Happy weekend! Let me go straight to some good recommendations today!

Whimsical: last post I mentioned I was going to go check what I had missed from Shelflife Records. Well, I certainly missed Whimsical’s “Melt”. This album was released on April 1st with 9 superb shoegaze tracks. In the past I had recommended them, mentioning that the band from Indiana was active from 1999 to 2005 and later reformed in 2015. This is a very fine record and it is available in CD and vinyl (different colors too)

FOG: this one is also on Shelflife but looks sold out on both color and black vinyl versions. I am not familiar with this Seoul four-piece so listening to their album “Fogesque” even if it is on Bandcamp is good. The 9 track album is also a fine shoegaze record. Little by little I feel Shelflife is becoming a go-to label for dreampop sounds!

Cristina Quesada: now time to also check what I may have missed from Elefant Records. Surprisingly I missed listening to Cristi’s “Primavera”, a digital single that was released in March! Our favourite singer from Canary Islands has three songs here, “Primavera”, “Be My Baby” (a cover of Vanessa Paradis) and “Italia (English version)”. Also announced is that there will be an album coming out soon to be titled “Dentro Al Tuo Sogno”.

Lisasinsón: another favourite band of mine on Elefant is the great Valencia punky pop band Lisasinsón. After their 10″ release the duo is back with a digital single called “No Sé Muy Bien”. Fun!

Lightning in a Twilight Hour: and lastly an essential record. “Overwintering” is the latest release by Bobby Wratten’s band. 11 songs where he collaborate with Ian Catt, ex-Field Mice colleagues like Anne Mari Davies and Michael Hiscock and Beth Arzy from Trembling Blue Stars. A superb 11 track record that is available now on vinyl and CD. This is one that I can’t miss. And neither should you.

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Once again through stoneeyedkiller’s Youtube channel I end up on Soundcloud discovering an obscure band and their wonderful sounds.

This time from the US. From Anaheim, California. Close to Los Angeles. The account owner is Oliver Zavala. His band’s name was Sandbox. And there are four songs from a 1991 demo tape.

The song names are “Chester”, “I Don’t Mind”, “Unforgettable” and “Don’t Mind Me”.

As soon as you listen to them you can tell they loved The Smiths. The guitars are very Johnny Marr-esque. That’s good in my book. I suppose in yours too!

The band was formed by Oliver Zavala on vocals, Ryan Steele on guitars, James Scoggins on bass and Phil Hanson on drums.

The tape artwork is very of the time. Black and white. A hug. The name of the band.

Other than this there is no other information. Oliver has some songs of his own also uploaded. They sound quite different to Soundbox of course.

Then after a little googling I find that there’s a Sandbox Facebook page.

What do we find there? That there was the intention of reunion gig in 2009. It seems it never happened. There are also many photos from the 90s. From there we can figure out some more details.

First that the band played at Goodies with The Pure and Praise Folly. Another venue we know they played was Lindy’s Cafe in Anaheim. At Quality Ballroom they played alongside with Whiskey Biscuit, Suburban Rhythm, Barney’s Bicycle and Nuckle Brothers. Another gig they played was at Anti-Club in Hollywood with True to Life, Full Moon and Standard Fruit.

This is all I could find. Really cool sounds and you wonder what happened to them. If they were in bands afterwards and if they sounded as good as Soundbox! Any West Coast friends remember them?

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Sandbox – Chester

Our friend Tim shared the other day with us, on the comments section, the mysterious Orchard Popfest. What is it? Who is behind it? When will it happen? There is absolutely no info online. There’s just an instagram account and that’s all. According to Tim the location seems to be somewhere in South Somerset… but nothing yet announced. We will have to keep an eye on this!

U.S. Highball: the Glasgow band seems to have been a favourite at Madrid Popfest. They were presenting then their latest, the superb album “A Parkhead Cross of the Mind” that was released by Bingo Records in Europe and by Lame-O in the US. The vinyl album has 12 songs of upbeat pop, with great hooks and solid lyrics!

Keaper: now we head to Melbourne. Been a while since I checked out a band from that city, in the past it seems I would do it in a weekly-basis! “Fade” is the name of the EP this four-piece released last March. 5 songs of dreamy and fuzzy dreampop crafted smartly by Ameya Ajay, Julia Derwas, Austin del Rio and Samuel Wallace.

Royal Arch: I am still going backwards after missing lots of music between November and March. Royal Arch’s 7″ with “La Nuit” and “Road to the Light” seems to be sold out at Make Me Happy Records from Greece. The record was also out on Jigsaw Records in the US so maybe there’s luck there!

Sugar for the Pill: the other record I missed from Make Me Happy Records was “Wanderlust” by Sugar for the Pill. This also seems to be sold out. In the US it was released by Shelflife, maybe there’s luck there. Now that I think of it, next post I’ll go through Shelflife’s catalog and see what I’ve missed. Anyhow, the vinyl album of this great pop band has 10 songs seems one that we all should try to track down.

Happypills: another sold out record. This one is from a favourite band of the blog, the Japanese Happypills. A cassette EP titled “Porthole” was released by Miles Apart Records last February. It sounds fantastic, and it does look like Japanese music mailorders may still have copies.

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Now we head to Dublin, Ireland.

Another Soundcloud account, this one put together by Keith G. Byrne. I suppose part of the band. Must be!

The first song I listen to is called “Sell You My Soul”. I see that this song was recorded in 1989 at Harolds Cross 24 track studio. Then another jangly track comes up, “Smile Again”. This recorded in Sun Studios in Dublin. No year for this track.

I am not sure if this is the best way to go through the songs and the band. “See What We Can Do” and “Day to Day” were also recorded at Sun Studios.

There are also live tracks. There is a whole gig of the band playing at The Ramblers Room in Dublin on December 10, 1988. That day the band played “Be My Friend”, “See What We Can Do”, “Sell You My Soul”, “I’m Tearing Me Apart”, “What is the Message”, “Tears of a Clown”, “The Place Where I Was”, “Two Great Days”, “Desperation”, “Alison”, “Day to Day”, “Smile Again”, “Bigmouth Strikes Again”, “Sell You My Soul” and “Smile Again”. Clearly they liked The Smiths to cover them. And also it seems “Smile Again” was their most well known song if they did it as an encore?

But that’s not all. There is a second gig, also at The Ramblers Room but this one dating from March 4, 1989. That day the band played: “Desperation”, “See What We Can Do”, “Two Great Days”, “Sell You My Soul”, “Alison”, “Loving Only You”, “The Place Where I Was Born”, “Tears of a Clown”, “What is the Message”, “I’m Tearing Me Apart”, “Is She Really Going Out with Him?”, “Day to Day”, “Smile Again”, “Be My Friend”, “Bigmouth Strikes Again”, ” Day to Day” and “See What We Can Do”.

At this last gig we know the band had become a 5 piece. The had just added Mark Wilde as their saxophonist. Previously the 4 piece was formed by Johnny Boulevard on vocals and guitar, Tim Murphy on guitar and vocals, Keith G. Byrne on bass and Jimmy Murphy on drums.

Another track I find on Soundcloud is an instrumental version of the song “It’s So Easy”.

It looks like the band split in 1989. I am guessing here that after they split 3 of their members went to form the band Soul Doubt. Songs by this band are also on the Soundcloud. The recordings are much rougher, maybe recorded at their practice space. I don’t know. You can see the potential. It says the band used to play at the Baggot Inn with the wonderful The Outpatients.

I look for more info about them, I look in Irishrock.org but they are not listed there.

It’s interesting to find some superb songs here but see that they never released a record. Any of my Irish friends remember them? Would be nice to know their story.

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Mrs. Joyce – Day to Day

Happy Monday all!

Not much news this weekend, but I am hoping that this week will be eventful. Right now the new projects are on the band’s side, I have to be patient and wait a bit. But I hope soon things will start moving faster.

Last weekend was Wales Goes Pop, one of the few pop festivals around. I was looking on Facebook at my friend’s photos. Seems like they had lots of fun. Would be nice to return to Wales someday. I hope the festival continues for many years. We need more of them!

Space Daze: new music by the ex-Seapony. The Seattle one-man band has just released “Remote View” a mellow 5-song EP. The release seems to be available in digital format only but it is pretty enough to spend time streaming it, having it play time and time again. If you think of Seattle, you think of rain, rainy days… the music gives you just that feeling.

Swiss Portrait: this cool project by Edinburgh’s Michael Kay Terence will be releasing a digital EP titled “Safe House” on April 25. It will have 6 songs and we can now preview two of them. I suggest checking out the excelleent “Play with Fire”, with some superb guitars and great vocals. Really like it!

Atmos Bloom: Curtis Paterson and Tilda Gratton from Manchester are behind this dreampop band. Their latest single “Daisy” is a true corker! I thought the song was great immediately. Great melody, good vocal delivery and the guitars are ace. This is a digital single, I hope it gets released in physical format.

An Ocean of Embers: the great Nantes band is back with a reworked version of their song “Last Night I Fell Agsain”. The band formed by Jimmy Arfosea and Elsa Muller have recorded three versions of this track, the normal one, an acoustic mix and an instrumental. Sounds good!

The Catherines: “I’m Gonna Sue You Real Good” is the new track by the duo from Hamburg. The band that has the best song titles out there, also knows how to make wonderful pop songs. This digital single is no exception!

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I was listening after many years the EP “Turbulencias en Nunca-Jamás” by the Spanish band Tecnicolor. One thing that came to mind immediately was that I didn’t know anything about them. That this was the only release I knew by them and as far as I know they disappeared into obscurity.

I am looking at the CD release that was lovely designed by Gregorio Soria, the mastermind of Annika Records. The EP wasn’t released by his label but by Elefant Records in 2001. Catalog number being ER-340.

I remember playing these songs a lot back in the early 2000s. They may have aged a bit now. But I still have a soft-spot for them. 5 songs were on this EP, “Tú (Eres la Solución)”, “De Otro Color”, “Yo Sé Qu´é Es”, “Amor Bajo Cero” and “Parecido a una Ilusión”.

The band was just two people, Marta on vocals and keyboards and Horacio on guitars. One interesting thing is that the songs were recorded at Refugio Antiaéreo in January of 2001. This studio was Los Planetas studio. Los Planetas being the biggest indie band in Spain. Erik Jiménez played the drums and Miguel López the bass, both members of Los Planetas. You start to wonder if the band was from Granada. Could be because of these connections, right?

The producer was Carlos Hernández and Mónica Esteban did backing vocals. Mastering was done at Sonoland in Madrid by Carlos as well.

That’s all the info on the CD. But one thing I remember from back in the days is that the band had more songs, probably released as demo CDRs. Could I find more info about that?

The band did record  at least three more songs that we know about. “Mi Plato Favorito” which was included in the compilation “Le Touriste Rebusca en el Desván de la Nueva Ola” released by Ventilador Music (CDM 031) in 2003. This of course was a cover of Rubi y los Casinos.

Then a cover of “Oh Que Pena Me Das” by Aerolíneas Federales was included in “Alegra la Cara – Tributo a Aerolíneas Federales” that was released by Ya Estas Ya Producciones YP-10) in 2005. And lastly that same year the song “Idiomas del Corazón” was inccluded in “Contempopránea – 10 Años Pop (Concurso Grupo Revelación)” released by Contempopránea, the fine pop festival in Spain.

Then I find that the band actually hailed from Málaga. And luckily a PDF of the Popchild fanzine. Here there is an interview with the band!

Here they mention the following demo CDRs, “10 Minutos Con…”, “Melodías Olvidables” and “Maravilloso Mundo Imperfecto”. There is no tracklist btu we have some names now.

Seems that their relationship with Elefant was just for the CDEP. When this interview was conducted the band was looking for a label. Seems they had no luck as they never released anything afterwards.

Another interview is available in El Planeta Amarillo, Rafa Skam’s fanzine. At this point it seems the band had grown, now they had Sara on keyboards, Manolo on bass and Alberto on drums. A five-piece! A curious detail too is that Horacio had a bar in downtown Malaga. So cool, would be nice to visit if he is still running it! Sara on the other hand was a teacher in an institute, Sara was studying piano and music education while Manolo and Alberto were into computer science.

And finally found all of the band’s songs that were released on their demos (though can’t seem to find anything about the release “10 Minutos Con…”).

The demo CD “Febrero” from 2002 had the songs “Gotas de Lluvia”, “Cuando estás Conmigo” and “Un Mal Sueño”. Then “Golpes de Amor” also released in 2002 had “Deja Ya de Disimular”, “Cuatro Razones”, “Quizás” and “Mi Plato Favorito”.

“Maravilloso Mundo Imperfecto” came out in 2003 and had the songs “¿Qué Me Das?”, “Bubblegum”, “El Reloj de Arena” and “Plata”. In 2003 they also release “Melodías Olvidables” with the songs “Idiomas del Corazón”, “Enloquecer es Posible”, “Adiós Tristeza”, “Mi Hombre Invisible” and “Mi Droga eres Tú”. Lastly in 2004 they put out “El Color de Algunos Días” which had four more songs, “Si Supieras”, “Amor 100%”, “Tu Suave Violencia” and “Hipnotizada”.

What happened to Horacio and Marta. Where are they now?

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Tecnicolor – Plata

I was telling you that Say Sue Me was to tour the US and play NYC in about three weeks. Well that gig will now be in November, not sure why. In a way it is good to me that it is a bit more spaced between the Cariño gig on the 28 and them the week after. I feel a gig a month I can probably go.

I have friends that have been going to gigs for so many months now and continue being healthy. I guess I am not that worried about health right now after getting infected in February. I should have some immunity for at least one or two more months. At the same time there is a new Omicron variant that they say will create another peak in infections.

But I want to go to see bands. Especially those that aren’t from NYC and that I won’t have much chances to see again if I miss this opportunity. For example Cariño is a true rarity. A band that sings in Spanish playing here, that is a true surprise. Say Sue Me maybe is not, they are in a label that have some muscle. But still, a band hailing from Busan and coming to NYC is something uncommon. So one has to do everything not to miss these opportunities!

The Harriets: I interviewed this fantastic Japanese band a long time ago! Their tape with “Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe” has been sold out for a long time too. But here is the good news, the Indonesian label Gerpfast Record is re-releasing the tape! It is limited to just 75 copies, so don’t miss it. Out on May 31.

Foliage: this project by Manuel Joseph Walker has been a favourite of mine for years now. Every time I have the chance to recommend one of his songs, I do. His latest single is “Can’t Go Anywhere”, a fine jangly track that has some beautiful melodies. There is even a video for it!

Mint Julep: another band I have followed the last few years is this duo formed by Keith and Hollie Kenniff. This latest release of them is actually a collection of covers, 7 in total, of the likes of Bananarama, Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode and more.

Stomp Talk Modstone: the Japanese band is back with “Mew”, a new full-length album with 20 songs! The band formed by Takamitsu Kawashima, Naoki Nishino, Kouta Hoshino, Megumu Asai and Ayumi Igarashi has been getting lots of praise for their brand of shoegaze. This new album seems to be available in digital format.

We.The Pigs: this record seems to be a must for everyone. At least that’s what I think. Released back in November the Swedish band has crafted a wonder. Released by the great Berlin based label Dreams Never End, the 12 songs shine and impress. I need to get a copy of this. I need to see if Jigsaw Records have copies!

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Ian Hadley on vocals, Nick Morgan on bass, Steve Chen on drums and Jamie Sinclair-Thomson on guitar were The Penny Drops.

The band hailed from Cardiff, Wales, according to the Facebook page Cardiff Music History. It was thanks to the Youtube channel that they have that I discovered three songs by this group: “To Sell Your Soul”, “Lost” and “The Chase”. These three songs come from a demo tape. Not sure if the band recorded another one as they were short-lived. The band was only around 1985 and 1986.

The only other interesting information about the band is that previously Nick Morgan and Jamie Reid-Sinclair had been in A Sound Reaction. After the demise of The Penny Drops, Jamie would be involved with The Third Uncles. With this last band the band would end up supporting the likes of The Weather Prophets, Mighty Mighty, The Jack Rubies and more.

And that’s all I can tell you about The Penny Drops. Anyone saw them live? Anyone remembers them?

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The Penny Drops – To Sell Your Soul

Some cool gigs coming up in NYC that I want to go. First is Cariño at Knitting Factory on April 28. I have a ticket for this. The second one is Say Sue Me at Bowery Ballroom on May 4. This one I haven’t managed to get permission to go to, but I hope I do. The “good” thing is that they are at night and that there are opening bands. So even leaving home at 8pm, after baby falls asleep, I might be able to catch them.

It’s been a while since I went to a concert. More than two years. Let’s see if I can make them!

Vansire: just discovered this dreampop band from Rochester, Minnesota. The band is a duo formed by Samuel Winemiller and Josh Augustin. Their latest release is a digital single called “Kind of a Nice Time” that is really pretty. The band also announces a new album coming out on May 6th.

Petite League: I will go see the Spanish band Cariño in Brooklyn at the end of the month. One of the opening bands is this New York combo. Their latest song is “Pantone Karaoke” which I didn’t get immediately. I prefer their previous effort “Floating Blue” which has a catchier chorus and poppier melodies. The band says they hail from Queens, and that’s something I like. I need to keep listening to their songs, there’s some good stuff!

Peaness: the Chester band is a favourite of many in the indiepopworld. The threee piece know how to craft a good pop song. Their latest “IRL” is no exception. The song will be part of the band’s new album “World Full of Worry” that is coming out on May 6th on vinyl and CD.

Sea Lemon: another digital single. This song is titled “Turn Away” and comes from Seattle! Not much info on their Bandcamp aside that the band tells us they make dreampop and are on the Spirit Goth label. The sound in any case is nice, with a jingle jangly guitar.

Jack in the Green: years ago I interviewed this fantastic early 90s Stoke-on-Trent band formed by Caroline, Corinne, Pete and Mark. Well, now all of their studio recordings, from 1992 to 1993, are on Bandcamp! A fantastic treat for us pop lovers!

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Have to continue raiding Soundcloud for great janglepop from the late 80s and early 90s.

If you follow the link I just shared in the previous line you’ll end up discovering a band called Purple Room. You’ll also notice that there is absolutely no information about the band.

It is easy to assume the band hailed from the UK. There’s a full gig of the band playing in Exeter on June 12, 1992. Where in Exeter? It doesn’t say. We know the songs played that night were “Picture the Moon”, “21 Nightmares”, “Box 17”, “Floating”, “Untitled” and “Wave”. I doubt the band hailed from another country if they were playing Exeter. Most probably too the band hailed from the area.

Never been to Exeter. Was looking that it is about 2 hours from London by train. Wonder if in my next England trip I should visit. There seems to be a good museum called Royal Albert Memorial Museum, a castle called Exeter Castle (though doesn’t look medieval as I like them myself), Exeter Cathedral that looks beautiful and a place called the House that Moved. Interesting.

The band Purple Room recorded many songs. Dating from 1989 to 1993 we find these songs: “Floating”, “All of This”, “Picture the Moon”, “All or Nothing”, “Glow”, “Wave”, “Communication”, “Confused” and “I Want You”.

Then we find three songs that we don’t know the year, they are collected as “Forgotten demos”. These songs are “Skimming Stones”, “Wasted” and “Box 17”.

Then we find 5 songs collected as “Flower Eyes”. Was this an EP? A cassette perhaps? The songs here are “Nothing to do With You”, “Drift Away”, “Kiss the Playground”, “Two” and “A Single Tear”.

I start poking Google. I find aa forum called Thetownend.com. Here there is a post by someone with the alias Saxondale saying he was in a shambling indie band called Purple Room. They had participated in a battle of the bands at the Wyvern. They didn’t win.

I look for a Wyvern venue close by. There is a Wyvern Club in Taunton. That’s 25 minutes by train.

Sadly this is where my detective skills prove useless. I can’t find anything else. I don’t have names. There were no releases as far as I know. Hard to track them down even though they were around for at least 4 years.

Who remembers them?

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Purple Room – Drift Away

Happy Monday!

Seems like I’ll be in Paris in July. Also in Brussels for the first time. As every time I get to travel I am happy to bring records to anyone living in these cities to save on postage. I know there is still a lot of time until then (I’ll do a reminder later on), but do let me know if you’d like any of the label’s releases.

Now let’s see what we found over the weekend.

Los Lucha: the Glasgow band that was an amazing surprise last year with their first tape is back and better than before. Their new release is also a tape. It is aptly titled “Tape 2” and has that superb guitars we fell in love with. The EP has 5 songs that carry the flag of the c86 bands and Galaxie 500. A good mix indeed.

Sapphire & Steel: a new track by this great duo formed by Jørn Åleskjær and Estella Rosa. This new digital single is titled “Evelina” and it is a fine jangly tune. The long-distance project has been releasing fine songs every couple of months. I hope they are thinking of putting something out soon!

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: there were some t-shirts being sold by the San Francisco band. They are sold out now. But 3 songs are available, “Life in the Void”, “Nothing Between the Lines at All” and “Evening at Land’s End”. As usual they are excellent. How does Glenn Donaldson do it?

Shiny Times: 4 songs recorded in Garageband between February 2020 and February 2021 by Kim Hart. “Start with S” has four songs that start with the letter S. That’s right. According to Kim this is a song dump, I guess these songs didn’t find a place where to be released but glad that we can listen to them in the end.

Love, Burns: and now a live set by our friends from New York! Phil’s band played at Pete’s Candy Store on February 10, 2022, and the 8 songs from that night are here to listen and enjoy! For this live gig the band formed with Phil on vocals, Alex on bass, Kenny on lead guitar and Hampus on drums.

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Another draft I left years ago was my intended post on the fantastic German band Painting by Numbers.

Of course, you’ll figure out immediately that they took their name from the Television Personalities. And that’s a good thing. That tells us a lot of the band’s intentions.

The band was active in the early 90s and were based in the city of Darmstadt. I’ve been to Germany many times, but not to this city. Oh dear…. it hurts me that I was supposed to go to Germany on 2020, but with the pandemic that plan was killed. I may have been able to visit their city… who knows…

Maybe soon?

Anyhow, according to Discogs we know of at least two releases. The first one is a demo tape that dates from 1990. This tape had four songs on it, two on each side. The A side had “Von Einem Fremden Stern Zurück” and “Samstag Abend” while the B side had “Lied Für Werner Enke” and “Rette Mich (Live Am 9.2.199 Krone-Darmstadt)”. There is no artwork uploaded for this release so sadly don’t know how this tape looked like.

The second release is a CDR live album released in 1996 on the label Declaration of Santo (DoS 12). According to the small bio  I found, this label was founded by the band The Dass Sägebett to release and distribute material of their own band and related bands. I don’t think any of the Painting By Numbers were in that band, so maybe they were just friends? Or what was the relation?

Anyhow, this live album was titled “Samstag Abend”. I really hope I could find it. The songs were recorded live on October 10, 1996, at Goldene Krone, a music venue in Darmstadt and mixed by Achim Lowitsch. The songs were “Lilac Car”, “Jesus Comes Again”, “Pet Cementary”, “Atomic Café”, “All Gone”, “Samstag Abend”, “Lied Für Werner Enke”, “Carol”, “Der Auftrag Lautet: Töte Sie!”, “Fremder Stern”, “Der Schönste Mann Dieser Welt”, “Die Zeit Läuft Dir Davon”, “Hassliebe”, “Tief Über Irland”, “Fantastic Feeling”, “Einsam”, “Leuchtturm” and “Eisbär”.

I was curious then about the song they dedicated to Werner Enke. I didn’t know who he was so I had a look. Turns out he is a film actor and screenwriter. I have to say I haven’t seen any of his films. Anyone has any recommendations where to start?

The other detail we know about the band is that of the band members. They were 6 people in the band. Four guys, two girls. The band was formed then by Andreas Debus, Cornelia Henker, Felix Bayer, Frank Koriath, Herbert Sterzik, Peter Horsch and Silke Dressler. Okay, I have said 7 members and in the photo there are six. So one of the guys listed is not on the photo. I want to say it is Felix Bayer the one missing. But can’t be sure. In any case all of them were members at some point of the band.

When it comes to compilations the band did appear on a few. That’s how I discovered them actually, thanks to appearing on “Hier Super 21 – Bitte Maiden!” LP compilation released by Viel Leicht (Propeller 005) in 1993. I own this record where they appear with the song “Samstag Abend”.

But there’s more. In 1989 the band started appearing already on compilations. On the P-fanzine issue number four a 7″ compilation came with it. On it the band contributed the song “Lied Für Werner Enke”. That same year they contributed two songs, “Lilac Car” and “Jesus Comes Again” to the fantastic indiepop compilation “Mit Sonnenschirmen Fingen Wir Den Blütenzauber” on Frischluft Tonträger (FRL 002). So good! I had interviewed Krischan! who ran this amazing label.

Another label I had interviewed, Blam-A-Bit, included them on a cassette tape called “Instants of Pleasure” (BLAM 001) in 1990. The song on this tape was “All Gone”. Then on the classic cassette tape compilation “Heaven Sent” (HS 002) released by Heaven Sent that same year the band had the song “Kill Them All”.

Lastly in 1990 the band had the songs “Einsam” and “Von Einem Fremden Stern Zurück (Remix)” on a compilation LP titled “Hurra, Wir Leben Noch!” that came out on Daxl-Musicx (52-489).

In 1992 we seee the band include “Samstag Abend” on “Mermaid Employee of the Month: Gustav Sackmüller” (MIRABELL 665), a CD, cassette and 7″ compilation. Their song appears on the tape.

The other compilations are more recent. So in 2016 the band contributed “Lied F¨¨ür Werner Enke” to “Falscher Ort Falsche Zeit” (TR331) and “Fremder Stern” to “Falscher Ort Falsche Zeit Volume 2” (TR345) released both by Tapete Records.

Now, on what other bands were the band members involved with? Well it turns out that Andreas Debus did contribute to The Dass Sägebett, playing guitar on one of their songs as far as I know. Felix Bayer on the other hand was in Der Heitere Himmel and the legendary Die Fünf Freunde. Frank Koriath, the same, he was on Die Fünf Freunde.

What else have I found out?

There is an official video for the song “All Gone” on Youtube! This is a great find. I believe the video is not from the time when the band was active, but the footage is. So this is amazing actually.

Om this same account, by Petrus Morsch (I want to think he is Peter Horsch?) I find live performances of the band. There is a video of them playing “Lilac Car” in 1997 at Negativ in Frankfurt, supporting the Cosmic Psychos. Then there’s them playing “Eisbär” with the help of Hardy Zech from The Dass Sägebett. And lastly them playing a cover of Die Sterne’s “Ein Verregneter Sommer“.

And that’s what I could find out. I wonder why they didn’t release any records on their own at the time. They had fantastic songs. Would be great to find out more details about this amazing German band!

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Painting by Numbers – All Gone

It’s Friday and I really need this weekend. Been tired lately.

Things still moving slowly on my side. Trying to find out the DAT tapes from an 80s band that I love. Emailing here and there. Another band trying to figure out publishing deals. Waiting and waiting now for things to be more clear.

Cinema Engines: Our friend Sebastian Voss from Nah… and The Grindcore Poppies has a new project with Nero Bates from The No Colour Twins and it is called Cinema Engines. The two Münster guys have just put out a limited CD single out titled “Hello Springtime, Hello Sunshine” that has two wonderful poppy songs, “Springtime Remains” and “Netty’s House”. Both tracks are excellent. Don’t miss this one out.

The Crooner: here’s a new digital single by Zissimos from Athens! The classic project of his is teaming with Make Me Haappy aand this one is a song I don’t think I’ve heard before! Is it an old one? or a new one? I don’t know! But “I Wish I Were a Jet” is really lovely.

Amor Propio: this new project that features ex-members of Cola Jet Set sounds great. The band just released a self-titled 7″ EP! It has 3 songs of sweet pop Barcelona-style, with influences that go from bands like the aforementioned Cola Jet Set, Brighton 64 or Kamenbert.

Broke Chanter: David McGregor, formerely of Kid Canaveral, is behind this cool project that has released an album titled “Catastrophe Hits”. The album which is available on vinyl and CD has 10 songs of great pop songs! It came out a bit ago, back in October but I just find out about it. So maybe you also missed it or maybe not. The thing is this Glasgow band seems to be on the right track, this is a fine album!

Ferri-Chrome: and we end this week with yet another fantastic album! The new one by Japan’s Ferri-Chrome! Titled “Dazzling Azure” it is indeed dazzling. The dreamy band has released this record on CD with Testcard Records and I would say to everyone to get it. I will try to do so myself too. 10 songs of pop brilliance!

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I thought I had written about Mr Peculiar before. I guess not. I was looking at my 7″ collection and thought, this looks obscure enough for the blog, but I wrote about them before, right? A quick look on my list of bands on the right-hand column of the blog shows me that no, I didn’t yet. So let’s see what can we find about this British band!

The band, as far as I know, only released one 7″ on the label Lust Recordings. Lust was Stephen from Woosh second label. Mr Peculiar’s release was the third on the label (LUST 3) and came out in 1990. Three songs were included, “Loonyverse” on the A side and “How Many Times” and “Isle of View” on the B side.

The producers of the songs were Richard Fromby and Mike Stout. The songs had been recorded at Woodhouse Studios in Leeds in June 1990. There is an address. We know then that the band hailed from Leeds.

I see a photo of the band playing at Daggi’s Bar in June 1990. It says that Simon Spaceman is on vocals. The guitarist has left a comment. He links to a page of his photography. I can’t find his name though…

I find a gigography for the Pale Saints. I see that on March 15 (my birthday!), 1989, Mr Peculiar supported the Pale Saints in Lancaster.

Sadly this is all I could find about them. I hope someone remembers them and can give us some insights, some details, about the band!

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Listen
Mr Peculiar – Isle of View

Not many updates today. Been reading Pete Paphides book “Broken Greek”, it is a nice memoir of how he fall in love with pop music. I wonder if any of you have read it. On my Goodreads just two friends have and have given superb reviews, 5 stars. So far, I’m halfway through, I am really enjoying it.

Dayflower: there is an expanded version of the “Popping Candy” EP our friends of Leicester released two years ago. This time there’s  more songs including a cover of The Flaming Lips as well as different versions of other songs of their catalogue. It is always a good idea to check them out as they are one of the most creative bands out there.

The Photocopies: originally from London but now based in Michigan, we find this nice indiepop project. Their latest release is titled “Quadruple A-Side” which doesn’t have 4 songs but 5. Nice melodies, sunny and jangly, this is a very nice EP. Let’s keep an eye on The Photocopies.

Arts & Letters: now we head to Clare, Australia. To listen to the wonderful song “Asleep”. This is the latest single by this project by Caleb Carr. Previously I believe his project was called English Summer and I had recommended it more than a few times! So yeah, I like his chiming music and don’t mind recommending it even if the name changes!

Swimming Pools and Movie Stars: I already have this on CD. It came out on Jigsaw Records with the title “Modern Architecture”. An 8-song mini-album by this newish Los Angeles project formed by Laurence and Droo. Jigsaw Records comparees theem to Brittle stars, Aberdeen, New Order and JAMC. It’s a good combination of influences and the record is really pretty.

Crystal Eyes: “Don’t Turn Around” is the name of the latest single by Calgary,  Canada, band Crystal Eyes. From what I understand this shoegazy song will be part of the dreampop band’s new album “The Sweetness Restored” that is coming out on April 22 on Bobo Integral from Spain. Good stuff.

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This is weird. I was looking at the Change of Seasons Soundcloud page and noticed two songs from 2010 with a female singer. The songs sound very different to the ones I knew that date from back in the early 90s. Anyone would know? They are called “Like This” and “Why”. The strange thing is that they are in the band account as far as I know.

But let’s rewind. Let’s remember this fine Canadian band…

I first discovered them through Egg Records. In the early 2000s they were part of their “restoration” program. I didn’t get the band’s releases then but I was aware of them. A few years after I managed to get the band’s sole 7″ that was released in 1991. This was the “Soft Spoken” 7″ on Egg Records (EGG 008) that had the song “You Again” as the B side.

This wasn’t the band’s first release. According to Discogs there was a demo tape from 1990 with 6 songs, “You Again”, “Echoes of Sadness”, “Wish I Had”, “Soft Spoken”, “The Waiting” and “Pirates on the South China Sea”. I start to wonder how a Canadian band ended on a Scottish label in those pre-internet dates.

A tape was put together by Egg Records in 1991. It was a promo release that had three of the band’s songs on the B side, “You Again”, “Waiting” and “Soft Spoken”. The A side had three songs by the wonderful The Church Grims (which I’ve tried to interview, no luck yet).

When Egg Records decided to re-release the band in 2003, they put out two releases. First was the “Echoed in Sadness” (EGGREST003) CDR single that had four songs, “Echoed in Sadness”, “Tragic Town”, “Speaking too Soon” and “Buttered Toast”.

The second release by the Toronto band was the album “Pretty Mouth” (EGGREST002). 15 songs were on this CDR, “Idiot Home”, “Closet Full”, “Soft Spoken”, “After All”, “You Again”, “Portrait of these Times”, “Echoed in Sadness”, “Crocodile Skin”, “Wish I Had”, “The Waiting”, “Pirates of the South China Sea”, “Smoked Eyes”, “Restless Heart”, “Hairdressers Daughter” and “Try”. All of these songs had been recorded at Friendly Fire Studios between the summer in 1989 and April 1990. In Toronto of course.

Other than thees releases the band appeared on many compilations. In 1990 their song “Echoes of Sadness” appeared on the classic French tape compilation “Heol” released by Karen (KAREN02). “Wish I Had” appeared on “Spying on the Blue Sky” tape as well as in “Egg Records Compilation” (ER-008) tape that Elefant Records released. On this tape their song “Echoed in Sadness” is also included. Lastly on the Spanish compilation “Film Fun “There’s No Stopping Her!” released by El Vicio Seecreto de Sister Mary they had the song “Pirates”. This was all in 1991.

“I Wish” appears on “Seahorses” cassette comp that Red Roses for Me (RRT03) put out in 1992. Elefant Records releases another tape that year, “Around the World” and the song “The Waiting” is included. Also the song “Wish I Had” appears on the vinyl LP “Eating a Fish-Shaped Particle” a superb ccompilation released in Germany by Pico Records (CheW 065).

IN 2003 the band is featured on the CDR compilation “Egg Records: An Introduction to 1988-1991” (EGGREST001). Three songs are included, “You Again”, “Soft Spoken” and “Wish I Had”. Then in 2006 on “Souvenirs from Egg Records” (EGGREST015) their songs “Pirates on the South China Sea” and “Soft Spoken” get included.

There is another compilation tape called “The Cordelia Records Presents”. I don’t know when was this released. What we know is that “Wish I Had” was included in it and was released by Project Press & Tapes (PRT 14).

What else do we know aabout them? Well, that the band was formed by Mike Caricari on guitar and vocals, Cameron Gray on guitar and vocals too, Rico Gasborro on drums and Marc DiGirolimo on bass. Many Canadian-Italians in this band!

They had been involved in other bands too. We know that Michael Caricari was in Danko Jones and Tugboat. Cameron Gray was on Tugboat too.

On Last.fm there’s a bio that is really helpful. It tells that the band actually started in 1987 by Marc DiGirolamo and Mike Caricari. Then they added Rico who happened to be Marc’s cousin and Cameron.

The band’s first gig was at a high school gym in Toronto. Their proper debut was at The Slither Club in March 1988 and they would eventually open for bands like The Chills, The Verlaines and The Wedding Present.

The band released two tapes in Canada. The first was called “Up North under Opulescent Skies” that came out in the summer of 1989. The second was “Pretty Mouth” from April 1990. Both had 9 songs, and it was thanks to the second tape that Egg Records found about them and offered a release.

In March 1991, Mike and Cameron moved to Glasgow. There they recruited two members, Scott on bass and Cliff Henderson on drums. With this lineup they recorded the “Soft Spoken” single and played in Glasgow. At the end of the summer of 1991 Cameron returned to Toronto and Change of Seasons was over.

I suppose then that all recorded material by the band was included in the Egg Records album. I do wonder why they took the risk to move to Glasgow. Also why just be there 3 or so months? Were they involved in other bands before Change of Seasons? And again, what about these two songs that are on their Soundcloud!

Who remembers them?!

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Listen
Change of Seasons – Pirates on the South China Sea

Happy Monday. Today let’s go straight to some good recommendations!

Comet Gain: another wonderful set of unheard, forgotten 23 songs. “The Misfit Jukebox Vol  – Somewhere to Belong” is the new collection of Comet Gain on Bandcamp. Included is a 1997 of the classic cover of “Pinstriped Rebel” as well as a bunch of terrific tracks going back as far as 1993.

The Hazmats: Static Shock Records from London is releasing a 7″ by The Hazmats. Limited to 300 copies the single includes two songs, “Empty Rooms” and “Today”. We can preview the A side and it is really good! They mention The Clouds as their big influence and you can see a similar typeface on their sleeve as that one of The Clouds one and only 7″… on purpose? Good stuff.

Humdrum: this band is a true favourite and would be great to see them release something in physical format. The solo project of Loren from Star Tropics has a new song called “Superbloom” that is a rush of chiming and jangling guitars. Essential listening and if you are making a mixtape or CD, a must to include!

The Holiday Crowd: a true surprise to see the comeback of the Toronto band that dazzled all of us many many years ago! A new 7″ with the songs “Party Favours” and “Bullet Train” will be released in May by Shelflife Records. Pre-orders are up now and I need to do that. Hopefully they return to NYC soon too.

Ducks Ltd.: and I end this round of recommendations with another Toronto band. Here there is a great cover of the JAMC’s classicc “Head On”. On this track it says thee Illuminati Hotties are featured. Not sure who they are,  but that’s cool. It is a one off digital single.

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I was very sad to hear about two weeks ago that Vince Keenan from One Thousand Violins passed away. Probably you’ve heard this on social media and already paid tribute…

I am slow with these things as you might have seen in many posts I’ve written about of many of our heroes that have left us. But I still needed to write this. My own little tribute.

One Thousand Violins is a favourite band of mine. Songs like “Like One Thousand Violins”, “Halcyon Days”, “Please Don’t Sandblast My House”, “If I Were a Bullet” or “If Only Words” are indiepop classics, legendary!

Kevin wasn’t part of the first incarnation of the Sheffield band. He joined sometime in 1988, replacing John Wood on vocals. With Vince the band released the band last album “Hey Man That’s Beautiful”.

After the demise of One Thousand Violins Vince continued making music with the wonderful Splendid Fellows. Even though I never wrote about One Thousand Violins (I don’t know why, probably as they are one of the ‘bigger’ indiepop bands I thought I was going to interview someday…) I did dedicate a post to Splendid Fellows. On that post I say:

“Field of Corn” was written by Vince Keenan and only saw the day of light a demo tape. Splendid Fellows was formed in March 1990 and split in 1992. No records were released but gigs were well attended. In July 1994 Vince Keenan returned to play Leeds Heineken Festival under the name The Haze Office with the drummer of Splendid Fellows, Gordon Leather. He already had used this name in the early 80s before becoming the later singer of 1000 Violins. Now he is performing acoustic gigs under the name of Spigott. And it is only a question of time before he is getting a new band together again.”

And that’s one interesting bit of information, The Haze Office. Did you know though that before being in One Thousand Violins he was in a band called The Hays Office?

I don’t know much about this band or about Spigott, the band he was in in the early 2000s. With Spigott he did release something. He covered “Salvador Dali’s Garden Party” on a tribute to the TVPs that our friend Wally put together back in 2005 for his label The Beautiful Music. That’s really cool. I didn’t know about this until today.

Same with The Hays Office. I am listening to a song called “All the Colour” that is available on the Sheffield Tape Archive Bandcamp as part of a compilation called “The Hard Stuff Presents”. This tape was produced by Radio Sheffield’s The Right Stuff program. I don’t know when this tape was released, according to Bandcamp in 2018. The tape features bands from 1985, from Sheffield.

It is interesting when you start to dig, to find more information about our heroes. Other projects, other recordings, collaborations… for example here they thank Vince for providing the insert of the cassette to the people behind this Bandcamp. That’s why I think this tape was actually released in the 80s. Discogs doeesn’t list it, only the MP3 compilation.

As you continue looking, you find Vince had a Soundcloud page. I start to wonder why I never got in touch. Would have been fantastic to do an interview. There are more songs by The Hays Office here including “Dressed in White” and “Curled Up“. We know now that this project was around from 1984 to 1987.

He also left us some thoughts about the song “Dressed in White” on the One Thousand Violins facebook:
“Excusive…the hays office..vince keenan pre ..1000 violins..1986….and soundyshitty clowd banned it…..I loved doing this track…dressed in white…about a reimagining of a ghostly spirit…or mood we take….I’d just acquired a 60s red watkins guitar and pre dylans..Q jennings was kicking in on trumpet and hammond…noone did anything close to us at that time..they were a mass of ramones and jesus and mary chain clones. …when we were more..jazz…meets ..new wave..60s…and retro robots..guitars/amps….and hashish!…felt good for a short while…then judas always kicks in!..but bigger than 1000 violins in Sheffield on cred scene…..but I even told Q to buy hammond on joining when we went looking…but he did fall in love with the korg hammond himself. ..but at that time only james taylor quartet were doing instrumentals on the indie scene. …so we perservered and I wasn’t one to write normal songs being an art student…but…did want weird sounding pop!…and textured tracks!…track from an unreleased cd of demos I did called the stoned age….”

There’s a blog too, I think it was his where he comments movies. Last updated in January. This would make sense, see Hays Office is a term that has to do with the motion Picture Production Code, was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Will H. Hays, president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) from 1922 to 1945.

There’s very little information about this project. If it had more band members or if it was just Vince. He seems to have been an important part of the Sheffield scene back then. I still haven’t visited Sheffield but one thing that is true is that their music history is amazing. A city that produced quality music. One Thousand Violins one of their best for me.

I never met, never chatted, with them. One thing that kept me a bit far away was also their relationship with Cherry Red. I mean, they didn’t need promotion from this humble blog. They were in a different league. But at the same time, when you listen to their wonderful songs you feel they could be your friends, that they were a down-to-earth band. I suppose if Cherry Red offers you something it is hard to say no. It is true though that I first heard them on Vinyl Japan and also on the Leamington Spa compilation series.

One thing that could have happened is that of a One Thousand Violins gig. A reunion gig. And that won’t be happening anymore. That would have been a dream for me. I would have traveled to Sheffield. To London. To wherever they were to be booked. How much I would have loved that!

It’s time to say goodbye. We didn’t cross paths, but the music you made was important to me. I played your songs many times. I want to say a big THANK YOU for that

EDIT April 5th, 2022: My friend Richard had interviewed Vine for his Facebook blog Scratch the Surface. Here Vince shares more of the story of The Hays Office! Thanks to Richard for letting me share these lines:

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Listen
The Hays Office – Dressed in White

We start April!

Records are traveling to Disk Union in Japan, so hopefully many Japanese fans can get Cloudberry releases at a better price.

Other than that things moving slowly for the next releases. Still in very early phases.

Studio Electrophonique: we travel to Sheffield to discover this project by James Leesley. He released this year the EP “Happier Things” on 12″ vinyl and it is still available. The EP has 5 songs of lo-fi bedroom pop. Mellow melodies with simple but smart arrangements. I know it is a cliche but it is the perfect soundtrack for a rainy day.

Hydroplane: many years ago I interviewed the wonderful Melbourne band Hydroplane. Today there’s news about the band re-releasing their 1997 debut album on vinyl. This is fantastic news as the album was previously only available on CD and we know how much people love their vinyl these days. The record includes the same 14 songs as the original release, you can preview two of the tracks, if not familiar with them, on Bandcamp.

Fine.: this is something I am saad that I missed out while I was away. “Fine” was a double CD that the Boston, UK, band released this week but had pre-orders available before. The double CD includes a full album from April 2021 (that was only released digitally) and also tracks from the back catalogue of thee band. It was released by the great Subjangle label.

Truck Train Tractor: I had written about this Australian band many years ago and was in touch with Karl, their guitarist and vocalist too. Tried to do an interview but sadly never heard back. Well, good news is that the band has put all of their recordings on Bandcamp, as a compilation called “Anthologically Challenged”! This is a must listen for any indiepop fan. Hopefully this gets released properly (though it seems it was in 2005 on CDR?!)

Bedflowers: another band that I still don’t understand how there is no compilation out there. The Manchester band had amazing songs! I thought Firestation was working with them… my memory might be wrong, but I totally had the idea that this EP, with the four songs that we find on Bandcamp was to be released years ago on physical format. I was also in touch with Danny and again, an interview didn’t happen, I believe because we were waiting for the release to come out and then promote with an interview… maybe now is a good time? This is essential indiepop!

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What a fantastic find by stoneeyedkiller! Wow. I hope he/she doesn’t mind going through all of his discoveries as of late. I have been away for months and I am only catching up and, as you can see, I am enjoying a lot of their songs!

The song he has shared is called “Ebenezer” and dates from 1988. It is a superb slice of classic indiepop! I don’t know where he found this song as I’ve been googling for any info but couldn’t find anything!

Luckily he has uploaded a cassette sleeve. And there is some info there!

It seems this song was part of a tape album? There are many songs in the cassette, “Devil in my Wardrobe”, “Ebenezer”, “Summer in Africa”, “Ham Green Pill”, “The Day is Long and Restless”, “Blue and Gray”, “Two Dye the Minute” and “Bare Breasted Woman”.

It is a bit hard for me to read some of the words. Everything has been hand-written, so if anyone understands the text better than me and see typos, please correct me.

I see that the band was formed by Bongs on vocals, Jonboy on red guitar, Mike on Gibson guitar, Mayneman on fretful bass, Kevin on timeless percussion and Jim on blues harp. No last names are listed.

It says where the songs were recorded but I don’t understand the handwriting. Does it say Fermain? Les Camps Du Moulins? One thing that seems to be a fact is that the band hailed from Guernsey. So perhaps it is not strange to see these French names?

I have actually never written about a Guernsey band. Quite exciting. It is a place I’d love to visit someday.

Sadly there is no more info on the web as I said. Would be fantastic to listen to all the songs and find out more info about them! Anyone remembers them?

EDIT: All of the songs are on Soundcloud.
The A side with the band’s notes:
1. Devil In My Wardrobe: an invitation to alter ego.
2. Ebenezer: a pagan philosophy of seaweed for breakfast
3. Summer In Africa: Bougs growls in the smoky acacia glade
4. Ham Green Pill: Jim Searle’s harp is witness to the execution of the jongleurs.

The B side with notes too:
1. The Day Is Long And Restless: anthem for the lost souls of finance.
2. Blue And Gray: uneasy guitar haunts the loves games of 2 in the twenty first century.
3. Two Bye The Minute: this side of paradise is out of time.
4. Bare Breasted Woman: all you need is sex!
5. Bonus Track: Movin’ On!

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Listen
Mr. Rottcodd Again – Ebenezer