How was I supposed to feel the past weekend? I did travel upstate to Beacon, a charming and quaint little town, to visit their one and only attractive, dia:Beacon. A fantastic museum with pieces by renowned artists like Stella or Flavin, names that I remember like yesterday from my days in university. Everything was huge in the museum. Every piece. Every installation. Even the museum was huge. High ceilings. Stairs. Basements. Even the parking lot. I love traveling by train. That’s one thing I love about Europe, though there I end up going to a castle, or to a cathedral. But better not compare, it’s all different here. I traveled in good company this time around, and on top of that had cheap and tasty dim sum. True, I never had cheap and tasty dim sum in any of my European train travels.

I did have Chinese food once on a train travel in Europe. We were in Swansea a year and change ago. I was still in love, and I believe she was too. I hear these days she moves in with her new-ish boyfriend. Moving fast and big steps  my lucky mittens. How things change in so little time and how easy it is for some people. Anyhow, she taught me that time what was a water chestnut. I didn’t know it’s name before even though I had had it many times before. I think I thought it was some sort of crunchy potato kind of. If you are Peruvian you might be familiar with ‘olluco’. I thought it was something similar to that. That’s why I remember that day having Chinese food at around 6:00 pm, like a proper American because we had to burn time until the next Swansea-Cardiff train at 7:00pm. It was empty the restaurant. And there was no fortune cookie.

At the Beacon Dim Sum place it was different. When leaving there was a big bowl with tons of fortune cookies for one to take. How much fortune one can get?! I asked myself. I looked around. No one was checking. I grabbed a handful of fortune cookies and put them in my tote bag. To my surprise many of my friends that day did the same when leaving the restaurant. I guess, a lot of fortune is always a promising thing.

But the fact is there was no fortune. On Friday I headed to Erik’s to watch the game with a bunch of Peruvian friends. The game that we had all been waiting. Peru-Uruguay in Lima. At the Estadio Nacional. We had no injured players, most of our players starting in their clubs and giving fine performances. Only Zambrano from Eintracht Frankfurt was suspended, but it wasn’t much of a worry. We were supposed to win this game and be very close to qualifying. But, if we tied or lose our chances were going to disappear. Guess what. We lost. 1-2. Unbelievable. A game that we had in our pocket for the first 42 minutes when Uruguay barely crossed the midfield. When we created chances. When there was a penalty the referee didnt give us. When Pizarro once again failed to deliver an easy goal opportunity against Muslera. The fact is, we Peruvians are not made for clutch time.

When we need to win, when we need to make the kill. We don’t.

And that’s how I felt the whole weekend. The whole week. Heartbroken. Not by a girl like a year ago but by my national team. A team who got nervous, who kicked the table before it’s time. Who got exasperated and got red carded. When things were so close, when things needed cold blood, and good decisions, and to think with the head and not with the heart, that’s when we lost the game.  Some people in the many forums I read, blame it to a lack of world-class quality in our players, but I don’t believe that’s it. I don’t want our players be like Luis Suarez acting like everyone is breaking his leg after a little foul or provoking every opponent. That’s not fair play. Or Lugano jumping with his elbow on the opponents head to every loose ball. I don’t want that. That’s not class. That’s dirty. That’ not good. But I do want them to keep calm, and not break into desperation when everything is against us including referees and the mafia driven Conmebol. I hope this lesson is learned by the younger kids that will take on qualifying to Russia 2018. Because I’m very sure we will make it. We have a good generation coming up and we don’t need a effing visa to go to Russia unlike the EU who treats us a little less than terrorists. So we’ll make it, just keep the hope and don’t despair.

Of course my certainty and hope for the next qualifiers don’t take away my disappointment right now. We were close once again like in 1997 when we were eliminated by goal difference in favor of the arrogant little strip of land called Chile and I cried in front of the the TV alone when we lost that game in Santiago. Again a clutch game. And we lost it. The TV showing how the Chilean police hit our players at the airport. The Chileans attacking our players with racist chants and holding little black plush monkeys. You see European friends, you ban and disqualify teams like that. In South America no one cares. It’s all about money. And yeah, Chileans believe sometimes they are descended from those Aryan gods the third reich went looking in the Himalayas. The world a lot of times doesn’t make sense. I know.

That’s how I feel at 29. Happysad and very hopeful. 2018 will be the year when I’ll see Peru again in a World Cup. I may just as well skip traveling next year to Brazil and instead save that money and go to UK for Indietracks, for Indiepop, my other passion. Footie and girls are not all in this life you know.

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cantel : The raised section of the medieval war-saddle, high to keep the knight in the saddle.

Interesting, I love the medieval times, the crusades, castles and all that. But I doubt their name comes from there. Let’s check if as a last name it makes more sense.

Cantel: This very interesting name is early medieval and job descriptive, and refers to a bellman, one who rang the ‘Chanterelles’ – the trebles, or who sang the treble in a choir. The derivation is from the Olde French, the word being introduced by the Normans after 1066. There are at least five modern alternative spellings including Chantrell, Chantrill, Cantrell, Cantrill and Cantwell, sometimes the name is a diminutive meaning ‘Son of Cant or Chant’. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Philip Canterel which was dated 1203, in the “Staffordshire Assize Court” during the reign of King John, known as “Lackland”, 1199 – 1216.

I wonder if any of these entries shed some meaning about the band The Cantels. The truth is that we know a bit about them already because I wrote about their previous incarnation, The Capitols, some time ago.

One of my interesting ideas about their band name comes from the A side of The Capitols single. The name of the song was “Who Can Tell?”. So if you get ‘Can Tell’ you get Cantell. That’s almost as Cantels, right? Just an idea.

The only member I’m sure that was on both The Capitols and The Cantels was Sue Emilon.  But maybe there were more. I still don’t know who was Jimbo on The Capitols 7″.

The Cantels only released one 12″. It wasn’t an album but a max single. The A side had “I Want to Be Alone” and “Emily”. The B side had “Poor Misguided Fool” and “Pictures in Your Mind”. On the capitols we know Sue wrote all the songs. Here she wrote 1 and 4 and co-wrote 2 and 3 along with Simon Vincent (though on Discogs it credits it to a S. Maragah).

We do have names for the band mates on the back cover, but not last names. All of them start with an S. Coincidences? Sue played guitars and sung. She also played the piano on “Emily”. Steev drummed. Simon played guitar. Spencer bass. And Simon Vincent played organ.

There are some nice liner notes, some thank you notes, that read like this:
Thanks to Jane, Simon V, Rob and Anna, Phil Savage, Trevor, Simon Romer
Love and Thanks to Jane for giving me the Words to Emily

The record was released by Bubble Records in 1988, catalog Bubble 001, so I assume it was self-released.

The only other sort of clue is that they hailed from Moseley in Birmingham. I’ve never been there but I’ve read both The Rotter’s Club and The Closed Circle by Jonathan Coe, so it is kind of familiar to me.

And that’s really all I could find about them. I often ask myself if these names were fake names or not. On The Capitols I got to know that Tank was really Pete Byrchmore. Here in the Cantels it’s already puzzling that all have names starting with S. Also Sue Emilon was already using this same name when she was in The Capitols when everyone was using fake names.  Emilon being more of a French saint name.

Do anyone out there know anything else by this enigmatic band that? Did they record more songs? Did anyone catch them live? Whatever happened to them? I don’t want to leave them alone!

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Listen
The Cantels – I Want to Be Alone

It’s Sunday already. Indietracks’ last day. How should I feel? Honestly I feel gutted. I wake up with a sort of melancholy and nostalgia for previous years when the partying lasted much longer. Yesterday was a ‘fail’. There was no dancing. There was rain. It’s true, last year it was raining but the situation was different. I was a very happy man when nothing would ruin my vacations at Indietracks and then later at Wales. This year I was much more my usual self.

At least I’ll have free breakfast I thought. Make it before 11am again. I woke up late but I managed to be around 10:30am at the pub within the hotel. To my luck Cristóbal and the rest of my Spanish friends were there still.

After enjoying my necessary proteins and brown sauce for the day we headed towards the hotel entrance were Camera Obscura were getting ready to leave Derbyshire. They were all leaving, along with Francis McDonald on a big gray van. The only member of the gang that was staying for one last day of Indietracks was Lee. Andreas from Alpaca wasn’t shy at all and in the meantime, while they were waiting talked with Tracyanne and gave her a very nice present, the latest Alpaca Sports 7″. It made me grin of happiness, I know how big of a fan he is, I remember the day here in NYC when he played me twice the whole new album from a NPR stream. I thought there were some good songs on it, but he thought it was all so perfect!

To our surprise, to us who were around 10 people at the entrance waiting for our cabs, we received a present from Camera Obscura. A big box full of alcoholic treats! Wine bottles, beer cans, cider. Even water. Are we lucky or what? At that moment we decided that after Indietracks we would all meet at night, at the tables outside the pub of the hotel for our Indietracks after-party. We had now all that we needed.

Olaf and me got a free ride on Sam’s, from the Cosines, car. Jordan from Flowers rode shotgun. After a stop at a supermarket for some cash, and were I saw one of those low-life English men all beaten up after a drunken night that I only thought you see at the movies, we went all the way past Golden Valley campsite and to Indietracks grounds!

I remember Sunday to be very quiet at first. I met with Astrid, John and Amanda while they had very late breakfast by the vegetarian cafe. There were still no bands playing. Then I saw Kajsa and she was buying these long candies. Then to check the merch table where Michael from Pebble Records was giving me a hand. The Secret History records all were sold out. Same as the Flowers 7″s. I should have brought more of those, less of the t-shirts I thought.

The bar, the beer. The warm beer. There were owls too. Pet owls. Or exhibition owls. I don’t know. But there were some by the entrance. There were some by the bar too. I touched one of them on the head, and the belly. Carefully. I was afraid to being pecked and bleed out. I was just curious. I don’t think I’ve touch a bird since I had parakeets when I was six or so. And these were huge.

The first show I managed to see were Alpaca Sports at 3pm. The fifth time I see them within a year. Sometimes it goes like that doesn’t it? There are bands that you think you’ll never see and then boom, all of the time. I knew what to expect then. A flawless set of indiepop bliss. This time though there were some differences. Like their New York shows they would get help from friends. They got Miguel from The Felt Tips to play guitar and two of the Understudies to play bass and drums. Andreas always ambitious looking for a bigger sound. And why not? If it sounds better. I get goosebumps everytime I hear a song played live that I’ve released. I don’t think it’s because of self-importance, or a big ego. Sure there’s pride. But I’ve listened to these songs on repeat so many times that I feel they are almost my own. I know the lyrics by heart, especially when they are sung so clearly by a band. And that’s what happens to me with Alpaca Sports. But here there’s an exception, there’s the song “He Doesn’t Even Like You”, that I also feel like mine. When in NYC we listened to this song so many times. I would have loved to release it of course. I accompanied the band to record a video around the city. Times Square and places. I think I was supposed to appear on the video, but I’m glad I was cut off the final version. I would have looked so silly and unglamorous on it. Anyhow, that song is amazing and great to dance to it. Anyhow, the gig. It went too fast! I was standing next to Emma and her starcrushed eyes for Andreas. I was filming the whole thing. A few steps from me the Italians were singing all the songs, chanting them like tifosi. Everyone having a fantastic time. Dancing even. The French crowd was also at the front row. Jennifer was also filming but mainly Miguel. The intricacy of Miguel’s guitar playing was like always awing. Such a talent! And of course a great addition to Alpaca Sports sound this time. First time they all played together and again they managed a tight show, a fun show, and I can never say I’ve ever seen Alpaca Sports under-perform. They’ve always been the stars of every festival I’ve been.

So at the main stage we had to run for Flowers. Funny that Flowers always tell me they have the chance to see Alpaca Sports but for a reason or another, being at the same place at the same time, they can’t see them. This time because they were immediately after them and they had to set up their stuff. Though, now at Berlin Popfest I’m sure they’ll all see each other. Anyhow. Flowers. I’ve seen many nice reviews written about their gigs, the future that awaits for them, their growing popularity, and all. The surprising thing is, they are as lovely and as humble as I first talked to them. Like if they were still just a CDR band, giving their songs for free on bandcamp. Which they do of course. But they are so down to Earth that is surprising. No egos whatsoever. And perhaps that’s their secret for being so powerful on stage and for connecting with the crowd. A crowd that relates to their noisy guitars and Rachel’s inspired vocals. Powerful like always, they charmed us all. Friends of mine at the festival would come up to me later and tell me this was the best concert at Indietracks. I found Jordan just after and got their latest 7″ on Fortuna Pop, a record that continues to build the myth around the band. This is when I meet Remi, a Japanese fan. Perhaps the only Japanese fan at Indietracks this year. I introduce her to Jordan and we take photos. She happens to know Cloudberry too. I’m grateful. It made my day. I love her last name, it’s almost tsunami.

Church now. The Soulboy Collective are doing their sound check. The church is packed. When I turn around, because I took the front row seats I notice that everyone is either German or Spanish. You can’t ask for a noisier crowd! They play 6 songs. According to Olaf this is the longest set they’ve ever played. Last time he saw them in Germany they only played 3 songs. A shame indeed. Because their songs are truly beautiful, with great girl/boy vocals and classy arrangements. A very unique band, that sounds much different to any of the bands in the indiepop scene today. I guess at this time most people were watching Another Sunny Day on the train. The fact is, they missed one of the best gigs at Indietracks. Jürgen almost hiding behind the mixing desk and singing there shyly, and then in front a friendly and bubbly Lex, charming us with her big smile, and why not mention the guitar player with his thin mustache and Fred Perry wardrobe that was having the time of his life jangling along! I believe it was when they announced that they were playing “It’s All Because of You” that all the Spanish went nuts. Or was it with the last song? I can’t remember. Anyhow, it was pure beauty and because I was so charmed by it I left my shyness away, said hello to them and asked them to join me in a bunch of photos. Things a fan does.

Indoor stage. Making Marks. I believe they have only just arrived do Indietracks. I haven’t seen them around. When I got to the shed they were already on stage prepping up their instruments. From far away I said hello to Ola and then to Nina. I didn’t see them after the gig after. I wonder if they enjoyed themselves at Indietracks. I guess they did. The one thing that struck me about this show was the in-between songs, Ola telling the best stories and jokes this festival. After their show, I wouldn’t have been surprised that the stock Fika Records had brought of their 7″ sold out. A lot of people now were telling me this was the best show at the festival. For me, it was the moments when they played My Little Pony songs, that one song Ola loves telling it was a hit on MTV in Norway, that’s the best one. But don’t get me wrong, Making Marks, albeit a bit different, also have great songs. This “Barcodes” one is a true hit! And the crowd noticed, and the crowd loved it.

7:20pm. Getting a bit tired by now? Not at all. Back to the church. I have a mission in life. And that is to see The Fireworks. I had met already Shaun earlier on the day and had a bit of an incident with my Wedding Present t-shirt. But now it was time for watching Matthew’s band. A band that now counts with Emma and Isabel! Last time I saw them at Indietracks was a different lineup. I think I like this lineup much better I must say. In any case the show was a blast of throwback pop. It sounded like I was transported back to 87, listening to demo tapes of obscure bands. The Fireworks could have been one of them. Wearing anoraks and Pastels badges. Noisy, ringing guitars, bouncy basses, catchy songs, all the ingredients you need to make yourself a good band. I know Matthew for some time now, and we always have a good laugh, but whenever I see him singing, with a guitar, it is just so strange. I can’t never picture him. In fact I have forgotten the image of him playing already. I do know he is wearing a hat. And that must be it. I need to see photos. I just can’t picture him. And who cares, if they are so good live and I forget their looks or their dances or their mannerisms.  What I care is that I want to see them live again. They were really fantastic! You all better get their debut 7″ on Shelflife if you haven’t!

Time for dinner. I think I’m getting the last pieces of chicken the burrito place has. From the hill I see the main stage, The Wake are playing. I find Jennifer and we go and sit in a quiet place. We munch away, catching up. I have barely talked to her during Indietracks. I think she has been spending too much time at the stationary train.

Walking back towards the shed. On the way there Liz from The School stops me. “Do you want to be on stage with Helen Love?” she asks me. I had met Helen Love a bit ago, I stopped her and told her I was a big fan and took a photo, etc etc etc. Things I do. And now I can be on stage? Seriously? I am all up for it I say. Shooing glitter guns? Of course, even better. Let’s do it. She says to meet by the left entrance to the stage. To stand there and that she might need more people. I see Viktor around. He is a big fan too. I tell him about it, and he is up for it. And then by the front row there’s Joanny, Clemence and Amanda. They are up for it too. Kajsa is also up for it. Isabel starts putting glitter in our faces. I’ve never felt so manly in my life.

Helen Love is on and it’s being so MUCH fun. We are all jumping, up and down like atomic beat boys. Singing the songs. More like shouting the songs. It feels everyone knows them by heart here! This is an apotheosis already. We are all having the best time, dancing, almost pogoing. She plays all the classics, from “Girl About Town” to “Happy Hardcore”. It’s like she knows what we all want. It’s one of the gigs I’m going to treasure the most. And then suddenly they tell us is time for us to go in. So people start going in. And then suddenly the bouncer says that’s it. Stop. No more. And Joanny, Victor, Clemence, Amanda and me are like ‘what’s going on?’. We were asked to do it. It seems other people cut in line! Some unknown indiepop fans. Kajsa and Isabel got in. Marianthi too. Tim and Liz. What’s going to happen to us. We talk to the bouncer, and suddenly they say 4 more people or so can come in. Sadly Amanda is left out. But the rest of us go in. And then when “Does Your Heart Go Booooooom?” is about to start we all join Helen Love on stage, we shoot glitter guns and we dance like possessed people. This is all so well documented on Youtube mind you. We have the time of our lives. I remember this moment still vividly. I never expected I would do such a thing. Will I blame it on the beer or on my love for Helen Love? I dont know. Then the gig is over, I run and pick up a setlist and give Helen Love a BIG hug. For me, Indietracks has ended. I don’t want to watch any other bands. This is the memory I want to keep.

Now it was time for dancing. And I don’t know but there were no indie discos this year. I saw a post by Dennis on Anorak forum stating the same. I wasn’t alone in this. But what can I say. If I complain I get the whole British crowd against me like that one time at London Popfest when a club night didn’t care about us the indiepop people. Anyhow, at least this year they played some cheesy pop songs, and well, I’m into that too, especially when I want to just dance and be foolish. So sure, I can handle Madonna then. That’s when they played that song that I talked it was Magneto’s “Vuela Vuela” but in French. But no, it was Desireless’ “Voyage Voyage” the original. This is when we all did the train dance to some tropical sounding song. This is when I showed off some dancing skills without falling to the floor. Carl, Amanda, Amanda 2, Amanda 3, Joanny, Astrid, and more were all putting the dancefloor on fire!!!

Funny fact here. I see a guy on the dancefloor wearing a t-shirt that says Peru, with a llama. Guess what? I introduce myself and take a photo with him. Yeah, things a drunk person does.

Then by midnight of course they tell us we have to go. Hugs, kisses, time to say goodbye. Take the last train. Some making out happens in front of me. I get to talk to Graeme for a little bit, tell him to play another show! And then the ride is over. Long wait for a taxi. Pierre and me take the last one to show up almost at 1:30am. At the hotel people are bringing the box out that Camera Obscura gave us as a gift. We are all at the table, maybe around 20 of us. We are happysad. We talk for many more hours. We are leaving Derbyshire very soon, as soon as we wake up possibly. It’s all going to be so sad. But hopefully there’s next year to get our spirits high again. Be back at Swanwick Junction, because as they say in thee modern times, Indietracks I <3 you.

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Listen
Northern Spies – Swanwick Junction

I must have woken up early on Saturday. Breakfast is served at the pub until 11am. But I must have been around 10:00 am at the pub. As I learned last year, I made myself comfortable at my friend’s table, joining Cris, Madidi, Yago, and the whole Spanish crew and then headed to serve myself breakfast. This way I get breakfast for free instead of 7 or 8 pounds. I love that there’s no control for it and the people working there don’t care obviously. It is true though that last year I couldn’t get away with murder everyday as my ex-girl end up making me pay 2 of 3 breakfasts, but this year I made it to 3 free breakfasts. Sometimes it’s nicer to be single.

Proper English breakfast then. Sausages, many of them, beans, egg, tomatoes. Orange juice. And then I love HP Brown sauce over my sausages. I mix it all. Tastes heavenly. Very unhealthy though. But three times a year doesn’t hurt.

I joined Carlos and Maria on a taxi towards Butterley Station. We arrived just on time, the train was about to leave. We walked towards the front of the train, all the way to the bar were we had a very nice talk with the old gentleman that was acting as bar tender. He recommended us some beers that we took happily. I can’t remember the name right now, but I remember it had some bees printed on the aluminum, yellow and black cans. He was explaining that these beers used to be stronger back in the day, that they were made in the Midlands but god knows where they are made. Modern times as they call them.

As soon as we arrived to Indietracks grounds we knew we had to be smarter and just cross towards the first wagon and get a good place. We swiftly did that before anyone got on. Eventually the whole Indietracks was in this wooden car making  it the hottest place I’ve ever been in. What was all this fuss about? Why this heat? Why all these people? Northern Spies was going to play.

I admit not having heard any of the songs before, as when it comes to new bands I’m usually under a rock. I had heard Astrid’s other project though, Don’t Cry Shopgirl, and I love it. So for me, it made a lot of sense to go check Northern Spies. At least I knew she could sing nicely. With everyone of us sweating, bathing the car’s floor with drops falling off our faces, Astrid began a beautiful set of acoustic pop that must have lasted around 25 minutes. With jokes and stories in between songs, and unexpected charm, she made the heat almost bearable. Everyone’s t-shirts were wet. Hair was flattening. But we all gave a round of applause every time a song was over. Sweet and very descriptive, smart and quirky, that’s how the songs sounded like. From the top of my head I remember the song about Indietracks, “Swanwick Junction”, whose lyrics and feeling was, I’m sure, very dear to all of us in the crowd. And then the song “America” where Astrid sings about her next trip, a dream trip, to the US. A trip that I believe is around the corner, and where she will be playing a show here in my town, in NYC! I look so much forward to that, to hear these songs again, and perhaps be transported for a bit to Indietracks. Ah! The memories!

After we all got off the train, Astrid did a little reprise for a little kid that was on the platform. One last song. That’s when I see Paul Sunbather arriving wearing a great Trixie’s Red Motorbike t-shirt. I was very jealous of it. Where do I get it? Supposedly at Trixie’s site! I should order it now before I forget! Then as soon as I could I headed to the bathroom to wash. I needed to freshen up! I had been melting on the train.

I got to listen just a bit of Finnmark afterwards, just the end. Every one that saw the whole thing was praising them. They seemed to have sounded really well, so I bought their CDR for 5 pounds. Very pricey. I still haven’t listened to it though. But will get round to it soon. You know, there’s a big pile of CDs to listen.

More beer then. Back to the indoor stage. Choo Choo Trains are playing. I listen to two or three songs and I’m not into it. I’m not captured by the sound. Shame as I like all-girl bands. I thought crosses my mind, the drummer looks very much like Dolly Mixture drummer.

After heading out and talking to every single person at Indietracks I return, minutes before 3pm to the indoor stage. I buy and fulfill my beer needs and head all the way to the front. What’s happening? Well, Pale Spectres are playing. If I had seen them on Thursday in London and thought they were brilliant, well, at Indietracks they were even more brilliant. They truly deserved a bigger crowd, and they got it. Cute moment when Rafael was taking photos of the crowd from his drumming position. Or Stephane being almost a kangaroo jumping all around the stage while he was pounding the bass. You could tell they were having the best of fans, enjoying like it was their last concert. And you could see next to me all their French friends and girlfriends, falling head over heels for them, with pride, with excitement, with that sort of feeling that you know that your friends are making a mark here. And I must say I mixed in there, I joined that feeling. I was happy to be able to call them friends, to know them, and now to work with them in this future 7″ that will include four songs that they included in their set. You don’t want to miss that. This is one of the best bands around. Hands down.

What time it is? Well, it’s lunch time. Let’s try the burrito today. No pull pork? What do you have? Only chicken? Well let’s get some chicken. Put some more spicy sauce please. Avocados. No sour cream. Never sour cream please. Now The Understudies are on stage. I wait for Miguel to join them. They sound beautifully. What a lovely band they are. Not the first time I see them. But they always sound good. They are quite unique these days in their sound. They are ambitious, but not pretentious. They have a very polished taste I think. They are elegant. And they dress elegant too. I sit down at a table with Elin and Lindsay. Emma joins us too. Eating a burrito with friends. The Understudies sounding on the back, can lunch get better than this?

I think I got to listen the last Fever Dream song. I can’t remember by now. It sounded very hipster to me. I wasn’t thrilled. Everyone raves about them though, there must be something. I hope they have some releases soon so I can properly listen. More beer. I get to talk with one of the bar tenders for quite a bit. Our conversation revolves on the fact that there are no refrigerators. He tells me if anyone was to donate a refrigerator, next year we would have cold beer at last. People, maybe some of you have a big refrigerator you don’t need?

Let’s watch When Nalda Became Punk. The whole Spanish crowd starts filling the front area of the indoor stage. Elena can’t ask for more support. We learn that it is Antonio’s birthday too and he has got a nice present. A cat photo, framed. 1 pound I believe, bought at the merch tent. The framed cat adorns the stage now. They have plenty of stories, I love stories in between songs. I don’t like when bands start thanking every other band that ever existed or the venue because they don’t know what else to say while they are tuning their instruments in between songs. I prefer stories. And Nalda has them. The songs to me sound better than at Madrid Popfest, they sound chiming and fun. Bouncy and catchy. Way to go! Fun and tight, Nalda enchanted the Indietracks crowd. For me, I especially like the boy/girl vocals songs that they have. Check those out, they are really good. It’s really like the Spanish Pop I always loved but sang in English, without losing that classic charm of the bands from the badly called tontipop era.

Time for The Great Ghostby and him doing unheard things with the American flag. The Secret History are giving one of the best shows I’ve ever seen them. Michael is covering his head, his face, with the American flag. The band is just pouring all the energy they’ve got. You can’t think they have jetlag if you are seeing what I’m seeing. They are like an stampede of pop, of guitars, of drums, of fabulous lyrics and immense songs. My Spanish friends tell me how huge they are. How much attitude, how much “balls”, they have. That it’s unheard for English bands to come and give this much on stage. I tell them that it’s also unheard for American bands. It’s a fabulous show, playing again some My Favorite songs, songs that make Arnar the happiest fan ever. He would tell me later that was the best moment of the festival. He would have never expected to hear them again after so many years when he did in Sweden. Viktor is terribly happy. Everyone is. After the show we all take photos with Michael and Gil. Everyone is smiling. You can say The Secret History have conquered England. As I said on a previous post. The Secret History – Amazing live, if you miss them, you die. Hope you didn’t miss them then kids.

How much longer can this post get!? Then I headed for the McTells and more beer at the shed. I had a bunch of McTells records in London and I was supposed to bring them to Indietracks to get them signed. But guess what? I forgot. It was a fine show. But for some reason or another I ended up distracted chatting with people. I feel I was a bit overwhelmed with so many shows and it was time to rest. Socialize. So after the McTells I decided to skip The Pastels. I know, they are The Pastels. I love so many of their songs. But if I’m terribly honest I’m not that keen in their later stuff. Though from far away I heard them playing Nothing to Be Done. And I admitted defeat this time. The Pastels win. And me? I was far away while everyone was enjoying that perfect slice of pop.

Then what everyone was afraid happened. RAIN. Stupid English rain. Everything starts getting muddy and sticky. The restaurants closed. So no dinner. Everyone starts pulling out their umbrellas, their ponchos. Some are already prepared and have their rain boots on. Feeling miserable. But don’t despair. The best thing ever at Indietracks is about to happen. The best gig by far is just around the corner at the indoor stage. A bunch of cool gentleman come on stage, leading them is Davey Woodward. At his left there’s a guy with a trumpet. I grin of happiness. I secure a spot on the front row. Because I want to see them close, next to a father and a daughter. A daughter that is on her dad’s shoulder, holding a Brilliant Corners LP. I’m close too because I want a setlist after the gig. And so, it starts. And they sound so tight, so perfect, as in their records. Right now I don’t know or care how they sounded in the 80s. For me, how they sounded that day was timeless. It was the way I always expected them to sound and my plane tickets to UK were well spent. They played all the classics (well, what I assume are the classics!), from “Teenage” to “Oh!”, from “Rambling Rose” to “Why Do You Have to Go Out With Him…”, and so on. “Brian Rix” was also there. And they played “Meet Me on Tuesdays”. And then once again after people asked, shouted, for an encore, The Brilliant Corners treated us once more for “Meet Me on Tuesdays”. It was magical. And having had the chance to talk for a bit with Davey after the concert over a beer was very nice as well. Sadly the Brilliant Corners were there just for a day. They played their show and had to leave instead of enjoying the festival. I hope Davey can come next year maybe with the Experimental Pop Group! That’d be great too! But as they say, The Brilliant Corners can claim on their own, vini, vidi, vici. Because they did.

Terrible news now. The rain is awful and Camera Obscura are not playing at the big stage. They have to move to the indoor one. The discos are canceled. I don’t believe Camera Obscura were happy about it. They wanted the big stage, the bigger crowd, the better sound. But what can they do. The rain is ruining it. I hope they are not pissed! I’m always afraid of Tracyanne being pissed. This is their last show in a long time, Im sure they want to do their best. They are all looking really sharp and good today. I lost my spot at the front. I’m at the back now, chit chatting with people and getting more beer. I listen to them from there. They sound great. I look at the stage. Tracyanne is sitting, perhaps tired. It doesn’t matter, she still sings beautifully. And when their new hit “Break it to You Gently” I get truly happy. That’s the one song I really like in the new album.

Then everything is over. There’s no dancing. Most of my friends have already left the festival grounds towards the hotel. People suffer when there’s rain. They lose their minds. They overreact. I want to stay and party. I would go to the campsite but the rain doesnt seem like it’s stopping soon. They are calling for the last train. I walk towards the entrance, well more like running, and under my umbrella I have myself, Astrid, and Amanda. I wonder how am I doing this. Tiny umbrella. I dont have a better idea to give my umbrella away for the girls to get kind of dry to the campsite. I’ll manage alright on a cab. I will be dry. The night is over. And it’s over with a bittersweet taste, that I didn’t party as I would have wanted but I saw some fantastic life-affirming gigs.

I ride the taxi with Arnar and Rasmus back to South Normanton. We stay talking outside the hotel for a bit. Kenny from Camera Obscura joins us for a bit. They all smoke. I’m still a non-smoker. The wee hours. We know already that this is almost over. There’s just one more day of festival and then everyone will be leaving this Disneyland of indiepop. If only…

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Heaven’s Above: Heavens Above! is a 1963 British satirical comedy film starring Peter Sellers, directed by John and Roy Boulting, who also co-wrote along with Frank Harvey, from an idea by Malcolm Muggeridge. It is in much the same vein as earlier collaborations between Sellers, Harvey and the Boultings, Private’s Progress and I’m All Right Jack.

Today’s obscure band is as obscure as it can get. I only know of one single recording by them, and it’s not the best sounding. It sounds like a demo, of course. But it’s quite a curiosity I think. And I think there’s some value to that. Their song is called “Autumn Anorak”. That’s like über indiepop. And was it because of the movie that they gave themselves that name? I don’t know. Heaven’s Above was a band from the UK. That’s as far as I can tell.

This recording comes from another very obscure tape compilation called “123456 Road Runner”. There’s absolutely no information about this tape on the web unless google forget to find it. The song appears on the B side of the tape, being the fifth song there.
There are some known names on it though, like The Prescriptions, Strawberry Story, The Snowbirds, All Over The Place, The Losers, Fat Tulips, The Cudgels, The Lovelies, Dreamscape and Dalek Beach Party. The rest of the bands on it, I’ve never heard of. But there are some interesting surprises. Like this one with it’s fabulous chorus, “Be My Anorak Baby”.

So who can help me shed some light on this band? Or even on this tap compilation?

Edit: Uwe from Firestation just tipped me that they also appeared on a tape compilation called “A Prospect of the Sea” that you can check the tracklist here. It was released on Cloud Production (Smile 003) and they included “Autumn Anorak” and also another song called “God Told Me To Do It” . No clue how this other song sounds!

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Listen
Heaven’s Above – Autumn Anorak

July arrived and the horoscope tells me Jupiter is in my Cancer house. Whatever that means, sounds good. Because if this planet is going to bring me lots of gifts then it chose the right month. Why is that? Because we are only weeks away from Indietracks. The Disneyland of indiepop, the Shangri-La of C86, our own McDonald’s ball pit of DIY guitar fun. So yesterday I went through the announced schedule and aside from two clashes that I might manage, it feels like a very straightforward time for me. Not many difficult decisions to make.

So here is what I posted yesterday on facebook to share with my friends (who have first dibs in my calendar making, obviously).

Friday

As always this is the most straightforward day. Last year I missed Friday so I look forward to it a lot this time around. I think Friday’s are the perfect day to catch up with friends I haven’t seen in many months (many since LAST Indietracks!). From the bands playing I’m only curious about Big Wave as I did like the 7″ they put out. And yes, dancing with the French DJs at the marquee who are the only DJs I think I’m going to enjoy this year!

Saturday

12:30 – Northern Spies. Just because I like the name (?). This is on one train. Though it all depends if I wake up early.

13:00-13:40 – Finnmark! Really not my cup of tea yet. But I like what they are striving for, what they represent.

14:00-14:40 – Choo Choo Trains or lunch. There’s no curry this year, right? What am I having? Last year I had vegetarian fish and chips. WTF.

15:00-15:40 – Pale Spectres! First band I really look forward seeing. Though I would have seen them the previous day at Jennifer’s gig, it doesn’t matter. One of my new favourite bands.

16:00-16:40 – Fever Dream (?) or Woog Riots (?). I DON’T KNOW. Probably just have beers around.

** – EDIT. I missed this:
15:40-16:20 – The Understudies. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen them. So yeah. This is the one for this time. Sorry Matthew. Will have to miss Fever Dream! (Miguel from the Felt Tips will be joining them on guitars – and I hear he is joining another band this festival too!)
— **

16:40-17:00 – Milky Wimpshake. Catching just a bit of them.

17:00-17:40 – When Nalda Became Punk. Supporting Elena of course.

17:40-18:20 – The Secret History. Latest Cloudberry release. Amazing live. If you miss them, you die.

18:20-18:40 – McTells. This is the tough one. I don’t want to miss their previous 20 minutes when Secret History are playing. How do I deal with this? First clash of the festival.

19:40-20:20 – The Pastels. Just because they are The Pastels. To be honest, their latest album is so-so. People rave about it and say Club 8’s is bad. But it’s the other way around. Club 8 is the amazing album of the year.

20:20-21:10 – Brilliant Corners. The ONE gig that convince me that I had to go to Indietracks this year.

21:15-22:15 – Camera Obscura. Because they canceled their show in NYC in March. And now they are playing in the park here and I don’t want to be around all the shirtless hipsters. And that song “Break it to You Gently” is AMAZING.

I dont know any of the DJs. Any recommendations?

Sunday

13:20-14:00 – The French Defence. They don’t have much of a name. But the songs i remember listening on Myspace aeons ago were fab. I wanted to put a 3″! Hope it is as good as then.

15:00-15:40 – Alpaca Sports. So, there’s an hour gap here. Probably good for lunch. Then of course seeing my Swedish friends (and their international supporting band). Very much looking forward to this. They were immense in NYC.

15:40-16:20 – Flowers. Wasn’t this two obvious? I think everyone will be at both gigs. They were also fabulous in NYC. Looking forward to getting their new 7″.

16:20-17:00 – Soulboy Collective. Things are getting very obvious here. A beautifully crafted album on Firestation and a rare performance! Yeah yeah, you say that Another Sunny Day is playing on a train at the same time. No thanks. Guy with a guitar is not Another Sunny Day. Hate me if you like.

17:00-17:40 – Making Marks. I like them since they were My Little Pony. Nice singles, nice people. Easy choice.

18:20-19:00 – Fireworks. Of course. How could I miss Matthew, Emma and Isabel? And their 7″ single is really good too!

19:40-20:00 – The Wake. For a bit. Looking forward to seeing The Orchids’ guys!

20:15-21:10 – Helen Love. Ok. This is the OTHER gig that convinced me it was time to spend a lot of money to travel to UK. Being a fan since I started listening indiepop. I LOVE Helen LOVE. Happy days.

21:15-22:15 – Still Corners. I feel it might be anti-climatic to end with them. A bit too dreamy? But they are GOOD. So I should enjoy it and then go to bed (?).

DJs? Again, no clue!

After posting this, important knowledge came immediately from my friends.

First of all I learned that there will still be curry. But it will continue to be strictly vegetarian. The second thing that I learned is that the people DJing on Friday are not the French gang that every year bring their excitement to the festival and that also organize amazing gigs in Paris, but a team from Brighton. I was told they are good though, so I will check them out.

So, what are YOUR thoughts about the schedule and tell me if you are coming to Indietracks! If so, let’s grab one of those warm beers and meet up!

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So because I’m feeling all international, with all these bands I’m going to see and all these friends I will see again, many since last Indietracks, it’s time to rediscover one of the bands I was most excited about in 2006. Thing was, they only put out this one demo CD and then disappeared into oblivion.

This was quite an international band. With members hailing from Spain, England and Sweden. Somehow they all ended up meeting in Madrid. And that’s how Las Pulpas came about.

Las Pulpas mean the octopuses, but female octopuses. Why did they name the band that way? I don’t know. I want to think they loved eating octopus. Because it’s really tasty, isn’t it?

I got in touch with them back in 2006. It was MySpace times. They were very kind to send me a demo CD all the way from Madrid to Miami. The CD contained three songs “Me Estoy Cansando” (I’m getting tired), “Vaya Momento” (What a moment), and “Angels on TV”. The first two being my favourites! Top songs. Naive, smart and with quite some nerve. Intelligent lyrics too. I thought good things were going to happen to the girls. I would have signed them if I had Cloudberry then. But I was surprised by the myopic Spanish labels. How did they didn’t sign them?! It’s a shame now, 7 years later, to see they didn’t put out anything out. Question remains though if they had any more songs recorded. I hope so.

The demo CD called “Some Pulpas are Bigger than Others” (is that a Smiths nod?) was reviewed by a couple of Spanish fanzines and blogs. From Rafa’s El Planeta Amarillo (and you know, Rafa never misses Indietracks!) we learn some things. Rafa compares them to Los Fresones Rebeldes, early Nosotrash, Sybil Vane, Hello Cuca, The Pipettes and even Alaska y los Pegamoides. I think he is on the right track. Especially with the early Nosotrash claim. He tells us that that Las Pulpas were a sextet and that there’s people hailing from Murcia, Rafa’s hometown. Ros from Electralane is part of the band. Ochi from a band called Ochiqueochenta is also part. Emma and Ochi sing. Sonia plays keyboards; Ana bass; Ros guitars; Aurora drums; Marina goes to every practice. Alexis misses many; and Dani doesn’t show up. He also explains us that the song “Angels on TV” is dedicated to Àngels Barceló, a tv presenter from Barcelona.

I remember now. It was Sonia who I was in touch with and who sent me the CD. Wonder if she still makes music!

There’s another interesting blog post on a blog called Katovizate! from 2006. There they mention that Las Pulpas have a song called “Felices Fiestas del Mañana” (Happy holidays of the future). Also that they have a big legion of fans. Was that song available somewhere else? Was it even recorded? And what happened to that legion of fans? Why is there so little written about online. Come on, 2006 wasn’t 1986. We had internet.

I don’t know what the girls do these days. Perhaps they all moved to their respective home countries and home cities. That could be it. They didn’t come to Madrid Popfest that’s for sure.

If anyone remembers anything about them, if anyone has any other songs. Please get in touch. I would love to know what happened to the charming Las Pulpas and their fun pop songs!

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Listen
Las Pulpas – Me Estoy Cansando

Well last week was quite prolific for the blog. There were five posts overall. Four interviews plus one of those obscure band write-ups I love to do. Can’t say I’m too inspired today to write a full-fledged post. You see, I woke up to the news that some tall truck had pass by my street and cut the wire that brings internet at home. After hours with customer service, technical support, and the terrible music they make you listen while waiting for someone to answer I managed to get an appointment for tomorrow morning. Mind you, at first they insisted their only available time for restoring my service was on Saturday. That’s five days of waiting. What a terrible service Time Warner.

I was just thinking that this might be right now the longest standing blog about indiepop out there. Could that be right? I mean, none of the blogs that I used to read back in 2008 are still around. Perhaps I am missing something. But if this was the case whatever happened to them? Why did they stop? And then I might ask, because sometimes friends ask me, where do you find out about the latest news about the bands you like, the labels you support?

And I feel it’s a very valid question, as I don’t even keep up with the trends or news on this blog. This blog is mostly an extension of my record collector habits, which means older music, from the 80s usually, the heyday of indiepop. Sure I listen a lot of new stuff, but as they are still writing their story, I’m not that keen in documenting it that way, with interviews and such. I want to be part of their story, I want to meet them and spend time with these bands, with these friends. It’s a bit of a different dynamic. So back to my question, whereabouts you learn what’s going on in indiepopworld?

I like that Twee.net has a feed of blogs on their front page. I’m happy that this blog is featured there among others. I’ve checked the others and though you might  tell me that I’m being a bit fascist about it, they are a bit too broad in their indie spectrum for my taste. I don’t care about the 60s much either. Not to read about it at least.

Do you believe it is for us to blame the blogs who offered full album downloads? I feel they do play a big part on it. People got used to it, where words didn’t matter, just a link to a mediafire hosted file. Vacuous of course, but extremely easy for those lazy fans that expanded their knowledge thanks to a click of a mouse. It didn’t matter the background, who the band were, what inspired them, who they were, where were they based. Who cares, right? In the end is just the same, an MP3. A simplistic way of understanding music, of making sense of indiepop. Truly, I can’t think of them as fans. Just hipsters riding the wave.

Perhaps it has to do with that too, indiepop was hip for a little while. With acts like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart or Veronica Falls. Even Camera Obscura. 2007 to 2009 lots of people embraced the sounds of jangle guitars and catchy chorus. These bands became household names for the Urban Outfitters generation. I welcomed the news with happiness, to see more people liking the music I love would have meant better sales, more recognition, and most importantly more bands making this sound. But as history repeats itself, it only lasted for a bit. These people weren’t interested in the music or the meaning of indiepop, just about what was cool at the moment. Hipsters. So they just moved on to the next thing. Whatever it is these days? Chill-wave? I’m clueless.

So if there are so little readers around, if the crowd interested in indiepop shrunk, why keep writing? Why keep researching, why keep sharing the knowledge, if you are not going to get any recognition for your work or time? And you might laugh, but there were several bloggers in the indiepop scene that became a bit of household names, not necessarily for their writing skills, but I’m not here to discuss their virtues and defects, at least they existed and in a way that was good.

Sure, platforms like Spotify, might help you discover some new bands with their sort of algorithmic processes to find you similar bands. Same as Last.fm. But really, how many indiepop bands go through the trouble of paying and figuring out how to put their music in these apps? Not many. So yes, if that’s how you find your music, you are only touching the tip of an iceberg.

I must say that at this point, for me, the only reasonable and effective way to learn about new music is still word of mouth, or what is the digital age equivalent, the facebook news feed. A friend posting a video of an unknown band, or a soundcloud link, can be the best way to discover a gem of a song. But that’s happened since forever. Mix tapes, mix CDs, have been around too.

I’ll reformulate the question then, who is making sense of the music? Who is telling you what is good or what is bad? Who is valuing the songs? Does everything have the same quality? Who is actually giving a thought, giving it’s real valuable time, to understand and interpret what one is listening? Not in an arbitrary way of course, but an opinion, a not biased judgement one can trust.  Or are we lost in trusting websites like the big P where you get reviews if you pay happily to some marketing genius, thousands to a PR? That’s perhaps the big label model, but us, small enthusiasts of indiepop, are we going to forget the long tradition of fanzines, of people who loved so much the music that they would invest their time to write and recommend their favourite songs to like-minded people? Is that’s what’s coming up? The death of indiepop criteria, where people at forums are happy to say “I think this is indiepop, because I have a broader way of defining the term” or “let’s not fight about what indiepop is” like we’ve become sissies and can’t have a passionate discussion of what this represent to us? Like we are going to be apathetic and just agree to everything? All I’m saying is we need more voices. Can someone speak up?

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After losing twice at the last second Sarah #1 (that is the Pristine Christine single by The Sea Urchins, though I shouldn’t be explaining this, right?), I was lucky enough to find a two dollar copy of the Boys From the East’s “Brilliant” 7″.

I didn’t know about them at all a couple of weeks back. I think I saw them on a Japanese store listing and then found one of their songs on Youtube. I played it. And I liked it. Simple as that. That song was “Brilliant”, the A side of the single. The problem was that it was an almost 8 minute remix. A remix by James Cassidy, who according to Discogs has even worked with Catherine Zeta-Jones (?).

The song sounded great, but I needed to listen to the original one. The one on the 7″. Because this remix is the A side of the 12″ version of the single. The 12″ did include the original one, titled “Brilliant (Radio Edit)” as B1. The other song included in both 12″ and 7″ was “Icarus”. Though on the 12″ a live version was included.

Both songs are really great. Not exactly in the classic sound of indiepop, but closer to favourite acts like Two People or The Word. You know, a good mix of indiepop and new wave. Class.

This record was released on Final Cut Records and the catalog number was FINC 1. This as far as I know was the only release on the label. So I assume this was the band’s own label.

There are some credits for the songs too, though sadly we don’t get to know the band members through them: both songs had Ben Doyle and Jon Mallinson as assistant engineers, and were engineered and produced by Tony Harris.

The other bit of important information comes from the address of the label. It’s on Clarendon Road, very close to the Wood Green underground stop. North London. So, 1987, North London, that’s where and when these guys were around. Not really boys from the east then, but from the north.

The cover credits are for “Big” Gov and “Big” Glenn. There are special thanks to Mick Fitzgerald and Jon Mallinson.

But here is the interesting part. There is another single by Boys from the East. It’s not listed on Discogs but it seems that is not difficult to track. Make sure that it does have originally a picture sleeve. There are some places were they sell it without. I have yet to find one for myself though, but hopefully it will happen in the next couple of weeks!

I haven’t heard this single but it has on the A side the song “Eastern Eyes” while on the B side it has “Work Hard”. This was released on another label, Kirk Records in 1984. Catalog number WF002. I wonder what it sounds like.

And that’s all I could find about this great record. Does anyone out there know anything else about this band? Did they have any other releases? Did they play often in London? Who were they? And what happened to then? Get in touch! Would be great to fill in the blanks and know a bit more about Boys from the East.

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Listen
Boys from the East – Brilliant

So that petition I urged everyone to sign at the White House page has expired because it failed to reach the amount of signers required. It’s probably how things will be then for at least a year, high postage to send records abroad. I don’t want to cause panic, but it’s pretty obvious we won’t thrive though some geniuses at Darla are boasting that they are having amazing sales and all other record labels are whiners. Good for them. It shows how “indie” they are, giving a f@ck about the rest.

Doing some research around, looking for reasons for this collapse of our beloved USPS, explanations on what had happened I found two very interesting posts on the eBay Forums:

Globally, Some countries have been in the middle of an economic downturn. Since the USPS International rates are standardized across most countries- changes for the majority effect even the minority. Plus it makes things less complicated. Many countries want MORE money, and by definition share of the money spent on postage, to process international mail that comes into their country. Very Cheap International Postage made the amount of money, when split between both the USPS and the receiving country kinda small. So they have corrected it so that both the USPS is happy with the money they make and that the receiving country is happy too.Since the UPU the body that help sets the rates only formally meets every four years we get sticker shock.

As far as UK buyers are concerned, there will be huge ramifications of this USPS price hike. This is because there is a paltry £15 limit (which was REDUCED from £18 recently) on the value of any incoming parcels, and this INCLUDES the postage cost. Anything over that gets slapped with a 20% customs charge and – wait for it –  a flat £8 “administration” fee. So even a small hike in postage will mean that buyers, even of small light and inexpensive items (like myself), will be deterred from continuing to buy, since the new prices will most likely push the value over the UK tax threshold. Ironically, it will really only be worth buying expensive items on eBay, as the taxes and charges won’t dwarf the cost of the actual item!

We haven’t really thought about these ramifications that these new prices will have. But there will be a domino effect, no doubt. It wouldn’t surprise me that other countries start raising their prices. The only ones that might be celebrating with this situation is the Canadian post. You ask why? It is very common in that Canadians living next to the border, would just cross it to post their things, even when they wanted to send their envelopes and parcels within Canada as it was always cheaper. Will they cross the border now? Perhaps not, as the prices will be around the same.

So for now, we can only sit and wait, see what all this USPS mess will bring us all. I had to raise all Cloudberry prices at the moment, and I’m happy to say that there is still support from fans. I hope it continues this way. It all depends on you all who support bands and labels that we continue our indiepop dream.

Yes. There are Cloudberry news. So let’s move to that. Happier topic.

Three days to go for the release of the Alpaca Sports 7″! As you all know, as you all have heard, it’s a cracker. And they’ve worked hard on it, recording videos for each of the three songs of the vinyl. Head to the website and listen/watch and order. They will be promoting the record very soon too in Madrid Popfest. And in Stockholm too, at the So Unbelievable club, where I will be celebrating my birthday. Oh good times ahead. Two days ago, Andreas gave a solo Alpaca Sports show in Lima, Peru, too. From what I hear it was an amazing success. I still haven’t seen them live. And I can wait for next month. No surprise they were voted best new band of 2012. And I hear they will be in the US this year too!

Then in less than two weeks the Flowers 7″ will be out. Will write more about this release next week. You don’t want to miss this one. Pre-orders have been pouring. And I’ve read some reviews saying they might be the next big thing? I wouldn’t be surprised. They are special.

But I wanted to tell you about the new fanzine I’ve been working on, and this time I’ll be super thorough not to make pagination mistakes. Promise! The CD is almost ready, and I will be announcing the tracklist soon. Right now you can preview one of the tracks on our soundcloud. It’s called “If It’s True” and it’s the fab Tiny Fireflies behind it. And about the paper zine, I’m just missing a couple of pieces. Hopefully I can finish writing it this week if I have enough time.

Also there are new bands that will be working with us on new 7″ releases. Can’t say the names yet, but, I’m already very excited. One is from Japan, the other based in Scotland. That’s enough hints I can give you all!

And now, let’s finish this week’s post with a very obscure band, The Fontaines.

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Fontaine is a French word meaning fountain or natural spring. 

Fountain – is the title of a famous sculpture by Marcel Duchamp.

So where do you think the band got their name from?

The Fontaines only left us one 7″ record. Two songs that were recorded in 1987. Upon listening to them, you’d understand why they are not enough. They are too good, especially the fabulous B side, that one can only crave for more.

The label was 51st Parallel. Probably their own label. A self-release. The catalog number is FONT1.

There are two 51st parallels:

51st Parallel North: At this latitude the sun is visible for 16 hours, 33 minutes during the summer solstice and 7 hours, 55 minutes during the winter solstice.  The catchment area of London can be broadly defined by the 51st and 52nd parallels.

51st Parallel South: The 51st parallel south is a circle of latitude that is 51 degrees south of the Earth’s equatorial plane. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and South America.

Most probably named because of the northern parallel.

The A side was “I Want Everything”. The B side was the amazing “Bernadette”.

I first heard about this band thanks to the list on Twee.net of future bands to be showcased on the Leamington Spa series. Then later I remember “Bernadette” being uploaded to Youtube though it’s not there anymore. And lastly on the amazing compilation CD Rupert from Turntable revolution shared with me. Actually, Rupert, on his blog, had found some interesting facts back in 2009 (!) and I hope it’s ok to refresh them here in my blog:

Recorded in three days in August 1987 this superior independent release vaulted into the pop world to a clamour of indifference. Unfair treatment indeed. With lyrics redolent of Morrissey after an all night kitchen sink drama video session they may well have been ready to perch on the throne of misery the Smiths were about to vacate. Nothing more was forthcoming though and this slice of pulchritudinous pop was consigned to the carrier bag of discarded dreams.

The band consisted of Brian Green on vocals, Duane Fontaine on guitar, Louis Jones on guitar, Andy Reynolds on bass and Ed Grimshaw on drums. I had an email from Dr. Andy Reynolds who tells me that Louis Jones and Ed Grimshaw went on to form the Warm Jets and Brian Green went on to record an LP with Hugh Cornwell, then went to Nashville and now teaches song-writing MA in Bath. Apparently there exist videos of the band performing other songs which may one day appear on Youtube. Dr.Reynolds is now a reader in medieval archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology in London. Perhaps five hundred years from now someone will dig up an old Fontaines record and marvel at this gleaming example of mid eighties pop.

I haven’t had the chance yet to find myself a copy of the record, but some kind person has uploaded the back sleeve of the 7″ and there are some more clues about this amazing release. For example there are credits for Matthew Reynolds who played harmonica and trumpet. That it was recorded at Sam Studios on the 28, 29 and 30th of August 1987. There are thanks to Bryan & Alex Deacon, the Locks, Nick Adams, Terry Medford, the JimBeamGang, Derek Batey, Julian & Florien for their help + advice. Farewell to Eamonn.

There are a couple of cryptic images and words. “Hines for President!”. “Love in Batch”. A map showing Finchely Road. And write to them at a PO Box in Chippenham, Wiltshire.

Let’s keep on digging. So Andy (Andrew) Reynolds actually has a Wikipedia page as he has become a successful archaeologist publishing several books.

And the band Warm Jets, that had Louis Jones and Ed Grimshaw, also has one. Grimshaw had been part of another band, even prior to The Fontaines. They were called Ophiuchus and you can read their whole story here as well.

That’s all there was left from The Fontaines. One fantastic 7″. One very hard to find too. Perhaps not many copies were pressed. But as always I do end up wondering if they left any other recordings. Perhaps some demo tapes. If only those videos Rupert talks about would show up on Youtube one day. To unveil a mystery. To know more about this fantastic band that history decided to keep them in obscurity. Unfair. Songs like “Bernadette” should have been a huge hit.

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Listen
The Fontaines – Bernadette

This has been already a difficult week. The United States Postal Service has raised the postage prices. It’s expected that every year they do so, and for the last couple of years their increases were really reasonable. This year in the other hand has been insane albeit not for domestic postage. It has been international postage what had been hurt the most with increases of almost 100%!

What used to cost around $6 to post a 7″ abroad now costs almost $10. Small labels that don’t really have big distributors behind them, that rely on individual buyers abroad will be hurt the most. Thus, Cloudberry will be really hurt. Unless of course international fans don’t mind paying now much more for postage than what they are already buying. We’ll see.

Sadly I spent yesterday afternoon updating the paypal buttons with new prices. Please do write me if you want to combine postage. We’ll always try to work something out. The terrible part of it all  is that all these new prices weren’t calculated in the pre-orders for our next three 7″s. This will only mean that we’ll be losing a hole lot of money when posting these pre-orders. But what can we do? What’s fair is fair. Perhaps we shouldn’t do pre-orders anymore if the USPS are going to come with crazy surprises like this one.

I do see a good opportunity though for international indiepop fans. It might be a good time to start a mailorder in your country as people will probably prefer buying records that way as it might be cheaper as the mailorders usually buy in bulks. Or perhaps the existing mailorders will take advantage of it all and become more central, more important and more successful too. This is all yet to see, but the chances of thriving are big I think.

On a not so related note, the New York Subway fares are also increasing. My monthly pass will go from $104 to $113. Everything’s going up!

Anyways, back to the big issue of the week. Sure these prices are less competitive than the ones we used to have. It’s funny. I used to complain of German postal rates. But they have gone cheaper in the last couple of years. I think that you can mail 5 7″s for 5 euros. That’s a super price. The US instead think we should have Japan-like prices for our postage. I wonder if many of the other small business around won’t be affected by it. Probably they will. And is this the way the American government tries to help it’s businesses?

I read in some forums some Canadians cheering for this postal increase. Their reasoning being that they couldn’t compete with the previous US prices. The Canadian postage being quite pricey. They said the previous US prices were unrealistic, that they were subsidized, and now things are getting fairer. Maybe they do have a point. But doesn’t it feel terribly stupid to pay 10 dollars postage for something that costs really around 5 dollars? Doesn’t make any sense.

I can understand that prices had to go up. But I do hope the USPS bright minds come with some flat rate ideas as the German did. That would alleviate this complicated panorama were are seeing. In the meantime I urge everyone that reads this to sign this petition, we need to fight in every front to make indiepop survive. This might be the biggest blow I’ve experienced since starting the label. I have to be honest that, for the first time, the future of the label is a bit scary.

PS. I have one good news. The Flowers 7″ will be out February 15th. More on that next week! Keep your eyes peeled!

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PATRIC (Pathosystems Resource Integration Center) is the Bacterial Bioinformatics Resource Center, an information system designed to support the biomedical research community’s work on bacterial infectious diseases via integration of vital pathogen information with rich data and analysis tools.

The only famous Patric I could think of:

Jason Patric (born June 17, 1966) is an American film, television and stage actor. He is known for his roles in the films The Lost Boys, Sleepers, Your Friends & Neighbors, Narc, The Losers and Speed 2: Cruise Control. His father was actor/playwright Jason Miller. Patric is the maternal grandson of Jackie Gleason.

Not many clues there about the mysterious, enigmatic and obscure Patric.

A couple of weeks back Stephan from Germany sent me a couple of songs from this mysterious band. He asked me to blog about them. The information online seemed scarce, but I actually ended up finding a 12″, their one and only, for a good price. The songs were brilliant. Perfect jangly pop. Chiming guitars, and the kind of British vocals we all love!

The songs were: “The Message”, “On the Road”, “It’s Over”. My favourite being “The Message” with those girl backing vocals. It kind of reminds me a bit of The Bats! But UK style? Yeah, something like that. Strangely. It’s pretty good.

This record that has on the front cover a black and white photo of who I would guess is the real Patric was produced by Chris Groothuizen, engineered by Charles Bullen and recorded at Cold Storage, Brixton. There are special thanks to Sarah, and the cover photo was taken by Suzy Gibbons. It was released by Orange Records (catalog JOOS IT) from Camberwell, south London.

On the labels of the record we see credit to a P. O’Connor. Probably then, Patric O’Connor?

There is some information though about what happened to our hero Patric after this release. He joined the House of Love (?!). Well, not quite. He joined the remaining members after Terry Bickers left and Guy Chadwick was having a sabbatical. With them they formed a band called My White Bedroom who released an album with Plastic Records in 1991. I have never listened to it, but I plan buying it next week, it doesn’t seem hard to find, though with all these price increases perhaps I should cut my spending! The Youtube uploads of some of their songs are nice… Anyhow…

On an internet forum I read one of the guys that was in Counterfeit (the band on Creation Records and who had a re-release not so long ago on Vollwert) saying about My White Bedroom:

The band were originally called “Patric” – at the time the only HOL member was Chris Groothuizen (the bassist who didn’t make the HOL reunion).

Vaguely remember the My White Bedroom record – but I have the only 12″ Patric released – “The Message”.

I played with Patric and The Motorcycle Boy at the Goldsmiths Tavern in’89 with a band called Stranger – we changed our name to Counterfeit, made one shit Creation 12″ and split up

On this same forum, on a message from August 18, 2008, our hero Patric shows up and decides to tell us the story of the band! So hold on tight and read:

My White Bedroom was formed in late 1985 and performed their first ‘proper’ gig at The Ambulance Station in early 1986. They continued in one form or another until 1996.

In 1989 after being dropped by Orange records Patric approached Chris with the idea to make an album . Chris had taken over Plastic records from Guy Chadwick and was keen to sign up new acts to the fledgling label. Money was raised from various quarters ( Alan McGee stumped up a couple of grand) and the record was recorded in two weeks at a studio on Bedford Hill in Balham in December 1989. More recording and mastering followed in 1990 but it wasn’t released until May 1991.

Some of the musicians on the album had played in the band at various points during the 1980’s :

Simon Walker joined the original My White Bedroom lineup in 1986 and was with the band for two years before he went on to join HOL after the departure of Terry Bickers. Simon played lead on ‘Lazer Gun’ , ‘The Garden’ and ‘This Time’.

Chris Groothuizen met Patric in 1985 and spent many an hour ‘jamming’ and honing his bass playing skills in a Camberwell squat before joining HOL in 1986. He played bass on all the tracks and produced the record .

Pete Donaghy was an American guitarist who played with MWB when they supported HOL on the English leg of their European tour. He played lead on ‘The Ocean’ and ‘Into the Light Now’ .He went on to form Mung in the 1990’s .

Pete Evans was the HOL drummer and is still with the band today. He played drums on all the tracks.

Mick Gallen was an Australian musician who played the Doors style keyboards on ‘Lovechild’ and a few other tracks.

Backing vocals were by Patric’s sister Rachel.

All lead vocals and other lead and rhythm guitar parts were sung /played by Patric who also wrote all the songs.

The album had some ecstatic reviews and went on to sell a respectable amount in spite of having no promotion and being deleted by Creation Records after it’s initial run.

Hope that clears up a few facts for anyones who is interested,

cheers – Patric

And that’s the end of it. No more information about this obscure Patric. If they had been going though for so long, they might and must have more songs. And that would be amazing.  If they played any gigs? If anyone of you saw them play? I wonder what happened to him after the My White Bedroom record too. If he continued making music. As always so many mysteries. But here, I will urge you to get yourself a copy of the Patric 12″. It’s a long lost classic. You’ll like it!

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Listen
Patric – The Message

Cristóbal sends me a message, “have you seen the Twee.net results?”. It’s last Monday and I’m waiting for a friend to have early lunch. Korea Town. 12pm. Just an hour before work. I haven’t seen the poll results. I don’t expect any blatant cheating as Series Two did many years ago, but I expect some dubious labels to show up. It’s part of the game. Anyways, it’s never more than 30 or so people that bother to vote. But my reasoning being that these are the 30 people that are really into indiepop, that do care to express their mind.

Upon devouring my soup with noodles and sliced ribeye, and having a nice time with my friend who just moved to New York from Miami to work at the NY Times, I walked the 5 long blocks that separate the K-Town and it’s fun karaokes and AP’s building in a non-descriptive street. First thing to do when waking up the computer, check the Twee.net poll.

I admit I wasn’t surprised to see Cloudberry getting just the exhilarating amount of 2 votes. If one was by Cristóbal, then there is one more fan in the whole world. Many thanks to that one person who voted for me. Matinée won the category with 8 votes.

The blog did win, or to be exact, tied with three other blogs on the first place on the category Best Blog about Indiepop. We got three votes as A Layer of Chips, Indefinitely Blue and Frigopop also did. Cheers for that. Quite an accomplishment. If I remember correctly the blog also did very well in the 2012 poll.

On the best band category it was lovely to see Alpaca Sports on the 3rd place with 5 votes. Alpaca Sports is our next release. And actually the sleeves for the upcoming 7″ single arrived this weekend. Now just waiting for the vinyls! Another Cloudberry-related band, The Garlands, came in 7th place. The winner of this category was no other than Allo Darlin.

For “Best Song”, it was great to see “Helen of Troy” by Pale Spectres on 4th place. Twig also had a song called “Helen of Troy” on the 3″ mini CD. Pale Spectres, who appeared on the CD of our last fanzine, will appear in an interview on the next fanzine now. And we are planning a 7″ release for this year. Crossing fingers. Again Allo Darlin wins this category.

The Garlands snatched a third place as “Best Album”. I would have loved to release this album of course. I voted for it as well. Once again Allo Darlin wins this category.

In “Best New Band”, Alpaca Sports win with flying colors. A well deserved first place with 8 votes. Pale Spectres, with 5 votes, came 4th. The surprise is Charlie Big Time, who are by no means a new band, as we released a 3″ CD in 2007, and later another song on the second Cloudberry fanzine in 2008. But this time they appear in this category as the 5th place.

“Best gig”? Allo Darlin keeps on winning. But second place is the Close Lobsters and their Madrid Popfest gig. I don’t understand how this gig didn’t win first place as it was so special. It was just legendary. Sorry Allo Darlin, you might have more fans willing to vote than The Close Lobsters, but their gig deserved first place. And the second place, if we are just fair and square, should have been The Aislers Set at the Chickfactor show in New York. Sadly it seems it was just me who thought this way as that gig only got one vote.

“Best Indiepop site” goes to Frigopop. I wonder what’s the difference between indiepop blog and indiepop site as these days it seems they are both the same.

“Best paper fanzine”. Oh here I’m actually so disappointed. The fanzine I make with so much love didn’t get even a single vote. Oddly enough the last fanzine sold out in just weeks. In previous years we always won this category. It was our stronghold. This year, no votes. But our fanzines sell faster. Go figure.

“Best mailorder” goes to Pebble Records. Second place for Jigsaw and third place, and please don’t get scared by this answer, “Bandcamp”. Yes you read that right. BANDCAMP. I can only ask, what is wrong with people??

Something I do miss from previous years of the Twee.net poll is the ability to check individual votes. That’s no longer the case, and now all votes are secret.

What does this all mean for Cloudberry, most probably it states the fact that we are not very well known. That even though we can be very productive our lack of “big bands” leaves us in the outskirts of the indiepop scene. That may raise the question, do we even want to be a bigger label? Certainly the answer is no, we are happy with how we work and what we do. I like the pace of Cloudberry. Will it be possible to keep doing the same and at some point gain more recognition? That’s something, entering in 2013 to our 6th year, I’d like to see. Perhaps the next Twee.net poll will answer those questions.

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Today I have a very obscure band. One that there’s almost zero information about online. It is true that they have a discogs entry and their two songs are on Youtube, but any sort of descriptive information about them is non-existent on the web. I heard about them, just by the name, from Stephan, a friend and a follower of the blog (who I owe some MP3 rips. Will do this week! Promise!). I eventually found the 7″ for cheap on eBay. Like for 3 dollars if I remember correctly, plus shipping. So I assume it’s easy to find for all of you treasure hunters.

picture (n.)  “drawing, painting,” from Latin pictura “painting,” from pictus, pp. of pingere “to make pictures, to paint, to embroider,”

innocence (n.) “freedom from guilt,” from O.Fr. inocence “innocence, purity, chastity” (12c.), from L. innocentia, from innocens “harmless, blameless” (see innocent). Meaning “lacking in guile or artifice” is from late 14c.

Two words from latin origin put together, Pictures of Innocence is the obscure band of the week.

The blue monotone cover sleeve has a picture of what I would guess a Chinese man, an elder man, smoking some sort of pipe. He is wearing shades. His hands are bony. And there’s smoke all around. On the right bottom corner the name of the band and the name of the A-side, “No-one Crying”.

This A-side is the best song of the 7″. A mix of synths and electric guitars, very much the style of pre-indiepop times. This is from 1983 and you can already sense where jangly pop was heading towards to in the British isles. The pop sensibilities of later C86 bands are here, but of course, it’s a bit different. It’s a different period altogether. But it’s great too as any pop lover would attest.

The record was released by Little Prince records, this release being the first reference of the catalog. This makes me deduce that this was a self-released record and the band ran the label. On one of the 7″ labels, you know the center part of the record, there’s a drawing of the Little Prince, who I assume most of the readers of the blog have read?

The B-side is “Love & War”. This song is a bit more synth-pop driven, more early 80s sound, with what I guess is a saxophone (?) too. It’s not as catchy as the A-side, but still it’s quite enjoyable. On this track the vocals are very late 80s indiepop I think. I’m brainstorming right now, thinking which band the vocals reminds me of, but I can’t just figure out, though I feel I have the name of the band on the tip of my tongue.

But as I said, about the band there’s nothing at all to uncover. We don’t know the band members’ names. Or if they had any releases. Or where in the UK were they from. And that’s if they are from the UK! If they played any gigs? If they were part of any scene? If they recorded any more songs? If they were involved with other bands? All questions are unanswered but hopefully not for long. Maybe some of you can help?

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Listen
Pictures of Innocence – No-one Crying

Sonia is a feminine given name in many areas of the world including the West, Russia, Iran, Pakistan and India. The name is derived from “Sophia”, a Greek name meaning wisdom. Sonia and its variant spellings Sonja and Sonya are Russian variations on Sophia. The name was popularised by a 1917 bestselling novel, Sonia by Stephen McKenna.  In Hindi, the name means ‘golden’, derived from सोना sonā ‘gold’, from Sanskrit सुवर्ण suvarṇa (su- ‘good’ + varṇa ‘color’).  Sonya and its variations are occasionally found as surnames in England and the American eastern seaboard.

Of course, the Sonya I remember, the Sonya I know, is Sonya Blade from the Mortal Kombat games…

Can’t say yet that it’s been a great start of the year. Today I waited forever for the internet guy to come home and do a brand new installation. He never showed up. Had to call and reschedule with the company. They say they can’t track him down, that I could only wait or reschedule. Even though I paid already, Time Warner seems to feel they are entitled to treat their customers like this. As they have my money, now I can only play by their rules. Even the operator, this woman called Tiffany, said that I have to have a positive attitude, that I can’t be thinking they won’t call me on Thursday, the new date when the technician is supposed to come. How dare her tell me that when I’ve been waiting for a phone call for four hours. But what was I going to do? fight?

On Saturday, another argument at the post office. I’m sending a new parcel to Jigsaw Records, full of replacements. The woman asks me if I want to do Media Mail. I say no. I explain to her that I sent Media Mail last time and my 4 lbs parcel arrived as a 1.2 lbs parcel. That most of the stuff went missing. She must be quite slow because she asked me where is the rest of the stuff. I said, probably at some postman’s house. Perhaps I should have been more polite, as it wasn’t her fault really, but it pissed me. It was a big parcel, with lots of records and most especially some sold out fanzines which I really don’t have anymore to replace. In the end I paid 3 times more for shipping, I sent it as Parcel Post.

And another package I sent back in October went missing. It makes me wonder, because the United States Postal Service is raising the prices on January 27th, if they plan to keep being so clumsy and losing people’s packages. Sadly this new raise of prices will affect Cloudberry prices. I will appreciate everyone’s understanding.

Of course, it’s not that terrible, there are plenty of different scenarios that can be worst than this early 2013 start. But you know, I was very positive and thinking it will be a smooth year. The last couple of months of 2012 haven’t been that easy. So it’s definitely a bit of a letdown. But, and there’s a big but, my traveling adventures are just around the corner and they will lift my spirits. Definitely.

In two weekends I’m heading to San Diego, just as a tourist, with a heavy agenda in sightseeing. Looking forward especially to the famous San Diego Zoo. I’ve never been a fan of pets, but I love animals and their little story, their background, what they eat, where they live and one or two curiosities about them. You know, like how many hearts a squid has? That kind of thing. Also I love spotting animals that come from Peru. It’s a bit random, but it makes me proud when for example I see a bunch of llamas. Which reminded me of that one time, when in a high school field trip, one llama decided to spit, on a perfect parabola, a big clot onto one of the hip classmates eye. Those were the days.

And speaking to “the days”, then of course there is my trip to Europe in March. Not many news on that front aside that I bought my Madrid Popfest ticket yesterday. Still waiting for the remaining announcements as I believe there are two or three bands left to be added to the bill.

In general, that should be a fantastic birthday trip. The first time I try to celebrate my birthday properly. I’ve always liked it to have a quiet day, even I preferred going to work every Ides of March. The only time I recall having an out of the ordinary birthday was probably when I turned six years old. My dad took me to the racetrack. And we bet on the horses. I bet on number six for obvious reasons. And “Karateka”, that was the name of the horse, won with honors. With the money won, we went to the market and spend it in new G.I. Joes.

The past couple of days I’ve been doing something I love though, I’ve been reordering my whole 7″ vinyl record collection. In alphabetical order. It’s taking me hours and hours and I’m still not done. I bought these special boxes for 45s they sell at Bags Unlimited. They are quite nice, and most importantly, you can stack them. This is perfect for me, because I need more space in my spare room. I hope to fit at some point my sofa bed and also a twin size inflatable mattress. Always thinking in my guests comfort. Anyhow, I also bought these separators and I noticed I wasted one in letter “O”. So little indiepop bands that start with the letter O. I should have combined it with the letter N as I did Q with R. In any case, I have many more hours of ordering them. And in the not so distant future some CD furniture will be arriving home too and then it will be the turn of the CDs.

And after a very odd weekend at karaokes, lunching Trinidad and Tobago’s cuisine, devouring delicious roti and shark sandwiches, and later drinking Miller High Life at Mondo while I danced to The Primitives on my own, I rested. I played some computer games and found out that there’s a new Sim City coming out soon. And that’s quite exciting. Oh and that there’s a new movie coming up, “Before Midnight”, that I’m also looking forward as I enjoyed the prequels very much. Now, the question is, are there any indiepop albums coming up that I should be on the lookout? If so, enlighten me. I find myself so out of the loop these days.

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I keep going through the amazing CD that Rupert from A Turntable Revolution gave me months ago. As some of you might be aware a bunch of the latest posts on the blog are covering bands that appear on this CD he kindly made for me. Perhaps next week I’ll investigate about some band not featured here as I have got a couple of requests (oddly enough!). But for now, let me stick to it as only by blogging I do end up finding and taming this curiosity of mine.

Track number 16 on this nameless white CD-R. On the tracklist, black ink and handwritten, it says ‘Splash with Sonya – Surf Song’. To my surprise this song has been already uploaded to Youtube. The comments there don’t say much, someone remembers the good times when the band was around, another remembers that they were around the same time as the Shop Assistants, Soup Dragons and more. The only clue and potential information is in the description of the video: “Coventry indie band from the late 1980’s”

Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 12th largest UK city overall. It is also the second largest city in the West Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 318,600 at the 2011 UK census. Coventry was the world’s first twin city when it formed a twinning relationship with the Russian city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) during World War II. The relationship developed through ordinary people in Coventry who wanted to show their support for the Soviet Red Army during the Battle of Stalingrad.

When I think of Coventry, I always think of The Primitives. I’ve never been there mind you.

As far as I could figure out, there was only one release by Splash with Sonya. It was a 12″ released by Gemma GR Records in 1990 (catalog GR 100) and included the songs “Surf Song”, “Talk To Much”, “Once In A Lifetime (Again)” and “Watchtower”. I’ve only listened to the opening track. If anyone could help me listen the rest of the EP, that’d be very nice!

The band was formed by Niall Carson, Jamie Deas and Simon Wagstaff. It seems they were from an area called Stoke Park, and from what I found online, after the little success of Splash with Sonya they started a covers band in 1992, actually a Beatles tribute band. And they called themselves The Swains. You can read their story here.

About the name of the band, according to The Swains official page, Splash with Sonya  was “a name culled from the title of a film surely no-one would want to see.”

The only other mention I found was actually about Marion, Simon’s mother. It’s a bit odd, but perhaps it would end up as a clue to know whatever happened to the band. It seems she moved to a place called Criccieth where she takes care of her garden and of course her son, who happened to be the drummer of Splash with Sonya visits her often.

From my deductive powers, if Simon was the drummer, Niall must have been the vocalist and guitarist and Jamie the bassist.

And that’s all about I could find about them. It seems that their records don’t show up much on eBay, but then I can’t say I have been following and searching for them for a long time. I’ve only discovered them through this CD. So if anyone has any more information about them, please share! And if anyone has a spare copy of the record that would be happy to part with, please consider me!

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Listen
Splash with Sonya – Surf Song

Kate is a feminine given name. It is sometimes a short form of Katherine, which is Greek meaning pure, blessed, virginal and popularity.

Indiepop nights are an uncommon sight in New York City, so initiatives like Kip and Maria’s “Rough Smooch” are very welcome in town. Three bands and two DJs playing indiepop tunes at Legion Bar in Brooklyn was the perfect excuse to go out on a Sunday night. A cold, bleak and wet Sunday night. And even though it’s never ideal to go out on a day prior to a workday I think the turnout was more than good.

I want to say it was a success but of course, I don’t handle the numbers of how much beer was consumed. I assume that’s how it would be qualified if successful or not because it was a free cover show. But if I can throw some numbers, just a wild guess on the attendance, I’d say around 60-70 people came to the show. For a first night, for an event that was only promoted through facebook and twitter  and because of the dreary weather, it was great. I reckon that the amount of people yesterday was the perfect number. I say that because the back room, where bands play, was properly packed while bands were on.

I expected to see more familiar faces of the NYC indiepop scene, not that it exists but there are people who do like this music. Aside from the omnipresent Maz from Mondo and NYC Popfest, and Michael Grace, from My Favorite and The Secret History, there was no one else. I wonder where was everyone else. It is at nights like these, at events like these, when people have to come together and support. So these can keep going. I was glad though that there were new faces, new people, that enjoyed the gig very much. There was dancing, and there was even some sing-a-long. But I cannot be cynical and not be disappointed by those who didn’t show up but do expect being supported when they play or organize something.

The venue was new to me. Someone around said that it was a failing bar. I couldn’t tell. It was spacious and as I mentioned before, it had a back room that was perfect for bands. The beer selection and the prices were fine too. The brick walls were cozy, and there was even a small little fireplace. A side door for a small little fenced area on the street for smokers to go, and one unassuming bathroom were among the comforts of the bar. And of course it had it’s hipster tattooed bar tenders but it’s Brooklyn, can’t expect the bookish kind in this area.

Music was good throughout the night. From Kip’s laptop both DJs entertained  us the whole evening while Beetlejuice was being screened on top of them on a projector screen. A young Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis and Joan Cusack were invited to our party as well. Indiepop staples as Black Tambourine, The Clean, The Wake, The Field Mice and so on were heard and you could see people giggling, commenting and feeling secretly partners in crime of the whole indiepop thing. It was a happy crowd.

I was surprised by the first band, Grand Resort. A four-piece of Dominican expats in NY making proper jangle-pop that reminded me of The Bodines. Even more surprising to know that they have never heard the band. They were familiar though with the Sarah stable and The Close Lobsters who the vocalist told me was his favourite band. They also must like The Stone Roses as they covered their classic “I Wanna Be Adored” with a pretty faithful rendition.

The other two bands were “Kissing is a Crime” and “The Hairs” and they drew a bigger crowd. I mingled and socialized while they were playing so I can’t give a full account. My jangly purism made me skip the second band, Kissing is a Crime and well, I just stayed in the front room gossiping about indiepop, learning who is coming to NYC Popfest, and having Hoegaarden pints with old and new friends.

Will this event happen again? That’s the question I’d love both of the organizers to answer. They did say that they would love to repeat but not too often. As often as once a month would be ideal. But of course it all depends on the venue. They are the ones who decide always. If you are profitable or not. I’m going to be crossing my fingers for this to keep going and hopefully at last a pure indiepop party can happen in New York. It was proved yesterday that, for a small venue, there’s enough people interested and supportive of our beloved music.

Thanks Kip and Maria for a fun night!

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Continuing with this excitement I have about this trip to Stockholm in March, and now that I have finally booked plane tickets from Madrid to Sweden’s capital, I want to bring back the good memory I have from Stockholmer duo Don’t Be Kate!

I had my doubts when I first emailed them back in 2007. I wanted a label of just jangly guitars but they made the sweetest, the catchiest, the best electropop I had heard in years. My preference and my love for electric guitars is no news, but I have loved and enjoy electronic sounds as any other kid that spent their teenage years in the 90s. Though not always picky, carrying a big baggage of guilty pleasures, I loved tons of europop and ended up re-discovering italo disco years later after being terribly curious after Nixon’s “What My Italo Disco Collection Sounds Like” song. Don’t Be Kate! were in the category of electronic pop I loved. And I would have crushed the Cloudberry motto and belief of an only guitar label just for them. But it didn’t happen.

At some point I also considered that it would be a good release for Plastilina, the other label I was involved at the time. An EP would be perfect. To discuss the topics we were in touch on MSN Messenger. I think I haven’t opened that program since those days! I used to talk with Karin, after contacting them on Myspace expressing my interest in releasing them. They were keen on it but we still had to reach a deal. My main worry was that their songs, the beautiful songs I wanted to release, the ones that were on their Myspace (those being “Good Times Leave”, “7 Months Still Running”, “Passport”, “Cul de Sac” and “Dance Kate”), were lost after a computer failure. They didn’t have the masters. Just the MP3s. Just the same quality as the Myspace stream. I said I wouldn’t mind. I loved these songs so very much. But that wasn’t their idea. They were going to record an EP, some new songs and they were going to get a class producer for it. And I think, if my memory doesn’t fail, the most tricky issue. I was just starting the labels and money was short, not that it’s abundant now mind you, but affording a class producer was going to be impossible. But they really wanted. They aimed high, and why not, their music was pure quality and bliss.

Of course all these decisions and how things worked out weren’t how we all expected to be. I would have loved to own their EP. Even if I haven’t released it. I wouldn’t have minded. But it should have been out. I don’t know if it was ever recorded. I think the girls were students at that time and I assume it might have been a bit difficult to self-release. Why nobody else picked them up? It startles me. Though by doing a bit of research for this post I barely found any mentions in the blogosphere, I guess, they weren’t much known, not a household name in the indiepop crowd. And shame on you all, because you were missing one of the most talented bands of that time. Listening to their songs, especially my favourites “7 Months Later Still Running” and “Cul de Sac”, I feel always the urge to put them out. And I’ve tried! I wrote them this year, but sadly I never heard back from them.

Don’t Be Kate! were Karin Forsberg and Nahla.  They sang in English but Karin also had her own project were she sang in Swedish. It was great as well. They had a blog for a bit, but after three entries they stopped updating it. There were never much news about them. I think some of my Hamburg friends got to see them live once as Hit the North booked them once. The clinical ear of Jens never fails and he always booked the best new bands from Scandinavia for the pleasure of the port at the river Elbe. That was late in 2008. Even later that year, at Stampen! a club in the city centre of Stockholm they also played a gig.

The only other gig I’m aware they played was at Volga, a club at the Hötorget stop of the tunnelbana, in 2007. I wonder if these were the only three appearances of the band.

What happened after?

It seems our story gets blurry, we lose track of Nahla, and we follow Karin become part of a DJ duo called Indikaar. The other girl in this duo is Ida Larsson and it’s said they are based both in Nykoping and Stockholm. They played 90s music. Don’t know if they are still going, their facebook page dates of 2010 and their last DJ gig of September 2011. They seemed to have DJed many times around Nörrköping at this point.

I want to say Karin studied music business but can’t be 100% sure. Her name appears linked to a company called Oh! Productions which organized gigs and festivals in Sweden. Seems she had been representing a band called Musikkollektivet. The last update from Oh! Productions dates from 2010.

Today I believe she works at Spotify in Stockholm. It’s good to know she was always involved with music, though I wish, and not secretly, that she makes music once again. And why not, bring back those fabulous Don’t be Kate! songs!

If anyone knows about their whereabouts, whatever happened to that EP they were recording, or if they played more gigs, or anything else, anecdotes or happy memories, please share. I go back to their songs so often, that learning just a bit more about them would make my day.

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Listen
Don’t Be Kate! – 7 Months Later Still Running