Regional Creeps: lo-fi indiepop from Barnsley, UK. The band’s latest release was a digital single back in March. It was titled “Streak Must Go On” and it is really nice. For some reason I thought of London Popfest, of Indietracks, how a band like this would fit perfectly. Will we ever get those festivals back? I will keep an eye on the Regional Creeps.

TV Sets: now to Toronto to discover this project formed by Joshua Parrett, Angela Hughes, Josh Chamberland and Rob Butcher. The band’s latest is a digital album titled “An Embarrassment of Riches” that was released just a few days. 10 songs of melodic folk-tinted indiepop. Pretty.

Say Sue Me: “The Last Thing Left”, the new album by Busan, South Korea, band Say Sue Me will finally hit the shelves on July 1st. Available on CD and vinyl LP, the 10 song album continues with the trend of the band. Everyone loves them, everyone raves about them, and that’s totally ok. Their songs are great. Now I hope to see them live later this year in NYC.

Slut: here’s a nice EP by this München band. Not sure about the band’s name. Not the best. But the 4 songs on the “Are We Bored My Dear EP” sounds good to me. The record is available now on vinyl directly from the band.

Sunshine Boys: two new songs by this Chicago combo formed by Jackie Schimmel on bass and vocals, Freda Love Smith on drums and Dag Juhlin on guitar, keyboards and vocals. “Underwater” and “The Beginning” are two fine pop songs, with great melodies and quite a surprise to me as I had never heard them before!

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I keep checking out the discoveries by the Youtube account stoneeyedkiller. The songs are great and so I need to find out more information about these bands. I have to thank that lately he has been tagging the videos with the country of origin. That is nice.

Dream is perhaps not a great band name in this day and age. How could you google it? And probably there must be thousands of bands with that name. I wonder what Peter Duggal thought of it when he named his band like that.

He continues being involved with music with his project Moonraider for which he has presence in Bandcamp, Twitter, Facebook and more. But he also put together a Soundcloud with older projects of his. They are different styles of music and so the one I was interested in was the indiepop band he had in the late 80s called Dream.

He has uploaded two songs for this project, “New Kind of Love” and “My Favourite Place”. Both from 1989, probably from the same demo tape? There is no more info about these two tracks, or who was involved in this band other than himself.

On Soundcloud it says he is based now in Hebden Bridge. Hebden Bridge is a market town in the Upper Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, England. It is 8 miles (13 km) west of Halifax and 14 miles (21 km) north-east of Rochdale, at the confluence of the River Calder and the Hebden Water. The town is the largest settlement in the civil parish of Hebden Royd. The town itself has a population of approximately 4,500. It is known for being an LGBT-friendly town, and has been called “the lesbian capital of the UK”.

But I think he originally hailed from Handsworth in Birmingham. I wonder then if Dream was based there.

On his different bios he never mentions Dream. His music career starts in 1990 with an acid house project called Doggy.

During his career he has made music for Nintendo, recorded under the name Demonik, The Hollow, and lately he is a music partner with Wolfgang Flür from Kraftwerk.

Again nothing about Dream. I wonder of course, most importantly for my interests, if there are more songs. I really like the two I’ve heard. Where were they based? Who were the other band members? Had they been in other indiepop bands? Would be great to know. Anyone remembers them?

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Listen
Dream – My Favourite Place

Good morning all. Summer is almost here. Remember I’ll be heading to France and Belgium next month. Let me know if you’d like me to bring any records so you can save on shipping. Just drop me an email!

The Photocopies: three new songs by the Michigan project from Sean Turner. The Londoner that now lives up north in the US presents us here “Holiday Romance”, “(Wishing I Had) Tickets for Saint Etienne” and “Surrender”. It does make you wonder when is Saint Etienne going to play in Michigan? When was the last time?

David Christian: a new 10 song collection by the Comet Gain leader! “Electricity from Other Planets” work as a proper album. Here we find lo-fi songs, acoustic and electric. I always find them interesting, thinking of theme as a part of the creative process of Comet Gain.

Marine Research: finally we can pre-order the John Peel Session, double 7″, on Precious Recordings from London! The four songs Marine Research recorded on May 18 of 1999 were “I Confess”, “Angel in the Snow”, “Bad Dreams” and “Capital L”. This is really cool! For example “Bad Dreams” features David Gedge, and it says that “Capital L” would have been a single if the band hadn’t split up. A must have for sure!

Herr Wade: this is a nice surprise. 6 new songs by the project of Jørn Åleskjær (The Loch Ness Mouse, Monobird, Sapphire & Steel) asked his like minded fellow Sebastian Voss (Nah…, The Fisherman and his Soul, Cinema Engines). Sung in German, and sounding ace, like 90s German pop, think Elegant, Busch, and you know you want one of the very limited edition CD.

David Westlake: the legendary David Westlake from The Servannts is releasing a new album called “My Beautiful England”. 14 songs, 7 of them available to preview, and you know this is also a must-have. An essential record! The album will be available on August 24 on both vinyl and CD.

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Another band that could have been in my so-far failed compilation of Australian 80s and early 90s indiepop would definitely be Adelaide’s Rhymes with Fish. They have a Soundcloud with many of their recordings.

The band seems to be active again or were active recently. They released a digital EP in 2018 called “Fitzroyalty”. On this EP they re-recorded and re-interpreted songs from back in the day. Songs that had been forgotten in lo-fi tapes made during rehearsals. Three songs got this treatment, “Verisimilitude”, “Kitchen Window” and “Can We Make Money Out of It”.

Rhymes with Fish actually had formed in 1986. They were active for 3 years where they gigged the inner city pubs of Adelaide.

The band wrote about 40 songs. I guess only a few got properly recorded. Some of these recordings did get the chance to be played at radio station MMM.

The songs that I am aware that exists that are properly recorded were part of a tape release called “Six Songs for Six Dollars” that came out in 1987. These were “Media Man”, “Talk Talk”, “The Getaway”, “There’s a Hitch”, “My Shirts too Thin”, “Success”, “Have a Holiday” and “Nobody Told Me”. These were recorded by Tony Elliot in the Bartel St. Studios. It was mostly recorded live to tape!

The only other interesting bit about this tape is that Craig Tidswell played the sax on the song “There’s a Hitch”.

We also know the band member names during that first period:
Quentin Gore on guitars, Trevor King on vocals, Ivan Motley on drums and Richard Upton on bass.

The band set up an Instagram back in 2018. There I read that 3 out of the 5 members decided to get the band together after the passing of Trevor King. The remaining 3 members are the ones playing the “Fitzroyalty” EP.

In 2019 the reformed band released more songs. “Arthouse” was released digitally and included 3 tracks, “Festival Day”, “Country Psalm” and “Eugene”. Not sure if these are reworkings of old songs or brand new ones.

This is all the info I could collect. The songs are great, and you wonder how come they didn’t have any proper releases back in the day. Hopefully some of you aussie fans remember them and can fill in the blanks!

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Rhymes with Fish – Talk Talk

The Umbrellas: the San Francisco band released a wonderful album not too long ago. Now there’s news that they are releasing a 7″ with two songs, “Write in the Sky” and “I’ll Never Understand”. The A side is now available to preview and it is very nice. The 7″ is being released by so many labels, and depending whereabouts in the world you are you could probably save on shipping ordering from the closest label. I am always curious how labels do this. Having other label tell me how the artwork should look like would give me a heart attack… for example…

Pet Shimmers: now we cross the Atlantic for Pet Shimmers. They hail from Bristol and will be releasing on July 15 a 7″ with two songs as well. They are “Sonder” and “Edgelord”. Again the first song is available to listen. It is a fine lo-fi song, with some fun arrangements reminding me of Bearsuit.

Pulse Park: the Brighton label Shore Dive Records know how to find great shoegaze bands. The one problem is that their records sell out so quick. True they are in limited quantities and this is not bad news for the label at all. “Phonac Music” is the name of the album by this German band. 10 songs that you can check out online.

Films on Song: I have recommended this Charlottesville, Virginia, band in the past. Their latest is a digital single titled “Still I Try”. This song will be included on a split cassette release with the band Work Wear.

La Bien Querida: always a fan of Ana Fernández-Villaverde’s music. Her latest song “La Perra del Hortelano” is no exception. I like her vocals, her lyrics, and melodies. And there’s also a video for this song, so that’s even better.

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Following my post on Head for Texas, I will follow with the band Paul Sands, their bassist, was involved afterwards: Presidents Men.

It was through his Soundcloud that I found out about both bands. Most of the recordings here are actually of him reading his poetry. If you check the post about Head for Texas there is a bit more of background info, that I won’t go into in this post.

Why? Well, try not repeating myself, and also because I am hoping there’s more to write about The President’s Men. They actually released something, a 7″ single!

With the Statue of Liberty on the sleeve, the vinyl record was released by Be Bop Records in 1984. Catalog number was TPM 1. TPM clearly means The President’s Men. The songs on it were “Candidate” on the A side and “The Day Before” and “One in a Million” on the B side.

I’ve linked to all three songs. They are all on his Soundcloud. One interesting detail is that Discogs has it as a 1984 release while Paul says it is from 1983.

We also know the band members thanks to the sleeve. Jeremy Cotterill was on vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, Lee Watt on drums, Jon Harris on electric guitars and keyboards and Paul Sands on bass. The saxophone was played by Scott Povey.

All songs were recorded at Q Studios and were produced by the band and Paul Branston. The photos of the band members on the back of the sleeve are credited to Andrew Bentley.

We also find an address for the band in Gedling, Nottingham. I’ve looked at it on Google Maps. It is a two-floor house. Probably one of the members lived there. It is on the northern part of Nottingham, close to Mapperley Golf Club and Gedling Country Park.

Googling around I believe Lee Watt was involved later on in a band called The Marcel Marceau Sound. Also as a drummer.

Other than that no more info. Again I hit a wall. I couldn’t find if any of the other members were in other bands. I saw Lisa Keenan from Head for Texas listed as part of The President’s Men in Rateyourmusic. Is that true? The one she was replacing was Jon Harris who does appear on the sleeve.

Anyhow, I am hoping we find more info about this band and what happened to their members afterwards!

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The President’s Men – Candidate

Having a busy week at work so far. So let me jump straight to some good recommendations!

Grave Pool: Devan Kochersperger from Portland, Oregon, is behind this cool project. His latest release is a 4-song digital EP titled “Replications” where he performs 4 covers. Of special interest is his rendition of Another Sunny Day’s “You Should All Be Murdered”. A very nice cover version!

Why Bonnie: bedroom pop from Austin. And they are playing Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn in August. Maybe I’ll be able to check them out? Their latest release is called “90 in November”. It is not out yet though, it is going to be released on August 19th, but you can preview two tracks on Bandcamp.The album will be available on vinyl, cd and tape.

Rokki-Mari: I didn’t know about this band until I saw my friend David Chalé share the track “Ajeluta Vielä”. It is a nice simple song, a girl strumming a guitar, or someone strumming it and she is singing. The band hails from Helsinki and it looks like that a few years ago they released a tape though sound-wise it is not very indiepop.

Gula Gången: and now a band I really like and that have recommended in the past, Sweden’s Gula Gången! About two weeks ago they added a new track to their Soundcloud called “Ensam”. I have some inside intel and know the band has a new album coming out soon, and this is definitely a great taster.

Phantom Handshakes: and now a New York band formed by Federica Tassano and Matt Sklar. The band’s latest release is the digital single “Come Undone”. They have also shared an acoustic version of this track. What is nice too is that all proceeds will be donated to Emergency.

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I start reading the biography on Paul Sands’ Soundcloud. It mentions he was born in 1962 and raised closed to the river Trent in Nottingham. But it is clear that music-wise he was close to Glasgow.

The bio mostly talks about the last few decades. It does mention though that he attended school in Selston and worked since the age of 16 in the IT industry. He would eventually move to Lincolnshire in 2006.

In 2012 he publishes his first collection of poetry. His second one in 2013. But we are here for his music. For a band called Head for Texas.

Most of the tracks on his Soundcloud is for his poetry. Have a listen. I came here because of three songs, “So Lucky”, “Falling Down” and “Old Before Your Time”. These were part of the second demo of the band.

“Old Before Your Time” was the opening track. Then came “Falling Down” and “So Lucky” was the last track. The songs were recorded at the front and back rooms of Paul’s house in Long Eaton. That’s the suburbs of Nottingham, right? Just looking at the map. The recordings were done using the PST mobile recording service that was based in Toton.

It seems there was a fourth track in this demo tape but Paul hasn’t been able to recover it. What was the name of this song?

What else do we know? The band was active in the 80s. Paul was the bassist. Who were the other band members? We know the lead guitarist was the late Lisa Keenan. But there doesn’t seem to be more info about them.

We know that Paul was also bassist on the band Presidents Men who released a 7″ in 1983. Maybe this should be by next post? Could be!

Sadly no more info about these songs or Head for Texas. You wonder about the 4th song on that demo tape. And what about the first demo tape? Was there a third one? I wonder if anyone remembers them. They clearly liked the Postcard Records sound, Orange Juice… and it is quite cool to hear something with this sound.

Anyone remembers them?

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Head for Texas – Falling Down

Today’s a holiday here in the US but I will be working. I still had my long three day weekend from Friday to Sunday. It was good.

In the coming days and weeks I should have many interviews in the blog. I have been in touch with many bands as of late so I am hoping to get their answers soon. That’s always great. It is interesting to learn more details about these bands. And most importantly, rediscover them, not let them be forgotten.

Dead Famous People: copies of “Lost Person’s Area” are available on Bandcamp. This was the band’s first release back in the day, but the copies available are from this year’s reissue for Record Store Day.  5 songs on vinyl, all of them classic songs by the Auckland, New Zealand, band. Price is not very nice, 24 pounds plus shipping. I guess I may need to figure something out to afford this. Have you noticed that just a few years ago a 12″ vinyl was $15. How did it suddenly become more than $25? Inflation? Gas prices?

Helpful People: “Broken Blossom Threats” is the name of the 5-song EP that the bay area project has just released digitally on Burundi Cloud Music. Behind this project we find Carly Putnam and Glenn Donaldson, two well-known musicians in this blog. The songs are lovely. You hope they get properly released sometime.

Cosmicdust: now some cool Japanese shoegaze from this two-piecec formed by SIS K and YAF. Who are behind these nicknames? I don’t know. The latest song they have released is called “Ramblingly” and is now available on a tape that includes an extra song, “Reframe”.

High Sunn: and back again to San Francisco. The latest release by this one man project is called “Flawless Recollections”. On the Bandcamp bio it says that this was a project, past tense. Does this mean it doesn’t exist anymore? That’d be a shame. Justin Cheromiah, who was the person behind this anime-loving project, did know how to make some good popsongs.

Mint Julep: and we end the short reviews with a blog favourite, Mint Julep. The duo formed by Keith and Hollie Kenniff released last month a digital single titled “If I Say Tomorrow” that is beautiful. Do check it out.

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Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, England. It had a population of 46,853 at the 2011 census.

Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshire and southern parts of Warwickshire and Northamptonshire which are predominantly rural. Banbury’s main industries are motorsport, car components, electrical goods, plastics, food processing, and printing. Banbury is home to the world’s largest coffee-processing facility (Jacobs Douwe Egberts), built in 1964. The town is famed for Banbury cakes, a spiced sweet pastry dish.

Banbury is 64 miles (103 km) northwest of London, 37 miles (60 km) southeast of Birmingham, 27 miles (43 km) southeast of Coventry and 22 miles (35 km) northwest of Oxford.

Don’t think I’ve ever written about a band from Banbury. Also about one with such a long name. I think. At least I can’t remember doing that in the past.

On a Soundcloud account by David Cooper (the keyboardist of the band) we find four songs from a demo tape. The A side having “Forget Tonight” and “Ocean of Blue” while the B side “Problem Girl” and “Blue Mood”.

All of the songs are credited to Richard White but “Forget Tonight” which is credited to Sean D’Oyley and Richard White. They were all arranged by the band.

The band was formed by Sean D’Oyley on leaad guitar, Richard White on vocals and rhythm guitar, David Cooper on keyboards, Sean Joyner on bass and Steve Joyner on bass. Are the last two related? Possibly!

We also know that the demo tape was released in 1986.

But we don’t find any other info on this page. Sadly. The songs are really great! It’s a great surprise, a great find.

I find later that Desert Island Dick was actually a comic strip character that was stranded on a desert island with only Olly the octopus for company.

I keep searching. I find that as of late Sean D’Oyley has been playing in a band called The Duckworths. This is a band that plays covers from the likes of Blondie, The Clash or The Specials. I also believe that Sean is a joiner and cabinet maker.

About Richard White, I find one that might be him. I don’t know as the name is a bit more common of course. But this Richard White loves music and has a website called Chalkys. It sells music, film, books and more. The store was established back in 1987.

Sean Joyner? There’s a cricketer from Banbury with that name. I wonder if he is the same Sean? That’d be amazing!

And lastly I do find David Cooper. He owns a shop called ePianos in Banbury that opened in 1995.  There he sells not just pianos but also other instruments including guitars and saxophones. So cool!

It is superb to see the band members become successful.

Now I am wondering if they recorded any other demos. If they had been in other bands. Would be good to know. I am glad to have find out many details about them!

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Desert Island Dick and the Palm Trees – Ocean of Blue

Not many news today. I have updated the interview with The Applicants. As I mentioned the interview was done a long time ago. The updated version has revised answers by Robert, with more interesting details about the band. So have another read if you have read it already!

Hope everyone is good. Now we get a long weekend in the US. I’ll see you again on Monday!

Roller Derby: “Single Collection” is of course a compilation of the band’s previous 7 singles. It is out now on black vinyl from the Hamburg’s Bandcamp page. Also for those in Germany be aware that the band is playing a few dates this summer in Lüneburg and Hamburg.

Poster Paints: I’ve been recommending this duo from Glasgow for some time now. If you haven’t heard them you’ll understand why. They know how to make wonderful pop songs! The band  formed by Simon Liddell aand Carla J Easton have just released the “Blood Orange” EP. 4 songs of terrific Scottish Pop. Timeless. How come there is not a physical record of this though?!

La Sala del Silencio: the quality of the recording is not the best. It is from a 1984 practice room. But what’s interesting about this release is that the 4 songs on the 7″ are the only 4 songs by this band formed by Lars and Per Mertanen after the breakup of the legendary band Décima Víctima. Joining them in this short-lived band is  Áurea Cuní.

The Blue Herons: it seems I missed “From Here” when it was released in April. A shame indeed. I always want to be first when listening to The Blue Herons. The band fromed by Andy Jossi and Gretchen DeVault know how to craft popstatic songs! And this one is no exception at all. Top tune.

Boyracer: and lastly here is the digital single “Fleetwood Mac are Shite”! Stewart released this song last month but that’s not all, there’s a cool t-shirt with the song title. And indeed, like it says on Bandcamp, you want to get this t-shirt to be the envy of your punker friends! Sadly the song is not available on physical format… I reckon a flexi would be the perfect format.

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Here’s a band that is not on Discogs as far as I know…

Many many years ago, in the times of Myspace, I discovered there a Swedish duo that made wonderful pop music. I messaged them and asked them if I could get their music on CD-R, if they had some demos as many bands had then…

Those days bands used to put together CDRs with their music. On photocopied sleeves we would find a tracklist and any contact information. If the band was caring we’d get a plastic sleeve on top of that.

I am looking now at two CD-Rs the band put together. Each of them had 3 songs. I see there’s an email and a website. The website doesn’t take you anywhere.

I don’t know which CD-R came first. One is titled “I Got a Plan” and has three songs, “He Never Changed”, “Red Lights” and “I Got a Plan”. I think this one came first. The other one I have doesn’t have a title but I think it was called “Mental Dynamite”, it does have three songs as well, “New Shoes”, “Cold Breath” and “Mental Dynamite”. I believe this last one was the first one they released.

The only other important bit of information I have is that the duo was formed by Joakim and Jacob. Sadly I don’t have last names.

An old Myspace page shows two more songs the band had written “Me and You” and “Coffee is Ecstasy”.

And lastly perhaps my best find. It comes from a Turkish blog I believe. It is called Popsongs Ltd. and the post dates from October 6, 2007.

Here we learn that the band had yet another EP. It was self-titled and included the aforementioned “Me and You”, “Cold Breath #2”, “Sun Sun Sun”, “See Me”, “Chewing Stones” and “This Town”. Wow. Would like to hear these songs.

As the band used to have a website I use the Wayback Machine and see if there’s anything I can find. Luckily this works.

Here I find that some friends used to help them, Markus would sing backing vocals and play tambourine, Aesa the synths and vocals and Fred the bass. Again no last names.

There is a gigography too. On October 10, 2005, the band played at Dieselverskaden, on January 5 of 2006 at Ung08: Vinter at Lava, February 6th 2006 at Fight Club in Stampen, February 21, 2006 at Osaka vs Toky at Street, April 6th 2006 at Kreafe, April 7 2006 at Velocity in Uppsala, April 8 2006 at hos Sara, April 16, 2006 at Beyond Retro, June 17 2006 at Don på Trädgården, June 24, 2006 at Midsommarmattsdröm and October 19 2006 at Abba on the Jukebox. Did anyone of you went to any of these gigs?

Also by now I am pretty sure the band hailed from Stockholm.

Sadly this is all I remember and can find about them. They didn’t release any records and sadly disappeared. What did they do after?

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Trouble and Strife – I Got a Plan

Good morning! Not much news today. It was a busy weekend for me. Went for the first time to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and we had a good time. Lunch was at a close by Hungarian café. All good. Then in the afternoon at the Welsh bar across my street. Next day was visiting old friends in the Upper East Side and going for a walk to Charles Schurz park. The weather was hot. Today the temperature is a bit cooler which is better!

R´émi Parson: wow! an unreleased demo from the sessions of Rémi’s first album just showed up on Bandcamp. The song is called “L’amour au temps de l’eurodance” and it is a catchy, lo-fi, electronic popsong… and it is great! I know Rémi likes his fair bit of eurodance, having covered “What is Love” with The Sunny Street, and so not surprised this is a great song.

The OK Nines: now we head to Berkeley, California. A new band it seems. There is no info. There are 5 songs though that make up the “Sunwoofer” EP. This is a nice ramshackle-pop release. Only available digitally.

Arts & Letters: Caleb Carr is clearly a talented indiepopster. He knows how to janle. Previously with his project English Summer he make us fall in love with his melodies. Then he changed names to Arts & Letters and continues doing so. The Clare, Australia, based-project has now a new song (well, a month old), which it’s really good. It has a great title too: “It’s People Like You that Make Me Want to Go to Prison”.

Horseface: Umeå, Sweden, band Horseface sings in Finnish. They have a new album out, 10 songs, on vinyl. It is titled “Sanakirjan Takana”. The band is formed by Hanna Kangassalo, Robert Tenevall, Erik Selim Lundkvist and Ellen Dahlgren. I am listening to it now. And I am really surprised. It sounds like an interesting mix of early 80s bands like Trixie’s Big Red Motorbike or The Avocados… or The Particles, with a little bit more experimentation in the melodies. They are pop melodies but with an interesting twist. I am hooked.

Cristina Quesada: the new album by our friend Cristina is going to be released on June 10th by Elefant Records. The album is titled “Dentro Al Tuo Sogno” and it has a few songs in Italian indeed. The album has 11 songs and will be available on vinyl and CD. Right now you can pre-order it as well as listen to two tracks, “The Only One” and “Primavera”.

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Wasn’t easy to follow the thread on this one. Stoneeeyedkiller had posted a superb song called “200 Miles” by The Reigning Days. And of course, as a good indiepop detective I needed to know more!

In the end I tracked down a Soundcloud account by Joss Smith. He was the sax player of this band.

The other band members were Simon Tomkies on vocals and guitar, Jon Lawton on guitar, Brett Findlay on drums and Warren Smith on bass.

Here we find a bunch of songs. Great jangly tracks. These are “200 Miles”, “Aggitation”, “Bitter Champagne” and “Going Blind Again”. These 4 songs were part (in that order) of a cassette release titled “Crooners”.

We also know that this, his college band, was active between 1988 and 1989.

Now, where were they from?

From the UK I would say after hearing Joss’s accent on his Youtube account. One thing that I notice is that he loves to repair typewriters and test them too! He also likes to play the keyboard.

Then there’s a video of a band called FLYX. They hailed from Somerset. Joss was their saxophonist. This dates from 1991. Just two years after the demise of The Reigning Days. Would it be safe to assume the band hailed from that area?

Maybe I’m not that far from being right. I see Simon Tomkies is on Bandcamp and he is based in Glastonbury. That’s 20 or so minutes car drive. Okay, I think we may know where the band was from now.

Now, can we find out other bands they might have involved with? Maybe find out if they played many gigs? Perhaps shared gigs with some of our indiepop heroes?

One thing we do know and should be added. The band contributed two songs to a classic pop compilation. Their songs “Bitter” and “Going Blind Again” appeared on the “Now That’s Righteous” cassette that Katrina Music put out in 1989. On this compilation they appear next to The Morrisons, The Driscolls, The Wilderness Children, Mousefolk and more.

And that’s what I could find. Not bad. I always have been aware of this tape, but there are a few bands on it that Ive never heard and maybe someone can help me with them, maybe I end up liking them or maybe not but never heard The Magic Roundabouts, The Lovers Madly or Rubber Base Angel. Before today I had never heard The Reigning Days.

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The Reigning Days – 200 Miles

Finally nice weather on my day off (though expected to rain at 5pm). Plan is to visit Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Never been there. Have been to the NY one in the Bronx and also to the Queens one. Looking forward to it. Hopefully baby will enjoy it.

The Fisherman and his Soul: a new song by our friend Sebastian Voss from Münster. The song is called “Yellowed Golden Wedding Photo” and what inspired this one is the golden wedding anniversary of his parents. A very nice and heartfelt digital single.

Beverly Kills: the fine Gothenburg band is back with a superb track titleed “Amour Fou”. This song is the second single after “The Getaway” from their debut album that will be released this fall. This is an album I am looking forward of course. So I’ll keep an eye and keep you informed.

Les Calamites: just ordered my copy of “Encore! 1983-1987”, an 18 song compilation of one of the best bands to come from France! The compilation is available now on CD and vinyl and includes 18 songs plus a booklet. This seems like an essential release no one should miss. Top stuff.

Lost Film: now another digital single, this time from Easthampton in Massachusetts. “Big Talk” is a nice lo-fi pop song written and recorded at home by Jimmy Hewitt a few years ago but just released to the world.

The Apleseeds!: named after a Po! song this Copenhagen band is brand new. Formed by Ditte Duus and Kasper Clemmensen they just unveiled two songs, “Someone To Talk To” and “Before She Spins”. Both were recorded on a phone in their practice space.

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The Lost World is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1912, concerning an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon basin of South America where prehistoric animals still survive. It was originally published serially in the Strand Magazine and illustrated by New-Zealand-born artist Harry Rountree during the months of April–November 1912. The character of Professor Challenger was introduced in this book. The novel also describes a war between indigenous people and a vicious tribe of ape-like creatures.

I still haven’t read this novel. I have read a few of the Sherlock books, but not this one. In any case, today, thanks to stoneeyedkiller’s Youtube channel,  I discovered a Bournemouth band called The Lost World after this book.

There are 7 songs by this band on Soundcloud. Also there’s a small bio.

It tells us that the band was a four-piece that was active in the early 90s.

Then we check the songs.

There is a song also called “The Lost World”. This one was included in a 1992 demo tape called “Never Again”.

The same case for the songs “Come On”, “America”, “You and I”, “Over”, “Hey Girl” and “Tarnished”.

Was this the only demo tape they put together? Are these all the songs on that demo tape?

Also sadly there are no band members names to be found here. You can only wonder who were behind this band. If they had been in any other bands before or after The Lost World.

I don’t think I have written about many (or any?) Bournemouth bands, so it would be good to find out. Don’t know much about their scene…

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Listen
The Lost World – Hey Girl

It seems the 50th vinyl release of Cloudberry is going forward. Just heard from the band and they are on the project. So this is super super exciting. I’ll share more details as soon as we have artwork and a song to show. I am sure everyone will like this one!

I Found that Essence Rare – The Sounds of Beauty: here’s a free sampler, 20 songs!, from the great Canadian label The Beautiful Music. It is a free download, so there’s no excuse not getting it. There are amazing tracks by great bands including The Fish John West Reject (covering The Bluebells), Roy Moller, Crumb, The Dupont Circles and more.

Armstrong: and continuing with the label The Beautiful Music it is worth checking out the label’s latest release, the new album by Armstrong from Wales. “Happy Graffiti” is out now on CD and I have been able to listen it and I would recommend it of course. It has 14 songs of smartly crafted pop songs by Julian Pitt on his 12 track recorder.

Healees: a Breton/American/Swedish/Belgian four-piece? Wow. Never heard of them until today. Formed back in 2015 the band will be releasing on June 17 an 8 song mini-album on the always reliable Hidden Bay Records. The self-titled release is coming out on tape with art by Allegra Corbo.

Kevin Robertson: the Aberdeen native who is also part of the fine pop combo The Vapour Trails released the album “Teaspoon of Time” a few days ago. It was released on CD by Subjangle Records but the 13-song album seems sold out already! You can check all songs on the band’s Bandcamp.

The Shop Window: last recommendation today cocmes from Maidstone, UK. A new 7″, limited to 300 copies on Spinout Nuggets. Two songs will be included, one on each side of course. We can only preview the B side as of today which is titled “Low”. A pretty track indeed. Worth mentioning too that both songs feature guest backing vocals by Beth from Jetstream Pony.

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I was once again remembering the days of Soulseek. Of the many Swedish friends I made there. Friends that had their bands and would share their songs, their bedroom recordings… those were the CDR days. Photocopied sleeves. Lo-fi music. And a charm like no other.

As many as you know I tried to champion this scene years after with the Starke Adolf compilation, named after the legendary club. Volume 2 never happened as I wasn’t able to get the bands I wanted for the CD to contribute a song, a photo or a bio. It was a bit like pulling teeth.

Who knows if these days it would work. I don’t have that label anymore. And I don’t know about releasing it in Cloudberry. Would be odd as the first volume was somewhere else.

Also, who buys compilations these days?

Anyways, I should stop rambling. The thing is I remembered a band I was in touch back then. Around 2004? 2005? I was in touch with the guy. It was one boy, one girl, sort of band. Were they a couple? I can’t recall. I don’t recall their names even. I only remember their sweet songs.

In 2005 they would finally release a CDR with the legendary label Popkonst Recordings. It was an 8-song album titled “Adam & Steve, Religion is Fiction” (POPK14). The songs were short and catchy. Hard to pick a favourite. They were “The Girl with the Mountain Fox Bag”, “Glenn Miller’s Airplane”, “Paris 68”, “Burn Down the University of Berkeley”, “Sasha’s Summer in the Suburb”, “You Can Be My Wingman Anytime”, “Lo-fi Loneliness” and “Mike from Glasgow”.

On the sleeve they thank The French Resistant Movement. Also Jonas F who seems did the artwork. But nothing else.

I was aware of this release, but didn’t know that in 2008 they made a tape with Best Kept Secret (catalog LIE 113), the fine Italian cassette label. On this tape they included the “Adam and Steve, Religion is Fiction” album and another EP titled “Slow-Fi”. Each of them had one side of the tape. The tracklist for the album is the same as the Popkonst CDR.

On “Slow-Fi” we find 5 brand new songs, “Pat a Cat”, “Countryside”, “Tea”, “Intellectual Experiment” and “Golden Dust in Notes”. The sound by now had changed a bit. It’s a bit less acoustic. A bit muddier if that makes sense. It is less poppy. A bit darker. Not dark of course, but the mood had changed.

That’s all I could find about them. It seems they managed to add all of their songs to different digital platforms, which is interesting, but there is where the trail ends. No info, no bios.

Would be nice to know what happened to the band and where are they now. Still making music perhaps?

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Valentine Academy – Sasha’s Summer in the Suburb

Starting a new week. Much better weather in NYC. My last two days off were rainy. So it seems this weekend will be much more enjoyable.

Coming Up Roses: the second EP by the Singapore popsters Coming Up Roses is coming out on May 20. It looks like it will be a digital-only release. The EP will have four songs, 3 of them that you can preview now. Hard to pick a favourite track, maybe “Glass Stained Eyes”? Which on do you like?

Atmos Bloom: a new track by this dreamy Manchester duo. The band’s new digital single is titled “When We Met” and it is really really pretty. Tilda Gratton and Curtis Paterson continue making great bedroom pop, with a simple drum-machine and jingle jangly guitars.

The Cat’s Miaow: I honestly don’t know where I am going to get money to buy all the records I want. Now that there’s a baby at home my budget for records has been squeezed. I do feel though that “Songs ’94-’98”, a compilation of tracks of the wonderful The Cat’s Miaow should find a way to my collection. 18 songs on vinyl, a limited edition of 250 copies including a 7″ of “Third Floor Fire Escape View” and a fanzine, all for 35 pounds plus shipping. And then another $25 for shipping. Seems a lot, but a record like this deserves that effort!

Hurrah!: when it comes to Precious Recordings releases I trust my friend Christ at Jigsaw Records will get copies and at least I’ll save on shipping. After a few releases I didn’t care for like the ones of Prolapse and Hefner, the London labeel will be releasing a David Jensen session, from 1982, by Hurrah! 4 songs, and as usual on that lush packaging that has become a fan-favourite.

The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness: and on other great news the Scottish-Spanish band is releasing a new album! It is called “The Third Wave Of…” and it is of course the band’s third album! 10 new songs which you can preview two of them now on the band’s Bandcamp. The album will be released on vinyl on September 9.

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Back in 2017 I was in touch with Matthew Eaton from Pram. Why? Well, I wanted to interview him about the fantastic band the was in the 90s called Friends of the Family… sadly after sending my questions never heard from him. Life probably got in the way. It happens! It is happening a lot to me lately!

Of course it would have been lovely to learn more details about the band. I love the two records they put out on Ediesta Records in the late 80s but I don’t have any good details about them. Don’t know much at all!

The first record they put out is a true classic, “Rotten to the Core”. This is a must have for everyone. It had said song on the A side as well as “September Skies” while on the B side we find the song “Honey”. The engineer for this record was Will Jackson. The songs were recorded at Blue Strike Studios in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. The band is credited for the production.

The single was released on 7″ (CALC 17) and 12″ (CALC 17T). The 7″ didn’t have the song “Honey” and “September Skies” appears on the B side.

The second record was released also in 1987. It was a 12″ EP titled “Three Fat Men (On a Bicycle)” (CALC 39). It had 5 songs, “Lucibelle Green” and “Serves You Right” on the A side and “She Makes you Look Sad”, “Leicester Street” and “Katrine” on the B side. The producer this time was Carl Rosamond. All songs were recorded at the Billiard Room in Leeds. Oh! And Alison Cuckston played sax on “Leicester Street”.

There are no compilation appearances listed on Discogs.

My friend Ed from Shelflife was probably one of the firsts to recommend them back in 2009.

Here he mentions that Matthew Eaton was also in Delta, he was the original bass player in the Birmingham based band.

Another blog, Kitten Painting, on a post from 2008 mentions a gig Friends of the Family played supporting The Sea Urchins at the Norwich Arts Centre in January 1988. The other band in the lineup was The Popfish who I have never heard of! The review of the Friends of the Family gig says: “Then Friends Of The Family were on and they were pretty good with a funny girlie singer. The last song was groovy, the girl singing all soft and sweet and just single notes on the organ, then a pause and then the drummer (who had a Big Black t-shirt on – aces!) would bash a cow bell and it would go all thrashy and the girl would sort of talk on and on over the row. They tried to pull off the old walking off leaving the song in mid-air trick like Loop and Primal Scream did but it didn’t come off so well!”

As far as I know the girl vocalist name was Rosie. Don’t know the last name! Maybe also Rosie Cuckston from Pram?

Other interesting bits of info on the comments section of the Shelflife blog mentions that Matthew was doing a fanzine called Cathead. Sadly it never got published.

On the Sarah Records page there is a story from Clare mentioning that she was friends with Matthew Eaton in school. Here she tells how through Matthew she saw The Sea Urchins for the first time. Also an important detail is that the Friends of the Family start in Harrogate but ended up moving to Birmingham.

As I mentioned earlier very little info is available about the band, so any details would help.

I am also looking for a good copy of the second record… I always see them on Discogs from Spanish sellers but with the sleeve in a bad state. Oh well…

I love this band, love their songs, I would also think a compilation of sorts would be fantastic. I’d like to do it. But who knows if I could get them interested in it!

Friends of Birmingham, do you remember them?

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Listen
Friends of the Family – Rotten to the Core