Friday then. Exciting. Next week on Wednesday I’m heading to Dublin for 4 days. Please send my way any record store recommendations, I would love to find used records, some cool indiepop from Ireland!
Here are my newest finds for you to enjoy this coming weekend!
Verano del 83: this Trujillo, Peru, band have been featured a couple of times on the blog. They continue making music and from what I understand this video for their song “El Poder del Sol” will be included in their forthcoming album to be released sometime soon. Would be nice to know where was the video filmed. What area in Peru?
Shadow Girls: “Glorius Flowers” EP, part of a series called Singularidades Jabalina, on the Madrid label Jabalina is the new 7″ by the interesting project formed by Jaime from Souvenir and Charlie Mysterio from Los Caramelos. There are four songs, four cover versions, of which I’m sure you’d be mostly interested in listening the Go-Betweens one, a cover of “Bachelor Kisses”.
Happypills: a new single by this Fukuoka, Japan, band called “So Long/Earth” is now available to stream on Bandcamp. It is a pretty upbeat track of bedroom pop, definitely worth checking out!
The Pleasures Pale: I wasn’t aware this Dayton, OH, band was on Bandcamp. I was hoping to write a post about them later on here in the blog. But maybe now I can get in touch with them? I do own an album that a long time Jessel recommended to me. Now I see on Bandcamp a bunch of the songs that appeared on the album available to stream like the terrific “My Town Has No Cafés”! Totally check this out!
Yawyaw: and lastly here are two catchy songs from yet another Indonesian band! “When I’m Relax” and “Kiss” were released on CDR by Supercrush Records and these are already sold out!! Shame! I would have loved a copy!
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“Book-em Danno”, from the tv police drama Hawaii Five-O, the signature expression uttered by the character of Steve McGarrett (played by Jack Lord) to sidekick Danny Williams (played by James MacArthur), usually at the end of each episode when the criminals had been apprehended.
My first encounter with this wonderful band was where else but through the Sound of Leamington Spa series. Their song “BJs” had appeared on the 6th volume of the series that was released by Firestation Records in 2009. It was a fantastic song.
But for me the big mystery has been if the 12″ released by the Splinter Group label by the band Book’em Danno was the same band. Discogs would tell you it is. But I have my doubts. Especially because on the liner notes of the Firestation compilation there is no mention whatsoever of this record. This is what it says:
Shirts from Oxfam! Pop music from heaven! This was how one person described “Bookendanno”. Formed more by accident than grand design, after the collapse and demise of two local pop outfits, Ink and Yootha Joyce. The core players from both bands combined to form the nucleus of Bookemdanno. The band initially decamped to a dark rehearsal room with a pen, some paper, a bottle of died lemonade and some fruit. From here the plan was hatched to loose any style in terms of a sense of fashion. The band uniform became Hawaiian shirts. Then onto constructing pop songs with a strong hook line and memorable melodies. Tie all this together with a fierce reputation for live performances and you have the essence of the band. The bonus ball would have been for the world to accede to the bands agenda on the all-conquering power of original pop music. After several blistering live outings the logical decision was made to record an album. The end result of the sessions held at shipwreck studios was “For Nobody But Ourselves”, an album that caugth the bands unique ability to craft melodies and tunes into grandiose statements on life, love and happiness. The album included Castro, BJ’s and Shattered Smile which were complimented by a wealth of top quality pop humdingers. The album was to be the band only recording as a unit. Amidst allegations of rumour of deceit, deception and also, a nominal notion he world wouldn’t listen, the band imploded. Which was a shame, really. A couple of the songs live on via roomthirteen, which was borne out of the ashes of the Bookemdanno fiasco. BJ’s and Shattered Smile being regular staples of the roomthirteen live set.
Bookemdanno were: John Done (vocals guitar), Paul Geraghty (drums), Alan Slack (bass guitar), Brian Mitchell (vocals), Phil Stock (mandolin), Derek Goodwin (keyboards), Paul Walster (sometimes lead guitar sometime bass guitar), Alan Dornan (deputy guitarist).
There is a mention of an album, but not at all of a 12″. And I believe this album was never properly released. So if they had a 12″ EP released they would have for sure mentioned it. Right? What do you think?
I will then not count, not dedicate any lines, to this 12″ until I’m proven wrong. I’ll try to find out what happened to Bookemdanno.
The Firestation liner notes did include a link to a Myspace for the band roomthirteen. I suppose I will start there. But of course it was 2009 when it was released, so Myspace was working and you could stream songs and all. Now it is useless. But you can check it out if you like.
But that’s not all about roomthirteen. They do have a Facebook page where a little bio for John Done and Brian Mitchell are available. It says:
John Done (guitar and vocals) has an extraordinary voice that almost defines the roomthirteen sound. John previous incarnations include front-man with Suburban Daze and Ink. John also joined local pop outfit Yootha Joyce where a long term fraternal relationship was cemented with Mitchell. John also shared lead vocal responsibilities in the band bookemdanno.
Brian Mitchell (guitar and vocals) was lead singer with Tameside band, Yootha Joyce. With demise of Yootha he joined Done in Ink on backing vocals. Mitchell shared lead vocal responsibility in bookemdanno. Mitchell also is lyricist, along with Done, creating original and thought provoking words for the vast number of songs in their portfolio.
But there is a trove, a treasure, on SoundCloud. John Done, the vocalist and guitarist, has uploaded 8 songs by Bookemdanno! They were uploaded 7 years ago, and I’m not sure if the 8 were part of the album, if it was the whole album, or what. I do know though that you can stream “Flowers”, “Shattered Smile”, “Strange”, “Faces”, “Castro”, “BJs”, “Burst” and “Alice”. Not only that, you can check some of his other projects like INK and Suburban Daze. This is great, I’ve spend listening to these songs for hours today.
Another band member, Paul Walster, has a website. It is not that easy to navigate. It seems he is now based in Glossop. And here I could find something interesting, that Bookemdanno had a song called “Bookemdanno”.
Then Derek Goodwin, keyboardist, also has a SoundCloud page with his own recordings as well as Bookemdanno songs. I find the same songs as on John’s, meaning “Burst”, “Shattered Smile”, “Strange”, “Alice” and “Faces”. They were also uploaded 7 years ago.
I couldn’t find any more information about the band. I do know they hailed from Manchester. Exactly where in Manchester I don’t know. It is interesting that I could find many songs to listen on the web. But there is barely any information about them. You usually find a mention of a gig or two, headlining or supporting, but I couldn’t find any of that. It is not 100% clear who were the ones that put out that 12″ that many collectors want. It is even less clear if the album Bookemdanno recorded was ever released in any format.
I would love to know more about them. I wonder, do you remember them?
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Listen
Bookemdanno – BJs
