A strong feeling that something is about to happen, esp. something unpleasant.

I’m suddenly changing my idea of going to China in autumn, postponing it for next spring, and instead going to Germany. Thing is Throw That Beat in the Garbagecan, one of my favourite bands ever is doing a reunion gig in Berlin for their 20th anniversary. I’ve always said that McCarthy is my favourite band, and it is. But before I even knew McCarthy I was already in love with the German outfit. Can I consider them a second favourite band then? Possibly yes. That would be very fair, and it’s not like I like just 10 or 20 bands. I like hundreds, thousands. So they are very very dear to me.

To be honest I don’t remember how I heard about them first. The year must have been 2003. I was young. Younger than now. I was 19 back then. I had just moved to Texas that winter. At that time I hadn’t even started blogging as Mira el Péndulo. I was on Soulseek though and perhaps it was there that I met them for the first time. I used to hang out in the Twee Folks room, a place I made many great friends, but of course the best being Cris in Spain. Did he introduce them to me? Possibly not. We were mostly gossiping. There were some people that had amazing stuff. I do remember getting the video for “Suburbia” from Chris Jigsaw on Twee Folks. But I’m 100% sure that wasn’t the first time I heard their music.

The fact is in 2004 during a weekend trip with my dad, from San Antonio to Texas, I bought two of their albums. I was still 19, it was winter, and I remember that drive as if it was yesterday. Five hours of talking about football, history and politics, the three topics we usually talk about. My dad is not really a music-fan you see. But he grew up seeing Peru in the world cups unlike me. So he has these vivid memories of the golden age of Peruvian footie. On the highway, passing by outlet malls, ranches, and fast food restaurants, we agreed that at least we were going to go to a record store while in Dallas. We weren’t really going as tourists, my dad had to attend some business there. We didn’t even stop by the Dr. Pepper museum in Waco (I love Dr. Pepper), just to get to Dallas in time.

I don’t remember liking the city much. Just another American city I would say. The food wasn’t that special. I had Mexican food one day, and it wasn’t the best I’ve ever had (arguably the best I’ve had has been in San Diego, I’m yet to visit Mexico). On another day I remember having Brazilian rodizio, all the meats you want, but that is the same every place you go. For that, still the best, the ones I had in Sao Paulo. Anyways. On Sunday morning, after a terrible night sharing room with my dad (he snores heavily), we visited a record store. Problem is now that I don’t remember the name of it. It was in that store that I found the two albums that Throw That Beat released on the American label Spinart: “Large Marge Sent Us” and “The Cool Album”.

They weren’t priced. I took them to the cashier and possibly because he saw I looked a bit out of place he charged me $15 for each. And they were used! Total rip off. But my dad insisted in getting them for me. Happy days. I was just a student and in Texas I hadn’t found a job yet. Now I had to wait until I got back to San Antonio so I could listen to them. I was so eager but I knew I couldn’t play these in the car, my dad would hate me eternally haha.

And so on my old cd-player, the one that lasted almost 10 years (rip 2009), I started a very close relationship with those albums. It was love at first-sight, or listen. I played them over and over for months. Both of them. I rode the bus to university listening to them every single day. At home will I was still honing my skills on Pro Evolution Soccer, I played them. At every moment of the day, I played them. And this went for months. That whole 2004 for me is a year defined by Throw That Beat in the Garbagecan!! I can say their songs always gave a smile to me, and that let me survive a whole year in Texas. That is way too long. Nobody should live for that long there. By 2005 I moved back to Florida and I found a job and well, eventually started buying other records. But, it wasn’t that long that I was going to return to TTB.

My next encounter would be when I visited Germany for the first time. In Essen I stayed with my dear friend Nanita. What a surprise for me that she had a gift for me upon my arrival. What was it? It was the “Tweng” LP on September Gurls. I didn’t know this one existed! There was no Discogs yet, and their discography wasn’t easily available online. Some days after I was at Peter Twee.net’s home and he was giving me a bunch of TTB stickers he got from back in the day. I was back in love and from that time on, my hunt to find all their records started though to my shame I haven’t got them all yet!

Since those days I always go back to Throw That Beat. I don’t think there are months that I don’t listen to at least one of their songs. The videos on Youtube always work when I need a little cheering up. So when on the Facebook group it was announced that they were going to play a reunion gig, it made my the happiest. And now I want to go. It seems it’s happening on the 13 of September. At the Lido in Berlin. Supposedly all original members will be there, even Lotsi. I hope so. I cross my fingers. I should start planning how to get there. Could be my 30-year old present in advance!

———————————————————-

And now one way more obscure band that Throw That Beat. One that requires more researching, but I don’t seem to find much information about them: Premonition.

Let’s transport all of us to Dublin, Ireland. It’s the mid 80s and there’s this band called Loudness of Whispers. We don’t know much about them only that they played the Mood Club at Tommy Dunne’s Tavern in June 1985. From their ashes a band called Premonition will emerge.

The only information regarding the band comes from that great Irish site called Irish Rock, an encyclopaedia of the Irish scene. From there we learn that Premonition were:
John Brennan – rhythm guitars, loud voice
Kevin Morris – lead guitars, mandolin, alto voice
Kieran Eaton – bass, bass voice
Gerard Eaton – drums, tenor voice

Safe to think that Kieran and Gerard were brothers?

The small bio on Irish Rocks says:
Blades-influenced band also compared to the Housemartins. Winners of the Dublin Millenium Battle of the Bands competition held at The Underground on 8 July 1988. Standout track of their set was “Clutching at Straws”. This competition was organised by Danceline and involved 9 heats and 3 semifinals. The prize was a single recorded at Sun Studios, released on EMI.

So another question arises, is there any recordings for “Clutching at Straws”?

Then they released their 7″. On the A side the song “The Streets are Paved with Lead” and “Eyes like Sin” on the B side. Catalog was IEM 004 though the back cover incorrectly lists it as IEM 006. The record was produced by Premonition and Pat Dunne.

I haven’t yet heard the B side. But the A side is quite glorious! It’s classic jangly pop. Of course there’s The Smiths influence, but you can also hear classic sounds from Mighty Mighty, The Brilliant Corners or Hey Paulette! Not your usual fare on EMI! You got to love the guitars, the trumpet arrangements! Should have been a classic! That opening line: “Please don’t go, you are tearing my life to shreds”, always gives me goosebumps!

And then they disappeared. There is no sights about them online. Whatever happened to them? Does anyone remember them? Did they play live often? Did they release anything else? Did they leave any other recordings? Would love to know more about them. Just listen to this song, and you’ll understand why!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Premonition – All the Streets are Paved with Lead

Would you say there’s an indiepop revival? Band-wise I would say definitely not. I don’t see the same amount of bands that were appearing in 2007-2008. And if we don’t care about quantity, then quality, I would say it doesn’t compare either. There are fantastic bands these days but they are a handful. Same with labels. Whereas back then new labels were appearing all the time, from DIY CD-Rs to small runs of vinyl, these days there are no more than 5 or 6 bonafide indiepop labels, and the trend is for them to disappear, not much of new ones appearing all of a sudden.

But there’s an interesting fact that I’ve noticed in the last two years or so. And that has to do with documenting indiepop. Sure I’ve been doing this blog for so many years now, trying to do my part in a small scale, but I’m talking of other people doing it in a much larger scale. I’m talking about books and documentaries.

Truth to be told none of these projects have anything to do with each other. For example the release of Morrissey’s Autobiography doesn’t have any sort of link to “Yeah Yeah Yeah” by Bob Stanley (though of course Moz is mentioned in this book). To me though, the interesting fact is that these two books, and other ones too, are being published in this same timeframe, in this 2013-2014 sort of guitar pop rediscovery.

It was just a couple of days ago that I watched on Netflix the Creation Records documentary. Aptly titled “Upside Down”, it was pretty enlightening to me. I didn’t know much of the story behind the label though I was very knowledgeable of their catalog especially the 80s period. Of course I enjoyed watching it, and even though so many bands are not mentioned much like The Jasmine Minks or The Bodines, it’s cool to see Douglas from BMX Bandits, or Joe McAlinden from Superstar/Groovy Little Numbers, giving their two cents about the rise and fall of one of the best labels of our era. The indiepop connection was all over the place. It was so refreshing to hear people mentioning The Pastels, The Shop Assistants, Television Personalities and more.

Another book that came out not so long ago is the one called “A Scene in Between”. In due honesty I don’t think the book adds much to the conversation. And although it’s beautifully done, with great pictures that document the era, similar pictures have been seen before and text-wise, content-wise, I was left a bit empty. There are a couple of interviews that don’t say that much, interviews that might as well appeared on any blog. But there’s something that struck me about the book. It is pretty popular. A friend of mine even picked it up at the MOMA store. And that made me happy. So at last the likes of Edwyn Collins, Phil Wilson, Stephen Pastel and other heroes of us all, were easily available for people. That’s a big success. I wouldn’t have ever thought that the fashion twist of indiepop would be so appealing!

Not so long ago it was announced that the Sarah Records book, written by Michael White (who has written a bunch of liner notes for Cherry Red indiepop reissues), found a publisher. This is definitely another triumph for indiepop. A hopeful like me would think that if publishers are willing to publish the story of a small-ish label (let’s be honest, Sarah is great but when it comes to sale or popularity, books about say Creation make more sense for a publisher), maybe smaller publishers would also be interested in say the story of other labels? What about the story of El? or Siesta? or Pink?

There’s another project that seems will see the light of day this year, and is also Sarah related. The Sarah Records documentary is supposed to screen this year for the first time. It’s been many years in the making, possibly the idea of making it even comes back from that first wave of indiepop excitement I was talking about, the one from 2007-2008. I wouldn’t be surprised. I remember seeing the girl making the documentary interviewing a bunch of friends at Indietracks. That must have been either 2009 or 2010. I can’t recall. But it was quite some time ago. It’s really interesting that both book and documentary will be out soon, complimenting each other perhaps, but at the same time it could be pretty interesting as they hopefully have different points of views as they have been crafted by two totally different people. Let’s wait and see.

This documentary will be a very welcome addition to the documentaries about Creation, Dolly Mixture, The Magnetic Fields and the BMX Bandits, that have been made in the last couple of years. (Actually today Wednesday – I started writing this yesterday – I got an email from Lucy asking for a little help contacting an 80s indiepopper! Made me happy to help!)

For me though the best book I’ve read about POP! lately is the Bob Stanley’s one. Sure it doesn’t talk that much about indiepop, just a couple of pages. But the whole thing is enlightening, it explains you how we got from point A to point B and then point C, in Pop history. Everything was connected. And this huge book, this huge undertaking of St Etienne’s man, opened my eyes in many ways. It also made me think that indiepop might need a similar book, a book that recalls the whole story of indiepop, from how it started up to this day. It definitely is a difficult thing to do, for example a lot of bands’ stories are forgotten forever, we only remember the songs. But if efforts are made to scratch the surface, write a whole book on Sarah Records, why not go deeper at some point, and write the whole story of indiepop? True it is a lot of effort, and work, but how important would it be for future generations to understand how we came up to this point.

I also want to mention the Scared to Get Happy box set on Cherry Red. Though it doesn’t compare at all with the quality and the excitement of The Leamington Spa Series on Firestation, and I admit not even listening to most of the songs as they were the “same old”, it includes a little treasure, something very worthy. Guess what? It’s the booklet that is for me that has the big value of this release. Here there are a hundred of little biographies of bands from the period covered in the release. This is invaluable information, and it only reaffirms the fact that all of these sort of releases, retrospectives and such, really deserve quality liner notes. There’s no way around it. I feel sad when I see some low-budget releases for many of these great 80s bands, or 90s bands, that barely have the tracklist and nothing else. Not even credits, or photos of the band. What kind of release is that?

In the meantime, I salute all these efforts, and even if I’m a fan or not of them, all of them are contributing in having a real tangible document of the existence of indiepop, something I’ve been hoping for years now. And I thank all of the people behind them as well, because I know they are passionate fans, and they are doing a big thing for our small scene!

(EDIT – Just got to know there’s a book coming up by Simon Goddard about the Postcard label! It’s called “Och Aye the Noo Wave: The Preposterous Story of Postcard Records” and it’s being published in April.  This reminds me of….
That there’s also a documentary about the Scottish scene that I forgot to mention -my bad!- called “Songs From Northern Britain – The Sound of Young Scotland” that will be privately screened in October this year and who is co-directed by Erik from Wake the President).

———————————————————-

Today I want to introduce you to one of the scarcest and possibly obscurest indiepop records. It’s a 7″ that I know absolutely nothing as I’ve never seen one. It’s by a band called Three Dancers and included just two songs: “Seventeen” and “It Doesn’t Matter.”

Will it be a safe guess that the band name comes from Picasso’s painting of the same name? Let’s check what wikipedia has to say about this famous work of art:
The painting shows three dancers, the one on the right being barely visible. A macabre dance takes place, with the dancer on the left having her head bent at a near-impossible angle. The dancer on the right is usually interpreted as being Ramon Pichot, a friend of Picasso who died during the painting of Three Dancers. (Some critics believe it could well be Picasso’s wife Olga Khokhlova.) The one on the left is claimed to be Pichot’s wife Germaine Gargallo with the one in the centre being Gargallo’s boyfriend Carlos Casagemas, also Picasso’s friend. Casagemas shot himself after failing to shoot Gargallo, twenty-five years before Pichot’s death, and the loss of two of his best friends spurred Picasso to paint this chilling depiction of the love triangle.

There is a copy for sale now on Discogs for 265 euros. If anyone can afford it. Ships from Czech Republic of all places. Not a common place for obscure indiepop records. But who knows. The information Discogs has about the record shows that it was released in 1987 by Dilettante Disques (catalog 007). This is quite interesting as I’m not aware of any other releases in this label.

The only true fact is that the A side, “Seventeen”, is one of the finest slices of indiepop. It feels timeless and classic. It does have vocals that can remind you of Edwyn, but the music is like the one Reserve, Holyday Makers, or even Bob was doing at the time. It’s such a great record that no wonder it is sought after. I dream of one day having it of course. Anyone know anything else by them?!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Three Dancers – Seventeen

BALANCE: Middle English (sense 3 of the noun): from Old French balance (noun), balancer (verb), based on late Latin (libra) bilanx ‘(balance) having two scalepans,’ from bi- ‘twice, having two’ + lanx ‘scalepan.’

Finally! The Lost Tapes 7″s arrived. I start shipping them tomorrow to everyone that pre-ordered. Also finally The Rileys CDs are being pressed. On top of it all it seems we’ll be putting new recordings by a Bristol 80s band and a retrospective by a 90s New York band. Seems like busy months ahead as we have New York Popfest as a deadline. It’s like running the 100m race right now. It’s exciting and thrilling but at the same time we need to deliver a big effort to get there!

Last week I decided to review Alpaca Sports new album and thus some people didn’t get their obscure music fix. It’s interesting from the feedback I get that there’s people that only care for the label and don’t really mind the blog, and there are people that just like reading the blog and wouldn’t give a dollar to support the label. I think it’s only a few who care for both things. And this keeps me thinking. I mean, the Cloudberry Cake Kitchen releases are an extension of the blog, right? At least for me that’s very clear.

This is the coldest winter I’ve experienced yet. It’s always freezing and one feels less motivated to go out. There are not many gigs going on either. Indiepop follows the same course, unmotivated there are barely news to get us all excited. New York Popfest and Indietracks keep quiet. No announcements yet. Primavera Sounds kind of breaks the monotony with the return of Slowdive and the very odd booking of my beloved Helen Love. Who would have thought of Helen Love putting the hipsters to dance.

I receive a bunch of emails by obsessive fans. It’s a bit farfetched what I get to read. I’m doubtful. I don’t understand what’s going on. Someone on facebook decides to call me a douche. Someone that has systematically been adding all my girlfriends in there. It doesn’t add up. But some people have no shame about anything. Days pass and these little events make me smile and enjoy them. Outside it gets dark pretty early, you have to understand.

There’s so many new albums I’ve bought this year. I’m having piles of CDs to listen. I feel again that I will never catch up. Last time I had a pile this big was around Indietracks time and it took me 6 months to listen to all of them. I’m pretty slow though that doesn’t stop me from buying more music. Must be an addiction.

I’m terribly sad about a Swedish band I used to love. I don’t feel the same love for them, sometimes friendship doesn’t last forever. Friends that start having other priorities. But aside my personal feelings, speaking strictly about their music and the band, it may sound harsh, but I feel it was already time to break up. But they’ve decided to continue with some replacements for old members that I’m sure won’t add much. Some big egos at play. I may be mistaken of course, but I trust my intuition. And it only makes me sad as they were one of the most talented bands I’ve ever encountered.

Anyways, I can’t be gossiping forever (though I love doing it, you can always find me for a chat sometime). Let’s move to this obscure English band called Balance.

——————————————————

No clue who were Balance. The first time I heard about them was on Youtube. Their song “Russian Train” was uploaded there by Cino Pacino who runs a blog that is worth visiting. Not surprising on the little description of the song he gives credit to another blog, From a Northern Place, saying he got the song from there.

This record came out as both a 7″ and a 12″. Both are catalog Siren 039. On the 7″ we find “Russian Train” on the A side and “River Ghosts” on the B side. On the 12″ we find these two songs as the A side while on the flipside we get “Lines and Squares”. Discogs lists the record as “Europop”. Could be. Definitely not your classic indiepop sounding record, but it has the vibe, the melodies, and the vocals. For me it has an indiepop attitude if that makes any sense.

The record was released in 1987 and as far as I know it’s the only thing the band ever released. It was released by Siren Records who used to have pretty good distribution through Virgin. On this label we can find the likes of It’s Immaterial, Bryan Ferry and even Paula Abdul. No wonder no one remembers the label, too eclectic.

I like that on the labels of the record it says, “An Essent!al Tran-siberian Release”. Perhaps a joke, but sounds cool and mysterious.

The sleeve of the record looks like a lot of photographs of the band. Actually to me it looks like stills from a promo video. Was there ever a video released for this song? Does anyone know? From those photos it looks like a duo, a boy and a girl. There’s just one name mentioned on the labels and that is of Gene Vincent. He gets the credits for the songs.

On the back sleeve there are credits for the sleeve concept (Mckellodell Productions) and sleeve design (Shoot That Tiger!). There are thanks to Steve Biancardo, Chucho Merchan, Buzz, Kick Horns and Dave Foster. None of the name ring a bell to me. Just I know that Chucho is a nickname for those with the name Jesús. There’s an address for information and contact, and it’s in Northwest London. Most possibly the band was from London then.

And that’s as much as I could gather from this band. I still don’t own a record, though it doesn’t look that pricey. Siren was kind of a big label so I’m guessing they pressed many copies. I should get around to buy the record soon. The songs are nice, all of them, very elegant, reminding perhaps to Two People, Lotus Eaters or early 80s pop like Big Outdoor Type. Easier to fit them in that neo-aco tag the Japanese know pretty well.

If anyone has any more information, of course, share!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Balance – Russian Train

There’s this one release I’m looking forward to this 2014. Perhaps you are looking forward to it too. I know a bunch of Italians are. It’s an album. It has ten tracks. No fillers. Just hit after hit. It’s more of a three piece but people assume it’s a duo. They come from Gothenburg. They love making videos for almost every song they record. Do you need more hints? I think that’s enough clues to know who I am talking about.

Alpaca Sports are releasing their first full-length this year and is aptly titled “Sealed With a Kiss”, named perhaps after a movie. This is not the first time they appear on CD (remember the Mini-LP from 2013 on Fastcut), but it is the first time they appear on 12″ LP format. The record should be out sometime around February 24 and those who pre-order it through their bandcamp will be able to also get a bonus CD that contains remixes/covers by Red Sleeping Beauty, The Royal Landscaping Society, Tiny Fireflies, Cristina Quesada, When Nalda became punk, Invisible Twin, Pale Spectres, Boyish, Band à Part, Zipper, one day diary and The Very Most. Those who don’t pre-order, obviously won’t get this CD. By the way, this bonus CD will be named after Andreas Alpaca’s dog, “Bella’s Mixtape”. Just a detail.

It is from that CD that I’m happy to share a song. It’s by a band that we released not so long ago in Cloudberry, Boyish. Here they cover Alpaca Sports first hit “Just For Fun”. Many of the other songs from this bonus CD have been previewed already online through different blogs, soundcloud or facebook. You can possibly track all of them down if you head to Alpaca Sports Facebook page.

The album, released by Luxury Records, includes 10 songs. I read someone on the Facebook complaining that most of the songs have already been released. That means that people really crave for more Alpaca Sports! I would take that complain as a compliment of course. The tracklist looks like this:
01. Just for fun
02. Will you ever come back home?
03. She’ll come back for Indian summer
04. Just like Johnny Marr
05. As long as I have you
06. Telephone
07. He doesn’t even like you
08. The old oak tree
09. You and me
10. I was running

Perhaps you really want to complain, and think that this is a rip off. That there’s only 4 new songs (2 ,4, 8 and 9) and you better download them or some other ‘wise’ idea you may have. I guess you have the right to think that way, but you are being totally stupid. It is clear you’ve been living in an MP3 age where an album concept doesn’t mean anything. You just want throwaway songs that you listen a bunch of time and then they can just sit in some folder in your computer without being clicked again for ages. You just don’t get it. These songs are the work of 3 or so years of the band and so it makes all sense to include them. They are their hits. How can’t you include them? They were released as singles and they have actually left the B sides out of the album, just like every other band did back in the day, when albums meant something. Because albums are for rediscovering these kind of hits. I could play these songs forever, I always find a little something, a detail, every time I listen to them. Perhaps this has to do with me known Andreas, but I always end up understanding each piece of lyrics better and better. They are as honest as they can be. Very autobiographical even. So why wouldn’t I want them to be in the album for me to listen time and time again, with the comfort of them being one after the other? I don’t know. Only if you listen to them as Mp3s then it doesn’t make any sense. Then I tell you, you are DUMB, because you are missing out.

The album counts again with Ray Kimura doing the artwork. I have to say this is my favourite illustration she’s made for Alpaca Sports. And she has done every single release. It’s by far the most colorful too. And the first one that doesn’t have any white background. I remember when doing the Alpaca Sports single for Cloudberry I wanted something like this with the jungle/Indiana Jones, kind of feeling. We did try. But it didn’t work out. It was looking too green. This time it has worked out wonders.

So we all know that 6 of the songs in the album are perfect pop songs. They’ve been released as singles and they have sold out or are about to being sold out. These songs have catapulted the band to play at Indietracks, Madrid Popfest, Berlin Popfest, New York Popfest, and soon Birmingham Popfest. They have also played their home city Gothenburg, Stockholm and Malmö. They also will go south, across of Malmö soon but I think that’s top secret yet. They also toured Japan for a week last November. It’s been a hurricane couple of years for them. But I’m not surprised. I wasn’t in love the first time I heard them, I admit, and I feel embarrassed, I could have released “Just For Fun” perhaps. It was only after listening to “She’ll Come Back for Indian Summer” that I knew that this band was special. That they were something else. But it was a bit too late, though I was still lucky to have worked with them on the one 7″. I would have loved to work with them in every single release. Why wasn’t I in love? I simply don’t understand. These days I play that song and I can’t help myself from singing it.

I’ll tell you a secret then. I have listened to the other 4 songs. They are all proper singles in their own way. They could have saved them for 7″s in the future. But they haven’t. “Will You Ever Come Back Home” and it’s hand-claps. That must be Carl hand-clapping. That’s the first thing that comes to my mind. Haven’t you seen Carl Miyagi hand-clapping like a madman at every Alpaca Sports gig? That’s his thing. But you’d think this is a happy song, it’s not. It might be as well the most melancholic song in the album albeit it’s upbeatness. Amanda as always is brilliant accompanying Andreas in the song with her shy almost subterranean vocals. I melt. “Why do you call me up every time you look for a fight”. That’s the line that opens the song and still I’m sure in this situation you and me would ask every single ex-girlfriend we’ve had if they’ll ever come back home.

Andreas must have a couple of heroes, definitely Davey from Brilliant Corners and Julian from The Hit Parade. Johnny Marr is another of those heroes. Here is his tribute to him. Nostalgic, melancholic, this song is so light, it could break, reaching it’s subtle climax with a sincere line, promising the girl that “I’ll bring my guitar and play just like Johnny Marr.” You wonder which girl would turn that offer down, right? “Don’t make my heart break” asks Andreas wearing his feelings on his sleeve. Only a terrible girl could do that!

Even less upbeat, a song that seems to be sealed with longing and memories, is track number 8, “The Old Oak Tree”. I wonder how common are oak trees in Gothenburg. The song has a cinematic quality to it. “I remember when you kissed me for the first time in the pouring rain”.  The acoustic guitar in the background. I can picture the rain. I can imagine this huge old oak tree where the adolescent couple would get inside and dream of a future filled with lovesongs that never happened. Remembering that teenage love that hurts. The “Old Oak Tree” seems like a pause in the album, making you feel vulnerable and ready for the two last songs.

The last song being the dancefloor hit “I Was Running”. But just before it is “You and Me”. If you’d thought it would be more hopeful than “The Old Oak Tree” you are mistaken. By now you probably have noticed that Alpaca Sports songs are heartfelt and full of details that hide behind the veil of their upbeat melodies. “The sun will never shine on me the way it shines on you”. Post-breakup sadness. Secluded in the house, in the room. Don’t want to go out. Wise words, isn’t it true that when there’s a breakup only one, not the two, gets a broken heart? That’s how it is. That “You and Me” that we dream to happen again, but it’s lost forever. “Every tear falling down let’s me know that I care”. How hard it is to forget. How hard it is to let go. Sometimes you never let go.

It’s surprising how simple it seems for Alpaca Sports to, in simple words, craft lyrics that express so much sentiment. And they call them twee. The f*ck they are twee. This is serious. They don’t sing about kittens or nonsense. There are a few bands out there that have no shame to pour their feelings in their songs like they do.

So I could tell you and sell you do the idea that the album is worth for these four new songs. And that is totally right too. Even for the one song the album is worth getting. I don’t know how many copies are being pressed. I want to think that the album will sell pretty well and hopefully it will be sold out within a year. I want to dream that they will keep writing perfect songs, that I will see time and time again Andreas, Amanda and Carl, with their guests musicians on stage. At every single festival I attend. I don’t have that many contemporary bands that I follow with this determination, that I try to dissect every song, that I want to learn the lyrics as I’ve done in the past with bands like TCR, Throw That Beat in the Garbagecan!! or McCarthy, top bands for me. Alpaca Sports is one of the few (from the top of my head I do the same with contemporary bands Liechtenstein, The Felt Tips and Northern Portrait). They are writing modern indiepop classics. And it’s possible that you won’t even notice until 20 more years have passed when Andreas is still supporting his Örgryte football team in 3rd division for yet another year, Amanda is a successful designer and Carl is making videos for high-profile 2035 Beyoncés or Taylor Swifts of that age.. You don’t want to wait that late, right? Better catch the “Sealed with a Kiss” bus then.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Boyish – Just For Fun

One more week into 2014 and I feel a bit more positive about the outcome for this year. I’ve been looking into pressing records in other pressing plants, in smaller quantities, and I think it will work out. At this time, selling 500 copies seem unrealistic, only a dreamer like me could have been doing this for so long. It’s time to get practical.

A little bump on the way though, the Lost Tapes 7″ seems to be delayed in the pressing plant. Today was the release date but the records haven’t arrived home yet. I have the sleeves and inserts ready but not the vinyl. This pushes back my plans! Hopefully they will be arriving next week. They were promised to me for this week, but they say they have been very busy with records for Record Store Day. That stupid day.

Indiepop news? Little. I did finish answering an interview for a Japanese fanzine that is being made by Atsushi from Mile’s Apart Records. It’s always an honour to be asked questions about the history of Cloudberry and the bands I love. I’ll let you know when it is available especially if you know Japanese, as I doubt it will be published in English!

This week I’ve had family visiting so I haven’t done much research or not even listening to much indiepop. I have no idea what is going on right now. The only “news” I’ve seen around is the announcement of Copenhagen Popfest that will take place in May this year. Sadly for me they announce the dates now when I had already booked my flight to Europe in April. A bit of a short notice. This time the return of Popfest to the Danish capital has a new crowd behind it. In the blog I interviewed in the past my good friend Danielle who with friends organized the first edition. After many years there’s this comeback and it starts to shape up nicely with the sole announcement (as of yet!) of the mighty Felt Tips. Looking forward to their next choices.

Speaking about Popfests, both Madrid and Birmingham have ace lineups. Many Cloudberry bands will be joining these festivals. Only yesterday Lost Tapes was announced for Madrid! How I wish I could attend. But that’s what happens when you live in the wrong continent.

But I’ll stop complaining. We do have NYC Popfest and it’s in a league of it’s own. I’ve heard around rumours of bands coming to play but of course, I have to keep quiet! You should just trust the words from Maz, the organizer, when he says that this will be the best Popfest ever. Which is a lot to say considering the amazing Popfest 2013!

Well enough of chit-chatting, next week I’ll come back with a proper indiepop story, it’s been some time since I tell one of them. But now, let’s move to what you came here for, to discover a new obscure band, right?

———————————————–

Splitting aces and eights is part of blackjack basic strategy. Rules vary across gambling establishments regarding resplitting, doubling, multiple card draws, and the payout for blackjack, and there are conditional strategic responses that depend upon the number of decks used, the frequency of shuffling and dealer’s cards. However, regardless of the various situations, the common strategic wisdom in the blackjack community is to “Always split aces and eights” when dealt either pair as initial cards. This is generally the first rule of any splitting strategy.

I had no clue. Clearly I’m not a gambler. Though I admit I’ve been meaning to visit Las Vegas for so long now, checking now and then the price for flights from NYC to Vegas. It’s never cheap though, so I keep looking.

I do know how to play blackjack I guess. I know the goals of it. Though I don’t know the strategies or even less counting cards. Will it be safe to say this English band from the 80s did?

This band is as obscure as it gets. One 7″ released and that’s it. Discogs though includes in their discography some stuff from the 2000s, but that’s definitely another band. You should ignore that. The only release we care for is the one that has “Hard Luck Stories” on the A side, and “Love is a Duel” on the B side. Do you like horns? Well, then you might like their songs.

I’ve seen “Hard Luck Stories” listed many times on Rupert’s Turntable Revolution blog. But I have to say for me, my favourite of the two, is “Love is a Duel”. The music reminds me of one of my favourite bands ever, Friends. Sure, the vocals are a bit different, but the music does reminisce as it has those glorious horns, and upbeat hooks.

Sadly I only own Mp3s for these songs. I’ve been looking for their record for some time now, but it’s been a hard luck story (pardon the terrible pun). Happily online, on cat45 there are some scans of the record and so we can learn a bit about this mysterious three-piece outfit.

The record was released by Other Records in 1987 (catalog OTH8). It seems it was their last release. Before that, this Oxfordshire label founded in 1985, had released singles by bands I’ve never heard like 5:30! and Virtue, as well as a bunch of compilations that include even more strange names for me like The Black Riders, Teacher’s Pet, Criminal Sex and Electric Dog Sex. Not sure I want to hear these bands. For me it’s no surprise that the label changed their name in 1987 to Metalother Records, to release, just guess, metal bands.

Aces and Eights wasn’t metal at all. They seemed closer to The Lotus Eaters or The Pale Fountains from the photo on the back sleeve. The band was Simon Li on guitars and keyboards, Robin Stuart on guitar and Gary Moss on bass. For the recording of the single they had guest appearances by Phil Cesar on trumpet and flugel horn and Andy Taylor on harmonica. The record was produced by Ian Show and the fun illustration on the sleeve was credited to Nicky Hunt.

How many copies were pressed. No clue. Did they play much live? No idea. Where exactly in UK were they from? My guess is from London, but that is a mystery for me as well. But perhaps someone out there reading this knows something, maybe can solve fill in the blanks. Whatever happened to them after Aces and Eights? Did they continue making music?

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Aces and Eights – Love is a Duel
 

Happy 2014!

First proper post of the year! It’s true I’ve posted three interviews so far but to be honest I wrote the questions the previous year. So this is really the first time I sit with the idea of writing something worthy. Well, hopefully it’s worthy.

I want to start with some label news because it’s been pretty quiet here lately, hasn’t it? So many of you might know that there’s a new release around the corner. Next week we will be releasing a new 7″!! This time we are releasing our second Spanish band in our 7″ series. First one was Zipper if you remember! Now we will be putting out the new 4-song EP by Lost Tapes. Who are they? Maybe you haven’t heard about them, and that’s totally ok, though I believe this year they are going to make a splash. They have been confirmed to play SXSW and I believe they will be playing a couple of indiepop festivals. So keep your eyes peeled. Their music is a bit of a surprise. The duo of RJ and Pau have been making music for a long time, not together, but in separate bands. Bands that are big and popular in Spain like Tokyo Sex Destruction and La Habitación Roja. But they love indiepop, they love the gentle sounds of The Field Mice, Brian, Brighter, so they decided to give it a go together in a new project, in Lost Tapes. So far they have only “released” a digital release on the Eardrums digital label. It ended up in many year end lists. It was lush. It was beautiful. I was terribly happy that they wanted to release their debut on Cloudberry. The songs included are four, “War in the Netherlands”, “Skylines”, “Poetry Dates” and “Chances”. There’s even an awesome video we’ve been promoting for the opening track. You can already order it from the site or you can wait until your favourite mailorder has it. Hopefully you’ll have it in your hands soon! You’ll love it! On top of it all the sleeve has been gleefully illustrated by Barcelona’s Marta Llumbart!

A lot of people have been asking about The Rileys release. And yes, it’s taking some time. It will be released though, come on, don’t despair. I’m positive it will be out next month. I wish it had been sooner, but as you are my friends I’ll be honest, sales have been quite bad on November and December so, there hasn’t been much cash to pay for new releases. It works like that you know. Sales become releases. So sometimes things have to wait until we can afford to put the new record out. So here’s an idea, if anyone out there know any ways we could raise our sales, make some interesting merchandise, or exclusive deals, I don’t know, something that could work, please on the comment section leave some ideas. I would really appreciate that. I really don’t want to end using a kickstarter or having to close the label. I’m going to fight! Anyways, let’s hope for February for The Rileys. I’ll keep you all updated when I have a release date.

The other project I want to work on this new year has to do with the blog. I want to finally publish in book form some of these interviews I’ve been doing for 5 years. I’ve been meaning to do so for some time. Many friends have asked me to do it, and I said I would. And then I never did! It requires a lot of time. It’s not just copy/pasting. I need to design the book with Cloudberry standards. It has to look good. I need photos to illustrate it as well. I can’t just publish a music book with just text, can I? But yeah, I’m hoping that by Indietracks time the first volume of these books will be published. I don’t have a name yet for it yet. So any ideas are welcome!

So that’s that.

What else is important this year so far. Well it seems there will be a Chickfactor festival in March here in New York? Will have to keep an eye on that. I hope it’s not like last year that The Pastels were confirmed and didn’t end up coming. I hope it works out well this time! Also of course to look forward for me is NYC Popfest and Indietracks. I have yet another trip to Europe in April that I’m looking forward. Will be in Spain, Norway and Sweden. Yes, always Spain, always Sweden. But I managed to squeeze a new country to visit. And I’m pretty excited to go to Oslo for the first time. But also I will be visiting new places in Spain, like Seville, Granada, Cordoba, Cadiz and Málaga, and in Sweden I’ll visit Göteborg for the first time. I will end up in Stockholm my last days of the trip. It’s like I always need to visit that city that I love (and hate).

Shaping like a fine year so far, right? What else would I like? I definitely want to DJ at Indietracks. But who knows if someone will invite me. That’s something I’ve been wanting to do since the first time I went. Crossing fingers, though I doubt it, as I don’t have a club, right? Speaking of Indietracks, I’m pretty scared as the plane tickets already are very expensive. I can’t find anything under 900 dollars. Wonder if it will work out the way I wanted. For that price I feel like a terrible idea just to go for four or five days. For that price I need to at least spend two weekends there. If that happens, maybe I end up doing that trip that I always wanted to the north of Wales, to those towns and castles that I’ve been daydreaming of, Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Conwy, Harlech…. but we’ll see. I kind of want to save vacation days for a later trip to China.

And that’s more or less in a nutshell what I’m expecting for this 2014. There are of course another releases in the works, but as soon as they are 100% confirmed and I have a song to share or something, I’ll keep it secret. But follow me here on the blog, I’ll be updating it every week as usual.

—————————————————

Now into one of the most obscure mysteries of indiepop: That Corporate Feeling.

As you can imagine there’s NOTHING about them online. I’ve looked all over the place and I can’t find anything. The only thing I know is that their sole 7″ is really sought after by indiepop collectors. I’ve known that for years. I’ve heard their classic song “The Rain Has Gone” for years. But you know, I’ve never known anything else about them.

The few bits of important information are that it was released in 1984 on a label called Platform Soul. This was the first release of the label so it’s kind of safe to assume that this was a self-release. On Discogs it says that this 7″ was a promo 7″. That could explain the scarcity of it.

The A side was naturally “The Rain Has Gone” a proto-indiepop gem, packed with horns and a pounding bass. If sped up this could have been a major discoparty footstomper I reckon. Still it’s a beautifully crafted popsong. It’s no wonder everyone wants a copy of it! Me included of course!

The B side is “Industrial Backlash”. I wonder if there’s a relation between the name of the band and this song. Seems there’s a thread, no? Perhaps there was some sort of political background to the band. A socialist view? I wonder.

The only other thing I’ve ever seen is the sleeve. The front sleeve is quite nice. It has a die cut in the center, like old jukebox 45s. You can see the vinyl label having a bright red heart. The sleeve meanwhile has an illustration of a guy with a mullet. Perhaps it was the style? Perhaps is an illustration of the vocalist? Who knows. The back sleeve is even a bigger mystery. There’s just a photo, black and white, of two persons and what it seems like a dog.

There’s not much else online. I have no clue who the band members are. It all remains a mystery. Do any of you know anything else about them?!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
That Corporate Feeling – The Rain has Gone

Because people keep asking for a list, and I won’t do a ranking because I feel it’s terribly wrong, here are a many releases I’ve enjoyed this year. Obviously all Cloudberry releases are here because I would be an hypocrite to release them and not enjoy them, right? And also keep in mind I may update this list any day between today and December 31st. That’s because I’m very forgetful and I’m sure I’ll remember about some release sometime later and because I still haven’t heard all albums for this year like Spook School, Bubblegum Lemonade or Northern Portrait, that I know if listened they would appear in this list. Anyhow, if you are one of those curious people here it is in no particular order:

Electrophonvintage – Play Harp in Your Hair (album)
Go Violets – Heart Slice (CD-EP)
Major Leagues – Weird Season (EP)
The Sheets – The Sheets (lost album)
Club 8 – Above the City (album)
Homecomings – Homecoming with Me? (CD-EP)
Reserve – Beneath the London Sky (retrospective)
Alpaca Sports – Alpaca Sports (mini-album)
April’s Fools Day – Well, it’s true (album)
Silver Screen – When You and I Were Very Young (album)
The Felt Tips – Symbolic Violence (album)
Various Artists – Envoys from Alexandria (CD-EP)
The Secret History – Americans Singing in the Dark (album)
Veronica Falls – Waiting for Something to Happen (album)
Camera Obscura – Desire Lines (album)
The Proctors – Everlasting Light (album)
Various Artists – The Sound of Leamington Spa 7 (compilation album)
Everyday Mistakes – Obscure Lanes (album)
Honigritter – Kellergeister in Unserem Haus (album)
Los Canguros – Un Salto Adelante (retrospective album)
Rose Elinor Dougall – Future Vanishes (single)
Fireworks – Runaround (single)
The French Pop Dream – The French Pop Dream (single)
Helen Love – Day-Glo Dreams (album)
Flowers – When You Lie (single)
The Spook School – I’ll Be Honest (single)
Zipper – La Casa Rural (single)
Joanna Gruesome – Supercrush (single)
Boyish – The Hidden Secrets (single)
The Occasional Flickers – Capitalism Begins at Home (single)
Los Urogallos / Las Chinchetas – Brindis Picnics y Bongos Beatniks (split single)
Alpaca Sports – He Doesn’t Even Like You (single)
Karatekas – Nubes Negras (single)
Eva & John – César Gutiérrez (single)
Tripping the Light Fantastic – Heavy Heart (single)
Axolotes Mexicanos – Infectados (single)
The Understudies – Everyone Deserves at Least One Summer of Love (single)

I don’t want to sound bitter or demanding but, those 2013 year end lists do need some better releases. And I’m not just saying this because I’m biased. How can you exclude The Secret History album from your year end lists? Sure you want to include The Pastels and Veronica Falls, two fine albums, but come on, there was not much meat in them compared to the Sunnyside, Queens, band’s album.  I leave it to your conscience. Another album that I have loved this year is The Proctors one. Sure it’s a bit long. But who cares? There are no fillers in it. All songs are beautiful. Classic indiepop, the jangly kind, that many times reminds me of Marine Time Keepers, Brigher, or Bouquet. But yeah, you can ignore that and have Beach Fossils, or whatever other band that has zero ideas or talent. You’ll probably get a freebie album from their label next year.

I don’t think many people read year end lists, see the top 10 and say, “oh! I missed these ten records, I’m going to buy them.” That doesn’t happen. Does it?

There are also a bunch of releases that I haven’t listened yet as they have appeared at the tail end of the year like Bubblegum Lemonade, Northern Portrait or The Spook School. I assume they are pretty good, because their work is usually strong. So it suprises me that they are not in year end lists. Are they bad or what? I hope I catch up with these releases soon.

Another album that I’ve been listening a lot this week is that of New York’s own Pale Lights. Though this is a bit of cheating. The album won’t be out until next year, so it wouldn’t count as 2013. But what an album this is. It’s only 30 minutes long and opens with a cracker of a song called “Another Broken Heart”. You already know what to expect in the other 9 songs. Just heartfelt jangly indiepop crafted in perfection. Highlights are “Port of Shadows” that reminds me of The Bats, their previous single “Boy of Your Dreams” that has that Felt-ish guitar, or The Chills inspired “Only an Ocean”. I don’t know what will happen in 2014, but this might be a serious contender for your next year list! But let’s return to 2013!

What about Silver Screen’s album? I was happy to see it in the new 80s Guitar Pop guide published in Japan. It was released in 2013, and it’s already considered a classic by the Japanese indiepop fans. I can’t wait to visit the land of the rising sun. I have to see with my own eyes how good is their taste. I need to believe it.

Maybe I’m being exigent. I should be happy to see indiepop blogs celebrating the rewarding work of bands like Vampire Weekend. I should stop talking about these things because then I might be called the indiepop police. The leader of the very serious indiepop militia. But who cares? I love ‘wasting’ a Wednesday afternoon rambling about it. I just think people are always easy on themselves, and even though they love going to Indietracks every year, showing how DIY and indiepop they are, at the end of the day, they are just normal, another gray sheep in the field, with nothing to add to the conversation.

As you know, I’m not a fan of putting together a year end list. I’ve said it many times. It has to do with me being very forgetful. Even if you ask me what are the song names of that Proctors album that has had heavy rotation in the last month, I may be able to name you one or two. My favourite song I think is number 4 (or 5?). I remember them by numbers. I know that when eventually I get invited to DJ, I’ll rip it and burn it and learn the song’s name. I will play it too for people to dance. Or maybe I get to blog about it. That’s how it works for me.

But there are those that need to make sense of the year. That need lists to explain what happened through the whole twelve months. What were the breakthrough artist? What were the important and exciting comebacks.? And that’s really great. I’m curious to read them. There’s always a different point of view between them and me (though lately there’s a trend where there are no point of views, just a long list of Youtube videos).

Anyways, what I’m trying to say is, that even though it hasn’t been the best indiepop year, there have been some pretty solid releases that either because people are lazy and only reading Pitchfork, or these exciting songs got lost in a sea of MP3s, they are not being recorded as best of 2013. People are MISSING OUT. And that’s pretty scary. I feel that we are not that far away from the day when every blog has the same year end list.

—————————————————

It’s definitely no news that I love Sweden. Not news that I hate it too. Aren’t those relationships the best? I’ve been the happiest there, but I’ve been the saddest as well. I managed to learn quite a bit of Swedish in the meantime and can understand a lot of what I read, and have a basic conversation. Probably useless as every day that passes I really doubt that I’ll move there as I could have thought I might 5 or 10 years ago. Especially since they started charging money for international students. I think that was the debacle of that dream.

Next year I’m going to be visiting again. At last I’ll visit Gothenburg too. Göteborg. Yeah! It’s been a long time since I’ve been meaning to visit, especially as I have this idealized idea of what it used to be during those days of the Starke Adolf tweepunkdisco club. I’ll end up in Stockholm again eventually too. That’s how I roll. Stockholm makes me feel happy, uncomfortable, sad, energized.D I don’t know how to explain it. Let’s say it just gets me dizzy. But the story of today is not about any of these towns, not even Uppsala or Malmö, the other towns I’ve visited in my lifetime. But Varberg. And you ask, where is Varberg?

Varberg and all of Halland are well known for their “typical west coast” sandy beaches. In Varberg the coast changes from wide sandy beaches to rocky terrain that continues north into the Bohuslän archipelago and as far as the North Cape. Varberg is a charming and popular summer resort and many people from inland cities such as Borås are either moving to Varberg or holidaying there.

A fortress called Varberg (at that time written Wardbergh, “watch hill”) was erected in the 1280s as part of a chain of military establishments along the coast, in what was then Danish territory. In the middle of the 14th century, the old settlement “Getakärr” 1 kilometre (0.6 miles) north of the fortress took its new name from the fortress.

Matilda Mus came from Varberg, from a small-ish town of 27 thousand people. Perhaps less. It was the 80s, those numbers are from these days. Matilda Mus of course means Mouse Matilda, and it seems it was a popular children book series. An author that I find associated to it is Susi Adams. But that’s not a Swedish name. Perhaps she lived there. I couldn’t find any information in English about these books. Some titles from the series are “Mouse Matilda cooks pancakes”, “Mouse Matilda is sick”, “Mouse Matilda plays the circus” or “Mouse Matilda has a summer love”. The band must have grabbed their name from these series.

How did I ever found about this band. Aside from a few Swedish bands from the 80s that are not Roxette and are alright known (you could name Watermelon Men and Ubangi perhaps? Happydeadmen for sure), we don’t find out much about the rest. Because there was a rest. A bunch of bands. But it was thanks to stumbling to a blog post by Roger Gunnarsson, of Nixon’s fame, that I was pointed to listen to whatever I could find from Matilda Mus. Two songs, thanks to Youtube. One was the one I’ll be posting here, “Nu E De Jul” (Now is Christmas), because it makes sense being so close to that holiday, and “På Sommaren” (On Summer). Both songs are deliciously fun to listen! Punky, raw, and very pop!

On his blog post Roger praises Matilda Mus because of the DIY approach. Their first two singles were hand-made, photocopied sleeves, and gigged a lot around Halland to build a cult fanbase. He mentions that they were so fun because Halland is pretty well known for their good humour. Among the “fun” things, were a choir dressed as mice on stage and silly nicknames for the band members.

There is not much written online, not even in Swedish. We know that in 1985 they won a local rock band contest and I assume with the winning prize recorded their first single, “På Sommaren” (catalog MM 001). This was recorded during three nights in Abeef Studios in April 1985. The sleeve came in different colours, you could find them in green, pink, yellow and more. The tracklist for this single was:
1. På Sommaren
2. Matilda Mus
3. Du Får Aldrig Gå
4. Intill Min Död

On this first release the band was made up by:
Anna Wiktorsson – synth
Pär Pellepånken Mantéus – guitars
Ulf Lille Bulf Cronheim Bas – sång
Anna-Maja Zadie Mc Zymbal Persson – drums

For their second release there would be some lineup changes. We see that now on guitars we have Thomas Svarta Faran Klint and we find three girls joining the band. This was 1986. Marina Rydellingum on sax, Mada Ultra singing and Jackie Lady Lagom Sofronenkoff singing too. This is the 7″ that has “Nu E De Jul” on the A side, while on the B side, another Christmas-y song “Juleljus I Matildas Hus”. Wish I could listen to that one! This record was catalog number MM 003 and it was recorded in Halmstad (land of Nixon) in the studio Out of Control.

In 1986 they released their debut album, “Pussar Mjölk å Pop’n Roll”. This was catalog MM 002 and was recorded as well in the same studio in Halmstad in march 1985. On this record Paula Vig sang (she was a guest in the På Sommaren single it seems). Also joined Ewa-Marie Wag Nordin in singing duties. The band loved vocalists. This LP had 10 songs (1. Sagan Om Matilda Mus,  2. Lilla Söta Flicka,  3. Sommaren Är Här-lig,  4. Söt Å Snäll, 5. En Banan Till,  6. Pussar Mjölk Å Pop’n Roll,  7. När Du Är Här,  8. Jag Vill Ha En Harley,  9. Kär I Dej  and 10. Krigstid) and had a band photo on the cover sleeve.

Their last release came out in 1987. It was another sing, again self-released (catalog MM 004). The record was titled “Sodapopkid”, and included two songs “Sodapopkid” and “Snaskmadam”. The band appears in very summery outfits on the sleeve cover. Again this was recorded in Halmstad and the curious thing about this release is that “Snaskmadam” (Madame Candy) is actually a cover of The Archies “Sugar, Sugar”.

The only other release I’m aware that had a Matilda Mus appearance is a 1985 compilation called “Rock-DM – Scendrag 85 i Halland”. A sampler of bands from Halland that also included the bands Rock’s, Sabotage and Dead Line. On this record Matilda Mus contributes a song called “Fotomodellen”.

I believe Ulf Cronheim then moved to Halmstad. The band must have split by then. He formed a band called De Nissan Badpojkar and in 1988 released the single “Sommardag” (catalog 1988). Seems the melody from this song comes from Matilda Mus’ Sommaren Är Här-lig”, that’s what the Swedish site Musikon says.

The only other hint comes from Roger’s 2006 blog post. It says that Ulf later owned a café in Varberg called Majas Strandcafé. Upon a little digging on Google I found about this café and tells a bit of the history of how the café started:
It all started when Ulf Cronheim woke in the middle of the night and could not sleep. In the diary, were all written down guidelines for what would become Majas Strandcafé. The next morning Ulf called Anna Maja Persson and after some persuasion, she said yes to the idea of ​​opening a café. A few years earlier Annamaja after much persuasion agreed to become Ulf’s girlfriend, but they broke up after six months. Café ownership lasted just as long, but she completed her duties as drummer in Matilda Mus, the band that Ulf was in, until the band dissolved in atoms.

The café still goes on. Matilda Mus doesn’t. But the two songs I’ve heard from them are just up my street. I love this kind of pop. It reminds me a bit of Throw That Beat in The Garbagecan! I saw some auctions on Tradera that had ended not so long ago. The records were sold cheap. Either they are not that difficult to find or people don’t know much about them. I hope in the near future I get to find them. I would really love to listen to all their songs.

I leave you with this great Christmas song, and I’ll see you after that. Merry Christmas to everyone!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Matilda Mus – Nu E De Jul

It’s snowing already in New York. Not much indiepop for me these days aside from listening to Shine! songs a lot. Trying to find the right order of the songs for the upcoming compilation. Also on heavy rotation some old albums by The Times, Throw That Beat, The Earthmen. The only exception being The Proctors album that I recently got from Ed when he was visiting New York. Lovely album. Should be in those year end lists people love doing and that I can’t get around my mind to make one. Still the album I’ve listened to the most this year is Silver Screen’s. But that might be me being biased.

I went to Mondo this past weekend too, after devouring some delicious Korean dumplings in K-Town, and a stop in Bushwick to see Grand Resort play along other hipster bands. Highlights of the dance party were Alpaca Sports “I Was Running” and Go Violets’ “Josie”. I must have been a bit drunk as it seems I recorded some clips of the songs and mailed them to the bands. Geeky fan. At least the bands seemed happy and not annoyed!

On Friday I was supposed to go check a new band that Ed tipped me called Gingerlys. On bandcamp they sound pretty good so I wanted to check them live. Unfortunately it was raining way too much to do that inter-continental trip to Bushwick that night. Hopefully I’ll catch them soon. I haven’t discovered that many exciting new bands as of late, especially in the city. So this could be something!

Also the Twee.net Poll is now open. I should cast my votes pretty soon. And you all should too! Would be interesting to see who wins. I might be wrong, but I feel this has been a year of little surprises. More like a quiet indiepop year aside from some amazing comebacks like The Brilliant Corners or The Haywains. When it comes to new bands, I will look east. I think the best new bands come from Japan and Australia this year (again the exception being Don’t Cry Shopgirl from Sweden). Don’t you agree?

But in general, it has been a good year for me. Plenty of traveling. Many new friends. Three pop festivals. Can’t complain. The idea is to keep it up next year. NYC Popfest for sure. Indietracks 90% that will happen. I have a Travelodge room already reserved so…

Not much more this week, winter seems a bit uneventful, especially December. You’d think people buy indiepop records as presents but that’s never the case. There’s the Big Pink Cake Christmas special, but that’s in London. I can only wish to be there. Anyways, I’ll see you next week, hopefully with some exciting news. Maybe by then I have already book my new vacations.

——————————————————————–

Don’t know about you, but these days, I have a hard time to get out of bed. Not because of any sort of sadness or depression. It’s just cozy. It’s warm. And it’s terribly cold not being under the sheets and blankets. I don’t mind the cold weather, I actually enjoy it, it’s just that moment of the day that is difficult for me. So until we are halfway through March I guess this will be the routine. Or maybe I’m just getting older, my thirtieth birthday looming. Scary.

My computer at work broke down. When I arrived from vacations it wasn’t working. Seems that the hard drive was fried. Through some recovery stuff, I manage to salvage a bunch of songs. Most of these are obscure songs that I’ve been sent by friends through email. Songs by bands that I’ve been looking for their records without luck. Hard to find.

The computer was formatted. And now I’m listening to all these songs again. Just for fun. Then suddenly some songs catch my attention. They are by a band called “And So To Bed”. A friend from Portugal, Joel, had shared these with me. I do a google search. As you can imagine a phrase like this gave me thousands of results. So I dug and dug.

Rupert at Turntable Revolution wrote on May 12 2012:
“And So To Bed released one 7″ in the mid eighties which has been on my wants list for a few years and turns up on ebay. Happy days until the listing is ended early by the greedy seller. So has anyone got a copy of this elusive single for sale?”

Then I found the listing on eBay. It was a seller in California. On the item description I find the first hints about this elusive record.
“Great C86 jangly indie-pop from this north London combo active around 1986/1987. Features 4 songs: And So To Bed (She Said) / Just Desserts / Plaindom / Spit It Out. Promo stamped with “Timebox Records: for promotional use only”. “

Indeed, it’s great jangly indie-pop! And we get to know the four songs on the 7″. We also get to know the label, Timebox Records. There’s just one more stop, one last hit google gave me. And that’s the Firestation Records blog that Uwe ran for a short time recommending and tipping some amazing stuff. There he writes: Amazing London-based band which was around the late 80’s. One 7“ single, released on Timebox Records, simply named “The EP“. Four tracks, four hits, full of jangly guitars somewhere between the first two singles by Laugh and The Close Lobsters.

So much praise for this band. So much excitement. And the songs do live up to them. The problem is, why the hell nobody knows anything else about them? Who were they? It’s a safe bet that Timebox Records was their own label they set up to put out the record. So that makes it even more difficult to track them down. There is a blog were it says Sperm Wails played with them. That’s the only other mention I could find online. It seems that aside this 7″ their legacy is non-existent. The band members names? What were they? Anyone knows anything else? They were from London. Someone has to remember!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
And So To Bed – And So To Bed

Alright. So where are the top ten lists for this year. I’m waiting. It’s already December and to my surprise I still haven’t seen any of these lists, not even on Facebook. Could it possibly be that there hasn’t been that many great releases in 2013? Or to be more sincere, the great releases of this year haven’t been released by the well known labels so they have been under the radar of most people? Could be. I like to think this has been the case. But let’s wait and see, it’s still early December and not even the Twee.net poll is open. So let’s wait and see, I’m quite curious.

Last week there wasn’t a blog post. And can’t say I missed writing. I didn’t even think about it. I had a very intense week traveling in Peru, partying, visiting friends, drinking, eating, etc, etc. I think I napped one day. I don’t think I had much time to relax and take it easy. That’s why I look forward to this Monday as I have requested a day of ‘staycation’. Really need it. I’m not complaining though, I saw the impressive Machu Picchu. I was in awe. I was also very tired to go up all the little rock stairs to the summit to take that classic photograph with the citadel behind you. I ate for the first time alpaca and also went to a restaurant that serves food from the Amazonian region. That was quite exciting.

I got to see Eva & John play live for the first time. I saw them also at a band practice. Both times I liked them a lot. They are unique for the scene in Peru, and it shows. They have followers that know their songs by heart. Now just need to push them to record 4 more songs. The 2-song flexi that they released earlier this year is not enough for a band that has so many catchy songs. I really hope that a 7″ will happen in 2014.

After many years I visited a disco in Lima. The music is still quite terrible, but what can you ask for. It’s not like we get good indiepop discos in New York City either way. I remember I danced to Pulp. And then I mostly just drank. It was cheap. 3 dollars for a huge bottle of beer. Half liter I believe? Those things are very convenient. But beware, not everything is cheap. Food wasn’t. I feel it’s around the same prices as in New York!

I got to see many friends, many that I haven’t seen for years. Some that were part of my gang while I lived in Miami. It made me happy to see that they are doing well. Earning good money. Living alone. Being successful. It also made me proud that Plastilina Records has a name these days in Peru. People recognize the label I started with three other friends and that these days Jalito is the driving-force. Funny though that indiepop is associated to hipsters in Lima. It might be the only place in the world that this sort of music is associated to them (ok, it used to be like that in Sweden for some time). I guess hipsters are the outsiders in Peru? Or viceversa? I don’t know how it ended up being like that. But it’s a bit scary! As long as they don’t ruin it all…

Anyways, I’m back and I have a couple of more posts to write this year. There are also some interviews that I hope I’ll publish as well. There will be Cloudberry news soon too. Lost Tapes 7″ will be out in around a month time. And then there will be new releases announcements! So keep an eye on the blog.

Also, if you are not aware, it seems there will be a new Popfest next year. It will be based in Birmingham and will happen in April. No clue who is organizing it, but the lineup already looks great. I wish I could go, so, if you can, you should definitely head there!

————————————————————–

Now let’s move onto some obscure band, one that I keep losing on eBay everytime it shows up: Boston Crabs.

As obscure as it gets. As mysterious as it gets. Because obviously they weren’t from Boston. They hailed from Hull.

If you google for Boston Crabs, you’ll see some Lacrosse team with that name. But perhaps the name may come from this “Boston crab”:
The Boston crab is a professional wrestling hold that typically starts with one wrestler lying in a supine position on the mat, with the other wrestler standing and facing him. It is a type of spinal lock where the wrestler hooks each of the opponent’s legs in one of his arms, and then turns the opponent face-down, stepping over him in the process. The final position has the wrestler in a semi-sitting position and facing away from his opponent, with the opponent’s back and legs bent back toward his head. The original name for the maneuver was the Backbreaker, before that term became known for its current usage. In modern wrestling, the Boston crab is not treated as a lethal submission maneuver, even though it was considered a match-ending hold in the past. In Japan, it is commonly used as a hold to defeat young and inexperienced wrestlers; the ability to overcome the hold is considered a sign of growth.  In submission grappling, the Boston crab (generally the half Boston crab) can be used to set up a straight ankle lock.

Not much into wrestling myself. When I was much younger, perhaps 13 or so, I did watch a bit of the American wrestling on TV. And once in Miami I met Hulk Hogan. That was odd.

Perhaps they just liked to have an American flavor to their name. When listening to the B-side of their one and only single, the song called “Icebox”, you can feel a bit of Americana in it, thanks to it’s Midwest guitars. But who knows, it’s anyone’s guess.

The A side is my favourite though, it’s proper jangle pop, indiepop, c86. However you want to call it. This classic slice of pop with trumpets is called “Burn”. No surprise that this record was released in 1986 by the D~I~Y label (catalog 1,000,000).

The information about the band is scarce. Thanks to scans on 45cat, we know that the B side is titled on the label as “Your Love is Really Icebox, Baby”, and not just “Icebox” as in the sleeve, that the record was engineered by Peter Kennedy and recorded at Farmhouse Studios in Goxhill. There’s not much to read about Goxhill.

But let’s turn to the sleeve. There’s a cryptic message “A £108.34 including petrol’ recording. Then there are some important clues for solving the case of this band: band members.

Wayne Jordan – vocals, guitar
Luke Luke LD-50 – noisy guitars
Paul Mackay – drums, percussion
Rick Newman – bass guitar

Special Guest Star
Dave Blackmore – saxophone

I try to find them. No luck. Can’t be that they just disappeared into thin air. There’s something else though on the sleeve. A text written by someone called General Zak:

Still in their early 20’s, the Boston Crabs prove themselves the most versatile young singer-entertainers of the day. For here are two exciting numbers delivered in two distinctive styles.
One change of pace after another, that’s the way it goes through this whole dynamic single. Yet never changing is the powerful unique sound of the Crabs as they dominate and control every song. And for the first time instrumental backing by the fabulous Dave Blackmore adds a fiery vigour to the latest Crabs single.

This text leaves me wondering. First because it says “latest Crabs single”. Was there a prior one? Was there anything else released by them? Also, it says they were in their early 20s! They were young. They must have made music afterwards in one way or another. At least one of them, right?!

Dave Blackmore though seems easier to find. Under his name he released a 1996 album called “Fields of Fire” and has worked with bands like Chalktown. There’s even a biography here. But what about the rest, the ones that were actually the Boston Crabs? It seems for now, they will still remain a mystery.

If you know anything else about them, you saw them live, or even have more recordings, let me know. Would love to know more about them!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Boston Crabs – Burn