Day 359.

The Sleeping Years: this is a really cool find for me! Dale Grundie, who is behind The Sleeping Years, was one of the members of the amazing band Catchers! His latest release on Bandcamp dates from 2013, but still, it is great to know he continued making music. The songs are a bit different to Catchers’ sound, this is a bit more pastoral, more folky. But there are great pop melodies like in “Into Sunlight”, which I believe is still available as a 7″. Maybe we could get in touch and interview him about Catchers? “Cotton Dress” is one of the best indiepop songs I think!

Corduroy: back in October I was raving about this Swedish band and wondering if they were going to release something. Well at least it seems they have found a record label, Vårø Records. There is no announcement here but a song, “Gråa Dagar” is available to stream as a digital single. I hope this means something is going to be released in the near future!

Friends Don’t Die: now we head to Los Angeles and discover Friends Don’t Die. Their latest song was released back in December and is called “Backwards”. There is not much information about the band, just a previous release, “She’s a Headrush”, dating from October. I am guessing it is a new-ish band. The sound is really good, catchy, indiepoppy with wave and post/punk influences with vocals reminding me of The Mary Onettes. Really enjoyable.

LaPara: it is rare to find a good Italian indiepop band! LaPara sounds good to me immediately. I play their latest track, “Traballa”, with the catchy female vocals and melodies, that I am sold. The band started in 2018 by Rebecca Paraciani and will be releasing an EP in April titled “Tutti Gli Animali del Mondo”.

All Under Heaven: lastly we discover All Under Heaven, a shoegaze band from Freehold, New Jersey. The band has signed to the fine Brighton label Shore Drive Records and is releasing a CD EP titled “Collider” which is already out! Four songs are included in this debut EP!

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I’m going to head to Japan to day to discover this band with an intersting name, Plain Cream Puff Spray. The band didn’t release any records as far as I know but recorded at least 4 songs and appeared on 5 compilations in the 90s. So let’s check them out.

It is in 1993 that we hear about the band for the first time. Their song “I Have a Butter Cup” appears on a cassette compilation called “We Don’t Need Another Hero” released by the Haarnadel label (HAAR02). This label I believe was run by two people, Hiroshi Kawano from Sgamihara-city and Tetsuya Ono from Atsugi-city. Not very familiar with many of the bands on this tape but a few have appeared on the blog like Tip Top Planets, All Twin’s Birthday and Sunshower.

The next year, 1994, the band would appear on the CD compilation “The Cacaos Go Like Hotcakes” released by Chocolat Art Records (CA010) and Pushbike Records (UFPB005). On this tape the band contribute the song “Lu”. Again not very familiar with the bands on this compilation, I know of Tip Top Planets, Sunny Gets Blue and Sunnychar. All great bands. I am familiar though with the Pushbike label, a superb Japanese record label.

Now it is 1995. The band starts collaborating with Clover Records, one of the best Japanese indiepop labels. They contribute, to the compilation cassette “The Solar System – Clover Records Compilation Vol.2” (C-010), the song “I Have a Buttercup (First Version)”. I don’t know if the song sounds much different to the version they contributed to the first compilation I mentioned, “We Don’t Need Another Her”, but would be nice to know. On this compilation I find another band I’ve featured in the past, Peatmos.

In 1997 the band appears on “Pop Jingu Volume 1 (A Japanese Pop Compilation)” released by Sonorama Records (Sonorama 004) and Clover Records (CLCD 1101). Thanks to this CD I discovered the band. On this compilation the band actually had two songs, “Forever” and “Prism”.

It is worth mentioning that I interviewed Dan from Sonorama Records not too long ago, so check that out.

Lastly in 1998 the band appears with “I Have a Buttercup” on the compilation tape “A Very Limited Special Promotion Tape from Clover Records”. This compilation was actually not for sale. All songs in this tape were selected from Spooky Music Club cassette only series up to catalog number 045 in the 2 years by Masato from Clover Records. Here it mentions that Clover started releasing tapes in 1995 and by the time they put out this tape they had made more than 8 thousand tapes. That’s a lot! Also by this time the label had been releasing 7″s, CDs, fanzines and more.  This is what says on the sleeve of course, but I am curious though what was the Spooky Music Club series. Does anyone have more information?

Now we know the songs and where they appeared but we don’t really know anything about the band so far. Well, on the “Pop Jingu” compilation there are some credits and that do help me find more about the band. Here it says that Naomi Funakoshi played all instruments and sang. There is address too for the Luv Lab Label in the Uguisadani area in Tokyo. Was that her own label?

So we know too that Naomi was part of Tip Top Planets. She was the vocalist. Cool. So that’s an interesting connection. On most of these compilations that Plain Cream Puff Spray appeared, Tip Top planets also appeared.

Really cool. Maybe some day I’ll be able to get in touch with Naomi then and maybe I’ll be able to learn about these two bands she was involved with, her solo bedroom project Plain Cream Puff Spray which I am writing about today and the super band she was in, Tip Top Planets, which I wrote about some time ago!

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Listen
Plain Cream Puff Spray – Forever

Day 357.

Ring Snuten: when theree’s a new song by Patrik I get very happy. This time around the ex-Hormones in Abundance and ex-Garlands has released “Mitt Livs Biljard”. But even better, the same song is also available in English as “The Pool of My Life”. Pool as in billiards of course. It’s great that last January he released a song, then now one in February… will we get one in March? I hope so!

A Young Persons Guide to Blue Very: Japanese friends and also friends from around the world. Here is a cool compilation on CDR released by the fine Blue-Very label from Tokyo. Kei’s label is great, he releases amazing bands, picking them with great taste. In this latest release, he has exclusive songs from bands like 101 Dalmatians, Sloppy Joe, Foreign Correspondent and more.

The Telephone Numbers: we head to San Francisco and I discover this lovely band! Thomas Rubenstein is the person behind the band who has just released a 7″ on the Fruits & Flowers label. The two songs included are “Leviathan” and “I Took a Walk (BZC version)”. The opening track reminds me a lot of Alpaca Sports. That’s definitely good, right?!

Toledo: now let’s discover this New York band that has just released theeir album “Hot Stuff” on vinyl. There are 10 songs here of fine dream pop, sometimes mixed with folky sounds. It is an interesting sound for sure.

Balloon Maker: wow! what a nice discovery! I owe this one to my friend David from Barcelona. The latest song by this Göteborg band is called “M.Boy” and it sounds really good! The band started back in 2014 with another name. In 2019 the band was already Balloon Maker with the lineup of Filip Orrhult, Jacob Andén, Arvid Lundén and Anton Örarbäck. The band is now looking forward to record their debut album this year.

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Here we are again discovering music thanks to the Wilfully Obscure blog. Sometimes I wonder if it is a good idea to repeat bands other fine blogs out there have featured. I would argue that it is a good idea, blogs have different readers, different reach. Also the post about the New Haven, Connecticut, band Beauty Constant there dates from August 2009. So more than 11 years. Maybe I’d get some new interest here, maybe we’ll learn new details about them!

With that in mind I check out the only release by the band, a 1987 album called “Like the Enemy”. This LP was released by Forehead Records (FHD 016). I don’t know anything about the label. Not sure where it was based. A good guess would be here in the Northeast. Maybe? What we do know is that there are credits on the back of the jacket.

So we know that Chihoe Hahn played guitar and vocals, Steve Folta guitar and backing vocals, Hugh Schoolman drums and Sandy Smallens bass and backing vocals.

Also worth noting is that the design of the sleeve was done by Donna Fringuello. The cover photography by William Vazquez while the photos on the back are by Barbara Longo. The production is credited to the band, Mike Denneen and William Garrett at Q Division in Boston for the A side and to the band and Al Hemberger at Lips, Bronxville, NY, for the B side.

Most songs were penned by Chihoe Hahn except “Thursday Night” which was written by Steve Folta and “Send a World Away’ written by both Hahn and Folta. The band’s manager was Tricia Davies and she was based in NYC.

So yeah, the LP had 10 songs in total. I’ve mentioned two so far. This was the tracklist. On the A side there’s “Ed’s Anthem”, “Under the Gun”, “Like the Enemy”, “Catching You” and “Fortunately”. The B side had “It’s One Life”, “Second Minor One”, “Site to See”, “Thursday Night” and “Send a World Apart”.

On the comments on the blog post from Wilfully Obscure we find a few little tidbits about the band. We know that the band was around at least as early as 1983, that they used to play R.E.M. covers at their gigs including “Green Grow the Rushes” and that there were other songs by the band that remain unreleased like “Halcyon Days”. It also mentions that Chihoe Hahn became a luthier and owns Hahn Guitars. Wow!

Other things we know… yes, the band appeared on two compilations. In 1985 they contributed the song “Second Minor One” to “Scream: Sampler Containing Really Exciting American Music” released by Thirsty Ear (SCRM-4) and then in 1986 their songs “Thursday Night” and “Sight to See” appeared on the LP compilation “Some New Ruins – The Yale-New Haven Compilation” which was released by I.V. Towers Records (I.V. 001). This record is on Soundcloud here.

Chihoe Hahn not only became a luthier but also released records on his own. There are at least two albums released by him. He also did engineering work for the band Jack’s Empty Hours. Steve Folta also was involved with other bands like Speed Bumps or Junket. Sandy Smallens was in Too Much Joy and Gramercy Arms and works now in Audiation.fm.

We know too that in the Spring Weekend festival of 1985 the band performed alongside Man Ray and Miracle Legion.

Some good information I found in the end, right? Not bad. Maybe we’ll find out more details about them eventually. Why just one album recorded? Were there demo tapes? Are there more songs by them? I hope we find out!

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Listen
Beauty Constant – Send a World Apart

Day 355. Well tomorrow it will be a year since I started this lockdown. I thought it was in mid-March that I started this. Maybe I miscounted the days, though I think I was thorough. Perhaps I didn’t start counting when I first started to stay at home. I can’t remember anymore. It’s been a long time in any case.

Nuevos Hobbies: Discos de Kirlian have a few new releases worth checking out. Let’s start by the 12″ “Monstruoso” by the Spanish band Nuevos Hobbies. The 10 songs in this record are beautiful and jangly, no surprise here, it feels every indiepop band from Pamplona knows how to make good records. This one is very good, and I hope to get a copy soon.

The Death of Pop: another new song on the label’s Bandcamp is “Go Back”. This song is going to be part of the forthcoming album “Seconds” that the label will co-release with the fine French label Hidden Bay. There seems to be no release date yet, but we are looking forward to it.

Always You: and lastly from Discos de Kirlian is the song “Rio de Janeiro” by Always You. This one sounds really good. The band features the twin brothers Christoph and Anton who were in a lineup of the Pains of Being Pure at Heart as well as in the own band Ablebody. The song sounds great and it is announced that Shelflife Records will be involved in a release as well. Again no data for that yet, but we can enjoy this track of course!

The Umbrella Puzzles: well, this is already sold out. So fast. This is making me think that I should change the Cloudberry releases to a limited run of 100 copies. What do you all think? I would have to sell each 7″ for $12 plus shipping though. But the good thing will be that the records will all find a home and not stay in boxes at my place for a long time. I think I should start considering this. Anyways, I missed the CD release of “A Slowly Dawning Realization”. It seems the 100 copies were sold out in a day. Wow. Really wow. But it is not surprise as the music of Ryan Marquez has always been pure quality. In this new album  he includes 10 jangly songs, filled with perfect melodies. The CD was released by Subjangle Records but you can stream the songs on Bandcamp.

The Blue Herons: who isn’t a fan of the music of Gretchen deVault and Andy Jossi by now? The Swiss-American project keeps crafting bright, luminous, indiepop slices of perfection. Their latest track is titled “Endless Rain” and it sounds classic at first listen. Everything is in the right places. Every arrangement, the lyrics, the vocals, it just sounds good to me. As my friend Jessel asked somewhere, when are they releasing something?

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Did this late 80s, early 90s band got their name after a Bee Gees song called “Red Chair, Fade Away”? Would that be the first and only indiepop band to be called after a Bee Gees song? that’s an interesting thread to investigate.

But I think in general I want to know more about the band. I own a few records by them, probably half or so of their releases. So I am missing many parts in the puzzle.

Many know the band because Tim Vass was part of it. Tim Vass had been in the legendary Razorcuts (he was also part of Dandelion Wine, The Forever People and The Cinematics). But he was accompanied by two more musicians, Shirley Souter and Richard Mason. Richard had played in the Razorcuts albums and had been in the band called Shake Appeal. Shirley actually did backing vocals on The Carousel records and was part of Dandelion Wine. She also took photos for the Razorcuts’ “The World Keeps Turning” album. So yeah, all very well-known people within the Oxford scene.

In 1989 the band would release their first record, a 12″ EP titled “Let It Happen” on the Cosmic English Music label (CTA 103). The A side had “Let it Happen” and “Myra”, while the B side had “Dragonfly” and “Grasshopper”. On this record we see that another important name in Oxford scene, Peter Momtchiloff (Heavenly) played bass. Also Struan Robertson (from Saturn V and The Would-Be-Goods) played drums and percussion.

Richard Mason played the acoustic guitar and bells in the record, Tim Vass played guitar, acoustic guitar, tambourine, finger cymbals, flute and organ while Shirley Souter played rhythm guitar. The producers were Tim Vass and Martin Pavey. The record was produced at Silent Studio in London.

There are also etchings on the vinyl, the A side says “No Clothes Don’t Buy My Soul”.

That same year the band released a second 12″. Titled “Mr. Jones”, it was another 4 song EP with “Mr. Jones” and “Chimney Pots” on the A side and “Faraway Lights” and “Out of the Grey” on the B side. Here I start to change the idea of the lineup of the band I had. So on the front cover there is an illustration of 5 members. These are the original three I thought of plus Struan Robertson and Peter Momtchiloff. The back of the sleeve lists them as three band members.

Like in the first record, all songs are credited to Shirley Souter.

In 1991 the band releases a split flexi with the American band Fudge. It was released by Waterbomb! Records (Splat 002). This flexi came alongside the sixth issue of the Waterbomb! fanzine and Red Chair Fadeaway contributed the song “Never Remember”. The red sleeve, on the Red Chair Fadeaway has a photo of a girl. I’ve tried many times to figure out who is she, if someone famous, but not sure. Anyone knows?

In 1991 the band would release their first album on both CD and vinyl. It was titled “Curiouser and Curiouser”. Originally it got released on vinyl by Tangerine Records (MM10). This version had 12 songs, “My Brother’s Room”, “Sleeping in Your Garden”, “Circus i n the Sky”, “Willo”, “All Your Old Tricks” and “Saffron’s Dream” on the A side, and “The Watermill of No Place”, “No Time”, “Rocking Boat”, “Epitaph for a Hare”, “Conjuror Trendle” and “Doasyouwouldbedoneby” on the flipside. The artwork was created by Paulo Baigent and came in a very nice sleeve from what I understand, with extra flap and even included a 10 page lyric booklet. I don’t have this records sadly. It looks really pretty from the photos.

The CD version came out on the English Garden label (ENG1013CD). This CD version included the album plus the two previous 12″s plus the song from the flexi disc, in that order. So in the end it has 21 songs! I think I’d like this version of the album, more songs! even though it probably not as pretty as the vinyl…

In 1993 the band would put out their second album “Mesmerised” released by Aural Records (AUR 102) on vinyl and on English Garden (ENG1012CD) on CD. This time around the tracklist looks the same for both versions. There were twelve songs, “I’m Not Trying”, “Homestead Moat”, “The Plaitman of Bedfordshire”, “Cristatus”, “Hot Rain” and “Happy With Your Lot” on the A side and “Clear, Clear to Me”, “Sweet Way”, “Don’t Close the Door”, “Under Clouds”, “Dream River” and “On Telegraph Hill” on the B side. Here I see there’s a mix when it comes to who wrote the songs. Shirley is still the main songwriter but Mason and Vass contribute more this time.

The artwork is credited to Shirley and we see another guest musician other than Struan Robertson, Raymond Dunthorne. Also on the credits we see that the engineer was Fred Baggs. The album was recorded at Redchurch Studio in London between the summer of 1992 and spring of 1993. Two songs, “Sweet Way” and “Dream River” were recorded at Joe’s Garage in London in autumn 1991.

The band’s last release was a 1995 7″ on the Candy Floss label (CF006) from the US. The 7″ had three songs. On the A side we find “Kingcup” while on the B side there’s “Kevin Said” and “July (Is a Long Time Coming)”. The song on the A side was recorded and mixed at Redchurch Studio on April 1995, “Kevin Said” was recorded at Joe’s Garage on August 1991 and mixed at Redchurch on April 1995 and the closing track was recorded at La Rocka Studio in London in April 1991 and mixed at Dungeon Studio in Oxfordshire in August 1991. On “Kingcup”, David Goldthorpe played rhythm guitar as backing vocals. He would later contribute in Dandelion Wine.

When it comes tom compilations the band appeared on a few. Interestingly not in their early days, but most of the compilations they’ve been on had been in this century.

The first one dates from 1995 and was called “(Garden of Delights Presents…) Seek Refuge… (From your Intolerable Situation)”. This compilation LP was released by Garden of Delights (Garden 3) and included the song “Limetree Helicopters”. Other known bands in this record include The Blind Bats, Louis Phillipe, Next Time Passions, The Television Personalities or The Pastels among others. The proceeds from this release were donated to the charity Womens Aid who provided refuges for battered women and their children.

Discogs lists a compilation called “Electric Psychedelic Sitar Headswirlers Volume 1-5”. It is a 5 CD boxset but it is listed as unofficial. Here they show Red Chair Fadeaway appearing on the fifth CD with the song “All Your Tricks”. The label was Past & Present Records (PAPRBOX 011) and it dates from 2011. Then in 2015 there is another unofficial CD boxset, a whopping 11 CDs. This one is called “Electric Psychedelic Headswirlers Volumes 1-11”. So yes, it includes CD 5 with Red Chair Fadeaway and the song “All Your Tricks”. The label name has changed though, now it is called Rubble and the catalog number is RUBCDBOX6. This 5th CD of the series was also released unofficially on its own by yet another label, Purple Lantern Records.

In 2018 Cherry Red would include thee song “Let it Happen” on the CD boxset “C89”. Then in 2019 Cherry Red would again include them on another box set called “Losing Touch With My Mind: Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990” with the song “Myra”.

I google them. I only find blogs that let people download their records. That’s disappointing. I am looking for any other information that I haven’t found yet, perhaps I could find what are they doing these days? Are they still involved with music? That would be a cool thing to find out.

So yes, any information, any details would be appreciated. Anyone saw them playing live? Did the band make t-shirts? I reckon the design for their last 7″, “Kingcup” would have been great on t-shirts….

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Listen
Red Chair Fadeaway – Mr. Jones

Day 352

Pelvic Fins: Augusburg, Germany, has becoming a nice hotspot for indiepop. We have the fantastic Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten label there and today I discovered Gebrauchtemusik, another label from there I believe. Their latest release is a 15 song collection by the band Pelvic Fins. The album is called “Muxik Vorher & Nachher” and is available digitally. This is actually not a new release, this album came out back in 2003 in CDR.

Collapse: this Japanese shoegaze band is a new discovery for me. Their latest song is called “Vertigo feat. Ishikawa”. I believe Ishikawa is in a band called My Dead Girlfriend. There’s not much more info about the band or the release here, just that it is a digital only release. Sounds good though! Should check their previous releases.

The Keep Left Signs: I really like this Swedish band that features two ex-Lost Homeboys, Jimmi and Gustaf. The band released a new EP on December but as it’s only on digital platforms I haven’t been able to share it. The good thing is that on Youtube they’ve made a video for the first song of said EP and as soon as you listen to it you know it is a winner. The song is called “Make it Shine” and the video was filmed in Japan, while Charley was visiting last March. I hope it gets a physical release!

Lentillas de Colores: another new video! This one comes from Spain from the band Lentillas de Colores! The band has just released a 7″ EP and the song they’ve chosen to make a video is called “Arrancacorazones”. Thee video is really nice, with lovely and well thought aesthetics. Very p!o!p!

Haus Plants: and lastly we discover a new band from Lisbon, Portugal. Their latest track is called “Visual Diaries” and it is an upbeat jangly tune. Really enjoying it.

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Back to the CDR days. The year is 2008 and there’s a label that’s been releasing a bunch of good EPs and singles. It is Cosy Recordings from Stockholm, Sweden. At this point in time I believe the label owner is cool with me, and we have sort of a friendship. That will change later on, but that’s not an interesting story. The story today is about the 11th release on that label, Little Big Adventure’s “Saltsjö-Duvnäs” EP.

Back then 100 copies for a CDR was a good idea. I wonder if today too? It was limited and hand-numbered, as was the trend that maybe I started with the Cloudberry mini CDs. It worked well. This EP with catalog number COSY 11 had four songs, the title song “Saltsjö-Duvnäs”, “Son of St Jacobs”, “Saltsjö-Duvnäs (Performed by Erik Halldén)” and “Saltsjö-Duvnäs ’08 (Performed by Erik Halldén and Little Big Adventure)”.

Little Big Adventure was Magnus Lindroos from Sundsvall and we can assume he had a good relationship with Erik Halldén. Erik Halldén perhaps should get an entry on the bog sometime. He was quite representative of the period, releasing albums on Bedroom Recordings as well as EPs on the very fine My Secret Garden Recordings. What’s interesting is that actually Erik Halldén was the one who wrote the song “Saltsjö-Duvnäs”.

Saltsjö-Duvnäs is actually a residential area in Nacka. That’s within Stockholm county boundaries I believe. Perhaps Erik hailed from that area? Or Magnus? That’s something to find out of course.

We also know that the other original song on the EP was written by Henrik Berggren. That means then a cover of the Broder Daniel’s song “Son of St. Jacobs”. Okay. What else do we know about this release? The artwork is credited to Lisa Persson and the layout to Karin Ringvist.

There are two compilation appearances. Both of them is with the same song, “Happiest Times”. The first one dates from 2008, it is on the “Club King Kong: Säsongen 07/08 – Med Musiken i Mitten Volym 3” CDR comp released by Donkeyboys Recordings (DKNYBYS003). I would really like to get all of these club King Kong CDRs… if anyone wants to get rid of them let me know. I am very curious about them.

The other compilation is one called “Stockholm Belong to Us” (PLAB139) that came out on Labrador in 2011. It was a CD and was also published in the Philippines that same year by Universal Records.

To my surprise there is even one more release by the band, a CDEP from 2009 on Labrador! So the band ended up leaving the CDR for a proper CD. The EP was titled “The Hateful Eye EP”. I totally missed it. This EP had four songs, “Happiest Times”, “The Hateful Eye”, “Any Questions?” and “Son of S:t Jacobs”. There was even a video made for “Happiest Times“!

Aside from this project, we know that Magnus Lindroos was in a band called Supertuff who released a split tape with the band There is Thunder in Our Hearts on 2014.

One thing that is confusing is that on Labrador’s website there is a bio about the band and that one is penned by Magnus Sätterström. Is it the same Magnus as Magnus Lindroos? That confuses me. Who’d know. The bio doesn’t give us much details about the band. At some point the band had a website and a twitter.

One thing that I figured out is that the band’s name come from the 1994 PC game Little Big Adventure.

Now if it is the same Magnus Lindroos, which I am quite confused by now, I found a Soundcloud with a song called “Vill Du Hälsa På Mig?” from 6 years ago. Sounds nice! And from there we find a Soundcloud for Little Big Adventure!

The songs are as old as 10 years old, but there are more recent ones, the latest from 2 years ago. The songs we find here are: “Lazy Kind of Flirt”, “Moop”, “Lba-Wow”, “Woods”, “20 ft. Until Ground”, “Bureaucrat”, “No Love Or True Affection”, “I Remember Things”, “Olof Broström”, “The Standoff”, “Run and Hide”, “My Last Wurds”, “Friends Wiv Nazis”, “To Whom it may Concern”, “Young People”, “The Further Away the Better I Feel”, “Little Boat”, “Gutted Fish + Bonfire”, “Paleremix”, “Ben and Jerrys”, “Visitoldpeople”, “The Easiest Thing”, “Call of Heart (Tcentralen)”, “Don’t Hurt My Eye”, “Powerpoint” and “Kids”.

And that’s I guess the last music he has published. From the photos it seems he has a family now and perhaps left music a bit on the side. Totally understandable. Still would like to hear any anecdotes, anyone that remembers the band? Maybe they played live? Who remembers them?

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Listen
Little Big Adventure – Happiest Times

Day 350.

Texpack: Anoa Records is a very good label from Jakarta. So it is a good idea to check them out now and then. Their latest is a limited edition 3″ single by the band Texpack. Titled “Early Serenade”, this short EP comes with three songs, “The Early Serenade”, “Between 4 and 10 (Strawberry etc.)” and “My Trumpet”. The last one is a cover of the classic Eggstone song!

The Catenary Wires: what a cool thing to see The Catenary Wires on Shelflife Records! The band is releasing a 7″ with two songs, “Mirrorball” and “I Wish You Were Here Now” and has a very nice sleeve with Amelia Fletcher, a chair, nice typography… I dunno, I was sold even before listening to the very good title song “Mirrorball” that is available to preview! The record is coming out on April 16.

Shiny Times: not too long ago, a few posts ago, I was recommending some new songs by the project from Charleston, South Carolina. Kim Hart Weldin’s Shiny Times have now four new songs on Bandcamp that are maybe not that new? They seem to date from February 2020 to February 2021. Which are the old ones? Which are the new ones? Check out this nice EP titled “Starts with S”.

Orion Lake: let’s cross the Hudson river. Now we are in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and checking out the song “Rabbit” by Oriol Lake. And it does impress at first listen. It is fuzzy and warm track, with upbeat melodies. Happy to meet you Orion Lake.

Genders: and lastly we discover this duo formed by Maggie Morris and Stephen Leisy from Portland, Oregon. Their first single from their second album is called “The World Fades Away” and it is quite good! Jangly, female vocals, and classic indiepop melodies.

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What a lovely discovery! I stumbled on Youtube upon The Grain’s song “A Splendid Day” and was hooked! Very Choo Choo Train, very jangly, great melodies. Everything you want to ask for a pop song!

As it is normal with these discoveries the band ends up being terribly obscure. We can see on Discogs that the band released one tape in 1991, and that’s where this song was released. We also know that the band hailed from Calgary, Alberta, in Canada. That’s some good info already, right?

The tape seems to have been self-released and was titled “A Moment’s insight”. It included 7 songs. The A side had “Will I Be Here”, “Save it for Another Day”, “A Splendid Day” and “Watch You Smile”. The B side featured “Happenings”, “Now and Then” and “People Say”. The songs were recorded and mixed by Frank Slide at ReelRock Studios in Calgary. They were produced by the band and Frank Slide.

Who were the band? That we know too:
Mike Hendrix – bass
Craig Clements – acoustic & electric guitar, vocals
Rob Virdis – acoustic & lead guitar, vocals
Dino Finot – drums

A little more googling lets me know that Rob Virdis had been in a band called Glider afterwards releasing two tapes. I believe he also played in a few songs of Matt Gillespie’s self-titled EP released earlier this year.

Then I find that Dino Finot is a motorcycle enthusiast who attends the Calgary Motorcycle Show every year. Interesting! But what about music?

And that’s it. Not much more information on the web, but some great music here, right? Hopefully we’ll learn more about them soon!

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Listen
The Grain – A Splendid Day

Day 348. Almost a year now. I’m glad the Verandan 7″ is out now, it is a good way to manage the expectations. One year of being mostly stuck at home. One year without gigs. And one wonders when will it end. Don’t know if counting the days is the most sane thing to do.

Beach Youth: coming out in April is the album “Postcard”. It will be available on CD and vinyl. There are 11 songs, and we can preview four of them, “Love Yourself II”, “Two Bedrooms”, “A Changed Man” and “In My Chest”. The release is coming out on two French labels, Music from the Masses and Wewant2Records, and on Shelflife in the US. What I’m hearing is very good. I should talk to Ed soon, I will need a copy of the record!

Fightmilk: another upcoming release is the album “Contender” by the London band Fightmilk. Coming on vinyl and CD on May 14 we get to preview two out of 14 songs on Bandcamp. Yeah, we can check out “I’m Starting to Think You Don’t Even Want to go to Space” and “If You had a Sister…”. I really enjoy the guitars and female vocals on both of them. Definitely we should look forward to the second album by Fightmilk!

The Line Managers: first time I check this Birmingham trio. They seem to be brand new as the two songs on Bandcamp have just been uploaded there. And that’s all, no more songs. “Nothing Seems to Work” and “You Should Know” are how they are introducing themselves to indie fans. They sound fine to me. Only available digitally too.

Creature in the Spiral: we head to Laredo, Texas, to discover this cool shoegaze band. Their latest release is only available digitally it seems, a short EP titled “FEB”. The opening track, “Play”, is probably my favourite, fuzzy and with great melodies.

Juliper Sky: and we end up this roundup with a band I have featured in the past, Juliper Sky from Manchester. They make beautiful guitar-layered music. As they mention it, they do know how to marry shoegaze, dreampop and psychedelia. Their latest song is not exception, “Another Life”. Check it out.

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Time to head to Sweden. The year is 1992. And a maxi-single is released by the band Julia Dream. It comes out on the unknown Yellowmoon Productions (catalog YEL001) and we don’t know nothing more. Did it make a splash within the indie scene in Sweden? That’s something I’ll try to find out.

Yellowmoon Productions seems to have been the band’s own label. There are no other releases listed on this label. We do know though some details about the release and that always makes me hopeful about finding more information about the band.

Three songs were included in the CD single, “Liquid House”, “Angel” and “Seeing Out”. They were produced and mixed at White Room, in Copenhagen. The producer was Lars Paulström.

This makes me think that the band hailed from the south of Sweden, probably from Skåne. Maybe from the city of Malmö? We’ll see…

We know the band members too.
Thomas Lundberg – guitar, vocals and drums on “Angel”
Anders Westerström – bass, vocals
Anders Linén – keyboards
Nicklas Johansson – drums on “Liquid House” and “Seeing Out”

The other credit worth mentioning is that Christina Curman did vocals on “Angel”.

Then I find an address on the sleeve. Yes! Yellowmoon Productions hailed from Malmö. The street is Agnesgatan, about 15 minute walk from Malmö’s central train station. In the old town area. How nice. I remember walking those streets and would love to go back soon.

Discogs doesn’t list any compilation appearances nor other releases by the band. It is a shame. Their songs are great.

But there are good news. There is a Bandcamp! I should have started there, right? Well, I didn’t know it existed! Here they have the three songs of the “Julia Dream” CD-single and two demo cassettes to boot.

The first demo dates from 1990 and has four songs. These are “Angel”, “Insomnia”, “A Multitude of Ladybugs” and “The Madcamp Laughs”.

The 2nd demo is from 1991 and has four songs as well, “Here We Go”, “Like Magic”, “Leafsong” and “Sun”.

This is great, I’ll spend an afternoon listening to the songs. Now it would be great if we get in touch with the band and find more information about them. These are all good and would love to know if there are even more songs! If the band members went to be in other projects and more. There’s always tons of questions to ask!

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Listen
Julia Dream – Liquid House

Day 345. Today I mailed the first batch of Verandan 7″s to those who have preordered! That’s great! Keep supporting the label for more and more releases 😀

Grrrl Gang: an Indonesian band getting a vinyl release? That’s not too common but it is definitely great news! The Yogyakarta band is releasing a 7″ on July 1st with two songs, “Honey, Baby” and “Ghost to You (Live at Teras Belakang Studio)”. The one track we can preview, the first one, is really good! Perfect pop! 300 copies are made of this 7″ and it is selling for 8 pounds by Damnably Records. Definitely one we can’t miss!

Vary Landers: now we head to Detroit to discover this lo-fi bedroom pop project. There is little information here, but we can definitely enjoy the guitar strums on the two songs we can check out, “Amaryllis” and “Uji”.

UJU: and back to Asia, to Cebu City, Philippines. I discover the label Melt Records, and their latest release, “Dream of Better Days” by UJU. This is a 10 song album which already came out on January 29. It sounds great! Dreamy with female vocals and very nice guitar arrangements. The artwork for the album is nice too! I hope they get to release the album in physical format!

OutControlJoys: wow! a shoegaze band from Pokhara, Nepal! This is really exciting. Never knew there was a scene there. Ris Records is a label that started in 2016 and supports bands from their country. Good idea! Here I’ve discovered the “Division” EP which seems to be a demo. In any case it sounds good! It has 5 songs of very exciting shoegaze sounds. Check it out!

John Myrtle: and to end this week of discoveries here is John Myrtle from where else? London! The place that reigns supreme for indiepop? I am not sure anymore… it used to be and probably is still, but I don’t find that many London bands as of late. So good to see this solo project who have just released a great slice of pop, a digital single called “Get Her Off My Mind”.

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This is actually the first post I write since returning to NYC in January. I’ve been a bit slow researching obscure bands. On my defense I can say that I am up to date with everything else. Also I’ve written many interview questions for many interviews that I hope get published someday. If I get the answers that is.

Now I want to focus on The Wishing Well, an American band, I believe from Atlanta, who released one EP and one album in the late 80s.

Information about them is not easy to come by. Discogs tells us that the band was formed by Kib on vocals, Pat Luckett on guitar, Marion Smith on bass and Scott Snyder on drums. That’s something.

Then their first release was a 12″ vinyl EP released by Token Bird Records (catalog WW-0915). I want to assume that this was a self-release. The only two releases by Token Bird listed on Discogs are by The Wishing Well.

This first EP came out in 1987 and included 5 songs, “Paradise”, “Wish You Away” and “Sweet Caroline” on the A side and “Immaculate” and “Market Rain” on the B side.

Their album “Maybe” came out in 1989 on Token Bird (WW0123). It was released on vinyl, CD and cassette. The songs on the LP were: “Maybe”, “Wide Awake”, “Anything” My Girl”, “Drink Myself to Sleep” and “Ransom” on the A side and “Don’t Try to Change Me”, “My Favorite Song”, “Big White House”, “Bsusa”, “Nobody Cry” and “Letter” on the B side. 12 songs total.

On this record they credit Jeff Stanley for playing fiddle, Bill Turpin for playing Harp and Ed Roland, the producer. Ed Roland was in the well known band Collective Soul as well as in The Living Room and The Sweet Tea Project. From what I understand there’s a song by Collective Soul called “Maybe” which was dedicated to the memory of Kib Browning. It seems he died in 1995 of scoliosis complications, being 26 years old.

That’s not the kind of information I want to find. But sadly I can’t seem to find much more details about the band. So hopefully some of you remember them. Know of more songs, more releases. Or what happened to the other members? There are no compilation appearances listed either. So would be good to know more about them and the Atlanta scene. Maybe there were more cool jangly bands down there?

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Listen
The Wishing Wall – Paradise

Day 343. Verandan 7″s are at home and I am terribly happy! These are the moments that are totally worth having a label… it is like Christmas!

The Pleasures Pale: remember that we did a wonderful interview with the Dayton, Ohio, 80s band? Well there are good news! Their self-titled album has been remastered and is now available on a deluxe edition CD! So run and get it! You won’t regret it. 12 great jangle songs including classics like “No, Joy” or “My Town has no Cafés”. It also looks like they have 11 copies of the original vinyl pressing. Again, run!

Biarritz: we head to Murcia, Spain, to discover the 7-song mini-album by this project. Titled “De Paseo”, the mini-album is only available digitally. The sound reminds us of the first decade of this century, where Spanish pop, with bright jangly guitars and female vocals was a thing. It does have a nostalgic feel to hear these songs. It brings a big smile to me.

Sonia Gadhia: new song by this artist written and produced by the fine Castlebeat. The label is Spirit Goth. I have to admit I don’t know much about this scene. I do know though that “Be Mine” is a very nice slice of pop. Simple but well done. Dreamy.

Flu Flu: Shore Drive Records from Brighton has now released the mini-album “Mi Mundo Interior” by the Seville band Flu Flu! It is out now on CD and seems that very few copies are left. The band is formed by Fran Lora, Cristina Mohe, Javi Vass and Carlos Díaz, and here, they have 6 terrific songs, some in English and some in Spanish.

Fritz: and let’s end this roundup with the amazing album “Pastel” from the Newcastle, Australia, band. 9 songs which you can ore-order now. I don’t know much more other than the title song is available to stream. It is really really good song, lots of fun. I will definitely want this in my collection.

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Jonas Johnsson was Thehelpmeplease, a Swedish bedroom pop band from the 2000s.

I still recall those days with nostalgia. Even though I would visit Sweden in 2008, and already past the time when the scene was booming, I still have the best of memories of those days. So many creative people releasing records and playing in bands. Those years were amazing and every single day that passes I regret not being able to do a 2nd volume of the “Sound o Starke Adolf” compilations. Maybe one day I will be able to retake that project…

Anyways, Thehelpmeplease. I discovered them around 2004. It was the days of Soulseek and all indiepop kids from Sweden were there. They were sharing lots of great music. There was a cool CDR label called Bedroom Records then and they were the ones that released the first EP by Jonas, it was called “Buzzing like Bumblebees on Speed”. The catalog number was BED004, yeah, an early release in the label.

This EP had four songs, “Buzzing like Bumblebees on Speed”, “Rupert Murdoch”, “Son of a Gun” and “Someone Special”. “Sun of a Gun” was a cover of the classic song by The Vaselines. All songs had been recorded that same year, during autumn, at Jonas’ home. The photo on the front cover, who I assume is Jonas, was taken by Terése Wikström.

In 2005 he would release another CDR. This time it would be on the label Snowbeam Records (003), also from Sweden. Three songs recorded at home that year were part of this CDR, “A Little Love”, “She Said” and “Hesitate in Love”. One thing to note is that here the name of the band appears as The Help Me Please.

At that point in time the band had a website. I remember visiting it, but I can’t remember what sort of info was available. Anyone remembers?

In 2005 the band would contribute a few songs to compilations. The song “Bumblebee (Original Falu Version)” was included in the CDR compilation “Cosy Den Goes Lägenhet Ett År” on Cosy Recordings (COSY 001). Then the song “A Little Love” shows up on the great CDR comp “Popkonst, Love & Understanding” released by Popkonst Recordings (POPK12). And lastly, that year, they have “Buzzing Like Bumblebees on Speed” on the CDR comp “Club King Kong: Med Musiken i Mitten Vol. 2 Säsongen 06-07” released by Donkeyboys Records (DNKYBYS002).

In 2007 the band starts working with the label Series Two. They appear in the compilation CDR “Series Two Records Christmas Special” with the track “Hear the Bells Rings”.

The next year, 2008,  an album is finally released. It is called “You Still Have Summers” and has 9 songs, “A Little Love”, “Louise Dyer”, “Hesitate in Love”, “Someone Special”, “Buzzing Like Bumblebees on Speed”, “1992”, “She Said”, “Hear the Bells Ring” and “Bumblebee”.

Lastly, in 2009, they have the song “A Little Love” in the compilation “Series Two Compilation Vol. 23”.

A good find on the web is a blogspot page from the band dating from 2005. Here I find some setlists were there are some songs that weren’t included in the records. For example The Vaselines song “Lovecraft” and “No Other One” by Weezer used to be covered by Thehelpmeplease.

On the old Myspace I find a song “Lousy Weekend”. There I find a band, among the top friends, called The Johnsson Colors. I want to guess, because of the last name, that it was another band Jonas was in. Who would know?

I also wonder whereabouts in Sweden were Thehelpmeplease based. There is really no information on the web. A shame.

So yeah, who remembers this great bedroom pop band?

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Listen
Thehelpmeplease – A Little Love

Day 341. So yeah, don’t forget that this week I will start shipping Verandan orders!!! Very exciting! Pre-orders will be shipped first of course. The official release date is February 20.

Ski Saigon: “Sees the Albatross”, the debut album by the London based Ski Saigon will be out on the label Too Good to be True. This label, from Brest, France, is actually a new label by the people behind Beko Disques. The album is getting a CD release on March 4 and it will be very limited, just 150 copies. One of the songs is available to preview at the moment, “It’s Already Tomorrow”, and I highly recommend checking it out.

The Lodger: the great Leeds band will be back with a new album called “Cul-De-Sac”. 13 new songs. We can check one of those songs, “Dual Lives”, on Bandcamp. The album will be available through different labels around the world and it seems only in vinyl LP format.

Grids and Dots: the Sydney, Australia, band is back with a new song. It is called “What Happens to Friendships in Winter?”. That’s a good question indeed. Here in the north we are in winter and in a pandemic. So yeah, haven’t seen many friends. Speaking of pandemic, it seems the band actually have some gigs coming up in February and March. Lucky indeed.

CIEL: the Dutch combo also returns with a new song called “Pretty Face”. As with previous songs I’m enjoying this quite a lot. Very nice female vocals and melodies. I just think it’d be great to see a release by them, an album would be nice, right?

Shiny Times: and lastly on today’s quick reviews of indiepop discoveries on the web we find that Kim Weldin has continued making new music! It’s been a while since I last hear from her, probably 7, 8 months? so it is cool to see two new songs on her Bandcamp, “Dark Day” and “Everything is Gray”. Lovely bedroom pop.

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I keep discovering new Australian bands from the 80s and early 90s thanks to that great Youtube channel stoneeyedkiller. It is true he sometimes recommends some bands I’ve posted here but as of late I think I am being inspired more by his posts than him from mine!

The latest discovery is this Sydney post punk/pop band from the 80s called The Call. I already know, by their name, that it will prove difficult to find much information about them. Their name is not a good one for Google.

But there are some good news. There’s a Bandcamp and a Facebook page. So we’ll be able to find songs and some information!

Firstly, on the Bandcamp we find six song: “Winterland”, “Model”, “Andy’s Day”, “Memories” and “Road to Freedom”. We don’t know if these were properly released or not. We do know that they were recorded between 1981 and 1993. That seems a bit odd, six songs recorded in 12 years? There must be more! Anyone would know?

We also know the band members: David Thompson, Michael Pickells, Peter Ciobo and Steve Starr (Thompson). On the Bandcamp photo there are only 3 members though.

It also tells us that the band played in Sydney, Canberra and Newcastle. It also tells us that the band reformed in the year 2020 to play live shows as well as live streams and they plan to record. That’s interesting!

Their Facebook has less information. There are just a few photos of their 2020 rehearsals.

Looking for more information about the band members I find that Michael Pickells played in a band called The Lounge Lizards. And I am pretty sure that Peter Ciobo was in the band Deckchairs Overboard. I had a hard time finding any projects by the other band members.

But yeah, not that much info, but we get to listen to them and hopefully we’ll learn more about The Call in the near future!

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Listen
The Call – Road to Freedom

Day 338

Klaus & Kinski: just a few days ago I was recommending Alexanderplatz, the solo project of one of the Klaus & Kinski members. Well, there’s some news about this band! There is a vinyl reissue of their album “Tierra, Trágalos” for its 10th anniversary coming up on Jabalina! It is coming out on March 1st on vinyl! It includes all songs from the original release plus a cover of “Lalala” by Ataque de Caspa.

The Leontini Vernacular: the latest on Shore Dive Records from Brighton is an EP titled “Anthropause” by The Leontini Vernacular. Here are 6 songs, three labeled as demos and one remix, of psychedelic guitars and shoegazey feel. Out now on CD though it seems it will be sold out soon!

Arrest! Charlie Tipper: the Bristol band will be back with a limited edition 7″! Limited to 120 copies, this new record on the Local Underground label, will have two songs, “Five Aces” and “(I’ve Never Been to) Alaska”, and we can preview the opening track as we speak. The opening track will also be part of the double album “Adventures in Wonderland” that will be released this summer.

А в голове море: I don’t understand nor can read Russian. But I can see “Москва” and now it is Moscow. That’s the name of the latest song by this band. It is a fine slice of new wavy indiepop with female vocals. I don’t know much about the band, but I enjoy this song!

Bad Visuals: and to end this week on a high note let’s check out “So Broken” by the Oakland, California, band Bad Visuals. This four piece formed by John, Geoff, Chris and Josh are new to me. So it was a nice surprise to listen this fuzzy and bright track. The melodies and vocals kind of reminded me a bit of The Ocean Blue, though yeah, the guitars being a bit different. It’s cool!

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Who were The Marnies?

The information seems scarce. Discogs does list the one and only record they put out, a self-released 7″ from 1989 that was titled “Watch the Clock”.

This record had two songs, “Electric Wires” on the A side and “Watch the Clock” on the B side. The information that we gather from the record sleeve and labels is that the band was formed by:
Damian Tesoriero on drums
Patrick McArdle on guitar and vocals
Anthony Camm on bass and vocals
Terrance Vella on guitar

We also know that the two songs were recorded at Apollo Sound Studios in Coburg, on December 12, 1988, and that they were engineered by Maurice Coppola. The photo of the band that appears on the label was taken by Maria Sokratis. We also find an address of the band, North Fitzroy, that’s Melbourne, right?

The sleeve of the record that I’ve seen online looks hand-printed, on purple ink. Discogs lists two compilation appearances, but of much more recent days, so I really doubt it is the same band.

It seems the first blog to write about them was the fine Wilfully Obscure blog. The post actually dates from 2011! 9 years ago. That’s what it took me to discover them. Sadly the details shared are the same as I just mentioned in my post. BUT….

There is a comment by someone called Dr. Keats. He mentions many interesting tidbits about the band.

The band formed in 1987 and their name was taken from the 1964 Hitchcock film “Marnie”.  He mentions too that Patrick McArdle had been in a band called Vacuum Safari Suits, and he, Camm and Vella met at LaTrobe University.

The band played many of the classic venues of Melbourne including Punters Club, Evelyn Hotel, Empress of India, Royal Artillery, Limbo Club and more, playing alongside the Rhythm Pigs, Tyrnaround and a favourite of mine, The Falling Joys at The Tote.

Here we learn too that McArdle was the one who sang “Watch the Clock” while Camm sang “Electric Wires”. That at their gigs teh band used to finish their show with a cover of “Yesterday’s Hero” by John Paul Young. In 1989 Tesoreiro left the band andw as replaced by Maurice Toneatto. Later Tesoreiro would rejoin. In late 1990 or early 1991 the band called it quits.

And then some good information, McArdle and Tesoreiro were later in a band called Power Chime.

Lastly I find a Soundcloud by Patrick McArdle! There are a trove of songs here! I wonder if any of them are by The Marnies!

That was quite some good information. I honestly thought I’d find less info about them. Again, how come I couldn’t put together a compilation of Australian bands, I don’t know. They seemed all so little interested. It would have been so cool.

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Listen
The Marnies – Electric Wires