In 2018 the Japanese label Fastcut Records released a much deserved, a much awaited, retrospective of the 90s indiepop band Sunny Gets Blue. This Japanese band formed by  Ryotaro Abe on vocals, piano, guitar and harmonica, Toru Fukuda on guitar, Takashi Togawa on bass and Eiji Miyauchi on drums released just two records back in their day and appeared on many compilations.

The first release I am aware is a split CD with another legendary Japanese band, Sunnychar (who I should write about sometime soon). It was titled “Teenage Speedster on Sunny Monday Morning” and came on a mainly red sleeve with a red race car. On this 13-track CD, 8 of the songs were from Sunny Gets Blue. The first 5 were by Sunnychar.

The tracks by Sunny Gets Blue on this 1994 CD released by Pushbike Records (UFPB-008) were “Vespa 125et3”, “S.S.J.”, “Funny Weekends”, “Girlfriend”, “At the Brilliant Corners”, “Sometimes, I Remember”, “This Feeling (Demo)” and “Vespa 125et3”.

The band would release another record that year, a tape called “Ducks and Drakes”. It came out in the Japanese label Chocolat Art Records (CA-004) and included 6 tracks, 3 on each side. These were “Riding on the Motorcycle”, “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”, “Haven’t We Met”, “Bye Bye Mr. Raindrop”. “Convertible in Almond Blue” and “Hours and Times”.

As mentioned too, the band appeared on many compilations. So in 1993 they appear with “I Go Down to the Sea” on the CD comp “See-See-You, Tomorrow !!” released by Pushbike. That same year, and again on Pushbike, they have the song “In My Heaven – All These Friends and Lovers” on the CD “Happy Day, Happy Time!! Pushbike Compilation Vol. 2”. Lastly their song “Riding on the Motorcycle” appears on the cassette comp “We Don’t Need Another Hero” released by Haarnadel.

In 1994 they have the song “Boy Should Go!” in Pushbike and Chocolat Art co-released CD “The Cacaos Like Hotcakes”. In 1995 they have “Les Adventuriers” on “Fancy Fantasy! Gian-Robot Compilation Vol.2” released by Giant-Robot Records and also the track “At The Brilliant Corners” on the Pushbike comp “Good Thing Goin’ Pushbike Compilation Vol. 4”.

1996 has “Riding on the Motorcycle” on “Cherries and Sunny Days” an Italian compilation tape released by Shiny Sunset.

Then much closer to these days, in 2007 they have “At The Brilliant Corners” on the four-CD compilation “Love Flowers: Under Flower Nation 15th Anniversary Compilation” released by Under Flower Records (this was the parent label of Pushbike). And then in 2022 Testcard Records included their song “Haven’t We Met” on “Under Flower Fes Compilation”.

As mentioned Fastcut made a compilation of their songs. One that included a CD and a 7″. The good thing is that the songs on the 7″ are on the CD. I really dislike when that is not the case. The compilation was called “At the Brilliant Corners” and had the catalog number FCEP-026.

The tracks on the record were: “S.S.J.”, “Funny Weekends”, “Girlfriend”, “At the Brilliant Corners”, “Sometimes, I Remember”, “This Feeling (Demo)”, “Boy Should Go!”, “I Go Down to the Sea”, “Marinegirl”, “Riding on the Motorcycle”, “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”, “Haven’t We Met”, “Bye Bye Mr. Raindrop”, “Convertible in Almond Blue” and “Hours and Times”.

Looking for more info, I figure out that their name probably comes from a famous pop and jazz standard called “When Sunny Gets Blue” that was first recorded by Johnny Mathis in 1956.

The one other cool thing that I fund was this video of Ryotaro at the Neo Acoustic Pavilion vol. 44 about a year ago, on August 3 of 2025. Here he DJed and also played a mini live setlist where he played two Sunny Gets Blue songs, “Back to You” and “This Feeling” as well as a cover of “Big Bad Bingo” by Flipper’s Guitar.

Very cool! Hope we get to learn more about this classic band!!

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Sunny Gets Blue – Riding on the Motorcycle

Probably named after Monsieur and Madame Verdurin, the prominent bourgeois couple and salon hosts, from Marcel Proust’s novel In Search of Lost Time, Verdurin only released one 7″ as a band. Which is a shame.

The band formed by Olivier Roussilhe on vocals, guitar, bass and keys, Emmanuel Fillon on drums and Sophie Mercier on flute, released “Sur La Moquette” 7″ in 1997 on the French label Plastic Pancake (Plastic Pancake 003). This record had just three songs, “Sur La Moquette” on the A side and “Mademoiselle De Ponsac” and “Dans un Pouf” on the B side. The songs were recorded by Benoit Cubaynes.

Plastic Pancake of course being the label of Pierre-Antoine Delpino, someone I used to see a lot at Indietracks, back in the day…

I have to look of course who is Mademoiselle de Ponsac. There doesn’t seem to be one. There’s one de Polignac. Is there a town Ponsac then? There isn’t. there exists an ancient medieval town and commune in the Haute-Vienne department called Châteauponsac which historically was called Ponsac-la-Montagne. Could that be?

We also know that Olivier was previously in a band called Lol that reeleased an EP in 1994 called “Gombrowicz EP”. Would love to hear this one. The other two members don’t seem to have any other bands listed on Discogs.

On the blog there is one mention of Olivier, on the interview I did with Fabien Garcia about his old band Caramel. He mentions Olivier recorded their first demo.

I find a blog post from 2024 on the blog Haar Brut. Here the cover art is discussed, if it is a screen capture of Olivier Assayas’ film Irma Vep. That Jean-Pierre Léaud and maybe Maggie Cheung are pictured.

We also learn that the band hailed from Toulouse. How cool. I really liked this city when I visited it last year.

And that’s really all I could find about them. Anyone remembers them? Are there more songs recorded? Did they play live much? Who’d know!

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Verdurin – Sur la Moquette

Spalding Rockwell Gray (June 5, 1941 – c. January 11, 2004) was an American actor and writer. He is best known for driving autobiographical monologues that he wrote and performed for theater in the 1980s and 1990s, as well as for his film adaptations of these works, beginning in 1987. He wrote and starred in several films, working with different directors.

Theater critics John Willis and Ben Hodges called Gray’s monologues “trenchant, personal narratives delivered on sparse, unadorned sets with a dry, WASP, quiet mania.” Gray achieved renown for his monologue Swimming to Cambodia, which he adapted as a 1987 film in which he starred; it was directed by Jonathan Demme. Other of his monologues that he adapted for film were Monster in a Box (1991), directed by Nick Broomfield, and Gray’s Anatomy (1996), directed by Steven Soderbergh.

Gray died by suicide at the age of 62 after jumping into New York Harbor on January 11, 2004. He had been struggling with depression and severe injuries following a car accident. Soderbergh made a documentary film about Gray’s life, And Everything Is Going Fine (2010). An unfinished monologue and a selection from his journals were published in 2005 and 2011, respectively.

This post is not about the actor, even though I’m using his photo. The post is about a band that took their name from the actor. It was called Spalding’s Grey. They modified the last name. Added an apostrophe. But who was behind this band? To me this is a big mystery.

I want to think the band dates from the mid late 80s. Or most possibly the early 90s. That’s where I place their sound. I’ve only heard the one song and is called “100 Years No One Noticed”. And it is premonitory. No one has noticed the band. It has flown under the radar and there’s nothing online about them.

Were they British? I want to think yes. It sounds to me British. But I can’t confirm. There are more questions than answers. So I hope someone remembers anything about then, any details, and I can start understanding a bit more this band.

EDIT: seems I got it all wrong, and they are not from the U.K. or the the 80-90s. But still, don’t know anything else by them. There is another very nice song online now called “Tell Time” for what is worth.

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Spalding’s Grey – 100 Years Not One Noticed

Tokidoki, the boy/girl duo formed by Nora O’Conner and Peter Schaefer, first release came in 1996. I didn’t know that. I was always only aware of their 2000 self-titled album on Sunday Records. I guess I should do my homework and do a little digging about them.

As mentioned, they released a 7″ EP in 1996 on the label Tiny Shoes Records. It was the first release on this label. The label was to release a 2nd record the year after by the English band The Pictures. I haven’t heard it. And I didn’t know about this label. The 90s are still a bit unknown to me.

The 7″ the band released was titled “Margie’s Candies” and included 5 songs, “Perfect New Love Song” and “Cookie Cutter” on the A side and “Girl Friend”, “Bored and Angry” and “Anymore” on the B side. Dave Knapik recorded the songs at WNUR-FM in December of 1995. I think he was behind the label too.

The band was to release a 2nd 7″. This time on the legendary Harriet Records. It was the “News Days” single (Harriet 041) that came out in 1997. The title song “News Days” was on the A side and “Sock Hop” and “The Goldfish Song” were on the flipside. This time the songs were recorded on a four-track in December of 1996 by Mike Kirts from the band Hooker OK.

In the year 2000 the band appears on the compilation “Sunny Sunday Smile Volume 2” (Sunday880) with the tracks “Pointless” and “Ira Robbins”.  I google Ira Robins, it seems this is a professor at Washington College of Law. Does that make sense? There is another Ira Robbins who is an artist and graphic designer. Maybe he’s the one the song is about? Or most probably Ira Robbins the editor and publisher of Trouser Press?

The album Tokidoki comes in the year 2000 with catalog number Sunday 895. It is a co-release, didn’t know that. Sky Blue Records is the other label involved (catalog Sky Blue 002). The songs are again recorded by Mike Kirts, and this time mixed by Jeff Boyd. The album has 12 songs, “Julie”, “Office Romance”, “New Quiet Song”, “Hairspray”, “Oranges in Paris”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Waiting for Ida”, “A Gentle Approach”, “Shirt Sleeves”, “You’re the One”, “50 Seconds” and “Dreamsongs”.

All of the album is available to listen on Sunday Records Bandcamp. This is great. What’s even better is that there is a bio for the band!

I believe this bio is written by Peter. He mentions being friends for years before forming the band. That they lived at the same dorm at college and worked at the college radio station. There they discovered indiepop. Previously Peter was in a punk-pop band called Remy while Nora played in Not Without My Daughter.

It mentions that the band first gig coincided with the release of their first 7″.  They played in a club in Chicago called Metro and opened for Sleater Kinney. Then they would open for the Apples in Stereo and Ida and play often in a club called the Lounge Ax everytime an indiepop band was visiting town.

Nora contributed vocals on the first Aden album. After starting their relationship with Harriet Records they were able to play in NYC, Boston, New Haven and more. There they shared gigs with The Receptionists, The Musical Chairs an Pest 5000.

Afterwards Nora moved to NYC, the band tried to keep playing, Peter flying to NYC and doing some gigs. But this didn’t continue for long and the band went to hiatus.

And what happened after? Not sure. I did find that the music from Remy, Peter’s old band, was reissued in 2018 by Carpark Records.

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Tokidoki – Office Romance

Amber is a band I know very little about. I found about them on an Instagram post by an account called diversesvenkst and got me curious. Then I notice the great David Chalé had posted one of their songs, “Yatzy”, on Youtube and well, it is time then too try to find any details we can.

The band hailed from Malmö, a city I visited once and which I hope I return some day. Good times. Not sure which period they were active, but in 1996 they put out a demo tape called “A Face in the Crowd”.

This tape had three songs: “Yatzy”, “A Face in the Crowd” and “Wednesday”. The songs were recorded at Yellowman Studios and were produced by Harri Koljonen and Thomas Lundberg. The art is credited to Jörgen Simonsson.

We get the lineup of the band on the cassette sleeve, Fredrik Billquist on guitar and vocals, Thomas Lundberg on piano and organ, Jörgen Simonsson on drums and trumpet and Henri Thörn on bass.

The tape also has some contact info. It seems Henri is the person to be contacted as his address is listed. It is very close to the old town, just across the Rörsjökanalen, close to the Museum of Modern Art.

I look for the band members. I see that there is a Fredrik Billquist in Malmö that is the property manager of the Malmö Opera. Is it the same person?

I can’t find any other details about this band. I definitely would like to find more details about them, and listen to the rest of the tape. Any help will be appreciated!

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Amber – Yatzy