Day 97.

So as I told everyone in a previous post the first demo tape of the Macguffins was found. We wanted to include these songs on the CD but they wouldn’t fit. So we decided to make some 3″CDs (as the ones we do at Cloudberry since the start of the label) with the songs from that first demo. These 3″CDs will be limited though, so when the pre-order button is up I’ll remind everyone so you don’t miss these 3 great songs!

Now the music.

Thibault: I don’t know if I like or not this track called “Centrelink” by Thibault. I think I do, but it is a bit different. It is pop. It is indiepop. It has very particular vocals. High-pitched. The instrumentation is great. I think I just need to listen to it over and over to get used to it. This song will be released on a 7″ on Australia’s Chapter Music on September 4th.

Valentina Way: this 60s sounding London band does sound great. They have three songs up on their Souncloud: “Julia Misbehaves (Nancy lead vocal – extended)”, “Julia Misbehaves” and “Sebastian” and they are a treat to my ears. I hope this gets released soon, this is the kind of 60s influenced music that I like, much better than the many 60s influenced pop Elefant has been releasing the past decade (with the exception of the superb The School). Please Elefant, look here.

NewCastle: a band from Piriápolis, Uruguay. That is a first for sure! Their latest song is called “Skates” and it is quite a fun track. There is not much info about them, but the band members go under the enigmatic names Marseille, Newcastle, Zaragoza and Berlin, sort of like the Money Heist series!

Je Suis Animal: my Norwegian friends are not back. No, the news are not that great. BUT they have uploaded to Bandcamp 3 songs. One of them being the one that came out in the 7″ we released, “Painted in My Face”, and also a demo version of their classic “Sparkle Spit” and an unreleased track called “Forglemmegel”.

Secret Shine: and this one is a good one by the legendary Bristol band. It is a new song called “Ember” and it is terrific. When was the last time I saw them live? Was it at Indietracks? Then it has been many years now. Or was it in NYC? I think it must have been NYC. In any case I miss the idea of being able to travel or see them at home. And I hope they release a record soon too!

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I remember playing Hanky and Panky’s “He’s the Queen” quite a lot back in the mid 2000s. I never got round to get a copy of the CD though, it was the days of Soulseek and I played just the MP3s. Today on a nostalgia trip I went to look for a copy on Discogs and noticed it has never been sold there. Ever. Surprising!

According to Discogs the band only put out one release, the “He’s the Queen” album. I kind of remember seeing demos and more tracks online. But my memory is fuzzy. Maybe I’ll find something online. Maybe someone remembers. The one thing I remember about them were the vocals. They were quite something. Female but kid-like, very particular. Kind of the UK band Screeming Custard!

The album I mentioned was released in 2005 by the label Mechanismo Records (MEC001). It looks as it was the only release the label put out, so it might be the band’s own label, a self-release. The front sleeve has a little girl photo playing drums. It had 9 songs total, “Kindergarten”, “Hurray!”, “Traffic”, “Love You”, “Superhero Jake”, “Ha Ha Ha Ha!”, “Slowmotion Dance”, “Simulator” and “Dance and Sing”.

They did appear on a few compilations. Most notably on two Labrador Records ones. The first was in 2004, in “The Sound of Young Sweden Volume 4” (LAB065). On these series of compilations that discovered new bands from Sweden the band appeared with two songs, “Hurray!” and “Ha Ha Ha Ha!” alongside other very fine bands like Caroline Soul, The Sorayas or South Ambulance. Then in 2007 when Labrador released its 100th release, the “A Complete History of Popular Music” boxset (LAB100) they would include the song “Hurray!” in the 3rd CD.

“Hurray!” would also be included in a 2005 compilation called “Pophopp 2005” that was released by the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter alongside their Friday supplement På Stan. Here I find a little clue, the song is credited to a F. Ewaldsson.

Thanks to that I find the band on Popfakta. Here the album is listed as a demo CD and we get the names of the band members:
Fredrik Ewaldsson on guitar
Carolina Ewaldsson on vocals
Erik Aspegren on drums

Then Fredrik is credited for engineering and producing. Mastering is credited to Philip Granquist while the photograph was taken by Morten Monnike-Hald.

They don’t seem to have been in other bands. The only other thing I found on the web was a very positive review on a blog called Livet ät Hårt.

Then it seems the band disappeared into thin air. Did they play live at all? Where they in any other bands? I do find a Fredrik Ewaldsson that makes music though it seems to be playing piano. Is it the same Fredrik? Who’d know?

Whatever happened to Hanky and Panky?!

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Listen
Hanky and Panky – Simulator