News. Bits and bobs. Releases. Songs. Stuff.

• A new split 3″ is out now and it includes the the fantastic Newcastle (United) band Pale Man Made and the lovely Malmö duo Leaving Mornington Crescent! Expect fuzzy guitars and catchy girl/boy vocals from the English side and perfect jangly pop from the Swedish side. As usual it’s US$ 5 and includes postage to anywhere in the world.

• Also out now is a new 7″ by the fantastic Slow Down Tallahassee. It is a split 7″ shared with Standard Fare and was released by The Sheffield Phonographic Corporation. It includes two songs by our favourite Sheffield trio: “Angel of Death” and “Tricks”. Buy it here for £3.49 plus postage. It’s limited to 300 copies

• Je Suis Animal has two new 7″s too. The first is ‘Fortune Map’ and it’s a split single with Glasgow’s finest Wake The President, released on Lucky Number Nine/Electric Honey Records. Get it here. And the second comes from Angular Records and has the fabulous The Mystery of Marie Roget on the A side and Secret Place on the B-side. You can purchase this one here.

• The new Daisychain Connection website is up now! It has lots of mp3s to download from the band and different other projects of Stephen and Ian like Giant Loop of Sound, Dunn & Kirton and 99 Mr Bens. Check it out here.

• Dan from Politburo just updated me that he has two new songs playing on Myspace. Well, maybe not new as they were recorded decades ago, but new for me! They are Euphoria, I Suffocate, Deaf, Dumb & Blind and Half a Hairpin. Totally worth passing by and listening to these tunes as they are FANTASTIC.

• Our Bluetrain CD on Plastilina, the retrospective “Some Greater Love” is now sold out. This is our first sold out release and we are very happy about it and proud too!

• Also The Bridal Shop mini album In Fragments is out on Plastilina… I think I forgot to mention it here! Anyways, it’s a fantastic 6 song CD that you shouldn’t miss. Prepare to dance, prepare to dream.

• Intercity Baby ‘09 fanzine is out too. I got it in the mail just yesterday and it’s lovely. It’s been beautifully put together by my friend Jennifer (yes the same Jennifer that comments often in this blog!). I copy/paste her professional press release: The zine is full of romantic reminiscing on journeys – be they by train, car, or airplane – and the wonderful people and pop events that await us on the other end. I cannot fully express how genuine and fascinating the stories are. I really can’t wait for you to read them! Some of the contributors include Anorak’s own Pete Green, PeteOutcognito, and Martijn! Laz of Bubblegum Lemonade, Jenny of Strawberry Fair, and Charlie of Bears and The Golden Rule also wrote featured pieces.As stated in the first post of this thread, I posed five questions to a number of international pop luminaries. Some of those who thoughtfully answered these questions are from The Orchids, Summer Cats, Pocketbooks, One Happy Island, Friends, The Foxgloves, Very Truly Yours, and more!If you’d like to order one, you can PayPal me at popchicago @ gmail. Each copy (including postage) is $5 if you live in the U.S. and $7 if you live anywhere else. Copies will also be available through the luscious Caramel as soon as they receive my parcel.
• What am I listening right now? A great German compilation called “19 Goldene Hits” that was released in the early nineties. It has songs by great tracks by Pleasure, Going Down With Brilliance, The Groovy Cellar, Crack’ A’ Wheat and more! More info in the Firestation Records blog.

• What is the latest video I enjoyed on Youtube. Well it’s this fantastic performance by The Room playing their GREAT song Shirt on Fire. I only found this some days ago, don’t know why as this is one of my favourite songs ever.

• The Hamburg POP Weekender was last weekend… and guess what, I missed it. Hope someone blogs about it. Would love to know how did it go!

• A new 7″ on this little label will be out on May 5th! It’s by Swedish Pop-gazers Signed Papercuts! It’s fantastic, believe me, it includes Of My Heart as a A side and Sound of Silence as the B side. The artwork comes from the great Canadian illustrator Danny Zabbal. You can preview the A side on the Cloudberry Records main page.

• Oh! I just got 100 Cloudberry badges/pins. I’ll post them with the next 100 orders, of course. So if you’d like to get one..

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

Listen
Leaving Mornington Crescent – April Song
Pale Man Made – In Your Bed