A couple of days ago I bought for a mere $1.50 on Amazon a compilation called “Pure Spun Sugar” released in 1998 by two labels together: American Pop Project and Candy Floss. It feels like a compendium of many small bands from those days, including some known names like Dressy Bessy, Cuckooland, Aquadays or Poastal, to name a few. It flows nicely, and surprises at many points. My first surprise is that Dizzy Joghurt, the great twee-ish band from Japan, was already in the radar of some labels in the USA, I have never understood why they aren’t more known. Second surprise was that The Brian Jonestown Massacre song included is quite good. I admit never listening to them because I think they have a terrible name. Maybe they have some stuff that’s worth? And the last surprise I get from it, is a track called “Phil Spector’s Birthday Song”.

The compilation includes many California bands, I wonder why. From the 14 songs on it, 6 are from the Golden State. That’s 43%! Two of these bands, from the 43% clutch, are from San Diego, the great Red Dye No.5 and the unknown to me, The Sleazy Beats. They are the ones who have penned that tribute song to Phil Spector, that whose wall of sound is over exaggerated nowadays with the reverb tuned up to the max. And no, today it’s not his birthday, I’m not doing any sort of tribute myself. We are a month away actually, Mr. Spector was born the same day as baby Jesus, December 25th. And anyways, he will spend his birthday in the state prison of Corcoran. Don’t think he’ll have a big celebration.

‘Kind of like the Wall of Sound/You stand tall forever…’ –  The Sleazy Beats sing.  Also as the song starts to fade, a guitar countermelody first features the line associated with the words ‘be my, be my baby,’ and then the one for ‘to know, know, know him…’ The song is full of nods to Phil Spector. But are there any nods or hints to who The Sleazy Beats were? The answer is no. I looked online for more information about them just to come empty handed.

The only other clue is an address written on the compilation. 6633 Solita Avenue, San Diego. Plotted the address on Google Maps, and went ahead to some modern stalking skills. Street View! A one floor white house comes up. A small US flag hanging outside, the front porch surrounded with a white picket fence. A lovely house, a big garage, and I assume at least 2 bedrooms. There are only four houses on this block, two in this side of the street, big enough to house a band. Also it seems to have a big garden in the back and a bungalow! Perfect place to store the drums! But then, 10 years have passed and most probably they have moved away and some retired couple is now living and gardening this house.

This case seems to have too many lose-ends and not many clues for the indiepop detective. Whatever happened to The Sleazy Beats? Did they release any other songs? Did anyone remembers them playing live? Judging from the poptastic “Phil Spector’s Birthday Song”, they were up for something special.

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Listen
The Sleazy Beats – Phil Spector’s Birthday Song

Linda Guilala were on stage at last, 30 minutes late. They had found a keyboard in the backroom and seemed to be in working condition. At that moment I don’t think no one knew who the owner was. Iván and Eva were still stressed after spending the last hours on the motorway trying to be on time at the festival grounds. I wonder if it was their first time playing in UK, I think so, or did Juniper Moon ever played there? Anyways, we were there, first row again. Most people were at the chapel at this time, already making a queue worthy of a strike, waiting to see Betty and the Werewolves. I had seen them on Thursday and decided to skip them this time. Their poppy songs are fantastic, Paper Thin may be one of my top five singles this year, but I can’t handle their punky side. And then I couldn’t miss Linda Guilala, my long time friends, of long conversations about science fiction, the Japanese fans, indiepop, Aerolíneas Federales and how great Vigo is.

They played a nice set playing the songs from their debut album “Bucles Infinitos”, with the highlights “Nadie Se Dará Cuenta”, “Saber Perder”, “Te he Cambiado”, and more. The strong keyboard melodies of Eva’s, Iván’s poppy guitar hooks, succeeded in England. I was a bit worried that the crowd was going to be a bit alienated with Linda Guilala’s Spanish lyrics, as it usually happens in the USA, but that wasn’t the case. The crowd embraced it, and everyone was bopping their heads. It was then the time for their last song. They had prepared something special for everyone, they were becoming a 4 piece just for this final effort. Both Adria and Paulita from Papa Topo sneaked behind the metal fences that separated the wild crowd and the bands, and joined Linda Guilala. Iván stayed loyal to his guitar, Eva switched to a bass guitar, Adria picked up the Roland keyboard, and Paulita, well, she was going to give us backing vocals, the sweetest ones. They delivered a fabulous version of “Torremolinos”.

Now, Indietracks organizers, next year you have to book Papa Topo, and hopefully Iván and Eva can join for a 4-piece “Oso Panda”. It’s a very smart idea.

The gig was over, and what do people do when a gig is over? They head to the bar. And so we did. We stocked ourselves with beer, asked for glasses with ice and headed to the chapel. Betty and the Werewolves were almost done and in 30 minutes The Parallelograms were on. We didn’t want to miss them, and we assumed this one was going to be packed. So we better be early! The Parallelograms had been added to the bill just some days before after some band decided not to play. I don’t remember who it was. It all came into place. The Parallelograms hadn’t split but Markie had moved to New Zealand. Luckily for all of us, he decided to have some vacations in UK and come to Indietracks. Smart move! What a shame though, their drummer couldn’t play Indietracks, but who came to the rescue? Claire from Slow Down Tallahassee! She came up and filled in just fine on the drums. Later I would ask her, how did she learn the songs so fast? I was going to learn she dates The Parallelograms drummer, and she knows the songs by heart!

Upon entering the chapel, we could see that not many left the small venue after Betty and the Werewolves. People were going to save their precious spots, especially those on the front rows of seats. I found a space in the middle. Not so close, not so far. And there we waited with our beer with ice cubes for 20 minutes. Quietly The Parallelograms walked in to the stage: Meriel, Markie, Toniee, and stand-up drummer Claire. First thing that came to my mind is that Meriel has the nicest dresses in indiepop and that I longed for Markie’s Hello Kitty guitar that I had seen on photos. They shyly said hi to the crowd. They were the sweetest. You could see how much they were enjoying themselves, you could tell that the band means a lot to them, but above everything else, they are very good friends and they were here to just have fun. No ambitious and pretentious poses, just play some great pop! And so they did, one by one, all their songs, all of them proper indiepop hits. And I was enjoying all of this like a child, singing along to “1,2,3 Go!” and to “Making Faces”, and the proud moment of listening “Dream on Daisy”, the song they let me release on 7″ as a single! It was perfect. After every song, they would all jump at the same time, being their secret code that the song was over. Making me blush twice, dedicating me songs. The gig must have lasted 10 minutes or 30 or an hour for what I care, it was just perfect, and it could have continued for 24 more hours and it would have been perfect. It was the moment when going to Indietracks became a the right decision. Every penny spent on traveling there and paying for hostels, eating tofu curry and drinking warm beer, was worth.The Parallelograms were mighty, on a league of their own. I remember my Spanish friends standing up feeling groggy after the gig. It was a explosion of proper indiepopness!

Elisabeth trying out Markie’s guitar. Alex getting his Parallelograms 7″ signed. Me, taking photos with the band. Andrew from The Felt Tips joining up for a chat. Jennifer telling him that she had already seen the artwork of The Felt Tips that I was supposed to have kept secret. Me saying that The Felt Tips album was the best album of the year. Andrew don’t believing me. These are the memories after The Parellelograms gig. It all feels blurry. There was too much joy. I really hope this is not their last gig ever. Markie, here’s an advice, please take more vacations to UK!

We had 40 minutes in between to the next life-affirming gig, The Orchids were on the main stage. I went to the merch stall to check out at last what had happened to my records. Horror. They were nowhere to be found on the tables. Trevor wasn’t there anymore. Someone was boycotting the sales or someone thought that it was dangerous for people’s health to listen the records I had released. Or something else. My USPS Priority flat box was sitting lonely on the grass behind the merch tables. Full of records, but not full of life. But as you all know, you can always count with John Jervis to save the day. We moved all the flyers, moved some records by some questionable bands, and made some space for our records, just next to John’s WIAWYA stuff. And to tell the truth, he is a way better seller than me. He made more money in 2 days that Cloudberry makes in a week! John, don’t you want to run this label too?

6:40 pm now. The first chords or “Apologies” are chiming. I’m on the front row, and Marianthi has already started to dance. The Orchids are next!

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Listen
The Parallelograms – Dream on Daisy

Just arrived to work from a busy morning working on some label stuff. Got my hair all messy after carrying 500 records from the first floor to the third floor of my building, which is the part I dislike the most when there’s a new release coming. 500 records are really heavy to carry at once, you can get sweaty! Then back again to the first floor and pick up a box with 500 sleeves and another with the 500 inserts. Then go back upstairs. I wonder how come I don’t look like Charles Atlas.

So yes, the new Oh! Custer 7″ is ready to ship even though the release date is on Monday the 15th. For that I set up a newsletter to be sent at 6:00 am eastern time, as it is also noon in Europe. Around lunch time, when people check their emails. Then, the emailing continued. Got some good orders from different international shops and hopefully I will be able to afford paying the sleeves’ invoice that will be coming up soon. Press sheet is done, courtesy of the great writing of my friend Emelie, and I just ordered 100 more pins to be given away for free. My pulse beats fast, I hope I’m not forgetting anything. Then comes the part I like the most: opening the boxes. I’m considering on purchasing a box-cutter for Christmas.

Some nice records also arrived today for my collection, new 7″s, and new CDs. Happy times. But also I get an email from fellow obscure-indiepop enthusiast Matt Mastin asking me if I checked a band called “On the Pulsebeat” on the Harlow Bands jukebox. Yes, the same page were we discovered more songs from the great Some Other Day. My answer is no. I’ve never heard about this band, ever. He tells me: “that track “Living at the same address” is truly a long lost indie classic if I’ve ever heard one !!” So I run and check. And he is right. This is great stuff! Who are they?! And again, my pulse beat accelerates. I need to know. I need to find out who this band is. And I have to go to work, and there’s not much time in between, but I know I won’t be happy with myself until I exhaust every effort in trying to figure out who this fantastic Harlow band was.

Clearly, On The Pulsebeat’s pulse beat stopped beating a long time ago, during the mid-80s. The small bio on the Harlow page says:

On The Pulsebeat were Kevin Wells on bass, Ewart Richardson on guitar, Jane Hawkins on synth, Barry Rice on guitar and Ray Davies on drums. In 1985 after recording “Castles In The Air” Jane left and Jo Maskell joined. They recorded “FIVE” together. They entered the Rock Competition in 1984 and 1985 but failed to reach finals on both occasions.

At first listen, especially on their upbeat tracks, they remind me to the obscure band Hearts on Fire, that released an album on Midnight Music and I believe should deserve a post here on the Lost Bands section! It seems they only recorded two tapes, the aforementioned  “Castles in the Air” and “Five”. On “Castle in the Air” the tracks included were “The Price You Pay”, “False Situation” and “Discovery”. It was recorded in Stable Studio and it was produced by Gary Westcott. On their second demo tape, “Five”, we find the tracks “Now”, “Loneliness”, “Inside Story”, “Living at the Same Address” and “The Touch”. This time the songs were produced and recorded by John Brown. But it seems there were more recordings, perhaps another tape, as we find on the Harlow page jukebox some more songs like “Lost and Found”, “Running”, “The Events” and “The Price You Pay”.

A google search gives me no results. I check their previous bands listed in this page, “Blue Heaven” and “Foundation”, and there’s no information. This is it. There’s no more. Time is running and I have to run to work. Seems there’s nowhere else to look for more info about them. Thus, to keep my mind sane, I decided that my last resort is to write this blog post, calling out, asking if anyone can fill in the blanks. Whatever happened to On the Pulsebeat? When did it stop beating?

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Listen
On the Pulsebeat – Living at the Same Address

It’s just some other day, some other Sunday here. It’s a quiet one. For once the temperature has dropped under 15 degrees and, without the hellish warmth of this town, the days seem longer. My worries revolve around having printing sleeves for a new release and noticing there is a mistake on the track list, thus they have to be trashed. Very annoying, will have to print a new set. Also cut them and glue them together. Lost of hours lost. It’s really just some other day.

Among the exciting things, this upcoming week will be like Christmas on my snail mail. First I’m receiving the inserts for the Oh! Custer 7″, then the 7″s themselves and later the sleeves. Ready to ship to the  ones who have pre-ordered it. Think I’ll need to change the blade on my cutter too, lots of inserts to cut! The other news is that I already received a proof of the new album I’m releasing on the new label I’m putting together with my friend Victor Raul, it looks good, but we need to make a few changes as it didn’t print as we wanted. So now we are looking forward to a new proof copy. We are hoping for a December 1st release, and we should unveil the website any day now. It’s looking very nice. But then, most weeks are like Christmas on my mailbox, so just some other week.

Anyhow, that album we are releasing has been on heavy rotation on my CD player. It’s called “Australia” and it’s by Gothenburg band “Tellus about the Moon“. It’s really nice, it’s haunting! There’s some bright guitars, a lot of elegance, and trumpets! The boy/girl vocals are delicious on it. It has taken us ages to be able to put it together and at last it seems we have it, the ball is rolling on this new project. And yes, I said haunting before, and you know what haunts me when I listen to this album? I hear the ghosts of a long lost 80s band: Some Other Day. Their spirit is very much alive on this record. I feel and sense so many similarities, that gives me the chills. And not like it is a copycat or anything, but it feels both bands were in the same brainwave 20 years apart!

Some Other Day had those bright guitars, that elegance, that melancholy in the vocals, and these dreamy boy/girl vocals that are my weakness. They didn’t get to release an album sadly. They didn’t get to release anything proper. Just two songs on compilations. The first one was “Sad But True” on the “Uncle Arthur’s Pop Parlour” tape that our friend David Driscoll released. The other was “Bury Your Sins” on the “Not Just Mandela” LP, a tribute album for South Africa’s then president that included bands like The Housemartins, The Sullivans or even Billy Bragg.  This one I haven’t had yet the chance to listen sadly. They did release at least one demo tape that included 4 fab songs: “Head Still Full of You”, “All Water Under the Bridge”, “It Stays With Me Always” and “Midnight”. This little collection of songs are wonderful! You can stream them from here, the Harlow Bands Jukebox.

After listening to these songs I immediately went to google and tried to find any information about them, hopefully a contact, as I would love to interview them. I did find Mark Walshe, the vocalist and leader of the band, on myspace, but still he hasn’t signed on it. Seems he is living in San Francisco. There is a very interesting blurb there:

Mark is from England. He has been living in San Francisco for the last 14 years but only came for a two month visit. His big brother once took him up to Twin Peaks at the very top of the city and said “all this could be yours”. It wasn’t his to give, but the point was well made. Through his teens and into his twenties Mark played in bands back in England. Lots of good rock and roll groups. He’s from Harlow Town which is just a hop and a skip from North London. Back in the 70’s and 80’s, at first glance, Harlow appeared to be nothing more than a large training camp for Tottenham and West Ham football holligans. Thanks to the one and only decent local venue called ‘The Square’ Mark met many fine musicians and got involved in some good old rock and roll. He played in Dark Horse, The Clinic, Some Other Day and The Tender Trap. Harlow, as it turned out was also a breeding ground for some damn good art. Moving to London in the late ’80s The Tender Trap became his main concern and he spent much of his time in a transit van traveling all over Britain. A favourite memory was a tour with ex-‘Men They Couldn’t Hang’ lads ‘The Liberty Cage’. They meandered all the way up to Edinburgh and lived there for a week whilst performing shows at the festival. One day he hopes to write a book about those times but fears that only his mother and the other people in those bands would read it. Perhaps the driver too.

On another page I could find a little more info on the band:

Some Other Day were formed after Mark Walsh left The Clinic. Originally a two piece with Mark on guitar and Suzy Allen on vocals they soon expanded and added Billy Dawkins on drums. Soon after this they added Richard Martin on bass. Some Other Day entered the 1985 Rock Contest but failed to reach the finals.

Also I found a rambling by BBC Radio’s Steve Lamacq saying:

A couple of us also managed to stage an editorial coup, seizing control of the Gazette’s music page and writing endlessly about the Newtown Neurotics and various other lesser-known local hopefuls (one of which, a band called Some Other Day, I also ended up managing unsuccessfully for about two months).

Maybe he is the one to blame for the band not having a proper release? “Managing unsuccessfully”? The songs are so good that I don’t see why not even a self-released 7″, or even a flexi, couldn’t have happened. Their music was not just music for some other day. I wonder if there were more songs, why did they break up? if they play lots of gigs? Maybe those living in San Francisco can tell Mark to get in touch! Maybe this helps for you to track him down?

Rarely is there a night that Mark Walshe is not in a bar (pitching trivia questions). Originally from Harlow, Essex, Mark lived in North East London in his early twenties. His interest in broadcasting originated in his rock and roll bands ‘Some Other Day’ and ‘The Tender Trap.’ Mark has worked as a DJ and booker for Nickie’s nightclub in SF’s Lower Haight St. and as full time DJ/emcee at SF’s Virgin Megastore, where he turned the downtown shoppers onto music and interviewed Nelly Furtado, Blondie, De La Soul and David Byrne. He much prefers people mistaking him for Jimmy Page than Simon Cowell, which is the main reason that he hasn’t had a haircut in some time! Mark writes and performs his own songs, which he dearly hopes won’t remind you of Donovan! Stop by and play Wednesdays at O’Neill’s Irish Pub (San Mateo), and Thursdays at Elephant & Castle in San Francisco.

Ah! and now back to my some other Sunday.

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Listen
Some Other Day – Head Still Full of You

Thanks so much to John Martin for the great interview and the exclusive mp3 for the blog. The Hermit Crabs were a great band that released a split flexi with the 14 Iced Bears and a 12″ on Thunderball Records. Enjoy!

++ Hi John! Thanks so much for doing this interview. So first things first, how come you are both J. Martin & Greg Waverley as you told me on the comments section of my Hermit Crabs post?!

Hi there Roque, the reason for the two names is quite simple: Greg Waverley was the nom de guerre I went under as a Hermit Crab. But when it came down to writing credits I felt it best I use my real name in case we made any money from the songs, which we didn’t!

++ So how did the Hermit Crabs came to life? Who were the members and how did you all met each other?

The members were myself on vocals, Marky Hellings on guitar, Peter Hunt (Malibu Mo) on bass and Steve Perry (Bam Bam Baruso) on drums. We lived in a small town, so you tended to gravitate towards the people who were into the things as you, and with us it was music, so there was a network of people who would hang out. Marky and Mo had played in bands together and Steve had been in a band with another friend of mine. Me and Marky started messing around making music in 1985 with Marky singing and guitar and me on bass. At first we were doing odd soundscapes with echo machines and effects pedals, but the music started to take on more structure and Marky wrote some lyrics to them. We played a gig as The Deckchairs and we got Steve to play drums on the night even though had never rehearsed with us! I remember it as a great gig. We were all big fans of the Velvet Underground, so in my mind it was a beautiful cacophony though the audience may have begged to differ! Anyway, after that, I packed the bass away and we continued to rehearse in Marky’s bedroom and write lyrics together. The songs sounded quite summery and upbeat so we hit on the surf theme and carried it on into the look of the band and that’s what became the Hermit Crabs.
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++ Were in the UK were you based by the way?

We all lived in Harlow, Essex, which a town roughly 25 miles from London.

++ What about the band’s name? Why did you choose it?
I think Marky came up with the name. Because of the surf punk thing we were doing, it seemed quite apt, seeing as hermit crabs lived near the beach and were a bit odd, not having there own shell and being a bit scuzzy!

++ Was The Hermit Crabs your first band?

Other than The Deckchairs and a million other bands that were nothing more than a name on a piece of paper, yes!

++ Let’s talk about releases. So Surfin’ Vietnam appeared on the “Let’s Try Another Ideal Guest House” compilation among many other well known bands. How did you end up in this fund-raising release?

Graeme Sinclair, who was affectionately known as Beer Monster used to come to our gigs and after a while we got chatting. He was in the process of putting Thunderball Records together but was also involved in compiling “Let Try Another Ideal Guest House” and he asked us if we had anything to put on it. We had recorded a demo after winning some studio time in a local rock contest and the strongest song was “Surfin Vietnam”, so we gave him that.

++ You seem to have had a close relationship with 14 Iced Bears, releasing the split flexi, and also your 12” on Thunderball Records, being labelmates with them. Were you all friends? How did this relationship happen? did you play gigs together?

The connection was more to do with Graeme as he was friends with Rob (14 Iced Bears). Although we played a few gigs together, we didn’t have anything to do with them socially as they were from Brighton, which was 90 miles away.

++ Talking about gigs, did you gig a lot? Any gigs in particular that you remember?

As far as I can remember we gigged quite a lot! The ones I remember normally ended in chaos. On one occasion we were supporting a band called The Wigs at The Clarendon, which was quite big on the psychobilly scene, so it was always quite edgy to play there. Anyway, one of our fans mysteriously known as the Blue Nosed Crab Crazies decided to set fire to The Wigs backdrop in the middle of our set which neither impressed band or management and we were promptly told we would never play the venue again! And on another similar occasion, an A&R from RCA records organised a gig for us supporting a band made up of all the uninteresting ones from Adam & The Ants. The A&R man was in the audience with a couple of other chaps from the label to check out his new wards with a view to make a smash hit! Also in the audience, however, were the Blue Nosed Crab Crazies, whose only intention was to shower the Hermit Crabs in beer, invade the stage and have a laugh. Being of a similar mindset, we joined in with the Crazies and reciprocated the beer thowing with great gusto. This didn’t go down well with the management and they pulled the plug on us about three songs into our set, creating our own mini riot. We thought this was brilliant and incredibly punk rock, but unfortunately Mr RCA a didn’t share the same view, and decided not to pursue us any longer, a classic case of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!

++ Alright, let’s not get off the track, back to discography, so the 12”, I’ve never seen it. Care to tell me a bit about it? Which songs appeared there? Any anecdotes about recording it? How did you sign to Thunderball?

The 12” was recorded in 1988 at Electro Rythym Studios in North London. Graeme Sinclair was keen on getting something out on Thunderball as were we, so he paid for the pressing and printing and we paid for the studio time, there was no signing to the label as such. The tracks were Yeah!, Octopus Love, Surfer Girl Metallica, I Think We’re Alone Now and Yeah! (Cake Mix). I can’t remember how we chose what songs to record other than they were the strongest ones from our set, but I remember recording I Think We’re Alone Now had a bit of kitsch value as Tiffany had a version out at about the same time and we thought we might get a bit of airplay! As far as anecdotes are concerned, I remember that we drank quite a lot so by the time it came to mixing, we were off our heads and our audial faculties were’nt up to much. Needless to say the songs sounded terrible and we had to pay for anothers day’s studio time to get them remixed!

++ Did you have any more songs? Maybe you released demo tapes?

There were quite a few more songs all based around the surf genre but I can’t for the life of me remember all the titles and that goes for the other songs on the demo we recorded, which is long lost.

++ And so, what’s with all the Surf references? Surfin’ Vietnam and Surfing Mice?

As I mentioned earlier, it came from the sound of the music we were making, so we took it a stage further and built a whole ethos around the band. It also allowed us to create our own alter egos and write some pretty daft songs without getting too precious about it!

++ How do you remember those days? There were plenty of great bands! Did you feel the scene was very supportive? Any favourite bands or people related to the scene that you liked?

In all honesty, we didn’t feel like part of any scene. The “twee” scene was more Graeme’s thing and although we got associated with it through the label, in our minds, it wasn’t what were doing, we thought we were Rock Gods!

++ In a nutshell, what was the biggest highlight of The Hermit Crabs?

Bringing out the 12” and getting “Single Of The Week” in the N.M.E. which was and still is a very influential music weekly.

++ When and why did you call it a day? Were you involved with music after?

After the 12” came out, we felt we had achieved everything we had wanted to and in all honesty the fun had started to go out of it which was the the only reason we were to doing it in the first place. There was no game plan and we had no ambition other than to have a good time all the time, so we called it quits! As for carrying on with music, Marky, Mo and myself didn’t, but Steve played on in various bands. I never considered myself a musician anyway, I was more of a gobby show-off with access to a microphone!

++ Are you still in touch with the rest of The Hermit Crabs? What are you all up to now?

I am still in contact with Marky who still lives in Harlow and works in accountancy. Mo moved to New Zealand and now makes furniture and I have no idea what Steve does for a living, but I know he is a grandad which makes me feel quite old! I work in advertising now but my alter ego Greg fell in with a bunch of Hell’s Angels whose need for self expression led them to form a traveling circus act which was considered outré, even by Jim Rose standards. Greg’s act was best described as a variant of the trapeze idom. Unfortunately, a diet of mescaline shot straight into the eyeball and absinthe played havoc with his balance and he was last seen shouting at cars from a pimped up bath chair in the South London!

++ Thanks so much John! I think you’ve solved many mysteries now! I’m wondering though how you’d definite The Hermit Crabs? Indiepop? Punkpop? or just pop?

Surfpunk Rock Gods!!

++ One last question, do you know anyone that has a hermit crab as a pet? 😉

Not that I’m aware of!

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Just to say thanks for helping me recall all the stuff!

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Listen
The Hermit Crabs – I Think We Are Alone (taken from the radio)

Thanks so much to the great Peter Hahndorf for being up for this interview. It is an honor to finally interview one of the nicest friends I’ve met through indiepop. So if you don’t know who he is, well, probably you are reading the wrong blog. Peter is the biggest indiepop activist on Earth!!

++ Hallo Pete! It was so nice to see you again in Berlin, and Indietracks! How does it feel to be back in Bremen after so much traveling?

It’s quite weird; my life style here is so different compared to the last two years on the road in Latin America. I spend most of time working in computers which is fine, I did miss that, but otherwise life is very uneventful and trips like the ones to IndieTracks and the popfests in Berlin are a welcome change. I am already looking forward to my next big trip.

++ Talking about Indietracks, why do you think nothing like this happened back in the late 80s or early 90s, they heyday of indiepop?

I think IndieTracks is a unique event, the location is terrific and it’s great that people with such fantastic taste in music are willing to do the organising. There were the large festivals in the 80s like Glastonbury and Reading where the bigger bands played. And also some smaller one-day festivals usually put on by a label. I guess email and the internet also makes it much easier to organise these things and publicise it with a much smaller budget.

++ What were your highlights of the festival? Do you still insist that that Madonna song is the twee-est of all time?

I thought the Pains were fantastic, it was also great to see The Pooh Sticks, Primitives and Orchids again and they all showed they are still up for it. Of the new bands, I enjoyed The Felt Tips the most. I did miss Allo Darling but saw them later in Berlin and they were so amazing and are currently my favourites.

Madonna’s “Dear Jessie” is certainly HER twee-est, I usually don’t use the word ‘twee’ to describe any music, but here it comes to mind, maybe it is because of the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mx7nUDx3dQ)

++ By the way, did you get to take some of your records from London to Bremen this time?

I actually did ship my London record collection to Germany before I headed out to Latin America back in 2008. Storage was expensive and I couldn’t find a safe and cheap place in London. It’s nice to have the two collections together for once, I also found quite a few doubles.

++ So let’s go back in time. First thing that I come to wonder, someone so involved with indiepop, and you never got or tried to have band. Or you did?

No never, I guess the closest I got was playing tambourine on some recordings with friends. I just never got around to learning an instrument. I guess I am just a fan and help out in the indiepop community with the things I am better at.

++ How was the scene in Bremen? Where there any good indiepop bands there?

Nope, no good bands. No good places to go to either. For a while we had a great radio station and fantastic gigs in the nearby small town of Oldenburg, but otherwise we always had to travel to Hamburg for gigs and clubs. I met some other indiepop fans through my fanzines but overall Bremen never was a good place for indiepop.

++ Your brother had an indiepop label though, right? Did he discovered this music first? Or how was it? For some reason I picture you two listening to John Peel all the time together haha

I am five years older than my brother and I guess you can say I had a strong influence on his musical taste. He was in “Die Moosblüten” and released a few singles and a tape on his label “Steinpilz Tonträger”. I don’t think he listened to John Peel much, except when his band was played. The shows were on late, around midnight or so, and I would usually tape the whole thing and then copy the good songs over to another tape the next morning. That way I could fast forward through a lot of the things I didn’t like. Then I would double-check with my friends who would do the same to make sure I didn’t miss anything. My brother would then get a filtered version of the shows.

++ And then, John Peel thanked you on his show, Peter from Bremen, that must have been quite a highlight for you! What do you think is his importance for indiepop?

I guess he mentioned me quite often as I did send him German records all the time. I think the highlight was when he called me on my birthday to ask whether he could play some songs from my “Mind The Gap” compilation tape on his BBC show and read out my address so people could order it. When I got back to my birthday party nobody believed it when I said “that was John Peel on the phone!”.

I met him several times in London and also had the pleasure to stay at Peel Acres and look through his collection. He was just very important for so many musical genres. For indiepop in particular I think it was significant for a new band to be played by him, as it was one of the few ways to get heard by a national or even international audience. He helped me to discover many new bands, but I don’t think indiepop as a whole would be very different without him. It was just a nice and easy way to discover new music through the radio. I haven’t done this for a long time.

++ Most people know you because of Twee.net, the indiepop dictionary. Something that I really enjoy is that there are more biographies showing up and articles. But I know you plan in making it grow, make it more interactive as well. What updates or new additions are you planning for it? Maybe that crazy idea we talked about in Hamburg many years ago, have it have it’s own social network?!

To be honest I don’t have any big plans for it. I would love to have more content and more people writing and contributing to it. The idea of a social network was there in 1995-96 with the “who is who” list (now the indiepop directory) but I guess that was too early. In the times of FaceBook, MySpace and last.fm I don’t think there is a need for anything else. How many more social networks do you need? With the Indiepop list and the Anorak Forum and especially Facebook there is enough “social networking” out there.

I use the TweeNet Content Management System (which is used to manage the pages on twee.net) to try out new technologies that I can use in my job. I don’t spend much time on the content/public site but I am always open to ideas and suggestions.

++ You also run Clarendon Records, part responsible of the Leamington Spa releases, and also the Siddeleys and Hey Paulette compilations. Are there any other plans in releasing records? And how much of a saying you have on the releases? Oh? And why the name of the label?

Except for more volumes of Leamington Spa, I don’t have any imminent plans. I would have loved to have done the Bodines compilation, but Cherry Red is doing a good job with all these re-releases. With all my traveling going on I am not so involved with the Leamington Spa compilations either. When I lived in London I was the UK part of our collaboration and tried to find contact details for the bands and met up with them. Nowadays we get most contacts online when people are searching for their old band name.

Clarendon was the name of a venue in Hammersmith, West London in the eighties. Bands played both upstairs and in the basement of The Clarendon Hotel, which is no longer there, now a shopping mall and bus station. Many indiepop bands played there at the time including the Siddeleys who played their first ever gig there. So when I was thinking about a new name for my label before the Siddeleys album came out, this came to mind.

++ Don’t get angry with this question! But what do we do with the indiepop list and all these silly kids posting nonsense? When you go to the archive, you notice so many great discussions and interesting information. Perhaps, now the real “indiepop-list” is really on facebook or twitter?

Well, I’ve been on the list since the first day in 1994 and for quite a long time now I only follow it very sporadically. But once in while there is still an interesting discussion. Back in the day it was the only place online to find indiepop information. Now there is so much competition and in many respects Facebook and Twitter have taken over. Also, many people spend a lot of time on blogs, so Roque, rather than writing all these great blog posts on your site, you could just post them to the list, right? If everybody would do that rather than blogging, it would be a quite an interesting place again.

++ You made some fanzines, that now you can check online, even though they are in German! What happened to the writer Peter? It would be so great if you blogged or something. I know you have many stories! Why don’t give it a shot?

If you could read German, you would know that I am not much of a writer. Back then I was naive and it was okay to do a fanzine. It’s a bit similar with my traveling, I wrote quite a bit on my travelog when I was in Asia, but hardly anything when in Latin America. Maybe I just got lazy, if people want to hear stories, they have to meet me.

++ Also you started the Mind the Gap mailorder and then you let Jörg run it, right? Why the change? And why did it stopped working?

It is a lot of work to run a mail order business, and most people who do it by themselves only do so for a few years. I loved it, because I met many people through it. I was a student at the time and rather than going to university I spent my time on Mind The Gap. Eventually I decided I wanted to finish my studies and get a degree, and Mind The Gap had to go. I was lucky that Jörg took over and he did a great job with it for much longer than I did. I guess eventually he got tired of it too, or at least needed a break and like many others now sells stuff online.

++ I was impressed by your collection, and how organized you have it, even ordered with alphabetically separators. A collection of t-shirts, of pins, of flyers, of everything really. I’m wondering what are your most precious pieces in that collection and why?

Hmm, I am not really much of an obsessive collector type, I just have the advantage of having enough space, so I don’t have to throw away or sell things. But I do like organizing things. I guess I have some rare records, but the items that come to mind are usually the ones that have a story attached to it. The ones that you didn’t get in the mail or bought at the local record store. I remember staying at Tim Gane’s house and he told me about the plans for his new band, and I said “Stereolab” would be an awful name. A year later I was back and helped with cutting the sleeves for their first 10”, so that record is both very rare and has some memories attached to it. Other examples are when I was looking for something for a very long time. When I was in Melbourne in 2008 I finally found a copy of the MacGuffins 7” which I was looking for since 1991. I found it for $1 in an old record store – those are moments of joy. Or the first edition of Eggstone’s ‘Shooting Time EP’, a friend in Sweden had just bought it and it was so good that he just had to buy more copies and send them to some friends.

++ After so much traveling around the world, where were you most surprised to see indiepop fans?

In most cases I wasn’t surprised at all, because I already knew they were there. I mean, even in Indonesia it is not that you meet people with Tullycraft T-Shirts on the street. All the people I met around the “third” world are people I was already in touch with. Sure in the US and Japan, you meet people at shows and in record stores, but that is expected. It is usually nice to get introduced into a local scene and see how many people are involved. This was great in Bandung in Indonesia or in Manila for example. The indiepop moments in Latin America were limited to places like Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires or your old stomping grounds in Lima. I was surprised to meet some people in Bogota, Colombia because I did not know about them and they got in touch with me because they read I was coming to town. I remember having a long chat with the guy behind a pharmacy counter in Christchurch, New Zealand about the Bats and the Chills. But for him they were local bands from his university times and he didn’t really know any indiepop bands from abroad.

++ Tell me what has been the best gig you’ve ever attended in Germany and in UK. And why?

Gosh, that is hard to tell, so many. I would throw in the Close Lobsters in April 1988 in Oldenburg, so much energy both on stage and in the audience. I would also mention the Field Mice as a two-piece in May 1989 in Hanau, at that time I got really into the Sarah stuff and that was the perfect example. For this year I have to say ‘Mighty Mighty’ in Berlin. There were many great ones in the UK and if I had to pick one, maybe The June Brides, again the energy on stage was unbelievable. Not that I only enjoy the old bands, but I guess they still stand out. Best of the 90s would be Magnetic Fields and Belle and Sebastian on a square in the old town in Barcelona in 1997. Beautiful location, two amazing performances, much better than any other time I have seen them.

++ Now, without giving it too much thought, 5 obscure indiepop releases that you’d recommend.

I guess there is not much obscurity out there anymore but here goes: Johnny Rasheed: Inspiration CD; The Whipper Snappers – You never look back 7”; The Sandkings – Rain 12”, The Mandelbrot Set – A Place Called Kansas CD; Ornamental – Crystal Nights 7”

++ How do you see indiepop 10 years from now? Do you think there are still things to fight for? Are we in the right track?

On the right track to where? I think indiepop will live on and will be around in 10 years. There will always be ups and downs. I mean right now I walk into HMV in London and they have The Pains and Allo Darlin as released by Fortuna Pop, that’s great. There will always be fantastic new bands that get me excited; I don’t see that stopping any time soon. The internet brought the community much closer together, but I hope we can keep physical labels and records alive, it would be a shame to lose that. It seems there are always new young enthusiastic people like yourself or the Berlin pop crowd that bring in new energy. We have too much of a good thing to let it go.

++ And last question, what has indiepop given to you?

Many, many very good friends.

++ Oh okay, now seriously, one last question, are you still up for making the indiepop museum in London? 😉

I’d love to, my records are collecting dust at my parent’s house and with me traveling around the world most of the time, it would be nice to put them to a better use. The problem of course is money and a place to put a museum. So if anybody in London has a nice big room, let me know. I think it would be enough to open one evening a week. The idea is to have not only all records browsable, but also fanzines, flyers, T-Shirts, badges etc. and to be able to listen to any indiepop through some listening stations. Next time I live in London I will look around, rent is just bloody expensive there. I would also need donations from other people, as my collection is nowhere near complete.

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Listen
The Whipper Snappers – You Never Look

Florida was once a state that had some cool indiepop bands. One of the first was Crush 22, who only released their songs in different compilations and only lately compiled on a 3″ CD here on Cloudberry. A great CD if I may say so. Their story after Crush 22 is much more known, as they became Brittle Stars and released one perfect album. But this time we are going to their early days, to their Crush 22 days! Thanks so much to Josh, Mario, Estelle and Roy! You can befriend them at their myspace too.

++ Thanks so much for being up for the interview, and for the little 3″CD we made a while back. I think the songs are fantastic, I think I’ve told you that before. But for those that never have heard Crush 22, and should buy the CD, what can they expect from it?

Joshua: Short and sweet indie pop songs.

++ Let’s do the biography part first, so how did you all meet? At University of Florida perhaps? Were you students there? And how did the band start?

Mario: I was a student there. Josh and Estelle too. Roy is from a nearby town. I don’t remember if he was a student there. I do remember being at a house show or party. I had been talking to Roy and Estelle. We somehow began talking about being in a band together. Josh overheard us and jumped right in. I WANNA PLAY DRUMS! I’LL PLAY THE DRUMS! That’s how I remember it. If it isn’t the way it started, then my brain needs some fixing.

Joshua: I believe we all met through Mario. I had had a musical crush on Mario since I first laid eyes on him. I had seen Estelle and Roy at shows but hadn’t really met them before Mario brought us all together. Estelle, Mario and I were students at UF but in completely different worlds on campus (because of differing majors).

++ What was that that inspired you to start the band? Was this your first time in a band?

Estelle: It was my first band ever.

Roy: it was also my first band. Actually I think it was the first time I really ever picked up the bass that was sitting in the corner of my room…

Mario: Why not. We all really liked pop music. We could.

Joshua: This wasn’t my first time in a band. I had been in four or five terrible bands by this point. I had never really played drums before this band though. I had moved to Gainesville for the D.i.Y. punk scene because I had booked a bunch of the bands in Daytona when I lived there. I’ve never aspired to make a living as a musician but I like to play music with my friends.

++ Why the name Crush 22?

Estelle: It’s a mashup of a catch 22 & crush… seemed relevant at the time.

Mario: Hmmm. We used to practice at the first Claire De Leon / Pop Shop store that Josh and Dan Sostrom ran. They shared it with some other vendor, and it was that other vendor’s space that we practiced in. I distinctly recall discussing Crush 22 as a band name there. That’s all I can remember.

Joshua: The name came from Estelle’s sister, Shena (she’s in Citra Super). Something about every crush being a “catch 22.” I remember I wanted to name it Brittle Stars but was vetoed.

++ How did you like Gainesville? Is there any advantage to be a band in a college town?

Estelle: Yeah, all your college friends combined make for a never-empty audience.

Roy: I have many fond memories of Gainesville- it’s a great town.

Mario: I liked Gainesville. Still do. I think Gainesville is too well known for being a punk rock town, though. It has been and still is a great indie-pop town. Easy place to start a band. Easy place to get a show. We played the famous Hardback Cafe.

Joshua: Gainesville was really supportive at that time. For a while we practiced at the Hardback Cafe (famous punk rock club) before Strikeforce Diablo, who were completely different than us but who I was into. But….we were just becoming musicians at that point and I think some of the bands thought of us as “amateurs” because we were amateurish. We made mistakes and wrote simple songs. We weren’t going to be Tortoise. A college town (like Gainesville) is a great place to start a band because it’s cheap to live and practice space is usually cheap. I’ve had band practice in my house for the sixteen years that I’ve lived here.

++ You only recorded 6 songs, but was that your whole set? Did you have any other songs? Perhaps a cover?

Estelle: 6? I thought it was 4. Or maybe 4 was the number of total shows we played.

Roy: no covers. there were a couple of songs that we played but never recorded- i’m not sure how many. i remember one specific song that mario sang and was really jangly.

Mario: We didn’t have much time to be a band. We broke up pretty quickly. I had some chords and melodies that I was about to introduce to the band, but nope. No covers either.

Joshua: We didn’t do any covers because I wasn’t a musician and couldn’t learn any other songs, I don’t think we even attempted a cover. We had maybe 10 songs but I’ve lost the practice tapes that had copies of the other songs. The song named “Anne Murray” was something that was recorded in the studio between other songs, so it really wasn’t a song. Estelle was working on it but neither Roy and I liked it and that’s why it was derisively called Anne Murray because we thought it was schmaltzy.

++ Actually, if you were to play a cover song, which one would you like to do?

Estelle: Meh, I’m not into covering songs.

Roy: I agree with estelle. but if i was really pressed, I’ve always been curious about covering either “Regress no way” or “We’re gonna fight” by 7 seconds.

Joshua: I remember at that time I was super into Northern Picture Library and would have loved to have done “Dear Faraway Friend” but we would have had to shorten it by 8 minutes or more…ha. “Wrapped Around” was covered by Vetran (Bren of Masters of the Hemisphere and Still Flyin’) for a Kindercore comp.

++ So who wrote the songs? How did the creative process work for you?

Estelle: Hmm… guys, do you remember? Pure jamming I think: maybe we started with a guitar jingle or a base note, drums came in, I’d start a keyboard line, then I’d add some vocal melodies and lyrics using teenage-love-like poems I was writing about boys at the time.

Roy: yeah- the songs all came together in practice. everybody contributed.

Mario: I remember us being pretty collaborative. We jammed.

Joshua: I remember that somebody would come up with a melody or something and we’d start fooling around with it until it became a song. I have this theory that if you don’t write a song at the first practice the band is going to fail. We wrote “If it wasn’t for this,” at our first practice.

++ You played 4 or 5 gigs only. Who did you play with? And is there any anecdotes you could share from them?

Roy: wow. this is really hard to remember… I think I still have a flier from when we played with Lenola at the hardback (i think that was our first show?). I also remember that we played with Masters of the Hemisphere and Neutral Milk Hotel at the Tallahassee Popfest. or at least i think we played with them.

Mario: I know our final show was at the Florida Pop Fest in Tallahassee. I forget exactly who was on the bill the night we played, but Neutral Milk Hotel, Of Montreal and the Mountain Goats played the fest too. That was an awesome festival!

Joshua: That was thirteen years ago. I don’t remember any of the shows being particularly memorable except for the Florida Pop Fest. I remember when we played the Florida Pop Fest we stayed at the same place as John from the Mountain Goats and he made some really terrible home made bread that everyone pretended like they liked. He also took a three hour bath and no one could use the bathroom as there was only one bathroom and we had to go down the street to use the bathroom. He shushed us while he was watching the “Pam and Tommy Lee” tape that was in the apartment, which I found hilarious.

++ Tell me a bit about Florida Popfest 1998, how was it? Who played? Who organized it?

Mario: I believe the Florida Pop Fest was organized by the Underwood Brothers, Mike Wilkerson, Larry Bonk and others. Someone correct me if any of that is wrong. It was a BLAST! Also, for Crush 22, it was kinda emotional. It was our last show and it felt terrible to have it end.

Joshua: If I remember correctly I believe it was thrown by some of the guys who would make up Plastic Mastery (Nick Underwood, Lawrence Bonk) and their friends. Information on who played it is located here: http://www.kickbrightzine.com/shows/FLPopfest/ . As you can see we played with Neutral Milk Hotel, who I wasn’t really into at the time but love now. I was one of the organizers for PopMayhem! and we wanted to make it the same spirit of the Florida Pop Fest (ie, awesome pop music, cheap and in Florida). I remember I had a great time, Dan (from Brittle Stars) and I had a mail order at that time and we sold so much music at the fest that we put out a compilation LP with the proceeds.

++ So when and why did you call it a day?

Joshua: It’s funny, because I didn’t learn the reasons for the break up until years later. I just know that when we went into the studio to record in January 1998 there were weird inter-personal issues that were going on behind the scenes. We tried to see if we could work it out by adding another member but that only lasted a few practices and then we decided we’d play the pop fest as our last show. I think the band existed for the perfect length of time though. We didn’t stay together long enough to get stale.

++ What would you say were the main differences between Crush 22 and Brittle Stars?

Estelle: The guitarist & the bass player. Also, I think BS was our “more mature” band. We had grown up ever so slightly from Crush 22 (just slightly though).

Mario: One wildly huge difference is that I wasn’t much of a guitarist. I tried my hardest just to be melodic within means. I was confident enough on keyboard. Still, by nature, it was always simple. I sang back-up. So, boy vocals. Josh always said the band was fragile. I think he got it right. The Brittle Stars made some proper sounding recordings. The musicianship was a notch above. Crush 22 didn’t come close to that. We were 4 people learning how to make a simple song. No next level.

Joshua: It was a different band? Seriously, Steve Clay (from Brittle Stars) is probably the most brilliant musician I’ve ever met and his guitar playing (and Dan is secretly a great musician too) make the band a different beast. Estelle and I were definitely more sure of our selves and confident in Brittle Stars than Crush 22. Crush 22 to me has got a different kind of charm and innocence, especially when Mario sings.

++ But also many of you went to form other bands that are much more known like Mahoganny, Human Television, Elephant Parade, Nervous Systems, and more. But how important was Crush 22 for you? What were your highlights of being in this band?

Estelle: Crush 22 formed some of the best times of my life. Music (creating it, listening to it, dancing to it) always played a huge part in my life and when Josh came to me and asked me if I wanted to play in a band, it was the beginning of an amazing and fun creative adventure for me. Highlights? Playing the Tallahassee Pop Fest! Jeez, you’ve got me feeling all nostalgic now.

Roy: i went on to be in many bands, most notably Brasilia and mahogany. and while Crush 22 wasn’t the most prolific band, it was very important to me. it’s where I learned how to play an instrument and write songs within a band context. i learned how personalities work within the creative process. it was the first time I’d ever played a show and recorded. Crush 22 was full of many firsts for me.

Mario: Crush 22 was my first band in a personal sense. I had been playing with my brother a bunch, but I got to reach out to others for the first time musically. It was really exciting. It was different. I met some other really great bands because of it. I remember riding my bike and coming up with my back-up lyrics. Sitting on top of the jungle gym while we took a break from recording. I didn’t know of another band in Gainesville that played in our style. I thought we were pretty unique.

Joshua: Crush 22 was incredibly important to me because I was in the midst of the breakup of my marriage and it was an outlet for me. I can still remember the first practice in the back of a vintage shop called “the Pop Shop.” Hearing Mario, Roy and Estelle write such great songs and getting to be a part of it was amazing to me. It’s funny, the practices are more memorable to me then the shows were.

++ What are you up to now? Any new musical adventures of yours that we should be looking forward in the near future?

Estelle: We just released Elephant Parade’s 2nd album. We (my husband and I) created and recorded the songs while living abroad in Israel. Those years were an interesting, strange & well, difficult time for me. The album is appropriately called, “Home.” (We’re back in Brooklyn now.)

Roy: I’m currently doing a project called Ice Orgy. it’s kinda cold ambient drone with beats. there’s and LP coming out soon. I’m also playing in an unnamed gothy/deathrock band… nothing very poppy to look forward to…

Mario: My first ever Slavagoh 7″ disc on Needless Records will be out soon. I helped Elephant Parade out recently. I played drums on one of their new songs. Grand Opening. It’s on their new album. I even added a melodic keyboard line during the chorus. I play drums for Ape School from time to time. I’m also trying to put together a proper live band version for Slavagoh.

Joshua: I’ve been in the indie rock band Nervous Systems with my friends (and wife) for six years now. We’ve recorded an album and are about to release a 7”.

++ And tell me something about you that not many know? Any secret hobbies perhaps? Guilty pleasures? 🙂

Roy: maybe not a secret, but i’m really into printing… I’m a letterpress printer by trade. it’s funny how things can become an obsession (it includes printing, typography, design) . I’m also into cycling and sports like football and basketball. i never thought I’d be into sports…

Joshua: I’ve played on No Idea F.C. (sponsored by No Idea Records) for 11 years. I like to work out with friends, play video games, and hang out with my wife. I’m boring and old.

++ Let’s wrap it here! anything else you’d like to add?

Mario: You got me all thinking about Crush 22 again. Maybe I’ll listen to those recordings tonight.

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Listen
Crush 22 – These Feelings

A little white bunny outside our Travelodge window was the first sight of Saturday morning. Long day ahead. It was only 10 am. But we didn’t have any signs of getting tired. The excitement was still there. One by one to the shower, and then to our own little breakfast, consisting of diet coke and some cookies. By noon we met with the rest of the gang outside the hostel, on our usual spot, the big wooden picnic table, where also the smokers gathered.

We arrived just on time for The Hillfields. They put such a great show in the shed. Sadly there were not many people around to enjoy their elegant pop that takes the best of the Flying Nun stable. It was too early perhaps and most people were still suffering from the hangover. Or maybe they had terrible taste and went to see the other bands playing at the same time? I want to think it was the first option. For some reason I didn’t have much trouble during the festival with bands I wanted to see clashing in the schedule. Consider me lucky. Most friends did had to make decisions on the fly about where to go and who to see.  I had made a schedule, before traveling to the UK, of bands for Saturday and Sunday, so I never had this problem. Planning always pays off. Though, I would have had a big clash if Pale Sunday were to come to Indietracks as they were announced. They were playing at the same time as The Pooh Sticks. Tough one! But in the end the Brazilians didn’t come and well, Pooh Sticks it was. And that was such a treat, that show, I’m glad I didn’t have to make a decision in the end. The only other clash I would have had, was that between The Orchids and Stars in Coma. But I was going to see Stars in Coma in Berlin, in September, so the mighty Orchids it was.

Just after The Hillfields played I left the shed with them for a bit and went up to the merch tent. I bought their album and their EP for a good deal of 10 quid! And there was the great Mr. John Jervis. At last I get to see him. So of course, I asked what to do with my records that I had brought for selling. He asked me to bring them here and that we’ll figure it out. Again through the sandy and muddy patches all the way to the backstage room behind the shed. Got my box full of records and back to the merch tent. There wasn’t much space on any of the tables for my records. John told me to leave them next to the Odd Box stuff, while I was gone watching the Felt Tips, and when I came back, we’ll find a place for my stuff.

What can I say about The Felt Tips. First time I see them live and they were fabulous. I recorded on film most of their gig. And it was pure bliss, the great crooning vocals of Andrew, Miguel’s classy and luminous guitar playing, the striped-shirt Neal’s bouncy bass and Kevin banging the drums. And we were there, dancing in the front row, with Jennifer, Adria, Paulita and Kat. May I say that this November 15 we are releasing The Felt Tips album on our sister label Plastilina Records. I said it since the first time I heard it: “it’s the best album of the year. This is a defining album for these last wave of indiepop we’ve been going through. Brilliant really.

It was a good thing that most of the bands were not only playing their gigs at Indietracks but also staying for the whole weekend, enjoying it as fans even though most of them did the not so smart thing of camping. This was a very positive thing for the festival as there was always time to chat with the bands about the gig, their records, their fans, their dreams, and of course the gossip. This may be the most interesting topic of them all. Hear from bands about gigs and their organizers, the odd people they’ve met during their time as a band, and the silly anecdotes. Isn’t this one of the most beautiful things of indiepop? that bands, labels, gig organizers, clubs, and fans are almost at the same level, we all blend into one community? Everyone is a piece in the puzzle. Bands as fans, fans as bands, and everyone doing it to have fun! Doing it for the kids!

Next up was lunch. My options weren’t that many. The only place that served some sort of meat only had hot dogs (the bastard child of a good German wurst) and some very greasy hamburgers. I found this a bit annoying, as I love meat, but I don’t like greasy, unhealthy meat. There’s this believe around many popkids that meat is murder, and, whatever, they don’t have a clue of what they are talking about. Oh, dear Morrissey, the dumb things you’ve taught them. They think meat eaters, as most of them are vegetarians, are like pigs and we eat all sort of trashy stuff and we won’t have any problems eating a hamburger that sweats car oil. We’ve been demonized. This I do hope changes next year at Indietracks and we have some sort of decent place that serves nice chicken, beef, lamb, or fish. For the sake of all of us. I think the vegatarians had more options in general at Indietracks this time around. Quite different to reality though, when vegetarians have much more trouble finding a place to eat. No problem with that, that’s great actually, but don’t forget about the rest. Anyways, after a very short line, and for five pounds, I got a very nice curry at the stall. Rice, tofu and some red curry. It was quite tasty. This became my main meal through the festival. Eating it 4 times during the weekend!

Suddenly Paulita and Adria came by, and told me that Ivan and Eva from Linda Guilala, had just arrived. They were playing in 30 minutes and they needed urgently a keyboard. Where to find one? What to do? Can I save the day?

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Listen
The Felt Tips – Dear Morrissey

So here I am, in the promised land of Derbyshire. It’s almost 7:30 in the evening, and the noise coming from the stage welcomes me as I get down the steam train. There’s a small queue waiting to get in and I join it. Pete B, Rocker and Colm, go through the express lane, the band members queue, and I go through the slow not so special people queue. I had already paid in advance for my ticket, many months ago, so it was just matter of telling them my name. They don’t need an ID, which in these times it’s nice to know people believe in one’s honesty. As I’m leaving the counter with my Indietracks schedule/fanzine, they stop me. They say I have to pay for it, 2 pounds. I politely return it. I thought it was included with the festival ticket. I think it should be. All of this information was online, I had it printed. Sure this zine looked nicer, but for 2 pounds I can have a beer and my ugly printouts.

Anyways, now I’m walking by myself, with a big box of 7″s that I’m supposed to sell somewhere and someday during the festival. Beforehand Mr. Jervis had already sent spreadsheets with the schedules for when the bands will be able to sell their stuff, but not for when the labels were supposed to do so. I wasn’t sure when was I intended to sell them then, and especially because this year they had agreed that everyone who was selling records had to be behind the counter for at least 1 hour. I didn’t know when was my turn, and I wasn’t really looking forward to know that either. I was a bit annoyed carrying around the heavy box, holding fifty five 7″ records, with no certain direction, when I see Maria, now a volunteer for Indietracks. Great! Maria is here to save me! But she doesn’t have a clue.

I met Maria earlier this year, at London Popfest. She was one of the few Spanish speakers in the festival along with the guys from Aplasta tus Gafas de Pasta. It was nice to chat with her then, and then I stumbled upon her at Rough Trade, at another gig after Popfest and at the underground escalators. And she was always sweet. This time at Indietracks it was no exception. Even though she didn’t know anything about selling records or merchandise at  the festival, she went around asking trying to help. She asked the moronic Dan to see if he could help but of course she didn’t get any positive answers. “Let’s leave them backstage for now” she said. That was a good idea. So she took me to a small and cold room next to the shed, where guitars and drumsets were piling. Then there was even another room inside this one. A room within a room. Behind the big corroded door, there was nothing. Just a couple of empty shelves. I left my box there hoping they will be safe until the next day when Mr. Jervis arrives. As I was leaving the backstage room, Ronnie and Chris from The Orchids were walking it. It was nice to see them again after meeting in NYC Popfest just a couple of months before.

The evening was to continue in this same fashion, meeting old friends and new friends. Veronica Falls were playing their last songs when I approached the main stage to find Jennifer and Martin. There was Elisabeth too, making me faces. At that moment I get to meet my Spanish friends Cristóbal, Madidi, Javi and Alex. I know them online for years, since I was doing my Spanish language blog, probably in 2004. Cristóbal I know from soulseek, perhaps from 2002 or 2003. So many years, and now, for the first time I get to meet. They are great, and we make jokes and take photographs. Javi doesn’t believe me that I don’t like Veronica Falls. What can I do? I don’t get them. He says it’s been such a great gig. I had seen them three times now, and still not impressed. I can say they are one of the best looking bands around though, if that helps. Probably they’ll get big. I think they lack “romanticism”.

Also in the crowd is the great Mark Freeth, who has now joined the Spanish Armada from the Premier Inn. Nana and Andreas, fresh from their supermarket experience, also show up a bit late to the festival. We head to the bar, it’s time for beer. The distance from the main stage to the shed, where the bar is, shouldn’t take more than three minutes to walk. But it took us, no kidding, twenty five. Every four steps we were stopped by friends to say hello and talk for a bit. Isn’t that beautiful? On this trip to the bar the highlight was meeting Danielle and Stefan. Why haven’t I met them before I thought? They are just the kind of people that make the indiepop community worth it. I like them a lot.

Eventually we got to the bar, and to our despair, this was going to start our hate relationship with the warm beer they served. It all went to the point when we had to ask a glass with ice to cool it down. What’s the deal of drinking beer as if it was soup?

The night was dawning, and we kept on gossiping and drinking beer; I’m afraid I missed the next two bands while doing so. On another trip to the bar, over that sandy and muddy path, I met Kajsa, wearing her detective cloak, and invited her a beer. Then while talking about how Swedish people dress we notice that all of our friends are in that carriage in front of us, next to the shed. Let’s go! How did everyone ended up there? It was a bit cold outside perhaps, and most of us didn’t have coats or jackets. I didn’t bring any at all to the UK this time. It’s summer I thought. This is one of the nicest memories I have from the festival, the whole gang in the carriage, making silly videos and taking awkward photos. Emelie telling for the hundredth time the story about mouchak, Christin running away from the camera, meeting Tim for the first time, Jennifer having no beer, Anders speaking some sort of Swedish that I couldn’t pick up but the Swedes could, and Eli who still kept making faces to me.

When we got out of the carriage, the music was already over, and everyone was going to start heading to the discos or back to their hostels. Just outside the disco tent I met with Brian from The Understudies and he introduces me the rest of the band for the first time. I had already met Brian last March at a How Does it Feel dance party where he impressed me with his dancing skills, which still makes me wonder if the rest of the band can come close to his talents when it comes to dancing. The rest of the band seemed very nice, I joked with them and told them that it was a shame that are not playing this year. I’m not sure but later, when it felt as if they were avoiding to say hello again, I got the feeling the rest of the band weren’t that happy to have met me. Was it because I had too many beers and talked lots or maybe because it was too much for them to kiss the band’s only girl on the hand? Which I did, because it thought it was a nice detail. According to Wikipedia it is a gesture of extreme politeness. And I’m the epitome of politeness of course. Didn’t you know that?

As the clock approached one o’clock Jennifer got all of us, Travelodge guests, and said that it was time to go, that the last train was leaving. This was the first time that I was going to feel this recurrent void inside of me. I didn’t want to leave. I just want to stay for a while…

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Listen
The Baskervilles – Staying There for a While

Thanks so much to Jim Shepherd for this fabulous interview! Don’t think The Jasmine Minks need any introduction, do they? Though, many of you won’t know that they have a new EP out that you can and should order from Oatcake Records!

++ So let’s get into interview mode. So there are already a couple of great interviews online to the ‘Minks (Caught in the Carousel, Creation Records) , I’m going to try not to repeat any questions, and make you repeat your answers! So let’s go. First off, where does the name The Jasmine Minks comes from?

The name Jasmine Minks means a lot to me – the word mink or minker is a poor or ragged person in the north-east of Scotland where I come from. And, although it was never intended from the start, the word Jasmine is a street I used to live in Aberdeen, Jasmine Terrace.

++ The lineup. I’m wondering how did the band came together, how did you all meet? How did you all knew each other? Was this your first time in a band?

The first line up to record was with Martin Keena, who was a London-Irish fella. The rest of the original group, Adam, Tom and I were all from Aberdeen and were in a few bands before, mostly to do with the punk scene and then the post-punk scene. We did audition Harry Howard for bass but Martin was the one for us. Martin was also in a punk band, Premature Ejaculation (great name!) We did go on to use quite a lot of different musicians and have enjoyed the variety of musicians we have been lucky enough to have in the band over the years. There have been many other people too who have been hard working for the Minks over the years, including Mark Allan, Chris Narayan, Kevin Pearce and Nick Jones to name a few.

++ Most of your discography came under McGee’s label, but there was this one odd 7″ on Esurient Records. Was Alan McGee okay with it? How was your relationship with Kevin Pearce? How did this 7″ came about?

Cut Me Deep was the impetus for the live ep from Esurient. We had recorded the song for Creation and we went a bit over the top taking two weeks in the studio with the oine song, trying to make it a really big production with synths and drum machines and everything. Alan didn’t like it, so although we used an early, more ‘live band’ type recording for the Another Age album it still had the stigma of the time when we tried to make it a big production. So Kevin Pearce decided to start Esurient and to have an older live version of Cut Me Deep and 3 other songs on it too. The best things about the Esurient ep were mastering it (from a caassette) at Abbey Road studios and also the groovy gold and red picture cover. The recording is quite poor quality.

++ Thinking about the last question, I feel during the 80s most bands stuck to one label, whereas nowadays, bands jump from label to another label. Do you think there are any pros or cons to this?

Maybe groups are more promiscuous nowadays. It was nice to be able to stay with one label for a long time and develop a relationship with people and get to know then well enough that we could take the piss out of each other. I always wanted to stay with Creation but we ran out of fans really and people just stopped coming to see us. If we had moved to another country or maybe just even another record label I’m sure we could have built up a following again. So there may be times when it is an advantage to move to another labe .

++ Dan Treacy  when interviewed on a fanzine, back in the day, when asked about the early Creation bands, once said: “The Jasmine Minks are the only sort of serious band. They’re the only ones who’ll make it”. Sadly you didn’t get a true breakthrough, though you did deserve it. You had SONGS!! Why do you think it didn’t happen?

We were pretty amateurish really and that probably came through in our sound and in our image. Our songs were good and, with a bit more hard work, could have reached a bigger audience. But we were probably too eager to move on to our next lot of songs and didn’t like the amount of time it took to actually get a record released from writing it and rehearsing it to getting it into the shops. Quite often we were fed up of the songs by then and we wouldn’t play them live, not a great way to make fans!

++ How was the experience of being managed by Simon Down from the Pink Label? Any anecdotes you could share?

Simon did manage us briefly but we didn’t really have a good relationship. He wasn’t as sharp as Alan McGee by any stretch of the imagination and perhaps after McGee managing us we expected a lot more. He did well with Pink of course and I’m sure he came skinny-dipping with us once!

++ I’m curious about the name of a couple of songs. Who were Veronica, Johnny Eve and Marcella?

Veronica was a fictional old maid who had grown up being scared of the world and continued to hide away from it as much as possible rather than accept the ugliness (and perhaps the beauty too) around. Johnny Eye was one of Adam’s wonderful song titles and I truly believe that he is one of the most overlooked lyric writers of those times. There are only one or two lyric writers I would actually say compare to him and that is saying something!

Marcella is a very special song to me. Marcella was Bobby Sands’ pen name when he was in prison and the name he used to wrote poetry and other stuff to the outside world whilst there. I was fascinated by the human side of the troubles in Northern Ireland and he was a particularly interesting character who died for what he believed in.

++ You said that “Ghost Of A Young Man” is your favourite ‘Minks song, and indeed, it’s such a GREAT song. Can you tell me the story behind it?

Another Adam Sanderson lyric and what an amazing lyric it is too. I can only say I wrote the tune so it’s difficult for me assess the words. But they are wonderful nevertheless and tell the story of growing up and coming to terms with changes in life. I often sing this song and did so at a gig last year 25 years after it was written and it still affects me. This song was recorded for a demo for London Records and they had a wonderful organ with a leslie cabinet in the studio there at Denmark Street in London’d West End. McGee famously stole the tape and put it out on Creation, hee hee hee!

++ What about gigs? Did you play outside of the UK? Which were your favourite gigs you played? why?

Jasmine Minks played in Germany, France, Holland, Switzerland and Belgium. We’d have loved to have played the USA too – maybe one day we will! Gigs often were a different experience for the audience as they were for the group. I remember getting an amazing reaction in Greenock at Subterraneans but not really feeling we played any different than normal. Sometimes we did go a bit crazy and make up long jams for an encore but it depended on how we felt. I remember playing at Woods in Plymouth and getting in a few skirmishes with the audience, including me punching a member of the audience and Chris, our roadie, casually returning glass bottles to skinheads at the back of the room. The club owner thought we were great and expected us to be the next Jam!

++ How was your relationship with fanzines back then? What are your take on them? Were the ‘Minks showcased a lot on them? And do you believe blogs can capture the magic of the printed fanzine?

I read quite a few fanzines, both musical and political ones, and enjoyed people’s individual approaches to writing them. Some fanzines mixed writing on music with an almost philosophical approach. Just like blogs nowadays. They were way ahead of their time!

++ This year you released a new EP on your own label, right? The “Poppy White EP”, with songs recorded in 1992. Why did it take 18 years for them to get released? And can you tell me a bit about the songs included?

Creation knocked us back on the songs. I think Dick Green such said it wasn’t what he was looking for.(I think he went off us after Scratch The Surface album.) We paid for the recordings ourselves at a studio in West Ham in London. The songs were written around 91/92 and we had many more ready to go if we had the go-ahead for an album. It was very different for me as I had only written one of the four songs, having been used to writing all of the songs for years so I took on more of a production role working on arrangements and sounds much more than I had done for years. Tom and Foosky (a replacement for Tom on one tour when he he broke his leg and, eventually guitarist and singer) wrote three of the songs. They have strong melodies and some nice individual lyrics. But more than anything they remind me of Foosky and Mark (roadie for years) who both passed on recently. It is a good tribute to both of them. They both played big parts in the group!

++ Bob Stanley wrote once “Like far-left factions, groups that had much in common built up petty rivalries. The June Brides and the Jasmine Minks were the biggest names at Alan McGee’s Living Room club and couldn’t stand the sight of each other.” How much of this is true Jim? Were there any other rivalries going on?

I was definitely not interested in many of the bands around at the time. I really liked The Television Personalities and Primal Scream both bands with strong melodies. I had gone off the post-punk scratchy guitar sound heading more towards a rock/pop sound. I had nothing against any of the other guys personally. I had my own agenda and they did not figure in it. There were a few bands that I really did not like around the scene but The June Brides were okay in my books and I particularly liked Phil Wilson’s songs when he signed to Creation.

++ What happened after Soul Station? Why didn’t you continue releasing music during the nineties?

If we had the audience we would have I’m sure. No one was really interested as far as we could see and the rave scene was not the kind of thing that we could tap into. I did get into a lot of different kinds of music as a result of not being on the indie scene any more so it did open up my eyes to dance/ electronic music and classical music too. I carried on writing and playing occasionally and we never really recorded properly as The Jasmine Minks until 1999 when we did 3 tracks which eventually came out as a CD single called I Heard I Wish It Would Rain for Bus Stop Records in the USA.

++ What do you think of the new Creation movie?

I haven’t seen it. I did support the majority of what McGee did with Creation and it was a huge force in the 90’s so they deserve a movie! I wonder if there will be any Jasmine Minks mentions on it?

++ If the ‘Minks had started this decade, how do you think you would have sounded like?

I think we would have been an alt-folk group just like the one my niece, Hannah, is in (Withered Hand.) I love the mix of folk and pop and it allows for decent lyrics and a few sing-along tunes too. I would sign my own youthful group up to my new label Oatcake Records of Scotland  www.oatcakerecords.co.uk I’m sure!

++ There are reissues of some of the singles on Vollwert, and then the “best of” compilation on Cherry Red, but are there any plans to reissue the albums one day?

Werner in Berlin and Cherry Red have been brilliant at keeping some Jasmine Minks records available. I may release more myself if there is any demand for them. Some of the albums are better as complete albums and could do with being heard that way (1234567 All Good Preachers Go To Heaven, Another Age, Scratch The Surface, Pop Art Glory) even though I think less people actually listen to albums, preferring playlists a bit like the old cassette mixes we used to do – hee hee.

++ What is left to come from the ‘Minks? Any plans for the future?

I have hoped for a get-together with Adam as he and I had the best songs together and I don’t think either of us wrote as well separately – that would be interesting! We will play again in some form very soon I’m sure – there are a few things coming up which mean that, sooner or later, we will make an appearance or two. I’d like to release a new Jasmine Minks single on vinyl on Oatcake Records. I have loads and loads of songs and a few sound to me like the Minks could do them justice!

++ One last question, what makes an Aberdonian  different to the rest of the Scots? 😉

We can be a forthright bunch with little grace and a very down to earth attitude, maybe that sums up The Jasmine Minks! I have been working with a few Aberdonians, apb, on a new single for Oatcake called Jaguar and that will be out soon and there is a classic rock/pop single called The Fire all ready to go on Oatcake too, a song written by me and the Beat Hotel so there is a lot happening and, for me, these are very exciting times!

++ Thanks Jim! Anything else you’d like to add?

I would like to add to all your readers that I welcome anyone who wants to to get in touch with me if they want any more information about Jasmine Minks news or Oatcake Records of Scotland at info@oatcakerecords.co.uk

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Listen
The Jasmine Minks – Ghost of a Young Man