Day 516
Blueboy: probably the best release this month is Blueboy’s Peel Session from March 12, 1994. It is being released by the great Precious Recordings of London and it is a deluxe package, a double single, just like their previous releases of BMX Bandits and Jasmine Minks. This record comes with four songs, “Toulouse”, “Good News Week”, “Dirty Mags”and “Loony Tunes”. Essential.
Un Día Soleado: the Viedma, Argentina, pop band that takes their name from Another Sunny Day has a new song out on their Bandcamp. This new digital single is called “Lxs Chicx Ya Van a Llegar” and it is a fun guitar driven track. This is proper Patagonia Indie Pop!
Layzi: and now we head to Boston, Mass., to discover this lovely lo-fi bedroom pop project. Their latest release, a self-titled EP, sounds gorgeous. Introspective, melancholic and upbeat at the same time, the four songs pack a lot of feeling. Let’s keep an eye on them.
The Raft: a new song by Phil Wilson’s project that has been going since 2003 and have been featured on the blog many times. “Hola, I Don’t Think So” is a good track, influenced by bands like The Sundays, Ride or The Stone Roses. The song is available on Shore Dive Records.
Comet Gain: another album-worth of songs from David Feck! 14 homemade pop songs recorded in a lo-fi way. But it is so fun to hear Comet Gain this way! This album is called “Bubblegum Summer Beach Bash!” and I totally recommend it.
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Today I wanted to know a little bit more about one of my favourite Norwegian bands.
There are quite a few Norwegian bands I love, and most of them released records on the mighty Perfect Pop Records. The girl group The Blind Bats was no exception. A 7″ single, an EP and an album were their legacy (as well as a few compilation appearances). I do believe we owe them a little bit more than that. Their songs were a explosion of fresh pop. Punchy and fun. They should have been bigger I would say!
And I am sure I am not the only one that thought this. Little Teddy Recordings from Germany believed in the band too and released the album on vinyl and their 7″. So let’s see what we can tell about them.
The band’s first record was “The Banshee Girl EP” that came out in 1992. Released by Perfect Pop (POP 6), the EP was a success having a second edition right after (the first edition has a white sleeve while the 2nd edition a red sleeve). This record came with four terrific songs, “Banshee Girl” and “Vacation” on the A side and “Polaroid City” and “Last Orders” on the B side. The record had cool artwork (a normal thing for records in this label) and fun inserts.
THe band was formed by Vibeke Whiplash on vocals and guitar, Sandy Shore on farfisa and backing vocals, Tuesday Knight on bass, and handclaps, Reg Trademark on guitar and handclps and Mrs. F*** on drums, handclaps and tambourine. The record was produced by Tom Trøbråten from The Time Lodgers and recorded at Endless Studio by Ulf Knudsen (Betong Hysteria, Feel, Sister Rain, Hellige, Norske Gutter, Kaare Og Partiet, etc) and Eystein Hopland (Bio-Logic, Ex Lex, Sister Rain, Skogvokterne). The photos are credited to Maya Glaser.
So I never knew the names behind these aliases. I found out now that Tuesday Knight was Tonje Ludvigsen who played in The Vacuum Dreamers. Reg Trademark was Ståle Caspersen who played with The Tables. Sandy Shore was Kjersti Gravklev. Vibeke Viken used to use the alias Holly Wood as well and played on The Vacuum Dreamers. Mrs. F*** was Heidi Cleven.
Their second release came out in Germany, on Little Teddy Recordings. “Waiting for the Summer” 7″ (LITe708) came out in 1993 with three terrific songs, “Waiting for the Summer” and “Killing Time” on the A side and “Fall” on the B side. This time on drums we see Max O’Malley (Ine Merete Johanssen). The design of the sleeve is credited to Erling Vestnes. The producer was again Tom Trøbråten and Geir Holtbakk was the engineer and co-producer. Again beautiful art, beautiful inserts. Top release.
Lastly in 1994 the band released the classic “Pop the Question” album. Perfect Pop released the CD version (POP 13) while Little Teddy released the LP version. The vinyl version actually had a first pressing on black vinyl of 300 copies and then a 2nd of 200 copies on coloured vinyl. Also bear in mind the art for both releases differ a lot. The songs were the same.
Again all of them recorded at Endless Studio and mastered at Stype Audio with Eystein Hopland and Tom Trøbråten, the songs were “Sleep the Whole Night Through”, “Alice in Wonderland?, “She Goes to Parties”, “By Accident”, “Nolan Bigsby’s Wonderful Story”, “Candy Flavoured!”, “Buick Outside my House”, “Everywhere I Go”, “Daydreamer”, “Run Around in the Sun”, “The Wind Blows Your Hair” and “Susan”.
On the album the got help from Robert Birdeye from The Tables and Tom from The Time Lodgers. The drummer for this record was someone else, J. Slingerland.
When it coms to compilations the band appeared on 4. The first was a CD comp plus cassette plus 7″ released by Mermaid Record from Germany. This one is from 1992 and was called “Mermaid Employee of the Month: Gustav Sackmüller” (MIRABELL 665). The song the band contributed was “Polaroid City”.
In 1995 their song “Alice in Wonderland” ends up on “(Gardene of Delights Presents…) Seek Refuge… (From Your Intolerable Situation)” a vinyl compilation put together by Garden of Delights (Garden 3). That same year the songs “Banshee Girl” and “I’m a Believer” are included in “A Perfect Pop Compilation 1991-1994” released by Perfect Pop Records (POP20) on CD.
Lastly “Waiting for the Summer” ends up on the 2001 CD comp “Woosh! Little Teddy Recordings 1991-2001” released by Little Teddy (BiTe025).
Looking at the Perfect Pop website I found a bunch of photos taken of thee band by Moren “Mortan” Andersen, Maya Glaser and Steinar Buholm. Also flyers of a gig the band shared with The Time Lodgers and Astroburger at Cosmopolite and another from February 5th 1992 at Headache.
On the label it also tells that that the band members went to be on different bands including New York based Oscar and the Pidgin Sisters, SS Bondevik, Ljodahått, Frequency TV and The Vacuum Dreamers. The only one I know is the last one! Never heard the other ones… and don’t know which members were on which band!
Another interesting tidbit I found is that last year Tuesday Knight released a 32-page booklet titled “Drinking Songs for Dirty Blondes” with her lyrics and illustrated by Ronny Haugeland. I should try to get this. Some info for it and a link to buy it can be found here.
The website Rockipedia says that the band played a French festival in 1994. Which festival was this one?
Not many blogs have written about them, but one who has is 7iete Pulgadas by my good friend Alex. His post dates from back in 2007!
Sadly couldn’t find any more details about them. But I am sure many of you remember them. Did they record more songs? What about the other bands they were involved with? Worth investigating? What are they up to these days? Many questions and hopefully answers soon!
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