Day 202.

Primal Scream: ok ok this is an oldie, but it has just appeared on Youtube!! My friend Richard from The Suncharms shared with me the first ever Primal Scream television appearance! It dates from January 1987 on the Channel 4 program “Down the Line”.

Family Mart: the Austin, Texas, combo has a new song up on Soundcloud and it is really good! It has a good title as well, “My Anarcha-Feminist Crush” and I must say it sounds great. I’m hooked. Somehow it reminds me to Aerospace, a favourite of mine.

Margarita Quebrada: now we go to Valencia to check out this post-punky band that reminds me of the great Barcelona band El Último Vecino. Margarita Quebrada sounds a bit more lofi though, more DIY if you want. Their latest release is “Luces” a 5 song EP that is available on Bandcamp.

Plush Palace: Cuties from California. That’s how Diz, Viggy and Eric describe themselves. They have recorded 4 twee crash pop songs and put them up on Bandcamp, perhaps these are their first ever songs? The self-titled EP has “First Date”, “Stairs”, “Fake Fucking Liar” and “Cluelessness” and I have to say they are good fun!

Lunatics on Pogosticks: new song by this Melbourne band that I know nothing about really! The song is called “Don’t Need Sunshine” and is the first one they publish since September 2017!

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Witch-hazels or witch hazels are a genus of flowering plants in the family Hamamelidaceae, with four species in North America, and one each in Japan and China . The North American species are occasionally called winterbloom. The name witch in witch-hazel has its origins in Middle English wiche, from the Old English wice, meaning “pliant” or “bendable”, and is not related to the word witch meaning a practitioner of magic. Jacob George Strutt’s 1822 book, Sylva Britannica attests that “Wych Hazel” was used in England as a synonym for wych elm, Ulmus glabra; The use of the twigs as divining rods, just as hazel twigs were used in England, may also have, by folk etymology, influenced the “witch” part of the name.

Witch Hazel hailed from Kent, Ohio. At some point in the late 90s they would change their name to The Witch Hazel Sound though they also called themselves The Witch Hazel Sound with Strings. I prefer the shorter name myself. So I’ll use that while I investigate this great band whose song I like the most is actually the first one they released on vinyl, “Just Don’t Try”. And yes, this 7″ I do have it!

As I was saying the first release was a 7″ in 1993. Released on their own Bubblegum Smile Records (this label would later release in the year 2000 a compilation called Tape Op, more on that later), this record had just two songs, “Just Don’t Try” on the A side and “Plain” on the B side. Both songs were recorded at Uneven Tracks in Kent, Ohio, and mixed at Electro-Sound Recording Studios in the same city. The credits include Mike Crooker on bass, keyboards, guitar and string arrangements, Brian Barris on drums, Kevin Coral on guitar, percussion and keyboards, Ray Carmen on tambourine and Mark F. on vocals. We also know that Greg D. Feezel was the engineer, Gerard Dominick (from the bands In Fear of Roses and Indian Rope Burn) coordinated the sleeve which was designed by Kevin Coral and Mike Crooker, Feezel, Coral and Crooker mixed the songs and The Sampo Quartet helped with the strings. The producers were Mike and Kevin.

That same year the band would release another song, “Cough Syrup”, that would be included in a split 7″ with The Mommyheads. It was released by Sonic Swirl Records (SWIRL 002). This song was produced by Kevin and Mole and was mixed at Electro-Sound Studio as well.

Then we have to fast forward a bit. 1995. That year they release the “Beeswax EP” on Go Go Records (GGO 005). This 7″ would include three songs. The A side would have “There’s Always Vanilla (Requiem for Baby Blue)” and “Now (Fear Stalks the Cape)” while the AA side had “Secrets of the Spider World”.  The band at this point had Mike Zee (also called Mike Split) as the bassist. Interestingly enough Mike Crooker doesn’t seem part of the band anymore though he did produce “Now (Fear Stalks the Cape)”. Or maybe Mike Crooker started calling himself Mike Zee or Split?

That same year the band would release their first album, “Landlocked”, on Flydaddy Records (FLY014) on CD and vinyl. Both versions had twelve songs, “Gone Tomorrow”, “Chinese Apples”, “Secrets of the Spider World”, “Honey Stick”, “Blonde on Blonde”, “Lemon Grove Kids”, “Rosewater Crescent”, “Autumnal Void”, “Pink Grapefruit Cocktail”, “Peking Opera Blues”, “Hideous Sun Demo” and “Do You Dig Worms?”. For some reason I find these song titles very colorful. All songs were engineered and mixed by Scott Bennett who had been a keyboardist in Brian Wilson’s band.

In 1997 the band contributed the song “Farewell to Cheyenne”, an Ennio Morricone cover, to the compilation 7″ “The Toastier Leper Camp Co. EP” released by Ptolemaic Terrascope (POT 22). They shared the 7″ with Roy Montgomery, Tangle Edge and Silver Apples. I believe Ptolemaic Terrascope was a magazine and this was their 22nd issue from January 1997.

1998. The release of the mini-album “It’s All True”. At this point they change their name to The Witch Hazel Sound with Strings. Why? I suppose they added strings. But is that reason enough? In any case the mini-album had 6 songs, “The Libertine Revisited”, “Fontaine”, “Pacific/Atlantic”, “The Secret Grave Girl”, “Hawthorne” and “Frank’s Dream”. It was released by Camera Obscura (CAMO12CD) in Australia (?!). That same year SpinART records would include the song “Just Don’t Try” on the compilation “LemonLime Volume Two… A Pop Compilation” (Spart 40) under the name Witch Hazel.

The year 2000 would see them participating in three compilations. The first would be on “Popular World” released by Sky Blue Records (001) with the song “Fritz Lang in America”. Here they used the name The Witch Hazel Sound. Now they added the Sound again. And so they would add the Sound one more time for the song “Stephanie Said” included in their own Bubblegum Smile Records release “Tape Op”. Lastly on Camera Obscura’s double CD comp “The Serotonin Ronin II Compilation” they would have their songs “Hawthorne” and “Sketches of the Insane”.

In the year 2001 the band would release their last album “This World, Then the Fireworks…”. This record was to be released by Hidden Agenda Records (AHA!028) and would include 12 songs: “Music Becomes Vibration”, “2 or 3 Things I Know About Her”, “Fireworks”, “Providence”, “Blue City”, “Sun Horse Moon Horse”, “The Guild of Splinters”, “Kiss Tomorrow”, “Halo of Brass”, “Kiss Me Monster”, “Ballad of Constance Money” and “The Boy With Green Hair”. It is worth noting that 3 years later, in 2004, this album was to be re-released in France by Euro Visions (EURO 006). This new version with new artwork would include three more songs, “For Isabelle Huppert”, “Black Friday” and “The Man Who Invented California”.

“Music Becomes Vibration” would be included in the 2001 compilation “Parasol’s Sweet Sixteen, Volume Four”.  That same year “The Man Who Invented California” was included on Dreamy Records’ “A Wish on a Star” (rem017CD).

In 2002 the band would contribute to “Dream Magazine 3” the song “To Isabelle Huppert” and also “2 or 3 Things I Know About Her” to the CD comp “Parasol’s Sweet Sixteen, Volume Five” by Parasol Records.

“Music Becomes Vibration” would appear on another compilation in 2003. This one was called “Carnivals, Cotton Candy, And You” and was released by Orange Sky Records and Dionysus Records (OS2208). “2 or 3 Things I Know About Her” would be on the 2005 comp “Monster CD No. 10” released by Rock & Folk (RF10) and “Just Don’t Try” would show up on 2010’s “Tiny Idols Volume III” released by Snowglobe Records (SG12).

So that is all for releases. What about other involvement with bands. We know Mike Crooker was on Elliptical and Indian Rope Burn, Ray Carmen was on Librarians with Hickeys as well as releasing under his own name, Kevin Coral has done a lot of production work as well as being in the band Future Children.

What more can we find? We know that the band started in 1992. Then I find this Bandcamp where it just lists a first ever compilation of the best songs of Witch Hazel covering the period from 1993 to 2001. There is no more information about it, and if it was ever released. It looks that this Bandcamp was put together as a cassette label by Kevin Coral and Jason Richardson, former band mates in the last edition of The Witch Hazel Sound.

So I look for Jason Richardson. He has a website. He seems to be a screenplay writer these days.

The book Alternative Rock by Dave Thompson mentions them too. Here he mentions that the band was formed from the ashes of Second Skin, a gothic synth-drum machine band that had Kevin Coral and Mike Split. It also mentions that Kevin Coral would put together his own recording studio, Waterloo Sound.

And that’s it! Not much more info, but that was quite interesting, wasn’t it? Who remembers them?

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Listen
Witch Hazel – Just Don’t Try

Day 200.

The Very Most: it has been a while since we heard from Jeremy Jensen’s band but the wait is over. The Very Most will be releasing “Needs Help” on October 9th. This album is quite interesting as it has many indiepop names, like Mel from Hermit Crabs, Cristina Quesada or Kristine from Tiny Fireflies, collaborate in different songs. Also it is worth noting that the CD release is on Kocliko Records, a label we are big fans of.

Topographies: now a shoegaze album that will be released on December 4th. The album is called “Ideal Form” and it is by the San Francisco band Topographies. At this moment we can only preview one of the tracks, “Rose of Sharon”, out of 8 songs that will be on the vinyl LP.

Tapeworms: on the French label Howlin Banana Records they have some news, they are releasing Tapeworms album “Funtastic”! Well, it is actually out since Sept. 25, and the 10 songs are out now on vinyl.

Grazer: “How Many Times” is the latest song by the Melbourne four-piece formed by Matt, Mollie, Nic and Adie and it is a great song. Don’t know much about this, but one important fact is that the song will be included in the upcoming album bu the band.

Pop at Summer: I had recommend not too long ago the song “Summer is Coming!” by the Indonesian combo! It is a great song, and well, now there is a video the band has made for it! And it is great as well! It feels very summery indeed! For us in the northern hemisphere, summer is over, but for those in the south it is indeed coming. So yeah, share this lovely video/song away!

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My friend Jessel asked me to try to find any information about the Leicester band Why Dad, Why? I guess he asked me because I had released a 3″CD back in 2007 by the band Scottish Polis Inspectors. It turns out both bands shared a member, Richard Shops.

In my defense I didn’t know this. Back in 2007 I wasn’t running the blog and I didn’t have this interest to tell the story of indiepop in a blog or anything. I mean, I was interested and was curious, but many times I forgot to ask the right questions. With Scottish Polis Inspectors something like that happened. They had previously released a wonderful EP titled “Gina McKee” in 2005 that was only available through them.

I had ordered that CD and was a true favourite. So when I started the label I asked to release them. I was so chuffed that they said yes that I didn’t ask much about their background. But I do know that the band was formed by Richard Collier as a vocalist and guitarist, Michael Cook on bass and guitar and Andrew Perks on drums. So ok, does this mean that Richard Shops was actually called Richard Collier?

Now let’s fast-track 13 years. A video of a gig of Why Dad, Why? appears on the Youtube channel of the Abbey Park Festival. It is a 1987 gig where the band plays a few songs. We don’t know the names of the songs, maybe one could be “Charity”? I know the last one they played was called “Money & Suit”.

I do know thanks to a flyer of a gig Why Dad, Why? played together with Po! that there were songs named “I Saw Dennis Norden in a Pub” and “Put the Yuppies on the Dole Popwit”, maybe these were played at the gig? I think so!

I keep looking for the other band members. On the Facebook page of the Abbey Park Festival Archive there are some photos. Someone says that the bassist of the band was called Guy Bates. Sadly it seems he passed away.

One thing that was shared on Youtube is a video of Richard Shops playing solo in Leicester as part of the Claws Out Rally Against Clause 28. There are other bands in the video of course, it lasts about an hour, but the opening act is Richard, so that’s super cool to see.

If you want to know a bit more, a little background about this gig, the person who uploaded the video, Nick Lansley, says:

Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 caused the controversial addition of an amendment that stated that a local authority “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” or “promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”. Although I had graduated form Leicester Polytechnic the year before and started work in the south east of England, I often returned to the many friends I had made in Leicester. So I was happy to participate in and film Leicester’s response to the forthcoming Section 28 enactment. This movie documents that rally, which took place in March 1988 in the gardens outside Leicester City Hall.

The only other interesting thing is that between 1983 and 1985 Richard was in a band with indie legend Ruth Miller from Po! This band was called The Soviets. Ruth has actually written about this band on her blog, so read that!

We know from her post that Richard played bass and guitar in the band, and I wish I get a chance to listen to the songs. They are described as fast jangly guitar pop. That sounds like my kind of music! Are there any The Soviets recordings out there? I know there were tape recordings…

Another thing mentioned in the post is that Richard had been previously in bands in the North East. Which bands?

And so tracking and following my detective instincts on Google, I stumble upon 20 recordings by Richard on Bandcamp! These 20 songs make up the album “These Are Our Days”. They are all marked as demos, and they are really lovely. Wow, really.

I notice too that Richard is based in Newcastle, left Leicester long time ago.

This album makes me happy. Of course I’d love to hear songs by Why Dad, Why? on this post, but this is a great discovery. I will send a message now to Richard, maybe we can find out about his many bands starting with Why Dad, Why?!

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Listen
Why Dad, Why? – Money & Suit (live at Abbey Park Festival 1987)

Day 197.

No Wave Charles: From Boston comes this bedroom pop band will be releasing their debut album called “Bulk”. We can’t listen to all of the songs on Bandcamp and it is not available in physical formats, but there are at least two songs to get a taste of the sort of indiepop the band makes. So check out “Self-Obsessed” and “Enforced Suicide”. The album (and perhaps all songs available to preview) is out on October 2nd.

Staring Problem: Modern Tapes from Brooklyn, NY, are releasing the album “Eclipse” by this Chicago band. There are some great guitar pop songs here, some are a bit goth-y, that’s true, but for example “Cheshire Cat” is a very fine song. The record includes 7 songs and all are available to preview on Bandcamp.

Latitude: this San Francisco band makes some wonderful pop music. They are releasing their album “Mystic Hotline” on October 6 on vinyl and will include 10 effervescent songs. We can now preview two of them, “Thursday is the New Sunday” and “Tick Tock”! Good stuff!

Drawing Boards: just discovered this band from Queens, New York. They must be somewhere close to me! They have released a few albums, one in 2018 and another in 2019. They are still available (in vinyl their last one, and tape the first one) For their latest album, “The Message”, we can only preview one song, “UFOs”, which is very nice, whereas for their first self-titled record, you can preview all 12 songs!

The Minettas: Seamus has played all instruments on these two songs and covered two classic songs from Sarah Records, “I’ve Got a Habit” by The Orchids and “Anorak City” by Another Sunny Day. The first one has some vocals it seems but very difficult to listen, while the second one is just instrumental. It is an interesting effort, and the guitars sound cool, just wish the vocals were there or at least more clear.

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And last, to complete this challenge of bands that wrote a song about one of the months of the year I have here Happy Go Lucky from Sweden who in 2004 released the song “From December to Summer”! I did it! Now what could be my next challenge? I did bands that start with each letter of the alphabet, bands from different countries of the world, bands that wrote about a day of the week, now bands that wrote about a month of the year. If you have any ideas let me know!

So Happy Go Lucky. At least we need to go back to 2001. That’s the year when the band started. The the heyday of Swedish indiepop DIY times. Where bands, fanzines, club nights, festivals, everything was exciting! So many good music happened then. And Happy Go Lucky was part of it.

In 2003 the band self-released a CDR called “Friends from Way Back Then” that included 6 songs. I want to think this was their first ever release. The songs on it were “I Need Someone to Die For”, “Whatever Made U Think”, “Trip & Fall”, “I Hope I’ll Never See U Again”, “Out of Tune” and “How Far”. These songs were played, written and recorded by Happy Go Lucky. Yes, Happy Go Lucky was just the one guy. But here on track four, “I Hope I’ll Never See U Again” Carin Hubbe is credited for vocals.

So it was one guy. His name was Jan Lundgren and he was based in Malmö. He even had a website then. And a hotmail. Perhaps that’s how the Italian label Best Kept Secret contacted him that year to release “The Pet Rescue” (LIE 080) cassette. This tape had 3 songs on each side, the A side had “Going Out” and “Upstate”, “U Are a Star” while the B side had “Storee”, “Undone” and “How Far”.

In 2004 the band would release another EP, this time on the very fine Smashing Time label. “Trip & Fall” (SMT 003) had 5 songs, “Trip & Fall”, “Going Out”, “December to Summer”, “I Need Someone to Die For” and “We Stand”. Carin Hubbe would also sing in this release, on the song “We Stand”. The artwork is credited to Nina Canell (who was in bands like Champagne Diamond, Luftfluks, Luftkluster, Obscured by Light, The Brilliant Light, The New Heat).

That same year the band would contribute a few songs to compilations. “Going Out” appeared on the comp CD “Är Jag Förändrad Eller Är Jag Ny?”. This compilation featured 10 bands from the Malmö’s scene included The Radio Dept.!  The well known Hybris label would include the track “Pet Rescue” in a CDR compilation called “A Hybris Sampler – A Collection of Hybris Artists Summer 04”. It is interesting to me as far as I know Happy Go Lucky didn’t release anything with Hybris. Maybe at some point there was the intention to do so? Then on the Popknst CDR compilation “This is Popkonst and We Love You” the band appears with the song “Going Out”. This is a fantastic compilation by the way, I wish I had a copy, so many great bands. All of this happened in 2004.

2005 was another good year for the band. Now on Bedroom Records they would release the CDR mini-album “The Snowball Parade” (BED022). This EP had 6 songs, “Cuomo”, “The Snowball Parade”, “Going Home”, “Safe Haven #2”, “Homesick” and “Biguela”. The artwork for this cool looking CD is credited to Une Estétique Nouvelle.

That same year the band would appear with the song “Happy Go Lucky Personality” in the “Our Hearts Beat Out of Tune” compilation released by the magnificent Yellow Mica Recordings (YMR021).

The last time we hear from Jan is in 2008, his song “I Hope I’ll Never See U Again” appeared on the “Series Two Compilation Vol. 9” CDr compilation.

I found an article dating from July 17 2004 in the Sydsvenskan newspaper. Here Jan explains his creative process, which usually starts with an acoustic guitar. It also has some interesting info like that Jan had been once part of the band Ambulance from Jönköping. In Jönköping he had worked for a record store. Happy Go Lucky would start in 2001 when he moved to Malmö to study. And his first gig was in 2003 at the Blekingska nationen in Lund. Don’t know if he performed live again. It may have been his one and only gig.

Another good find is an article from Louder Than Bombs. This one must be from 2004 too. In this article Jan is not the only one interviewed but also Sarah from Action Biker. Here Jan mentions the it was a problem that there is a famous jazz pianist with his same name. That was one of the reasons to not use his name. Then he does mention that he has used more people in gigs, to be a full band. So yes, he did play more gigs. Now the question is where? People that helped him include friends that have been in bands like Piotor, Dialog Cet, Log Cabin and Ed Green.

And that’s it. That’s all I could find about him. Who remembers him? If you have any other info please share!

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Listen
Happy Go Lucky – December to Summer

Day 195.

The Crooner: perhaps the best news of the week is the release of “Heaven Airlines+”!! The album released by the enthusiastic Greek label Make Me Happy looks gorgeous. The A side of the 12″ contains the original “Heaven Airlines CD” whil;e the B side it includes songs that were included in the Japanese release of the album plus other songs that appeared on compilations during the time around the world, including favourite so many favourite songs of mine. This is an album NO ONE SHOULD MISS!! It is available now on Bandcamp.

Low Key Crush: Melbourne continues to be one of the centers of the international pop underground, it is really impressive how many bands and good songs come out from there. Now the duo Low Key Crush has a new song called “Been Waiting” that sounds ace. We are just wondering when is a release coming out?!

The Harriets: this fun Japanese girl group has made a lovely video for their song “Eeenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe”! The song is being released as a CD+fanzine and you can find it in their own website. Really nice!

Nos Miran: another cool video released lately was the one for “Quien Tú Quieres Que Sea” by this Spanish pop combo! This song is actually a digital single that confirms all the good things we heard on their “Todo se Repite” album.

The Silent Love: last August the Jakarta based label Tarsius Records released a 14 song album by this great Indonesian project. It is called “Decade” and it is a great jingle jangly pop record!

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Anyone remember the Swedish band Lothar? They put an album out on Quince Records from Japan called “Montgolfier” (QRCP-65) in 2008 and then they sort of went silent. I am trying to find out more information about them of course. Tag along?

The album had 11 songs in total, “Malone”, “Whizz”, “Nesebar”, “Montgolfier”, “Carol is Knitting”, “By November”, “Coq Au Vin”, “Cars and Cranes”, “Raincoat” and “Our Days Will Pass”. Okay, so you see they have a song about November. This counts towards this silly challenge I have about finding bands that wrote a song about a month. Only missing December now.

But I actually remembered this band because I used to have a poster in bright pink from a gig in Hamburg. I think the lineup was Sad Days for Puppets and Lothar. I think they were to play the Grüner Jäger. Maybe someone remembers this?

I do own the CD and I can look for some more information about the band and the release.

The band was formed by Erik Bromö on guitar, Mats Ingemansson on drums, Daniel Leopold on guitar, Olov Lindberg on bass, Mattias Person on guitar and tambourine, Nathaly Salas on vocals and Daniel Stridh on guitar. Nathaly also wrote all the lyrics.

We know that the album was recorded and mixed in Traxton Recording by Mats Ingemasson between 2007 and 2008. It was mastered at Cosmos Mastering by Christofer Stannow.

The art for the CD was created by Erik Bromö and the photos by Teo Leff.  They mention being fans of My Bloody Valentine, JAMC and Sarah Records.

A few blogs picked reviewed them like The Janglebox or The Blog That Celebrates Itself, but they don’t add any details. They just review the music. I am in search of info, details. The music I know that I like it.

I look in Musikon.se and Popfakta, websites that usually have info on Swedish bands. No luck.  I know that Traxton Recording, where they made the album is located in Stockholm, in lovely Söder. Did the band hail from Stockholm then?

What I do think I found is a website for Erik Bromö. He is a painter, an illustrator, and he does make beautiful pieces. I would love to have a 7″ with one of his pieces, right? And is Nathaly working in communications?

I would love to know more of course. Who remembers them?

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Listen
Lothar – Malone

Day 193. Not many news today, but I can tell you a little secret, I’ve started working on a new retrospective compilation! I hope I can let you know which band will be next in our amazing Cloudberry Cake Kitchen series!!

Pop at Summer: the fantastic Bandung band is back again with a new song full of summer vibes called “Summer is Coming!”. It is really really good! The band formed by Givani, Roni Tresnawan and Rifky Rahman is quickly becoming my favourite band from Indonesia that is still going. I really want a release of them to happen!

Dream Suicides: this Riverside, California, band makes bedroom shoegazy songs and they have a new release coming out in October 16 called “Reflections of Ourselves in Scars Within Others”. It doesn’t say if it is an album, an EP or just a song. But what is interesting is that just a few weeks ago they put out an EP called “The Darkness That Follows Me” which is totally worth checking out. Also so great to see Irene Jacob on the top banner.

Peachblood: more shoegaze sounds! this time from the Brighton based label Shore Dive Records. The band Peachblood hailing from East Sussex has just released a 5 song EP titled “Longing Sky” and it is available on CD (though 3 copies were left at the time of writing this post). It sounds quite good, so maybe they should do a second CD pressing?

Victorian Tin: our friends Erik and Christian are releasing a new CD on Everlasting Records, one self-titled EP that will include the songs “Chagall”, “Above Our Heads”, “Silver and Perfume” and “Borders”. This is great stuff.

Misty Coast: and lastly we head to Bergen, Norway. This is a city that gave us three bands that released on Cloudberry, The April Skies, Soda Fountain Rag and Princess Niko, so it has a special place in my heart, I just hope to visit someday! Well, Misty Coast makes some lovely music as I can tell from their latest effort, “In a Million Years”!

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Let’s head to Canada today. That’s where Tara Landry White, aka. Tara S’Appart, is from. As you know I am doing this challenge with songs that have a month in their title. Tara wrote “October Daze”, so I can give October a check mark now. So, back in the 90s she recorded a bunch of songs. Some were released in time, and many more had to wait until  2001 to get released. Let’s find out more about her.

In 2019 a lot of her recordings showed up on Rick White’s Bandcamp. But I’ll come back to this later. I want to do this chronologically.

Tara recorded 50+ songs between 1994 and 1999. According to Discogs in 1994 there was a tape called “Space So Pretty”. Maybe this was her first release ever? It clearly looks self-released and we can see that Rick White recorded and mixed all 9 songs on the tape. The A side had “Space So Pretty”, “I Can’t”, “Blind Hit”, “Notes” and “Universe of Mine”. The B side had “Beautiful Dreamer”, “Untouchable Eyes”, “Grass” and “Night… The Hardest Time for Me Without You”.

OK, so Rick White. Who is he? He is definitely an important figure in Canadian independent music. He was in Eric’s Trip as well as in other bands like Elevator, Moon Socket, The Underdogs and The Unintended among others.

Rick would also record Tara S’Appart first and only vinyl release. It was a 7″ titled “Little 7″” that was released by the Canadian label Homemade Hearts Records (HOM-002) in 1996. I have no clue about this label but they at least released another record that same year for the band Soft Blanket. Tara S’Appart 7″ included four songs, “Mending Time” and “The Land of Where Lost Dreams Go” on the A side and “Trees” and “Pretty” on the B side. Tara wrote the songs as well as playing guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion and sang. Rick played the drums. All four songs were recorded between November 1995 and April 1996 by both of them.

Lastly, the Moncton based Great Beyond Recordings would release in 1999 a CDR with 14 songs called “The Faces of the Moon” (GBR002). This album was recorded by Tara and Rick in Riverview, New Brunswick during the summer and autumn of 1998. The songs on this album were: “Faces of the Moon”, “How I Long to Hear Clearly”, “Phase of the Moon”, “No Good Reason”, “Lights and Shadows Cast”, “Further Past Our Time”, “Faces of the Moon (Part Two)”, “Inhale / Exhale”, “Full Moon Song”, “So Far”, “A New Guitar”, “October Daze”, “Kind of Cruel” and “Faces of the Moon (Part Three)”.

These releases weren’t everything she put out. Actually Tara S’Appart appeared on at least 5 compilations. The first one dates from 1996 and was a cassette (1996) and CD (1997) compilation called “The Stareoscopic Scary Show. An Audiological View of Moncton N.B.”. This was released by Rick White himself and included the song “The Land Where Lose Dreams Go”.

Ramona Records (RAM 003) would include the song “The Light and Shadows Cast” on the 1997 CD compilation “Super Secret Songs: A Benefit for Kitchener’s Korova Cafe”. It does look like that there was a Korova Cafe in Ontario, I am guessing the proceeds of the CD were donated to it?

In 1998 the band would appear on “Hypnodia Lost” a 7″ compilation released by Hypnodia (H-06) from Canada. Tara S’Appart would include the song “Further Past Our Time” which was recorded at Xandu Room in October 1997 by Rick White.

Then in 2005 the wonderful song “October Daze” would appear on Kittridge Records compilation “Homemade Hits Vol. 2” (KITT 021). It was through this compilation that I discovered the band.

Lastly there is a compilation called “Hear the Water Freezes Faster: A CHMA FM 106.9 Compilation of Artists from the Trantramar Region and Beyond”. I dont know much about this compilation, but we know that the band appeared with the song “Another Day”.

Now back to the Bandcamp.

So yes, here are all the songs from the “Faces of the Moon” album as well as the “Little 7” and “Space so Pretty cassette plus the song “Another Day” that was in the last compilation I mentioned. We also learn that on “Full Moon Song” and “Kind of Cruel” Joel Plaskett played pedal steel. And that’s it. No further information. I am starting ton be curious about the 50+ songs it was said Tara had recorded. Where are they?

I keep digging and find that actually Tara and Rick married according to a blog post on the blog Songadayforever.com. We also know that Tara was in a bunch of bands including Elevator to Hell, Elevator and Orange Glass.

Not much more about this band. I wonder if they played much live, if at all? I couldn’t find any information about that. So I am hoping to hear from you, do you remember them?

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Tara S’Appart – October Daze

Day 190. Getting close to 200 days working from home. What day are you all on? Or have you returned to your workplaces?

Puff Punch: so cool to hear this band! I believe it is the first time I am listening to the Jakarta based combo and it is a delight. Their latest release is called “Can We Go Out Now?”, a 4 song EP of catchy punky pop!

Rosehip Teahouse: I have recommending this band from Cardiff in the past, and why not do it again? They have a new song up on their Bandcamp and it sounds quite nice. It is called “I Meant What I Said” and lyrics are posted to sing along.

Still Corners: the classic London band is back with a new song called “The Last Exit”! It is a superb song and there’s even a video for it which you can check right here.

Nah..: as we know our friends Sebastian and Estella are releasing an album on Shelflife Records. It may as well be our favourite new record this year right? Top five? I can’t wait to get my hands on it. In the meantime they have unveiled a new song, not included in the album,  that sounds amazing, “Finger on the Map”!

Pet Dreams: now the bedroom project of Ryan Davis from Seattle, Washington. This is a lo-fi dreampop record, it is called “Time Away”, and it is available now on CD. It includes 6 songs, all written, recorded, mixed and mastered by himself!

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“Autumn, September” is the song by The Maybellines that I am going to choose to clear the month of September in this silly challenge of me. Good times! Do you remember this lovely Denver band?

We can go in chronological order, right?

So first time we hear about them was in 1997 on two compilations according to Discogs but I feel this may be wrong? These two compilations are for Edmonton, Canada, bands. We know the Maybellines hailed from Denver, so I will skip. So I’ll jump to 1998, there’s a compilation called “Today’s Top Girl Groups Vol. 1” with a song called “No Jive” by The Maybellines.

So those years are confusing to me. I don know that the band’s first release came in 1999 for sure. That is the band we know, The Maybellines. The 7″ was called “”Towel Off” EP and had four songs, “Our Midnight” and “What About Me?” on the A side and “Rocky Mountain High” and “Haynes Point” on the B side. We see on the sleeve the cute characteristic illustrations we’d see from the band, this time a ladybug, and we know that the record was recorded and produced by Brian Feutchtinger in 1999 at Uneven Studios in Denver.  The photo on the insert is credited to James Bludworth, Jimmy Gapinski did the drawing and we get the names of the band members, Julie, Mike, Dave and Alice.

The year 2000 would be more prolific. The band would release a split 7″ with the band The Pin Downs. This release was self-released by both bands and came with a fanzine. There is no catalog numbers. The Maybellines appear on the B side with two songs, “Bright Eyes” and “Punker”.

The band would include their song “Low-Fi” to a double CD compilation called “Local Shakedown” released by Smooch Records (SMOOTCH 01). This compilation was sold to promote local Colorado artists and Radio 1190 KCVU from Boulder. But more interestingly the band would release an 8-song album on the great Shelflife Records. It would be self-titled (LIFE 024) and the songs on it were “Sleep Over”, “Watch Out”, “Bomb Pop”, “Space Mission Bible Camp”, “Sally”, “I Hope You Like Me Too”, “One Thousand” and “Happiness Digest”. The album was recorded between January 13 and 18 at Uneven Studios. Brian Feuchtinger was the engineer as well as co-producer. Jon Chaikin did the mastering at Nonstpsound. The artwork was created by Jill from Shelflife.

In 2001 the band appeared on many comps. The song “Big Wheel” is on the “White Shirts = Stains” cassette comp released by Unread. Two songs, “Battleship” and “Oregon” appear on another US comp, the “Amateur Rocket Club” double 7″ released by Amateur Rocket Club. On this one, as in many comps they appear alongside The Breezy Porticos. The other two bands in these 7″s are The Jenni Jensens and Kudzu Towers. In the classic “Picnic Basket (A Shelflife International Pop Compilation)” (LIFE 020) the band appears with “Our Midnight”. Then the song “Oregon” appears on “Joe’s Blue Plate Special Volumes 56-59” a four CD compilation set released by Joe’s Grill. Lastly, “Sprawl Forever” does appear on “One” another Shelflife classic compilation (LIFE 040).

In 2002 the band stops releasing on Shelflife, not sure why, but they join Best Friends Records where they release their second album “Chatfield Holiday” (FR-02). This album which was recorded between September and December 2001, was again recorded by Bryan Feuchtinger and mastered by Jon Chaikin as the same places. The photography again by James Bludworth and the artwork by Jimmy Gapinski. Liner notes by Jason Heller. This CD had 11 songs, “Oregon”, “Wait for You”, “Kid Pop Unite”, “Drama Queen”, “Battleship”, “I Just had the Best Time”, “Until I Met You”, “7 Blocks Away”, “Big Wheel”, “Walking Down the Street” and “Untitled”.

More compilation appearances of course. Their song “Watermelon” gets included in the Planting Seeds Records CD comp “Dreaming Up the Perfect Pop” (PSRCD 12).

In 2003 the band continues contributing songs. “This and That” is on the “You’re Still Young at Heart” (LIFE 050) on Shelflife and “Wish You Dead” is on “I Am A Victim of this Song” CD compilation released by Baka-Poi from France. This one came with a 40 page A5 fanzine!

In 2004 they have “On & On” on the CD compilation “Happy Happy Birthday to Me Vol. 3” and also their song “Our Town” appears on “Radio 1190 Local Shakedown Vol II”.

In 2005 the EP “A La Carte” is released by Best Friends Records (FR-08) including 6 songs, “The Only One”, “Dream Vacation”, “Autumn, September”, “Come On”, “Our Hearts Keep Time” and “Night Ranger”. That same year the video for their song “Wait For You” gets included in two DVD compilations, “2005 Colorado Indie Music Video Competition” and “No Parachute, Volume 1: A Compilation of Indie Music Videos”.

Lastly in 2007 the band released a CDR on a label I don’t like (what can you do?) called “Our Secret Lives”. There are 9 songs that are actually early four-track home recordings. Only 150 copies were available. The songs are “Quietly”, “Chatfield Holiday”, “Ms. Sheriff”, “Froggy”, “Jamaholic”, “HMO”, “Maybelline”, “Stupid Love”, “Low-fi”. The label is the American Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records (HHBTM077A).

I also know that there was a live session of the band at KFJC, where they recorded at least a song that remains unreleased,”Uh Oh”.

The Maybellines video for “Wait For You” is available in Youtube of course. Check it out. Also if you want to check the two released on Best Friends Records, they are on Bandcamp.

Then I start to find articles on the web about them. We know the band played for example a CD release show for “A La Carte” at the Hi-Dive in Denver on August 26, 2005. Another show dates from November 14,  2002, at Meow Meow in Denver alongside Joy Electric and I am the World Trade Center. October 19, 2005, saw them play alongside with Broken Spindles and Porlolo at the Larimer Lounge in Denver. April 30, 2005, they played Benders Tavern with the Breezy Porticos in Denver as well. More gigs, now thanks to the Dressy Bessy gigography page. Dressy Bessy of course also a Denver band. So we know that they played together with Dressy Bessy and Mates of State on July 11th 2000 at Lions Lair, and then again with Dressy Bessy, Breezy Porticos and Kudzu Tower  at the Mike & Johannes house on October 31st, 2000. 2002, June 8th, they played at the Bluebird Theatre with Dressy Bessy and Thank God for Astronauts. Lastly another gig I found dates from October 2nd 2002 at the 15th St. Tavern with The Love Letter Band.

Aside from Denver I know they played in Durango, Colorado, at Thee Olde Shcool House Rocks on July 3rd 2005 with Bunnygrunt.

Another article by Westword mentions that Jason Heller, the one who wrote the liner notes is nowadays a renowned science-fiction writer! Wow, I found his website even.

Last.fm has a biography. I should have started there probably. I see that the band started in 1998, so yeah, those previous compilations appearances were not the same band. It says that Julie Dorough, Al Adams  and Mike Levasseur were the original band members. Actually Al and Mike had started this project and asked Julie to join them to be the singer. Then Dave Reeves was the last to join them. It mentions that for Mike and Julie this was their first band, but Dave and Al had been in previous band, Al for example was in The Hood.

Then a very cool article on the Peace Corps Online. How come? It seems Al Smith met Mike Levasseur on a plane bound for Africa as they were joining the Peace Corps! Al hailed from Virginia, Mike from Maine, and somehow both would end up in Denver. The band’s first show was at Al and Mike’s old house, the crowd were 15 friends.

It seems there used to be a video on PBS were Dave Reeves, the bass player, appears playing. The video was part of a program called Sounds on 29th and in this video they were featuring Kristin Rand & Sara Belle and Friends.

And that’s it. Quite a lot of information. Maybe there’s more online. But still would be great to find more!

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Listen
The Maybellines – Wait for You

Day 188.

Dan Dan Dero: our friends from Lima have just released a new song called “Como Rei Ayanami”. I believe they are writing about Rei from the Japanese series Evangelion, right? If it was a real person I am sure this character would be proud. It is a very nice song!

Star Party: hailing from the state of Washington in the US we find this 4 song demo that is tagged as c86. The sound is a bit noisier and murkier but it is clear they have been listening to a lot to the Shop Assistants!

Swansea Sound: Hue from the Pooh Sticks, Amelia from Heavenly, together. That is the Swansea Sound who have recorded at 2 song single!! The songs are “Corporate Indie Band” and “Angry Girl” and we can preview the first song on Bandcamp. The release is also available on cassette on Lavender Sweep. Very cool! Hopefully there will be more songs in the near future.

Fine.: I really liked the previous song by this band from Boston, UK. So when I noticed they had a brand new one I was very excited! And yes! “One Year On” is great! What is even better is that they have announced an album to be released later this year. Let’s keep an eye on that!

Spool: 4 girls from Japan and a new digital single called “スーサイド・ガール”. I know very little about this band but they seem to like shoegaze music and you can tell by this song. Nice sounds.

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“The Last Days of August” was the name of the sole album Kristian Rosengren, under his Airliner moniker, released. It included a song of the same name. So that ticks the month of August in my challenge. But that wasn’t all he released. And of course, Kristian, was part of another amazing band, Aerospace. So yeah, there’s a lot to talk about here.

His first ever Airliner release was actually a split 7″. And yes, the other band on the 7″, appearing on the B side was Aerospace. Okay, yeah, I promise to do a post for Aerospace in the future. That makes sense. But let’s stick to Airliner. This split 7″ was released by Labrador Records (LAB009) in the year of 1999. The split 7″ had a title, “Summer Wedding”, though not sure why that name. Airliner contributed two songs on the A side, “Before You Went Away” and “Trying to Be Clever”.

Then we don’t hear from him for a few years.In 2002 the band contributed the song “Everything That’s You” to the compilation “Try A Little Happiness” that came along the “Try Happiness” fanzine. This compilation should be legendary in my books. So many good bands on it.

In 2003 Zenith Recordings and Smudgey Records (ZEN004, Smudge-001) released another split 7″ called “Play Imprints of Emotions EP”. Again Airliner would contribute two songs to the A side, “Always Up to You” and “Happiness (Version)”. The B side was for the band Ant (who was also a one-man unit, Antony Harding from the UK).

It is also interesting that this 7″ would be re-released the year after, in 2004, by Fortune & Glory (FOR V7 113) in the UK. The artwork looks about the same. We know that Kristian recorded at home both songs and the street sounds that are included in the song “Happiness (version)” are from the city of New York. The photo that appears of Kristian on the back cover was taken at a photo booth in the Hornstull underground station in Stockholm. Another interesting fact is that this re-release actually used the same sleeves and probably the same records as the Swedish one. It just has a sticker on the back with the Fortune & Glory info. The other labels info appear as well. Also our friend from Fraction Discs, Jörgen Svensson is thanked in the sleeve.

This same year the band also released their album, “The Last Days of August” on Labrador (LAB030) in Sweden and on Art Union Records (ARTD-5512) in Japan. Funny enough it seems both releases have the same tracklist, 10 songs. Funny as Japanese releases usually have bonus tracks.

The 10 songs were “Trying to Be Clever”, “Everything That’s You”, “One Final Call”, “Nostalgia”, “Always Never”, “Defenses Down”, “Time and Space”, “Always the Last to Know”, “Happiness” and “The Last Days of August”. All songs were recorded by Johan Angergård at Summersound Studios and mastered at the Cutting Room by Thomas Eberger. The sleeve was designed by Lukas Möllersten.

On this record Kristian god some help from friends. Son Tobias Einestad played trumpet, Julia Lannerheim (Acid House Kings) and Karolina Komstedt (Club 8, Poprace) did backing vocals and Johan Angergård (Labrador head honcho, plus Acid House Kings, Club 8, The Legends, etc) produced the record.

2004 would see their song “Everything That’s You” on the compilation “Labrador Kingsize Vol#2” released by Labrador (LAB052). Then again a bit of silence.

2007 will be the last year we hear from Airliner. The song “Always Never” would appear on the compilation “David Design From Sweden With Love” on Labrador (LAB031). This compilation was compiled by Swiss DJ Olivier Rohrbach and included all sorts of Swedish contemporary music. It was a compilation put together by David Design who ran concept stores in Malmö, Stockholm and Tokyo.

“Before You Went Away” and “Trying to be Clever” would appear on the boxset “A Complete History of Popular Music” which was released by Labrador as it’s 100th release (LAB100) in 2007.

Magnum Music, a label from Taiwan, would put together “A Place in My Heart”, a sampler of Labrador artists. Airliner would contribute “Everything That’s You” in this 2007 release. And that same year, not too far away, the compilation “Olle Eksell Meets Labrador” released in Japan by Rambling Records (RBCS-2241) would include the song “Time and Space”.

I go to Google and first thing I find is a Facebook page. Sadly there is not much on it aside from three photos of Kristian. How come?

Then I find quite a few reviews on the web. But no information about the band. If they played live, if they had more songs, if there were more releases. Or even where is Kristian now? After Airliner and Aerospace, had he been in bands? That is the info I would love to find out.

I have this sort of recollection that he drummed for The Legends. Was that so? And I also stumbled upon a photo he took of Harvey Williams. Was he a photographer as well? Who remembers Airliner?

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Airliner – The Last Days of August

Day 186. Not much news today, but I have been quite productive on the blog site writing many interviews and asking more bands to participate. This week for sure we have posts Monday through Friday.

Nos Etés Trop Courts: some time ago I shared the “Sunshine Demo EP” by this early 90s shoegaze band from Nantes. Today I want to tell you that the first demo, “Sunset Demo”, is up on Bandcamp. 3 great songs recorded by Gérôme Guibert and Jimmy Arfosea in 1991. On top if it all I promise an interview with the band members later this week!

Foliage: a new album by the San Bernardino project is coming out on October 2nd digitally and November 11 on tape. This self-titled album will be released by  Z Tapes and at the moment we can preview one of the tracks, “Better Man”. The album will have 12 songs.

The Luxembourg Signal: the Californian band is going to be back with a new album on Shelflife Records on October 23rd and that’s great news! The Long Now” will be released on vinyl and CD  and will have 10 songs! Again we can only preview one song, “2.22”, which is terrific! Can’t wait for it.

The Hepburns: and finally we can listen to the new album “Electric Lliedi Land” on Bandcamp! 18 songs that are truly wonderful. One that no one could miss this year. The album is being released on CD and comes with a 16 page booklet (I always like big booklets with info and lyrics) and is out already!

Airiel: lastly in this Monday review, we find a new track from the classic Chicago shoegaze band. It is called “Bloom” and it sounds beautiful, gorgeous. Does this new track mean that the band will be releasing a new record soon? It seems so. The band says they are working on an EP top be released later this year!

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“Paris Rain in July”. That is the song that made me think that I thought would give me a check mark for July, in this silly challenge I am taking on my own. Writing about bands that had written about the months, now I am in July, and of course the next would be August.

So yeah, Chasing Dorotea. From Sweden. They released just one record, an album, back in 2002. It came out on the pre-Labrador Records label Summersound Recordings (SUMMER 007). It was a co-release with Stereo Test Kit Records (STK CD002).

11 songs came on this CD digipak, “The Anchor Song”, “Crackin Up”, “Dreamer”, “Tuva Song”, “In April”, “All I Want”, “A Long Time Ago”, “Paris Rain in July”, “Early Morning Mist”, “Memory” and “Dark Angel”. The producers for the album were Christopher Sander and Mattias Berqvist. Both of them were part of the band of course, Berqvist was the drummer as well as playing tambourine, vocals and handclaps. Sander on the other hand wrote most of the band’s songs and sand as well as played melodica. The other band members was Hugo Waara on bass.

Other people that participated on the record were Tobias Einestad, Sariana Cortes, Andreas Jeppson, Erik Westerberg, Paulo Vidal and César Vidal who wrote the song “Crackin Up”.

The Labrador website has a small little writeup from Christopher Sander. He says: “Me, Hugo and Mattias have been playing music together since we were 11 years old. I have been writing songs for as long. We grew up in a suburb of Stockholm. Have had our share of parties and travels. I write lyrics about girls I like a lot, dreams, childhood and other things I think are important.

Decided in 1998 to make music that sounded like red house painters. Before that I was mostly in to hard rock. All the musicians are from the same music school. I met my sister Tuva on a parkbench in Prague. Recorded a demo in 1999 and nothing happened.

In the beginning of 2001 I wrote twelve songs in a week, recorded them the following week and signed a contract with Summersound the third week. 25 new songs in my pocket, much better, I think, a couple of duets with a girl called Maria.

We rehearse in a suburb called the mid-summer garland together with three of the greatest bands in the world; Caesar’s Palace, The Dandelions and Mano and the Tears.”

I feel this has been translated from Swedish or something. Badly translated. The suburb they mention might be Midsommarkransen in Stockholm.  I don’t understand either when he says he met his sister Tuva in a Prague.

I do know that the Caesar’s Palace band he mentions is the band were César Vidal who wrote the song “Crackin Up”. Was this song from one of his previous bands? He had been in Ceasars and Safari on Pluto as well.

Speaking of people who appeared on the record we know that Andreas Jeppson was in [ingenting]. Tobias Einestad had played trumpet in many recordings for the likes of Acid House Kings, Airliner, or Club 8, so he was well connected with the Labrador people. Don’t know if he had been in any bands.

And of course the [ingenting] connection goes further. Mattias Bergqvist and Christopher Sander would be part of this band after the demise of Chasing Dorotea. They would continue releasing with Labrador too. After that we know that Berqvist would be part of First Aid Kit and Little Children. Sander on the other hand would release a few solo records. Hugo Waara would play in records by Belle.

Then on Last.fm there is another small bio where it says that the label people found about Chasing Dorotea in a visit to a mall: “While buying magazines in a mall we noticed some truly wonderful music coming from the speakers. Gentle little songs with sensitive whispery vocals. We asked the boy behind the counter what it was. That boy was songwriter Christopher Sander and the wonderful music was by his very own; Chasing Dorotea.” Interesting!

Okay, so one album. But also two appearances on compilations. The first was on “The Sound of Young Sweden – Volume 3” released by Labrador (LAB034) in 2002. The band would contribute two songs to it, “Dreamer” and “Compassion”. Then in 2005 they would have “The Anchor Song” on the compilation “Records Make Great Pets Vo. 1/Sweden” released by Stereo Test Kit Records in the UK.

I continue looking for any information about the band. I find that the band played a mini-festival for Labrador on May 9, 2003 at Bommens Salonger. Then I think I find who is the Tuva mentioned in the Labrador bio. So the song “The Anchor Song” which is sung by Sander and a girl, well that girl was Tuva Novotny. Novotny a well known actress who has appeared on Hollywood movies like “Eat, Pray, Love”, “Annhilation” or Blind Spot”, among others.

Not much more about them on the web, but quite some interesting stories we’ve found, right? I am sure the band must have lots of anecdotes. And I am also wondering, when did they stop the band and become [ingenting]? Were they tired of singing in English, perhaps? And the classic one, are there more songs recorded by the band?

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Chasing Dorotea – All I Want

Day 183.

The Apartments: new video by Peter Walsh’s band! It is for the song “What’s Beauty to Do?” that will be included in the album “In and Out of the Light” that is coming out on September 18th on Riley Records! Such a good song!

Fred Fredburger: the Spanish band is back with three new songs, “15 Minutos”, “La Merienda” and “Acústica”. They are only available in digital form which is a bit of a shame.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: another band that is back (actually never stops releasing music) is this California project by Glenn Donaldson. The latest are two songs, “Upside Down in an Empty Room” and “Mountain Lake Park”.

Jetstream Pony: A new 7″ coming out by one of our favourite bands. Two new songs, “If Not Now, When?” and “Yellow Pills” are to be released by Spinout Productions on September 25th! Sadly it seems it is already sold out. No copy for me.

The Age of Colored Lizards: the Oslo shoegaze band is of course back too! Everyone is back in this review. No new bands! Anyways, the Norwegians come back with a CD release of their 8 song album “Messed Up”! Check it out!

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A song called “June” in their only proper release, the album “Electric Songs” from 1999. Okay, I can cross out this month in this silly challenge of mine.

Aquadays, the superb Gothenburg, Sweden, band. The band that formed in 1993. A band whose members who at the beginning had been living in Alingsås and were in Somersault. And then in the 2000s some of these same members were going to be in The Electric Pop Group.

And yes, I did catch The Electric Pop Group play live. Here in NYC of all places. I met with Martin Aamot then. Shortly. But it was great. We had been in touch since they released their first self-titled album. At that time, maybe around 2006 I didn’t know of the Aquadays connection. I would find out about it some years after. And today I found that he was in a band called Rain who released a 7″ that I had no clue! I really want to listen to it! And have this record!

So, yes, Aquadays was Lisa Sandström on farfisa organ, Martin Aamot on the Fender guitar, Roland synthesizer, rhythm machines and vocals and Klara Albinsson on vocals. I don’t know when they changed their name from Somersault to Aquadays. Maybe it was in 1996. That was the year when Klara left the band. That was also the year the rest of the band members moved to Gothenburg. And it was in Gothenburg that Sarah Assbring would join as vocalist.

Then in 1998, Sarah would leave the band. That was in March. Two months after, in May, Klara, the original vocalist, decided to get back in the band and release an album. By that point the band had already recorded twelve songs. In 1997 they had put together a demo tape called “Spring” with eight of them. These songs had previously appeared on other demo tapes like “Ultramarine” and “Spacious”, but there were some new ones like “Casablanca”, Senseless” and “Daydreamer”.

Finally in 1998 the band would record the album in their own home studio. It seemed at that point that Roger Gunnarsson’s label Dorian Records was to put out the album but in the end was the German label Apricot Records (APRICD 006) that would put them out in 1999.

This album was released on CD and had 10 songs: “Senseless”, “Daydreamer”, “Casablanca”, “June”, “Spacious”, “Sunshine Girl”, “Mother of Pearl”, “Gem”, “Lustre” and “Autumn Swirl”.

What happened to Sarah? She went to sing in the band Sadovaja and of course afterwards would be way more known as El Perro del Mar.

There is actually an old website for the band that you can still access which is great. Here there is a “demography”. The first two tapes are for Somersault, so maybe they would be for a different post. But there are 2 tapes for Aquadays. There is the self-titled 1996 tape that had 7 songs, “June”, “Spacious”, “Lachrymose”, “Mother-of-Pearl”, “Gem”, “Lustre” and “Autumn Swirl”, and the 1997 tape called “Spring” that had 8 songs, “Senseless”, “Daydreamer”, “Casablanca”, “June”, “Spacious”, “Mother of Pearl”, “Lustre” and “Autumn Swirl”. Were the songs that appear twice re-recordings? And what about the ones that didn’t appear on the album? Would be nice to hear them of course. Also it is worth noting that many of these songs were already recorded by Somersault. So the question that is obvious is if the songs sounded much different?

About gigs, I found out on the website that the band played with The Wellmeant at Tre Backar in Stockholm on May 23rd 1997. What about gigs in Gothenburg?

But this was not all of course, the band did appear on a bunch of compilations in the late 90s and in the 2000s.

The earliest one is with the song “June” in 1996. This one came on “A Chance to Shine. A Dorian Records Compilation” (DORIAN 002). I guess this is where the friendship between Aquadays and Dorian started. So why was the album not released by them? Would be good to find out!

Then in 1998 they contributed the song “Casablanca” to “Yearbook 98″, a 12” compilation on Clair de Leon! (CDL! 001), a label that would later become the more known Clairerecords. That same year they would appear on Earwax Records’ “Wax001 – An International Indie Compilation” (WAX001) with the track “Daydreamer” and also on the US compilation “Pure Spun Sugar” (CF-017, AmPop 201), a co-release between Candy Floss and the American Pop Project, with the track “Gem”.

In 2000 the band contributed “Sunshine Girl” to the Japanese label Trolley Bus Music Tour’s compilation CD “Trolley Bus Music Tour” (TB-001). Then Apricot Records, who had released their album, would include their song “Sunshine Girl” to “Small But Sweet” (APRICD010) compilation. This compilation would be re-released in Japan by Quattro Disc that same year.

The US compilation “Just for a Day” (DAY01) released by the label of the same name would have them with their song “Senseless” also in the year 2000.

In 2002 the band had their song “Casablanca” on “Working Titles” a compilation CD by Factory Girl Records (QTY:008) and then on the classic Serbian compilation CD “A View of Our Dreams” (OaBCD001) released by Nikola’s On a Balcony label they would appear with the track “Sunshine Girl”.

The only other appearance that I know is on the “Airpop” CD and LP compilation released by Apricot (APRICD002). There they would contribute the songs “Senseless” and “June”.

Digging the website I find reviews of their album. One that mentions them being a mix of Savage Garden (?) and Orange Cake Mix. Then an interview with Pennyblackmusic. This one is good. Here Martin mentions he discovered indiepop in 1992. Before that he had been in a band called Divine that were more inspired by Depeche Mode or Ultravox. After discovering indiepop he would form Rain. Now I want to listen to this band more!

So that’s where I lose the trail. There is not much written about them. Other than the few reviews and their own website. I have many questions as you might have notice. Maybe it is good time to reconnect with Martin. Find out whatever happened to Aquadays. I’d be very interested. What about you?

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Listen
Aquadays – Sunshine Girl

Day 181.

Optic Sevens 3.0: now you can pre-order the new series of 7″ reissues by Optic Nerve. The new series include 7″s by Chin Chin, Girls at Our Best, The Servants, East Village, The Nivens, The Siddeleys, Beat Happening, Camper Van Beethoven, The Desert Wolves, Weeping Messerchmitts, The Clouds and The House of Love. This is not to be missed!

The Catherines: our Hamburg friends have a new CD out! It is a 4 song EP titled “Okay Then…” that jangles a lot! I would love to get a copy of course, especially as the CD version comes with an extra track, so 5 for CD, 4 for the digital EP. And who’s on the front cover photo? Is that Heiko?

Weedipus: Lets head to Barnsley in the UK to check out the “Demo Tape EP” which is actually out on CD! The four songs included, “Honest”, “Broken Boy”, “Places to Go” and “We Both Know”, are amazing! Fuzzy, poppy, dreamy and with great vocals. Definitely a band to keep an eye!

Todavía: I have recommended this Los Angeles band in the past and so it is no surprise I will do it again now that they are releasing a cassette album titled “Orange Faint of Sky” on October 2nd! The album will include 11 tracks and you can preview 4 of them now on Bandcamp!

Pastel Coast: I think it is a great idea to finish this quick review of new indiepop in the world with the video for “Rendezvous”! The song is included in the second album by the French band Pastel Coast. It is summery and feel good, and I believe that’s what we all need now!

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For May I thought of the band Fantastic June from Indonesia who recorded a song called “May”. Of course!

After making this decision I noticed I had written a short piece about them some time ago, recommending their latest release “Dancing With Flowers” which is available on Bandcamp. This one dates from 2020 and includes 10 songs, “High”, “Maybe”, “Smile”, “Blue”, “Rain”, “The Winner”, “What Do You Want”, “Nothing in this World”, “Merindu Waktu” and “Bad”. As always all these songs were written and performed by Ridwan Yuniardhika, the force behind this project.

He got help from some friends of course like Ganesha Mahendra (electric guitar on “Maybe”), Anzarra Djahran (keyboards on “Maybe”) and Carryna Pratiwi (backing vocals on “The Winner” and “Bad”). Carryna also did the beautiful art that we see on the cover. But what about the song “May” you say?

The Bandung based project started in 2004. It was in early 2005 that the band would release a free CD demo (which songs were on this one? we need to find out!) and those were his first recordings. Later, in 2007, the band would release an EP called “An”. It is on this one that the song “May” was included.

I am looking at the band’s website. Here you can purchase both album and EP. This is great news. Do they ship to the US? I need to find out. What about Europe? The websites that you are taken to to buy the CDs seem to be in Indonesian which is not helpful for me that I don’t know the language. Maybe some Indonesian friends will help.

The “An” EP was released according to the website not in 2005, as the bio says, but in 2007. Maybe there was a previous release in 2005? Maybe CDR? Can’t say. This EP had 6 songs, “May”, “Fool”, “I’ll be There, Alexia”, “Lost Without You”, “Love Ship” and a hidden track.

Looking in Youtube I found some live performances of the band. First one dates from December 31, 2010. Just in time for New Year’s. Here they play live at “New Year’s Honour”, in Yogyakarta, the song “May“. Then a video of Ridwan and friends playing the song “Bad” at a recording studio perhaps? And also “May” at a different studio or rehearsal space.

The band also has a Facebook page. In it I find out that they performed at a festival called Euphormatics in the city of Semarang. I also stumble upon a WordPress blog by Ridwan, in Indonesian though. I notice he is a fan of SS Lazio. Also a Soundcloud for other sort of music he makes under the name of Weggy Johnsy. Not really indiepop, but have a listen.

Lastly it is worth mentioning that the song “May” appeared on the compilation “Series Two Compilation Vol. 7” in 2008. You know I was never a fan of this label, but the band makes good music and I need to cover the whole discography.

I keep googling, trying to find anything else by the band. For example what happened to the project between the EP and the album. It was at least 13 years in between! I see an article on Vice Indonesia from April this year. Here they recommend his album. That must be an important showcase for Fantastic June I guess.

SEA INDIE which I mentioned too in my last post, included them in their first compilation, like 9 years ago. The band contributed a remixed version of “May”, “May (Lucky Misu Lo Fi Remix)”.

And that’s it really. Now the big question for me is, how do I get the records? Has Ridwan been in any indiepop bands? Other pop projects? What happened in that interval between EP and album? What is the future for Fantastic June? Answers are welcome.

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Listen
Fantastic June – May