Thanks so much to Matthew Murdock for the interview! Jupiter Sun was a very fine 90s band from the Bay Area who released on Slumberland and Parasol Records. I wrote about the band a couple of weeks ago and through Rob, their drummer, I got in touch with Matthew who was keen to answer all my questions! If you’ve never heard them before, this is a great time to do so!

++ Hi there! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Still in the Bay Area? Still making music?

I’m good.  Thanks for asking me to do an interview.  No one has asked for an interview in like 20 years.  I still live in the Bay Area. I live in the South Bay, near San Jose where I grew up.   I record some music on my own still, but I haven’t been in a band since 2005.

++ 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?

I have a distinct memory of hearing “Let ‘Em In” by Paul McCartney and Wings on the radio as a child.  I started playing guitar at about age 10. My older brother played guitar, so there was one around the house.  I didn’t really take it seriously until I was about 14 though. My parents listened to The Beatles, Neil Young, Pink Floyd, and my mom was a big David Bowie fan.  My older brother listened to the rock music of the time: AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, The Who, but he later got into what I guess would be lumped together as “New Wave”. I got into Devo and The Pretenders from hearing those records the house.  When I was about 15, I got really into Echo and the Bunnymen (I’d say I was a fanatic), as well as The Smiths, Cocteau Twins, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Aztec Camera, Joy Division, and New Order.

++ Was Silver your first band or had you been in other bands before that? What about the rest of the members? If so, how did all of these bands sound like? Are there any recordings?

Silver wasn’t my first band.  My first real band was called The Melt, and we played Freakbeat and 60’s inspired psych music.  At first, we played covers of the various “post-punk” bands (like “I Melt With You” by Modern English) but then decided we wanted to change direction after Ted introduced us to bands like John’s Children, Wimple Winch, and The Yardbirds.  That band included my good friend Ted Snydal, who played bass and sang, and Ollie Moore on drums and backing vocals, who was later in Silver and Jupiter Sun. I didn’t really sing at that time. I just wanted to be a guitarist at that point. The band broke up when Ted went to study abroad in Europe.  We have recorded about 10 songs on cassette four-track, but a lot of them were covers.

I don’t think Ollie was any other bands before The Melt.  Steve had a band (see below), but that band basically became Silver.  I think we were the first band Paul Tyler was in. Nate Rockwood was in another band, but I don’t remember the name.  They were influenced by the “Madchester” scene.

++ I know you started as Silver and then changed name to Snowball and then to Jupiter Sun. Was there any other differences between these three bands besides the name? Is that the right order? Why the name changes and what inspired these names

Snowball actually came first.  It was a solo project of mine. The Melt had dissolved, and I was band-less at the time.  I have a high school friend named Clint Barnes, and his friend was a guy named Chuck Wu. They had an indie-pop fanzine called Amish Ways.  They wanted to do a flexi-disc for one of the issues, and they asked me to record a song for it. The song was called “Water Boatman”, and I decided to make up a band name instead of using my own name.  I took the band name from The Field Mice 10” album, and it related well to the “Winter’s Mist” theme of the flexi-disc. I think it was the winter edition of fanzine.

Silver formed not long after the Snowball song came out.  I was looking for a band, and my friend, Allen Masuda, said he knew a guy whose brother had a band that was into the “Manchester” scene.  I liked The Stone Roses a lot, so I thought I’d contact him. I got Steve’s number and called him up, or maybe it was the other way around.  He went to my high school, but was a year behind me, so I didn’t know him. When I talked to Steve, I learned that they were actually looking for a drummer, because they had two guitarists, Steve on bass, and a singer.  I said I knew a drummer (Ollie), so I guess we agreed that I’d come over with Ollie to “jam”. I thought three guitarists was maybe too much, but Jun had just seen Chapterhouse, and said we could make it work.

Anyway, the singer only showed up a few times, and one of the guitarists left to form another band. So, we were left with me (guitar, vocals), Steve Chang (bass), Jun Ragudo (guitar), and Ollie Moore (drums).   Jun and Steve found Anne Hotchkiss, and she became co-lead vocalist with me. This is the first version of Silver. I chose the name Silver because both Ride and Echo & The Bunnymen had songs called “Silver”. We decided to go in a more “shoegaze” direction, as all the bands like Ride, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, and Lush were touring and putting out great records.  We recorded a demo with this 5 piece lineup (which I still have), and played two shows. After that, Anne decided she didn’t like singing on stage and left the group. We continued as a four piece as Silver for a while, with me singing lead.

About six months later, Jun decided he wanted to leave the group as well.  This was around the same time we got an offer to do a 7” single on Slumberland Record.  Mike Schulman from Slumberland Records moved to Berkeley, and worked at Mod Lang Records in Berkeley.  I met him there, and he had heard the Snowball song somehow and liked it. I gave him a demo of Silver and he liked it enough to offer to put out a 7” single, though I think he actually liked the Snowball song more that Silver.  Mike asked us to change the band name, because there was some Grateful Dead offshoot band called Silver. We had to come up with something quick, and I came up with the name after watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is still my favorite movie.  I wish we hadn’t changed the name, or found a different name, because we kind of got lumped into some sort of space-rock category, but we really had a lot of influences. It’s my fault, I guess.

So, at the time we started the recording for the Slumberland 7” (which was never released), we were a three-piece of me, Steve, and Ollie.

Later, we had other members at different times in Jupiter Sun: Paul Tyler was on second guitar for a while when Ollie was playing drums, then Rob Uytingco replaced Ollie on drums, and later we had Nate Rockwood on lead vocals.  Steve and I were the only members that were in every version of the band.

++ Where were you from originally, San Francisco?

No, most of us were from San Jose, CA.  Jun, Steve, Rob, and I all went to the same high school, though I am a year older than those guys, and didn’t know them in high school.  Ollie was from San Jose also, and I think Paul was living in Berkeley when he joined the band. Nate was from Campbell, which is adjacent to San Jose.

++ How was your city at the time? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

San Jose had an OK music scene at the time.  There were some other local bands that were influenced by British indie, “Madchester” and “shoegaze”.  To us, it was all kind of the same thing. We didn’t know the difference between Manchester and London!  A batch of local bands sort of sprouted up from the excitement over The Stone Roses, and the stuff that was coming out on Creation Records.  Bands like Valeria, The Damsels (Rob’s first band), Blue Eskimos, Ozean, Your Precious You, and Galileo Space Tribute. We became friendly and played a lot of shows together.  We had a little scene for a few years in San Jose around 1992-1995, though it was against the grain of the grunge scene that was big at the time. Most of the local clubs just wanted to promote bands that sounded like Pearl Jam.  There was one larger club called FX that booked us, and we opened for The Boo Radleys once there. The absolute best record store at that time was Mod Lang in Berkeley, and it still exists, but it’s now in El Cerrito, CA.

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

I answered a lot this earlier, but I can elaborate a bit.  I met Ollie through a guy named Jon, who was the original lead singer of The Melt.  I used to put flyers looking for musicians at the local record stores and guitar stores, as well as ads in the local music paper, BAM Magazine.  I met a Paul Tyler through an ad – he played guitar in Jupiter Sun for a while. I met Mike Prosenko around 1992. Mike later had a band called Ozean that recently had its demo tape re-released.  I met a few other musicians that went on to form bands, but mostly, there were a lot of people we tried out that just didn’t fit the band, or didn’t have any musical talent. Some people would show up to try out saying, “Oh yeah, I like Ride”, but maybe had only heard “Vapour Trail” once on the radio, and really had no idea where we were coming from.

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

In the beginning, we practiced in the garage of my house or Steve’s house.  We were all living at home at the beginning of the band. Later, we rented a rehearsal space. We’d normally work out the arrangements as a band in the rehearsal room.  Sometimes the songs came together from just playing around in the rehearsal space. But a lot of the time I wrote the songs on my own, and then presented them to the band, or Steve would write something and present it.  Occasionally, Steve and I would sit down and write with just the two of us.

++ How was the scene in the Bay Area at the time? Where there many good bands? Which were your favourites?  

I think I answered earlier, but my favorite local bands were The Damsels, Blue Eskimos, and Galileo Space Tribute.  San Francisco had some bands as well, but I’d have to say there was a higher concentration of bands similar to us in San Jose than in San Francisco.  1992-1995 was really great time in San Jose. I could go out multiple times a week and see bands I knew, or just run into people I knew and have a drink.  Of course, there was other kinds of music going on too, outside of our little scene.

After 1995, there were fewer places to play live in San Jose, and a lot of the musicians I knew relocated to San Francisco.  Britpop came along strong during this time, and while I liked a lot that music, it was a bit different from a lot of our initial influences.  Also, a club night called Popscene started in 1996 in San Francisco, and fans of British music in the Bay Area sort of coalesced around that club.  I knew a few of the guys that started that club, and it’s still around today. Before Popscene, you’d sort of just meet people randomly at different shows and “alternative” dance nights, if you were friendly, but you’d see the same people every week at Popscene.

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

I’d say the main influences were Ride and The Stone Roses.  Seeing Ride live (with Lush) was really the catalyst for me to try to put a serious band together.  Some other influences were The Charlatans, Blur, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine. and Adorable. But we all had different influences.  Steve and Ollie were into funk and soul. We all liked James Brown and Curtis Mayfield. The Beatles were a huge influence as well. Personally, I was really into The Byrds, Neil Young, Big Star, and The Zombies at the time.  I also was into some of the Sarah Records bands like The Field Mice and The Sea Urchins.

++ Was your first ever release the one with Snowball, the 7″ on Silver Girl Records? How did you end up on this Californian label? And why didn’t you continue working with them?

The Snowball song “Water Boatman” came out on the Winter’s Mist flexi disc first for the Amish Ways fanzine, and then was re-released on the Silver Girl vinyl 7”.  It was just something that Silver Girl Records and Amish Ways worked out. I didn’t have any contact with Silver Girl, but I did receive some copies of the 7”. Pretty soon after it came out, Mike from Slumberland asked us to do a 7” single, so I guess we just went for that.

++ Your first record as Jupiter Sun was a single sided “Blow Up” 12″ that came out on I Wish I Was a Slumberland Records. I’ve always been curious about this sub-label, and I was wondering two things, why was it a single sided 12″, why not use both sides? And why wasn’t it released on Slumberland proper?

At first, we were supposed to do a 7” single, but for some reason, Mike decided he didn’t want to do a 7” anymore.  We just kept recording more songs, with the idea that it would become an e.p. instead. I’m not sure why, but the Mike decided he didn’t want to put it out on Slumberland proper.  I think it was cheaper to master only one side for vinyl. I designed the sleeve cover, and got the sleeves silk screened, as well as the insert. This was about two years after we were supposed to put out the 7”, so obviously we were impatient, as we wanted to have something to promote and sell at gigs.  You’d need to ask Mike from Slumberland about the reasons for the sub-label. I was never quite sure, but I think it was business related. After the single sided vinyl e.p. came out, two of the songs ended up on the Slumberland compilation album and cd. “Why Popstars Can’t Dance”. If I remember correctly, a bunch of stuff that was supposed to come out as 7” singles on Slumberland ended up on the compilation instead.

++ These songs were recorded at Astral Sound  and Mysterious Cave. How was that experience? Was it your first time working in a proper professional studio?

Astral Sound was a professional studio.  Mysterious Cove was the home studio of our producer, Jeff Stuart Saltzman.  Our manager, Alan Salmassian, introduced me to Jeff. Jeff was also a musician and songwriter, and had a record out under the name Cerebral Corps.  Jeff worked at Astral Sounds as an engineer, so we could get cheap studio time there. Jeff was a great help in teaching us how to record, and he also introduced me to a lot of great music.  This was before the digital, home recording boom. It was difficult to make a record at home. Overall, I was happy with the results from the professional studio, though if I could go back in time. I probably would have gone for a more raw sound.

++ Afterwards you would sign with Parasol to release an album. I was wondering how you end up first on Slumberland and then on Parasol? Did you meet the people behind the labels? How was your relationship with them?

I knew Mike Schulman from Slumberland Records.  I’d usually talk to him when I went into Mod Lang Records.  We never actually signed any contract with Slumberland; it was a handshake deal.  After we finished the seven songs that were on Atmosphere that weren’t on the I Wish I Was a Slumberland Record e.p., Mike didn’t like the mixes and wanted us to remix it.  We recorded those songs on a borrowed Tascam 16 track tape machine, and I didn’t want remix it, and I couldn’t really afford to do it. I didn’t think the mixes would get any better.  We would have had to re-record it. I will say that we never were advanced any money from Slumberland. The band paid for the recordings, with a lot of the recording costs coming directly out of my pocket.

At that point, my friend Chuck Wu persuaded me to shop the album to Parasol Records.  Geoff from Parasol said he liked it, and would release it immediately. After the long delays with Slumberland, we just wanted to get it out.  I never met Geoff from Parasol. I only spoke to him on the phone as Parasol was based in Illinois. I probably spoke to him like three times. I don’t remember if there was an actual contract, but basically it was a one-off distribution deal, since we owned the recordings.

That said, I had a text conversation with Mike Schulman a few years ago, and we had a nice chat.  I hold no ill will toward him. Slumberland is a cool label, and I’m glad it’s still around.

++ The album “Atmosphere” was released in 1995 and included the songs from the Slumberland 12″. They were the same songs? Or different versions? And how different was recording an album, say like a single or an EP?

All the same songs and mixes that appeared on the I Wish I Was A Slumberland 12” e.p. appeared on the Atmosphere cd.  Well, they should all be the same mixes. I’m pretty sure they are. Either the L.P. or the CD of the “Why Popstars Can’t Dance” compilation on Slumberland has an alternate mix of Headlight Beam Reaction.  I can’t remember which one. I’d have to go check. We just kept recording. At first it was supposed to be a 7” single with Violet Intertwine and Accelerate. Then an e.p. Then we decided to basically do a home recording of the last seven songs on Atmosphere because we couldn’t afford to go to a real studio, as we had recouped very little money yet.

++ Your next release, “Looking Up” CDEP would be on your own label, Phase 45 Records. Why did you go on your own for this release? And how was the experience of doing “label stuff”? Did you like it?

Ha!  We released it on our own because we were tired of looking for a label.  We didn’t really do any “label stuff”. I still have boxes of the “Looking Up” cd  in my garage. We weren’t good at any sort of “music business”. We mainly just sold it at gigs.  This was when we were managing ourselves, which we weren’t particularly good at.

++ For this CDEP the band lineup had changed, Rob Uytingco had joined and replaced Ollie on drums. What happened?

That’s a long story, but basically Ollie left the band to transfer to an out-of-state college.  There was some friction in the band between Ollie and I at the time, which I think was made worse the long delay of our recordings being released, and the lack of progress in becoming a “professional” band.  Also, I wasn’t the most communicative person at that stage. We were all young and didn’t really know how to talk things out. (We didn’t have a sweater-clad guy to help us, like Metalllica.) I had decided to break up the band right after we finished recording the last tracks for “Atmosphere” because I was so frustrated, but Steve and I talked and decided to try the band again after we found out Rob had left his old band and was available.  We knew he was a good drummer. He lived right near us. It clicked right away, musically and personally. But both Ollie and Rob were great drummers.

++ I noticed that you only appeared on one compilation, “Why Popstars Can’t Dance?”. Is that true? Or did you appear on more?

We were only on that one compilation.

++ On the web, on Soundcloud, I found many unreleased tracks. I was wondering then when were these songs recorded? And why weren’t they ever released?

“Pacific”, “Washed Away” and “Violet Intertwine (original demo)” were from a Silver demo tape with me singing.  They were just home recordings done on a 4 track cassette recorder. “Pebbles In My Mind” is a recent rework of the very last Jupiter Sun song we worked on, but I re-recorded it with me singing instead of Nate with new lyrics.  (I allowed myself this one bit of revisionist history.) “Circus” and “I’m Over You” were done after Rob joined, but before Nate joined the band, in a professional studio with Jeff Stuart Saltzman. “We Can Take This Boat” was just a jam we recorded on cassette 4 track.  It was also known as “Acufunkture”. Rob played on that. I think that was a demo for an e.p. that never came out on American Standard (see below).

They weren’t released because no one wanted to release them.  We couldn’t really find a label to work with. For some reason, we never really followed up with Parasol.  Not that they treated us bad, but they were based in Illinois and we were in California. We were supposed to do an e.p. with my friend Mike Sanders’ small label, American Standard, but we couldn’t agree on the track listing, so it was scrapped.

++ And are there even more unreleased songs by Jupiter Sun?

There’s about six unreleased songs from 1999 with Nate Rockwood singing lead instead of me.  But there are still a few more tracks with me singing on them from before Nate joined. We have a few recordings of live shows that sound pretty good.

++ It is hard to pick one, but I think my favorite Jupiter Sun track is “Zookeeper”, was wondering if you could tell me the story behind this song?

I think Steve came up with the main bass line and the groove for the song.  I worked out my guitar parts, the vocal melody, and the chords for the chorus I think, but it was a collaborative effort.  I had friend from Wales named Nerys Williams, who was an exchange student at U.C. Berkeley back then. She told me once that she had a dream I was a zookeeper.  I had that in mind when I wrote the lyrics. I was also inspired by the Simon and Garfunkel song “At the Zoo”, and “I Am The Walrus”. Nerys is a poet, and the way she spoke and wrote was very elegant, and I think she started me on the path to take lyrics more seriously.  I think she is a professor now, but I haven’t spoken to her since about 2001.

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

I’d probably say “Out of the Blue”, although I wish I had opportunity to re-record it with me singing.  I wrote the lyrics on the plane on the way back from a backpacking trip to Europe. It was a personal song for me, and I don’t think the sentiment really comes across on the recording.  Nate did a good job, but it’s really a song I wrote for myself to sing. I think I have a demo version with me singing before Nate joined the band. I like the descending chords in the song.  Musically, that was one of those songs that just came out of nowhere without any struggle.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? All over California? Any other states?

We played approximately 64 shows.  I have a list that I have compiled after going through our old flyers, magazine ads, and our old website.  I may have missed a few, but I don’t think so. We pretty much just played in San Jose and San Francisco. We played the Beautiful Noise Festival on October 13, 1995 in Mesa, AZ.  We got invited to play that, and drove there to play that one night, and drove back the next day! Other than that, our only other out of town gig was in San Diego at a Britpop/Indie night called His ‘n’ Hers on August 8, 1998.  We drove down for that one show also. It was last gig ever, if you don’t count the reunion shows we did in 2001.

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

I think our best gigs as far as playing to a big, receptive crowd was when we opened for The Boo Radleys 1993, and for Matthew Sweet in 1995.  Either Sice or Martin from The Boo Radleys told us we were the best opening band they had had on their entire U.S. tour. It was only our 10th show.  In 1994, we opened for Missing Persons, but really it was just a Dale Bozzio solo gig.  She was a total diva, and we had no sound check and weren’t allowed backstage.

But my favorite show ever was in the basement of my girlfriend’s (now wife) house she rented while attending San Francisco State University.  We called the event “My Little Underground.” We just had a bunch of our friends’ bands play. It was just a really great night with friends, and then it got broken up by the cops because we played too loud!

++ And were there any bad ones?

Oh yes.  We played in a gig in San Francisco in 1998 and like three people showed up.  The momentum for the band had just disappeared at that point.

++ When and why did Jupiter Sun stop making music? Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?

The band broke up after Rob left the band to join Julie Plug.  We considered having Ollie back in the band to play drums, and we even had a rehearsal or two with Ollie.  But I was just burnt out, and I told Nate and Steve I wanted to stop. We weren’t really going anywhere at the time, and we didn’t really agree on the direction of the band at that point.  I felt the band had run its course. In retrospect, I think we had boxed ourselves in creatively with the sound we had at the time, which was sort of Second Coming-era Stone Roses with some Oasis and Charlatans mixed in.  I joined Paul’s new band Mover around 2000 as a guitarist, but that was only for about nine months. Paul and I also had a short-lived band called The Dunes around 2005. I also recorded a bunch of solo tracks. Rob played on at least one song.

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

Steve and Ollie formed a band called Sonic Orange.  Rob was in Julie Plug, and a number of other bands after that.  I don’t know if Nate was in another band. Paul Tyler formed a band called Mover, and later had a band called The Family Arsenal.

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

We played two reunion shows in 2001, with Steve, Ollie, and me.  But that was only like 3 years after the band broke up. We have never seriously talked about playing again after that, though I would like to play those songs again someday, even if it was just in a rehearsal space.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio?

Our manager, Alan Salmassian, had a radio show at San Jose State University, and later at Santa Clara University.  We did get support from local college radio. I think “Out of The Blue” got played once on Live 105, which was the alternative radio station in San Francisco, on some sort of local band spotlight.

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

We got a lot of good press from local music papers, and a few national ones when “Atmosphere” came out.  Parasol did promote the record. I still have all the clippings.

++ What about from fanzines?

We got interviewed for a number of fanzines.  I think I have still have copies of most of the fanzines we were in.  We got some letters from Japan and Europe as well. I was extremely poor at returning letters, mainly because I was really focused on writing songs back then.  I apologize to everyone who sent us a letter and didn’t get a response.

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

I’m not sure.  Probably opening for The Boo Radleys or Matthew Sweet.  It was always great to play for a large audience. We usually played well at bigger shows.  The adrenaline would sort of kick in. We were a pretty good live band.

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

Ha!  Playing Dungeons and Dragons was really the only other hobby I had that wasn’t music related.  I used to watch a lot of artsy films. I like to travel, but is that really a hobby?

++ I was once in San Francisco, but it was such a long time ago. I always like to ask this question for those indiekids traveling to places, asking a local for some recommendations! What are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?

Sights?  I’m not sure.  I have never been to Alcatraz, even though I grew up here.  San Francisco is way different now from the 90’s when we played gigs there.  The tech industry has really affected the city, although there are still great parts of San Francisco.  Indie kids should go to Mod Lang Records, but that’s in El Cerrito now. (I wonder if they still have the early Primal Scream singles on the wall.) There is a lot of great Asian food in San Jose, but not as good as Orange County and L.A.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

I’d like to thank all the people mentioned earlier in the interview for their support of the band, or for just being a friend.  In addition, I’d like to thank the following people who recorded, wrote about, took photos, did artwork, recorded videos, helped book gigs for us, or just were generally helpful:  Mike Masuda, Tyler Kogura, Chris Bucholtz, Todd Inoue, Kuniko Vroman, John Bowman, Mike Abbott, Richard Winchell, Allen Campos, and Claudia Vo. And I’d like to thank all our friends and fans that supported us.  (I’m sure I have forgotten someone, it was a long time ago.)

I’d like to especially thank Alan Salmassian, who managed the band, and is a great friend.

I’d also like to commemorate Paul Tyler and Jun Ragudo, who both are now deceased.  Paul Tyler was one of my closest friends. I could always call him up and have a great conversation about guitars, Tolkien, and Big Star.  Jun Ragudo was one of Steve’s best friends, and one of the most hilarious guys I’ve ever met. We wouldn’t have gotten the band off the ground if it wasn’t for Jun’s enthusiasm and outgoing personality.

I’m still in contact with Ollie, Steve, and Rob.  I’m glad all these years later we are on friendly terms.  Age has given us some perspective that we didn’t have at the time.  I have very fond memories of that time, especially of just us in the rehearsal room playing for ourselves.

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Listen
Jupiter Sun – Zookeeper

Some new finds!

Star Power: this Los Angeles band sounds great! The band just released on Bandcamp an 8 song album called “The Fragrant Year” and it is quite a surprise to me. Where did they come from? Would be fantastic to find out more about them. What do I know? That they are a four piece formed by Mark Nakamura, Jeffrey Eloriaga, Luke Cook and Blake Cook and that they sound pretty good.

The Catherines: the Hamburg band is so prolific. They get featured on the blog all the time. Their latest is a digital single with three songs, “Please Don’t Freak Out While You Drive My Car”, “Jingle Jangle” (a cover of The Archies original) and “Good Golly Goo – I never Thought that I Could Love Someone as Much as I Love You” (a piano/vox version of their first ever single). Very enjoyable jingle jangly music!

Un Día Soleado: just one song by this Argentinean band from the city of Viedma. The song is titled “La Lluvia Vuelve a Caer (demo)” and it is a lovely piece of bedroom lo-fi tweepop, the sort that we used to listen in the mid 2000s. The song is available on Hikkomori Discos as a digital single.

Flaüta/Fotograma Lunar: exploring other releases on this Argentinean label I find this digital split EP by these two bands. Each contribute two songs, Flaüta has “Pensar Mucho” and “A Veces te Encuentro en Canciones” while Fotograma Lunar contributes “Pero Ahora Sé” and “El Final”. The songs are upbeat lo-fi bedroom indiepop, though I must say Flaüta is my favourite of the two.

Cloud Babies: how pretty this 4 song EP sounds. It is called “Message in a Bottle” and is being released on tape by this wonderful Kyoto band that took their name from a Blueboy song. The band is just two people, Masami and Sachi who each wrote 2 songs. This is very very pretty. I just hope it gets a vinyl or CD release so I can have a copy and play it home!

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Orans, a loanword from Medieval Latin ōrāns translated as one who is praying or pleading, also orant or orante, is a posture or bodily attitude of prayer, usually standing, with the elbows close to the sides of the body and with the hands outstretched sideways, palms up.

Today is the turn for the letter O. For the O at first I thought featuring One Night Suzan but it seems that the Greek band will be releasing a new retrospective very soon. So I will try to interview them for the blog. Another O band? Orange Juice? Oh we know a lot about them. What about the Orans?  I know very little about them!

When I interviewed Tim Alborn of Harriet Records I asked him about Orans as I knew nothing really about them aside that the band released one 7″ on his label. He told me: “Orans was Julie and Ramona from Twig, and by 1998 they had a falling out, leaving Julie all by herself in Balloon Chase Team on the “Friendly Society” compilation. So she holds the record for being in four different Harriet bands. ”

I know little about Twig, even less about Balloon Chase Team. I’ll start trying to figure out Orans first.

Orans released their 7″ in 1996 on Harriet Records (Harriet 039). It had three songs, “Windfall” on the A side and “Paper” and “Windshield Wipers” on the B side. All three songs were recorded at The Cold Room in Boston, MA, during August of that yea by Hugh O’ Donovan who also produced the record.

The record came with a square info sheet. That’s how we know that Julie Kantner was on lead vocals and guitar, Ramona Herboldsheimer on drums and vocals and Jerry Kyn on guitar. The pretty art that the jacket has was created by Eleanor Ramsay.

So yes, Ramona was in Twig with Julie, but she also was part of the band The Lothars. Julie was on Twig and also in Fertile Virgin , Balloon Chase Team and Uranium Daughters. Jerry Kyn was involved with Toetag, Kozik and Crimson Ghosts.

There is very little about the band on the web. I did find a mention on John Hovorka’s website. Here he mentions that in 1996 he, Ramona and Julie were starting a “Noise Pencil cover band” that was to be called Noise Pencil II. It seems it didn’t work in the end.

Aside from that there’s not much on the web. Did they only record 3 songs? It is hard to believe. No compilation appearances either. I wonder what happened to them. Why did they split?
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Listen
Orans – Windfall

Wasn’t feeling that well yesterday. So Monday’s post is being published today Tuesday. I’ll post something tomorrow too, no worries!

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: there are good news by the great San Francisco band that I keep featuring on the blog. They are working on an album titled “Anxiety Art” for our friend Javi’s label “Pretty Olivia”. But that’s not all, there are three new jangly tracks to listen: “City Gardens”, “Running Up Dead-End Streets” and “Desperate Parties (kitchen ver)”.

Black Sand: this New Zealand band has a new album called “Around the Sun” out now on tape. It has 10 songs of psychedelic shoegazy sounds. It does look like the tape is very limited and at the time of writing this review only 2 copies were left. It also looks like the band is actually one man, A. Evans. My favourite track? “What Do You See?”

Telever: a cool sounding shoegaze Thai band! What a discovery. I have to thank my friend David for this one. They are formed by Tae, Team, James Jansontima and Zee. Their latest is an EP titled “Have a Good Healthy” with 4 songs. My favourite song out of the four is the last one, “Everything”!

No Suits in Miami: wow, where did this band from Lund, Sweden, come from? Why am I only listening to them now? They sound great! They have an album of 8 songs available now on Bandcamp titled “I Hope That No One Sees Me”. And it is superb, jangly, catchy, with great female lyrics. I really hope they get a physical release. They deserve it. Very good!! Just how I like my indiepop!

The Metatrons: this band from Hitchin in the UK makes some terribly catchy fuzzy pop! Their music is not as new but they just showed up on Bandcamp and I’m discovering them. Their latest was the 2016 album “Pattern of Chaos” that is available on CD and vinyl. It has 9 songs on it and it is actually their second album after “Between Planets”. Good stuff.

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Turn for the letter N.

Jacques Speyser was the person behind the French band Non Stop Kazoo Organization. The band only released two records, two singles, in the early nineties and then disappeared into oblivion. Or did they?

I know very little about them, so I will try to find out, as usual, any good details about them.

The kazoo is a musical instrument that adds a “buzzing” timbral quality to a player’s voice when the player vocalizes into it. It is a type of mirliton, which is a membranophone, one of a class of instruments which modifies its player’s voice by way of a vibrating membrane of goldbeater’s skin or material with similar characteristics.

The first release was a single sided flexi that was released by the Ad Libitum Pop !? label (ad lib 1) in 1992. This is a fine label, where all releases are worth collecting like Budgie Jacket, Tree Fort Angst, The Pale Seashell and more.  The first release on this label happened to be this flexi, with the songs “Mystery Pet” and “Song About a Happy Day to Come”. Both songs were recorded by Rémi who also played lead guitar and keyboards on the first song. On that same song Renaud Sachet did backing vocals. Renaud was one of the people behind the Herzfeld label from Strasbourg and had been in bands like Buggy, Herzfeld Orchestra and Les Molies.

The next release was to be put out by the Cornflakes Zoo (ZOO 3) label. This was another French label that was run by Stéphane Teynié who when he started the label was a writer on the Anorak fanzine and also a distributor through the Anorak Mail Order. For this second release, the “Something Strange EP”, Jacques added more people to the recording sessions. Renaud did backing vocals again but also Jean-Christophe. Claire played clarinet, Francesco drums, Franck guitar, Hélène the saxophone and violin and Yves the trumpet. All songs were recorded by Didier Houbre, a French engineer owner of Downtown Studio in Strasbourg. Does this mean that Non Stop Kazoo Organization was a Strasbourg band? Looks like it. This EP was released in 1993 and included three songs. The A side had “Your Hand For an Hour” while the B side had “My Heart With Yours in the Air” and “Something Strange”. Didier Houbre played guitar on the last song.

Discogs only lists two compilations appearances by the band. The first one dates from 1990 so I’m guessing these might be among the first recordings for the band. The song “Big Mac For You and Me” was included in the cassette compilation “Heol Daou” that was released by Katiho (Katiho 002). This tape has been mentioned in the blog before when talking about Die Blinzeelberen.

Then in 1992, on another French compilation tape, one called “Whoops!” (HOUPLA01) the band contributed the song “Onion Soup”. This tape also includes a superb lineup of bands like Acid House Kings, Even As we Speak, The Tables and many more top bands.

We know too that Jacques Speyser was involved with more bands. We know he was in Les Mollies alongside the producer of the first record, Renaud Sachet. He was also in Grand Hotel and Original Folks. He has also played in records yb Buggy, Marxer and Herzfeld Orchestra.

I can’t find any other worthy information about the band. There are a few mentions of Non Stop Kazoo Organization on articles about Original Folks.  But that’s about it. I would definitely like to know the story of the band. What happened with them? Are there more recordings? Was it a bedroom band? Did they play live much?
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Listen
Non Stop Kazoo Organization – Mystery Pet

Friday at last! I hope everyone enjoys the weekend! If you need some help for that here are 5 new finds from around the web!

Fritz: wow, this Newcastle, Australia, band sounds great. Their latest song is called “Ghost Poke” and it is an infectious rush of p!o!p! The song was written by Tily Murphy last year and for the recording she got help from Cody Brougham and Darren James. So far the song is only available digitally but I see no reason why in the near future it will get a physical release.

The Umbrellas: Morgan, Keith, Nick and Matt form this band from San Francisco. They have just released a tape EP called “Maritime” that has 5 songs. It is out now on the Discontinuous Innovation label. The 5 songs are great and they even include a very fine cover of “Dance” by Strawberry Switchblade.

Flowerbed: what is it with this Denton, Texas, band? Their two songs have flower names. The band name obviously has to do do with flowers. Their latest one is called “Daffodil”, their previous was “Hyacinth”, and they have been released online a year apart. Why? I think I’d like to hear more by these dreampoppers.

Planet Loser: this duo formed by Amber and Ethan from Tampa, Florida, have a new song out called “Too Cool” which sounds pretty cool. This is their first recording since last year’s debut EP.

Patience: “Living Things Don’t Last” is the latest single by Roxanne Clifford’s new project. The ex-Veronica Falls is releasing pretty soon her debut album “Dizzy Spells” and so it is a good opportunity to release new videos and new songs for everyone to enjoy. I caught her live a few months back and all I can say is that this is a very promising album. Maybe it will end up on many year end lists. I wouldn’t be surprised!

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Now the letter G with My Guru Says!

Their sole release, a 7″ titled “3 Seasons Are Enough!”, lives happily in my record collection. Many times I don’t own the records I mention on the blog, but this time I do. It feels good.

Marsh-Marigold released this 7″ in 1991 with the catalog number GOLD06. Three songs, that were recorded in 1990 at the Soundgarden Studio in Hamburg by Carol von Rautenkranz, were included: “Sally & John” and “Something” on the A side and “Blue Days” on the B side. The three songs were mastered at Tonstudio Pfanz by Günter Pfanz.

The sleeve gives us some details about the band like the band lineup. They were formed by Wiebke on vocals, Florian Braunschweig on bass and guitar and Henning Fritzenwalder on organ and vocals.

We know too that Florian had been involved in another top band from Hamburg, Red Letter Day. While Henning was in the legendary Die Fünf Freunde and the band Camping who had releases on Marina Records.

Three compilation appearances are listed. The first dating from 1991, on the pre-Firestation Records label Smuf. It was a tape called “It’s All About Love” (SMUF 003) and it had many great songs. My Guru Says contributed the song “Sweet Clouds”.

In 1993, on “The Marsh Marigold Review Gold 01-10” (MARSH1) the band had their songs “Something” and “Blue Days”.

Lastly there is the tape “Nachtsonne – The Noise and the Melodies” that came out on Pearl Records. There is no information though about when was the release nor where the label was from. What I do know is that there are top bands in it like The Cudgels, The Ammonites, Ruth’s Refrigerator and more. My Guru Says contributes “Sally and John (Long Version)”.

My friend Alex has actually dedicated a post to the 7″ on his blog 7iete Pulgadas. So by no means I’m the first to dedicate them a post!  His favourite track on the 7″ is “Sally & John”. Actually this song was covered by The Magic Whispers on their 2007 album “Carousels & Music Boxes” that Siesta put out.

Sadly there is no more information about My Guru Says. There are a few mentions on posts about Camping, the band Henning would later be in, but about My Guru Says, nothing really. Like as if it was a footnote in German indiepop history.

And I don’t like that of course, I think this is a great 7″ and the band deserves a bit more recognition. I would love to know more about them. If they recorded more songs or if they played many gigs. Any information would be appreciated!

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Listen
My Guru Says – Something

Today is a holiday in most of the world. I have to work. We get our “labor day” in September in the US. How original! If you are not traveling and are just resting at home and want some fine new music, here are some of my latest finds!

Marieske: a French band from Rennes who just a week ago released a tape limited to 45 copies with two great dreampop tracks, “Track the Days” and “Marieske”. The band is formed by Laura Bruneau, Olivier Duval, Marc Corlett and Julien Perri and they’ve been going for some time now. Their first release on Bandcamp dates from 2016! This is the first time I’m listening to them and I think it is a great introduction to their music!

Todos tus Tanques Soviéticos: what a superb song is “La Nave de Carlos”. I believe this track was released on an 11 song album tape that the netlabel Stupid Decisions from Mexico put out.  The album was originally released last December by the band only in digital format. This band hails from Buenos Aires, Argentina and it is quite a very nice surprise, the capital city of the South American country keeps producing great pop talent!

Blue Unit: more dreampop. This time from Milwaukee in the US. The band will be releasing a 6 song mini-album on May 19th. Right now only the last track, called “Drop”, is available to preview, and it is really really pretty.

Group Photos: and one more dreampop band, this time from San Bernardino, California. The latest release is a digital 6 song mini-album titled “33rpm [UK]”. And I wonder, with that title, is there a vinyl release for this record? Perhaps in the UK? What I do know is that the guitars sound excellent. And that matters a lot to me.

The Death of Pop: the great London band was back last month with a limited edition tape called “Six (Live Session)” which I suppose was a live session (at Six?). The songs on it are “Don’t Hang Around”, “Kiss Me Quickly”, “Gardens”, “Last”, “700 Spas” and “Sun in My Eyes” and they sound wonderful. Top stuff!

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The letter L. I picked the French band Loons. I know next to nothing about them. I remember they had an album on Elefant Records but not much more. So I feel it is a good time now to find out more about them.

Discogs lists two albums. There are no singles. That’s interesting. The first one is the self-titled album that I remember, the one on Elefant. I don’t know how I remember it as it was released in 1996. In 1996 I wasn’t listening indiepop, I was quite young. It may be that I downloaded the album on Soulseek the next decade as I was exploring the music of many labels. I should get myself a copy now.

The “Loons” (ER-1035) album had 12 songs: “The Way the Rain Drives In”, “Listeners”, “What’s to Become of Bristol”, “Nosy Skies”, “Red Haired”, “Settled Ice”, “Perfect Noise”, “Some Lunatic”, “Wednesday”, “Consolation”, “The Light of Swansea” and “Cressant Cakes”. The cover art has this intriguing black and white photo of school children playing on a roundabout. This album was recorded at their home in Paris and mixed in October 1995.

5 years later, in 2001, the band released their second album on the Japanese label Galaxy Train and it was called “Dim Movies” (GAL-016). This record included 10 songs, “Leisure”, “Notting Hill Gate”, “Wind Erosion’, “Never Understand” (which is a cover of The Jesus and Mary Chain), “Holiday Run”, “Passageways”, “The Cannister”, “A Week on the Mile”, “Leaf” and “I Knew Him When He Was a Nobody”. This record has some viola played by Catherine Moraleau.

There is another interesting release. The Italian label Shiny Sunset was to include them in their 1997 tape “Split-Pop Hits #2”. Loons and the band À Table, which I believe was also French, were to split a tape, each band having one of the sides. Loons appears on the B sides with seven tracks, “Hold”, “Would That Be Spring Which Chimes”, “Streamer”, “I Desperately Ran Into Cynical Diversion”, “Wednesday (demo)”, “Some Renegade Affair” and “Lovesickness”.

The band has appeared on many compilations. The first one actually dates from 1994 on a cassette tape called “After Nine” that was released by the French label Pâte A Modeler ‎ (PAM 002). The band contributed two songs here, “Even Eyes” and “Crescent Cakes”. This tape includes also a band that I have featured in the past, Les Fleurs.

In 1996 the band appears on an Elefant compilation called “Elefant Radio 68.2 Fm Stereo” (ER-1029). On this classic compilation where they are alongside bands like Le Mans, Heavenly or Los Flechazos, the band contributes the track “Wednesday”. That same year they contribute their JAMC cover of “Never Understand” and “Seven Eyes” to the French compilation “Press Play” that Candy Chérie put out.

In 1998 the band participated on a tribute to The Cardigans called….. “A Tribute to The Cardigans” that was released by Tribute Records (TR 012) in Sweden. The band covered the song “Daddy’s Car”. That same year Elefant Records was to include the song “Ne Sois Pas Si Bête” on the compilation “Supermarket – Another Electrodinamic Elefant Compilation” (ER 1051). That same song appears on the 1999 compilation “Sniegowe Rytmy” that came out on Arnold Records (AD01) from Poland.

There’s more. In 2000 the band contributed the song “Sunny Days” to Galaxy Beach, a cassette compilation released by Galaxy Train (GAL-015). Then in 2000, on a French tape called “Eden Love” released by A Secret Song the band had three songs, “Consolation”, “Way the Rain Drive” and “Crescent Cakes”. Two years later, 2001, the band  had the song “Love Scented Bicycle” on the American CD comp “Stamp Collecting (For Beginners)” that was released by Secret Crush Records (SCRT010.

Lastly there is a tape that has no date that was called “Frances Two”. that was released by the French Les Tartines. Two songs were included, “Settled Ice” and “X-Ray”.

What else do we know about them? Well they do have a Bandcamp and I’ll scrape all important details I can find. For starters we know they were a trio formed by Erwan (guitar, vocals, backing vocals, programming and synths), Caroline (vocals) and Morgan (bass and guitar). Then I go to the Elefant Records page to find info. There is a bio there. So, the band starts in 1993 as a duo, Erwan and Morgan. Eight months later Caroline joins after Erwan had left a note looking for a singer at the famous Danceteria venue in Paris. Their name comes from a bird called loon. I didn’t know them. Did you?

The loons (North America) or divers (Great Britain/Ireland) are a group of aquatic birds found in many parts of North America and northern Eurasia. All living species of loons are members of the genus Gavia, family Gaviidae and order Gaviiformes.

I find a website for a band called Flowers From the Man Who Shot Your Cousin. It looks as it is a one-person band,  the ex-Loons Morgan Caris with the help of many friends like the also ex-Loons Erwan and Catherine Maroleau who played viola in the 2nd album of Loons. There is a small bio for Morgan where it mentions she grew up in Wappingers Falls in New York. When she moved to Paris, France, she met Erwan in school.

I keep following the thread. And I stumble upon a Facebook page for the band. Here they list two more members Pauline and Catherine. Catherine must be the viola player. What about Pauline? Could it be Pauline Callandreau who played flute? It also mentions that Erwan Broussine was in a band called Cowbird. He also runs the recording studio Waterhouse Records.

That’s quite a bit, and many links to check. Not a bad investigation. Still I can’t tell if the band played live much. If they had been in bands before Loons. If there are more recordings. Why they didn’t release any singles and only albums. What was the last name of the vocalist? There are always many questions!

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Listen
Loons – Nosy Skies

Another weekend is over! It went so fast. At least I got some new music finds to share!

Langue Pendue: there is a very cool new fanzine called Côte Ouest that is written by Frenchman Renaud Sachet. His latest edition is about French indiepop 1990-1995 and features Les Sales Gosses, 1000 Spirales, Les Autres, San July, Caramel, Les Poissons Solubles, Meek and Daisy Age. Looks like he has been luckier and better at tracking these bands than me! It also comes with a tape!

Earache: this Canberra/Melbourne band sounds great. It is no surprise that I’m writing about them again on the blog. That time I wrote about a song called “Voices”, now I know it has a lovely video. But that’s not all, last January the band released the album “Last” on vinyl with the two labels, Black Wire Records and Lacklustre Records. All 8 songs are available to preview on the label’s Bandcamp and it is indeed a treat. I should get a copy of this myself soon!

Dreams of Empire: “Northern Lights” is the last track of this Brighton duo and it is gorgeous! The band formed by Andrew and Jane (who met in the 90s indie band Luminous) is actually working on their debut album. I do hope they include this song! Looking forward to it.

Fanclub: another band that have been showcased in my little reviews of new music is this Austin based trio. They have a new song called “Imprint” that sounds lovely, I don’t have a clue if it will be released in any other format than digital, but I do hope it does. Sweet.

The Jasmine Minks: remember that not too long ago the wonderful and legendary Scottish band released a new 7″ with “Step by Step”? Now it is worth checking out the B side “Gravity” which actually has a video with lots of footage of the band! Check it out!

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Turn for the letter K.

Some weeks ago I interviewed The Moss Poles. On that interview the band mentioned that Paul Breuer played bass on the yet unreleased album by the band. The interesting fact was that Paul Breuer had been part of a band I am very curious about, the Kill Devil Hills. So today that I want to feature a band whose name starts with K I didn’t doubt to find out more information about them.

The band only released one record, a 12″ single on the Roustabout label in 1987. This label was also the house of the fantastic The Caretaker Race. This 12″, with its jacket with the band’s name in orange and a black and white photograph taken by Martyn Strickland of two boots over long grass, had three songs in it. The A side had the superb “What Comes After” while the B side had “Rolling” and “Poison”. All songs were produced by the band and Mark Frith who was also the engineer.

Something interesting about the record is that it had runout etchings on each side. The A side says “Money talks bullshit walks” while the B side says “The Exchange”.

Discogs also lists a white label 7″ which I assume was a promo release that came on plain sleeve and hand written white label. This 7″ included all the songs but “Poison”.

The band members are listed on the promo sheet. We know that Alex Breuer was on vocals and guitar, Paul Breuer on guitar and vocals, Jon Carricker on bass and Phil Savidge on drums and vocals. The press sheet also mentions that all members have been in at least one previous band and that they took their name from an area of North Carolina where the Wright Brothers took off on their epic flight.

Kill Devil Hills is a town in Dare County, North Carolina. The population was 6,683 at the 2010 census, up from 5,897 in 2000. It is the most populous settlement in both Dare County and on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The Kill Devil Hills Micropolitan Statistical Area is part of the larger Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA-NC Combined Statistical Area.The town is home to the site of the Wright brothers’ first controlled, powered airplane flights on December 17, 1903, chosen for its good winds. The town was commemorated by the Wright Brothers National Memorial, which was dedicated in 1932. At the time of the flight, the town of Kill Devil Hills did not exist, and it did not receive its municipal charter until 1953. Kitty Hawk, popularly noted as the site of the famous flights, is approximately four miles (6 km) to the north, and was the nearest settlement at the time of the famous flight.

According to a Youtube post the band hailed from Lancaster. Is that so?

On Discogs I find that Jon Carricker and Paul Breuer were in a band called (ju.nior cottonmouth) (also known as Cottonmouth) who released records on Fire Records and also on Atlantic Records in the 90s.

Sadly that’s when I lose their track. what did the two other band members do after Kill Devil Hills? Are there other bands that they were involved with? And how come they only released on record? They must have recorded more than three songs,  right? There must be some unreleased ones, right?

I am thankful for any information available about the great Kill Devil Hills. Who remembers them?

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Listen
Kill Devil Hills – What Comes After

Lately I’ve been finding lots of music by following indiepop friends on different social media. So many of the bands and songs I share here I found through them so I want to thank them and give them so credit. Especially to David from Madrid and Heinz from Hamburg. They discover lots of new music all the time. It is really incredible.

So what can I share that’s new this week?

Asilomar: Heather, Ray, Chris and Sarah form this new band from Pacific Grove in California. They only have one song on Bandcamp called “Shimmer and Faded” and it is brilliant. Really surprising that such a good song is their first ever track. I look forward to more!

Soft Blue Shimmer: another shoegazy California band, this time from Los Angeles. The band is formed by Charlie, Kenzo, Martin and Meredith and will be releasing a tape called “Nothing Happens Here’ on June 28th. This EP will have 5 tracks, and we can already preview one of them, “Chamoy”, which is terrific.

The Reds, Pinks & The Purples: more from California, and more by this San Francisco band that is way too prolific! The latest are two tracks, “I’m Worried About the New Wave” and “Boys in the Gang” a cover of 999. Ive written many times about them, so they don’t need introduction. Just check out their jangly music.

Cristina Quesada: “Bailar Conmigo” is the latest song unveiled from the upcoming album “I Think I Heard a Rumour” which will be out on LP and CD in a few days (April 26th!). This lovely song was written by Teresa and Ibon from Le Mans and of course performed by Cristina. Get the volume up and prepare to dance with the super catchy chorus.

Life on Venus: the latest on Shelflife Records is this 4-track EP by the Moscow based band. If you like your shoegaze, the four songs recorded at Powerhouse Studio are great. You get three originals, “What Lies Beneath”, “Silver Screen” and “For the Kill” and, one of them, “Girls”, is a cover of Fawns of Love. I believe it is only available digitally at the moment. Not sure of physical plans!

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Time for the letter J. And it is also time for an American band. One that released 1 album and 2 singles in the 90s. Sounds good?

Let’s start with their first record, a single, a single sided 12″ (WISH004) that was released in Slumberland’s sub-label I Wish I Was a Slumberland Records in 1994. This label that was set up as a promo/mailorder label has released a bunch of great bands through the years, from Go Sailor to The Aislers Set. Jupiter Sun put in this record 5 songs, “Blow Up”, “Violet Intertwine”, “Accelerate”, “Tomorrow” and “Headling Beam Reaction”. The record was hand-numbered and was limited to 500 copies. There were copies on black vinyl and also on grey vinyl. It came with an insert where we could find the credits. And thus I learn about the band members.

Steve Chang was the bassist, Ollie Moore the drummer, Matthew Murdock (also later in Mover) played guitar and sang. Jeff Saltzman played tambourine and glockenspiel. We know too that the songs were recorded at Astral Sounds and Mysterious Cave in 1993.

They didn’t continue on Slumberland. Instead they were to release an album on Parasol Records in 1995 titled “Atmosphere”. The album had 12 songs: “Thoughts”, “Zookeeper”, “Sometimes I Feel Fine”, “Inside This Room”, “Coming Down”, “Seven Years”, “Blow Up”, “Violet Intertwine”, “Accelerate, “Tomorrow”, “Headlight Beam Reaction” and “Supernova”. They had the help of  guitarist Paul Tyler from the band Mover on four of these songs. We also know that The first half of the record was recorded in Yoshie’s Living Room in December 1994 and mixed at the Mysterious Cover in January 1995. The rest of the songs we know them from the previous release.

Then in 1997 the band released in their own Phase 45 Records a CD EP called “Looking Up” (001) that included the title song and “Honey Thief”, “Out of the Blue” and “Vox”. Something interesting here is that Matt wasn’t the main vocalist anymore but Nate Rockwood. And even a bigger surprise, which I didn’t know nor expect, Ollie the drummer was replaced by Rob Uytingco who I know of course because he played in the superb Bay Area band Starry Eyed Cadet! Small world indeed! The songs were produced by Jeff Saltzman.

There is another “release” listed on Discogs, a tape with the same two songs on each side, “Looking Up” and “Out of the Blue”. It was a tape called “Sampler” and it is clear that it was made for promotional purposes.

And only one compilation appearance is listed. Two of their songs, “Headlight Beam Reaction” and “Violet Intertwine”, were included in the classic Slumberland comp “Why Popstars Can’t Dance” (Slumberland 31) from 1994.

Now, you’d be surprised to know but there is a website for the band that looks from the late 90s! This website has a cool gigography of the band and we know because of this that the band was around 1992 and was still playing up to 2001. They mostly played in San Francisco area (San Jose, Palo Alto, etc) but also in San Diego and Mesa, Arizona. They played with great bands like The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group, The Earthmen, Henry’s Dress and more.

Something interesting that I find on the website is that before the band was Jupiter Sun, the members were in a band called Silver who were around 1992-1993. But also at some point they were called Snowball with whom they put out a 7″ on Silver Girl Records.

Then I find some facts about the band. For example the principal songwriters were Matt Murdock and Steve Chang. Their song “Honey Thief” reached Top Charts in Garageband.

I keep looking and I find a Soundcloud! Wow, with many tracks in it! Some rare tracks I believe. Worth checking out “I’m Over You”, “Circus”, “Violet Intertwine (demo)”, “Washed Away”, “Pacific”, “We Can Take This Boat” and “Pebbles in my Mind (Rough Mix 06/07/2018)”.

That’s about it on the web for Jupiter Sun. I can’t seem to find any more information. I am sure many Bay Area popkids remember them, right?
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Listen
Jupiter Sun – Zookeeper

The Den Baron 7″ is already in the process of being pressed. Hopefully in a few days Baby Lemonade CD will be in the same spot. Pre-order buttons for both new upcoming releases are available on the website. Very very excited about them. At the same time I’m working on new releases!! I believe this will end up being a good year for Cloudberry!

So the week started and I started to look for new music as always… what did I find?

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: why not? once again I’m recommending a new set of songs by the San Francisco pop project. “Shop Windows” is a digital EP that has four jangly tracks, “Anxiety Art (demo)”, “Living on Sunday (electric)”, “Shop Windows (demo)” and “Not Quite Sentimental (demo)”. Really good stuff!

Purplespace: is a lovely dreampop electronic band that hails from Jacksonville, Florida. I stumbled upon their Soundcloud and heard the first song “Heavy on My Chest” and was impressed. Lovely vocals, and top melodies. And I start to wonder, how come I’ve never heard them before. It seems the band has released 6 albums already! The question is then, are they available in physical formats too?

Processions: this San Antonio, Texas, band is formed by Phil Alfonso, Michael Bankston, Orion Abernathy and Justin Mora. Their latest is a superb track called “Dalliance” and it sounds great. I believe this is the first time I feature a San Antonio band… and I wonder, I lived there back back in the day for 8 months and I thought it was a wasteland when it came to indiepop… maybe things are changing!

Texpack: out on Hujan! Records from Bogor in Indonesia was the cassette EP “Courageous” by this band. 6 songs of guitar based music. Fuzzy alternative songs where the song “Kids Out” is the standout (must be because it is the poppiest?).

Turquoise: I started with the song my friend David shared on his Facebook, “Parabole”, a superb dreampop track… so so good. Never heard this band before. They hail from Brussels and it seems the band is compared to bands like Slowdive, Broadcast or even The Chameleons but with French lyrics. The band just has the one self-titled EP available on Bandcamp. The 4 songs on it are pretty pretty.

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Today the letter I. The I of Incredible Force of Junior from the US.

The band started in the mid 1990s when Chris Mumford (guitar, vocals) and Susan Robb (bass, vocals) moved from upstate New York to Seattle. There Steve Lodefink (drums) joined them and thus Incredible Force of Junior was born.

Their first release was a 7″ (SWING 001) on Swingset Records in 1994. Two songs were included in this record, “Jet Propulsion” and “Greatest Thing”, both of them engineered by Dave Dubh Black.This was a self-release.

The next year the band would release a second 7″ this time in the beloved Cher Doll Records (CHER 06). Again the band put out two songs, “Stronger” and “Walter Johnson”. There are two versions of this 7″, one with a color xerox sleeve that was limited, and another with a white, black and blue race car illustration on it. The insert mentions that the songs were recorded mostly live on August 27th in 1994 for the KCMU “live room” at Jack Straw Studios. The lyrics for “Walter Johnson” were written by Jonathan Richman while the song “Stronger” was inspired by a trip to Bellingham, Wa.

That same year the band released yet another 7″. “Blue Cheer”/”Driving in Your Car” came out in Up Records (UP 019) in 1995. Up Records being a local label that started in 1994 by Chris Takino and Rich Jensen. This label would release big names before they were big like Built to Spill or Modest Mouse.

Up was to release the debut album of the band in 1996. Titled “Let the World Fall Apart” (UP 026), the record came out on CD and vinyl LP. Ten songs were recorded at Avast! in spring 1996 by Phil Ek, “Blue Cheer”, “Five-Eight”, “Trailer Home”, “Walrus”, “Sweet and Sour”, “Stronger”, “Kid Champion”, “Playa”, “Spanish Tiger” and “Roswell”.

There were many compilation appearances by the band, from 1994 to the year 2000. Let’s go in chronological order.

Their song “Greatest Thing” was included in the CD comp “Shreds Volume 2 – American Underground” (SH-27) that Shredder Records put out in 1994. This is a cool compilation that included bands like Coloring Book, Cub or Red Number Nine.

In 1995 the band contributed the song “Freaks” to the compilation 7″ “The Airplane” (PCT 002) that Papercut Records put out. On this record they appear next to Belmondo, The Nonpareils and Wimp Factor 14. The song was engineered by Rich Hinklin and mastered by Greg Vaughn. It is said that this was one of the very first songs the band wrote together, dating from 1992.

“Hold Me Now”, a cover of the Thompson Twins original, was included in the 1996 Double Agent Records compilation “Double Agent 1980, A Tribute to the 1980’s” (DA 1980). This song was recorded together by Tullycraft and Incredible Force of Junior.

Up Records would include their song “Trailer Home” in the CD compilation “Up in Orbit!” (UP045) in 1997. That same year “Decay ’em” appears in Cher Doll’s CD comp “Something Cool” (CHER 09).

Then in 1999 the band contributes the track “Generation” to the “We Can Still Be Friends” (MMR 001) CD comp that the fellow Pacific Northwest label Magic Marker put out to start their label.

Lastly their song “Blue Cheer” appears on “Experience Music Project Presents Wild and Wooly – The Northwest Rock Collection” a double CD compilation released by Experience Music Project (EMPCD 001) in 2000. It is a strange compilation this one, as you see the band appear next to Nirvana, Pearl Jam or Mudhoney…. odd at least to me.

Then the band toured and played shows at The Frying Pan and CMJ. It seems after this touring the band split. Chris Mumford decided to focus only on the other band he was part of, the great Tullycraft who have just released a new album by the way. Susan Robb went to play on her own as Milksnake and today she is an artist works in different media like sculpture, photography, video, performance and more.

It also seems that Susan Robb started a project after the split called Goatmax1. Chris Munford recorded a bunch of the songs of Goatmax1 but they were never released.

I look for more information on the web of course. I’m curious about their name. I find that it is actually a mishearing of a NYC double dutch team called Incredible Foursome Junior. Interesting. I also found that they opened for Supechunk at Rock Candy.

The band actually started in Syracuse, NY when Susan was 18 years old and attending Syracuse University as well as Chris. They were originally called Sweet Like a Boy. Before that Susan had been DJing at WCNI, a radio station at Connecticut College.

The band was a staple in the 90s in Seattle, playing gigs with many breakthrough bands of the period like Modest Mouse or Apples in Stereo. I would love to know how much of a following they had. And if there are more songs from those early days when they were called Sweet Like a Boy. Who remembers them?
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Listen
Incredible Force of Junior – Driving in Your Car

Thanks so much to Paul, Ian and Rob for the interview! I wrote about The Almanacs a couple of weeks ago and was lucky to get in touch with the band members who were very kind to answer all my questions! The band released just one 7″ but recorded many songs, appearing on lots of compilations. Now it is a good time to rediscover them!

++ Hi all! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? What’s going on with you all? Are you still making music?

Paul: All good here. Rob is still making music, Ian lives in the country and I’m growing my hair.

++ I’d like to start with the very beginning. 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?

Paul: As a child I liked Abba and then Duran Duran!  At secondary school I became more aware of other kinds of music, especially New Order, Prefab Sprout, Scritti Politti, the Blow Monkeys, the Smiths, and Lloyd Cole.  It wasn’t until doing A Levels that I met more like minded people like Rob and Ian !

Ian: I used to like to record the pop charts from the radio each week on an audio tape (I only had one) and bought the odd 7” record during my childhood. I learnt the violin at this time too, but only stuck it for a couple of years. I got more bands at secondary school such as the Human League, Depeche Mode and the Smiths, then getting more into the indie scene from there. Paul got me into some of his favourite bands just around the time we became friends, then formed the first version of the band.

Rob: My Grandmother played piano and knew every hymn in the Methodist Hymn Book (this is how boring life was before the internet) and my mum sings opera, so I suppose I had a musical family. I was forced to learn piano and trumpet but I soon gave up on both and taught myself the guitar instead. My sister suddenly stopped listening to Duran Duran and played me Hatful Of Hollow when I was 14. After that I started listening to John Peel and a whole new world opened up.

++ Was The Almanacs your first band or had you been in other bands before that? If so, how did these bands sound like? Are there any recordings?

Paul: I was in another Derby band called The Deskimoes before The Almanacs. I learnt to play the guitar (sort of) in order to join them.  Apart from Nick who sang and wrote the songs, we all learned to play our instruments from scratch.  There was a track released on a Flexi and of course a cassette compilation
https://www.discogs.com/artist/4220635-The-Deskimoes

Ian: I (very) briefly played  bass for Iris before deciding I’d rather do my own thing with The Almanacs.

Rob: My first band was called The Ego Balloons with Nick (Deskimoes) and Gary (The Beekeepers) Despite some promising songs and some devastatingly floppy haircuts, we never gigged or recorded, Jyoti poached Nick and Gary for White Town and we split up. I was then briefly in a band in Leeds while at University, but again nothing was released.

++ Where were you from originally, Derby?

Paul: Yep, we’re all from Derby although Ian was actually born in Burnley.

++ How was your city at the time? 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?

Paul: Derby was all I really knew at that point, though you had to go to Nottingham or Leicester for the best record shops and music venues.  In retrospect it felt like a very insular period but it was all good fun. Every so often though, Derby would pull something out of the hat, so at Derby’s best venue – the Dial – we saw the Sea Urchins, the Field Mice, Heavenly, Primal Scream, Teenage Fanclub and loads of other great bands.  The Wherehouse was good too – saw the BMX Bandits, Stereolab, Captain America (Eugenius) and Shonen Knife there.  That said, there was always something lacking on the Derby scene and I think it is a shame that Derby has never produced a really great or popular band.

We only ever played in Derby!  We’d send and receive letters and tapes from all over the world but never left our own town as far as gigs went…  Like I said – insular, though we had some great times playing with other Derby bands like Peru and the Fantastics (our first live drummer Justin was in them too, with a lovely chap called Declan).  Our big moment was when we were booked to support 14 Iced Bears, but a few hours before the gig the promoter told us they weren’t going to turn up…  We were gutted.

Ian: Yes, it was fairly provincial compared to the nearby cities Paul mentions. I guess we all felt a bit different to other people who weren’t into the same things as us, which bonded us together. But it could also feel pretty suffocating too and looking back must have contributed to why we formed a band.

Rob: There were actually loads of record shops in Derby back in the late 80s/early 90s. RE Cords/BPM, Siren/Oasis, , Collectors Records, Richard’s Records/Spot-On Sounds, Way Ahead – and then the chain stores – HMV, Our Price, Virgin, Woolworths. Most Saturdays were spent doing the circuit, deciding where to spend the money you didn’t have!

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

Paul: Ian and I formed a largely imaginary band called the Hairgods and took it from there.  We played a few gigs as the Almanacs with various line-ups but when Rob joined he added some extra musicality to the group and rescued us !

++ What’s the story behind the name The Almanacs?

Paul: The Hairgods had booked our first gig but we thought we needed a new name…  We had a few days to think of one and we were listening to a lot of Kinks songs in 1992, so the name came from the song Autumn Almanac.  Funnily enough I now live round the corner from the house where Ray and Dave Davies grew up, so whenever I pass by their house on the bus I not only think of the Kinks but also of the Almanacs…

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

Paul: I think we tended to write alone, though there were a few songs where one of us would write the music and the other would write the melody and lyrics.  As far as I can remember we practiced at each others’ houses when our parents were out !

Rob: Paul and Ian wrote the music and the words – my creative input was limited to just a bit of arrangement and extra guitar/bass parts where it sounded good. I loved the simplicity of the songs, so I tried my best not to ruin them! As Paul and Ian both wrote and sang it would be easy to say they were like Lennon & McCartney but in actual fact I think Paul was more prolific and almost Lennon AND McCartney. Ian was George Harrison – fewer songs but those he contributed were amazing.

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

Paul: I can only speak for myself but I tended to be influenced by what I was listening to at the time, Orange Juice, Small Faces, Kinks, T-Rex and of course loads of other bands around at the time or from the late eighties – Weather Prophets, St Etienne, Pastels and Teenage Fanclub were favourites of mine at that time…  and Britpop was just around the corner.  Ian and I liked Suede but Rob hated them !  We all liked Pulp as far as I can recall.  Even then we all thought Oasis were total shite.

Ian: We used to go out several nights a week so yes, we all got a bit sick of Oasis which seemed to be on constant rotation, but you would also get to hear some good stuff too. It was a time for constantly discovering new and old music, which was definitely an influence especially in the early days

++ Your first release as far as I know was “The Derby Tape” that was released by the Greek fanzine The World of Suzie Wong. How did this connection with Greece happen? And how come this was your first release and not one in the UK?

Paul: I think they contacted us out of the blue.  No idea how they got our address – especially before the internet existed !  I think though that perhaps that was our second fanzine tape.

++ That was 1992 and that same year you would appear in the “C92” which I’ve always been curious about as it is a great one even though it seems it doesn’t get the recognition it deserves and there is not much info about it anywhere. Do you know anything else about it? Like who put it together for example?

Paul: I have no idea about that one !

Ian: Nor me

Rob: Me and Ian were only looking at the Discogs page a few weeks back and laughing at how many fanzine tapes were ended up on that we had never heard of. We assumed that Paul had sorted them all out – but it seems not.

++ Then you appeared on comps on Elefant Records from Spain and Anorak from France. It seems at this point you were more of an international band. Did it feel that way? That you had more recognition abroad that in the UK?

Paul: It definitely felt that way – I used to get letters from all over Europe, Canada, USA, and strangely from Thailand too.  The international interest definitely outweighed the UK interest.

++ Another French label would have you on a compilation called “From the Derwent to the Garonne, a Derbian compilation”. It feels that there was quite some interest in the Derby scene no? And I wonder too how close you were to the other bands that are featured here like Antiseptic Beauty, White Town and Iris?

Paul: We all knew each other really well, and saw each other all the time (except maybe Iris, who were a little aloof).  The three of us went for a drink with John from Antiseptic Beauty last summer, and are still in touch with Nick from The Deskimoes and Gary from the Beekeepers.

Rob: There definitely seemed to be a “Derby Scene” at that point, although it didn’t last long. That said, the four bands on that Alienor compilation all sounded very different – which may have been the problem!

++ In 1994 you finally release your first 7″, “Another World EP”, on Anorak Records. How did this release come to be? Did you ever meet with the guys behind the label? Did you play France?

Paul: Again they contacted us after we had been on one of their tapes.  It was great to be picked as their first release and was really exciting at the time, though I think we had to wait a year or two for the single to come out, as we agreed to do the record with Anorak in 1992.  All done by letter again., we never met them and never went to France either…

Rob: I ended up Facebook friends with Fabien (via Brian from the band Peru) when he was celebrating his 20 years of Anorak Records. I think there was some hope we might be able to go over there and play but it wasn’t to be. He seems a lovely chap

++ The songs were recorded by Jyoti Mishra from White Town, how was that experience?

Paul: Exhausting, for us and for him.  We tried to get it all done quickly so we could save money and so he didn’t have to deal with us for too long.

Ian: Although we were friends with Jyoti, it’s fair to say he wasn’t really an Almanacs fan! It was quite interesting to learn how to record though as it was all new to me, but the novelty soon wore off.

Rob: All of the sessions with Jyoti were done several years before he had his hit single. He was the only person in Derby with an 8 track recorder in his bedroom, so back then recording bands was his only source of income. He probably put up with a few bands worse than us!

++ The title song had a promo video which is really cool. Was wondering where was it filmed? Did it take long? Was it aired on TV? How was the experience and any anecdotes you can share? 

Rob: This was all my work I’m afraid. I was the only person who owned a video camera so I used to record as much as I could (my Andy Warhol phase maybe). Most of the footage is from a band rehearsal in Paul’s parent’s back room. I didn’t have any editing equipment, so to piece together the video I had to record the various sections to a VHS tape using the pause button. Then to dub the music on top I played the VHS tape on the TV and recorded that back onto the video camera whilst playing the song. That’s why it’s so fuzzy and has scan lines all over it. You can probably get a retro digital filter to achieve much the same thing these days!  It was never aired anywhere other than to friends and family.

++ Something that I was wondering, as you appeared on many compilations and I counted in total 15 to 16 released songs, how come there was no album by the band?

Paul: Looking back we never had a plan, and just went from one tape or record to the next which was largely determined by whatever was offered to us from the people we sent tapes to.  I wish we had released another 7″ single.

++ And why not any more releases?

Paul: With us scattered around the UK it became harder to organise recording sessions or play gigs.

++ Aside from all these releases are there any other songs that remain unreleased? Or songs that only appeared on demo tapes?

Paul: Here is the full recording list:

Session 1:  No Difference, When Things Get Too Much, Sunburnt Skin, Time to Develop

Session 2: Got to Wait, Beautiful Bore, I’m Not Violent, Yours Hopefully, Peeg Sex, Accurate and Cool

Session 3: I Might Miss It, Taken Too Long, I Can Live With That, I Sure Do, Confession Time, Living On Another World

Session 4:  I Like The Water, Morbid Interest, I’d Think I Was Dreaming, A Job Worth Doing

Session 5:  Plymouth Almanac, Out of This Room, That Was the Day, Bitter and Twisted, Clinical, Louise, My Last Day

The first four sessions were recorded with Jyoti.  The last session was recorded by Rob and I on his four track.  We have two albums on Spotify – On Vinyl and On Tape.  In terms of physical releases I think you have listed them all, the Alienor compilation did come with a free 7″ single which we had one side of.

Rob: We did demos of the Session 4 tracks at my house first before recording them “properly” at Jyoti’s. The demos probably sounded better to be honest. We also did a few cover versions at gigs. Rod Stewart’s “I Don’t Want To Talk About It” and “Maggie May”, Wings “Band On The Run” and KC & The Sunshine Band’s “Please Don’t Go” – there are some bad bootlegs of these.

Paul unearthed the DAT master of the first 3 sessions not long back so most of the songs have survived (although a couple seem lost). Sessions 4 & 5 are the ones on Spotify.

Paul: Ah yes – the live covers!!  I’d forgotten about those.  We tended to pick songs that we could cover in an irreverent way. ‘I Don’t Want to Talk About It’ was done in a Bandwagonesque style, for ‘Band On The Run’ we chopped out two thirds of the song and only did the final jangle section (in the style of ‘Never Seen Before’ by the Close Lobsters) and ‘Please Don’t Go’ was just weird.  At the time there was a terrible cover of that song by KWS who were a mainstream dance act from Nottingham.  It got to No.1 in the UK charts – our version was Derby’s answer back!

++ I think my favourite song by The Almanacs is “Living in Another World” , was wondering if I could ask what’s the story behind this song, what inspired it?

Paul: The song is the usual relationship stuff about missed chances, lack of confidence and other stuff getting in the way.  It was Rob’s idea to add the Planet of the Apes recording.

Rob: Ha – yes I was obsessed with the film at the time, and particularly Taylor’s soliloquy at the start. It seemed to fit the mood of the song, and probably our lives at that point.

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

Paul: To quote Lawrence from Felt ‘you know I love them all’.  Not quite true, but I can’t pick a favourite.

Ian: Louise!

Rob: So many favourites but of the Paul songs, probably “A Job Worth Doing” and of Ian’s – definitely “When Things Get Too Much”

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? All over the UK?

Paul: We only ever played in Derby!  We’d send and receive letters and tapes from all over the world but never left our own town as far as gigs went…  Like I said – insular.  Our big moment was when we were booked to support 14 Iced Bears, but a few hours before the gig the promoter told us they weren’t going to turn up…  We were gutted.

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

Paul: Our best gig was the last one in 1994 – Nick from The Deskimoes played drums for us and Marc from Bulldozer Crash played bass.  That meant that Ian and Rob played guitar and I could just sing – and look ahead instead of down.   And we never played together again !

Ian & Rob: Definitely agree. Just that small change in line-up made it sound so much better. Typical Almanacs perversity that we promptly stopped after that one great gig.

++ And were there any bad ones?

Paul: Our first gig in 1991 was dreadful.  We played with the drum track on a tape player and for some reason missed out a verse of some song or other so finished playing whilst the tape just carried on drumming for about another minute.  I particularly remember another gig where Antiseptic Beauty switched on a strobe light and smoke machine at the same time whilst we were playing, which caused a power cut and shut off the power in the venue.  To top it off their banner fell down and covered Justin our drummer (a real person this time) in canvas. He carried on playing of course.

Ian: The worst one for me was the second one when I broke a string and my guitar went out of tune! Paul was a bit cross and I sulked afterwards. Ha ha!

Rob: I enjoyed all The Almanacs gigs – as I wasn’t singing and they weren’t songs I’d written I could relax a bit more than Paul & Ian. Even the disasters mentioned above were funny from my side of the stage!

++ When and why did The Almanacs stop making music? 

Paul: In 1994 it just fizzled out really, as so many small bands do..  I do recall a ‘moment’ when for some reason I was back in Jyoti’s studio laying down the rhythm guitar and drum tracks for what would have been our sixth session, before Rob and Ian added their bits.  I can’t remember why we didn’t just use Rob’s four track as that was perfectly good for our sound.  Anyway, it was a difficult session in many ways and the process was so painful I just decided there and then that that was probably it and abandoned the session half way through.  They were good songs too!

Rob: As I remember it, Paul & Ian both moved to London and logistically there didn’t really seem any point in trying to carry on. I don’t think we even formally split up. We just never mentioned it…

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

Paul: The other two did.  It was Almanacs or nothing for me.

Ian: I recorded some songs with Rob under the name of Motorcade One and we did one gig, but I lost interest. I’ve dabbled on and off since, but it’s been about 10 years since I’ve written or recorded.

Rob: After The Almanacs stopped, myself, Nick and Marc (along with Brian from the band Peru) started a new band called Boy Scout. We didn’t do any Almanacs songs (it wasn’t a Doug Yule’s Velvet Underground situation) – it was all Nick’s stuff. Grunge had happened and he was obsessed with Smashing Pumpkins so the sound was a lot more aggressive than The Almanacs. We came perilously close to being signed but it fell through as these things tend to do. I then became a father and didn’t do much music for a couple of years until I joined MJ Hibbett & The Validators in 1999. We’re still gigging and recording 20 years later. Along the way I did a few guest sessions on trumpet for Airport Girl and  The Chemistry Experiment. Oh and I played guitar in White Town for a while (a rite of passage for Derby musicians)

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

Paul: We talk about it from time to time.  And Rob and I recorded a Northern Soul cover version in the early 2000’s which qualified as an official Almanacs track !

Rob: Haha – that version of “Love Slips Through My Fingers” is brilliant. I must dig it out!

We went to Cologne PopFest together last year and I’m pretty sure we drunkenly reformed at about 4am after a night of dancing, but then forgot about it again by morning.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio?

Paul: We were interviewed by Radio Derby!  I thought we were famous by that point!

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

Paul: Nope.

++ What about from fanzines?

Paul: Yes definitely!  That was one of the best things about it all – the fanzines are now great historical documents of all the enthusiasm around that particular scene at that time.  There should be a museum of indiepop that keeps them all.

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

Paul: The Anorak Single, the Alienor Compilation, the last gig.

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

Paul: Morris Dancing and photography.

Ian: Buying and selling records, walking the dogs, going to the pub, going to the football.

Rob: Ian and I have season tickets for Derby County so we share that frequently disappointing hobby!

++ Never been to Derby, well, I was at the train station once on the way back to London from Indietracks, but I do know you have a beautiful cathedral, right? and I would love from a local for recommendations! What are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?

Paul: Rob and Ian will know about that.  I live in north London now and only visit Derby to see my parents or people who used to be in the Almanacs.

Ian: About once a year they allow the public to take the steps up the cathedral. The view from the top is quite impressive, especially on a clear day. There are a few old buildings and couple of pleasant streets, but it’s quite run down in other parts. I don’t go into the city much these days. There are no food specialities, but there is a grotty takeaway called Sarry’s that does a weird mix of kebab meat, baked beans and other random stuff that seems to have a cult following with some people I know. Derby has also got some good pubs where you can get a decent pint if beer is your thing.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

All: Thanks for getting in touch and bringing back fond memories of being young and excitable in the early nineties.

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Listen
The Almanacs – Living on Another World

A new week. This year is passing very fast. I don’t have much news. I guess the most exciting news last week was that Robert Forster was going to play in New York in September. At 10am, Friday, I was waiting for the tickets to be released. So yes, I am attending that and I look forward to it as I haven’t had the luck yet to see him play. He is touring all over Europe too, so I wonder if you are also planning to see him?

Then of course I’ve looked for new music to share. It has been a bit harder this weekend as I’ve been busy, but 5 finds I can do.

The Five Year Plan: on Bandcamp it says that this album, “Live at the Thekla – 4th October 1985”, a live album, was released in 2015. Maybe it was released digitally then? I can’t recall. The thing is that there is a CD version of the album that I got some weeks ago and I think, as there are still a few copies left of it, that I urge you to get one before there are no more copies. If not, 9 songs from this gig are available to stream on Bandcamp.

Zebra Hunt: the Spanish label Tenorio Cotobade has just released an 8-track album by the Seattle pop group called “Trade Desire”. The jangly guitars are very present, with nods to the Flying Nun stable. If you need to preview this lovely new record you can on Bandcamp, but I think we all would like a copy of this terrific effort.

The Bats: there is a digital EP on the NZ band’s Bandcamp called “Afternoon in Bed”. The title song was actually featured on the “Couchmaster” album but here on this EP there is an edited shorter version of the song alongside 3 outtakes from the recording session of the “Couchmaster” album. So this is very important indeed!

Body Type: this 6 song EP called “Body Type EP” was released last October, so it is not exactly a new find, but it is a new find to me. This four piece from Sydney is an all-girl band. The songs are poppy with cool shimmering guitars. They do have a more recent song available called “Stingray” on what will be their second EP to be released this May, but I think I like these older songs better.

Dreamlake: this Swedish band sounds gorgeous. How come I have never heard about them before? They are formed by Isabella Svärdstam and Niklas Lock. This song, “Someday” is their latest single and it is great! There are a  ton of songs on their Soundcloud so I will spend the rest of the day listening to them.

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Time for letter H. So Hope. Yeah we need hope. Lots of it. But better talk about the band Hope? I think that’s a good idea.

Stuart Troop is listed as a band member on Discogs. Himself a singer-songwriter and musician based in Somerset who had been in bands like the amazing The Visitors (who had a retrospective on Matinée many years ago) and Telstarr (who released a bunch of albums for Dishy). Was Hope just himself?

According to the flexi “Good Old Friends” that came out on Bewildered Records (Wild 1) he was the performer, engineer and even co-producer. On this single sided flexi the band had the title song and also the track “Suffocate”. That flexi came out in 1989.

Three years after, in 1992, the brilliant German label A Turntable Friend put out the band’s last release: a 3-song 7″ (TURN 11). This record, with it’s cool cartoon cover art had “Funny” as the A side and “There’s a Place” and “Singing Vest” on the B side. Again Stuart Troop is the sole performer credited, but a new name appears here, David Arnold as a producer. David Arnold being the guitar player for The Claim, another top band in my book.

During their time the band appeared on two compilations. They contributed the song “There’s A Place (demo version)” to the Anorak Records compilation tape “Teeny Poppers” (Shoubidouwa 01) in 1992 and the song “Feeling Fine” to the tape comp “Charmed by the Sea” that the label Little Charmer put out in 1993. I’m quite familiar with the first tape as it has been mentioned in the blog in the past but not much with the second one. It seems Little Charmer was a fanzine from Greece and this tape that included tracks by The Field Mice, Pale Saints, They Go Boom!! and more, came with the third issue of the zine.

Then two years ago (2017), when A Turntable Friend made a comeback by releasing the compilation “The Test of Time” (TURN50) on double CD and triple LP, Hope was included in it with three songs: “Funny”, “Whining and Whining” and “There’s a Place”.

Looking for more info I stumble upon an article the great Alistair Fitchett wrote for his blog Unpopular back in 2008.  He mentions he noticed Stuart Troop because he produced some Shrag records. And then he talks a bit about Stuart as a vocalist for The Visitors and then that Guy Sirman was the person behind Bewildered and then behind Dishy (that explains one connection).

Sadly that is the only mention for the band I could find. Seems the band got forgotten or something. It is odd of course as all of the songs recorded by Hope are pretty good.

Now, who remembers them? Any other details that I’m missing out? For example, did Hope perform live at all?
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Listen
Hope – Good Old Friends