Day 581

Reverbage: Shore Dive Records from Brighton usually delivers great dreampop bands and songs. Reverbage is no exception. Their album “Tre” sounds great! This band is actually the project of Niklas Krigdal from Hemlig in Sweden. Here are 10 songs of nicely crafted low-key pop songs. You can get this release too, as there is a CD version but only limited to 15 copies (!).

Infinite Siennas: “Shiny Shiny” is the digital single that is my introduction to this Yogyakarta band! The Indonesian trio puts together an interesting mix in this song. It is catchy but angular at times. This is just their second song after February’s “Chocolate Bar”.

Japanese Heart Software: another digital single! This one is called “Soft” and it comes all the way from Melbourne. This is much mellower, sweet  and dreamy. It would be nice for this band to become bigger, maybe release an album? I’d like that!

Lunar Isles: one more digital single. Titled “Anchorage”, this is the latest song by tthe Cheongju Si, South Korea, project. There is not much information about this band but they’ve been releasing songs quite often this year. And only now I am discovering them. Better late than never, right?

Sally Shapiro: and of course, I love Sally Shapiro. And the news that there is a new album coming out early next year, in February, was superb news to me. The album is going to be called “Sad Cities” and it is going to be released by Italians Do it Better. The band is giving us a sneak peak with the song “Forget About You” which is  now on their Bandcamp. They have added 3 more remixes of the song too. And yes, let me give some kudos to the great Roger Gunnarsson for co-writing this song.

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I can’t recall how I was going to do an interview with Big Pop Trotsky!

I look at my email and it seems I was in touch with someone called John. He was to forward my questions to Jason and Matt. I of course wrote questions and send his way. I never heard back.

Jason must be Jason Dormon, the bassist. Matt? I am not sure. According to Discogs the band was formed by Mark Davyd, Stephen Cookson, Jason Dormon and M. Edward Cole. Could M. Edward Cole be Matt? I wonder…

We know the band released just one record, the “Wry Smile? EP” in 1988. On this record Stephen Cookson played drums, Mark Davyd guitar and M/ Edward Cole, vocals and guitar. The songs are credited to all four.

Four songs were included, “Cheap & Nasty’ and “Toby, It’s a Girl” on the A side and “Boredom” and “Sorry Could You Say That More Slowly Please” on the B side. They were recorded at Posthouse Studios in East Peckham, Kent. The producer was Kevin Amos and the band.

The black and white sleeve has a cool old school illustration, probably taken from a comic book. On the back of the sleeve there’s a photo of the band.

The record was released by Sonic Monster Groove Recordings (SMG 001). I would have assumed it was a self-release, but then there’s another record listed for this label: a 1995 compilation called “Disgusted! The Compilation”.  Mark Davyd from Big Pop Trotsky! was one of the people involved in compiling the songs for this CD.

According to Discogs we know that the band members were involved in other projects. Jason Dormon was on Joeyfat, Joeythin and Unhome. M. Edward Cole was also on Joeyfat and Joeythin.

Checking my interview questions it is clear I didn’t know many details about them. It seems I figured out they hailed from Tonbridge.

I look for more info on the web. I read that the band used the Fonthill building in Tunbridge Wells as a practice place. In this place there was also a legendary venue called The Forum which was founded by Jason Dormon and Mark Davyd. There is some live footage of The Forum in this video including an appearance of Big Pop Trotsky!

Sadly I don’t have any more information about the band. It was a long time since I tried to interview them. I wonder what are they up now and how come they only released just one record. Did they have any more recordings other than the 4 they released?

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Listen
Big Pop Trotsky! – Boredom

Day 579

The Fisherman and his Soul: our friend Sebastian Voss who once was in the wonderful Grindcore Poppies and now is one half of another amazing band, Nah…, has released a new CD under his solo project. The Münster based popkid has just put out “Nothing (Never) Ever Stays the Same”. This album is a follow up to the band’s previous release on Subjangle and Shiny Happy Records. This album is mostly a collection of remixes of the songs that appeared on said album.

Carolina Zac: the new release and new signing on Spain’s Kocliko Records is Argentina’s Carolina Zac. The album “Posible” will be released on October 22 on black vinyl. It is a 9 song album of carefully and beautifully crafted pop songs. I had never heard about her before and I am happily surprised. Limited to 100 copies.

Un Día Soleado: another new song by Argentina’s wunderkid Enzo. His new jingle jangly popsong is called “Skate 3” and it is such a great track. Poppy, catchy, and with great melodies!

Pash: who are Pash?! the one song we can hear, “Raincoat”, out of the 4 from their EP “Somersault” is a nice surprise! Never heard this band! They have a very limited CD, 20 copies only! I just spent so much on the new Optic Nerve releases…. and I need to wait before spending more money, but if you can afford it. This one seems like a must have!

Optic Sevens 4.0: finally we can pre-order the next set of 7″s by Optic Nerve. I just spent as I was saying more than a hundred dollars for the 12 singles that will be in this new series. I think it is totally worth it, I am not complaining as these are deluxe releases with posters and postcards of rare records. The Wild Swans, Josef K, Dolly Mixture, The Wake, The Monochrome Set, The Chefs, Suede Crocodiles, The Times, Black, Article 58, The Avocados and The Bluebells, are part of this new series!

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I was wondering how come there hasn’t been a Corn Dollies compilation yet. Their songs are probably now in control of Cherry Red and it is surprising to me that they haven’t released a CD with all of their songs as they did with The Waltones in the past. True. They also have The Raw Herbs and they haven’t been released yet on a retrospective compilation, and probably never be. But yeah, instead of many compilations and box sets with the same songs time and time again, wouldn’t a retrospective compilation be cool? I think so!

The Corn Dollies hailed from London and were active between 1987 and 1991. They were formed by Steve Musham on vocals and guitar, Tim Sales on guitar, Steve Ridder on bass, Jack Hoser on drums and Jono Podmore on violin. From the Wikipedia page they have we know they hailed from Dalston but met in King’s Cross. We know too that Steve Ridder was actually from California.

The band’s name was inspired on corn dollies or corn mothers which are a form of straw work.

Before Christianisation, in traditional pagan European culture it was believed that the spirit of the corn (in American English, “corn” would be “grain”) lived amongst the crop, and that the harvest made it effectively homeless. James Frazer devotes chapters in The Golden Bough to “Corn-Mother and Corn-Maiden in Northern Europe” (chs. 45–48) and adduces European folkloric examples collected in great abundance by the folklorist Wilhelm Mannhardt. Among the customs attached to the last sheaf of the harvest were hollow shapes fashioned from the last sheaf of wheat or other cereal crops. The corn spirit would then spend the winter in this home until the “corn dolly” was ploughed into the first furrow of the new season.

The band’s first record was “Forever Steven” on their own label called The Farm Label (FARM 001). This record had the songs “Forever Steven” and the B side had “About to Believe”. This is maybe their most known single also because Robert Forster from The Go-Betweens produced it. Steve Ridder is now the bassist replacing Knowler. The photography on this record is credited to Kate Stubbs. This record got single of the week on Sounds and Record Mirror.

Next came the “Be Small Again” single. It was released on 7″ and 12″ formats on Andy Wake’s label Medium Cool Records (MC008) in 1987. The single had “Be Small Again” on the A side and “In Bethpage” on the B side. On the 12″ the B side had two different songs on the B side, “Rubber Fish” and “The Big House”. The songs were recorded at Pyramid Arts Studio and mastered at The Exchange by Jonz (John Dent). The engineer was Andy Parker with David Emmanuel as his assistant. It is worth noting that on this record the bassist was Stuart Knowler. The cover is credited to Piers Wallace. This record was an indie hit reaching number 28 in the UK Independent Chart.

That same year the band re-released “Forever Steven”  Now it came out on Medium Cool on 12″ (MC009). The A side had  The 12″ adds two more songs to the B side. “Big Cane Call” and “Sweetheart Rose Special”. Now this re-release would reach number 16 of the Indie Chart.

The band also appears this year in the legendary compilation “Uncle Arthurs Pop Parlour”. On this cassette comp put together by the great Dave Driscoll the band contribued the song “Mary Hopkin Song”. I had to look online for who she was. Mary Hopkin (born 3 May 1950), credited on some recordings as Mary Visconti (from her marriage to Tony Visconti), is a Welsh singer songwriter best known for her 1968 UK number 1 single “Those Were the Days”. She was one of the first artists to be signed to the Beatles’ Apple label

1988. Time to release more singles. First is “Shake” on Medium Cool (MC015). Released again as a 7″ and a 12″. “Shake” is on the A side and “Climbing Stairs” on the B side. On the 12″ we add one song to the B side, “Gathered Up”. The songs were recorded at ICC Studios in Eastbourne. They were produced by Alun Lane with Jessica Corcoran and Mike Newbon as engineers. They were mixed at Greenhouse Studio in London.

Then comes “Map of the World”. This single was also on Medium Cool (MC017) and released on both formats. The A side has “Map of the World” and the B side has “People Gone”. On the 12″ the song “This is Mine” appears as the second song on the B side. The producer this time was Chris Allison.

In 1988 the band contributes the song “Mouthful of Brains” to a CD compilation called “The Fundamental Hymnal” that was released by Fundamental (GEEZ 1CD) in the US. The compilation “Edge of the Road” released by Medium Cool (MC010) in the UK and Fundamental (CAM001) in the US included the songs “Mouthful of Brains” and “What Do I Ever”.

Lastly in 1988 Midnight Music released a compilation titled “The Corn Dollies”. This one came out on CD and LP (CHIMEE 00.44).  This was a singles collection of sorts. It contained 14 songs and it is the closest we have to a full retrospective. The songs were “Map of the World”, “Moutful of Brains”, “Shake”, “Forever Steven”, “The Big House”, “What do I Ever”, “Gathered Up”, “Be Small Again”, “Big Cane Call”, “Sweetheart Rose Especial”, “About to Believe”, “Climbing Stairs”, “People Gone” and “This is Mine”. I am looking for a CD version of this release. Any help will be appreciated.

1989 continues to be an active year for the band. “Nothing of You” is the single they release this year. Again a 12″ on Medium Cool (MC020) and a 7″ and 12″ on Midnight Music (DING 52). The 12″ includes the songs “Nothing of You” on the A side and “Polly West”, “Wrecked” and “Be Small Again (Mix)” on the B side. The producer was Chris Allison for the A side and the band, Andy Parker and Alan Barclay for the B side. The design is credited to Peter Cooke.  I am not sure why the two different 12″ versions as they have the same songs and the art is the same. We know Medium Cool collapsed and they moved to Midnight Music… but why re-release the record?

A flexi disc that came with the Zine magazine that year included their song “Map of the World”. The other song in the flexi was “Down Here” by The Rain.

The song “Map of the World” and “This is Mine” got included in the Midnight Music LP compilation “Pop Up the Volume. This is a fine compilation with bands like McCarthy, Bradford, The Wedding Present and The Wolfhounds.

Another 1989 appearance for them was on the classic “Bananas!” compilation released by Rodney, Rodney! (RODNEY 1). This album that was put together against the planned introduction of identity cards for football supporters in the UK. The song the band contributed was “This is Mine”.

Lastly this year they release their debut album, “Wrecked”. It was released on CD, LP and cassette by Midnight Music (CHIME 00.59). The songs included were “In Your Hands”, “Submarine”, “Map of the World”, “Seven”, “Wrecked”, “Nothing of You”, “Jingo”, “Everything Box”, “Mary Hopkin Song” and “This is Mine”. The producers were Alan Barclay, Chris Allison and the band. In support of the album the band went on a national tour supporting Ian McCulloch.

It is also wroth nothing that this year the band toured Europe. They built a good fanbase in Spain.

1990. A new single, “Joyrider!”. This one gets released by Midnight Music (DONG65). It comes as a 12″ vinyl and also as a CD single. Both come with four songs, “Joyrider!” and “Slow Death” are on the A side and “Happy” and “Kool-Aid Mix” on the B side. They were recorded and mixed at the Strongroom in London.

This year they appear on another legendary compilation, “Alvin Lives (in Leeds)” that came out on Midnight Music (CLANG 4). This comp came out in vinyl, CD and cassette. This release as many of you know was released in aid of the Anti-Poll Tax Campaign. The song the band covered was Chic’s “Le Freak”.

Then another cover, “I Don’t Live Today”, appears on “If 6 was 9 – A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix” released by Imaginary Records (ILLUSION 008) in the UK as an LP and CD, by Communion Label (COMM 18) in the US on LP, CD and cassette and on Paradoxx Music from Brazil (!) as a CD comp titled “Tributo a Hendrix” (OXX 1062-1). This same song would be included in a triple CD compilation called “The Many Faces of Jimi Hendrix (A Journey Through the Inner World of Jimmi Hendrix)” that Music Brokers released in 2017.

Midnight Music also released that year a cassette sampler titled “The Independent Clarion 1” where they included the songs “Seven” and “Nothing of You”.

There is a 1991 release too that was a promo white label. All songs are untitled. It had 8 songs and it seems like an album titled “Past Caring”. Midnight Music had even given it a catalog number, CHIME 01.19. What songs were these? Why wasn’t this ever released? Anyone has any info about this record?

Then we have to jump to 1997 for them to appear on Cherry Red compilation “Nocturnal – The Best of Midnight Music” (CDMRED 13). The song that they have on this one is “Nothing of You”. Then it would become repetitive, Cherry Red using the Corn Dollies catalog to include them on their many boxsets. In 2013 they include “Be Small Again” on “Scared to Get Happy (A Story of Indie-Pop 1980-1989)” (CRCDBOX10) boxset, then “Forever Steven” on “C87” boxset (CRCDBOX26) in 2016, and lastly on 2017’s “C88” (CRCDBOX36) they had “Shake”.

Then I have a look at other bands the members had been on. Stephen Colin Musham, who sometimes went by the name Steve Mushroom, was in Lockjaw, Repetition, Rhythm of Space and The Escalators. Tim Sales was also in The Escalators in the early 80s. Jonathan Scott Podmore was in many bands including Cyclopean, Gain Reduction, Leeloo Kobayashi, Metamono, Rhythm of Space and The Jonathan S. Podmore Method.

The band also did a promo video. There’s one for “Joy Rider“. Then there is a video for “Shake” and “Map of the World“. On this last video uploaded by a Spanish fan it says that the band played in Madrid and Valencia and their music was on heavy rotation on the radio programme “La Conjura de las Danzas”.

I look for more info online and I was not surprised to see Darrin had written about them in his excellent Jangle Pop Hub blog. Here I find that the band had played at Wolverhampton Poly in 1989 from the comments. But most importantly it is enjoying the memory of Darrin about this band!

I also find that Steve Ridder ended up returning to the US and this sort of made the band reach a natural conclusion and called it a day. Why did he have to return?! Why not continue? There is an interesting story about Steve Ridder who was involved in the sale of a Hindu goddess Lakshmi doll that was featured on the album cover of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club” of The Beatles. The seller was Bonhams. And this is the story:

In another entertainment collecting field, music, a key name to bring in the bidders is of course The Beatles. At Bonhams, the Hindu goddess doll from the album cover for Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) was on offer estimated at £4000-6000.

The classic cover was designed by Jann Haworth and her then-husband, pop art great Peter Blake, and the doll is seen in position under the ‘T’ of Beatles. The catalogue states: “It’s possible it was a suggestion by George Harrison, although Peter Blake is quoted as saying that George only gave him a list of Indian gurus and four were indeed included in the cut-outs gathered behind The Beatles.”

Bonhams says the vendor’s best friend, Steve Ridder, a Californian bass guitarist, had moved to the UK and joined a band called The Corn Dollies in the late 1980s. Ridder later met Haworth’s daughter who gave him the doll. After returning to the US, Baker gave the doll to the vendor’s son as a wedding gift. Some years later, after noticing the condition of the doll had deteriorated somewhat, the vendor and his son agreed to part with it.

The doll sold for £24,000 (£30,000 including buyer’s premium) to an international private buyer bidding online.

And that’s all I was able to find. Quite a lot. But yeah, I wonder what happened to them? Did they do any reunions as many of their peers? Who else remembers them?

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Listen
The Corn Dollies – Forever Steven

Day 574

Scarlet Drops: Harriet Records, the legendary label is making a comeback. Their first release is a CD retrospective compilation of Ottawa’s Scarlet Drops! There are 24 songs in this record from singles, cassette releases and other unreleased tracks. Seems like a record no one should miss! Also I hope to get an interview with the band as I would like to know more about them!

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: two new songs by Glenn Donaldson’s project. The San Francisco based project keeps recording and recording new tracks that are perfect janglepop! The two latest ones are “I Only Ever Wanted to see You Fall” and a cover of Mazzy Star’s “Common Burn”.

EggS: a new 7″ by EggS will be released on Octobe 29 by Prefect Records from London! The 7″ EP titled “Greatest Hits” will include 3 tracks and so far we can preview one of them, “I Fell in Love”, which is really good!! I feel like I should a copy myself. Are the other 2 songs as good?

Semihelix: just a few days ago I was recommending a digital single by this Austin band. Today I am recommending their brand new album “Recoil” that is out now thanks to Mariel Recording Company on CD and vinyl LP. The album has 10 songs of super psych jangle pop!

Makthaverskan: and we end this with the superb news that the Gothenburg band is releasing a new album! It is going to be called “För Allting” and it is coming out on CD and vinyl on November 12! Great! Right now we can only preview one of the songs, “This Time” out of 12 that will be included in the record. Looking forward to this one for sure!

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Another band I tried to interview back in 2011 was Bunny Nightlight.

I was in touch with Marie Kare, vocalist and organ player in the band. The other member was Ben Barkley who played everything else. As far as I know they weren’t in any other bands.

They only released one record. A CDR on Shelflife Records back in 2003. It was an EP titled “Hail”. This EP was actually part of a CD-R series on Shelflife Records and this was the eight release in this series, hencee the catalog number CD-R Series #008. Now I am thinking it may be a good idea to research now many of the bands in these series.

This release was very limited, just 100 hand-numbered copies. It included four songs, “Mmm Hmm”, “Boo Hoo”, “So Bored” and “Stalking Song”. Their music was wonderful sweet bedroom-pop. Hard to come by to such pop perfection these days!

On this record Cynthia Ford sang backing vocals.

A few things I learned while researching for the interview:
– Ben had recorded a cassette full of songs for Marie to sing. That’s how the band started
– Marie hails from Borger, Texas. Where is that? It looks like in the middle of nowhere!
– Bunny Nightlife was born and was based in San Francisco, California
– Marie runs a cool blog called Marie the Bee. A lot about video gaming here!
– Their computer died and all of their Bunny Nightlife recordings, even unreleased tracks were lost

On the web there are a few mentions to the band, all of them raving their music. Erasing Clouds, an influential blog in the 2000s, recommended their EP. Indiepop.it, another legendary site, reviewed all CDR series on Shelflife. Here it mentions that the band hailed from Sacramento. Now I am confused! Also it mentions that the name of the band is taken from a Looney Tunes product, a lamp!

And lastly I find a Soudncloud that Marie Kare setup 6 months ago. This is a good find I think. After losing touch with them it is lovely to see that they still remember their music! They have uploaded a song not included in their EP. It is a cover of Frank & Nancy Sinatra’s duet “Something Stupid“.

And lastly, there is a song called “Song 3” that is on an EP called “We Love You, Jerry” that was put together in 2018 on Bandcamp. On this compilation EP that included The Rosebuds, Dusty Miller, Sad Numbers, Soul Brothers, and Rocketship. Bunny Nightlight appears with the aforementioned song. It seems it was only a digital release.

And that’s it. I am going back to many bands I tried to interview and for a reason or another I didn’t get answers back. I am just trying to write about them as I really liked them in the first place and deserved attention. An interview would have been better, more details, but this is not bad, is it?

Who remembers Bunny Nightlight?

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Listen
Bunny Nightlight – Mmm Hmm

Day 572

Rachel Love: I just preordered the album “Picture in Mind” by the ex-Dolly Mixture! I am so looking forward to this CD! Right now you can preview two of the songs that will be included in it, “Primrose Hill” and “The Long Way Round”. Both are truly something. I can’t wait to listen to the remaining 8. Very excited. Don’t miss this one out I’d say!

David Christian: the Comet Gain leader is back with an album worth of songs titled “Lullabies for Lives You Never Had”. This release is only digital but it is really good. This is the third volume of recordings done at home and other rare sounds. Definitely worth a listen for the fans and not fans (can that be possible?) of Comet Gain.

Les Yeux Mi-Clos: I wonder where Melotron Recordings from Greece found about this band! I have never heard them and they do sound fantastic. Jangly, chiming guitars. From what I understand it is the project of Correntin Cornieres. And here there is a limited CD of 6 songs that is being released on October 1st.

Humdrum: “Wave Goodbye” is the first song from the latest project of Loren Vanderbilt who used to be in the fantastic Star Tropics. This song is perfect janglepop. The guitars jingle jangle and the melodies work in a dreamy way. It is classic indiepop, well-crafted, and I really hope more songs appear on his Bandcamp soon!

Stomp Talk Modstone: the Japanese shoegazers have a new release on Bandcamp, a four song EP titled “Melissa/Keep on Mind”. As you might guess there are those two songs that give title to the EP plus an instrumental and a version of their song “Only Illusion”. Fuzzy and warm. Good stuff.

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I was in touch with Noel Attride of the fantastic Beyond the Blue. It was a fantastic opportunity and I asked to do an interview. I sent questions, and as it happens more often than not, I never received answers. So I can’t really tell the whole story of the band as I would have wanted. But I feel not having a write-up about this obscure but amazing band goes against the blog ideals.

I may be doing this a bit more often. There are many bands I’ve tried to interview but never got their answers. As this blog is a good resource for the history of indiepop, I feel at least a write-up of what I know, could be helpful.

From what I understand the band recorded only 6 songs. Only one of these songs, “Return of the Prodigals”, ended up being released. This song would end up on the compilation “Beyond the Fence Begins the Sky”, a vinyl comp released in 1987 by the Plastic Head Records Limited (PLAS LP 008). This label based in Oxon is still going to the surprise of many as a proper record store. On the record thee band appears as the 3rd song on the A side.

I have talked about this compilation in the past. Bands like The Jeremiahs or Home and Abroad appear on it. Also the Enamel Animals who would later be The Chalk Giants.

Beyond the Blue was formed by Noel Attride on guitar, Brendan O’Sullivan on vocals and guitar, James Field on bass and Nick Warren on drums.

The 6 songs the band recorded are on Soundcloud. They are “Time to Smile”, “Acid Rain”, “Beyond the Blue”, “Never Never Girl”, “Return of the Prodigals” and “Time in my Heart”.

Some info appear on the songs. We learn that the band was formed from two disbanded groups (which groups? it doesn’t say).

As you’ll notice the songs are quite something. They are amazing. Proper jangle pop. How come they didn’t release a record is a mystery to me.

I keep looking for any other details. I see a comment on a Firestation Records blog post by Nick Warren. He mentions that he was in a band called Sideways Laughing in 1985. In this band a member of Beyond the Blue was involved, Brendan O’Sullivan. His brother Kieran was also on Sideways Laughing. Nick and Brendan would start Beyond the Blue. He mentions that Brendan was in a band called The Tenderhooks. Would love to listen both of these bands, Sideways Laughing and The Tenderhooks.

Noel also comments on the post. He adds some more info. He says that he was more involved in the later stages of the band. He says that Nick, James and himself, before being in Sideways Laughing had been in a band called Breaking the Ice. Oh! Another band that would be great to listen to. He also mentions that Beyond the Blue played a few gigs in Reading and one in London, at the Hippodrome.

And that’s all the info I could find on the web. Would be fantastic to find out more. Maybe I can get in touch with the other band members and get an interview done. Would be great! Who remembers them?

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Listen
Beyond the Blue – Time to Smile

Day 569. A week since the release of our latest 7″ by Stars on Fire. Today is Bandcamp Friday too, if you happen to be around that site, please check it out here!

The Photocopies: who knows anything about this Michigan project? From what I understand they used to be called Aniseed Twist, but I had never heard of them either. They have some cool songs on their Bandcamp, all digital singles, clearly influenced by classic 80s and early 90s indiepop. Fun.

Moonlove: a really nice discovery, this Kent, Ohio, band from the 80s. Their sound is really good and you wonder how has this been in obscurity, they should be more known. The label Concentric Cirlces is releasing their recorded output as a 12″ LP on November 15. Pre-orders are up now for this record that includes 10 songs and a 12 page booklet. Would be fantastic to interview them.

Crystal Meadows: two songs from Greenfield, Massachusetts. project Crystal Meadows. That’s all I have been able to find about them. It has the feeling to be a solo project, but I cant say. The two lovely jingle jangly songs are “We Can’t Get Away From Here” and “Sophia”. Check them out!

The Lil’ Hospital: I always loved Kevin Alvir’s The Lil’ Hospital. The band used to make this perfect mix of lo-finess, quirkiness and tweeness. This was pop made with punk attitude. So it is great to see “I Wanna Be Well” on Bandcamp. These 11 recordings date from 2003 and they are essential to understand those early 2000s, when CDRs, Soulseek, mailing lists, and more were part of our lives.

Midsommar: and we end this week with a dreampop band and their latest digital single. Yup, hailing from Warsaw, Poland, Midsommar has just released the song “Summer’s Over” that will be part of their upcoming EP “The Dream We Had”. Nice.

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I went on to for a band called The Juniper Chute. I wanted to write some songs with a bit more balls to them so for the first time I wrote them all on an electric guitar. I then asked Hugh Whitaker, Eddie and a friend called Matty to form a band an we did a handful of gigs. The sad thing is that it was only intended as an experiment. I was sick of being in a band. I’d spent 2 years of my life trying to get the Penny Candles signed and got nowhere. Neil O’Brien offered us a gig at one of their venues. It was only our second show. In the next few months, after that show, I got rung up by every major record label in the country chasing me up. I was so disillusioned that I never returned the calls. The band members all had other commitments so it was never intended to be a permanent thing, so they drifted off and that was that.

Many years ago I interviewed Nick Langley about the fantastic band The Penny Candles. When I asked him what happened with him music-wise after the demise of The Penny Candles he told me that he was in the Juniper Chute.

A few weeks ago I reached Nick trying to see if he would be interested in doing an interview about The Juniper Chute. I emailed him but my email bounced. It seems the email I had for him doesn’t work anymore.

I don’t have any other contact information for him. I honestly thing The Penny Candles are one of my favourite bands that still doesn’t have a proper retrospective album. I wanted to do it, but I don’t think Nick was much interested. Maybe it can happen with another label. I don’t know. At that time I was in touch with him I hadn’t listened to The Juniper Chute. Now thanks to Chris Warkup’s Soundcloud page I discovered many songs by them. And I fell in love with yet another Hull band!

Thanks to this page, we know that the song “Me and Mrs Jones” appeared on a compilation tape called “Now That’s What We Call Hull” that came out in 1992. The band appears on the A side, it is the 4th song between two great tracks, one by Promise and another by Fog, both bands featured in the blog not too long ago.

I found another song by them on Youtube. It is called “God Knows” and from what the uploader says, it was a signature tune by the band. The sound sadly is not that great.

Looking for more info, as it is very rare to be honest, I find that the band played the Tower Ballroom, in Hull, on February 4, 1992. That day the bands on the lineup were Joyce Victoria, Fog, The Juniper Chute and Intricate White.

Sadly this is all I could find online for the band. Would be great to know more about them, how come they never released any records, and also, most importantly, find out how many more songs were recorded.

Anyone from Hull remembers them?

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Listen
The Juniper Chute – Mr & Mrs Jones

Day 567

Remi Parson: a new single has arrived! Our friend Rémi who used to be in the most amazing The Sunny Street has released “Les Sentiments”, a beautiful pop song that will be included in his forthcoming album “Pour un Empire”, his third album. This album is to be released by Isolaa Records on November 2021. And it feels, my sentiment is, that is a record any pop lover shouldn’t miss. This single works as a proof of that!

The Bernhardts: I wasn’t familiar with the label Smiling C from California. It seems they’ve been doing reissues in vinyl of classic bands. Not all indiepop of course. Maybe that’s why. But The Bernhards four song EP “Moonglow” is one I wasn’t going to miss. This is not out yet, it is coming out on November 20, and I have already pre-ordered. A few copies are remaining! The Manchester trio formed by Simon Milner, Steve Hopkins and Neil Fitzpatrick made some wonderful music in the early 80s and these four songs are a testament of it. Would be great to get in touch with them and interview them, right?

Everyday Sensations: My Secret Garden Recordings is doing a great job reissuing and doing retrospective releases of their artists from back in the mid 200s. The latest to get this treatment on CD is Everyday Sensations, the band of Markus Bergström Björn. On this new release titled “Forget Those Teardrops” we find 4 songs which are wonderful, and there’s even a video been made for “Call it What You Want“. The release is limited to 100 copies, so don’t miss it!

Flty Brger Grl: out now is the album “Love you Forever” by this Oslo band! It is out on vinyl and cassette and it is a nice surprise for me. They have been going for some years now, but it is the first time I’m listening to their sugary lo-fi pop! It is indeed very sweet, but most importantly, it is good!

Tiles: and today’s last recommendation comes from Adelaide, Australia. It is a new digital single by this dreamy duo and they have titled it “Sleep In”. This is a lovely slice of indiepop. Chiming guitars and a mellow melody that works perfectly. Australia never disappoints.

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Continuing with Soundcloud finds, I discovered The Carrellines and their wonderful song “Bridesmaids Never Brides”. This song was the A side of a 7″ that had “Credence” as its B-side.

The band formed by Aidan Breslin (guitar, keyboards), Billy Doherty (drums), Damien Duffy (bass, keyboards) and Paul McLoone (vocal, guitar), released this single in 1990. The band hailed from Derry, Northern Ireland and were able to put this single thanks to wining the Carling/Hotpress Band of 1990. I suppose they got money thanks to that and were able to self-release this record.

The sleeve, blue and yellow, and a black and white drawing of a man. Is it one of the band members? This illustration was made by Damien Duffy.

The back of the sleeve gives us a bit more details. The songs were recorded by David Slevin and Niall O’Sullivan at Landsdowne Studios in Dublin on July 21 and 22nd of 1990. Kendal Mooney is credited for additional vocals on “Credence”.

The band actually started in 1986 and their first live gig happened in June 1987. In November 1987 the band performed at the Irish Rock Week at London’s legendary venue The Mean Fiddler. I know the band caught the attention of Dave Fanning and they recorded a session for him! Oh! They must appeared on the Dave Fanning blog!

Checking the blog I find a post about them in that great blog. Dating from 2013, it mentions that the band recorded at 5 track session. But it doesn’t seem that the session is available. It says it is lost!

Then I notice something. I’ve seen Paul McLoone play! Yeah, he fronts The Undertones now. He has been filling Fergal Sharkey’s shoes for years, since 1999! Wow. And also Bill Doherty was part of The Undertones. Small world indeed.

I keep finding good info. The Carellines played Cork Rock weekend and appeared on TV, on RTE’s “Check It Out”. The band recorded a demo tape of 8 songs at Matrix Studios in Belfast which helped them get more radio airplay on RTE and BBC.

The band played at Belfast’s The Limelight and later at The Belfast Arts Festival in November 1988. This performance was actually broadcasted live on BBC radio.

On January 1989 the band played many showcase gigs. After returning to Derry the band recorded a three track demo at Beethoven St. Studios with Kevin Armstrong and Andrew Paresi. Another TV appearance would happen that year, at “Jo Maxi” on RTE TV. There they performed their superb “Bridesmaids Never Brides”.

The Irishrock.org website gives even more details. Here it says thee band recorded not one but two Dave Fanning Sessions. Again, we don’t know which tracks! That’s not great.

Sadly the Dave Fanning Sessions nor their TV appearances seem to be online. That’s a shame.

That’s all I’ve been able to find. I hope to get a record for myself, would be great to have their 7″ in my collection! Who remembers them?

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Listen
The Carrellines – Bridesmaids never Brides

Day 562. Happy release date for us!! Stars on Fire 7″ is out today!!! Exciting times! Order your copy at www.cloudberryrecords.com. Don’t miss it. Also it is here on Bandcamp!

Fort Revere: 6 demos from Providence, Rhode Island. There’s just one person behind this nice jingle jangly band and he is Jack Downey. These songs date from the summer of last year and he says they were influenced by Seapony, The Drums, The Shop Assistants and JAMC. Nice!

Jaggy Nettles: the second album by Jaggy Nettles is out now on CD. It is called “Troof Be Told”. For those who don’t know this nice project of Andrew from The Felt Tips, here he sings about classic children stories for his two boys Rory and Archie. This is lovely!

Miseryslims: now a fast-paced dreampop/shoegaze band from Manitoba, Canada. The band formed by Brady on vocals and rhythm guitar, Randy on lead guitar and bass and Simon on drums, released last month a four song EP titled “Hello”. All for songs shine. Hard to pick a favourite. Maybe “Big on U”?

Margot: the London band has a classic sound that I really like. Their latest single is “Watercolour” and it is quite perfect. Nicely arranged, elegant. From what I understand the band is working on an album that will be called “Margotzeko” that is to come out on February 7th. So there’s still some wait, but if they treat us to songs like these now and then, we can be happy!

Beach Towels: and to end this week here is another Canadian band I just discovered. Beach Towels hail from Edmonton, Alberta, and have a bunch of recordings on their Bandcamp. Their latest seems to be “Drip Dry” but that one is not available to listen. On the other hand “Washed Away” is. This is a nice psychedelic track with pop at heart.

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Right, so I wrote about The Carrol Singers, the band Gary Lincoln was on. I mentioned on that post that I wanted to write about the following band, the band that came after, The Saving Graces. So let’s do that today!

On his Soundcloud he has also put together a set of songs by The Saving Graces. This set consists of four songs, “Acceptable”, “Garston”, “Loosen Up” and “The Things You Said”. As I mentioned in my previous post, it seems that “Loosen Up” was actually a song by The Carrol Singers.

The band was around also for just one year, between 1989 and 1990. We also get some band members names, but no last names: Paul, Ulli, Viki, Mark and Gary Lincoln of course.

There seems to have been a band of the same name in the 2000s. That annoys me because Discogs has listed both band’s releases together. We know that The Saving Graces we care about appeared on a compilation called “Breeze 4” in Germany. This was released by Alphyen Viwit (004) in 1994. The band contributed the songs “Acceptable”, “Garston”, “The Things You Said” and “Loosen Up”. Some time later, there was sort of a version of this release called “Extract of Breeze 4” had thee songs “Loosen Up” and “Acceptable”. There was a CDR version of this “Extract of Breeze 4” probably

I will mention again that previous to the bands I have mentioned so far, Gary was in The Fact, a rockier post-punk band.

Sadly that’s all the information I can provide you! The songs are great. I don’t know where in the UK the band hailed from. But would be fantastic to know any other details people might have!

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Listen
The Saving Graces – Acceptable

Day 560. This is the week of our new release, Stars on Fire 7″! I have already mailed all pre-orders to many people, many countries, around the world. The official release date is on Friday, FYI! So yeah, if you want to keep supporting the label, indiepop, and the bands, you know what to do 🙂

Meyverlin: Thierry from My Raining Stars and Philippe from Les Freluquets have joined forces and this song, “Archangel”, is their first effort. It is really good!! It is perfect pop music and they know it. So there’s a video made for it. Which is cool too!

Johnny Crimes: this band from Salt Lake City formed by Johnny, Gio and Will is a new discovery for me. Their latest release on Bandcamp includes two songs, “Darling, It’s Simple Now” and “Alternate Version for Class Assignment”. It is clearly influenced by The Smiths but with it’s own trademark sound. Really nice.

Still Corners: this well known London band is a favourite of many of us. So Yeah, even though they are famous I can recommend their new song, right? It is called “Heavy Days” and sounds ace. I still remember when I saw them in Berlin so many many years ago at the Indie Pop Days Berlin, not as known then as now! Good for them!

Sweet Nobody: now a Long Beach, California, band! “We’re Trying Our Best” is the band’s second album. It was recorded prior to the pandemic but it is only being released now. Sadly it seems to be only available digitally. But nonetheless it is a great listen. 10 songs of sweet jangle with female vocals and bright melodies.

Sloe Noon: the latest on Manchester’s Box Bedroom Rebels Records is a 7 track EP called “(Storeys of) Embassy Court” by Sloe Noon. This is nice dreampop record on 7″ vinyl and on ttop of that it comes with a 12 page booklet, stickers, postcard and more. A very nice pop package!

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I discovered the Jerusalem Taxis on Soundcloud. Then I noticed they were an Irish band and immediately found them on the Fanning Sessions blog. So I’ll start there.

A post from March 2012, shares a Fanning Session from 1991. Here the Kilkenny band formed by Malcolm Noonan (vocals), Kevin Conroy (guitar), Frankie Morgan (bass) and JJ Cantwell (drums) recorded three songs, “Chicken Man”, “Fall Into Nowhere” and “Long Blue Tube”.

For me their best song is called “Something in My Head“. This song was later covered by a band called Kerbdog. This cover would end up on a 1994 7” as. B side.

The only other song I am aware by them is called “What is It About Her“. Both of these songs I just mentioned and linked to Soundcloud were recorded in 1990.

From the image on the Fanning Sessions blog, we see that there was a tape release by the band. A 3 track EP. I wonder which songs were the ones included in it.

The comments on the blog also give us some more info. For example that Malcolm Noonan was/is the Kilkenny County Councillor for the Green Party. Maybe he still is? that was in 2012.

Malcolm Noonan also commented and mentioned that The Gun Club was a a big influence in their music. He also says that the band stopped making music in 1993.

An interview with Malcolm Noonan for Hot Press, he says that:
“I was in one serious band called the Jerusalem Taxis for about three years. It was good punky stuff – Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, that sort of thing. We played a lot of gigs with The Slowest Clock who had a similar approach and style to us. We were both culchie bands – their drummer was from Kikenny but they were based in Laois – and recorded in the same Dublin studio, Sonic, with Albert Cohen. We also supported Engine Alley quite a bit both in the Newpark Inn, which was the hopping Kilkenny venue at the time, and in venues like The Baggot Inn. There’s a 1991 Fanning Session of ours on the web. We went over to London to do a showcase for Setanta and 4AD, which is when it all fell apart.”

On Youtube someone has uploaded “Fall into Nowhere“. Here on the comments we learn that Noonan continues being involved with the Green Party. And it also says that all the members remain in Ireland but the drummer who lives in London these days.

And then a proper amazing discovery!! 16 songs by the Jerusalem Taxis! These 16 songs are all their RTE radio sessions. So this is indeed fantastic. The songs are: “What is it About Her”, “Jellybean Orgy”, “Something in My Head”, “Long Blue Tube”, “The Chicken Man”, “Fall into Nowhere”, “Newpark Inn (Intro)”, “Leave it all Behind”, “So You’re Back Again”, “Restless”, “Why Should I Fucking Care?”, “Don’t Turn Me Away”, “Newpark Inn (Outro)”, “Tremelo Kill”, “Cheap Imitation” and “Ballad of Mary-Jo”.

And that’s it. Sure, some songs are punkier and much more angular that what I usually enjoy, but there are some fine jangly songs here. “Something in My Mind” is a treasure!

Who remembers them? Why didn’t they release any records? Did they continue making music with other bands?

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Listen
Jerusalem Taxis – Something in My Head

Day 558

Semihelix: I start this week with “Will it Take” by Semihelix. This nice digital single from this band from Austin, Texas, seems to be available only in this format. The band formed by Geannie Friedman on guitar and vocals, Kevin Martin on bass and Valdemar Barrera on drums, has been releasing music on their Bandcamp since 2019. I think this is the first time I’m listening to them. And I’m liking this!

Night Shop: Another new band for me is this project by Justin Sullivan from Los Angeles. He is releasing an album titled “Forever Night” on December 1st on CD and vinyl and we can preview the opening track which is titled as the album, “Forever Night”. It is a fine pop song. I don’t know if the remaining 9 songs that we can’t listen are as good, but this one is nice. So have a listen, maybe it convinces you to get the record?

Astral Brain: “Behind Our House” is the second single from the upcoming album “The Bewildered Mind” that Shelflife is releasing on October 15. Here is a video the band has put together which sounds great. But it also looks great. This is an album I look forward a lot. I am very happy that Shelflife picked the band up. Their sound is quite unique and different to your usual indiepop fare I think! I am also very proud that I worked with them on the last fanzine where I included their previous single… definitely one of the best sounding new bands out there.

Grand Drifter: it is always a surprise to me when I hear a good pop song from Italy. A good indiepop song I mean. It is not very common. But when I do, I have to be fair and square and give it to them. Grand Drifter is the project of Andrea Calvo and his latest song, “Haunted Life”, is a fine slice of pop music. Check it out.

Pale Spectres: And I end today’s review with a favourite song of mine. Comes courtesy our friends from Paris the superb Pale Spectres!! Yes! Remember they put a 7″ on Cloudberry? (It is still available by the way!) It is an oldie but it is released for the first time today, the classic “Supermarket Love”. If you never heard it, on recording or live, well, you are in for a treat.

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Back in June I wrote about The Monk Bought Lunch. There I mentioned that the person behind The Monk Bought Lunch, Andy Hayes, was later in a band called Is She Weird? Today is time to discover this band!

There is a very good post about Is She Weird on the blog “Left and to the Back” dating from October 18, 2009. There’s lots of good info about the band here. You can read it there, but I’ll try to summarize.

• The band was active between 1990 and 1995.
• They were formed by Andy Hayes on guitar and vocals, Misha Ellis on drums, Rod Quinn on lead guitar and Peter Blanchard on bass. At some point a lot of lineup changes started to happen within the band, the only stable members were Andy and Misha.
• The band split up when they were recording a self-financed album.
• Is She Weird? used to cover live the song “Stageshow Days” by Bedazzled.
• Andy Hayes would later work as a a producer, working with Mantaray among others

The band actually released two singles, two 7″ records. The first one was from 1993. It was self-released and had the song “Adorable” on the A side and “The Hardest Change” on the B side. The sleeve has a photo of the band. I was surprised to find a video for the song that was recorded at the Southend college music TV show.

In 1994 the band would release the “Let’s Play God” 7″ on the label Cornersun Records (CSUN 001). Is it safe to assume this was the band’s own label? This time around the sleeve just shows Andy and Misha and the two songs on the record were “Let’s Play God” on the A side and “Burden Me” on the B side.

Something that caught my attention on this record is that Guy DeCruz from the fantastic Men of Westenesse played lead guitar and bass guitar on the record. Wow! I interviewed Guy once. And I’ve been meaning to contact him about another band he was in to do an interview. Would be cool, right?

The record was produced by Charlie Francis at Stoneroom and the photo on the sleeve was taken by Alison Paveling. Oh! Rod Quinn did play lead guitar on “Let’s Play God”.

No compilation appearances are listed by there was a promo video for the song “Let’s Play God”.

I have to say that my favourite song by them is called “Mantelpiece”. That’s how I discovered them. This song was to be included in the 1994 album they were recording. Other songs I know that were to be part of this record were “Radiator Man”, “Deep”, “Old”, “Mood”, “Treasure This”, “Adorable”, “Joke Shop” and “Burden Me”. The album was to be titled “I’m Brian and So’s My Wife”. You can find all of these songs in Andy Hayes Youtube channel!

I know! What a discovery! Other bands uploaded to his channel, so I assume Andy was in these band include Trampoline Situation, Balance (who I wrote about and didn’t know who were behind this band!), The Miles Away Club, The Revolves, Elastic and The Hardys.

Good finds indeed. This was a successful investigation! Who remembers Is She Weird?

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Listen
Is She Weird? – Mantelpiece

Day 555

Cour de Récré: this is the latest on Elefant Records. It is a duo formed by Stan and Heloise and they have just released a self-titled 10-song album! The record is now out on vinyl and is part of the New Adventures in Pop series. Something interesting about this band that sounds like a cool mix of La Monja Enana and Freezepop is that one half of the band is in Avignon and the other in Santiago de Chile.

Hatchie: “This Enchanted” is the latest single by the Brisbane based Hatchie! As usual it is really good!! Lovely guitars, terrific melodies, hazy, reverb-infused, it is a great single! I really enjoy this new song by the ex-Go Violets. Maybe my favourite song this week!

Flu Flu: the latest on Shore Dive Records from Brighton is a CD mini-album by Flu Flu. The Seville based project by Fran Lora has released their “Shinefull” mini-album on a very limited edition of 20 CDs! The songs are great, it is quality dreampop. Check it out.

Космос на потолке: now we head to Moscow to discover this four piece, two girls, two boys, that have just released digitally a very nice album titled “Маленькая Луна”. The album has 8 songs of jangly guitars, sometimes poppier, sometimes rockier, but melodic nonetheless. Good stuff!

Varda’s Charm: now some great lo-fi crashpop from San Diego, California. We end this week with the self-titled cassette tape this band released a few days ago. The tape is limited to 50 copies and includes 6 songs of ramshackle goodness.

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In 1989 the band Charmed Life released the “One Million Dreams” 7″. It came out on One Off Records (CHARM1), possibly the band’s own label. So far, that’s all I know. Hopefully by the end of this post my knowledge about this British band will be a little bit bigger.

The 7″ had two songs, “One Million Dreams” on the A side and “I’ll be the One” on the B side. I’ve only heard the A side and it is a bonafide indiepop track. Nice guitars, great melodies. On the back of the sleeve we find the band members names: Stephen Whyte on vocals, James Henderson on guitar and keyboards and Philip McGee on bass. A trio.

Alex Horsburgh is credited for the backing vocals. There are no other credits, not producer, no studio where it was recorded. There are some interesting bits on the sleeve though. One thing is that those who bought the record were helping the Earl of Stockton Children’s Fund. It seems proceeds from the sales of this record were to raise money for children’s organizations in the Cleveland area.

It also looks like the band got help to put together the single from the Create Project, Fundability, DTW Advertising & Marketing, CYBC Middlesbrough, TFM Radio Al Rhodes and more. Indeed we can see an address on the sleeve and know the band hailed from Middlesbrough.

On the sleeve of the record we see the faces of the trio. On the back a drawing of a harlequin.

No compilation appearances or other releases for the band are listed.

I find a Soundcloud for James Henderson. He has uploaded many songs from different projects. It seems his latest project is called Last Anthem Unplugged where he plays alongside Andy Davidson. He has produced songs and worked with different musicians like Nicky Chapman, Paddy Kirk, Neil Reynolds and more.

One thing that caught my attention is that someone remembers a video fro the song “One Million Dreams”. Would be nice to track that down if possible.

Sadly this is all I have been able to find out about them. Maybe someone remembers them? have any more details about the band? Did they have more recordings for example? Would be great to know!

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Listen
Charmed Life – One Million Dreams