I’ve never been a big fan of Christmas but this year I would like to ask Santa for some records. I would want some rare and obscure vinyl records from Australia. Specifically from The Tripps. Any of their releases will do. Don’t worry, I don’t have any of them, so they won’t be repeated. I’ve seen their “Sometime Today” 7″ on ebay for 20+ dollars plus postage. At the moment that’s out of my budget. Well, 20 dollars for a 7″ is always out of my budget. But for you Santa, that’s just pocket money, right? Why not? Make a popkid happy this winter. And I’ll keep behaving well, doing my job as an indiepop researcher 24/7, and uncovering beautiful guitar pop songs that the rest of the world should be aware of. What do you say? Can you make it happen? I wait for your answer sometime today.

The Tripps were a three-piece from Australia. I would guess from Sydney, as they recorded their songs there.  Geoffrey Forrester was bass and vocals, David Smith was on drums, and Jonathon Pritchard guitar and vocals. Their first release dates of late 1986, a two song 7″ record on the well known Waterfront Records, home of Club Hoy or the Widdershins among others. Catalog number was DAMP 42. The A side is the only song I have ever heard from them, “Sometime Today”, as a friend had ripped me an old tape with Australian goodies a while back. It is a fantastic song, of great romantic guitar pop, very much in the vein of bands like The Windmills or The Chalk Giants. Just scroll down and you can have a listen! The B-side was a song called “It’s Like a Zoo”. Both songs were penned by the bassist Forrester and were recorded at Reel Time Studios in August of that year. Produced by Chris Logan and engineered by Louise Pollack.

What about the name The Tripps? Surely Tripp is a last name. But I can’t think of any famous person with that last name worth of naming your band. Also it seems that Tripp is a nickname (also spelled Trip) for a man or boy who is the third in his male line of ancestors to bear the same name, and carries a “III” or “3rd” after his name. Another possibility is that it seems that Tripp is also the name of a clothing line popular amongst people involved with the gothic subculture, and rave subculture. Or, if you want to be a wayfarer, you want to be geographical, you can find a couple of cities called Tripp, one in South Dakota and the other in Wisconsin. Don’t think the name comes from any of these.

I’m guessing record sales weren’t too good, and that’s why they moved on to a smaller label. They went to release on Strand Records a 12″ called “Never the Twain” on 1987. Four songs this time: “Factory of Fame (Let’s Get Processed)”, “Ship’s Cat (No-one’s coming Back), “Prayer to the Rainmaker” and “Wayfarers All”. “Ship’s Cat (No-one’s coming back)” was written by someone called Afiouni. And I was really surprised to see there is an entry for ship’s cats on wikipedia:

The ship’s cat has been a common sight on many trading, exploration, and naval ships, and is a phenomenon that goes back to ancient times. Cats have been carried on ships for a number of reasons, the most important being to catch mice and rats. These rodents, when aboard, could cause considerable damage to ropes and woodwork. More serious was the threat rodents posed to the stores the ship carried. Not only could they devour the foodstuff carried to feed the crew, they could cause economic damage if the ship was carrying grain or similar substances as part of its cargo. Rats and mice were also sources of disease, an important consideration for ships which could be at sea for long periods of time. Cats naturally attack and kill these rodents. The prevalence of cats on ships has led to them being reported on by a number of famous seafarers. The outbreak of the Second World War, with the spread of mass communication and the active nature of the world’s navies, also led to a number of ship’s cats becoming celebrities in their own right.

And then there is a list of “famous” ship cats like Nansen, Peebles, Kiddo, Tarawa, and more. None known to me. I wasn’t aware that a cat could achieve celebrity status. Anyways, moving on. I do notice that there is a bit of a mariner, sailor, theme on both A2 and B2 of this 12″, right? Wonder why. Anyhow, this record was recorded in Sydney in 1987 and was produced and engineered by David Price with assistance of Geoff Gordon. There seems to be a 7″ too released this same year for “Ship’s Cat (No-One’s Coming Back)” on Strand Records, catalog Strand 002. The B side being “Green Bottle”. It has a really cute artwork on white and blue, with a female cat wishing farewell to it’s male counterpart, already sailing off.

Now let’s go back to 1986 as this B side, “Green Bottle”, had been released this year on a compilation called “On the Waterfront”. Actually two Tripps songs appear on this really good compilation that includes two other favourite of mine as Love Minus Zero and The Skolars. The other Tripps song on this compilation is called “Crystal Palace”. For those who don’t know about it, The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. After the exhibition, the building was moved to a new park in a high, healthy and affluent area of London called Sydenham Hill, an area not much changed today from the well-heeled suburb full of large villas that it was in its Victorian heyday. The Crystal Palace was enlarged and stood in the area from 1854 to 1936, when it was destroyed by fire. Wonder if the song is about it.

So you see Santa, even this compilation would be a fine gift for the holidays. Or what about this DVD called “More Tales from Underground Australia”? What is it? It seems to be a music video DVD including The Tripps’ “Ship’s Cat”, and The Marigolds’ “Waiting in Line”. I didn’t know there were videos for this! Why aren’t they on youtube? Really Santa, any will do, even getting in touch with the band to learn more about them! Wonder if they recorded more songs, perhaps an unreleased album! Wouldn’t that be great! So any of you out there feel like being Santa, please go ahead! I’d love to know more and listen more about The Tripps!

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I’d love to send regards to the few people that enjoy and read the blog in this holiday season and have helped me find and learn more from many great and obscure bands from indiepop’s past. This may not be Pitchfork or some hype-induced blog, but we care for the songs and the artists. That’s what matters right? It’s about making them popular, not the blog. Anyways, I’ll be back after Christmas to continue with the Indietracks diary! Merry Christmas to all the readers of this little blog!

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Listen
The Tripps – Sometime Today

Back in February 2008 I spend two weeks under the warmth of the Peruvian summer. The humidity and the lack of a/c, that I’m so used by now, was painful to the point of having sleeping problems. It was a good time nonetheless. Those were the days when Plastilina Records was becoming a party of two, instead of four. It wasn’t a harsh break-up, I think our friends Jose and Sete had their own good reasons to leave and Jalito and me thought it made more sense to run the label just the two of us. We could be more productive that way. This brought a breeze of fresh air to both of us to keep the label afloat first, and make it a well known indiepop label. A respected label. We had (and still have) a big debt with our home country though. Our main mission since the start was to be able to create and support an indiepop scene in Lima. We figured out that by having some bands under umbrella we could be able to do this, by organizing gigs, releasing their records, doing merch, and well, the list can go forever. You get the point. We wanted followers in Lima, not just in UK or Japan.

During these early days of 2008 there was a buzz in town about a band of 4 girls called Las Doñas. I remember being at Jose’s house while some football game was on with the volume turned off. The boombox was playing. “I’m going to show you something you are going to like” he said. He grabbed a CD called “No Hit Wonder”, a compilation of Peruvian bands that came along with a magazine called Freak Out!, and swapped it in the boombox player for the Stone Roses CD that was playing. He skipped all songs, all the way to number 08. Suddenly a band that sounded like a very rough version of Los Fresones Rebeldes was playing. La-la-las, wo-oh-ohs, and poppy guitars. This was a true discovery.

I should attribute the discovery to Iván, the guy that was behind Internerds Records who released this CD compilation. He loved Spanish indiepop lots, especially Family and early Mirafiori, but also late 90s American bands like Holiday, which was his favourite. He even made some nice instrumental songs himself, in the vein of Daily Planet, under the name Callahan. But Las Doñas had already made an splash before this underground discovery, they played at a rock contest in 2007. This contest is called Rock in Bembos and happens every year as far as I know. Bembos is a Peruvian hamburger chain that is quite popular, more than McDonalds or Burger King even, that because they have tastier hamburgers, they serve Inca Kola and have yellow hot pepper sauce! And I believe they have stores in many countries, even in India. Anyhow, they organize these rock contests were bands from different high schools are allowed to participate. I remember when I was growing up in Lima and enjoying the juicy hamburgers, that the paper tray liners in Bembos, around November or so, would have photographs and names of the bands that were going to the finals of the contest. I always thought it was a great initiative.

Las Doñas didn’t win this contest sadly. But it was the start of a very short run playing in many bars around the bohemian district of Barranco in the coming year. It was actually in one of these bars, the Bernabé, that I catch them live once, just a couple of days after Jose showed me their song. I was convinced that they could be the force that would inspire more kids to start indiepop bands and finally have some sort of scene in Lima. The song had great lyrics and an unusual charm. And you could tell they had great influences. Of course, the production wasn’t the best, but I was already thinking ahead, and thinking this would sound glorious with proper production. So I told my partner Jalito, let’s go to the gig, and sign them. Just like that. We come in, we see them, if they are any good, we sign them to Plastilina. He grinned and agreed.

Upon arriving to this small bar/venue, we found out that the summer heat was going to kill us. There were a couple of fans, but the body-heat of the packed venue was going to be way more powerful than them. We ordered some Pilsen Callao beers. The tall ones. And sat down for a bit until the gig started. We didn’t have a clue on how the girls looked, so we had to wait after the gig to talk to them. The gig was heroically shambling, everything was like falling apart, but they managed to charm everyone with a great attitude. I wasn’t wrong about their love for Los Fresones Rebeldes as they dared to cover, and with success, their indiepop anthem “Al Amanecer”. It was shocking to say the least. And the crowd, they knew the songs, they sang along!

After the gig was over, we approached them, all the way to the room that was acting as a backstage, where guitars and cases were scattered all around and you had to be careful not to step on them. I stopped the lead singer Susana on her way out, “hey, I’m from Plastilina Records, do you have a minute?”. It was the first time I’ve done that. It kind of felt good, like, you know, a proper label. That you go to gigs and sign bands instead of finding them online. Suddenly the rest of the girls swarmed around and we had a chat. I remember we offered them to release an EP, 5 songs. We would pay for the recordings even. We really believed them. We trusted that they could spearhead a new scene. They said “yes!”. That they would record some demos for new songs in the upcoming months, and then we would choose the best and try to find some time for recording the EP. We had time and patience, so why not.

Sadly time passed and things never came around. We had too big expectations perhaps, and didn’t consider that the band would surrender to the lack of support to an indiepop band in Lima. They did record some songs before breaking up like “La Vaca” or “Penelope Cruz”, but still without the production we hoped for. Nowadays the girls have a rock and roll band that I can’t recommend listening to. Whatever happened to their joy, to the innocence of their songs? It all went down the drain somehow. I always longed to see an indiepop band tagged Peru in Twee.net. I thought this one would be it, that we would make it happen with Plastilina. It didn’t happen. We had some shots before, but never as close as this one. We even introduced ourselves as serious indiepop entrepreneurs at their gig, right? I thought this was our chance to fulfill our Peruvian mission. But they lost hope in guitar pop somehow and by consequence  I lost hope in Peruvian indiepop.

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Listen
Las Doñas – Aeorosol (demo)

10 days and it’s Christmas. I haven’t done any plans. I stayed in Miami in the end and didn’t get to do any Christmas cards this year. Not even bought any gifts. It’s going to be a quiet one. A cold one too it seems. We were almost down to 3 degrees Celsius yesterday in Miami. Bear in mind that we don’t usually have any heating, and most apartment’s insulation is taken care by newspaper inside the walls. It’s odd to see Miami brown. The greenness of the town is slowly disappearing.

My table is full these days, competing with my sheets that don’t let me escape from bed earlier than 11 am. It’s tough to be productive like this. But we I have a Gold-Bears 7″ coming in January. The record is at the pressing plant at the moment and I eagerly await for the test pressings. We are working on a video for the track “So Natural” that was also included on the Happy Prince/Cloudberry compilation released in October called “To Call Up the Shades”. The name from that compilation comes from a poem by Cavafy, and the anecdote behind it, well, there’s not much to it. I miss hanging out with my friend Christos, he is Greek, and Cavafy is Greek. So that’s all. And the title seemed fitting. Anyways, this same song will appear later in 2011 on their full-length on Slumberland Records. It’s really a pleasure to release these 4 songs by Gold-Bears, perhaps Georgia’s best indiepop band ever?

Then the month keeps busy too. The Sound of Young Java is back with it’s third volume. 4 new songs to sample the great indiepop that is made far away in the South East. Then there is a new compilation coming out tentatively called “You Should Always Keep in Touch With Your Friends”. 5 songs, all in different languages, from 5 different bands, from 5 different countries. This is a little tribute to the worldwide indiepop community, were language or nationality or whatever don’t matter. It’s going to be a cracker. And last but not least, the latest on the Cloudberry Classics series will come from Australia, 7 songs by Bart and Friends. That’s for Cloudberry. On Plastilina we have The Sunny Street album going to press any moment now! And if I look a bit forward, it feels like 2011 will be very busy in general. Lots of things to do, touch wood and cross fingers!

Touch Wood: As this expression has superstitious or pre-Christian origins it is usual physically to touch something wooden whilst exclaiming “touch wood”, or shortly afterwards, in order to benefit from the resulting good luck. If the object touched transpires actually to be laminate or some other such non-wooden material then this may result in a scramble to find some real wood, which may be perceived as ominous.

Right, I’ve been listening a lot today to this song called “Touch Wood” by a very obscure band called Nervous Curve. And mainly this post is about asking if anyone has any information on them? As far as I know there were only two songs released. Both of them on tape compilations. “Touch Wood” appears on You Can’t Be Loved Forever vol.3, the last of the series of tape compilations that Philip Ball from The Rileys used to put out. And the other song was “Your Idea of Heaven” that appeared on the Kite compilation in 1989. Both songs are great! Jangly pop at it’s best. You know the formula, catchy melodies, heartfelt vocals and lyrics, chiming guitars, and melancholic choruses. That’s how it goes. In days when a demo tape usually had 4 songs, and these being only 2, I’m assuming that there must be more recordings from this band. Anyone happen to have any more songs by them? Or any information about the whereabouts of the band? Or perhaps the names of the members? Hey! Perhaps they are on facebook! Would be great to know more from them, and dedicate them more lines than this little paragraph. But as I said, the whole world wide web is clueless about Nervous Curve. We need to make it up for it!

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Listen
Nervous Curve – Touch Wood

Yesterday I got some new records on my snail mail. Those who are friends with me on facebook know that I try to listen and rip one 7″ a day. I scan the cover artwork as well and post it on a photo album there. It’s quite a fun exercise. I think if I wouldn’t do that I would just pile records and records and not ever listen to them. I chose to rip one of those records that just yesterday: The Capitols’ “Who Can Tel”. Don’t confuse them with the Michigan band from the 60s that penned “Cool Jerk”, this band is from 1987! Upon opening the cardboard mailer, I was really disappointed by the awful album cover, with some sort black and white photo of curly-haired lady with a half-way smile and wearing hipster glasses.  To be honest I was expecting some terrible songs too. I was giving myself reasons not to feel that bad. “You only paid 2 pounds for it, don’t dwell on it”. But turns out, this is a GREAT record.

I can’t recall how did I know the existence of this record. Could be from Twee.net as it is listed there. I don’t think the ebay lister knew much about it. He had written on the description:

THIS IS A  UK RELEASED  7″ SINGLE  FEATURING THE CAPITOLS
THE  TRACKS ARE   ENTITLED  ” WHO CAN TELL B/W EVERY TIME
“VERY OBSCURE POST-PUNK  BAND HAILING FROM BIRMINGHAM, UK
THE SINGLE WAS RELEASED ON THE UK CAKE  LABEL IN 1987

Why do sellers on ebay love writing with caps lock on? First lesson at typography class was never write too much with upper case type. It’s hard to read. And I’m guessing sellers want people to read their descriptions right? I don’t get it.

Anyways, it is indeed very obscure post punk, though it would fall much better in the C86 category. It’s very much on the vein of The Shop Assistants, Chin Chin, The Wilderness Children and that sort. It’s GREAT. Sadly the record only includes two songs, none of them longer than 2 minutes. Come on! They could have included two more, especially if this was there only release. Think of the fans! And talking about fans, they had a fan club! It seems it was run by a girl called Becky who was based in Moseley, Birmingham. So, it is fair to assume the band was based there as well.

he record was released by Cake Records, a label that mostly supported not so poppy acts like Pigbros or The Davidsons. This was the only 7” released on the label. All other releases were 12″s. Ah! And it’s catalog number Slice 2.  Published by Cubic Music, Distributed by Nine Mile/Cartel. Also from the back cover we learn that the odd lady on the front cover is called Joan. Also lists the band members: Jimbo on bass, Maria on violin, Phil on drums, Sue on vocals and guitar, and Tank on guitar. All lyrics by S. Emilon. I’m guessing that was Sue. No other member’s name start with an S. What a great detective I am.

They had more songs. Checking the John Peel Sessions book I could find that they recorded a session on 6/4/87. The songs recorded were “I Want to Be Alone”, “Who Can Tell?”, “Born Yesterday” and “Failing Again”. The session being produced and recorded by Dale Griffin, Mark Robinson and Mike Shilling at an unknown studio. So, someone out there must have a recording of this! I don’t! Hope some nice person wants to share.

But let’s go back to our detective, researcher, homework. What else have we found about them? It seems The Capitols formed after the split of Cherry Red Records darlings The Nightingales. The story goes more or less like this according to Wikipedia:

The Nightingales original members were Robert Lloyd (vocals), Joe Crow on guitar, Eamonn Duffy on bass and Paul Apperley on drums, all formerly of The Prefects.  The debut single, “Idiot Strength” was released in 1981 on Rough Trade Records, following which Crow and Duffy were replaced by Andy Lloyd and Nick Beales on guitars and Steve Hawkins on bass. The band signed to Cherry Red Records and released three more singles before debut album “Pigs On Purpose” (Produced by Richard Strange) was issued in late 1982.[2] John Nester replaced Hawkins on bass before next release, the “Urban Ospreys” single. Pete Byrchmore replaced Beales (who went on to form Pig Bros) in time for second album, “Hysterics” (1983), Nester then departed to be replaced by Howard Jenner. The new line-up issued two singles in 1985. Further changes then ensued with Andy Lloyd and Paul Apperley leaving, to be replaced by Maria Smith and Ron Collins. After the split, Maria and Pete formed The Capitols, later known as The Rotten Swines (Maria was also a member of Rumblefish).

So, alright, we find here already the connection to Pigbros, and how Pete and Maria met. But who is Pete in the band? Is it Jimbo? Is it Tank? By the way, really cool that Maria also played in Rumblefish! One of my fave bands of the era! I do wonder, with that name, The Rotten Swines, did they sound like The Capitols?

This is all I’ve got so far. I want to hear more songs from them! Even from The Rotten Swines if possible. The Peel Session shouldn’t be that terrible to track, right? Anyways, have a listen yourself. This is pretty good stuff! Much better than the hit or miss indie with girl vocals that swarm these days.

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Listen
The Capitols – Who Can Tell?

To finish our Tamworth trilogy in this blog, our Mark Mortimer on bass trilogy, let’s have a look to Bash Out the Odd. As mentioned on the last post, after some changes in the lineup of Space Seeds the band changed their name to Bash Out the Odd. Their sound also changed, especially with a heavy section of brass, even with trombones and cornets! The sound was more sixties inspired, very mod-ish. Much more upbeat too. According to the Tamworth Bands page there were three phases of this band, three versions, the first from 1988-89, the second from 89-90 and the last 90-90. So let’s go one by one to understand it better. And if anyone has any more of their recordings, please share!

First version (1988-1989)

The band during this period is Mark Brindley on lead vocals/guitar, Julian Amos on lead guitar and backing vocals, Mark Mortimer on bass, Stuart Pickett on bass, Alan Hodgetts on keyboards, Martin Cooper on trumpet, Mark Allison on trumpet and cornet and Bryan Hurdly on bass trombone and euphonium. During this time the Tamworth Herald publishes the news about a video being recorded for three of Bash Out the Odd songs, in a full scale video session. Wonder if these were recorded at all, if so, will they ever pop up on Youtube? That would be ace. Anyways, a month later the band starts to stumble for the first time as Julian Amos leaves the band. It is also during this time that there is talk that Lazy Recordings were going to sign the band to their roster. Mark remembers: “The company that managed chart-hitting indie stars The Primitives and Kingsbury’s indie/punk/garage band Birdland were really into Bash Out The Odd and on several occasions came to see us live in London (and in Tamworth would you believe!?) and were interested in signing us but it never quite happened. We had several labels courting us for a while too and things seemed to be “happening” for the band but for one reason or another it never QUITE got there which is a great shame as there was great potential and as the band developed Mark Brindley started writing songs to go with the ones I wrote and we had some good tunes under our belts.”

They had one demo recorded during this time including the songs “Love Walks Away”. “Heavenly Angel”, “Mother Sea” and “Bug”. You can listen to the first one on the Tamworth Bands jukebox. Also here you can read more about the recordings of this demo as well as many memories and anecdotes about how the band started or even about the songs.

Second version (1989-1990)

Now the band has Pete Woodward on lead guitar and backing vocals, and John Bates on keyboards. Mark Mortimer remembers: “The second version of Bash Out The Odd took on a more powerful, harder sound. The classical horns remained and continued to sound brilliant but Julian Amos simply vanished one day without warning (he moved to live in Oswestry to work as a private investigator without telling ANYONE!!). He was replaced by a loud-mouthed and opinionated guitarist from Solihull called Pete Woodward whose presence in the band often led to a lot of friction which sometimes even boiled over into violent confrontation!! Nevertheless, he was a strong, powerful, rockin’ guitarist and this led the group into a much tougher-sound. Alan Hodgetts quit the group and moved to Coventry where he worked on BBC Radio and Mark (Brindley) roped in his old mucker John Bates on keyboards. We were keen for him to use his sampler and this meant, from my own point of view, we could bring in more exotic and 60s-influenced ideas like sitars and Middle Eastern string sounds etc!! Fun! During one period of time Stuart Pickett sadly quit the group and we struggled on without him with Mark Brindley’s uncle (whose name I have forgotten now!) stepping in to help out – he hadn’t played drums since his youth in the swinging 60s and this made it a challenging time really. During this period we recorded another demo – “Laughing House” and we used programmed drums to get the effect we wanted. We also had a bearded, older drummer from Birmingham for a couple of months whose name I have now forgotten who reminded me of Jet Black of The Stranglers!! Thankfully, Stuart returned to the band after a while and we continued to play quite a large number of gigs, travelling down to London on a couple of occasions to play infamous indie rock venue The Bull & Gate in Kentish Town and also the Greyhound in Fulham which – of course – was an important venue in the pub rock-dominated mid 70s and was also one of the early venues a lot of the punk bands played.“

They recorded one demo tape including the songs “Laughing House” and “September Honey”. According to the version 2 page of Tamworth Bands there was also a tape including live recordings of a gig at the Fulham Greyhound. Wonder which songs were included there! I’ve included here on the blog for download the great “Laughing House”, which Mark says it “was a frantic but catchy powerhouse of a tune driven by this pounding heavy drum track and the thrashy guitars. The horns were pristine and powerful. Mark (Brindley) wrote the odd lyrics that included references to “eskimo rolls” over the music that I had written.”

Third version (1990)

The third, and final version of the band. Alan Hodgetts had came back to pick up the keyboards as in version 1 but there was a new guitarist in the band: Paul Whitehead. He is not very well remembered according to this page: “Pete Woodward was either sacked or left the band (I can’t quite remember which) due to the clash of personalities and he was replaced by a guy from Coventry called Paul (none of us can remember his surname) who played guitar and also a guitar synth (something I wasn’t very fond of!!). He was a very insular chap, kept himself to himself and the contrast with Pete Woodward could not have been more vivid!!”

There was only one song recorded during this period: “Rainy Day Sunshine”. It was recorded not at Expresso Bongo like all the other prior recordings, but at The Reptile House in Lichfield. This song was supposed to come out on an album of original material from bands that used that rehearsal space. It seems this album release never happened. Seems luck was never on the side of them. By the end of 1990 the band decided to call it a day. They would later resurface as The Strangeloves…

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Listen
Bash Out the Odd – Laughing House

The Tamworth Bands page keeps surprising me. If months ago I got to discover Emma Gibbs Loves Badges there, and this past week Great Express, today I found out about Space Seeds. Seems that the indiepop, guitar pop, in the 80s, is still much of an uncharted scene. There’s still lots to cover, lots to discover, lots to listen. And then we have the 90s and the 00s, and well, it seems quite impossible to ever think of a comprehensible guide to the music we like. Sometimes I like to think of this blog as the one that will be a guide to those deep corners of our scene, to the long lost bands, to the obscure songs, that deserve to be heard. Perhaps, my real ambition is to one day be able to put together this guide in a proper book format. But who’ll read it, who’ll publish it? Maybe it would be a digital book? Does anyone use the kindle or the ipad? I don’t. There’s something wrong about them. I feel like I would lose my vision by staring and reading from those devices. Mind you I am staring and working on the computer at least 8 hours straight at work everyday. I know. It’s nonsense. Anyways, I raise the question, would the effort of making something like that work?

My first guess was that the Space Seeds peeps were fans of Star Trek. There was an episode called “Space Seed” in the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series, that was first broadcast on February 16, 1967. During this episode the crew of the Enterprise awakens a powerful dictator from Earth’s war-torn past: Khan. My second guess was that they were some sort of nerdy band, a scientist band, were they looked way ahead in the future and saw that NASA was going to harvest plants in space, with the so called space seeds. The plan NASA had was to be able to grow plants in space, for the astronauts to eat the crops. The surprising part was that when these crops were brought back to Earth, they were super-sized. They hope that these enormous pumpkins, as well as two-foot long (06.m) cucumbers, 14lb (6.3kg) aubergines, and chilli plants which resemble small trees, could provide an answer to the world’s food crisis  some day. They also found out that near zero gravity conditions in space result in super-sized fruit and vegetables with a higher vitamin content and the plants are said to produce harvests which are ten to 20 per cent higher than normal!

In any case, Space Seeds as a band didn’t yield many songs or lasted for a long time. They were only around for 1 year, from 1988 to 1989. And even though on the photo you can see seven people, there were originally only three people in the band: Mark Brindley, Stu Blain and Mark Mortimer. Yes, the same Mark from Great Express that I wrote about before. Later, they grew up to be a seven piece when Martin Kelly, Stu Pickett, Alan Hodgetts. Mark Allison and Martin Cooper joined. They seem to have had only seven songs recorded that were released on a tape called “Seven Track Collection”. I haven’t yet found out what were the names of all the songs but four: “Autumn Girl”, “Feel Your Touch”, “Switchblade Love”, “Saturn in Her Eyes”. The last two available to stream from the Tamworth Bands jukebox. You’ll notice that “Saturn in Her Eyes” is not really poppy, but according to press from the time, this song was their exception of the rule in their repertoire. It was their Teardrop Explosion moment. They say that the rest of the tape, the other six songs were great pop songs, as you can tell after listening to “Switchblade Love”. And gig wise, they played only 8 times live, mostly in Tamworth but also outing as far as Derby, Oadby and Burntwood. They played once a gig with a band I’ve always been curious about to listen to, but no luck yet, The Macoys. Any audio from them will be greatly appreciated!

In 1989 there were changes in the band. Lead singer Martin Kelly quit the band due to “musical differences”. Julian Amos, from The Macoys and Great Express would fill in. Also these were the last days of the band. On October the 2nd of that year, they decided it was time to call it quits and start a new band called Bash out the Odd. More on them later this week on the blog. But if you can’t wait, you can check some of their tunes on the jukebox at the Tamworth Bands page too. Pretty good stuff!

So, any chance anyone has the other songs recorded by Space Seeds?

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Listen
Space Seeds – Switchblade Love

The first time I took a proper train was not really a Great Express. It was between Essen and Hamburg, in Germany. Last year. We don’t use trains here in Florida. They are non-existent, unless they are cargo trains. Actually, I used to live for around a year on a building next to some rail tracks for this cargo train who’s last stop is the port of Miami. One of the biggest this side of the Atlantic. Those were quiet days in North Miami Beach, up on Biscayne avenue, only to be noisy every midnight when the train came by. Today, another noisy train has come my way and this time it is a Great Express!

Great Express was a short lived band from Tamworth, UK. They were only around for less than two years, from 86 to 88, mostly as a side project of Mark Mortimer who was involved with many bands at the time. The band was formed by Julian Amos on lead vocals and guitar, Ted Wilson on lead guitar and backing vocals, the aforementioned Mark Mortimer on bass, Chantal Weston on keyboards and Dave Burgess on drums. Later in 1988 Dave Burgess would leave the band to be replaced by Simon Harvey.

During this time they gigged a lot, even playing next to favourites of mine, Mighty Mighty. Mark remembers about their gigs:
The gigs were always real fun and quite intense in some ways. Remember we did a gig on The Isle of Wight, having played in Salisbury the night before and we also played in mid-Wales to abject ignorance from the audience. We did a number of university gigs including Leicester University and lots of local venues including the ubiquitous Tavern In The Town, the Rathole etc.

Of course, a big shame that I couldn’t attend to any of the gigs. But my biggest disappointment is that there was no proper release that I could get my hands on, or be on the lookout on ebay. They did have enough songs for a proper release, mind you. In total they had 10 songs, all put out in 4 different demo tapes. They recorded the following songs: “Graveyard Faces”, “Witch-Well”, “Pieces”, “Heavenly, Heavenly”, “Black Flower”, “Silent Head”, “Miles High”, “(You Could) Change My World)”, “Firework”, “Total Excess at 200 Yards”. 3 of them available to stream from the Tamworth Bands jukebox. As you’ll find out, they are really good!

Mark Mortimer also gives some insight about these recordings:

Silent Head was a second Great Express line-up recording done at the Expresso Bongo in 1988. It’s a song I wrote and features, heavily, Chantal’s keyboardy sitar sounds together with Ted Wilson’s excellent 12-string guitar (what a great musician he was/is). Lead vocals were from Julian Amos. Chantal sang the backing vocals too – and it was my gibberish backwards vocals at the end of the track. The bass of course was also played by yours truly and the drums were by Simon Harvey. Mark Mortimer

All the demos were recorded at The Expresso Bongo Studios, Tamworth and engineered by Paul Speare. “(You Could) Change My World” was produced by the then Julian Cope guitarist Donald Ross Skinner (he also played keyboards on it). Paul Stansfield (ex-Dream Factory and Expresso Bongo Orchestra) played tenor trombone on the “Witch-Well” demo. Ex-Dream Factory and Terroah drummer Andy “Batman” Holt played drums on “Total Excess At 200 Yards”, Brian Lacey was lead vocals and guitar on “Graveyard Faces.”
Memories

The great Tamworth Bands page also has many snippets from the Tamworth Herald Musicbox column. Among them there are some very interesting ones, telling some cool anecdotes from this long lost band. I really enjoy this one, written just before the Mighty Mighty gig:

The powerful double-header is certain to see one of the Arts Centres biggest attendances so far and spectators are promised an exciting, contrasting show. Mighty Mighty…
…The Great Express. This will be the bands first major Tamworth town centre show and according to bassist Mark Mortimer it should be an interesting night for band and spectators alike.
“People who come along expecting a cross between Orange and The Dream Factory are in for a massive shock,” said Mark. “We are very powerful and there is no other band I know what sounds like us.” For those who don’t know, The Great Express began as a vision in the mind of former Dream Factory bassist Mark Mortimer. When the Factory split, he attempted to get that vision into clearer focus by recruiting drummer Dave Burgess and keyboard player Chantal Weston. Next, Mark teamed up with his ex-colleague singer/ guitarist Brian Lacey, but when the Mortimer/Lacey marriage ended in divorce, Julian Amos and Ted Wilson stepped in and the Express are now complete. Anyway that’s the history, let’s talk about the future.
“I feel like an alcoholic about this band – I just can’t get enough of it and I just crave to do gigs,” said Mark. “I feel very excited about the band, because it is close to my own true musical aims and those of everyone else in the band.”Influences such as Julian Cope and The Mighty Lemon Drops are obvious enough, but at the band’s first concert at Nuneaton they were also compared to Crazyhead, The Jam and wait for it – AC/DC.
“AC/DC, can you believe it?” said Mark. “That made me laugh at the time because I think it shows that we’re totally different and people will have to just come along and make their own minds up.
”As well as Sunday’s show at the Arts Centre, the Express will also be in action at the Tavern on Thursday night giving people a chance to make their mind up twice. I for one feel we are all in for a treat – and an unusual one at that.

And also they received so many great reviews for their gigs, and praise for their quality songs:

– To me the group came over as an aggressive version of the criminally under-rated Church wit touches of The Go-Betweens, The Jam and The Mighty Lemon Drops thrown in. For the most part it was hard-hitting and hard-sounding with the dual use of Julian and Ted’s guitars creating a colourful, meandering wall of sound. Songs like ‘Laughing House’, ‘Witch Well’ and ‘Pieces’ fitted into this strong sphere, but just to confuse matters they added surprising pop touches like the elegant ‘Heavenly, Heavenly’ which sounded like a slice from the Jam’s hallmark album ‘The Gift’.

– But the best was undoubtedly saved until last. The band finished their set with a riveting, brilliant number called ‘Over and Out’ which started like an early Pink Floyd number, and grew and grew into something large, colossal and quite mesmerising. The last minute or so as the whole band speeded the melody-up bar by bar was quite riveting and done with the sort of exact and exacting professionalism that is the outstanding feature of Mark Mortimer’s work. The whole effect was almost numbing and I am convinced that in ‘Over and Out’, The Great Express have created a classic set-ender.

– And how they justified that ‘Great’ tag tonight. Even compared to their first uplifting ‘Rathole’ show this was a revelation and proved that the Great Express are an almighty force for Tamworth to be proud of. Gone are any tracks that were less than 100 per cent dynamite and in comes powerhouse full of unrestrained anger and menacing guitars. One of two of the tunes are priceless and the band’s stage show is now dramatic and immensely watchable. Great performers, great show, great songs. Great Express. Brilliant.

Everyone seems to have been right about them. But, what happened to the record labels? Why didn’t they pick them? Or why didn’t the band self finance their own record? The songs were really strong, and I’m sure they knew that. The Great Express deserved to end it’s journey in a better way.

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Great Express – Silent Head

A couple of days ago I bought for a mere $1.50 on Amazon a compilation called “Pure Spun Sugar” released in 1998 by two labels together: American Pop Project and Candy Floss. It feels like a compendium of many small bands from those days, including some known names like Dressy Bessy, Cuckooland, Aquadays or Poastal, to name a few. It flows nicely, and surprises at many points. My first surprise is that Dizzy Joghurt, the great twee-ish band from Japan, was already in the radar of some labels in the USA, I have never understood why they aren’t more known. Second surprise was that The Brian Jonestown Massacre song included is quite good. I admit never listening to them because I think they have a terrible name. Maybe they have some stuff that’s worth? And the last surprise I get from it, is a track called “Phil Spector’s Birthday Song”.

The compilation includes many California bands, I wonder why. From the 14 songs on it, 6 are from the Golden State. That’s 43%! Two of these bands, from the 43% clutch, are from San Diego, the great Red Dye No.5 and the unknown to me, The Sleazy Beats. They are the ones who have penned that tribute song to Phil Spector, that whose wall of sound is over exaggerated nowadays with the reverb tuned up to the max. And no, today it’s not his birthday, I’m not doing any sort of tribute myself. We are a month away actually, Mr. Spector was born the same day as baby Jesus, December 25th. And anyways, he will spend his birthday in the state prison of Corcoran. Don’t think he’ll have a big celebration.

‘Kind of like the Wall of Sound/You stand tall forever…’ –  The Sleazy Beats sing.  Also as the song starts to fade, a guitar countermelody first features the line associated with the words ‘be my, be my baby,’ and then the one for ‘to know, know, know him…’ The song is full of nods to Phil Spector. But are there any nods or hints to who The Sleazy Beats were? The answer is no. I looked online for more information about them just to come empty handed.

The only other clue is an address written on the compilation. 6633 Solita Avenue, San Diego. Plotted the address on Google Maps, and went ahead to some modern stalking skills. Street View! A one floor white house comes up. A small US flag hanging outside, the front porch surrounded with a white picket fence. A lovely house, a big garage, and I assume at least 2 bedrooms. There are only four houses on this block, two in this side of the street, big enough to house a band. Also it seems to have a big garden in the back and a bungalow! Perfect place to store the drums! But then, 10 years have passed and most probably they have moved away and some retired couple is now living and gardening this house.

This case seems to have too many lose-ends and not many clues for the indiepop detective. Whatever happened to The Sleazy Beats? Did they release any other songs? Did anyone remembers them playing live? Judging from the poptastic “Phil Spector’s Birthday Song”, they were up for something special.

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The Sleazy Beats – Phil Spector’s Birthday Song

Just arrived to work from a busy morning working on some label stuff. Got my hair all messy after carrying 500 records from the first floor to the third floor of my building, which is the part I dislike the most when there’s a new release coming. 500 records are really heavy to carry at once, you can get sweaty! Then back again to the first floor and pick up a box with 500 sleeves and another with the 500 inserts. Then go back upstairs. I wonder how come I don’t look like Charles Atlas.

So yes, the new Oh! Custer 7″ is ready to ship even though the release date is on Monday the 15th. For that I set up a newsletter to be sent at 6:00 am eastern time, as it is also noon in Europe. Around lunch time, when people check their emails. Then, the emailing continued. Got some good orders from different international shops and hopefully I will be able to afford paying the sleeves’ invoice that will be coming up soon. Press sheet is done, courtesy of the great writing of my friend Emelie, and I just ordered 100 more pins to be given away for free. My pulse beats fast, I hope I’m not forgetting anything. Then comes the part I like the most: opening the boxes. I’m considering on purchasing a box-cutter for Christmas.

Some nice records also arrived today for my collection, new 7″s, and new CDs. Happy times. But also I get an email from fellow obscure-indiepop enthusiast Matt Mastin asking me if I checked a band called “On the Pulsebeat” on the Harlow Bands jukebox. Yes, the same page were we discovered more songs from the great Some Other Day. My answer is no. I’ve never heard about this band, ever. He tells me: “that track “Living at the same address” is truly a long lost indie classic if I’ve ever heard one !!” So I run and check. And he is right. This is great stuff! Who are they?! And again, my pulse beat accelerates. I need to know. I need to find out who this band is. And I have to go to work, and there’s not much time in between, but I know I won’t be happy with myself until I exhaust every effort in trying to figure out who this fantastic Harlow band was.

Clearly, On The Pulsebeat’s pulse beat stopped beating a long time ago, during the mid-80s. The small bio on the Harlow page says:

On The Pulsebeat were Kevin Wells on bass, Ewart Richardson on guitar, Jane Hawkins on synth, Barry Rice on guitar and Ray Davies on drums. In 1985 after recording “Castles In The Air” Jane left and Jo Maskell joined. They recorded “FIVE” together. They entered the Rock Competition in 1984 and 1985 but failed to reach finals on both occasions.

At first listen, especially on their upbeat tracks, they remind me to the obscure band Hearts on Fire, that released an album on Midnight Music and I believe should deserve a post here on the Lost Bands section! It seems they only recorded two tapes, the aforementioned  “Castles in the Air” and “Five”. On “Castle in the Air” the tracks included were “The Price You Pay”, “False Situation” and “Discovery”. It was recorded in Stable Studio and it was produced by Gary Westcott. On their second demo tape, “Five”, we find the tracks “Now”, “Loneliness”, “Inside Story”, “Living at the Same Address” and “The Touch”. This time the songs were produced and recorded by John Brown. But it seems there were more recordings, perhaps another tape, as we find on the Harlow page jukebox some more songs like “Lost and Found”, “Running”, “The Events” and “The Price You Pay”.

A google search gives me no results. I check their previous bands listed in this page, “Blue Heaven” and “Foundation”, and there’s no information. This is it. There’s no more. Time is running and I have to run to work. Seems there’s nowhere else to look for more info about them. Thus, to keep my mind sane, I decided that my last resort is to write this blog post, calling out, asking if anyone can fill in the blanks. Whatever happened to On the Pulsebeat? When did it stop beating?

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On the Pulsebeat – Living at the Same Address

It’s just some other day, some other Sunday here. It’s a quiet one. For once the temperature has dropped under 15 degrees and, without the hellish warmth of this town, the days seem longer. My worries revolve around having printing sleeves for a new release and noticing there is a mistake on the track list, thus they have to be trashed. Very annoying, will have to print a new set. Also cut them and glue them together. Lost of hours lost. It’s really just some other day.

Among the exciting things, this upcoming week will be like Christmas on my snail mail. First I’m receiving the inserts for the Oh! Custer 7″, then the 7″s themselves and later the sleeves. Ready to ship to the  ones who have pre-ordered it. Think I’ll need to change the blade on my cutter too, lots of inserts to cut! The other news is that I already received a proof of the new album I’m releasing on the new label I’m putting together with my friend Victor Raul, it looks good, but we need to make a few changes as it didn’t print as we wanted. So now we are looking forward to a new proof copy. We are hoping for a December 1st release, and we should unveil the website any day now. It’s looking very nice. But then, most weeks are like Christmas on my mailbox, so just some other week.

Anyhow, that album we are releasing has been on heavy rotation on my CD player. It’s called “Australia” and it’s by Gothenburg band “Tellus about the Moon“. It’s really nice, it’s haunting! There’s some bright guitars, a lot of elegance, and trumpets! The boy/girl vocals are delicious on it. It has taken us ages to be able to put it together and at last it seems we have it, the ball is rolling on this new project. And yes, I said haunting before, and you know what haunts me when I listen to this album? I hear the ghosts of a long lost 80s band: Some Other Day. Their spirit is very much alive on this record. I feel and sense so many similarities, that gives me the chills. And not like it is a copycat or anything, but it feels both bands were in the same brainwave 20 years apart!

Some Other Day had those bright guitars, that elegance, that melancholy in the vocals, and these dreamy boy/girl vocals that are my weakness. They didn’t get to release an album sadly. They didn’t get to release anything proper. Just two songs on compilations. The first one was “Sad But True” on the “Uncle Arthur’s Pop Parlour” tape that our friend David Driscoll released. The other was “Bury Your Sins” on the “Not Just Mandela” LP, a tribute album for South Africa’s then president that included bands like The Housemartins, The Sullivans or even Billy Bragg.  This one I haven’t had yet the chance to listen sadly. They did release at least one demo tape that included 4 fab songs: “Head Still Full of You”, “All Water Under the Bridge”, “It Stays With Me Always” and “Midnight”. This little collection of songs are wonderful! You can stream them from here, the Harlow Bands Jukebox.

After listening to these songs I immediately went to google and tried to find any information about them, hopefully a contact, as I would love to interview them. I did find Mark Walshe, the vocalist and leader of the band, on myspace, but still he hasn’t signed on it. Seems he is living in San Francisco. There is a very interesting blurb there:

Mark is from England. He has been living in San Francisco for the last 14 years but only came for a two month visit. His big brother once took him up to Twin Peaks at the very top of the city and said “all this could be yours”. It wasn’t his to give, but the point was well made. Through his teens and into his twenties Mark played in bands back in England. Lots of good rock and roll groups. He’s from Harlow Town which is just a hop and a skip from North London. Back in the 70’s and 80’s, at first glance, Harlow appeared to be nothing more than a large training camp for Tottenham and West Ham football holligans. Thanks to the one and only decent local venue called ‘The Square’ Mark met many fine musicians and got involved in some good old rock and roll. He played in Dark Horse, The Clinic, Some Other Day and The Tender Trap. Harlow, as it turned out was also a breeding ground for some damn good art. Moving to London in the late ’80s The Tender Trap became his main concern and he spent much of his time in a transit van traveling all over Britain. A favourite memory was a tour with ex-‘Men They Couldn’t Hang’ lads ‘The Liberty Cage’. They meandered all the way up to Edinburgh and lived there for a week whilst performing shows at the festival. One day he hopes to write a book about those times but fears that only his mother and the other people in those bands would read it. Perhaps the driver too.

On another page I could find a little more info on the band:

Some Other Day were formed after Mark Walsh left The Clinic. Originally a two piece with Mark on guitar and Suzy Allen on vocals they soon expanded and added Billy Dawkins on drums. Soon after this they added Richard Martin on bass. Some Other Day entered the 1985 Rock Contest but failed to reach the finals.

Also I found a rambling by BBC Radio’s Steve Lamacq saying:

A couple of us also managed to stage an editorial coup, seizing control of the Gazette’s music page and writing endlessly about the Newtown Neurotics and various other lesser-known local hopefuls (one of which, a band called Some Other Day, I also ended up managing unsuccessfully for about two months).

Maybe he is the one to blame for the band not having a proper release? “Managing unsuccessfully”? The songs are so good that I don’t see why not even a self-released 7″, or even a flexi, couldn’t have happened. Their music was not just music for some other day. I wonder if there were more songs, why did they break up? if they play lots of gigs? Maybe those living in San Francisco can tell Mark to get in touch! Maybe this helps for you to track him down?

Rarely is there a night that Mark Walshe is not in a bar (pitching trivia questions). Originally from Harlow, Essex, Mark lived in North East London in his early twenties. His interest in broadcasting originated in his rock and roll bands ‘Some Other Day’ and ‘The Tender Trap.’ Mark has worked as a DJ and booker for Nickie’s nightclub in SF’s Lower Haight St. and as full time DJ/emcee at SF’s Virgin Megastore, where he turned the downtown shoppers onto music and interviewed Nelly Furtado, Blondie, De La Soul and David Byrne. He much prefers people mistaking him for Jimmy Page than Simon Cowell, which is the main reason that he hasn’t had a haircut in some time! Mark writes and performs his own songs, which he dearly hopes won’t remind you of Donovan! Stop by and play Wednesdays at O’Neill’s Irish Pub (San Mateo), and Thursdays at Elephant & Castle in San Francisco.

Ah! and now back to my some other Sunday.

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Listen
Some Other Day – Head Still Full of You