Day 307.

Fuck You and Your A-Sides: a very nice discovery coming from Brighton, UK. This band have released online an EP titled “B-Side Yourself”. The one thing is that it is not that recent, it dates from October, 2019! But I am only finding about it now. It sounds great. Superb indiepop, lo-fi, charming and all. There are four songs in the EP and that’s it. That’s all they’ve released. I hope they do more. Please!

Prints in the Snow: another band that sounds amazing. Now we go a further north, to York, UK. Here we find this 3 song EP titled “I Hate the Silence…” which is packed with superb melodies and boy/girl vocals. It actually says that the band was formed in Nottingham by singer/songwriter Laurie Armitt and bassist Catherine Preston in 2010. Really lovely.

Llawgne: what a strange name you’d say for a band. Well, the person behind the band is Mathias Engwall from Gothenburg. Engwall spelled backwards… you get the idea. I have just discovered the band thanks to their song “Reverie Neverending” which is a really nice upbeat indiepop guitar-driven song. Looking to discover more of his songs now.

Makeout Point: some time ago I had featured the band Makeout Point from Sweden. Formed by Hugo Ewald, Shiva Kazemi, Simon Hjort and Åsa Horakova they had released a few great demos. Fast forward to 2020, when they release their “Carnival of Love” EP on Topoli Records. Four songs are included here, “Date Night” “Hollywood”, “Princess” and “Don’t Be Sad”.

Project Culture: and lastly two songs from a London combo. The songs are “The Girl with the Sun in her Eyes” and “Me, Myself and I (And the Other Five Guys)” that were released in October. Yeah, I had to dig a bit this week as there were not many brand new songs on the web. But this is pretty good and is worth everyone’s attention!

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As I mentioned on previous posts I took photos of the booklets that came with the great compilation series “The Sound of Leamington Spa”. That’s because I am out of town until mid January and don’t have my record collection at hand. So just in case, to be able to post on the blog, to find more information about obscure indiepop bands, I did that. So thanks to that I can write today about the London-based band Ginger Bottles!

On the blog I had mentioned them quickly, when I wrote about The Honeymooners. Martin Connelly, the guitar player of The Honeymooners, a band from Glasgow, had moved the London. There he would join two other Glaswegians, Martin Muir (who had been in The Original Mixed Up Kid) and Steve (Sam) Davis (from the Playing Soldiers).

Ginger Bottles only released the “Unwind” EP in 1991. It was a 12″ vinyl record and it was released by Sunflower Records (SUN 003). This record label is a little bit familiar with me as they had put out Cut Cut Emma who had been featured on the blog. This record had four songs. The A side had “Unwind”. while the B side had “Haywire”, “Sell Your Soul” and “Moment of Madness”. The sleeve was designed by Pero Trivunovic while the artwork was done by Steve Ellefsen. John Kane did the photography.

The band’s song “Goldfish” was to appear many years late, I was talking before of the early 90s. “Goldfish”, a song not included in their one and only release, appeared on “The Sound of Leamington Spa Volume 6” released by Firestation Records (FST 075), Billberry Records (Bild10) and Clarendon Records (W6 8CD) in 2009.

This booklet of this compilation adds more information.

Formed in London in 1989, Ginger Bottles were Stuart Barrett on bass guitar and Glaswegians, Steve Davis (ex Playing Soldiers), on vocals and acoustic guitar, Martin Connelly (ex Honeymooners) on lead guitar and Martin Muir (ex Original Mixed Up Kid) on drums. Guitarist, Brian Carson, played on this track “Goldfish”. When their demo of “Unwind” knocked out the competition 5 weeks in a row on Gary Crowley’s then infamous Demo Clash (GLR Radio), Ginger Bottles were championed by producer Stephen Street and DJ Janice Long and were stirring up much interest amongst the many A&R pundits who trusted the show’s record for spotting promising bands. Indie record label Sunflower Records quickly jumped in and offered the band their first and only release. “Unwind:, backed by “Haywire”, the free and easy mix of “Sell Your Soul” and rare acoustic track, “Moment of Madness”, which featured ex Raymonde guitarist, Phil Huish.
When Connelly relocated to Berlin, Huish joined the boys and brought his harder edge to the band’s sound. And with his Raymonde credentials, Smiths comparisons were inevitable – no bad thing at the time though. More relocation! And with Davis’ return to sunny Glasgow, came the amicable demise of the band. Davis is currently operating as The Tattooed Detective, Barrett joined Trian and recorded with some time Primal Scream producer, Brian O’Shaughnessy and both Muir and Huish formed Fletcher and, more recently, Rocket Sam. Connelly with his itchy feet returned to Glasgow and – small world – is working with Jean Honeymoon. Ginger Bottles are considering – not reforming – but joining the Myspace Bandwagon. Just for the hell of it!

A very cool thing to be aware of is that the band made a promo video for the song “Unwind“. It is up on Youtube. It was directed by Kenny Laurenson.

Another important find is a Soundcloud by Martin Muir, the drummer. In his Souncloud he has a demo version of “Goldfish” which was recorded in London, in 1989, Here he mentions too that sadly that Brian Carson has passed away. This is from the demo tape that was sent to Gary Crowley. But what ended happening was that Crowley would chose the second track, “Unwind” which would end up knocking an early demo from Suede off the top spot after they won 5 weeks running. Ginger Bottles would win the next 5 weeks as well. Aside from this  song, he has “Seven Forty Five” by Ginger Bottles. Here he mentions that this song was a demo recorded at La Rocka Studios in Hornsey, London, and engineered by Simon Daniels.

Looking at his Soundcloud we also know he has been in bands like Manic Noises, Rocket Sam, Napoleon Chrome, Hanging Shed and Fletcher.

Sadly not much more information about the band on the web. Hopefully we’ll find more about them, maybe someone will contact me!

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Listen
Ginger Bottles – Goldfish

Day 304.

Basic Flowers: the latest on the Mexican netlabel Stupid Decisions is the “Sentimental EP” by Basic Flowers. It just has three songs, “Confused (I Know… Again)”, “Vainilla” and “Self Portrait”, and it feels too little because they are so pretty, fragile and dreamy. Would be nice to get a full album someday.

Starry Eyed Cadet: our San Francisco friends are back with a new song called “Good Night”. It is as usual fantastic. One does wonder when will there next release be out. Are they working on an album? an EP? It’d be good to know. They never disappoint.

The Fisherman and His Soul: a new song by our friend Sebastian Voss was released on December 28. It is called “Perfect Bathrooms” and came out as a digital single on the always trustworthy Shiny Happy Records from Indonesia. Good stuff.

Torrey: we go back to the Bay Area, to meet this four-piece formed by Ryann, Kelly, Eric and Adam. Their latest song is called “90s Loop” and it is a dreamy one. But that doesn’t mean ethereal or boring, it means poppy, bright and luminous in their case.

Tired Up: lastly why not some shoegaze from Russia, from this band from the city of Ufa. Their latest song is called “Ice Cream Lips” and it is as fuzzy and hazy as they come. Thumbs up.

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While I am out of town it is a bit harder to just check my collection and find out obscure bands I should feature and try to find more info about them. But I did think in advance and took photos of all The Sound of Leamington Spa compilation booklets so that way I never ran out of ideas and at least until my return to New York I keep the blog updated!

Today I return to “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 4” which was co-released by Firestation Records (FST 060), Bilberry Records (BILB08) and Clarendon Records (W6 6CD) in 2003. Here I find the song “Waiting Here For Me” by Johnny Says Yeah!

Them appearing on this compilation would end up in even better news as two years later, in 2005, Firestation would release a 13 song compilation called “Friends Gone By 1986-1989” that included these songs, “Waiting Here For Me”, “Bittersweet”, “Some Things are More Simple”, “Better Off Dead”, “Suzie”, “Time Comes to a Standstill”, “Promises”, “I Won’t Let You Go”, “But It’s True”, “Everything is Mine”, “In My Heart”, “Happiness is Such a Thing” and “Now I’ll Dream”.

So as you can see in that title, 1986 and 1989, in between those years the band was active. While they were active they released two 7″s, both on their own Day I Ate the World Records.

The first one was the “Bittersweet” EP” (JSY 1/ JSY2) from 1986. First question, why two different catalog numbers for it?

This single had four songs, “Suzie” and “Bittersweet” on the A side and “Don’t Bring Me Down” and “No Problems” on the B side. It is interesting that 3 of these songs weren’t included in the retrospective compilation. Why?

The second 7″ was “I Won’t Let You Go” (JSY 3) on the A side and “Some Things Are More Simple” on the B side. Again now the B side wasn’t included in the compilation. I find this odd!

The booklet of The Leamington Spa sheds some light about the band. It says:

The band began writing/recording songs as Johnny Says Yeah in early 1986 with all the band still in their teens. The songs were written by the partnership of the two brothers, Ja and Jools Wilson, who along with the bass player, Simon Preston, and drummer, Dan Machin, were the nucleus of the band. After playing gigs in their local area of Lincolnshire, Johnny Seays Yeah!, released their first single “Bittersweet” in the summer of 1986, on their own “Day I Ate the World” label. This was followed by a 4 song session on the Janice Long Show on BBC Radio One in the autumn of 1986. With no record deal negotiated, the band released a second single on their own label entitled “Some Things are More Simple”/”I Won’t Let You Go”. Johnny Says Yeah! continued gigging and recording new songs into 1988 but released no more singles.

Wow! There was a Janice Long Session! Which songs were recorded for it? Would be great to know for sure.

The CD retrospective also has a little bit more information about the band. This is what it says:

So here we go…. a little look back in time… and a bunch of songs written by brothers, played by friends.
I guess the story, in as far as it is a story, started a couple of years earlier in the wilds of Eastern England, as a band called Outside Edge. A few recorded songs, and a handful of gigs, and lots of cold nights practising in dusty sheds led finally to a a change of name to Johnny Says Yeah! in early 1986.
Two singles followed on our own Day I Ate the World label, a bit of national radio play, a BBC session, some memorable gigs in less than memorable venues, and then a swift, painless drift into obscurity.
Jools and Simon continued writing and playing as Michael Sometimes. Ja produced a few acoustic numbers under the loose banner of Paintstorm. Dan drummed in a host of trash punk bands, and god only knows what happened to Bruce!
But this is THEN… a couple of years in the mid eighties. The iron fist of Thatcherism may have ruled Britain, but John Peel ruled the nightime radio and guitars still ruled the world!

Some more details mention that the songs were recorded around the Fenlands in England. We also know the full band members:
Jason Wilson sang the songs and wrote the words
Jools Wilson played guitar, piano, and sang backing vocals
Simon Preston played bass guitar
Dan Machin played the drums and told the jokes
Shaun Tranter played the saxophone
Nick Stevens played the trumpet
Simon Machin played piano and keyboards
Bruce Hosie played guitar and harmonica
Mark Harrison played piano

As you can expect there is no information about the band on the web. Of course there are many questions to ask. For example how did the bands Outside Edge and Michael Sometimes sounded like? I’d love to hear them. What about the Janice Long session? Would be great to find those recordings. And again, why weren’t all their songs included in the retrospective album? Maybe one day we’ll find out!

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Listen
Johnny Says Yeah! – Better Off Dead

Day 302.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: I noticed the California band has taken down their Christmas songs. In exchange we see four new songs up on their Bandcamp. It is an EP titled “Pour the Light In” where the title-song opens and then we find three more songs, “Randy if You Were Here”, “Everything You Ever You Loved” and “The Fun We Had”, this last song a Gary Zekley original.

Swansea Sound: “I Sold My Soul on Ebay” is the latest song of this mega-group fromed by Amelia and Rob (Heavenly) and Hue (Pooh Sticks), and what you can expect from it? Pop perfection!! For some reason this will be released on 7″ but only one copy will be for sale!! Why? I don’t understand! It is such a good song, would be great to have more copies, I can offer to release it if needed? In any case the one 7″ will be on auction on eBay. That’s what they say. Maybe it is a joke?

Luisa Mandou um Beijo: remember the Rio de Janeiro indiepop band? I was a big fan back in the day. It is quite amazing to see that they are now on Bandcamp, bringing so many memories. I used to chat a lot with Fernando Paiva, their guitar player, back in 2005 (?). Wow. Time flies. Would be great to get in touch again and maybe do an interview? That’d be something!

Pelopincho: now we head to Buenos Aires! “Kevin McCallister” and “La Casa (Versión Navideña)” are the latest songs by one of our favourite Argentinean bands, Pelopincho!! The opening track is going to be included in their upcoming album.

Free Loan Investments: you know I dream and dream of releasing a compilation of the Free Loan Investments, one of my favourite bands ever. I’ve talked about it many years ago with the members and the idea sounded good to them but there wasn’t any progress. Anyways, again, BIG BIG FAN. So when I saw a video that wasn’t released back in the day I was quite surprised. Yeah, a video was made for “I Don’t Love You” , a song that appeared on the “Ever Been to Mexico?” EP that was released by SHelflife Records. I don’t know why it wasn’t released then, but 19 years later, there it is, in all it’s glory!

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I had to check which record came first, if “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 4” co-released by all German labels Firestation Records, Billberry Records and Clarendon Records or the “Telegraph Signals: Recorded Artifacts 1986-1989” CDR compilation released by Egg Records. I wanted to give credit to the label and release that introduced me to this terrific Scottish band. It turns out “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 4” came out in 2003 (FST060, BILB08, W6 6CD)! So yeah, again all the credit to Uwe Weigmann for his incombustible effort in unearthing the most amazing gems from the heyday of indiepop!

On this compilation the band contributed the song “I Saw the Children”, an amazing song indeed. And then of course the booklet liner notes gave us a little more details about the band!

The Submarines were formed in Glasgow in 1986, after gigging around town and opening for the likes of Primal Scream and Felt released their debut single on Jeff Barrets (Heavenly Records, Sub Aqua Records) Head Records in 1987.
This “Grey Skies Blue” single reached a highest indie chart position of number 10 and spent 9 weeks on the chart. The flip side was “I Saw the Children”. At some point in 1989 The Submarines changed their name to Compass FLow, recording  a session for the BBC Janice Long Show and an unreleased album for Glass Records.
The Submarines single is now quite hard to come by and regarded as a long lost classic from eighties indie pop.
2004 sees the release of “Telegraph Signals” and 11 track compilation of The Submarines recordings from 1986-1989 on Egg Records.

Band line up is:
Paul McNeil (guitar, vocals)
Craig Keaney (bass)
Scott Blain (drums)
Brian Kane (guitars)

Indeed, the band released the 7″ “Grey Skies Blue” in 1987 on Head Records (HEAD 4). This great record, which should be in everyone’s collection, was produced by Richard Preston (A side) and the band (B Side). It also included Karen Parker on backing vocals. The photographs are credited to Grant MacDougall while the sleeve to MacDougall and MacNeil. Some other interesting tidbits is that the side A runout has an etching that says “A home on the hilltop or a home in the ground”. The B side has etched “While savagely your love you prune?”.

Then after their rediscovery in the early 2000s, they got the release on Egg Records. An 11 song compilation of all their recordings (?). This CDR was titled “Telegraph Signals: Recorded Artifacts 1986-1989” (Eggrest 007). The songs included in this CD were “Take Me Away”, “Life on the Great White Wastes”, “Serious Mistakes”, “Distant Shores”, “Standing in the Rain:”, “Down Through the Room”, “South American Uniform”, “A Pocket of Air”, “Grey Skies Blue”, “I Saw the Children” and “Take Me Away (Alt version)”.

Sadly Egg Records releases don’t include any information on the CD. So can’t say where these recordings come from. Most probably demo tapes?

In 2006 the band would contribute “Take Me Away” and “Down Through the Room” to the CD compilation “Souvenirs from Egg Records (Eggrest 015). And more recently they appeared in 2016’s “C87” triple CD compilation by Cherry Red Records (CRCDBOX26) with “Grey Skies Blue” and later on with “Take Me Away” on 2019’s “Big Gold Dreams – A Story of Scottish Independent Music 1977-1989” also on Cherry Red (CRCDBOX69). These new compilations don’t have much information about the band on their liner notes either. What a shame.

So what can we find out? One interesting thing I find is that Karen Parker who did backing vocals, also did backing vocals on the classic Jesus and Mary Chain song “Just Like Honey” as well as other JAMC recordings.

Then I find a Reverbnation page for the band. Here there are more songs like “Sparkling Meters”, “Junk Like Heaven”, “Before I Hit the Ground” and “Untitled”. I wonder why these songs weren’t included in the Egg Records release. There are also some songs available here by Paul MacNeil solo.

I’ve tried to find more information about the band that came after, Compass Flow, but there seems to be nothing on the web. Sort of odd as if they

Lastly, I believe Karen Parker (backing vocalist) and Grant McDougall (the producer) were part of the Splash One gang that organized the great club night in Glasgow. We also know that Paul McNeil used to be called Big Paul, and his band was the first ever band to appear onstage at Splash One!

And that’s it for today. Who remembers The Submarines?!

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Listen
The Submarines – Grey Skies Blue

Day 300. Happy new year all! I had a small break which was nice. Now back for this 2021 that I really hope will be better than 2020. Don’t think we are asking for much, right? Here are some nice finds from the last few days:

Cinéma Lumière: the pinoy band was a favourite last year and it is no surprise that they got to release a new record just before the year was ending. The Shenzhen, China, label Boring Productions have put a 10″ lathe cut with four songs, “Love”, “London Tears”, “Will You Catch Me” and “Dreancatcher”. It is a very nice release, hopefully when I return to NYC next week I can order it.

Megumo Acorda: another new release on Boring Productions is 7″ lathe cut by this band who I am not familiar with. The band I believe hails from the Philippines and the 7″ comes with four songs. It says it is a reissue of their debut EP. First time on vinyl. I want to know more. When and where was this debut released previously?

Public Places: Boring Productions was on fire the last week of December, also releasing another 10″ lathe cut! This self-titled EP sound great. Again very little information about the band, but it’s ok. I think we can order it with confidence. The 5 songs included sound very nice.

Dayflower: what a superb release, a collection of 17 demos by our Leicester friends called “On a Different Day: a demo Mixtape”! There are well known songs, like “Popping Candy” or “Daisy Age” and even different versions of them. This is a great journey through the creative process of one of our favourite bands!

The Umbrella Puzzles: wow! and ending this review with the latest 3 songs of our friend Ryan and his project The Umbrella Puzzles! They are part of an EP called “Slip Through the Cracks” and it is really lovely. The ex-Apple Orchard and Golden Teardrops, is preparing an album called “A Slowly Dawning Realization” and will only include the title song, the other two songs are exclusive to this digital release.

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So I am sort of going through bands from The Leamington Spa Series that I haven’t featured on the blog. You could say that I am running out of ideas of obscure bands. But that’s not the case. I am a bit busy and sadly don’t have the time to go through my records. Also I am abroad now, not at home, so that makes things a bit more complicated in my research. Hopefully these bands still are interesting to everyone reading the blog. They are for me, they are the ones that make me crazy for obscure indiepop bands!

When it comes to Metro Trinity, who contributed the song “Spend My Whole Life Loving You” to “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 1” (FST 008) co-released by Firestation. TweeNet and Bilberry Records in the year 2000, we know very little through the booklet included in this release. It just says:
“There was once a girl called Catherine Dooley / I met her as a boy /  I loved her, so much / we both lived in Windsor / she went to university / she went to Liverpool / I went to Manchester / new experiences exposed cracks in our relationship / by that summer there was very little contact between us / I could not eat / I could not think / I could not go out / I never knew a hurt so bad / I wrote these songs – Jonathan Male”

So that’s the inspiration behind the songs from Metro Trinity. This same song that was on this compilation ended up too on the CD boxset “Manchester North of England – A Story of Independent Music Greater Manchester 1977-1993″ released by Cherry Red Records in 2017.

The band did release a record during their heyday, a 12” EP titled “Die Young”. The opening track on the A side was “Spend My Whole Life Loving You”. The accompanying track on this side was “Just Go”. The B side had “Slip Away” and “Michael Furey”. The EP was released by the Caféteria label (CTA 0001). The back sleeve tells us that the label was based in Manchester, and it looks like this was their sole release. There were also find out that Jonathan was on vocals and guitar, Jes on guitars, Tim Whiteley on bass and Colin Rocks on drums. Dave and Siobhan did backing vocals, Justine violin. Mike on keyboards and Chiles on additional keys. Chiles also produced and engineered the songs. There are no last names sadly. And one thing to note is that this release was reissued last year by Optic Nerve as a 7″ (ON208). On the Optic Nerve version the back cover is now typed instead of handwritten as in the original release.

A few more details from the sleeve is that the cover photo is credited to Toby and the design to F-graphics and Fallen Art. The songs were recorded at Remaximum Studios in London, March 1987.

The only other song we know the band put out was also on 1987, a bit earlier. It was on a split flexi with the Inspiral Carpets released by Debris  magazine. Yup, the fanzine came with the issue 14 of this magazine in January of that year. The catalog number for the flexi is DEB 6. The song the band contributed here was “Stupid Friends”.

The band would appear on two compilations more. And it would be with the song “Michael Furey”. First on the classic tape compilation “Uncle Arthurs Pop Parlour” in 1987 and then in 2017 on the Cherry Red box set “C88”.

Who was Michael Furey? Well, he was a character in The Dead, the last short story in “Dubliners” by James Joyce.

Of course after Metro Trinity the band members went to get much more attention from fans and friends. Johnny Male would end up being in bands like Airstream, Cheap Glue, Republica, Sensation and Soul Family Sensation.  He also at some point co-owned the Riki Tik bar in London. Jez Williams on the other hand was in Black Rivers, Doves, Sub Sub and White Horses.

One thing I found too is that Andy Williams of Doves joined the band after the EP was released and then the band split up shortly after. Another name I saw online as being part of the band is that of Pete Zichovitch, but not sure at what point he joined.

On the Manchester Music Archive website there are scans of the fanzine Get Out and Dance! issue no.2 where there is a feature of the band. This zine dates from 1987 and tells a bit about the band.

Not much more information online about the band. Can’t find any gigs that they might have played or other songs or demos they must have recorded. It seems like a short lived band.  But I am curious if this was their first ever band for example. They were too good to have made this EP as their first ever record. They must have made several demos before.

I am sure Manchester readers must remember them.

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Listen
Metro Trinity – Michael Furey

Day 288. I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!! And a Happy New Year!! This is the last post of the year. I will be on a short holiday break (much much needed) and will get back to the blog on January 4th. So expect a little bit of quiet here. Maybe it is a good time to read all the posts you might have missed? 😀

Sunny Summer Day: the new song by Sunny Summer Day is amazing!! It is called “夕暮れと月 (Dusk and Moon)” and features Japanese singer Nana Furuya from Charlotte is Mine. It is a superb song indeed, and we keep missing our friend Dicki of course. It is a complex thing for me to listen to this song. There’s a nostalgia for Dicki’s vocals, but at the same time I am sure Dicki would have loved his band to continue making music.

A Polaroid for Christmas 2020: the Polaroid radio show and blog from Bologna, Italy, have put together a nice 15-song compilation of Christmas songs, and there are many great ones, including Stars on Fire, All Ashore! o Garage Katamaran. Very nice.

Kinoue64: this Japanese band have been featured many times on the blog. Why? Because they make swirly fuzzy shoegaze/indiepop. Their latest is a 4 song EP titled “亡霊 ” that is really good. We don’t know much about the band, they are not featured much on English speaking blogs I think, but it doesn’t matter, when something is good, it’s good.

Films on Song: there’s a new self-titled EP by this Charlottesville, Virginia, project, that I am enjoying a lot. It has 4 songs, “Blissed”, “Sushi”, “I’m Starting to See You in a New Light” and “Gomenghast”. It is jangly, it is catchy and fun.

Crystal Canyon: and last we head to Portland, Maine, to listen “Yours With Affection and Sorrow”, the album this combo is releasing on January 29. Ok! We can’t listen to the whole album on Bandcamp, but at least two songs are available and they are terrific. Check out “Every Little Star” and “Turn Blue”, ace guitars, superb female vocals, yeah, this is very promising. The album will be released on vinyl (black and light blue) and I feel one should try to get a copy for sure!

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35 Summers, yet another band I discovered back in the day thanks to The Sound of Leamington Spa compilation series. Yes, I say it often, the best compilation series ever. And always looking forward to the next volume!

35 Summers appeared on the 2003 “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 4” released by Firestation Records, Billberry Records and Clarendon Records. All German labels of course. The catalog number was FST060, BILB08, W66CD. On this compilation the band contributed a classic, “Really Down”.

As usual the booklet that came with the compilation came with information about the bands on it. About 35 Summers we learn quite a bit. This is what it says:
35 Summers were conceived in 1990 when songwriters Duncan Lomax and David Pichilingi left their current band Wake Up Africa. Although WUA had been well received, they had failed to get a record deal and Duncan and David were determined to be pop stars! They set about writing a new set of songs, honing and recording them without the influence of anyone else, then recruited band members around them, hand-picked to produce the sound that the lads had already recorded as demos. Right from the start, 35 Summers did it right – organising secret gigs where tickets were like gold dust, and signing to indie label Planet Records who released the band’s version of ‘Come Together’. 35 Summers were also busy producing a range of t-shirts that were to become more famous than the band. One, featuring Bill Shankly, legendary manager of Liverpool FC sold thousands and was soon being sported by fans of the band, LFC fans and celebrity admirers – Peter Hooton of The Farm wore one on the Farm’s “Groovy Train” video, and John Peel proudly wore his to the Reading Festival. John also booked the band for two BBC Radio 1 sessions, and these, along with TV appearances on regional and satellite TV helped to secure the band a major record deal with RCA. 35 Summers embarked on a series of UK tours, initially supporting EMF and Northside, but also as a headline act in their own right promoting their first RCA single “I Didn’t Try”. The single got into the lower reaches of UK charts and was soon followed by “Really Down” a piece of pure pop accompanied by a video shot in Spain which showed the band doing their best to drink the record company advance. Before the band’s album “Sketch” could be released, however, RCA had a change of management and decided that the future of the music was not in their impressive stable of indie bands, but newly-formed boy band “Take That”, and 35 Summers along with The Wedding Present and Pop Will Eat Itself headed for the door. 35 Summer’s album was never released by RCA but a version is now available from Japan’s Excellent Records. “Really Down” is taken from the album “Sketch” available from Excellent Records.

Quite interesting, right? One thing that does miss to point out is that in the year 2000, they were featured on a compilation called “Guitar Pop Jamboree – When it Started to Being” released by BMG (BVCM-31040) in Japan. Could it be that this compilation brought back the interest in the band? It was only after that they appeared on The Leamington Spa and on Excellent Record?

But let’s go back in time, we know they were in Wake Up Africa. I wrote about them some time ago. And when they became 35 Summers, as it was said the band signed to Planet Records to release their first single. It was The Beatles’ cover of  “Come Together” 12″ that included the “Come Together (Summer Mix)” on the A side and “Come Together 7″ Version (Shankly Mix)” and “Discotheque on the B side. On the cover of the sleeve we do see Bill Shankly. Was this the design that was used in their t-shirts? There was a video for this song of course. The video was recorded in Green Park, London, and on board of HMS President. The band also performed live “Come Together” on Granada Reports on November 3rd 1990. This version was recorded at Amazon Studios in Liverpool, while the single had been recorded in The Pink Museum also in Liverpool.

Then they signed to RCA. The “Really Down” single was released in a few different formats! The 7″ had “Really Down” on the A side and “To  Be the One” on the flipside. The catalog was RCA PB 44871. The CD single included three different versions of “Really Down”, the 7″ version, the club version and the extended version. The catalog number for the CD single was PD 44872. And lastly the 12″ included the same three different versions of the song, but in a different order, the extended version was first and then the club and 7″ versions. The catalog number for the maxi single was PT 44872. The producers for the songs were Duncan Lomax of the band and Keith Andrews. Andrews was the house engineer at Par Street Studios. The promo video of the song is on Youtube, recorded in Southern Spain and fueled by sangria. On Youtube too there is some footage of the band playing “Really Down” at the Granada TV’s “Celebration” arts programme at the Albert Dock in Liverpool.

The last single they put out while on RCA was “I Didn’t Try”. Again three different versions for the single. The 7″ had “I Didn’t Try” on the A side and “Jimmy Fear” on the B side. The CD single included four tracks, “I Didn’t Try (7″)”, “Jimmy Fear”, “I Didn’t Try (Extended)” and “I Didn’t Try (Club)”. The 12″ single had the same tracks but in a different order. The extended version was first while the 7″ version was last. Catalog number for both CD and maxi single was PT 44700. The 7″ had the catalog number PB 44699. The producers were again the same as in the previous single. The sleeve was created by Stew Leather. There was a promo video for this song as well. It was filmed in a studio in Manchester as well as various locations in Liverpool by Roger Appleton. There is also live footage of the band playing this song at the “Celebration” programme.

There is another video worth sharing. The band appeared on the TV show “The Power Station”. There they played the song “Discotheque“.

As mentioned they band released their unreleased album “Sketch” in 2003 on Excellent. Records from Japan (EXCD 008). This album, which I am looking for a copy these days, included 12 songs, “Really Down”, “I Didn’t Try”, “Candy”, “Let the Truth Be Known”, “Good Morning & Goodbye”, “Come Together”, “Victoria”, “Crocodile Tears”, “To Be the One”, “Jimmy Fear”, “Sheep” and “Discotheque”.

When it comes to compilations we know they had the song “Let the Truth Be Known” on the “Radio Cookie Scene 0011 April/May 2003” CD compilation that came together with the 30th number of the magazine Cookie Scene. Then the year after, in 2004, the song “Let the Truth Be Known (BBC Radio 5 Session Version)” was included in the Excellent. Records CD compilation “Pop Renaissance” (EXCD 014).

We haven’t mentioned the other band members. Of course there was Duncan Lomax (guitar) and David Pichilingi (vocals), but also there were Alan Currie (drums), Ian Greenwood (guitar) and Robbie Fay (bass). Lomax as mentioned in previous posts was on Wake Up Africa, Perfect and Hal. Pichilingi was on Wake Up Africa and Fiasco. Alan Currie had been on Fishmonkeyman, Kill Laura and playing with Paul Den Heyer. Ian Greenwood also played in Fishmonkeyman. Robbie Fay played in Fiasco.

Okay what about the Peel Sessions?

The first one dates from December 20, 1990, with Dale Griffin as producer. The songs that were recorded in this session were “Come Together”, “Good Morning and Goodbye” and “Discotheque”. We notice other band members here, Andy Hignett on drums and Jamie Southern on keyboards.

The 2nd Peel Session happened the next year. On August 22nd 1991 the band recorded again with Dale Griffing, “Loyalty”, “Really Down”, “Candy” and “Sheep”. This session is on Youtube thanks to the great Dave Driscoll.

When it comes go gigs, I found that they played with Dust and Jennifer Fever at the Hardman House on Friday 20th, September 1991. 3 pounds to get in.

I start to wonder how these sessions, and all their songs, haven’t been put together as a retrospective compilation?

These days we know Duncan Lomax is a successful photographer while David Pichilingi had been doing the festival Liverpool Sound City and previously ran the label Robot Records. In 2014 the band 35 Summers actually reformed to play at the Sound City festival and the Anfield Wrap’s Christmas Party.

And that’s it for today. Interestingly you can still buy their famous t-shirts at many different online stores! Who remembers 35 Summers?

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Listen
35 Summers – Really Down

Day 286

Breakfast Clouds: oh!! what a nice discovery this band from Manila, Philippines! Their latest was the “Treehouse” EP that was released last August and it is really a beauty. How did it go under my radar. The three songs that make up the EP are just dreamy and perfectly crafted. This is truly good, deserves a physical release!

A Zu La: the latest release on the very good Shiny Happy Records is a digital single by this new project by Guntur. The song is titled “Go Out” and it is a fine slice of bedroom pop (actually recorded at Guntur’s room). There’s not much more info about it, but hopefully there are more songs soon.

Oeil: after a long silence these Japanese shoegazers are back with a fuzzy and warm song called “Perfect”. It is catchy, very MBV, too. There are also t-shirts on sale if that’s your thing!

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: and of course, there had to be some Christmas songs by the most prolific indiepop artist around. The two new songs are titled “We Won’t Come Home at Christmas Time” and “Holiday Cheer (In Spite of it All”, and of course they are jingle jangly!

EggS: the French fuzzy band is back with a song called “Old Fashion Virtue” that seems to be released in a cassette. Is it just the one song in the cassette called “An Unexpected Christmas Gift”? It is not 100% clear to me. Seems a bit bad to just include one song on a tape, right? But then it is a very nice song.

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There are still a bunch of superb obscure bands that were on The Sound of Leamington Spa series released by Firestation Records that need to be featured on the blog. I don’t know how many, but I do feel most of them deserve a mention here as they were important to me in discovering indiepop!

So for example from the first ever CD of the series, “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 1” (FST 008) we need to cover so many bands! So far on the blog I’ve had features/interviews with Episode 4, Where Gardens Fall, The Anyways, The Hepburns, The Siddeleys, The Desert Wolves, The Clamheads, Sister Rain, The Wishing Stones and The Aurbisons. That’s about half of the bands! So we are missing still a bunch, but today I want to revisit one that was a nice surprise when I first heard this CD as it was a band I had never heard before, not even their name, Asia Fields from Manchester.

By now they must be familiar with everyone. The compilation came out in the year 2000. And even in 2017 Firestation Records released a compilation album called “Goodbye Frank” (FST 146) on both LP and CD that is a must have for any serious indiepop fan.

I must say they were quite mysterious to me too because on the Leamington Spa booklet, every band had some info about them, but for Asia Fields there was nothing. Just a short discography! I was able though to find a copy of their first release, the “Burst” 12″ on eBay I think. For a good price probably. I don’t like paying crazy prices.

The “Burst” 12″ is really good, it includes the song that was on the Leamington Spa compilation, “Dazed”, on the B side. The other two songs were “Save Me” on the A side and “Ain’t That Just What Love Is” as the 2nd song on the B side. This record came out on Frank Records (12 FRANK 001) and I believe this label was the band’s own. The A side was engineered at Spirit Studios (Manchester) while the B side at Square One Studios (Bury). Graham Massey (from 808state) was the engineer. The credits are a bit extensive on this one, so we know that Graham Maley played guitar and sang as well as wrote the songs, Mark Finch played guitar, David Jones the bass, Paul Hewitt played bongos, percussion, backing vocals, David Keane played congas and percussion, Eamonn Sheehe played drums and percussion and Andy Preston played keyboards. The record came out in 1990 and the artwork is credited to Rob Taylor with help by Pete Rogers on the typography.

The band would release two more records during their time. Frank 02 was a 12″ white label for “Friction” on the A side and “Jackknifed” on the B side. It seems this record came with a band photo and a press sheet where it mentions that the band hailed from Oldham and was formed in 1989. The songs in this single were produced by Chris Nagle and it says that these songs were taken from the band’s forthcoming album that was to be released on vinyl and CD. This album never happened sadly.

One thing to notice too is that the records had some runout etchings. They are quite strange. For example in the “Friction” 12″ it says on the A side “BAKAWITHAFRAKATHATAMAKEYAHANDACLAPPAANOTHERAPORKAPRIMACUTA” while on the B side “ITTUKALIDDLEWYLABUD WE BAK TO MAKE YA SMILA YERRANUTHAPRIMACUTA”. The “Burst” 12″ is less mysterious, “MIKE’S-THE EXCHANGE MPO” on the A side and “MPO” on the B side.

Lastly in 1998 the band released a CD single with two songs, “Crazy Caroline” and “Stabilize” on Long Jump Records (AFCD 001). There’s really no info for this CD.

What else do we know about the band members? We know that Graham Maley was in a band afterwards called The Homelys. Eamonn Sheehe has played with Steve Diggle (Buzzcocks) and supported some big names. He has been a drum teacher for some time. David Keane guested in the song “Caravan” by the Inspiral Carpets.

But as I said, luckily Firestation Records released “Goodbye Frank”, a compilation that included the songs from their first 2 records and more. I wonder why not the CD single? In any case this was the tracklist “Dazed”, “Save Me”, “Ain’t That Just What Love Is”, “There is No-One to Save You”, “God Only Knows”, “Friction”, “Jackknifed”, “Know Who You Are”, “Chances”, “Waking Up”, “Sneakin”, “That Feeling”, “Hummingbird”, “Bluke”, “You’re Not Even Born (Live)”.

Another question, so there is that live song last. Where was this one played? Somewhere in Manchester? Would be nice to know where. The good thing is that Graham Maley wrote for the accompanying booklet.

Here it changes the timeline. It says now that the band was formed in 1985 by Graham Maley and Tony Welsh. The city is still the same, Oldham. They got a room to practice at the Guide Bridge Mill. Clint Boon owned this room. One day liking what he heard he asked to record a demo of the band. Here we see that the band grows, but we see some different names. This first lineup included Chris Goodwin on drums, David and Alan Keane on bongos, congas and percussion, David Jones on bass and two backing singers, Viv Hughes and Louise Butterworth. So, what songs were recorded with this lineup? What songs were on that first demo recorded by Boon?

The lineup I mentioned earlier was actually the 1987/1988 lineup. That lineup is the one that did most of the band’s recorded output. Aside from the two studios and engineers I mentioned earlier they also used Noise Box where Steve Lloyd engineered. On their later recordings Dave Wells is on drums and Christian Butterworth (family of Louise?) on bongos.

The band would support the Inspiral Carpets in 1989 at The International. After that the band gained a following. They mention that they turned down offers from big labels, interviews from the music papers and magazines. They wanted to remain indie. That’s quite interesting.

Then Graham tells a bit about his creative process, how the band was ahead of the wave, mixing dance grooves before Madchester exploded.

We can also mention that the song “Dazed” was included in the Cherry Red boxset “Manchester North of England – A Story of Independent Music Greater Manchester 1977-1993” that came out in 2017.

But there’s more. There is a Facebook page for the band. The band is actually selling t-shirts of their original iconic design of the “Burst” 12″. Very cool. But let’s see what else we can learn.

One thing I find almost immediately is that while in Oldham College Graham and Tony Welsh had a few bands. The first one was called Jazmedia and lasted until 1982. Afterwards they had a project called Aldo in Arcadia which it says that there were some recordings made. Would be good to listen to these! Then after Asia Fields, they reunited to form the band Go Cosmic around 2002.

Then I find that in 2017 the band put together a digital album. It was released by Cherry Red.  It turns out that this record is actually the unreleased album of the band from 1999. The story tells the band went into the Noise Box Studio to record the album, and when the album was ready the call from the label person never came. The album was then stored in a garage, then in a loft, and then after many years rediscovered. The songs on it were “Switch”, “Crackpot”, “I Will Not Follow”, “Bluff”, “Jackknifed”, “Drive Us Away”, “Stabilise”, “You’re Not Even Born” and “The Good Goodbye”.

Another great thing about the page is that there are lots of photos of the band Among the photos there is a photo of a demo tape dating from 1997 with three songs at least, “Know Who You Are”, “Chances” and “Waking Up”. It seems the band doesn’t remember much about this one! Though it does look they were planning to release these songs as a CD single at some point, they even made posters for it!

Other photos tell us that the band played alongside The Ambitious Beggars on May 11, 1990. Another gig we know they played was at The Ritz on July 17 that same year (or 1989?). Or what about them playing in the Hop & Grape with The Mock Turtles on December 9th on again 89 or 1990?

And if you care, there’s a promo video for the song “Friction” on Youtube!

I wasn’t expecting much on the web but there actually is quite some good amount of info. I find an interview by Louder than War with Graham Maley. Here they ask many questions I would ask!

A blog called Even the Stars reviews the “Goodbye Frank” compilation and adds one detail I wasnt aware, Graham Maley latest band was actually called Aluna Pop Ups. He is also the author of two books, “The Difference We Make” and “We are Waking Up”.

And that’s it for today. Quite a good amount of information. I feel I know even more about the band now. How cool. Who remembers them?

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Listen
Asia Fields – Dazed

Day 283

Cats Never Die: a new discovery, a very good pop band from Perm, Russia, that has just released and EP titled “Нити”. It has 6 songs of fine jangly indiepop. Don’t know much about the band but I am really enjoying this record. Wish it was released in physical format.

Did You Die: now we head to Vancouver for this band’s latest EP, “Diamond Heights”. The band formed by Richie Felix Alexander, Luke Bodi, Madison Penland and Amanda Doucette have made here 4 great shoegaze songs. They have been going for a while, so I definitely have to check their previous releases.

Magazines: now let’s travel to Dublin to check out this 4-piuece formed by Cath, Shayne, Tom and Dan. Their latest song is called “Pink and Blue” and it is really really good. A very fine slice of pop. This year without traveling has been rough for me, and one of the trips I remember a lot is the one I went to Dublin a few years back. It was so short. And didn’t catch any bands playing live. I hope to return. And hopefully I see Magazines live.

All Ashore!: the Sheffield band have a brand new song, one not included in their album “Perfect Pop Song”! It is called “In Front of the Gas Fire”. It is a bit different to their previous output, much of a lo-fi bedroom pop song, but enjoyable nonetheless!

The Aislers Set: “Cold Christmas” was recorded 10 years ago, in 2010, by two of The Aislers Set members, Linton and Cusick. Now this song is available to all the public on Bandcamp. This is a real treasure!

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Dorian Gray is a fictional character and the protagonist of Oscar Wilde’s 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. He is an aristocratic Victorian man.

After the post I did about the band Yachines from France a friend from Japan wrote me pointing me out to the music of Dorian Gray.

I had written this line on my post (Les Inrockuptibles) also mention that Olivier Brion used to be in a band called Dorian Gray. Would be nice to find recordings by this band!

That same day I published my post about the Yachines I got a message on Twitter, just pointing me to a Youtube link and also to Discogs. It felt suddenly a mission. Find out more information about Dorian Gray. Will I be able to find it?

Okay, the one detail I know is that Olivier Brion was in the band. So far, that’s it. We know Olivier was in Discover after the Yachines and also released music solo. One thing I don’t remember finding out is if they hailed from Paris or another city. I think they were from Paris but I can’t say.

But there are some details that are easily available on the web. Let’s see.

The band released just one 7″, in 1990, on the Dexon label. The catalog number was S1001. It seems this label hailed from Belgium according to Discogs. There are many bands listed as part of the catalogue there but they seem off, like if they were of a different Dexon label. Who would know?

In any case the release had two songs, “A Lonely Night” on the A side and “Lolita” on the B side. The songs were produced by Pierre Delfosse, a Belgian producer who was in SX 96 and Why Not James?, and were recorded by Jean-Paul Lebens at Pyramid Studio in November 1989.

I am quite curious why they ended up in a Belgian label instead of a French one. Did they had more of a following there?

Luckily I found a Facebook page for the band. I wasn’t expecting this. Here it mentions the band was signed to Dexon but actually distributed by New Rose. They played many of the most important Parisian venues, Golf Druout, Locomotive, Espace Ornano and eventually released an album on CD called “Rain” in 1991! Okay! I didn’t know this. I need to track this album!

In the meantime I explore what’s on the page. We see that the band played in Reims in 1990 at L’Usine. Even cooler there is a live performance of the band playing “Girl in My Room“. It dates from 1990 in the Rock en France festival in Reims! On this same website they have a video of them promoting their single playing live “A Lonely Night“, amazing!

We find too that the band hailed from Charleville-Mézières. And that’s close to Belgium! Okay now things start to make some sense.

I am trying to find more info of the “Rain” album. So far I’ve found that there was a superb song called “In the Garden”. As you can imagine with the band’s name it is very very hard to find any information.

I try and try to find a tracklist for the album, at least which label released it. But I can’t seem to find anything through Google. I think this time I will need someone that owns the record to help me.

Also I don’t know the names of the band members. It seems it was 4 guys and 1 girl. We know Olivier Brion was one. But no clue about the rest!

So who remembers them?!

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Listen
Dorian Gray – A Lonely Night

Day 281.

The Blue Herons: what a great new song by the Lucerne, Switzerland, project formed by Andy Jossi and Gretchen DeVault. It is called “Go On” and it is a bright jangly track, reminding me of the fantastic Language of Flowers. What else can you ask! Top tune.

The Gabriels: a new indiepop band from the Midlands formed by Gudg, Fran, Leon and Stuart! The band have just uploaded their first song on Bandcamp called “Loose Canyon” and it is really lovely. The band says they are working on their debut album now. So we have that to look forward. But we need more than one song while we wait. Please release more tracks!

Gladie: this Philadelphia duo has been recommended in the past and why not do it again? Their new EP called “Raw Nerve” has three fun popsongs, “Got Nothing For Ya”, “No Call List” and a cover of “Song for the Man” by the Beastie Boys.

Slow Decades: now we jump back to the UK, to Newcastle. There this fine pop band called Slow Decades have released a new single called “Ambient Violence” which was recorded at the band’s own practice space. This is very well crafted lo-fi chamber pop. Sweet.

Monster Blomster: what a nice discovery, never heard this 1990s Trondheim, Norway band! My introduction is this self-titled 1993 demo tape. Their later releases are a bit rockier it seems but this tape has some solid songs!

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Maylove! For my seasons challenge, I choose the Japanese band who wrote the song “Spring Fever”!

I really like Japanese indiepop of the 90s. There are so many terrific songs and I have covered quite a few on the blog. Today I’ll feature one of the most important bands even though they never put out an album, just singles!

According to Discogs the earliest release of the band is a self-titled tape from 1992!! Most possibly this is a band’s demo. There is no catalog number and looks like a self-release. The songs on this cassette were “The Lionhead Fountain”, “Russian Hands and Roman Fingers” and “My Own Fellowship”.

The next year, 1993, the band releases their first 7″. It wouldn’t come out on a Japanese label but on the US based Sunday Records (Sunday 027). This 7″ had three songs, “Sing Little Clam Sing” on the A side and “Russian Hands and Roman Fingers” and “My Own Fellowship” on the B side. A very similar release to the first tape, right? Maybe Sunday Records heard this demo and picked the band?

The vocals of Maylove are credited to Mami Otomo and all instruments to Keisuke Hatsuda. Both of them involved in well known Japanese indiepop bands. Mami being in Bridge, Case of Cytherea and Chicago Bass. Keisuke had been in the great Budgie Jacket.

That same year, 1993, they had the song “Don’t Turn Me Back” on the tape comp “A Love Like Lead!” released in Japan by Lionhead Fountain (was this their own label? I ask because they had a song with the same name?). “My Own Fellowship” was also included in a compilation that same year, it was on the “Smash Tinkle – International Pop Underground” released by Pico Records from Germany.

1994 would be quite prolific. There were two 7″s on Motorway Records including the first reference on the label. “Come into My Cheeks” 7″ (MOTOR 001) had the title song and “The Boy Next Door” on the A side and “Hey Day” on the B side. “Blue Walking Shore” 7″ (MOTOR 004) had the title song also on the A side, and two on the B side, “Objector” and “That Scent”.

On the Contrast label compilation 7″, “Split Single Club” (CT 002), they had the song “Rosy”. Then the song “Drake Upward” appears on the Swedish compilation tape “Second Half” released by Records from the Cookie Nose Tower (003) and “Big Business Monkey” is on “A Tribute to Daniel Johnston Vol. 3″ compilation 7″ released by Little Teddy Recordings (LiTe 178).

1995 sees the light of a 4-song EP 7” on Elefant Records called “Girl of a Girl Dreaming” (ER 130). The A side had “All I Need is For Your Faith” and “In a Tinderbox Love Song” and the B had “Lionhead Fountain” and “Girl of a Girl Dreaming”. And now the spring song, “Spring Fever”, appears on the SpinART Records (SPART 39) compilation “LemonLive Volume One… A Pop Compilation”.

Their last 7″ came out in 1996. It was “That Word Big But” released in the US label Fuzzy Box (FUZ 004). The songs on it were “Wild Carnation” on the A side and “Drake Upward” and “Motorway Lights and Cars Beneath Us” on the flipside. The song “My Own Fellowship” also appears on the Elefant Records (ER 1029) compilation “Elefant Radio 68.2 FM Stereo”. Amazing really that the band released in so many countries!

The next appearances on compilations date from the year 2000 and both were on Sunday Records. “Russian Fingers, Roman Hand” appears on “Rolling Meadows Songs About Our Past Vol. 2” (SUNDAY 850) and “Don’t Turn Me Back” and “The Boy Next Door” on the “Sunny Sunday Smile Volume 2” (SUNDAY 880) CD compilations.

There is also another tape compilations called “Anorak Demos” that was put together by Anorak Records in France sometime in the early 90s. I don’t know what year it was released, but the band had the three early songs from their first tape on it, “The Lionhead Fountain”, “Russian Hands and Roman Fingers” and “My Own Fellowship”.

One interesting fact that I see on my friend’s Alex blog 7iete Pulgadas is that he says that Keisuke Hatsuda was the person behind Motorway Records! That makes sense!

But is there more information about this great band on the web? I don’t seem to have much luck looking for details about the band. When did they start? How did they meet? When did they split? Were there more releases? Did they play many gigs? Who would know?

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Listen
Maylove – Spring Fever

Thanks so much to Nana, Milk and Fumi, The Harriets!! The Harriets are a newish band from Japan that make catchy bubbly pop a la All Girl Summer Fun Band, Heavenly, Betty and the Werewolves, etc. You get the gist! The band released a zine not too long ago which you can find here. Oh and they also have a Soundcloud! The band is one of my favourite discoveries as of late and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Japanese readers, the interview is also available in Japanese here.

++ Hi Nana, Milk and Fumi! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Still making music?

Nana: Hello! Nice to meet you! Thank you for giving us such a great opportunity  this time!

Milk: Hello! We are very excited to be interviewed !

Fumi: Hello! Yes, we are so glad to be interviewed!

++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen to at home while growing up?

Fumi: Well, I was playing the piano when I was a little.

Milk: Ah, I was playing YAMAHA Electone. itʼs quite popular in Japan, but Iʼm not sure  in the U.S. though…

Nana: I see, I was playing the piano and the guitar. But I was not good at the piano. Fumi : What sort of music we listened to when we were little…

Milk: When we were little, maybe Japanese pops at the time?

Nana: Yeah, watching music TV program and listening to the radio… I tried to record  my favorite songs in my cassette tape. Haha.

++ Had you been in other bands before The Harriets? If so, how did all of these bands sound? I know Milk was in Kung-Fu Girl, a great band whose album I have (thanks again)! Any other bands? Any recordings by these other bands?

Nana: Yes, I used to play another band called ʻʼTwinkleTwinkles” before. It was a three  piece girls band too. We released two mini albums and one 7 inch. I played this  band quite long time, so members changed many times. Fumi also  played together temporary.

Fumi: Yeah , before ”Twinkle Twinkles”, I was playing another band called “ice cream  shout”. We released an album at the time.

Nana: I really liked the band! We used to play at the same event a few times at the  time.

++ Where were you from originally?

Milk: We are from Kansai area such as Osaka, Hyogo and Wakayama.

++ How is Osaka for you? Were there any bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

Nana: For me, I was born here, so I have a lot of memories. Osaka is quite a big city so there are many good places and cool bands too!

Fumi: Yeah! Ah, we should definitely recommend “Glasgow Shokudo” !

Milk: Yes, definitely! Haha!

Itʼs a restaurant inspired from Glasgowʼs anorak music.

Nana: Not only they have a good atmosphere but also serve excellent cuisine. Milk: Club wonder is also recommendable place, isnʼt it?

Fumi: Yeah, absolutely! Ah, “NOON+CAFE” is also good place! We often go there.

Nana: Yeah, some great music events often take place there like “Anorak days”.  At this event, All DJs play only analog LP and they know tons of good music.  So we can enjoy anytime we go there.   And speaking of analog LP, very good record bar, “Mile high club” is also very recommendable place! Itʼs like a museum for indie music lover.

Fumi: Yeah, thatʼs true!  The owner of “Mile high club”, Shoji-sanʼs band “DEBONAIRE” is of course  the legend of neo acoustic band in Japan.

So whenever we go there, we can learn good bands and music.

Milk: Yeah, and about band in Kansai, there are very cool band here too! I like bands called “Manchester school㲇” and “Kutsushita”.

Nana: I like them too! I also like “Lady flash” and “death by dumplings”

++ Speaking of favourite bands, who would you say are your favourite contemporary Japanese bands? Maybe a top 5? Would love to discover more great Japanese indiepop!

Nana: A top five…Thatʼs very difficult question! Haha. Ah I really like a band called “toddle”. they are major band though. Milk: Iʼm big fan of Spitz since I was little!

Fumi: Yeah, I also like them !

Nana: Ah absolutely! I love Spitz too! Ah if we say indie bands we like are…

Milk: I like “THE PATS PATS” and “cattle”.

Nana: I think my friend Mikiʼs solo project “h-shallows” is also very cool!

Fumi: Yeah, they are very groovy!  I like “Caraway” too.

Nana: Yeah, I really like them too!

++ When and how did the band start? How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?

Nana: First, I met Fumi at a live event. At the time we were playing in different bands,  but music taste was very similar so we got along with soon.

Fumi: Yeah, it was already about 10 years ago…

Nana: I see, I canʼt believe it… then about 2 years ago, I went to a live event in Kobe  as an assistant and saw Kung-Fu girlʼs gig. I was so surprised because I didnʼt know there was such a good band in  Osaka! Then I tried to talk to Milk soon.

Milk: Yeah! I was also surprised that our favorite bands were almost the same!

Nana: Yeah, also we were living very close! Then I asked her phone number and a  few months later, I asked her to play together. After that, I thought it might be good to ask Fumi as well.

++ How is the creative process for you? Where do you usually practice?

Milk : Nana and I write songs normally. We usually bring demos to the studio and arrange together.

Nana: Nowadays, Fumi also made good one!

Fumi: Haha thanks!

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name? 

Milk: When we have to decide the band name because of our first gig,  we asked our good friend, DJ Harada about it and he suggested his favorite  record labelʼs name ( Harriet records).  He said he wanted to name it if he made his own band someday.

Nana: Then, We liked it immediately! it sounds very pretty and the record label was  also very good!

++ And who would you say are influences in the sound of the band?

Milk: We are influenced 80ʼs 90ʼs indie pop bands ,such as Tiger trap, Heavenly… Nana : Yeah, Talulah gosh, All girl summer fan band…

Fumi: Jesus and Mary chain… and so on.

++ I was reading a Japanese interview of yours, and one thing that caught my attention was that you all tell your Zodiac sign. I don’t know much about the Zodiac, but what does your sign mean to each of you? Are your signs complementary to each other perhaps?

Fumi: Wow! Thank you for checking our interview! we are very glad to hear that!  Ah about zodiac sign, mine is Aquarius and it is said that full of curiosity and  thinking logically. Well, I donʼt think so…

Milk: Mine is Virgo and it is said that person who has kindness and hospitality… Fumi : I think thatʼs so you!

Nana: Yeah! it is! Mine is Leo and it is said that creative and free-spirited person… Fumi : Wow itʼs so you too!

Milk: Haha, yes!

++ Your first release is a zine pack that includes a CDR with “Under the Moonlight (under the Sea Party Ver.)” and “Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe”. I would love tom know more about this release. What’s included in the fanzine for example? And how come only two songs are included?

Milk: Ah about zine pack which we released nowadays, Itʼs actually zine is the main  thing.

Fumi: Yeah, First, we were just making zine with our friend, Kinoko Nishida who is an illustrator and CDR was supposed to be an extras.

Nana: Then we recorded our original 2 songʼs party special version!  This Zine is included CDR and mini sticker.

++ I know, aside from the two songs on the zine pack, two more songs, “I Don’t Care” and “Last Night”. Were these songs released in any way? Or only online?

Nana: Oh! Thank you for checking our other songs too!!  We are so happy to hear that. We released those 2 songs by cassette tapes included download code.

++ Are there plans for future releases now? Are there labels interested in your music?

Milk: Yes, we are planning to record our full album now.

Nana: We wish we could release it from a good label !

++ So, as I was saying, I know 4 songs. But are there more recordings by The Harriets?

Fumi: So far , we have just that 4 songs. We have more than 10 songs so we are  planning to record them in our album.

++ And speaking of recordings, where do you usually record them? DO you have a producer?

Milk: We usually record in a studio in Osaka by ourselves.

Fumi: We donʼt have any producer.

++ The song “Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe” has a video which is so much fun. I have a few questions about this video. First where was this recorded? Where is this beach? Did you get to swim after the video recording ended?

Fumi: Thank you for watching the Music video! We recorded it in a small beach which is called “ Tokimeki beach”  (Tokimeki means “my heart beats fast” in Japanese. ) in the south of Osaka.

Nana: It was a very hot day. we didnʼt swim because it was too hot to swim…

++ Second, what is for picnic? I notice while you are shopping at the supermarket you have face masks, was this recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic?

Nana: Yeah, we went picnic and shot it this summer so it was during the Covid-19  pandemic. We thought that we should definitely go to a quiet outside place in this  situation. Then we decided to go on a picnic in this quiet beach. We had face mask all the time and went there by our car.

++ And third, at one point in the video you are in a recording studio with a two guy, who are they? The producers?

Milk: Ah, they are not our producers, they are our good friends, DJ MOKUO and DJ  RYU.

Fumi: They helped our recording and made playlists for our ZINE.

++ I think my favourite song of yours might as well be “Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

Milk: Thank you very much! We like “All girl summer fun band” and their song called “Theme song “. I was  inspired from that. I wanted to make the song like fun party.

++ If you were to choose your favorite The Harriets song, which one would that be and why?

Nana: I like every song, I cannot choose one.

Milk and Fumi: We canʼt either .Haha.

++ What about gigs? Have you played many? 

Milk: Nowadays, we havenʼt been able to play like before because of the Covid-19  pandemic.

Nana: Before that, we did our gigs in Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo.

++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

Milk: The best gigs… thatʼs difficult. The very first gig was quite impressive for me  though.

Fumi: Yeah, every gig is good memories for me.

Nana: Yes, I think so. but I was so happy when we performed in Nagoya.  Because right after we finished playing, many people gather and  complimented us.

++ And has there been any bad ones?

Nana: Well, we always enjoy gigs ! always get nervous though…

++ Has there been interest from the radio? TV?

Milk: Well, there has been a local radio program once played our songs .  We were very surprised but it was so glad!

++ What about the press? Have they give you any attention?

Fumi: Well, I donʼt think so.

Nana: We are very DIY band, so we announce our works by using our official twitter  and instagram.

++ What about from fanzines?

Nana: No, sadly we havenʼt had any message yet.

++ So far, for The Harriets, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

Nana: I think it might be our organized Christmas live event in last year.

Fumi: Yeah, the venue was a normal hamburger shop. So we had to prepare a lot of  things, but it was very fun!

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

Milk: I like cooking and watching movies.

Fumi: Me too! I like watching movies and sewing.

++ Never been to Japan, nor Osaka, so would love to know your recommendations, what are the sights one shouldn’t miss in your town? What about the foods and drinks one should try?

Nana: Oh! Please come to Japan when everything settles down. If you like, we are happy to show you good places here!

Milk: In Osaka, Maybe you should go to “Umeda Sky Building Garden” .

Nana: Yeah, Tsutenkaku area is also very OSAKA-ish place.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Nana: Again, Thank you for offering us this time!

Milk: Yeah, it was really fun!

Fumi: Yes, One day we would love to play in the U.S.!

Nana and Milk: Yeah, yeah! We want to go there!

Nana: Also we wish we could release 12 inch record too!

Milk and Fumi: yes, it is!

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Listen
The Harriets – Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe

Day 279.

Comfort and Joy – A Shiny Happy Christmas Compilation: what an amazing compilation for this Christmas season! The Indonesian label Shiny Happy Records have put together a 23 song compilation with tons of great indiepop tunes by lots of bands we love including Nixon, Apple Orchard, Starry Eyed Cadet, The Suncharms, Den Baron and more. This album is a must!

Gas Station Coffee: here’s a nice song by this solo project by a guy from Cincinnati, Ohio, called Jude. Recorded on his own cellphone the song is called “I Am My Own Virtual Pet :: Cats Dig Don Cherry”, is a nice slice of lo-fi bedroom pop.

Full Power Happy Hour: a new discovery for me. A jangly band from Brisbane formed by Alex, Grace, Caroline, Joe and Finn, that is releasing a self-titled album on vinyl and CD on February 19th. Right now we can preview two of the songs, the opening and the closing ones of the album, “Old Mind of Mine” and “Steely Fences”.

The Bv’s: our friends are back with a new song! And it is a Christmas season song of course! It is called “I Hope There’s No Snow” and sounds amazing (as usual). The Bv’s is definitely one of the best bands of the last few years and I am eagerly waiting for their next release!

Flowers: more friends that released records recently! Flowers put out a 7″ pm Slumberland Records a few weeks ago. It has two songs, “Erik” and “Candour” and they were classic Flowers songs, with Rachel’s unique vocals and their fuzzy guitars! Good stuff! As soon as I return to NY I have to order this!

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Here we are again for yet another post, another great indiepop band from Germany!

This time, for my seasons challenge, I chose Knabenkraut from Hamburg, Germany, who wrote the great song “Hot Winter Rain” on their 2014 album “Someone Still Loves You”!

This band is quite rare for many that I feature on the blog, they have a website! And it works. They also have a Facebook page though not updated much.

The band actually seems to have been born from the ashes of Red Letter Day. Three out of their four band members would end up in Knabenkraut. That is Oliver Goetzl on vocals and drums, Gerrit Herlyn (Oliver and Gerrit had been in the Jesterbells earlier on) on guitar and bass and Thomas Overdick (who wrote the fanzine Pearl) on guitar and bass. The only “new” member was Björn Steffens (from the band Connery) on keyboards, guitar and bass. The band was born in 1995.

There were some more lineup additions, for the band to end as a 7-piece, Carsten Schreiber (from Ms. Wallace and Alaska) became the band’s drummer in 1998 and Melanie Hamdorff joined sa a vocalist in 2003 (previously she had been a guest singer for the band). Johnny J. Müske joined as bassist in 2004.

All of the band’s releases would appear on Marsh-Marigold records. That makes a lot of sense, see Oliver is the person behind the label! It all makes sense.

Ok, what does Knabenkraut means? A quick translation on the web tells me it is a type of orchid, a purple one, very pretty!

What else should we know? Well their releases of course! The band only have two proper releases, two albums, and they took a while to be released if you consider the band formed in 1995 and released their first album in 2002 and the 2nd in 2014!

The first album is called “True Love Can Wait” (MARI 22) and sports an orchid illustration by Max Schulze on the sleeve. The album included 14 songs, “Heaven”, “Swing”, “Riverbeds”, “Promising”, “Pink Fool”, “You Can’t Have the Cake and Eat it”, “Past”, “Stay”, “Rescue”, “Explain”, “Bluebottle”, “Same for Kisses”, “Instead” and “Certain Fall”. The album was recorded by Rainer Heesh, Fredrik Martol and Tord Nikolaisen in Liverpool at the LIPA Studio 4 and 3 and also in Hamburg at Off Ya’ Tree between autumn 2000 and spring 2002. It was mixed at the Liverpool Studio and mastered by Helge Halvé.

The second album, “Someone Still Loves You” (MARI 27), had 12 songs, “Suspense”, “Broken Vow”, “Hibernation II”, “Is there A Place?”, “Beautiful Faces”, “Sunday Rest”, “Shinkansen”, “Johnny & Mary” (a cover of Robert Palmer’s original), “Hot Winter Rain”, “Bessie’s Song to Her Doll”, “White Winter Clouds” and “Heaven (reprise)”.

This CD has amazing artwork by Jeff Cain. Illustrations of different animals abound Tiger, hyena, lynx, bear, vulture and more. On this album we know that Frank Grischek helped with trumpets on a few songs. That “Bessie’s Song to Her Doll” is based on a Lewis Carroll poem and “Is There a Place?” is based on thoughts by Rüdiger Hamman.

Aside from the two albums the band participated on a few compilations. Starting in 1997 with the song “Hot Winter Rain” on the Noiseworks Records (NW 153) CD comp “Voices of the Suburban Youth (A Fieberkurve – Compilation Vol. 3)” and continuing with many more.

So, in 1998 the band appears with “Same for Kisses” on Big Noise Records’ “Your Favourite Waste of Time (Fieberkurve – Compilation Vol. 5)” (BN 538) and also with “Hot Winter Rain (Demo version)” on the “Seven Fantastic Cats (Marsh-Marigold Compilation)” 7″ comp that got released in Japan by Clover Records (707).

In 1999 they contribute “Hot Winter Rain (demo)” to “Clover Club: A Clover Compilation 1” (CLDCD 406) again on Clover. The same song, to the same label.

In 2003 their song “Promising” appears on “SPEX CD #27”. Spex being a music magazine in Germany of course. Then in 2004 they have “Heaven” on the terrific compilation “Pop Renaissance” by Excellent Records (EXCD 014) from Japan and lastly in 2008 the song “Riverbeds” appear on “Series Two Compilation Vol. 8” in the US.

We also know about gigs thanks to their website. We know that they toured Japan in 2003 playing Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Fukuoka, Nagoya, Shizuoka and Sendai. Wow! All gigs had the great Miniskirt supporting them. But other Japanese bands also joined like Sloppy Joe, Snowflakes, Red Go-Kart, Film 400, Pervenche, Swining Popsicle, Mushroom Cloud, Pepe & Prima and Kotolis.

Something to check out is Peter Twee.net’s diary from Japan. He accompanied the band during the tour and has written about it.

In Germany they played mostly in Hamburg (with Coem, Sodastream and Love Dance) as well as in Kassel (Sodastream again) and Berlin (With Spearmint). I see that in Hamburg they played at the Astrastube. That bring so many good memories to me. How I wish to go back there!

Something that many would find interesting is that Oliver is actually a zoologist and animal filmmaker. He studied at the University of Hamburg and graduated as a biologist. He has made documentaries like “Wolverines – Hyenas of the North” as well as working with the BBC making episodes for the film series of Wild Russia or Wild Scandinavia. Very cool! You can check his filmography here.

What do the other members of Knabenkraut when not making music? That’s a good question I hope to get answers soon.

Another good question will be if the band is still going? Are there more songs coming up? Marsh-Marigold seems very quiet these days.

But this was a nice way to remember the label and one of their bands. I really like all the bands Oliver has been in. I’ve worked with The Seashells and have interviewed The Legendary Bang. I wrote a little piece about My Guru Says. I think I should do more about this terrific label. But to start, let me know who remembers Knabenkraut?!

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Listen
Knabenkraut – Hot Winter Rain