This has been a very prolific start of the year for the blog. At some point I’ll have to slow down! But right now it makes sense to continue re-discovering indiepop bands from the past! As you know I’m heading next week to Madrid for Popfest and I won’t be posting anything for 9 days. That means two things, if this pace is way too fast for you to keep up with the blog, you can catch up with my posts during that week, and secondly if you are in Spain do write me if you want any records from the label. I can bring the records you want and you’ll be saving shipping costs.

No Middle Name: I’ve recommended this band before because I think they are pretty great. It is time for me to repeat this. That is because they have two new songs on their Bandcamp on what looks like a digital single for the songs “Sax for Melody” and “Love in Stereo Roses”. The band from Saint Leonards in the UK has done it again!

Avind: it has been a while since I found a Norwegian band. Well here is Avind and the song “Dumrian” that was released last December on her Bandcamp. Avind is the name Tonje Tarfjord uses to make her music. If you want to hear more there are a few more releases on Bandcamp and an album is slated to be released on May 2018.

The Blog that Celebrates Itself: the popular blog from Brazil run by Renato Malizia has put together on a Bandcamp a compilation of bands covering Sarah Records releases. It is quite an interesting comp, with different results. Some fantastic renditions, some not as good, but in general it is a great effort! You will find some very fine bands like The Blue Dress, Astragal, A Certain Smile or Battery Point covering Heavenly, Secret Shine, Another Sunny Day, The Field Mice and more!

Home Media: discovered this Newry, UK, band some weeks ago. They have a few tracks on their Bandcamp and they are great, worth recommending of course. The band is formed by Ryan Loughlin, Lee Murnin, Eoin Lyness and Niall Devlin and their latest song was “Tidal Track” that was released last July. Would love to see them booked at Indietracks.

Les Bombe Pops: some interesting guitar pop by this Vancouver band that almost has the name of a classic indiepop band (The Bomb Pops). The band is formed by Emma, Catherine, Hannah, James and Marshall and their latest release seems to be available only digitally on their Bandcamp and it is titled “So Long Ago”. This is a 5 song EP and was released not too long ago, last December.

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Original sin, also called ancestral sin, is the Christian doctrine of humanity’s state of sin resulting from the fall of man, stemming from Adam and Eve’s rebellion in Eden, namely the sin of disobedience in consuming from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred to as a “sin nature”, to something as drastic as total depravity or automatic guilt of all humans through collective guilt.

That is definitely an interesting and a bit of an odd choice of a name for a guitar pop band. I could see a folk band with that name, or a metal band. Don’t you think?

I heard of Original Sin some years ago (I think through the From a Northern Place blog) and only today I’m listening them again. Well, “listening” might be an exaggeration. I have only heard one song by them, “A Song For Robert G” which is ace. The chiming guitars and the bouncy melodies bring a smile to me. As far as I know there is only another song released by the band and has the same name, “The Original Sin”. But I haven’t heard that one.

These two songs were part of their one and only 7″ that was released in August 1987 on Stable Records (ST 001). On the A side there was “A Song for Robert G” and on the B side “The Original Sin”. It seems it was a self-release as there are no other releases listed on this label on Discogs. The obvious question for me is who is or was Robert G? Maybe Bobby Gillespie? It would be interesting to find out!

There are no other releases listed for the band either, nor compilation appearances. To my surprise the band members are listed:
Tim Jeans – bass
B. Whitley – drums
John Kings – guitar
Charlie Leese – vocals

I don’t own this record yet but someone has uploaded the back cover to Discogs. I like when that happens, I can find out some extra details about these obscure bands.  The back cover is quite strange I must say. It includes a bunch of ads. Yes, really, as if it was a magazine or something. I have never seen anything like it on an indiepop record. The back is divided in four squares. On the top part there’s an ad for the Exmouth Indoor Market. Next to it there’s Samantha’s Exmouth, a discotheque. On the bottom we see an ad for CBI Refrigeration and next to it for Devon County Cars Mazda. Actually there is also a very tiny ad at the very bottom for Dare Farm Products. Strange right? Maybe these companies funded the recordings for the band? There is also credits for the art, for the front Catherine Seat and the back for Sean Kressinger.

There is not much more information about the band on the web, nor about the band members. They must have hailed from Exmouth, that seems quite obvious. But there is no other details to be found on the web. I wonder if anyone remembers them? If they had more recorded songs? Or maybe other releases we don’t know about? If the members were involved in any other bands? Or if anyone has a spare of their 7″? I’m curious about this band, I wonder whatever happened to them.

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Listen
Original Sin – A Song for Robert G

Happy to say that this has been another prolific week. But not only on the blog, for the label it has been too. I will have news next week for our new 7″ releases I think! Very exciting! So keep your eyes peeled!

Today I bring you more indiepop news, more indiepop findings!

The Understudies: one of my favourite British bands is back! The Understudies have released a new digital single titled “Travelling Companion” with its “b side” “Everybody’s Got To Go” and both songs are great. They are a bit different to the style they had us all used to. According to the band, they are going to be a more piano based band than a guitar based band. So we’ll see how that works out for them. In the meantime I can say these two songs are really nice and they should be part of their upcoming second album which is due for this year. Looking forward to it!

Lake Ruth: “Birds of America” is the name of the new album by this very fine New York band. It is being released by the UK label Feral Child Recordings and it even comes with a lyric sheet insert. The album will be released on February 16th and now you can pre-order on BandCamp. The album has 10 songs and if you want to have a taster you can hear two songs, “Julia’s Call” and “One of Your Own”. A very promising release indeed!

My Raining Stars: I still don’t have their first release. Shame, I was told a CD was going to be sent to me. It never ever arrived. Still waiting. Sometimes I’m unlucky about that. It happens. But it is kind of sad as I really loved the songs My Raining Stars make. And it is true that the French band has been so quiet as of late. So it was quite a surprise when I saw the song “Lost in the Wild” uploaded to Youtube. Wow, really wow. Will this be part of a single? an EP, an album? Something? I hope this time I do get their release!

The BVs: Damn. It looks like their latest EP, “Interpunktion” is already sold out. I didn’t get a copy! I hope they saved copies for Madrid Popfest as I need one! If not I’ll be terribly sad!  This EP has 5 brand new songs that were recorded in Cologne at Bear Cave Studio. The story says that the band went to record 2 songs but ended up recording 5 songs in one take! The EP actually hasn’t been released yet, it is supposed to be out on February 9th. But it is already sold out. Incredible! The songs on the record are “Be Enough”, “Dazed Hair”, “»»»»»»»»»”, “`´`´`´`´`´” and “B../”. Some strange song titled in there, right?

The Poetry Book: and let’s end this review with this terrific finding from Osaka, Japan. Actually it seems there’s a connection with Madrid according to their Facebook. And only one band member is listed, Chris W. So that is quite mysterious. But where there is no mystery is in their 3 latest songs that are on Bandcamp: “Out of Love”, “青いドレス [Instrumental]” and “Forever”. They are really really good! How come I haven’t heard about them before? Their fist EP dates from 2015!!

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Returning to England for this post. I kept looking at the videos uploaded by stoneeyedkiller on Youtube for inspiration. There are many bands there I’d like to feature. There are plenty too that I have already covered in the blog, some of which I’ve even interviewed. I’m curious about many, but I’m normally more curious about those bands I don’t own any of their records or haven’t really looked for them on the web. And so, I decide to investigate one of them, see what I can find in the depths of the world wide web, let’s see what’s the story behind 3-Action!

As it has become a routine, I start with Discogs. That is always a good first stop to find out about the band. Even if there is no details about the bands we can at least find out what they have released. In the case of 3-Action! I notice, making their name proud, 3 releases. All of them released by Ediesta Records between 1986 and 1987.

“On the Journey of a Lifetime” was their first release and came out in 1986 on both 7″ and 12″ formats on Ediesta (CALC 3). The songs were “What You Gonna Do When Your Lifeline Snaps?” on the A side and “Matter Batter” on the flip. The 12″ included two more songs on the B side: “Snail With a Gold-Plated Plastic Shell” and “One Track Mind”. It is said that there was actually a video for “Snail With a Gold-Plated Plastic Shell” but sadly it is not available on Youtube. The record was engineered by Andy Tillison at Lion Studios in Leeds. He also provided keyboards on “What You Gonna Do When Your Lifeline Snaps?” .

“(Don’t Lose That) Stealin’ Feelin'” was their second record. Again on Ediesta (CALC23) though this time it was only available as a 12″. There were four songs on this record, “If Only I Had the Guts”, “My Personal Feelings About Love in General”, “Storming Warning” and “It’s a Good Laugh”.

Their last release was yet another 12″ on Ediesta. “A Breath of Fresh Air-Gency” was released in 1987 (CALC35) and included just three songs, “I Get Around”, “Laughing in a Funny Way” and “Stay With Me”.

They also have appeared on a few compilations. In 1986 they contributed the song “Batter Matter” to the LP+Cassette compilation “Hits $ Corruption”. This record includes many well known bands like Sonic Youth, Stump or Pigbros, but I don’t see any indiepop bands on it. Wonder how they ended up there?

The year after, in 1987, they did appear on a well-known indiepop compilation, “Let’s Try Another Ideal Guest House” that was released by Backs Records (Shelter 2). Here they contribute the song “If Only I Had the Guts” and they are in very good company, you see The Close Lobsters, The Television Personalities, The Bats and many more! Graeme Sinclair is credited for compiling this comp which all of its profits were donated to Shelter: National Campaign for the Homeless.

That same year, there was another Shelter compilation called “Gimme Shelter” that was released by the Melody Maker magazine. This was actually a VHS with videos and included was a live video for the song “I Get Around” by 3-Action! which you can see here. I check the comments for this video and I see that the drummer used to live in Ryde St. in Hull while The Housemartins used to name check all the time according to a Youtube user.

In 2008 they were to contribute the song “I Get Around” to the double CD compilation + book “One Man and His Big – 20 Years on the Toilet Tour”. Discogs tells me that this was a Limited Edition book (180 pages) of 2000 copies to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Adelphi Club in Hull, UK. The book comes with 2 cd’s and written contributions by bands such as Radiohead, Pulp, Carter USM, The La’s and many others. There is no bar code or ISBN number, the book just has ‘Made In Hull’ on the spine. Many fine bands are included, The Housemartins, The La’s, The Gargoyles, Pink Noise and more!

Their last compilation appearance dates of 2016 and it is another sort of retrospective comp. On the double CD compilation titled “A Perfect Combination: Fairview Studios 1973-1993” the band appears with the song “Ballad for Flo”. This compilation tells the story of the studio’s first twenty years and the musicians from Hull & East Yorkshire who passed through its legendary doors. You can see many important bands from Hull on it like The Gargoyles, The Beautiful South or International Rescue.

I keep looking, and now I start investigating some comments I see on Youtube. I see someone mentions that according to someone at the NME 3-Action! were the best three piece guitar band since The Jam. Then I find a video Nick Clay from Pink Noise has uploaded of 3-Action! playing “Matter Batter” at The Adelphi in Hull on 12th June of 1987.

I notice that there is an account for vladtheimpaler999 which has the “I Get Around” video I mentioned before but also many more songs by the band. Is this user perhaps one of the band members? He has also uploaded the songs, “I Get Around (Live)“, “Stay With Me“, “Laughing in a Funny Way“, “Matter Batter“, “I Get Around“, “One Track Mind“, “Snail With a Gold Plated Plastic Shell“, “What You Gonna Do When Your Lifeline Snaps?“, “Its a Good Laugh“, “Storming Warning“, “If Only I Had the Guts“, “My Personal Feelings About Love in General” and “Shock Me Sharply“. I listen song after another and I’m hooked. Catchy, and with trumpets!! Why aren’t they more known?? And how come there hasn’t been some sort of retrospective compilation for them? Are there any more recordings other than the ones on the record? It seems like yes, “Shock Me Sharply” wasn’t on the records!

I found a blog post on the Maggot Caviar blog. Here I was going to learn some  important details about the band. First of all the band was formed in 1984 under the name Reaction. Did they release anything under that name? That’s a good question. They were a trio. Perhaps that’s why they have that name, 3-Action! They were Gary Action on bass and vocals, Graham Grasshopper on guitar and Artful Dodger on drums. Sometimes Swift Nick, a promoter and editor of the New Youth fanzine, would make some poetic contributions. They hailed from Hull, more specifically from Grafton Street. It also mentions that when their first single was released by Ediesta the band embarked on a lengthy tour around the UK supporting The Housemartins. Even more exciting is that the author mentions that there was a song called “Mile Apartheid (From South Africa We’re Not So)” in an early demo tape. Oh! Would love to hear that!

My next stop is the Hull Music Archive website. There I find that Gary Action was also called Gareeoch but his real name was Gary Hock. But that’s not all, there’s a proper biography! So at last, some proper details about 3-Action!

The bastard sons of East Hull, radical noise in Hawaiian shirts, trailed a blaze, appealing to all subject to a glue induced haze – from Jimmy Reckitt to Bev Road, through the mid to late ’80s. Apprenticeship served at the Trades & Labour Club, supporting such class acts as The Redskins, Newtown Neurotics, The Membranes… and the afternoon bingo caller. The band became a fixture at the all New Adelphi Club, one of the original three bands “better than the Housemartins” – officially (despite what some misinformed bloke wrote whilst sat on the Adelphi toilet, rewriting history – knob). Memorable gigs include playing with Pulp, The Farm, Brilliant Corners, Soup Dragons and bestest of all, The La’s. 3-Action toured with The Housemartins on the Happy Tour (1986) before releasing their first recording “…On the Journey of a Lifeline” [released on 7 and 12 inch vinyl]. Quickly followed up by another 12″ release, “(Don’t Lose that) Stealin’ Feelin’”. During a publicity trip for “Stealin’ Feelin’” to London, the three intrepid and all-too-innocent boys were abused in the back of Gary Davies’ red sports car – him in the middle together with that poison midget Bruno Brookes (who had been hiding in the glove compartment) made for an uncomfortable ride for the lads. What they did for their art and Hull that day remains largely unspoken but it all proved to be worthwhile… [we didn’t dare ask – HMA Ed] Janice Long rescued them and took them under her wing, with “Stealin’ Feelin’” receiving regular air time on her Radio 1 evening show. “A Breath of Fresh Air-gency”, their final vinyl offering was released in 1987 with an enthusiastic response from a couple of their best mates… and that’s no exaggeration – they thought it was dead good! A couple of further recording sessions at Fairview Studios took place in 1988, kindly sponsored by ex-Housemartin Stan Cullimore, featuring such seminal tracks as Shock Me Sharply and Ballad for Flo.

So this confirms what I was suspecting, “Shock Me Sharply” was from another recording session. And aside from “Ballad for Flo”, were there more songs recorded then? Or not?

And that’s more or less what I could find about them. They seem to have been written off from indiepop history for some reason. It is quite surprising, because they had some fantastic tunes, with trumpets and ramshackling guitars. What else could a popkid want really! Top songs, great artwork, but for some reason they seem to be forgotten. But maybe, some of you remember them and can shed some light? Whatever happened to Gary Action, Graham Grasshopper and Artful Dodger? Did they continue making music?!

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Listen
3 Action! – If Only I Had the Guts

Another week with 3 obscure bands and 1 interview? Seems like it. I have quite a list of bands I want to investigate and I’m just trying to cover many of them before my trip to Spain. After that trip I’ll slow the pace. I guess I’m excited, I’m in indiepop mode. Last year, 2017, I didn’t attend any indiepop festivals and I’m definitely missing that. I miss the parties, the friends, the dancing, the songs, the bands, the conversations, everything! I just can’t wait to get my dose this year!!

Zimt: the other day I saw Ronny posting a very cool video of Zimt playing live at  Augsburg’s Kegelbahnkozerte. Zimt has become one of my favourite contemporary German bands so I thought sharing this cool find where the band plays the song “Wohlstand”. The video looks as it has been shot professionally! So that’s nice too!

Close Lobsters: the classic Scottish band uploaded a new song to SoundCloud titled “February Song” and according to them the name of the song is what it is because they couldn’t think of a better name. The song seems to be a demo, it doesn’t have vocals yet, but the jangly guitars are definitely a treat.

Red Red Eyes: I saw this on my friend David’ Facebook who has an exquisite taste so decided to have a listen. It is not brand new, this was a tape single (limited to 30 copies which is still available by the way) released by Meadows Records from Cambridge UK. The tape single included just two songs, “Untold” and “Theorematic” and both songs sound lovely. I wonder how this has flown under the radar for all this time!

Seahorse: and this was a recommendation from my friend Vernon who told me to buy their CD!! Well, I want to! But the website of their label, Kolibri Records, tells me there is no way to buy the album “Magical Objects” by Seahoarse if I’m in the US. That there are no shipping methods. Damn! That is so unfair. This is a fantastic 10 song album (released last June) that I believe no one should miss! The band is based in Yogyakarta and is formed by Gisela Swaragita, Rudi Yulianto, Judha Herdanta and Aditya Putra.

The Stuts: Patrick O’Sullivan who I interviewed some months ago about his band So She Said has uploaded a new song of his called “Come and Go”. The song is perfomed by The Stuts which is the name he uses for himself and a range of musicians he collaborates with. In this case The Stuts consisted to two So She Said members, himself and Anto Healy.

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1. 1. East of Eden is a novel by Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck, published in September 1952. Often described as Steinbeck’s most ambitious novel, East of Eden brings to life the intricate details of two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, and their interwoven stories. The novel was originally addressed to Steinbeck’s young sons, Thom and John (then 6½ and 4½ years old, respectively). Steinbeck wanted to describe the Salinas Valley for them in detail: the sights, sounds, smells, and colors.
   2. East of Eden is a 1955 film, directed by Elia Kazan, and loosely based on the second half of the 1952 novel of the same name by John Steinbeck. It is about a wayward young man who, while seeking his own identity, vies for the affection of his deeply religious father against his favored brother, thus retelling the story of Cain and Abel. The film stars Julie Harris, James Dean (in his first major screen role), and Raymond Massey. It also features Burl Ives, Richard Davalos, and Jo Van Fleet, and was adapted by Paul Osborn.

It is true I don’t cover that many American bands on the blog, I normally prefer European bands. That is true, most records of my collection come from there. It is just a matter of taste. But of course there are very fine American bands and I’ve only just discovered one from the 80s that sounds surprisingly good!

The first song I ever heard by East of Eden was “The Obscure Wind Ruling” that was uploaded on Youtube by this guy “stoneeyedkiller” who back in the day used to ran the Jangle Pop blog. I don’t know what happened to him. His last upload on Youtube dates from a year ago and it was actually this song.

Now I’m re-listening and I’ve become curious. Who were these janglers? Where did they come from? What did they release? I decide I want to know more, maybe track their records, buy them hopefully. My only hint right now is the name of the band, the name of the song, and possibly the name of their record, I figure out on the blurry image uploaded to Youtube it says “Murder Red Window”.

I find the record on Discogs. I learn it came out in 1987 on Beast of Eden Music Ltd. (EOE-31787). It seems a bit obscure for Discogs. I don’t see the cover art uploaded. It also says that the record was recorded by Scratch Records and was licensed through Penguin Songs Ltd. BMI. The record, a vinyl 12″ EP, included six songs. On the A side there’s “In a Lifetime”, “Suicide Act” and “The Obscure Wind Ruling”. On the B side, “Misery”, “Pat” and “Murder Red Window”.

Then I notice Discogs lists one compilation appearance and also another record called “East of Eden”, a CD album on Squidhead Records. A quick search on the web confirms my suspicion. None of these are releases by the East of Eden that put out “Murder Red Window”.

My first breakthrough in this wild goose chase is a video for the song “In a Lifetime“. Here on the description for the video I find the band members names and what they played:
Rob Eddy – vocals
Rob Meitus – guitar
Steve Wolf – bass
Danny Thomas – drums
Rick Karr – keyboards

Also there are credits to Velvet Grape Productions for production and edition of the video. A comment mentions that the video brings memories of the Moose Lodge. Was this a venue the band used to play often? Then I find out that someone has uploaded the song “Pat” to Youtube. On that song someone has commented that the band hailed from Indiana, more exactly from Purdue University in West Lafayette. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a band from there?!

West Lafayette is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and 103 miles (166 km) southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister city, Lafayette. As of the 2016 census estimate, its population was 45,872. It is the most densely populated city in Indiana and is home to Purdue University.

I start looking for more information. Almost immediately I find a Wikipedia entry for Robert Meitus. It mentions that he was born in Ann Arbor, MI, and had played with East of Eden which was known before as The Sound. Interesting. How did The Sound sound like? Were they the same band members as in East of Eden? Did they release anything? Why did they change names? Then it also says that East of Eden was based both in West Lafayette and Los Angeles. That would make sense, I could see LA on the video for “In a Lifetime”. But when and why did they move to LA? Then it seems Rob moved to New York City to play in a folk group called Dorkestra who released 3 albums.  These days it seems Rob Meitus lives in Blookington, Indiana, and teaches law at Indiana University and manages several music artists.

I find them some information about the drummer, Rick Karr. He was born in Highland, Indiana, and aside from East of Eden he had played in Idiot Savant, The Guests, Teeth and the Man, ‘Two Guys, One Instrument’, West of Lafayette, Chunks of Flesh, Shovel Choir, Tart, West Town Revival and Box Set Authentic.

Another find on the web is that the video for “In a Lifetime” was made by a graphic designer called Joe Steiner.

For Rob Eddy I can’t confirm it or not, but I think he is now a literary fiction writer.

There is a Google hit for a WordPress blog called Girl in Black. Sadly this is a private blog but I can read from the Google description that it says: … concert two long-since-dead Purdue student organizations held in the union ballrooms on halloween night, 1986. the band that played that night, east of eden, is one of my all-time favorite Indiana bands. they didn’t put out many records: a 7″ under another name, and a vinyl EP titled murder red window. after graduation, …

So maybe, just maybe, it means that The Sound released a 7″. This also tells me that the band was already around in 1986.

But that’s about it. This investigation reaches a wall. Not much more on the web. Websites that have been long-deleted. Blogs that I’m unable to access. The information for East of Eden is tiny. Discogs even lists releases from other bands with the same name. No one has made the effort to clear that up so there is no confusion. I try to find a good copy for a good price. There’s one record listed but says heavy ringwear on the sleeve. That makes me feel uneasy. There are no other copies at a fair price. I’ve heard four songs from the record, missing two. I wonder, when will I hear them. If the band had any more recordings other than the EP. What happened to them afterwards. What were their influences being in Indiana in the mid and late 80s. I’m quite curious, hopefully we’ll get to know their story someday soon!

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Listen
East of Eden – In a Lifetime

So last week was quite a busy one for the blog, 4 posts!! Three obscure bands plus one interview. I wonder how will this week fare. I’m kind of making it up to you all as I won’t be posting for a whole week at the end of the month as I’m going to Spain for 9 days. So maybe if you can’t keep up with my pace now, during that time you should be able to catch up with the blog.

So why don’t we cut the chase and start with my new pop findings?

Graham Fellows: after 33 years he is back! I love his first album, “Love at the Hacienda”, which is available again at his Bandcamp, and now finally after all that time Graham is back with a new album titled “Weird Town”. It is a bit different though, maybe more folky and introspective, more mature you could say, but still the lyrics, they are great! This new 13-track album was recorded in his home studio in Lincolnshire. If you are not aware who Graham is, well, you should know that Graham was the new wave icon Jilted John who then turned to be John Shuttleworth. And in even better news you should know he will be touring the UK promoting this new album! Exciting!

Ella Blixit: don’t know much about this Stockholm artist. Just saw that some friends were going to be attending a gig of hers and decided to have a listen. And I thought the songs from her “Broken EP” sounded great. Definitely this is not strictly indiepop, but it is poppy, with some great melodies thrown in there. It is electronic pop, mind you. But it is classy and elegant. A bit like what Club 8 has been transforming into in their last albums. The EP has four songs, “Winners”, “Broken”, “What We’re Asking” and “Zu Zu Sami”. My favourite, “Zu Zu Sami”.

Lindh: the band sharing that gig I saw with Ella Blixit is called Lindh. So I thought why not, let’s find it and have a listen. I could only find one song on SoundCloud titled “Heartcourt”. It is a nice song, electronic pop again, and even though it is a bit hipsterish for many of us popkids, it is quite enjoyable. I look for any other details about Lindh and see that she is based in Stockholm/Uppssala and was previously half of the band Lissi Dancefloor Disaster.

Luby Sparks: some weeks ago I recommended the new video for Luby Sparks song “Thursday”. Well that video is no more. Instead they have uploaded a much nicer video for that song! So check out the latest one by the fantastic Japanese band whose releases I still don’t have. What’s the best way to get them? Any tips? I was supposed to trade with their previous label, but haven’t heard from them in ages. Not good!

Strawberry Punks: it is actually not the name of a band but the name of the new compilation that is available to stream on the fab Dismantled Records from Jakarta, Indonesia. There are 5 songs by 5 different bands. We have The Shoptalks’ “Makiko”, The Whistling Possum’s “Them Are Pigs”, Grrrl Gang’s “Just a Game” (my favourite of the comp!), Kaveh Kanes’ “This is Pure” and Odd Gesture’s “Sick of You”. The label says that these songs are a very good way too start 2018. I’m not going to argue that!

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Afterglow: light or radiance remaining in the sky after the sun has set.

It seems without giving it too much thought I’m researching bands from all over the world and not just the ones from the British Isles. That is a good thing, right? Today I wanted to find out more about Afterglow, who I thought I owned their records, but looking through my database I noticed I actually don’t know any of them!! I have to fix that of course. So I had a look on Discogs and found a copy of their only vinyl release, a 7″, for a fair price. Sadly I’m still missing their two CD EPs.

I also think that they should be included in that compilation I dream of Australian indiepop from the 80s and 90s. Hopefully one day I can put it together.

Afterglow were based in Melbourne and they were around in the early 90s. They were more of a shoegaze band, and as I said they put out only 3 releases. As soon as you open Discogs you get two names that were involved in the band Dave Wroe and Greg Ng. But we see a photo of four people. This will be the one of the mysteries to solve.

But let’s start in order. 1992. That year they were to release a 7″ on one of the best indiepop labels from Australia, Summershine Records (SHINE 023). The record had two songs, one on each side. On the A side there is “Fall Behind” and on the B side there’s “Melt Down”. Both songs were recorded in November 1991 at C’est Ca Studios which was a recording studio based in the area of Collingwood in Melbourne. At this same place The Sugargliders used to record. The engineer was Dave Hannan. Other credits on the sleeve tell us that the band took care of the art and that the record was distributed by Shock Records. The vinyl itself had runout etchings. On the A side it says “Shoegazers of the World Unite”.

The next year, 1993, the band released a CD EP on the Supersonic Records label (SS103). I look on Discogs for this label. It says it was an Australian Rock and Shoegaze label but the only releases that appear are those by Afterglow. But this was catalog SS103. What was SS101 or SS102? No clues yes. Maybe it was their own label? In any case this first CD EP by the band was called “Vision” and it had 5 songs proper, though there is a 6th unlisted track which is actually all of the 5 listed songs together on one track. What does that mean? That “Lost in the Funhouse”, “Stay So Young”, “Slow Song”, “Vision” and “Fall Behind”, the 5 songs from the record, are played twice. The credits tell us that Paul Sloss did the artwork, with photography by Beth Cook and Ritchie Brooks. The songs were produced and recorded by Dave Hannan. The engineer was Michael Hewes. There is a bassist listed for the first four songs, James Brown.

In 1994 the band released another CD EP, “Teddy’s Got a Gun”. It came out on the same label, Supersonic Records (SS104) and again they did that same trick with the unlisted track at the end, though this time after playing the 6 songs included in the EP they added a 7 song, “Vision”, from the previous EP. All in one track, the 7th. The songs on the EP were “Run For Your Wife”, “Mirror”, “Raccoon”, “Where You Are”, “Bright and Eady” and “Teddy’s Got a Gun”. This time the art was created by Grant Adam with photography by Jim Kellam and Ritchie Brooks. The songs were produced, recorded and mixed by Dave Hannan. We also see that “Where You Are” had synthesizers credited to Ritchie Brooks as well.

I see on the sleeve of this EP that they actually had a Fanclub, and it seems they were based in the area of Bulleen in Victoria. Bulleen is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 13 km north-east of Melbourne’s Central Business District. Its local government area is the City of Manningham. The name Bulleen originates from the nearby Bolin Bolin Billabong. Buln-Buln translates to lyrebird, which is generally accepted to be the suburb’s name meaning.

Also here I see what instruments each of the band members play. Dave Wroe played guitar and vocals, Greg Ng played guitar and vocals too, while we see Rob played drums and percussion and Marcel played bass. No last names for Rob or Marcel. One more mystery to solve?

That same year they appeared on the compilation “All in the Family” that was released by Mushroom Distribution (DOC8000). It was a comp made for the children of East Timor and included 15 songs. Afterglow appears last with the song “Run For Your Wife”. The next year, 1995, they appeared on the “Just a Taste” a compilation Slumberland Records (Slumberland 008) released as a sampler of Australian indiepop. Here the band appears along so many classic bands like the Tender Engines, The Rainyard, The Earthmen and more. Afterglow contributes the song “Fall Behind”.

Their last sort of compilation appearance was on the first Munch video compilation. Released in 1994 on VHS by Season Records (Season Two), it included videos by many classic bands from the time like The Cat’s Miaow, Even as We Speak, Boyracer, The Magnetic Fields and more. I remember these videos being up on Youtube some years ago, now I can’t find them all. One of the ones that I can’t find is the one by Afterglow and their video for the song “Lost in the Funhouse”. A shame really. I can’t remember what it was like. Would love to see it again.

I look for the band members. I see Dave Wroe was part of the band Feverdream that released an album called “You Don’t Know Us But We Know Who You Are” released by Satellite Records. On the other hand I see that Greg Ng was part of the band Snout when they released the albums “The New Pop Dialogue” in 1996 and “Circle High and Wide” in 1998. After those two albums Greg left the band.

A mention of Afterglow appears on The Steinbecks website. When telling the story of The Sugargliders they mention that they used to offer gigs to Afterglow. But that’s about it. I can’t find anything else about Afterglow on the web. The mysteries remain unresolved. What happened to them? Why did they split? What other bands were they involved with? And what are they doing now? Who remembers them?!

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Listen
Afterglow – Fall Behind

Well, well, I know you didn’t expect one more post this week. It was Friday anyways, right? But there are a few interesting things to say! But first do remember that I’m going to Spain at the end of the month, the 23rd to be more precise. So do let me know if you want me to bring any records for you so you can save on postage!

Having said that, Madrid Popfest, did announce some weeks ago the rest of their lineup. And it is not that I forgot, but was looking for a good time to talk about it. There’s been so many good indiepop news in the past few weeks that it seems I needed this extra post this week! So, Madrid Popfest. Yes. They added the legendary St. Christopher, Soda Fountain Rag, Fever Dream, Fakuta, Giorgio Bassmatti & Aeromozas and Ataque de Caspa. I’m very familiar with most of them but two, Fakuta and Giorgio Bassmatti & Aeromozas. So I’ll check them out now!

Fakuta: I have never heard the name before. It seems Fakuta is the pseudonym Pamela Sepúlveda uses to create music. She hails from Chile. And Madrid Popfest says that for the first time they include a Chilean artist in their lineup. That must be true. It may be true too that it is the first Latin American artist in their lineup if memory serves me right. But there is a problem for me. I’m not liking her music! Oh no. Maybe it is better live? I cross my finger that is the case. Hipster electronic pop that doesn’t hook me, doesn’t tell me much about my life. Oh well, in any case it was going to be impossible for me to like every single band in the lineup. This is the first one I’m not enjoying in an otherwise perfectly curated festival. Depending on the time Fakuta plays, it could be a good moment to skip and get some dinner?

Giorgio Bassmatti & Aeromozas: I know Bassmatti by name. I was never inclined to listen to his music. But I’ll give it a try now. I check what I think is his latest work, “Trencadís“, a CDEP released by Discos de Kirlián late 2017. Hmm. Lo-fi bedroom pop. Not bad, not amazing either. I like some songs like “La Unión Hace la Fuerza” but with other ones I’m lazy to even finish them like “El Glaciar”. I’m not sold, but I’ll give it a try, it might be interesting thanks to the accompanying band, Aeromozas. I do find Aeromozas immediately on Bandcamp and I hear their song “El Traje Nuevo del Emprendedor” that is included in their EP “Aritsta Emergente #2”. And I’m hooked. I do ask myself, why weren’t they invited and play their own songs?!! This is much better. There must have been a reason or another of course. But for me this is a good discovery. There are four songs in total, aside from the aforementioned one, there is “Cuchillo Verde”, “La Ministra de Justicia” and “Juan de Pablos”. Nice melodies, and what’s more boy/girl vocals. The band is formed by Irene Bonilla, Blanca G. Aguiló, Marví Hernandez, María Rodrigo and Alberto Romero.

Now 3 more items because I like consistency. 5 a post is a good number!

Alaska: I thought the Hamburg label Marsh Marigold was no more. To my surprise I see they have released a new album, “Whitewash the Tidemarks”, a 12″ vinyl mini-LP by the Hamburg based band Alaska. 6 songs are included, “Motorway”, “Every Other Monday”, “We Don’t Sing Anymore”, “No More Sorrow”, “Non Silent Night” and “Naked Killed Babies”. The album was released on January 31st and I hear it is limited to 300 copies and coloured vinyl. Let’s see if I can find a copy myself! For those not aware of Alaska, this is not their first release! They’ve been around since 1994 and have a bunch of releases, “Kings of the Class EP” 7″, “Noveau Liberty” CD and “These Sacred Floors” CD. The band is formed by Torben, Björn, Christoph, Patrick and Stephan, and these new songs do sound really good!

Jeanines: The week mystery. Who are Jeanines? Two demos uploaded on the 30th and the only information is that they are a duo, Alicia and Jed, and that they hail from New York! I am in New York. I want to see them play live. The songs sound fantastic. Who are they? Are they releasing anything? I want to know more. This is really great!! Check both songs and have them on repeat, “Is It Real” and “Too Late”. Someone tell me more about them!

Bedroom Eyes: last year our friend Jonas released a new album, “Greetings From Northern Sweden”. It was great. I played it time and time again. Actually I have an extra copy if anyone wants it (maybe just pay me for shipping?) thanks to a post office mistake. Anyways. It is a fab album. Now one of my favourite songs from the album, “Trondheim Harbor”, has gotten the video treatment. Directed by Vegard Fjærvoll, the video leaves us a quote at the end that is dead on, “Culture is Resistance”.

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Am I the only one missing Swedish indiepop? I feel a terrible nostalgia for the good days of the mid 2000s, where there was an explosion of fantastic guitar pop bands. I remember having a conversation with Peter Hahndorf last time I saw him, in Thailand, about the “golden age” of Swedish pop. For him it wasn’t the one I was feeling nostalgia for, not the 2000s one, for him it was the 90s. And of course I could understand that, I knew about so many fantastic bands from that period, but I didn’t live that. So I couldn’t agree with him, the 2000s were a time I experienced, enjoyed, was closer to me, but at the same time I knew how important was that time period where labels like Ceilidh or West Side Fabrication were releasing quality pop music for the popkids around the world. Most probably everyone that is a bit older than me feel, like Peter, that the 90s, with Club 8, Cloudberry Jam, Acid House Kings, The Seashells, Komeda and even The Cardigans, was a better time.

Definitely they made more of a wave, they made more noise. Some bands even signed to big labels, other bands have cult status. They released records and not in very limited quantities. In that sense there is no comparison with the 20 or so copies say Homeless Club Kids released of their CDR around 2004 or so. It was another time. It was pre-Napster, pre-Soulseek. Pre-CDRs too. But many of the bands from that period seem to be forgotten.

Lately I’ve seen reissues of fantastic bands from that period, like Eggstone, Popsicle or Easy. Is there a renewed interest? Or what’s going on? Or are these releases just for the same fans from back in the day? The smaller bands are still pretty much unknown to the indiepop crowd. Here in the blog I haven’t covered that many of them, I remember writing about Saturday Kids, Cod Lovers or Riviera, but not much more. There are few more entries on the blog where I’ve written about Swedish bands from the 80s and 00s. So here I’m trying to make up for it, be fair to the 90s, the first Swedish Golden Age of indiepop, with a band I know very little about, whose one and only release, a 12″, I don’t own: Lunchroom Manners.

The first entry that appears on Discogs for the band is a demo tape that dates from 1988 and was titled “The Lunchroom Demo!”. A single sided cassette that included four songs, “Agony Says”, “The New Wave”, “Don’t Ask Me Why” and “Maybe I Love Her”. It was self-released and seems to have been the first recordings by the band.

The next year the band released another tape, “Kärnsvensk Underhållning (Par I Pop!)”. Not sure if this was another demo tape, but we do know that this 1989 cassette was also single-sided and included two songs, “Lurad” and “Gunwer Berkvist”. It seems to me that this time around the songs were sung in Swedish.

That year seems to have been very productive, another tape just titled “Demo tape” was made with two songs, “You (That’s All I look Forward To)” and “It’s Not Alright, But It’s Ok” as well as a four song cassette titled “Soda Pop Welcome You” with four songs: “I Wanna Be With You”, “It Hurts”, “Real Life” and “None of Your Business”.

It is “I Wanna Be With You” the first song I heard by them. It was included that year in three compilations. The one I was aware of was the “Swedish Exotica Volume Two” compilation that was released by Thee Temple Ov Psychick Youth Scandinavia (catalog TOPYSCAN 008) where they appear alongside bands I know nothing about like Living Room, Soul Patrol or Zonk. This same song, but in it’s demo version appears on the cassette compilation “Pet Sounds Vol.2” as well. This tape was released by the legendary Pet Sounds Fanzine and on this compilation you do see them in good pop company like Eggstone, This Perfect Day or The Wannadies. But this wasn’t the first appearance on the Pet Sounds tapes. They did appear on the first one, on “Pet Sounds Vol.1” but with a different song, “None of Your Business (demo)”. This is a wonderful tape which I hope to listen in its entirety one day, as there is Saturday Kids, Eggstone, Happydeadmen, Mary-Go-Round and more!  It is worth mentioning that in total there were 5 of these Pet Sounds compilations that were put out by the Gothenburg based fanzine. It is said that there were always very limited, that there were just about 80 to 100 copies of such tapes and that they didn’t come with the fanzine, they were always sold separately. So yeah, it is hard to find them!

Then it seems 1990 was a quiet year. No releases. And finally in 1991 they were to release “Everything”, the 12″ that was their only proper release. It came out on the fine Ceidlidh Productions label (CEI 024) and had four songs. On the A side we find “Everything’s Coming Together” and “Pete Best” while on the B side “Sunny Sunday Afternoon” and “Real Life”. The songs were recorded at Sveriges Radio Studio 12 and mixed at Music-A-Matic. It was produced by the band and Jörgen Cremonese. Jörgen had been part of a band that also appeared on the “Swedish Exotica Volume Two” compilation, Whipped Cream.

Discogs also lists another demo tape that is undated. On this one, which seems more like a compilation of demos, there are 6 songs, “I Wanna Be With You”, “None of Your Business”, “Lurad”, “Gunwer Berkvist”, “You (That’s All I Look Forward To)” and “It’s Not Alright, But It’s Ok”.

Their last appearance on record was on a CD compilation released in 1997 by Ceilidh Productions titled “Singles & Vinyls” (catalog CEI 039). On this CD they appear with “Pete Best” and it seems this compilation is a collection of previously released songs on the label, from Brainpool to The Cardigans.

But that is not all. There was an unreleased record titled “Bubblegum” which was to be released on Ceilidh (catalog CEI 033). I don’t know why it was never released or if it was going to be an EP or an album. It just appears as part of the label’s catalog.

On the Ceilidh Productions website we also learn the lineup of the band. There was a first lineup between 1988 and 1989 comprised by:
Lars-Erik Holmquist on vocals and guitar
Hans Martinsson on bass
Sven-Erik Nilsson on drums
And later from 1989 and onwards the band added another guitarist, Hans Johansson.

I look for other bands they might have been involved with. Hans Johansson for example had been previously in a band called Biscaya who were signed to RCA and released an album a many singles. Not much for the rest though.

Where did they take their name? It seems like a good guess that the band named themselves after the 1959 short film “Beginning Responsibility: Lunchroom Manners”.

I keep digging. I find an interview on Drowned in Sound with Johan Angergård from the Labrador label and so many bands, like Acid House Kings, Club 8 and more. When he is asked by the interviewer why he started a label he says: “I remember when I first started thinking about starting a label. I was in my rather young teens. Me and the other guys in Acid House Kings were big fans of Happydeadmen – which were sort of the first indie pop band here in Sweden – and I really liked a Swedish band called Lunchroom Manners and there was also a couple of other good Swedish bands we liked. So we thought about putting together a compilation album with Swedish bands. That didn’t happen around this time though, but a few years later we started a label called Summersound Recordings and the first release was a Happydeadmen compilation.”

True, the band didn’t appear on Summersound Recordings, but it is interesting the band was quite known at the period, the early 90s.

Where else to look? Maybe try to find out what are they doing now. It is not easy, but maybe, just maybe, Lars Erik Holmquist now works at Northumbria University in Newcastle as Professor of Innovation in the Department of Design. I think it must be him. There is a twitter account with the handler @lunchroommanner that belongs to him but sadly hasn’t been used since 2009! Another interesting detail I was to find about him is that he DJed at Debaser on an April 4th 2010 when The Trashmen from the USA played alongside the Swedish band Sonic Surf City.

Then I see that the band appears listed in some concerts they played alongside the band Easy. The Easy website has a list of all their gigs and it seems that on May 17th 1990 Lunchroom Manners and Easy played at Valvet in Göteborg. They were to play one more time the same venue the next year, on February 17th. I also found out that the band supported Ride at the Göteborg venue Magazinette in the early 90s.

And that’s where I hit the wall this time. Not much more to find about them. I wonder if one day I will be able to hear all of their songs, those that appear on tape. If I’ll find myself a nice copy of their record. If they released more songs. If they had been involved in any other bands. And what are they up to today. Even whereabouts in Sweden were they based. I have a feeling in the south, maybe in the Göteborg region, but that’s a guess, I couldn’t find anything that would confirm me that. But maybe you can help me fill in the blanks. Do you remember them?

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Listen
Lunchroom Manners – I Wanna Be With You

Finally, February. This month I hope to announce a bunch of new releases on Cloudberry. Also by the end of the month I will be traveling to Madrid, so I can attend Madrid Popfest during the first days of March. But I’ll arrive earlier so I can do some sight-seeing. So yes, anyone that is in Spain or attending the festival and want some Cloudberry releases, please let me know and I can bring the records for you. That way we can save on shipping!

My Peruvian friend Joel shared with me a questionnaire about the Glasgow music scene. I believe the answers will be used to write a book about the independent scene of the Scottish city. The person behind it, Laurence Estanove, wants to publish this book and include in it many opinions from people from all around the world. I don’t know many details about it, but if you’d like to collaborate and contribute, check this link and fill in your answers.

I also found an interesting TED talk that maybe many of you would enjoy. It is about “how record collectors find lost music and preserve our cultural heritage”. Sure the person talking, Alexis Charpentier from Montréal,  is not talking about indiepop, but just music in general. So it is more about the general idea, but I couldn’t agree more with him. I felt like I could have done this same talk!! Check it out and learn more about record digging.

The Science of Words: our friend Pete from Horowitz and The Rosehips just gave me the heads up about the new band he is involved with! It is called The Science of Words and it is actually a duo, joining him is Corinne who was in Jack in the Green, a band that I actually interviewed in the past. It is not strictly indiepop, but it is poppy enough for me to recommend it on the blog. There are three songs so far on their Bandcamp, “In a Space”, “Léa” and “Instrumental X”.

Shiny Times: I recommended this solo project by Kim Weldin, from the South Caroline band Tape Waves, last July when I discovered her CD release of the “Secret Memos” album. Today I found a new song by her, released digitally on Bandcamp on January 24th titled “Keep Passing Through”. Maybe this is just a promo single for a bigger release? I hope so! If you are into lo-fi bedroom pop, this is definitely up your alley.

The Waterfalls: I got an email the other day by a Japanese fan introducing me to this Tokyo band. They shared with me their EP as well as this live video of the band playing the songs “Fall” and “Youthlight”. I wasn’t given a Bandcamp or a Facebook page, but I was told that if I like My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive or The Pains of Being of Pure at Heart I was going to love their music.

Sushi Backpack: lastly this lo-fi indiepop project by Chicago based band formed by Ben Austin on guitars, Gooey Fame on drums, Nikki Geslani on bass and Jen Lee on keyboards. I was incredibly surprised when I heard the opening song of their “Sour” EP available on the February Records Bandcamp. Titled “Apokalypse” it sounds like it was a lost recording by Die Fünf Freunde!! Wow. Really. Great. The other four songs are “II”, “Grapefruit” which is terrific, “Untitled” and “Saku”, which sounds a bit like Tullycraft. An interesting mix of influences, and I definitely look forward to hearing more by them.

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The last few posts have been about bands that are way too obscure, with only one known song released. My detective work has been difficult, with no many important details to learn, hitting a wall, every path I take is a dead end. These posts might be the only articles ever written on the web about them. But the hope stays the same. Maybe, just maybe, someone will comment, someone who remembers them, or even better someone who had been in the band.

Today I will continue with this trend, with a band that we know released not one, but two songs. It is perhaps some progress. I don’t know. But I do want to find out more information about this band. I would also love to get a copy of their one and only 7″ at a fair price. Maybe someday, but in the meantime, I hope writing about The Noble Kind will bring to light their story, that someone somewhere would like to tell me about them.

My knowledge about The Noble Kind is very limited. The band released one 7″ back in 1986, year 0 for many of us. It was most probably a self-release. There is no label listed according to Discogs but it did have a catalog number, TNK 1. There were two songs on it, one on each side. On the A side you can listen to “Back in the Race”, and on the flip, “Where’s Christopher”.

Of course, I haven’t been able to listen to both songs. As I said what I know is very little. I have heard only the A side, “Back in the Race”. It is a superb song, that sort of mix of new wave meets indiepop that was not unusual from that time period.

We see the light blue sleeve, with an ink illustration of the band as well as some interesting font choices for the typography. Some gothic style letters for the title and sort of cursive hand-written ones for the names of the songs. Sadly no one has uploaded the back of the sleeve. Maybe there is more information about them there. I could find out too that aside from the light blue sleeve, it seems there are copies that had a white sleeve with the same art.

Where were they from? It is safe to assume that they were British. But what else? There is no other information about them on the web. If I do a thorough search I find that an indie-folk band with that name exists today based in Rochester, NY. Not the same band. Not at all.

I believe I first heard their name from a tentative list of bands the guys behind the Sound of Leamington Spa put together and wanted to include in these compilations. They were asking for contact details. I guess they were in the same spot as me.

But maybe, because I know this blog has readers all over the UK, maybe someone remembers them?

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Listen
The Noble Kind – Back in the Race

I promise this won’t be the last post for January, I actually have an interview ready for tomorrow. But probably it will be the last obscure band post for this month.

Nonetheless this will be short, I’m quite knackered, I had a very busy weekend with friends and family in town, celebrating and all. And now I just need to rest, but of course I can’t, as I have to be at work. Tough life. But well, there’s always music to bring a smile, right?

Night Flowers: the London band, a favourite of mine, whom I would have loved to do a 7″ for sure, are back with a new song and new video. “Losing the Light” is a lovely pop tune and the video is quite nice too! I like the monotone colour choices the video director chose, those bright pinks and yellows made it all so poppy. It seems this song is just a one-off digital single, but I do hope it does get released in a physical format!

Discos de Kirlián: so the Barcelona label Discos de Kirlián named themselves after the legendary Spanish band Aventuras de Kirlián. It was only time for the label to put together a tribute album to the Donosti band. And it is being released on a limited number, 100 CDs. That’s all. The beautiful compilation is available to stream at the moment on the label’s Bandcamp and it includes so many exciting and top contemporary Spanish bands like Doble Pletina, Marlovers, Alborotador Gomasio, Los Bonsáis, Apenino or Coach Station Reunion among others!

Daytrip Records: a new label from Cardiff, Wales. And they are starting the label with a compilation titled “This is My Street”. What is this compilation about? Well, it is a compilation of Kinks covers by indiepop artists. It is coming out on February 16th as an LP and of course, digitally too. The album features 13 songs, 13 bands, including faovurites of mine like The School, Los Bonsáis, The Catenary Wires or The Wendy Darlings.

Unlikely Friends: if you are into 90s American indiepop why not check out Unlikely Friends, some sort of supergroup formed  by Charles Bert from Maths and Physics Club, D.Crane from Boat and Chris McFarlane from Jigsaw Records? They have a cassette album out with a whopping 14 songs total. The band based in Tacoma, Washington, say they want to be the best hardly known, under-practiced pop band in the Pacific Northwest. Could they make it? There are some great songs here like “Smiles for Miles” or “The Strangest Kind”. The tape was released January 12 and the art was created by Dee Krain.

Lillet Blanc: the fab Brooklyn based band have a new six song EP coming out on tape very soon. How soon? Not sure! But it is definitely one record I wish came out on vinyl or CD, but what can you do! It is going to be out on the tape label Spirit Goth and it will have the songs “Guest House”, “Be New”, “Lavender”, “Inlet”, “Twin Mistress” and “Casco Bay”. I have reviewed this band before, when they were included in the very good CD16 compilation. And I must admit I haven’t seen them live. It is something that has to be fixed soon, how haven’t I seen such a beautiful band, from the same city, yet!

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Time ago I mentioned the compilation “Manchester North of England” on the blog. The original one, not the Cherry Red one that came out a year ago. That time I was looking for information about Penny Priest, who had appeared contributing the song “Sometimes”. I was lucky enough afterwards that Penny got in touch with me and we even did an interview for the blog. So today I’m hoping for the same thing to happen as I dedicate some lines to the band New Morning.

New Morning appears on this compilation with the song “Working for the Payroll”. And as far as I know this was the only song that they released. There were no proper releases nor other compilation appearances according to Discogs. After you hear this jangly song you’ll start wondering why? How come no one offered a release!?

As we know “Manchester North of England” came out in 1988. It was released by Bop Cassettes (BC 001) and included a bunch of favourite bands of mine like The Man From Delmonte, Raintree County, The Waltones and more. The tape version came in an over-sized black moulded plastic cassette case (a bit like a miniature VHS box) with with 16-page fold out insert. Black cassette shell with black paper labels. Whereas the LP version was distributed through Revolver and The Cartel and was available by mail order from BOP Cassettes in Manchester. It was presented by BOP Cassettes and City Life Magazine. Contains 14 tracks all of which were unreleased at this time. Limited to 1000 copies. Including an A4 insert with tracklist.

We also know that the title for this compilation comes from the t-shirt designed by Identity Clothing. The 14 tracks were compiled by NME journalist Jane Champion.

I believe on the booklet that was included on the tape there is a small bio for each band. Sadly I don’t own this record and can’t find out more information about New Morning, but perhaps some of you could help me with that?

My only other source of information for New Morning was going to be the Manchester District Music Archive. According to them there was a compilation titled “Time Flies” that was released in 2009 where New Morning appears with “Working for the Payroll”. I don’t know nothing about this compilation but I have the slight suspicion that it might have been either a Japanese only release or perhaps a fan bootleg. It is a very interesting compilation you see, I think it is Japanese because it says “22 Pop Songs / Neo-Acoustic & Guitar Pop 1982-91”. Japanese fans are the ones that call indiepop as neo-aco. And the tracklist is interesting, from April Showers and Dolly Mixture to the Stars of Heaven to Bourgie Bourgie. But in the end the mystery is solved and I do find out where this compilation comes from! It is just a compilation put together by the blog Consolation Prize. Oh well…

The other mention on the Manchester District Music Archive is that of a calendar for the venue The Boardwalk. For me this is like a treat, reading all these names, many of which I have no clue who they are and I would love to track down, hear their music. But I also see more known names like The Pastels, Rote Kapelle or Too Much Texas. Until I finally see New Morning. I see that they played on Sunday September 7th of 1986 alongside Scarlet Town and Code of Arms.

As you can expect with the name New Morning it is very difficult to google them. I try. But I can’t find much information. I refuse to accept this is their only song they ever recorded. There must be more. So I ask out there, does anyone remember them? Who were they? Were they involved with other bands? It would be great to know any other details about New Morning!

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Listen
New Morning – Working for the Payroll

Let’s get straight to business, let’s check out some indiepop news that have been making the rounds this week.

Stephen’s Shore: our Stockholm friends, who released with us the fabulous jangly 7″ “Ocean Blue” are going to be releasing an album this March on the Spanish label Meritorio Records. I don’t know or have much details about this upcoming release but a promotional song, “The Sun”, is available to stream on the label’s SoundCloud. And it is gorgeous.

Colour Me Wednesday: the English band are releasing a new 7″ on April 13th on American Laundromat Records. Right now it is available for pre-order for $8 (see, we at Cloudberry keep prices lowest, $7 plus shipping, maybe we should raise prices?) and it is limited to 300 copies. Right now you can stream the A side, the fab “Don’t Tell Anyone”. Looking forward to getting the record!

Tremolina Tapes: the Spanish label Discos Walden is releasing a book compiling all the Tremolina fanzines, from 1999 to 2004, and accompanying it there’s a 20 song tape that was released back in the day paying homage to Glasgow and Olympia. I’m listening now to the songs on Bandcamp and I must say it is a mixed bag of indiepop, low-fi, and some more rockish songs. There are some very fun songs like the ones by Las Uyuyuy or Cosmin Contra. If you are curious about the real underground from Spain during that period, this sound document is pretty interesting!

Bubblegum Lemonade: have unveiled a new song, in demo form, on Youtube. Titled “Warm Heart Cold Feet” it just appeared out of nowhere. Will this song be available on a new record? Or maybe it was part of the recordings for their last release, the “Laz Christmas” EP? The cold, wintery, images added to the video make me thing it would have fit perfectly on the EP. Lyrics are available on the link and you’ll notice too that Sandra from Strawberry Whiplash is on backing vocals.

Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten: lastly I want to share this to my German friends/readers who can travel to Augsburg on April 13th. The very fine local label, Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten, is putting together their own sort of Popfest! At the City Club Augsburt venue you’ll be able to check out Endlich Blüte (Augsburg), Jetstream Pony (Brighton) and Pale Lights (Brooklyn). A very good lineup I must say! There will be an indie and 60s party afterwards too. Check it out!

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Well, well, well. Here I am again trying to find a record for a good, fair price, but haven’t been lucky. Maybe writing about it prices will go down, maybe up, or as it is more reasonable, no one will care and prices will stay the same. I doubt Discogs or eBay sellers like reading this blog.

The thing is, I can’t pay more than 15 dollars for a flexi. Even less pay 10 dollars for postage for a flexi. That’s ridiculous in my book. I will just wait patiently for the record I want to be at an acceptable price. Especially this time, this flexi I want doesn’t even have a sleeve. It is just the flexi. Come on.

I have mentioned this flexi before on the blog, when I wrote about the Chinese Gangster Element. I wrote that time: There’s also a compilation flexi that I still don’t own which has a song by Chinese Gangster Element. I haven’t heard this one. The song was called “Joey” I believe it’s a double-sided flexi as Discogs lists that on the A side there’s Fez with the song “Strange” and the Chinese Gangster Element song. While on the B side we have Roberta Junk with “How Many Friends?” and Langfiled Crane’s “Kiss Me Stephenson”. I haven’t heard any of the other bands before! This flexi was released by Spike’s Label (LYN 19817/18). The label was also based in Halifax.

In that case, I meant that the Spike’s Label was from Halifax as well as Chinese Gangster Element. Was the band I want to research, Roberta Junk, also from Halifax? That’s the question.

When I wrote that post I hadn’t heard the two other songs on the flexi, the ones by Roberta Junk and Langfield Crane. That’s ok, it took me some time but now I’m glad that I finally got to listen to Roberta Junk’s song “How Many Friends?” as it is brilliant. You will probably think the same!

What else is there to know about the band? Well, there was not much to find out. Maybe add that Spike’s Label only has the flexi listed. Probably there were no other releases. Roberta Junk has no releases listed nor compilation appearances. It seems “How Many Friends?” was there one and only song. That is hard to believe. There must be more songs, at least from the same recording session. I’d love to listen to them!

Where did they took their name? I could find that there was a Roberta Jean Junk in Wenatchee, Washington, a former longtime resident of the Yakima. I doubt the band were familiar with her. Not that she was famous.

I was going to make a breakthrough though. I found the website for The Belt of the Celts, a band from Halifax. Okay, the same city. Here it mentions that in 1999 Shawn Bing joined the band and that he had been drumming since the age of 14 when he got a snare drum while in hospital for an op to untwist his knackers. Then it says that he has played fro Neon Love Muscle, Skin Flower, The World Jones Made and Roberta Junk!! Okay! We got a name, we got the city. This is quite important!

That’s as much I could find about Roberta Junk. I wish I could find other recordings by them. Or any information about them. Anything. Like gigs they played. The names of the band members. Anything at all. This one song is great, it will leave you asking for more!

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Listen
Roberta Junk – How Many Friends?

I’m definitely jealous of all of those who will be able to attend the July 26th gig at The Lexington in London of four Sarah Records bands, Even as We Speak, Action Painting, Boyracer and Secret Shine. I have only seen two of them, Even as We Speak (which I saw once at NYC Popfest) and Secret Shine (who I have seen many times, first time in Berlin many many years ago). I could say I’ve heard Andy Hitchcock playing some Action Painting songs at Indietracks, but that is not the same of course. So yes, a chance to see the four bands is quite an opportunity! Lucky those of you who will. Also because of the dates it is very clear that some of these bands will play Indietracks. It seems pretty obvious that Even as We Speak and Boyracer would. So that would be a good thing for Indietracks, adding some indiepop credibility after all these years of booking the same old and whatever bands.

On other news…

The Spook School: our Edinburgh friends who are promoting their up and coming new album “Could it Be Different” have just unveiled a new video for the song “Body”. As you know the album is coming out on January 26th on Alcopop! in the UK and Slumberland in the US. This is the 2nd song that have been released to promote this new album after “Less Than Perfect”.

The Guests: I just heard their song “Climb that Ladder” that was shared by a few of my Indonesian friends on Facebook. I have never heard before this Philadelphia band before. It seems this classy song will be included in their forthcoming album “Popular Music” that will be released on February 9th. The band is formed by Christian Vogan on vocals, Alkiviades Meimaris (what a cool name!) on guitars, Florence Lin on synthetizers, Hart Seely on bass and Kyle Seely on drums. I checked them out on Bandcamp where they have more songs but none as good as their latest one. A mix of guitar pop and post punk that does sound fresh, and which they call communist propaganda in pop music form.

Beko Disques: the French label is no more. The label announced last Thursday that the label was done, fini. From 2009 to 2018 the label put out many releases and many were brilliant indiepop ones, like Moscow Olympics, The Royal Landscaping Society, Love Dance or Lost Tapes and more. We don’t know exactly why, but well, we wish the best to Boris Beko! That being said the Bandcamp will be available for a few more months where they will continue selling their records. But no new releases will happen after La Houle’s “Première vague” which is out today.

The Jangleberries: just discovered this Adelaide, Australia, band that is actually an offshoot of the Roadside Poppies! Wow, I know the Roadside Poppies, Matloob’s band which I was quite a fan back in the day. So how come I never heard the Jangleberries before? Don’t know! The band was formed in 2014 and their latest effort was “Boyhood Heroes” which is available on Bandcamp. This is a 12 song album of sweet jangle pop!

The Present Age: lastly a dreamy band from a place I’ve never heard before, Oshkosh in Wisconsin. The Present Age seem to be just a duo formed by Isaac and Logan Lamers and their latest release dates from June 29, 2017: a 7 song EP titled “Apology”. it is an interesting mix of post punk, dreampop, The Smiths, The Radio Dept. and so on. Sadly it doesn’t seem any of their releases, present or past, are available in any physical format, just digitally.  This is very good, I have now on repeat “The Loveliest Dream I’ve Ever Had”.

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Well I do think that today’s band will have a little bit information than the previous one. The funny thing is that I noticed that I uploaded to Youtube their song “Schoolboy Saint” back in 2010 and wrote on the description that I should write about them on the blog soon. Well, it wasn’t soon. It had to wait about what? 8 years? Don’t know how that happened, but anyways, it is better late than never they say.

I can’t recall how I discovered this band. I have this feeling that I might have seen their “Schoolboy Saint” 7″ on eBay being tagged with c86 by some seller. It might have been that, but I’m not sure. I do know that I bought the record blindly, without knowing what to expect or how they sounded. But I was very happy that I did so because when I finally played it, I was totally bowled over by it! Really, it is a great song! Worthy of appearing on The Leamington Spa series!

Of course the photo of the band on the back of the sleeve didn’t look much indiepop. Maybe they were into other music? I didn’t know anything about them at that time and I must have googled around and found they had a 12″ prior to the 7″. I don’t think Discogs was widely available then and I believe I couldn’t find a copy of it on eBay. And then years passed and kind of forgot about looking for more details about The Word. Yes, that is the prophetic name of this band. But now, I think, my chances are a bit better, and I hope to figure out at least part of the story of this band. So join me in this little pop archaeology project!

As I said I only own their last 7″ according to Discogs. To my surprise there is not just one other release, but two. There is an earlier 7″, dating from 1983 that is filed as a new wave, electronic pop, record. The single has two songs, on the A side there is “Colour It!” and on the B side we find “Her/Recurring”. It was released by Menace Music (WORD 001) which seems to have been the band’s own label. A few credits appear on Dicogs. We see that the engineer was Bill Clarke (who worked with Marc Almond and Dave Ball from Soft Cell), and the producers were Nyk Goss and Paul Singh. The songs were recorded at Box Studios on August 1983. The A side is actually available to listen on Youtube and it is a nice melancholic song, which definitely is not strictly indiepop but it is a fine pop song.

Their 12″, which two songs are also available to listen on Youtube, is much poppier! And much more enjoyable for us popkids of the world. I do see on Discogs that there were two editions for this record. One on their own Menace Music (WORD 002) and one on Abstract Sounds (ABS 031). Is it safe to say that the Menace Music one came out first and then Abstract Sounds liking it a lot offered to re-release it? Is that how the story went? Or not? In any case both versions came out in 1984 and included four songs, on the A side “Wide Awake“, “Shining Things”, while on the B side “Immaculate” and “Different”. Not sure if they had different art for the jacket but the one on Abstract is the one that has a photo of the band on the cover. Anyways, as I write these lines I’ve ordered a copy of this record. It is not pricey and I think you all could get a fine copy for a fair price.

Lastly, in 1985, the band released the fantastic 7″ “Schoolboy Saint”. It came out on Abstract Dance (AD 7) which was a British dance/disco label, a sister label to Abstract Sounds. How come they ended up on the dance sister label of Abstract! Maybe they consider it too “dancey” after this label had released The Three Johns or U.K. Subs? I’m joking. It doesn’t make much sense, but that’s how it went.

“Schoolboy Saint” was on the A side, and on the B side they had the song “World to The Girls”. The producer for this record was Tim Parry for the A side and the band for the B side. Tim Parry had been in bands like Modern Jazz or Blue Zoo, who had a UK hit single in 1982. Here finally we find out some names. Well, last names. The songs are credited to be written by Bahr/Cotten/MacDonald/Singh. That gives me some hints to continue the investigation. The back sleeve has the lyrics for the main track and also some extra credits. We know that on “Schoolboy Saint” strings were played by Carolyn Harley, that the engineers were Tony Bonner, Mike Banks and tommy Skrytch, and that the song was recorded at Flexible Response in Bradford and the famous Alaska Studios in London. “World to the Girls” in the other hand was engineered by Tony Bonner and recorded at Lion Studios in Leeds.

There is also a PO Box address for the band. And guess where they were from? Bradford.

Now thanks to Rateyourmusic I can put the first names to the last names: Jock Cotton, Jonathan MacDonald Binns and Paul Bahr. Those three were The Word. The three of them that appear on the photographs. And with this information I can check out if they appeared on compilations.

In 1984 the band appears with the song “Boys Choir” on the “Enemies of the State” LP comp released by 1 in 12 Records (1 in 12 003). According to the sleeve of this record, all bands that appear on it, had played in the 1in12 Club during 1983 and 1984. Where was this club? In Bradford too. The 1 in 12 Club refers to both a members’ club and the building in which it is based, in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Owned and run by its membership as a collective based upon anarchist principles, its activities include social and political campaigning, most visibly as a centre for the city’s May Day activities; the use of the building as a social centre; and the promotion of the performing arts – by hosting punk rock bands, and through its own drama collective.

Their three other compilation appearances were contributing the same song, “Different”. First in 1985 on the compilation “Never Mind The Jacksons… Here’s The Pollocks” released by Abstract Sounds (12 ABS 030) were they appear next to Hagar the Womb or The Gymslips. Second, on “Six Disques Bleu”, another Abstract Records compilation that happened to be a 6 LP box set, in a limited edition, released in 1987. There are all sorts of bands on this one, from The Mekons to The Sisters of Mercy. And last, on the 1988 compilation “British Airways” that was a double LP and CD compilation released by JCI & Associated Labels in the US. Here they appear with another interesting mix of bands, from Nikki Sudden to 1000 Mexicans.

I keep my research and found that the three band members, before being part of The Word had been involved in a band called Radio 5.  There were at least 3 7″s released by this band and 3 demo tapes. And it is thanks to this finding that we know that Jonathan MacDonald Binns played drums, Paul Bahr the bass and Jock Cotton the guitar and vocals. Did they play the same instruments in The Word?

Another band I noticed Cotton and MacDonald were involved was in Poppy Factory who were signed to Chrysalis around 1991 and released three singles (plus a 12″ promo). It is said that an album was planned but never happened.

The last mention I found about the word comes from a website by Guy Manning who has released many records in the past. Here he mentions that at the time he was in a band called Let’s Eat in Leeds he entered into a “Battle of the Bands” at the Halifax Town Hall were we strutted our stuff to an awed five people, two hacks, one cat and a potential ‘John Peel’ (the man never turned up… if he had, he wouldn’t have been playing the Fall for the last twenty years… Yes, folks, there were bigger noises in the World). Anyhow, we lost… or should I say came second to a very talented bunch of lads… THE WORD (Featuring Jon Binns on drums!!!. I continue reading his extensive biography page and notice that Jonathan MacDonald Binns is mentioned again  but now many years later, in 2001. Here he says Jonathan MacDonald Binns joined up on Drums & Percussion. Jon was with Chrysalis band POPPY FACTORY (and with THE WORD…see earlier) before retiring for a while…but we persuaded him to come back into the fray!

That’s all. We know then that Cotton and MacDonald were involved with music after The Word. What about Pahr? Nothing to be found. They were in a few bands, Radio 5 and also Poppy Factory. Actually I enjoy Poppy Factory! It is more of Madchester style I suppose, kind of reminds me of the Paris Angels. Check them out. Maybe this is why Abstract had released The Word under their dance label? Because they saw it in the future? Who knows. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to post about them sometime too. But what happened to The Word? What inspired them to write “Schoolboy Saint”? What are they up to now? Would be great to know their story!

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Listen
The Word – Schoolboy Saint

I bring you some news! Now you can pre-order the upcoming retrospective by The County Fathers on our website. As usual, as in all of our Cloudberry Cake Kitchen releases, the CD album comes in a custom digipak and includes liner notes by Mark Radcliffe. There are 13 songs on the album, which only 3 of them had been released previously! Very very excited about this release, I hope you are too!

In the next few weeks we will also be announcing our new 7″s that we will be releasing shortly. So keep an eye here on the blog or our Facebook page.

This week there are a few interesting news that are worth checking out!

The Soulboy Collective: new song, new video, by the fab German band. You can check out the song “You Should Have Kissed Me While You Had the Chance”  and its video, filmed on location at the village of Bad Gastein in Austria. This song will be part of a new album to be released by the band this March. The album will be titled “Snob Fatigue” but there is no information which label will be releasing it. Let’s keep an eye on them!

The Radio Dept.: on SoundCloud a new Radio Dept. song appeared. “Your True Name” sounds so good. It is a perfect slice of pop, but I have no clue what’s the plan with this song?! It seems they are no longer on Labrador Records, now they are on their own label which they have named Just So! instead. They seem very happy about this fact, it is said that when they announced this change they said “Yes, we’re finally indie for real”. True words there. Labrador doesn’t seem to be indie anymore. I do hope that this song gets released in some physical format as it is really good. On top of it all, the band is coming to NY on February 3rd. I hope the cold doesn’t make me feel lazy to go all the way to Brooklyn to see them once again!

Desperate Journalist: One of my favourite British bands is releasing a new 12″ on March 30th. “You Get Used To It” will be coming out with 5 brand new songs, one of which we can all stream and enjoy while we wait. “It Gets Better” is the name of the song, which incidentally also gives the name to the EP. The other four songs on the record are “Incandescent”, “Nothing Happens”, “About You” and “The Bomb”. Looking forward to it!

Pop Machine: this was quite a surprise! The label Cowly Owl! which was based between Sacramento and Paris released an indiepop cassette compilation back in 1997 titled “Pop Machine”. 20 years later this rare compilation is available to stream and download on Bandcamp. It is quite amazing as it is indeed a fantastic vignette of that period where there were so many great pop bands. You can find on it La Buena Vida (which is misspelled!), The Autocollants, Red Sleeping Beauty, Acid House Kings , and many manny more classic bands. For all of those nostalgic fans, this is truly heaven sent!

Modern Aquatic: Not sure how I found this Cincinnati band as they really don’t have any tags on BandCamp, I was just lucky. They self-proclaim themselves as indie rock, but to my ears they sound quite indiepop! They are jangly and seem to love good melodies. The band has a 6 song EP titled “Laurel Leaves” which as far as I know is only available digitally. The band is formed by Geovanny Esquivel, Kyle Kubiak, Max Maley, Anthony Maley and Chase Stephens.

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You saw the photo I used to open this post. It is not a band. It is a photo of Greenland. Sadly I couldn’t find any image that could be associated with this über obscure band. My common sense told me to just use a photo that kind of has some relationship with the band’s name.

Don’t worry, the band didn’t hail from Greenland. I still haven’t discovered any indiepop from what is the biggest island in the world. Maybe in some years there will be something, but for the time being I’m not familiar with any jangly sounds coming from Kalaallit Nunaat, the name the indigenous people give Greenland.

Is there anything called Greenland haze? Or was it just a random name. I wonder about this. Maybe the band members experienced haze in Greenland? That seems unlikely. Where were they from? There is just one clue about the whole thing and that is a tape compilation that doesn’t even appear on Discogs. The tape compilation name was “St. Johnstoun vs. The Rest of the World” and that is where I found for the first time the name Greenland Haze and got curious about it. The other bands on the compilation were household names, like The Bachelor Pad, The Driscolls, Fat Tulips, The Popguns or The Wedding Present. There were two names that were unfamiliar to me, Greenland Haze and The Ralf. But only for Greenland Haze I could find some sounds.

Well, just the one song. The same song that appeared on that compilation was on a SoundCloud account by Stephen Sweeney. The song is titled “Welcome”, and as I said appeared on this obscure compilation. It is a fine jangly slice of pop! But, there is nothing else at all on the web by them. So I’m thinking, is it safe to think that this Stephen Sweeney was part of the band?

The song was uploaded 4 years ago. There is a date for the song though, but marked with a question mark. It says 1988?; that would sound about right if I compare to the bands and the songs that appear on the cassette compilation. The SoundCloud account has another song, “November”, but it doesn’t sound at all like Greenland Haze’s track. So that might be a dead end.

There must be more recordings by the band. Can’t be just the one song. Maybe I could figure out more details if there was a sleeve for the tape available somewhere, but there isn’t. What I do know, is that the title of the tape gives us some important facts, St. Johnstoun is actually Perth, in Scotland. It is said that during the later medieval period the city was also called St John’s Toun or Saint Johnstoun by its inhabitants in reference to the main church dedicated to St John the Baptist. This name is preserved by the city’s football team, St Johnstone F.C.

So Perth against the world. That makes sense. We know that This Poison hailed from Perth and they are on the compilation. The Relations too. I found out that The Ralf were also from Perth. That makes it to three bands from the area. The other bands seem to hail from different places. That means what? That there is a 50% chance that Greenland Haze were from Perth. But I was to find confirmation, 100% confirmation, thanks to an interview I did on my blog to the Perth band Greenheart. They just mentioned Greenland Haze when asked about the scene in town: and Greenland Haze gigged extensively with their REM style. 

At least we got that. We know they were from Perth, Scotland. That they released one song on this tape compilation “St. Johnstoun vs. The Rest of the World” called “Welcome” and maybe one of the band members was called Stephen Sweeney. That’s all. Not more. Talk about obscure bands. Does anyone out there remembers them? Did they record any more songs? Any releases? What happened to them?!

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Listen
Greenland Haze – Welcome