So nice, I’m at home today. It is a holiday here in the US and I’m taking it easy. Hope you are having a nice Monday too, and wish you a good start of the week. As I write these lines I’m updating the website and now you can pre-order the new CD that we are releasing later this winter by The County Fathers. The tentative release date is March 15th but I’ll confirm it with you all that are interested soon. The album as you might have noticed includes the 3 songs from the one and only record they released, the “Lightheaded” 12″ that came out on Ugly Man, plus 10 more unreleased songs! I’m sure you all lovers of classic jangle pop will love this retrospective album!

Last week there were a few interesting news that are worth mentioning. So let’s start!

Linda Guilala: our Vigo friends have released a new song/video that will be part of a 7″ that is going to be released this 26th of January. The song is called “Primavera Negra” and it continues the path the band started in their latest album “Psiconautica”. It is a brilliant new song, and I’m having such a good time seeing Iván fooling around like a kid! Catchy, classy, I definitely will order this record!

Alborotador Gomasio: the Madrid based band is releasing a new album on the 19th, next week! It is going to be titled “Luz y Resistencia” and will be released by the Spanish label Limbo Starr. The band has just shared a new song on Youtube and I’m enjoying it a lot. “Agosto, Bailando el Caos” is the name of it and as I said will be included in this new release that will be available on vinyl LP and CD. Hopefully I can get this record when I visit Madrid Popfest!

Tiny Fireflies: one of my favourite US bands is Tiny Fireflies. That is no surprise. On top of that I can call both Kristine and Lisle my friends. I was even lucky to have a few songs on different 3″CDs on Cloudberry in the past. True, that 7″ by them is still one that hasn’t happened, but hey, they band is self-releasing a 7″ very soon that has two songs, “2040” and “Nothing“. You can check both lovely tracks on their SoundCloud. Dreamy and timeless, and supposedly we will all be able to order the record at the end of February. That sounds like a long wait, but I’m sure patience will pay off! Looking forward to have this record on my collection. Oh! And the artwork for it looks very cool too!

The Hit Parade: I haven’t ordered yet the new The Hit Parade 7″. That is not good. Where is it being sold in the US? I should check Jigsaw. If not I hope someone can bring me a copy from the UK to Madrid? Maybe. If not I will just have to order it from a UK store. Some weeks ago I recommended the A side, “Oh Honey I…”, now it is time to listen to the B side, “History of Art”, which is available to stream on Youtube. It even has the lyrics for singing along. The song is one of melancholy, it is not the upbeat bouncy Hit Parade, but a slow, bittersweet, one, classic sounding Julian.

The Catherines: this one-man band from Hamburg has already been recommended on the blog too. But I found out they have a new song on BandCamp called “If You Knew What’s Behind Her Smile You Wouldn’t Want to Make Her Happy” and I really liked it. Jangly and upbeat, it is a nice cool song ready for anyone to add in a CD mix swap (it’s been a while since I’ve done one of those! I would love to do one soon!).

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It has been many years since I heard Friends Ahoj for the first time. It was just the one song, “Have You Seen That Girl?” that was uploaded to Youtube by my then Japanese friend Takashi. He was also kind enough to prepare me some Mp3 folders on dropbox with a lot of obscure indiepop goodies. That was when he was friendly, not competitive with me. At some point, as many readers on the blog know, this Japanese indiepop collector decided to stop sharing songs with me and complain that I didn’t give him credit on the bands that appeared on the blog. Of course this wasn’t true, I did give credit when it was due, but well, I guess he assumed one could only find music if it was through him. Strange people one encounters in the indiepop world indeed.

Anyways, I played many times this song. I remember it was the first time I had transferred Mp3s to my phone, then an iPhone, for a trip I was going to do to London. I remember riding the London red buses playing all these songs he had shared, and I clearly remember being on the bus around Tufnell Park and listening to Friends Ahoj. It is quite interesting how a song can transport you to a moment, be part of a particular memory.

I liked the song, but the truth is that years later I was to hear the other song on the one and only 7″ they released, “Grandstand Girls”, and I must say that I like this song better! How come if this song doesn’t connect me to anything, doesn’t bring up any memories. Well, it is a strange thing, and I don’t have a proper answer. I like both songs, but I enjoy “Grandstand Girls” more, at least right now!

I read someones copy came with German candy. Did all of them? The single sided single came out in 1993 on the Ice-Cube Toneporter label (ICE 5) with the two songs I mentioned as a double A sided single. I don’t see any other releases listed for this label but it does say that this was a sister label to Eiswürfel Tonträger who had released singles by Die Busfahrer or I, Ludicrous. Now that I think of it, I did interview Die Busfahrer time ago and Mathias Hill, the man behind the man, did tell me it was his own label. Maybe he remembers the Friends Ahoj? He did mention that some of the copies of this record include a stamp out of G. Gottschling’s collection and a pack of ahoj-brause. Some kind of an off-shoot from the Merricks, with Günter Gottschling singing, quite charming, very 60s-pop.

The single was released as a limited edition. Not sure how many copies, but I’m still missing a copy myself! The record sleeve also seems to have come in different colors. I’ve seen it in yellow, white and even blue. On the back sleeve there are lyrics for both songs. I can’t see any band lineup but it does say that both songs were recorded during a warm spring in 1993 in studio one at Radio Hartwich and that the artwork was designed by B-A-Wake factory.

Even though there was only one 7″ the band was involved in a handful of compilations according to Discogs. Not surprisingly some of them came on the aforementioned Eiswürfel Tonträger label. On the second release by this label (EIS 2) from 1992, the “Wagweiser Durch’s Eiswürfelland” tape compilation the band contributes the song “Dark Rooms”. Something interesting to mention is that their name appears as Friends Ahoi. With an I instead of a J. Thanks to this compilation, were all bands are listed with the city they are from, we get to know that the band hailed from Wolfratshausen.

Wolfratshausen is a town of the district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen, located in Bavaria, Germany. The town had a population of 18,122 as of 31 December 2014. The first mention of “Wolveradeshusun” appears in documents from the year 1003. About 100 years later, Otto II, the Graf of Deißen-Andechs, built a castle on a hill overlooking the valley. The castle was destroyed on 7 April 1734 when lightning struck the tower storing black powder. Stones from the ruins were transported to Munich where they were used to build the Residenz.

In 1993 the band was to appear on another tape compilation, now on the “Frischer Morgentau” comp released by Steinpilz Tonträger (STEIN 1). I remember seeing many copies of this tape at Pete Hahndorf’s place in Bremen. Might it be the label of his brother? My memory tells me yes, but I can’t confirm it. Friends Ahoi (again with an I) appears with the song “Step by Step”.

1994 would see two compilation appearances. On Eiswürfel Tonträger’s “Die Schönste Platte Der Welt” CD compilation the band appears with “We Might Be Giants” and “The Man Who Sold Manhattan (For a Dime)”. Two songs. I see our friend Krischan wrote the liner notes for this CD! I should track this record down. The other compilation I was to mention was the “Ein Spätsommercocktail” 7″ released by Steinpilz Tonträger (STEIN 2). Here they contribute the song “Mushroom Seller”.

Lastly there is another compilation that has no date on Discogs. “Limited Europopsongs” was released by Meller Welle Produkte (MEL 21) as a tape compilation. It was very limited, just 100 copies and it came along with the first 100 copies of the compilation tape “Europopsongs” (MEL 20). Anyways, on this tape the band appears with two more songs, “My Woody’s Called Woody” and “Drink To Me”.

That’s about it. So I count, 8 songs? That’s all they released. But what is itching me is that I can’t seem to find any band members names aside from Günter Gottschling. I found where they were from, but that’s all. There is of course information about Günter and his involvement with the Merricks, but nothing about Friends Ahoj. I do find plenty of Japanese websites mentioning the single, seems indiepop fans over there love it, playing it at DJ nights. But I can’t seem to find anything else, not even in German. So maybe some of you who remember them can help solve the mystery behind this obscure Bavarian band?

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Listen
Friends Ahoj – Grandstand Girls

So you know the good news! We are releasing “Lightheaded”, a retrospective compilation by the Manchester band The County Fathers!! Very excited about it of course! It is part of our Cloudberry Cake Kitchen and will be our 10th release in this series. We are very thrilled about it, and I hope you too. There are 13 songs in total and we hope for it to be out by March 15th! You can check out the opening track “Lightheaded” now in our SoundCloud. Preorder button coming soon!

The Sherbet Fountains: I’ve been enjoying a lot the track that Laz from Bubblegum Lemonade made available on Youtube by his 80s band The Sherbet Fountains. I was always curious about these songs, since I heard Bubblegum Lemonade  for the first time on Myspace and found out about his previous projects like The Search Engines (top stuff!). Anyways, check out the Sherbet Fountains song “Unpredictable“. Doesn’t it leave you wanting for more? For those curious there is a small bio: The Sherbet Fountains were, from left to right, Maggie (violin / drums), Gordon (drums), Ally T (vocals), Laz (guitar), David (bass / keyboards). They played gigs in and around Kilmarnock, Scotland during 1987 and 1988. Would be very cool to do an interview don’t you think?!

Luby Sparks: I missed out their “Thursday” video, now it is the first time I see it and well, the song is brilliant as all everything I’ve heard. The video though, is not very exciting I must say. There’s a hand on a cake and some words appear, on the screen. I don’t understand it much. Anyways, thought sharing it! This debut CD, “Thursday” was a limited release by WDR/LR2 and included 4 songs “Thursday”, “Pop”, “1979 (Demo)” and “Water (Demo)”. I should try to find it!

For Tracy Hyde: I believe For Tracy Hyde released their second album. I need to track it down, I think it is called “He(R)” and has 10 songs. One of them is “Underwater Girl” for which the band made a video to promote the new record! This is one of my favourite contemporary Japanese indiepop bands since I discovered them last year. Great melodies and bright chiming guitars, what else can one ask for?

Death Valley Rally: I wasn’t aware of this Norfolk, Virginia, band until looking for new sounds on Bandcamp I stumbled upon their Part Time Punks Live Session. The band have releases that date back to 2013, so they are not new. But well, I’ve only “met” them. This live session has 5 songs, “Cutting the Distance”, “Northern Lights”, “Her Sparkle Dims”, “Until it Melts Away” and “Tick Tick Boom!”. A bit shoegaze, but with a nice feel for melodies.

Kokkamango: lastly I found this kind of novelty, a Malaysian tweepop band formed by Vesta on vocals, KOKKA (laptop and synth) and Chris (guitar). They have a 3 song EP available on Bandcamp titled “星期天适合。。。” They say they are heavily influenced by Spanish and Swedish indiepop. The bad news though is that these songs date from 2014. Are they still going??! It seems so! According to their Facebook which they have been updating during all 2017.

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Seems like the bands to be featured this year are quite varied. So far. It hasn’t been on purpose though, I post about bands I feel curious at the moment without any particular agenda. Of course, I must like their music. That’s the only rule I follow.

Most of the times I write about bands I don’t own their records. Why? Because I have probably heard one or two songs by the band thanks to the internet and I’m curious about listening to the rest. Also because I feel I don’t know them. It is different. If I own a record I feel that I kind of know the band, even if there is little information on the sleeve. If I don’t own the record the band becomes much more of a mystery. That is the case with the Australian band The Silent Reach who as far as I know only released one 12″ back back in the day. It was a self-release so it doesn’t seem it is an easy record to find.

What do I know about that 12″. To be honest, very little. Mostly what’s on Discogs. That it was self-released with a catalog number SR12001 in 1989 and included three songs. On the A side there was the brilliant “Melancholy Love Song” and “Moving” and on the B side the song “Teddy Bears”. That’s it. Not much more. Of course I could tell you that on the cover there’s this photograph of some leafless trees. But can’t say much about the back cover as I’ve never seen it.

There are also no compilation appearances listed.

As you can expect there is not much on the web about them. No reviews. No blog entries in general. I do find a small review by a Japanese fan on Mixi.jp. This person compares the sound of the band to that of The Razorcuts or The Servants as well as Brighter. He mentions it has a beautiful sound.

But I am going to hit the jackpot soon. I keep googling and googling until I find two important pages. One, a Facebook page. Two, a SoundCloud page.

There is not much information on these websites but there is important one. For example now I know the band started in 1986 in Melbourne. Of course, the land of so many fantastic pop bands. It also makes me think and wonder when where there be a proper compilation of the jangle pop, the indiepop, of that time period of Australian indiepop. I still hope one day that project Pete Hahndorf for Twee.net had, to release “The Sound of Glen Waverley” compilations, becomes a reality. I would have done it years ago if only Egg Records didn’t tell me they were going to do it. But as you see, it was never done. And now I’m kind of working on other projects and don’t plan getting involved in compilations. Maybe in a few years if no one has done it yet.

Anyways… we also get to know the band lineup though we don’t know exactly which instruments each of them played. We see that the band members were Andrew Lawrence, Scott MacKenzie, Greg McPherson, Stephen Zafir, Martin Homberger and Mathew Homberger. It says that there were a couple of changes and in the end they were just a 4 piece. Who were in that final lineup? Doesn’t say.

The SoundCloud page offers the opportunity to listen to the 3 songs on the record. But that’s not all. There are 11 more songs available to stream!! That is fantastic! And they are ordered chronologically.

I am not sure how they are grouped. Maybe by demos? Or recording session? The thing is that there is under the title “S” the songs “Introduction”, “I’ve Been Dying”, “Flash”, “Settling Things” and “Still. Under the name “Narcissus” there is “Three”, “Train” and “She Fall”. And lastly under the umbrella of “Again” there are 3 more songs, “Crystalline”, “Fall” and “Endeavour”.

My next instinct it is to find more information about the band members. I couldn’t find anything else by the Homberger brothers (they were brothers, right?) but my next search, Stephen Zafir, does give me one result. I see that him and also Scott McKenzie were involved in a band called Verdaine since 2006. It does seem that they haven’t updated the site since 2013 though, so not sure if they are still going on.

As you can imagine, that’s all I was going to find about them. No gigs mentioned. No other releases mentioned. Or compilation appearances. If they were involved with any other bands before or after. Their memory just in obscurity. Why? Maybe some of you remember them? Would be interesting to know what happened with them? What are they up to now? How come they self-released that great record of theirs? Any clues to any of these questions?!

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Listen
The Silent Reach – Melancholy Love Song

When this post is up it will have already happened. I talk about this LA Indiepop Party I was invited on Facebook. It is happening on January 7th at the Grand Star Jazz Club. But, the good thing about it is that there are two bands playing that I wasn’t familiar with, so I checked them out!

Suzie True: there’s only one song on their Bandcamp but it is quite a winner! The song is called “Rat Kid” and one kind of melts with the sweet vocals of Lexi, who also plays bass. The band is just not her of course, there is Dustyn Hiett on guitar and Sarah on drums. There is not much more information about the band, just that they are a self proclaimed sad girl 3 piece pop band from Los Angeles.

Fragile Gang: they took their band name from a Pastels song. That says a lot right? The Los Angeles band is formed by Matt Schmitz on drums, Clint Newsom on bass, Arlo Klahr on guitar and vocals and Aisling Cormack on guitar and vocals as well. They have a 9 song album, which is quite varied, you get from introspective melancholic songs to upbeat more punky ones, and is  available on Bandcamp. It is titled “For Esme” and was released back in 2014. A long time ago indeed! What have they been doing since? Would be interesting to know if they have any new songs or releases.

But that is not all, I could find some more discoveries (I’m trying to keep it at 5 per post).

Lilac: I heard from the Stockholm band just before Christmas, but as I was going away I couldn’t check out their new EP. Well, time to make amends and have a listen. I loved their previous effort and recommended it, but now there are 4 new shoegazy/dreampop songs available and well, I let myself enjoy them. “Carbines”, “Pale”, “Fever” and “Slow Shapes” make the new “Slow Shapes EP” that is available at the moment only digitally. My favourite song I think is the opening track, “Carbines”, with chiming guitars and an upbeat and catchy melody. Good stuff! Hope to see them release a proper record sometime soon!

The Raft: I’ve recommended two previous EPs by the Neston, UK, band on the blog. Today I have the chance to recommend the third one that is available on Bandcamp. Titled “Orion EP” and it may as well be my favourite so far. The EP opens with the wonderful “Blue and Blue” which sounds timeless and classic, a brilliant indiepop song. The other three songs are great too, there is “Orion”, “Into You” and “My Elusive Friend”. Looking forward to the next release by Phil Wilson, the man behind this one man band.

The Still: another fine Tokyo band in the horizon. The Still have a 4 song EP titled “Evergreen” that does sound great. It opens with “Evergreen” and then we get to enjoy “Film”, “Slumber” and “(We Used to Spend Time Together at the) Beach”. Not much info on the Bandcamp, so can’t say much about them aside that their jangly guitars are up my street.

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Time for classic C86, jangly pop, from England. Time for The Enormous Room.

I have to say I don’t know much about them, aside that they released a 12″ and a flexi back in the mid 80s. So why don’t you come along and join me through my “research” about this obscure band.

I suppose they took their name after The Enormous Room (The Green-Eyed Stores), a 1922 autobiographical novel by the poet and novelist E. E. Cummings about his temporary imprisonment in France during World War I. Cummings served as an ambulance driver during the war. In late August 1917 his friend and colleague, William Slater Brown (known in the book only as B.), was arrested by French authorities as a result of anti-war sentiments B. had expressed in some letters. When questioned, Cummings stood by his friend and was also arrested. While Cummings was in captivity at La Ferté-Macé, his father received an erroneous letter to the effect that his son had been lost at sea. The cable was later rescinded, but the subsequent lack of information on his son’s whereabouts left the elder Cummings distraught. Meanwhile, Cummings and B. had the bad luck to be transported to La Ferté only five days after the local commissioners in charge of reviewing cases for trial and pardon had left – and the commissioners were not expected back until November. When they finally did arrive, they agreed to allow Cummings, as an official “suspect”, a supervised release in the remote commune of Oloron-Sainte-Marie. B. was ordered to be transferred to a prison in Précigné. Before Cummings was to depart, he was unconditionally released from La Ferté due to U.S. diplomatic intervention. He arrived in New York City on January 1, 1918. Cummings thus spent over four months in the prison. He met a number of interesting characters and had many picaresque adventures, which he compiled into The Enormous Room. The book is written as a mix between Cummings’ well-known unconventional grammar and diction and the witty voice of a young Harvard-educated intellectual in an absurd situation. The title of the book refers to the large room where Cummings slept beside thirty or so other prisoners. However, it also serves as an allegory for Cummings’ mind and his memories of the prison – such that when he describes the many residents of his shared cell, they still live in the “enormous room” of his mind.

That would make sense, right? What else do we know straight off the bat? We know they released two records, both in 1986. At the moment I don’t own any sadly, but I’ll try to make sure to get them sometime soon. I’m not sure which one came out first. So let’s start with the “100 Different Words” 12″ released by Sharp Records (CAL 5). This label based in Peterborough and the story says that it was owned by Peter Sharp who also ran a supermarket in the 80s. Aside from The Enormous Room, the label also released the brilliant The Passmore Sisters.

The 12″ by The Enormous Room had four songs, two on each side. The A side had the wonderful “100 Different Words” and “Sylvia’s Children”. While the B side had “Melanie and Martin” and “You Wrote a Book”. The record was recorded in London and engineered by Chris Mansbridge. Mansbridge had experience in production working with bands like The Blow Monkeys, The Lurkers, Family Fodder and even the aforementioned The Passmore Sisters.

The cover of the record has a green and black photo of the band. The back cover has the band lineup as well as a few credits. The lineup for this record was Jay Derbyshire on bass guitar, Robbie McCarthy on drums, Duncan Paterson on guitars and Christopher Darke on vocals and rhythm guitar. Dave Annal is credited for playing organ and clavichord. The sleeve was designed by Peter. Yes, just Peter, no last name. Songs are credited t Darke, Paterson, Derbyshire and McCarthy.

The same band lineup recorded their other release, which happened to be a flexi with two songs “I Don’t Need You” and “Melanie And Martin”. I’m not sure if the second song was a different version of the one that appeared on the 12″ or not. This record also happened to be the first ever release on the Medium Cool label. From the back of the record we learn something very important, the band hailed from Watford, home of the Hornets. Also it is important to notice that Watford is quite close to London, only 24 km away from central London. That must have been convenient for the band to play gigs and possibly to sign for Medium Cool who were based in Brockley, in London. On the back sleeve there are also thanks to Dave Annal again for playing clavichord and to Graham and Chris at Elephant Studios. I suppose that is where the songs were recorded.

Discogs lists two compilation appearances. The first one dates from 1987, a LP compilation released by Food Records (Bite 5) titled “Imminent 5”. This was actually the 5th and last compilation of a series that started in 1985 and that were compiled by someone called Andy Hurt. At first I thought he ran the label too but according to Discogs it was David Balfe who ran Food who would later become pretty big releasing Blur. Anyhow, The Enormous Room appeared on this record with a song that wasn’t available on any of their releases, “Here Today”. That means we know at least of 6 original songs of the band were out there. On this record a bunch of other classic bands appear like The Jack Rubies, Yeah Jazz, The Primitives, the BMX Bandits and more.

Their second compilation appearance is more of a footnote. The song “I Don’t Need You” appears last, on the 3rd CD, of the expanded C86 boxset that was released by Cherry Red in 2014. Of course there is no information whatsoever about the band on the booklet and they were probably included on the record because Cherry Red owns all Medium Cool recordings. This is quite a shame for fans like me because that means a retrospective by this band will probably never happen as Cherry Red won’t release it as it is not a big band and Cherry Red won’t let other labels do it unless they pay unreasonable amounts of money. On top of that, the label sold the rights of the songs without bands knowing so. At least the band’s I’ve talked to in the past told me so.

There’s nothing else on Discogs about them, but I can definitely Google and try to find any other details about the band. First thing I find is a mention of them on Krister’s old blog “Heaven is Above Your Head”. Here I learn that my good friend Mark Freeth from The Mayfields actually failed an audition for The Enormous Room before he joined The Mayfields!

What else? On the Vinyl Destination blog I see a comment mentioning a 1986 gig in Oxford at a venue called Freuds where The Bodines, Miaow and The Enormous Room played. But not much else.

I will try then to look for the band members, maybe they continued playing music? I couldn’t find them. Maybe only Dave Annal on Facebook who seems to be a fan of Everton, but then he wasn’t part of the band, only credited to clavichord and organ. So yeah, no luck.

What happened to them then? Why only 2 records and both in 1986? What did they do after? Did they make more music? Are there any more recordings by the band? What I’ve heard I really like. I hope one day there is a proper retrospective album by them. Do you remember them? Did you ever see them play live? Would love to know their story!

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Listen
The Enormous Room – 100 Different Words

Happy happy 2018!! Now this post is being written in 2018. Believe me. All these music discoveries, even if they were released in previous years, have been found by me this year. So that counts right? This year too will mark the 10th anniversary of the blog. Isn’t that something? How should we celebrate? Is there a cool ingenious, creative, way that you may think of? I think it needs a good brainstorming.

Well, well, so let’s start. Let’s see what I can find!

Glass Arcades: will this be the last time I recommend the band? It depends on how prolific the one-man band from Cardiff is really. These 3 last songs under the title of “Cwtch” are to be part 6 out of 6 in a series of monthly releases. So maybe this will be the last time Anton Salmine’s music is featured on the blog? I hope not. I really enjoy his tunes, and in the case of “Post-Everything”, “Death/Intermission” and “On Happiness” I can say there is no exception. Dreamy as always.

Magic Bullets: the San Francisco band has made available a tape titled “Young Man’s Fancy Cassette” which is actually an unreleased album that was recorded between 2007 and 2009 just before their second album came out. The album has 11 songs (including a cover of The Lines’ classic “Nerve Pylon”). A very fine release, sadly only on tape, by people that went to form bands that I’m not really fan of at all! How funny. It is true here that I like their “early work” much much more. I hope it gets a CD release at least.

Breeze: their “Record” came out on December 29th on Hand Drawn Dracula Records from Toronto. Breeze are also form Toronto and are formed by Josh Korody on vocals, guitars, Kyle Connolly on guitar, bass and vocals and Shawn Dell on drums and keyboards. It seems the record is only available digitally, but if you like some upbeat jangly tunes, here are 11 very fine tracks!

Candy Opera: some unexpected news from Firestation Records. The unknown band Candy Opera will be releasing an album titled “45 Revolutions Per Minute” on February 23rd. It will come out on vinyl (16 songs) and CD (18 songs). All of these songs were recorded between early 1983 and 1993 in various studios in Liverpool. Who were they? How did they end up on Firestation after all these years? Did they release anything back in the day? Many questions arise, but the truth is that I’m really enjoying the two songs available to stream on the label’s SoundCloud. Check “Diane” and “What a Way to Travel“.

Lucie, Too: this fab Japanese girl band has a new video out for the song “Lucky” and it is brilliant! Now, how do I get their music? On the Youtube video it says the band is on ThisTime Records but I went to the website and couldn’t find the record. Maybe I should look somewhere else! Or maybe, there is no record and this song is only available digitally? That might be the case. The band hails from Utsunomiya and is formed by Kanako Sekizawa, Naho Shibahara and Chisato Kokubo. Hope to hear more from these girls!

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Just before 2017 was over I bought the only 7″ that the Swedish band Dynamo Propeller released. I had seen their name on Twee.net and was curious about them as they were around in the late 80s, a time where Swedish indiepop wasn’t really a thing.

Luckily I was able to listen on Youtube to the two songs that are included in the record, “Meeting” on the A side and “Wintertime” on the flipside. They were proper guitar pop tunes, with boy/girl vocals, and this made my curiosity even bigger. Who were they? From where in Sweden did they come from? What happened to them? Weren’t there more releases really? I had no clue. The enigmatic cover, with the black and white photography of two strange looking kids, only added to the mystery.

I found a copy of the record for a very fair price on Discogs. I believe it is not complicated to do so. The record came out in 1989 on the Hot Stuff label (COOL 5). I have a few records by this label which was not only a label but an important mailorder and distributor in Sweden. They were based in the city of Älmhult which I still haven’t visited. I read that this small city is quite important in Sweden as the first ever IKEA was built, thus you can check out IKEA museum there. Also Carl Linneaus was born in an area called Råshult which is part of Ämhult municipality.

On the back cover there is not much information about the band. Both music and lyrics are credited to Dynamo Propeller. Where would I find more information about the band? It was on Youtube that I was going to find some more details about the band. Yes, while I played “Meeting” one more time I noticed that on the “related videos” tab some Dynamo Propeller songs were appearing. They were unknown to me. Were they by the same band? They were on a different account. But maybe. I had to have a look.

The first song I heard there was the song “So Fine“. It is a guitar pop song. That is true. It is not as good as the ones on the record, but I think I’m on the right track. There are credits for the musicians and they have Swedish last names. That is definitely a good thing, I might be on the right track. I also notice that this song comes from a 1989 demo tape. The dates match. This must be the same Dynamo Propeller. In that case then, G. Hausenkamp sang and played bass, T. Gudmundsson played guitar, M. Sköld the drums, M. Persson sound FX and P.O. Valastig (Nilsson) bass.

There is also “Rotten Bird“, “Overkill“, “A Room in Vain” (where Gudmundssen plays cello), “A Life in Anguish“, “Like Passions Remember” and “Spit on the Floor“, all from the aforementioned 1989 demo tape.

Also that same account has a song by a band called Gargoyle. This song called “Freeze Dried” dates from the 1990s and here we get some more details about Dynamo Propeller. First of all we see that Gargoyle was based in Malmö. Does this mean Dynamo Propeller was based there too? Probably. The other important information we get is that a many of the members of Dynamo Propeller were in Gargoyle. We also learn their first names. Mathias Sköld, Torbjörn Gudmundsson, Göran Hausenkamp and P.O. Nilsson (Valastig) played in this band too. Only M. Persson is missing from the Dynamo Propellers.

But I could find Magnus Leif Persson on Soundcloud thanks that he had uploaded to SoundCloud the song “Like Passions Remember“. Fantastic! Here I was to learn that this is a 4channel version of the song that was recorded at the basement of the Studio XX artist-collective in Malmö in 1988. Ok, that confirms it. They were from Malmö.

On the SoundCloud I notice that Magnus is now based in Stockholm. Maybe after Dynamo Propeller he moved there and that’s why he wasn’t in Gargoyle? He has two other songs there by the bands Pölsa and DIMWITS. I suppose these were his own bands too.

One last find on the web about the band comes from the Swedish Music Collecting website Musikon. There are a few details about the band. For example that the two songs on the 7″ were recorded and mixed at Ljudstudio Holken in Älmhult. There is also a quote from Per, who ran Hot Stuff, saying that Dynamo Propeller were students at the time of the recordings. That he can’t remember them much, that they only had a brief contact with him, just for the 7″. That there were four guys and one girl. That he hadn’t heard from them since.

I keep looking for more information. I see that there is a Swedish artist named Göran Hausenkamp. There are many of his paintings available for auction. Is it the same Göran as in the band? Maybe. I could find a small bio were it mentions he was born in 1962 and lived in Lund between 1986 and 1987 and then in Malmö. Things match.

What about the other members? I don’t have it as clear, maybe Torbjörn Gudmundsson is an architect, or maybe not. Mathias Sköld could be a composer and sound artist or not. Not easy to confirm my hunches.

I wonder what’s the story behind this band. Seems they didn’t leave much, only a demo tape and 2 songs on a 7”. Are there more recordings? Where did they play gigs? Who did they support or who supported them? Why did they split? What sort of music where they into at the time? It seems like a very good story waiting to be told.

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Listen
Dynamo Propeller – Meeting

Happy new year! Happy 2018!! Because I wanted to start as soon as possible writing on the blog I’m kind of cheating by writing this article in advance. I’m only getting back from Mexico on January 1st, but kind of late. So as I want this post to be live on the 2nd I did my indiepop research just before traveling. So there might be some Christmas songs (I know it is over but maybe you want to save them for next year?) or other dated things, we’ll see. Just enjoy these cool indiepop news I have for you.

And to start of course is the tracklist for the mighty new The Sound of Leamington Spa volume. Yes! Firestation Records has unveiled the twenty tracks that will be on the record that will be released on double vinyl and CD on February 23rd! It is said that the vinyl version has one secret bonustrack. That is kind of not the best news for me as I just wanted the CD, now I need to get both formats. I don’t want to be overcritical but I’d prefer for these sort of releases to have the same tracks for both versions! I don’t mind if an album has a different tracklist in CD and in vinyl, but something as important as these compilations, well, I’m not that keen in that idea!! They are a document of the times, it should keep it straight for all! Anyways, the 20 songs are (not counting the secret one of course):
1. The Liberty Thieves – The Smile On Your Face
2. Rorschach – Gabriel
3. Windy Miller – Win By Miles
4. The Believers – Save The Planet
5. And So To Bed – Around My Neck
6. Things In General – Goodbye To Happiness
7. Jim Jiminee – Sleeping Once Again
8. Peppermint Parlour – Falling
9. The Last Peach – Golden Shower
10. Peruvian Hipsters – Tony Hadley
11. Shame – Real Tears
12. The Daisychain Connection – Mood Swings
13. The Bedflowers – Making Out In Public Places
14. The Hypocrites – Nothing To Add
15. Black And White Lovers – Passion Of Mine
16. Stranger Than Fiction – The Realization
17. Beware The Dog – Nasty Things
18. The Mechanical Hearts – Southside Blues
19. The Monkey Run – Bats
20. The Caz Carnaby Five – To Believe Is Everything

Looks good, doesn’t it? Some of the bands have been featured here in the blog. Maybe more than half of them actually! And many of them with interviews! So that’s why I’ve linked to the article pages on the blog so you can learn a bit more about them.

So what else have I found?

The Flatmates: a bit late for me to post this indeed, but . The Flatmates have just uploaded a new song called “Come On, Santa!” which you can stream or buy from the Local Underground BandCamp. The song sounds more like a Lisa Bouvier song than a Flatmates song so if the name thing doesn’t bother you, it is a very enjoyable song.

The Stems: well, this doesn’t has much publicity it seems, but just by luck I stumbled upon the Citadel Records mailorder and saw that their album “At First Sight Violets Are Blue” is being reissued for its 30th anniversary in a limited digipak edition that includes 3 bonus tracks! It came out on November 10th and it is said that a vinyl version will be released sometime this 2018!

Shy Boys: at the time I’m writing this there are only 9 copies available of their self-titled 7″ Box Bedroom Rebels Records. This lovely jangly release has 8 songs in total and it seems 6 of them have already been released before. According to the description on BandCamp the band should have been on Sarah or Postcard. Don’t know about that. But that there are some good moments here, there are like in the standout track “Life is Peachy”.

Seafang: lastly the Saint Petersburg, Florida, have two brand new songs on their BandCamp and they are all Christmas-y Check out “Happy When It Snows” and “You Trashed My Christmas” and add them to your Christmas mix!

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bell cow: a cow, especially the lead cow of a herd, having a bell attached to a collar around its neck so that the herd can be located easily.

I thought starting the year with Flower Bellcow, a band whose sole release is still on my Discogs wantlist! Maybe someone can help me track down a copy of their “Thing of Every Day” 7″!

I first heard of this Japanese band on a compilation released by Shelflife Records in 2001 titled “Picnic Basket (A Shelflife International op Compilation)” (LIFE 020). On this CD the band was in very good company, you could find songs by bands like The Pearly Gatecrashers, Pinkie, Postal Blue or One Night Suzan among others. Flower Bellcow’s song “Thing of Every Day” is the seventh track on the album.

I loved the song immediately, the quirky vocals, the fun trumpets and the very catchy melody. I wanted to know more about them, who they were? if they had any other releases? Discogs was going to be my first stop into this indiepop investigation…

The first thing I notice is that in 1999 they had one song called “Pastel Mood” on a tape compilation called “Galaxy Xmas” released by Galaxy Train in Japan (GAL-006). I have never heard this Christmas-themed compilation, but looks fantastic even though I only know a few bands on it like Watoo Watoo, Girlboy Girl or The Skywriters.

That same year, probably before that compilation, the Galaxy Train label released their one and only release: “Thing of Everyday” 7″ (GAL 005). This record had three songs, the title song on the A side and “Rewarded Scapegoat” and “Consolation” on the B side.

I try to find more information of course and stumble upon a Galaxy Train website with the catalog. On it there is like an essay link where I supposed there was going to be more information about the band. Indeed there is sort of an article written by someone called Hosoda. He says that the first time he heard the b and was at a showcase of guitar pop bands. At the time he thought of Flower Bellcow as a “soft psychedelic bubblegum” that was influenced by Swedish indiepop. But aside from that there is really no information about the band, like who were the members or where in Japan they were based. Or even where was this showcase held!

I found a geocities page next. This one is for Galaxy Train events. Flower Bellcow played many of them it seems. The first one they played was the 2nd event where they shared the bill with Peatmos and Smiley at the West Dart Club. Their next one was the 6th Galaxy Train event where they played with Red Go-Cart and Tricorollars at the Club Rock’N’Roll.

On the 7th event the band played with Red Go-Cart, Tricorollars and Alien Rubish. The 8th event saw the band share the gig with Chain Letter and Poussin* at the West Dart Club. At that same venue the 9th event was held. Flower Bellcow played alongside De Kooning, Clean Boy* Messy Girl and Strawberry Land. And then the 10th event saw the bands Flower Bellcow, Poussin*, Hour Musik and Apartment Star. That was the last time we see the band play these events. Nonetheless, the last Galaxy Train event listed, the 18th one on April 30th 2001 at the West Dart Club, we see that a band called Snowball is being mentioned to have Flower Bellcow members. What does this mean? I look into the Galaxy Train catalogue on Discogs to find that Snowball also appeared on the “Galaxy Xmas” tape comp with the song “We Took Their Respective Seat”. There are no proper releases by Snowball but also appearances on two other compilations, on the “Galaxy Beach” tape comp and ont he “Pop Jingu Volume 3” released by Clover Records. So there was definitely some overlapping between the bands in 1999 but it does seem that Snowball continued playing after Flower Bellcow as no more in 2001? Or maybe both bands were still going on. Sadly I can’t confirm either theory as I don’t know the band member’s names and who were in both bands. Or even there is the possibility that all members were in both bands! Who knows!

I found a blog called “Le Petitmec Réfectoire” which is obviously written in Japanese. I use Google Translate to try to figure things out where Flower Bellcow is mentioned. I’m not entirely sure what it says, but I think I can say, thanks to this article that the band actually hailed from the city of Nagoya. Can anyone confirm me this?!

I keep digging and digging. Hooray! I think I found another two songs by the band! The songs “Holiday in the Sun” and “My Small Circle” were released on a CD compilation titled “Cherrios!’98” that was released by Bananafish Records in Japan (BFCD-01). This compilation was limited to 980 copies and included other bands like 101 Dalmatians, Chain Letter, Floppy Disco and more. It was released, obviously, in 1998. So this is seems to be the first appearance by the band ever!

That seems to be all I could find about the band. Well, there might have been a Nico-chan or not in the band. I am not sure. Same with a Toku-chan. Maybe some Japanese readers tell me if this is true or not! In any case, any other information about the band would be greatly appreciated! And of course, if anyone has a spare copy of the 7″ or even the “Cherrios!’98” compilation please let me know! Would be great to start the year learning the whole story of this Japanese band!

EDIT – Our friend Tomohiro Wakai from the band Flannel shared with us some information about the band! According to the liner notes of the 7″ we learn that: Sayuri Nishimoto (Vo. She works as support member of ‘ETT’ and ‘GUIRO’), Tomoki Asai a.k.a Nicolas (Gt.), Miwaco Yamagishi (trumpet), Yosinori Ito (drum), Yasuhisa Obata (bass, and he is the member of ‘Snowball’).

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Listen
Flower Bellcow – Thing of Everyday

Merry Christmas to everyone! And Happy New Year!!

Last post for the year!! Remember I’m heading to Mexico tomorrow (Friday) night, so please let me know if you need any records! I can mail them within Mexico too if you are not in Mexico City. Not a problem! Just want to help avoid the terrible shipping costs of the United States Postal Service!

Well, as this is the last post of the year, of course I have to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! As always there are no best of the year lists on the blog as I don’t know how to organize my memory to do one. I’ve listened so much music this year, I think much more than last year, so that makes it even harder to create one. I’ll let the cooler bloggers around the world do that (though it is true that they don’t list much indiepop in their lists too, shame).

I wonder what would be the best way to start the year? I was thinking about doing some sort of feature for next year, as I did the indiepop world tour where I featured 45 bands from 45 different countries. I was thinking perhaps each month showcase a band that has written a song about that particular month, for example for January I could feature the Most Wanted Men because they had a song called “January” or for November the Desert Wolves. But then, some of these bands are not that obscure, that is true. And another thing is that it may happen that the song named after the month might not be their best song or neither my favourite song by them. I could probably just feature the band and post the song I like most anyways, right? And mention that they did have the one song named after the month. That could be ok, right? It could be interesting, and also it gives me time, it would be just the one post that month that follows this rule, the rest of the posts can be random. Also say for example, it may not be that difficult to track down the Most Wanted Men, maybe an interview would prove more interesting too. Let’s see how this idea pans out.

Anyways, I hope too that when i come back after January 1st I can share with you more Cloudberry news, like what more new releases are in store! I can’t wait to share them it is hard to keep quiet!

So what new indiepop did I found these days?

Rose Melberg (with Larissa Loyva): there is just the one song titled “Dues” on the Lost Sound Tapes label BandCamp for this duo by the legendary Rose. This song was part of the recording session for her album “September” but remained unreleased until September 29th when it was uploaded. Here Rose sings duet with her long time friend Larissa who plays in the band Fake Tears. The digital track is sold for a buck and all proceeds are to be donated to Girls Rock Camp Vancouver.

Hoop: it is clear that I’m not a tape fan. My relationship with cassettes is not one of love. As much as I dislike streaming music, I prefer that over tapes. CDs and vinyl are fine with me. But tapes, I have a heard time. So I’m not surprised that I haven’t checked the Lost Sound Tapes label BandCamp in like forever. So now I find myself checking the catalogue out and find that in February this Seattle band released a tape album titled “Super Genuine” which is actually really nice! There are eleven songs of introspective pop, sweet and melancholic. The band is formed by Caitlin Roberts, Pamela Santiago, Leena Joshi and Inge Chiles. An all-girl band which sounds really fine.

Shrouded Amps: one more from this tape label from the Northwest. This band formed by Tracey Vath (bass, vocals), Matthew Budden (guitars, vocals) and Eirinn M.  (drums) released a 6 song cassette that is catchy and powerful too! Noisy and upbeat, this EP titled “Come Along to The Chocolate Church” was released in May and I’m really enjoying it. The songs are “Chocolate Church”, “Cross-Cat to the Black Path”, “When You Asked”, “Flags”, “Concerning Naming Children” and “Lost Creature Land”.

Bitter Cherry Jam: don’t know much about this band but I see that their limited edition cassette titled “2012” is already sold out. I think that this was actually a re-release of their CDR released in 2012 on the Tulip House label which the band also runs. Well, that’s what I believe is the story. The songs on this release by this sweet sounding Japanese band are “Go With Me”, “I’m Truly Happy”, “You Can Live Your Life”, “Rebirth”, “Limitation”, “So In Love” and “Good-Bye Friends”.

The Vegetables: and this is another release I found on the Nagoya, Japan, based Tulip House label Bandcamp. It is a 7 song tape titled “2” and includes “Your Secret”, “It’s Also Fantasy”, “It’s so Sad”, “Don’t Mix Danger”, “When You Start to Sing”, “Ilevan” and “A Wonderful Night Will Come”. From what I got from Google translate I can see that this is the second mini-album by the band and also it is the culmination of a 20 year career. The tape is still available mind you, 3 copies available at the time of writing this post!

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It was many months, maybe a year or more, when I wrote about a obscure band called North By North West on the blog. The band’s only released songs were a compilation called “Shiver Me Timbers” released by Rutland Records in 1991 (RUTT 16). They of course weren’t the only band on that compilation, there were many and at least half of them were unknown to me. One of them were the jingle jangly The Brickfields.

I have never heard the tape in its entirety, only loose songs here and there. On Discogs there is a scan of the tape sleeve but there is no information about any of the bands. There were many bands from other countries other than the UK, there were Australian, German and Spanish bands. I can imagine them lovingly packing their tapes and mailing them to Leicester were the label was based.

Where were The Brickfields from? I couldn’t confirm it but they must have been from the UK, England most probably. I look for any Brickfields in the UK, maybe it was a town there? Well, I do find that there is a stadium in Devonport, England, with the name Brickfields Recreation Ground that is mostly used for rugby by the Plymouth Albion. It was built in 1915. Could I doubt that it was their inspiration.

I do find one more Brickfields, and this could be probably my best bet. There is a Brickfields in Bletchley, England. In this area there is a nature reserve called The Blue Lagoon. Could they have been from the surrounding area? Somewhere in Milton Keynes?

How many were in the band? How long did they last? Were they involved in other bands? Their only output seems to have been this one song they had on the “Shiver Me Timbers” compilation titled “Weekends Stop Here”. There doesn’t seem to be any other compilation appearances, nor any demo tapes listed on Discogs. But I’m sure that if they recorded one song, they must have recorded at least another one, or more. But how can one find out?

I wonder if maybe whoever compiled the tape for Rutland might remember them, maybe they knew them personally. Maybe. Or maybe you saw them play live back in the day? Anyone remember them? I really like this little lo-fi jangle gem, would love to hear more!

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The Brickfields – Weekend Stops Here

Finally My Light Shines for You’s “Detective EP” 7″ is finally out! It took a while, but I’m very very happy how it came out. Love the songs, love the artwork. Good thing too is that popkids around the world are supporting this release. If you haven’t checked them out yet we have one of their songs streaming on SoundCloud. Check out “Detective” and you can of course order the record from our website.

What else is new? Those who are on Instagram and follow me might have seen the work in process form the artwork for our next Cloudberry Cake Kitchen release. Yes! We are doing a full retrospective for The County Fathers from Manchester! If you don’t know who they were you should check the interview I did with Mark Radcliffe some time ago. The release should be coming early 2018! We are just finalizing some details at the moment before it goes to press!! Very very exciting!

So what are the new discoveries I’ve made on the web these past days?

Bedchamber: definitely not new, but they are new for me and that’s what matters, right? But to be fair, it seems that their latest song, “Out of Line”, seems to be brand new on Youtube. This song is included in their debut album titled “Geography” that is being released by Kolibri Rekords from Indonesia. Yes, the band is also Indonesian, from Jakarta, and it is formed by Ratta Bill on vocals and guitar, Abi Chalabi on guitar, Smita Kirana on bass and Ariel Kaspar on drums.

Megaflora: this London four piece formed by Max, Frank, Ellen and Chris released a 12″ album a year ago titled “Redwoods”. It seems to still be available on their Bandcamp so I’m not terribly late in recommending them. There are 7 songs in total, “London”, “A Mess”, “We’re Not Here”, “Progress”, “Stories”, “Confidence” and “Anxious”. This straight up classic indiepop, poppy, jangly, with boy/girl vocals. Good stuff!

Fenix: cool sounding duo from Eskilstuna, Sweden, formed by Stefan Eriksson and Louise Marchione. Not exactly indiepop, but a catchy and classy sounding synth-pop band that I’m really enjoying!! They have released an album on Bandcamp titled “Drömlösa Nätter” which has 8 songs: “Faller”, “Bleka Hjärtan”, “På väg därifrån”, “Vårld av glas”, “Kall snö”, “Kom i Mitt Mörker”, “Om Vi Blundar” and “Allt Blir Bra”. It sounds great to me and I hope it gets released in a physical format, would love to play this at home properly!

Kosmonaut: our friends from the north of England (who had a 3″ on Cloudberry) released a limited edition CD titled “Days of Our Lives” which now seems to be sold out!! Damn, I hope it gets repressed! There are 12 brilliant indiepop songs in here, a collection of early singles, compilation tracks and songs previously unreleased. They are “Days of Our Lives”, “She Walks Away”, “Desert Song”, “Bee Song”, “Was It You”, “Listen to the Radio”, “Never Realised”, “Superman”, “Fadeaway”, “Northern Angel”, “In My Head” and “Almost Prayed”. I hope there’s a way for me to get a copy of this!!

Just Blankets: lastly some punky pop from Brighton, UK, from this girl-fronted quartet. They have released a 7″ titled “Like Velcro” that has 4 songs last October. The songs being “Short Walks”, “White & Orange”, “Longshore Drift” and “Britain’s Least Used Stations”. The band is formed by Claire Swift, Tom Baker, Nick Streeter and Harry Partridge. They do seem to have been releasing stuff since 2015. I don’t remember hearing them before, have they played Indietracks perhaps?  Their name do sound familiar!

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While I was doing my research for indiepop bands from the Netherlands I discovered this small gem of a band: Crockett & Jones. As I didn’t have their one and only 7″ I decided to order it from Discogs (you can find it for fair prices) and upon arriving home I was to feature them. And that’s exactly what I’m going to be doing now.

As it is the case with small bands that release one single record in their lifetime the information on the web is thin. There’s not much to dig. But whatever there is to dig, I’ll dig. So first things first, the band’s name. I thought it was pretty funny when I found their song “Peter Ustinov” on Youtube and saw a comment saying “Annoying little tune that seems to have nothing to do with Peter Ustinov or Crockett and Jones. False title.” Was this person serious?!

So Crockett & Jones is actually a shoe manufacturing company, established in 1879 by Charles Jones and Sir James Crockett in Northampton, England. They were able to establish the company with a grant from the Thomas White Trust. It specialises in the manufacture of Goodyear-welted footwear. It is currently being run by the great grandson of its co-founder, Charles Jones. Crockett & Jones produces both men’s and women’s footwear with three collections offered for men (Hand Grade Collection, Main Collection and Shell Cordovan Collection) and a limited range of boots and low heeled shoes produced for women. Is it the first time I see an indiepop band named after some shoes? Maybe. I remember the song “Clark’s Commandos” by Three Little Piggies, but that’s a different story.

So the 7″ EP is titled “Peter Ustinov”, just like the opening track that reminds me a lot of the Television Personalities. Who is Peter Ustinov?

Sir Peter Ustinov, was an English actor, writer, dramatist, filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, screenwriter, comedian, humorist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster, and television presenter. He was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits for much of his career. A respected intellectual and diplomat, he held various academic posts and served as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and President of the World Federalist Movement. Ustinov was the winner of numerous awards over his life, including two Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor, Emmy Awards, Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards for acting, and a Grammy Award for best recording for children, as well as the recipient of governmental honours from, amongst others, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He displayed a unique cultural versatility that has frequently earned him the accolade of a Renaissance man. Miklós Rózsa, composer of the music for Quo Vadis and of numerous concert works, dedicated his String Quartet No. 1, Op. 22 (1950) to Ustinov. In 2003, Durham University changed the name of its Graduate Society to Ustinov College in honour of the significant contributions Ustinov had made as chancellor of the university from 1992 until his death.

Okay, we got that covered. What other songs were in this pretty 7″? Also on side A we find “Crockett’s Jig” that features accordion played by Cees Schoone. On the B side there is “Her Majesty” and “Patience’s Not a Beauty Case”.

The record came out on September 1990 as a co-release between the Dutch label Noet Lachten Records (NOET 11) and the German Roman Cabbage Vinyl (GREY 3). Noet Lachten was a label from the city of Breda while Roman Cabbage is a label much more familiar with indiepop fans as the brothers Achim and Markus Buss who run the label put out releases by Jowe Head, The Merricks, I, Ludicrous and more.

The credits for the record mention Ton Geerts as the bass player and vocals and banjo by Bart Cornelis, who also wrote the lyrics. Was it a two man band then? The songs were recorded at “War in Bart’s Bedroom” studio in Breda, March 1990. Where they from Breda then? I doubt it, as the contact address on the back sleeve has an address in Amsterdam. That seems more likely.

Another important fact about this record is that the press was limited to just 600 copies.

Even though they didn’t release any other records they did have a bunch of compilation appearances. The first one dating from 1987 when on the LP compilation “13 Great Bands from the Low Lands” released by Noet Lachten (NOET 4) they contributed the song “Wet Handkerchief”.

The year after, 1988, they had yet another song on a Noet Lachten release. On the “Who Wants to Be a Popmusician Nowadays?” (NOET 8) LP comp they contributed the song “Heaven = Hell”. In 1989 they had one song on the classic LP compilation “Diamonds and Porcupines” released by the German label Beat all the Tambourines (TAMBEAT 3), “Red Baloon”.

Their song “Willy Nilly Postman” was to appear on 1990’s “El Dorado” LP compilation released by Roman Cabbage (GREY 2), and in 1991 they were to have three songs on another Roman Cabbage compilation. “Heaven & Hell”, “Our Cat Can’t Get Canned Food” and “There’s No Toilet Like Your Own” appeared on the LP comp “Sorry… Sold Out” (GREY 6). The funny thing about this compilation was that there was no tracklist on the sleeve, instead at the beginning of each side you can hear the legendary Joe Foster reading the tracklist for the particular side you were playing!

Again “Heaven and Hell” was to appear on two more compilations, this must have been their most popular track! Now on Mermaid Records from Germany the compilations were “He Didn’t Even Draw a Fish on My Shower Curtain” (MIRABELL 001) and “Mermaid Employee of the Month: Gustav Sackmüller” (MIRABELL 665). You can read a bit more about this label on the Tender Whiskers interview I did months ago.

Lastly Discogs lists a compilation titled “First Noet Lachten Compilation of Lokal Bands”. It has no year, but the catalog number is NOET 2, so must have been sometime in the late 80s. Here Crockett & Jones contribute two songs, “I Count Sheep to Fall Asleep” and “Swirl”.

I check if the band members were involved in any other bands. I couldn’t find anything for Ton, but for Bart I see he played in a band called Four One and Only’s who had releases on Noet Lachten and also on Roman Cabbage. That can’t be a coincidence.

I keep looking for the band members on the web. I find out that there is a Bart Cornelis who is a curator of Dutch and Flemish Paintings at the National Gallery in London. Might this be the same Bart? It seems that prior of being in the National Gallery he was an assistant curator at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, so at least the city matches. Could be! On the other hand Ton Geerts seem to be a much more common name and it is hard to pinpoint which Ton Geerts could be the one I’m looking for.

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Listen
Crockett & Jones – Peter Ustinov

Tomorrow is our official release date for My Light Shines for You’s “Detective EP” 7″! Very very excited! All pre-orders have been posted by now, and I hope to get getting orders as the record is GREAT! It is classic indiepop in the vein of The Haywains or Strawberry Story if you have never heard them before. So check them out on our website or SoundCloud!

Also please remember that next week I’m heading to Mexico, let me know if anyone there wants me to bring you any records so you can save on shipping!! AND mark your calendars, I’m going to Madrid Popfest next year! First time since 2013.  So same thing, if you need me to bring any records to Madrid (or Spain) let me know and I’ll happily do so!

Now, I what new music have I found?

El Último Vecino: it seems it has already been 3 weeks since they unveiled their latest promo video for the song “Donde Estás Ahora”, but only now I found out about it! The Barcelona band is one of the best bands around if I may say so and I still haven’t been lucky enough to see them live. I doubt that my week in Spain will coincide with a gig of theirs in the area I’ll be staying (Madrid), so I can only cross my fingers. Anyhow, the new song sounds great but not sure how or when it will be properly released!

Remington Super 60: the Norwegian band seems to still be going. I remember them from the days Alexander from Radio Khartoum used to promote them on the indiepop-list in the early 2000s. I got a nice email the other day from the Frederisktad band telling me they have a new song out, a Christmas song. Titled “Another Christmas Song” it is available as a digital single on their own Cafe Superstar Recordings label.

Stutter Steps: an indiepop band from The Andy Warhol Museum’s Ben Harrison. That’s how the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, promotes themselves. They have a new EP titled “Floored” available on both 12″ vinyl and CD, and I must say that it sounds really great!! There are six songs in total, “Floored”, “Dim”, “Submarine”, “Identical Eyes”, “Weak Restraint” and “Encino”. The sound is poppy, with chiming guitars, it is classic indiepop sounding! The band is formed by the aforementioned Ben Harrison on guitars, vocals and drums, Cindy Yogmas on keyboards and vocals, David Horn on bass and keyboards, Phil Jacoby on guitar and Sean Fin on drums.

Palehound: just heard their song “Sea of Bloodl” on their BandcCamp and it sounds great! The band from Yonkers, New York are releasing a 7″ on January 26 with this song as a B side and with the yet un-streamable song “YMCA Pool” on the A side. There’s not much more on Bandcamp but I found out on the band’s website that they have released two albums and an EP already.

UK Cinema: lastly this Hamilton, Canada, band that has this gorgeous track titled “English Girls” on Bandcamp. There is not much more other than this song so that’s quite sad, but at least some band details are available. They are a five piece formed by Josh Kemp on vocals, RJ Kemp on guitar and vocals, Wes Lintott on guitar and vocals, Matt Lintott on drums and Chris McLaughlin on bass. Check them out, this one song is a winner.

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Last post of this exhaustive world tour were I’ve featured bands from countries all around the world! This will be the 45th and last post, hoping I didn’t miss any country that has produced indiepop in the past (I’m not counting contemporary bands, for example the case of Costa Rica) as this is an “archaeological” exercise. If I missed anything please let me know.

Today it is the time for Iceland and the band Rúnk which I discovered a few days back trying to find any information about any guitar pop done in that country other than the well known Dyrdin. It took me a while as it wasn’t an easy task. I found a mention about a “C86” band called Mússólíní, but couldn’t find any tracks by them (any help would be appreciated). In the end somehow I stumbled upon Rúnk on Youtube, I played their quirky “Atlavik 84”, and I thought, I need to know more about them. I found yet another song there, “Klapparstígur”, which was catchier, kind of sort of sounding like the lo-fi indiepop of the late 90s or early 2000s in the US. So the search started. At the same time I ordered their CD for less than 10 dollars on Discogs.

It was easy to find the lineup of the band, though not 100% sure what each of them played. The band consisted of Benedikt Hermann Hermansson (who had been in the band Mósaik and Benni Hemm Hemm), the cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir (formerly of múm and Stórsveit Nix Noltes), Björn Kristjánsson aka Borko (Skakkamanage), Svavar Pétur Eysteinsson (Skakkamanage & Prinspóló), Óli Björn Ólafsson (of the band Yukatan, Unun, múm, Kanada, Slowblow & Stórsveit Nix Noltes)

Rúnk only released one album, “Ghengi Dals” in 2002. It was released by the label Flotur Kúltúr & Gott Music (FK & GM 002). According to Discogs this was the only release by this label. I don’t think the name of the record is Icelandic. True it kind of sounds like Ghengis Khan but, that’s not it either. What does it mean?

The album had 10 songs, “Atlavik ’84”, “Rúnk”, “Yamaha Algleymi”, “Wall Street”, “Andhóli”, “Þörungaspitt”, “Klapparstígur”, “Men and Motors”, “Friends Forever” and a 10th untitled bonus track.

The band also has listed one compilation appearance. The song “Innipúkinn” was included in the double CD comp “Alltaf Sama Svínið” released in 2002 by the label Smekkleysa (SM 100).

I find an article on RokMusik from two years ago by Win Van Hooste where he recommends some obscure Icelandic bands from the 80s and 90s and Rúnk is among them. Here he mentions that the band’s name could be translated as The Jerk-offs or something like that. That the album went largely unnoticed, but those who noticed started a cult following. Another interesting fact is that Óli Björn Ólafsson performed with Emiliana Torrini and at age 14, in 1993, he wont the annual music competition known as Músíktilraunir with his band Yukatan.

The band used to have a Myspace, but as you can expect, you can’t stream the songs there.

Then there is a trove of press clippings on the very fine blog Icelandic Music Museum. The problem is that I don’t understand Icelandic and to copy/paste images to Google Translate, well, that doesn’t work. So can’t really tell what it says, if there are any important details in there. I see they appeared on many papers like DV in July 2001, Fréttabladid on August 2001, Morgunbladid on August 2001, DV on October and December 2001, Morgunbladid again on June and July 2002 and more.

On the CD foldout sheet that comes in a pocket inside the digipak I could understand a few more details, everything is written in Icelandic mind you. I understand that the recordings were done at Studio Polyrunk Vesturporti while the extra bonus track was recorded at La Mariagne. I see some credits here too, like Bobby played guitar, bass and drums, Jimmy the organ, synths, drums, bass, and vocals, Orlando the drums, organ and guitar, Pamela sang, clarinet, glockenspiel, harmonica and more while Suawey played guitar and bass. Clearly these aren’t their real names. What’s going on? Some other credits I see are for trumpets (Erikur Orri Olafsson), chorus (Karlakorinn Grettir), photography (Borkur Sigdorsson)and design (Honnunardelid Runksins). THen you see all the lyrics of the songs on this foldout, most of them in Icelandic of course with some exceptions in English.

The post ends up being quite short. The truth is that I can’t seem to find any other information about them. Sure, you can probably find many more details about the bands that they were involved in afterwards. But I’m curious about Rúnk. If they record any more songs? If they appeared in any other compilations? Did they play many gigs? Did they ever play outside Iceland? What inspired them to create this music? Was there any other like-minded bands? Aside from the big names of Icelandic music, I feel, the smaller bands, live in obscurity, really not fair.

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Listen
Rúnk – Wall Street

Okay popkids, 4 more days and the My Light Shines for You 7″ is out. Copies have already started shipping to everyone who pre-ordered it though. So if you want a happy Christmas why don’t you order some Cloudberry Records this season?

This 7″ is the last for this year but worry not, there are a few surprises for the year to come. At the moment I’m working on one Cloudberry Cake retrospective by a Manchester band and three other 7″s which I will be announcing as soon as we have the art and the songs ready to be shared. So just wait a bit and you’ll see what we have in store, it is very special!

Also I have to mention that from the 23rd of December to January 1st I’ll be in Mexico. If there are any Mexican fans who would like some records please let me know and we can save in shipping by me bringing them to your beautiful country.

So what’s new today?

The Perfect English Weather: Matinée has a new surprise for the end of the year. The Brighton duo of Simon and Wendy Pickles (from The Popguns) are releasing their second CD and it is titled “English Winter”. It is a 4 song EP where the band changes a bit their style, less guitar-driven to a more electronic one, think Saint Etienne. The songs on the record are “Still”, “Christmas in Suburbia”, “Cold Out” and the Go-Betweens cover of “Dusty in Here”. I could listen two of the songs on SoundCloud, “Still” and “Christmas in Suburbia”, and they are gorgeous. Can’t wait to have this at home on repeat. James Matinée, I need this!

Bradford: I mentioned some posts ago that the classic band Bradford were getting a reissue. Now I can finally share a link to that fantastic story. The German label A Turntable Friend who resurrected last year is putting “Thirty Years of Shouting Quietly” on both vinyl and CD. There are all in all 30 songs in total on the double CD, not sure how many on the vinyl (this one already is almost sold out, only 90 remaining as I write this post). Of course I’ll choose the CD when it comes out on February 9th, 2018. The records come with a booklet with lyrics and also liner notes by Fergal Kinney from Louder Than War. It is fantastic to see this classic record being re-released!!

Pale Lights: the band who are releasing their second album very soon (Dec. 15) on the German label Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten has a 3 song taster EP titled “Jean, Bring the Flowers” on Bandcamp. And what can you expect? Well, beautiful guitars, timeless melodies, and classy lyrics. The New York (or is it fair to say the Brooklyn?) band keeps showing they are one of the few worthy bands in the area. The three songs on the EP are “Jean, Bring the Flowers” (which has a video), “Streamlined” and “The Soft City”. This last song actually released many years ago on Cloudberry by The Soft City, Phil Sutton’s previous band. I hope now that this EP gets a release, even if it is on limited edition CDR or something. I want my Calico Cat Records collection complete.

Dianas: a new discovery for me. A tape titled “Leave Love” by 2 girls from Melbourne, Australia. Nathalie Pavlovic and Caitlin Moloney. Now a 2nd pressing of 50 copies. 6 songs in total, “Intro”, “Leave Love”, “Heart of Me”, “Somebody Else”, “For All I Know” and “Priorities”. The songs are dreamy, with surf textures and fine melodies. Don’t know much about them but I see they have more releases other than this tape, the oldest dating to 2012. Well, I got late to the party. I should check them out.

Vacations: more from Aussie. This time from Newcastle. Again a new discovery for me. The band latest track uploaded to Bandcamp, titled “Moving Out”, is a lovely jingle jangly track. Vacations are Campbell Burns, Jake Johnson, Nate Delizzotti and Joseph Van Lier. I had a very quick listen to their backcatalogue and I feel this might be their best track so far.

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I remember back in the early 2000s when there was this sort of rumour that Fotomoto were going to release on Elefant. I wasn’t surprised by it. Their sound fitted perfectly with the Spanish label then. That never happened and the Ukrainian band didn’t get to be a household name for indiepop fans.

I lost sight of them too. Only know that I’m being a revisionist, featuring bands from all corners of the world that they came to mind. And to my surprise they’ve kept busy in all these years. It is true that they are not exactly a guitar pop band, they are more of an electro-pop band, but when I hear songs as beautiful as “Lune” or “Chat”, songs with a fantastic pop sensibility, I know Ukraine had to had an entry on my blog.

My first stop this time is not going to be Discogs, I will check that later, but the John Peel Wiki. Yes, the band did indeed record a Peel Session. But let’s start from the beginning.

The group formed in 1999 in the city of Zaporozhye as a duo with Sergey Sergeyev and Anton Sigurov playing all sorts of instruments.

Zaporizhia is a city in southeastern Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative center of the Zaporizhia Oblast. Administratively, it is incorporated as a city of oblast significance and serves as an administrative center of Zaporizhia Raion, though it does not belong to the raion. Until 1921 the city carried the name of Aleksandrovsk after the name of a fortress that was part of the Dnieper Defense Line. After the establishment of the Soviet regime in Ukraine, in 1921 the name was changed to Zaporizhia (Zaporozhye), after the historical region Zaporizhia. Itself Zaporizhia literally means Trans-Rapids or beyond the rapids, alluding to the rapids which used to exist on the Dnieper River  at the time, before the construction of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station in 1932. Currently the city is the sixth largest in Ukraine.

Ah! Would love to visit Ukraine one day! Anyways, the band would become a trio when Olya Volodina was to join on vocals, and then a quartet when Alexander Ivanov joined in 2002 to do midi and drum programming. Olya was to bring something special to the band aside from her vocals, Fotomoto’s signature French lyrics. Why did she choose to sing in this language instead of Ukrainian? That’d be a good question to ask.

So how did they end up meeting Peel. Here the story says that a Mike Eardley, brother of a Rich Eardley from a band called Melys (which I’ve never heard), sent John Peel a demo of Fotomoto in the year 2000. Mike was distributing records by the Russian label Snegiri. This label had actually released Fotomoto’s second album “Suranov, A?”. Peel must have liked it as he played the song “Je Suis Fotomoto” on December 14th of 2000. In 2004 he would invite the band to record a Peel Session. The band took a 70-hour bus from Ukraine to the UK. Peel didn’t get to meet them, but on his June 24, 2000, show  Peel said that he just missed meeting the group when they performed their session. However, he thanked them for their gift of a bottle of wine – “Tonight it’s going to prove fabulously useful.” (England had been knocked out of the Euro 2004 tournament that evening.)

So, what was their first album? According to Discogs it was a self-titled CD released by the Russian label Taiga Sounds (TS002) in 2002. The album had 13 songs which were “Sever”, “Le Sport, La Musique”, “Bogunskaya”, “Le Passage”, “Une Planete de Gopak”, “La Lune”, “Je Suis Fotomoto”, “Bela”, “Couquillage”, “Ballado”, “Le Melange”, “Dino Zaor” and “Ma Faute A Moi”.

That same year they were to release a split 7″ with the band The Workhouse. This limited edition record came out on the Jonathon Whiskey label  Hershel Whiskey 43). This label was actually under the operation of Norman Records, the Leeds record store that still is around to this day. Fotomoto was to contribute the song “Le Sport, La Musique” while The Workhouse had the song “Nancy”.

Their second album came just a year after, in 2003 they put out “Suranov, A?” on the Лёгкие (Snegiri) label. Catalog was LG-035-2. This album had 10 songs in total, “Dances Et Popuski”, “Saccharine”, “Dolya”, “Le Blat Ska”, “L’Amour Africaine”, “Hydrocomfort”, “Goran Philips”, “El L”, “Uran Defense” and “Anonyme Infini”.

In 2005 the Danish label CPH-Sound was to release what seems a compilation of 13 Fotomoto’s songs under the title “Model”. This CD had songs that had appeared on both their previous releases as well as some exclusive recordings. The tracklist included “Le Coquillage”, “Passage”, “Nord”, “Lune”, “Ma Faute”, “Morozzzko”, “Mélange”, “Monster & Belle”, “L.S.L.M.”, “Zaor”, “Planete de Gopak”, “Vyuga” and “Les Nuits Géorgiennes”.

They also had a bunch of compilation appearances. The song “Le Sport, La Music” was to appear on a few. It appeared on the 2001 CD comp “Лёгкая Осень” released by Лёгкая and on the 2002 “Лёгкие 2001 – MP3 Коллекция ” CD-Rom compilation with MP3s on the same label. On this same compilation they had another song, “Morozko 333”.

There is another CD-ROM MP3 compilation listed by the same label, “Лёгкие 2003”. On this one the band had 9 songs! These were “Dances et Popuski”, “Saccharine”, “Dolya”, “Le Blat Ska”, “L’Amour Africain”, “Hydrocomfort”, “Goran Philips”, “El L”, “Uran Defense” and “Anonyme Infini”.

This same format seem to have been popular for this label. They band was to contribute the songs “Sever” and “Edmund” to the CD-ROM MP3 compilation “Легкие Представляют: “Сезонная Серия” 2002″ released in 2003, and contribute the songs “Sever” and “Morozko 333” “Счастливая Электроника Легкая_Зима” released in 2007.

The song “Sever” also appears on the 2002 CD compilation “Легкая Зима 02” released by the same Russian label whereas “Morozko 333” appears on the CD comp “ElkaElka” released by them too in 2001.

They were to have some flirt with an indiepop label on 2001. The Italian tape label Best Kept Secret included one of their songs, “Monster & Belle”, on a compilation cassette titled “We Are Not Alone Songs for the Lo-Fi Generation Volume 5”.

The last compilation appearance I see is the one on the compilation “Вечное Лето” released by the Ukrainian label Stereo & Video (S&V 076) in 2004. Here they appear with the song “Le Blat Ska”.

I look at any other credits the band members might have. I see only Olya has any other than Fotomoto. It seems she has writing credits for a Russian pop singer called Натали (Natali).

Youtube ends up being a trove of Fotomoto goodies. I find a video from 2009 for the song “Denis“, the official 2009 video for the song “Chat” and them playing the song “Chat” at Duma Club in Moscow in 2008, playing the song “La Lune” at the “Harper’s Bazaar” journal party on December of 2009, playing Ukrainian Fashion Week, and more and more.

There are a bunch of clips of them at the Shuzz venue in Odessa. I find videos for “Le Blat Ska“, “Aligote“, “Sever“, “Une Planete de Gopak“, “Kukushka” at the Shuzz venue in Odessa on May 2010,

There seems to be clips from another gig at Buddy Guy in Kiev too. I find clips for the songs “Bella“, “Ballado“, “Ma Faute” and “Edmund“.

What else? Well there is even an article on The Guardian written by Matthew Collin in 2005 titled “Curious Orange“. On the article Collinn ends up describing their sound quite right, he mentions that in their sound there are hints of Stereolab, St Etienne, Depeche Mode and Serge Gainsbourg. That there is a certain elegant charm and a quality of innocence. it is definitely a great article, worth taking the time to read it. It is not just about the band but also about the Ukraine.

Finally I find the tracklist of the BBC Session, “BBC Inc”, “Be One”, “Park Bun” and “Denis”. Took some time. I also found out that the band were in Huw Stephens BBC show doing a session in 2006.

I also find a very old looking website being hosted at Mike Eardley’s domain. Here is the link. There is a cool gallery of the band in London, visiting places like Rough Trade. Here I find too that the band played the Progress Festival in Ghent in 2005 as well as London’s Spitz venue that December.

A 2007 blog titled “Filles Sourires” mentions that the band had made covers of songs like “Joe Le Taxi” and “Voyage Voyage”. I want to listen to them!

But the there is not much more info about them. As they say, they weren’t popular in Ukraine, that no one knew them in their home city, so it was going to be difficult to write many people championing their sound all over the world. I remember them fondly, I remember playing their quirky songs fifteen years ago. I lost touch and now I’m only rediscovering them. Whatever happened to them? The last date I found was that gig at Shuzz in 2010. What are they up to now? Anyone remember them? I should also try to get their records, maybe the Danish compilation is the best way to start? And was it true that they were going to release on Elefant??

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Listen
Fotomoto – Chat

We are very close to 2018 and what news will bring the new year? There will be many new releases on the label and I can’t really wait to announce them. I’m sure in the next few weeks I’ll start letting everyone know the next Cloudberry Cake Kitchen release as well as the new ones on the 7″ series!

Speaking of which, don’t forget that the My Light Shines For You 7″ is coming out next week, on the 15th! Order it now at our website!!

So you want new recommendations?

The Hit Parade: Best news in a long time is that The Hit Parade are back with a new song and single, “Oh Honey I…”!!! Damn! I need to order the 7″ right away. It is classic Hit Parade, one of my favourite bands ever!! Where do I get the record? I need to find out! It seems to be available only on British sites at the moment. Will Jigsaw Records carry it? I hope so! The B side is “History of Art” and as usual it is released on their own JSH Records. Legendary.

Bubblegum Lemonade: the Glasgow band have a new release coming up this December. On the 7th they are releasing a 6 track EP titled “Laz Christmas” on the venerable Matinée Recordings. What will the tracklist be? I don’t know yet, but for the time being we can have a very good time listening on repeat the songs “Number One Christmas” and a cover of the classic “Silent Night”!!

Sky Faction: more friends keep releasing fantastic music. This time I see Sky Faction, which has members of Starry Eyed Cadet, releasing 5 songs on their Bandcamp. And how beautiful they are!!! Are these songs going to be released in any way? Physically I mean? CD? vinyl? I hope they do. The five delicious slices of perfect pop are “No One Else”, “Mar”, “Miss Solitary”, “Lactose Intolerance” and “Feathers”. Do you remember The Shermans? They remind me a bit of them, maybe to that sound that Shelflife used to purvey back in the early 2000s. The band from San Francisco is formed by Lillian Yee on keyboards and vocals, Sally Jati on rhythm guitar, synth and vocals, Rex Padayhag on bass and vocals, Roberto Burgos on lead guitar and, the top Rob Uytingco on drums.

Glass Arcades: 9 songs, some of them already available on the web, that’s what “Milquetoastesque EP” is. The new Glass Arcades release on Bandcamp is pretty good. Of course I’ve recommended the Cardiff band before on the blog. We know what they are about and every time they have a new thing on Bandcamp here I am telling you to check them out. The songs in this collection were finished in 2016 but it says that for a reason or another it wasn’t published until this day.

The Eleventh Door: Found two songs that sell for $150 dollars on Bandcamp. Quite expensive? Probably it is some sort of way for the label Hail Atlantis Records from Salt Lake City, Utah, to make it impossible to order them? I guess they want to wait for the official release date of January 1st. That is when a 10″ will be released by The Eleventh Door who seem to be a duo formed by Catalina Gallegos and Rocky Maldonado. More latin people in indiepop is always good in my book. They seem to hail from Salt Lake City too and the two songs on the record are “Tellement Tendresse” and “Fever Dream”. 2 songs for a 10″? It is an odd choice, maybe there will be more? I hope so. Both songs were mastered by the one and only Joe Foster at Poppydisc in Glasgow.

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About to finish our world tour of guitar pop bands and today it is time for the 42nd band/country, Gradapenda Rosindale from Northern Ireland!

But first I wanted to share a map I did where I colored the countries that I have covered in this special feature on the blog, as well as a list of the names of the 44 countries that will be covered. Yes, there are 2 more to go. Maybe you could help me adding to the list? Maybe there’s something from Costa Rica aside from the contemporary bands? Or what about Croatia or Slovenia?

Of course I found out about Gradapenda Rosindale from the Sound of Leamington Spa series. They were featured on the 5th volume of the series that will soon have an 8th volume according to Firestation Records (can’t wait!). On this compilation released on 2005 the band contributed the song “Bad Days Must End”.

As usual on this series the booklet included a bio of the band, which has a lot of interesting details about them:
“Gradapenda Rosindale took their name from a mishearing of a line in the single version of the Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers’ song “Roadrunner”. They formed in June 1990 when Sean Mason and Sean Pemberton began demoing songs and playing gigs around Derry in Norther Ireland. The line-up of the band finally settled into Stephen Doherty (guitar), Andy O’ Doherty (drums), Sean Mason (bass, vocals) and Sean Pemberton (guitar, vocals). This line-up recorded the Exit EP in Forge Brae Studios in Donegal and it was released in the summer of 1992. The release was follower by airplay on various radio stations, reviews in the music press and gigs around Ireland including Belfast, Dublin, and Cork. In February 1993 the band recorded a session for the Dave Fanning show on Irish radio. Shortly after this the band split up. They reformed as a three piece with Sean M. and Stephen, and a new drummer Gary, and played Cork Rocks in the summer of 1993, but finally folded in October 1993. When we released the Exit EP our main hope was to get it played by John Peel. He played it three times.”

I was to find a Bandcamp page for the band and there there are even more details about the band:

In February 1993, Gradapenda recorded a four song session for Dave Fanning on RTE Radio in Ireland, but shortly after this split up. They reformed as a three-piece with Sean M. and Stephen, and a new drummer, Gary, and played Cork Rocks in the summer of 1993. They recorded one demo, “Five”, but folded in October 1993. Although they never gigged as Gradapenda again, Sean M. and Stephen went on to record two more demos (“Sitcoms, Bombs, and Proft” in 1994, and “Take A Look At Me Now” in 1998) as Gradapenda Rosindale. “Ceasefire from “Sitcoms” received airplay on BBC Radio Ulster, and the same demo’s “Nothin’ In Our Heads” was played by Steve Wright on BBC Radio 1. Nowadays Sean M. records under the name Shine May Sun, Stephen is an infamous luthier, and Sean P. is in Mars Field. 

Let’s check then the “Exit” 7″ that was self-released in 1992. There were four songs, two on each side. On the A side the band had “Bad Days Must End” and “And Baby Not” while on the B side there was “Michael” and “You Hate”. As said before the songs were recorded at Forge Brae Studios with John McGrory and Neil McGrory as the engineers. There is no catalog number on this release but on the runout etchings it appears as GRAD 1. This was the only proper release by the band.

But there were more recordings. As mentioned before 4 songs were recorded for the Dave Fanning session. These songs were “Control”, “Hello Joe”, “Flowers For Sale” and “Love Like the Bomb”.

On Bandcamp one of the demos recorded in 1994 is available, “Sitcoms Bombs and Profit”. For this demo the now two-piece Gradapenda Rosindale recorded seven songs, “Nothin’ In Our Heads”, “Ceasefire”, “War Pays”, “What Could Be More Beautiful”, “Pushin’ the Wheel”, “Emily Lloyd” and “Hip Hip Hooray (Instrumental)”. Oh and all of these songs are also available on SoundCloud.

The very good website IrishRock.org has the tracklist for the “Five” demo. Recorded in 1993 it had the songs “Five”, “Little Girl”, “What I Want”, “Sometimes”, “Tell Us Bout Your Friends” and “I Can’t Take It”. So many songs they recorded and I haven’t even heard them! Would love to do so someday.

Then I found a Facebook page which hasn’t been updated in a very long time. There I found some press clippings that are very favourable to their sound.

But that was about it. They do have a bunch of “official” presence on the web but really not much information about their time as a band. Like where did they play gigs? If they had any other songs released, maybe on compilations? Or what did the band members do afterwards? Maybe they were even in bands before being on Gradapenda Rosindale?! Does anyone remember them?

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Listen
Gradapenda Rosindale – The Bad Days Must End