I have to start the post with the two most important discoveries of the month, two McCarthy 1988 videos that were done for the French TV. They haven’t been seen by anyone since those days, they have just been uploaded to Youtube. I want to thank again Rich Farnell from The Suncharms for pointing them in my direction, Please enjoy the best band EVER in “Should The Bible Be Banned” and “This Nelson Rockefeller“.

I think it has been a year since the time I recommended Anton Salmine’s project Glass Arcades on the blog. It was just this week that I noticed he had new songs on Bandcamp, “Linoburns” and “Teletext”, and I thought why has this one-man band hasn’t released anything properly? Is it really that there are no indiepop labels in the world anymore? The first song, “Linoburns”, is really good, people must notice that. At least I see that he has updated his page since last time, and now I know where he is from, Cardiff in Wales. I was there once, and I really liked it. Hope to go back someday.

The Indonesian band Aggi, who I recommended early in 2015, is no more. Their label HeyHo! Records doesn’t exit either. So what’s the point of talking about them again? The Indonesian punk/pop label Rizkan Records from Tangerang in Indonesia has uploaded to Bandcamp a compilation of all Aggi recordings, taken from their split with Saturday Night Karaoke and from singles and EPs on HeyHo! and Dismantled Records. This compilation is titled “Buy This Discography Make Me Rich!!” and the physical copies seem to be very limited, 50 copies and only available in stores in that country. For the rest, we can just stream it.

Exploration Team hail from Madison, Wisconsin. When was the last time you heard an indiepop band from there? I can’t even remember myself. There must have been some, right? I know about nothing about the band. I know the two songs on their Bandcamp are brand new. I especially like the second song, I think it is brilliant. It is titled “Stuck-up Sensitive”. The first song is titled “Ten Things”. This is proper jangly pop and that makes me happy. I need more people making this sort of music! The band is formed by Ross Adam on guitar and backing vocals, Allison Geyer on vocals and bass, Etan Heller on drums and Luis Perez on guitars. Both songs were written by Perez. Yes, that makes me happy, a latino in indiepop. We need more of that too.

Cloudberry friend Lisa Bouvier has a new song too. Lisa, who some years ago was touring with The Flatmates as a vocalist, has just uploaded to her Bandcamp the song “Out of Daydreams”. If you are familiar with her previous releases this won’t be a surprise. You will find her energy intact in this punky pop song. Upbeat and effervescent, this is a good comeback to the solo Lisa. Looking forward to any new recordings she posts.

Lastly, this week the indiepop supergroup Cinema Red and Blue (I’m linking to the blog Austin Town Hall as it seems it is the only place where you can stream this) and their label Fortuna Pop unveiled a new song on Soundcloud, “Come Back to the City, Babyface” and it sounds fantastic. Of course, how else would it sound if it has David Feck from Comet Gain and our NYC pal Phil Sutton in it? This song is going to be released on a 7″ with “The Captain’s Song” on the B side. If you like your songs filled with “pa, pa, pas”, this one you can’t miss!!

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I did say I had to do some archaeology on a German band on my last post. I’m trying to spice it up a bit now, challenging somehow my detective work when it comes to long lost indiepop bands. The comfort zone has always been English bands but it is time to vary it a bit more often. Hopefully the next post will be by an Australian band or a Welsh band or… who knows. I’m not saying I won’t look into the story of English bands, I will, but it won’t be English band after English band after English band if you know what I’m saying.

When it comes to Die Blinzelbeeren I must say that this time I do own their two 7″s. How many times I could feel proud of owning the discography? If that counts as a full discography  too. I don’t have all their compilation appearances, to be honest. I do have to say that a long time ago I tried to interview Bernd Kabs, founder of Die Blinzelbeeren and their label, Blam-A-Bit. The interview was going to be about the label, and I was hoping, as it has happened in a few cases, that after he answered my questions I was going to ask about his other indiepop related projects like Die Blinzebeeren or Mondfähre. Sadly I never got his answers.

I’ll start this dig with this blog as there has been a couple of mentions about Die Blinzelbeeren already.

When I interviewed the band The Sheets:

• ++ Your 1991 release, the “Candyman” 7″ came out in Blue Records. I heard Michael’s (Blue Records) story of how he approached you to release the record. Now I’d love to hear your side! How did this record came about? I think I met Michael on all good concerts around Frankfurt. He saw us playing at the “Batschkapp”, so I thought the man has to have an incredible good taste! There were also some friends of him, “Die Blinzelbeeren” recording a single, at my first eighttrack recordingstudio. That was at my grandparents garage in maybe 1989. We had a nice chat here and there, so the idea came up to remaster some Sheets material and cut this record.

And when I interviewed Olaf from the band Milchblumen FC:

• ++ Do you think Milchblumen FC would have fit just fine with the lineup of this festival? Were there any festivals along these lines going on back when you were playing? I think so. We had been pure Indie-Pop. Yes, there have been a couple of small festivals, but for German bands only and mostly just for one or two days. I like to remember the Marsh Marigold Weekender in Dresden, truly funny days with little sleep with the complete Hamburg popgang. Great was also a festival in Darmstadt, where I witnessed the only gig of Wind In Den Weiden and met personally pen pals (for the younger readers: that had been something like Facebook) like Andreas Knauf, Olaf Grossigk or Frischluft-Krischan. We played at the Harmony Beat Festival in the Dresden Starclub together with Fünf Freunde, Blinzelbeeren, Ein Warmer Sommermorgen (both Blam-a-Bit) and the Noise-Poppers Honeyloops from Worms. This festival had been organised by our friends from Dresden Trixi and Susi, real Indie-Pop pioneers in Eastern Germany. Memories come up on Rock `N Roll Lifestyle including stage invasion, bloody hands from excessive tambourine playing and Frank Kabs – singer of Twee-Pop-Punks Ein Warmer Sommermorgen – who had fallen asleep amongst beer, potatoe chips and I-do-not-want-to-know-what-else.

So it is clear that Die Blinzelbeeren were an active part of the German indiepop scene. They were well connected and were friends with many of the bands at the time. So what else can we find out about them? Let’s turn our heads to Discogs and check out their discography.

The first thing that Discogs gives us is the band members, Bernd Kabs, Frank Kabs, Jens Remmer, Jörg Zimmermann and Olaf Heinrichsen. Then their first release, the 1991 7″ “Frische Beeren” on Blam-A-Bit (catalog BLAM 004). This EP had four songs, on the A side there was “Entschuldigung” and “Netter Besuch” while on the B side there was “Das Idol” and “Mein Weg Zu Dir”. “Das Idols” was a cover of the BMX Bandits’ “The Day Before Tomorrow”. All songs were recorded at Tanneburger Schafskeller and it says during the summer of 1986. I don’t know if the date is right, that would place these songs 5 years before than the release date. Maybe they were just playing with the wonderful year that was 1986? The cool artwork on the sleeve was done by Felix Bringmann.

Where were they based? According to Discogs Blam-A-Bit was based in Seeheim in Germany. Never been there. Where is Seeheim?
Seeheim-Jugenheim is a municipality in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district in Hesse, Germany. It has a population of approximately 17,000. Seeheim-Jugenheim consists of seven villages: Balkhausen, Jugenheim, Malchen, Ober-Beerbach, Seeheim, Steigerts and Stettbach. The municipality was formed on January 1, 1977 through the unification of the previously separate municipalities of Seeheim and Jugenheim. Until January 1, 1978 the municipality was known as Seeheim; after that it became known as Seeheim-Jugenheim. It is famous for its mountain bike trails to the nearby mountain Melibokus. Seeheim-Jugenheim has been home to several notable residents throughout history, including Tsar Nicholas II of Russia as well as writers Georg Kaiser and Helene Christaller.

Their second single came just a year after. In 1992 saw the light the “Erinnerungen EP” and it also included 4 songs that were recorded in November 1991. On the A side there is “Erinnerungen” and “1..2..3…”. The B side has “Sturheit” and “Schöner Abend”. There are cool runout etches on this record. On the A side it says “Kick a ball or play a guitar!” and on the B side “I really love cheese and onions for breakfast!”. This was Blam-A-Bit 011.

Aside from these two singles the band was to appear on a number of compilations. I’ll try to do it chronologically.

1990: They contribute the song “Keine Hoffnung Mehr” to the Heol Daou cassette compilation released by Katiho Records (Katiho 002). This compilation was released in France and it includes mostly French bands including big names like Katerine or Dominique A. That same year they also have a song on their own Blam-A-Bit Records compilation “Hat Das Schaf Die Blume Gefressen Oder Nicht?” (BLAM 003). The song to appear on this tape compilation was “Picknick “Frühlingswiesen Version”.

1991: The band has the song “Verlassen & Vergessen” on the cassette compilation “It’s All About Love” (SMUF 003) that was released by the pre-Firestation Records label Smuf. They also include “Frühling” on the brilliant 7″ EP compilation “Pfadfindertreffen Auf Immenhof!” that was co-released by Frischluft Tonträger (FRL 005) and Blam-A-Bit (BLAM 005).

1992: They have three songs on the tape compilation “Tonite Let’s All Make Love in Seeheim …Plus” released by Roman Cabbage (GREY 30/X). The songs were “Muh (Remix by The Notorious Buss Brothers)”, “Muh (Reprise)” and “Picknick”. Also they contribute the song “Sonntag (Live)” on the compilation tape “Wegweiser Durch’s Eiswürfelland” released by Eiswürfel Tonträger (EIS-2) and the song “Sturheit (Jezús Mix)” on the compilation CD “He Didn’t Even Draw A Fish on My Shower Curtain” released by Mermaid Records (MIRABELL 001). That same song, “Sturheit (Jezús Mix)”, appears on another Mermaid compilation that same year, “Mermaid Employee of the Month: Gustav Sackmüller” (MIRABELL 665).

1993: “Psych-Out” appears on the compilation LP “Hier Super 12 – Bitte Melden!” that was released by Viel Leicht, Viel Leicht (Propeller 005).

What else can we know through Discogs? We could see other bands the band members were involved with. For example Bernd Kabs was in Mondfähre, The Monochords and The Mazy Fields. Jens Remmer, Olaf Heinrichsen and Jörg Zimmermann were also on Mondfähre. Zimmermann played saxophone in the Gruppe Topos release “Auf, Werde Lebending” while Olaf Heinrichsen was involved in many other bands like Ease Up Ltd, Echonomics and Ska Trek.

I dig for more information on the web. I notice my good friend Alex wrote a piece about their first 7″ on his blog Siete Pulgadas back in 2010. He likes the record all right. He says the name of the band is impossible to translate, that it has to do with berries and he loves the artwork for the single.

I couldn’t find much more on the web about them. I felt that they were a well-regarded band by the German indiepop fans but I might be wrong as I didn’t see much on them written now. Maybe back in the day in fanzines and such. They appeared on many compilations, so they must have been very involved in the scene. They even run Blam-A-Bit. Maybe I get back in touch with Bernd after this post and he answers many of my questions about his label and the band. Do you remember them? Did they play much live? Any anecdotes you could share?

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Listen
Die Blinzelbeeren – Entschuldigung

Another week, another post. I continue being unoriginal, a bunch of indiepop news of today and a forgotten indiepop band from the past. I wonder if this is the right format but I must admit I’m starting to be comfortable with it.

Who wouldn’t want a 4 CD boxset with 41 Jazz Butcher songs? Last week Fire Records announced just that, to be released this October. The box set includes 4 Jazz Butcher albums, “Bath of Bacon”, “A Scandal in Bohemia”, “Sex and Travel” and “Distressed Gentlefolk”. I don’t know much details about it, I hope it comes with a pretty big booklet, but what you can do right now is actually pre-order it from the band’s Bandcamp.

I guess that Jazz Butcher was the main news for last week! Now it is time to continue exploring the bands I didn’t know from Brucey’s last podcast. Many Indonesian bands were included, another sign that there seems to be a healthy indiepop scene there. I wonder how tight-knit it is. Last week I covered Toy Tambourine, this week I’ll start with Beetleflux. This four-piece from Medan is formed by Taufik Ahmad on drums, Fahrin Hartias on guitar, Aulia Nasution on guitars and vocals and Muhammad Ridho on bass. I don’t think they have released anything proper yet, on physical format I mean. Their first LP seems to be available on streaming on Spotify and iTunes. I believe it is titled “Smaerd”.  The good thing, what I’m really enjoying, is their dreamy jangly guitar pop on SoundCloud. There are a bunch of songs, from Bruce’s favourite “Calme Céleste”, which is their latest, to a bunch of demos, and an earlier EP titled “Trailee EP”. The band seems to have been going for years now, only now I discover them.

Another Indonesian band is Lousy Pop Group. This one-man band from Depok who took their name from a The Wake song is on the Shiny Happy Records label who released a 3″CD  titled “The Guy Who Runs the Government has Small Eyes”. On the band’s SoundCloud there are 5 songs, including a “Pristine Christine” cover. The song Bruce recommended on his podcast was “The Ballad of a Powerful Antagonist”. The band is less upbeat than Beetleflux, but makes up for it with melancholy and class. Very nice classic sounding and Sarah-influenced band.

Supercrush Records is another Indonesian band and their first release will be “When I’m Relax” by YawYaw also from the same country. I couldn’t find much information about the label or the band, but this sounds really good so if Bruce recommends it, I will recommend it.

Youth Portal are from Malaysia and on their Bandcamp there is just one song. Sadly. Because I’d like to hear more. The band sounds like early 2000s Swedish pop, think Labrador Records. The song that is streaming is titled “Butter Breakfast” and the lyrics are on there if you want to sing along. Not much more information about them.

Come on, what’s with bands? Why not add which city are they from? the band members? what’s the mystery?

I’m not a 100% sure if the people behind Sky Faction are the same people behind Starry Eyed Cadet but I want to think this is true. There is just one demo song on their Bandcamp and it is so so pretty. The song is titled “No One Else” and I believe it will be part of a 5 song EP this summer. The band is based in Oakland/San Francisco and what hints me to the Starry Eyed connection is that the song was engineered by Ron Songco, who of course is part of that blissful indiepop band that dazzled us a couple of years ago at NYC Popfest.

The last band I was to discover through the podcast was the Sydney, Australia, band Sachet. They have a new album out, an LP on proper vinyl titled “Portion Control” that was just released. Well, actually they have a digital single, “Grateful Dad” as their newest release, but I’ll think of the album as their latest as it is actually a physical release. The band has been uploading stuff since 2015, so there’s a lot here for me to explore. I start though with the song “Tinnitus” which opens their latest album and it sounds real fine.

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I’m trying to democratize the blog, not cover English bands post after post. I can’t be too original, what could I post after a Japanese and Swedish band? An Australian band? Sure, that’s a good idea. A German band? Of course. But maybe those for next time? Now I want to investigate the life and death of The Wild Indians from Edinburgh, Scotland.

Once again, I don’t own any of their three releases. That makes them more mysterious to me. I was at a museum this past weekend and I read something about collectors, about that there is more excitement in the hunt, much more than in the actual object you are looking for. I wonder if it is true. I love the records I track down, I like their songs a lot. But I can’t deny that trying to find information and the record itself is truly exciting.

So yes, why not start with their records? I’ve heard their songs through MP3s and also on Youtube, but I never really looked deeply. I was aware of their two 12″ singles, but I didn’t know that their first release was actually a shared flexi in 1983. This flexi came with the issue 17 of the Scottish fanzine Deadbeat Zine which had it’s own catalog number HAVINGFUN-001. The flexi came on a wraparound black and white picture sleeve designed by Lindsay John and The Wild Indians contributed the song “Stolen Courage”. The other band on the single were Pop Wallpaper who had the song “The Great Adventure”.

There are actually credits on the flexi:
Fiona Carlin – vocals and alto sax
Kay Sheridan – basss
Kevin Low – guitar
Mike Binks – drums

The engineer was Pete Haigh at Pierhouse. The record was produced by John McVay and The Wild Indians.

The next year, 1984, will see the light the 12″ single “Love of My Life”. This song was to be accompanied by two more songs on the B side, “The Biggest Man” and “Maybe”. The record came out on the label Hullabaloo! (catalog HA!001). What is a hullabaloo? It is an uproar or fuss.

I really like the design and art of this record, white and blue, colors I use a lot on my label. On the back cover there are some credits and we see that the drummer might have changed as now it figures as Bo. No last name. Or maybe Mike Binks was called Bo? The record was also produced at The Pierhouse by John McVay and was engineered by Pete Haigh. John McVay also contributed piano on the “Love of My Life”, David Gibson played guitar on “The Biggest Man” and Tony Whelan played drums on “Maybe”. I feel this might have been a self-release as there are no other releases on this label.

Their next 12″ was to be released on another label, Rosebud (catalog SPARK 003). It was 1986, and this label had already released Pop Wallpaper, the band they shared a flexi. Maybe this was this band’s label? Probably. The single “Penniless” came with two more songs on the B side, “We All Take a Tumble in this Wonderful Life” and “Give Up the Ghost”. Now we see that the band is just Kevin Low on guitars and Fiona Carlin on vocals. The rest of the instruments are credited to Myles Raymond on bass, Les Cook on drums., Scott Hamilton on piano & strings, Kay Sheridan on bass*, Bo on drums*, Rhona MacIntyre on backing vocals. Those two with asterisks, who used to be part of the band, worked just on the song “Give up Ghost” which was engineered by Pete Haigh and recorded at The Pierhouse maybe at an earlier time. The two other songs were recorded at Planet in Edinburgh and were engineered by Chic Medley. The whole record was produced by John McVay. Now, who is the girl on the front cover? Is that Fiona?

I find on Discogs two compilation appearances for The Wild Indians. The first one dates from 1983 and it is a live version of “Maybe” that was included in The Deadbeat Tape. This was of course the same fanzine that put out their flexi. Other bands in this compilation were Strawberry Tarts, Twisted Nerve, Burlesque, Sunset Gun, Life Support and Slaughterhouse. The only one I’m familiar with is Sunset Gun. Only 100 copies were pressed for this tape and they were sold for 2 pounds as Vinny Bee, the man behind the zine, points out.

In 1985 they ere to participate on another tape compilation, “Bai-Bang!”. This tape was released in Sweden by the label Res Publika. The Wild Indians were to contribute the song “Bite the Hand”. I have no clue about any of the other bands on this tape which mostly are Swedish like Det Sjätte Sinnet or Njurmännen. Do they ring a bell?

I find a Tumblr post about Pop Wallpaper, the band they shared flexi and whose members Les Cook and Myles Raymond helped them on their last 12″. Sadly I don’t find anything similar about The Wild Indians. Maybe I’d like to listen Pop Wallpaper? I find some songs on Youtube, and they are much artsier than The Wild Indians, less poppier.

Something cool that is related to The Wild Indians is the Deadbeat fanzine. For them I find a website that is updated regularly. Aside from some scan with The Wild Indians being mentioned I couldn’t find any worthy information about the band.

I look for the people involved with the band. I can’t find much. I see that Tony Whelan who played drums on the song “Maybe” had been involved in a band called Trax and later in the fantastic Liverpool band “Care” with Paul Simpson from The Wild Swans and Iain Broudie from The Lightning Seeds.

The curious detail about all of this investigation was to happen now. Do you remember the band Garbage? Yeah, that nineties grunge band? Well, it seems that Shirley Manson, their vocalist, was at some point a backing vocalist for The Wild Indians. I didn’t see her on the credits of any of the sleeves but maybe at some point? Or maybe live?

But there was going to be one final discovery in this whole cat and dog dynamic. I was to find Mike Binks, the band’s first drummer, SoundCloud. And guess what? There’s a trove of Wild Indians recordings. I assume these are early recordings, from the time of Mike Binks in the band, as they sound quite different to the songs on the 12″s. They are a bit darker, closer to post punk than to indiepop. On this SoundCloud you can actually listen to “Stolen Courage”, the song on the flexi. And then you can listen to what I would guess were demos for the songs “Having Fun”, “Dancing as Fast As I Can”, “Call it Jazz”, “Bite the Hand” and “A Problem With Shape”.

I couldn’t find much more about The Wild Indians. I found a Fiona Carlin who is a solicitor in Edinburgh on Twitter. Might that be her? Who knows. What about Kevin Low? There’s a Kevin Low that is an artist who lived in Edinburgh during his youth and now is based in Glasgow. Could that be him? I wonder. But maybe you do know something about them? Maybe you saw them live? I would love to know what happened to them after The Wild Indians, if they continued making music. Would like to know if there are more unreleased tracks, especially from their singles period. Does anyone out there remember them?

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Listen
The Wild Indians – Penniless

Where to start this post? Well by what’s most important, the new Firestation releases. At last you are able to hear some of the songs that will be released August 18th on the Berlin-based label. On Souncloud you can now find The Siddeleys’ “Every Day of Every Week” and “Things Will Be Different“, Elephant Noise’s “This Song is Our Friend” and “Remember the Big Time”, and The English McCoy’s “I Connected” and “Give Me Something To Believe In“. Keep in mind that these releases are available as both vinyl and CD but Elephant Noise which will only be available on CD. You can order directly from the label.

My favourite band from Estonia, Pia Fraus, is back with a new album titled “Field Ceremony”. Some of the songs are available now to stream on the label Seksound’s Bandcamp. You can check out 3 songs out of 10, them being “Autumn Winds”, “Mountain Trip Guide” and “That’s Not All.” The album is being released on both vinyl and CD formats by Seksound, limited to 222 copies each format. One important thing to mention is that if you are in North America Shelflife Records will be handling your order.

Speaking of Shelflife, because I’ve noticed I need a bunch of their new releases, there was an album silently released on July 21st. She Sir, the dreamy band from Austin who I knew through Happy Prince Records, have released their sophomore album titled “Rival Island” on Ed’s label. On Soundcloud you can actually stream the whole thing but only through Shelflife’s site, and it is really pretty! I need to catch up!! I also need the Star Tropics album which came not so long ago. Remember I was complaining there was no place to listen to the new songs by the Chicago band? Well there are plenty on Soundcloud now.

This week I saw some friends recommending the Glasgow band Marble Gods. Me, as a curious person, went to their Bandcamp and checked them out. And I really really liked them. Even though to me their sound sounds more like American indiepop of the 90s than Glaswegian indiepop, this is thoroughly enjoyable! There are four new songs on this digital EP titled “Songs”. I wouldn’t be surprised if a label picks them up and offers a proper release for them. The songs are “Different State”, “Going Nowhere and Thrilled to Death About It”, “Washing Machine” and “Actors”. “Washing Machine” even has a promo video.

Something that caught my attention, was a photo posted on Fire Records instagram. It was a photo of a new LP by the Television Personalities, a 1990 unreleased album titled “Beautiful Despair”. There is no other information anywhere else. I read on JC Brouchard facebook page that there is a song on the album about Felt. But aside from that…. nothing. In any case this is good news, right?

Now I want to recommend the new podcast by Bruce from Australia. Yes, he has been doing podcasts for a while now, but this time he actually talks on it. He recommends bands, he gives a bit of a background of the songs he will play, and that makes this a much better experience. I had a very good time listening to it and I also discovered a bunch of new bands, some of which I’ll start recommending on the blog in this and next posts.

So just one band this week from the podcast, Toy Tambourine. Bruce recommends the song “Another Rainy Day” from the Sommertraum EP that was released last year by Shiny Happy Records. I don’t know much about the band, though I did recommend them last year on my Sunshower post. Then it only had two songs online. It seems to be a one-man band based in Jatinangor in Indonesia. There are 6 songs on this jangly and upbeat cassette EP, “I’m a Sucker for a Hello”, “Sommertraum”, “Movie Shop”, “Blueboy” and “Another Rainy Day” conform this cassette. This is very very good, and very hard to pick a favourite song out of the 6, maybe “Sommertraum”?

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Last time I decided that it was time to feature a Swedish band, it had been a while since I looked in depth the story of a guitar pop band from that country. Most of the times I end up featuring British bands on the blog. And that is no surprise, it is a fact that most indiepop bands hailed from there, but I’m also very aware that indiepop is international, that there have been fantastic bands from all over the world but Africa and the Middle East. Even Central America that used to not have any, these days have a healthy scene in Costa Rica. Who knows, maybe in the years to come we’ll hear some great South African or Lebanese indiepop. You never know.

This time I want to explore a band from another country with a long tradition in indiepop, Japan. I’ve featured a few Japanese bands on the blog, not too many like Pastelshot, Sunshower, Pitwork, The Groovy Metal Babies, Hartfield, Livingstone Daisy, Civic, B-Flower, The Time Capsules, Thee Windless Gates, The Philips, Sloppy Joe and a few more. But it has been many months since my last post, so I started thinking which Japanese band has always been elusive to me. My answer was Tricycle Popstar. Why? Because I still don’t have any of their releases and I’ve only really heard 4 songs total by them. Those are enough reasons, at least for me, to want to know more about them.

As it is becoming a routine by now when I write these sort of posts, the first place I look for information is Discogs. It is really interesting how in the last 5 years Discogs has become much more important for us record collectors than eBay. I don’t think I miss much bidding on eBay and losing at the final second. I haven’t bid on there for a very long time. Maybe there are good records there now at good prices. Maybe I should check out. Maybe less people look for rare records there and I could have a better chance at winning. Maybe. On Discogs I don’t have to try my luck, if I feel the price is right I just get the record then. There was something similar too, Musicstack, but then it didn’t have the possibility to see a band’s all discography in one place and even read a little bio about bands sometimes. I think Discogs did it well. It could be better of course. But for now I think it is the place where all of us are shopping.

What do I find on Discogs about Tricycle Popstar. First a name, Masahiro Kodama. Was it a one-man band? I’ll try to find out. I see at least 5 singles or EPs and one mini album. I’ll try to start chronologically, though there may be some gaps. The best place to get it in order is a Japanese Geocities page (Geocities still exists there it seems) with the catalog of the label Behavior Saviour who released a bunch of Tricycle Popstar releases.

The first ever Behavior Saviour release (catalog BS001) came out in 1993 and was a 2 song cassette by Tricycle Popstar. One song on each side, on the A side there was “Take Off Your Afro (Probably Happy)” and on the B side “Look For Something Better”. These songs I haven’t heard sadly.

Their second release was also a tape, it was also the second release on the label (catalog BS002) and had a title: “Japanese Boys Singing… Hmm Ha Ha”. It was also released in 1993 and had the same format, one song on each side. On the A side was “Frank Rain” and on the B side “Crystal Rain”. Again no luck finding these songs.

Third release was again a tape. No surprise tapes are back in vogue these days. I was never a fan of tapes even though the first ever music artifact I bought was a tape. This was also the third release on Behavior Saviour (catalog BS003) and I start to think that maybe the band was running this label? Could that be the case? This release was shared with another band though, The Love Mushrooms has the whole A side for them while Tricycle Popstar the B side. Some other time I will write about The Love Mushrooms because they are excellent, I promise. But today I’ll focus on Tricycle Popstar, and so they had 9 songs on the “The Best Of” tape: “Meet Again”, “Take Off Your Afro”, “Mr Manderine Man”, “Look for Something Better”, “Music, Food & You”, “The One I Don’t Like”, “Your Perogative”, “Passion & Kind” and “I’ll Sail This Ship Alone”.

This wasn’t going to be their last work alongside The Love Mushrooms. On that same 1993 that seems to have been very productive for the band they released another split tape titled “Dynamic Pops for the 90’s Vol.1”. It seems this tape didn’t have a label. Was it a self-release? Tricycle Popstar contributed the songs “Meet Again”, “Slump”, “Passion & Kind”, “You make Me Feel (Early Version)”. What is interesting is that The Love Mushrooms seem to have recorded “You Make Me Feel (In My Room)” which might be just a different version.

And if that was the first volume, that same year both bands decided that it was time to release the second. “Dynamic Pops for the 90’s Vol.2” was again released by no label, on an edition of just 50 copies. Tricycle Popstar was to include the songs “Yaggy Blues”, “The One I Don’t Like”, “Your Perogative”, “Music, Food & You”, “(Still Thinking) The One I Don’t Like”, “Music, Food & You (early version)”, “Mr. Mandarin Man”, “Death of a Frank Man” and “Your Progative (new version)”.

I wonder about these two last tapes, where were they sold? Why so little copies? Was it just for friends? And how come the band was this prolific? Because there’s yet another release by Tricycle Popstar in 1993, a two song flexi! This is actually the first Tricycle Popstar record I was hunting down. That’s because I’m no fan of tapes, this was their first “proper” in my book. The single sided flexi “I Like Curry Rice” came out on Behavior Saviour in 93, catalog BS 005, and had on the B side the beautiful “The Rocking Chair’s Still Rocking”. From what I ‘ve seen the flexi even came with a lyric sheet in both English and Japanese. From it we also learn that the label was based in Tokyo. Possibly then the band was based there too. On the back cover there are credits, all instruments were played by Masahiro Kodama. The lyrics were written by Masahiro and a Mark Davis. The art was also credited to Mark Davis.

The 6th Behaviour Savior release was the Tricycle Popstar mini album. It was titled “Saviour Once More” and had the catalog number BS006. There were just 7 songs in it, “Saviour Once More”, “Take Off Your Afro”, “Moaner is My Cat”, “Misfortune”, “Tricycle No. 9 (live)”, “No Skin Off My Ass” and “Fairy Tales”. I couldn’t find which year this was released. Again the lyrics and design are credited to the same people as in the flexi. There are two guests though on this record, Wendy Brown and Roberto Massaglia on the song “Moaner is My Cat”. This mini album came out in a slim jewel case and as a 3″ CD.

Now the band was to work with other labels, but I wanted to say that Behavior Saviour had been already been mentioned on the blog. This is what I wrote about it when I posted about the Australian band Dreaming Genies who released on the label:
“Going back to the “Joan” CD. It was released in Japan by a label called Behavior Saviour, and it was catalog BS009. This label seems to have been closely linked with a band called Tricycle Popstar, which I barely know and I guess could be reviewed on the blog sometime soon. “

I actually was in touch with the band and they sent me some Dreaming Genies CDs, sadly they never sent me the answers to the questions I wrote for their interview. I wonder how they ended up in the Japanese label. And yeah, since then I was already thinking about covering Tricycle Popstar.

The last release of the band on Behavior Saviour seems to date of 1995. The CD “Apostasy” (BS 012) was released that year but I haven’t found much information about it on the web. Just a SoundCloud page by the user Hacchuum which might or might not be our Masahiro. There are songs which I assume were on the album as they have the artwork for it, “Are You Alright? (Drumless version)”, “The Rocking Chair is Still Rocking”, “Are You Alright?”, “Why Do Rock Stars Break their Guitars”, “Fancy”, “Last Time I Say Good Bye” and “Boyfriend”.This user seems to be based in Australia.

In 1996 a split 7″, shared with Orange Cake Mix, was released by the Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club (catalog BBPTC 25). On this hand-glued sleeve record, the band contributed two songs, “Peach Boys Bed Sounds” and “Clover”. I believe this was the last release by the band.

The band appeared on a bunch of compilations as well. In 1993, which was for sure THEIR year, they contributed “Take Off Your Afro” and “You Make Me Feel” to the French tape compilation “Gloomy Biscuit I”. This tape came along the fanzine Gloomy Biscuit who in this number covered Anorak Records, Reading, Tricycle Popstar, The Sedgwicks, Bulldozer Crash, Budgie Jacket and more.  Another tape compilation on which they appeared that year was the Japanese tape compilation “Let’s Muc Out On Sound” released by Loose Sound (LSCT 001). The band contributed “No Skin Off My Ass”.

Beheavior Saviour was to release in 1993 the compilation “Behave Yourself!” where Tricycle Popstar had two songs: “”Last Time I Say Good-bye” and “Freak Rain”.

In 1994 something curious appears. The compilation “Come All Ye Faithful”, the compilation CD released by Behavior Saviour (catalog 011) is listed as an Australian compilation. Did they move there? That could explain the Dreaming Genies question and the Soundcloud one as well. Anyways, Tricycle Popstar appears here with “Should I Become Brain-Dead” and “Are You Alright”. All the other bands on the compilation are unknown to me but the most-amazing They Go Boom!!

“Going Against Maz’s Advice” was a compilation released by the US label Four Letter Words (FLW 014) in 1994. I don’t think the title is about the Maz we all know from NYC Popfest, so I wonder who this Maz was? I thought our Maz was the first Maz in indiepop! On this compilation CD plagued by classic bands from The Cat’s Miaow to Boyracer, Tricycle Popstar contributes “No Skin Off My Ass” and “Take Off Your Afro”.

Their song “Pom Pom G.I.R.L.” was going to appear on a compilation 1996, Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club’s “Lily’s S’ghetti Factory” (BBPTC 018).

Aside from the band’s discography there is very little on the web. Possibly there might be more written in Japanese. But as I don’t know absolutely nothing when it comes to Japanese it ends up being hard. I could manage with German, Swedish, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and English when i have to find information, but with Japanese well it is almost impossible! So maybe some of you could help me find more information about Masahiro and Tricycle Popstar? About Behavior Saviour? Was he involved in The Love Mushrooms too for example? Was he running the label? Everything indicates that he was. Would love to know what he is up these days.

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Listen
Tricycle Popstar – Passion & Kind

It is almost August now and I have a few things to share with you as I mentioned on my last post. I said I had 4 more items to share with you, but actually there might be more. Every day there’s a new thing of course. So let’s get straight to it.

Last week I was recommending the new songs by Stars in Coma. Songs that will appear in the band’s forthcoming album. I shared a Soundcloud link for the second single for the “Escapist Partisans” album, “Ten Years”. Well, almost immediately André Brorsson, the man behind Stars in Coma, got in touch and told me “Ten Years” has a video now. The video is really pretty, it was shot in Portugal, and that makes me excited as Portugal will be the destination of my next vacation.

Dylan Thomas is a band from San José, Costa Rica. Last week I was introduced to their latest EP, “Suceso en la Plaza” through the Latin American Twee Facebook page. The EP is available to stream on Bandcamp, I’m not sure if it is available in any physical format. The EP has 4 songs, “Fuegos Artificiales a la Distancia”, “Últimos Días”, “Suceso en la Plaza” and “Atacama.” The band, who took the name of the Welsh poet, is formed by Jan, Diego, Sebas and Esteba, and aside from a couple of songs they uploaded before, this seems to be their first “proper” release. The four songs are fine jangly guitar pop songs clearly influenced by dreampop and shoegaze. It seems that there is a very interesting scene happening now in Costa Rica, I’ll keep my eyes peeled for any new discoveries coming from the “pura vida” country.

Shelflife Records will be releasing a limited CD of Russia’s Life on Venus’ album “Encounters“. I was not familiar with this Russian shoegaze band, so after listening the 10 songs on their SoundCloud I can say that this is pretty good, that Ed Shelflife has done it again, finding obscure gems from who knows where! It seems what caught Ed’s attention was their 2016 EP “Distant Lights”, but then I wonder where he found that too. Or maybe I’m just not on top of what’s happening, I’m the last to know about the cool stuff?  The band is formed by Dima on guitars and vocals, Aline on vocals, Sergey on guitars, Marat on bass and Guly on drums. They are based in Moscow and I definitely look forward to have the CD and play it at home.

I saw Even as We Speak last year at NYC Popfest. It was a gig one can’t never forget. It was wonderful. And I’m glad too that the band is back. Yes! They are releasing a new 10″ EP very soon on the Emotional Response label. The EP is titled “The Black Forest”, and it even has a German (Bavarian) flavour on the cover photography just to keep with the EP name vibe. The EP will also be released on CD and digital which is for sure good news. I know, I know, this is just talk. Where’s the music? Well, out of the 5 tracks that will appear on the EP, one can be streamed at the moment on the label’s Bandcamp. You can listen to the lovely “Such a Good Feeling“, and fall in love once again with Mary Wyer’s vocals, and the band too of course. Great great comeback!

Vasas Flora och Fauna is the band Mattias from Cats on Fire has been involved with for the past few years. The band is a trio actually and even though they have very little information in English, I’ve been following them for some time now. And now at last they are releasing their second album which I already pre-ordered (alongside the Bedroom Eyes one, though it seems I missed their first album, I will need to order that sometime soon!) from Startracks.se. The album is titled “Veneziansk Afton” and it has 11 tracks. I couldn’t really find any place to check out the songs, but because of previous releases I’ve heard on the web I think it should be good.

And my last recommendation for this week comes from England. I received a message on the Cloudberry Facebook page this week with a link to the Gold Needles’ song “Not Tonight Josephine” on SoundCloud. This song is actually the A side of a 50 copies limited edition 7″ released by Exquisite Noise Records. It is a clear lathe cut record with 2 songs, on the B side there is “Eventide”. The band is formed by Mark, Dave and Simon with recent additions of Carl on bass and Justin on drums. They are based in Kingston upon Hull.

And that’s that for this post. Is there any other news I might have missed please let me know on the comment box!

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Cod is the common name for the genus Gadus of demersal fishes, belonging to the family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and some species suggested to belong to genus Gadus are not called cod (the Alaska pollock). The two most common species of cod are the Atlantic cod, which lives in the colder waters and deeper sea regions throughout the North Atlantic, and the Pacific cod, found in both eastern and western regions of the northern Pacific. Cod is popular as a food with a mild flavour and a dense, flaky, white flesh. Cod livers are processed to make cod liver oil, an important source of vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, and omega-3 fatty acids. Young Atlantic cod or haddock prepared in strips for cooking is called scrod. In the United Kingdom, Atlantic cod is one of the most common ingredients in fish and chips, along with haddock and plaice.

Here’s another band I want their records. They are not expensive, that’s true. The shipping costs might be annoying, but it is what it is. The problem is mostly that I want the CD version of their first album “French Plums” and not the vinyl version. I know, I’m uncool. For some reason for a lot of records from the early 90s it is easier to find the vinyls than the CDs. Why is that? I thought no one wanted CDs these days?

The Cod Lovers. I think the first time I noticed them was thanks to the Neo-Acoustic Guide. Their 7″ single “Best Friend” was among the records that appear as must-haves for any indiepop collector. I haven’t heard about them before. So I decided to do some research. I found out they were from Sweden and that they released on two of the most important labels from Sweden at that time, Ceilidh and A West Side Fabrication. But I didn’t do much more digging. Only today I decided it was time to do some proper archaeology work on them, especially as I’ve rediscovered how good their first album is.

What more can I ask when the Ceilidh website has a good amount of information and it is easy to find. The band had during its time 3 lineups, the first, from 1987 to 1990, being:
Niklas Barwe on guitars and vocals
Johan Hallgren on vocals and guitar
Johan Skaneby on bass
Johan Wallin on drums

From 1990 to 1991 a new member would join the band, Stefan Hubner was to play drums while Johan Wallin would now play keyboards and guitar. Then in 1991 and forward Johan Skaneby was to leave the band and Stefan Andersson was to play bass. I wonder, what did they call each other, there being three Johans in the band?

I don’t know which came first, if the flexi or the 7″. Both date of 1989. I’ll guess the flexi and start from there. It was actually a shared flexi with 4 bands: William, Cod Lovers, Traste Lindéns Kvintett and J Hex and the Scarecrow. It came out accompanying the fifth Sound Affects magazine. The catalog number was SAE 007. Cod Lovers contributed the song “Autumn“. As you can see at this time the band was a bit darker.

Their first proper release was the aforementioned “Best Friend” 7″. It came out on Ceilidh Productions (catalog CEI 013) in 1989. Aside from the band members there are a few of other credits, the cover art was designed by Klas Ahlström and the photography was done by Mauri Joutsenvirta. The B side on the single was the brilliant “Bye Bye Pain.” The songs were recorded at Mistlur Studios in Stockholm by Micke Herrström. The single got rave reviews by Sound Affects and also by Nörrköpings Tidningar. Yes, the band hailed from the city of Nörrköping.

Norrköping is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm. The city has a population of 87,247 inhabitants in 2010, out of a municipal total of 130,050, making it Sweden’s tenth largest city and eighth largest municipality. The city is situated by the mouth of the river Motala ström, at Bråviken, an inlet of the Baltic Sea. Water power from the Motala ström and the good harbour were factors that facilitated the rapid growth of this once industrial city, known for its textile industry. It has several nicknames such as: “Sweden’s Manchester”, “Peking” and “Surbullestan” (Surbulle [sour bun] was a local nickname for the textile workers, and stan is short for Staden, which means The City or The Town in Swedish).

“French Plums”, their debut album, came out in 1990. It had 10 songs, “Mary Gogo Round”, “Pretty Things:”, “She’s So Sad”, “Close 2 You”, “Bye Bye Pain”, “Best Friend”, “French Plums”, “Kill the Time”, “Yellow Pills” and “Love Across the Ocean”. It was recorded at Decibel Studio in Stockholm by Mickael Herrström except “She’s So Sad”, “Close 2 You” and “Kill the Time” which were recorded by Daniel Gese at KM Studio in Nörrköping. The art was done once again by Klas Ahlström. As I said the record was released on both CD and vinyl formats. The catalog was CEI 016.

“Kill the Time” 7″ was to be their last work on Ceilidh. This 7″ included also the song “Waiting for Love” on the B side. It was recorded by Daniel Gese and mixed by Mikael Herrström. It came out in 1991 and had the catalog number CEI 023.

This same year, 1991, the band was to contribute the song “Shatter the Harmony” on the free 7″ EP that came with the New Kind of Kick magazine (catalog KEX 002). Other bands to appear on this rare 7″ were my beloved Stormclouds, the great Send No Flowers and 23 Till.

In 1992 they were to sign with A West Side Fabrication and release their second and last album, “Pretty Things”. I haven’t heard much from this record, just the song “Lysergide” which is on Youtube. I feel at this point the band had changed a bit their sound and style, and even though it is fine, I prefer their jangly approach of their first album. Anyhow, I will also try to track this one. The album was released both as CD and vinyl LP and had the catalog number WE 032. It was recorded at KM Studios in Nörrköping. For this record they had the help of Sven Andersson on bongos, Calle Matsson on congas and Thomas Högfeldt on guitar. Some other credits include Sven-Eric Nilsson on the design of the sleeve, Robert Svensson and Johan Mentzer on photography and Stefan Pettersson as the engineer. The songs on the record were “Out For a Ride”, “Dreams are Dreams”, “Hey Little Sister”, “In Limbo”, “Electra Glide”, “Heart of Steel”, “Don’t Believe”, “Dead Horse”, “Lysergide”, “Glass Baby”, “Angel” and “Reminder”.

During their time the band participated in various compilations. “Bye Bye Pain” was to appear in 1990’s “The Swedish Stand 1990” on Sinderella (SIN 002) and 1997’s “Ceilidh 039 Singles & Vinyls” (catalog CEI 039) compilation LPs. “In Limbo” appeared also on two compilations, “This is a West Side Fabrication” (catalog WeCD 030) in 1992 and “The 23 Enigma” released by Pioneer.

Another song that was to appear on two compilations was “Crossway” that appeared on “Högtalarterror -94″ on Backstage (BACK004) in 1994 and Series Two Compilation Vol 17” in 2009. Also we find the song “High” on the “We;re All Part of a Family” compilation CD on A West Side Fabrication that came out in 1994 (catalog WeCD 073), and “No Hesitation” and “Angel” on the compilation CD “Sista Slaget I Peking” that was released in 1992 by Studiefämjandet (catalog 1001).

Time to keep looking. I find a Myspace, and it doesn’t really work, it doesn’t stream the songs. It doesn’t matter. Then I find an entry for the album “French Plums” on the very good Wilfully Obscure blog. The post dates from 2010 and it seems he had access then to a working Myspace. That way he could salvage a small bio that used to be there: “The band formed in late –88 in Norrköping, a seaport city of Sweden, following a Christmas party gig at the Rockslottet, the leading local rock club at that time. The response was so overwhelming that the lads decided to go on with it. After a few more explosive gigs they soon gained the interest of their friend Ola Hermanson and his record label Ceilidh Productions. The single Best Friend was released, media coverage was soaring and the band played the Hultsfred festival in 1990. In the winter of that year, the album French Plums came out.”

I look into the band members in the website Popfakta. I see that Johan Hallgren was involved with other bands afterwards like Dogstew, Pain of Salvation and Arcana; Niklas Barwe with The Bukks, Plura Jonsson, Tenderbeat, Bloom, and Eve and the Last Waltz;, Johan Skaneby in Honeycave and Interstellar; and Johan Wallin in The Standards, Liverpool, Antique, EKO, 23 Till, The Boppers, The Confusions and more.

My next step is a Facebook page for the band Northern UpBeat. This band was founded in 2012 and it includes two ex-members of Cod Lovers:  Niklas Barwe and Johan Skaneby.

My last stop is the newspaper Folkbladet.se. The article dating from December 24 of 2003 tells me that there was a reunion gig by the Cod Lovers then. It also seems that for this occasion they put out a 100 copies of a limited EP that included the song “World Inside”. This article also mentions a couple of interesting tidbits like that the band played at Hultsfred festival, Latvia and even Spain. Also it tells a bit about their early years, that the band was formed as a joke, a hobby band, that they were just going to play one show in Christmas 1988 and suddenly they became a proper band.

I wonder where in Latvia and Spain they played. If they played other festivals. If there are unreleased songs. Why the change of styles? Did the band members continue making pop songs afterwards? It seems many went into darker sounds. It would be interesting to find out more about them. How was the scene of Nörrköping back then? Maybe some of you remember them? And if anyone have spare copies of the records that’d be nice too. If not, I’ll keep looking for that elusive “French Plums” CD. I’m sure I’ll find it.

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Listen
Cod Lovers – French Plums

Sometimes there are news that just get you off guard, they are so unexpected. And that’s what happened when I was to learn that a new Popfest is being organized these days, hoping to make its debut in April 2018. I am already very excited about it even though I don’t know who will play. The fact that the festival is going to happen in Germany is already a big bonus. Yes, I’m talking about Cologne Popfest who the last week unveiled their Facebook page. So far what’s been announced are the dates, the 20th and the 21st of April. It should be ok weather then in Cologne I suppose. I was once in Cologne, many many years ago. I visited the Cathedral of course and went to the Roman museum. I didn’t do much more. I liked what I saw though. It would be great to return. I love pop events in Germany, there’s always such a good energy, and a good vibe too, one of camaraderie. The festival at the moment is doing some promotion at Indietracks it seems, where they have some very nice designed flyers and posters. Hopefully I can get one somehow!

Continuing with unexpected news, there is a new The Siddeleys compilation coming up. Titled “Songs from the Sidings” this is a collection of demos by one of the best bands EVER that date from the period of 1985-1987. The record will be out on August 18th and will be released on vinyl and also on CD. Check out the very cool looking cover where Johnny Johnson just looks like the best indiepopstar EVER at the Firestation Facebook page.

Our friends from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have a new record out on September 1st. It will be titled “The Echo of Pleasure” and because of that they have just debuted a video for the song “When I Dance With You“. The video was shot in London after a breakfast in a Wetherspoons. What can be better than that? Well, the band is touring the US West Coast to keep promoting this new album. For me it has been a while since I saw them live. Next time they play NYC I will make my best to be there.

Also our friends from Murcia, The Yellow Melodies, have a new video out, this time for the song “Life“. The cool thing about this video is that it was all shot at Indietracks. If there was a way to make me feel nostalgic and all melancholic about not going to the festival, even if there were just a handful of good bands, was watching the video. Also don’t forget that the band released a USB digipack (not sure what this is!) titled “In Compilations 1997-2016” not so long ago. This is a compilation of 30 songs that appeared on various compilations, on various labels, between those years.

It seems there are mostly news of friends, Cloudberry-related bands this week, right? Well, here’s one more, this time from Japan.  Our very good friends from Caucus are going to release a new album this autumn. As we have seen in my previous paragraphs, what’s the best way to promote it? A video of course! So yes, Caucus have a new video for the song “Hello“. It is all DIY, we see the band in the recording process and having fun. It feels so long now since we hanged out in NYC when they played Popfest! I hope they come back soon (or I go visit Japan!). At the moment there are no other details about the album, but as soon as I know, I’ll share them with you all.

On the Bandcamp side of things I have noticed that classic band The Groove Farm has uploaded a whole lot of releases there and many of them are rare ones! First off there’s a live tape from “The Western Star Domino Club. February 1987” which was their 6th ever gig. Then we find another live gig, “April 12th 1989, The Garden Of Eden. Windsor“, and another, “Mobstar Pop Frenzy Weekend / Reunion 2001” when they reunited for one rehearsal and one gig. Then three live gigs recorded from the audience with a cassette walkman, “8th August 1987, The Tropic Club, Bristol“, “16th April 1987. Tropic Club, Bristol” and “26th October 1988, The Moon Club, Bristol“. But that’s not all, there is an expanded “Baby Blue Marine” flexi release. Remember that this favourite song appeared on a flexi that came with the Kvatch fanzine? Well, here there are 10 versions of the song, from rare recordings to live versions. And to close with all these rare Groove Farm songs their classic EP, “Sore Heads And Happy Hearts EP” is also streaming with four extra songs from rehearsal tapes and also live from Montpellier Hotel in December 1986. This is really a treasure trove and one can only thank the band for uploading all of this! I feel Bandcamp is the perfect place for these sort of ‘releases’, live and rare, while the proper ones should always be on physical formats.

And that’s it for this post. And you can’t complain, that’s 3 posts this week! I have at least 4 more indiepop news to share as I’m writing these lines, but definitely I’ll cover them on my next post! It is good to have news!! There’s been weeks when it was hard to find stuff to share with you all!

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Here’s a record I don’t own, one that is sadly missing from my collection. I hope to buy it soon, when it is on Discogs or on Ebay at a reasonable price. I’m talking about the sole release by The County Fathers, the 12″ maxi single “Lightheaded”.

From Discogs I learn some facts about this record. I must say I don’t know it that well. I’ve only heard one song, “You Think It’s So Funny”, and I think it is brilliant, it is catchy and the guitars chime and chime. What is there not to like? Even the vocals are great. I wonder if “Lightheaded” and “Deep South” are similar. I hope they are.

“Lightheaded” and “You Think It’s So Funny” appear on the A side, while “Deep South (long version)” is on the B side. The record came out in 1988 on the veritable Ugly Man Records (catalog UGLY 8T). The front sleeve is printed in black and white, the front cover has a photo of a baby who is being poured water on top. The back cover has three photos, small ones, for each member who are also being poured water. We get the band members names from there, Phil Walmsley on bass guitar, Mark Radcliffe on electric guitar, keyboards and drums and John Clayton on electric guitar.

The songs are credited to Mark Radcliffe and they were recorded by Nick Garside (who as of late played on the band The Distractions and who produced a bunch of classic records by The Waltones, The Man From Delmonte, The Singing Ringing Tree and more!) and produced by the band. The photography on the sleeve is credited to J.D. and Kevin Cummins. The design for the sleeve to The Great Big Co.

Of course it is easy to figure out things about Mark Radcliffe. Discogs has a small bio: “BBC Radio presenter. Radio 2 with Stuart Maconie as of 2009. As a musician, he is commonly credited as a drummer or percussionist. He was a member of Skrewdriver briefly before their transformation into a neo-Nazi band. As of 2007 plays in The Family Mahone, the Four Counts and The Big Figures a Doctor Feelgood tribute band.” If you want to read a longer bio, there’s of course Wikipedia. Plenty to know about him, but The County Fathers is not really mentioned. It is always about Skrewdriver (probably because of their later white-power affiliation), and the band Shirehorses, which was a parody band. Other band Mark has been involved is the Dr. Feelgood tribute band Mark Radcliffe & The Big Figures. To be honest, I haven’t heard any of the bands mentioned, but I doubt they are indiepop-sounding as The County Fathers.

From other articles, I found an interview with Phil Walmsley about his time at Skrewdriver. Was it in this band that Mark and Phil met? Not really. I actually find an article from The Lancashire Post where it says that “the pair met at Manchester University in the 1970s. Radcliffe says: “I was from Bolton and he was from Blackpool and we were both very into punk rock.”

Mark also wrote the autobiographical book, “Showbusiness: The Diary of a Rock N’ Roll Nobody”, where he retells his attempts at a career as a musician. I haven’t read the book, but I do wonder if The County Fathers are mentioned in it? He also published two other memoirs, “Thank You For the Days” in 2009 and “Reelin’ in the Years” in 2011. Were The County Fathers mentioned in them?

When it comes to indiepop it is important to mention that he contributed keyboards and produced some tracks for beloved The Desert Wolves.

Luckily to tell some of The County Fathers story there’s the blog “The Chronicle of An Ugly Man“. This blog, whose last update was in 2012, was run by Ugly Man’s founder Guy Lovelady. On it there are many stories involving the bands that were once part of his label. Happily there’s a post about The County Fathers and we get to learn a thing or two:

• John Clayton worked at the time in Manchester’s legendary Piccadilly Radio. He was originally from Lancaster.
• Phil “Whammo” Walmsley was a top architect.
• According to this blog post, Mark Radcliffe’s story and the context of The County Fathers is written in the “Showbusiness: The Diary of a Rock N’ Roll Nobody” book. I will have to get this book then.
• Mark Radcliffe at the time was working also at Piccadilly Radio and even gave The Man from Delmonte a Piccadilly session and booked Black for a pan European Broadcast from The Liverpool Playhouse.

Then Guy mentions that he has a copy of a CD that contains the anthology of The County Fathers recordings plus other quality outtakes from a subsequent pop combo St Cloud that Mark captained. I wonder about these songs. I would really, really, love to hear them. Also, why is this not anthology being released?? Someone know the answer? Anyone heard it?

Guy also shares his personal highlight with The County Fathers he says it “was the Ugly Man Christmas Party in 1988. The joint celebration was held with some local Manchester based fine artists, which sounds quite refined and exclusive but it wasn’t. The evening was opened by Inspiral Carpets, a then up and coming Oldham band, The County Fathers did a set and finally The Man from Delmonte wowed a packed green room. I remember the delight on Mark’s face that night getting to play a full set to a packed and excited audience. It was the stuff of legends.”

A lot of questions about this band definitely. To start why didn’t they release any other record? Why did they call it a day? How many unreleased songs did they record? What songs were on that anthology CD that Guy Lovelady mentions? Were the three of them on St Cloud? I could find some bands Mark and Phil were involved, but what about John Clayton?

Anyone out there remembers them? Maybe you saw them at a gig? Would love to know more. In the meantime, I will try to get myself a copy of the record and the book. I’ll do my homework.

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Listen
The County Fathers – You Think It’s So Funny

Remember I told you there were a lot of news as of late that I needed to share with you all? I think I have found some time to prepare yet another post, with obscure band research and all.

But first I wanted to tell you something that kept annoying me with my last post. Well, not with it exactly, but with the way I share it. I used to post the link on the Cloudberry Facebook page and from there I could edit the accompanying image as well as the headline and the description. That made it cleaner. For example I could just write “Esta Noche Tampoco” and not Cloudberry Cake Proselytism Archive – Esta Noche Tampoco. Longer and not convenient. Well, I can’t do that anymore. I first thought it was a bug but then I found out that Facebook has removed these options. They say it is because they want to stop people editing the news, this way they hope to stop “fake news”. I was shocked when I saw this. Seriously? This is the way to stop them? Anyhow… now I’ll be posting a photo post and will share it with the link to the post. Sadly there won’t be a small description available, so you’ll have to just click and read the whole post.

Now onto the news:

38 songs by The Orchids will appear on a 2CD compilation titled “Who Needs Tomorrow” this August. It will be released by Cherry Red (a label I don’t agree with, but I LOVE The Orchids), and will include liner notes by Orchids’ producer Ian Carmichael. Something that is very exciting about it is that one of the CDs is dedicated to rare and unreleased tracks. The whole thing includes demos, alternative acoustic versions, radio performances, flexi disc singles, a cover version, and an old EP favourite – Underneath The Window, Underneath The Sink – specially re-recorded just for this release. It does sound like something I want!

It seems there are news about Alvvays every week. Maybe that’s true. Maybe that’s their master plan to promote their new album that’s coming out soon. This week they uploaded to Youtube not a video, but the audio for the song “Dreams Tonite” and it sounds great! I hope/wish that in this new record they include the cover they do of “Alimony” by The Hummingbirds when they play live. Last week we saw the sad news that Simon Holmes of The Hummingbirds passed away, and I think, this would be a very nice gesture. I’m forever sad about this news of course, I hoped so much to see The Hummingbirds live, especially as I saw they were playing some gigs the past few years. That won’t happen of course. I love The Hummingbirds, their records, their music, their videos. What a band.

Our friend André Brorsson from Stars in Coma will be releasing a new album on August 25th and it will be titled “Escapist Partisans”. At the moment you can stream the first  and second singles of the album. “Chalet Saudade” is the first single and  André tells a bit of the story of the song, “The track starts out as a modern DIY disco song, with resentful lyrical lines about Trump, endless news flow and modern life. By the time we get to the chorus, the song transforms into a schlager-like anthem with chants about simpler times. As we all know, pure nostalgia offers no solution, prompting the character of the song to ‘drink myself to sleep’. However, by the end of the song, he decides it’s better to stay alive and ‘take it all in,’ even if the time he lives in only provide terror and gloominess.” If you have a listen, you’ll notice that is a very fine song! The second single is titled “Ten Years” and is also very nice, and André tells us about it as well,“A song in the genre I dubbed ’80’s sitcom pop’, mainly due to the heavy use of very direct and uplifting saxophone melodies. Also a homage to Bowie and his weird chord progressions. A song about looking forward and looking back but mostly staying the same personally.” Now, looking forward to listening to the rest of the songs on the album.

I have to say I was doubtful of Patience, the new project by Roxanne from Veronica Falls. It seems the same thing that happened to me with Veronica Falls has happened with Patience, meaning that at first I’m not convinced and then I start liking it very much. This means I already missed her first two singles because of that, and even though I don’t think they are as good as her last, “White of an Eye”, the completist in me will try to track them down. And that is going to be hard. Everything, even the new single which is slated to be released in September is already sold out! Tough luck! Hopefully I will be able to get a copy of “White of an Eye”, I think a store in the UK will be able to help me. The 7″ single is being released by Night School records and has on the B side the song “Blue Sparks” which isn’t available to listen. Right now I think the best place to preview this gem of a single is on Youtube as there’s a very cool video to promoting this brilliant 3rd single.

Some time ago I sent interview questions to Raintree County. They said they wanted to wait until some news were announced before sending me the answers. I don’t think it has been announced widely, but I saw on their Facebook page that a 3CD box set will be released soon by their old label, Native Records!

Lastly I want to recommend the new 4-song EP by Lima, Peru, band Submarino. “Transatlántico” is their newest release and I feel it is their best to date. The four songs, “Bicentenario”, “Política de Tierra Quemada”, “¿Qué Voy a Hacer Si Todo Arde?” and “Dominique Crenn”, are proper guitar pop songs, clearly influenced by Spanish pop bands like Los Planetas or even Los Punsetes. The band, which I think I haven’t recommended before, is Esteban Bertarelli’s vehicle to create popsongs with the help of many friends. I remember meeting Esteban more than a decade ago on Soulseek, when he was very young and making music in the vein of La Casa Azul in his native Piura, in the north of Peru. It is very interesting for me to see how his music and skills have evolved in this time, and I feel this is a very worthy release!

It seems more news were left out again! Well, well, they will need to wait until next week!

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Gijón, Asturias. Probably the first time I will dig deep into the history of a band from that city in the north of Spain. I have mentioned Los Bonsáis in the blog many times, but even they are from Asturias, they are from Llanes, a smaller town. Gijón is the big city in Asturias, the main cultural hub of the region. But it is not a contemporary story this one, it is one that has to go back to the 80s.

I discovered Esta Noche Tampoco not so long ago. I thought I knew all the worthy guitar pop bands from Spain by now. Seems I don’t. I actually discovered another one this week thanks to my friend Joel. This is exciting for sure, there is more and more music to discover. I feel that I saw someone post the song “Ingemar” on Facebook. I can’t recall who. Might have been Joel as well? Maybe. But it could have been any of my Spanish friends. I would love to give credit, but there’s a blank in my memory.

Esta Noche Tampoco, which roughly translates to Neither this Night, formed in 1985. The band lineup then was Eduardo Lamela on vocals and guitars, Ana Lamela, his sister, on vocals and keyboards, Quique on bass and Antonio “Toño” Peña on drums. Other musicians that were part of the band in these early years were the bassists Tino Acebal, José Andreu and Ruben Figaredo, the guitarists Jon Egurrola and Paco Martínez and the keyboardist Mento Hevia.

Much of the biographical information I’m going to share with you come from two sources. The first is the blog “80 Nuevaola” and the second is Wikipedia. On the blog it says that the band was born from the ashes of the band Kurins, a hard-rock band, that saw the light in 1985 when they discovered The Smiths. Because of this new style, Quique was to leave the band.

In May 1988 two songs (which songs??) were included in a tape compilation titled “¿Qué Hago Yo Aquí?” that was released by Fusión de Producciones. That same year the band release the tape “Saben como a Sal” also on the same label. This tape had Mento Hevia as the producer and José Andreu, who was now playing with the band Amateurs, as bassist. I couldn’t find a tracklist for this tape on the web.

The next year, 1989, the band was to release their first vinyl record, “Las Manos en el Agua” with Fusión de Producciones. I do wonder though about this, as on Discogs another label is listed, Mocambo (catalog 4M-009). Actually for all their releases appearing on Discogs it is Mocambo. On these biographical sites it is Fusión de Producciones. Was it a co-release? Was it the same label? I don’t know. I actually just ordered this 12″ and hopefully when the record arrives I could solve a mystery or two. Always tough to order records from Spain, shipping costs are very unfriendly, same as the ones we have here in the US I guess.

On the record three songs appear on the A side, “Ingemar”, “Nosotros y los Charcos” and “Ese Extraño Pez”. On the B side just two, “La Piel Igual de Canela” and “Un Gélido Juego”. To promote this 12″ the band released a 7″ (which is not listed on Discogs) that had “Ingemar” and on the flipside a cover of the House of Love’s “Hope”. That same year the band played in Niort, France, at the “L’Europe d’Art” festival, they were representing Gijón.

In 1990 the band released their first LP, “Bésame Mucho” (Mocambo 2M-015). The album has a bunch of very “indiepop-looking” photos that were taken by Ruben Figaredo (previously bassist of Raíl Real). The tracks on the album were, on the A side, “Baltasar”, “Deshazme”, “Algodones”, “Dos Secretos” and “Flores Rojas”, whereas on the B side we have “Carmen Esmeralda”, “Ese Extraño Pez”, “La Mentira y su Eco”, “You Were My Skin” and “Johny, Mi Rey”.

To promote the album the band releases “Johny, Mi Rey” as a single (Mocambo 3M-014). On the B side we find a cover of “Leaves Me Cold” by Lush.

The next year, 1991, they were to perform at the legendary TV show “El Salero”. There is actually footage of them playing the song “Algodones” on the TV show on Youtube. The Youtube user victorblancoarcas mentions that in 1988 he played a show with his band, opening for Esta Noche Tampoco, at the venue “Casa de los Patos” in Oviedo.

Thanks to all this the band wins the best demo category prize on the El Kastillo de las Lágrimas radio show from Madrid in 1992.

On Rateyourmusic I find a self-titled demo tape from 1992. There were 6 songs included, “Esos Ojos”, “Labios Son Labios”, “Como Decir Que No”, “Escuchandote”, “Enseñame un Juego” and “Clarisse”.

Their last release was to appear in 1993, “Ya No Eres Mágica” EP. This time the record came out on Noche Records (also unlisted on Discogs). It seems it didn’t do well and the band decided to split because of that.

In 2003 a double CD-R compilation was released by Sausalito. It was an anthology of the band’s music and it was titled “Nosotros y los Charcos 1989-1992”. I haven’t seen this record ever. I wish I could find myself a copy!

On Wikipedia it mentions that after the demise of the band they started a new one called “Corazón Loco” were the band fused latin and British sounds but they didn’t get much of a following.

Ana Lamela these days is actually a well-regarded writer of erotic poetry and young adult fiction.

So time to keep digging. I then find an article dating from not so long ago, May 10th of 2017 on the La Nueva España newspaper. The article is about Eduardo Lamela. He was going to play some shows in the venues Trisquel and Savoy and so there was some promotion here. On the article I learn that his sister and himself weren’t born in Asturias, but in Lugo, in Galicia. Also that he has played in the US, Mexico, Sweden, Canada, Chile and Germany. That he has lived in Cuba and Barcelona.

About Ana I also found that she has a cultural project called Musa Cafeína. It is a multidisciplinary project where they promote music, reading, performance and more.

What else can we find? Well there’s Soundcloud, and Eduardo has an account there. Uploaded are “Esos Ojos” and “Labios son Labios“. Eduardo says these songs are from their last release, I suppose the “Ya No Eres Mágica” EP. An interesting fact is that Eduardo lists this record as grunge, and that it was recorded at Paco Loco’s studios. There are also a bunch of songs by a band called Versus, I suppose another project of his.

There are also 7 songs to stream from their sole album. But more surprisingly I find on another Souncloud account a song from their 1992 demo that won them the prize at El Kastillo de las Lágrimas, “Más Que el Futuro“. It sounds great!!

I’m sure my Spanish friends might remember them, or might know what happened to the members afterwards. It seems Ana is the one that you might know best, but I wonder what happened to Antonio Peña? I couldn’t find any information about him. And what about that double CDR? I would love to find a copy as it includes a bunch of then-unreleased tracks. Whereabouts in Spain did they gig? Why aren’t they as famous as say Aventuras de Kirlian or other bands from the time? Why didn’t they release records in bigger labels? So many questions. The fact is that they left some fantastic songs, you might just fall in love immediately with the brilliant “Ingemar” now, just as I did some months ago. And yeah? Who is this “Ingemar”? Maybe Ingemar Johansson the Swedish boxer?

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Listen
Esta Noche Tampoco – Ingemar

There was a truckload of indiepop news the last week. Or maybe I was paying more attention to updates on Facebook? It is the only way to be on top of everything happening in indiepop world. Writing down every single piece of news because then I forget. In the past there was never anything centralized for getting our news, but at least there were a few blogs.  Today I feel we are really lost at sea.

I have enough for two blog posts. If I can’t do another one this week, then I’ll save some news for next week. So let’s start:

Some weeks ago I championed the first two demos that were uploaded to Brighton’s Jetstream Pony Soundcloud page. Last week they uploaded a third one titled “Self-Destruct Reality” and like the previous songs, it is brilliant. This song won’t appear on their forthcoming 7″, so I wonder where will these songs be released? They are wonderful. Perhaps they are preparing an album? Or maybe they need another label to offer another 7″?!

Another band I recommended not so long ago are Finland’s The New Tigers. I’m only discovering their music lately, I need to try to track down their releases. In the meantime though I’m delighted with their new video for the song “Chewing Gum” that was released last week. I’m sure you’ll all like it.

San Francisco band Scrabbel, featuring Dan Lee from The Aislers Set, released a very limited, 100 copies, 7″ on John Jervis label Wiaiwya not too long ago. On the record there are two songs, “All Night” and “Summer’s End”. The first one is much more upbeat, with shimmering guitars, while the latter is more of an introspective, elegant song. You can stream both songs and order the record from the label’s Bandcamp.

Kim Weldin, from South Carolina, has been releasing great records with her band Tape Waves (where she is a duo with Jared Weldin). I even met her briefly at a NYC Popfest, when they played. I wasn’t aware that she had a solo project called Shiny Times. It seems I found about it a bit late as on the Shiny Times Bandcamp there is even a release dating from 2014. The past week she uploaded a bunch of recordings, 11 in total, as a digital and CD release titled “Secret Memos.” From the Bandcamp you can stream these lo-fi bedroom pop recordings and also buy the limited CD.

Baby Arms, who I discovered through the wonderful CD16 on Impermeable Records, have just released a new song titled “Eviscerator” on Bandcamp. To celebrate the occasion J. Doveton (who also is part of Colour Me Wednesday), has put together a digital and CD release including this song plus all other released songs by Baby Arms. And that’s not all, on top of that, 7 more demos have been included. So in total you get 13 songs. Lo-fi pop, reminiscent of Rose Melberg, I may just need to order this CD pretty soon.

And what about the classic Irish band The Would Be’s? They are still going. The band who wrote the brilliant “Funny Ha Ha” or the classic “I’m Hardly Ever Wrong” has a new single out titled “Tempt Fate” and it is available as a video and also as a paid-download from Bandcamp.

Last tip for this week comes all the way from Melbourne, Australia. The fantastic band Milk Teddy, who I was introduced many years ago by Scott B. from the Summer Cats, have a new single and video out. They are at the moment promoting their new album, “Time Catches Up With Milk Teddy”, that is slated for August. So don’t wait longer and check out the fun video for “Sweets Bells Jangled“.

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The Relations – indie band from Perth. Perth in Scotland, not the one in Australia.

Perth is a city in central Scotland, located on the banks of the River Tay. It is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county of Perthshire. According to the preliminary 2011 census results Perth, including its immediate suburbs, has a population of 50,000. Perth has been known as The Fair City since the publication of the story Fair Maid of Perth by Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott in 1828. 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.

Wait, I had interviewed a Perth band back in the day, didn’t I? Yes, Sandy Fyfe’s band Greenheart. And actually on this interview he mentions The Relations. What did he say?

When I ask him about what other Perth bands of the late 80s did he like he says: “The Relations had gone baggy and were in the lower reaches of the UK singles chart”, and when I ask him about Greenheart’s reputation as enfants terribles he says: “I remember playing a gig supporting The Relations, who had been on television that week playing their baggy stuff. They were in the crowd as we played. I was introducing the fact that they would be playing after us, someone in the audience shouted something not too complimentary about them, and I retorted ‘clearly someone has seen them before’ and we launched into our next song. There was a wee bit of hassle after that between us, and recently I was discussing the Go-Betweens with Gerry, singer of The Relations, and he said to me, ‘it’s a shame we have spent 20 years disliking eachother as we actually love the same music’ We are now good buddies. That’s what is great about music – the friends you make.”

My introduction to the band was through their first single, “Big Mans Shoes”, that was released in 1986. Of course, I didn’t buy it then. I was way too young. I must have got it maybe 5 or 6 years ago. How did I find out about them? That I can’t remember really. The good thing, because I bough the record blindly, was that I really liked it!

The 7″ was released on Hush Records (catalog HUSH001) and I’m guessing it was a self-release, that the band was running Hush. To give support to this theory, the B side was titled “Hush Hush”.  The record was produced at Wilfs Planet, same place that The Wake’s “Harmony” was produced. The producer was C. Medley, the art for the single is credited to Kelly and the photos to L. McNamara.

That same year the band was to release their second single, “Brainwashed and Blowdried” / “Come Home (Tell Us Everything)”. This was HUSH 002. This single is not in my collection yet. On Discogs though there is a small scan of the back cover, and squinting my eyes I can figure out that The Relations were Gerry on vocals, Nelly on drums, Kelly on guitar and Vinnie on bass and that they were managed by Dave Winton.

But that wasn’t the end of the band. They were to release an album, titled “Patrick”, in 1989. This was released on Stairwell Recordings (WELLP 001) and again I would guess this was self-financed, but I don’t know as they already had set up Hush before, why create Stairwall, right? Maybe this time it was different people running the label? Or who knows?

The album included 10 songs, 5 on each side. None of the songs from the singles were to appear. The tracklist is as follows: “Right On Mother”, “If…”, “Who Do You Think You Thought You Were”, “I’m Killing You”, “Some Say Sorry”, “Dark Night Bright”, “Don’t Let Me Break Your Heart Again”, “The Girl Who Cried Forever”, “Holy Water”, “God Loves God”. I’m also still missing this album, but luckily on Discogs there is quite some information on it.

The album was recorded at Pier House Studios, a place The Shop Assistants and The Pastels used. We get the full names of the band members now too, Vincent Stewart on bass, Neil McCormick on drums, Kelly McCormick on guitar and vocals and Gerry Harper on vocals. For this record the design of the jacket is credited to Chromatone Design and the photos to Luke Hayes (from Revolving Pint Dream), people who were involved in some Creation releases like “Ivy Ivy Ivy” by Primal Scream or “She’s So Out of Touch” by Slaughter Joe.

What else do we know about them? Well something very important. The band recorded a Peel Session on April 15th 1986. I could find the four songs of the session on Youtube. Check them out, “Mr. Wonderful“, “Come Home“, “Holy Water” and “You Can Call Me Anything“. I notice a comment where it says that the band played many times in London.

These songs were uploaded to what seems is Vincent Stewart, the bassist, Youtube channel. No surprise then that there are more songs, mostly from the album, but also the singles. Perhaps the best discovery here is the track “You’re The Next Best Thing” which is an early track, dating from 1984, that was included in the compilation “Deadbeat 3”. This compilation doesn’t appear on Discogs.

I wonder then if they were on more compilations? What happened to them afterwards? From the Youtube account I would guess members went to be in bands like The Curtains, Clearwater Rhythm & Blues Band, Turkey Bones & The Wild Dogs or Rabid Punk Guitars.

Were they also involved in other jangly bands? Are there more early recordings? Are there more unreleased stuff? I would like to know more. Maybe some of you remember them? I couldn’t find much about their gigs either! And also, how come after recording a Peel Session they didn’t enjoy any success?!

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Listen
The Relations – Big Mans Shoes

New week and now my 2nd week at my new job. I keep readjusting, and it is clear I need to learn some new things. To start, I need to learn how to do D3. I’ve never really got into it, I kept creating visuals and interactives without it, but now I see I must learn it. Need to be on the same page with my peers. When I started at my previous job I had to learn some Underscore just when I started and a charting library called Amcharts. I think I was really scared then, my background was never of a programmer, it was of a designer. But I manage to learn enough to get away with it and had a fine time, even winning some awards. Now I feel I’m at a similar crossroads, today confronting a new library and having to deal with that uncomfortable thing that is the Terminal. I hope I manage, I hope I like it. It is going to be interesting the next few months. To start I’ve bought some books, see if I can be disciplined enough again, at 33, to learn new things and not just be comfortable and lazy.

The good thing is that I’m working at my own pace while the department is being built. I’m the first hire. That gives me some time to work on my own stuff, meaning Cloudberry mostly. I’m writing these lines on a Sunday night while I wait for the footie highlights show, but I’m pretty sure much of this post will be written tomorrow, on Monday. This weekend was mostly about house chores, but I put together a new offer on the Cloudberry website that might interesting for many of you. As part of the 10th anniversary I’ve been trying to get some more affordable prices for you all. I do lose a bit of money on it, but I want to find a good home for these records and at the same time make some space at my place (which will start looking like a hoarder’s apartment!) for the new releases. This time around it is a Sweden only pack. That means there are 5 records by 5 bands from Sweden available to you all just for a month, until August 15th. This pack’s price is $25 for US orders and $50 for international orders. Both prices include shipping and handling. The pack includes the Fibi Frap CD, Hari and Aino, Bonne Idée, A Smile and a Ribbon and Youngfuck 7″s. Hope you take advantage of it!

What is new in the indiepop world now? Not sure if I’ve done well my homework this week but I did write down some cool stuff.

Let’s start by what most people are aware now, what most people raved about. That is that Alvvays have released the video for the brilliant “Undertow“, the song that is the first single of their “Antisocialites” album out on September 8th. I’ve already recommended this song when it was just an audio-only video on Youtube. Now there’s a video and it is very cool too. When I think of Alvvays I have to go back many years, when RJ from Lost Tapes came to New York telling me he had a crush, that there was this amazing band he had just seen. There was no online presence of them online. There was just some live video on Youtube. That was it. Months after the band was signing with a sort of big indie label and becoming darlings of the hipster-crowd. They were destined to this probably. I still haven’t seen them live, and I will try to fix that later this year, if their NYC shows don’t sell out.

Another band I’ve recommended on the blog is Houston’s Astragal. I checked them out after they appeared on the CD16 album that Impermeable Records put out. Now I noticed on their Bandcamp that they have 3 songs on a split tape on Miss Champagne Records. The band they share the split is also from Houston and are called Donna Heyward. I listened to them but it wasn’t my stuff. I’ll stick to Astragal’s side, and even though I’m not into tapes I (and you) can stream their 3 songs on Bandcamp. “Brightfellow”, “Miles” and “Crescent” are pretty dreampoppish jangly pieces. I especially like the last song the best, “Crescent”.

Ali, Chris and Brian from Richmond, Virginia, are Big Baby. I notice on their Facebook page that I already have friends following them. Well, I only just discovered them on Bandcamp. They sound classic, like they would fit in the Pop American Style compilation, no problem. They have a new tape coming out soon (oh dear, what’s with this tape fad? bring back CDRs! It is a pain for me to play tapes!), I suppose self-released. At the moment you can stream on Bandcamp all the songs that will be included in this EP titled “Sour Patch” which are 5: “Not That”, “Lemons”, Everybody”, “Rubber Tree” and “Often”. Again for some reason, I like their last song, “Often”, the best.

Months ago, or was it longer than that?, I was championing the return of Galaxy Train Records from Japan. Their latest offering is a 3 song tape (okay, I’m going to go out to protest on the streets!) by Japanese band Smokebees. The “Sunstroke EP” is a sweet lo-fi bedroom recording. The songs are “Begin Again”, “Lights of Home” (this one being my favourite) and a cover of Gavin Bryars’ (I don’t know who he is) “Jesus Blood Has Never Failed Me Yet”. You can stream it at the label’s Bandcamp.

One record that kind of slipped from my was the pretty pretty 5-song EP CD by Cattle on Jigsaw Records. I’m only listening to it now on the Seattle’s label Bandcamp and I’m kind of annoyed with myself for not having heard it before. Cattle is a Tokyo band who released their first EP also with Jigsaw some years ago. That means, I need to catch up, TWICE. On this new offering there’s even a cover of Ride’s “Twisterella”. What else could you ask? You get here honey sweet vocals, poppy melodies and electric guitars. This EP is titled “Slow Sailor” and even has a very cute illustration of a sailor on the artwork. “Sherbet”, “Dear Heart” (my favourite one), “Twisterella”, “Within Your Reach” and “Slow Sailor” are the tracks on this very good second release.

There’s even more new music on Bandcamp worth mentioning. Remember a long time ago I wrote and then interviewed a C86 sounding short-lived band from New Zealand called The Perfect Garden? Now they’ve set up a Bandcamp though at the moment there are only previews, short snippets, of their songs. In any case this is not to be missed by any indiepop lover, especially when the full songs are available as these are quality songs, and you’ll be wondering why the hell they were never properly released.

A few days ago I got a message from Phil Wilson. No, not the June Brides’ Phil Wilson, but Phil from The Raft, a band from Neston in the UK. So I duly checked his Bandcamp where his latest EP is available for streaming. Titled “Coming Up For Air“, the EP has four guitar-driven songs, “Glad I Don’t Know”, “Coming Up for Air”, “Anarchy on Our Guitars” and “Regrets”. It is a dreamy EP, with lovely guitar work, especially on the first song, “Glad I Don’t Know”, which is my favourite. Surprised I never heard about The Raft, they seem to have releases dating all the way back to 2003. I think I will have to explore their digital discography then.

And lastly, come on, this week has had a lot of recommendations, is Peru’s Almirante Ackbar who are releasing their first album on Faro Discos. You can order the CD album (which I already did) and stream it on their Bandcamp. Titled “Sonidos Ultrasónicos y Audibles Para Callar al Perro del Vecino”, which roughly translates as ultrasonic and audible sounds to shut up your neighbor’s dog, has 13 fun songs. A few weeks back I recommended their new videos for the songs “Alquimia Espiritual” and “Fiebre de la Amplitud”. Now they release an album. It seems the Lima guys are working hard, and that can only be a good thing. The album is thoroughly enjoyable!

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Remember last week? I was writing about The Friendly Fires, a Crawley band, and mentioned that I should actually dedicate a post to another Crawley band: Bobby Scarlet. I though why not do it this week? Why wait? I already owned their 7″ and was missing their 12″, so I also ordered it today. Let’s see what there’s to find about them on the web.

As it is becoming usual my first stop is Discogs. There I find just one line on the bio field: “1980s indie rock band from Crawley, West Sussex, England. The core of the band became Spitfire.” It also lists one member, Chris Window.

I actually discovered this band through the 1991 compilation “La-Di-Da… So Far…”  (La-Di-Da 018). On it the band appeared contributing the song “White Pearl” and I was immediately hooked!

I then decided to check out their back catalogue. I think I didn’t buy their 12″ because of expensive postage prices but I did get their first release, their “Mosquito” 7″.

This record was released on the same label, Deadbug Records, I was talking about last week when I wrote about The Friendly Fires. I feel, I’m guessing too, that there was a healthy scene in Crawley, were all the bands helped each other and even shared members. “Mosquito”, with “Peach” on the B side, came out in 1986 and got the Deadbug 003 catalog number. On the cover we see a black and white photo of a kid, probably at the beach, might it be one of the band members? On the back cover there’s a smaller photo of some sand castles. First thing I start wondering is why the name Bobby Scarlet? Was there a real Bobby Scarlet? On the back I notice that the band thanks Brian and The F.Fs. Pretty sure that The F.Fs are The Friendly Fires. Brian? Could it be Brian Hope, the vocalist and keyboardist of The Friendly Fires? The last bit of information comes from the labels. Two last names appear, Pritcher and Smith.

Their next and last release was to be out in 1988. It was the “White Pearl” 12″ on La-Di-Da Records out of Brighton. This is a label I’ve mentioned so many times as they released a bunch of fantastic records. I’ve been in touch with Grant Lyons who ran it, but sadly never got to get his interview answers. In any case many times he has been helpful giving me some information about many bands on the blog. This 12″ had 4 songs, on the A side there was “White Pearl” and “Mosquito” (a new version?) while on the B side there was “Jessica Jayne” and “I’ve Been Insulted By More Texans Than Anyone Else In The World”. This was actually the second release on La-Di-Da getting the catalog number La-Di-Da 002.

As I said I just ordered this record. It says it comes with a photo insert. Sadly I can’t find online any scan or photo of the back cover. Don’t know what sort of information is available there. As soon as I receive my copy I will update this post unless the band gets in touch with me before that. Yes, I’m hoping that.

Bobby Scarlet appeared at least on two other compilations. In 1988 they appeared on the legendary “Hoopla” tape contributing the song “260p”. This is a brilliant compilation that if you haven’t checked out try finding it as you will be on a treat. Interesting enough, the band wasn’t to appear on the Hoopla reissue on Accident Records, I suppose because the masters for this song were lost.

The next year, in 1989, they contributed the song “Steppenwolf” to another classic compilation, “Something’s Burning in Paradise Again”. This compilation was celebrated by the Something’s Burning in Paradise fanzine as the “greatest compilation tape you’re EVER likely to hear”. On the fanzine there was information about each of the bands, and in the case of Bobby Scarlet it says that by that time they had already changed names to Spitfire. There is only one name mentioned, Joseph. Now we need to find his last name.

Last week I linked to the Crawley Observer as there were mentions of The Friendly Fires when they were going to play a reunion to raise money for St. Catherine’s Hospice in 2012. Bobby Scarlet (and Spitfire) also played this gig. On the article there’s more mentions to Spitfire than Bobby Scarlet but as they are both related bands I think it could be interesting to you all:

This was soon followed by another Deadbug double-A side 7-inch release, Mosquito/Peach, by new to the scene, ‘60’s influenced five-piece Bobby Scarlet in early ‘87. Subsequently, both bands released a 12-inch single – The Friendly Fires’ I Said To Him and Bobby Scarlet’s White Pearl. Friendly Fires and Bobby Scarlet found themselves supporting many established independent bands of the day at venues around the south east, but, unfortunately by 1988 both groups had spilt. The Eighties story ends with garage rockers Spitfire, formed from the ashes of Bobby Scarlet in late 1989. Spitfire, all ex-Thomas Bennett pupils, soon found themselves signed to a London-based independent record company. Within six months they had acquired an NME single of the week. A national tour with a fresh from Top of the Pops Blur and John Peel sessions followed. 1992 saw a Reading Festival appearance and a number one independent single with the EP Wild Sunshine, Spitfire can also count Pulp and The Verve amongst an illustrious line-up of bands that supported them. Spitfire called it a day in early 1994 after releasing two albums and seven Eps

I found a website now where I could see the band members in Spitfire. Here I see that it was formed by Jeff Pritcher, his brother Nick, Steve White, Scott Kenny and Matt Wise. Okay, so the Pritcher on the Mosquito labels must have been Jeff or Nick. But that’s not all, luckily there are more mentions about Bobby Scarlet on here:
…Bobby Scarlet, which featured Jeff and Nick, as well as Steve Walker and Darren on guitars, and Chris Window(s) formerly of Creation hopefuls Blow uUp on drums. Bobby Scarlet released 2 singles, first Peaches / Mosquito on the Crawley label Deadbug run by another Crawley band, Friendly Fires and a 4 track 12” released on the Brighton label La-Di-Da Jeff, Nick and Steve Walker were definitely around for the first 2 singles, and Scott Kenny was definitely on the second.

So we got the band members now! Even that Chris Window used to be in Blow Up.

Next and last stop then will be the Bobby Scarlet Youtube account that I explored last week for The Friendly Fires rare tracks.

The first rare recording I find is “Kiss Me” at the 1987 Turn Me Up Christmas Party. At this gig the band played with The Grooveyard and The Wedding Present at The Pavilion in Brighton.

Then there’s the 1988 demos “Feverish” and “Strawhead” where the band sounds a bit rougher. And lastly a “260p” demo from 1988 if you can’t find a Hoopla copy (or Mp3s).

The last thing I could find was a flyer for a gig that was happening on March 3rd 1988 at the LCF Auditorium. Wonder where that is/was?

And that’s about all I could find for Bobby Scarlet. There’s definitely much more about Spitfire, but I wanted to concentrate on Bobby Scarlet, as it was a proper indiepop band during the best years of indiepop. I wonder if they recorded any more songs, if they left many unreleased tracks. Whereabouts did they gig? Anyone out there remembers them?

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Listen
Bobby Scarlet – White Pearl

I have been out of the loop for the past few days. I haven’t had the time to find out new music, and even less time to listen to the records that I’ve bought and keep piling by my computer. Now I go to work earlier, around 3 hours earlier. The mornings are not to my disposal anymore and so I need to readapt, reorganize myself. And I think that takes time. I need to find time a comfortable time to play music at time, I can’t do it too early or too late. I could try to play CDs while I work, that’s an idea. Sadly the computers at work don’t have a CD drive. I may need to bring a USB one and install Last.fm, as I like keeping track of what I’ve listened. Many new things, routines that are no more and routines that will be created in the next few months.

I guess the only piece of news that caught my attention was the announcement the Chickfactor fanzine made on their website and social networks. Chickfactor is celebrating their 25th anniversary with events in Portland (sometime in late October), in New York (sometime in early November) and in London (the only one confirmed, for the 11th and the 12th of November at The Lexington).

The party starts early, there’s an all-ages shindig at 12:30 pm on Saturday 11th at The Lexington. This seems to be co-organized with the always classy Hangover Lounge. There are two bands playing this smaller event: Wait What and The Numberz. On the website it says more young bands will be added and also some special guests. On the WeGotTickets website, where you can buy tickets for the event another band is listed, Ivy & Friends.  I couldn’t find a Bandcamp or Soundcloud for either The Numberz or Ivy & Friends. I remember that The Numberz played Indietracks some years ago when both of the members were 10 years each! So young! For Wait What I couldn’t find any of those music sites but there is a video for their song “Tune Me Up” on Youtube. On that same account they have more lo-fi videos. It is nice acoustic pop and they are really young as well!

Later that day, doors opening at 7:30, there are 4 bands to play the same venue. There’s The Pastels, Lois, Kicking Giant and Kites at Night. I’m not familiar with the last two, so I did a little investigation. So Kicking Giant are Tae Won Yu & Rachel Carns from New York. I’ve never seen them before. I don’t think I was ever aware of this band in NY. Maybe they don’t play live much? This Chickfactor show will be their first in the UK and this year they will get a reissue LP for their early work. This LP is coming out on Drawing Room Records and it is titled “Ballad of Kicking Giant, Halo: NYC/Olympia 1989-1993”. So I check their Bandcamp and I notice they used to be on K Records. The first song that plays is “Alien I.D.” and I’m not a fan because it is noisy and shouty, so I decide to play the next song, and it is in the same vein. OK, perhaps this band is not for me.

Kites at Night are Rose Melberg and Jon Manning. For this show Jen Sbragia (the other half of The Softies) will join them on bass. Rose and Jon had been involved with another band called Imaginary Pants. I actually have their 2013 self-titled 7″ that has a cool bear illustration on the cover. It is a very good record I think. On this same Bandcamp account they have the Kites at Night sole release to date, a cassette with 5 songs. The first edition sold out, nowadays the band is selling a second edition clear red cassette tape with hand stamped labels. This EP was actually released in 2014! Where was I then? Why is it now the first time I hear these beautiful songs. Shame it is only available on tape, I’m not a fan as you know.  But this Lost Sound Tapes release sounds fantastic to my ears.

The next day, November 12th, with the same schedule, doors at 7:30 and show at 8:00pm, 4 more bands will play The Lexington: The Softies, Stevie Jackson, The Would-Be-Goods and The Catenary Wires. Here there are no surprises, I’m familiar with all the acts. In this case I must say I’m jealous of all of you attending and seeing The Would-Be-Goods. They are among my favourite bands. To this day I’ve only seen them once, at the previous Chickfactor show in London. Yeah, I’m not going to be able to attend this. I’ve already asked for vacations for Thanksgiving week, at the end of November, so I can go to Portugal. So no indiepop festivals for me this year. Hopefully the next? I wonder if Chickfactor had announced earlier these shows I could have attended. I plan everything way in advance!

Both nights at The Lexington will feature MC Gaylord Fields (from WFMU). I remember him at the New York shows some years ago introducing the bands with fun anecdotes. I liked that. There will be Hangover Lounge DJs on the first floor of the venue. I wonder though if there will be any afterparties? Any dancing? That’d be nice. At least on Saturday. Hope something like that is announced. The ticket prices seem reasonable, 18 pounds for each night or 32 pounds for the two nights.

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Crawley is a town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is 28 miles (45 km) south of Charing Cross (London), 18 miles (29 km) north of Brighton and Hove, and 32 miles (51 km) north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of 17.36 square miles (44.96 km2) and had a population of 106,597 at the time of the 2011 Census. Gatwick Airport, nowadays one of Britain’s busiest international airports, opened on the edge of the town in the 1940s, encouraging commercial and industrial growth.

An all-time favourite 7″ of mine is the “Arkansas” 7″ by The Friendly Fires that was released in 1986. I pulled it out the other day and got me thinking, why weren’t they more famous? Their songs are fantastic. How come a band with the same name became mainstream, famous and all? Were they aware of the “real Friendly Fires? Were they aware that their music wasn’t as good as the Crawley band from the 80s? Probably not. But then I didn’t know much about The Friendly Fires. So it was time to do some research.

Discogs immediately answers a few of my questions. There’s a small bio there that reads:
1980s indie band from Crawley, West Sussex, England. They ran their own label Deadbug Records releasing their own material as well as other local bands including Bobby Scarlet. The band consisted of Kieron Huston (guitar), Brian Hope (keyboards and vocal) and Paul Sloots (bass).

Indeed the two releases The Friendly Fires put together came out on Deabug Records. The first one, which is “Arkansas” for me, but a self-titled 7″ for Discogs, was catalogued as Deadbug Records 002. Discogs doesn’t list the 001 of the label’s catalog. I wonder what it is? The 7″ was recorded in August of 1986 and included three songs. “Arkansas” was the sole one on the A side while the B side had “Everything” and “Looks like Rain”.

Their second release was a 12″. This was Deadbug 005. A curious cat black and white photograph was on the cover. 5 songs came on this record, on the A said there’s “I Said to Him” and “Tide Temper” while on the B side there was “Happier Than Thou”, “All Too Soon” and “Come Alive”.

No other releases nor compilation appearances are listed on Discogs.

My next stop is an article on the Crawley Observer. On it they talk a lot about Robert Smith and The Cure but there are mentions to The Friendly Fires. But my first question comes immediately, is David Hope from the band Ever related to Brian Hope from The Friendly Fires? I feel it might be the same person? Well, on the Crawley article it says: “In 1986, Charles Cold changed their name to The Friendly Fires and released their first three-track 7-inch single, Arkansas, on singer Brian Hope’s Deadbug label. “

But then it is confusing, on another paragraph when they talk about Ever it says: “Ever, led by ex-Thomas Bennett kids David Hope, Peter Whittick and Colin Ray, were for a while THE band to make it, closely followed by The Milk Sisters, Charles Cold, All The Daughters and Swing the Heartache.”

So was there a David and a Brian Hope then?

Okay then, let’s follow the clues we have so far, before The Friendly Fires there was Charles Cold. It seems Charles Cold only put together demos, no proper releases.

Then another Friendly Fires mention on the article: “Friendly Fires and Bobby Scarlet found themselves supporting many established independent bands of the day at venues around the south east, but, unfortunately by 1988 both groups had spilt.” 

It is worth mentioning that this article was written in 2012 and it was for a good cause. Many of the 80s bands that were around in Crawley then were going to make an appearance and there was going to be even an 80s Jiveball disco. The bands that were going to play were Spitfire, All the Daughters, The Milk Sisters, Bobby Scarlet, Orange and of course The Friendly Fires. I wonder how that gig go. It must have been great to attend their reunion.

But there is another good resource for The Friendly Fires, one I have been using a lot every time I wanted to hear their fab songs, and that is Youtube. On the BobbyScarlet account (I know, probably this band also deserves a post on the blog) there is a plethora of songs by Crawley bands, probably all related to The Friendly Fires.

Aside from the recordings from the released records by The Friendly Fires, there are Charles Cold versions, meaning earlier versions, of the songs the band was to release. For example there is a very early “Arkansas” demo tape, dating from 1985. There are also demos of “Looks Like Rain Again“, “All Too Soon“, “Everything” and “I Said To Him” from 1986. But the BIGGEST discovery is another Friendly Fires release, another song. The Friendly Fires released a flexi with just the one song, “Neville“, in 1986. It was Deadbug Records 004. Sadly I couldn’t find any more information about it. But I know I want it, it sounds classic!

I keep investigating but I can’t find much more about The Friendly Fires. Most of the times I get information on the XXL band. I notice that Ed from Shelflife recommended them when he used to write his blog. I do find that Paul Sloots, their bassist, now plays in a band called Strange Tales. But that’s about it. I wonder what Brian Hope and Kieron Huston are up to now.

A bunch of questions remain unanswered. Definitely the flexi release is on top of my list. Was it released properly? Maybe it came along a fanzine? What about unreleased songs? What happened to the members after The Friendly Fires. I notice a lot of indiepop fans love their songs, but there is very little presence of the band on the web. I wonder if any of you remember them? Maybe they played a gig in your town?

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Listen
The Friendly Fires – Arkansas

Today is my last day at work. On Monday I start a new job at 30 Rock, Rockefeller Center. I’m a bit anxious, but I think the change will do me good. I wonder if it will affect in any way the label. I suppose not. The blog? Maybe. But I hope not. Let’s see how it works out. That’s why I prepared 3 blog posts for this week as I don’t know when will I have the time to research and write about bands. So you have a lot to read now. And definitely if it is not during the week, I’ll make my best to publish on the weekend.

Now onto more indiepop news that you can’t miss!

“Home Electronics” is the name of the singles compilation by the fantastic, legendary, They Go Boom!! As I see this release I can’t help myself thinking why I didn’t think of putting this myself! I would have loved that. What matters in the end is that this is finally released. And that’s something to celebrate! The album pulls together all five They Go Boom!! singles & EPs onto a CD. The liner notes have been written by Stephen Davies. Right now you can pre-order the album and wait until August 11th when it will be officially released. This one is NOT to be missed. Brilliant news!

The BMX Bandits keep promoting their new album “BMX Bandits Forever”. Because of that they have now released a new promo video for the song “It’s In Her Eyes (With Dr Cosmo’s Tape Lab)“. I still have to get the album, I’m a bit behind with a bunch of new releases, it seems this summer is very productive for many labels. Listening to this song, classic classic BMX Bandits sound, I feel I shouldn’t wait much longer in ordering that CD digipak from Elefant.

Another Elefant band that I’m a big fan is La Bien Querida. But this time around I’m having a similar feeling I got with the latest Club 8 song. I’m listening (and watching) the video for “7 Días Juntos“, the chosen single to promote her new album “Dinamita” out on June 27th and I’m a bit cold. I understand bands want to experiment and evolve and all that (though in this case it seems like a shot for mainstream acceptance to be honest), but, come on, try not to lose your indiepop sensibilities. I need to listen to the rest of the album to give a better opinion, but I’m not 100% sold with this song.

One of the best news in the last couple of weeks was the announcement that Cloudberry favourites Los Lagos de Hinault are releasing a new album. “Escenas de Caza” has already been released by the Fikasound label and what a treat it is. The 3rd album by the Madrid band has 12 songs. The clever lyrics of Carlos Ynduráin are present again, the boy-girl vocals too. The melodies combine perfectly for a singing along all the way through. You can actually stream the whole album on the band’s Bandcamp and I’ve been doing so for the last couple of weeks. I will probably make a better review of this piece of art after I get a physical copy on my hands. You can buy the album from the Fikasound Bandcamp. On top of it all, it was released on both CD and vinyl format and has a beautiful art. What else can you ask for?

My friend Vernon from Singapore recommended me a Russian band the other day. These are his own words: “I know almost nothing about Verbludes, an indiepop band from Russia. There is hardly any online info about them in English although they have just set up a Facebook page. I like what I have heard so far – shades of Heavenly, Loveninjas and Throw That Beat In The Garbage Can.” The song he recommended had a video. It is titled “Depts” and I’m loving it! Who the hell are these Verbludes? I don’t understand a thing, but the music is thrilling, exciting. Upbeat, with boy/girl vocals. I wonder if there are physical releases? I need to find a way to get their music. It is quite a discovery!! No one is making this sort of music anywhere else at the moment, a big suprise to see this sort of sounds coming from Russia! Oh! I did find a Bandcamp too.

The new darlings in Australia seem to be School Damage. They have just released a self-titled LP with Chapter Music and it is packed with 13 shambling songs. The band was originally a bedroom project for Carolyn Hawkins and Jake Robertson until they were joined by Jeff Raty and Dani Damage in Geelong/Melbourne. The label compares the band to The Vaselines and the Young Marble Giants and I can see that. This is a very exciting debut indeed, if you like your lo-fi pop shambolic, with a great dose of amateurism, you’ll love School Damage.

And that’s a wrap. More indiepop next week. Keep your eyes peeled.

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My introduction to The Chairs was through the compilation The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 3 released by Firestation Records in 2003. They had contributed the song “Brave Little Soldier” and I was curious about them. Years later I managed to get one of their 7″s, “Honey I Need a Girl of a Different Stripe”, probably through eBay. Now I wonder why I didn’t track their other 3 7″s. It is hard with so many fantastic bands out there, but I should try to now. To make it up, it is time to find out whatever happened to The Chairs. I start then with the record that introduced them to me, the Leamington Spa 3rd volume. There, on the booklet, The Chairs got 2 pages! Usually every band got 1 page. The Chairs got 2. And so there was a lot of information about them:

The Chairs began for me after The Gene Tryp fizzled out in 1986. The Gene Tryp, meant to be the missing link between the JAMC and The Byrds, was a feedback drenched fuzztone psych-pop racket, which grew out of an Essex Mod band called The Accidents. The Accidents were formed in 1978, and released an independent single in 79, Blood Spattered With Guitars on their own label, Hookline and Sinker. I think John Peel played it on his Radio One show. An album, recorded the following summer, Kiss Me On the Apocalypse, remained unreleased until 1995, at which time test pressings were changing hands for £100. The single is a Modpop classic, and is available on several Mod compilations as well as being added to the album CD. After several attempts to get signed, and touring with The Icicle Works and Husker Du among others, Paul Sullivan, Trevor Richardson and Kevin Lagan became tired of winklepickers and feedback, and decided to break away from the group. Manager Jim Wallace stayed with the trio and they became The Chairs, adding organist Dave Read, and releasing four self-financed singles and touring their assess off all over the UK, until The Stone Roses released Fool’s Gold, and student discos were never the same again. The Chairs were intended as a reaction to the sort of rockist posturing that had become the norm by the mid-eighties. As a writer, I was particularly taken by Elvis Costello’s no frills Blood and Chocolate album, and began to write songs for The Chairs in that vein. From now on there would be no solos, no rock star attitude, an no nonsense. The band had a manifesto; the name came from Lennon Remembers, Jann Wenners warts-and-all interview with John Lennon, where he rubbished the rockstar myth, and sang the praises of early rock ‘n’ roll purity. The quote was something about how rock ‘n’ roll should be like a chair, a functional thing, unadorned, simple, practical and honest. Say what you mean and put a backbeat to it. (Well thats how I thought it was, until I remembered seeing an advert in a magazine for a product called The Domesday Chair, a revolting piece of furniture marketed as a souvenir of the Norman Conquest. THe band was actually called The Domesday Chairs for a day or two, before I came to my senses and shortened it.) The template was definitely Costello’s Attractions, with a soupcon of Revolver period Beatles and a large helping of The Smiths, although our individual tastes were, to say the least, varied. There is a tape in existence of our first ever gig, on a foggy night in Southend, at a place called the Blue Boar. Don’t look for it, it might still be there. The band was being handled by Jim Wallace, a man known for his fondness for the banjo and his legendary hollow laugh. Like most managers, Jim took a lot of stick from his ‘boys’, but I personally came to rely on him enormously; without his encouragement and dogged pursuit of the prize there would be nothing to write about here. Not enough can be said about his right hand man David Hubbard, known to the band as Cakey. He drove us the length and breadth of the country, carried our gear, tuned our guitars, for no money and no discernible kudos. A prince among men.
We released four singles, financed by the band, all on our own Pink Halo label:
Likes of You / Something’s Happening
Size 10 Girlfriend / Cut-N-Dried
Honey I Need a Girl of a Different Stripe / Can’t Say I’m Sorry / Cut-N-Dried (12″ only)
Crestfallen / Sometimes It Takes a Hammer
We planned a 12″ of Crestfallen as well, which would have included a song called Days (not the Ray Davies tune) but ran out of money. (Days turned out to be the opening song on The Liberty Takers album The Heyday of Tony Stone, although you only get eight bars of it. That really is another story.) We struggled on into 1990, but once Dave Hubbard had left, like the ravens leaving the Tower of London, the heart went out of it, we had to get jobs, and all indie singles started to sound like someone rattling a collection box. We supported The Charlatans the first time they came to London, and a yawning gap appeared between us and the audience we were trying to attract. No amount of wahwah pedaling and funky drumming could tempt us onto the bandwagon, and we slipped away silently into the night. The following weeks NME featured The Charlatan’s singer Tim Burgess wearing Dave Reads suede jacket, stolen from right under our noses that night.
There was never, ever, a dance element to our music.
Paul Sullivan, West Sussex, March 2002

I read this years ago. What a good refresher. I think the next step then is to explore their discography. So time to check Discogs. The first 7″ was indeed “The Likes Of You”, with “Something’s Happening” on the B side. This was the first release by Pink Halo (catalog PHO1) and it came out in 1988. The producer was G. Chambers who has a long resumé, even working with the likes of Robbie Williams. The artwork for the picture sleeve is uncredited. It is a black and white illustration, a drawing, of some guy’s eyes and nose. Pink Halo Records was based in Offord Road in London, very close to the Highbury & Islington tube station. From this day you could already see the design of the labels that would become very characteristic of the next Pink Halo/The Chairs releases.

Their second release was the song I’m sharing with you today, “Size 10 Girlfriend”. The B side was “Cut-N-Dried”. This one sadly didn’t come with a picture sleeve. I wonder why. Maybe no money? It could be, as you see in a single year they were to release 3 records on their own. The record came out again on Pink Halo (catalog PHO2) and both songs are credited to Sullivan. The producer this time around was Howard Turner. Turner has more of an indie cred, he worked with 14 Iced Bears and The Nivens for example.

Their next release was the one I own. Released in 1988 by Pink Halo (catalog PHO3), this one too came on a picture sleeve. Now a striped shirt photo was the artwork. It made sense, the A side was “Honey I Need a Girl of a Different Stripe”. The B side was “I Can’t Say I’m Sorry”. Both songs credited to Paul Sullivan. The producer was once again Howard Turner. The songs were recorded at Resort Studios in Norwich. There was also a 12″ version of this record that included a third song “Cut and Dried (Short Back-N-Sides Mix)”.

Lastly, in 1990, Pink Halo was to release “Crestfallen” with “Sometimes It Take a Hammer” on the B side. The catalog this time was PHO4. Sadly this record didn’t come with a picture sleeve. So not much information to find out about it. The only thing we know is that both songs are again credited to Sullivan and the producer was Lance Phillips.

Happily I don’t seem to be the only one that had the idea to write about The Chairs. Leigh Haggerty of the blog “Leigh’s Mad World of Guitars” and also guitarist for bands like Ruts D.C., T.V. Smith, The Price, The Upper Cut and Big Al Reed, wrote a piece about them in 2010. There are a bunch of cool details that are worth sharing:
– The band played at least once at the Fulham Greyhound in 1988
– They were trying hard to get a record contract
– Paul Sullivan was also involved in the band The Crowd Scene
– There are many unreleased songs like “Boys From Slumberland” and “All I Need to Know”, this last one inspired by Albert Goodman’s book “The Lives of Young Lennon”

There are also links to an old Myspace of The Liberty Takers, Paul Sullivan’s band after The Chairs. Surprisingly I could stream the songs “English Skin”, “High Dive” and “My Waterloo”. I found out in Youtube that The Liberty Takers played in April a 20 year reunion gig at The Alley Cat Club in Denmark Street. There are a bunch of recordings at Graham Mansfield Youtube account.

I also learned that Sullivan was also in a band called The New Amusements. I found an interview with him on the blog Crayola Lectern dating from 2005. He actually talks about The Chairs on it:

You started as a drummer in The Accidents; how long did that last and what made you decide on the guitar and forming/fronting The Chairs?
I was writing songs from the word go, and I only took up the drums so I could get into the band. It was 1977 and it seemed unthinkable to be a ‘punk’ and not be in a band. The guitar and singing thing was going on at the same time, but it took me a few years to pluck up the courage to stand up there and face the music.
Drums are great though, don’t get me wrong. The Chairs were an interesting development in that we had a very definite ethos which informed everything we did, from haircuts to chord changes. We were political in that we disapproved of a great number of things for example guitar solos, dry ice, breast beating, men wearing make up etc.

Is it true that you played gigs with Hüsker Dü and The Charlatans? Good memories?
Hüsker Dü were really nice to us. I was in a band called Gene Tryp at the time and it was their first UK gig, at the old Marquee in Wardour Street. Greg Norton was particularly supportive and we got invited to a couple of their other shows. And Christ were they LOUD. The Charlatans gig happened in 1989, again their debut gig in London at the Powerhaus where they bussed in thirty or forty fans from Northwich. They were on different medication to us, and communication was stilted. However, the whole show was joyful and exciting. Their late organist, Rob, was a nice guy. Tim Burgess was off his nut and stole our keyboard player’s suede coat and had the cheek to wear it on the cover of the NME the following week.

The folklore surrounding The Chairs throws up a number of unlikely stories: did you race Stiff Little Fingers up the M1 once?
We overtook Jake Burns and SLF on the M6 while we were en route to Manchester and they were going to Liverpool. Jake Burns had been working as a producer for Radio One and we had been trying to get our latest single played to no avail. We wound down the window (at 80mph) and passed Jake a polite note that said “Why haven’t you played our single you Irish cunt?” He replied with a note that read “Because I don’t work for the BBC any more you English wankers”. Still to prove there were no hard feelings, he gave us a bottle of beer (still doing 80) which he had thoughtfully shaken vigorously before handing it over.

So when did you go the USA? What happened?
I went to Boston in 1990 for a holiday after The Chairs split, and met a huge number of lovely people, most of whom were in bands like Big Dipper, Gigolo Aunts, Christmas and The Lemonheads. The whole experience was invigorating for me, and I got to do a live show at The Middle East and a radio interview at WMBR. Everyone was so nice I went back the next year and the year after that.

What was it like playing in London in the eighties? Was there a scene as such which you fitted into or did you avoid all that?
Indie has now become a recognised musical genre, like nu metal and trip hop, but the eighties was a tricky time for bands that didn’t have a box to put their music into. We were an independent band in that we produced and financed our music outside of the music business, and it was an uphill struggle. We didn’t feel part of a scene so much as outsiders. We rarely made friends with other bands. It was too competitive, too many bands competing for too few gigs. We would have liked nothing better than to have been signed by a major label, but the truth was they just didn’t want us. We kind of peaked around the time of the Madchester thing, and we were determined not to jump on the bandwagon like The Soup Dragons for example. So it was a moral victory if not a financial one.

How come The Chairs split?
Too many arses not enough stuffing.

My next stop is a blog post on the Terence Ruffle blog, dating from 2009. My intention here is getting a bit of background of The Gene Tryp, the band Sullivan had been involved prior to The Chairs. There are also recordings by this punk band on Youtube. The account “little wing” has recordings of the songs “Set My Ship on Fire“, “ETA“, “I Still Feel Fine” and more. He even has recordings by the band Sullivan was involved even before The Gene Tryp, The Accidents. You can check for example “Looking Forward to The Accidents” or “Peking“.

I continue my investigation. Seems there’s a lot of stuff related to The Chairs. It is not common for me to find all these details. I now even find a press review by Sarah Champion and Steve Lamacq. On it we see that Elvis Costello praised the band describing them as “real rather than fake excitement”.

My last stop is a Facebook page set up by The Chairs. It seems it was set up for a reunion gig that never happened. There are some details there worth mentioning:
– The band’s last gig was in 1989.
– They did a Radio One session for Simon Mayo (anyone has these recordings????)

That’s more or less what I could gather about The Chairs. Much more than what I usually find about other bands but still many questions seem unanswered. Starting by the Simon Mayo session, their hopes of signing with a label, why they didn’t release an album, if they left any unreleased recordings, and so on. Maybe some of you Londoners remember them? Now I need to catch up and get the singles I’m missing.

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Listen
The Chairs – Size 10 Girlfriend