At last I can announce the new release coming out on Cloudberry! The official date is June 12th but there will be copies at NYC Popfest. That’s because this “secret” band is playing there. There will also be copies at Indietracks because of the same reason. Perhaps you guessed already. The band is a NYC band, with very tight bonds to the city. Many of the members of the band used to be in a classic, wait, legendary, indiepop band from this same town. I found out that one of the vocalist actually lived three blocks away from where I live now in Astoria. Strangest things have happened. This band toured Sweden even. Hultsfred festival. I wish I had been there. Are you following my hints? They released 10 years ago an epic album, “The Happiest Days of My Life”. I still hear many songs from this record when fellow indiepopkids DJ. Then there was the hiatus. Then they came back under a new name and with new faces and released an EP and an album on Le Grand Magistery. Years passed. And now I can happily announce that Cloudberry is releasing The Secret History’s new album!

The album is aptly titled “Americans Singing in the Dark” and it’s a true ode to New York, this city I’ve started to make my own. This of course doesn’t mean that people that don’t live here won’t understand it. It’s a universal album. It’s indiepop, classic, elegant, and well written. The brainy kind. It has it’s gritty moments, it’s has it’s sugary moments, and at all times it’s a proud album with immense songs crafted with detail.

11 new songs and opening a new series of contemporary albums called the Cloudberry Dream Workshop. Because I believe that dreams are the future, and these albums are the future of our scene, of our music.

The album is packaged in true Cloudberry fashion, the vertical book style digipak, full colour booklet, lyrics included. Quality over anything, as you who follow us know well. The album tracklist and some more details have been announced on both the Cloudberry site and the Cloudberry Facebook page by now. We will be giving away an MP3 taster in the next couple of hours. I really hope you like it.

I’m very proud about this release as I’ve been a fan of The Secret History and My Favorite for years. The first time I saw them was at the 2007 NYC Popfest. I was blown away. I remember buying a t-shirt then which I still wear it. Many years after, at Littlefield I was going to see them again, at then another NYC Popfest, the 2010 edition. That year I bought from them another t-shirt. Very similar to the first one, though this one instead of having the name of the band all in white, they decided to have the “The” part of the band in yellow. I didn’t know them. I was just a fan. I had had a bit of contact with Michael at some point years before because he really liked the Blind Terry 3″ single, especially because of the nod to Prefab Sprout. Him being a big fan.

Years have passed since those days. I’m still a fan. But now I know them a bit more. Talking at some gigs. And then at Mondo too. Cheap beer and indie gossip. A one time meeting at The Sparrow for another pints and figuring out how we were going to make this release happen. The time frame. Happily as we talk all parts are in the pressing plant and things are full-steam ahead. You can’t imagine how happy I am. It’s a bit strange when you get to release a band and people you grew up listening to their music with. I always thought that they would have made a great single for Cloudberry when I was starting, but maybe felt shy to ask them. They were too “big” in my book. And now we have worked on this album, albeit secretly, for the last couple of months, but now it’s for everyone to know. And I’m honoured. I think it’s a great time for the label and a lot has to do with this release. It feels like the label has finally found a place in NYC, something it never did in Miami. And so I hope to see you all at the release party in June. And why not, at NYC Popfest and Indietracks! Can I count with you all?

PS. There’s another “secret” gig in July which I’m doing a flyer for as I write these lines and I will DJ between bands then too… and no, it’s not in the US!

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So as our weekly “tradition” (because it is one already, right?) I’ll introduce you to an obscure band. I don’t know yet what’s your favourite part of the blog, if any. If the Cloudberry news, if some of my pop diaries, or the obscure band. Or just the MP3 that is shared. You tell me. I enjoy writing anyways. 2004 was the first time I blogged. I’m getting old! Anyhow, let’s continue our march in converting all good souls of the world into indiepop and collecting records!

Henry & Me. Who was Henry? And who was this me? Who were Henry & Me? That’s an indiepop mystery that Google can’t solve. And I’m looking out for your help.

Henry :   masc. proper name, from French Henri, from Late Latin Henricus, from German Heinrich, from Old High German Heimerich, literally “the ruler of the house,” from heim “home” + rihhi “ruler.” One of the most popular Norman names after the Conquest.

Henry & Me released just one 7″ as far as I know. The A-side was “Sentimental” and the B-side was “Average Guy”. I’ve had this record for a long time on my saved searches but nothing pops up for me. Luckily I finally heard one of their songs, Average Guy, thanks to the great blog From a Northern Place (which I thank and also celebrate on my latest fanzine because they are one of the few that has been making me happy with MP3s from records I’ve been looking for and feeling curious about for long!).

I’m pretty sure the band is British, because of the accent. But on the back sleeve there’s a photo of NYC. With the Twin Towers. Odd. I never saw them in real live. Then the other hint that tells me they weren’t from around here is that there is a phone number on there too, belonging to a Ronan Whyte. That’s an Irish name though, isn’t it? But the number seems British.

The only other information on the back sleeve that seems relevant is that the two songs were original recordings by the band and they were made in 1991.

The front sleeve has a very fun artwork. It’s hand-drawn and it’s all black and white. For some reason this release seems more like promo material (especially because there’s a phone on the back), so I’m guessing they were trying to get label interest? Surprisingly it seems they didn’t. It’s strange because I really like “Average Guy”. It reminds me a bit of Nixon actually. That kind of indiepop. Sad, lovelorn, melancholic, in shambles, written in someone’s bedroom, recorded with a lot of hear and honest sentiments.

But who knows what happened to them. And who were the people behind it. It’s a big mystery to me. And maybe someone out there can help me understand it better. Who were they? How many copies of this record are out there? Any spares for me maybe? Did they play many gigs? Where did they hail from? Were they involved with other bands? So many questions and don’t even know where to start looking.

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Listen
Henry & Me – Average Man

All ready. All set. I got my stupid tourist visa. Ready to spend vacation time next month in Europe. The lineup of Madrid Popfest has been confirmed and all I can say it is that I’m looking forward to it a lot, especially to see bands I’ve never seen before like The Haywains, Northern Portrait and Alpaca Sports. This time though, I’m traveling by myself so I’m much more open to meeting up with friends and exploring the city, something I didn’t do much last time. Last time I dedicated my days to day travels to different cities around Madrid like Segovia, Toledo, Avila among others. It was fantastic, though being by myself, I don’t see much of a point, who will take photos of me posing as a good tourist for example? Record shopping will be a must, and so, if anyone wants to join, let’s do that. I’m also very excited for the Madrid restaurants with their 10 euro menus, which was something I really enjoyed the first time around.

But the best news of this week has to do with the release of the Flowers 7″. The official release date is the 15th. One day after Valentines Day. Do you celebrate that? I wonder. I’ve never read or heard any indiepop kid celebrating it. But then, it’s perhaps something very private or probably indiepopkids hate capitalist inventions like that. What do I know. Anyhow, the record is ready and it’s shipping to all over the world. It’s perhaps the records with most pre-orders that Cloudberry has released. Very anticipated debut by the London trio!

I’ve only seen them once. Last November, when I decided to travel to England even though I wasn’t going to meet the girl anymore. It was a difficult decision because it was going to bring memories and perhaps I wasn’t going to like my holidays as much as I would want to. But at the same time, life goes on, and because of something circumstantial like that, I couldn’t just trash my plans I thought. I had already told many of my British friends during Indietracks that I was returning to London later that year, that we’d find a place for her to leave her cat safe and sound and all, and that we’d enjoy at least a weekend together there. In the end, it was just me. I expanded the weekend to a whole week. Went all the way to Scotland and back, back even to the southern tip of Great Britain, to Portsmouth and all. And as always I saw castles.

It was that day that I went to Arundel with Paloma, who happily joined me at last minute, who was strangely and randomly enough staying just a tube station away from where I was staying at Chez Navarro’s. After sightseeing around Arundel and having still a couple of hours to burn, we looked at a map and decided to keep exploring. For 10 more pounds we could go to Portsmouth and back. I didn’t know much about Portsmouth, aside from the football team, but sounded like a good plan. We had already circled Arundel and there was not much more to see. Which doesn’t mean it wasn’t fantastic. I truly recommend people visiting it. The castle is beautiful.

We both wanted to go to the Flowers gig that night. Happily Rachel had been nice enough to put me plus guests on the guestlist. So that wasn’t something to worry. But just the timing. We had to take all these trains back to London and we had to do transfers. A mistake in trains could make us miss the gig. We were thorough and asking the officers and such we finally succeeded and returned to London just in time. We had some so-so food at a Weatherspoons around Buffalo Bar and got just in time for the first band.

Two folk bands and two indiepop bands was the premise for that night. Don’t hate me if I don’t remember the name of the folk bands. But the indiepop class was represented by Cosines and Flowers. Flowers were headlining. Cosines had among their ranks many people I know like Alice, Dan and Johnny. Also my dear Kajsa was playing with them. It was a pleasure to see her playing keyboards again, smiling, dressed in a cute pink dress. She has one of my favourite smiles. A smile that I first met in Stockholm so many years ago and that I seem to see at least once a year since then. Can’t really complain, with the distance and all, must be one of my international friends I see the most. But anyways, I had been to the Buffalo Bar to see Flowers. And so after buying and buying San Miguel beers, because Rory wouldn’t give me a free one (!), it was about time for Flowers to get on the stage.

You’ll think I’m biased, but the thing is, that Flowers were amazing. They were a new band, but they sounded like soldiers of many battles, tight, and very confident. They knew what they were doing. Rachel with her one-string bass, Jordan with his noisy guitar and Sam banging the drums with a true C86 beat. I knew they were fantastic, I knew that since I found them on bandcamp ages ago and bought their 2 demo CDRs. But seeing them live, and making all the crow to be awe-struck, confirmed it to me. They were special. Wait, they ARE special.

The 7″ took a bit of time to be made. Issues with computers, with artwork, and stuff. But it was all worth it. It sounds great, it looks great, and it feels great. Four short songs of noisy pop, with vocals that remind you of a bygone era, like when people listened to The Parachute Men or The Nightblooms. But updated. Updated to sound like a band from today. Not surprisingly another Cloudberry graduates, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart invited them to tour around Europe with them. And it’s also not surprising that they have already signed a deal with Fortuna Pop to release an album later this year (also The Spook School joined them at this, could it be that Fortuna Pop trusts Cloudberry’s taste?).

If you haven’t already, please do check “When You Lie” on the Cloudberry website. It’s just a teaser, but it’s a fantastic song. If you like it, do order it. Or if you are in London pick up a copy at the next London Popfest where they will probably amaze everyone!

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But let’s move to the obscure band of the week: Boxing Clever.

I remember looking for them many years ago, with no success. I remember finding one of the members on Myspace, I think he was involved with some sort of punk band. Sadly I never heard back from him. I wanted to interview him about the band for the blog of course.

The only piece of information comes from the Falkirk Music Scene page. It says:

BIOGRAPHY:
Falkirk / Edinburgh pop / rock act formed in 1988 by ex-Breakfast Boyz member Justin Skelton (vocals / guitar). He added local drummer Ian Wallace (ex-Nirvana, no not that one!) and Edinburgh musicians Gus Carmichael (keyboards), George Christie (guitar) & Eddie McGlone (bass). The band released one single in 1989, “Toy Soldiers”, on the BMG label before splitting. Skelton later ran a rehearsal room, whilst Wallace joined The Cotton Train.

RELEASES:
“Toy Soldiers” (12 inch single, BMG, 1989)

None of those bands named in that little biography had any releases sadly. So it’s hard to track them through them.

The Urban Dictionary says that Boxing Clever means: to use inventive thinking above all other attributes in order to achieve an end goal.

Is that why they named the band like that? One can only wonder. The truth is that the only other bit of information I could gather was from the back cover of their 12″ release. A 12″ I haven’t had any luck in having or finding.

We know that all songs were written by Justin Skelton and then arranged by the rest of the band. The songs that were included in this release were “Toy Soldiers”, “I Just Do”, “Nobody Else I Know” and “William”. There’s a little information about each one of them:

Toy Soldiers – Recorded at Palladium Studios. Produced by Boxing Clever and Chris Harley. Engineered by Keith Mitchell.

I Just Do – Recorded at H.M. Studios. Produced by Boxing Clever. Engineered by Alan Cuthberson.

Nobody Else I Know – Recorded at H.M. Studios. Produced by Boxing Clever. Engineered by Alan Cuthberson.

William – Recorded at The Howf. Produced and engineered by Justin Skelton.

Keyboards and accordian were provided by Gus Carmichael and John Sweeney respectively.

All tracks published BMG (a major! horror!) Music Publishing LTD. But it was released by Beaver Records.

The sleeve design was thanks to Rose O’ Connor. And the record came out in 1989.

And that’s all there is. I could tell you  a bit about Falkirk as it has some interesting history, if you like though? Well, so…

An Eaglais Bhreac is a derivative formed from the Scottish Gaelic cognate of the first recorded name Ecclesbrith from the Brittonic for “speckled church”, presumably referring to a church building built of many-coloured stones. The Scottish Gaelic name was translated into Scots as Fawkirk then later amended to the modern English name of Falkirk. The Latin name Varia Capella also has the same meaning. Falkirk Old Parish Church stands on the site of the medieval church, which may have been founded as early as the 7th century.

 The Antonine Wall, which stretches across the centre of Scotland, passed through the town and remnants of it can be seen at Callendar Park. Similar to Hadrian’s Wall but built of turf rather than stone so less of it has survived, it marked the northern frontier of the Roman Empire between the Firth of Forth and Firth of Clyde during the AD 140s. Much of the best evidence of Roman occupation in Scotland has been found in Falkirk, including a large hoard of Roman coins and a cloth of tartan, thought to be the oldest ever recorded.

And that’s all I can tell you about Boxing Clever and Falkirk, and Scotland this week. Though probably after listening to the song, you’d wonder why there’s no more information about them. I ask myself the same. Wish I knew if they had more recordings. If they appeared on compilations. Whatever happened to them? Where are they now? So many mysteries. Maybe some of you remember them? Maybe some can fill in the blanks!

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Listen
Boxing Clever – Nobody Else I Know

A razor is a bladed tool primarily used in the removal of unwanted body hair through the act of shaving. Kinds of razors include straight razors, disposable razors and electric razors.  While the razor has been in existence since before the Bronze Age (the oldest razor like-object was discovered in 18,000 B.C.), its modern counterpart was invented in the 18th century, and the 1930s saw the invention of electric razors. In the 21st century, the safety razor – electric or not – is most commonly used by both men and women, but other kinds still exist.

2013. First day. The boys posting Another Sunny Day’s “New Year Honours” on facebook, me uploading Holiday’s “New Year’s Anything” and the girls loving Camera Obscura’s “Happy New Year”. Seems like any other New Year day to me.

I’m at work and I’ve been dealing all day long with the “fiscal cliff” story. I guess one should be glad to know that the people in Washington DC are working hard during holidays. No time for them to party. Well, and no time for me to party either. Democrats and Republicans have agreed on a deal. Now the it’s on the House’s hands. But I’m out of here soon and they seem to be busier passing a bill for hurricane Sandy.

Upon arriving home I will prepare the paperwork for the Flowers 7″ and mail the masters to the pressing plant tomorrow. I’m also sending the masters of an unknown Peruvian band to the pressing plant, Eva & John is their name and we are making a flexi. Not part of the Cloudberry catalog mind you, but it will be under the Plastilina umbrella. I’m very excited about this lot, especially as three of them are long time friends of mine. Two of them friends from my youth in Miami, that for one or another reason had to go back to Lima. We even had a band, the three of us, but that’s a story not worthy to be told.

The name Eva & John is a pun. It’s a mocking of Eva Ayllón, one of Peru leading songstresses along with Susana Baca and Tania Libertad. Her thing is Afro-Peruvian music. I remember still the day I saw, to my surprise, posters of her in Stockholm.  So she might be a bit known to those who like exotic kind of sounds. Of course, she is no Yma Súmac, but, in Peru she is revered. I can’t deny that I have sometimes found myself singing some of her lines while having a shower. I guess those songs are engrained in us, like a razor blade, since we are little.

The songs are “César Gutiérrez” and “Ciempiés”. There’s only one side to the flexi. A white flexi, which I hope to carry some copies for the curious. I don’t know if many Cloudberry fans will be interested in it even though this is a ridiculously good record. It’s pure pop, with great lyrics, catchy hooks, that remind anyone of the Spanish 80s, the so called La Movida, and also to later sounds of Los Punsetes, Bananas or TCR. Of course the idiosyncrasy is different, this is made in Peru, and so their fabulous name-dropping, a la Television Personalities, in the opening track will sound alien to many. But to me, it feels like home. These songs make me revisit my home city from far away.

The songs have been mixed  and mastered with fantastic results by my good friend Cris from Sundae. He understood the sound the band was looking for and made these songs sound as they should. I’m terribly happy about this, and I’m even considering starting a small series of flexis for Peruvian indiepop bands. See, the thing about them is that they record some demos and then they disband. They make one or two fantastic songs and that’s it. Then nobody hears about them anymore. Because no one cares. But maybe I care, and perhaps with Eva & John it all works out, and this flexi, perhaps the first flexi to ever be sold in Peru, proves to be successful. And if that’s the case, it would make sense to keep going!

This of course makes me start the year with a high note. On top of that, I’ve finally purchased my ticket from Stockholm to Tallinn. That’s good news. And maybe I could take the ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki one day. I will have to check that. If that doesn’t work out, it’s ok, I’m already doing lots during that trip. Also this weekend I’m going to try to choose with some friends where to go for President’s Day weekend in February. The cheapest options are Charlotte and Myrtle Beach. Under $200. Never been there. I might as well just go and see. There’s good BBQ in the Carolinas, right?

Oh, and last but not least, I’ve purchased new shelves for my books and CDs, and special boxes for my 7″s. Exciting times ahead, reordering everything that’s been piling in alphabetical order. I’ve even bought some separators! The only thing I don’t look forward to, is assembling these of course!

So short and sweet post to start the year, moving to the super obscure band of the week, “This Change is Everything”.

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The enigmatic This Change is Everything bears already a very mysterious name. Wonder what they meant by it. The only one song I know from them is “Razor Blades”, and I know it, once again, thanks to Rupert from, a Turntable Revolution, and the magical CD he burned for me.

What do I know about this song that sounds a bit (or a lot) to This Charming Man by The Smiths? I know nothing. I know it’s great and addictive. That it has some great guitars. And some fine lyrics too. That it makes me curious to know if the band recorded any other songs at all. I don’t even know what years were they active.

What I do know is that this song was the opening song of the B side of an LP compilation called “First Wave: A Compilation LP Of Young Independent Bands” released by GI Records from Oxford. This is the same label that in 1989 released the compilation “Expose It” that included New English and that we’ve mentioned in the blog before. The only conclusion I have from these little hints is that “First Wave” was released in 1989 or before.

On “First Wave” I find myself clueless. The only band I recognize is All Over the Place. The rest, I don’t know. The other bands included are The Vulcans, Passion of Ice, The Price, Airlane, The Innocents, The Trees, The Raindogs, The Chain and The No No’s.

The only other small clue, is on the back cover of this compilation, which sadly I don’t have, but I found a picture on Discogs. There’s an address for the band. They were based in London. In the South West, close to Southfields station. I’ve never been there. Not yet.

And that’s all I could find about this very elusive band. Do you know anything else about them?

Happy new year to every one that comes and read my little blog. All the best wishes for this 2013. Hopefully there’s lots of great indiepop coming our way this year!

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Listen
This Change is Everything – Razor Blades

It’s a week of news here at Cloudberry HQ. And it makes sense to be it that way before the holidays. Holidays that I will spend working in NYC. I already spent all my vacation time for this year in rather a great way. So no complains. I’ll be a bit like Santa, packing orders and posting parcels. And as pressing plants will be closed, we can’t really come up with much news aside perhaps of some new projects we’ll embark on. But let’s get the ball rolling.

First things first. The Nixon 7″ is out at last! It came out yesterday, Monday the 10th. And all orders have started shipping. Bear in mind that as this is holiday season it may take a wee long for them to arrive at home, especially if you live abroad. The 7″ as I said before includes four songs running at 33rpm and it’s the same old Nixon we always loved. There are no surprises and Nixon didn’t try to reinvent himself. It’s indeed one of the proudest moments for me here at Cloudberry as I’ve been a fan of Nixon for more than 10 years now. And finally, after so many years there are four brand new songs out there that sadly seem to be his farewell to indiepop under that moniker. Of course we can all cross fingers for that not to happen, but we’ll see. The 7″ also includes a lyrics sheet for you all to sing along. Pretty important.

We’ve set the release date for yet another Swedish act. A 3 song 7″ by Göteborg’s Alpaca Sports will be released in February 10th. This one will probably start shipping before that date but we wanted to keep it safe due to the holiday season that may delay the production of the vinyl record. There’s a lot of expectation for this release and pre-orders show that. This is Alpaca Sports’ 3rd single and it continues that same line of fabulous jangly naive indiepop that has been charming everyone everywhere. And because of this, they’ve been hitting the road playing already many countries and will soon get on playing Popfests in Spain and somewhere very near to me. The artwork for this new Alpaca Sports single comes thanks to Ray Kimura who they’ve been working closely since day 1. Ray had already collaborated with us at Cloudberry with the sleeve artwork for the Cassolette 7″ roughly one year ago.  Also, in Japan, a mini-album will be released early in January. So yes, Alpaca Sports are hot. And they are making videos and videos for their songs. And so, tomorrow we’ll debut a new video. So keep your eyes peeled.

Third point. Tripping the Light Fantastic. You can pre-order the 7″ now. I estimate it will be out sometime in February. If you haven’t listened to the A side “Heavy Heart” head to the Cloudberry site and do that. You are going to love it.

More news? You bet. I’m starting to work on the 8th fanzine. After the success of the last fanzine, which sold out in just a couple of weeks, I’m beginning to plan it. Who to interview? What color should the zine be? Which songs should be featured? If you have any suggestions please let me know. I’d love to print it by the end of March or early April. Wishful thinking perhaps.

And the last piece of news that I want to announce, and perhaps it may be the bomb for many, at least it’s for me, it’s that we have started working on a new Cloudberry Cake Kitchen release. On this 4th volume of our beloved series we’ll be showcasing the indiepop genius of The Rileys!! More on this front soon!

And a bit more of personal news I managed to book yesterday plane tickets to Madrid. Yes, I’m heading again to Madrid Popfest for a weekend of indiepop, friends, fantastic food and the best dancefloors an indiepop festival has to offer these days. As I’ve said before, Madrid Popfest organization is inspiring to me, so I’m glad to attend once more this event and even though it will probably be much different as the first time,  think the quality of bands, and the friends I’ll get to see again, will probably make up for the ones that won’t be there. I am sure it’s going to be a magic weekend.

As soon as that weekend ends I’ll be taking a plane to Stockholm. Why? I’m going to celebrate my party there. At this point planning a nice party. I’m just thrilled by this. I’ve never been big in celebrating my birthday but I thought, before I’m 30, I should do something exciting. And so here I am. Traveling all over the place and hoping to have a party with all the good friends in that indiepop city that is Stockholm. I hope and wish I can book a band, but if not a good dancefloor with my friend Emelie DJing will be enough for a good night. I wonder if you can BYOB in Stockholm though? That’d be perfect! It’s so expensive to go out there!

AND, if everything goes as planned I’ll be spending some days too in Tallinn. Because I’ve been meaning and wanting to go there for a long time. Because I like medieval towns, buildings, castles, and that sort of thing. It should be glorious!

Because I’m thinking about this birthday of mine in Stockholm, let’s rescue an obscure band from that same city from the mid 2000s: Your Place or Mine.

I think the first time I heard their songs were during the times when a bunch of soulseekers moved from the Twee Folks room to DC++ another P2P program. Andreas Olsson was running the room there and had been inviting us all who loved the good music. I’m sure it was him that went crazy about the band. I can’t recall if he blogged about them on the blog all users of the room shared. I think the blog was called “Twee Pop Love”. It must have been either 2004 or 2005. I knew Andreas wanted to start a label. Only 7″s he said. And the first band he was going to release were Zipper. And the second, and my memory shouldn’t fail, was to be Your Place or Mine. He absolutely adored the band. And so did I. I thought they were fantastic. I thought I was never going to see them play live though. And at that time my label dreams were so far in the future. I was studying and needed to pay for school. I didn’t have any loans.

They had two CDRs. None of those I ended up owning. And I doubt I will ever. Those little things back then were so rare, so scarce. So today it might be just impossible. I think they were made on demand too. At least, that’s how I would have done it if I had a band. The first CDR was called “Demo 1″ and included the songs: “Hard Liquor”, “Another Lover of a Demo Group”, “Oh, How I Spend My Days” and “All our Instruments are Borrowed”.

The second CDR was the “Atta Boy EP”. A name that of course reminded me of the Heavenly “Atta Girl” 7″. The songs on this release were “In 25 Years Don’t Exist”, “Kill Me” , “Heut Ist Mein Tag”, “She Said (Pt1)” and “Atta Boy”.

“Heut Ist Mein Tag” of course was a Blümchen cover. It gives me goosebumps to see South Beach, my previous neighborhood, on that video!

The songs were immediate, powerful, pop with punk sensibilities, tweepunk if you want. Fast, exciting, like a straight jab to your face. They were catchy as hell. The guitars could remind you of Free Loan Investments perhaps, the instrumentation, with trumpets and trombones, make you think of Love is All maybe, but in the end, they were original, very original. They were one of a kind and I always felt it was a shame that no proper release of them ever materialized. And yes, they should have been bigger. Perhaps if they had been around 2 years earlier or 2 years after they had fared a bit better luck. It’s just that during those mid-2000s indiepop was such a quiet scene.

After the Blümchen connection, well I thought they named the band because of a Vengaboys song called “Your Place or Mine“. I don’t hide my liking for either Blümchen or Vengaboys. I do enjoy this kind of music. Good pop is good pop.

The first gig ever by Your Place or Mine seems to have been in Lund at the Beat Goes On festival organized by Maja Eriksson and Fredrika Thelandersson. From what I’ve read the whole festival wasn’t that successful. But the band was happy and proud of their performance and the response of the crowd.

I remember the band having a very kitsch kind of website. One of those domains that ended with .tk that were really popular back then. Do you remember them? The website sadly doesn’t exist anymore.

The band started with Jakob Elmgren (guitars) and Per Holmquist (drums) after, on the way home, both took the underground after a fun club night. Some days later they asked Jana Johansson if she wanted to join and play bass. Soon after they would recruit Matilda Kihlberg to sing for them after meeting her at the “Your Hair is Too Long and Your Face is Too Small” club.  And they were set.

From an old little article on Louder than Bombs, it seems the name of the band comes from a previous song name of “Another Lover of a Demo Pop Group”. The previous name of this song was “Your Place or Mine”.

On an interview when asked what the band thought about the comparisons with Talulah Gosh and Fat Tulips they well answered that they would like to be compared with The Siddeleys. And that they usually just sound like “paff paff paff paff GADUGGA DUGGA!”

During that first CDR, “Demo 1″, they had received help from members of Corduroy Utd. Sam Carlshamre played trombone and Sandra Valencia played trumpet. Justus Birch also from Corduroy Utd. helped them produce the CD. I feel the first two might have joined the band at some point? But perhaps I’m wrong.

I spent so many evenings at the small convenience store I used to work in South Beach playing their songs while beach-goers made my life miserable by complaining about the ridiculous prices we had. But well, what can you expect from a store a block away from one of the most famous beaches in the US? Playing these songs alleviated the pain of those days, they always brought a smile to me. Today revisiting them, I feel the same enthusiasm, the same awe, the same smile as soon “Another Lover of a Demo Pop Group” starts playing at my work computer. And planning my trip to Stockholm, with this music on the background, even if it’s month away, brings a true excitement!

And that was it. Then there was silence. Whatever happened to this fantastic band? Did they record any more songs? I thought they were recording an album at some point. I tried, when I was working on compiling the first Starke Adolf CD, to contact Mathilda but with no luck. Nowadays it would be great if I could get in touch to showcase them on the Sound of Starke Adolf Vol.2 and see what they are up to. I’m pretty curious.

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Your Place or Mine – Another Lover of a Demo Pop Group

I wrote already about The Doris Days a couple of months ago. Since then I’ve been looking and searching everywhere for more information about them as well as trying to find at least mp3s from their demos. Just recently, thanks to Phil Suggars from The Candie Maids, I got the chance to get in touch with Hayley Morton from The Doris Days! She has been super kind and nice to share some interesting facts about one of the best bands you have never heard about. I thought sharing with the couple of readers of the blog.

Hayley:
I met Vanessa Norwood (lead singer) 25 years ago when we were 17, she was doing an art foundation course at Lewes College and I under duress was doing a secretarial course. I play classical piano and wrote songs which Vanessa would write words to. We both met Dennis when we were about 19 – I think he was a DJ and helped put on Magical Mystery Tours where you could go off to see bands in London mostly – we saw a lot of the June Bride gigs and the Shop Assistants who Dennis had links with.

Dennis was at Brighton Art college doing an expressive arts course with Nick the trumpet player and Simon, who played cello with us for a while. He was also friends with Ed the bass player who I think was an engineer with the army if my memory serves me right. Rachel the other guitarist was Vanessa’s younger sister.

Dennis started going out with Vanessa – he was always writing music and asked me to write some piano bits for him. We then formed the band with his other friends. Dennis wrote the songs and we contributed with our instrumental parts. We would go into the art college and record the tracks – unfortunately I only have old tapes of this music and I’m not even sure I got copies of any of the good stuff. (I hope these get digitised one day!! – CCP)

The basement gig was our last one – I won’t go into details but we argued after the gig and that was that – I think Dennis carried on for a bit under the same name. I met up with them both a few years later and he was doing other stuff by then.

I went on to play in a band with Phil Suggars called CC Baxter (well worth a listen). Unfortunately I’m not doing anything now apart from finally trying to do my Piano Diploma – still writing songs though.

Thanks so much Hayley!

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The Doris Days – Another Day

News. Bits and bobs. Releases. Songs. Stuff. May offerings.

• Out now is the Signed Papercuts single! I’m very happy and proud about it. It includes 2 songs, one on each side of the vinyl record. On A side you can find “Of My Heart” and on the B side the great “Sound of Silence Pt. 2″, which I believe, at least in spirit, is the continuation of “Sound of Silence” which was included in the 3″CD that was released in 2007. And speaking of that release, the comic book look is finds continuation in the 7″ thanks to the great illustration of Danny Zabbal. If you like dreamy, lush and swirly indiepop-shoegaze, this will totally be up your alley. You can order it on the Cloudberry website. Thanks again for your support

• Firestation Records is having a huge record blowout! Lots of their back catalogue for just 1 euro! And some other stuff for 3 and 6 euro. Lots of discounts! Now is the time to get those releases you are missing from the great Berlin label. Visit them here. Among some great stuff I would totally suggest getting The Vermont Sugar House’s “Braveheart” 7″ for 1 euro, and what about The Nivens or the Bloody Marys for 6 euros. A good good deal!

• There’s a nice bundle by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart which includes their latest 7″ (”Young Adult Friction” which is a great song!), a tote bag, a poster and 3 badges. You can get all of this for $17 dollars here. I bet these will get sold out pretty soon!

• Also a new 7″ is out by Boy Genius. I had the opportunity to put out a small 3″ (which is still available!) that was a taster for their fantastic debut “Anchorage”. The new 7″ is out on their own Greenpop label and includes the tracks “Blame Love” and “Backyard”. I’ve only listened so far the A Side, which is streaming on their Myspace, and it’s a really nice track. Upbeat, boy/girl vocals, and jangly guitars. You can order it in their myspace

• Also Papillons Noir label has some new stuff out that is totally worth checking out. First is the Komon 7″ that includes her smash hit, “Ebay Watchlist”. Ehem, this title sounds really familiar!! At the moment I have 125 items being watched… oh dear. And second 7″ they have out is by Help Stamp Out Loneliness! This is maybe one of my favourite indiepop bands around. This is a single you can’t miss, “Torvill and Dean” is one of my favourite songs this 2009! Get them here!

• Stars in Coma has just put out an album on the always lovely and interesting Music is My Girlfriend. The album is called “Sisters” and I still need to order it! But it looks promising. Maybe you can be faster than me and order it here? André is very talented, I bet the album is a cracker!

• Another album that I need to order is “Bite My Tongue” by Friday Bridge. Would probably do it next week! Need to save those 15 euros! The songs on the myspace sound fantastic, go ahead and order it here.

• Cherry Red has some great treats for us indiepop lovers this month too! Can you believe, the lost Blue Ox Babes album is going to be released… and “Pleasure” by Girls at Our Best reissued! Can’t wait for them

• Liechtenstein’s album is just around the corner too! Here is what Fraction Discs say:
  “Survival Strategies In A Modern World”, the debut album by Liechtenstein, will be released on both CD and 10″ vinyl on May 26! The 10″ vinyl will be a co-release with Slumberland, who will also release the CD in North America. One of the tracks from this 9 track album is now available for free download on our label page. It’s a smash hit called “Roses In The Park”. You can also have a listen to another track called “All At Once”.

• And looking forward to May 19th for the great release by Socialist Leisure Party on Shelflife. But more on that later!

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Signed Papercuts – Of My Heart

I was asked to write an article for a South Korean magazine. As it turns out, Yeongene and Linus’ Blanket are far too popular for the magazine and they declined to publish this small piece. I thought maybe you’d enjoy it

When I was younger my Korean knowledge revolved around the automotive industry. My home town was plagued by these little Daewoo cars. The model was called Tico, not sure if they ever sold these in Seoul, but, in Lima they were multiplying in exponential numbers. All the cities’ arteries were dominated by yellow Tico taxis. They were like ants, believe me, they were all over. Hyundai was also quite popular but second came those Kia buses, these were the main public transport for many people during the 90s. I was never interested in cars and so, I wasn’t very fond of these Korean machines swarming my city.

When I tried gui for the first time I started to enjoy Korea. I loved grilling my food and the great taste of bulgogi and dakgui was enough to make me fall in love with the food. In recent days I’ve been a bit surprised about eating live squid not sure if I’ll try it, but I don’t find nothing wrong with that. Food is food my friends. So it wasn’t true love. There was the up and downs of a common relationship. What about the football team? I liked Korean national team indeed and enjoyed the run in 2002 World Cup! And I always liked the name Daejeon Citizen for a football team. I think I would be their hooligan if I lived there. But the only time that I fell in love with Korea, the one and only love, the one that happens at first sight, that was when I heard Yeongene’s fragile voice. I was wrapped by Linus’ Blanket and since then I slept dreaming the nicest dreams.

Some years ago I got a copy of the “Labour in Vain” EP. Can’t remember how it found me or how I found it. It just happened to be there. And this beautiful pop, that reminds me of the classy Swedish pop of the 90s and to the cutesy bossa influenced J-pop, came straight as an arrow to my heart. I was thrilled that Minsung, the original guitarist of Linus’ Blanket, played at the Japanese outfit Miniskirt, an underrated band that wrote such fantastic tunes as “Woody Allen Likes Japanese Noise Rock” or “Her Blue Contact Lenses Make Me Crazy”. Now Yeongene also contributes with international artists. What about working with Dugly Stewart! With him and his BMX Bandits, Yeongene released “Savoursmiles”, a fantastic record that should have been a winner on the year end lists everywhere… well if it was in a world were sites like Pitchfork clueless reviews didn’t influence people. Sadly bad taste put up on topp stupid bands as Vampire Weekend. Anyways, honey wasn’t made for the pig’s taste indeed.

I’ve stalked Yeongene and found her on Myspace. “Save Our Smiles” is playing but I can’t save my smile. The upbeat music doesn’t let me save it. I smile, because her voice makes me happy, because of inertia maybe, because pop is what puts my heart in motion, and this is POP! The way it has to be done, with sincerity, without any formula, just what comes out from your guts. And it seems our heroine has some very sweet guts right? Born in 1981 and waiting for the person who will be her husband she says. Lucky the person who wakes up everyday next to her candy-coated voice. That is pop heaven, and it only happens in Namyangju. Must be thanks to Gorosei.

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Yeongene – Save Our Smiles

The fourth split 3inch CD is out now and comes courtesy of two bands that I wanted to release for over a year: Ferns and The Shandy Express.

I have been in touch with Warren from Ferns for a long while. I remember falling in love with his band when Fruit Records released the Peachy Little Secrets compilation in 2006. Not long after the Singapore label was putting out “On Botany” the debut album by the Malaysian pop wonder-band. On Botany must have one of the strangest and most curious packaging ever. The front cover has artificial grass! Even today, when looking at it, it always strikes a chord in me, it always surprises me and makes me smile. I have to save it in a different box. It cant go along the other CDs as Im always scared this little piece of art would break. Playing that album felt the same. Fragile songs of perfect pastoral jangle. Some influence of long forgotten Harvest Ministers and the jangly perfection of Another Sunny Day when they want to be upbeat. Ferns are truly a discovery for me and maybe the world. According to them there is no other band in Malaysia making indiepop. I haven’t found any by myself either. Hopefully they inspire other kids to grab their guitars and make perfect pop!

Their side includes two songs: Miss Stormcloud and Anti Social Scene. I can’t stop giggling with the first track, because it’s great, but also because The Stormclouds were a favourite band of mine and still are. Two brilliant songs that Im very honoured to have put out.

Helena Lindén contributed with the columns photograph for the CD cover. The columns, one after the other, stop being objects to become a beautiful pattern and so The Shandy Express, Andrew Everett’s solo outing after The Blue Smarties, brings the patterns and blueprints of the kind of pop he loves: quirky, fun, upbeat, very English, and why not, whimsical. The bouncy Muffin Top opens the Shandy Express’ side. Catchy is the word that comes to mind when listening to it. And when the kazoo comes you can’t stop dancing to it! But I do really hope the song is about a real muffin, and not about a girl’s “muffin top”! Even though, good humour is always welcome

Surfing in Love’s Wave is The Shandy Express’ happy song. A hopeful shout to falling in love. Of that moment when you and your partner are on the crest of happiness. Yes, just in top of the wave. And even though it is the introspective song, it still is upbeat and catchy. A fantastic tune, one of my favourites Andrew has ever recorded. Just as a curious note, the master Alan Jenkins produced these two tracks. Who? Well, the Cordelia Records main guy, the Deep Freeze Mice gentleman that was also in the brilliant Chrysanthemums. The Shandy Express is not stopping, the fast steam engine is now almost halfway to release their new album ‘I’ve met the Man in the Street’. This will be their second after the ‘L~Songs’ that you can download freely from their website.

The CD is out now and you can preview two tracks here and get it by sending US$ 5 (includes postage to anywhere in the world) to shop [a] cloudberryrecords.com

Thanks again for the fantastic support!

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Ferns – Miss Stormcloud
The Shandy Express – Surfing on Love’s Wave

The last day of February was the release date of the latest 7″ on the label. It’s a fantastic 2 track record by the fantastic Play People out of Derby, England, including their catchy hit “Goes Out” on the A side and “Just Don’t”, the introspective piece, on the B side.

This is the second time we worked together, first time was on the sold out compilation “Ever Get the Feeling You’ve Been Cheated?” that came along the Bottle Rocket fanzine. On this team effort they opened the 3″ inch CD with the great “Meet Me Saturday”. Since that day we planned to make a 7″. It took a while indeed. Problems with delays on the pressing plant (it was sent to print at the same time as Hari and Aino) made it to come a bit later than expected! But those things don’t matter, now Play People are on what suits best for them: on plastic, on a black round bit of plastic. The elusive Playmobil gang, who may be the invention of one person, or maybe ten, have a great single in their hands. But will this be the end of the mystery of who really are the Play People? Seems not, maybe the wait will be over when they play their first gig? But none is programmed. I don’t even know their real faces! Maybe the story is true and they were born in a cold German factory? Seems there are not many answers around.

What we do know about them comes from a small press release:

Play People are Ralph, Clint, Nancy and Keith. They were formed in a dark German factory in the spring of 2008. Clint’s the lead singer and plays some guitar, Keith’s on drums, Nancy and Ralph share the rest between themselves, depending on what they fancy doing. Maracas or Rickenbacker? What do you fancy? They live in middle England, deciding the dark German factory was too dark and they settled for cold and rain. They don’t go out much but there’s not much outside, anyway. In September 2008, they released their debut single, “oh what a life…” on This Almighty Pop. They teamed up with Cloudberry Records and the track “Meet Me Saturday” was released on the ep “ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” “Goes Out” is the new single released on Cloudberry records, and this popkids, comes out on 7” vinyl.

But of course, what speaks best about them are their songs. So check them out, grab the single, listen to their songs on myspace, show some love. Don’t Stop Indiepop!

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Play People – Goes Out

Put your seatbelts on. Be prepared! The new volume of the fantastic series will be out in around a month! Again, after almost ten years of the first volume, we’ll have a new chance to listen and discover some fantastic pop slices from the heyday of indiepop. It’s all thanks to the lovely and friendly people from Firestation Records in Berlin. They, together with Clarendon Records and Billbery Records, have compiled a twenty one track CD that no one should miss.

Some familiar faces of this blog, as our pop trobadour Kevin McGrother, the Wee Cherubs and their magic, Mighty Mighty and that elegant jangly (who are announced to play at Indietracks festival!) and Home and Abroad’s introspective and classic indiepop. Opening the CD is Ala Pana Fuzo who I have interviewed and will be on the blog soon. A great band who I can’t wait to learn more. The Ferrymen is another band that will soon show up on this blog, especially as they have also just released a retrospective album titled “Tunes for Saturday Boys” on the Firestation label too. I recommend this one too, of course. And there are some new names for me as Huge Big Massive, Screaming Silence and Feline Jive to name a few.  But better look yourself what treats will show up on volume number seven.

01. Ala Pana Fuzo – Friend
02. Huge Big Massive – Here To Stay
03. Whirlpool Guest House – The Plumber’s Daughter
04. Screaming Silence – Same Old Story
05. Wee Cherubs – Dreaming
06. Endless Bob Brown – Be Good To Your Blood
07. Mighty Mighty – Emile
08. Home & Abroad – Back Were I Belong
09. Fire Hydrant Men – Baby I’m A U-Boat
10. The Dadas – Mercy Mercy
11. Irony Board – No Ties
12. The Gits – JK Rent
13. Reflection AOB – Only In My Dreams
14. Borgnine – Everything You Need
15. Hookling & Silverfish – Christine
16. Feline Jive – Blue Dawn
17. The Ferrymen – Summertime
18. Don’t Feed The Animals – Wealthy Man
19. Penelope’s Web – The Gap
20. Elephant Noise – New Town Tom
21. Kevin McGrother – You’ll Never Know

Looks great doesn’t it? And Uwe doesn’t stop, he is already working on Volume 8!

I’ll share with you another track by The Irony Board, an early nineties band, were Charlie Big Time’s Matthew and Broken Down Lorry’s Jon played. Hopefully an interview to them soon!

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The Irony Board – Gullible’s Travel