It’s snowing already in New York. Not much indiepop for me these days aside from listening to Shine! songs a lot. Trying to find the right order of the songs for the upcoming compilation. Also on heavy rotation some old albums by The Times, Throw That Beat, The Earthmen. The only exception being The Proctors album that I recently got from Ed when he was visiting New York. Lovely album. Should be in those year end lists people love doing and that I can’t get around my mind to make one. Still the album I’ve listened to the most this year is Silver Screen’s. But that might be me being biased.

I went to Mondo this past weekend too, after devouring some delicious Korean dumplings in K-Town, and a stop in Bushwick to see Grand Resort play along other hipster bands. Highlights of the dance party were Alpaca Sports “I Was Running” and Go Violets’ “Josie”. I must have been a bit drunk as it seems I recorded some clips of the songs and mailed them to the bands. Geeky fan. At least the bands seemed happy and not annoyed!

On Friday I was supposed to go check a new band that Ed tipped me called Gingerlys. On bandcamp they sound pretty good so I wanted to check them live. Unfortunately it was raining way too much to do that inter-continental trip to Bushwick that night. Hopefully I’ll catch them soon. I haven’t discovered that many exciting new bands as of late, especially in the city. So this could be something!

Also the Twee.net Poll is now open. I should cast my votes pretty soon. And you all should too! Would be interesting to see who wins. I might be wrong, but I feel this has been a year of little surprises. More like a quiet indiepop year aside from some amazing comebacks like The Brilliant Corners or The Haywains. When it comes to new bands, I will look east. I think the best new bands come from Japan and Australia this year (again the exception being Don’t Cry Shopgirl from Sweden). Don’t you agree?

But in general, it has been a good year for me. Plenty of traveling. Many new friends. Three pop festivals. Can’t complain. The idea is to keep it up next year. NYC Popfest for sure. Indietracks 90% that will happen. I have a Travelodge room already reserved so…

Not much more this week, winter seems a bit uneventful, especially December. You’d think people buy indiepop records as presents but that’s never the case. There’s the Big Pink Cake Christmas special, but that’s in London. I can only wish to be there. Anyways, I’ll see you next week, hopefully with some exciting news. Maybe by then I have already book my new vacations.

——————————————————————–

Don’t know about you, but these days, I have a hard time to get out of bed. Not because of any sort of sadness or depression. It’s just cozy. It’s warm. And it’s terribly cold not being under the sheets and blankets. I don’t mind the cold weather, I actually enjoy it, it’s just that moment of the day that is difficult for me. So until we are halfway through March I guess this will be the routine. Or maybe I’m just getting older, my thirtieth birthday looming. Scary.

My computer at work broke down. When I arrived from vacations it wasn’t working. Seems that the hard drive was fried. Through some recovery stuff, I manage to salvage a bunch of songs. Most of these are obscure songs that I’ve been sent by friends through email. Songs by bands that I’ve been looking for their records without luck. Hard to find.

The computer was formatted. And now I’m listening to all these songs again. Just for fun. Then suddenly some songs catch my attention. They are by a band called “And So To Bed”. A friend from Portugal, Joel, had shared these with me. I do a google search. As you can imagine a phrase like this gave me thousands of results. So I dug and dug.

Rupert at Turntable Revolution wrote on May 12 2012:
“And So To Bed released one 7″ in the mid eighties which has been on my wants list for a few years and turns up on ebay. Happy days until the listing is ended early by the greedy seller. So has anyone got a copy of this elusive single for sale?”

Then I found the listing on eBay. It was a seller in California. On the item description I find the first hints about this elusive record.
“Great C86 jangly indie-pop from this north London combo active around 1986/1987. Features 4 songs: And So To Bed (She Said) / Just Desserts / Plaindom / Spit It Out. Promo stamped with “Timebox Records: for promotional use only”. “

Indeed, it’s great jangly indie-pop! And we get to know the four songs on the 7″. We also get to know the label, Timebox Records. There’s just one more stop, one last hit google gave me. And that’s the Firestation Records blog that Uwe ran for a short time recommending and tipping some amazing stuff. There he writes: Amazing London-based band which was around the late 80’s. One 7“ single, released on Timebox Records, simply named “The EP“. Four tracks, four hits, full of jangly guitars somewhere between the first two singles by Laugh and The Close Lobsters.

So much praise for this band. So much excitement. And the songs do live up to them. The problem is, why the hell nobody knows anything else about them? Who were they? It’s a safe bet that Timebox Records was their own label they set up to put out the record. So that makes it even more difficult to track them down. There is a blog were it says Sperm Wails played with them. That’s the only other mention I could find online. It seems that aside this 7″ their legacy is non-existent. The band members names? What were they? Anyone knows anything else? They were from London. Someone has to remember!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
And So To Bed – And So To Bed

Alright. So where are the top ten lists for this year. I’m waiting. It’s already December and to my surprise I still haven’t seen any of these lists, not even on Facebook. Could it possibly be that there hasn’t been that many great releases in 2013? Or to be more sincere, the great releases of this year haven’t been released by the well known labels so they have been under the radar of most people? Could be. I like to think this has been the case. But let’s wait and see, it’s still early December and not even the Twee.net poll is open. So let’s wait and see, I’m quite curious.

Last week there wasn’t a blog post. And can’t say I missed writing. I didn’t even think about it. I had a very intense week traveling in Peru, partying, visiting friends, drinking, eating, etc, etc. I think I napped one day. I don’t think I had much time to relax and take it easy. That’s why I look forward to this Monday as I have requested a day of ‘staycation’. Really need it. I’m not complaining though, I saw the impressive Machu Picchu. I was in awe. I was also very tired to go up all the little rock stairs to the summit to take that classic photograph with the citadel behind you. I ate for the first time alpaca and also went to a restaurant that serves food from the Amazonian region. That was quite exciting.

I got to see Eva & John play live for the first time. I saw them also at a band practice. Both times I liked them a lot. They are unique for the scene in Peru, and it shows. They have followers that know their songs by heart. Now just need to push them to record 4 more songs. The 2-song flexi that they released earlier this year is not enough for a band that has so many catchy songs. I really hope that a 7″ will happen in 2014.

After many years I visited a disco in Lima. The music is still quite terrible, but what can you ask for. It’s not like we get good indiepop discos in New York City either way. I remember I danced to Pulp. And then I mostly just drank. It was cheap. 3 dollars for a huge bottle of beer. Half liter I believe? Those things are very convenient. But beware, not everything is cheap. Food wasn’t. I feel it’s around the same prices as in New York!

I got to see many friends, many that I haven’t seen for years. Some that were part of my gang while I lived in Miami. It made me happy to see that they are doing well. Earning good money. Living alone. Being successful. It also made me proud that Plastilina Records has a name these days in Peru. People recognize the label I started with three other friends and that these days Jalito is the driving-force. Funny though that indiepop is associated to hipsters in Lima. It might be the only place in the world that this sort of music is associated to them (ok, it used to be like that in Sweden for some time). I guess hipsters are the outsiders in Peru? Or viceversa? I don’t know how it ended up being like that. But it’s a bit scary! As long as they don’t ruin it all…

Anyways, I’m back and I have a couple of more posts to write this year. There are also some interviews that I hope I’ll publish as well. There will be Cloudberry news soon too. Lost Tapes 7″ will be out in around a month time. And then there will be new releases announcements! So keep an eye on the blog.

Also, if you are not aware, it seems there will be a new Popfest next year. It will be based in Birmingham and will happen in April. No clue who is organizing it, but the lineup already looks great. I wish I could go, so, if you can, you should definitely head there!

————————————————————–

Now let’s move onto some obscure band, one that I keep losing on eBay everytime it shows up: Boston Crabs.

As obscure as it gets. As mysterious as it gets. Because obviously they weren’t from Boston. They hailed from Hull.

If you google for Boston Crabs, you’ll see some Lacrosse team with that name. But perhaps the name may come from this “Boston crab”:
The Boston crab is a professional wrestling hold that typically starts with one wrestler lying in a supine position on the mat, with the other wrestler standing and facing him. It is a type of spinal lock where the wrestler hooks each of the opponent’s legs in one of his arms, and then turns the opponent face-down, stepping over him in the process. The final position has the wrestler in a semi-sitting position and facing away from his opponent, with the opponent’s back and legs bent back toward his head. The original name for the maneuver was the Backbreaker, before that term became known for its current usage. In modern wrestling, the Boston crab is not treated as a lethal submission maneuver, even though it was considered a match-ending hold in the past. In Japan, it is commonly used as a hold to defeat young and inexperienced wrestlers; the ability to overcome the hold is considered a sign of growth.  In submission grappling, the Boston crab (generally the half Boston crab) can be used to set up a straight ankle lock.

Not much into wrestling myself. When I was much younger, perhaps 13 or so, I did watch a bit of the American wrestling on TV. And once in Miami I met Hulk Hogan. That was odd.

Perhaps they just liked to have an American flavor to their name. When listening to the B-side of their one and only single, the song called “Icebox”, you can feel a bit of Americana in it, thanks to it’s Midwest guitars. But who knows, it’s anyone’s guess.

The A side is my favourite though, it’s proper jangle pop, indiepop, c86. However you want to call it. This classic slice of pop with trumpets is called “Burn”. No surprise that this record was released in 1986 by the D~I~Y label (catalog 1,000,000).

The information about the band is scarce. Thanks to scans on 45cat, we know that the B side is titled on the label as “Your Love is Really Icebox, Baby”, and not just “Icebox” as in the sleeve, that the record was engineered by Peter Kennedy and recorded at Farmhouse Studios in Goxhill. There’s not much to read about Goxhill.

But let’s turn to the sleeve. There’s a cryptic message “A £108.34 including petrol’ recording. Then there are some important clues for solving the case of this band: band members.

Wayne Jordan – vocals, guitar
Luke Luke LD-50 – noisy guitars
Paul Mackay – drums, percussion
Rick Newman – bass guitar

Special Guest Star
Dave Blackmore – saxophone

I try to find them. No luck. Can’t be that they just disappeared into thin air. There’s something else though on the sleeve. A text written by someone called General Zak:

Still in their early 20’s, the Boston Crabs prove themselves the most versatile young singer-entertainers of the day. For here are two exciting numbers delivered in two distinctive styles.
One change of pace after another, that’s the way it goes through this whole dynamic single. Yet never changing is the powerful unique sound of the Crabs as they dominate and control every song. And for the first time instrumental backing by the fabulous Dave Blackmore adds a fiery vigour to the latest Crabs single.

This text leaves me wondering. First because it says “latest Crabs single”. Was there a prior one? Was there anything else released by them? Also, it says they were in their early 20s! They were young. They must have made music afterwards in one way or another. At least one of them, right?!

Dave Blackmore though seems easier to find. Under his name he released a 1996 album called “Fields of Fire” and has worked with bands like Chalktown. There’s even a biography here. But what about the rest, the ones that were actually the Boston Crabs? It seems for now, they will still remain a mystery.

If you know anything else about them, you saw them live, or even have more recordings, let me know. Would love to know more about them!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Boston Crabs – Burn

2014 around the corner! This is the last post of November as next week I’ll be out of town. In the very remote chance that you’ll happen to be in Lima, Peru, next week, there’s an event that I want you to attend. I will be DJing on the 28th at a club in downtown Lima after the bands Eva & John and Submarino play. It’s a very happy chance for me as I’m a big fan of Eva & John, who put out one of the freshest debuts this year. The link for the Facebook event is here. If you happen to be around, please say hello!

On some random Cloudberry news, I hope you are all aware that you can pre-order both The Rileys and Lost Tapes 7″. They should be ready by the end of December or early January. I’ll keep you updated as there will be posts in the blog next month of course. 4 at least. So keep an eye on that. And of course there’s a bunch of interviews I’ve been working on, trying to shed some light on some obscure bands that deserve to be known!

I’ve written a bit already about this trip to Peru, perhaps not that much as I use to when I go abroad, but I will definitely go through it when I return. But my arrival doesn’t look that great, I’ve already been told that this coming weekend no alcohol is served as there are elections for some positions in the Lima municipality. Weird laws. Just have to go along I guess.

Let’s travel to Wales today. Though not to my memories of my Welsh holiday a year and a half ago. I have very happy memories of it of course, Cardiff, Swansea, Chepstow, Tintern. One of the best weeks of my life definitely. So many castles visited. I want to go back, to Pembroke, to Caernarfon, to Anglesey, places that I have only read about in all these books about medieval Great Britain that I own. So many places I want to visit, the list goes on. I fell in love with that magical country, full of myths and mystery. True, after that trip I had one of the hardest breakups so far in my young life. And that makes Wales a difficult place for me. But still, I’m hard-headed and want to visit Wales again. And while figuring out and admiring those beautiful castles in the northwest, I also want to figure out one of indiepop’s biggest mysteries, Tynal Tywyll.

Not much of a mystery because of being obscure. I believe a lot of people know about them. But they know the name and little more. A week or two ago Andreas from Hamburg, a true indiepop visionnaire, wrote me about them. He was looking for more information about their releases.  Discogs doesn’t list all of them. So he sent me a list of information he had gathered and could be helpful for researching about them. And hopefully learn whatever happened to them.

I know of them from just some loose songs. I know mostly about them through Youtube I must admit. There’s the video for the jingly jangly “Telyn Wedi Torri” that gives us a little tour of a Welsh town (which town is it? can anyone tell me?), another video for a live performance for “Y Gwyliau“, that sounds a bit Morrissey-like, and also a pair of videos of a live gig that includes a bunch of their songs ( part 1 includes I believe “Emyr”, “Duw Rhyw”, “Cyfweliad” and “Jack Kerouac” while part 2 includes “Crocodeil” and “Showbiz”). To our luck, we also get a live performance of the song of the promo video, there is this beautiful live rendition of “Telyn Wedi Torri” that you all ought to listen and watch. The guitars don’t stop chiming!

After you’ve listened and you wonder why don’t you understand them, you’ll notice they sing in Welsh. I must admit that I didn’t hear much Welsh while I was in Wales. Only at the train stations. I expected to use some of the silly phrases I learned from the Lonely Planet guidebook we brought. But no. Welsh (Cymraeg or y Gymraeg) is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically it has also been known in English as “the British tongue”, “Cambrian”, “Cambric”[12] and “Cymric”. The 2011 UK Census counted almost 3 million residents of Wales. Of these, 73% (2.2 million) reported having no Welsh language skills. Of the residents of Wales aged three and over, 19% (562,000) reported being able to speak Welsh, and 77% (431,000) of these (that is, 15% of the total population) were able to speak, read, and write the language. This can be compared with the 2001 Census, in which 20.8% of the population (582,000) reported being able to speak Welsh. In surveys carried out between 2004 and 2006, 57% (315,000) of Welsh speakers described themselves as fluent in the written language.

Also pretty interesting is their counting system, which is very similar to French The traditional counting system used by the Welsh language is vigesimal, which is to say it is based on twenties, as in standard French numbers 70 (soixante-dix, literally “sixty-ten”) to 99 (quatre-vingt-dix-neuf, literally “four twenties nineteen”). Welsh numbers from 11 to 14 are “x on ten”, 16 to 19 are “x on fifteen” (though 18 is deunaw “two nines”); numbers from 21 to 39 are “1–19 on twenty”, 40 is “two twenties”, 60 is “three twenties”, etc. This form continues to be used, especially by older people, and it is obligatory in certain circumstances (such as telling the time).

Anyways, enough of linguistics, though I find it immensely interesting. I found a very informative biography on last.fm for Tynal Tywyll. This might start solving the mystery.

Tynal Tywyll formed in 1984 in the very confusing landscape of mid 80’s Welsh music. Heavy metal to the left of them. Reggae to the right of them. What could they do? Taking their cue from The Byrds and REM they played a chime-y, rickenbacker infused form of “pop” music and released 3 singles, 3 EPs and 2 albums. On their first TV appearance on HTV Wales they dared to wear turtle neck jumpers, paisley shirts and necklaces, which was enough to elicit, if not death threats, threats of a good kicking from some quarters. They once recorded a TV session on the same day as Heavy Metal legends Wenfflam, who wore skin tight tiger print pants in a sort of NWOBHM Saxon style, and who have gone down in history as the Welsh language Anvil. All Hail Wenfflam. (Indeed all hail Anvil too. But we draw the line at Manowar.) TT were vehemently Metal-phobic at this time, and were naively worried that being in the same studio as a metal band would infect them with the airborne virus know as “Spirit of metal” and make them buy Donington Rock tickets. It did not. As time has gone by the TT members have grown up a bit and actually consider sharing a stage with Wenfflam a privilege. Anyhoo, continuing, the band played many concerts in some very strange places such as Dolgellau village hall, which was actually rafter swinging, riotously good fun. They did get their van headbutted without provocation by a cloven hoofed man beast in Bala but that is another story. At one Eisteddfod, in a starlit field, after midnight, they were accosted by a weeping man mountain know only as “Maharan”. He could have killed the whole band with one thumb thrust but the band quickly offered the tearful behemoth words of solace like Androcles to the lion, and he was grateful and spared them. At one concert a drunken ape of a young farmer manhandled one of their guitars and surveyed it as if it had beamed down from mars, uttering quizzical grunts as he turned it every which way. They did not correct him for they were fey musicians, not ringmasters of feral turnip gatherers. Many and absurd were their adventures. They were “active” (in the musical sense) from 1984 to 1995. A compilation CD of all their records is possible within the next few months. There are no plans to dust off the turtle neck jumpers for a live reunion, as they would rather be remembered as young and relatively pretty, but their spirit lives on in the recordings.

A compilation CD of all their records? I don’t think this ever happened did it? This text was written in 2011.

Let’s head to Discogs then and see what’s listed there as any pop researcher would do as a first step.

There’s one album listed, ” Lle Dwi Isho Bod +… “. It has Scooby Doo and Shaggy on the cover. They too were used to solve mysteries. Scooby Doo was one of my favorite cartoons when little. It was aired in channel 7, a government owned channel, back in Lima. I believe it aired at around 4:30pm. I could be wrong, it was a long time ago. It was before the Cartoon Network and that sort of things. This album was released in 1992, on the Crai label (catalog CD 032) and included 20 songs! Andreas tells me that songs 1 to 14 were originally released on MC (one of the albums, probably the final one) and tracks 15 to 20 are culled from various singles.

The Ankst label  lists an album “Slow Dance Hefo’r Iesu” (Ankst 002), but can’t find any more information.

There are two singles listed. The first from 1986, “’73 Heb Flares / Rhwyma Fi“, included those two songs and was released by Recordiau Anhrefn (catalog Anhrefn 007). The second single was the one from the video, “Mae’r Telyn Wedi Torri” and was released by the Bobby Riggs label in 1987. The catalog number was SRT-7KS-1383 and the B side for this single was “Y Gwyliau”.

The Anhrefn label also released some guitar bands like Y Cyrff or the punkier Fflaps, worth checking on Youtube.

There is of course another 7″ not listed that I did know about, that’s the one that has “Jack Kerouac” on the A side. I used to think this was the most well known record by them, but if it’s not listed on Discogs, well, I guess it’s not.  This one was released in 1990 and R072F. The B side was “Boomerang”.

Then there’s a 7″ on the Ankst label, “Syrthio Mewn Cariad”, catalog Ankst 004. Not sure what the other songs on this are. It is an EP, so perhaps more than 2 songs are included in the record.

But Andreas sends me a link for yet another single, not listed on Discogs. This one from 1988, with catalog number SRT 9KS 1858. I wasn’t aware of this one. With a very 60s artwork, this record includes the songs “Duw Rhyw” and “Gorfennaf Eto” on the A side and “Showbiz” and “Gerddi” on the B side. A veil of mystery covers this one.

They also appeared on the compilation “Cam O’r Tywyllwch” released by the Recordiau Anhrefn label. Catalog was 002. In this comp they contributed the songs “Paid A Synnu” and “Yr Effaith”.

By now I feel terrible. I don’t own any of these records! I should start getting my hands dirty and try to find them!

I keep searching and I stumble on a WordPress blog by the same uploader of many of the videos of the band. It’s called Fanzine Ynfytyn ( I believe this means Fanzine Idiot). There’s a blog post and souncloud links about Tynal Tywyll! It seems these recordings come from a completely unofficial tape! have a look! It sounds amazing. It seems these recordings are from 1985!

Okay so you have questions, what does Tynal Tywyll means? It means Dark Tunnel. This I learn from a book called Blerwytirhwng?’ The Place of Welsh Pop Music  that seems very pricey, but there’s a Google scan of it. Here it confirms that they hailed from North Wales, and they seem to be grouped into a scene called the Bethesda scene. Sadly this is the only mention of the band here.

Gladly Andreas helps me with the band members:
Ian Morris – singer
Nathan Hall – lead guitar
Gareth Williams – bass
Gruffy Davies – rhythm guitar
Dafydd Richards – keyboards
Gareth Hughes – drums

It is still very mysterious but we’ve been putting many pieces together. We have at least a better discography than Discogs by now, and we have some names. Let’s keep digging.

There’s a mention of a Gareth Williams singing in an alt-country band called Colobos in Wrexham. That’s North Wales. Could be him? What about a Gareth Hughes, playing drums in a punk metal band called Act of Supremacy? though it seems that by 2007 he had left the band already.

But I think I hit the jackpot. I found a band called Soft Hearted Scientists based in Cardiff. Nathan Hall seems to be playing there. If he is the same Nathan Hall who I think it is. Will try my luck emailing them.

Though there’s still a piece of the story that I haven’t mentioned. Tynal Tywyll singing in English. They were called The Collectors and perhaps that should be another blog post. But at least let’s mention that they released two CDs  the 1993/4  “Astronaut Girl”  and the “Desolation Angels”, both on Citizen Records.

I haven’t heard these CDs either, but some of the songs posted on Youtube, though Andreas tells me that “The Collectors are also very good and the interesting part is that they re-wrote and re-recorded (at least two) TT songs with English lyrics, e.g. “Jack Kerouac” (with Welsh lyrics) became “World Away” (with English lyrics) etc.”

The first CD, “Astronaut Girl”, is catalog 002, whereas the second was 003. I wonder, was there a Citizen Records 001? I assume this was their own label.  “Desolation Angels” includes 14 songs. 6 of them appear on “Astronaut Girl”. The only song that remains exclusive to the 7-track “Astronaut Girl” is  “What Have We Got To Lose?”. The fact that the address on the back for Citizen Records is what creates a bit of confusion. It states the label is based in Cardiff. Either they moved from the north to Cardiff, which is I think a more English speaking place and started singing in English, or the label was just based there and it wasn’t ran by the band.

And here the research reaches a wall. There are no more places to look on the web at least. But I’m sure people out there must have heard about them, maybe saw them, or own their records! Would be great to hear if you have any more information about this fantastic Welsh indiepop band! A one of a kind band, that deserves more recognition in the indiepop-world!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Tynal Tywyll – Jack Kerouac

A week ago I received the second and possibly last album by Electrophönvintage. After listening to it a couple of times on my cd player, the one I carry around in my backpack all the time, I realized two things. First this can’t be the last album by the London band. Second, this album is brilliant.

I’ve been a fan of the band for many years now. I even have asked them many times for songs for a possible 7″ release. This never happened. What did happen was that I managed to see them live once, joined them at a band practice, and bought their first 7″ from Stephen Pastel. But I guess I should start from the beginning, as it’s not a short story.

It’s 1999, and Remi Parson starts this band as a solo project in France. Indiepop child prodigy. He is very very young. The next year, in 2000, he releases his first ever record, a 7″ with Plastic Pancake Records. Four songs, “I Don’t Want to Stay”, “Etap Hotel”, “The Passage” and “Shops” color the twelfth release of this French label. A label that eventually would move to London, the same way that years later Electrophönvintage would follow.

Plastic Pancake was an important influence, and player, for the early days of the band. Since 1997 this label released many classic indiepop acts like Marine Time Keepers, Picture Center or Les Poisson Solubles. It was definitely no surprise Remi found a good home here, and also a very good friend in Pierre, who ran the label. As the label grew in releases, Electrophönvintage stagnated. Remi had joined a post rock band, The Bright Period, where he plays guitar, and eventually releases an album “A Place for Parks” on Unique Records (catalog UR 02).

There’s a break. A couple of years. Until 2003. Then Electrophönvintage comes back, I guess because there’s an indiepop heart in Remi, and even though he does love Migala and some post-rock, he needed to let loose his pop sensibility. By now Delphine Bost has joined the band to what will become a fantastic partnership. Also Sebastien Linares, who Remi worked with in A Place for Parks, joins them on bass. With this new lineup they will release their first album “We Sang A Yéyé Song” with the Unique Records label (UR 03). It’s told that this record only took 1 day to be recorded. It was recorded that year at studio ATL by Pat, and it also counted with the help of Anicet Rohée (from A Place for Parks) on drums. Electrophönvintage is no more a solo project, but a full band. This album is a beautiful collection of smart songwriting, of songs written during a long time period, the newer ones written while being a student in Grenoble, and the older ones rediscovered from old tapes sitting in a cupboard. It’s a beautiful debut album, it’s classic indiepop, and as the Facebook page of the band nicely puts it, “short wooden pop songs”. For a taster, definitely head to Youtube and check the video for “Where You’re Not“. Delphine stars, and Remi’s trademark drawn-self appears too.

Upon re-listening the album it’s impressive the change between that first album and the second. But before we fast forward lets stop in 2006. This year the band contributes three songs, “Rescue”, “The Former President”  and “Where You’re Not”, to the Unique Records compilation “Just Close To You (A Five-Year Compilation Of Unique Records)” (catalog UR 13 from this French label). This is not their only compilation appearance though. In 2009 they will appear on a WeePop compilation called “Starting Anew” with the song “Don’t Wake Me Up”.

I believe it was in 2006 that Remi and Delphine relocated to London. Perhaps earlier. It was in 2006 when I first heard of the band. It was through their other project, at that time, just a side project, The Sunny Street. With The Sunny Street I have so many stories, that I hold very dear, but that’s for another time (though I’m pretty sure there’s a writeup of the first gig I ever saw by them in Hamburg 2010). With The Sunny Street I ended up working on a 3″, and an ill-fated album on Plastilina Records (thanks to the terrible work ethic of my partner in the label during that time). Ill-fated because it took more 6 months than the announced release date to appear in people’s mailboxes. It was a shame. I felt cheated. And I’m sure a lot of people out there did too. Those who ordered the album. Gladly this taught him a lesson and the Plastilina label seems to be much more reliable these days. Shame though it happened with one of the bands I loved the most, to a group of friends that I cared for. Shit happens they say. Things weren’t the same since then. Anyhow, back to Electrophönvintage.

As a side project, Electrophönvintage, didn’t live up to The Sunny Street fame. Musically they were two different creatures. Influence-wise you could say the same. The funny thing was that it was the same people playing. Remi had recruited Ian Cowen on bass (from Pocketbooks and now in The Understudies), and Christos Kalyvas on second guitar. A band with Christos let me tell you is a winner. No one sports better indiepop t-shirts than him, all made by himself mind you! This was The Sunny Street lineup. But when it was Electrophönvintage, Johnny from Pocketbooks would join on drums.

With this lineup they played a bunch of gigs, mostly in London. They did play one Indietracks gig in 2012. At the chapel. Those were happy days for me. 2012 was a good year just before Indietracks, then things went a bit downhill for me. But during Indietracks, sitting next to Alex, on the coldest summer I’ve experienced, rainy, visiting cows and donkeys, a week in Wales, a happy heart and dreams of a future by the coast of Skåne or in a wooden cabin in Unalaska, we enjoyed one of the most beautiful indiepop gigs of the year. I have the setlist still, dedicated to me, an illustration of a man open mouthed, all colored, and in that open mouth the songs to be played: “Siq”, “Where You’re Not”, “You Met a Girl”, “Football Teams”, “Shops”, “The Former President”, “Orphée”, “That Loving April”, “Michel”, and my favourite “Burgundy”. I’ve never seen so much effort put on making a such a neat setlist. You can tell aesthetics were important for them, and they cared very much for their band. Details like this speak for themselves.

Let’s rewind a bit, the previous year, 2011, I went to Indietracks too. Before that I went as sort of a roadie with Very Truly Yours to a couple of cities in the UK. One of those cities was Glasgow. Upon arriving our friend Krister was there waiting for us to give us a bit of a tour. Before that we had some food of course. I had haggis and beer. Krister tried the Arbroath Smokies. So adventurous we were. We headed then to Mono, the store Stephen Pastel runs. We were lucky that that day he was around. Krister introduced me to Stephen, and I as thrilled that he knew about Cloudberry. We took a photo, though not as cool as the one Daniel So Tough has. Anyhow, I went through the store and found Electrophönvintage’s debut 7″. Didn’t think twice to buy it, even though I already had it. You can call me nuts. But it had to be done.

If I rewind a bit more, to 2010, but earlier. February 2010. London Popfest. By now it’s over. But I’m still hanging around. I’m invited by Remi to join Electrophönvintage for their band practice. I had never seen them live, so I said yes. I would love to. I carried some instruments around. I think the practice space was around Oxford Street, but I might be wrong. We took the bus. We sat on the second floor. Ah! The double decker buses. I miss them, sitting on the front of the second floor just like Jennifer taught me. Until next July probably huh? Anyways, Johnny didn’t come to practice. So there was no Electrophönvintange practice anymore. Resourceful Remi decided then that it would be a Sunny Street practice instead. My luck then was that I would never see them playing live. I would have never imagined that two years later I would end up seeing them. Funny fact: I recorded the ‘video’ for “Insull” of The Sunny Street during this would-be Electrophönvintage practice.

Fast forward again. 2013. “Play Harp in Your Hair” is released. This is their second album. From what it says on bandcamp, these recording are not new. They are from 2006. These are the credits stated there:
released 23 June 2013
Recorded by Pat at Atl Studios. France. Summer 2006.
Personnel: Delphine Bost, Rémi Parson and Sébastien Llinares.
All songs by Electrophönvintage.
Big thanks to Pierre-Antoine, Alexis, Anicet, Bart, Bruno, Camila, Christos, Gérald, Ian, Jean-Louis, Jonny, Martin, Pat… + Everyone we forgot (thousands).

I ordered the album and arrived promptly. 5 pounds plus postage for a nicely packaged CDR. Hand-made. Handwritten. Assembled with scissors and glue. Released by  Remi’s classic imprint “Phonic Kidnapping Records” (home of Remi’s solo CDR, Cocoanut Groove first 7″ and more), and only limited to 50 copies (run for your copy). 8 songs. Short and sweet. If it’s fair enough, to say for a 2006 album, this is one of the best albums of 2013 for me. I keep playing it again and again. Songs like “Burgundy” and “Football Teams” are classics in my book. I love how Delphine sings in “Putefix” too. My favourite in the album is “Carrots Code”. The melodies are smart. There is a warmth that you don’t find often in songs anymore. It’s all simply done. There’s no tricks, no cheating. It’s what it is. It’s heartfelt music. It’s like opening up Electrophönvintage’s members souls and pouring it into a blender, and getting these 8 songs. Without artifices. Honest. Sincere. Transparent. You feel this is a band you want to be friends with. Spend a night with them listening to their favourite songs, and hearing their anecdotes about growing up, while drinking beer around a bonfire. You can tell these songs are made by people like me or you, people that love pop, that breathe pop, that dream pop.

Within the envelope there’s a note with Remi’s handwriting, a nice cursive, one you don’t see much anymore. He hopes I’ll like the album, he asks me to let him know what I think. I hope this post answers the question. To the other question on the message, how is NYC treating me? Well, it treats me pretty well Remi. Today is pretty cold, 2 degrees Celsius. Your record accompanied me once more on the subway ride from home to work. There’s something very autumnal about your album, but I can’t pinpoint what it is. It’s an orange and sepia album, leaves falling, and nostalgia. Why? I can’t say. They are wooden pop songs. But most importantly, they are eternally hopeful songs. That’s something I like about your music in general, it feels that whatever happens, the outcome will be good.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Electrophönvintage – Football Teams

Thanks so much to Shaun Blezard for this fantastic interview! The Peach Thieves were around in the late 80s and only released one flexi with two songs “Out of Nowhere” and “Morecambe Bay”. A very rare record, that probably many of you haven’t heard, which I’m still trying to track down, but definitely worth your attention! It’s proper indiepop, with the right influences, with the right jangle. Now discover the wonders of The Peach Thieves!

++ Hi Shaun! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! I see you are still involved in music? Not indiepop though, right? Tell me what are you up to these days?

I work with electronics these days – part ambient (darkish) and improvisation and free jazz – kind of experimental I guess – I play solo as Clutter (working with field recordings and part sound art), Hugs Bison (iPad duo), Kipple (6 piece free jazz and electronics) + other one off things as they come along. You can see the kind of things I do at my website shaunblezard.net

++ Let’s go back in time. Were you involved with any other bands before The Peach Thieves? If so, care telling me a bit about them?

The Peach Thieves was my first band – I’d been very into music before then but never played an instrument till I joined the band.

++ And so when do The Peach Thieves start as a band? Who were the members? What did you each play? and how did you all know each other?

The Peach Thieves started in 1986 – Members Phillip Messenger: guitar, vocals – Johnny Picthall: guitar, vocals – Shaun Blezard: bass & Chris (can’t remember his second name): drums

Me & Phil went to school together so had known each other for years, Johnny we met in the training school at the shipyard we were all apprentices at in Barrow and Chris was a friend of a friend – he didn’t stay long as he was a serious rock type and we were a little cutsey and silly for him – he left and Neil Kemp joined on drums

++ When was the first time you picked up a bass? Do you still own your first one? What’s your favourite bass that you own?

I bought a cheap bass after joining the band it was an Italian copy of a rickenbacker (the guitar shape not the bass) not sure where it ended up, I then had a Peavey which was OK, then a 70’s white Rickenbacker which was lovely (I had to sell it to pay a tax bill though 🙁 still miss it) got given a Westone which is still my main bass – looks horrible but sounds and plays lovely, the only other bass I have is an acoustic

++ Where does the name the Peach Thieves come from?

It’s from a film The Peach Thief a 1960’s Bulgarian film, that I’ve still never seen – I think we were wanting to sound a bit arty – it’s on youtube if you want to see it http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dPBalNuBxfE

++ And I do need to ask this kind of silly question, but are peaches your favourite fruit? Did you all like them?

Not a massive peach fan – I love bananas, satsumas and Royal Gala apples the most – not sure about the others – there was no crazy peach parties that I remember

++ Who would you say were bands that influenced your sound as The Peach Thieves?

Orange Juice, The Pastels, Weather Prophets, Jonathan Richman, The Chesterfields, Primal Scream – we would have died happy to put out a 7″ on either Subway, 53rd & 3rd or Creation

++ Tell me about where were you based? What were the other cool bands in town? And the best places to go to gigs or play gigs?!

We were and I still am based in Cumbria – a beautiful part of the UK – we’re just outside the Lake District so lots of mountains and lakes but Barrow where we played most is a tough working class town – the bands we got on with were Red Hour and Masai Buckeroo the only other ‘indie’ bands around Red Hour were kind of like the Wedding Present/Television and Masai Buckeroo wanted to be Butthole Surfers – we played our very first gig on the same night in 86 in fact – Best venue by far was The Labour Club – sadly not there anymore but a great left wing bar with an upstairs concert hall – spent many happy hours in there.

++ Talking about gigs did you play many? Which were your favourite gigs as The Peach Thieves and why?

That first one in a village called Leece at a place that our friend Johnny G rented – it was an old farm house and we played in the driveway with lots of other bands on during the night – Johnny’s parties were legendary and lasted a couple of days…also Johnny G’s birthday in 1987 where we played in his living room for him and a dozen friends – the best we ever went down. The other one that sticks in the memory was in Lancaster where people took us seriously, which they often didn’t in Barrow and we signed autographs – that was great

++ You only released the one flexi with two songs, “Out of The Nowhere” and “Morecombe Bay”. Any chance you could tell me the story behind these two songs?

Out of The Nowhere was just a dumb song with Phil trying to be cool name checking the Man From UNCLE etc – Morecambe Bay is based on a jazz excercise and is based in the local area of Morcambe Bay – We tried to do songs with a local flavour – still like this song a lot, lovely melodies. You would have to find Phil to ask him about any deeper meanings.

++ What do you remember from the recording session of the flexi?

Not too much, it was at Low Fold, about the only local studio run by a ‘rock’ type – thus the overly processed production – we wanted it to be rougher sounding but didn’t know enough about things to change it – the recordings are OK though 🙂 I wasn’t at all good at this time and all my parts were written for me by Phil or Johnny so it was slow going……

++ Were you also behind the label that put it out? Uncle Records? How was that experience of promoting, selling, distributing your own record?

It was our own label as no label were interested and there weren’t many we would have signed to in our youthful principled way – promotion was mainly through fanzines so we sold quite a few that way and at gigs – we were far too innocent to understand real promotion, you just talked to other bands, swapped records, sold stuff at gigs – a real nice scene

++ And why did you decide to do it as a flexi and say not a 7″? And how come you didn’t get to release more records?

We did a flexi as everyone was doing them at the time, I think we liked the throw away quality of them, we were planning to do a 7″ next but Phil decided he wasn’t cut out to be in a band and so we split up – Myself and Neil went on to form a 7 piece psychedelic country band called The Clementines (https://archive.org/details/inhanksgarage), Johnny was in a band called Cloudtown for a bit and Phil popped up in a post rock band in Manchester for a while in the 90s

++ Do you happen to have more recorded material? Are there more Peach Thieves songs hiding in tapes in someone’s cupboard maybe?

I have some rehearsals and a couple of gig recordings on cassette – no studio stuff though. I have transferred a little of the tapes to CD but I think they will have to stay in the volt for now 🙂 I must go back and have a listen, we were getting pretty good towards the end

++ The curious part of the flexi is that it is dedicated to Vic Goddard. Were you good friends?

No we heard he was retired from the music industry and was a postman after his stuff like Holiday Hymn went down badly which we all loved so we dedicated it to him for that reason.

++ And then what happened to you guys? When and why did you split?

Phil decided he wasn’t wanting to be a musician so he left, and as he was the main songwriter it finished the band – He wasn’t interested in the travelling about and rehearsal etc – this was mid 1986. A short while later The Clementines formed on the picket line of the shipyard we worked in – Me, Neil and a few others thought it would be fun to put a country band together to raise funds for the strike, this is why we ended up a 7 piece – we played the usual fast Johnny Cash covers and 60’s byrds type stuff – we ended up being together for nearly 5 years

++ After The Peach Thieves, were you guys still involved with music? And do you still happen to listen to indiepop?

Phil left the band and moved to Manchester and lives there with wife and kids – not seen him in ages and I don’t think he plays music anymore. Chris went off and last thing I heard was brewing his own beer, Johnny played a little in town and still plays but not in public, Neil played in some great bands but sold his kit and got married I think, I played in The Clementines, then a Neil Young inspired band called The Behans then drifted into dance music – this ended up as Clutter, not really dance but have been involved in electronics for 15 years or so, but have started playing bass again here and there in Krautrock types things, also I’m learning to play the banjo old timey style. I still listen to some indie pop – Wedding Present, McCarthy, Wolfhounds and Orange Juice among lots of other stuff

++ Looking back, what would you say was the best part of being in The Peach Thieves?

Being a really shy boy, nearly sick when we played with my back to the audience to actually enjoying it and starting to feel like a musician, which has never left me – I still love playing live, not nervous anymore but it still excites me and I enjoy the travelling when I can. The feeling of really playing well together, when it clicks is like nothing else, much more important to me than fame.

++ Today, aside from music, what other hobbies or activities do you enjoy doing aside from music?

Music is still a huge part of my life but I also do film, animation, photography, graphic design and production management – I’ve been freelance for 14 years doing all this as an artist but also in the community – working with school kids, older people doing all kinds of exciting art and music. I love this side of things as much as the being paid to create – I’m just about to start a big animation and digital art project in 6 primary schools in Barrow which will be brilliant!! I am also Learning Officer at a working 18th Century water mill – I work there 2.5 days a week finding interesting ways to share the mills history and heritage – so far this has included a one off radio station with teenagers, animations and getting to know the area.

++ Let’s wrap it now! Thanks a lot Shaun! Anything else you’d like to add?

Just how nice it’s been answering your questions – after so long I can only guess it’s like being from an old garage band and knowing people still enjoy your little thing you created 🙂 Been real fun

Wow! It’s November already. The year went fast but it’s not over yet. There’s always news in indiepop, like for example I hear tomorrow there will be more band announcements for Madrid Popfest or the Shelflife Records sale were almost everything seems to be just $1.

Indiepop is alive and kicking even if i was announced that The Leamington Spa series is over (Uwe don’t do this to us!!!). NYC Popfest also announced the dates for next year festival, May 29 to June 1st, and of course there’s people already requesting a lot of terrible stuff. I look at the thread on Facebook and it scares me how people want the SAME bands that have played previous Popfests. Even the ones that played last year. Also of course there’s the people who has no shame and ask for bands that have no indiepop in their blood like Crystal Stilts or The Beets. I understand they love these bands and want to see them, but I strongly believe Popfests should showcase the new and the best of indiepop. If not what’s the point. Let’s just do a whatever festival like CMJ and that’s it. We know that Popfests are a big support to keeping alive the scene, so I wonder when will fans stop being so silly and stop thinking just for their sake instead of the scene sake. In any case I trust Maz and his taste for next NYC Popfest. He always delivers.

But not all is bad. There’s people that come with great ideas like Trixie’s Big Red Motorbike, The Woodentops, Northern Portrait or The Brilliant Corners. It’s half and half, the people that recognize the importance of Popfest and embrace it, and the people that think that any band could do.

Those who read me know my position of course. I’m with the half that supports indiepop bands.

Another good news is the launch of a new book in Japan called 80s Guitar Pop. It’s written in Japanese sadly but I think that, if similar to the Neo-Acoustic Guide, it will be a must-have for every indiepop lover out there. I’m doing everything possible now to secure a copy.

Last but not least came to my attention a post on the Twee Lovers Club group on Facebook where I was tagged. There was a nice comment recommending the blog. It said something along these lines “Plenty of obscure bands getting mentioned over there. Mostly really hard to find stuff.” Can’t complain. But the previous comment on this same thread reminded me of bad times: “one of my faves used to be run by this German guy who used to upload rare stuff, but he got harassed a lot by people who used to run labels and artists who made those songs and collectors who didn’t want their collection to lose their value. i can’t recall the name of the blog anymore.”

That blog was There and Back Again. Of course it was the favorite blog of many people, it was a full download blog. People love being lazy and getting everything after one click. People also loved the person behind the blog, they could relate to him. A martyr, the Robin Hood of indiepop, fighting against all the labels and collectors, giving all the wealth to the poor, etc. The underdog. Indiepoppers love that. What they don’t see is that ANYONE could do a blog like that. And worst of it all, it doesn’t add anything to the scene. It just makes it more throwaway, less meaningful, it misses all the points. The idea of an indiepop blog should be to step in where the 80s fanzine writers left. Sharing the excitement for the music. Not making it a worthless piece to collect as MP3s. Please. Stop being part of that half that only cares for themselves. Stop being selfish. Stop the greed.

And so, into another topic: The Hill Bandits

————————————————-

Strange that in the last day or two I’ve been emailing with someone from Leeds. And yes, Leeds is the place where I want to transport you all. To 1986. That’s when the story started.

First stop, their website: http://www.thehillbandits.co.uk/ . As an fan of guitar pop you are surprised to know that they have a website. I was too. It’s not common these days. At best you get a Soundcloud. But a proper website? Not common. Going through it you realize that they set it up for a reunion sort of gig that they played in March this year. It was at a club called The Chemic in their native Leeds. There are some videos of that gig in this Youtube account.

That Youtube account belongs to Kevin Lycett. Him and Fiona McMillan seem to have been the driving force behind the band. They were around for three or so years, from 86 to 89. In that time they toured the UK but also Germany. They released two records, two 12″ EPs, the first one which is listed in Discogs: “Hotrod Buckboard Boogie “.

This was release through Ediesta Records in 1987, catalog CALC 40, and it doesn’t seem to be that pricey (I still need to get it, but I already spent a bunch in music this week). The record included on the A side “Love Me Or Leave Me” and “Aragon Mill”, whilst on the flip side we had “You’re Gonna See” and “Out Among the Stars”. The curious part about this record is that on the credits we don’t see Lycett or McMillan. We see other names like Walter Donaldson, Si Khan, Adam Mitchell and S. Davidson. That doesn’t make any sense, does it? Maybe there’s an error there.

Their second record doesn’t show up on Discogs, and it seems to be the one indiepop collectors know more about, the “Nowhere Train” 12″. On this record they continue with their own brand of country-influenced guitar pop. Again released by Ediesta in 1988, catalog CALC 52, this slab of plastic included just “Nowhere Train” on the A side and “Pills and Trouble” with “Seventh Bar in Heaven” on the B side. There’s a very cool video of them performing “Nowhere Train” in the 80s that you shouldn’t miss.

This record was produced by Jon Langford, and recorded at Offbeat  (Leeds) and Berry Street (London) in March 1988. The engineers for it were Tony Bonner in Leeds and Ian Caple in London. Emma Bolland played fiddle, Rob Worby played strings and Jon Langford mandolin. The front cover photograph came thanks to John Ingledew.

The story says they even recorded a third record. But that one never saw the light. On their Soundcloud there are a bunch of unreleased songs that may or may not have been part of this third record like “Old King Cole”, “Cross My Broken Heart”, “Wild Women”and “Planning Tomorrow’s Sins”. They seem to be just teasers sadly, the songs are not complete.

Weird. The website doesn’t have a contact page. But it has a cool biography page with information about both Keving and Fiona. I will copy/paste it. Quite interesting!

Fiona

1986 -1989 Hill Bandits

1989 move to Berlin

From 1990- 97 and 200-05 The Barflies; a Berlin semi acoustic outfit doing covers of the great female vocalists from country, jazz, blues; Ella Fitzgerlad, Nina Simone, Patsy Cline, Sarah Vaughan. (I found a video of them here)

97-2000 ‘Bars’ a 3 chord rock band in Berlin

93- 03 Studio session singer with the Berlin music scene, everything from very heavy rock like St Vitus to Americana like the Jever Mountain Boys.

From 2010 current project is Itch, an acoustic duo with French guitarist Anthony Hildenbrand. Gigged extensively around France with several visits to UK. Album out in April 2013.

Kevin

1977 – 1989/2003 Mekons

1985(?) Sweet Valentines Cowboys a shortlived Cajun/country cross over outfit featuring among others Ms Emma Bolland on fiddle and Kevin lead vocals, not the wisest of steps.

1986-1989 Hill Bandits

1989 Retired from rock music and took up classical guitar, like you do.

1990-1994 promoting the cheesiest imaginable nights at many clubs in Leeds, catering to just about every genre, age and inclination. Seems like every person in Leeds between late teens and late 20s in the early 90s passed through the doors of one or more of his nights.

1989 – 2003 contributed to a lesser and lesser extent to most Mekons recordings but thought it best to finally let it lie after their 25th anniversary tour saw him on stage again with the Meeks in New York and Leeds.

So from what I understand, this gig in March of 2013 was just a one off as Fiona is living in France. But still pretty cool, isn’t it? Maybe they keep on doing it. I love when bands get together again and revisit their old songs.

Anyone out there remember them? Did you go to any of their gigs? Did you happen to have their records? Spare copies? I would love to hear more. Even these recordings on Soundcloud fully would be good. That “Cross My Broken Heart” sounds awesome!

If you know anything else about them, please share!

The most exciting part of running a label, at least for me, is discovering a new band and offering them a release. Sadly, I don’t do that much these days. It was much easier when I was putting out the 3″ CDs as they were homemade mostly and it wasn’t an expensive ordeal. It was also much easier 4 years ago when people were spending more on records and it was a bit more steady the way I recovered the costs of the vinyl records I was putting out. Though this doesn’t mean that I’m not discovering new and exciting bands every so often, it does mean I can’t offer the release. So it’s only half of the excitement I was talking about, and actually the least exciting part of the two if you were to compare it.

And that’s because when offering a release you start a new plan. From the basic ‘which songs are going to be released’, to deciding the RPM of the record by acknowledging how many songs we’ll be including. From then on it’s a get to know the band phase, exchanging emails, knowing their hopes and expectations. At some point I may even interview them for my fanzine. We decide about the artwork for the record. We talk about setting a release date. We work as a team in every little detail. And that’s what I enjoy the most. Getting the product done. I read once on an interview to Roger Gunnarsson on how was his experience running a label and he mentioned that the fun part for him was exactly what I’m telling you. Then the records would arrive home and that was like the best moment. Piles and piles of boxes of vinyl, with beautiful color jackets. A success. He then said that after the records arrived home the excitement started to die out. And that is true for me too, it is not fun the next piece in the process of releasing a record, it’s not exciting at all to promote, or send them to distributors, writing press sheets, etc. Having to deal with that bureaucratic sort of system can’t be any fun. It’s not a creative experience, it’s not even rewarding. A lot of times it even ends up as nerve-wracking!

During the past 6 years I’ve been running the label I’ve released a lot of records. A LOT. And most especially I’ve worked with with so many bands. But the fact is, there’s been a bunch of other bands that I’ve contacted and for a reason or another I never got to work with them. I would have loved to have put something out by them, a CD, a record, but due to them or myself, it never happened. One of the bands I was interested in putting out at some point was The Arctic Circle.

Truth is I only contacted them once as far as I remember. It was on Myspace. Those days when it was the preferred platform for finding new music and being in touch with your favourite band. If I remember correctly I had just started releasing vinyl. Myspace with it’s new upgrade and faulty behavior won’t allow me to pull up the email exchange with the band. What I do remember is asking them if they had any interest in releasing a record with me. Their answer I believe was a yes. Thing is, I never heard again from them after that. I may or may not asked them again to see what was going on. But I never heard from them, years passed, I lost track of the band and only recently I have been rediscovering them.

Okay, that’s not completely true. There was a compilation called “Piece of Cake!” that included them. This compilation was released in 2009 as the first release ever by Big Pink Cake. As many of you might know, Big Pink Cake was originally  a club, an indiepop club, that booked bands and had disco nights in Bristol. The good readers of the blog would know that I have interviewed Matthew, half of Big Pink Cake. The other half is of course Heather. With Big Pink Cake I have a very nice relationship for many years now. They were one of the few clubs that gave away the Cloudberry 3″ CD compilation “Where are the Supremes Tonight?”. After that I’ve joined Matthew a couple of times on the decks, DJing music for some cool crowds. And it has to be the first time I met him, in Hamburg 2009, when he gave me the CD compilation “Piece of Cake!”. In this compilation that includes many favorites of mine like Horowitz, The Hi-Life Companion, The Parallelograms and more, the Arctic Circle contributed the song “Meanwhile Gardens”.

So yes, I was reminded of their existence. Why didn’t I try again to contact them? Probably I assumed they were no more. Or that they didn’t have any interest. I didn’t know much about them. I remember seeing some gig listings and their name on there. I’m pretty sure they played How Does it Feel? and many classic London venues. But as I said I lost track. I don’t remember even which songs I might have asked them to release with me. A good guess would be “Loofah Mitt” and “Prancing Pearl”. Though who knows, maybe “Mothers Ruin”? The title of the song makes me grin. The Mothers Ruin of course is the pub where Big Pink Cake used to happen at. I only visited once. I think in early 2010 after London Popfest. What a fun night that was!

On Discogs The Arctic Circle has another compilation appearance. With the song “Trawler” they appeared on the 2005 comp ” Oh Sew & Tell: A Stitch-Stitch Compilation” on the Stitch-Stitch label. My only knowledge about this label was thanks to Ray Rumours. But it seems I need to dig a little bit deeper with their releases. Maybe there’s a surprise or two. In the meantime I ordered the one and only release that is listed on Discogs, directly from the label. A 7″ with “Prancing Pearl” on the A side and “Mothers Ruin” on the B side. This was released on October 2008 and has the catalog stitch013.

There’s a small bio about the band in the label page, but I found a much better one on Last.fm:

Beginning in Edinburgh in 1999, Arctic Circle, now based in Bristol, were formed by Matthew Cheney, a singer/songwriter steeped in psychedelic folk and early 90s electronic sounds. With a fluctuating line-up, a sideline in social politics and establishing The Forest Cafe in Edinburgh, Cheney turned down label offers and set about managing the band himself, bringing in visual and collaborative art components. The songs remained acute observations about urban planning, social dynamics, instrumentals about natural Arctic phenomena and communication in relationships.
Once in Bristol, Cheney brought in an all-new lineup which currently includes Nicole Artingsall, Rozi Plain, Kaspar Lurcock, Francois Victor, Ladybird, George MacKenzie, Nina Wylie, Rose Clark, Hog, and Liam Kirby. The band completed a tour of Canada and the US in 2006 and became regular fixtures at the Green Man Festival. Arctic Circle are currently working on their third album. Previous releases Volume 1 (2004) and Volume 2 (2006) were released through Forest Arts Publishing. The first single Prancing Pearl/Mother’s Ruin were released on the Stitch-Stitch label based in Bristol and showed a far more band-oriented approach to songwriting.

I’m not sure if they are still going. As you see, they’ve been around for such a long time, and I didn’t have a clue. I thought back in 2008 they were kind of newish. But that wasn’t the case clearly. If you head to their bandcamp you’ll notice that there are recordings from 2003 all the way to 2011. All of the songs seem to be available for free download.

Something to check out is that they made some videos too. Seems they made two, “Meanwhile Gardens” and “True to the Trail”, though sadly the links seem to point to the same video, the “Meanwhile Gardens” one.

Also there are a bunch of links to live gigs.

For me the recordings that you can’t miss are the ones called 2009 EP. These are their best songs for me. They are top! This is the sound I remember loving, the songs I wanted to release. I’m happy that eventually someone put their songs out. Shame it wasn’t the whole EP, there 7″ could have easily have included “Shipping Forecast” and “Loofah Mitt”, as they are just fantastic!

I read a comment around saying that Stuart Murdoch was a fan. I can see that. There’s some sort of Belle & Sebastian influence, sure. But I think the band that reminds me more to them is another band I used to love back in 2004 like Tales of Jenny (who probably deserve a post in this blog), or even the later Zoey Van Goey, with their boy-girl vocals. You know, beautifully crafted melodies, crispy guitars, sort of folkish and literate lyrics, subtle keyboard arrangements, and sing-a-long choruses. Just beautiful!

But back to their biography, it says that they released two albums already and were working on a third. So the question is, where can one get the first two albums? And was their third album ever released? I wonder whatever happened to them. It’s surprising they didn’t become a well known name in indiepop, that they never played Indietracks or any Popfest. The songwriting quality was just brilliant. It’s a shame most of my friends don’t know it. Hopefully this little blog post makes them some justice.

A public address system (PA system) is an electronic sound amplification and distribution system with a microphone, amplifier and loudspeakers, used to allow a person to address a large public, for example for announcements of movements at large and noisy air and rail terminals.

So this is definitely not a public address. No sound here. But here we I am, ranting, wondering, and discovering new sounds. The usual. What’s been going on since last week? Of course, I need to give everyone an update. That’s how I proselytize here. Trying to convert everyone into indiepop militants against the hate of the Shoreditch hipsters. Kidding. Anyhow…

On the Cloudberry page I’ve added a pre-order button for The Rileys retrospective. I’m hoping to send to press the record by early November, so it’s out by Christmas time. That’s the plan. There’s also a new 7″ that will be released pretty soon by Spanish band Lost Tapes. On Tuesday check the website as well as the Cloudberry facebook page as there will be announcements there. There will be a video for the A side “War in the Netherlands”, as well as a downloadable MP3, and the beautiful artwork made by Marta Llumbart Jambert.

Last weekend I got to see The History of Apple Pie on Friday at The Living Room in Manhattan and Joanna Gruesome at Baby’s All Right on Saturday in Brooklyn. I got to chat with both bands, and I was happy to see them giddy about playing in New York. Both bands told me that the crowds here had been very good and very into them. I’m always skeptical about this of course, because usually indiepop shows in New York only gather 10 or 15 fans at the most, but I guess, because they were part of the CMJ thingie, and the lineups were quite mixed in musical styles, they got some new listeners and fans.I was especially surprised by Joanna Gruesome’s crowd. I saw people pogo. Dance. And some even knew the songs. That’s surprising as their album is pretty recent. When was it released? A month ago? Also I was thrilled by their new vocalist. I had seen them before at Indietracks, and I remember someone different. I had read too that Lan had been part of Evans the Death but when I saw them, she wasn’t there either. So that was all new. And she was a great front woman I have to say. Great addition to the band, she brought a lot of energy, excitement, and attitude. The terrible part of the gig was that we had to wait for like 40 minutes because they were missing an amp. Gladly Mr. Fortuna Pop was around, being a fantastic roadie, and fixed the whole situation. It was really heartwarming to see Sean -Fortuna Pop- taking care of the band like a true manager, taking care of every detail.

About The History of Apple Pie I was really surprised they never saw the girl behind Cool in a Crisis, that defunct label that put out their first tape, a split with Sweater Girls, a bunch of years ago. She lives in NYC. I guess, I was quite right that it was just a fad. There were a bunch of hipsters that jumped into the indiepop bandwagon around 2008-2010. Of course, I was told that I was mean and hateful and all those things. But hey, you know, time proved me right. The band has a new 7″, that I’ve really enjoyed, and they sound much better than the first time I saw them, at the London Popfest of 2011 I believe. I still have their setlist of that gig somewhere. I still think “Mallory”, their first single, has to become an indiepop classic in the near future.

And that’s how my indiepop week ended. I took some “groupie photos” with the bands and that was it. Now I don’t see any exciting gigs coming up. I guess it will be pretty quiet until NYC Popfest. Saving energy until then.

Talking about saving energy, next weekend I’m going to the Catskills, to a wooden cabin in the middle of nowhere just to relax and drink with a bunch of friends. It looks pretty exciting. The owner of the cabin told us to beware of leaving food out as bears can show up. I doubt I’ll be hiking, though my friends seem to be keen on that idea. For me the plan will be to disconnect. Barely be online. Get to play some board games, or card games. Drink. Maybe visit Woodstock. Something like that. A relaxing weekend. Okay, this is more like replenishing energy. But it works, right?

Oh! and before I forget, on Plastilina we have a new release coming up, a co-release with Fortuna Pop. It’s Cocoanut Groove’s new album “How To Build a Maze”. You can pre-order the CD from the Plastilina website already. It will start shipping not later than November 15th!

————————————————————–

Lately I’ve been in touch with a great Portuguese indiepop fan, Joel. He has sent me and introduced me to a thousand new bands. All of them obscure, exciting, jangly, the kind that I like. Some of these bands he had shown me I knew by name, others I’ve heard one song, and others were totally new. I’m very grateful to him for it. Today I’ll try to solve the mystery of one of these bands, a band I had heard one song “James Dean” on Youtube ages ago, and that thanks to Joel I heard the B side, and eventually made me curious enough to track some more songs of them online.

So, let’s start this way. Head to ReverbNation. Here you’ll find 7 songs by Public Address. These are “James Dean”, “Why Does My Heart Ache” , “Goodbye From Her (demo)”, “Can You Hear Me Now? (demo)”, “She Don’t Remember (live)”, “Katherine’s Kite (live)” and  “Rescue (live)”. The first two were part of the one and only 7″ they released.

Of course, this is not the first James Dean song by an indiepop band. From the top of my head I can think of the one by James Dean Driving Experience, “Dean’s Eleventh Dream”, and My Favorite’s “James Dean (Awaiting Ambulance)”. But this one is truly great too! Could have been a classic if more people knew about it. Great jangly guitars, great melody, great lyrics, great vocals, great everything! Just the kind of pop I love here in Cloudberry!

According to the ReverbNation page we know that the band was around 1985 and 1987. The only other piece of information is that they came from Worksop. Strange, as usually bands fill in their band members, and some bio, on these sort of pages. But hey, I took this job as a detective, so let’s keep digging.

Worksop is the largest town in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England, on the River Ryton at the northern edge of Sherwood Forest. It is about 15 miles (24 km) east-south-east of the City of Sheffield and its population is estimated (mid-2004) to be 39,800. Worksop is included in the Sheffield City Region of England. It is also twinned with the German town Garbsen.  Worksop is known as the “Gateway to the Dukeries”, so called for the number of ducal residences in the area.Sherwood Forest. I’ve always wanted to go there. I always liked Robin Hood you know. I’ve been close. In Nottingham, but never for more than a couple of hours. The longest was that time with Nana and Andreas when we were given a tour of the city council. What a fun day that was.

The record doesn’t seem to be listed on Discogs. But I found it on 45cat. There are scans for the sleeve and the labels. And so we learn that the band was formed by:
Derron Rafter – Drums
Stuart Smith – Lead Guitar
Glenn Day – Bass
John O’Sullivan – Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Mick Ellison – Keyboards

The two songs on the 7″ were recorded and mixed at Input Studios, on December 1986. It was produced and arranged by Public Address. Engineered and mixed by Nick Wild.

The label that put it out was called The Fabled Stable Records. It was released in 1987 and the catalog number is SLS 101. I assume this was the first and last release by this label. Most probably a self-release.The credits for the songs are quite simple. “James Dean” was written by John O’Sullivan, while “Heartache” was written by Public Address. And this is were I hit a wall. I keep googling but nothing else shows up.So this is the time when I ask you people out there. Do you know anything else about this band? If you ever saw them live? If you happen to have any spare copies of this record? I’ve never seen it on eBay, and only seems to be listed once on Popsike.Please, help solve the mystery. This is a Public Address.

Thanks so much to Chris Blunkell for the interview! It waas through The Leamington Spa series with their song “Sebastian” that I discovered The Black Cillas. I loved that song. Fast forward, Chris and me get in touch through Facebook as I had DJed one of his songs in London and  I had to ask if he would be up for an interview and tell the story of the great Black Cillas! Classic indiepop at it’s finest!

++ Hi Chris! Thanks so much for being up to be interviewed for the blog! How are you doing? Is there any Black Cillas’ news by any chance?

Hi Roque! I’m fine thanks, and hope you are too. Black Cillas are getting together next month in London, as we do pretty much every Autumn. We’re going to look at the Sarah Lucas exhibition at the Whitechapel gallery and then go for a curry in Brick Lane. We’ll probably have a few beers as well.

++ I want to talk about a lot of things, but let’s start from the beginning! Were you involved in any other bands prior to the Black Cillas?

++ So when and how did the Black Cillas start as a band? How was the recruitment process?

Ben and I moved on to do other things in other locations, but in the early 80s circumstances allowed us to do more music together, which was what we wanted. The group went through various incarnations as we wrote and played, and we settled on both the name and the line up in I think 1985. Ben and I had been at school with guitarist Nick Appleton, and Ben also recruited drummer Andrew Maltman, although I can’t really remember how. Andrew has published some of his diaries from that period on www.blackcillas.co.uk, so that may help. We were also surrounded by good people: Jim Warren who has worked with Radiohead since ever recorded us and often did live sound, as did Angus Cameron, and Matt Ambown, Maxine Kempster and Isabelle Crean were a huge part of the whole thing.

++ And even though is obvious I think, what’s the story behind the name of the band?

We were conscious of the need for something that worked with what we were trying to do, and (to me anyway) Black Cillas seemed nicely contemporary and tongue in cheek – I think it was Nick’s idea. It’s also worth bearing in mind that the under-employed in our circle spent for more time than was healthy watching a TV programme by the name of Blind Date hosted by Cilla Black that, at that time, seemed hell bent on further lowering the tone of public discourse.

++ Some days ago on the Cherry Red Youtube channel they had uploaded two live videos of you. What do you remember from that gig? And are there any other videos by the Black Cillas waiting to see the light of day?

I remember feeling nervous – it was a big crowd and a really good line up, and we’d never done recording for TV. I remember attempting a wink to camera that I deeply regret to this day.

++ So yeah, tell me about gigs. Did you play many? Which were your favourite gigs and why?

I think we played somewhere between 50 and 100 gigs – many in London, but elsewhere too. Playing The Marquee as support to heavy metal band Waysted was quite an experience – their fans had every reason to hate us, but actually were really lovely. Somebody shouted “60s disco!” after one song – it was probably meant as an insult, but we liked the idea.  My evening was rendered complete when Philty Animal Taylor – Motorhead’s drummer – called me a wanker.

++ What about your favourite venues to hang out or play? Were there any that you felt at “home”?

The Bull & Gate in Kentish Town – we played a lot there, and spent a fair amount of time watching other bands too. It was run by Jon Beast, who still takes his clothes off for the benefit of Carter USM fans. Mick Mercer, ex-Melody Maker, has produced some great stuff on the B&G – his photo collections are stunning, and available to buy.

++ In those late 80s there was an explosion of guitar pop bands in the UK. What do you think triggered that? And did it ever felt like there was a scene? Which other bands from that period did you like?

In London I think Jon Beast and the Bull & Gate were pivotal. You were never going to make a fortune there, but if you had something he would put you on, and it was a magnet for journalists willing to stray from the usual. It was very much its own scene.  Of course, there was lots going on musically at that time, and we’d had a period in which synthesised sounds and big production had come to the fore. I think the guitar thing was a bit of a backlash against that, but also people wanting to write ‘small’. Half Man Half Biscuit took this idea to absurd lengths, of course, with their lyrical focus on football, for example. Ben was very into New Order, Andrew Kraftwerk and Nick Echo and Bunnymen. We all adored The Smiths. I got very into early REM and the Go-Betweens. Of the bands that we played with, I really enjoyed a group called ‘The Doctor’s Children’ who used a Hammond organ and sang sweet harmonies.

++ You only released one single, already a classic for indiepop fans, “Sebastian”. Care telling me the story behind the song?

In those days songs would come to me quite quickly, which now seems extraordinary. Sebastian was one of those – inspired by somebody I thought rather self-regarding at that time, and with an ambiguous twist lobbed in for good measure. As tended to be the case, I just blocked the song out on guitar, and then it would start to walk (or not) in the rehearsal studio. I still think that one of the most exciting things you can do as a musician in a band is to play a new song together, properly, for the first time – with intro, proper ending, and all. With regard to songwriting more generally at that time, I think I wrote good lines or couplets more often than I wrote good songs. You need to know more, to have done more, and to have read more than I had at that time. Looking back, I can see that I was maybe working towards a songwriting voice – later I concentrated on character and situation driven songs, and the rather novelistic idea of the ‘unreliable narrator’.

++ What do you remember from the recording sessions of the single? Any anecdotes you could share?

We recorded at the Jumbo 16 track studio in west London over a weekend, with Jim Warren producing. Again, Andrew’s diaries will tell you more than I can recall, although I do remember nicking a guitar lick from Safe European Home by The Clash whilst we were in the process. It was all quite exciting – this was proper with high end gear, whilst we had been used to recording on a Portastudio in squats. We made the sleeves ourselves – designed by Nick and Neil Cowan, screenprinted, and cut by hand. We then handled all of the mastering and pressing, which was done on the Isle of Sheppey. The NME reviewed it twice – the first time it was panned, and the second time they liked it. Such is life…

++ There are a bunch of other Black Cillas recordings. So I have to ask, why didnt you get to release more records? And if ever you thought of putting together some sort of retrospective album?

++ Was there any interest from big labels by the way?

Go Discs were interested for a while, and we used to get record people come to see us from time to time. However, news of that used to make me feel very anxious and I used to drink too much before we went on stage.

++ I read on your page that you’d wished that you were a better vocalist. Why do you say that?

Listening to old live recordings I hear a really tight and powerful band let done by some rather approximate vocals. Ben, Nick and Andrew deserved better that I sometimes gave them. I got better in the recording context, however, and I’d like to think that I have got older and more experienced I’ve dealt with whatever needed dealing with it. Some of it is really simple stuff about knowing your range, writing in appropriate keys and writing words and phrases that are possible to sing: it’s about writing as well as singing, and possibly drinking less.

++ So then what happened to you guys? When and why did you call it a day?

++ And looking back in time, what would you say was the biggest moment, the highlight, of the band?

For me, the highlight was possibly being told by the Only Ones old road manager that we reminded him of Perrett and co. I’ve always loved the Only Ones. However, I think that ‘new song’ thrill is the enduring thing.

++ These days, you are still recording music. Tell me a bit about these new songs you are making.

At the moment I’m tied up with another project, and so music has been on hold for a while. I’ve been pretty active over the last 10 years, however, largely through my group Waspjuice. Songs don’t come to me so fast these days – in fact its all a bit torturous. I like what I’ve produced however – there’s some on Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/chris-blunkell), and I’ll put some more up. I’ve got more material in the pipeline, and I’ve added a few bits of kit to my rather odd little home studio so that I can hit the ground running when I come out of hibernation.

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you enjoy doing?

I’ve just had an exhibition of my paintings, which has been immensely gratifying.

++ Let’s wrap it here, thanks again Chris! Anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks so much to Tim Mortimer for the interview! Some time ago I wrote about his band The Mandelbrot Set in the blog and Tim was kind enough to get in touch and answer all these questions I have about his band. The Mandelbrot Set released two CDs, “A Place in Kansas” and “The Mandelbrot Set”, both on Ra Records, and then disappeared. They hailed from Adelaide, Australia, and should have made a bigger splash! Just listen to their songs! But now, sit back, read, and enjoy!

++ Hi Tim! Thanks a lot for being up for this interview!

Hi Roque. No problems. Happy that the “Kansas” EP sparked your curiousity to know more about the band.

I apologise however if you have wound up with more than you bargained for, this has ended up quite long….

I don’t get asked to talk about the band very often, so when I do it becomes something of an exorcism.

I hope you & your readers therefore enjoy the story, & hopefully a few people from the bands’ past will get the word that this information exists here, & can add their thoughts or comments.

++ What are you up to these days?

I’m doing a horticulture trade certificate this year while I “tread water” for a bit & think about my next move.

But prospects on the whole look fairly dire in terms of generating any income in this part of the world at present, unless you design military hardware or dig mines.

I guess the good news however is this might, hopefully, give me some more time next year to work on some music…

++ Is it true you haven’t been involved with music for a long time? When was the last time?

I haven’t played in bands for over 10 years, but I still work on music in my spare time, & am probably more passionate about it than ever.

The last 10 years or so I’ve been using the PC, in one way or another, to explore lots of different ideas & directions in my music making, that simply weren’t available to me before things like home PC recording & the internet arrived in my life.

Essentially, I am now trying to write instrumental music for as close to “full orchestral forces” as I can organise effectively, via my PC
using MIDI & samples.

I got to this point via a few years of exploring digital sound manipulation stuff (using things like Python, Max MSP, Csound programming – think Fennesz, 12k label etc, that kind of experimental digital aesthetic), but I think my songwriting roots saw me craving a way to engage with something more structured, & using tonality & “changes” to create that structure (as much as I am drawn to “stasis” & “wallpaper” in music). A lot of private study & research ensued, & this is where I have sort of wound up.

But I definitely was & am over writing songs for the most part. Apart from anything else, I always hated writing lyrics! ; ) Not to mention all the crap aspects of being in a band: booze, late nights, ringing ears, lugging amps…

It’s not something I am doing out of any sense of professional aspiration, but simply as a result of 20 years of accumulated interest & development in writing music, & an opportunity to indulge the more “academic” side of my tastes that were always there, but untapped, uncultivated, & without an outlet.

The dream would be a kind of hazy impressionism like Charles Koechlin or something, perhaps a bit more German, a bit more Bruckneresque, that sense of radiance & transcendence…

So all you indie kids reading this, go listen to a recording of Bruckner’s 8th symphony! (there are plenty on Youtube…) ; )

++ Was The Mandelbrot Set your first band? Or had you been playing with other bands already?

No, Mandies was my first band.

++ So how did The Mandelbrot Set start as a band? Who were the members, what did each of you play and how did you met each other?

Brian (guitar) & I were school friends, & the band really began with me “roping him in” to my dream of checking out of the reality of finding a shit job, & into super-stardom ; ).

Plus his brother had a guitar & an amp! & I knew he was passionate about music of course, but first & foremost, a good friend.

Adam (Bass) I met through a girl (Kylie Folvig, metal chick, Lita Ford etc. That’s kind of cool now really…) who shifted from my school to his.

He switched from guitar to bass to help us put the band together, hopefully based on the catchiness of some of my songs, & the fact that from the outset, unlike most other Adelaide bands of the late 80’s era, I had a vision that I wanted us to be “popular”., rather than “turgid with beer”, or worse, “clever”.

Mike the drummer I was jamming with when I joined another “practice room” band (concurrent to Mandies) as a bass player. Mandies had a drummer (Rob Davies), but Mike was far & away the best musician of any sort that I knew, so one day I took the opportunity to invite him to practice with us.

It was obvious to everyone in the room that all of a sudden our racket had a lot more going for it in terms of togetherness & appeal.

Christie was a part time member of the band essentially, & sister of a good friend of the band Nick. I had scratched my way through a small amount of violin on one of our first demos (got a lucky take essentially…) & she could play violin a little bit, so we got her on board. Plus it was nice to get a bit of gender equity into the band.

++ And where did the name of the band came from?

We had our first gig 6 weeks after Mike joined us on drums. We needed a name, & Mandelbrot Set was on my shortlist, in fact, it was probably the only one we had on the list to be honest.

We discussed it at practice, & reached our usual apathetic state of “no objections”.

I went home that night, flicked on the TV & there was a documentary on Benoit Mandelbrot screening, so I saw that as a bit of a “fate” thing at the time.

Fractal imagery was increasingly common as a pop “meme” at the time, & I chose the name in part because I wanted that sense of “pop”, much in the way that I believe Tom Verlaine selected the name “Television”, for the same reason.

Of course, this backfired a bit – whilst most people had seen images of Mandelbrot Set, they didn’t necessarily know what the name of it was. & 1 or 2 other bands of the same name have subsequently cropped up around the globe…

& of course, there was a general “psychedelic resurgence” happening at the time (late 80’s into early 90’s) which I was happy to associate with.

Aldous Huxley, “Doors of Perception” for the win! ; )

++ What were you listening back then? Who or what would you say influenced your sound?

An enormous amount of stuff.

Primarily, being a miserable, bored teenager growing up in what you could probably reasonably accurately describe as “middle America”, but with kangaroos…

Musically, I grew up a big 80’s jangle head (Church, REM, Rain Parade etc…I taught myself guitar mainly by playing along to “Reckoning” & “Fables of the Reconstruction”) also Television & even some of the weird 80s Tom Verlaine solo stuff.

Adam was the one who brought a lot of the more British influenced sound to the band, & MBV & Ride, & the whole shoegaze thing impacted on the sound of the band quite heavily at this point.

But Adam & I in particular were rabid cultural consumers of any sort in those days. Which wasn’t always easy, from the arse-end of the world in the pre-internet age. I remember films like “Blue Velvet” & “Santa Sangre” being constant points of band discussion. “Twin Peaks” was big at the time. I remember dragging the band along to see the first screening of Pasolini’s “Salo” in 20+ years. Just to add insult to injury, I had glandular fever at the time…

My listening was of course also a bit broader. By the time the band kicked off, I’d kind of moved on into 70’s & 80’s minimalism, Philip Glass etc. The David Sylvian 80’s stuff, Wagner’s “Parsifal” was probably the start of me starting to take any sort of interest in classical music.

But once the band did take off, obviously I began listening to a lot more indie music again, largely under Adam’s guidance.

&, of course, Janet Jackson’s “1814 Rhythm Nation”! & I’m still a sucker for quality commercial RnB.

++ And how would you describe Adelaide during those days? Has it changed lots? Where there any other bands in town that you liked?

The Adelaide I grew up in was basically a proliferation of grunge bands in the mid 80’s. & I use the term quite deliberately, as I think & see a lot of the influences that led to the “grunge” explosion in the 90’s being bred & cultivated in the Adelaide (& probably Melbourne) pub scenes during the mid – late 80’s. Cosmic Psychos etc etc…

Of course the whole lineage is pretty much a continuum back through punk anyway, but there was a lot of kind of “post MC5” / heavy garage kind of stuff (some of it actually pretty good, like early “Nest of Vipers” era Exploding White Mice…) but also just a lot of general “beery sludge rock”.

I set out to start the band with some pretty clear objectives, & having absolutely nothing to do whatsoever with what I saw around me as an endless vomit stained carpet of alcohol fuelled musical self destruction was pretty high on the agenda.

Our mission was simple: be catchy, be cool, be popular. Reach out & try & speak to people directly, in a way that the music we grew up on reached out & spoke to us, & gave us some sense of hope, rather than despair.

A band that did pave the way for us however was an Adelaide band called The Artisans. Adam knew these guys, & we played some of our first gigs with them.

I notice that you have a different band called “Artisans” featured on your site. I recommend finding an EP “Love & Sleep” by the Adelaide band if you can – as with many records of this type from the era (including our own) it only hints at the glories of the band in full stride, but will give you a taste of what was essentially a heavily Wedding Present influenced “hit-machine” / “indie jukebox”…

The Artisans had a revival of late, & Adam (our bass player) did play guitar in The Artisans during various incarnations.

As for the rest of your question, well, I could probably write a book about Adelaide for you, if you have the budget. Only the first 4000 words come free …. ; )

++ What about gigs? Did you play a lot? Which other cities did you visit? What were your favourite venues to play?

Adelaide is a relatively small & isolated town, so we risked over-exposure if we played too frequently.

At our peak, probably only once a month. Again, this attitude completely flew in the face of Australia’s accepted “pub rock wisdom”.

& Australia is a big country. The closest town is 900 miles away, & flights were a lot more expensive back then, so touring was very difficult.

++ And if you could pick a gig as your best, which would that be?

Definitely any of the first 5 or 6 gigs we played.

We didn’t have a vocal PA in our practice room, so at our first gig there was a degree of nervousness as no one had ever heard me sing, nor any of the vocals to any of the songs. Fortunately, it went OK.

I was very blasé about it in the early days, more or less threatening to “chuck it in” if we didn’t start pulling a crowd after 5 or 6 gigs. As it turned out, things did take off for us pretty quickly, & within 6 months or so we had generated enough hype for me to start receiving telephone calls at work (at my day job) from record labels, despite
not having sent out a demo tape …

But basically, as soon as drug dealers started coming to our gigs, well, the crowds really took off. When drug dealers like your band, it’s a greater career boost than any form of critical approval can bring. Although the venue owners constantly complained about not selling any booze to our fans.

Once we had a bigger budget, we got into having heavy club style light shows & smoke machines & what-not. Again, largely as this just completely went against an established pub rock culture that we were walking into. ‘Audiences’ were obviously over it too, as eventually, they started turning up in sizeable numbers.

Playing for free wherever possible also helped, & again, flew in the face of conventional wisdom on the subject.

++ You released “A Place Called Kansas” in 1992. What do you remember of the recording sessions? Any anecdotes you could share?

I remember being disappointed with the guitar sound, as we were always striving for something a bit heavier.

It was also very typical of our experience, in that by the time we got to record that EP, the material was 2 years old & we weren’t even really playing any of it any more, & had moved into more “shoegazey” territory. There are quite a few phases of the band that went undocumented…

++ This CD included 7 songs. Which is your favourite and why?

It’s difficult to say. I have never really listened to the record after it was made. All I really hear is a lost opportunity to do something better.

“Lush” was a good song – I was going for the whole Television 2 guitar duel in the big out solo. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much lost in the mix on the record (a familiar complaint…)

++ Mine is of course “Landslide”, what a fantastic song! Should have been a classic. Any chance you can tell me the story behind this song?

Thanks for the kind words of appreciation.

All the songs on the EP were written in the second half of 1990. Adam wrote “Massive”, & I wrote the rest. I wanted to credit the whole band at the time because I felt it was important to present a “unified creative front” as it were.

Lyrically it’s all pretty much dissatisfied adolescent whining. Chris Martin & I therefore have something in common, virgins with record deals. Although thankfully, the band did eventually help me to find a girlfriend! At least briefly…

EDIT: Tim later recalled that Adam had originally written “I Swan” for the Artisans, but it was reworked with the new middle section & outro, & new lyrics & melodies for The Mandies…

++ Tell me about Ra Records. How did you end up signing to them? And how was your relationship with them?

Unfortunately, that really is kind of a long story.

We had been contacted by the label (the one demo we did send, after a tip off) & flew over to Sydney to meet them.

I was working in a mailroom with, co-incidentally, a guy Don Morrison who had previously had some success in the States & Australia with a blues / rockabilly type band called “The Bodgies”.

He gave me the number of a guy named Richard Ortner, as I was desperately at this point trying to find someone (anyone) who could help us deal with this new stage in our development (dealing with labels & what not) & we were in a position where we were getting on a plane to go to Sydney to record for them 24 hours later.

I rang him & he said “just tell them I’m your manager”.

It turns out that Richard, unbeknownst to me, was one of the original founders of the label, originally set up as a bit of a development (“tax dodge” probably) label by INXS management. So once Richard was involved, that kind of biased our future direction. He’d previously managed a couple of fairly mainstream, “MOR” female performing artists
in Australia.

But as it happens, from before we had even played our first gig I had identified this was probably the label I wanted to sign to. Unlike comparable Australian “mainstream indie” labels (like Mushroom) Roo Art only had a small roster of bands, & once you signed, you generally got some level of support. For a period at least….

The rest of this very long story cut short is that the label eventually completely changed management teams. We were signed by a guy named Craig Kamber, manager of an Australian band worth checking out (kids) called Underground Lovers.

Unfortunately, Craig went to Festival or some other label shortly afterwards, signed Underground Lovers there, & Roo Art was taken over by Todd Wagstaff & co, managers of You Am I (which, in retrospect, carries a rather unfortunate similarity to will.i.am…).

You Am I then became the label darlings effectively, were Sydney based, & were prepared to drag their arses up & down the east coast playing out the “Pub Rock Fantasy” the label expected them to. Unlike us, who would have rather sat in the studio & be packaged & waited to appear on the cover of “Smash Hits”. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work like that in Australia…

There was a disintegration beginning within the band anyway probably around this time, but this certainly didn’t help or boost our already sapping confidence. I went into this adventure with a high degree of confidence & self belief, & probably my major regret, as it all unfolded, is that I didn’t have the faith to keep it.

Someone wrote a book about this period of OZ indie rock called “The Sell In” I believe. I’ve never read it, & don’t think we are directly mentioned in it at all, although we were silent extras in the portrayed drama, from what I understand about the book…

I remember being at the label & one day Ivo Watts from 4AD came in for a meeting re: Australian distribution. We desperately wanted to run into his meeting & plead “save us!”.

++ With them you also released your second EP. I have never heard to it, but I’ve read that you changed your sound into something more electronic. Is that so? If so, why the change of direction?

The sampler, initially, was Adam’s idea, (forever the progressive…)

An Adelaide muso by the name of Mike Gordon created the sample based intro to “Massive” on the “Kansas” EP for us, & we decided to blow a large slice of our publishing advance on a sampler (now dwarfed in capabilities by the average phone of course…), in the hope of expanding the musical avenues of the band, who, with stars in its eyes, had moved beyond any notions of wanting to remain “guitar purists”.

Obviously as indie kids in the 80’s, Adam & I had both grown up as New Order fans, so this was an obvious point of departure for us. More specifically, the first Electronic album had come out, & in a way this was more directly a template for where we saw that the band might head.

Hip Hop was also a bit of an elephant in the room for a lot of indie groups at this time (the MBV influence after Glider / Soon etc…) but the album that concretised this for me ironically was St Etienne’s “Foxbase Alpha”.

Let me say once & for all that the cultural abomination that is “Australian Hip Hop” is not something even we, in our naivety, remotely contemplated. But what “Foxbase Alpha” said to me was essentially (without wishing to too overtly play into dangerous “race card” territory) here was the production & aesthetic of De La Soul’s “3 Feet High & Rising” re-invented as a piece of quintessentially British 60’s kitchen sink nostalgia.

Listening back now, the album is nothing special, (the 1 or 2 singles aside…) but like all ideally fertile grounds for plagiarising ideas, the original did indeed, suggest possibilities way beyond that which it realised.

However the Pandora’s box was definitely opened once the sampler arrived, my girlfriend basically never saw me again, & I locked myself in the bedroom &, not for the last time, became a mad scientist.

The EP ended up a huge mush of possibilities, with the band then layered on top for good measure.

Originally, the label, having heard the demos & been impressed enough to give us the go ahead for the second EP (after a 3 hour phonecall from me where I ad-libbed them my mission statement…) wanted to put us in a warehouse for 3 weeks with newly emergent digital recording technology (remember the ADAT machine?) & let us record it all & sort out the mess & make a record out of it.

This would have been a MUCH more sensible option, but they eventually saw it as too risky, threw us into a conventional 5 day studio setup, with 2 days to mix.

There were times when the EP was partially recorded, where parts of what we were doing were sitting in a fairly sparse isolation (strings, drum loops, a few stabs etc) when I genuinely sat back & thought “This is it. We’ve cracked it. We sound like fucking Chic!”

However in the end, the band exhausted (&, to be honest, pretty wasted), the record was mixed down in a hurry by the production team, everything, including the kitchen sink just stayed in there, & we ended up with what essentially boils down to a big fat crappy electro mess.

Which is a shame, as fundamentally, there was a strong possibility of 1 or 2 singles there that I think could have opened us up to wider audiences…

I would like to take this opportunity however to thank anybody who was involved at the label for giving us the opportunity. (In a previous piece I wrote about the band, I did vent a little on the subject, but that was more to offer insights into some of what we were collectively feeling at the time, rather than any attempt to apportion blame or inject malice. For what it’s worth, I apologise if that was ever the case, & if anything bilious ever did reach any targets.)

++ And it was just after releasing it that you split up. What happened?

In a word, nothing.

The second EP sold about half as many as the first, & I think everyone (including the label, not sure I ever spoke to anyone there personally ever again) I think just really couldn’t be bothered anymore. & drink & drugs then started seeping in a bit more than they should have ideally.

That & the fact that the band was constantly developmentally about 2 years ahead of the rollout schedule, & got to the point where the production & performance ideas really became, for 1 reason or another, impossible to execute. There was no such thing as home PC recording in 1992/3 after all….

The band never really ‘split up’ as such. One day, we all just stopped turning up essentially. No one had to say anything really at this point.

I started going out & listening to a lot of House Music, & then drifted into doing an Architecture degree for a bit, but I dropped out & moved to London in ’97.

I kept getting like $20 royalty cheques for many years after from places like Eastern Europe. Rock & Roll baby!

++ Are you all still in touch? What are the rest doing these days?

Not really no.

Sadly, Mike Bajer passed away in December 1999 (& I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if I throw in the obvious Spinal Tap joke here about dearly departed drummers…). He was a good friend, & is very much missed by all who knew him.

Brian has a business that he has done quite well out of doing posters & promotions, visual merchandising stuff etc. for record labels.

Adam still plays but is something of a mystery man these days, but always immaculately dressed.

I believe he is in a band called Swimsuit I saw a few years ago, as well as playing with Artisans intermittently. He lived in London for a period, as did I (for 4 years…), but he more or less arrived the week I left…

Christie is married, has her own business & a couple of kids approaching their teens.

Nick (honourary member & Christie’s brother) lives in Sweden with his wife & child.

++ What about more songs? Are there any other recordings by The Mandelbrot Set that never saw the light of day?

Demos & stuff. Adam has a box somewhere. To be honest, I listened to some of it a few years back & a lot of it was rubbish. ; ) . I’d like to get our very first 3 track demo up & into circulation however.

I have a Soundcloud page, but Soundcloud reorganised their site, & for me it was a real pain, as it’s very difficult now for me to isolate my “pop” demos directly away from some of the other sketches & experiments, which are mostly a few years old now anyway.

None the less, this link should do the trick, if people are interested. But I’m not really active on the site & would like to find somewhere else to host my music in future.

https://soundcloud.com/timmortimer/sets/pop

1 or 2 of the tracks I think definitely represent a direction Mandies eventually could have gone in (“Ticket to Ride” in particular).

Some of it however is songs I wrote for the band that, if I were to put one together, would be the only type of thing I’d like to do now – a straight ahead, power pop trio or quartet, ideally situated somewhere between the Smithereens & the Bangles. (the choice of overtly commercial examples of the genre being, ideally, deliberate) It aint going to happen though.

As “once we were young & beautiful, but now we are old & withered”…

++ Looking back in retrospective. What would you say was the biggest highlight of The Mandelbrot Set?

Being young, & living with a sense of hope & opportunity that you might not have to spend your life as a paper shuffling debt-riddled wage slave.

Meeting people.

Playing music with my friends. Some of the early practices we had with Mike in the band we actually fell apart mid song laughing because we couldn’t believe how fucking good we sounded. This is not an experience I have ever relived in 20 years of music making since. Maybe, on a good night, some of the people who used to come & see us got a glimpse into that.

Free drinks.

Having your friends sister cut your picture out of the newspaper & stick it on her fridge…

Having people believe in you & what you are trying to do.

Having the arrogance & the audacity to rail against mediocrity from the middle of nowhere, even when doomed to failure.

++ A couple of last questions, just out of curiosity, what would you say is your favourite Australian band ever?

Easy. The Church – in the period from 81 – 87 .
“Tear it all Away” – youtube it now kids! – The perfection of indiedom.

Also a lot of time for the Go Betweens (“Liberty Belle”, “Before Hollywood”, “Spring Hill Fair”).

Stems / Someloves, early Died Pretty, first Hoodoo Gurus album, Sunnyboys (esp. “Individuals”).

A couple of EP’s & bands from the era you may not have heard of:

‘Ups & Downs’ were a really good band from the late 80’s. early stuff was very Church influenced, but very good. They made a shoegazey EP in the early 90’s, & then became “Big Heavy Stuff” with some kind of success….

& there was a Sydney band called ‘Jupiter’ who put out a full tilt Shoegaze 3 track EP in the early 90’s. You’ll never find it, but keep looking… I’ll have to dig it out & record it sometime.

Glide (Sydney) were a band we played with a lot, & stayed with in Sydney a few times, & are worth checking out if you’re a diehard indie person…

Hummingbirds were good, when they were good…

Falling Joys were another band who predated us slightly, but who we played with a few times.

++ Aside from music, do you have any other hobbies or passions?

Not especially.

My hope for the future is to have a little house away from the neighbours that won’t fall over in a strong wind, do some gardening & work on my music for at least a few hours a day…

I like to go on day bushwalks & stuff…

I watch a fair bit of NFL: it’s like this exotic alien fantasy world to me, but very entertaining. Go Colts!

++ And one last one, what’s the best thing to see, do and eat in Australia?

I don’t eat out much, I can’t really afford it.

But food here is generally very good. This is the country that produced “Masterchef” after all, which is simply to suggest that a large slice of “middle-Australia” is obsessed with food as an expression of their petit-bourgeouis credentials.

To see? I haven’t been there yet, but I hope to make it to the Tarkine forest in Tasmania soon. Flinders Ranges is awesome. Australia to me is all about the grandeur & expanse of the country.

After all, you can go see crappy globalised (sub)urban hipster culture anywhere…

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
The Mandelbrot Set – Landslide