Day 248.

Trashcan Sinatras: the Scottish band is back with a 7″ that will include the new single “Ways” and the previous one, “The Closer You Move Away from Me”. This 7″ is very limited and is being released by Last Night From Glasgow. The record should be coming out in early 2021 but pre-orders are available if you follow the link.

Chavales: the Elefant Records band have a new video for their song “Dame Veneno” where we follow the band members around Madrid. It brings lots of memories of course, seeing the metro, the buses, times when I could visit that great town.

Grubs: “It Must Be Grubs” was the terrific album the band released on Tuff Enuff Records back in 2016. It seems a few copies are available again. Very few copies. I sadly can’t afford 15 dollars shipping and will have to skip this record. But those of you in Europe that can get more decent prices, well, you shouldn’t miss it!! Because it is good (even though the jacket artwork  leaves me wondering…)

Dead Famous People: a long time ago I recommended the new album “Harry” by the legendary Auckland band fronted by Donna Savage. Well, nowadays you should already have the record, I do, but if you want to preview all 10 songs, they are up now on Bandcamp. It is a terrific album. One of the best this year.

The Yellow Melodies: Rafa Skam’s project has been going for years, decades, now. He is one of indiepop’s most fervent enthusiasts, you can see him at every pop festival, playing in bands, writing fanzines and blogging reviews. His latest release is going to be the “Sunshine Pop EP2”. It will have 5 songs and will be released on CD on December 4. Right now the first song is available to preview, “Follow the Sun”.

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Another great find in the Fanning Sessions blog! What a great place to find great pop songs from Ireland!

There is not much info about this band but it is worth checking them out and their song “Million Miles” that was shared in that post.

We know that the band hailed from Derry and was a 4 piece formed by Colum McKeever on guitar and vocals, Tony Morrison on guitar and vocals, Paul Edwards on bass and vocals and Tommy Alford on drums.

I don’t think they released any records, but they’d must have recorded some demo tapes. Would be good to find out about them.

The band formed sometime in the mid 80s. And in 1986 they moved to Belfast. In 1985 they had already won the Smithwicks Rock & Pop Award and played the Sense of Ireland Festival in London in March/April 1986. They were going places it seemed. So what happened?

In 1986 the band also recorded a session for Radio Foyle. Which songs were recorded for it? That would also be great to find out. Then they appeared on TV, on Channel One on the program Visual Eyes. There they performed the song “Million Miles” on August 20, 1986. From comments in the Youtube link we know that Colum McKeever is a teacher.

The band also used to have a Myspace back in the day. We can’t play the songs there but we know at least some song titles: “A Million Miles Away” (was this the right name of the song? or just “Million Miles”?), “It’s So Hard”, “No Place to Hide”, “Pride Unseen” and “Bite the Hand”. According to Irishrock.org other songs of theirs included “Perfect”, “Tell Me Now” and “So Hard”.

Now through Google I find that actually Noel Burke from St. Vitus Dance, when I interviewed him he recommended me the band! How funny. I should have explored all his recommendations then.

The only other detail about the band is that they played The Savoy Theatre in Limerick on May 30th, 1986.

And that’s it. Very little information on the web. Maybe we’ll get to know more about them soon.

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Listen
Kitsch is Rich – Million Miles

Day 246.

Las Ligas Menores: perhaps my favourite Argentinean band of the last decade is back with a new song called “Hice Todo Mal” and they even have made a promo video for it! It is great as usual and I wonder of course if it will be released in a record in the near future. I hope so!

The B-Team: the classic London mod band that were interviewed on the blog not too long ago have just published on Bandcamp a new live EP! They are four songs recorded live at the Wood Green Community Centre in North London in 1986!

Midden Heap: who are Eric and Blake, the two guys behind this great sounding EP titled “Do You Think It’s Not the Other Way Around?” We know they hail from Baltimore and that the 5 songs on the EP were recorded this year between May and September. Right now we can preview two of them, “Girl on a Train” and “Lower Ground” and expecting to hear the rest on December 11th!

The Permits: we hop now to Melbourne, Australia, one of the hotspots of guitar pop these days. The band formed by Tristan Davies, Tam Matlakowski, Dusy Anastassiou and Rob Remedios are releasing a 10 song album on tape! The album is called “Time Permits” and right now we can preview two songs, “It Takes a Long Time (To Be Free of Society)” and “World in Numbers”.

Flower Maze: and lastly just the one song, “Divided Shades”, from this Pomona, California, band. There is no other information available, but the song is nice! It looks like their first ever song too?

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I was looking at my Liechtenstein collection the other day and noticed I was missing a cassette they had put out in Japan. It was actually a split tape from 2011 with the Japanese band Twinkle Twinkles that was called “SWE & JPN Girls Unite”. It included two songs by Liechtenstein that I have never heard, “The Book” and “The Angel in the House”. That was something that bothers me. I was trying to burn me a CD with all Liechtenstein songs that weren’t in their album. I was thinking a singles and B-sides compilation would be nice. Maybe I should ask them? Maybe I could do it?

Then my mind went the other way. The band that shared that split tape was called Twinkle Twinkles. I actually own a CD by them. But I honestly know nothing about them! So, I went back to the tape page on Discogs.

This split tape was released by my friend Sumire who ran the lovely shop Violet and Claire. At some point the store started releasing records and called their label the same way, Violet and Claire. The catalog number for this tape was V&C008. The store and label was based in Tokyo and for a few years it was a beacon of indiepop in Japan. Thanks to them I was introduced to a lot of great music. One day I should try and ask Sumire to do an interview for the blog. Would be great to hear from her, her take on indiepop during the 2000s.

Anyhow, on this tape Twinkle Twinkle had the B side and contributed three songs, “Vintage Boys and Girls”, “His Presents Were Tons of Daughnuts” and “Strawberry Heavenly”.

The year after, 2012, the band released a CD on their own. It was self-titled with 7 songs, “Secret Love”, “Cinderella”, “Will be Happier Girl Song”, “Strawberry Heavenly”, “Vintage Boys and Girls”, “His Presents were Tons of Doughnuts” and “Sukissukissu”. This is the CD I have. Sadly there is no other information on the simple cardboard sleeve it came on.

4 years later, in 2016, the band would release another EP. It will be called “Take Me to the Star”. I just found a copy of it on Discogs and I am happy about it. This CD was released by 2670records from Japan with catalog number TSSO-1021. I am not that familiar with the label but noticed that the label had released some great bands including Old Lacy Bed, Gingerlys or Babaganoüj.

This CD had 6 songs, “Too Pure”, “The Hill”, “Burst into Tears”, “Merry Go Round”, “Summer” and “I Can See”. I find in Youtube that the band made a trailer for the album! It includes some photos of the band and I recognize one of them…. one of the guitar players was in Betty and the Werewolves! Even cooler the label has uploaded to Youtube another video, a proper promo video for the song “Summer“! And then another video, for the song “Merry Go Round“!

Thanks to this video I end up on a Bandcamp page where you can stream all 6 songs. There is also some information about the band! This is what it says:  Twinkle Twinkles is an all-girl twee/indie/pop band led by Nana(G&Vo). They performs with many overseas artists such as Sea Lions(USA), Razika(Norway), as well as NIGHTS(USA), Colleen Green(USA), and Cassie Ramone(ex:Vivian Girls) under the solo name of Nana. They released their first self-titled album in 2012. They also released a split cassette tape with Liechtenstein from Sweden. Released their 2nd mini album “take me to the star” created in London in November 2016. For 2017 ‘Record Store Day’, their 7 inch “CRUSH” is going to be released for the first time. 

Ok, now we know the name of one of the band members, Nana. It is not much. But what leaves me very curious is this “Crush” 7″? Was it ever released?

So it was released for record store day on May 10 of 2017. It came out on the same label, 2670records with catalog number TSSO-2003. I want a copy of this! It included two songs, “1:28” on the A side and “A Piece of a Broken Red Heart”. How can I find a copy? The two songs can be streamed here on Bandcamp.

I continue digging and find a live video of the band playing “Vintage Boys and Girls” on February 26, 2012 at Vio. I see that at this point the band was just 2 girls! This same user has uploaded more live videos. We have “Cinderella” live at Zoot Horn Rollo on February 25, 2012. “Strawberry Heavenly” on November 20, 2011 at Amp Cafe. “Vintage Boys & Girls” on November 18, 2011 at Echo. “Cinderella” on November 12, 2011 at Bar Ripple. “Vintage Boys & Girls” and “Sukissukissu” on August 7, 2011 at 地下一階. Then “Will be Happier Girl Song” and “Strawberry Heavenly” and another video at Para-Dice on March 16, 2011.

Other users have uploaded more videos. I find one live at Day in Day Out at Bar Ripple. I think this is their full gig that day on November 12, 2011. Then I find the band playing  many songs in Fukuoka. These include “Theme, Secret Love“, “Michel“, “Cinderella“, “Will Be Happier Girl Song” and “Sukissukissu“.

Then I finally find that the band was formed by Nana on guitar and vocals, Natsuki on drums and Emily on guitar and vocals. They played in the UK too, at The Underbelly on Wednesday October 5th, 2016 alongside Community, Nikki Loy and Val Maugenest.

Then what else? It seems Nana was in other bands like The Harriets and Sylvanias!

Wow, now it all makes sense. I have written about The Harriets not too long ago! And loved them. And will be interviewing them soon! I’ve sent questions to them at least. Now this is really great. I can ask her to do a Twinkle Twinkles interview afterwards! That’d be fantastic!

Who remembers this band that sounded so good, a twee mix of The Primitives, Lush, Talulah Gosh and more. Anyone saw them when they played in UK? What about in Japan? I think they should have been much more known. So good!

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Listen
Twinkle Twinkles – Summer

Day 244. Back in New York City. 14 days of mandatory quarantine for anyone entering this state. The laws changed a few days before I was returning, where you could get a PCR test before traveling to NYC and then another when returning. I thought about getting it, just for the sake of it, but as my insurance wouldn’t cover it when being abroad decided not to. Now I think it would have been a good idea as I would have been able to resume my life much sooner. No symptoms, not feeling bad at all. It is a bit stressful and not as enjoyable going to the airport and flying, but it is totally manageable.

Love, Burns:  one of the records no one should miss this year is the two-song 7″ released by Love, Burns on Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten just a few weeks ago. For those in the US the band will have records to sell on their Bandcamp and they should start shipping pretty soon. I had recommended the band in the past, but now with a 7″ on their pockets it is a imperative to recommend them again. The songs “Gate and the Ghost” and “It’s a Shame” sound amazing. The solo project of the Pale Lights frontman Phil Sutton is a treat. On the record he gets his friends Kyle Forester, Gary Olson, Hewson Chen and Hampus Öhman-Frölund to help with the instruments. I am sure this will sell out pretty fast.

Typical Girls: Happiest Place Records from Gothenburg will be releasing a record that seems to be a must! The Typical Girls’ self-titled EP, formed by Hugo, Julia and Felix, comes with three pop songs, “Las Palmas”, “Tension” and “Girl like You”. At this time we can only preview the last one! The record is going to be released on December 11 on vinyl.

Astragal: the Houston band has been a favourite for a long time and here they are releasing a tape with Donna Hayward on Miss Champagne Records. The three songs the band is contributing, “Brightfellow”, “Miles” and “Crescent” are available to stream on the band’s Bandcamp. And they are really good!

Skittle Alley: There is a new compilation by this superb French band! It is called “Memories” and it includes a whopping 25 songs in it! The release seems to be only available on digital format and is being released by Barcelona’s Discos de Kirlian!

Cotton Range: this Chinese band is a favourite of mine. Their latest release is a cassette that comes with a cat lovers comic. The release is coming out on Small Animal Records from Changsha and includes 3 songs. There are t-shirts for sale too. Very nice!

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Back to the great Soundcloud page for the WokingSoundscene to discover more jewels. This time around I have discovered the band Twister, a duo that worked at Workhouse Studios in Aldershot.

The band released an eponymous cassette album released by Music & Elsewhere in 1993 (M&E 224). It included 12 songs in total. 8 were from the album and included were too 4 songs from their 1st demo. On the A side we find “Never Die”, “Bloodrush”, “Shining Star”, “Get Rid of the Fear”, “See Me Here” and “Die”. The B side has “Soar” and “Babylon’s Burning”. The 4 songs from the first demo appear on the B side too and these were “You Don’t Know”, “Sleeping in the Sun”, “Signal” and “You Never Notice”.

We know that the band was formed by Inga Leru and Neil Buckingham and they were based in Crangleigh in Surrey. The  songs were recorded at C.A.N. Recording Studio in Farnham. I also believe this tape included an extra song, “These Days” that was actually recorded by Three Times the Crow the band that Inga used to sing previously.

The band also featured two tracks on the first “Guilfin Benefit Tape” in the summer of 1992. This was also released by Music & Elsewhere (MMATT 36). I can’t seem to find which two songs were included though.

I do know that Twister’s “Bloodrush” was included in the “Farnborough Groove Strikes Back! (Volume 5)” compilation tape in 1995.

The Magic Net website actually has an interview with Inga Leru-Kelly. Here it mentions that she was later in a band called Kilter. There is not much information about Twister though.

But I do find Inga’s Soundcloud! And wow, there are 8 songs by Twister here! These are “Blood Rush”, “Get Rid of the Fear”, “See Me Here”, “Serenade”, “Roar”, “The Truth About Pixie”, “You Don’t Know”, “You WIll Never Die” and “All You Can Do”. Some I believe from the tape album and some other from demo tapes?

And then what do I find? A Twister Facebook page. Not much info here aside that all songs of the band are, digitally and on CD, available as an album called “The Ultimate Twister” and also there’s a single called “Sleeping in the Sun”. The album has 10 songs and they are “All You Can Do”, “Bloodrush”, “Get Rid of the Fear”, “Friend”, “You Will Never Die”, “The Truth  About Pixie”, “Roar”, “See Me Here”, “Serenade” and “You Don’t Know”. Then I find that Neil has a website with his music.

And that’s quite something! I honestly thought I was going to find way less about this band. So yeah, there you go, lots of music to listen! Now who remembers them? How many demo tapes they put out? Why didn’t they release more stuff while they were going on? Did they play many gigs? What other bands have they been involved with?

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Listen
Twister – Never Die

Day 241. I should be on a plane all day today.

Stomp Talk Modstone: I recommended this Japanese band some time ago as I really enjoyed their dreampop sounds. There new song called “Sugartime” reinforces my recommendations, it is very good. If you have 4 minutes to spare, check it out.

Anthony Rochester: the pop craftsman that is Anthony Rochester from Tasmania is back with a new album called “Space Music for Horses”. The album seems to be available only digitally so far and it comes with 13 songs.

The Finalists: a Sydney band that sounds quite good, clearly influenced by The Go-Betweens and Flying Nun Records, it can only make one happy. They have just released their album “First” which includes 9 jangly songs!

Mitimitis: this fine Chilean band have graced the blog a few times. Now they have a new album called “Terror en el Autocine” which is being released digitally by Gemelo Parásito Records and it sounds quite nice. Give it a listen.

Nah…: two new songs by our friends from Munster and Amsterdam. This time around they are two covers, one being “Tumbledown Weekend” by They Go Boom! and the other “Porthcawl” by The Hepburns. Great!

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Back to the AGMP Youtube channel to discover more obscure indiepop! Now is the time for the obscure London band Blanche Spooner.

I don’t know if what’s been uploaded is a complete demo tape, it feels that way. There are 7 songs here, “Post”, “Thoroughly Modern Willy”, “Done Did!”, “Goodbye Dolly”, “Barf”, “Swede” and “Shirley, Shirley, Shirley”, all dating from 1989.

The only other info that’s available in these Youtube posts is that the band recorded two demo tapes. It also mentions that the band played a handful of gigs at the legendary venues the Powerhaus and The Mean Fiddler.

What else can we find?

The photo of the band shows 6 people. 6 band members then? 5 guys, 1 girl. The image uploaded to Youtube does look like a tape sleeve. Perhaps one of these demos was called “Sounds Like Blanche Spooner”.  Okay sure, these deductions anyone could make. Perhaps I am not that great as an indiepop detective.

But yeah it seems that’s it. There’s nothing else on the web. It is a shame really as all the songs are really nice. Classic indiepop. Oh well…

Anyone remembers them? Know who were the band members? The name of their demo tapes? Where in London were they based? Are there more songs? I feel I can come up with a thousand questions, so I hope some of them can be answered!

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Listen
The Blanche Spooner – Thoroughly Modern Willy

Day 239.

River: I have actually a post coming up by this French band! Well this might be good news. So the 7″ the band released in the year 2000 with the songs “Strawberry Lipstick” and “Madoka” is available to purchase on Bandcamp on Safari Records.

The Sea at Midnight: here is a self-titled mini-album consisting of 8 songs. We can preview the first 6 on Bandcamp and it looks like this release is only available in digital format. The band hails from Los Angeles and they do play some very nice guitars!

Bootchy Temple: this French band is totally new to me. They have a cassette coming out on November 27 on Safe in the Rain Records from Paris. This tape is their album “Consummated Bloom” that will include 12 songs. At the moment we can only preview one of the tracks, “Nowhere Else”, which I like a lot. If the rest of songs are similar, then we are in for a treat!

Afternoon Naps: one of my favourite US bands from the time I started Cloudberry (and no wonder we did a 3″CD together) was the Afternoon Naps from Cleveland, Ohio. Well it seems they are now on Bandcamp and have a few copies left of their “Summer Gang” 7″ which is really nice. So run and get it!

My Raining Stars: the French project by Thierry Haliniak is back with a new  EP called “Obvious Reasons”! It is up now on Bandcamp and it includes 6 poptastic tracks. I am hoping this gets properly released as it is really good! Don’t miss it.

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Another great band I discovered thanks to the WokingSoundscene Soundcloud were the Aldershot based combo West One.

I am assuming I will find very little information about them. But we can start with the song that was uploaded to Soundcloud called “House of Cards”. This song had appeared on the “Son of Farnborough Groove Vol.2” in 1992, a compilation tape released by Farnborough Groove Music. This was not the only song that got released in these series of compilations. In 1995 they would have their song “Dreaming on My Feet” on the fifth volume that was called “Farnborough Groove Strikes Back!”

We also know who the band members were:
Patrick James Sullivan (vocals/guitar)
Paul ‘Moggy’ Morris (vocals/guitar)
Mick Goddard (bass)
Vince Southey (drums)

According to the bio on the Woking Soundscene Facebook page we learn that the band was around between 1985 and 1988. They were influenced by The Alarm, The Ruts, The Jam, and more. They mention that their name may come from The Ruts’ “West One (Shine on me)” song. The band was formed in May of 1985 and yb December of that year they were supporting Squeals of Delight at Farnborough Tech. Then in 1986 they played many gigs at the legendary Buzz Club that our friend Jo used to run. There they supported Steel Bill and the Buffalos, Second Balcony Jump and the most amazing The Jeremiahs. In February 1987 they supported Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band at the West End Centre in Aldershot.

In 1987 the band was supposed to release a 7″. It was to be released by Robot Records and the songs to be included were “Dreaming on my Feet” and “New Town”. For some reason it was never released.

In 1988 the band participated in the Battle for the Limelight held at Princes Hall.

Other gigs we know of were at the Lion Brewery, The Fox & Hounds Fleet, The Royal Oak, Fulham’s King’s Head in London, The Robin Hood Stanford, The Subway at South Hill Park in Bracknell, alongside The Body Politic and The Shift at The Riverside Club in Fetcham, The Majestic in Reading, The Tunnel Club in Greenwich, The Mean Fiddler in Harlsden, The Royal Standard in Walthamstow, Aldermoor School in Southampton, Princes Hall with Ministry of Sound and the superb Blue Train, another gig at Princes Hall with Java, at the Beehive and The Crimea. In many cases they played at same venues. If you want to check the dates you can do so by clicking on the images on the Facebook page.

It also looks like at least they recorded a demo tape in 1986, but can’t say which songs were included in it. We also know that they made t-shirts with the band’s logo.

Other information in this Facebook page is that Paul Morris was in the band The Perfect Circles after West One. Patrick James went to perform as a singer/songwriter. And sadly Vince Southey has passed away.

A fan of the band has put together a Facebook page with more stuff about the band. Here we find something amazing, the sleeve of the single that never got released. It even has the designs for the center labels of the vinyl. Other stuff to look for in this page are the amount of great photos of the band and their crowd.

And that’s it for West One. It is interesting that they shared gigs with many favourite bands of mine but somehow I’ve never heard about them before. Well, now I know a little more, hopefully we’ll get to know more soon!

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Listen
West One – House of Cards

Day 237.

The Seashells: our Swedish friends are back with a wonderful new song called “Sandi”. The band is not that prolific these days but now and then they surprise is with a new gem. Oh! and remember they appear on the latest Cloudberry fanzine!

Sapphire & Steel: “Assigment 1” is the name of this short EP of 3 songs. The new band is a duo formed by Jørn Åleskaer from Norway and Estella Rosa from the Netherlands and it sounds really lovely. This is very promising. Let’s hope for more songs!

Love Tan: here is superb sounding cassette with 7 songs that I feel everyone should get. It sounds really really good. The duo hails from Brighton and is formed by Ben Nightingale and Céline Doméné. Sounds a bit like The Pastels or The Vaselines. I hope they get a CD or vinyl release!

The Laundromat Chicks: here is a project from Vienna that is totally new to me. Their latest songs date from a few days ago. They are called “Dance on my Grave Tonight” and “Nobody Believes Me”. Fuzzy upbeat pop!

Terry vs. Tori: the Seville, Spain, band is back with a new record! That’s great news. Their new album, “Heathers”, is available now on vinyl and includes 10 terrific songs. I need to get this record when I get back to NYC. Will copies still be available?

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Another short post because this is a terribly obscure band. I found this as many other bands lately on the AGMP Youtube channel.

The Inner Sense was formed by Andy Stevenson on bass and vocals, Roger Snelwar on guitar and vocals, Andy Thorpe and guitar and vocals and Ian Bradford on drums.

They didn’t properly release anything as far as I know. The only thing we know about is a demo tape called “The Day Has Just Begun” that was put out in 1985. This tape had at least four songs, “It’s the Only Way”, “Happiness In Your Heart”, “Is It the Love Inside” and “Waking Up”.

All songs were recorded at Wild Roots, in Gillingham, Kent. United Kingdom that is. England. Were they based somewhere close to Gillingham? Were they part of the Medway scene? Perhaps?

Aside from this I haven’t found any information about the band on the web. Were there more recordings? I can’t say.

On Facebook I tracked down a Roger Cavendish, that has Roger Snelwar as a name in parenthesis, from Gillingham. Could it be the same one? I wasn’t able to find the other band members, but this might be my best bet.

I can’t find any other information about the band as I said. But I hope someone remembers them and can shed some light about them.

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Listen
The Inner Sense – Is it the Love Inside

Day 234

Stephen’s Shore: our Stockholm friends will be back with a wonderful 7″ on January 22nd. This new 7″ EP will be titled “Brisbane Radio” and will be released by the great Meritorio Records from Spain! There will be 4 songs, one of which we can preview right now, the opening track on the A side, “Brisbane Radio”. Other songs in the record are “Midvert”, “Skogen” and “Up to No Good”. Essential!

Boy with Apple: I don’t know anything about this Gothenburg based band only that their new song “Iceage” sounds really good to me. It is on their label’s Bandcamp, Varø. I should keep an eye on them.

Cassie: the Isle of Wight band which I interviewed not too long ago, and who re-released their classic 7″ earlier this year on Reminder Records, is going to be back with “The Light Shines On” LP! This LP that includes many of there great songs that never got to see the light of day is available now to pre-order on Reminder Records site. There are also 4 songs there to preview, “Falling”, “Boys will be Boys”, “Keep in Touch” and “She’s a Flirt”

Talking Bloom: here is a Windsor, Ontario, Canada, band that have just released a new song called “Bloom”. They make swirling shoegaze/dreampop and they do it well! The band is formed by Nate Blackton, Jill Goyeau, Jay Turnbull and Jeremy Brousseau.

Rilev: and one more. And yes, more shoegaze. This time from Mexico City where the band Rilev released their album “FADE” just today. It is a short one, 7-songs, but it is quite dreamy and moody that sounds good for this very gray Lima day.

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So I did write about the Glasgow trio Christine’s Cat and I mentioned that I had to write about The Besotted as Robert Smith had been in both bands as well as The Golden Dawn. Today I am making that promise true.

I doubt there’s much to find about The Besotted on the web but I will try of course. I know them thanks to a 7″ that Blam-A-Bit from Germany released in 1992. This was the “Kaleidoscope” 7″ (BLAM 014) that I do own but I can’t seem to remember where I bought it. I feel it was through an obscure German mailorder many years ago, but it could as well have been eBay. In any case it was a 7″ that I really enjoyed playing a lot when it got home. It has some great noisy songs.

These songs were four, two on each side. The A side has “Kaleidoscope” and “Mooncrash” while the B side has “Everyday” and “Dolls House”. Something cool about the vinyl is that it has some etchings on the runout. The A side says “Scratch it out!” while the B side “What’s Your Perversion? – Phone 06257-86248”. Who’s phone was that?

The 7″ itself has no more information.

We do know though that the band contributed songs to a few compilation starting in 1990 with “Sugarpuff” to the compilation “And they Call it Pop” released by Fragrant in the UK and on the 1990 tape compilation “Heol Daou” from France they had the song “Every Day”.

The song “Sugarpuff” would appear too on the “Around the World” (ER-016) tape comp released by Elefant in 1992 and on the “Firefly 2” cassette that came along the US fanzine “Burning the Midnight Firefly” that Keith D’Arcy made.

In 1992 the band would contribute “Kaleidoscope” to the “Around the World Again” tape released by Elefant (ER020) and  the song “Mooncrash” would appear in the “Everlasting Happiness” compilation released by our friend Andreas from Germany.

And that’s it when it comes to releases and songs it seems. We know too that Robert Smith went to be in the band Meth O.D. during the 90s.

Our Madrid friend Alex wrote about this single in his blog 7iete Pulgadas back in 2016! In this blog post he mentions that he can’t find any information and even Cloudberry Cake Proselytism hasn’t written anything about them! Oh dear! He was counting on the blog and we disappointed. Hopefully we can make up for it now.

Of course one thing we need to find out is who was the female vocalist. That is something I am curious about. I suppose it was just Robert and her. Was she in other bands perhaps? Another interesting thing would be to know if there are more songs. We know at least of 5 songs.

Who would know more about them? Any information will be appreciated!

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Listen
The Besotted – Kaleidoscope

Day 232.

So this post finds me in Lima, Peru, for family reasons.I should stay for 10 days, so no orders will be posted during this time. It has been one of the most stressful trips I’ve ever made. The preparations, all the paperwork needed, all the health affidavits to clear, the PCR test, it just so complicated. When returning to NYC it won’t be as difficult but there is a mandatory 14 day quarantine. So yeah, I honestly hope this nightmare is over soon.

The Slow Summits: wow, a new wonderful song by the Linköping, Sweden, combo. It is called “Not the One” and it sounds terrific with the string arrangements. I contacted the band some time ago and they told me that they are looking to release an album. I hope that happens soon. The songs they have so far are so good.

Beverly Kills: another Swedish band that sounds amazing is this Gothenburg combo. I am so glad that great bands are appearing now in Sweden. I was missing that. The band has a new song called “Trophy Hunt” that is a very fine single. I need to track down their previous releases for sure.

The Blue Herons: another new song, this time from Lucerne, Switzerland, from a band we have featured in the past, The Blue Herons! This new song is called “In the Skies” and it is a wonderful jingle jangle song. Andy Jossl makes the songs as usual and this time Gretchen DeVault sang and wrote the song!

Spunsugar: more from Sweden, now from Malmö! It seems it is all about Sweden today. The shoegazy band has releasde their album “Drive-Through Chapel” on Adrian Recordings and there are some superb dreampop tracks here. The album consists of 11 songs and is now available on vinyl.

U.S. Highball: lastly we check out this duo from Glasgow who will be releasing their album “Up to High Doh” on November 20th. It is coming out on vinyl and there will be a US version and a Rest of the World one. Right now we can preview the opening track, “New Neighbour”, which is a very Scottish pop sounding track. And yes, that is a good thing.

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Another fantastic Irish band I discover thanks to the Fanning Sessions blog! Wow really wow!

So who were behind The Riordans? Pat Clafferty on vocals and acoustic guitar, Jill Hahn on guitar, Damien Byrne on bass and Milo Maden on drums. Jill and Pat would go to form Mexican Pets, and later Pat was in Wheel.

Did they release anything? I think not. The story says that Mother Records approached them to record a single. The band actually end up recording it at Windmill Lane Studios, but it doesn’t say which songs or how many. In the end nothing was released.

Did they record a Fanning Session? Yes, that they did. At least three songs were recorded, “Lay Down Your Burden”, “Whistle”, “Which Road to Go” and “Glee”. What year was the session recorded? It doesn’t say…

The same blog posted another song later on on a different post.  It is called “Blue Blue Blue”. The post says that in the recording session for this song the band also recorded “Which Road to Go?” and “Dustbowl Dress”.

The third and last post about The Riordans was not long ago, this past April. Here they shared a song called “Greener Elsewhere” that dates from 1988. There is also a photo of Pat and Jill taken in Eustace St.

And that’s it really. I feel kind of stealing all the info from the Dave Fanning blog, but honestly I would add more but there’s no more to add. There’s nothing on the web about them. So yeah, maybe I’ll get lucky and learn more about them through the Comments section? Crossing fingers!

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Listen
The Riordans – Greener Elsewhere

Day 230.

The Crystal Furs: the great Portland trio are back with two songs on a digital split EP titled “Emptiness So Near” with New Charms, also from Portland. The songs seem to be Halloween themed and sound really ace! The Chrystal Furs tracks are “Werewolf of Love” and “Haunted Space”. Very very good!

Axolotes Mexicanos: the Madrid by way of Asturias, Spanish band have a new video for their song “Cara de Idiota”! This song should be included in the band’s new album that will be released next year on Elefant Records.

The Midnight Greetings: here is a lovely song called “Youth” from the bedroom project The Midnight Greetings from Manila, Philippines. The song has been put out by Lilystars Records and it sounds soothing, sweet, and melancholic. The person behind this song is Kurt Kyle Maraton. Good work!

The Legendary House Cats: the ex-Aberdeen, John Girgus, has a new track called “A Hollow Room”. It is a dreamy pop song, with electronic touches, that feels classic as well as modern.

Corduroy: lastly a new band from Norrköping in Sweden. They do have a sound I really like. And they have two songs, “Blomster” and “Blasé”. Would they make a nice 7″? I think so. The songs are very good and from some photos I found online, they seem to be 3 guys and a girl who like a beer or two. They also consider themselves Sweden’s handsomest band. Super.

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Elephant Noise appeared on the “Still Mad At Me? (15 Years Firestation Records 1998-2013)” 4CD compilation released by Firestation Records in 2013 (FST 100). Of course they were on the CD titled “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 7”. On it they contributed the song “New Town Tom”. And that’s how I discovered them.

The booklet had some info about them. And I was very grateful for that.
Elephant Noise wanted to change the world. When singer/songwriter Neil Barber met bass player Neil Tayler in Edinburgh Scotland’s capital in the mid eighties they were drawn together through a love of seventies art-rock bands like Roxy Music. Neil Tayler, a seasoned rocker from Guernsey in the channel islands had moved to Scotland to form a serious band. Neil Barber had a classical musical background and had been playing Scottish folk music for several years. It was onky when they met flamboyant lead guitarist Stuart Allardyce (a school friend of drummer Crum Hall) that the romantic guitar band Elephant Noise was born. Stuart’s mastery of feedback and inventive post-modern guitar style combined with Neil’s achingly melodic writing made up  a sound that was huge on the Scottish music scene for almost a decade. All with university degrees in philosophy and English, the band, critically acclaimed by a national music scene weary of Stock Aitken and Waterman was very popular on the student circuit. Neil’s lyrics celebrated a visionary atheist spirituality and melodies were both light and dark.
There are few bands where each member is uniquely individually talented and though they had three drummers over the course of their career, Elephant Noise were a happy band with a good musical rapport and all founding members are still close friends to this day. Some fans like the band’s earlier more experimental if rougher sound. Others prefer their later more crafted song writing. Although they were one of Scotland’s most influential bands at the time enjoying a cult following and airplay on local and national radio, Elephant Noise never quite made the really big time. Maybe they were too brave, too fragile, too earnest, but they changed the world just a little bit.

During their time the band only would release a record, the “Elephant Noise” EP. It was released in 1991 on RUB Records (RUB001). This is the only release listed by this label so I would assume that it was a self-release. It included 4 songs, two on each side.

The A side had “This Song is Our Friend” and “Halloween Day” while the B side had “Remember the Big Time” and “Cactus Talk”. They were recorded at Pier House Studios in Edinburgh. The producers were Pete Haigh, Neil Tayler and also the band. The cover art was created by Carolyn Burchell. Neil Barber wrote the songs, played rhythm guitar, violin and sang. Neil Tayler played bass, Stuart Allardyce lead guitar, Tom Heaney played drums and keyboards and Dave Patrick played keyboards on the B side. Raymond Albeson is credited for the photos of the band members on the back cover.

The only other info that Discogs has is that Stuart Allardyce played on a few records by Rosie Nimmo in the 2000s. We know one of the drummers that was in Elephant Noise was John Gurney, he would play in the band Nectar 3 in the 90s. But about the rest of the band members, we don’t know much more.

Firestation would continue their relationship with the band and would release in 2017 a compilation album called “Remember the Big Time”. This compilation would have 13 songs. Are they everything they recorded? I don’t know, but this is a great comp. It had the following tracklist: “This Song is Our Friend”, “in Secret Dreaming”, “Remember the Big Time”, “Hearsay”, “In my Room”, “Halloween Day”, “Cactus Talk”, “The Motorway Song”, “Lost to the World”, “Wallpaper Tour”, “New Town Tom”, “Indian Summer” and “She’s an Aeroplane”. Sadly the compilation’s liner notes are the same as the Leamington Spa compilation so we can’t learn any more details through it. It does have lots of great photos of the band though!

I found that on The List, on its March 13, 1992, edition, they featured the band. Here they describe the band as a mad clash between The Monkees, The Smiths and King Crimson. We know through The List that the band played ad Music Box and the Pelican in Edinburgh,

And that’s it really. Then they disappear into obscurity.

I would love to know more about these Scottish band and its members. Any other details to add, please use the comments section!

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Listen
Elephant Noise – New Town Tom

Day 227.

The B-Team: this is fantastic! here is an 8 song album called “Window Shopping” by the classic mod pop band The B-Team that were interviewed on the blog not so long ago! These 8 songs come from a 1985 and 1986 at various gigs!

Aiko el Grupo: a new song by this Spanish band that will soon be releasing a 10″ mini-lp on Elefant Records that will be titled “Va Totalmente en Serio…”. This new song is called “Quiero Conocer (Por tu Actitud)” and it also has a promo video for it!

Star Party: a new band from Washington State, with a 4 song demo available now on tape. And they also sell t-shirts. That’s cool, no? What’s even cooler is that they make a very fine cover of the Shop Assistants classic “Something to Do”!

Beach Vacation: another Washington State band that has a new release is Beach Vacation from Seattle. They are releasing on November 13 a tape with Z Tapes from Slovakia. This tape is actually a 9 song album and is titled “I Fell Apart”. We can preview two songs now, “Break the Ice” and “Our Night is Falling”.

Fine.: one of my favourite new bands as of late is this Boston, UK, band. Now and then they release a song that is just precious. Their latest is no exception. It is called “Little Voices” and again, it is very good.

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Let’s take a trip to France. Let’s talk about the Yachines.

I have wondered for a long time where did the name Yachines comes from. My theory is that it comes from Lev Yashin. The great Soviet goalkeeper. The “Black Spider” For many the best goalkeeper of history. I’ve seen his name written in French as Lev Yachine. So could it be?

I am still on the lookout of the records they put out. This French band actually came to my attention around 10 or so years ago, thanks to the Neo-Acoustic Guide, that great book the Japanese indiepop fans put together. They were known in Japan, perhaps thanks to a compilation put together by the fine Quince Records in 1998. This compilation was called “Yachines” (QRCP-9007) and included 20 songs in total. The first 14 songs were from the band’s first album “Fancy Kane”, the next 3 from the mini-album “My Love is a Star” and the last 3 were unreleased. The running tracklist is as follows” “Smashing Days”, “Yachines Town”, “I Believe”, “Les Nuits Magnétiques”, “Joséphine”, “Peppermint Drops”, “Superstar”, “Promesses”, “Just in Time”, “Fancy”, “Kane’s Dream”, “Paul”, “Here Today”, “Mr. Tambourine”, “My Love is a Star”, “One Love”, “Do You”, “Veronica”, “All Around the World” and “Le Reve Americain”.

The first release by the band was the mini-album “My Love is a Star” released by Pop Life United (94001) in 1994. This labels seems to be tha band’s own, but I can’t be sure 100%. The only two releases listed on Discogs by this label are Yachines releases. The mini-album songs were “My Love is a Star”, “One Love”, “Monday Man”, “Colors”, “Do You” and “Les Promesses”.

Two years later, 1996, the album “Fancy Kane” was released also  on Pop Life United (CDLPU 96002). 14 songs were included and these were: “Smashing Days”, “Yachines Town”, “I Believe”, “Les Nuits Magnétiques”, “Joséphine”, “Peppermint Drops”, “Superstar”, “Promesses”, “Just in Time”, “Fancy”, “Kane’s Dream”, “Paul”, “Here Today” and “Mr. Tambourine”.

So the band. Yes. It was formed by Olivier Brion on guitar and vocals, Stéphane Bienne on drums and backing vocals, Nicolas Brion on bass and backing vocals. Miss Lever added backing vocals to “Les Promesses” and also on a cover song of “A Felicidade”, original by Antonio Carlos Jobim, which was included in the “A Tribute to Antonio Carlos Jobim” released in 1997 by XIII Bis Records (177192) in France, Gut Records (GUT-0046) in Taiwan and Quattro (QTCY-2112) in Japan. Worth mentioning that this compilation includes terrific bands including Cloudberry Jam, Ray Wonder or even Louis Philippe.

The only other compilation appearance I am aware by Yachines is on the “Fair 97” CD compilation released in 1997. This was a promno compilation and the band included the song “Les Promesses”.

The band members were in other bands too after the band called it a day. All three band members were in the band Discover in the early 2000s. Olivier also released a solo album called “Hôtel D’Angleterre” in 2007. And this year he released the single “Jekyll & Hyde”.

In 2013 the band did a reunion gig, a 20th anniversary reunion gig. They played in Paris on February 8th of that year. There’s a video with live footage of that gig!

I find a 1994 review of the mini-album on Les Inrockuptibles. Here it does say that the band named themselves after the legendary goalkeeper. It also mentions that Olivier Brion used to be in a band called Dorian Gray. Would be nice to find recordings by this band!

Then I do find Olivier Brion playing acoustic solo at the Bistropolitain in Paris on September 21st, 2018! How cool. At this gig he played a few songs and among them he played the Yachines song “My Love is a Star“.

I find the song “My Love is a Star” on Youtube. There it says that there was going to be a 25th anniversary edition of this song to be released on vinyl. Not sure if that happened. There seems to have been a website for Olivier Brion in 2018 when this was posted. But there is none. What a song this is. I hope someday it gets re-released of course.

Not too long ago our friends Toshiko and Fabien dedicated a post to them in their Anorak Crumble blog. And not much more for Yachines. I see a few more posts about Discover, the band that came after. But I am curious now about Yachines, his jangly indiepop band.

Who remembers them? Did they record more songs? Appear on more compilations? Would love to find out more about them. Such a great sounding band!

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Listen
Yachines – Yachines Town