Day 130. Again a quiet weekend. Not much news on Cloudberry HQ.

Robotboy: behind the name of Robotboy is Petter Strömberg from Stockholm, Sweden. He makes superb bedroom-pop reminiscent of our hero Nixon. His latest track is among his best if I may say and is called “Our Time”

Carry On, Cupid: more lo-fi catchy music. This time from Houston, Texas. I am guessing it is a new-ish band as their first release on Bandcamp are three demos, “Ocelot”, “If I Should Die Tonight” and “Drive Home”. And all three are pretty enjoyable, though if I have to pick my favourite, I’d say the first one, “Ocelot”.

The Primitives: I missed this! So The Primitives covered the classic The Aislers Set song “Been Hiding” for a tape compilation called “Be Gay, Do Crime!”! Wow! And the cover is very good! So definitely check it out. It seems this cover dates from 2016 but I wasn’t aware of it. This tape is out on August 1st and the proceeds will go to Prism Health.

“Text Me When You Get Here”: this is the name of the latest compilation from the Toronto based indiepop label Fallen Love Records. There is no physical release it seems but we can for sure stream on Bandcamp the 18 songs that make up this pretty interesting release. There are many bands that are familiar to me and even more that aren’t. Time to listen!

Go Fever: Austin-based band with Australian songwriter Acey Monaro fronting it. That’s Go Fever. But it is also more. The band also has Benjamin Burdick, Keith Lough and Josh Merry in their ranks. And their latest song is a fun upbeat one called “Sound of Me Leaving”.

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“Cajun Moon” is a song written by Jim Rushing, and recorded by American country artist Ricky Skaggs. It was released in January 1986 as the second single from the album Live in London. “Cajun Moon” was Ricky Skaggs’ tenth number one on the country chart. The single went to number one for one week and spent thirteen weeks on the country chart.

The Hull band Cajun Moon was a total new discovery of mine thanks to the ninth volume of “The Sound of Leamington Spa” that Firestation Records (FST 16) released in 2018. I had never heard of this band before.

And to this  day I have only heard one song by them, “In the Waves”. Thankfully, the booklet of the compilation does give a little more information:

Cajun Moon were a Hull based band from 1989/90 which evolved from the band The Mirrors which was first established in 1987. The core of the band remained the same bu the name change made to highlight a shift in musical direction as well as a change in lineup. The songwriting duo of Heidi Kruger (vocals, guitar) and Paul Ford (guitar) remained as did The Mirrors drummer Stephen Hardaker. They were joined by a new bass player Jon Wynham and Sara Philips on backing vocals. The bands influenced ranged from R.E.M. and the 10,000 Maniacs to Leonard Cohen and JJ Cale. A JJ Cale song also providing the inspiration for the name of the band.

True, JJ Cale also played “Cajun Moon”. And I am now also very curious about The Mirrors. Did they leave any recordings?

And where does this song, “In The Waves”, come from? Most probably a demo tape. But there must have been other songs. Had the band members involved in any other bands? The information on the web is non-existant. I hope someone can shed some light about Cajun Moon!

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Listen
Cajun Moon – In the Waves

Day 127. Happy Friday. No news. Just some new music today.

Bathe Alone: Bailey Crone’s solo dreampop project is back with a wonderful new song called “Go Away”. This song is actually the 6th single off her upcoming LP that will be released this year. The album should be called “Last Looks” but we don’t know yet when this Atlanta band will release it!

Dog Day: first time listening this band that will release their album “Present” on the Halifax, Canada, label Fundog Records. It seems to be all about dogs! The album will be out on August 12 and we can preview one of the tracks, “Hell on Earth”, which is great! A luminous pop song that hints us what the album may offer! Looking forward to it!

Sonntag: Who are Sonntag? We know they hail from Los Angeles and that their latest track called “Vespa” is a lovely sweet one. It is the first time I listen to them so I must say I am very curious. I will have to check the previous releases.

H!: the latest from the Shiny Happy Records digital club is the song “B’day” by this Jakarta tweepop one-man project. Behind H! is Adi Cumi who is a big fan of Another Sunny Day and St. Christopher. Sounds good indeed!

Mary Queen of Scots: so great to hear a new song by this classic UK band! This new song is taken from the upcoming album “With Friends Like Us Who Needs the NME?” and is titled “Only Time Will Tell”. It is really really good!

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Continuing with great Australian bands from the 80s, I just discovered Other Voices and their song “She Walks Down”. What a track!

Now I need to track down the 7″ that had this song and hopefully their other single from the early 80s. In the meantime I’ll try to find more information about them. Join me?

So there is a small blurb on Discogs about them where they say that the band formed in Brisbane and moved to Sydney in 1983. What year did they form? That is something I’d need to find out. I do know though that in that same year, 1983, they would release the “Other Voices” 7″ (SUN 0035) on Sundown Records. This label was set up by Eleanor and John Briskey in 1981 in Lawnton, Queensland. I think at this point they were still in Brisbane.

This first 7″ was a double A side, with “World War III” on one side and “Another Tuesday” on the other. Both songs were recorded in Brisbane in December 1982. The songs were engineered by Ashley Keating and Lee Faulkner at Basement Studios. Here we also learn who formed the band:
Glenn Bevan – bass
Cameron Earl – drums
Richard Farmer – guitar
Graeme Norris – saxophone
Roger Norris – vocals

The cool art of the artwork is credited to the band. That’s great.

Then after moving to Sydney they would sign with the well-known Waterfront Records and release their second 7″, “She Walks Down” (DAMP 12). Discogs has the release date for it for 1985. The A side has the title song while the B side had the song “Cats Neva Land”. We also notice some lineup changes here. Paul McGrath had replaced Glenn Bevan on bass and Andrew Clement replaced Cameron Earl on drums.

According to the blurb on Discogs the band split up just after this single. Afterwards vocalist Roger Norris would front the Plug Uglies in 1990 and then join Panacea in 1994. I also see that he was in another bands called The Dobie Gills Experience and Fie on Love. Graeme Norris also was in different bands like The Original Otto Orchestra, The Dobie Gills Experience and West End Composer Collective. Richard Farmer was also in the Dobie Gills Experience, so maybe we can say that this band, who released a tape album in 1983, was the seed of Other Voices? Seems like a fair assumption.

The band also left us some more songs on a few compilations. For example on the cassette compilation “Castrak” that came along the Ratsack fanzine 3rd number in 1983, the band contributed the track “Scene/Unseen”. Then their song “Another Tuesday” was included in the double vinyl compilation album “The Southern Cross”. This comp was released by Ink Records (INK 4D) in the UK in 1984.

And then I find some treasure, a promo video for “She Walks Down“! Amazing! Here we learn that the songs for the 2nd single were recorded at the M Squared Studio in Surry Hills and the video was filmed at various locations around Sydney. This was uploaded by Roger Norris himself. ON the comments I find something interesting, that a Greek student made a short film called “One Way” that included their song “Another Tuesday” as part of the soundtrack! Would be cool to find that!

That was quite something. I couldn’t find anything else nor a fair-priced copy of the 7″s. But I am sure some of you remember them and will let me know any details about them that come up to mind!

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Listen
Other Voices – She Walks Down

Day 125. Not much news still, waiting for our next release to come home from the pressing plant in this weird year. In the meantime here’s new music!

Blue Heron: a new album bu the Boston band. That is good news indeed. Titled “Forever Ending”, the 11-track album was recorded this year between February and July. It is indeed a beautiful pop album, totally worth your time.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: Three new songs by the prolific San Francisco band. “All Night We Move”, “My Soul Unburdened” and “Brave and Cruel” come just in time for the summer. Something interesting, the first two songs contain lines from the poems of Rumi.

Star-Crossed Lovers: we stay in California and we find this band who released last month a digital single called “In the Shadows” with an accompanying track called “Not Everyone Has Friends”. Both are well crafted shoegaze/dreampop songs. Nice to meet you Star-Crossed Lovers.

Hiki: it is no surprise to find amazing music from Russia. This latest discovery is no exception. The album “A Trip to the Sea” is a swirling dreamy pop journey. There are 7 songs and it seems this is their 7th album! So yeah, I guess I will need to check previous releases!

For Not: the latest on Meritorio Records is the album “The Close is Open” by the Kungälv, Sweden, band Fort Not! The band consists of two friends Fredrik and Robert and they do make catchy pop songs. So this is very very good. I hope I get a copy when it comes out on September 18! Great find!

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Simon Coffey used to run an indie label in Aotearoa, New Zealand, called Onslaught Records in the 1980s. I checked a few of the bands on the label and they sound quite different to Guava Groove. How come?

It is a good question I think. But at the same time I don’t know much about the 80s in New Zealand, aside from what we know most, which is the Flying Nun releases. If we check other stuff it is always a surprise. Guava Groove then is quite a surprise.

The band only released one 7″ back in 1987 on Onslaught Records (CNT 002). This 7″ was more of an EP as it included four songs, two on each side. The A side had “Who’s that Girl?” and “Liquor Lover” while the B side had “Fight! (We Got to Use What We Got to Get What We Want)” and “Boot Girl”.

All four songs were recorded at Montage Studios on May 29 and 30 as well as June 20 and 21 of 1987. The band produced the tracks while Richard Hansen mixed them. The sleeve is quite interesting too because it tells us that the band WAS. Meaning that the record was released posthumously? Could be the case?

We know that the band was formed by:
Craig Bracken on vocals and harmonica
Darrin Kennedy on drums
Daniel Salmon on bass
Troy Shanks on guitar and vocals

The 7″ also includes some “Special Guavas”. I am guessing people that helped in the songs: Clare Bennet on vocals (she had been in the band Soul on Ice) and Nicky Bracken on vocals and sound.

But that is not all, there is Nathan Haines (he had been in bands like Freebass, Phoojun and Sci-Cione but whose solo album “Shift Left” was the biggest selling NZ recorded jazz album of all time) who played sax on tracks 1 and 3 and David Walker who also played sax on track 4. Peter Reid played trumpet on tracks 1 and 3. Then there are credits for Nicky Bracken for the photography on the sleeve, Tony Shanks & Thermostat for the sleeve and Paul Ullrich for the label design.

Other interesting credits come from the labels, “Who’s that Girl?” and “Fight!” were written by Troy Shanks while” Boot Girl” “Liquor Lover” and by Greaves and Turner meaning that the original was actually by 9 Below Zero, an English blues band,

Aside from Guava Groove we only know that Craig Bracken was later on in the band The Flaming Mudcats. And I couldn’t find any compilation appearances by the band!

After a bit of searching around the web for more info I find a website called There is No Cat. There is a comment on a blog post by Troy Shanks that tells a bit of the story of the band! This is just what I was looking for!

Here he mentions that the band formed in 1985 when he was 17 years old. They were based in the north shore of Auckland. In 1987 the band split as he moved to London. So yeah, the band only lasted 2 years and that would explain if the release came out after the band had already split.

The other band member found someone to replace him but I am not sure if they kept the name, though it seems they continued making music. He mentions that they didnt have enough money to press it as a 12″ 45rpm. That is why the four songs were in a 7″ at 33rpm. Other detail he mention is that his brother Kurt plays in a band called Stellar.

So the band was formed by Troy and Craig just a few months before leaving high school. They had a different drummer for their first gig (it was a talent competition at a bar). They came on third place it seems. Then their drummer was replaced as this original drummer was committed to an asylum. Then they got another drummer, Darrin. He also had been a classmate of his in school. Then they found their bass player, Dan, who was younger than the rest. With this lineup they played lots of gigs.

Something interesting that he mentions is that Flying Nun wouldn’t have been interested in their music as they were more like mods.

When I search Craig Bracken I find that he was also in a band called Los Diablos and run a label called Roots Music Aotearoa alongside Darcy Perry and Paul Merriott.

And that’s it! Whatever happened to them? Many questions, and not much information about this obscure New Zealand band!

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Listen
Guava Groove – Fight! (We Got to Use What We Got to Get What We Want)

Day 123.

More new music!

The Muldoons: finally the “Made for Each Other” album is available to preview on Bandcamp. The 10 songs are there and they are wonderful jangle pop. Among the best I’ve heard this year. Remember that the album is out now too. I need to get a copy myself of this superb Paisley, Scotland, band’s latest release!

Jaguar Sun: some very nice tunes coming from this project from Ontario, Canada. The latest is called “Keep You Warm” but in the past few months they have been putting out other tracks like “Next Year” or “Those Days”.

Films on Song: now we have to check out the “Too True” EP by this Charlottesville, Viriginia band. What do we discover? 4 songs of classic indiepop with chiming guitars, influenced by who? Flying Nun Records? Could be. They tag themselves as rock, indie and neosoul though. Anyone’s guess then. But the songs sound good especially the opening track “A Place I’d Rather Be”.

Jenny Genius: now we drive north, to New Haven, Connecticut. Here the band formed by Maggie, Chris and Dan have just released a cassette album. it is self-titled and has 7 songs. Okay, maybe a mini-album. The songs are raw, lo-fi, punkish indiepop. So yeah, pretty good.

The Wolfhounds: lastly the legendary band released “Electric Music” just like a week ago, on July 3rd. I missed the announcement so yeah I am probably late, even though many months ago I shared a link to the one song we could preview then. The limited edition 12″ is sold out. But there are other options, the non-limited 12″ and the CD. What matters in the end are the 10 songs that are included which are great. Lots of energy as always.

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Continuing with Australian discoveries here is another band from the great city of Perth, home of so many indiepop bands in the late 80s. I don’t know very much about them to be honest, but I am here to find out any details about them. Let’s start with what I know. They released just one record and then disappeared into obscurity.

This 7″ came out in 1987 on one of the most recognizable labels from that period, Easter Records (MR-7038). This label released bands of the quality of The Summer Suns, The Palisades or The Stolen Picassos among others!

The 7″ the band released came with two songs, “My Husband Beats Me” on the A side and “Coca-Cola is Coke” on the B side. Both songs were recorded at Northlake Studios, which was a recording studio located in the area of Myaree and where bands like Martha’s Vineyard and The Marigolds also  recorded.  They were engineered and mixed by James Hewgill.

We also know the band members names. And in parenthesis the nicknames they used.
Val Tarin (Pablo) – vocals and guitar
Craig Weighell  (John Boy) – vocals and drums
Dan Tarrant (Wally) – bass
Glen White (Tennessee) – lead guitar

Trumpet on the A side was played by Adrian Wood (aka. Huck Walton).

The cool art, the black and white illustration on the front cover, is credited to Fred Gilbert. The photo of the band on the back of the sleeve is credited to David Gerard.

Prior to this 7″ the band had included the A side, “My Husband Beats Me”, on a tape compilation called “The Attic Tapes”. This was actually a live recorded album, where I suppose all of the bands listed played that night. The venue was the Red Parrot and the date was Friday May 16th of 1986.

Then in 1989 the band would appear on an LP compilation called “Hometown Farewell Kiss” released by 6UVS-FM. This was a radio station based also in Perth. Nowadays it is called RTR FM. On this compilation the band contributed the song “Truck Drivin’ Man”. This looks like a terrific compilation, with many favourite bands of mine. I should try to get this record!

Lastly, many years later, in 2003, the band appeared on a CD compilation called “Off the Hip Fanzine 5” which as the name says came alongisde the fifth issue of the Off the Hip fanzine. Here the band contributed the song “Cherry”. Maybe it was an old recording? Or maybe they got together to record it?

Then I stumble upon something cool, The Waltons performing live at the Coronado Hotel in Perth! They are playing “My Husband Beats Me” and it seems this video dates from May 1991. Then there’s another clip of them playing the song “Quando” at the same venue. Then there’s another video of them playing the song “Cactus Jack” at the Shenton Park Hotel in Perth, January 1987. And lastly the song “Cherry” with an accompanying clip! Cool! It seems this song was to be the third single by the band. But then, which was the second?!

According to Last.fm there was a single with two songs, “Coast to Coast” and “We’re the Waltons”. And then that “Cherry” had a B side called “Crawly Man”. I need to find about these! “”Coast to Coast” was also released by Easter.

Then I find a blog called “Something Old, Something New“. Here they mention again that there were two singles. But what interests me is that they say that the songs were put together into a retrospective CD! I would love to find a copy of that. Another interesting detail is that it mentions that the band was active between 1985 and 1992.

It seems that this CD was remastered and compiled by someone called Trevor Hilton. He comments on the blog post. He says that the CD contained all 8 songs recorded in studio plus a gig from 1991 at the Coronado Hotel and a rare song called “Lost in Suburbia”. He also mentions that it was never properly released! What a shame! Would be great to hear these tracks, right?

Ok. So I found some more info about the 2nd single thanks to the blog “History of Australian Music from 1960 until 2010“. Here it mentions that James Hewgill again recorded them in Northlake Studios. This was 1987 and the single was released in March 1989. At this same time the band recorded the song “My Baby Left Me for a Truck Driving Man”. That seems to be the right song title for the song that was included in the radio station compilation LP. Then we know that “Cherry” was actually recorded somewhere else. It was recorded at Planet Studios in 1991 and were co-produced by the band and Dom Mariani from The Stems!

And there’s more. On Souncloud an account by Peter Morse (from Love Pump) has the A side of the first single for everyone to listen, and a rare song called “Superbird“.

Lastly the 5th issue of the Perth-based fanzine Party Fears has an interview with the band! Head to page 20 after clicking this link.

Then I keep googling and googling. I believe Dan Tarrant’s latest band was called Small Motors. Before that he had been in Josephine Killen. Val Tarin had been in Love Pump and Los Locos. Craig Weighell was also in Love Pump.

And that’s it. Quite a lot actually. I wasn’t expecting to find out that there was another single that I want to listen. And that there are more recordings that were once on a CD compilation. It is time to track all of this down. But definitely if you remember them and have extra details let me know. Would love to hear the whole story of the band!

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Listen
The Waltons – My Husband Beats Me

Day 120.

More new music from around the web!

Kammahav: our friends Christian Gustafsson and Tony Jenkins are back with a new song called “Thirty 4”. It is a bit rockier than previous efforts but I still like it. Are they working on an album or something? We should just wait.

Airhockey: the Miami band will be releasing a tape EP called “Walkthrough” on the 17th. It will have 6 songs and we can preview one of them, the opener track called “Try” which is a dreamy song.

Populardays: the Filipino band did a quarantine session for Shiny Happy Records, now four of the songs from the session are up on Bandcamp as part of the label’s digital club. These are terrific dreampop songs, so don’t miss them out.

Chavales: another digital single by this Spanish duo. “Ernesto” is the name of the song and no, it is not a cover of the classic Los Nikis song of the same name. Maybe it feels like a sequel to that song? I can see that.

“What You’ve Missed So Far” The First Hundred Releases of Blackbean and Placenta: remember the American label Blackbean and Placenta? Well here is a 21 song compilation on the Japanese Galaxy Train label. It is really cool as it includes songs by many classic bands like Boyracer, Orange Cake Mix, The Shermans, Aikagi, The Mondo Crescendo and a favourite of mine, The Ninjas.

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Jämna Plågor, the even plagues, was formed by Justus Björk on drums, Sam Carlshamre on guitar, Matilda Kihlberg on vocals and synth, Markus Amalthea Magnuson on organ and vocals and Philip Wigselius on bass. This was back in the mid 2000s. Some names do sound familiar, no?

When I wrote many years ago about Your Place or Mine, a terrific Stockholm based band, I got in touch with Sam Carlshamre who pointed me to this other band he had been involved with (he also was involved with Corduroy Utd.). He was the only Your Place or Mine person I got in touch but he wasn’t one of the original members, so he wasn’t keen on answering my questions for an interview. Would have loved to interview Matilda Kihlberg who was the vocalist of the band. Here in Jämna Plågor she sings too. And I notice another name that is familiar to me, that of Markus Amalthea Magnusson. He was in another top band from the period, The Fermats. I was actually in touch with him when I included them in the first volume of The Sound of Starke Adolf series that didn’t become a series (at least not yet!).

So we have some names. But we also have a website the band put together which is still up with links to 6 songs. 6 songs that made up their “Kapitalstaden EP”. 6 songs that were mixed and mastered by Mattias Valenca, I don’t know if this was released in a physical format (I hope there was a CDR – and if there was I’d kill for a copy). But here we have downloads for them all. The songs in the “Kapitalstaden EP” were “Kalla Kriget”, “Berlinlåten”, “Ungdomslåten”, “Konst och Vanliga Saker”, “Plankaren” and “Intro”.  Even cooler, there is a lyric sheet and also guitar chords for each song in PDF format. So if you want to practice your Swedish, take advantage!

It seems the band also had a Myspace back then. That is useless now of course. And that is all it seems. But we can also mention that the song “Plankaren” is actually an adaptation of the French writer Boris Vian’s “Le Déserteur”.

Not much more about them. Don’t even know if they played live. The good thing is that they left this amazing 6 songs that I urge you to discover (or rediscover) as time has passed by they sound still fresh to my ears!

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Listen
Jämna Plågor – Berlinlåten

Day 118.

Something for those looking for old Cloudberry zines, it seems Horowitz, the fantastic Stoke-on-Trent band who did a few releases with us have a bunch of copies for the first 7 fanzines that have been long sold out! So run before they disappear https://horowitz.bandcamp.com/merch

More new music from around the web!

The Bunbury: this Indonesian band has become a favourite. Now what is odd though is their shoes in Bandcamp, in Zaragoza and Mexico. I wonder if Bandcamp is listing Enrique Bunbury’s gigs there? Could be. Heroes del Silencio, the band Enrique was in the 80s and 90s hailed from Zaragoza and they are big in Mexico, the places where the gigs are to happen. In any case the Indonesian band who may or may not have taken their name from him have a wonderful new song called “Track 4”.

Tough Age: who are this Toronto/Vancouver band? They sound amazing to me! They will be releasing an album on August 6 called “Which Way Am I?”. It is going to be released by Mint Records and it will be available both on vinyl and CD. It seems the band has many other previous releases, but this is the first time (I think?!) that I’m enjoying these shambolic songs!

Bdrmm: the Hull’s band album “Bedroom”, released on July 3rd, seems to be sold out already. Both CD and vinyl versions are sold out. This is quite incredible I must say. How many copies were made? I am curious. Who sells out so fast? This shoegaze band must have the answer!

Caucus: so happy to see our Japanese friends making music again! Now on the great Galaxy Train label they have released a four song EP titled “Exploration of the Moon” and it is wonderful! Among these songs there is even a cover of the classic hit “You and Me Song” by the Wannadies. So cool!

122 North: Danny Provencher is back with another amazing song, “Drive”! I feel this is a special song for sure! Wow. I am speechless. It is part of a four song EP called “Drive” which includes the song “Better Stranger” and two mixes/remixes of Drive, Highway mix and Love Dance remix

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Another band I discovered doing my research for the series of compilations featuring Australian indiepop from the late 80s and early 90s was The Goddards. Prior to 2019 I had never heard of them.

I was lucky with them. I was to find a Soundcloud page that included lotsof songs. Even the A side, “From You For Now”, that was included in their only release they put out back in 1989. Sadly not the B side, “In Your Hands”, which I still hope to listen sometime soon! Maybe I’ll get a copy of the record. That might be easier as it seems the Soundcloud hasn’t been updated for 8 years.

The band released their 7″ in 1989 as I said. It came out on the label Lunchbox Spider (JDJ 100). It does look as if this label was the band’s own as there are no other releases listed. The front of the sleeve has a very cool illustration of a city, airplanes, a highway and men in hats. This illustration was created by T. Edwards.  The back of the sleeve has a photo of the band members and credits.

So thanks to that we know the band was formed by John Fitzgerald on drums and vocals, James Vidler on guitars and vocals and Richard Vidler on guitars and vocals. We know that both songs were recorded at Trackdown Studios in Sydney and were engineered by Tim Ryan. The band produced both tracks with help from Tim Ryan. Also Natassia Broofkisser played all strings on “From You For Now”.

And that’s it. No other releases are listed for them, not even compilation appearances.

But thanks to Soundcloud we know the band hailed from Newcastle in Australia. And that they recorded more songs like: “Thread”, “In My Mind”, “Invisible Blue”, “Best Friend”, “Skin Fest”, “Natasia”, “Fade Away Pretty”, “The Push”, “That’s How I love”, “Sea Shed”, “Randy”, “No Time” and “Hurt”.

Then I found an article on the Newscastle Star dating from April 2, 2016. Here I learn more about James Vidler, the guitarist and vocalist. There was a documentary in 2008 called “Rock I Gave You the Best Years of My Life” were four Newscastle bands were featured. The Goddards was one of them.

Something I learn from the article is that the band was originally formed by James, the youngest of the Vidler brothers. Then it mentions another Vidler brother that didn’t appear on the record it seems, Bob Vidler, who was a bassist.

Their first gig was at the Lass O’Gowrie Hotel in January 1988. At some point Richard got into a business relationship with the Troy Horse studio. This would lead to the creation of the Troy Horse label.

It seems they were recording an EP but they broke before they released it. Maybe many of the songs on Soundcloud were intended for that EP? That would make sense. After the breakup James was in bands like Bloodloop Beautiful and The Donkey Brothers.

Interesting.

Found quite some info and most importantly a bunch of music by The Goddards! That’s great! Now I’d love to hear the story directly from the band members. Will that ever happen?!

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Listen
The Goddards – From You For Now

Day 116. It has been a lazy long weekend for me. So not much news, but here are some good finds from this past weekend.

Pop Filter: Australia keeps putting out terrific guitar pop bands. The latest one I’ve discovered is Pop Filter from Melbourne. They actually will be releasing an album on August 21st and will be titled “Banksia”. Three of the songs from the 11-track record are available to preview, “Big Yellow Van”, “Laughing Falling” and “Romance at the Petrol Station”.

The Radio Dept.: The superb Swedish band is back with a 7″! This record has “You’re Lookin’ at My Guy” on the A side and “Could You be the One” on the B side. Both songs are really good! The vinyl is limited to 500 copies and there are even t-shirts if you like that as well!

Blue Tomorrows: this Portland band has been recommended in the blog before, so we know a bit what they are about. The three girls behind the band craft breezy and poppy tunes and their last effort, “Violet Shine”, is no exception. A nice summery single.

Dreams of Empire: the Brighton band is also back with a new digital single. It is a cover of the song “Reflection” originally written and recorded by Intermere, the side project of Andrew from Dreams of Empire.

Rosehip Teahouse: another digital single, it seems that’s the trend these days… and it is also a very good single of course. This Cardiff project has just unveiled in their Bandcamp the song “Regretting It”. A nice lo-fi bedroom pop song.

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Recorded at Boberg Studios in Hamburg, in December 1984, the “Love in the Afternoon” mini-album was the only release the band put out. And then, German friends tell me if I am wrong, they disappeared into oblivion.

The mini-album was actually released in 1985, with no label. It was probably a self release as it had that famous “SRT” as a label and catalog “SRT5KL406”. It included 7 songs, four on the A side: “Letting Go”, “Stand Back”, “Love in the Afternoon” and “Persuasion”, and three on the B side, “The Other Side of Midnight”, “The Feeling is Love” and “Rio Verde”.

The band was a duo, formed by Herbert Behrens on keyboards and Andrew Clark on vocals. Was it a German-British duo perhaps? I ask because of their names. Or American? The sleeve doesn’t give us any other details. The front cover has a photo of a woman (who is she?), and on the back a photo of the band.

Looking for more information, after really liking their track “Persuasion”, I find that Herbert Behrens, also called HerbieB, was born in Hamburg and actually started his music career as a drummer. Then he would move to the UK and there he toured and recorded with his band Java Jive. Does this mean there are other recordings by the band? Recordings made in the UK and not in Germany as the album?

He studied at the University of Buckingham and after finishing returned to Germany. Afterwards he would move to Mallorca in Spain where he would launch his solo career as HerbieB recording at least one demo CD I believe sometime around 2004.

And what about Andrew Clark? I couldn’t find any information about him. It looks like at some point they just disappeared from the face of the Earth. The record, I haven’t found a copy for myself yet. I think only 1,000 copies were pressed.

But did they play live a lot? It is mentioned they toured the UK. Who did they support? Or maybe who supported them? Would be good to find out. Who remembers them?!

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Listen
Java Jive – Love in the Afternoon

Day 113. How many more days of stay-at-home? We are considering going away for a month or so. A deserved sort of vacation. I know this may not be ideal for the label, as we won’t be able to send any orders for that time, but I feel a little break would be ok. I’ll keep you all updated. In the meantime, here are some good finds:

Sloppy Joe: our friend Hitoshi Oka is back with “Waiting for the Night Begins” a delightful jangle pop album with 11 tracks. At the moment you can check out 5 of them of this record that is available on vinyl and CD. The CD version also includes a CDR with four songs, two acoustic and two covers!

Münchhausen: this is quite a discovery. I have been a bit dismissive with bands from Colombia as it is very rare to find good indiepop coming from there. Well, now I have to accept that Münchhausen’s latest song, “Here Again”, is a true beauty! The Bogotá based combo has put together a fine post-punk/indiepop track which I am sure everyone will enjoy!

Mashmellow: the Russian duo formed by Masha and Egor is back with a wonderful new EP titled “Someday Club”. The track “Melt” is lovely, my favourite out of the 5 in this record, though it is hard to pick!

The Muldoons: the great Scottish band is going to be back very soon with an album titled “Made for Each Other”. It is really promising and will be out on vinyl by the Last Night label from Glasgow. In the meantime I urge you to head to Soundcloud and check the wonderful song “In Love Again”, a little taster of the album!

Sweetie Darling: lastly coming from Imperial, California, is this three-piece combo formed by Camden Aguilera, April Urrutia and Megan Moreno. They have an EP titled “Love/Lies” of lo-fi ramshackle pop that is very enjoyable!

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I am going through my extensive list of bands I would have wanted to include in my Australian indiepop compilations that never happened. Why? Well let’s say bands weren’t that keen to help, they weren’t that interested. The same thing that happened with the second volume of the Starke Adolf series. If bands don’t provide songs, bios or photos, really, there’s not much one can do. I tried. And will probably try again in the future.

Okay, so yes, I am going through this list because there are many bands I discovered while doing my research on who to include. A lot of them were tricky as I knew they were pop bands but couldn’t find any of their songs online. Mind you, I am not rich to buy all of the records I want. So no, I had the names but didn’t know how they sounded, if they were fit to be included. One of the bands I did find some music from was The Snorkels. And I thought immediately that they had to be part of my project!

The band released just one single as far as I know. I know very little of course. Writing this post might help me learn more. This 7″ single came out on Method Records (MR8) in 1983 and included “When I Say Go” on the A side and “95 Miles from Sydney” on the B side.

Method Records is an interesting label. I actually found out about The Snorkels by exploring their catalog. You see this label had released Skolars and Love Minus Zero among others. They are still going mind you.

On Discogs someone has commented that each copy of the 7″ was hand coloured. We also know that both songs were recorded at Silverwood Studios in Sydney, and that the B side, “95 Miles from Sydney” was composed and sung by the band’s bassist Jon Yuncken.

Then on the Sideroom blog Bruce mentions that The Snorkels might have included Fabian Byrne from the Fast Cars and the person behind Method Records. That explains a lot, doesn’t it?!

I found another blog, Wallaby Beat, that mentions that Doug Lees the drummer of the band Progression Cult would be part of The Snorkels. All is making sense now.

We have three names now. But that’s not all. Their song “When I Say Go” was also included on the compilation “Sound of Sydney – Volume 2” that was released by Method Records in 1984 (L 38263).

And that’s it. Not much more written about them on the web. No other information. Maybe it was a short-lived band. Maybe they only recorded a few songs? Maybe not many gigs? Who’d know. I definitely would like to know more about them

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Listen
The Snorkels – When I Say Go

Day 111. How is everyone? Not much news today, but as always I bring some great music!

Accent: remember I interviewed the band some time ago? It turns out the band has just released a CD album on the Portuguese label Different Class Records. This album is called “Live Kings Head Fulham 1984” and as you can guess it is a live album. It has 14 songs, 13 for the first time on CD.

Startropics: I really like the Chicago band a lot! They have a few new songs from their Stay Home Sessions which were filmed for DKFM’s DreamGaze Worldwide III this month. There is “Running Scared” and “The Test of Time“. It is hard to pick which one I like better. Maybe the latter? Maybe the first? Both are very good!

Parks, Squares and Alleys: this Russian band is totally unknown to me but has a terrific new song called “Друг (Friend) “. The song seems to feature another artist by the name САММЕР КОМА. I don’t even know if it is a proper band, it might also be a one-man project by Sergey Khavro. In any case this song is great!

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: Glenn Donaldson’s band has a new song on Bandcamp and it is a cover of the Monkees 2016 tune “Me & Magdalena” It is really nice. On top of that he updates us that he has recorded a 12″ EP for Tough Love in the UK and an album for Slumberland. Can’t wait for both of them!

Sweet Season: lastly this amazing discovery coming from Phoenix, Arizona. This three-piece formed by Monte Ewert, Mella Barnes and Dan Radel have just released their first two songs on Bandcamp. They are “Blue Girl” and “Never Been Before” and I am sure everyone that reads this blog will enjoy them! Jangly, bright, lush songs. Thumbs up!

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Back in 1978 in the Isle of Wight a band called Flirt was formed. They played original sons but also covers of bands like Blondie, The Pretenders, The Ramones and other punk and new wave bands. The people behind this band were Nigel Hayles on guitar, Debbie Barker on lead vocals, Eric Biggs on bass and Chris Lines on drums.

Then in 1979 they were to change their name to Cassie. Under this name the band signed a deal with the Portsmouth based label Video Records and a publishing deal with Wessex Music. Also Chris Lines, the original drummer, was replaced by Hugh Lewis.

With the new lineup the band would go to Porstmouth and record two songs, “No More Rock N’ Roll” and “Keep in Touch” at Telecomms Studios. Sadly these two songs were never pressed on vinyl as the label had financial trouble and folded.

That must have been a terrible thing for the band but they continued. In 1980 they entered Tim Marshall’s studio in the Isle of Wight to record demos for Wilf Pine who used to be Black Sabbath’s manager (!). The songs they recorded then were “Change of Image”, “She’s a Flirt” and “Model in a Magazine”. But still even though these were great songs, Wilf was unable to get them a record deal.

In 1982 the band would release a 7″ on A.K.A. Records (AKS 101). It may have been a self-release, I can’t say, but I would guess so. It included two songs, “Change My Image” on the A side and “Will You?” on the B side. I don’t own this record, but would love to of course. It may also have been a 7″ the band would send to labels, to make them known, as it doesn’t look as they invested in a sleeve for it. What we do know from this record, is that “Change My Image” was written by Debbie Barker while “Will You?” was written by Chris Line. Both were produced by Wilf Pine.

The band would continue playing live and trying to get a deal. They would get a six month residency at the Royal Sandrock Inn in Nilton. Then the band would break up and then reform in 1984 to write new songs for the Feet on the Street Project. It is at this time then that at The Rod Gammons Sound Studio in Brightstone they would record the songs “Hold Me”, “Driven by the Tide” and “The Light Shines On”. This songs would catch the attention of Dakota Records but nothing ended up released. Then in 1985 the band split.

Then I found a great find, all their recorded output is available on the Isle of Wight Music website! Wow! They could put it together as an album. I don’t think they are in chronological order but 12 songs are available in MP3 format to download and listen: “No More Rock N Roll”, “Change of Image”, “Find a Way”, “Falling”, “Boys will be Boys”, “Dimensions”, “She’s a Flirt”, “Hold Me”, “Driven by the Tide”, “The Light Shines On”, “Keep in Touch” and “Model in a Magazine”.  Some of these are not mentioned in their bio on this website, so I wonder when where they recorded, if in different demo sessions, or what?

And even better, this last find on the web. The 7″ has been reissued by Reminder Records (REM-01) this year. It includes both songs from the original record. It is available on their website! So don’t miss it!

So yeah, I know very little, but I find their songs fun and catchy. I’d definitely like to know more about this female-fronted band from the early 80s!

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Listen
Cassie – Change of Image

Day 109! Not much news from the past weekend, but some good finds worth recommending. In the meantime I work in findnig the right art for the sleeve of our next 7″ and wait patiently for the Macguffins release to come out from the pressing plant.

The Bunbury: the Indonesian label Shiny Happy Records have more new releases. The latest is a digital single called “Evil Knievel” by this somewhat newish band from Yogyakarta. Jangle pop, shoegaze, post punk, all mixed here in a very good way. Can’t wait to hear more by them!

The Crystal Furs: Subjangle Records are releasing on CD the “Beautiful and True” album by the great Portland, Oregon, band The Crystal Furs. I have recommended this band quite a lot and it is no surprise that they found a fine home for the 12 songs that make up their third album! If you like great popsongs, with hooks and sweet melodies, you should get this album that will be out on July.

Various Artists – Moments: this is the name of the new compilation tape released by the very fine Osaka label Miles Aparts Records. This compilation has songs by great bands as Pale Beach, Pictured Resort, Superfriends and a favourite of mine for years, Mariana in Our Heads. Sadly the label is not shipping to US so… bad luck for me. Maybe you are lucky.

Morningwhim: wow! This Japanese band sounds amazing. I wouldn’t seeing them in a label that starts with a C and ends with a Y. Hidetoshi Murai, Hikaru Mori, Yui Nishio and Aya Katsumata have just released a tape single with two songs “Talking to Myself” and “Smoke from Cigarettes”. Both are bright, luminous, songs!

Cindy: what an amazing release is the album “Free Advice” on San Francisco’s Paisley Shirt Records. Sadly for me it is on tape which I will skip. But I strongly believe this is a very beautiful album and I hope if it is not the same label, someone else will re-release it in a better format (better for me that is, don’t take it personal!). 11 songs of smart arrangements, of great melodies, somehow reminding me of Aussie bands from the mid 90s.

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The Rainpals. I have actually meant to write about them many years ago. And then for some reason or another I never did. I don’t know why. Maybe because there were so many songs by them on Youtube? Perhaps because I thought I was going to be able to get a hold of their self-released retrospective CD and then, after knowing more details about them, write a post? I don’t know honestly. But as they say is better late than never.

The Rainpals. They released one 7″ as far as I know. It didn’t have a picture sleeeve which of course is a shame. It was self-released on their own Rainpal Records (JPL 1001). This is the only record listed for this label. The date was September 10, 1987, and it included two songs. The A side was “A New Day” while the B side was “Cool Forever”.  Both songs were produced at Cava Studios in Glasgow.

Does this mean the band hailed from somewhere in Scotland? Let’s find out. We do have a name, Kev Kirkham, who produced and wrote the songs.  He was in another band too called Kev & the Raindrops. But The Rainpals was a proper band, a three-piece. There was Kev Kirkham, Bilbo Fraser and Paul O’Donnell. Not sure what each of them played.

The interesting part of the story, I think, is that around the mid and late 00s, Kev put together some CDs under the name Kev & The Rainpals on his own RPR Records. I am not 100% sure if these are retrospective CDs or re-recordings of songs from the 80s. Or maybe it is a mix of new and old songs. Who’d know. The fact is that at least 2 CDs with a bunch of songs exist.

One is “Far Distant Silver Clouds” released in 2008 (RPR 5545). This one had a whopping 20 songs: “Castles in the Air”, “Romantic Story”, “Dream You Away”, “Far Distant Silver Clouds”, “Faces at the Windows”, “The Incline”, “Flying Phoenix”, “Why?”, “Shiny & Black”, “Forever”, “You’ve Flown”, “Fall into My Mind”, “Girl in the Sky”, “Feel the Wind”, “Circle Dream”, “Fog”, “Midnight March”, “Who are You?”, “Rainy Day” and “Reflexions”.

The second CD doesn’t have a release date but I believe it came out later because of the catalog number (RPR 7747). This one is called “A Superstorm at High Velocity” and also included 20 songs, some of them that were included in the previous CD: “High Vel’ocity”, “Superstorm”, “The Incline”, “Far Distant Silver Clouds”, “A New Day”, “Welcome”, “Heat of the Day’, “You’ve Flown”, “Forever”, “Don’t Let it Get to You”, “Climb the Wall”, “Fall in to my Mind”, “Girl in the Sky”, “Space Travellers”, “Outerspace”, “Astro Galactica’, “Universal Rhythm & Rhyme”, “Dream You Away”, “Christmas Day” and “Dream You Away”. Yeah, odd, two times we see “Dream You Away”. Why?

I mentioned I found lots of these songs on Youtube. Of course. The channel is called The Rainpals RPRRecords. We find here the following songs: “Rainy Day“, “The Incline“, “Castles in the Air“, “Climb. the Wall“, “The Wind“, “Welcome“, “Gold Circle of Dreams Medley“, “Reflexions Medley“, “Fall into my Mind“, “Why War of the Worlds“, “Astro Galactica“, “Rhythm & Rhyme“, “Flying“, “Shiny & Black“, “Feel the Wind“, “Far Distant Silver Clouds“, “Circle Dream“, “You’ve Flown Today“, “Outerspace“, “The Day“, “Heat of the Day“, “You’ve Flown“, “Faces at the Window“, “Rainwalk“, “A New Day“, “Cool Forever“, “A New Day“, “New Day“, “At the Window“, “Superstorm Inst“, “Christmas Day‘, “A New Day ext“, “High Velocity“, “Why War of the Worlds“, “Tide of Dimensions“, “Fog“, “Velocity“, “Universal Rhythm & Rhyme“, “Those Days“, “Romantic Story“, “Dream You Away voc“, “Space Travellers“, “Midnight March“, “Castles“, “Astro“, “Bell City Lights“, “Who Are You“, “Fall into my Mind“, “Circle Dream“, “Astro Galactica“, “Rhythm & Rhyme“, “Outerspace“, “Don’t Let it Get to You“, “Romantic Story inst“, “Dream You Away inst.“, “Travellers“, “Superstorm voc.”, “Superstorm video voc“, “A New Day ext“, “Travellers“, “Welcome“, “Gold Circle of Dreams“, “The Wind“, “Astro Galactica“, “Outerspace“, “Far Distant Silver Clouds“, “Forever“, “Time“, “Astro Tide Dream medley“, “Superstorm video voc“, “Reflexions medley“, “Superstorm voc“, “Girl in the Sky“, “Forever & Forever“, “Forever & Forever CD version“. Yes I know a lot of them repeat. I am not sure why this is. I haven’t included others that were also repeated. I wonder what was the idea behind these uploads. In any case there’s lots of great music to listen.

Then another finding, according to Allmusic there was two more CDs. “The Rainpals” was just a 4 song EP with “Rainy Day”, “The Day”, “Rainwalk” and “Bell City Lights” while “Gold Circle of Dreams” had also 20 songs! “Travellers”, “Forever & Forever”, “At the Window”, “Castles”, “Climb the Wall”, “Romantic Story”, “Rhythm & Rhyme”, “Superstorm Voc”, “Those Days’, “Astro Galactica”, “Rhythm & Rhyme, “Astro”, “Fell into my Mind”, “A New Day”, “Welcome”, “Gold Circle of Dreams”, “The Wind”, “Tide of Dimensions”, “Superstorm” and “Tide of Dimensions”.

All of these songs seem to be in most of the digital platforms. The curious thing is that I kind find any biography for the band. No details. I only found a small blurb in CD Universe where it says that the band have toured Britain consistently around 2004-2008. That they recorded and gigged in London (had they relocated from Scotland then?) and that they have been featured on TC and radio all over the world. It also looks like that on the CDs it was just Kevin Kirkham playing nearly all instruments. So I would guess then that the songs on Youtube are new recordings? Not  from the 80s?

So yeah. This time around it seems it will be lots of music but very little details. Hope some of you can help!

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Listen
The Rainpals – A New Day