Day 579

The Fisherman and his Soul: our friend Sebastian Voss who once was in the wonderful Grindcore Poppies and now is one half of another amazing band, Nah…, has released a new CD under his solo project. The Münster based popkid has just put out “Nothing (Never) Ever Stays the Same”. This album is a follow up to the band’s previous release on Subjangle and Shiny Happy Records. This album is mostly a collection of remixes of the songs that appeared on said album.

Carolina Zac: the new release and new signing on Spain’s Kocliko Records is Argentina’s Carolina Zac. The album “Posible” will be released on October 22 on black vinyl. It is a 9 song album of carefully and beautifully crafted pop songs. I had never heard about her before and I am happily surprised. Limited to 100 copies.

Un Día Soleado: another new song by Argentina’s wunderkid Enzo. His new jingle jangly popsong is called “Skate 3” and it is such a great track. Poppy, catchy, and with great melodies!

Pash: who are Pash?! the one song we can hear, “Raincoat”, out of the 4 from their EP “Somersault” is a nice surprise! Never heard this band! They have a very limited CD, 20 copies only! I just spent so much on the new Optic Nerve releases…. and I need to wait before spending more money, but if you can afford it. This one seems like a must have!

Optic Sevens 4.0: finally we can pre-order the next set of 7″s by Optic Nerve. I just spent as I was saying more than a hundred dollars for the 12 singles that will be in this new series. I think it is totally worth it, I am not complaining as these are deluxe releases with posters and postcards of rare records. The Wild Swans, Josef K, Dolly Mixture, The Wake, The Monochrome Set, The Chefs, Suede Crocodiles, The Times, Black, Article 58, The Avocados and The Bluebells, are part of this new series!

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I was wondering how come there hasn’t been a Corn Dollies compilation yet. Their songs are probably now in control of Cherry Red and it is surprising to me that they haven’t released a CD with all of their songs as they did with The Waltones in the past. True. They also have The Raw Herbs and they haven’t been released yet on a retrospective compilation, and probably never be. But yeah, instead of many compilations and box sets with the same songs time and time again, wouldn’t a retrospective compilation be cool? I think so!

The Corn Dollies hailed from London and were active between 1987 and 1991. They were formed by Steve Musham on vocals and guitar, Tim Sales on guitar, Steve Ridder on bass, Jack Hoser on drums and Jono Podmore on violin. From the Wikipedia page they have we know they hailed from Dalston but met in King’s Cross. We know too that Steve Ridder was actually from California.

The band’s name was inspired on corn dollies or corn mothers which are a form of straw work.

Before Christianisation, in traditional pagan European culture it was believed that the spirit of the corn (in American English, “corn” would be “grain”) lived amongst the crop, and that the harvest made it effectively homeless. James Frazer devotes chapters in The Golden Bough to “Corn-Mother and Corn-Maiden in Northern Europe” (chs. 45–48) and adduces European folkloric examples collected in great abundance by the folklorist Wilhelm Mannhardt. Among the customs attached to the last sheaf of the harvest were hollow shapes fashioned from the last sheaf of wheat or other cereal crops. The corn spirit would then spend the winter in this home until the “corn dolly” was ploughed into the first furrow of the new season.

The band’s first record was “Forever Steven” on their own label called The Farm Label (FARM 001). This record had the songs “Forever Steven” and the B side had “About to Believe”. This is maybe their most known single also because Robert Forster from The Go-Betweens produced it. Steve Ridder is now the bassist replacing Knowler. The photography on this record is credited to Kate Stubbs. This record got single of the week on Sounds and Record Mirror.

Next came the “Be Small Again” single. It was released on 7″ and 12″ formats on Andy Wake’s label Medium Cool Records (MC008) in 1987. The single had “Be Small Again” on the A side and “In Bethpage” on the B side. On the 12″ the B side had two different songs on the B side, “Rubber Fish” and “The Big House”. The songs were recorded at Pyramid Arts Studio and mastered at The Exchange by Jonz (John Dent). The engineer was Andy Parker with David Emmanuel as his assistant. It is worth noting that on this record the bassist was Stuart Knowler. The cover is credited to Piers Wallace. This record was an indie hit reaching number 28 in the UK Independent Chart.

That same year the band re-released “Forever Steven”  Now it came out on Medium Cool on 12″ (MC009). The A side had  The 12″ adds two more songs to the B side. “Big Cane Call” and “Sweetheart Rose Special”. Now this re-release would reach number 16 of the Indie Chart.

The band also appears this year in the legendary compilation “Uncle Arthurs Pop Parlour”. On this cassette comp put together by the great Dave Driscoll the band contribued the song “Mary Hopkin Song”. I had to look online for who she was. Mary Hopkin (born 3 May 1950), credited on some recordings as Mary Visconti (from her marriage to Tony Visconti), is a Welsh singer songwriter best known for her 1968 UK number 1 single “Those Were the Days”. She was one of the first artists to be signed to the Beatles’ Apple label

1988. Time to release more singles. First is “Shake” on Medium Cool (MC015). Released again as a 7″ and a 12″. “Shake” is on the A side and “Climbing Stairs” on the B side. On the 12″ we add one song to the B side, “Gathered Up”. The songs were recorded at ICC Studios in Eastbourne. They were produced by Alun Lane with Jessica Corcoran and Mike Newbon as engineers. They were mixed at Greenhouse Studio in London.

Then comes “Map of the World”. This single was also on Medium Cool (MC017) and released on both formats. The A side has “Map of the World” and the B side has “People Gone”. On the 12″ the song “This is Mine” appears as the second song on the B side. The producer this time was Chris Allison.

In 1988 the band contributes the song “Mouthful of Brains” to a CD compilation called “The Fundamental Hymnal” that was released by Fundamental (GEEZ 1CD) in the US. The compilation “Edge of the Road” released by Medium Cool (MC010) in the UK and Fundamental (CAM001) in the US included the songs “Mouthful of Brains” and “What Do I Ever”.

Lastly in 1988 Midnight Music released a compilation titled “The Corn Dollies”. This one came out on CD and LP (CHIMEE 00.44).  This was a singles collection of sorts. It contained 14 songs and it is the closest we have to a full retrospective. The songs were “Map of the World”, “Moutful of Brains”, “Shake”, “Forever Steven”, “The Big House”, “What do I Ever”, “Gathered Up”, “Be Small Again”, “Big Cane Call”, “Sweetheart Rose Especial”, “About to Believe”, “Climbing Stairs”, “People Gone” and “This is Mine”. I am looking for a CD version of this release. Any help will be appreciated.

1989 continues to be an active year for the band. “Nothing of You” is the single they release this year. Again a 12″ on Medium Cool (MC020) and a 7″ and 12″ on Midnight Music (DING 52). The 12″ includes the songs “Nothing of You” on the A side and “Polly West”, “Wrecked” and “Be Small Again (Mix)” on the B side. The producer was Chris Allison for the A side and the band, Andy Parker and Alan Barclay for the B side. The design is credited to Peter Cooke.  I am not sure why the two different 12″ versions as they have the same songs and the art is the same. We know Medium Cool collapsed and they moved to Midnight Music… but why re-release the record?

A flexi disc that came with the Zine magazine that year included their song “Map of the World”. The other song in the flexi was “Down Here” by The Rain.

The song “Map of the World” and “This is Mine” got included in the Midnight Music LP compilation “Pop Up the Volume. This is a fine compilation with bands like McCarthy, Bradford, The Wedding Present and The Wolfhounds.

Another 1989 appearance for them was on the classic “Bananas!” compilation released by Rodney, Rodney! (RODNEY 1). This album that was put together against the planned introduction of identity cards for football supporters in the UK. The song the band contributed was “This is Mine”.

Lastly this year they release their debut album, “Wrecked”. It was released on CD, LP and cassette by Midnight Music (CHIME 00.59). The songs included were “In Your Hands”, “Submarine”, “Map of the World”, “Seven”, “Wrecked”, “Nothing of You”, “Jingo”, “Everything Box”, “Mary Hopkin Song” and “This is Mine”. The producers were Alan Barclay, Chris Allison and the band. In support of the album the band went on a national tour supporting Ian McCulloch.

It is also wroth nothing that this year the band toured Europe. They built a good fanbase in Spain.

1990. A new single, “Joyrider!”. This one gets released by Midnight Music (DONG65). It comes as a 12″ vinyl and also as a CD single. Both come with four songs, “Joyrider!” and “Slow Death” are on the A side and “Happy” and “Kool-Aid Mix” on the B side. They were recorded and mixed at the Strongroom in London.

This year they appear on another legendary compilation, “Alvin Lives (in Leeds)” that came out on Midnight Music (CLANG 4). This comp came out in vinyl, CD and cassette. This release as many of you know was released in aid of the Anti-Poll Tax Campaign. The song the band covered was Chic’s “Le Freak”.

Then another cover, “I Don’t Live Today”, appears on “If 6 was 9 – A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix” released by Imaginary Records (ILLUSION 008) in the UK as an LP and CD, by Communion Label (COMM 18) in the US on LP, CD and cassette and on Paradoxx Music from Brazil (!) as a CD comp titled “Tributo a Hendrix” (OXX 1062-1). This same song would be included in a triple CD compilation called “The Many Faces of Jimi Hendrix (A Journey Through the Inner World of Jimmi Hendrix)” that Music Brokers released in 2017.

Midnight Music also released that year a cassette sampler titled “The Independent Clarion 1” where they included the songs “Seven” and “Nothing of You”.

There is a 1991 release too that was a promo white label. All songs are untitled. It had 8 songs and it seems like an album titled “Past Caring”. Midnight Music had even given it a catalog number, CHIME 01.19. What songs were these? Why wasn’t this ever released? Anyone has any info about this record?

Then we have to jump to 1997 for them to appear on Cherry Red compilation “Nocturnal – The Best of Midnight Music” (CDMRED 13). The song that they have on this one is “Nothing of You”. Then it would become repetitive, Cherry Red using the Corn Dollies catalog to include them on their many boxsets. In 2013 they include “Be Small Again” on “Scared to Get Happy (A Story of Indie-Pop 1980-1989)” (CRCDBOX10) boxset, then “Forever Steven” on “C87” boxset (CRCDBOX26) in 2016, and lastly on 2017’s “C88” (CRCDBOX36) they had “Shake”.

Then I have a look at other bands the members had been on. Stephen Colin Musham, who sometimes went by the name Steve Mushroom, was in Lockjaw, Repetition, Rhythm of Space and The Escalators. Tim Sales was also in The Escalators in the early 80s. Jonathan Scott Podmore was in many bands including Cyclopean, Gain Reduction, Leeloo Kobayashi, Metamono, Rhythm of Space and The Jonathan S. Podmore Method.

The band also did a promo video. There’s one for “Joy Rider“. Then there is a video for “Shake” and “Map of the World“. On this last video uploaded by a Spanish fan it says that the band played in Madrid and Valencia and their music was on heavy rotation on the radio programme “La Conjura de las Danzas”.

I look for more info online and I was not surprised to see Darrin had written about them in his excellent Jangle Pop Hub blog. Here I find that the band had played at Wolverhampton Poly in 1989 from the comments. But most importantly it is enjoying the memory of Darrin about this band!

I also find that Steve Ridder ended up returning to the US and this sort of made the band reach a natural conclusion and called it a day. Why did he have to return?! Why not continue? There is an interesting story about Steve Ridder who was involved in the sale of a Hindu goddess Lakshmi doll that was featured on the album cover of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club” of The Beatles. The seller was Bonhams. And this is the story:

In another entertainment collecting field, music, a key name to bring in the bidders is of course The Beatles. At Bonhams, the Hindu goddess doll from the album cover for Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) was on offer estimated at £4000-6000.

The classic cover was designed by Jann Haworth and her then-husband, pop art great Peter Blake, and the doll is seen in position under the ‘T’ of Beatles. The catalogue states: “It’s possible it was a suggestion by George Harrison, although Peter Blake is quoted as saying that George only gave him a list of Indian gurus and four were indeed included in the cut-outs gathered behind The Beatles.”

Bonhams says the vendor’s best friend, Steve Ridder, a Californian bass guitarist, had moved to the UK and joined a band called The Corn Dollies in the late 1980s. Ridder later met Haworth’s daughter who gave him the doll. After returning to the US, Baker gave the doll to the vendor’s son as a wedding gift. Some years later, after noticing the condition of the doll had deteriorated somewhat, the vendor and his son agreed to part with it.

The doll sold for £24,000 (£30,000 including buyer’s premium) to an international private buyer bidding online.

And that’s all I was able to find. Quite a lot. But yeah, I wonder what happened to them? Did they do any reunions as many of their peers? Who else remembers them?

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Listen
The Corn Dollies – Forever Steven

I just heard the terrible news that Pat Fish has passed away this past Tuesday. His longtime friend Max Eider posted this message on Facebook:

Very sad to announce that my old friend Pat Fish died suddenly but peacefully on Tuesday evening. Pat rocked my world in every way and his death leaves a big hole in my life and in my memory, much of which was only stored in his outsized brain. Goodbye mate and thanks for everything. I’m going to miss you. Max x

It is hard to believe another indiepop legend leaves us. One that was even bigger than indiepop as you would see at the band’s gigs, social media, and mailing list. People that liked The Jazz Butcher were many. Many, many.

I don’t know if I told this story, but when I was working at the AP I had a colleague that was a big fan. He wasn’t a music fan like me. He didn’t even know what indiepop was. But growing up in the US he had heard and enjoyed The Jazz Butcher on college radio. So yeah, he was a fan. We even went to see Pat Fish play in Brooklyn once. That is the only time I actually saw him live, in a small bar/restaurant in Williamsburg. We talked a little with Pat, I think I have a photo of me and him somewhere.

But yeah, these connections, that possibility to make new friends who love music outside my indiepop peers… I think this was one of the few times it has happened! And it was thanks to The Jazz Butcher. That’s something special to me.

For me it is always strange when I meet a music hero here in NYC. I always feel I have less time to talk to them or even hang out. When I visit the UK and I am at gigs or festivals, the band members are part of the crowd and they go out to smoke in the street and so on. They seem more approachable. Whereas here in the US there is that back room for the bands and so they go in there and they just disappear! I guess I was lucky that the time Pat Fish he played in such a small place that everyone was approaching him!

I can’t remember what we talked about. He was promoting the last Jazz Butcher album “Last of Gentleman Adventurers” and I can’t recall if I bought the record that night or I had already had it. I have it signed though. My memory is blurry about that night. It was 2013 I think. Long time!

I have at home many of the records of The Jazz Butcher, original ones and reissues. They are fantastic. There are plenty of songs that have been important to me. I wrote a post ages ago when I shared the song “Girlfriend“, a true favourite of mine, one of the best pop songs if you ask me. Ever.

I am not great at writing these pieces. I know he will be missed. It is hard to believe. A few weeks ago he was playing at Preston Popfest. I wish I could have attended. The lineup was something any popkid would dream for. And sadly it was also the last Jazz Butcher gig. I know some of my Spanish friends traveled there. I wonder how it went. How did they like it. I was just very jealous. It’s been a long time since I’ve traveled in this world that feels upside down.

And it seems the band was to play Bristol on October 7th. This is heartbreaking.

This is just a small post, from a fan from far away Peru that was lucky to live in the US and work here and find the chance to see him live. Just the once. I traveled to the UK many times to see pop bands but who knows why but they weren’t ever booked at the many festivals I went. One of the first vinyl records I bought was by The Jazz Butcher, it was the “Roadrunner” 12″. Maybe not their finest, but a damn good record. Then I started getting their many records. I don’t have them all of course. There are so many.

Lately Fire Records have been putting out some fine boxsets with the band’s output. There is one coming out soon called “Dr Cholmondley Repents: A-sides, B-sides and Seasides“. Great title, With the classic humour of the band. This will be another must have. I honestly hope they continue putting out this material out. It is just fantastic to have. And now it will help remember the genius, the talent, the quality, the humour, the wittyness, the cleverness, of one of the best indie lyricist that came from the UK, the mighty Pat Fish.

Rest in peace legend. We’ll miss you The Jazz Butcher.

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Listen
The Jazz Butcher – Southern Mark Smith (Big Return)

Day 574

Scarlet Drops: Harriet Records, the legendary label is making a comeback. Their first release is a CD retrospective compilation of Ottawa’s Scarlet Drops! There are 24 songs in this record from singles, cassette releases and other unreleased tracks. Seems like a record no one should miss! Also I hope to get an interview with the band as I would like to know more about them!

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: two new songs by Glenn Donaldson’s project. The San Francisco based project keeps recording and recording new tracks that are perfect janglepop! The two latest ones are “I Only Ever Wanted to see You Fall” and a cover of Mazzy Star’s “Common Burn”.

EggS: a new 7″ by EggS will be released on Octobe 29 by Prefect Records from London! The 7″ EP titled “Greatest Hits” will include 3 tracks and so far we can preview one of them, “I Fell in Love”, which is really good!! I feel like I should a copy myself. Are the other 2 songs as good?

Semihelix: just a few days ago I was recommending a digital single by this Austin band. Today I am recommending their brand new album “Recoil” that is out now thanks to Mariel Recording Company on CD and vinyl LP. The album has 10 songs of super psych jangle pop!

Makthaverskan: and we end this with the superb news that the Gothenburg band is releasing a new album! It is going to be called “För Allting” and it is coming out on CD and vinyl on November 12! Great! Right now we can only preview one of the songs, “This Time” out of 12 that will be included in the record. Looking forward to this one for sure!

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Another band I tried to interview back in 2011 was Bunny Nightlight.

I was in touch with Marie Kare, vocalist and organ player in the band. The other member was Ben Barkley who played everything else. As far as I know they weren’t in any other bands.

They only released one record. A CDR on Shelflife Records back in 2003. It was an EP titled “Hail”. This EP was actually part of a CD-R series on Shelflife Records and this was the eight release in this series, hencee the catalog number CD-R Series #008. Now I am thinking it may be a good idea to research now many of the bands in these series.

This release was very limited, just 100 hand-numbered copies. It included four songs, “Mmm Hmm”, “Boo Hoo”, “So Bored” and “Stalking Song”. Their music was wonderful sweet bedroom-pop. Hard to come by to such pop perfection these days!

On this record Cynthia Ford sang backing vocals.

A few things I learned while researching for the interview:
– Ben had recorded a cassette full of songs for Marie to sing. That’s how the band started
– Marie hails from Borger, Texas. Where is that? It looks like in the middle of nowhere!
– Bunny Nightlife was born and was based in San Francisco, California
– Marie runs a cool blog called Marie the Bee. A lot about video gaming here!
– Their computer died and all of their Bunny Nightlife recordings, even unreleased tracks were lost

On the web there are a few mentions to the band, all of them raving their music. Erasing Clouds, an influential blog in the 2000s, recommended their EP. Indiepop.it, another legendary site, reviewed all CDR series on Shelflife. Here it mentions that the band hailed from Sacramento. Now I am confused! Also it mentions that the name of the band is taken from a Looney Tunes product, a lamp!

And lastly I find a Soudncloud that Marie Kare setup 6 months ago. This is a good find I think. After losing touch with them it is lovely to see that they still remember their music! They have uploaded a song not included in their EP. It is a cover of Frank & Nancy Sinatra’s duet “Something Stupid“.

And lastly, there is a song called “Song 3” that is on an EP called “We Love You, Jerry” that was put together in 2018 on Bandcamp. On this compilation EP that included The Rosebuds, Dusty Miller, Sad Numbers, Soul Brothers, and Rocketship. Bunny Nightlight appears with the aforementioned song. It seems it was only a digital release.

And that’s it. I am going back to many bands I tried to interview and for a reason or another I didn’t get answers back. I am just trying to write about them as I really liked them in the first place and deserved attention. An interview would have been better, more details, but this is not bad, is it?

Who remembers Bunny Nightlight?

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Listen
Bunny Nightlight – Mmm Hmm

Day 572

Rachel Love: I just preordered the album “Picture in Mind” by the ex-Dolly Mixture! I am so looking forward to this CD! Right now you can preview two of the songs that will be included in it, “Primrose Hill” and “The Long Way Round”. Both are truly something. I can’t wait to listen to the remaining 8. Very excited. Don’t miss this one out I’d say!

David Christian: the Comet Gain leader is back with an album worth of songs titled “Lullabies for Lives You Never Had”. This release is only digital but it is really good. This is the third volume of recordings done at home and other rare sounds. Definitely worth a listen for the fans and not fans (can that be possible?) of Comet Gain.

Les Yeux Mi-Clos: I wonder where Melotron Recordings from Greece found about this band! I have never heard them and they do sound fantastic. Jangly, chiming guitars. From what I understand it is the project of Correntin Cornieres. And here there is a limited CD of 6 songs that is being released on October 1st.

Humdrum: “Wave Goodbye” is the first song from the latest project of Loren Vanderbilt who used to be in the fantastic Star Tropics. This song is perfect janglepop. The guitars jingle jangle and the melodies work in a dreamy way. It is classic indiepop, well-crafted, and I really hope more songs appear on his Bandcamp soon!

Stomp Talk Modstone: the Japanese shoegazers have a new release on Bandcamp, a four song EP titled “Melissa/Keep on Mind”. As you might guess there are those two songs that give title to the EP plus an instrumental and a version of their song “Only Illusion”. Fuzzy and warm. Good stuff.

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I was in touch with Noel Attride of the fantastic Beyond the Blue. It was a fantastic opportunity and I asked to do an interview. I sent questions, and as it happens more often than not, I never received answers. So I can’t really tell the whole story of the band as I would have wanted. But I feel not having a write-up about this obscure but amazing band goes against the blog ideals.

I may be doing this a bit more often. There are many bands I’ve tried to interview but never got their answers. As this blog is a good resource for the history of indiepop, I feel at least a write-up of what I know, could be helpful.

From what I understand the band recorded only 6 songs. Only one of these songs, “Return of the Prodigals”, ended up being released. This song would end up on the compilation “Beyond the Fence Begins the Sky”, a vinyl comp released in 1987 by the Plastic Head Records Limited (PLAS LP 008). This label based in Oxon is still going to the surprise of many as a proper record store. On the record thee band appears as the 3rd song on the A side.

I have talked about this compilation in the past. Bands like The Jeremiahs or Home and Abroad appear on it. Also the Enamel Animals who would later be The Chalk Giants.

Beyond the Blue was formed by Noel Attride on guitar, Brendan O’Sullivan on vocals and guitar, James Field on bass and Nick Warren on drums.

The 6 songs the band recorded are on Soundcloud. They are “Time to Smile”, “Acid Rain”, “Beyond the Blue”, “Never Never Girl”, “Return of the Prodigals” and “Time in my Heart”.

Some info appear on the songs. We learn that the band was formed from two disbanded groups (which groups? it doesn’t say).

As you’ll notice the songs are quite something. They are amazing. Proper jangle pop. How come they didn’t release a record is a mystery to me.

I keep looking for any other details. I see a comment on a Firestation Records blog post by Nick Warren. He mentions that he was in a band called Sideways Laughing in 1985. In this band a member of Beyond the Blue was involved, Brendan O’Sullivan. His brother Kieran was also on Sideways Laughing. Nick and Brendan would start Beyond the Blue. He mentions that Brendan was in a band called The Tenderhooks. Would love to listen both of these bands, Sideways Laughing and The Tenderhooks.

Noel also comments on the post. He adds some more info. He says that he was more involved in the later stages of the band. He says that Nick, James and himself, before being in Sideways Laughing had been in a band called Breaking the Ice. Oh! Another band that would be great to listen to. He also mentions that Beyond the Blue played a few gigs in Reading and one in London, at the Hippodrome.

And that’s all the info I could find on the web. Would be fantastic to find out more. Maybe I can get in touch with the other band members and get an interview done. Would be great! Who remembers them?

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Listen
Beyond the Blue – Time to Smile

Day 569. A week since the release of our latest 7″ by Stars on Fire. Today is Bandcamp Friday too, if you happen to be around that site, please check it out here!

The Photocopies: who knows anything about this Michigan project? From what I understand they used to be called Aniseed Twist, but I had never heard of them either. They have some cool songs on their Bandcamp, all digital singles, clearly influenced by classic 80s and early 90s indiepop. Fun.

Moonlove: a really nice discovery, this Kent, Ohio, band from the 80s. Their sound is really good and you wonder how has this been in obscurity, they should be more known. The label Concentric Cirlces is releasing their recorded output as a 12″ LP on November 15. Pre-orders are up now for this record that includes 10 songs and a 12 page booklet. Would be fantastic to interview them.

Crystal Meadows: two songs from Greenfield, Massachusetts. project Crystal Meadows. That’s all I have been able to find about them. It has the feeling to be a solo project, but I cant say. The two lovely jingle jangly songs are “We Can’t Get Away From Here” and “Sophia”. Check them out!

The Lil’ Hospital: I always loved Kevin Alvir’s The Lil’ Hospital. The band used to make this perfect mix of lo-finess, quirkiness and tweeness. This was pop made with punk attitude. So it is great to see “I Wanna Be Well” on Bandcamp. These 11 recordings date from 2003 and they are essential to understand those early 2000s, when CDRs, Soulseek, mailing lists, and more were part of our lives.

Midsommar: and we end this week with a dreampop band and their latest digital single. Yup, hailing from Warsaw, Poland, Midsommar has just released the song “Summer’s Over” that will be part of their upcoming EP “The Dream We Had”. Nice.

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I went on to for a band called The Juniper Chute. I wanted to write some songs with a bit more balls to them so for the first time I wrote them all on an electric guitar. I then asked Hugh Whitaker, Eddie and a friend called Matty to form a band an we did a handful of gigs. The sad thing is that it was only intended as an experiment. I was sick of being in a band. I’d spent 2 years of my life trying to get the Penny Candles signed and got nowhere. Neil O’Brien offered us a gig at one of their venues. It was only our second show. In the next few months, after that show, I got rung up by every major record label in the country chasing me up. I was so disillusioned that I never returned the calls. The band members all had other commitments so it was never intended to be a permanent thing, so they drifted off and that was that.

Many years ago I interviewed Nick Langley about the fantastic band The Penny Candles. When I asked him what happened with him music-wise after the demise of The Penny Candles he told me that he was in the Juniper Chute.

A few weeks ago I reached Nick trying to see if he would be interested in doing an interview about The Juniper Chute. I emailed him but my email bounced. It seems the email I had for him doesn’t work anymore.

I don’t have any other contact information for him. I honestly thing The Penny Candles are one of my favourite bands that still doesn’t have a proper retrospective album. I wanted to do it, but I don’t think Nick was much interested. Maybe it can happen with another label. I don’t know. At that time I was in touch with him I hadn’t listened to The Juniper Chute. Now thanks to Chris Warkup’s Soundcloud page I discovered many songs by them. And I fell in love with yet another Hull band!

Thanks to this page, we know that the song “Me and Mrs Jones” appeared on a compilation tape called “Now That’s What We Call Hull” that came out in 1992. The band appears on the A side, it is the 4th song between two great tracks, one by Promise and another by Fog, both bands featured in the blog not too long ago.

I found another song by them on Youtube. It is called “God Knows” and from what the uploader says, it was a signature tune by the band. The sound sadly is not that great.

Looking for more info, as it is very rare to be honest, I find that the band played the Tower Ballroom, in Hull, on February 4, 1992. That day the bands on the lineup were Joyce Victoria, Fog, The Juniper Chute and Intricate White.

Sadly this is all I could find online for the band. Would be great to know more about them, how come they never released any records, and also, most importantly, find out how many more songs were recorded.

Anyone from Hull remembers them?

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Listen
The Juniper Chute – Mr & Mrs Jones

Day 567

Remi Parson: a new single has arrived! Our friend Rémi who used to be in the most amazing The Sunny Street has released “Les Sentiments”, a beautiful pop song that will be included in his forthcoming album “Pour un Empire”, his third album. This album is to be released by Isolaa Records on November 2021. And it feels, my sentiment is, that is a record any pop lover shouldn’t miss. This single works as a proof of that!

The Bernhardts: I wasn’t familiar with the label Smiling C from California. It seems they’ve been doing reissues in vinyl of classic bands. Not all indiepop of course. Maybe that’s why. But The Bernhards four song EP “Moonglow” is one I wasn’t going to miss. This is not out yet, it is coming out on November 20, and I have already pre-ordered. A few copies are remaining! The Manchester trio formed by Simon Milner, Steve Hopkins and Neil Fitzpatrick made some wonderful music in the early 80s and these four songs are a testament of it. Would be great to get in touch with them and interview them, right?

Everyday Sensations: My Secret Garden Recordings is doing a great job reissuing and doing retrospective releases of their artists from back in the mid 200s. The latest to get this treatment on CD is Everyday Sensations, the band of Markus Bergström Björn. On this new release titled “Forget Those Teardrops” we find 4 songs which are wonderful, and there’s even a video been made for “Call it What You Want“. The release is limited to 100 copies, so don’t miss it!

Flty Brger Grl: out now is the album “Love you Forever” by this Oslo band! It is out on vinyl and cassette and it is a nice surprise for me. They have been going for some years now, but it is the first time I’m listening to their sugary lo-fi pop! It is indeed very sweet, but most importantly, it is good!

Tiles: and today’s last recommendation comes from Adelaide, Australia. It is a new digital single by this dreamy duo and they have titled it “Sleep In”. This is a lovely slice of indiepop. Chiming guitars and a mellow melody that works perfectly. Australia never disappoints.

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Continuing with Soundcloud finds, I discovered The Carrellines and their wonderful song “Bridesmaids Never Brides”. This song was the A side of a 7″ that had “Credence” as its B-side.

The band formed by Aidan Breslin (guitar, keyboards), Billy Doherty (drums), Damien Duffy (bass, keyboards) and Paul McLoone (vocal, guitar), released this single in 1990. The band hailed from Derry, Northern Ireland and were able to put this single thanks to wining the Carling/Hotpress Band of 1990. I suppose they got money thanks to that and were able to self-release this record.

The sleeve, blue and yellow, and a black and white drawing of a man. Is it one of the band members? This illustration was made by Damien Duffy.

The back of the sleeve gives us a bit more details. The songs were recorded by David Slevin and Niall O’Sullivan at Landsdowne Studios in Dublin on July 21 and 22nd of 1990. Kendal Mooney is credited for additional vocals on “Credence”.

The band actually started in 1986 and their first live gig happened in June 1987. In November 1987 the band performed at the Irish Rock Week at London’s legendary venue The Mean Fiddler. I know the band caught the attention of Dave Fanning and they recorded a session for him! Oh! They must appeared on the Dave Fanning blog!

Checking the blog I find a post about them in that great blog. Dating from 2013, it mentions that the band recorded at 5 track session. But it doesn’t seem that the session is available. It says it is lost!

Then I notice something. I’ve seen Paul McLoone play! Yeah, he fronts The Undertones now. He has been filling Fergal Sharkey’s shoes for years, since 1999! Wow. And also Bill Doherty was part of The Undertones. Small world indeed.

I keep finding good info. The Carellines played Cork Rock weekend and appeared on TV, on RTE’s “Check It Out”. The band recorded a demo tape of 8 songs at Matrix Studios in Belfast which helped them get more radio airplay on RTE and BBC.

The band played at Belfast’s The Limelight and later at The Belfast Arts Festival in November 1988. This performance was actually broadcasted live on BBC radio.

On January 1989 the band played many showcase gigs. After returning to Derry the band recorded a three track demo at Beethoven St. Studios with Kevin Armstrong and Andrew Paresi. Another TV appearance would happen that year, at “Jo Maxi” on RTE TV. There they performed their superb “Bridesmaids Never Brides”.

The Irishrock.org website gives even more details. Here it says thee band recorded not one but two Dave Fanning Sessions. Again, we don’t know which tracks! That’s not great.

Sadly the Dave Fanning Sessions nor their TV appearances seem to be online. That’s a shame.

That’s all I’ve been able to find. I hope to get a record for myself, would be great to have their 7″ in my collection! Who remembers them?

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Listen
The Carrellines – Bridesmaids never Brides

Day 565

Subsonic Eye: we are fans of the Singaporean band Subsonic Eye. I interviewed them not that long ago, this year, actually. So you know their music is good. And since January’s album we haven’t heard from them. Well, don’t despair. Here is a new 7″ with two songs, “Dijangka” and “Matahari”. And it is really good!

Shoestrings: another band I interviewed, but this time many years ago, is releasing a record! “Expectations” is the new work from Mario and Rose Suau since… like forever! This album is coming out on LP and CD on November 4. This was quite a surprise when it was announced like a week ago. At least for me! “Gone” is the only song we can preview and it is really amazing. This one I need for sure. A record not to miss. Ed Shelflife, will you save me a copy?

Violentene: the latest from the Ottawa based duo is “September Falls”. This is the second single from the band’s forthcoming “Otherworld” EP that should be released this year I think. The Canadian band sounds at its best in this song. It is a fine pop song, with classic melodies.

Lunarette: the New Yorkers are back too with a new song. The ex-Gingerlys have just added the track “Low Sky” to their Bandcamp and I am enjoying it! Jackie’s vocals sound quite special on this one. The song has a nice feeling, a bit like The Sundays perhaps? It is lovely. I hope they release something properly soon!

English Summer: Clare, Australia, project English Summer is back sounding very much like Rumblefish and The Bodines! Wow. I like this! The latest song they have put out is “Tall Stories” and it sounds like a classic, lost, indiepop song from 1987. Wow!

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As you know I am going through old drafts of the blog, checking bands that I hoped to write about years ago and I didn’t.

Today I opened the draft link for Spit the Pips. And what did I find? Just a link for a Myspace. Oh dear. That’s all! How come I didn’t write about them then. Now that Myspace link doesn’t work. And I am quite surprised that I didn’t even do any more research!

I don’t know much about the band. I don’t own any of their records. So this will be my first time exploring their music. I vaguely remember their music, being fun catchy pop. Now that I listen to them again, especially their song “Love Town”, I understand why I wanted to recommend them! What a pop song that is!

Their records came out on the band’s own Pipsqueak Records. The first release was the “Up a Gum Tree” 12″ released in 1990 (PSQK 01). This mini-album is the one that includes the wonderful “Love Town”. That is the opening track on the A side. The other two songs on this side are “Flat Top for President” and “Rich in Years”. The B side has “Charmed Life”, “Birds, Bees & Housekeys” and “Stairway to Devon”.

In 1990 the band also appeared on a compilation tape called “Aliens Too!” released by SMAC-Media (SMACC 1). On this tape they have a duo with Billy Oblivion “Gun (Stairway to Devon)”. They also appear on “Aliens Too 2 (Black Woolly Tights & Dr. Martens)”. On this tape released by SMAC-Media (SMACC 4) too, the band contributed the songs “What’s Yours is Mine” and “Drop in the Ocean”. It is worth mentioning that SMAC is the Stockton Music & Arts Collective.

In 1991 the band releases “Never Crib a Boggy EP” 7″. This record has a strange cover. I wonder if the two guys on the front are the band members. They have some facial hair with masking tape. On this record we find five songs, “Bring me the Head of John the Bastard”, “Still Goes On” and “Learn the Lingo” on the A side and “Gravy Tree” and “Stay” on the B side. My favourite I think on this record is “Learn the Lingo”. Great song!

Something cool about this record is that there are etchings on each side. The A side says “Sent to Coventry” while the B side says “Toothpaste for dogs”.

In 1992 the band releases their sole album, “Kefuffle”. This record came out on Pipsqueak Records (PSQK 3) on vinyl. 16 songs appear here, “Infectious”, “Sanity Shelf”, “Needle & Fred”, “(Christmas Sisters) Wedded-Blisters”, “Thieves”, “The Linthorpe Rd. Man”, “Backseat to History”, “McLure!”, “Flatmate!”, “Cosmic It’s a Knock Out”, “Clifftastic”, “Hoover McGroover”, “Bloody Big Knife”, “…..Bit…..”, “Bogey Man” and “Kerfuffle”. On this record we see that the all songs were performed, written and recorded by Michael Baines.

In 1992 the band appears on yet another compilation, “Live Lust”. The tracks on this tape are not live. There is no label for the release. But we do know that Spit the Pips contributed the song “Infectious”.

The last time we hear from them is on the CD compilation “Exposed No. IV” that came with the Exposed Magazine in 1993. On this record the band appears with the song “Back Seat to History”.

I now search for Michael Baines. We see he has been in many bands including Emergency Stairs, Retardot, Snotnosed, The Prestidigitators,  Burnt Dennis & the Injunctions, Werbeniuk and Woolcraft. He used to work at Studio 64 in Middlesbrough.

I look back at the Myspace link. Some songs appear, of course you can’t play them, but we see three songs I don’t know about, “Mouth (Ring) Piece”, “Quentin Tarantino is Shit” and “Shrapnel (The Axe Men Cometh)”. This three songs seem to have appeared on a release called “Show-Biz-Tool-Shed”. Let’s see if we can find any info about it.

And yes! That release exists even though it is not on Discogs. It was a CD album from 1994! It was released by Pipsqueak Records (PSQK 04). I don’t know the order of the songs but these are the songs included: “Flattop for President”, “Headsashedsa”, “Shrapnel (the Axemen Cometh)”, “Mouth (Piece) Ring”,  “Ice Block Drip”, “Deadwood”, “Quentin Tarantino is Shit”, “Kiddy Krime”, “Return of the Shitkicker Six”, “Show-Biz-Tool-Shed”, “Your Days are Numbered”, “Shakin’ All Over”, “Hungover on Life” and “Isle of Dogs”.

I find some reviews of Michael’s later bands. I find a Soundcloud he set up but only uploaded the song “Infectious”.

And that’s all I could gather about Spit the Pips. Who remembers them?

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Listen
Spit the Pips – Love Town

Day 562. Happy release date for us!! Stars on Fire 7″ is out today!!! Exciting times! Order your copy at www.cloudberryrecords.com. Don’t miss it. Also it is here on Bandcamp!

Fort Revere: 6 demos from Providence, Rhode Island. There’s just one person behind this nice jingle jangly band and he is Jack Downey. These songs date from the summer of last year and he says they were influenced by Seapony, The Drums, The Shop Assistants and JAMC. Nice!

Jaggy Nettles: the second album by Jaggy Nettles is out now on CD. It is called “Troof Be Told”. For those who don’t know this nice project of Andrew from The Felt Tips, here he sings about classic children stories for his two boys Rory and Archie. This is lovely!

Miseryslims: now a fast-paced dreampop/shoegaze band from Manitoba, Canada. The band formed by Brady on vocals and rhythm guitar, Randy on lead guitar and bass and Simon on drums, released last month a four song EP titled “Hello”. All for songs shine. Hard to pick a favourite. Maybe “Big on U”?

Margot: the London band has a classic sound that I really like. Their latest single is “Watercolour” and it is quite perfect. Nicely arranged, elegant. From what I understand the band is working on an album that will be called “Margotzeko” that is to come out on February 7th. So there’s still some wait, but if they treat us to songs like these now and then, we can be happy!

Beach Towels: and to end this week here is another Canadian band I just discovered. Beach Towels hail from Edmonton, Alberta, and have a bunch of recordings on their Bandcamp. Their latest seems to be “Drip Dry” but that one is not available to listen. On the other hand “Washed Away” is. This is a nice psychedelic track with pop at heart.

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Right, so I wrote about The Carrol Singers, the band Gary Lincoln was on. I mentioned on that post that I wanted to write about the following band, the band that came after, The Saving Graces. So let’s do that today!

On his Soundcloud he has also put together a set of songs by The Saving Graces. This set consists of four songs, “Acceptable”, “Garston”, “Loosen Up” and “The Things You Said”. As I mentioned in my previous post, it seems that “Loosen Up” was actually a song by The Carrol Singers.

The band was around also for just one year, between 1989 and 1990. We also get some band members names, but no last names: Paul, Ulli, Viki, Mark and Gary Lincoln of course.

There seems to have been a band of the same name in the 2000s. That annoys me because Discogs has listed both band’s releases together. We know that The Saving Graces we care about appeared on a compilation called “Breeze 4” in Germany. This was released by Alphyen Viwit (004) in 1994. The band contributed the songs “Acceptable”, “Garston”, “The Things You Said” and “Loosen Up”. Some time later, there was sort of a version of this release called “Extract of Breeze 4” had thee songs “Loosen Up” and “Acceptable”. There was a CDR version of this “Extract of Breeze 4” probably

I will mention again that previous to the bands I have mentioned so far, Gary was in The Fact, a rockier post-punk band.

Sadly that’s all the information I can provide you! The songs are great. I don’t know where in the UK the band hailed from. But would be fantastic to know any other details people might have!

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Listen
The Saving Graces – Acceptable

I know it was written in fanzines, but there I have poor control. I have a couple of fanzines  lying around somewhere, but there were more.