Day 366

Nos Etés Trop Courts: another tape has surfaced from the Nantes 90s pop band. This one is a rehearsal tape, dating from spring 1991. Here we find 8 songs, one being a Sonic Youth cover. Included is my favourite song of theirs, “Diaphane”. It is interesting to listen to this tracks like this, in a total different way.

The Primary Colours: wow! remember I interviewed this great 80s band on the blog some time ago? They released just one 7″ back in 1987 and now the band has added this 7″ to their Bandcamp (well the Bandcamp of their current band, Wily). So if you have never heard them before this it is definitely a good idea to do so now.

The Telephone Numbers: not too long I was recommending this San Francisco band and now I find out they have signed to the Madrid label Meritorio Records and are releasing an album called “The Ballad of Doug” on vinyl on June 4! Great news! We can preview one of the songs now, “You’re Nowhere”, which sounds really good!

A Estas Alturas: from Puerto Rico comes this band which I believe is now based in Dallas, Texas. The band seems to be actually a solo project by Daniel Vicente and his latest song is called “Efectos Secundarios”. He makes nice guitar driven bedroom pop. This year he has released previously two other songs, so three in total. This is a nice discovery, especially the 2nd track he put out, “Agua Que Cae del Cielo”, which is my favourite.

Julia Amor: and lastly we head to Valencia, Spain. There we discover a label called Futuras Licenciadas. Never heard about them before but I plan to check all their releases. For now I am listening to their latest, Julia Amor, which was released on tape earlier this year. Now it is sold out. But at least we can listen the 5 songs that were included in it and they make a nice surprise.

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Who were the Crimson Mints? They wrote “Makes Me Want To”, one of my favourite songs from the legendary tape “Positively Teenage”, and I don’t know of any other song by them!

There must be more songs. You don’t record just one! If you go to a studio you take advantage and at least record two. Right? Who would know?

Maybe Stephen Maughan could know? He did the fantastic This Almighty Pop! fanzine and he released the tape, “Positively Teenage” (DOLPHIN 7), in 1990.

This tape included so many great bands from Love Parade to The Penny Candles. You find the Fat Tulips, The Williams, Mousefolk, The Church Grims, The Mayfields, The Sohfas, etc, etc. One wonders how was this tape put together! It’s so good. How did Stephen found all these songs? all these bands? And of course how he found about the Crimson Mints!

I’ve found a tape with two songs on the web. The songs are “Don’t Take Me” and “Here Lies Dust”. This tape dates from 1995 and has a black and white sleeve with a dog in the cover. The band hails from Newscastle. Is it the same band?

The vocalist in this tape is Julie Grant. She suffered of myalgic encephalomyelitis. This tape came with an folded insert informing about the illness. There was an address for the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Association and also a request to help them.  Also on the sleeve of the tape it mentions that Julie has been suffering of this illness since May 1986 and that 1 pound of each copy of the cassette was to be donated for research into the virus. The song “Don’t Take Me” is written about and dedicated to those who suffer.

When I interviewed Bulldozer Crash’s Stephen and Marc they mention the band though they don’t give any details. Marc does tell me that his brother Graeme from Love Parade though the song “Final Kick” by The Liberty Ship (Marc’s band in the early 2000s) sounded like pure Crimson Mints.

I know some more little details. For example that the Crimson Mints supported The Blue Aeroplanes in a venue called Riverside in 1990. Where was this venue? Probably Newcastle. What day? That I don’t know…

The other gig I know of is of November 8, 1990, a Thursday. That time the band played alongside Halfway House at Joe Wilsons in Newcastle.

And that’s all I could find. Anyone remembers them? Have any more information?!

Edit: on the This Almighty Pop fanzine volume 2 from autumn 1988 there is a mention of the Crimson Mints. There are not many details but two that are important. One is that the guitar player was called Alan. and that Julie was the bassist. The only other interesting bit is that they played a gig with The Wishing Stones at the Broken Doll club on Oct. 28th of that same year. (Thanks to Elias for the info)

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Listen
Crimson Mints – Makes Me Want To

Day 364

The Kensingtons: great news! Our friends are back with the “All it Was, Was Everything” EP! Now back in England, the band has made 7 terrific indiepop slices for this EP for everyone to enjoy. Jangly, catchy, poppy, upbeat, the sort of indiepop we need to end the winter!

Moon Museum: this is a new band from San Francisco and sounds really good! There is just one song on Bandcamp and it is called “Pleasures of Peace” which is a swirling dreamy track. The band is formed by Olivia Barchard, Ryan Joseph, Ian Zazueta and Aaron Hazen. This sounds very promising. Let’s hope for more songs soon.

Boyracer: wow! a new EP by Boyracer! That’s great news. The songs for “Right or Wrong” are going to be released in cassette on March 25. But for those that are no fans of tapes like me there are the good news that the band recorded another 14 songs that will be released as a vinyl LP later this year. Good news indeed!

Ural Mountains: now we head to Argentina to find a French band there. Yeah that’s a bit confusing but interesting at the same time. Their latest release “Synthetic Lights” is an 8 song album packed with superb chiming, jangly and shoegazy guitars. Really nice!

Dyl: not much information about this Portland project, but I am really enjoying “Picture demo”, the latest track on their Soundcloud. It is a fun lo-fi bedroom-pop song. Will check their rest of songs now…

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Do you remember the Bristol label Big Pink Cake? Do you remember the club nights, the great indiepop nights at the Mothers’ Ruin in Bristol that Big Pink Cake organized? I attended once and it was fantastic. I wish I had attended many more times. The job Matthew and Heather did was just inspiring.

My memories bring me back to their label. Mind you, they started as a club night and then they did the label, not the other way around. And I always find that interesting. Hopefully one day we’ll hear their story. Today I wanted to revisit the band Vanilla Ride, who I believe, correct me if I’m wrong, the last release on the label.

Their release was a self-titled album and came out in 2012. Catalog number was BPC 008. It was a CDR in the style that was common those days, in a small plastic sleeve.There you’d find the sleeve, which was printed on both sides, an insert thanking you for buying the release, another insert with the catalog telling that the next releases were going to be by The Sunny Street and The Fireworks, and lastly a folded A4 page with a photo of the band and lyrics of the song “Rocket Bicycle”. One thing though that I was curious about is that in most photos we see three people, but the band is listed as a four-piece. How come?

The album included 9 songs, “Two 107”, “Rocket Bicycle”, “Hilma”, “You and I”, “A Boring Day in Oslo”, “Katherine”, “Anti Rock Chick Song”, “Two 107 (Version 2)” and “Me Against You”.

The band members were Veronica Dajani on guitar and vocals, Bret Fulton on drums and backing vocals, Sachiko Fukuda on bass and backing vocals and Corinne Alvarado on bass. Now, the sleeve sort of solves the mystery of the band members. Corinne was in the band only in 2007. Sachiko would join in 2007 and be in the band until 2009.

Till when did the band last? Was the CD release posthumously? One thing that I notice on the photos is that the three members that were around in the end show their arms. There they have something written or something drawn. Bret has “Manc” written, he must be from Manchester, Veronica has a Norwegian flag, so was she from Norway? And Sachiko has a Japanese flag, was she from Japan?

We know too that all songs were written by Veronica Dajani but “Anti Rock Chick Song” where the music was created by the whole band.

The CD also gives us information and sort of tells you this is a compilation of different recordings. So “Two 107”, “You and I”, “A Boring Day in Oslo”, “Katherine” and “Me Against You” were recorded in 2007 at Vatican Recording Studios in Bethnal Green, London. Then we know that “Rocket Bicycle”, “Hilma”, “Anti Rock Chick Song” and “Two 107 (Version 2)” were recorded by George C. Coombs at Elderfield Studios in Homerton, London. Lastly all songs for these CD were mastered by Rocker Rosehip. Our old friend Rocker.

The photos in the sleeve are credited to Neil Anderson. The front cover art to Veronica Dajani.

Aside from this cool album the band contributed to two compilations, both in 2009. Their song “Rocket Bicycle” appeared on the first release of the Big Pink Cake Label, “Piece of Cake! – An Indiepop Compilation” (BPC 001). Also that same year “A Boring Day in Oslo” appeared on the CDR comp “Series Two Compilation Vol. 18”.

So what happened afterwards with the London band? Is that something we can find out? Bret Bolton continued making music, he was involved in MFC Chicken, The Baron Four, The Bridge Gang, The Roves, The Teamsters and in The Choo Choo Trains. Sachiko was in umez, No Cars and also on The Choo Choo Trains. She also contributed on a song by The Projects. Veronica did release a solo album on Meat ‘N’ Tatty Tapes last year and was also on The Choo Choo Trains. I didn’t know of this connection. Would it make sense to say Vanilla Ride evolved into the Choo Choo Trains?

The Choo Choo Trains last release was in 2015. What happened afterwards? Ok, we know Veronica continued making music on her own. I also believe Bret and Sachiko weren’t in the Choo Choo Trains long, The Choo Choo Trains were a three girl-piece.

Another interesting detail I find is that Vanilla Ride is actually the name of a crime fiction novel by American author Joe R. Lansdale. It is the eight book of the Hap and Leonard series. Did they take the name from this book? Were they fans of crime fiction?

Then we find a Bandcamp by the band. Here you can preview all the songs though it doesn’t any more details than what I’ve shared so far.

The Wildblanket blog has an article where they mention the band. Here it tells that the band presented themselves just as Veronica and Sachiko at the Dublin Castle.  The writer mentions he has seen Vanilla Ride as Veronica solo and also as Veronica and Bret. And also there’s a nice collection of photos here of that gig.

The band also played at the Big Pink Cake Indie-Pop! all weekender on July 11th of 2009. That time they shared bill with great bands like Pocketbooks, The Westfield Mining Disaster, Amida or Electrophonvitage!

On May 9, same year, Big Pink Cake organized a gig at the Mother’s Ruin with Pocketbooks, The Kick Insid and Vanilla Ride.

Another gig they did was sometime in April 2009 alongside The Manhattan Love Suicides, Dirtblonde and Fnords. I believe this was a gig organized by Lostmusic.

I also believe they played on April 15 at the Bull & Gate in London with Alien Milk, Elettronora and Sparky’s Magic Piano.

Well, that’s what I could find about them. There was internet back then of course, not so hard to find info about the band as with obscure 80s band, but still I feel there’s more story to tell. I hope we find out  more about Vanilla Ride in the near future!

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Listen
Vanilla Ride – Rocket Bicycle

Day 362

Monogamy: we start the week in Chicago with Monogamy’s EP “More Songs About Apartments & Lunch”. The poppy lo-fi EP is out now on cassette directly from the band. The EP has 4 songs, all recorded live this past January.

The Stammer: we continue in the US, now a band that I have featured back in the day. A long time ago I think! But I am well aware of the nice jangle pop this Philadelphia band makes. Their latest is a 10″ EP with just three songs! The songs included are “Burden on the Living”, “Wishing Well” and “Heaven”. Good stuff!

Miracle Legion: the classic New Haven band is on Bandcamp. I didn’t know! Their latest release there is actually a live album, “Live at Glam Slam 1992”. This club was a place invented and partly owned by Prince. They played there in March of 1992 and they did the 15 songs included here. Only digital it seems.

Citrus Clouds: another band that I enjoy and have featured in the past is this Phoenix, Arizona, combo. They have just released a new album titled “Collider”, 10 great slices of dreampop that are available on cassette and CD from Lolipop Records. This is a must for this month.

Firestations: ok, let’s move from the US to the UK now. There’s a cool limited CDR of the Firestations latest EP “Melted Medium”. It looks really pretty and it is actually the second installment in a trilogy of three EPs. Here are 6 lovely crafted popsongs that I totally recommend.

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I found two videos of the American band Syrup USA playing live. I have their album CD but I never put a face to the band members, nor I imagined them as a band. So this was really cool. These two videos I found on the channel RoadToRuane were actually full gigs. The first dates from October 26, 1996 at a venue called Middle East (in which city was this venue located?)  while the 2nd is from is from April 28, 1997, at the Green Street Grill (which city again?).

The band’s first release was a 7″ on the label Tru Luv (SYRUP 3), which we can guess was the band’s own. This 7″ was called “Spinning at 45 Revolutions Per Minute” and included two songs, “Joie de Vol” on the A side and “Bulldozer” on the B side. Both songs were recorded by Eric Masunaga (from The Dambuilders) at the Cold Room in Boston, in October 1994.

On the credits we find that the art was created by Leela Corman while we see Seana Carmody on vocals and guitar, Matt Fein on organ, Orrin Anderson on drums and Sam Mallery on bass and vocals.

The band’s second release was again a single. Released in 1995, this new 7″ came out also on Tru Luv (Tru Luv 2). It had two songs, “Teen Death” on the A side and “Mysterious Dog” on the B side. Both songs had been recorded at Fort Apache Studios in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Then they were mixed at Q-Division in Boston. I think by now I am pretty sure the band hailed from the Boston area. The person behind both recording and mixing was Miss Christina “Sport” Files (who had been in the Swirlies). Eric Masunaga is also credited with helping in the mixing. The executive producer for this record was Nick Hubben.

The band’s album, “All Over the Land”, came out in 1997. This is the record.I own by them. I remember enjoying it quite a bit. It was released on both CD and LP and was even released in Japan by Nippon Columbia (COCY-80775). In the rest of the world it was released by Flydaddy Records (FLY 023).   Flydaddy was the label of bands like The Olivia Tremor Control, Autohaze or Witch Hazel.

Again the band recorded at Fort Apache and Q Division Studios. The songs on this album were “People of the Lake”, “Joie de Vol”, “Thrill Fit”, “Parfait” and “Vaporized” on the A side and “New You”, “Trellis”, “Queen of the Beach”, “Stardust”, “Rosey Why” and “Harlequin” on the B side. 11 songs in total. The painting for the artwork is credited to Geoffrey Burns and the photos to Charles Peterson. In the mixing we see Owen Burkett and Richard Marr being credited. Christina Files was again the producer and engineer.

It is also worth noting that the Japanese version included three more songs, “Mysterious Dog”, “Teen Death” and “Bulldozer”.

Aside from these releases the band appeared on a few compilations in the 90s. The most well known is of course the 1996 comp “Pop American Style” on March Records (MAR024). This is a classic comp of course, and here the band appeared with the song “Thrill Fit”.

In 1996 their song “Rosey Why” appears on “Pipelin! Live Boston Rock on WMBR” double CD comp released by Slow River Records (VA016). That same year they contribute “After Dallas” to another CD compilation called “The Cool Beans! Texas Issue Companion CD” that came with the Cool Beans! magazine fifth number.

Lastly in 1997 the band had “Queen of the Beach” on “Explorer” a CD compilation that came with the 9th issue of the Japanese magazine Beikoku Ongaku and their track “Stardust” appeared on “CMJ New Music Monthly Volume 50 October 1997”, a CD that came included with the CMJ mag from October of that year.

Other worthy information that I could find is that Seana Carmody released a solo record in 2002 and was part of Raspberry Bang and the Swirlies. Sam Mallery was in the Hidden Driveways. Matt Fein seems to have collaborated with Sebadoh and Orrin Anderson worked in Seana’s album.

There is a Wikipedia entry on the band but doesn’t tell any other details sadly. So I keep googling… one interesting detail I find is that the band started in 1993 and disbanded in 1998.

And then I find a podcast, an interview with Seana Carmody. The podcast show is called All Your Things are Gone. And even better a Bandcamp with her latest release which is called “Barn Songs“. It is much folkier than Syrup USA but it is very enjoyable!

When it comes to Sam Mallery I find he has a blog!  I found a mention of Syrup USA in this article, where he mentions they played Maxwell’s in Jersey.

Another good find is this review of their album on the Boston Phoenix. It dates from October 1997 and was written by Brett Milano.

And that’s it. Where are they now? Who remembers them?

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Listen
Syrup USA – Parfait

Day 359.

The Sleeping Years: this is a really cool find for me! Dale Grundie, who is behind The Sleeping Years, was one of the members of the amazing band Catchers! His latest release on Bandcamp dates from 2013, but still, it is great to know he continued making music. The songs are a bit different to Catchers’ sound, this is a bit more pastoral, more folky. But there are great pop melodies like in “Into Sunlight”, which I believe is still available as a 7″. Maybe we could get in touch and interview him about Catchers? “Cotton Dress” is one of the best indiepop songs I think!

Corduroy: back in October I was raving about this Swedish band and wondering if they were going to release something. Well at least it seems they have found a record label, Vårø Records. There is no announcement here but a song, “Gråa Dagar” is available to stream as a digital single. I hope this means something is going to be released in the near future!

Friends Don’t Die: now we head to Los Angeles and discover Friends Don’t Die. Their latest song was released back in December and is called “Backwards”. There is not much information about the band, just a previous release, “She’s a Headrush”, dating from October. I am guessing it is a new-ish band. The sound is really good, catchy, indiepoppy with wave and post/punk influences with vocals reminding me of The Mary Onettes. Really enjoyable.

LaPara: it is rare to find a good Italian indiepop band! LaPara sounds good to me immediately. I play their latest track, “Traballa”, with the catchy female vocals and melodies, that I am sold. The band started in 2018 by Rebecca Paraciani and will be releasing an EP in April titled “Tutti Gli Animali del Mondo”.

All Under Heaven: lastly we discover All Under Heaven, a shoegaze band from Freehold, New Jersey. The band has signed to the fine Brighton label Shore Drive Records and is releasing a CD EP titled “Collider” which is already out! Four songs are included in this debut EP!

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I’m going to head to Japan to day to discover this band with an intersting name, Plain Cream Puff Spray. The band didn’t release any records as far as I know but recorded at least 4 songs and appeared on 5 compilations in the 90s. So let’s check them out.

It is in 1993 that we hear about the band for the first time. Their song “I Have a Butter Cup” appears on a cassette compilation called “We Don’t Need Another Hero” released by the Haarnadel label (HAAR02). This label I believe was run by two people, Hiroshi Kawano from Sgamihara-city and Tetsuya Ono from Atsugi-city. Not very familiar with many of the bands on this tape but a few have appeared on the blog like Tip Top Planets, All Twin’s Birthday and Sunshower.

The next year, 1994, the band would appear on the CD compilation “The Cacaos Go Like Hotcakes” released by Chocolat Art Records (CA010) and Pushbike Records (UFPB005). On this tape the band contribute the song “Lu”. Again not very familiar with the bands on this compilation, I know of Tip Top Planets, Sunny Gets Blue and Sunnychar. All great bands. I am familiar though with the Pushbike label, a superb Japanese record label.

Now it is 1995. The band starts collaborating with Clover Records, one of the best Japanese indiepop labels. They contribute, to the compilation cassette “The Solar System – Clover Records Compilation Vol.2” (C-010), the song “I Have a Buttercup (First Version)”. I don’t know if the song sounds much different to the version they contributed to the first compilation I mentioned, “We Don’t Need Another Her”, but would be nice to know. On this compilation I find another band I’ve featured in the past, Peatmos.

In 1997 the band appears on “Pop Jingu Volume 1 (A Japanese Pop Compilation)” released by Sonorama Records (Sonorama 004) and Clover Records (CLCD 1101). Thanks to this CD I discovered the band. On this compilation the band actually had two songs, “Forever” and “Prism”.

It is worth mentioning that I interviewed Dan from Sonorama Records not too long ago, so check that out.

Lastly in 1998 the band appears with “I Have a Buttercup” on the compilation tape “A Very Limited Special Promotion Tape from Clover Records”. This compilation was actually not for sale. All songs in this tape were selected from Spooky Music Club cassette only series up to catalog number 045 in the 2 years by Masato from Clover Records. Here it mentions that Clover started releasing tapes in 1995 and by the time they put out this tape they had made more than 8 thousand tapes. That’s a lot! Also by this time the label had been releasing 7″s, CDs, fanzines and more.  This is what says on the sleeve of course, but I am curious though what was the Spooky Music Club series. Does anyone have more information?

Now we know the songs and where they appeared but we don’t really know anything about the band so far. Well, on the “Pop Jingu” compilation there are some credits and that do help me find more about the band. Here it says that Naomi Funakoshi played all instruments and sang. There is address too for the Luv Lab Label in the Uguisadani area in Tokyo. Was that her own label?

So we know too that Naomi was part of Tip Top Planets. She was the vocalist. Cool. So that’s an interesting connection. On most of these compilations that Plain Cream Puff Spray appeared, Tip Top planets also appeared.

Really cool. Maybe some day I’ll be able to get in touch with Naomi then and maybe I’ll be able to learn about these two bands she was involved with, her solo bedroom project Plain Cream Puff Spray which I am writing about today and the super band she was in, Tip Top Planets, which I wrote about some time ago!

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Listen
Plain Cream Puff Spray – Forever

Day 357.

Ring Snuten: when theree’s a new song by Patrik I get very happy. This time around the ex-Hormones in Abundance and ex-Garlands has released “Mitt Livs Biljard”. But even better, the same song is also available in English as “The Pool of My Life”. Pool as in billiards of course. It’s great that last January he released a song, then now one in February… will we get one in March? I hope so!

A Young Persons Guide to Blue Very: Japanese friends and also friends from around the world. Here is a cool compilation on CDR released by the fine Blue-Very label from Tokyo. Kei’s label is great, he releases amazing bands, picking them with great taste. In this latest release, he has exclusive songs from bands like 101 Dalmatians, Sloppy Joe, Foreign Correspondent and more.

The Telephone Numbers: we head to San Francisco and I discover this lovely band! Thomas Rubenstein is the person behind the band who has just released a 7″ on the Fruits & Flowers label. The two songs included are “Leviathan” and “I Took a Walk (BZC version)”. The opening track reminds me a lot of Alpaca Sports. That’s definitely good, right?!

Toledo: now let’s discover this New York band that has just released theeir album “Hot Stuff” on vinyl. There are 10 songs here of fine dream pop, sometimes mixed with folky sounds. It is an interesting sound for sure.

Balloon Maker: wow! what a nice discovery! I owe this one to my friend David from Barcelona. The latest song by this Göteborg band is called “M.Boy” and it sounds really good! The band started back in 2014 with another name. In 2019 the band was already Balloon Maker with the lineup of Filip Orrhult, Jacob Andén, Arvid Lundén and Anton Örarbäck. The band is now looking forward to record their debut album this year.

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Here we are again discovering music thanks to the Wilfully Obscure blog. Sometimes I wonder if it is a good idea to repeat bands other fine blogs out there have featured. I would argue that it is a good idea, blogs have different readers, different reach. Also the post about the New Haven, Connecticut, band Beauty Constant there dates from August 2009. So more than 11 years. Maybe I’d get some new interest here, maybe we’ll learn new details about them!

With that in mind I check out the only release by the band, a 1987 album called “Like the Enemy”. This LP was released by Forehead Records (FHD 016). I don’t know anything about the label. Not sure where it was based. A good guess would be here in the Northeast. Maybe? What we do know is that there are credits on the back of the jacket.

So we know that Chihoe Hahn played guitar and vocals, Steve Folta guitar and backing vocals, Hugh Schoolman drums and Sandy Smallens bass and backing vocals.

Also worth noting is that the design of the sleeve was done by Donna Fringuello. The cover photography by William Vazquez while the photos on the back are by Barbara Longo. The production is credited to the band, Mike Denneen and William Garrett at Q Division in Boston for the A side and to the band and Al Hemberger at Lips, Bronxville, NY, for the B side.

Most songs were penned by Chihoe Hahn except “Thursday Night” which was written by Steve Folta and “Send a World Away’ written by both Hahn and Folta. The band’s manager was Tricia Davies and she was based in NYC.

So yeah, the LP had 10 songs in total. I’ve mentioned two so far. This was the tracklist. On the A side there’s “Ed’s Anthem”, “Under the Gun”, “Like the Enemy”, “Catching You” and “Fortunately”. The B side had “It’s One Life”, “Second Minor One”, “Site to See”, “Thursday Night” and “Send a World Apart”.

On the comments on the blog post from Wilfully Obscure we find a few little tidbits about the band. We know that the band was around at least as early as 1983, that they used to play R.E.M. covers at their gigs including “Green Grow the Rushes” and that there were other songs by the band that remain unreleased like “Halcyon Days”. It also mentions that Chihoe Hahn became a luthier and owns Hahn Guitars. Wow!

Other things we know… yes, the band appeared on two compilations. In 1985 they contributed the song “Second Minor One” to “Scream: Sampler Containing Really Exciting American Music” released by Thirsty Ear (SCRM-4) and then in 1986 their songs “Thursday Night” and “Sight to See” appeared on the LP compilation “Some New Ruins – The Yale-New Haven Compilation” which was released by I.V. Towers Records (I.V. 001). This record is on Soundcloud here.

Chihoe Hahn not only became a luthier but also released records on his own. There are at least two albums released by him. He also did engineering work for the band Jack’s Empty Hours. Steve Folta also was involved with other bands like Speed Bumps or Junket. Sandy Smallens was in Too Much Joy and Gramercy Arms and works now in Audiation.fm.

We know too that in the Spring Weekend festival of 1985 the band performed alongside Man Ray and Miracle Legion.

Some good information I found in the end, right? Not bad. Maybe we’ll find out more details about them eventually. Why just one album recorded? Were there demo tapes? Are there more songs by them? I hope we find out!

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Listen
Beauty Constant – Send a World Apart

Day 355. Well tomorrow it will be a year since I started this lockdown. I thought it was in mid-March that I started this. Maybe I miscounted the days, though I think I was thorough. Perhaps I didn’t start counting when I first started to stay at home. I can’t remember anymore. It’s been a long time in any case.

Nuevos Hobbies: Discos de Kirlian have a few new releases worth checking out. Let’s start by the 12″ “Monstruoso” by the Spanish band Nuevos Hobbies. The 10 songs in this record are beautiful and jangly, no surprise here, it feels every indiepop band from Pamplona knows how to make good records. This one is very good, and I hope to get a copy soon.

The Death of Pop: another new song on the label’s Bandcamp is “Go Back”. This song is going to be part of the forthcoming album “Seconds” that the label will co-release with the fine French label Hidden Bay. There seems to be no release date yet, but we are looking forward to it.

Always You: and lastly from Discos de Kirlian is the song “Rio de Janeiro” by Always You. This one sounds really good. The band features the twin brothers Christoph and Anton who were in a lineup of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart as well as in the own band Ablebody. The song sounds great and it is announced that Shelflife Records will be involved in a release as well. Again no data for that yet, but we can enjoy this track of course!

The Umbrella Puzzles: well, this is already sold out. So fast. This is making me think that I should change the Cloudberry releases to a limited run of 100 copies. What do you all think? I would have to sell each 7″ for $12 plus shipping though. But the good thing will be that the records will all find a home and not stay in boxes at my place for a long time. I think I should start considering this. Anyways, I missed the CD release of “A Slowly Dawning Realization”. It seems the 100 copies were sold out in a day. Wow. Really wow. But it is not surprise as the music of Ryan Marquez has always been pure quality. In this new album  he includes 10 jangly songs, filled with perfect melodies. The CD was released by Subjangle Records but you can stream the songs on Bandcamp.

The Blue Herons: who isn’t a fan of the music of Gretchen deVault and Andy Jossi by now? The Swiss-American project keeps crafting bright, luminous, indiepop slices of perfection. Their latest track is titled “Endless Rain” and it sounds classic at first listen. Everything is in the right places. Every arrangement, the lyrics, the vocals, it just sounds good to me. As my friend Jessel asked somewhere, when are they releasing something?

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Did this late 80s, early 90s band got their name after a Bee Gees song called “Red Chair, Fade Away”? Would that be the first and only indiepop band to be called after a Bee Gees song? that’s an interesting thread to investigate.

But I think in general I want to know more about the band. I own a few records by them, probably half or so of their releases. So I am missing many parts in the puzzle.

Many know the band because Tim Vass was part of it. Tim Vass had been in the legendary Razorcuts (he was also part of Dandelion Wine, The Forever People and The Cinematics). But he was accompanied by two more musicians, Shirley Souter and Richard Mason. Richard had played in the Razorcuts albums and had been in the band called Shake Appeal. Shirley actually did backing vocals on The Carousel records and was part of Dandelion Wine. She also took photos for the Razorcuts’ “The World Keeps Turning” album. So yeah, all very well-known people within the Oxford scene.

In 1989 the band would release their first record, a 12″ EP titled “Let It Happen” on the Cosmic English Music label (CTA 103). The A side had “Let it Happen” and “Myra”, while the B side had “Dragonfly” and “Grasshopper”. On this record we see that another important name in Oxford scene, Peter Momtchiloff (Heavenly) played bass. Also Struan Robertson (from Saturn V and The Would-Be-Goods) played drums and percussion.

Richard Mason played the acoustic guitar and bells in the record, Tim Vass played guitar, acoustic guitar, tambourine, finger cymbals, flute and organ while Shirley Souter played rhythm guitar. The producers were Tim Vass and Martin Pavey. The record was produced at Silent Studio in London.

There are also etchings on the vinyl, the A side says “No Clothes Don’t Buy My Soul”.

That same year the band released a second 12″. Titled “Mr. Jones”, it was another 4 song EP with “Mr. Jones” and “Chimney Pots” on the A side and “Faraway Lights” and “Out of the Grey” on the B side. Here I start to change the idea of the lineup of the band I had. So on the front cover there is an illustration of 5 members. These are the original three I thought of plus Struan Robertson and Peter Momtchiloff. The back of the sleeve lists them as three band members.

Like in the first record, all songs are credited to Shirley Souter.

In 1991 the band releases a split flexi with the American band Fudge. It was released by Waterbomb! Records (Splat 002). This flexi came alongside the sixth issue of the Waterbomb! fanzine and Red Chair Fadeaway contributed the song “Never Remember”. The red sleeve, on the Red Chair Fadeaway has a photo of a girl. I’ve tried many times to figure out who is she, if someone famous, but not sure. Anyone knows?

In 1991 the band would release their first album on both CD and vinyl. It was titled “Curiouser and Curiouser”. Originally it got released on vinyl by Tangerine Records (MM10). This version had 12 songs, “My Brother’s Room”, “Sleeping in Your Garden”, “Circus i n the Sky”, “Willo”, “All Your Old Tricks” and “Saffron’s Dream” on the A side, and “The Watermill of No Place”, “No Time”, “Rocking Boat”, “Epitaph for a Hare”, “Conjuror Trendle” and “Doasyouwouldbedoneby” on the flipside. The artwork was created by Paulo Baigent and came in a very nice sleeve from what I understand, with extra flap and even included a 10 page lyric booklet. I don’t have this records sadly. It looks really pretty from the photos.

The CD version came out on the English Garden label (ENG1013CD). This CD version included the album plus the two previous 12″s plus the song from the flexi disc, in that order. So in the end it has 21 songs! I think I’d like this version of the album, more songs! even though it probably not as pretty as the vinyl…

In 1993 the band would put out their second album “Mesmerised” released by Aural Records (AUR 102) on vinyl and on English Garden (ENG1012CD) on CD. This time around the tracklist looks the same for both versions. There were twelve songs, “I’m Not Trying”, “Homestead Moat”, “The Plaitman of Bedfordshire”, “Cristatus”, “Hot Rain” and “Happy With Your Lot” on the A side and “Clear, Clear to Me”, “Sweet Way”, “Don’t Close the Door”, “Under Clouds”, “Dream River” and “On Telegraph Hill” on the B side. Here I see there’s a mix when it comes to who wrote the songs. Shirley is still the main songwriter but Mason and Vass contribute more this time.

The artwork is credited to Shirley and we see another guest musician other than Struan Robertson, Raymond Dunthorne. Also on the credits we see that the engineer was Fred Baggs. The album was recorded at Redchurch Studio in London between the summer of 1992 and spring of 1993. Two songs, “Sweet Way” and “Dream River” were recorded at Joe’s Garage in London in autumn 1991.

The band’s last release was a 1995 7″ on the Candy Floss label (CF006) from the US. The 7″ had three songs. On the A side we find “Kingcup” while on the B side there’s “Kevin Said” and “July (Is a Long Time Coming)”. The song on the A side was recorded and mixed at Redchurch Studio on April 1995, “Kevin Said” was recorded at Joe’s Garage on August 1991 and mixed at Redchurch on April 1995 and the closing track was recorded at La Rocka Studio in London in April 1991 and mixed at Dungeon Studio in Oxfordshire in August 1991. On “Kingcup”, David Goldthorpe played rhythm guitar as backing vocals. He would later contribute in Dandelion Wine.

When it comes tom compilations the band appeared on a few. Interestingly not in their early days, but most of the compilations they’ve been on had been in this century.

The first one dates from 1995 and was called “(Garden of Delights Presents…) Seek Refuge… (From your Intolerable Situation)”. This compilation LP was released by Garden of Delights (Garden 3) and included the song “Limetree Helicopters”. Other known bands in this record include The Blind Bats, Louis Phillipe, Next Time Passions, The Television Personalities or The Pastels among others. The proceeds from this release were donated to the charity Womens Aid who provided refuges for battered women and their children.

Discogs lists a compilation called “Electric Psychedelic Sitar Headswirlers Volume 1-5”. It is a 5 CD boxset but it is listed as unofficial. Here they show Red Chair Fadeaway appearing on the fifth CD with the song “All Your Tricks”. The label was Past & Present Records (PAPRBOX 011) and it dates from 2011. Then in 2015 there is another unofficial CD boxset, a whopping 11 CDs. This one is called “Electric Psychedelic Headswirlers Volumes 1-11”. So yes, it includes CD 5 with Red Chair Fadeaway and the song “All Your Tricks”. The label name has changed though, now it is called Rubble and the catalog number is RUBCDBOX6. This 5th CD of the series was also released unofficially on its own by yet another label, Purple Lantern Records.

In 2018 Cherry Red would include thee song “Let it Happen” on the CD boxset “C89”. Then in 2019 Cherry Red would again include them on another box set called “Losing Touch With My Mind: Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990” with the song “Myra”.

I google them. I only find blogs that let people download their records. That’s disappointing. I am looking for any other information that I haven’t found yet, perhaps I could find what are they doing these days? Are they still involved with music? That would be a cool thing to find out.

So yes, any information, any details would be appreciated. Anyone saw them playing live? Did the band make t-shirts? I reckon the design for their last 7″, “Kingcup” would have been great on t-shirts….

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Listen
Red Chair Fadeaway – Mr. Jones

Day 352

Pelvic Fins: Augusburg, Germany, has becoming a nice hotspot for indiepop. We have the fantastic Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten label there and today I discovered Gebrauchtemusik, another label from there I believe. Their latest release is a 15 song collection by the band Pelvic Fins. The album is called “Muxik Vorher & Nachher” and is available digitally. This is actually not a new release, this album came out back in 2003 in CDR.

Collapse: this Japanese shoegaze band is a new discovery for me. Their latest song is called “Vertigo feat. Ishikawa”. I believe Ishikawa is in a band called My Dead Girlfriend. There’s not much more info about the band or the release here, just that it is a digital only release. Sounds good though! Should check their previous releases.

The Keep Left Signs: I really like this Swedish band that features two ex-Lost Homeboys, Jimmi and Gustaf. The band released a new EP on December but as it’s only on digital platforms I haven’t been able to share it. The good thing is that on Youtube they’ve made a video for the first song of said EP and as soon as you listen to it you know it is a winner. The song is called “Make it Shine” and the video was filmed in Japan, while Charley was visiting last March. I hope it gets a physical release!

Lentillas de Colores: another new video! This one comes from Spain from the band Lentillas de Colores! The band has just released a 7″ EP and the song they’ve chosen to make a video is called “Arrancacorazones”. Thee video is really nice, with lovely and well thought aesthetics. Very p!o!p!

Haus Plants: and lastly we discover a new band from Lisbon, Portugal. Their latest track is called “Visual Diaries” and it is an upbeat jangly tune. Really enjoying it.

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Back to the CDR days. The year is 2008 and there’s a label that’s been releasing a bunch of good EPs and singles. It is Cosy Recordings from Stockholm, Sweden. At this point in time I believe the label owner is cool with me, and we have sort of a friendship. That will change later on, but that’s not an interesting story. The story today is about the 11th release on that label, Little Big Adventure’s “Saltsjö-Duvnäs” EP.

Back then 100 copies for a CDR was a good idea. I wonder if today too? It was limited and hand-numbered, as was the trend that maybe I started with the Cloudberry mini CDs. It worked well. This EP with catalog number COSY 11 had four songs, the title song “Saltsjö-Duvnäs”, “Son of St Jacobs”, “Saltsjö-Duvnäs (Performed by Erik Halldén)” and “Saltsjö-Duvnäs ’08 (Performed by Erik Halldén and Little Big Adventure)”.

Little Big Adventure was Magnus Lindroos from Sundsvall and we can assume he had a good relationship with Erik Halldén. Erik Halldén perhaps should get an entry on the bog sometime. He was quite representative of the period, releasing albums on Bedroom Recordings as well as EPs on the very fine My Secret Garden Recordings. What’s interesting is that actually Erik Halldén was the one who wrote the song “Saltsjö-Duvnäs”.

Saltsjö-Duvnäs is actually a residential area in Nacka. That’s within Stockholm county boundaries I believe. Perhaps Erik hailed from that area? Or Magnus? That’s something to find out of course.

We also know that the other original song on the EP was written by Henrik Berggren. That means then a cover of the Broder Daniel’s song “Son of St. Jacobs”. Okay. What else do we know about this release? The artwork is credited to Lisa Persson and the layout to Karin Ringvist.

There are two compilation appearances. Both of them is with the same song, “Happiest Times”. The first one dates from 2008, it is on the “Club King Kong: Säsongen 07/08 – Med Musiken i Mitten Volym 3” CDR comp released by Donkeyboys Recordings (DKNYBYS003). I would really like to get all of these club King Kong CDRs… if anyone wants to get rid of them let me know. I am very curious about them.

The other compilation is one called “Stockholm Belong to Us” (PLAB139) that came out on Labrador in 2011. It was a CD and was also published in the Philippines that same year by Universal Records.

To my surprise there is even one more release by the band, a CDEP from 2009 on Labrador! So the band ended up leaving the CDR for a proper CD. The EP was titled “The Hateful Eye EP”. I totally missed it. This EP had four songs, “Happiest Times”, “The Hateful Eye”, “Any Questions?” and “Son of S:t Jacobs”. There was even a video made for “Happiest Times“!

Aside from this project, we know that Magnus Lindroos was in a band called Supertuff who released a split tape with the band There is Thunder in Our Hearts on 2014.

One thing that is confusing is that on Labrador’s website there is a bio about the band and that one is penned by Magnus Sätterström. Is it the same Magnus as Magnus Lindroos? That confuses me. Who’d know. The bio doesn’t give us much details about the band. At some point the band had a website and a twitter.

One thing that I figured out is that the band’s name come from the 1994 PC game Little Big Adventure.

Now if it is the same Magnus Lindroos, which I am quite confused by now, I found a Soundcloud with a song called “Vill Du Hälsa På Mig?” from 6 years ago. Sounds nice! And from there we find a Soundcloud for Little Big Adventure!

The songs are as old as 10 years old, but there are more recent ones, the latest from 2 years ago. The songs we find here are: “Lazy Kind of Flirt”, “Moop”, “Lba-Wow”, “Woods”, “20 ft. Until Ground”, “Bureaucrat”, “No Love Or True Affection”, “I Remember Things”, “Olof Broström”, “The Standoff”, “Run and Hide”, “My Last Wurds”, “Friends Wiv Nazis”, “To Whom it may Concern”, “Young People”, “The Further Away the Better I Feel”, “Little Boat”, “Gutted Fish + Bonfire”, “Paleremix”, “Ben and Jerrys”, “Visitoldpeople”, “The Easiest Thing”, “Call of Heart (Tcentralen)”, “Don’t Hurt My Eye”, “Powerpoint” and “Kids”.

And that’s I guess the last music he has published. From the photos it seems he has a family now and perhaps left music a bit on the side. Totally understandable. Still would like to hear any anecdotes, anyone that remembers the band? Maybe they played live? Who remembers them?

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Listen
Little Big Adventure – Happiest Times

Day 350.

Texpack: Anoa Records is a very good label from Jakarta. So it is a good idea to check them out now and then. Their latest is a limited edition 3″ single by the band Texpack. Titled “Early Serenade”, this short EP comes with three songs, “The Early Serenade”, “Between 4 and 10 (Strawberry etc.)” and “My Trumpet”. The last one is a cover of the classic Eggstone song!

The Catenary Wires: what a cool thing to see The Catenary Wires on Shelflife Records! The band is releasing a 7″ with two songs, “Mirrorball” and “I Wish You Were Here Now” and has a very nice sleeve with Amelia Fletcher, a chair, nice typography… I dunno, I was sold even before listening to the very good title song “Mirrorball” that is available to preview! The record is coming out on April 16.

Shiny Times: not too long ago, a few posts ago, I was recommending some new songs by the project from Charleston, South Carolina. Kim Hart Weldin’s Shiny Times have now four new songs on Bandcamp that are maybe not that new? They seem to date from February 2020 to February 2021. Which are the old ones? Which are the new ones? Check out this nice EP titled “Starts with S”.

Orion Lake: let’s cross the Hudson river. Now we are in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and checking out the song “Rabbit” by Oriol Lake. And it does impress at first listen. It is fuzzy and warm track, with upbeat melodies. Happy to meet you Orion Lake.

Genders: and lastly we discover this duo formed by Maggie Morris and Stephen Leisy from Portland, Oregon. Their first single from their second album is called “The World Fades Away” and it is quite good! Jangly, female vocals, and classic indiepop melodies.

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What a lovely discovery! I stumbled on Youtube upon The Grain’s song “A Splendid Day” and was hooked! Very Choo Choo Train, very jangly, great melodies. Everything you want to ask for a pop song!

As it is normal with these discoveries the band ends up being terribly obscure. We can see on Discogs that the band released one tape in 1991, and that’s where this song was released. We also know that the band hailed from Calgary, Alberta, in Canada. That’s some good info already, right?

The tape seems to have been self-released and was titled “A Moment’s insight”. It included 7 songs. The A side had “Will I Be Here”, “Save it for Another Day”, “A Splendid Day” and “Watch You Smile”. The B side featured “Happenings”, “Now and Then” and “People Say”. The songs were recorded and mixed by Frank Slide at ReelRock Studios in Calgary. They were produced by the band and Frank Slide.

Who were the band? That we know too:
Mike Hendrix – bass
Craig Clements – acoustic & electric guitar, vocals
Rob Virdis – acoustic & lead guitar, vocals
Dino Finot – drums

A little more googling lets me know that Rob Virdis had been in a band called Glider afterwards releasing two tapes. I believe he also played in a few songs of Matt Gillespie’s self-titled EP released earlier this year.

Then I find that Dino Finot is a motorcycle enthusiast who attends the Calgary Motorcycle Show every year. Interesting! But what about music?

And that’s it. Not much more information on the web, but some great music here, right? Hopefully we’ll learn more about them soon!

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Listen
The Grain – A Splendid Day

Day 348. Almost a year now. I’m glad the Verandan 7″ is out now, it is a good way to manage the expectations. One year of being mostly stuck at home. One year without gigs. And one wonders when will it end. Don’t know if counting the days is the most sane thing to do.

Beach Youth: coming out in April is the album “Postcard”. It will be available on CD and vinyl. There are 11 songs, and we can preview four of them, “Love Yourself II”, “Two Bedrooms”, “A Changed Man” and “In My Chest”. The release is coming out on two French labels, Music from the Masses and Wewant2Records, and on Shelflife in the US. What I’m hearing is very good. I should talk to Ed soon, I will need a copy of the record!

Fightmilk: another upcoming release is the album “Contender” by the London band Fightmilk. Coming on vinyl and CD on May 14 we get to preview two out of 14 songs on Bandcamp. Yeah, we can check out “I’m Starting to Think You Don’t Even Want to go to Space” and “If You had a Sister…”. I really enjoy the guitars and female vocals on both of them. Definitely we should look forward to the second album by Fightmilk!

The Line Managers: first time I check this Birmingham trio. They seem to be brand new as the two songs on Bandcamp have just been uploaded there. And that’s all, no more songs. “Nothing Seems to Work” and “You Should Know” are how they are introducing themselves to indie fans. They sound fine to me. Only available digitally too.

Creature in the Spiral: we head to Laredo, Texas, to discover this cool shoegaze band. Their latest release is only available digitally it seems, a short EP titled “FEB”. The opening track, “Play”, is probably my favourite, fuzzy and with great melodies.

Juliper Sky: and we end up this roundup with a band I have featured in the past, Juliper Sky from Manchester. They make beautiful guitar-layered music. As they mention it, they do know how to marry shoegaze, dreampop and psychedelia. Their latest song is not exception, “Another Life”. Check it out.

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Time to head to Sweden. The year is 1992. And a maxi-single is released by the band Julia Dream. It comes out on the unknown Yellowmoon Productions (catalog YEL001) and we don’t know nothing more. Did it make a splash within the indie scene in Sweden? That’s something I’ll try to find out.

Yellowmoon Productions seems to have been the band’s own label. There are no other releases listed on this label. We do know though some details about the release and that always makes me hopeful about finding more information about the band.

Three songs were included in the CD single, “Liquid House”, “Angel” and “Seeing Out”. They were produced and mixed at White Room, in Copenhagen. The producer was Lars Paulström.

This makes me think that the band hailed from the south of Sweden, probably from Skåne. Maybe from the city of Malmö? We’ll see…

We know the band members too.
Thomas Lundberg – guitar, vocals and drums on “Angel”
Anders Westerström – bass, vocals
Anders Linén – keyboards
Nicklas Johansson – drums on “Liquid House” and “Seeing Out”

The other credit worth mentioning is that Christina Curman did vocals on “Angel”.

Then I find an address on the sleeve. Yes! Yellowmoon Productions hailed from Malmö. The street is Agnesgatan, about 15 minute walk from Malmö’s central train station. In the old town area. How nice. I remember walking those streets and would love to go back soon.

Discogs doesn’t list any compilation appearances nor other releases by the band. It is a shame. Their songs are great.

But there are good news. There is a Bandcamp! I should have started there, right? Well, I didn’t know it existed! Here they have the three songs of the “Julia Dream” CD-single and two demo cassettes to boot.

The first demo dates from 1990 and has four songs. These are “Angel”, “Insomnia”, “A Multitude of Ladybugs” and “The Madcamp Laughs”.

The 2nd demo is from 1991 and has four songs as well, “Here We Go”, “Like Magic”, “Leafsong” and “Sun”.

This is great, I’ll spend an afternoon listening to the songs. Now it would be great if we get in touch with the band and find more information about them. These are all good and would love to know if there are even more songs! If the band members went to be in other projects and more. There’s always tons of questions to ask!

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Listen
Julia Dream – Liquid House

Day 345. Today I mailed the first batch of Verandan 7″s to those who have preordered! That’s great! Keep supporting the label for more and more releases 😀

Grrrl Gang: an Indonesian band getting a vinyl release? That’s not too common but it is definitely great news! The Yogyakarta band is releasing a 7″ on July 1st with two songs, “Honey, Baby” and “Ghost to You (Live at Teras Belakang Studio)”. The one track we can preview, the first one, is really good! Perfect pop! 300 copies are made of this 7″ and it is selling for 8 pounds by Damnably Records. Definitely one we can’t miss!

Vary Landers: now we head to Detroit to discover this lo-fi bedroom pop project. There is little information here, but we can definitely enjoy the guitar strums on the two songs we can check out, “Amaryllis” and “Uji”.

UJU: and back to Asia, to Cebu City, Philippines. I discover the label Melt Records, and their latest release, “Dream of Better Days” by UJU. This is a 10 song album which already came out on January 29. It sounds great! Dreamy with female vocals and very nice guitar arrangements. The artwork for the album is nice too! I hope they get to release the album in physical format!

OutControlJoys: wow! a shoegaze band from Pokhara, Nepal! This is really exciting. Never knew there was a scene there. Ris Records is a label that started in 2016 and supports bands from their country. Good idea! Here I’ve discovered the “Division” EP which seems to be a demo. In any case it sounds good! It has 5 songs of very exciting shoegaze sounds. Check it out!

John Myrtle: and to end this week of discoveries here is John Myrtle from where else? London! The place that reigns supreme for indiepop? I am not sure anymore… it used to be and probably is still, but I don’t find that many London bands as of late. So good to see this solo project who have just released a great slice of pop, a digital single called “Get Her Off My Mind”.

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This is actually the first post I write since returning to NYC in January. I’ve been a bit slow researching obscure bands. On my defense I can say that I am up to date with everything else. Also I’ve written many interview questions for many interviews that I hope get published someday. If I get the answers that is.

Now I want to focus on The Wishing Well, an American band, I believe from Atlanta, who released one EP and one album in the late 80s.

Information about them is not easy to come by. Discogs tells us that the band was formed by Kib on vocals, Pat Luckett on guitar, Marion Smith on bass and Scott Snyder on drums. That’s something.

Then their first release was a 12″ vinyl EP released by Token Bird Records (catalog WW-0915). I want to assume that this was a self-release. The only two releases by Token Bird listed on Discogs are by The Wishing Well.

This first EP came out in 1987 and included 5 songs, “Paradise”, “Wish You Away” and “Sweet Caroline” on the A side and “Immaculate” and “Market Rain” on the B side.

Their album “Maybe” came out in 1989 on Token Bird (WW0123). It was released on vinyl, CD and cassette. The songs on the LP were: “Maybe”, “Wide Awake”, “Anything” My Girl”, “Drink Myself to Sleep” and “Ransom” on the A side and “Don’t Try to Change Me”, “My Favorite Song”, “Big White House”, “Bsusa”, “Nobody Cry” and “Letter” on the B side. 12 songs total.

On this record they credit Jeff Stanley for playing fiddle, Bill Turpin for playing Harp and Ed Roland, the producer. Ed Roland was in the well known band Collective Soul as well as in The Living Room and The Sweet Tea Project. From what I understand there’s a song by Collective Soul called “Maybe” which was dedicated to the memory of Kib Browning. It seems he died in 1995 of scoliosis complications, being 26 years old.

That’s not the kind of information I want to find. But sadly I can’t seem to find much more details about the band. So hopefully some of you remember them. Know of more songs, more releases. Or what happened to the other members? There are no compilation appearances listed either. So would be good to know more about them and the Atlanta scene. Maybe there were more cool jangly bands down there?

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Listen
The Wishing Wall – Paradise