Day 476. I just became a father of a beautiful baby boy. Honestly don’t know how much time I’ll be able to invest on the blog now. I have a few posts about obscure bands that I have written already, like this one, but I always look for new recommendations just before posting. So those you can expect to be published in the next few days. The blog may not update as often now, until I get the grip of this new life, but I will continue writing and posting when time allows is. Maybe it continues the same, I don’t know, but just wanted to let everyone know that don’t worry, that everything is great. Just very busy!

Love, Burns: so because of the events I just told you I missed the limited edition 7″ that Love, Burns released. I hope you did not. That because the two songs included in it, “Wired Eyes (alternate mix)” and “Hard to Fall” are two terrific pieces by Phil Sutton’s solo project. He also played live a few weekends back and I missed that. Oh well, at least we can play these songs over and over and wait for the next release!

Melenas: the Pamplona all-girl band is back with a superb rendition of Grauzone’s “Eisbär”. This time in Spanish though. The song is “Osa Polar” and sounds like a popstatic pop bomb! Punchy and catchy, you wonder if they will release it in any way. It sounds great. What a superb band they are. They should keep getting bigger and bigger!

Red Go-Cart: a new flexi by a favourite Japanese band of mine! Just one song though, but a nice song nonetheless! “Jellyfish” is out now on Galaxy Train Records and it also comes with a lovely sleeve by Heather Marigold. The band formed by Tomomi Usui, Miki Hirose and Yuji Usui continues to craft perfect pop!

Eggs on Mars: now we head to Kansas City, to check out the latest by this four-piece formed by Brad, Mason, Bennie and Doug. Their latest is indeed a  7-song mini-album called “Brighter Now”. It is available on CD, and as I was writing this post only 7 copies were left! So don’t miss it.

Hurry: we stay in  the US, but we head now to Philadelphia. Here I discover the solo project of Matt Scottoline. Hurry is the name of this fine guitar pop project who released the album “Fake Ideas” on June 25. Again few copies are left of this 12″ that came out on Lame-O-Records. 10 songs worth your time.

—————————————————————–

I think I need to get back to the idea of making a cool compilation of Australian indiepop. I had the front cover done, I got the name for it (though that was a bit complicated because I was using a band’s song and they were sort of ok of me using it), and had contacted many bands though I really didn’t get a song from any! I wanted a song, a bio and a photo. Simple! But no one was giving me that. One band was making it more complicated asking to sign a contract for one song. That was quite disheartening. I can’t be dealing with contracts and stuff at this point. Too busy. It is just me. Oh well… The whole point was to give another life to all these songs that are wonderful. And I keep discovering more and more wonderful Australian pop. The Handmedowns is the latest discovery.

The band formed in Adelaide at the end of 1986 and was part of the underground scene along Dust Collection, Mad Turks and Scremaing Believers among others. Discogs has a pretty good informative bio that tells us that they were formed by:
Trevor Comley on vocals and lead guitar
Tony Dyer on vocals and rhythm guitar
Dave Gray on bass
Jason Kilic on drums

This lineup recorded a 6 track demo in 1987.

After the demo was done, Dave Gray left (he would form the band Rocket Science) and was replaced by Rohan Belton who had been on the Verge, Dust Collection and Garden Path. Rohan would add some vocals to the previously recorded demo and these songs would have to wait 27 years to be released. More on that in a bit!

In 1987 Tony Dyer would also leave the band and the three remaining members would record the 12″ EP “Back to Yourself” that was released by Greasy Pop Records (GPR 140). Eventually another member of Dust Collection would join the band, Scott Allan, on vocals and rhythm guitar.

The band would call it quits in 1989.

Comley, Dyer and Kilic would later form the band Swerve. Dyer would also be in the Stoneage Hearts in the 2010s. Comley went to join the Sack. Belton would start a label, Smashed Records. Gray would move to Melbourne and be in bands like the Electric Guitars and the Freeloadere. Kilic would become president of the SANFL football club “Sturt” in Adelaide.

Okay, that was quite interesting. Now let’s look at the records!

The “Back to Yourself” 12″ would be good to listen. I need to try to get a copy of it. In the meantime we know that it was recorded at Foundation Studios, Salisbury East. The engineer was Richard Goodbridge. The photography on the sleeve is credited to Amanda Belton (sister or wife of Rohan?).

The songs on this 12″ were “State of Confusion”, “What if I” and “Home” on the A side and “When All the World Was Young”, “Back to Yourself” and “Cornerstone” on the B side.

Now comes the 6 song demo that was released in 2004. It came out on Belton’s label, Smashed Reecords (SMA 103), and was titled “Free Set of Steak Knives”. These tracks were recorded at Bartels St. Studio and remixed at Artec Studios. The engineer was Kim Horne while the remixing is credited to Stuart Sheldon.

The songs on this CD were “Goodbye”, “Slip Away”, “Quarter to 12”, “What’s in a Heart”, “Reflections” and “Really Hot Woman”.

The band also appeared on a few compilations.

Back in the day, 1988, their song “Quarter to Twelve” appeared on “Oasis 2 (the 1988 Greasy Pop Compilation of Adelaide Bands)”, a 12″ comp released by their label, Greasy Pop (GPR143).

In 1998 their song “Goodbye” ended up in the classic Swedish music magazine Sound Affects’ compilation 7″ “4×4”. I didn’t know the existence of this 7″ that came along the number 38 of this magazine. The Handmedowns appear as the second song on the A side. The first song on the A side is by The Flatmates.

Smashed Records would give new life to the songs starting in 2003. First including two songs, “Home” and “When all the World Was Young” to the CDr compilation “South Central Indi Pop from the Mullet Era” (SMA101). This looks like something I’d like as it includes two bands that I know are good, Dust Collection and The Garden Path. Would be nice to hear Trailer Park and The Verge that are the other bands in this collection.

“Slip Away” was included in the 2005 compilation  of songs written by Tony Dyer called “Your Eyes” (SMA108). On this CD all songs are but Swerve but “Slip Away”.

Lastly in 2005 we see “Smashed MMV” (SMA110), another compilation where The Handmedowns include “Goodbye” and “Home”.

And as I was looking for their songs I stumble upon a Bandcamp for The Handmedowns with all of their songs! Perfect!

One thing I notice too is that the “Back to Yourself” 12″ was re-released in 2004 by Smashed Records (SMA105) on CDR. This one included the same six songs plus “Goodbye (Swedish Edition)”, the track that was on the Sound Affects compilation.

Great! I found more info and all the songs! This was a good research project. But were there even more songs recorded? Why haven’t I heard this band before? They sound good! I find that with Greasy Pop Records I haven’t been able to listen most of their catalogue. It is not easy available. I need to invest some money in it.

And yeah, that compilation has to happen someday. So many great indiepop bands in Australia in the late 80s, early 90s!

Anyhow, who remembers the Handmedowns? What are the band members up to these days?

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
The Handmedowns – Slip Away