Back to blogging after two weeks and writing in between South American world cup qualifiers games. That’s how busy it’s been. Busy because two weekends ago we had the city’s premiere indiepop festival, NYC Popfest and the week after, last weekend, Memorial Day weekend, I traveled to Washington DC to do some tourism among Harley Davidson motorcyclists that arrived from every corner of the US. Hope some people missed the blog. I did.

The most important news is that The Deddingtons’ retrospective album is out now on the Cloudberry Cake Kitchen label. This is the second release in the label and I’m very proud of it. It’s been a long way since the day I interviewed Chris Morgan on the blog: meeting him  and Andy in Nottingham, at the Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem Inn, where we all had fish & chips and a chilled beer, transferring these 10 songs from tape to digital, working and re-working the artwork, going through different mastered versions of the tracks, and so on. It took quite a while, but now I can say that at last, after more than 20 years these songs can be listened in all their glory!

The release has the same design and aesthetics as our first release on the label. Vertical, book-style, digipack, black-white-blue colors on the front and back, and full color booklet. 8 page booklet. You can expect the same class-design on the rest of the series, and you know the next release we are working on is a full retrospective of long-time favourite of mine, Strange Idols, from London, UK. We cater for you indiepop fans, we know what you want. No plans of broadening our horizons nor branching out,  we keep true to indiepop, even if sales go down and down.

On other Cloudberry news I have started working on the new fanzine. Hopefully it will be out by September or October as the latest. This time the fanzine will be printed in turquoise ink and will feature the lovely Miralda from Youngfuck on the cover. There will be interviews to Youngfuck (of course), Spook School, Nixon, Earth First, and more. Keep an eye on it!

Also, have you picked up your Cloudberry tote bag yet? We have them now on black canvas and they are very limited.

Next week I’ll try to look back and remember NYC Popfest. And also I’d like to have a look at Indietracks. I am going and I haven’t had the time to look at the schedule, not even to see if there are any clashes this year. I hope not! So those posts have to happen soon. But today I want to see if there’s any luck in trying to find more about some obscure band that is as mysterious as it gets. The name: Magdelene Fields.

I absolutely know nothing about the band. Who they were? Where were they from? What years were they active? Who knows. Clearly they are from the UK, but that’s about it.

Some months ago while meeting with Brian from Earth First for some beers, we talked about this band. I had totally forgotten about them. I have heard them on YouTube thanks to a Japanese guy called Takashi who disappeared from the map, not before thinking the world was against him and everyone wanted to “steal” his obscure bands. Childish behaviour, sure, but not surprising in an indiepop fan. Seems we have more neurosis than emo kids. Anyhow, thanks to him I know the existence of many great British bands from the 80s. I’d say a year or two ago he had this YouTube channel where he posted lots of songs from obscure songs, it was really amazing, it was like opening a can of candy, full of new flavours. I’m glad I ripped most of these songs to MP3s as the channel has long been deleted. Probably because he felt zealous about sharing these songs with the rest of us mortals.

Brian had also heard this song on his Youtube. I don’t remember how we ended up talking about them, but we agreed on how great this song was. The song was “Christmas Island” and as Krister says, it sounds like The Rain, it sounds jangly, it sounds as pop perfection. Who wrote this song? And whatever happened to this band?

The Territory of Christmas Island is a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. It is 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) northwest of the Western Australian city of Perth, 360 km (220 mi) south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, 975 km (606 mi) ENE of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and 2,748 km (1,708 mi) west of the Territorian city of Darwin. Christmas Island has a population of 1,403 residents who live in a number of “settlement areas” on the northern tip of the island: Flying Fish Cove (also known as Kampong), Silver City, Poon Saan, and Drumsite.The island’s geographic isolation and history of minimal human disturbance has led to a high level of endemism among its flora and fauna, which is of significant interest to scientists and naturalists. 63% of its 135 square kilometres (52 sq mi) is an Australian national park. There exist large areas of primary monsoonal forest.Phosphate, deposited originally as dead marine organisms (not guano as often thought), has been mined on the island for many years.

Captain William Mynors of the Royal Mary, a British East India Company vessel, named the island when he sailed past it on Christmas Day in 1643. The island was included on British and Dutch navigation charts as early as the beginning of the seventeenth century, but it was not until 1666 when a map published by Dutch cartographer Pieter Goos included the island. Goos labelled the island Mony, the meaning of which is unclear. British navigator William Dampier, aboard the British ship Cygnet, made the earliest recorded visit to sea round the island in March 1688. He found it uninhabited. Dampier gave an account of the visit which can be found in his Voyages. Dampier was trying to reach Cocos from New Holland. His ship was pulled off course in an easterly direction, arriving at Christmas Island 28 days later. Dampier landed at the Dales (on the west coast). Two of his crewmen were the first recorded humans to have set foot on Christmas Island.

As far as I know, it’s Mary MagdAlene, not MagdElene. I wonder where the Magdelene names comes from, though I’ve seen some churches with that spelling in several British pages. I don’t seem to locate any fields named Magdelene Fields either. I assume it’s a made up name. But don’t quote me on it.

There’s only one fact, this song was released on a compilation LP called “New Reaction Volume 2” in 1988. It was released on the Reaction Label, catalog number UNREST 9, and included these bands: Mind The Gap, Mr Robinson, The Rain Devils, Magdalene Fields, Dream Studio, Candybox, Barbedwire, Mike Gari, Hands Up, One Touch To Go, The Partners, Touch And Go, Big Orange, Hands In The Heavens and Midnight Media. None of them I know. There was a Volume 1 released before that had a red/orange cover, whereas volume 2 had a turquoise cover. The bands that appear on the first volume are unknown to me too.

An interesting fact is that Reaction Records seems to have spawned from a metal label, Ebony Records. You can see more info about it here. It seems the label moved into more “alternative” stuff and decided to change it’s name. Don’t blame them, come on, it’s metal. Who can listen to that all their lives?

And that’s all the information there is about this mysterious band. If you know anything about them, please share! Would love to know what happened to this band and if they recorded any more songs. Judging by the quality of “Christmas Island” the rest of their songs have to be amazing!

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Listen
Magdelene Fields – Christmas Island

It’s “Heaven When You Smile”. It is. And I’m waiting for it. ‘Waiting for the sun to shine, waiting for you. Waiting for a rainbow, waiting for the rain, waiting for you’. I’m in heaven when you are by my side. ‘Waiting for my moon to rise’. ‘Waiting for the stars to sing’. The song plays and paralyzes me for a moment. ‘Waiting for the clouds to dance’. The lyrics, simple but evocative, set a mood immediately in my room. A sunny Sunday outside my bedroom, but inside, the rain seems to be pouring and the grey clouds start pushing the ceiling onto the ground.

Melancholy and nostalgia vs. happy-go-lucky. A discussion that springs up often when talking about indiepop. There seems to be two different schools, one that celebrates the first, and one that does the same for the second. The first one seems to be rooted in the days of C86 Britain, whereas the second, in the twee 90s of American indiepop. Which one I prefer? The first clearly, but I do enjoy the second when done correctly. But then, I know many people that can only do one or the other. And that’s when the discussion starts.

I’m transported back to those days in Spain, where I was in heaven. The train rides crossing uncivilized lands of emptiness. And empty trains as well. Tourist on Monday. Tourist on Tuesday. Weekdays. And then under the shadow of Segovia’s aqueduct, feeling the weight of past history over my shoulders, things started to make sense. The candy stores, which I avoid religiously, made her smile and giggle. For me, it was walking through medieval streets in Toledo, where every store display had swords for sale. And before everything, I waited. I waited hours, at Barajas airport until I got a tap on my shoulder. Everything was going to be good from then on.

I saw the record sitting on Uwe’s shelf. Grace Kelly’s photo printed in color on the sleeve. Grace Kelly over a black background. Angry Flowers on the top left corner and an evocative name for a song “Heaven When You Smile”. Uwe asked me if I know about this single. He says it’s rare now, but five years ago it wasn’t hard to find in record shops in Berlin. I have never seen this record ever. But I recognize the label, Exile Records. I have a Tumbling Hearts 7″ on this same record label. And it’s great. “There’s a TVPs cover on this 7-inch” – Uwe tells me. Sadly it’s the only copy he has left and he has already sold it on eBay, to a rich Japanese customer probably.

My Grace Kelly walking through fountains in Parque del Retiro, taking photographs in the royal gardens at La Granja de San Ildefonso. Circumnavigating Avila on top of their medieval walls, tracing the whole old town while we stopped to gaze the horizon from each tower that raised towards the sun. And climbing even higher on the tower at El Alcazar de Segovia, among photo-frenzy Japanese tourists. We kept getting closer to heaven.

Museums, cathedrals, churches, we went to them all. We went to Cervantes’ house and took pictures with two of my childhood heroes, Don Quijote and Sancho Panza. We were in awe at El Escorial. And later in Madrid we ended a week of smiles at the Popfest, ending brilliantly with The Close Lobsters, on a comeback that was nothing but glorious. And then I DJed. And we danced. I played Hormones in Abundance and Patrik danced to it. And TCR. God, if I will ever get the chance to play their songs for people to dance again. My favourite band for years.

And then it was tears in Barajas after a sleepless night. And now we end up again in the “waiting” situation. 2 months and counting for Wales. For a tap in my shoulder at Stansted airport. And then a train ride, one that I know well by now, to Nottingham. Then to Mansfield. Never been there, but my beloved Travelodge, with it’s picturesque Little Chef, is already fully booked. Every year it’s harder to go to Indietracks. It may as well be my last. I want to visit new countries, new places.

I play the next song on the record. The B side of this record is indeed a fabulous rendition of the Television Personalities classic “Painting By Numbers”. And the A side is a wonderful slice of pop. “Waiting for Heaven” has the growling of the Wedding Present, the romanticism of The Wild Swans and the urgency of Yeah Jazz. It rapidly became a favourite of mine. Since that day. With the chiming guitar all over the song, and the beautiful and simple solo that jangles and jangles. It’s a love letter, it’s a hymn to any who has ever fallen in love.

The Angry Flowers hailed from Göttingen, Germany, a university town in Lower Saxony. Across town, the river Leine river runs through, and it still fondly remembers the days when it was part of the Hanseatic League. The population in 2006 was 129,686. This release is from 1986, wonder how many people lived there then. Less than 100,000 for sure. The band was formed by John Rose on vocals, Matthew (whose real name is Matthias Hanich) on bass, Harry on guitar and Ralph on drums. I suppose they had German names and just for the occasion they had their names in English, as it’s the case of Matthias. The release was recorded in autumn ’86 at Beton/Kassel and it is dedicated to Miss Grace. Of course. Some other credits on the sleeve include cover design by Ted Baxter and the back cover photo by Alaska. The engineer was Roland Platz and the record was produced by the vocalist of the band, John Rose.

And that is all I’ve could find about this GREAT 7″ record. Did they have more songs? Whatever happened to them? It seems Matthias ended up studying in London, maybe he stayed there? And did they make music after? If you know the wheareabouts of the Angry Flowers please let us know!

Today I finally managed to buy a copy of the 7″. From Uwe. Of course.

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Listen
Angry Flowers – Heaven When You Smile

I should be taking a nap but instead I decided to keep my promise of a blog post every weekend. Well, every weekend that I’m in town. I just came back from visiting the MOMA PS1 museum here in Queens, with Scott B from Summer Cats. I got in for free as I’m a Long Island City resident. To prove I’m a resident I showed an invoice on my iPhone to the clerk of my latest CD order on Amazon.com, a Rudolf Rocker album. My name was printed there along the shipping address, my address. Prior to that we went for brunch at a cozy place called LIC Market. Hash, red peppers, eggs and duck for me. And toast, always toast, and butter on it.

We talked about the usual, indiepop. Something I learned today, that I didn’t know at all, was that James Turrell, an artist I studied in university, and who has been converting Roden crater into an amazing work of art, is Jen Turrell’s (Rabbit in Red, Boyracer) dad. How cool is that. Now the Flagstaff, Arizona connection makes so much sense. We chatted about the Melbourne scene, Summer Cats, The Motifs, The Zebras, and he tipped me that Hugh from Summer Cats is starting a band with the guys from Audiobooks. Promising. Oh! and Scott is building a music social network, much better than last.fm. Just wait and see!

Waking up early has never been a skill of mine. But yesterday I did it. Even earlier than on weekdays. At 7am. I know, many of you think that’s normal, and I’m complaining for no reason. But for me, it is very hard. It takes a big effort to get out of bed. But I managed. The reason: Princeton Record Exchange. On Record Store day.

I went there with two friends from work, one that is very much into classical music, and the other who has a very eclectic taste but knows quite a bit about indiepop. On the way to Princeton he had Comet Gain playing on the car, and on the way back he had Gold-Bears. It feels strange when someone not connected to the scene is into this music. I don’t mean it in an elitist way, but it feels everyone that loves indiepop eventually gets sucked in and gets involved with the scene, releasing records, promoting, blogging, doing something.

Princeton is such a pretty town. It’s a shame we didn’t have much time to explore it. The university buildings had a varied architecture and there was a good vibe to the whole town, even though it’s in New Jersey. Upon arriving to the record store, greeting us with a shocking yellow sign, we noticed a long line of people waiting to get in. As long as two blocks. It was a terrible idea to come here on record store day, was my first thought. I wasn’t interested in any records from record store day, and making that line seemed unbearable. But if I was going to be there, I wouldn’t mind picking some stuff and then selling it on eBay. Why not. If I don’t do it, someone else will. Maybe pick up a Bruce Springsteen?

But luckily things turned out better than expected, people that didn’t want to purchase any record store day special release didn’t have to make the line. So we went in and got lost among thousands of records. Most of them were crap, as usual, but there were some good finds. Especially on the CD section, where for $2 I found many late 90s and early 00s indiepop albums. On the vinyl section there wasn’t much to be found. Not much second-hand, and very little 7″. But still, it’s fun to browse and dream that you’ll find a hidden gem, one that has been waiting patiently for you, one that other people doesn’t even know what it is.

It really gets me when people at the record store, other shoppers, try making conversation with you. There was this guy, long-haired, wearing jean shorts and Timberland shoes, who was browsing records next to me, being very loud on the phone. He seemed proud that he was spending hundreds of dollars. I felt bad for him. He clearly doesn’t know about eBay. Anyhow, at some point he grabs one of the box sets on the shelf above the 12″s. And he turns to me and asks: “Have you heard this box set by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers? Any good?”. I was puzzled. I only answered, “No, sorry”. I mean, do I look as someone who would listen to that? But wait, there’s more. Ten minutes later another long-haired guy, with beard this time, asks me, “Have you seen any Ozzie?”. So now, people expect me to browse records for them? And also, browse bad music? I should stop wearing black t-shirts and black jeans. Clearly I should become some sort of traffic light, more colorful, more “poppier”.

And today, having internet back at home (it didn’t work for 2 whole days!! it was awful, a nightmare!), I started designing some ideas for a new Cloudberry website. It’s shaping up nicely, but will probably ask some friends to test the UI and give me some feedback about the design. Alexandra was telling me that there was no reason to change the old one, but I feel, after 5 years, the site has kind of grown old. It’s not really visually striking or anything like that. I feel it serves it’s purpose, but it’s funny, I dedicate my life to create websites and interactive packages, and I haven’t done some sort of ‘top’ design for Cloudberry. What do you think?

Also the totebags are being made as we speak. Hopefully I can pick them up this week. I’ll keep you updated about that. And when it comes to releases, well, The Deddingtons tracklist is up on the site (and now just waiting for the band to decide which song they’d like to give away as a freebie)/ The CD album, part of Cloudberry Cake,  should go to press shortly. And that’s not all, people who are fans of Cloudberry on facebook got the chance this week to listen one of the upcoming songs on the Nixon 7″. The response was fab, everyone is loving it. For this release we are just waiting for the final mixes and then we are set. Exciting times ahead for the label.

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On to our obscure band of the week, Scissor Fits, who were from a time where indiepop didn’t exist, 1978. But they were really indiepop. And they have a strong connection with the music we love, and with a label I love. So on to that.

As a curious cat that I am, I wondered about this:

It is most likely that scissors were invented around 1500 BC in ancient Egypt. The earliest known scissors appeared in Mesopotamia 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. These were of the ‘spring scissor’ type comprising two bronze blades connected at the handles by a thin, flexible strip of curved bronze which served to hold the blades in alignment, to allow them to be squeezed together, and to pull them apart when released. Spring scissors continued to be used in Europe until the sixteenth century. However, pivoted scissors of bronze or iron, in which the blades were pivoted at a point between the tips and the handles, the direct ancestor of modern scissors, were invented by the Romans around AD 100. They entered common use not only in ancient Rome, but also in China, Japan, and Korea, and the idea is still used in almost all modern scissors.

Anyhow, the Scissor Fits were a band that played often at Snoopy’s in Richmond, London, a venue that Mike Alway used to promote. And not only that, Mike Alway was a part-time member of this band. And occasionally their manager. Yes, the same Mike Alway that will later start a label that would redefine music, el Records.

Wikipedia has a few lines for the band:
The Scissor Fits were a post-punk English band founded in Hounslow in 1978. They are best known for their classic DIY punk single “I Don’t Wanna Work for British Airways”, which was recorded before they had appeared in public. A part-time member and occasional manager was Mike Alway, later famous for his A&R work with Cherry Red Records and el. They also released a live EP titled “Soon After Dark” which contained the pre X-Files classic “The Government Knows about UFOs”. The band comprised Nick East (vocals), Simon Ives (bass), Colin Roxborough (rhythm), Bud Drago (drums) and Vic Watson (lead) in the early days. When Drago returned to his native US he was replaced by drummer Pete Garrard.

And I’ll tell you a second connection with indiepop, the vocalist, Nick East, was going to be in an el Records band years later.  Can you guess? I could by the melody and the vocals. Give it a shot. Yup, you are right, The Gol Gappas.

Not so many years ago one of their tracks appeared on the Messthetics compilations, and there’s a little text about them there:
The Scissor Fits hailed from Hounslow, barely two miles off the main runways of Heathrow, so “I Don’t Wanna Work for British Airways” takes to heart the DIY maxim “write what you know.” Their debut EP was recorded before they’d ever played in public, and ‘dedicated to the Soft Boys.’ Mike Alway was a songwriter and part-time guitarist-and-general-inspiration who actually went on to manage the Soft Boys: he had the ‘Fits open for them several times during the Underwater Moonlight era. (Alway later managed the Monochrome Set and launched the Blanco y Negro, Reviere, …If, él and Sound of Chartreuse labels.) Yank drummer Bud Drago put out a (remarkably American-sounding) EP on the same Dubious label but soon headed back Stateside (he’s now in Character Z, and running www.listening-post.com), while the ‘Fits went on to record a live EP for Tortch that featured a couple of DIY’s finer, longer, more psychedelic numbers. The band-name? “a Don Martin cartoon in MAD magazine depicted a woman with a long cigarette holder accidentally stubbing her cigarette out in a man’s eye. The resulting sound effect was ‘SIZZZA – FITZZ’ or something like that…”

I was in touch with Nick East some years ago. I wanted to interview him about The Gol Gappas. I believe he was working in Leeds University then, he probably still does. He seemed very nice but sadly I never got back any answers to my questions. I’m a big fan of them. I did ask him if Cherry Red had any plans to make some sort of retrospective of all their songs, which are not too many, but it seems that Cherry Red won’t do it. Do you can never say never.

They released two 7″s as far as I know. The first was “Taut? Tense? Angular? And Other British Rail Sandwiches” and it included five songs:
A1         I Don’t Want To Work For British Airways
A2         A Small One
A3         I Wish I Hadn’t Shaved My Pubic Hair Off
B1         D.H. Lawrence Wasn’t A Mexican
B2         Waiting For Your Love In The Shower

Did they work for British Airways at all? I have never traveled in BA. It’s usually Continental or Virgin Atlantic when I go to London Heathrow. Is it that terrible BA? I wonder because that is probably their best song, a catchy popsong that pre-dates what the TVPs would so sometime after. It should have been a hit, it should have been bigger than the Beatles maybe. And if anyone has a spare copy, you know, I’m looking for it! This 7″ was released by Dubious Records and the catalog is SJP 793.

The second 7″ was released by Tortch Records in 1979. Catalog number was 005. This one seems easier to find, I’ve seen a couple on Discogs, but at the moment I’m a bit broke! But I do plan making up to it soon. All the songs were recorded live at Covent Garden, Rock Garden on September the 7th of 1979. The songs included were:
A         The Government Knows About UFO’s
B1         Who Wants To Live Forever?
B2         Aniseed Trail

The also appeared on some compilations. They included “I Don’t Want to Work for British Airways” on the Cherry Red comp “Labels Unlimited – The Second Record Collection ” and “Radio Teeth” on the 1,000 Only Records release “The Snoopies Album: The Last Remains Of A Richmond Venue “. The latter one seems very rare, there’s one listing going for almost $100!

Here are two scans from their first 7” that tell the story behind the members of the bands. Really interesting stuff! Scan 1 | Scan 2

And that’s about all I could find from them. They were clearly ahead from their time, and I feel it’s not crazy to say that the Gol Gappas picked it up from where the Scissors Fits left it. I do wonder if they had any more songs recorded. I wonder what happened to Nick East in between these two bands. I wonder what are they doing now. If you know anything else, please share. You know what the comments section is for 🙂

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Listen
Scissor Fits – I Don’t Want to Work for British Airways

What a busy week this was! I guess I will have to get used to going out many days in a row, during workdays, if I’m going to live in New York.

As many of you know this past week was the Chickfactor 20th anniversary, with shows in DC, New Jersey and New York. 3 nights of 90s nostalgia, bringing back to stage the likes of Black Tambourine, Small Factory, Honeybunch, The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group, The Aislers Set, Pipas, and more. Two of these NY nights were sold out, packed, with not many hipsters to my surprise. It was mostly these nostalgic people, a half generation older than me, with their own indiepop stories. Stories I was a stranger to. I wasn’t around the heyday of the Chickfactor ‘scene’, so at first I did feel a bit displaced. But eventually, things kicked in again. It’s only indiepop you know.

So on Sunday, our first international friend arrived: Vernon from Singapore. A little group of us joined him and Alex who was just passing by that day in New York from Melbourne, via DC and Chickfactor, on her way to Malta. We had some thai food, which I found a bit bland, but nonetheless it was a great evening, talking and catching up. It was almost a year since the last time I saw them. I stayed up late that night. On Monday I would stay up late again after a long day of work. Kristine and Lisle were arriving to New York and I was hosting them at my place. Their plane from Chicago was delayed, which is no surprise. And of course, we stayed up late chatting and chatting. I don’t really know where Kristine got their energy from, she had attended the DC shows already and she was craving for more in NYC. I must becoming an old man, because I can’t figure this out.

And then of course it all started. Taking the R train all the way to the Bellhouse in Brooklyn. On that dirty and old train with it’s yellow and orange seats. Never a good ride on the R. And finding a place to eat around the Bellhouse, that’s another problem to solve. Not my favourite venue at all, the Bellhouse seems to host many indiepop gigs for some reason. The lightning of the stage is terrible, so hard to get good pictures, or even shoot video. So against all odds, as I use my camera as a bona fide machine gun, I took around 10 pictures total in 3 nights. Not very me.

Hoegaarden pint in hand, I didn’t raze the merch table either. Prices were not from the 90s but from the 00s. I guess that makes sense, but I was expecting $2 7″s instead of $5. That’s what they cost back in the day, right? Maybe I’m naive, but why raise the price 15 years after? Anyhow, I already had most of these records, but the ones I didn’t have, I bought, which were a few. I did get a Softies t-shirt. Though I’m not a big fan. But I like Tiger Trap and Go Sailor a lot. So, why not support Rose Melberg?

I didn’t get to meet the 90s luminaries of American indiepop. No one new in my book. I did get to finally meet Brian and Yvonne from the Tartans and they were great. But from the older generation, no. I find that those jangly heroes of mine from UK  or Europe are way more friendly, more reachable, than the American ones. I can’t grasp why yet. But one day I’ll write a whole discernation about it. This is something that puzzles me.

The festival was well organized, you could tell they took care of every detail, and having someone to ‘host’ each night, to present every band with some little background story was a great idea. My only complains of course, and I assume many would agree, was that it was hosted during weekdays, from Tuesday to Thursday. Not very inviting for people that live and work in New York. And the other complain I have is the overpriced tickets. 80-90 dollars for 3 nights is a bit too much in the indiepop world. NYC Popfest, a true New York analogy, charges 50 dollars for 4 days and more bands. And during a weekend. And bands that are as good. Can we agree on that? I think so. And my last complain the special guests. They weren’t really special. I mean, it’s great to see Franklin Bruno or the guy from Love True Always, but come on, let them play with the whole band. Just a guy and a guitar doesn’t feel like a special guest to me. That was a bit boring to be honest.

But after that first hour of special guests everything turned upside down, so many great bands that made every night worth it! I can’t thank enough having the opportunity to see The Aislers Set live. I thought it was never going to happen. Or another favourite of mine, The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group, who share my last name and wrote two of my favourite albums ever. Or seeing Pipas again after 6 years! True, as you can see, it was the Wednesday lineup the one that I enjoyed the most. That was the big night for me, for my taste. I know everyone was head over heels for Tuesday, with the mighty Black Tambourine headlining. I may say something here that won’t please many, but Black Tambourine is my least favourite Pam Berry band. I think “Throw Aggi from the Bridge” is a monumental song, but the rest of their songs are just alright. For me Pam Berry’s best are either Glo-Worm or The Pines. And hey, The Pines did play Chickfactor, on Thursday, and that was pure bliss. They even covered Aurora by The Cat’s Miaow as I requested Joe when I saw him the prior Thursday while we walked over the High Line Park.

And as soon as it all ended, I slept eleven hours straight. And I booked a plane ticket to London, to attend Indietracks. There was an empty hole to fill and I didn’t found a better way to do it. So, even though I’m not invited to DJ anywhere in the UK this time, I’m heading to Indietracks! And after Indietracks I’ll spend a week in Wales visiting castles with my favourite girl. Can’t ask for more at this point. It’s all perfect.

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Let’s save the Cloudberry news and label stuff for next week. Let’s move to our obscure band of the week: The deBuchias.

I actually was in touch with Justin Salmon, one of the members of the band, not so long ago. Asked him to do an interview and he was up for it. But still haven’t heard from him. Probably life got in the way. It happens. Thing is that last week I finally managed to get a copy of the one and only 12″ The deBuchias released and that song on the A side is so so good, that I need you all to know it. It’s called “Introducing Jane” and it’s beautiful.

The band was formed by John Bramwell on vocals and guitars, Tig on bass, Steve Perry on drums and Justin Salmon on harmonizing electric guitar. You might have heard the name John Bramwell. He would later from the well known band I Am Kloot. On this 12″ the band is introduced to us as “The deBuchias featuring Johnny Dangerously”. This Johnny Dangerously is John Bramwell of course, and he had already released a 12″ on his own, the “You, Me and Alarm Clock”. I still have to manage to track a copy of that one, but having head the songs I say, if you see it, snatch it.

But the deBuchias single, on Village Records, catalog number 111, with it’s yellow jacket and mysterious black and white photographs of women putting on make up, is something else. And you can still find it for reasonable prices on Discogs especially. This record included two more songs on the B side, “Tearing it Down” and “Subway Life”. The first one was already released on the previous 12″ Johnny had released, and “Subway Life” was a track that had already appeared on the “Manchester North of England” compilation. The record was engineered by Graham Massey and Jez at Real to Rell in Macclesfield. And the photographs of the sleeve were courtesy of Michele Jones.

The only other bit of information I could find was the the band played a couple of important gigs like the Glasgow Mayfest, the Green Room and the Manchester International. They supported Tom Robinson and Billy Bragg at Nottingham Festival as well. And that was 1990. The nostalgic era I didn’t get to see.

And that’s all there is about this band. Who was this mysterious Jane they sing about? Did they ever record more songs? Why did they split? And what happened to them? If you know anything else, please share! Would love to know!

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Listen
The deBuchias – Introducing Jane

A couple of days ago Yago, one of the nice guys that took care of my merch during Madrid Popfest, asked me about Velasco, an almost forgotten band from Spain. He had seen a blog post, dating July 2009, were Adrià, one of Papa Topo’s half, was raving about this obscure duo. On that same post Adrià mentions my name, alongside Felipe Fresón’s…

It might be one of the few times were my name is going to be written next to one of my indiepop heroes; it seems both me and him shared the second demo CD-R with Papa Topo’s black rimmed glasses frontman, and he was thanking both of us. Yago, smartly assumed that there is only one Roque involved in what we call indiepop, and got in touch with me. He did his detective job. Now it’s my time to try to solve this mystery.

Back in 2004 I was already dreaming of starting a label. Those were days of indiepop discovery for me but my ties were still closer to the Peruvian music scene than to the indiepop community. My connections to the worldwide indiepop community revolved to the few friends I knew on the Twee Folks and the Viajeros Polares channel on soulseek. Those were rather uneventful days too. I was living in San Antonio, Texas, a place not known for their great indie acts but for some iconic landmark called The Alamo, which is such a disappointment when you finally see it. It’s tiny. And looks like any other catholic church in the Peruvian highlands. I skipped classes often, I wasn’t motivated, and in the end, the exams were pretty easy for me to get straight As. If this was literature, then I didn’t need to go to classes, really, I thought. And I had a writer’s block. And of course, my grammar was never something to be proud of. But let’s say they were “literary licenses” I took. Anyhow, I was pretty involved in the Peruvian scene as I said, and I spent hours and hours chatting with bands and fans back in my home country.

There were a couple of indie magazines back in Lima. There was “Interzona”, “Freak Out” and “69”. The most popular was the latter, and not because of it’s terrible name. They had evolved from a prior magazine, one called “Caleta” that had reached cult status among the music fans in Lima. Music fans that spent their hours in the seedy stores of the Galerías Brasil mall in the Breña district. Small stores that specialized in different genres, stores that had the latest bootlegs, CD-Rs of Elefant Records releases, and overpriced vinyl records. In this same mall you could find fanzine stores, emo clothing stores, and even porn dvd stores. On the first floor there were stores where you could rent a Playstation and play some Pro Evolution Soccer against other people. I miss doing that, especially in those days when PES was such a great game and it didn’t try to resemble to the FIFA titles. Also you could find a small cafe with cheese and ham sandwiches and Inca Kola, print shops and also some electronic stores. I read this week that this mall was closed by the city not so long ago.

So the “69” magazine. People who wrote in that magazine were snobbish, and didn’t have the best taste I’d say. Third world country taste, you know. But the editor, Percy, had better taste than the rest of the writers. He was a big fan of La Buena Vida I remember. And also he loved All Girl Summer Fun Band. We chatted quite a bit on soulseek and exchanged emails during that 2004. By then I had already started my blog Mira El Péndulo that turned out to be quite successful among Spanish speakers. It astonishes me that people still remember it. Just a few weeks ago in Spain, during the Popfest, there were some guys that were really excited to meet me, not because of the labels, but because of that damned blog. How can you explain that? Many of them told me they had bought the C-06 tape. I’m so flattered.

The “69” had already released a CD compilation with Peruvian bands and it turn out to be the best selling issue in their short life. So I had no better idea than to pitch Percy an international indiepop compilation. I didn’t want anything in exchange, I would contact the bands and put together the compilation. Ok, I did ask for some complimentary copies, but that was it. I didn’t have money to start my own label then, but I thought that it would be a rewarding experience, to showcase some international bands in my home country. The “69” would have to fund the CD pressing, which back then was dirty cheap in Peru, and I would get all the songs for a very fine record. On top of that I was asked to write an article for the magazine. That was my first published piece, and it wasn’t very good. I had to explain what indiepop is and how much of a worldwide phenomenon it was.

I titled the CD “Es Pop Mamá”, nodding to the great Christina y los Neumáticos song that was later covered by the so amazing TCR (with Felipe Fresón on guitars).  Some “bigger” names included on the CD were those of Tullycraft or Pale Sunday to name a few. Most of the bands were from Latin America though, but there were a couple from Spain as well. And Velasco was one of those Spanish bands included.

I didn’t know much about them back then. I remember listening to their two demo CD-Rs and loving them. Actually, not listening them from the actual CD-Rs, but from MP3s. A shame that I never managed to get proper copies of their demos. I should have asked back then. But I wasn’t that indie savvy when 20 years old. The first demo included the songs: “Recuerdas” (You Remember), “Estar Contigo” (Be With You), and “Agosto” (August). It was recorded on the summer of 2002 and the artwork is really nice, with a floral design. The second demo, titled Bijou (French for jewel), included the songs “El Viento” (The Wind), “Tú” (You), “Velasco”, “En Mi Ciudad” (In My City) and “La Luna” (The Moon). The artwork for this second demo is a just married couple. The couple seems familiar but I can’t pinpoint who they are. Any clues? The song I finally included in “Es Pop Mamá” was “En Mi Ciudad”. A pretty and naive song.

Velasco (also Belasco or Belasko) is a Spanish family name and masculine first name derived from the Basque bel- meaning ‘raven’ or ‘crow’ and the diminutive suffix -sco.

The last name Velasco is associated with an evil dictator in Peru. The only left-wing dictator in South America during the 70s. He ruled from 1968 to 1975 and screwed the country, taking the country through dark times. Music-wise, Peru, famous for it’s 60’s garage legacy with Los Saicos, Los Yorks, Los Shains and more, went into a halt. Everything that was somehow “American”, which of course includes rock, pop or garage, was not supported or approved by the dictatorship. The exciting music scene from those years died silently. I guess the only good thing from that period was winning the Copa America with Cubillas and Sotil for the 2nd time, something our Chilean brothers who think so highly of themselves still haven’t been able to achieve.

My emails with Velasco are long lost to my hacked email account. I can’t recall them clearly, but a safe guess was that they were short and sweet. We must have agreed on a song and that was it. I remember that I emailed with Maite, who was the vocalist in Velasco. The only other member was Paco, who played guitars. Where they a couple? Could be. I believe this appearance on the compilation was their only proper “release” aside from their demos. I don’t think they appeared in any other record. A real shame if you happen to listen to their sweet songs. You wonder if they were too early or too late, 2004 wasn’t really a good year for indiepop. Not many things were happening there. No such thing as Popfests back then.

That is all that I remember about this cute and small band. I don’t remember where they were based in Spain? I want to say Valencia, but I would probably be wrong. And what happened to Paco and Maite? Did they stop playing music? It’s hard to believe. I wonder if they made more songs. Where are they now? If they ever played live?

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Listen
Velasco – En mi Ciudad

When Ignacio told me, during the Friday night shows, that Tiny Fireflies was his favorite band ever, I was a bit surprised. I asked him again if he meant ever. And he did. The main man of the new label Cerillas Garibaldi was totally charmed by them and for the first time he was going to see them live. I lost track of him as soon as the gig started. I wonder if he was one of the many that got the new split with Lily of the Valley and got it autographed by Kristine and Lisle. I know there were many humble fans in Spain who got the signatures of the pretty Tiny Fireflies.

I’m not sure exactly which songs they played that night. I can remember that they played all the songs they have released, but no Club 8 cover. I didn’t get their tracklist this time, not because I didn’t want to, but because Jorge was collecting them for the Madrid Popfest archive. So here’s a tip for bands, make at least 3 tracklists. Because  I need one for sure.

The gig was beautiful, as always. The fragility and tenderness that Tiny Fireflies evoke can’t be compared to any band these days. I don’t think anyone comes close either. Their sound is just way too dreamy, and deliciously sweet. Kristine’s angelic voice blends so perfect with the electronic beats and Lisle’s jangly guitar. One only wonders how this sound was achieved in Chicago, three blocks away from the Division subway station on the blue line. No, it doesn’t make sense.

All the copies the band brought to Madrid were sold. Success for a tour that started in their hometown a week before and later spanning some cities in Wisconsin. Their first Tiny Fireflies tour. Though last year they did play a couple of gigs in the UK, but the main tour then was the one by Very Truly Yours, their “other” band. I remember clearly the gigs at the ROTA, opening for the Sunny Street and Amor de Días, and the one at Indietracks. By this time they had their first release out, the magical 3″CD on Cris’ label Little Treasure. I got my copy that sunny Friday in Nottingham, when a big group of Indietracks’ goers met at the Ye Olde Jerusalem Inn for lunch. These memories make me want to go so much to Indietracks this year. Time to break the piggy bank?

I’ve seen Kristine and Lisle play so many times, even more than Allo Darlin’ or The Smittens, which is already something.  I am a declared fan of their musical talents, and their sensitivity to write songs. Moreover I consider them great friends. Can’t wait to see them next month here in New York to hang out and attend the Chickfactor 20 gigs. To which I ask, why were these gigs scheduled on weekdays? I’ll be dead tired, exhausted, trying to wake up the morning after to go to work. And I will have to control how many beers I can drink.

We met Tiny Fireflies on Wednesday, outside of Alonso Martínez station. Along with Zipper, we all headed to a very cool bar whose name I have forgotten. There we had wine and beer and tried the classic tortilla de patatas. Kristine was impressed by the fluffiness of it and asked for the recipe. Among laughs, and “getting to know each other”, as it seems Zipper and Tiny Fireflies each missed their gigs at last year’s Indietracks, we had a great time. That’s when we decided to hop to another bar, a more traditional Spanish one, you know, one that serves sausages and other treats along your drinks for free.

The next days I would become Tiny Fireflies official translator. Was it an upgrade from last year’s Very Truly Yours roadie? We would meet around 1pm, a bit ashamed of looking for lunch that early for Spanish standards. And so, we would go looking for restaurants that served a daily menu, something we really enjoyed. For around 10 or 11 euros we could eat well, a proper meal consisting of an appetizer, an entree, dessert, and a drink. Plus bread. A really good deal. And so Kristine and me tried many different things, mostly thinks done with pork. Alexandra stuck to having salmon, while Lisle enjoyed “bocaditos” made of ham or the brilliant “roman” style calamari. I would translate the menu and they would always laugh when we would find “gallo” which is rooster on the menu. It wasn’t an easy task to translate as I didn’t know the meaning of many things, the Spanish from Spain, when it comes to food, differs a lot from the one I know from Peru.

We traced every room of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum of Art. We got in for free, just by chance, as they were having a free entrance that day because of some sort of women related celebrations. Was it international women’s day? Could be. And then we also visited and took some Tiny Fireflies promo pictures at the Madrid Botanical Gardens, where I ended up being asked by many tourists to take pictures of them. There was this couple that asked me to take a picture of them with the “tree of love” as a backdrop. As it wasn’t spring yet, the tree was gloomy, very far to convey any sense of love. More of a Halloween picture if you ask me, not very romantic. And then we also enjoyed riding up and down, many times, the clear crystal elevators of the Reina Sofía museum, to get beautiful, panoramic views of Madrid. And there we also went for free, as there’s a nice deal on Saturdays after 3 pm. While at Reina Sofía we ended up speechless upon finding the impressive Guernica by Picasso. Stunning really.

Meeting on Saturday at Puerta del Sol, taking pictures under the “bear and the tree” statue, symbol of Madrid, and walking around and bumping with Miguel Navarro, guitar extraordinaire of The Felt Tips, we waited for Cris and Madidi to arrive, for one last lunch in Spain (at least for us). When we were altogether we headed into one of these menu restaurants I’ve been raving. We loved the name of it, “La Soberbia” (The Arrogance), and we enjoyed some beers to start. I remember trying that day Salmorejo, a delicious cold soup made out of tomatoes, and the delicious Solomillo made out of pork. Cris had the same as me, Kristine got the Solomillo and a salad, Madidi got the paella, Alexandra went for some peppers filled with fish that she didn’t like much, and Lisle a ham bocadito. Then Cris had to run for sound check, as he was in charge of making The Close Lobsters sound good for their historic show later that night. And then, when we asked for the check (or the bill as you say in the UK), Kristine had the best idea of getting rid of all her Euro change. And so we paid the check mostly on coins, and coins, and coins. Brilliant.

It was just a couple of weeks back since we released the Tiny Fireflies split CD. And now I hope that in the not so distant future we’ll get their songs on vinyl. At least that’s what I would love to do.

And now onto some obscure band, and to make it a bit more relevant, a US band that doesn’t sound American at all: Mouse Boy, Mouse Girl. Well, I’m not very sure if they were a band or not, but I do know this one song that I’ve really been enjoying for the past week since Alexandra e-mailed to me. I wonder how such a pretty song have been unattended, unexplored, unheard, by me. I will blame it to my anglophile-ness when it comes to indiepop. The song is called “Make Like We’re Not Sad” and it’s such a delicious slice of fragile indiepop.

The song was part of a compilation put together back in 1998 by the now sleepy indiepop-list. The compilation was called “The Family Twee”. The idea behind the compilation was to have songs by the members of the list. Not surprised to see Mario’s Zapato, Chris’ Suretoss, in their for example. But I wasn’t around in the list back in 1998, so I’m unfamiliar with many of the bands, and the people behind them. A little research and I found out how this was organized by “Skippy”:

September 1997 – An invitation is made to members of the list to submit a song/whatever, that is under 2 minutes long. We will create 2 cd’s filled with their tracks upon getting enough people to do it (60!) and it will become a ‘snapshot’ of the current state of the list. A postcard if you will.November 1997 – By this time, we’ve had 85 people say they definitely want to do it. We await the first 60’s tracks and then open it up to the remainder.

December 1997 – We’ve received only 46 of the promised tracks. People flake, that’s life. I have list members Jim Curran and Anne Zender over for a holiday cocktail and to ‘sequence’ and ‘rate’ what we have. January 1998 – I moved everything I own from Chicago to NYC. I get the track total up to 60, pulling teeth, but this also means that some people haven’t ‘contributed’ if you know what I mean.

March 1998 – I give the 60 songs to pal and Kindercore cat, Ryan, who will inexpensively master the thing.

April 1998 – Apparently there are some problems with a track or two and we need to get the original from the person.

June 1998 – CD is mastered and prepared for pressing. Skippy loses artwork that Andy Blanchard so generous drew because he didn’t have a ‘song’ contribution. We await Andy’s duplicates.

August 1998 – The two CD set arrives here in spindles (the state of CD manufacturing took 7 weeks!). As soon as we whip up some art, we can package these babies up and get them out. Of course, I seem to have underestimated the costs of the project and am now in the hole for about $600.September 1998 – I receive the plastic booklets we will use. Artwork is shipped to a friend who can do it ‘cheap’. I haven’t heard from him since. November 1998 – I decide enough is enough, make some ‘bootleg’ style artwork and begin the arduous task of packaging 1,000 double CD’s with inserts in my spare time (with my girlfriend’s help)

December 2, 1998 – All systems go! The CD’s are ready to ship. Problem is, some of you have changed your home address and your e-mail addresses. I have saved enough money to ship these (there’s quite a few international ones, y’all), but I don’t want to start sending to addresses that you gave me back in November last year because I don’t want to get it returned.

After a bit of investigation to find out at least one name behind Mouse Boy, Mouse Girl. It seems it was Tony Gauslin who was behind this precious song. This was prior the days of him making songs with Laura Watling under the name of “Color and Shapes”. And that’s really all I know. Did they make any more songs? Did he ever receive a copy of the Family Twee CD (he complains in 1999, a year after, of not having received a copy!)? and did they release any songs? maybe on other compilations? And what is he up to? I’m sure the talent is not gone!

Any clues, hints, or anecdotes you want to share, you know what to do in the comments section!

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Listen
Boy Mouse, Girl Mouse – Make Like We’re Not Sad

Back from Madrid Popfest. Back from Spain and the many cities I visited. Back to New York. Back to work, to the label, to the routines. I’m still in the process of figuring out how to put in words what happened in Madrid. It is one of the best times ever. Indiepop-wise and not. In the next couple of weeks I will review it, hopefully convince you to go next year. It’s worth it. And having attended many Popfests I can truly say that when it comes to fun, when it comes to camaraderie, to admiration to the bands, to fans that give their heart out every night, Madrid is the best. And they get some damn fine bands too.

I got the best company during the trip. And she knows. To Toledo, Avila, Segovia, and more, we traveled. We visited a handful of cathedrals, castles and ruins. We walked on top of medieval walls, ate the town’s specialties, and took hundreds of pictures. The “Cercanías” trains were great and cheap. And at night we had beer, and danced, and met with friends. A haze, a blur, it all so seems so far away but so close too. I need another festival soon to put Madrid in perspective. Around the corner is the Chickfactor one. Will that make me sane again? I don’t want this happiness to go away though. But there’s plenty of news for Cloudberry. I really want to go through them, let’s talk about Madrid next week. Promise.

First of all, there’s a couple of new releases out:

– The Time Capsules : this is part of the Cloudberry Classics releases. It includes 6 wonderful songs in the vein of The Jazz Butcher, Lotus Eaters and Jim Jiminee. The Time Capsules were a Japanese band active during the late 90s. They only released a tape back then. This release includes all their songs (but their demos, though you can download one of them from the Cloudberry page). These days Kouishi Ono, the lead guy behind The Time Capsules goes under the name Alvysinger and he still has it. Great stuff!

– Tiny Fireflies / Lily of the Valley : please don’t mistake them with “My” Lily of the Valley who were Swedish and appeared on Cloudberry’s 100th release. This Lily of the Valley hails from Japan and they make great shoegazy tunes. And what to say about Tiny Fireflies who are making a splash everywhere. From New York to London and then to Indietracks and now Madrid. Seen them four times and everytime they get closer to pop perfection. Delicious vocals by Kristine, two perfectly penned songs, with hooks, dreams and reveries. This is a split 3″CD!

Also you might have noticed that most prices on the store have been raised by a dollar. Even though I didn’t want to do it, I had no better option. The postal service has raised their prices. Nothing we can do about it. It’s been 5 years keeping the same prices on Cloudberry, but now there’s no way for me to cut expenses on other things and keep the prices the same. Hope you understand.

On the 7″ front the Cassolette 7″ is almost ready. This week I should be announcing the release date. It should be in the early days of April. It’s been a long wait, but it will definitely be worth it.

And then the Cloudberry Cake Kitchen is also ready with a new baked goodie: The Deddingtons album. All the artwork is ready and will try to send it to press very soon. There will be more info about this release later on the Cloudberry site.

Also I feel it’s time to start working on a new fanzine. Any ideas on who to feature? What color ink to use?

But now it’s time for our obscure band of the week: Ostrich Cult.

Ostrich:  is one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member(s) of the genus Struthio. Some analyses indicate that the Somali Ostrich may be better considered a full species apart from the Common Ostrich, but most taxonomists consider it to be a subspecies. Ostriches share the order Struthioniformes with the kiwis, emus, and other ratites. It is distinctive in its appearance, with a long neck and legs and the ability to run at maximum speeds of about 70 kilometres per hour (43 mph), the top land speed of any bird The Ostrich is the largest living species of bird and lays the largest egg of any living bird (extinct elephant birds of Madagascar and the giant moa of New Zealand did lay larger eggs). The diet of Ostriches mainly consists of plant matter, though it also eats invertebrates. It lives in nomadic groups which contain between five and fifty birds. When threatened, the Ostrich will either hide itself by lying flat against the ground, or will run away. If cornered, it can attack with a kick from its powerful legs. Mating patterns differ by geographical region, but territorial males fight for a harem of two to seven females. These fights usually last just minutes, but they can easily cause death through slamming their heads into opponents. The Ostrich is farmed around the world, particularly for its feathers, which are decorative and are also used as feather dusters. Its skin is used for leather products[6] and its meat is marketed commercially.

Cult: The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a new religious movement or other group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre.  The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices. The word was first used in the early 17th century denoting homage paid to a divinity and derived from the French culte or Latin cultus, ‘worship’, from cult-, ‘inhabited, cultivated, worshipped,’ from the verb colere, ‘care, cultivation’. In the 1930s cults became the object of sociological study in the context of the study of religious behavior. They have been criticized by mainstream Christians for their unorthodox beliefs. In the 1970s the anticult movement arose, partly motivated by acts of violence and other crimes committed by members of some cults (notably the Manson Family and People’s Temple). Some of the claims of the anticult movement have been disputed by other scholars, leading to further controversies.

With my head daydreaming of Sweden, I have no better idea to write about this band, an obsession of mine. An obsession for two reasons. First because I don’t have their 7″ and have never heard the songs on it. And second, they were the predecessors of one of my favourite bands, Happydeadmen.

The only song I’ve ever heard from them is the one posted here on the blog. I heard it for first time on Youtube, and it seems it’s from 1986. I think someone translated it to English for me once. I can’t remember.  I will go through my emails and see if I can find that. I know the song name means “A Dying Man”. Magnus Karlsson is on vocals.

The sound is different to Happydeadmen, though you can already hear some great guitar riffs. The jangle was about to come. Still I enjoy this song a lot. But this song is just a demo, this song wasn’t properly released, which probably means that the two songs that were released on the 7″ might be superior. I don’t know, just an educated guess here.

The 7″ was a private press, 500 copies as usual. The catalogue is MOK-S-01. The song on the A side is “Skymningsland” which means ‘Land of Dusk’ and on the flip side we find “Resa Utan Mal”, ‘Journey Without End”. The sleeve artwork reminds me a bit of those by Jesse Garon and the Desperadoes, offset print in blue.

I don’t have a clue where to find a copy, and I’ve been trying for some years now. If anyone cares to help, please let me know. Or at least MP3s of these two songs, I would love to listen. Worst case scenario, if you happen to have more songs from the demo, please share. This band is a true mystery to me and would love to know more. I love Happydeadmen, knowing more about Ostrich Cult is imperative!

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Listen
Ostrich Cult – En Döende Man

There was a time, back in 2002, when my world revolved around Spanish pop. We were young and foolish in a town that was neither Spanish or American. Half the day we spoke Spanish, the other English. We always tuned in the Spanish Pop  show on Sundays at 7pm at a Salsa radio station. We didn’t really care what the dj Kike Posada would play. He was awful. We just tuned in and called the station to request songs. Our little convenience store, a block away from the beach and Ocean Drive and the tourist flock, was almost empty by 7pm. Most people would leave the beach on Sundays around 6pm, thus from 6:30 to midnight (when our shift ended), we just restocked the refrigerators and the shelves. We had five hours to do that. It didn’t take us that much so we had time to be on hold on the phone trying to request some of our favourite Spanish Pop tunes. The show lasted a couple of hours. It was called Boom. And again, it was awful.

Jose, Chozzy for friends, and me, had been working at this convenience store for some time now. We were very young, like 17 or 18 when we started. We had hacked the audio system of the store and we had managed to connect a portable CD player to it. By far this store had the best music in Miami. Those days we played lots of Spanish Pop and more often than you could imagine people would recognize the songs and tell us stories about the days when they danced to them. Or when they went to see them back in their home countries. We shared the same memories. It was the music we listened on the radio back home when we were growing up. The 80s and the early 90s wasn’t c86 for us. It was the so called “Rock en español” were both rock and pop were bagged in the same tag.

We requested Los Nikis many times. The dj didn’t have a clue who they were. For me that was blasphemy. It was always like this: we requested a first song, he didn’t have it. We requested a second, he didn’t have it. We always felt bad with her secretary or the radio station operator, a girl with a Venezuelan accent, that by the third song request we would just stick to a song that had Alaska on it, most usually a Dinarama song. And then we would call again. And we’d request songs the stupid dj didn’t know. One could only wonder how he had any following in the city. It was always a mystery for us. He sucked and we deserved to have our own radio show. But we weren’t friends with Emilio or Gloria Estefan I suppose.

Our apartment was 10 blocks away from the convenience store and we were piling CD-Rs with bootlegs by Aviador Dro and rare tracks by Los Vegetales. We shared a big studio and payed 250 dollars each. We had for the first time in our life fast DSL internet and spent hours, days, researching and downloading Spanish Pop. And then we started buying what we could. It was hard and damn expensive. Since then I experienced the abominable postage prices the Spanish postal service charges. At some point I must have paid 100 dollars worth of postage on a single order. It was outrageous. Suddenly my drawers starting piling with t-shirts by Cola Jet Set, La Casa Azul, Fangoria and more. I was really into it.

I always thought it was going to be Spain the country I was to visit first in Europe. It didn’t turn out that way. For me it was obvious, I spoke the language, in high school I had read Cervantes, Quevedo and even Cela. I had watched every single movie by Alex de la Iglesia and watched la Liga religiously every weekend. I was a big fan of Raul, and Mendieta. And of course, the music I loved, and my favourite band, my beloved TCR, came from Spain. However I went first to Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Scotland and England.

Next weekend I head to Madrid. It will be my first time in Spain and I’m thrilled. The first thing that comes to mind is that song by Flash Strato “Madrid in Tecnicolor” that was kind of a hit back in Lima in the 80s. It seems in Spain it wasn’t that popular, just a handful knows about it. But that’s how things work, as my grandma would often say, “Nadie es profeta en su tierra.” Translated to English it is “No one is a prophet in their own land.” The quotation is from Christ himself in Luke 4, 21-30. Perhaps there’s a similar saying in English, but you see my point. That happened a lot with Spanish bands, many of them made a splash in Mexico or Peru, but not in their home country.

It was one of those dead afternoons at the convenience store that I would rediscover this gem. Carlos who worked at a garage a block away came with a couple of CDs for me to play at the store. They were Spanish pop, songs he would play back in Peru. He had been djing in Lima for a couple of years before leaving to the US. He was a bit older than me and remembered much better the 80s and the songs that were played during that time. He lend me his CDs, just for that afternoon. One of the songs was “Madrid in Tecnicolor”. Suddenly I had flashes, the song was very familiar and I even recalled the lyrics. It took me back to evenings stuck in the lazy traffic of Lima’s tight side streets. The cab driver reading his football daily paper with a half-naked woman on the cover waiting for the light to turn green. And the cassette radio, brand-less and black, playing some of these Spanish gems on the background.

I still don’t know where the name Flash Strato came from. Perhaps it has no meaning. The band was formed in 1980s by four chaps, Emilio Huertas (guitars), Enrique Bastante (vocals and guitars), Victor Martín (bass) and Toti Árboles (drums). They lasted only 3 years, saying farewell in 1983 with just two releases on their hands.

The first release was the “Cristales Molidos” single on Carnaby Records. This record also included “Fue tu Culpa” and “Búscame”. It was released in 1982 and it seems no one picked it up. It’s a shame, I love “Cristales Molidos”. It has some great jangly and upbeat guitars. But who knows, perhaps these days their records are sought after and pretty expensive. I don’t know. Would love to have a copy, but as said before, I already decided not to buy online from Spanish record stores. The postage prices are not right. But I will surely keep an eye for their records now that I visit Madrid.

The second release was “Madrid in Tecnicolor” (1983), a maxi-single, on Columbia. This is their ‘song’ and could have been an anthem of that era. Great melodies, power-pop melodies, jangly guitars and a fun and bouncy keyboard at the chorus. A very catchy song that for some reason not many cared for it in Spain when it was released. That’s why it is amazing to see the amount of Peruvians commenting on Youtube about this song. It’s hard to believe.

The band split just after releasing this record. Toti would join Alaska y los Pegamoides and Enrique, Seres Vacíos. It didn’t matter if they had good songs and two very strong releases. It didn’t matter if they had played gigs along Alaska y Dinarama, Paralisis Permanent or Gabinete Caligari, three big names of the Spanish Pop Golden Era. They were destined to be forgotten. But far away from the Iberian peninsula, in foggy and grey Lima, we pictured Madrid as a fun place, a place painted in technicolor, were no one could stop partying.

Many years later I will experience Madrid in Technicolor, were the parties go on past midnight until the next morning. I can’t wait. I’ll see you there next week.

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Listen
Flash Strato – Madrid en Tecnicolor

Now I can say that I’m up to date with Cloudberry after several trips to the post office this week. Cassolette 7″ is being pressed and the artwork for The Time Capsules CD is ready. This  long weekend (Monday is a holiday, President’s Day) The Deddingtons and the Tiny Fireflies/Lily of the Valley CDs artwork should be ready. I can leave to Spain without worries.

I do feel I haven’t taken care of the blog as much as I would have like to. There are plenty of comments I haven’t answered. Some bands have gotten in touch and I haven’t replied back. Shame on me. I haven’t conducted any interviews in the past two months. And that’s something that is unacceptable I think. But I’ll make up for it. I also would love to retake the indiepop book project, compiling this blog on in and paper. That’d be something. It wasn’t long ago that I met with my archaelogist (and Brighter fan) friend Brian in a bar in the Lower East side and he was quite inquisitive about this project. I do believe there will be some interest in it. I can see the point that my blog, as it’s articles are quite long, is more suitable to a print format than digital format I already use.

There is a very nice news coming from Japan. It seems there will be a Japanese edition for the Feverfew release, limited to just 125 copies. It will have an OBI strip and also the liner notes in Japanese. I seems it will also include the interview to Paul and Phil that appeared in the blog translated to Japanese and hopefully the lyrics to all the songs. I will try to get some copies of them, but can’t really promise much. I’ll keep you all updated.

For the past three months in NYC I’ve been attending to Mondo, the indie dance party that Maz from NY Popfest organizes. I’ve been very impressed on how packed his nights are. Yesterday was no exception even though the night moved to Manhattan for a one-off at Le Poisson Rouge. It usually happens in hipster-infested Williamsburg, at Cameo, a venue I really like. It was an odd night yesterday as there was some sort of hip-hop event at the top floor of the Poisson Rouge. It was said that Spike Lee and Vin Diesel were around. There was some character too called Grandmaster Flash that Maz was very excited about. He told me he was the grandfather of hip hop. Mind you, I don’t know nothing about hip hop. I really dislike that music. But anyhow, this Grandmaster guy told Maz that Mondo was a great party. And I can only agree with him. It is a great party. And I hope it keeps happening for years to come.

There are three DJs at the club and without hurting any susceptibilities, I hope, my favourite is Maz. He plays lots of indiepop staples and yesterday was no exception. We all danced to  Another Sunny Day “You Should All Be Murdered”, The Clean’s “Tally Ho” and The Pastels’ “Truck Train Tractor” among other tunes by Josef K, Summer Cats, Help Stamp Out Loneliness, Acid House Kings and Orange Juice. He has great taste. I know that for a fact, I mean, he has been booking fantastic bands to NYC Popfest the past 4 years! If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have been able to see Go Sailor, Days, Caucus, Gold-Bears and many others. I’m very grateful for that. And I’m sure this 2012 edition won’t be an exception, it will be thrilling again. I have already heard some “rumours” of bands playing this year and I can only tell it’s very promising.

Then there’s Miss Modular who, I learned yesterday, is originally from Miami. Just like Cloudberry Records. She mostly plays girl bands from 50s, 60s. I’m not much into that stuff, but now and then I can enjoy some Shangri-Las. It depends on my mood. This is the time when I like buying a new lager and talking with friends that are around. Yesterday it was catching up with Mark Olivan, who I met last year at NYC Popfest. He was the one who recorded on video most of the band’s performances during the festival, if not all! Great guy, and always very well dressed. At some point we were interrupted by some girls that were looking for boys clearly. One of them asked me about my Madrid Popfest t-shirt. Then she asked where was my accent from and what I was doing there. Then she was just “American” and said she couldn’t understand my accent. Funny. I guess I missed out her loving skills. It’s ok, I wasn’t interested!

And the third DJ is Kevington who I believe caters to the bigger crowd. This is the time where “This Charming Man”, “Boys Don’t Cry” and *that* song by Le Tigre get played. Usually this is also the time when most people get excited and dance. Not me. But that’s ok. I understand how a club runs and you need the mainstream songs. You need people to keep coming, and they do keep coming. It’s a compromise. So that works out perfectly. It’s fine with me. I do need to rest, I’m not that 18 year old anymore and can’t be bouncing to Altered Images all night long! No complains here, Mondo sells itself as an indie-dance party, not an indiepop party. So fine by me. I know what to expect and I don’t feel tricked when The Go Team is resonating through the speakers.

I haven’t timed the DJs but I think they change every hour and the party starts quite late, around 10 or 11. Im usually exhausted by 2am mind you, but I think it goes on until 3 or 4? Not sure. Anyhow, they make me happy. Listening once a month “C is the Heavenly Option” that loud is good enough for me. And if not, I can count them to play “Crush the Flowers”. They do play it every month. I think it’s Mondo’s anthem somehow.

Today, after 6 hour sleep and four pints of Hoegaarden, I woke up fine. Went to the post office and dispatched the last batch of orders. Went to the Manhattan and tried Burmese food for the first time. I tried Mohinga, which is rice noodles in fish soup. It was heavenly. Got me warm immediately even though it was not that cold today, just 6 degrees Celsius. It was spicy and very flavourful. Upon coming home the first record I picked for today was Truck Train Tractor’s “Starforce (USA)” 7″. I guess I was inspired by yesterday’s, or should I say today in the early hours, dancing to the Pastels song. But sure, this is not The Pastels track. I don’t have on vinyl the Pastels track. This is a totally different band, completely different, from far away. From Adelaide, Australia. Not from Glasgow. But for some reason back in the early nineties they decided to name their band after The Pastels. And suddenly I became very curious and asked myself: why?

The gold and yellow 7″ could well be an Ikea or a Best Buy ad. But it’s a Summershine release. Catalog number 032. Summershine, the Australian Sarah. A label that released fabulous bands like Tender Engines or The Rainyard. And they released Truck Train Tractor in 1993. The A side includes just one track, “Starforce (USA)” and it spins at 45rpm. The B side spins at 33rpm and has two songs “Away” and “Starting at the End Again”. From the three, the last one is the one I like the most. It’s fast, it’s punchy and the guitars sound like The Pastels!

The band was formed by Brett on guitar, Karl on vocals and guitars, Marty on vocals and drums, and Tim on bass and vocals. The cover art of the record was done by Gerry Wedd, who I believe is a surfer and also a ceramist and a potter. Looking around online it seems some of the band members went into bands like Terrance Dicks and Hermetic Music. But there’s not much information on them or what are they up to these days. The songs were recorded at ABC studio 521 (the couch potato set) in Adelaide, on the spring of 92. It was recorded without the use of any digital technology whatsoever.

And then there is. The biggest mystery. They thank Stephen Pastel on the record. So yes, this confirms that they took the name from The Pastels (I know i was obvious, but as a journalist you have to be 100% sure!). But how were they in touch? Old school letters? Or maybe Stephen had been in Adelaide? Or perhaps the TTT guys had been on vacations in Glasgow pre-Monorail times. Who knows. They were big fans. And that’s what matters. And I like Truck Train Tractor as a band name. What other Pastels song could be a good band name? Holy Moly?

And that’s all there is about this elusive band. I wonder if there’s any more songs by them. It seems this was their only release. Im sure they recorded more songs. I have a hunch that they did. What are they doing these days? Still making music? Would love to know more about Truck Train Tractor. If you know anything else, please share!

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Listen
Truck Train Tractor – Stating at the End Again

It’s being quite a long time. Two months? Something like that. Hope I was missed. I did post some interviews during the past weeks. Happily some bands remembered to send me their answers. Still there are plenty that haven’t. But that’s ok. Now I’m finally settled in New York. All my stuff is here. Last Monday the moving truck finally arrived and none of my records seem broken. That’s an achievement, isn’t it? I did pack them well mind you, I feel five years sending records overseas have taught me a thing or two. I’m the master of bubble wrap.

My computers are back too. And all the Cloudberry stock. There were plenty of orders that were delayed for this reason. All of them have been shipped or will be shipped this Monday. I appreciate the patience of everyone. From now on things will run smoothly as they used to be. I’ve finished unpacking everything. I do need new shelves, new racks, new furniture. But the “factory” is up and running again. I’ve supplied it with different size mailers, padding cartons, custom forms, etc. Blank CDs, paper, ink, you name it.

Cloudberry is excited as ever! There are many releases coming up. You sure know about the Cassolette and Nixon 7″s. Sure they were delayed due to me moving. It sucks a bit, I wished they were ready by now. That was the plan though, to have Cassolette ready by February. But logistics impeded me so. For once, I didn’t have an address until early January. So where would the pressing plant send the records?! Anyhow, bands have been understanding, I hope you two. So what’s going to happen is this: Cassolette 7″ is going to the pressing plant this Monday. Hopefully by late March it will be ready. Sounds good?

The Nixon 7″: It’s been mixed at the moment by Patrik Lindgren, and soon we’ll have some news. But it’s happening. And after that release there are a couple 7″s lined up. Can’t spill the beans yet! But do keep an eye on the Cloudberry page. Or the Facebook page? Both if you want to play it safe.

This weekend I’ve set myself to finish the first draft of the second Cloudberry Cake release, The Deddingtons. It already sounds great. Now it’s just a matter to make it look great. And it will be. Hopefully this fabulous album can go to the pressing plant by the end of February. I’ll keep you updated. And what about the Feverfew release?! There are just some pins lefts and the record is selling away FAST. So get your copy as soon as possible. I hate answering emails saying a record is “sold out”. Wish I could press infinite copies sometimes. But sometimes, you end up with a whole lot of stock sitting there too. And to move that from city to city, or wait, state to state, believe me, records are damn heavy. It is expensive to move a record collection.

But the weekend doesn’t end up there. There’s more to do. Much more. The past weekends I had been very busy, had my mum in town and it meant hopscotching all the way to the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, the Met and other landmarks in the Big Apple. One by one, from dawn to dusk. Actually, much later than dusk. This weekend I’m working in the new Cloudberry Classic. It’s a Japanese band for a change. It’s the fabulous Time Capsules! I interviewed them not so long ago, and you can check there my favorite song of theirs, a beautiful mix of Jim Jiminee, Pale Fountains and Jazz Butcher.

And then I’m bringing back to live the split 3″CD series with Tiny Fireflies and My Lily of the Valley from Japan!

Around the corner we have Madrid Popfest too. We are heading there. Very excited! And I’ll get to DJ one of the nights. It’s very exciting. I should start preparing the arsenal of indiepop hits!

Probably I’m forgetting more Cloudberry news and treats, but I’ll come back next week as I used to and keep you updating. Perhaps I can tell you about some of the gigs I’ve attended here so far? or the record store findings? or go back to memory lane? feels good to be back to this quaint blog!

Sunset or sundown is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon in the west as a result of Earth’s rotation. The time of sunset is defined in astronomy as the moment when the trailing edge of the Sun’s disk disappears below the horizon in the west. The ray path of light from the setting Sun is highly distorted near the horizon because of atmospheric refraction, making the sunset appear to occur when the Sun’s disk is already about one diameter below the horizon. Sunset is distinct from dusk, which is the moment at which darkness falls, which occurs when the Sun is approximately eighteen degrees below the horizon. The period between sunset and dusk is called twilight. Locations north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle experience no sunset or sunrise at least one day of the year, when the polar day or the polar night persist continuously for 24 hours. Sunset creates unique atmospheric conditions such as the often intense orange and red colors of the Sun and the surrounding sky.

One of the things that one could say I will miss from Florida are sunsets. I don’t. I don’t miss the heat. And I don’t mind the cold weather. It hasn’t been that cold anyways. But sunsets, I don’t know, I was never impressed by them. I remember back in Lima, lovers at 6pm bathed on golden glow., holding hands at the seafront, on top of the cliffs that face the Pacific ocean. The ice cream bicycle carts doing their last rounds before everything went dark. Kisses and fondling at the seafront. Sunsets. The sun hiding slowly in the murky and fish-abundant waters of Lima. Orange, bright orange, as orange cake mix.

I picked up today from my record boxes this 7″ by Watercolor Sunset. It was the first time I paid attention to it. I only got it some days ago as it was one of the few I was missing from the Sunday Records catalog.

Watercolor, also aquarelle from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle. The traditional and most common support for watercolor paintings is paper; other supports include papyrus, bark papers, plastics, vellum or leather, fabric, wood, and canvas. Watercolors are usually transparent, and appear luminous because the pigments are laid down in a relatively pure form with few fillers obscuring the pigment colors. Watercolor can also be made opaque by adding Chinese white. In East Asia, watercolor painting with inks is referred to as brush painting or scroll painting. In Chinese, Korean, and Japanese painting it has been the dominant medium, often in monochrome black or browns. India, Ethiopia and other countries also have long traditions. Fingerpainting with watercolor paints originated in China.

I was terrible with watercolors. In high school and in college, I had such a hard time with them. I was never good with brushes and paint. I did enjoy the watercolor Caran D’ache pencils I had. That big tin box with hundreds of them. I didn’t mix them with water though. I would have made a mess, I know it. I stuck to painting as if they were pencils, I never took the advantage of their watercolor skills. It was dangerous, I could have stained my clothes, or someone else’s clothes. These days I stick to Photoshop. How convenient, how safe. Anyhow, I wouldn’t have been able to top Monet’s “Sunset at the Cliff in Etretat”.

So, did Jim Rao and Joe Maddalena had any painting skills? They did for music for sure. And perhaps they did long for sunsets in Connecticut. Days must be bleak there. It was 1994 when they joined forces to release their one and only 7″ under this name. It was on the fab Sunday Records, catalog number 033. Two songs, one on each side. Side A is “International Pop Star” and Side B is “The Mirror Tells a Joke”. Both pretty similar I’d say. Jangly and sad. Perfect for the winter, not for summer sunsets.

But Jim and Joe were pretty well known back in the mid-nineties and I’m sure many remember them fondly. Jim was of course Orange Cake Mix, a staple of American indiepop. Joe was in Monsterland and Names for Pebbles (their Motorway 7″ is a true favorite of mine!). I wonder how they met, how did they know each other. Whereas Monsterland would play many gigs, I doubt Orange Cake Mix played many. I wasn’t around at that time here in the North East, but something tells me it was like that. Or maybe Watercolor Sunset was before Orange Cake Mix and Monsterland? Where’s that indiepop indiepop family tree?

They had a third song, on the “The Amazing Phantom Third Channel” compilation 7″ released on Cher Doll (catalog 004), called “Hollywood Decay”. Never heard it. Would love to get my hands on that record. Doesn’t seem easy to track. Well, I haven’t tried yet. I will. But as Neutral Milk Hotel is in that record I feel it will be a wasted endeavor.  I need to clear my eBay saved searches to start. We’ll see.

In 2000 Sunday Records released a CD compilation called “Rolling Meadows Songs About Our Past Vol 2″ (which I don’t have; though I do happen to have two copies of Vol 1, go figure) and on that CD the A side of the 7”, “International Pop Star” was included. So enjoy this little and nice song, their B side, “The Mirror Tells a Joke”.

Where are Jim and Joe these days? Still making music? Did they record more songs under Watercolor Paintings? Did they play gigs? I feel akin to the Northeast area of the US since I moved. I’m very curious of what was happening around back in the day. For further reading I found this small piece on Connecticut’s bedroom pop scene.

Be back next week.

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Listen
Watercolor Sunset – The Mirror Tells a Joke