In 2018 the Japanese label Fastcut Records released a much deserved, a much awaited, retrospective of the 90s indiepop band Sunny Gets Blue. This Japanese band formed by  Ryotaro Abe on vocals, piano, guitar and harmonica, Toru Fukuda on guitar, Takashi Togawa on bass and Eiji Miyauchi on drums released just two records back in their day and appeared on many compilations.

The first release I am aware is a split CD with another legendary Japanese band, Sunnychar (who I should write about sometime soon). It was titled “Teenage Speedster on Sunny Monday Morning” and came on a mainly red sleeve with a red race car. On this 13-track CD, 8 of the songs were from Sunny Gets Blue. The first 5 were by Sunnychar.

The tracks by Sunny Gets Blue on this 1994 CD released by Pushbike Records (UFPB-008) were “Vespa 125et3”, “S.S.J.”, “Funny Weekends”, “Girlfriend”, “At the Brilliant Corners”, “Sometimes, I Remember”, “This Feeling (Demo)” and “Vespa 125et3”.

The band would release another record that year, a tape called “Ducks and Drakes”. It came out in the Japanese label Chocolat Art Records (CA-004) and included 6 tracks, 3 on each side. These were “Riding on the Motorcycle”, “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”, “Haven’t We Met”, “Bye Bye Mr. Raindrop”. “Convertible in Almond Blue” and “Hours and Times”.

As mentioned too, the band appeared on many compilations. So in 1993 they appear with “I Go Down to the Sea” on the CD comp “See-See-You, Tomorrow !!” released by Pushbike. That same year, and again on Pushbike, they have the song “In My Heaven – All These Friends and Lovers” on the CD “Happy Day, Happy Time!! Pushbike Compilation Vol. 2”. Lastly their song “Riding on the Motorcycle” appears on the cassette comp “We Don’t Need Another Hero” released by Haarnadel.

In 1994 they have the song “Boy Should Go!” in Pushbike and Chocolat Art co-released CD “The Cacaos Like Hotcakes”. In 1995 they have “Les Adventuriers” on “Fancy Fantasy! Gian-Robot Compilation Vol.2” released by Giant-Robot Records and also the track “At The Brilliant Corners” on the Pushbike comp “Good Thing Goin’ Pushbike Compilation Vol. 4”.

1996 has “Riding on the Motorcycle” on “Cherries and Sunny Days” an Italian compilation tape released by Shiny Sunset.

Then much closer to these days, in 2007 they have “At The Brilliant Corners” on the four-CD compilation “Love Flowers: Under Flower Nation 15th Anniversary Compilation” released by Under Flower Records (this was the parent label of Pushbike). And then in 2022 Testcard Records included their song “Haven’t We Met” on “Under Flower Fes Compilation”.

As mentioned Fastcut made a compilation of their songs. One that included a CD and a 7″. The good thing is that the songs on the 7″ are on the CD. I really dislike when that is not the case. The compilation was called “At the Brilliant Corners” and had the catalog number FCEP-026.

The tracks on the record were: “S.S.J.”, “Funny Weekends”, “Girlfriend”, “At the Brilliant Corners”, “Sometimes, I Remember”, “This Feeling (Demo)”, “Boy Should Go!”, “I Go Down to the Sea”, “Marinegirl”, “Riding on the Motorcycle”, “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”, “Haven’t We Met”, “Bye Bye Mr. Raindrop”, “Convertible in Almond Blue” and “Hours and Times”.

Looking for more info, I figure out that their name probably comes from a famous pop and jazz standard called “When Sunny Gets Blue” that was first recorded by Johnny Mathis in 1956.

The one other cool thing that I fund was this video of Ryotaro at the Neo Acoustic Pavilion vol. 44 about a year ago, on August 3 of 2025. Here he DJed and also played a mini live setlist where he played two Sunny Gets Blue songs, “Back to You” and “This Feeling” as well as a cover of “Big Bad Bingo” by Flipper’s Guitar.

Very cool! Hope we get to learn more about this classic band!!

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Sunny Gets Blue – Riding on the Motorcycle

Probably named after Monsieur and Madame Verdurin, the prominent bourgeois couple and salon hosts, from Marcel Proust’s novel In Search of Lost Time, Verdurin only released one 7″ as a band. Which is a shame.

The band formed by Olivier Roussilhe on vocals, guitar, bass and keys, Emmanuel Fillon on drums and Sophie Mercier on flute, released “Sur La Moquette” 7″ in 1997 on the French label Plastic Pancake (Plastic Pancake 003). This record had just three songs, “Sur La Moquette” on the A side and “Mademoiselle De Ponsac” and “Dans un Pouf” on the B side. The songs were recorded by Benoit Cubaynes.

Plastic Pancake of course being the label of Pierre-Antoine Delpino, someone I used to see a lot at Indietracks, back in the day…

I have to look of course who is Mademoiselle de Ponsac. There doesn’t seem to be one. There’s one de Polignac. Is there a town Ponsac then? There isn’t. there exists an ancient medieval town and commune in the Haute-Vienne department called Châteauponsac which historically was called Ponsac-la-Montagne. Could that be?

We also know that Olivier was previously in a band called Lol that reeleased an EP in 1994 called “Gombrowicz EP”. Would love to hear this one. The other two members don’t seem to have any other bands listed on Discogs.

On the blog there is one mention of Olivier, on the interview I did with Fabien Garcia about his old band Caramel. He mentions Olivier recorded their first demo.

I find a blog post from 2024 on the blog Haar Brut. Here the cover art is discussed, if it is a screen capture of Olivier Assayas’ film Irma Vep. That Jean-Pierre Léaud and maybe Maggie Cheung are pictured.

We also learn that the band hailed from Toulouse. How cool. I really liked this city when I visited it last year.

And that’s really all I could find about them. Anyone remembers them? Are there more songs recorded? Did they play live much? Who’d know!

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Verdurin – Sur la Moquette

Spalding Rockwell Gray (June 5, 1941 – c. January 11, 2004) was an American actor and writer. He is best known for driving autobiographical monologues that he wrote and performed for theater in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as for his film adaptations of these works, beginning in 1987. He wrote and starred in several films, working with different directors.

Theater critics John Willis and Ben Hodges called Gray’s monologues “trenchant, personal narratives delivered on sparse, unadorned sets with a dry, WASP, quiet mania.” Gray achieved renown for his monologue Swimming to Cambodia, which he adapted as a 1987 film in which he starred; it was directed by Jonathan Demme. Other of his monologues that he adapted for film were Monster in a Box (1991), directed by Nick Broomfield, and Gray’s Anatomy (1996), directed by Steven Soderbergh.

Gray died by suicide at the age of 62 after jumping into New York Harbor on January 11, 2004. He had been struggling with depression and severe injuries following a car accident. Soderbergh made a documentary film about Gray’s life, And Everything Is Going Fine (2010). An unfinished monologue and a selection from his journals were published in 2005 and 2011, respectively.

This post is not about the actor, even though I’m using his photo. The post is about a band that took their name from the actor. It was called Spalding’s Grey. They modified the last name. Added an apostrophe. But who was behind this band? To me this is a big mystery.

I want to think the band dates from the mid late 80s. Or most possibly the early 90s. That’s where I place their sound. I’ve only heard the one song and is called “100 Years No One Noticed”. And it is premonitory. No one has noticed the band. It has flown under the radar and there’s nothing online about them.

Were they British? I want to think yes. It sounds to me British. But I can’t confirm. There are more questions than answers. So I hope someone remembers anything about then, any details, and I can start understanding a bit more this band.

EDIT: seems I got it all wrong, and they are not from the U.K. or the the 80-90s. But still, don’t know anything else by them. There is another very nice song online now called “Tell Time” for what is worth.

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Spalding’s Grey – 100 Years Not One Noticed

Tokidoki, the boy/girl duo formed by Nora O’Conner and Peter Schaefer, first release came in 1996. I didn’t know that. I was always only aware of their 2000 self-titled album on Sunday Records. I guess I should do my homework and do a little digging about them.

As mentioned, they released a 7″ EP in 1996 on the label Tiny Shoes Records. It was the first release on this label. The label was to release a 2nd record the year after by the English band The Pictures. I haven’t heard it. And I didn’t know about this label. The 90s are still a bit unknown to me.

The 7″ the band released was titled “Margie’s Candies” and included 5 songs, “Perfect New Love Song” and “Cookie Cutter” on the A side and “Girl Friend”, “Bored and Angry” and “Anymore” on the B side. Dave Knapik recorded the songs at WNUR-FM in December of 1995. I think he was behind the label too.

The band was to release a 2nd 7″. This time on the legendary Harriet Records. It was the “News Days” single (Harriet 041) that came out in 1997. The title song “News Days” was on the A side and “Sock Hop” and “The Goldfish Song” were on the flipside. This time the songs were recorded on a four-track in December of 1996 by Mike Kirts from the band Hooker OK.

In the year 2000 the band appears on the compilation “Sunny Sunday Smile Volume 2” (Sunday880) with the tracks “Pointless” and “Ira Robbins”.  I google Ira Robins, it seems this is a professor at Washington College of Law. Does that make sense? There is another Ira Robbins who is an artist and graphic designer. Maybe he’s the one the song is about? Or most probably Ira Robbins the editor and publisher of Trouser Press?

The album Tokidoki comes in the year 2000 with catalog number Sunday 895. It is a co-release, didn’t know that. Sky Blue Records is the other label involved (catalog Sky Blue 002). The songs are again recorded by Mike Kirts, and this time mixed by Jeff Boyd. The album has 12 songs, “Julie”, “Office Romance”, “New Quiet Song”, “Hairspray”, “Oranges in Paris”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Waiting for Ida”, “A Gentle Approach”, “Shirt Sleeves”, “You’re the One”, “50 Seconds” and “Dreamsongs”.

All of the album is available to listen on Sunday Records Bandcamp. This is great. What’s even better is that there is a bio for the band!

I believe this bio is written by Peter. He mentions being friends for years before forming the band. That they lived at the same dorm at college and worked at the college radio station. There they discovered indiepop. Previously Peter was in a punk-pop band called Remy while Nora played in Not Without My Daughter.

It mentions that the band first gig coincided with the release of their first 7″.  They played in a club in Chicago called Metro and opened for Sleater Kinney. Then they would open for the Apples in Stereo and Ida and play often in a club called the Lounge Ax everytime an indiepop band was visiting town.

Nora contributed vocals on the first Aden album. After starting their relationship with Harriet Records they were able to play in NYC, Boston, New Haven and more. There they shared gigs with The Receptionists, The Musical Chairs an Pest 5000.

Afterwards Nora moved to NYC, the band tried to keep playing, Peter flying to NYC and doing some gigs. But this didn’t continue for long and the band went to hiatus.

And what happened after? Not sure. I did find that the music from Remy, Peter’s old band, was reissued in 2018 by Carpark Records.

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Tokidoki – Office Romance

Amber is a band I know very little about. I found about them on an Instagram post by an account called diversesvenkst and got me curious. Then I notice the great David Chalé had posted one of their songs, “Yatzy”, on Youtube and well, it is time then too try to find any details we can.

The band hailed from Malmö, a city I visited once and which I hope I return some day. Good times. Not sure which period they were active, but in 1996 they put out a demo tape called “A Face in the Crowd”.

This tape had three songs: “Yatzy”, “A Face in the Crowd” and “Wednesday”. The songs were recorded at Yellowman Studios and were produced by Harri Koljonen and Thomas Lundberg. The art is credited to Jörgen Simonsson.

We get the lineup of the band on the cassette sleeve, Fredrik Billquist on guitar and vocals, Thomas Lundberg on piano and organ, Jörgen Simonsson on drums and trumpet and Henri Thörn on bass.

The tape also has some contact info. It seems Henri is the person to be contacted as his address is listed. It is very close to the old town, just across the Rörsjökanalen, close to the Museum of Modern Art.

I look for the band members. I see that there is a Fredrik Billquist in Malmö that is the property manager of the Malmö Opera. Is it the same person?

I can’t find any other details about this band. I definitely would like to find more details about them, and listen to the rest of the tape. Any help will be appreciated!

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Amber – Yatzy

Kumla is a locality and the seat of Kumla Municipality, Örebro County, Sweden with a population of 21,640 as of 2018. The name Kumla is renowned for its prison (“the Kumla Institution”, or Kumlaanstalten, commonly known as ‘The Bunker’), which is the largest prison in the country.

I don’t think I’ve ever written about a band of this small town in Sweden. A small town not only known for its prison but also for being an important shoe manufacturing town in the past. They even have a Shoe Industry Museum. It is in this town that there used to be a very fine shoegaze band called Swoon.

Swoon started in the mid-90s. I believe they were previously called Shallow (due to a Catherine Wheel song as well as “Only Shallow” by My Bloody Valentine). The band was influenced by those sounds, which is interesting for sure, I don’t know many Swedish shoegaze bands.

They were formed by John Hård on guitar, Staffan Ljunggren on drums and Ola Ljunggren on vocals and bass. The last two were brothers.

They were all originally from Kumla, but these days they all live either in Uppsala or Stockholm.

As a band they released a cassette tape titled “Goodsign” in 1997. I have very little info about it. There are four songs, “Goodsign”, “Cerebral”, “Aquanaut” and “To Break My Heart”. The same songs are on both sides of the tape.

In 2001 there is a CD EP titled “Slipstream” with the songs “Moving Out”, “Slipstream”, “Up My Sleeve”, “In Time”, “Cave Painter” and “Part of You”. Two years later, 2003, there is the “Encore EP” CD. This one had the songs “Letting it Out”, “All the Answers”, “Walk” and “Encore”.

These three releases have no label. All self-released.

In 2005 they put out another CD EP. This one is called “Jetglo” and includes mainly songs from the past, “Encore”, “Slipstream”, “All the Answers” and “Moving About”. This time we see a label in the CD, Kitty Litter Records (KLRCD001). This was the label of Darijo Berkes who would later release Mr. Suitcase. We also see some extra credits, for example the artwork was done by Bengt Wallman, and the songs were engineered by Erik Danielsson and Robin Spurrier (from South Ambulance).

Lastly in 2006 the band releases the “Everlast” CDR EP on Kitty Litter (KLR003). This one has all the same credits, same engineers and all. The songs were “Feels Like Me”, “Goodsign”, “Part of You” and “Time and Time Again”.

The last two EPs are on this Soundcloud account. There are also two other songs, “More or Less” and “Flight” which were released in 2015.

It is also worth noting that their song “To Break My Heart” was included in the compilation “Clairerecords Presents Solutions & Remedies” (FERN 2) released in 1998 by Clairerecords.

Looking at any other band involvement of the band members, it looks like Staffan played in a ban called Trummor & Orgel releasing quite a few records.

I keep searching and find a post on Blaskoteket dating from March 1997. It looks like it is around this time that the band changed their name from Shallow to Swoon. Here we learn too that Ola was studying molecular biotechnology in Uppsala, and that Steffan moved to Stockholm.

We also find out that Ola had previously been in a band called The Williams (are there any releases? recordings?). They were very young then in 1997. Very early 20s. They loved My Bloody Valentine, Pale Saints and Chapterhouse. They liked The Smiths as well. Their favourite Swedish band at that time? Aquadays. Very cool.

It seems the “Cerebral” tape is their 2nd demo. Their first demo was called “Shallow. Not sure what songs were included. Also it is mentioned that in April 1996 they appeared on a compilation from a label called Rape-Cake-Records called “No.4”. The song they contributed was called “Monologue”.

“Cerebral” was originally pressed as a 100 copies edition tape and later they pressed another batch of 200. Not bad at all.

Interesting story. I’d definitely like to learn more about them. Did they play live much? Would be great to find out. Anyone remembers them?

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Swoon – Feels Like Me

When I did a few CDRs called The Sound of Young Java, I had considered calling the series The Sound of Young Bandung. The impressive amount of quality bands coming from that city in Indonesia has always surprised me. How come they produce that? I must visit Bandung some day. I hope. And try to answer that question.

In the meantime I thought about showcasing a band that deserves more love, Clubwater. When they were around it was way past the days I was releasing CDRs. Also way past the time I was in touch with many people involved in the Indonesian pop scene. So I missed them out. I did write about their self-titled CDR release on Shiny Happy Records back in 2021. This is what I said: “8 poppy songs coming from Bandung, Indonesia. Jangly, Smith-sy, I am enjoying their chiming guitars. The self-titled 8 song album will be out on February 14. It is coming out on tape on the veritable Shiny Happy Records! Three songs are available to preview, “Adult Angst”, “Secret Smile” and “Regret”. Enjoying all three! Looking forward to hearing the rest.”

All songs are available to stream on their label’s Bandcamp these days. The CDR is long sold out. The songs on this release were “Adult Angst”, “Secret Smile”, “Harmony of the Sea”, “Happiness”, “You”, “Regret”, “Lonesome Song” and “Half Hearted”, this last one a cover of the mighty Brighter.

Indeed, the band has been compared to Brighter, to the Field Mice , and other Sarah bands.

The band was formed by Muhammad Febri Hendarsyah on vocals and bass, Rega Zulhan Vocalian on guitar, Sendy Suberkah on guitar and Indra Maryoga on drums. All original songs of the band were written by Febri, with the exception of “Regret” that was penned by both Febri and someone called Ferdical. The songs were recorded by Irsyad Ali Sofi who owns and operates the Teargaslab Studio in Bandung.

The CDR came with liner notes from Tiok from The Sensitive and Heavenpunks. It mentions featuring the band on a fanzine called Letskissasecret. It mentions that he always wanted to compile the bands songs.

I have this feeling this CDR may be a compilation actually of all their records. Why? Because the band released a CDR on Shiny Happy Records (SHR 24) 7 years earlier, in 2014. This CDR was a mini 3″ one. Just like the ones I used to release. It included the songs “Happiness” and “You”. So to me, it makes sense the band was active during that time, in the mid 2010s and not in the 2020s.

Searching for more info, there’s a Soundcloud by the band, but only two songs are online, the same ones as their first release. They date from 12 years ago.

More recently Chaotic Pop Records from Tangerang, Indonesian, decided to include the song “Secret Smile” on a compilation CDR called “A Chaotic Pop Records Compilation – I Know It’s Only a CDr Release, But I Love It!” (Chaotic 6). This one came out in 2023 and featured many great Indonesian bands.

And then I notice the band has two different Instagram accounts. The newest one says the band is still active. That they have signed to Untune Record. I check. I see then that the band released a cassette last year, 2025. It has 10 songs: “Adult Angst”, “Secret Smile (Extended Version)”, “Harmony of the Seas”, “Happiness”, “You”, “Regret”, “Lonesome Song Feat. Candissa”, “Half Hearted (Brighter)”. “You (Single version)” and “Something Good (Bonus Track)”.

It says that this release is a reissue album actually with extra songs. Different artwork too.

Looking at this account I notice the band played a few weeks ago, on June 13, the Jakarta Popfest 2026.

So yea, the band is back. And I’m writing them a post about their story. And clearly this time around the story is not fully written. There are more pages to be written.

I would still love to learn more about Clubwater. Their music is fantastic, and I’d definitely would love more information about them, their band members, their songs, their gigs and more.

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Clubwater – Happiness

Molasses had two periods. One in Perth, Australia, with Paul Williams, Andrew Britten and Mia Schoen. And one in Melbourne where Andrew was replaced by Chris Gorman. I’m going to try to figure out when this change happened.

Mia is a musician I have always enjoyed. She has been in great bands, among them a favorite of mine, Sleepy Township. She has also been in Above Ground Pool, Driving Past, Huon, Mia Schoen Group, New Estate, Possum Moods, Powerful Owl, The Cannanes, The Enclosures, The Curse and Lucida. Maybe there’s even more. I believe the “Golden Hour” album was her latest as a solo artist, and that’s from 2017.

Andrew was in bands too, mainly Cease and Jaguar is Jaguar. On this last band he was joined by Paul. And of course, Paul had been in a few other bands like Above Ground Pool, Panel of Judges, Sleepy Township and The Fast Bikes.

Lastly Chris was on the great Clag (I need to make a post about them), Doublechin, Jaguar is Jaguar, Mustang!, New Estate and Sleepy Township.

As you can see all of them were in top bands, they had great indiepop pedigree!

As far as I know Molasses is not that well known. At least for me. I don’t happen to own any of their releases, and that’s the reason I’m writing this post, to learn and discover more about this project.

The band two releases were split 7″ EPs. The first one was on Chapter Music (Chapter 11) where they shared the vinyl record with the band Minimum Chips. Molasses appear on the A side with two tracks, “Superpowers Activate” and “Hindsight” while Minimum Chips contributes “Baruberry”, “One That Got Away” and “Grogmonster” to the flipside. The record was released in 1995. The sleeve art is a photography of a house, I would think in Australia, with a huge cloud on top. Bad omens?

That is the original release. But there are some copies that had handmade sleeves with new inserts according to Discogs.

The second split 7″ came out in 1996. This time it was a lathe cut 7″ single, with two songs. The A side had Molasses’ “Hello Rain” and the B side had Sleepy Township’s “Houses”. Both bands as mentioned shared Mia and Paul in their ranks. Interesting enough the art is the same as the Chapter release, the same photographs which I believe Mia took.

It mentions that both songs were recorded in St. James in Western Australia. St. James being a suburb of Perth. At this time we still see Andrew in the band.

There are more songs by the band, perhaps enough to put together a compilation (Chapter, make it happen?). In 1994 they had a song called “Fingers in My Eyes” that was in a cassette compilation called “Too Much Ash” that Chapter released (Chapter 6). Then in 1995 we see the song “Brookton” on the Australian compilation tape “Molopo” released by From the Same Mother (FTSM 19). That same year the song “Moving” appears on the compilation CD called “The Butterfly” that was put together by Stand Against Sexual Assault. All of the songs on this CD were recorded live “under the blazing sun, on the roof of the Grosvenor Hotel, Perth, Western Australia on Sat. Dec. 3rd 1994 from non to midnight”.

In 1996 the band contributes the track “Nervous” to a CD compilation called “Family Album (A Compilation)” released by the American label Shy Boy Records (Shy Boy 01). It was compiled by Chris Henderson and Tami Heaton. Tami’s name I remember a lot from the indiepop-list.

On the 1997 “Live at the Cornflakes (An RTR-FM Compilation of Perth Original Noisesmithery)” CD the band contributes the song “Fingers in My Eye”. It is a live version of the track recorded sometime between 1994 and 1996 at RTR in the smallest room in the radio station at 8:30 am.

In 2002 the song “Finger in My Eyes” would see a new life on the compilation CD “Double Figures” released by Chapter Music (Chapter 44). Later, in 2009, I notice that the song “Optimistic” was released on a reissue of a compilation called “Asparagus Milkshake”.  This is a CDR but the original release was a tape from 1994 on Chapter Music (Chapter 4) that accompanied the fanzine “Salty and Delicious”.

Lastly in 2012 Chapter released “20 Big One 1992-2012”, which is. vinyl compilation that had the track “Swaddling”.

I keep googling and find something interesting. In 1995, when all of them were around 21 or 22, that’s when they moved to Melbourne. Another interesting detail is that the band before being called Molasses played their first couple of gigs under the name Jamboree.

And here is a super cool find. Molasses playing live!! I think the song is called “Vroom” and is being played at a benefit gig for the radio programme Drivetime from RTR. The gig happened at the old Myers Warehouse in East Perth. Amazing!!!

Let me know if you have any more details about them!

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Molasses – Moving

Sendai, Japan. The first time I heard about Rain Paints was thanks to a tape released by the very fine Japanese label Miles Apart Records in 2014. It was a tape that was part of their Cassette Tapes Club, and this one was the third release. It was showcasing 2 songs by Rain Paints, “Funeral Rain” and “10miles” and had the catalog number of MAP-007.

This tape, limited to 100 copies, came with a cool art of a boy and his dog eating a sandwich. It also gave us the details that the music was made by Yasushi Matsuo and tdsgk. Lyrics are also credited to both. The songs were recorded and mixed by Yasushi while the mastering is credited to Koji Takagi.

But this wasn’t the first time Rain Paints were releasing music. Previously, in 2013, the band released a self-titled 7″ with Beko from France. The 7″ included the song “The Sun is Down” on the A side and on the B side there was “The Sun is Down (The Beauty Remix)” on the B side. I didn’t get this record as I didn’t see the point of a B side being just a remix. I know. There was a version of this 7″ though that was much more worthwhile to get. One that included a 3″ CDR that came with the songs “Sunday”, “Anything”, “In the Clouds” (which featured La Neige), “The Sun is Down” and “The Sun is Down (The Beauty Remix)”.

This same year, 2013, a cassette titled “Sense of Lost” was released by Bikini Lounge from Japan. This tape was a split tape with another Sendai band, Thee Loves. Each band contributing 3 songs. On the B side is where we find Rain Paints with the songs “The Sun is Down”, “Come Just Make You Happy” and “Sunday Morning”. All of the songs of this tape are on Soundcloud.

2015 would also see a release that flew under my radar. A split 7″ on the Alone Together (AT004) and Bikini Lounge labels. The split had the Manchester band Horsebeach on the A side with the track “Broken Light” whereas Rain Paints appears on the B side with the song “Kill Me With Your Smile”. This release is on Bandcamp too if you want to check it out.

When it comes to compilations I know they had the song “25th December” on the compilation tape “Christmas Small Gift Vol.2” that Miles Apart Records (MAP-010) released in 2014.

And then this is where I lose track of the band. What happened to them after? Japanese friends, can you help me?

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Rain Paints – The Sun is Down

Many times in Germany. But never in the south of Germany. Munich remains a place I would like to visit. That’s where we are heading today on the blog.

It is possible that the band Bismarck Idaho best known fact is that Momus produced four out of 5 tracks of the band’s one and only release, the “Beckenbauer EP” CD from 1994.

The EP was released by the label Blickpunkt Pop (BP 001) ran by Marc Liebscher, also Munich based. This label is well known for having releasing the band Sportfreunde Stiller (who has the song “Ich, Roque” to my own amusement).

The EP included the songs “Pop Song”, “Beckenbauer’s Last Temptation (Kaizer Edit)”, “Iceflowers”, “The House that Jack Demolished” and “Beckenbauer’s Last Temptation (Distorted)”. As mentioned the first four tracks were produced by the great Nick Currie, Momus.

Momus mentions that he was invited to Munich early in 1994. He says that he didn’t care about sports but he thought the idea behind the song “Beckenbauer’s Last Temptation” was very interesting for him, where the German football legend is crucified and sees his life goes by before his eyes, remembering his best moments on the field. He mentions the name of two band members, Achim who was a theology student as well as the son of a pastor and Konstantin.

The song “Beckenbauer’s Last Temptation” would get some more tracking, appearing on the compilation “Munich Goes Pop” in 1994. Released by Roguish Records (RR004)  the compilation features bands from the city. The only band I know from this compilation is Friends Ahoj who I have interviewed in the past. I should explore these bands.

Also what about the name of the song “The House that Jack Demolished”? That must be a nod to the Go-Betweens’ “The House that Jack Kerouac Built”.

That’s all I could find about the band. Any more information would be great. Love the EP!

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Bismarck Idaho – Beckenbauer’s Last Temptation