So close to March. So close of me being 30. It’s an interesting feeling. I did want to celebrate happily and in a special way my 29th birthday, because in my mind it was the last year of my youth. For my 30th I haven’t planned much aside from organizing something with friends and beers, like if I’m not that excited to reach the big thirty. Which is kind of dumb perhaps, I remember Nana’s 30th party in Hamburg, one of the best nights in my life, and most possibly one of the best ones for her definitely. That night is for me legendary now, including the best crowd and the best music you could think of. Why didn’t I copy and organize something like that? I want to blame it to me being lazy, not wanting to spend my birthday organizing something and taking care of things, of bands, of sound systems, and stuff. I wanted not to worry. Maybe this is a trait of me becoming older? Being a bit more selfish in that sense? I wonder.

Also I have to say I’m not that keen on DJing anymore. It’s more fun to dance. Of course, you need a person with fantastic taste so I can dance like a madman, one that plays the songs that “talk about my life”.  I have friends that can do that, friends with pristine taste. Not that many in New York, true, but nonetheless, I could enjoy a night of cheesy songs too. My love for Roxette or Vengaboys is something I’ve never hid. The only DJ gig that I still want to do is the one at Indietracks. I know that it will be hard for me to be picked, especially for my now famous and also uncomfortable indiepop militant stand, but I trust that it will happen. I’ve always delivered dancing and stomping dancefloors. One of the things I’m proud of.

And talking about being proud of, today I announced a new release on the label. Though the band made a comeback two years ago this is their recording comeback, with new songs. I’m talking of stuff of indiepop legend, of indiepop history, of indiepop heroes. I’m talking about a 4 song 7″ vinyl EP by the might THE HAYWAINS!!!!

Albeit I knew about this release for some months now, we kept it secret until now, especially as the date of the release date is on May 30th, the day of a very important gig for them! The information and a pre-order button are now up on the Cloudberry site. The 7″ EP includes the songs:
a1. It’s Time We Stopped Pretending
a2. Badgerline Day Return
b1. The Rebels With Good Intentions
b2. Let’s Twist! (The Knife In My Heart)

An interesting fact for you all: ‘Badgerline Day Return’ is a song the band were playing live back in 1989. The song never got recorded at the time, yet it remained one of The Haywains favourites, and it has at last being recorded!

To my surprise the music doesn’t sound like what many of you might expect: “mature and boring”. It sounds fresh! It sounds like if The Haywains had never left. This sounds circa 1991. Glory days! Just give it a try, you can download the first song of the record from our site. And on our Soundcloud you can listen to “Badgerline Day Return.”

I’m so very happy to announce this record, and I hope you all love it! It will be our last 500 copy 7″ too, because after it we’ll be making smaller numbers to catch up with these modern times. So kind of a landmark this Haywains return.

I can’t explain the excitement I feel. I’ve been a Haywains fan for years. Tracking all their releases. I traveled all the way to Spain to see them at Madrid Popfest last year, and what a concert it was. They were so true to their hearts. I had to fight and push to get their setlist. It was amazing! And to remember the day in Bristol, at the Mother’s Ruin, at a Big Pink Cake party, when I met Paul Towler for the first time. For a few minutes. So long ago. And having worked twice with him in his other project, The Westfield Mining Disaster, to now being able to release one of my favourite bands from the period. This is why I love having a label, this is why I love indiepop, because things like these happen!

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Changing a bit the subject now, the classic obscure band of the week section. The one that half of the readers care for (ha ha ha).

We stay in the UK. But exactly where inthe UK, I don’t know. Playing Soldiers they didn’t release anything, but the one song on a compilation. The compilation I’m talking about was “Shift the Shift” and was released in 1984 by Shift Records. Here is the first clue perhaps, it says that the whole record was rorded at Palladium Studios, Edinburgh but track B6 recorded at Berkeley St. Studios. Track B6 was by one Robert Henry.

I don’t own the compilation yet, but the prices don’t seem expensive, so I might as well get it after finishing writing this blog post. I’m curious though if it’s worth it. I don’t know the rest of the bands but Chewy Raccoon. They are alright, guitar pop, but wouldn’t say indiepop really. You can listen to one of their songs here. Chewy Raccoon released a 12″ with this label in 1985 (Shift 003).

This compilation came out in 1984 and was the first release of the label, being catalog SHIFT 001. What was SHIFT 002? I have no clue. The other bands in this label sampler were: Mo and The Souvenirs, West of Sunset, Earthworks, Simone Lahbib, Anne Turner, and the aforementioned Robert Henry.

The song that Playing Soldiers contributed to this compilation was “Thought for Walking”. It was the fifth track on the A side. From the credits we learn that Playing Soldiers were Gordon Keen, Jim Lambie, Mark Tuffley, Nick Quail and Stephen Davis. Not sure which instruments each of them played. It doesn’t say on the back sleeve photo of them.

The only other song I know by them is a better one, “Corner of My Mind”. This should have been their single I’d say. This song I first heard on Myspace some time  ago, and I grin seeing it in that monolithic site. It’s a fantastic piece of jangle, ahead of the game, ahead of their C86 peers. Somewhere in between The Room and The High Five perhaps?! Timeless pop that has been lost in time. Judge for yourself!

Edit!

Seems I didn’t do my homework that well. My friend Andreas from Hamburg just pointed me that:

Playing Soldiers predated BMX Bandits, The Soup Dragons, Boy Hairdressers, Teenage Fanclub, Captain America and Eugenius:

Gordon Keen – Playing Soldiers, BMX Bandits, Captain America, Eugenius (see also http://www.discogs.com/Gordon-Keen-And-His-BMX-Bandits-Gordon-Keen-And-His-BMX-Bandits/master/252839 and http://zenandjuice.com/music/teenage_fanclub/text/bmxbandits.txt)

Jim Lambie – Playing Soldiers, The Boy Hairdressers, Jim Lambie (solo, one 7″)

Nick Quail – Playing Soldiers, The Soup Dragons, BMX Bandits, Teenage Fanclub

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Listen
Playing Soldiers – Corner of My Mind

A strong feeling that something is about to happen, esp. something unpleasant.

I’m suddenly changing my idea of going to China in autumn, postponing it for next spring, and instead going to Germany. Thing is Throw That Beat in the Garbagecan, one of my favourite bands ever is doing a reunion gig in Berlin for their 20th anniversary. I’ve always said that McCarthy is my favourite band, and it is. But before I even knew McCarthy I was already in love with the German outfit. Can I consider them a second favourite band then? Possibly yes. That would be very fair, and it’s not like I like just 10 or 20 bands. I like hundreds, thousands. So they are very very dear to me.

To be honest I don’t remember how I heard about them first. The year must have been 2003. I was young. Younger than now. I was 19 back then. I had just moved to Texas that winter. At that time I hadn’t even started blogging as Mira el Péndulo. I was on Soulseek though and perhaps it was there that I met them for the first time. I used to hang out in the Twee Folks room, a place I made many great friends, but of course the best being Cris in Spain. Did he introduce them to me? Possibly not. We were mostly gossiping. There were some people that had amazing stuff. I do remember getting the video for “Suburbia” from Chris Jigsaw on Twee Folks. But I’m 100% sure that wasn’t the first time I heard their music.

The fact is in 2004 during a weekend trip with my dad, from San Antonio to Texas, I bought two of their albums. I was still 19, it was winter, and I remember that drive as if it was yesterday. Five hours of talking about football, history and politics, the three topics we usually talk about. My dad is not really a music-fan you see. But he grew up seeing Peru in the world cups unlike me. So he has these vivid memories of the golden age of Peruvian footie. On the highway, passing by outlet malls, ranches, and fast food restaurants, we agreed that at least we were going to go to a record store while in Dallas. We weren’t really going as tourists, my dad had to attend some business there. We didn’t even stop by the Dr. Pepper museum in Waco (I love Dr. Pepper), just to get to Dallas in time.

I don’t remember liking the city much. Just another American city I would say. The food wasn’t that special. I had Mexican food one day, and it wasn’t the best I’ve ever had (arguably the best I’ve had has been in San Diego, I’m yet to visit Mexico). On another day I remember having Brazilian rodizio, all the meats you want, but that is the same every place you go. For that, still the best, the ones I had in Sao Paulo. Anyways. On Sunday morning, after a terrible night sharing room with my dad (he snores heavily), we visited a record store. Problem is now that I don’t remember the name of it. It was in that store that I found the two albums that Throw That Beat released on the American label Spinart: “Large Marge Sent Us” and “The Cool Album”.

They weren’t priced. I took them to the cashier and possibly because he saw I looked a bit out of place he charged me $15 for each. And they were used! Total rip off. But my dad insisted in getting them for me. Happy days. I was just a student and in Texas I hadn’t found a job yet. Now I had to wait until I got back to San Antonio so I could listen to them. I was so eager but I knew I couldn’t play these in the car, my dad would hate me eternally haha.

And so on my old cd-player, the one that lasted almost 10 years (rip 2009), I started a very close relationship with those albums. It was love at first-sight, or listen. I played them over and over for months. Both of them. I rode the bus to university listening to them every single day. At home will I was still honing my skills on Pro Evolution Soccer, I played them. At every moment of the day, I played them. And this went for months. That whole 2004 for me is a year defined by Throw That Beat in the Garbagecan!! I can say their songs always gave a smile to me, and that let me survive a whole year in Texas. That is way too long. Nobody should live for that long there. By 2005 I moved back to Florida and I found a job and well, eventually started buying other records. But, it wasn’t that long that I was going to return to TTB.

My next encounter would be when I visited Germany for the first time. In Essen I stayed with my dear friend Nanita. What a surprise for me that she had a gift for me upon my arrival. What was it? It was the “Tweng” LP on September Gurls. I didn’t know this one existed! There was no Discogs yet, and their discography wasn’t easily available online. Some days after I was at Peter Twee.net’s home and he was giving me a bunch of TTB stickers he got from back in the day. I was back in love and from that time on, my hunt to find all their records started though to my shame I haven’t got them all yet!

Since those days I always go back to Throw That Beat. I don’t think there are months that I don’t listen to at least one of their songs. The videos on Youtube always work when I need a little cheering up. So when on the Facebook group it was announced that they were going to play a reunion gig, it made my the happiest. And now I want to go. It seems it’s happening on the 13 of September. At the Lido in Berlin. Supposedly all original members will be there, even Lotsi. I hope so. I cross my fingers. I should start planning how to get there. Could be my 30-year old present in advance!

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And now one way more obscure band that Throw That Beat. One that requires more researching, but I don’t seem to find much information about them: Premonition.

Let’s transport all of us to Dublin, Ireland. It’s the mid 80s and there’s this band called Loudness of Whispers. We don’t know much about them only that they played the Mood Club at Tommy Dunne’s Tavern in June 1985. From their ashes a band called Premonition will emerge.

The only information regarding the band comes from that great Irish site called Irish Rock, an encyclopaedia of the Irish scene. From there we learn that Premonition were:
John Brennan – rhythm guitars, loud voice
Kevin Morris – lead guitars, mandolin, alto voice
Kieran Eaton – bass, bass voice
Gerard Eaton – drums, tenor voice

Safe to think that Kieran and Gerard were brothers?

The small bio on Irish Rocks says:
Blades-influenced band also compared to the Housemartins. Winners of the Dublin Millenium Battle of the Bands competition held at The Underground on 8 July 1988. Standout track of their set was “Clutching at Straws”. This competition was organised by Danceline and involved 9 heats and 3 semifinals. The prize was a single recorded at Sun Studios, released on EMI.

So another question arises, is there any recordings for “Clutching at Straws”?

Then they released their 7″. On the A side the song “The Streets are Paved with Lead” and “Eyes like Sin” on the B side. Catalog was IEM 004 though the back cover incorrectly lists it as IEM 006. The record was produced by Premonition and Pat Dunne.

I haven’t yet heard the B side. But the A side is quite glorious! It’s classic jangly pop. Of course there’s The Smiths influence, but you can also hear classic sounds from Mighty Mighty, The Brilliant Corners or Hey Paulette! Not your usual fare on EMI! You got to love the guitars, the trumpet arrangements! Should have been a classic! That opening line: “Please don’t go, you are tearing my life to shreds”, always gives me goosebumps!

And then they disappeared. There is no sights about them online. Whatever happened to them? Does anyone remember them? Did they play live often? Did they release anything else? Did they leave any other recordings? Would love to know more about them. Just listen to this song, and you’ll understand why!

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Listen
Premonition – All the Streets are Paved with Lead

Thanks so much to Anna Burley for this fantastic interview! I tried in the past to interview The Killjoys but now at last I get to know a bit more about this fab Australian band! I’ve been a fan for a long time now, listening to their debut album Ruby so many times! But of course, they released many more records, made many videos, moved to the UK for a while and even won what would be the Australian Grammies! So if you haven’t heard about them before, it’s time you do!

++ Hi Anna! I read that The Killjoys were born after the break up of a band called Wild Science. I’ve never heard about it, what did it sound like? did you release anything under this name?

Wild Science was really a bunch a kids just wanting to play music . We rehearsed more than played live and loved every minute. It was driven by a very talented songwriter called Buzz Hiscock. He wrote great melodic indie rock We never recorded properly but there were many practice tapes!

++ Why did you decide to break up that band and start The Killjoys? Who were the original members of the band? What was different between the two bands?

Buzz eventually decided that a four piece rock band was what he wanted so Craig (who played trumpet and guitar) and I were asked to leave so they could become Violet Town. And we immediately formed the Killjoys finally able to write and play our own songs. The original members were Craig, me on guitars and voice, Jeremy Smith on bass, Will Larsen on drums and Caroline Scwherkolt on vibes. We were very keen on having a unique sound and wanted unusual instrumentation. I was and still am a huge Go-Betweens fan so they were an influence. Violet Town was very indie punk sounding. I also decided to be quiet when all the bands around us were very loud.

++ How was the Melbourne indiepop scene when you started the band? Did you enjoy any of the bands back then? Maybe you were involved in other bands too?

There was and still is a very healthy music/band scene in Melbourne. There lots of bands and many friendships, shared houses and people swapping bands , even a strong connection with bands from Sydney who would share couches and gigs. The Honeys, Frente, Glide, Somerfields, Falling Joys, Plums, Clouds, and many others. I joined Deadstar as a rhythm guitarist for a year, and also joined Grant McLennan for his Horsebreaker Star world tour .

++ You started your own label for releasing your records, right? Why was it called Audrey Records? How easy or hard was to run an indie label in Australia?

I admit I loved having a label I enjoy all the creative parts, posters, cd covers, t-shirts design etc etc, and yes it was for our own releases which was easy to run. Later when I gave it a go releasing other bands I found it quite difficult, mainly trying to meet other artists expectations. It was very hard work and took too much time away from music. So it is just for our use again now. We teamed up with the legendary Popboomerang label for our most recent release. He is the master of indie labels.

++ I hate to admit that the only release I have and I have listened is the great Ruby album (and the Fall Around Me 7″). But, let me say this is a fantastic album and not surprised it won a prize for being the best independent album of the year! How did this happen? Who gave this prize and what was required for you to win? Was there some kind of ceremony?

The Aria Awards are Australia’s Grammies! We were very surprised and lucky to win with our first album. The awards were held in Sydney and I couldn’t afford to go. Craig and Caroline went to accept the award which she accidentally dropped in Sydney harbour from a boat party! There it remains despite paying several divers to try and find it. We’ve been nominated a few times since but no more wins… Yet… 🙂

++ The album included many, many instruments, from vibraphones to trumpets, from cellos to violins. How long did it take to record it? How easy was it for The Killjoys to make music?

We are lucky in being able to play quite a few instruments between us, and for having such a varied group of musician friends who love to come and play. We recorded Ruby at Sing Sing Studios which we saved for by playing gigs. I really can’t remember how long it took but being expensive probably no more than a week or two. We have always had a studio since then so making music is only restricted by time.

++ Why did you name the band The Killjoys?

Our original bassist Jeremy used to call me a killjoy for putting sad lyrics to joyous tunes and it just stuck..

++ I’ve been just watching the videos for “Michael Told Me” and “Beauty and Danger“. They are fantastic. Did you record more videos? If you were to choose one more Killjoys song to make it a video, which one will you choose?

There are a few videos, I post them on youtube/thekilljoysaustralia. We haven’t made a proper one in years mostly due to the cost. I love them but I always end up spend the money on making CDs etc I would have loved to make one for our last cd maybe for hey look at me now or pearl. I always have ideas haha.

++ You have quite a big discography, for a newbie like me, where should I start? Which is the record you are most proud of?

That’s too hard 🙂 They all have a story and like most musicians I m in love with the newest song/cd. We had a retrospective cd for a while but now you can buy any track on http://thekilljoys.bandcamp.com to make your own. As I get better at website stuff I hope to put more samples on our website for new people to hear.

++ For a while the band relocated in England. What differences did you find between the UK and Australia? Was it easy to get reviews or to build a fanbase there? I guess it was like starting again from zero?

The big difference living in Europe (we lived in England Ireland and Holland at different times over 5-6 years) was more availability of gigs. Larger populations and music seen as a career and not a hobby meant that when we got past the first few shows we worked a lot. We were pretty poor but it was a rather charmed time. We made a couple of records in England. Half the band eventually became homesick , I wanted to stay as we were getting big festival gigs by then.. But we came home.

++ When you came back to Australia you set up your own studio. What made you take that decision? Which bands have passed through there?

We wanted the ability to make records whenever we wanted without being beholden to record company budgets etc. Craig has made it very successful, recording many other bands and the occasional film, you can see a list at audreystudios.com.

++ If I had to visit Australia, what would you recommend visiting or doing in Melbourne?

Well if you like music and eating you d have a ball. There is still lots of great music played all over town and the town is a food Mecca , lots of different cultural influences . You could ride a tram around on a Sunday going from gig to gig like we sometimes do, have a meal in between . Most people visit Australia for the beaches outback and animals. We have all that not far from Melbourne too but I hear from visitors that Melbourne is great shopping, eating, and music

++ What do The Killjoys do today? You are still going, right? Any new release in the near future?

Yes we still play off and on, both as a band and as a trio. Most band members are scattered in other bands so it’s a juggling act. We put out a cd late 2011/2012 and we’ve started recording intermittently again so yes probably another record end of this year or early next. I had a country girl trio for a while just for fun and I played with Mick Thomas’s sure thing for a few tours , so we are always doing something in music.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

If anyone wants to keep up with the band I write a short blog every month that you can subscribe to or just read on our website. Killjoys.com.au. Or Facebook facebook.com/thekilljoysaustralia.

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Listen
The Killjoys – Michael Told Me

Would you say there’s an indiepop revival? Band-wise I would say definitely not. I don’t see the same amount of bands that were appearing in 2007-2008. And if we don’t care about quantity, then quality, I would say it doesn’t compare either. There are fantastic bands these days but they are a handful. Same with labels. Whereas back then new labels were appearing all the time, from DIY CD-Rs to small runs of vinyl, these days there are no more than 5 or 6 bonafide indiepop labels, and the trend is for them to disappear, not much of new ones appearing all of a sudden.

But there’s an interesting fact that I’ve noticed in the last two years or so. And that has to do with documenting indiepop. Sure I’ve been doing this blog for so many years now, trying to do my part in a small scale, but I’m talking of other people doing it in a much larger scale. I’m talking about books and documentaries.

Truth to be told none of these projects have anything to do with each other. For example the release of Morrissey’s Autobiography doesn’t have any sort of link to “Yeah Yeah Yeah” by Bob Stanley (though of course Moz is mentioned in this book). To me though, the interesting fact is that these two books, and other ones too, are being published in this same timeframe, in this 2013-2014 sort of guitar pop rediscovery.

It was just a couple of days ago that I watched on Netflix the Creation Records documentary. Aptly titled “Upside Down”, it was pretty enlightening to me. I didn’t know much of the story behind the label though I was very knowledgeable of their catalog especially the 80s period. Of course I enjoyed watching it, and even though so many bands are not mentioned much like The Jasmine Minks or The Bodines, it’s cool to see Douglas from BMX Bandits, or Joe McAlinden from Superstar/Groovy Little Numbers, giving their two cents about the rise and fall of one of the best labels of our era. The indiepop connection was all over the place. It was so refreshing to hear people mentioning The Pastels, The Shop Assistants, Television Personalities and more.

Another book that came out not so long ago is the one called “A Scene in Between”. In due honesty I don’t think the book adds much to the conversation. And although it’s beautifully done, with great pictures that document the era, similar pictures have been seen before and text-wise, content-wise, I was left a bit empty. There are a couple of interviews that don’t say that much, interviews that might as well appeared on any blog. But there’s something that struck me about the book. It is pretty popular. A friend of mine even picked it up at the MOMA store. And that made me happy. So at last the likes of Edwyn Collins, Phil Wilson, Stephen Pastel and other heroes of us all, were easily available for people. That’s a big success. I wouldn’t have ever thought that the fashion twist of indiepop would be so appealing!

Not so long ago it was announced that the Sarah Records book, written by Michael White (who has written a bunch of liner notes for Cherry Red indiepop reissues), found a publisher. This is definitely another triumph for indiepop. A hopeful like me would think that if publishers are willing to publish the story of a small-ish label (let’s be honest, Sarah is great but when it comes to sale or popularity, books about say Creation make more sense for a publisher), maybe smaller publishers would also be interested in say the story of other labels? What about the story of El? or Siesta? or Pink?

There’s another project that seems will see the light of day this year, and is also Sarah related. The Sarah Records documentary is supposed to screen this year for the first time. It’s been many years in the making, possibly the idea of making it even comes back from that first wave of indiepop excitement I was talking about, the one from 2007-2008. I wouldn’t be surprised. I remember seeing the girl making the documentary interviewing a bunch of friends at Indietracks. That must have been either 2009 or 2010. I can’t recall. But it was quite some time ago. It’s really interesting that both book and documentary will be out soon, complimenting each other perhaps, but at the same time it could be pretty interesting as they hopefully have different points of views as they have been crafted by two totally different people. Let’s wait and see.

This documentary will be a very welcome addition to the documentaries about Creation, Dolly Mixture, The Magnetic Fields and the BMX Bandits, that have been made in the last couple of years. (Actually today Wednesday – I started writing this yesterday – I got an email from Lucy asking for a little help contacting an 80s indiepopper! Made me happy to help!)

For me though the best book I’ve read about POP! lately is the Bob Stanley’s one. Sure it doesn’t talk that much about indiepop, just a couple of pages. But the whole thing is enlightening, it explains you how we got from point A to point B and then point C, in Pop history. Everything was connected. And this huge book, this huge undertaking of St Etienne’s man, opened my eyes in many ways. It also made me think that indiepop might need a similar book, a book that recalls the whole story of indiepop, from how it started up to this day. It definitely is a difficult thing to do, for example a lot of bands’ stories are forgotten forever, we only remember the songs. But if efforts are made to scratch the surface, write a whole book on Sarah Records, why not go deeper at some point, and write the whole story of indiepop? True it is a lot of effort, and work, but how important would it be for future generations to understand how we came up to this point.

I also want to mention the Scared to Get Happy box set on Cherry Red. Though it doesn’t compare at all with the quality and the excitement of The Leamington Spa Series on Firestation, and I admit not even listening to most of the songs as they were the “same old”, it includes a little treasure, something very worthy. Guess what? It’s the booklet that is for me that has the big value of this release. Here there are a hundred of little biographies of bands from the period covered in the release. This is invaluable information, and it only reaffirms the fact that all of these sort of releases, retrospectives and such, really deserve quality liner notes. There’s no way around it. I feel sad when I see some low-budget releases for many of these great 80s bands, or 90s bands, that barely have the tracklist and nothing else. Not even credits, or photos of the band. What kind of release is that?

In the meantime, I salute all these efforts, and even if I’m a fan or not of them, all of them are contributing in having a real tangible document of the existence of indiepop, something I’ve been hoping for years now. And I thank all of the people behind them as well, because I know they are passionate fans, and they are doing a big thing for our small scene!

(EDIT – Just got to know there’s a book coming up by Simon Goddard about the Postcard label! It’s called “Och Aye the Noo Wave: The Preposterous Story of Postcard Records” and it’s being published in April.  This reminds me of….
That there’s also a documentary about the Scottish scene that I forgot to mention -my bad!- called “Songs From Northern Britain – The Sound of Young Scotland” that will be privately screened in October this year and who is co-directed by Erik from Wake the President).

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Today I want to introduce you to one of the scarcest and possibly obscurest indiepop records. It’s a 7″ that I know absolutely nothing as I’ve never seen one. It’s by a band called Three Dancers and included just two songs: “Seventeen” and “It Doesn’t Matter.”

Will it be a safe guess that the band name comes from Picasso’s painting of the same name? Let’s check what wikipedia has to say about this famous work of art:
The painting shows three dancers, the one on the right being barely visible. A macabre dance takes place, with the dancer on the left having her head bent at a near-impossible angle. The dancer on the right is usually interpreted as being Ramon Pichot, a friend of Picasso who died during the painting of Three Dancers. (Some critics believe it could well be Picasso’s wife Olga Khokhlova.) The one on the left is claimed to be Pichot’s wife Germaine Gargallo with the one in the centre being Gargallo’s boyfriend Carlos Casagemas, also Picasso’s friend. Casagemas shot himself after failing to shoot Gargallo, twenty-five years before Pichot’s death, and the loss of two of his best friends spurred Picasso to paint this chilling depiction of the love triangle.

There is a copy for sale now on Discogs for 265 euros. If anyone can afford it. Ships from Czech Republic of all places. Not a common place for obscure indiepop records. But who knows. The information Discogs has about the record shows that it was released in 1987 by Dilettante Disques (catalog 007). This is quite interesting as I’m not aware of any other releases in this label.

The only true fact is that the A side, “Seventeen”, is one of the finest slices of indiepop. It feels timeless and classic. It does have vocals that can remind you of Edwyn, but the music is like the one Reserve, Holyday Makers, or even Bob was doing at the time. It’s such a great record that no wonder it is sought after. I dream of one day having it of course. Anyone know anything else by them?!

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Listen
Three Dancers – Seventeen

BALANCE: Middle English (sense 3 of the noun): from Old French balance (noun), balancer (verb), based on late Latin (libra) bilanx ‘(balance) having two scalepans,’ from bi- ‘twice, having two’ + lanx ‘scalepan.’

Finally! The Lost Tapes 7″s arrived. I start shipping them tomorrow to everyone that pre-ordered. Also finally The Rileys CDs are being pressed. On top of it all it seems we’ll be putting new recordings by a Bristol 80s band and a retrospective by a 90s New York band. Seems like busy months ahead as we have New York Popfest as a deadline. It’s like running the 100m race right now. It’s exciting and thrilling but at the same time we need to deliver a big effort to get there!

Last week I decided to review Alpaca Sports new album and thus some people didn’t get their obscure music fix. It’s interesting from the feedback I get that there’s people that only care for the label and don’t really mind the blog, and there are people that just like reading the blog and wouldn’t give a dollar to support the label. I think it’s only a few who care for both things. And this keeps me thinking. I mean, the Cloudberry Cake Kitchen releases are an extension of the blog, right? At least for me that’s very clear.

This is the coldest winter I’ve experienced yet. It’s always freezing and one feels less motivated to go out. There are not many gigs going on either. Indiepop follows the same course, unmotivated there are barely news to get us all excited. New York Popfest and Indietracks keep quiet. No announcements yet. Primavera Sounds kind of breaks the monotony with the return of Slowdive and the very odd booking of my beloved Helen Love. Who would have thought of Helen Love putting the hipsters to dance.

I receive a bunch of emails by obsessive fans. It’s a bit farfetched what I get to read. I’m doubtful. I don’t understand what’s going on. Someone on facebook decides to call me a douche. Someone that has systematically been adding all my girlfriends in there. It doesn’t add up. But some people have no shame about anything. Days pass and these little events make me smile and enjoy them. Outside it gets dark pretty early, you have to understand.

There’s so many new albums I’ve bought this year. I’m having piles of CDs to listen. I feel again that I will never catch up. Last time I had a pile this big was around Indietracks time and it took me 6 months to listen to all of them. I’m pretty slow though that doesn’t stop me from buying more music. Must be an addiction.

I’m terribly sad about a Swedish band I used to love. I don’t feel the same love for them, sometimes friendship doesn’t last forever. Friends that start having other priorities. But aside my personal feelings, speaking strictly about their music and the band, it may sound harsh, but I feel it was already time to break up. But they’ve decided to continue with some replacements for old members that I’m sure won’t add much. Some big egos at play. I may be mistaken of course, but I trust my intuition. And it only makes me sad as they were one of the most talented bands I’ve ever encountered.

Anyways, I can’t be gossiping forever (though I love doing it, you can always find me for a chat sometime). Let’s move to this obscure English band called Balance.

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No clue who were Balance. The first time I heard about them was on Youtube. Their song “Russian Train” was uploaded there by Cino Pacino who runs a blog that is worth visiting. Not surprising on the little description of the song he gives credit to another blog, From a Northern Place, saying he got the song from there.

This record came out as both a 7″ and a 12″. Both are catalog Siren 039. On the 7″ we find “Russian Train” on the A side and “River Ghosts” on the B side. On the 12″ we find these two songs as the A side while on the flipside we get “Lines and Squares”. Discogs lists the record as “Europop”. Could be. Definitely not your classic indiepop sounding record, but it has the vibe, the melodies, and the vocals. For me it has an indiepop attitude if that makes any sense.

The record was released in 1987 and as far as I know it’s the only thing the band ever released. It was released by Siren Records who used to have pretty good distribution through Virgin. On this label we can find the likes of It’s Immaterial, Bryan Ferry and even Paula Abdul. No wonder no one remembers the label, too eclectic.

I like that on the labels of the record it says, “An Essent!al Tran-siberian Release”. Perhaps a joke, but sounds cool and mysterious.

The sleeve of the record looks like a lot of photographs of the band. Actually to me it looks like stills from a promo video. Was there ever a video released for this song? Does anyone know? From those photos it looks like a duo, a boy and a girl. There’s just one name mentioned on the labels and that is of Gene Vincent. He gets the credits for the songs.

On the back sleeve there are credits for the sleeve concept (Mckellodell Productions) and sleeve design (Shoot That Tiger!). There are thanks to Steve Biancardo, Chucho Merchan, Buzz, Kick Horns and Dave Foster. None of the name ring a bell to me. Just I know that Chucho is a nickname for those with the name Jesús. There’s an address for information and contact, and it’s in Northwest London. Most possibly the band was from London then.

And that’s as much as I could gather from this band. I still don’t own a record, though it doesn’t look that pricey. Siren was kind of a big label so I’m guessing they pressed many copies. I should get around to buy the record soon. The songs are nice, all of them, very elegant, reminding perhaps to Two People, Lotus Eaters or early 80s pop like Big Outdoor Type. Easier to fit them in that neo-aco tag the Japanese know pretty well.

If anyone has any more information, of course, share!

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Listen
Balance – Russian Train

There’s this one release I’m looking forward to this 2014. Perhaps you are looking forward to it too. I know a bunch of Italians are. It’s an album. It has ten tracks. No fillers. Just hit after hit. It’s more of a three piece but people assume it’s a duo. They come from Gothenburg. They love making videos for almost every song they record. Do you need more hints? I think that’s enough clues to know who I am talking about.

Alpaca Sports are releasing their first full-length this year and is aptly titled “Sealed With a Kiss”, named perhaps after a movie. This is not the first time they appear on CD (remember the Mini-LP from 2013 on Fastcut), but it is the first time they appear on 12″ LP format. The record should be out sometime around February 24 and those who pre-order it through their bandcamp will be able to also get a bonus CD that contains remixes/covers by Red Sleeping Beauty, The Royal Landscaping Society, Tiny Fireflies, Cristina Quesada, When Nalda became punk, Invisible Twin, Pale Spectres, Boyish, Band à Part, Zipper, one day diary and The Very Most. Those who don’t pre-order, obviously won’t get this CD. By the way, this bonus CD will be named after Andreas Alpaca’s dog, “Bella’s Mixtape”. Just a detail.

It is from that CD that I’m happy to share a song. It’s by a band that we released not so long ago in Cloudberry, Boyish. Here they cover Alpaca Sports first hit “Just For Fun”. Many of the other songs from this bonus CD have been previewed already online through different blogs, soundcloud or facebook. You can possibly track all of them down if you head to Alpaca Sports Facebook page.

The album, released by Luxury Records, includes 10 songs. I read someone on the Facebook complaining that most of the songs have already been released. That means that people really crave for more Alpaca Sports! I would take that complain as a compliment of course. The tracklist looks like this:
01. Just for fun
02. Will you ever come back home?
03. She’ll come back for Indian summer
04. Just like Johnny Marr
05. As long as I have you
06. Telephone
07. He doesn’t even like you
08. The old oak tree
09. You and me
10. I was running

Perhaps you really want to complain, and think that this is a rip off. That there’s only 4 new songs (2 ,4, 8 and 9) and you better download them or some other ‘wise’ idea you may have. I guess you have the right to think that way, but you are being totally stupid. It is clear you’ve been living in an MP3 age where an album concept doesn’t mean anything. You just want throwaway songs that you listen a bunch of time and then they can just sit in some folder in your computer without being clicked again for ages. You just don’t get it. These songs are the work of 3 or so years of the band and so it makes all sense to include them. They are their hits. How can’t you include them? They were released as singles and they have actually left the B sides out of the album, just like every other band did back in the day, when albums meant something. Because albums are for rediscovering these kind of hits. I could play these songs forever, I always find a little something, a detail, every time I listen to them. Perhaps this has to do with me known Andreas, but I always end up understanding each piece of lyrics better and better. They are as honest as they can be. Very autobiographical even. So why wouldn’t I want them to be in the album for me to listen time and time again, with the comfort of them being one after the other? I don’t know. Only if you listen to them as Mp3s then it doesn’t make any sense. Then I tell you, you are DUMB, because you are missing out.

The album counts again with Ray Kimura doing the artwork. I have to say this is my favourite illustration she’s made for Alpaca Sports. And she has done every single release. It’s by far the most colorful too. And the first one that doesn’t have any white background. I remember when doing the Alpaca Sports single for Cloudberry I wanted something like this with the jungle/Indiana Jones, kind of feeling. We did try. But it didn’t work out. It was looking too green. This time it has worked out wonders.

So we all know that 6 of the songs in the album are perfect pop songs. They’ve been released as singles and they have sold out or are about to being sold out. These songs have catapulted the band to play at Indietracks, Madrid Popfest, Berlin Popfest, New York Popfest, and soon Birmingham Popfest. They have also played their home city Gothenburg, Stockholm and Malmö. They also will go south, across of Malmö soon but I think that’s top secret yet. They also toured Japan for a week last November. It’s been a hurricane couple of years for them. But I’m not surprised. I wasn’t in love the first time I heard them, I admit, and I feel embarrassed, I could have released “Just For Fun” perhaps. It was only after listening to “She’ll Come Back for Indian Summer” that I knew that this band was special. That they were something else. But it was a bit too late, though I was still lucky to have worked with them on the one 7″. I would have loved to work with them in every single release. Why wasn’t I in love? I simply don’t understand. These days I play that song and I can’t help myself from singing it.

I’ll tell you a secret then. I have listened to the other 4 songs. They are all proper singles in their own way. They could have saved them for 7″s in the future. But they haven’t. “Will You Ever Come Back Home” and it’s hand-claps. That must be Carl hand-clapping. That’s the first thing that comes to my mind. Haven’t you seen Carl Miyagi hand-clapping like a madman at every Alpaca Sports gig? That’s his thing. But you’d think this is a happy song, it’s not. It might be as well the most melancholic song in the album albeit it’s upbeatness. Amanda as always is brilliant accompanying Andreas in the song with her shy almost subterranean vocals. I melt. “Why do you call me up every time you look for a fight”. That’s the line that opens the song and still I’m sure in this situation you and me would ask every single ex-girlfriend we’ve had if they’ll ever come back home.

Andreas must have a couple of heroes, definitely Davey from Brilliant Corners and Julian from The Hit Parade. Johnny Marr is another of those heroes. Here is his tribute to him. Nostalgic, melancholic, this song is so light, it could break, reaching it’s subtle climax with a sincere line, promising the girl that “I’ll bring my guitar and play just like Johnny Marr.” You wonder which girl would turn that offer down, right? “Don’t make my heart break” asks Andreas wearing his feelings on his sleeve. Only a terrible girl could do that!

Even less upbeat, a song that seems to be sealed with longing and memories, is track number 8, “The Old Oak Tree”. I wonder how common are oak trees in Gothenburg. The song has a cinematic quality to it. “I remember when you kissed me for the first time in the pouring rain”.  The acoustic guitar in the background. I can picture the rain. I can imagine this huge old oak tree where the adolescent couple would get inside and dream of a future filled with lovesongs that never happened. Remembering that teenage love that hurts. The “Old Oak Tree” seems like a pause in the album, making you feel vulnerable and ready for the two last songs.

The last song being the dancefloor hit “I Was Running”. But just before it is “You and Me”. If you’d thought it would be more hopeful than “The Old Oak Tree” you are mistaken. By now you probably have noticed that Alpaca Sports songs are heartfelt and full of details that hide behind the veil of their upbeat melodies. “The sun will never shine on me the way it shines on you”. Post-breakup sadness. Secluded in the house, in the room. Don’t want to go out. Wise words, isn’t it true that when there’s a breakup only one, not the two, gets a broken heart? That’s how it is. That “You and Me” that we dream to happen again, but it’s lost forever. “Every tear falling down let’s me know that I care”. How hard it is to forget. How hard it is to let go. Sometimes you never let go.

It’s surprising how simple it seems for Alpaca Sports to, in simple words, craft lyrics that express so much sentiment. And they call them twee. The f*ck they are twee. This is serious. They don’t sing about kittens or nonsense. There are a few bands out there that have no shame to pour their feelings in their songs like they do.

So I could tell you and sell you do the idea that the album is worth for these four new songs. And that is totally right too. Even for the one song the album is worth getting. I don’t know how many copies are being pressed. I want to think that the album will sell pretty well and hopefully it will be sold out within a year. I want to dream that they will keep writing perfect songs, that I will see time and time again Andreas, Amanda and Carl, with their guests musicians on stage. At every single festival I attend. I don’t have that many contemporary bands that I follow with this determination, that I try to dissect every song, that I want to learn the lyrics as I’ve done in the past with bands like TCR, Throw That Beat in the Garbagecan!! or McCarthy, top bands for me. Alpaca Sports is one of the few (from the top of my head I do the same with contemporary bands Liechtenstein, The Felt Tips and Northern Portrait). They are writing modern indiepop classics. And it’s possible that you won’t even notice until 20 more years have passed when Andreas is still supporting his Örgryte football team in 3rd division for yet another year, Amanda is a successful designer and Carl is making videos for high-profile 2035 Beyoncés or Taylor Swifts of that age.. You don’t want to wait that late, right? Better catch the “Sealed with a Kiss” bus then.

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Listen
Boyish – Just For Fun

Thanks so much to Olaf, Gunnar, Siggi and Matthias for this great interview! The Groovy Cellar are an institution of German indiepop with many releases under their belt in classic labels like Marsh Marigold and Firestation. Actually they have just released their third album since starting as a band in 1991 on our friends Uwe and Olaf’s label Firestation. The new album is GREAT, I totally recommend it, and it’s called “Affordable Art for All”. You have to get it. In this interview we talk about the past, the future and the present of the band! Hope you enjoy it!

++ Hey! Thanks so much for being up for this interview. Just around the corner you have a new release. Your latest album! Tell me a bit about it. Would you say it’s any different to previous releases? And what are your favourite songs on it?

Olaf: Yes it is different in the way that it is more diversified.
And it has cover versions on it, something we haven’t done on earlier Groovy Cellar releases.

Siggi: Production wise it´s different to previous releases. I think it sounds a bit fuller and we even have a real brass section on a couple of songs.

++ Have you been playing much live lately? Are there any plans to tour or something else to promote the album?

Gunnar: We like playing a lot. Please invite us to Spain. We know you have a healthy Mod/Sixties/Indie scene there. I hear the Rubinoos where there a few years back and loved it.

Matthias: Cooper is great. Let’s go to Spain then.

++ The name of the album is “Affordable Art for All”. I like the sound of it. But I’m sure there’s a deeper meaning behind the title. I guess you are all for democratizing art, not just being a commodity for the filthy rich? And what’s the connection with indiepop, if any?

Olaf: A few years ago the British pop artist Sir Peter Blake issued his „I love London“ prints on recycled metal plates under the moniker „Affordable Art for All“. That was the idea behind it. The drawing on our LP is by an old friend of ours, the late Harald Fischer. It is called „Harold and Mod“, and if you want so, you can hang the record cover as a picture on your bedroom wall. Affordable art for only 14 Euros! And of course the title of the record echoes Dan Treacy’s 1980’s Whaam! compilation „All for art and art for all“ which made it even more intriguing for me.

++ The album is only released in vinyl, is that true? Of course you have put out a couple of 7″s before, and also CDs so I ask, is vinyl your favorite format? and why?

Olaf: Somehow the CD only format didn’t seem appropriate for me any more, as vinyl has seen quite a revival in the last years. But hopefully there will be a CD release of the record in 2014.

Gunnar: The combination of a nice big vinyl record with great (affordable) artwork and a download code is ideal. You can take something beautiful home with you and have something to carry around wherever you go. With a CD you can‘t do neither.

++ On this album you collaborate again with the Firestation label. How did you meet for the first time? And how has your experience being with them?

Olaf: We got to know each other around the time they were releasing their “19 Goldene Hits” compilation (pre Firestation). I remember playing on a festival together with Westway. Uwe, Olaf, Annikki and Jan have always been loyal to our music, so what else can I say than “thank you for your support through all those years”.

Matthias: Top guys, top label.

++ I have a couple of curious questions, is Mr. Magic from “Ask Mr. Magic” based in a real person? And what about “Emily Jones”? Also, “My Bavarian Town”, is that about any particular city?

Olaf: I used to be a Northern Soul DJ for many years. Almost everybody on the DJ scene of the 90’s used a pseudonym way back then. I decided on „The Magic Shoemaker“, the title of an LP by 1960’s psych band Fire, and because my family name is Schumacher. When I met my wife more than 10 years ago, she and some of her friends initially used to call me “Mr. Magic“. “Emily Jones“ is also a real person, but I won’t tell you who, as she didn’t want her real name to be used for understandable reasons. On the other hand I always wanted to write a song about a fictitious girl named “Emily“, as there are so many good examples in the history of pop music: “See Emily Play“ (Pink Floyd), “When Emily Cries“ (TV Personalities), “Emily Small“ (Picadilly Line), “A Rose for Emily“ (Zombies), “Emily Kane” (Art Brut) and so on. And then she should have an ordinary family name. Bob Dylan, Manfred Mann or the Bee Gees all sang about “Mr. Jones”, so I found it amusing to have a certain “Mrs. Jones” in a song, although I can’t quite remember if this unique idea was by me or stolen.

The Bavarian town is called Amberg, where I used to live with my parents a long time ago. I revisited it in 2008 for the first time after more than 30 years.

++ The band was founded in 1991 according to your Facebook page. How did you all meet?

Olaf: I met Siggi and my soon-to-become girl friend Claudia on May 3rd, 1987 at a Television Personalities gig in Berlin’s venue “Loft”. After the demise of my band Most Wanted Men we founded The Groovy Cellar. Following some change of personnel we recruited Matthias, who played bass in The Beat Godivas, loved the same bands as we did, and wore a Mod parka.

Matthias: There was that sampler I used to listen to back in the 80s, “Beat all the Tambourines”. Included a couple of songs by the Most Wanted Men. I really liked that early stuff, still do. “Hippie Girl”, “January” are real stunners. So I was quite thrilled to join the Groovy Cellar a couple of years later. I then persuaded that bloke I knew from the Artpress to join the band as a drummer, but that’s a different story …

++ You all have been involved with many other bands, care telling me in which bands you’ve all been during the years?

Gunnar: Matthias and me go way back to the 80s when we both were in The Artpress, a guitar power pop outfit which sadly only released one single in 1990. Ever since I have been trying to get away from him, but somehow it can‘t be done.

Matthias: Absolutely, Gunnar, the one who plays the sloppy drums, he sticks to me like glue. Sometimes it’s like that movie “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”, the scene when George confronts Martha with a gun. I even call him Martha sometimes.

++ Your sound of course is very 60s influenced. What would you say are your favourite records from that decade?

Olaf & Siggi: It’s too many to mention. Our record shelves are full of 1960’s records, so where to start?

Gunnar: My Girl by The Tempations, Walking in The Rain by The Ronettes, The Beatles • Rubber Soul, The Bee Gees • 1st, everything by Goffin/King and Mann/Weill

Matthias: Bobby Timmons Trio – Moanin’ , Lee Moses – Bad Girl, Willie Tee – Walkin’ Up A One Way Street, Little Richard – I Don’t Know What You’ve Got But It’s Got Me, Tommy Navarro – I Cried My Life Away, Timi Yuro – What’s A Matter Baby …

++ Though you also seem to have a liking for 80s and 90s indiepop. You’ve played with many of the indiepop bands of this period. What have been your favourite bands to share gigs with? And why?

Olaf: The TV Personalities were one of our main influences of the 1980’s. So of course we were very proud to have the opportunities to support them. It’s the same with the Cleaners from Venus. Claudia and I were invited on stage to sing the Hollies’ hit “Bus Stop” together with Martin Newell and Dave Gregory (of XTC fame) on guitar! By coincidence both groups had this cover version (and only this one) on their set list.

++ Tell me a bit about Berlin. What are the best places to play or hang out and have a beer? Any other good Berlin bands at the moment?

Siggi: One of our fave venues is the “Schokoladen”, where we also had our record release party. Good sound and decent beer prices.

Gunnar: for Bands: check out The Pikes or the Rythm & Beat Organisation who is doing regular shows always with different songs and singers and sixties related mottos

++ Would you say the scene in your city has changed much from the 90s to these days? When was a better time for bands in Berlin?

Gunnar: We hear the the late 80s‚ with Indie/Guitar Pop being largely popular in West Berlin. Nowadays the scene is very relaxed and we even get some new blood from young hipsters who seem to come out of nowhere.

++ The Groovy Cellar was a neo-60’s club of the early 1980’s in London. Did you ever get the chance to go there?

Olaf & Siggi: Unfortunately not.

++ Years ago you also released some records with Marsh-Marigold, one of the best indiepop labels ever, lots of quality stuff. How did you end up signing with them?

Olaf: I actually can’t remember how we got to know each other (sorry, Oliver). Signing is not the correct word, though. We talk about independent labels, man!

++ But the first 7″ was on Twang! right? I don’t know much about that label. Who were they?

Olaf: One of the first independent labels from Berlin that had a go at beat and psychedelic music. Without Twang’s Mike Korbik probably half of the 60’s orientated bands in the 1980’s and 1990’s wouldn’t have released a record at all. His importance for the Berlin music scene can’t be underestimated. He was our Alan McGee!

Gunnar: Mike is still doing a regular online-fanzine „Guitars Galore“ which you can find here: http://www.twang-tone.de. He also still does mail orders of almost all Twang!-Releases.

++ Talking about labels, was there ever any interest by any majors?

Gunnar: Nope

++ And do tell me, from all your releases, what’s your favourite song to play live?

Gunnar: For me right now: „Where have all the good Guys gone“ from the new album

Matthias: “Emily Jones”

++ So far, after many years as The Groovy Cellar, what would you say has been the highlight of the band?

Gunnar: This band is a permanent highlight … but seriously: there are many great moments when you know each other as long as we do.

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

Matthias: Scooters

++ And so, one last question, in the future, what can we expect from The Groovy Cellar?

Olaf & Siggi: Playing the Madison Square Garden with Bono and Sting.

Matthias: Blimey!

Gunnar: not with Sting, no way. Did I mention we‘d love to play Spain?

Matthias: One of the rare occasions I agree with Gunnar.

++ Thanks again for the interview. Where can one buy your new record? Anything else you’d like to add?

Please find us and our older records here
groovycellar.com
www.facebook.com/thegroovycellar
and order the new album directly at
www.firestation-records.de

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Listen
The Groovy Cellar – Emily Jones

One more week into 2014 and I feel a bit more positive about the outcome for this year. I’ve been looking into pressing records in other pressing plants, in smaller quantities, and I think it will work out. At this time, selling 500 copies seem unrealistic, only a dreamer like me could have been doing this for so long. It’s time to get practical.

A little bump on the way though, the Lost Tapes 7″ seems to be delayed in the pressing plant. Today was the release date but the records haven’t arrived home yet. I have the sleeves and inserts ready but not the vinyl. This pushes back my plans! Hopefully they will be arriving next week. They were promised to me for this week, but they say they have been very busy with records for Record Store Day. That stupid day.

Indiepop news? Little. I did finish answering an interview for a Japanese fanzine that is being made by Atsushi from Mile’s Apart Records. It’s always an honour to be asked questions about the history of Cloudberry and the bands I love. I’ll let you know when it is available especially if you know Japanese, as I doubt it will be published in English!

This week I’ve had family visiting so I haven’t done much research or not even listening to much indiepop. I have no idea what is going on right now. The only “news” I’ve seen around is the announcement of Copenhagen Popfest that will take place in May this year. Sadly for me they announce the dates now when I had already booked my flight to Europe in April. A bit of a short notice. This time the return of Popfest to the Danish capital has a new crowd behind it. In the blog I interviewed in the past my good friend Danielle who with friends organized the first edition. After many years there’s this comeback and it starts to shape up nicely with the sole announcement (as of yet!) of the mighty Felt Tips. Looking forward to their next choices.

Speaking about Popfests, both Madrid and Birmingham have ace lineups. Many Cloudberry bands will be joining these festivals. Only yesterday Lost Tapes was announced for Madrid! How I wish I could attend. But that’s what happens when you live in the wrong continent.

But I’ll stop complaining. We do have NYC Popfest and it’s in a league of it’s own. I’ve heard around rumours of bands coming to play but of course, I have to keep quiet! You should just trust the words from Maz, the organizer, when he says that this will be the best Popfest ever. Which is a lot to say considering the amazing Popfest 2013!

Well enough of chit-chatting, next week I’ll come back with a proper indiepop story, it’s been some time since I tell one of them. But now, let’s move to what you came here for, to discover a new obscure band, right?

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Splitting aces and eights is part of blackjack basic strategy. Rules vary across gambling establishments regarding resplitting, doubling, multiple card draws, and the payout for blackjack, and there are conditional strategic responses that depend upon the number of decks used, the frequency of shuffling and dealer’s cards. However, regardless of the various situations, the common strategic wisdom in the blackjack community is to “Always split aces and eights” when dealt either pair as initial cards. This is generally the first rule of any splitting strategy.

I had no clue. Clearly I’m not a gambler. Though I admit I’ve been meaning to visit Las Vegas for so long now, checking now and then the price for flights from NYC to Vegas. It’s never cheap though, so I keep looking.

I do know how to play blackjack I guess. I know the goals of it. Though I don’t know the strategies or even less counting cards. Will it be safe to say this English band from the 80s did?

This band is as obscure as it gets. One 7″ released and that’s it. Discogs though includes in their discography some stuff from the 2000s, but that’s definitely another band. You should ignore that. The only release we care for is the one that has “Hard Luck Stories” on the A side, and “Love is a Duel” on the B side. Do you like horns? Well, then you might like their songs.

I’ve seen “Hard Luck Stories” listed many times on Rupert’s Turntable Revolution blog. But I have to say for me, my favourite of the two, is “Love is a Duel”. The music reminds me of one of my favourite bands ever, Friends. Sure, the vocals are a bit different, but the music does reminisce as it has those glorious horns, and upbeat hooks.

Sadly I only own Mp3s for these songs. I’ve been looking for their record for some time now, but it’s been a hard luck story (pardon the terrible pun). Happily online, on cat45 there are some scans of the record and so we can learn a bit about this mysterious three-piece outfit.

The record was released by Other Records in 1987 (catalog OTH8). It seems it was their last release. Before that, this Oxfordshire label founded in 1985, had released singles by bands I’ve never heard like 5:30! and Virtue, as well as a bunch of compilations that include even more strange names for me like The Black Riders, Teacher’s Pet, Criminal Sex and Electric Dog Sex. Not sure I want to hear these bands. For me it’s no surprise that the label changed their name in 1987 to Metalother Records, to release, just guess, metal bands.

Aces and Eights wasn’t metal at all. They seemed closer to The Lotus Eaters or The Pale Fountains from the photo on the back sleeve. The band was Simon Li on guitars and keyboards, Robin Stuart on guitar and Gary Moss on bass. For the recording of the single they had guest appearances by Phil Cesar on trumpet and flugel horn and Andy Taylor on harmonica. The record was produced by Ian Show and the fun illustration on the sleeve was credited to Nicky Hunt.

How many copies were pressed. No clue. Did they play much live? No idea. Where exactly in UK were they from? My guess is from London, but that is a mystery for me as well. But perhaps someone out there reading this knows something, maybe can solve fill in the blanks. Whatever happened to them after Aces and Eights? Did they continue making music?

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Listen
Aces and Eights – Love is a Duel
 

Happy 2014!

First proper post of the year! It’s true I’ve posted three interviews so far but to be honest I wrote the questions the previous year. So this is really the first time I sit with the idea of writing something worthy. Well, hopefully it’s worthy.

I want to start with some label news because it’s been pretty quiet here lately, hasn’t it? So many of you might know that there’s a new release around the corner. Next week we will be releasing a new 7″!! This time we are releasing our second Spanish band in our 7″ series. First one was Zipper if you remember! Now we will be putting out the new 4-song EP by Lost Tapes. Who are they? Maybe you haven’t heard about them, and that’s totally ok, though I believe this year they are going to make a splash. They have been confirmed to play SXSW and I believe they will be playing a couple of indiepop festivals. So keep your eyes peeled. Their music is a bit of a surprise. The duo of RJ and Pau have been making music for a long time, not together, but in separate bands. Bands that are big and popular in Spain like Tokyo Sex Destruction and La Habitación Roja. But they love indiepop, they love the gentle sounds of The Field Mice, Brian, Brighter, so they decided to give it a go together in a new project, in Lost Tapes. So far they have only “released” a digital release on the Eardrums digital label. It ended up in many year end lists. It was lush. It was beautiful. I was terribly happy that they wanted to release their debut on Cloudberry. The songs included are four, “War in the Netherlands”, “Skylines”, “Poetry Dates” and “Chances”. There’s even an awesome video we’ve been promoting for the opening track. You can already order it from the site or you can wait until your favourite mailorder has it. Hopefully you’ll have it in your hands soon! You’ll love it! On top of it all the sleeve has been gleefully illustrated by Barcelona’s Marta Llumbart!

A lot of people have been asking about The Rileys release. And yes, it’s taking some time. It will be released though, come on, don’t despair. I’m positive it will be out next month. I wish it had been sooner, but as you are my friends I’ll be honest, sales have been quite bad on November and December so, there hasn’t been much cash to pay for new releases. It works like that you know. Sales become releases. So sometimes things have to wait until we can afford to put the new record out. So here’s an idea, if anyone out there know any ways we could raise our sales, make some interesting merchandise, or exclusive deals, I don’t know, something that could work, please on the comment section leave some ideas. I would really appreciate that. I really don’t want to end using a kickstarter or having to close the label. I’m going to fight! Anyways, let’s hope for February for The Rileys. I’ll keep you all updated when I have a release date.

The other project I want to work on this new year has to do with the blog. I want to finally publish in book form some of these interviews I’ve been doing for 5 years. I’ve been meaning to do so for some time. Many friends have asked me to do it, and I said I would. And then I never did! It requires a lot of time. It’s not just copy/pasting. I need to design the book with Cloudberry standards. It has to look good. I need photos to illustrate it as well. I can’t just publish a music book with just text, can I? But yeah, I’m hoping that by Indietracks time the first volume of these books will be published. I don’t have a name yet for it yet. So any ideas are welcome!

So that’s that.

What else is important this year so far. Well it seems there will be a Chickfactor festival in March here in New York? Will have to keep an eye on that. I hope it’s not like last year that The Pastels were confirmed and didn’t end up coming. I hope it works out well this time! Also of course to look forward for me is NYC Popfest and Indietracks. I have yet another trip to Europe in April that I’m looking forward. Will be in Spain, Norway and Sweden. Yes, always Spain, always Sweden. But I managed to squeeze a new country to visit. And I’m pretty excited to go to Oslo for the first time. But also I will be visiting new places in Spain, like Seville, Granada, Cordoba, Cadiz and Málaga, and in Sweden I’ll visit Göteborg for the first time. I will end up in Stockholm my last days of the trip. It’s like I always need to visit that city that I love (and hate).

Shaping like a fine year so far, right? What else would I like? I definitely want to DJ at Indietracks. But who knows if someone will invite me. That’s something I’ve been wanting to do since the first time I went. Crossing fingers, though I doubt it, as I don’t have a club, right? Speaking of Indietracks, I’m pretty scared as the plane tickets already are very expensive. I can’t find anything under 900 dollars. Wonder if it will work out the way I wanted. For that price I feel like a terrible idea just to go for four or five days. For that price I need to at least spend two weekends there. If that happens, maybe I end up doing that trip that I always wanted to the north of Wales, to those towns and castles that I’ve been daydreaming of, Beaumaris, Caernarfon, Conwy, Harlech…. but we’ll see. I kind of want to save vacation days for a later trip to China.

And that’s more or less in a nutshell what I’m expecting for this 2014. There are of course another releases in the works, but as soon as they are 100% confirmed and I have a song to share or something, I’ll keep it secret. But follow me here on the blog, I’ll be updating it every week as usual.

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Now into one of the most obscure mysteries of indiepop: That Corporate Feeling.

As you can imagine there’s NOTHING about them online. I’ve looked all over the place and I can’t find anything. The only thing I know is that their sole 7″ is really sought after by indiepop collectors. I’ve known that for years. I’ve heard their classic song “The Rain Has Gone” for years. But you know, I’ve never known anything else about them.

The few bits of important information are that it was released in 1984 on a label called Platform Soul. This was the first release of the label so it’s kind of safe to assume that this was a self-release. On Discogs it says that this 7″ was a promo 7″. That could explain the scarcity of it.

The A side was naturally “The Rain Has Gone” a proto-indiepop gem, packed with horns and a pounding bass. If sped up this could have been a major discoparty footstomper I reckon. Still it’s a beautifully crafted popsong. It’s no wonder everyone wants a copy of it! Me included of course!

The B side is “Industrial Backlash”. I wonder if there’s a relation between the name of the band and this song. Seems there’s a thread, no? Perhaps there was some sort of political background to the band. A socialist view? I wonder.

The only other thing I’ve ever seen is the sleeve. The front sleeve is quite nice. It has a die cut in the center, like old jukebox 45s. You can see the vinyl label having a bright red heart. The sleeve meanwhile has an illustration of a guy with a mullet. Perhaps it was the style? Perhaps is an illustration of the vocalist? Who knows. The back sleeve is even a bigger mystery. There’s just a photo, black and white, of two persons and what it seems like a dog.

There’s not much else online. I have no clue who the band members are. It all remains a mystery. Do any of you know anything else about them?!

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Listen
That Corporate Feeling – The Rain has Gone

Thanks so much to Håkan Eriksson for the interview! Rain Refrain was a Stockholm band from the mid/late 80s that played some sweet jangly pop! Their songs are just classic pop and one wonders why they weren’t more known! These days both Håkan and Per Tolgraven (also from Rain Refrain) play in a band worth checking out, The Tangerines, with whom they are putting out their third album out pretty soon! Here in the interview we talk about both bands and also about the Swedish scene of those days. Enjoy!

++ Hi Håkan! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! These days you play in The Tangerines, isn’t that right? And you are about to release a new album. Care to tell me a bit about it? I hear there’s going to be a Rain Refrain cover in it?

Hi Roque! Yeah, that’s right. The new Tangerines’ album – our third – will be out early 2014. We’ve just recieved the master, and we’re really happy with the result. We do cover of Rain Refrain’s “Girls’ Girls’ World” true to the original demo from 1986!

++ And yeah! Where can one buy it?

To start with, we will release it through CD Baby.

++ Rain Refrain was your band in the late 80s, and then it was only in 1996 that you started The Tangerines. In that time between both bands, were you involved in any other musical projects?

Not really, I played with some cover bands. When Per (also in Rain Refrain) and I teamed up again, it was just like starting over!

++ And what would you say are the main differences between Rain Refrain and The Tangerines if any?

None to be honest. The Tangerines are more or less the same thing – power pop, guitars, harmonies, catchy songs – only that we had a few years break! Oh, one obvious difference is that Rain Refrain were a band playing live while The Tangerines are a duo concentrating on recording.

++ With The Tangerines you have already released two albums as well. If you were to suggest were to start discovering the band, what songs should one listen? Which are your favorites and why?

I suggest “Leave Him Behind” and “Look like Angels” from the first album. The former has an ambitious arrangement, the latter is short song driven by 12-string jangle. From our second album: “Rock’n’roll Girl” and “Diamonds in the Dew”. “RnR G” was a happy recording with a spacy middle eight that we like; the more up-tempo “Diamonds in the Dew” is another Rain Refrain cover, and the flip side of “Girls’ Girls’ World”. You can find them all on Spotify!

++ Let’s rewind then, back to the 80s. Who were Rain Refrain, what instruments did each of you play, and how did the band start? How did you all get to know each other?

Rain Refrain were a classic four piece: two guitars, bass and drums, Per and Håkan on vocals. I played in a band called Helikoptern whose singer had just left the band and Per, who was a fan of the band, took his place. Helikoptern broke up shortly after and Per and I were left with a rehearsal studio, a growing friendship and a few good songs. Another band shared the same studio and we sort of took over their rhythm section Per (the 2nd) and Johan on drums. We have fond memories of recording during summer nights on a Tascam 244 in a gym hall with a fantastic reverb. It all resulted in a 6 track demo which we sent to the four biggest record companies. WEA Sweden went nuts over the demo and signed us without ever seeing us live.

++ Had you been in bands previously? Or was this your first experience in a pop band?

As I mentioned I was in the band Helikoptern. We were signed to EMI Sweden and made a single, with lyrics in Swedish. Per – the second half of The Tangerines – was also in smaller bands before joining Helikoptern.

++ Back in those late 80s, were there any other Swedish acts that you liked at the time?

Just a few. Come to think of it, in those days we listened more to the big hits of the time: The Bangles, Bryan Adams, Belinda Carlisle… We were all influenced much more by earlier bands like Dwight Twilley, Phil Seymour, The Records, Cheap Trick, The Bangles, Nick Lowe, Rockpile, Kirsty MacCall, Ian Gomm, Marshall Crenshaw, ELO… “There She Goes” by the La’s. And of course it all started with… The Beatles.

++ And where does the name of the band comes from?

It was just a play with words, or sounds. We always liked the word “rain”, a Beatles song of course (and a Status Quo one). Refrain as in “chorus”, and the rhyme sounded just right.

++ How was Stockholm back then? Was there some sort of scene? Were there many venues to play? What were the cool areas to hang? What were the best record stores?

Stockholm, late 80s… We were so busy rehearsing, used to hang out in the district of Söder. This was long before it changed to be a hipster paradise. Those days there were quite a few venues. I think we played them all.

++ As far as I know you only released a 7″, the fantastic “Girls’ Girls’ World”. So I have to ask, were there any more recordings by Rain Refrain that remain unreleased?

We made one more 7″ for WEA, a double A-side called “Hey Hey Michelle” / “Bad Luck”. It was recorded in 1987, released in Spring 1988 and got a decent amount of airplay.

++ And if it’s not much to ask, can you tell me the story behind the two songs on the 7″?

The songs came quickly those days. Per says the guitar riff on “Girls’ Girls’ World” just came to him on a bus or something. It took some time to complete the rhymes (it always does). The re-start at the end was an idea of our producer. The B-side “Diamonds in the Dew” came to Per in the middle of a stalled rehearsal. As you may notice none of them has a traditional chorus.

++ This record was released by a big label, WEA. A lot of indie bands struggle with big labels, though I’m not saying that was your case. But I wonder how was your experience with them?

It was a struggle. There were a lot of meetings with a lot of people. Everyting took a lot of time. The scene here at the time was totally dominated by male solo artists singing in Swedish. And here we came, a guitar band with pop songs in English. We’re not sure they knew what to do with us.

++ What do you remember from those recording sessions? Any anecdotes that you could share?

When WEA asked us to record, we asked who would be the producer. “No-one”, they said, “just do it like you did the demos”. So we found ourselves in this huge famous studio… young and nervous, and we failed miserably. It took a year until we got a new chance, and then we cut the first single – with the producer Niklas Strömstedt – and it all run smoothly. This time we used the EMI studio in Stockholm, inspired by the Abbey Road studios, where bands like Roxette recorded. A good memory, and – by 80s standards – a good recording. As for anecdotes… “Summer of 69” was a huge hit by the time. We loved the sound of the snare drum and wanted to have the same sound for the intro of “Girls’ Girls’ World”. Eventually the engineer just sampled it – and used it on the on the whole recording.

++ Gigs, tell me about gigs. Did you play many? Which were your favourites and why?

We played so many gigs. Big places, small places. After a while I think we became a really good live band. To replicate our records, we took in another guy, and for a while we were four singers doing harmonies (or trying to…) Highlights were a special live recording for Swedish radio, a showcase gig or WEA at the prestigious Ritz, and a large festival just south of Stockholm. After a while we became almost too well-rehearsed; looking at videos from the time we play the songs so fast.

++ So what happened to the Rain Refrain? When and why did you split?

We had an album and national tour in the planning, then our A&R man left the company, and it all stalled. We continued playing gigs but after a while Per left the band, though he continued writing songs, which eventually turned up on the Tangerines’ albums.

++ And are you all still in touch? What are you all up to these days aside from music? Do you enjoy any other hobbies aside from playing in the band?

Yes, we split amicably and see each other quite often. The other RR members are in their own bands today. The only guy we don’t meet is one of our bassists who went back to his native island Gotland setting up his own band. (Rain Refrain had an issue with bassists; they were our equivalent to Spinal Tap’s drummers.)

++ Looking back, what would you say was the biggest highlight of Rain Refrain?

Waking up hearing our single on national radio was a great moment. Playing a week-long engagement at the music pub Engelen in Gamla Stan (the old town) in the middle of summer was another.

++ One last question, Sweden seems to be the country that aside from the US and the UK, produces more pop bands, guitar pop bands, why do you think that is? Do you have any theory about that?

Interesting question. I think Swedish people have a sense of melody, and a fairly strong tradition of folk music. Also the kids get the chance to play an instrument from early years. And we are fast in adopting trends from Britain and the US, for instance we quickly got (locally) successful guitar bands here in the 60s. Maybe that’s part of an explanation.

++ Thanks a lot Håkan! Anything else you’d like to add?

Thank you, Roque! It was a pleasure walking down memory lane with you. We’ll keep in touch!

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Listen
Rain Refrain – Girls Girls World