Day 323. Today can finally share the Verandan new single, “Hideaway”, which will be the A side of the forthcoming 7″ by the great Finnish band. It will be released on Cloudberry of course, next month, on physical format. Wish it had been ready by now, but there are delays (no surprise there… grrr) with the pressing plant. Anyhow, pre-order button is up on the website and later today the Bandcamp page with this release will be up and running. Right now you can preview it on Soundcloud if you like! So yeah, very exc ited!! But can’t wait to receive the records, I’ll be more excited then ha ha!

Detective Larsson: Amanda Larsson has recorded a very nice EP called “21” which has 3 songs. The first one is the only original in the EP (the other two are covers of Dean Martin and Marianne Faithfull). This first track, called “21 (Dreamt of Freedom)” is really nice and haunting! One thing that takes it to another level are the superb and brilliant guitar arrangements by a friend of mine, Miguel Navarro, who used to be the jangle master in The Felt Tips.

Rachel Love: Rachel of Dolly Mixture, indeed! Here is a new song she has recorded called “Primrose Hill” which is utterly beautiful! Wow. Will this be released in some way soon? I would like that. There is the hint that she is signed to a record label called Cowchow Records, so might that mean we’ll see a proper physical release in the near future?

Lentillas de Colores: Cristina León and Dado (ex-Juniper Moon) from the city of León (I visited this city a year and a half ago and really liked it!), in Spain, are Lentillas de Colores. They have released not too long ago a 7″ vinyl with 4 songs called “Arrancacorazones”. They’ve recorded many demos before but this is their first proper EP release. It is really lovely, with fun melodies and lyrics.

Botanic Garden zine: this Shanghai fanzine is really good, even though I don’t understand Chinese. I have a few issues and you can tell it is done with love. In their latest number, #4, they interview the band All Romantic Days, which you can check their song “In Your Court”, if you follow the link. There’s also essays by BoringProductions’ Jovi and more.

Diaphane: I am not a big fan of instrumentals as you might know but this “Demo EP” from 1993 by ex-Les Autres’ Jimmy Arfosea is pretty good. You can listen luminous and chiming guitars on the 4 songs that make up this EP.

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Another band I’ve discovered recently through the WokingSoundscene Soundcloud is Eat the Sofa. What a curious name, right?

The song they shared is called “Love of My Life” and this song actually was included in a tape compilation from 1996 called “The Best of Farnborough Groove in the World – Ever! (Volume 6)”. Many of the bands that are featured on the Soundcloud have been part of these compilation series I’ve noticed.

The good thing with the people behind the Soundcloud and also the Facebook page is that they share a lot of interesting details which make my life easier when featuring the bands. For example we know that the band released two CD albums, “So Far So Good” and “Absolute Pondlife”. Neither of the two are on Discogs so I need to track them down in a different way.

One thing that is for sure is that the band played at the Guildford Folk & Blues Festival in Stoke Park, in Guidlford, in 1994. They also polayed alongside Vox Pop and Manfred Mann at the Guildford Civic Hall. I guess we can say that the band hailed from Guildford? Is that a good assumption?

The band was formed by Allen Broad, Jamie Legg, Dee Coley and another member whose name is still a mystery (!). May it be Duncan Siggers? The band was formed in 1994 and lasted until 1999. There were lineup changes of course. Allen Broad fronted the band until 1999 when he relocated to Amsterdam. We also know that Coley started as the drummer but moved to play bass when Legg joined.

In 2004 the band reunited and played a gig at the Holloway Hill Sports Club  in Godalming supported by Graham Firth. In 2006 they were still gigging, there was at least one gig in December of that year at The Sun, in Godalming, where they got support by The Two Deceivers and Sigg & Si.

Another gig we know of is the ones are from Friday January 14, 1994, at The Cricketers in Woking and from Saturday January 15, 1994, at The Parrot in Slyfield.

I’ve also seen at least a demo tape of the band called “So Far So Good”. Maybe that was the album? Maybe it wasn’t released as a tape?

Another thing I found is that Coley joined the band The Blazing Homesteads after Eat the Sofa split up.

And then I find a Facebook page for the band! Well actually, it is more of a Allan Broad page and his latest music. But there are some links to videos and songs by Eat the Sofa, so that’s good. I am just looking for information about the albums! And I finally do. I find the tracklist, but not yet how or who released them. So…

“So Far So Good” had ten songs, “Will You Ever Come Home”, “Now I Know Where I Am Going”, “It’s So Easy”, “You Can Come Along”, “Set Me Free”, “Searchin’ On a Monday”, “Aborigine Call / Getting Away from it All”, “Dry Your Eyes”, “Mailman” and “Here’s Looking at You”.

“Absolute Pondlife” on the other hand had 12 songs! They were “Behind the Bushes”, “To Keep You Here”, “Love’s Unkind”, “You Took it all Away”, “Midnight Train”, “Make it On Our Own”, “I Was for the Summertime”, “Hang Around a While”, “Out with the Girls”, “If it Takes Us All Night”, “Memory Coloured Gold” and “A.P.L.”.

There are more songs. There was a session called The Summer Sessions where the band recorded 9 songs. These were “I Love My Life”, “The Sunshine”, “Me Disease”, “Monsoon”, “If It Takes Us All Night”, “I Love My Life”, “Monsoon” and “I Was for the Summertime”. These seem to date from 1996.

Then I saw a tape from 1993 that seems to have more songs by the band. Not sure if these songs were released in any way, but they were called “It’s So Easy”, “Moon in Your Eyes”, “Will You Ever Come Home”, “Take a Little Look”, “Searchin’ on a Monday”, “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness”, “Young to Run”, “Sally”, “Now I Know Where I’m Going”, “Run Together”, “Mailman”, “English Boy (Miles Away from Home)”, “Me + Julio Down by the School Yard”, “Set Me Free”, :”Here’s Looking at You”, “You Can Come Along”, “Dry Your Eyes” and “Pleasant Valley Sunday”.

Then on Youtube there’s a video of the band playing in April 1994 at the Guildford Lions! Cool!

More details. Before Eat the Sofa, Allan, Duncan and Dee were recording as The Hometown Boys. I should check them out.

And that’s it. I couldn’t find any info about the albums. They are on all digital platforms though. But you know, I like the physical format!

Who remembers this band?

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Listen
Eat the Sofa – Love My Life