I can start this post with good news! And I’m very happy about it. I sent to press, earlier this week, our 44th 7″ vinyl record! Isn’t that exciting?

Also I’m very excited as it will be the first time the label is releasing a band from Mexico City. Since the label started in 2007 it was very clear our approach in supporting a worldwide scene, that it didn’t matter where a band came from. So please let me introduce you to Okama Flannel Boy!
Okama Flannel Boy is the moniker for the Mexican musician and composer Fernando Torres. Based in Tlalpan, in the south of Mexico City, he’s been writing and recording jangly guitar driven songs inspired in 60’s bubblegum pop, soul and “the sound of young Scotland” since the beginning of 2017. This will be his debut single and the record includes 4 songs: “Carolina St.”, “Low Life”, “Motivational by Default” and “Wanted Man”. It should be released later this summer (if the pressing plant doesn’t take all the time in the world) and the sleeve has original art by British illustrator Louise Logsdon.

As a taster, I’ve uploaded the opening track to the label’s Soundcloud, so check “Carolina St.” here. And also we are taking pre-orders on our website www.cloudberryrecords.com

Thanks again for your support, and hope you like it!

Now, some new finds!

The Goon Sax: I was recommending the song “She Knows” not so long ago after it was unveiled on Youtube. Now there is a video for the song also on Youtube. It makes me wonder why don’t release just the video? There must be some case study in what works well for selling songs or records that this might be the way to do it. Anyways, the song is a cracking one, and the video too. Next week I should be seeing the band for the first time her in NYC. And I’m really looking forward to it.

Charlie Big Time: these very good Cloudberry friends have just released a new song called “This is the final song” and it comes alongside a video. See, some people do it this way too. This is the first song the band has put out since 4 years ago! So it is a treat. We don’t get that many of these classy and elegant  songs by them, so every time there’s a new one we all become terribly happy. Now will the song be released in any way? I hope so. And I also wish them to record more songs!

Oddshore: this is a new Singapore band that my friend Vernon recommended me last week. I don’t know much about them but this video and song “Do You Remember” is quite a lovely pop slice. It sounds a bit Swedish, right? perhaps that is just me. There is not much info on their Facebook or on the video on who is in the band or if they have any releases available, but at least they define themselves as indiepop. That is always good in my book! Check them out!

The Golden Rail: don’t really know how “Electric Trails From Nowhere” wasn’t recommended here. I had recommended some of their previous digital singles but not this hell of an album. The Perth, Australia, band that is kind of a super band, one that includes members Jeff Baker, Dave Chadwick, Ian Freeman and Saki Garth of classic and legendary bands like The Rainyard, Summer Suns and The Palisades among others released earlier this year this album and you can even stream it on their Bandcamp. For all of us that are a bit old-school, the 10 songs are also available on CD. And if you are even more old-school, our friend Javi at Pretty Olivia Records has a vinyl LP version of it. If you like classic pop songs, jangly guitars, hooks and smart arrangements, this is a winner. If you don’t, then it is a winner too. Just have a listen!

Gentle Brontosaurus: I recommended their album “Bees of the Invisible” a couple of weeks ago and this is more of an update really. Thing is I could recommend the album by this Madison, Wisconsin, band again, because it sounds fantastic. And sure I’ll do that. But this update has to do with the album being available now in physical formats. You can order it now as CD and also as a tape! So do that now. That’s what I will do right now!

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Every time there’s little time and I’m on a computer I try to look for new music. And “new” doesn’t mean music from 2018. It means just music I’ve never heard before. Even if I had just a few minutes in my hands.

I stumbled upon the Swedish band Dream on Youtube while looking for other bands. I love how these connections happen! I was actually looking at the flexis that were given away by the legendary Swedish magazine Sound Affects. The 10th flexi (SAF 010) caught my attention.

In 1991 the split flexi with Dream and Whipped Cream was released. It came accompanying the Sound Affects Music Magazine #11 and I believe the flexi, which was limited to 100 copies, was only given to the subscribers. It wasn’t on sale. Dream opened the flexi with the song “She Bangs the Door” while Whipped Cream appears after with “Mr Green”.

The name “She Bangs the Door” of course reminds one of “She Bangs the Drums” by The Stone Roses. I wonder if that was their intention.

Dream’s only proper release happened the same year of the flexi, 1991. It was a 7″ that was released by the classic label Ceilidh Productions (CEI 021) It had two songs, on the A side there was “Love’s a Drug” and on the B side we find “Nothing’s To Say”. The first song was recorded at Music-A-Matic during June 1991 while the second song was recorded at Studio Gig in February 1991. The engineer and co-producer for “Nothing To Say” was Stefan Arningsmark (who had been in bands like Love and Noblesse Oblige) while “Love’s A Drug” was produced by the band, Jörgen Cremonese and Ulf Ekerot. Cremonese had been in many bands like Blue For Two & Co., It’s My Head and Whipped Cream who Dream had shared the flexi with.

The artwork for the single was done by Eddie Andersson with drawings by Jörgen Lundquist. The photography on the back cover is credited to Johannes Fosséus.

But we also learn the names of the band members on this record. Per Eriksson was the vocalist and guitar player, Per Liljesson played bass and vocals and Teresa Fritzson drummed and also sang.

On Discogs I find that Per Liljesson sldo played in a band called Yoni, who released a CD single in 1996. Later I would find that Teresa was also part of this band.

There are two compilation appearances. The first dates from 1992 on a double CD compilation called “Café Kristina The CD”. It seems this compilation came with a 90 page booklet. That’s huge! I wonder what this was about? Dream appears with the song “My World” and I’m curious to know if perhaps Café Kristina was a venue. I found that there was a venue with that name in the city of Växjö. Perhaps the band hailed from that town?

The other compilation they were on was the “Ceilidh 039 Singles & Vinyls” that was released in 1997,  which was a sort of a comp with songs from the past, from the back catalogue of the Ceilidh label. You see classic bands on this one like The Cardigans, Cod Lovers, Happydeadmen, Saturday Kids and more. Dream appears with their single “Love’s A Drug”.

I start digging deeper and find a review on Sound Affects, no. 11, from June/July 1991. Sadly there is not much details about the band here. Just the reviewer, Terry Ericsson, mentioning that he likes the 7″ and he emphasizes that the band has a sense of humor.

I could find more information on the Musikon website. Here I find even more bands Per Eriksson had been involved. But first here they suspect that Dream hailed from Norrköping though the website is not sure, they have a ? next to the city name. Other bands that Per was involved were Lolita Pop, The Line, Vantage, Razorblade and Paradise. The strange thing is that these bands, all of them, hail from different cities. I start to suspect that it may be that the name Per Eriksson is a bit common in Sweden, and that there might be many Per Erikssons involved in bands. Or not?

I couldn’t find much more about them. It is true that it is hard to google a band with the name Dream. It is impossible. But there must be more music by them or their members. Just one 7″ feels like too little!

Do my Swedish friends remember them? Where were they based? Why no more releases? Did they gig a lot? What are they up to today? Would be interesting to find out!

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Listen
Dream – She Bangs the Door

A new week! And I heard at last from Mobineko after many angry emails. They are telling me that the problem was that the automated shipping dates were causing them trouble (?). That the records still take around 14 weeks to press (that is 3 months and a half max) and that they had transitioned over from MPO (I don’t know what MPO means, do you?) and tried to be as open and transparent as possible and stated in the order confirmation page that orders placed at that time will take up to 14-16 weeks. FYI if we would have kept the orders at MPO there would have been 7 months minimum turn time, hence the decision to move quickly. Anyways they say that all the print parts and plates for the Salt Lake Alley 7″ are finished and they are just waiting for the sleeves. So supposedly they should be shipped out shortly. Crossing fingers.

So new finds? Yes, a few!

Ciudad Gragea: the Trujillo, Peru, band has been featured on the blog in the past with their brand of fun pop reminiscent of 80s Spanish pop. Now the band seems to be working on new songs, perhaps a new release, and they have shared a video for their song “La Noche”.

Youthcomics: I still haven’t been able to get the Sailyard Records releases. Perhaps it is my fault for trusting that I was going to trade them with the Japanese label as was agreed. But well, maybe I should just buy them on Discogs or somewhere else. In any case I will have to add one more to the list! The superb Youthcomics is releasing “April Transit”, a 6 song EP, on June 20th. The Osaka band has now shared one of the songs from this record, one called “Weekend”, which is terrific. Also I really like the artwork for this release, a bit Cloudberry-style if I may say so!

The Orchids: the Glasgow legends will be back on August 7th with two brand new songs on a lovely 7″. “I Never Learn” and “Echos (Have Hope)” will appear on the 7″ series that WIAWYA has been putting out this year. The same that included 7″s by the Catenary Wires or Birdie. At the moment of writing this post only the B side, “Echos (Have Hope)”, is available to stream and I can only say that it beautiful as usual as everything The Orchids do. The A side, I assume, would be as good if not better, as it was chosen to be an A side, right?  Looking forward to it!

The Amber List: I saw that Mick and Scrub from the 80s band Big Red Bus have a new song under the name The Amber List called “Guiding Star”. It is the first time I’m hearing their music and it is actually not their only song available on SoundCloud. There are 3 more, “Back on Board”, “Pink and Orange Sky” and “Well the Wind” which seem to be 4 months old. It is always good tom hear what the classic bands from the indiepop days are doing now! Good stuff! And a Big Red Bus interview would be good too, right? Especially after they released that retrospective on Firestation.

Blues Lawyer: one thing I have due is ordering more records from Flagstaff’s Emotional Response Records. If only I had tons of money! But hopefully next month it can happen. There are so many records I need, and I just discovered one more that I would like in my collection, Blues Lawyers’ “Guess Work”. This ten song album is out now vinyl and from listening to it on Bandcamp I can see why the label compares them to the TVPs or The Vaselines. The band hails from Oakland, California, and is formed by Rob, Elyse, Nic and Alejandra. It says that the band started when Rob and Elyse bonded over The Clean and The Bats. Well, anything that has to do with The Bats in my book is a good thing.

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A purée (or mash) is cooked food, usually vegetables or legumes, that has been ground, pressed, blended or sieved to the consistency of a creamy paste or liquid.[1] Purées of specific foods are often known by specific names, e.g., applesauce or hummus. The term is of French origin, where it meant in Old French (13th century) purified or refined.

Yes, that’s what the Spanish word Puré means in English. Not much mystery in there. I don’t know much about this Spanish band that released only one 7″ back in 1999 on Elefant Records. I don’t even own the record. Wish I had. Spanish postage prices were never friendly. Back in the day I used to complain a lot about that. Now that the US has worst prices than those of Spain, I know how annoying it is for those selling records. And for those buying too! It is a big headache!

Anyhow, their “Tanto Peor” 7″ was supposed to introduce a great band. A band that I believe Elefant had high hopes according to the small press note that appears on the Bandcamp were the label has uploaded the 4 songs by the band. It says: Another Spanish debut. Every song is a surprise: they sometimes sing in French, weird guitar bridges, toy-like jazz instrumentals… they will become huge.

Huge, they didn’t become. But they left these 4 songs, “Gérôme”, “Nana”, “B Explosion” and “Tant Pis”. Two on each side of the record. The vinyl record came out on October of 1999 and had the catalog number ER-213. It is an interesting band. They sing two songs in French, one in Spanish and there’s one instrumental. Why? I must say that the opening song, “Gérôme”, which is sung in French, is by far my favourite.

They did have another song released, but it happened 5 years later on a rarities compilation released by Elefant called “Momentos Perdidos” (ER-1115). On this compilation of unreleased tracks, B-sides and other rarities, the band appears with the song “La Vaca” which means the cow. Where does this song come from? From an earlier demo? Or perhaps a demo recorded after the 7″? It is not clear.

What else there is about this band to know? It seems to be very little, but I won’t give up and will continue my search. My first stop is a 2012 blog post on the blog Fantail Musica. It mentions that the band was formed in the town of Villaviciosa. That is around Madrid. Villaviciosa de Odón is a municipality in the western zone of the Community of Madrid in Spain. The town is located 15 km west of Madrid’s city center, in the western zone of the metro area. The Spanish Air Force Museum and the Universidad Europea de Madrid are located within the municipality. Villaviciosa’s quiet lifestyle and its proximity to Madrid propitiated rapid and extensive development during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Because of its proximity to the Universidad Europea de Madrid, it has become a university town, with well-developed residential area and amenities for students. The town contains the Castle of Villaviciosa de Odón.

It also mentions the first names of the band members, Irene, Begoña, Ana, Javi and Carlos. If only the last names were written down… perhaps it would be easier to track them down. I believe Irene was the vocalist as on the Elefant biography it mentions she is singing on “Tant Pis”. It is a good deduction I believe. So what did the other members play?

It seems there is a compilation called “Candy Box” that featured only Elefant bands that was made for the Japanese market. It was released in 2005 and it includes the song “Gérôme” by Puré. I can’t seem to find it on Discogs though.

I think on this streaming service called Deezer the band members are properly credited. The thing is I need to pay to access this website. What a stupid thing. Hate it. I can only read thanks to the metadata on Google that they were Irene Trascasa Muñoz de la Peña, Begoña Nuñez Biorrun Boluda González, Javier Herce Uralde, Carlos Carrión Martin Torres Hernández and Ana María Gómez López Morata Alvarez .

So now I have something to go on. And I find that Irene Tascasa was living in Lisbon and recording with a band called Pakita Pouco. They had a 2011 self-titled EP and you can actually listen to it on Bandcamp. There is a Javier Herce who is a writer, photographer and singer. Winner of the Premio Odisea in 2007 for his book “Desde Aquí Hasta tu Ventana”. Wonder if he is the same Javier as the Javier in Puré. Sadly the other members have very common names so it is hard to actually have any luck in searching them. There is a Carlos Carrión that lives in Madrid and works for wholesale for example, but as it is nothing to do with music it is hard to even suspect that it might be him. Ana María Gómez López, well there are many, but there is an artist, but then she was born in Minneapolis. Sounds farfetched, right?

About the band in particular I can’t find much more. Would be nice to know if they had been involved in any other bands or find out about any other recordings by them. I love their song “Gérôme” and I wonder, if Elefant was supportive of them, saying they were going to be huge, what happened to them? Why with a big indie label supporting them, they didn’t live to expectations? Does anyone remember them?

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Listen
Puré – Gérôme

I suppose the big news for this week was the announcement of a new box set featuring indiepop bands called “C89” to be released on Cherry Red. As much as one can dislike that label, as I’ve said before, it is a good thing for more people to be introduced to the sounds of indiepop. Especially it is nice to see many bands that have been featured on the blog.

Of course one would love these boxsets to have more unreleased tracks, or rare ones. But we all understand that it is kind of a “Greatest Hits” kind of set. Also we wish there was more info on the bands on the booklet, not just a few lines. And even more so that bands were contacted and asked to be part of these compilations. I know of many that have been included without being asked. Maybe they ask the labels that released them, I don’t know, but the truth is that many of the bands own the recordings and not the labels.

The 3 CD set will be out on July 27th.

Anyways, here is the tracklist for this compilation:

DISC ONE:
1. COME IN COME OUT –The La’s
2. TOM VERLAINE – The Family Cat
3. WHICH WAY SHOULD I JUMP – Milltown Brothers
4. NOTHING – The Telescopes
5. INSIDE OUT – Brighter
6. LIONS – New Fast Automatic Daffodils
7. LET IT HAPPEN – Red Chair Fadeaway
8. DO IT AGAIN – Korova Milk Bar
9. ADAM’S SONG – The Sun And The Moon
10. WHITE PEARL – Bobby Scarlet
11. IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY – The Ogdens
12. FREEDOM TRIP – The Seers
13. THAT’S WHERE CAROLINE LIVES – The Candy Darlings
14. BREAK THE STRAIN – The Rainkings
15. CONFIDENCE – Po!
16. SAD ANNE – The Bardots
17. SUN AND MOON – The Onset
18. DAYS IN THE SUN – The Ammonites
19. CAPTAIN ELASTIC – Rorschach
20. ANOTHER FRIENDLY FACE – How Many Beans Make Five
21. COMMONPLACE – Hey Paulette
22. THAT’S MY GIRL – Jane Pow
23. CHEATIN’ MY HEART – Kit
24. SHERIFF FATMAN – Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine

DISC TWO:
1. GOING DOWN – The Stone Roses
2. WAITING FOR THE WINTER – The Popguns
3. WICKER MAN – The Mock Turtles
4. WHAT WILL WE DO NEXT? – The Orchids
5. MY LOVE IS LIKE A GIFT YOU CAN’T RETURN – The Man From Delmonte
6. GREEN SEA BLUE – The Revolving Paint Dream
7. I KNOW SOMEONE WHO KNOWS SOMEONE WHO KNOWS ALAN McGEE QUITE WELL – The Pooh Sticks
8. JUST GOOD FRIENDS – Bridewell Taxis
9. YOU SHOULD ALL BE MURDERED – Another Sunny Day
10. DOCTOR GOOD AND HIS INCREDIBLE LIFE SAVING SOAP – The Driscolls
11. HOW CAN YOU SAY YOU REALLY FEEL?- The Charlottes
12. SWIMMING IN THE HEART OF JANE – Treebound Story
13. FINGERDIPS – The Prayers
14. DOLE BOYS ON FUTONS – The Snapdragons
15. ONE THING – Barbel
16. BRIAR ROSE – Choo Choo Train
17. SKYRIDER – Holidaymakers
18. IT’S UP TO YOU – Fallover 24 (previously unissued)
19. BISCUITS IN A TIN – Thrilled Skinny
20. A MILLION MILES – Brian
21. PLASTIC BAG FROM TESCOS – The Wilderness Children
22. 10,000 MILES – The Moss Poles (previously unissued)
23. FISHERMAN’S FRIEND – The Haywains
24. BOMBS AWAY ON HARPURHEY – King Of The Slums

DISC THREE:
1. PICKING UP THE BITTER LITTLE PIECES – The Claim
2. SWALLOW – A Riot Of Colour
3. FRIENDS – Daisycutters
4. TONY HADLEY – Peruvian Hipsters
5. THIS BIG LOVE – The Cherry Orchard
6. WELCOME – Ambitious Beggars
7. THOMAS WOLFE – The DaVincis
8. BIG CAR – Avo-8
9. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL IN TOWN – The Becketts
10. BUBBLE BUS – Sunflowers
11. PASSION – The Magnificent Lkage
12. TELL ME NOW – Strawberry Story
13. WHEREVER I GO (DEMO)- Newsflash
14. ALL YOU EVER SAY – The Mayfields
15. BURN YOUR BOOKS & JOIN MY LIFE – The Ruth Ellis Swing Band
16. YOUR LOVE IS… – Christine’s Cat
17. SAY WHAT YOU FEEL – Said Liquidator
18. ANNABEL LEE – Jane From Occupied Europe
19. SUN STILL SHINES – Big Red Bus
20. THE COLDEST WATER – Men Of Westenesse
21. MR. WATT SAID – The Church Grims
22. PULL THE PLUG – Jactars
23. SURFING DAYS – Me And Dean Martin
24. SEVEN RED APPLES – The Rain

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What would I do without the Heinz’s Youtube account. I keep discovering bands thanks to it. Archaic Smile is the latest, and now I’m hoping to find their one and only release on Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club.

The very old, or old-fashioned, smile. That is what the unusual name of the band means. And they hailed from Japan. I wonder how come their first and only release was on a US label instead of a Japanese one. Perhaps there are some releases in Japan that are not listed on Discogs. I’ll need to investigate.

What we do know is that “In This Night, The Red Guitar Whispers”, a 7 song mini-album, came out in 1999 on the Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club (BBPTC  148). The songs on it were “Behind Your Eyes”, “Square Love”, “She and I”, “The Under Water Life for a Rainy Day”, “Mica”, “It Makes Me Blind” and “The Boy”. So far, I’ve only heard two of the songs, so can’t wait to listen to the rest. Hopefully I can find a copy of the CD sometime soon.

On the credits I notice that the band was formed by:
Yuichi Abe: acoustic guitar, guitar, bass, drums, programming and vocals
Osamu Sakai: acoustic guitar, guitar, bass, drums and vocals
Kumiko Kikuchi: organ, keyboards, vocals

The lyrics are credited like this: Yuichi Abe penned 1,2 and 3. Osamu wrote 3 and 6, while Kumiko had 4 and 5.

It seems the CD was very DIY. It came on a fold over construction paper sleeve. Maybe even in different colors.

Aside from this release there are 3 compilation appearances listed with songs that weren’t included in the album. On “Pop Japanese Style!” released by Flavour of Sound Ltd (TFCC 87589) in 1998 the band appears with the song “And Birds Are Singing”. On this CD compilation I see some names I know like Corniche Camomile or Naivepop or Petitfool but most of the bands don’t ring a bell to me. I should explore, maybe I find some great indiepop songs here!

On the compilation “Blackbean and Placenta CD Compilation #4, Autumn 2000” (BBPTC 144), released by this label in 2000 the band contributes the song “I Don’t Know What You Meant To Say”. This looks like a fine compilation indeed with Nixon, Rabbit in Red, Didi and Dexter, Boyish Charms and more.

Their song “A Young Is… (We Respect Your Style, Softies)” appears on the Hong Kong compilation “Shining Sun” on Sofa Records (Sofa 2) from 2001. This CD comp came with a 44 page fanzine, so I’m supposing that in that zine there was more information about the band? Maybe someone has it and can confirm my suspicions? This compilation paints a good picture of those years with classic bands like Fosca, Goldstoned, Jumprope and more.

There is actually something else listed. And that is a VHS titled “Black Bean & Placenta Video Comp Volume 2”. On it there was a video of the band’s song “Square Love”. Sadly I couldn’t find it on Youtube. I would love to watch this video!

About other music involvements, I noticed that Yuichi Abe wrote the song “Weekend’s Daydream” that was included in Three Berry Icecream’s “Rain Drops” mini-album from 2006. It also seems that around the early 2000s he played some gigs by himself, solo. I could find a gig at Shelter in Shimokitazawa in Tokyo with Three Berry Icecream, Common Bill and Elikabass (June 5 2000). Nothing else. By him or the other two members of Archaic Smile.

And is it is the case with many Japanese bands, perhaps because most of its story is written with different characters on the web, it is impossible to find any information on the web. I wonder in which other bands they had been involved, before or after. Where are they now? Why no more releases? How did they release a record in the US? And how come they didn’t release anything on a Japanese label? Many questions, and no answers on the web. Hopefully our Japanese friends can help!

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Listen
Archaic Smile – It Makes Me Blind

My Wednesday post. Trying to figure out what to do with Mobineko, the pressing plant I’ve been using to press records. Now they want to take up to 6 months for pressing our next 7″. I’m beyond furious. It is not serious at all. This makes my release schedule useless. Other bands whose release I want to put out have to wait now. It is unfair. It has never taken this long. At the most 3 months. Now it is taking double. What should I do? Perhaps looking for another pressing plant is the solution. I was happy with Mobineko since I changed from United Record to them. They had a very good price and it was great to get the records and sleeves printed together. But this terrible service I’m getting today is unbearable. Seriously, this is stuff of nightmares for me. What should I do?

Well, having said that, how can one get happy? It is hard. It is stressful.

I will try with some good music for you.

Optic Sevens: I ordered this series of monthly 7″ reissues. I must say it is very pricey but thought I’d treat myself. The label Optic Nerve Recordings who have reissued a few of very good and classic records will start pressing 500 copies of legendary 7″s of the indiepop golden days. There will be 12 of them. So far they have announced all but one of them. The 11 that have been announced are: Apple Boutique’s “Love Resistance”, East Village’s “Cubans in the Bluefields”, McCarthy’s “Red Sleeping Beauty”, One Thousand Violins’ “Halcyon Days”, Pale Fountains’ “(There’s Always) Something on My Mind”, Pooh Sticks’ “On Tape”, Pulp’s “Everybody’s Problem”, The Servants’ “The Sun a Small Star”, The Siddeleys’ “What Went Wrong This Time” and The Wake’s “Pale Spectre”.

Guitar Pop Festa: maybe my Japanese friends can help me track this new double CD compilation of Japanese guitar pop bands that was just released. It came out on the 19th of this month on the label Thistime Records and includes 44 tracks in total. There are many bands I have no clue about but would love to listen like Belinda May, Strike Three!, You Said Something and mode. There are a few though that are familiar names too like Cattle, Spaghetti Vabune! or Boyish. Would be interesting if someone distributes this compilation in the US as it seems to paint a good picture of the Japanese scene.

Nelories: speaking of Japanese bands it was a BIG surprise to learn that the label Fish Prints from Boston, Massachusetts, will be reissuing the 1990 demo tape of the Nelories. Sadly it is reissued on tape, which as you all know I’m not a big fan but still. Would love a copy. Sadly it is sold out already. Life is hard. Just 50 copies were made. That explains it. But why not make some CDR copies? Please? There are 6 songs on this tape, and three of them are available to stream on the label’s Bandcamp. The songs on the cassette are “The Chestnutfield Family (demo)”, “Cadillac for Montevideo (demo)”, “Glass Chocolate”, “Keith (demo)”, “May” and “Plasticky (demo)”.

Sodajerk: this was the Valenzuela City, Philippines, band that our friend Ryan Marquez used to have with Remi John Noman, Ronald Santiago and Manny Gallo back in the mid 90s. Most of their songs, I don’t think, were easily available. Heavily influenced by Scottish pop (BMX Bandits, Teenage Fanclub, Eugenius), the  band recorded a bunch of demos and now they are all compiled on their Bandcamp page. And that’s not all, some live tracks, radio session tracks, are added to make it a very comprehensive look at the band’s life. It would be interesting to do an interview with Sodajerk, right? Talk about those years in pinoy indiepop! Ryan are you up for it?

The Yetis: the latest from the Barcelona label Discos de Kirlian is a 4 song 7″ by this Allentown, Pennsylvania band. There are four sunny songs on it, “Little Surfer Girl”, “Warm California”, “Where You Goin'” and “Mysterion”, that feels like the band was really longing for summer. The band is formed by Christian, Nick, Stefan and Patrick.

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An inflated whoopee cushion A whoopee (or whoopie) cushion, also known as a farting bag, poo-poo cushion, windy blaster, and Razzberry Cushion, is a practical joke device involving flatulence humour, which produces a noise resembling a “raspberry” or human flatulence. It is made from two sheets of rubber that are glued together at the edges. There is a small opening with a flap at one end for air to enter and leave the cushion.

As you know of my favourite time periods for pop music was the early and mid 2000s with the explosion of indiepop bands in Sweden. Bands that wore indiepop in their sleeves. There were so many. And many labels and clubs too. That’s why I put together the first volume of “The Sound of Starke Adolf” and would have loved to continue doing them if only bands had been more supportive and interested in documenting that period of time. For me it is one of the biggest disappointments as I would have loved to continue the series and release a 2nd, a 3rd and even a 4th volume.

I contacted many bands as I said, but many I couldn’t find any information about. There were very obscure I suppose. Remember that most of their releases happened to be very limited CDRs. Maybe 50 copies, sometimes no more than 10 copies. Their songs were shared on Soulseek and that’s how I discovered many of them. I discovered a whole scene, that had their own festivals, and their fanzines. One of these fanzines was Picknick from Umeå. I believe that zine was ran by a girl called Elin. There might have been a Teresa too. In today’s story, a story that has many blanks and little certainties, they have a main role.

You see, I’m trying to find out more information about a band called Whoopie Cushions! Until some days ago I thought their only song available was one called “The Only Way I Know How” that appeared on a tape compilation called “Picknick Picks” in 2003. I have actually talked about this tape time ago, when I was trying to find out more about Fibi Frap. Probably you don’t remember. This tape, which was “a compilation of Swedish Twee Pop hand-picked by Picknick fanzine!” was actually released by a California label called Popgun Recordings which is no other than the tape label Raoulie de la Cruz used to run. This tape had the catalog number 055 and to make it more cooler it hadArgentinean comic strip cult hero Mafalda on the cover. It included five songs by five Swedish indiepop bands, The Tidy Ups, Strawberry Fair, Whoopie Cushions, Hormones in Abundance and Fibi Frap. Maybe one day all of them will grace the blog.

So I was saying that until a few days ago I thought the song that appeared on that tape, “The Only Way I Know How”, was their only song recorded. I haven’t been aware of any demos, or CDRs by them. Not even know who was behind it. It seems like a bedroom band. It sounds lo-fi, but with that charm from the Swedish bands that I haven’t encountered again. Well, I stumbled on Youtube with a song called “So You See; We Are Perfect For Each Other”.

This song was uploaded back in February, but as you know, it is hard to keep up with everything! It was uploaded by the great indiepop connoisseur David Chalé from Barcelona. He has posted an image, a cover of what looks like a CDR that has the title “Razorblades and Lemonades”. This might be a hint. We know that this was also the name of a legendary club in Göteborg back in those years. Was this some sort of sampler or compilation of bands that played there? Or perhaps bands that were friendly with the club’s organizers? Nothing is clear, I can’t find information about this release anywhere.

But, this might mean that the band hailed from Göteborg. Many did. One of the bands I tried to contact, Sugar Spun Charge, were involved in the organization of the club. I wrote about them too time ago. But I still haven’t been able to get in touch. I wonder who has the answers about Whoopie Cushions! and most importantly let me know if they had any more songs?

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Listen
Whoopie Cushions! – So You Seel We Are Perfect For Each Other

Starting the week very early as things are changing at work. I’m so sleepy. There are not many news on my side, though I hope very soon, maybe next week, I’ll be announcing our next release. So keep an eye on that. Now, what you came for, new music!

Dream, Ivory: some beautiful guitar pop, gorgeous actually, by this band from Lake Elsinore in California. Their self-titled EP is a winner. I wonder how come it took me years to discover it. It dates from 2016. The band is formed by two brothers I believe, Christian Baello on guitar, drums, synths and Louie Baello on vocals and bass. I wonder how this has been in anyone’s radar. I have never heard of them before and they sound superbly good. The EP has 8 songs and there is actually another song available to stream on Bandcamp called “Welcome and Goodbye” which is a digital single. Whatever happened to them?

Your Favourite Colour: Two completed demos by this obscure British band, that’s what their Bandcamp offers us. There is no information at all. Doesn’t say which city they are based in or who are the band members. Just two songs, “Former Life” and “A Quick Goodbye”. The thing is that both songs are really good. Proper indiepop. So I had to recommend them. That’s all!

Jetstream Pony: I love this band. Their few releases are already in my collection. So I can’t understand how their last song on Bandcamp went unnoticed to me. Probably all of you have heard “Charms Around Your Wrist” already, but I hadn’t. It was released on Christmas day last year. I was abroad. That may explain why I missed it. It actually is a cover version of The Softies. And it sounds lovely.

Por No.: Interesting to find an Ecuadorian band. This might be the first one ever for me. Here on their “Horribles” EP they cover some songs, like JAMC or Aventuras de Kirlián. I’m mostly curious to know if they are the only indiepop band in the whole of Ecuador? Or at least in Quito? They are formed by Pablo, Gabu, Dávalos and Alejo. Their previous stuff is not really my taste, but this EP is good! I look forward to any new songs the band!

Red Red Eyes: I recommended the single “Untold” time ago on the blog. Now the news is that Red Red Eyes is releasing an album, on CD and vinyl, on WIAWYA on May 18th. The 9 song album is called “Horology” and includes “Untold”. Right now the label’s Bandcamp has that song and another one, “Empty Land”, to stream. The duo formed by Laura McMaho and Xavier Watkins is a very interesting band, their sound is hard to pinpoint, but they do craft some beautiful songs.

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Dudley  is a large town in the West Midlands of England, 9.7 km south-east of Wolverhampton and 16.9 km north-west of Birmingham. The town is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley and in 2011 had a population of 79,379. The Metropolitan Borough, which includes the towns of Stourbridge and Halesowen, had a population of 312,900. Dudley is sometimes called the capital of the Black Country. Originally a market town, Dudley was one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution and grew into an industrial centre in the 19th century with its iron, coal, and limestone industries before their decline and the relocation of its commercial centre to the nearby Merry Hill Shopping Centre in the 1980s. Tourist attractions include Dudley Zoo and Castle, the 12th century priory ruins, and the Black Country Living Museum.

Yes, today a band from Dudley. First time a band from that town will be featured on the blog. Dudley has been mentioned once on the blog though, when I interviewed Russ Hunt from The Libertines he mentioned that they played a venue called JB’s in Dudley. So let’s see what I can find about this obscure band with a very strange name, the Mercenary Tree Freaks.

Discogs doesn’t offer me much information. No proper releases, no band members names. Just compilation appearances. One of them I know, that’s the one that introduced me to their music: “La Línea del Arco” 7″ released by Elefant (ER-102) in 1992. On this 7″ the band appeared on the A side, as the first song of the record with a song called “Michelin Man”. This 7″ came with a fanzine. The zine had the same name, “La Línea del Arco” and the one accompanying this 7″ was the 3rd volume. Sadly when I bought the 7″ it didn’t come with the fanzine. Not sure then if there is any information about the band on it. The other bands on the 7″ were Usura, La Sintesis and The Lovelies.

This same song, “Michelin Man”, appears on “Foreign Intervention” (DANNY 7), a tape compilation that was released by Fluff Records. I actually interviewed DMLC from the label ages ago. It is interesting to see that both Usura and La Sintesis are also on this tape. Other well known bands on it are Tramway, Boyracer or Antiseptic Beauty.

In 1991 the band contributed the song “Mr. Twilight” to the compilation “123456 Road Runner” that was released by Glidge Records (Glidge 001). I have never listened to this compilation in full. I know a few songs on it, and a few bands on it, but there are many obscure bands in there like The Chamberlains, Couch Potatoes or Nuclear Sheep among others. Are they all indiepop?

Elefant Records had also featured them a year before the release of the 7″. In 1991 the Spanish label had put out a tape called “La Línea del Arco – La Banda Sonora 3” (ER-1) to accompany another of their fanzines I suppose. This was the first ever Elefant release I think, at least it has the first number of their catalog. Here, on the A side, the Mercenary Tree Freaks have two songs: “Bitter End”m and “Shot Down Big Sky”. This is a top tape, there are brilliant bands that I’ve interviewed in the past like Home and Abroad, Bulldozer Crash, Marmite Sisters or Hardy Boys.

Elefant Records must have been the label that most believed in them. They had them on yet one more cassette compilation in 1992. Their song “One For the Disco Kids” appear on the “Around the World Again” (ER-020) tape. Same tape I mentioned in my previous post, the one about The Marigolds. Small world.  Now, how come Elefant didn’t offer them a release? Or perhaps they did? I find it odd the band never put out a proper record.

I start looking for them on the web, see if I can find anything else about them. Happily I immediately stumble upon a Youtube account with a bunch of live videos of the Mercenary Tree Freaks. The account owner is named Geoff Scott. Was he in the band? It seems he was, he says for this video of them playing the song “Cynicism“: I was 18 and full of dreams of making it in the music bizz, we recorded this for a Japanese music TV show- Me and Matt were so drunk we couldnt stand up!

Now we know there was a Matt in the band too. Little by little we are starting to put the pieces together. Interesting that there was interest in them in Japan. How come no release in Japan either. Or even compilation appearances on the many Japanese labels from the time?

There’s another video from that Japanese show that was called “Bandbreakers”. On this video the band plays the song “Beautifully Absurd“. It is very short, just 1 minute or so. The idea it seems was that the band had to play a minute-long version of a song to get through the qualifying stage.

I start to suspect Geoff was the drummer. Now I’m watching videos of the band playing the venue I mentioned earlier, small world, JB’s. Here they are playing the song “Shot Down Big Sky” and according to the description of the video it must have been around 1989. There are few more videos from JB’s. First there is one from October 1991 where the band is playing the song “Colonel Lutz” plus a small intro. Then from the same gig, there’s “Cynicism” and “Bitter End“. Lastly it seems the whole gig from Oct. 1991 has been uploaded in its entirety, almost 37 minutes of footage. Check it out here.

A website?? Well, it looks like it! One were I can play 4 of their songs: “Beautifully Absurd”, “Michelin Man”, “Colonel Clutz” and “Silly Stupid Eyes”. It seems they are part of an EP called “The Cogwinder”. These studio versions of the songs I was listening on live gigs on Youtube sound brilliant! Now, can I download them somehow? There is no information other than the songs on the site, though I do notice the names of the band members at last! Matt Rothwell, Martin Fardon, Steve Powers and Geoff Scott. Who played which instruments? With some answers we get new questions.

Actually there’s a link for Matt Rothwell that takes me to Amazon. Yes, Amazon. he is an author! He has published two books: “Drunk in Charge of a Foreign Language: The Diary of a Spanish Misadventure” and “The Electric Guitar Daydream Quest“. There is a small bio where it says that he was born in Birmingham in 1966 and grew up on the outskirts of Wolverhampton. Then on a Stourbridge News article I learn he had been involved in a band called Wincee Spider. How did that band sound like?

What about Geoff Scott? Well it seems he is still making music, now with a Birmingham-based band called Agents of Evolution. On another article of Stourbridge News it mentions that the Mercenary Tree Freaks had supported Blur back in the day.

There’s not much more written about them on the web. It is quite a shame. A shame too that there are no records. Listening to the songs on the website, those 4 songs, I can tell they had quality tunes. If the songs were uploaded chronologically I could see some sort of departure of their poppier songs on “Silly Stupid Eyes”, or perhaps their songs were quite varied. I wonder. It seems they recorded at least two demo tapes according to a comment I read on a blog on the web. How many songs were recorded is a mystery to me.

I wonder what happened to them. If they continue making music afterwards? If they had been involved in other bands before or after? What are they up to today? And honestly, how come they didn’t put a 7″ or something back in the day?! Anyone remembers them?

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Listen
Mercenary Tree Freaks – Michelin Man

Last post for this week. A very busy week indeed, that actually had posts every single day, from Monday to Friday. And if you go back, even all the way to last Friday, every day I added a new post. It is a time where bands are actually answering my interviews which is amazing. Back in the day I was writing so many interviews and half of them were actually answered. Now the few last weeks, all interviews I’ve done have got answers, and I’m happy about it. Maybe the bands have more time in their hands? Or they trust the blog a little bit more? Or what could it be?

My finds for this week!

The Goon Sax: the marvelous Brisbane band whose first album was heavily played at home are releasing a new album on September 14 on Whichita Recordgins and Chapter Music. It will be called “We’re Not Talking” and one of the songs is available to listen now and it is brilliant. Check out “She Knows”! And that is actually not all the news I want to share. If you are in Chicago, New York or LA you will be able to see them for the first time this June. I have bought tickets for their Knitting Factory gig, but they will also be playing at Union Pool. In any case, I really look forward to seeing them for the first time and listening to their new album!

Those Unfortunates: I’ve recommended this London band time and time again and still they don’t get to play Indietracks. Tough luck. Well, what can you do? They do have a limited edition tape with booklet plus a free Hornsey Automatic badge for their two newest songs: “Hornsey Automatic FC” and “King of the Lane”. Both songs being about the best sport ever, football. You can’t listen to them on Bandcamp but there’s a video for “Hornsey Automatic FC” on Youtube!

Dream Rimmy: a shoegaze band from Perth, Australia. It seems there is a good crop of shoegaze bands now in that country, right? This one have just released a 5 song EP on 12″ vinyl called “Heavy”. I know little by this band but they seem kind of big, they have lots of fans on Facebook and have booking agents. They must be dealing with bigger leagues than most of the bands on this blog! They are formed by Ali Flintoff, Jack Gaby, George Foster, Vin Buchanan, Ben McDonald and Jennifer Aslett. The songs are driven by female vocals and lots of guitar effects. I think my favourite song out of the 5 is “I Know What’s Wrong With You” which is the poppiest of them all!

Cosmic Child: more shoegaze, now from Singapore. This band formed by Bo, Daniel, Joanne, Zhe Ren and Genevieve, have just released their new album on CD and on tape. It is called “Blue” and it includes 10 songs. This is actually their second album after the first, “untitled” one. It is out now on Middle Class Cigars Records. The CD version seems like a special one, it comes wrapped in cloth each one meticulously hand-sewn with a unique design.

The Regrets: an old find, dating from March 2016. “The Regrets EP” with 5 songs by this Seattle band. They are “Lie to Me”, “On the Stage”, “Make it Right”, “What Can I Say?” and “Always, Never Again”. Before that they had covered The Smiths’ “These Things Take Time”.  It looks as this was their last release but the band keeps going, I see some gigs listed for the next month. They are a quartet, formed by Joel, Todd, Jake and Brockton.

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A few weeks ago I heard from my good friend Nikola from Belgrade. He had some ideas of bands that would be interesting to find out more, do some archaeology on them, find what they left behind, if any. One of them were The Marigolds. At first I thought he was talking to me of the Australian bands with the same name who would also make a great post on the blog, but no, he was talking to me of the UK band.

I must say that up until that moment I knew very little about them. I had the split flexi they put out alongside Weasel on my wishlist but I haven’t ever heard one of their songs. Well, until Nikola pointed me out to “Sherbet Girl” which turns out was uploaded to Youtube by another friend, Heinz. And then a second song, “If Ever There Was Paradise” and later a third song “For All Time”, I was going to find on Heinz’s channel.

On Discogs it shows that the band didn’t release any proper records. The closest to it is the flexi I was mentioning. Then there are many compilation appearances. But on the strength of “Sherbet Girl”, and the other two songs, I know the rest must be great, I would love to listen to them!

The split flexi with Weasel was released by the label Mindgasm Records (9110007882) in 1992. It is the only release by this label, so must be just a one-off? Or maybe a self-release by both bands? The Marigolds appear second. First there’s Weasel with their song “Look Into Tomorrow” and then The Marigolds appear doing a cover of Syd Barrett’s “Two of a Kind”. This cover was produced by someone called Neil. There is more information on the sleeve. It says that the record features Skyflower on vocals and Stewart Marigold on guitars plus additional vocals by Rachel. Their song is dedicated to Syd Barrett and Weasel. And then I notice and address in Norfolk, in the town of Watton. Did they come from that market town?

Watton is a market town in the district of Breckland within the English county of Norfolk. The A1075 Dereham-Thetford road and the B1108 Brandon-Norwich Road meet at a crossroads here, where the town developed, about 25 miles (40 km) west of Norwich. The civil parish covers an area of 7.2 km2 (2.8 sq mi) with about 6,800 inhabitants in 3,000 households, increasing to a population of 7,202 in 3,226 at the 2011 Census. The Domesday Book recorded that Watton (or Wadetuna) featured a church, manor house and Anglo-Saxon settlement.

So “Sherbet Girl” doesn’t appear on the flexi, but it does appear on compilations. The first one I check out is the tape comp “The Secret of Confident Dressing” (KAW 2) that was released by Kaw Tapes in 1991. Mark Ritchie from The Librarians used to run this label. This tape came with a booklet. It would be interesting to find out if there’s any information about the band on that booklet. On this tape the band appears with two songs, “Forever Sad” and “Sherbet Girl”. Other great bands on this tape are The Siddeleys, The Cudgels and BMX Bandits. And some bands I’ve never heard before like Grrr!, The Bass Turds or Rentboy?

On the 1992 tape “C92”, a classic comp released by Rainbow, the band contributes the song “For All Time“. On this tape we see them in great company, bands I’ve interviewed in the blog like The Marmite Sisters, Peru, Bulldozer Crash and more.

This same song was to appear that same year on the 7” compilation “Searching for the Blake Hall” (POST 4) released by the very fine Pillarbox Red label. Now, I’m thinking, wouldn’t it be great to interview Andrew Austin who ran this label? If anyone has contact information please let me know!

As I said the band did appear on many compilations. That same year, 1992, their first international one. On the tape “Around The World” (ER-016) that Elefant Records from Spain put out they contribute once again “For All Time”. But that wasn’t the only song they contributed to Elefant, on the “Around the World Again” (ER-020) they appear with the song “Sherbet Girl”.

Now a tape I’ve mentioned before, “Polythene Star”, released by Flaming Katy (FK001). Here a different song at last, “The Daisy Song”.

We skip 1994, and get to 1995. That year a tape compilation called “Death of an Anorak” (DTW 02) is released by Does This Work?. Don’t know much about this label but looking at their releases they all look great! Lots of indiepop in there! Anyhow, The Marigolds contribute the song “Someone”. There are many bands I’ve never heard on this tape too, like the Village Idiots or The Bright Young Things. Would be nice to hear this label’s comps sometime. If anyone have Mp3s of them please think of me?

Lastly there is a tape compilation that has no release date. One called “Deep in Space” where they appear alongside many of the bands they’ve shared compilations already like The Almanacs, The Kensingtons or The Millers. On this tape the band contributes the song “If Ever There Was Paradise“. The tape was released by Meg Records (MEG 002). And that’s all.

It is funny, I was to stumble upon a Norfolk band called Marigolds. But they are contemporary to our days. I keep looking for any other information but there is nothing really. Without the band members names it is hard to find anything. Would love to hear the rest of their songs, find a flexi, and maybe, hopefully, interview the band in the future!

Edit May 18th: Stewart from The Kensingtons has shared some information about The Marigolds! He tells me he used to be in touch with Stewart from the band. He tells me Stewart used to do a fanzine called Cherry Fizz Pop. He has scanned me some fanzines were there are is more information about The Marigolds!
– They were formed in the summer of 1991 when two local bands, The Rosemarys and The Chocolate Mopeds, decided to join forces in order to record the “Yeah” EP cassette.
– A drummer, Carl, and a bass player, Phil,  were eventually found to help out for the debut live performance at John’s Birthday Party
– Carl and Phil didn’t last long in the band, Carl was to join the Spinning Jennys
– Later Liam joined on stand up drums and Paul on bass, plus Stewart on guitars and Mark on vocals. They were hoping to record their first album at that time.
– There’s a cool fanzine spread with lyrics for “Sherbet Girl” too!
– There is a tape called “Doing the Washing Up with The Marigolds” with this tracklist: “Forever Sad”, “For All Time”, “Sherbet Girl”, “How Could You?”, “Under Sunbeams”, “Monsterpussy”, “Someone”, “Sherbet Girl (live)” and “How Could You? (live)”.

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Listen
The Marigolds – Sherbet Girl

It is a busy week on the blog. I don’t know how will it be later on as there are some changes at work, and in the transition I might be quite busier, with less time in my hands to discover new music. But let’s see how it pans out. In the mean time, while there’s still chance, why not keep doing what we love most, discovering and listening to new sounds!

Vacations: this Newcastle, Australia, band has a new album called “Changes” that is available on their Bandcamp. It looks like it is only available digitally which is a shame. I don’t know much about them, but I’m enjoying their songs, which are 10 in total in the album. My favourite my be so far “Steady”, which is a cool jangly upbeat track. The band is formed by Campbell Burns, Jake Johnson, Nate Delizzotti and Joseph Van Lier. Hope the record gets released properly, meaning, physically.

Pastel Ruins: last post I discovered the Belgian band Poppel and so I have been looking at other releases by their label Gazer Tapes from Turnhout in Belgium. So I found this 4 song EP titled “Static Dreams” by Pastel Ruins. The songs on it are “Oceans of Time”, “Unseen”, “Ambergris” and “Candy Bullet”. There’s not much info on the band or the release on the Bandcamp but you can buy a limited edition tape of the EP if that’s your thing. Nice  introspective bedroom guitar pop. The best track for me is “Oceans of Time”.

Varsity: I discovered this Chicago band through their song “Smash” which is superb but it is now sold out in its cassingle version. That one was released long time ago, in June 2016. Their latest is quite recent though, April this year. It is an album titled “Parallel Person” and it is available on vinyl now and they have a bunch of merch too to promote it. The album has ten songs and I’m only having my first listen now. The band formed by Stef, Dylan, Pat, Paul and Jacob, is an interesting mix of classic indiepop with an added quirkiness, you’ll understand what I’m saying when you listen to them. And even though I wasn’t convinced by the opening track, the second one, “Settle Down”, is a delicious slice of poptasticness, with boy/girl vocals and hook after hook.

Frisbee Club: there is 1 cassette remaining of their limited edition tape for “Ride Forever / Delphic”. The two song cassingle by this Nijmegen, Netherlands, band released by Coaster Records from Rotterdam. It is the first time I listen to a band from that city, or hear of a label from that other city. So this is interesting. The band is formed by Dennis Denissen, Yoni Vereijken and Jeroen Popelier. Two sunny songs and I look forward to what they do next (even though this is not too new, it is from 2016!)

Echo Ladies: it seems once again I arrived late to the party. The vinyl LP “Pink Noise” by this Malmö, Sweden, band is now sold out. I will have to wait for June 8th for the CD version to be released. I’m not that excited about it as it feels a bit of an afterthought (for me any CD release that comes in a cardboard sleeve is an afterthought). But it is better than nothing, right? There is only one song available to stream on the band’s Bandcamp: “Bedroom”. It is a superb shoegaze/dreampop track! The album will be released on the classic label Hybris. The band is formed by Matilda Bogren, Joar Andersen and Mattis Andersson.

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Burnham-on-Sea is a large seaside town in Somerset, England, at the mouth of the River Parrett, upon Bridgwater Bay. Burnham was a small fishing village until the late 18th century, when it began to grow because of its popularity as a seaside resort. It forms part of the parish of Burnham-on-Sea and Highbridge and shares a town council with its neighbouring market town of Highbridge.

This will be the first time I am writing about a band from Burnham-on-Sea. It may also be the only band I know that hail from this town. According to Discogs not much remains to document the existence of this enigmatic early ’90s U.K. indiepop group, except for a small collection of truly great tunes. Their sunny uptempo tunes delight with full, energetic rhythms, wistfully jangling guitars occasionally made just a bit dreamier with a hint of reverb, and high, just-a-bit-angsty male vocals. Disbanded in 1993 and some of their members reassembled as Luminous. 

But why not find out more ourselves?

My first encounter with them was through a bunch of songs Jigsaw Records put on their Bandcamp some time ago. Yes, Jigsaw Records, the one from Chris McFarlane, in Seattle. He had uploaded the “Happen to Lull”  (PZL002) tape in its entirety when he reissued it for Cassette Day 2015 in a limited quantity of 12. It seems 5 are remaining at the time of me writing the article. If only Chris would release it on CD, then I would buy it. The songs are ace. Anyhow, Chris tells us that this tape was originally released on February 1st, 1996 and that he obtained the rights to this cassette after the label that originally released it ceased to exist, and kept it in print for another year or so, until the master tape started to wear out. Under better circumstances, this band (with a sound that mixed the jangle of mid-’80s UK pop and the power of late-’80s UK shoegaze) could’ve been much, much bigger, but for now they remain woefully obscure…

The songs on this tape were on the A side, “Happen”, “Different”, “Between Two Fires”, “Horizontal”, “Landmark”, “Only Reason I Pray” and “Fiona”. The B side had “Turning”, “Avalanches”, “Tidal”, “Book I Borrowed” and “Way She Died”. 75 copies were pressed originally and it seems it actually was a reissue of another tape called “Eternity Beckons” that was released by the Traumatone label, which is also some sort of a reissue of two tapes the band had put out: “Happen” in 1990 and “Lull” from 1991. Interesting.  There are some credits on the tape too, Paul Stradling played bass, Kevin ‘Gonzo’ Webber and Richard Luck played drums , Phil Cornell played guitar and Jefferson Bird sang and played guitar.

“Eternity Beckons” is actually listed on Discogs. It was released in 1992 by Traumatone (TT10) as mentioned before. The A side is the same as the Jigsaw release but with the addition of “Turning”. That A side is the “Happen” tape from 1990. The B side, of only four songs, is the same as the B side of the Jigsaw release but without “Turning”. That was the “Lull” tape too then.

The “Happen” tape is not listed, but the “Lull” is. It was self-released and as mentioned included just the four songs, “Avalanches”, “Tidal”, “A Book I Borrowed” and “The Way She Died”. It was engineered and recorded by Trevor Curwen, who had worked with  Portishead and also son the fine Somewhere Over England.

But that is not all. It seems another tape album was made by the band and was released by Traumatone in 1993. “Highbridge Dreams” (TT12) is a big mystery to me. One of the big mysteries in indiepop. I’ve never heard any of the songs and I am very curious about them. This tape came packed in a fold around postcard from Burnham-on-Sea and now only credits Paul, Kevin and Jefferson. No drummer. Odd. And there are 13 songs in total. The A side had “Titania”, “Wish It Was Pretend”, “Shaded”, “Nocturnal”, “Sea Air” and “See Through”. The B side had “Through The Stills”, “Safely to the Ground”, “The Seventh is There”, “Hideaway”, “Georgina III”, “Glide” and “Statue (1 Track)”.

Only one compilation appearance is listed and it is a recent one. On the compilation album “Puzzle Pieces” released by Jigsaw (PZL05), where the label was celebrating their 50 releases, having bands from all of their previous releases, they included “Different” by Charms.

So I look for the band members, see what else they had been involved with. I see Jefferson Bird had been in a band called Bluejean Morrocan Hipsters and Luminous. Both released on the Traumatone label. I start to suspect this label was their own label. Could that be the case?

Paul Stradling had been involved with other bands on Traumatone like Poo & Wee, Brown Tower, Wizard Ho Ho, Bluejean Morrocan Hipsters, Luminous and Fulcrum. There’s also another band that he seems had been involved with, Gravity. That would be the only band that wasn’t released by Traumatone, but by MTM Music.

Kevin ‘Gonzo’ Webber also was involved with Luminous.

Interesting enough Traumatone has its own Bandcamp page with many uploads, but not one with the Charms.

Another interesting find is that the Traumatone released a tape called “Am I So Different? – A Tribute to the Charms” (TT14) in 1994. Many bands related to the label made covers of Charms songs. The bands that appear on said tape are Bucknalls with “Avalanches”, Wizard Ho Ho with “Different”, Brown Tower with “Georgina”, “Wckr Spgt with “Tidal”, Rescue Puppy Team with “See Through”, Naxxar with “Tribute”, Obscene Men with “Only Reason I Pray”, Paste with “Book I Borrowed”, Spacehopper with “Horizontal”, Will Simmons-Joe Sowers with “Fiona”, Fulcrum with “Tidal” and Brendan Shite with “Book I Borrowed”.

I keep digging, until I find a Bandcamp for the label Box Perfect Records. Interesting. Here are both tapes by the Charms, “Happen” and “Lull“. There are some details about each of the tapes. For example “Happen” was recorded on March 14th and May 30th of 1990 at The White House Studio in Weston-Super-Mare. Then “Lull” was recorded at the House on the Hill Studio in Bath on February 13th and 14th of 1991.

There’s not much on the web as you can imagine. One of course wonders why they didn’t release any of their records on vinyl or CD. Or whatever happened to the band members after being in the numerous projects on Traumatone Records. Especially as their other projects are not proper indiepop as the Charms. The Charms are indeed unique, they sound GREAT, like many of the obscure bands that appear on classic compilation tapes from the 80s and 90s with the difference that they did records many, many, songs!

Does anyone remember them? And does anyone can hook me up and let me listen their second tape album “Highbridge Dreams”?

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Listen
Charms – Different

Let’s start the week straight to the point, let’s discover some new music and then of course let’s try to find out whatever happened to one of the great bands from the indiepop halcyon days.

Physical Media: a band from Queens, New York. You know I love that. Where in Queens I wonder? Do they play in Queens at all? Or maybe they are in Ridgewood. I have started to think that doesn’t count like Queens anymore. That’s more like the appendix of Brooklyn, of Williamsburg and Bushwick. I don’t really know much, but I’m listening to a superb tune now called “The Ethicist”. Who are they? Where did they come from? Well, it doesn’t look too new. March 2016 is their latest release.  It is a digital album called “Towers in the Park”. Would be interesting to know more about this band formed by Mike, Ed, Rob and Brian.

Harry Teardrop: another New York band. Well actually it seems just one guy, Harrison Li, who is 18 and attends NYU. There is this one song that sounds lovely called “Sleeping Cutie”. It is not THAT new, he had uploaded it back in December, on Christmas day. His latest song on the other hand is “Chinatown” that he published last February. But it is not as good as “Sleeping Cutie”. Though if you go further back you’ll find a 7 song mini-album called “June gloOm” that has some very nice jangly and quirky guitars!

Poppel: a jangly Belgian band? From a place called Turnhout? Thanks to the label Gazer Tapes I have found out about this album called “Hit It” that was released last December. For the time being it looks like it is only available digitally which is quite a shame. But well, it is better than nothing of course. There are 10 fine guitar pop songs in total by the quartet formed by Fik, Driesos, Bram and Lars. According to Facebook they are influenced by some not very good bands but well, hasn’t that happened many times before? Let’s just try to ignore that.

Roadie: a guitar pop band from San Miguel de Tucuman in Argentina. Might be a first? I’m looking at the 7 songs from their mini-album “El Arte de las Decisiones” and notice the last song is called “Smiths”. I wonder why? The band formed by Franco Días González, Fausto Masucci, Facundo David Roig and Julio Goitia, have several releases on their Bandcamp that I will duly check out but right now I’m starting with their latest which they published on January 8th.

Herbario: the latest from this Santiago, Chile, band is a song called “Resonancias” and it sounds really really good. It was published on Bandcamp as a digital single on February 2nd and it is quite a surprise. It seems it actually is a one-man band, one by Ricardo Valdés. He says that these songs are a sort of a diary of his free time. Aside from this song he also has a 4 song demo available to stream.

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Time again to go back to the ol’ UK for some good ol’ indiepop. And even though I don’t own all their discography yet, I must say that I’m on the mission to complete it. I do love the two singles I own. So that must account for something.

When you search for Vicarage Garden the first result is that of the East Ruston Old Vicarage Gardens, in Norfolk. These gardens were established in 1973 and are privately owned. Did the band take their name from this special place? Did the band hail from Norfolk? These are my first questions.

It was 1991 when they released their first record and it happened to be on one of my favourite labels, Heaven Records. The Nottingham based Heaven Records of course was run by Mark Randall and Matt Johnson from The Fat Tulips and this label released not only The Fat Tulips but other amazing bands like Confetti, The Rosehips or The Melons. Well, The Vicarage Garden was going to be part of this brilliant roster with their “Oh! Dawn” (HV03) 7″. The record only had two songs, “Oh! Dawn” on the A side and “You That Is” on the B side. And what’s interesting about this 7″ is that there are two versions. One with a printed sleeve and another one that was limited to 500 copies that is sort of an “action painting” hand-painted sleeve. I have this last version.

Discogs lists 3 7″s, but according to 45cat there was another 7″. One that was released in 1995 by Heaven Records. This one had catalog number HV14 and included two songs, “Victoria Euphoria” and “Good Heaven”. To be honest, I haven’t sen a copy of this record ever. Wasn’t aware it existed. If anyone has any more information about it, that’d be great!

Their next 7″ came out in 1997 on the French label Cavalcade. This label released also the wonderful album “The Start of Our Affair” by The Cherry Orchard. I actually sent interview questions to The Cherry Orchard many years ago, when they put out a compilation on Firestation. Never heard from them. A shame really. Maybe they would have told me more about this label. In any case, let’s get back to The Vicarage Garden.

The “Please Do It Again EP” (GALLY 1) had three songs. On the A side we find the superb “Linda Lovejuice”, which I’ve seen has been a favourite of several Japanese indiepop discos, and on the B side the songs “Please Do It Again” and “More or Less”. This record actually includes some credits, and we can know determine the band members. Jason Kester played guitars and sang, Andy Leek did backing vocals and keyboards, Jerome Bannigan played drums and Steve Hibbert the bass. All songs are credited to Matthew Leake and Jason with Andy produced them. They were engineered at The Haze Studios in Wolverhampton.

Okay, Wolverhampton is not close to Norfolk. Not close to Nottingham. So were they from this town then? And who is Matthew Leake? Did he only write the lyrics for the band?

Two years later, in 1999, the band was to release their last 7″ on the Japanese label Harmony Label (H004). It was a four song EP titled “I Feel Alright Today EP” and the songs on it were: “I Feel Alright Today” and “Will You Always” on the A side and “Down Goes The Sun” and “What You Do” on the B side. Something that caught my attention is that the first song on each side was written by Griffis, Hough and Kester. While the two other songs by Kester and Leake. I don’t understand. Who are Griffis and Hough? Were they part of the band or were they like Leake, writing lyrics for the band?

The four songs were mastered at Greg Lee Processing. The art was created by Daisy and we see that there are liner notes written, I suppose in Japanese, by Hiromi Aki who had written many liner notes, especially for Quince Records releases. This 7″ is the one I’m missing in my collection.

Now here is something that confuses me. Discogs lists Andy Leek as one that had been part of the Dexy’s Midnight Runners and The Blue Ox Babes. Is it the same Andy Leek?

There are 4 compilation appearances listed on Discogs. Let’s check them out.

On the CD compilation “A Tribute to Felt” that was released by Elefant Records (ER-101) in 1995, The Vicarage Garden appears covering Felt’s “Sandman’s On the Rise Again”. This was the first CD release by Elefant and it includes so many classic bands, from Los Planetas to Acid House Kings.

It also seems lately I’ve mentioned many times the compilation “Pop Machine” that was released by Cowly Owl (Calf 7997). I mentioned on The Imaginary Friend last. On this 1998 compilation The Vicarage Garden appears with the song “Now You’re Gone”.

A French tape compilation with no release date called “Sassy” sees the band contribute the song “Zoe Knows”. First time I’m aware of this compilation. A few bands I’ve never heard appear here like Quatre, Calamine, Autumn Sky or Polar Bear. Would be interesting to explore and find out more about them.

Lastly their song “Zoe Knows” appears on yet another French compilation tape. It came along the fanzine Plouf! that was put together by the label Les Tartines. The curious thing here is that the song by Vicarage Garden credits Jason Bronfeld as a performer. I’m more than confused! Now who is he?

My friend Alex wrote about them on his blog 7iete Pulgadas back in 2010. He doesn’t give any more information though he does make the distinction that the B side of the “Oh! Dawn” single is much better than the A side. For me it is hard to decide which one I like best!

I look for the band members. I believe I found that Jerome Bannigan plays drums for the David K band and has contributed drums to the musician Paul Bond. Then I think I’ve stumbled upon Jason Kester. I find a website for a band called Jason Kester & The Believers. Is it the same Jason Kester? It might be. You see many years ago I got a comment on the blog by someone called Dom Vicarage Garden. Sure, there is no Dom as far as I know in the band but he mentioned he was tracking down all Stoke On Trent bands. Now I find that Jason Kester had played in a band called Goya that was based in Stoke. So this would mean that it wasn’t Wolverhampton, nor Norfolk, nor Nottingham, but Stoke-On-Trent the place where The Vicarage Garden came from.

I think that might be a certainty, but we don’t know much more about the band. Like how come they didn’t release an album? What about that 2nd Heaven 7″ that doesn’t show up anywhere. Were they involved with any other bands? Was Andy Leek the same Andy Leek from the Dexy’s? What happened after they split? How come they release records in France and Japan? Did they ever go there? Are there more unreleased songs? Do you remember them?

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Listen
The Vicarage Garden – Oh! Dawn

Well, I heard from the pressing plant, Mobineko, where I press my 7″s. Now it seems the Salt Lake Alley 7″s won’t be arriving until late June. A 4 month turnaround. It has never taken this long. I’m very annoyed and disappointed. Normally it took 2 months and change, max 3 months. But 4 months is way too much. Vinyl production is indeed becoming more of a headache. To think that pressing a CD takes just weeks, I wonder if we are all on the right path?

So as soon as there are news on that, I’ll let you know. In the meantime a few new finds!

Dronjo Kept By 4: Jun from the Japanese band Dronjo Kept By 4 shared me a new song he has published on Soundcloud, one called “Lemonn” and it is a hit. I had reviewed their Galaxy Train EP some months ago after I stumbled upon it on Bandcamp and I do see a bit of a change in their style on this new song. This is much more guitar-driven and poppier! Reminds me a bit of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, right? A little shoegazey but keeping it’s lofi-ness at heart.

The Stroopies: this Melbourne, Australia, band was recommended on the blog time ago when they put out their self-titled album. Really liked that and wished it was available in any other format other than cassette. Well, now they are releasing a 7″ on an English label it seems as the prices are in pounds (?). There are two songs on the record, “Maddest Moments” and “Architectural Charades”. Only the first one is streamable at the moment and it is not as immediate or poppy as many of the songs on the album. Not sure if it was the best choice for a single myself. The guitars are nice and all, but for me it doesn’t have that excitement as previous tracks. Maybe the B side does? It is coming out on May 25, 2018.

The Blue Herons: Thierry from the fantastic My Raining Stars has shared this top song called “All I Keep Inside”. It is actually not his own song, he is singing on it. Well, and he wrote the lyrics. The band is actually one from Lucerne, Switzerland, and I must say I know next to nothing about them. First time I’m checking their songs. This one is already a great introduction. It is a jangle beauty. But there are other ones too worth checking out like “New Day” which has female vocals by Krissy Vanderwoude and sounds top. How come have these songs flown under the radar? At least my own radar? Very good stuff, and from a country I don’t usually get to hear these sort of sounds to boot!

Young Scum: a new album by the superb Richmond, Virginia, band? Yes please! I must say I have heard most of the songs already some time ago and though that it was really good, if only I would dare to do albums…. They found a good home in Citrus Records and Pretty Olivia Records who are releasing the record called “Young Scum”. So far there’s only a teaser, one song to stream, to understand what this will be about. Check it out, the song “Wasting Time” is truly good. And well, so you know, Pretty Olivia will be releasing the vinyl version and Citrus the tape. It is a short album, 8 songs, but it does sound great. Now, I wonder, if they are in Richmond, why don’t they ever come to NYC to play? It is not THAT far.

Useless Youth: “Goodbye” is the first single from their upcoming album “Cities” to be released on October 5th. And it is a very nice little song by this Mexico City band. The band formed by Yak, Ian, Pepe and Emi have had a few releases so far and this is a fine song. It made me a bit uncomfortable reading the artists they like on their Facebook, but I won’t let me bias, this is a good song and that should be it. For now.

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Dale Arden is a fictional character, the fellow adventurer and love interest of Flash Gordon and a prototypic heroine for later female characters, including Princess Leia and Padme Amidala in Star Wars. Flash, Dale and Dr. Hans Zarkov fight together against Ming the Merciless.

When I interviewed Seán McDermott of the fantastic label Mickey Rourke’s Fridge I was curious about one of the bands that appear on the highly sought after 7″ compilation “Mickey Rourke’s Fridge Presents…”. That band name was, obviously, Dale Arden & The Claymen. So I asked him on the interview about who were they, hoping to find some more details or anything at all. There was that one song on that 7″ comp called “Breakfast, Dinner & Tea” that I thought was brilliant. I wanted to know more.

I got an answer from Seán of course. He said:
The Claymen were Hey Paulette again, under assumed names, again. Dale is a mysterious shantooze who goes by the name of John Healy during the hours of daylight. John was also in High School with Éamonn + me, then later my right hand man in Mickey Rourke’s Fridge, from ‘Dostoevsky lose its flavour on the bedpost overnight? ’till the end of Phase II, mid-90’s.
Dale guested in concert with 16 again, an acoustical sideline of mine, + with Fréres Jackman, + emerges from time to time, when the occasion arises. No further recordings exist!

Okay then. Maybe I should interview Hey Paulette on the blog? Or maybe the members of Hey Paulette and ask them about Dale Arden & the Claymen? Or both! Two interviews would be great.

But there are still some details about the band that are interesting to go over, stuff I’m only learning about now. Well, the compilation 7″ as you might now was the second release on the label and had the catalog number MRF2. It was released in 1990 and the art was designed by Darragh McCann. On it there are four bands, two on each side. On the A side there’s Seán McDermott and Hey Paulette while on the B side there’s Dale Arden and the Claymen and The Twigs. The song The Claymen appear with is “Breakfast, Dinner & Tea”. All the songs seem to have been recorded at Sun Studios, in Dublin.

Okay, so one of the first things that I notice is that the song is actually credited to Rheinhardt and Golightly. But to me it looks more of an inner joke. See Django Reinhardt is spelled with one H less and this one was Jangly Rheinhardt. Then on the credits I notice that the producer is credited as Hollis Golightly. Definitely not Holly Golightly. So it must be an original by the band, but they are probably paying homage to their heroes.

The credits have Dale Arden as all vocals, Derrick Dalton on guitars and Joe Cairo on bass. Sadly, as you are aware, Derrick passed away some time ago. Then it mentions that the drum machine was programmed by Colm Fitzpatrick and John Lyons. While the song was recorded by Paul Lacey. I believe Colm Fitzpatrick did the artwork for the Hey Paulette 12″! It seems it was all a big family in the Dublin scene at that time.

There’s not much more on the web as you can expect from a band that didn’t really exist. But there is a good find on Youtube. There’s a different mix of the song, a “Mrs. Arden Edit” created by a J D Baptist in 2011.

So there are no more recordings by the band under this name. A shame, as it sounds glorious. Even if it was the same people as Hey Paulette! I make a distinction, the sound and style is different to me! What do you think?

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Listen
Dale Arden & the Claymen – Breakfast, Dinner & Tea

Feeling terrible with spring allergies but had prepared this post some days ago. Don’t have many updates sadly but there are more indiepop findings of course all around the web.

Some Gorgeous Accident: Dale Marquez (from Cloudberry friends Apple Orchard) has a new EP coming out soon on the fine Greek label Melotron Recordings. One of the songs that is to appear on the “Heaven Days” EP will be called “Evergreen Days” and it is available now to stream on Youtube. It sounds, needless to say, gorgeous.

Les Autres: the classic French band has a Bandcamp. On it they have been uploading songs from back in the 90s, songs I suppose weren’t properly released. There’s a new EP of 6 songs available that was recorded in Rennes, in 1991. It is called “I’ve Lost Everything I Held” and it is the fifth of these Ovvk Recordings archive, I suppose the band’s own digital label. Would be interesting to do an interview with them later on, right?

Mortalcombat: lovely sounding electro-pop by this duo formed by Sarah Riguelle and César Laloux. The 6 songs of their EP “Vacances en France” are now available digitally and on CD thanks to the Brussels based label Dear Deer Records. The band too is from the capital city of Belgium and if you want to see how they look, well there is a video too for the song “Beau et décadent“.

The Death of Pop: the London band is not unknown to the blog, I’ve recommended their music many times before. So I’ll do it again now because they have a new cassette EP titled “Heads West” with 5 brand new songs: “Marbles”, “700 Spas”, “Ready for Us”, “Cash for Gold” and “8:10”. This tape is being released by Leisure Records and you can expect their trademark jangly popsongs one more time!

Skytone: the Ottawa, Ontario, band that releases stuff on my friend Wally’s label The Beautiful Music have a  new live EP “This is Gonna Get Real!”. It is up on Bandcamp and it is jangly and catchy. Recorded at a basement gig in Ottawa, on November 2017, the band formed by Darius, Rodney, Tristan and Logan, shows us that live they must sound great!

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As you might have noticed I’m trying to vary the country of origin of the bands I feature on the blog. Indiepop is a global thing. So today I’m heading to Australia, check out a superb band, one that I’m still looking for a good copy of their 12″ record: The -Ists.

I have to start the post saying that I know absolutely nothing about them. Actually I’ve only heard one of their songs, “There Is A Light That Shines”, and nothing else. It is a superb song, brilliant. But there are 5 more songs on the record that I haven’t heard. I hope I do so in the near future.

The -Ists, that’s quite a name. They are not the vanguardists, nor the cubists, or the leftists nor the modernists. They probably were mocking all these terms or maybe they didn’t fit in one. I wonder.

They released their “Rose” (GPR 136) mini-album in 1987, on the Australian label Greasy Pop Records. This label was based in Adelaide, and was established by Doug Thomas, who had been involved with bands like The Dagoes, The Assassins or The Spikes. I’m looking at the discography of the label and I see some bands I’m familiar with, The Mad Turks, Dust Collection or The Garden Path.

The record songs were on the A side: “There Is A Light That Shines”, “Rose” and “The Train”. The B side had “Reason or Rhyme”, “Bliss” and “Nobody Likes My Kind”.

There are etchings on the runout grooves. On the A side: “The Ists Light Shines”; and on the B side: “Inwards Every Time”.

The back cover has some more information. We know that the songs were written by Allan Robbins who also sang and played guitar. Rees Hughes Jnr. played bass and Craig Rodda the drums.

That’s all. There aren’t even compilation appearances.

I do know though that Rees and Craig were part of the band The Screaming Believers who also released on Greasy Pop Records. This confirms that the band hailed from Adelaide, same as their label.

I find a hit on Google at last after lots of searching. The State Library of South Australia has some information about them. More like a small bio. It says: “Short lived trio around from 1986-1987. The Ists released one album Rose in 1987. The trio consisted of Allan Robins from The Units, and Rees Hughes and Craig Rodda from The Screaming Believers. The Ists were described in The Advertiser June 1987 as having ‘won a great deal of critical acclaim for its driving original rock from discerning city audiences’.” For the curious, there are also 30 second snippets of all songs of the record.

Lastly, there seems to be a documentary called “Rock in a Hard Place” were many bands from Adelaide seem to have been featured, among them The -Ists. I haven’t seen it, but noticed in its Facebook page that the DVD of the documentary is available for $25 Australia. Is it worth it? Do they talk about guitar pop bands or mostly rock bands? How many minutes do we get of The -Ists. I’m curious. Anyone seen it?

I hope my Australian friends can help shed some light about this obscure band. One record and then later they disappeared. Would love to listen to the rest of their songs. Find out if they have unreleased tracks. And in which other bands they were involved with!

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Listen
The -Ists – There is a Light That Shines