There's a Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Party going on
Sometime back in about 1996 there used to be a CD-ROM magazine called Blender. I mention this for a couple of reasons. Firstly 1996 doesn't seem that long ago, but the idea of a CD-ROM magazine sounds like I was catching a mule to the town square to research the possibilty of discovering fire, with only my animal skins and a health respect for the fire breathing dragons to be my moral compass.
Pitched as an exciting, space aged, futuristic form of 'inter-active' media' a CD-Rom magazine was a disc that you put in your computer to read. It had some video elements some text and photos etc. One thing that seemed impossibly futuristic was a guided tour of the Beastie Boys Grand Royal offices and studio. If you moved the mouse left you turned left and you could zoom into the notice boards, etc. It's standard fare with some real estate companies these days but back then it was pretty cool.
One issue had a feature about Swedish indie pop music and featured two bits of two different songs by KOMEDA. One song in particular Boogie Woogie/Rock'n'Roll just blew my brain apart. It was jangley punky power pop, with the simplest and catchy lyrics.
"Well there's a pa-pa-pa-pa-party going on
And there's some gi-gi-gi-gi-girls we wanna meet
And then we fa-fa-fa-fa-fall in the love
With all the gi-gi-gi-girls on the pa-pa-pa-party"
Thats it. the whole lyrics. So I needed to get this music. I tried through all the regular record stores, import stores, etc, to no avail. Eventually I got got Australian Italians to buy this Sweidish pop for me in Norway. The rest of the album The Genius of Komeda was great. In the same vein as The Cardigans, if not quite as sugary. In 1998 I got their next album What Makes It Go which is also crammed packed ful of groovy Swedish 60s-ish feel, but with jagged guitars and repetative hypnotic rythms. In some ways it was like the Alan Vega records in the 1980's where he would just hit a groove and stick on it. I've only recently found the video on Youtube and it's great. I love that their clothes are themed in Swedish flag colours.
In 2002 a track by Komeda (B.L.O.S.S.O.M.) turned up on the soundtrack album for The Powderpuff Girls Movie
There was a five year gap before their last album KOKOMEMEDADA was released in 2003.
There are two earlier Swedish only albums Pop Pa Svenska (1993) and Plan 714 Til Komeda, which I haven't found yet but I suspect will be easier to find in this download age. They originally formed to play live music to accompany a silent Buster Keaton film and they have returned to this from time to time performing and releasing music under the name Projektor 7.
Frankly if they only ever released Boogie Woogie/Rock'n'Roll they would live in the DJ IAN SECRET JUKEBOX forever.
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