Photo: sitting on the gate from left to right are Michael Green, Tim Slater, Dave Wick, John Lindsell and the Dave Fletcher.

A couple of days ago Michael Green, The Nightjars guitarist, got in touch with me. I had written a blog piece about his band many months ago asking for some more information about it and somehow he stumbled upon it. How thrilling! And he has been so nice to tell me the whole story of the band with me, and of course, I want to share with you all. Also he scanned a promo photo of The Nightjars, plus an interview on a Cambridgeshire zine called “Scene and Heard” (part 1, part 2, part 3). Also he asked me to upload the B side “Hang Me Out Dry” which he said: “was only of my favourite things we did. I remember writing the original chugging (C F Am F I think….) riff, sat on my amp,playing it to the others and then Tim Slater improvising the slide guitar bit over the top straight off the top of his head, it was all pretty instant really which are usually the best ones.” And I can only agree, it’s fantastic tune!

And here is the whole story:

The Nightjars were formed from an amalgamation of twobands – The Giant Polar Bears and Red Over White. Original band members were Johnny Lindsell (vocals) Dave Wick (bass) Brendan Costello (guitar) and Dave “Fletch” Fletcher (drums). The name was Johnny’s idea – he is a bit of an ornithologist on the side and came across it in a bird book, thought the nocturnal animal / mesmerizing call bit was cool. Personally, I much preferred The Giant Polar Bears but wasn’t in the group then so didn’t have a say! The thinking at the time was it was too close to The Mighty Lemon Drops (well done on your referencing of influences in the article by the way – spot on)- turns out there’s another band now from Manchester callTheNightjars (part of me feels like contacting them to suggest calling themselves The Giant Polar Bears….much better name but there we are!) Brendan eventually emigrated to Australia to manage a mine somewhere and on-board came Tim Slater, who at the time worked in a guitar shop in Cambridge.

Somewhere around 1988 the band decided they wanted to fill the sound out by adding another guitarist. I lived in the same village as Johnny (Wistow, Cambs) and he’d heard I played guitar. The band at this point were in their mid to late 20’s, I was 15. So I get a knock on my door one day asking if I’d like to audition for the band – one of the most nerve-wracking decisions I’d had in my life! Half of me was “YEAH!”, the other half was “but I only know half a dozen chords and how to play a power chord…..” Anyway – I agreed and that afternoon had an audition in a pig barn (yep…) where the band practiced every Sunday afternoon. I passed the test, was thrown a bunch of tapes to learn the songs and told I’d be playing my first gig that Thursday Night in a snooker hall in Ramsey. Spent next 3 days furiously learning the songs and it went like clockwork – one of the best nights of my life, I was officially a rock star….!

Over the next 3 years we gigged extensively and made a handful of demos, culminating in putting Acid In Your Face to vinyl. We were by far and away the best followed band in the Cambridge area and supported the likes of Teenage Fanclub (to be eternal regret I broke my hand the night before and had to sit the gig out), Throwing Muses (remember being horrified that they got paid £1500 for the gig and had a rider that included white towels, whilewe did the whole thing for a case of Red Stripe)and many others. This was our forte – playing live – and we knew it, Johnny wasn’t the best vocalist of all time though he was an outstanding front man and we weren’t the best of musicians (bar Tim Slater) though we could certainly hold our own.Live we hadsome kind of X-Factor that seemed to draw the local youth to us more than any other band, I cant really explain it but it was like we were all part of the same club.Tim went on to be features editor for Guitarist magazine but I have no idea what he, or the others, are doing now – ironically it was by putting his name into google that I found you last night. I’ve also found another guy who I think replaced me in ‘92 and claims to have played on “Acid in your Face – NME Single of the week”. I’m very tempted to email him to say a) no you didnt and b) it was never NME Single of the Week! I see you have this in your article, I’m sure we didn’t but aforementioned band above have done, it may be that you are confusing the two? Would be very interested to know where you got info from though, would make my day if we had and I’d forgotten!From memory I think we may have made the John Peel show though…?

So – this was a big big part of my life from 15-18 but in ‘91 I finished school and passed exams to go to University in Manchester. At the time there was some interest from Rough Trade records, which turned my head a bit but in my heart of hearts I knew we’d never make it so left the band and went to University, where I met my now wife etc etc and the rest is history. I joined a band up there called Dream Baby Dream (now if you want to talk horrendous band names….) but it just wasn’t the same and have just plucked along on my own since, writing the odd thing here and there for my own amusement. Ironically, when I moved to Manchester – the other end of the country – I found the single in a record shop in the bargain bucket! Each week it went down 10p in price until the last time I saw it it was going for something like 5p and disappeared – whether someone bought it or it was chucked away who knows.

Out of interest, I nearly fell off my chair last night when I saw the single cover on your site, the cover is one of my mates (Paddy Hulson) holding Johnny’s baby daughter Poppy. Poppy must be 20/21 now – unbelievable.

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The Nightjars – Hold Me Out To Dry

So who doesn’t love badges? I have tons. Talulah Gosh started out thanks to the love of Pastels badges. Flipper’s Guitar were also crazy about their Pastels badge. So why Emma Gibbs can’t be dreaming for a huge collection of badges, the biggest ever seen, a mount Everest of badges. Why not?

Alright. Let’s stop for a moment. Here I come, private eyes. I know a couple of Emmas, my favourite being Dalarna’s Emma (by far!). But I’ve never heard of Emma Gibbs! Who’s Emma Gibbs?!

No clue. If you do a google search, first result is Penthouse pet of the year 2009. I guess that’s not the one we are looking for. I mean, a Penthouse pet doesn’t have anywhere to attach her beloved badges, does her? On to the next result. There seems to be an Emma Gibbs Band. But their music is not something that sounds interesting to me, and I doubt it will interest you. Let’s turn the page, the internet won’t solve this mystery, not yet. Let’s give it another shot. Let’s search name, last name, and profession: “Emma Gibbs Loves Badges”.

First and only stop is the fantastic Tamworth Bands website that has lots of Emma Gibbs Loves Badges’ bobs and pieces from the local Tamworth newspaper, the Tamworth Herald.

Attention: I’ve picked up the most interesting and important pieces and put them together here. But still visit the site as there is a player where you can stream many of the songs from this lost band!

1. The band was formed in 1987 and the lineup included:

• Lee Revelle – Vocals
• Spencer Ireland – Bass Guitar
• Andrew Hyde – Guitar
• Nichola Musgrove – Guitar
• Paul Byrne – Drums

2. Some background information / how they sounded.

Tamworth Herald – 29/05/87
so unique that even their name comes from a ‘Scooper heading!’ Emma Gibbs play modern acoustic pop which owes much to the heritage of Aztec Camera and more modern bands like the Bodines, their sounds is full of curiously, unfolding melodies and very strong lyrics, and if they create the sort of impact they did at their …show, ANYTHING can and probably will happen.

3. Gigs

Among the bands they’ve played one of them is well known to indiepop fans, The Rosehips. Yup! They had a gig together in 1987 at a place called The Rathole. On the same bill were Creation protegés Blow Up as well. On 1990 they would open for a bigger act: Teenage Fanclub. But there are other names I can find on this website that catch my attention, and hopefully cover them sometime soon on the blog: Fetch Eddie, Flowers in the Attic, Catch 23 and more.

4. Releases

From what I could gather, there were 2 releases, one 7″, and one 12″. The 7″ had as an A-Side the track “Patience”, and as a B-Side it had “Assured”. It was released on Utopia Records and was catalog PANTS001. The 12″ had four songs: “Unobtainable”, “What Do You Get When You Fall In Love”, “Garry Bushnell” and “Spin” and was released on the same label but this time the catalog was 1201. I think, but can’t confirm, that there was another 7″, this one including “Second City” as an A-side and “Worship” as the B-Side. If you ever see two copies of any of these releases, keep one for yourself, the other one please send to me. I’ve been looking for them with no luck so far. But let’s continue.

There was also a demo that got reviewed on the same newspaper, the Tamworth Herald:

Emma Gibbs Loves Badges – Circles
Sensitive, almost shy offering which is highly personal and highly impressive. Taken away from the arrogant stage posturings it shows Lee Revelle at his warmest and most musically intelligent and is a perfect if somewhat unexpected accompaniment to the act of verbal love-making. ‘You’ll Enjoy It When you Get There’ is cute and classy but ‘In Circles’ is even better and is dramatically effective in the three forms it is here presented. A major surprise of major standing.

Do you know anything else? Do you have any more information about this great guitar pop band? Do you have any great story to tell? If so, you know what to do: SHARE!

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Listen
Emma Gibbs Loves Badges – Absorb Me

Have you ever had pop dreams?

I barely remember my dreams. I would have to jump out of bed after waking up, run, find a pen, find a sheet of paper, and write whatever I remember down, that if I don’t trip with my clumsy self. I wish it was easier. Easier as it is for anyone else. After a minute or so after I’m awake I can’t remember anything. I try and try to remember while having my glass of diet coke for breakfast and going through emails, but no luck. Not that I believe they have a meaning but they are always great stories to tell. On the bright side I never have nightmares, so I shouldn’t complain much, right?

Have you ever had pop dreams?

The Sparklers once wrote a song called Pop Dreams, which is the B-side of their Secret Snow 7″ on Fantastic Records. A beautiful song, a cross between The Softies and The Magnetic Fields. Sadly there’s not much information about this band, but as a good private eye that I am, I did some research today to find out:

– The band was formed by Risa Buburniak (keyboards, vocals), Brooke Rossi (vocals, farfisa organ), Ian (violin), and Jonathan (keyboards, beats). Oddly enough, on the record insert the band photo only shows three people, 2 girls, 1 boy. Who was left out? Ian or Jonathan?

– Risa and Rossi helped with vocals on the first eponymous album by Saturday Looks Good to Me. That’s in 2000.

– There was a song called “Paintings” included on the compilation CD that came together with the Japanese magazine Beikoku Ongaku.

– There are at least 2 more songs recorded: “Little Prince” and “Cyclical”. Both are demos and were once played at the University of Michigan radio.

Any more information about this fantastic band would be greatly appreciated! And I would die to listen to those demo songs or to Paintings! Please dream of me this time and give me a hand

Have you ever had pop dreams?

Close your eyes say goodnight
When you sleep… do you dream?
When you dream… do you think of me?

Be the Peter to my Wendy
Grab my hand we’ll fly away
Think good thoughts… it will be so easy

Take my hand, we’ll kiss this place goodbye
You said I won’t even follow
I’ll chase you through to the clouds
I said I won’t even follow

Close your eyes say goodnight
Do you dream in colors bright?
Do you dream in black and white?

Be the Truman to my Andy
Go on now, go to the city
Write a book, we’ll make a movie

Come on now, let’s go, we’ll glamourize
go go glamourize
(I will wait for you my love
Say you’ll say for me sweetheart)

Have you ever had pop dreams?

Why don’t we do this, tell me about a pop dream you’ve had? Maybe you once dreamed about having a huge banquet with the likes of Amelia or Dugly? Or maybe you dreamed about throwing Aggi from the bridge? Or giving back a Pastels’ badge to Cornelius? Don’t be shy! Should be fun!

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The Sparklers – Pop Dreams

During the past months I’ve been compiling the 3 volumes of The Sound of Starke Adolf. Of course, I still have to finish volume 2 and 3, but volume 1 is almost ready. These are the bands that introduced me to indiepop during those early days of soulseek. Do you remember those? The “picknick” room, or the “twisterella” room? It was early 2003 when we were inspired by the Funday Mornings with my roomates to start a band, when The Javelins were making the soundtrack of my life. And now, these seminal bands to the real Swedish underground, won’t be forgotten, at least, I won’t allow it. This compilation is a testament of a scene that flourished out of nothing, that never got the recognition that it deserved. 7″s, tapes, CD-Rs, everything done the DIY way, small labels popping up everywhere, fanzines, and maybe the pinnacle of it all, the Starke Adolf club, shaped the indiepop scene and inspired many. Me included. Cloudberry or Plastilina wouldn’t exist if I would have never been aware of what this beautiful bunch of kids were doing.

Expect the Vol.1 to be released by Plastilina Records by January 2010. Needless to say, it will be released on a lush digipack and full colour booklet. I share with you the tracklist, don’t tell me it’s not a killer! It includes many should-have-been-hits and also many unreleased songs!!

Tracklist:

1. Action Biker – Sandy Edwards
2. Florian – From Florian with Hope
3. The Set Designers – Looking
4. Strawberry Fair – Where’s Alex Taylor Now
5. The Camera Casanovas! – You Looked Like a Portrait
6. The Javelins – Pale Average Look
7. Giraff På Engelska – Need to Be Cheated
8. Girl Alliance – Best of Seasons
9. Milkman – What it Once Was
10. Dorotea – My Guilty Conscience
11. Twig – The Return of the Sensitive Guys
12. The Busy Band – The Sign Says Walk
13. The Fermats – Ode to the Code
14. The Danny Says – The Boy Formerly Known as Me vs. The Girl Formerly Known as You
15. The Gentle Smiles – Mando Diao
16. Eisenhower – Cuddly Teddy Bear
17. Nixon – Hospital
18. The Dear Diaries – I Can’t Be Happy Without You
19. The Never Invited to Parties – Bicycle Ride

+ Liner notes by Blåpojken.

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The Javelins – Nosebleeders on the Track

It’s time for me to get back to blogging even though most of my energies, at the moment, are being focused on a new Cloudberry fanzine. A printed one, of course. It will include interviews to The Mai 68s, The Andersen Tapes, Socialist Leisure Party among others, and of course a 5 song compilation 3″ CD. I hope I finish it by the end of the month. Anyways, this doesn’t mean I haven’t prepared any interviews for the blog since coming back from Europe. I have! So I hope some of those will appear on the blog sometime soon. I also want to write and document about my fantastic trip to Europe because it was filled with indiepop stories. As soon as my memories are less fresh and vivid, I’ll get into that. At the moment it is still a bit too intense to think about it! I know what I’m saying as last week I had to write an article about my time in Berlin for the Japanese magazine Cookie Scene. It was such a bittersweet feeling to type my memories in the computer, I wish I was still there. I feel like having a whirlpool in my heart. Lots of memories sinking in the spiral.

So no wonder I’ve been very curious about Whirlpool Heart as of late. I had to send some MP3s to Firestation Records headquarters for Uwe to check run how unknown these songs are. It’s like doing the Carbon 14 test. He is the specialist. What did we get from the results? Well, he didn’t have a clue about who this band was. As far as I know there were only 3 songs released, all of them on tape compilations. Two of them, “Walls Spin Around” and “Too Late”, appear on the  Turquoise Trees tape, while “Flights of Fancy” appears on the Seahorses tape. Both tapes came along the Red Roses for Me fanzine. Does that ring a bell? The three Whirlpool Heart songs are haunting, with heavy guitars, dreamy melodies, boy/girl vocals, dark atmospheres. I really enjoy them. I usually like more upbeat, happier, sunnier songs, but Whirlpool Heart bewitches me somehow. Then it’s an easy guess that they took the name from the great Wild Swans song. What a song that is! By the way, have you bought the new Wild Swans 7″? It’s really good!

It’s been now a little over a year since I started this page, and during this past calendar, I’ve gotten tons of emails and blog comments with KNOWLEDGE about this music we like so much. I really want to thank all of you, including all the bands that came and got in touch with me. I never expected the blog to be popular, I don’t think it is, but having people pop up decades after their bands split is really heartwarming. And that’s what makes me happy to continue.

One last thing, I have a little clue that might help. On the Turquoise Trees sleeve it says:

“Thanks to… Carol Samways, Andy Ford, Neal Carr, Johnny Septic, Jon E.Hardy, Stephen Maughan, Stewie Anderson”

If the names are in the same order as in the bands that appear on the tape, which looks like it, Carol Samways was part of Whirlpool Heart. Maybe she was in bands before? Maybe in bands after? No idea. But, would you like to help me solve this mystery?

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Whirlpool Heart – Walls Spin Around

Tim Readman from the Watt Government just got in touch! He wrote me a bit more about the band and it’s quite interesting, so please have a read! Also you can find a live video for the song Working My Fingers to the Bone here! And while there please check a video of their previous band Arthur 2 Stroke and The Chart Commandos! Tim confirmed me there was only one single released but that there were many recordings made. Hope I get to hear them soon!

Watt Government were originally formed to do some opening spots on comedian Alexei Sayle’s tour of England in around 1982. At that time the band was me on electric guitar and vocals, Debbie Byron on lead vocals, and Steve Nash on acoustic guitar and vocals. Over time the band was reinforced by members of a band Steve and Tim previously played in called Arthur 2 Stroke and the Chart Commandos – Ian Thompson on bass, Graham Easthope on sax, Ross Winning on trumpet, Stevie Lee on percussionist and Davey Bruce on drums.

The name Watt Government comes from a few different places. First it is a play on words because it sounds like what government? That was a question we were asking a lot in the early 8o’s during Thatcher’s reign.

We wrote a song called What Government which dealt with the actions of police outside the Orgreave Colliery during the historic coal miner’s strike of the 1984-5. Orgreave was a coal mine situated adjacent to the main line of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway about 5 miles south east of Sheffield. A widely reported clash during the strike took place at the Orgreave Coking Plant near Rotherham on 18 June 1984. This confrontation between striking miners and police, around 10,000 on each side, was dubbed ‘The Battle of Orgreave’. Violence flared after police on horse-back charged the miners with truncheons drawn and inflicted serious injuries upon several individuals. In 1991, the South Yorkshire Police were forced to pay out £425,000 to thirty-nine miners who were arrested in the events at the incident.

Watt also refers to Watt Tyler – Watt Tyler was one of the leaders of the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt. He was a slain by the King’s supporters after drinking a jug of beer “in a very rude and disgusting fashion before the King’s face.”

Watt also refers to the Watts riots – The term Watts Riots of 1965 refers to a large-scale race riot which lasted 6 days in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in August 1965. It was a landmark event during the development of the Human Rights movement.

I think by now you will be getting the point!

Waiting for a Phone Call is a song about an imaginary phone conversation between Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

Working My Fingers to the Bone is a song about not being able to switch off after work. It was inspired musically by African music- stuff like King Sunny Ade, Rochereau, Manu Dibango, The Super Rail Band and Fela Kuti.

Martin Brammer and Dave Brewis are school friends of mine who had success with The Kane Gang. Martin is from my home town of Seaham and Dave is from Whitburn, just north of Sunderland. They produced the first version of the song, which was originally to be released on the Kitchenware label. It was sent to be manufactured to our publisher, Hugh Phillimore, in London. His BMW was stolen with the master tape in the boot and never recovered so we had to re-record it. I had to talk the guys at Volume records in Newcastle into giving us the dough to re-record and release it.

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Watt Government – Working My Fingers to the Bone

Even though at the moment I’m swamped with work, duties, and life (because life is voracious), I really wanted to update the blog. One of these duties that keep piling, that I should be working on, is that of making a small fanzine about German pop. I’ll be in Berlin in less than a month and Luise and me are trying to do a little zine to celebrate the scene that is happening right now as well as some old favourite records from the past. There seems to be a healthy scene happening in Germany overall, with new-ish clubs as Adventure Playground, Hit the North, the Pop Kombinat! and the Pop Assistants. And I really believe they deserve some praise. So hopefully for the evening of the 9th, we’ll have these available. That night I’ll be at a small club called the Schwalbe djing, alongside with Uwe Firestation and Andy Pop Assistants, some favourite tunes. Really looking forward to that. If you happen to be in Berlin, please come by. I’ll post a flyer as soon as I finish that too (another thing to get done!).

While going through the German pop records I have, checking which ones would be best to recommend on the zine, I ended up with pulling out of my boxes a She Splinters Mortar 7″. But this one couldn’t wait. I had to play it immediately. While the record spinning dizzily on the turntable, I keep getting flashbacks of what I have to do. There’s a couple of interviews to do, there’s a release today on the Cloudberry Classics by Kosmonaut, the band from Stephen Almighty Pop! after Bulldozer Crash, there’s getting together some CDs to DJ later in Berlin, Stockholm and Hamburg, there’s writing the new Cloudberry zine, there’s artwork to be done for Plastilina releases, and there seems that the etcetera keeps growing as well. The horoscope witch said that September was going to be a tough month, a busy month, and she seems right. She says among other things: “These are nerve wrecking, draining aspects and you must do all you can to protect your health. Life events may wear you down, and should you feel overwhelmed, call a friend or a therapist, and do all you can to get more rest. ” Tough luck for me, seems resting is not an option. She does splinter mortar.

The 7″s continues to play. 2 songs on each side. I was recommended this 7″ by Uwe a long time ago. I haven’t played it for months and it sounds as fresh as the first time. On the A side you find “Straight From Her Heart” and “Goldmine”. On the B side there’s “All Comes Out” and “Bird of Prey”. The music, the nerve, the style, the way the guitars chime, they sound as if they were part of the Leamington Spa series! Immediately, for some reason, I’m reminded to the Reserve while listening to “Goldmine”, and perhaps to The Visitors too… but then maybe I’m just thinking of similar song titles? The bass line is great on this tune, which I think it’s my favourite. “All Comes Out” Is also really nice! This one has jangly, clean guitars, very similar to the Desert Wolves guitar textures. So who are these She Splinters Mortar? There’s a mysterious name on the record labels. It says: Harald Dawo. A quick google search says that Harald Dawo is a car photographer based in Cologne. Could that be him? I wonder so. The record was indeed recorded in Cologne, which is quite a hint to believe it could be him. It was recorded in September 1987 at the Whitehouse Studios. There are some other names, the sound technician was Detlev Schmitz, who also did the production and mixing, and Bernd Bodtländer, who took the photos of the band for the sleeve. Also this is the first release on the Die Schwarze Sieben label, which was based in Wiesbaden.

There seems to be at least another 7″ by the band with the A side “Distress”. Never heard this one. Also there is an album called “Jaguar” which was released in 87 as well. Never seen this one either. Also Twee.net lists a tape called “Rund Um Die Welt” were the song “Mind Cries Mary” was included.

And that’s about all the information there is available I think. And of course, if you are up to solving the mystery about this really nice band, do it! Any anecdotes or information is always welcome! And now I should go get some more stuff done, but first, I have to give the record another spin.

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She Splinters Mortar – Goldmine

One of the worst moments in running the Plastilina label was the failed release for the California Snow Story album. We had already promoted in our website, approved the artwork, received the master, saw it leek on soulseek, but at the last minute we had to drop it. Why? Well, I guess it’s not worth it to go into details, let’s just say it was a ‘misunderstanding’. A month later the album was released on the, now sadly-defunct, Letterbox Records label in UK. “‘Close To The Ocean” was a gorgeous album, a step further for the band David Skirving (an ex-Camera Obscura) founded years before. The biggest improvement was that of the band becoming a duo with the addition of Sandra Belda. Her name was unknown for many (if not all) popkids but happily I was already familiar with her previous band: Superété. I knew, since day one, that this combo, these Batman and Robin of pop, were going to be able to craft a lush album.

I always found quite curious that the press release for the California Snow Story album mentions Sandra’s past: “Sandra was previously the vocalist in the highly rated Valencia-based duo Superété. Superété recorded music in Spain in 2001/2002 and played frequently in Valencia and Barcelona in 2003 and 2004.” I’m not being sarcastic or arrogant if I say that the band was and still is unknown to most of Spanish popkids. Of course, shame on them, but the band didn’t really do any proper release. I do know that in their hometown, Valencia, they were quite popular though. I remember many years ago, probably around 2004, while working on a compilation for a Peru-only release called “Es Pop Mamá!”, I was in touch with a band called Bisiesta, from Valencia as well. The guy from the band got me in touch with Sandra as he was so excited that someone so far away knew about this band he also enjoyed a lot. Those were the days when no one was on facebook or myspace, so it was straight to MSN, on a three-way conversation. Sadly Sandra was a wee busy working at the hospital and couldn’t talk much. I joked saying she was the “Enfermera de Noche” (the night-shift nurse) which is a classic Spanish pop song by La Mode, we talked a bit about music, and then she had to go to do her duties. I never heard again from her till the day we got in touch about California Snow Story.

Back then there was a Superété website (which was www.superete.tk). I think at some point there was a Myspace. Today there aren’t any remains of them, it’s like Scipio Africanus’ troops punished them. But if memory serves, Superété were a duo, a boy and girl duo, just like California Snow Story. It was formed by Sandra and Julio in Valencia. I’m guessing the press release is wrong when it says they recorded songs between 2001 and 2002. Their first EP dates from 2003. The second was released a year after and it’s a bit different, you can tell the band grew up. Also, worth searching is a EP released by Julio under the name Julipop. How does it sound? Not so far from Superété, just that it had male vocals.

These are the two self-released EPs by Superété:

Cuando Amanece EP
01. Te Vas a Enterar
02. Septiembre
03. Cuando Anochece
04. Mi Robot
05. Cuando Anochece (Bot mix)

Superété EP
01. Tu Silencio
02. Martina Feliz
03. La Groupie Asesina
04. Te Vas a Enterar (Bot mix)
05. Cuando Anochece (Sleepdancing bot mix)

I’m giggling while listening the wonderful “Martina Feliz” (Happy Martina) who seems was a big fan of Le Mans! Or “La Groupie Asesina” (The Assassin Groupie) with those brasses and devilish lyrics! Or the playful “Mi Robot” (My Robot) which reminds me the happiest moments of the genius Antonio Galvañ from Parade.

They played many gigs in Valencia, even opening for Cola Jet Set, now a known name for UK people after their gig at Indietracks. Also the duo played along other favourites of mine, Nobel, who surely deserve some lines in this blog. On top of that, Sandra was also involved in writing stuff for the Jamacuco fanzine, which still is around. I guess I can still ask Sandra about the band, but I haven’t been in touch in such a long time. I wonder what’s she is up to. Maybe there’s another California Snow Story album cooking? Maybe this time, I can be part of it? Or maybe I should just wait again a couple of years for news.

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Superété – Martina Feliz

At last a quiet Sunday. It’s sunny outside, the day looks great from my window, but today I’m staying in. I have lots of work to do, and there’s football to watch. But before I start with these very important tasks, and, while I’m waiting for lunch to arrive, I thought ripping some vinyl. It’s been a while since I got to recommend a very obscure band on the blog. While I’m waiting for my ham-pepperoni-chicken-onion pizza, to taste it, to have a bite, let me introduce you to Taste This.

I feel this is as obscure as it can get. If you search on google, shows up that Da Capo store in Netherlands used to carry it. And that’s all. On top of that, there’s barely any information on the sleeve. The front cover says the name of the band, the back cover has the track names. And that’s it. A side being “Sweet Refrain” and B side being “Right Mood”. On the 7″ labels there’s a bit more of information. It says Made in Australia.  So that’s a start. The label is called Formula, but finding information about it, seems impossible as well. Two other details, the producer of this single is Larry Ponting and the engineer is Tim Ryan. Do these names ring a bell to you?

There’s no information about band members or even when was this single released. By the sound of the band I’d say late 80s, as it reminds me a lot to bands like The Crystal Set or The Benedicts. But then that is a wild guess. Both songs are really nice pieces of jangle pop. I had a hard time choosing which song to share with you as both are quite distinctive. “Sweet Refrain” is a slower guitar pop song, much in the vein of Perth fabulous Stolen Picassos. “Right Mood” is much more upbeat on the other hand, like an epic version of These Future Kings. Don’t know how hard it is to track this record. I found it on ebay for 5 bucks a couple of months ago, so I’m guessing it wouldn’t be hard for you. Anyways, have a listen! And if you happen to know anything else about this very mysterious band, please give me a shout!

PS. We need that Australian obscure 80s pop compilation soon!

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Listen
Taste This – Right Mood

I’ve always wanted to collect stamps but I never did. I do have tons of stamps all around my cork board that I’ve saved from the packages I receive from all over the world. Packages containing indiepop of course. But I wouldn’t say that’s a collection. I mean, I dont have a clue which are the rare stamps, or the ones that cost a lot of money. Also, many of the ones I have are repeated. I have tons of that Swedish one that has an osprey, for example. So many, that I could make a wallpaper out of it!

Yesterday, while waiting for some friends to arrive for an indiepop listening party, I was going through some of the stuff that came on these packages. Looking this time in my demos/CD-R/tapes box. There’s lots of stuff that deserve a writeup I think! But the one that caught my attention was this CD-R by this lovely Swedish duo. Why? Must have been the extreme cuteness of the pencil coloured sleeve or the handwritten tracklist on the back. Or the sweet note the girls wrote me?

You know, this was a last.fm miracle. I was the top listener of this band back in early 2006. One day I get an email asking me: “I’m just curious how you found out about My brother’s stamp collection!”. Just like that, out of the blue. I did learn that the band was a duo formed by Marita and Matilda, from Sweden. And how wouldn’t I be a top listener? These were lovely songs of the twee variety: very lo-fi, toy instruments, glockenspiels, and girlie vocals.

After that I emailed with Marita a couple of times and told me a bit about the band:

We just made a couple of songs for fun and recorderd on tape, like 2 years ago. So right now nothing really happens. But maybe we will do something soon, at least I want to! It’s quite funny, because we were not inspired by anything specific when we wrote the songs. I had learned to play like three chords on the guitar, so we just improvised! (February 2006)

A curious thing, that not many know is that their song “Rocker Boy” was covered by Nixon on his 2004 release “Crazy, Sexy, Cool” (it appears on this release as Rocker Boi – yes with an I instead of a Y). I believe Matilda was a good friend of Roger.

Then one day I received this fantastic CD-R on my mailbox. And I loved it. It included all of their recordings which were:

1. Shoes Not Books
2. Candy Song
3. Rocker Boy
4. Breakfast Fun
5. Romantic Comedy
6. High Heels
7. Sneakers
8. The Best Day

I never heard again from them. They told me they wanted to record more songs. I hope they did. I wonder how they sounded like. Maybe like this KitKat I’m eating now, sweet and crunchy? Or like a rosé wine? Maybe you like them too

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Listen
My Brother’s Stamp Collection – Romantic Comedy