Day 425

Los Lucha: just discovered this Glasgow dreampop one-man project that sounds really good. Samuel Fawkes, the person behind the Los Lucha name, has a self-titled tape out now which features 4 dreamy and nicely crafted pop songs. It is hard to pick a favourite out of the four, but I think I’ll pick the opening track, “On the Ropes”.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: more and more songs by the San Francisco DIY kitchen pop project of Glenn Donaldson. Here are two wonderful new songs that would make a good 7″. They are “No One Absolves Us in the End” and “The Town that Cursed Your Name”.

The Hermit Crabs: this is quite interesting! “Paraphrase Film Critics” is a 7 song compilation of recordings done through the winter of 2002/2003. Some of these songs indeed ended up in the band’s album (which here they say will be re-released in vinyl later this year). Also there’s a cover of “Wells Street” from Pipas!!

Rum Tum Tiddles: we head to Nantes where the English singer Madeleine Mosse has joined forces with French musicians Thomas Bevand and Fred Lambert. This project has made a lovely album called “It is a Story” which is available now on CD and vinyl. There are 11 tracks in it, it is being released on June 11, and you can preview two songs on the band’s Bandcamp.

The Sainsburys: remember our friends from Stoke-on-Trent that put together a wonderful 3″ CD on Cloudberry many years ago. That we interviewed too? Well they are on Bandcamp now! All of their 7 songs of “My Favourite Colour” are there, including the superb and classic “Ate the Most”. Essential listening for any indiepop fan!

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Back in 2019 I got in touch with The Ice Factory. I had discovered them thanks to the compilation “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 9” (FST 160) that Uwe and his team at Firestation Records put together a year earlier.

My intention of course was to interview them. At that time, March 2019, the band told me it was a good time to do an interview as the band was planning to get together in the summer. I don’t know if that ever happened. I sent them a bunch of questions and sadly never heard back from them.

That’s not rare. A lot of bands don’t answer my questions, which is a shame of course as I only want to know more details about these bands that are not remembered by many (sadly). They are obscure even though they recorded some wonderful songs. My hopes are to introduce their music to more people. That’s my main goal. Sure, sometimes things evolve and I create friendships, and some times I even release their music. That’s nice. But again the main goal is to keep these bands alive.

Maybe with The Ice Factory my help isn’t that important. The band has a Facebook page which continues to be updated.

According to the Leamington Spa comp booklet, when the Ice Factory came to their untimely demise in 1991, they were dubbed by the media as ‘The biggest band that never made it’. Hailing from the northern seaside town of Morecambe and taking their name from an ice cream factory where they used to reheears, the band notched up a number of television appearances, national radio airplay, as well as a support slot for Brit Pop darlings Blur. The band toured the UK, released an EP “Jerusalem” and eventually signed management and publishing deals with Pel Management and Co London and Chelsea Music Publishing. Shortly before the band members went their separate ways, The Ice Factory secured recording time with Chrysalis Records and supported the legendary Youssou N’dour at Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD festival.
The Ice Factory comprised of lead vocalist Mark McKenna, guitarist and songwriter David Lewis, keyboard player and songwriter Geoff Dixon, bass player Justin Craddock, lead guitarist John Lewis and drummer Neil Thomson.
The band were primarily pop and rock based and had a very distinctive sound for their time, but it was their perfect catchy pop tunes that set them apart from their peers. Sack-fuls of songs in fact that sadly may never come out of the cooler.

Okay, we know now the band members. We know too where they hailed from. What else do we know?

The EP is not listed on Discogs. It came out in 1989. It has no catalog number nor label, so safe to assume it was a self-release. The songs on it were “Jerusalem” and “Marilyn” on the A side and “Under the Storm” and “Treason” on the B side. The songs were engineered and mixed by Mick Armstead.

The Facebook page has a trove of interesting details, videos and songs.

Here is the band performing “Jerusalem” at the WOMAD festival. They also appeared on Granada Tonight where they performed “Jerusalem” as well.

There is a Soundcloud with a bunch of their songs too. You can check there “Badlands“, “Cloud 9“, “Empires of Love“, “Independence Day“, “Marylin“, “One Day“, “One Step Closer to Heaven“, “Something About that Girl“, “Sunday“, “Tears of ’77“, “Way of the Rose“, “Under the Storm“, “Treason“, “This is England“, “Rainbow“, “Jerusalem“, “Behind Closed Doors“, “Winter City“, “Sense of Freedom“, “Revolution“, “Other Side“, “Life” and “Can’t Help This“.

We know that there was another member at some point called Delyth Jones, who played the sax. We know too that they had a manager called Duncan Moore.

When it comes to gigs, the band played at the Rock Garden in London, Bull and Gate in London with Blur, Skaw and Electric Sex Circus on May 23, 1990, The Boardwalk in Manchester, the Sugarhouse in Lancaster,

And finally I found out that the band did play a reunion gig in Morecambe the summer of 2019. They were part of the Morecambe Carnival festival. You can watch the whole gig on Youtube of course.

I don’t have much info about other bands the members had been involved with. The vocalist, Mark McKenna is a DJ and performs often in Lancaster. Geoff Dixon is an actor, musician and songwriter.

Then I find a 1999 article on the Lancashire Telegraph. Justin Craddock, who was living at the time in Stuttgart, Germany, was looking to get in touch with the rest of band members. I suppose in the end he did! What a cool story. He also mentions that David and John Lewis’ family owned the Lewis Ice Cream shop, the one that gave the band their name!

It would have been nice to hear from the band these and other details. But this will do for now, it was great to find all of these songs and info. I didn’t expect to find so much!!

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Listen
The Ice Factory – Jerusalem

Day 422.

Spraydog: remember the classic Newcastle band that was active in the late 90s and the early 2000s? They are on Facebook and they have added now a compilation of all of their 7″ records! So good. There are 16 songs and it is only available digitally. The title? “Blink Between Grey and Green – Singles 1999-2005”.

Solidarity not Silence: “This is Sisterhood” is the song by this supergroup featuring members of The Tuts, Petrol Girls, Colour Me Wednesday, Personal Best, Kathleen Hanna, and more. It is a terrific song and for a good cause. All proceeds of this digital single are going to Bindmans Solicitors.

Leopardo: this band from Fribourg and Tessin in Switzerland is releasing an album titled “Malcantone” on June 11 on the label Le Pop Club Records. The album will be released on vinyl and it will have 10 songs. We can preview one of the songs so far, it is called “Tell Me”. If the rest of the album sounds similar to it, should be a good one!

Sky is Alright: now a shoegaze band from London and LA! Many kilometers in between indeed. The band is releasing an 8 song album on June 25 and it will be available on different vinyl colors as well as on CD. Out of the 8 songs we can preview just the one song, “Mistress Pessimist”. It sounds great.

Tape Waves: how cool! a band we’ve recommended time and time again has signed to Emotional Response Records. Yup. That’s good news. So I hope there are singles and albums coming out soon. IN the meantime they’ve shared a song called “Tired” which is pure gold.

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Here is a very obscure Australian band. From the 80s. The Peppermint Drops!

As far as I know the band only released one song (!!!) which was called “The Morning After”. This song wasn’t on any release of theirs, but on a tape compilation called “The Perfect Travelling Companion” that came out in 1985. The label is 6UVS-FM (DT 1). That looks like a radio station to me, right? Well, it was. It was a radio station that was based in Perth, Australia. These days it is known with another name, RTR FM.

I don’t think all the bands on the tape hailed from Perth. Sure, I do think they are all Australians and there are some big names like The Triffids or the Stems on this comp. There are other names I am familiar with like Chad’s Tree or Rabbit’s Wedding. But there are many that are unknown to me like The Bamboos, The Angry Penguins or The Tarantulas. Were they indiepop bands?

We know too that the compilation was put together by Steve Phillips. The art for this tape compilation, with it’s rooster illustration on the sleeve is credited to Stuart.

The only other information about the band is that the song was recorded at S.A.E. by Vince Taylor.

But then, I start remembering, I did an interview with Perth band The Palisades many years ago and remembered talking about The Peppermint Drops. There was a connection with The Palisades. Right! Jeff Baker from The Palisades had been in The Peppermint Drops. Alright I have a connection now. Would be great then to hear from him sometime.

So yeah, that’s a nice intro to the band. Hopefully I’ll be able to do an interview soon! That’d be cool!

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Listen
The Peppermint Drops – The Morning After That

++ Your first release was an album, “Cloudbeams in Your Eye” in 1992. This album, as well as your next two albums were released on Can’t Be Beat Records. I was wondering if this was your own label? Or who was behind it?

Mark: it’s our own label. It’s named after the fanzine I did in university of the same name, of which  there are 2 issues. That’s why the first album has a 3 in the catalog number, it’s the third release. I like the Factory way of numbering everything! “Can’t Be Beat” is a song by the legendary Bogshed, who I had the privilege of seeing a few times. I believe in that punk rock DIY spirit, even if we don’t sound punk. Nobody tells us what can and can’t go on a record.

++ One thing that caught my attention is that you went straight to releasing an album. I feel it is more common to see bands release a single, an EP, and then an album. Maybe previous to the album you had made demo tapes. How come it worked this way for you?

Mark: We recorded a 4 track demo tape and sent it out to all and sundry and got no response. So we just decided to go all out and record an album. I figured it was going to be our calling card, a better demo if you will, and if nothing happened at least we would have that to show for our effort.

++ This album was recorded at home. Where was home then? And why did you decide to record at home instead of a recording studio?

Mark: I had read so many interviews where bands had regretted spending thousands on recording in a pro studio and were in hoc to their label and never saw any royalty money. I’d learned how to record on a 4 track recorder over the previous 6 years, and figured 8 tracks would be just as easy. I bought a Fostex 8 track reel to reel, a Seck 18 channel mixing desk, and a Yamaha Rex 50 multi-effects box, rather than spend money in a studio, and we recorded the album over about 12 months on weekends. I was living in a house with 2 other guys in Syston, Leicester, so I just recorded when they were out. I’m also not a confident musician, so working without a clock ticking on the wall as the cost rises really helps me relax and play well. To this day every one of the hundreds of recordings I’ve done were all at home, I’ve never recorded in a commercial studio.

Elizabeth: I have recorded in studios but the sound isn’t as authentic. But I love recording anyplace. Our studio was very creatively orchestrated by Mark.

++ After this album you were featured in a book called “Adrift in the Ether”. I am not familiar with this book, care telling me what was it about and how come you ended up in it? This book is what made Elefant Records aware of you, right?

Mark: To be honest, some guy wrote to me out of the blue and asked if we’d write a bio he could put in a book he was writing about underground bands. I thought it was a hoax as I never even saw a copy for 15 years, and then came across one in a shop in San Francisco, so I bought it. I can’t remember how Elefant found us. They knew of another Leicester band called Po!, and I was already friends with Ruth Miller from that band. She sold our album through her mail order catalog for her label called Rutland Records. We did get some press coverage mainly in fanzines, so somehow the Elefant guy heard of us.

++ On Elefant you released a 7″ in 1995 with 3 songs. The songs had previously appeared on the album though on the 7″ they were different mixes of them. I wonder though why didn’t you include new songs on this single?

Mark: The owner Luis, specifically asked for 3 songs from the album, but remixed so it would make them ‘special’ for the EP. “Breaking Sun” has extra piano on the intro, “Time” has extra backing vocals, and “See Your Eyes” is just a remix with more oomph. To be honest I’m really thankful he took a chance on releasing our stuff, BUT, the 7” EP was pressed at 45rpm instead of  33, and is sonically awful. The two songs on the b-side really needed the extra time 33rpm would’ve given. He offered us a 2 album contract (which is where the new songs would’ve gone) where he owned the rights in perpetuity instead 10/15/20 years. At the time we were cocky upstarts thinking, some bigger label was bound to come in and sign us based on the first album, and we didn’t want to end up like The Who and Shel Talmy, and have recordings we would never own, and so turned him down. But in retrospect, we had youthful delusions of grandeur and should’ve signed the deal. Sorry Luis. That being said, he’s never returned any master tapes to us for any releases we gave him and since there’s no contract, it was just a gentleman’s agreement, he should have. To this day I have no stereo master DAT for any of those songs, so I’ll have to make new mixes for any re-release.

++ I own this record, this is how I discovered you. I also like to know the story of the art of the records. Here I see a photo in black and white. Where is it?

Mark: it’s an apartment on Grattan Street in San Francisco, where my future first wife lived.

++ Elefant would also include you in the compilation CD “A Tribute to Felt”. That made a lot of sense. Of course I was waiting for you to cover “Evergreen Dazed” but you did “Mexican Bandits”. If you were to do your top 5 Felt songs what would they be? And did you ever cover any other songs by them?

Mark: Felt is a game of two halves for me. I worship the Cherry Red era when Maurice Deebank was in them, (he is a huge influence on my guitar playing) and apart from “Forever Breathes The Lonely word”, the Creation era leaves me cold. I think Lawrence has over-egged the myth of the latter era.

1 – A Preacher In New England
2 – Mexican Bandits
3 – Sunlight Bathed The Golden Glow
4 – All The People I like Are Those That Are Dead.
5 – Cathedral

++ Speaking of compilations, you also appeared on, the Leicester based, Rutland Records tape called “Shiver Me Timbers Two” with the song “Time”. On this tape they mention that a lot of bands used to send demos to this label. Were you hoping to get signed to them? Were there any other labels interested in releasing your music?

Mark: No, I’ve known Ruth Miller since the late 80’s, when I auditioned for her band Po! But I couldn’t play barre chords very well at the time so I didn’t get the job! A band i  was in prior to Evergreen Dazed had a song on the first “Shiver Me Timbers” tape, so i just contacted her and asked if we could be on the second. We’ve kept in touch over the years, and I try to see her when I’m back in Leicester for a visit. She’s now running a blog/fanzine called ‘Punk Girl Diaries’ with a member of The Popinjays which is really good. Of course being the aforementioned ‘post punk kid’, I really wanted to be on 4AD. When the first album came out, we played a couple of shows in San Francisco. My friend Landra who painted the cover and is now my sons Godmother was going out with Mark Kozelek of the Red House Painters at the time. I met him at party at her house, he had heard her play the record and liked it and he asked if I wanted to play for the RHP at their debut gig in the UK in November 1992 a few weeks later, so it would free him up as a front man. It was a bit of a surprise as they hadn’t released anything yet, and I had no idea what they sounded like. I had to go to a secret gig at the Islington Powerhaus to record them so I could learn my part in 24 hours. As I was setting up my tape machine a bald gentleman asked if he could sit at the table “Hi, my name’s Ivo” (yes, that Ivo!) so we chatted., and during the conversation he said he had heard our album but it wasn’t right for 4AD (probably just a nice way of saying he didn’t like it which is fair enough). The next night was the ‘official’ gig at the Borderline which was a weird night for a number of reasons good and bad, but I played second guitar on “Grace Cathedral Park” and then watched the rest of the set from the sidelines. I met a few 4ad luminaries like the singer from Wolfgang Press. Sadly there’s no photographic proof, and joining the band was never an option for many reasons, the main one being, I wasn’t a US citizen at the time (i am now) so i couldn’t live there! I also really wanted to do my own stuff with Liz. I’ve seen him at a couple of gigs here in San Francisco over the years,  the last one being at a David J solo  gig just before CV19 shut everything down in Feb 2020, but I haven’t spoken  to him since that London gig in 1992.

++ It took a while for your second album, 11 years! In 2003 you put out “Broken Road”. I have to ask why did it take so long?

Mark: Life! I moved from the UK to the US in 1995, I got married, got a work visa, then a green Card, and had a kid. I had to rebuild my studio from scratch because of the voltage differences between the two countries. We did record “The AM sounds …” in 1998 in my studio apartment, but I wasn’t happy with it. The 2005 version is basically a remix of the 1998 tapes, which I now like even less and wish I’d never put it out. I’m hoping to put out the ‘proper’ version that sounds like it should’ve done in 1998 at some point. Chronologically, the songs predate ‘Broken Road’. It’s the missing link between the Cloudbeams and ‘Broken Road’. So really our albums are 1992, 1998, 2003 which  doesn’t sound so bad.  ‘AM sounds’ is the ‘lost’ second album.

Elizabeth: Quite a lot happened in between. I was getting a Master’s Degree at Hunter College in Education, playing gigs in the Lower East Side like Hotel Galvez and Upper West at the Dark Star Lounge as well as others. Finally I went to Japan Tokyo to teach English for about two years and then back to SF.

++ Then, 2 years later, you released “The AM Sounds of Evergreen Dazed”. That was your last release. This time you worked much quicker. Comparing it to your first album, how do you think the band had evolved in those 13 years. What did you do better than before?

Mark: it was quick because we already had the songs from 1998. I gave myself a deadline of Jan 1^st 2005 as I was about to have my second child, and Liz who was living in Berkeley had decided to move back  to NYC, and I thought I’d have no time for music ever again. It was a rushed release and a mistake, i should’ve taken my time over it. I’m not a quick  worker, i like to mull songs over for ages before i’m  happy with a recording, and AM was just rushed.

++ The photo of the front cover shows a city, but I can’t tell which city… is it San Francisco?

Mark: Yes, it’s a blurry picture of Candlestick Park from Twin Peaks taken whilst on LSD in June 1990!

++ On this record you have a song called “Long Gone (For Vini Reilly)”. How influential was Vini Reilly for you?

Mark: He’s up there in the holy trinity of influences for me: Maurice Deebank, Vini Reilly, and Steve Hackett. I’ve got literally every Durutti Column release (some a few times over)

++ I read that you are working on a new album. When is it expected to come out? What other details can you share with me?

Mark: Well we’ve done about half the songs. It’s mainly acoustic, with very little percussion. I hate to use the term unplugged, but it’s a lot more singer-songwriter than the previous 3. Low-key late night music. Covid has delayed it. I’m hoping to get it out in early 2022. All the vocals are done, my trusted mastering engineer is still in business thankfully, and my uncle did a painting for the cover. I’m hoping it will be vinyl but we’ll have to look at cost and turnaround times (which are much longer for vinyl).

Day 420

Marcos y Molduras / Malamute: I start this Wednesday review of new music with Snap! Clap! and Discos de Kirlian’s latest release. It is a 7″ that has songs by both Marcos y Molduras and Malamute, two good Spanish bands. There are 2 songs by each band though they are not both on one side, instead they mix 1 song each on each side. Not sure if I like that myself, I like the classic setups for split singles I think. But I’ll give it a try. One thing that I know is that I like both songs that you can preview on Bandcamp. So give it a listen!

Dream Suicides: I had recommended this Riverside, California, project in the past. I remember they had used Irene Jacob on the artwork for their previous release. I liked that. Their newest song is called “Clementine” and it is a fine jangly song. Now I am having a bit more trouble recognizing who is in the artwork, but yeah, that’s the least important thing. The song is pretty, and that’s what matters.

Die Zärtlichkeit: there is no music to listen here, which is sort of against the rules of the blog. But there is a pre-order button for a new 7″ by the Cologne duo. It is for their upcoming single “France Fall” that has “Montagmorgen” on the B side. It is coming out on May 14 on the very fine Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten. And I thought you needed to know as all the songs the band puts out are superb and I am sure this won’t be an exception.

B-Flower: the legendary Japanese band have released a new album it seems! Titled “Until Everything Goes Wrong” appeared on Bandcamp on May 1st. There is absolutely no information about it. But there are 11 songs in total, all waiting for every indiepop fan to listen.

The Laughing Chimes: and back now to a Spanish label, Pretty Olivia Records, which is run by the great Javi! They are releasing on June 15 a new album by a band called The Laughing Chimes that hail from Ohio! The band is formed by two teenagers, Evan and Quinn Seurkamp and they have distilled their taste for American and British jangle pop to create “This Town”, their album!

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Back in 2013 the blog Wilfully Obscure introduced to us a New York band called Enemies in the Grass. The information was scant then and I am guessing it will be now, 7 years later. But let’s see. You never know what you can find.

We know the band was around the late 80s and early 90s, releasing a 7″ single and then a 12″ EP. So let’s go in order.

The 7″ came out in 1988 on Galt Records (GP 400). The 7″ had the superb “Day After Day” on the A side and “Out of Luck” on the B side. The artwork was done by Leslie Falk. The band produced the record and Pete Puleo, who played keyboards in the record, was the engineer. David Eng mixed the songs.

Here we see that the band also featured Walter Sczesny on vocals and bass, Andy Bigan on drums, Walter Roberti on lead guitar and Jon Chaikin on guitar and vocals. This last name seems so familiar to me! Right he was in bands like Evening Lights and Coloring Book and did mixing and mastering jobs for so many indiepop bands! Especially for Shelflife Records!

Worth noting too that Chaikin wrote “Day After Day” and Sczesny wrote “Out of Luck”. The photo on the sleeve was taken by Chaikin as well.

“Blind Crossing” was the 12″ EP that came out in 1991. This time 6 songs were included, “Day After Day”, “Wants It That Way” and “Out of Luck” on the A side and “Best Behavior”, “Kind of Girl” and “Before Were Gone” on the B side. This came out on Galt Records (GP 500) as well. I believe the songs from the 7″ included here are re-recordings.

Aside from these two releases, the band appeared on the CD and cassette compilation  “Hear No Evil A Compilation” released by Galt Records in 1991 with the song “Wants It That Way” and also on the “Hear No Evil Volume Two” CD with the song “Yesterday’s Gone” in 1993. Much later, in 2014, their song “Best Behavior” got included in “Souvenirs: Little Gems of Pop Volume II” released by Sound Asleep Records from Sweden on CD.

I mentioned two bands Jon Chaikin had been, Evening Lights and Coloring Book. He was also on Awo Da. And when it comes to helping other indiepop bands, we can see them everywhere really! So thanks for that. When it comes to Walter Sczesny we know he had been in Cyclones, Mad Violets, Riff Doctors and The Fleshtones. Walter Roberti was in the Peggy Healy Band and Xan. David Kenneth Eng, producer and owner of Bayside Studios, in Queens, was in Awo Da, Peggy Healey Band and Kid Flash.

Sadly not much more info on the web. Will we get to know more details about them in the future? I hope so! Some great jangle pop here!

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Listen
Enemies in the Grass – Day after Day

++ I was aware of Johnny Dee but it was a surprise to me when DBlue-Very label announced a flexi with songs by a previous band to Johnny Dee, the Korova Milk Bar. So I wonder how come there were no releases back in the day? There was nothing really? Perhaps demo tapes were put out?

Actually as The Korova Milk Bar, we released a cassette tape in 1989. Then it was released in a limited edition of only 50 because we members made independently, we couldn’t make more than that.

++ So how come so many years after we see this flexi disc released? How did Blue-Very and you started to work together? Were they aware of these songs already?

That’s because at that time, such independent guitar sounds were completely unrecognized in Japan. As these days it’s finally been recognized a bit, we were able to release it I presume.

In addition, since Blue-Very records already knew the existence it was decided to be released.

++The flexi that was released came also with a bonus CD with 7 more songs. I was wondering when were all these recorded? Were they recorded all at the same time? Or at different moments? Were any of these songs released?

As I mentioned earlier, it was released as an album on a cassette tape in 1989. As for recording, it was recorded from 1987 to 1989. Also, maybe a single cassette was released, but I don’t remember it anymore.

++ Speaking of releases, was there no interest from labels back in the day? What about compilation appearances?

++ Back to the flexi, the sleeve has a photo of Antoine Doinel from the “400 Blows” movie. Is that one of your favourite movies? What would be your top 5 movies?

This was adopted by other members when it was released on the cassette tape. At that time, quoting Nouvelle Vague was partly popular in Japanese new wave bands as a design.

My favourite movies are “Rashomon” by Kurosawa, “Pierrot Le Fou”, “The Godfather part 1”, “Apocalypse Now” and “Quadrophenia”.

++ Then one thing I notice too is that the flexi has “Rain Girls & Gentle Girls” single version while the CD has the album version of this song. What’s the difference between them?

The album version only has a part of any sound track inserted in the intro.

++ The other song on the flexi is “Over the Manchester”. I guess Manchester and it’s music resounded in the band, so I wonder if you ever visited this city? And if it was all you imagined it to be?

I’m so glad you listened our songs well and were interested. Unfortunately, I’ve never been to Manchester. I’ve been to London though. In terms of this song, I sing about Morrissey. We’re keen on The Smiths. I also sang like Jim Reed. That’s why I think that this song like a ‘80s UK authentic guitar sound.

++ Lastly this bonus CD includes a song called “Michael Head”. I have to assume he is one of your music heroes! Are there other ones?

That’s right. We also love The Pale Fountains. Off course also like Roddy Frame, Edwyn Collins and Lawrence Hayward.

Day 418

Lost Ships: Portsmouth, UK. A fine EP from the band that back in the 90s were The Kites. Remember I interviewed them? Anyhow, give yourself 15 minutes and check their new EP “Nostalgia” which is out now on Subjangle Records. 5 songs of jangly pop music. Nice!

Fresh: the London punk pop band is back with a new 12″ EP titled “The Summer I Got Good at Guitar”! There are few copies now of the record, so hurry. The EP has 5 songs of fun and catchy punky indiepop that definitely makes you miss going to gigs.

Cozy Slippers: two new songs by this great Seattle combo, “When Will When Come?” and “Be Alone With Me”. This is their latest digital release and doesn’t look like there’s a physical release. But don’t despair. The songs are available to listen on repeat of course. Poppy and fun. As always.

Pier Lights: the 3rd single from the UK band Pier Lights is out now. It is called “The Dunes” and is available on Soundcloud. It is a very nice piece of guitar pop with electronic sounds. The band is the side project of Rich May from The King of Mirrors and Jonathan Troy of The Hi-Life Companion. So you know, good stuff.

Tynall Tywyll: this is not new, but it is new for me. First time I’m seeing a live performance of one of the most wonderful bands, Tynall Tywyll! I wrote about them many years ago and until today I haven’t been able to get in touch with them. But this video of the band playing “Jack Kerouac” at the Heno Nol Yn TV programme, in 1991, makes you shiver of how good they were.

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A few weeks ago I interviewed Henry Does a Runner. When I asked which band they would recommend me they said Jo Jo Namoza. Also when I interviewed Resque they mentioned Jo Jo Namoza.  So here I am looking for info for this 80s Reading band.

I actually own a record that has a song of theirs, “Kissing the Babies”. It is the classic LP compilation “The Final Teaze” released in 1987 by Final Records (FINAL LP42). The funny thing is that they appear as Namoza. Maybe that’s why I didn’t make the connection. Also with thee name Namoza they appeared in a compilation tape called “The Fence” in 1989. This tape was put out by Tracksuit Tapes and it seems featured many great bands from the area, including The Rain and Feverfew (!).

On Discogs there are a few releases listed. There is a tape that has no date, probably a demo tape. It has two songs, “Kissing the Babies” and “Back at the Farm”.

“Live at the University of Surrey” is a live tape the band self-released in 1988. This tape had 10 songs, “Arabian Dance”, “Assault and Battery”, “Heartland”, “Monkey on the Floor”, “Casbah Accomadation”, “Elevator”, “Back at the Farm”, “African Heart”, “Kissing the Babies” and “Bamboo Houses”. This live gig happened in Guilford, on June 30, 1988.

In 1989 the band released their sole proper record, a 7″ with two songs, “Kissing the Babies” and “Flipside” on the flipside. This one came out on Acorn Records (ACOR 7), a label from Bramley that was foundeed by Mark Olrog and Bob Kiddle. Also worth noting is that “Kissing the Babies” is credited to N. Hawkins” while “Elevator” to Jo Jo Namoza.

Then I sort of hit the jackpot. There is a Facebook page for the band as well as a proper website. On the website, I find that prior to Jo Jo Namoza, in 1980, Mark Hawkins (keyboards), Steve Norris (bass/guitar), Kenny Stone (drums) and Neil Hawkins (vocals/rhythm guitar) started a band called Marble Arch. This band recorded a 3 song demo in 1981 and then another in 1982.

In 1983 the band went to the recording studio once again. To Matinee Studios in Reading. At this point the band changes their name to Namoza. They record a 3 song demo tape with the tracks “Wild Life”, “Taking Punches” and “Empty Hands”.

It is in 1985 that the band becomes Jo Jo Namoza when Francis Magee joins them thanks to an advert in the Melody Maker. The first gig with this new lineup happens at Winchester College. Francis had been previously in a band called Jo Public. Because of this the band added Jo Jo to the Namoza name. It is with this new lineup, in 1986 that they record the demo tape I mentioned first, the one with “Back at the Farm”.

One interesting thing about Jo Jo Namoza is that they went on a mini tour of Norway in 1987. They played in Stavanger and also in Bergen at The Hulen. In 1988 they would play again in Bergen at The Fish Factory. During this time Emma Banks and Neil Richards became managers of the band.

They would also play at The Ceanarvon Castle and Dingwalls in Camden in London as well as becoming regulars on the British university circuit.  In Reading they used to play in The Majestic it seems.

In 1988 the band recorded an EP in Matinee Studios. The songs included were “Arabian Dance”, “Elevator”, “Heartland”, “Assault and Battery”, “Monkey on the Floor” and “African Heart”. Not sure if these were released on tape or any other format.

Other recordings of the band include a live gig at Reading University in 1989 where the songs “Cannibals”, “African Heart”, “Casbah” and “To the Bone” were recorded live.

There was also another demo that was recorded in 1989 at a studio ran by Martin Rushent in Streatley Hill. Sadly these recordings seem to be lost.

In 1989 the band recorded two more songs. This time at The Whitehouse Studio in Kewstoke. The sound of the band was evolving at this time.

The band was gaining some momentum. In 1990 the band had already agreed to release “Elevator” and “Assault and Battery” as a 7″ with Sonet Records from Acton in London. Sadly two weeks after the agreement the distribution company of the label went bust.

In the end, a re-recorded version of “Kissing the Babies”  (recorded at Eedgar Broughton’s studio in Barnet, London) and “Elevator” (previously recorded at Matinee Studio in Reading) were released by Acorn Records. The band wasn’t pleased with the sound of the record…

Two more important details to mention is that the band would grow in number, adding Andy Marshall as backing vocals and percussion and James Carter on guitar.

One last thing from their website, there is a live video of the band playing at The Hulen in Bergen, Norway, in 1987. The two songs on the video are “Casbah Accomodation” and “Back at the Farm”.

But there’s more, it turns out Francis Magee, who actually hailed from Dublin, Ireland, (and was raised in the Isle of Man) was on the British soap opera EastEnders from 1993 to 1995. He then appeared on movies like Layer Cake and The Calling. And even cooler, he was on Game of Thrones (!). He played Yoren, a member of the Night Watch on the first and second season of the show.

How cool. I’ve listened many of their songs now. The sound of the band could change a bit, but they were pop at heart. And some songs are really great indiepop tunes.

I hope to learn more about them soon. Anyone remember them?

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Listen
Jo Jo Namoza – Kissin’ the Babies

Day 415

Verandan: our last 7″ was by this fantastic Finnish band (have you got your copy yet??). Today we see they release a new song, “Open Sea”, which is really really pretty. I had heard an earlier version of this song as a possibility for releasing it and it was a hard choice I must say to choose which songs would go on the record that we released. Highly recommended.

The Summer Triangle: this looks lovely. A 10″ by the new project of Dale (Some Gorgeous Accident, Apple Orchard) and Connie (Carnival Park). They are releasing a self-titled 10″ vinyl on May 7 with 4 songs. We can preview the opening track, “Distant Skies”, which is really nice. The 10″ is a lathe cut, so it is very limited.

Piroshka: the new band that features Miki from Lush is touring the UK later this year. They are also releasing an album called “Love Drips and Gathers” on July 23rd. To promote this album they’ve put a video for the song “Scratching at the Lid”. It sounds great. I will definitely get the record. And I am hoping next year they come to the US. Or I go to the UK. The idea of touring bands seem so strange these days.

Parker Lewis: it was a long time ago when we did a 3″CD with the Swedish artist Parker Lewis. It is great to see he continues to make music. He has released a vinyl album on the Italian label We Were Never Being Boring called “Tass Tass”. The record is very limited and at the time of writing this there were 5 copies left. The record has 8 songs and you can preview one of them which is very nice, “Unga Nycker”.

Fábrica de Espejos: and to end this week I present you to this Spanish band from the city of Lugo. The band has just released a new album called “Mundo Incierto” which seems to be available digitally only. The album is good mix of shoegazey and dreampop sounds, with some very enjoyable moments like songs like “La Fiesta” or “Capas”.

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When I discovered, many months ago, a Bandcamp of the Spanish indiepop band Los Empresarios I was quite surprised. How come I haven’t heard of them before?!

Hailing from Cuenca, the band was active between 1998 and 2002 and from I understand they left 14 songs. At least that’s what it looks like on Bandcamp, where a compilation called “Así Sonaban Los Empresarios (1998-2002)” looks like a full retrospective of the band.

There are no details about the band sadly. We just now that the Bandcamp was put together back in 2012. A long time ago. The 14 songs included here are “¡Viva leer!”, “El Hijo Secreto de Franco”, “Vuelvo a Sonreír”, “Tengo qeu Renovar el DNI”, “Las Chicas de las Tiendas de Fotocopias”, “La Farmacéutica Intrépida”, “La Erosión”, “Solo Copiamos Lo Malo”, “La Novia del Ingenero (versión suite sinfónica)”, “Fiestas Patronales en Beirut-Oeste”, “¿Resistirá la velada familiar frente a las modas adolescentes? “, “Biología y Destino”, “Claroscuro” and “Juan Miguel”.

Then I find a blog called Sólo Maquetas. Here they have shared some tracks from the band’s early demos as well as sharing some interesting information. It turns out the band’s first demo was called “Currículum” and was released in 1999. This was released by the band’s own label Latifundio Records. All their releases would be self-released even though there was interest from the Spicnic label.

Most of the members had been in the band Núcleo 7 but after their drummer Tom Destroy was replaced by a drum machine they changed their name to Los Empresarios (the businessmen). The band was formed by Emilio Augusto (vocals, guitar), Marc-Antoine (aka. Lulú Ruiz) on bass, Ana-Belle on vocals and keys, and Hot Lips on sax. After the release of “Currículum” Hot Lips left the band and was replaced by Donna Lydia who went to play keys and backing vocals. It doesn’t say exactly which songs were included here.

The next releases of the band were “Ganar” (2000), “A Privatizar” (2001) and “Las Fuerzas Vivas” (2002). I will try to find what songs were included in them.

One thing I did find was a live gig of them dating from March 23, 2002, at the Garaje de la Tía María in Murcia, Spain. It is 40 minutes long, so enjoy it.

Then on this same channel I find a video of the band Los Animalitos del Bosque covering the song “Nave del Amor” by Los Empresarios.

Sadly I can’t seem to find any other details about them. So any help finding out more info about them will be appreciated. It now seems clear to me that the band recorded more than the 14 songs on Bandcamp. I would love to get copies, or at least listen to them! Who remembers them!?

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Listen
Los Empresarios – ¡Viva leer! 

Day 413

Almost Charlotte / Bluff: many of you may remember that I interviewed the classic indiepop band Almost Charlotte on the blog. They hailed from Brighton and after their demise they became Bluff. Well, there is a compilation CD that is essential for indiepop lovers available now on Moments of Pleasure Records. It contains all of the recordings by both bands! I repeat, essential.

Nah…: it is not common for me to beat the limited releases. This time around, I was able to secure one of the 50 copies of the new CD “Airy Day” by Nah… The Dutch/German combo has self-released this new EP that has four songs, “Airy Day”, “Walking in the Sun at Midnight”, “Wellen der Liebe” and “Dagen Van Gras, Dagen Van Stro”. It is cool to see them singing in their own languages, even though we just have to imagine for now, as we can only preview the title song!

Morellas Forest 1988: Their name sort of confused me. Thought it was a band from the 80s! Well, there is this one song called “Sweet Charity” on Soundcloud that sounds good to me. This song will be included in the upcoming album “Tales” that is being released on May 14 via Velvet Blue Music.

My Lucky Day: so I have tried to find myself a copy of the band’s CD. Sadly shipping from Japan is crazy at the moment. To send a CD to the US it seems to be around 25-30 dollars. That’s a bit too steep. Feels wrong. And I thought US shipping prices were bad. I believe it has to do with the pandemic. But it’s been a while and you would think prices would be normalized. Anyhow, I shared a link to their Bandcamp last week, today I bring you the beautiful video for “Sunny Day Highway”

Lisasinson: and lastly a few weeks ago the Valencia, Spain, all-girl combo published “Perdona Mamá” on Elefant Records. This album was released as a 10″ vinyl and is limited to 500 copies. It has 9 infectious, catchy, pop songs in Spanish including their great hit “Barakaldo” (which should have been a 7″).

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I believe there are many bands called The Village. So I’ll make it clear since the first paragraph that today’s band hails from Ireland, from Waterford to be more precise. I discovered this band through The Fanning Sessions Archive blog. That seems to be the usual when it comes to Irish bands, right?

From the Fanning Sessions post we know the band was a four-piece formed by Paddy Jacob on vocals, Mick Heery on guitar, Paul Condon on bass and Paul Moyser on drums. Here they have shared a RTE Radio 2 Dave Fanning session the band recorded on November 19th 1985. This time around they recorded four songs, “Life is a Stranger”, “June in Me”, “Fear of Time” and “Sacrifice”. You can listen to all of them in that post. But that’s not all, they also link to a TV appearance of the band!

Indeed, there is the band performing the song “Mental State” on the RTE show “Visual Eyes”. This appearance dates from 1986. A comment there has a funny anecdote, saying this footage was actually 100%. He says: this is 100% live,think this is the 5th take if i remember correctly 4th take went well until the drummer farted on the cameraman underneath him.

The other great resource for Irish bands is Irishrock.org. Here we find that the band formed in 1984 and made their Dublin debut at the Underground in 1986. That same year they released a single.

This single is listed on Discogs. It was released by BUS Records (BUS 30). I am not familiar with this label but I can see they’ve released a lot of 7″s up until 1994! The songs on the record were “Mental State” on the A side and “In My Vision” on the B side. Both were recorded at Cooleycall Studios and produced by Paul Spencer from the band Billy Roach Band.

Irishrock.org mentions a song “Prisoners of the Heart”, but they can’t remember where was it released or even recorded. Another interesting bit is that the band’s PR was done by Eoin Ronayne who was the manager of Neuro. It seems Paddy Jacob was a roadie of this band.

It seems the band was featured in a documentary called “051”. This documentary film was about the Waterford scene. It is on Youtube, here is part 1 and part 2. I found Mick Heery on Part 2 around the 11:20 minute mark. But around the 7:10 minute mark you can see the band playing live at The Bridge. A comment in this same link it mentions that Brian Daniels, keyboardist of The Village passed away.

The band reunited in 2006 for a one-off gig and I believe in 2019 they did too. I found they even have a Facebook page! I find flyers of gigs. So we see the band played at the Bridge Hotel in Waterford, at Katie Reilly’s with Toy with Rhythm and The Flat Tops, at the Waterford Savoy on November 4, 1984 (this one you can listen in its entirety on Soundcloud!!),

And that’s it. The band didn’t release any other records, but it does look like the band had a following and made an impact in their scene. I am sure many Irish fans remember them. Would be great to know their story someday!

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Listen
The Village – Life is a Stranger

Day 411

Un Día Soleado: a new digital single by Enzo Raffler from Argentina. His solo project name, which translated would be “Another Sunny Day”, tells a lot of his influences. The two new songs are very nice jangle bedroom pop. They are “Amigx Invisible” and “Sentirnos Tristes (No Está Mal)”.

Peter Loveday: I got this Youtube link the other day and really enjoyed it. It is one of the songs that Peter (with Naomi Wedman and Sarah Davison) played in Barcelona last March. This song is “Sunshine on Stone”. Peter Loveday was once in the fantastic Brisbane band Tiny Town.

The Darling Buds: I discovered a song called “Jump In” by the classic indiepop band. I don’t think it’s been released previously (but correct me if I am wrong). It appears on a compilation flexi disc released by R*E*P*E*A*T Records (hard to type this name!) and I really liked this track. Sadly the other tracks in the flexi are not my taste of music. But The Darling Buds one is! So I am hoping to see a new release by them in the near future, and to include this song.

Hadda Be: back in February I recommended their single “Another Life” and today I recommend their album “Another Life”. Yup, same name. We can preview three tracks out of the eleven that will be included, “Another Life”, “Wait in the Dark” and “This Won’t End Well”. The Brighton/SE London is releasing this record on April 30 on Last Night with Glasgow, a label that has been putting some nice records as of late but has some very bad customer service in my experience.

Kero Kero Bonito: “Civilisation II” is the band’s new EP which acts as a sequel to 2019’s “Civilisation I”. The band on this EP continues to explore vintage hardware to create the three songs that make up this EP. It is not as catchy as their albums, but still a very nice listen.

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I was looking for info about the 90s French (I think) band The Jellybabies. But I ended up remembering an early 80s UK band called The Jelly Babies that sounded very nice to me.

I have to thank my friend David from Barcelona who had shared their song “The Pleasure of Her Company” that was released in the band’s one and only release, a 7″ that came out in 1981 titled “De Nada EP”. That made me remember them.

Released by Stroke Your Pets Often (JB 001), probably their own label, this EP had 5 songs. The A side had “Roller Skate” and “The Rascal” while on the B side we find “The Pleasure of Her Company”, “Niki Laudas Car” and “INto the Valley of Death Rode the Five Brave Jelly Babies”.

Only 500 copies were made of this EP. The labels were just hand stamped. There are five different wraparound sleeves. On the back of the sleeve you see the same information. Danish was on vocals, Alan T Wireless & Beaver on guitars, Steve on bass and Ant on drums.

I have some CDs that feature the band like the “Messthetics Greatest Hiss” compilation CD released by Hyped to Death in 2008 or the “Messthetics #107 – DIY ’78-81 London III” released by the same label in 2009. ON the first one the band had “Candy Bricks” and “Soylent Green” while on the 2nd comp they had “Roller Skate” and “Living it Up”.

But that’s not all, they had the song “I Like Boats” on the cassette comp “It’s My (The) Age 2” released by Compact Cassette Echo and “Roller Skate” appeared on the bootleg comp “Killed by Death #1234” released by Redrum Records in 2000.

Thanks to the Messthetics comp’s liner notes we know some more details about the band.

For example we know the song “Soylent Green” came from a tape called “Sod Romance – Here Come the Fire Engines” and “Candy Brick” came from another tape called “Almost Live”. I don’t have any details about these tapes. Were they compilations? Demo tapes? “Living it Up” is a live recording.

And here are some interesting details I’ve picked from there:

The Jelly Babies were named after the favoured food of the fourth and then-current Doctor Who. The “De Nada” EP was recorded at Dirt Cheap studios. The lyrics from “The Rascal” were lifted off a children’s book, “Roller Skate” were lyrics from a friend that wasn’t in the group, “The Pleasures of Her Company” had lyrics by Paul’s father who was a 60s popstar it seems. The story of the different sleeves is that each member of the band and each of them did their own sleeve, so there were 5 different ones. This EP was reviewed by NME and Sounds.

Alan T. Wireless went afterwards to be in the band Alan Tyler and the Lost Sons of Littlefield. Alan was also the was the last to join the band. After he joined the band went to the Dirt Cheap studio again but the recordings from that 2nd visit haven’t seen the light of day it seems.

Later on the band morphed into the Fire Engines (not the Scottish band FYI) and then into the Sputniks A Go Go. After Alan left the band morphed into the Bachelor Party. Later on Paul Beveridge started a project called Birdlife UK, Steve Solo went into the Bastoids and also Stetson Stan.

What else we know? We know Paul Beveridge used to run a fanzine called Crash Smash Crack Ring where he wrote mostly about The Fall. It seems the band start happened with a tape called “Posing at the Scala”. On this tape Paul and Steve contributed most of the songs with ‘imaginary’ bands like The Ocean Bandits, Technosnort, The Red Plagues and more. After this the band formed and recorded their first tape “Sod Romance – Here Come the Fire Engines”. This tape included practice sessions and rough-mixes of their EP songs. Okay, so we found out the story of this tape. Would be nice to hear it sometime.

I found too a small bio Paul wrote in 2008. Here he mentions a song called “Digging Graves in Budapest”. Seems it was never recorded. The other good details is that the band hailed from Rainham.

And that’s what I found out. This song is very nice, jangly and poppy. Wonder if they had more songs like this… these were the sort of obscure songs I loved putting on mix CDs.

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Listen
The Jelly Babies – The Pleasure of Her Company