Tomorrow I should be getting the Okama Flannel Boy inserts so on Friday I’ll start mailing every pre-order! I’m very very excited 🙂 That’s all I have in mind now! And of course when you receive the record, on the insert, you’ll notice that our next 7″ is announced there! What is it? I’ll announce it on the blog next week!
Now, onto some nice indiepop finds:
Bodega Sisters: I think this is the third time I mention this Swedish band on the blog. I’ve been following their music as it is one of the most interesting and enigmatic bands I’ve found in the past few months. Their latest song is called “Footnote/Static” and it has been included in a compilation called “Breakfast #3” released by Breakfast Records from the UK. Great stuff!
Coming Up Roses: a new dreampop band from Singapore that I found through the Facebook of Singapore’s one and only Vernon, the indiepop master. The band formed by Emily, Darius, Bruce and Lorenzo was formed in 2016 as a duo but last year they expanded into this full lineup. Now, in full force, they have recorded a few demo, being “Sky” truly lovely. Looking forward to their next recordings, see how they evolve.
Sky Faction: the Oakland/San Francisco band is back with two songs, “Cyber Lover” and “Farmer Joe’s”, and one starts to wonder how are they not much more known around. All of the songs on Bandcamp are terrific, very much influenced by the female led indiepop bands from the late 90s. Hoping these songs get a physical release soon!
The Catherines: I feel every time there is a new The Catherines song, which is quite often, I’m recommending them. The band makes my job easy when it comes to finding new music. And I’m not complaining, because normally their songs are great. Last week they released a new song on their Bandcamp, “I Was Struggling With Your Magic Biscuit Tin”. There is also an uncut version of the song that lasts 40 seconds more.
The Reds, Pinks & Purples: Glenn Donaldson has been in a few bands in San Francisco like Skygreen Leopards or the Art Museums. Under The Red, Pinks & Purples he has uploaded 7 demos to Bandcamp. They are lo-fi indeed, almost bare bones, but they are a wave of fresh air. What is nice though is that there will be some studio version of these songs sometime soon. Let’s keep an eye open.
————————————————————————————-
I was thinking about a Spanish band I used to love back in the day, in the mid 2000s. They were called Nobel and I really didn’t know much about them. I knew they were a girl group that made upbeat catchy pop music. That their songs were sweet, and you could probably categorize them as a tweepop band. I have one album and I had uploaded a video to Youtube. I can’t remember where I got it from. It was a live performance of the band at the 17th Pop Rock Villa in Bilbao where they are performing the song “Dónde Estará?“. I don’t remember having the rest of the gig on video. Just this song. But where did I get it from? I can’t remember!
The album I have is the one called “En el Corazón” that was released by the fine Spanish label Discos de Paseo (DP002) in 2005. The label doesn’t have any information about the band on their website. I wonder why. Maybe they sold out the CDs and there is no point for it? They do have information about their other bands. This album is a lovely sugar rush of popsongs. The opening track, “Menú Para Dos” was always a favourite of mine. Then there is “Sueño”, “En el Corazón”, “Un Nuevo Hogar”, “Levanta Tío”, “Esos Que Se Van”, “Dónde Estará?” and “El Mundo al Revés”. It is worth mentioning that “Levanta tío” is a cover version of “Wake Up!” by The Boo Radleys. There is a secret track at the end of the record, the cover of “Canción de los Electroduendes”, which is a song that was part of the 80s Spanish kids show “La Bola de Cristal”. The album was recorded in July 2004 at the Twobascos studios. It was mixed and mastered at Sweet Soul Music in March 2005.
This CD is listed on Discogs but doesn’t have much information about it. Aside from it, only two compilation appearances are also on this website. The first, a 2003 double CD called “Le Touriste Rebusca en el Desván de la Nueva Ola” where the band contributes the secret track from the album, “Canción de los Electroduendes”. This compilation was released by Ventilador Music (CDM 031) and included a bunch of classic bands from the period like Zola, Souvenir or Cola Jet Set, all of them covering songs from the 80s.
Then in 2005 they appear on a promo CD compilation called “Contamporánea – 10 Años Pop (Concurso Grupo Revelación)”. I believe all of the bands here were part of that year new band contest at the Contempopránea festival. We see some fantastic bands like Garzón, Verano en Lisboa, Tecnicolor and even our friend Zipper. Nobel appears on this record with the song “En el Corazón”.
That hasn’t really told me much about the band. So I am going to do some detective work on the web. As they were around in the WWW era I’m sure I will stumble upon some worthy details. The first hit for me is the website Pop Thing where there is a short interview with César Prieto, who runs Discos de Paseo, the label who released Nobel’s debut album. This article dates from 2005. There César mentions that Nobel was a band that was based in the Basque country, in Bilbao specifically. Is it the first Bilbao band to be featured on the blog? Perhaps. What I do know is that I would really love to visit this city in the near future!
Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the province of Biscay and in the Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the tenth largest city in Spain, with a population of 345,141 as of 2015. The Bilbao metropolitan area has roughly 1 million inhabitants, making it one of the most populous metropolitan areas in northern Spain. After its foundation in the early 14th century by Diego López V de Haro, head of the powerful Haro family, Bilbao was a commercial hub of the Basque Country that enjoyed significant importance in Green Spain. This was due to its port activity based on the export of iron extracted from the Biscayan quarries. Throughout the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, Bilbao experienced heavy industrialisation, making it the centre of the second-most industrialised region of Spain, behind Barcelona.[10][11] At the same time an extraordinary population explosion prompted the annexation of several adjacent municipalities. Nowadays, Bilbao is a vigorous service city that is experiencing an ongoing social, economic, and aesthetic revitalisation process, started by the iconic Bilbao Guggenheim Museum, and continued by infrastructure investments, such as the airport terminal, the rapid transit system, the tram line, the Alhóndiga, and the currently under development Abandoibarra and Zorrozaurre renewal projects. Bilbao is also home to football club Athletic Club de Bilbao, a significant symbol for Basque nationalism due to its promotion of Basque players and one of the most successful clubs in Spanish football history.
From this small article we also get to know that César used to do the Le Touriste fanzine, the same that had put out that compilation called “Le Touriste Rebusca en el Desván de la Nueva Ola” where Nobel also appeared. Was it the first time the band and César got in touch? Was it the seed for their working relationship? But most importantly I find out the names of the band members: Eriet, Iratxe, Noemi and Begoña.
Then I stumble upon an old Myspace. The band had a bunch of songs one could stream in the past, “Qué Tonta Soy!”, “En el Corazón”, “Contenta”, “Pequeña”, and “Comunicando”. Seeing some songs not on the album awakes my memory of some demo CDRs the band had released previously and that I use to listen a lot on MP3. I wonder why I didn’t try to get their CDRs or get in touch with the band. I used to do that quite a bit on Myspace back in the day, trying to get copies of these rare DIY CDRs.
Having said that, and because they are not listed on Discogs, I went to look for info about them. There is a blog called “Solo Maquetas” that has information about two of their demos, “Disciplina Inglesa” from 2001 and “Esos Que Se Van” from 2003. This blog though, says that the band weren’t exactly from Bilbao proper, but from a town that is part of the metropolitan area. A town called Portugalete. A town that celebrates the San Roque festivals. Well, I should like that, right? Also this town has the Vizcaya Bridge, a transporter bridge that was declared a World Heritage Site in 2006.
The first demo had five songs: “Menú Para Dos”, “Una Noche en Marrakech”, “Condena a Plazos”, “Acento Oriental” and “Carolina”. “Carolina” being a cover version of Formula V. The second one just three songs, “Esos Que Se Van”, “Pensamientos de un Viaje” and “Dónde Estará”. The first demo has no information on the whereabouts it was recorded, but the second one was recorded by Alfredo Ledesma and Gorka Esczuriana at the Katxy Producciones studio in Logroño in June 2003.
The blog also offers a bunch of interesting bits and bobs about Nobel. The band formed in the year 2000 as a five-piece formed by Bego on vocals and guitars, Eriet on bass, Iratxe on vocals and guitar, Jose on drums and Noemi on vocals, handclaps and violin. They were part of the 24th anniversary party of the radio show Flor de Pasión, playing live at the Siroco venue in Madrid on March 24th, 2003. Their 2nd demo, “Esos Que Se Van”, would be voted 4th best demo on the Toxicosmos radio programme and 5th on the Disco Grande show in 2003. That same year they would play many festivals like NovaPop or Parrilla Rock and all around Spain. They are said to have recorded a cover version of Los Nikis. Which one was it?
After the release of the album “En el Corazón” the band lineup changed. Iratxe and Noemi continue in the band but Itsaxo joins to play bass and Larry on drums. With this lineup the band plays more concerts and festivals like the Easy Pop Weekend, PlastidePop, HegoPop, Anciles Directo and many Flor de Pasión parties and Contempopránea gigs. And here is the big piece of information that caught me by surprise. The band released a 2nd album in 2007! I had no clue about it. I guess it didn’t get much promotion or something? I don’t know. I never heard about it.
Their second album was called “Cada Momento es el Mejor” and was released in 2007 by Gasoil Records. I am going to have to find out more about it.
The Gasoil website has the CD still for sale at a very good price, 2.31 euros. I will order a copy of course! I wonder how these songs sound like, if similar to the first album or not. It is a much longer album it seems. At least there were more songs. 14 in total. The were: “Comunicando”, “Cada Momento es el Mejor”, “Pequeña”, “Siempre te Quise”, “Loca, Loca!”, “No Se”, “Tus Fantasías”, “Imaginación”, “Sábado”, “Así se Recompone”, “Si Tú Te Vas”, “Un Mundo Perfecto”, “Estoy Mejor Sin Ti” and an untitled hidden track. They had some release parties at the FNAC of Bilbao and Donosti.
I found an article about this last album on a blog called La Suerte del Perdedor. Here they review the record and compares the band to classic Spanish outfits like Los Fresones Rebeldes or the Undershakers. But they mention a promotional CD called “Vuelve” which I have no clue about.
I find some information about it on the website of El Planeta Amarillo, our friend Rafa Skam’s paper and online fanzine. Herehe mentions that this “Vuelve” CD single was released in 2007. It was self-released and was a preview of the album they were working on, “Cada Momento es el Mejor”. The CD included 4 songs, sadly Rafa doesn’t specify which songs, but he does say that one of them is a cover version of Vainica Doble’s “Habaneras del Primer Amor”.
El Planeta Amarillo also has a concert listed for Nobel, supporting Vacaciones and Naif at the Siroco venue in Madrid sometime in 2005. Then the same website has an interview with the band. Maybe I’ll learn more about them by reading it! Let’s see!
- The name has nothing to do with the Nobel prize. It is actually an acronym of the names of the band members, NOemi, BEgoña…
- When they played live they used to do, aside from the Boo Radleys and the Electroduendes ones, covers of “Canto en Inglés” by Los Nikis and “Si Tú Te Vas” by Los Flechazos
- There were no like-minded bands in Portugalete 🙁
This is not the only interview I was going to find. Another website, called La Furgoneta Azul, interviews them as well. What other details can we get from this one?
- They had played the NovaPop festival in Ceuta
- They had also played an acoustic set at the Jungla Sonora of Radio Euskadi
Lastly another blog called Euskal Musika has a 2013 interview, possibly the newest I’ve found on the web. Must be the last piece of news about Nobel on the web. This interview clears up a few doubts I had, and adds quite a lot of interesting information:
- The band has had a few drummers, Jose, Lander, Igor and Larry
- Nobel started writing songs in 1999 but the band properly started in 2001
- Itxaso has been involved in the folk band Eztauz, Larry has played drums in Playskull and is part of the percussion group Tarumba
As I said that was the last piece of news I could find about Nobel. I suppose the band is no more. Whatever happened to them? It feels they try to succeed for many years, in a small way of course. But for a reason or another their name sadly didn’t become a household name as other similar bands in Spain. Did the band members continue making music up to this day? Had they been in other bands? Are there are any other recordings? It would definitely be interesting to find out more. I loved their music back in the day and playing these songs again after so many years has been a lovely walk down memory lane. They were great!
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Listen
Nobel – Menú Para Dos
