04
Mar

Kiddo: used as a friendly way of speaking to a child or young person, especially one you know well: Careful kiddo, stay close to me.

I have remembered a band I used to listen quite a bit back in 2004 and that is Cleveland’s, Ohio, Kiddo.

When I played them again I remembered the songs, especially from their first album, the self-titled “Kiddo” from 2003. There you find the superb boy/girl vocals featuring Christian Doble (also on guitar) and Liz Wittman (on bass). Completing the band was Greg Hyland on drums.

As mentioned the first album came out in 2003, released by Drive-In Records (drive59) and included a bunch of super fun songs. The record had 12 songs: “Woodward Avenue”, “To the Moon”, “New Year’s Resolution Haircut”, “You’re Not Who You Said You Were”, “1992”, “The John Song”, “Amy”, “The Greg Song”, “The Makeout Song”, “Surfin’ Thru”, “The Hell Song” and “Still Not My Girl”.

Worth mentioning is “Woodward Avenue”, which is a location in Detroit. Liz was from Detroit, so no wonder she sings about coney islands, the city’s culinary gem.

It is worth noting that this wasn’t the band’s first release. Previously, in 2002, the band had put out a self-titled EP CDR that had what looks like a dinosaur or some reptile on the artwork. This EP had 5 songs that would end up in the album, “Woodward Avenue”, “The John Song”, “You’re Not Who You Said You Were”, “New Year’s Resolution Haircut” and “Still Not My Girl”.

Lastly in 2004 the band would release “Okay Sweetheart” their second and last album. On Discogs it appears that in 2004 a promo version was put out while the proper record came out in 2007 on Microindie Records (microcd8). I wonder if the dates are correct. In any case the album featured 15 songs, “K-N-O-C-K-O-U-T”, “Mr. Virtuoso’, “This Could Take Forever”, “Julia”, “Otherguys”, “Apple Tree”, “Sunday”, “Annie (Can See)”, “Rocketship”, “I’m Still Alone”, “About You”, “I Won’t Try Again”, “Rollerskating Dream”, “Neverday”, “‘Till My Face Turns Blue”.

Then there’s a bunch of compilation appearances. The first one dating from 2002 when “Woodward Avenue” appeared on “Fundraising for the Field Trip #1” compilation on Boy Arm Records (ARM02CD). This same song would be on “Cleveland / Kansas City” a CD compilation released by Pabst Blue Ribbon (yeah, the beer) in 2003.

In 2004 the band had “This Could Take Forever” on “Boompa Volume 1” released by Boompa Records (BOOM 801) and also this song is on “Microindie Records Sampler II”.

2005 saw the band contribute the song “This Could Take Forever” to “Test Tones Volume 05” released by Clairerecords (fern 046) and to “Music from Radio Free Roscoe, Volume 1” on Decode (DEC101).

The other compilation appearance was on the “Free Audio Flyer! – Free Show!”  a CDR comp put together by Microindie Records for a show that happened in Grand Rapids, Michigan at the UICA Film Theatre.

Other facts we know is that Christian Doble would be on other bands including Belle Ghoul, Child Bite, Copper Thieves and Fawn. Elizabeth Wittman was on Arc Pelt, Friendly Foes and Lettercamp. Greg Hyland was on Dehumidifier Vs. Humidifier and The Twilight.

I keep searching and then I find some live footage on Youtube. Kiddo playing at the Toledo Indiepop Fest from 2007!

I keep looking. It seems Christian moved to Detroit and that’s where he was in Fawn.

Not much more info about Kiddo. At least I cant find more details. The band used to have a website, and I was able to access it through the Internet Archive but there is very little info too.

Where else to look? I guess fans who remember them would be my best bet. So yeah, if anyone out there remembers this fun sounding band let me know! Any details would be great, even stuff like where did they play? Just Cleveland? What venues?

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Listen
Kiddo – New Year’s Resolution Haircut

26
Feb

Described as the most hated guy in Göteborg, Alexander Gustafsson used to lead the band Portrait Painters about 15 years ago. In 2009, when he was 22, we saw the band release two digital singles on Bonjour Recordings and after that they just fizzled out.

“Forgive/Forget” (BJR004) was the first song they put out and then came “A Future Crime” (BJR007). As mentioned both came on Bonjour who was the home of two bands familiar to Cloudberry, Bye Bye Bicycle and Bonnie and Clyde.

On Discogs there are some details about the songs worth checking out. “Forgive/Forget” had Adam Bolméus (from Bad Cash Quartet and Hästpojken) on electric and acoustic guitar, as well as in arrangements and co-producing. Kalle Von Hall (from Bad Cash Quartet) played synths and co-produced while Alexander Sand sang and made the music. I supposed Alexander Sand is Alexander Gustafsson.

On “A Future Crime”, the people on the song changed quite a bit. Now we see Jakob Schroeder (from Bye Bye Bicycle) on acoustic guitar, Nils Bengtsson Blomstrand on bass, Viktor Englund on drums, Samuel Petersson  (from Bye Bye Bicycle) on electric guitar and arrangements, Mattias Glavå as the executive producer and André Vikingsson (from Bye Bye Bicycle) who made the music together with Alexander Sand who also wrote the lyrics.

Also make sure you check out the video that was made for “A Future Crime” which is quite fun. The video was shot in Göteborg and Stockholm during June of 2009.

A good find is this 2008 interview with Alexander on the newspaper Borås Tidning. There it mentions that he used to live in the town of Sätila. Also another interesting bit is that “Forgive/Forget” was a song he had written when he was 16 years old. Another good bit of info is that the band’s name came from a song by The Bear Quartet.

We also learn a little bit more about Alexander. He was self-employed at the time as a graphic designer. He was studying art science.

I notice that the band played a few important places like Pustervik in Göteborg, Musikens Hus, or Underjorden where there is some live footage on the web.

Lastly I believe the band had more songs. I have found on the web two more, one called “Yellow Car (Demo)” and another called “The Game“. Not sure how these got their way on the web, maybe they were on the band’s Myspace at one point?

And then, what happened to Alexander? He seemed quite talented. Hope he continued making songs? Anyone knows?

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Listen
Portrait Painters – A Future Crime

20
Feb

Thanks so much to Mark D for the interview! If you love indiepop you most probably know who the Fat Tulips were. A fantastic band that recorded an album and a bunch of singles that sound so fresh still! I am very honoured to have been able to interview Mark D and learn more details from a band I am a big fan! This was amazingly cool!

++ Hi Mark! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?

Hi and thanks for the interest in my old band –  I haven’t been involved in music for many years now I’m afraid though.

++ I usually have a list of questions I send to bands as I normally know very little or nothing at all about them and I want to cover the basics. I feel, and maybe I am wrong, that I know a bit about the Fat Tulips as I’ve been listening to your music for so long! But I wanted to start with a question, that you already told me the answer, and that’s why the Fat Tulips are not that present on the internet (though you do have a great website)?

The Fat Tulips didn’t exist when the internet really started – we split in the early 90’s and mobile phones weren’t even around much then! All our promotions and activities revolved around the underground fanzine scene – we were pretty well accepted on that scene and most of us got involved in putting on gigs by other bands we liked at the time too.

++ So as I said, I won’t ask the obvious questions, but some very specific ones. When exactly did the Fat Tulips start?

I formed the Fat Tulips around 1987 – I had been in a few bands before and had some songs but they weren’t getting used by the bands I was involved in so started Fat Tulips – originally was just me and I asked my friend Sarah to do some vocals – we recorded “You opened up my eyes” for a flexi I released with my fanzine 2 Pint Take home alongside a track by the Rosehips. That and the two other tracks we recorded later got released on Sunday Records as The early years EP.

++ Did you have a different name then perhaps?

No

++ Did you have any other names as options?

Was a last minute decision on the name based on a kids to series Tales from Fat Tulips Garden.

++ Before starting the Fat Tulips, had you been in other bands before? I know you were in The Pleasureheads, right? But that was around the same time, no?

The Pleasureheads I was in from 1984-6. I left them to go to university but they did continue with a replacement guitarist for a few more years. Prior to that I was in a dodgy goth band called Transmission who played a couple of gigs – the keyboard player in them was Jim Abbiss who went on to become a major record producer (he produced Adele!) and produced the first Pleasure Heads single I was on. 

++ From what I understand the band was originally formed in Peterborough but the band was then based in Nottingham. How did this relocation happen? What made you move there?

I simply moved to Nottingham to study at Trent Poly / University

++ Originally, in Peterboro’ it was Sarah and you. As a duo, you recorded the “You Opened Up My Eyes” demo tape that would later be repressed by Sunday Records as the “Early Years” 7″. I was wondering about that demo, how come it ended up being released by a US label, Sunday Records, many years after its recording. Was it your idea? Or maybe it was Albert who came up with the idea?

Albert simply asked us and we said yes – such a lovely guy and supporter of us we couldn’t say no!

++ “You Opened Up Your Eyes” was also a single track on another flexi, the split single with The Rosehips. How did this record come about? Were you friends with The Rosehips at the time? I know later on they would be on your label!

I was a big Rosehips fan but didn’t know them at that time – just wrote to them and asked them and they sent me a tape! Later became good friends with them and followed them around to gigs quite a lot.

++ And was that the only thing that was recorded by that first version of the Fat Tulips?

Yeah just that.

++ And did Sarah continue making music afterwards? No she was a reluctant singer 

I read that she went to Peru on your website, but is that true? No but reality was too boring! She just wasn’t interested in singing

++ How did the new Fat Tulips in Nottingham come to be? 

I was going to the same gigs as the rest of the band – eventually befriended them and started to going to gigs out of town with them. How did you recruit or find the new members? The rest of the band were all friends with each other – I just persuaded them to have a go at a band rehearsal – I had several songs already written. After one rehearsal we agreed to go in the studio the following month and record our debut single.

++ Had they been in other bands previously?

I don’t think so.

++ Having lived in two different British towns, I was wondering what was your take at the time comparing Peterborough and Nottingham, which town had the best bands? The best music scene? Were there any bands in these towns that you liked?

Nottingham always the better musically- I went to University in Nottingham because of  the Garage – legendary music venue in Nottingham.

++ This second version, with Katie in the band, didn’t last that long, just the superb EP “Where’s Clare Grogan Now?” single. It is clear you were big fans of Altered Images then, but what other bands would you say made an impact on you?

I loved loads of types of music but around that time was the classic indie bands like Orange Juice, the Fall, Wedding Present, Pastels C86 scene

++ Speaking of impact, you released a covers single, “The Tulip Explodes!”, with three songs by The Teardrop Explodes. Was that your idea?

Kind of a joint decision between me and Sheggs.

++ If you have had the chance to do another covers single, what other band would you have liked to cover?

I would have loved to have done Orange Juice or the Au Pairs – although did do It’s obvious cover by another band Confetti.

++ Maybe there’s a chance to do a Heaven Records interview later on, but I wanted to know if Heaven Records was originally a vehicle to release the Fat Tulips or was it always thought of as a full-fledged label that was going to help/release other bands?

No was just a vehicle to release our own single at first – just made friends with Vicarage Garden and had some extra cash from our records to allow us to support other bands – never in it for the money but it kind of expanded to allow us to help other bands we liked  – a very much punk rock label of love

++ Maybe it is too obvious, but I want to confirm, the song “Amelia” that was on the Spindly Killer Fish flexi, was it about Amelia Fletcher?!

Of course – is just a list of Amelia Fletcher song titles and references 😂

++ “Four Songs for Simon” and “Albie”. I am terribly curious, were Simon and Albie real persons or not really? What about Sarah from “Sarah”?

Simon was a friend who we used to put bands in with and he used to slag off bands that weren’t in true indie spirit and short changing fans with 2 track singles so we called it 4 songs for Simon to shut him up!

Albie is about Albert at Sunday Records and was written by Sheggs.

Sarah was about my friend Sarah from Twa Toots who I was briefly in a band called Sundress with.

++ I’ve never been to Hull, but my British friends don’t usually have great things to say about Hull (even though I know there are many great bands that came from there). You must have liked it though as the name “Ferensway” from your single was taken from a street from that city. What did you like about it? Just the name?

Sheggs write the lyrics for that and I wrote the music – she would just give me a sheet of lyrics and leave me to write the music- worked well like that as she was a more prolific lyricist than songwriter. Believe she just liked the name Ferensway!

++ I was always curious about the “Nostalgia” 12″. The artwork is totally different from your other releases. Why was that? And also wondering who is the girl that is on the front cover? A friend of the band? A

hnnie was the girl in the cover and was Sheggis sister from Glasgow. Just liked the photo and it got used. Sheggs did that cover – no reason it was different really!

++ And speaking of artwork, was it you who made the cool drawings on your demo tapes of the indiepop girl, 7″s singles, or in the Heaven Records art, or the one I’m using here on my blog? Was there an inspiration at all where you got the idea of how to draw them?

Sheggs and our friend Theo did the artwork between them. I have no idea if the inspiration there but was tongue in cheek piss take of the twee indie pop scene.

++ You seemed to be more of a singles or EPs kind of band, but you did record a wonderful album, “Starfish”. I wonder was it any different for you to make the album compared to all your other records? Was it more difficult? More demanding?

Yeah the album recording pushed the demise of the band – was exhausting for all of us but we had a contract we had to finish it .

+ How did you end up working with and how was the relationship with Vinyl Japan? You had mostly worked with your own label, Heaven Records, and suddenly you were with a biggish indie label from Japan.

I had known Tetsuya at Vinyl Japan for several years before we signed with them – he started out buying 300 advance copies of our singles from Heaven records – they obviously sold in Japan so he signed us up.

++ Was there any chance to play in Japan?

Yes we had a contract to play there but split up before it happened annoyingly.

++ Another thing I have to ask is about the amazing German tour you did alongside another favourite band of mine, Throw That Beat in the Garbagecan. That must have been fantastic! I know you cover a lot of it on your website, but I am curious about your impressions about Germany. Like how would you compare the gigs to the ones in the UK?

Germany was great fun and we loved touring with Throw That Beat. Was a last minute decision to tour but so glad we did – we loved Germany.

++ And what was your favourite gig in Germany and why? Also did you get to do any sight-seeing at all? Was there any city you liked best? Any good foods you tried? What about the beer?

Very little sight seeing as we just turned up did rehearsal, slept and left for next town the next morning. No favourite places .

We did a gig in Belgium that was very strange though and they had very unusual beers there we tried!

++ And you drove there, all the way from the UK, and even took the good ol’ Peter Hahndorf in your car. I wonder, it must have taken so many hours, days to get there. How did you manage these roadtrips? Rented a van? Had to have a bunch of mixtapes or something to make it more bearable? Switch drivers every couple of hours? What were the logistics for this?

Yeah we just rented a van , me and Matt shared the driving so wasn’t too bad. Matt really annoyed everyone playing 2 unlimited tapes 😂.

++ What about gigs in the UK? Did you play all over? What was the farthest from Nottingham you got to play in the UK? And what was the town you always liked to play again?

We rarely played live at all – but we used to play in Deptford a few times for our friend Dave and supported Heavenly a couple of times. Not many folk in the uk liked us at the time!

++ Did the Fat Tulips got the chance to be on TV or radio at all?

No although the track “So Unbelievable” was used on an American kids to show called The adventures of Pete and Pete!

++ Also there are no promo videos from the band, right? Why was that?

No – never had the time or money or opportunity

++ When and why did you decide to call it a day? I know you broke up while still at the top, which is great, but still, don’t you think there was more for the Fat Tulips to say?

I didn’t make the decision to split – was more the rest of the band that felt they had had enough. I would have happily carried on. You can’t force folk to do things they don’t want to do though. I just told them I respected their decision but if we did split I said we would never reform in any circumstances. All accepted the terms and moved on but stayed friends.

++ Are there any unreleased songs by the Fat Tulips? Or has everything being put out?

Only one professional recorded song unreleased “Human Timebomb”. Was planned to be a flexidisc release on Vinyl Japan but never happened. They still have the master tape I believe. Was a great track and recording though so a bit of a shame

++ These days you are most known as an artist, I wonder though how did your time in music, being in many bands and doing fanzines and a label, had helped in any way your artistic career?

Not sure about that – my involvement with band sleeves was limited- just threw them together to be honest without a lot of thought! Sheggs and Theo probably had more involvement with them and I left them to it. Loved doing the fanzines though – done pre-computer age with old school typewriter and blue and scissors! Guess that helped a little!

++ Aside from music and art, are there any other hobbies you have? Maybe a fan of footie? Nottingham Forest or Notts County?

Neither of those two teams – still like football and support Peterborough United – don’t get to matches very often though. Visiting galleries and exhibitions mainly but do love Just the Tonic comedy club

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks for your interest and support!

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Listen
Fat Tulips – So Unbelievable

19
Feb

I am not sure how to classify the Mousetrap Conspiracy. I have only heard one song, “The Skies” from 1987. It had appeared on the LP compilation “Underground Resistance Volume 2″ released by Reaction Records (UNREST 2) along a bunch of bands I have never heard before.

The record is categorized on Discogs in the Rock genre and the styles are goth rock and gothic metal. Maybe this is goth? I feel it is more post-punk sounding, as I can see some great pop hooks in the chorus. It is a catchy song though somewhat dark-ish. I found it good and interesting, and thought sharing it.

I have no clue where the band was from. Well, from the UK for sure. The aforementioned compilation is British. But that’s not all. The band released another song in those late 80s. It was on a compilation 7” that was released by Fantastic Records (FAN002) called “Welcome to the West”.

This label hailed from Exeter, Devon. So I wonder if there’s a chance the band also hailed from this area. On this record the band contributed the song “Girls Stroll at 8”. The other bands in the record were Colonial Club, Fairly Perfect People and Jive Turkey.

Then my suppositions prove to be right. There is an address on the back of the sleeve. It says the band hailed from Plymouth in Devon. We also finda. name, that of Dave Martin. Probably a member of the band.

I may be wrong, the name is not uncommon you know, but there is a Dave Martin in the Plymouth area that is in a jazz band these days called Jabbo Five. Could it be the same Dave?

The only other interesting bit is that the band supported Pulp on July 4th of 1986 at the legendary Tropic Club in Bristol.

And that’s it. Would be interesting to find out what happened with them and listen to more songs, wonder how they sounded like!

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Listen
Mousetrap Conspiracy – The Skies

12
Feb

I wrote years ago about the Swedish band Little Big Adventure on the blog. That was Magnus Lindroos moniker and the one he used to release his very fine “Saltsjö-Duvnäs” CDR EP.

Magnus had been in other bands too of course. He was in Penny Century and one called The Paper Merchants which I know nothing at all to be honest.

So here I am looking on the web if I can find any information about it.

The one thing that I find is a song called “The Lovers (In the Face Of)” which is very nice.

From what I understand it was released in 2012 by the blog Eardrums. Can I find this release?

So far no luck. I do see that there was another song released called “I Don’t Care”. Was it part of the same release? I see it in Rateyourmusic as a 2009 release. I also notice that it is a Swedish band but probably another with the same name? I see the band members listed but I don’t see Magnus Lindroos. It is quite a coincidence of two bands in Sweden, in around the same period, with the same name.

I keep searching. I see that Magnus DJed at Club King Kong on 2012. That’s a long time ago.

But that’s it. Maybe it would be good to get in touch with Magnus someday if possible and learn more about his projects. That’d be cool!

EDIT:
Our friend Jonathan Rieger has just told me that he saw the band play at Cosy Den festival in Stockholm in 2009. He bought a CD album then by the band called “A Friend of Mine”. Didn’t know that existed! The tracklist for the album is as follows: “Better”, “I Can’t Walk With You into Doom”, “I Don’t Care”, “Wedding Picture”, “East Coast”, “The Lovers”, “Death will Come”, “The Kids at  the Club” and “Bourgeoisie Beheaders”. It has a label too, one called Den Manskliga Motsvarigheten, and the catalog was MOTCD01. Probably the band’s own label.

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Listen
The Paper Merchants – The Lovers (In The Face Of)

05
Feb

First things first. We have a new release! It is coming out on February 15 and it is a 10″! It is by the superb band Blind Terry from Sweden. It includes 6 songs that have never been released and finally see the light now! It is limited to 250 copies and it is a beauty if I may say so. You can preorder now on our website, www.cloudberryrecords.com and also on our Bandcamp! Enjoy!

So I return to the Blue House Records Bandcamp. After discovering the Tender Lugers, I know there are more goodies in there.

The goodies have names. And the first one I really like is called As Is. They have a collection of songs called “Heavy Big Pop” which sounds really interesting to me. 17 tracks in total, recorded in the 80s.

I learn that the band was formed by James Partridge on guitar and vocals, Paul Read on drums and vocals, Steve Mears on bass and vocals and Paul Taylor on guitar.

The band had stopped playing in 1989, on Thursday 16th of March of that year in Felixstowe. Where is that?

Felixstowe is a port town in Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest container port in the United Kingdom. Felixstowe is approximately 116 km northeast of London.

The songs on this collection are: “Take it From Me”, “Wherever You Go”, “Badlands”, “Hey! Judas!”, “World Full of Eyes”, “I Don’t Want To See You Again”, “Too Tough to Die”, “Say it Again”, “Faith”, “Storm Warning”, “Church of Comedies”, “Under Two Flags”, “Big Love”, “The Big Adventure”, “Black Sun”, “Wade into the Water” and “(If You’ve Seen the Light) Tell Me”.

One nice thing is that there are copies of this release on CD still available.

And then there’s more. There is a collection of demos called “Where Four Seas Meet” that has 21 songs. These are “Love is Here”, “I Feel For You”, “Be My Evangeline”, “(I Want To) Move (In With You)”, “Away From You”, “Time to Cry”, “Love Me”, “Forbidden”, “We Could Be Happy”, “I Can’t Trust Myself”, “Almost Summer”, “Drop It”, “Incredible”, “Boomerang”, “Round & Around”, “Take a Little While”, “If You Gotta Go, Go Tomorrow”, “Better than the Rest”, “Heart is Blue”, “Why Can’t I Touch It?” and “The Prettiest Girl in the World”.

Then something that confuses me. I read the band had their last hurray in 1989. But I see that the first seven songs were recorded in February of 1990. At Hammer Hi Tech Studios and produced by Martin Hawkes and James Harding. So that doesn’t make sense chronologically, right?

The songs “Forbidden” and ” We Could Be Happy” were recorded in 1989 in Westerfield. While the rest of tracks up to “Heart is Blue” were recorded on April 1990 also on Westerfield. “Why Can’t I Touch it?” was recorded in May 1990, live, in Christchurch Park in Ipswich. It is a cover of The Buzzcocks. The last track was never finished but it was rescued and mixed in 2001.

On this recordings the band had changed a bit, James Partridge was still on the band, but the rest had changed, we see Malcolm Hawkes on drums and vocals, Ross Geraghty on bass and vocals and Shane Kirk on guitar and vocals.

Then I find something great, live footage. As Is playing live at the Colchester Arts Centre in May 22nd 1990. The song available is “Away From You“. Then another video, 20+ minutes worth, of them playing at the Ipswich Corn Exchange on May 21, 1988. The songs played in this video are “Cry (Most of)”, “Faith”, “Under Two Flags”, “Wherever You Go”, “I Don’t Want to See You Again” and “Badlands (most of)”. And lastly another full gig, almost an hour worth, of the band playing in Grimsby on September 13, 1988. That time they played “Take it From Me”, “Wherever You Go”, “Your Way”, “Shadows”, “Fire Away”, “Faith”, “Badlands”, “Church of Comedies”, “I Don’t Want to See You Again”, “Real Life”, “I Don’t Mind” and “Wade into the Water”.

Another find is this Soundcloud by James Partridge where he shares more tracks of him. Just not sure to which bands they belong to. I know he also recorded as Partridge-Read with Paul Read.

Steve Mears and Shane Kirk had been in Gods Kitchen

And that’s all there is about them. But hopefully we’ll find more information soon. Songs sound great!

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Listen
As Is – Big Love

29
Jan

Went back to that flyer for The Timebox from November 1986. That flyer helped me discover the band Call Dr Bunny. There are many bands on there that I have never heard but also that I can’t find any recordings on the web. For example Escape From Burma who played with The Chesterf!elds on November 24th. On Discogs there is a demo tape listed that is categorized as indiepop. I am so curious.

On the other hand sometimes I am lucky, and I have found a trove of recordings by a band called Tender Lugers. They played on December 2nd  at The Timebox supporting The Pop Icons and The Psylons. I haven’t heard these bands either.

It is on Bandcamp, on an account set up by Blue House Records, that I find 31 tracks by Tender Lugers. It is a collection called “Closer to God“.

This collection includes the band’s releases. I notice on Discogs that the band released three records as well as appearing on 2 compilations.

The first release is the “Johnny Orgy” 12″ released in 1986 by Kick! Records (KIK 1). This EP had six songs, three on each side. “Get it While You Can”, “You’re So Cruel” and “Roadfucker” on the A side and “That’s Really Something”, “Licks” and “She Wants it Now”. This one was produced by James Partridge.

The music of the band can be indiepop at points but it can get rockier. I like the indiepop tracks a lot. They are nice. So yeah, listen with open mind, skip the ones you don’t like, enjoy the ones you do.

“Enjoy Yourself” is the band’s second EP. It came out in 1987 again on Kick! Records (KIK 2). This was probably the band’s own label. The songs on the record were “Enjoy Yourself” and “If I Were You” on the A side and “Teenage Cream” and “Closer to God” on the B side. This record was produed by Pete Dee.

Lastly the 12″ EP “Ugly Boy” came out on Rare Lad (R.L. 1) in 1988. “Junkie Fag Hag” and “I Wish I Was Lovely” appear on the A side and “What Good Will it Do” and “Why Should I?” are on the B side. This record was produced by Andy Boyce, Tracey Kelly and the band. Tracey Kelly also provided backing vocals while Andy Boyce played keyboards and backing vocals. The record was recorded at The Lodge, Clare, Suffolk.

On compilations they had “Don’t Talk About It” on the tape “Vicrub” which was released by the Venue for Ipswich Campaign (RUB001) in 1989. Then in 2011 their song “Junkie Fag Hag” was on the double CD comp “The Ugly Truth About Ipswich 1981-2011” released by Antigen Records and Corndog Records (Antigen 41, CORN 017).

On Bandcamp the collection is much larger. It includes the aforementioned songs but also “The Best Thing”, “Don’t Talk About It”, “C’mon Baby”, “Ramblin’ Man”, “I Wish I Was Lovely”, “Why Should I?”, “Candy Fuck Pig”, “Honestly Baby”, “My Best Friend”, “Country Honey” and “Dogshit Blues” from the band’s first demo from July 1987 that was produced by James Partridge.

Then tracks 12 to 17, “I Can’t Wait (For my Daddy to Die)”, “Thank God (He Didn’t Take Too Long)”, “Guts”, “Roadfucker”, “Dirty Muscle” and “She Wants it Now”, are from a demo recorded on 16-track in 1986 also produced by Partridge.

Then something interesting to me. Tracks 32 and 35 were a Peel Session. You can’t stream these songs unless you download the whole thing. The session dates from September 16, 1986 and was produced by Dale Griffin. The songs were “Johnny Joanne”, “Enjoy Yourself”, “A Little Protection” and “Teenage Cream”.

I try to find any names that may be in connection with the band. I find that of Bruce MacGregor from the band EMF. It seems he was part of The Suckers and The Blowers but also of Tender Lugers.

Another thing I notice on the web is that the band played at Dingwalls with Hurrah! and The Jack Rubies.

And that’s it…

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Listen
Tender Lugers – The Best Thing

22
Jan

First post I am writing since returning from my holidays. To get back into blogging I need to go back to my “origins”, to the time I remember with nostalgia, when I was discovering indiepop, those early 2000s.

A time where Swedish pop reigned supreme. Lots of great bands and labels. Mostly lo-fi bedroom pop which we found through the peer-to-peer program Soulseek. We made friends, we became fans. It was a good time.

There was a label called Bedroom Records then. I’ve written about some bands on it like Thehelpmeplease, Happy Go Lucky or Agent Simple. These were mainly guitar pop bands, today’s band Back in Judy’s Shack, it was more of an eletronic pop one.

On this label most, if not all, of its releases were CDRs. That was the format of the day. Very limited copies but we still would get physical releases with artwork.

Back in Judy’s Shack self-released mini-album came out in 2005 with the catalog number BED021. It had 7 songs, “Winter Days”, “Burning Cold”, “Breath”, “The Puff, The Drag, The Whiff”, “Silence”, “The Forest” and “What Are You Doing for the Rest of Your Life”.

The songs had been written, produced, mixed, arranged and played by Johan Cederberg and Josefine Jinder.

Johan would be in other projects like Montauk and HNNY, as well as playing solo, while Josefine is more known as Little Jinder. She was also part of the fantastic Your Place or Mine, a band I hope I can interview someday (it is one of my favourite bands of that period).

Sam Carlshamre from Corduroy Utd. and the fantastic Jämna Plågor, who also contributed trombone to a song of Your Place or Mine, played trombone in the song “Burning Cold”. Andreas Wallgren, also known as [brus], wrote and sang the song “Breath”.

The art of the CD is credited to Helga Bärnarp.

This CDR would be repressed 3 years later, in 2008, by the US label Series Two (ST015). Same tracklist. 300 copies. Just different artwork.

The band would also appear on two compilations. On “Series Two Compilation Vol. 23” (ST51) from 2009 the band had “The Puff, The Drag, The Whiff” and on “Series Two Records Christmas Special” (ST89) of the same year they had “Footsteps in the Snow”.

Then they split of course and released more music with different projects I already mentioned. I wonder though where are they now? I’d be curious to know what their thoughts are looking back to those days of Back in Judy’s Shack. And of course, who wouldn’t, I am curious about the band’s name. Was Judy a real person?

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Listen
Back in Judy’s Shack – The Puff, The Drag, The Whiff

15
Jan

Never heard of a guitar pop band from Kentucky.

I don’t know much about this U.S. state to be honest. Sure you can joke and say everyone knows KFC. But I am talking about music. Especially the type of music that interests me.

So I was surprised when I found that sometime in the 80s there was a four-piece called The Side that released a 7″ by themselves. An EP of four songs: “Jimmy” and “Burnt Pages” on the A side and “Watching the World” and “The Forgotten” on the B side.

Thanks to Youtube I have listened to just one of the tracks, “Watching the World”, which sounds great.

The uploader mentions that he thinks the band hailed from a town called Bowling Green. It looks like a very nice town. The biggest city, closer to it, is Nashville in Tennessee.

About the band we know a few details thanks to the back of the record sleeve.

It tells us that they were formed by Christian Breeding on bass and backing vocals, Scott Stewart on drums and backing vocals, Tommy Shriver on lead guitar and backing vocals and Robert Allen on guitar and lead vocals.

All of the songs were recorded and mixed at Midsouth Recording Studio in Woodburn, Kentucky. They were engineered by Stephen Webber and were mastered at Nashville Record Productions.

That’s all there is. Anyone can help me with more info about them? Anyone seen a copy of this record at all? Seems rare!

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Listen
The Side – Watching the World

08
Jan

December 1991. The Pop Club at the Bull & Gate.

It is Saturday the 14th and the bill has The Prime Movers with Disneyhood supporting. I have never heard any of these bands. 6 days later the club is hosting the Sarah Records Xmas Party and I would love to travel back in time to attend that.

But yes, I know Heavenly and all Sarah bands. I saw Heavenly last year. And it seems I will see them again this year now in New York City.

But what about these other bands playing the week before. Disneyhood? Strange name?

I do find on Soundcloud a bunch of recordings. They are of various quality. They had been uploaded 12 years ago by Steve Brooks who I assume was part of the band. There are no details about any of the songs or about the band. The sound of the band sounds like the early 90s though, so they must be the same band that played at The Pop Club.

Steve Brooks seems to be based in Seaford, UK. I’ve never heard of this place. Seems it is by the sea, in East Sussex. Close to Eastbourne and Newhaven. The Seven Sisters cliffs and Beachy Head are close by too.

Among the songs uploaded, there are five that are numbered, they may have come from the same demo tape? These are “Slight Return”, “Hitch Hiker”, “Amazing”, “Do it Again” and “Bonedive”.

Aside from those tracks, there are two more: “Turnaround” and “Unreal.”

The only other thing I find about them is that the band played at the North Wembley East Lane Flag in London on Friday February 8th of 1991 alongside The Lampards. This according to Sounds.

Who remembers this band? Did any well-known indiepop bands share gigs with them? Did they put out any records? Let me know on the comment box.

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Listen
Disneyhood – Turnaround