I’ve been missing those Sundays where I stay at home listening to 7″s. Today, at last, I’m having one of them. It feels good. I may order for delivery some late lunch and in the meantime I’ll finish cutting the 1000 inserts for the next 2 Cloudberry 7″s. I’ve cut so far around 350 I’d say. Some minutes ago I was rumaging through my record collection, wondering what to play, and this record was the one that struck me, the sole A Thousand Miles of Sunshine single.

“A Thousand Miles of Sunshine” this winter. It’s quite cold in Miami, colder than we are used to. These are the first weeks were I have the AC off. And let me say I’m not missing the sun, I enjoy cold weather. So I find it funny that this record was the one I craved playing. I’m wondering what’s a 1000 miles from here, I believe the distance to New York is around those numbers. I’ll be there in May during the Popfest, still have to figure out where to stay, but I can’t miss the third year of this great festival. Another please 1000 miles from here is San Juan, Puerto Rico. Not a place that I would go crazy to visit though the Fort of San Cristóbal looks great for a postcard. Houston, Texas, is another place separated by a thousand miles of sunshine, the gulf coast and the Caribbean sea. I’ve been there once and I didn’t like it much, a big prefab town with not much personality. I was impressed by the amount of mansions though! Oil money galore!

The needle starts playing these two songs on the 7″. The A side is “Jimmy Highlife” and the B side is “Try Again”. Both tunes are as cheerful as they can be. Catchy, not really indiepop, but great guitar pop. Hooks here, hooks there. Not very introspective, but more of a festive sound. Of course, this is sunshine music! A joyful breeze that comes with boy/girl vocals, the youthful excitement of having a band, and the sun dawning while dancing in the beach, maybe Brighton?  maybe Bournemouth? Who knows. There is no information about the whereabouts of the band on the sleeve and even less info on the web. What is sure is that, when playing these tracks, your whole room will light up! Oh! it’s sunshine!

What I do know about this single is that there is also a 12″ version which includes these two tracks plus an instumental version of “Jimmy Highlife”. It was released the same year I was born, 1984 on the Go! Discs label (later home of The Housemartins or The Trash Can Sinatras).  This should be an easy single to track down and shouldn’t be that expensive as it was backed up by Chrysalis. The only name that appears on the single is that of Arthur Kennedy, credited to writing “Try Again”. Wonder if there’s a way to know more about them. If they had more songs recorded and if they played in any other bands after. Sunshine shouldn’t last that little.

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Listen
A Thousand Miles of Sunshine – Try Again

The Friday Club 7″ sold for almost 100 GBP. Let’s see for how much this one goes for, as it is quite rare too, and was listed for a price I can’t match: 45 dollars to start. The great “Lupe Velez” 12″ is going for 45, plus 12 dollars for postage, quite a deal, huh? Not for me sadly. So far, playing the lottery every weekend, hasn’t really worked. I dream of having a huge record collection with all the songs I like. Is that much to ask? Well… I would love to buy an island too, sometime in the near future. Why not? An indiepop island, can you imagine? It’s a bit unrealistic, I know, but there is a word called wishes and another called dreams. So why not dream and wish? Let’s start by dreaming today about this brilliant Aussie band. Suddenly I have their only release on my hand. The Lupe Velez 12″ purple cover invites me to know more… so who is this lady that shares name with the pop godess (Marianthi dixit!) from Pipas?

Tempestuous Mexican actress Lupe Velez parlayed her voluptuous figure and tireless energy into a south-of-the-border musical comedy career before she was 20. In 1926, Velez moved to Hollywood, where she secured a role in The Music Box Revue and was featured in a handful of Hal Roach two-reelers. Her first major role in a feature film was as Douglas Fairbanks’ fiery vis-à-vis in The Gaucho (1928); she made her talkie debut in D.W. Griffith’s Lady of the Pavements. In 1933, she married Johnny “Tarzan” Weissmuller, a union distinguished by loud, headline-grabbing public spats; they were divorced in 1938. The following year, with her career in the doldrums, Velez starred in an RKO programmer called The Girl From Mexico; this led to the popular Mexican Spitfire series, in which the irrepressible Velez was teamed with rubber-legged character comedian Leon Errol. She returned to Mexico in 1944 to star in Nana, which was not the success she hoped it would be. In December of that year, Lupe Velez killed herself with an overdose of sleeping pills.

Right! So the band took their name from her as well! Interesting, even though I’m still impressed about her being Tarzan’s wife! But let’s turn the page, it’s not about the king of the jungle and the monkeys. It’s about the Mexican Spitfires. But it seems most people don’t know them or care little as I’m not aware of any blog that have written about this eighties Sydney band. But the surprise comes when you do find that there is a whole Wikipedia entry. Here are some interesting bits and pieces.

The Mexican Spitfires were a Sydney, Australia based indie rock/indie pop band formed in suburban Strathfield in the Strathfield Municipality in the mid 1980s.The band formed in 1986 and the original line up consisted of Tim O’Reilly on bass and vocals, Michael Quinlan on rhythm guitar and vocals, Stephen McCowage on lead guitar, Price Conlan on drums; however, O’Reilly, Quinlan and McCowage had previously played together in the psychedelic 1960s styled indie-pop band Prince Vlad & the Gargoyle Impalers.

In July 1986, The Mexican Spitfires played their first gig to a packed audience at the Lismore Hotel, located on Pitt Street in Sydney. They were discovered by Red Eye Records that same night and were subsequently signed to a record deal by that label. The band’s debut 6-track 12-inch EP Lupe Velez was released in 1988. The EP was produced by Jon Schofield of the Coloured Girls, engineered by Phil Punch, and featured the extraordinary keyboard talents of Russell Parkhouse (ex-The Riptides). The first EP was an immediate success on the independent charts, moving straight into the top 5 in Sydney and scoring the band significant airplay on 2JJ (now 2JJJ), particularly for the songs Sydney Town, You Can’t Run and Town Hall Steps. Lupe Velez received favourable reviews in English musicmagazine NME and in the Australian music press.

After the success of their debut, The Mexican Spitfires returned to the Electric Avenue Studio of Phil Punch to record their second 6-track 12-inch EP Elephant during 1989 and 1990. Unfortunately, that EP has not been released in any format.

Wow! Another unreleased gem in indiepop along the lines of Candlestick Park or Two People’s LPs Will we ever have the chance to see these tracks on a proper release? I think that a CD compiling both EPs would be fantastic! It would have a total of 11 songs including, from the first 12″, Sydney Town, You Can’t Run Forever, Ivy Street, Town Hall Steps, Rookwood; and from the second, Roy, Fallen Down, Long Time, She, Desperate Ways, Just Like Any Man. And tell me, wouldn’t this be a sweet, sweet dream?

If you have any info on the the band or their whereabouts, please share!

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Listen
The Mexican Spitfires – You Can’t Run (Forever)

Bush is out of the White House. I wish he was kicked out as a dog, but well, this is a civilized country. But I do believe he won’t be singing as it has been one of the worst governments, if not the worst, in this country’s history. In the other hand, we are happy about him leaving office, so why not listen to a bush that does sing? Alright! So let’s listen to The Singing Bush! This was a short lived project of Mary Wyer of Even as We Speak during the mid-nineties, just in between the Sarah band and Her Name in Lights. As far as I know, there are only two songs recorded under this name: “Do What He Says (Richard, Richard)” and “Anita’s Son”.

“Do What He Says” appeared on the first Drive-In Records release, the Season 7″, a 4 way split that included songs by the Cat’s Miaow, Madison Electric, and the Shapiros. This same track would later appear on the Library Records & Drive-In compilation “Indie Aid Abroad: A Little Help for East Timor.” Not many times we see labels supporting such good political causes like this one, helping East Timor after the attacks by the Indonesian army in 1999, when they were reclaiming independence for the 2nd time. If I was one of the bands contributing in this CD I would surely be proud about it. This song seems to be about Richard Kingsmill, a DJ at the, Australian government funded, Triple J radio station. Maybe he helped Mary and her bands at his show? Furthermore, there’s even a great video for this song here. By watching the video, noticing the typical Mexican costumes, it’s not that crazy to think that the name of the band comes from the movie Three Amigos. Yeah, the one where Steve Martin and co. are looking for the ’singing bush’! Their second song was “Anita’s Son” which appeared on the Whirl-Wheels compilation on Shelflife. Could it be about Anita Raynor from Even as We Speak? And that was it. All their discography were two songs, both released in 1996 and in compilation releases.

Perhaps there were more recordings by Mary under this name? If you know anything else please share with us!

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Do What he Says (Richard, Richard)

Five more days to bid and it’s going for £70+ on eBay. I’m not going to buy it as it’s way away of my budget, but if I was earning much more at work I’d give it a shot. I wouldn’t care much if the B side was an instrumental version of A side “Window Shopping”. Mind you, I’m not a big fan of instrumentals. But it’s all for that sweet first side, for the Window Shopping trumpet driven pop feast! But, if you are skint, you can always find this track on the “Too Much Two Tone” compilation released by EMI some years ago. That you can find used for around 5 bucks. Not a bad deal at all.

It must be that the high price has to do with the label where it was released: 2 Tone Records. This label was founded by Jerry Dammers, from The Specials, and it has been closely identified to ska and reggae influenced music. They released some big names such as Madness, The Specials, The Higsons and, even Elvis Costello. I guess by the time The Friday Club was signed, they were broadening their tastes as this is P!O!P! and quite different from their past offerings. Makes a lot of sense! as this single was the penultimate of the catalog. Nevertheless it was Jerry Dammers who produced this soul-inflicted pop gem. And he did a brilliant job! So who knows!

I love the surprises that foraging on eBay can give to you, like the exorbitant sums people pay for records and then asking yourself, would I pay that? What is also surprising is that 2 Tone did not have small runs, I believe most of their releases surpassed the 10,000 copies, so how rare are these items really? And hey, The Friday Club record was also released on 12″ format where the A side was an extended version of ‘Window Shopping’.  So, on the surface, there should be lots of copies of this record, but maybe not.

The Friday Club was a big seven piece outfit, formed in 1984 in Scarborough. The lucky seven were Andrew Brooks (Composer, Vocals, Guitar), Michael Hodges (Lyricist, Vocals, Congas), Adele Winter (Vocals and Vibes), Terry Bateman (Vocals and Sax), Eddie Eve (Keyboards), Graham Whitby (Bass Guitar) and Anton Hilton (Drums). That same year they all decided to move to London looking for better opportunities for their music. Quite a risk to take, I mean, the seven of them collectively moving to the big capital and it’s not like Scarborough is around the corner. Luckily they found a record deal quite immediately. Andrew Brooks tells the story:

“We managed to find out where Jerry Dammers lived, which at that time was a squat in Stockwell. On the way to rehearsal one evening we dropped a tape and a flyer for a gig in his letterbox. The next day our manager got a phone call from Jerry to say he liked the tape and he was coming to the gig. The gig was in a pub Brixton near where he lived, and sure enough Jerry came along, I think him and his mate and the bar man we’re the only people there (laughs). He came up to me after the gig and said he’d enjoyed it and thought the songs we’re really strong – but he’d “never heard a band so out of tune in his life” and laughed. Next day he called to say he wanted to record one of our songs, he would produce and this would be released on Two Tone.”

The band went on tour supporting Madness as the single was released. Sadly the record didn’t do that great on the charts, it did get airplay though and found itself reaching the top 100. But that was it. To make things worst, not too long after, 2 Tone folded. I wonder what happened to The Friday Club then. It can’t be that they were just a one-hit wonder. Did they still kept playing? Did they form any new band? What about that demo they left at Jerry’s? There must be more tracks there than the fantastic ‘Window Shopping’. What about any other demos? Will these tapes still be in someone’s attic? Or on some boxes left in the garage after many house moves? Who knows. But if you have anything else to add, please leave me a comment, I would love to know more!

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The Friday Club – Window Shopping

After dreaming that it would be so great if that compilation of obscure 80s/early 90s Australian guitar pop bands materialized, I was wondering from which other country you could you do such compilations. I can only think Germany and Sweden. Maybe those are the two only other countries were little bands, that lived in the depths of obscurity and housed by small label releases, have that quality that is required for such a project. I think we could do large lists and figure out which bands and which songs could go in. If we had the money we would press the CDs and make lovely inserts with the story and photo of each band. Dreaming and dreaming.

Now I’d like to start recommending one with for the Sweden compilation: Saturday Kids. I’ve only stumbled with this band lately, thanks to my friend Takashi (arigato!) and his myspace about Obscure Indie Pop! And immediately, when this song, “West Against the Rest”, played for the first time on his player, I was hooked. Totally hooked! The jangly guitars and the youthful vocals, especially that continuous “ooooooh”, made me play this song fervently time and time again. Now it’s time for me to see if there’s any way to track their releases. Will be a difficult adventure!

The Saturday Kids were from Norrköping, the so called Sweden’s Manchester, and formed in 1987. The band lasted till around 1993 and revolved around the talent of Roger Källs, the only member that was in the band for the whole time. With the first lineup, Björn Brunnberg (bass), Jan Malmberg (drums), Johan Skaneby (guitar, vocals) and Roger Källs (vocals, guitar, harmonica, tambourine) they recorded the song “Your Dream” that appeared on the 1987 LP compilation ‘Ceilidh 005′ on the Ceilidh label. By 1990, the lineup had changed drastically: Jonas Karlsson (bass), Andreas Möller (guitar, vocals – same name as German football star!), Robert Svensson (drums) and Roger Källs. This could be considered the classic lineup as they released the “Four Beautiful Songs in D’d” on the SND label (1990). This label, based in the same city as the band, also put out a LP compilation called “SND Records Vol. 1″ where “West Against the Rest” and “Go?” were included.

Also it’s good to mention that Saturday Kids contributed “Your Dreams” to the Pet Sounds Vol.1 (1988) and “West Against the Rest” on Pet Sounds Vol.3 (1990). These were cassette compilations that came along the Pet Sounds fanzine. These tapes contain so many pop gems, most of them totally forgotten now!

By 1993 more changes in the band, Andreas leaves and Magdalena Johansson joins the band to take care of the vocal duties. They release what would be their last proper release: “Things Do Happen”. This was released as as CD-single on the Ceilidh label, and included three songs: “Don’t Know Why”, “Cotton Fields” and “In Bet With…” And then the band silently disappeared, leaving no traces behind.

In 1997, Ceilidh would re-release “Don’t Know Why” as a compilation track on the “Singles & Vinyls” retrospective CD. And that must have been the last news of the band.

If you have more info on them please share!

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Saturday Kids – West Against the Rest

The Catherine wheel (also Catharine wheel, pinwheel) is a type of firework consisting of a powder-filled spiral tube, or an angled rocket mounted with a pin through its centre. When ignited, it rotates quickly, producing a display of sparks and coloured flame. The firework is named for the wheel on which St. Catherine was martyred.

Don’t confuse them with the same name band from UK. These Catherine Wheel were from Sydney, Australia, and they weren’t press darlings at all like their British counterparts. Their lifespan was quite short, just two years, from 1989 to 1991. During this time they released 10 songs, all of them little pop gems that history has forgot. I can’t believe there’s no single blog post about these wonderful band in the whole internet! But then, in a way, it’s nice that bloggers are not getting their mouth full giving all their discography for free on rapidshare. I’ll make some justice today.

Catherine Wheel were Andrea Croft, Grant Shanahan, Brett ‘Bert’ Thompson and ‘Biff’ Smith. The band came to life after The Honeys disbanded. It was then when ex-Honeys Andrea, Grant and Bert came together as Catherine Wheel releasing their first single that included Almost Blind, Sunny Sunday and Look At Her. It was released on the That’s Bizarre label. I still have to get around this one. But I bet it’s a cracker. I found a review online on the KVD Records page that says:

The band have managed that rare trick of making smooth and pretty pop music but keeping the edges that make it have a life. “Almost Blind” and “Sunny Sunday” are the sort of pop people made in the sixties without embarrassment or guilt, but few even try now, and fewer succeed. Really good female/male vocal harmonies make this stuff a real treat for the ears. “Look At Her” goes too far in the folk direction and doesn’t make it through a full play, but the other two are plenty good for lots of listens. Let’s Active fans probably should be thinking in terms of purchasing multiple copies.

I do have and enjoy quite a lot the brilliant Blue Avenue / Last Explanation single. This, their second 7″, again released on the That’s Bizarre label in 1990, has the band’s best two tracks. Blue Avenue counts with a saxophone and it’s the only track (besides ‘Blackest World’) I know where Grant is the main singer as the vocal duties were usually exclusively Andrea’s. Still she does backing vocals on the catchy choruses of this wonderful song. What a timeless tune! Then you flip the 7″, and you get such a rewarding tune: Last Explanation. I wonder how this track is not a classic down under. It has that same magic The Hummingbirds used to pull out, that same bittersweet vocals of the antipodean Look Blue Go Purple, and the charm of Even as We Speak. How did they do it? I think I should dedicate some time having a listen to the whole oeuvre of The Honeys, but also to the later bands they were involved with. Andrea Croft’s Polyanna and The Snow Leopards and Grant and Brett’s Eva Trout. And mind you, The Honeys are back together gigging around.

Their last release was the “Self-Portraits” 5 track CD-EP on their usual label, That’s Bizarre. This time it got the Shock Australia distribution and it was quite easy to track down for me. On this release Biff Smith is replaced by Matt Handley on guitar. This EP opens with Reach, which is one of my favourite songs by them, it’s the star of this release. A lovely jangle pop tune, nice arpeggios and sweet vocals like a speed-up The Carousel. The third song, ‘Blackest World’ is another great tune, that, under a Chills-like guitar assault and a saxophone (again!), Grant croons till Andrea joins for an epic melody. The remaining three songs (’Wilsons Beach’, ‘Mama’ and ‘Self-Portraits’), are quite good as well but they are more calm, less bouncy, reminding me to the early 90s British band The Heart Throbs.

I believe Jim at Egg Records announced he was going to do a CD with obscure Australian pop gems from that period. If he does it, this band should be included. Lovely.

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Catherine Wheel – Last Explanation

Wikipedia: Ammonites are an extinct group of marine animals of the subclass Ammonoidea in the class Cephalopoda, phylum Mollusca. They are excellent index fossils, and it is often possible to link the rock layer in which they are found to specific geological time periods.

Our own indiepop history: The Ammonites are also an extinct group of guitar pop enthusiasts. They were Rich (guitars/vocals), Robbe (bass), Shane (guitar) and Robyn (drums). Robyn had changed his name from “Robin” in honour of his hero, Robyn Hitchcock. It was a band that only had one proper release and by google indexing standards they are only linked to… well, nothing aside one blog entry by my good friend Alex from Spain. Their time period is easy task. They were around the late eighties early nineties, like most of the bands I like. What else? Rock layers? not quite, this is pretty much P!O!P! with a youthful punk-ish attitude that bursts joy. Class? guitar driven pop. Phylum? They were part of the Rutland family. Does that cover it all? Not really. Indiepop is much more than encyclopeadiac terms.

I’ve been glued to Youtube watching their video for You, Me and the Sun. How old were they? They seem as if they were 16 when they recorded this funny backyard video. I wonder about this track. Maybe it was released on any of those cassette demos? Maybe on The Ammonites tape? Or in the Doncaster EP? Perhaps on the FunLovePopFish one? Could be on the In Their Element? Or on that compilation tape? I can’t tell. I’ve never seen one of these cassettes.  Maybe somebody out there knows?

All of these tapes were released by Rutland Records, home of PO!, The Originals, The Waiting List, and more; in summary, many of the best bands from Leicestershire. So it was no surprise that the wonder kids of Leicester released here their Head Full of Strange 7″. A rush of guitar juvenilia expressed in three songs: A side “Coming Down” and B sides “Stupid” and “Teenage Pop-Kid Dreamin’”. A brilliant debut especially thanks to the nervy Teenage Pop-Kid Dreamin’, with it’s witty tongue-in-cheek lyrics and Ramones’ guitar blazes. This is the last notice there was from the band. It was 1991.

They did contribute to a couple of compilations and split flexis:

// All We Had – on the Mind the Gap compilation. This tape was released by Peter Twee.net, when he used to run this German mailorder. “All We Had” is actually really good, this time The Ammonites go berserk with fuzzy guitars!

// Stupid – same track from the 7″ on a tape compilation that came with the third issue of the Big Muff fanzine. The compilation is not that great and it’s quite long. There are some hits, like The Emotionals or The Love Buttons, and misses, like Sofahead or Scott Bond. There’s a live Amelia Fletcher song though, always interesting for all her fans.

// Missing You – on the first Waterbomb fanzine flexi. A lovely Brigitte Bardot on the picture sleeve maybe missing us? On the credits Robin is still Robin with an I. They share the flexi with Paintbox.

// Jennifer – a lovely track, one of The Ammonite’s best. I do hope my friend Jennifer knows about. I think I forgot to show it to her! It was released on 1990 on The Boshi Label which later became Sugarfrost Records. This was Akiko’s original Japanese label. She used to write the 5000 Miles From George Square fanzine. I really enjoy that her catalog numbering nods to Roddy Frame. This is a split flexi shared with The Philips. This is RODDY 007.

// Stupid – again the 7″ track, this time on another compilation called “And they Call it Pop” on Fragrant Records. I don’t know much about this one.

// It Hurts Inside – maybe my least favourite song by them. Perhaps because it’s the least pop of them all? It appeared on the Everlasting Happiness tape, which is really good overall. This tape was made by another good friend, Andreas Hering from Germany, who now is half of Adventure Playground, bringing some great bands to Hamburg!

// Stupid – again and again! this time on the Just Another… Compilation cassette. The label is Flippin Ace Recording Co. No idea about this compilation. Nada.

They wanted to release an album. I wonder what happened. They totally disappeared. Robyn went to join Ruth’s Refrigerator, The Calender Dream, a mod band called Immediate and Ambrose Tompkins. But that’s all I can tell. Maybe somebody there knows a bit more? Maybe it’s time to unearth these gems and release that long overdue album? I think it is!

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The Ammonites -You, Me and the Sun

The Australian indiepop family tree is such an affliction of incestuous relationships. If you try to trace it, during the 90s, names like Bart Cummings, Mia Schoen and Andrew Withycombe, are repeated many times. Everyone has played together at a certain moment and everyone has helped each other making this scene flourish. I was unaware Super Falling Star was part of the Melbourne revolving door scene till Saturday when Teresa asked me if I knew them.

To be honest, I knew I had a record by them but I couldn’t remember what the Searchlight 7″ sounded like. I didn’t recall when was the last time I played it. Strange. Because for music I do have good memory, for other things, not really. But, what I do remember was that I got it when Drive-In Records made a huge sale, 25 7″s just for the postage price. What a deal, right? But then, at that time, I didn’t have a turntable. And the question immediately arose, maybe I had never played it?

If so, Saturday was the first time I played it and it was love at first sight. Teresa had already gave me a taster. She sent me “Love is Blue”, which is such a fantastic song. For the collectors inside us, this song appeared on the Melbourne Holiday 7″ and the Clover Club CD, both on Clover Records from Japan, both compilations. Time for me to get those? Indeed. But, back to this wonderful 7″, that I’m sure you can find dead cheap in many stores, it has a stunning B side! No wonder why Teresa made it clear to me before playing it, “Closer to the Sun is my favourite Super Falling Star song, I couldn’t care less for the A sides”.

And it’s true, both Searchlight and Full, the two songs on the A side, get eclipsed by the precious and uplifting Closer to the Sun. Why had I missed such a lush song? And it was here, in my room!

Super Falling Star started in 1993, when Vicky Barker and Rod McQueen placed an ad at their local music shop looking for a female guitarist. Not female, but a guitarist, Ian Finlay gave them a call, taking the risk of being turned down. He got on board. The band was soon completed when Julia Caluzzi joined them to play drums. After nine months Rod and Vicky called it quits, though they did participate in the recording of the first release by the band, the Someday single. This one appeared on 1994 on Quiddity Records. The B sides are Falling Girl and Shipwrecked.

After four years, in 1998, the band releases some new stuff, this time on Drive-In Records (which was run by Mike Babb, who also ran Quiddity, so more or less, the same thing). Now it was Natasha Dragun in charge of vocals and, with her, they released the “Searchlight” 7″ that I’ve been praising and also a split 7″ with Detroit’s Fuxa. A new band on my list to check out, though Detroit does bias me, “Detroit Rock City” anyone? On these recordings is Andrew Withycombe who joins to play bass. Maybe you know him from Hydroplane, the Cat’s Miaow and Huon? Such a jet set star!

There was one last release under this formation, it was the single “Dead Letters” on Basingtoke’s Roisin Recordings. The B side is “The Fading Light”. The date was 2000. After releasing this single, changes happened. On 2001 Emily Fullerton and James Dean (who plays on Tugboat, the Australian band, not the Canadian one) joined the band to replace Julia and Andrew, respectively. That was the last time we heard from Super Falling Star. And even though there hasn’t been an official break up, I would guess the band is over now. But maybe not? Anyone has any news?

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Super Falling Star – Closer to the Sun

During the early 90s there was a considerable amount of small American pop bands on both coasts. They didn’t send and promote their stuff on the BBC. Some of them got played on the infamous college radio across the country, but that doesn’t matter as none of them made it big. College radio were all about making you big or not. As expected not many remember these bands today and there’s nothing similar as The Leamington Spa series for them. Most probably a compilation of this kind won’t ever happen as music sales keep sinking but also because it is almost impossible to find any information about them online.

Citrus Groove was one of these bands. They were a bit luckier though, they got a 7″ out on Marineville Records from Brighton, England. This is from where I’ve ripped the brilliant Mesmerized, a hypnotic guitar pop song with traces of psychedelia. The B side was the bouncier Merry Go Round. A very fine record on Andy Parker’s stable. This was their second single. The first one was “Hit the Ground / Beautiful Thing” which was the first release on Honeychain Records. They had a CD-EP later on this same label called “Sunswayed” and it included 7 songs (2 of them are the singles A sides). I haven’t got around the Honeychain releases yet. I will make a wild guess that the label was run by the band, as it seems they were their whole catalog. The label was based in Los Angeles, California. Most probably, the band was based too in this sprawling metropolis; which was home of Aberdeen, Poastal and The Summer Hits. Seems there was a thriving scene maybe a bit similar to today’s Yay! Records scene?

Citrus Groove was Gordon on vocals and guitar, John on guitar, James on vocals and bass and Phil on drums. Any other information would be appreciated as always. I can’t even find a photo of them to post!

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Citrus Groove – Mesmerized

I find Sunday nights the best time to listen to music, especially vinyl. I rip them to mp3s, clean them a bit, there are no hurries. I have a beer. I have some pizza. I turn off the cell phone. A chess game against Emma, which for unknown reasons ends up as a draw. Around 7:30 p.m. I have my senses bright and acute. And when I play this song, it comes drilling through my brain. What a wonderful noise I say.

Today being noisy is the status quo. Especially if you come from the Pitchfork confetti-plumped Brooklyn. I wonder if the hipsters would rejoice if they listen this wonderful ramshackling, noisy and dreamy band. Most probably they won’t. This is too pure for them, they need some music critic filtering, they need some artsy haircut, they need some comfort zone, tell them that it is the RIGHT thing to like.

I wonder what happened to this band. Their first 7″ was Grip / Frances and was released on the Fluff label. If my memory doesn’t play tricks on me, the Leicester label released the first Boyracer 7″. Also they released Hood and a band I haven’t heard but always been curious about, Liechtenstein Girls. I’m pretty sure there was a split flexi with Boyracer and Hula Hoop also. More info, of course, would be appreciated. The insert of the single doesn’t give that much information either:

honey one is grip and frances. the players are stuart on skins, neil on strings and gogs on a fuzzy lump of wood. seagate studios housed the noise, stuart and chris processed it, we re-invented it. thanks to the foreman, paedo strangetrouser and the ones who haven’t loved or loved us. this vice will not release until I release myself and as soon as I can do that you’ll be free as well. you forgot you were an atheist. stay beautiful norm. bee.

Their second single appeared on Lust Recordings (home of the Lavender Faction and St. James Infirmary). It was a 7″ with a giraffe on the cover. It was a four track EP that included the songs Sunrise, Stunned, Happy Sunday Stories and Ignite. I still haven’t got around to get or listen this one.

Twee.net doesn’t list their third release. It was another 7″ and it was released on Fluff Records again. This one included the songs Demand Better Protection and Cradle. This release seems to be the rarest one to find. And they also contributed, with a cover version of James’ “Come Home”, on the tape compilation Bobby Stokes Salutes The Fall Of Manchester. This was released on  the exquisite Ambition Records.

And I believe this is it. I ask to the whole wide web, is there anyone out there?

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Listen

Aspidistra – Grip