Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Song of the Week: The No-Na-Mee's - You Gotta Hold On

[Ed. Note - Please see comments section after the article for a band listing and confirmation that this WAS a real band and they were from Modesto, California.]

Not too much known about this stomper entitled Gotta Hold On. An online ERA Records discography shows this as coming from 1966. The listed producer is a cat named Billy Cardenas. Cardenas apparently specialized in East LA bands and had a penchant for working with hispanic bands. The songwriter is listed as one Doug Wareham. He also wrote the Flip-Side, Just Wanna Be Myself.

Other than that, nobody seems to know who the cryptically named No-Na Mee's really are. Both the name and the fact that nobody has come forward to say, "yeah-dat-mee's" makes me believe that this two minute and twenty eight second gem could well have been a studio band. Perhaps Cardenas himself. The only thing arguing against that, and I don't mean this in a bad way, is that the musicianship and production remain pretty amateurish. Say, unlike The Shindogs or some of those records labeled as The Chocolate Watchband. One internet source I found claimed they were from the rock-n-roll mecca of the California Central Valley of Modesto. 

I pulled this one off of Highs In The Mid-Sixties Volume 2. Anyone with info on this song, please let us know by dropping a comment below.


6 comments:

  1. I'm going to argue with myself here. I called the musicianship pretty amateurish. After listening to the number a bit more, I have come to really be impressed with that organ break. Further leading me to believe that this was a band that did not exist outside of a studio setting.

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  2. The name itself would support that belief - seems like a lark name, a name not to be taken seriously. We're the no namey band. But we hyphenate each syllable, add a caret over the A (which we have no idea what it does) and then, just to further muddle any sort of notions you might ascribe to the name, we add a possessive apostrophe to the end.

    I like the organ too, but more in how it flips the opening riff on its head, causing it to almost pulsate throughout the song. The refrain has a very well crafted pop sensibility, something the Remains could've turned out. But the overall production seems poor.

    I tracked down that Modesto idea to a single short comment made with confidence on another blog featuring the b-side.

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  3. "I tracked down that Modesto idea to a single short comment made with confidence on another blog featuring the b-side."

    I think we saw the same article. Not very convincing. And, by the way, it is called "flip-side", not "b-side."

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  4. The group is from Modesto. It was formed by Doug Wareham and included Robbie Orr, [Base], Rod Williams [Drums], Clay Ice [Organ].

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  5. Welcome Clay. You have a chance here -- which I hope you will take -- to put down on record a little bit about the mysterious band and the fabulous recording. I hope we can convince you to tell more. Please.

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