27
May

Not many news today. I have updated the interview with The Applicants. As I mentioned the interview was done a long time ago. The updated version has revised answers by Robert, with more interesting details about the band. So have another read if you have read it already!

Hope everyone is good. Now we get a long weekend in the US. I’ll see you again on Monday!

Roller Derby: “Single Collection” is of course a compilation of the band’s previous 7 singles. It is out now on black vinyl from the Hamburg’s Bandcamp page. Also for those in Germany be aware that the band is playing a few dates this summer in Lüneburg and Hamburg.

Poster Paints: I’ve been recommending this duo from Glasgow for some time now. If you haven’t heard them you’ll understand why. They know how to make wonderful pop songs! The band  formed by Simon Liddell aand Carla J Easton have just released the “Blood Orange” EP. 4 songs of terrific Scottish Pop. Timeless. How come there is not a physical record of this though?!

La Sala del Silencio: the quality of the recording is not the best. It is from a 1984 practice room. But what’s interesting about this release is that the 4 songs on the 7″ are the only 4 songs by this band formed by Lars and Per Mertanen after the breakup of the legendary band Décima Víctima. Joining them in this short-lived band is  Áurea Cuní.

The Blue Herons: it seems I missed “From Here” when it was released in April. A shame indeed. I always want to be first when listening to The Blue Herons. The band fromed by Andy Jossi and Gretchen DeVault know how to craft popstatic songs! And this one is no exception at all. Top tune.

Boyracer: and lastly here is the digital single “Fleetwood Mac are Shite”! Stewart released this song last month but that’s not all, there’s a cool t-shirt with the song title. And indeed, like it says on Bandcamp, you want to get this t-shirt to be the envy of your punker friends! Sadly the song is not available on physical format… I reckon a flexi would be the perfect format.

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Trouble and Strife is cockney rhyming slang for wife.

Here’s a band that is not on Discogs as far as I know…

Many many years ago, in the times of Myspace, I discovered there a Swedish duo that made wonderful pop music. I messaged them and asked them if I could get their music on CD-R, if they had some demos as many bands had then…

Those days bands used to put together CDRs with their music. On photocopied sleeves we would find a tracklist and any contact information. If the band was caring we’d get a plastic sleeve on top of that.

I am looking now at two CD-Rs the band put together. Each of them had 3 songs. I see there’s an email and a website. The website doesn’t take you anywhere.

I don’t know which CD-R came first. One is titled “I Got a Plan” and has three songs, “He Never Changed”, “Red Lights” and “I Got a Plan”. I think this one came first. The other one I have doesn’t have a title but I think it was called “Mental Dynamite”, it does have three songs as well, “New Shoes”, “Cold Breath” and “Mental Dynamite”. I believe this last one was the first one they released.

The only other important bit of information I have is that the duo was formed by Joakim and Jacob. Sadly I don’t have last names.

An old Myspace page shows two more songs the band had written “Me and You” and “Coffee is Ecstasy”.

And lastly perhaps my best find. It comes from a Turkish blog I believe. It is called Popsongs Ltd. and the post dates from October 6, 2007.

Here we learn that the band had yet another EP. It was self-titled and included the aforementioned “Me and You”, “Cold Breath #2”, “Sun Sun Sun”, “See Me”, “Chewing Stones” and “This Town”. Wow. Would like to hear these songs.

As the band used to have a website I use the Wayback Machine and see if there’s anything I can find. Luckily this works.

Here I find that some friends used to help them, Markus would sing backing vocals and play tambourine, Aesa the synths and vocals and Fred the bass. Again no last names.

There is a gigography too. On October 10, 2005, the band played at Dieselverskaden, on January 5 of 2006 at Ung08: Vinter at Lava, February 6th 2006 at Fight Club in Stampen, February 21, 2006 at Osaka vs Toky at Street, April 6th 2006 at Kreafe, April 7 2006 at Velocity in Uppsala, April 8 2006 at hos Sara, April 16, 2006 at Beyond Retro, June 17 2006 at Don på Trädgården, June 24, 2006 at Midsommarmattsdröm and October 19 2006 at Abba on the Jukebox. Did anyone of you went to any of these gigs?

Also by now I am pretty sure the band hailed from Stockholm.

Sadly this is all I remember and can find about them. They didn’t release any records and sadly disappeared. What did they do after?

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Listen
Trouble and Strife – I Got a Plan