Well, I heard from the pressing plant, Mobineko, where I press my 7″s. Now it seems the Salt Lake Alley 7″s won’t be arriving until late June. A 4 month turnaround. It has never taken this long. I’m very annoyed and disappointed. Normally it took 2 months and change, max 3 months. But 4 months is way too much. Vinyl production is indeed becoming more of a headache. To think that pressing a CD takes just weeks, I wonder if we are all on the right path?

So as soon as there are news on that, I’ll let you know. In the meantime a few new finds!

Dronjo Kept By 4: Jun from the Japanese band Dronjo Kept By 4 shared me a new song he has published on Soundcloud, one called “Lemonn” and it is a hit. I had reviewed their Galaxy Train EP some months ago after I stumbled upon it on Bandcamp and I do see a bit of a change in their style on this new song. This is much more guitar-driven and poppier! Reminds me a bit of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, right? A little shoegazey but keeping it’s lofi-ness at heart.

The Stroopies: this Melbourne, Australia, band was recommended on the blog time ago when they put out their self-titled album. Really liked that and wished it was available in any other format other than cassette. Well, now they are releasing a 7″ on an English label it seems as the prices are in pounds (?). There are two songs on the record, “Maddest Moments” and “Architectural Charades”. Only the first one is streamable at the moment and it is not as immediate or poppy as many of the songs on the album. Not sure if it was the best choice for a single myself. The guitars are nice and all, but for me it doesn’t have that excitement as previous tracks. Maybe the B side does? It is coming out on May 25, 2018.

The Blue Herons: Thierry from the fantastic My Raining Stars has shared this top song called “All I Keep Inside”. It is actually not his own song, he is singing on it. Well, and he wrote the lyrics. The band is actually one from Lucerne, Switzerland, and I must say I know next to nothing about them. First time I’m checking their songs. This one is already a great introduction. It is a jangle beauty. But there are other ones too worth checking out like “New Day” which has female vocals by Krissy Vanderwoude and sounds top. How come have these songs flown under the radar? At least my own radar? Very good stuff, and from a country I don’t usually get to hear these sort of sounds to boot!

Young Scum: a new album by the superb Richmond, Virginia, band? Yes please! I must say I have heard most of the songs already some time ago and though that it was really good, if only I would dare to do albums…. They found a good home in Citrus Records and Pretty Olivia Records who are releasing the record called “Young Scum”. So far there’s only a teaser, one song to stream, to understand what this will be about. Check it out, the song “Wasting Time” is truly good. And well, so you know, Pretty Olivia will be releasing the vinyl version and Citrus the tape. It is a short album, 8 songs, but it does sound great. Now, I wonder, if they are in Richmond, why don’t they ever come to NYC to play? It is not THAT far.

Useless Youth: “Goodbye” is the first single from their upcoming album “Cities” to be released on October 5th. And it is a very nice little song by this Mexico City band. The band formed by Yak, Ian, Pepe and Emi have had a few releases so far and this is a fine song. It made me a bit uncomfortable reading the artists they like on their Facebook, but I won’t let me bias, this is a good song and that should be it. For now.

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Dale Arden is a fictional character, the fellow adventurer and love interest of Flash Gordon and a prototypic heroine for later female characters, including Princess Leia and Padme Amidala in Star Wars. Flash, Dale and Dr. Hans Zarkov fight together against Ming the Merciless.

When I interviewed Seán McDermott of the fantastic label Mickey Rourke’s Fridge I was curious about one of the bands that appear on the highly sought after 7″ compilation “Mickey Rourke’s Fridge Presents…”. That band name was, obviously, Dale Arden & The Claymen. So I asked him on the interview about who were they, hoping to find some more details or anything at all. There was that one song on that 7″ comp called “Breakfast, Dinner & Tea” that I thought was brilliant. I wanted to know more.

I got an answer from Seán of course. He said:
The Claymen were Hey Paulette again, under assumed names, again. Dale is a mysterious shantooze who goes by the name of John Healy during the hours of daylight. John was also in High School with Éamonn + me, then later my right hand man in Mickey Rourke’s Fridge, from ‘Dostoevsky lose its flavour on the bedpost overnight? ’till the end of Phase II, mid-90’s.
Dale guested in concert with 16 again, an acoustical sideline of mine, + with Fréres Jackman, + emerges from time to time, when the occasion arises. No further recordings exist!

Okay then. Maybe I should interview Hey Paulette on the blog? Or maybe the members of Hey Paulette and ask them about Dale Arden & the Claymen? Or both! Two interviews would be great.

But there are still some details about the band that are interesting to go over, stuff I’m only learning about now. Well, the compilation 7″ as you might now was the second release on the label and had the catalog number MRF2. It was released in 1990 and the art was designed by Darragh McCann. On it there are four bands, two on each side. On the A side there’s Seán McDermott and Hey Paulette while on the B side there’s Dale Arden and the Claymen and The Twigs. The song The Claymen appear with is “Breakfast, Dinner & Tea”. All the songs seem to have been recorded at Sun Studios, in Dublin.

Okay, so one of the first things that I notice is that the song is actually credited to Rheinhardt and Golightly. But to me it looks more of an inner joke. See Django Reinhardt is spelled with one H less and this one was Jangly Rheinhardt. Then on the credits I notice that the producer is credited as Hollis Golightly. Definitely not Holly Golightly. So it must be an original by the band, but they are probably paying homage to their heroes.

The credits have Dale Arden as all vocals, Derrick Dalton on guitars and Joe Cairo on bass. Sadly, as you are aware, Derrick passed away some time ago. Then it mentions that the drum machine was programmed by Colm Fitzpatrick and John Lyons. While the song was recorded by Paul Lacey. I believe Colm Fitzpatrick did the artwork for the Hey Paulette 12″! It seems it was all a big family in the Dublin scene at that time.

There’s not much more on the web as you can expect from a band that didn’t really exist. But there is a good find on Youtube. There’s a different mix of the song, a “Mrs. Arden Edit” created by a J D Baptist in 2011.

So there are no more recordings by the band under this name. A shame, as it sounds glorious. Even if it was the same people as Hey Paulette! I make a distinction, the sound and style is different to me! What do you think?

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Listen
Dale Arden & the Claymen – Breakfast, Dinner & Tea

Thanks so much to Maurice Kelly for the interview! Imelda’s Boyfriend was an 80s guitar pop band from Dublin, Ireland, who sadly didn’t get to release any records, but they did record a bunch of demos. Demos that sound great! I was lucky to be introduced to them by D from the Fanning Sessions blog, he had posted one of their songs and told me I was going to like it. He was not wrong! “Smile” was a top track! So I knew I wanted to find out more, and so I got in touch with Maurice so he could tell me the story of this obscure but brilliant band!

++ Hi Maurice! Thanks so much for getting in touch! How are you? Where are you based now? Still making music? 

I still live in Dublin as do all the original members of the band.   I’m still writing songs and really need to record them at some stage.  Myself and Terry still do some home recording together.  I saw Sean sold his kit on Adverts a few months ago so bang goes the reunion LOL.

++ Are you still in touch to this day with the rest of Imelda’s Boyfriend? What are you up to? Are you still involved with music?

Sean and Terry are two of my best mates and we see each other regularly.  I’m still friendly with John and was out with him a few years ago.  We all have day jobs of course now – but Terry is as bohemian as ever so does his own thing and always has. Sean and Terry would still be mad into the music.  After John left, I played guitar and sang and Paul Flanagan came in on bass.  He was only young at the time and was the little brother of a guy I knew.  He was an amazing player and I remember we did a demo out with John Scott in Maynooth and he was blown away with Paul’s playing.  Paul left after a bit and we ‘borrowed’ Morgan Hughes from the Drinkwaters.  He was another brilliant player and became a great mate.  Morgan was football mad so fitted in nicely with us at the time.  I still hear from him from time to time.  We had fantastic fun back then it was a great time to be playing music in Dublin.

++ Let’s start from the beginning. Where are you from in Ireland? Like what are your first musical memories? What was the first instrument did you get and how? 

We were all from Dublin.  Nice and symmetrical two from the northside and two from the southside.  Even when John left we replaced him with another northsider –Paul Flanagan – to maintain the balance.  LOL.    Myself and Terry were the southsiders.  I was always mad into music and always wanted to be in a band.  My first bass was a Squier Precision which I bought in a local guitar shop in Dublin.  About a year after I got it I began to fancy myself a bit as a bass player and went to Belfast to buy a Fender Jazz because they were cheaper in Northern Ireland.  I sold the Precision to a guy called Peter from a band called The Skips.

++ Had any of you been involved with other bands prior to Imelda’s Boyfriend?

John was in a band I can’t remember the name it.  Terry was is a band called the ‘White Spirits’. Imelda’s was my first band and I think Sean’s first proper band too.

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

I used to work with John in the old Irish Press and we were mates.  He was in a band and I was playing a bit of guitar badly at the time.  John had a friend called Dave Gunning who played drums and so I ended up on bass to form a new band.  Dave left after only a few weeks and we never gigged with him.  We stuck an ad in the Hot Press (Irish music magazine) looking for a drummer and Sean replied.  We met him for a pint in the old Foggy Dew before he even auditioned to see how we would get on.  We all hit it off and that was it really.  Thankfully he was a good drummer as well LOL.

We gigged a bit as a three piece and figured we could expand our sound a bit with another guitar player.  Again, we stuck an ad in Hot Press and that’s where Terry came in.  We did hold auditions this time.  I always remember I wanted to go with a different guitar player at the time but John was keen on Terry.  John followed Terry out of our audition room and more or less offered him the job on the spot.  I wasn’t impressed LOL.  Of course John was right and Terry is a brilliant guitarist as well as an amazing bloke.  I remember Dave Kennedy who went on to play with Crossbreed and Holemasters  and who set up Road Records here in Dublin auditioned.  Dave was a great player but we were totally unsuitable for him and him for us.  Another lovely fella who we used to drink with in town for years afterwards before we all grew old and settled and moved to the suburbs.

++ How was around your town back then? 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?

Dublin was brilliant back then and still is.  We played in any venue that would have us, though mostly in the Underground.  Jeff Brennan who ran the place was a phenomenal. It was an amazing tight little venue where nearly every band in Dublin at the time cut their teeth.  Jeff did more for music in Dublin at that time than nearly anyone else.  I still see him from time to time as we are both big fans of St Patrick’s Athletic so we do bump into each other.

We also played in the Baggot, Whelans, the New Inn, the Attic and the International, but the Underground was the best.   I was music mad back then.  We all were.  I spent my Saturdays buying records in Base X on Batchelor’s Walk, Freebird Records on Grafton Street and Macs Records in the George’s Street Arcade.  There was also a little shop in a mall on Grafton Street up near where Champions Sports is now.  I think the guy who ran it was called George Murray.  He used to have some cool stuff.

++ What’s the story behind the name of the band, Imelda’s Boyfriend?

Ha ha ha, I couldn’t possibly tell you that.  All bands need a little mystery LOL

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

My self and John wrote the songs – separately not together.  We would just bring them in to the rehearsal room and see what happened.    I don’t think we ever wrote a song together.  When John left I wrote pretty much all the songs but I do remember we had a song called ‘Running out of time’ which Sean wrote.   We practiced in Temple Lane Studios.  Temple Bar was very different back then and we used to have a few pints after rehearsal in the local pubs, mostly the old Foggy Dew and the old Norseman.

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

We all had different influences.  John was in to melodic stuff like the Beatles, Terry was and still is a great blues guitarist, Sean was mad into Aztec Camera and I was always into guitar based stuff  and liked a bit of country as well.   Very little of this actually came out in the music.  Later on myself and Terry did some heavier, nosier stuff but not as Imelda’s Boyfriend.  I think Morgan would have played on some of this as well.  We never really did anything with it.

++ And in general, what would you say are your all-time favourite Irish bands?

I can’t answer for the other lads but for me ‘Stars of Heaven’ were the best from our time.  Their Sacred Heart Hotel album is amazing and still sounds great today.  I got to know them later on and me and Terry played with the stars drummer Bernard Walsh in $1000 Wedding.  Bernard is another lovely fella.

++ And what would you say was your favourite song and why?

My favourite song was always the Velvet Underground’s ‘Sweet Jane’.  It’s just the perfect song.  No ifs or buts.  Musically and lyrically clever and just so cool.  Neil Young’s ‘Powder Finger’ runs it close and almost anything off of ‘Marquee Moon.’

++ The only recording I know is the “Smile” song that was uploaded to the Fanning Sessions blog. It is mentioned that Dave Fanning played the song in 1990 from a demo he was sent. Where there more recordings in this demo tape? 

There were three songs on that tape.  Smile, The Misogynist and It Could Be Better.

++ Where was this demo recorded? Was there anyone producing it perhaps?

I don’t remember for certain where we recorded it.  It was either Sun Studios in Temple Bar or Ashtown Gate Studios out on the Navan Road.  We produced it ourselves.  As mentioned earlier we recorded another demo out with John Scott in Maynooth after John left.  There was a song on it called ‘Down the Stairs (and around the corner)’ which was played a few times by Dave Fanning.  I have it on cassette and have just gotten around to digitising it.

++ If it is not much to ask, would you tell me the story behind this great song, Smile?

I can’t help you with that one because John wrote it.

++ Was there any interest from labels at all?

Like everyone else at the time we bombarded record companies with our tapes but never really go any interested.  I have an attic full of tapes addressed to myself in sealed envelopes because someone told us that was the best way to copyright your music back then.  LOL.  All you had to do was produce the unopened envelope in court when you had taken a case against U2 for ripping off your song.  Everyone thought U2 were ripping off their songs back then LOL LOL

+++ Are there more recorded songs by the band other than the demo tape? 

Yeah, as I say we did a tape with John Scott later and there was an earlier demo too.  Our first proper recording.  I have tapes of live gigs in the Rock Garden, Underground, the Attic, the Baggot etc but they are of dubious quality.  Whether that was down to the sound in the venue or the quality of the playing is anyone’s guess LOL

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? Any in particular that you remember?

We played loads of gigs back then in any venue that would have us.  I had forgotten some of the places until I had a look back when trying to remember things before talking to you.  We played Whelan’s with the Revenants, which was a real treat at the time because I was such a fan of Stephen Ryan’s from when he was in the Stars of Heaven.    We also played the same venue with The Harvest Ministers, they were another great band.  When we were starting out bands like Rex and Dino and Hey Paulette were really supportive by letting us play with them.

The maddest night was probably the night we went on last in the Underground as part of a ‘festival’ – a bit like ‘Woodstock on Dame Street’ LOL.  The event went on for three days and we got to play as the last act on the Saturday night after numerous bands had been playing since 12 noon.  The place was packed and everyone was in wild form given they had been drinking all day.  Thankfully the audience were drunk enough to enjoy our performance even if we had to keep throwing them off stage.   We also had some amazing nights in the Attic as well. 

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? Any anecdotes you could share?

I’m sure there were lots of bad nights but thankfully the passing of time has managed to blot them all out.  I do remember being devastated about losing out in various ‘battle of the bands’ competitions LOL.  A bit like X Factor in 1990s Dublin…

++ When and why did Imelda’s Boyfriend split?

I’m not sure we are split at all.  I’d say if we had the time we could get the original band back together again and certainly myself Terry and Sean could rehearse tomorrow if the mood took us.   John left around 1992 over what with hindsight was a ridiculous argument started by me I’m sad to say.  Seems crazy now.    The band didn’t really split as such but stopped using the name and then fizzled out.  Myself and Terry did some stuff with another drummer, Paul Vickers and that was very different from Imelda’s so it would not have made sense to keep the name.  That band never really had a name and I can’t remember ever gigging in it.

++ Did you continue being involved with music? I read you were in Northlight Razor Blade and $1000 Wedding. How did these bands sound like? Any similarities to Imelda’s Boyfriend?

Northlight Razorblade were a million miles from Imelda’s Boyfriend.  It was really Dermot McNevin and his then girlfriend Yvonne Cullen’s band.  They were brilliant, really gifted the two of them.  Dermot wrote wonderful intelligent songs and Yvonne was a multi instrumentalist playing cello, piano and saxophone.  Dermot was an old friend of mine and he asked me to play a bit of bass with him.  Yvonne’s brother, john Cullen, was playing drums at the time. I roped Terry in to play guitar.  John left and I remember we recorded a wonderful demo with Shane Rafferty from Revelino.  He was a seriously good drummer.  I knew him and asked him as a favour.  Yvonne returned the favour and played cello on some of the Revelino stuff. Sean from Imelda’s Boyfriend then joined on drums and left amicably after a while.  I can’t remember why.  I suggested Paul Vickers who was playing with me and Terry at the time and he became the drummer.  We did a Fanning Session, produced by Pete Holidai.  They were great times in a great band.  Like all bands issues crop up and I was given my marching orders from Northlight Razorblade.  Terry and Paul then left as well.  Dermot and Yvonne kept it all going and got some other guys in and made some wonderful music.

$1000 wedding was Sean A McDermott’s band.  As everyone in Dublin knows Sean is a genius, a one off.   The band has had a cast of thousands over the years and knowing Sean is probably still going under some guise or other. It was a country band, pure and simple. The songs were absolutely wonderful.  I was lucky enough to be in the band when the ‘Exile on Dame Street’ album was recorded.  It is a wonderfully off centre lo fi country romp.    Sean shared vocals with Mary Whelan, I played bass, Bernard Walsh from the Stars of Heaven was on drums, my mate Terry Rainey played lead guitar and the late Derrick Dalton played guitar and produced the album.  Eveyone in Dublin knew Derrick.  He probably played in more bands simultaneously than anyone else and probably produced and gave guidance to half the bands in Dublin.    When I first met him he was in Hey Paulette who became good friends of ours.  He also played bass in the Mexican Pets and the Skips, who would have been well known in Dublin at the time.

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

We didn’t get much attention at all.  Dave Fanning kindly played our demos a few times and we got some gig reviews and promos but not a huge amount.  We did get asked to headline a Hot Press (Irish music magazine) gig at one stage and got a full page promo out of it but that was about as good as it got.

++ What about from fanzines?

We were lucky to get people to go to our gigs, never mind write about us!.

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

I was always big into football so that’s still part of what I do.  I’m a fan of St Patrick’s Athletic in the League of Ireland and I mange my son’s team, Terenure Rangers in the Dublin and District Schoolboys League.  I’ve looked after them for years and they are currently Under 14.    I also have a much better guitar collection now than I had back then.  I’m a sucker of old Fenders and Martins.

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

Best highlight had nothing to do with music.  It’s about the lasting friendships that I have with the lads from my own band and with guys from other bands that I know back then.  The memories are also great.  They really were wonderful times.

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Listen
Imelda’s Boyfriend – Smile

Feeling terrible with spring allergies but had prepared this post some days ago. Don’t have many updates sadly but there are more indiepop findings of course all around the web.

Some Gorgeous Accident: Dale Marquez (from Cloudberry friends Apple Orchard) has a new EP coming out soon on the fine Greek label Melotron Recordings. One of the songs that is to appear on the “Heaven Days” EP will be called “Evergreen Days” and it is available now to stream on Youtube. It sounds, needless to say, gorgeous.

Les Autres: the classic French band has a Bandcamp. On it they have been uploading songs from back in the 90s, songs I suppose weren’t properly released. There’s a new EP of 6 songs available that was recorded in Rennes, in 1991. It is called “I’ve Lost Everything I Held” and it is the fifth of these Ovvk Recordings archive, I suppose the band’s own digital label. Would be interesting to do an interview with them later on, right?

Mortalcombat: lovely sounding electro-pop by this duo formed by Sarah Riguelle and César Laloux. The 6 songs of their EP “Vacances en France” are now available digitally and on CD thanks to the Brussels based label Dear Deer Records. The band too is from the capital city of Belgium and if you want to see how they look, well there is a video too for the song “Beau et décadent“.

The Death of Pop: the London band is not unknown to the blog, I’ve recommended their music many times before. So I’ll do it again now because they have a new cassette EP titled “Heads West” with 5 brand new songs: “Marbles”, “700 Spas”, “Ready for Us”, “Cash for Gold” and “8:10”. This tape is being released by Leisure Records and you can expect their trademark jangly popsongs one more time!

Skytone: the Ottawa, Ontario, band that releases stuff on my friend Wally’s label The Beautiful Music have a  new live EP “This is Gonna Get Real!”. It is up on Bandcamp and it is jangly and catchy. Recorded at a basement gig in Ottawa, on November 2017, the band formed by Darius, Rodney, Tristan and Logan, shows us that live they must sound great!

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As you might have noticed I’m trying to vary the country of origin of the bands I feature on the blog. Indiepop is a global thing. So today I’m heading to Australia, check out a superb band, one that I’m still looking for a good copy of their 12″ record: The -Ists.

I have to start the post saying that I know absolutely nothing about them. Actually I’ve only heard one of their songs, “There Is A Light That Shines”, and nothing else. It is a superb song, brilliant. But there are 5 more songs on the record that I haven’t heard. I hope I do so in the near future.

The -Ists, that’s quite a name. They are not the vanguardists, nor the cubists, or the leftists nor the modernists. They probably were mocking all these terms or maybe they didn’t fit in one. I wonder.

They released their “Rose” (GPR 136) mini-album in 1987, on the Australian label Greasy Pop Records. This label was based in Adelaide, and was established by Doug Thomas, who had been involved with bands like The Dagoes, The Assassins or The Spikes. I’m looking at the discography of the label and I see some bands I’m familiar with, The Mad Turks, Dust Collection or The Garden Path.

The record songs were on the A side: “There Is A Light That Shines”, “Rose” and “The Train”. The B side had “Reason or Rhyme”, “Bliss” and “Nobody Likes My Kind”.

There are etchings on the runout grooves. On the A side: “The Ists Light Shines”; and on the B side: “Inwards Every Time”.

The back cover has some more information. We know that the songs were written by Allan Robbins who also sang and played guitar. Rees Hughes Jnr. played bass and Craig Rodda the drums.

That’s all. There aren’t even compilation appearances.

I do know though that Rees and Craig were part of the band The Screaming Believers who also released on Greasy Pop Records. This confirms that the band hailed from Adelaide, same as their label.

I find a hit on Google at last after lots of searching. The State Library of South Australia has some information about them. More like a small bio. It says: “Short lived trio around from 1986-1987. The Ists released one album Rose in 1987. The trio consisted of Allan Robins from The Units, and Rees Hughes and Craig Rodda from The Screaming Believers. The Ists were described in The Advertiser June 1987 as having ‘won a great deal of critical acclaim for its driving original rock from discerning city audiences’.” For the curious, there are also 30 second snippets of all songs of the record.

Lastly, there seems to be a documentary called “Rock in a Hard Place” were many bands from Adelaide seem to have been featured, among them The -Ists. I haven’t seen it, but noticed in its Facebook page that the DVD of the documentary is available for $25 Australia. Is it worth it? Do they talk about guitar pop bands or mostly rock bands? How many minutes do we get of The -Ists. I’m curious. Anyone seen it?

I hope my Australian friends can help shed some light about this obscure band. One record and then later they disappeared. Would love to listen to the rest of their songs. Find out if they have unreleased tracks. And in which other bands they were involved with!

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Listen
The -Ists – There is a Light That Shines

Let’s start a new week then. Waiting for news about Cloudberry projects. And in the meantime I’m trying to set up a proper Bandcamp site for the label, with all of the releases on the catalog available to stream, and with the option to purchase them if they are still available. It may take a while! There are way too many releases in the past 11 years!

Clay Hips: for a long time I thought the Clay Hips songs were going to be released by Matinée. Then there was silence. No news. Nothing. But when I attended Madrid Popfest, Gregorio from Annika Records told me the news. He was to release the debut album of two ex-Fairways, Kenji Kitahama and Andrew Leavitt who now make music under the name Clay Hips. The album will be released on both vinyl and CD, and will be titled “Happily Ever After”. Pre-orders are available now at Annika’s website and we can stream two songs on the band’s Bandcamp, “Failure” and “The Bridge (A Song for Augsburg)”. Actually there’s also a video for this last song which you can check here. Beautiful and fragile, this is one of the records that will be essential this 2018. It is coming out on June 1st.

Gentle Brontosaurus: seems this band has been going since at least 2015. I believe that this is the first time I’m listening to their indiepop thanks to their recently uploaded album “Bees of the Invisible”. It seems that this album by this Madison, Wisconsin, band is only available on digital formats, which is quite a shame. A CD would be nice. There are 12 songs of classic indiepop, influenced by early Camera Obscure I would say (?). The band is formed by Huan-Hua Chye, Nick Davies, Cal Lamore, Paul Marcou and Anneliese Valdes. Really lovely discovery.

Marc Elston: the latest batch of songs by Marc were up on Youtube a month ago. As I am sometimes slow with these things, I’m only listening to them. The “A Box of Letters” EP has three songs, “At Least Try”, “Your Every Thought” and “I Wouldn’t Want To”. They sound timeless, jangly and very early 90s. A bit like Love Parade maybe? I hope they are released physically later, maybe in an album?

No Cars: it says they are based in London, UK, but they are also a self-proclaimed cute Japanese band. The band formed by Haruna, Takaco, Tomoko and Candy, have a Bandcamp and there is an album called “Welcome to Yoko’s Hot Spring” but one can’t stream any of the songs yet. But there are more songs by themselves, for example now I’m really loving this song called “Spring”. Really sweet stuff! Hey Indietracks, here is a band in the UK that would be fantastic at your festival. Just saying!

The Crystal Furs: the great Forth Worth band have a new single out, one that will be part of their new upcoming album to be released this summer. The single is called “In the Mirror” and it is really promising! What does it bring to mind? Maybe early 2000s British indiepop? Tompaulin? Kicker? At least these names come to mind. In any case the band formed by Steph, Kevin and Tanner, is one we should all be following!

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Indiepop from The Netherlands. There’s been a few bands of course, and two of them have been featured on the blog like Formica, Golden Strings or Crockett & Jones. Generally they are not well known. Perhaps the Dutch band most people can think of could be The Nightblooms. But the rest seems to be long forgotten. One band I’m really surprised that has been lost to obscurity is Buy Off the Bar. Why am I surprised? Well, they released two albums but that’s not all. They recorded 4 Peel Sessions. That’s not a small feat!

The Amsterdam band was named after a song by reggae singer Sugar Minott. The band was influenced by British groups like Buzzcocks, Nightingales, The Fall or The Undertones. It is said that the band was related to bands like Golden Strings and the Four One & Only’s. They were formed by Paul Hekkert (Papa Paul) on guitar and vocals, Michel Lemmens (Papa ‘Sjil) on saxophone and vocals, Marcel Van Hoof (Papa ‘Cil) on bass and Loet Schilder (Loetje) on drums.

Their first release was a self-released cassette titled “Billy at The Bar”. This tape had 9 songs. On the A side we find “February 6th”, “Bang Bang Billy”, “Annie Moore”, “The Shout” and “Pig City”. The B side on the other hand had “Einstein in Mineur”, “Wishes”, “Jollywood” and “Whistle Off the Bar”. All songs were recorded in January 1985 at Nickelodeon Studio in Amsterdam with the engineer Erwin Blom. The band thanks two bands on the tape, Golden Strings and Eton Crop. It is important to mention that Erwin Blom was part of Eton Crop, a band that I’ve seen listed on Twee.net but it is not really poppy. It is more of a punkish, rockish band, which actually have a Bandcamp with all of their recordings. The story of the Dutch underground, is there any research on that, I wonder? Anyhow, the art for the tape is credited to a Margrietje. The art is simple, black and white, and we see a cowboy having a drink at the bar. We also see someone who seems has passed out on the bar.

The next year, in 1986, they put out a split 7″ with Golden Strings. I have written about Golden Strings many years ago on the blog. Sadly I haven’t been in touch with any of the members ever. So can’t tell you much about them or their relationship with Buy Off the Bar. The truth is that this “Untitled” 7″, released by Bang Bang Records (BILLY 1) and Deng Deng Deng Records (DENG 002), had two songs by Buy Off the Bar on the A side: “February 6th” and “Silence”. The songs were once again recorded at Nickelodeon Studio in Amsterdam. On the A side, there is a runout etching that says “Bring Back the Buzzcocks”. Yeah, it is clear the band was a fan of them. But also we find something that was to become a trademark by Buy Off the Bar: comparing the length of their songs to other songs lengths. For example here “February 6th” length is compared to the Undertones’ “The Way Girls Talk”, The Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated”, Protex’s “I Can Only Dream” and Yeah Yeah Noh’s “1901”. Then for “Silence” they compare the length to the Buzzcocks’ “Orgasm Addict”, the June Brides’ “Sick Tired and Drunk”, Liliput’s “Split”, Jasmine Minks’ “Black n’ Blue” and The Clash’s “White Riot”. Yup, instead of showing the tracklength, the band was to always write down some of their favourite songs with the same tracklength instead.

Don’t know how their split 7″ or tape found its way to the UK, specifically to Ediesta Records. That story would be interesting to know. In 1987 they were releasing with this label their first album, “It’s Up to Billy” (CALC LP 18). Yes, by now I’m also wondering who Billy was. It is mentioned time and time again. 9 songs again, just like the tape. On the A side: “It’s Up To You”, “Peanut Butter Boy”, “Papa’s Music”, “Too Shy To Die”, “Commie Come Back”. On the B side there’s “Amuse Yourself”, “Guitar Maffia”, “I Belong” and “Wishes (Live)”. This time the producers for the record were Alex Roelofs and Corné Bos. Roelofs had been in a band called The Nits while Bos was in Eton Crop. All songs were recorded at P.P.M. Studios in Amsterdam during several days in January 1987 but “Wishes (Live)” which was recorded live at “De Pieter” in Amsterdam on December 10, 1986. The record included a picture collage sheet and only for The Netherlands an info sheet on Megadisc, their distributer in their homeland. The runout grooves now say on the A side “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays” and on the B side “Ooh – Hoo – Ohoo – Ohoo”. And again we are going to find that instead of track times, they mention other songs by other bands with the same time:
A1: The Wedding Present – Living And Learning
A2: The June Brides – I Fall
A3: The Undertones – My Perfect Cousin
A4: The Soup Dragons – Whole Wide World
A5: Marc Riley with The Creepers – Shirt Scene
B1: Buzzcocks – Love Battery
B2: Serious Drinking – Hangover
B3: Bog-Shed – Mechanical Nun

Their second album was to be titled “Parboiled” (Bi-Joop 23) and it wasn’t going to be on one of the big indies, like Ediesta, but on the much smaller Bi-Joopiter Records. A label that deserves to be rediscovered. I would suggest to start reading a fantastic article Daniel from So Tough So Cute!  from Malmö, Sweden, put together with all the discography by this very fine label founded by Paul Rixon and Gillian Elam in 1983. This record had once again 9 songs. They loved that number it seems. On the A side there was “Stretch Out”, “One Of These Days”, “No Money for the Lavatory”, “Illegal Shed” and “Shot By Both Sides”. The B side included “Shopdropping Emergency”, “World of Camera”, “Empty Theory” and “Fade Away”. The producer this time was Dolf Planteijdt who was the owner of the recording studio Koeienverhuurbedrijf which was also known as Rent-a-cow sutdio or Soundbound Rent a Cow Studio. Anyhow on the runout grooves the band had on the A side “Egbert Sousé (Accent Grave Over Thee)” and on the B side “Mr. Muckle”. I did a bit of research about these names. Turns out Egbert Sousé was a character on the 1940 English comedy “The Bank Detective”. Sousé is played by W.C. Fields and as you can imagine the character was a hard-drinking man. From another movie by W.C. Fields, one called “It’s A Gift”, there’s a character called Mr. Muckle who was played by Charles Sellon.

I have ordered both LPs last week from Discogs. I’m hoping to see to which songs they compare the length of theirs on “Parboiled”.

There are a bunch of compilation appearances too. Chronologically:

1987 – Their song “Free Beer” appears on the tape compilation “Zelfkrant Fanzine Cassette 1” (Zelfkrant 5) that was put together by this Belgian fanzine. There seems to be info about the bands on the tape insert but the scan is too little for me to read. I do notice the Dutch bands I’ve mentioned in this post, Golden Strings and Eton Crop appear here as well. This same year they start their relationship with Bi-Joopiter. How? Well they contribute the song “Cracked-Up” to the tape “Pluralism D” (Bijoop 017). The tape in this compilation came in a heavy cardboard, folded to an envelope with inserts and used stamps glued on the inside. All very DIY. Lastly, “Free Beer” also appears on the terrific compilation “13 Great Bands from The Low Lands”. This compilation released by Noet Lachten Records (NOET 4). On this LP, we see familiar faces again, Golden Strings, Crocket & Jones and more.

1988 – They were to appear on one of the legendary C86 sort of tape compilations, “Something’s Burning in Paradise” (Subtle 001) released by Subtle. On this poppy tape that included the likes of Another Sunny Day, James Dean Driving Experience or The Mayfields, the Dutch band contributed the song “There’s No Fridge On the Bristol Bridge (Live)”. Where was this recorded live? It doesn’t say. Then on yet another tape, this time one from Germany called “I Hope We Die Before We Get Old” (F.A.T.2) that was released by F.A.T., they opened the tape with their song “Too Shy To Die / That Man”. I don’t know any of the other bands that appear on this cassette.

1990 – Lastly on the Dutch label Noet Lachten Records’ double LP compilation “Let’s Have a Picnic and Barbecue Some Corrupt Not Self-Programming Dee-Jays” (NOET 10) they had a song titled “Hi America”. This compilation had bands from various countries, like Belgium, Germany, England and of course The Netherlands. The other contribution this year was on the UK compilation LP “Own Goal” (GOAL 1) that was released by Goalpoast. They had a song called “Big Sleep”.

I click now on the band members, see if they are listed on any other bands or projects. But it doesn’t look like it. How come?

Then we do know that out of their 4 Peel Sessions, one of them was actually released. “The 2nd Peel Session” came out in The Netherlands as a 10″ vinyl in 1987. The songs they recorded were, on the A side, “There’s No Fridge On the Bristol Bridge” and “No Progression”, and on the B side, “Keyword Control” and “In the Back”. It was released by Bang Bang Bang Records (Billy 2). I have the suspicion this label was their own label. The engineer for the session happened to be Mike Engles while Dale Griffin was the producer. The 4 songs on it were recorded at Maida Vale Studios in London on July 5th 1987. Again some funny runout grooves. On the A side “Jo en Willy”. On the B side “Ajax – PSV 9-0”. Clearly they were from Amsterdam and not Eindhoven. Also another fun fact is that they called the A side as HEADS, and the B side as TAILS. And here once again, instead of track times they mention songs by other bands that had the same tracklength:
A1: ‘Heart Of Song’ by Josef K
A2: ‘Psycho Maffia’ by The Fall
B1: ‘Legs Can Be Sturdy’ by A Witness
B2: ‘Lower Than Ever’ by The Nightingales

There are two other blog posts I found on the web. The first is from the blog XPQWRTZ that used to be written by Crayola from the band Sarandon. Here he tells the story of him supporting Buy Off the Bar at a Birmingham gig in 1988 when the Dutch band was touring the UK. Another support band for that gig was The McTells. Which was Crayola’s band name at that time? He mentions that only 20 people came to that gig.

The other blog that wrote about them is one called Maggot Caviar. Here we get the tracklist for all the Peel Sessions! That is quite important.

1st 28/10/1986 – uploaded to Youtube by the great Dave Driscoll from The Aurbisons!
“Peanut Butter Boy”
“Commie Come Back”
“To Shy To Die/That Man”
“Papa’s Music”

“That Man” is a cover of The Fall.

2nd 07/05/1987
“There’s No Fridge On The Bristol Bridge”
“No Progression”
“Keyword Control”
“In The Back”

“In The Back” is a cover of Flag of Convenience.

3rd 03/07/1988 – Uploaded by Dave Driscoll too!
“No Money For The Lavatory”
“Euroburger”
“Illegal Shed”
“Go Away”

4th 30/07/1989
“Pleasure Machine”
“Big Sleep”
“Hi America”

From another blog, Kill Your Pet Puppy, I found out that the McTells toured Holland alongside Buy Off the Bar.

I couldn’t find much more about this Dutch band on the web. It is strange, a band that recorded 4 Peel Sessions should have more of a web presence I think. It might be that only one of these sessions was later released. The other three didn’t get a physical release. I wonder if they played any other countries aside England and Netherlands. Where in the UK did they play too? And what happened to them after the band was over? They must surely have continued making music, right?

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Listen
Buy Off the Bar – Papa’s Music

Fridays. It feels great that the weekend is about to start. And that is always nice, isn’t it?

For today I have some of the latest findings from the Latin American Twee Facebook page and more.

Niños del Cerro: Joel, who runs that fine Facebook page, shared the song “Flores, Labios, Dedos” which is their promo single for the Chilean band’s second album. Don’t know what’s the name of the album, or when will it be available. They are just promoting this song for the time being. It is good, though not as great as I remember their previous songs. Maybe this is more 60s influenced? I don’t know, it is still enjoyable but wouldn’t have picked it as a single myself.

Las Ligas Menores: my favourite Argentinean band is back it seems. They have shared on their Bandcamp the song “En Invierno”. Ok, pay attention, because this is a superb band, one that is on my list of bands that I want to see live one day. And the song doesn’t disappoint. This track will be included in their 2nd album, “Fuego Artificial”, which will be released on May 10th on Discos Laptra. How do I get a copy in the US?

Invernal: the Peruvian band, based in Lima, has uploaded the song “Universo” to their Bandcamp and they say it is their 2nd promo single for what will be their new album. The dreampop band is formed by Marco Malpartida, Mayra Ojeda, Marco Atencio, André Román and Christian Vargas. I believe I recommended them a long time ago, when they played Lima Popfest. Good stuff.

Nah…: one of our favourite releases this year was the “Summer’s Failing Again” EP that the Münster by Amsterdam band released just a few months ago. It seems the CD was a big success and was sold out very fast. For those wanting more, well, there is a “Remix EP”. We see remixes by Papernut Moon, The Catherines, Orange Crate Art and The Fisherman and his Soul.

The Vegetablets: some months ago I was complaining that The Vegetablets were only available on tape. Their songs were a great discovery but I didn’t want to get their tapes. Well, the Tulip House label, from Nagoya, Japan, have put together both tapes on a very nice CD that comes in different varieties: 4 color, normal or  pixel art for one to choose, all very DIY.

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I only have a few releases on Aliénor Records, one of the most known French indiepop labels from the 90s. I haven’t really explored the whole catalog. If only I had all the money and time in the world.

I am very curious, and interested in finding out more, the whole picture if possible, about all indiepop bands. Indiepop is barely documented. And I’m trying to do my part, little by little. Don’t know if one day this sort of work will be publishable, but some of it might. See, there have been some books published. I’m not saying I will do one. Maybe one day that’d be nice. But again where do I find the time? In the meantime I can do these sort of detective investigations about the bands, try to find out every detail available on the web and then hope to get in touch with the band for an interview.

Les Chaplinn’s, with that strange apostrophe and s name, is a band I know very little. That’s why a few days ago I ordered the only 7″ they released. Well, no, that’s not why. I had heard a song by them called “Sunny Day” and I thought it was great. Jangly, poppy, catchy. Of course, as it usually happens, this song is not part of the 7″, but from a compilation tape. So not sure what I’ll encounter when I play the 7″, but I’m hoping it sounds similar to this brilliant song.

“Run Turn Turn EP” was released in 1993 on the French label Aliénor Records (Alien β). This was a fun label, they used to catalog their records with Greek letters. The label was based in Bordeaux. From what I read on Discogs, the label is now part of Les Disques Aliénor which includes Platinum and another indiepop label, Cornflakes Zoo. Not sure what happened with the labels, how one became another or how they bought each other.

The EP had three songs. On the A side there is “Run Turn Run” while on the B side we find “Mute” and “The Fool”. We find first names credited on the back cover, Willy on bass, Dilip on drums, Gé on guitar and Franck on guitar and vocals. According to Discogs, Franck’s last name is Mossenta. Franck Mossenta, and Dilip’s is Saint-Jean, Dilip Saint-Jean.

Aside from that EP, there is an 8 song demo tape listed. There is no date for it, nor artwork, but at least we know the names of the songs that were included: “Mute”, “Wake Up”, “Sunny Day”, “Who’s”, “Run, Turn, Sum”, “Lost”, “The Fool” and “Jesus”.

As many of the bands from the early 90s, they participated in several compilations. The first one in 1991, two years before their release. On the “In The Limelight” tape that was released in France and came with a fanzine-style booklet, I suppose with info on the bands, they included three songs: “Mute”, “Wake Up” and “Whose”.

The next year, 1992, their song “Flying” appears on the compilation “Rosenbud (Born to Be a Star) – The Great Collection V.1” that was released on both CD and tape format by the French label Rosebud (ROBCD9214 / ROBK9214). It seems like only French bands were part of it, among them one I’ve interviewed in the past, Les Freluquets.

Another compilation they were in 1992 was “Teeny Poppers” released by Anorak Records (SHOUBIDOUWA 01). I mentioned this compilation not too long ago, when I wrote about Budgie Jacket. This time around Les Chaplinn’s contributed the song “Wake Up!”.

Then “Sunny Day”, the song I’m sharing, and the one song I heard first by this band. It appeared on the “Garden Party” tape compilation released by Aliénor Records (ALIEN α). This cassette also came out in 1992 and included many great bands from the time including The Bedflowers, Mosaic Eyes, The Spinning Wheels and more.

A 1993 compilation “Simple as Them”, released by Ora Pro Nobis (OPN 9303) has an “Untitled” song by the band. Actually all bands’ songs are untitled. How come? It is a very strange compilation.

Lastly another 1993 compilation, this time from Germany. The tape “Frischer Morgentau” included the same song I love, “Sunny Day”. It was released by Steipilz Tonträger (Stein 1). I remember mentioning this compilation quite a bit on my Moosblüten post, as one of the members was behind this label.

I found a photo and then another on a web called Ooplaboom, where they have concert photos from the pre-digital era, of the band playing in Brest, on April 8th, 1996, opening for Peter Astor. That’s the photo I’m using for the post too by the way.

The band used to have a Myspace too. Of course, the songs don’t stream.

What else? Not much more! Where in France where they from? Why no more releases? I would love to hear to the rest of their songs, the ones from their demo at least. What were the last names of the band members? Were they involved in any other bands? There are a few blog mentions about them, but just name checking them. No story. No details. How come?

Edit (same day): Michaël from Watoo Watoo has confirmed that the band hailed from Paris and that Dilip used to work at Studio Ornano.

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Listen
Les Chaplinn’s – Sunny Day

There’s so much to cover on the blog, I’m only catching up and there has been already an announcement of a new Paris Popfest! After seeing the lineup, I must say I’m very interested in attending. If only I could!

The festival will be held at the venue Le Hasard Ludique on September 21st and 22nd. The lineup is pretty impressive for the two nights: Go-Kart Mozart, The Orchids, Cocoanut Groove, Birdie (!), Soft Science, Peaness, Beach Youth and Xavier Boyer (Tahiti 80). Plus the DJs Popnews and Section 26.

Most of these bands I know, but Beach Youth, so I’ll explore. But what about the DJs? Who are they? And how good is this venue? Would be great to know more details about the festival.

Beach Youth: a band from Caen, France. That must be a first on the blog. Their latest release seems to be “Singles” which is a compilation of their debut songs. It was released last September on 10″ vinyl. It sounds quite hip, catchy and fun. There are 5 songs in total in the EP, “Days”, “Memories”, “Young”, “Closer” and “Diary”. The band is formed by Etienne Froidure, Simon Dumottier, Louis-Antonin Lesieur and Gautier Caignaert. I would like a copy too!

And 4 more findings so you have a good middle of the week!

Verbludes: I have recommended in the past this Moscow, Russia, band. Actually, I raved about them. They sound GREAT to me. Well, there is a new EP on their Bandcamp, one called “Supernova” and I’m eager to listen to it. Of course I wonder if it will be released physically, and the answer is that probably not, or maybe just on cassette. Anyways, now I’m listening, and even though I don’t understand anything, I’m hooked. The first song sounds a bit rockier than their previous releases, but it is still very enjoyable! The thing I really like about this Russian band is their girl/boy vocals. They combine perfectly. Which is my favourite song? At first listen I could say: “кошмары”, but in due honesty, I suggest listening to all six songs!

Nos Miran: I have recommended the “Humo” 10″ that Elefant is to release by this superb band. I shared one video too. Now it is time for a second video, one for the song “La Montaña del Amor”. And it sounds great. Should try to get this record soon.

Putochinomaricón: another video from another Elefant Records band. I had recommended the new 10″ mini-album by Chenta Tsai Tseng that is quite a sensation already on social networks. Now a video for the song “Tú No Eres Activista” is available on Youtube to promote the record, and I’m loving it, especially the fun and poignant lyrics.

Pale Blue Morning: had recommended their song “Eleanor” some time ago on the blog. It was their only song available on SoundCloud then. Well, now the Quezon City, Philippines, band have a new song, one called “Haze” and it is terribly good!

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The bee hunters.

What do I know about them? Barely anything. I must say I just discovered their songs on Youtube. The few that are available there. They sound good. They sound jangly. They sound 80s. They are in German. I need to investigate.

Discogs tell me that the band was formed by Jochen Distelmeyer, Mirko Breder and Thomas Wenzel. And worst of all, that they had no releases. Just two compilation appearances. That’s a bummer. I suppose though it it not the worst case scenario, at least two compilations meant that there songs were out there somehow.

These two compilations were cassettes. Both on the German label Fast Weltweit. This label was originally based in Bad Salzuflen and would play an important part of what would later be called the Hamburg School. The label was founded in 1985 by Michael Girke, Andreas Henning, Achim Knorr, Bernd Begemann, Frank Spilker and Frank Werner. A lot of people according to the German Wikipedia. Later it seems Jochen Distelmeyer and Bernadette La Hengst would join to run the label. So the question is then, was Jochen running the label when his songs appeared on the compilation? Or what came first? The chicken or the egg?

The first compilation tape was called “Fast Welweit Präsentiert” and was released in 1988. It included a bunch of important bands from the time like Die Time Twisters, Die Sterne or Jetzt!. The artwork was created by Frank Spilker and Frank Werner and all songs are credited to be recorded by Frank Werner between 1987 and 1988 at Klangforschung Studio. Here Die Bienenjäger appear with two songs: “Große Städte, Flaches Land” and “Das Herz Ist Ein Einsamer Jäger”

The second compilation tape was called “Fast Weltweit Nr. 2” and was released the same year, 1988. We see again the same bands on the compilation. This time around two knew songs are included by Die Bienenjäger, “Was Werden Sie Finden’ and “Tatjana Traurig”. Again, the same people credited for artwork, same people and same studio for the recording.

I wonder if Tatjana Traurig was a real person. The truth is that there is actually a video for this song, “Tatjana Traurig”. That is quite surprising. It looks like a video from that time. Would be interesting to know more about it.

The website Indiepedia.de has a bit more information about the band. It mentions that they recorded between 15 to 20 demos at Frank Werner’s studio. 4 of them we know from the tapes. Where are the rest? Would love to listen. The band split when Jochen moved to Hamburg in 1989 where he founded the band Arm and later Laut. And even later the most famous of his bands, the fantastic Blumfeld.

We also know thanks to this website that the name of the band actually comes from a book of the same name by James Fenimore Cooper.

Then there is a link to the lyrics of the 4 songs that were published! Now you can sing along.

Jochen as I was saying was part of the Hamburg Schule band Blumfeld, they are quite popular and probably you can find a lot of information on the web. He also released some solo records. He was actually not from Hamburg originally but from Bielefeld. On the other hand, Mirko Breder was part of the band Die Sterne and also played in a band called The Discount. Thomas Wenzel played in a lot of bands, Amon Ra, 3 Normal Beatles, Calamity Jane & The Amazing Seven, Cow, Die Goldenen Zitronen, Die Stars, Die Sterne, N.R.F.B. and Naked Navy.

I can’t seem to find any more information about the band. All of the mentions are always the same, that it was the predecessor band to Blumfeld. Nothing of Die Bienenjäger on its own. I understand that Blumfeld was big, but because of that I would have expected someone must have been interested in what happened before. In those 15, 20, demos. Why there were no releases? At least some gigs should be mentioned, right? But there’s not much at all on the web. And I’ve been quite thorough with the German-language websites.

I’m hoping then my German friends will fill in the blanks.

Edit (same day thanks to Frank Werner’s link):

An interview by Christoph Koch on the Headspin zine volume 13 from December 1995. Christoph interviews Jochen about Blumfeld and actually asks him some questions about Die Bienenjäger! Will we find more information about them? Let’s thanks Google Translate here, I hope it is understandable. If you know German it is probably better to click the link!

Headspin: Actually just a little bit, a few individual songs, but maybe you can tell how it all was then, with your old band Bienenjäger, Bad Salzuflen and the ominous Fast Weitwelt  …

Jochen: I believe that Michael Girke and Bernd Begemann founded the label together, whereby Bernd then actually said goodbye again from this context, because he wanted to make music in Hamburg with his band “Die Antwort” at a major label. Otherwise there were from the beginning: Frank Spilker of the Sternen, Achim Knorr as theDer Fremde, Die Time Twisters, I found out about them only two years later through an article in the magazine Spex. They all came from Bad Salzuflen / Herford and I’m from Bielefeld, so I did not have the direct connection to the people and when I read that article, I contacted them because that sounded pretty much like what I was was interested at the time and where relatively little was found in Bielefeld.

Headspin: And you were then at the start under the sonorous name of Die Bienenjäger?

Jochen: At first it was called Die Bienenjäger, then it was called Arm, until we realized – I already lived in Hamburg – that there was already a band in Hamburg with the name, they were so hardcore and in the end we were called, but I know not at all, if under the name what appeared on one of these Fast Weitwelt cassette sampler. Back then, we always did such exceptional sessions and released tape samplers. Michael Girke was at the beginning together with Thomas Schwebel as Jetzt! released a single, the Sternen and Der Fremde and Die Time Twistersthen made even real records, singles and so a sampler.

Headspin: I actually only know two pieces of the bee hunters, but I really like them, on the one hand “Tatjana Traurig”, on the other hand with the “Brief von weit weg” …

Jochen: That with the letter is actually called “Was werden sie finden?” and was just like the other just a demo recording and as far as I know never appeared anywhere. [But it’s on the red or the blue cassette sampler that Achim Knorr kindly sent me a short time later] But actually the cassette samplers were also demo recordings somewhere. I still remember how we went to the Berlin Independence Days and Popkomm and thought we had the hottest stuff ever, the hottest thing so far, just from the lyrics and the attitude behind it. Michael, for example, based on “Cappuccino Kid” (as Paul Weller has always signed the liner notes on his albums) under the name “Nescafé Boy” written on the back of the first sampler, the plate stalls abolished, the plates should be heard and not bought. So for some of the people who were there at that time, there was always, albeit nebulous, a political connotation. For Michael and for me in any case, for Frank Spilker I think so, but for example for Achim, Bernadette and Die Time Twisters barely. When I made music together with Thomas Wenzel, I always said. “You play bass” and he said “I do not feel like playing bass”, so some people used to play bass and drums at concerts. So we always played in cities where we knew someone, then sent a tape to them. Then came ‘ A time when I separated myself from Thomas and did not even bother to play music anymore and at some point I met André, Christof Leich of the Colossal Youth, and we did a jam session together with Thomas Wenzel and Frank Spilker. But that was not the thing, but then André said he knew another bass player and so we called Eike and with that he did a great job. From this jam session but then the new cast of the stars has emerged and after Thomas’ shared apartment Peta lived and I knew Bernadette from before, then resulted from this connection again with the “Die Braut haut ins Auge”

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Listen
Die Bienenjäger – Große Städte Flaches Land

Starting a new week, and April is almost over. Not much news yet on our side, we still wait for the pressing plant with news for our Salt Lake Alley 7″. It seems it is taking longer thanks to Record Store Day. That awful day that happens once a year in April. A day for big labels and for silly collectors. I can’t be bothered. Sure, there are some fine releases available that day, but I don’t like this gimmicky day, so I’ll pass. Won’t support it.

So while I wait, I keep discovering new music. What else can I do? Even though I can’t offer new releases as I have the label release schedule fully booked, I am always in need of new music. So this is what’s new, what I’ve discovered thanks to the Twee Lovers Club group:

Flaaurs: one song available on Bandcamp from their “Holyydays” EP by this lo-fi bedroom pop ensamble. Why just only one song? It is strange. Don’t know much about this band aside that they hail from Indonesia. The EP will be released by Yellowroom Records from Bandung.

Sharesprings: one of my favourite Indonesian bands, all-time, have a new song called “Elza, I’d Write You a Song” and it is a cracker. What else can I say but to go, hurry, listen to it. Rusli Budianto, Ardhi Yudho, Putriani Mulyadi and Yehezkiel Tambun keep creating brilliant short indiepop nuggets!

Cooper: Alex Cooper has been making music since the 80s in Spain. First with the legendary band Los Flechazos and later as Cooper. Always true to mod sounds. And he keeps going and going always on Elefant Records. There’s a new video for a song called “Infinito”that will be part of his new album “Tiempo, Temperatura, Agitación” which will be released on May 18th.

Plastic Girl in Closet: shared one song by this superb shoegaze/dreampop band from Japan a month or so ago. Now there’s a new track on Soundcloud that sounds terribly good called “Like A Strawberry” which I had to recommend! It seems this song is part of “Lesson1” which looks like a CD of re-recordings of their best material from 2010 to 2012. I need to order this record!

Blush Response: this Adelaide, Australia, shoegaze band will be releasing their debut album “Hearts Grow Dull” on June 2018. Well, the vinyl version. The CD version is already available on their Bandcamp. There are 10 dreamy songs that sound superb. The band is formed by Alister, Joseph, Walter and Zach and they must be getting quite a following as I see they are playing in Spain on June 9th! That’s quite big for an Aussie band, it is a long way too!

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As I was saying on my previous post, I’m on a 90s run. It is probably the period I know the least when it comes to British indiepop. I think I know more Swedish bands from the 90s than English? Or am I exaggerating? In any case I’m going over some bands from the time now, and as I’ve always liked their song “White Horses and Shooting Stars” a lot, I had to focus my investigate work on Pullover. It had to be done.

Pullover: sweater or hoodie, a piece of clothing “pulled over” the head instead of buttoned or zipped-up

Discogs tries to confuse me right off the bat. They list a self-titled album by Pullover, but it turns out it is from a Brazilian band with the same name. That means, we only know 4 proper releases, all singles, by the band.

Their first 7″ was a fantastic one, “This is The Life”. A great song! On the B side there we find “The Great Pretender”. It was released in 1995 by the label Fierce Panda (NING 09 and it came packaged in a very nice red and white jacket. A collage of all sorts, we see all sort of figures in it. The art is credited to a Mary Walsh.

Fierce Panda was based in London and at this time it is quite a big label for indie standards. I wonder how it was back in the mid nineties when Pullover signed with them. There’s even a Fierce Panda Canada now I believe. The next 7″ by the band came out in the same label then, the same year too, 1995. “White Horses and Shooting Stars” (NING 14) had “Oddball” as its B-side. But stop for a minute and listen the A side. Tell me it is not a wonderful slice of pop? Catchy, dreamy, jangly. Top song!  I even uploaded it to Youtube many years ago. It had to be done. The art again is credited to Mary Walsh, this time a duotone of purple and white with some horses attacking a man on the floor! There is some credits too for engineer and producer, someone called Ott, who according to Discogs, is a UK-based dub and downtempo composer, producer and sound engineer, and label manager of Ottsonic Music.

Their next release on Fierce Panda was the “Holiday” 7″ (NING 20). This two-song record came out in 1996 and included “Holiday” in the A side and a cover of George Michael’s “Last Christmas” on the B side. We see that this song has some credits, engineer James Drew and mixed and produced by Martin Isherwood. Something quite interesting is that a video was made for “Holiday“. British friends, which beach is the one that appears on the video?

Lastly, “Holiday”, was also released as a 7″ and a CD single on the label Starfish Records (STF6). I don’t know why the change of label and why the same song on the A side. Perhaps this was an international release? Discogs does have it as a UK release though. The song on the B side was different mind you: “In Every Season”.  The CD even included one more song, “Over You”. The art now wasn’t by Mary Walsh as the previous three singles, but by Louise Wallace. Also for the first time we see the names of the band members on the sleeve: Carol Isherwood (vocals), Joe Duddell (drums), Lee Damarell (bass) and Michael Malley (guitar).

There are some compilation appearances too. They contributed the songs “Holiday” and “Tiny Tears” to the CD version of the comp “A Gift From Sing Sing” (Poof 9)  and only “Tiny Tears” to the LP version that was released by Popfactory in 1996. This compilation included two other favourite bands of mine like The Shapiros, who had been featured on the blog, and the Heartworms.

On my last post about Disco Pistol I mentioned the 1997 compilation “Snakebite City Six” (BLU009), and I will again mention it. It is because Pullover appears here too with the song “Liar”.

Lastly, Fierece Panda’s 1999 compilation “Nings and Roundabouts” included two of their songs, “White Horses & Shooting Stars” and “Last Christmas”. Something that catches my attention is what appears on the inserts. Here it says that the band signed to Starfish/Big Life and recorded an album that was never released. Then the band split up. What happened!! Where are those songs from the album?

The superb website Manchester Digital Music Archive has a bunch of news clippings about Pullover. This means the band hailed from the Manchester region. There is one scan from “City Live” where they are previewing the Olympian Showcase gig at Night & Day. The problem is it is a bad scan and one can’t really read it. But what it was is a monthly event at the Nigh & Day Cafe and this time around Pullover were celebrating their homecoming on August 2nd in 1996. There are a few more promos in there, but nothing that really adds to their story.

I look for information about the band members. To my surprise I find an article on The Business Desk website. Here the headline is quite impressive, “Britpop singer turned entertainment industry lawyer ideally qualified”. I look more into it. I see Carol is now an Associate at the National Intellectual Property Group and specializes in Creative Industries.  She also is a regular speaker at music industry events. Interesting that she kept involved with music but on a different side of it!

About the other band members, Joe Duddell has his own website and mentions all the different projects he has been invovled with. HE has worked with the London Symphony Orchestra or with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra for BBC Radio 1 and BBC 6 Music and more. Sadly in his bio there is no mention of Pullover.

Couldn’t find anything really for Lee Damarell or Michael Malley.

I stumble upon the blog “Too Much Apple Pie” who had written about Pullover back in 2007. It seems there used to be a Pullover Myspace. That doesn’t exist anymore. Here it says that the band recorded two albums. One of which is the one that never saw the light because of label problems. Then, the 2nd album was to be released on their own label, Knitwear Records, and it was going to be called “All You Need is Love”. What happened to it? I need to explore! Some comments on the blog say the beach that appears on the video could be Hastings.

There’s not much more on the web about them. But I’m hoping here can let me know whatever happened to those two albums they recorded. Where are they now. If they continued making music. Or if they had been involved in any other bands back in the day. Any of my Mancunian friends remember them?

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Listen
Pullover – White Horses and Shooting Stars

Not sure if I should continue reviewing bands that played the last Wales Goes Pop. So far I’ve checked 6 bands and none of them were indiepop! What do you think? Or suggest? Is it a good exercise? Or perhaps I’m wasting my time? Maybe it would be better if someone can point me out the bands that are worth checking out? That way I can only focus on new indiepop finds. That makes more sense for the blog. This is an indiepop blog afterall.

So, where do we start?

The Catherines: a few days ago Heiko Schneider from The Catherines shared with me this wonderful track called “Sorry, But Your Suicide Note is Really Funny”. It is gorgeous, even including female backing vocals by Sandra Ost. It sounds like a good indiepop song should sound. Chiming, jangly, catchy and with some terrific lyrics too. I hope there is a proper The Catherines release in the near future, one that is not a tape of course!

Kiwis: what is this treat? Ines Martinez de Albornoz, Marta Millet, Jordi Garrigós and Marc Andreu sing in their native catalan on a self-titled tape that is limited to 101 copies. It is REALLY good. If only it wasn’t a tape. Fun indiepop, filled with hooks, all around the 5 songs from the tape the trustworthy label Snap Clap Club is releasing on May 1st. The songs on the cassette are “I Ets Tu”, “El Camino”, “Mapes Infinits”, “Volcán” and “El Far”. Very recommendable.

Jaromil Sabor: the Paris, France, label Howlin Banana Records are releasing a 12″ vinyl album titled “Second Science” on August 13th. Still a long way. But you can stream all songs on the Bandcamp. They hail from Bordeaux and have had a few releases in the past, so not that new though they are brand new for me. First time I’m listening to them. Sounds good mind you, Jaromil Sabor are totally worth giving a chance!

Miti Miti’s: “Monos en la Costa” is the name of the EP that is available to stream from this lofi twee band from Chile. Don’t know much about it, aside that it is put together by a label called Gemelo Parásito Records. It sounds fragile and fun, like many bedroom bands from the early 2000s. The songs that appear on this digital only release are “Intro”, “M&M’s”, “Bikini Kill”, “Caracoquesos”, “Pizza Pizza” and “Galapaguitos”.

Ping Pong Club: only two songs on their Bandcamp. One being a remix of the other one. Yes. I am left looking for more. This is the first single by this electronic/indiepop band from Bandung, Indonesia. Formed by Muhammad Rizky and Hariz Lasa, they have uploaded “Venetian Blinds” and “Venetian Blinds (The Countless Kisses Remix)” and I’m on repeat. It is very good, dreamy and all. I feel it has been an interesting batch of finds this time around!!

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I’ve been having a bit of a 90s period at home. Listening to UK bands, especially from the second half, of that decade. It is true, that in general, I would say I’m not that as familiar with them as I am with the 80s bands or the ones from the 2000s. It is a time period that hasn’t been documented much as far as I know. Britpop reigned supreme and the rest, the smaller pop bands, were kind of put on a side, and forgotten by now. That’s why I’m writing this post, and preparing a 2nd one, about bands from this era. Maybe I’ll write a third too. Or a fourth. I don’t know, my posts depend a lot on my mood on the particular day that I’m writing them. And today it is kind of festive, for no special reason.

I always think of Disco Pistol as a festive, a good party band. Sure, I won’t be DJing their songs because probably not many are familiar with them and as you know, crowds like tunes they know for them to dance. It might have been different in England in the late 90s. I’ve seen videos of Disco Pistol live and people were dancing and having lots of fun. Time changes. Now which indiepop band would people dance? I mean, which contemporary one? Hard to think of one!

I discovered Disco Pistol more than a decade ago, on Soulseek. As many stories I’ve told on the blog, this one starts also on the Twee Folks room, me downloading from some user whose name was lenganlystance or something like that. I can’t remember exactly. The thing was that he had a lot of obscure 7″s in his folders, but all of them were zipped. You couldn’t see which songs were in them. There was no Discogs, so you didn’t know the tracklist until you have downloaded them. It was always a good surprise! I suppose they were his own rips.

I downloaded Disco Pistol’s “Say Something / Solid Gold Radio” 7″. At first it didn’t sound like the jangly indiepop I was used to. This was a bit punkier, but at the same time catchy and fun. I really enjoyed it. But that was that. Only this year, as I was saying I’m having this 90s period, I have returned to them, especially after buying the CD single “Saturday Everyday” a couple of weeks ago on the web. And thought, who were they? Did they release anything else?

It doesn’t seem so, aside from some compilations. Their first record was the aforementioned 7″, “Say Something”, that was released by Org Records (Organ036). This label catalog is unknown to me, is there any pop band in here? I wonder. It came out in three different versions, clear with glitter, transparent marble blue and regular blue. The A side was “Say Something” and the AA side was “Solid God Radio. The producer for the record was Matt Dietrich and Zeus B. Held. Both Germans who used to work in the UK. Mathias had been in a band called Zeus & the Spiritual Traders and Zeus had been in Birth Control, Dream Control and the Gina X Performance among others.

Their 2nd release was the “Saturday Everyday” CD single released by Zerox Records (ZERO002CD) in 1997. There were three songs included in this CD, “Saturday Everyday”, “Spend, Spend, Spend” and “Supersexy Revolutionary”. I have this CD single. We know that these songs were recorded at Tempo Studios and the art for the CD was created by Peter Theobalds.

The last song from that CD single, “Supersexy Revolutionary”, was to appear on two compilations in 1997. The first was on the “And the Rest is History…” CD and LP comp that was released by Zerox Records (ZERO 001) where some important bands from the period appear like Helen Love or Kenickie. And the second one was on “Snakebite City Six” released by Bluefire Records (BLU09). These “Snakebite City” series of compilations appeared in the nineties, first as LPs and later as CDs. At least there were up to eleven volumes! On the volume Disco Pistol appears we see familiar faces like Girlfrendo or Pullover who I’m looking to write my next post about.

Lastly, in 1999, the band’s song “Solid Gold Radio” appeared on the CD compilation “Organ Radio: 5 Suzie Says: Chew on This”, released by Org Records (ORG051CD). Who do I know on this compilation aside from Disco Pistol? Well the very fine German band Pop Tarts are here too. And Mogul, who released a 7″ on Elefant during those years.

On Youtube happily there’s a trove of videos of the band playing live. It indeed makes me happy to find them all! And thanks to these videos I notice the band played Reading Festival in 1998. That’s quite big isn’t it? From that festival check out “Tiger “, “Say Something“, “Weekenders” (where they say they are pop! and will be famous and in Top of the Pops), “Naked“,  “TV Show“, “19” and “Saturday Everyday“. This same user has uploaded some songs from another gig, one at King’s Cross’ Water Rats dating from December 4th, 1997. There is “Say Something” and “Solid Gold” from that gig. And that’s not all, from the Monarch in Chalk Farm, April 14th, 1997, there is “New Miss World“, and from Reading’s Alleycats venue, dating April 5th 1997, we see the band putting on a racket with “Supersexy Revolutionary“.

From the Spearmint band’s website I notice they played with Disco Pistol also the previous day of those videos, on December 3rd of 1997.

Two more videos are found on another user. Both from a live gig at The Garage on December 27th, 1997. There’s “Solid Gold Radio” and “Spend, Spend, Spend“.

But what do we know exactly about the band? Wikipedia actually has an entry about them: They were active in the late 90s and they formed in 1996. They consisted of lead vocalist Mira Manga, lead guitarist Kevin Baxter, keyboard player Hyper Helen, bass player Craig Page and drummer Marky Sparky. They were part of the “Glitter Scene” that was kind of put together by Kevin Wilde and Hifi. They both ran the Club Skinny and it is there were Mira Manga was spotted and others replied to ads in the NME. They were notorious in that “Glitter Scene”, they used to arrive to stage adorned in tiaras, fairy wings and swathes of glitter. They didn’t only play Reading Festival in 1998, but also in 1997. At some point the band signed to Mercury Records and they were rebranded and renamed as  the pop group Sweet 3. Under that name they released just one single, “Love Thang“. It didn’t do well. Afterwards Mira Manga played in the bands Rolemodels, The Duloks and briefly, in 2013, as backing vocalist for Menswear. 

I found a Facebook page. I’m surprised to see only 19 people have liked the page. This is really odd. The first post mentions that Mira Manga guests on a compilation LP called “The Self Preservation Society”. Later there is an NME review by Jim Wirth which is quite fun to read:
A solitary panda car packed with merry men in black is parked in the middle of the road observing Disco Pistol as they pose for their photo shoot. If being a young, vibrant five-piece making ulta-melodic pop records were a crime, the filth would have had the cuffs out by now. It isn’t – yet.
Half an hour later, we are encamped in the basement of a certain major fast food restaurant on London’s Oxford Street, being berated by the mighty Pistol. There’s Mira Manga (vocals and mputh almighty), Kevin Baxter (guitar and serious interjections), Craig Page (bass and general buffoonery), and Hyper Helen (keyboards, air of hunted woodland creature) but not drummer Mark Kelly.
“we can’t have him in interviews because he’s a gangster,” explains Craig.
Eh?
“Put it this way,” adds Manga. “We’re never going to tour Australia.”
Australia’s loss is the rest of the worlds gain. Formed last year in Reading and named after a particularly rubbish childrens toy, Disco Pistol’s dash for greatness has so far yielded two singles, the endearing ‘Supersexy Revolutionary’ and current rabble rouser ‘Say Something’.
“We’re sick of all the apathy that’s going on.” says Manga. “That’s what the single’s about. People sitting indoors with a reefer all day…
however awful life is, if you can do anything, you should get up and do it.”
Like what?
“If you work in an office, put tinsel around your computer,” says Manga.
“If you work in an abattoir, put glitter on the end of your stun gun,” adds Craig.
“We’re all so dragged down by miserable music,” continues Manga. “I love The Verve, but you couldn’t play them before a night out. If we wrote songs about ‘My boyfriend’s left me and i’ve got no mates’ it’s more than likely we’d turn it around to ‘Wahey, that means I can go out and shag lesbians!’. We all have bad days, though.”
“I ran over a rabbit last night” demonstrates Hyper Helen.
Bad days perhaps, but nothing short of brilliant nights onstage. Disco Pistol’s Kaleidoscopic pop is best sampled at one of their notoriously short live shows, where their mash of Blondie, Pulp and Dolly Parton reaches escape velocity. And kids, festooned with eyeliner and glitter stars, naturally go mental.
“At no other gigs do you find people dressing up to see a band like they do at ours,” says Kevin. “No one dresses up to see Oasis.”
“Yes they do,” points out Manga. “They put on an Anorak and smell.”
Disco Pistol’s expectations are suitably high for 1998.
“We’ll be on Top of the Pops,” says Manga matter-of-factly. “Then each of us will Top of the Pops seperatley over a month. The Spice Girls are crumbling; Disco Pistol are ready to step into their shoes.”
Mouthy Pistol, Earnest Pistol, Jokey Pistol and Picked-on-Pistol finish their soft drinks on the night they had their first police escort. Probably the first of many. 

Okay, I posted the whole thing. I don’t usually do that. Then I keep digging around in the Facebook page to find out they played many places. For example at the Camden Palace on Tuesday October 21st 1997. Or at The Garage supporting Salad.

There used to be a Myspace, obviously. But there is not much in there now of course.

Also Org Records website has a bit of a rant about them. Of course, they released the 7″ with them, but in 2003, the label complains about them making the choice of signing to a big label: After all the excitement of the 1997 ORG single, things went very quiet. In total there was two singles – their first Super Sexy Revolutionary (on somewone elses label – can’t remember who released it now) was followed by their Pink see-thru glitter vinyl 7″ “Say Something/Solid Gold Radio” (re-issued in ice cool blue vinyl) – in a Melody Maker interview at the time, Manga, Hyper Helen and the boys stated “We want to be in all four corners of the globe making everybody as happy as we are. The Spice Girls are falling apart and we’re waiting in the wings to take over..” The press told us they were “an explosion of tiaras, glitter, radioactive pink dresses and restless egos. Crawling from the wreckage of North London’s fanzine Underworld unscathed and armed with tunes of sizzling brilliance. Disco Pistol are a five-piece of frightening confidence, formidable ambition and incomparable energy, fronted by the freckle-faced Manga. New single Say Something is a brightly animated splash of teenage kicks, an urgent Teen-C declaration of intent – it sounds like a three-minute giggle, all sugary synths and a cortex-spinning chorus sharper than a shark’s fin” Then they signed a major deal with Mercury Records and changed their name to SWEET 3 – Thanks a lot band – that’s typical, their way of thanking labels like ORG for supporting them when no on else wanted to know. Labels like ORG do all the hard ground work thn the clueless majors want to pretend they’ve discovered something new so they order a repackage and mess it up (and couldn’t care less). The major label tried to pass them off as a new band, destroyed all the possitive history and fan base and in doing so killed the band off. Why are major labels all so clueless (UK ones anyway), why do major labels almost always mess it up? Why do bands go along with them?. Last I heard was that Manga was fronting a raw punk/pop band called Role Models and trying to get back to her roots after the mess up of Sweet 3, Role Model sounded pretty good… that was summer 2001…

I keep looking on the web. A blogger called Kieron Gillen also writes about them but it is just his personal opinion on how much he likes the 7″. Then another good find, a fanzine called Repeat, has a mention of Disco Pistol. Here they also kind of explain this Glitter Scene that until know was a mystery to me: ‘The Glitter Scene’ existed almost solely in the badly-photocopied, glitter-sprinkled pages of fanzines like Abuse Yr Friends, R*E*P*E*A*T and Quirk. More girls, more keyboards, more glamour. Its de facto leaders were Disco Pistol – an average band armed with all the bravura of a hurricane. The glitter scene’s godhead were Kenickie, a band who – having already completed their A-levels – were practically geriatric. In the overlap of these three scenes, in 1997, there was a flurry of seven inches and demos from bands that mostly never released anything else: Agebaby, Charlie’s Angels, Cheetara, Disco, Disco Pistol, Gel, Girlfrendo, Helen Love, Mogul, Period Pains, The Pin-Ups, Pink Kross, Velodrome 2000, VyVyan and Xerox Girls – to name just a few. Disco Pistol got signed and disappeared. Disco Pistol starlet Mira Manga recently re-emerged with a new band, The Duloks, and Kieron Gillen’s Phonogram comic is an unashamed loveletter to 1997. But in 2007 incredibly there are almost no girls playing in indie bands.

The post has grown long! And I have more or less understood the Glitter Scene and can also understand Disco Pistol and what happened to them, why they didn’t release an album and why they disappeared into oblivion. A shame really, they had great songs! These days Mira Manga seems to continue being part of music, being label manager for ECC Records and ECC100 and has been appearing on a YouTube soap called Thamesmeerd. She has also published a book called “Danger! Cosmetics to Go“, which chronicles the company that came before Lush. And has released solo songs, for example “Emotional Brilliance”. Even has her own website.

Now, what about the other members of the band? I can’t find any information about them. Did they continue making music? Were more songs other the ones on the 7″ and CD single recorded by the band? From the live videos on Youtube it is clear they had more songs. Where else did they play? When did they become Sweet 3? And what how did they feel about how that developed. 90s popkids, what else do you all remember about them?

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Listen
Disco Pistol – Supersexy Revolutionary

Thanks so much to Dermot Lambert for the interview! I wrote about Empty Shell on the blog a long time ago and Dermot was kind enough to get in touch and to answer my questions! Empty Shell released one 7″ back in the 80s. Afterwards Dermot formed Rex & Dino and later Blink who are well known in Ireland! But the story starts here! Time to discover Empty Shell.

++ Hi Dermot! Thanks so much for getting in touch and being up for answering questions about your music and your bands. As I know you’ve been in a few bands, wanted to ask if Empty Shell was your first one ever? Or had you been involved with other bands before?

My first ever band was a band called Point Blank, which was myself and a few friends, most of us couldn’t really play, and there’s probably a whole book in that band, I built a shed for rehearsing in the drummers back garden – really, made it myself out of bricks and concrete and the whole lot, it took a fucking year of my life when I could have been out chasing girls, although I was terrified of girls anyway, so that might explain why I spent a year building a shed. Anyway, just as I had finished building the thing, the drummer told me he was not really into the ‘music thing’ and that I should consider going off and getting a bird (our word for girl). Somewhere in between all that building, we played two shows, one in a school hall, and one in a local pub. I remember both equally well, and both had unfortunate outcomes – I managed to alienate myself from the local community of nuns at the school show, by sticking my two fingers up through the curtains at the assembled gathering of a few hundred local families, before going onstage to play our two songs. Apart from my poor display of manners – for which I must say, I have never been proud, one of those things that seemed hilarious but in actual fact was just not – our two song set also managed to squeeze in another unforgettable lifetime memory. Halfway through our second song, I noticed the audience (for ‘audience’ read, confused, bemused onlookers) begin to laugh and point behind me. Not knowing what was going on, I turned to see the drummer Colm had stopped playing altogether, and indeed had gotten up from behind the kit and was casually strolling across the stage in pursuit of his snare drum, which had evidently decided the best thing to do was get off the stage. I have a feeling that I made some feeble comment about the band sounding better without drums anyway, but I’m sure my mind has done everything it can to erase that moment, although Colm was such a funny guy that in retrospect it was worth doing the gig just so that this could have happened, he just strolled after the rolling snare, as cool as a breeze, you can’t become that cool in life, you either are or you aren’t – Here’s to you Gonno Kane!
On the second show I managed to insult a family friend who went to a lot of trouble to get me a lend of his brand new H&H amp, as my Wimbledon valve amp had died on gig day…..come to think of it, this was the school gig again! Oh dear, I would love to go back to that day and give myself a well earned slap on the head! I couldn’t use this amazing piece of equipment, and decided instead that it was ‘a piece of shit’, which of course it wasn’t, but in actual fact I was. I did later apologise to all involved, and I made many efforts to absolve myself over the following years, although it’s still embarrassing to revisit that day / month /
year! If it’s still possible to apologise, the Ronan I apologise, and Tom I apologise to you also – although Tom you did label me Two-Pricks in later life, so I think you got me back already!
We recorded two songs in four hours with two hippy guys who clearly didn’t like us and who smoked grass all the way through the sessions. The songs were called Faraway Illusions and Almost Sure You Know, and someday when I die, I look forward to hearing those recordings in the room where all the odd socks go. That was Point Blank.

++ What are your first music memories?

My brothers and sisters all had records, I’m from a large family of 11 kids, and I’m in the middle. So I grew up with music ranging from The Beatles and T Rex to Val Doonican and Jim Reeves – I didn’t really like any of it in any real sense (I’ve only recently listened to The Beatles White Album for the first time in my life properly ) – my first actual moment that I
realised the power of music was when I saw The Sex Pistols on Top Of The Pops in 1977, that changed everything for me.

++ What kind of music was heard at home?

What was your first instrument? Guitar. I bought my first guitar for 50 pounds off a guy in 1979. It was a Gibson SG but I hadn’t a clue about the value of guitars, I just wanted to be able to own one of my own, nobody I knew had one. I don’t remember how I met the guy, must have been an ad in the papers, that’s how everything was done then. That guitar must have either been worth a fortune, or else I was robbed, I suspect the latter, anyway I lost it and bought a brand new Westbury thing, which I loved because it was purple. I’ve never had a ‘nice’ guitar, but I have had guitars I’ve loved, especially a red Aria Pro 11 copy of a Gibson 323 semi – amazing feedback, and really light. Oh, sorry, my main guitar is my acoustic, a Yamaha that everybody tells me is shit, but which I love, and which I’ve written almost my entire life’s work on – I bought it in 1983 when it was new, and recently somebody told me it was a vintage, I laughed. I’m a f**king vintage.
My friends in Blink bought me two nice guitars for my 50 th a few years ago. Whereabouts in Dublin were you based? Nutgrove,Southside – harder than anywhere on the North Side ha ha ha

++ How was it back then?

Very exciting, tons of bands, I was young, life is exciting when you’re young – it stays pretty exciting too later.

++ Were there any venues or places you liked to hang out?

The Baggot Inn and The Underground were the best known ones – but my starting out venue was really The Ivy Rooms – all the big bands in 1983 played there – someday I’ll get to relay just how exciting a time that was. Don’t let anybody tell you how grim the 80’s were, we might have struggled, but the world was new, and even though there was always the threat of nuclear war, and we were buried underneath a catholic veil with no real job prospects, people like me thought they could escape through music, and there was enough of us to support each other, just by competing with each other even maybe – it took everything we had to be ourselves – even being in a band was considered ridiculous then, but my family were a great support, and that’s all that ever really mattered in the end. I had my 21 st birthday party in the Ivy Rooms, and my 50th in Whelans – that says it all really I suppose.

++ Any bands that you followed?

Aslan, The Blades, Auto Da Fe, Toy With Rhythym, and of course U2.

++ So how did Empty Shell start?

Started in a scout hall in Raheny, me, Neil and a drummer called Redser, his real name was Dave.

++ What year was it?

1982

++ How did you know the rest of the band members?

We met through Hot Press magazine musicians wanted section – it was a pretty terrifying ordeal for me meeting these lads for yet another audition – I was brutal at auditions – so trhis time round I convinced the lads they were auditioning for me, and that’s how it got started. I remember the feeling of playing with the band, the power of the noise we made, holy shit that was a highlight right there! I still have rehearsal room cassettes from those rehearsals – the scout hall got burnt down at one point, and we had to start rehearsing in Dublin City centre, Alan Furlong’s place, and that was where we entered into a ‘scene’ of sorts, where you’d see other ‘real’ bands rehearsing, and you’d realise you had a lot of work to do!

++ Why the name Empty Shell? 

Nuclear Shell

++ Your only release came out in 1986. At the time in the British isles there was an explosion of guitar pop. Did you feel at any point part of a scene?

We don’t say British Isles in my house, but the culture is still very much there, bands like The Cure, Sex Pistols, Stranglers, Souixsy all started around end 70’s and affected me greatly Who would you say were your influences in Empty Shell?

++ What do you remember for the recording session for this 7″?

The recording was after the band had actually split up and I was sick waiting for other musicians to get my life started, so I booked myself and Ellen in to record that song, I ended up playing bass, and we used the other guys images etc on the sleeve, but in truth that band had dissolved into a holding pattern while I worked on Rex & Dino.

++ Where was it? Did it take long?

We recorded it in Paul Thomas’s house, he had engineered U2’s first 2 albums, and in fairness to him he was a good guy in the end.

++ I’ve always been curious about the photo on the 7″ sleeve. Where did that come from?

That guy on the sleeve is a legendary figure in Irish culture, his name is Arthur Fields and you should google him – in 1986 he was locally known, but nobody realised how important he was to so many lives – he agreed to be in the shot if we agreed to let hoim shoot us, unfortunately I’ve no idea where that photo might be.

++ At that time did you have a big repertoire? Perhaps you had already put out some demo tapes?

Not a big repertoire, although the band was in it’s second life-cycle with half new members – the earlier cycle to be fair was a better band I think – that version of Empty Shell had a different singer Declan, who was a great vocalist, and we recorded a few demos, good ones like – I’m tryinmg to get my hands on these – we also did a Fanning Sesssion in Jan 1985 which was very exciting, and RTE say it’s in ‘Deep Archive’.

++ Tell me about gigs, I found that you played at the Roundstown Town Hall in Galway only, but I’m sure you played many more! Did you remember any in particular? Any fun anecdotes you could share?

Yep, three hours beyond Galway in the summer of 1986 we played that date you mentioned, about a six hour drive, no roads in Ireland in the 80’s – when we tried selling 7’ singles after the show, well actually my two younger brothers Terree and Ken were the sales division that day – we were greeted by much laughter, as the locals said they didn’t have record players, the funny thing is though, that nobody has record players now either!
What would you say was your best and your worst gig?

++ What about press or radio in general? Did Empty Shell get much attention? TV? 

We got bits and bobs, we did a few TV things and I don’t know if they exist in ‘Deep Arcxhive’ anywhere, but every paragraph was hard earned, and that single actually got slated on it’s first Hot Press review, I was heart broken!

++ Are you still in touch with the rest of Empty Shell?

Alas not. If so, what are you guys up to these days?

++ If you had to look back in time, what would you say would be the biggest highlight for Empty Shell?

Empty Shell had some highlights that none of my other bands had, we were in the first wave of dreaming, and the dream seemed always close – I will always remember my brother Aiden, and Ellen, Kevin Power, Declan, Neil, Ricky, a flat in Booterstown, The Trinity Ball of 1985, a mad night in Mason’s Laboratory on Crane lane where we rehearsed after the scientist had gone home (true story), trying to decide how we’d look by looking through Face Magazine in Aiden’s house, hand-painting posters that we would then paste up all over Dublin on a midnight poster run (ask any band about this, these were truly fun times) and it always seemed possible, everything was possible.

++ And you are still in Dublin, right? I’ve never been, so wondering if you’d recommend any guitar pop tourists some cool places to check out? What would be the traditional food not to miss? Or up and coming bands that you like?

Well if you want recommendations on new music, I’m probably the
bestr person to talk to, I run Garageland, a National project for emerging Irish Artists,
and it endlessly excites me how some new musicians have exactly the lust for life that
music always gave me. Check it all out on www.garageland.ie

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Listen
Emtpy Shell – If Heavens Waiting

So for the past month Monday, Wednesday and Friday have become the busiest days of the week for me. I’m publishing a blog post on these days, five or so new bands or indiepop news featured plus a whole archaeology work on a band from the past. But also before doing that, early in the morning I’ve been swimming. I’ve taken again swimming after almost 20 years. And I feel knackered!

Now, here a few new finds on the web and continuing the reviews from Wales Goes Pop!

Ta Toy Boy: there’s a very fine album called “This Town” by this Thessaloniki, Greece, band available from the Make Me Happy label. I was shared more than a month ago the tracks and thought it sounded great, but the band didn’t have an online presence so couldn’t really share with all of you! Anyhow, now they have a Bandcamp and you can stream the 9 songs from the CD. The band is formed by George Begas and Elias Smilios. Now, I need to get a copy of this lovely record that takes the best influences from the 80s guitar pop. And you should too!

Golden Teardrops: some very good news by the Mexican label Emma’s House. They will be releasing a new album by the California band Golden Teardrops that is actually Ryan and Leo Marquez! Remember Ryan from Apple Orchard? Yes, yes, the same one! This new album is titled “Promises & Smiles” and it sounds lovely, reminding me a lot of The Charade or The Shermans. It is going to be released on May 23rd and will include 12 songs. At the moment you can only stream two of the songs to be included, “For a Rainy Day” and “You’re Keeping Me Waiting”. I urge you to do so.

Jaggy Nettles: Actually was playing The Felt Tips first album the other day and was wondering what the band members were up to now and suddenly I get a Facebook invite from Andrew to the fanpage of Jaggy Nettles. So it seems this is his new alter ego, his new solo project. And it seems he is planning to record seven fairy tale songs for an upcoming album. The first one is “The Gingerbread Man”, which you can listen if you click on the link!

Soft Science: found a bunch of great sounding recordings by this band on the SoundCloud of their own label, Test Pattern Records. I especially fell under the spell of their cover of Northern Picture Library’s “Paris”. It is gorgeous! It seems this song is part of a single, where “Sooner” is the A side. It is important to notice that this band has members of classic Californian bands like California Oranges or the underrated Holiday Flyer. Really good stuff! I want a copy of it!

—-  Discovering Wales Goes Pop 2018 bands reviews —–

Bad Parents: one from the Wales Goes Pop. Still going through all the bands, and I know there are many many left. Most of them I must say are unknown to me, and so far, sadly, I haven’t found any pop. I’ll do two bands today, maybe there’s some luck with my poppy cravings! Bad Parents are a duo formed by Misty Miller and Tom Shelton. From London. They have recorded a 4-song EP and they have self-titled it. The sons on it are “Room To Grow”, “Sailing”, “You Can’t Date a Model” and “Peckham”. The first one being the poppiest, and my favourite. The EP was released a year ago. Not sure where you can buy it now.

Think Pretty: this Cardiff band terrorized me. Honestly. Screaming, and way too much distortion. So far, 5 bands. And not seeing yet where Wales went pop! Will the next bands I listen change my idea of the festival? Sure, there were Colour Me Wednesday and Shonen Knife in that same lineup for the Sunday gig, but two out 9 seems too little for me! Or maybe the Saturday gig was the poppiest one? Maybe those who attended can tell me which were your favourite bands?

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I finally finished my collection of 7″s by The Imaginary Friend a week ago. I was missing their first ever 7″, the 1996 “Leaves” 7″ that was released by Bad Jazz (BEBOP 6) and thought, these were very fine songs, how come not many remember them today? Also, how come I know nothing really about the people involved in this band? It was time to do some detective work. See what I can find about them on the web.

As mentioned, “Leaves” was their first 7″. I notice that the band 7″ single titles aren’t the same as the songs included in them. For example, in this 7″, the A side was “On Satsuma Road (A Song For Dan)” and on the B side there is a beautiful cover of Rodney Allen’s “Glastonbury”. Speaking of Rodney Allen, how come there hasn’t been a compilation of all of his recorded output yet? That is truly a mystery to me!

This record on the back sleeve has “nineteen ninety-nine” written. Now I start to be confused. Discogs lists the 7″ as a 1996 release. But it would make more sense if this was released in 1999. Which is correct? It makes more sense to me as this is an English label, and the band was American. The other two releases by the band were in an American label. Logically it would have been first an American label and then an English one. Right?

All the songs on this 7″ were recorded on a four-track at their home. There is not much more information on this record sadly.

The band was mostly associated with the Grand Rapids, Michigan, label Drive-In Records. On Mike Babb’s label they put out two 7″s in the 90s. The first one was the 1997 “Letters Home” (Drive 17) that had a very nice blue, white and yellow artwork. There were two songs on this record, on the A side the beautiful “Brighton Beach Postcard” and a cover version of Lucinda Williams’ “Side of the Road”. These songs were also recorded and mixed at their home on a four track.

Lastly their 7″ “Whimsy” (Drive 06) was also released in 1997 and had two songs, on the A side we find “Marigold” and on the B side a superb cover of The Magick Heads’ “Hear From You”. Gosh, how underrated are The Magick Heads! Robert Scott, why not a reunion tour for that band?

Here on the credits it is mentioned that the songs were recorded during the spring of 1996 at The Institute Benjamentos which I feel might as well be their home and named after the “Institute Benjamenta” 1996 movie by the Brothers Quay which was based on the novel “Jakob Von Gunten” by Robert Walser. The artwork textures are credited to John Conley while the photography to Pat Phipps.

I feel I went through the records in reverse order. My bad. The two compilation appearances listed won’t have any problems as both are from 1998.

On the Cowly Owl compilation “Pop Machine” which was featured on the blog some months ago thanks that it was uploaded to Bandcamp. On this tape comp released by this Paris/Sacramento label the band contributed “Brighton Beach Postcard”. And then their song “Don’t Shout at Me” appears on another compilation I was talking about just some days ago, “The Family Twee”, which was a double CD comp that was made by participating members of the indiepop-list.

I don’t know much more. Yet.

I am going to be terribly lucky when I hit on Buddha on the Moon’s Bandcamp the upload of “Letters Home (Plus)”. Here there are the two songs from the “Letters Home” 7″ plus two more: “Brighton Beach Postcard (Sonar Ping Mix)” and “I Was Born on Christmas Day”. The first was actually the mix that was released on the “Pop Machine” compilation. The second is a cover of the Saint Etienne original which the band sent to their friends as part of a Seasons Greetings card. It had a cheery intro and outro included in that Greetings cassette where their friend Pat impersonated an MTV VJ. Thanks to this Bandcamp link I find out that the band was formed by Nan & HK. Who were Nan and HK? Well, HK seems to be an obvious answer, it was HK Kahng from the band Buddha on the Moon. What about Nan? Could it be Nancy Novotny who used to appear on Buddha on the Moon recordings doing additional vocals?

On this same Bandcamp I find a “Plus” version too for the “Leaves” 7″. Aside from the two songs from the 7″, there is “Glastonbury (Alternate Mix)” and “Theme from Boxville”. The first song of the 7″, “On Satsuma Road (A Song for Dan)”, is said to have been through multiple mixes. The Dan the song is about is said to be the fellow who brought HK and Nan together and who also runs a record store. The alternate mix of “Glastonbury” is one with much more guitar, ping pong delay and reverb. Then the “Theme from Boxville” is a cover of The Sugargliders.

Sadly there is no “Whimsy (Plus)” version.

Something interesting here is that I see that these releases on Bandcamp are tagged as if the band hailed from Portland. As far as I know the band used to be from Houston even though I’ve seen them listed on blogs as Australian or even British.

Then another interesting find is that of the band Spectral Lines. Here we see HK and Nan together making music, and there is just one song called “Tempus Venit Placide” available to stream.

It seems they were more of a bedroom project. I wonder if the band played live at all. What about other compilation appearances? It seems they had more recordings other than the ones that appear on 7″s. Why weren’t there more releases? And what happened in between The Imaginary Friend and Spectral Lines? Would be good to know more about them!

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Listen
The Imaginary Friend – Brighton Beach Postcard