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

Day 276.

Sugar World: the San Diego band is back with four songs, four covers. They are “Just Like Christmas” by Low, “Anorak Christmas” by Nixon, “Blue Christmas” by Elvis and “Merry Christmas Darling” by The Carpenters. They are all packed in an EP called “A Sugar Christmas”.

Cour De Récré: this new French group formed by Stan, Quentin and Chloe are releasing a new song called “Vice et Werther” on Elefant Records. There is a video for the fun synth-driven song as well. At this time the band is preparing their first mini-LP for the the Spanish label.

Perrogato: one of our favourite Chilean bands has just came out with an album titled “Me Gusta Más La Diversion” that has 12 songs of fun indiepop. They are being released by the also Chilean label Gemelo Parásito Records. Sadly the album seems to be available only on digital format. How we’d like a CD version at least. In any case, great effort Cheché, Danko, Ricardo, Sofia and Cristobal!

Send No Flowers: wow! I love this Linköping band from the 90s! And now they are on Bandcamp. Maybe I could interview them? Their latest upload to this site is “The First Lachen Session” which includes an alternative mix of their classic song “Learning French”. Wow. So cool!

Youth Valley: and the lates in this review is the EP by Youth Valley that Make Me Happy Records has on Bandcamp. It seems it will be out only digitally, which is a shame of course, the three songs are terrific. But maybe as they are a brand new band it makes sense to see how the fans respond? I wonder. In any case, play them a lot, they are very good. Maybe we can convince the label to put out a 7″! Wouldn’t that be great?

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The turn is now for “autumn” in the seasons challenge. So what about “Autumn” by the superb late 90s band The Castaway Stones? A band that featured important DC indiepop legends like Dan Searing (drums) from Glo-Worm, The Saturday People, Whorl or Lu, Greg Pavlovcak (guitar/bass) from The Saturday People, The Ropers or The Still, and Pam Berry  (vocals/guitar) from Black Tambourine, Bright Coloured Lights, Glo-Worm, The Pines, The Relict, The Shapiros, Veronica Lake or Bel Étage.

I think I own almost all of the records the band released. I think I am missing one split 7″ and their compilation appearances. But that’s not bad. One can only own a limited amount of indiepop records, right?

I believe the band’s first appearance is the 1998 split 7″ on Brittle Stars Records also from Washington, DC. This split 7″ had the band contributing the song “Daydream of You at Night” on the A side, and the great band Dearly (who I have written about) contributing “No Respect” on the flipside. The catalog number for this 7″ is BSR 003 and we that The Castaway Stones song was recorded at The Pre New Studios by Archie Moore. The 7″ sleeve was designed by Ocean Design.

In 1999 the band would join the ranks of Ed’s Shelflife Records. There they would release a 7″ titled “Leave No Stone Unturned” (LIFE 008) with three songs, “Sunday Came and Went” on the A side and “Eight Days” and “To Tell The Truth” on the B side. The band is credited as producers as well as Foot Foot. Soon after the band released an album called “Make Love to You” (LIFE 011) with the same label. This record had 10 beautiful songs, “Up all Day”, “Lost and Found”, “Night Time is the City’s Only Star”, “Rose in the Devil’s Garden”, “The Revolution Creaks on a Bed”, “Under London Skies”, “Pinball, 1973”, “Brazil”, “Autumn II” and “Everybodys” Having a Good Time”. I believe that for this album the band added Ara Hacopian to their ranks. At least on the credits they add an Ara. And the only Ara I know that was in DC and was in indiepop bands is Ara Hacopian who ran Foxyboy Records and was in The Family Way, The Saturday People, The Youth Untold and even Boyracer. Again the songs were produced by the band and Foot Foot, in the summer of 1998. The sleeve was designed by John Dugan, photos by Mary Solak. In the thank you notes we see many familiar names, from Chity and Miguel in Spain to Stephen in Scotland and Amelia in the UK, and more. A very well connected band indeed!

In 1999 the band also released the “In the Devil’s Garden” 7″ on Boa Records (HISS 15). The A side is of course “Rose in The Devil’s Garden” while the B side is “Autumn”. These songs were recorded by Gayle Brogan who ran Boa Records and who had been in Adventures in Stereo, Burd Ellen, Electroscope and Pefkin and John Cavanagh also from Electroscope and Silence Ensemble. This label, based in Glasgow, would also release the band’s last release, a split 7″ also on Boa Records. The split 7″ is titled “Just like Geoff” (HISS 18) and would have Electroscope with Mount Vernon Arts Lab on the A side contributing the song “Sky Men” while The Castaway Stones appear on the B side with “My Friend Bobby”.

When it comes to compilations we know the band contributed the song “Sunday Came and Went” to the “You Make Me Smile (A Shelflife Records Collection)” CD comp from the year 2000 and the song “Up All Day” to the “Indie Aid Abroad: A Little Help for East Timor” released by Library Records (SHHH 10) and Drive-In Records (DRIVE 042) that same year. There’s also a compilation appearance on the “Millefeuille” comp that came with the Japanese magazine Beikoku Ongaku issue #14 from 1999 with the song “Autumn”.

We do know of course all the many bands the people were involved with , we have followed them, so you’d think there are not many questions to ask. But would be great to know if they played live much. I haven’t found any details about that. Maybe they were more of a studio, recording, project. If that is the case would be fantastic to find out if there are more recordings by the band. Also when and how did the band start. When and why did they call it a day. Any details, would be great to find!

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Listen
The Castaway Stones – Autumn II

++ From what I understand you only released two demo tapes? Is that right? Or where there more? Any chance you could do a demography, what songs were on each? when were they released?

Andrew: There were a few demos released.  The ones I still have copies of are –

Released in late Summer 1988 – Wayne, Barf and Large.

Released around April 1989 – Bounce; Big, Bad Dirty Goodbye and Goodbye Dolly

Released January 1990 – Thoroughly Modern Willy; Post; Shirley, Shirley, Shirley and Done Did.

There was at least one other, which included an earlier version of Post and Swede.  There were a few other tracks recorded which I’m fairly certain would have been sent out on demo cassettes.

++ Where were they recorded? Who produced them?

Andrew: The first two were recorded at 911 Studios in Cowfold, West Sussex and we recorded a couple of sessions at Advision in London.  I suppose you could say they were self produced, but they were pretty much straight recordings of how the band sounded live.  The exception being the last three songs we recorded at Advision in London (Shirley, Willy and Done Did) which were recorded with engineer Barry Sage and our friend Kate on cello and sound like a bit more of a production.

++ How come there were no proper releases by the band? Was there any interest by labels to release your songs?

Andrew: No, there no released songs and I don’t recall any record company interest at the time.

Day 274.

Sodastream: have always been a fan of the Melbourne duo formed by Karl Smith and Pete Cohen. They have been terribly quiet as of late, but suddenly there’s a new song by them called “Letter from Melbourne”. It is classic Sodastream if you know what I mean. It is a song the band have recorded during the lockdown. I hope this means they are working on a new album too!

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: two new songs by the San Francisco band. I’ve written so much about them that don’t think they need an introduction. The two new songs are “Dahlias and Rain” and “Bed of Roses”, this second one a cover of Screaming Trees.

Kissamatic Lovebubbles: the Greek label Old Bad Habits has put together a digital compilation of all the songs by the classic Athens band. Included are the songs from their 7″ on This Happy Feeling as well as many live recordings. This is really good and essential!

Sissy Space Echo & the Invisible Collaborators: another new release coming out on the Greek label Old Bad Habits is a 7″ by this superb English band whose previous release was a favourite of mine. This new 7″ will include two songs, “The Day the Earth Caught Fire” and “They’ll Fix You (They Fix Everything)”.

The Bachelor Pad: a 10″ vinyl with the songs “Meet the Lovely Jenny Brown”, “Eeek!”, “Albert Hoffman”, “Do It for Fun (12inch version)” and “Meet the Lovely Jenny Brown (vocal mix)” is going to be released by Emotional Response Records! How cool! It is the perfect accompaniment to the recent Best Of compilation the band and label put out. Great news!

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Let me start a new challenge. This one will be much shorter, but may help anyone doing their mix tapes or CDs. What about a challenge of the four seasons? Let me write a post about bands who wrote songs about summer, fall, winter and spring. Sounds good? I’ll start with summer today!

I believe I only have two records by the French project River, two albums one from 2002 and 2003. These seem to be their last releases. Dear dear. I need go go back and check all the previous releases. And they are quite a few!

But first why did I pick this band? Well, they wrote a lovely song “Happy Summer Nights”. So that gives summer a check mark in my challenge.

According to a bio on AllMusic the band was actually the solo project of Fabrice Hervé from Nantes, France. The project started in 1997 and that year it says the band released a CD called “Happiness & Smiles”. I haven’t been able to find any info about this CD sadly. Was it an album? A single?

The year after, 1998, the band would release “The Hairdresser” (Plastic Pancake 004) 7″ single on the fine French label Plastic Pancake. This 7″ included three songs, “The Hairdresser” and “Happy Summer Nights” on the A side and “Parisian Girl” on the B side. The female vocals on “Happy Summer Nights” are by Sophie.

That same year a single sided tape called “Venus” was released by the US based label In a Lighthouse Cassettes. This tape included 8 songs, “Imaginary Friend”, “Country Man”, “Bright Nights”, “Fishes in a Berlin Garden”, “A Night with Tres Hansen”, “Madoka”, “The Forbidden Wall” and “Juliette”.

In 1999 the band would release another tape, this time on the Italian label Best Kept Secret. The tape was titled “Once Upon a Time” (LIE 027) and included 22 songs! Quite a lot! The A side had “Stories of Love”, “Beach Song”, “Family (Techno Mix)”, “Suicide”, “Inside Your Arms”, “Bye Bye 2”, “From You to Me”, “Mary’s Street”, “Tu As Beau”, “Sometimes” and “Rainbow”. The B side had “Family (Noisy Mix)”, “Suddenly”, “Down”, “Love”, “Waiting”, “25-10-95”, “Little Girl”, “Eric’s Trip”, “Ici Ce Soir”, “A Night with Naomi” and “A Night with Inès”.

That same year, 1999, the band would release a second 7″ on Plastic Pancake (009). Three songs again, “Spiderman” on the A side and “It’s Me!” and “Kitty Cat” on the B side. But that wouldn’t be all. The band would start a relationship with the US based Shelflife Records, releasing first a 7″ EP called “Poseidon’s Girlfriend” (LIFE 022). This 7″ had “Queen” on the A side and “Gentle Land” and “Mister Jocker” on the B side.

The year 2000 would continue being prolific for the band. 2 songs were to be released as a 7″ on the French label Safari (Safari 0002), “Strawberry Lipstick” on the A side and “Madoka” on the B side. And then came another album, “…Is the Postman” released on the US label Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club (BBPTC 194). And yes it was released on CD not on tape. This album had 11 songs, “Boys and Girls”, “Let me Stay”, “The Four Princesses”, “Juliette”, “River’s Song”, “A Night With You”, “Am I So Silly to Believe?”, “Art Students”, “Brasilia”, “Tea for Cats” and “Go in a Tree”.

In 2002 we’d see a the “Street of Desire” 7″ on Plastic Pancake (015) with the title song on the A side and “Strange Friends” on the B side and the self-titled album on Shelflife Records (LIFE 023) with another whopping 20 songs: “Better than You”, “At Home”, “Happy Summer Nights”, “Harold the Wonder Boy”, “Writing”, “Le Top Model”, Les Volets Verts”, “Street of Desire”, “Will You Marry Me?”, “The Recital of My Life”, “The Hairdresser”, “Let’s Climb to the Moon”, “Switch On”, “Miss Dolly”, “The Bridge”, “Pet’s Field”, “Un Diner Sur l’Herbe”, “Me and Naomi”, “Dream On” and “Thank You’.

Aside from this, even though Discogs doesn’t list it, I know, because I also have it, a CD album called “Music for Top Models” released by the German label Meller Welle Produkte (MEL 33) in 2003. This album had 14 songs, “Heavenly Voices (intro)”, “She Lives Under a Rainbow”, “Living in a City”, “American’s Bedroom”, “English Party”, “The Green Hoan”, “The Little Pink Town”, “Like a Dream”, “German Girl”, “Emma’s Song”, “Merry Go Round”, “Mum Had a Lover”, “Diamond Girl” and “I See Nothing in Your Eyes”. One thing I have to say about this record is that the design is not very pretty, not sure why. The other releases have very sober and interesting art, this one not really. It is a fine album though.

Aside from the releases the band did appear on many compilations. The first one actually dates from 1995, so ok, the band was around much earlier than the bio we found. In 1995 the band contributed the song “Bye Bye” to “Palazzo” a compilation tape released in France by Pâte a Modeler (PAM 005). The year after, on the same label they had three songs on the compilation “Imbroglio” (PAM 008), “The Hairdresser”, “Will You Marry Me?” and “Notre Rencontre”.

Then there’s a gap of 4 years. In the year 2000 they have the song “End of a Story” on the Japanese comp “Voyage Romanesque” on Bambini Records (BAM 5). That same year we find “Queen” on “You Make me Smile” a CD comp on Shelflife (LIFE 10) and “Art Students” on the “Blackbean and Placenta CD Compilation #4, Autumn 2000” released by Blackbean and Placenta (BBPTC 144).

In 2002 the song “German Girl” is on “We Are Not Alone (Songs for the Lo-fi Generation) Volume 6” tape comp released by Best Kept Secret (LIE 043). Then in 2003, they cover The Arrogants’ song “Lovesick” on the “You’re Still Young at Heart” CD compilation on Shelflife (LIFE 050) and the song “Two for a Night” appears on the compilation CDR “Dashboard Teddy Version 1.0” on Dorothy Records from the Philippines.

And that seems to be it when it comes to releases.

But I can google right? And I find he was doing a project called Moon & River about 4 years ago. 11 songs are on Bandcamp. This is a collaboration between Fabrice and Jean-Charles Queffélect from the band To the Moon and Back.

One thing that I do find on the web is that River played San Francisco on July 25 of 2002 with support of Laura Watling! Wow! That must have been a cool gig, and all just for $5!

I don’t seem to find much more information on River, especially curious to know if Fabrice was involved with any other bands. But hey, we’ve shared a lot of info here, some that is not on Discogs even. I have many questions still but hopefully they’ll get answered in the near future!

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Listen
River – Happy Summer Nights

Day 272.

Stephen’s Shore: a few days ago we were very excited to listen to “Brisbane Radio” by our Stockholm friends! Now the band has finally unveiled a second song from their upcoming 7″. It is called “Skogen” and again it is really good. Jangly, elegant, just what I needed to listen today. This 7″ will be out on January 22nd and they are already taking pre-orders.

The Hannah Barberas: wow! A new EP by the Hannah Barberas! And it is one that is perfect for this season. The “Winter EP” is out now digitally with three perfect Christmas songs, “Happy Winter”, “Can You Hear the Snowfall?” and “Holiday Hymn”. Add them to your Christmas mixtape!

The Catherines: another band that has a Christmas song is the Hamburg duo The Catherines. The song is called “I’ve Heard They Called Off Christmas” and is being released as a digital single with “I Doubt He’s in a Good Mood” as a sort of B side. Both tracks are nice, as one person commented in their Bandcamp, perfect indiepop tunes!

The Fisherman and his Soul: “The Last Wasp of the Year” is another X-mas single, this time from Münster, Germany! It is a great video as we see a lot of familiar faces in it! The song is fun too, and it is also available on Bandcamp here. Don’t miss it! It is being released as a CD single and it is verly limited. Only 9 copies are available at the time of writing this!

The Lousy Pop Group: the latest release on the Thessaloniki, Greece, label Melotron Recordings is a CD by this great Indonesian band, a Cloudberry favourite for a long time. The CD seems to be sold out already, and it will include 4 songs. We can preview one of them, “Days”. On top of it, the record has art by our friend Casio van Doesburg. Top release.

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So a Swedish band that took their name from the song “Punky’s Dilemma” by the American duo Simon & Garfunkel (from their 4th studio album, “Bookends” from 1968). A Swedish band that was around in the 2000s and, released a few CDs and then went silent until 2013 when Jigsaw Records put out a posthumous album. So join me and see what we can find out about them!

For many the introduction to Punky’s Dilemma was through Shelflife Records and their CDR series. The 11th CDR on the series was the “‘neath The Staring Skies” by Punky’s Dilemma and a lot of us fell in love with the swedes. This EP had 6 songs, “Airliner”, “Not if I Lose”, “Dream MTV”, “For Sale”, “Century of Time” and “Grace”. There were only 100 copies of this CD made, and I still don’t have a copy myself! But thanks to Discogs we know some of the credits.

So the main songwriter was Mikael Calner. Then listed as choir are Björn Stegmann, Hanna Calner, Camilla Sjeren, Carl-Otto, Lena, Lisa, Markus and Martin. It also says that the CD featured The Beautiful Aircraft Choir.

This CD was released in 2003 and you wonder how did Shelflife find out about them. Perhaps there was a demo CD before it? It would be good to find out. In any case there next release was a self-released album called “Scandinavia” in 2005.

This seems even rarer. The cover art shows a building and its windows. Maybe somewhere in Sweden? We know the CDR album had 10 songs, “Radiosonic”, “Century of Time”, “A Side Effect of Violence”, “City People”, “Airliner”, “Dream MTV”, “For Sale”, “Scandinavia”, “Not if I Lose” and “Grace”.

Then in 2006 the band would sign to Junk Musik, a label that had released the terrific Brainpool, and put out the “Echelon EP” (JNKS 0518). This one had 5 songs, “Shooting Stars”, “A Side Effect of Violence”, “Echelon”, “Century of Time” and “Scandinavia”. The photos for this EP are credited to both Mikael and Hanna, and the design to Markus Slivka. Christoffer Lundquist mastered, mixed and produced.

Something that may answer how Shelflife heard about the band is that the band appeared on the compilation “The Sound of Young Sweden – Volume 3”  from 2002. This compilation was put out by Labrador Records (LAB034) and they had two songs on it, “Century of Time” and “Dream MTV”

Another compilation appearance would be on the “Puzzle Pieces” double CD comp released by Jigsaw (PZL05). There the band would contribute “City People”.

So now let’s get back to the 2013 album that Jigsaw released. It is called “Remote Sensing” (PZL029) and that one is still available. I recommend everyone to get a copy. It has 11 songs, “Shooting Stars”, “Dream MTV”, “Echelon”, “Radiosonic”, “A Side Effect of Violence”, “Scandinavia”, “For Sale”, “Century of Time”, “Grace”, “Halfway” and “Airliner”. According to Jigsaw this release revisits older songs, older songs that were re-recorded the way it it should have been. So what does this mean? That they recorded them again when? 2013? Would be a good thing to find out.

The CD gives a little bit more information. It says all music and lyrics are credited to Mikael Calner but “Shooting Stars” and “Grace” which were written by Mikael and Hanna Calner. Were they husband and wife? Maybe brother and sister? In any case most of the songs were recorded, mixed, and mastered by Christoffer Lundquist in the Aerosol Grey Machine Studio in Vallarum. Vallarum seems a very small town sort of in the middle of nowhere in Skåne. The songs “Radiosonic”, “Grace” and “Halfway” were produced, recorded and mixed by Björn Stegmann in a few places, the same studio as before, in an apartment on Sturegatan street in Malmö and at Tongeneration Studio also in Malmö. I wonder then if the band hailed from Malmö? It could be.

Other info worth mentioning is that the photography on this CD is credited to Michael Martin from Germany, the sleeve design to the band and the strings on tracks “Shooting Stars” and “Scandinavia” were played by Christoffer Lundquist. You can listen to the album here too.

I find then that Björn Stegmann who produced the band was in the band Thirdimension who had a few records on Telegram Records.

Then a blog called Le Journal des Mouches has a 2006 post about the band. Here they mention the band started in 2001 a s a trio with Mikael Calner on vocals and guitar, Hanna Calner on backing vocals and percussion and Camilla Sjeren on keyboards and piano. They also mentuin the band has played around in Malmö in venues like Inkonst, KB and Glassfabriken. Dear… I feel old reading these names that at one point I dreamed of visiting and attending. It’s been a while since I visited Malmö. When will I go again?!

And then one amazing thing I didn’t remember. Punky’s Dilemma played in Malmö alongside my friends of The Sunny Street on November 30, 2007, at Blekingska, in Lund. Really wow. That must have been a beautiful gig.

I keep digging and finally find what I was looking for. The early demo! So, in 2002 the band released a demo CD produced by Björn Stegmann. This CD had 6 songs, “Airliner”, “Not if I Lose”, “Dream MTV”, “For Sale”, “Century of Time and Grace”. I knew there was a release I was missing!

Okay, so that was good detective work. Still it’d be great to know more about the band. What happened to the band members? Are they still making musi

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Listen
Punky’s Dilemma – Shooting Stars

j

Day 269.

Subsonic Eye: the Singapore label Middle Class Cigars is releasing a wonderful album called  “Nature of Things” by the also Singaporean combo Subsonic Eye. So far we can preview one of the songs, “Unearth”, which sounds amazing. It even has a video if you are not convinced. You’ll see this is great. Totally recommended. Now I hope I get to listen to the rest of the songs, if they are as good as “Unearth” we are in for a treat!

The Fisherman and his Soul: well this is already sold out. That is a shame. Sebastian Voss’ solo project have just released a 7″ with two songs, “Reckenfeld (Feat. Tenant from Zero & Estella Rosa) and “Harenberg (feat. Kev Robertson)”. I don’t know how many copies were made, I just know I arrived late. But at least we can stream both songs on Bandcamp.

Iris Bevy: remember the band Ping Pong Club from Indonesia? They were great, weren’t they? Well it seems they have changed a bit their style, more into electropop, and also their name, to Iris Bevy. Their latest song is called “Endeavor (feat. Emiri Kanou)”, and it is quite lovely. A bit different yeah, but very enjoyable.

Tres Oui: now a four-piece from Austin, Texas, that have just released a 2 song digital single on their Bandcamp. The songs are called “Sad Boys” and “Oh Guitar”. They are jangly and bright. They have a few other releases, they’ve been going since at least 2017, so I’ll have to check those out!

English Summer: I’ve championed this jingle jangly band from Melbourne in the past. Their songs are very Sarah-esque at times, other times it feels very Bodines. So yes, it is great. We know the band is working on an album called “The Wedding”. I can’t wait for it. This is very very promising. I am sharing now with you their latest song, “Flowers For You”.

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“Impractical Guide to the Opposite Sex”, a 10″ and CD released in 2001 by Radio Khartoum (Mhz201/Khz201). That’s the only proper release of the Norwegian project.

You can also count a compilation appearance from 2000. Their song “Dream 2001” appeared on “We Love You… So Love Us” a CD/LP compilation release by We Love You (AMOUR 1) that got released in the UK, France, Australia, and more. There is just one little thing about this release, Nice System actually appears as Nice System 2001. Not sure if that makes a difference.

Back to the 12 song album “Impractical Guide to the Opposite Sex”, a perfect soundtrack for a rainy or lazy Sunday. One thing we need to say from the get go is that Nice System was the side-project of the superb Norwegian band Remington Super 60. It is no surprise then that you can listen to the record now on Remington Super 60’s Bandcamp. Also do check that on the front cover of the sleeve it says “Remington Super 60 presents”.

The 10 songs on this album were “System Instrumental 02”, “We Sing Ba Ba Ba”, “Sara 0157”, “In Bed All Day”, “Sleeping By a Building Site”, “Song for Me”, “Did I Do Wrong”, “My Name is Juolio”, “A Day in Christoffer’s Bedroom”, “DO You Know the Way to Fredrikstad”, “System Instrumental 01” and “Elevator Disco Express”. They were written by Christoffer Schou and recorded at Henning Fjeld’s studio (FRXTA). The songs ended up being mastered by Jiri Novak from the fantastic band Cinnamon.

For instruments in the album we know that Christoffer Schou played guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and effects. Magnus Abelsen did vocals, played drums and percussion while Benedicte Sveinsson Computorgirl also sang and played cello.

The band was based in Frederisktad.

The city of Fredrikstad was founded in 1567 by King Frederick II, and established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipality of Glemmen was merged with Fredrikstad on 1 January 1964.  The city straddles the river Glomma where it meets the Skagerrak, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the Sweden border. Along with neighboring Sarpsborg, Fredrikstad forms the fifth largest city in Norway:

The city was named after the Danish king Frederick II in 1569.

We also know other bands they’ve been involved with. For example Schou was in Doopy, Benedicte was on Remington Super 60 and Magenta and Magnus played in Remington Super 60, Julenavigatorene and Safariari.

There doesn’t seem to be much more info on the web of this project. One does wonder why they used a different name to Remington Super 60. Why they stopped used it and didn’t release any other records. Are there more compilation appearances? Any other songs by this project? Did they ever play live with this name?

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Listen
Nice System – In Bed All Day

Thanks so much to Cristoph and Chantelle for the interview! Ampersand were a San Francisco band that in the 90s released an amazing mini-album on Fantastic Records. This mini-album is actually available to listen on Bandcamp, on the Stars on Fire, Bandcamp! That’s because Christoph, now in South Korea, has been recording music under this name and making top songs. So if you want to go down memory lane, remember those days of the San Francisco scene, The Aislers Set, The Fairways and more, you are going to enjoy this!

++ I only know one release of yours, the self-titled CD on Fantastic Records. But before that, had there been any previous recordings by the band?

Nope.

++ How did you end up working with Fantastic Records? How was your relationship with them?

I sent out a bunch of demos. They liked what they heard. They had released some awesome stuff, so I was thrilled to get that email from them. I printed it out and stuck it to my wall.

++ I feel this label had a great catalogue, lots of great bands of the period, were you friends with them? Perhaps played gigs together?

We played with #Poundsign# and Aislers Set. I loooved Juniper and of course Black Tambourine.

++ I also couldn’t find any compilation appearances by the band other than “Tokyo Girl’ appearing on a Beikoku Ongaku compilation, is that right?

That’s it.

++ And how come there weren’t more releases by the band?

We split up in 2000. There was always tension about continuing, and so I ended up in Japan….

Chantelle: We wanted to do some festivals but not all of us could or wanted to.

++ Are there any unreleased songs by the band?

Two, I think. One dubbed “New Zealand,” and I can’t remember the name of the other, though I had liked it.

Day 267.

What the Fuck is Twee?: this is the name of the new compilation put together by the Florida label Ramonescore Radio Records. It is now available digitally but soon should be released on CD. It includes many great bands including friends like My Light Shines For You, Las Margaritas and The Umbrella Puzzles. 11 tracks in total!

Model Village: now we head to Cambridge, UK, to discover the band Model Village and their album “World of Carp”. The album is to be released on March 5, so there’s quite a wait, but that’s ok. It will be coming out on CD and vinyl and right now we can preview the opening track, “Insufferable” which sounds ace.

Johnny Nocash: now we head to Bolton, UK, to hear the new music by the ex-Broken Down Lorry and The Irony Board. IT is an EP called “Roasting on the Cobwebs” and it comes with 5 songs of lovely lo-fi pop. The EP is available digitally now on Broken Down Records.

Death to Slow Music: another Cambridge band! Wow. This is a digital single called “Pressure” and was released on Nov. 27 digitally. The band describe themselves as four anoraks. That sounds good no? This is a fun song too. I should check out the rest of their songs.

Duschpalatset: a four piece from Umeå. That already sounds good. So many great indiepop bands from that northern city of Sweden.  “Konstigt” is their latest track and it is superb. It is proper indiepop and I am hooked on this band. We need a proper release soon!

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It’s been a while since I featured a Norwegian band. So let’s do that today. As it is sort of expected I look into the Perfect Pop Records catalog. There are many great bands there and I really haven’t looked at all of them in detail. Maybe that’s something to do the coming year? That’d be great. The Blind Bats or The Ethnobabes are two big favourite of mine. And do not forget The Tables!

The Superman Can Flys don’t have much of a big story on the label, just a 7″ released in the year 2000 and a few compilations.

The “Tar Tar-Pop EP” 7″ is probably their most known work. It had the catalog number POP37 and included 5 songs. The A side had three, “Tar-Tar-Pop”, “Superman Can Fly!” and “Cloudbert” while the B side had “Passionate Hermit” and “Normalize and Stabilize”.

The 7″ comes with some cool art on the sleeve as well as an insert with the songs lyrics and more illustrations. But as we were saying the band also contributed some songs to compilations. In 2001 they would contribute “Nude-A” to the 7″ comp “Perfect Pop 10 Years” (POP39), a rare, not for sale record, that the label put together for the anniversary concert at Mono in Oslo. I wonder how I could get a copy?

The other compilation was “Bestrummed! Perfect Pop 1995-2001” (POP40) also released in 2001. This one is easier to find. The band contributed two songs to this record, “Passionate Hermit” and “To Anyone”.

Aside from these two, the band contributed “Heart of Stone Man” to a 2008 compilation called “Series Two Compilation Vol. 13”. And that’s it when it comes to physical releases. But wait. There’s more.

The band actually still has a website that works. That’s rare, I know. But here we can find good information about them.

First of all there’s quite a biography. Important things we learn from it is that the band hailed from the city of Drammen, west of Oslo. The band starts in 1997 with two brothers, Frode and Vegard who recorded then two songs, “Nude A” and “Superman Can Fly”. Soon after Thomas Innstø would join the band. Thomas being a member of the band The Jessica Fletchers who were also on Perfect Pop.

This trio recorded an album called “Hunk Nguru” which wasn’t properly released, just on CDR. This album included 13 songs, “Nude A”, “Peter Parker’s 1st Bossanova Pt. 2”, “No. 12 Waiting for the Triangle”, “Come On”, “Razorblade Parade”, “Lee Roy & The Disco Stab”, “Superman Can Fly”, “Radiocars”, “Now the Story’s Told”, “Just Another Perfect Song”, “Blueboy Cowboy”, “Stay on Your Horse” and “Drawing of a Fish (live at Cactus)”.

The band would grow bigger. Rune Someday, Bjorn Clumsy, Andreas Munster and Eerie Strøm would join. This new lineup would record a 2nd album called “Tar-Tar-Pop. – So Unfinished, Yet so Complete”. I believe this was also available on CDR. This album had 19 songs! They were “Tar-Tar-Pop”, “Nude A”, “Too Intelligent to Be Happy”, “Are You Funny”, “I Don’t Know Where London Is”, “Superman Can Fly!”, “Major Bill”, “Passionate Hermit”, “Hobgoblin”, “Normalize and Stabilize”, “Bajo Nouevo”, “I Saw You on T.V.”, “Beautifully Wrapped Crap”, “Cloudbert”, “Hermee Life”, “Ba-Boo”, “Blueboy”, “To Anyone” and “Smile”.

Then came the 7″ on Perfect Pop of course. But that wasn’t all. In 2003 the band would release another CDR called “The Superman Can Flys Vs. The E Street Band”, an 11 song album including “Intro by Bruce”, “Big Surprise!”, “One Night to Rock”, “Punk Tambourine”, “Norwegian Ass”, “A Superman Can Fly”, “Bobby Okarina”, “My Love is Just Like Me”, “Sherry’s Place”, “The Toad” and “Aerobic”.

Lastly in 2004 the band would release their last album, “The Whistling One-Chord Band”. Again available on CDR, this one had lots of songs as well, 18! They were “Whistling One Chord Man”, “Heroine of my Dreams”, “Vespa 125”, “Coffee”, “Maggie Waterloo”, “Paulus Pl 4”, “Instant Coffee Break”, “Shoot Me, I’m a Pin Ball”, “If You Know Me”, “CarJack”, “Lee Roy and the Disco Stab”, “Bernie the Barber”, “All You Can Expect From Me”, “Real Springar”, “Spring Comes Anyway”, “Just Like Mom Said” and “Overslept Santa”. It is worth mentioning that all songs are available to download from the website as well as the artwork to put together the CD.

What else? Well on the Perfect Pop website there is a nice review of the 7
by Marianne Jemtegård. It is very nice though it doesn’t tell us any interesting details about the band.

In the Drammen newspaper Drammens Tidende there is an article dating from August 2008 about the indie collective Truls and the Tree. What’s interesting is that Vegard Syrstad was part of this project. It is also mentioned that he played in The Jessica Fletchers.

Lastly, I find three live songs on Bandcamp. They are on the Bandcamp of an Oslo label called Fog Records. It says the three songs are live from Korpsveien, which I believe is a big street in Drammen. The songs are “Tar-Tar-Pop”, “Beautifully Wrapped Crap” and “Superman Can Fly”. These were recorded in the year 2000.

And that’s it. Who remembers them?

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Listen
The Superman Can Flys – Shoot Me, I’m a Pin Ball

Day 265.

Die Zärtlichkeit: this Cologne band has become quickly  a favourite of mine. They make wonderful jangly pop in German and now they are releasing a very limited tape titled “Die Zärtlichkeit II”. It will include 4 songs that were recorded this summer during the pandemic. Andreas and Tobias are becoming two great pop craftstmen!

The Shop Window: this Maidstone, UK, band is back with a digital single titled “Sad Eyes”. At this moment the band has no releases but soon their first 7″ should be out soon on Spinout Nuggets. In any case this song won’t be included!

Misty Coast: now a psychadelic guitar pop band from Bergen, Norway, with their latest track, “Do You Still Remember Me?”. The cool vibe, dreamy vocals, make this a very lovely single for the winter that’s coming up!

Hollow Graves: next up another digital single, now coming from a band in Toronto, Canada. The single is called “Far Out Summer” and it sounds ace. The 4-piece have been going since at least 2018 and this is their latest effort!

Ciel: it seems it has been a weekend of singles. Here is one coming from the Netherlands called “All My Life”. This one is packed with great vocals and melodies. Very catchy and dreamy. Good stuff!

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Earlier this year, in March, I discovered the band Henry Does a Runner. Here is how.

So I had written about The Jeremiahs, even interviewed them. I love so much The Jeremiahs and still my dream is to release a retrospective by them. I won’t lie. That would be a true highlight for Cloudberry Records. Well, so back in March Jim Holmes commented on the interview, saying he used to be in a band that played quite a few gigs with The Jeremiahs in and around Reading and London. That caught my attention immediately!

I emailed him right away and asked him to tell me more about his band Henry Does a Runner. He told me I could hear one of their songs, “Before Your Eyes” on Youtube. It would be a surprise that what was on Youtube was not just the song but a promo video!

This video was made back in 1988 and in it we see all four members of the band, Martin on vocals, Brian Glister on drums, Jim Holmes on guitar and John W. Wright on bass. Yes, I am missing Martin’s last name. What was it?

After he shared this link I asked him if he was up to do an interview for the blog. I really wanted to learn more about the band. But I never got a reply. Just radio silence since them.

Maybe one of the other band members will see this post and be keen in answering my questions. Or maybe a fan or a friend remembers them and can throw in some details about the band in the comments section. That’d be cool.

On the internet the only other mentions is that the band played at the Rock Garden on July 24 1988 and were paid 52.26 pounds! They would play again this classic London venue on September 18 the same year and get paid 34.44 pounds!

Then we know that in Reading on May 29th of 1987 they played at Paradise alongside The Jeremiah and The Flowerpot Men.

And yeah, that’s all I could find. Anyone remembers them?

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Listen
Henry Does a Runner – Before Your Eyes

Day 262.

Aiko el Grupo: “Va Totalmente en Serio…” is the name of the mini-LP 10″ that the band will be releasing on Elefant Records on December 11! Right now we can preview 4 of their super fun songs on Bandcamp. I am hooked!

Adele & the Chandeliers: “First Date” is the name of this wonderful album on Pretty Olivia Records. I am out of town so I don’t know if it is a good idea to order. I hope Javi can save me a copy. The 12″ vinyl is limited to 200 copies and is being released on December 11th. And you can tell how delightful is this record that showcases the amazing Adele Pickvance (who has worked with the Go-Betweens and Robert Forster!) on the 10 songs on Bandcamp which we can preview all of them!

The Snogs: a new tape by this California band is a good thing! “Boyfriend’s Dead” has 8 songs of fun crash pop songs. Formed in Santa Cruz in 2016, the band sounds really good. Boy/girl vocals, a bit Heavenly, a bit TVPs, and lovingly lo-fi, this record is a winner. I just wish it wasn’t a tape!!

The Churchhill Garden: “Reality” is the latest song by Andy Jossi’s, from Lucerne, Switzerland, project. Here he counts with Krissy Vanderwoude from the US on vocals, while Andi plays all instruments. It is a swirling song, with great guitars and a captivating vibe. Really good. Looking forward to hearing more by them!

Helen Love: and to end this week’s blog reviews here is some fantastic news, the Welsh legendary band Helen Love are back!!! Oh yeah! With an album titled “Power On” on Jigsaw Records they are planning to take the world by storm once again. Oh wow. What great news. One of my favourite bands with their fun poppy catchy songs, I can only be so happy. Everyone needs it. The album is already out on CD!

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A few weeks ago someone shared on Facebook the song “Themes for Dreams” by a band called Soundhouse. I can’t remember who shared it, if it was a friend on their wall or someone in the multiple music groups I follow there. The thing is the song sounded really great, with terrific female vocals. Who were Soundhouse? I don’t know. But I have to thank whoever shared it. Thanks!

This song, “Themes for Dreams”, was released in 1984 on a tape called “Here’s the Shit!”. This was released by the Greenwich Performance Collective. So I assume it is a safe bet to say the band hailed from Greenwich, England, or somewhere close-by.

The bands on the tape are unknown to me. I am not familiar with any of them. I do see that the band appears on the B side, second song. This compilation tape is not listed on Discogs but could find a blog called Die or D.I.Y.? that has written about the tape. Sadly there’s no information about the bands.

Discogs does list another tape by the same label. But Soundhouse is not on it. I am very disappointed that I can’t find anything by the band on the web. Were there more songs? Any releases? Probably not. But would be great to find out.

This time I’ll need help. It’s been a while since I find so little on the web. This is as obscure as it gets.

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Listen
Soundhouse – Themes for Dreams