21
Dec

During the early 90s there was a considerable amount of small American pop bands on both coasts. They didn’t send and promote their stuff on the BBC. Some of them got played on the infamous college radio across the country, but that doesn’t matter as none of them made it big. College radio were all about making you big or not. As expected not many remember these bands today and there’s nothing similar as The Leamington Spa series for them. Most probably a compilation of this kind won’t ever happen as music sales keep sinking but also because it is almost impossible to find any information about them online.

Citrus Groove was one of these bands. They were a bit luckier though, they got a 7″ out on Marineville Records from Brighton, England. This is from where I’ve ripped the brilliant Mesmerized, a hypnotic guitar pop song with traces of psychedelia. The B side was the bouncier Merry Go Round. A very fine record on Andy Parker’s stable. This was their second single. The first one was “Hit the Ground / Beautiful Thing” which was the first release on Honeychain Records. They had a CD-EP later on this same label called “Sunswayed” and it included 7 songs (2 of them are the singles A sides). I haven’t got around the Honeychain releases yet. I will make a wild guess that the label was run by the band, as it seems they were their whole catalog. The label was based in Los Angeles, California. Most probably, the band was based too in this sprawling metropolis; which was home of Aberdeen, Poastal and The Summer Hits. Seems there was a thriving scene maybe a bit similar to today’s Yay! Records scene?

Citrus Groove was Gordon on vocals and guitar, John on guitar, James on vocals and bass and Phil on drums. Any other information would be appreciated as always. I can’t even find a photo of them to post!

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Listen
Citrus Groove – Mesmerized

5 Responses to “:: Citrus Groove”

I loved Citrus Groove. They played in San Luis Obispo all the time.

May 4th, 2012

This band started out in Lompoc, CA. I went to high school with a couple of the band members. I believe they graduated in 1990. They played locally mostly for a few years.

May 4th, 2013

Any chance you could post the b-side please?

grtst
July 3rd, 2015

Uh so my dad is John the guitarist and I was just wondering where you got the record cause I wanted to suprise my dad with a copy cause I mean why not thanks hope you can get back to me

Desmond
August 14th, 2015

Hi Desmond,
Got the record from eBay. Check there or Discogs?

Roque
August 15th, 2015