Here’s a good mystery.

There’s a Bandcamp from I guess a digital label called Degree Zero Music based in Los Angeles, California.

This Bandcamp has three releases. An album from 2012 by Magnetone, an album from 1992 by Changeling, and three songs from 1988 by Darling Rougues.

I don’t know if there’s a connection between the bands. I do want to think that all three bands hail from the Los Angeles area. But I can’t say for sure.

The band I’m interested in is the Darling Rougues. Why? Their songs are pretty good, especially “Sixteen Beats”.

According to this Bandcamp the three songs were released on May 1st of 1988. The title for this three song EP was “Pop!” and the songs included were “Girl on the Outside”, “Gravity” and “Sixteen Beats”. We don’t get any other details.

Sadly that’s all I have to offer. I couldn’t find any other info about the band. I would think this “Pop!” EP was actually a demo tape. But without any information about band members or recording studio, or anything at all is quite difficult to even google about it.

So I have to resort on my good readers. Anyone have any idea about this Darling Rougues?

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Listen
Darling Rougues – Sixteen Beats

Hi again! I want to remind everyone that I’ll be in London for the Heavenly gig on the 20th (and then in Hamburg) in a couple of weeks. I can bring records with me to save on postage. Send me a message if you’d like me to bring some records!

++ The other record that surprised me very much was the Suffering from a Hangover 7″ “Note: It’s Open, Push and Go EP”. It’s great, pure indiepop! I’ve never heard anything about them before. Care to tell me a bit about the background of this band?

Actually I knew the band for some time and they passed around demo tapes. After agreeing to release the Forsakes 7″ (the singer of which is brother to the guitar player of Suffering..) we also talked about doing a 7″ with them. I didnt like the early tapes too much but the band improved a lot and they grew on me, so we ended up doing the single. They later got a support slot for a Throw That Beat tour. There are still tons of tapes and unreleased songs, some ended up on a Fan Club only 7″ in a tiny edition of 50. Some members of the band I still see from time, I am thinking of doing a 3-CD retrospective with them hahaha…

That is from an old interview I did with Blue Records’ Michael Wille. I was curious about this 7″ he had released in 1992 on his label.

Yeah, today I want to find out more about Hanau, Germany, band Suffering from a Hangover.

The “Note: It’s Open, Push and Go EP” (SHADE 003) was the first record I heard from them and it sounded great. It had “It’s Over” and “Girl” on the A side (also called Hangside) and “Dog Named Jack” and “Wonderful” on the B side (called Overside). Some of these records included a six-sided booklet on green paper. My copy doesn’t have it though. The songs had been recorded and mixed between August and September of 1992 by Nobby.

The band was formed by Robert Piesenecker on bass. Jens Helk on drums. Andreea Zimmermann on vocals and guitar. Michael Müller on guitar. Robert was on the band On before being on Suffering from a Hangover and Michael, Jens and Robert were together on the band Panama Red afterwards.

As mentioned by Michael Wille, there was a very limited 7″. 50 copies in a hand made sleeve for the Fan Club of the band. There were 10 more test pressings in picture sleeve released in 2004. This one was the “Whole Wide World” 7″ (SHADE 007) that was released in 1993. It included “Whole Wide World” on the A side and “Very Next Day” and “Boy Who’s Shyer” on the B side.

An interesting fact about this record is that there’s a review by Luis Calvo from Elefant on one of the labels of the previous record. There Luis mentions that he loves the song “Dog Named Jack”.

Michael also said that there were many tapes by the band. Two of them are on Discogs.

“Out of Reach” dates from 1992 and inccluded 9 songs, “Song Dedicated to Someone Who Ever Teases Me”, “It’s Over”, “I Wait for You”, a cover of Throw That Beat in the Garbagecan’s classic “Little Red Go-Cart”, “Your Mind” written by Claus Sterneck from the Hanau band Schulcore, “Epidemic On the Collective Farm”, “Begonia”, “Dreams” and “Time to Go”. From what I understand there was a first edition of 50 copies and that 32 of them came in a sausage tin can. It was recorded March 7 of 1992 and mixed by Matze Gruber from Forsakes and Mayflower Madam on the 12th of that same month. The photography is credited to Teeni. The second edition was mixed by Tvuzk and was released as a limited edition of 59 copies on July 3rd of 1992. This edition included the track “Your Mind” which wasn’t included in the first edition. This track had been recorded live at Metzergerstrasse in Hanau on April 17 1992.

The second tape listed is a 1993 tape titled “Still No Sign of Land”. This one was also self-released and included 10 songs: “Very Next Day”, “Boy Who’s Shyer”, “Why Baby”, “Final End”, “Whole Wide World”, “The Only Way I Know”, “Valerie’s Garden”, “Feeling So Blue”, “It’s Time” and “Dreams”. Tracks were recorded at mixed in April/May of 1993 with the exception of “Dreams” that was recorded live on October 18, 1992, at Exil in Trier.

I keep searching for more info about them and I stumbled upon a blog post by my friend Alex from 7iete Pulgadas. He beat me to it, writing about the band. There’s not much more info but it is a nice detail about how he discovered the band, again mentioning Luis Calvo and how he compared the track “Dog Named Jack” to Talulah Gosh.

And that’s what I could find. Sadly no more. Where are the members now? Still making music? Would be great to find out!

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Listen
Suffering from a Hangover – It’s Over

Revisiting my Bus Stop Label’s singles, I pick up today the superb 7″ that Engine No. 9 released in 1991. A 7″ that had two top songs, “Sleep” on the A side and “Waterfall” on the B side.

The catalog number for this record was BUS008 and had a nice cartoon train on a front cover that had just three colors, red, black and white. The artwork is credited to Brian Reedy who had been in bands like Lonely Trailer, Signalmeen, The Falbonauts and Water Between Continents.

But there’s a little detail that’s interesting about this record. It was released posthumously. The band didn’t exist anymore at the time of the release, they had changed their name to Fudge.

I haven’t written yet about Fudge. There’s so many bands to write about, but hopefully at some point I will do. There are other details though that we can add about Engine No. 9.

We know that this single was recorded at Studio Nico in the fall of 1990 and that the band was formed by Dani Siciliano on bass, Mike Savage on drums, David Jones on guitar and Tony Ammendolla on vocals and guitar. Two Italian last names I notice.

The blog Did Not Chart has scans from a Fudge Interview on 1991’s Waterbomb! fanzine. There they are asked about a short history of Engine No. 9. This is what they say:

Can You give us a short history of Engine No. 9?

David: Tony (vocals & guitar) and myself have been playing together since we were 17 or 18. We came to Richmond to go to school and to get into its music scene. We’ve been trying to put together a solid band for about two years. Fudge (Engine No. 9 ) is that band!

Where does the strange name come from (Engine No. 9)? It sounds R.E.M. ish?

David: “Engine, engine, number nine, comen down Chicago line, if that train should jump the tracks, do you want your money back?”
It comes from this rhyme that wee did as little kids, a lot of the time in addition to a really neat hand game.
No! REM no! Sit! Bad dog! in the USA if it doesn’t sound like Bon Jovi or Janet Jackson then it must be that weird “Progressive rock” like REM. I’ve always liked REM, but NEVER want any connection to them. (Sorry for the mild hostility).

How did the single with Bus Stop come about?

David: I sent a tape to Brian and one to Calvin at K. Brian liked us, Calvin, well he sent me some neat Beat Happening flyers, but he lost my tape.

Your whole sound, sounds as though you have a large British ‘indie’ influence, do you?

David: a small “indie influence”. I like all the C86 stuff and got into some of the well known indie bands i.e. The Sea Urchins, Shop Assistants, Talulah Gosh, Pooh Sticks. We really love Noise/Melody – My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr. And big grooves.

Were there any other releases before “Sleep / Waterfall”?

David: Only local demo stuff.

Are there any other good bands from the Richmond area?

David: Thank you for asking about Richmond bands. Yes!! Richmond has a thriving scene. Very few.none are of the indiepop kind of thing, but all are great. My partial list of favourites – Jive Farmer, Anse, Eggs, Coral, Alter-natives, Burma Jam, Kal Kan, Mystery Machine

What’s “Sleep” and “Waterfall” about?

David: “Sleep” = Youth, love, poetry and other sappy shit. Lyrics written by an x-bass player. “Waterfall” = “I believe in you and your waterfall, me and my divining rod, lending me to yo, showing me what to do…” = Mother nature & instinct. The hows and why’s.

Are Bus Stop going to release an LP” What would you call it?

David: Jeez! I hope! Maybe if Brian knew he could sell them. We have quite a lot of material but we want to go slow. It would be called “I Wish I Were a Fish’

Where you aware of all the other Bus Stop bands before you joined the label?

David: I had heard of Bus Stop and some of the bands, but never the music. Well, Springfields, but I thought they were on Sarah.

Do you think the American music press does enough to promote bands like yourselves?

David: No! It’s kind of hip to have different/weird bands on major labels now, but they don’t really care about anything but the money.

What do you all do for your day jobs?

David: I go to school at Virginia Commonwealth Uni and I work at a survey lab doing yucky computer stuff. Tony is a security guard at a residence hall for the university and take classes. Mike works at the Art Market. VCU is an Art School.

There’s a comment on the post by David Jones. He mentions that Dani Siciliano never played bass with them but that she was a high school friend that was moving away and it seemed like a good way to have pictures of her taken before she left time. That sorts of make sense now that I think about it. When I see her name on Discogs she was a key collaborator of the Matthew Herbert Big Band and had played in jazz combos and djed in San Francisco clubs.

Looking at other bands they were involved with, other than Fudge, I see Tony and David were on Twitch Hazel and The Seymores. Mike was in Death Vessel, The ‘Mericans, Cherry 2000, The Count Me Outs, and Shepherdess.

The band contributed two tracks to the classic compilation CD “Peppermint Stick Parade” (BUS1001) released by The Bus Stop Label in 1995. These songs were “Waterfall” and “Sleep” of course.

One interesting thing that I can’t figure out is that the two songs on the 7″ are credited to two last names that are not the band’s. “Sleep” is credited to Tolk. From the interview I understand it was an ex-bassist of the band. But what about “Waterfall”. It says Moore.

Then Discogs lists a 12″ titled “Engine, Engine No. 9”. That is not a release by this band. This actually dates from 1966 so an error to include it in the band’s discography.

And that’s all I could find about them. The one thing that caught my attention was that there were demo tapes with more songs that were released locally. Has anyone seen them?

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Listen
Engine No. 9 – Sleep

Many years ago I picked up a 7″ by a band called Flower Gang. I had no idea what I was buying but it wasn’t expensive and looked indie enough to me. Turned out to be a fine record.

This was the “Guys with Glasses” 7″ that was released by Boy Crazee Records (BC 001) in 1990. This was a US band and probably this was a self-release. On the back of the sleeve we see a P.O. Box address for the label, one located in Mansfield, Massachusetts.

The band was a trio formed by Dan (real name Donald Brendan Larson) on guitar and vocals, Jack (real name John Patrick Hanlon) on bass and vocals and Matthew Edward McLaren on drums. The songs on the record were “Matt’s Dilema”, “Metzger’s Farm” and “Army Man” on the A side and “Guys with Glasses”, “Lightning Detector and Rog.” and “Shit Fish” on the B side. The songs were produced by Bob North and the band.

It is also worth mentioning that there are many different colors for the sleeve. At least there was an orange, red, blue, green and yellow sleeve.

2 years later the band signed to spinART Records from New York. They would release with them a double 7″ titled “Junkdrawer”. This one is also easy to track down.

The songs were “Apples” and “Mt. Zion Song” on the A side, “P-Whole” and “Mcnutt” on the B side, “Shiny Grease” and “Crocodile Attack/Chips” on the C side and “50’s Rocks” on the D side. This time around the songs were engineered by Joe Moody. Also the band had added the vocals of Erin Elizabeth Sharicz.

The band doesn’t have any compilation appearances listed on Discogs. Strange. Those early 90s would see bands on compilations all the time.

What else I could find? I believe Matthew McLaren was in a band called The Barnacled. At this point maybe he had relocated to Providence, Rhode Island. Also Jack Hanlon would pay in the bands Royal Crowns and Mole People.

Then I stumble upon quite a find. the user Changebear has uploaded 11 tracks by the band to Soundcloud! These include the songs from the “Junkdrawer” double 7″ but also four live recordings on WFMU radio: “Splinter”, “Blacktop Dad”, “Fuchinlee Fuchela/Shit Fish” and “26 Hours/Gilligan Jesus”.

I also notice someone mentioning that he saw the Flower Gang supporting The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Boss Fuel. Doesn’t say the date or venue though.

Also according to this article Flower Gang reunited to play a gig at Met Cafe in Pawtucket on April 14th 2012 with Small Factory and Honeybunch. What a gig that must have been!

Cool!

Anyways, that’s what I could find about them, so of course, please share any other details on them!

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Listen
Flower Gang – Metzger’s Farm

For a few years in the mid-90s Policecat were the Sound of Young Scotland.

Hailing from Edinburgh the band was formed by brothers Gordon and Jonathan Kilgour, both on vocals and guitar, and Katrina Dixon on drums. Soon after their first gig John Harrington joined on bass.

This lineup would release the “Drown” 7″ in 1994 on Domino (RUG19). This 7″ single had “Drown” on the A side and “Bolder” and “Voodoo Hoedown” on the B side. The songs were produced and engineered by Warren McKean at Mighty Reel in Edinburgh. It mentions that all songs were recorded over two days at the cost of 190 pounds sterling. The artwork is credited to John Harrington.

In 1995 they would release “Larry”, a 10″ EP on Domino Records (RUG34T). This one had “Larry” and “Music for Pleasure” on the A side and “Classy” and “Tram 22” on the B side. Again the songs were engineered by Warren McKean at Mighty Reel. Barnaby Dellar added keuyboards to “Tram 22″ and Martin Lyndon added strings to both tracks on the A side.

Then in 1997 the band released a split single on Creeping Bent (BENT 024). The 7” version had Policecat’s song “Automobile” on the B side while The Secret Goldfish had “Give Him a Great Big Kiss” on the A side. On the CD version each band contributed two songs. The Secret Goldfish added “Pink Drone” while Policecat had “Five Miles of Bad Road”.

After this release Katrina would leave the band and was replaced by Scott Hall. This new lineup would record a 1997 Peel Session and two more singles in 1998.

The Peel Session also had Yvonne Slaven on keyboards. The producer was Mike Robinson and the engineer was Kevin Rumble. 4 songs were recorded on October 31, 1997: “Blue Movie”, “Give Us this Day”, “Dark Holiday” and “Lone Rider”. Will this get a release on Precious Recordings of London one day?

“Give Us this Day”, a 7″ on the American label Fantastic Records (FAN010), came out in 1998. This single included the title song on the A side and “As We Approach Harthill” on the B side. The A side was recorded at Cava in Glasgow with Gregor Reid as the engineer while the B side was recorded on a 4-track.

Lastly that same year on Creeping Bent they released another split 7″ with the band Appendix Out. It was part of the Singles Club and it was the eight release in the series (BENT 034). The song the band contributed was “Dark Holiday” while Appendix Out had “Lassie, Lie Near Me” on the A side.

The band also contributed songs to compilations. “Drown” was on a cassette comp called “Humpy Bosque” that Bosque Records (BOSC 008) released in 1994. “Midnight Cowgate” was on the cassette comp “A Fistful of Horsepower” that Vesuvius Records (POMP 005) put out in 1996. That same year, “Lone Rider” was included in the LP compilation “Noises from the Sound Cupboard” that Red Carpet Ring (RCR06) released.

This same label, Red Carpet Ring, would have their song “Fish Soup” on a double compilation LP, “With Singing, Orchestra and Harp (an International Gathering)” (RCR06)  in 1999. Lastly, in 1999 too, “Automobile” and “Dark Holiday” were included in “Bentism (The Underground Sounds of Creeping Bent)”, a CD compilation on Creeping Bent (BENT040).

What else is worth mentioning: Well, that Gordon and Yvonne also released music as The Mongers while Policecat was active. Jonathan Kilgour performed and recorded with The Pastels around the time of their “Illumination” album. Katrina would later be on Sally Skull and Tender Trap (I remember seeing her live playing drums!). Also both Kilgour brothers played in The Zephyrs, Lunar Landing Module and Clipper. Gordon also released music as Gewgaws.

Lastly there’s a Soundcloud account that includes a demo version of “Drown” and a song I had never heard, “My Burd” that seems to be taken from a tape.

That’s what I could find, but I am sure many of you remember them. I’d love to learn more details about them and I’d love to listen to the Peel Session too! Please share your memories on the comments section!

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Policecat – Drown

Ages ago, I wrote about the London band The Scissor Fits. Do you remember them?

Two of the band members went to be in the fantastic band the Gol Gappas, Nick East and Colin Roxborough. I was even lucky to get in touch with Nick a few times and he was keen on doing an interview about the fantastic Gol Gappas. I send him questions but sadly never heard back.

But I still want people to discover this terrific band…

It is very true too that there’s little on the web about them…  but let’s start from the start. Where does their curious name come from?

A golgappa, also called panipuri, fuchka, gupchup (and other names!) is a type of snack from India. It is a common street food. It consists of a round hollow puri (a deep-fried crisp flatbread), filled with a mixture of flavored water tamarind chutney, chili powder, chaat masala, potato mash, onion, or chickpeas. I have tried it here in New York and it is delicious. Maybe one day I’ll be lucky to try it in India.

The band’s first release was the “Dinner with Nougat” 12″ that was released by Él Records (GPO 8T). Remember from The Scissor Fits post that the band had a connection with Mike Alway, he was a part-time member of the band. So it is no surprise to me that he signed them to his label.

This 12″ had four songs, “Saint Lucy” and “Chicken Pox” on the A side and “Albert Parker” and “Ice Cream” on the B side. The EP was released in 1986 and re-released in 1989 as a mini CD in Japan (VAP 25615). The tracks were the same but the artwork of the record was different.

In `1986 the band also released a 7″ with “West 14” on the A side and “Roman” on the B side. This one was also released on ´Él Records (GPO 21).

“Roman” would be re-released in 1987 in France by the Vogue label (102201). It would come out as a 7″ where a remix version of “Roman” was on the A side and “Albert Parker” was on the B side and also as a 12″ where the two 7″ tracks were on the B side while we find the Polanski Dance Mix of “Roman” on the A side. Richard Preston is credited for production, Bruno Mylonas (who had previously remixed Vanessa Paradis) as the engineer and Aliss Terell on backing vocals. The remixes had been done at Studios Guillaume Tell. The artwork was also totally different.

A little googling shows that Aliss Terrell was American but was based in France. She was also the first ever person to star in a rap video shot on Moscow’s Red Square.

When it comes to compilation, as a Cherry Red related band, you can expect them to appear on many. In 1987 their song “Albert Parker” was on the “London Pavilion Volume One” released by Cherry Red (ACME 7) and also re-released in Grecce by Stiletto, Spain by Grabaciones Accidentales and Japan by vap that same year. All of these versions were released as LP vinyl but also Cherry Red made a CD version.

Richmond Records would have the songs “West” and “St Lucy” in the CD comp “Bellissimo! Él Singles Part One” that came out in 1993 (MONDE 11). This same label in 1995 would put out “Él Records – The Legendary B Sides” (MONDE 20) a compilation CD with the band’s songs”Roman” and “Albert Parker”.

“West 14” would appear then in the 2005 Cherry Red comp “Too Good to be True – The Very Best of Él Records 1985-1988” CD comp (CDMRED 287). After this Cherry Red would include them in three of their box sets. On 2013’a “Scared to Get Happy (A Story of Indie-Pop 1980-1989)” it was “Albert Parker” that was included. “St. Lucy” would appear on “CD87” (CRCDBOX26) a  triple CD compilation released in 2016. And lastly, “Albert Parker” was included in “Losing Touch with my Mind: Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990” triple CD box set (CRCDBOX71).

What else do we know? We know who St. Lucy was of course, she is the patron saint of Syracuse in Italy. Her story says that a disappointed suitor accused Lucy of being a Christian, and she was executed in Syracuse, in the year 304 during the Diocletianic Persecution.

What about Albert Parker? I am not sure. Could it be the American film director and actor? According to Wikipedia…
Albert Parker (May 11, 1885 – August 10, 1974) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. He directed 36 films between 1917 and 1938. In the early 1930s Parker left Hollywood for England where he continued to direct films and also opened an actors’ agency office. One of his later clients in the 1960s was actress Helen Mirren. He was born in New York, USA, and died in London, England.

From the email exchange I haad with Nick East I know he was in two other projects, Baby Baby Baby Baby and Rumblestrip. There are recordings of these bands but I have never heard them.

Nick also mentioned to me that there are a few more Gol Gappas songs on demo tapes. He says that they are pretty rough.

Another detail he shared with me was that the band never played live.

That’s all I have about the Gol Gappas. I tried to re-release them too, asked Cherry Red but the price for the songs was prohibitive.

I love all of their songs. I think they are a terribly underrated band that deserve recognition. So yeah, if you have time listen to the song I share here. But if you can try to track down all of their songs. They are fantastic!

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The Gol Gappas – Albert Parker

Amri Shroff. That’s who was behind that wonderful single with “All Your Words” on the A side. The band, or maybe this solo project, went under the name Amri. That record has been a favourite of mine for a long time. But only a few weeks ago I found a video of Amri playing this song on a Dutch TV programme.

I believe the TV show was called Formel Eins and the date it was aired was on September 6 of 1987. You can watch it here.

This single was actually his second release. It came out in 1987 on a big label, Epic (EPC 650358). It was released as a 7″ and 12″. The 7″ had “All Your Words” on the A side and “Invisible Dance” on the B side while the 12″ included a long version of “All Your Words’ on the A side and the single version as the 2nd track on the B side.

The producers of the record were the Germans Peter Ries and Reinhard Besser. Ries has quite the resume, working with big names like Kool and the Gang or even Nsync. The photography is credited to Jochen Thieme.

Amri’s first release was also a single, on both 7″ and 12” formats, that came out in 1985 on Epic (EPCA 6999). The sound of these songs are less indiepop, more new wave, more 80s classic sounding. The A side was “Return to Gold” and the B side is “Look at Me Now”.

Interestingly we see that on this record we see Reinhard Besser credited for the songs as well as Amri and two other names, Marc Cassandra and Ralph Bachmann. Turns out Marc Cassandra is Peter Ries, the producer. And yes, both Reinhard and Peter produced this record.

“Return to the Gold” had a video made.

There are no compilation appearances by Amri. But it does look like Amri played on a German maxi-single by Mayte. He sang and did backing vocals on the “Too Dramatic” 12″ released by Control in 1993. He’d also play different instruments (as well as doing the cover artwork) for the German electronic rock band Whispering Colours in their 1995 album “The Mystery of Pain”.

Seems he was more connected to the German scene than the Dutch one, right?

It also seems I lose track of him in the early 90s. I wonder what happened to Amri. Did he just stop making music? How come he got signed to a big label and got to release two records? Was he in other bands? For me it is a big mystery. Also why the change of the sound between his two records? I like “Return to the Gold”, but “All Your Words” is just pure pop bliss. I wonder many things, and I also wonder if we’ll ever find out more details about this Dutch project!

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Amri – All Your Words

I thought it was good time to revisit the great Bi-Joopiter label founded by Paul Rixon from Gilroy, The McTells and more, and Gilliam Elam also from The McTells in 1983 in Hertford, UK.

Among their many releases in different formats I thought looking into one that I know nothing about, The Big Paintings 7″. I have this record but have no clue who are behind it. Anyone knows?

What I do know is that it was released in 1994 with catalog number BIJOOP 027 and included three songs, “The Strangest Secret of a Daisy Head” and “This Does Not Mean a Thing” on the A side and “Long Over Drawn” on the B side.

Okay, it is true that the sides on the record are not marked as A or B. But this is how Discogs lists it.

There’s some runout etchings on this record, again on what we say is the A side it says “Thee Alvins Children Mike’s – The Exchange”, and on the B it says “The Big Painting Number One”.

This wasn’t the band’s first release. There was another one many years before, in 1987. I don’t own this one sadly. It was a tape titled “Weats the Most Important Thing in Your Life? Money” (BIJOOP 016). This cassette mini-album had six songs, “All the Times”, “I Like it Here” and “Instrumental One” on the A side, and “Penny Picture Poseman”, “The Girl with Green Eyes” and “My Minitrend Friend” on the B side. We know that Kenneth Williams (who had released a song called “Kenneth Williams” on the 1988 tape compilation “Best Before Oct 88 (A Shropshire Compilation) was the producer.

Mark Flunder was the drummer on this record. Mark has been in many top bands including The McTells, Sportique, Television Personalities, Emil, Sindy Arthur, Moscovite Five, Elusive Diplomats and Cee Bee Beaumont.

The other band members of Big Paintings were Owen on bass and vocals, William on vocals and guitar (I believe he is Bill from The McTells), and Paul who is credited for Woodblocks. The Timothy Stevens orchestra is also credited.

The Brighton band also released some songs on compilations. In 1989 they had “I Like It Here” on “What Feet” tape comp released by Bi-Joopiter (BIJOOP 020) and the song “Charity” was on another tape comp called “Purveyors of Domestic Genius – Volume One” released by Swell Cassette Recording (SWELL TEN).

In 1991 on the classic “A Prospect of the Sea” compilation tape released by Cloud Production (Smile 003) they had the song “Penny Picture Postman”. Lastly in 1992 “This Does Not Mean a Thing”, a video of theirs, was on “Dead Eye One” VHS tape. Sadly this video is not on Youtube.

That’s all there is about them online, but I am sure some of you may know more details about them. Were there more recordings by The Big Paintings? Why no more releases? Who saw them live?

Use the comment box below to share any info on them!

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The Big Paintings – The Long Overdraw

I found 5 demos by In the Bus, a 1990s French band, on Bandcamp.

The information about them is little. Ovvk Archives, which is run by Jimmy Arfosea from Les Autres, has rescued these 5 songs and we should be thankful for that.

There’s a little bio that is terribly helpful:

Between the winter of 1992-1993 and the fall of 1993, Olivier, singer of the french Noise Pop band Les Autres and Yann, designer of the fanzine Tea Time (well known for having released a split flexi featuring rare demos of Stereolab) teamed up and recorded a series of superb pieces of naïve and playful Twee Pop giving pride of place to jangly guitars, a Casio toy organ and that would not have gone wrong on Sarah Records.

We know too that the songs were recorded between the winter of 1992 and the spring of 1993. They were recorded in Rennes, France.

As mentioned there are five demos, “Ugly Little World”, “Sunday Song”, “Virginie”, “Orange Flower” and “In a Different World”. Some of them got released in the 90s.

The song “Ugly Little Girl”  appeared on the compilation tape “Summer Hits 93” released by Lo Label from France. This tape came with a 32 page mini booklet. How I wish I would see a copy of this.

“Sunday Song” and “Orange Flower” were included on “Breeze 4” compilation tape released by Alphyen Viwit (004) from Germany in 1994. This tape also came with a large zine.

Also there was another song by In the Bus, “Radio-Active-Coffee”. This song is not among the demos on Bandcamp. But we know this track was released on the compilation 7″ Box set released by Aliénor Records in 1994 titled “The Onion Most Dangerous Game”. This boxset came alongside the French fanzine “Onion’s Soup” and was limited to 500 copies.

All of the songs recorded by this band were written and recorded by Olivier Doreille and Yann Brien, with the exception of “Virginie” which Olivier wrote on his own.

The last detail we know about the band is what instruments each of them played. Olivier Doreille played electric guitar, bass, vocals, casio keyboards, drums programming, flute and noises. Yann Brien, on the other hand, was on electric guitar, casio keyboards, vocals, drums programming and noises.

Now the question is, are there more recordings? Did they play live? Would love to know!

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Listen
In the Bus – Ugly Little Girl

Tara Mackay on vocals and bass, Christian Elton on guitars, vocals and keyboards and AJ Naito on drums was the original lineup of the New Jersey band The Parcels.

This lineup would release a self-titled 7″ in 1998 on the label Brentwood Estates (BES-005). The songs on this record were “Oh, What a Busy Day” and “Green Means Go” on the A side and “I Dream of Jean Genet” on the B side. The three songs had been recorded in mid September of that year at Pain and Pleasure Studios, Small Factory’s Dave Auenbach’s studios in Providence, Rhode Island, and were mastered at Greg Lee Processing.

Melissa Wysocki would take over bass and vocals replacing Tara in 1999. This new lineup would record the wonderful album “Have a Go with The Parcels” which was also released by Brentwood Estates (BES-013) in 2000.

The songs for the album were recorded with Bill Wells and Gary Olson at Marlborough Farms Studio in Brooklyn, NY.

This album had 12 songs, “Snappy New Haircut”, “Jessica Pancakes”, “I Could Be a Dinosaur”, “Horton Hears The Who”, “Patchoulie Julie”, “She’s a Good Witch”, “Minor Disturbance Grrrl”, “Green Means Go”, “I Stole a Star’, “Measure Me Sky”, “Lobster Kids” and “Monkey Bars”.

The songs were mastered at Nonstop Studio and the design and layout is credited to Ryan Lewis from Kincaid, Grape Soda and The Weight.

The band would appear on a few compilations too. The song “Snappy New Haircut” would find its way on “New Atmosphere for the Future: U.S. Pop Life Vol.3-International” CD released by the Japanese label Contact Records (CR-10) in 2000. Then “She’s a Good Witch” was on “Will there be Time for Tea?” released by Morgan Leah Records (MORGAN 348) in 2001. That same year the band would have “If I Ever Get the Chance Again” on Shelflife Records’ “One” CD (LIFE 040).

Lastly in 2002 the band had the wonderful “Jessica Pancakes” on my friend Tommy’s compilation “Hit Music Only” released by thee Swedish label Heavenly Pop Hits (POPH01).

The band played only a few gigs from what I’ve read. But gigs included ones with Wolfie, Barcelona, Masters of the Hemisphere and Calvin Johnson. Also they toured the East Coast during the summer of 2000 and played the Kindercore Records’ Expo 2000 FFesrtival. The band would call it a day in 2002.

About being in other bands I didn’t find much information. I saw that Christian Elton played bass on a Panda Riot song called “Marker” in the 2007 album “She Dares all Things. AJ Naito was in the band Pecan Sandies. I also read about a band called Home Economics, Scary Monster and another called The Dares were members could have been involved with.

What is good to know too is that the band’s website still exists. The first thing you’ll see is the band’s appearance on the I-Pop segment of the Japanese TV show Hakai that aired in February 1999.

Then there’s a few little pieces of info I picked here and there… for example the band playing at Yat’s in 2000, or on April of 2001 they played with The Ladybug Transistor at Smith College, or that the band was based in Sewell, New Jersey.

Anyone remembers them? I loved this band back in the day and I just remembered them today, and thought… how come I’ve never written about them or even recommended them on my blog!

EDIT: some interesting bit that have been shared on Facebook: It seems that the band was supposed to contribute a brand new song for the “Hit Music Only” CD comp. What happened was that the producer had disappeared with all the master recordings to in the end the band contributed a song off the album.

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Listen
The Parcels – Jessica Pancakes