Day 485

Ducks Ltd.: I still haven’t got around getting the first album by this superb Toronto band. I know, I know. I am a slow listener now. I used to listen many more records per week. Now one or two are about what I can handle. And there are so many (and not that much money!). You might think I get free records from the blog, but in due honesty that is SUPER rare. And I don’t expect any either. I do this for love. Anyhow, that’s a long introduction! Ducks Ltd. is releasing a new album, on vinyl and CD, called “Modern Fiction”. So far we can preview one song, “18 Cigarettes”, which sounds ace. The album will be out on October 1st. One not to miss for sure!

The No-Yeahs: two new songs and this time on a flexi! How cool! There’s even a video for the title song “Catto in the Ghetto”. And yes, there’s a second song in this flexi titled “Let’s Go” and it is as nice. Anna makes wonderful bedroom pop and she is also a great visual artist, so you can expect some nice art with the record!

Love, Burns: it burns. Missing the 7″ burns. now there are three new songs by Phil’s band but this time around they are only available digitally. These are “She Will Leave, Unless”, “Say What You Mean” and “The Push and Pull of the Great Outdoors”. All are terrific as usual. I really hope I can catch him and his band live soon!

The Bunbury: in this blog we like the Yogyakarta band, a lot! A new song, after a year, is good news. Of course I want more, one song is never enough, but “Hide me from the Sun” meets all of my expectations. Great work guys!

Tears to Go: remember the fantastic When Nalda Became Punk? Elena, the Vigo based, indiepop star is back with a new project. It is called Tears to Go and it is a bit different. The punchy pop has been replaced by classy and elegantly arranged introspective pop. And it works! Works fine to me. The first preview we are getting from the upcoming album “Patronizing Self-Help” is an eponymous song which is up now on Bandcamp.

—————————————————————–

A fantastic record. That’s the “Your Island” 7″ that was released in 1984 by Final Diners. This record just had two songs, “Your Island” on the A side and “No Windows” on the B side.

I have a copy of the record but just of the vinyl, I don’t have the sleeve. It was my friend Jessel who was kind enough to gift me this record. I hope to find a sleeve someday though. It feels a bit incomplete, not having the sleeve. When that happens to you? That you have the record but no jacket or sleeve, how do you feel?

Many years ago I was actually contacted by one of the band members, Neil was his name. He was the guitar player. He told me that there were only 200 sleeves made as they couldn’t afford making more, that they did them all themselves.

I tried to interview him, he seemed keen on it, saying that Martin, who was the drummer, would also be up for doing the interview. For some reason I never heard from them again. A shame. It would have been fantastic to learn any information about them.

The 7″ was released by a label called Slow Death by Starlight (CAV 019). Discogs doesn’t list any other releases on the label, so I wonder as the catalog number is 19 if there were any other releases. I read that the catalog might have to do with Cavalier Recording Studios in Stockport. The record got some nice distribution thanks to Probe Plus and The Cartel.

The record shows the three band members, Neil, Martin and Alyson, on the front of the sleeve. It is a drawing of them, having picnic. There is a rope hanging too… is it going to hang anyone? This sleeve was designed by Jenny.

No compilation appearances are listed. Were these the only two songs the band recorded? I hope not. Probably just the only two they released. Are there demos?

I do find some more info thanks to a comment on Youtube. There it mentions that the band hailed from Manchester, from the Cheadle/Heald Green area. It also mentions that the vocalist was probably named Alison.

Sadly that’s all I’ve been able to find. I don’t know the last names of the band members and have no clue if they were in other bands afterwards (or before!). Any information would be appreciated, I would love to hear any other songs by the band too!

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Final Diners – Your Island

As I’ve been terribly busy with the birth of my song I haven’t had time to digest what happened to my friend Toshiko Matsumoto. Just a few weeks ago she passed away. This was such sad news that I had a hard time understanding how this could happen. Why such a passionate person would leave us so young.

I never met Toshiko in real life. And that is definitely something I regret. Of course she told me many times to visit Tokyo. I would have loved to. It is a place I want to go, but still it is in my bucket list.

Toshiko used to run a store there called Apple Crumble. It carried indiepop records from all around the world. Small labels had the same opportunities there as bigger labels. She was the first one to open the doors to the two labels I had, Plastilina and Cloudberry, when no other store cared for my releases. She even made special sections for the labels thus promoting better my records in Japan. That was truly amazing. And I am very thankful for that. She helped Cloudberry a lot to become a known label within the Japanese fans.

And that wasn’t all she did. She wrote a column on the Cookie Magazine. This cool music magazine featured so many great bands and labels. And again, Toshiko championed Cloudberry dedicating a whole article to the label back in the day when I was putting out 3″ CDs. It was the first time the label was on a magazine and it was thanks to Toshiko.

Another time she translated a text about my time in Berlin and Europe, when I DJed in 2009 with Uwe from Firestation Records. I just found this text. I totally forgot about it. Maybe I will share the English version which I think has never been published before.

Years went by, Toshiko ordering and carrying Cloudberry in her store until the store closed many years ago. The Shibuya-located store is sorely missed today. It was a cultural center you could say.

I interviewed Toshiko too. Hearing from someone so involved in indiepop and to be able to share her passion was what pushed me to ask her to do this for the blog. You can read it here. There you can see she wasn’t just running a store and writing articles, but she also organized indiepop parties as well as running a fine label called Rosemary Records! On that label she released the likes of Sloppy Joe, Labrador, Bananaskin, Mocca and Seaside Stars (who I am sharing one of the songs she released from the album “The Stranded Whale”). She was definitely a true activist for the music we like.

She continued until the last days of her life promoting indiepop, doing a blog with her beloved Fabien which she called of course Apple Crumble. The blog was last updated on May 13. But you can visit and check out the good taste Toshiko had with all her wonderful recommendations. There’s even a small interview she did with me a few months back.

It was fun to chat with her. We didn’t do often lately,  after her store and online mailorder closed, but she was supportive of Cloudberry, always. I would always get nice emoticons from her whenever I shared posts on Facebook. Made me so happy.

Perhaps the biggest collaboration we did was the Apple Crumble EP. This was a 3″ CD I put together in 2007. This EP that featured Zipper, The Atom Miksa Reservation, Princess Niko, The Medalist and Robert Church and the Holy Community was only sold at Toshiko’s store. It was a different time and shipping from Japan was affordable. I wanted to support her store and wanted Cloudberry fans to be aware of what Toshiko was doing. So I wanted to direct people to Apple Crumble and get this CD which was wonderful of course. It sold out needless to say.

But that was not all. I dedicated a 7″ insert text to Toshiko. For those who own the Caucus 7″ they will know what I am talking about. On that insert I celebrated my friend Toshiko and her unending support.

I am sad to know she won’t be around anymore. I considered here a like-minded spirit. She knew how to enjoy music. She knew how to project that passion in so many different activities that brought joy to friends and fans. She will be missed. But what she inspired me and many more will continue alive, we wave the indiepop flag high, the same way she always did!

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Seaside Stars – Guiding Star

Day 481

Croma Nueve: just discovered the label Sursum Tapes from Granada, Spain. Their latest release, the self-titled Croma Nueve tape is already sold out. But here I am checking it out. It was released last May and included 5 songs. You can check their lo-fi bedroom pop on Bandcamp.

A Days Wait: another nice discovery is this project from Hamilton, Canada. Just a week ago Adam Alfano, the person behind this band, published a punchy pop track called “Lost Anyway”. Previously he had released “Ties that Bind (B-Side)” and “Falling Forward iPhone Demo” on Soundcloud.

Fantasy Postcards: wow! a new song by my friends Johan and Mattias Jonsson from Uppsala, Sweden. This one is called “(Where there was) No Goodbye” and as usual is a superb slice of jangly pop!! Thumbs up! I heard a rumour somewhere that they are releasing something in the near future? I hope it is true!

Evergreen Days: remember I told you that My Secret Garden Recordings are releasing a compilation by the amazing Evergreen Days on November 25? Well, to promote this wonderful release a video has been made for the song “Until Then”. This is one release that is essential this year.

Frown Line: and we end this Monday recommendations with another Canadian band, Frown Line from Ottawa. I’ve been meaning to visit the capital for many years, but I haven’t yet. Would be nice. The one song on Bandcamp have reminded me of those plans. This song is called “September” and was recorded by a girl whose name we don’t know but that she is 19 and played everything on it. Nice!

—————————————————————–

Back in 2014 the venerable Jigsaw Records that our friend Chris Mac runs released “Thank You for Nothing!” (PZL064) a retrospective compilation of the band formed by Andy Huscroft on bass, Malcolm (Mala) Reay on vocals and guitar and Steve Minto on drums, in the early 90s.

This compilation is available to listen in its entirety on Bandcamp. It includes a whopping 28 songs! These came from their three singles, one split flexi and many compilations, which we’ll look later on, and some from their never released album. The songs for you completists were “Make it Better”, “Why Does the Sun Fall from the Sky?”, “4 Walls”, “Salt in the Wound”, “Sacred Ground”, “Another Day”, “Wish You Luck”, “St. George’s Way”, “Worldly Wise”, “Come in from the Cold”, “Do You Really Know What’s Going On?”, “Money Talks”, “Make a Big Decision”, “Goodbye to Stephen”, “A World of your Own”, “Pull the Boat in”, “Close to Home”, “Think it Over… And Start Again”, “Happy Again”, “The Devil’s In your Shoes”, “This is Your Life”, “A Suit of Wood”, “Watch the Rain”, “You Live by the Sword… You Die by the Sword”, “Sad”, “Chocolate Rain”, “You Need a Heart of Stone” and “Ever Get the Feeling You’ve Been Cheated?”. If you remember, once upon a time I named a Cloudberry 3″ compilation like the last song.

That last song, “Ever Get the Feeling You’ve Been Cheated?” appeared on the split flexi I mentioned. This flexi, shared with The Lavender Faction, came alongside the This Almighty Pop fanzine, number 3. Catalog number for it was DR002, the label was Dolphin 7. The artwork features The Beatles.

On this flexi we learn too that the band hailed from Gateshead.

Gateshead is a large town in Tyne and Wear, England, on the southern bank of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne. Gateshead and Newcastle are joined by seven bridges across the Tyne, including the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. The town is known for its architecture, including the Sage Gateshead, the Angel of the North and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. Residents of Gateshead, like the rest of Tyneside, are usually referred to as Geordies.

In 1991 the band released their first proper 7″, the “Make it Better” single (TURN 05). It came out on the German label A Turntable Friend and had three songs. “Make it Better” appears on the A side and “Pull the Boat In” and “Sad” on the B side. The songs had been recorded in June of that year and on the sleeve there seems to be a woman I should know perhaps, but I can’t tell who it is, looks like a movie actress. Who is she?

In 1992 the band releases a tape on Elefant Records called “Happy Hymns” (ER-014). This tape had 15 tracks, can it be considered an album? Maybe not, most probably a collection of demos: “All Fall Down”, “Money Talks”, “The Devils in Your Shoes”, “Chocolate Rain”, “Think it Over, Start Again”, “Good Luck” and “Happy Again” on the A side and “Come in from the Cold”, “Watch the Rain”, “This Could be Heaven”, “Sacred Ground”, “Goodbye Stephen” and “Do You Really Know What’s Going On?”. Impressive as many of these songs don’t appear on the Jigsaw compilation.

1993 sees the band release “St George’s Way” 7″ (TURN 13) again on A Turntable Friend. Two songs on this one, “St George’s Way” and “Why Does the Sun Fall from the Sky?” on the flipside. Again some interesting photos for the artwork, perhaps known images from TV or movies but I can’t pinpoint them. Not much more info other than who wrote the songs, Graham for “St Georges Way” and Huscroft and Reay for the B side. Now, who is Graham? Was he a new member?

Elefant would work again with the band and release “The Route of Evil – 4 Songs” 7″ (ER-128) in 1994. This EP had “Salt in the Wound” and “Another Day” on the A side and “Make a Big Decision” and “Worldly Wise” on the B side. Weirdly in Elefant’s website it says that the band hailed from Australia.

When it comes to compilations the band shines. They were very active during the 90s! I’ll try to do it quickly and chronologically.

On the 1990 legendary tape “Positively Teenage” released by Stephen Maughan’s Dolphin 7 label we find their songs “All Fall Down” and “Devil in Your Shoe”. In 1991 the song “Watch the Rain” is on the Red Roses for Me tape compilation “Honey at the Core”. That same year on the Spanish tapee “Film Fun ‘There’s No Stopping Her!'” released by El Vicio Secreto de Sister Mary to accompany the first number of thee eponymous  band contributed “Come in from the Cold” and “Sacred Ground”.  Lastly that same year the song “Sleep like a Dream” ended up in the tape “123456 Road Runner” by Glidge Records (Glidge001).

1992 was quite prolific as well. On the French Anorak Records tape “Teeny Poppers” (SHOUBIDOUWA 01) they included the songs “Worldly Wise” and “Everything Today”. On another French tape, “Garden Party” released by Aliénor Records (Alien alpha) they had the song “Happy Again”. Elefant included the song “Sad (Demo Version)” on “Positively Dolphin Friendly” (ER-007) tape. Lastly on the classic “C92” released by Rainbow the band had yet another two songs “Come in from the Cold” and “Why Does the Sun Fall from the Sky?”.

In 1993 the songs “Make a Big Decision” and “World of Your Own” ended up on Grapefruit’s “Lime Green” (Grapefruit Four) tape comp. Bliss Aquamarine would also have them on “Peacock Blue” (BLISS 002) compilation with the songs “Chocolate Rain” and “Watch the Rain”.

More recently the band had “Why Does the Sun Fall…” on the “Jigsaw Records 2015 Sampler” a CDR sampler by Jigsaw Records and in 2017 they appeared on “The Test of Time” (TURN50) a CD and vinyl compilation by A Turntable Friend that announced the comeback of the mighty label.

When it comes to other bands they have been involved with, well we know Malcolm Reay had worked with our friend Stephen in Kosmonaut. Very cool indeed. I don’t know much about the other two members. Did they play in any other indiepop bands? I believe Andy Huscroft was on The Hipflasks who I wrote about (but still haven’t been in touch with!)

I look for more info. I find a blog called “…Your Heart Out“. Here the author writes a nice post about Malcolm Reay. This piece dates from November 2010 and teells us that The Gravy Train had great t-shirts. Would love to see one. He mentions too that the Malcolm loved the band Hurrah!

The other blog that wrote about the band is the great 7pulgadas by my friend Alex from Spain. Not much info about the band but always lovely to read the passionate texts of this blog.

Not much info, but hopefully we’ll find out more details about the band soon! I hope the connections between bands that I am friendly with may help with contacting The Gravy Train members!

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
The Gravy Train – Come from the Cold

Day 478

Hotel Artesia: nice to see Mr. Wright, Kevin, back. You have to remember his wonderful music as The Dreamers and Always as well. This new project is called Hotel Artesia and he has already recorded a bunch of songs that are available on his own Youtube channel. He has so far five songs worth checking out, “Stardust”, “Station”, “Seconds”, “South” and “Space”.

Three Berry Icecream/Funny Little Dream: wow! what a nice release Shiny Happy Records from Indonesia is putting out on July 27. A split tape by the legendary Three Berry Icecream (who I interviewed on the blog not too long ago) and Funny Little Dream a band we love and released a 3″ CD back in the day! Each band contributes four songs to this release and you can preview one song each on Bandcamp!

The Oilies: now we have to listen “Free all the Monsters” by The Oilies. It is actually a cover of the classic song by The Bats. Carly Putnam  and Michael O. are the people behind this fine sounding California band that as you know I’ve recommended time and time again. Hoping for a release in the future.

Geddy Laurence/Michael O: and I had to check what was new with Michael Olivares solo, not just in The Oilies. Well there is a split tape with Geddy Laurence (Ged McGurn from Boyracer) out now on Safe Suburban Home Records from York, UK. In this split each of them contribute two fine popsongs.

Galaxy Lodge: what a nice discovery! This Manila band formed by Emeer, Gerard, Ron, and Otits, is now on Lilystars Records. On top of that they have just released a very good single called “Kiss this Goodbye”. Really enjoyable. I feel I don’t stumble upon many filipino bands as often as I want to, but when I do it is usually quality!

—————————————————————–

We head to the US today, to discover the self-titled album by The Allisons.

Released by Spindletop Records (SPT 128), who had released Janet Jackson (!), in 1989, I don’t know how much of a success it was. It does look like the label trusted the band and released it on vinyl, CD and cassette. Uncommon those days!

The jangly band had 11 songs on their record. On the A side they had “Sixth Dimension Flower”, “Wild Wild Rain”, “A Second Coming”, “Sherry Goes Round” and “They Pulled My City Down”. The B side had “Roanne”, “Of Speaking my Mind”, “Naivete”, “Waters Rise and Lower”, “Homeward Bound” and “Listen”. All songs were recorded at January Sound Studio in Dallas, Texas, and mixed at Amigo Studios in LA.

The artwork shows us the four band members in the front cover. They were  Adym Roy on vocals and bass guitar, Jim Harville on vocals and guitars, Karl Teten on lead vocals, guitar, harmonica and bass and Kevin Tate on drums.

Other credits include Daniela de Stefanis, Bill Kennedy and Garth Richardson as engineers. The executive producers was W. Barry Wilson. The songs were mastered by Michele Stone, while the producer was Rob Meurer (who also played percussion and organ on the record). Novi Novog played viola. She has played viola in more than 150 records including 10,000 Maniacs or Dolly Parton!

The song “Homeward Bound” is actually a cover of Paul Simon and the first track, “Sixth Flower Dimension” was written by Errol Hughes. Who was he?

There were no compilation appearances for the band nor any other releases. How strange.

I look at any other bands they might have been on. Kevin Tate seems to have drummed for Gorges Borges who released a 12″ in 1985. And that’s it. What about the other members? They must have played music somewhere else, no?

To me it looks clear the label had a lot of hope in the band. I read that their cover of “Homeward Bound” had a video and used to be played in MTV Europe. I haven’t been able to find this video on Youtube.

There is absolutely no more info about the band. I think they hailed from Texas. But that’s what I think. I don’t have prove.

Hopefully we’ll learn more details about them in the future. Anyone remembers them?

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
The Allisons – Sherry Goes Round

Day 476. I just became a father of a beautiful baby boy. Honestly don’t know how much time I’ll be able to invest on the blog now. I have a few posts about obscure bands that I have written already, like this one, but I always look for new recommendations just before posting. So those you can expect to be published in the next few days. The blog may not update as often now, until I get the grip of this new life, but I will continue writing and posting when time allows is. Maybe it continues the same, I don’t know, but just wanted to let everyone know that don’t worry, that everything is great. Just very busy!

Love, Burns: so because of the events I just told you I missed the limited edition 7″ that Love, Burns released. I hope you did not. That because the two songs included in it, “Wired Eyes (alternate mix)” and “Hard to Fall” are two terrific pieces by Phil Sutton’s solo project. He also played live a few weekends back and I missed that. Oh well, at least we can play these songs over and over and wait for the next release!

Melenas: the Pamplona all-girl band is back with a superb rendition of Grauzone’s “Eisbär”. This time in Spanish though. The song is “Osa Polar” and sounds like a popstatic pop bomb! Punchy and catchy, you wonder if they will release it in any way. It sounds great. What a superb band they are. They should keep getting bigger and bigger!

Red Go-Cart: a new flexi by a favourite Japanese band of mine! Just one song though, but a nice song nonetheless! “Jellyfish” is out now on Galaxy Train Records and it also comes with a lovely sleeve by Heather Marigold. The band formed by Tomomi Usui, Miki Hirose and Yuji Usui continues to craft perfect pop!

Eggs on Mars: now we head to Kansas City, to check out the latest by this four-piece formed by Brad, Mason, Bennie and Doug. Their latest is indeed a  7-song mini-album called “Brighter Now”. It is available on CD, and as I was writing this post only 7 copies were left! So don’t miss it.

Hurry: we stay in  the US, but we head now to Philadelphia. Here I discover the solo project of Matt Scottoline. Hurry is the name of this fine guitar pop project who released the album “Fake Ideas” on June 25. Again few copies are left of this 12″ that came out on Lame-O-Records. 10 songs worth your time.

—————————————————————–

I think I need to get back to the idea of making a cool compilation of Australian indiepop. I had the front cover done, I got the name for it (though that was a bit complicated because I was using a band’s song and they were sort of ok of me using it), and had contacted many bands though I really didn’t get a song from any! I wanted a song, a bio and a photo. Simple! But no one was giving me that. One band was making it more complicated asking to sign a contract for one song. That was quite disheartening. I can’t be dealing with contracts and stuff at this point. Too busy. It is just me. Oh well… The whole point was to give another life to all these songs that are wonderful. And I keep discovering more and more wonderful Australian pop. The Handmedowns is the latest discovery.

The band formed in Adelaide at the end of 1986 and was part of the underground scene along Dust Collection, Mad Turks and Scremaing Believers among others. Discogs has a pretty good informative bio that tells us that they were formed by:
Trevor Comley on vocals and lead guitar
Tony Dyer on vocals and rhythm guitar
Dave Gray on bass
Jason Kilic on drums

This lineup recorded a 6 track demo in 1987.

After the demo was done, Dave Gray left (he would form the band Rocket Science) and was replaced by Rohan Belton who had been on the Verge, Dust Collection and Garden Path. Rohan would add some vocals to the previously recorded demo and these songs would have to wait 27 years to be released. More on that in a bit!

In 1987 Tony Dyer would also leave the band and the three remaining members would record the 12″ EP “Back to Yourself” that was released by Greasy Pop Records (GPR 140). Eventually another member of Dust Collection would join the band, Scott Allan, on vocals and rhythm guitar.

The band would call it quits in 1989.

Comley, Dyer and Kilic would later form the band Swerve. Dyer would also be in the Stoneage Hearts in the 2010s. Comley went to join the Sack. Belton would start a label, Smashed Records. Gray would move to Melbourne and be in bands like the Electric Guitars and the Freeloadere. Kilic would become president of the SANFL football club “Sturt” in Adelaide.

Okay, that was quite interesting. Now let’s look at the records!

The “Back to Yourself” 12″ would be good to listen. I need to try to get a copy of it. In the meantime we know that it was recorded at Foundation Studios, Salisbury East. The engineer was Richard Goodbridge. The photography on the sleeve is credited to Amanda Belton (sister or wife of Rohan?).

The songs on this 12″ were “State of Confusion”, “What if I” and “Home” on the A side and “When All the World Was Young”, “Back to Yourself” and “Cornerstone” on the B side.

Now comes the 6 song demo that was released in 2004. It came out on Belton’s label, Smashed Reecords (SMA 103), and was titled “Free Set of Steak Knives”. These tracks were recorded at Bartels St. Studio and remixed at Artec Studios. The engineer was Kim Horne while the remixing is credited to Stuart Sheldon.

The songs on this CD were “Goodbye”, “Slip Away”, “Quarter to 12”, “What’s in a Heart”, “Reflections” and “Really Hot Woman”.

The band also appeared on a few compilations.

Back in the day, 1988, their song “Quarter to Twelve” appeared on “Oasis 2 (the 1988 Greasy Pop Compilation of Adelaide Bands)”, a 12″ comp released by their label, Greasy Pop (GPR143).

In 1998 their song “Goodbye” ended up in the classic Swedish music magazine Sound Affects’ compilation 7″ “4×4”. I didn’t know the existence of this 7″ that came along the number 38 of this magazine. The Handmedowns appear as the second song on the A side. The first song on the A side is by The Flatmates.

Smashed Records would give new life to the songs starting in 2003. First including two songs, “Home” and “When all the World Was Young” to the CDr compilation “South Central Indi Pop from the Mullet Era” (SMA101). This looks like something I’d like as it includes two bands that I know are good, Dust Collection and The Garden Path. Would be nice to hear Trailer Park and The Verge that are the other bands in this collection.

“Slip Away” was included in the 2005 compilation  of songs written by Tony Dyer called “Your Eyes” (SMA108). On this CD all songs are but Swerve but “Slip Away”.

Lastly in 2005 we see “Smashed MMV” (SMA110), another compilation where The Handmedowns include “Goodbye” and “Home”.

And as I was looking for their songs I stumble upon a Bandcamp for The Handmedowns with all of their songs! Perfect!

One thing I notice too is that the “Back to Yourself” 12″ was re-released in 2004 by Smashed Records (SMA105) on CDR. This one included the same six songs plus “Goodbye (Swedish Edition)”, the track that was on the Sound Affects compilation.

Great! I found more info and all the songs! This was a good research project. But were there even more songs recorded? Why haven’t I heard this band before? They sound good! I find that with Greasy Pop Records I haven’t been able to listen most of their catalogue. It is not easy available. I need to invest some money in it.

And yeah, that compilation has to happen someday. So many great indiepop bands in Australia in the late 80s, early 90s!

Anyhow, who remembers the Handmedowns? What are the band members up to these days?

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
The Handmedowns – Slip Away

Day 474

Reminiscent: we start this Wednesday with this Spanish band with an English name. Their latest release is a four-song EP called “Primavera”. The band seems to be a duo, boy/girl, formed by Guardian and Dafne, who make some lovely lo-fi bedroompop.

Capitol: now we head to Hamilton, Ontario. That’s Canada. A cool EP titled “All the Rest of my Heads” will be released on September 15 by this postpunk/janglepop band. Four songs that will be released by Meritorio Records in Spain. Yeah, it is not just digital but we’ll get a 12″. That’s always good news. Preview one of the tracks, “Always Saying Nothing”, and get hooked.

Flight Mode: now to Oslo, Norway. Very international post. A punky pop EP that actually dates from the summer of 2017. But it is online now on Bandcamp, a few years after. The EP is titled “TX, ’98” and it is very catchy and fun. Two songs out of the four are available to preview, “Sixteen” and “Fossil Fuel”.

Pip Blom: next up is Amsterdam. Here we discover this superb sounding pop band who will be releasing their album “Welcome Break” on October 8. But they don’t want us to wait with no news. They are sharing “Keep it Together” a great slice of indiepop. The band will be releasing their record on Heavenly Recordings, the label of Saint Etienne.

Tapeworms: I wanted to end this review with the latest video by Tapeworms. The Lille, France, band released the album “Magic Pierrot” and they have put together this fun video for the eponymous song. Enjoy!

—————————————————————–

Another day, another obscure band.

Another band that I know barely anything. I hope the web will help me find details about them, any information that would paint for me some of the big picture of who they were.

Loveskip were British as far as I know and released just one record. That happened in 1988 and was a 12″ single with “Carry On at Large” on the A side and “I Will Not Wash this Hand” on the B side. The B side makes me giggle, that song title, in these times of pandemic, seems so wrong! But it is a great slice of pop music I have to say.

The black and white sleeve of the record, that was self-released by the way, catalog Loveskip 001, shows a guy sitting on a beach chair. The back of the chair and of this individual face us. The guy is wearing a hat that says “Kiss me quick, squeeze me slow”. He is not wearing beach clothes, looks like he has shoes and jeans, event though he is clearly on a beach.

On the back we find the band members, Dominic Bell on vocals, Daniel Sutton on guitars, Andy Goldie on bass and Tim Bryant on drums. There’s a photo of the four of them, on a beach. Looks cold, and windy.  All photos were taken by Stevan Zivanovic. Oh, and the cover was created by Graham Watts while the sleeve was designed by Naomi Davies. The band logo was created by Sid Sutton.

Both songs on the record were penned by Daniel Sutton and the lyrics are printed on the back of the sleeve. Other credits on the record include that of Sharon Harvey who did backing vocals on the B side and Martin Cantwell who played keyboards on both songs.

Both songs were recorded at F2 Studios and were engineered by Serge. They were produced by Loveskip and Serge.

On Discogs they don’t have any compilations listed. So that’s a dead end.

There’s a Tim Bryant on many releases on Discogs. But I think that’s not the same Tim Bryant. Would be nice to confirm in which other bands they were involved with. Dominic appears on two releases by Gymnastics in the Seventies but this band hails from Australia. So maybe he migrated there? Or maybe not. Can’t tell.

Daniel Sutton on the other hand appears on a band called Munroe Effect that released a 7″ and a CDEP in the 2000s. I can’t be a 100% sure it is the same Daniel, but chances are higher compared to Tim and Dominic’s.

One random thing I found was a sale listing for a Yamaha BB3000 bass. Here the seller mentions this was the choice of bass of Andy Rourke from The Smiths and Andy Goldie of Loveskip!

No more info on the web. Would be nice to know where in the UK they were from. And of course if they recorded more songs! Anyone remembers them?

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Loveskip – I Will Not Wash this Hand

Day 467

The Slow Summits: I love the band from Linköping. They know how to craft perfect pop songs. I don’t understand yet how come they haven’t released a record. They should. A 7″ would be wonderful. There latest song “Then Again” is a fine pop slice. Would be a great single!

Starry Eyed Cadet: the San Francisco band doesn’t need an introduction. They are wonderful. They are another favourite band of the blog. They know how to make gorgeous songs. Their latest is no exception, “Feathers”, which is also their first release on Lilystars Records.

Pelopincho: I shared a video a few posts ago for one of the songs from Pelopincho’s latest album “Loop Adolescente”. Well, now the whole album, all 8 songs, are up on Bandcamp for us to enjoy. The Buenos Aires band is also another favourite, one of the best of Argentina. Just wish their releases were available in physical format!

Subterfuge: now we head to Düsseldorf, Germany. “Stephanie Said” is the first song the band has released since 2017! This song will be included in the band’s forthcoming album “Dots”. We don’t know when will it be released, but it will mark 30 years since the German popsters starting making music back in 1991!

Spearmint: the classic English back will be releasing a new album on September 10th on the fine WIAIWYA Records that our friend Jerv runs in London. The album will be available as a double gatefold 10″ vinyl. Pretty pretty. Right now we can preview one of the songs, “Walk Away from Hollywood”, out of 14! Yeah. This is great. I can’t wait to hear all songs. I’m sure it will be great as al previous records by “Britain’s best kept secret”.

—————————————————————–

15 or so years ago I discovered Stella Rocket from Stockholm. It was the time of Myspace and that’s exactly where I found about them. I really liked them then and since I haven’t listened to them much. But yeah, I was a fan, and I think it would be a good time to revisit them.

The band actually had formed much earlier, in 2001. I think I must have discovered them around 2004. The band was formed by Tove Leander (vocals, guitars and strings), Tobias Larsson (bass), Andreas Lindkvist (drums) and Linda Portnoff (vocals and keyboards).

The band’s first release was the self-titled album from 2004. It was self-released (SR 001) on CD. It was recorded at Studio Gröndal at Dubious Studios and mastered at Polar Studios. The album included 11 songs, “Stella Anthem”, “Animals”, “Regret”, “Tokyo”, “Distance”, “I Don’t Want it”, “Why Don’t You Love Me?”, “Empty Hands”, “Bapada”, “Speed” and “With You”.

The engineers for this record were Björn Hansell, Christoffer Roth, Johan Gustanfsson and Pelle Gunnerfeldt. So many! For mastering we just see the credit for Henrik Jonsson. The producer was the great Jari Hapalainen from Céleste, Mary-Go-Round, The Bear Quartet and more.

Other credits in the record include Jezzica Sunmo on photography and Lisa Rydell for the sleeve artwork.

But one thing I notice is that Jenny Kai-Larsen was the vocalist (as well as doing the art) on this record.

In 2004 the band would release the “Animals” CD single. This one was released by Planekonomi (PLAN6). The recording credits are the same as in the album. The CD single included the title song as well as the lovely track “Lips”. One thing to note is that the band made a video for the song “Animals” which I actually uploaded myself to Youtube back in 2006!! And it is still there!

In 2009 the band would release more records. They would also sign to a new label, Fashionpolice Records.

Not sure if the album or the CD single came first. But I’ll start with the CD single “Keep On”. This one was released by the aforementioned label (FP0032) and included the songs “Keep On” and “Gothenburg Boys”. The songs were mixed by Mattias Glavå and were mastered by Alf Håkan Åkesson at the Cutting Room.

Lastly the band released the album “To the Birds” on Fashionpolice Records (FP0036) in 2009. This album included 11 tracks, “To the Birds”, “Keep On”, “Tomorrow”, “Old Nuns”, “Black Rabbit”, “Single Inga”, “Thérèse”, “My Princess”, “A Face Without Eyes”, “Sebastian” and “Stella Anthem #2”.

According to the Swedish Wikipedia I am missing another releases, a CD single from 2007 with the song “Armstrong”. I haven’t been able to find any information about it.

And yeah, no compilation appearances.

Not great. Not much info. I start looking for the band members, if they had been in any other bands. I don’t see Tove to appear on any other bands, though she did do backing vocals on the second album by Jari Hapalainen’s band Heikki. It is the same case for Linda. No other bands but backing vocals on the “Open Field” album by Taken by Trees.

That’s strange. No other bands for any of the members of Stella Rocket!

I keep looking. I believe the band played some gigs or a gig with The Tough Alliance back in 2004. That same year the band performed at the famous Emmaboda Festival. Another gig I find about is one from 2010, on March 22nd at the Jazzhuset in Gothenburg.

I don’t have an account on the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper and can’t get behind the firewall. But there I notice that Jenny Kai-Larsen left the band after the first album, and it was the remaining members who continued and released the second album.

And that’s all the info I could gather. I am sure many of my Swedish friends remember them. I believe there was a buzz about the band, people thought they could have been bigger than they ended up being. Would be great to know what are they up to these days.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Stella Rocket – Animals

Day 464

Olivia’s World: “Debutante” is the first single off the band’s new EP “Tuff 2B Tender” which is out now by the veritable Lost Sound Tapes. Alicia’s band has been a favourite of the blog, as were her previous bands!, and it is great to be treated to this lovely video. Don’t miss it!

Evergreen Days: “Essential // The Sound of…” is the retrospective compilation we’ve all been wanting by Emelie Berg’s solo project, the wonderful Evergreen Days from Sweden! This compilation has been put together by My Secret Garden Recordings and includes 14 tracks! More than I expected. I would love to interview Emelie, I will try to do that soon! Love this band and as the name of the compilation tells you, it is essential. Pre-orders for the CD version are up!

Vocal Age: this is an oldie but a new discovery! Hailing from Stockholm, Vocal Age only put together an EP called “What If” which is up on Bandcamp. I haven’t heard this band before but sounds great! It dates from 2015 and I wonder how come it flew under our radar. The songs are really good, jangly, fun, dreamy, with female/male vocals. Amazing really. If I had heard this in 2015 I would have been more than interested to put it out!

Stutter Steps: this project by Ben Harrison, with the help from Anthony LaMarca, Phil Jacoby and Cindy Yogmas, has released a very nice album calleed “Reeling” in 2020. It is out now on vinyl and includes 12 songs. The Pittsburgh based band crafts some introspective and well-crafted pop songs. Worth a listen for sure.

Lightning Love: now we head to Ypsilanti, Michigan. I always liked that city’s name. Anyhow, that’s where Lightning Love are from. This trio are re-releasing their 2008 album “November Birthday” on July 30th on vinyl and CD! You can  two of the tracks as of now, “Everyone I Know”, “Friends” and “Good Time”. If you like upbeat pop definitely check out, especially “Everyone I Know” which is a bonafide pop single!

—————————————————————–

This find comes from the Youtube channel stoneeyedkiller, a great resource for obscure indiepop!

I had never heard about this band nor the compilation “Too Nice for Words”. It is in this compilation that the song “God’s Shelf”, the one shared in the Youtube channel, appears.

I think it won’t surprise anyone if I can’t find much more information about the band. But I am going to try my best. Maybe there’s something somewhere?

Discogs has nothing about them. But suddenly I find something, on the Hull Music Archive website. It is an entry of this compilation. Great! Immediately we find out that it was released in 1993 and included 18 different bands. Were they all from the Hull area? Were they all indiepop? I guess that is something we should try to find out eventually. Bow Jangles’ song appears on the B side, it is the 6th song on that side.

There is an interesting tidbit here. It mentions that this tape was compiled by the promoter and musician Chris Warkup. This was actually the fifth of a series of tape compilations he put together in the early 90s.

I keep digging.

And I find that the band had more songs. They released at least two demo tapes that same year, 1993. The first one included the songs “Let it Go”, “Get Out of Bed” and “Coming on Strong”. The second tape had “Lost Ego”, “God’s Shelf”, “Pick Yourself Up” and “A World on Focus”. Okay, now we know 7 songs. I want to listen to them!

I think though these will be all of the details I will find today. It’s not great, but it is not as bad as I thought it would be. It’d be great to find some band members names.

Hopefully someone remembers them. Maybe a reader from Hull. It’d be great to learn more info about them!

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Bow Jangles – God’s Shelf

Day 462

Gap Year: the cassette album “Flat Out” is now sold out. It is a shame. It is a wonderful 9 song album. The Perth, Australia, band jangles like indiepop bands from the heyday. Chiming and chiming, 9 wonderful songs that deserve every indiepop fan’s attention! A band to keep an eye for sure!

Neil Brogan: “Magnolia Day” is the first track out of the new album by the Belfast bedroom popster. The album will be titled the same way, “Magnolia Day” and will be released on July 9th. Not sure in which formats though. The song is a bright sunny pop song, a feel good song, that makes me want to listen to the rest of the record. Hopefully it is good as this one!

Stomp Talk Modstone: the Japanese band is a favourite of the blog, been recommended time and time again. Their brand of shoegaze is up my street, with poppy melodies and superb walls of guitar. They have just released a new digital single, “The Locket”, which I had to recommend. So head to their Bandcamp and have a listen.

Palm Ghosts: the Nashville, Tennessee, guitar pop band has just released a collection of digital singles and b sides which is a delight. The compilation released on CD and titled “Singles + B Sides” is out now. It includes 13 songs of classic jangle!

Space Daze: and we finish this Wednesday’s recommendations with Seattle’s Space Daze. The ex-Seapony has made a wonderful new EP titled “Visible Spectrum”. A dreamy EP, packed with beautiful melodies, that I am enjoying today. Feels like perfect music for a rainy day. Just like today.

—————————————————————–

It is 1991 and The Monk Bought Lunch released a 7″ that remains quite obscure.

I have a copy of this record, with it’s black and white sleeve, with a dog on the front cover. What sort of dog is it? Was this dog the pet of one of the band members? I wonder…

The information is scarce. The 7″ had three songs, “Love and Hate” on the A side and “Paint it White” and “The Sailors Tilted Hat” on the B side. The back of the sleeve tells us that the band was just a duo, Andy on music and vocals and Louise on vocals.

The other info we find on the sleeve is an address for Studio Adelaide. This is to contact the band. The band (and the studio) were based in Maldon, Essex. I’ve looked for this place in Google Maps. It doesn’t look like a studio, but a two floor house. It looks pretty and quiet. Seems far away from everything. The closest city looks to be Chelmsford.

On the label we get some more info. We know that the songs were produced by Andy Hayes and Grant Matthews at Studio Adelaide. Andy Hayes, that must be Andy from the band.

There are no compilation appearances.

I keep looking for any info. I read someone saying that the band was actually a solo project of Andy Hayes. So no Louise in the band? Andy would later form a band called Is She Weird? This band would release 2 7″s in the early 90s. The sound was a bit different though, less indiepop…

From what I understand the phrase The Monk bought lunch comes from the song “The Soft Parade” by The Doors.

The only other things I could find were some anecdotes, like that Andy pressed few copies of this record, that he gave a lot of them away to friends, and that he isn’t happy about the music on this record. Hmmm… oh well…

Not much more information on the web, but hopefully someone can enlighten us soon. Would be great to know any details about this obscure band that at some point a lot of indiepop collectors were looking for their sole record!

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
The Monk Bought Lunch – Love and Hate

Day 460

Lentillas de Colores: just a month ago I was recommending a CD release by the León, Spain. Well, it didn’t take long for them to announce a new vinyl release! It is coming out on July 19 and includes 4 songs! You can preview all four songs on Bandcamp as well as grab some lovely merch like totebags and t-shirts!

The Goon Sax: after the announcement of their upcoming album “Mirror II”, the Brisbane-trio has released a video for the song “Psychic”! Great video, great song. Can’t wait for the album.

Jilted Jonas: oh! It’s been a while since we heard from the Swede based in Berlin. Well, the wait is over and there’s a new catchy indiepop track called “Silent Kisses”. It is a fine slice of lo-fi indiepop. Perfect for this sunny weekend!

Pelopincho: one of our favourite Latin American bands, the Buenos Aires combo has released a new video for their song “Tijeras Oxidadas” which was released on June 10th. The album is “Loop Adolecente” and will be available digitally.

Skiftande Enheter: oh, I feel bad for having missed this 7″. I only discovered it the other day. It came out on a label I was not aware of, Chunklet Industries from Atlanta. The 7″ which is now sold out included two songs, “Lögn” and “Bättre Förr”. The band is very Flying Nun sounding, that’s a good thing. The songs are really good. So yeah, let’s listen to them on Bandcamp. 50 copies are too little…

—————————————————————–

A few days ago I got a request to look into this US band. I must say I have never heard of them before so that picked my curiosity. On top of that, the one song I was able to listen on the web, “Space of Ten Days”, sounded like candy to my ears. So I couldn’t say no, and I am here doing some detective work on the blog.

The song I mentioned was included in an 8-song album called “Priests & Poets” that was released by S.H.C. Records (002A) in 1987. I would guess that this was the band’s own label as both releases listed are by the same band.

Indeed, the other release, a 7″ with two songs, “All the Guns” on the A side and “Conversation” on the B side, was released in 1986 by the same label (001A). I am checking the back of the jacket and I find some information that may help us find out more about them.

To start the two songs were produced by Chan Poling and thee band. The first song, “All the Guns”, was engineered by D. Goulet while the B side was engineered by M. Owens and K. Glynn. Sadly there are no first names anywhere but on the sleeve design credits, John Myron Hansen.

One thing though is that the label has an address in Minneapolis. And the contact person of the label is not one of the band members. We see this name, S. Koebel Price. Maybe then, the band and the label were two different entities?

Oh! And yes, of course, the band members appear here too. Michael Jacobson on words and guitars, Davids Sarma on guitar, D. Moriarty on bass and Mike Padilla on drums and percussion.

Now let’s get back to the 1987 album. I mentioned 8 songs. These were “Daylight”, “25th Year”, “Martyr” and “In this Life” on the A side and “Grayed Expectations”, “Space of Ten Days”, “Until You Smile” and “Drop the Ball” on the B side. All songs were recorded at Nicollet Studios which was based in Minneapolis. I feel by this point we can safely assume that the band hailed from there.

I also notice some changes in the band. I don’t see a D. Moriarty but a Ben Peters on bass and vocals. Davids Sarma is now credited on cello as well. The producers for this record was Chris Osgood (from Buzz Barker & the Atomic Bums, L73 and The Suicide Commandos) and the band. The engineeer was Steve Fjelstad (who had done some remixes for R.E.M. and was part of L73, Fingerprints and Figures). The art is credited again to John Myron Hansen.

I don’t see on Discogs any compilation appearances. I don’t see any other bands they might have been involved with.

I look for them. I find that Davids Sarma was once part of the Tau Beta Pi and graduated cum laude at the University of Minnesota in 1994. It proves a bit harder to track the other band members as their names are a bit more common.

And that’s really it. I couldn’t find any more info. But I hope some of the readers from Minneapolis can help with more details!

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Circle of Eyes – Space of Ten Days