Day 18. What day is for you? I am sure some people have been self-isolating for longer.

On Cloudberry news, the Macguffins signed off the CD art. So it is ready to send to press. I don’t know if now is the best time. I want to see how it works with the fanzine. I’m afraid no one will be ordering it if I am honest. Or maybe people need some exciting new releases to keep sane. I want to see. Need to see the best timing for it. It sounds great and looks great. We’ll see. The zines should be arriving this week.

This past weekend I heard new music as always. And as always I got most if not all of my recommendations from the great David Cano who has the best skills ever to find new music on the web. And good music on top of it all!

Melenas: “No Puedo Pensar” is the band’s latest single and video from the band’s upcoming LP that will be released by Trouble in Mind, Elsa Records and Snap! Clap! Club. This is definitely the album I am most looking forward to have in my hands. The band is amazing and as you know I’ve been raving about them for a few years now. Have been lucky to see them live once and meeting them! Even taking a photo with 3 of them! That was something. I love them and I really hope they go for greater things with this record. This new song is amazing. The video is amazing. And I can repeat that word one more time. Amazing.

Ssleeping Desiress: strange name of this Oakland, California, band, with two S at the start and end of their name. They released an album called “Exile House” on March 27 with the label Onderstroom Records. It will be available on vinyl and will include 8 songs of jangly bright and sometimes dark post-punk songs. Pretty interesting!

Candace: their newest song “DM-100” is a terrific song. The Portland trio sounds all dreamy in this new digital single they’ve put out. The band formed by Sarah Rose, Sarah Nienaber and Mara Appel des Lauriers craft very nice melodies, so I have to wonder when will they release their next record?

Adults/Bitch Hunt: the London based label has put out a split tape with these two bands. Each band contributes a song and I must say I am hooked by Adults’ “Armadillo”. What a great pop punk song! Catchy and fun. Their other song is called “Filling Up the Feelings”. Bitch Hunt on the other hand contribute “Spaceman” and “23”.

Well Whale: what a sweet song is “Diana”. That is the latest track by the Jatinangor, Indonesia, band. Really wow. One wonders why is this song not properly released? I hope it does. The band is formed by Faizal Agusdin on bass and vocals, Kelana Ashii on drums and backing vocals, Puteri Ayesha on guitar and vocals and Raja Mahardika on guitar and backing vocals.

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So I will start a new challenge. Why not? It makes me explore more bands this way, forcing me to do extra investigation. The idea for this new challenge has to do with weekdays. I want to feature seven bands, a band that wrote a song with the particular weekday on the song title. I’ll start with Monday, then Tuesday, and all the way through Sunday. I won’t share an mp3 of the particular song necessarily, as it might actually not be their best. But the band that I feature must have had a song wit the weekday in their name. Like today, I want to feature Clark Springs as they had the song “Alternative Monday Afternoons”. Sounds fair?

The interesting thing about Clark Springs was that they were originally called The Rain in the mid and early 90s. Yes, that band called The Rain, the one that wrote “Watercress Girl” and “Tom Paine”, one of my favourite indiepop bands. I still wonder why there hasn’t been a retrospective or something like that so far. From what I understand is that at some point in the early 90s the band had to change names because they were forced to. Forced by another band called The Rain. Which one? That I don’t know. But they changed it to Clark Springs.

Not sure what it means. I found a Fort Clark Springs place in Texas. I doubt that was their inspiration? Who knows? From I could find it seems they clashed with Liam Gallagher’s first band. Not good. It seems the interest in the band went into decline after this name change.

I do know they hailed from Basingstoke in England… where is Basingstoke? Relatively close to London…

Basingstoke is the largest town in the modern county of Hampshire (Southampton and Portsmouth being cities). It is situated in south central England, and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon. It is located 48 km northeast of Southampton, 77 km southwest of London, and 31 km northeast of the county town and former capital Winchester. According to the 2016 population estimate the town had a population of 113,776. Basingstoke is often nicknamed “Doughnut City” or “Roundabout City” because of the number of large roundabouts. Basingstoke is an old market town expanded in the mid 1960s as a result of an agreement between London County Council and Hampshire County Council. It was developed rapidly after World War II, along with various other towns in the United Kingdom, in order to accommodate part of the London ‘overspill’ as perceived under the Greater London Plan in 1944. Basingstoke has become an important economic centre during the second half of the 20th century, and houses the locations of the UK headquarters of many important companies.

In 1992 Clark Springs released a 7″ on the Australian label Summershine (SHINE 017). The band credited both songs on the label to The Rain, their former name. I don’t think the A side, “Talking Kent State”, was released by The Rain but a different version of the B side, “Martha (The Watercress Girl)” was released by The Rain as a 12″ in 1990. Clark Springs at this time was formed by Clive Stubbings on guitar and vocals (as well as writing both songs), Chris Morrell on drums and Tony Duckworth on bass and vocals. Essentially the same lineup as The Rain. From a Twee.net bio written by Chris Morrell in 2010 it seems “Talking Kent State” refers to Neil Young’s “Ohio”. The art was created by Maikka.

As Clark Springs the band would release another 7″. It would be on Orangewood Records (Citrus 003) which I believe was their own label. I believe that because this label only released records by The Rain and Clark Springs as far as I know. This second 7″ came out in 1994 and had on the A side the track “My World Revolves Around Her” and on the B side the song that meets my challenge, “Alternative Monday Afternoons”. I own the Summershine 7″ but I don’t own this second one, so not sure what other details were available on the sleeve.

Aside from this 7″s the band contributed to at least two compilations. On the Summershine Records 1994 compilation “Tomorrow’s Hits Today” (SHINE-US03/ShineCD02) the band appears with “Watercress Girl”. The next year, 1995, the band appears on the Elefant Records tribute album “A Tribute to Felt” (ER-1001) covering the song “She Lives by the Castle”.

As there is little more on the web about Clark Springs, I start to think I should dedicate some lines, a proper post to The Rain. An interview would be better of course. I hope I get in touch with them some day. Now I wonder though what happened with Clark Springs. If they recorded more songs. If they toured extensively or not. What did they do afterwards? I mean these were great musicians, hard to believe they stopped making music. Who remembers them?

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Listen
Clark Springs – Talking Kent State