Day 39. Finally the sleeves for the CD that comes with the fanzine arrived late on Friday. Now I will be able to post all your orders this week. It is very exciting. Honestly, being stuck at home, I needed good news like this one. I really hope you all like them.
Now I did find some interesting new things to share with you this past weekend.
The Catherines: “Bingo!”, that’s the name of the new album by the German duo of Heiko and Sandra from Hamburg. This new album is out now on CD and cassette through their Bandcamp and it includes 10 lovely jingle jangle pop songs with long and smart song titles!
The Chills: you need Facebook to see this one. This is the lost video clip for the classic song from 1982 “Rolling Moon”! The story says that the video was deemed too dark for use and then the film was lost. Only to be discovered 30 years! Amazing story really, terrific video and legendary song!
Skytone: another duo, this one hailing from Ottawa and formed by Rodney and Darius Doddridge. They have a new poppy and dreamy song called “Without You”. That’s all. But it is quite good!
Juliper Sky: a new digital single by this very good Manchester combo is out now on Bandcamp. It is called “Infinite Jets” and it shimmers. Not much more info I can add to it. I could hope that the band is working on an album and that this song will be included. But those are just my wishes.
Dreams of Empire: the London/Brighton indiepop band is back with two new songs, their first after their 2019 debut album “Nothing’s Ever Finished”. These new songs are “Broken Keys” and “Lying Awake” and are as good as the ones in the album. Let’s hope for more to come!
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Super 8, from Badajoz, Spain. I remember them as if it was yesterday. But it isn’t. They were around in the late 90s and early 2000s. And today they seem to be forgotten. I couldn’t even find their records on Discogs. Strange.
They took their name from Los Planetas’ first album. Los Planetas being perhaps the most succesful indie band of Spain of the 90s and beyond. But their sound wasn’t really much influenced by Los Planetas. Today, rediscovering their music, listening for example the track “Lluvia Helada” I feel them closer to La Buena Vida even.
The band was formed by Carmen Estévez on vocals, Alfonso Villalobos on guitar, Carlos Aragonés on guitar, Juan Carlos Nacarino on bass and Antonio Carretero on drums. They hailed from the town of Montijo and before being in Super 8, Antonio, Carlos and Juan Pablo were in a sort of sixties band.
They start to gain some notoriety with their first demo, “Fotogramas”, from 1999. This demo ended up being a finalist in a demo contest organized by the festival Zorrock. Thanks to that the Spanish Radio3 starts playing their songs, especially the song “Lluvia Helada”. The other songs on this demo were “Asfixiante”, “Nada”, “Tu Lado y el Mío” and “Fotogramas”. This demo would be recorded by Dr. Ecce Homo at their practice space.
They would travel to Barcelona and be part of other contests, winning the one organized by Rockdelux in Barcelona for the BAM festival. Thanks to that they won a contact with RCA to record an album.
This album started to be recorded at the end of the year 2000, in the Madrid studios Sonoland. RCA stops supporting them in the meantime and lets them know they can sign to any other label they want. The band decides to stay with RCA and get Fino Oyarte to produce them. Fino had been the drummer of the classic band Los Enemigos. These recordings would end up making the album “Guía Para Oler Colores” that would be released in 2001.
This album included the following tracks, “All Despertar”, “Tu Habitación”, “Asfixiante”, “Lluvia Helada”, “La Bahía”, “Pasaje Sideral”, “Cosas Que Nunca te Dije”, “Olalla”, “Abril”, “Asteroide 8612”, “Nada” and “Fotogramas”.
The pressing was of 3000 copies and it barely gets promoted. Just Julio Ruiz and Jesús Ordovás would in their radio shows. The band naturally is disappointed and in 2002 they split.
Carmen would en up moving to Madrid to study percussion at the Escuela Superior de Música Creativa and later to New York where it seems she has a flamenco trio called Flamenkina. Is she still here in the city? Maybe, the latest I found about her is that she was making music in a duo called CaneliBeat a few months ago. The other band members would continue making music first as Panorama 73 and then as Panorama. Antonio Carretero has also played in other bands like Repicantes, The Six Machine, Cajón de Sastre and Bloco Dum Dum.
It is also worth mentioning some other highlights of the band. For example they played twice the festival Contempopránea and recorded a session for Diario Pop. I would love to listen to that session. Is that available somewhere? Other gigs include many in Extremadura, Valladolid, Basauri, Gijón, Madrid (at the famous Sala Maravillas), Barcelona, Tarragona, at the WOMAD 2000 in Cáceres, and the BAM festival.
There is live footage of the track “Lluvia Helada” being played at the Contempopránea festival in 2000. Then at the Nasti Club in Madrid, we find two videos, one for “Lluvia Helada” and another for “La Bahía“.
Something really cool I found on the web is a video from 2001 in Vimeo that is sort of a small documentary of their town, Montijo. On it the band appears and is interviewed too! Really really cool! And then a bigger surprise, a news video by Canal Extremadura for their show “Nada Corriente” This video interviews Carmen in New York.
Quite a bit of information, right? I am sure there are even more things written about Panorama. But that’s another story for another day. Any other info about the band would be great. Like say are there any unreleased tracks? That I’ll like to know!
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Listen
Super 8 – Lluvia Helada
