Bordello: The Debut Album
In March 1999 the band went into the "Jugodisk" Studio in Belgrade to record their first album. The producer was Ivica Pencic, who had also produced most of the earlier demo-tapes, and the sessions were engineered by him and the band. Most of the songs selected for the occasion were new compositions, written since Cufta had joined the band. Another reason for dropping some of the old demo-charts hits was that everyone thought it silly to come up with the same old songs five years later. Still, some of those old songs may well be recorded in the future.
The first series of sessions took place from March 1st to 5th. By then the material was 95% finished. Kica recorded acoustic and electric guitars, as well as mandolin on several songs, but the band wished to add another instrument to some of the tracks. The chosen addition was the pedal steel guitar, and the player was, of course, found in Stocari's multi-instrumentalist Mirko (guitar, dobro, mandolin, banjo, lap steel, pedal steel). Living in Sabac, a town situated 60 miles west of Belgrade, and busy working in the customs office, Mirko was not available before March 25th, but on March 24th another war broke out, so the recording session had to be delayed. Luckily, the war ended some three months later, and on July 4th Mirko showed up in "Jugodisk" with his pedal steel guitar and quickly recorded his sections. Two days later the material was remixed and ready to go.
The small independent Belgrade label "TG Records", run by Ms. Tea Nikolic, a friend of Ivan's, felt that The Poptones' Bordello was the thing they had been waiting for for quite a while, and the band decided that "TG Records" were the right publisher for them, so a deal was struck. The CD appeared in September 1999. The video for the first single (The Guided Tour) was made by one of Belgrade's finest young directors, Mr. Dejan Zivkovic, and has since been frequently broadcasted by numerous Belgrade television stations.
