Thanks so much to Paul McAllister for the interview! I wrote about Scale the Heights some time ago and Paul was kind enough to get in touch and also to answer all my questions and tell the story of the band! If you’ve never heard about this wonderful Irish band, I suggest to discover them now! You will enjoy them for sure!

++ Hi Paul! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Still making music?

Never really stopped ! work life and kids tend to slow you down a bit but I guess if its in you it never really leaves you . Liam and I are involved as of today with a band called The City Remains. We will be releasing an eponymous 10 track album early in 2020.

++ 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 at home while growing up?

My first memories were listening to the radio in my dads car at a very young age, there was no real scene of radio in the house because of the TV so the car radio was the first real space that I listened to music in. At 5 years of age my first instrument was a small set of drums (from Santa clause) a bass drum, a snare and a cymbal, red and gold in color with thin plastic skins that you could leave a dent it if you hit it hard enough. My early musical listening was confined to what my parents listen to, early memories are of Frank Sinatra, James Last, Abba… their musical influence and pedigree I will admit was somewhat lost on me at such a young age.

++ Had you been in other bands before Scale the Heights? What about the rest of the members? If so, how did all of these bands sound like? Are there any recordings?

The first band that I was in was a school band with Liam (who I played with in STH) on bass and and another fellow student called Dave Howlett on Guitar, a 3 piece band playing Joy Division covers and the like , there are no recordings that I know of….just as well!! not sure if the standard was all that great…LOL

++ Where were you from originally, Maynooth?

No, I was from Lucan initially (a town on the outskirts of Dublin but then moved closer to Maynooth (my school town) to a town call Celbridge, it was there that I met Liam who lived in Maynooth along with Dave.

++ How was your town at the time of Scale the Heights? 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?

Maynooth was pretty much out of the loop musically 30 years ago and beyond the pale, it had a growing college but it was relatively quiet in terms of music scene there. A lot of bands outside Dublin faced different challenges in terms of trying to find places to play and an audience- most roads led to Dublin in terms of finding places to play at the time- hence we looked to the city to provide us with places to play for the most part initially. Its pretty different now of course thankfully. Venues were for up and coming bands almost all in Dublin City the likes of the Baggot Inn, The Underground, New Inn all great in their different ways. We started with supports in places like the Underground and Yellow Pack nights where a few bands might play on a Monday night in the Baggot Inn for example and progressed from there really to our own gigs in those venues building an audience. Maynooth had no record stores as such so if you wanted to get something you went to Dublin on the bus to somewhere like Freebird records or Golden discs on Liffey Street if memory serves.

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

Well I knew Liam from my school days and we both had a good keen interest in music both listening to it and making it, the origins of Scale the Heights as a band started in a hairdressing salon in central Dublin strangely enough. Somebody was able to get the salon after hours to meet and practice so we all tracked into the city to meet, I remember it was the top of Grafton Street which was and still is a major shopping area in central Dublin I think we started early in the evening once the shop had closed, Lord knows what passers-by thought of the jangling guitar of a burgeoning band coming from the hair salon at 7 o’clock in the evening. Liam and Dave met in Maynooth and Dave recruited Tony the guitarist whom he previously had met separately elsewhere as I recall.

++ Were there any lineup changes?

With the exception of two keyboard players that we tried the lineup remained the same throughout the bands life.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

The creative process for the band was always fun, coming up with new tunes and ways to play them in the early days was always an enjoyable task, like most bands the creative process goes through changes as the band mature as Liam would’ve come up with a lot of the original ideas for the songs But once the band got stuck into the basic idea they as most songs do morphed into something bigger than the sum of its parts, there were plenty of studios and rehearsal rooms in Dublin most of them fairly grotty and dirty but they served the purpose for us and all the other bands in the Dublin gig scene at the time, some of my earliest practice memories were at Liam‘s house.

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

I think overall we had wide range of individual musical tastes between the four of us as a collective unit. What we all agreed on was that the song was king so to speak and that guided us. Sound wise it was guitar ,bass ,and drums etc so that dictated our basic sound which you can hear. Influences would have been varied but off top of my head bands such as REM, The Go-Betweens, Replacements, The Chills all were on our radar and influenced us musically and as we matured their antecedents. Apart from the songwriting influences Tony the guitarist had a big say in the overall sound of the band he grew up playing music and was the best musician in terms of experience . His family if memory serves were involved in the covers, show band era in Ireland as players. He had a great knowledge of good country music (Gram Parsons is a memory of being introduced to by him) for example which he shared with the others and made the self taught Liam and I up our respective games and improve as players.

++ From what I understand your 1988 demo won the Carling/Hot Press Award for best unsigned act, is that right? There were three songs on it, where were these recorded? Was it your first time in the studio?

Like most bands at the time we recorded a lot of demos most of which I think still exist in one format or another and of course the tape was the main medium for archiving ones first efforts, and I think some of them are still around, there were always plenty of songs to choose from as our set list grow considerably while we were gigging. we took a lot to the studio but good studios were expensive at the time. We recorded in a few different studios in and around Dublin over the lifetime of the band . I personally found the studio at the time a little underwhelming, interesting and educational , but it never came close to the feeling of playing live for me.

++ And how was that contest? How did you enter? What was the prize?

We basically filled in a form and sent a demo tape I think and hoped for the best that someone would listen. The contest was over a few heats and then there was a final gig with all the finalists in Cork at a great venue called Sir Henry’s, where we won I feel based on song quality and live ability. We were given musical gear and a four track also which at the time was great and very useful for us to use.

++ So you went to record with WEA a single, was there any chance of them signing you or was it always a one-off deal? How was the experience of working with a big label?

The deal with WEA was part of our prize on winning the Carling hot press band, I think it was always a one off deal but we never really pushed them to give us more, the song that you refer to that was recorded at lab studios was called So Soon, I can’t recall if there was any specific reason that we chose it as a B-side I guess we just liked the song and it offered a degree of contrast to the A side

++ You also recorded a Fanning Session in 1989, where you played four songs. How was that experience? Did you meet Dave Fanning?

It was a fantastic experience , working with Dave and the engineers was a great education. Ian Wilson was the producer. I remember that recorded the songs in one take , the engineer was a bit blown away on how well rehearsed we were we spent no time at all getting the tracks down , I guess it was a reflection on how focused we all were on playing our music at the time.

++ And are there unreleased tracks? There were a few that I found on the Fanning Sessions blog like the wonderful “Down the Hill”… has there been plans to put some sort of retrospective release at some point?

There are plenty of unreleased tracks, Dave put a compilation together a few years ago, a mixture of live and demos i think, no plans to do anything with it…. but you never know, songs have a way of finding an audience long after they have been written sometimes.

++ Someone on my blog commented that you had a wonderful song called “When the Rain Comes”. Did this one exist? Care to shed some light about it?

Wow that’s one of the early ones !! one of the few songs that we used a keyboard to carry the riff and the feel of the song. Great that someone still remembers it.

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

The title is from the writer & poet Robert Graves autobiography of the same title. Published about his experiences in the run up to and during the first world war. The song itself was inspired by a conversation with someone Liam met who was previously very materially “successful” but who realised that they needed more to be fulfilled hence they gave up one way of living and withdrew to start again elsewhere under different circumstances. Liam wrote the song after that encounter I believe.

++ If you were to choose your favorite Scale the Heights song, which one would that be and why?

The band (as many bands do) went through changes in our song structure, tempo and style, we would have had 2 or 3 of those so there were songs from each phase that would have enjoyed the title as favorite in the early days songs like where will we be, two wives, and proud of you stick as highlights, how much longer as another that I loved to play as well as listen to later I guess songs like Harper, down the hill , blind mans clothes.

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

There were loads of highlights too many to mention, but for me one of the best was a Gig we did in the Olympia Theatre Dublin, we opened the show with Dave walking on to a blacked out stage holding a candle gently singing silent night (must have been around Christmas) as he got to the end of the second sentence he stopped said “F$%k this” blew out the candle , the lights came on and we ripped into the set , lots of fun. One of the funniest things I remember was a gig that we did were the promoter either got the date wrong or something like that ..anyway nobody turned up, but we played anyway , during one of the songs Dave who had either a radio mic or a very long mic lead left the stage during one of the numbers and went to the loo !! while still singing , the sound of band cranking out a tune without a singer on stage and the sound of running water as Dave used the toilet himself is something that will never leave me…….ever!

++ And were there any bad ones?

There were I’m sure , but we did a lot of gigs that its hard to remember now

++ What about the rest of the band, had they been in other bands afterwards? I hear you were in the Latecomers?

Liam and myself still write and record together (Liam has never stopped writing). Tony did go on and play with some other bands and he still plays today, Dave dabbled in some musical activities I believe. The Latecomers name was really a tongue in cheek placeholder for a musical project myself and Liam have been working on in recent times. We will be releasing an album early next year called The City Remains. Its something we have really enjoyed doing and looking forward to releasing soon.

++ Has there ever been a reunion? Or talks of playing again together?

We did get together a couple of times a few years ago and it was great. Still tight, plenty of energy, as a drummer I smiled as the muscle memory kicked in and I found my self playing fills and tempos on auto pilot….. while playing I thought OMG I can still do this but I have no idea when this song ends!

++ Did you get much attention from the radio?

As a young band we got a fair bit of air time on radio 2 ( part of our national broadcaster RTE) with Dave Fanning the Irish version of John Peel… at least for our generation. We were also invited to record some sessions for broadcast during his show. We also got local airtime when touring throughout Ireland

++ I did notice you were on TV at least once, playing the song “Disposable”, where was this? Did you play any other songs that time?

Yes we appeared on other TV shows during the period playing other songs such as Goodbye to all that and Blind Man’s Clothes

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

i I think its fair to say that we had built up a good reputation as a live band working hard , and gigging on a regular basis, that brought us to the attention of the press. we had a particularly good relationship with Hot Press a Dublin based music publication , who often came to see us during one of our regular residencies in Dublin. We where an energetic and melodic band and the press that we received reflected that at the time I think in terms of those who were interested in what the band was doing. We had strong advocates who helped in the early stages of the band and encouraged us to develop further. We were relative outsiders at the time in terms of being a non Dublin City based band who had to build an audience from scratch and the positive attention we got helped those who were curious to come along and see the band at the time.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Just to say to your thanks for your interest and for taking the time to do this, I enjoyed the quick trip down memory lane with you. All the best.

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Listen
Scale the Heighs – Goodbye To All That

More pop today!

Bland: this Sydney four-piece doesn’t seem to be bland, their latest track “The Common Ground” is a very fine jangly track. This song will be included in their upcoming EP titled “Life After Love”.

Midnight Clay: Indonesia keeps providing us with top quality indiepop. This new band from Bandung is no exception. They are planning to put out a 6-song mini-album on October 6th called “Shall We Dance or Lean to Each Other?” and we can preview one of the tracks to be included, the superb “Rising Tide”. Can’t wait to hear the rest of tracks!

Cotton Range: Sango Records from Wuhan, China, is releasing a very fine band from South China called Cotton Range and I am very excited. I just wish there was a physical version for this mini-album titled “Galaxie Bus”. There doesn’t seem to be one, just digital. But maybe someone will pick it up? I hope so, the 7 tracks included here are very sweet.

Spunsugar: a shoegaze band from Malmö that sounds terrific. Nothing new there I guess. I just discovered Spunsugar through their latest track, “Native Tongue”, and I am hooked. The song is a digital single for now, and on Bandcamp the lyrics are available just in case you want to sing along.

David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights: the legendary ex-The Clean member is back with a new album called “Bobbie’s a Girl” on September 20th. The album will be available on CD and LP and will include 10 brand new songs which is very exciting news for any fans of the Dunedin-sound and Flying Nun Records! At the moment three songs are available to preview, “Smoke You Right Out of Here”, “Coming From Nowhere Now” and “Looks Like I’m Running Out”.

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I am on a Japanese indiepop journey, discovering lots of great music from the early 90s that has been unknown to me. I am so very happy to find out about these sounds now, and I feel there’s even lots more waiting for me!

Today I found this sweet sounding band called The Spotnick Candy. I am curious about their name first of all. Is it a play on words of Sputnik? Or what? Or maybe it was a real candy in Japan? Who knows. The thing is that the band would only release a 7″ and two compilation appearances between 1992 and 1993. Later on the band members would rename their band to Snapshot, and under that name the band would put out many releases on Escalator Records.

The Spotnick Candy was formed by Yugo Katayama and Yukari Takasaki. As I mentioned earlier they released an EP, the 1992 “Love! Love! Courtney Love!” 7″ (BOMB-08). It came out on Time Bomb Records, which was a label that mainly released bands from the Kansai underground, operating from a record shop in downtown Osaka. I suppose the band hailed from that area then?

The A side had three songs, “Love! Love! Courtney Love!”, “Actizol Gumball 3” and “Count the Numbers”. The B side just two, “Yeah!” and “Hosedog 11 (is a Football Club)”. Yukari Takasaki wrote the A2, A3 and B2. Yugo Katayama wrote the other two. It is also interesting to mention that they both switched instruments all the time. I see Yukari and Yugo playing guitar and drums on different songs.

The band appeared on the 1992 compilation “Television Personalities From Japan, Too” (TT006) that was released by the very fine A Trumpet Trumpet Records on CD. At first I thought it was a EP of cover versions of the TVPs but it seems the 4 songs, by 4 different bands, that appear on the comp are original tracks. The Spotnick Candy opens the CD with the track “Seurat 1859-1891)”. The other bands on it are Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her, Candy Eyes and Sweet Petticoat. I suppose the band were big fans of the great Georges Seurat. They even had his birth year and the year he died at 31 on the song title.

Georges-Pierre Seurat (French: 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He is best known for devising the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism. While less famous than his paintings, his conté crayon drawings have also garnered a great deal of critical appreciation. Seurat’s artistic personality was compounded of qualities which are usually supposed to be opposed and incompatible: on the one hand, his extreme and delicate sensibility; on the other, a passion for logical abstraction and an almost mathematical precision of mind. His large-scale work, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884–1886), altered the direction of modern art by initiating Neo-impressionism, and is one of the icons of late 19th-century painting.

The other band’s appearance was in 1993, on a Japanese cassette called “Let’s Muc Out On Sound” that was released by Loose Sound (LSCT-001). I believe this tape was only limited to 100 copies. On this cassette the band appears twice. On the third track of the A side with the song “Cast a Shadow” while on the second track of the B side they have “AM7/8M7”. On this tape the band Tricycle Popstar also appears, a band that I’ve been lucky to have interviewed in the past.

As I mentioned the members went to become Snapshot afterwards. Yukari Katayama would gain success later on as Yukari Fresh. He was also involved in another project called Yukari Rotten while Yugo Katayama released records under the name Miniflex and was the producer of Yukari Fresh. So they kept working together.

It is really cool how they evolved and became successful musicians. But I am curious about this early period of theirs. I love the freshness of The Spotnick Candy and I definitely want to know more about them. Did they have more songs? Did they play live a lot? Were they from Osaka? Who remembers them?

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Listen
The Spotnick Candy – Seurat 1859-1891

A quiet weekend, but this week I should be seeing the Swedish band Hater here in NYC, so that’s pretty cool. Are there any shows you are excited about? I don’t get to go to many indiepop shows here, so you are welcome to make me jealous!

New indiepop finds this weekend? Sure thing.

Lost Ships: the amazing band from Portsmouth, who once was known as The Kites, returns with a 4 track digipak CDR on the fine Subjangle Records. This new EP is titled “All of the Pieces” and is a true gem of superb jangle pop! Pop brilliance indeed through the title song “All of the Pieces” as well as in the rest of songs “Drug Store”, “How Can I Face the World” and “Sheila Believe Me”.

Die Katapult: Ian Catt has produced this fine digital single by the Spanish-Swedish duo who are signed to Elefant Records. Elena Comas and Anna Fredriksson has released “Bäckerei Digital” and they have made Japanese and Italian versions of this catchy synth pop song. Nice!

Liam the Younger: I am not familiar with Liam Betson’s music. I just stumbled upon a video for his track Charcoal Gray and thought it was a good and very catchy pop song. This track will be also part of a cassette album called “Up to Something” which should be released on October 18th.

Sugar World: from San Diego, California. They have just one song, “Sad in Heaven”, which sounds gorgeous! Proper indiepop in my book. There is no information about them. So I can’t tell you much about them aside from do listen to this song!

Slowcoaching: this one comes from Melbourne, Australia. It is the solo project of Dean Valentino and he has already a few releases, the first one from 2015. The latest one though is a very fine song called “Between the Walls” that was released back in July. It seems that it is just a digital single, but hopefully it will be released later on in an EP or an album!

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“Stopping to Speak” on the A side and “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” on the B side, was a 7″ release by Kick Reaction in 1986. This 7″ wasn’t properly released. There were promo copies and also DJ copies. I wonder why. It had no sleeve. Maybe they were just trying to make themselves a name at that point?

The Precious Organisation released this 7″ (Jewel 1). But this 7″ did have a proper release in the way of a 12″ EP with a different running order. The B side was now the A side and vice versa. Meaning, the A side had “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” and “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow (Dance Stance)” and the B side had “Stopping to Speak” and “Friday Away from High Street”. Something curious too is that both sides are actually labeled as A sides. The first side being the “Club Side” while the ‘second A side’ being “Radio Side”.

All songs are credited to P. Lyon. That is Peter Lyon, guitarist and vocalist of the band. The other members were Stuart Thorn on bass and Steven Barker on drums. All songs were produced by the band and were engineered by Wilf Smarties.

Other interesting detail from the back of the sleeve is that the songs were recorded in Scotland on November 1985.

The only other song the band released was called “Your Favourite Song” which was penned by Peter and Stuart. This song appeared on a cassette compilation called “Honey at the Core” (Honey 1). There are a few interesting bands in there like The Bluebells, The Big Dish or The Painted Word. This tape came out in 1985. It is said that came with a 32 page booklet, I wonder if in there there was a bio of the band. That could be helpful. Funny thing, this compilation has a Wikipedia page. On it I learn that all bands featured were Scottish, so this confirms my suspicion about the origin of Kick Reaction. The person who compiled the tape was John Williamson who would later be well known as a Glasgow Herald journalist.

I do find something cool on Youtube. I find live footage of the band playing “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow“. The sound is quite terrible. It is a shame. But it is something even though it is very short. A comment there makes it even more interesting this investigation. It says that before this band was called Kick Reaction they were called Moroccan Coco. Wow. I’ve actually been trying to find more information about Moroccan Coco but always ending up with nothing. Someone says that Peter Lyon became a postman afterwards in the city of Hamilton.

Then I go deep into the forum Hidden Glasgow. There I find that the band played on November 30th of 1985 alongside The Robert Cray Band. Then something curious, that many bands used to record demos in the front room of the flat The Precious Organisation label had. Among them Kick Reaction of course but also Primal Scream!

Another person in the forum mentions another song by the band called “Spraypainters in Australia”. He says he sang as a backing singer on it. I dont think this song was released, was it? It seems it was recorded in a studio in Motherwell that was also used as rehearsal space by the likes of BMX Bandits or Teenage Fanclub.

Lastly another user says that he played with Stuart Macarthur before Peter Lyon joined. I am guessing he means Stuart Thorn? Them two tried to get Peter Lyons to sing in their band but it seems he refused as he was trying to get his band called The Usherettes off the ground. Then nothing happened for a while until this guy left to study in Motherwell and Peter and Stuart joined forces forming Moroccan Coco with Jim Mitchell as their manager. Moroccan Coco would only release the one single, “One Day/Steam Radio”. Then they changed names to Kick Reaction.

Aside from a mention on a 1986 SPIN magazine issue about up and coming Scottish bands, and a quote of Stuart Thorn celebrating Postcard Records, not much more I can find online about Kick Reaction. I suppose it hasnt been that bad. Ive found quite a lot of interesting facts. Now, I would love to hear all the demos they are said to have recorded. Maybe someone can help me with that?

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Listen
Kick Reaction – Stopping to Speak

As I mentioned last Wednesday, Baby Lemonade retrospective is at the pressing plant. That’s the big news for me! I can’t wait for it to arrive at home. I hope you all love it and pre-order it :p

Here are some great tunes for the weekend!

Able: my friends from Uppsala have a new single out! This is the second one from their upcoming album “Holding On/Letting Go” to be released in the near future. This new digital single has two tracks, “We’ll Figure Out” and “Screaming Heart” and as usual is pure class. Quite impressive to see a band going this strong for decades now!

Night Flowers: the London band will be releasing a new album soon, so to promote it they have come up with a cool idea, a 360 degrees interactive video for their song “Fortune Teller”. Might this be the first indiepop video made this way? I would say yes, but anyone could tell me if there is another like this? In any case, it is not a gimmick, the song is really good!

The Plastic Shoelaces: they say their music is “jankle pop”, what does that mean?! I could make a guess, it is fun, upbeat, ramshackling pop? Their latest is a digital single with two songs, “Hip Happiness” and “Bigger Heads”. On Bandcamp there’s a photo that looks as if there was a physical release, but it doesn’t seem there’s a way to buy it. Anyways, do check this Sacramento band!

They Go Boom!: a true favourite band of mine. They are getting their album “Atlantic” reissued by Sunday Records on CD with a bonus disc, one that includes many favourite TGB! tracks, hand picked by Albert from Sunday Records. Do help me and tell me if any of the songs on the extra CD are unreleased ones or are all previously released?

Say Sue Me: the Busan, SK, band is back with a new 7″ with two tracks, “George & Janice” and “Don’t Follow Our Van”. I am pretty sure you know them already, how they sound, how they play live and all. They have made such an important splash around the world though I still haven’t seen them around in New York! Anyhow, do get this record!

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The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, was an artistic movement in the United States during the early 20th century that is best known for works portraying scenes of daily life in New York, often in the city’s poorer neighborhoods.
The best known artists working in this style included Robert Henri (1865–1929), George Luks (1867–1933), William Glackens (1870–1938), John Sloan (1871–1951), and Everett Shinn (1876–1953). Some of them met studying together under the renowned realist Thomas Anshutz at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, others met in the newspaper offices of Philadelphia where they worked as illustrators. Theresa Bernstein, who studied at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, was also a part of the Ash Can School. She was friends with many of its better-known members, including Sloan with whom she co-founded the Society of Independent Artists.
The movement, which took some inspiration from Walt Whitman’s epic poem Leaves of Grass, has been seen as emblematic of the spirit of political rebellion of the period.

The wonderful Ash Can School. Years have gone by since I first heard them and I am still not able to have a copy of their one and only record in my collection. Maybe one day!

I know very little about them. I heard the B side of their 7″, “A Day out of Paris” and I thought it was superb. The A side, I still haven’t heard, it is called “She’s Only Sleeping”. Maybe someone can help me with that?

This 7″ was released in 1986, year 0 when it comes to indiepop for many. It was released by Unit Two Records (TWO 001). Who were behind this label?

Happily the band left some information on the back of the sleeve. That helps. Usually bands this obscure have sleeves with barely any information. For example we get to know that the band was actually a duo formed by Steven Wallace and Keith Unwin, That they played and programmed all instruments. The songs were recorded in Manchester, England. Does this main they hailed from that city?

Funny credits appear too. For example Peter Hayes is credited for hair and makeup. I suppose for the photos on the sleeve. The design and photography is credited to Chris Doyle.

This was the only release that I know. There are not even compilation appearances. But I am pretty sure that there must be more recordings. Can’t just be two songs. There has to be more!

I was going to stumble upon a website for Steve Fairclough. From what I understand Steven Wallace is Steve Fairclough. And here he tells a bit of the story of the band! What a find indeed!

The band started when he was around 19/20. It was a three-piece then, himself, Keith Unwin and Mark Burke. At some point Mark Burke left the band to study classical guitar at the Royal College in London. When that happened Steven’s brother, Neil, joined on bass and Andy Woods joined on keyboards.

Then no more info. But he does share a Bandcamp with his current recordings. It sounds pretty good! I should get in touch! There are some pics though from the time as well as some flyers. Thanks to them I know the band played alongside All Fall Down and Turn To Flowers at the Carlton Club in Salford with Steve Coogan as compere. Another gig they played was at The Boardwalk alongside Mirrors of Kiev and The Mock Turtles. Cool!

Aside from Ash Can School Steve became a demonstrator for Takamine and Parker Guitars in Europe and the US as well as European Ambassador for Fishman who he has with his own range of Fairclough guitars. That’s pretty cool too!

So, my questions are still there. I want to know why only one record? Why only two songs released? What happened with Keith Unwin? Were any of them in any other bands? Who remembers the Ash Can School?!

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Listen
Ash Can School – A Day Out of Paris

I have some news finally about Baby Lemonade. The CD is being pressed at the moment and should be out late October. So sorry for the delay but I hope the wait was worth it! Pre-order button and tracklist information are available on the website. This is the 11th retrospective release on the Cloudberry Cake Kitchen series, and it is also the first Scottish band to get this treatment, so you can imagine how excited I am!

Here are some new finds for this Wednesday!

Comet Gain: the great UK band is back with a new album called “Fireraisers Forever!” which will be released on October 11 on the German label Tapete who seem to be snatching all the cult-ish indie bands! The band has just shared one of the tracks that will be on the record, “Mid 8Ts” which sounds really lovely.

Linda Guilala: my Vigo friends are also back with a new 7″ on the German label Dreams Never End. It comes with just two songs, “Agosto” and “Salga Bien”, but what songs they are! The band keeps showing that they are in full form! You can preview the songs now on Elefant Records which seems to be dealing with the digital part of the single.

The Last Detail: Erin Moran from A Girl Called Eddy and Mehdi Zannad from Fugu formed this band some time ago. They have released some records now on Elefant but they have a new 7″ coming out on September 6th. 3 of the songs included, “Places”, “Killing Time” and “Fairweather Friend” are available to check out on Bandcamp now.

Pigments: José Pantoja, Maddie Razook, Lacey Elaine Dillard and Atlee Hickerson form the Oklahoma City band Pigments. Their latest is a 4 song EP they have on Bandcamp called “Nothing at All”. The songs soar, with Maddie’s luminous vocals. It is a very nice surprise to me! I can’t remember of any Oklahoma band I’ve liked in the past!

Wojtek the Bear: out now on the Glasgow label Scottish Fiction there’s this new 12″ vinyl record called “Old Names for New Shapes”. Two songs are available to stream (does the record only include 2 songs?) on Bandcamp, “Tonic Youth” and “A Long Wait for Bad News”, both sounding excellent. The record is to be released on November 8th. Not to miss this one.

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The third Japanese shoegaze band from the early 90s that I will feature in less than a month is Paint in Watercolour, which also a new one for me. First time I’m listening to them, just discovering their lovely music.

The band hailed from Niigata and were formed originally by Masato Nunokawa (vocals, guitar), Kenichi Sekiguchi (guitars), Manabu Shimizu (bass) and Shigemi Sakyo (drums). The band were to release two albums and a couple of singles and EPs as well as appearing in many compilations.

I discovered them through the compilation that I’ve been talking in the last few posts, “Brand New Skip Decoration” (QTCA-1003) that was released by Quattro in 1992. This compilation as I mentioned featured White Come Come and Loco-Holidays, the two bands I showcased earlier this week. Now is the turn for Paint in Watercolour who appear on this CD with two songs, “Guess” and “It Will Fall”. Other bands in it are the more known Venus Peter and Secret Goldfish, but still to be discovered a few names like Plagues, Brick Flower or Love Gloom Cash Love. Maybe if I like them they will show up in the blog later on. Why not?

The band had been active already. In 1990 the band released their first EP, “In These Things” on 12″ vinyl. The record included three songs, “In These Things” on the A side and “Make Up My Mind” and “I Can’t Stand” on the B side. All three songs were recorded at Sound Garage studio and this 12″ was released by CLIMB Records (CR-001S). It feels like it was a self-release, no other releases listed by this label.

A year after the band would release a 6 song CD EP titled “Flow” on Aja Records (AJA 1002). This label was actually a subsidiary of the bigger label Victor. The songs were recorded at Studio Moo by Takaaki Enomoto who also mixed the songs. Hiroshi Kawasaki mastered them. I also see credits for direction by Akira Sekiguchi, Keiichi Hoshi and Tasuo Ohba. What did they direct? It is a strange credit. Also executive producers, Hiroyuki Takahashi and Kenji Kakuta. What does an executive producer does on a CD? I wonder. The songs names were “Heaven”, “Hype”, “Velveteen”, “It Will Fall”, “Knives” and “Tower”.

That same year, 1991, the band contributed a track to “Dance 2 Noise 001” a compilation released by Invitation Records (VICL-229) as part of their Dance 2 Noise series. The band they contributed was “Heaven”.

1992 would see the band become more active. First releasing on Invitation Records the “Glare” CD single on Invitation Records (VICL-12007) which had three songs, “Cradle”, “Glare” and “Tower”. I believe Invitation was also another subsidiary of Victor Musical Industries. Two of these songs would be also part of the “Unknown” (VICL-312) album released by Invitation that year. This album had 10 songs, “The Sweetest Sugar”, “You Are Here”, “Glare”, “Melt”, “I’ll Be Your Eyes”, “Creeper”, “Hypocrite”, “Guess”, “I Wish to Die” and “Cradle (version)”. This time the songs were recorded by Masayuki Nakahara while they were mastered by Yasutaka Arikado. The band also got help from a friend on percussion, Yoshikazu Ishikawa.

XEO Invitation would include them in two CD promo compilations that year. Both times would be their remixed song “Melt (Hell River Reverb Mix)”. The first on the “Futurama of Rock Special Re-Mix Sampler” (CDES-67) while the second time would be the same song but on the compilation called “XEO Invitation sampler” (CDS-172).

In 1993 their second album, “Velocity”, would be released. I read that Manabu Shimizu, the bassist, was replaced for this album by Masayuki Maruyama. This album is also interesting as it will see the band playing songs with Japanese lyrics. The songs on the CD album were “Heal All”, “Crafty”, “Mare”, “Gang Up On”, “Popularity”, “Floor”, “Gullible”, “Blame”, “Distinction” and “Naked”. 10 songs released by XEO Invitation (VICL389).

XEO Invitation would include them again in two compilations that year. On the “Dance 2 Noise 004” (VICL-374) they would have their song “Unknown” while on “Dance 2 Noise 005” (VICL-463) the song “See My Friends”.

And then the band went silent.

I do believe that in the year 2000 Manabu Shimizu released a solo record called ” サンキューニッポン” that included three songs on the Factory Orumok label. I couldn’t find any other musical involvements for the other members.

I keep looking but I only find more silence. No hits. Really. Whatever happened to them? I read that their second album was a failure when it came to sales. Did they split because of that reason? And they must have done more music afterwards, right? Where are they now? Who remembers them?

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Listen
Paint in Watercolour – Cradle

It is a holiday today, Labor Day, so I am taking it easy. I’ll write more on Wednesday, but here is your fare of new indiepop finds from around the web!

The Bats: I found this very nice little doco about my favourite New Zealand band ever. It lasts around 10 minutes, it is a bit short, but it is lovely. It was made by Betsy Payne who I believe might be a student at the New Zealand Broadcasting School. Listening to anecdotes by the band members about their records, the recording sessions, and more was really inspiring.

Atta Girl: I need to catch up with the wonderful Chinese label Boring Productions. The latest 7″ by Atta Girl is truly wonderful! It comes with two superb jangly tracks “September” and “Regret” which would make any indiepop fan happy!

Acoustic Radiation Force: another release on Boring Productions is this one by the GREAT John Wood (ex-East Village), who I interviewed some time ago. This acoustic album, titled “Become the Sea…”, is being released on 12″ and includes 10 tracks of classic (and classy) songwriting. It is so great to see him back and in good form! I need to talk to Jovi to get these two releases, they are not to be missed!

Corpse Factory: from West Viriginia, this band has uploaded a new song (maybe his first song?) to Bandcamp under the name Corpse Factory. The song is called “Party Girl” and it is a lovely lo-fi popsong that is fuzzy and catchy at the same time. I’d love to hear more from him in the near future.

Distant Creatures: now let’s jump across the state border to Virginia and check out the song “Absolved” by this 5-piece! This track is set to be released on September 6th, not sure how or where, though it is available to stream on Bandcamp and it sounds great. Dreamy but upbeat, with female vocals, it is a fine song. Seems there are a few fine bands in the region now that I think of it. Maybe they should organize themselves and do a D.C. Popfest or something like that. Would be fun!

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I feel this might be a very short post sadly. I don’t think there’s much on the web about this wonderful band called Capital Hill. The little I know I’ll share with you of course.

I found out about them through the superb compilation “This is Manchester (14 Songs from the North West)” (ESS 133) that Essential and Castle Communications released in 1990. I actually bought this CD around the same time I was interviewing the wonderful Sandalwoods as they appear on this compilation. Another band I’ve interviewed, The Paperboys appear as well. So it looked like a good compilation to get my hands on. It is also not hard to come by and not expensive either. So if you see a copy grab it. There’s a bunch of terrific songs on it.

One of those terrific songs was the one by Capital Hill. It is called “Deep Down”.

I wonder why Capital Hill. Of course the famous one is Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. (though the original is of course the one in Rome) but there are a few places called Capital Hill, for example in Australia, in Northern Mariana islands, in Malawi and there’s even a Capital Hill Residence designed by Zaha Hadid. Oh! And there’s a 1990 album by jazz saxophonist Buck Hill with that name. I doubt any of these inspired the band.

As it is obvious, the compilation featured only Manchester bands. So yes, Capital Hill must have been from Manchester. Then we know a few other things from this compilation, like the design is credited to Quick on the Draw and the painting to Fiona Hawthorn. As I mentioned on The Sandalwoods post, the original concept for this compilation came from Pete Mitchel at Piccadilly Key 103 FM and Tony Davidson of T.J.M. Records. Tony passed the tapes of The Obimen, the band he was working on, to Pete and that was the seed that started it all.

Other than that there was a photo of the band on the compilation where we can see it was formed by 4 guys. There is sadly no information about band members or who wrote the song. No information whatsoever.

And then I start digging on Google, see if there’s any luck, but as you expect, there’s nothing. No one has written about them either. It feels as if they never existed. And I am sure there must be more songs! And I would love to listen to them. Do you remember them?

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Listen
Capital Hill – Deep Down

A long weekend here as it is Labor Day this coming Monday. I will have a post still and I am really hoping to have Cloudberry news this upcoming week! Keep in touch!

Sister Ectoplasma: just found out about this fine Mexican band the other day through this video for their song “With Every Bullet, So Far”. It seems this  video was just released but the song has been around for a bit. It was included in a 2018 EP called “Hopefully, Wiser”, that is available on the band’s Bandcamp. Very nice.

The Memory Fades: there’s a new EP by Stephen Maughan’s band! It is called “Space Pilot” and it sounds great! It is available on CD so there is no reason to miss it. There are four songs in total, and there’s even one sort of a tribute to the JAMC, “Listening to the Marychain” which has vocals by Estella from Nah… And that’s not all, our friend Pete-B from Horowitz plays bass on the 3rd track, “Run Away”. Cool!

Foliage: this great band from San Bernardino, California, has been a blog-favourite for some time now. It is great news that the band is releasing an album called “Take” on September 20th. It will include 12 tracks and will be available on tape. At the moment we can preview 5 tracks and I am hoping it gets a CD release, or vinyl could work ok too! You know me and tapes, not the best of friends. I just want to listen to the rest of tracks, I really like everything they’ve recorded so far.

For Tracy Hyde: I still haven’t got the new album by this amazing Japanese band. I think it will be out on September 4th. I should order it. It is called “New Young City” and is being released by P-Vine Records and they’ve been promoting it with a few promo vids that I have been sharing on the blog. Now there’s a new one, for the song “Can Little Birds Remember?”, and I might say this may be my favourite song so far that I have heard from the album. Really loving the boy/girl parts!

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: how prolific is Glenn Donaldson! He just released an album on Pretty Olivia, but he has also released two new songs on Bandcamp! They are “A Kick in the Face (That’s Life)” and “They Only Wanted Your Soul”, and strangely enough he hasn’t added the word demo in parenthesis as usual!

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The Headmen is a group of fictional supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They are a group who believe that they should rule the world by virtue of the intellect. Dr. Arthur Nagan wanted society to operate like a precision instrument, Dr. Jerry Morgan wanted a society where his genius was recognized, Chondu the Mystic wanted personal wealth and Ruby Thursday wanted to replace the head of every human with a plastic head of her own design. They fought the Defenders, She-Hulk, and Spider-Man on different occasions. 

The Headmen. 2 releases and goodbye. That’s what looks like. Where were they from? Who were they? Did they start as a band in the 80s? Or in the 90? What are they up to these days? Many questions, let’s see how many answers I can find.

Both records the band released, a 7″ and a 12″, came out on Positive Records. I must say that I am very unfamiliar with this label who mostly put out records by H.D.Q. and Instigators which I think are not indiepop bands. There is a compilation though called “Step Up” with lots of bands I have never heard before which I am hoping are indiepop? Who would know?

The first release by The Headmen came out in 1990, and it was a 7″ (POS 016) that included two songs. The A side had “Kissed to Pieces” while the B side had “Roundabout”. The songs were produced by the band and Bliss and the engineer for the recordings was Steve Whitfield. They were recorded and mixed on September 1990 at Beaumont Street Studios in Huddersfield. Did the band hail from there too?

The sleeve also gives us some details about the band. We know they were formed by Simon Eskriett on vocals and guitar, Nick Keene on guitar, Matthew Slater on drums and vocals and David Pattern on bass. Eskriett was the main songwriter, both songs are credited to him, though “Roundabout” also credits Keene.

The next year they would put out a 12″ (POS 017) with 4 songs, a proper EP. The A side had the lovely “Reach the Sky” and “You Make Me Smile” while the B side featured “Yesterday, Today and Everyday” and “Shortsong”. Again the songs were recorded in January 1991 at Beaumont Street Studios. It is interesting that this studio opened in 1985 and closed in December 2009. Steve Whitfield was now the producer with the band. Some other credits on the record include Matthew Riley who did the artwork and Porl Medlock who took the photos for the sleeve.

There are two tapes called “Hong Kong Hi-Fi” and “A Tender Tension”, one from 1985 and the other undated. They seem like tapes that showcased electronic, ambient music. I really doubt it is the same band as the one that released on Positive. So I will skip for now. If someone confirms me is the same band then I’ll add the information about these releases.

The only compilation appearance I am sure about is on the 6-CD boxset “Bradford’s Noise of the Valleys” where on the 2nd CD the band appears with “Reach the Sky”.

A post on Youtube gives me many more details about the band. It confirms that the band hailed from Huddersfield. It also tells me that they formed in October 1989 and split in the summer of 1994. This might prove my theory that the band is not the same as the one in the compilation tapes. Then something more interesting, the band had recorded before the 7″ a 4-tack demo tape called “The Magic Shoebox” which included the songs “I Can Do Everything”, “You Make Me Smile”, “Fallen Angel” and “Waiting for the Sun”. I learned that the demo should have been named “The Happy Shoebox” rather than “Magic”, as the tape was named after the Happy Shoebox shoe shop in Huddersfield. They also recorded an EP after the 12″ which had the songs “Bridge to the Stars”, “Weird”, “Song 52” and “Wish Time” that still remains unreleased! It seems what happened was that everything was ready, mixed and all, but the master tapes of the recordings were destroyed in a fire that swept through the building the tapes were housed in. Oh! I would have love to hear these songs!

I find then a photo album on Flickr by one of the band members, David Pattern! How cool! There are tons of photos of the band in it. Thanks tot his I know the band played at different venues like the Halifax Return, at the Hipperholme (their first gig ever, in 1990), Queens Hall in Bradford, The Top Spot, Hebden Bridge Trades Club, The Mean Fiddler,

I also learn that the band was to tour the Netherlands following up the release of “Reach the Sky” 12″. It never happened. Also the band recorded a session for Jeremy “Jez” Hibbard for his evening show on BBC Radio Leeds.

Then I stumble upon David Pattern’s blog and wow! Here I find a post about the story of “Bridge to the Stars” and also links to the 4 songs that were to be released on vinyl and never did!

Thanks to his page I know too that the band has a Facebook page with lots of photos and memorabilia. Make yourself a fan of course.

And that’s about it. That’s all I could find online, it is quite a lot I think. I thought I was going to find myself empty-handed. So good that the 4 songs for the unreleased 12″ weren’t lost…. now I just need to listen to the “Magic Shoebox” demo! Who remembers them?! And what did they do musically afterwards?

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Listen
The Headmen – Roundabout

Not much to share today for news, but hey, there’s always new music to share!

Charles y los Amapola: some time ago in Chile there was a band called Los Polares. One of their members has started his own project and called it Charles y los Amapola. He has just released two songs in digital format on the label Preservación Discogs. These jangly tracks are “Junto a Ti” and “Se Acabó el Verano”, both of them sweetly influenced by Donosti-sound bands like La Buena Vida or Le Mans.

Los Lagartos: the Peruvian band from Lima has released a new video for their song “Mosquitos”. I wonder if the song was released in any physical format, there is no info on the Youtube link! Maybe it is just a digital release. In any case I am really liking the video and the song! It is terribly catchy and fun. Hopefully next time I am around Lima, I can catch them live.

Deadbeat Beat: this band hails from Detroit, Michigan, and released an LP album some weeks ago and it seems it is already sould out. The album titled “How Far” includes some fine pop tunes like “You Lift Me Up” or “From What I Can Tell”. The band mentions The Clean as an influence, and that is a good thing in my book. I especially like too when they combine girl/boy vocals. That you know, I am a sucker for.

Jay Som: I think I saw Jay Som on the Wall Street Journal music reviews page not so long ago. So yeah, maybe it is too big for this small blog. She is on Polyvinyl and that is a biggish label. But well, I am listening to the one song “Superbike” which I quite like a lot. I am thinking The Sundays you know. I know the label says that influences are awful bands like Death Cab for Cutie, and that might be true, as the rest of the songs of the album “Anak Ko” are not my cup of tea, they are really blah, whatever, but here there is the one very good dreamy pop song.

Lunar Vacation: this is a band I recommended quite some time ago. The band released a collection of their EPs last June called “The Lunar Vacation EPs”. IT was released on tape by Human Sounds from Atlanta, Georgia. The tape comes with 9 tracks, not all of them being great, but there are some great moments as the opening track, “Blue Honey”, and “Sleepy Couch”, which are blissful, and fantastic.

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Jules is the French form of the Latin “Julius” (e.g. Jules César, the French name for Julius Caesar).

Time to get über obscure…. with Where’s Jules?

There have been quite a few famous Jules of course. I can think of Jules verne and Jules Rimet. I wonder if the band knew a Jules, or why did they call themselves like this?

What I do know is that the band only released one record, a 7″. I believe it was self-released in 1986, with no catalog number, no label name. The cover art and the design in general is really nice. There is a cool illustration of a guitar and the name on the front cover within a rectangular frame. On the back cover the rectangular frame appears empty. All printed in a nice tint of blue over cream white.

Two songs were included in this record, the wonderful “Nothing at All” (A side) and “Wasted” (B side). Both songs are credited to Isaac, Partridge and Isaac. Does this mean that there were two siblings with Isaac as their last name?

The back cover lists the first names of the band members in a particular way:
Andy: voice and feeling
Donna: contralto
Jules: stringed instruments
Paul: to play an instrument of the lower register

Which instruments did they play? It does look too that the band had their own Jules. I believe Jules played guitar? Andy sang? What about the rest? Also Stan is credited for ebony, ivory and larynx while William played drums.

I see a phone number that starts 0752. I wonder if it means that the band hailed from Plymouth? Could it be?

Aside from that there are no other clues or pieces information that I could use to track the band down. As I said, they are very obscure. I do hope I can find out more about them in the future. Finding a copy of their record would be great as well. Maybe some of you remember them and can help?

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Listen
Where’s Jules? – Nothing at All

Quickly approaching September! But still August has a bunch of surprises. Let’s discover some together.

Maria Surfinbird: who is Maria Surfinbird? She has recorded two songs so far, “He Likes to Drink Fanta” and “Get U in My Arms”. The first one I mentioned in her bedroom in a Chicago suburb 2019, the second one in her bedroom in Krasnodar, Russia, 2017. This is a true mystery of lo-fi indiepop!

Semihelix: now we head to Austin, Texas, for some fine guitar pop by this three piece formed by Geannie Friedman on guitar and vocals, Joe Pannebacker on bass and Valdemar Barrera on drums. Their latest track is called “Only to Go On” and it is an upbeat bouncy popsong!

What the Tusan: following the thread of a post my friend David from Barcelona posted on Facebook I ended up on this Malmö, Sweden, band. Actually a one man band formed by Sondre Mortensen. It looks like he has been recording for a while, there are more than a handful releases with lots of songs to check out. The latest dates from April, 2018, an 8-song album called “Nyckelpigan & Humlan” Pretty interesting! I will spend a few hours exploring this fine guitar-driven lo-fi songs!

Blue Tomorrows: Moon Glyph Records from Portland will be releasing on tape the debut album of Sarah Nienaber’s band “Blue Tomorow”. The album titled “Without Color” will be out on September 13th and will include 9 tracks. We can preview the opening track, “Sound of Moving”, a pretty, gorgeous and fragile track. Are the rest of the songs as nice? We’ll have to wait just a bit more to find out!

Astragal: the Texas band has been a favourite of the blog for a while. So I have to share a new video they have made for their song “Wilt” that was included in their “EP II” that was released on tape back in March. This is really good!

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Why not for a change check out a band whose record I do have. Though it is true that there is a 7″ and 12″ version of their “A Good Day” single. I only own the 7″ version as I like this smaller format better. But aside for how the songs on it sound like I know barely anything about The Blue Toys.

The record was released by the London based Sedition label. I have to say I am not familiar at all with any of the  bands this label put out. The year was 1986 and the record had the catalog number EDIT 3317. It is important to mention too that the song “A Good Day” was produced by Pat Collier. Pat who had been in The Vibrators and who produced The Motorcycle Boy, The Darling Buds or The Soup Dragons among others. The B side, “Survivalists” was produced by Dale Griffin. This song was actually taken from a Radio One Session from August 1986 for the Dixie Peach Show. The 12″ added one more song to the B side, “This is Not Heaven” appears as B2.

Discogs doesn’t list any compilation appearances. And then it starts to seem that only 3 songs were released by them. Now, who were behind the band? The back of the sleeve gives us more information.

The band was formed then by:
Baz Ketley  – vocals, bass
Anne Marie – keyboards, saxophone
Richard Wellings – guitar
Peter Barton – drums

Okay, Baz Ketley. That is a familiar name. He was in The Charlatans, right? I find a mention on the book “The Charlatans We Are Rock” where it says that The Blue Toys were formed in 1983. That Peter Barton had just left Makin’ Time and so they joined forces. Now I see the connection with Pat Collier too. He produced lots of Makin’ Time tracks. The book also mentions that the band toured, between 1983 and 1986, all over England, from Nottingham to London. Then in 1986 the band started to fall apart because their manager was pushing the band in a direction that wasn’t what the band was supposed to be. Then another blow, the label changed name to Activate and then went bust.

That sucks. But I do wonder about that Radio One session. They must have recorded more songs, right? It can’t just be one.

Of course, about The Charlatans, there’s lots on the web. And you would imagine that for a band that had connections with them you’d find information, details, anecdotes, something. But the reality is that for The Blue Toys there is very little on the web.

So maybe some of you remember them as they played all over England. Maybe you saw them live. Any information will be greatly appreciated!

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Listen
The Blue Toys – A Good Day

Another week goes by, isn’t that nice? I am preparing new interviews and I am quite excited about that, learning about bands, them telling their story in their own words, is pretty great. How I wish I could organize a bunch of it as a book or something some day. I am scared that one day I’ll lose the blog, that someone would hack it or the drive of the hosting company goes bust, who knows. Something physical for all these stories would be good. Hopefully one day.

Horsebeach: back in May I think I posted about the Manchester band working on a new album to be titled “The Unforgiving Current”. They had just released a video for the song “Dreaming”. Well, the new album should be out today, August 23rd! And on Bandcamp you can preview three songs, “Dreaming”, “Mourning Thoughts” and “Trust”. As always, they are excellent.

Papa Topo: the Spanish band is back and this is very exciting! They have just released a new song/video called “Sirenear” which kind of translates as “To Mermaid”. As far as I know this is a digital single and doesn’t seem to be plans to be part of an album, at least not yet. Well, we will have to enjoy this very 80s summer hit on Youtube.

Cozy Slippers: the latest release from the very fine Augsburg label Kleine Untergrund Schallplaten is a 7″ by the Seattle jangle pop band that I’ve featured many times in the past! This, new 7″ comes with two songs, “A Million Pieces” and “Will You Disappear?” and is limited to 210 copies. So hurry up and don’t miss it! You can preview the A side on the label’s Soundcloud!

Las Perdón: now a new Spanish band from Madrid. There is just one song on Bandcamp called “Asco Total” which sounds like lots of fun and it looks like that it will be part of an EP. That EP is said to be released this October and will be called “Melón y Sandía”. How many more songs will it have? I hope it gets released on physical format too!

EggS: this French band who have also been featured in the blog have a new release, a 7″ out on Hellzapoppin Records. The 7″ comes with two songs of fine guitar pop, “A Certain Smile” on the A side and “Picture Book” on the B side. And at a fair price, 5 euros. Really nice I’d say.

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A classic tape compilation from the good old days was the “Something’s Burning in Paradise” cassette that was released in 1988 by Subtle. I guess this tape was a success then because the label would release a second part called “Something’s Burning in Paradise Again…” the year after. I was listening to the songs that appeared on the tape (on Mp3, I don’t own the tape) and was struck by a song called “Not Fair” by the band The Purple Tulips. It appears on the A side, it is the tenth and last song on that side.

I must say I didn’t know much about them. And after researching for this post I was quite surprised of the connections the band had with two big names, The Field Mice and Sarah Records.

How you mean? Well, Anne Mari Davis, vocalist of The Field Mice, was in The Purple Tulips before.

There is a good interview with Anne Mari on the website Everything Indie Over 40. Here Anne Mari talks about the band and gives some details about the time she was in The Purple Tulips.

• The band was formed by Anne Mari, Chris Cox, Andrew and Sarah. Anne Mari and Sarah played guitar and keyboards while Chris wrote the songs.
• They were sixth former at the time when they started the band.
• They were into the c86 bands and The Purple Tulips lasted for a couple of years.
• The band made at least one demo tape that included the songs “Children in Ancials” (maybe I have a typo here, can’t understand the writing!), “Changes from Today”, “Not Fair”, “With You” and “Take Me Far Away”. There may be more recordings.
• They were based in Poynton. Poynton is a town in Cheshire, England, on the easternmost fringe of the Cheshire Plain 18 km southeast of Manchester, 11 km north of Macclesfield, and 8 km south of Stockport. In 2011, it had a population of 14,260.

Then on the Sarah Records page, when they talk about the “Shadow Factory” compilation, it mentions that the sleeve of the record was dedicated to Chris from The Purple Tulips because he had said he would stop buying Sarah’s releases if they ever had barcodes on them. This comp had a barcode, though if you remember it is pink and so it doesn’t work. He also mailed the label a demo tape of his band.

The story that followed, according to the Popkiss book, says that Chris Cox went to see The Field Mice play at Sheffield University. Chris gave Bobby Wratten from The Field Mice a demo tape accompanied by a letter of Anne Mari where she mentioned that she was aware of The Field Mice looking for a vocalist because someone called Violet or M once passed through the Sarah headquarters and heard about it. So Anne Mari joined The Field Mice. And I suppose The Purple Tulips were no more? Or what happened to them? Did the other band members continue to make music?

There is not much information about the band on the web, that is nothing strange as it was pre-internet days. I would love to listen to the rest of the songs. I really like “Not Fair”. I also wonder how come no one has released these tracks to this day. Did they ever play live?  Or what were the last names of the other band member? Maybe I could find some info that way. There are so many questions I have. Hopefully someone remembers them and can fill in the blanks?!

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Listen
The Purple Tulips – Not Fair