A short post this Monday. I prepared this over the weekend as today I’m starting a new job. Hoping it works out great.

There are a few good finds for me to share today:

Dot Dash: I was recommending their new album “Proto Retro” some days ago, today is a turn to show you an example of what you can find it. The Washington D.C. band has just published a video for their song “Unfair Weather” which is one of the best songs on the album, so it is a no brainer to click the link and check it out now. The album is now available on the Beautiful Music label.

Anemone: I’m checking out this brand new song by the Montreal, Canada, titled “Daffodils”. And it does sound great! The band is formed by Chloe Soldevila, Miles Dupire-Gagnon, Gabriel Lambert, Samuel Gemme and Zachary Irving and earlier this year they put out a tape and LP album called “Baby Only You & I” which also sounds great. I wonder why I am only stumbling upon them now?

The Radio Dept.: well, everyone knows how great The Radio Dept. is. I don’t have much to say. They don’t need an introduction. But this is just a reminder that a few days ago the band unveiled a new song: “Going Down Swinging”, so if you haven’t listened to it don’t wait any longer and head to the Bandcamp and sing along with the lyrics available there.

The Shining Hour: you can’t imagine how happy has made me to discover Mark Cohen is still making music. I lost touch after the release of the wonderful 3″ CD we did many years ago, around 10 years ago (!). To find on Bandcamp  the “Reflection” album, consisting of 14 brand new songs has really surprised me, thrilled me, excited me. I’m listening with a grin on my face the wonderful jangle that The Shining Hour has always made. The freshness, the class, the quality, are still there. Hopefully this will get a proper release somehow!

Odd Gesture: this release came out in February but it slipped under the cracks for me. Released by one of the best Jakarta labels, Dismantled Records, the 5 track debut EP by this poppunk combo formed by Fajar, Ruli, Mamet and Tyo is a rush of energy and upbeat happy tunes! I’m not sure if it is available on any physical formats but you can stream the songs “Sick Of You”, “Me Holding Hands”, “Saccharine”, “I H8 Sharesprings” and “You and I (Die Together)”.

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Today I want to share one of the biggest mysteries to me. One that for years I’ve tried to solve on my own with no luck. Maybe you can help me? It has to do with a Greek band. From where in Greece? I don’t know. Most possibly Athens. Their name? The Wish. Their releases? None.

What do I really know about then? Just a few things. I have a CD compilation called “Pop Secrets… From the Greek Underground Scene” that was released in 1997 by Voice (VOICE 001). This CD came accompanying the first issue of the Voice Magazine. This was a short lived magazine. Only 4 issues were put out. Each of them came with a CD. Definitely for us indiepop lovers is the first CD that interests us.

I only own the CD. It was given to me by a Greek fan many years ago after we did a trade. Must be more than 10 years ago. I didn’t get the magazine so I don’t know if there was any information about the bands that appear on the CD. In any case I would probably wouldn’t understand as I can’t read Greek.

The band I’m interested as I said was The Wish. They appear on the compilation with the song “All Over”. It is one of my favourite Greek indiepop songs ever. It is catchy as hell, dreamy, with great vocals and energy. So good that I have played it many times when I had the chance to DJ at different indiepop parties. Most of the songs on this compilation have a copyright, like many belong to This Happy Feeling, another to Lazy Dog and so on. The Wish doesn’t have any copyright, no ownership. It is like if the compilers had found this song from a secret box. There are no other compilations listed for the band. Nothing. We only know that the song was remastered at Morph Flow Sound Laboratories for the compilation. But who knows about the original recording?

We know the person that compiled the CD was Dimitris Argyropoulos. That’s really all.

I once uploaded the song to Youtube and I had the wrong photo. Someone called Maria Bati wrote that the photo has nothing to do with The Wish. That there are no photos from them. Maybe she knew them? Maybe she was part? I don’t know. I couldn’t find any connection between The Wish and her. I mean, for sure there was a woman in the band. Or more than one. But I can’t really figure out anything else. I don’t want to be guessing forever.

So today I make this plea. Hopefully my Greek readers know about this band. Who were they? Any details, even if it is small, would be appreciated!

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Listen
The Wish – All Over

Friday and I’m getting a little anxious. I start a new job on Monday, so don’t want to think much. I need to keep myself relaxed. I did go to see St. Etienne on Wednesday at the Bowery Ballroom as part of their tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of “Good Humour”.  And that was nice.

I felt there was more people than the last time I saw them. Or perhaps the venue was smaller this time. Oddly enough next to me was the head of HR of my previous workplace. I thought that was odd. Seeing her dancing to the songs.

Bob Stanley wasn’t on stage. I wonder why. I missed him. It is not the same as when the three members are part of the show. But of course seeing Sarah and Debsey dancing makes me happy.

Another thing that didn’t work out for the band was that the exclusive CDs that were going to be available for the US tour weren’t available. Seems the pressing plant didn’t provide them in time. So the band was taking money from whoever wanted them and were taking the address so they could mail them in around 3 to 4 weeks from now. I guess that’s fine. But I’m sure the band would have loved it to be differently. Now we just wait.

Oh, one complain. A t-shirt for $30 is a bit too much. Realistically $20 is ok. I wanted one, and could have paid that price, but thought it was unfair. So I didn’t.

The gig was very nice, what can I say. Even if I was not up front I loved hearing many songs that don’t get to be played at a regular Saint Etienne gig!

Future World Moves: many years ago I interviewed this fab 80s Scottish band. Well, this November 23rd the band is reuniting for a one-off gig at the Dreadnaught Bathgate venue. This is a reunion after 27 years of silence. It will be a very special night and I wish I could attend. So I urge anyone that will be around to make it. Should be great!

Comet Gain: so the superb Comet Gain have signed with the German label Tapete. To start this relationship the band will be releasing a 2-song 7″ on October 5th. Both songs are available to stream as snippets, though you can probably find them in full in some lucky blogs that get the chance to promote this record! Anyhow, they sound fantastic as always!! I dream of seeing them again live. It’s been a while!

Carbon Poppies: the latest on the New Adventures in Pop series by Elefant Records is this 7″ EP by a Louisiana, USA, trio formed by Allison Bohl DeHart, Jonny Campos and Peter DeHart. This seems to be a side-project by them. The Lost Bayou Ramblers, Kind Cousin and Brass Red are other of their projects. This 7″ will be released as a 300 limited edition and will include the songs “Rain On My face” (a cover of the Shape & Sizes original from 1966), “You and I”, “How Long” and “I’ll Meet You There”.

動物園釘子户 Zoo Gazer: some Chinese pop from this band from Xuzhou. A 7-song mini-album released on cassette by the Qii Snacks label form Guagzhou while the CD version was released by Shengjian Records from Shanghai. I don’t understand much (as expected), but there are some very pretty songs here like “Lakeside” or “Cube”. There’s some good stuff happening in China the last few years!

The Autumn Stones:  lastly for this week I have a Toronto band that have released a digital single a week or so ago with “The Bigger They Fail” as the main song and an acoustic version of it to accompany it. The band is formed by Ciaran Megahey, Dan Dervaitis, Gary Butler, Marcus Tamm and Ray Cara have a bunch of releases on their Bandcamp and this is their latest. I will check out their back catalogue in the days to come. But this seems to be a good introduction.

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Ade Moose and Walker were formed in 1984 in Watford, North London. They released two singles on Lost Moment Records: – “Peppermint Park/Lounge Around” and “Dance” in 84/85. Soon after the band split. Dave Williamson went on to play drums on “Blue Eyed Slide” by Brian Knight (also on Lost Moment) which also feat. Charlie Watts, Peter Green and Micky Moody. Shane Lamont re-located to Seattle U.S.A. and played in various bands

That’s how the Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 5 introduced to many of us the music and the band Ade Moose and Walker. They appeared on the classic compilation series released by Firestation Records with their song “Lounge Around”. I believe too that this is also the only compilation appearance by the band. But what about the singles?

I have to track them down. I haven’t yet. But on Discogs only one of them is listed. So that doesn’t help me at all. The “Lounge Around” 7″ was indeed released by Lost Moment Records in 1984 and had the catalog number LOM 008. I’ll be honest and say I’m not familiar with this label even though they had released another band I like, Jesus Couldn’t Drum. I don’t really know the rest of bands, maybe there are some poppy ones in there? Maybe some of you know? I do notice that a band called The Krewmen have most of the releases on this label. They were based in Hempstead, Hertsfordshire.

As said on the description, two songs appeared on the single, “Lounge Around” on the A side and “Peppermint Park” on the B side. So far “Lounge Around” is the only song I’ve listened. The green and pink sleeve of a mysterious man smoking against a lamp post has a few details on the back sleeve.

The band members were: Alan Culley on percussion, Dave Williamson on drums, Paul Burgess on bass, Shane Lamont on guitar, Tony Randall on vocals and Colin Smith on sax. Both songs on the 7″ are credited to Randall and Lamont.  They were recorded at the Pyramid studios in Luton during March and April 1984.  It was engineered by Ian Nichols and two producers are credited Steve Carter and Nick Miles. The art was created by Nick Peck.

So what about that second single? Are there any mentions on the web about it? I look and I find something that scares me, the “Lounge Around” 7″ is owned by Cherry Red these days. It is part of its licensing catalog. That doesn’t sound good to me. How much crazy money would they ask to re-release it? Or to include the songs on a compilation? I prefer not to think much about that. I hope the band gets something out of it if it ever happens.

Well, I looked and looked with no luck. The thing was that the bio wasn’t really explicit about what had really happened. They had changed names when they released “Dance”. Now they were called Ice Club! That’s why! This record was indeed released by Lost Moment Records. It included the song “Dance” and an instrumental of the song on the B side. I see that this record has been listed on eBay as Italo Disco. Is it safe then to assume they changed their sound and style? I couldn’t find audio for it anywhere on the web. I’m very curious!

It looks like all the band continued in this project but Allan Culley. Dave, Shane, Paul, Colin and Tony were in it. They added backing vocals from Lisa Sinclair and it says that they had Toyah as a special guest!

Thanks to this listing on Discogs I could find that a few of the members were involved in other bands. It seems Paul Burgess had been in a band called The Early Bathers. Dave Williamson in a band called Ugly as Sin. But who has been in more projects seems to be the saxophonist Colin Smith. He is listed as being part in Moses and Helicopter Girl and playing in many bands including favourites like Marden Hill. Now maybe not all of these are right, Colin Smith is not the rarest of names. But I want to think he has been involved in most of them.

I keep searching and find a Soundcloud for Tony Randall, the vocalist, now based in Dorchester. Here he mentions that he has been in many bands such as Intravenous, The Rubber Chex, The Reason Why, Some Say, Mr. Pitiful and Superfly. Also he has worked with many other musicians and is these days a novelist embarked in writing two novels. Having said all that, there are a bunch of songs, dating from 3 to 7 years ago to listen.

And that might be my best find of all about Ade Moose and Walker. I wonder of course about the band name. Who or what is Ade Moose? And Walker? Why the change of names? Did they record any more songs as a unit? Did they play all over the UK? Were they also based in Hampstead as their label? Why did Shane move to Seattle? And if anyone has a spare copy of the 7″? Many questions, little answers on the web. Anyone remember them?

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Listen
Ade Moose and Walker – Lounge Around

Later today I’m going to see St. Etienne once again. Pretty excited about it. As always. Still some quiet days for me and the label. I’m taking it easy this week as the next one I start a new job, so want to be relaxed and not anxious if you know what I mean. Also there are some footie games I want to check these coming days. Plus I’ve been playing a lot of PES 2019!

Alpaca Sports: sweetness, that’s what I thought when I heard “Eiffel Tower”, the latest song the band is sharing to promote their 2nd album “From Paris With Love”. The album which I’ve seen shared on different social networks is out now on Elefant Records.  It is one not to be missed.

Deerful: I end up listening Emma Winston’s last album “Tell Me I Can Fix This On My Own” thanks to some friends sharing the song “Sunset Drive” on Facebook. I thought the electronic pop song was really nice! Then I was reading at the blurb on her Bandcamp and I learn that she created this album by programming all songs on a music programming language called ixi lang. I have never heard of such a thing. So this is quite a novelty to me. I wonder how many indiepop bands are using it? If any?

Cloudgazing: by Weatnu Records: this Oklahoma label has put together a very nice compilation, with a bunch of dreampop tracks. It is odd to have the label name on the compilation title, but maybe that’s their style. Some of the best ones are the songs by Citrus Clouds, Fluffytails and Wake in June. Definitely worth a listen.

Bye Bye Pride, A Tribute to the Go-Betweens: another compilation but this time put together by a blog. The Sao Paulo, Brazil, based blog The Blog that Celebrates Itself has compiled 15 tracks of bands from different corners of the world covering the one and only Go-Betweens. Of course, I prefer the originals, but it is pretty interesting to see how the bands have reinterpreted these classics.

True Primitives: formed by Clint Sargent, John Mason IV, Tony Hilsmeier and Eric Rubalcava, the Portland based band are definitely a good surprise. They have just released their album on vinyl LP and CD and called it “Revolutions”. There are 8 songs of dreamy and fuzzy pop. Can’t say I know much about them, but I believe this is their debut record. I think my favourite track so far on it is “Real Love”.

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I do own many Japanese bands records. But my collection is quite small percentage wise when you think of the huge output of indiepop that has been produced in the island country of the rising sun. One thing that makes this matter complicated is that the price of their records normally is higher than usual. The shipping is not that bad though. Today I was looking into getting the discography of another band with numbers on their name, just like the previous I featured, Cyclon86. The band in question is called Pitcher56 and I have to say I have just discovered them and I liked what I heard. So would be nice to own their records and listen to all of their songs, not just the ones available on the web. Right?

As far as I know, thanks to Discogs, the band put out two CDs in the first decade of the 2000s. The first one being a mini-album consisting of 7 songs called “A Direction of the Ball She Hit”. The cover shows a girl with a baseball uniform with the name Pitcher 56. It is clear to me the band was big fan of baseball. The mini-album included the songs “Tears of the Banana”, “Chubby”, “175”, “My Special Sneakers”, “Splash!!!”, “Good Night in Dim Light” and “Green Cart”. Quite a strange name the one for the first song. But I really like that song! The album was released by the label Broccolo with the catalog number BRO 801 in 2003. This label was a sub-label of the more known abcdefg*record label. This parent label is a fine one, and here on the blog we’ve featured one of their bands as it is Pastelshot. Would be nice to get in touch with whoever run this label and find out more. An interview would be great.

The song “Splash!!!” which appears on this record also appears on a compilation called “Good Compi” (a-g010) released by abcdefg*record in 2002. I’m not familiar with this CD but it does look pretty interesting with Spaghetti Vabune! or Naivepop or Petitfool.

5 years later, in 2008, the band now signed to TKO New Music Corporation releases their first album called “Her Abiding Memory”(TKOK0003) with that lovely artwork of a blond cartoon girl. I don’t know much about this label but it is true that a few of their releases were compilations of bands and labels from abroad as it is the case of La Casa Azul’s “Cerca de Shibuya” compilation or Firestation Records’ “Firestation Pavilion” double CD.

This album is kind of short. It includes 9 songs: “1,2,3!”, “Humming Word”, “Dewy Roses”, “WOMAN”, “すじをえがく”, “Another Season”, “Jump Out From the Bed”, “Love Letter (Original Version)” and “サヨナラマタイツカ”. One of these songs, “Jump Out from the Bed” was to appear on the 2005 compilation “Guitar Pop Crazy! (Bluebadge Compilation Vol.3)” that was released by Bluebadge Label (BBCD-009). On this compilation of course they appear alongside a bunch of terrific bands like The Pancakes, Cyclon86, Melting Holidays or Hairsalon.

Thanks to this compilation, we find some credits. We know the lyrics, at least for “Jump out from the Bed”, were written by Yuki Nakano while the music was by Hiroyuki Morita.

I look for them. Hiroyuki Morita doesn’t seem involved with music these days. Instead it looks like he is a medical economic journalist and formed director of the Yubari municipal clinic. From the Japanese Wikipedia I could find out that all members are doctors, and at the time of their debut mini-album they were medical students.

Then I figure too that “Tears of the Banana” is actually a cover! The original was called “Banana no Namida” by Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi, a female Japanese pop music duo from the 80s.

Then a third member. Now I have the complete lineup and what each of them played.
Hiroyuki Morita played guitar, bass, drums and programming
Manabu Takano played acoustic guitar, guitar and sang
Yuki Nakano, vocals

Then there is even more interesting facts. The band also released a single called “すじをえがく” on the Way Escape Sound label (WES – 056). I look for it, and find that it was a CD single with 4 songs: “To Draw Squirrel”, “Humming Word”, “Love Letter” and “Hypocratical Waltz”.

There are also more compilations where the band appeared. Damn. Discogs is so incomplete! So…

2007 – “Vol.1 Headstart for Happiness” on the TKO Music corporation with the song “1,2,3!”
2007 – “Vol.2 Boys (& Girls) Wonder” on the TKO Music corporation with the song “Another Season”
2010 – “TOKYO Auto Reverse” on the Studio Rissen label with the song “My Revolution” which is another cover, this time a cover of the Misato Watanabe 1986 single
2012 – “TKO New Music Corporation” with the song “Camera full of Kisses”

And now I hit a wall. I need to find the records. And I would love to find out more about the band. Where were they based? Where were they students at? In Tokyo? Have I figured out their whole discography? Were they involved in any other bands? Did they play any other covers? My Japanese friends who have been very helfpul as of late, give me a hand! Would love to hear more about this superb band!

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Listen
Pitcher56 – Tears of the Banana

Not much to update on this US holiday for Labor Day. I’m just staying home and relaxing after visiting Yale University and it’s museums this weekend. Here are a few finds from last Friday. See you Wednesday!

Blushing: released back in January, the 5 song EP “Weak”, is a lovely record. It is only available on tape, sadly, and you know I’m no fan of tapes. Those who female fronted jangly bands, this is for you. It is a winner I think. The band formed by Christina Carmona, Michelle Soto, Noe Carmona and Jake Soto (are they two pairs of siblings?) are based in Austin, Texas. And as you know, I also love when I see more latino people in indiepop.

Gauche:  sounding a bit like The Modettes or our contemporaries Shopping, this DC band has a tape mini-album called “Get Away With…” where their fun and catchy post-punk is a very nice discovery for me. Especially as this tape was released back in 2015! As the time I write these lines only 1 copy of the tape is available direct from the band.

Hearts and Tigers: another band from some years ago. I guess I couldn’t find much new stuff this weekend! But at least these are all new for the blog (and for me). Their self-titled album might be my favourite find this weekend, an upbeat and catchy indiepop band, with brilliant songs like “Sunny the Bully”. Don’t know much about them, especially would like to know if they are still going. The band is formed by Anna Wallis, Graye Guidotti, Ian White, Sarah Cameron-Puttonen, Sawyer Simonson and Zachariah Shelley. They are from Portland.

Babyteeth: some noisy guitar pop from this girl band from St. Petersburg, Florida. Formed by Gigi La Roux, Zsa Zsa St. Maire and Bunny Von Doren, they have their debut EP on Bandcamp streaming now. There are 5 songs of punky pop quality. My favourite? “Timothy”.

Strawberry Generation: lastly just one song out of their “Losing Our Way” EP. It is called “Coffee” and sounds pretty good to me. This Providence, Rhode Island, band is formed by Luk Yeah, Valerie Zhu, Max Lowndes, Michelle Bazile and Alejandro Subiotto Marqués and I’m guessing that the record will be available in a physical format as they are only sharing one song instead of all 4 that comprise this EP. It is slated to release on October 12th.

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C-Saim were ‘born’ in Bedford in 1980 when Bryn Daniels, Andy Bennette and Steve Brown were brought together from different bands in the local area. The blend of humor and common goals held the band together for 3 years during which time they built a solid and loyal following across the UK. With influences drawn from many different sources from hard rock to jazz and punk, the songs produced by C-Saim were always very original and in some cases, downright quirky!
Although the band stopped performing in 1983 the three original members still work together occasionally on song writing projects. 

Those lines were my introduction to C-Saim on “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 3” compilation. On that classic CD released in 2003 by Firestation Records, the band contributed “Give and Take” one of the the songs that appeared on their one and only 7″.

Many years would pass until I got a copy of the 7″. Maybe a decade or more. It was Ed from Shelflife Records who helped me find their 7″. I believe he was the first to write a proper blog post featuring C-Saim. Definitely a lot of information on this post will come from there.

Two songs were included in the record, “Night Air” and “Give and Take”. It was released in 1983 by Summit Records (SUM 3 T). This label is quite unknown to me, but I notice they released two records before C-Saim by the bands Rizz Wah Wah and Close to Tears. The credits tell us: Andy Bennette (on guitar, vocals, piano, whistle, and whoops), Bryn Daniels (on 8 & 4 string bass, whistle, and whoops), and Steve Brown (on drums, congas, additional perc, whoops, and whistles).

Discogs lists two compilation appearances by the band. The first in 1982 on a Vroom Records compilation called “Lend An Ear 1992?” (TRY 1) where the band contributed the songs “Only Yesterday” and “General Custer”. I don’t know any of the other bands on this vinyl LP. Their other compilation appearance was with the song “Night Air”. This song was included in the “Disco Mix Club – July 1983 – Tape 2”, a cassette that was available exclusively to the Disco Club members for use in their discotheques and bars and to radio programmers for their information and convenience. Not sure how the band ended up here alongside Aretha Franklin!

As Ed wrote on his blog post, there was a website for Night Air Music, Andy Bennette’s publishing company. It doesn’t exist anymore but one can access to its contents through the Web Archive. And that’s what I’m doing now.

The band started in 1980. Andy and Bryn were in a cover band with a drummer and a bassist. When the drummer left, Steve Brown joined them and Bryn went to play bass, with the old bassist quitting. That’s how C-Saim was formed. The band became very busy playing in their hometown of Bedford and also all around the UK. There is a list of all the gigs the bands played.

Bedford. By the way, I feel it is the first time I’m featuring a band from that town. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, England. The town has a population of around 80,000, whereas the Borough of Bedford had a population of 169,912 in mid 2017 together with Kempston. Bedford was founded at a ford on the River Great Ouse, and is thought to have been the burial place of Offa of Mercia. Bedford Castle was built by Henry I, although it was destroyed in 1224. Bedford was granted borough status in 1165 and has been represented in Parliament since 1265. It is well known for its large population of Italian descent. Bedford is on the Midland Main Line, with stopping services to London and Brighton operated by Thameslink, and express services to London and the East Midlands operated by East Midlands Trains. The name of the town is thought to derive from the name of a Saxon chief called Beda, and a ford crossing the River Great Ouse. Bedford was a market town for the surrounding agricultural region from the early Middle Ages

It seems they played quite a lot at The Crown Cellar Bar in Bedford. But they also played at Horse and Groom (Bedford), Blowins (Luton), The White Hart (Bletchley), The White Horse (Husborne Crawley – an open air festival), Blowins (Luton), Fosseway Hotel (Leicester), The Crawford Arms (Wolverton), Bedford Town F.C. (Bedford), The Barron of Beef (Luton), Silsoe College (Luton), Ye Olde White Swan (Milton Keynes), Kempston Rovers F.C. (Kempston), The Swan (Stevenage), Nags Head (Woolston), Gladstone Arms (Peterborough), Kings Head (Bicester), Shuttleworth College (Old Warden), The Griffin (Bury St Edmunds), Mander College (Bedford), The Corn Dolly (Oxford), Motorcycle Festival (Peterborough), The Windsor Castle (London), The Red Lion (Watford), Civic Theatre (Bedford), The Art College Basement (Brighton), The Target Club (Reading), The Nowhere Club (Bicester), The Bull and Dolphin (Peterborough), National Youthrama (Rushdan), The Olde Black Lion (Northampton), The Romany (Northampton), The Youth Club (Olney), Mad Hatter (Luton), Verulum Arms (Watford), Althorpe Community Centre (Bedford), The Crown (Leamington Spa), The Penny Farthing (Oxford), The Chequers (Wellingborough), The Queen Victoria Hotel (Rushden), City Hall (St Albans), The Mail Coach (Northampton), The Starlight Rooms (London), The Gemma (Watford), The Sportsman (Chorley Wood), Polhill College (Bedford), Goodyear (Wolverhampton), Compass Club (Bletchley), Technical College (Luton), The Moonlight Club (London), Xtreems (Brighton), Clapham School (Bedford), Woughton Leisure Centre (Milton Keynes), Drury Lane (London), Boys Club (Bedford) and The Fortune of War (Brighton).

They got support by many bands too, Junction 13, Tobruk, Dave Ellis Band, Trimmer and Jenkins, A Bigger Splash, Jaxs, Sly Device, Primitive Culture, Alan Norman (Magician), Graphyte, Reasonable Man, Zip Code, Psy-Kicks, Ballon Sculpter, Why?, Chinatown, Bone, Faded Secret, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Kulture Kamp, Gone Fission, Dave Pugh, Rubber Chex, Diving Club, PLE, Giraffe, Liquorice Allsorts, Gambit of Shame, Going Straight, Living Daylights, Terminal Spectators and Actors and Famous People. To be honest, I don’t know any of these bands.

This interesting event list also mentions an interview with Soundmaker and a live session recorded at MK Radio in Milton Keynes.

But what is most interesting is that they recorded a 1st demo at the Crypt Studios in Stevenage on September 5th 1980. Which songs were they recorded then? That same year, on December 1st, at the same studio, they recorded their 2nd demo. Would be great to find out what songs appeared on both of these demos.

The band also want to record at Leyland Farm Studios in 1981. In 1982 the band went to record more demos at Rocksnake Studios in Rushden. What was recorded there? And in April and May that year they headed to Vroom Studio and Woppalong Studio to record again. My guess here is that they recorded the 2 songs that appear on the compilation LP released by Vroom.

In 1983 it seems they recorded another demo at Rocksnake Studios and Wilbury Studios. But not sure which songs they were.

The old C-Saim website gives us more. It seems Bryn Daniels went to be in a band called Tough at the Top after the demise of C-Saim. Also we learn two song names from the demos, “Johny’s Stripey Jumper” and “Last Time”. Seems the band lost the original DAT tapes for these recordings sadly.

Then I stumble upon a C-Saim Facebook page. But there is not much info there aside from photos. It was last updated in 2015.

Lastly, my last find on the web, is quite sad news. It seems that in 2013, Steve Brown, the band’s drummer passed away.

That is all I could find on the web. Quite a load of information thanks to that list the band had put together back in the day. But it also made me very very curious. They had made many more recordings other than the 4 songs that were released. There are more. And I really would love to listen to them someday! Does anyone remember them?

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Listen
C-Saim – Give and Take

Just a few days ago I learned that the Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 9 is being pressed as I write these lines. That is quite fast if we think of it. Previously between volumes there were years! Now it is less than a year I think between Vol. 8 and 9.

From what I know the record will be released in double vinyl LP and CD. Again, against my liking, the vinyl version will have a bonus track. I don’t like this because I find it a bit gimmicky and forces me to buy both editions. I’m not a fan of these things. That is my only complain. The rest about these compilations I LOVE. I have always loved.

Some bands that will appear on it have been announced too like The Persuaders, Spish, The Flex, The Fontaines, Public Address, Chinese Gangster Element, Ten Million Quentins or Queue Dance. Some of them have been featured on the blog so maybe they are not that obscure anymore (?). It would be great to read the small bios about each of these bands. And discover new ones as Uwe has always had a talent for finding out superb obscure bands. I can’t wait for it!

Dot Dash: remember the Washington DC band I interviewed a while back? The band that features Terry from Tree Fort Angst? Well they continue making fabulous music. They have a new album out on the great The Beautiful Music from Ottawa, Canada, and it is titled “Proto Retro”. A good name, right? This is the sixth album by the band and it includs 12 new brilliant tracks, full of energy and catchyness. Terrific. It is available digitally and also on CD. I need a copy asap!

Cold Beat: I feel the San Francisco band has changed a bit their style. I remember them at NYC Popfest been much guitar based. Right? That doesn’t mean I’m not liking their new album “A Simple Reflection”, which is a collection of 7 Eurythmics covers. It is perhaps strange, but the story goes like this: Hannah Lew, vocalist of Cold Beat, stumbled across many 12″ of Annie Lenox’s band while buying records for her record shop Contact Records. She loved them and became obsessed. Now she is paying them a tribute of course.

The Hannah Barberas: the UK band is back! After their previous EP where we were introduced to the lovely music Damien, Lucy, Doug and Matthew are doing, they have three new treats for us. This digital EP called “Go Go Hannah Barberas!” includes “Slow Cooked”, “10 Free Tall” and “Go Go Pepper”. Three classic sounding indiepop tracks to enjoy!

Horrible/Adorable: this Oakland, California, girl duo has  anew split tape with the band Bearcats. I’m not much of a fan of the Bearcats shouty side, but the Horrible/Adorable track, “Surf, Rock, Beach, Party, UFO” is great. It is released by the label Yr First Crush which is based in the same city. Also be sure to check the band’s Bandcamp for some great pop tunes like “Merry Christmas, Baby”!

Zooey: it seems the tape for the album “Bottlerocket” is already sold out. At least we can stream the songs on Bandcamp. This shoegazy band, in the vein of The Swirlies, noisy and all, hail from Tallahassee and this is their debut album, released back in April 2017. 50 copies. I arrive late of course. There are 8 songs of fine lo-fi pop noise in here.

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If my memory serves me right I found out about this Finnish band through a great obscure indiepop collector, Joel from Portugal. He shared with me some mp3s of the first single of Bird in Bush, “I Fell Like Rome”. Weeks, or even days, after, I was happy to find a cheap copy of this single on Discogs.

There are a few more records by them, but I don’t own them. Yet. This single, “I Fell Like Rome”, was the first one they released. So let’s start there.

This 7″ was released by ABLoved (A-B-L-003) in 1990 and also included the song “French Resistance” on the B side. The sleeve doesn’t tell much, it doesn’t give us much information, just the lyrics for each song on each side of the jacket. There is also not much information about the label on Discogs. We do know though that another record was released the previous year, one by the Livin’ Drops. Looking on Finnmusic.net I could find out that the songs were produced by Jogi Kosonen who also played trumpet on the A side. The band at this point was formed by Tommi Viitamies on vocals and guitar, Micke Söderström on bass and Taito Palvanen on drums.

In 1992 the band released an LP album called “Swinging on the Edge of the Ridiculous” on Strawberry Records (SBLP-012). This label has been mentioned before on the blog when I wrote about The Kidneys. Again there is no information about this album on Discogs, just the tracklist. The A side had the songs “Something That Hits Me”, “Slur Like a Loose Mouth”, “The Twintown Affair”, “Pillars of the Past”, “Class Hatred” and “Keep it Up, Keep it Up, Keep it Up”. The B side had “A Few Real Slaps”, “Swinging on the Edge of the Ridiculous”, “Dad’s Little Slip”, “Mess With Me”, “The Bookkeeper’s Plight” and “I Fell Like Rome”.  Finnmusic.net gives us more details. The producer for this record was Gabi Hakanen with the exception of “I Fell Like Rome” which of course was Jogi Kosonen. Jogi also appears playing trumpet on this song and “The Bookkeeper’s Plight” and backing vocals on “Class Hatred” and “Pillars of the Past”. Gabi Hakanen did backing vocals on “A Few Real Slaps”.

One year later, in 1993, the band released another 7″ record on Strawberry Records (SBS-014) with the songs “I’ll Keep it Hidden” and “Love Speaks Out”.

In 1994 the band releases a CD album called “Young Immortals”. On this album the band adds Hannu Tornivuori on guitars. It was released on Strawberry Records (SBCD 021) and included 13 songs: “Central”, “Man Overboard”, “Department Store”, “Playing House”, “Groovy Engagement”, “Spokesman”, “Young Immortals”, “Man with a Memory”, “I’ll Keep it Hidden”, “Breaking Banks”, “Second Nature”, “Love Speaks Out” and “Unexpected Burst of Life”.

In 1998, after 5 years, the band releases a CD album called “Anyone for Heartaches?” on Lilith Records (LILCD 02). This label was really a cooperative society founded in 1997 by a group of Finnish artists including Maritta Kuula, A. W. Yrjänä, Kikke Heikkinen, Kauko Röyhkä, Martti Salminen and Mikael Söderström. The 13 songs on the album are “Little Women”, “Wasn’t Born to Swallow (a.k.a. The Rift)”, “Anyone for Heartaches?”, “Stand Up Comedian”, “To Get Things Done”, “Talk to Me”, “Goin’ Straight”, “Trigger Happy Girl”, “Down in the Canteen”, “Any Trouble Will Do”, “Popular Boy”, “Abandon” and “Talks to Me”.

Strangely enough it seems Micke Söderström only appears on this record doing some backing vocals on “Any Trouble Will Do”. It seems Mikko Tornivuori had replaced him by this point. Maybe he was brother with Hannu Tornivuori who was in the band in the previous album? Hannu had left too it seems and was replaced by Kim Mansnerus on guitar.

Other musicians that played in this album were Martti Salminen (from the bands Imatra Big Band and Stressi) on keyboards, Mikko Vilunki on theremin on “Little Women” and “Anyone For Heartaches?”, Mikko Mustonen played trombone on “Wasn’t Born to Swallow” and “Stand up Comedian”, Markus Jaatinen played percussion on “Anyone for Heartaches?”, “Stand up Comedian”, “Down in the Canteen” and “Popular Boy”, Assi Kartunen and Kaarina Kilpiö (from the band Little Mary Mixup) did backing vocals on “Any Trouble Will Do”, Jouni Lappalainen played banjo on “To Get Things Done”, Riitta Talasniemi (from Little Mary Mixup) sang on “To Get Things Done”, Toivo Kokko played saxophone on “Abandon”, Jogi Kosonen and Sussana Karkulehto did backing vocals on “Abandon” and Keijo Puumalainen played percussion on “Talks to Me”.

The album was recorded at Seawolf Studios in Helsinki and mastered by Pauli Saastamoinen at Finnvox. It was mixed by the band, Jogi Kosonen and Petri Majuri. The photography for the album was taken by Mia Söderström and Marjo Tynkkynen.

Lastly it seems a CD single was released that same year to promote the album. It included two songs that appeared on the album, “Anyone for Heartaches?” and “Popular Boy”. This was also released by Lilith Records (LISCD-03).

Something I did notice throughout all of their releses is that they always used the same typography for their band name on the cover of their records but on their first album “Swining on the Edge of the Ridiculous”.

There are a few compilation appearances listed on Discogs. On the “Reindeer Rock ’99” CD released by CD-Linja (Poropromo 99) released in 1999, the band contributed their song “Stand Up Comedian”. Then in 2005 their song “I Fell Like Rome” appears on the Poko Records 4 CD box set “Sivulliset – Valikoima Suomalaista Vaihtoehtorockia Vuosilta 1985-2000” (VALOSA 1). And lastly their song “Little Woman” appears on an undated CD compilation called “Rytmi-CD #1” released by Lilith (LISCD-06).

I look into what the band members are doing these days. I find out that Tommi Viitamies is today in charge of Helsinki City Library’s catalog of music. There is a good interview (in Finnish) about what his job consists of.  He is also today the managing director of the Lilith cooperative.

What about Taito Palvanen? He is still playing drums in a band called Martha ja Vankkurit which has a Bandcamp and a bunch of releases there. The last one being “Heikkaa”.

I must say it turns out to be quite a challenge to find information about the band in the Finnish language. I do get hits on google but not sure what to open. I do see a list someone in Rateyourmusic has put together of bands he has seen live. One of them is Bird in the Bush. So we do know that the band played at Botta, Club Berlin and Uusi Yo-Talo in Helsinki sometime in the 90s.

I think this time around I will need some Finnish friends to give me more details about the band. I also should try to track down their other records, see if in any case I can find sound files for these records. The few tracks I’ve heard, I’ve liked a lot! But there are so many questions to answer. Like if they were based in Helsinki? Did they get to play abroad? Was there ever any interest from big labels? Had they been in any other guitar pop bands?

Anyone remember them?

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Listen
Bird in the Bush – I Fell Like Rome

Not much news today. Kind of quiet for me though I’ve started working on a new compilation for the Cloudberry Cake Kitchen series. I will have some news about that soon. I should also start working on the 10th Cloudberry fanzine. It’s really been a while since I did one. The 10th should be the last so I’ve been putting it off for some time. But I think early next year would be a good time to put it out. Well here are some new finds this week:

Balaclava: the song “Checoslovaquia” and its video is my introduction to this Spanish band formed by Marta Sancho and Servet Domínguez from Madrid. The song, a bit more darker than the video, is a terrific 80s postpunk/guitarpop/new wave track, influenced by legendary Spanish band Décima Víctima. I don’t know much more about this song, their only release on Bandcamp, a self-titled EP dates from 2016 and doesn’t include this song.

Ping Pong Club: the Bandung dreampop band is back with a new digital single called “Skylight”, and what beauty it is! Formed by Muhammad Rizky and Hariz Lasa, the duo have been released in the past another brilliant track called “Venetian Blinds”. It is definitely a band to keep an eye, especially after they have signed to a Japanese label called Aesthetic City Records. Hopefully a proper record is in the way?

Reverse Play: C86 Re(dis)covered: the news of the week was the release of this digital compilation by the Amsterdam based label Fadeawayradiate Records. 15 contemporary bands have covered classic songs from the c86 period and it is really really good. I think most if not all versions are winners. Among the bands included we see our friends of Okama Flannel Boy covering BMX Bandits’ “Groovy Good Luck Friend”. Then there are some brilliant bands like The Catherines, The Death of Pop, Pia Fraus, Dayflower, Softer Still (who I like a lot even though they have a manager), or Distant Creatures. Now, why not release this on CD?

Rainsticks: checking out this Nashville, Tennessee, band that has just released a digital album called “Elkmont” which is a collection of 11 sunny pop tunes. The band is formed by Asher Horton with Ben Parks, Alex Benick and Rodrigo Avendaño and this is their second release after 2015s “Mystery Bones”. A very nice and feel-good effort here!

The Catherines: lastly, as it is becoming usual, I recommend the latest by the Hamburg band. Their newest song is not the one on the C86 compilation but one called “How Come You Think Everybody Likes You?” and it is available to stream at their Bandcamp. Once again music and words by Heiko, while in the recording Sandra joins him for some great vocal harmonies!

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When I wrote years ago, in 2011 I think, about The Jerks on the blog I hoped to get in touch with them. Some people left some comments, maybe they were band members, but they never replied my messages.

One of those comments said that a rumoured Jerks full album was to be released last year. Well, they were included in the “Manchester North of England” compilation that Cherry Red released. It would have been a good time to release this album with a renewed interest in them. But there was an important detail on my blog post that deserved further investigation. That of Rubber Orange, the band that came after The Jerks.

So let’s pick it from where I left it last time:

The Jerks – Oldham band. Line-up: John Reed – Vocals, Guitar, Lee ‘Drany’ Dransfield – Guitar, Warren Wrigley – Bass, David ‘Dids’ Gill – Keyboards, Andy Price – Drums. Before Andy Price joined the ubiquitous Chris Goodwin played drums for them for some time. Several demo tapes recorded at The Mill by Clint Boon. ‘Waterskin’ released on the compilation tape ‘Kite’ and ‘Didn’t Quite Make It’ released on the Bop/Joe Bloggs compilation Hit The North. After John Reed left Lee Severin from Too Much Texas replaced him and they replaced their set, soon afterwards changing their name to Rubber Orange.

A quick search for Rubber Orange and I stumble upon their myspace. A nice discovery! I’m enjoying their songs. 

So the band was mostly the Jerks, meaning Lee ‘Drany’ Dransfield (guitars), Andy Price (drums), Warren Wrigley (bass), David ‘Dids’ Gill (keyboards) with the addition of Lee Severin (vocals) who came from Too Much Texas. That would be then the lineup of Rubber Orange. And speaking of Drany Dransfield, it is important to mention too that in my previous post I shared a myspace too.

Of course none of these Myspaces work. It is awful really what happened with that social network. To think at some point it was so popular and very convenient for all of us music lovers. But at least thanks to the Myspace we know the band recorded many songs: “Shining Path”, “Invisible Friend”, “Magnetized”, “Shut Down the World”, “Manmade” and “Alone Together”. And according to this Myspace the band was based in Rochdale.

Rochdale is a town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines on the River Roch, 8.5 km northwest of Oldham and 15.8 km northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, which had a population of 211,699 in 2011. Historically part of Lancashire, Rochdale’s recorded history begins with an entry in the Domesday Book of 1086 under “Recedham Manor”. The ancient parish of Rochdale was a division of the hundred of Salford and one of the largest ecclesiastical parishes in England, comprising several townships. By 1251, Rochdale had become important enough to have been granted a Royal charter. Rochdale flourished into a centre of northern England’s woollen trade, and by the early 18th century was described as being “remarkable for many wealthy merchants”. Rochdale seems to be named from its position on the River Roch but is recorded as Recedham in the Domesday Book. The name is derived from Old English reced meaning “hall”, and ham, a “homestead”. Over time, the name changed to Rachedale and eventually Rochdale.

But unlike The Jerks, Rubber Orange did release a record, a 12″ EP. It was self-titled, “Rubber Orange EP”, and it came out in 1991 on the Zest Communications label (ZERO 2). Discogs doesn’t list any records under this label, might it be a self-release? What confuses me is that it seems to be the second release in the catalog, what was the first one?

There were four songs on the yellow and blue sleeve record. On the A side there was “Sun Shines Down On You” and “Shining Path” while the B side had “Shut Down the World” and “N.E. Groove”. The producer was Paul Sampson from The Primitives. It was recorded in September 91 at the Cabin studios in Coventry.

The Manchester Digital Music Archive has a bio and a couple of photos of the band. The photos show the band playing at the Hurricane Club. The bio mentions that the band toured extensively in the early 90s. That Lee Severin wasn’t from Manchester but a Londoner. That Zest Communications was their own label and that it didn’t get favorable reviews on the NME until it was reassessed when it was discovered that the critic, Barbara Ellen, had played the record at the wrong speed. It then says that the band split in the mid 90s with Severing going on to form Jubilee who signed to Silvertone Records. The remaining band members continued making music at least until he late 90s.

Until the late 90s? In which bands?

Another detail I could find on the web was that the band supported several big indie names like Inspiral Carpets, The La’s, The Soup Dragons, The Primitives, Northside, The Mock Turtles, Steve Diggle’s FOC and more.

Then I find perhaps more of a curiosity perhaps, I found a video of a band called The McRackins playing the song “This Jokes On You” live at Burnley Mechanics in 1991 with guest bass player Warren Wrigley of Rubber Orange. Check it out, it is rather good!

And that’s about all there is written about them on the web. Not much more. Would be great to get in touch with the band members, I have so many questions about Rubber Orange, and also about The Jerks!!

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Listen
Rubber Orange – Sun Shines Down on You

So, I have some interesting news. So I’m leaving my current job and joining another graphic department in two weeks time. I don’t know how busy it will be at the new place, if there will be time to update the blog at the pace I’m used to. It will just be a matter to adjust. I like posting the blog in the mornings, as it gets more views if I do it at that time. In the evening, after coming back home from work is never good. Most of the European people who read the blog are already going to bed or sleeping.

In any case these last few weeks at this place I’ve been writing about bands a lot. I have many drafts saved for obscure bands I want to feature. So there will be posts, for sure, even at the busiest times. The only thing that I do more or less at the time of posting are the five new indiepop finds on the web. Those have the be “new” right? And it is not like every day there are 10 or 20 new things to share with everyone! We’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, here are my newest finds over the weekend.

Rådjuret: the latest release by Rasmus’ label Luxury Records sounds ace! The self-titled album by Rådjuret is now available to stream and it is very limited, just 150 copies on vinyl LP. It will be released on September 7th and includes 10 songs of lovely female indiepop. It is the first time I’m listening to this band and I must say I’m impressed. Oh! and they sing in Swedish, and I like that!

Kassia Klein: another find on the Luxury bandcamp is this song called “Du Är Stormen” by Kassia Klein. I suppose a digital single. There is no physical release. This intimate-sounding song is also in Swedish. Even though I thought Kassia Klein was the name of the vocalist, it is not. It turns out they are a duo formed by Kåre Vernby and Maja Gödicke. On their Facebook it says an album is slated for release this September.

De Montevert: my friend Ellinor has been putting out great music under the name De Montevert for many years. But lately she has been kind of quiet. Until a few days ago when she unveiled a new song called “Jag Vet Inte” I hope this means that more new songs are coming up! Perhaps too a new release!

The Goon Sax: the brilliant Brisbane band shared a new song last week called “We Can’t Win”. It is an audio track on Youtube. This song will be included in their upcoming album “We’re Not Talking” that is to be released by Wichita Recordings and Chapter Music. It is great. The band will announce tour dates for the US soon too. I’m excited. I had such a good time at their gig last time in NYC. Even better chatting with them, even though I think I disappointed them as I went home early haha. I’m an old man these days! Maybe if they play on a weekend I can have a couple more beers and chat about obscure Australian bands. Don’t miss this album!

The Daysleepers: one of my favourite bands from Buffalo, NY, are returning after a 10 year break with the album “Creation”. Their dreamy and upbeat shoegaze sounds are back indeed! The band formed by Jeff Kandefer, Mario Gimbrone, Scott Beckstein and Elizabeth Kandefer are returning with a 9 song album and 4 of these songs are available to stream on their Bandcamp! Very exciting! Oddly enough it looks like the album is only available digitally at the moment. That can’t be! I hope there is a physical release. Crossing fingers!

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With the future “Leamington Spa” German compilation Firestation is preparing I’ve been wondering which bands will be featured. And what name will they give their compilation? “The Sound of…” what? Berlin? Probably not. Maybe some other town? Or maybe something totally different?

One of the bands I think would be great to include is Schade Schokolade, mostly because I know nothing much about them and some bio in a booklet would be greatly appreciated. That if I don’t get the chance to interview them before. I hope that happens.

It is true that the band didn’t release any proper records. They only contributed songs to compilations. According to Discogs just 4 compilations. The first one dates from 1992 and was on the “Wegweiser Durch’s Eiswürfelland” tape released by Eiswürfel Tonräger (EIS 2). I’ve mentioned this label in the past, especially when I interviewed the band Die Busfahrer. On this compilation, that has that cool artwork of what looks a superhero with a globe of the Earth as its head, the band contributed “Gute Laune” and “Liebe aus Der Dose”. Both songs are credited to Gelting.

The next year, in 1993, the band appears on yet another fine tape compilation that has been mentioned quite a few times on the blog, the “Frischer Morgentau” tape. This was released by Twee.net Peter Hahndorf’s brother Ulli’s label Steinpilz Tonträger (STEIN 1). On this tape the band appears with one song and was called “Ach Wär’ Doch Sommer”.

The band was to work again with Eiswürfel Tonträger on a CD compilation called “Die Schönste Platte Der Welt” (EIS 7). This compilation was released in 1994 and included many classic German bands. On this CD the band opens the album with “Sommerlied” and also includes a second song, “Tomatensuppe”. I’d love to have a copy of it!

Lastly there is a double CD compilation from 2002 called “Meet Me at Club 2 – A Benefit Farewell”. I suppose the band contributed a song from the early 90s, or did they reform to record a song? The band gave away “Die Szene Wird Dich Leben” for this comp and here we find a few credits. We see that this song was produced by Bernd Hartwich who had been in bands like Bish, Der Englische Garten, Merricks and Silow. Then we see that the track was written by Carl Oesterhelt and Jörg Prigge. Carl was the songwriter and drummer of F.S.K. and keyboardist in Merricks as well as being in bands like 3 Shades of Blues, The Johnsons, Tied & Tickled Trio and Ms. John Soda. I suppose at this point it is safe to assume that the band was based in Munich.

I find on Youtube a video of Schade Schokolade performing “Ach Wär Doch Sommer” or is it Der Ware Grand Prix playing that song? I don’t find it very clear on the Youtube description as it has names on the band lineup that are none of Gelting, Prigge or Oesterhelt.

There also used to be an old Myspace page where there were three songs to stream. Three songs that weren’t part of any compilations as far as I know, “Lang Nicht Gekuesst”, “Ich Will Die Sonne” and “Bleib Locker”.

Sadly there is not much more on the web about them. I wonder if there are more recordings. If there was ever a proper release. Who were the members? Did they play all over Germany? Was there any offers of labels to release their music? Maybe my München friends remember them?

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Listen
Schade Schokolade – Tomatensuppe

A quick note this Friday letting you know that the BV’s 7″s are already at the pressing plant being pressed. We are hoping then that our release date will be sometime in late October/early November. There’s been already a bunch of pre-orders so I’ll keep everyone updated!

Now, here are a few new finds on the web for you all!

Toy Tambourine: this Bandung, Indonesia, band has uploaded three covers of Another Sunny Day which sound really good! They are very faithful though they do add some/more distortion compared to the originals. They have made covers of “Anorak City”, “I’m In Love With a Girl Who Doesn’t Know I Exist” and “I Don’t Suppose I’ll Have a Second Chance”! They also have a new original song called “Candy Kissed (Demo)” worth checking out!

Herlights: one keeps discovering brilliant music coming out from Russia. Herlights is the latest one with their song “SHE”. This is the first time I listen to them and I hope to keep finding out new tracks by them. They have a few more of course, but the previous one dates from 8 months ago, from December. Maybe they do like taking their time.

Ease: another band from Indonesia in this post reviews. This one hails from Jakarta and is a dreampop band, with different influences to Toy Tambourine. They have two songs on their Bandcamp, “Longing” and “III”. Their latest is “Longing” which has very cool wall of guitars over female vocals.

Davey Woodward and the Winter Orphans: the ex-frontman of the Brilliant Corners has a new band, I’m sure you all know that, and it is called like this. They have signed to the German label Tapete Records and they’ve put a video for the song “Dylan’s Poster” to promote their self-titled debut album. And what can I say other than it makes me happy to see my indiepop heroes keeping guitar pop alive!

Sunbather: lastly this Durham, North Carolina, band who has put together a jangly digital album called “Melancholy Daze”. It starts pretty good with the self-titled song “Sunbather” and then it is all very simple, with simple track names, and straight to the point pop songs. Very summery too! Would love to know a bit more about them or him if it is a solo project!

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I’ve been googling for Cross Town Traffic and I keep getting results for Jimmi Hendrix. Dear, dear. That is not what I want, and it is truly disappointing. Hendrix doesn’t have anything to do with the sound of their sole and wonderful single.

The black and white sleeved single, with it’s iconic art, is another record most of us indiepop lovers would love to have. One day perhaps that dream will be true for me. In the meantime, I’m writing this post, hoping to get in touch with the band members as would love to interview them, learn the story behind the band.

There is little I know about them. I do know the band was formed by:
John Ralls on bass
John Wolfendale on drums and percussion
David Adshead on guitar and vocals
Glenn Vinnicombe on keyboards
Nick Clark on lead vocals and guitars

Their double A sided 7″ single was released in 1983 and it was a self-release. I wonder how many copies they pressed. They included two songs, “No For an Answer” and “Hanging On To You”, both written by Nick Clark and both recorded at The Elephant studios.

On Discogs I click on each member of the band hoping to find any project they might have been involved with. But there’s no luck. Only Cross Town Traffic is listed. There are no compilation appearances either. There’s nothing. Hitting a wall so soon doesn’t feel good. I need to find something else about them, this is too little. I love their song “No For An Answer”, I need to find out more.

But I was going to find a blog post on My Life is a Jigsaw dating from July 2016 were Glenn Vinnicombe is listed as a keyboard player during the years 1981 and 1984 in a band called 20th Century (whose “Mad World” song is pretty good! maybe worth a post?). It must be the same Glenn. Following a link to a website where it tells the story of the 20th Century band, I deduce that Cross Town Traffic was based in Cambridge. So with that detail in mind I find a Dr. Glenn Vinnicombe in the department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Could it be him?!

What about the other band members? I believe I also think I got the right John Wolfendale. It seems he now lives in Spain and works in developing eco-friendly villas! But no music associated to neither him or Glenn on the web. Maybe they stopped after Cross Town Traffic?

The other band members prove to be much more difficult. Maybe David Adshead studied architecture at the University of Cambridge. But can’t find much about John Ralls (he now lives in Bristol it seems) or about Nick Clark. I would love to know if they all made music with other bands.

That’s all this investigation could dig. It is better than nothing. I couldn’t find out if the band did any other recordings, nor if they had any other releases or compilation appearances. I couldn’t find much. But I’m hoping I’ll be able to find out more about them in the near future. Do any of my Cambridge readers remember them from the early 80s?

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Listen
Cross Town Traffic – No For an Answer

I am still very excited about the news that The BV’s are releasing a 7″ with our little label. You must have listened already the A side, “Every Story is a Ghost Story‘, and loved it as I did? I hope so! If that’s the case let me tell you that the pre-order button is now live at our website. So don’t miss out! The record went to press today, so hopefully in around two months time we will have it at home shipping first to everyone who placed a pre-order.

I’m really impressed that in these times we’ve managed to put out 45 7″ singles. And we are getting closer and closer to 50 7″s. It is not an easy task. But can only thank your support. I hope you keep supporting the label as you’ve been doing for the past 10 years!

Now here are some new finds for you to enjoy in the middle of the week (?).

The Science of Words: our friend Pete from Horowitz, The Rosehips and more is now in a band called The Science of Words alongside Corinne Plant and have just released their debut single called “In a Space” on Next Phase:Normal Records as a 7″. They’ve made a video too for it, which I’m linking here. The sound is a bit different, a bit rougher and rockier, but still you can find the pop sensibility in it.  And the video is very cool!

Foundlings: a London band formed by Amber, Bry, Matty and Oly. Another lovely sounding band that didn’t get invited to Indietracks. The list keeps getting longer and longer. Their latest song was just released on their Bandcamp and it is called “Horizon” and it is just sweet sounds for my ears. The band have a few more songs available like “Misery” and “Your Sister”. Looking forward to them releasing them in physical format!

Tight Knit: a bit of shambolic pop from this Melbourne trio. I don’t know much about them, but there are two songs on their Bandcamp, “Too Hot” and “Want You”, and they are not that new, they are from 2017. Crashpop, lo-finess, and female vocals. It is a good combination.

Todavía: this dreampop project by Rhyan Riesgo from Los Angeles have just uploaded a new song called “Visitor” to their Bandcamp. And what can I say other than it is dreamy? That is pretty obvious, right? It is the first time I’m listening to his music, but I see there are many more songs to keep me busy all afternoon. Good stuff!

Grupo de Inventores: the Zaragoza band has a new song called “La Edad de Oro” which will be included in their new EP “Abgrund”. The band formed by G. Inventor, J. Parra, J. Castejón, Thomas Mazel and Enrique Villanueva, are not new in the blog, last year I recommended their song “Sin Ayuda (Joseph K)”, and now, little by little, they unveil new music.

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I’ve been featuring some 90s Swedish bands in the last few months, and I hope to continue doing son in the coming months as well. As I’ve mentioned before I’m much more familiar with Swedish guitar pop from the 2000s, and the 90s are a time when the Scandinavian country released a massive output of quality music.

As I’m trying to familiarize with many of these bands by buying their records I’m also writing these posts about them, hoping to understand and figure out their scene. A few interviews have been posted and some others are underway, maybe we could paint a picture of it in the near future.

Suredo is one of these bands I’m only giving a proper listen these days. I have heard a few songs on compilations in the past, but only know I’m paying attention to their album and EP. But looking at Discogs, that is not exactly where their story starts.

There are two demo tapes listed, from the early 90s. The first one is quite mysterious. It is just called “3 Songs”, those being “Spoiled”, “Stronger” and “Think” and the band appears with the name Suredoh, instead of Suredo. There is no date on it, and it says that all songs were written by Louis Barlow. Is this not Lou Barlow from Sebadoh? These were cover versions then by the band clearly.

The second tape, from 1990, is for sure our Suredo. The tape titled “…Is Manhate” was self-released and included 4 songs: “Down to the Sea”, “See the Sea”, “Still I’m Counting” and “Cracking”. All of them were recorded between April and May at The Forest studio by Lachen Jonsson. The band members were at this time Anders G. Mobjörk on bass, Ulf Stenport on drums, Anders Arfvidsson on guitara and Mikael Mynerts on guitar. It is important to mention that the last song on the tape was a cover of the Suzanne Vega original.

Two years after the band from Linköping was signing to the legendary Ceilidh Productions and releasing their first proper record. The “Swell EP” (CEI 029) included four new songs, “Sonic Atmosphere”, “Levitate”, “Harmonizer” and “Inside Your Eyes”. The band style was already there, that mix of guitar pop with rough edges, sometimes rockier than poppier, but a good mix altogether.

That same year the band contributes the song “Sonic Atmosphere” to the “Stockholm Party” CD compilation released by Stockholm Records (STOPROCD2).

In 1993 the band appears on another compilation CD. This time on Rainbow Music. The comp was called “Life’s A Joke” (RMCD 3020) and interestingly enough it was compiled by Nicke Boström, the same person behind the classic record store Delicious Goldfish Records, right?

That same year the band was going to release their debut album, “Whatahandsomeface?” on Ceilidh (CEI 035). There were eleven songs on it, all recorded, mixed and produced by Micke Herrström at Decibel Studios in Stockholm. The artwork was created by Anders Arfvidsson, H V Platen and Anette Nantell who had done some artwork for other Swedish bands, like Drug who were featured on the blog not so long ago.

The eleven songs on the album were “Byes”, “Swell”, “Here On My Own”, “Turboprop”, “Childlike”, “Pullover”, “Down-Come”, “Average Cell”, “Pituitary Gland”, “Spare Me Logic” and “Ultramarine”. Everyone of them great, except “Turboprop” that is kind of a metal track (!). Yes, odd. But well, it was the 90s.

Something interesting is that the album was re-released in 2003 as a CDR by the label Commercial Suicide (CSR010). It included 4 bonus tracks, the ones that were on the “Swell EP”. I believe this was the band’s own label  which also was to release a compilation of rare tracks by the band that same year called “Wewerenotespeciallyyounganddiditonlyforthemoney”. A difficult name indeed!

This compilation included 10 songs: “Stronger”, “Spoiled”, “Harmonizer”, “Levitate My Heart”, “Follow”, “She’s Thinking”, “What’s Your Profession”, “Down to the Sea”, “Think!” and “Sonic Atmosphere”.

The first two songs on the record were recorded by Jörgen Värnström at Toodle Recordings in 1994. They were meant to be released as a follow up to the album. “Harmonizer” and “Sonic Atmosphere” were recorded by Lachen Jonsson in 1991 at the Forest and these were the edit versions of the songs that appeared on their third demo called “Gibbon”. “Levitate My Heart” on the other hand was also an edited version of the song that appeared on their fourth demo “Burgundi”.

“Follow” was an outtake from the “Gibbon” demo sessions. The next song, “She’s Thinking” was taken from the band’s second demo “SeaweedIknomore” and “What’s Your Profession” is an outtake from the sessions for that demo in 1991.  “Down to the Sea” was included in the first demo which I mentioned earlier “…Is Manhate”. Lastly, “Think!” was recorded on a 4-track in their rehearsal studios in 1994.

As mentioned, all of the songs but the first two and “Think!” at The Forest between 1990 and 1992. Some other musicians appear on these recordings like Markus Lindén playing bass on “Spoiled” or Jan Altsjö playing a guitar solo in the same song. I would love to listen to these rare recordings.

So now we know that there were more demo tapes, at least three more, “Gibbon”, “Burgundi” and “SeaweedIknowmore”. What other songs did these tapes include? There were more recordings then by Suredo clearly?

I could find on Popfakta some information about “SeaweedIknowmore”. It was released in 1991 and included 4 songs, “She’s Thinking”, “See You”, “Man in the Moon” and “Inside Your Eyes”.

Lastly there are a few other compilations where the band appears. In 1997 on the “Ceilidh 039 Singles & Vinyls” which has been mentioned in the past on the blog several times with the song “Sonic Atmosphere” and lastly their song “Average Cell” appears on the North of No South Records double CD compilation “Svensk Indie 1988-2006 – En Kärleks Historia”.

There is a very good find I did almost immediately I started looking for them. There is a promo video for their song “Byes” on Youtube!

I keep looking for information about them and there is a short bio on the Ceilidh website. There it mentions that the band formed in Linköping in 1990 and they played that same year the annual Ceilidh party on December 28th. Then after the album was released the band split. Mikael Myrnerts went to play in a band called Aloon while the other three members, both Anders (Arfvidsson and Mobjörk) and Ulf were joined by Per Byström of Cloudberry Jam and started the band Auntie Nell which was then renamed to Coach Bob.

I also had a look on Discogs, see what other bands the band members might have been involved with. Anders Mobjörk seems to have been in Galler, Njurmännen and Kvinnan. Not other bands listed for the rest.

On the blog Popvinminns there is a short interview from 2011 where they say that their favourite color was red. Another find on the same blog is a review of their album where they criticise their EP but rave about their album saying the song “Average Cell” could rival Popsicle’s “Hey Princess”.

Then on Last.fm there is a proper biography of the band. Here we learn that originally they wanted a female bassist and proposed Eva from the band Abdullah to join them, but she turned them down. The name came from from the first demo, which was originally called “Sure Do is Manhate”. They decided to combine Sure and Do. They got airplay on the radio show Bommen and the fanzine Sound Affects featured them. In 1994 Anders Arfvidsson left the band as he went to Finland to study architecture and it is at this point that Markus Lindén joins the band. Sadly the year after, 1995, the band split.

At some point the CDR releases were available to order from the Commercial Suicide website, but now it looks that the website is about a totally different thing. So no way to order them. Shame.

What else? Not much more sadly. I lost their trail too soon. Not sure if the band members are still making music or what. Whatever happened to them? Why didn’t they continue with the band? How did their other projects sound like? Did they play all over Sweden? Why so few releases, even though it seems they were very prolific, recording 4 demo tapes? And what songs were included in the demos “Gibbon” and “Burgundi”? Would be great to know. Do you remember them?

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Listen
Suredo – Sonic Atmosphere

Very happy to start this week with some FANTASTIC news. I can now announce our next 7″ which will be coming out this autumn!

You can now check out and listen the A side called “Every Story is a Ghost Story” from the upcoming 7″ by the Falmouth (UK) and Augsburg (Germany) based duo The BV’s! Formed by Josh and Fred, the band, who has released two singles and an album on the German label Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten, are in top form in this new single, the first on this side of the Atlantic. With a superb mix of classic sounding indiepop a la Sarah Records, dreampop, kraut and noise, the BV’s, have been gaining a faithful following and we hope you join too!
The 7″ includes this track on the A side and “Happy, Alright?” on the B side. The artwork was created by German illustrator Marie Doerfler.

In the next weeks I will be adding a pre-order button on the website, but don’t worry I will let you know when that happens. I’m very excited about this release as I’ve been a fan of the band for long, featuring on the blog many times. Also I was really thrilled the day I saw them play live at Madrid Popfest playing a precious set. I hope you all are excited about this news as I am!

So with that exciting news in mind,  here are a few finds I made this past weekend:

Happypills: a nice surprise from Fukuoka in Japan are these 4 songs from this band inspired by “indie pop, dream pop, shoegazer and power pop”. These bedroom recordings are part of an EP titled “Lazy Sun, Late Risers” and they are “Lazy Sun”, “Port Town”, “Circles” and “Whale(late riser)”. I don’t know much more about the band but they have a few more releases to listen.

June Parker: first time I’m listening to this Richmond, Virginia, band and I’m quite surprised I haven’t stumbled upon them before as they have many other releases on their Bandcamp. Anyways, their latest is a self-titled EP released on July 13 and it includes 6 songs of mid 90s sounding guitar pop: “Lava”, “Hold a Mirror”, “My Mantra (That You Said)”, “I Can’t Relate Anymore”, “Sit and Watch” and “Cardinal”. They are formed by Mike, Chris, David and Chad.

Goodnight Moonlight: it is a shame that only one song is available to stream from the “Letters to Japan” EP because it is a super track. It is called just as the EP, “Letters to Japan” and it is the last song, out of 4, included in this 7″ which is available to preorder from Coaster Records from Rotterdam, Netherlands. This Dutch band is formed by Jente Lammerts, Jim Luijten, Micha Zaat, Jasper Bogaard. Hopefully I can find myself a copy before it sells out.

The Bascinets: 5 songs from Columbus, Ohio. That is what the “378 Vol. 1” EP is. This band formed by Nick Wellman, Nick Shew, Tristan Huygen and Trevor Joellenbeck is a new for me. And these songs are not by any means their only ones. They seem to have been going since 2016. There are some great jangly songs to discover here.

Sharesprings: I was recommending on my last post the new album by the fantastic Indonesian band called “Paraparlor”. Well the band has also put together a promo video for the song “Something Soon” and I think it is ace! Check it out!

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From what I know, which is very little, The Sensible Pencils released only one 7″ back in 1983. It was self-released and had the catalog number SRTS83 CUS 1662 and it didn’t even come with a sleeve. Discogs doesn’t even list it.

Of course, I would love to get a copy. It’s been on my wishlist for years. I know I want it because I’ve heard the two songs that were included in the record. They are on Youtube. That helps of course. The names of the tracks are “In a Matter of Time”, which appears on the A side, and “Family Code” which is on the flipside. Will I be able to find anything else about them on the web?

The band was a four piece. That we know. They were formed by Jim Callanan, Phil Milburn, Ronny Slater and Steve Nesbitt. Both songs on the record were written by Jim.

Discogs does list a compilation called “The First Great Wave” where a band called The Sensible Pencils appear. Is it the same band? I wonder if that’s the case. The thing is, this LP comp was released in 1988, 5 years after the single. Could it be the same band? There are two songs credited to them, “Jumping On the Slave Train” and “Weekdays”. The label that put it out was Great Records (OGRT1) from Washington in Tyne & Wearm. Was the band also from the area? Is this the first mystery I need to solve?

To my big surprise I find a Facebook page for them that was created last year. What are the chances? Doesn’t look like there are lots of information but I’m sure I’ll find something. I look through the few photos they have uploaded and there is a newspaper clipping from the Sunderland Echo written by Paul Woods, later of the Kane Gang. On it he mentions that the band hailed from Low Fell and Wearside. Where is that?

Low Fell is a suburb of Gateshead situated in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead in Tyne and Wear, England. Built predominantly on sandstone, grindstone and clay. For centuries little more than part of a windswept, barren and treacherous heath, the settlement at Low Fell was initially established by a moderate influx of tinkers and miners in the 18th century. 

Wearside is an area of North East England centred on the continuous urban area of Sunderland by the River Wear, and in the wider sense, including separate neighbouring settlements such as Seaham.

Okay, the north east of England. Sunderland is a big name, there is a footie team. But let’s get back to the article which seems to have been written in 1983 as the writer mentions that the single is about to be released. It also says that the band’s live set comprised with many cover versions of bands like the Rubinoos or The Jam, and that they had a Postcard Records sensibility.

An important details is that only 500 copies was pressed of the record.

Another photo I find lets us know the band played more than a few times at The Honeysuckle in Gateshead. It seems this venue is no more and now a Tesco sits in its place. Another post lets me know the band played at a venue called the Gosforth Hotel and another one at the Biddick Farm Arts Centre in Washington, in 1981. Wow. So the band was around at that time already!

Something else that caught my attention on the web is that the band changed their name at some point to The Playground, and under that name they re-released the single, with the same two songs. The only difference being that the labels had changed. Now they were red and black with a different design. Why?

And just like that I hit a wall. There is nothing else written about them. Because of what I found on the Facebook page, I can tell that the band had many more recordings. I would love to hear them. And definitely find out why they changed their names. An email interview with them would be fantastic. Do you remember them?

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Listen
The Sensible Pencils – In A Matter of Time