Day 83.

As always the indiepopworld keeps providing us with music. Good music.

Victorian Tin: the fantastic Swedish band formed by Erik Bergqvist and Christian Gustafsson have a new song up on their Bandcamp. It is actually a song they had written back in 1998 and now they have partly re-recorded. It is great to see them back in top form!

Hater: I would have seen them supporting The Radio Dept. last April if things would have been normal. Oh well. Tough luck. Maybe next year. The Swedish band has put together a new video with footage taken from the Prelinger Archives. The songs is called “Sift” and it is quite nice.

Slowly: this German shoegaze band is to release an album called “Reveal” on the 12th. The special version of the release on 12″ vinyl is now sold out, but the standard is still available. There are 10 finely crafted songs in the vein of Slowdive or the Daysleepers.

Teen Idle: from Asbury Park, in New Jersey, comes this band formed by Sara Barry, Max Connery and Danny Murray. They have just released a digital single called “In the Morning”  which doesn’t seem to be available physically. Maybe it will be included later in an album or something.

Sleuth: and the best release in this review is the 7-song album “Gold” by the Vancouver band Sleuth. By far. The album is available in tape on Lost Sound Tapes and on CD on Jigsaw Records. It has been a while since we heard from these jangle wizards and so I am very happy to see my friends Jasper and Julian back in top shape!

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I return to Japan, to that country that keeps providing me new obscure bands and songs. Maybe they are not that obscure, but for me the Japanese scene of the 90s is a treasure box that I am not that familiar. And so, I am lucky to keep finding gems there!

I discovered Candy Eyes through their song “Red Bike” that was included in the CD compilation “Television Personalities From Japan, Too” that A Trumpet Trumpet Records (TT006) released in 1992. I have actually written about this comp before, when I wrote about another band that appeared on it, The Spotnick Candy.

But happily that is not everything they put out. There was more. 1993 being their most prolific year.

They would contribute the songs “いつも恋してるなんて嘘” and “Blue Shirts Afternoon” to another Japanese compilation, “Let’s Muc Out On Sound”. This one was released on tape, limited to 100 copies, by Loose Sound (LSCT-001). The question is then, was this their own label perhaps? I ask because this same label would release “Me Japanese Boy” (LSCT-002), a 12 song album on cassette by Candy Eyes.

Also limited to 100 copies, the A side had “Winter, Windy, Wednesday”, “Red Bike (It’s as My Best Friend)”, ” 海沿いのポストまで”, “Siesta”, “The Boutique Monster” and “Perfect Sunday Pt. 1” while the B side had “Blue Shirts Afternoon”, “Summer Dazzling Light”, “Motorcycle Teenage”, “Water Down Orange Juice”, “Sonic-Bang Ladybird” and “Perfect Sunday Pt. 2”. I haven’t heard any of them, so if anyone can help I’d be very very grateful!

Then Discogs lists some demo tapes I believe called “Candy Eyes Cassette”. They have three volumes. Number 3, 4 and 5. Were there more? Was there a 1 and 2? I would like to find out. In any case we know volume 3 had “Winter, Windy Wednesday” and “Summer Dazzling Light”, volume 4 had “Blue Shirts Afternoon (Japanese Ver.)” and “Perfect Sunday”, and volume 5 had “Red Bike (It’s as My Best Friend)” and “The Boutique Monster”.

The very fine Behavior Saviour label would include them, in 1994, on the CD comp “Come All Ye Faithful” (BS011). The band would contribute the song “Winter, Windy, Wednesday”. And then, many years later, in 2007, the band would have their song “Television’s Speed (Home demo ’95)” on the TKO New Music Corporation compilation “Boys (& Girls) Wonder Shibuya-K-Indie-Pop Collection Vol. 2” (TKOK 0002).

I do have a little more info. I know the band was formed by Dai Ogasawara on vocals and guitar, Norihide Takano on bass, Sachico Kimura on keyboards and Nobuo Osawa on drums.

Thanks to this info I was able to find a Soundcloud by Dai Ogasawara where he has a bunch of Candy Eyes tracks as well as from his other project Twangy Twangy,  But that’s not all, Dai has continued to be involved in indiepop as he has been running the very fine netlabel Ano(t)racks!

And then something cool, an interview with Dai on the Japan Times from 2012. Here he tells a bit about his work on the netlabel though not much about his involvement in Candy Eyes.

These are some good finds indeed! Now I would love to get in touch with Dai and the rest of the members of Candy Eyes. Would be great to interview them and find out more about them, about those early 90s in Japan too. And especially I’d love to hear that cassette album they released back in the day! What I have heard by them so far is brilliant!

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Listen
Candy Eyes – Red Bike

Day 81. Another week and getting closer to the 3 month mark of staying/working at home. No traveling. I miss going places so much.

Music is indeed one of the few things I enjoy the same way as always. So it is thrilling still to write this blog, to find new music, to share with everyone. So here we are again.

Slow Connection: I was looking for a Bandcamp or a Soundcloud for this Barcelona band but couldn’t find it. I only know of this song, “Mi Primavera”, which is on Youtube. It is not even a proper video but one using old footage and showing the song’s lyrics. The song is very nice though so it is totally worth sharing it!

Night Heron: the Boston band are releasing a CD album on the Subjangle label. It is actually an 18 song compilation of 13 older songs and also 5 new tracks, The album is out now and I highly recommend it. Very nice guitars and melodies.

Cathedral Bells: Cassadaga, Florida. Don’t know where that is. I lived in Miami for many years, so I am bit familiar with Florida. But Cassadaga, never heard of it. It seems it is between Orlando and Daytona Beach. Suburbia? Perhaps. Matthew Messore hails from there and he is the driving force behind this dreampop band that has just released a new excellent digital single called “Undertow”.

Laveda: the Albany, New York, band is back now finally with their album “What Happens After”. I have recommended the band a few times in the past months so it is great to see they are now releasing a 10 song album titled “What Happens After”. It is out now only for US fans in 12″ vinyl.

Night Hikes: I have championed this Seattle band in the past and so I want to do it again. They have a new song called “Raven” which is a bit different to previous favourites of mine like “Belltown” or “Avila”. This one is a bit darker and moodier but nonetheless very good!

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Another request came, this time from a US reader. He was asking about the legendary band James Dean Driving Experience. He told me that there is very little about them on the web. I find that hard to believe. Not that I have looked much about them in the past. I love their songs, but never really investigated their story. So now is a good time, right?

The London based band released four records during their existence in the late 80s. The first one being a single sided flexi, self-released (catalog JDDE-1), with Audrey Hepburn on the sleeve (she is credited as the “first screen goddess”). Two songs were going to be on this 1987 release, “World Weary & Wise” and “Oh, Grateful”. These two songs were recorded in AAA Studios in Islington and had Nick Gibbons on bass and drums, Philip Powell on bass and drums as well as designing the sleeve, and David Hopkins on guitar and Ian Gregg on acoustic guitar and vocals. Eric Pavlyak on piano and as the engineer for the recordings, Another thing we find on the sleeve is an address in Hanworth, Middlesex. Is that were the band was from?

Then in 1988 the band would release “Dean’s Eleventh Dream”. This was a 7″ on the Autumn Glow label (AUT 001). Was it their own label? Or who was behind it? Here there were three songs, “Dean’s Eleventh Dream” on the A side and “Tale of an Old Flame” and “Song to a Stranger” on the B side. The songs were again recorded at AAA Studios with the same lineup. Eric Pavlyak was once again the engineer. Philip did the sleeve and Vicky Richardson played violin. Vicky who would play violin on the McCarthy album “The Enraged Will Inherit the Earth” as well as being vocalist for the band Corduroy. Speaking of the sleeve, now the third screen goddess was Claudia Cardinale. Okay, so who was the 2nd? I need to find out. Was there a release in between?

One thing that I see is that some of the 7″s came with some promo inserts. There is one with some tour dates. Thanks to that we know the band played on August 19, 1988, at the Windsor Arts Centre, on the 20th at the White Horse in Belsize Park with Benny Profane and at the Camden Falcon on the 25th alongside This Poison! These were all London gigs. Then on August the 12 they played in Northfleet, Kent, at the Red Lion with The Corn Dollies, and a day later at the Medway Arts Centre in Chatham, Kent, with McCarthy and Thrilled Skinny.

That same year, 1988, they would contribute the song “Drop Dead Darling” to the classic compilation tape “Something’s Burning in Paradise” released by Subtle (001).

In 1989 they would release their first 12″, “Clearlake Revisited” (PLASS 013). This one came out on Plastic Head Records Limited which was a label based in Oxon. They have an extensive catalog but I must say I don’t think I am familiar with the bands. Are there any other indiepop bands here? Now the sleeve will feature Rita Hayworth as their fourth screen goddess.

The songs on this 12″ were “Clearlake Revisited” and “Oh, Grateful” on the A side and “Drop Dead Darling” and “Ballad of Bedford Town” on the AA side. Now we see that Vicky Richardson has joined the band according to credits. Also now Arthur Watts is the drummer instead of Philip Powell. The songs were recorded at The Glass Trap in Southall in May 1989 and were produced by the band and Graeme Tollitt. Graeme was also the engineer.

The song “Ballad of Bedford Town” would be included in 1989 on the tape “My Favourite Sunday Vol.1” (RODDY 004) released by the great Boshi label run by our friend Akiko.

Lastly in 1990 the band would sign to the famous Él Records and release the legendary “Sean Connery” 12″ (GPO 45T). The A side would feature “Sean Connery” and “Never Means Everything” while the B side had “Hicksville U.S.A.” and “World Weary and Wise”. Now the band would record at the well known Alaska Studios. I believe this is the moment in time that Cherry Red gets their rights (correct me if I am wrong) so seeing a retrospective compilation of their music would only happen if Cherry Red decides too. I really hope it happens someday. We need all of their songs together with nice liner notes. At least that’s a dream I have.

The produced for this album was Johnny Milton and he also did as engineer with assistant engineer Marcelo Zambelli. The sleeve now features their fifth screen goddess, Gina Lollobrigida.

So cool right? That aesthetic of always having one of their cinema heroes on the sleeve. They always kept that style, it was their trademark. That and their jangly and perfect songs. It is no surprise then that this year Optic Nerve Recordings reissued the 12″ as a 7″ (ON211) with the same tracklist.

There are two other compilation appearances. The first dates from 1993, it was on a CD compilation called “Bellissimo! Él Singles Part Two” released by Richmond Records (MONDE 12) where their song “Sean Connery” appears and the second one is the boxset “C90” (CDTRED802) that was released this year, 2020, by Cherry Red. Again they include “Sean Connery”.

Discogs has a few more details worth checking. Arthur Watts was originally from Gloucester and also played drums for The Assassins. Philip Powell on the other hand was part of the fantastic The Ruth Ellis Swing Band (who definitely deserve a post in this blog sometime).

Another thing we can’t miss is that there was a video made for their song “Clearlake Revisited“.

On the web I found that there was a fanzine called “Spasm: No: 1”, the one that came with the Cumbersome and Candie Maids flexi (both bands featured on the blog in the past) which had something written about James Dean Driving Experience. What? an article? an interview? I can’t tell. Maybe someone can help with that!

Another interesting bit of trivia was that Ian was working for Sainsburys around 2008 according to the Anorak Forum.

I also may have found what could have been their 2nd release. A tape called “Lonely Hearts XI versus the Rest of the World”. It appears listed on Twee.net and dates from January 1988. Maybe this is the one that had their second screen goddess? I saw what looks like a James Dean Driving Experience cassette on the web. It had, I think, Brigitte Bardot on the sleeve. Might this be the one that I am missing in this recount? And what songs were on this tape? I believe three, “Dean’s Eleventh Dream”, “Lonely Hearts XI Versus the Rest of the World” and “Drop Dead Darling”.

And honestly that’s really it. There’s nothing else about them on the web, no details, no nothing. The C90 compilation, in the liner notes, adds a few more details. One that Ian Gregg was once a guitarist for the great band Reserve. And that he returned at some point, after the band split, to his hometown of Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. Yeah. That’s all.

Of course I want to know why weren’t there more releases. An album. Or more songs? Are there more? Demos perhaps? There are a few bands who can say that they released a string of perfect singles. JDDE is one of them. They deserve more love. A compilation is needed.

Who remembers them?

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Listen
James Dean Driving Experience – Sean Connery

Day 78. Friday.

The Airfields:  Well, I always dreamed of releasing these (some) of the songs that are part of the “Home is Always an Imaginary Place EP” on Bandcamp. I loved The Airfields and was lucky to release a 3″ back in the day. Their music was precious. Amazing really.  So here you’ll find two original songs and two covers (The Field Mice, My Bloody Valentine). Great to hear from the Toronto combo again.

Names for Pebbles: Another blast from the past on Bandcamp is this retrospective compilation by the New Haven, Connecticut, band. The bedroom pop project of Joey Maddalena released songs between 1993 and 1998 including 7″s on Motorway and Black Bean and Placenta. Here they are all (I hope). So definitely give it a check. I would love to interview them now that there is an easy way to contact them. So I’ll try that.

Herlights: this cool Russian project is back with a new digital single titled “Stockholm Syndrome”. Chiming guitars, elegant melodies, and very fuzzy, sort of hidden, vocals, make this a wonderful song.

Free Ice Cream: Rose Melberg fans from Atlanta Free Ice Cream have recorded a self-titled album and it is a lot of fun. There are 11 songs that pack DIY attitude, quirky lyrics, twee melodies and girl/boy vocals. Some songs are better than others, and some are hits in their own right like “Holland 1986”.

ユワ: this dreampop bedroom Japanese musician from Saitama is quite an interesting discovery. Especially the last song he has published titled “エンプティ・エイプリル” is quite good!

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I was remembering some cool bands from the time I started Cloudberry. Bands that I got in touch with and for a reason or another we never worked together. One that came to mind were The Bumblebees from Bristol.

At some point I think they were playing many of the cool indiepop gigs in London, Bristol, and probably other cities. I remember seeing them in posters and flyers alongside many bands that liked and many bands I would end up being friends with. But I wonder how I discovered them? Maybe because the fine Big Pink Cake club night invited them to their gigs in Bristol? Matthew had very good taste, so that could have been possible.

The Bumblebees wouldn’t be exactly classic jangly indiepop. They were the fun kind, with a punkish attitude. A bit of Tullycraft playfulness thrown in there. But I liked them. Though I don’t think I was ever lucky to see them play live.

As far as I know they only released one CDR. It is not even listed on Discogs, but I could find it on Bandcamp. It was self-titled and included four songs. Surprisingly you can still order a copy of it! Wow. Though it does look like a re-release of the original 2008 CDR. This new re-release was put out by a local label called Local Kid and features new art in 2010. How did the first version of this release look like? Who remembers?

The EP comes with four songs, “My Kaleidoscope”, “Fluffy Clouds of Joy”, “Internal World” and “Cool Science”.

The band was formed by Rosalind Glennie on vocals and keyboards, Ellis Jones on vocals and guitar and Daniel Howard on vocals and drums. The band started as such in November of 2007. Question then, had they been in other bands previously? A small bio on last.fm tells us that the band was actually working on a debut album that was to be released by Local Kid too. What happened to that?

The band also had a Myspace. That was how I contacted them most probably. There I find that the band had at least another song called “The Way”.

The only other place I found information was on a Twitter they used to run (last post dates from 2013). Here I found a bunch of notices of gigs mostly, at places like The Cube Cinema (Bristol), Fuel (Manchester), Wheatsheaf (Oxford), Buffalo Bar (London) and more. More importantly they played 2011 Indietracks.

And so Indietracks interviewed them that year. Thanks to that we know that the three members must have moved from Bristol as they say at that time, 2011, they were in Bristol, Oxford and Staines. And then something… it mentions that the band canceled their gig at Indietracks that year and were replaced by the Sock Puppets. What happened?!

It seems they disappeared. Were they involved in other bands afterwards? Did they finish recording that album? Are there at least any more songs recorded? Who would know? Maybe some Bristol indiepop fans? I look forward to hearing what happened to The Bumblebees!

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Listen
The Bumblebees – My Kaleidoscope

Day 76.

Not much news on this front. Here are some good finds:

The Ashenden Papers: Jason Dezember, Marie Davenport and Ella Cross are The Ashenden Papers from Alameda, California. And what’s great is that they have a mini-album out on Secret Center Records called “Asphodel Meadows”. It is available now on vinyl and it comes with 7 fine indiepop songs!

Prepare My Glider: I know this band is from Canada, but no clue where in Canada. Their latest release is a two song digital single which is available to listen on Bandcamp. The songs are “Smokesong” and “No Early Warning – demo”. How do they sound? This three-piece make some fine dreampop in the vein of Slowdive or My Bloody Valentine.

Pizza Daddy: first time I’m listening to this superb sounding sound from London. Their latest track is called “Too Many Boyfriends” which was just put up on Bandcamp. Previously they had released the song “Family Time” which is really nice too. I have a bit of hard time with the band name, that’s my only complain.

Shiny Happy Fanzine 04 – Please Rain Fall Companion: the Indonesian label has released a new fanzine and to accompany it they have made a compilation including 19 top indiepop songs by the likes of Tullycraft, Marc Elston, Fernando Torres, The Suncharms, Den Baron and more. For me the best release this week!

The Umbrella Puzzles: three new recordings by the great Ryan Marquez (Apple Orchard, Golden Teardrops). This is very very good and I think everyone should have a listen. The songs here are a cover of Luna’s “Anesthesia”, “Fountain Morning (Quarantine session)” which was recorded for Our Secret World sessions organized by Shiny Happy Records a few days ago and “Somersaulting (demo version)” that dates from last year.

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Here’s a US band I have never heard before. I believe US jangly bands from the 80s are still quite obscure. I think starting in the 90s they become much more well-known in indiepop circles. But before that only a handful are well known and the rest continue being obscure. And that I believe is the case of The Need, a band that released a full-length album in 1985 and nothing else. They just disappeared it seems. Or not? Let’s find out.

The album was called “Obviously Four Believers”. It makes sense to call the album like that, the band was a four-piece formed by George Edmonson on bass, Brad Holtzman on drums, Rajesh Makwana on guitar and Bill See on vocals. This album, as I said, was released in 1985 on the label 221B Records (no catalog number). It doesn’t surprise me that this is the only release listed for this label. Everything indicates that this was a self-release.

11 songs were on the record, 5 on the A side and 6 on the B side. The A side had the following tracks, “Stranger”, “(Time) for the Breakout”, “Last Time I Saw Her”, “Like the City” and “Reach You”. The B side had “Tell Me”, “Clandestine Shield”, “When the Winter Comes”, “House of Cards”, “I Will” and “Wishing Well”.

All of the songs were recorded at Radio Tokyo in Los Angeles by Ethan James but two, “House of Cards” and “Wishing Well” which were engineered at Sound Advice by Matt Wright. The producer was Ron Jolly. An interesting credit on the back of the sleeve is that of Mary Susan Herczog who was their manager (den mother and avatar).

And then an interesting find, it seems that at some point the band changed names to be called Divine Weeks. As Divine Weeks they would release three albums and two EPs mostly in the early 90s (their last album though dates from 2018!). The story says that the band hailed from LA and that they were childhood friends. They formed in 1983 and practiced at George Edmondson’s basement. Holtzman wasn’t part of the gang yet, but would meet George at UCLA and join the other three friends. They called themselves The Need. Then they would release the album, mostly a collection of demos, on 221B Records as I mentioned earlier. It was in 1987, when Holtzman left the band that they would change names to Divine Weeks and get a much more important career, even with national tours.

The best article about them is on the very fine Wilfully Obscure blog. It mostly talks about Divine Weeks but does give us some idea of what to expect throughout the album. Jangly psych-pop.

Some other interesting facts I found on the web is that George Edmonson is now a Professor of Medieval Studies at Dartmouth! So cool!

And that’s it. Not much more info about this band. Probably there’s much more written about Divine Weeks, but maybe I’ll have a listen to them next.  Any other information regarding The Needs would be great!

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Listen
The Need – Last Time I Saw Her

Day 74. No news today. Quiet. It was a long weekend here, but couldn’t take advantage of it. Before the virus I was planning to go to Boston this weekend. But nah, I stayed put. Videogames, reading, answering emails, writing this post, writing a few interviews for the blog. I spent my time doing that. What about you all?

Here are some good finds from this past weekend.

Las Margaritas: last post I shared a video of Las Margaritas, the band that has Mai from My Light Shines From You. Now I found an amazing EP called “Invierno” that packs all the sweetness and twee in 6 songs. It is one of my favourite releases this year already. Jangly, bouncy and fun!

The Suncharms/Mirrorlakes: out now on Shiny Happy Records from Indonesia is the tape of two of my favourite bands of the moment. About The Suncharms I don’t know what else to say. A classic band who released records in the 90s and who we put a retrospective compilation a few years ago. So we love them. You know that. Mirrorlakes on the other hand have been reviewed on the blog in the past. Always recommending them as they sound great. Each of the bands contribute 3 songs to this cassette.

The National Honor Society: this Seattle band sounds amazing. We know that. Wish we had known about them early on before they putting out their first record. Yes, because they are releasing an album on May 29 and will be called “To all the Glory We Never Had”. It will include 10 songs and we can now preview one of them, “Cristalize”. It sounds terrific.

Airu: what a great discovery! This Bilbao, Spain, band has a dreamy and jangly sound. Their latest song is called “Me Sabe Casi Igual” and I am already hooked to it. From what I understand this song is the second single out of their up and coming EP “Do It for the Catharsis” that the trustworthy label Snap! Clap! Club will be releasing this year! We have to keep and eye on them!

Space Daze: the new project of Danny Rowland from Seapony has just put up on Bandcamp an album called “Phantosmia”. You can listen to all 10 songs in which we can see Danny’s talent. He recorded and wrote all of them! My favourite track? It is hard to pick, but I’ll go for “Get By”.

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A reader on Facebook asked me about this German band after reading a very old interview I did with the Firestation Records guys. So of course I said yes, we aim to please. So let’s see what we can find about this classic German band!

On that interview with Uwe Firestation, he told us the label started when Bungalow Records passed him the demotape of Bazooka Cain. What songs were on this demotape? I am guessing the same or similar to the ones that appear on Firestation Tower Records first release, the “Viele Grüße” 10″ (FST 001) in 1997. There were 10 songs on it, 5 by side. The A side had “Annahmeschluß” which Uwe told me was his favourite German indiepop song in that interview, “Wilkommen”, “Les Jours Parfaits”, “Immer Wieder” and “Ich Lach Mich Tot”. While the B side had “Juanita”, “Das Schönste Paar”, “Stop!”, “Zeit Zu Gehen” and “Egal”.

This record would be re-released the next year by Elbtonal on CD (CD ET 17). It will include 2 more songs: “Verlangen” and “Bitte Weine Noch Ein Letztes Mal”. This release had totally different art thanks to Sebastian Hartmann (from the bands Golden Toast Quartett and The Looney Tunes) and photography by Rüdiger Nehmzow. The liner notes were written by Reinhard Jellen a well known german journalist and Northern Soul DJ. And then we find the credits. The band members were Henry Grant on drums, Marcel Vega on vocals, guitar and lyrics, Matthias Pacht on bass and Max Knoth on guitar, mandolin and arrangements.

There would be many guest musicians in these recordings too, starting by Harald Monse on bass clarinet, Bea Kopyto and Julia Hinrichsen on backing vocals, Christian Wohlers and Udo Kern on clarinet, Stefan Sieveking on keyboards and melodica, Gabriel Coburger on saxophone and flute, Jonathan Myers on trombone, Christian Regel on trumpet, Nils Ostendor on trumpet and flugelhorn, Michael Biel on vibraphone, glockenspiel, timpani and percussion and Schorsch Külzer on zither and percussion.

The songs were mastered by Tom Meyer and were recorded by Clemens Kinder.

One thing to be aware of, is that a tape, with the same running order and 12 songs as the CD is listed in Discogs. It dates from 1997. It may as well be the demo tape that Firestation received? Who could confirm this?!

But let’s actually go back in time. This wasn’t the first ever release by the band. The band had already put out a 7″ back in 1992. Perhaps on their own. The label has no catalog number and was named No Harm Done Publications. The song titles are now in English, “Savings Of My Soul” on the A side and “Blank Space” and “Laughing” on the B side. Songs are credited to Marcel Vega but “Laughing” to someone with last name Loeseke. This is truly a mystery to me. What happened then between 1992 and 1997? Were there more songs recorded? How did these songs from the 7″ sounded like? Differently? Were the band members different? It is something we should try to find out.

In 2001 the band would release a split 7″ on Quince Records from Japan (QREP-06). It was shared with Cakeheads and Bazooka Cain had the A side. There they contributed the songs “Here Come the Days” and “Superschmoozer do Brasil”. The songs were written by Marcel and arranged by Max. They were recorded and mixed by Karsten Boettcher and Max Knoth. Produced by the band.

At this point in time the band had signed with Apricot Records. So, in 2002 the band would release a new album with this German label. Called “Here Come the Days Of” (APRICD025) it would come out in CD and LP vinyl as well as getting licensed in Japan by Quince Records (QRCP-05).

The album would have now 14 songs. The A side had “Frühling Im Herbst”,
“Hauptsache Gesund”, “Fürst-Pückler-Art”, “Fehit Dir Was”, “Superschmoozer”, “Schaf Um Schaf”, ” L’Homme À La Tête Gonflée” and “Am Morgen”. The B side had “Here Come the Days”, “Tais-Toi”, “Kurze Fahrt”, “I’m Lost”, “Komm Mit Mir” and “Allein”.

The Quince Records release had a different tracklist though. I don’t know exactly why. And it had 16 songs total. “One Fine Day”, “Fruehling Im Herbst”, “I’m Lost”, “Tais-Toi”, “Kurze Fahrt”, “Fuerst-Puekler Art”, “I Could Spell”, “Superschmoozer”, “Here Come the Days”, “Fehlt Dir Was”, “Hauptsache Gesund”, “Komm Mit Mir”, “Am Morgen”, “Superschmoozer do Brasil”, “Here Come the Days (Rremicks by Merricks)” and “Am Morgen (Remix by Erobique)”.

On this album Erich Abel appears as part of the band, playing the organ.

The album would be mastered by Tom Meyer and mixed by Karsten Böttcher and Max Knocht. The band would produce the album. Again too the band would seek many guest musicians for the record including Markus Bersing on alto saxophone, Rolf von Nordenskjöld on baritone saxophone and concert flute, Falk Breitkreuz on tenor saxophone, Ralf Zickerick on trombone and Wolfram Borchert and Eddie Hayes on trumpet. The wind section was recorded by Max Knoth and Michael Pregler. The photography was taken by Frenzy Höhne.

But that wasn’t all. The band would appear on many compilations. Starting in 1990!

Yes, that might be the earliest we know of the band. When were they formed then? So on the “Karls Unruhe” compilation released by Manick Turttle in 1990 they included the song “Nashville Tennessee”. This compilation featured bands from the city of Karlsruhe and surroundings.

But then I find in the Apricot Records biography that the band actually  was founded in 1989 by Marcel.

In 1992 their song “Laughing” would be included in a 7″ compilation called “Garbage Pearls Vol. 1” also released by Manick Turttle (MTP 002).

Then there is silence until 1998 when their song “Zeit Zu Gehen” appears on the promotional CD “Komm Küssen Kompilation #5” that came alongside the Komm Küssen fanzine’s 5th number. In the year 2000 their song “Here Come the Days” gets included in the Firestation compilation CD “You Thought It Was the End of the World When the Rain Ruined Your Hair” (FST 016). Again that same year on the “Brausepulver” a joint-release by Apricot (APRICD032) and Firestation (FST044) they would contribute a song, “Frühling Im Herbst”. This same song and “Cigarillo” a song by them and Die Soundmasters would be included in Hazelwood Records (HAZ 022) compilation “Pop Ist Sheriff 2” that year too.

In 2003 they would have their song “Fürst-Pückler-Art” on Tapete Record’s “Müssen Alle Mit.” (TR 013) compilation.

In 2003 the band would contribute the song “Hauptsache Gesund” to ZYX Music double CD compilation “Aufnahmezustand – Neue Deutsche Vielfalt”. The next year also oin the same label, their song “Here Come the Days” appear on “Digging Your Scene” CD comp. Lastly, on the DVD “Neue Deutsche Vielfalt” from 2005, the band would have their video for “Annahmeschluss”.

This video was actually shot in 1995, before the Firestation release. It was shot mainly in Poland by Bernhard Marsch.

Then it is worth mentioning that sometime along these years there was a compilation on triple vinyl called “Maximum Beatbox HKTC 01” released by Fidel Bastro (FB 05). The band appears here too, with could be a live set, or a live song (I am not sure). The recordings come from the legendary Heinz Karmer’s Tanzcafé in Hamburg.

Lastly in 2013 the band appears with two songs, “Annahmeschlus” and “Immer Wieder” on the compilation “Firestation Pavilion” that was released in Japan by TKO New Music Corporation (TKOK-0015) that features songs by many Firestation releases!

There are some more videos too on Youtube worth watching. For example a live performance of “Besame Mucho” and “Mountain King” at the Treuanisch Ship in 1995 as well as “Immer Wieder” at the ShuShuShow in 1997. There is a trailer for a movie of the band that was to be shot by Bernhard Marsch. The year is 1999 and one wonders what happened? Why wasn’t it filmed? There is also a small interview of the band on the Polylux tv programme in 2002.

What are they up to now? Max Knoth seems to be successful as a composer, arranger, orchestrator and sound designer, working for many movies including “Die Sterne” and “Lassie Come Home”. He was also involved in other bands like Frank Spilker Gruppe and Mobylettes. Harry Grant went to play with Charles Curtis Trio and Die Antwort. Matthias Pacht played on Go Plus.

I also was told that Marcel Vega had released one 7″ under the name of Jean de St. Malo on the Hochverdichtet Schallplatten label (HVS 0601). I don’t know the year for this release but it included two songs. Would like to listen to them!

There is not much more about them on the web. It is true that some years ago they had a website. But it doesn’t exist anymore. Something that I thought I was going to find was interviews or articles about them, as they had been around in the late 90s and early 2000s. Not in pre-internet days. So kind of unlucky there.

I did find an article from June 16, 1994. Here it mentions another name that was part of the band then, Markus Lezaun. It says that the band had toured Prague in 1992. In 1993 they had been to Moscow and that year, 1994, they were planning to go to St. Petersburg. Another tidbit I found on the web is that they played at least once at the Atomic Café in Munich.

Now it is time for you all to help me fill in the blanks. Especially those years in the 90s were we don’t know much about them. It seems they had been traveling all over Europe. But what about songs? Had they been recording at that time? Why didn’t they put more releases? Would be great to find out!

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Listen
Bazooka Cain – Annahmeschluß

Day 71. Not much news today. Just that it is weekend and that’s a good thing. New releases on Cloudberry are progressing slowly, but surely. What about you all? I’ve got a few requests on bands to feature. That was cool, one after the other. I’d like that. Keep the ideas coming.

Littler: “This Boulder Won’t Push Itself” and “Natural Disaster” are two brand new songs by this Philly band whose proceeds they will be donating to Movement for Black Lives COVID19 Mutual Aid Fund. Even though the band tags themselves as a punk band, at least in these two songs I can see a lot of American 90s noisy pop!

Dig Nitty: is Reggie Bender, Erin McGraith and Bernardo Ochoa. I believe they hail from Brooklyn, so pretty close to me. And they are releasing an album on July 24 on Exploding Sounds Records. It is coming out on vinyl with 11 songs as well as digital. Only one song available to preview, “Lomita”, which sounds promising.

Las Margaritas: this cool band that features Mai from My Light Shines For You has just put together a wonderful video for their song “Las Flores”! It is a great jangly song by this Chilean band. The video are a collage of little snippets she recorded on her trip to the island of Chiloé, in her countries’ southern region.

Un Día Soleado: we cross to the other side of the Andes, to Argentina. There we find this great new project called Another Sunny Day, well, in Spanish. A tribute to Harvey Williams for sure. The band has just put together a digital two-track single on Hikikomori Discos. These two songs are lovely crafted jangle pop songs, “Patinando con los Muertos” and “La Lluvia Vuelve a Caer”.

The Spanish Amanda: the album “Pop’s Gone and Bought a Gun” is a terrific comeback of the London (now Luton) band! Remember them? They released a classic album on Firestation Records in 2000. I interviewed them also on the blog. Amazing pop. Terrific lyrics. Is great to hear Huw’s songs again. Here you’ll find 10 smartly crafted songs, with no guitar solos as he says. To play time and time again.

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Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. He produced major works in a variety of media but considered himself a painter above all. He was best known for his photography, and he was a renowned fashion and portrait photographer. Man Ray is also noted for his work with photograms, which he called “rayographs” in reference to himself.

Here is yet another amazing Irish band I discover through one of my favourite blogs, The Fanning Sessions Archive!

it is true I mentioned Man Ray on my post about Bam Bam and the Calling as they both shared a flexi back in 1988. But I hadn’t had the chance to listen the wonderful track Man Ray contributed until not too long ago. I could finally listen to “Apology” thanks to that blog!

It doesn’t look as if the band released any other songs which is a shame. This one song, “Apology”, appeared as an A2 on the flexi released by Helden Magazine (HL03) after Bam Bam and the Calling’s “New Surroundings”. This flexi was given away the Helden fanzine in Northern Ireland and was their way to support the local music scene.

The quality of the track doesn’t seem to be the best, but I am very thankful to the Fanning Sessions blog. You can appreciate what a good indiepop track this is. You wonder if there were more tracks recorded by the band. Perhaps this one song was part of a two or three song demo cassette. Who would know?

The little bio on the Fanning Sessions blog tells us three names that were in the band: Robert McGlone on drums, Brendan Morrison on vocals and guitar and Mary Mulrine on backing vocals. He also says that Robert McGlone now plays in Jam Pact.

The comment sections do shed some more light. We know that Anthony O’Kane on rhythm guitar and Phil Crothers on bass completed the lineup. It is actually Phil Crothers who shares this info and also lets know that the band started in 1986, with all the members but Robert at the Foundation Year Art courise in Rupert Stanley College in Belfast. The band would later play across Ireland and even recording a session for the BBC show Across the Line as well as appearing on the BBC show Channel One hosted by Jackie Hamilton of the Moondogs. I would love to watch it! And listen to the session!

Another interesting bit of info is that EMI and Polydor had interest in the band just after the band had decided to split!

Aside from this information there’s not much more on the web. Maybe Mary Mulrine played played in a band Gráscar in the early 90s. But that’s really all I could find. Oh! And it seems too that Robert McGlone collaborated with The Knievels. Then we know Brendan moved to Chile and plays there. Mary has been playing folk and traditional music. Phil would end up playing in a band called Stonefish through the 90s who have recently reformed. But no other information about Man Ray. And I’d really like to find out if there are more songs about them. And where are they now? Why didn’t they release any other records? How long did Man Ray lasted as a band?

Please let me know if you have any other details about them! They do sounds amazing on this one song, “Apology”!

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Listen
Man Ray – Apology

Day 69. Tired of wearing a mask. My glasses get foggy all the time. Yesterday went to the post office and was able to mail the orders from Spain, Germany and Japan that I couldn’t in the past.  I have mailed everything now. Don’t owe any records. That feels good.

New music:

The Royal Landscaping Society: The Facebook page From a Social Distance has been putting together some videos of bands playing live from home. And that is really cool in these times of Covid-19. The latest one is by my talented friends from Seville. 15 minutes of pop perfection. Totally enjoyable. I really can’t wait to release them!

Daiistar: this one man project hails from Austin. I don’t know the name of the person behind it, but it looks like it is just the one telling from the photo on Bandcamp. He has just released a 3-song EP digitally, where the songs are burst of noisy/fuzzy wall of guitars. Nice!

Fryturama: this duo from Mexico formed by Fryda Magaña and Arturo Tranquilino have released a shoegazy EP called “El Mutante Más Lindo”. There are 6 songs of hazy shoegazy with female vocals. It is quite interesting, first time I hear a band from Mexico sounding like this. Are they from Mexico City? or where?

Anna’s Bones: from the town of Manningtree in the UK, comes this trio with what looks like their first song ever as a band! It is called “Sow” and was released on May 1st. The band is formed by Rebecca Simmonds (vocals), Aaron Munday (bass and synth) and Harry Dickens (guitar).

Stomp Talk Modstone: and our last stop in this tour will be Japan. This cool band formed by Takamitsu Kawashima, Naoki Nishino, Kouta Hoshino, Megumi Asai and Mimu Sano, have recorded two wonderful shoegaze/dreampop songs and are now on Bandcamp. They are “Fade Out” and “Untitled”, both very enjoyable! I need to check their back catalogue as they are new to me!

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“Skafferi”. It means pantry in Swedish. It is also the name of a compilation released in 1996 by Slask Records (GOSPEL! 3). If my memory serves me right, it was my friend Jörg Winzer who recommended me to get it, mostly because it had two songs by a band called Iller. Two songs sung in Swedish. Two superb songs.

The names of the songs by Iller are “Innan Jag Förstår” and “Om Fägerna Bleks Ur”. As far as I know these are the two only songs released by them. I am hoping of course that there are more recordings by them as I would love to hear them someday. Other bands in this compilation include Eden, Index and Polio. Each of them contributing two songs as well.

Of course for many the interesting part is that Iller features Per Idborg from Girlfrendo, and The Golden Boy (as well as the Kakofoni label), on vocals, guitar and bass. The other band member was Lars Mattsson on bass and tambourine. They got help from Carl-Magnus Mattsson on trumpet and Mathias Svenungson-Erestam on violin on both tracks.

It is also worth mentioning that this tape was curated by Stefan Zachrisson, who is well known by running the superb magazine Benno. He was then doing a fanzine called Gospel! and so together with Bo Stefan Lundquist who was running the label Slask, they put together this comp, named after a song by Webstrarna.

All the bands on the comp hailed from Gothenburg. Stefan wrote about this compilation and he gives us a few interesting facts about Iller. He mentions that before the compilation was put together the band had already put together demo tapes. What songs were on it? We don’t know. How many demo tapes? Don’t know. But they did get interviewed on a fanzine called “Nowhere”, on it’s sixth issue (winter 1994/spring 1995). This fanzine was made by the brothers Gelin.

Iller’s track “Innan Jag Förstår” got very good reviews on Pet Sounds and Twisterella. In Twisterella it says it should be considered a Swedish pop classic. I agree with Kristoffer Lecander, the reviewer.

Not much written about them on the web. Of course it would be great to find out if they played live or not. And most importantly find out about those demo tapes. If there are more songs. I would love to listen to them. Maybe there are enough for a compilation? Wouldn’t that be something?

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Listen
Iller – Innan Jag Förstår

Day 67. Not much news now. Just a reminder that the fanzine is out and you should all get copies. That’s it for now.

Very soon I should have more news I hope! This year is making everything slower than usual!

Finds from over the weekend:

Good Dog: Suse Bear is behind this band that will be releasing a new album on May 22nd on Lost Map Records. The album, consisting of 15 tracks, seems promising. Especially thanks the song “Floating”, one of two that we can preview at the moment. Some interesting facts about here are that she has worked with The Pastels and Tracyanne & Danny.

Jetstream Pony: Back in April I was telling everyone to check out “It’s Fine”. This was the only song available to preview out of their upcoming album. Well now there are two more that sounds amazing. They are “Trapped in Amber” and “Gone to Ground”. For sure this is looking like an album not to be missed this year, three songs that sound glorious. The album will be out on May 22nd!

eGgs: the French band will be back on June 26 with a new 7″ on Howlin’ Banana Records. On this terrific 7″, with a funny photo of a kid (maybe a band member?) dressed as a Power Ranger, there will be three songs: “Still Life”, “Life During Wartime” and “Guess What”. If you like to jangle, this is for you.

The Telephone Numbers: now a San Francisco band. Just discovered them and I am glad I did. The band has just released a 4 song guitar pop record called “Pictures of Lee”. It sounds really nice, like classic 90s American indiepop. Sadly it looks like this release is only available digitally.

The Finest Drops: and now we cross the Atlantic and head to Newcastle, UK. The Finest Drops just released their “Safe Like No Other” EP a few weeks ago and it sounds great. Four songs are included in it, “Safe Like No Other”, “Loss is Love”, “Lights” and “For Another Time”. Digital only.

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I didn’t remember but a quick search showed me that I had bought the sole 7″ single by Whipcrackaway back in 2009. 10 years later I am writing a post about them, of a 7″ that was released even before, in 1986!

To be honest I know very little about them. I know John Peel played the A side, “The Horses Tale”, as a clip from his radio show, dating from September 4th 1986, is on Youtube. But what else can we find out?

The 7″ was released on a pretty important label at the time, In Tape (IT 035).  This was Marc Riley’s label. Marc is much more known now as a BBC DJ. On this label he would release superb acts like The June Brides, Yeah Yeah Noh or Rote Kapelle.

The songs on the 7″ were “The Horses Tale” on the A side, and “Gingham Dress” and “Betrayed” on the B side. The music is quite poppy, but it definitely has a bit of what they called cow-punk at the time, some country influences. “The Horses Tale” is a fun song, with female vocals, that is catchy and all. But of course you’d think more USA than England if you didn’t know that the band hailed from the British isles.

The sleeve gives us band members and that’s always something to thank. We know on vocals were Ian Marlon Moss, Koyote Karen, Rhinestone Rhonda and Stetson Sue. On guitars there was Simon Taylor and Neil Moss. On drums we find Nick Kokotaylo. The songs were produced by The Box Team and were recorded at “Touch” in Denton and at “Box” in Heckmondwike.. A credit that I don’t understand completely is that Goldie played “Fury”. What does that mean? Other funny credits are included for example it says hair by Carl, meringues eaten by Jeff Brown, unbiased opinions by Family Abused by Stuart and Wendy.

The photo on the front sleeve is credited to Paul Keelagher.

“The Horses’ Tale” would also appear on a compilation album called “Just A Mish Mash” that In Tape (IT 47) released in 1987. This release even had a US version.

Then I stumble onto some important information on the German Shepherd Records Bandcamp. There is a release uploaded for a band called The Bears from Belle Vue Zoo. The interesting thing is that Ian Moss, guitar player in Whipcrackaway, had been in this band. It mentions that before The Bears from Belle Vue Zoo, he had been in a band called The DoDos. And after, he was in the band Oochikomis. After the Oochikomis he went to lead the band Whipcrackaway. After the demise of Whipcrackaway he wasn’t involved with music until he released a record in 1993 with the Stepbrothers, also on the German Shepherd Records. It looks, after checking all of these three releases on Bandcamp that he was based in the Salford area, close to Manchester.

Interesting enough, I would find that actually Ian Moss is the co-owner of German Shepherd Records. It is no surprise then that there are other releases here that feature him like the ones by Ian and Neil Moss or  Ian Moss and Talented Friends. But what about the other members of Whipcrackaway? Were they involved in any of the bands he has put out?

But there’s more. There’s a book by Stephen Dobson called “The Man Who Killed the Hamsters – a biography of Ian Moss” that was published in 2012. Here it tells us that the song was called not “The Horses Tale” but “The Horses Tail”! You can read how the contact between Ian and Marc Riley happened, and how the girls, Sue, Rhonda and Karen convinced Ian to be part of the band. It seems it was originally recorded as demo, and it was the re-recorded, but they still used the demo version for the single. The newly recorded track would end up in the compilation I talked about earlier. The other songs, the ones recorded at Hekmanwike had the help of Bill Clarke, who played for the George Hamilton IV band. We also learn that it was the three girls who wrote “Gingham Dress”. It does look though that the recording was a bit of a disaster and things didn’t get better, so the band ended up splitting soon enough.

Quite interesting!j

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Listen
Whipcrackaway – The Horse’s Tale

Day 64. How is everyone holding?

Weekend again. Halfway through May. Days start to go fast.

New finds here:

The Beths: the superb New Zealand band is releasing a new album very soon. It will be called “Jump Rope Gazer” and will be out on July 10 on Carpark Records. This is not all, the band has put together a video for the song “I’m Not Getting Excited” that sounds and looks great! Definitely we can’t miss this one!

Chavales: the latest on Elefant is a digital single by this duo formed by Daniel Rodriguez from Mallorca and Javier Paredes from Extremadura. Influenced by La Mode, Estación Victoria and The Human League this new song is terribly catchy, makes me think the label wants to continue placing their music on all the Spanish Netflix series. I wouldn’t be surprised if this song “Ey, Que Estoy Aquí” happens to follow that route!

The Wolfhounds: “Electric Music” is the name of the new album the legendary band will be releasing on July 3rd on the very fine A Turntable Friend Records. The album will be available on LP and CD and will have 9 songs total. Right now we can preview the first track on Bandcamp. It is called “Can’t See the Light”.

Ballboy: another classic band. The Edinburgh based band  has been publishing some live sets during the time of Pandemic. I am not sure when where these recorded but this new live set includes the songs “Godzilla vs. the Island of Manhattan (With You and I Somewhere in-between)”, “Olympic Cyclist” and “Oh Lord”.

Flannel: my friend Tomohiro has remastered two of his songs, “Little” and “At Least I” and they are now on Bandcamp. These are timeless songs, beautifully crafted pop. Dreamy and sweet. It is always a good time to rediscover him!

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The Office from Belgium. First time I’ve heard them. Stumbled upon them on Youtube and thought the song “That Girl Too” sounded cool. But who were they? Did they release more records? I honestly don’t know. Need to do some research.

Then I stumbled upon more songs, “Your Loving” and “Liverpool”. Actually “Your Loving” might be my favourite one! Wow! What a track! I really need to find more.

It turns out these two last songs, “Your Loving” and “Liverpool” were  A and B sides respectively on a 7″ released in 1986 by Colour Records (CR 615). This was actually the first record the band put out. What a sound really! Definitely influenced by, no surprise, the Liverpool pop scene of the time.

The 2nd 7″ was the one with “That Girl Too” on the A side and “Girl Scouts” on the flipside. This record came out in 1988 again on Colour Records (CR 804). This label put out a bunch of records mostly in the 80s. It was founded by Marc van Beveren in the city of Gent. Did the band hailed from there as well?

The 7″ had some etchings on runout according to Discogs. The A side said “Enjoy it – The Office” while the B side said “The Hit?……..”. Happily this 7″ has scans of the sleeve on Discogs and I notice that on the back sleeve there are a bunch of brands that sponsored the release! Even big names like FIAT! Other ones were Cafe Barfly, Atlas Reizen, Piet Lair, AnHyp, LP Center, RAF and Bossuyt. I suppose all of these were local businesses. And these businesses were based in Waregem, not in Gent. So, does it make more sense for them to be from Waregem? I would think so!

Then on the labels I finally find a name, that of Frédéric Maenhout! Interestingly enough he would later be part of a band called The Candy Dates who I’ve been meaning to write about! Small world! But what other band members were in The Office?

The band appeared on four compilations too. The first dates from 1987, an LP compilation called “The 2nd Belgian 6T’s Boom Vol. 1” where they appear with the track “Your Loving”. This release came out on Waterloo Sunset Records (WSR004) and 007 Records. That same year this same song would appear on the LP comp “From Behind the Bushes” released by Mad Colour Record (MCR 001). It seems this release was actually a co-release of their label, Colour Records, and the magazine Mad in Belgium. It makes sense.

Lastly their track “The Daze” appeared on the LP compilation “The Belgian Garagemania Vol. 3” in 1988. This LP was released by Boom! Records (Boom 3). and Waterloo Sunset Records (RUSS 106).

In 2008 the Belgian label Coincidence Records put a band called The Office on a digital compilation called “2 Years of Coincidences” with the track “Ultimatum”. I am not 100% sure if it is the same band. So I will need some confirmation. Other bands in this comp are techno and electronic bands. And the years don’t match. Who would know?

As you can expect not much more info about the band. So I really hope someone can answer all my questions!

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Listen
The Office – Your Loving

Day 62. Last batch of orders I could mail were sent. Still at home orders for Spain, Germany and Japan waiting. I will try next week, see if the postal service has resumed service to these countries.

In the meantime, there are a bunch of great releases out there now:

C19: our friend Joel in Peru has just put together a new digital compilation under the Impermeable Records name. This compilation is titled “C19”. It is an interesting name, right? It is 2020 now. But yeah, these are all songs recorded in 2019, and I must say this is a very careful and thoughtful compilation. The songs have been cherry-picked and you can see it as it includes amazing bands like Astral Brain, Dayflower, Nah…, The Umbrella Puzzles and more! 22 songs in total and artwork by the great Casio Van Doesburg!

Los Monocromos: two songs recorded during the shelter in place in Chile, “Un Lugar” and “Hace Tiempo”, that is how Matías Valmore presents his new project. The sound of DIY, of bedroom pop with poppy guitars, are what makes this a charming digital single.

Eterna Joventut: the debut song (!) for this Barcelona duo formed by Júlia and Asier is called “Vuelve Junto a Mí”. It is a sweet short song (under 3 minutes) with jangly guitars and female/male vocals! From what I see this is the first song they have been recording during the pandemic, so we should keep an eye on them, probably there will be more soon!

Apple Orchard: are our friends Ryan and Dale back? It looks that way! “A Slow Dissolve” was just recorded during the past few weeks! How cool is that. Sporting a cool artwork, this new digital single sounds excellent. It is noisy, poppy, and just so good! Are they preparing a release? I really hope so!

Dan Dan Dero: the Lima band is back with a new video for their brand new song “La Camiseta de James Rodriguez”. It is a great song, catchy and fun. But I must say that it causes me some problems! I really don’t think highly of James Rodriguez. He is terribly overrated in my book! Well, all Colombian players are overrated these days, they always choke at important matches. The last great Colombian for me was Iván Ramiro Córdoba. Not that you care, you came to read about indiepop and not football. But I am passionate about football too. So nevermind me. This song is GREAT and the video is FUN!

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I have had the intention of writing about the Autumn Parade for a long time. Finally I will do it. It is hard to plan ahead for these things to be honest. I just write and write about bands and I leave drafts ready or almost ready to publish. Then I revisit them when it is time to publish. Sometimes on a post I’d say “a few weeks ago”, but then when publishing three months have passed. It is funny.

The Autumn Parade didn’t leave us any records. No releases. But they did leave at least two songs recorded and published in a compilation called “Expo 1” that was released both in vinyl and CD in 1991 by the label Beachwood Music (EXPO1). These songs were “White Sand” and “Julia Blue”.

This record was compiled by Colin Simmons and Tim Millington. And I am thinking all tracks were recorded for this compilation. Why? Because there is one producer, Chris Nagle, for the record. Though ok, there are many engineers, Alastair McMillan, Dave Drennan, Huw David Price, Paul Tipler and Richard Scott. The photography on the sleeve is credited to Sheena Land.

Then in the credits it mentions that the songs were recorded at different places, like Blackwing in London, Strawberry in Stockport and Homestead in County Antrim. Where then did Autumn Parade recorded their songs? I think Stockport. There is a small bio on Last.fm that mentions that they hailed from there and were around 1988 to 1992.

Shelflife Records wrote about them many years ago, in 2009. That’s how I heard about them for the first time. It was a cool time, there were many good blogs discovering lost gems. Shelflife shared a Myspace page for Autumn Parade, and there were two more songs, “Skylight” and “Phased”. It also mentions that the band had an album to be released called “Indian Summer”.

We also know the names of the band members:
John Hamlin – vocals, songwriter and guitar
Phil Pearson – keyboards and backing vocals
Rob Bennet – bass
Ben Power – drums

It mentions that indeed two songs were recorded at Strawberry Studios but also two other were recorded at Amazon Studios in Liverpool. We find out too that the band toured a lot and got some demo budgets from labels like Phonogram and Siren but nothing came to fruition. Then in 1991 the American label Atlantic Records showed interest but again, nothing happened in the end. What a shame really!

I keep looking for more info and I find that at some point John Hamlin was making music with Emmy McIntyre and released two with Invisible Girl Records.

Not much more information sadly, but this is good stuff right? Now I do hope someday we get to listen to more of the songs that were recorded for “Indian Summer”. And also of course, I do hope to interview them sometime and find out the story behind the band!

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Listen
Autumn Parade – Julia Blue