Day 88. Days continue to be similar. Though I think we are making progress now with the Macguffins release. You know we found three more songs and we weren’t sure how to release them. I think I have an idea now and we are moving forward. I should be sending the album to press soon. Also at last we are working on a new 7″. And that is very exciting. Will have news soon!

Now, this weekend I did listen to music. Some good finds here:

Airhockey: the best Miami band of these times have released a new song called “Try”. The lyrics are quite simple that is true, but the music and the atmosphere it creates work really well. It is a bittersweet dreampop song, and one can only wonder when are they releasing an album!

The Umbrella Puzzles: More new songs by Ryan Marquez new project. Today he brings us an original song, “Do What You Can”, and a cover version of the wonderful Hopkirk & Lee’s “Summershine”. They are really lovely both. And hey, maybe it is a good idea to follow his advice, use headphones for optimum listening pleasure!

Useless Youth: the Mexico City combo formed by Yak, Pepe, Ian and Emiliano are back with another jangly song called “Witches”. This song was actually written for their 2018 album “Cities” but in the end wasn’t included. Now they have remastered it and released it as a very fine digital single!

Torres Satélite: looks as this is just a digital release on Discos de Kirlian. 7 songs of wonderful Spanish pop recorded between April and May this year. The band is formed by María de la Vega y Santiago Pérez and these are their first songs!

The Death of Pop: and another fine release on Discos de Kirlian is the new track by Angus James and Oliver James, The Death of Pop! The new song is called “The House That We Built” and it will be part of the forthcoming album “Seconds”.

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Remember I wrote some time ago about the Scottish band Kick Reaction? The band had released a 7″ back in 1986. If you don’t I suggest you check that post as I write a bit about them. Among the things I mention is that before they were called Kick Reaction the band was actually known as Moroccan Coco. But was it that way? Did they share the same members? Let’s find out!

Moroccan Coco only released one 7″. It was released in 1983 and if we consider that Kick Reaction was already recording songs in 1985, then the band couldn’t have lasted more than 2 years.

This 7″ was released by Steam Radio (SR 001). It is the only release by the label so it is safe to assume it was a privately pressed record. The songs included were “One Day” on the A side and “Steam Radio” on the B side.

So far I’ve only listened the A side, “One Day”, a fine Postcard-influenced track. It is very good! According to Discogs the songs were written by Peter Lyons. Both tracks ended up being recorded during the autumn of 1983 at Arch Studios in Glasgow (I am now familiar with this Studios as on the Baby Lemonade compilation we included a few demos recorded at this same place.

According to Discogs there is a misspelling on the label, appearing as Morrocan Coco, two Rs and one C, and Coco written with silver pen. They mention too that there are copies where the word Coco doesn’t even appear.

We know too that the sleeve was designed by Kretin and La Rhone.

The other name we know was involved in Moroccan Coco was that of Jim Mitchell, their manager. I wrote this on my previous post:

Lastly another user says that he played with Stuart Macarthur before Peter Lyon joined. I am guessing he means Stuart Thorn? Them two tried to get Peter Lyons to sing in their band but it seems he refused as he was trying to get his band called The Usherettes off the ground. Then nothing happened for a while until this guy left to study in Motherwell and Peter and Stuart joined forces forming Moroccan Coco with Jim Mitchell as their manager. Moroccan Coco would only release the one single, “One Day/Steam Radio”. Then they changed names to Kick Reaction.

On Discogs there is also a mention that the single was reviewed by the Deadbeat Fanzine (issue #24). Here they mention the band hailed from the Hamilton area. I was able to track down that review, which is from a gig they shared with Strawberry Tarts and Entertainment:

Moroccan Coco looked a bit unhappy at the small turn out as they took the climb on stage. Arriving there however they realised the full potential of the evening. With no pressure ‘to impress’ they did! They played like the solid music machine they are. I said in my review of their new single “Steam Radio” that it was good music for the sakes, but and for the good. Mike Read and Steve Wright, imagine a song for both! The Sunday Post should’ve got a metion somewhere along the lines too but, “Steam Radio…. vintage stories are his specialty… he’s a sucker for sentimentality…. a man of emotions… one of those people who care about keeping old traditions everyday and everywhere…” sums the song up I’d say.
Pete Lyons (vocals and guitar) will probably sue if I write anymore but I like this single tons! The backing singer was as good live if not tops compared to the record and along was the flip “One Day” made this journey really necessary! The rest of their set (apparently cut short) was good and it’s a great feeling of relief liking an evening like this when all music is new noise to the ears!

Not much more information about them on the web. Shame indeed. But I am hoping that at some point we’ll be able to find out more about this terrific Scottish band, hopefully find out that they recorded a trove of songs because I’d love to listen to them! And interview them too, that’d be ace!

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Listen
Moroccan Coco – One Day

Day 85. Closer and closer to 3 months. Music is here to keep us entertained, distracted. That’s a good thing.

The B-Team: there are two 6 from their live set list from 1986. They are “Quit Dreaming” and “Salamander” and they are really good! It is really exciting to see so many new gems being unearthed by Paul Rosendale!

Cinéma Lumière: what a lovely song is “Love”. This is the latest from the indiepop band based in Manila. Our friend Xavier Emas is the one leading group of pop music alchemists and I can’t wait to listen to more tracks by them!

Electric Lo Fi Seresta: the Rio de Janeiro project formed by Guilherme Almeida is back with a new EP called “The Gash Dance”. It has 4 songs and is available now digitally. These songs are also a preview of the forthcoming full album “Songs From Hypnagogic Cave”.

The Caraway: Our friends of The Caraway are going to re-release their songs on vinyl thanks to the Blue-Very label in Japan! This is very exciting news for fans of the music of Osamu Shimada. 10 songs and only limited to 100 copies. Hopefully it doesn’t sell out soon, I already spent my budget for the next two weeks! It is a must have.

Aiko el Grupo: this fun Spanish band has just released a new digital single on Elefant Records and it is called “Truchita (Nunca Volveré!!!)”. It is very nice I think and would be great to see it released properly in the future. Youthful, fun, punk-spirit, on this one!

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This will probably be once again a very short post. I am trying to find out information about a very obscure band called Green Romance. And I honestly think there’s nothing on the web about them, so I am asking for your help.

They appear curiously enough on a compilation tape that has a green sleeve, the fantastic and legendary “Frischer Morgentau” compilation that was released on the German label Steinpilz Tonträger (STEIN 1) in 1993. They contributed a nice jangly track named “Rain Keeps Falling’, a very indiepop title indeed.

And the sound of the band is very indiepop too, very early 90s indiepop. Jangly and sweet. I can’t tell where the band is from, but I would actually guess they are German singing in English. Something that confuses me is that on the sleeve bands are broken up. There is a German side and the International Side. Green Romance appears in the International side alongside Venus Peter or Les Chaplinn’s. But there are German bands on this side too like Fluffy Pillows or Die Wurzelsepps. The main difference is that they are singing in English. So it may totally be that Green Romance were German.

I know the tape came with a 16 page booklet with information about the bands on it. I don’t own it. So I can’t say. Once Peter Twee.net, when visiting him in Bremen, offered me a tape but I didn’t take it (I don’t like tapes, but nowadays I really regret not taking this tape!). But I don’t think he had the booklets with the bands information.

This tape is wonderful, it includes top bands like Die Fünf Freunde, The Almanacs, Acid House Kings, The Pearly Gatecrashers and many more. So you know there’s quality here.

Now I really hope someone can tell me anything about them. I would LOVE to hear more stuff by them!

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Listen
Green Romance – Rain Keeps Falling

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