Day 343. Verandan 7″s are at home and I am terribly happy! These are the moments that are totally worth having a label… it is like Christmas!
The Pleasures Pale: remember that we did a wonderful interview with the Dayton, Ohio, 80s band? Well there are good news! Their self-titled album has been remastered and is now available on a deluxe edition CD! So run and get it! You won’t regret it. 12 great jangle songs including classics like “No, Joy” or “My Town has no Cafés”. It also looks like they have 11 copies of the original vinyl pressing. Again, run!
Biarritz: we head to Murcia, Spain, to discover the 7-song mini-album by this project. Titled “De Paseo”, the mini-album is only available digitally. The sound reminds us of the first decade of this century, where Spanish pop, with bright jangly guitars and female vocals was a thing. It does have a nostalgic feel to hear these songs. It brings a big smile to me.
Sonia Gadhia: new song by this artist written and produced by the fine Castlebeat. The label is Spirit Goth. I have to admit I don’t know much about this scene. I do know though that “Be Mine” is a very nice slice of pop. Simple but well done. Dreamy.
Flu Flu: Shore Drive Records from Brighton has now released the mini-album “Mi Mundo Interior” by the Seville band Flu Flu! It is out now on CD and seems that very few copies are left. The band is formed by Fran Lora, Cristina Mohe, Javi Vass and Carlos Díaz, and here, they have 6 terrific songs, some in English and some in Spanish.
Fritz: and let’s end this roundup with the amazing album “Pastel” from the Newcastle, Australia, band. 9 songs which you can ore-order now. I don’t know much more other than the title song is available to stream. It is really really good song, lots of fun. I will definitely want this in my collection.
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Jonas Johnsson was Thehelpmeplease, a Swedish bedroom pop band from the 2000s.
I still recall those days with nostalgia. Even though I would visit Sweden in 2008, and already past the time when the scene was booming, I still have the best of memories of those days. So many creative people releasing records and playing in bands. Those years were amazing and every single day that passes I regret not being able to do a 2nd volume of the “Sound o Starke Adolf” compilations. Maybe one day I will be able to retake that project…
Anyways, Thehelpmeplease. I discovered them around 2004. It was the days of Soulseek and all indiepop kids from Sweden were there. They were sharing lots of great music. There was a cool CDR label called Bedroom Records then and they were the ones that released the first EP by Jonas, it was called “Buzzing like Bumblebees on Speed”. The catalog number was BED004, yeah, an early release in the label.
This EP had four songs, “Buzzing like Bumblebees on Speed”, “Rupert Murdoch”, “Son of a Gun” and “Someone Special”. “Sun of a Gun” was a cover of the classic song by The Vaselines. All songs had been recorded that same year, during autumn, at Jonas’ home. The photo on the front cover, who I assume is Jonas, was taken by Terése Wikström.
In 2005 he would release another CDR. This time it would be on the label Snowbeam Records (003), also from Sweden. Three songs recorded at home that year were part of this CDR, “A Little Love”, “She Said” and “Hesitate in Love”. One thing to note is that here the name of the band appears as The Help Me Please.
At that point in time the band had a website. I remember visiting it, but I can’t remember what sort of info was available. Anyone remembers?
In 2005 the band would contribute a few songs to compilations. The song “Bumblebee (Original Falu Version)” was included in the CDR compilation “Cosy Den Goes Lägenhet Ett År” on Cosy Recordings (COSY 001). Then the song “A Little Love” shows up on the great CDR comp “Popkonst, Love & Understanding” released by Popkonst Recordings (POPK12). And lastly, that year, they have “Buzzing Like Bumblebees on Speed” on the CDR comp “Club King Kong: Med Musiken i Mitten Vol. 2 Säsongen 06-07” released by Donkeyboys Records (DNKYBYS002).
In 2007 the band starts working with the label Series Two. They appear in the compilation CDR “Series Two Records Christmas Special” with the track “Hear the Bells Rings”.
The next year, 2008, an album is finally released. It is called “You Still Have Summers” and has 9 songs, “A Little Love”, “Louise Dyer”, “Hesitate in Love”, “Someone Special”, “Buzzing Like Bumblebees on Speed”, “1992”, “She Said”, “Hear the Bells Ring” and “Bumblebee”.
Lastly, in 2009, they have the song “A Little Love” in the compilation “Series Two Compilation Vol. 23”.
A good find on the web is a blogspot page from the band dating from 2005. Here I find some setlists were there are some songs that weren’t included in the records. For example The Vaselines song “Lovecraft” and “No Other One” by Weezer used to be covered by Thehelpmeplease.
On the old Myspace I find a song “Lousy Weekend”. There I find a band, among the top friends, called The Johnsson Colors. I want to guess, because of the last name, that it was another band Jonas was in. Who would know?
I also wonder whereabouts in Sweden were Thehelpmeplease based. There is really no information on the web. A shame.
So yeah, who remembers this great bedroom pop band?
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