Struggling this week to write about new music finds… finding time is complicated…

Swansea Sound: the supergroup formed by Hue, Rob, Amelia and Ian is back with a Christmas release! The “Music Lover EP” is being released on CD on December 1st! This EP will have 3 songs, “Music Lover”, “Happy Christmas To Me” and “Merry Christmas to Me”. The last two songs had been previously released on a limited edition Snowflakes 7″ single from last year.

Spice World: the Australian band is back with a new album, “There’s No I in Spice World”. The four piece is putting this record out on vinyl through Meritorio Records and Tenth Court Records. The album is coming out on January 20 and will include 10 songs. 3 of them are available to preview and they are ace. Definitely check them out.

Love, Burns: when there is a new Love, Burns release one has to be happy. You know it is going to be quality. That the jangle is going to be on point. That there will be good lyrics. Overall, you are going to get top songs. “Fade in the Sun EP” is no exception. Four songs by one of the best indiepop projects of the last few years. Not sure if it is being released physically, but it is on Bandcamp now.

Holy Now: out now on vinyl is the latest album by the Swedish band Holy Now. It was released last month by Lazy Octopus Records and it has 9 pop tunes that deserve every indniepop’s attention! The album is titled “Dream of Me”, and I wonder how Swedish pop continues to create great pop music. I know, it is not in the amounts as a decade ago or so, but still, they know what they are doing.

Fanny & Alexander: From Santiago de Compostela, Spain, comes this project that makes songs in Galician. Named after the well-known Bergman movie, the band’s latest is a 9 song album titled “A Túa Ausencia Neste Ar”. The sound of the band is quite interesting, reminding me of another Spanish band from the past, Portonovo. Electronic arrangements and introspective lyrics, a good combo I think!

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Antic Hay is a comic novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1923. The story takes place in London, and depicts the aimless or self-absorbed cultural elite in the sad and turbulent times following the end of World War I.

We head to Norfolk, North Carolina. I see them listed in a website called Hardcore Norfolk, but the songs I found on Soundcloud sound jangly to me.

The band was formed by Gary Ziroli on vocals, Vernon Guinn on guitar, Anthony Torres on guitar, Charles Grant on bass and Howard Swartz on drums. Drummers changed though, and we know many drummers were part of the band at some point: Joey Mishkofski, Dave Warshaw , Bill Shearin, Mike Dugan and Joey Rudicil.

The band only released one record, a CD album in 1991 titled “A Few Cuts in Heaven”. This CD was released by Merkin Records (MM 321), a label based in Baltimore. The CD included 11 songs: “Another Song for You”, “And”, “All So Easy”, “Fear Alone”, “Cold Steel”, “Spring”, “One That Go Away”, “Common Ground”, “Kill the Watchdog”, “Everything is Beautiful” and “Where I Am”. The songs were recorded at Earworks in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1991. The CD artwork by Sam Sebren and photography by Mark Williamson. The engineer for the recordings was Robert Smith.

The Soundcloud recordings I found date from 5 years earlier, 1986. The songs had been recorded between the 8 and 9 of March of that year. This demo tape had the songs “Drowning Ulysses”, the superb “Here and Now” and “The Hand That Takes”. On these recordings the drummer was Dave Warshaw. The songs were produced by ISIDORE and engineered by Vic Lipscombe. They were recorded at CMC Studios in Zebulon, North Carolina.

This same account, restlessnoise, has more songs by Antic Hay. We find there “The Town You Left Behind“, another jangly track from 1986. This song was originally titled “Space to be Naked” and on this recording Antic Hay had Howard Swartz on drums.

Another track we find is “Flatfall“. This one is also from 1986 and it is said it was a fan-favourite at gigs.

Then I stumble upon a Facebook group for the band. There I find some more info. For example that the band played the Virginia Beach Civic Center on April 26, 1991, alongside The M-8o’s and Ant Man Bee.

Another gig they played, thanks to the Hardcore Norfolk site, dates from October 12, 1990, at The Boathouse in Norfolk. That time they played along Ant Man Bee and Buttsteak. They also share a Youtube link, a snippet from the film “Hardcore Norfolk”, a documentary of the scene of that city. There they interview Vernon Guinn, Anthony Torres and Charles Grant and show a bunch of cool flyers and photos from the band.

The band also played the Kings Head Inn along Worthless Dizzies and the 92 WOFM Block Party. Also at The Boathouse on December 29, 1989, with Waxing Poetics and Dreams So Real.

Another good find is a photography of 3 demo tapes by the band! Wow! So we see the tape I mentioned earlier but two more.

One that was recorded in January 1987 at Hit and Run Studios in Rockville, Maryland. Produced by the band and engineered by Steve Carr. This one had four songs, “Space to be Naked”, “Flatfall”, “Here and Now” and “Cold Steel”.

The other one was recorded in January 1988 on 8-track at Ear Works Studio in Virginia Beach. This tape had four songs, “No One Likes a Fool”, “Like it or Not”, “Spring” and “Before and After the Fact”.

Then this same photo has some more tapes with other songs by the band. We see song titles like “Before & After the Facts”, “Everything is Beautiful”, “Face it”, “Do it Clean”, “Noise”, “Subtle as Fire”, “That’s All”, “Never Going Back”, “Feel Free”, “Lovers Leap” or “Where I Am”.

Another interesting bit. There’s a cover of the song “The Town You Left Behind” and also “Here and Now” by Paul Unger.

Then there are some videos of some of the band members playing “Spring”  in 2012 as well as a performance of both Gary Ziroli and Vernon Guinn playing at the Naro Cinema of Norfolk before the showing of “Spinal Tap”.

Then I find some strange news on The Virginia Pilot. In 2014 Vernon Guinn, the guitarist for Antic Hay, robbed a bank. The police arrested him seven hours later.

On the Daily Press I read that in 1998 the band reformed under another name, God and Famous. They lasted until 1999. Then the members reformed again, minus Gary Ziroli, as Action Habit.

And this is what I found out about this cool sounding band. I wonder why they took so long to release their record. They seem to have had tons of songs. Anyone remembers them?

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Listen
Antic Hay – Here and Now

The Photocopies: it seems I write about Sean Turner’s band every single week. Well this time I think it makes all sense to do it. He has a new CD that is coming out on December 2 on Discos de Kirlian. It is a collection of 26 songs titled “Wrong Century”. It includes a bunch of covers too, including the TVPs, Primal Scream and Kylie Minogue!

Reina Republicana: I haven’t been following the Pamplona band for many years. It was nice to hear them again, as their music is up now on Bandcamp. Yeah, their 2012 debut album released by Limbo Starr is up and I am really enjoying it again. Copies of the record are still available.

Herr Wade: “Willkommen Zurück” is a new 4 song Christmas EP from the band formed by Sebastian Voss and Jørn Åleskjaer. The release is available on CD starting November 22nd. It comes with beautiful art by Roberto Chessa. A must have for the holiday season!

The Catherines: another band that is back is Hamburg’s The Catherines. They have just released a new single titled “But Sundays are the Best” which as usual is a top poppy song. This song will be included in the upcoming album “Wanna Meet Our Neighbours?” to be released in 2023.

My Raining Stars: and lastly this top release, “The Life We Planned EP”! So good! 5 songs that were recorded during the sessions of their album “89 Memories”. Thierry Haliniak band is top class on this record that is now on Bandcamp and that he has promised that it wont be on digital platforms. Very recommended!

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Now to Australia. Where in Australia? Not sure. This is another find on Soundcloud and thanks to stoneeyedkiller who posted this song first on his excellent Youtube channel.

The one and only song that has been uploaded to Soundcloud by this band is called “Stay with Me” and dates from 1988. We know that this song was part of a cassette, as we see a photo of a tape uploaded along the song, where it shows that it was the second song on this particular side of the cassette. The first track was called “Tracey” but it hasn’t been uploaded.

“Tracey” is credited to Kieran Butler for words and music. “Stay with Me” to Sean Pentecost and Chris Collins for words and music. The three of them were members of the band. Anthony Simmons, Russell Taplin and Rob Philpot completed Inside Out.

The only other details we know about this tape is that it was mixed and engineered by Mark Forrester at Platinum Australia in August 1988. There is a Platinum Studios in Melbourne. Maybe then the band hailed from there?

The uploader of this song was Chris Collins. He has also uploaded some other songs to his account and they are all titled “Lockdown”. Most probably these were recorded at the height of the pandemic.

There is a Kieran Butler, that I think could be the same Kieeran Butler. He is a comedian, musician and satirist that has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, Adelaide Fringe and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. He also has had a stand up show called “Collingwood Ruined my Life” that seems was quite successful. Is he the same one as in Inside Out?

I want to think Rob Philpot is an uncommon name. If that is so, I found an Australian Rob Philpot that was co-owner of a company called Aconex that was sold to US tech giant Oraccle in 2018. Could that be him?

Same with Sean Pentecost. Must be an uncommon name. Sadly I find that a drummer called Sean Pentecost, also known as “Seanheist”, died in 2020. That’s sad news. He seems he had a good career in a nu-metal band called Seanheist between 1994 and 2004.

And that’s what I could gather on my detective work. Maybe I got the wrong people, I am just making conjectures here. There is very little info about this band Inside Out. But it is clear to me that they had more songs, so I hope we get more details about them in the future.

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Listen
Inside Out – Stay With Me

The Photocopies: here’s the “Hopelessly Devoted” album! A few days ago I mentioned Sean Turner was preparing a new album but didn’t know it was going to land so quick. The album is on the short side, 8 songs. But that doesn’t mean it ends up feeling thin. There’s lots of great jangle and melodies in here.

David Christian: the Comet Gain leader is back with another collection of tunes. Recorded last October “Alive from the Acorn Lake Cafe” is a lovely bunch of songs. 18 in total. Acoustic and lo-fi, and a melancholic feel throughout, it’s definitely a record to enjoy this upcoming winter, it has the right mood.

EGGS: and another new album, this one available on vinyl. The Paris band has just released “A Glitter Year” on Safe inn the Rain Records and it is tremendous! The album has 12 songs and I suggest getting a copy. I would want one myself too! Punchy pop, jangly, girl/boy vocals, ramshackle glory!

Flores de Uranio: the Madrid band caught my attention time ago. I am very happy to find out they have a new digital single titled “Por los Siglos de los Siglos”, a terrific jingle jangly song. Can I suggest them to play the upcoming Madrid Popfest? I won’t be going sadly, but I am sure pop fans going would enjoy their sound!

Roller Derby: and lastly this week I want to stop inn Hamburg. Another band that has been previously featured on the blog, Roller Derby. They have a new single, “Say How Come”. It is a bit darker than previous tunes, but still very enjoyable!

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The Faraway Tree is a series of popular novels for children by British author Enid Blyton. The titles in the series are The Enchanted Wood (1939), The Magic Faraway Tree (1943), The Folk of the Faraway Tree (1946) and Up the Faraway Tree (1951).

The stories take place in an enchanted wood in which a gigantic magical tree grows – the eponymous ‘Faraway Tree’. The tree is so tall that its topmost branches reach into the clouds and it is wide enough to contain small houses carved into its trunk. The wood and the tree are discovered by three children who move into a house nearby. They befriend many of the residents and have adventures in magical lands that visit the top of the tree.

There’s this British band called The Faraway Tree. I believe from the early 90s. I can’t be 100% sure.

2 years ago a bunch of their songs popped up on Soundcloud. The person that uploaded them is Jonathan Farley, Jon Farley. Was he part of the band? I think so. I want to say yes. The band, from the photos that are uploaded, waas formed by 5 guys and a girl. The girl was the vocalist.

There is no details about the band, but at least there are a bunch of songs that come from various demo tapes.

The songs “Dreams”, “And She Wants” and “Resurrection” are tagged as early 4 track demos. Then we find some live recordings at the legendary venue The Boardwalk in Manchester. These live songs are a cover of “Unbearable” by The Wonderstuff, “Way to Be” and “Hey U”.

Other demo songs that are uploaded include “State of Mind”, “Winter”, “Sailaway”, “I Know”, “Hey U”, “Unbearable” and “Fortuna”.

Then there’s a bunch of demos that perhaps were unfinished as they remain untitled. You’ll find them as “Demo 1”, “Untitled demo”, “Untitled demo3”, “Untitled. demo 2”, “Untitled demo1” and “Lost demo”.

Jon has also uploaded some rare recordings of The Wedding Present. Did he have a connection with the band? Or was just a big fan?

I continue trying to find more info about them and notice that Jon is originally from Staybridge and lives in Southport these days.

But that’s it. I can’t find info about the other band members. What were their names? What instruments did each play? Did they release anything? Did they play in any other bands? Would be great to find out!

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Listen
The Faraway Tree – Dreams

The Spanish Amanda: Huw Darling is back with more songs! “Le Petit Magritte” is actual a prequel EP to the band’s forthcoming album “Magritte”. This EP has three songs, “A Starling’s Egg”, “Steve McQueen” and “In a Matchbox”. Thee songs are ace as usual and we can have them on repeat while we await the full-length “Maagritte” in about 3 weeks, and on CD too!

Boyracer: you know I haven’t loved the change from 7″ to 10″ by Precious Recordings for their sessions series. Now I can’t have the collection look nice and ordered all looking similar and alike. But that doesn’t matter I won’t keep getting their releases. Their latest is a must have, Boyracer’s sole Pell Session. This session, dating from 1994, comes with four songs, including a cover of Even as We Speak.

The Laughing Chimes: 6 new songs by the brothers Evan and Quinn Seurkamp from Ohio. These 6, influenced by the Dunedin-sound and American and UK jangle, will be out on November 18 in the “Zoo Avenue EP”. This EP will be released as a cassette.

The Deddingtons: this is something really cool! The Deddingtons just got together to re-record their wonderful “Sheila”. The original song was on the retrospective we released by them in 2012, and this new version is quite cool, it features Jack the Sticks, drummer for Johnny Marr playing drums! Enjoy it!

Freddyboy: and we end this review with this lovely sounding project by Freddy Kwon from Toronto. His latest single “On and On” is a lovely slice of dreamy pop. I believe it is part now of the Spirit Goth label. Oh and the song has a video too!

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Now onto another Soundcloud find. Thanks to stoneeyedkiller’s Youtube channel, I follow the thread and end up finding new bands and new songs that I had never heard before.

An account called “Sellin’ Cotton” uploaded two tracks by the band Fly on the Wall that hailed from Tamworth. This is an interesting town, as I have written about many bands that hailed from there, and even released Some Other Day that was from there too.

There is a website called Tamworth Bands but there is no mention there of Fly on the Wall. This must be terribly obscure!

The two songs uploaded, 4 years ago mind you, are “(There’s No) Electricity in Heaven” and “Different Flavours of Jam”. They are great jangly tunes, but my favourite one is the first one. Top tune!

We know some little details about these songs.

They were recorded at Expresso Bongo Studio which was located behind The Boot in Tamworth. I get curious, why do they mention The Boot? It turns out The Boot Inn, which is now called The Coven, is a classic place in town.

Tamworth Bands does have a bio for this studio, Expresso Bongo, which if you have time, I suggest reading.

Anyhow, back to the tape by Fly on the Wall. The songs had been recorded in 1990 or around that time. They were produced by the band and Paul Speare. Paul was the owner of the studio.

We know the band was formed by Domonic Service on vocals, David Ewing and Paul Donovan on guitars, Richard Edkins on bass and James “Chuddy” Mitchell on drums.

I keep looking for more info. I want to think Richard Edkins is the one that appears on IMDB as a film maker who shot and directed the documentaries Team Tibet and Black Swan Story.

And that’s what I could find about this band. As usual, I am hoping you can help me with more information about them!

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Listen
Fly on the Wall – (There’s No) Electricity in Heaven

So Much Fun: here is a wonderful compilation on Shiny Happy Records. It has many many bands covering Indonesian pop bands! For example The Very Most covers Funny Little Dream or Den Baron covers Mocca. Or Cinema Lumiere covering Annemarie! This is such a great idea. And it is packed with quality. Happily the label will make a physical version of this release later on.

Excerpts From: My Secret Garden: the essential Gothenburg label My Secret Garden will be releasing on November 30 a cassette compilation with this title. The interesting thing about this release is that it includes bands from the mid 2000s that weren’t released on the label. So I am curious. Were these bands going to be part of the label at some point? It includes songs by favourite bands like The Busy Band, Hormones in Abundance or The Snow Fairies.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: a new EP called “Everything You Ever Loved” is on the San Francisco band’s Bandcamp. This EP is made up by remixed tracks from the bonus CD that was included with the Monorail Records edition of Uncommon Weather in 2020. You can check one of the songs now, “Brave & Cruel”.

The Shop Window: great news that the indiepop band from Maidstone is back! And back with an album on Spinout Nuggets! The album that will be released on CD and vinyl on November 25 is called “The 4 Letter Word” and will have 10 songs. Right now you can listen to two of them, and they are ace, “Eyes Wide Shut” and “Low”.

Dot Dash: I haven’t heard from Terry Banks in a while. The ex-Tree Fort Angst, has been making wonderful music with DC based Dot Dash for more than a decade now. And happily the band is back with a new CD album titled “Madman in the Rain”. It is being released by the Canadian label The Beautiful Music and it is available now to listen on Bandcamp and also to order a copy. 12 songs of punchy pop!

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Lutterworth is a market town and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. The town is located in southern Leicestershire, close to the borders with Warwickshire and Northamptonshire. It is located 6.4 miles (10.3 kilometres) north of Rugby, Warwickshire and 12 miles (19 kilometres) south of Leicester.
At the 2011 UK census, the civil parish of Lutterworth had a population of 9,353. The built up area of Lutterworth, which also includes the adjacent village of Bitteswell had a population of 9,907.
Lutterworth was originally an Anglo Saxon settlement, its name is probably derived from the Old English Hlutre Worth: Lutterworth was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.

Never heard of the town of Lutterworth. But that’s from where the band Summerhouse was from.

A Soundcloud account with 8 songs, uploaded 11 years ago, exists. The uploader is called Mark Whiteman and from what I understand he wasn’t part of the band.

The band was formed by Jon Durnin on guitar and vocals, Charlie Holton on guitar and vocals, Tony Mead on drums and vocals and John Cummins on bass.

All of the songs uploaded date from early 1991 and they were part of a tape release titled “Remember Kids… Life’s Too Short to Dance with Fat Chicks”. These songs were written and arranged by the band. Recorded and mixed at Exite 1 Studios and engineered by the band and Austen Kilburn who was in the band Nowhere Men.

The art for the sleeve is credited to Hilary Clinton and Charlie Holton.

We also know the name of the songs of course. These were “Middle Name is Honest”, “Aqua Pura”, “Swirl” and “Thinner” on the A side and “4 Miles Long”, “Big Thing”, “No Damn Words” and “Thinner (Remix)” on the B side.

They appeared on a compilation called “LE 1” in 1993. This was a CD on Trashcan Records (CT 01) that featured unsigned bands from the Eeast Midlands. The CD came along the CLAG magazine, which was a free monthly listings and reviews magazine. The song the band contributed was “Hard to Make Noise”. I look at the tracklist and I only recognize another band, Antiseptic Beauty (who I haven’t wrote about yet)!.

I couldn’t find much more about the band. I wonder if anyone remembers them? Maybe you saw them supporting some cool indiepop band? Did they record more songs? Were the band members involved in other projects? Any detail would be appreciated!

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Listen
Summerhouse – Swirl

The Photocopies: two new songs from Sean Turner, the Michigan-based Londoner. These two songs, “Like Teenage Love” and “Grown-Up Political Discourse” are songs that for being too rowdy didn’t end up on the band’s upcoming mini-album “Hopelessly Devoted”.

Slaney Bay: now we head to London to discover this trio. Their latest is a lovely dreamy and mellow pop single titled “LS6”. There’s not much info on them on their Bandcamp, but going through the band’s website I find out that the band is formed by Caitlin Whitley, William Nicola-Thompson and Joel Martin, all friends since childhood.

Aerofall: here’s “Rh”, an 8-song album by this band from Rostov-on-Don, Russia’s shoegaze capital. The album is out now on the Japanese label Hands and Moment, and it is really nice. Yana Komeshko’s vocals are ace and the melodies really enjoyable.

SPOOL: now to Tokyo, for more shoegazer sounds. SPOOL is a girl band formed by Ayumi, Sumika, Minako and Aran. The four have just releaseed their latest single “(Image for) Drawing on Canvas”.

3 A.M. Again: the Massachusetts band has appeared on the blog many times. The latest EP has 9 songs, it is more of an album than EP. It is called “Cherry Street EP” and was recorded last summer. It is now available digitally and continues exploring the sound the band has been crafting in previous releases. Sweet, classic pop.

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I think there might have been a confusion about King Buffalo on our friend stoneeyedkiller Youtube channel. I was happily surprised when I heard their song “Run Away” that was uploaded to said channel, and I was curious about it. It was tagged as a London, UK, band, but I have started to believe it may be a London, Ohio, band.

You see, a demo tape of theirs dating from 1987 was uploaded to Soundcloud by an account called Cleveland Live Music. Behind this account there’s a music fan called Kenneth Dixon from Chagrin Falls, which is a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.

He mentions that King Buffalo handed him a tape in the late 80s when he saw them in a pub. Kenneth at that time was working in London he says. And he has tagged the music as Americana and describe their music as American Brit sound. So everything points to me that they were local, from Ohio.

The demo included 7 songs, and they all are on Soundcloud. The songs are “I Break Down”, “One Day”, “Run Away”, “Rainbow”, “How Much Higher” and “You Got Love”.

Sadly he doesn’t have any other details about the band. I wonder if the tape he has, the demo, had any more info on the sleeve. Band members names? An address? He hasn’t uploaded the sleeve…

Online it proves very hard to find any other information about them. So I am hoping someone remembers them. Would be good to confirm if they hailed from such a small town in Ohio. And if they have more music? Involved in other bands?

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Listen
King Buffalo – Run Away

Soft Covers: this is not a new one. It is from 2020 but it is indeed a new discovery for me. Soft Covers hails from Sydney, Australia, and in 2020 they released a cassette tape titled “Permanent Part Time” that sounds superb. This is perfect lo-fi pop. The cassette is still available through the band and it includes 6 songs. I recommend this very much.

Melby: now we head to Stockholm. The four-piece Melby have just released “Looks Like a Map” on CD and vinyl. The band formed by Matilda, Are, David and Teo, released in 2019 their debut album which got them the chance to play in many European countries. WIth this new album, I hope they get the chance to cross the Atlantic and play here in NYC. That’d be sweet.

Fine.: one of my favourite bands of the last few years is back with a new song, “Forgive Me”. It is top pop! What a song honestly. Alice Kat and Liam James Marsh seem to know the trick to produce great jangly tunes. Now, I really can’t wait for their debut album “Love, Death, Dreams and the Sleep Between” that will be released in December.

Phantom Handshakes: now we get closer to home, with the duo formed by Federica Tassano and Matt Sklar. I have recommended the band a few times before, and sadly I haven’t seen them live yet. Their latest release is coming out next month and it is a 10 song album titled “A Passport to Remain”. IT doesn’t look like it will be released in physical format though.

Housewife: and a band that will play NY this year is Housewife from Toronto. On December 9th they’ll be playing at The Broadway in Brooklyn. Their latest release is “You’ll Be Forgiven”, a 5 song EP that sounds really nice. The band is just a duo, formed by Brighid Fry and Pascale Padilla.

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Another fantastic find on Soundcloud is the eponymous EP by The Word Merchants!

The band formed by Helen Bolton on vocals, David Gates on guitars, Alex Forryan on guitar and sax, Andy Smith on drums and percussion and Daren Allder on bass and trumpet, released this EP on tape in 1987. It featured a simple white sleeve with yellow ink showing an illustration of a man riding a horse with a tree behind. Maybe it was a merchant? Was that the intention?

The songs uploaded in 2018 to Soundcloud and that were on this tape are “Glass 4 Heads”, “I Said”, “Insect Rain” and “Take a Look”.

Were the band from the Woking area? I find a Daren Allder, which I would think is not a common name, that is a worship minister at St. Mary of Bethany in Woking. He is described as a skilled musician that plays guitar and bass. I also believe he has a graphic design website where he specializes in logo design. It seems he attended Collingwood Secondary School.

Then I think I found Alex Forryan, but instead of playing guitar and sax now he is into drums. It seems he teaches drumming online through RSL, the Rockshool that is based in Teddington.

The other band members have more common names so it proves harder to know what they are up to. Sadly there is no mention about their music and their band.

The one other bit of info I found is that Allder and Gates were in a band called Which One’s Maurice? And after The Word Merchants were no more David Gates went to form Salt Tank.

Oh yeah, David Gates was the main songwriter for the band.

You wonder if they had more songs. The sound of their 4 songs is great. And I honestly would love to have more details about The Word Merchants! Who remembers them?

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Listen
The Word Merchants – Glass 4 Heads

Submotile: I recommended time ago this Irish-Italian band formed by Daniela Angione and Michael Farren and based in Dublin. They had released the “Sonic Day Codas” record then. Now the band is releasing the album “One Final Summit Before the Fall” and it is quite amazing. The dreampop album is out now on vinyl and CD and includes 9 tracks. This is great stuff!

Perrogato: great news, one of our favourite Chilean bands is back with the song “Santa Bárbara”! This is terrific indiepop and it is being released as a digital single by Gemelo Parásito Records from Santiago. This band deserves to be more known. So good.

Primer Infant: now a Spanish band I had never heard before, Primer Infant. They have a tape out now titled “Era Por” on Flexidiscos, a label based in Valencia. This tape of 7 songs compiles two EPs by the band, one from December 2021, unreleased until now, and “Deliri” that ccame out in March 2021. Good stuff.

Bathrobe: now we head to Portland, Oregon. I just discovered this band and it looks like, at least from the profile photo on Bandcamp, that it is a solo-project. A few days ago Bathrobe released an album titled “Blue Drift” that is a lovely sounding shoegaze album, with top tracks like “Memento”. Digital only.

Lucid Express: and one more shoegaze band. This time from Hong Kong. The 5 piece will be releasing the album “Floret” on February 2023 and there are very few copies left for pre-order. The album has 9 songs, 5 of them are remixes though. You know I am not a fan of remixes, but here there are two that I was curious about, one remix by our friends The BV’s and aanother by For Tracy Hyde.

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Today we head to Christchurch, New Zealand. A town known for great pop bands. But there have been many bands that didn’t get the chance to be well known as The Bats for example. Bands that remain obscure.

Naked Lunch is an example of that. They were active in the early 90s and didn’t get to release a record. One of their members, Dean Karena, would get later some recognition with the band Atomic Bloom.

The first song I’ve heard by Naked Lunch is called “Listen to Your Heart” and was released in a 2005 CD compilation called “Keepin’ Secrets” that was released by Failsafe Records (SAFE079CD).

Previously the band had appeared on other compilations. On the cassette comp “Freak Scene” released by Propaganda Inc. in 1991 the band contributed the songs “Please Stay” and “Shot to Pieces”.

Later on, in 1996, the band had their song “Deep” on the compilation “Solid Pyrite Hits” that Beats Bodega Records (BEATS001) released on CD.

We know the band was formed by Dean Karena on vocals and guitar, Pete Blackman on bass and Rudolph (Tuck) Tucker on drums.

We are also aware of a tape release titled “Flipside” that the band self-released in 1990. This tape had four songs, “Flipside World” and “Statue” on the A side and “What Can You See” and “Driftnet” on the B side.

Then on Failsafe Records Soundcloud account we find that there were plans to release an album. Three songs are shared from 1992, “Listen to Your Heart”, “Shot to Pieces” and “Darker Side”.

What else we know? Randolph Tucker was on a band called Alpha Uno later in the 90s while Peter Blackman was on The Mothgods in the mid 90s.

Not much more info on Naked Lunch. I guess it is pretty clear that they took their name after William S. Burroughs 1959 novel of the same name.

Anyone remembers them?

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Listen
Naked Lunch – Listen to Your Heart

We are getting closer to the new Cloudberry release. This is very exciting times. As mentioned it will have more than 3 songs. By a Swedish band. From Stockholm. No one has guessed yet. But that’s ok. I will announce soon I hope. Mastering is almost done, artwork is almost done. Because we are on October it seems we will have to release early next year.

The Quiet Method: this is a great discovery. I wasn’t aware of Manchester-based Dan Whiteley’s project The Quiet Method even though he released a few songs about a year ago. His latest single “A Life in Pictures” caught my attention immediately. It sounds great, has that classic jangle pop sound that we all love.

Model Shop: now we head to Seattle to discover a new band. Thist rio formed by Kevin, Jen and Ethan, is releasing their debut album “Love Interest” on November 21. It is on vinyl. Now, for those of you who live under a rock, this band features two ex-Maths and Physics Club members! Yeah, Kevin and Ethan were on the beloved band. You now can preview two songs from the 10 tracks that make up the album. And what songs they are! I totally recommend this.

Cozy Slippers: we stay in Seattle and we check on another band we like a lot, Cozy Slippers. The trio is back with a CD version and a vinyl version. The CD will be out thanks to Subjangle and the vinyl will be out on Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten. This self-titled album includes 12 songs, all of which are already available to listen.

Motifs: yeah I thought it was the Australian band when I saw a friend post about them. How I miss The Motifs. But no, this Motifs hail from Singapore and have been around since 2019. Their latest single is a wonderful dreampop track, a gorgeous one, called “Lovelost” that I think deserves our attention.

Ultracrush: and to end this week I want to share “Bruise” the latest single by this lovely sounding pop band from Sydney, Australia. Not much more to say, there’s little info about the band or song on Bandcamp, but how nice it sounds.

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Thanks to stoneeyedkiller’s Youtube channel I became aware of a German band from the late 80s called The Combine.

I was to find 10 of their songs on Soundcloud. And I really enjoyed them!

The band describes themselves as a mod beat band. They hailed from Munich and were active between 1987 and 1991.

It was a three piece formed by Markus Holzach as songwriter, vocals and guitars, Andreas Lodahl on backing vocals and bass and Henrik Ferstl on drums and percussion.

The 10 songs are “Call it a Day SAE”, “Come to Light”, “Engerland”, “It’s Good Bye”, “Jet Set”, “Lead Me Out”, “Lost in Blue”, “Mayday”, “The Night” and “You Don’t Know Me at All (early Aromatics version)”.

There’s not much info about each song, but we do see some more details on the last song. It seems it is not a The Combine song. Not sure then why it was put together with the rest. In any case The Aromatics featured the three members of The Combine plus Dieter Birkeneder (songwriter, vocalist and bassist). The Aromatics were the band before The Combine and were around from 1985 to 1987.

Markus was also in other bands including The Fam, Spacemueller and Mythek.

And that’s all I could find about this band. Seems there were no releases. Most probably the songs on Soundcloud come from demo tapes.

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The Combine – Come to Light

Fell: on December 2nd, Lost Map Records from Scotland, are releasing “Mallows Marsh” the new album by the London combo Fell. The album is coming out on CD, limited to 100 copies. There’s the one song we can preview, “We Could do Anything”, out of the 10 included in the record, and it sounds really good.

Ballboy: continuing with Lost Map Records it is great to know that they are re-releasing on vinyl the classic album “Club Anthems 2001” that was only available on CD until now. This superb record by the Edinburgh band included their earlier EPs, and on this reissue they are including also the follow-up EP “All the Songs on the Radio are Shite” that came out in 2002, to make this a 16-track album! Lots of classic songs here including “Donald in the Bushes With a Bag of Glue” or “Dumper Truck Racing”.

DOT: cool to discover a band from Little Rock, Arkansas. Don’t think I’ve heard a band from there before. DOT makes some wonderful punky pop and you can enjoy it in their latest EP, released on tape I believe, called “Welcome to the Dotosphere”. The band is formed by Melanie, Jordan and Spero.

Blues Lawyer: one of the best discoveries for me in the last year was Blues Lawyer from Oakland, California. They just make perfect pop and it surprises no one has offered them a record release yet. If labels like YAY! Records still existed to this day… they would have made a great home for them. “I Don’t Mind” is their latest release, and it is a wonderful rendition of the original Buzzcocks song!

The Sweetest Touch: and last but not least today is The Sweetest Touch, one of the best current pop bands in Indonesia. They have just released another romper, “Perfect Sky”, which is a 5-song EP. It is out now digitally on Guerrilla Records and I recommend checking them out!

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One more from the wonderful WokingSoundscene Soundcloud archive!

J.C. Regulator was formed by Kev Billing on bass, Dick(ie) Earll on drums and Bruno Skrastins on guitar vocals. The band was based in Aldershot/Farnham and started under the name The Johnson County Regulators in 1992.

The early band lineup had another member, Edwin Barnes on guitar and vocals. They used to rehearse at the Workhouse Rehearsal Studios in Aldershot and at some point they decided to shorten their name. Barnes was an important part of the band, he wrote the lyrics and had worked in A&R at Blast First Records in London. Thanks to this and his contacts the band supported the US band Band of Susans.

Prior to these gigs the band played their first two gigs, on December 4th and on the 30th of 1992. The first one was at the Fox & Hounds in Fleet while the second one was at The George in Ash. The band that played with them those gigs was Eskimo Shah.

After 8 gigs and recording their first 3 song demo tape their hopes of signing to Blast First Records wasn’t happening. So the band went to Washouse Studios in Brighton with Andy Neal to record more songs.

At this point there were problems with the band, Earll wanted to leave and the band folded for a few months after a charity gig at Farnham Art College on May 15 of 1993. In August Billing, Skrastins and Earll reunited to jam at The Workhouse and decided to reform.

On October 30 the band was recording again. In 1994 the band was gigging steadily with the likes of Suck Henry, Who Moved the Ground?, Big Boy Tomato and Serious Plankton.

In early 1995 the band released the “Sold as Seen” demo cassette EP which had been recorded at the Washhouse with Jah Neille (Andy Neal).

In April 1995 the band went on a 12-day tour in Germany and Poland with Who Moved the Ground? Interesting enough, just before leaving the UK the bands’ van got into an accident but Billing managed to buy at a very short notice a black and yellow Bedford. This car would die 8 miles from the German/Swiss border when they were approaching Zurich for their final gig on the tour. The gig would end up being canceled and the band flew back to the UK.

Other details we know is that the band supported Satellite Beach with DC Rhino at the Aldershot West End Centre.

In 1998 the band went into hiatus. But they would return the next year, 1999, with Paul Mackenzie on drums. Towards the end of that year the band went to Studio 125 in Burgess Hill, Sussex, to record a 16 track album called “The Wyoming Cattle Wars (and other short stories)”. Sadly this album was never released.

Some of the tracks of the album would end up on compilations.

The band continued gigging in 2001, with regular appearances at the West End Centre and The Shed. In 2002 the band’s original drummer Earll rejoined and Patrick James Sullivan joined the band as lead guitar. Sullivan had been in bands like West One, Blue Velvet and Ghandarva.

On April 13 of 2002 the new lineup debuted supporting Vex Red with Midwire and others at The Big Day in the Civic Hall of Guildford. A few weeks later the band played at The Verge in Camdem.

That same year the band announced a 4-track vinyl EP that they were organizing for the Bucket & Spade Experience Tour. Sadly this release never happened.

But what did happen were their compilation appearances.

So…

Their song “Go For It” was included in 1995’s “Farnborough Groove Strikes Back! (Volume 5)” compilation tape. The next year, “Paradise Found” was on “The Best Farnborough Groove in the World – Ever! (Volume 6) cassette comp. Lastly in 2001, on “Farnborough Groove Farm Volume 9” they had “Mandy”.

Other than the Farnborough compilations they had the song “There’s Always One” on the German label Meller Welle Produkte (MEL 25) in 1996. The compilation was called “25 – A Silver Jubilee”. I discovered this band thanks to this CD comp.

The band also covered “Leaving on a Jetplane” which was included in “Snakebite’s Coming Home” compilation.

Also read that “Barry & Cody Live in Leeds”, Vis The Spoon’s debut poetry album, featured a specially commissioned electronic reworking of a J.C. Regulator track from the Snakebite City compilations.

On the Facebook page for Soundscene there is a bio, where I based this text from, and also lots of flyers and photos. From them I find a few more details.

The band’s gig in Warsaw, at the Kino Teatr Tecza, included Who Moved the Ground? and the band Sanctus Iuda. At the Snakebite City New Years Eve Party! at the West End Centre the band played with Ex Boyfriends, Inter, Breaker and Cornered. Another gig at the West End Centre in 1997 I believe saw the band support Animals That Swim with Twister.

Then we find the tracklist for the “Sold as Seen” demo tape. The songs on it were “There’s Always One”, “New Horizons”, “Paradise Found”, “Sometimes (Big Drum Remix)” and “Submarine”.

And that’s what I have found. Who remembers them? And who knows if that vinyl release ever came out? Are there other demo tapes?

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J.C. Regulator – There’s Always One