So let's follow The Primitives with The Mandarins - a band who might've fit on the bill at the Reading Festival in the nineties, slotted somewhere on a stage with Lush, Echobelly, Ride and Sleeper. While these are not exactly the sort of bands traditionally name-dropped here at MRML, all those bands represent another aspect of the British's relentless obsession with guitar-based pop for which we here are ever-grateful.
The Mandarins' chance of being noticed by the fickle UK press were minimized by simple geography, as they came not from Manchester or London but from Winnipeg, Canada. It's a damn shame because Tanya Jonasson's songs shine bright and clear and she's backed by a strong band featuring all of the early members of The Paperbacks (who were led by former Bonaduce, Doug McLean and also featured drummer Jack Jonasson and bassist Jarret McNabb). Of the two tracks, from the 2000 e.p., Shiver, below "One Strong Backstroke" represents the resilient, up-tempo side of the band, whereas "Between Heaven and Mexico" shows off their dreamier side. Enjoy.
Shiver E.P. link is in the comments
Speaking of comments, let us know if you like this.
Thanks to CallPastorBob for the scans.
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Comments are such a fine thing...
http://www.mediafire.com/?yesex3ddmsl6y4h
I've always loved The Mandarins. I've never seen that "She's With The Band" photo/article before. Where and when is that from?
ReplyDeletei think the article may be from either stylus or uptown.
ReplyDeleteBy sheer chance (since I've never lived there and have visited exactly once) I am weirdly up on the Winnipeg music scene of the 90s and early '00s.
ReplyDeleteI mean, c'mon: Bonaduces, Paperbacks, Mandarins (who I apparently missed and thank you very much for this EP), Paper Moon, John K. Samson, the Weakerthans, Sixty Stories, Painted Thin, and those are merely the bands that weave in and around each other which is one way I find music.
(Can I throw in a request for The Supers? The only album I could get ahold of was Spklanng!)
What bothers me, deeply, is knowing all of this music that I would like if only I'd heard off it has to exist lost in out-of-print CDs. But without knowing of the band's existence, how am I even supposed to find said CD?
So yeah, thanks for the Mandarins.
This is totally not helping my low-level OCD need to know things. My email's in the comment field if you know any great 1990s to today resource/book/way of tracking any of this.
By this I mean all the bands like the Bonaduces that put out CDs and were great and never hit it big and split apart and around half a dozen other bands and… yeah.
Thanks so much for the great post, Jeff! Brings me back to the good ol' days.
ReplyDeleteXO,
Tonzie
P.S. The photo is from the Spring 2005 edition of Winnipeg Women magazine.
EM
ReplyDeleteYeah there were some great bands of that era in Winnipeg.
I'll look into the Supers but I must confess I know nothing about them.
Tanya
Glad you appreciated your post and thanks for answering the magazine mystery.