Thanks so much to Jay Wiseman for the interview! I wrote about the San Diego band The Sleazy Beats many years ago after listening them on the “Pure Spun Sugar”. They had a great song on it and I was very curious! Luckily a few weeks ago Jay got in touch and was happy to answer all my questions! Here is what he told me:

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

Yes, very well, thanks for asking!

Yes, I am still making music. I play in a garage-punk-power-pop band called Thee Wylde Oscars based out of Melbourne, Australia since about 2009. My wife and I are also currently working on a project with her as the front.

++ 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 instrument was trumpet. I played in the early 70’s era; a grade-school area-wide orchestra, then eventually the concert and marching band of my Mar Vista Junior High School near Imperial Beach, CA. I took lessons.

I was pretty mediocre at the trumpet (I actually hated how I played the instrument and never practiced) and quit once I got to High School. Because I had the ability to play pieces on the piano by ear my parents got me a piano instructor. I played for about 5 years until my piano teacher had to quit because he was a drunk. My next teacher was too strict for my liking and so I stopped.

I then picked up the harmonica at 15, because it was cheap and I loved the blues and British R&B like the Yardbirds. I learned by listening to records, and playing along and working it out. I became good enough to join some friends as a harp player in my first real band, The Trebels.

At home my Dad listened to nothing but old school Country. He was originally from Oklahoma, and played the fiddle when he was a kid. Old-timey music, Bluegrass, Honky Tonk, etc. and gospel hymns. I hated the music but as I got older grew to appreciate and love the stuff.

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

All of these bands were from San Diego. My bands were:

– The Trebels (1981-1990), we released a single. A mixture of 60’s Chicano Rock, early Rock and Roll and British Invasion influences.

– The Hoods (1990-1993) released a 12″ record, five 7″ singles, a 5 song EP and various compilations. American and British R&B influences.

– Evil Eyes (1993-1994) released one single. 60’s and 70’s punk influenced.

– Mach Five Overdrive (1994-1998) released two singles. 60’s and 70’s punk influenced.

XAVIER ANAYA was in all my bands except for Evil Eyes.

JOHN CHILSON was in all my bands except for Mach Five Overdrive. He had joined The Loons (1994 to present) at that time. They are primarily psychadelic rock.

HECTOR PENALOSA: The Zeros (1977-present), essential 70’s SF punk; albums and singles.

MIRELLA BELSITO: Diabolik, 1994-1996, 70’s style punk

RACHAEL GORDON:  First recording

SANDRA CASTILLO: First recording

++ Where were you from originally?

I am originally from Imperial Beach, CA, the most southwesterly city in the US, in San Diego County next to Tijuana, Mexico  – on the beach.

++ How was San Diego at the time of The Sleazy Beats? 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?

San Diego at the time had a vibrant Alt rock scene and a 70’s punk resurgence was happening. We dug that vibe and the ’77 punk era for the most part. The Zeros had just reformed and for the most part were our favourite local band.

There was always the Casbah for great live music and a venues opened up and closed fairly quickly. It really wasn’t a great place for and up and coming band to play with any regularity.  Most of us were part of the Mod, Garage Punk & Punk that came out of the area in the late 70’s – early 80’s  – that was OUR real scene.

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

The whole thing started when Sandra Castillo asked me help her write a song for Phil Spector at a party at my house. She was pen pals with him and wanted to send him a birthday gift; a song. I thought it would be fun to write for somebody other than my band. Rachael, Mirella and Hector were also at the party and wanted in as well.

It was really meant to be throw-away pop, a one-off.

She put together some lyrics in a couple of weeks and came over and I did the music to fit it. It all really took a few hours. I always had bits of musical ideas I didn’t know what to do with and I used some of those.

We got some old and current band mates to fill in the rest of the lineup.

++ Were there any lineup changes?

There were essentially two bands: The recording band and the live act that came out of the recording.

The recording band I mentioned earlier.

The live band was: Mirella, Rachael, Candy Johnson, Anders Stone, Joel Kmak and Gordo.

Rachael really wanted to be a part of a band. Mirella had been in a band called Diabolik that had just broken up and wanted to do something else. Mirella had a friend, Candy Johnson, that like the idea of a 3-front girl group thing as did Anders (jingle writer and ex-Diabolik guitarist, Joel (ex-Hit Makers, Penetrators and current Beat Farmers drummer) and Gordo (who was playing in a few 77-style punk rock groups such as the Spent Idols, in the area) as bassist.

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

I tend to carry around with a hand-held memo recorder to catch stuff that I like coming out of my head (some going back years). If I don’t do this, the songs tend to bounce around my head like a unwanted guest. I’ll listen back from time to time. Sometimes I stumble onto something that is interesting. This was one of those instances. The ascending-descending chorus came out of those memo recordings.

Practice was usually held at my garage with liberal amounts of alcohol, pot and speed.

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

We were all fans of the Easybeats and thought it was a stupid funny pun.

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

Definitely girl groups for the vocals, like the Shangri-las and even Bananarama. The music of the recording came from a love of Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” era. It’s a combination of Brill Building, The Beach Boys, Spaghetti Western and John Barry (especially with the solo guitar tweedle-thing).

The live act was more of a punk Shangri-las.

++ I know you through a compilation called “Pure Spun Sugar” that was co-released in 1998 by American Pop Project and Candy Floss. I was wondering how did you end up contributing a song to it? And who picked which song to include?

That was all Gary Strickland. Mirella and I were at a show at Spirit Club in San Diego and we saw Gary (who we knew from the Loons and around town) and thought he would get a kick out of this thing we had just recorded. I played him the cassette and gave him a copy. He immediately said it would be something a friend would be interested in. He told us he played it over the phone to the guy from Candy Floss and he wanted it his comp. That’s it. We received some CDs of the comp in the mail and that’s the last we heard.

++ As far as I know this was the only time a song of yours got properly released, am I right? Or are there any other releases by the band?

This was the only proper release I knew of. I’ve heard there was another release from a San Diego label, but it was a surprise to me.

++ What about other recordings? Were there perhaps demo tapes?

Maybe. Anders had a recording studio at his house (for the jingle writing) and Mirella and I seem to remember him doing some recording of the band. He’s kind of hard to get ahold of these days.

++ Was there interest by labels to put your stuff out?

Interest was zero.

++ I really like the song on the comp, “Phil Spector’s Birthday Song”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

Inspired by all things Phil Spector, Brill Building Pop, the Beach Boys and John Barry.

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

The Birthday Song is the one I remember the most, so that. Another song that I brought forward, was rejected. I ended up recording that about 5 years later with Mirella and my band, The Devil Dolls, called “Still Life (Slow Down)” on an EP.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many?

I never played live with the band. The band carried on without me for about another year and a half. They ended up playing about 7 gigs until their demise.

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

Oh dear. They played the Garage in Los Angeles. LA is pretty jaded, and at this time a girl group was contrary everything that existed at the time. An audience member shouted to the three girls in front, “Can’t you play any instruments?”. Rachael gave the girl the finger and with a glare told the woman to, “shut up, you ugly cow!”.

++ And were there any bad ones?

The worst was the show that never happened. Somehow Rodney Bingenheimer of KROQ in LA heard the song and wanted to band to headline a show of up-and-coming bands he dug. A date was set and on the very day of the show, the bassist Gordo decided he would rather do another gig with another band he was in. A call was made to Rodney and he yelled, “This is the last time I’ll ever have you!” Gordo was kicked out and Rachael’s then husband joined as a bass player. It could have been the start of something, but in the end, it was for naught.

++ When and why did The Sleazy Beats stop making music? Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?

After many false start and the Bingeheimer fiasco, the band broke apart and went other ways.

Not long after Mirella and I moved to Melbourne; Stoney and Candy moved to Sweden; and the band members did their own thing.

Mirella and I started the Devil Dolls in Melbourne, and I was involved in other projects including my current band, Thee Wylde Oscars.

++ What about the rest of the band, had they been in other bands afterwards?

Rachael started her solo career, did a record and toured and ended up being married to Ace Frehely of KISS. She just is about to release another album; Stoney and Candy started a band Sin Sin 77 eventually moved to Sweden, where he is now a well-respected fine artist. They don’t seem to be playing music lately.

Hector is currently playing in several original bands in San Diego, including the Baja Buggs, a Beatles cover band. He’s always got something going.

Xavier is in a couple of bands in San Diego; The Phantoms and as a guitarist in Andy Rassmussen’s (another SD local, ex-Bomboras bassist) solo project.

John Chilson moved to Portland and plays drums from time-to-time.

Joel Kmak currently plays in San Diego with The Beat Farmers, or their alter ego, The Farmers SD.

Gordo is MIA. I really don’t even know his last name LOL.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio?

None whatsoever.

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

None whatsoever.

++ What about from fanzines?

None whatsoever.

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

My highlight was writing the song and recording it. It was fun to do…and actually have someone notice it after all these years.

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

Physics, model rocketry, Vespa motor scooters.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

I’m glad someone took pleasure in something I had a hand in. That’s the reason I still do it. I think for most of the members, Rock and Roll was always more of a religion than a business. It’s was about getting the word out. Thanks for the interest once again!

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Listen
The Sleazy Beats – Phil Spector’s Birthday Song

This week has been a  bit harder to find new indiepop on the web. Hopefully these are good enough for your demanding taste!

Herlights: this Russian band have been featured on the blog in the past. Last year. Indeed, it has been about a year since they had released new songs. Their latest is a 4-song EP titled “Sometimes” that brings back their trademark post-punk jangly sound!

Olivia’s World: so happy to hear that Lica from Go Violets and Tempura Nights keeps making top popsongs. Now it is a cassette EP called “Olivia’s World EP” on the fine Lost Sound Tapes from Seattle. The EP comes with four songs, two of them (“Blotter” and “Cereal Boxes”) we can preview on Bandcamp. And yes, we can play them again and again.

Bathe: there is just one song on this Bandcamp set up by Atlanta multi-instrumentalist Baily Crone. It is called “The Silence” and it is really pretty. It is a lush song, dreamy. This song will be released next year on the debut album “Last Looks”. So for now we wait.

The Claim: the mighty classic band is back too with a new EP called “Just Too Far”. This is a short EP, 3 songs. Included are the title song, “Hercules (Bleak Industrialists c. 1987 remix)” and “Mrs Jones (Ono dub)”. I must say that I love the opening track, but not very sure with the remixes. But it is ok, “Just Too Far” is just too good to care if the other songs are not too good?

Typsy Panthre: from Mnneapolis comes this new project by Allison LaBonne and John Crozier. If you know who I am talking about, well, Allison was in the lovely The Owls and John in the legendary The Hang Ups. So there’s quality here. The band is releasing an album called “Hell” on November 11 on CD. The album will include 11 tracks, two of them available to preview now, “The Strange Thing” and “Summers End”. Very very recommendable.

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Maybe not exactly indiepop, but as I have them on a list of bands that were intended to be part of The Leamington Spa series, I thought why not check them out. I know very little and the song, even though it is sort of a jazzy twee thing it is very enjoyable.

The song I’m talking about is the one I’ve been able to listen so far. It is the A side of the sole 7″ they put out in 1981. The song is called “Let the Girl Dance”. The B side is “Arrested”.

The 7″ was originally released in 1981, on Silhouette Records (KUS 100). Discogs has this label based in Cleveland, Ohio. But that’s wrong. It must a label with the same name. Something that caught my attention was the KUS in the catalog number, just like our Augsburg friends, Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten. The record also seems to have been released with no sleeve. That is a shame. We do see though some information on the label. We see that “Let the Girl Dance” was written by R. Helman and K. Yallop. That the engineer was L. Burrage and both Helman and Yallop produced thet rack. The executive producer was Douglas Kean.

The 7″ was re-released the year after on Red Bus Records (RBUS 71). I wonder why. The songs are the same on this version of the 7″.

No other releases by the band though they did appear with the song “Let the Girl Dance” on a 12″ compilation “Heart & Stars” that was released in Portugal by the label Red Bus Records (RBLP 1011). Was Red Bus Records based in Portugal? Or was this a release they did exclusively for this Iberian country? Other bands on this comp are Private Line, English Boys or Imagination… I don’t know them!

I do see that a blog called My Life’s a Jigsaw that covers mostly mod and powerpop dedicated a blog post to The Kustom back in 2012. The author is pretty sure the band hailed from London. To confirm this an anonymous person commented that he shared a house with Keith Yallop (the bassist) in South Ealing, London.

Thanks to this info I found a Soundcloud for a Keith Yallop, but I am not 100% sure that it is the same person. There is nothing in there to confirm it is.

Now what is the first name of R. Helman? Maybe I could have a chance to track them down that way. But I can’t seem to find any other information about The Kustom. Maybe someone remembers them? What happened to them after The Kustom split?!

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Listen
The Kustom – Let the Girl Dance

Thanks so much to Tomohiro for the interview! For you who don’t know him, he was part of a fantastic Japanese indiepop unit called All Twin’s Birthday that released a superb 7″ on the Behavior Saviour label that our friend Masahiro (from Love Mushrooms and Tricycle Popstar – both interviewed in the blog) used to ran in the early 90s. Aside from that 7″ they appeared on some classic Japanese compilations but we always wondered what happened to them! Luckily now we’ll get to learn more about them! Join me!

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

Hi, Roque! I’m good. I’m still making music.

++ 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?

First music memories? That’s a tough question.
When I was an elementary school student, I listened to 60s / 70s US & UK rock, junior high school student, I began to listen to the standard of jazz, and high school student, finally I began to listen to guitar pop and neo-acoustic.
I became crazy about 50s / 60s modern jazz before listening to new wave and twee pop. It may be a slightly strange music career.
My first instrument is guitar. How did I learn? My own way.
I played  and played my guitar. I slept every night with holding my guitar.
At home while growing up, I mostly listened to the good old music, not hit song of the time.

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

Before All Twin’s Birthday, there are not any recording.
I played only cover songs. When I joined All Twin’s Birthday, I wrote original song for the first time.

++ Where were you from originally, Tokyo?

From Chiba-city (famous for novels of the cyberpunk).

++ How was your Tokyo at the time of All Twin’s Birthday? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

I was able to check out gigs of many 90s bands.There were good record stores in Nishi Shinjuku: Vinyl Japan, ROUGH TRADE SHOP etc.
As for legendary venue, Shinjuku JAM was very good (closed December 31, 2017). We played many times there.

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

We were students of the same university. We talked about music.
The taste of our favorite music was similar very much, so we formed a band.
Yuka Banno (great bassist) and Bo Suzuki (great drummer), they have a great talent. I was fascinated by them. And I can sing and play the guitar. So it did not need the recruitment of members.

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

I played guitar in my room to write songs. I usually practiced in my room as private studio.

++ Something I find very interesting is the amount of great Japanese indiepop bands that started appearing in the 90s! I was wondering if you have like a top 5 Japanese indiepop bands? And also if you would recommend some that are not very well known?

Probably you have a detailed knowlodge of Japanese band than me. So I am not suitable for choosing top 5 Japanese indiepop bands. But I try. All 5 bands were splendid, so this list in random order.

・SPEED WAY STAR was splendid anorak band. Their performance was always great. But they released neither album nor single. They contributed only one song to compilation CD “What Do You Want A Japanese To Do? -The first Vinyl Japan Sampler.

・HARMONY IN YOUR BATHROOM was based in Osaka. OEAMOM was released by CONPACT FAST RECORD in 1998. It is difficult to easily categorize their music. Keigo Matsumura (leader of this band) has a great talent of composition. He is active now in a band called BLINDDATE.

・Love Mushrooms, well you know Masahiro Kodama’s another unit.

・Bridge, well you know most important Japanese indiepop bands!

・Chicago Bass. After Bridge stop making music, Mami Otomo joined this band. Chicago Bass is great Japanese alternative band.
This band’s bassist Kayoko Yamauchi has a great talent.
She, Yuka Banno and I joined band named Milk Film afterwards.

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

Josef K, The pastels, Television Personalities, Haircut 100, Brilliant Corners and Primal Scream… the list of examples is endless…

++Your first release was a 7″ on the label Behavior Saviour. I was wondering how did you end up working with Masahiro and his label? How was your relationship with them? How did you meet?

There were three key persons and our demo tape.

First key person is Sin Makino. He was organizer of live show named LOST PIECES. We played some gigs at his live show, he offered to play gig in Osaka. We went to Osaka (by Shinkansen?) and performed.

Second key person is Takako Kasa. She was organizer of live show in Osaka. The night we performed in Osaka, we met her. I presented our demo tape. she was a friend of Masahiro. She gave Masahiro our demo tape to listen. This demo tape (titled “live in a B/W movie) was not live recording, that was studio recording, include “Everytime We Say Good-Bye” plus 4 songs. Not for sale, for promotional use only. I like to watch the old b/w movies, so I would expect to add meaning to our demo tape “Lifetime in a B/W Movie” just like daydream.

Third key person is Kazushige Kanazawa. He was a shop assistant of the record shop (ROUGH TRADE SHOP), organizer of live show named “LOVE SO FINE”, too. And he offered to play All Twin’s Birthday & Masahiro (Tricycle Popstar). We met at the gig, and we liked each other’s performance. A few days later, Masahiro sent a letter to me, “Do you release 7inch from my label?”.

++ And you did work with Masahiro at least on one song, “Everytime We Say Good-Bye”. Was there ever an intention of forming a band together?

There was not ever an intention of forming a band together.
Masahiro was producer of All Twin’s Birthday in a sense.

++ This 7″ had two songs, “I Second That Love” and “Rudy Van Gelder’s Secret Note”. Where these your first proper studio recordings? Had there been demo tapes before it?

Not proper studio recordings. We brought small 4 track cassette MTR into rehearsal studio to recorded basic track (bass, drums and rhythm guitar) of two songs. This material transferred my 8 track cassette MTR and overdubbed vocal & chorus part etc…
8 track MTR is very big and heavy, so hard to carry. However Masahiro & I had same type 8 track cassette MTR. I went to Masahiro’s room with mastertape only, and was able to do a continuance of the recording work. For example, “I Second That Love”s organ part was recorded Masahiro’s room. I am a lucky man.

++ And I have to ask, are you big fans of Rudy Van Gelder?

Very nice question! The answer is yes! He is a great recording engineer. I respect him so much.

++ Why were there no more releases by the band after this record?

I hoped to work with Masahiro, but he emigrated abroad after “I Second That Love” was released. We exchanged air mail about All Twin’s Birthday’s full album. In all honesty I wanted to record same way of “I Second That Love”. But we could not meet, there was not yet email. And there was American label’s offer of the release, too. But did not come true. If now time, it might come true.

++ Aside from the 7″ you did appear on two compilations. Both times you contributed the song “Everytime We Say Good-Bye”. Was there a reason to choose that song twice?

If I remember correctly, label side chose the song, not me.
But arrangement of the tracks for each compilations were different, so I agreed to their plan.

++ One of this compilations was called “Let’s Muc Out on Sound” that was releasde by Loose Sound in Japan on tape. I don’t know nothing about this tape, so I was wondering if you remember who was behind it? if it came with a fanzine? or any details at all!

Loose Sound was a cassette tape label organaized by Takako Kasa. “Let’s Muc Out on Sound” included “Everytime We Say Good-bye” (“Live in a B/W Movie” version). She released our 1st official 5 songs cassette tape titled “live in a B/W movie Vol. 2”
(limited 100 copies) And she published a great fanzine entitled “RED RUBBER BALL”. And she was organizer of a party named “red LOVER ball”, too. She’s still so cool!  I’m grateful to her.

++ The second compilation was on Behavior Saviour and was the great “Behave Yourself!”, and so I wonder if there are more compilation appearances?

“Everytime We Say Good-Bye” of “Behave Yourself!” version was added new arrangement by Masahiro. He added organ part to basic track of “Live in a B/W Movie” version. I thank for what he did. There are anecdote about “Behave Yourself!”. Masahiro wrote a song. He intended to record the song in “Behave Yourself!”. Thereafter he noticed the song’s climax resembles “Everytime We Say Good-Bye” ‘s climax. So he entitled the song “Last Time I Say Good-Bye”. It’s a joke for him. On the other hand, “Everytime We Say Good-Bye” I quoted from a title of the standard of Jazz. Lou Reed quoted from a title of the standard of Jazz, too. “Beginning To See The Light”, “After Hours”, etc… I was influenced by him. SOMEONE INFLUENCES SOMEONE LIKE THAT. We contributed songs to some compilation.

++ What about unreleased tracks?

There were not a few tracks.
And there were many unrecorded songs, played only gigs. I hope to record those songs someday.

++ It is hard to pick one, but I think my favorite All Twin’s Birthday track is “Everytime We Say Good-bye”, was wondering if you could tell me the story behind this song?

In a sense it was the song I wrote for the first time in my room.
Before I wrote the song, I made the music from parts of jam session at rehearsal studio. And the song I wrote lyrics in English for the first time in my life.

++ If you were to choose your favorite All Twin’s Birthday song, which one would that be and why?

“Nothing Like Our Way”. I wrote this song immediately after writing “Everytime We Say Good-bye”, And we recorded for
“live in a B/W movie Vol. 2”. However I think I could not record it well. We played the song at live show many times. The song often played ending of gigs. And we recorded the song again. However I am not satisfied that recording. I hope to challenge recording satisfactory version someday.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? All over Japan?

We played many gigs, usually performed in Tokyo, played once in Osaka.

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

“LOVE SO FINE” organized by Kazushige Kanazawa. Cause, I was able to meet Masahiro. There was a large audience. Many people danced to our music, and seemed happy.

++ And were there any bad ones?

That’s a tough question.
“LOVE SO FINE”. Cause we was not able to rehearse that night.
The gig held in the middle of the night. Before “LOVE SO FINE” began, different live show was carried out, but it was not over on time. So we did not have time to prepare enough. It was bad to my heart to go on the stage without sound check. A good thing and a bad thing often happen at the same time.

++ When and why did All Twin’s Birthday stop making music? Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?

Probably it was about 1997. I think that we wanted to try something new. I joined some units. After that, I joined 3 piece band again. The name of this band is Milk Film. Yuka Banno (all twin’s birthday’s bassist) and  Kayoko Yamauchi (Chicago Bass’s bassist) sang and played the guitars. And we recorded and released CDs.

++ What about the rest of the band, had they been in other bands afterwards?

Bo Suzuki is active as a instrumental band’s leader of Noahlewis’ Mahlon Taits.

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

Reunion? God only knows…

++ Did you get much attention from the radio?

I think probably our song did not play on the radio.
On the other hand, many DJs played our 7inch at club, and still play.

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

Fanzines gave us some attention than the press.

++ What about from fanzines?

For example, our long interview (14 pages) was published on STEREO CASTANETS CHANNEL (just 7inch size fanzines) with an article on (or interview of) Kahimi Karie.

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

We played as opening act before Television Personalities of their Japan tour! I brought their 1st album on that day, and I was going to say to Dan Treacy,  “Can I have your autograph?”. But I was not able to do. I have been impressed just to watch him. Their performance on that night was great and moved me so much.

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

I like reading novels, essays and poetry by American writers and poets. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan, The dogs bark by Truman Capote
and great poetry of William Carlos Williams.

++ Never been to Tokyo or Japan. So I will ask for some recommendations. If a popkid was to visit your city what shouldn’t they miss? What are your favourite sights? And any particular food or drinks that you think one shouldn’t miss?

I think Shimokitazawa is splendid place for popkids. Personally, Ochanomizu and Kandajinbouchou are my favorite towns. There are so many musical instrument stores, new and old bookshops,
record shops and coffee shops (I especially like Sabouru, very nice coffee shop!).

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks Roque! Your questions inspired me! I thank all friends who cooperated to answer this question. And I thank popkids of the world.

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Listen
All Twin’s Birthday – Everytime We Say Good-Bye

Here are some good finds from the past weekend. Hope you like some of them!

Pia Fraus: Here is a wonderful digital single for “Sweet Sunday Snow”. It comes with three remixes on Bandcamp, “Picnic Remix”, “Ligthships Remix” and “Astrobal Remix”. The Tallin, Estonia, band sounds gorgeous in this recording. Just makes me wish that I’ll see them live one day.

Blue Tomorrows: this Portland band has graced the blog in the past. Sarah Nienaber’s project sounds ace. And her latest is a 9 song album called “Without Color” that is available in limited quantities on tape. Definitely check the track “Crescent Moon Blues” which is great.

Special Friend: Hidden Bay Records has been releasing good music since they started. The latest is this French-American duo formed by Guillaume Siracusa on guitar and Erica Ashleson on drums. The release is a self-titled EP of 5 songs that will be available on vinyl on September 27.

Alice Hubble: I have known Alice for many years now, and I was a big fan of her older band Arthur & Martha and also of the wonderful Seven Inches from Leeds. Nowadays she’s gone solo and will be releasing the album “Polarlichter” sometime this month (some issues with the pressing plant). It will be available on 12″ vinyl as well as on CD. So that’s good news. Terrific synth-pop.

The Leaf Library: the London ensemble is releasing their new album “The World is a Bell” on October 25th! At the moment we can only preview one out of 10 tracks that will be on the record, “Hissing Waves”, and it leaves me wishing to listen to the rest of songs! The record will be out on vinyl and CD.

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Here is yet another record I am looking to find a copy for my collection. Maybe there will be luck in the next weeks, months, or years. It has happened to me that I’ve been lucky tracking some of these records I want after writing about them. Maybe it will happen again!

Kicking the Image is an obscure band of course. There is very little I know about them. I don’t think there are any blog posts about them on the web. This may be the first one. I will try to find any other mentions or any valuable information. I cross my fingers.

Big Bus Records released their record in 7″ and 12″ formats in 1990. The 12″ had a cool sleeve whereas the 7″ didn’t come with one. Both have the catalog number IMAGE 002. I don’t know what was IMAGE 001. Discogs doesn’t list any other records for this label. May as well have been a one off, a sole release by the label? Perhaps it was even the band’s own label?

The 7″ had two songs, “When the Loving Comes” on the A side and “The Truth” on the B side. The 12″ added another song to the A side, “So Long”.  “When the Loving Comes” and “The Truth” were recorded at Coach House Recording Studios in Bristol, England. They were engineered by Allan Keen. “So Long” on the other hand was recorded at Chariot 16 Track Studios in Cardiff, Wales. This song was engineered by Alex Silva. All songs were produced by Danny Chang.

We also know that additional vocals are credited to Samantha Howard and the band thanks Cranes Musical Instruments for loaning them the equipment for the recording. The photo of the sleeve was taken by Andrew ‘Syb’ Newman.

Most importantly we know the band members:
Steve Williams – vocals/guitar
Mike Thomas – bass/vocals
Dan Jones – guitar/vocals
Linus – drums/percussion

I also notice an address on the sleeve…. Penarth, in Glamorgan. So the band was Welsh? Or the label?

I notice that Steve Williams still performs. He does mostly covers it seems. Something interesting I find out is that Kicking the Image played the West Wales Blues festival, closing the festival in front of 9000 people. Then I find out that he was originally from Cardiff. Safe to assume now that Kicking the Image hailed from Wales’ most important city?

I can’t seem to find any other information about the rest of the band members. But at least I feel I’ve gone further than I expected. I am sure there are people reading me that know even more details. Why not share them with everyone on the comment section?

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Listen
Kicking the Image – When the Loving Comes

Friday again! So that’s exciting!

Dear Boy: this Los Angeles band sounds really good! My introduction to the band is their latest digital single, “Heaven Moves”, which sounds gorgeous, very much influenced by classic British guitar pop. What’s even cooler is that they are touring (sadly no New York), but my Mexican friends can catch them on November 16th in Mexico City. How cool is that!

A Certain Smile: the Portland, Oregon, band is back with a new EP called “Bae”. It will include 3 songs, “Cherry Bomb”, “Honey Do” and “Original Replacement” and it is going to be released on the fine Jigsaw Records. Very exciting indeed! And it will be on 7″ vinyl to boot! You can preview the opening track, “Cherry Bomb” on Bandcamp now.

Champion of Youth: another superb release on Jigsaw Records is the self-titled mini-album by this Manchester band! Champion of Youth is actually  a band formed by ex-members of the formidable Amida, so you can expect jangly and ramshackle guitars which is something I love!

New Wave of Hype: this the name of the latest compilation released by the great Jakarta label Dismantled Records! It includes 5 songs, all of them covers of songs by The Wake! So we find Turks & Caicos playing “Provincial Disco”, Ultraviolence plays “Solo Project”, Les Mains Immaculees “Carbrain” and Sharesprings “Talk About the Past”.

Puzzles y Dragones/Alborotador Gomasio: the two Madrid bands, two of my favourite Madrid bands, are releasing a split 7″ on Discos Garibaldi! Each one of them contribute one song, Puzzles y Dragones has “Formas de Mirar” while Alborotador has “Los Bosques”. This is a great sort of reunion, as members of each of the bands were once part of the Aplasta tus Gafas de Pasta DIY collective!

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Kelvin Davis on lead vocals and guitar, Tony Vessey on bass guitar and backing vocals, Steve Bessemer on drums and percussion and Doug McNair on keyboards and backing vocals were the mid-80s mod band The B-Team. They were to release just the one single, but what a great single that is!

The wonderful “All I Ever Wanted” on the A side, penned by Kelvin Davis, is a burst of joy. And then on the B side, a joint effort by all 4 members, we find “Bad Day”, another fine track! The songs were recorded at Empire Studio’s in Manor Park, in London. If you want to hear both of them, they are available on Soundcloud. This account is by Jon Vessey, maybe a brother of Tony?

The record was released in 1985 by Diamond Record Corporation (DIA 008), a small UK label that was active in the mid 80s. The art for the sleeve is credited to Artschool while the photography of the band to Deborah Laight and Jo Baker. There is a credit to Brenden Wilson for processing. Not sure what it means though. It also seems that the letter B is printed on both labels, as if there was no A side. The thing is that the matrices do show which one was the A side.

Many years later, in 1996, the band would see their two songs included in a 22-track compilation called “This is Mod Volume 3 – A Diamond Collection”. On this one they appear alongside many bands that were on their old label Diamond Record Corporation like The Moment or The Scene. This comp was released by Anagram Records (CDMGRAM 106).

Then in 2018 the Japanese label DDA Confidential would release “Ita Cemetry Gates Volume 3” (DDAMDC 016) and would include “All I Ever Wanted” on it. This is an interesting compilation as it includes bands like Dolly Mixture and then you see Big Star or Elvis Costello.

I check on Discogs if any of the members were involved in any other bands but it doesn’t look like it.

On a forum I see a mention of a live tape, probably from a gig at the Wood Green in London 1986. This same forum mentions that Tony Vessey left the band in the early days of 1986 to start his own band Amo Amas and was replaced by Paul Rosendale. It also mentions a second single with the song “And All Because” on ASM Records. Never heard about this! Then that they split up in 1987. At the time of the forum post, 2007, it says that Kelvin was playing in a band called Blow Up, Steve was playing in a Jam tribute band while Paul Rosendale was living in Spain and he did a solo rock n’ roll/mod/new wave show there.

I would really like to find out more about this 2nd record!

So at the end of my little research I am left with more doubts and questions than I had at the beginning. I hope someone can fill in the blanks, paint me a better picture of this superb mod-revival band and about that second single!

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Listen
The B-Team – All I Ever Wanted

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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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