I’m looking for information about the Irish band The Panic Merchants. I want to listen to their music. How do they sound like? I only know the name as they were on a compilation I don’t own but I know of and that has many bands I like: “Comet LP Two”.

On that compilation released in 1987 the band contributed the song “Retro”. This compilation released by Comet Records (COME 2 TP) included great bands like Cypress, Mine!, Azure Days or The Practical Householders.

“Retro” was recorded at Slane Recording Studios in Navan with production and engineering by John Dee.

But that wasn’t the only release by the band. In 1990 they put out a tape with 3 songs. It was self-released and was titled “Firewalking EP” and included the same tracks on both sides. These were “Stop Loving You”, “Ghost Town” and “Honeymoon”.

But I am lucky. I was going to listen to some of their songs. Not from these releases but from a demo that the band recorded in 1986/87. There are three songs on that demo that we know, “Retro”, “Happy Home” and “Swamp”. These were uploaded by the always fantastic blog “Fanning Sessions“. What a great resource that is. I wish there was something like this for English bands, or Scottish bands, and so on.

Here I also learn some more information about the band. The band was based in Dublin but originally came from Cavan and Donegal. It also says that the band went thru two phases. The first one in the mid 80s and then in the early 90s. Did their sound change?

The band was formed by Justin Kelly on vocals, David Meagher on guitar, Paddy Glackin on bass and Noel Larkin on drums. Aidan McNamara would replace Glackin in 1989 and Stephen Farrell on keyboards would join in 1990.

It seems they were offered to do a Fanning Session but that never happened.

Other than that there is a cool flyer of a gig where they were going to play Grattan in Capel St on a Friday June 21st of who knows which year.

Interesting too is that the band used to have a Myspace. That of course doesn’t work and doesn’t have any info or music now.

According to IrishRock.org the band had more unreleased music, including a 7” that was slated to be released in 1991 including the songs “Swerve” and “Justice”.

Anyone has any more details about them?

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
The Panic Merchants – Happy Home

Now a nice discovery from the late 80s in Florida. In the college town of Gainesville where the University of Florida is.  The name of the band was Tactile Cinema and on Soundcloud there is an 8 track album of the same name.

The account is under the name of gogoray, possibly then someone called Ray. Based in Atlanta. Atlanta is not that far from Gainesville. Possibly moved after studying in UF? Would make sense, Tactile Cinema a band formed by students of the university. Seems plausible.

The songs in the album are “Goat Horns”, “Christian (clean mix)”, “Message”, “Momentum”, “Torn Voices”, “Life of Questions”, “Christian (original cheese mix)” and “Do You Remember Me”. Because of the two songs with different mixes, I feel this was not a proper album back in the day. Probably something assembled with all recordings of the band for the digital era.

I find an article by Lorena Haldeman about the Gainesville Music Scene. The article dates from March 10, 2004. There is no mention of the band in the article, but there is on the comments section. I don’t learn much about them sadly, but learn names of other bands from the same period. Then an article on the Orlando Sentinel from November 2, 1990. On that one I learn that the band played a gig that same night at the Filling Station in Orlando with another Gainesville band called What Ann Likes.

The band has a superb sound. Especially the song “Message”is a true wonder. So yeah, you want to figure out why they went under the radar at the time. No records released.

I couldn’t find band member names or anything else about them. Anyone remember Tactile Cinema?

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Tactile Cinema – Message

I have written about many of the Shelflife CD-R series releases on the blog. It is a beloved series of 12 CDRs that the American label released between 2002 and 2003 where they introduced a lot of bands that at the time weren’t well known. The first of these releases was from a band called Pololeo. Do you remember it?

I want to say their name comes from the Chilean expression of pololeo which is a colloquial term for a romantic relationship or dating. It refers to the state of having a pololo (boyfriend) or polola (girlfriend). Could it be?

The band’s only release was this CDR. It was titled “Our Town” and came out in 2002 (CD-R Series #001). It was limited to 100 hand-numbered copies and had five tracks, “Malvern Rd.”, “Rhodes Ave.”, “Crosby Rd.”, “Glendale Rd.” and “Aquaduct St.”. Is it a misspelling the last street? Wouldn’t it be aqueduct? Also quite interesting that all songs are named after roads or streets. Maybe it is a real town?

The band was a duo. A married duo. Denise Grollmus who is a journalist, teacher, writer, literary and cultural studies scholar, designer and translator. She has a website. The other half was Patrick Carney. On Discogs there is some more info about him. He hails from Akron, Ohio, and was the drummer of The Black Keys. He was in bands like Blakroc, Churchbuilder, Drummer, Sad Planets and even The Rentals.

This couple would later divorce.

It is also worth noting that not only Patrick was in Churchbuilder, Denise was too. Both of them were in this band that released an album and EP on Shelflife. This is how their relationship with the label started.

I find Malvern Rd and Rhodes Ave. in Akron. Crosby Rd. doesnt exist but there’s a Crosby St. There is also a Glendale Ave. but not a Glendale Rd. Aquaduct St isn’t there either, but Aqueduct St. does exist.

There’s not much more info about the band. I would think they were more of a studio band, and that these were their only recordings. But if you have more info please share!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Pololeo – Rhodes Ave.

It’s taken years, more than a decade, for me to write this post. I’ve been enjoying Downy Mildew’s records for such a long time, it is time now.

What made me write about them was that I’ve been reading the book “Miracles and Wonders: A Meandering, Cacophonous Concordance of The Jazz Butcher Songbook” by the late Pat Fish and Philip Snow. I’m only on the first chapters and I discover The Jazz Butcher were very good friends with the Californian band Downy Mildew. They toured together and all.

This made me curious again. I have both Downy Mildew’s albums on CD. They are great. I know there are a few other records, and even though I don’t have them (yet), you can listen to them online.

When I listen to the song “Burnt Bridges” I get the chills. I have DJed this track a few times in the past. It is such an indiepop hit. Should have been big. “Purple Parlor” is another favorite of mine. Start with these two.

The band was formed in Los Angeles in 1984 according to Wikipedia. I always though they hailed from San Luis Obispo. Discogs says they hailed from the latter. The band would be active until 1995.

The band’s classic lineup was Jenny Homer on guitar and vocals, Charlie Baldonado on vocals and guitar, Nancy McCoy on bass guitar and Mike Marasse on drums.

Marasse won’t appear on the band’s first recording. Instead we see Jason Kahn on drums credits on their first EP, a self-titled one released by the label Texas Hotel (Texas Hotel 1) in 1986. This 12″ had four songs, “Experience in the Far Southwest” and “The Drive” on the A side and “Purple Parlor” and “Bad Dream” on the B side.

The following year the band releases “Broomtree” their debut album. It comes out on Texas Hotel (Texas Hotel 4) in the US and also on Glass Records (GLALP 025) in the UK. The record has 10 songs, “Frown Song”, “The Kitchen Pt. III”, “Good Dream” and “Hollow Girl” on the A side and “Ocean Motorkid”, “Burnt Bridges”, “That’s Enough of That”, “Sally Pt. II” and “Everybody’s Gone”. On this record we do see Marasse on drums. So this is the classic lineup and perhaps the finest moment of the band. The songs, mainly penned by Baldonado and Homer are terrific. They are engineered by Earle Mankey and mastered by John Golden. On the credits we se that Jenny Homer played violin, that Nancy McCoy played cello, Mike Marasse played autoharp. It is indeed a record with lots of interesting and pretty arrangements. One to discover new bits every time you listen.

The art is also quite cool. The band put it together with the help of Jeff Gans. There is a mystery here to me. It says on Discogs this little piece of info for the Glass release: “Label: movie still from “Texarkana March” by J.M. Stipe. Thanks also to Liz, Crash, Monalia, Jamie, Jeff, Susan, Randy and thanks especially to michael meister for EVERYTHING.” I am curious about this Texarkana March movie. On the label I see a band photo. I couldn’t find information about this movie.

The CD version of this album would be released in 1993 by High Street Records in the US. This release would include 4 more songs, yes, you guessed it, the same ones from the “Downy Mildew” EP.

In 1988 the band releases “Mincing Steps” on Texas Hotel (TXH 10). This time it comes out in vinyl and cassette. It includes once again 10 tracks, “Offering”, “Turning Yourself Around”, “Tangled Ladders”, “Six Flights” and “Floorboard” on the A side and “The Big Surprise”, “Misfortune”, “Inside Her House”, “Flower Song” and “All Is Not Well in this House” on the flipside.

On this release we see John Hofer replacing Marasse as the drummer. Also Salvador Garza contributes violin and cello. he would later join the band full time. Marie Homer, I suppose sister of Jenny, plays flute on “Misfortune”.

High Street Records would again release the CD version in 1993. This time no bonus tracks. One thing that is cool and interesting is that there was a promo video made for the song “Offering” that was directed by Michael Stipe from R.E.M.

In 1992 the band releases “Cool Nights”. This 7″ single on Triple X Records includes the title song on the A side and a cover of the Bacharach/David song “Walk on By” and a mash up of “Sunday Morning” by the Velvet Underground and “Leaving on a Jet Plane” by John Denver. The A side is produced by Andy Gill from Gang of Four.

High Street releases in 1992 another album, “An Oncoming Train”, on cassette and CD. No vinyl. Ten songs again, “An Oncoming Train”, “A Borrowed Chant”, “Trading Jewels”, “Elevator”, “Twice Told Tale”, “Six Months is a Long Time”, “Seconds Protest”, “Melissa, I Know the Difference”, “Sleep!” and “Child”. There is a promo CD-single too with the track “An Oncoming Train” and nothing else.

“Elevator” is picked as the single to promote the album. In 1992 a CDEP is released by High Street Records with the tracks “Elevator (Album Version)”, “Cool Nights (Triple X 7″Single Version)”, “‘Til I Die” (cover of The Beach Boys) and “Lady Day and John Coltrane (Live)”. This last one more being a well known song by Gil Scott-Heron and recorded by the band live at Club Lingerie in Hollywood. Rob Jacobs is the drummer on “Elevator” and “‘Til I Die”. John Hofer drums the other two.

1993 the label High Street Records promotes the band to the radios with a compilation of songs of different releases. “Left Foot Down” gives the name to the promo sampler and it is also the opening track that will be included in the forthcoming album “Slow Sky”. Then there are “The Kitchen”, “Six Months is a Long Time”, “Offering”, “Sally Pt. II” and “An Oncoming Train”, all of these songs included in previously released records.

“Slow Sky” releases in 1994. Again on High Street Records. This label was a subsidiary of Windham Hill Records that was mainly focused on singer/songwriters. Eventually the label was merged with BMG.

This time around the band has 14 new songs, “Your Blue Eye”, “Left Foot Down”, “Release”, “A Polka Dot-Scarved Woman”, “Girls by the Lake”, “A Liar Needs a Good Memory”, “That He Wrote”, “Them That Dream”, “Machine”, “Sidewinding Home”, “Don’t Change Your Mind” and “I Remember Yesterday”. The songs were recorded at two studios, Somnambulist and Simon’s Ghost.

These songs were mixed by Tchad Blake.

On the credits we see some new names, James Brenner playing bass, Janine Cooper, formerly from Pet Clarke who replaces Nancy McCoy, also playing bass and Greg Adamson playing cello.

Catherine Lorenz and Marina Chavez took the nice photography and Catherine designed the artwork.

But that’s not all they left us. They also appeared on many compilations. Though they are not exclusive songs, they all appeared in their releases.

In 1988 their song “Frown Song” gets included in a tape and CD compilation called “All-Ears Review Volum 1 (The Hottest New Sounds from African to Jazz to Rock to Zydeco)” released by ROM Records. That same year “Offering” appears on “Texas Hotel: Big Yard” a cassette sampler by the Texas Hotel label (Acre One).

1992 their song “An Oncoming Train” appears on “The BMG Collection 1992 Volume 1” triple CD compilation and also on “The Album Network Tune Up In-Store Play Edition” a CD comp by The Album Network and on “Rockamerica Aug. 1992” by Rockamerica and “Spin This” a CD sampler that came with Spin Magazine. “Six Months is a Long Time” is on “Expand-O CD Tune Up 29” on The Album Network CD compilation and also on “CMJ Presents Certain Damage! Volume 44” that the College Music Journal put together that year. “Elevator” is on “The Album Network TuneUp In-Store Play Edition 8”, another compilation on compact disc by The Album Network.

“The Kitchen” appears on “The Best of the Fest 1993 – A Sampler of Great Music” that BMG put together on CD to promote their music.

“Left Foot Down” is on 1994’s “Par-Spectives #5 Winter ’94” released by Par-Spectives. That same year we see “Left Foot Down” on “We Sing to Open Ears” that their label High Street Records releases and “The Album Network TuneUp In-Store Play, Number 26: March 1994”. “Them That Dream” appears on “Select Sounds Vol. 2: Audio Companion to the Windham Hill Occasional” released by the parent label Windham Hill Records.

Lastly in 2020 the band gets to be in the double LP or double CD compilation “Strum & Thrum: The American Jangle Underground 1983-1987” that Captured Tracks (CT-302) put together. Even though I never liked this label I thought this was a good effort for people to rediscover the bands in it. Just wish they had made a series out of this, there is a ton of great indiepop in the US that could get a new life. Anyhow, the band included the very nice “Purple Parlor” in this compilation.

Where are they now? Well Charlie Baldonado continues making music and you can check his latest, a 2018 album called “An Accidental Universe” on his own website. Jenny Homer seems to have been involved in a band called Tinsel Bunny who released a CD album called “The Circle is Green” in 2002. John Hofer, who I learn was originally from Nebraska, played on Oranger, The Freewheelers and The Mother Hips.

About Salvador I didn’t find any other music projects, but something music related as he married violinist Mary Ramsey, one of the funders of the 10,000 Maniacs, in 2001.

And that’s what I could find. I wonder if there are unreleased songs. And I also wonder if they toured extensively or just California. Actually I have many questions. Would be nice to find out more about them. They were around for more than 10 years. I’m sure they have many stories to tell.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Downy Mildew – Burnt Bridges

Who were Automobile? There are just three songs on Soundcloud, “Yours Sincerely“, “Watchfiend” and “Stayin’ In” that have been uploaded by a user called Martin McIntyre. There is no information about band members, no information about when these songs were recorded, nor where.

The only hint we get here is the other uploads Martin has in here. They are by Irish bands like Guernica, Raging Gaels, The Ambition or The Clampets. So it is fair to assume Automobile hailed from Ireland.

I dig a little bit more. Martin was part of The Clampets. He was also the drummer for The Ambition. Was he part of Automobile? it is very possible. According to the description of his account all the recordings he has uploaded have him playing drums. I didn’t know though that he had been part of Guernica who I have written in the past.

Automobile are not listed in the Irishrock.org site. There is no information about them. But the songs are really good. You wonder why there were no releases or at least more information online. But I’m hoping someone remembers them and can help fill in the blanks!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Automobile – Yours Sincerely

Here is yet another Swedish band from the 2000s that I can’t remember much at all and I’m hoping someone can help me with information about them, The Summernights.

Not sure if they named themselves after the song from the Grease movie. Or perhaps because of Swedish summer nights where there is almost endless daylight. Not sure.

What I know is that they had presence on Myspace. And there they uploaded four songs, “Paradis”, “Belong”, “Your Love” and “In the Rain”. The first one dating from 2005 while the rest from 2006. Today you can only find the song “Belong” online.

I try to find more information. I think the band hailed from Gothenburg. But that’s really all I could find. I can’t find a name for anyone involved in the band. I have a slight suspicion that whoever was behind this project was also in other bands at the time, that The Summernights was more of a side-project.

Anyhow, anyone remember them? Would love and try to remember how the other three recordings sound like.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
The Summernights – Belong

During the heyday of DIY indiepop in Sweden there were so many great bands. I have covered many on the blog and the list will probably never end. There’s been effort to compile and document some of this great music. But with the rise of digital music I feel this will never happen. Who will buy compilations after compilations of very obscure music these days? Seems very unlikely for anyone to invest on a project like that. A shame really.

One of the very good bands from that period was Dreams End from Gothenburg. I was reminded of them when I was looking and scrolling at this Johan Jacobsson’s instagram about indie memorabilia. He had posted a photo of the fanzine Wish I was a Josef Storm fanzine. On the front cover of this zine the name of Dreams End is listed along some other names like The Lotus Eaters, Harper Lee or Rocky Dennis among others.

As mentioned they hailed from the west of Sweden. The band was formed by Olof Larsson, Per Beijer, Thomas Thulin and Jonatan Malm. Per was the bassist, Jonatan and Thomas were on guitar, Olof sang. He also is listed as the one who wrote all the songs.

There is a self-released CD-R that probably was released either in 2002 or 2003 with 7 tracks. I think this is the first release of the band. The songs were “She Touched My Hand”, “Showdown”, “Cold Fight”, “Love”, “Death Disco”, “Linda” and “Angel Ride”. Important to note that “She Touched My Hand”, “Linda” and “Death Disco” are early versions of the songs that would later be properly released.

Another CDR from the same period is the “Baby/Laken” one. This one had five tracks, “Baby”, “Showdown”, “Laken”, “Never Never” and “Never Again”. Never had the chance to listen to any of these tracks.

“Death Disco” 7″ came out in 2004. It was on the Smashing Time (SMT-007) label, a label that as you may know would later transform into Luxury Records. On this 7″ the band had three songs, “Death Disco” and “If You Could Only Know” on the A side and “Linda” on the B side.

Lastly they would release a 7″ on Dolores Recordings as part of their singles club. It was a split 7″ with the band Hospitalle who I have written in the past. The catalog number of this record was Dol 164 and it was also number 34 in the singles club.

Dreams End contributed the song “She Touched My Hand” on the A side. Hospitalle had “Let’s Not Tell Our Sad Stories”. 300 copies of this record were made. It is a good one.

The band also appeared on some compilations. All CDR. The first is the 2005 comp “Popkonst, Love & Understanding” (POPK12) with the song “Death Disco”. Then in 2006 that same song appears on “Live På Join Our Club!” which was a celebration of bands that had played this Gothenburg club which includes bands Im familiar with like My Darling YOU!, Strip Squad or Compute. And lastly in 2009 they had the song “Never Shy” on Series Two Records compilation “Series Two Compilation Vol. 17” (ST45).

Looking for more info I find an article on Göteborgs-Posten, a newspaper in their town. The article dates from October 20, 2005. There it is mentioned that the band’s album was to be released around that time but sadly their label (was it Smashing Time?) was struggling with money and couldn’t put it out. It is a shame… would have loved to hear that. I suppose the songs were recorded?

Other than that we learn about his influences, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Broder Daniel and Cyndi Lauper. He also couldn’t remember where the band’s name came from…

If they were on other bands after they spli? I could find that Jonatan would later be on Jesus/Baby. On Discogs the other members don’t have any other bands listed.

And then I lose their trail. I wonder if there’s a chance to listen to all of their unreleased songs. Would be fantastic!

EDIT – Jens Wall, a reader on Facebook, shared with me a Soundcloud link for Olof Larsson! I didn’t know this existed. Very cool. Here there are Dreams Ends demos including “Roses” (from 2002), “Baby” (2002), “Cold Fligh“, “Julian” and “Vingar” which is dated as of January 8th of 2017. This last one must be a reunion recording? Or Olof solo? Also check out some other recordings by him!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Dreams End – She Touched My Hand

Sundsvall, Sweden. The mid 80s. A band called Common Sense plays indiepop and releases in 1986 a very fine single with “Eye to Eye” as the A side.

This record is listed on Discogs. Probably self-released as no label is listed. The B-side is “Sweet Surprise”. We also know that the songs were recorded in the autumn of 1986 at Alpha Recording Sweden.

The band is formed by Carl Sandberg on vocals, Peter Svedin on guitar, Thomas Johansson on bass and Niclas Holmgren on drums. The songs are produced by someone with last name Svensson. This same Scensson arranges and performs strings on the songs.

There are no other releases nor compilation appearances.

There is a photo of the band on the front sleeve of the record. Then there are individual photos of the band members on the back.

There is a venue in their town called Pipeline. They will perform 3 times there. The first time in August 22 of 1986  alongside Blue Parade, Krunch and The Grisblinkers. The second time would be on October 25, 1986 with The Congress. Lastly on December 26 of the same year they play with Brufords, Fyrtiosju, Crompojkarna and Red Marut Blues Band.

The website Blaskoteket has a post about them. It seems to be an interview from February of 1987 with Niclas Holmgren, the drummer. He mentions that their influences are The Smiths, Lloyd Cole and Prefab Sprout. He says too that “Eye to Eye” is a promotional single for the English market. Did that work at all? Did they get any attention? Would be good to find out. According to Niclas they were going to Stockholm for a promotional gig, maybe they were going to check them out there. Then the plan was to go and meet representatives in London.

That’s all there is about them online as far as I know. If anyone has more details about this really good sounding band let me know!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Common Sense – Eye to Eye

My last post was about Chubb, a band from the early 90s that I discovered on Soundcloud that had 3 very nice songs. That same Soundcloud account had a bunch more songs from a previous project called Chic & Vinny.

Chic was the vocalist and guitar played on Chubb, Vinny was the bassist. This was clearly their previous band.

One thing I couldn’t figure out was where they hailed from. I had the idea they were from around Manchester or even as far away as Liverpool. Their recordings were done in Macclesfield.

For Chic & Vinny there are more recordings, we find Braincell Blues which has some cool trumpets by guest player Colin Duff, “Futile” which is a top track that I could imagine in many compilation tapes from the time,

The recordings were made by Hursty at Station House in New Brighton in 1986.

Interesting enough they have rerecorded “Futile” in 2020. It is uploaded in their Soundcloud. They say that they did this as the original version had damage. They also slowed down this new version.

There are two other tracks that was recorded in 2020, while on lockdown. They are “Edelweiss” which is the band’s tribute to a local band with that same name and “Forever“.

Then in 2021 Chic and Vinny continued recording. Each recording at their own home their parts. In 2021 they wrote and recorded “Thought for a Day“. Here I discover thanks to the credits that Chic’s real name is Cliff Williams. Maybe he used Chic to not be confused with Cliff Williams from AC/DC?

And lastly there’s “Walking My Way” that is undated but clearly is from this latter period, not the 80s.

Not much more information if you google about them. So I think we’ll have to wait if by any chance we hear from the people in the band. I look forward to learn more about Chic & Vinny!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Chic & Vinny – Futile

I’m checking out a Soundcloud account called BoyfromChubb. Why? Because I’ve find out about the band Chubb which recorded some demos in the early 90s that sound quite good! Let’s see what information there is…

First thing I notice is that there are a ton of songs. I’m mainly interested in the tracks by Chubb. There are a few: “I Need Your Love“, “Arctic Cathartic” and “Trainsurfing“.

By clicking on these songs I find out that the band was mainly a three-piece formed by Chic on vocals and guitar, Corky or Mike on guitar and backing vocals and Vin on bass. Then there is some information about where these songs. All songs were recorded by someone called Duffy in Macclesfield around 1992. Corky plays guitar on “I Need Your Love” and Mike on the two other songs.

Then there are a ton of songs by Chic & Vinny as a duo. This project seems to predate Chubb and have a very good sound! I should dedicate my next post to them. But I’m here thanks to “Trainsurfing” which is great. I look at the location where it was recorded, Macclesfield. They could hail from there, or also from somewhere close by like Manchester, even Liverpool. Who would know?

Sadly I can’t find more information without last names of the band members. The name of the band doesn’t help either. I get lots of hip-hop results, go figure.

Anyhow, I want to think there are readers in the north of England that might remember them and would have a clue about them. If so, leave me a comment on the blog!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Chubb – Trainsurfing