Day 383

The Pivettas: we start this week with a new roundup of 5 recommendations. First is the album “Nowhere Guide” by the Berlin based dreampop band The Pivettas. The bands has been going since 2019 and this is their debut album after a mini-album that was released in the year they were formed. The album “Nowhere Guide” has 13 songs and is available digitally only.

The Umbrella Puzzles: not a formal release but two leftover songs that didn’t get included in the album “A Slowly Dawning Realization” that came out in February. The two songs we find here are “Pick Yourself Up (Original Mix)” and “Like Fine Crystal (Demo)” which sound very nice. As always Ryan Marquez delivers.

Benjamin Belinska: the latest on the reliable Kocliko Records from Spain is the album “Lost Illusions” by the ex-Paris, Texas Benjamin Belinska. 11 songs of jangly pop music on a beautifully designed CD, that’s what you can expect when the record is released on April 16. Exciting!

Romance Languages: a self-titled EP is already out by the solo project of Dane DiPierro who had been in different bands like The Capstan Shafts, Ghost Hotel and Distant Creatures. His new EP has 5 songs including a cover of “Cemetery Gates” by The Smiths. I’m really enjoying this EP, looking forward to future releases!

Still Dreams: now that “Make Believe”, the Japanese band’s album, is close to being released they have released a video for “Last True Love”.  I don’t have much more to say other than that I’ve been hooked to the band for a long time. In this song the band wear their New Order love in their sleeve, and it sounds quite good to me.

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Gütersloh is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the area of Westphalia and the administrative region of Detmold. Gütersloh is the administrative centre for a district of the same name and has a population of 100,194 people.

That’s where we are heading today. Never heard of this town before, but I have heard of the band before. I actually own a 7″ by them. But I don’t know much about them, so I thought it would be a good time to find out details about this German band!

One thing that is interesting and worth mentioning is that the band also had their own label, Alphyen Viwit. This is the label that released the “Breeze” compilations. That’s cool, right? There are many bands I am curious about on those comps. But not only that, they were true indiepop supporters back in the 90s. They also organized the St. Vit Open Air Festival where they invited the likes of the Fat Tulips or Panda Hop from France.

The band was formed by Michael Witklake on guitar and vocals, Ralf on bongos and congas, Oliver Buddensiek on bass, Alexander Pommerening on cello, Christina on violin and Garvin Nolte on drums.

According to Discogs, the band’s first release was a tape called “Leuchtende Brandung” that was released in 1996 on the Bath, UK, label Kylie Productions (SHI02). This tape included four songs, “The Grass on Your Grave” and “Bluish” on the A side and “Unreleased Dreams” and “Colour My Days” on the B side. On the front cover there’s a photo of a girl, who is she? Then the rest of the sleeve is all handwritten text.

That same year, on the band’s own label Alphyen Viwit, they put out a tape with the same name. The curious thing is that the tracklisting is different. This one has “Scream Within (cello oriented)” and “F.O. Cool People” on the A side and “Today… Please” and “High” on the B side.

Lastly in 1999 the band released a 7″ in the US, on Moonscreen Records (SCR003). This is the record I have and it includes the songs “Unreleased Dreams” and “Colour My Days”.

But that’s not all. The band actually appeared on a plethora of compilations. So we should check that I think.

The band had already been active in 1993. A Turntable Friend, the renowned German label, included their song “Unreleased Dreams” on the classic compilation “Calling At Duke Street (An Anti-Fascist Pop Compilation)” (TURN 16). That same year the band had the song “Bluish” in the ¡Por Supuesto! Records compilation “The Birth of the True II” (STAP-0314) from Japan.

In 1994 the band had “Grass of Your Grave” and “Colour My Days” on the compilation tape “Breeze 4” that they released on their own Alphyen Viwit (004). It seems too that there was a promo version of this tape called “Extract of Breeze 4” that only had 5 songs, one of them was “Grass of Your Grave”. And that wasn’t all for 1994, that same song, “Grass of Your Grave”, was included in the UK tape compilation “Because We Care 2” that had two Cloudberry friends, both The Shining Hour and Fragile.

1995 has their songs “Grass on Your Grave” and “Unreleased Dreams” on the “Magenta” tape released by Bliss Aquamarine (BLISS 019) in the UK. “Grass of Your Grave” and “Today… Please” appear too, this same year, on “Palazzo” a French compilation tape released by Pâte A Modeler (PAM 005).

In 1996 the band has once again “The Grass of Your Grave” on a tape compilation. This time around it is on the “Refuse Collection” cassette released by Refuse Collection (HOHO1).

The German label Meller Welle Produkte releases “25 – A Silver Jubilee” (MEL 25) in 1998. On this CD compilation the band  contribute the songs “Today… Please” and “F.O. Cool People”. That same year the song “Scream Within” appears on “Because We Care 3”

1999 sees the band contribute “High”, “Scream Within” and “Colour My Days” to “Zoéphile (An International Pop Compilation)” CD released by Z & Zoé Records (ZAZ 08) from France.

“Today… Please” gets included in the US CD comp “Just for A Day” (DAY 01) released by Just for A Day in the year 2000.

Lastly in 2001, they have “In America” on the compilation “Everything Went Pop!” released by Meller Welle Produkte (MEL 32), and the song “Scream Within (guitar)” on the compilation tape “Breeze C” on their own ALphyen Viwit (005).

I believe they were also on “Breeze A” with “Grass on Your Grave”, but I don’t see any listing of this compilation tape. There is though an entry for “Extract of Breeze A”, a CDR compilation that I assume, just like the previous ‘Extract’ release I mentioned, included just a few songs that were included in the main compilation.

I also know they were on “Breeze D”. Not sure what year it came out or which song was on it.

Something interesting too is that the band’s website, even though it looks dated now, is still accessible. Here they mention a compilation called “From Out of Nowhere” which they appeared on but there is no info of this release on the web. Also mentioned is an EP titled “Downpour” but I can’t find any information about that either.

On Discogs there are a few more names listed as part of the band, ones that don’t appear on the website like Rado Suk, Michael Kunigk or Frank Schiffer. Were there many lineup changes? None of them are listed on other bands. Was Glaring Surge the only pop band they were in? Hard to believe!

Lastly there is a video for the song “Unreleased Dreams” on Youtube.

That’s all I could find on the web. Who remembers Glaring Surge? What happened to them?

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Listen
Glaring Surge – The Grass of Your Grave

Day 380

Would-Be-Goods: “Spring Fever” is the 2nd set of songs from Jessica Griffin! How beautiful it is to hear her voice again. I hope at the end of the lockdown someone could release all these songs in a form or another. They are beautiful. This last set includes 5 songs, “Charm School”, “The King of the Moon”, “Temporary Arrangement”, “The Kiss of Death” and “There’s a Star on My Dressing Room Door”.

Flowertown: the San Francisco band is releasing a compilation of their first two cassette-only releases on vinyl. This self-titled collection of 12 songs is coming out on April 23rd on Mt.St.Mtn. Records. Right now you can preview two of the tracks, “The Rope” and “RCP”. Flowertown aree Karina Gill from Cindy and Michael Ramos of Tony Jay.

Beachy Head: this is the new project by Christian Savill from Slowdive. He is releasing a tape album called “Beachy Head” as well on the Savannah, Georgia, label Graveface Records. The tape album will have 8 songs and right now we can preview the last track, “Destroy Us”, a dreamy, moody, slice of guitar pop.

Tangled Shoelaces: I recommend just a few days ago the “Turn My Dial” reissue on Chapter Music. Well here is a new video and it is as wonderful as the songs we’ve heard and the video we’ve seen! This one is for the song “Oceans Away”. Can we call this band the Aussie TVPs? What a discovery!

Bart & Friends: staying in Australia it is worth noting that the classic band led by the ex-Cat’s Miaow is releasing a 10″ mini-album on one of our favourite labels, Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten. The mini-album will be titled “Tolmie Wild Thymes” and will be released later this year. We can preview on Soundcloud the pretty pretty song “All the Stage Belongs to You”.  This is a record no one should miss this year.

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After writing about Jesus Trip I sort of felt that there was at least one very obscure band on the “You Can’t Be Loved Forever vol. 3” compilation casseette that I needed to know more details: She’s Gone.

This tape from 1990, compiled by Phil Ball from The Rileys and Feverfew, is a superb indiepop tape. It is made with such great taste, all bands are great, from the well-known ones (Happydeadmen, Strawberry Story, They Go Boom!!) to the obscure ones (Blue Summer, The Hoverchairs, Big Decision). I’ve covered many of the bands on it and these past days I’ve gone back to the tape, revisit the songs, and find out more about those bands I know nothing about.

She’s Gone appears on the B side of the tape, almost at the end. They have the ninth song on this side out of eleven. It is interesting that the most obscure bands appear one next to the other, The Hoverchairs, Big Decision, Blue Summer, She’s Gone, Jesus Trip to close the tape with Dreamscape, who would later become Secret Shine. She’s Gone contributes a beautiful song called “Clear Skies”.

Discogs lists another song for She’s Gone, but it is clearly not the same band. I got excited for a minute. I wouldn’t expect the sweet and fragile She’s Gone from the tape among many DJs in a compilation. Even less if it dates from 2017.

So as it happened with Jesus Trip it seems impossible to search for She’s Gone. Back then there was no internet of course, and people didn’t think that their band names would be keywords to be searched by an obsessed indiepop fan. Nah. That wasn’t in the books. I am sure these days bands think of that. At least some bands. The truth is that that today I am bit frustrated. I haven’t been able to find any information about She’s Gone. Literally they are gone.

We know there was a female member on the band. Her vocals are so so pretty. Who was singing? Perhaps there were no other band members? I can’t say. I would love to know if anyone remembers this band. Any details will be appreciated!

Edit: our friend Phil, who made the compilation and was in the band Feverfew, just told me that She’s Gone was the band of Paul Stewart before forming Blueboy. Actually this song, re-recorded and sang by Gemma, appeared on “If Wishes Were Horses”.

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Listen
She’s Gone – Clear Skies

Day 378

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: I like this band a lot as you might know, I’ve recommended them many times. But I am slow. Only last week I was looking for their albums, but they are sold out of course. It is surprising, I am so used to indiepop bands not selling their records out. But here is the exception. Maybe one day I’ll be able to find copies, for now I can enjoy two new songs by them, “Too Late for an Early Grave” and “Chemtrails Over the Country Club”, this last one a cover of Lana del Rey.

The Hermitts: the new project from Matt from Horowitz are The Hermitts! He has unveiled two tracks, so far the only ones in his Bandcamp, “Weight of the World” and “Hold Tight”. They are quite nice guitar driven pop songs, with the exact dose of noise and distortion. Let’s keep an eye on them!

Mint Julep: the Portland duo has been a favourite for the last two or so years. I have recommended them a few times and, of course, now that they have released their album “In a Deep and Dreamless Sleep”, I had to let you all know. It is out now on vinyl LP on Western Vinyl and it includes 11 songs.

Red Go-Cart: when it comes to Japanese bands I must say I am a big fan of Red Go-Cart! They have been going since 1996 and have made all sort of pop music, from the tweest and punkiest to the dreamiest. Their latest is a dreamy one and is called “Jellyfish”. A bit Sundays-like I must say. This is the first release since 2018’s “Sprites Gave”. And it sounds great. Would be nice to interview them some day soon!

Lentillas de Colores: the other day I received “Arrancacorazones”, the first 7″ by this fantastic León, Spain, band. Today I discover they have covered the classic song “La Fiesta de los Maniquíes” that was originally recorded by the band Golpes Bajos. It is a cool choice by the band for sure!

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Last March I was surprised with the release of the “Sneaky Feelin'” 7″ by Magic Roundabout. I’ve heard their name but never their music, so it was quite a surprise when I saw the video that was uploaded to Youtube for the title song. Where did all these treasures come from?

The 7″ was being released by a label that has nothing to do with indiepop, Third Man Records, a label that was founded by Jack White, Ben Swank and Ben Blackwell in 2001, in Detroit. Now the label is based in Nashville. Yeah, this label as you can see has more to do with indie rock, something I find very different to indiepop. But this may just be an anecdotal thing. In the end they’ve done a good job rescuing an obscure band from Manchester 80s!

How did they do it? How did the contact happen? That would be interesting to find out. The blurb on the label’s webpage gives some little info. They compare the band to the JAMC and the Shop Assistants. That sounds about right. They call the band The Roundies, I am assuming that’s how the band and their fans used to call them. Then we get the important details.

The band started as such in early 1986. They played gigs alongside The Pastels, Blue Aeroplanes, Spacemen 3, Loop, My Bloody Valentine and more. They mention too that Noel Gallagher roadied their final show.

One song was released back in the day, “She’s a Waterfall Parts 1 and 2”. That sounds more like 2 songs. And when checking the tracklist of the compilation tape “Oozing Through the Ozone Layer” that Mark Webber from Pulp put out, it does look like part 1 is on the A side and the part 2 is in the B side. So there’s two songs, right? I haven’t listened to the tape, so can’t say if it is two different versions of the same song, maybe they were.

It seems there was the intention to put out a flexi but that didn’t work out. It doesn’t say the reasons why.

The two songs on the 7″ that were just released, “Sneaky Feelin'” and “Song for Gerard Langley” date from 1987. They were unearthed by Ian Masters from Pale Saints. I am guessing then that Ian Masters made the contact with Third Man? Brooklyn Vegan confirms this. It says that Ian passed the tapes to His Name is Alive’s Warren Defever who works for the label’s mastering. This page also says that there are more recordings and the label is preparing an album to be released later this year.

The sleeve of the 7″ doesn’t give any other information about the band.. o band members names. The video only says it dates from 1987. I like when bands are rescued of course, but would love a little bit of history.

Looking on Discogs I find another compilation where thee band may have been involved with, “Piranhas in the Canal”. This tape was put together by the St. Helens Musicians Collective in the 80s and was reissued in MP3 in 2018. The link that Discogs has to download the songs doesn’t work for me. So hoping someone can help. Now, St. Helens is at least 35 minutes away from Manchester. So one can doubt it is the same Magic Roundabout. But the time sounds right. So this would mean the band would have released another song too. The one on this tape is called “Talk About You”. Would love to hear it.

Now, one thing that seems easy to find out is the origin of the band’s name. A quick search tells us two things:
The Magic Roundabout is an English-language children’s television programme that ran from 1965 to 1977. It used the footage of the French stop motion animation show Le Manège enchanté, but with completely different scripts and characters.
The Magic Roundabout in Swindon, England, is a ring junction constructed in 1972 consisting of five mini-roundabouts arranged in a circle. Located near the County Ground, home of Swindon Town F.C., its name comes from the popular children’s television series The Magic Roundabout. In 2009 it was voted the fourth-scariest junction in Britain

I’m kind of annoyed that there are no band members names. Or even where the recordings were done. No history of the band whatsoever. I hope when this label releases the album we get all the information we are missing. It seems wrong to not have that. Let’s see, for now we can of course enjoy these two tracks, but would be great to track down the tracks that they seem to have released on compilation tapes back in the day!

Who has any more details about the Magic Roundabout?

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Listen
Magic Roundabout – Sneaky Feelin’

Day 376

Remington Super 60: thee Norwegian band is now releasing a cassette with Z Tapes from Slovakia. The 7 songs included in the “Nouvelle Noveau” mini-album sound so good. You can check them out on Bandcamp. This sounds super good and wish that it was released on another format, you know I am not a fan of cassettes, but hey, if you are, you are in for a treat. Beautiful. Two thumbs up!

Nightjacket: lately I’ve been discovering many bands that are influenced by The Sundays. Not sure if that’s a trend or not, but definitely it is a nice thing. From Los Angeles comes this band that have released a 4 song EP called “Following the Curves”. It is available digitally and we can check out two of the songs, “Lonely Archer” and “Just a Little”, both of them sounding great!

Tangled Shoelaces: this is quite an interesting discovery. Hailing from Brisbane a group aged 10-14 when they started! These are recordings dating from 1981-1984 and are being put on an LP compilation called “Turn My Dial – The M Squared Recordings and More”. This is really cool. I really want this record. And I want it even if I could only preview the first track, “The Biggest Movie Ever Made” out of 22 tracks that the album has.

The Gabriels: here is a new video for the song “We”, the second single by the UK band The Gabriels! You can also find the song, and previous tracks from the Midlands group in their Bandcamp. The band is formed by Gudg on vocals, Fran on bass, Leon on guitar and Stuart on keys.

Beach Vacation: I previously recommended this Seattle band when they released their tape “I Fell Apart”. Now 5 months or so later they unveil a new song titled “Lost in Sight” which I am enjoying a lot. It is dreamy and hypnotic, with some great melodies and guitar lines. Good stuff.

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I want to thank Jörg and Joel for introducing me and helping me with this band!

I am not very knowledgeable about Portuguese indiepop bands. I have written about only a few on the blog. So after discovering the jangly Alliallatas I knew I had to recommend them on the blog! And hopefully we’ll find out more information about this great sounding band from Guimarães!

Guimarães is a city and municipality located in northern Portugal, in the district of Braga. Its historic town centre is listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, in recognition for being an “exceptionally well-preserved and authentic example of the evolution of a medieval settlement into a modern town” in Europe.

I’d love to visit some day…

The only appearance of the band on a “proper” release dates from 1994. This is the only thing that I see on Discogs by the band. It is a double tape compilation titled “Breeze 4” that came out in Germany. The label was Alphyen Viwit, the catalog number is 004. I should definitely explore this label as I haven’t covered many of the bands that are on their compilations. From the “Breeze 4” I’ve interviewed Les Autres of course and written about Sonic Flower Groove. So I need to make justice to many of these bands.

When it comes to Alliallatas we know that the appear on the first tape, on the B side with the 6th song out of 11 on that side. The song they contribute is the wonderful “Esqueleto” which means skeleton in English. They appear after The Fat Tulips and before Sonic Flower Groove. And then they contribute “Pintura Original” to the 2nd tape as the last song on the B side after the Greek band Sound Devise who have also been featured on the blog.

You’ll like both songs I’m sure. And if you want to give it some visuals, there is actually a video on Youtube of the band playing live “Esqueleto” song at the “Ao Vivo por Timor” gig at the S. Tiago square in Guimarães, Portugal. The date we don’t know, but it was on February 1992. I am also guessing this was a benefit concert for Timor Leste? Is that, right?

We see on the black and white images that the band is a four piece, vocals, guitar, bass and drums.

I look for more recordings by the band on the web. I find the song “A Névoa Da Manhã Nova (live)” on Bandcamp. It seems to be included in a compilation called “33 Years of Carrying it On” by Paulo Coimbra Martins. The Bandcamp owner is actually Anti-Demos-Cracia. So from what I am understanding, this song and all other in this compilation are different projects Paulo Coimbra Martins was involved in. There is a photo of a tape, so we learn it was released in a limited run of 22 cassettes in 2019. Of course it is sold out. The songs are actually different musical styles and the jangliest is of course the one of Alliallatas. But thanks to this we know that Paulo was in Anomeos, Restos Mortais de Isabel, Outubro Negro, As Flores da Náusea, Tenebre & Delirio, Dahilla Noire, The Death of Me, Oktober Black, Uzi, Träume, Archétypo, Brigada Revolucionária, Posto de Kommando, Manifestis Probatum, La Rue de Mars, Oktober Delusion and PCM.

Thanks to this information I find that Paulo was the drummer of Alliallatas. A little more digging and I find that Eduardo Silva was the name of another Alliallatas member. Eduardo was also involved in As Flores da Náusea and Blue Orange Juice. What instrument did he play in Alliallatas though?

One thing that is important to mention is that I know that Alliallatas recorded one demo tape at least. It was a self-titled tape from 1991 that included 4 songs. Here “Esqueleto” was the opening track. The other three songs were “Experiências”, “A Princesa de Neurónios” and “Pintura Original”.

Paulo Martins used to have a blog called Sons à Margem. On a post from May 8, 2006, he is doing a list of all Guimarães bands. Here he mentions that Alliallatas recorded another song, that wasn’t included in the 1991, demo. This song was to be included in a compilation on Underground Records.Not sure where this label was from, probably a Portuguese label, Sadly he says this song was never releases nor the compilation. What song was this? What was the name?

Sadly I couldn’t find any more information about this Portuguese band. It seems there was a fine scene in Guimarães and would like to discover more. From the list Paulo wrote on his blog he mentions at least another indiepop band called Quid Juris. He also mentions other bands that were pop-ish that we should check at some point like Clockwork, Fragments or Genuyn. But honestly I am right now very curious about Alliallatas, the 4 songs from their demo are amazing. Would love to hear any other recordings by them, find out who were the other band members. Anyone remember them?

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Listen
Alliallatas – Esqueleto

Day 373

BOB: there’s a new album coming out by the legendary band. It is called “Berlin Independence Days 21/10/91” and will be released on Optic Nerve on June 25. This record is actually a live radio broadcast of their 1991 concert at the Quartier Latin Club in Berlin. There are 10 songs in the LP and pre-orders are already up!

Quivers: now to Melbourne. A new album is coming out also in June. “Golden Doubt” is being released on the 11th of said month on vinyl LP. There are 10 songs and pre-orders are up. We can only preview the opening track so far, it sounds good though, it is called “Gutters of Love”. Also keep in mind that the pink vinyl version of the LP is already sold out. Only black vinyl remains.

Lightning Bug: another album where we can preview just one song. “A Color of the Sky” LP is coming out on June 24 on green and black vinyl. It  is also coming out on tape and CD. The song we can preview is called “The Right Thing is Hard to Do” and it does sound very good, promising. Hoping then that the other 9 songs in the record sound as good! The band hails from New York, so when gigs are a thing again I should try to check them out.

No Suits in Miami: a favourite band of mine as of late are Lund’s No Suits in Miami. I still don’t get how their songs are not on physical format.  I hope that changes soon in the near future. Their latest song is called “Make You See” which is dreamy, a bit Sundays-like. Definitely a band to keep an eye.

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It’s been a while since I listened to the “You Can’t Be Loved Forever” cassette compilations. I don’t own the tapes but of course as many of you do, have MP3s of the songs that were on these cassettes that my friend Phil Ball put together in the late 80s, early 90s.

Today I was listening to the third volume of this series. The third volume that had a yellow sleeve and included 23 songs. Made with love and with great taste in his home in Reading, the tape introduced me to many obscure and fantastic bands like Nervous Curve or Blue Summer, which I’ve written about on the blog. There are other bands of course, much more known like Home and Abroad or Hapydeadmen, but in general I feel I’ve done a good job documenting many of them. Which is good, right?

Today I wanted to focus on a band that I am ignorant about. A band I know absolutely nothing. They were called Jesus Trip and they appeared on the compilation with the song “Future”.

The song appears second to last on the B side, sandwiched between “Clear Skies” by She’s Gone and “Cold as Ice” by Dreamscape. Two bands that definitely deserve a little investigation. On Discogs, “Future”, is the only song listed for Jesus Trip. This was their only compilation appearance it seems.

Now, of course searching for Jesus Trip is impossible. There is a movie called “The Jesus Trip” from 1971, I am assuming the band named themselves after it.

I feel I immediately hit a wall. Google seems broken. How could I search for Jesus Trip. It is impossible. I don’t even know from where in the UK they were from. Don’t know the band members’ names. What could I search without getting anything religious? What combination of keywords?

My detective work ends here for now. I am going to need help. I am counting on you. Who remembers the Jesus Trip?

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Listen
Jesus Trip – Future

Day 371

Would-Be-Goods: there are 5 new songs from Jessica Griffin on Bandcamp. That’s amazing. One of my favourite bands is still recording even though these recordings are just by herself, no full-band. These songs are part of a challenge, one where here partner Peter gives her a daily title and then she has 24 hours to write a song. I hope a new record will happen soon. It’s been a while!

Axolotes Mexicanos: finally is out ” :3 ” the new album by the Madrid based band (with Asturian roots). Elefant Records have released it on vinyl and CD and it include 13 songs, all of which are available to preview on Bandcamp. This is great. Always fun, always poppy and upbeat, and also great live, I will definitely get a copy of this!

Ruth Po!: 10 more songs from Ruth Miller! One can only be happy with news like this! These 10 songs titled “The Bedroom Tapes 3” come from a home-made recording that was released in August 1992. This is classic songwriting and Ruth’s unique vocals. Lovely. Keep them coming!

The Muldoons: if you read yesterday’s interview you know The Muldoons were covering Cath by The Bluebells. Well if you need a link to check this song out, with guest vocals from Niamh Mullen, here it is. Wonderful!

Watoo Watoo: this is a surprise, to see the 1997 CD EP “Un Peu de Moi”. This is a reissue, even though it seems 1 copy is left at the time I am writing this, of the original release that sold 1,000 copies within a year. This is classic indiepop, in French, with top melodies. I interviewed Watoo Watoo once, saw them live once too…  the nostalgia of being stuck at home, listening to great music.

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I got confused the other day. I found on Youtube a video of an English band called Romeo Suspect. I don’t know what song they are playing, but it seems like a promo video. Made in the 80s. All my life I thought Romeo Suspect was a French band. One that released a 7″ on Aliénor Records. They do sound different, may they be two different bands? The Romeo Suspect I am a bit more familiar with released the 7″ in the 90s. Maybe the decades not overlapping is a clue? Let’s see if I can clear my doubts.

Romeo Suspect released a double 7″ on Aliénor Records indeed in 1994. Catalog number is Alien θ [thêta]. 8 songs in total. I have heard a few of them, I am still looking for a copy. Maybe soon, I’ll get one for myself. Anyways, the songs on this record were “Another World” and “Romeo Suspect” on the A side, “Loose Fitting” and “Somewhere” on the B side. That’s the first vinyl 7″. The second one has “I Don’t Know Where You Come From” and “Better Days” on the C side and “20th Summer” and “Cut Off” on the D side.

Something that seems cool about this release is that it came with an 8-page booklet about Bordeaux wine, wood pigeon’s hunting and an interview with the band. Okay, it has to be a French band to include something about Bordeaux wine, right? Who has this booklet? Would be nice to know what it says on the interview.

As far as I know there are two different sleeves for this record. One has white background and another one has half white and half green background. There is also a photo of a lady that I can’t recognize on the front. Who is she? Some famous actress probably?

Aside from this release the band appeared on a bunch of French compilations mostly. They have to be French, right?

In 1993 their song “The End” appears on “Summer 93 Hits” a tape compilation put togetheer by Lo Label from France. That same year we see the song “University” finding itself on “Ces Chères Têtes Blondes” another French tape that came out on Cindie (CIN01).

1994 sees their song “Le Sort” on “Quality Sweet” a cassette comp released by Pâte A Modeler (001). Then in 1996, on the tribute CD “Can You Talk to the Dude? A Tribute to Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers Vol. 2” (Alien o [Omicron]‎) they have “Tandem Jump”.

In 2000 the band had “Just 15” and “Soslucky” on “Eden Love” a tape compilation released by A Secret Song. Again a French compilation.

There are few other ones that I don’t know the date. On “Playing Around Sandcastles” that came out on the German label Meller Welle Produkte (MEL 31) they have the song “Atlantic Ocean”. Then on the tape “Entreinte & Tempo” a French cassette released by Disco 2000 (Discompil 01) they had the song “Rain”. This one gives actually another clue, most bands on this compilation hailed from the area of Toulouse. They must be French then. We can start forgetting the English band, right?

Lastly sometime in the 90s Aliénor Records used to put together promo tapes. One of them included three songs by the band, “Loose-Fitting”, “Another World” and “Romeo Suspect”.

And that’s it really. I can’t find who were the band members or where exactly they were from. Or why there are no more releases. I do think though that I am pretty confident that they were very much French and that they made some wonderful pop tunes!

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Listen
Romeo Suspect – Loose Fitting

Day 369

Blueboy: one of my favourite bands is on Bandcamp. Their album “The Bank of England” is now available to listen on Bandcamp and that’s definitely a great thing. The 13 songs from their third and final album are here as well as their previous two albums and a collection of singles. Essential.

Señor Kino: “Estrella Fugaz” is the wonderful new song by this Hermosillo, Mexico, band. It is quite a surprise, I don’t think I’ve ever heard their songs before. The song is poppy, upbeat, catchy, hypnotic at times. The guitars jangle and the melodies are dreamy. Looking forward to their next release now!

The Gabys: here are three songs I found on Soundcloud that don’t have any info about them. They seem to be part of a cassette release, but that’s it. It doesn’t say where the band hails from or who are the members. There’s a photo of a girl, which I assume is the vocalist, and maybe even the solo person behind this lo-fi bedroom pop band.

Painted Shrines: this new project by Glenn Donaldson from The Reds, Pinks & Purples and Jeremy Earl have just released an album called “Heaven and Holy”. It is available so far only in digital format, but it is worth listening for sure. I am sure at some point someone will release their songs on physical format as it makes a lot of sense. From this album you can check out three songs for free, “Gone”, “Not so Bad” and “Heaven and Holy”.

Count Florida: now we head to Glasgow to discover this fine sounding band!! There are two songs that sound ace, “Hot Things” and “Blake”. There is not much information sadly, only that the band is formed by Argo, Isobel and Mel. I am a fan already. Will they release songs soon? I hope so. I look forward to seeing their songs on a 7″!

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Now we head to Germany, to discover The Benjamins.

On Discogs there are three releases listed for the band. I own one of them, the 1991 album “Chameleon Show”. There is another album called “Shanghaimehome” and a 12″ EP titled “Row a Little Harder”. I should track these two down eventually.

I honestly don’t know much about the band. I am hoping with this detective work I’ll be able to find out details about them.

The 12″ was released in 1990 probably by themselves. There is no label listed. The songs on this record were four, two on each side. The A side had “Row a Little Harder” and “I Know It’s a Dream” while the B side had “Dreams Stay Unfinished” and “Oldfashioned Love”. The record sleeve show three photos, three band members. On the sleeve we see that the songs are credited to B. Rinnert, U. Knape and W. Reinfeld. They must be them. We have last names, not first names, not yet at least.

“Chameleon Show” was released in 1991 on Sound Factory (RTD 359.0041.1. 28). This label was based in the city of Bochum. Did they hail from there? There was a vinyl and two CD versions of this release.  The vinyl release had less songs, just 12, the CD had 15. In the case of the vinyl the tracklist was “The Engine”, “Three of Us”, “Different World”, “Chameleon Show”, “Cheating” and “Hey Little Bird” on the A side and “The Only One”, “Nothing Can Harm Me Now”, “The Song is You”, “Venus”, “Letters to the Moon” and “The Engine Part II” on the B side.

When it comes to the CDs, I am not sure what is different between the two versions. One has a sleeve with a blue chameleon with a yellow/orange background, the other has a sleeve with a green chameleon with a blue background. Mine is the latter. The tracklist for both CDs seem to be the same, “The Engine”, “Three of Us”, “Row a Little Harder”, “Different World”, “Chameleon Show”, “The Only One”, “Words”, “Hey Little Bird”, “Venus”, “Nothing Can Harm Me Now”, “Show me the End”, “Cheating”, “The Song is You”, “Venus”, “Letters to the Moon” and “The Engine Part II”.

The artwork for this release is credited to Daniel Schäfer. The photography by Ina Schatz. The songs were recorded at Powerplay Studio in Berlin. They were mixed by Detlef Goy while the engineers were Christoph Rinnert, Detlef Goy, Eberhardt Köhler and Nico Beurmann.

We find the names of the band members too, Benjamin Rinnert, Uwe Knape and Bulli Reinfeld. Bulli played the bass, double bass and vocals, Benjamin played drums, electric piano, violin, viola, accordion, percussion and vocals and Uwe played guitar, electric piano, percussion, harmonica and vocals.

Other people that helped create this record were Hannes Maczey who played fulgehorn and trumpet, Thorsten Doll (from Die Testbildtester’s) who played tenor saxophone, Frank Barucha the congas, and Frank Kramer the trombone.

I start also suspecting that the band hailed from Berlin. The recording studio was there. And I see Christoph Rinnert, perhaps Benjamin’s brother, owns a studio in that city called Headroom Radio.

The other album, “Shanghaimehome” I am not sure when it was released. The cover artwork looks a bit more modern, so that may indicate it was the band’s last release. The songs on it were: “What I Was Probably Trying to Say (Part 1)”, “What a Great Time”, “Something New”, “Tell Her”, “Nice Smiling Dolphin”, “Whenever You See Me”, “Woman at the Counter”, “Choose Your Sides”, “Without You”, “Don’t Say Nothing”, “Going Through the Changes”, “Restless”, “Put on the Chain”, “Winterday”, “What I Was Probably Trying to Say (Part 2)” and “Give Me a Smile”.

It is also worth mentioning that the band appears on at least three compilation CDs. The first one from 1991 called “Total Fatal Vol. 2” out on Sound Factory (359.0091.2) with the song “Three of Us”. Then came “Berlin 1992 – Bands United” where the band contributed “The Only One” and lastly in 1994 their song “Row a Little Harder” appeared on “Sound Factory. The Compilation” (359.0035.2) on Sound Factory of course.

Other good details to add is that Benjamin Rinnert played violin in a heavy metal song by the Italian band Sylvester’s Death, and that Uwe Knape had been in a band called Roxid.

But then there’s more. Uwe and Bulli are these days together in a band called Hunting Island.

I find that Benjamin Rinnert contributed music to the “House and Desert” documentary by Anna Faroqhi. He has also presented his opera “Und das war gut so…” at the Neuköllner Opera and given music to a radio play for kids called “Tartarin, der Löwentöter”. So it seems he has been quite busy with music. Perhaps not indiepop, but still!

And that’s what I’ve found out. Quite interesting what they were involved afterwards but would be great to know if they were too in other indiepop bands? If there are more releases or songs by The Benjamins? And of course details like when did they start as a band, when did they split! I couldn’t find any of that!

Who remembers them?

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Listen
The Benjamins – Dreams Stay Undefined

Day 366

Nos Etés Trop Courts: another tape has surfaced from the Nantes 90s pop band. This one is a rehearsal tape, dating from spring 1991. Here we find 8 songs, one being a Sonic Youth cover. Included is my favourite song of theirs, “Diaphane”. It is interesting to listen to this tracks like this, in a total different way.

The Primary Colours: wow! remember I interviewed this great 80s band on the blog some time ago? They released just one 7″ back in 1987 and now the band has added this 7″ to their Bandcamp (well the Bandcamp of their current band, Wily). So if you have never heard them before this it is definitely a good idea to do so now.

The Telephone Numbers: not too long I was recommending this San Francisco band and now I find out they have signed to the Madrid label Meritorio Records and are releasing an album called “The Ballad of Doug” on vinyl on June 4! Great news! We can preview one of the songs now, “You’re Nowhere”, which sounds really good!

A Estas Alturas: from Puerto Rico comes this band which I believe is now based in Dallas, Texas. The band seems to be actually a solo project by Daniel Vicente and his latest song is called “Efectos Secundarios”. He makes nice guitar driven bedroom pop. This year he has released previously two other songs, so three in total. This is a nice discovery, especially the 2nd track he put out, “Agua Que Cae del Cielo”, which is my favourite.

Julia Amor: and lastly we head to Valencia, Spain. There we discover a label called Futuras Licenciadas. Never heard about them before but I plan to check all their releases. For now I am listening to their latest, Julia Amor, which was released on tape earlier this year. Now it is sold out. But at least we can listen the 5 songs that were included in it and they make a nice surprise.

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Who were the Crimson Mints? They wrote “Makes Me Want To”, one of my favourite songs from the legendary tape “Positively Teenage”, and I don’t know of any other song by them!

There must be more songs. You don’t record just one! If you go to a studio you take advantage and at least record two. Right? Who would know?

Maybe Stephen Maughan could know? He did the fantastic This Almighty Pop! fanzine and he released the tape, “Positively Teenage” (DOLPHIN 7), in 1990.

This tape included so many great bands from Love Parade to The Penny Candles. You find the Fat Tulips, The Williams, Mousefolk, The Church Grims, The Mayfields, The Sohfas, etc, etc. One wonders how was this tape put together! It’s so good. How did Stephen found all these songs? all these bands? And of course how he found about the Crimson Mints!

I’ve found a tape with two songs on the web. The songs are “Don’t Take Me” and “Here Lies Dust”. This tape dates from 1995 and has a black and white sleeve with a dog in the cover. The band hails from Newscastle. Is it the same band?

The vocalist in this tape is Julie Grant. She suffered of myalgic encephalomyelitis. This tape came with an folded insert informing about the illness. There was an address for the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Association and also a request to help them.  Also on the sleeve of the tape it mentions that Julie has been suffering of this illness since May 1986 and that 1 pound of each copy of the cassette was to be donated for research into the virus. The song “Don’t Take Me” is written about and dedicated to those who suffer.

When I interviewed Bulldozer Crash’s Stephen and Marc they mention the band though they don’t give any details. Marc does tell me that his brother Graeme from Love Parade though the song “Final Kick” by The Liberty Ship (Marc’s band in the early 2000s) sounded like pure Crimson Mints.

I know some more little details. For example that the Crimson Mints supported The Blue Aeroplanes in a venue called Riverside in 1990. Where was this venue? Probably Newcastle. What day? That I don’t know…

The other gig I know of is of November 8, 1990, a Thursday. That time the band played alongside Halfway House at Joe Wilsons in Newcastle.

And that’s all I could find. Anyone remembers them? Have any more information?!

Edit: on the This Almighty Pop fanzine volume 2 from autumn 1988 there is a mention of the Crimson Mints. There are not many details but two that are important. One is that the guitar player was called Alan. and that Julie was the bassist. The only other interesting bit is that they played a gig with The Wishing Stones at the Broken Doll club on Oct. 28th of that same year. (Thanks to Elias for the info)

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Listen
Crimson Mints – Makes Me Want To

Day 364

The Kensingtons: great news! Our friends are back with the “All it Was, Was Everything” EP! Now back in England, the band has made 7 terrific indiepop slices for this EP for everyone to enjoy. Jangly, catchy, poppy, upbeat, the sort of indiepop we need to end the winter!

Moon Museum: this is a new band from San Francisco and sounds really good! There is just one song on Bandcamp and it is called “Pleasures of Peace” which is a swirling dreamy track. The band is formed by Olivia Barchard, Ryan Joseph, Ian Zazueta and Aaron Hazen. This sounds very promising. Let’s hope for more songs soon.

Boyracer: wow! a new EP by Boyracer! That’s great news. The songs for “Right or Wrong” are going to be released in cassette on March 25. But for those that are no fans of tapes like me there are the good news that the band recorded another 14 songs that will be released as a vinyl LP later this year. Good news indeed!

Ural Mountains: now we head to Argentina to find a French band there. Yeah that’s a bit confusing but interesting at the same time. Their latest release “Synthetic Lights” is an 8 song album packed with superb chiming, jangly and shoegazy guitars. Really nice!

Dyl: not much information about this Portland project, but I am really enjoying “Picture demo”, the latest track on their Soundcloud. It is a fun lo-fi bedroom-pop song. Will check their rest of songs now…

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Do you remember the Bristol label Big Pink Cake? Do you remember the club nights, the great indiepop nights at the Mothers’ Ruin in Bristol that Big Pink Cake organized? I attended once and it was fantastic. I wish I had attended many more times. The job Matthew and Heather did was just inspiring.

My memories bring me back to their label. Mind you, they started as a club night and then they did the label, not the other way around. And I always find that interesting. Hopefully one day we’ll hear their story. Today I wanted to revisit the band Vanilla Ride, who I believe, correct me if I’m wrong, the last release on the label.

Their release was a self-titled album and came out in 2012. Catalog number was BPC 008. It was a CDR in the style that was common those days, in a small plastic sleeve.There you’d find the sleeve, which was printed on both sides, an insert thanking you for buying the release, another insert with the catalog telling that the next releases were going to be by The Sunny Street and The Fireworks, and lastly a folded A4 page with a photo of the band and lyrics of the song “Rocket Bicycle”. One thing though that I was curious about is that in most photos we see three people, but the band is listed as a four-piece. How come?

The album included 9 songs, “Two 107”, “Rocket Bicycle”, “Hilma”, “You and I”, “A Boring Day in Oslo”, “Katherine”, “Anti Rock Chick Song”, “Two 107 (Version 2)” and “Me Against You”.

The band members were Veronica Dajani on guitar and vocals, Bret Fulton on drums and backing vocals, Sachiko Fukuda on bass and backing vocals and Corinne Alvarado on bass. Now, the sleeve sort of solves the mystery of the band members. Corinne was in the band only in 2007. Sachiko would join in 2007 and be in the band until 2009.

Till when did the band last? Was the CD release posthumously? One thing that I notice on the photos is that the three members that were around in the end show their arms. There they have something written or something drawn. Bret has “Manc” written, he must be from Manchester, Veronica has a Norwegian flag, so was she from Norway? And Sachiko has a Japanese flag, was she from Japan?

We know too that all songs were written by Veronica Dajani but “Anti Rock Chick Song” where the music was created by the whole band.

The CD also gives us information and sort of tells you this is a compilation of different recordings. So “Two 107”, “You and I”, “A Boring Day in Oslo”, “Katherine” and “Me Against You” were recorded in 2007 at Vatican Recording Studios in Bethnal Green, London. Then we know that “Rocket Bicycle”, “Hilma”, “Anti Rock Chick Song” and “Two 107 (Version 2)” were recorded by George C. Coombs at Elderfield Studios in Homerton, London. Lastly all songs for these CD were mastered by Rocker Rosehip. Our old friend Rocker.

The photos in the sleeve are credited to Neil Anderson. The front cover art to Veronica Dajani.

Aside from this cool album the band contributed to two compilations, both in 2009. Their song “Rocket Bicycle” appeared on the first release of the Big Pink Cake Label, “Piece of Cake! – An Indiepop Compilation” (BPC 001). Also that same year “A Boring Day in Oslo” appeared on the CDR comp “Series Two Compilation Vol. 18”.

So what happened afterwards with the London band? Is that something we can find out? Bret Bolton continued making music, he was involved in MFC Chicken, The Baron Four, The Bridge Gang, The Roves, The Teamsters and in The Choo Choo Trains. Sachiko was in umez, No Cars and also on The Choo Choo Trains. She also contributed on a song by The Projects. Veronica did release a solo album on Meat ‘N’ Tatty Tapes last year and was also on The Choo Choo Trains. I didn’t know of this connection. Would it make sense to say Vanilla Ride evolved into the Choo Choo Trains?

The Choo Choo Trains last release was in 2015. What happened afterwards? Ok, we know Veronica continued making music on her own. I also believe Bret and Sachiko weren’t in the Choo Choo Trains long, The Choo Choo Trains were a three girl-piece.

Another interesting detail I find is that Vanilla Ride is actually the name of a crime fiction novel by American author Joe R. Lansdale. It is the eight book of the Hap and Leonard series. Did they take the name from this book? Were they fans of crime fiction?

Then we find a Bandcamp by the band. Here you can preview all the songs though it doesn’t any more details than what I’ve shared so far.

The Wildblanket blog has an article where they mention the band. Here it tells that the band presented themselves just as Veronica and Sachiko at the Dublin Castle.  The writer mentions he has seen Vanilla Ride as Veronica solo and also as Veronica and Bret. And also there’s a nice collection of photos here of that gig.

The band also played at the Big Pink Cake Indie-Pop! all weekender on July 11th of 2009. That time they shared bill with great bands like Pocketbooks, The Westfield Mining Disaster, Amida or Electrophonvitage!

On May 9, same year, Big Pink Cake organized a gig at the Mother’s Ruin with Pocketbooks, The Kick Insid and Vanilla Ride.

Another gig they did was sometime in April 2009 alongside The Manhattan Love Suicides, Dirtblonde and Fnords. I believe this was a gig organized by Lostmusic.

I also believe they played on April 15 at the Bull & Gate in London with Alien Milk, Elettronora and Sparky’s Magic Piano.

Well, that’s what I could find about them. There was internet back then of course, not so hard to find info about the band as with obscure 80s band, but still I feel there’s more story to tell. I hope we find out  more about Vanilla Ride in the near future!

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Listen
Vanilla Ride – Rocket Bicycle

Day 362

Monogamy: we start the week in Chicago with Monogamy’s EP “More Songs About Apartments & Lunch”. The poppy lo-fi EP is out now on cassette directly from the band. The EP has 4 songs, all recorded live this past January.

The Stammer: we continue in the US, now a band that I have featured back in the day. A long time ago I think! But I am well aware of the nice jangle pop this Philadelphia band makes. Their latest is a 10″ EP with just three songs! The songs included are “Burden on the Living”, “Wishing Well” and “Heaven”. Good stuff!

Miracle Legion: the classic New Haven band is on Bandcamp. I didn’t know! Their latest release there is actually a live album, “Live at Glam Slam 1992”. This club was a place invented and partly owned by Prince. They played there in March of 1992 and they did the 15 songs included here. Only digital it seems.

Citrus Clouds: another band that I enjoy and have featured in the past is this Phoenix, Arizona, combo. They have just released a new album titled “Collider”, 10 great slices of dreampop that are available on cassette and CD from Lolipop Records. This is a must for this month.

Firestations: ok, let’s move from the US to the UK now. There’s a cool limited CDR of the Firestations latest EP “Melted Medium”. It looks really pretty and it is actually the second installment in a trilogy of three EPs. Here are 6 lovely crafted popsongs that I totally recommend.

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I found two videos of the American band Syrup USA playing live. I have their album CD but I never put a face to the band members, nor I imagined them as a band. So this was really cool. These two videos I found on the channel RoadToRuane were actually full gigs. The first dates from October 26, 1996 at a venue called Middle East (in which city was this venue located?)  while the 2nd is from is from April 28, 1997, at the Green Street Grill (which city again?).

The band’s first release was a 7″ on the label Tru Luv (SYRUP 3), which we can guess was the band’s own. This 7″ was called “Spinning at 45 Revolutions Per Minute” and included two songs, “Joie de Vol” on the A side and “Bulldozer” on the B side. Both songs were recorded by Eric Masunaga (from The Dambuilders) at the Cold Room in Boston, in October 1994.

On the credits we find that the art was created by Leela Corman while we see Seana Carmody on vocals and guitar, Matt Fein on organ, Orrin Anderson on drums and Sam Mallery on bass and vocals.

The band’s second release was again a single. Released in 1995, this new 7″ came out also on Tru Luv (Tru Luv 2). It had two songs, “Teen Death” on the A side and “Mysterious Dog” on the B side. Both songs had been recorded at Fort Apache Studios in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Then they were mixed at Q-Division in Boston. I think by now I am pretty sure the band hailed from the Boston area. The person behind both recording and mixing was Miss Christina “Sport” Files (who had been in the Swirlies). Eric Masunaga is also credited with helping in the mixing. The executive producer for this record was Nick Hubben.

The band’s album, “All Over the Land”, came out in 1997. This is the record.I own by them. I remember enjoying it quite a bit. It was released on both CD and LP and was even released in Japan by Nippon Columbia (COCY-80775). In the rest of the world it was released by Flydaddy Records (FLY 023).   Flydaddy was the label of bands like The Olivia Tremor Control, Autohaze or Witch Hazel.

Again the band recorded at Fort Apache and Q Division Studios. The songs on this album were “People of the Lake”, “Joie de Vol”, “Thrill Fit”, “Parfait” and “Vaporized” on the A side and “New You”, “Trellis”, “Queen of the Beach”, “Stardust”, “Rosey Why” and “Harlequin” on the B side. 11 songs in total. The painting for the artwork is credited to Geoffrey Burns and the photos to Charles Peterson. In the mixing we see Owen Burkett and Richard Marr being credited. Christina Files was again the producer and engineer.

It is also worth noting that the Japanese version included three more songs, “Mysterious Dog”, “Teen Death” and “Bulldozer”.

Aside from these releases the band appeared on a few compilations in the 90s. The most well known is of course the 1996 comp “Pop American Style” on March Records (MAR024). This is a classic comp of course, and here the band appeared with the song “Thrill Fit”.

In 1996 their song “Rosey Why” appears on “Pipelin! Live Boston Rock on WMBR” double CD comp released by Slow River Records (VA016). That same year they contribute “After Dallas” to another CD compilation called “The Cool Beans! Texas Issue Companion CD” that came with the Cool Beans! magazine fifth number.

Lastly in 1997 the band had “Queen of the Beach” on “Explorer” a CD compilation that came with the 9th issue of the Japanese magazine Beikoku Ongaku and their track “Stardust” appeared on “CMJ New Music Monthly Volume 50 October 1997”, a CD that came included with the CMJ mag from October of that year.

Other worthy information that I could find is that Seana Carmody released a solo record in 2002 and was part of Raspberry Bang and the Swirlies. Sam Mallery was in the Hidden Driveways. Matt Fein seems to have collaborated with Sebadoh and Orrin Anderson worked in Seana’s album.

There is a Wikipedia entry on the band but doesn’t tell any other details sadly. So I keep googling… one interesting detail I find is that the band started in 1993 and disbanded in 1998.

And then I find a podcast, an interview with Seana Carmody. The podcast show is called All Your Things are Gone. And even better a Bandcamp with her latest release which is called “Barn Songs“. It is much folkier than Syrup USA but it is very enjoyable!

When it comes to Sam Mallery I find he has a blog!  I found a mention of Syrup USA in this article, where he mentions they played Maxwell’s in Jersey.

Another good find is this review of their album on the Boston Phoenix. It dates from October 1997 and was written by Brett Milano.

And that’s it. Where are they now? Who remembers them?

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Listen
Syrup USA – Parfait