Day 509

Lauds: discovering this Wilmington, North Carolina, label called Fort Lowell Records. Their self-titled release by Lauds caught my attention immediately. The “Lauds EP” sounds amazing. Jangly. Chiming. Four songs of pure pop. Great stuff. Digital only it seems?

Archie Sagers: another new label for me, Crafting Room Recordings from Brighton. They have released “Glitter” by Archie Sagers which is the second and final single from the upcoming EP “New Colours in the Sky”. The song is great, with a superb melody and dreamy sparkling guitars. Let’s keep an eye on Archie, right?

Parasouls: now we head to Manila, Philippines. It is another digital single I want to present you today, “Sunny Beach” by Parasouls. Sounds perfect for this summer, right? Also Philippines have great beaches, many that I’d love to visit some day. Anyhow, it is great to discover this pop trio from Lilystars Records.

Seoul Magic Club: the wizards from Seoul. That’s how they define themselves. Interesting. I have just discovered them through the song “Que Sera Que Sera”. And I like it! It is a sweet dreamy song, moody and mellow. The band is formed by SIAN on vocals. Shin on synth and Na on drums.

300 D: Jen Weisberg and Bean Pearce are 300 D from Oakland, California. They just have two songs on Bandcamp, their latest that was released last week is called “Grocery Vaping” which is a fine slice of bedroom pop!

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And yet one more post discovering Hull bands thanks to Chris Warkup’s Soundcloud page!

Today is the turn of The Brontes, which I guess their name is pretty obvious where it comes from. Right?

The Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary family, born in the village of Thornton and later associated with the village of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte (1816–1855), Emily (1818–1848), and Anne (1820–1849), are well known as poets and novelists. Like many contemporary female writers, they originally published their poems and novels under male pseudonyms: Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Their stories immediately attracted attention for their passion and originality. Charlotte’s Jane Eyre was the first to know success, while Emily’s Wuthering Heights, Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and other works were later to be accepted as masterpieces of literature.

The song Chris shared on his Soundcloud is called “Precious” and it was included in the compilation tape “Hull North of Manchester” that came out in 1990. This tape included a band I love, The Penny Candles, who I interviewed ages ago. The Brontes’ song was the first song on the A side, pretty sure whoever put this tape together had great consideration for this track and I think it is not a surprise, the song is good!

I could find out that the band appeared on another compilation that same year. It was called “There’s Something Stirring in King Billy’s Bogs”. This tape was released by the label Hull, Hell and Happiness and the song that was included by The Brontes was called “Crime”. I notice too that I could find credits for who wrote the song, Graham Smith and Jasper Bolton. Good! Two names. This tape also included The Penny Candles and yet another band I’ve interviewed in the past, Pink Noise!

And then I find some more stuff! One thing that I find out is that the band wasn’t technically from Hull but from a place called Driffield. Never heard of it…

Driffield, also known as Great Driffield, is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The civil parish is formed by the town of Driffield and the village of Little Driffield. By road, it is 53 miles (85 km) north-east of Leeds, 70 miles (110 km) north-east of Sheffield, 29 miles (47 km) east of York, 23 miles (37 km) north of Hull, 72 miles (116 km) south-east of Middlesbrough, and 218 miles (351 km) north of London. Driffield is named The Capital of the Wolds, due to its location sitting centrally within the Yorkshire Wolds.

And then a true surprise. A video! A promo video for the song “Crime“. I wasn’t expecting that!

There is a bit of info here. It mentions that the video was recorded in 1989 on Beverly Westwood, Hen Cooper’s mum’s shed and garden in Nafferton and many roads around England, and that it was aired in MTV, NHK Japan, Eurochannel, ITV UK and more. Wow. Who remembers watching it?

Also the lineup of the band is listed here. Claire Binnington on vocals, Hen Cooper on backing vocals, Smirt on guitar, Jasper Bolton on guitar, Andy Bingham on bass and Neil Drury on drums. Sadly it seems Neil has passed away. His last gig was at Liverpool University on January 22, 1991.

Back to the names, I believe Smirt is Graham Smith. Can someone confirm that?

And then a Facebook and an Instagram! Seems the band are still going!

On the Facebook page I read that the band recorded an album called “House of Dreams”. But I haven’t been able to find a tracklist for it. The Facebook page has a lot of stuff about the band. On an newspaper clipping it mentions that the band usually packed the Camden Falcon and that they were signed to a German label D.S.B. that was to release an EP. Did that happen? Other places the band played included The Adelphi, Border Lines, Solem Bar in Manchester Uni, or Blue Lamp. Other gigs happened at The White Horse in London on October 11, 1990, at the Redcar Folk Festival on July 14, 1995, supporting The Buzzcocks at Leeds Uni on October 1990, at the Royal Standard in Bradford, Gullivers in Grimsby, The Alex Goole in Goole, The Norseman in Driffield, Old Angel in Nottingham, Leisure World in Bridlington, Spotted Cow in York, Polytechnic in Leeds, LA’S in Kings Lynn, Leicester uni, The Alex in Goole, Lower School in Driffield, GOing Underground in Berkhamsted, Saxon Suite in Driffield, Steamers in Bridlington, The George in Bridlington, Room 1795 in Hull, Sewerby Park in Bridlington, Bell Hotel in Driffield.

Bands they supported included Eat, The Heart Throbs, Cast, Katrina and The Waves, Full Cry, Hunnys Birthday and Matthew Hogg.

Also we find more names for songs like “Basement Love”, “Catch Me”, “Mr. Sometimes”, “County Line”, “Into the Night”, “Forever”, “What a Fool Believes”, “The Only One”, “She Got”, “Catch Me”, Fat” and “If”. Some of these songs are found on the band’s Soundcloud. I believe most if not all of these songs were recorded at Fairview Studio in Kings Lynn.

Another thing that caught my attention is that they were to be featured on a CD called “A Perfect Combination – Fairview Studios 1973-1990”. That indeed happened in 2016. The song they contributed was “Crime”. Other indiepop bands in this comp include International Rescue, The Gargoyles, THe Beautiful South, Pink Noise and 3-Action! among others. There was even a gig for the release of this CD and the band played that gig on December 9, 2016 at the Kingmaker.

After this reunion the band played on May 6, 2017 at the Maple Room in Driffield and on June 9, 2017 at Tidal Waves Festival in Bridlington. On May 28, 2017 the band played The Priory Bar and on July 15 of that same year at the Newtobury Music & Beer Festival. On September 21 2017 the band played at Hull Fruit. On February 2, 2019, the band played at Kardomah94 for the Perfect Combination 3 Stephen Hughes gig.

The German label was to release an album. On Facebook the band has notes of what the album would be. The tracks for it were in this order, “Only One, “Catch Me”, “Basement Love”, “She Got”, “If”, “Forever”, “Into the Night”, “The House of Dreams”, “Fat” and “Rebound”. On the drums now we find Joel Cash. Graeme Smith is credited for guitar on the song “House of Dreams” and Fraz Ward for keyboards on “She Got”, “House of Dreams” and “Only One”. The album was produced by the band and John Spence and was engineered and mixed by John Spence.

A 14 track CD was put together by the band in 2017 for their gigs. Wonder if copies of it are still available. The band went to record once again, in 2018. It was to be an EP and three songs of this session are available on Soundcloud, “What a Fool Believes”, “County Line” and “Heat of the Day”.

Another compilation that seems obscure is the one called “Sight & Sound”. This compilation featured the band and was put together to support SightSupport Hull & East Yorkshire. Wonder which song the band contributed to it.

Oh well, that was quite a lot of info in one day! I wasn’t expecting this much! Hopefully we’ll learn more details soon. Do you Hull indiepop fans remember The Brontes? Did you see them at their reunion gigs?

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Listen
The Brontes – Precious

Day 506

Grandstands: Let’s start this Friday with the classy jangle pop band Grandstands from Melbourne, Australia. Their latest album was called “I Love That You Want to Live Here Too” and it actually came out last year. And I missed it. But I can make up to it a year later, right? The ten song album has great moments of guitar pop, so give it a listen. As far as I know it was released only digitally.

Main Street Light Parade: here’s another Australian band that I just discovered. Hailing from Adelaide, the band has just released on Bandcamp two new releases. A live set at the Golden Wattle dating from July 31, 2020 and an EP of demos from the years 2018 to 2021. Nice!

Wynona Bleach: now we head to Belfast for some punchy dreampop! The band’s latest single is titled “Drag” which will be the opening track of the band’s forthcoming album “Moonsoake”. When is this album released? No info! But I’ll keep an eye!

Lightfoils: the Chicago band is back with two new songs, “306” and “Summere Nights DEATHMIXX” which are being released on a limited edition tape. The tape that comes with some very cool artwork by Terrell Culbert is part of the band’s 4-single cassette collection. Previously they released the “Sunblind” single.

Submotile: and we end this week with shoegaze thanks to Submotile , an Iris-Italian band, and their label Shore Dive Records from Brighton. The band has just released a limited CD of 9 songs titled “Sonic Day Codas” and it is powerful buzz of walls of guitars. At the time of writing only 4 copies of the CD were left!

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Again looking for treasures and obscure bands. That’s what an indiepop fan does, right?

Today I want to know more about a band called Recruits. I believe they hailed from the UK but I have no other details about them. Once they were recommended by Uwe from Firestation Records on his blog, saying that “See My Face” was a superb indiepop song with male vocals in the vein of Rumblefish or This Final Frame.

So I am listening to that song. And it is good. That was on their 1989 7″ single. But let’s go in order.

Their first release dates from 1983, a 12″ single that was self-released with catalog number RE1.

This is much more synth-pop than indiepop to be honest. The three songs on this record were “Three Squeezes (The Mirror and Me)”, “Cherokee” and “Three Squeezes (remix)” is on the B side as an AA. The songs had been recorded at Studio 80 in London, produced and engineered by Martin Rex. The songs are good, catchy. But maybe not the usual stuff I would recommend in the blog. I guess we’ll care more about the 7″. But we need to know the whole history of the band, right?

The band was formed by Terry Hope on bass, Phil Shock on guitar and vocals, Phil Evans on keys, Pete “the Corporal” Bolger on percussion and vocals and Mel Wallis on vocals. For the second single Martin Aspland is credited for keyboards and Dane for vocals.

The 7″ as mentioned came out in 1989. It had two songs, “See My Face” on the A side and “Dream Heaven Scene” on the B side. The catalog number was RE2. Again self-released. This time the band recorded the songs at Ha Bloody Ha Recording Studios in Ashtead, Surrey. The engineer was Ade Orange, long time keyboard player for Gary Numan.

I couldn’t find any compilation appearances for the band.

One thing I find is that the band played in Yarmouth, in a venue called The Big Apple sometime in 1983.

Sadly I can’t find any other details. Very little indeed for this band. Maybe some of you remember them? Where in the UK were they from? Did they record more songs? Were they involved in any other bands?

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Listen
The Recruits – See My Face

Day 504

Thee Objects: The Magic Roundabout is a band we discovered this year and loved. The Manchester band will be releasing an album worth of songs very soon, but we know these are songs from the old days. But what are their band members doing now? Well, Nick and Linda have been recording some songs under the name Thee Objects. Their latest songs are “The Little Black Egg” and “What is Wrong With You?”. The first one being a very nice cover of the Nightcrawlers! Give it a listen!

Milk Film: the Tokyo 3-piece is releasing an EP titled “No Perspective” that is dedicated to the great Toshiko Matsumoto from Apple Crumble. The songs are previously released. “No Perspective!” and “Music for Bouganville” appeared on the band’s debut album “Honey, Sugar and Spice” while “Magic Room” was included in the compilation “Noon Records Compilation Vol. 1”.

Fandor: “En Quatrième Vitesse” is the latest by classic Bordeaux band. This is top quality French indiepop. 12 songs are included here that are just perfect. Great arrangements, superb performance, you get hooked immediately. The album is released on CD and is now available. Very few copies have been made.

Freezing Cold: now to this fine place called New York. Jeff, Leanne and Angie are Freezing Cold and they released this July a 7″ lathe cut with Salinas Records. The record had two songs, “Stuck on Hold” and “Drawn to Scale”. They are nice upbeat pop songs, especially the first track. The band will play in October at Saint Vitus. If only I could go… I feel gigs are something to look forward but in two years time or so?

Pierre: Who is Pierre? He hails from Landskrona in Sweden and his latest digital single “As One” is rather good. Previously Pierre Andersson Ek had released some more songs in 2019 and 2020. But I do think this latest one is his best. Check it out.

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Let’s continue discovering Hull bands thanks to Chris Warkup’s Soundcloud page!

So far I’ve written about Full Cry and The Cheapskates (Chris was on this band I found out), today I thought why not try to find more information about a band called The Sandcastles!

I first heard the song “Turquoise Mini” from the 1991 compilation tape “Tales from the Riverbank” and I immediately got hooked!  This was perfect pop for me. The vocals are just delicious. Who were they? Was it a girl band?

I think of the Twa Toots. That sort of indiepop. Sweet guitar-driven pop with female vocals. Will I be able to find any more details about them? Let’s try.

I do find on the web that the band released a few tapes and was on a few compilations.

The first one dates from 1991, a cassette single by the band. This self-titled tape had just three songs, “Turquoise Mini” and “Fitzbilly Street” on the A side and “Up Here” on the B side. I think Fitzbilly Street could be Fitzwilliam Street in Huddersfield? Or what else could it be? Maybe my UK friends would know.

Then that same year the band appeared on the aforementioned “Tales from the Riverbank”. This is a superb tape that you can listen in its entirety in the Soundcloud link I shared.

In 1992 the band appears on another compilation tape, “Now That’s What We Call Hull”. The song that the band contributed was called “Sad Love Songs” and appeared on the B side. This song sadly is not on Soundcloud.

Lastly the band released another tape in 1994. This one has a label, Sensual, but no catalog number listed on the website 45worlds. The tape was titled “Dance at Every Wedding… Mixes ’93-4” and included four songs, “Catherine Wheeling”, “Song”, “Dance at Every Wedding” and “These Moods”.

So in total I’ve counted 8 songs recorded by the band. Were there any more?

What else can we find? The band had some merch. The Hull Music Archive has a photo of a long-sleeved shirt.

I find a thread on the Hull Music Archive Facebook. There I see that the band actually released a CD for “Dance at Every Wedding”. I should try to track that down. Someone says that the songs were recorded at Badge Studios in Doncaster and were produced by Keith Angel. Another good detail to add is that the vocalist name was Jane.

And so I find the “Dance at Every Wedding” CD. It is actually different to the cassette. This one is a proper album! It includes 10 songs, “Black Dog”, “These Moods”, “What About the Time”, “You”, “Swimming”, “Heartache”, “Apples and Pears”, “Song”, “Catherine Wheeling” and “Dance at Every Weeding”. Now we know of 14 songs by the band!

And even better, I find a scan of the back of the CD case. The names of the band members are printed there. This is great detective work I tell to myself. The band was formed by Jayne Cooper, Zoe Oxaal, Shane Rhodes and Graham Denton. The label seems to be Nono Records, catalog number NNcd8. This is not on Discogs sadly. If anyone know where to get a copy let me know. I am curious about listening the album.

And that’s all I could find. Much more than I expected. So I feel good about it. Now I want to listen to the rest of their songs, “Turquoise Mini” is truly great!

Who remembers them?

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Listen
The Sandcastles – Turquoise Mini

Day 502

Now 502 days since working from home. Really incredible. Never expected this. By now I have already adapted to it and I quite like working remotely. What about you all?

Grazer: been a fan of Matt and Mollie’s band Grazer for a while now. The band is releasing a double A-side single with the songs “Without You” and “Vision” though I dont see any information about a physical release. Maybe it’s a matter of waiting for it?

April June: a new song by the Spanish band! And it sounds amazing. It is titled “Summer Bruises” and it seems the band has signed to the label Spirit Goth. I don’t see the goth in this song but who knows. This is luminous pop!

Tani: here’s a very nice new release on Jigsaw Records! “Mew” is the name of the album of the Buenos Aires, Argentina, project Tani. It is a short one, 8 songs, where you get playful and upbeat electro pop a la Au Revoir Simone. A little treasure as Chris Jigsaw puts it.

Die Liga Der Gewöhnlichen Gentlemen: a new album by this German superband! The new album is titled “Gschichterln aus dem Park Cafe” and is out now on vinyl and CD thanks to Tapete Records. Fun pop by the Hamburg band which you can preview 3 of their songs on Bandcamp.

War College: and we end this Monday’s review of new finds on the web with this Athens, Georgia band. They have an album online called “Personality” that is really nice. The songs are a good mix of classic jangle pop, a little folk pop here and there and the enough dose of lo-fi, bedroom pop, we need.

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The Persuaders, one of the superb bands that released on Ceilidh Records, is the band I want to investigate today.

The band was formed after the demise of Dr Zoraks Vaxkabinett in the summer of 1986. I have never heard this band and I wonder if there are any recordings by them. Also which members of The Persuaders where in it? All of the first lineup?

Yeah, that first lineup. It lasted from 1986 to 1989. And it was Ola Hermanson on vocals and guitar, Torgny Karlsson on guitar and vocals, Jonas Lager on keyboards, Magnus Larsson on bass and Jörgen Olsson on drums.

On Ceilidh’s website there’s a biography of the band. A small one. There it mentions that due to the geographical distance between the members and the lack of a permanent drummer, the band ended up releasing just two singles. It seems the band was working on an album called “Tupperware Teens” but that never got released.

Speaking of the singles, there were two versions of their first 7″, “Neeedyounear’s Disease”. This one came out in 1987 and had the catalog number CEI 006 on Ceilidh Records. The songs on the record were “Needyounear’s Disease” on the A side and “Feet” on the B side. Both songs were written by Ola Hermanson and the songs were produced by the band. They were recorded at S&M Studios in Norrköping. Were they from there?

Anyhow, the first version of the 7″, the first 200 copies, came with a sleeve where the photo was the whole cover. The  second version had a white sleeve with a smaller photo (the same photo), with the band’s name in red on the upper top left corner. They both came out in 1987, so not sure why the difference between the sleeves.

The band’s second 7″ was the “First Date 3P” single from 1989. This EP released also on Ceilidh (CEI 011) had three songs, “Her New Candy” on the A side and “(I Won’t Be) Happy (‘Till You’re Dead)” and “Boy Wonder” on the B side. This time the songs were recorded at Mistlur Studios in the fall of 1988. The songs were written again by Ola while the record was engineered by Thomas Pettersson and mixed by Micke Herrström.

In 1989 there were some lineup changes. Diana Gustafson joined on drums replacing Jörgen Olsson. This lineup would last until 1991. Then someone we know, Niklas Barwe, who we interviewed about his band The Cod Lovers, replaced Diana.

In 1991 we see the band’s last release. It was a song, “The Chop Chop Song”, that got released on a flexi that came with the Now & Then Magazine, no. 4. The other band on this split flexi was the fine Sonic Surf City.

The band did have more songs. Many of them appeared on various compilations. “Panic Station Girl” was included in “Ceilidh 005”, an LP compilation from 1987. Then in 1989 the band had “Dazed, Dirty and Drunk” on “Nordic Sounds Volume 2” a double CD comp released by Joker Records (JOKE 917), “Panic Station Girl” on the “Pet Sounds Vol. 1” cassette comp that came with the Pet Sounds fanzine, and the track “Her New Candy” on “Sinderella – The Swedish Stand 1989” another CD comp released by Sinderella (SIN 001).

Then we see them again in 1992, there’s a gap of two years. That year they appear with two songs on a compilation CD called “Sista Slaget I Peking” which was released by Studiefrämjandet (SFR 001). The songs here were “My Head is Larger Than Yours” and “Doo Wah Wah Ooh”. This compilation featured bands from the town of Norrköping. I think this confirms my suspicion where they were from.

In 1993 their song “Dig” appears on “Dogstew” a CD compilation released by Blind Dog (BDCD001). Lastly, in 1997, the song “Her New Candy” is includede in “Ceilidh 039 Singles & Vinyls” a CD compilation.

Looking at the band members I noticed that Magnus Larsson had been in the bands Texas Motherfuckers and Urga. Niklas Barwe, was of course in Cod Lovers and also in The Bukks. Ola Hermansson had beene in Sister James and Sonic Surf City. Torgny Karlsson was also on Sonic Surf City.

There’s not much more on the web by this project. One thing that is good to note is that “First Date 3P” was reviewed by Sound Affects, no. 4, in 1989 by John Byström as well as getting Single of the Week on Norrköpings Tidningar on April 1st of 1989. The “Needyounear’s Disease” 7″ also got reviewed by Norrköpings Tidningar on October 10th of 1987 also getting Single of the Week.

Good to remember this band. I should also try to get their records. I think I don’t have them in my collection! What about you? Do you remeember them?

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Listen
The Persuaders – (I Won’t Be) Happy (Til You’re Dead)

Day 499

Den Baron: fantastic! there’s a video now for “My Sound” the first single out of Den Baron’s new album “From Now On”! The album is a must have and it is out now on the great Blue-Very label. I hope I can get a copy of it soon! Here Swen shows us his favourite records and songs! And he even plays some Bonving (for those who got the Cloudberry 7″, might get the reference!).

Crash: the second demo from thee French band Crash is up now on Bandcamp. This four-song EP was recorded in Nantes in 1993 and sounds terrific. Noisy and punchy the band would later release the album “On A Marché Sur La Lune” on the French label Sensitive.

The Yellow Melodies: the Spanish band fronted by Rafa Skam has just released “Pleasant Dreams”. This is actually a tribute to The Ramones album of the same name. The Yellow Melodies wanted to celebrate the 40 years of the original release with a vinyl and CD release for this record.

The Blue Herons: wow! a new a song by the wonderful project Andi Jossi and Gretchen DeVault. The song is “Electric” and it is an upbeat and uplifting dreamy song. A bit like The Popinjays? Maybe! It makes you wonder when will the band will put a record out. That would be nice!

Torrey: “Something Happy” is the name of the debut album by San Francisco’s four-piece indiepop band that I have recommended more than a few times in the past. The album has 10 songs and all of them are great. They deserve a release if you ask me!

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As you can imagine most of the next posts will be about the trove of Hull bands I have discovered. The next one that I want to know more about is The Cheapskates!

So far I have heard two songs, “Shades” and “No Answer” and they are quite good! It is quite clear that they were influenced by The Wedding Present. They play guitars fast! If you like This Poison! you will like them for sure. Now what can we know about them?

From what I know they didn’t release any records. Just tapes. The first one being a cassingle with three songs, “No Answer”, “Love Only Changes People” and “So Drunk Tonight”. This one came out in 1990 and was self-titled.

That same year they contributed thee song “No Answer” to the tape compilation “Hull – North of Manchester”. On this fine tape they appear along a band I interviewed in the past, The Penny Candles.

Now it is 1991. The band releases a demo tape called “Travel”. This tape had four songs, “Just Talking” and “Travel” on the A side and “Love Only Changes People” and “No Answer” on the B side. That same year they contribute “Shades” to the compilation tape “Tales from the Riverbank”.

Their final release was another tape, also in 1991. Titled “Shades”, this tape had 12 songs. A proper album. Would be great to hear it. The A side had “You Know, They Know, I Don’t”, “Shades”, “I’m Not Me”, “Happy?”, “Trace” and “Another Love Song”. The B side had “No Answer”, “Love Only Changes People”, “New Era”, “Making Things”, “King of the…” and “Fergie”. Wow. So many songs. Anyone has this tape?!

On the Hull Music Archive I find that the band used to sell t-shirts. There is a yellow one with three band members drawn and “The Noise Killed Laura Palmer” written on it.

Another thing I found about them is that the band played at the legendary Adelphi Club at the Football Supporters Association benefit gig that happened just before the 1990 World Cup. This time the band played alongside Blammo and The Von Trapps. On the article I found it mentions that the band had Chris Warkup as one of their members. Oh! it is the owner of this Soundcloud account! It also mentions that Chris used to contributed in many fanzines.

How cool! Maybe we’ll get to learn more about the band soon. At least now I think we are on the right direction! Anyone remembers them?

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Listen
The Cheapskates – Shades

Day 497

Pier Lights: the latest song by Rich May from The King of Mirrors and Jonathan Troy of The Hi-Life Companion is called “Lovely Thing”. This might be my favourite song of theirs so far. Two very talented indiepop-masters joining forces, that makes total sense. Let’s see if they will release something in the near future!

Mad Honey: we head to Oklahoma City to listen a new digital single by the band formed by Tiff Sutcliffe, Austin Valdez and Branden Palesano. “I Won’t Go Easy” is a classic indiepop/dreampop song, influenced by bands like The Sundays, The Heart Throbs, The Darling Buds, etc. You know that sounds good.

H!: Shiny Happy Records brings us the latest hits from Indonesia. H!’s new single is not an exception. It is a terrific lo-fi poppy track titled “Stay at Home”. I don’t know much about this band but we know they hail from the capital, Jakarta. And that the song title is dead on.

Seafoam: “Songs For You (demo)” is the debut of the duo formed by Adam Stafford and Belinda Cai from LA. This demo has two songs obviously, “Big T-Shirts” and “Time Warp”. They are lovely bedroom pop pieces, lo-fi and with that amateurish joy we love.

Stomp Talk Modstone: the Japanese band has signed to Box Bedroom Rebels to release a limited 7″! This record has 5 terrific songs, of gorgeous dreampop. Two of the songs had been released previously, but three of them, “Quiet”, “To Be” and “What We Want” are exclusive to this record!

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I heard the song “Sugar Mouse” by Yellow Bird on that great Youtube channel that is stoneeyedkiller. I still don’t know who is behind that channel but the work there to unearth so many gems is quite incredible. The person behind it must go over every single Soundcloud, Bandcamp and blogs to stumble upon these. That seems like a 8 hour a day job!

So I thank for letting me discover some of the bands. Then it is my job afterwards to find out more. And whatever I find I always try to share with my good friends, meaning the readers of the blog. How many are they? I don’t know! I should check the counter one day.

Yellow Bird seems to have been a short-lived project. There are no releases by the band and we only know that it was a duo. Susana Iglesias was on vocals and Tim Groves was on drums, bass and guitar.

I have found a Soundcloud by Tim Groves. Here he has many recordings of many projects he has been involved with like The Ultra Parents, The Gemms, Big Humming Noise, The Direction, Scuz, Pencils, Godfish and Spinning Belinda (I would like to write about this band too, great songs). For Yellow Bird we find two songs, “Sugar Mouse” and “Snowing”.

There is little info about the band here as well. But we know that “Snowing” was recorded in 1988 at Roundel Studios in Horton Kirby. This song was actually written the day before they went to the studio. The credits for writing it is for both band members. Tim adds a little detail here mentioned that this was the first time he ever played a bass guitar. The guitars on this recording were a Sigma DM4-12 and a Rickenbacker 340/6. Clearly Tim liked his guitars.

For “Snowing” there’s less info. Probably in the same session. Were there more songs recorded by them? Or was it just this two? Would be nice to find out.

Did they try anything with these songs? Send them to labels?

On Soundcloud Tim locates himself in London. The songs had been uploaded 8 years ago. Was Yellow Bird a band from London? Could be. Horton Kirby is not that far.

One interesting detail I did found was a 2013 post on a forum called Steve Hoffman Music Forums. What it says here is that Tim and Susana were boyfriend and girlfriend then. That they recorded this while together. Now they are exes. He shares the two songs and mentions that he was 20 and she was 18 at the time.

And then what? You won’t believe it. I don’t believe it either. I find more information, on this blog! On the Cloudberry blog! I should have a better memory but having done so many interviews and being recommended so many bands by many musicians it is always difficult. I should try to write these band names down for further research. Anyhow… a long time ago I interviewed The Chalk Garden. They told me this:

One other band of note was Yellow Bird. They were the band of another room mate, Tim Groves and mainly consisted of Tim & his crazy talented girlfriend. I played bass for them for about a month and Tim played drums in the CG’s for a similarly short period. I don’t think Yellow Bird played more than 2 or 3 gigs before Suzie (the singer) went off to art school and was never seen again. Tim has posted some songs on SoundCloud which are definitely worth a listen.

How did I miss it! So many many years! And I should have known about this band. Ah! It is my fault. But now I know. Fantastic. They were from London then. And Steve Jenkins from The Chalk Garden was in Spinning Belinda. Okay, now I know I have to get in touch again and ask to do an interview about Spinning Belinda.

The mystery is less of a mystery now. But we still don’t know much about Yellow Bird and what happened to Susana. I hope we find out soon!

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Listen
Yellow Bird – Snowing

Day 495

Den Baron: what great news! Our friend Den Baron from Germany is releasing a CD album called “From Now On” on the very good Blue-Very label! Wow! Limited to 200 copies the new album will have 13 songs and you can preview four of them on the label’s Bandcamp. As usual, as you could see in the 7″ we released, this is classic jangle pop of the highest quality!

The Summer Triangle: I recommended a vinyl release for the self-titled mini-album back in April. Now this record will be re-released by Greece’s Melotron Recordings on CD. The edition is very limited, there are 25 copies of the limited art edition and 45 of the standard one. A true boutique label you would say. But yeah, it seems it is the way forward for bands and labels, fewer and fewer copies. One not to miss.

Always You: Discos de Kirlian and Shelflife Records have released the album “Bloom Off the Rose” by the ex-Pains of Being Pure at Heart Anton and Christoph Hochheim. The 11 song album can be previewed in its entirety on Bandcamp and it seems very few copies are available now. Sadly for CD fans like me the album is only available on vinyl.

Harriet Records: fantastic news! Tim Alborn has put together a Bandcamp for his 90s label! Wow! Not all of the releases are up there yet, but I can count 11 so far. In total the label released 45 singles and 10 CDs. Tim has promised to also add actual records to be on sale on the Bandcamp in the near future so keep an eye here!

Gabriel’s Dawn: and lastly a new song from this Midlands band that features Gudg, Fran Feely, Leon Jones and Stuart Gray. Their new track is titled “I Don’t Believe (in the Summer of Love)” and it is a superb bright jangly track.

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The Reinheitsgebot, literally “purity order”, is a series of regulations limiting the ingredients in beer in Germany and the states of the former Holy Roman Empire. The best known version of the law was adopted in Bavaria in 1516, but similar regulations predate the Bavarian order, and modern regulations also significantly differ from the 1516 Bavarian version.

We head to Bangor, Wales today. That’s where the band Reinheitsgebot was from!

I discovered the band last year thanks to the blog Janglepophub.  In November they reviewed the band’s recordings that had popped up on Bandcamp.

Two sets of recordings are available there, “The Complete R.S.C. Recordings – Volume 1: December 1984” and “The Complete R.S.C. Recordings – Volume 2: May 1985“.

The band only lasted 9 months. The 27 songs in these two sessions are their legacy. I wonder if they recorded any other songs or this is it. The R.S.C. on the releases on Bandcamp is actually the name of the music studios in Bath. The producer was Rob Craven.

The first volume was recorded between the 17th-20th December of 1984 for the first 5 songs, while the rest were recorded live on the 21st of that same months. The songs on this volume were: “Winter’s Warmth”, “Sunday Sunday”, “One Apart”, “Linda Says”, “Words Don’t Know”, “Autumn”, “Help Eleanor Come Home”, “Waiting for Daybreak”, “Summer”, “Sunset Sky”, “Cry Again”, “In the Morning”, “Quicksand”, “Still not There”, “Cheer Up”, “It’s Only Fortune’, “Splendid View” and “Sad Angel”.

The 2nd volume was recorded on May 17, 18, 20 and 21st of 1985. 9 songs were recorded this time, “Waiting for Daybreak”, “Winter”, “Linda Says”, “Wrong Side of the River”, ” “In the Morning”, “One Apart”, “Winter’s Warmth”, “1000 Different Things” and “Still Not There”. So many songs. One wonders how come they didn’t release anything. Not even compilation appearances.

The band was formed by Ian McMillan on vocals and harmonica, Maeyc Hewitt on bass, Scott Saunders on guitar, Alan Holmes on guitar and Mark Thomas on drums. This lineup played a live mostly around North Wales, including a support of The Blow Monkeys.

The band’s last gig was on June 15, 1985, in Treborth playing fields in their home, Bangor. After this gig Mark Thomas left the band. The remaining members went to form Third Spain.

But they were actually involved in more bands. Alan Holmes, who is the one running Turquoise Coal Records which has published these songs on Bandcamp, had been in Boreas y Gogledd, Ectogram, Fflaps, Normal Shed Uses, Parking Non-Stop, Spectralate, The Groceries, The Lungs and The Serpents. He was also on The Insects while he was just a kid and then in The Zuggs, The Pinecones and A Silly Tree. So many bands. He also was a session musician on the debut album of Melys and produced records fro Gorky’s Zigotic Mynci.

Maeyc sadly passed away on October 1st, 2015. He had been in Ectogram, Nixon & Jarvis, Radio 23, The Lungs and The Serepents. Scott Saunders was on Normal Shed Uses. And yes, all three of them on Third Spain.

I wish these recordings had been released on CD or vinyl. Would be fantastic. I now need to check the other bands they were on.  This has been a great discovery for sure, there was some info, but not enough… I want to know more details about them!

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Listen
Reinheitsgebot – Winter’s Warmth

Day 492

Dan Dan Dero: been a fan of the Lima, Peru, band for years. The band had released the song “Como Rei Ayanami” some time ago but just this weekend they published a video for it. And as it is a very nice video I had to share it. It is very well made and the song is ace, so do check it out.

Comet Gain: “David Christian sings Comet Gain/Feckbook” is a collection of 12 Comet Gains from the vault. Recorded at home, “3am-style” by David Feck. These superb set of songs include classics like “Footstompers”, “You Can Hide Your Love Forever” or “Say Yes! to International Socialism” among others. Super interesting to hear these songs in this way.

Coffee Garden: two new songs by the guitarist from the lovely Japanese band Milk Film. Coffee Garden is his solo project and his last release are two instrumental tracks, “Nica’s Holiday” and “How Sweet to do Nothing”. The art for this digital songs are by the terribly talented Ma, who did the art for Parcel Post 7″ and The Danny Says mini CD on Cloudberry!

The Biirthday Party: yes, two i on Biirthday here. This band hails from Ubon Ratchathani in Thailand and make some nice jangly dreamy pop. Their only release dates from May 2020 and was titled “stayalonewithmyloveliesfriends”. It has three terrific songs but we don’t know anything else about the band. There is a profile photo which is blurry. Looks like a three-piece. Would be great to know more about this Thai band! Have to thank my friend David for this discovery!

Hovvdy: and we end this week recommending this four-piece from Austin, Texas, who are releasing their album “True Love” on October 1st. The album will have 12 songs and is coming out on vinyl, cassette and CD. Ambitious! Right now we can preview just one song, “True Love”, which won me over, enough to recommend twelve songs and only having heard one. Hope they don’t disappoint!

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Another good discovery I just made through stoneeyedkiller is the Hull band Full Cry. On his Youtube channel, this like-minded pop fan, has uploaded the song “High With You” which immediately made me a fan of the band.

Sadly I haven’t been able to find any other songs by them to listen. But as always I need to find out more about the band. Any details would help.

The band seems to have been around the early 90s and most of their songs appeared on various tapes. The first song I know from them is called “Seashell Michelle” which appeared on a tape called “Tales from the Riverbank”.

In 1992 the band released a self-titled tape with 5 songs. These were “High with You”, “Melted”, “Seashell Michelle”, “None the Wiser” and “Brutal Children”. Maybe this was a demo tape they used to try to get the attention of labels? Or radio? Would be good to know about this release.

That same year they released “Now That’s What we Call Hull”. This is where I think our friend stoneeyedkiller found the wonderful “High With You”. Full Cry appears on this compilation tape on the A side with the eight song.  What is cool is that this compilation is up on Soundcloud and you can check all the songs. I will do the same. As I think there are more pop bands here worth tracking down!

In 1993 the band also contributed to the “Nice 1” compilation tape. The song they had on this tape was “None the Wiser”.

That same year the band releases their second tape, “My Angel Died a Radio Death”. 5 more original songs on this one, “All be the Same”, “Slap Ya Daft”, “Doubt”, “Orgasm Head” and “Suicide’s Kiss”.

1994 sees them releasing another tape, “Confidence with Asthma”. This time they record 8 songs, “Hand”, “Honey”, “Razorwire”, “Poker Sexy” and “Ming’s Ring” on the A side and “Dolphin Chrome”, “Pressure” and “Headhum” on the B side.

Lastly in 1995 one more tape. “Howard’s End” may have been the last release of the band, and on it they had 7 songs, “Plastic Girl”, “All Day Forever” and “Born in Time for Star Wars” on the A side and “Pedestrian”, “Stalker (improv.)”, “Dreamless Sleep, Lifeless Dream” and “If the Clouds Come” on the B side.

So ok, we know a bunch of their songs. We dont know any of the band members names. We have only heard one song. It is something. The good thing too is that it has allowed me to discover more Hull bands that will be featured on the blog shortly. I hope we find more details about Full Cry, but I think this investigation has gone in the right direction!

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Listen
Full Cry – High with You

Day 490

Doble Pletina: always a fan of the Spanish band who have written many indiepop hits through the years. Their latest single is called “Esdrújulos Epítetos” and the band has made a lovely video for it. I remember still the day they came and played in NYC. Those days seem so far away. Hoping good times come back.

The Planes: “Eternity on its Edge” is the name of the album this Brooklyn band released on June 11. It came out on tape on the label Totally Real Records and I believe very few copies are still available. The album has 12 songs of classic American indiepop, good hooks and catchy tunes.

Bridge Dog: this sounds amazing! I really enjoy the song “Lemon” by the Sydney two-piece Bridge Dog. The band seems to be quite new, they have released so far three songs, all of them in the past 3 months. Definitely is a band to follow.

Five Beans Chup: I had never heard the band Five Beans Chup that released the album “The First Day of Summer” back in 2000. It turns out the band features 3 members of the legendary B-Flower. How cool. The Japanese band has made available the album on Bandcamp so of course, I am having a good time listening and discovering this little treasure.

93MillionMilesFromTheSun: and we end today’s recommendations with some fine shoegaze from the Doncaster band. They have just released an EP titled “The View from Woodhead” that includes 5 songs and a remix. Punchy. Thumbs up.

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Time for an obscure band a lot of people that are into obscure bands would be familiar with, Hulme’s That Ted.

Hulme is an inner city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England, immediately south of Manchester city centre. It has a significant industrial heritage. Historically in Lancashire, the name Hulme is derived from the Old Norse word for a small island, or land surrounded by water or marsh, indicating that it may have been first settled by Norse invaders in the period of the Danelaw.

Yeah, we have to be in Manchester today. A city that has given us so many fantastic bands and it is no exception with That Ted.

The band was formed by Terry on guitar and Andy singing according to a Soundcloud account that uploaded many songs 8 years ago. But according a paper clipping on the same account we have to add Julian and Tom. These songs as far as I know weren’t released properly so it is fantastic to be able to listen to them. They are: “Beg to Fall”, “Autopsy”, “Concrete Beats Brick 1”, “Mind to Get its Way 2”, “Refridgerator”, “Soylent Green”, “You Snitch and I’ll Blast You”, “The Stricken Hand” and “Dance with the Apple”.

On Discogs the information is lackluster. Just a split flexi that was released in 1986 with the song “Long-Expected One and Twenty”. The other band in the flexi is Vee V.V. with the song “Romance is Over”. This flexi was released to accompany issue number 12 of Debris.

The Manchester Music Archive has a few interesting artifacts related to That Ted. The first is a fanzine called “Made in Manchester”. This was a free fanzine that included a 14 song compilation. Not sure if the band was in the tape, but they were written about on the zine.

Next is a flyer from 1986. There we see that the band opened on Saturday 4th of October The Pastels and Too Much Texas. This was at the mythic venue The Boardwalk.

And lastly, again a Boardwalk gig, this time on June 28th of 1987 they opened to The Wedding Present.

One thinks and wonders why there’s so little info about them. They did have some fantastic songs. Why they didn’t get to release anything back in the day.  And were they in any other Mancunian bands before or after? It’d be great to find out. But yeah, info is hard to come by. So I hope someone may help us find out more about this terrific band!

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Listen
That Ted – Beg to Fall

Day 488

Fortitude Valley: Fika Recordings will be releasing on September 29 the self-titled album by this combo from Durham that has Brisbane’s Laura Kovic on vocals. I believe Fortitude Valley is a place in her home city, right? Anyhow, this new album will be released on CD and vinyl and right now we can preview three tracks, “Baby, I’m Afraid”, “Wreck” and “Cassini”, this last one even has a video!

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: two new songs by the prolific Glenn Donaldson. Check out “I’d Rather Astral Project” and “Work it Out While You Can”, two lovely jangly songs that we hope get releeased someday!

Fenix: I’ve always enjoyed the synthpop by Eskilstuna, Sweden, band Fenix! It took a few months since their previous release, but glad that the band has just released “Sommarregn (Edit)”. Catchy and classy, it is a great new track by the duo formed by Stefan Eriksson and Louise Marchione.

Marinita Precaria: this is the latest discovery from Elefant Records. Behind Marinita Precaria is Marina Gómez Marín who after being laid off in June 2020 started making songs in her bedroom. Two of these songs are now being released as a digital single, “Siento Todavía” and “Tú Pa Qué” and immediately one gets hooked to them. They are beautiful!  We need a proper record now! And Elefant will deliver sometime in 2022 a mini-LP. Great news!

The Halamays: and we finish today’s recommendations with the duo formed by Katie and Patrick from Columbus, Ohio. Their latest track is called “Wasted Time” and it is a classic indiepop song. Just as how we like them, one that could have fitted perfectly in the legendary comp “Pop American Style”!

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Who remembers the indiepop/powerpop band Dorian Mood? I know very little about them, maybe you can help me fill in the blanks?

The band hailed from Ireland, from the town of Drogheda.

Drogheda, meaning “bridge at the ford”) is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, 56 km north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland

According to the Irishrock.org website the band was active between 1985 and 1990 and was formed by Roland Hoek on vocals and guitar, John White on keyboards, Eamon Foley on bass and Graham Hoek on drums. That was the band’s first lineup.

This lineup would release the “It’s a Funny Thing” 7″ in 1986 on the label One by One (1×3). The songs on this record were the title song and “Brand New Dream” on the B side. The songs were recorded at TMW Studios and were produced by Keith McCormick. They were engineered by Barry and Mike. The design of the sleeve is credited to Micko.

In 1989 the band lineup had changed a bit. Roland and Graham Hoek and John White continued in the band but we see Paul McQuillan joining the band to play guitar and vocals and Gavan Kierans on bass. Kierans had been actually their manager previously. Their new manager became Eoin Holmes.

This lineup released the album “Can’t Stand Still” in 1989 on Big Mood Records (BMR 1). The songs on it were recorded at R’N’R Studios in Drogheda in April 1089. This 7-track record included “The Tide”, “Can’t Stand Still” and “Annie Baby” on A side. The B side had “Didn’t See It”, “Late for a Day”, “Thumbnail Express” and “Just Do it”.

On Discogs we don’t see any other releases nor compilation appearances. So I go back to Irishrock.org. There I learn that the band made their Dublin debut at the Underground on February 15, 1986. That same year they appeared on TV as well.

The band recorded many tracks for the Dave Fanning Show. Songs recorded for this show included “Fallen Deep Inside”, “It’s a Funny Thing”, “What You Want”, “Sleazy Attic”, “Vigilance”.

There is also a 1985 demo tape recorded at Slane Studios that included four songs, “Tomorrow”, “I Will Help”, “Inspiration” and “A.O.?”

Another great find online is that of a live performance at RTE’s “Visual Eyes” in 1986. There they played the song “Tomorrow“.

When it comes to other projects members had been involved there’s little info. Paul McQuillan seems to have worked with Hope Sandoval and the band Accidents and Gavin Kierans was later in the band Sharpesville.

I find some gig mentions like the one from July 25, 1985, at The Dome ifor the Funanza Festival, the April 18, 1987 gig playing with the band In a Lifetime and on April 30, 1988 with the band The Dangerous Brothers.

Then another good find. Three songs on Soundcloud that I have never heard before, “Slowly Sinking”, “In the Morning” and “Thumb Nail Express”. There’s no info about them, but they sound great. It seems they were taken from tapes.

My last find is a press clipping from Drogheda Magazine in 1985 written by Enda Murray were it mentions another song by the band, “Isolation”.

Not much more on the web. But this was a good introduction for me to the band. I hope to find out more soon!

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Listen
Dorian Mood – It’s a Funny Thing