“Amsterdam” was heavily rotated on my Killed By Death Radio station when it was up and running. I heard the song for the first time in 2003 and was shocked I hadn’t heard anyhing about it earlier since it’s one of the best powerpop/punk songs from Sweden ever. The site from where I bought it and read some info I was told it was a one man project: Joakim Hermelin – Amsterdam 7inch and where from Vadstena.
I have to stand corrected on this one cause it’s a band named Etiquette Mona and they where from a shit hole 40km away from where I lived: Motala. Hermelin(the man behind the songs) and one of his former band mate have reunited: Landlord. Plain white sleeve but comes with a lyric sheet.
Country: Sweden
Year: 1980
Label: Fil
Format: 7″
Songs:
Amsterdam.mp3
Jag vill ha en amazon.mp3
I love this specialy the B side. I think I got an mp3 of the demo version somewhere. I used to own this record And when I got it, the guy I bought it from told me aswell that it was Joakim Hermelins solo project and that the band was from Vadstena. I guess it’s a conflict between Motala and Vadstena. Both city’s wanting the hounor, ha ha
One of the members is a teacher. I went to the school where he worked. I talked to him about this single but he never told me that he was in the band. Strange guy.
more songs here but they are not as good: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=284910
Yeah, strange cause in the link I’ve posted there’s a talk about favourite spot and that’s Vadstena.
strange… I Think Joakim hermelin as me grow up in Vadstena but moved to Motala.
By the way you should try this song I wrote about their favourite spot. http://www.garbagedump.se/Garbagedump-intesomnidemo.mp3
Thanks for the listen Johan :)!
As far as I remember they were just a pop/rockband with no connections to the punkscene whatsoever. So called “FritidsgÃ¥rdsrock”. But I might remember wrong.
Apperantly they where influenced by a lot of punkbands. And they did releasee their 7″ by themself. That makes it punk rock in my book. And look at the label! A guy with a moustach. Alot more punk then Anti-Cimex. So your memorie serves you wrong here Strutchopper.
There were tons of bands at the time who put out their own records. Some were punkbands and some were more influed the the swedish progressive movement. If you check out the other songs on their home page you’ll see that they sound more or less like regular bluesrock. Which was the most common style among those bands. Since the situation in the Swedish musical climate was very different at that time, compared to most other countries, I wouldn’t say it’s that simple to call all bands who put out their own records punkbands.
i dont know a damn thing about this band…( i grew up in california…) but after further listening, i can tell you that i really like this record…
Strutchopper, thanks for your input. I call Etiquette Mona punk rock cause that is what it sounds to me. The other songs may be a little more rock/pop oriented like yearly Docent Dod but who cares?
I haven’t listened to Magnum Bonum and similar bands since the late 70’s. I presume that a lot of that stuff sounds like punk/powerpop today. Hell…. even some poorly recorded hard rock bands from the 70’s sounds like punkrock (which they didn’t do back then). For some reason a lot of old stuff sounds like punkrock when listened to today.
I wish I could experience the feeling that some old stuff could sound punk to me today but it dosen’t. This sounds punk to me both in the playing and in the attitude. Our view differs. But when I listen to Nasty Boys today they sound like soft pop.
That’s because it is pretty poppy ;-)
;)
I agree this record sounds like a more up-beat Docent Dod. I don’t know if I agree about the attitude though. One song about sitting at a café in Amsterdam and the other about the pleasure of owning an old Volvo. My initial input was regarding the band in general, not the record itself. I remember not buying the record back then because I didn’t like it.
Writing songs about whatever you feel like: sitting at a café in Amsterdam or owning an old Volvo that is so punk it can be. I wish I discovered this back then cause I would’ve loved it as much as I do now.
Jag trivs bäst i öppna landskap….. tralalala :-)
…mitt i Mjölby vill jag bo ho ho ho ;)
Ulf Lundell. The only true punkrocker ;-)
No band with band members sporting mohawhk haircuts have ever come up with a track better than Amsterdam.
Anyway isn’t this what’s great with stuff that’s a bit old: That you can dig it for real when what scene it belongs to or if the band’s a bunch of assholes and trendiness etc is not that much of an issue anymore?
right on spot Johan!
Well, the story of this 7″ is quite confusing:
The band Etiquette Mona had a one year break because Lars were abroad studying. I was quite restless, it was a punk rock haze going on everywhere and I had to do something too!!! So in the meantime I decided to record 2 songs with some other people I know from Motala, from the place where we used to rehearsal. I did the single and released it by myself, it all went very quick, from recording to get all the rest of the things together, so quick that I even forgot to put a band name on the disc…
I’m from Vadstena, Lars and Klas is from Motala. And I’m not playing in a band called Landlord, Klas and Lars is.
Check out more at http://www.myspace.com/etiquettemona listen to 4 songs, its not regular blues rock, we didn’t played regular blues rock, we hated regular blues rock!!!
/Joakim Hermelin
Thanks for the info Joakim! Then I was right from the very beginning that this wasn’t Etiquette Mona but you going solo.
Yeah, but I like to call it a Etiquette Mona record, cause if we hadn’t had had the break we would done the single as a group anyway. We also played the songs when we were doing gigs :-)
I just heard about this 7″ because a band called Marvel covered “Amsterdam.” http://www.myspace.com/marveltheband
Finding the original song felt like unearthing a real treasure. This is good stuff.
Now what are the words?
joakim, jag väntar fortfarande pÃ¥ soda cd’n =)
Hi Peter,
could you post the insert with the lyrics?, I recently got a copy but without the insert. Thanks!
Cheers!
Ã…ke! Vart ska jag skicka Sodacd:n?! Adress? :-)
Oscar, sooner or later this will be reposted.
du kan maila mig på: auge(a)telia.com =)
Ni lirade väl i Röda Raden i Motala?
Var ju massor av goa band där på den tiden. Minns Putte Ryhlén och Damberg och nåt band som hette Booz. Längtar tillbaka dit.
I just heard that “amsterdam” wasn’t originally played this fast. That they pitched it from a C up to D. Fantastic, is my first thought. “We couldn’t play that fast, neither could we sing that bright”. I love it. Cheating is the only way…
Is there someone willing to sell me this gem of a record?