in a praga venue,and our first interview,with the old 80s pop idol,paul king,with his show on MTV.going live in concert with 4 more of the most popular bands in checa!!i would be absolutly exstatic,ff you could pls get back to me!!as ive been trying to find a link as to,how to get my copies of the blue album,from bonton records,for far to long!!!and id just so appreciate if you would get in touch with me!!ok,thats me for now,my batteries about to go!!thanx for youre support!!love,lou.xxxxxxxxx
collin,if youre out there somewhere,out there in cyber space,out there AT ALL?????its me,lou!!you produced our album,blue??remember??we whent on tour when i had that mercedes benz 500!the one that pual king bought some weed from!ha ha,the reason being,i collected docter martin boots,and i had them strung up all over the top of my inside roof by there laces,which the laces i also collected,ha ha..yeh,it was a pretty cool then.and hed come over to see and interview pragas most inovative and in?or hip ha should i say?5 top popular bands!!so we all got to play live at the bunker,and all of us got interviewed in diferent places in the praga old town!yeh hum..god it was all so great and happy and new there back then!there,they were so much sweeter than north western europe!!i remember after that interview from MTV.we were allcram packed into a friends flat like 20 stories up!it was so tiny,wow,but we were so excited man!!all 20 od of us trying to sort out the piece of coat hanger we were using as an antena??!!ha ha!oh it was such a good feeling watching that interview,on a black and white telly!!we felt super famous….any way!collin??are youout there?send me an email,or anything!once again cloudberry,thankyou!my remanising and searching will continue…another day another memory!!big hugs to the guys if there by any chance reading this?!and happy hearts and real smilers to you all.thanks.LOU.xxxxxxxx