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

We wake up like every morning to the sound of Sarah Records. Wait no. That’s not right. But we woke up at around 11am and after getting ready and packing we headed to King’s Cross once again. Our train to Derby was leaving at 1:20pm. We were at St. Pancras at around one and after topping up my phone, getting a lot of cash from the atm, and buying a tuna salad and a diet coke, we headed to our train. At the entrance gate for the train we met Dennis from Candy Twist fanzine, he had been waiting for a while there as his train was at 1:45. We suggested for him to ask if he could board our train, but no luck. A shame. I’ve had luck in UK many times asking if I can take earlier trains, I’ve always had positive replies from the train workers.

I was supposed to be on carriage B but as it usually happens in the UK they had trouble with reservations so everyone could sit wherever they wanted. So I joined Jennifer and Miguel at a very packed carriage A and sat next to a lady that had around six or seven bags with her and an iphone with a shattered screen. Messy people abound everywhere.

We arrived to Derby and we see a bunch of the poser-not-so-indiepop sitting on the sidewalk waiting for god knows what or probably just being cool. That’s a crowd I don’t want to be in, the one that celebrate the most boring bands, that brown-nose each other, and that in a way make Indietracks cater some boring music and discos for them. Because they are many, and they grow in numbers. On top of it all they don’t like me. I’m an uncomfortable person for them.

A 30 pound cab ride takes us all the way to our hotel in South Normanton, the Mansfield Premier Inn. A long ride, of about 30 minutes as we get caught in traffic on the motorway. Upon arriving our hotel is terribly quiet. I don’t see any familiar faces. It feels empty. I know Jennifer and Miguel want to nap. So I head to have lunch at the pub. To keep it very British, and to have some protein that I won’t probably have at Indietracks I get sausage and mash. With gravy. And a pint of lager.

After finishing my late lunch I start meeting familiar faces. A big taxi van brings Cris and Madidi from Little Treasure and Elena and Antonio from When Nalda Became Punk. Suddenly more people start appearing at the lobby. Carlos, Maria, Irene and Yago from Madrid Popfest, Olaf from Firestation Records, and Andreas, Amanda and Carl from Alpaca Sports. We ask the front desk clerk to call for us some taxis. And after a bit of figuring out how to fit everyone in three cabs, Irene, Yago, Olaf and me take the first cab to arrive. And all the way to the Golden Valley campsite. We don’t want to wait for any steam trains. We want our Indietracks adventure to start right away!

Who receives us by the entrance?! None other than Mr. Colm. He gives us all our bright red Indietracks bracelets and show us a little box with Helen Love and Trembling Blue Stars EPs that you can take for free. I take both. Of course. And then suddenly we are in wonderland. The grass looks greener than last year. The weather is warmer than last year. And I feel as excited too! And this is when things start getting blurry. Straight to the almost empty indoor stage to get our first warm beers of the festival.

I must have started saying hello to everyone by this point. I spent the whole evening talking and meeting up with friends. With all of them. I did stop at some point to have some curry. I didn’t see any of the bands. I wasn’t in the mood. I was in the mood to chat. To talk with friends. I believe the first friend I saw at Indietracks must have been Kajsa. She was all over the festival this year but I didn’t see her at any gigs (aside from the Helen Love one).  Then I met the big German contingent, Pamela and Paloma, and the new friends they introduced me to.

I met with the lovely people of Flowers. More Spanish friends, the biggest Go-Betweens fan Javi and the indiepop know-a-lot Manolo, this year for the first time without any injuries. The party animal Sergio was there too. Who can party like him?! So much fun to hang out. And then the Frenchies came too, everyone from the Pale Spectres gang plus the Another Sunny Night clan. All the familiar faces you want to see in one place. I also meet Astrid and Amanda. And then a bit later John. Them three will be the best companions on the dancefloor at the discos. Did I dance on Friday though? I must have at least for a bit.

Nana and Andreas show up. All tanned! What a surprise. We get some beers. And Andreas has his purple Coke. We catch up. It’s been a year since I saw them. And suddenly Victor and Naemi also arrive! And then more swedes, Rasmus and Arnar. All big Secret History fans. I get to see Vanessa too, classy girl with tall socks. She gets me up to date with Thee Ahs stories. I see Elin again, this time with her friend Lindnsey. Elin tells me the hotel looks like a hospital. That she should have stayed somewhere else. Also, that it is too far. But I tell her that it was the only one with rooms available at that time and it was the cheapest too. You don’t want to camp! Though, I would love to go to the camp discos.

More familiar faces, Toni from Jessica and the Fletchers is around too, making the Spanish Armada bigger and bigger. Because you have Rafa around, and some of the Vacaciones people too! Jennifer and Miguel arrive to Indietracks grounds. Alpaca Sports also. I meet Emma, Andreas’ girlfriend. She speaks perfect Spanish, with a nice Argentinean accent. She tells me about her time visiting Peru. And then I see Neil from The Felt Tips. And Lynsey from Scotland who I have a very nice talk after some events that happened in this blog many years ago. This is why I love coming to Indietracks. Seeing friends, making friends.

Marianthi making me happy with hugs. I see Alex too. Though there’s no Christos this time, there’s the one Greek missing. There is no Remi or Delphine either. People who are missed indeed. Matthew Big Pink Cake is around, but I see him little, unlike last year, when we hanged out at the merch tent. In general, I see people little. I didn’t have very long conversations with anyone this year. I got to see more bands, and I hanged out here and there. I didn’t even step in the stationary train. It was all about catching up after a year that I had kind of lost touch with so many friends. And as Nana said, everyone seemed a bit older this year, more grown up, more centered. I thought that was a good thing.

I lost the last train to the station. I was hanging out with Elin and Lindsay. But they have a friend, Jonathan, who is driving. He is staying with Jerv. The great John Jervis, merch table extraordinaire, record boss, gig organizer, and overall nice guy. All of us in the car, while Elin tells us about her favourite grass or something like that. Grass that grows nicer in Norway.

Already at the hotel we try to find some beer for an afterparty. But everything around is closed. But the girls are way more resourceful than me, and end up finding someone that has a bunch of alcohol… and the night continued for a couple more hours at the big pub table outside the hotel.

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pa·ri·ah

1. An outcast.
2. A member of an indigenous people of southern India originally functioning as ceremonial drummers but later having a low caste or no caste.

Do you know the Pariahs? Olaf from Firestation Records, based in Berlin, tells me they weren’t great live but their album is perfection. Uwe also from Firestation says it’s his favourite German indiepop album. I don’t know much about them. I left a note on their soundcloud trying to get in touch but no luck. Twee.net though has a small biography for the band:

The Pariahs played britpop long before Oasis did. Raised in 1989 they released their debut-CD TIGHTROPE WALK in 1992 and received quite positive reviews in Newspapers like ‘Tagesspiegel’ and ‘taz’ – the critics compared the songs with the work of Lennon-McCartney, Elvis Costello and other famous british songwriters. Unfortunately they’ve already split when guitar-based popmusic striked back. The tried to save pop for the 90s – but Grunge was stronger…

Thanks to the internet you have the chance to enjoy some of their golden oldies – and some new songs! – just enter here… http://www.reverbnation.com/pariahs

The Pariahs are: Ralph (Git-Vox), Michael (Bas-Vox), Ralf (Dru-Vox), Thomas (Git-Vox), Silke (Flute-Vox)

So let’s head to ReverbNation and see what we can find. There’s not much there. Just a lot of songs that appear also on the CD album. An album I found on eBay more than a year ago for no more than 1 dollar. If you look in the right places you can find it for cheap. And I totally recommend it.

On SoundClick there are more songs. This time there are some demos. This is quite a find I tell myself. I feel at some point, some years ago they must have tried to have a comeback or were feeling nostalgic. There’s even a Myspace, that could prove this point.

From the album we get some little information. We know that the record was produced and engineered by Thommy Hein and was recorded at the Thomas Hein Tonstudio in Berlin during December 1991. We also get to know who were responsible for the photography and artwork in the album. But that’s it. Oh! And the label was Civic Dust. Catalog number 01. It must have been a self-release, right?

But still the information is very little about the band. You don’t get to learn anything else about them. You wonder why there weren’t more releases. Why did they went straight for an album, why didn’t they put out any singles. And what happened to them? It can’t be like they stopped making music. And maybe if they were they involved with bands before the Pariahs. I wouldn’t be surprised.

The Pariahs might be one of Germany best kept secrets, but I feel you all should listen to this one great album they released. Let’s not keep them a secret no more. If you like jangly pop, classic indiepop, this might be up your street.

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Listen
Pariahs – Going Down Niagara Falls

Two weeks ago I was arriving at Heathrow airport. After watching a couple of Bruce Willis movies on the plane and complaining with the United Airlines hostess about them charging for beers on the flight, 6:30 hours of sitting down at the uncomfortable economy class, my excitement was beginning to show. Though I hid it well to go through customs with a serious face. 6 days. Vacations. Thank You. And then, to pick up my bag full of records and other goodies.

Last time I was in London was for Chickfactor, in November. I was a bit down and lonely. It was no surprise then that I still had money on my Oyster card (10 pounds!) and money on my O2 phone card (4 pounds!). So no need to stop and top up these. Let’s go straight to the underground, catch that Piccadilly line towards Jennifer’s!

Buying the usual shampoo, soap, razors, you know. I travel light. Shower. Choosing a Betty and the Werevolves t-shirt. Because they were Londoners. Having lunch at the pub. Fish and Chips. Let’s keep it classic. Take the train from West London all the way to King’s Cross. Go to Jennifer’s office and pick up the merch and pedals of The Secret History. Now let’s head to The Miller, where the gig is going to take place.

Bad coincidence. I get a text message from my friend Albie. She won’t be able to make it because she has to organize something for the party. I don’t know what party she is talking about. I then realize it’s her birthday. What a moron I am. All these traveling have made me lose the sense of time. So I don’t get to see her, nor greet her. Just a stupid text message saying happy birthday. It’s hard to make it up for everyone when you are abroad and for so little time. Though you might think this is a terrible excuse.

Anyhow. At the Miller. Only the Great Ghostby and Laura are around. The rest of The Secret History are on their way. I notice that downstairs all the Pale Spectres are already having some beers. But I dont get to meet them. Not yet. Soundcheck. The Secret History gang has finally arrived. A tattooed guy talks to me in Spanish. It’s Rafael, the drummer of Pale Spectres. With his Mexican accent he asks me for a copy of the Flowers 7″. It’s all yours I tell him. It’s great to finally meet him! My new metalhead-pop friend. I didn’t expect him to be that punk!

I glue some posters on the walls of the pub. Posters for the gig. On the posters it says it’s sold out. It is. There’s only space for 100 people, and I believe 105 or something are going to be attending. Jennifer sets up a Colour Me Pop thingie, for people to leave their emails, so they can join her mailing list for future shows. I write my email first. Before anyone else. And I use my personal one. I never do that. Definitely this is going to be an special evening.

I run downstairs to tell David Feck from Comet Gain it’s their time for soundcheck. They are all having some beers of course. They come and they sound amazing. Then it’s Pale Spectres turn. Now I meet the whole gang, Thomas, Stephane, Jeff and of course, Rafael el Duracell. The cool thing is that they bring their own French crowd, friends that I see at every Indietracks I go, Clemence, Emilie and Joanny. Them three who run the Another Sunny Night club in Paris. Them three who are a lovely bunch! And joining them I meet Amanda, a Swedish girl who dresses in one piece outfits, has short hair and speaks perfect French. Later I would know she is a fantastic dancer too!

Then of course the three bands play. And they are all amazing in their own rights. I DJ too a bunch of songs. Well known and not so well known. If you google alright you can find which songs I played that night. If you are curious. I’m not very curious about it. Ok, maybe a couple of them, because I would love to know what happened to those bands. But I’ll blog about them some other time.

My highlights of the night start showing up. Seeing Christos and Matthew. Christos who wouldn’t come to Indietracks at all. My dearest friend who was very much missed. How much I’d love to hang out there like previous years. At least I got to see him on Thursday. Matthew of course I would see later playing with The Fireworks at the Church.

I meet Martin who used to play in the Meta Band, in Sweden. He is on vacations in London and he is a big fan of The Secret History. Or well, of My Favorite. It seems their shows at Goteborg and especially the Hultsfred festival are nothing short to epic. I wish I had been around then and there. They have a big Swedish following with that handful of gigs! Impressive, but well deserved if you have ever seen them play!

Of course I get to see Miguel! With who Im staying too. And with who I would get a late night kebab after running to catch the last train all the way to Ealing. Because we stayed until the last possible minute that Thursday talking with the French crowd and drinking beer. Expensive beer!

And meeting Elin! Elin from Je Suis Animal, asking her which songs to play, which Dolly Mixture song would be good. Dear Elin who blamed me for staying at a hospital-kind of hotel at Indietracks instead of camping. Elin who helped me in my stay in Tallinn. Elin who makes the most beautiful music. At last I got to properly talk to her in person!  What a star she is!

And last but not least I saw my dearest Kajsis. Another year of visiting London and hanging out. Another Indietracks of joking and telling each other all the gossip, catching up. Like we’ve always done. Buying beer, having a good laugh. It’s always lovely to hang out with her, though Kajsa, I thought I was getting a free Cosines 7″! WHAT!?

What about the gigs you say. Of course, a review of the gigs. That’s what people care. Afterall it’s about the music right. Couple of things first, the event was thoroughly organized by Colour Me Pop (aka. Jennifer). I think she found a great venue (it’s been the cleanest pub I’ve been to a gig in London), and everything went really smooth. Even the sound guy was really friendly!  So many thanks to her for letting me be part of it and DJ. Now, team Indietracks, invite me to DJ. I want to be part of Indietracks.

Pale Spectres. Very excited to see them of course. I had put a song on a compilation CD and loved their 3″ CDR on Little Treasure. On top of that I’ve been chatting now and then with Thomas and I believe we are very similar in our opinions about indiepop. I like that. I don’t have to explain, and we agree more or less on our tastes. Especially when it comes to the mafiosi. Also, those who read the Cloudberry fanzine know that we are doing a 7″ on Cloudberry pretty soon. As you can tell, it was a big deal this concert for me. And well, seeing Stephane jumping here and there like a kangaroo, Jeff being a summer-like Johnny Marr with his shorts and his arpeggios, Rafael drumming and singing giving away all of his lungs, and Thomas being the classy and shy vocalist all indiepop bands want, made a fabulous impression to the crowd. Everyone was static. The jingle jangle. The great melodies. The classic indiepop of Brighter, Brian, Blueboy and all bands that start with B, was there. And they were only going to confirm it days later at Indietracks (more on that next week perhaps).

Comet Gain. What can I say about Comet Gain? Many people say they are hit and miss. That it depends on their mood. That day they were pretty good. Way better than the time I saw them in NY. Not as good as the time I saw them at The Lexington some years back when Pete Astor opened for them. I’m a big fan of Comet Gain, there are few bands that have such a discography, and so many great songs. But whatever I say, you already know. They are already part of the indiepop pantheon.

The Secret History. First show for Mickey Grace’s new band in the UK, or in Europe even. And they did what they do every time they play in NYC. Lots of attitude, lots of energy, lots of passion, and lots of enthusiasm. Four ingredients that American bands usually lack, The Secret History have so much of it that they could give it away every single night they perform. Playing a couple of My Favorite classics, and then a repertoire that included mostly songs from the new album released on Cloudberry, the band put a killer performance, accordingly to their headliner status. It was indeed also a preamble for their epic gig at indietracks. Who would have thought. Months before when we were discussing the album, at The Sparrow in Astoria, when we were telling each other that Indietracks had to happen, that London had to happen. Sometimes wishes come true. I released the album. I saw them in the UK twice. And The Secret History are one of the best bands of these times. And they proved it. To a foreign, to a new, crowd.

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I just found out that a listing for their record went unnoticed and finished on July 7th. How terrible. Really. I just wrote the seller if the record is still available. But with my luck, probably not. It was on Buy Now and at a very accessible price. The record I’m talking about is very obscure, and a lot of it has to probably do with the band name, The Sometimes. Not an easy one to google.

The Sometimes were from somewhere in Australia. And as far as I know released just one 7″. On the A side the song “People Go Home” and on the B side “Let Your Guard Down”. So far I’ve only been lucky to hear the B side thanks to Peter Twee.net’s “The Sound of Glen Waverley” CDR compilation.

The only other thing I was able to find about them was that they included the A side on a tape compilation called “Screaming at the Mirror” that was released in 1988 by Ticklish Tapes (catalog number TT 007). On this tape the only other band included that I’ve heard before is Scarecrow Tiggy. Are the rest of the bands jangly pop as well?

This appearance only confirms my suspicion that The Sometimes were around in the late 80s. They don’t have anything else listed on Discogs (not even the 7″), or anywhere else. If I could only get the 7″, maybe see who the band members were. Their label. Anything.

No more clues. Just a fantastic song for you to hear. If you have any information, or happen to have a spare copy (unless the eBay seller is kind enough to sell me the expired listing), I’d be very happy! Hopefully we’ll find out soon more about them, and perhaps, there are a bunch of their songs somewhere waiting to be unearthed.

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Listen
The Sometimes – Let Your Guard Down

Was this the most successful Indietracks ever? I wish the organizers would answer. I saw big crowds. I saw a new renovated spirit in people. And most importantly, I saw passion. It’s true though that it can become repetitive for those who come every year. You get excited for the same things and you complain about the same things. It’s like that. We all know we hate the warm beer. We still add some ice to it even though that’s a sacrilege to beer lovers. But there’s no fridge. Unless there’s a fridge donation, we’ll have to stick to it year after year. That if Indietracks continues to happen every summer.

Every year there’s rumours that it will be the last Indietracks. Knowing that I “might” miss the last one, makes me cross the pond. This year even. A year where I have exclusively traveled for the festival, no traveling here or there before or after. It was a Derbyshire vacation as bleak as that sounds. But it wasn’t. Because I was in indiepop paradise, meeting friends and enjoying a handful of bands.

Because I don’t enjoy them all. I can’t. Who can? What Indietracks used to do amazingly well their first years, booking the great up and coming small bands, is not their forte anymore. Booking the bigger bands is their new forte. The headliners are picked up with intelligence and good taste. For me, it was all about The Brilliant Corners and Helen Love this year. The first playing Saturday before Camera Obscura, the second on Sunday before Still Corners.

Sure, you ask how come Still Corners headlined the closing show. You are not alone. I wonder the same thing. I like Still Corners, but their music is not the kind you want for closing a festival. Maybe they should have headlined on Friday. The opening night, when things are still calm, and we are totally fine to be dreamy and wishful. Not on Sunday. On Sunday I want to party. Party until the sun rises (though this is impossible in English culture it seems, everything should be over by midnight). But still. The energy is there. Everyone has it. And I think, Helen Love would have a better closing band. But these are just details really.

This year it felt very short. Time passed very fast. I barely had any conversations. I don’t think it’s the year I’ve seen the most bands mind you. But time flew. I even woke up early every day and enjoyed my free breakfast at the hotel. I was always before 1pm at the festival grounds. How did I didn’t have time to have long conversations with friends? How didn’t I step a foot in the stationary train? I don’t know. I don’t understand it. Simply there was no time. I remember going from here to there, to the bar, to the other stage, to grab something to eat. Talking about eating, was it me, or were things more expensive this year? That’s ok. Inflation, right? Though there was inflation at the merch stall. I bought a CD-R by Finnmark for 5 pounds. I think it was a rip off. But well, that’s me, supporting indiepop. But 5 pounds a CDR? I think there’s something wrong there.

If previous years I had the vegetarian curry many times, this year I only had it on Friday. I think it was tasty, though I prefer the previous curries they had. And also I think the portions were much smaller this year. Maybe it’s just me that loves big American portions. I don’t want to bash the food carts, but I think it really could be better. Why there’s no schwarma or kebab cart? I see these stores all over UK, why not have that here? I think it would be such a success. I saw there was a new Paella stall. But it was always empty. I think no one had it. Shame. The burritos well, that’s what I ate the most. They never had the pulled pork though. I sticked to the chicken then. They gave you 5 or 6 pieces of chicken. Like 15 beans. A spoonful of rice. And then they ran out of guacamole. They didnt know how to fold the burrito either. Ok. I’m spoiled with Mexican food in NY. But for 6.50 pounds a piece. I expect a bit more!

Prices might be the only thing that was a bit off at Indietracks. But that’s not a big deal when you are there. You just enjoy your time. Think about the bank and your accounts later.  There weren’t that many crazy characters this year but we had owls. I didn’t ask. But there were owls at the bar. I petted one of them with care. I didn’t want to be pecked or lose a finger. They  were beautiful.

The disco on Sunday was quite epic. With the train dancing and the cheesiest hits of the last couple of decades. Killing my idols, boy band Magneto, who I thought their song “Vuela Vuela” was an original. It wasn’t. I learned it was “Voyage Voyage” by Desireless. My Mexican peers never told me so. Still I believe Magneto’s best song, “40 Grados”, is an original. Unless you can prove me wrong.

Do you remember Madidi looking exactly the same as Roxanne from Veronica Falls? Do you remember the rainy Saturday jumping puddles and Camera Obscura being forced to play indoors? The sweaty train when we saw Northern Spies? Or that illustrious record boss dressed ridiculously as Scarface? Do you remember The Secret History and the US flag? The Brilliant Corners repeating “Meet Me On Tuesdays” as an encore because they didn’t practice more songs? Or when we all got on the stage with Helen Love to dance like possessed?

What a beautiful weekend it was.

Now with the Post-Indietracks blues, back in New York, working and all, I’ll see if next week I can go over the gigs, the friends, the special moments in detail. I remember I did that a couple of years ago. It’s hard, but it means a lot. The kind of energy, excitement, PASSION and LOVE you get from Indietracks is unique. I’ve been saying I won’t go next year but I really want to go once again. Please team Indietracks, make it happen again! (and maybe invite me to DJ!)

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It’s Saturday, but this song is about Sundays. It’s about Big Outdoor Type. Just like the people I met at Indietracks. All outdoors. Mostly though. When it rains, we go indoors of course. And when we need to refresh ourselves with warm beer. THOUGH. There was a point when I got a very cold and chilled Stella Artois. I think it was from a secret stash from some of the Spanish crowd. Can anyone confirm/remember this?

Anyways, The Big Outdoor Type. I heard them first time back in 2008 I believe, thanks to the once prolific Shelflife blog (why did you stop Ed?!), and I liked it. It was similar in style to The Friday Club who I’ve covered in the blog already. Or The Watt Government. That sort of classy early 80s, girl-led pop.

There are two songs on this 7″. On the A side there’s “Call You on Sundays” and on the B side “Seventeen”. For sure the A side is the better. And that’s the one I will share. But you can listen to the B side on Youtube here.

The record was released in 1984 by Havasac Records, being the first and only reference in their catalog. What does that mean? Most probably that it was a self-release.

As most of these bands from the first half of the 80s, their information on the web is very scarce. In this case, the information is non-existant.

Though I’m still missing this 7″ in my collection, the blog From A Northern Place shares scans of the sleeve. On the back cover we learn some the band members first names, though we wish there were last names so we could track them down!

It says:
The Big Outdoor Type are: Tracey, Dianne, Neil, Phil, Steve, Tony
and The Brass: Steve, Dave

Some names are thanked too: Pete, Dave, Reg, Simon, Cathy and Hazel.

There are some special thanks to Phil Andrews, Dave Jones and Roy Douglas.

The only other sort of valuable information is on the labels. There are two last names: Davidge and Fuller. To whom they belong? Don’t know. I just know them two wrote both songs.

The plot thickens.

If anyone out there know anything about them, please share! Would love to know! A spare 7″ would be nice too! But now, enjoy the great song that is “Call You on Sundays”.

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Listen
The Big Outdoor Type – Call You on Sundays

Very short post this week. Forgive me if you expected to have something long read while taking the train or having breakfast. You see, there’s little time this week as I’m flying tomorrow to the UK for the main indiepop event of the year: Indietracks. On top of it all I haven’t been feeling well these past two days, some sort of cold is trying to get into me, but I’ve been fighting with both Dayquil and Nightquil. It makes me feel very knackered, but I’m feeling less sick. Prices to pay.

Anyways. The good news this week is that at last The Occasional Flickers 7″ masters are on there way to the pressing plant. So hopefully we’ll have it ready for sale late August, early September! Well, actually you can pre-order it now. But it will be available at that time.

Also earlier today I managed to at last add the Interviews and Lost Bands links on the right sidebar of the blog. Those two lists used to be there before the blog was hacked almost a year ago. When I reinstated the blog, I could save all posts and comments but the links were lost. So I have manually added one by one to the list. Many people had been asking me for these, as it’s easier to navigate that way than using the Search tool (I agree with this of course, I’m not dumb), so there it is. For all of you that think of the blog as sort of an archive that needs a table of contents, an index, of some sort.

And so, this is goodbye. Goodbye because I’m heading for summer fields! For a week. I’ll see you readers next week after I return from Indietracks. Those going to Indietracks or to the London Secret History/Comet Gain show, please say hello, buy me a beer, buy me lunch, dinner, or support Cloudberry and buy from me some records, fanzines or t-shirts. It’s going to be fun. I look forward to an indiepop-fun-packed-weekend! As Dan Treacy used to sing, it’s going to be a SMASHING TIME.

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Somerfield (originally Gateway) was a chain of small to medium sized supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom. The company also previously owned the Kwik Save chain of discount food stores. The company was taken over by the Co-operative Group on 2 March 2009 in a £1.57 billion deal, creating the UK’s fifth largest food retailer. The name was phased out and replaced by the Co-operative Food brand in a rolling programme of store conversions ending in summer 2011.

Did the name of the band came from there? Don’t know. There’s really little information online about Gary Aspinall’s band. Yes, that much I know. The one member. And that comes thanks to Harvey Saward who told me about it when I interviewed him many years ago. Thing was Gary was also part of The Odolites as Harvey.

Gary would also play in to The Killjoys, who I tried to interview once, sending questions, but with no success. The Killjoys have a much more bigger presence on the web, even a Facebook page, so if you are curious. I say just google. But the topic today is this mysterious band Somerfields who only released a 12″ EP in 1991.

Discogs doesn’t list the record. I have never seen the sleeve. The only place were it is listed is in Twee.net. No surprise there, it was Peter Hahndorf who introduced me to this band. Actually this MP3 comes from a CD he gave me. I wonder how did he find this rare Tasmanian 12″!

I know Gary is still around, he just produced the new Steinbecks album to be released by Matinée. I still haven’t listened to it, but will order it as soon as I return from Indietracks. Because of this new piece of evidence, I assume he lives in Melbourne, not in Tasmania anymore.

I keep googling. I stumble upon an old Swedish website. It looks like Geocities. Remember those days? In it I see a Killjoys record listed with the musicians credited for their participation in it. A new clue arises. The drummer David Folley is also linked to Somerfields. We got two now.

One last clue. The website for Mark Woods Audio. The record is listed there. Mark Woods has recorded it. The list of bands there baffles me. I see Hellvyvelln, Sea Stories, MacGuffins, Captain Cocoa and more. It’s clear he was the go to guy in Australia if you were doing jangly pop!

And that’s where all the clues stop, leading nowhere else. If anyone else knows anything else about them, please share! Or a spare copy would be nice too! Would love to hear the rest of the songs. I’ll reply next week when I’m back! Enjoy!

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Listen
Somerfields – Over My Head

It’s less than a week now. That is for me to be in my favourite town in the world. London.  And then head to Indietracks for a weekend full of indiepop and friends. That’s pretty soon. Am I ready? Almost. I got everything I’ve been asked to bring. I’m only missing some CDs for the DJing time at The Miller next Thursday when The Secret History, Comet Gain and Pale Spectres may as well play the best Indietracks warm-up gig ever. The issue is my old CDs seem scratched and they skip. I have to look good in London!

My mind the last couple of days has been somewhere else though. Aside from very nice email exchange with some friends that are going to Indietracks, I haven’t been thinking much about the festival. To my surprise I havent listened to the Indietracks mix compilation that is free for download. I wasn’t even aware it existed until today. What’s the matter with me? Have I decided to live under a rock unconsciously?

So where’s my mind?

My mind is in Latin America actually. As odd as it sounds. Three events in the past week have made me watch what’s unfolding there.

1. I receive an email from a well known cultural magazine in Lima, Peru. They have stumbled upon one of my early posts on the blog. In this post I talk about a band from Wales called Peruvian Hipsters who had this one fantastic 7″ (that I still haven’t found!) that includes the song ‘Tony Hadley’. A should-have-been indiepop hit. The music writer asks me if I have any contact with the band, if I could help him as he wants to write an article about them. Of course I know it’s not really an article about the music. What the writer cares is why they are called Peruvian Hipsters. It’s an odd curiosity for anyone Peruvian, to have any sort of recognition aside from Machu Picchu and a couple other things we are very proud of. He writes me in English. He hasn’t even checked I’m his countryman. It sometimes surprises me the lack of use journalists give google. Anyhow. I help him, pointing him where to find the Peruvian Hipsters. On top of that, knowing his lack of musical knowledge and his true intentions I also point them to the now Bristol-based band Peru. I even sell it to him saying they have a song called “Cubillas” in honor of the great soccer player that dazzled the Scottish squad of 78. Yes, that one with Kenny Dalglish. Anyhow, I haven’t heard from him again.

2. A well known Peruvian writer has landed a job at a magazine. A glossy magazine that mostly prints articles and photos of the great social events of the Lima high-class. His job? Write about music. The issue? He doesn’t know anything about music. Fast forward. He reviews my latest release on Plastilina Records, the Eva & John flexi. When he sends the article to my partner telling him that he didn’t like the record, he also adds, “but don’t worry it will make them popular”. Arrogance. I find that attitude insulting. Who does he think he is? The article he writes is a mess. A true example again of the lack of use of google, calling the band a duet when it’s a four-piece. This easily to confirm if you just see a video on Youtube. A lack of music knowledge lets him slip into ignorance claiming a lack of originality when there hasn’t been a single Latin American band that had sounded like this. Surprising enough he even calls the band empty but pretentious and criticizes the cover artwork that is such a beautiful nod to the Wedding Present’s George Best. This time with a Peruvian star, Hugo Sotil, who had a great streak in Barcelona in the 70s. Funny thing is, I know google, and I search for the cover artwork of his acclaimed novels that I havent read yet, and I find incredibly ridiculous that he could actually criticize our artwork. His artwork is the best example of what pretension is. Some people shouldn’t be allowed to write. Nor even have a public opinion. Issue number two. I write about this, I deconstruct his article on the Plastilina facebook page. There’s good support. But sadly my label partner feels that he will have to answer all the dumb Peruvians for my writing. So he decides not to take part of it. I wouldn’t call it cowardice as some people go ahead and say they want to hit us, punch us, kick us, etc. Just for uncovering the ignorance of this writer. Violence. That’s the solution for them. Those who have lost any words to defend themselves. The question is, how could someone who actually admits not knowing anything about music have a space, a column, to write? Thing is, this happens everywhere, not only in Peru. Just check that article about indiepop some years ago on Pitchfork.

3. There’s this great Mexican fanzine called Kill People You Like ran by a lovely couple, Lalo and Liz. So they did interview me for their fanzine, but that you can read if you buy the next number. I actually wrote a piece for the zine. Supposedly it’s coming as an insert, accompanying the orange-ink zine. My topic, how this dream of mine to save the Latin American indiepop scene in 2006 ended up into nothing, but now, thanks to their effort and some other people in countries like Mexico, Brazil and Peru, it’s not just my dream anymore but also the dream of many other people down south. It made me nostalgic of the days I used to discover bands on Myspace that made indiepop in places like Monterrey or Sao Paulo. The days when I made a CD compilation for a Peruvian magazine. When I wrote an article for them too. When I got all the enemies I could by telling a couple of truths to the lazy and self-indulgent music press of my country. When I cut ties with all that because Cloudberry was a much better and rewarding idea. But now I feel I can extend my arm, and feel ties with them again. Because there’s passion, there’s excitement, and I feel there could be an exciting scene brewing if all things go right. Yes. Writing such a piece had made me nostalgic. No surprise I’m flying to Peru this year after 7 years almost.

Anyhow, Indietracks. I will make myself think Indietracks 24/7 from now on. That is my new challenge. It shouldn’t be that difficult, right? As Brilliant Corners are playing!

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The Mandelbrot set is a mathematical set of points whose boundary is a distinctive and easily recognizable two-dimensional fractal shape. The set is closely related to Julia sets (which include similarly complex shapes), and is named after the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, who studied and popularized it.

That doesn’t still make much sense for me, but you can continue reading about it here. I used to be good in maths in high school though, but this seems pretty advanced. Were the kids on The Mandelbrot Set into maths? Or why did they named their band like this? I find it very odd. From what I heard when they were in the band they were pretty young, teenagers even.

The band hailed from Adelaide, Australia.
Named in honour of Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, queen consort to King William IV, the city was founded in 1836 as the planned capital for a freely settled British province in Australia. Colonel William Light, one of Adelaide’s founding fathers, designed the city and chose its location close to the River Torrens in the area originally inhabited by the Kaurna people. Light’s design set out Adelaide in a grid layout, interspaced by wide boulevards and large public squares, and entirely surrounded by parkland. Early Adelaide was shaped by religious freedom and a commitment to political progressivism and civil liberties, which led to the moniker “City of Churches”.

They released a CD mini-album called “A Place Called Kansas” in 1992 that I first knew it existed thanks to Peter Hahndorf, Twee.net master. He had included a song by them, Landslide, on this double CD-R album he was hoping to put together of obscure Australian indiepop called “The Sound of Glen Waverley”. A response to the Leamington Spa series. This compilation was never properly released even though I had once attempted to do it but I was going to clash with Egg Records’ Kevin. So I desisted. Thing is, neither him, neither me, ended up releasing an Australian indiepop nuggest compilation. Terrible. Anyhow. This song, Landslide, was SO good. Amazingly good. And then I went on a unfruitful search for this CD. Still today I’m looking for it. Any generous person out there that has two copies, please be kind to me!

The CD was released by Ra Records, who I believe were part of RooArt, if not the same. The catalog is this crazy number 4509905212. It was recorded at Paradise Studios, Sydney, during Autumn 1992 and this was the tracklist:

1 A Place Called Kansas
2  Landslide
3  More Than Happy
4  Massive
5  Julia
6  I Swan
7  Lush

Discogs lists these credits too for the CD:

Bass, Vocals – Adam McBeth
Design – Marcelle Lunam, Simon Alderson
Drums – Michael Bajer
Guitar – Brian Pyper
Producer [Assistant] – Michelle Barry, Tim Northam
Producer, Mixed By – Mandelbrot Set, The, Wayne Connolly
Songwriter – Mandelbrot Set, The
Vocals, Guitar – Christie Scardigno, Tim Mortimer

After this, in 1993 they released another CD. An eponymous CD that included five songs. These were:

1   Automation
2  Nothing You Need
3  Non-Stop Action
4   *****
5   Collider

I’ve never seen this CDs either, and I’ve only listened to Non-Stop Action thanks to a Myspace page, which is still up.  I wonder if this page was ran by members of the band.

The rest of the credits for this CD are:
Artwork By [Cover] – Simon Alderson, Nick Scardino & The Mandelbrot Set
Producer – Daniel Denholm, Mandelbrot Set, The
I know it’s not the same Scardino and Scardigno. But the coincidence is there. Does Christie who sang and Nick who designed this last CD were sister and brother?

A blog by the name “The Lucid Ocean Diaries” writes about a gig when the band The Lucid Ocean and The Mandelbrot Set once shared the bill. There’s a couple of little tidbits that interest us:

“We overkilled on lighting effect. As the Mandelbrots had their customary white backdrop we decided to use slides. We had a slide for every song, mostly marine shots, with one that Andrew and I found in the library of a cyclone.”

“Afterwards I just loaded my gear into the car and left. Some Mandelbrot hanger onner said we were good, and said he liked Circle, but I just couldn’t bring myself to say anything to him. I just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible!”

“I subsequently found out we got ripped off again. Apparently the Mandelbrots were given $200 for both bands. Their manager reckoned we were not entitled to any of it. But Andrew and Wayne pestered him, and we got $60 in the end, with the Mandelbrots claiming they didn’t know what was going on, like they did all the time before the gig when we requested info about it.”

They were getting good money The Mandelbrots! They were headliners. They seem to have been a popular band at least in Adelaide. How the hell are their two CDs this hard to find? That is very odd.

The writer of the article has been kind enough to even scan an article from the local music magazine called “dB” were the gig at the Big Ticket on Thursday January 9th of 199(2-3???) has been reviewed by Fiona Dalton. You can check it here. I’ll transcribe the part were the Mandelbrot Set is mentioned. Bear with me.

“We were rescued however, when the Mandelbrot Set took to the stage. Returning to the world of gigs after a two month hiatus with a set of ten songs and without their usual onslaught of dry ice effects (the management felt that a smoke machine might set off their fire alarm), the Mandelbrots reaffirmed their position as one of Adelaide’s best.

Live, the Mandelbrot Set are always far more intense and complicated than on their recordings to date, a fact exemplified by, the, ahem, pumped up versions of I Swan and Joy in Despair. Four numbers in we were treated to a new song, and just when it was reaching it’s noisiest, semiplosive heights, the whole thing just kind of fell in.

Not quite, but drummer Michael had a broken snare. There followed a bit of a wait while a snare was hastily borrowed from Lucid Ocean, wherein they thanked us several times for coming, reeled off a list of their forthcoming gigs, and Tim held up a small black box and quipped “This is an e-bow. Big Country used a lot of these.” I guess you had to be there.

Back on track they launched into Dream so Hard, Julia, Landslide and Wump. It is interesting to see that in recent gigs they have shed earlier favourites such as More Than Happy in exchange for a more guitar obsessed angle. Luckily this is no bad thing. Indeed the only disappointment of the night was that they didn’t play an encore, which would have been nice.

The only other complaint I heard murmured amongst the punters (and there were a lot ot us) was that someone in A Wealthy Record Company hasn’t yet loosed the purse strings to allow for a purchasable product.

But this has nothing at all to do with the evening, which was most enjoyable with the Mandelbrots, as ever, frothing forth with memorable pop song after memorable pop song.”

Quite interesting right? Wish I had been at one of their gigs! Did they ever reform by the way? Or they just quit in the early 90s?

Another blog, but run by the same person, Ralph Dodger, and called “Sh sh sh shoodabeen HUUUUUUUUUUGE!” wrote a bit more about the band. Thanks to it, I learn that their second CD was mostly influenced by New Order and had an electropop/dance vein to it. And that it is true, that the band just disappeared after releasing the second CD! Shame.

To add to the mystery, I once stumbled on ebay, back in 2011, with a listing for a 12″ test pressing for the “A Fractal” EP. The listing description says: “On Tweenet there is only one entry for THE MANDLEBROT SET as a cd issued in 1992.However this ultra rare 12” issued by Pure records(pressed in France) has 4 slices of classic if not virtually unknown music.Tracks are:’Love You Now’/’The Odyssey’/’Shout About it’/’Look in Your Eye’.Labels are white with a/b written in pen.Some of my friends suggested i put a reserve on this item but instead i will start at a sensible price.Sleeve ex- as there is a slight bump along base but vinyl ex. ”

Was it the same band? I tend to doubt it. But MAYBE?

And that’s about all I could find about them online. Which is not little, but still, there’s still a lot of mysterious veil covering the band. If anyone out there knows anything else at all about them please share!

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Listen
The Mandelbrot Set – Landslide

There are so many new releases out this summer. More than usual. Way more. There are reissues for East Village. Also for McCarthy, Monochrome Set, Flatmates and The Charlottes. There’s retrospective albums for Reserve and The Bridge. There’s a new Ocean Blue, Legendary Jim Ruiz Group and The Proctors albums. And last but not least there’s the Scared to Get Happy boxset which I ordered yesterday. Arriving tomorrow at home thanks to Amazon Prime. Yes, next week I should review that.
There’s also the new Pastels album. And plenty of new singles. There’s some new bands releasing cool stuff, one of them, Homecomings from Japan, who even though I’m in touch with, I haven’t been able to secure a copy of their album or their split 7″. Seems like a lost battle sometimes to order from Japan as many there feel shy about their English. It’s a shame. I would be the last one to judge someone’s English.

I’m probably forgetting some new stuff that’s coming out soon. Ok, most probably a lot. It’s hard to keep up and I live under a rock. Though my point is, that the amount of new releases this summer is much bigger than the last year. You’d think we are living a new indiepop renaissance, similar to the one in 2007 and 2008, but is that the case?

I doubt it. Sure, the positive fans would see that their CD shelves are getting crammed with all these new albums, and so, the answer will be yes. There’s a lot of new music to listen. But as I said, I have my doubts. Mostly because these all are well established bands, well known, that have been playing for a long time. I just remembered that there’s a new double CD by 14 Iced Bears. And another by The Woodentops. So yes, it’s the old guns who are coming up with indispensable releases. But what about the young guns? That’s why, even though I’m terribly happy to see and buy all these releases, I worry a bit.

Perhaps it’s very risky to release new bands. I have a couple of ideas why that is. One is that the record collectors grew up in the 80s and 90s, so they still support and listen bands from that period. New bands are often seen with disdain, like copycats of what they listened back in their heyday of pop-fandom. It’s a possibility, an indicator being the amount of bands from that time reforming these days. Something I salute, of course, I want to see these bands play too!

The other reason is money. New bands seem not to play too often. They are mostly bedroom projects. Bands that don’t play don’t get exposure, thus no one gets to know about them.  Also, as they are new their reputation has yet to be built. Of course there are exceptions to these rules, but in general I find that new bands have a hard time to have a break. Playing at Indietracks or Popfests are perhaps their best bets. It’s not surprising that MOST (if not all) indiepop labels are NOT releasing new bands. And when I say “new” bands, I mean bands that have no releases out or just an EP or a single out there. It seems they are only picked up after a successful album or string of singles.

It’s not that I’m blaming labels for not supporting blindly in the rough talent of an up and coming band. There’s money involved and being in debt is never a good idea. So who can complain if a label doesn’t want to get into trouble. It’s a risk. Mind you, I find it worth taking, but it’s obvious the majority doesn’t.

The question again, is there an indiepop renaissance? I want to believe there’s something new coming up, new winds. But this explosion has to have young blood. I hope, all these unknown band names that are playing Indietracks, are going to make me believe there’s something else aside from all the well known bands that are stirring the scene with all these new releases. But like I said before, there MIGHT be a brightside. My favourite songs at the moment come from a soundcloud of a new band.  I’m in love with them. They are  called Don’t Cry Shopgirl and are from Stockholm. I think they started a month or so ago. If there are more of this kind of indiepop bands out there maybe a new indiepop era is blooming. Keeping my eyes peeled.

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 Northern Lights is a common name for the Aurora Borealis (Polar Aurorae) in the Northern Hemisphere.

Would you consider strange that this Northern Lights band came actually from the Southern Hemisphere and not the Northern one then? All the way from Australia?

I don’t know much about Northern Lights to be honest. They are pretty obscure. I’ve only ever heard this song called “Waves” and I find it beautiful. Fragile and sensitive. I believe it was part of a tape compilation. But it’s been so long since I got this as an MP3 that I don’t think I can recall who even sent it to me.

So the story overlaps a bit with that of the more known Charlotte’s Web who formed in 1986. There was a brief period when they were called Catherine Wheels (not to be confused by the Australian Catherine Wheel from some years later). And here’s where Wikipedia sheds some light about Northern Lights:

Catherine Wheels was originally formed by Jeff Lowe (vocals, guitar) and Tim Underwood (guitar) in 1986 in Perth, Western Australia. Lowe and Underwood had played in The Russians (1984–1986), with Darryl Edwards (drums) and Richard Galli (bass guitar, keyboards). Catherine Wheels performed as a drummerless two piece,[2] before adding Greta Little and Chad Hedley as their rhythm section (bass guitar and drums respectively), under the name Catherine Wheels, in 1986.[1][4] The band performed infrequently around Perth for about a year, releasing a single, “Big Letdown” in February 1987, before they relocated to Sydney where Underwood, Little and Hedley left to form a new band, Northern Lights.

Also Wikipedia mentions in their Post Charlotte-Webs sub-head:

After the Northern Lights, Underwood went on to form The Rosemary Beads, with Little (bass) and Cam Munachen (drums).

As far as I know Northern Lights only put out a tape. The name was “Trouble Understanding”, and it’s indeed a trouble understanding why they didn’t release anything else. I have never seen this tape and I don’t know the track listing. If anyone out there can help with that, it would be much appreciated! Also a rip, Mp3s at least, of the songs, would make a popfan (me) very happy! This tape was released in 1988.

The only other mention to them on the web comes from the website of the Charisma Brothers. William Bannister is part of this band and in his bio he tells a bit of the story of Northern Lights.

I started performing music in the vibrant indi scene of Perth circa 1986/7. I was inspired by the likes of Just Add Water and Sydney band The Lighthouse Keepers who used trumpet. Local legends The Triffids, had used trumpet on their classic single Beautiful Waste. That was it for me. I dreamed of playing in a band. My first band was The Northern Lights, a jangly guitar, lilting harmony band fronted by Lucy Brooks-Kenworthy and Tim Underwood with Gretta Little on bass and Chad Hedley [local DJ] sometimes on drums. Great musicians, I was privileged to join them.

 Tim and Gretta would later go on to make a name for themselves with The Rosemary Beads in the 90s. The Northern Lights performed at venues like the Fitzgerald Hotel, The Shenton Park and the Beaufort Hotel – now a supermarket. We put out a cassette – Trouble Understanding…

The guitar, lyrics and harmonies still sound great when I listen to it. It seemed that within weeks of me mentioning I could play the trumpet a bit, I was at Shelter recording studio in Wanneroo.  We were featured on The Hometown Farewell Kiss album released by 6UVSFM [RTR] that came out after the band had folded. The photo above was taken at a video shoot we did at Swanbourne Beach. I remember nudists casually walking along the beach disrupting the shoot. We were on their patch after all and I felt overdressed in a suit twirling an umbrella while blowing a bugle.

Then on the fanzine Party Fears #12, there’s an interview to Charlotte Web. There’s also a mention to Northern Lights:

And then you went off and did the  first Charlotte’s Web, which also played drummerless as the Catherine Wheels.

Jeff: ”That’s right- once or twice, I’m not sure. I continued with Tim Underwood. I said, ‘look, I want to do this,’ and it was along the lines of what he wanted to do. “For me, at the time, it was a reaction to all the heavier guitar bands that were around; I wanted to do something that was incredibly fragile, and I probably suffered for it. But I still stuck with it, because at the time it was what I wanted to do. ”That was Tim Underwood, Gretta Little, Chad Hedley and me. It played here infrequently for about a year, then went to Sydney and broke up as such in Sydney. ‘Personality clashes.’ Just the usual.”

Then they went off to become the Northern Lights, and you got together another Charlotte’s Web.

Jeff: “Mmm. I had no intention of letting go of the name. I think too many bands lack a sense of identity, because they start a band, and if the band doesn’t work straight away they break it up and start another band, and all you get is a group of people who’ve been in so many different bands it becomes totally confusing. There’s no history. I think it’s important to try to keep a name, even if your membership changes, because then people can look back … there’s something there, you can actually grow. ”I just know so many musicians who’ve been in twenty hands and they still haven’t finished. There’s not much point.”

And that’s about all I’ve managed to gather about this short lived Sydney project that has remained in obscurity for so long. I of course would love to hear more about them. Especially that tape. I’m very curious! Does anyone remember them?

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Listen
Northern Lights – Waves

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

A couple of weeks now since NYC Popfest’s last night. What do I remember from the festival? I’ve seen a couple of reviews online that people have been posting on facebook, on different websites that conspicuously have an “.fm” ending on their domain. I’m surprised and shocked by the reviewers lack of understanding what indiepop is. Their comparisons to bands that DON’T sound at all like that. It’s revolting. Is the new press, the music writers, just any next door neighbor? Don’t they have any access to the internet? Googling C86 or indiepop is by far not harder than writing a lot of nonsense. I could say, but if these write-ups make the bands happy, well, who cares. If sometimes I complain for the lack of indiepop blogs and articles on the web, perhaps this proves against my point. Perhaps it’s not a good idea afterall that anyone can come and say that The Bats sounds like Phish. That’s blasphemy.

Because The Bats were IMMENSE. Because I’ve waited for this show for a long time. I’ve always wanted to see them live, and even though they didn’t play my most loved song of theirs, “Claudine”, they went through many songs of their classic repertoire that it made that night at the Bell House magic. All my dislike for this terrible venue, dissipated for the 45 minutes they played. No encores. It was a show that was according to a brilliant career. I can’t thank enough to Maz for bringing them to NYC. It made my night after the show to go backstage, meet with Paul and Kaye, and meet Robert and Malcom for the first time. Sitting with them on the sofa and talking about… stuff. I remember getting back to the front room and by that time the dance party was halfway through. How much time was I just hanging out? Most of my friends had left. I feel most of my friends must feel old because they keep leaving early. Or perhaps they don’t like to dance? In any case, the Bell House front room was never a comfortable space for dancing.

Who can forget The Hobbes Fanclub appearance that same night. Bringing one of those moments you can’t forget. A moment not suitable for the twee masses. When their set was announced to be shorter than expected, that they couldn’t play their whole set due to some sound issues (or whatever reason, it doesn’t matter really), the reaction, first of the drummer, and then of Leon, the vocalist, was to be applauded. Words that I can’t type in this ‘catholic’ blog were shouted. Words with all their right to be said. You can’t do that to a band. Even worst if they are only playing one show in the US after flying all the way from Bradford. That’s not a short trip. I don’t know how many transfers they must have made. But some decency from some venues would be appreciated.

Speaking of which, did I ever write anything about the time everyone was kicked out from The Bell House? It was at a dance party. A Robyn dance party. Seems some guy was quite drunk (no wonder) and got into a fight. He got pissed and so he broke one of the window glasses on the facade of the venue. Big deal. Make him pay. Take his credit card. But no, they kicked everyone out. They ruined everything that night with their very cerebral and logical decisions.

Anyhow,  Popfest. Best Popfest ever? Hands down.

I’m having this sort of vignettes of the whole weekend. Like the best moments kind of. I’ll keep on writing about it next week too with the ones I forget to mention today.

On Thursday a fab moment was to see Zipper doing a rendition of their already classic “Madrid Popfest” song. The minute and a half punky-pop pill was re-christened to “New York Popfest” and aside from an early hiccup it sounded fantastic.

Meeting on Friday Mike from Manic Pop was great. Bought a bunch of his records. The question after Popfest was, where did he go? He has disappeared. Some people might think he got very disappointed with indiepop, how snobbish people were at the festival. But the fact is different. There’s Jeremy’s blog to find out a bit more. From my point of view this is a delicate situation. I feel bad about his health, and I hope he gets good soon (though I do know of at least another label owner that goes through the same now and then, and he is still kicking it alright). At the same time I really hope his obligations with customers and bands are fulfilled. I could sound harsh, but I don’t think this was the way to do it. I believe in goodwill of people, I think with an explanation to everyone involved with his label, everyone would have understand if he was feeling in no position to continue. I found his resort of just disappearing a bit irresponsible, childish. Also, the indiepop-list has disappeared thanks to this same situation and probably, from the lack of effort of the indiepopsters, it will be for good. That is a shame. I hope this gets sorted out. For the good of everyone. Though I can see much more discussion about this topic coming up, though I doubt it will be public. As I said, it’s a touchy issue.

I met Liz from The School! Wasn’t that great! I couldn’t go to their second show in the city on the 12th. I had to get my mother from the airport that day. I so wish to have seen them again as they were brilliant the first time around. And Liz made me the happiest person by wearing the Quirky Girl Crafters Cloudberry badge. Huge and fluffy badge!

I djed a bunch of songs that Thursday at the Cake Shop. My CDs are old now. I need to make some new ones if I plan to DJ in London in some weeks for the Secret History/Comet Gain/Pale Spectres show. The thing was that my CDs kept on skipping and jumping. To the point that the sound guy from the venue told me to change the song when I was playing The Never Invited to Parties’ “Bicycle Song”. Good thing, no one noticed. It’s good to DJ for a bunch of drunks. Only one song I played caught the attention of anyone. I would later meet Annie, but at that point I didn’t know her, but she asked which song was blasting from the speakers. It was Your Place or Mine’s “Another Lover of a Demo Pop Group”.

The Monochrome Set only had XL sized t-shirts. Perhaps they were making a point. Oversized America. But I needed a large size one for me. Their show was truly great though. Perhaps better than that time at London Popfest were I wasn’t really paying that much attention.

Oddly enough I didn’t pick up many releases from the merch tables of bands playing the festival. Most of the stuff I bought was from bands not playing the festival as some labels brought some of their stock for sale. My favourite thing I got was the NYC 2013 black t-shirt though. Cool logo and nice colors.

Last year Maz talked to the crowd at Popfest. At the Knitting Factory night on Friday. I didn’t see it this time but Maz says he did. Did anyone got this? I was in the front bar as the beer is 2 dollars cheaper there ($2 against $4 at the bar where bands play).

I was very happy to meet many new friends, most of them from the US, but from many different cities. Not that many from NYC. Best of times was taking photos with some of them at the photo booth on Saturday. Though I wonder if that will compare to the photo booth of the Lego store Andreas and me found.

But seeing old friends was GREAT too. Seeing Ali and having some Peruvian food with him, and our new friend Autumn, was one of my highlights. Among Cusqueña beers and cebiches we had one of the best afternoons of the whole weekend.

And is there any bigger fan of the Closer Lobsters than Madrid’s Jorge? Since they reformed I believe he hasn’t missed any of their shows. That’s called dedication!

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Alright! My mind was working hard there. I’m not that young anymore to remember everything with details. I’m sure I’ll remember more great moments of the weekend for my next week post. Of course, there’s stuff I can’t write about, as this is not a gossip blog!, but the one that is writable, I’ll do. So now let’s move to my favourite topic of all times. The obscure indiepop bands.

19/10/90 – Alton College, Alton. Along the Herb Garden and Who Moved the Ground? the Chalk Garden plays a gig.

Alton College is a sixth form college located in Alton, Hampshire, England. As well as being a sixth form, the college provides an adult education service to the local population as well as catering for students with disabilities from nearby Treloar College. It was built in 1978 and was one of the first institutions in the UK to be a purpose-built sixth form college.

A famous musician actually studied there: Alison Goldfrapp.

The name of the band probably came from:

The Chalk Garden is a play by Enid Bagnold that premiered on Broadway in 1955. The play tells the story of Mrs. St Maugham and her granddaughter Laurel, a disturbed child under the care of Miss Madrigal, a governess. The setting of the play was inspired by Bagnold’s own garden at North End House in Rottingdean, near Brighton, Sussex, the former home of Sir Edward Burne-Jones. The work has since been revived numerous times internationally, including a film adaptation in 1964.

What else do we know about this mysterious band? As far as I know there were no releases. At least there’s nothing listed on the web. There is one compilation appearance though, on a 4 track 7″ released in 1989 along the House of Dolls magazine. This sleeveles slab of vinyl included four bands, each contributing one song. On the A side we had New Model Army and Every New Dead Ghost. On the B side we get The Sandmen and Chalk Garden. I don’t know two of the bands, but it seems like quite an eclectic mix. The catalog number was H.O.D. 007.

The song included by Chalk Garden is “Drunk Among the Trees”. A song of pure jangle that was produced by Dick Hawkins. I’ve been able to listen to it by tracking it on Myspace under the account of Cunas Music and Publishing. I’m not 100% sure if this link would work, but if you want to have a listen try it. Pretty good isn’t it?

The other song I’ve had the luck to listen was Flags. This song is from 1990. And you can tell that. The sound has changed a bit. It has more of a Madchester feel at this point. This song actually has a promo video and that’s how I came about this band. It’s a fun song, and still very poppy! There’s a comment on the Youtube page saying that there are many demos and bootlegs from the band. I hope to listen to these someday!

Then also on Youtube there’s a live performance at The Greyhound from 1990. It’s funny to see in the legend “Rare un-watchable live footage from 1990’s fifth favourite Lewisham band”. This one just got published a week or so ago. The song in the video is called “Running Through the Mills” and it’s quite good!! Jangly! So in 1990 they were doing still the jangle! Question here is, which are the fourth other favourite Lewisham bands?

But that’s all I could find online about this pretty obscure band. If anyone out there know anything else about them? About if they had any releases? If there are any more songs to listen? Whatever happened to them? If they played many gigs? If they became at some point Lewisham’s favourites? Please use that comment section here. Would love to hear more about them!

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Listen
Chalk Garden – Flags

There’s so many things I’d love to write about. Of course a review of NYC Popfest is due. There was the Jazz Butcher show in NYC last weekend too. The many records I’ve got. The train tickets I’ve purchased. The lovely tiny fanzine called Lightningbug that I received today. But I have to focus on one thing today. Today is the official release date of The Secret History album and to celebrate it a video for the opening track, “Johnny Panic (Forget Everything)”, has been unveiled.

You can watch the video here: http://vimeo.com/67216349

As expected, and as it has to be, the video is beautifully shot in New York. Starring our good friend Kip from The Pains, with nods to The Secret History’s previous incarnation, My Favorite, the video was quite a surprise to me as I watched for the first time today after being premiered at SUP magazine. I’ve been giddy about this all day. Watching it time after time. Like a fanboy.

Those who didn’t get to see the band play at Popfest or Glasslands will get another chance this Friday when they play at the bowling alley The Gutter. They go on at 10pm. You shouldn’t miss it. I won’t. And then I’ll be seeing them again in London when the mighty Comet Gain and Cloudberry-pals Pale Spectres will open for them. If that wasn’t enough I’ll be watching them perform at Indietracks too. Will they get the main stage? I really hope so. I can’t picture them anywhere else.

The album has been getting great reviews and I’ve been posting it to all corners of the world. Surprisingly I will say that many orders come from Sweden. I wonder if it has to do with the epic My Favorite performances back in the day at Hultsfred festival.  For those who prefer buying the record from mailorders I can assure you that most of the usual indiepop carriers should have the record now, if not, it should be arriving any moment now.

So that’s that. I’m typing this small Cloudberry update wearing proudly a white t-shirt with the new Secret History logo on it. And actually a co-worker asked me today, how many different Secret History t-shirts do you have? The answer: 3.

It’s been a good day. When I peeled carefully the white tape from the yellow envelope and found a Fucksmiths badge and a Shittens badge, I couldn’t stop grinning. I was on the subway on the way to work listening to The Rileys future Cloudberry compilation (yes, this just arrived too! so more news on this soon). Details like this make my day. I’m not alone.

What else? Oh, Philippe Katerine is playing NYC next month. Also Watoo Watoo. I’ll go to the second. I think the French have decided it’s a good idea to celebrate Bastille day in New York. I would have loved to go see Katerine, but $50 seems a bit too much for a ticket. Especially if he is going to play his latest records and probably ignoring his 90s output which is by far the best. Watoo Watoo in the other hand will be playing on the 14th at the Cake Shop.

I’ve been going way too often to the Cake Shop. Though I haven’t seen the bar tender who knows to serve me Amstel Light when I arrive. A running joke. Maybe she quit. I was there last Friday too. Having a great time watching the Gold-Bears. Why is Jeremy not considered one of the best pop craftsmen around? No one makes crash pop like this anymore. Since the demise of The Faintest Ideas there are no other band on Earth to play pop with guitars as fast as the Gold-Bears.

Anyhow, enough of ramblings. Let’s move to what you came here for, the obscure band of the week. Of course.

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Do you know The Passengers? Seems like a very common band name. It probably is. But I only know this one band who came from London and released one 7″. Released on True Records (catalog PASS 001 – obviously it’s a private release) in 1988, this has become a bit of an elusive record for me. Will I find it one day? I really hope so!

I love the cover art, that photo of the kids making faces from inside a car. Or is it a school bus? The whole packaging is neatly done in black and white. Very 80s.

There’s one song on the A side, “Hell to Heaven” and two on the B side, “The Frances Farmer Song” and “The World Outside”. You ask who is Frances Farmer, well…

Frances Elena Farmer was an American actress of stage and screen. She is perhaps better known for sensationalized accounts of her life, and especially her involuntary commitment to a mental hospital (wiki-it!)

I assume they were from London as there’s an address on the back sleeve next to the word Information.

The record was produced by Steve Stewart and The Passengers. It was also engineered by Stewart. It was recorded at The Lodge in May 1988. The Design for the artwork was done by Sandra Jensen Heytmajer and the cover photograph is credited to Nigel Shafran. The band photograph on the back sleeve comes thanks to Melanie Ayee.

The band was conformed by Robert Randall (on lead vocals and acoustic guitar), David Noel Wright (on guitar and vocals), Steven George (on bass and vocals) and Rob Havis (on drums). The first two songs are penned by Randall solely but the “World Outside” is credited to all four guys.

As you are familiar with Google you might understand that it was almost impossible to search for anything The Passengers and end up having any worthy results. It’s a shame. But perhaps anyone reading this can help me. Do you know if they released any more records? Did they play gigs often? What happened to them after? Did they have more amazing songs? Where are their records? Do anyone have a spare copy? Whereabouts in London were they based? What are they doing now?

It’d be great to know a bit more about them. For now, I will recommend you enjoying “The Frances Farmer Song”. What a tune.

edit (same day, but at night): So it totally slipped from me but there’s a track of The Passengers on volume 3 of The Sound of Leamington Spa! I can’t believe I missed this. Thanks Uwe for pointing this out. So I grabbed the CD and checked the booklet and there’s some more information about the band. The song included by the way is “Sometimes” which was produced by Andy Rourke in 1988 and written by Robert Randall. The bio goes like this:

Steven George had left the band. We advertised for an Andy Rourke (Smiths) like Bass Player in Melody Maker. When Andy himself responded I fell out of bed. He came down to London, liked the band and offered to produce us. He also offered to stand in on bass for the recordings. He didn’t need to. When Steve heard about Andy, he came back. We survived about another year after “Sometimes” was recorded. Our biggest success was in Germany and Spain. Mainly because an earlier song “Hell to Heaven” got a few plays on MTV in Europe. There was no MTV in England, so when we played there our audiences were scant. In Berlin, however, we were treated like U2… met at the airport with Video Cameras, and given hashish on our arrival. I remember one sweaty occasion when 1500 people came to see us at a club called BlockShock. Marcus Clements was amazing that night. He was a brilliant guitarist. People used to watch him mesmerized. He never used pedals… just plugged his guitar and played. He was the most soulful guitarist I have ever worked with, quite possibly ever seen. Robert Havis was our drummer. Last I heard of him he was recording some band in Chicago. He always kept it simple, and kept the band solid. He loved Johnny Cash! I don’t know where he is these days. Steve went on to join Swervedriver. I think he now lives in South London. Marcus went back to Bristol, the land of his beloved Only Ones, to have kids. After the Passengers split up I packed my talents up, and joined a band in New York City… the remnants of which formed into Nada Surf after I left.
When the Passengers split up I magnanimously turned to Robert Havis and said “That was the best band I’ll ever be in”. Robert wasn’t so magnanimous, “You’re right about that”, he said. Many years on, after listening to all the music I’ve ever recorded I have to admit that he could possibly have been right.
Robert Randall
December 2002

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Listen
The Passengers – The Frances Farmer Song