Panel Donor / Last.fm Group...

Following up on my post from last Monday, here are a few tracks from the severely underrated Panel Donor. The “Donor” as they were/are commonly referred to in and around this area were one of the finest indie rock groups to come out of Lawrence, Kansas during the 90’s. Originally formed with members Brandon Aikin (vocals/guitar), Charlie Hines (bass), and Jeff Conaway (drums) during the early 90’s, the band released their Self-Titled debut album through Lotuspool in 1994. After the albums release Jeremy Sidener of Zoom joined as a second guitarist. With the addition of Sidener and with a collective songwriting approach among the members of the band, Panel Donor’s sound absolutely blossomed. Their second album Lobedom & Global, released in 1996 once again through Lotuspool, showed the band displaying an even quirkier/warbling sound that to these ears was practically perfection, thanks in part to the incredibly tight guitar interplay between Sidener and Aikin. A year later the band released their final album Surprise Bath through Sonic Bubblegum and called it a day thereafter. Those that missed out when the band was together definitely should check out the tracks posted below. They were a band that was basically in a league of their own and with a sound that was just absolutely brilliant.

Panel Donor:
Panel Donor – No Outlet [MP3]
Panel Donor – Sweetheart [MP3]

Lobedom & Global:
Panel Donor – Ecto Nocturne [MP3]
Panel Donor – The Ballad of Ya-Ya [MP3]
Panel Donor – Goddess [MP3]

Surprise Bath:
Panel Donor – AnaKata [MP3]
Panel Donor - Koon Yick Wah Kee [MP3]

Sadly these days it seems that most, if not all, of Panel Donor’s albums are a bit of a pain to track down. I did a bit of searching through Google but couldn’t come up with any real good results so it looks like eBay is pretty much the only option for maybe obtaining some of the bands albums. There were a couple places, but way too pricey. Anyway, I am not too sure what the members of the band are up to these days. I know Sidener, like I mentioned in the Zoom post, is currently playing in The Danny Pound Band. Brandon Aikin was eventually in Volara with former Proudentall, Giants Chair, Farewell Bend members. Jeff Conaway and Charlie Hines eventually reconvened in Sabers. That’s about all I know. I’m sure there is someone out there that could fill me in, I would be grateful.

In blog related stuff, it was suggested to me by a reader that I start a Last.fm group for the blog. I imagine it could be a pretty cool idea if enough people join up and we can see what everyone out there is listening too. With everyone who reads the blog probably having pretty similar tastes, it wouldn’t be a bad way to possibly find some new music as well, and that’s always a good thing right? So anyway, for anyone out there that wants to join the BOAWS group on Last.fm, then check out the page here. For future reference I’ll have the link in the side column too.