27
Oct

Let’s end the week with a 3rd post and on a high-mark!

Probably the biggest news this week after the C86 book was that of the “Revolutionary Spirit” boxset. Yes Cherry Red knows how to milk the cow, and will release another boxset this time featuring bands from the Liverpool scene from 1976 to 1988. Just like the Manchester box set that was released not too long ago (which I still haven’t ordered yet). I’m no fan of Cherry Red as you all know, but it is always hard to resist to these sort of releases. I wonder though if there will be any rare tracks on it. So far only the artists have been announced on their Facebook page:

DISC ONE – 1976-1980:
Deaf School
Big In Japan
Yachts
Echo And The Bunnymen
Ded Byrds
0-51
The Dance Party
The Teardrop Explodes
Faction
Lori And The Chameleons
Nightmares In Wax
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
Jaqui & Jeanette
Clive Langer And The Boxes
Glass Torpedoes
The Original Mirrors
The Moondogs
The Planets
The Chuddy Nuddies
Spitfire Boys
Geisha Girls

DISC TWO – 1980-1981:
Dalek I
A Flock Of Seagulls
Ellery Bop
The Nice Men
Black
Systems
Freeze Frame
Attempted Moustache
Afraid Of Mice
Cook Da Books
Windows
Chinese Religion
Hambi And The Dance
Egypt For Now
Those Naughty Lumps
Modern Eon
A Formal Sigh
The Moderates

DISC THREE – 1982-1983:
The Wild Swans
China Crisis
Pink Industry
Passion Polka
Box Of Toys
Care
The Bamboo Fringe
Steve Lindsey
Ex Post Facto
Chain Of Command
Ambrose Reynolds
Royal Family And The Poor
Will Sergeant
Shiny Two Shiny
Icicle Works
It’s Immaterial
Public Disgrace
Send No Flowers
The Room
The Balcony (Mk I)
The Turquoise Swimming Pools

DISC FOUR – 1983-1985:
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Mr Amir
Brenda And The Beach Balls
The Lotus Eaters
Dead Or Alive
Virgin Dance
Alternative Radio
Margox
The Cherry Boys
The Light
Pale Fountains
The Balcony (Mk II)
The High Five
The Press Gang
Western Promise
Old Ma Cuxsom and the Soapchoppers
The Rioutous Hues
Mel-O-Tones
Marshmallow Overcoat

DISC FIVE – 1986-1988:
Jegsy Dodd And The Sons Of Harry Cross ‎
The La’s
Barbel
Magic Carpets
Benny Profane
Jactars
The Tempest
The Onset
The Tractors
Cyclic Amp
The DaVincis
The Walking Seeds
Ministry Of Love
A Game Of Soldiers
Exhibit B
Thomas Lang
Revolutionary Army Of The Infant Jesus

It is good to see some bands we love like A Game of Soldiers, The Tempest, Jactars, Benny Profane, Exhibit B and more. Hopefully there will be some new guitar pop discoveries here. We’ll see. One can only hope. Also I hope the booklet gets better. I feel since their first boxset booklets on the Cherry Red releases have only unimportant information, no details, no nothing. Sometimes even the facts are wrong. Sometimes even bands don’t even know they are on these compilations. That’s one reason I’m very happy that Firestation is back releasing their Leamington Spa series because they do such a better job, with less resources. We can’t let Cherry Red win with mediocrity. I want Cherry Red, because they have the money, be a proper fine indie label, respectful and supporting, not just on their own caring only about their pockets, and most important, releasing top notch releases. I hope this Liverpool one is like that. The bands on it deserve that.

I recommended the Indonesian band Closure back in April. Now it is time to recommend them again as they released a CD-R split single with another Indonesian band, Strangeways. The split single is superb. It has been released by the labels Let’s Kiss a Secret and O Pamela Records from Jakarta and has two songs, one by each band. Closure contributes the song “Warehouse” and Strangeways the song “Strange Ways”. I very much recommend this!

Also remember that I recommended a song by Papa Topo from the soundtrack of “La Maldita Primavera”? Where I said that I didn’t like the artwork at all? But that I did like the music? Well, now on Bandcamp you can stream the whole soundtrack for the films “La Maldita Primavera” and “Nos Parecía Importante”. Both films by Marc Ferrer. On this digital-only release by Elefant Records we see songs by Papa Topo and also solo efforts by Papa Topo members like Adrià Arbona or Masoniería who is Sonia from Papa Topo. A very kitschy release but definitely catchy and enjoyable. Music is great, I just can’t stand the cheesy art!!

What about San Diego band Mittens? I think I’ve heard of other bands with the same name. I’m not completely sure. I found them on Bandcamp today and they have an album that is set to be released on November 4th that is titled “Endlessly”. I think it will be available as a CD soon on their Bandcamp. I hope so. This is very fine American indiepop, in the long tradition of so many bands, from Tiger Trap, All Girl Summer Fun Band to more obscure bands like the ones on the Kittridge catalog. The band is formed by Ramona McCarthy on vocals and guitar, Lia Dearborn on vocals and bass, Paul H. Ryu on vocals, lead guitar and keyboard and Matthew Burke on vocals and drums. The album includes 11 sweet songs and this is not their first release, you can also check on their page their first self-titled album.

Lastly if you missed the now sold out CD EP for Saint Etienne’s “Dive” the band has now released the 12″ for it. It doesn’t have the same tracklist sadly, because sadly I was one of the ones that missed that CD EP, so clueless I was about it that it was only after Carrick told me I had to get it at their gig, I noticed how dumb I had been. Of course the merch stall had no copies. The 12″ is now available on the band’s website and includes “Dive (3.35 Edit)”, “Dive (Colorama & Shawn Lee Remix)”, “Dive (Greg Wilson & Derek Kaye Remix)” and “Dive (Matt Berry Remix)”. A bunch of remixes. I wish I had the original songs that were included in the EP!

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Finally I figured out which band I should showcase when it comes to Hong Kong (and the 31st in this recap), JoyTrendySound! It was not an easy choice, especially because I’m not that familiar with their music. I knew the one song, “Vegetables”, but didn’t know the rest of their output. So I decided it was time to explore. At the same time other options weren’t easy to find. I couldn’t find any songs by the previous bands Dejay from The Pancakes was involved like Tricycle Riders, The Postcard or Ginger Biscuits. I also read about Kitmatic on old emails by the indiepop-list but aside from one song I had on a Japanese compilation I couldn’t find much more. Happily there were a few more songs by JoyTrendySound on Youtube and that made me curious about them.

The first thing I notice is that the band were a duo formed by Mable and Ming. I also notice that on Discogs there is barely any information about them. There is barely anything about them on Discogs. The only things I could find there were a compilation contribution of Mabel, the song “Disco Disco” to the “The Buzz Chart #5” CD comp released in the UK in 2005 and an appearance on the song “Shade Shades” by the band Alok that was included in the album “29 Minutes from the End”. But no releases listed for JoyTrendySound at all.

I do find a Facebook page for the band. And from now on I notice that it is going to be extremely hard to get any information about them. I know nada in Mandarin. I will have to trust Google Translate. So first things first, let’s see what says in their bio. It says they released an EP in 2002 that was titled “微笑”.  Then in 2010 they released their second album, “未命名”. It also mentions a collaboration with a Taiwanese label as well as working with different musicians like My Little Airport, Fruitpunch, Stealstealground, Porpor Channel, The Evening Primrose, Audrey Lily, The Pancakes and more.

On the website Douban I could find the tracklist for the first EP that was released by POCH Records: “微笑“, “初夏之味“, “光阴的奥妙”, “告别黄昏“, and “夏蚀“. As there is not much information in general about the band I am linking to whatever Youtube songs I could find. I do notice that on these songs the sound of the band is much more influenced by bossa compared to the distorted guitars of the song “Vegetables” that was my introduction to them.

I then find an article on Douban about the band which I translate. I notice that their Chinese name 在草地上 doesn’t really translate to JoyTrendySound but to “In the Grass”. On this article the band is compared to Everything but the Girl and it says that the real names behind the band are Li Shumin and Chen Mingze. It also mentions that both of them were previously on another band called Laughitoff which recorded five songs between 1999 and 2000 and were released as the “Off” EP.

I look for the tracklist for their second album. I finally do find it on the Zoo Records website. Sadly here the album is already sold out. It was released by POCH Records (POCH04) in April 2010. The tracklist for this record was: “未 / M1“, “目的地 / No End”, “別站著 / Don’t Keep Standing“, “回 . 來 / Come Back”, “命 /M2“, “加加減減 / + + – –“, “樂音艷霞 / Music Continuous Breeding”,  “多吃蔬果 / Vegetables“, “名 / M3“, “小心輕放 / Fragile“, “We Are Reality / We Are Reality” and “保重(後會有期版)/ Take Care (See You Version)”. Do check “Fragile” and “Vegetables” as they are really cool videos!

I then find a small article on TimeOut Hong Kong where they are disappointed the band is not Rage Against the Machine (wtf?). There I find out the christian names for their releases. The EP would be titled “Mazzy” and the album would be “MMM” or “Untitled”.

I found a couple more songs on Youtube on the POCH Records account. There is one dating from 2014 called “分鐘像永沒完” which is quite nice and a 2012 one named “驟雨一場” . Lastly there is a 2011 called “When I Was…“. Not sure if these songs were released at all. Maybe some Hong Kong friend could help us!

Randomly, on the Japanese-German band Miniskirt website I find the tracklist for a Taiwanese compilation called “Lobo One” that was released in 2003 by White Wabbit Records. On it obviously Miniskirt appears but also JoyTrendySound with the song “Dang Wo Chong Cou Le”.

I’m not sure where to find the records. I don’t have neither one. Would love the 2nd, as “Vegetables” is such a good song. Maybe someone of my Hong Kong friends or readers could help. Would also love to know what happened to the band members? What are they doing now? If there are any unreleased songs? Where did the play? I couldn’t find any information about gigs at all! There’s so little I could find, especially there is very very little in English, but maybe there is more in Mandarin. I hope I get your help and we can find more about them!

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Listen
JoyTrendySound – Vegetables

One Response to “:: JoyTrendySound”

thanks Roque for the nice words on spa. gladly the forthcoming cherry red box still miss some of the great Liverpool guitarpopbands. i will ship out the new releases to your address the next week.

Uwe Weigmann
October 27th, 2017