Friday! The weekend is here. Not much news this week again, but very soon enough I’ll be announcing a new 7″! Keep your eyes peeled!
What’s new around the world?
Los Bonsáis: this band I love from Asturias, Spain, released a terrific album some weeks ago called “Hinoki” on Elefant Records. They have just released a new promo video, their second, for the song “Septiembre” which I urge you to check out. It is great!
Under Electric Light: it has been a while since I heard from the Quebec, Canada, band. Danny Provencher, the man behind it, has made many many beautiful songs for years that I hope everyone reading this post are already familiar with them. If not, do yourself a favour and check them out. At least start with his latest song, “Drop”, which just appeared out of the blue on Bandcamp. I hope there are more to come.
The Catherines: our friends from Hamburg never stop making songs. They must be among the most prolific bands these days! Their latest is a song called “So Much Time and so Little To Do” which sounds lovely. As it is usual the lyrics are also on Bandcamp if your thing is to sing along and this time around they’ve also added guitar chords if you want to play the song yourself too!
Fightmilk: the first album by this London band was released last October. I’m checking it out only now as I had never heard about them before. They make jangly punky pop and there are 10 songs included in this debut called “The Attitude” which is available on CD and 12″ vinyl.
Goodnight Moonlight: Coaster Records from Rotterdam in the Netherlands have just released a 6-track mini-album called “Better Person” by this band. The lo-fi bedroom popsongs included are quite lovely, especially the opening track “Summertime pt. 2”. I’m quite curious about the popscene in the Netherlands. Is it a happening one?
—————————————————————–
After a long time hoping to have their records, I treated myself for Christmas to the two 12″s Frisco Jenny released. Now I’m missing their 4 7″s, but I’ll try to do that in the coming months. Spanish postage prices are not friendly, just as like the US.
So I’m looking at Discogs, at the Basque band Frisco Jenny, checking what I will have and what I don’t from their discography. I know then that I have ordered their first release, a mini-album called “Rueda Ardiendo” that was released in 1989 by Gasa (3GA-0368). This record, with it’s lovely floral artwork, had three songs on each side, “El Tren de Fez”, “Pájaros en mi Cabeza” and “Envenenados” on the A side, and “Besos en el Huracán”, “¿No Me Dejas?” and “Juegos del Acantilado” on the B side. This record was produced by a household name of Spain music, Mikel Erentxun, now a solo musician but back in the 80s the driving force of Duncan Dhu, a band that started small and became well known, not only in Spain but in Latin America too.
Something that surprises anyone when checking the credits is that you see the name Juan Eguia for accordion, banjo, bass, guitar, harmonica, piano and vocals. He played everything almost! Izaskun Larruskain also sang though!
In 1990 the band released the “El Tren to Fez” 7″ to promote the mini-album. It came out again in Gasa (1GA-0368/1) and included two songs from the mini-album, “El Tren de Fez” on the A side and “Juegos del Acantilado” on the B side. It was again produced by Mikel Erentxun and all songs are credited to Juan Eguia.
Two other songs that were on the mini-album were included in their next single. “Besos en el Huracán” on the A side and “Envenenados” on the flipside, came out on Gasa (1GA-0368/2).
1991 would see the light of their full-length album and two singles to promote it. The album “El Dolor del Escorpión”, like all their records, was released by Gasa (4GA-0428). Mikel Erentxun produced all 10 songs. The A side had “Mensaje en el Contestador”, “Tu me Enseñaste”, “Escarcha”, “Nieve en Méjico”, and “Tras un Viaje”. The B side included “No Tendrás mi Corazón”, “La Balada de Dean Moriarty”, “Vas a Brillar”, “Viejo como Tu” and “Exilio”.
The 7″s to promote it were, “Tu Me Enseñaste” (1G-04282) with the same song on the flipside (was it a remix or something?) and “Mensaje en el Contestador”/”Escarcha” (1G04281).
The only compilation appearance listed is a 1997 compilation called “Discos Radioactivos Organziados 15 Años” that came out alongside the Zona de Obras magazine 10th volume. On it the band contributes the song “Tu me Engañaste”. On this compilation we see many important names like Aventuras de Kirlian, Fangoria, Aerolíneas Federales and more.
I looked at any other band connections for Juan Eguia on Discogs. I can only see him working with Mikel Erentxun in several of his solo albums, even writing songs for Mikel.
I find a 1990 article in the Spanish newspaper El País. Dated August 18th of that year, they talk about Mikel Erentxun. It is mentioned that he was helping and supporting Frisco Jenny and also another band Los Ojos de Carmen, which I should check out.
I do find another band that Juan Eguia was involved with. Thanks to the Diario Vasco, a Basque country paper, I find a mention of the band Les Enfants Terribles. Juan sang and played guitars in this band that has played at the Contempopranea and Lemon Pop festivals in the 2000s.
Then a fantastic find, a blog called Andoaingo Jubilatuak has a post of Frisco Jenny! Here there is some pretty good information and details about the band. It seems it all started in the mid 80s when two brothers Juan and Iñigo Eguia formed in Donosty the band La Debacle. Afterwards Juanjo from Tolosa and Kepa from Billabona joined them to form the band El Año Gira. This band recorded a demo.This band didn’t last that long though I would love to hear their recordings. Juan continued making music, now on his own until he meets Izaskun. With her Frisco Jenny was born. On that mini-album they had other musicians helping them like Luis Camino from the band 21 Japonesas and Monica Redondo playing violin, or even Mikel Erentxun doing backing vocals. The album was recorded in 6 days during October of 1989. The technician was an Englishman called Jim Abbis and the recording studio was called Tsunami. The art is credited to Leire Erentxun. It mentions that at that time Juan Eguia was into bands like That Petrol Emotion or The Go-Betweens.
Juan wanted to play live so he recruits Jon Izeta from 23 Ojos de Pez and Alex Zulaika from Sanchis y Jocano for the live band.
It is also worth mentioning that the band took their name from a 1932 movie: Frisco Jenny is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film starring Ruth Chatterton and Louis Calhern, and directed by William A. Wellman.
Not much more written about them. It is sad if you think about it. They produced so many great songs and the band is not a well-known name in Spain. I totally recommend these two albums, full of guitars and lovely melodies. I’m sure, as there are many Spanish readers of the blog, that some of you might remember them?!
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
