Last post this week and I believe I can’t go back to two posts a week after covering all Indietracks this week. It was quite a lot of bands to review, most of them new ones for me. Now it is possible for me to concentrate on news, but also on other festivals that had many new names in their lineup. Like Wales Goes Pop and Cologne Popfest. From now on there will be a mix, new and some from these “pop” festivals. So let me start!

Axolotes Mexicanos: a favourite band of ours has a new album coming out on May 11th in 2018. It will be called “Salu2”. To promote that album the band has put together a video for the song “Doble Check”. I am not sure though how to react to the song, I like it but I’m not sure if I like it. It is a departure of the classic sound of the band. The label says this is pop of the twenty first century. Maybe. It does sound much more produced, much more ambitious, but also a bit plastic if you know what I mean. Maybe I just need to educate my ears to love this. Or maybe not.

Azure Blue: I think an Azure Blue song was recommended on the blog just a week ago. Well, this week the band and Matinée Recordings announced a new CDEP called “Whatever ’18”. There are 6 songs on this CD which are “Whatever ’18”, “Every Ending Story”, “Reflections of Light”, “Tragedy and Changes”, “Justice” and “747”. The opening song will actually be part of the forthcoming new album “Fast Falls the Eventide” which is due in June. On the link you can check out “Whatever ’18” and “Reflections of Light”. As always this is fantastic electronic indie pop!

Río Arga: Met Caballito Records’ founder Santi at Madrid Popfest and told me about this upcoming release. I was very excited already as I had recommended this band a couple of times on the blog as I thought they were brilliant. Sadly when I recommended them there was only a tape, and I’m no fan of tapes. This time around there will be a 10″ with 6 songs! That is definitely very very exciting! The songs on the record are “No Te Puedo Aguantar”, “Desde Que Tú Ya No Estás”, “Clip Con Forma de Corazón”, “Vente Conmigo”, “El Gigante” and “Tienes Tanto Por Hacer”. One of them, “Clip Con Forma de Corazón”, is an adaptation of “Plastic Bird” by Galaxie 500. I was quite surprised earlier today when I saw a photo of the band and noticed one of the members was actually the drummer of the fantastic Melenas. It is indeed a small family that of the Pamplona scene. And it makes sense!

—-  Discovering Wales Goes Pop 2018 bands reviews —–

Adwaith: I said that I was going to look at some of the bands I didn’t know that played Wales Goes Pop some weeks ago. This is the first one, and every time I mention one of them, I’ll make sure I also mention Wales Goes Pop! So you know it is not really a piece of news, but more of me discovering new bands thanks to festivals. Anyways. This is some folksy pop, right? Made in Carmarthen, Wales, by two girls and a boy, Heledd Owen, Hollie Singer and Gwenllian Anthony. There are three songs on their SoundCloud and I would say skip the first two, they are a bit too slow for my taste, but their last one “Osian”, is quite enjoyable though not particularly indiepop.

El Goodo: another band from the Wales Goes Pop festival. This time the band hails from Resolven in Wales. The band’s name gives me a bit of annoyance I must say, don’t like much when Spanish is made fun. Might be because of me living in the US (?). Aside from that, the music is very 60s influenced. Garagey sometimes, Beatles-esque some other times. I’m not really interested in this sort of music I have to admit. Hopefully the next batch of Wales Goes Pop bands that I’ll check out will be more of my taste.

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I only became aware of the “From Quebec to Oswego” 7″ by The Autumn Teen Sound a few weeks ago. The name of the band sounded familiar to me, but couldn’t pinpoint where and when I’ve heard them. Or if I actually had heard them before. I thought perhaps I had listened to them on a compilation and then perhaps I had forgotten them.

Well, I just ordered a copy of this record and thought, it is time to investigate. My first question is where is Oswego. I know where Quebec is. I was in Montreal and Quebec City, both located in that Canadian province. But Oswego?

Oswego is a city in Oswego County, New York, United States. The population was 18,142 at the 2010 census. Oswego is located on Lake Ontario in north-central New York and promotes itself as “The Port City of Central New York”. It is the county seat of Oswego County. The city of Oswego is bordered by the towns of Oswego, Minetto, and Scriba to the west, south, and east, respectively, and by Lake Ontario to the north. Oswego Speedway is a nationally known automobile racing facility. The State University of New York at Oswego is located just outside the city on the lake. Oswego is the namesake for communities in Montana, Oregon, Illinois, and Kansas.

I see. It is here in New York state. But I must be honest and say I have never heard about it. Maybe one day I’ll visit? Who knows. The 7″ was released by the very fine label Paris Caramel (Pariscaramel 005) back in 1999. It is important to mention that this label had released the first album by The Fairways. A very important album indeed.

The songs on the record were “Say Something” on the A side and “Talk Dirty to Me” on the B side. The B side is actually a cover of the band Poison. Yes. Really. And it actually is a very good cover. And even though this is not exactly a jangle pop band, it is indiepop thru and thru. It is electropop of course, a style not many are doing these days but by the end of the 90s and the early 2000s there were many bands playing this sort of catchy pop.

Discogs has a bunch of compilation appearances listed. And I see where I must have heard them for the first time, on the “Seven Summers International Pop Volume 2” CD compilation that Tweenet and Kindercore (Tweenettwo & KC023) released in 1998. In that classic comp the band appears with the song “Number One”. ‘

But their first compilation appearances date from 1997. Remember the legendary comp “Pop American Style”? Well, I didn’t know, but it seems there was a Japanese version with extra songs that was released by Flavour of Sound. On it, and not in the American version, the band appears with the song “Sagittarius”. Oddly enough on the notes section on Discogs it says that: Track 23 is listed on the sleeves as “Orange Cake Mix / Feel Your Love”, but it was changed to “The Autumn Teen Sound / Sagittarius” in the final stage of manufacturing.

The other compilation from 1997 was the “Christmas in Stereo” comp that was released by Kindercore in the US and Philter Records (PRPH-2012) in Japan (this one in 1999). It is The Autumn Teen Sound who open the CD with the song “Christmas Wish”.

1998 will see them appear with the song “What Can I Do?” on the CD compilation “Dreams Are Free (With Purchase) (Sympathy for Count Pococurante, Vol. 3)” released by Dark Beloved Cloud (DBC 214). Also they would show up on “The Family Twee” double CD compilation. This compilation was actually not for sale. It was a compilation made by participating members of the indiepop-list. So you can see bands like for example Zapato who was Mario from Shoestrings or Laura Watling, among others. Those were the times when the indiepop-list was really relevant.

In 2000 the band was to appear on 3 compilations. The first was on “Millefeuille” that was released by the Japanese Beikoku-Ongaku (BDBO-E0014). The song they contributed for this one was “Submarine”. Also on another Japanese label, Motorway, the band appears with the song “My Computer Dream”. That on the 7″ compilation “Thru Spray Colored Glasses”(MOTOR-046)  that was part of the “Carafate Roads” series. This was volume 8. Lastly they had the song “Winter” on the “Paris Caramel 2000” CD maxi .

Lastly, in 2001, on Shelflife Records compilation of OMD covers called “Pretending to See the Future: A Tribute to OMD” (LIFE 030), the band did a fine cover of “Telegraph”.

So who were The Autumn Teen Sound? Twee.net immediately clears the mystery. It was Skippy McFadden, just him. Who was he? Maybe the name sounds familiar. He ran the label March Records. Thanks to that I start finding some more information about the band on the web.

First an interview with him in an unknown site. Here when asked about the band name he says: It didn’t occur rather it allured. It was taken from a collection of psych pop records in the 60’s. Apparently, there was a ‘scene’ and a ‘sound’ called the autumn teen sound. If I ever figure out what it is, I’ll let you know. I like autumn. I like sounds. I guess I don’t care much for teens. (ed. HEY!) At least that’s what I’m told to say here. I’m a big fan of really long band names as opposed to monosyllabic ones.

Then when asked when he sees the band in 5 years time: The Autumn Teen Sound will be franchised out and there will be a 4 piece (2 boys & 2 girls or maybe a boy, a girl, and 2 robots) synthesizer only group in every major U.S. town playing Silicon Teens inspired pop songs, for your enjoyment. The ‘sound’ will sweep the nation and there will be a dance called the Autumn Teen Dance. Of course, all the fans will be drinking March brand red wine.

Funny. I keep looking and find a review of the 7″ on the website Furia. It is a good review, saying “A far more ambitious cover, however, is the b-side of this single by March Records operator Skippy McFadden’s own recording project The Autumn Teen Sound (which I will insist on believing is named after the Slingbacks’ song), who turn Poison’s “Talk Dirty to Me” into spiky synth-pop on the order of “Electric Avenue” performed by the Dead Milkmen. After playing it twice I feel like I’ve extracted all the humor I’m going to, but the a-side is proving more durable, a self-effacing synth-collector’s soliloquy called “Say Something” that’s about equidistant from Barcelona and Wolfie.”

And that’s about it about the band. Not much more. I have only heard a few of the songs the band released. I am mostly missing the ones on different compilations. I know the band played in an Athens Summer Music Extravaganza festival back in 1998 alongside The Push Kings, Bunnygrunt, Tullycraft and more. But then, I can’t seem to find much more about them even though the band was around during internet times. What do you remember about The Autumn Teen Sound?

Edit: the 7″ arrived home and noticed that Skippy credits himself on the 7″ as Lord Butterscotch. He played vocals, green farfisa compact combo, behemoth farfisa professional 88, roland jx3p +pg200, elka rhapsody 490, roland tr505, dr. sample sp202, korg delta, siel or400, casiotone 310, the egg, sequential circuits tom, wurlitzer student piano, alesis sr16 and casio sk5.
Other people credited are:
Queen Josephine – backing vocals, yamaha portasound, synsonic drums, tambourine
Leo Con Brio – yamaha cs-5, korg poly 800, speak & spell, casio pt30, magnus chord organ
DJ French Toast – loops, samples & beats, iMac bondi blue
The songs were recorded at The Tiger Trap on the DMT8 unit.

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Listen
The Autumn Teen Sound – Say Something

Well here are the few more Indietracks announcements that needed a review!

Navina: I grin when I see some musician called singer-songwriter. I kind of know what to expect. The folksy, smartsy lyrics, and sometimes cutesy, sort of music. Will Navina change my stereotype? No. Sadly, no. The Cambridge based artist is not for me. It is not bad music by any means, but not the kind I’m interested in at all. Doesn’t say anything to me about my life.

Rafa Skam: not sure what to link for Rafa. I decided linking him to The Yellow Melodies BandCamp as he leads the Murcia band. Rafa has been around in the indiepop scene for many years, and we all remember his band Vacaciones with lots of nostalgia. This time around for Indietracks he will be playing solo. He has in the past done impromptu gigs at the merch stall of Indietracks, but can’t remember if I was around when that happened. I suppose though that he will be playing songs from his bands, or does he have his own songs for when he plays solo? I don’t know. Not sure really what to expect!

All Ashore!: definitely one of the few bands playing Indietracks that I’m interesting in checking out. First because they have some very fine and fun songs. Second because members of the band had been in top bands, favourite bands of mine, like The Parallelograms, Bouquet or Velodrome 2000. Do I need to say more? I’m happy that they are playing. And if it was me, I would put them in bigger letters on the bill, make them headline instead of British Sea Power or Dream Wife for example?

Now the DJs.

Asking for a Friend DJs: these are Tim Hall from Belfast and Trev from Oddbox Records. Both regulars at Indietracks for years. I’m happy Tim gets a chance to DJ, in general I like what he likes and that would probably make him my favourite DJ for this year.

Bum Notes Karaoke with Ruby Waters: no clue what this is. But from what I’m reading Ruby Waters hosts this Bum Notes at the Flying Duck in Glasgow. I was at that venue once. It was a great night I must say and loved hanging with a few of The Orchids that time. Those were the days. From the Indietracks bio it says there will be karaoke but no prizes, that it is not a drag show but there will be queens. It seems a bit all over the place, but I do like the idea of karaoke at Indietracks. Not sure though if this looks like an indiepop karaoke at all?

Des Was a Bowie Fan DJs: doesn’t say much about this DJ other than it is a London clubnight that plays indiepop, post-punk, new wave, northern soul and rock’n’roll. Meaning? they play the same as many other clubs in London. Hoping then, they do it better?

Passionate Necking: another club from London that happened for three years at The Montague Arms. It looks a bit mainstream from the bio as they mention they play Cher or Grimes. Well, doesn’t sound like the disco I want to dance to.

Recordsville Social DJs: this is Kev and Linda who I’ve met many times at Indietracks. Lovely couple. I remember them DJing before mostly girl groups but now they are going to be playing Pop, Punk, PostPunk, etc, etc. I do trust them to play good music. They always have photos with the good bands, like Saint Etienne, or The Primitives. So I believe this is a good option for dancing. Don’t you agree?

Time Machine Disco DJs: Katy from The Just Joans. No more information. I’m no fan of Just Joans, but I do believe the people behind the band had good taste in music. Could be good?

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Here’s a band that had enough songs for an album on different compilations throughout the nineties. Why they never released an album is a mystery to me.

I never knew much about them. The first time I heard Nothing Else’s music was on a compilation called “25 – A Silver Jubilee” (MEL 25) released by Meller Welle Produkte in 1999. Only now, after seeing that my friend Heinz has uploaded a couple of their tracks on Youtube that I decided to pay closer attention to their music, see what I can find about them. Maybe there’s some luck in my investigation.

I do own that CD compilation I mentioned, “25 – A Silver Jubilee”, after I traded some records with the German label. Thanks to that trade I discovered lots of music I must say. I really enjoy trading records. On this simply designed CD compilation Nothing Else appears with two songs, “Beast Inside” and “On The Way”. Here I find the first details about the band. There is an address. It happens the band hailed from France, from a town called Les Mureaux.

Les Mureaux is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the north-western suburbs of Paris, 35.9 km (22.3 mi) from the centre of Paris.

A suburb of Paris then. That’s a bit strange, isn’t it?

That wasn’t their first compilation appearance. Actually the first one listed on Discogs dates from 1993. On the tape “Cerulean Sky!” that was released by Grapefruit (GRAPEFRUIT 7) and Bliss Aquamarine (BLISS 005) the band has one song, “Kiss Me After the Rain”. I must say I’m not familiar with this compilation, but I do see many familiar names in it like The Pristines, Die Busfahrer or Doloras Haze among others. I want to add that I really like the art for this tape.

The second compilation where they are listed on is the one called “Cherries and Sunny Days” released by the Italian label Shiny Sunset (Sunset 11). I was briefly in touch with the person who ran this label on Facebook and sent him questions for an interview. Sadly never heard back. Would have been nice to know more about it. But well, at least we have some tracklists and I can come up with some facts. In this case, Nothing Else contributes “To Play it Fair”, and other superb bands that appear are The Shining Hour, Pencil Tin or Watoo Watoo.

On the 1997 German compilation “Hopping Hobgoblin”, also a cassette, the band appears with two songs, “Beast Inside” and “Norma Jean Died Tonight”. This tape was released in 1997 by the Refuse Collection label (hobo 2). I have no clue about this tape. most of the bands on it, aside The Celestial Daffodils, Blochin 81 and They Go Boom!!, are unknown to me!

Two more songs were to be included on yet another tape in 1999: “On The Way” and “Flat Days”. This time on a French tape called “Love Song” that was released by the A Secret Song (019) label. It is the first time I hear of this label and of this tape. Again many bands on it are unknown to me. There is a scan of the insert on Discogs but it is very hard to read, but it does seem like some band members are listed for each of the bands. Maybe someone who owns this tape could help find out who were behind Nothing Else!

2001 would see them appear on yet another tape, “Suspend Your Disbelief”, released by the underrated Best Kept Secret (LIE 030) label from Italy. Just one song by them was included in this comp, “Beautiful and Lost”.

There are two more tape compilations were they appear though they are undated on Discogs. The first is on the Nessie label from France. This a very very fine label that released the amazing Evergreen 7″. The tape “Superqualifragilistic” (NESS587) included their song “The Darkside of the World”. Again, many obscure bands were included though I’m familiar with a few like Caramel, Poissons Solubles or Newell.

Lastly, again on Meller Welle Produkte, on a tape called “Fairy Tales” (MEL 23), they had 2 songs, “Lightness” and “Blackberry and Apple”.

Then I find that on Shiny Sunset they were involved in a split tape with the Japanese band Sunshower. I did write about Sunshower before. That’s interesting. This tape called “Pop Hits – Sunshower & Nothing Else” (Sunset 12) had 8 songs on the A side by the Japanese band and 7 songs by Nothing Else on the B side. The songs by Nothing else were “Flat Days”, “To Play it Fair”, “Passerby”, “House of Madness”, “The Dark Side of the World”, “Kiss Me After the Rain” and “Tuesday Afternoon”. This was the closest to a proper release by the band.

So making a count, there were in total how many original songs? “Kiss Me After the Rain”, “To Play it Fair”, “Norma Jean Died Tonight”, “Beast Inside”, “On the Way”, “Flat Days”, “Beautiful and Lost”, “The Darkside of the World”, “Passerby”, “House of Madness”, “Tuesday Afternoon” “Lightness” and “Blackberry Apple”. That’s 13 songs. And there are no proper releases by the band. Just these compilations. Why?

Anyone have a clue who Nothing Else were? What other bands were they involved with? And if there were any other songs by them? It just looks like a big mystery to me! Their jangly indiepop is a treat to me, so I would love to know more!

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Listen
Nothing Else – To Play It Fair

It is a new week, but need to keep these reviews coming. So continuing with the Indietracks latest batch of announcements….

Mighty Kids: I read on the Indietracks page that this was a band that played electro-pop. I couldn’t find much about this band though it seems it is led by a girl named Shelley Jane. Indietracks says there’s a Bandcamp with the EP “Won’t You Reconsider”, but couldn’t find it. I did find this Soundcloud by the Derby band and found a mix of ukulele songs, which weren’t really exciting, and some electropop like “Dust”, which are much more enjoyable. Not sure what they do more, the ukulele or the bedroom electropop. I do hope it is the latter.

Happy Spendy: a Glasgow band. That sounds promising already. Also there is a very good photo of the band on their SoundCloud page. Let’s see, let’s try the first song “I Was Just Trying To Have a Good Time”. A bit too slow for me. But not bad. Next seems to be a 3 song EP titled “You Look Lovely” that was released in 2017. “Candy” is the first song. It is nice lo-fi casiotone pop with female vocals. Yeah, the photo looked like they were going to be a very jangly band, especially as one had a very cool bowl haircut. But no, a good electropop lo-fi band.

Worst Place: yeah lots of electropop it seems, not what I love the most, but much better than all the folksy and screamy stuff Indietracks was getting us used to. But now a true discovery by team Indietracks, a very very good one I think. Because I listen to the song “The Sun Changed Everything” and it is a jangly explosion! Just what I needed!! And great female vocals, and good melodies. Nothing I can complain! I really like this! A quartet from London, who doesn’t seem to have any releases so far, just a few songs online. And the last one, the one I mentioned, is the best. One of the bands one shouldn’t miss at Indietracks I believe.

Marlaena Moore: it doesn’t start good when I read her bio on Bandcamp. It tells me she is a rare talent. Don’t know how to take that. Well, I’ll let the music speak I suppose. The Edmonton, Canada, artist’s last album “Gaze” is what I start playing. Hmm. Just not for me I suppose, middle of the road indie. Doesn’t tell me much. I wonder, where’s the p!o!p!?

Tim the Mute: this is Tim Clapp’s alter ego. Tim runs the label Kingfisher Bluez who collaborated with Cloudberry once releasing the Parcel Post 7″ (I still have a few copies if anyone is interested). I figured I  have never reviewed his music on the blog. So what’s fair is fair. His latest was the album “Take My Life Please!” which you can still find on Bandcamp. It is hard to pinpoint, say what what sort of music this is. There’s a bit of everything, though I’m sure calling it pop is fine. In debt of 80s pop too is a good description as well. But there are all kinds, for example “Draining”, is a terrific song. That could have been recorded by many of our favourite bands. Then there are others not as accessible like “A Girl You Don’t Like”. It is a bit of a rare bird, but when at its best, it is really interesting.

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When did I first listen to The Originals? Was it through Soulseek, downloading MP3s for their “Chocolate Box” 7″ or was it through Javi’s old blog where I remember him writing about them. I can’t seem to remember exactly. I do remember the 3 songs on it, and today I thought looking for a copy of the record on the web. Well, no luck.

At some point I’m sure I’ll find a copy, in the meantime, I want to know more about this band. Who were they? What did they release? What happened to them? They seem to be pretty obscure but it is also true that most obscure indiepop fans know them. So in a way they are among the least obscure of the obscure bands. That does make sense? It does to me.

The first ever release by the band was a shared flexi with Po! that was released on Ruth Po!’s label Rutland Records (RUT 01). It was the first release on the label and it was released on 1988. The Originals opened the single sided flexi with the song “Japan” while Po! appears with “Glass King”. I don’t own this record, so perhaps someone can help, it is said that there is an insert with information about both tracks by Larry Rutland.

The “Chocolate Box” 7″ came out next, again on Rutland Records (RUT 03). This time there were three songs. On the A side there was “Chocolate Box” and “Clarence” and on the B side we find “Steven On the Radio”. This record came out in 1989 and all songs were recorded on 4 track at Solitude Studios in Leicester during the spring of 1989. I am guessing here that the band hailed from that city. Studio and label were based there.  On this record we find out also the names for the band members in the band.
Terri Lowe on bass
Yvonne Blair on drums
Kevin Young on guitar
Gary Blair on vocals

The artwork was done by Yvonne and Kevin. I notice that there are two Blairs in the band. Were they siblings? Probably, right?

In 1989 Rutland Records was going to put out a tape with the titled “They Were The Originals 1984-1989” (RUTT 13). This tape seems to be a retrospective, a compilation, of all recordings, releases and demos, by the band. I would so love to hear this tape in its entirety. There are in total a whopping 19 songs! On the A side we find “Chocolate Box”, “Clarence”, “Steven on the Radio”, “Japan”, “Cuckoo”, “Only 25”, “My Friend”, “On a Western Shore”, “Wish” and “Teddy Bears”. The B side had “Chimera”, “Flame”, “Larry”, “Mr. Jones”, “Little Tears”, “Kevin’s in Green”, “Norman”, “Blue Grass” and “My Friend”.

It does seem that a year later the band recorded a 2 song demo with new songs. This is listed on Dicogs as “2 Track Demo-Tape”. It had the songs “Number Nine” and “Listen to the Cat”. Never heard these two songs either.

There are 3 compilation appearances listed. In 1989 the band appeared with the song “Steven on the Radio” on the tape comp “My Favourite Sunday Vol. 1” released by the Japanese label Boshi (Roddy 004). This is a very cool compilation with great bands that have been featured on the blog like The Ammonites, The Candy Darlins or The Aurbisons among others.

In 1990 the band contributes the song “Mr. Jones” to the tape compilation “And They Call It Pop” that was put out by Fragrant Records. I must say I’m not familiar with this compilation that was put together by Fragrant who seems to have been based in Newton Abbot in Devon. There are many amazing bands here too like They Go Boom!, Feverfew or Strawberry Story among others.

Lastly, on the German tape compilation “Nachtsonne – The Noise and The Melodies” the band appears with the song “My Friend”. I’m curious about this tape as there are some bands I’ve never heard before like Desert Rain, Monday Post or Ostzonensuppenwürfelmachenkrebs.

I decide to check out if the band members are listed in any other bands. Well, Terri Lowe had been involved in Ruth’s Po! other band, Ruth’s Refrigerator. He played bass mostly but sometimes rhythm guitar. Also he worked with Po! playing guitar and producing! The other members don’t appear on Discogs under other bands.

I notice my friend Alex wrote a post about them back in 2007 on his Siete Pulgadas blog. There is sadly no other details aside the ones I’ve found so far. But still it is great to see friends love their music too.

Twee.net has some more tapes listed for the band. There is a “Live” and “Out-Takes” tapes on Rutland Records (RUTT02 & RUTT06). Also there’s also another tape listed that was to be released after the “They Were the Originals”.

Then I find a blog post by Ruth Po! where she mentions The Originals! First she says:
At that time, there were government grants available for people setting up their own small businesses – the Enterprise Allowance scheme. You had to prove you had £1000 in the bank and some kind of plan, and then you qualified for a weekly allowance. I didn’t have £1000, but I did know someone who agreed to transfer the money into my new Rutland Records bank account and then have it paid back again a week later. The name Rutland Records came from ‘Rutland Avenue’ in Leicester, where my friends in The Originals lived, but it also refers to England’s smallest county, which is next to Leicestershire, measuring about 20 miles across and is a symbol of English eccentricity and doing things small-style.

Then she talks about The Originals themselves!
The Originals: Rags, Yvonne, Kevin and Gary were a really well-rehearsed zany band who shared rehearsal premises with PO! This was a basement on the corner of Chatham Street and Stamford Street, underneath a clothing factory. Now, there are student flats there, but you can still see the load out bay we used when doing gigs. The Originals rehearsed every night; their sound was like a more rock version of The Smiths or Talking Heads, with childlike talk-singing from Gary. I admired their work ethic and made Julian and Jan rehearse more than they liked to. At about 10.15pm each night, we would all go into the nearby pub ‘The Black Boy’ for a drink.
The first Rutland Records release was a 1988 shared flexi-disc between PO! and The Originals. The PO! song was ‘Glass King’, recorded at Dave Davis’ home studio (credited as Wolfman De Moog III). Dave was the partner of Teri Wyncoll, from the community arts organisation Multiplex. By the time of recording, Julian and Jan had left PO! and so the musicians from The Originals acted as my backing band.
With home computers and dot matrix printers in an early stage, artwork had to be produced by hand. This involved using Letraset rub down lettering. You bought a sheet of the font that you wanted and rubbed over each letter to transfer it onto the paper. The sheets were quite expensive, and after a couple of years, the plastic letters dried up and cracked, but there was something artisan and time-consuming about Letraset that pleased me.
A recently acquired teddy bear ‘Larry Rutland’ belonging to Rags from the Originals became the boss of Rutland Records; he is pictured on the Originals’ side of the flexi and also wrote the sleeve notes. Most of the Rutland newsletters and information were printed on red paper; even then I had some idea of ‘branding’ within a supposedly amateurish tiny business.

Really interesting indeed! She also shares that inner insert from the flexi, mentioning that the song by The Originals, “Japan”, was recorded at the Bankby Road Studios in Leicester by Wayne George and engineered by Ricky Wilson in 1988.

There is yet another Ruth Miller interview on the web that dates from Fall 1995 on the Monk Mink Pink Punk fanzine. On this one Ruth says:
Terri Lowe — plays lots of guitars all the time, when he’s not doing that he’s out looking for guitars to buy. He used to play the bass with a fab band called The Originals who recorded one single for Rutland. He’s a student studying English and he’s just won a prize for poetry. He was also the bass player in Ruth’s Refrigerator and he wrote some good songs for their albums. He is a hard shell with a soft centre, and his favorite word is “no.”

And as you can imagine that’s all I could find about them. No more information. I find it strange that the band members weren’t involved with other projects. It seems at that time everyone in the Leicester scene was in every band or kind of.  Just Terri Lowe. Also would love to know the tracklist for those tapes that I found on Twee.net. There are many questions left to answer when it comes to The Originals.

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Listen
The Originals – Chocolate Box

More Indietracks announcements. Gosh, it was just a week ago that I had reviewed the first batch of bands. And now there’s more! Also DJs were announced! I will need to figure out who are the people behind these DJs names as well, maybe someone can help me with that. This is what Indietracks posted:

We’re delighted to announce that Amber Arcades, Gwenno, Spinning Coin, Tigercats, Colour Me Wednesday and Tinsel Heart are among 24 artists and DJs added to the Indietracks 2018 line up today. They’ll join artists we’ve already announced for this year’s festival, including British Sea Power, Honeyblood, The Lovely Eggs, Dream Wife, Girl Ray, Sacred Paws, Darren Hayman, Even As We Speak and Anna Burch. Other artists joining the bill today are Linda Guilala, Best Praxis, Ex-Vöid, Sugar Rush!, Mighty Kids, Happy Spendy, Worst Place, Marlaena Moore, Tim the Mute, Navina, Rafa Skam and All Ashore!. Plus we’ll have late night entertainment from Asking For A Friend DJs, Bum Notes karaoke with Ruby Waters, Des Was A Bowie Fan DJs, Passionate Necking DJs, Recordsville Social DJs and Time Machine Disco DJs.

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I just discovered The Electrosonics. Really. I must admit that I have a bunch of 7″s by their label, Drive-In Records, but not any of their CDs. It happens that The Electrosonics only released in CD format on the label during the 90s. So yes, I missed them. Now I should try to catch up, get copies of their 3 releases, sit down, play them, and enjoy.

If you are into shoegazy sounds this might be for you. Dreamy girl vocals and guitar pedals. It is very nice indeed. And I’m even more surprised as I noticed that band members were later on Paper Moon, a band I do own all of their albums!!

And yes, if I said Paper Moon, it means the band hailed from Canada, though not from Winnipeg as Paper Moon but Vancouver. It happens that after The Electrosonics split Heather Campbell moved from Vancouver to Winnipeg. But yes, not here to talk about Paper Moon, which even has a Wikipedia entry, but about The Electrosonics.

I was lucky to find a handful of songs on Youtube and discover their music, though I must say that after hearing “Roo” I wasn’t exactly hooked. But then “Triamene” played and thought, this is brilliant! I want tom hear more. But neither of these two songs appear on their first release, the CDEP “Infra-Yellow” (DRIVE03 & QUID007) that Drive-In Records and its sister label Quiddity Records released in 1996. On a cardboard sleeve, this CD only had 3 songs: “Infra-Yellow”, “Retroflex” and “Star Stream”. All of them recorded at Downtown Sound Studios in December 95 and mastered at Gold Rush Studios in April 96.

The band was formed by Eric White on bass, vocals and guitar; Curtis Hobson on drums; Heather Campbell on guitar, keyboards, backing vocals; and Clare Kenny on guitar and vocals. Heather also took care of the artwork for the CD and the photography was done by Curtis. The engineer and producer for this record was Paul Siczek. A nice feature of the CD was that it included lyrics. It seems CDs these days rarely include the lyrics.

Their next release was the CD EP “Rampion” (DRIVE19) released in 1998 by Drive-In. This one had more songs, 5 in total. They were “Lazy Maisy”, “Triamene”, “Roo”, “Unsung Engine” and “Memory Bar the Door”. This time, August 1997, the band recorded at Bullfrog Studios in Vancouver with Howard Redekopp as the engineer. The songs were mastered by Craig Waddell. The images on the record are credited to Beatrix Potter. Here the band is much more detailed on what instruments they played. For example Curtis played a Moog Rogue, korg bass pedals and Roland beat box. Eric played a Moog Taurus and a lap steel. Heather played farfisa, arp axxe, Moog Opus 3 and Jupiter 8.

The band continued releasing with the Grand Rapids, Michigan, label that Mike Babb used to run. So a third CD EP came to life in 1999 and it was titled “Neutron Lullaby” (DRIVE36). This time the CD had one more song than the previous one, 6 then. But the truth is that three of them were remixes of the first 2. So, we find “Neutron Lullaby”, “Back on the Light” and “Prodrome” and also “Neutron Lullaby (Object Remix)”, “Back on the Light (Pre-Ignition Mix)” and “Neutron Lullaby (Dream Sequence Mix)”.  As you know I’m no fan of remixes but it is understandable as it was the late 90s. The Object Remix was taken care by Kevin Bolster, the Pre-Ignition Mix by Andrew Withycombe from The Ampersands, Hydroplane, The Cat’s Miaow and many more, and the Dream Sequence Mix by the band Buddha on the Moon.

The songs on the “Neutron Lullaby” EP were recorded in September 1998 at Lemon Loaf Studios in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Also on this record we see that Michaela Galloway, who would later be in Hinterland, is credited for vocals and flute. Was Michaela Galloway behind the name Clare Kenny? I see her name in different bios but for some reason it only appears on their last EP.

I find an interview to Michaela on the website Step and a Half. Here when asked about the Electrosonics she says:
I used to be in Space Cadet, and in the Electrosonics. I am a much better musician now than I ever have been before. Joining the Electrosonics was very educational. Suddenly I was playing the Starfish Room (a big jump from the Press Club) and recording on something other than a 4-track. The other members of the Electrosonics were older than me, had been on tour and in the studio before. I feel like I really cut my teeth in that band. In the Electrosonics Eric White really had primary creative
control.

There are a few compilation appearances for the band. The first dates of 1996 and was a CD compilation called “Tiddleywinks (Volume One – Fun For Kids of All Ages!)” that was released by Chester’s Funtime Record Collection (CFRC 9503-2). Here the band contributes the song “Star Scream”.

In 1998, on the US CD compilation “Losing Today Volume 1” that came with the Losing Today “The Sky Is Grey” magazine the band appears with “Roo”. And the next year, on another US CD compilation called “Installation:03” that came freely with the third issue of the magazine Masstransfer, the band shows up with “Back in the Light (Pre-Ignition Mix)”.

I check the band members and I feel there are more than one Clare Kenny (unless she played in Orange Juice and The Apartments?) and Eric White (was he in the late 70s in The Kentucky Colonels? Doubt it!). On the other hand Curtis Hobson doesn’t sound like he was in the funk band ADC Band in the late 70s either, right? The only one that seems to have the right listings is Heather Campbell, who played in Paper Moon, Bossa Nova and also lately in The Intelligence Service.

A bit more of searching and I find that actually Clare Kenny was making music in 2014, I found a Bandcamp for a band called “What’s Hot!” where she was involved with. Much, much, punkier than The Electrosonics I must say. Then I stumble upon an old Myspace page where there are plenty of photos of the band.

Another find on the web is a review of a gig where The Electrosonics were support of a band called Perfume Garden on February 5th, 1998. This is what it says:
Clare Kenny is haunted by eyes. It’s fifteen minutes to showtime, and she’s starting to get a little stressed. She tries to find the beer tickets. She tries to find the rest of her band, the Electrosonics. She ponders Perfume Tree’s attempt to ‘choreograph’ the Electrosonics’ performance. And then, in front of the stage, in place of the usual disco ball, she’s confronted by the photo-mobile. It’s a the Electrosonics, gazing at their shoes zoetrope-like contraption which projects old photo portraits onto the walls. Old eyes stare blankly at Clare. In Victorian times, the London police would take pictures of the eyes of Jack the Ripper’s victims in the belief that their killer’s image would be burned into their retinae. Old eyes. Clare’s had enough of this.
Clare’s father (western Canada’s number one Jacques Cousteau lookalike) has driven all the way from Alberta to see her play; apparently he was getting a little bored. But the Electrosonics don’t disappoint. The set is tight, and with a guest appearance from Wendy Young (ex-Kaneva) on backing vocals and flute, the Electrosonics’ sound gets an extra layer of warmth and richness. The sound retains the Sinead O’Connor singing for Slowdive element it always has, but it’s a welcome thing to hear the keyboards becoming better integrated into the overall sound and the songwriting taking on more complex, suite-like arrangements. In other words, the Electrosonics are doing what all good bands should — evolving and improving by challenging their own abilities.

This is the online version of the Drop-D magazine. It actually has two more entries for The Electrosonics, but only an interesting  mention:
Look at the Electrosonics. With an independently-released CD out and a tour under their belt, but without airplay on a station that the general public isn’t afraid to listen to (face it, listening to CiTR is just too “icky” for your average Z95 fan to contemplate), the best they can do is scrape together less than ten friends here to see them. Well, it’s the public’s loss, really. Mildly sloppy though the performance is, there’s enough eau-de-Slowdive hanging in the air around them to make you realize how much you miss shoegazing. Though the pedal steel guitar is sadly absent from their setup, Claire Kenney’s Perfume Tree-style vocals and an occasional keyboard fill that quotes Zbigniew Preisner’s soundtrack work (The Double Life of Veronique, etc.) more than make up for it. The Electrosonics are just keeping the dreampop torch burning, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

I can’t find much more about The Electrosonics. I do find more information about other bands that the members were involved with. It must be that The Electrosonics were active in the 90s, when the internet wasn’t yet as popular. What I do find on the web it indeed dates from those dates on websites that look very old, antiques really. I have many questions of course, like if there are more songs recorded by the band, or if they were in any compilations at all. In Twee.net, they are listed as an American band, maybe that is a reason I never looked into them. But now I want to know more about them! Do you remember this brilliant Vancouver band?!

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Listen
The Electrosonics – Triamene

Last post of newish discoveries for now I believe. Next post, Friday hopefully, should be of the new batch of bands that have been announced at Indietracks. On top of that there were bands that played Wales Go Pop! That I’ve never heard plus should look into the bands at Cologne Popfest. There’s much going on, and even with 3 posts a week it seems that it is not enough!

Anyways, let’s start:

Cariño: where did this beauty come from? Am I back to the early 2000s where Spanish bands sounded a bit like this? I don’t know. I’m just happy to hear their song “Momento Inadecuado </3”. From the photo it looks like a trio, and have another song on Bandcamp called “Canción de Pop de Amor”, which is also ace. They hail from Madrid and they self-define themselves as a neighborhood pop band. Whatever that means. In any case this is fab, and I hope someone puts them out soon. Real soon.

Wrstlng: Anders, Patrik, Jon and Oskar are the Gothenburg based band Wrstlng. They are not very new, it seems their last release dates from December 2016 or so. I missed it. I’m only discovering it now but the thing is, that it is really enjoyable and I should share it with you, right? The EP called “Hoarse Bear”, has 7 songs of top guitar pop. I believe it was only released digitally sadly, unless someone knows better?

Boys: definitely not a big fan of linking to music websites, but if that’s the solution for me to listen to the latest song Nora Karlsson has unveiled, I will do. You can check “That Weekend” if you click on the link. This song is to be included in the album “Rest In Peace” that is coming out on May 11th. Yes, I need to pre-order it. Soon.

Tracyanne & Danny: it must be a week or two when I shared with you some of the music that Tracyanne is doing as a duo with Danny. Well, now there is a video for the song “Alabama” and it is great, not that far from Camera Obscura really. I also noticed they are both performing in NYC very soon. Seems, I will have to attend!

Two for Tea with Duglas T: a Youtube show by Duglas from BMX Bandits? Really? Yes! On this first episode we see Duglas T. Stewart sharing a good time with his friend Norman Blake from Teenage Fanclub. I would suggest subscribing as each episode will feature Duglas chatting and singing with a guest. A top initiative by the Scottish bandito!

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This is a very obscure song, and at this point it feels more of an anecdote than anything else. You see, I found it on Youtube while looking for other bands. There is a Youtube user called Robertpere2 that has a bunch of goodies, a lot of post-punk but also very good jangle pop. And I sometimes just let all videos play. See if there’s something good for me to discover. And just like that, I found out about The Harlows.

Definitely the image that was uploaded caught my attention. It is very indiepop. The guy and the girl in summer clothes, dancing. It looks like it is an “official” image. Perhaps a scan of the cover of a tape or a CD. Though it does look like a photocopy. Most probably it is a tape then. But who are they? Where they are from? Are there more songs? The only information available on this video is a line that says:  “Produce by Dan Boardman and The Harlows, mixer by Dan Boardman and Randy Duerr”.

At least it is something. A hint. Some info so I can start digging. The song itself is really good! To my ears it sounds like mid-90s American indiepop. According to the video, it was released in 1995. So in that sense I’m in the right track.

What is a Harlow? Well, there is a town in Essex, England, with that name. A town were many great jangle pop bands hail from. Then it is a last name. Some famous Harlows, for example, Jean Harlow, a Hollywood actress or George Henry Harlow, an English artist. From what I understand then, that last name, Harlow, is the transferred use of an English surname with Anglo-Saxon origins derived from a place name. The name comes from the Olde English elements “hoer” meaning a pile of rocks or stones and “hlaw” meaning a hill. So the surname essentially developed to identify a person who dwelled on or around a rocky hill area.

That doesn’t shed any lights about the band. That’s true. Well I do have two names, Dan Boardman and Randy Duerr. Maybe that could point me somewhere. I found something where both names appear together. There is a release by The Spectors called “Cockfights & Cakefights 1992-1996”, on the Get Hip Recordings Bandcamp. The Spectors being a garage rock band from Minneapolis. And here I see that Dan Boardman played guitars, drums and vocals, in this band. And that Randy Duerr helped produce some songs at Wigged Out Studios. That kind of gives away that The Harlows were from the area, from Minneapolis. But what else?

Not much more. Can’t find any other mention of the band anywhere. Who were they? Just the one song that appears on the web, which is great, but nothing else. Who were the band members? Were there any releases? Anyone remembers them?

Edit (same day, 3pm)

Just got a comment by Harley Pageot pointing me that the blog Wilfully Obscure has actually written about the band. Why didn’t it show up on Google I don’t know. But there is much information here to be shared.

Actually there are 2 posts about them. The first, is about a 1995 tape, the one that has the cover I was talking about. I learn that the vocals were taken care by a Charlton Metcalf and that they were indeed from Minneapolis. This first tape, had 9 songs: “Catch a Wave”, “February”, “4 Leaf Clover”, “Cowards Sunday Drive”, “Lookout”, “Deminers”,  “Hemingway”, “For Rent” and “Untitled”.  It is interesting though that it is mentioned that this tape, and the latter one, from 1996, sound like two different bands.

That second post on Wilfully Obscure is indeed about the 1996 tape. Here there is a female vocalist named Rachel and the band is compared to The Spinanes and her vocals to that of Sarah Shannon of Velocity Girl. The songs on this second tape were “Purposeful Heart”, “Tsunami”, “Anyway”, “Jetlag”, “Shiner”, “Lean”, “April Shakes” and “Escar Go Karts”. Something that actually got y attention was that a Michael Alan Perry says that he was in the band. Is this the same Michael Alan Perry that was behind Manic Pop Records perhaps? And that is not all. There is a 1999 article on the page Ink19 that talks about a CD by The Harlows called “Stages I” released by Monkey Poop. It was a double CD, a compilation of their four previous releases. I know of two tapes now. There were two more? Now we have more information but there are still lots of questions to be answered!

Edit: Next day, 11am.

Bernd has pointed out a CDR released by Monkey Poop Records (oo1) dating from 1998 called “The Second Contestant is Number Twenty-Three”. There is not much information about it but we do know it included 5 songs, “Fondue”, “Sass-On”, “Bidet”, “Photon Falls” and “Hombre”.

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Listen
The Harlows – Catch a Wave

Thanks so much to Chris Hughes for the interview!! I wrote about Red Hour on the blog some time ago looking for information as I loved their songs. Happily he got in touch and was up to answer all my questions. He was also very kind and has shared memorabilia of the band! Check out Sounds Review (Jan. 1991) and Melody Maker Review (Nov 1991).

++ Hi Chris! Thanks so much for getting in touch! How are you? Where are you at now? Still in Barrow-in-Furness?

Where am I. Where am I. Inside. I am fine. Itching eye brows. On a chair. In a studio attached to a farm. Outside it is vertical sleet and wind. Pervades every pore. Nearly as bad as Oymyakon. Barrow in Furness is very west UK. I swapped it years ago for very east UK. East from west. Westerly went easterly. So now I east. Not west. Sun looks different.

++ Are you all from Red Hour still in touch to this day? And when was the last time you picked up your bass? Still in a band perhaps?

Spin out slides onto the record turntable sometimes. Still like the starkness of the white label on the black vinyl test pressing. Simplicity. I listen to that sometimes as I said. So I figure I still in touch musically. We all connect up as individuals one way or another I think. A bit like a circuit in series. We not all connected together adjacent but there is a threaded connection. Like a circuit in series.

Think I picked up my bass about 6570 days ago roughly. I have a habit of leaving basses with other folk and band folk. Think I picked it up when I passed through a while back visiting one of them folks a while back. About 6570 days approximately.

Still in a band? No. Not really. No. An ongoing musical artistic distant collaboration with son palace is about close as I get.

++ Let’s start from the beginning. Like what are your first musical memories? What was the first instrument did you get and how? And how did you learn to play bass?

I cut my dance moves and learnt the tune and words to ‘The Banana Split Show’ in my early youth and if you segue that with some of Sidney Bechet’s ‘Summertime’ and a bit of ‘Black Beauty’ soundtrack well that be the start of my musical education as a youngster. Although I did quite like the quietness of the moon landings on the black and white television we had. And I mean The Clangers were pretty musical too. And I quite liked Bagpuss in a calming quiet way.

I used to hawk around junk shops and second hand stalls in my home town as a teenager. I remember seeing a cheap nasty bass with flat wound strings on it. I bought it. It was cheap. It was a bit nasty. Flat wound strings and the feel of the bass got me hooked.

I tried to sell it 6 months later at a shop near where I bought it from. I told the stall holder I wanted to sell my bass and I handed it to him. He said ‘I don’t want to buy a cricket bat’.

++ Had any of you been involved with other bands prior to Red Hour?

No. This band was the first expedition out into band territory. Prior bands. No. None. No.

++ How was Barrow-in-Furness back then? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

There was ‘The White Lion’. And then there was ‘The White Lion’ and I guess if you were stuck . . there was ‘The White Lion’. The White Lion pub was the place to be. The musicians hang out. About the size of a small small, small terrace house. Barrow lies on a western peninsula of the U.K. It has a few satellite islands connected to it. Piel island. Sheep island. Tiny islands with stretching dunes of sand hills and natural reservoirs. You could sleep in the dunes and see shooting stars. Lakes and meres filled with char and pike and also mountains lay just outside Barrow.

Record emporiums. Well there was one. Earthquake Records. Genius place. An education. An education and two thirds. And in size much smaller than a small, small terrace hose. Tiny. Almost dog kennel sized shop. Diminutive. But smelt amazing.

++ When and how did the band start? What was the recruiting process like?

Guy turns up at my parents.

With a cassette.

Plays. See no evil.

Plays. Do it clean.

Plays. Read it in books.

Best job interview ever.

No words said.

Didn’t pay too well.

But best job ever. That was the recruiting process.

++ Why the name Red Hour?

The term is used by some employers to describe a one hour slot that is relatively less productive than the other more productive hours in a productive working day. That is where the name came from. Seriously.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

Creative process. We did more takes and repeats than Stanley Kubrick.

School halls. Basements. Cellars. Church halls. Factory outhouses. Working men’s clubs. Scout huts. Tin sheds. Bowling green huts. Living rooms. Flats. Occasional stairwells. Sometimes outside.

++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

Throw together Tom Verlaine, The Mighty Lemon Drops, the Bunnymen, the Fall, the Wedding Present, REM, Captain Beefheart, the Family Cat, Cocteau Twins, Gary Cook, the Pixies, Stravinsky, the Smiths, John Peel, Husker Du. These were pretty much the vinyls and music that were getting spun around that time at the flats and parties that were going on in the Furness Peninsula.

++ I discovered your music through the compilation “I Might Walk Home Alone” that was released by Wilde Club Records. On it, you appear with the song “Treat”. Wondering then two things, if you can tell me the story behind this song and how did you end up appearing on this compilation? I suppose you played the Wilde Club?

‘Treat’ on this compilation was Barry’s (Wilde club) choice as I remember. I seem to recollect we wish a different track had been used but it was pressed and complete. And so it remained.

Story behind Treat. One of the few songs to collapse on stage due to too many cold ales before a gig. No excuse your Honour.

++ Your first release was a 7″ on a label called Cogent Records who mostly released stuff by The Tier Garden. Who were behind this label and what was your relationship with them?

Cogent was ran by ‘The Tier Garden’. They were close to ‘Grown Up Strange’ who I know you have mentioned previously. When we put out ‘5Qs’ as it seemed to make sense to use and grow that label. They kindly let us jump onto it ( a thanking you and salut Cogent). Cogent also put out records by ‘Perfect Circle’. Cogent and The Tier Garden were basically the same team. They were also responsible for getting bands like ‘The Weather Prophets’, ‘The Stone Roses’ and ‘James’ to play the legendary ‘Bluebird club’ in Barrow in the 80s. And yes, Cogent bunch – they frequented The White Lion.

++ The two songs on this record are “Five Questions” and “Films About Me”. Both were recorded at Out of the Blue Studios in Manchester. How was that experience?

I remember the engineer having underpants hanging from his sock. I remember 50 takes at trying to get drum sounds and speeds right (with a hangover). I remember having to travel back weeks later because the master tapes screwed up. I remember folk from the Inspiral Carpets turning up during recording. I remember the cramped travelling down to Manchester in a Hyundai. Recording one day. Mixing the next. Partying and not sleeping.

++ Both being fantastic songs, can I ask, in a sentence or two, what are they about?

‘Films about me’. Well you did ask. I remember Dave telling me this was a about a young man who took his own life by jumping in front of a train – I think because of bullying. And 5Qs is simply about 5 questions – I would be vaguer if I could. I always try to think what this track is about but always get side tracked by the pretty nice bass line.

++ What inspired you for the artwork, for the design, of the sleeve for this record?

A big thanks to graphics and sleeve designer Jonah F who helped with this. Jonah sorted all the Cogent label decals out and pretty much ran the whole cover himself. The ear shapes used to be a way of telling if you had criminal traits. Black, white and 1 colour due to cost. Also Jonah was not involved in the ‘spin out’ cover and does it show. Yes. My ear is not on the cover.

++ After this release Barry Newman from Wilde Club was to release your 12″ on his label. On it there were four songs and I notice one of them was “Five Questions”. Was it the same version or a re-recorded version of the one that appears on the 7″? And why did you decide to include it again?

I think we all thought 5 Qs might be the song that would get airplay and create a wide wider audience. The recording is exactly the same mix. So including it with ‘Spin Out’ made sense. The wider wider audience never quite happened.

++ I’ve actually worked and been in touch with a few bands that released on the Wilde Club like The Suncharms or Shine! How was your relationship with Barry and with the bands he released? Did you like any?

We gigged at least twice with ‘The Suncharms’. I was at a gig several years ago and I starting talking to the guy next to me. Turned out he was from The Suncharms. We talked about travelling the length and length of the country in a cramped Hyundai to play a gig to one person who was normally the person behind the bar.

I only communicated with Barry via letter as I remember. Records got released. Press releases got sent. I think Barry was waiting for the wider audience to occur also. I know Barry initially wondered if our singer was from ‘The Wolfhounds’. David Canavan compared to David Cavanagh. Our singer was ‘Canavan’.

++ Were there more compilation appearances by the band other than the one on Wilde Club?

No more compilations that I am aware of.

++ Was there any interest from other labels? Perhaps big labels?

The hazy memories of sending out press releases, boxing records, phoning radio stations and phoning record companies and the waiting for the phone to ring and letter box to squeak. Why we never got an agent I don’t know. Proper old school diy approach – the perfect way to make sure you always keep a nice, small, very small niche audience. The Cogent team were much better prepared and business like. Red Hour were not not not business minded.

++ You recorded a Peel Session in 1992. That must have been amazing. How was that? Did you meet Peel or not? How long did it take to record it? Who worked with you? And why did you choose the four songs (“All I Need”, “William Jailor”, “Free Fall”, “Almost There”) for this session?

The Peel session. Got aired twice. Down to Maida Vale studio 3 to record the songs in a day. All sardined into the old Hyundai and straight to London. Was a bit like a kids day out at the Wonka factory. I remember being told to go and have some food at the canteen and there was the whole of the London Philharmonic striking up in the adjacent studio and there was us wondering if we had to pay for our beans on toast as we held our trays looking like something from a Dickens film. We took no photos of that day. Our lack of visual documentation is commendable in general. The songs sound so fast because the situation was so surreal. I think our bodies and coordination were just lost in the strangeness and madness of where we found ourselves.

The 4 songs were pretty much the latest tracks we had done. Rather than rely on 2 or 3 tried and tested older tracks that we knew were solid – we opted for 4 new ones. Another case of not really maximising your search for a wider audience. I don’t think these tracks had what ‘Spin Out’ and ‘5Qs’ had. Would have been nice to hear them recorded at Maida Vale.

I talked to John Peel the night the session went out. I listened to the show live at home and had to dash out to the red phone box one hundred yards from my flat to give him some gig details. Got back in time to hear him announce them. Nice use of technology. Nice surreal phone call.

++ And by the way who is “William Jailor”?

I believe ‘William J Leptimane’ is mentioned in the first line. An oblique nod to Mel Brooks in Blazing Saddles.

++ There are no more releases by the band, that’s kind of a bummer. But I did find on YouTube a bunch of unreleased songs by the band. Where do these come from?

Including the singles released there was probably about an album worth of material that would cut it. In my opinion ‘5Qs’, ‘Spin Out’ and ‘Films about me’ were probably the most accomplished of them. They had a certain spark to them. Some of the unreleased tracks would be from live tapes from the many gigs we played around this time and would not have made it too a next recording. There was a beautiful close knit crowd so many gigs were recorded and passed around.

++ Are there any more unreleased songs aside from the ones I found on Richard Attwood’s YouTube account?

I seem to remember after ‘Spin Out’ we kept looking to put out a new release as quick as we could but ‘Wilde Club’ were booked up with releases and time just seemed to run away. I think those singles and the Peel session were a natural end. Considering when some of us started in the band we could not even string two notes together – I think we did alright. When I say us. I mean mostly me.

We had a few songs that were recorded after Spin Out that definitely started to list towards PJ Harvey and Steve Albini loud and quiet sound dynamics. They be on someone’s dusty tape somewhere.

++ And if you were to choose your favourite Red Hour song, which would it be and why?

Spin out. Films about me. They just have a bit of something. Simple raw pop charm punk.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? Any in particular that you remember?

Many? Yes. Many. No diary of where we played but we did cover some ground. I did not drive at the time. I got to sleep and slumber whilst others drove. I remember the gigs with ‘The Wedding Present’ vaguely. I remember sitting backstage at the Edinburgh gig. It was incredibly quiet – you could hear a pin drop (don’t call me cliché man). I went from backstage to front stage to check turnings of all the equipment. The place was lifting. Rammed. Electric. Full. Walked back stage again in shock. That was a fun time. I think we sold one t shirt.

Another legendary trip in the Hyundai with guitars on our laps was to play ‘The Arts and Anarchy Festival’ in Lille. (Thanks to being aired on Peel). Great bunch over there looked after us over there. I miss the old Hyundai.

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? Any anecdotes you could share?

Bad gigs. Just the ones where you travelled back in the early hours after playing only to the bar tender for £25 in a pub the size of a dog kennel, where the A&E folk never turned up and the record company folk could not be bothered to turn up either and that was after travelling 300 miles each way. Yes. And breaking down in the snow on the way home. With no food. No drink. In the wilds. With no phones. No money. Yes. That happened loads.

++ When and why did you split? Did you continue making music afterwards?

Right time. Peel session. 2 decent records from a bunch of no hopers. (Well, mainly me). Gigs across Europe. 3 or 4 T shirts sold. That big enough for me. And I think we got tired of being stuck in snow in the Hyundai together.

++ Was there ever a reunion gig or talks of a reunion gig?

No. And. No. No. And. No.

++ How do you feel about the C86 genre, do you feel like you fit there or you’d say you were something else?

I loved the feel of the C86 era. Sarah records. Pastels. Orange Juice. Postcard records. These groups certainly padded out my record collection. I do not think we were part of that particular genre but it did feature a lot within the scene in Furness. The Peach Thieves were very much a perfect fit for that. Another rather cute Furness outfit.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

I remember the interview with Mark Radcliffe for BBC Radio that Geoff and I did in Carlisle. We turned up feeling a touch anxious or maybe a massively amount anxious. We were not exactly outgoing Shakespearean types. It was about as comfortable as Theresa May meeting Mark E Smith. Another long, long, very, very quiet 150 mile journey home. But at least we got home that time.

I think after that we gave up on radio.

++ What about from fanzines?

We were too busy sending out press releases and phoning record companies and partying and organising gigs and rehearsing and working and waiting for the letter box to open and packaging records and mailing them out to think about involving fanzines. (Now that would have given us a wider audience wouldn’t it. Why did we not get an agent again?)

++ I hear Geoff Cook continues making music to this day. Anywhere you could point us where to listen or check out his music?

Son Palace. Fine recordings by this reclusive outfit. Never play live. Very C86 in the recording philosophy. Think there will be a new album later this year. Was well received by BBC Radio 6 and Gideon Coe. Son Palace – Accumulations is available now through bandcamp.

Also Castles in Space records released Gary Cook recordings a couple years back. Stunning stuff from the C86 era. Also available on bandcamp also and pressed on some pretty good vinyl. To avoid confusion. Gary Cook and Geoff Cooke are not related other than they have the same surname but spelt differently. Both from the Furness Peninsula and both with fine fine recordings to their respective names.

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

I have a studio I sit in. It is incredibly quiet. There is a chair. Some paper. A few other things. There is rain outside. Cold. I have a chair to sit on. On which I am sitting.

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

That bit were the drumsticks go ‘click’ ‘click’ ‘click’ ‘click’ and you hit the strings and the amps are turned on.

++ How is Barrow-in-Furness today? Has it changed much? If I was to visit one day, what would you say are the sights I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks I should try?

The sights you should not miss in Barrow.

Well. The White Lion has gone.

So.

Well I would say go to either Piel Island or Sheep Island.

Yes. Sheep Island or Piel Island.

If I were you though…. I would opt for Piel Island. It has a pub and a castle and 3 houses.

Sheep Island has no houses, no pub and used to be used as a smallpox isolation quarantine.

++ Thanks again Chris! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

As far as I know. This is true. Salut.

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Listen
Red Hour – Five Questions

Starting a new week. I must admit that the last few days I have been out of it. You wouldn’t believe it but I’ve been really busy collecting stickers for the World Cup sticker album by Panini. I know, I know. But I’m enjoying it, feeling like a teenager again. And not just buying them, but trading them with people from all over the US. That is kind of strange though, my memories are of me trading stickers during recess when in school, face to face with someone else. Now everything through Facebook groups. And it seems these people do these with every single football album that comes out! A totally interesting community, with its own rules. In a way similar to indiepop collecting. Anyways, I did save a bunch of new links to share with you. Here they are:

The Catenary Wires: Amelia Fletcher’s band is releasing a new 7″ with WIAIWYA Records this June. You can listen to the first track, “Was That Love”, on the Bandcamp. It is a lovely slow song. No drums. Just Amelia’s classic vocals, an acoustic guitar, and some little sound effects that give the song a cozy atmosphere. And of course “du du du du” boy/girl choruses that are terribly catchy. It is a great song. Wonder how the B side, “What About the Rings” sounds like!

Azure Blue: Tobias Isaksson’s project Azure Blue is a favourite for many years. Even had the chance to see him play live once at NYC Popfest many years ago after sharing a cab ride. His electronic indiepop is quite unique, and his records are truly great. It has been a while since his last release “Beneath the Hill I Smell the Sea”, as it was released in 2015. Well, fear no more, there is a new song streaming on Nöjesguiden now called “My Final Candle”. And it is glorious.

Jonston: here’s some bedroom pop from Spain. I kept seeing ads for the latest album by Jonston on my Facebook as I am a fan of their label, Gramaciones Grabofonicas, and thought giving this a try. “Los Sentimientos” is the name of this 8 song album of eclectic songs. José Ignacio Martorell is the person behind the Jonston moniker and it seems this is his 4th record, but it is definitely the first one I’m listening to. At first listen, I think my favourite song might be “Podría Ser” or “Canción de Autoayuda”.

Distant Creatures: got an email the other day by this Washington D.C. band and I must say I was kind of skeptical at first. Don’t usually trust bands that email me. But as soon as I played the first song from their album “Snares in Safe Harbors”, I thought, “this is great!”. There are 13 songs in this album which is available as a CD through the band page (I need to get a copy!) of superb guitar pop with boy/girl vocals. Just listen to the opening song, “A Friend’s Halo”, and you’ll understand my excitement. Or the jangly “In Real Life” which the guitar bit sounds kind of like The Smiths (right?). The band is formed by Mina Karimi, Dane Di Pierro, Chris Matthews, Ben Silvernail and Mike Lewis.

Human Music: found out about this Winnipeg, Canada, band thanks to David. He had shared a brilliant song called “Mortis” so of course I needed to investigate, find out more about them. It turns out this song is part of a self-titled cassette album that you can stream on Bandcamp. It is an album of 15 songs, but it is not long by any means, only two songs are longer than 3 minutes.  This tape is not that new, it was released back in December, and the band is not new either. Their oldest songs on Bandcamp date of June 2014. But well, I’m only discovering them now. They are formed by Mef, Cole and Jory. Good stuff!

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fallout: radioactive particles that are carried into the atmosphere after a nuclear explosion or accident and gradually fall back as dust or in precipitation.

Definitely Heinz’s Youtube channel is a trove of great indiepop music. Obscure and not. I have discovered so much music thanks to his cherry-picked uploads. It is not surprise then that many of these bands he has shared have found their way to be featured on the blog. Today’s Austrian band, Fallout, is one more to add to this list. A list I am sure will keep growing and growing especially if I keep posting 3 posts a week!

3 posts a week is quite a lot, but there is so much going right now, so much new music that if I don’t post this much a lot of music won’t be recommended. Or, if I post it later, it might be old news, maybe the records will be sold out. So I try to stay on top. I remember a year ago when there was so little going on, that even writing a post a week was a challenge. It is definitely a better time for indiepop.

I heard today for the first time the song “Sorry, Bird!” by Fallout thanks to Heinz as I mentioned earlier. I had never heard about this band. Who were they? I loved the chiming guitars. I noticed that he had uploaded the art for what looks like a compilation tape titled “Two By Art 2”. This detail definitely will help me track them down.

Indeed, I could find a Discogs page for them where the band is listed with three compilation appearances. Sadly no proper releases are listed for the band. That is bad news of course. I would have loved to track an album, or a single. But there’s nothing like that. But we do get to know that the band was formed by Chris “das tal” Gissing on drums, Gunther Aigmüller on guitars and Heimo Mitterer on bass. And they hailed from Graz, in Austria.

Graz is the capital of Styria and the second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. On 1 January 2018, it had a population of 325,021. In 2015, the population of the Graz larger urban zone who had principal residence status stood at 633,168. Graz has a long tradition as seat of universities: its six universities have almost 60,000 students. Its historic centre is one of the best-preserved city centres in Central Europe.[4] For centuries, Graz (Slovene: Gradec) was more important to Slovenes, both politically and culturally, than the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana, and it remains influential to this day. In 1999, Graz was added to the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage Sites, and the site was extended in 2010 with Eggenberg Palace. Graz was sole Cultural Capital of Europe for 2003 and got the title of a City of Culinary Delights in 2008.

I don’t know many Austrian bands I must say. This comes as a surprise. Of course when I was doing last year my round of guitar pop bands from around the world I featured the Austrian band Bicycle Thieves. Fallout will be the second one. I can think of one more, Die Brüder, that Uwe Firestation recommended me once. But my knowledge really ends there.

The band as around just for 3 years, from 1985 to 1987, and as I said they appeared on three compilations. The first one seems to have been on the “Zebra Graz U.T.T. Compilation”. This was an LP comp released by the label Ursprung Tonträger (IQ 0185002) in 1985. The first two songs on this record belong to Fallout. They were “Jungs Über Der Stadt” and “Sorry, Bird!”. Interestingly the first song lyrics are credited to a Bogdan Roscic who had been on a band called A Red Flag Souvenir with Gunter Aigmüller.

The Augsburg label Two By Art was to release a bunch of tape compilations in the late 80s. In two of them Fallout was to appear. On the tape “Running Out! Austria Sampler 1” the band contributes 5 songs! These being “The Tue”, “Sonnenstrahl”, “Jungs Über Der Stadt”, “Stang” and “Boy About Town”.  The other bands in this compilation were A Red Flag For a Souvenir, The Sleam, The Passengers and Pete Pram & the Perambulators.

The second appearance is on the “Two By Art 2” tape (Two by Art 2) released in 1987. This is the tape were Heinz took the “Sorry, Bird!” song. I recognize the artwork. This is also the only song the band contributes to this tape which has so many unknown bands. I wonder how did they sound? If they were also jangly or not? I do know that the tape was compiled by a Thomas Wieland who might have been the person behind the label.

When looking if the band members had been involved in other bands I notice that aside from A Red Flag for a Souvenir, Gunter had been also in Pete Pram & the Perambulators and High ‘N’ Mighty. It seems the last thing he had been involved with is with jazz music. Would be nice to find some tracks to have a listen to these bands. Heimo, in the other hand, had also been involved with a band called Portnoy who released an album in 2007. I find a website for this band where there is even a small biography for Heimo, but it is a mystery to me why Fallout is not mentioned at all. I also notice he has done producing work for bands like the Trainleaders and has contributed to Binder & Krieglstein. For Chris I could find that he had guested in a band called Rosi Lebt.

I can’t find anything else really by Fallout. I thought it was going to be hard as there are only 3 comp appearances and 7 songs total. I would definitely would love to know more. Like why they didn’t release anything? What sort of music were they into at the time? Did they gig all Austria? Maybe even Germany? Who knows, there’s very little on the web about them, so I count on you for learning any details about the band!

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Listen
Fallout – Sorry, Bird!

Continuing with the new indiepop discoveries, here are 5 more! But I also want to remind you that the Salt Lake Alley 7″ should be out around the corner. Hoping for it to arrive late this month or early May. I’ll keep you updated. So please do keep that in mind as we are taking pre-orders now !

Tiny Fireflies: Well, well, the fantastic Chicago duo whose single I’ve been recommending time and time again with every little piece of news that became available. Now they have unveiled a video for their song “Nothing”. First impression? It is really nice and cinematic. It is great indeed. And hey, Kristine and Lisle, top actors too. I can’t wait to receive the 7″ at home!

The Sunjays: I checked this Hamburg band as they are supporting the Pale Lights on April 16th. That day the Brooklyn band will play that great venue that is Astra Stube (oh! the memories!). The band defines themselves as an indie rock band and that might be right, but they do have a pop sensibility to them that makes me enjoy their music. Their last release was a limited edition CD titled “Apples” which came out in 2016. There are 5 songs total and I think my favourite at first listen might be “Konnichiwa”.

Caliza: another discovery from the Spanish label Gramaciones Grabofonicas. Not exactly indiepop but a very good synthpop band, well, one-woman project. Caliza is Elisa Pérez, who used to drum for Cosmen Adelaida and Rusos Blancos. I haven’t heard the latter but this new song that I’m listening called “El Paso” is much nicer than anything I’ve heard by Cosmen Adelaida. This song will be part of a new album, her 2nd, that will be titled “Mar de Cristal” which will be available only on vinyl (and digital too).

The Color Waves: “Better Angels” is the new song that our friends from Buffalo/Glasgow have uploaded to SoundCloud. What is this about? Well, the band seem to be working on their debut album “At Bay”. When will it be released? I don’t know. Hopefully soon! I’ve loved their music since the first time I heard them. They sent me a demo and loved it. At that moment I couldn’t put it out immediately, but the wait paid off and I released a brilliant, precious, record. I am sure their album will be as good!

The Sherbet Fountains: wow! just wow! Couple of weeks ago I was recommending Laz’s old band on the blog as he had shared the one song. Wasn’t expecting to hear more so soon. But dreams come true and I see the song “In the Picture” was uploaded to Youtube. It is a demo that dates from 1987 and here Laz tells us a bit about the band: The Sherbet Fountains were, from left to right, Ally T (vocals), Laz (guitar), Maggie (violin / drums), David (bass / keyboards ). They played gigs in and around Kilmarnock, Scotland during 1987 and 1988. I saw on Facebook that there might be the intention to release a 7″ with their songs. Wouldn’t that be magnificent? Also, I should ask Laz to do an interview about his band!!

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A shoegazey indie-rock band from Melbourne, Australia (1992 – 1995), that appeared on the Summershine label. Hamish Cowan (guitar, vocals), Nick Batterham (guitar, vocals), Chris Smith (bass), Nick Peeters (drums).

That’s how Discogs introduces everyone to this band. I look into my collection and notice I only own so far two of their records, “Plague” and “Idle Eyes” 7″s, but before that they had put out two singles and also an album. I’m far behind. Will I ever catch up?

It is true that all of their releases happened on the very fine Summershine label. Their first was even released in two formats, as a CD and a 7″. That was the “Endless” (SHINE 26) single, that had a CDEP with four songs and a 2 song 7″ vinyl single. It was released in 1992 after being recorded during February that year. The CDEP included the songs “Plague”, “To Be Found”, “Babylon Fallen” and “Endless” while the 7″ had “Plague” and “To Be Found”. I suppose the CD is t he better deal then, 4 songs instead of two. But, I must say these two releases have different art, always designed by Nick Batterham, so might be worth tracking them two. The producer and engineer for this record was Simon Grounds who had been in bands like Rococo Pops and The Shower Scene from Psycho.

Their 2nd single, “Teenage Goth Suicide Cult” (SHINE 43), also was released in both formats. 5 songs on the CDEP, 2 on the 7″. This time though the 7″ didn’t really come with proper artwork. From what I read the 7″ came in a generic Summershine sleeve. Not that nice. Released in 1993, all songs were recorded by Nigel Derricks at Metropolis Audio, a music studio in South Melbourne that sadly closed in 2006. It was mastered by Paul Bryant. The 7″ had two songs, “Teenage Goth Suicide Cult” on the A side and “Anvil…(Cop Out Radio Edit)” on the B side. The CD on the other hand did have a photo of a girl on the front and of a woman on the back as its art. This CD had the songs “Anvil”, “Teenage Goth Suicide Cult”, “In Hollow Time”, “Ebb” and “Anvil (Cop Out Radio Edit)”. Something curious is that on this record there are these names for each of the members. For example Nick Batterham appears as Beebaa and Laalaa. Hamish Cowan has Biggest Muff, Matt Sigley has Spacebass and Crazykeyss and Nick Peeters has The Beat. A new name does appear here right? Matt Sigley. He had been in many bands like The Daytime Frequency, Belles Will Ring, Drop City, Eden, Polak, The Lovetones, The Steinbecks and even The Earthmen who I had interviewed in the past.

Lastly the release of the 7″ “Idle Eyes” (SHINE 34). This time too there was a CDEP for it. It was released in 1993. The CDEP included four songs, “Gummy Bear”, “Idle Eyes”, “Lips Still Move” and “Meccano”. The art is credited to Nick once again and it seems the name of the girl on the front cover photo was Christine. For the CDEP we see a darker take of the photo, while on the 7″ it is a much lighter print. The 7″ just had two songs, “Idle Eyes” on the A side and “Gummy Bear” on the B side. The producer for this record was again Simon Grounds.

Blindside continued having the luck of not many bands in the 90s. Their album was to be released on both vinyl and CD. “Hopes Rise” (SHINELP007) was released in 1993 and had 9 tracks on both of its versions. The songs were “Barely a Glimmer”, “Idle Eyes”, “Gummy Bear”, “Comforts”, “Hopes Rise”, “Past”, “Once Before the Last Time”, “Ether” and “To Be Found”. The songs were recorded on a 16 track during December 1992 and it was once again produced by Simon Grounds. The art for the album was again different in both versions. The LP has a small black and white sort of photography, while the CD has a monotone white and blue building photo.

Then we see listed 4 compilations on Discogs. All after the release of their album. In 1994 on the Summershine compilation “Tomorrow’s Hits Today” (SHINECD002) they appear with the song “To Be Found”. Something interesting is that this album was released in Australia and also in the USA by Summershine itself. Remember that Summershine’s boss moved to the USA around this time.

On “Youngblood 4” (RooArt 4509971130),  released by rooArt in 1994, the band contributed the song “Cliffhangar” which seems to have been unreleased up to this point. This was a compilation of young Australian bands. There was also a “Youngblood 3+4” that included both volumes (volume 3 dates from 1991) of these compilations and again on one of the CDs we see “Cliffhangar”.

Then of course there was the “Just a Taste” compilation that Slumberland Records released in 1995. It was an introduction to the US public of the Australian guitar pop scene that Summershine was championing. We see all the usual suspects here, from The Sugargliders to The Rainyard. Blindside appears on the record with two songs, “To Be Found” and “Ether”.

That was about it when it comes to releases for the band. But not for the band members. For example Nick Batterham has released music by himself but also with The Earthmen or Cordrazine and Hamish had been part of Cordrazine and released some songs under his own name.

I look for Blindside in Melbourne, and I notice these days there is a Blindside Gallery there. Inspired by the band? Probably not. I need to find more information about the band. My first find is this line: Nick Batterham released his first records as the singer-songwriter of Blindside in 1991. They supported international acts like Smashing Pumpkins and received accolades including “single of the week” in UK Spin Magazine in ‘93. This on a Nick bio on Head Records.

Sadly aside from a mention saying they supported The Sugargliders, there is not much more information on the web about them. There is definitely much more on Nick’s solo project and Cordrazine. Blindside seems to be forgotten. But I’m sure the Aussie readers of the blog remember them. And will definitely let me know if the band had any other releases, compilation appearances, or unreleased tracks. If they had been in any other bands that I haven’t mentioned. And about their gigs, whereabouts in Australia they gigged?

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Listen
Blindside – Plague

Thanks so much to Erik Illes for this great interview! The Watermelon Men might be one of the most important guitar pop bands to ever come from Sweden. They were around the late 80s and released a bunch of singles and 3 albums. They toured many countries in Europe and even graced the cover of Sounds magazine in the UK. On the web there is not much written about it, so took the chance and asked Erik many many questions, and was even surprised that there is actually a 4th album that remains unreleased!

++ Hi Erik! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! Very honoured to do an interview with you. I know you are still making music now with the band Distant Days. Care telling me a bit about the band? Who are part of it? How does it sound like? Maybe there are some links to share? And how different or similar would you say Distant Days is to Watermelon Men?

I lived and worked overseas for many years, in Vientiane, Phnom Penh, Sarajevo and Brussels. I returned to Uppsala in late 2013. Over the years I had written many songs that I wanted to try them out with a band and record. Michael Funke, who plays guitar is an old friend of mine. He found Anders Vretenäs and Ulf Eklund on bass and drums – and it has really worked out with the chemistry. The music, in a spiritual and emotional sense, comes from the same place as with Watermelon Men. It is a bit darker and even more dramatic. Someone described it as a meeting between Simon & Garfunkel and Joy Division. Our first album, Dying of the Light, was released on vinyl last year and has been well received. It’s also available on Spotify and SoundCloud.

++ Now that I’m looking at info on the web about the band something struck, for a band that had quite a following and that released more than a handful of records, the information on the web is little. That is quite strange. Do you know why that may be?

In 1994 I moved to Laos and that was de facto the end of the Watermelon Men. So, it was really before the era of on-line communication. We never ourselves published anything related to the band on internet. It’s nice to see though that people upload and make available songs on Youtube and elsewhere.

++ This might be a long interview! You released 3 albums and around 10 singles/EPs. I have so much to ask you. But  let’s go back to the very beginning. What are your first music memories? Like what music was played at home while growing up? And what was your first instrument and how did you get it?

I have two older brothers who very much was part of intruding me to the world of music. It really started during the era of glitter rock – I heard the intro riff of 20th Century Boy by T. Rex and it had such a transformative effect on me that it lasts until today. Then came punk and new wave, and through that we started to listen to bands from the 60´s that were a source of inspiration for new wave bands like The Jam and XTC.

I started with flute and trumpet but it was the guitar that I was drawn to. I learned to play it on my father’s nylon string guitar. Then I had my first electric, a Gibson Les Paul copy, that I swapped for a Gretsch Chet Atkins when I met Imre von Polgar to complement his Rickenbacker. Then we were in the early 80’s and the quest was to chime louder and clearer the The Byrds. We found out that when certain frequencies met, other and unexpected sounds could appear, it was magic.

We were not very skilled musicians. At the time we started, we very much associated skilled musicians with playing fusion or Toto. Bands looking bad and playing dull music. After a while we realized that being able to play had its merits to develop the arrangement and sound that the song required.

++ How was Uppsala back then? Where do you usually hang out? What were the venues to check out up and coming bands? Or what were the good record stores there?

Uppsala is a university town. Usually we would hang out at cafés. There was a really good record store that had a good collection of punk, new wave and prog. We were fortunate to have two good venues in town where many international bands, The Saints, The Fleshtones, The Triffids, Alex Chilton to name a few, came to play and where we were given the chance to perform.

++ I’m assuming you were in Uppsala studying as it is a university town, am I on the right path? If so, what were you all studying?

Everyone in WM grew up in Uppsala with the exception of our bass player Hans Sacklén who came from the south coast. I studied political science and languages. Imre IT and Hans macro-economics.

++ Were there any like-minded bands in town that you liked?

Not many I would say. The Preachers, a garage-rock outfit, were close allies. I quite liked Webstrarna and The Pretty Triggers as well.

++ And in general, what would you say are your all-time favourite Swedish guitar pop bands ever?

What comes into mind are band like Tages, The Wannadies, Eggstone, Simian Ghost

++ How and when did the band start? How was the recruiting process or how did you all know each other?

It started around 1983. Imre had been in a defunct band with Johan Lundberg. I didn’t know Imre but one day I read an article he wrote that was published in one of the major evening papers comprising a list of the best songs using Rickenbacker guitars. He was only 17 and I was 16 at the time. It made me get in contact with him to propose that we started a band. I think I played the bass guitar for the first rehearsals and we had someone trying out as singer. Then we picked up Hans on bass and I became the singer. Then we recruited Erik Westin as a drummer. He had his own band, called Start, where he played guitar. Erik turned out to be a great drummer and song writer but he never felt as comfortable with the drums as with the guitar.

++ Had any of you had other band experiences before being on Watermelon Men?

Yes, there was a number of short-lived constellations. I was in a band called Allan Ball and then my first band with Imre (The Rave-ups), Hans played with a band in Southern Sweden called RH-negative. Johan played together with Imre in Martin Bendix and the Taxi Drivers and had a band called The Original Rummies.

++ Why the name Watermelon Name? What’s the story?

My grandfather cultivated watermelons in Hungary, then there was the song by Gun Club.

++ How was the creative process for the band? Whereabouts did you practice?

Imre was the mentor of the band. He had this enormous extended network from which he managed to harvest al this fantastic music of all different eras and genres. Soul, psych, pop, French film music, surf, hard core – he had the ability to find quality in all strands of music. We rehearsed in a shelter in the center of town. Usually me and Imre would work on the songs before we introduced them to the band. Erik Westin brought his own material and sometimes recorded home demos he shared.

++ And what would you say were your influences?

So much music of different genres, soul, folk, psych, garage, punk, new wave, pop. You need to mention The Byrds, Love, Velvet Underground and the Kinks. Among our contemporaries our peers were REM, The Barracudas, Robyn Hitchcock, The Triffids, The Go-betweens, The Church among others.

++ Your first releases date from 1985, where the “New Hope for The Lonely” 7″ and the “Past, Present and Future” albums are released. Something that caught my attention was that the album was released in three countries straight away, in Sweden, Germany and UK. I suppose your main label was MNW in Sweden and they licensed the record? And just out of curiosity how did you end up signing to MNW?

As far as I remember, we came in contact with MNW through Jörgen Johansson. It was Jörgen through his Tracks on Wax label who financed the recording of the two first albums. Jörgen was a fan and a very important mentor to us. He has this incredible ability to find and share quality music. A very generous man. Maybe you are acquainted with his Facing Yellow compilations with timeless and forgotten pop music?

++ Was there any chance to release the album in any other countries perhaps?

Yes, the album was licensed in Europe through a German Company, EFA, and in the US and UK through What Goes On Records.

++ Even from this first release I notice something about the art for your records. There’s generally always an evocative photograph on the cover. Who was usually in charge of that?

We were looking for covers that captured the landscape of the music. The artwork was done by Hank, the drummer of the band Wayward Souls, who worked in visual design. All that changed when we were signed by WEA for our third album. How I hate that cover! They brought in an American producer who was instructed to give us a more contemporary slick 80’s sound. The whole project was a trauma and a battle. He hated guitars. Finally, when everything had been recorded and mixed, we persuaded the label to give us two more days to put back the guitars that were erased and to remix the whole thing. It improved things but we were still highly unsatisfied with the way it sounded. It wasn’t us. I was like listening to the record of someone else.

++ This first album has the song “Hungarian Heart”, which speaks of yours and Imre’s background. I wonder though aside from this song, if Hungarian music was much of an influence to your sound?

It was. Me and Imre used to travel to Budapest every year and hang out in restaurants and cafés looking for the best gypsy musicians. We came across this band with the lead violin being replaced by cello. They wore black tuxedos and were incredible. The saddest and most uplifting music you can imagine.

++ The first record I ever bought by Watermelon Men was the “Four Stories by the…” 7″ that was released in 1985. I noticed that that record and many others were recorded at Studio 55 in Uppsala. What can you tell me about this studio. Does it still exist? Who ran it? Was it convenient? Was there a liquor store close by or a cheap restaurant for the breaks?

It was located in an old villa in Uppsala. A quite area, not much else around. The state has liquor monopoly in Sweden, so no off-license liquor stores in the neighborhood. The studio is closed since many years ago.

++ In 1987 there is a split single with the American artist Peter Case. This is quite a one-off release, there are no other split releases by you. And also because it came out on the label Bucketful of Brains and it was the first and only time you collaborated with them. How did this happen? Were you aware of Peter Case beforehand? Did you like his music? Did you ever meet?

I think it was organized by the What Goes On label. We liked the music of Peter Case but we never met. We did a cover of Flaming Groovies’ “I Can’t Hide”. The same year we played it live at The Dingwalls in London together with Chris Wilson from the Flaming Groovies/Barracudas and Robert Wills

++ Your second album dates from 1987 and this time you expand to Austria and Switzerland thanks to the German label Yellow Ltd. On this album I notice that you expanded your sound by having session musicians. How did that come about? Did you know them? Was it easy to work with them?

We loved strings and had already worked with string musicians on our first album. We also expanded with horns, maybe not as successful. The steel guitar player was a friend’s boss from an insurance company. We were influenced by the way the Triffids used steel guitar, but this guy was more old school country in his playing.

++ This album have many of my favourite songs by the band. But I will choose one hoping you can tell me the story behind it: “Postcard View”. Any chance for that?

It was written by Erik Westin. His songs were usually quite light and melodic.

++ Your last album, “Moving Targets” from 1988, was released by a big label, WEA. How was that change? Did it influence in any way your music or the big label is not as terrible as everyone thinks?

It was a horrible experience. They signed us but were not really into what we were doing. They wanted to change it into something contemporary and that could appeal to a larger audience. The main problem was the choice of producer. The album flopped and we were dropped.

++ Your last release dates from 1993 and was an EP on Fat Lady Records and Amigo. I wonder why that gap in between releases? Like 4 years since the “Nobody’s Fool” 7″! In the 80s you were releasing stuff more often. What happened in between the album and this CDEP?

It took a long time to recover after the WEA debacle. Erik Westin left the band. We recruited a new drummer, Ola Jameson, and a keyboard player, Jonas Rehn. We recorded a full album in KHM studios in1993. But it was never released as I moved to Laos in the spring of 1994. There are some really good songs there.

++ I see that on Discogs there’s an unofficial album titled “Fifteen Stories by The Watermelon Men” which is an LP with the whole gig in Stuttgart on February 23rd of 1986. Do you have a copy of that? Did you ever got in touch with the unofficial label Lounge Records?

I think I have copy somewhere, we were never in touch. I like the way they have misspelled the title of some of the songs.

++ Also I did find some Youtube videos from that gig. It looks and sounds great! I like the style of yours, kind of Postcard Records a bit. Were you into vintage clothing? Thrifting? Or where does that look come from?

We certainly did not like the mainstream fashion of the 80’s. We were more into classic and stylish outfits of the 40s-late 60s era. But we were quite eclectic.

++ Your music appeared on a few compilations during the eighties mostly, like on “A Real Cool Time Distorted Sounds from the North”, “Efa’s Tönende Musikschau”, “Bada I Hitz” and “Yellow Unlimited”, but I’m quite curious by you appearing on two compilations dating from the 2000s, “Children of Nuggets” and “A Real Cool Time Revisited”. Was there a renewed interest in the band at the time you think?

Since Nuggets was such a source of inspiration when we started the band, we felt honored to be on the “Children”-compilation.

++ Is there any unreleased material by the band? Or everything was released?

Yes, the whole album we never released in 1994. It is named Stories from the Blue House.

++ From all your repertoire, which is not little by any means, do you have any favourite songs? and why?

From our first album, “Seven years”, “Back in My Dreams”, “New Hope for the Lonely”. They capture the true spirit of the band. “Heading for the Woods” and “In Another World” from “Wild Flowers”. “Tonight” from the “Moving Targets”, there are some other decent songs on that album but I have problems with the overall sound. “Four Heartbeats”, our last single, I also like a lot.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? What about abroad? Which countries did you visit as a band?

We played many gigs in Europe in 86-87. Lots in Germany, The Netherlands, France, Greece, Switzerland, Austria and the UK.

++ And what would you say were your best gigs and why? Any good anecdotes to share?

The gigs we did by the end of our first tour in Germany. We had become a really tight unit and Johan had developed into a first class show man. The gigs we did in Athens at the Kytaro Club were fantastic. We played two nights. The first night ended in complete mayhem. The following night we were a bit fragile and decided to start with only slower number to keep things under control. Then suddenly we only had fast number left in our repertoire . I remember thinking “Here we go, I hope we will survive the onslaught” as we started the first chords of You should be mine and people started to storm the stage.

++ Were there any bad gigs at all?

No disasters, but the gigs just before Erik left the band were not as exciting as they had been.

++ I read you appeared on the cover of British magazine Sounds. How did that happen?

We had a five star review of Past, Present and Future in Sounds. They followed up the review with the interview and gave us the cover. The article was written by Ralph Traitor, who was an alias for Jeremy Gluck, the singer in Barracudas. Me and Imre were traveling in South America for three months at the time when the article was published. Probably a bad career move.

++ I feel though that your biggest following was in Germany. I even bought some of your records there while visiting. How did this come to be? Was it just because of being released by a German label and having that support? Or perhaps there was another connection? I’m sure you also toured Germany extensively?

We had a good label in Germany. We were well received. Germany was full with great venues where people came for the music. We were not used to that in Sweden.

++ Were there any TV appearances of the band perhaps?

We did some TV appearances in Germany. One live show (could have been Rockpalast) and a few silly play backs.

++ And what about fanzines? Were you part of the fanzine culture of the 80s? Maybe involved in some?

There was one particular Swedish fanzine called Larm that was an essential guide to music. It was a fanzine started by Lennart Persson, a legendary Swedish music journalist, who sadly passed away a few years ago.

++ You released songs on tape, CD and vinyl, this is a simple question, what is your favourite format and why?

I am not too picky, but I have a soft spot for vinyl given that its size and format gives more room for the artwork and that it’s more tangible. I always listen to music while commuting to Stockholm, then vinyl is not that handy.

++ When and why did you split? What did you all do afterwards?

We split because I moved to Laos for work. When I returned after three years everyone had moved on. I am the only one in the band who is still active.

++ Were you involved with any other bands after the demise of Watermelon Men?

No, not until we formed Distant Days.

++ Are you all still in touch to this day? I know that Imre is sadly no longer with us, and that you did a reunion gig after he passed away. That must have been a difficult time to do the reunion? How was that experience?

We are still in touch every now and then. Losing Imre was such a chock and I don’t think we will ever reconcile with the fact that he is gone. I lived in Phnom Penh at the time of the Tsunami in 2004. We had met to spend some time with families in Bangkok before he left for Khao Lak and I went back Phnom Penh. Then came the Tsunami and both Imre and his two daughters died. The reunion gig was a way to gather friends and relatives around something positive and it was an important event to us.

++ Are you still based in Uppsala? Has it changed much since the Watermelon Men days? I visited once and really liked it, but wondering if you could recommend pop fans what to see, what to do, or what to eat in your hometown?

Uppsala has grown in size considerably. We are now over 200 000 habitants. The music scene is not doing well and many of the places hosting live music have closed down in recent years. Restaurants are mushrooming though. You should pay a visit to the vinyl store Open Mind Records, that released the Distant Days album. Dan Olsson, the owner will get you a cup of coffee for free.

++ Today, aside of music, what other hobbies do you have?

I love outdoors stuff like fishing, skating and picking mushrooms.

++ Looking back in time, what would you say was the biggest highlight of the Watermelon Men?

When we received the master of Past, Present and Future and we listened to it in Imre’s flat. We thought it was unbelievable. The tours in Europe, playing venues like the Dingwall’s in London and the Loft in Berlin. But the greatest highlight is always the sense of wonder and achievement when a new song is starting to take form.

++ One last question, taking the cue from “In Another World”, have you ever been to Argentina? 🙂

Yes, Argentina was the last country we visited in South America during our trip there following the release of Past, Present and Future. We started in Quito, Ecuador, and travelled through Peru and Bolivia down to Buenos Aires.

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Listen
Watermelon Men – Postcard View

Having a small break now from the Indietracks announcements. Last week I saw a bunch of interesting indiepop news from all over the world and have been saving them for this and future posts. Without further ado, let me get you the first batch of new music to check out this week:

Los Waldners: the Costa Rican band has been a favourite of mine even though I still haven’t found a way of getting their albums. Sometimes life can be hard for record collecting. But this time there’s a new song on Bandcamp that is really nice that is called “No Me Visto Para Vos”. From what I read on the band’s Facebook this song is not exactly new but the band decided to share it because of the situation of women’s violence in their country and around the world.

Olivia’s World: this is a new Vancouver band I discovered thanks to their connection to Alice who used to be in Go Violets back in Brisbane, Australia. Now Alice is in Vancouver and shared a link to their first ever song, “Blotter”, and I thought it is really promising! It is said that the band is recording at the moment their debut EP and just last week were playing with the great band Sleuth in their hometown. Looking forward to hearing more by them!

Palm Ghosts: I open their Bandcamp to encounter a brilliant song titled “Love in Winter”. Upbeat, moody, boy/girl vocals, a love for 80s music that is so obvious that makes me giggle. I read the bio for this band and I find that the band has been going for years now, like from 2014 at least. They are based in Nashville, Tennessee, definitely not the place you expect to hear these sort of sounds. I will have to explore more, see if the rest of their output sounds as great as this.The band is formed by Joseph Lekkas, Jason Springman, Rene Lambert, Erica Whintey Wilkes and Benjamin Douglas.

Foster Studio: I heard from Chiwai from the lovely, fab, unique, Fantastic Day. Remember them? We put a 3″ CD back in the day, and later the band released a couple of superb jangly albums? Well, Chiwai has a new project called Foster Studio and it sounds as good! Great guitars, top melodies, that invite everyone to dance really. Well, at least on the one song I’ve heard, “Moonlight”. It is available on Youtube and it has a cool video and even lyrics for everyone to sing along. I can’t wait to hear more, and hope this gets released! Great stuff coming from Hong Kong!

Die Time Twisters: I love this German band. I have some of their releases from back in the day. Now Tapete Records is releasing a retrospective compilation called “Guten Morgen Sommer” on both LP and CD format and I want it! I think it is a compilation not to be missed. My only concern is that the LP and the CD are about the same price? It doesn’t make sense. So if you buy a CD it costs 19 euros plus shipping. If you buy the LP it costs 24 euros plus shipping. The thing is the LP also includes the CD! So really, the LP costs 5 more euros? It is odd. I feel a bit weird about these prices. I don’t understand them. I am happy with just the CD. But 19 euros for a CD? What kind of CD is this? Made of gold? I wonder. Hopefully at some point I’ll find it for a cheaper price, or maybe, just maybe, I will never find it and I’ll miss this fantastic band, one of the best pop bands from Germany for sure.

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Nonpareil: having no match or equal; unrivaled or a flat round candy made of chocolate covered with white sugar sprinkles.

At the same time I ordered the Daisy Age 7″ I ordered The Nonpareils 7″ on Papercut Records from 1996. I had some releases by this American label based in Florida and, in general, I’d say they were good. So of course, I needed to add something else to my order, to save some on shipping costs and decided to give The Nonpareils a chance.

I had heard one of their songs, “Inside”, on a compilation 7″ that was released by this same label the previous year called “The Airplane” (PCT 002). I had bought this 7″ many years ago, probably on eBay and possibly it was cheap. I can’t remember exactly. I mostly bought this record because of the appearance of Belmondo, where the legendary Pam Berry does vocals. The other two bands that appear on this comp are Incredible Force of Junior and Wimp Factor 14. The Nonpareils appear on the A side, alongside Belmondo. All were American bands. The song that the band contributes was recoded and mixed by Dave Auchenbach who was in the fantastic Small Factory.

That wasn’t their first compilation appearance. Back in 1994 the band appeared with the same song on a CD sampler titled “A Bitter Pill to Swallow: A Providence Music Sampler” that was released by Over the Counter Records (OTC 6). The odd thing about this release is that this label was a hardcore punk label, and indeed it was based in Providence, Rhode Island. The band also hailed from this city.

Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. It was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He named the area in honor of “God’s merciful Providence” which he believed was responsible for revealing such a haven for him and his followers to settle. The city is situated at the mouth of the Providence River at the head of Narragansett Bay.

Contrast Records from Belgium asked them for a song on their 3rd 500-limited 7″ compilation of their “Split Single Club” (CT 003) series. Here the band opens the B side with the song “Tree”. The two other bands on this record are Lambchop and Bartlebees.

Lastly the band appears with the song “Fear of Dating” on the 1996 CD “Little Darla Has a Treat For You Volume 4, Summer 1996″ (DRL 023). Obviously this was released by Darla Records and was part of their very popular 1990s series of Little Darla compilations.

The first kind of proper release by the band happened in 1995. It was through the hardcore punk label, Over the Counter Records and it was a split 7” (OTC 8) that they shared with the band Difference Engine. This time around the band contributed the song “Exit”, and that was it. There is no information on the sleeve sadly.

The last release by the band that is listed on Discogs is the one 7″ I bought. The “Engine EP”, released on July 1996, by Papercut Records (PCT 003). The record included 4 songs, two on each side. On the A side we find “And She Does” and “Hazel”, while on the B side we find “See-Saw” and “Engine”. All songs were recorded to four track in Providence, the first two by Frank and the last two by Alex Kemp from Small Factory.

On the back of the sleeve we find the first names of the band members. That’s something! So:
Lisa – vocals, guitar, percussion
Ted – vocals, guitar
Frank – bass
Sean – drums

As usual after Discogs I head to Google to find information. And almost immediately I hit the jackpot, a The Nonpareils Bandcamp page with 14 songs! The self-proclaimed minimalist pop combo’s available songs for streaming are: “And She Does”, “Armchair”, “Hazel”, “Exit”, “P.O. Box”, “Lillian”, “Pain Free (*Delayed Start)”, “Fear of Dating”, “Inside”, “One by One”, “Tree Song”, “X-Ray”, “Amuse Me” and “Oblivious (Galaxy 500 cover)”. These all being a collection of assorted recordings from the summer of 93 thru the fall of 94.

Thanks to this page I get to put some last names to the band members. So it is Ted Peffer, Lisa Underhill, Frank Mullin and Sean Thompson. On the credits I see that they worked mostly with Alex Kemp when it came to record the songs, though a new name that appears is that of Toby Fitch who mixed and mastered the first 5 songs that we see on Bandcamp, which had appeared on a self released tape. Which tape is this? A demo? a proper release? There is no information about it. We also see that Mark Cummins played drums at the end of the band.

And then I find a Facebook page!! Wow. It doesn’t seem to have been updated lately, but still, quite a find. It seems it was setup for a comeback gig on January 19th of 2014 where they played along other indiepop bands like Honeybunch or Purple Ivy Shadows. I keep checking any other posts and find that in October of the same year they also played a gig at The Met in Pawtucket alongside the band Polaris. In 2015 they had a show at The Parlour on May 9th alongside Fred Thomas, Working and Pixels. And the last gig I see dates from  June 13th, 2015, at the Providence’s Rock n’ Roll Yard Sale.

I keep looking on the web but I mostly see recipes. How to make the most delicious nonpareils. Semisweet and patriotic chocolate nonpareils, whatever that means. I find a mention of Ted Peffer on the band page of The ‘Mericans. Here I see that Lisa has a different name, she appears as Lisa Dermanouelian. Interesting. It also mentions that Ted has been behind the local printing company IO Labs. Sadly there are some news in this paragraph, it mentions Sean passed away when he was 43 because of leukemia. If you want to hear the cover of “X-Ray” by The ‘Mericans, check it here. I also find that Frank Mullin was also in the Godrays and Purple Ivy Shadows and played at New England Popfest 97 with the band Flora Street as their bassist just for that occasion. I try to find out what he is doing today, and notice there is a photographer based in Providence with the same name, might it be him?

And that’s about it. Why weren’t most of the songs on Bandcamp not properly released? What about that tape mentioned there? And were there any other compilation appearances? What other bands were they involved with? What are they up to now? When and why did they call it a day? How were these reunion shows? Are they preparing any new gigs? Would be interesting to find out more about this underrated American pop band!

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Listen
The Nonpareils – And She Does