basically, what to say about this band...well, my friend Budgie got sent this cd through for reviewing in his/his mates punk fanzine "Runnin' Feart". He gave it to me & my friend Michelle to see if we could review it and man, I have not had this cd out of my cd player for a week! On first listen we said "this is a really good cd, the band has great melodies...varies between mellow to hard songs but either way is very listenable. Out of 9 songs on the cd there isn't a bad one"... I had to keep listening to it. Out of like a dozen or so cds we got given to review this one really stood out. So I tried to find out more info on the band and discovered the were only together from 1999 - 2000 and the tracks on the cd apart from one are all demos. Bloody hell. It's really well done, and I'm sad I won't get to see this band live. Here is the information on the inside of the cd cover:

shonben - scott stweart / janet morgan / graeme gilmour
january 1999 - january 2000
we are so easy to please / lessons recorded by andy at r.m.s. studion, norwood, london on 16 tracks
released as a split with "my winter jane" on snuffy smile - originally meant to come out as a 7" on rumblestrip records
thanks yoichi, chris and the former members of my winter jane
lessons was also released on the "when will i be famous" compilation cd on star club
all other songs were recorded as demos for us to learn the songs from by oliver at paint it black rehearsal room in brixton, london on 8 tracks. these are previously unreleased with the exception of "nursery rhymes" which came out on the "top of the pops rejects" compilation casette put out by martin.
thanks to dave and jo at the newest industry for gettng these songs out at last.
you can buy this cd at www.assemblylinemusic.com

email I received from the record company *The Newest Industry*:
Scott is from Dundee orignally, and was in the bands Broccoli and Appleorchard as well as Dead Inside. He lives in London now, and the other members of Shonben moved to Tokyo and Washington DC. Actually, Grahame is Scottish as well - he lives in Tokyo and is in the Snuffy Smile band Long Ball To No-One... uh, yeah, they were around for a year, and we basically put this CD out because Scott is a friend and he asked if we would!
Assembly Line / Newest Industry
Unit 100, 61 Wellfield Road, Cardiff, CF24 3DG, UK
Tel : (44) 29 20 411 552
E-mail : [email protected]
Web : www.assemblylinemusic.com / www.thenewestindustry.com

The following review taken from www.thenewestindustry.com
13th March 2003
Shonben "1999" CD available now
The official release date for this CD is actually 7th April 2003, but you can mailorder it from us (AssemblyLineMusic.com) right now! If you don't already know Shonben, then just check this review out from www.collective-zine.co.uk : "Now here's a release I never expected to hear. Shonben existed a few years back (as the title suggests) and their only previous output was a great split 7" with Japanese band, My Winter Jane. So most of the tracks here were recorded as demo's and apparently never intended for release. Don't let that put you off though as they are certainly of release quality. I saw the band play in Southampton back that year and they were really rather special, though they must have been pretty much fresh then because they screwed up at least 1 song and had to start over. They played a rather solid blend of UK style melodic hardcore crossed up a mid-west indie / emo sound. The tunes were absolutely sweet as a nut and spot on the mark. For the most part the songs are belted out at a mid-pace but they can ease up and down the gears from time to time. Such as on the song "Seventeen" where the jangly guitars are delightfully Christie Front Drive-esque before they ramp up the volume... The vocals are strong and carry the music well. Scott was in Broccoli and Apple Orchard prior to this (and Dead Inside later!), and if you heard the Apple Orchard 7" you'll have a pretty fair reference point. Anyways, there are 9 songs in total on this CD and it is strong from start to finish. Opener "We Are So Easy To Please" is glorious, quick and catchy with some top melodies. Sets the scene for the whole CD. Overall, this is a mighty fine retrospective look at these folks rather secret lifetime, the songs definitely deserved to be released and have stood the test of the years. So nice jawb to the Newest Industry folks on that one. I can't say I have much interest in what many UK 'scene' bands do these days, and the fact that these songs are 4 years old and so much better than the majority of what I have heard the past few years that passes for punk rock or 'indie/emo' from these fair isles is indicative of the fact that (a) this is really good and (b) that there are a lot of crappy bands out there."