Who has the wonderful “24 Hours” 7″ by Veronica? If you don’t I would suggest you tracking it down as it is a cracker.

It was recorded and produced in Austin, Texas, in March 1995 by Terri Lord (Butha Mutha Goose and the Brothers Grimm, Girls in the Noise, Sincola, The Mind Splinters and more). And was released by Candy-Ass Records (CAR 014), a label from Portland, Oregon, that was run by Jody Bleyle, Josh and Marty in the 90s. As far as I know it was the only record the band put out.

The band formed by Molly Gove on bass, Lisa Colvin on drums and Sarah Dougher on guitar and vocals, put out 3 songs on this record, “24 Hours” and “Deny It” on the A side and “Ocean 7” on the B side. The record also came with a cool insert that included the lyrics of the songs.

A song called “Rhymes with Bike” is the only other recording known to Veronica. This track appeared on the vinyl LP compilation “Bicycle Ride” that the Texan label Peek-a-Boo Records (BOO 1201LP) released in 1995.

You’ve probably heard of Sarah as she has a well-known solo career as well as being in bands like The Crabs, Cadallaca and The Lookers. She even has a Wikipedia entry where you can learn more about her including her time in different bands as well as learning that she has a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Texas and that she a teacher in women’s studies at Portland State University.

Lisa Colvin also was on a few bands like Floater and Moonbell and these days she is based in San Francisco, California, where she works as a musician, photographer and in computer programming, including work at the streaming site Pandora. I don’t have more info on Molly tough…

Sadly there’s not much written about Veronica. Lots about other bands Sarah was in of course, more well-known bands, but I am curious about this project. How did they meet? Are there more songs? Why only release one 7″? Did they play much live?

Many question that I hope to get answers soon.

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Veronica – 24 Hours

Todd Newman from Topeka, Kansas. A guitar player, songwriter, a vocalist. A pop fan and a musician. He played with The Hang Ups, played bass for Grant Hart and was in The Leatherwoods. It is said he is a decent ping pong player. He’s a Scorpio. His favourite colour is orange.

Todd Newman and The Leatherwoods. That was the name of the band on its first release in 1989. It was a 7″ released by Reverb Jr. (REV701) that included 2 songs, “To Win You Back” on the A side and “Downside of an Eightball” on the B side. Both songs were written by Todd, though the B side was a collaboration with Chris “Jamie” Garner. The two songs were recorded by Randy Fitzgerald (from Action Man, Five-O, Joe Worker and Kelly Girls), produced by Cody and Susie, and mastered by Joe Brescio at the Master Cutting Room in NYC. The photography on the front cover is credited to Samar.

The band was formed by Todd Newman on guitar and vocals, Tim O’Reagan (who also was in The Jayhawks) on drums and vocals, Jaime Garner on lead guitar and Charles Brown on drums.

The band was originally from Lawrence, Kansas. Though at some point migrated to Minneapolis. That’s what Discogs says. Let’s see if I can find more details.

The one release I own by them was the 7″ they released on The Bus Stop Label (BUS015) in 1992. The A side had “Happy Ain’t Comin’ Home” written by Todd and “Something Ain’t Right” on the B side written by Rocky Jackson. The songs were produced by Tim and Todd.

That same year the band released their album Topeka Oratorio on both CD and cassette. It came out on Medium Cool Records (MCR 89220-2). Not the UK label but the Minneapolis label set up by Peter Jesperson. 12 songs were included in the album, “Proof Positive”, “Tinsel Town”, “How Can I Miss You”, “She’s Probably Gonna Lie”, “Happy Man”, “Dreamworld”, “Tell Me Another”, “Jamboree”, “Don’t Take My Happiness Away”, “Wastin All My Time”, “Don’t Go Down” and “Happy Ain’t Coming Home”.

On this record we see Pablo Louseorama on guitar, bass and keyboards as well as co-writer of “Jamboree” and “Wastin All My Time”. Turns out this was an alias of Paul Westerberg of The Replacements.

Other credit we see is that one of Terry Braatz from The Oh’s who played mandolin.

The engineers for this record were a few, Brian Paulson, John Fields, Kevin Glynn, Mike Owens and Randy Wills. The producers were the band and Peter Jesperson, the co-founder of Twin/Tone Records and ex-manager of The Replacements. The songs were reorded at various studios including tofu2, Blackberry Way, Satellite Tracking and Entercore in Minneaapolis and Exception Studios in Topeka.

The artwork is credited to Ann Litchy on graphics and Jay Smiley and Mary Newman on photos.

The Twin/Tone label has a small bio for the band. It doesn’t add much to what I have written, but it still quite interesting to read what Medium Cool wrote about the band, maybe to share with radio stations and record stores.

I think I’ve stumbled upon Todd’s Youtube account. It doesn’t look like there are videos of the band but there are live recordings of The Leatherwoods. That’s interesting. First there’s “Off the Top of My Head” live at the Uptown Bar in Minneapolis. “Cracklin’ Rose” (Neil Diamond cover) is also live in Minneapolis. “American Band” (Grand Funk Railroad cover) is another live song but doesn’t tell us where it was recorded/played. Here there’s something interesting, the image that’s been shared shows a setlist and there are songs I have no clue at all like “Man’s World”, “Get Chris Out of Jail”, “Gimme Shelter”, “We’ll Be All Right”, “Born to Be Wild”, “How Can I Miss You”, “Junior’s Farm”, “Rocky’s Song”, “Baby It’s You”, “Don’t Let Me Down”, “I Can Help” and some other ones I have trouble figuring out the handwriting!

More live songs. There’s “Junior’s Farm” (Paul McCartney & Wings cover) live at the Uptown Bar, “Nighttime” (Alex Chilton cover) live somewhere, and “Eighteen” (Alice Cooper cover)  and “Treat Her like a Lady” (Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose cover) with Clay Galbraith on lead vocals at The Bottleneck, Lawrence, Kansas, in 1989.

Another interesting track is this demo with rhythm machine of “Proof Positive“. A different version appeared on the album. And a cover of Eddie Money’s “Baby Hold On“.

Lastly there’s a rare track, “27-Year Old Actress Majoring in English“. This song is an outtake from the “Topeka Oratorio” album. This song was recorded by Brian Paulson.

In 1995 Todd Newman would release “Too Sad for Words” on Bus Stop. A very nice record worth tracking down too.

There would be a reunion. On August 6, 2016, at Palmer’s Bar, Todd Newman and Tim O’Reagan. There’s a video of that here.

And that’s all for today. Quite interesting. I didn’t know all this. I should try to track down the album when I can. And that early 7″. Would be good to know more about them. For example, why did they move from Kansas to Minnesota? Or why were there no more releases? Hopefully we’ll find out!

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The Leatherwoods – Wastin’ All My Time

It is Sunday and I’m reminiscing my trip to Europe.

It was a different sort of vacation to the ones I’m used to. Traveling with a toddler has changed everything. Where to go, where to eat, are things that have to be planned and have to be toddler-friendly. Also traveling times are something to consider. So I didn’t explore much. Mostly stayed close to our accommodation.

But I was lucky to get a night off. To go to Bush Hall in London and see Heavenly. That was a dream come true. I am sure many of you reading me will understand that feeling. Seeing a legendary band, one you never thought you’d see, a band that you know all of their songs, that you can sing along as you know them by heart, is quite something special.

I bought the gig ticket as soon as they were announced many months ago, not even thinking that I was going to make it. It was a shot in the dark. I just knew they were going to sell out quickly and maybe there was going to be a miracle and I would be in London on that particular date.

It happened. It is true that Heavenly later added a show on the Friday (originally they were just going to play on Saturday), and even added some matinée show with the Would-Be-Goods that I would have loved to attend, but I at least managed to see Heavenly. In previous trips I wouldn’t have missed anything, not a minute, and would have been in the front, close to the stage. Things have changed for me.

I missed the opening act, Panic Pocket, because I wanted to spend a little more time with my friends, friends I haven’t seen in almost 10 years. That made me arrive to the gig just about when Heavenly was about to start, so getting closer to the stage was difficult, though I managed to get sort of close. Not close enough though to get a setlist (which is a shame really).

Heavenly as expected were solid, amazing, dreamy, punky, fun, catchy, it was just a perfect gig. They played almost all my favourite songs (sans “Lemonhead Boy”) and I was just so happy. Some people were probably happier than me, as they were crying. Impressive what music can do.

The other important part about this reunion gig was the fact that I saw many friends I haven’t seen in years. I may have missed some that went to the Friday gig, or that were at the Saturday gig but we didn’t see each other (some people just left the venue immediately! I wonder why!).

Seeing Jennifer, Miguel, Cristóbal, Carlos & María, Elisabeth, Patrik, Joanny, Emilie, María, Colm, Manolo & Rafa, Antonio & Elena, Leonardo and Jerv was ace. Some I talked for a long time, some for just a brief moment. It all went so quickly. It wasn’t like at a Popfest or Indietracks. This was an instant, an instant of happiness. An instant that I hope gets repeated soon.

UXB: an explosive weapon that did not explode when it was employed and still poses a risk of detonation

Some time ago I wrote about a band called Blue Velvet from Aldershot, UK. According to the great WokingSoundscene pages, before there was a Blue Velvet there was The UXBs.

I just found out about this fact, so yeah, The UXBs are not mentioned in my previous post. The UXBs were around from 1987 to 1989 and featured Graham Judd on vocals and guitar, Mark Davis on lead guitar, Ady Evans on bass and John Metcalfe on drums. Graham, Ady and John were in Blue Velvet.

Interesting enough we know that The UXBs were formed from the ashes of a band called Too Much Talk. I don’t know who was in Too Much Talk, maybe the same band members?

We also know that The UXBs recorded one demo with three songs, “High and Mighty”, “Always the Same” and “Face Down Knife.”

And this is actually all the info there is about them. Not terrible, but not great. Hopefully someone can shed some light about this band.

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The UXBs – High and Mighty

Back in NYC since yesterday night. I’d like to talk a little bit about my time away in England and Germany, especially about the Heavenly gig… but I think that will have to happen next week. I’m unpacking and fixing the apartment today. And I’m a bit tired too. But I still wanted to get the blog updated…

Not as old as many bands I feature, but already more than 10 years old. The Massachusetts project Caténine was a nice surprise to me when they appeared.

This solo project by Dylan Connor sounded great. It was clearly influenced by The Field Mice, The Wake and New Order and released a bunch of songs between 2012 and 2014. These days he has another project called Deep Water.

Caténine would have fit nicely in my label I think. The music was ace. I discovered them thanks to the split 7″ with Funeral Advantage that Disposable America (DA007) released in 2013.

The 7″ was released in 2 colors, “milk” and “lavender”. 100 copies for each color. Each band contributed two songs. Caténine on the A side had “You Never Remember” and “Adoration” while Funeral Advantage from Boston had “A Large Place” and “Weightless”. The songs were mastered by Matt Roy and the art and layout was created by Marcus Guttenplan.

There was a cassette version of this tape, 51 copies I believe, where each band had a third song. Cat´énine had “I Don’t Want to Get Over You”, a cover of The Magnetic Fields while Funeral Advantage covered “Don’t Worry Baby” by The Beach Boys.

Before this release, in 2012, the band had released a self-titled EP on Don’t Go Outside (DGO-001) which I think was their own label. This was a cassette only release that had the same songs on the A and B side. These songs were “Wonder”, “Let Me In”, “Felt”, “In the Village” and “Disintegrate”. On “In the Village” the bass was played by Brian Bartus from Monde UFO. 100 copies were made of this tape. Mastered by Matt Roy.

In 2013 Caténine contributed the song “In Your Ruin” to February Records as a digital single. This song was recorded at The Dye House in Indian Orchard, Massachusetts. The drums were played by Casey Parson and were recorded and mixed with the assistance of John Panagotopulos.

There’s one more song by the band. That was “I Thought You Were”. This was included in the digital compilation “And Flowers and Bees” released by Disposable America in 2014. The song was recorded again in Indian Orchard and was mixed by Matt Roy. The additional vocals were by Brian McKenna.

The good news here is that you can listen to all the songs, but The Magnetic Fields cover, on Bandcamp. Also there’s a Soundcloud.

I look for more info and I find some interviews with Dylan. When asked where does the bands name comes from he says that it comes from the flower name “cat o’nine tails” but he didn’t like how that looked so he made it Caténine.

It seems after the demise of Caténine he moved to Los Angeles. But then he returned to New England. Upon his return is that he started Deep Water.

And that’s all I could find really. A great sounding band but for some reason it didn’t get the amount of attention it deserved. But as you know, it is never too late to discover great music!

I do have questions though… if Caténine played live much? If he did, did he have a live band? Was there any other releases planned? Are there more songs? Would be great to find out.

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Caténine – I Thought You Were

So, on Jessel’s Facebook group ‘Guitarpop and NeoAco Collective’ a member called Steve Hill (who is actually the same Steve Hill from The Marmite Sisters) posted a superb song by a very obscure band called Hallelujah Trail. The song was called “Love Trip” and caught my attention immediately. And I needed to find more about it.

The track was part of a 7-song compilation LP titled “Something’s Happening” (FPL 001) that was released by Flower Power Records in 1990. I couldn’t find this release on Discogs, that’s not great.

We know that other bands included were The Happy Tree People, The Crowd Scene, The Proles. Mother Spiral, Western Colours and Curious Oyster. I don’t think I know these bands.

On the back cover of the record it says that the compilation was compiled by the W.W.V. Crew. Does that name ring a bell? The photography is credited to Lisa Comeau and the cover design to the Funky Dread.

And that’s all info there is on the record itself. Other than it says London on the sleeve. Can I find anything else online?

I do find that the Hallelujah Trail was a 1965 American Western mockumentary spoof directed by John Sturges, with top-billed stars Burt Lancaster, Lee Remick, Jim Hutton and Pamela Tiffin. It was based on the book of the same title (originally released as “The Hallelujah Train”) by Bill Gulick in 1963.

I didn’t know that, haven’t seen it.

That’s it really. I am hoping a miracle happens and we find out more about this obscure band.

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Hallelujah Trail – Love Trip

I own the “Ceylon” 7″ (MEL 12) released by Meller Welle Produkte in 1995. Pastel Coloured Days sound like a good shoegazy band. But there’s very little info about them. So I start my detective work.

This 7″ was the band’s debut. It had “Ceylon” and “Singing in My Sleep” on the A side and “Fading Fire” on the B side. But I was surprised to see two other releases by this German band on Discogs that I had no clue existed.

One is a demo released as a floppy disk. Remember those? I guess if you find a copy now it would be very difficult to listen to the song in it. I assume it would be just one song. These floppy disks didn’t have that many megabytes to be stored on them…

The other release is an album released in 1996 by the German label Supermodern. The album titled “Dreampool” (SM/B00-002) had 13 songs: “Picnic On Valentine’s Day”, “Red Rain”, “Caroline”, “New Day”, “Away”, “Smash!”, “All By Myself”, “Betranced”, “Clouds for Kai”, “Fading Fire”, “Kerstin”, “On and On” and “Ambient Cat”. The songs were produced by Rallo Barmeler and Wiegbert Pieper (bass player of the band Percy & the Gaolbirds) and mastered by Mario Thaler (owner of Uphon-Tonstudio in Weilheim). Someone mentions that this release came in a very special shaped digipak. What does he mean? What made it special?

I wonder then if the band was close to the area of Weilheim. I think that’s southwest of Munich. Bavaria.

So I keep looking and I hit a good find. A Bandcamp. The “Dreampool” album is there, you can listen to it. On top of it all it tells us the names of the band members. Good!

So it was Steve Bates on guitar and vocals, Mario Krohnen on guitar, Zuzie Marmetshcke on bass and Matthias Reimann on drums.

They also have uploaded a remix of their song “Fading Fire”, a remix titled “Dark Ambient Remix”.

I keep digging. I find a review for a self-titled album by a band called Mindslide. It seems this band hailed from Bielefeld in East Westphalia. This EP dates from 2013 and the band started in 2012. Most interestingly it had members of Pastel Coloured Days in the band. At least we know Steve Bates was in both bands.

Now Bielefeld is far from Weilheim.

I find Matthias Reimann listed as a musician in a German band ccalled S.C.R.I.P.T. This band had released a self-titled tape in 1989. Interestingly there’s a song in this tape that has the name “Pastel Coloured Days”.

Then I find another location. Detmold. A blog called Matthias Poltrock – ART mentions that the band hailed from there. That makes more sense. Detmold is close to Bielefeld. He also links to Mario Krohen’s website. Mario is now a kinetic artist. Very cool!

Zuzie Marmetschke I believe works now on a festival calls Owls’n’Bats that happens in Detmold. It is a festival for darker bands, not indiepop.

And that’s what I could find about them. Figured out where they were from and ended up listening to their album which I didnt know existed! Not bad!

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Pastel Coloured Days – Picnic on Valentine’s Day

Here’s a good mystery.

There’s a Bandcamp from I guess a digital label called Degree Zero Music based in Los Angeles, California.

This Bandcamp has three releases. An album from 2012 by Magnetone, an album from 1992 by Changeling, and three songs from 1988 by Darling Rougues.

I don’t know if there’s a connection between the bands. I do want to think that all three bands hail from the Los Angeles area. But I can’t say for sure.

The band I’m interested in is the Darling Rougues. Why? Their songs are pretty good, especially “Sixteen Beats”.

According to this Bandcamp the three songs were released on May 1st of 1988. The title for this three song EP was “Pop!” and the songs included were “Girl on the Outside”, “Gravity” and “Sixteen Beats”. We don’t get any other details.

Sadly that’s all I have to offer. I couldn’t find any other info about the band. I would think this “Pop!” EP was actually a demo tape. But without any information about band members or recording studio, or anything at all is quite difficult to even google about it.

So I have to resort on my good readers. Anyone have any idea about this Darling Rougues?

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Darling Rougues – Sixteen Beats

Hi again! I want to remind everyone that I’ll be in London for the Heavenly gig on the 20th (and then in Hamburg) in a couple of weeks. I can bring records with me to save on postage. Send me a message if you’d like me to bring some records!

++ The other record that surprised me very much was the Suffering from a Hangover 7″ “Note: It’s Open, Push and Go EP”. It’s great, pure indiepop! I’ve never heard anything about them before. Care to tell me a bit about the background of this band?

Actually I knew the band for some time and they passed around demo tapes. After agreeing to release the Forsakes 7″ (the singer of which is brother to the guitar player of Suffering..) we also talked about doing a 7″ with them. I didnt like the early tapes too much but the band improved a lot and they grew on me, so we ended up doing the single. They later got a support slot for a Throw That Beat tour. There are still tons of tapes and unreleased songs, some ended up on a Fan Club only 7″ in a tiny edition of 50. Some members of the band I still see from time, I am thinking of doing a 3-CD retrospective with them hahaha…

That is from an old interview I did with Blue Records’ Michael Wille. I was curious about this 7″ he had released in 1992 on his label.

Yeah, today I want to find out more about Hanau, Germany, band Suffering from a Hangover.

The “Note: It’s Open, Push and Go EP” (SHADE 003) was the first record I heard from them and it sounded great. It had “It’s Over” and “Girl” on the A side (also called Hangside) and “Dog Named Jack” and “Wonderful” on the B side (called Overside). Some of these records included a six-sided booklet on green paper. My copy doesn’t have it though. The songs had been recorded and mixed between August and September of 1992 by Nobby.

The band was formed by Robert Piesenecker on bass. Jens Helk on drums. Andreea Zimmermann on vocals and guitar. Michael Müller on guitar. Robert was on the band On before being on Suffering from a Hangover and Michael, Jens and Robert were together on the band Panama Red afterwards.

As mentioned by Michael Wille, there was a very limited 7″. 50 copies in a hand made sleeve for the Fan Club of the band. There were 10 more test pressings in picture sleeve released in 2004. This one was the “Whole Wide World” 7″ (SHADE 007) that was released in 1993. It included “Whole Wide World” on the A side and “Very Next Day” and “Boy Who’s Shyer” on the B side.

An interesting fact about this record is that there’s a review by Luis Calvo from Elefant on one of the labels of the previous record. There Luis mentions that he loves the song “Dog Named Jack”.

Michael also said that there were many tapes by the band. Two of them are on Discogs.

“Out of Reach” dates from 1992 and inccluded 9 songs, “Song Dedicated to Someone Who Ever Teases Me”, “It’s Over”, “I Wait for You”, a cover of Throw That Beat in the Garbagecan’s classic “Little Red Go-Cart”, “Your Mind” written by Claus Sterneck from the Hanau band Schulcore, “Epidemic On the Collective Farm”, “Begonia”, “Dreams” and “Time to Go”. From what I understand there was a first edition of 50 copies and that 32 of them came in a sausage tin can. It was recorded March 7 of 1992 and mixed by Matze Gruber from Forsakes and Mayflower Madam on the 12th of that same month. The photography is credited to Teeni. The second edition was mixed by Tvuzk and was released as a limited edition of 59 copies on July 3rd of 1992. This edition included the track “Your Mind” which wasn’t included in the first edition. This track had been recorded live at Metzergerstrasse in Hanau on April 17 1992.

The second tape listed is a 1993 tape titled “Still No Sign of Land”. This one was also self-released and included 10 songs: “Very Next Day”, “Boy Who’s Shyer”, “Why Baby”, “Final End”, “Whole Wide World”, “The Only Way I Know”, “Valerie’s Garden”, “Feeling So Blue”, “It’s Time” and “Dreams”. Tracks were recorded at mixed in April/May of 1993 with the exception of “Dreams” that was recorded live on October 18, 1992, at Exil in Trier.

I keep searching for more info about them and I stumbled upon a blog post by my friend Alex from 7iete Pulgadas. He beat me to it, writing about the band. There’s not much more info but it is a nice detail about how he discovered the band, again mentioning Luis Calvo and how he compared the track “Dog Named Jack” to Talulah Gosh.

And that’s what I could find. Sadly no more. Where are the members now? Still making music? Would be great to find out!

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Suffering from a Hangover – It’s Over

Revisiting my Bus Stop Label’s singles, I pick up today the superb 7″ that Engine No. 9 released in 1991. A 7″ that had two top songs, “Sleep” on the A side and “Waterfall” on the B side.

The catalog number for this record was BUS008 and had a nice cartoon train on a front cover that had just three colors, red, black and white. The artwork is credited to Brian Reedy who had been in bands like Lonely Trailer, Signalmeen, The Falbonauts and Water Between Continents.

But there’s a little detail that’s interesting about this record. It was released posthumously. The band didn’t exist anymore at the time of the release, they had changed their name to Fudge.

I haven’t written yet about Fudge. There’s so many bands to write about, but hopefully at some point I will do. There are other details though that we can add about Engine No. 9.

We know that this single was recorded at Studio Nico in the fall of 1990 and that the band was formed by Dani Siciliano on bass, Mike Savage on drums, David Jones on guitar and Tony Ammendolla on vocals and guitar. Two Italian last names I notice.

The blog Did Not Chart has scans from a Fudge Interview on 1991’s Waterbomb! fanzine. There they are asked about a short history of Engine No. 9. This is what they say:

Can You give us a short history of Engine No. 9?

David: Tony (vocals & guitar) and myself have been playing together since we were 17 or 18. We came to Richmond to go to school and to get into its music scene. We’ve been trying to put together a solid band for about two years. Fudge (Engine No. 9 ) is that band!

Where does the strange name come from (Engine No. 9)? It sounds R.E.M. ish?

David: “Engine, engine, number nine, comen down Chicago line, if that train should jump the tracks, do you want your money back?”
It comes from this rhyme that wee did as little kids, a lot of the time in addition to a really neat hand game.
No! REM no! Sit! Bad dog! in the USA if it doesn’t sound like Bon Jovi or Janet Jackson then it must be that weird “Progressive rock” like REM. I’ve always liked REM, but NEVER want any connection to them. (Sorry for the mild hostility).

How did the single with Bus Stop come about?

David: I sent a tape to Brian and one to Calvin at K. Brian liked us, Calvin, well he sent me some neat Beat Happening flyers, but he lost my tape.

Your whole sound, sounds as though you have a large British ‘indie’ influence, do you?

David: a small “indie influence”. I like all the C86 stuff and got into some of the well known indie bands i.e. The Sea Urchins, Shop Assistants, Talulah Gosh, Pooh Sticks. We really love Noise/Melody – My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr. And big grooves.

Were there any other releases before “Sleep / Waterfall”?

David: Only local demo stuff.

Are there any other good bands from the Richmond area?

David: Thank you for asking about Richmond bands. Yes!! Richmond has a thriving scene. Very few.none are of the indiepop kind of thing, but all are great. My partial list of favourites – Jive Farmer, Anse, Eggs, Coral, Alter-natives, Burma Jam, Kal Kan, Mystery Machine

What’s “Sleep” and “Waterfall” about?

David: “Sleep” = Youth, love, poetry and other sappy shit. Lyrics written by an x-bass player. “Waterfall” = “I believe in you and your waterfall, me and my divining rod, lending me to yo, showing me what to do…” = Mother nature & instinct. The hows and why’s.

Are Bus Stop going to release an LP” What would you call it?

David: Jeez! I hope! Maybe if Brian knew he could sell them. We have quite a lot of material but we want to go slow. It would be called “I Wish I Were a Fish’

Where you aware of all the other Bus Stop bands before you joined the label?

David: I had heard of Bus Stop and some of the bands, but never the music. Well, Springfields, but I thought they were on Sarah.

Do you think the American music press does enough to promote bands like yourselves?

David: No! It’s kind of hip to have different/weird bands on major labels now, but they don’t really care about anything but the money.

What do you all do for your day jobs?

David: I go to school at Virginia Commonwealth Uni and I work at a survey lab doing yucky computer stuff. Tony is a security guard at a residence hall for the university and take classes. Mike works at the Art Market. VCU is an Art School.

There’s a comment on the post by David Jones. He mentions that Dani Siciliano never played bass with them but that she was a high school friend that was moving away and it seemed like a good way to have pictures of her taken before she left time. That sorts of make sense now that I think about it. When I see her name on Discogs she was a key collaborator of the Matthew Herbert Big Band and had played in jazz combos and djed in San Francisco clubs.

Looking at other bands they were involved with, other than Fudge, I see Tony and David were on Twitch Hazel and The Seymores. Mike was in Death Vessel, The ‘Mericans, Cherry 2000, The Count Me Outs, and Shepherdess.

The band contributed two tracks to the classic compilation CD “Peppermint Stick Parade” (BUS1001) released by The Bus Stop Label in 1995. These songs were “Waterfall” and “Sleep” of course.

One interesting thing that I can’t figure out is that the two songs on the 7″ are credited to two last names that are not the band’s. “Sleep” is credited to Tolk. From the interview I understand it was an ex-bassist of the band. But what about “Waterfall”. It says Moore.

Then Discogs lists a 12″ titled “Engine, Engine No. 9”. That is not a release by this band. This actually dates from 1966 so an error to include it in the band’s discography.

And that’s all I could find about them. The one thing that caught my attention was that there were demo tapes with more songs that were released locally. Has anyone seen them?

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Engine No. 9 – Sleep

Many years ago I picked up a 7″ by a band called Flower Gang. I had no idea what I was buying but it wasn’t expensive and looked indie enough to me. Turned out to be a fine record.

This was the “Guys with Glasses” 7″ that was released by Boy Crazee Records (BC 001) in 1990. This was a US band and probably this was a self-release. On the back of the sleeve we see a P.O. Box address for the label, one located in Mansfield, Massachusetts.

The band was a trio formed by Dan (real name Donald Brendan Larson) on guitar and vocals, Jack (real name John Patrick Hanlon) on bass and vocals and Matthew Edward McLaren on drums. The songs on the record were “Matt’s Dilema”, “Metzger’s Farm” and “Army Man” on the A side and “Guys with Glasses”, “Lightning Detector and Rog.” and “Shit Fish” on the B side. The songs were produced by Bob North and the band.

It is also worth mentioning that there are many different colors for the sleeve. At least there was an orange, red, blue, green and yellow sleeve.

2 years later the band signed to spinART Records from New York. They would release with them a double 7″ titled “Junkdrawer”. This one is also easy to track down.

The songs were “Apples” and “Mt. Zion Song” on the A side, “P-Whole” and “Mcnutt” on the B side, “Shiny Grease” and “Crocodile Attack/Chips” on the C side and “50’s Rocks” on the D side. This time around the songs were engineered by Joe Moody. Also the band had added the vocals of Erin Elizabeth Sharicz.

The band doesn’t have any compilation appearances listed on Discogs. Strange. Those early 90s would see bands on compilations all the time.

What else I could find? I believe Matthew McLaren was in a band called The Barnacled. At this point maybe he had relocated to Providence, Rhode Island. Also Jack Hanlon would pay in the bands Royal Crowns and Mole People.

Then I stumble upon quite a find. the user Changebear has uploaded 11 tracks by the band to Soundcloud! These include the songs from the “Junkdrawer” double 7″ but also four live recordings on WFMU radio: “Splinter”, “Blacktop Dad”, “Fuchinlee Fuchela/Shit Fish” and “26 Hours/Gilligan Jesus”.

I also notice someone mentioning that he saw the Flower Gang supporting The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Boss Fuel. Doesn’t say the date or venue though.

Also according to this article Flower Gang reunited to play a gig at Met Cafe in Pawtucket on April 14th 2012 with Small Factory and Honeybunch. What a gig that must have been!

Cool!

Anyways, that’s what I could find about them, so of course, please share any other details on them!

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Listen
Flower Gang – Metzger’s Farm