Day 134. Friday!

Here is new music.

WYWY: I had to write about this dreampop duo. I am a sucker for “exotic” bands. And this one is at least for me. It is the first time I have heard a band that sounds like this hailing from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Their latest song, “Isolated”, is pretty good to boot.

Post West: now another band that I couldn’t let pass. The band hailing from Providence in Rhode Island has released a wonderful EP called “Bronco”. The curiosity here is that they have a song called “Astoria”, and that’s where I am based! In Astoria, New York. This is very very cool for me!

Grizzly Coast: now onto a more produced band, one that sounds a bit like Camera Obscura. And that’s a good thing of course. Five songs are out now on their EP “Party of One”. Digital only it seems. But hey, you can have on repeat their amazing opener “Catch & Release”. Really enjoying this project formed by Allanah Kavanagh, Pavel Soitys, Jacqueline Tucci and Taylor Lucas.

Floodlights: time to head to Melbourne, the land of amazing indiepop. The 12″ album “From A View” is already sold out. But good news is that the 2nd pressing on vinyl is available. On top of that, we can listen to this solid 11 song record on Bandcamp and preview it there.

The Apartments: “Initials PMW” is a 4 song EP out now on Microcultures label from France. The amazing project by Peter Milton Walsh recorded these 4 songs in Ashgrove, Australia. And they are really pretty.

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This is as obscure as it gets. I really hope my Japanese friends can solve the mystery of who were Camera Works.

I only know the one song they had on the “Pop Comes Up! Bluebadge Compilation Vol. 2” that was released by the Bluebadge Label (BBCD-002) back in 2002. That song was called “Is She a Happy Girl?”. It appears alongside many bands that I have featured in the past like Margarets Hope*, Clean Distortion or Cyclon86. But I could find more info for these bands.

When it comes to Camera Works there’s absolutely nothing on the web. I know there’s a girl singing. I know they are Japanese. But aside from that there’s nothing.

The band also appeared on the first Bluebadge compilation which was called “Send My Badge!: Bluebadge Compilation Vol. 1” (BCD-001). This one is not listed in Discogs so that makes it a bit harder to get info. I do know that the song they contributed was called “Crumble”. I believe it was released in 2002 as well.

I haven’t heard “Crumble”. Maybe that is something someone can help me too. At least. I love the Bluebadge label, but it is hard to get the records and info on their bands! Any help will be appreciated.

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Listen
Camera Works – Is She a Happy Girl?

Day 132.

In Space: this Singapore project has a new song called “Inside Out” which is quite nice! I don’t know much about them, it seems it is just one person behind it who describes himself as a bottom bunk boi. Any of my Singaporean friends know him?

Airhockey: a few posts ago I was telling you to check out “Try” the one and only song you could preview from the EP “Walkthrough”. Now the cassette EP is sold out and luckily all 6 songs are available to play on Bandcamp. They are really good!

Eterna Joventut: a few months ago I recommended the debut song by this Barcelona duo, and I was raving it! Now their second song is actually a song the duo formed by Júlia and Asier wrote for Mujeres. This time around they play it themselves and is called “Tu Amor”. Fun guitars!

Asian Shoegaze Compilation Vol. 1: this 8 song comp came out last May. It features bands from Japan (Oell), Hong Kong (Sea of Tranquility) and China (The Pillow Man and Endless White). Each band contributes two songs and you get the feeling, even if these places are so far for many of us, that a cool scene is brewing there!

Pop at Summer: last April the Bandung band published a new wonderful song called “Kiss Berry”. Not sure how I missed it. This is one of my favourite Indonesian pop bands and I believe that it should be yours too. Really lovely.

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I must say I am not that familiar with Australian indierock from the 90s. Not at all. So forgive me if I don’t know things that might be obvious for many of you. I know indiepop and I think I know quite a bit. But indierock is not my forte.

It seems there was a band in Australia during the 90s called Custard. It seems it was quite popular releasing albums and singles. Lots of them. But before that Dave McCormack ad Paul Medew, two of their members, had a band called Who’s Gerald? who I thought contacting long time ago when I was planning to do Australian indiepop compilations. As you know these never happen. The lack of interest and lack of help from the bands sort of disappointed me. What can you do?

See, I had discovered Who’s Gerald? not too long ago. They had been part of a compilation called “Young Blood” that was released by rooArt  in 1988 in LP, CD and tape formats. It even got a US release. And so, I knew on these compilations (because there was even a “Young Blood II”), new up and coming Australian bands were featured. The Hummingbirds for example were there. And so I found Who’s Gerald? on it with a terrific song called Pins and Needles”. Thought I had to find out more info about them.

We know they released only one single, a 7″. And we know that the band was formed by:
Cathy Atthow: drums
Paul Medew: bass
Glen Donald: keyboards
David McCormack: vocals, guitar

They hailed from Brisbane.

The 7″ was released on their own Gerald Corp. label (GER 0002). Now the catalog number makes it look as if there had been a previous release. Was it perhaps a demo tape? Would be good to find it. It was released the same year as the rooArt compilation, 1988, and included two songs.

The A side had the song “Wrestle Wrestle” while the B side had “Gerald is Stumbling Away Along the Highway of Life”. After this song title you can’t stop wondering who is Gerald. Was it someone they knew perhaps?

The art for the jacket is quite cool. The front cover has a black and white illustration of some guy with a cool haircut over a red background. The band shows the bands legs/shoes on a photo as well as lyrics for their two tracks. We see too that the B side had some flute played by Peter Evans. The tracks were produced by the band and Jonnee Acid and they were engineered by Peter Wragg at Southwind Studios.

So I was saying, David McCormack had been in Custard. But that’s not all. He has been in C.O.W., The Millionaires, The Titanics and David McCormack and the Polaroids. Paul Medew was also on a band called Miami aside from Custard. I couldn’t find any other bands for the other members.

Interestingly, David McCormack even has his own Wikipedia entry. Here it mentions that in 1986 Who’s Gerald? was formed. And then that in 1988 the band released a cassette called “Who’s Gerald’s Greatest Hits”. This might have been the first release of Gerald Corp Records. It also tells something quite interesting, that in 1988 3 of their members, Atthow, McCormack and Medew briefly formed a band called Automatic Graphic with Scott Younger. Are there recordings for this band?

Something that I also found interesting, as I love the Go-Betweens, is that McCormack recorded with Robert Forster for his second solo album, “Calling from a Country Phone”.

A little more of digging and I find a proper treasure. A Bandcamp with 10 songs to listen by Who’s Gerald?! It is like an expanded version of the single, adding 8 songs to it. These are: “Pins and Needles”, “Hell on Wheels”, “Affrodeedies Principal”, “Burning Up”, “Banging in My Ear”, “Cowboy”, “Road Metal” and “You Really Got Me”.

Then on the credits the break it by different releases I think. For example some of these songs were recorded at Payne Street, Indooropilly on a Yamaha 4-track cassette machine. Then “Banging in My Ear” seems to be among their oldest songs and this one was recorded by Lee Lee Ingram at Creative Space Studios in Milton.

“Affrodeedies Principal”, “Burning Up” and “Road Metal’ recorded and produced by David Lennon at Creative Space Studios in Milton.

Then there’s a note by Dave about the last song, “You Really Got Me”: You Really Got Me’ was recorded circa 1986 in Dave’s bedroom at Tarbet St, Kenmore using Christian Dahl’s Yamaha 4track cassette recorder. “It must have been winter because I remember it being very chilly. The guitars and keyboards and bass were all run through my crappy Princeton amp (because it had 4 inputs so it acted as a pseudo mixer). I recall the bedroom was a new addition so we were all standing on a concrete slab, very chilly. Soon after my parents managed to purchase some sea-grass matting as flooring.

Then I stumble an article about the band on the blog That Striped Sunlight Sound.  Here it says that the band was named after a response of finding a wooden coat hanger with Gerald written on it. That was the legend. But there is another theory that says that they were named after Gerald V. Casale from Devo.  Here it also pinpoints Ipswich as the place where the band was formed. Then it tells us to which universities each of them went, Paul went to James Cook University and Glen and David went to Queensland Uni. There they would meet Cathy who had never drummed before.

The band used to practice at the Queensland Uni at their Activities office or at Christian Dahl’s house in Indooroopilly. Christian had answer and advert where the band was looking for a bassist. Their first gig was at The Outpost in the Valley. Their second gig was at The Love Inn. Their third was back at The Outpost. They also played 4ZZZ Market Day a few times. Their two biggest gigs according to David were supporting Sonic Youth at The Patch at Tweed Heads and INXS at Brisbane Entertainment Centre.

Someone commented too that the band played at the Chelmer Bowls Club in Toowong in 1988.

Another hit on the web takes me to the book”Pig City: From the Saints to Savage Garden”. Here it mentions that Cathy Atthow earned her place as the band’s drummer partly through David’s obsession with the Go-Betweens and Lindy Morrison!

I couldn’t find much more information about them. I do see many people saying that the songs were badly recorded, or they weren’t good. But I think in general most people agree that the track they contributed to “Young Blood”, the song “Pins and Needles”, was their best. And yeah, it is a pretty good song!

Who remembers them?

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Listen
Who’s Gerald? – Pins and Needles

Day 130. Again a quiet weekend. Not much news on Cloudberry HQ.

Robotboy: behind the name of Robotboy is Petter Strömberg from Stockholm, Sweden. He makes superb bedroom-pop reminiscent of our hero Nixon. His latest track is among his best if I may say and is called “Our Time”

Carry On, Cupid: more lo-fi catchy music. This time from Houston, Texas. I am guessing it is a new-ish band as their first release on Bandcamp are three demos, “Ocelot”, “If I Should Die Tonight” and “Drive Home”. And all three are pretty enjoyable, though if I have to pick my favourite, I’d say the first one, “Ocelot”.

The Primitives: I missed this! So The Primitives covered the classic The Aislers Set song “Been Hiding” for a tape compilation called “Be Gay, Do Crime!”! Wow! And the cover is very good! So definitely check it out. It seems this cover dates from 2016 but I wasn’t aware of it. This tape is out on August 1st and the proceeds will go to Prism Health.

“Text Me When You Get Here”: this is the name of the latest compilation from the Toronto based indiepop label Fallen Love Records. There is no physical release it seems but we can for sure stream on Bandcamp the 18 songs that make up this pretty interesting release. There are many bands that are familiar to me and even more that aren’t. Time to listen!

Go Fever: Austin-based band with Australian songwriter Acey Monaro fronting it. That’s Go Fever. But it is also more. The band also has Benjamin Burdick, Keith Lough and Josh Merry in their ranks. And their latest song is a fun upbeat one called “Sound of Me Leaving”.

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“Cajun Moon” is a song written by Jim Rushing, and recorded by American country artist Ricky Skaggs. It was released in January 1986 as the second single from the album Live in London. “Cajun Moon” was Ricky Skaggs’ tenth number one on the country chart. The single went to number one for one week and spent thirteen weeks on the country chart.

The Hull band Cajun Moon was a total new discovery of mine thanks to the ninth volume of “The Sound of Leamington Spa” that Firestation Records (FST 16) released in 2018. I had never heard of this band before.

And to this  day I have only heard one song by them, “In the Waves”. Thankfully, the booklet of the compilation does give a little more information:

Cajun Moon were a Hull based band from 1989/90 which evolved from the band The Mirrors which was first established in 1987. The core of the band remained the same bu the name change made to highlight a shift in musical direction as well as a change in lineup. The songwriting duo of Heidi Kruger (vocals, guitar) and Paul Ford (guitar) remained as did The Mirrors drummer Stephen Hardaker. They were joined by a new bass player Jon Wynham and Sara Philips on backing vocals. The bands influenced ranged from R.E.M. and the 10,000 Maniacs to Leonard Cohen and JJ Cale. A JJ Cale song also providing the inspiration for the name of the band.

True, JJ Cale also played “Cajun Moon”. And I am now also very curious about The Mirrors. Did they leave any recordings?

And where does this song, “In The Waves”, come from? Most probably a demo tape. But there must have been other songs. Had the band members involved in any other bands? The information on the web is non-existant. I hope someone can shed some light about Cajun Moon!

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Listen
Cajun Moon – In the Waves

Day 127. Happy Friday. No news. Just some new music today.

Bathe Alone: Bailey Crone’s solo dreampop project is back with a wonderful new song called “Go Away”. This song is actually the 6th single off her upcoming LP that will be released this year. The album should be called “Last Looks” but we don’t know yet when this Atlanta band will release it!

Dog Day: first time listening this band that will release their album “Present” on the Halifax, Canada, label Fundog Records. It seems to be all about dogs! The album will be out on August 12 and we can preview one of the tracks, “Hell on Earth”, which is great! A luminous pop song that hints us what the album may offer! Looking forward to it!

Sonntag: Who are Sonntag? We know they hail from Los Angeles and that their latest track called “Vespa” is a lovely sweet one. It is the first time I listen to them so I must say I am very curious. I will have to check the previous releases.

H!: the latest from the Shiny Happy Records digital club is the song “B’day” by this Jakarta tweepop one-man project. Behind H! is Adi Cumi who is a big fan of Another Sunny Day and St. Christopher. Sounds good indeed!

Mary Queen of Scots: so great to hear a new song by this classic UK band! This new song is taken from the upcoming album “With Friends Like Us Who Needs the NME?” and is titled “Only Time Will Tell”. It is really really good!

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Continuing with great Australian bands from the 80s, I just discovered Other Voices and their song “She Walks Down”. What a track!

Now I need to track down the 7″ that had this song and hopefully their other single from the early 80s. In the meantime I’ll try to find more information about them. Join me?

So there is a small blurb on Discogs about them where they say that the band formed in Brisbane and moved to Sydney in 1983. What year did they form? That is something I’d need to find out. I do know though that in that same year, 1983, they would release the “Other Voices” 7″ (SUN 0035) on Sundown Records. This label was set up by Eleanor and John Briskey in 1981 in Lawnton, Queensland. I think at this point they were still in Brisbane.

This first 7″ was a double A side, with “World War III” on one side and “Another Tuesday” on the other. Both songs were recorded in Brisbane in December 1982. The songs were engineered by Ashley Keating and Lee Faulkner at Basement Studios. Here we also learn who formed the band:
Glenn Bevan – bass
Cameron Earl – drums
Richard Farmer – guitar
Graeme Norris – saxophone
Roger Norris – vocals

The cool art of the artwork is credited to the band. That’s great.

Then after moving to Sydney they would sign with the well-known Waterfront Records and release their second 7″, “She Walks Down” (DAMP 12). Discogs has the release date for it for 1985. The A side has the title song while the B side had the song “Cats Neva Land”. We also notice some lineup changes here. Paul McGrath had replaced Glenn Bevan on bass and Andrew Clement replaced Cameron Earl on drums.

According to the blurb on Discogs the band split up just after this single. Afterwards vocalist Roger Norris would front the Plug Uglies in 1990 and then join Panacea in 1994. I also see that he was in another bands called The Dobie Gills Experience and Fie on Love. Graeme Norris also was in different bands like The Original Otto Orchestra, The Dobie Gills Experience and West End Composer Collective. Richard Farmer was also in the Dobie Gills Experience, so maybe we can say that this band, who released a tape album in 1983, was the seed of Other Voices? Seems like a fair assumption.

The band also left us some more songs on a few compilations. For example on the cassette compilation “Castrak” that came along the Ratsack fanzine 3rd number in 1983, the band contributed the track “Scene/Unseen”. Then their song “Another Tuesday” was included in the double vinyl compilation album “The Southern Cross”. This comp was released by Ink Records (INK 4D) in the UK in 1984.

And then I find some treasure, a promo video for “She Walks Down“! Amazing! Here we learn that the songs for the 2nd single were recorded at the M Squared Studio in Surry Hills and the video was filmed at various locations around Sydney. This was uploaded by Roger Norris himself. ON the comments I find something interesting, that a Greek student made a short film called “One Way” that included their song “Another Tuesday” as part of the soundtrack! Would be cool to find that!

That was quite something. I couldn’t find anything else nor a fair-priced copy of the 7″s. But I am sure some of you remember them and will let me know any details about them that come up to mind!

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Listen
Other Voices – She Walks Down

Day 125. Not much news still, waiting for our next release to come home from the pressing plant in this weird year. In the meantime here’s new music!

Blue Heron: a new album bu the Boston band. That is good news indeed. Titled “Forever Ending”, the 11-track album was recorded this year between February and July. It is indeed a beautiful pop album, totally worth your time.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: Three new songs by the prolific San Francisco band. “All Night We Move”, “My Soul Unburdened” and “Brave and Cruel” come just in time for the summer. Something interesting, the first two songs contain lines from the poems of Rumi.

Star-Crossed Lovers: we stay in California and we find this band who released last month a digital single called “In the Shadows” with an accompanying track called “Not Everyone Has Friends”. Both are well crafted shoegaze/dreampop songs. Nice to meet you Star-Crossed Lovers.

Hiki: it is no surprise to find amazing music from Russia. This latest discovery is no exception. The album “A Trip to the Sea” is a swirling dreamy pop journey. There are 7 songs and it seems this is their 7th album! So yeah, I guess I will need to check previous releases!

For Not: the latest on Meritorio Records is the album “The Close is Open” by the Kungälv, Sweden, band Fort Not! The band consists of two friends Fredrik and Robert and they do make catchy pop songs. So this is very very good. I hope I get a copy when it comes out on September 18! Great find!

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Simon Coffey used to run an indie label in Aotearoa, New Zealand, called Onslaught Records in the 1980s. I checked a few of the bands on the label and they sound quite different to Guava Groove. How come?

It is a good question I think. But at the same time I don’t know much about the 80s in New Zealand, aside from what we know most, which is the Flying Nun releases. If we check other stuff it is always a surprise. Guava Groove then is quite a surprise.

The band only released one 7″ back in 1987 on Onslaught Records (CNT 002). This 7″ was more of an EP as it included four songs, two on each side. The A side had “Who’s that Girl?” and “Liquor Lover” while the B side had “Fight! (We Got to Use What We Got to Get What We Want)” and “Boot Girl”.

All four songs were recorded at Montage Studios on May 29 and 30 as well as June 20 and 21 of 1987. The band produced the tracks while Richard Hansen mixed them. The sleeve is quite interesting too because it tells us that the band WAS. Meaning that the record was released posthumously? Could be the case?

We know that the band was formed by:
Craig Bracken on vocals and harmonica
Darrin Kennedy on drums
Daniel Salmon on bass
Troy Shanks on guitar and vocals

The 7″ also includes some “Special Guavas”. I am guessing people that helped in the songs: Clare Bennet on vocals (she had been in the band Soul on Ice) and Nicky Bracken on vocals and sound.

But that is not all, there is Nathan Haines (he had been in bands like Freebass, Phoojun and Sci-Cione but whose solo album “Shift Left” was the biggest selling NZ recorded jazz album of all time) who played sax on tracks 1 and 3 and David Walker who also played sax on track 4. Peter Reid played trumpet on tracks 1 and 3. Then there are credits for Nicky Bracken for the photography on the sleeve, Tony Shanks & Thermostat for the sleeve and Paul Ullrich for the label design.

Other interesting credits come from the labels, “Who’s that Girl?” and “Fight!” were written by Troy Shanks while” Boot Girl” “Liquor Lover” and by Greaves and Turner meaning that the original was actually by 9 Below Zero, an English blues band,

Aside from Guava Groove we only know that Craig Bracken was later on in the band The Flaming Mudcats. And I couldn’t find any compilation appearances by the band!

After a bit of searching around the web for more info I find a website called There is No Cat. There is a comment on a blog post by Troy Shanks that tells a bit of the story of the band! This is just what I was looking for!

Here he mentions that the band formed in 1985 when he was 17 years old. They were based in the north shore of Auckland. In 1987 the band split as he moved to London. So yeah, the band only lasted 2 years and that would explain if the release came out after the band had already split.

The other band member found someone to replace him but I am not sure if they kept the name, though it seems they continued making music. He mentions that they didnt have enough money to press it as a 12″ 45rpm. That is why the four songs were in a 7″ at 33rpm. Other detail he mention is that his brother Kurt plays in a band called Stellar.

So the band was formed by Troy and Craig just a few months before leaving high school. They had a different drummer for their first gig (it was a talent competition at a bar). They came on third place it seems. Then their drummer was replaced as this original drummer was committed to an asylum. Then they got another drummer, Darrin. He also had been a classmate of his in school. Then they found their bass player, Dan, who was younger than the rest. With this lineup they played lots of gigs.

Something interesting that he mentions is that Flying Nun wouldn’t have been interested in their music as they were more like mods.

When I search Craig Bracken I find that he was also in a band called Los Diablos and run a label called Roots Music Aotearoa alongside Darcy Perry and Paul Merriott.

And that’s it! Whatever happened to them? Many questions, and not much information about this obscure New Zealand band!

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Listen
Guava Groove – Fight! (We Got to Use What We Got to Get What We Want)

Day 123.

More new music!

The Muldoons: finally the “Made for Each Other” album is available to preview on Bandcamp. The 10 songs are there and they are wonderful jangle pop. Among the best I’ve heard this year. Remember that the album is out now too. I need to get a copy myself of this superb Paisley, Scotland, band’s latest release!

Jaguar Sun: some very nice tunes coming from this project from Ontario, Canada. The latest is called “Keep You Warm” but in the past few months they have been putting out other tracks like “Next Year” or “Those Days”.

Films on Song: now we have to check out the “Too True” EP by this Charlottesville, Viriginia band. What do we discover? 4 songs of classic indiepop with chiming guitars, influenced by who? Flying Nun Records? Could be. They tag themselves as rock, indie and neosoul though. Anyone’s guess then. But the songs sound good especially the opening track “A Place I’d Rather Be”.

Jenny Genius: now we drive north, to New Haven, Connecticut. Here the band formed by Maggie, Chris and Dan have just released a cassette album. it is self-titled and has 7 songs. Okay, maybe a mini-album. The songs are raw, lo-fi, punkish indiepop. So yeah, pretty good.

The Wolfhounds: lastly the legendary band released “Electric Music” just like a week ago, on July 3rd. I missed the announcement so yeah I am probably late, even though many months ago I shared a link to the one song we could preview then. The limited edition 12″ is sold out. But there are other options, the non-limited 12″ and the CD. What matters in the end are the 10 songs that are included which are great. Lots of energy as always.

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Continuing with Australian discoveries here is another band from the great city of Perth, home of so many indiepop bands in the late 80s. I don’t know very much about them to be honest, but I am here to find out any details about them. Let’s start with what I know. They released just one record and then disappeared into obscurity.

This 7″ came out in 1987 on one of the most recognizable labels from that period, Easter Records (MR-7038). This label released bands of the quality of The Summer Suns, The Palisades or The Stolen Picassos among others!

The 7″ the band released came with two songs, “My Husband Beats Me” on the A side and “Coca-Cola is Coke” on the B side. Both songs were recorded at Northlake Studios, which was a recording studio located in the area of Myaree and where bands like Martha’s Vineyard and The Marigolds also  recorded.  They were engineered and mixed by James Hewgill.

We also know the band members names. And in parenthesis the nicknames they used.
Val Tarin (Pablo) – vocals and guitar
Craig Weighell  (John Boy) – vocals and drums
Dan Tarrant (Wally) – bass
Glen White (Tennessee) – lead guitar

Trumpet on the A side was played by Adrian Wood (aka. Huck Walton).

The cool art, the black and white illustration on the front cover, is credited to Fred Gilbert. The photo of the band on the back of the sleeve is credited to David Gerard.

Prior to this 7″ the band had included the A side, “My Husband Beats Me”, on a tape compilation called “The Attic Tapes”. This was actually a live recorded album, where I suppose all of the bands listed played that night. The venue was the Red Parrot and the date was Friday May 16th of 1986.

Then in 1989 the band would appear on an LP compilation called “Hometown Farewell Kiss” released by 6UVS-FM. This was a radio station based also in Perth. Nowadays it is called RTR FM. On this compilation the band contributed the song “Truck Drivin’ Man”. This looks like a terrific compilation, with many favourite bands of mine. I should try to get this record!

Lastly, many years later, in 2003, the band appeared on a CD compilation called “Off the Hip Fanzine 5” which as the name says came alongisde the fifth issue of the Off the Hip fanzine. Here the band contributed the song “Cherry”. Maybe it was an old recording? Or maybe they got together to record it?

Then I stumble upon something cool, The Waltons performing live at the Coronado Hotel in Perth! They are playing “My Husband Beats Me” and it seems this video dates from May 1991. Then there’s another clip of them playing the song “Quando” at the same venue. Then there’s another video of them playing the song “Cactus Jack” at the Shenton Park Hotel in Perth, January 1987. And lastly the song “Cherry” with an accompanying clip! Cool! It seems this song was to be the third single by the band. But then, which was the second?!

According to Last.fm there was a single with two songs, “Coast to Coast” and “We’re the Waltons”. And then that “Cherry” had a B side called “Crawly Man”. I need to find about these! “”Coast to Coast” was also released by Easter.

Then I find a blog called “Something Old, Something New“. Here they mention again that there were two singles. But what interests me is that they say that the songs were put together into a retrospective CD! I would love to find a copy of that. Another interesting detail is that it mentions that the band was active between 1985 and 1992.

It seems that this CD was remastered and compiled by someone called Trevor Hilton. He comments on the blog post. He says that the CD contained all 8 songs recorded in studio plus a gig from 1991 at the Coronado Hotel and a rare song called “Lost in Suburbia”. He also mentions that it was never properly released! What a shame! Would be great to hear these tracks, right?

Ok. So I found some more info about the 2nd single thanks to the blog “History of Australian Music from 1960 until 2010“. Here it mentions that James Hewgill again recorded them in Northlake Studios. This was 1987 and the single was released in March 1989. At this same time the band recorded the song “My Baby Left Me for a Truck Driving Man”. That seems to be the right song title for the song that was included in the radio station compilation LP. Then we know that “Cherry” was actually recorded somewhere else. It was recorded at Planet Studios in 1991 and were co-produced by the band and Dom Mariani from The Stems!

And there’s more. On Souncloud an account by Peter Morse (from Love Pump) has the A side of the first single for everyone to listen, and a rare song called “Superbird“.

Lastly the 5th issue of the Perth-based fanzine Party Fears has an interview with the band! Head to page 20 after clicking this link.

Then I keep googling and googling. I believe Dan Tarrant’s latest band was called Small Motors. Before that he had been in Josephine Killen. Val Tarin had been in Love Pump and Los Locos. Craig Weighell was also in Love Pump.

And that’s it. Quite a lot actually. I wasn’t expecting to find out that there was another single that I want to listen. And that there are more recordings that were once on a CD compilation. It is time to track all of this down. But definitely if you remember them and have extra details let me know. Would love to hear the whole story of the band!

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Listen
The Waltons – My Husband Beats Me

Day 120.

More new music from around the web!

Kammahav: our friends Christian Gustafsson and Tony Jenkins are back with a new song called “Thirty 4”. It is a bit rockier than previous efforts but I still like it. Are they working on an album or something? We should just wait.

Airhockey: the Miami band will be releasing a tape EP called “Walkthrough” on the 17th. It will have 6 songs and we can preview one of them, the opener track called “Try” which is a dreamy song.

Populardays: the Filipino band did a quarantine session for Shiny Happy Records, now four of the songs from the session are up on Bandcamp as part of the label’s digital club. These are terrific dreampop songs, so don’t miss them out.

Chavales: another digital single by this Spanish duo. “Ernesto” is the name of the song and no, it is not a cover of the classic Los Nikis song of the same name. Maybe it feels like a sequel to that song? I can see that.

“What You’ve Missed So Far” The First Hundred Releases of Blackbean and Placenta: remember the American label Blackbean and Placenta? Well here is a 21 song compilation on the Japanese Galaxy Train label. It is really cool as it includes songs by many classic bands like Boyracer, Orange Cake Mix, The Shermans, Aikagi, The Mondo Crescendo and a favourite of mine, The Ninjas.

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Jämna Plågor, the even plagues, was formed by Justus Björk on drums, Sam Carlshamre on guitar, Matilda Kihlberg on vocals and synth, Markus Amalthea Magnuson on organ and vocals and Philip Wigselius on bass. This was back in the mid 2000s. Some names do sound familiar, no?

When I wrote many years ago about Your Place or Mine, a terrific Stockholm based band, I got in touch with Sam Carlshamre who pointed me to this other band he had been involved with (he also was involved with Corduroy Utd.). He was the only Your Place or Mine person I got in touch but he wasn’t one of the original members, so he wasn’t keen on answering my questions for an interview. Would have loved to interview Matilda Kihlberg who was the vocalist of the band. Here in Jämna Plågor she sings too. And I notice another name that is familiar to me, that of Markus Amalthea Magnusson. He was in another top band from the period, The Fermats. I was actually in touch with him when I included them in the first volume of The Sound of Starke Adolf series that didn’t become a series (at least not yet!).

So we have some names. But we also have a website the band put together which is still up with links to 6 songs. 6 songs that made up their “Kapitalstaden EP”. 6 songs that were mixed and mastered by Mattias Valenca, I don’t know if this was released in a physical format (I hope there was a CDR – and if there was I’d kill for a copy). But here we have downloads for them all. The songs in the “Kapitalstaden EP” were “Kalla Kriget”, “Berlinlåten”, “Ungdomslåten”, “Konst och Vanliga Saker”, “Plankaren” and “Intro”.  Even cooler, there is a lyric sheet and also guitar chords for each song in PDF format. So if you want to practice your Swedish, take advantage!

It seems the band also had a Myspace back then. That is useless now of course. And that is all it seems. But we can also mention that the song “Plankaren” is actually an adaptation of the French writer Boris Vian’s “Le Déserteur”.

Not much more about them. Don’t even know if they played live. The good thing is that they left this amazing 6 songs that I urge you to discover (or rediscover) as time has passed by they sound still fresh to my ears!

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Listen
Jämna Plågor – Berlinlåten

Day 118.

Something for those looking for old Cloudberry zines, it seems Horowitz, the fantastic Stoke-on-Trent band who did a few releases with us have a bunch of copies for the first 7 fanzines that have been long sold out! So run before they disappear https://horowitz.bandcamp.com/merch

More new music from around the web!

The Bunbury: this Indonesian band has become a favourite. Now what is odd though is their shoes in Bandcamp, in Zaragoza and Mexico. I wonder if Bandcamp is listing Enrique Bunbury’s gigs there? Could be. Heroes del Silencio, the band Enrique was in the 80s and 90s hailed from Zaragoza and they are big in Mexico, the places where the gigs are to happen. In any case the Indonesian band who may or may not have taken their name from him have a wonderful new song called “Track 4”.

Tough Age: who are this Toronto/Vancouver band? They sound amazing to me! They will be releasing an album on August 6 called “Which Way Am I?”. It is going to be released by Mint Records and it will be available both on vinyl and CD. It seems the band has many other previous releases, but this is the first time (I think?!) that I’m enjoying these shambolic songs!

Bdrmm: the Hull’s band album “Bedroom”, released on July 3rd, seems to be sold out already. Both CD and vinyl versions are sold out. This is quite incredible I must say. How many copies were made? I am curious. Who sells out so fast? This shoegaze band must have the answer!

Caucus: so happy to see our Japanese friends making music again! Now on the great Galaxy Train label they have released a four song EP titled “Exploration of the Moon” and it is wonderful! Among these songs there is even a cover of the classic hit “You and Me Song” by the Wannadies. So cool!

122 North: Danny Provencher is back with another amazing song, “Drive”! I feel this is a special song for sure! Wow. I am speechless. It is part of a four song EP called “Drive” which includes the song “Better Stranger” and two mixes/remixes of Drive, Highway mix and Love Dance remix

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Another band I discovered doing my research for the series of compilations featuring Australian indiepop from the late 80s and early 90s was The Goddards. Prior to 2019 I had never heard of them.

I was lucky with them. I was to find a Soundcloud page that included lotsof songs. Even the A side, “From You For Now”, that was included in their only release they put out back in 1989. Sadly not the B side, “In Your Hands”, which I still hope to listen sometime soon! Maybe I’ll get a copy of the record. That might be easier as it seems the Soundcloud hasn’t been updated for 8 years.

The band released their 7″ in 1989 as I said. It came out on the label Lunchbox Spider (JDJ 100). It does look as if this label was the band’s own as there are no other releases listed. The front of the sleeve has a very cool illustration of a city, airplanes, a highway and men in hats. This illustration was created by T. Edwards.  The back of the sleeve has a photo of the band members and credits.

So thanks to that we know the band was formed by John Fitzgerald on drums and vocals, James Vidler on guitars and vocals and Richard Vidler on guitars and vocals. We know that both songs were recorded at Trackdown Studios in Sydney and were engineered by Tim Ryan. The band produced both tracks with help from Tim Ryan. Also Natassia Broofkisser played all strings on “From You For Now”.

And that’s it. No other releases are listed for them, not even compilation appearances.

But thanks to Soundcloud we know the band hailed from Newcastle in Australia. And that they recorded more songs like: “Thread”, “In My Mind”, “Invisible Blue”, “Best Friend”, “Skin Fest”, “Natasia”, “Fade Away Pretty”, “The Push”, “That’s How I love”, “Sea Shed”, “Randy”, “No Time” and “Hurt”.

Then I found an article on the Newscastle Star dating from April 2, 2016. Here I learn more about James Vidler, the guitarist and vocalist. There was a documentary in 2008 called “Rock I Gave You the Best Years of My Life” were four Newscastle bands were featured. The Goddards was one of them.

Something I learn from the article is that the band was originally formed by James, the youngest of the Vidler brothers. Then it mentions another Vidler brother that didn’t appear on the record it seems, Bob Vidler, who was a bassist.

Their first gig was at the Lass O’Gowrie Hotel in January 1988. At some point Richard got into a business relationship with the Troy Horse studio. This would lead to the creation of the Troy Horse label.

It seems they were recording an EP but they broke before they released it. Maybe many of the songs on Soundcloud were intended for that EP? That would make sense. After the breakup James was in bands like Bloodloop Beautiful and The Donkey Brothers.

Interesting.

Found quite some info and most importantly a bunch of music by The Goddards! That’s great! Now I’d love to hear the story directly from the band members. Will that ever happen?!

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Listen
The Goddards – From You For Now

Day 116. It has been a lazy long weekend for me. So not much news, but here are some good finds from this past weekend.

Pop Filter: Australia keeps putting out terrific guitar pop bands. The latest one I’ve discovered is Pop Filter from Melbourne. They actually will be releasing an album on August 21st and will be titled “Banksia”. Three of the songs from the 11-track record are available to preview, “Big Yellow Van”, “Laughing Falling” and “Romance at the Petrol Station”.

The Radio Dept.: The superb Swedish band is back with a 7″! This record has “You’re Lookin’ at My Guy” on the A side and “Could You be the One” on the B side. Both songs are really good! The vinyl is limited to 500 copies and there are even t-shirts if you like that as well!

Blue Tomorrows: this Portland band has been recommended in the blog before, so we know a bit what they are about. The three girls behind the band craft breezy and poppy tunes and their last effort, “Violet Shine”, is no exception. A nice summery single.

Dreams of Empire: the Brighton band is also back with a new digital single. It is a cover of the song “Reflection” originally written and recorded by Intermere, the side project of Andrew from Dreams of Empire.

Rosehip Teahouse: another digital single, it seems that’s the trend these days… and it is also a very good single of course. This Cardiff project has just unveiled in their Bandcamp the song “Regretting It”. A nice lo-fi bedroom pop song.

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Recorded at Boberg Studios in Hamburg, in December 1984, the “Love in the Afternoon” mini-album was the only release the band put out. And then, German friends tell me if I am wrong, they disappeared into oblivion.

The mini-album was actually released in 1985, with no label. It was probably a self release as it had that famous “SRT” as a label and catalog “SRT5KL406”. It included 7 songs, four on the A side: “Letting Go”, “Stand Back”, “Love in the Afternoon” and “Persuasion”, and three on the B side, “The Other Side of Midnight”, “The Feeling is Love” and “Rio Verde”.

The band was a duo, formed by Herbert Behrens on keyboards and Andrew Clark on vocals. Was it a German-British duo perhaps? I ask because of their names. Or American? The sleeve doesn’t give us any other details. The front cover has a photo of a woman (who is she?), and on the back a photo of the band.

Looking for more information, after really liking their track “Persuasion”, I find that Herbert Behrens, also called HerbieB, was born in Hamburg and actually started his music career as a drummer. Then he would move to the UK and there he toured and recorded with his band Java Jive. Does this mean there are other recordings by the band? Recordings made in the UK and not in Germany as the album?

He studied at the University of Buckingham and after finishing returned to Germany. Afterwards he would move to Mallorca in Spain where he would launch his solo career as HerbieB recording at least one demo CD I believe sometime around 2004.

And what about Andrew Clark? I couldn’t find any information about him. It looks like at some point they just disappeared from the face of the Earth. The record, I haven’t found a copy for myself yet. I think only 1,000 copies were pressed.

But did they play live a lot? It is mentioned they toured the UK. Who did they support? Or maybe who supported them? Would be good to find out. Who remembers them?!

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Listen
Java Jive – Love in the Afternoon

Day 113. How many more days of stay-at-home? We are considering going away for a month or so. A deserved sort of vacation. I know this may not be ideal for the label, as we won’t be able to send any orders for that time, but I feel a little break would be ok. I’ll keep you all updated. In the meantime, here are some good finds:

Sloppy Joe: our friend Hitoshi Oka is back with “Waiting for the Night Begins” a delightful jangle pop album with 11 tracks. At the moment you can check out 5 of them of this record that is available on vinyl and CD. The CD version also includes a CDR with four songs, two acoustic and two covers!

Münchhausen: this is quite a discovery. I have been a bit dismissive with bands from Colombia as it is very rare to find good indiepop coming from there. Well, now I have to accept that Münchhausen’s latest song, “Here Again”, is a true beauty! The Bogotá based combo has put together a fine post-punk/indiepop track which I am sure everyone will enjoy!

Mashmellow: the Russian duo formed by Masha and Egor is back with a wonderful new EP titled “Someday Club”. The track “Melt” is lovely, my favourite out of the 5 in this record, though it is hard to pick!

The Muldoons: the great Scottish band is going to be back very soon with an album titled “Made for Each Other”. It is really promising and will be out on vinyl by the Last Night label from Glasgow. In the meantime I urge you to head to Soundcloud and check the wonderful song “In Love Again”, a little taster of the album!

Sweetie Darling: lastly coming from Imperial, California, is this three-piece combo formed by Camden Aguilera, April Urrutia and Megan Moreno. They have an EP titled “Love/Lies” of lo-fi ramshackle pop that is very enjoyable!

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I am going through my extensive list of bands I would have wanted to include in my Australian indiepop compilations that never happened. Why? Well let’s say bands weren’t that keen to help, they weren’t that interested. The same thing that happened with the second volume of the Starke Adolf series. If bands don’t provide songs, bios or photos, really, there’s not much one can do. I tried. And will probably try again in the future.

Okay, so yes, I am going through this list because there are many bands I discovered while doing my research on who to include. A lot of them were tricky as I knew they were pop bands but couldn’t find any of their songs online. Mind you, I am not rich to buy all of the records I want. So no, I had the names but didn’t know how they sounded, if they were fit to be included. One of the bands I did find some music from was The Snorkels. And I thought immediately that they had to be part of my project!

The band released just one single as far as I know. I know very little of course. Writing this post might help me learn more. This 7″ single came out on Method Records (MR8) in 1983 and included “When I Say Go” on the A side and “95 Miles from Sydney” on the B side.

Method Records is an interesting label. I actually found out about The Snorkels by exploring their catalog. You see this label had released Skolars and Love Minus Zero among others. They are still going mind you.

On Discogs someone has commented that each copy of the 7″ was hand coloured. We also know that both songs were recorded at Silverwood Studios in Sydney, and that the B side, “95 Miles from Sydney” was composed and sung by the band’s bassist Jon Yuncken.

Then on the Sideroom blog Bruce mentions that The Snorkels might have included Fabian Byrne from the Fast Cars and the person behind Method Records. That explains a lot, doesn’t it?!

I found another blog, Wallaby Beat, that mentions that Doug Lees the drummer of the band Progression Cult would be part of The Snorkels. All is making sense now.

We have three names now. But that’s not all. Their song “When I Say Go” was also included on the compilation “Sound of Sydney – Volume 2” that was released by Method Records in 1984 (L 38263).

And that’s it. Not much more written about them on the web. No other information. Maybe it was a short-lived band. Maybe they only recorded a few songs? Maybe not many gigs? Who’d know. I definitely would like to know more about them

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Listen
The Snorkels – When I Say Go