Almost two weeks without updates! Have I lost many readers? I hope not. As you know two weekends ago we had NYC Popfest though it feels it was yesterday. Especially as the gigs haven’t stopped since then. Even this week we have the Chickfactor 21 festival that I thought I was going in first place but now after the announcement that The Pastels are not coming I might just go to a night or two. In any case I won’t be missing the return of Atlanta’s Gold-Bears in NYC this Friday at Cake Shop and then on Saturday at Spike Hill along the always classic Jazz Butcher.

So that. Pretty busy. Also having hosted four great friends during these weeks. First Alex and Christina who did all the touristy things NYC offers. And then Andreas and Carl, the Alpaca Sports guys, who came, played, and conquered. And filmed a video for their next single.

This past week we also had the release party for the new Cloudberry release, the Secret History album. It was a great night were many friends showed up and supported my favourite NYC band at the moment. For those who suffer of nostalgia the band played two songs from their previous incarnation, My Favorite. Two of their best songs of their past repertoire, “Absolute Beginners Again” and “The Informers”. It was a blast. I’m very happy with the result of the album!

Sure, NYC Popfest deserves a true review, date by date, and I think I might be able to do that in the following weeks. There are so many stories I want to share and also so many fantastic bands I saw. I met old friends, made new friends, among them a very critical ‘enemy ‘. Of course this has made me very happy.  I don’t have any doubts that this has been the best NYC Popfest edition.

By now all friends that were here for Popfest have left. It’s again all the same NYC folks who I will see. I like the international flavour that people bring from abroad. They bring a different sort of energy. They come in festival mood. Whereas I’m working the first couple of days of the festival. Then grab a fast bite and run to catch the subway to the venues. There it was beer after beer. Cheering. Buying lots at the merch table. Ah! Reminiscing about these past days only makes me want to speed up the days and hope it’s Indietracks already.

A couple of things before I move onto the obscure band of the week. And I know. I owe you two obscure bands for the past two weeks, don’t worry, there will be some interviews coming up to cover for that. The first thing, is a big thanks to Maz for organizing such an epic festival and booking a fabulous lineup. I know there were trouble at some point with the organization, namely Public Assembly, but everything worked out smoothly in the end and there was never a boring moment. And secondly, why did The Knitting Factory had PBRs at the back room (where the bands played) for $4 and on the front room for $2? A lot of people didn’t notice and were ripped off. Not cool.

Other great things that have happened during these weeks are the Peru victory against Ecuador last Friday (which I missed the live broadcast due to having a dinner date in K-town), the birthday gift Alpaca Sports gave me (a framed original poster of the first Starke Adolf club night in Goteborg) and finally buying an AC unit for home. So yes, now people can visit me in summer. Now, if only Peru can beat Colombia tomorrow Tuesday, we will be terribly close to the next world cup. A world cup I plan to go as me and my friend Daniel are already thinking of arriving there on the 13th or the 14th of June to enjoy at least some games during the first week of the competition!

But let’s move to what everyone is interested in, the Sugar Glyders!

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Of course everyone is familiar with the Sugargliders from Australia. A classic band that recorded for Sarah. But years before their time there was a UK band called Sugar Glyders who released the one and only 7″ on Lost Moment Records (LM012). Two songs, “Revenge” and “Free Your Heart”. Released in 1984. A black and white illustration. The name of the band in red. It looks like a detective opening the door of a dark room. Who were the mysterious people behind this release?

I first heard about their existence through Uwe. He told me they sounded like The Tempest. The band was to be included in the next Leamington Spa release. How did he find about them? That’s the question. After some time I finally procured a copy through Musicstack. Not too cheap but not too pricey. Something around 20 bucks. And it’s worth it for the B side. “Free Your Heart” is such a beautiful song!

I did listen to the songs before buying it. And that was thanks to Bruce from the blog My Life’s a Jigsaw who kindly emailed me the MP3s he ripped from his own vinyl copy. After listening to them I bought it.

The band was based in Hemel Hampstead. A place I’m not familiar with at all.

Hemel Hempstead is a town in Hertfordshire in the East of England, 24 miles (38.6 km) to the north west of London and part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2001 Census was 81,143 (but now estimated at around 89,000 by Hertfordshire County Council).
Developed after World War II as a new town, it has existed as a settlement since the 8th century and was granted its town charter by King Henry VIII in 1539. It is part of the district (and borough since 1984) of Dacorum and the Hemel Hempstead constituency.The settlement was called by the name Henamsted or Hean-Hempsted, i.e. High Hempstead, in Anglo-Saxon times and in William the Conqueror’s time by the name of Hemel-Amstede.[1] The name is referred to in the Domesday Book as “Hamelamesede”, but in later centuries it became Hamelhamsted. In Old English, “-stead” or “-stede” simply meant a place, such as the site of a building or pasture, as in clearing in the woods, and this suffix is used in the names of other English places such as Hamstead[disambiguation needed] and Berkhamsted.
The town is now known to residents as “Hemel” however before The Second World War locals called it “Hempstead”.
The town has given its name to the town of Hempstead, New York. Immigrants from Hemel Hempstead migrated to the area which is now Hempstead, New York, including the surrounding areas such as Roosevelt, in the late 17th century.

The band was a trio and they were:
Martin Brown on vocals and keyboard, Paul Thomson on bass and vocals, and Keith Chapman on drums.

From the same blog I learned that Martin and Keith used to be in a live band called Spoils before being in Sugar Glyders.

The only other Sugar Glyders appearance as a band was on the compilation LP “Colours of the Bastard Art!”. This was released on the same label, Lost Moment (LMLP005). The song they included was Jericho. I haven’t listened to this song yet sadly. The only other band I know included in this compilation is Jesus Couldn’t Drum (who would later become The Chrysanthemums).

From the back cover of the record we know that “Revenge” was solely written by Martin Brown and “Free Your Heart” was a joint work by Thomson and Brown. The record was engineered by Bob Morledge at Bob’s Studio in Watford. The cover was done by Bingchap (Uncle Bert).

There’s no much information about the Sugar Glyders online. However Martin Brown has a website. Seems he is still going strong with music and recording new material.

Did they only recorded these 3 songs? Why didn’t they record more records? Whatever happened to the Sugar Glyders after splitting up? Did anyone out there see them playing any gigs? What do you remember about them?

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Listen
Sugar Glyders – Free Your Heart

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Listen
Boys from the East – Brilliant

This Sunday I need to figure out what to play at the Cakeshop for NYC Popfest. I’m DJing between bands and this gives me the opportunity to play whatever I want as nobody but me will care what’s sounding loud in the basement venue. So it’s about really pleasing myself and perhaps a handful of pop enthusiasts that enjoy discovering a thrilling new song. You know, the kind of pop person that is in extinction.

This is the fourth time I believe I’m playing some records for Popfest. Never at the Cakeshop. Before I’ve played some records at Santos, Public Assembly and Littlefield. It was on the latter that I also played between bands, so I didn’t have to cater the crowd with hits. Not that I mind playing hits, I love them, but as of late I prefer dancing to them than me playing them. It’s more fun at the dancefloor.

I remember that just for that time I burned two CD-Rs with my favourite songs at that point of my life. I recall playing The Seashells and The Ropers, among others. I think this is what I should do again this year. Get two or three CD-Rs with my latest music crushes. I’ll try to avoid the mellow ones of course. From the top of my head I want to play Me and Dean Martin’s “When Boys Talk” and Shine!’s “Bite the Apple”. Those two for sure.

The question always arises. Why I don’t bring vinyl records when I’m invited to DJ. Sure friends would love looking at the records, at the sleeves, asking me how much I paid for them or how I got them, or how does this one sounds or the other. Sure. It sounds like fun. But from experience, especially from that time when I happened to play some records at Debaser in Stockholm, I know it can get messy, where beer can be all over the place, dripping, and wetting everything that surrounds the decks. Your records included. Would I risk doing that? I think you can never be too careful. And what if they get scratched? I don’t know, I probably have a shitty equipment at home, but at least it’s just only me who I could blame for ruining a record.

When I lived in Miami, just the same year I started the label (yes I couldn’t be busier), I started a club night with two friends. Well, it was more like a friend organized it and then the three started it. Let’s give credit to who is due. She found the venue, talked with the owner and managed to secure Wednesday’s at what was called the Boom Boom Room. It was on 16th street. On South Beach. Just in front of a Peruvian restaurant, El Chalán. This of course meant a good dinner feast before going to play records.
It wasn’t a success. We played indiepop. I played the classic indiepop, the c86 kind. José played a bit of a mix between britpop, the indiepop classics and some more mainstream pop stuff. It was with him where my differences about The Lucksmiths for example first appeared. He was a huge fan. I couldn’t understand why they were so beloved to him. I never connected to that band, and until this day, even girlfriends, exes, and all kind of people with a close relationship to me have gave me a hard time for not liking them. I actually think some might have stopped liking me because of this. Oh well, you can’t win it all.
And it was Maria who had put all this together and sadly I don’t know where in the world she is. Last time I saw her was in 2008, in NY as she had moved here. I wonder if she still lives here, but I have no clue. I’m not in touch with anyone that knows her anymore. She was the first person, other than myself and Jose, that liked Heavenly in Miami. And that was how we bonded.

Those days, I loved to play music. I don’t like saying I was Djing, because I really wasn’t. I only select a song and press play. I fade out the track when it’s ending, press play on the other CD deck and fade that one in. Easy peasy. It’s not rocket science. Though at that time, in Miami we assumed that being DJ was going to make us super interesting to girls. But that wasn’t the case of course. We weren’t playing the music Miami folks like, we weren’t quite the Ultra Music Festival you know?

Since those days I started another club. Another failure. Then I have been lucky to been invited to play records at many indiepop festivals and gigs. I’ve been lucky to play records in London (many times!), Berlin, Hamburg, Madrid, Stockholm and Malmö. And of course New York. I can’t turn down a “DJ” offer when people ask me. I’m very humbled by it. It’s very nice that people trust your musical taste. It’s true though that I won’t play them some mainstream crap at their gig or festival, you won’t see me playing Rihanna while The School is getting ready to play their set. So yes, I’m trustworthy in that sense unlike some others. But in due honesty, I’ve been losing the zest of playing records for people. And the fact is because I’ve never been able to DJ at Indietracks. I was invited once, true. But I couldn’t say yes before their deadline. I wasn’t sure I was going. But since then I haven’t been asked again. And it’s a shame. As I said, I don’t consider myself a DJ or even a tastemaker, but I do think I do a hell of a job at making people dance. Because I know what people love in indiepop, the songs they heart, and I know I wouldn’t let them down, because the most important piece of this indiepop machine, the one that makes the wheels go round, are the fans. Yes. The fans.

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And before I get too nice and ask for requests let’s move into the important subject, the obscure band of the week. It’s more than true that I have posted three interviews by some fantastic and exciting obscure bands this week. It’s quite a lot. And perhaps you are still reading them, digesting them. But I need to move onto a band you’ve probably never heard about, The Lemon Sleepers.

This band I also had the chance to discover through Rupert’s fantastic mix CD. The lucky part was that I found their 7″ on Musicstack for two meager dollars. Maybe it’s so obscure that nobody buys it. And you can still find it for cheap. If so, I recommend it. It’s truly great. You need it.

The origin of the lemon is a mystery, though it is thought that lemons first grew in Southern India, northern Burma, and China. A study of the genetic origin of the lemon reported that it is a hybrid between sour orange and citron.

I don’t know much about lemons. Though I couldn’t live without them. Imagine that there wouldn’t be ceviche. That would be catastrophic, right? Anyhow, what is a lemon sleeper? It sounds great as a name, but there might be a story behind it.

As far as I know the band only recorded one single. The A side was “The World’s Too Loud” and the B side was “International Smile”. It was released in 1992 and released by Nice Music. Catalog number was 001. I would assume it was a private release.

Both songs have the same credits on the label: “A Holliday / G Holliday”. The A Holliday should be Andy Holliday. The G. Holliday, well, here we have two options. It’s either Gray or Gary.  And I know this because on the back sleeve we get the lineup of the band:

Andy – bass
Gray – keys, backing vocals
Gary – drums
The Stim – guitars
Stuart – vocals

All lyrics are credited to Andy while the music to the Sleepers. The record was recorded at Post House Music and it was engineered by George Althaus.

Post House Music was a studio in East Peckham, in Kent. Were they based there?

The only other credits on the back sleeve that I haven’t mentioned yet are that they had a manager called Daniel P. Riley, and that they thanked Danny & George. Sleeve Design by Deus (?)

Also the lyrics for “The World’s Too Loud” are written there for your singalong pleasure.

That’s all. There’s no more info I have been able to find about them. Maybe some of you have a clue about this band. It seems pretty obscure but we’ve solved so many band mysteries that I’m sure we can fill in the blanks the story of this band. Maybe they had more releases? Maybe some of you saw them live? Maybe you were a friend of them, you gave them a ride to the studio or something. Anyhow, leave a comment if you know the whereabouts of the Lemon Sleepers. For the time being enjoy the jangle thrill that is “The World’s Too Loud”

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Listen
The Lemon Sleepers – The World’s Too Loud

A bit of a quiet week for Cloudberry now although the fanzines arrived home today and I should start shipping all pre-orders tomorrow. The official release date is for the 10th. I’ve talked already a bit too much about the zine so by know either you are fed up with reading about my excitement about this new issue, you have already ordered a copy or you don’t understand what the fuss is about. So let’s move on to other essential topic of the indiepop world: Indietracks.

It’s true that there is still some announcements to be made. And I don’t know when that is happening. Perhaps it says somewhere on the Anorak Forum, but if there’s a place one feels unwelcome, it is in that forum sadly. So I decided to stop visiting it for some time now. I feel that if you are not British, if you are probably not from Nottingham, you have not much to do there. So fair enough. In any case, and who cares really, I didn’t wait for that last announcement and I booked a very expensive flight to spend almost six days in my favourite country, England.

Four of those days are almost exclusively dedicated to Indietracks. Friday you travel to Alfreton/Mansfield/Swanwick or whatever the place you are staying at. Saturday and Sunday are exclusive to the festival. And Monday you leave knackered around noon back to London. Arriving at 4 or 5 and then having late lunch. So I count Monday as an Indietracks day. Especially as these lunches are with all the nice friends that are traveling with you on the train back to the city. This year I’m going to a pre-Indietracks show too on Thursday. So that’s another indiepop day. 5 of my days for the cause. For the good cause.

I did have a room reserved at the Mansfield Premier Inn since January. Or maybe it was since December. I still didn’t know if I was going to go. Not because of money but mostly about vacation days. Though I admit I never thought I was going to pay this much. This year it seems everyone wants to go to London for the summer! But as bands started being announced for Indietracks, and as things started to develop with Cloudberry in ways I didn’t expect, it started to make sense to go for my fourth Indietracks. Fourth in a row too.

I believe that knowing that The Secret History were going to play was a big bump for me to buy the ticket. The new release and getting to see them in such a great place, with the right crowd, cleared all my doubts if I should be there or not. Of course all my friends have been telling me to come over. Jennifer especially who convinced me by 100% as she asked me to DJ an event. Very important. Can’t let my dear friend down. And then of course getting to see my favourites Alpaca Sports and Flowers. One more time after the NYC Popfest. It all makes sense.

The latest Indietracks announcement was also very important to make up my mind. If minutes earlier before the announcements I was telling Emilie that I really hoped to see The Brilliant Corners this year, that it was unfair that they were playing Berlin and the Scared to Get Happy gig, someone was going to tell me they were getting booked for the Derbyshire festival I wouldn’t have believed it. But they did! Emilie funnily enough told me right away that I might have been crossing my fingers way too hard for this to come true. I might! Of course! I love The Brilliant Corners and I can’t wait to at least say hi! to Davey. If he can sign me a record, then that would make me the happiest. The question being should I bring my own records or would they sell some of their old stock there? This is important as I love to travel light!

Then the other two bands that melted my heart. Helen Love and McTells. Two of my favourite bands ever are also playing. And these two came very unexpected to me as they are not playing around or promoting anything new. So hats off to team Indietracks for booking these two. I’m sold. You make me happy. Now who else will you book? Can you do The Popguns as well? I’d be thrilled. Thrilled to bits!

Sure, some might say that older bands are not what the young crowd wants. And we need some of the young guns at the grounds. Aren’t they the ones that buy the most beers and the most records? Who knows. But they do know how to camp whereas I don’t. If the young crowd aren’t pleased by the classic sound of indiepop then maybe they shouldn’t come to an indiepop festival? I think in any case the team is catering to them with some bands like Fear of Men (who in my book have only one “indiepop-sounding” song and it’s really good), The Wave Pictures (zzz), and really a lot of bands that make me feel I live under a rock (though not trying to be a moron but usually if I haven’t heard the band it’s not real indiepop haha, but it’s true). So the young crowd should be pleased I think. There’s a bit for everyone and I have more than enough with this good lineup.

Add to all these the new-comers Pale Spectres who I hope don’t play at the church because I don’t want to miss them.  The Ballet are quite great too and I haven’t seen them since NYC Popfest 2007, though I might have seen Marina at NYC Popfest 2010? I don’t remember. I had a quaint conversation about La Pequeña Suiza, the beloved and cult indiepop band from Spain she used to play with many moons ago. Also looking forward to seeing the Fireworks, Matthew, Isabel and Emma’s new project! The 7″ single on Shelflife sounds fantastic! German’s The Soulboy Collective is also rather a surprise, it’s not the kind of sound I thought team Indietracks loved. But then, I really liked their album on Firestation Records, so this is one not to be missed. The Understudies are also on my “bands to watch” this year. Also I need to grab all of their releases. Seems I’m missing some. Shame on me.

Camera Obscura, The Pastels, Still Corners, all of them I will watch. I’ve seen them all before, and I’d say I liked Camera Obscure a lot in Berlin. That was quite a show and I’ve been meaning for a couple of weeks now to frame the huge poster that Andy ripped from the wall for me. Thing is, A1 posters are not standard size in this country. So I need to look into some custom framing here. Sucks. I’m thinking of bringing a frame from the UK though now. Wonder how easy will that be. Does it fit in a big bag? If it does that would be the best solution!

I’m very curious about Finnmark! More because their principles, their love for Sweden. Music-wise I hope to be surprised.  But they do represent everything that is great about indiepop I think. Big Wave. I ordered their 7″ some weeks ago. Still waiting! Then The French Defence, Lardpony and Nalda. Three bands that I originally scheduled for the 3″ singles series. Sadly it never happened. Glad that they are back though, I look forward to their sets.

So pretty busy already, huh? It should be a good one indeed. This year I’m probably going by myself. First time without the crazy Christin and Emelie’s, first time without the quiet As of my life. That might change my mood a bit perhaps when I’m there. But who knows. I don’t dislike traveling alone. And it’s been a while now since all of these things happened. I feel it will be more like 2011, where as Jennifer said to me, “I was all over the place”. Hoping then that I see many familiar faces, all the people that make this festival the best around.

Probably I’ll blog about the festival a week or two before with my planned schedule for the whole thing, the clashes, the decisions to be made. The DJs (once again I wish I played some records there! maybe the next one?), the food, and the latest announcements. I’m very happy to go there again!

One question though for all of you. Should I bring some Cloudberry records to sell? If so how many? Last year I didn’t bring any because I wanted to spend a lot of time with my then girl as I didn’t get to see her too often. But this year I’m all for spreading the word and the love for the label. Previous years I’ve brought around 50 7″s. And always they sold out. Especially the latest releases. Maybe something like that this year too? Maybe 60 or so? Let me know if anyone is interested in anything in particular too so I can bring that and everyone can save on the crazy US postage prices.

PS. Can I ask for the Felt Tips to play Indietracks? I want to listen to their new album live!

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After this ‘short’ Indietracks review of mine, let’s move into another obscure band I’ve been trying to track for years now after seeing their name listed on the Twee.net Future Leamington Spa bands page: A Tune A Day. What a good name I thought. Though perhaps these days with the internet a lot of people listen and discover more than a good tune every day. Though a tune a day, the idea of it, the principle of it, is just perfect. For example I have this thing myself of a 7″ a day. That way I force myself, at least when in town, to listen to one of the 7″s in my collection.

I would have thought that the band was from Clapham in London because their label name was The Clapham Omnibus, but the address listed on the back of the sleeve of their sole 7″ is closer to Tooting or Balham. But perhaps there was a bus that ran (or still runs?) from their place in Hillbury Road all the way to Clapham. Perhaps a bigger clue would be the catalog number of their 7″, ‘FARE 37’. Perhaps that was the bus number? Maybe someone familiar with the area could tell me. I’ve never been to Clapham myself in any of the visits I’ve done to London. Perhaps the Brockley is the place I’ve been the south-est in in London. From what I gather Clapham is mostly known for:
its extensive 220 acre green space Clapham Common, which features three ponds and is overlooked by large Georgian and Victorian mansions, and the village-like atmosphere of its historic Old Town. And also for being home of Holy Trinity Clapham the Georgian Church on Clapham Common, from where The Clapham Sect led by William Wilberforce and a group of upper class evangelical Christians campaigned for the abolition of the slave trade in the 19th century.

The name of Clapham is thought to derive from the Old English clopp(a) + hām or hamm, meaning Homestead/enclosure near a hill.

And Omnibus –  1829, “four-wheeled public vehicle with seats for passengers,” from French (voiture) omnibus “(carriage) for all, common (conveyance),” from Latin omnibus “for all,” dative plural of omnis “all” (see omni-). Introduced by Jacques Lafitte in Paris in 1819 or ’20, in London from 1829. In reference to legislation, the word is recorded from 1842. Meaning “man or boy who assists a waiter at a restaurant” is attested from 1888 (cf. busboy). As an adjective in English from 1842.

The one 7″ A Tune a Day released had two songs, one on each side. On the A side “I Am Going Home” which I remember listening long time ago on one of the compilations Jessel used to put online on Myspace. I can’t remember right now how the song goes, though I remember liking it. The B side is “I’m Not Going To Get Out Of Bed In The Morning” and I found it on the From a Norther Place blog. And of course, it is a nice guitar pop tune, classic indiepop sound from the late 80s.

And it did came out very late in the 80s. The 7″ was released in 1989. It was recorded and mixed by Lance Philips. Other credits include the cover photo by Jane Skinner and design by Sharon Sutcliffe. The front cover is indeed a photo of who I would guess is the vocalist of the band. Couldn’t say where was the photo taken. I could guess Brighton Pier, but most probably not. It looks less glamorous, though I don’t know how it looked in the late 80s. Also I assume there are more piers like this in the UK.

No band members listed. The only other credit appears on the labels of the 7″. Both songs are credited to I. Bain. A safe guess, as there are not many names starting with I is that he was an Ian or an Iain. And yes! Thanks to that I stumbled to a blog post by the essential Fire Escape Talking. How are thing all connected in this world, it seems Iain Bain before A Tune a Day had a band with Martin Cotter who I interviewed some years ago about the great Wee Cherubs!

So Bain was in a band called Radio Ghosts before A Tune A Day. With this band they released an EP called “Say Hello To The World of Love EP!!” which I just found on Discogs for a good price. There are more copies there if you are wondering. Hopefully when it arrives I can maybe do a blog post about it. On one of the listings it says they sound a bit like The Times! Curious to hear! Also the lead song of this EP, “My Room” was included on the Messthetics #105 release. I’ve been meaning to buy the Messthetics releases and I still haven’t. Shame on me. Hopefully I get around to it soon. It has to be done, especially as they include booklets with great information.

And this is where I hit a dead end. So Iain moved from Scotland to England. Then he put out this record. I wonder what he did after. Also what he did before it, in between Radio Ghosts and A Tune a Day. Maybe more great guitar pop? Anyone knows? And does anyone happen to have an mp3 to refresh my memory on how “I am going home” sounds like? Or maybe a spare copy of the single that I could buy or trade? I’d love to have it! Does anyone out there remember them? Did they play any gigs? Did they have more songs? I’m curious to know!

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Listen
A Tune A Day – Im Not Going To Get Out Of Bed In The Morning

At last I can announce the new release coming out on Cloudberry! The official date is June 12th but there will be copies at NYC Popfest. That’s because this “secret” band is playing there. There will also be copies at Indietracks because of the same reason. Perhaps you guessed already. The band is a NYC band, with very tight bonds to the city. Many of the members of the band used to be in a classic, wait, legendary, indiepop band from this same town. I found out that one of the vocalist actually lived three blocks away from where I live now in Astoria. Strangest things have happened. This band toured Sweden even. Hultsfred festival. I wish I had been there. Are you following my hints? They released 10 years ago an epic album, “The Happiest Days of My Life”. I still hear many songs from this record when fellow indiepopkids DJ. Then there was the hiatus. Then they came back under a new name and with new faces and released an EP and an album on Le Grand Magistery. Years passed. And now I can happily announce that Cloudberry is releasing The Secret History’s new album!

The album is aptly titled “Americans Singing in the Dark” and it’s a true ode to New York, this city I’ve started to make my own. This of course doesn’t mean that people that don’t live here won’t understand it. It’s a universal album. It’s indiepop, classic, elegant, and well written. The brainy kind. It has it’s gritty moments, it’s has it’s sugary moments, and at all times it’s a proud album with immense songs crafted with detail.

11 new songs and opening a new series of contemporary albums called the Cloudberry Dream Workshop. Because I believe that dreams are the future, and these albums are the future of our scene, of our music.

The album is packaged in true Cloudberry fashion, the vertical book style digipak, full colour booklet, lyrics included. Quality over anything, as you who follow us know well. The album tracklist and some more details have been announced on both the Cloudberry site and the Cloudberry Facebook page by now. We will be giving away an MP3 taster in the next couple of hours. I really hope you like it.

I’m very proud about this release as I’ve been a fan of The Secret History and My Favorite for years. The first time I saw them was at the 2007 NYC Popfest. I was blown away. I remember buying a t-shirt then which I still wear it. Many years after, at Littlefield I was going to see them again, at then another NYC Popfest, the 2010 edition. That year I bought from them another t-shirt. Very similar to the first one, though this one instead of having the name of the band all in white, they decided to have the “The” part of the band in yellow. I didn’t know them. I was just a fan. I had had a bit of contact with Michael at some point years before because he really liked the Blind Terry 3″ single, especially because of the nod to Prefab Sprout. Him being a big fan.

Years have passed since those days. I’m still a fan. But now I know them a bit more. Talking at some gigs. And then at Mondo too. Cheap beer and indie gossip. A one time meeting at The Sparrow for another pints and figuring out how we were going to make this release happen. The time frame. Happily as we talk all parts are in the pressing plant and things are full-steam ahead. You can’t imagine how happy I am. It’s a bit strange when you get to release a band and people you grew up listening to their music with. I always thought that they would have made a great single for Cloudberry when I was starting, but maybe felt shy to ask them. They were too “big” in my book. And now we have worked on this album, albeit secretly, for the last couple of months, but now it’s for everyone to know. And I’m honoured. I think it’s a great time for the label and a lot has to do with this release. It feels like the label has finally found a place in NYC, something it never did in Miami. And so I hope to see you all at the release party in June. And why not, at NYC Popfest and Indietracks! Can I count with you all?

PS. There’s another “secret” gig in July which I’m doing a flyer for as I write these lines and I will DJ between bands then too… and no, it’s not in the US!

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So as our weekly “tradition” (because it is one already, right?) I’ll introduce you to an obscure band. I don’t know yet what’s your favourite part of the blog, if any. If the Cloudberry news, if some of my pop diaries, or the obscure band. Or just the MP3 that is shared. You tell me. I enjoy writing anyways. 2004 was the first time I blogged. I’m getting old! Anyhow, let’s continue our march in converting all good souls of the world into indiepop and collecting records!

Henry & Me. Who was Henry? And who was this me? Who were Henry & Me? That’s an indiepop mystery that Google can’t solve. And I’m looking out for your help.

Henry :   masc. proper name, from French Henri, from Late Latin Henricus, from German Heinrich, from Old High German Heimerich, literally “the ruler of the house,” from heim “home” + rihhi “ruler.” One of the most popular Norman names after the Conquest.

Henry & Me released just one 7″ as far as I know. The A-side was “Sentimental” and the B-side was “Average Guy”. I’ve had this record for a long time on my saved searches but nothing pops up for me. Luckily I finally heard one of their songs, Average Guy, thanks to the great blog From a Northern Place (which I thank and also celebrate on my latest fanzine because they are one of the few that has been making me happy with MP3s from records I’ve been looking for and feeling curious about for long!).

I’m pretty sure the band is British, because of the accent. But on the back sleeve there’s a photo of NYC. With the Twin Towers. Odd. I never saw them in real live. Then the other hint that tells me they weren’t from around here is that there is a phone number on there too, belonging to a Ronan Whyte. That’s an Irish name though, isn’t it? But the number seems British.

The only other information on the back sleeve that seems relevant is that the two songs were original recordings by the band and they were made in 1991.

The front sleeve has a very fun artwork. It’s hand-drawn and it’s all black and white. For some reason this release seems more like promo material (especially because there’s a phone on the back), so I’m guessing they were trying to get label interest? Surprisingly it seems they didn’t. It’s strange because I really like “Average Guy”. It reminds me a bit of Nixon actually. That kind of indiepop. Sad, lovelorn, melancholic, in shambles, written in someone’s bedroom, recorded with a lot of hear and honest sentiments.

But who knows what happened to them. And who were the people behind it. It’s a big mystery to me. And maybe someone out there can help me understand it better. Who were they? How many copies of this record are out there? Any spares for me maybe? Did they play many gigs? Where did they hail from? Were they involved with other bands? So many questions and don’t even know where to start looking.

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Listen
Henry & Me – Average Man

And I thought we were enjoying some days of spring here in New York. Today the temperature dropped to 6 degrees Celsius. Go figure. In any case it was a fresh morning to pass by the print shop and pick up the sleeves for the compilation “Envoys from Alexandria” that’s coming out in a week or two. This compilation of course is bundled with a ink and paper fanzine, like the good old days. The new Cloudberry fanzine, printed in orange, containing 28 pages of pure indiepop, is the eighth issue and I’m very happy and proud of it.

The new fanzine includes interviews to many of my new favourite bands, bands that have been part or will be part of the Cloudberry family. Included in our catalog number 408 are interviews to Flowers, Tiny Fireflies, Pale Spectres, Je Suis Animal and Tripping the Light Fantastic.

And this is the 3″ CD tracklist:
a1. Hiro – Crystal Days
a2. Homecomings – You Never Kiss
a3. Je Suis Animal – Tale From the Sea
b1. Tiny Fireflies – If It’s True
b2. Souvenir Stand – Wherever You Go
b3. Flowers – Hide and Seek

Pretty international compilation. France, Norway, Japan, the UK and the US are all well represented. As always, like previous fanzine releases, included are Cloudberry favourites and up and coming bands. I’m all for introducing you all the new bands I’m enjoying at the moment! I hope you like them too 🙂

If you are familiar with previous Cloudberry releases you’ll find the usual sections, my editorial, the recommended listening column, the recommended fanzines and websites and the Cloudberry catalog. Not trying to re-invent the wheel here. Just a humble fanzine with the important things in indiepop! The things that matter!

Something that I feel important to mention is that the fanzine is not an extension of this blog. Some people might think that because it includes interviews. But the interviews in the fanzine are very different to the ones here. Whereas here, in the blog, I try to reconstruct the band’s story, on the fanzine I try to find out the soul of the band, their ideas, their future plans, the small details that make them different to other bands out there. Does that make sense? Also of course you can’t compare the format. Flipping pages is something else. And I don’t print it in copy paper, just saying. But on a pretty fine quality paper.

I remember when I started drafting my first zine. It was around the last months of 2007. It was a time when there were a couple of people writing some. Mostly black and white photocopy zines. I thought I should do one, mostly as a vehicle to promote the Cloudberry bands in a format that is tightly associated to indiepop. As a record collector I have of course ended up collecting fanzines too. Especially those of the late 80s. And I said to myself, if I was going to make a zine, it should try to recapture that feel, the aesthetic, of the Woosh, the Turn!, This Almighty Pop!, or The Fine Art of Shoplifting, among others.

Did I happen to be successful at this? I want to think that I have. Up to a point at least. Of course the printing industry has changed. Doing offset printing these days is really not an option. So you have to go on and print color. Even if it’s just one color as my fanzine is. That means it’s going to be a bit pricey. Unless I print it in black ink (which I did once, on 405). The idea is to have a rainbow of fanzines, each to have it’s different feel. So a blue fanzine came first, a red one second, a light green third, a purple fourth, a black fifth, a pink sixth, a dark green seventh and now an orange eighth.

The important thing in the end was to make something with quality, a design and aesthetic quality, which is something I really am very picky with. There’s nothing more important for me than the packaging of all our releases. Because I can’t understand those that having beautiful music decide to dress it in the most cheap-looking, and eye-appalling, packages. How could anyone for example put a gorgeous indiepop jingle jangle pop band in a slim jewel case? Is it laziness? Indolence? A lack of taste? I don’t know. The scary part is of course that many times bands put it with it.

In any case it doesn’t matter. The Cloudberry fanzine happily has been a success, all copies selling out pretty fast. It makes me terribly happy that people have been very supportive. Especially when fanzines feel like a dead medium sometimes. When blogs and websites are supposed to take over their print counterpart. But it’s clear there are romantics out there that appreciate the feel of paper in their hands. To those people I promise to keep up doing fanzines and I hope, and I’m very positive, that there will be a new fanzine, the 9th, later this year.

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It’s been a while since I visited and covered an obscure band from Sweden. So let’s do that now. It’s one of my favourite places after all. I would move there in a blink if I could. Be with all the good friends I happen to have there.

Let’s go back then to 1986. That’s the year The Merry Dance released their one and only release. A private release with catalog AIM-001 that seems very obscure these days. As far as I know there were only 500 copies pressed.

The sound is very Felt-esque. It’s quite brilliant. It’s jangly, it has an organ, and the Japanese fans would definitely file this record under that broad term they have that is neo-aco.

The A side of this single is “It’s Passed, it is Gone” and the B side is “You will See the Light”. The artwork of the record is pretty minimalistic and a bit mysterious. Two pair of eyes, two noses. Two mouthless faces. Wonder if these drawings have any meaning.

Both songs were penned by Peter Rosén who also played the 12 and 6 string guitars, bass and vocals. Nicko Rölke played the Spanish solo guitar and did backing vocals. Henrik Af Ugglas played drums, hammond organ and backing vocals. And last but not least James Flach did backing vocals too. Because of this setup I tend to guess that they were more of a studio band and not much a live band.

This fine slab of 7″ vinyl was produced by both Rosén and Ugglas (who also engineered the record).

I have a wild guess that this might be the same Henrik Af Ugglas of The Merry Dance on Discogs. Clicking on the myspace link it confirms that he lives in Stockholm as well, and also on Discogs he has a release with the band Baby Snakes from 1987, meaning he was making music since the late 80s. So, are my suspicions in the right track?

The last bit of information to be found is that both songs were recorded in Stockholm in Spring of 1986.

Everything else about them seems a mystery. There’s absolutely no other information about them online. so, if anyone out there has any other information about The Merry Dance, their whereabouts, what did they do after, if they had more songs, if anyone have any spare copies of this 7″, and so on, I’d love to know. Even if anyone has the B-side and would be kind to share it with me. I would love to hear it. I really enjoy this “It’s Passed, it is Gone song”.

See you next week!

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Listen
Sleepwalkers – Honey Hunter

The latest Cloudberry release came out yesterday, April 15th, the Tripping the Light Fantastic 7″. Today I feel very happy. I went earlier to the post office and posted a bunch of records. Tomorrow will be the same story. And Thursday too. Also I just got an email saying that the new stock of Cloudberry t-shirts is on it’s way to me. So everything’s dandy around here. Next week  I should finally send the fanzine to print. And then I think I’m going to be up to date. I wasn’t wrong when I said this was going the be the most productive year for the label.

Speaking of merch. A couple of weekends ago I had some friends visiting and were asking me if I would do mugs with the label logo or turntable slipmats. Anyone interested in that?
I’ve been having a bit of a flashback day today. Jalito found this scan of a Cookie Scene magazine (a music magazine from Japan) that Toshiko, from Apple Crumble, used to write. She had a column/page in the magazine called “Indiepop Around the World”. I actually have one number where she talks about Cloudberry. And of course, that is really no surprise, as she was kind enough t send me a copy. This article in the other hand talks a bit about South American indiepop, mostly about Plastilina and it’s run as the one and only true indiepop label in the continent. The surprise for me was to see my first band being named in this page, Demolición.

I’ve never been keen to talk about those days. It was great fun and we were so very young. We tried to make proper indiepop, like the Funday Mornings or the Tidy Ups, but we always sound punkier, less poppier, than our intentions. We weren’t successful. So why talk about that? I’ve always avoided talking much about it on interviews when asked how come I don’t make music. The truth is, I’m not very talented at that. Though if I could, I would try it again today. Anyways, what surprised me is how come Toshiko knew about Demolición. It’s not like people knew us.

We did release a tape. And had a song on a compilation. I feel the compilation appearance was a bit of cheating as I curated it. It was for a magazine in Lima called Revista 69. I wasn’t planning to include my song “Artes Marciales” but the editor of the magazine said I should, that it was great, and represented the new indiepop in Peru. That might have been true. We were the only ones at that time at least trying to make indiepop. The compilation name was “Es Pop, Mamá”, taken from a song by Ella y los Neumáticos, a band that included Christina Rosenvinge who would become quite famous, even in the mainstream, Christina y los Subterráneos. This song was later covered by the super fantastic, my favourite band to sing in Spanish (and who you could say was my biggest influence in my short band experience), TCR.

This magazine had a lot of readers. And I’ve met many people back in Peru that do know this song. And I’ve seen it uploaded in Youtube even. Which is really scary. I sing awful. Even more bizarre some bands have covered it. Still, it was only inside the bubble of Peru, no one outside of it knew about it.

Perhaps that’s not a 100% true. I guess through Soulseek people might have found it. There’s the one and only case that I know of, Adriá from Papa Topo, found it. That was totally strange. Unexpected. We somehow had made it all the way to Mallorca. I felt very honoured and pleased with this odd change of events that I sent Adriá the last copy I had of our one and only proper release, “Laurita lee el Bushido” (Laurita reads the Bushido), a tape with our home recordings that was released by a small Peruvian label called Internerds Records back in 2005 or so (?), many years after we had split as a band.

That still doesn’t explain how we ended up in an article of a Japanese magazine. I’m stoked. We were terrible. We barely knew how to play an instrument. We did have that amateur freshness, that drive and nerve that eighteen year old have when making music, but that was that. That was probably our only asset. I do think we wrote fun lyrics and that our melodies were fine. If we only had been a bit better, more proficient, we could have lasted longer. But perhaps not. Daniel left to Denver. José wasn’t please with Guille’s guitars. And so, things started to crumble. We tried later doing it again. I remember trying to record a song called “Tragaplanetas” at Arturo’s place. I don’t know what happened to those tracks, if there are any.

The good thing of all of this is that Daniel and José are still making music under Eva & John along with Chete (who I played briefly with in Los Rebeldes Walkie-Talkie) and who I’m putting out their first release, a flexi single in the next couple of weeks. It’s smashing. It sounds 100 times better than what Demolición used to sound. Though I have to say, I have this little itch sometimes, after I see blog posts or little comments remembering us, that if this first flexi proves successful, I wouldn’t mind releasing a Demolición flexi, with two of our songs. Just for fun.

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Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism or noctambulism, is a sleep disorder belonging to the parasomnia family. Sleepwalkers arise from the slow wave sleep stage in a state of low consciousness and perform activities that are usually performed during a state of full consciousness. These activities can be as benign as sitting up in bed, walking to the bathroom, and cleaning, or as hazardous as cooking, driving, violent gestures, grabbing at hallucinated objects, or even homicide.

The obscure band for this week is an Irish one. One from Galway. And they were called Sleepwalkers.

I’ve never been to Galway or know much about it, so I guess a little background information won’t hurt:

Galway, or the City of Galway (Irish: Cathair na Gaillimhe), is a city in Ireland. It is in the West Region and the province of Connacht. Galway City Council is the local authority for the city. Galway lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay and is surrounded by County Galway. It is the fourth most populous city in the state and the sixth most populous on the island of Ireland.
The city takes its name from the river Gaillimh (River Corrib) that formed the western boundary of the earliest settlement, which was called Dún Bhun na Gaillimhe (“Fort at the mouth of the Gaillimh”). The word Gaillimh means “stoney” as in “stoney river” (the mythical and alternative derivations are given in History of Galway). Historically, the name was Anglicised as Galliv, which is closer to the Irish pronunciation as is the city’s name in Latin, Galvia.

It seems they have some medieval structures in town, so definitely my kind of place. I would really like to go to Ireland at some point. If only I had more vacations!

The information I could find from the band mostly comes from the Irish Rock Discography site. As in the case of Cuba Dares, we can’t be 100% sure that the information on the site is accurate, but let’s hope it is for our own sake.

There is no dates for when the band was active but there’s; a lineup. That’s a start!
John Crumlish – vocals
Declan Gibbons – guitar
Fergal Gallagher – bassAllan Flynn – drums

The drummer, Allan, had been involved before with the band “Too Much for the Whiteman”. And it’s said that Walter Feichter replaced Fergal Gallagher on bass for the band’s second single.

There’s a little interesting article here about John Crumlish who was the vocalist of the band and is now the Chief Executive of Galway Arts Festival. There’s a little mention to Sleepwalkers here:

John had commitments to his job so he returned to teaching but lasted just another year before he packed it all in to move to Galway full-time. By this stage, himself and Declan had their own band, The Sleepwalkers, which he felt justified his move to the City of the Tribes – though others might have thought it was a foolish decision at the time, leaving a full-time teaching post to write songs and play in a band!

It seems that “Too Much for the Whiteman” was quite different to Sleepwalkers. It’s said to have been a rock/reggae band that was around from 85 to 89. These dates make me assume that Sleepwalkers started as a band in the early 90s. I found a little video of the band rehearsing. I think it’s from these days?

Don’t know how successful they were, but I would say they were at least a bit. Releasing two 7″s has never been an easy task. Their first 7″ was released in 1991, on the label Solid Records (catalog ROK 742). This record has the sublime “Rapid City” on the A side and “Extreme” on the B side. The A side might be my favourite Sleepwalkers song. I wonder if they’ve ever been to Rapid City, South Dakota! You can listen to it on Youtube as that cuckoo Japanese Takashi has uploaded it. Not complete of course because he is so careful for people (especially me) not to “steal” an MP3. Oh well, indie fans and their quirks.

The second single came out a year later. Again on Solid Records. This time the catalog was ROK 756. The song I’m sharing with you comes from this one. The A side was “Honey Hunter” and the B side was “Danny (Is it Now?)”.

On the back sleeve of the second single there’s a bit extra information. We learn that “Honey Hunter” was produced by John Dunford and recorded at Bow Lane Studios in Dublin. The B side on the other hand was produced by the band and recorded at West One in Galway by Pat Neary.

And that’s all I’ve been able to gather about this band. I wonder what happened to them. If any of them was an actual sleepwalker. If they had more songs. Who knows. Maybe someone out there knows and can fill in the blanks. If any one happens to have any spare copies of their record that’d be great too. Playing their songs on Youtube or on iTunes doesn’t compare as playing them on your turntable! Let’s see if we can solve the Sleepwalkers mystery.

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Listen
Sleepwalkers – Honey Hunter

Incredibly sunny today in New York City. It’s warm. So warm it feels like it is summer. Last week’s weather made you think that spring was never coming around, that winter was going to stay forever, and now this. It’s like we are just skipping a whole season. I may have to buy the a/c units before what I expected. Especially for my illustrious guests in May for NYC Popfest.

Speaking of NYC Popfest I’ve been invited to DJ between bands on the opening night at the Cake Shop. I’ve DJed twice between bands, at Littlefield here in NY and in Brixton at How Does it Feel. I will always prefer making people dance, playing the obvious hits and the not so obvious, but DJing between bands can be rewarding too. You ask how? Well, I tend to play obscure songs in these cases. I feel rewarded if someone ends up recognizing the song and comes up for a little chat. It’s like finding a soul-mate.  Well, not quite. But you get my point.

Also yesterday the Chickfactor shows were announced for June. I will attend this again even though I’ve seen most of the bands before. It surprises me though that most of the bands too did play Chickfactor festival last year. I guess I’m not so keen in seeing the same bands over and over. Though seeing the Jim Ruiz group ten thousand times is fine with me. My only big complain about it: it’s pricey. You see, NYC Popfest, with many more international bands, on a weekend, for four days, is cheaper than Chickfactor’s three nights during weekdays.

Also T-shirts for Cloudberry are being made at the moment. Most of them are in black and truffle colour. But there will be some in navy and lieutenant gray. The run is very limited. 30 t-shirts. And of course, those 30 will be divided in small, medium, large and x-large sizes. So if you want to secure one you can email me and we’ll figure something up. I still need to figure out the postage price with this year’s increase but as soon as I have, I’ll post a pre-order button on the label website.

Talking about repeating bands. I saw the Sea Lions and Golden Grrrls once more yesterday at the Cake Shop. It was quite fun, especially the Sea Lions who I really think have come to be one of the best American indie pop bands. So good. I believe they are playing again tonight in Bushwick, but even though I’d love to go I don’t think it’s such a great idea to go all the way there as I do have to work tomorrow. And tomorrow I actually do need to prepare a class I’m teaching at CUNY this Thursday evening, so the week is going to be over before I know it. Pretty busy. I look forward to a more relaxed next week though the Tripping the Light Fantastic is coming out next week too. So, yeah, I’m probably never resting again in my life.

Yesterday after a nice chit-chat at the Cake Shop I was reminded of MaxBurger. I had read about this company before and I didn’t remember seeing it in Stockholm the last time I was there. But this time around I saw a couple around and I was lucky that there was one around the place I was staying. I’m curious always about the local flavour and when Gustav, Emelie and me, were wondering what to have for dinner I quickly suggested the burgers.

Less than a week before this important event in my life I had tried Hesburger in Tallinn. Not an Estonian chain, but a Finnish one. As I was hanging out with my friend Riina who happened to be Finnish, we had to get take out. The hamburger was alright. Not bad for a chain store, but nothing special, it wouldn’t beat Wendy’s but McDonald’s for sure. The terrible thing about this place was that they charged you for sauces. Even for ketchup! How can that be legal?

MaxBurger was on a league of it’s own. It was quite tasty. Especially thanks to that orange-pink sauce they have. Looking at it’s ingredients I noticed that it contained some cauliflower. I totally dislike cauliflower. But that sauce was heavenly. Heavenly between the hamburger buns, heavenly with the fries. I believe they charge you other different dips, but they seemed fancier than ketchup. But no need, Gustav bought a whole pot of MaxBurger sauce. You don’t need anything else but that. If they only sell it here at the supermarket like the ever-present in my everyday life HP Brown sauce.

A funny anecdote while at the line ordering my burger was that there was a couple behind me with their kids. Older couple. And I could totally recognize the accent of the woman behind me. Totally. She was from Lima. And her phrases, the words she chose, it brought back a part of Peru all the way to Stockholm to me. I swear. I can never run away from it. I have a Peruvian magnet! It’s like that one time on a random train in Denmark, overhearing another Peruvian woman telling a guy her stories as a prostitute. Oh dear! When I was growing up I always heard on TV and places that there was a Peruvian even in the most remote places. I truly believe in this. It is just a big and precise fact.

Anyways, yes, MaxBurger, the one in Hammarby. Good times. Maybe next year I’ll have another bite.

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Today’s obscure band: Scarlet Downs.

The thing about this very obscure band is that it included Simon Barber from the ubiquitous The Chesterf¡elds. Sadly even though I tried contacting Simon through Facebook I never heard back from him. Bit of a shame as online there’s little to nothing about them.

There’s one mention on the Golden Pathway’s label page. Golden Pathway being the label that Andy from Number 4 Joystreet runs since the 80s. There’s a mention about Simon leaving the band called The Act in 1983 to start Scarlet Downs. The Act had been going since 1980.

As far as I know there was only one 7″ released. One that included the song “Windows” on the A-side and “Turning Around” on the B-side. The record was released by Rum Records as a 7″ and having catalog number RUM059.

Sadly even the back cover of the sleeve of this 7″ has no information about the band either. The only interesting fact I guess would be that Rum Records was based in Dorset. I have no clue what other releases were put out by this label.

The song I know, “Windows”, to Chesterf!elds fans, would sound unfamiliar. It clearly has a more early 80s feel. The electric guitars are not going in a frenzy here. The song is a different kind of fun. It would fit fine even in one of those Messthetics compilations if you know what I mean. It would go well along the likes of The Cinematics, The Avocados, even along some of Dolly Mixture or The Mo-Dettes. It has that kind of feeling I think. It’s what I would call proto-indiepop if we can call it something. It’s POP. But not indiepop, not yet at least. But still, very enjoyable, and perfect to understand the history of our beloved indiepop.

The artwork is great too. No surprise as Simon is one of the coolest designers in the UK.

If anyone has any more information about them, like who were the other members, or if they had more songs, if they played many gigs, or even if anyone has a spare copy that I could buy, that’d be great. Would love to know more about them!

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Listen
Scarlet Downs – Windows

April already. The year is moving fast and I’m already looking way ahead through 2013. It seems in the end I’ll be attending Indietracks once again, supporting the many Cloudberry bands that are playing as well as the whole festival. It will be my fourth one! Clearly, I must like going there a lot even though I complain about a thing or another. But it’s true, it’s as close to perfection when it comes to indie festivals. Now, if they can please book The Brilliant Corners?!

Then later in November I’m going to be visiting Peru. Not so sure what’s the plan there. Perhaps I end up doing some tourism too. I’ll be there for the Thanksgiving week. Probably it’s too late to go to Cuzco at that time, it’s the rainy season I believe. But perhaps I can go to the Amazon? I wouldn’t mind looking at monkeys in the wild and eating exotic dishes!

Also I’m hoping to go at the end of the month to Boston. Just because. I’ve never been. It’s close. And I want to see their record shops. Just for a weekend. Any recommendations are welcome, especially for local seafood. I would love some lobster!

Yesterday night I had a good time at Glasslands watching Sea Lions and Golden Grrrls. I missed the first band of the four band line-up, and the second was quite terrible. The highlight of the night were Sea Lions. Even though they made many mistakes and forgot some of their songs, what they played was really fantastic. I reckon this size of venue is perfect for them, much better than the other times I’ve seen them. They sounded powerful and Adrian’s guitar was frantic, almost Wedding Present like. Their crashing-jangle songs sounded huge. I liked it a lot. And will definitely attend their second show in NYC in this tour on Monday at the Cake Shop.

Golden Grrrls are good, and I bought a bunch of their records. Still my favourite song of theirs is their cover of Look Blue Go Purple. They are fun band to see though this time they didn’t have that energy I’ve seen in them before at Madrid Popfest where they were such a happy surprise for me as I’ve never heard about them before that day . I also noticed that this time the vocals of the drummer were a bit low and hard to listen at some points. Maybe they were a bit jetlagged. I don’t blame them. Monday I’ll see them again.

Let me tell you some news today too. We have a release date for the Tripping the Light Fantastic 7″. It is April 15. Okay, now that you marked your calendar and pre-ordered the record, I can confirm too that a new stock of t-shirts is on the way, the fanzine is finished, and there is a new series of CD albums coming out very soon. This time new albums, not retrospectives. More news on this probably next week. Just be patient!

This week is a short post, been a bit busy working on so many different things for the label. I’m also putting together a Bandcamp were I want to have at least the 100 3″CD singles of the original series for streaming. That’s a project for the next couple of months. It will be very time-consuming I can tell.

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Dorotheanthus bellidiformis (Livingstone daisy) is a species of flowering plant in the family Aizoaceae, native to the Cape Peninsula in South Africa, where it is known as Bokbaaivygie. It is a low-growing succulent annual growing to 25 cm (10 in), and much cultivated for its iridescent, many-petalled, daisy-like blooms in shades of white, yellow, orange, cream, pink and crimson. In temperate areas it must be grown as a half-hardy annual, and lends itself to mass plantings or as edging plants in summer bedding schemes in parks and gardens. It is still widely referenced under its former name, Mesembryanthemum criniflorum. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.

Some days ago I got the first album by Livingstone Daisy, “33 Minutes Before the Light”. You probably haven’t heard about this band. It’s ok. It’s a Japan only release, but I’m going to recommend getting it.

Sure you don’t understand Japanese. But does that matter? Can’t you enjoy a beautiful record anyways?

Livingstone Daisy is the new project by Hideshi Hachino who used to front the wonderful 90s indiepop band B-flower. Maybe you are familiar with them. If not I suggest checking the interview we did in the blog some time ago. Though be ready that this record is quite a bit different to his previous band.

There are similar things of course, the fragile vocals are still there, that hasn’t changed a bit. Heartfelt sounds. The music made by Sakana Hosomi, who has released many records as Maju, blends perfectly with the lyrics and vocals of Hideshi. It’s all about the aesthetics here. Everything carefully put together, like a tiny puzzle, where every piece falls in the right place.

Could the name, the poetic name of the band, mean something. I like to think so. If livingstone daisies, as flowers, are what represent fragility, this record is a good example of that. It feels fragile, something you could only touch softly, and thus, listening to it at high volume could be a terrible idea. Because the music is soothing I find it very brave to even make this kind of music today. It’s clear that Hideshi is not re-inventing the wheel here, but he is just making a very honest record that even for me, that I don’t understand Japanese, I can tell this is a passionate and sincere record. Just by having a listen to it’s 33 minutes and 48 seconds. To it’s 10 songs.

For this record Hideshi also counted with his old partner at B-Flower, Wataru Okabe, to play drums and doing some backing vocals. While Sakana contributed by playing all other instruments, doing vocals, and even engineering the record.

It’s a very welcome comeback for one of Japan’s most beloved indiepop artists. It was in 2000 when he stopped B-flower after 8 albums only to return in November 2010 to release the debut single of their new project Livingstone Daisy, “This World of Sorrow”. Since that moment the album started to take shape, little by little, and they finally decided to put this record out on their own Seed Records. Being this their seventh reference (the first one, was the first single by B-flower back in 1990!).

The record is available in Amazon Japan, HMV Japan and also on the Sugarfrost mailorder record store. For those of us English speakers the Sugarfrost site might be the best option. Akiko is in charge of it and she’ll take care of you in the best way possible.

Like the press sheet of the record says, “Like how William Eggleston captured the scenes from dull everyday life of 1970s America, Livingstone Daisy recreate in their music the anticlimactic moments of unglamorous Japanese life in 2010s.”, this record is for those who like a bit of melancholy in their music, for those passionate enough that don’t need to blow up their speakers, it’s for those who can appreciate elegance.

It’s another beautiful effort by Hideshi Hachino, if you are looking for something that is not throwaway, that has some worth, feeling and value, “33 Minutes Before the Light” is your record.

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Listen
Livingstone Daisy – Tokyo, Snowscape

This week I’ve been catching up. I can say Cloudberry is in good form after my little vacations. Despite this, there’s still plenty to do. The fanzine has to be finished, the inserts for the Tripping the Light Fantastic need to go to print and The Rileys artwork has to be done. On top of that there is some Plastilina stuff that I need to finish. Perhaps this Sunday I should stay in.

One of the best news of the week for me was the arrival of the Eva & John flexi singles to Lima. I believe the foldover sleeves will be printed this week. I don’t know much as when the release date will be as it’s all in the band’s and Jalito’s hands right now. But the photo of the actual single that they sent me was, just wow! It looks really good on yellow plastic. Deliciously good. I can’t wait. It might be one of my favourite releases this year. Sadly, I know, it will fly under the radar. A Peruvian band? Who cares, right? Thing is that there are less than 300 copies of it, and I’m sure it’s going to sell out fast.

Among other important news is that the Boyish 7″ artwork is finally done. It was made by David at A Little Island and it’s striking. Iwasawa really wanted to include some sort of classic indiepop imagery and it, so it’s kind of a mix of Orange Juice and Field Mice artwork, if you know what I mean. Right now Cris is doing the mastering for the tracks and soon I’ll update the website with a downloadable track for everyone to have a taste of this wonderful Japanese band.

About other Cloudberry releases I promise to have pre-order buttons for The Occasional Flickers and the upcoming fanzine no later than this weekend.

And finally I bought my NYC Popfest 4 day pass tickets. So that’s set. Good to go.

Speaking of Popfests, the Madrid one is still so fresh to me. I can’t believe March is still not over. It was just weeks since I was there celebrating with so many good friends. It was just weeks since I got to see many bands I’ve been a fan of for the first time.

One of the bands I’ve been wanting and meaning to see for many years now were Northern Portrait. I’ve never had luck. They never play the festivals I go to. They haven’t played the US yet either. The thing is, I see Stefan quite often at these festivals. But he is like me, he goes for having fun, to enjoy himself, not to play. But I wondered always, why and why and why is his band not playing if he is here? Maybe a bit selfish of me, but you have to understand that I’m scared about band’s life spans. I know band’s don’t last forever, so I have to catch them before they are gone. For example, I never got to see Summer Cats or The Bridal Shop. I doubt I’ll ever get a chance to see them ever again.

Funny thing is that I once “attended” an acoustic set of Northern Portrait, over whiskey and Tuborg beers, in Copenhagen. It was just Stefan on his acoustic guitar. It was wonderful and so beautiful. It only made me wish to hear all these songs with an electric guitar, because me, as a Chesterf¡elds fan, I have an electric guitar in my heart. Danielle joined on some songs with Stefan too. These songs, that should be filed under The Maritime Club, were truly beautiful as well, a bit of a departure from Northern Portrait, but still, having all that passion and heart that Mr. Larsen’s songs always have. That was 2010. That’s when I visited Malmö and I saw them both at So Tough So Cute. When I abandoned Jennifer at the DJ booth while I just socialized with everyone else. The next day we crossed Oresund and visited Copenhagen. We stayed in Valby and Danielle showed us the Carlsberg beer plant. And then Tivoli where I ran out of battery of my camera. Then Stefan met us at Nyhavn for some wonderful fish. Those were the days. Jennifer surprised that taxi cabs had special racks to place your bicycle. Me impressed by the Peruvian pan flute players at the main square. Represent!

After many Indietracks were I got to see Stefan and Danielle. And after learning some Japanese with our mutual friends Sloppy Joe, finally I was attending a Popfest with Northern Portrait playing. I can only thank enough the Madrid Popfest organizers for having such fantastic taste to book them. I won’t thank them for buying all the 10″s Northern Portrait brought with them! Sure, they didn’t bring many, but the organizers, with first dibs, got the most of them. Oh! I was so disappointed! I wanted to get one and get it signed by the band in person. But fair enough, I can’t complain or blame anyone. Who wouldn’t want that precious release? Now, I do need to get it straight from Jimmy at Matinée. And wait until I see them in NYC so they can sign it.

They headlined the Friday night show. Everyone went crazy when they played “Crazy”. Pardon the pun. It was a magical night. They sounded so good. So much class, so much elegance. Jingle jangle guitars, chiming and chiming. Just how I like them. They should release ten records in Cloudberry I thought.

I hadn’t seen them on Thursday. I looked all over the place. Some told me they had been at the Clamores venue, but I wonder where. Maybe way in the back. I was usually around the stage. I got to see them earlier that Friday. I met Caspar for the first time too. We had emailed a bit before when the song “December Slopes” was included in our “Last Train to Christmas” 3″ CD compilation. Such a nice guy. We talked quite a bit about Champagne Riot, his previous band. He told me there is a new project he is involved with. It does sound promising. I really liked both his releases in Shelflife and Matinée.

I got their setlist after the gig. I’ve never seen such a minimalist setlist. Everything was written in initials. Even Northern Portrait was just NP. Must be a Danish thing. Saving energy and all that. They played 15 songs. All of their hits. But not my favourite song! Again, I can’t complain, I’m already spoiled by seeing them live. But, you know, how much I’d love to hear “A Quiet Night in Copenhagen”. That song is genius. Next time I hope!

And as my life is just full of coincidences, they guys were taking the same flight to leave Madrid as me. My next stop was Stockholm and theirs Copenhagen of course. But we both were having connecting flights in Amsterdam. So yes, we were on the same KLM flight from Madrid to the Dutch capital. The logistics seemed a bit more complicated when we talked over beers, how to meet, where and when to take a cab and all. Thing is that it was so easy despite our flight being at 6:00am on Sunday morning, just immediately after Madrid’s Popfest last night of party!

So I grabbed all my bags from my hostel which was a stone throw away from the venue. Took one of those white cabs and headed to Gran Vía where they were staying. It was a lot of fun to take the same flight with them even though we were seated on the plane very far from each other. But going through check-in, where some Spaniards were asking me who where they, where they played and more, impressed by the amount of instruments they were carrying, and then through security, was quite something. Even better, while waiting for the airplane, at 5am, they managed to find some wine bottles to keep the party going. Popstar life you’d say? You just have to enjoy yourself when traveling I think. Upon arriving to Amsterdam we met again. We had some sandwiches for breakfast. Stefan told me about an amazing orange soda that you can only find in Copenhagen. I promised to try it next time.

And then they left. I stayed for 30 more minutes in Schiphol airport charging my phone in the meantime. It was time to go to Stockholm. But what a great time I had with my Danish friends. And how impressive and powerful they were on stage. No disappointment whatsoever. Hope I get to see them again. They are truly one of the best bands of the last ten years or so. For sure.

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So, an obscure band for the week? I’ve got one. Again this one comes thanks to Rupert’s fantastic CD that I got from him last July at Indietracks. And speaking of Indietracks, I really want to go, but the plane tickets are really expensive at the moment. I’ll have to see if prices go down at some point, or maybe look into using my miles.

keen
adj. keen·er, keen·est
1. Having a fine, sharp cutting edge or point.
2. Having or marked by intellectual quickness and acuity. See Synonyms at sharp.
3. Acutely sensitive: a keen ear.
4. Sharp; vivid; strong: “His entire body hungered for keen sensation, something exciting” (Richard Wright).
5. Intense; piercing: a keen wind.
6. Pungent; acrid: A keen smell of skunk was left behind.
7.
    a. Ardent; enthusiastic: a keen chess player.
    b. Eagerly desirous: keen on going to Europe in the spring.
8. Slang Great; splendid; fine: What a keen day!

This is one of those very obscure bands that I usually can’t find anything about them on the internet.

The song here, “Missed the Point”, appeared on the 12″ EP called “Feline Groovy”. A very good title for all the Swedish indiepop girls. Because they all love cats. The tracks on this record were “Missed the Point” (of course), “Darker Glasses”, “Down” and “Spinster”. The label was Scaredy Cat (there was a Swedish band years later with that same name), and the catalog number was PURR 003. Which were number 1 and 2 in the catalog? That’s a question that I’d love to be answered by you, my five readers. The record was released in 1990.

It seems that the band came from Morden and that they played some gigs along Heavenly.

On a blog I found a little bit of info, written by someone nicknamed “severin”

1980s indie band, beloved of Everett True (and me). This from their much sought after EP “Feline Groovy” features Gillian on lead vocal. Their other singer, Pauline, is on the chorus and wrote the lyric. They only recorded two EPs and then retired never to be heard of again. Until now.

The other release by Keen was the “Sad EP”. The songs in it were “Made Up”, “On Your Knees”, “Waiting” and “Tears Into Me”. This record was produced by Maurice Ruiz & Keen. It had a painting on Nicci Hastings on the cover.

Whatever happened to them? When and why did they split? Did they have more songs? And so many other questions I would love to ask. If anyone out there knows any other tidbits, anecdotes, or even the whole story of the band please share! And if anyone has spare copies of the records let me know. I’d love to hear their other songs!

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Listen
Keen – Missing the Point