Thanks so much to Bernie Smith and all Rik Rak for the interview! I discovered not too long ago their wonderful music, after Firestation Records from Germany announced they were putting together a compilation album. That album is out now and it is called “Illuminated” and it is a must-have for any indiepop lover. If you are like me, and don’t know much about the Blackpool band join me in this interview to find out the story behind Rik Rak!

++ Hi Bernie! Thanks so much for being up for this interview and getting in touch! How are you? Still making music?

Yes, I am good thanks and very pleased to have this chat on behalf of all the other band members, Pete, Linda, Karl and Bryan. Yes, I am still writing and playing, and love playing live more than ever.

++ You just released a superb compilation on Firestation Records called “Illuminated”. Why the name “Illuminated”? And what can people expect from it? Especially people who haven’t heard your songs before?

I am glad you like the album. The name ‘Illuminated’ came together pretty quickly. As a band we are proud of our northern UK roots and that we come from the famous seaside resort of Blackpool. It seemed appropriate to try and find a title that would somehow capture this heritage. Linda suggested ‘Illuminated’ and we all immediately liked it. The title is a nod to the famous ‘Blackpool Illuminations’ an annual lights festival founded in 1879. The ‘Lights’ run for a six mile stretch along the Promenade, August to November each year. Britney Spears switched them on this year though, I hasten to add, I wasn’t present. As this is a retrospective album, we amicably split in 1990, the term illuminated also fits quite well with what the album is all about. Rough Trade our UK distributor describes us as ‘jangly neo acoustic indie pop’ I guess that is a fairly accurate description. A distinguishing feature is that Pete and Linda shared a dual singing role so vocally we didn’t really sound like most of our contemporaries.

++ How did Firestation Records find you? And so far what has been the feedback of this great record?

A couple of years ago I placed two music videos we had produced and some live footage on a YouTube channel – Rik Rak Blackpool Band – and Uwe the driving force behind Firestation Records (a German label) found the channel and got in contact. The pre-sales of the album were very high and over half of the initial run of CDs and Vinyl were sold in the first couple of weeks. We also know the album has been purchased by a good number of local people who used to come and watch us back in the day, which when you consider we haven’t played together for nearly 30 years is quite exciting. The YouTube channel is now receiving hits from all over the World, and record stores outside of Europe including USA, Brazil and Japan are retailing the album. I guess it demonstrates the potential power of Social Media. I certainly never expected this sort of development when I created the YouTube channel.

++ Let’s start from the 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?

My parents loved classical music. My first musical fixation was the Tan Tantara Tzing Boom riff from Iolanthe when I was about two years old!!!!! I remember asking to hear it over and over again. Maybe not the most common initial musical influence. My parents didn’t listen to pop or jazz, but I loved the radio. I was fortunate to have access to a reel to reel recorder when I was about eight and started taping the radio. John Peel’s shows and Alan Freeman’s Saturday afternoon show were very influential. I also used to go to sleep at night listening to Radio Luxembourg, despite the AM reception being terrible, and wake up in the morning to static from my radio as they didn’t broadcast during the day. My mum tried to get me to play the violin, which I hated, and the piano but after the piano teacher’s dog urinated on my leg on two consecutive weeks, that thankfully was the end of that!! My first single I bought was Voodoo Chile when I was about 8 years old and my sister and I used to buy Marc Bolan singles in particular. At eleven I joined my school’s music club and started to spend nearly all my spare cash on going to see bands. First gig was Hawkwind. I was blown away, pardon the pun, and after that experience I knew live music was for me. I didn’t start playing guitar until I was 16 and I am self taught. Three months after getting the guitar, a cheap Strat copy, I played my first gig at a local tennis club with a couple of friends. We played mainly original instrumentals. It was awful but we had fun, as did our friends who came to listen.

++ Were you or any of the members involved in other bands before Rik Rak? I read some of you were in Hot Julys, Turnpike Cruisers, Deuces Wild and Way Out West. How did these bound sound like? Similar to Rik Rak? Are there any recordings?

Most of us played in bands before we got together. I was lucky to tour the length and breadth of the country when I was 19 and played on three studio recorded albums no longer available. Bryan our bass player was known locally as a rockabilly double bass player before he switched to electric bass with us. One of the tracks he played on, when he was with The Turnpike Cruisers, ‘Devil’s Car’, was used on an American TV advert not so long ago!! You should be able to find it on YouTube. Pete had a band before Rik Rak called Peter Rabbit and Karl our drummer’s band Hot July’s were influenced by Joy Division/New Order. They produced a tape called Making Sense of the Word, but Karl hasn’t seen/heard it for over 30 years!!! Rik Rak was a step in to a new style of original music for all of us.

++ Were you all originally from Blackpool?

Yes we all grew up around here.

++ How was around Blackpool 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?

Local bands that were well known and quite big at the time included Section 25 and the Membranes. I was at school with Chris Lowe, from the Pet Shop boys, but he was a couple of years older than me and I didn’t really know him. There were lots of record shops around Blackpool especially in the early 80s, Music Mania, Sinphonia, Cobweb, Graffiti. As Blackpool is a major tourist resort most of the venues catered for the more mainstream sounding covers bands but we managed to get gigs and always had a decent turn out. Some of these venues no longer exist, but we played in venues such as The Galleon, The Blue Room, Downstairs at The Station, Adam ’n Eve, The Showboat, Illusions, The Tache, Jaggy Thistle. Later we played in the big and iconic venues such as The Empress Ballroom, Tower Ballroom, The Arena, Spanish Hall.

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

Pete and I had been hanging out for a while and he played me a song he had written. We then decided to have a go at writing some stuff together. Within a couple of months we had approached Bryan and Karl. Pete had been at junior school with them and having invited Linda, a close friend, who we knew had a great voice, we were complete.

++ Were there lineup changes?

No, we remained together until we went our separate ways. We have remained firm friends ever since and, apart from Linda, still live locally.

++ Why the name the Rik Rak? Was the band originally named Summerhouse?

Difficult to really remember. I think we wanted a name that didn’t really mean anything and Bryan came up with it. I think it was written on the back of a stuffed toy he had. Later we found out it was something to do with zig zag woven stuff. Bryan designed all our gig posters and tape covers so I think we all felt that if our visual creative guy thought it was OK, then it was OK for the rest of us. We had some major record company interest towards the end of our career and in retrospect rather foolishly changed our name to Summerhouse. CBS in particular didn’t like the name Rik Rak. Summerhouse didn’t stick and most people, including ourselves, preferred and remember Rik Rak.

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

In general Pete and I would write together and then bring what we had to rehearsals. Sometimes Pete would have something completely formed already, sometimes I would, or perhaps I would develop a progression and a bit of a melody and Pete would polish it up and write the lyrics. Linda was great at developing her vocals that blended so well with Pete. Both Karl and Bryan of course would develop their parts as we started to jam the tracks out. We practised at rehearsal studios including Red Box and Berlin recording studio. We would also jam at rehearsals and things would just come out. I wrote the riff to ‘Hard Times’ at a rehearsal. It is unfortunate that this album really only covers the first year of our writing process. At the time of our split in 1990 only one song on this album remained in our live set. We regrettably didn’t record the later songs as we were more interested in playing live, hoping that a record/management deal would pay for the later recordings.

++ You were around in the late 80s, but whoever listens to your music might categorize you as a C86 band. What do you think of that term? Do you like it? Were you fan of the bands from this period?

Nobody really mentioned the C86 thing at the time but recently we’ve been associated with that movement. I’m not sure we actually fit in to that category. But yes I would say we liked some of the C86 bands. I know Karl liked the Wedding Present and Mighty Lemondrops, to name a couple that I guess fit that category.

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

I guess we all brought our own tastes in to the mix. Probably the closest influence you may detect in our music is through Pete’s love for The Smiths, though Pete also is a massive Elvis fan!!!!

++ I’m only aware of you releasing a tape called “Sometime in the Sunshine” in 1988. Was this a demo tape?

All our recordings were effectively demos done on a shoestring!!! We produced three products. ‘Sometime in the Sunshine’ and ‘Crawfish’ were two cassette releases, each with four songs. We recorded on to a simple 4 track cassette recorder. ‘Way Back When’ was a two track cassette single we recorded on an eight track at a small studio close to where we live.

++ This tape was put out by Engale Marketing. Who were they?

I believe Engale was a totally made up name developed by Bryan for the cassette cover. That tape was developed by ourselves with no involvement from any other party.

++ You recorded the four songs at the Ansdell Baptist Church. That is a pretty unusual place to record, right? How did that happen? Did you usually record there? And how was that experience?

Yes it was good fun. We had no budget for recording, but we did have access to a Tascam Porta One via Bryan’s cousin Adrian. We wanted to release our music somehow as our fans kept asking. Ansdell Baptist was my home church and they had a 24 channel mixing desk. So one Saturday we went down and recorded four songs, using the Tascam. Adrian and I engineered and I produced it. It is not easy recording a whole band on to four tracks, with very little opportunity to bounce without losing fidelity, and when you are also playing the guitar at the same time, but we had a go and it didn’t turn out too bad, especially considering we had no compressors, gates, reverbs, delays etc. I had Karl and Bryan and myself in one corner and Pete and Linda in another and so what you hear is mostly live. We sold all our first lot of tapes so a few months later we did the same again with four more songs. It literally cost us nothing to record those tapes.

++ On this tape your most well known song was included, “It’s Not Easy”. What’s the story behind this song, what inspired it?

That was the song that really birthed Rik Rak. Pete wrote that song and although it has a great uplifting melody, it is autobiographical and deals with Pete’s difficult childhood experiences growing up following the early death of his father. Pete played that song to me. I had my guitar, I played along, wrote the guitar riff that accompanies it and rather emotionally realised we wanted to do more of the same. Hence Rik Rak was formed.

++ This song also got a promo video which is ace. Where did you film it? Who directed? And why did you decide to put a video together? How much fun did you have while making it?

I am glad you like the video. We actually produced two videos over the same weekend in 1989. The video for ‘Hard Times’, also on our YouTube channel, was shot at the same time. When we recorded the ‘Way Back When’ double A sided single cassette, we had in mind to send it to record companies. We also thought it might be beneficial to let them ‘see’ us via video. Our friend David Scott and his friend Simon had access to some decent video gear and a portable video editing suite. They came across from the other side of the country on a Friday night. We took some footage at our usual rehearsal studio on the Friday, then spent the Saturday shooting both videos around Blackpool. It was bitterly cold, but great fun. I remember running through a wave breaking on the promenade and getting totally drenched to get a shot!! On the Sunday David and Simon edited the video, without time coding, and by Sunday night we had the two videos!! Amazing. We went on to duplicate quite a lot of the videos and people bought them as a video single!!!!!

++ On the liner notes of the “Illuminated” CD I read that you had released a double A sided single with “It’s Not Easy” and “Hard Times”. I can’t seem to find any information about this single on the web. Who released it? How many copies were pressed?

So I think I have just about answered that one now. It was a cassette single totally produced by ourselves. Can’t remember numbers, probably about 200.

++ Were there any compilation appearances by the band?

No we were not on any other products.

++ Why weren’t there any other proper releases?

As mentioned above we were hoping to get a label to finance our next recordings professionally so we concentrated on playing live rather than recording. In retrospect this was probably a bad move as we may have received more label interest if we had put our efforts in to recording our newer material.

++ Was there any interest in your music by any labels?

I still have the letters we received from CBS, Virgin and Island, expressing interest. I hand delivered the Way Back When cassette to the record company offices in London. What amazed me was that the day after I got back from London the CBS A’nR guy rang me. I was totally amazed, but tried to sound not surprised. He really loved the songs and wanted to come and see us. We had a number of companies do the same but unfortunately nothing concrete transpired.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? What was the farthest you played from Blackpool?

We loved playing live and possibly had the biggest live fan base of any Blackpool band during this period. We often coupled our gigs with Indie dance nights at clubs. The fans knew they would get to dance at the events we put on. The crowd would dance to the likes of the Pixies, Smiths, James, Primus etc etc and we would then play and the crowd would keep on dancing, tremendous atmosphere. We also seemed to get the majority of the support slots when bigger bands came to town, which further increased our exposure and allowed us to play in bigger venues and with better PAs etc. Our second ever gig was out of town 30 miles up the motorway playing at Lancaster University after someone at our first gig at the Illusions night club was impressed and invited us to play. We played in Manchester a few times and hired a double decker bus on two occasions to take people from Blackpool to watch us. Our last ever gig was also out of town, in Preston.

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

My favourite gig was when we supported The New Fast Automatic Daffodils in the Arena at the Winter Gardens. We were fans of the Fads, and that night we played particularly well and it was just a great atmosphere with such a large audience. Back stage we got on really well with the Fads. We played an impromptu game of Cricket with them using balls from a ball pool and Dolan offered to lend me his Tele if I broke a string as we both only had one guitar each at the time – incredible!! They were playing a few weeks later at the Sugarhouse in Lancaster and they put me on the guest list.
We also supported the Mock Turtles in the Tower Ballroom. The contrast between them and the Fads could not have been more marked. Whilst we were playing our set and still within the allotted time, with our fans enjoying themselves on the dance floor, a member of the Turtles came on stage and turned our backline off mid song!!!! Nuff said!!!! However our most memorable gig, perhaps for the wrong reasons, was probably on an occasion when we played at the famous Blackpool venue ‘The Tache’. A Manchester band was supporting us that night. They hadn’t gone down too well and as soon as we started playing we filled the dance floor. An angry fan of the other band came to the front of the stage and started to spit at Pete and basically act aggressively. I think he then went and got an ash tray and through that at Pete, and we could see Pete getting angrier and angrier. This guy moved away presumably to get more ammunition. This coincided with an instrumental break in the song. Pete who by now was furious jumped off the stage and hit the bloke to the ground. We all looked at each other in disbelief at which point our fans piled in as a mass scrap ensued on the dance floor. We carried on playing not really knowing what to do. Just as the next verse was due to start Pete managed to get up, from under the pile of bodies, jump back on stage and sing. It couldn’t have been better choreographed! After the gig this oldish drunken guy came up to me. He looked me in the eye, put his hand on my shoulder and said ‘hey lad, that was the best f*****g gig I’ve been to since I saw the Sex Pistols!!!!!!!!!!’

++ There are a bunch of videos of a gig of yours in 1990 at the Winter Gardens. It looks like a lot of fun! The crowd is really having a great time. Would this be a good example of a regular Rik Rak gig? And how was that gig in particular?

Absolutely, we were supporting Cud that night. Yes, that is an example of the normal reaction we received at our gigs and as you can see everyone was up and dancing. That was a good night, though as we were supporting, we only played for around 35 minutes or so.

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

We had toyed with getting a manager, and got as far as having a contract assessed by the Musicians Union, and done all we could to promote ourselves. I guess it all started to get a little stale and we weren’t enjoying ourselves as much as we had. So we decided to call it a day. We all in various capacities carried on playing. Karl most notably went on to drum in the Nature Things for around 3 years. Bryan joined them briefly too. They had a 4 track EP on Action Records which had air time on Radio 1 including John Peel’s show, an article in Metal Hammer, which stated something along the lines of ‘at last an Indie Band with balls’ and they got to support a good number of bands including Blur, PJ Harvey, Senseless Things, Boo Radleys, Slowdive, Lush etc. I played in a band called ‘K’ that produced an album called ‘Sense’ to good reviews and played all over the country headlining gigs at such notable venues as the Borderline Club in London (twice), Duchess of York in Leeds, Hibernian in Birmingham, Queens University Belfast, Durham University, Edinburgh, headlined the Summer Madness festival in Northern Ireland and a trip to Germany too. We used Ocean Colour Scenes old touring van!! We also were due to support Chumbawamba, Saturday night mainstage at the Greenbelt Festival in 1995, but they had to pull out at the last minute and we supported the Acid Jazzers the ‘James Taylor Quartet’ instead, which was great as I was fan. That was to a capacity crowd of around 16K, who moshed away to our music. I have some great video footage to show the grand kids (if I ever have any)!!!!!! Pete has carried on writing, recording and playing in various bands and as a solo artist and Linda played in a number of combos around Blackpool during the 1990s.

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

We have laughed about it, but no more!! We lost a musician friend in a tragic accident a number of years ago and Pete and I did at least one Rik Rak number at a special event in his memory but that has been it.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

We were extremely well supported by local press but not so much by the local radio stations unfortunately

++ What about from fanzines?

Most of the local fanzines tended to cater for the ‘punk’ side of things which we clearly didn’t identify with.

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

I guess knowing that people genuinely liked our music and it is certainly a great privilege to be remembered so proactively via the release of this new album. So big thanks to Uwe at Firestation Records for approaching us and making this all happen.

++ Been in the UK many times but never visited your area. So maybe I can ask for some suggestions? Like what are the sights I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?

Blackpool is pretty unique. Google it and have a look!!! It is dominated by Blackpool Tower completed in 1894. The Winter Gardens is an amazing piece of architecture built even earlier in the 1870s. Seriously worth a visit. If you like Rollercoasters and other rides you need to check out the Pleasure Beach. Traditional food would be ‘Fish and Chips’. It does of course get a mention in our song ‘Sometime in the Sunshine’ – ‘whatever the weather, we’ll eat chips together’ they are nothing like French Fries!!!! I could take you to some real ale pubs which I think you would enjoy.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Only to say thank you so much for your interest and if you do venture up to Blackpool, let us know and we will show you around. I am sure Bryan would love to drive you around in his 1960s Mustang!!!!!!!

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Listen
Rik Rak – It’s Not Easy

Spent more than a few hours working on Cloudberry stuff. Writing the insert for the BV’s upcoming 7″ and working on the art for two upcoming retrospectives on the Cloudberry Kitchen series. And also I will, after writing this post, get on writing an interview for a classic band from the mid/late 80s. But I’m having a bit of trouble coming up for questions, other than the obvious ones. I need some vacations soon. I’ve been very busy at work. And also have been seeing friends and family visiting New York, so I haven’t had much time in my hands for the past month. Things are moving a bit slower than I want.  But still, the good thing is that things go forward. That’s what’s important.

I have a few finds for this weekend of course.

La Internacional Pesmista / Las Cosas que Dejamos: Stupid Decisions is an online Mexican label and has put up a two song split by La Internacional Pesimista (Mexico) and Las Cosas que Dejamos (Argentina). The songs are “No Hay Pop” and “Playas”. Never heard any of these bands so will need to have a good look at their respective Bandcamps.

San Charbel: another song on this Mexican netlabel is the newest track by San Charbel from Mexico. I have recommended this band in the past so it is no surprise I’m enjoying this new song “Siempre Te Admiré”. The Bandcamp says this is the first single for the new record the band is working on.

Cacao Reading Club: “Sixteen” is the online single this Ukrainian band has put together for the label Dobryi Records from Kiev. Any money out of this song will be going to support social, cultural, ecological projects at Big Idea, Ukraine. That’s a nice thing. And also a good thing is listening this lovely bedroom pop track.

Spiera: some dreamy pop from Canton in Ohio. There are the first four songs that appear by this band on Bandcamp. Sadly there is absolutely no information about who are the people behind it. But there are four songs as I mentioned, “Vertigo”, “Reach”, “Float” and “Changes”. Worth checking them out.

Rémi Parson: the new album by our French friend is out now. It is called “Arrière-Pays” and it is out now on ISOLAA records. I’m sharing a video for the song “Le Petit Jour” as I couldn’t find a Bandcamp or something similar, but there is a link with all of the digital platforms if that’s your thing. In any case, the video is fantastic and I see familiar places in it, making me nostalgic of course of the days of The Sunny Street and concerts in London. Oh. It’s been such a long time since I’ve visited. I’m not sure if the record is available yet in physical format, but as soon as I know I’ll let you know. The good thing is that it is sounding great.

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Let’s take a time warp to 1984. To the United Kingdom. Somewhere in England? Perhaps. That is not clear as I write the first lines of this post. I don’t know anything about Accent. Nor I own the only 7″ they released that year. This will be a proper indiepop archaeology dig.

They put out their record on Motion Records with the catalog Motion 111. It looks, according to Discogs, that this is the only release on this label. It kind of sounds as it was a self-release. There are no other clues there.

We do know that two songs were included in the record, “We Are Lost” on the A side, and “(Intro) Blue & Royal Line” on the B side. I’ve never had the chance to listen to the B side. The A side is brilliant. And that’s what matters. Happily the sleeve offers some more information.

The sleeve has on the front a great purple tinted photo, with a bunch of kids, having fun. The back is blue with what looks like a story (or maybe the lyrics for the B side?) and a drawing of a turnip (or a raddish? I’m not very good with vegetables). But we do find out here that the two songs were recorded at Abbey Road and produced by Tony Clark. The band thanks a Robin Yates and we know the first song was published by Patch Music.

But best of all we find the band members names: Brian Rydell (vocals), Mick Robinson (guitar), Steve Flynn (bass) and Chris Munday (drums). We also know that “We Are Lost” was written by Robinson and Rydell.

A comment on Discogs mentions that the band had a very large following in London. Does this mean they hailed from the capital of England? Or close-by? Let’s keep investigating.

Discogs lists Brian Rydell as a solo artist too, releasing a 7″ single with the songs “The Passage” and “Orchestration” released in 1987 on Aria Records. On the credits for the songs we see again the names Rydell and Robinson. This is going to be a lot of help!

Indeed, my hunch is right. On this same label, Aria, there is a band called Turquoise Blue who released two records. Guess what. Turquoise Blue are Brian and Mick making synth pop! And they even cover “We Are Lost”. First they would release in 1986 the 7″ single “In the End/In the End (Instrumental)” and afterwards the “We Are Lost” 7″ and 12″! The 7″ including “We Are Lost” and “We Are Lost (Instrumental)” while the 12″ had the same tracklist but an extended version of the original on the A side. The song is a bit different to the Accent one, there are more arrangements, like there is a cello now, or female backing vocals! Still it is as enjoyable as the original! There would also be a re-release of the 12″ with two new remixes of the song, a “New Mix” and the “Original Orchestration” mixes.

I start to wonder what happened to Chris Munday and Steve Flynn? Did they also formed a band or went to join one? And how did Turquoise Blue do? It seems that they changed their style and their sound, maybe looking to get signed by a bigger label?

I find a Google profile for Chris Munday where there are a bunch of photos of Accent at Abbey Road studios. I’m using one of them for my post. I also see that Chris gives us some dates. He drummed for Accent between 1982 and 1985. Were these the years the band was active? He also played drums for the punk band Fear in 1981.

I find an odd Wiki where it mentions that the band was based in West London and that they played Chelsea F.C.’s Stamford Bridge ground. That must have been something!

I was going to stumble upon an even better find. An article written by Mick Habeshaw Robinson on the webzine 3am Magazine. He tells the story of the band here, how they convinced Gary Bushell of the Sounds magazine to like them through a fanzine called In The Crowd. Accent had the chance then to grace the cover of the Sounds magazine. Quite a feat! I found a picture of it for the interest. Then they managed to get a deal with Stuarts clothing shop on Uxbridge Rd to get some cool outfits.

They played Fulham Greyhound, Kings Head and they created the Casual Beat club. Pat Nevin also wrote about them. It seems there was a longer article somewhere in the Heavenly Records website. I have yet to find it.

Then I find an interview with Ginger Mick as he was usually called on the Vera Shoes website. He now lives in Brighton and opened the rock n’roll Hotel Pelirocco.

There is an interview with him too at the Vivid Riot blog. Here he mentions that he lived in Fulham, was a follower of Chelsea and used to shop at Stuarts, Aquasctum, Scotch House, Gee2 for his clothes. He mentions that all four members of Accent were friends and had been in different bands. Brian and himself were the original members and wrote the songs. Steve was an old mate from school and Chris came to the band through an advert in a music paper. They played 50 odd gigs.

The Casuals scene seems to be more or less documented, and that helps me find out more about Accent. There is even a DVD Documentary called Casuals were Accent is featured. There is a promo video for Accent in the documentary which I found on Youtube and it is really great. I should try to find myself a DVD copy of it!

Quite a lot found about Accent. I thought they’d be more obscure to be honest. I do wonder though if they recorded more songs other than the two that appeared on the 7″. They must have! At least some demos. And why did they go as a duo afterwards and even re-released “We Are Lost”?  There are many questions still that I hope I get to know the answers soon!

Do you Londoners remember them?

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Listen
Accent – We Are Lost

Hope to be working on new releases this weekend, it’s been quite a busy week for me but I’m trying to get everything in a good spot. I do have a few interviews coming up, and need to write a few more which I hope I can these two days. I still have lots of posts kind of ready which helps, but I’m afraid at some point I may need to slow the pace. We’ll see. In the meantime I’m sharing a few new finds of course.

The Ocean Blue: there is a new song and video by the classic American jangle pop band and it is called “Therein Lies the Problem With My Life”. The song will be included in a compilation called “Korda 4 comp” that will be released by Korda Records on October 12th. More on that on the next item.

Korda 4 comp: so I wanted to share the video of the Ocean Blue but now I want to share the whole compilation which is available to stream on Bandcamp. It is brilliant and it includes so many classic bands like The Hang Ups, The Jim Ruiz Group and of course The Ocean Blue. It looks to be only available digitally at the moment, but hopefully it will get a physical release.

Tracyanne & Danny: saw them a few months back and loved the gig. Their album is superb and now they treat us with a new video for one of the best songs on the album, “Cellophane Girl”. Even better lots of footage of New York on the video, felt very much at home seeing Tracyanne and Danny getting food at the taco truck.

Dukla: some interesting pop from Prague, Czechia by the band Dukla here. The album “Život perfektní” that was released on September 14th is their latest work. I don’t know much about them but it seems that the record is out now on Theremin Records. The band is formed by Lukas Vydra and Josef Hradlek. 8 songs on the album and more releases are available on their Bandcamp.

Los Reyna: “Estaciones” is the name of the album this guitar pop band from Mexico City released last September. There are 9 songs of sweet pop tunes in the vein of late 90s and early 2000s Spanish indiepop. The band was formed in 2010 and have more than a handful of other releases under their belt.

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I think I have mixed feelings with this 90s Gothenburg band. I like a bunch of their songs but I never got used to their band name. Saliva? Sounds like a metal band to me! Doesn’t it? I mean, the band does list hard rock an influence, and many of their songs are not exactly poppy. But still, it is strange, isn’t it?

I know of this band because they were the first band on the catalog of Dorian Records. Dorian Records being the label of one of my heroes, Roger Gunnarsson from Nixon, The Garlands, Cloetta Paris, Dune, etc, etc, etc. So of course I was going to have a listen. And it was the song “Tender Castration” the first one I ever heard. That one appeared on the compilation “A Chance to Shine. A Dorian Records Compilation” (Dorian 002) that was released in 1996. But it is not my favourite song of theirs.

That “prize” goes to “Turn Off the Engine, Dear”, a sort of Orange Juice-y song that appears on their one and only proper record, an EP titled “Hooligan at Heart”. This song I heard for the first time on Youtube, I believe uploaded there by the great Jörg Winzer. The EP, as mentioned, was released on Dorian Records also in 1996 and had the catalog number Dorian 01. It  was released on CD and included 4 songs: “Turn Off the Engine, Dear”, “Whoever You Are, I’m Your Neighbour”, “Polyester Convention, (Des Moines)” and “To Erase You”. The sleeve, showing a guy in a bathing suit on the cover, does have some information on the back.

The band members were Fredrik Berggren on guitar, Henrik Edberg on guitar, Patrik Landgren on vocals, Tobias Mattson on drums and Erik Norinder on bass. For these recordings Jimmi Hardberg played piano and Annika Rolandsson backing vocals. The four songs were recorded at Studio Lare in Gothenburg and were mixed by Stefan Svensson. They were mastered at Digitalfabriken by Kenetth Svensson. And an address letting us know that the band hailed from Gothenburg.

Almost immediately I stumble upon a SoundCloud page for the band put up by Fredrik Berggren. Here there are in total 5 songs put together in a playlist called “the Complete Work 1992-1995”. That is odd because some of the songs from the EP are missing. In any case we can assume that the band only lasted those years. The songs available to stream are “Tender Castration”, “To Erase you”, “Twinsoul Lulu”, “Turn Off the Engine, Dear” and “Coming Home Being Good”.  It’s been 7 years since these were uploaded.

But the band didn’t stop their digital expansion there. They are also on Facebook. Here in the band members section they mention more people like Per Strömberg, Pekka Häkkinen, Erik Jacobsson and Henrik Edberg. At what point were they in the band? I could find a photo of Per Strömberg playing drums in the band in 1994.

There is a photo of a demo tape with “new” songs. On the A side there’s “Turn Off the Engine, Dear”, “In Between Smiles” and “Nothing, Really”. The B side has “Making Annie Glad”, “Twinsoul Lulu” and “Coming Home Being Good”. There are also photos of press clippings, for example one from Göteborgs Posten dating from sometime in 1996 and more.

There is a compilation CD where the band appeared with their two hardest songs, “Twinsoul Lulu” and “Coming Home Being Good”. It is no surprise then that this compilation is “Rockslaget 1994” and it has a bunch of hard rock bands in it. Not for me definitely.

I don’t know what happened to them afterwards. Or if they were involved in any other bands. What are they doing now? And I’m very curious still about the mixed bag of styles they played. They could play some songs very influenced by Morrissey, The Smiths or Orange Juice and then have some songs that sound like a heavy metal band. It is odd. I wonder what sort of crowd they used to have. And how come they didn’t get to do more releases? No other compilation appearances?

I’m sure some Göteborgare readers must remember them!

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Listen
Saliva – Turn Off the Engine, Dear

Not much going on today, no updates, kind of a quiet start of fall, but at least here are five good finds, right?

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: I recommended the DIY pop project of Glenn Donaldson from the Art Museums some weeks ago. He has just uploaded a new song to his Bandcamp and it may as well be my favourite song of his so far. It is called “Uncommon Weather (demo)” and it sounds like classic indiepop, jangly and chiming. Everything to like about this song.

Dylan Mondegreen: “A Place in the Sun” will be the new album that the Oslo popster will release on November 9th! There are two songs to stream and preview at the moment in his Bandcamp, the song that gives title to the album and “The Best Thing”. The album will be released by Fastcut Records and himself.  It will be available on both vinyl and CD. Pre-orders available now too.

The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness/The Tree House: months ago I discovered on Soundcloud The Boys with the Perpetual Nervousness and thought it was brilliant. They mentioned they had a single in the works. Was this split the one? I don’t know The Tree House who contribute here the song “All I Understand” but I’m very happy to meet them for the first time. I wasn’t aware that Pretty Olivia was going to release this record. Now I really need it. Javi how do we do?!

Gascoigne: a new Indonesian band I discover. And has an English footballer name. Of course I like that. They have a song now called “Roadburner 3000” that is available on the Jakarta label Anoa Records. The band is formed by Alvi Ifthikhar, Dimaz Hafizhan and Zaka Sandra Novian.

James Katy / Cosmos, Astrid and Me: Just the one song to stream, “Vanilla”, out of an 8-song album, but it sounds pretty good so I thought it was worth recommending.  From what I read, this is a collaboration of Juan Ignacio Miranda from Cosmos, Astrid and Me and Liz Gavillet of James Katy. I don’t know any of their bands so I will have to check them out. The album “Teeth” will be released on October 16th.

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I read a comment on Discogs after following a trail about the band Unity & Fire. It says:
Looks like some lost 80’s indie band in front of Dudley castle, but sounds like a sub Duran Duran band.
Please dont let that put off you potential sellers putting “rare C86” on your listings though 😉

I don’t know if it is Dudley Castle where the band took the photo for their one and only 7″. I do see some stone bricks behind them but it is hard for me to know what structure is that one. But it is a probability. You see the band hailed from Birmingham. And Dudley is not that far away. Then, if they are a c86 band or not, I’ll let you decide. I’ve only heard the B side of their 7″, “Nothing Brings You Nothing”, and I could say it probably isn’t, but it doesn’t take away that it is a good guitar pop song.

The A side for the single was “I Know a Girl”. The record was put out by Delicious Records (WG0101) in 1988. It looks as a self-release. Maybe the band put together the money and sent their two songs to press. Then sell these 7″s at their gigs. Who knows.

From the black and white sleeve we know they were a five-piece formed by:
Stephen Burns on fretless bass
Ian Foster on drums
Tony Buckley on vocals
Bob Murray on lead guitar
Dave Lillis on keyboards

We know too that the band recorded and produced both songs at Kings Recording in Birmingham.

Yeah, I don’t own the record. I have found some scans of the record on the brilliant and now defunct From a Northern Place blog. I never knew who run the blog. Would have been nice to have chatted. Oh well. On the blog there are not only scans from the record sleeve, but also of what looks like a fanzine.

On this fanzine there is some information about them. Even though it is not dated we see that the band played a gig at The Railway pub in Birmingham and had played all over the Midlands. Other gigs mentioned are ones at the Curzon Street pub, The Kaleidoscope (where they met their manager), and the West End Bar. They had a manager called Kev Mitchell. Then there is a small bio where it says that the band formed in March 1987 by Tony, Steve, Dave and Ian.

Then, the question would be when did they split? What happened to them? There is nothing written about them on the web. We don’t know if the band members continued making music with other bands. Maybe some of my Birmingham readers remember them? Were they more of a guitar pop band? or as that Discogs comment say a sub Duran Duran?

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Listen
Unity & Fire – Nothing Brings You Nothing

What a gig by Alvvays on Friday. I think I’m liking them much more now. Lots of energy, brilliant songs and they all seemed friendly and humble (no, I didn’t interact with them, but that was the impression I got anyways). Definitely would have been nice to talk about music and stuff, I’m quite curious about their Hummingbirds fandom for example. They played once again “Alimony” to end the concert and dedicated the song to Simon. Or about Dolly Mixture which I read they just got into (I think, if my memory is not playing me tricks). In any case I had such a good time watching them.

Sadly I was unhappy with the venue and the public. Some moron pushed me asking me to put my phone down when I was recording “Archie, Marry Me”. Sure it can be annoying sometimes, but just move. Or just have some manners and ask nicely. I don’t understand these people that think they own the world and things have to be done their way. I sure don’t see them in small indiepop gigs, where people are more intelligent. At bigger gigs you can encounter stupid people more easily. Just a matter of demographics.

At the end of the gig I approached the stage to get a setlist. There was a sort of barrier that separated the stage from the floor so you couldn’t reach the setlists. There were also bouncers there. This was at Warsaw Concerts, a really cool place that I haven’t been in the past. I liked the place, it was spacious, nice bar, even a place to sit down and enjoy kielbasa and pierogies, all in the heart of Greenpoint. Well, first the bouncers wouldnt just grab the setlist and give them to me (or any of the fans that wanted them). Then the bouncers, being brainless and all having no sense of anything, ask the people that were putting putting away the cables, instruments, on stage if they could get the setlists. These people were even meaner. There were like 6 or so setlists on stage but with such a bad attitude gave two to the bouncers which in turn were given to a few fans. But there were more and I asked nicely to one of these people to hand me one and he said he couldn’t touch them or give them away. Why? He wouldn’t say. Just mean. These papers are going to end up in a trash bin. What does it matter to them? That ruins the experience for the fan. These sort of people that don’t understand gigs or music shouldn’t be allowed.

Again, Alvvays were fantastic, and they don’t have any responsibility about the things I’m complaining. What a good band. Now I understand why they could be so popular, among people that wouldn’t care about indiepop. Then Hatchie was a nice surprise, it was short but sweet. Not strictly indiepop, but it was good pop music, with catchy melodies and all. The one band that I didn’t like was Snail Mail. They did seem to have a big following, people knowing the lyrics and buying their records afterwards. But I couldn’t stand how the vocals were delivered, with all that growling. That’s not for me.

It was a great night in the end. I think even though I didn’t like some stuff out of it, Alvvays being that good could make it all worth it.

Oh and here are some good finds I made this weekend:

The Catherines: Let’s start this week listening to the latest by the Hamburg bedroom pop band that seems to be featured all the time on the blog. Well, they are pretty prolific so doesn’t leave me much space to keep saying check them out every time there’s a new song. This time they have put on on Bandcamp yet another song with a good title, “She has a knack for seeing other people’s faults” and it does sound brilliant.

The Wedding Present/Cinerama: well the 7″ is sold out now, and I missed it. This is the last 7″ of the 7777777 series that the London based label WIAWYA has been putting out and that has included so many great names. For this latest one each of the David Gedge bands, Wedding Present and Cinerama have contributed a song. The Wedding Present has the song “White Riot” and Cinerama “The Name of the Game”. At this point only the latter one is available to stream on the label’s Bandcamp.

Saint Etienne: and the previous 7″ in this series was by the superb London trio that I just saw in New York a few weeks back. Sadly this one is also sold out. I wonder how they do it! So fast. I think I read about these releases like a week ago. And me being slow only during the weekend I can sit down and check the music out. Maybe I should start buying things blindly like I did 10, 12 years ago. Anyways, you can stream one of the songs included in the 7″ which is called “Little Chef” which is instrumental (so I’m not crazy about it) but the 7″ included another one called “Camel Coat (Browning version)” which I hope has Sarah’s vocals.

Yukla Down: upbeat and energetic noisy pop from this Tokyo band I just discovered. Their debut work is the 3 song EP “In Demonstration” that is available to listen on their Bandcamp, the songs being “Torture Me (With your Kiss)”, “If You Only Knew” and “Borealis”. Don’t know much about them, but I can tell you that they are formed by Bun (vocals/guitar/tambourine clown), Kenny (guitar/interstellar noise), Ouji (guitar/box-to-box midfielder), Victor (bass/Russian poetry) and Sam (drums/jingle bells).

Les Big Byrd: “Iran Iraq IKEA” is the new album by this cool sounding psychedelic guitar pop band from Stockholm, Sweden. It is coming out on October 12 on the PNKSLM label and will include 9 tracks, including their previous single “A Little More Numb”. The band is formed by Jocke Åhlund, Nino Keller, Frans Johansson and Martin “Konie” Ehrencrona, and previously have released a couple of 7″s and the 2014 album “The Worshipped Cats”.

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Carlow is the county town of County Carlow, in the south-east of Ireland, 84 km from Dublin. At the 2016 census, it had a combined urban and rural population of 24,272. The county of Carlow has a population of 56,932. The River Barrow flows through the town, and forms the historic boundary between counties Laois and Carlow. The settlement of Carlow is thousands of years old and pre-dates written Irish history. The town has played a major role in Irish history, serving as the capital of the country in the 14th century. The name is an anglicisation of the Irish Ceatharlach. Historically, it was anglicised as Caherlagh, Caterlagh and Catherlagh, which are closer to the Irish spelling.

It is the first time I’m featuring a band from Carlow in Ireland. I needed some background information. Try to transport myself geographically. Hopefully one day I visit the town physically. I read a comment on Youtube saying that Carlow during the 80s was sort of an epicenter of all things rock. I wonder what other bands were part of that scene.

I know the one, Azure Days, which I first heard on Youtube, on the Stoneeyedkiller channel. But I have realized today that I don’t know much about them. It is hard to keep track. So many brilliant bands, right? I feel in the end this blog is kind of the way I’m tracking the bands I like and follow. So I’m adding Azure Blue to that collection.

The Irish band released two singles. One was a 7″ the other a CD single. The first one was a 7″ and included two songs, “Blew My Clouds Away” 0n the A side and “My Mexican” on the B side. It was released by Mystery Records (MRS 15) in 1987. This label is unknown to me but I do notice that most of their releases were of the artist Mary Caughlan.

The band was originally formed by Liam O’Brien on guitar, Gala Hutton on bass and a vocalist called Joe Downey. Then Hutton left the band to attend college and was replaced on bass by Ray Lowry. That must have been 1985 or so. I say that because it is in 1986, towards the end of that year, that Gala Hutton returns to the band as a vocalist replacing Joe. Gerry Farrell on drums completed the lineup.

The band got to be finalists of the Carling/Hot Press Band of the Year competition in 1986 and won this prize in June 1987. That same year the band relocated to Dublin and released their first single, the aforementioned “Blew My Clouds Away”.

That single was produced by Leo Kelly and David Donahue. It was engineered by Catherine Considine and recorded and mixed at Lansdowne Studios, between the 26 and the 30th of September of 1987. The photos of the back members on the back of the sleeve are credited to Michael J Quinn. I hope one day I can find a copy of this record for myself!

The band was to record four Fanning Sessions. I need to find the tracklist for these. On Irishrock.org they mention that one of the songs on these sessions was called “Pale Green Visions”. They also mention an unreleased demo called “Sweetest Chain”.

The band then moved to London, trying to make a career. But it didn’t work out. Liam O’Brien would leave the band now and the Azure Days became a trio. Without success the band decided to return to Ireland in 1991 and split up.

Before that happened the band had released their 1991 CD single in the UK. The four songs on it were “Anything For You”, “Azure Daze”, “White Horses” and “Black Down to Justice”. It was released by the label Grapes (GRAPESCD6).

But that wasn’t all. There are two compilation appearances at least for the band.

The first dates from 1987, the LP compilation “Comet LP Two” released by Comet Records (COME 2 TP). On it the band contributed the song “The Old Tradition”.

The second is from 1992, when the band was no more I think. It was a CD compilation released by A2Z Music Services called “Music From Ireland (Breaking Sound Barriers)” (BSBCD1). The band contributed the song “Anything For You” that had appeared on their CD single.

We also know that after the band split Ray Lowry and Gerry Farrell went to play in the band The Floors while Gala Hutton was part of 79Cortinaz, The Trains and Sugar Factory.

The great Fanning Sessions blog has a post about them as well where you can stream the songs “The Old Tradition” and “Blew My Clouds Away”. Then another, a second post, with the song “She Won’t Come Again“. There are a few more interesting details here too. For example we know that Gerry Farrell was to be in the band Skindive.

Other interesting details are that Leo O’Kelley who produced the first single and was part of the band Tír na NÓg, recorded a cover of “Blew My Clouds Away” in 2002, and that according to Wikipedia the drummer Robbie Robinson was part of the recordings of the first 7″ and was in the band The Practical Householders.

But that’s not all. I was to find a super live performance of the band playing “Back Down to Justice” at the RTE TV programme “Visual Eyes” in 1986. Someone there commented that this is the “original” lineup of the band with Joe Downey on vocals, Ger Downey on 2nd guitar, Liam “Tweedy” O’Brien, Gerry Farrell and Ray Lowry.

That is not all the live footage on the web. There’s another track, “Written in the Sky“, being played at the RTE TV show “Live on the Waterfront” in 1992.

I keep looking. Then I find about a gig at the Sir Henry’s Grand Parade in Cork where Azure Days played alongside Therapy, Lir, The Sultans of Ping and Toasted Heritic on Sunday June 2nd 1991. The previous day, as part of the festival, The Cranberries had played. Indeed, these were different times.

That’s what there is written about them. I hope to interview them and find out more about the Azure Days. About the Fanning Sessions, what songs were included in each session. If they had more unreleased tracks. Why so many lineup changes? How was their move to Dublin first, and to London second. How were those experiences? There are many questions I’d love to ask. Who remembers them?

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Listen
Azure Days – Blew My Clouds Away

Looking forward to a nice weekend. A weekend to rest. Today I will be attending the Hatchie & Alvvays gig and that should be good. Quite excited as I haven’t seen any of them in the past. I think it is Hatchie’s first time in the US and Alvvays for some reason or another I never saw in New York. I believe I had worked once with Hatchie, when she was part of Go Violets and included a song on a CD that came alongside a fanzine. Would have loved to put out more Go Violets stuff but that didn’t happen. Anyways… here are some good finds for you to enjoy this weekend!

DEAF: Luke Kavanagh on guitar and vocals, Hayden Ellis on bass, Craig Rattray on drums, Ma Machray on synth and Jarrod Crossland also on synths make up this Wellington band that have two terrific songs on Bandcamp. I’m checking their latest one called “Shards” and it is truly a surprise. I don’t think there are any phyiscal releases yet, but we should keep an eye on them.

Lo! Peninsula: this is a first for the blog, the first band from India being featured here! This band formed by Nitin, Jyotin and Avinash from the city of Imphal have a new EP called “Aka Lo Peninsula” that was just put up on Bandcamp last August. There are 6 songs total of classy shoegaze! Pretty interesting, I wonder if there is a guitar pop scene in India? Anyone knows?

Juárez: I should have been following in a better way the label Caballito Records from Spain. For example I would have known that I needed the 8-song 12″ record by Juárez called “Boreal”. A collection of songs packed with brilliant jangle pop that I need in my collection. Now, what’s the best way to get this Spanish label’s releases?

Papa Top & Yurena: today I saw that Papa Topo are going to be playing some gigs in Argentina and Chile, how cool! But the latest recording-wise by the band is a digital single called “Ese Hombre” played in duo with Yurena. This song, originally written by Manuel Alejandro and Ana Magdalena and made famous by Rocío Jurado, is included in the new movie by Marc Ferrer “Puta y Amada”.

Pete Astor: as part of the WIAIWYA 7″ singles collection that have featured so far top bands like The Orchids or Spearmint, Pete Astor from The Weather Prophets and The Loft is releasing two songs in this format. They are “Peter Cook” and “Petrol and Ash”. Right now only the second one is available to stream but it is a nice low-key song.

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Now a 7″ that any of you might be aware of because of its connection with the band Flying Saucer Attack. I must say that I have arrived late to the party and it is now the first time I’m listening some of the songs on it. I should also try to track a copy, right? My economy needs to get better to buy all the records I want!

Released by Hobby Horse Records (SRT5KS387) in 1985 the “Up and Down” EP is a mystery to me. The sleeve is mysterious, with what looks like a cave opening on the front, and the band outside a small tunnel on the back, all printed in black and white. The song titles are also enigmatic, don’t you think? The A side having “Up and Down” and “Visiting a House” while the B side has “Waiting” and “Arabelle”.

Of course this label only released this record. It is safe to assume it is a self-release. The sleeve doesn’t have any information about the band. One of the labels has a knight armor while the other one, the name of the songs on handwriting. But we do know, through many comments about this record that David Pearce played guitar on it before forming Flying Saucer Attack.

There used to be a Flying Saucer Attack early year essay on the website Caught by The River. Haven’t been able to find it. But on it, according to Factmag, Pearce mentions a meeting with John Peel, who politely explained to Pearce that their Ha Ha Ha EP was “just too shambolic for the radio”. Years later, Flying Saucer Attack eventually won him over and received radio play.

There is another mention by Pearce about Ha Ha Ha. It is on an article on the Quietus. Here he says that he remembers being in Ha Ha Ha [who became Rosemary’s Children] and we borrowed this reel-to-reel four-track because gear was so expensive back then, and it had that awful boxy, clunky sound.

So, some of Rosemary’s Children were on Ha Ha Ha? Who exactly? I suppose Robert Dimery, why? Because it is worth noting too that the Rosemary’s Children recorded a cover of Ha Ha Ha. The song “Visiting A House” was covered on the album “Kings and Princes” that was released in 1987. This song appears on the album credited to Robert. Meaning most probably then that Robert wrote it while in Ha Ha Ha.

What about Toby Chislett? I know Dave Pearce wrote at least one song for them “W.W.1” alongside Robert. Maybe I should do a post about the fantastic Rosemary’s Children sometime. Maybe by figuring out some details about them I could put together a better picture of Ha Ha Ha?

It does seem like Ha Ha Ha is just a footnote on David’s career. That is strange. I find this record quite good myself. Well, the two songs which I’ve been lucky to listen on the web, which are the two that are on the A side.

There’s not much more written about them as I expected. It is kind of forgotten. Definitely would like to know who were the band members. If they recorded more songs. Where were they based. All of the basic details. Even from what year to what year were they active. If they were gigging continuously. It’d be fantastic to find out. In the meantime perhaps I should prepare a post about the Rosemary’s Children? What do you say? Anyone remember Ha Ha Ha?

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Listen
Ha Ha Ha – Up and Down

Good morning. Or good afternoon? Or good night? I hope readers all over the world are still checking the blog now and then. There is not much news on the Cloudberry side, just working on a couple of future releases, finalizing the tracklists and artwork, so I hope soon Ill be announcing something. In the meantime, I keep finding good music to share. Hope you enjoy it.

Airport: what a lovely discovery. Airport are a Portland, Oregon, band and they have a bunch of songs on their Bandcamp but I’m checking their latest album “Canary Island Breakfast” which was released this past September 15th on tape. There are 10 songs of jangle pop with the great vocals by Rachel Zakrasek. Joining here are Vincent Ballowe, Jake Pettit and Mike Artinian. Pretty pretty good.

Fritz: “Summer Holiday” is the latest track by this Newcastle, Australia, band and it sounds brilliant! You know I am sucker for jangly pop and female vocals, upbeat melodies and catchy and smart lyrics. Everything is in here. It is really cool that behind this song there is just one person, a girl, called Tilly Murphy. So talented! I will keep an eye on her future releases!

The Mayfields: I just found out that the classic English band will be releasing a compilation on Firestation Records in the near future and that’s great news. I had been hoping such. a compilation for a long time, even having offered some of the members to do one, but I suppose releasing on vinyl is a better opportunity for bands. And that’s totally fine. The CD and vinyl compilation is titled “Compact & Bijou” and pre-orders start on October 5th. It includes 16 tracks.

Goosebumps – 25 Years of Marina: the classic German label Marina who I don’t think is as active as it used to be is putting together a special release to celebrate their 25 anniversary. 2 CDs or 3 LPS, whatever format you choose, will include 40 tracks – including many unreleased and rare, plus more than 100 photographs from their archive. Check the teaser on the link.

Mitimitis: I have recommended this Chilean band before, and I’m so happy to see that they have 3 new songs! Again, lo-fi and amateur, twee as it can be, sounding like an 80s tape, like a Corrupt Postman or Positively Teenage band, in Spanish though. Their latest EP is called “Campos de Amberries por Siempre” and it is made available by Gemelo Parásito on the web. I hope some physical format happens for these guys. Good stuff!

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Was looking for the meaning of pinhole burns. According to someone on the internet they are holes caused by bits of smouldering tobacco or dope falling from a joint and burning holes in a shirt. That kind of makes sense. But why a German band would name themselves Rosecoloured Pinholeburns?

I discovered this very obscure band through one of the persons who knows the most about indiepop, Heinz from Hamburg. He uploads all the time true gems to his Youtube channel and travels to every good pop festival there is. Thanks to his archivist work I’ve discovered a trove of great indiepop, much of it coming from obscure tapes from the past decades. It is in one of these tapes, “Wegweiser Durch’s Eiswürfelland”, which  has been featured a bit on the blog, that the band released their only two songs as far as I know. Then they were lost to obscurity.

It doesn’t have to be that way of course. Maybe they get in touch with me on the blog and we can do an interview and find out more. That’d be fantastic. Or even better they get to be part of the new obscure German indiepop compilation I heard the Firestation Records guys are working on. That’d be ace too. Don’t you think?

The compilation name translates roughly as “By the Ice Country’s signpost” or something like that. It is not totally a strange name if you consider the label that put it out was Eiswürfel Tonträger (EIS-2). That is the ice cube label kind of. This label was put together by the people behind the band Die Busfahrer who have also been interviewed on the blog. So there are connections all over the place.

The tape was released in 1992 and included 20 songs. 11 on the A side and 9 on the B side. The Rosecoloured Pinholeburns included two songs on the A side. The first appears as the A4 and was “Kick into his Face”, while the second was the A10, “Act of Revenge”. On this compilation they appear alongside superb bands like Friends Ahoi, Die Blinzelbeeren, Schade Schokolade and more, all of them featured on the blog too. Hey, maybe we are running out of bands? Everyone seems to be on the blog!

There is not much more information about them. The only detail that might prove handy is that both songs are credited to Schlüchtern. Who is he? Or she? And what is the first name?

I’m not sure. What does exist is a place called Schlüchtern in Hesse, Germany. It is a town of about 16,000 people. Just in the middle of Germany. It would be odd that the songs are credited to a town, no? I’m quite sure though that the band hailed from that area though. This is quite the mystery.

Of course, there is nothing at all written about the band nor any mentions. Nothing. At all. So now is the moment for my German friends to help me. Who were these punky pop people behind the Rosecoloured Pinholeburns?

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Listen
Rosecoloured Pinholeburns – Kick Into His Face

Thanks so much to Koichi for the interview! Not too long ago I had interviewed Koichi (and Miki) about the great Japanese band Bitter Cherry Jam and today I thought it would be nice to present you the first band that Koichi was in, Chain Letter. It was a great band, with lovely releases in different labels and compilation appearances. These days Koichi and Miki are busy with yet another pop band, The Vegetablets, which I urge you to discover!

++ Hi Koichi! Thanks so much for being up for this interview after doing the Bitter Cherry Jam not so long ago. How are you doing? Are there any news with your current band The Vegetablets?

We did a gig in July with The Caraway, Three Berry Icecream and Red Go-Cart in Nagoya. We really enjoyed playing songs and the performance of other bands were also wonderful. Osamu of The Caraway is my old friend, and we played my old songs together.

++ I want to get things in order, was Chain Letter your very first band or had you been in other bands before it?

Chain Letter was my solo unit. And yes it was my first music unit.

++ When did Chain Letter start as a band? It wasn’t really a full band but more of a one-man band? It was just you, right? Why did you prefer it that way?

In 1993 I started to make songs for Chain Letter. Yes, Chain Letter was  a one-man band because I preferred making songs and recording them by  myself. I got a Fostex R-8 multitrack recorder, so it became possible.

++ Why the name Chain Letter? 

I took the name from a song by Todd Rundgren. And I preferred weird name.

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

In my room. I listened to my favorite records, and figured out how they were playing. I became to be able to understand how music were made, and  began to play music with my own style. Sometimes Osamu Shimada and Nobuaki Fuaktsu, the original member of the Caraway, were there. We were rock geeks.

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

Todd Rundgren, the Ramones, the Velvet Crush, Teenage Fanclub, BMX Bandits, The Pooh Sticks and many more. I was listening to so many songs then.

++ With the band you released a few 7″s and an album, the first one being the “Oldfashioned Song EP” 7″ released in 1996 on your own Tulip House Records.Was this record the main reason to put together the label?

Yes.

++ Had been there any other releases, perhaps demo tapes, before this record?

No, but a cassette tape Tulip 000 came with the early copies of the 7″. That included 6 songs.

++  Then in 1998 a label called Left Bank released your next 7″, “How Long Can I Be With You EP”. Who were Left Bank Records and how did you know them? 

Msaki Yamaguchi was the owner of Left Bank label. I think he discovered my first 7″ and contacted me. Left Bank also released the records of some other bands like Bobbie’s Rockin’ Chair and 101 Dalmatians, a unit by a member of Johnny Dee.

++ In this record, I noticed in the credits, that Misaki Yamaguchi is credited as director of the record. What did he do for you? 

The songs were recorded myself, but he invested for the record, collected able people and I think he contacted record shops to sell it. I think he did what I couldn’t do.

++ Then your mini-album came out this same year, the “Théâtral Musical”. It was your only CD release. So two questions. First, what do you prefer, CD or vinyl? And second, why only a 6 song mini-album? Why was there never a proper Chain Letter album?

In fact I regret that I released CD then. At that time making CD was not so cheap, and vinyls were becoming popular. I didn’t have enough time and energy to make a full album. And still I think it is not important that records include many songs. Records should have good songs.

++ R0ver Records released in 1999 a two song 7″ called “Prelude to Cherry Letter EP”. I suppose by this time you were already in Cherry Letter and this was a posthumous release? If that is so, why did you all decide to release these songs if Chain Letter was no more?

I married Miki and started Cherry Letter. But before then I already finished the song and alreadly sent it to Kenji Sekioka, the owner of Rover label. And of course Chain Letter was more popular then and people wanted to release Chain Letter’s records. But for artists, current bands are always more important.

++ And who were Rover Records? How did you end up working with them?

Kenji Sekioka was the owner. He also contacted me because he liked my first 7″ I think.

++ The last release by Chain Letter was a split with Jenny on the Planet that was released on your own label. Who were Jenny on the Planet? Were they good friends of yours? Did you play often gigs with them?

Jenny on the Planet was a good band in Osaka. And Masafumi Hiramatsu, he was a bass player for my live performance, planned to release the split 7″. Yes, especially Masafumi knew them better. We played with them in Nara.

++ There are a few compilation appearances by the band, for example you appear on “Picnic Basket”, the classic compilation on Shelflife. All your other songs were released in Japan, so I wonder how did you end up in a US CD?

I don’t know well, but maybe the owner of Shelflife wanted to make a compilation of bands all over the world.

++ Then you appeared on the “9 Pieces of Brownie”, “Fallen Leaves” and “Trolley Bus Music Tour” compilations. Am I missing any other ones? 

“Fallen Leaves”… It’s so long ago, so I don’t remember well. Yes I appeared on “9 pieces of Brownie” and “Trolley Bus Music Tour”. It’s so long ago, so I don’t remember well…

++ Going through your records, I noticed you liked having different people to take care of the artwork. All of them having it’s very own special style, something I kind of do at Cloudberry. How important were the looks, the aesthetics of your records? Did you art direct them or did you let the designer have full control?

Yes, I think the looks of records are important. But once I trust designers, I don’t want to control them. Because as an artist, being controlled is sometimes frustrating.

++ “How Long Can I Be With You” might be my fave Chain Letter song. Any chance you could tell me the story behind this great song?

We were living in the plastic age. Many things were made of plastic. Even our toys were made of plastic. The song are about a dream, but even in my dream I see plastic.

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

Maybe “How Long Can I Be With You”. It is catchy and powerful.

++ And where did you usually record your music? 

In my room.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? What was the farthest you played from your town?

Not at all. I was living in Nara, and we only did a few gigs in Nagoya,
Nara and Osaka.

++ I saw a video of the band playing a gig in Nagoya’s “Club Rock N Roll” in 1998 on Youtube. Looks so cool! Was this an important club for you? What other venues did you usually play at?

It was a normal live music club.

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

I think it was the gig you saw on Youtube.

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? 

Most gigs were not satisfying…

++ When and why did the band stop? When did you start Cherry Letter?

In 1999, I married Miki and started Cherry Letter with a bass player Masafumi Hiramatsu.

++ Did Chain Letter get much attention from the radio or press?

I don’t think so. But some records shops really liked my songs, and helped me a lot.

++ You told me in the previous interview you make video games for old consoles? Are these available somewhere? I’d be curious to see some! 

I made two Famicom/NES games so far, ILEVAN and VEGETABLETS GO. You can just google them.

++ Did you follow the Japanese football team in World Cup? Did you like the participation of the team? Who would be your favourite Japanese football player?

No, I’m not interested in football.

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

Releasing Theatral Musical CD was the biggest highlight.

++ Thanks again Koichi! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

No. Thank you very much for being interested in my music!

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Listen
Chain Letter – How Long Can I Be With You

Start this Monday with the news of the new Sound of Leamington Spa volume. This is the info that is on the Firestation Records website as of now:

The Sound Of Leamington Spa volume 9 – out on 20th of october on cd and limited gatefold-sleeve double vinyl! The vinyl version will contain a secret bonus track! pre-orders starts on 5th of october.

tracklist:
The Flex – You Lose
The Persuaders – You Turn Me On (1986)
Chinese Gangster Element – Joey
Fragile – Time To Be Together
Moloko+ – Never Know What You’ve Got
Spish – Honesty
The Fontaines – I Want Everything
Public Address – James Dean
Queue Dance – Crumbling Town
Circus X3 – Man Like You
This Certain Kind – Unfortunate
Daniel Takes A Train – Wonderland (Original)
Cajun Moon – In The Waves
A Game Of Soldiers – Big Bad Money World
3 Boys & A Girl – I’ll Be Standing There
Ice Factory – Jerusalem
The Dancing Bears – The Lonliest Sound
Future World Moves – Wednesday
Work – That Certain Feeling
Ten Million Quentins – He’s Not Smiling

Quite a few bands that have been featured on the blog, some that have been interviewed too. Wonder if the blog, in any way, helped the Firestation people track down these bands. It does look great, the compilation.

The Catherines: it does look like every time the Hamburg bedroom indiepop band has a new song I recommend it in the blog. Of course I do. The songs are always fresh and great, perfect for any mixtape you might be doing, for any season, for any reason. On top of that their song titles are usually quite smart and whimsical, this time around their new song is called “Why are you always so sarcastic​.​.​. you prick?”, and it is a terrific upbeat pop song. Check it out!

Candy Opera: another piece of news from Firestation Records, is that the label is putting together another release by the superb 80s Liverpool band. The “Rarities LP/CD” is an album full of rare recordings and will be out by the end of October. This very limited release is especially made for their forthcoming gig at the Firestation Records Birthday Allnighter at the Privat Club on 20th of October. Join the gig and buy your copy a week before official release date! “Rarities” will contain 11 tracks including demos and unreleased recordings! No pre-order available for this special release, but remain copies will be available from us from the 26th of October on. Sadly there are no songs to preview this record. Yet.

Astragal: it has been a while since we heard of the Houston band. I really liked their previous recordings and now they have just unveiled a new track on their Bandcamp. It is called “Bloomer” and I’m expecting it to be sort of a teaser for an EP, an album, or even a single. But something! There is not much information about the song, just the lyrics, but it is pretty good. So keep it in repeat?

The Age of Coloured Lizards: once again we get to feature the Oslo noisy band. Their shoegazey sounds are back with 8 new songs that make up their album “Daydreamer”. It looks like it is available right now only digitally, but here I’m hoping they can put it out in some physical format. My favourite songs at first listen? “What’s Wrong” and “Still Around” perhaps? What are yours?

Bad Sav: lastly this wonderful self-titled record by the Dunedin, New Zealand band. It is now available on CD and vinyl LP on Fishrider Records and it is indeed a discovery. I had never heard of this band in the past so facing the band formed by Hope Robertson (guitars, vocals), Lucinda King (bass, vocals) and Mike McLeod (drums) has been definitely a surprise. Here we get treated to 10 songs of guitar driven pop that are enigmatic, difficult sometimes, but rewarding at the same time. Reminding me sometimes of the The album is also available in the UK through Occultation Records.

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Today I have very little to write about as I’m going to tackle a very obscure record. The one and only 7″ released by The Stacks in 1984 on Brand New Records (BN 452). I don’t own it. And I’ve only heard the A side thanks to Youtube. I think it is brilliant, and I’m hoping to get in touch with the band one day to interview them, find out about more. Hence this post.

A 7″ with two songs. That’s all they left us. The songs being “You’re On My Mind” on the A side and “Maybe Monday” on the B side. The front cover of the record shows as a cool photo of the band and the band’s logo. Then the labels of the record tell us two interesting details. Paul Carr wrote “You’re On My Mind” and it was produced by Mike Vernon for Handle Music. The second song, “Maybe Monday” is credited to Trevor Jones and was also produced by Vernon.

So we got two names. Most probably band members. Sadly the back sleeve doesn’t give any other details just that the record was distributed by Pinnacle. That doesn’t help at all. The only other record I know that was released by this label is one by a Chris Farlowe, a 7″ in 1983. So nothing much either.

I look for both names together, and I could find something that might be a clue perhaps. Both names are credited in music/sound duties in a 2006 movie called Stormbreaker. Could these be the same Trevor and Paul? I start to suspect it might be true. I see both names again, working together on the 1998 TV series Merlin featuring Sam Neill and Helena Bonham Carter. Could they really be the same two guys that once were in The Stacks?

I don’t know much more about them. There is a musician Trevor Jones from Cambridge but he doesn’t mention The Stacks in his bio. Probably it is not him. Then there is a Paul Carr, a musician too that seems to have been involved mostly in jazz music in London, playing in the mid 80s in the James Taylor Quartet. Can it be the same Paul? This same Paul is now a professor in Popular Music Analysis in the University of South Wales. Maybe?

Anyone remember them? Where were they from? Did they record any other songs? Any other releases? Other bands they might have been involved? Would love to hear from you!

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Listen
The Stacks – You’re On My Mind

Another week goes by. Not many news on my front but I hope this weekend I can work on the two Cloudberry Cake Kitchen retrospective projects I’m working on. At the moment I have a couple of 7″s in the pipeline but they are just projects. I hope they start happening soon, receiving the songs and start planning some artwork. As soon as any of these become more tangible, I’ll be announcing them on the blog. In any case please remember that we have released this year The County Fathers CD  and the Salt Lake Alley and Okama Flannel Boy 7″s. And you can pre-order the BV’s 7″ as well! So quite a good year I’d say!

So what’s new in indiepop land?

The Natvral: I’m sure if I say Kip Berman you would know who I am talking about. Kip was the vocalist, songwriter, for The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. A band that is dear to Cloudberry as we had the chance to release the first three songs by the band back in 2007. So, with that pedigree, you’d be interested in what Kip is up to these days. He has a new solo project called The Natvral and he is playing a few gigs around the area. And even better he will be releasing a 4 song 7″ on October 5th. One of these songs, “Know Me More”, is available to stream.

Maxillary: Dea, Paw, Ical and Belle form this brilliant sounding band from Jakarta, Indonesia. As soon as you get to their Bandcamp they greet you with their latest song “Inside and Out”, but ther are two more from around the same period, August 2018, called “Poster Boy” and “Beauty’s in the Rage” which are great too. Ther is not much information about them though they do have the lyrics for the songs and they list Heavenpunks as their label. Will be see their songs on a release soon? I hope so!

Pablo Prisma y Las Pirámides: I must say I have mixed feelings with this Madrid band. In their new album “Grandes Felinos Fantasmas”, which is released by the top Discos Walden, I found superb songs and others that are not so much. I guess I like the pop songs the best, the ones that are a bit experimental, playful, they are not really for me. But in any case, the songs that I like, for example “Gato Fantasma” or “Criptozoología” are really good.

Lavender Blush: “My Pal K” is the only song you can stream from their four track EP that will be released on November 14th. These four songs were recorded as a session on Part Time Punks and I’m really surprised by how great this song sounds. I am sure the rest are as good! The San Francisco band have actually more songs on Bandcamp and it is worth exploring. They are formed by Ana Ramundo on synths, Chris Howard on drums, Jérémie Rüest on guitar, Ryan Lescure on vocals, guitar and Sam Hewatt on bass. The EP is coming out as a 10″ vinyl.

Bleak: a two song tape by this Belgian band came out last March on the Gazer Tapes label from Turnhout, in Belgium too. The songs on it are “Left” and “Twenty One”. On Bandcamp you can only stream the first. And from what I gather, there are only 4 tapes left right now. Check them out.

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I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’ve been checking bands in the UK from the period that comes before c86. What I like to call proto-indiepop. Bands whose stories are not written on the web, whose records are not very well known, whose music is not easily available digitally. Today I’m curious about the Scottish band Secondary Modern.

There is just one release by them. One dating from 1983 in the form of a 7″ with two songs. It was probably self-released by the label Northern Sounds (DJG 1) that year and they included two songs, “Lucinda Dream” on the A side and “Boys Cry Too” on the B side. I’ve only been able to listen to the A side, with it’s wistful folky indiepop.

The record sleeve shows us three people on the cover. They are David Cormack (vocals), Jackie McMaster (guitar & vocals) and Gillian McLean (vocals). If you pay attention you’ll notice that is an odd lineup, no bassist, no drummer? Well, the band got the help from some friends. Ruby Bain played lead guitar, Johnnie Gunn played bass, Alan Hendry acoustic guitars, Andrew Webster drums and percussion and Douglas T. Miller percussion.

The two songs were recorded between April and May in 1983 at the Sailing Shoes studios and were engineered by Tommy Robertson. They were mastered at Abbey Road studios. And then we see an address. Thanks to that we know the band hailed from Wick, in the north of Scotland.

Wick is a town and royal burgh in Caithness, in the far north of Scotland. The town straddles the River Wick and extends along both sides of Wick Bay. Wick Locality had a population of 6,954 at the time of the 2011 census, a decrease of 3.8% from 2001. The Far North railway line links Wick railway station with southern Scotland and with Thurso, the other burgh of Caithness. Wick Airport is on Wick’s northern outskirts. The airport has two usable runways.

Would love to go there someday.

On 45cat I find some other details. So, “Lucinda Dream” was written by David Cormack and someone called A. Aitken. Who could that be? The B side, “Boys Cry Too”, is credited to Jackie McMaster.

I can’t find much about them, but I do find an interesting connection with the band members names and the people that helped on the record. David Cormack and Alan Hendry had been in a band before. One called The Naturals, who released also just one 7″ in 1980 with the songs “Strange Days”, “My Only Friend” and “Maybe Someday”.

There is not much more about the band on the web. It is for sure the very first band I feature to hail from that far north in Scotland. I would love to hear the B side which I saw it being described as a classic indiepop song with female vocals. Sounds like the kind of song I love. Would also love to find out if they recorded any other songs. And definitely curious about The Naturals too. Did they sound similar to Secondary Modern? I wonder if anyone knows any more details about them? What happened to the band members?

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Listen
Secondary Modern – Lucinda Dream