Weymouth, Massachusetts, that’s where I’m heading today. Back in time. To the early 2000s.

“”This is Sour” – Lemon Peel” (RORA-14) is the name of the only album Awesome Animal Ambulance released. It came out on CD in 2003 on a label called Aurora Seven Records that was based too in the same city. I was familiar with this label thanks to The Snow Fairies, but didn’t know many of the other bands. So discovering some of it now. Very cool.

Awesome Animal Ambulance was formed by David Conway on guitar and bass, Josh Smith on guitar, synth and vocals, Robert Roman on synth, vocals and drum machine and Tina Randall on vocals.

The 9 songs on the album were recorded at the Shop in Weymouth and were engineered by Jerry MacDonald and Alison Gordon. Mixed by Jerry too and mastered by Brian Doser.

The songs were “This is Awesome Animal Ambulance”, “Grover Cleveland”, “Count on Us”, “Operation Kitty”, “Hunting Season Behind the Wheel”, “Thank You for Listening”, “Hurrah! Hurrah!”, “Count on Us (Demo version)”, “Mr. McBasil and the Lady of Duke; Francis”.

The album had lovely lovely artwork by Suzy Coady. You wonder how come the band didn’t release more records. I remember playing this quite a lot back in the day.

The band also contributed songs to two compilations, but they are album songs. So “You Can Count on Us” is on “Aurora Seven 7″ Sampler” (RORA-007) released by Aurora Seven in 2001. Then “Operation Kitty” was on “Clouds and Balloons, Vol. 1 – The Search for Skull Island” that Asaurus Records (ASA035) released in 2004.

Looking at the band members, I see that David and Tina were also on Panda Squad who also released records on Aurora Seven. Josh Smith had been in the punk group The Glow from Boston.

And what are they doing now? Did they continue making music? Would be great to find out.

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Listen
Awesome Animal Ambulance – Count On Us

Chris Gervais (drums and percussion), Kevin Colgan (guitar and backing vocals), Jesse Gordon (bass and backing vocals) and Edwin Paroissien (lead vocals, guitar) where The Reds. They were based in the Boston area in the U.S. They were pretty young at the time. They were between 16 and 17 years of age. It was the late 80s. And they were making some fine guitar pop!

Chris has a Soundcloud account where he has songs for two of his bands, The Reds (1987-1989) and The Nasties (1997-2000).

For The Reds, we find a bunch of recordings.

The band’s first music recordings come from November 13, 1987, at Downtown Studios in Northampton, Massachusetts. Songs from that time include “The Human Box”, “Death”, “Marina”, “Niki” and “Things You Cannot See”.

Also the band recorded some songs on February 16, 1988, at Loudville Studios in Westhampton, Massachusetts. These are “Boxes”, “I Used to Know the Way”, “Need You”, “The Boys” and “I Do”.

There also is a group of songs recorded on a four-track Tascam with a few microphones, one of them even taped to Chris’ chest. These songs were recorded on Jesse’s garage on July 22, 1988. The songs are “She Told Me”, “Marina” and “Martha’s Kitchen”.

There’s a bunch of songs that were recorded at Loudville Studios, on December 26, 1989. These songs are “The Human Box”, “Fantasyworld”, “Waiting”, “I Fall” and “Marina”.

I look for more info. I find an Edwin Paroissien now based in Portland, Oregon, being a mixing engineer. Could be him, right?

Kevin Colgan, seems to have passed away sadly. There is a Soundcloud account of the music he was involved with. Looks like he also moved to Portland at some point. But he was based in Northampton in the late 80s, finishing Northampton High School in 1990. After that he moved to Los Angeles. Quite interesting though that it confirms that The Reds was a high school band! They were so young!

About Jesse Gordon, I found out that he may have been involved with a band called Dealbreaker.

Other than that, not much info about the band online. Did they get to play live much being underage and all? Anyone remembers them?

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Listen
The Reds – I Used to Know the Way

Here is a band called Popfish. Not sure where they are from, but do know they were playing and recording around 1987 and 1988. There’s a Soundcloud by them.

The songs have no description either. But there are quite a few. Some are rockier, but then there are the indiepop ones that are really enjoyable. The songs here are: “Man on My Shoulder”, “Baby’s Lost Her Head”, “It’s Up To You”, “Up and Down”, “Black on Eyebrows”, “Two Heads (dub)”,”Drop Me in to Wood”, “Sometimes”, “Sugar Candy Kissing”, “New Song”, “I Don’t Love You”, “The Pixe Song”, “Two Heads (double dub)” and “Man in My Bed.”

There may be even more songs. As there is a request for sharing more songs by them.

Then there are reposts of songs by someone called Philby Dollystone. I doubt that’s really the name of someone. But there is a Soundcloud. Though no more information is available.

If I was to guess I’d say the band was British. But that’s all I can say about them. The information is nonexistent online. It is strange though, for a band that recorded many songs. At least, you’d imagine you’d find from which city/town they were from.

Hoping some readers do remember them, or even better, if the band gets in touch!

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Listen
Popfish – The Pixe Song

A bit bittersweet to mention again the superb compilation tape “Everlasting Happiness” that my friend Andreas Hering put together back in 1991 when he was in his hometown of Worms, Germany. That tape is indeed a favourite as it included bands like Nine Steps to Ugly, the Ammonites, Spinning Wheels, The Mayfields, even Shine! who I released a retrospective CD. All of the bands and songs are really good. Many of them I have showcased in the blog. Today I want to write about the very obscure Baldwin’s Casuals who appear last in the tape, the 26th song, the 12th song on the B side.

The song they contributed was “She’s Out of My Mind”. It is an interesting song, it is not upbeat, it is mysterious, it is haunting. Is it a band? Is it just one person? Who would know. Sadly Andreas is not around to ask him. I wonder why I never did. So many questions, so many emails and answers through the years. What knowledge.

The recording is lo-fi. Sounds like a bedroom band of the 80s. Recorded on a 4-track? Possibly. There’s vocals and a guitar. That’s all.

I look for more information. There seems to be a band called Nearly Dan that play Steely Dan covers. But it says they were around in 1995 and played many Steely Dan songs even then. First I can’t see whoever is playing “She’s Out of My Mind” doing Steely Dan covers. Second the timeframe doesn’t match. The compilation tape “Everlasting Happiness” is from 1991. Baldwin’s Casuals would be late 80s or early 90s.

What about the curious name? Yeah I thought about that. It is related to the British TV programme Coronation Street: “Baldwin’s Casuals was a factory on Coronation Street which was in production as a denim factory from 1976 to 1989, when it was demolished for redevelopment work of that side of the street. The property was originally built in 1971 and used as a warehouse, the Mark Brittain Warehouse, but after a fire in 1975, the premises was refurbished and turned into a denim factory once Mike Baldwin, a London businessman bought it. “

Interesting name. Interesting band. I wonder if the band was from Scotland. Andreas loved Scotland, and I wouldn’t be surprised that he found them somehow on a demo tape, or had some connections to them.

Anyone have a clue?

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Listen
Baldwin’s Casuals – She’s Out of My Mind