Day 64. How is everyone holding?

Weekend again. Halfway through May. Days start to go fast.

New finds here:

The Beths: the superb New Zealand band is releasing a new album very soon. It will be called “Jump Rope Gazer” and will be out on July 10 on Carpark Records. This is not all, the band has put together a video for the song “I’m Not Getting Excited” that sounds and looks great! Definitely we can’t miss this one!

Chavales: the latest on Elefant is a digital single by this duo formed by Daniel Rodriguez from Mallorca and Javier Paredes from Extremadura. Influenced by La Mode, Estación Victoria and The Human League this new song is terribly catchy, makes me think the label wants to continue placing their music on all the Spanish Netflix series. I wouldn’t be surprised if this song “Ey, Que Estoy Aquí” happens to follow that route!

The Wolfhounds: “Electric Music” is the name of the new album the legendary band will be releasing on July 3rd on the very fine A Turntable Friend Records. The album will be available on LP and CD and will have 9 songs total. Right now we can preview the first track on Bandcamp. It is called “Can’t See the Light”.

Ballboy: another classic band. The Edinburgh based band  has been publishing some live sets during the time of Pandemic. I am not sure when where these recorded but this new live set includes the songs “Godzilla vs. the Island of Manhattan (With You and I Somewhere in-between)”, “Olympic Cyclist” and “Oh Lord”.

Flannel: my friend Tomohiro has remastered two of his songs, “Little” and “At Least I” and they are now on Bandcamp. These are timeless songs, beautifully crafted pop. Dreamy and sweet. It is always a good time to rediscover him!

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The Office from Belgium. First time I’ve heard them. Stumbled upon them on Youtube and thought the song “That Girl Too” sounded cool. But who were they? Did they release more records? I honestly don’t know. Need to do some research.

Then I stumbled upon more songs, “Your Loving” and “Liverpool”. Actually “Your Loving” might be my favourite one! Wow! What a track! I really need to find more.

It turns out these two last songs, “Your Loving” and “Liverpool” were  A and B sides respectively on a 7″ released in 1986 by Colour Records (CR 615). This was actually the first record the band put out. What a sound really! Definitely influenced by, no surprise, the Liverpool pop scene of the time.

The 2nd 7″ was the one with “That Girl Too” on the A side and “Girl Scouts” on the flipside. This record came out in 1988 again on Colour Records (CR 804). This label put out a bunch of records mostly in the 80s. It was founded by Marc van Beveren in the city of Gent. Did the band hailed from there as well?

The 7″ had some etchings on runout according to Discogs. The A side said “Enjoy it – The Office” while the B side said “The Hit?……..”. Happily this 7″ has scans of the sleeve on Discogs and I notice that on the back sleeve there are a bunch of brands that sponsored the release! Even big names like FIAT! Other ones were Cafe Barfly, Atlas Reizen, Piet Lair, AnHyp, LP Center, RAF and Bossuyt. I suppose all of these were local businesses. And these businesses were based in Waregem, not in Gent. So, does it make more sense for them to be from Waregem? I would think so!

Then on the labels I finally find a name, that of Frédéric Maenhout! Interestingly enough he would later be part of a band called The Candy Dates who I’ve been meaning to write about! Small world! But what other band members were in The Office?

The band appeared on four compilations too. The first dates from 1987, an LP compilation called “The 2nd Belgian 6T’s Boom Vol. 1” where they appear with the track “Your Loving”. This release came out on Waterloo Sunset Records (WSR004) and 007 Records. That same year this same song would appear on the LP comp “From Behind the Bushes” released by Mad Colour Record (MCR 001). It seems this release was actually a co-release of their label, Colour Records, and the magazine Mad in Belgium. It makes sense.

Lastly their track “The Daze” appeared on the LP compilation “The Belgian Garagemania Vol. 3” in 1988. This LP was released by Boom! Records (Boom 3). and Waterloo Sunset Records (RUSS 106).

In 2008 the Belgian label Coincidence Records put a band called The Office on a digital compilation called “2 Years of Coincidences” with the track “Ultimatum”. I am not 100% sure if it is the same band. So I will need some confirmation. Other bands in this comp are techno and electronic bands. And the years don’t match. Who would know?

As you can expect not much more info about the band. So I really hope someone can answer all my questions!

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Listen
The Office – Your Loving

Day 62. Last batch of orders I could mail were sent. Still at home orders for Spain, Germany and Japan waiting. I will try next week, see if the postal service has resumed service to these countries.

In the meantime, there are a bunch of great releases out there now:

C19: our friend Joel in Peru has just put together a new digital compilation under the Impermeable Records name. This compilation is titled “C19”. It is an interesting name, right? It is 2020 now. But yeah, these are all songs recorded in 2019, and I must say this is a very careful and thoughtful compilation. The songs have been cherry-picked and you can see it as it includes amazing bands like Astral Brain, Dayflower, Nah…, The Umbrella Puzzles and more! 22 songs in total and artwork by the great Casio Van Doesburg!

Los Monocromos: two songs recorded during the shelter in place in Chile, “Un Lugar” and “Hace Tiempo”, that is how Matías Valmore presents his new project. The sound of DIY, of bedroom pop with poppy guitars, are what makes this a charming digital single.

Eterna Joventut: the debut song (!) for this Barcelona duo formed by Júlia and Asier is called “Vuelve Junto a Mí”. It is a sweet short song (under 3 minutes) with jangly guitars and female/male vocals! From what I see this is the first song they have been recording during the pandemic, so we should keep an eye on them, probably there will be more soon!

Apple Orchard: are our friends Ryan and Dale back? It looks that way! “A Slow Dissolve” was just recorded during the past few weeks! How cool is that. Sporting a cool artwork, this new digital single sounds excellent. It is noisy, poppy, and just so good! Are they preparing a release? I really hope so!

Dan Dan Dero: the Lima band is back with a new video for their brand new song “La Camiseta de James Rodriguez”. It is a great song, catchy and fun. But I must say that it causes me some problems! I really don’t think highly of James Rodriguez. He is terribly overrated in my book! Well, all Colombian players are overrated these days, they always choke at important matches. The last great Colombian for me was Iván Ramiro Córdoba. Not that you care, you came to read about indiepop and not football. But I am passionate about football too. So nevermind me. This song is GREAT and the video is FUN!

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I have had the intention of writing about the Autumn Parade for a long time. Finally I will do it. It is hard to plan ahead for these things to be honest. I just write and write about bands and I leave drafts ready or almost ready to publish. Then I revisit them when it is time to publish. Sometimes on a post I’d say “a few weeks ago”, but then when publishing three months have passed. It is funny.

The Autumn Parade didn’t leave us any records. No releases. But they did leave at least two songs recorded and published in a compilation called “Expo 1” that was released both in vinyl and CD in 1991 by the label Beachwood Music (EXPO1). These songs were “White Sand” and “Julia Blue”.

This record was compiled by Colin Simmons and Tim Millington. And I am thinking all tracks were recorded for this compilation. Why? Because there is one producer, Chris Nagle, for the record. Though ok, there are many engineers, Alastair McMillan, Dave Drennan, Huw David Price, Paul Tipler and Richard Scott. The photography on the sleeve is credited to Sheena Land.

Then in the credits it mentions that the songs were recorded at different places, like Blackwing in London, Strawberry in Stockport and Homestead in County Antrim. Where then did Autumn Parade recorded their songs? I think Stockport. There is a small bio on Last.fm that mentions that they hailed from there and were around 1988 to 1992.

Shelflife Records wrote about them many years ago, in 2009. That’s how I heard about them for the first time. It was a cool time, there were many good blogs discovering lost gems. Shelflife shared a Myspace page for Autumn Parade, and there were two more songs, “Skylight” and “Phased”. It also mentions that the band had an album to be released called “Indian Summer”.

We also know the names of the band members:
John Hamlin – vocals, songwriter and guitar
Phil Pearson – keyboards and backing vocals
Rob Bennet – bass
Ben Power – drums

It mentions that indeed two songs were recorded at Strawberry Studios but also two other were recorded at Amazon Studios in Liverpool. We find out too that the band toured a lot and got some demo budgets from labels like Phonogram and Siren but nothing came to fruition. Then in 1991 the American label Atlantic Records showed interest but again, nothing happened in the end. What a shame really!

I keep looking for more info and I find that at some point John Hamlin was making music with Emmy McIntyre and released two with Invisible Girl Records.

Not much more information sadly, but this is good stuff right? Now I do hope someday we get to listen to more of the songs that were recorded for “Indian Summer”. And also of course, I do hope to interview them sometime and find out the story behind the band!

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Listen
Autumn Parade – Julia Blue

Day 60. Tomorrow have to go again to the post office. That’s all the news I have. Now it is 2 months since I started sheltering in place.  As many of you I’ve been playing Animal Crossing a lot these past weeks. Want to be friends? Maybe that way I can get some people to comment on the blog! It’s been a bit quiet!

New music from Bandcamp, found this weekend.

The Honeydrips: Our friend Mikael is back with a new fantastic track called “Here Comes the Sun #1″! The ex-Dorotea, and also half of Salt Lake Alley (who have a 7” on Cloudberry, don’t miss that one!) has made a name under The Honeydrips, already a classic band when you think of Swedish indiepop, with so many indiepop hits in their hand. This song is no exception to that. Terrific!

Did You Die: from Victoria, Canada. The capital of British Columbia. I visited once. So nice. How I miss traveling. The band’s latest is a digital single, just the one song, called “Shine So Real”. You’ll find nose, and jangly guitars buried in it, and what’s kind of interesting too, is that the song was recorded in an airplane hangar.

Glaswen: more shoegaze sounds, now from Russia. Noisier than the previous band, their latest track is called “Definition”. It seems that during the pandemic shoegaze music is much easier for me to find than canonical indiepop. It is an interesting trend.

Blume: now another shoegaze band, but on the other side of the spectrum, not the noisy but the fragile and dreamy. This project by Arthur Bennell from Edmonton, Canada, has released a new EP called “Take your Time” with 4 songs. They was all recorded by Arthur in hos own computer.

Star-Crossed Lovers: last shoegaze sounds for today. The debut EP from this California cambo! It is self-titled and has 5 songs. It is also on the dreamy sound, with jangly guitars. I think a bit of Secret Shine when listening to this. That’s a good thing, right?

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This is definitely a blast from the past. I was going down memory lane and remembered those days of Myspace, when we befriended bands and musicians and listened to their tracks easily. I remember discovering so many bands then. All sorts. Old and new. And from all over the world. I always say that if there hadn’t been that social platform, Cloudberry would have been a total different thing. Who knows, maybe it wouldn’t have existed.

One of the bands I discovered there was the Swedish Lucky Lucky Pigeons. I really liked their catchy tunes. They were fun and they had a special punk attitude to them. I was a fan. I think I wrote them at some point. I can’t remember tho. It was before Cloudberry. Maybe I wanted to do something with them on Plastilina Records? Maybe not. Maybe I dreamed that. I do know, that I found some of the members if not all on Last.fm. I was friends with them there. Those were the days when you added people and it didn’t feel weird. Or maybe it is like that still and I’ve become old and have strange ideas. Who knows. The fact being, I was a fan.

Today I can’t remember much about them. I didn’t get round getting a copy of their demo CDR that they self-released as the “Happy Birds Day EP” in 2006 and that was later re-released by Freedom Road Records (FR009). It had three terrific songs on it, mind you. Not surprising the UK label ran by Russell Barker re-released them also on CDR. These songs were “Who Smells Marshmallows?”, “Lucky Song” and “N to the Ice”.

The band was formed by Hanna Olsson on guitar and backing vocals, Elin Pärsson on keyboards and backing vocals and Amna Maksumic on vocals and tambourine. Artee 123 is credited for drums and bass on the CDR. That was a drum machine.

Happily the band had more songs. I know that the track “Red Santa” was included in the Cherryade compilation “A Very Cherry Christmas 2” (CHY 006) in 2006. And then their terrific track, “Keep On, Kingie!” was included in the CDR comp “Club King Kong: Med Musiken I Mitten Vol. 2 Säsongen 06-07” released by Donkeyboys Recordings  (DNKYBYS002). This was a compilation that was put out by Club King Kong, a cool indiepop night from Stockholm.

Other songs by the band were “Knife for Life”, “No Lips on Locos” and “Make Money Money”, which I believe were intended for a second EP titled “Bird Flu”. Was that ever released? It looks as if it is available in digital formats and include some remixes for “Who Smells Marshmallows?”. There are the following remixes for this track, “TIAC remix”, “Lucky Misu remix”, “Compute remix” and “Jmyhaze Beatbox remix)”.

Something that we can’t forget is that there was a video for “Keep on Kingie” that of course you need to check out! This video was made by Amna Maksumic and Linnea Rutz. This same account, which probably belongs to a member, has some live videos of the band playing in the city of Gävle. This first video have the band playing “N to the Ice” and “Red Santa”.  The second video has “Make Money Money”, “Who Smells Marshmallows?” and “No Lips on Locos”, while a third video has “Keep on Kingie” and “Knife for Life”. There is also a collage of photos on video with the title “2005-2008“. I am guessing those are the years the band existed.

Then I find an article on Dala-Demokraten, and this tells me that the band was formed in Dalarna, in Borlänge precisely. They were teenagers then and attended the Kristinegymnasiet school. They mention that they weren’t really accepted in Falun, as they were making lovely indiepop and the city was more into hard rock. I learn too that they played the Seaside Festival in Falun in 2008.

There are a few blog posts about them, like on well remembers blogs like Unpopular or Skatterbrain, though aside from praising the band (well deserved of course) don’t add any details about them. I am curious for example if the band members ended up playing in other bands. Who’d know?

Another article, on DT.se, tells that the band’s first gig was at the Christmas party at Forssaklackskolans. They band also played Emmaboda Festival and the Lund club Phone Me. Here are more details too, for example Hanna hails from Falun, Amna from Borlänge and Elin from Gagnef. All are the same age. They were in the humanities program in the Kristinegymnasiet. They were fans of The Radio Dept. and the Magnetic Fields. The band name comes from an inner joke, they translated “turturduvor” (lovebirds) into Lucky Lucky Pigeons!

But I still look forthem and find out that Amna Maksumic works in the film industry. She worked for example as a production manager on the movie Midsommar. She also was project manager of the TV series “Älska mig”. She even acted on a short called “Half Brother”.

The other band members are harder to track. Still this has helped me remember them, remember those days of Myspace when indiepop was once again exciting. I hope you also enjoyed this trip down memory lane and if you remember anything else, about the band, please leave a comment! Would love to know if they had more songs, or if they had been involved in any other projects!

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Listen
Lucky Lucky Pigeons – Keep On Kingie

Day 57. About to complete two months.

Here are some new finds from around the web, and happy Friday!

Riel: this duo from Argentina, formed by Mora and Germán, have been around for a bit. This is the first time I am listening to them thanks to their latest song “1990”. It is a very nice indiepop/shoegaze track! Great female vocals, bright guitars, for this digital single.

S.D.W.: all the way from Feilding, New Zealand, comes this project with a brand new self-titled EP. 5 songs of upbeat shoegaze/noisepop  There is not much info about the band or anything really. It probably is just a digital release.

Fred Fredburger: the Spanish band will be releasing a 10″ on Elefant Records on May 29th. The record will include 8 songs and so far we can preview two of the songs, “Colegas” and “El, Uriel”. It is already up for pre-orders. If you like Los Fresones Rebeldes or Juniper Moon this probably is up your street! Lovely and innocent.

The Crystal Furs: “Expo 67” is the latest song by the Portland, Oregon, indiepop band. The digital single comes too with an acoustic mix of this song. The song seems to be inspired by an architectural lesbian love story. Their new album should be out in June in Subjangle Records.

Club Med: “Busy, Busy Busy” is the name of the 4-song tape the band released last September on Roolette Records. This band sounds amazing, maybe my fave new find this week. They hail from Melbourne and they have some great melodies and very catchy lyrics. There are not many tapes left so be quick. I don’t do tapes, so don’t worry about me.

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A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving surface.

I keep discovering new obscure Swedish bands. It feels that it is an unending resource. How many Swedish pop bands has there been? Ever? I don’t think we’ll ever be able to answer that question!

I only know one song from Waterwheels. It is called “Lisa” and it is a fragile and sweet indiepop track. A lo-fi recording most probably. My question of course is, if during that same recording session they made more songs. A recording session that happened at the Ambassaden studios in Eskilstuna. Yes, that is one of the few facts about them. They hailed from that city in Sweden.

This song, “Lisa”, appeared on a 1994 tape called “Popangelov #1” that came alongside a fanzine of the same name. Was it an Eskilstuna fanzine? Probably. All the bands on the tape hailed from there. We find Yvonne, Superswirls, Beetroots and Gentle Tuesday. This last band a true favourite of mine. What a great band they were!

Popangelov would release 3 more tapes but we won’t see Waterwheels again. It is curious. What happened to them?

Popfakta may answer us. There is a release listed for Waterwheels. Sadly it doesn’t have a date. It seems to be a CD single with two tracks, “Leaving You” and “Electric Girl”. The only credits we find are for Totte Almström who took the photos for the artwork and Crippe who produced. This time around it seems the songs were recorded at Underground Studios in Eskilstuna.

I’ve never listened to these songs. This release doesn’t show up on Discogs. In Popfakta they don’t even have what label released them or anything. Maybe it was a self-release. I also can’t find any names related to the band. Who were the people behind it?

The only other thing I found about tehm was that the band played a festival called Bokrock in 1995. Gentle Tuesday also did. I know this thanks to a PDF I found from 2016 where they mention that there was a music exhibition of Eskilstuna music in the City Museum.

If anyone knows anything else by them. Please use the comment section. It’d be great to find out more info about them!

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Listen
Waterwheels – Lisa

Day 55. Now I have to say that I wasn’t able to post records to Germany and Japan this week. The mail service seem to be suspended to these countries as well as Spain. I still have a few Sweden orders that I am hoping to mail next week. I hope there are no issues there.

Can only say thanks to everyone that keeps supporting the label. I really hope to have new releases soon, but as everything things move slower.

Some new music of course.

Waspjuice: Chris Blunkell who was in the superb 80s band The Black Cillas has been playing in the very fine Waspjuice for many years. The band has just released a new album on the At Swim label and I totally recommend checking it out. There are 10 songs on it of classic guitar pop and it is not just digital, it is also available on vinyl!

Zack Yusof: Our friend that played in the amazing Rebecca Fishpond (who were interviewed on the blog) and The Kildares (who I hope will be interviewed too) has made a new song called “Pandemic Love Song #1” which sounds really nice! Also keep in mind that all proceeds of the song will go toward Care’s COVID-19 emergency appeal.

Raw Honey: from Ypsilanti, Michigan, comes 8 songs from the archive. Recorded between 2012 and 2016, and many of them produced by Saturday Looks Good to Me’s Fred Thomas, this small digital compilation called “From the Archives” sounds ace, dreamy, calm, and sweet.

The Asteroid No. 4: now a California band that will be releasing their album “Northern Songs” later this year. As a preview they have shared the song “Northern Song” which is a lovely jangly track. Looking forward to the other songs!

Todavía: and another California band to end our little review. These Angelinos have just released a dreamy and fragile song called “Paradiso”. Not at all sounding like the band Paradiso if you ask me. And it also doesn’t look as it is a full band, more of a one-man project by Rhyan Riesgo. Good stuff!

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Strange name of this mod/indiepop band from the UK. I am looking for a copy of their single. And so, I thought finding more info about them as well. That is a good plan. Isn’t it?

The band only released one 7″ back in 1991. It had two songs, “Yellow and Magenta” and “The Reaper”. They were most possibly self-released on the label Sealclub Records (CHOK 1). 500 copies were pressed, and the first 100 copies came with the different labels (black type and on the wrong sides).

We know that both songs are credited to Dave Edley, lead guitar of the band. The other band members were Andy Garngarek on bass, Jez Strrickland on drums and Big Bad Dom on stylophone.

Something interesting about this release is that there was an acetate 10″ release with both songs. I wonder how many copies were made of this rare disc. On this one I notice that the songs are credited to both Edly and Garngarek. And from what I read on Discogs, the labels have a different name for the band, The Three Surgeons. This is very confusing. Do anyone know what was going on?

Something interesting too is that in 2009 the band appeared on a compilation called “Tetters Plays Pop – I Wish You Were Made of Biscuit”. This compilation included their track “Yellow and Magenta” and here I notice that the credits for instruments are different. Was this a re-recording? So we see David Abrahams-Edley on guitar and vocals. He added a last name. That’s ok. Jez Strickland on drums. Ok. Dom Strickland on keyboards. Ok, now we know Dom’s last name. Was he related to Jez? Andy Garncarek on guitar. And Mark Barrett on bass. He wasn’t listed on the 7″ sleeve!

This compilation was released by Trip & Fall Records (TAF003) and included other bands like The Flying Squad, The Threads, Yellowcayke or Tetters Plays Pop. Then I notice that there is something in common for these bands. They all have David Edley in them! That’s good to know. Would be great to find a copy of this compilation! He was also in King Mojo, The Singles, The Avengers, Vals Basement and The Che Men.

What about the other band members? We know that Dom Strickland, also called Big Bad Dom, or Dom “Happy Organ” Strickland, played in Aunt Nelly and The Clique while Mark Barrett played in Afterglow, The Che Men, The Alternative and Thee Strawberry Mynde. Andrew Garncarek was also part of Yellocayke, The Singles, The Avengers and Present Tense.

I check out some of these bands, and I find out that for example Thee Strawberry Mynde, which their song “She Sets the Scene” sounds pretty good by the way, hailed from Hartlepool. Does this mean that The Sealclubbers came from that area as well?

On Youtube I find another track, “Till the Morning Light”, by The Sealclubbers. This song was recorded at Studio 64 in Middlesbrough on June 4th 1991. I guess it comes from the same recording session as the single. This video post also tells that the band was actually only together for 2 days, the 3rd and 4th of June. I guess just to record the single! That’s nuts! Why was that?

And that’s it really. Not much more information about them. And lots of questions left waiting for an answer. Would be great to find out why they only got together to record a single. How did they even promote it? Who remembers them?

EDIT April 23, 2022:

I got in touch with Mark “Bazza” Barrett, the band’s bassist. These are his memories of The Sealclubbers

Back in 1991 I was asked if I wanted to play on a single that Dave Edley (aka Tetley) and Andrew Garngarek (Gwangie) had planned. We all knew each other from the 80s and had met via the Mod scene, Tetley & Gwangie had played in the band The Singles who recorded a few demos and had supported Makin’ Time at Redcar Bowl back on World Cup final day in 1986. I had been playing bass since 1985 and had formed a band called The Alternative which lasted from 1986-87, our first gig taking place on my 16th Birthday 4th October 1986.

At the time I didn’t have a bass or amp so I borrowed an amp off an old school friend and I got my old bass (an Ibenez Rickenabcker copy) off the lad I had sold it to a few months earlier. I had sold the bass for £50 when I needed some money for one of the Mod rallies. We booked 2 days into Studio 64 in Middlesbrough, the studio is long gone now but was just over the road from Dr Browns pub on Corporation Road. The days booked were Monday 3rd & Tuesday 4th June 1991, we spent one day rehearsing the songs & a day recording.

For the session the line up was Dave Edley (vocals/rhythm guitar), Andrew Garngarek (lead guitar), Mark Barrett (bass) and Dom Strickland (organ). We didn’t have a drummer at the time so we borrowed a drum machine from the studio. We recorded 2 original songs for the single – ‘Yellow & Magenta’ and ‘The Reaper’ both written by Dave and also a cover of The Prisoners ‘Till The Morning Light’ which was never released. No one knew how to program the drum machine so all 3 tracks had the same drum pattern! We all chipped in for the recording session, I can’t remember the full cost of the session now but I do remember it was nearly all of my dole money for that week as we also bought the master tape. I also remember we took a break during the session and headed into town where Dom bought the LP ‘Pure’ by The Times at the local Our Price record shop which had just come out on Creation Records.

Later Dom’s brother Jez put drums onto 1 track – ‘The Reaper’. Some 10″ Acetate discs were made for the single (possibly only 1 or 2 copies?) and bare the namd The Tree Surgeons which was what the band were going to go by before going with The Sealclubbers. Due to a cock up my name missed off the credits when the single was released towards the end of 1991. The record labels were also stuck on the wrong sides on all of the records, the original labels were black with silver print, we got some done which were white with black print and stuck them over the top.  I do remember Tetley give me my copy of The Sealclubbers single at a gig by The Clique (who Dom was now playing organ for) at The Adelphi in Hull in January 1992.

The Sealclubbers never did play live, we did get an offer to play at Havana’s nightclub in Middlesbrough which was well known on the rave scene at the time. But that fell through and we went our seperate ways, Dom joining The Clique, I joined the ska band The G-Men and Tetley & Gwangie formed Yellowcayke who put out an EP on Detour Records.

I have since played with Tetley in my studio band The Che Men (for the ‘A Flame That Can’t Be Dimmed’ EP) and also in Thee Strawberry Mynde were Tetley did a few gigs with us and also features on the Get Hip compilation on my record label Red Star Recordings.

King Mojo (whose line up includes Tetley) later recorded ‘The Reaper’ for their debut album ‘Do Not Feed The Dancing Bear’. The album was produced by The Prisoners frontman Graham Day who we had covered one of his songs at that 1991 Sealclubbers session.

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Listen
The Sealclubbers – Yellow and Magenta

Day 53. Monday. Another trip to the post office. Almost done with all fanzine orders now. Next week I should finish. Again sorry for the delay, and also all my Spanish friends whose orders I can post yet, as soon as I can, I will. Be sure of that.

New weekend finds.

Milkfilm:  a new song and a few remixes of it by the Japanese tweepop band and that makes me terribly happy! With artwork by the fantastic Ma, we find “Someone Who Needs You” in three versions, cloudgazer mix, no.5 mix and no.5 mix intrumental version. Be aware that these songs are just a digital release, that they won’t appear on their album slated for October.

Den Baron: our German friend is back with a new EP called “Old But New” which has 4 older songs that have never been released before. They are “(Oh No, You Can’t Leave Me) Halfway to Mexico”, “Riding Cows”, “Dusty Roads” and “Wintertime”. When were they recorded? That’s a good question. But most importantly these songs are great so do give them your time!

Dummy: I had reviewed this band in the past when there was just one song to preview of their self-titled EP. Well now the good news is that the Los Angeles band has the 5 songs available to listen. The EP will be released on cassette from the Pop Wig Records label in the near future. This is very good, I hope it also gets a CD or vinyl release!

Dolly Dr: Melbourne, Australia. Not that new. A year or so ago these songs were recorded. Only now we find them on Bandcamp. There are 5 songs on the “Make and Model” but the mystery is that it mentions that the band is/was Claire Spooner, Chiara Grassia, Lloyd Davies and Gemma Nourse. Does that mean the band is still active or not?

Goin’ Steady: the first song by this tweepop project from LA is called “I’ll Do Anything” and it sounds great! With pa-pa-pas and boy/girl vocals. It is a rough demo, but it doesn’t matter, you get what this song can sound like if recorded a bit better. Fun!

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Another Swedish band I discovered as of late are Gluebellies who were around the mid 90s mainly. They released a string of CD singles plus a mini-album, and then I guess disappeared into oblivion. Or maybe not? Let’s find out together.

The first release listed on Discogs is actually a demo tape released in 1995 with two songs.  The A side had the song “The Benefits of Erudition” while the B side had “Charles and Lucie”.

This demo would catch the attention of Payola Records in Sweden who would offer them to release their self-titled mini-album in 1996. The “Gluebellies” (BRIBE2) CD album included 7 tracks recorded and produced at Studion, in Malmö, during the summer of 1995. Was the band from Malmö then? The tracks were “The Benefits of Erudition”, “Her Favourite Crooner”, “No Worse Than She”, “Bleach Your Hair”, “Around the World”, “Don’t Let Me Interrupt” and “The Dead”.

Ole Andersson was on vocals and guitar, Hanna Hansson on bass and vocals and Ulrika Andersson on drums. They also had Ulrika Mårtensson playing cello on “No Worse than She” and Martin Hennel playing harmonium on “The Dead”. The sleeve for the record was put together by Johan Jardevall with the photography by Martin Bogren. Bogren being the one who took photos for a few of The Cardigans’ albums and other cool albums by Brainpool and Eggstone.

We don’t know of any other bands the three band members could have been involved with. Not yet at least. That same year though they contribute the song “Her Favourite Crooner” to the CD compilation “Popnation – Best of Bekingska Nationen 1994-1996” released by Beat That! (BEAT013). But that’s not the only compilation they appeared on. There was another one that we don’t know what year it was released. It was called “Godmorgon Världen” where they contributed the track “Around the World”. This one was relesed by Sydsvenskan (MMR CDD1). Was this the Sydsvenskan newspaper perhaps?

All these caught the attention of the English label Jealous Records who would include them on a CD single (COUP 004) as part of their Revolution singles club. This CD single was shared with the Derby band The Beekeepers who were on Beggars Banquet. The band would contribute the song “Don’t Let Me Interrupt” and The Beekeepers had the song “Catgut”. The Gluebellies track would be license by Payola Records of course.

As I mentioned earlier there were more singles by the band. All of them in the CD single format. Yes. That one would be awfully unusual these days. All were to be released by Payola Records. The first one dates from 1999 and was the one for “Chemical Light” (BRIBE 005). The other song accompanying it was “Seminal”. Both soongs were recorded and produced by Martin Hennel at Studion. The art for this release was created by Nils-Petter Ekwall.

“You Can” / “Another Thing Needful” (BRIBE 006) was released in the year 2000. Same credits for art and production. Lastly, that same year, the badn released the CD single “Who Are You?” / “End up Nowhere” (Bribe 008). I am guessing same credits for art and production.

Then I stumble upon a Soundcloud with tons of recordings! There are no new uploads though, the latest ones date from 8 years ago. These recordings that were not previously released include some demo tracks that were recorded in the first half of the noughties and some more recent remixes and versions like “The Waterfront (demo)”, “The Waterfront (Peter Ebbeson remix)”, “The Waterfront (My Lambertsen remix)”, “The Waterfront (Mikael Jönsson version)”, “Golden Opportunity”.

There are also other tracks recorded in 1997 intended to be released on the UK label Jealous Records.  That included a cover of Abba’s “Dancing Queen” and the tracks “As if the Sun Is Out”, “You’ll Find Yourself Alone”, “The One Who Never Would Tell” and “Clock on the Mountain”.

And there are other songs like “Launderette Love”, “Embers Glowing”, “Something Made it Seem Alright”, “In the Eye”, “Do You Expect Me to Cry?”, “Colder” and “Chemical (demo)”.

Then a video on Youtube of the band playing at Malmöfestival on August 16 of 1999. it is the whole gig. Interesting outfits for the band I must say! But that’s not all. There is a video of the band playing sometime in 2003 at Klubb Omnichord. It is a very short video. But still cool that they were still playing then.

Another interesting place to look for information is Popfakta. Here I find that the band recorded more demo cassettes. There was one with the track “Kicking the Moon Around”, another with the track “Golden Opportunity” and lastly one with “Do You Expect Me to Cry?”. What songs came with them? Or maybe it was just the one song on these demo tapes?

Then I find some online articles about them. Some interesting things I learn is that the band was originally from Lund but moved eventually to greater Malmö (according to Popviminns). Then I believe the band played in the Siesta! festival from 2004 in Hässleholm.

So when did they stop making music? Or better, when did they stop playing live? Who’d know. Whatever happened to the band members? And had they been involved in other bands? That’d be interesting to know.

Any information about the Gluebellies (where does their name come from?), would be appreciated!

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Listen
Gluebellies – Her Favourite Crooner

Day 50. Friday. Not much to add.

New finds.

Grokes: very nice song and video by this new band from the UK. I guess I stumbled upon it as I was told this was Miki Berenyi’s daughter in it. I was curious. But the song, “Lightning”, is very nice and doesn’t need that sort of connection to be good. It is good as it is. It kind of reminds me of Pipas a bit, doesn’t it? I hope it gets released on a physical record soon!

Happypills: the Fukuoka, Japan, band is back with just one song and it is terrific. It is called “Monsoon” and it is a sweet indiepop single! Not much more info about it, but hey, it is good!

Letters to Annika: I’ve been a fan of the great For Tracy Hyde. One of its members, Azusa Suga (also on AprilBlue) has just started this project and has released this new song called “Tidal”. This is also its official video. And that is not all, there is also the news that there will be a self-titled EP this May! Let’s keep an eye on that!

AprilBlue: and I had to admit I knew Azusa’s involvement in For Tracy Hyde. AprilBlue was also a nice surprise when I found their Bandcamp. Their latest song dates from February 29th and is called “Alright”. Well in Japanese it is “オールライト ” and it is also very very good!

Misterfireflies: Lisle, the brain behind Fireflies, and also band member of Tiny Fireflies and Very Truly Yours, has added two new tracks to his Soundcloud. These are “Paper Crane” and a cover of The Field Mice’s “Willow”. Now based in Portland, Lisle, has always had a precious way of making popsongs and this time there is no exception. Lovely.

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There are two songs by the Maghull, Liverpool, band South Parade on Youtube: “I Knew a Girl” and “I See No Ships”. It is a pretty interesting discovery I have to say!

The band was part of the great Liverpool music scene of the early 80s, from 1983 to 85 specifically. They were formed by Ian “Copey” Copestake on vocals and guitar, as well as songwriter, John Hamlin on keyboards, Ian Wadkins on bass, Phil Culshaw on drums, Delia Winstanley on saxophone and clarinet and Andy Marr on rhythm guitar.

We know that the song “I See No Ships” was recorded at Amazon Studios between the 15 and 16 of August in 1984 after winning The Cavern’s band of the month competition. At this point this song had already become a fan favourite at their gigs and also at Radio Meseyside Street Life where presenter Con McConville played it all the time. The song was actually voted number 14 in the Radio Merseyside Festive 15 on December 23rd of 1984. The interesting thing is that this was the only song that wasn’t available on record.

Link2Wales has some more information about them. It seems the band was originally called Rich Get Richer. Then I find that Ian Copestake was the same one that was in Lilac Trumpets. I wrote about Lilac Trumpets in the past but then I always saw his name as Ian Copesteak. So that was tricky. They also mentions that the band reformed in 1991 in London featuring Andy Marr, Terry Jones (bass, ex Blue Forest, Third Man), Phil Culshaw and Justin Welch (drums, later in Elastica). But this reunion didn’t last long. After a few gigs in London, including one at the Falcon, Justin left to join Spitfire and they all called it a day.

All this information takes me to Discogs were I find a demo tape from 1987! Okay, this is interesting. So the band had called it quits in Liverpool in 1985 and reformed in London in 1991. Where were they in 1987?!

This tape included 12 songs. They were on the A side: “What (On Earth) Are You Doing to Me?”. “I’m Not in Love With You”, “You Don’t Get Me”, “December”, “7:30 Riser” and “Down the Line”. While the B side had “Heaven & Hell”, “Would You Ever”, “Maybe Next Time”, “Venetian Blinds”, “Aliens” and”Ellydelic”. All songs were written by Ian but “Maybe Next Time” which was written by Dave Browniee. Who was he? Was he part of the band then? They were all recorded on a portable 4-track studio.

Will we be able, someday, to listen to these songs? And what about earlier demos? Something interesting was that the other song on Youtube, “I Knew a Girl” was actually recorded for a 12″ single intended to promote the band to record companies. But the band split before it could be pressed. What a shame really. So no releases, just tapes.

Edit (May 3rd, 2020): There is a trove of South Parade songs now on Youtube! Check them out: “Raynne“, “Stick It (Where the Sun Don’t Shine)“, “When it Rains“, “Nessie“, “Sad to Go (Two Points to Tonka Remix)“, “You Don’t Get Me“, “December“, “Ellydellic (It Ain’t Right)“, “Will I Hear“, “Out of My Mind“, “This Girl” and “Venetian Blinds“.

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Listen
South Parade – I Knew a Girl

Day 48. Went to the post office on Monday and posted more orders. Still a few more to go and also the ones for Spain. They are not letting me post any records to Spain. I am very sorry about this. I will keep on trying.

Things are a bit quiet at the moment. So some good new music finds would be great, right?

Talulah Gosh: this is quite a surprise. A few weeks ago there was a long lost Chills video surfacing on Youtube. This week it is Talulah Gosh’s turn! The video is for their classic “Steaming Train”!! The quality of the video is not great, but as a document of the band and the time, it is amazing to see this!

Cápsula de Sueños: the latest on Elefant Records is the new project of Paco Tamarit (from the superb Serpentina). The release is a 7″ with three songs part of the New Adventures in Pop series. On this new band, he partners with María Ferrando to craft some precious music!

Gum Country: and finally the “Somewhere” album is available on Bandcamp. You can pre-order the debut record by the Los Angeles based band now on vinyl. It is coming out on June 19th and will include 12 tracks. Again we can only preview the opening track “Somewhere” which is a killer song.

I Like Birds: this Japanese band released a tape on Galaxy Train not too long ago but sadly is now sold out. This tape mini-album was called “Ameiro” and had 7 bright songs. We can at least play them, all of them, on Bandcamp. And that’s what I suggest doing.

Verano del 83: and the Trujillo, Peru, band is back with a new 4 song EP. The band who is quite a rarity, hailing from a place where indiepop must be very rare methinks, craft some pretty upbeat indiepop in the vein of bands like Vacaciones or Las Ligas Menores. Welcome back.

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Tribbles are a fictional alien species in the Star Trek universe. They were conceived by screenwriter David Gerrold, and first appeared in a 1967 episode titled “The Trouble with Tribbles”. They are depicted as a small, furry, gentle, attractive, and slow-moving but rapidly reproducing invasive species. Though they appear infrequently on-screen, they have become a popular feature of the Star Trek universe, featuring in their own eponymous official card game, and even lending their name to a family of proteins which are associated with the biology of the fruit fly.

Do you remember the great US band The Ropers? Well, I’m not going to write about them today. I wrote about them a few weeks ago. But I want to feature a band that shared a 7″ with them many years ago: The Tribbles.

The year was 1994 when the American label, from Richmond, Brilliant Records (ant-09-si) and the German label, from Krefeld, Giant Pool Balls Records (ball002) released this split 7″. I believe in Germany the record came alongside the summer 1994 issue (#8) of Sunset Magazine. I guess in the US you just ordered directly from Brilliant or through your favourite mailorder, or even better at your record shop.

The Ropers were on the A side with the song “Sweet Lord I Know”. Just one song. The Tribbles had two songs, but on the B side. They were “Mercury” and “Liberty 5-3000”.  I haven’t read Ayn Rand but a quick search lets me know that Liberty 5-3000 is a character on one of her books, “Anthem”.

Aside from these two songs at least another was released. In 1993 the band contributed the song “In the Sun” to the compilation “Something Pretty Beautiful” that Brilliant Records (ant005) put out. Here they appear alongside a bunch of great US bands from that time like Small Factory, Tree Fort Angst, Veronica Lake and more.

The blog Wilfully Obscure wrote about the split 7″ many years ago, in 2019. 10 years before me. How proper. There is an interesting comment though on the blog from Tinsel Heart (is it by the Swedish band?) saying that The Tribbles hailed from Richmond, Virginia.

I can’t seem to find any names of people involved with the band. Nothing at all. It seems like they disappeared into thin air. True that they weren’t one of the biggest bands of the period, but I find their music really lovely. I would like to know more, what happened to them? Where they involved in any other bands? Are there more recordings?

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Listen
The Tribbles – Mercury

Day 46. How’s everyone?

Not much news on my side. Will keep sending records this week,as you know things are a bit slower at the moment. So please be patient to receive your fanzine or any other records you might have ordered from me. I am only going to the post office once a week now.

Also these past few days I’ve written a few more interviews for the blog. Hopefully we’ll get answers soon. That’s going to be great!

New music, yeah, there’s new music.

Candace: the Portland all-girl trio will be releasing their album “Ideal Corners” on May 29. It is going to be out on vinyl and the label releasing it is called Little Cloud Records. Right now we can preview two tracks that appear on the album, “DM-100” and “Still Phase”, both sounding great!

No Suits in Miami: this Lund band is a favourite of mine. I really want a record by them. As far as I know there was a cassette some time ago. But no other physical records. Sure there was some digital ones, but not the same. A band that sounds this good should be releasing something. Maybe I should get in touch? Something to think about. In any case their new song is called “What We Have” and it is a gorgeous track.

Весна Весна: here’s a new track called “Венера” by this St. Petersburg band. I wish I could understand what they are singing of course, but it doesn’t matter, the vocals are terrific and the galloping guitars sound as good. This is their latest digital single though there is a few more to explore in their Bandcamp.

The Proctors: there is some great news from the classic UK band. They are going to be releasing “Summer Lane”, a retrospective album on Sunday Records this year. There is one song they have uploaded to Soundcloud for all of us to preview, “A Part I Never Knew Existed”. The only one thing that worries me is that there seem to be only 12 songs on the album. Is that true? then it is not a proper retrospective? There are songs missing! I can’t read the tracklist, but as soon as I find out what’s happened here I’ll let you know. This is terrorizing the completist in me!

Seazoo: the Welsh band released a new song on their Soundcloud two months ago called “The Pleasure” and it is the first time I’m checking it out. It sounds very good, so I would say you should check it too. It is called “The Pleasure” and it should be included in their forthcoming album.

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This might be a long post. I usually write about obscure bands as you know, and I believe today’s one is. But I do think there is much more information about them on the web than the average obscure band. Also they had appeared on “The Sound of Leamington Spa vol. 4” (FST 06) on Firestation Records, that’s how I discovered them through the superb song “Love House”, and that means there is information about them on the booklet. So maybe, we’ll end up finding out all we need to know about them?

Aside from that compilation the band contributed the same song to another compilation much much earlier. In 1990, Adrian Gibson who was the programmer at the North London’s Powerhaus venue put together a cassette compilation called “What the World Is Waiting For”. The Powerhaus was owned by the Mean Fiddler Group who turned a pub called the Pied Bull into a live music venue for a limited time from 1989 – 1995. The idea behind the compilation is to showcase 10 of the hottest new bands who were coming through the ranks of the venue around that time. All of the songs were mastered from the band’s demo tapes.  This tape is quite special and perhaps expensive, you see this was the first official release by Suede before they changed musical direction. But yeah, Nautical William were on this one with their standout track.

The Leamington Spa compilation booklet tells us quite a lot.

Nautical William formed from the musical partnership of Jim Cemlyn-Jones and Damian Dingley in 1987. Although they had been writing songs together for several years, it was not until meeting David Oliver (drums), and eventually Pete Bray (bass), that the band were able to play live. Jim and Damian grew up in the small Victorian town of Clevend. The band’s early gigs were in nearby Bristol which they eventually made home. Nautical William’s early music was loosely based around traditional English pop with the classic lineup of guitars, bass and drums. They quickly located rehearsal and recording space at PIJ, already occupied by other Bristolian contemporaries such as The Brilliant Corners, The Montgomery Clifts and the legendary Moonflowers.
The first demo, released in 1988, contained four tracks and quickly circulated around the indieclubs in Bristol, including the Thekla and The Tropic, where Nautical William played some of their early live shows. The band was joined by Damian’s younger brother, Corin, on percussion whose own career saw him focus on sound engineering and the formation of his band, Alpha, in 1995, signing to Massive Attack’s label Melancholic. Nautical William released their first single, “Love”, on their own label, Mojo Filter, in the spring fo 1991, and began playing further afield in places such as The Powerhouse, London, Mole’s Club, Bath and the Jericho Tavern, Oxford. A strong local fan-base was building and the band began to pick up positive press reviews and invitations to numerous west country radio stations, even making an occasional TV appearance. Nautical William’s second single, “Love House”, was released on the 16th September 1991, just as the band ventured on their first European tour including gigs in Holland and the UK. Love House was well received nationally with coveted airplay from BBC Radio 1, and attention from Melody Maker and the NME. A video for the single was made and aired on such shows such as MTV’s 120 Minutes. The band were now sharing stage with the likes of Pulp, Suede, Airhead and the Mock Turtles. All was building for chart success but distribution problems with the single hampered availability in the record stores. Coupled with the departure of Pete Bray, the band struggled to capitalize on their musical success. George Shilling, producer for The Soup Dragons and Yazz to name a few, became aware of Nautical William and went to see them at one of their London dates in the spring of 1992. Ian McLaren replaced Bray on bass and the band were in the process of rebuilding. They spent several weeks with Shilling working on an EP in Kent which unfortunately was never released. Both Corin Dingley and dave Oliver decided their interests lay elsewhere and Nautical William were forced to re-think their future. By Autumn of 1992 three new members had joined Nautical William, John Miller (drums), Trevor Francis (percussion) and Diane (vocals) bringing with them new influences and ideas. Damian and Jim embraced this new funky sound and the fresh challenges it brought. They used a new EP, “Tubular Bellbottoms”, to launch the sound, and made a second tour of Holland together with DJ Professor Bays. They gained interest from record labels such as Acid Jazz and toured the UK with Mother Earth and Corduroy making the round of summer music festivals in 1993. A new fan base volved but a heavy touring schedule brought on by new management began to take its toll. By spring 1994 the band called it a day.

Something the band doesn’t mention is that they made a video for their first single “Love”. You can watch it here. The video was made in 1990 according to its first frame. Before releasing the 12″ on their own Mojo Filter (NWTS 1). “Love” of course was the A side. On the B side we find two songs, “She’s Been Changing” and “Got to Find a Way”. “Love” was recorded at Loco Studios in South Wales while the B sides were recorded at PIJ by Fat Paul. The producer for all these songs was John Parish of PJ Harvey fame. They even say that PJ almost sang in the song “Love”.

That same year they released “Love House”. I am linking to the video they made for the A side. This time, the B side was “Fourteen Days in May” and the catalog number was NWTS2. The songs were recorded at Loco Studios and produced by Jessica Corcoran. The engineer was Tim Lewis. There was not just a 12″ vinyl release, but also a CD single for these two songs. Both versions’ artwork was created by Alice Harfield.

Lastly, their third release and also third one on Mojo Filter Records (NWTS3) was the “Tubular Bellbottoms” 12″. This record didn’t have a cool sleeve like the previous ones, it is a black sleeve with the songs listed. They were on the A side, “Eye Know” and “Sexy”, while the B side had “Mmmm.” and “Funk it Out”. It is pretty clear that they had changed their style at this point. I haven’t heard the songs but you can tell by what they said on their biography and by the looks of the record and the song titles.

The very good website Bristol Archive Records has more information about them. It mentions that at the earliest period of the band, when it was just Damian and Jim making music, they recorded a two song demo at Foxhole Recording Studios in Hanham, Bristol with Martin Hyler. Two songs were recorded then, “This Sinking Feeling” and “Sea of Sighs”. Would love to hear them.

We also know that their first ever gig happened at Bristol Poly in late 1987. They had already moved to Bristol at this time. While there we know they got a rehearsal space at PIJ. There they recorded another demo cassette with two songs “Go Back and Start Again” and “Railway Track”. Cool! Again, would be great to listen to them!

Then came a third demo, which is the one they mention in their bio on the Leamington Spa booklet. This one included “Love House”, “Backbreaking” and “Splutter”. These were recorded at The White House in Weston-Super-Mare in the spring of 1990.

About the first Netherlands tour, we know now that they played the cities of Amsterdam (along the wonderful Rorschach), Utrecht and Rotterdam.

Damian Dingley moved to the US. At least in 2010 he was living here. Ian is still local in Bristol and was in a band called Sunna. I can’t seem to find any other information of other bands they might have been. Maybe Nautical William was their one and only band?

I did find a TV interview that was aired in 1992 on Music Magazine. Not sure which song they are playing, but it is a bit too rocky for my taste! Not as great as the sublime “Love House”. And then I stumble upon a special edition tape released in June 1992, I believe for their second Netherlands tour. Why? because a user from Almelo, Holland, bought this tape there at a show in the venue Poort van Kleef. It included funkier sounds indeed. The songs on it were “Fight On”, “Funk it Out”, “What do You Know” and “Rollercoaster”. I guess guitar pop, the baggy sounds, were not fashionable anymore.

Well, that’s quite a bit. There are a few early songs that I’d love to listen. And what a song “Love House” really is. A true classic. Who remembers them?!

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Listen
Nautical William – Love House

Day 43. All domestic orders for the fanzine have been shipped. Some international too. Another batch will be posted next week. There are issues with mailing to Spain, the US postal service says that there are some disruptions there, that we could mail at our own risk, that packages may be returned. Should I mail them? What do my Spanish friends think of that? Would be good to know your thoughts.

New music for this upcoming weekend:

Melenas: the amazing Pamplona band has released a new video for their song “Primer Tiempo”. How great it is to have more Melenas songs available! Now I really need a copy of the album at home! The video was shot while the band members have been at home during the Covid-19 quarantine. I have a curious question, what book is the one shown at 0:24 seconds?

Kiwis: another Spanish band that has a new video is Kiwis. It is for their song “Cambiaran las Tornas” which will be part of their album “Vida Exterior” that the very fine Snap Clap! Club will be releasing this year! Great vocals, terrific pop!

Low Key Crush: the Melbourne band is back with a very fine single called “When You Were Leaving”. It was a long time since we featured in the blog, so it is interesting to know what they are up to. Will this song be included in a bigger project? In the meantime we can listen to these duo’s song on repeat.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: for sure the band that has been featured the most in this section. The California band has two new jangly and poppy songs up on their Bandcamp, “Sex, Lies & Therapy” and “Worst Side of Town”.

The National Honor Society: this Seattle band sounds amazing really. Their latest two songs are “First Among the Last” and a cover of The Stone Roses’ “Mersey Paradise”. Previously, in 2017, they had released an EP called “All Change” which sounds a bit different, much rockier. The new songs are a true surprise then, with a sound that captured me immediately. Not sure if both or just one of these songs will be part of the “To all the Glory We Never Had” album that is to be released on May 29 by Chien Lunatique Records.

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I have been trying to get a copy of The Tainted Children’s sole 7″ for years now. Since my friend Andreas showed it to me last time I visited Hamburg. A few years then. I remember him playing it for me, and me thinking “this is fantastic, I need this one in my collection!”.

Andreas Van Der Wingen on bass and vocals, Matej Havranek on drums and Max Stamm on electric guitar and vocals were The Tainted Children. On these recordings they did have help from Marc Ashmann on backing vocals and Tommy Mayer on guitar and backing vocals. Stamm and Van Der Wingen are credited to both songs on the record.

Which songs? Well, the A side had “Roll My Stone” and the B side had the sublime “If Julia Ever Knows”. This record was released in 1988 by the German label Smarten Up! (START 7), the same label that released fine bands like The Birdy Num Nums, Die Tanzenden Herzen or Die Profis.

The cover art is particular, the front has illustrations of the three members and a naked woman (who is she?) printed in black and white over a blue crayon-like painted background. The back of the sleeve has a band photo as well as a photo for each of the band members. From the sleeve I learn that the songs were recorded at Grundfunk Studio in November 1988. Now, it doesn’t say where the band was from? Who’d know? I’d make a guess, Düsseldorf. Tell me if I am wrong.

Aside from this 7″ the band only appeared on a compilation. It was also on Smarten Up! and was the 1991 LP comp “Smarten-Up Compilation” (BIGSTART 16). On it the band contributes the song “D.O.W.N.” which is credited to Maximilian Stamm. I believe the inner sleeve of the compilation had a small bio of the band, but I don’t own the record, so can’t say what it says. I need your help here.

So I look into bands the band members had been involved. Andreas Van Der Wingen had been in Kiesgroup, Oiro, Subterfuge and the J, Erwin Blues Explosion. Matej Havranek has played on Sally Blue, Orange, Family*5, The Beatlesons and Asmodi Bizarr. Max Stamm played in Bo Hatzfeld & the Headhunters, Kiesgroup, Bo & Bodo, Sonic Dolls, DeCornelius, and more. He has also played with Marc Ashmann who was also on Bo Hatzfeld & the Headhunters. Ashmann was also on The Beathoovers. Lastly Tommy Mayer who helped on the record as well as Marc, had been in Dortmund, Mardi Gras Band and The Digitals.

Not much more info about the band online. Did they record more songs? Why were there no other releases? Did they play live much? Will they be included in the next German version of The Sound Leamington Spa series by Firestation Records? Many questions that I hope get answerd!

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Listen
The Tainted Children – If Julia Ever Knows