It was a busy weekend for me with work. I hoped to reorganize my records but didn’t have the time. Also I wasn’t in the right mindset for that. It takes a special mood to move boxes around and put the 7″s in alphabetical order. I also don’t seem to have enough space now for LPs. I have my furniture for this format already full. What to do? It’s a complicated situation in NYC. Space is a luxury. Should I move to Jersey? That doesn’t sound that exciting. I like being close to the action, even though with the pandemic there hasn’t been much going on!!

Some good finds today:

Silver Biplanes: this is really amazing, and I missed it. Just 25 copies. Way too little. I am sure more than 25 people would want this. Two songs by a new combo formed by Tim from The Razorcuts and Vanessa of The Melons. Wow! The one song you can preview, “Think Again”, is fantastic. At least it says that the two songs on the 7″ lathe cut will be available on a 2023 album. Let’s hope so!!

Barry: another project from London. Barry are Mark, Kathy, Helen and Bart. They released a 7″ last February with two catchy and punchy songs, “Neolithic Homosex” and “No More Boys”. The 7″ is still available and if you don’t believe me how good these songs are you can check them out on Bandcamp now. Great stuff!

Bedroom Eyes: our friend Jonas Jonsson is back with a new album!! This is amazing news! “Sisyphus Rock” is out now on black vinyl and comes with 8 popstatic songs! This is the 3rd album by his project. I can’t think of anyone that doesn’t like this band. Praised by everyone. I would like a CD version of this record, maybe that’s my only complain. But well, you can win them all. The 8 songs can be previewed on Bandcamp and again, they are really good.

Purplespace: there’s a bunch of songs by this Jacksonville, Florida, that date from last March. They all will be part of an album called “11:11”. Other than that I don’t know much more about this cool sounding dreampop band. I picked “Library Girl” as the one I will share with you all as it is my favourite. But do check out the rest.

Pararrayos: and lastly this four-piece from Barcelona. They have released a 6-song EP titled “Electricidad” which seems to be only available digitally. The band formed by Gonzalo, Laura, Dani and Victor, has been going since 2018 and they have a couple of previous EPs worth checking out.

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Byfleet is a village in Surrey, England. It is located in the far east of the borough of Woking, around 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of West Byfleet, from which it is separated by the M25 motorway and the Wey Navigation.

The village is of medieval origin. Its winding main street, High Road, contains old large public houses, a church and several timber-framed houses, as well as other 16th and 17th century houses with listed status. The former Brooklands motor racing circuit is located just to the north, while to the east, across the River Wey, is the former Silvermere estate, now a golf club.

Byfleet is served by Byfleet & New Haw railway station, on the South West Main Line. In July 2012, its northern bypass hosted the long-distance cycling road races for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

That’s where we are heading today.

My first encounter with this band happened sort of by chance. While watching videos on Youtube I was getting a suggested video for the song “Sunshine Day” by The ’68 Floods. I had never heard them and wasn’t aware if they were an indiepop band. But the thumbnail image looked like something I might like. So guess what, I did like the music!

This video dates from 1987 and there’s a message saying that this song and video are the reason why Mr Nunn became a teacher and not a rock star. I suppose Mr Nunn is one of the band members. His name is actually Tony Nunn. The video was produced and directed by Gerard Wall aka The Groover. It was filmed in Brighton.

This took me to a Soundcloud page with a lot of their songs! We find songs like “I Want You”, “Letter to Angel”, “Don’t Want Your Sympathy”, “If This is The Way the Story Ends”, “Shine”, “Where Does All My Money Seem to Go”, “Stand Alongside of You”, “It’s Not for Me”, “Palace Street”, “Marianne”, “Why I Try”, “Sunshine Day”, “What Does it Matter to You”, “Another Girl (Another Song)”, “Even if You Dare” and “That is All”.

Lots of great songs in there. And what’s best is that I keep finding more info about them! There’s a Facebook page!

But first let’s talk about the band’s name.

The Great Flood of 1968 was a flood caused by a pronounced trough of low pressure which brought exceptionally heavy rain and thunderstorms to South East England and France in mid-September 1968, with the worst on Sunday 15 September 1968, and followed earlier floods in South West England during July.^[3] This was likely the severest inland flood experienced in the Home Counties during the last 100 years

There are plenty of photos on the web, archival photography of 1968 floods…

So what did I learn from Facebook? Well that the band reunited in 2010. They even played a gig at the Village Club in Byfleet on Nov. 27, 2010.

We know that the band released a tape EP titled “4 from 68”. Not sure which songs nor which year it was released. Another tape EP was released in 1986 “’68 in 86”. Again no tracklist.

“Floodtide”, “Trackdown”, “Live Mix” and “Down the Lane” are the names of other cassette EPs. Again don’t know the tracklist. Then we find some CD releases as well. There’s “Bomb Crater Hill” and “Dogs on a Bike”. Were these albums? I believe the songs on Soundcloud are the ones on the “Bomb Crater Hill” album though…

Tony Nunn, released a tape album under the name The Beefeaters called “Another Mouth to Feed”. How did it sound like?

In 2013 the band played their last ever gig on October 12 at the Epsom common Social Club.

And lastly a Youtube video channel with lots of live footage! There’s from their last gig “I Want My Woody Back“, “Rescue Me” comes from a rehearsal at a tent in Greenbelt Festival in the late 80s, then a few videos of the band busking in Greenbelt including songs like “I Fought the Law“, “The Kids are Alright“, “I Want My Woody Back” and “Do You Love Me“.

The band also played the Greenbelt Fringe Festival in the late 80s and videos of them performing “My Biggest Weakness“, “I Fought the Law“, “Sunshine Day“, “Rescue Me“, “Another Girl Another Song“, “Come Back My Love“, “It’s Not For Me“, “I Want My Woody Back“, “I Just Cry” and “Little Bit of Soul” are available.

Then footage from a gig in 1997, November 1997, in Byfleet with the songs “There’s a Guy Works Down the Chipshop Swears He’s Elvis“, “Sunshine Day“, “Shine“, “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better“, “That is All“, “Surfin’ USA“, “Brown Eyed Girl” and “I Found Love“. It is clear by now that they liked to cover many songs!

One thing I found about them is that before being called The ’68 Floods they were caalled Milky Bar Kids betweeen 1984 and 1985.

Found the band members names too, Tony Nunn on guitar, Jim Smith on bass, Andy Brown on vocals, Graham Wood on lead guitar and Martin Smith on drums. Martin was to be replaaced by Steve King.

Would be nice to find out if the Milky Bar Kids recorded something too. And if there are more songs by The ’68 Floods. Any information would be good!

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The ’68 Floods – Sunshine Day

Yesterday was a good night. Since the pandemic started I hadn’t been to a gig. Yesterday was the end of that streak. I went to Brooklyn, to The Knitting Factory to see Madrid’s Cariño.

I went a bit late, wasn’t that keen on the opening bands.  I had beers as usual and didn’t know anyone in the crowd. That always surprises me about NYC, you assume you’ll see the same people at an indiepop gig but that never happens.

Cariño had their fans, mostly Latin Americans and Spanish. But there were also American fans who seemed knew their lyrics, that was quite fantastic.

The band played their brand of fun electronic pop. The three-piece were playing the last gig of their North/South America tour that included stops in Santiago, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Coachella, Chicago, San Francisco. They said they were traveling back to Spain today. A whole month of gigging.

The songs were fun fun fun. They are catchy and know how to put a smile on your face. My favourite is the dancey “Bisexual” but there’s a ton to choose. And they will have an album coming out next week.

I got to chat with the band. Take a photo. And also got the “Movidas” record signed. They thought this record was a relic. I was surprised by this. Well, not so anymore, was looking on Discogs and the highest price paid for it is $150. That’s crazy.

I do want the new records they have on the Sonido Muchacho label but their shipping costs are too much. Unreal even. They are not the price the Spanish post office charges in my experience. So don’t know how to get them yet. The band didn’t bring any as they were scared of customs taking them. Understandable.

Anyhow, I had a superb night, and it felt good to go out and catch a band. I hope this happens more often. Say Sue Me was next week but they postponed their gig.

Mr. and Mrs. Muffins: the latest on the Japanese Blue-Very Label is the album “The Manhattan Slide and Other Songs for Dream Dancing” by this Seattle duo. The record will be available on vinyl in July has 11 songs, all which you can preview on Bandcamp. One of the songs, “A Rainy Interlude” features the great Louis Philippe in it. It’s a very nice record of “luxurious” pop as they describe it.

Gorgeous Bully: “Am I Really Going to Die Here” is the name of the tape album  this Manchester project is releasing on May 6. The album, recorded at home in Stretford, has 11 tracks. 3 of the songs, “Sick of Everything”, “Something in the Air” and “Wasted” are available to preview as of now. They are nice bedroom pop songs, but definitely the better one is the opening track, “Sick of Everything”.

The Ashenden Papers: I have recommended many times in the past this great California project by Jason Dezember. His latest release, from last month, is a four song EP titled “Winter”. The songs are bright, sunny, and truly lovely. Crafted with care and pop sensibility. Two of the songs on this EP will appear on the band’s forthcoming LP.

Popboomerang: this was sad news, that Popboomerang from Australia was calling it a day. The label that released tons of classic pop records decided it was time to go, and we totally understand it. To say a final goodbye they have put a compilation called “Marching Out of Time” (named after the Killjoys song) that includes tracks by so many amazing bands including The Steinbecks, Little Murders, The Killjoys, Jane Vs World Nick Batterham and more!

Persica 3: I have to go through Hidden Bay’s latest releases. There’s a few I’ve missed checking out. “Tangerine” the tape released by Persica 3 in March is already sold out. But at least we can play it many times online I guess. 7 songs of wistful pop by this one-man project by Léo Dubois.

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Following the lead of stoneeyedkiller I find a Soundcloud account with a handful of songs by thee late 80s band The Mortimers.

It doesn’t say who is behind this band. The account username is Lulumonde. An alias of course. He does mention that he had been making music since 1986. That he had written, recorded and performed since that year. And most interestingly he was the bassist for several bands including The Mortimers, Cigarette, Mr Potatohead and The Mighty Chopper Squad.

The account says that he is based in York, UK. Hopefully he didn’t move recently. Hopefully I can assume The Mortimers hailed from York or some town close.

There are 5 songs by The Mortimers, all of them dating from 1989: “Carry On”, “On With the Show”, “Tragic Rise in Self Destruction (Wave it Thankfully Goodbye)”, “That’s Fine With Me” and “Child on a Swing”.

According to Discogs the Mighty Chopper Squad, the band mentioned in the quick bio, hailed from Manchester and was a remix team that featured three out of five members of the band The Space Monkeys. If that’s the case, and looking at who was the bass player in The Space Monkeys, Dom Morrison, is it safe to assume it was Dom who was behind The Mortimers? I can’t say for sure. I guess it is the best guess I can make.

Other than that I couldn’t find any information about the band. Any details will be appreciated.

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The Mortimers – On with the Show

So it was announced. Orchard Popfest is happening on July 16 in North Down Orchard, a Somerset cider farm! Tickets are selling for 22.15 pounds and there will be food, drinks and a record stall. But you care about the bands, right? So yes, a fine lineup at this Popfest in the UK. Bands playing include The Monochrome Set, The June Brides, The Chesterfields, Palooka 5, Helen McCookerybook and The Rhynes. Here is the Facebook event page.

Sinaïve: what a great release on Hidden Bay Records from Toulouse! “Super 45 T.”  is up for pre-orders on the label’s website. It is a 12″ EP that will have 4 songs. Right now you can preview the opening song “Ténèbres” which is superb!

Breakup Haircut: this London band sounds ace! Their album “Punk Dancing for Self Defence” is coming out on July 15. 15 songs of upbeat punky pop! The album is coming out on CD and right now you can preview three tracks, “Marie Kondo”, “Why Can’t I Be Cool Enough to Move to Berlin?” and “Out of My Way (I’m Not Getting on the Nightbus)”. Great song titles too!

The Bug Club: now to Wales! Two new songs by this three-piece combo. “Lay Down Your Roses” and “Pretty as a Dog in the Light”. Both songs are great, but I especially like the first one,  upbeat, catchy, they leave you hoping for more. The band announces their debut album for later this year. That’s good news!

Mishca: now a quick look at Galaxy Train Records from Japan. One of their latest releases that I have enjoyed is the flexidisc by this Nagoya-based band. The flexi is limited to just 200 copies and has only one song, “Baskets”, which you can preview on Bandcamp.

Flores de Uranio: and lastly I am recommending a three-song tape by Flores de Uranio from Madrid. The band’s latest release is “La Condición Humana”, a 9-song cassette. On Bandcamp the band has only shared three of these tracks. The edition is very limited, 50 copies, thanks to the label Nemutal Samurai. Only a few are remaining.

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A band that used to be part of the Edinburgh scene with Jesse Garon & the Desperadoes and The Fizzbombs. A band that played at the legendary Onion Cellar. A band that supported the Television Personalities on several occasions. How come I had never heard of them before?! Have you?!

There is a Soundcloud by one of their members, Robert Jones, with a bunch of songs! This is a tremendous discovery!

We find here songs like “The Acid Tree”, “Holiday House”, “Diving for the Brick”, “Children’s TV”, “Darkness Before Dawn”, “I’m Leaving on the 7.52”, “I’ve Got a Friend”, “Nothing To Live For”, “The First Day of Spring” and “The Frightened Girl”.

There are also 12 songs by Robert as a solo artist worth checking out. But yeah, I am totally impressed and in love with The Catburgers today.

So it turns out Robert has a blog called “Learning Stuff About Stuff“. In there he tells us he knows French, German, Latin and Spanish. That he had traveled in a car with Nico and that he is a Buddhist. But he also has a post about The Catburgers. It dates from 2007 and there are some interesting facts and details about the band.

The drummer was called Jeff. Duffy. Interesting enough in the early days of The Catburgers Angus McPake from Jesse Garon & the Desperadoes and The Fizzbombs played drums for them. Seems for a rehearsal or two, and maybe even a gig at the Queen Margaret.

As mentioned the band played at the Onion Cellar. Someone has posted lots of photos of a gig they played there on Flickr.

We also learn that three of the songs I mentioned earlier, “The Acid Tree”, “Holiday House” and “Diving for the Brick” were recorded at a session produced by the mighty Jowe Head in London in 1987! Dan from the TVPs had paid for the recording (or at least Robert remembers it that way!).

Knowing this it is so hard to believe the band didn’t get to release a record. The songs are ace. Doesn’t make sense!

Speed 3 is another club that comes up. I believe Robert djed there. Then another name pops up, Stu Cant. Was he in The Catburgers? A name that we know was for sure in The Catburgers was that of Keith Burns. Keith would later be in a Rush tribute band called Tobes of Hades.

It also seems these same people were in another band called The Mysterons (also known as Jeff and the Hasbeens).

And that’s what I could find out. The songs speak for themselves. So many good ones!!

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The Catburgers – Children’s TV

Just finished Tracey Thorn’s “My Rock n’ Roll Friend” and I had to say it is my favourite of her books so far. Gave her 5 stars on Goodreads. Really enjoyed all the anecdotes with Lindy Morrison, and all these stories of the 80s in London. Stories about The Go-Betweens, mentions of bands like The Bodines or The Woodentops. I was transported and was as close as I could be as to those days I never lived. If you haven’t read this book I urge you to do so!

Art Museums: the fantastic and underrated Art Museums from San Francisco was formed by Josh Alper and Glenn Donaldson. Glenn who you might know from The Reds, Pinks & Purples. I wasn’t aware that there was a “lost album” by them. I just found out on Bandcamp. Though it says that there should be 15 tracks in total but I only see 11. In any case the songs are superb, I totally recommend them.

Drizzly: second time checking out Paska Records from Surabaya, Indonesia, after The Caroline’s. Their latest song is by a band called Drizzly. There is not much info about them, that the singer is called Amanda and mostly that’s all. The song is called “Bitter to See You” and it is pretty pretty. Fragile and upbeat.

Pop Threat: few copies are still available for “Give Me The Sonic Kill: 1999-2003” the great retrospective compilation by the noisy popsters from Leeds.  There are two versions of this release, one that has 23 songs, another that has 16. I guess you know which one to get. Don’t miss out on this one.

Top Sound: there’s a new album by the Swedish band! It is called “Isn’t Happiness” and it is available on CD as of last February. With a beautiful artwork, the CD has 10 songs. The band formed by Johan Fredriksson, Katarina Andersson and Tobias Adolfsson seems to be in top shape here.

The Last Broadcast: this duo formed by Kyle McGurk and Paolo Lombardo has released their first song called “Daisy” as aa digital single on Bandcamp. Somehow there is another date on Bandcamp, for October 2. Maybe then they will release a proper record with this song in it? Doesn’t seem clear.

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Today I was looking at my friend’s Tommy instagram account “silentsighcity”. There he does small bios of Swedish bands and that always help me remember many of them, that for a reason or another I hadn’t listened in a long time!

Douglas Heart, named themselves after Douglas Hart, the JAMC bassist, is the band his instagram brought back to my memory.

There was a piece of information that I wasn’t aware. That the band originally was called Hal Blaine (the US studio drummer) and with that name they recorded some demos back in 2001. Are these demos available anywhere? I wonder… I am curious to listen to them.

Previously both of them had been in a shoegaze band called Standing Pales. I have never heard this band, so if anyone can point me in the right direction that’d be great.

The band was formed as a duo by Pontus Wallgren and Malin Dahlberg. Later on more people would join the band including Max Sjöholm, Ramo Spatalovic and Daniel Fridlund Brandt. Pontus would later be in two fine bands Franke and Afraid of Stairs (I’ve been meaning to write about them), Malin was in the super Wee Are Soldiers Wee Have Guns, Laurel Music and Shipyard. Max was in Afraid of Stars and Laurel Music. Daniel in Animal Daydream, The Greencoats and My Brother Wind. And Rramo was in Franke, Melody Fields, Shipyard and The Greencoats. As you can see they collaborated a lot later on.

The band’s first release was a 7″ with two songs on Labrador. Released in 2003, the vinyl that came on a generic Labrador sleeve had the songs “Smoke Screen” on the A side and “The Fast Way” on thee B side. Catalog number was LAB 036.

The band released their album “Douglas Heart” (LAB024) the next year, 2004. 10 songs were included in it, “Smoke Screen”, “A Question of Gender”, “Dream”, “The Telephone Trick”, “Bear Olsson”, “Jim:, “Eveningsong #3”, “When We Become Strangers”, “Lights Dim”, “Song for Douglas”.

The album came out on CD and the artwork is credited to Elin Conradsson with design by Hugo Sundkvist. It was mixed by Björn Olsson (was the song “Bear Olsson” dedicated to him?) from The Soundtrack of Our Lives, The Sonic Walthers and more and Mattias Glavå. Björn produced the record and Mattias mastered it. Gunnar Frick played pedal steel guitar.

“I Could See the Smallest Things” (LAB067) was a 5-song EP released in 2004. With art from Elin Conradsson and recorded by Pontus, Ramo and Jonas Odhner in Spain at View of Parking Lot & Sonores studios between June and July that year. The songs that were included in this record were “Always No”, “Komplex” (with synths by Dan Olsson), “Timewaste/Lovewaste”, “Colonna Sonora” and “Microphones”.

No other releases by the band but they did appear on a few compilations.

“Explained” and “Jim” were actually the two first songs they released. They appeared on “Labrador Kingsize Vol#1” (LAB020) in 2002.

In 2004 the band contributed “Always No” to “CD 9 – 2004” released by Groove (GROOVE0408). That same year the song “The Fast Way (of Making Art)” appeared on “Labrador Kingsize Vol#2” (LAB052) and an extended version of this same song was on “Club AC30 #2” a CDR comp released by Club AC30 (AC301025).

2005 sees the song “Alison” appear on “Never Lose that Feeling Volume One” released by Club AC30 (AC302052). And in 2007 “Expired” appears on “David Design from Sweden with Love” (LAB031) and on the 4CD boxset “A Complete History of Popular Music” (LAB100) they had “Expired”, “Smoke Screen”, “A Question of Gender” and “Always No”.

The band had started recording a second album but don’t know how far along they got. I remember seeing online some songs for it many years ago if my memory serves me right. But nothing was ever released. According to Pontus Wallgren the songs for the 2nd album were lost in a computer crash though mixdowns and semi-mixed versions of the songs do exist. Hopefully one day they can finish them and release them!

So many things I’d love to hear… curious if anyone has more details? And yeah, what are they doing these days? Any cool pop projects?

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Douglas Heart – Timewaste/Lovewaste

Happy weekend! Let me go straight to some good recommendations today!

Whimsical: last post I mentioned I was going to go check what I had missed from Shelflife Records. Well, I certainly missed Whimsical’s “Melt”. This album was released on April 1st with 9 superb shoegaze tracks. In the past I had recommended them, mentioning that the band from Indiana was active from 1999 to 2005 and later reformed in 2015. This is a very fine record and it is available in CD and vinyl (different colors too)

FOG: this one is also on Shelflife but looks sold out on both color and black vinyl versions. I am not familiar with this Seoul four-piece so listening to their album “Fogesque” even if it is on Bandcamp is good. The 9 track album is also a fine shoegaze record. Little by little I feel Shelflife is becoming a go-to label for dreampop sounds!

Cristina Quesada: now time to also check what I may have missed from Elefant Records. Surprisingly I missed listening to Cristi’s “Primavera”, a digital single that was released in March! Our favourite singer from Canary Islands has three songs here, “Primavera”, “Be My Baby” (a cover of Vanessa Paradis) and “Italia (English version)”. Also announced is that there will be an album coming out soon to be titled “Dentro Al Tuo Sogno”.

Lisasinsón: another favourite band of mine on Elefant is the great Valencia punky pop band Lisasinsón. After their 10″ release the duo is back with a digital single called “No Sé Muy Bien”. Fun!

Lightning in a Twilight Hour: and lastly an essential record. “Overwintering” is the latest release by Bobby Wratten’s band. 11 songs where he collaborate with Ian Catt, ex-Field Mice colleagues like Anne Mari Davies and Michael Hiscock and Beth Arzy from Trembling Blue Stars. A superb 11 track record that is available now on vinyl and CD. This is one that I can’t miss. And neither should you.

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Once again through stoneeyedkiller’s Youtube channel I end up on Soundcloud discovering an obscure band and their wonderful sounds.

This time from the US. From Anaheim, California. Close to Los Angeles. The account owner is Oliver Zavala. His band’s name was Sandbox. And there are four songs from a 1991 demo tape.

The song names are “Chester”, “I Don’t Mind”, “Unforgettable” and “Don’t Mind Me”.

As soon as you listen to them you can tell they loved The Smiths. The guitars are very Johnny Marr-esque. That’s good in my book. I suppose in yours too!

The band was formed by Oliver Zavala on vocals, Ryan Steele on guitars, James Scoggins on bass and Phil Hanson on drums.

The tape artwork is very of the time. Black and white. A hug. The name of the band.

Other than this there is no other information. Oliver has some songs of his own also uploaded. They sound quite different to Soundbox of course.

Then after a little googling I find that there’s a Sandbox Facebook page.

What do we find there? That there was the intention of reunion gig in 2009. It seems it never happened. There are also many photos from the 90s. From there we can figure out some more details.

First that the band played at Goodies with The Pure and Praise Folly. Another venue we know they played was Lindy’s Cafe in Anaheim. At Quality Ballroom they played alongside with Whiskey Biscuit, Suburban Rhythm, Barney’s Bicycle and Nuckle Brothers. Another gig they played was at Anti-Club in Hollywood with True to Life, Full Moon and Standard Fruit.

This is all I could find. Really cool sounds and you wonder what happened to them. If they were in bands afterwards and if they sounded as good as Soundbox! Any West Coast friends remember them?

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Sandbox – Chester

Our friend Tim shared the other day with us, on the comments section, the mysterious Orchard Popfest. What is it? Who is behind it? When will it happen? There is absolutely no info online. There’s just an instagram account and that’s all. According to Tim the location seems to be somewhere in South Somerset… but nothing yet announced. We will have to keep an eye on this!

U.S. Highball: the Glasgow band seems to have been a favourite at Madrid Popfest. They were presenting then their latest, the superb album “A Parkhead Cross of the Mind” that was released by Bingo Records in Europe and by Lame-O in the US. The vinyl album has 12 songs of upbeat pop, with great hooks and solid lyrics!

Keaper: now we head to Melbourne. Been a while since I checked out a band from that city, in the past it seems I would do it in a weekly-basis! “Fade” is the name of the EP this four-piece released last March. 5 songs of dreamy and fuzzy dreampop crafted smartly by Ameya Ajay, Julia Derwas, Austin del Rio and Samuel Wallace.

Royal Arch: I am still going backwards after missing lots of music between November and March. Royal Arch’s 7″ with “La Nuit” and “Road to the Light” seems to be sold out at Make Me Happy Records from Greece. The record was also out on Jigsaw Records in the US so maybe there’s luck there!

Sugar for the Pill: the other record I missed from Make Me Happy Records was “Wanderlust” by Sugar for the Pill. This also seems to be sold out. In the US it was released by Shelflife, maybe there’s luck there. Now that I think of it, next post I’ll go through Shelflife’s catalog and see what I’ve missed. Anyhow, the vinyl album of this great pop band has 10 songs seems one that we all should try to track down.

Happypills: another sold out record. This one is from a favourite band of the blog, the Japanese Happypills. A cassette EP titled “Porthole” was released by Miles Apart Records last February. It sounds fantastic, and it does look like Japanese music mailorders may still have copies.

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Now we head to Dublin, Ireland.

Another Soundcloud account, this one put together by Keith G. Byrne. I suppose part of the band. Must be!

The first song I listen to is called “Sell You My Soul”. I see that this song was recorded in 1989 at Harolds Cross 24 track studio. Then another jangly track comes up, “Smile Again”. This recorded in Sun Studios in Dublin. No year for this track.

I am not sure if this is the best way to go through the songs and the band. “See What We Can Do” and “Day to Day” were also recorded at Sun Studios.

There are also live tracks. There is a whole gig of the band playing at The Ramblers Room in Dublin on December 10, 1988. That day the band played “Be My Friend”, “See What We Can Do”, “Sell You My Soul”, “I’m Tearing Me Apart”, “What is the Message”, “Tears of a Clown”, “The Place Where I Was”, “Two Great Days”, “Desperation”, “Alison”, “Day to Day”, “Smile Again”, “Bigmouth Strikes Again”, “Sell You My Soul” and “Smile Again”. Clearly they liked The Smiths to cover them. And also it seems “Smile Again” was their most well known song if they did it as an encore?

But that’s not all. There is a second gig, also at The Ramblers Room but this one dating from March 4, 1989. That day the band played: “Desperation”, “See What We Can Do”, “Two Great Days”, “Sell You My Soul”, “Alison”, “Loving Only You”, “The Place Where I Was Born”, “Tears of a Clown”, “What is the Message”, “I’m Tearing Me Apart”, “Is She Really Going Out with Him?”, “Day to Day”, “Smile Again”, “Be My Friend”, “Bigmouth Strikes Again”, ” Day to Day” and “See What We Can Do”.

At this last gig we know the band had become a 5 piece. The had just added Mark Wilde as their saxophonist. Previously the 4 piece was formed by Johnny Boulevard on vocals and guitar, Tim Murphy on guitar and vocals, Keith G. Byrne on bass and Jimmy Murphy on drums.

Another track I find on Soundcloud is an instrumental version of the song “It’s So Easy”.

It looks like the band split in 1989. I am guessing here that after they split 3 of their members went to form the band Soul Doubt. Songs by this band are also on the Soundcloud. The recordings are much rougher, maybe recorded at their practice space. I don’t know. You can see the potential. It says the band used to play at the Baggot Inn with the wonderful The Outpatients.

I look for more info about them, I look in Irishrock.org but they are not listed there.

It’s interesting to find some superb songs here but see that they never released a record. Any of my Irish friends remember them? Would be nice to know their story.

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Mrs. Joyce – Day to Day

Happy Monday all!

Not much news this weekend, but I am hoping that this week will be eventful. Right now the new projects are on the band’s side, I have to be patient and wait a bit. But I hope soon things will start moving faster.

Last weekend was Wales Goes Pop, one of the few pop festivals around. I was looking on Facebook at my friend’s photos. Seems like they had lots of fun. Would be nice to return to Wales someday. I hope the festival continues for many years. We need more of them!

Space Daze: new music by the ex-Seapony. The Seattle one-man band has just released “Remote View” a mellow 5-song EP. The release seems to be available in digital format only but it is pretty enough to spend time streaming it, having it play time and time again. If you think of Seattle, you think of rain, rainy days… the music gives you just that feeling.

Swiss Portrait: this cool project by Edinburgh’s Michael Kay Terence will be releasing a digital EP titled “Safe House” on April 25. It will have 6 songs and we can now preview two of them. I suggest checking out the excelleent “Play with Fire”, with some superb guitars and great vocals. Really like it!

Atmos Bloom: Curtis Paterson and Tilda Gratton from Manchester are behind this dreampop band. Their latest single “Daisy” is a true corker! I thought the song was great immediately. Great melody, good vocal delivery and the guitars are ace. This is a digital single, I hope it gets released in physical format.

An Ocean of Embers: the great Nantes band is back with a reworked version of their song “Last Night I Fell Agsain”. The band formed by Jimmy Arfosea and Elsa Muller have recorded three versions of this track, the normal one, an acoustic mix and an instrumental. Sounds good!

The Catherines: “I’m Gonna Sue You Real Good” is the new track by the duo from Hamburg. The band that has the best song titles out there, also knows how to make wonderful pop songs. This digital single is no exception!

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I was listening after many years the EP “Turbulencias en Nunca-Jamás” by the Spanish band Tecnicolor. One thing that came to mind immediately was that I didn’t know anything about them. That this was the only release I knew by them and as far as I know they disappeared into obscurity.

I am looking at the CD release that was lovely designed by Gregorio Soria, the mastermind of Annika Records. The EP wasn’t released by his label but by Elefant Records in 2001. Catalog number being ER-340.

I remember playing these songs a lot back in the early 2000s. They may have aged a bit now. But I still have a soft-spot for them. 5 songs were on this EP, “Tú (Eres la Solución)”, “De Otro Color”, “Yo Sé Qu´é Es”, “Amor Bajo Cero” and “Parecido a una Ilusión”.

The band was just two people, Marta on vocals and keyboards and Horacio on guitars. One interesting thing is that the songs were recorded at Refugio Antiaéreo in January of 2001. This studio was Los Planetas studio. Los Planetas being the biggest indie band in Spain. Erik Jiménez played the drums and Miguel López the bass, both members of Los Planetas. You start to wonder if the band was from Granada. Could be because of these connections, right?

The producer was Carlos Hernández and Mónica Esteban did backing vocals. Mastering was done at Sonoland in Madrid by Carlos as well.

That’s all the info on the CD. But one thing I remember from back in the days is that the band had more songs, probably released as demo CDRs. Could I find more info about that?

The band did record  at least three more songs that we know about. “Mi Plato Favorito” which was included in the compilation “Le Touriste Rebusca en el Desván de la Nueva Ola” released by Ventilador Music (CDM 031) in 2003. This of course was a cover of Rubi y los Casinos.

Then a cover of “Oh Que Pena Me Das” by Aerolíneas Federales was included in “Alegra la Cara – Tributo a Aerolíneas Federales” that was released by Ya Estas Ya Producciones YP-10) in 2005. And lastly that same year the song “Idiomas del Corazón” was inccluded in “Contempopránea – 10 Años Pop (Concurso Grupo Revelación)” released by Contempopránea, the fine pop festival in Spain.

Then I find that the band actually hailed from Málaga. And luckily a PDF of the Popchild fanzine. Here there is an interview with the band!

Here they mention the following demo CDRs, “10 Minutos Con…”, “Melodías Olvidables” and “Maravilloso Mundo Imperfecto”. There is no tracklist btu we have some names now.

Seems that their relationship with Elefant was just for the CDEP. When this interview was conducted the band was looking for a label. Seems they had no luck as they never released anything afterwards.

Another interview is available in El Planeta Amarillo, Rafa Skam’s fanzine. At this point it seems the band had grown, now they had Sara on keyboards, Manolo on bass and Alberto on drums. A five-piece! A curious detail too is that Horacio had a bar in downtown Malaga. So cool, would be nice to visit if he is still running it! Sara on the other hand was a teacher in an institute, Sara was studying piano and music education while Manolo and Alberto were into computer science.

And finally found all of the band’s songs that were released on their demos (though can’t seem to find anything about the release “10 Minutos Con…”).

The demo CD “Febrero” from 2002 had the songs “Gotas de Lluvia”, “Cuando estás Conmigo” and “Un Mal Sueño”. Then “Golpes de Amor” also released in 2002 had “Deja Ya de Disimular”, “Cuatro Razones”, “Quizás” and “Mi Plato Favorito”.

“Maravilloso Mundo Imperfecto” came out in 2003 and had the songs “¿Qué Me Das?”, “Bubblegum”, “El Reloj de Arena” and “Plata”. In 2003 they also release “Melodías Olvidables” with the songs “Idiomas del Corazón”, “Enloquecer es Posible”, “Adiós Tristeza”, “Mi Hombre Invisible” and “Mi Droga eres Tú”. Lastly in 2004 they put out “El Color de Algunos Días” which had four more songs, “Si Supieras”, “Amor 100%”, “Tu Suave Violencia” and “Hipnotizada”.

What happened to Horacio and Marta. Where are they now?

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Tecnicolor – Plata

I was telling you that Say Sue Me was to tour the US and play NYC in about three weeks. Well that gig will now be in November, not sure why. In a way it is good to me that it is a bit more spaced between the Cariño gig on the 28 and them the week after. I feel a gig a month I can probably go.

I have friends that have been going to gigs for so many months now and continue being healthy. I guess I am not that worried about health right now after getting infected in February. I should have some immunity for at least one or two more months. At the same time there is a new Omicron variant that they say will create another peak in infections.

But I want to go to see bands. Especially those that aren’t from NYC and that I won’t have much chances to see again if I miss this opportunity. For example Cariño is a true rarity. A band that sings in Spanish playing here, that is a true surprise. Say Sue Me maybe is not, they are in a label that have some muscle. But still, a band hailing from Busan and coming to NYC is something uncommon. So one has to do everything not to miss these opportunities!

The Harriets: I interviewed this fantastic Japanese band a long time ago! Their tape with “Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Moe” has been sold out for a long time too. But here is the good news, the Indonesian label Gerpfast Record is re-releasing the tape! It is limited to just 75 copies, so don’t miss it. Out on May 31.

Foliage: this project by Manuel Joseph Walker has been a favourite of mine for years now. Every time I have the chance to recommend one of his songs, I do. His latest single is “Can’t Go Anywhere”, a fine jangly track that has some beautiful melodies. There is even a video for it!

Mint Julep: another band I have followed the last few years is this duo formed by Keith and Hollie Kenniff. This latest release of them is actually a collection of covers, 7 in total, of the likes of Bananarama, Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode and more.

Stomp Talk Modstone: the Japanese band is back with “Mew”, a new full-length album with 20 songs! The band formed by Takamitsu Kawashima, Naoki Nishino, Kouta Hoshino, Megumu Asai and Ayumi Igarashi has been getting lots of praise for their brand of shoegaze. This new album seems to be available in digital format.

We.The Pigs: this record seems to be a must for everyone. At least that’s what I think. Released back in November the Swedish band has crafted a wonder. Released by the great Berlin based label Dreams Never End, the 12 songs shine and impress. I need to get a copy of this. I need to see if Jigsaw Records have copies!

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Ian Hadley on vocals, Nick Morgan on bass, Steve Chen on drums and Jamie Sinclair-Thomson on guitar were The Penny Drops.

The band hailed from Cardiff, Wales, according to the Facebook page Cardiff Music History. It was thanks to the Youtube channel that they have that I discovered three songs by this group: “To Sell Your Soul”, “Lost” and “The Chase”. These three songs come from a demo tape. Not sure if the band recorded another one as they were short-lived. The band was only around 1985 and 1986.

The only other interesting information about the band is that previously Nick Morgan and Jamie Reid-Sinclair had been in A Sound Reaction. After the demise of The Penny Drops, Jamie would be involved with The Third Uncles. With this last band the band would end up supporting the likes of The Weather Prophets, Mighty Mighty, The Jack Rubies and more.

And that’s all I can tell you about The Penny Drops. Anyone saw them live? Anyone remembers them?

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The Penny Drops – To Sell Your Soul

Some cool gigs coming up in NYC that I want to go. First is Cariño at Knitting Factory on April 28. I have a ticket for this. The second one is Say Sue Me at Bowery Ballroom on May 4. This one I haven’t managed to get permission to go to, but I hope I do. The “good” thing is that they are at night and that there are opening bands. So even leaving home at 8pm, after baby falls asleep, I might be able to catch them.

It’s been a while since I went to a concert. More than two years. Let’s see if I can make them!

Vansire: just discovered this dreampop band from Rochester, Minnesota. The band is a duo formed by Samuel Winemiller and Josh Augustin. Their latest release is a digital single called “Kind of a Nice Time” that is really pretty. The band also announces a new album coming out on May 6th.

Petite League: I will go see the Spanish band Cariño in Brooklyn at the end of the month. One of the opening bands is this New York combo. Their latest song is “Pantone Karaoke” which I didn’t get immediately. I prefer their previous effort “Floating Blue” which has a catchier chorus and poppier melodies. The band says they hail from Queens, and that’s something I like. I need to keep listening to their songs, there’s some good stuff!

Peaness: the Chester band is a favourite of many in the indiepopworld. The threee piece know how to craft a good pop song. Their latest “IRL” is no exception. The song will be part of the band’s new album “World Full of Worry” that is coming out on May 6th on vinyl and CD.

Sea Lemon: another digital single. This song is titled “Turn Away” and comes from Seattle! Not much info on their Bandcamp aside that the band tells us they make dreampop and are on the Spirit Goth label. The sound in any case is nice, with a jingle jangly guitar.

Jack in the Green: years ago I interviewed this fantastic early 90s Stoke-on-Trent band formed by Caroline, Corinne, Pete and Mark. Well, now all of their studio recordings, from 1992 to 1993, are on Bandcamp! A fantastic treat for us pop lovers!

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Have to continue raiding Soundcloud for great janglepop from the late 80s and early 90s.

If you follow the link I just shared in the previous line you’ll end up discovering a band called Purple Room. You’ll also notice that there is absolutely no information about the band.

It is easy to assume the band hailed from the UK. There’s a full gig of the band playing in Exeter on June 12, 1992. Where in Exeter? It doesn’t say. We know the songs played that night were “Picture the Moon”, “21 Nightmares”, “Box 17”, “Floating”, “Untitled” and “Wave”. I doubt the band hailed from another country if they were playing Exeter. Most probably too the band hailed from the area.

Never been to Exeter. Was looking that it is about 2 hours from London by train. Wonder if in my next England trip I should visit. There seems to be a good museum called Royal Albert Memorial Museum, a castle called Exeter Castle (though doesn’t look medieval as I like them myself), Exeter Cathedral that looks beautiful and a place called the House that Moved. Interesting.

The band Purple Room recorded many songs. Dating from 1989 to 1993 we find these songs: “Floating”, “All of This”, “Picture the Moon”, “All or Nothing”, “Glow”, “Wave”, “Communication”, “Confused” and “I Want You”.

Then we find three songs that we don’t know the year, they are collected as “Forgotten demos”. These songs are “Skimming Stones”, “Wasted” and “Box 17”.

Then we find 5 songs collected as “Flower Eyes”. Was this an EP? A cassette perhaps? The songs here are “Nothing to do With You”, “Drift Away”, “Kiss the Playground”, “Two” and “A Single Tear”.

I start poking Google. I find aa forum called Thetownend.com. Here there is a post by someone with the alias Saxondale saying he was in a shambling indie band called Purple Room. They had participated in a battle of the bands at the Wyvern. They didn’t win.

I look for a Wyvern venue close by. There is a Wyvern Club in Taunton. That’s 25 minutes by train.

Sadly this is where my detective skills prove useless. I can’t find anything else. I don’t have names. There were no releases as far as I know. Hard to track them down even though they were around for at least 4 years.

Who remembers them?

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Purple Room – Drift Away

Happy Monday!

Seems like I’ll be in Paris in July. Also in Brussels for the first time. As every time I get to travel I am happy to bring records to anyone living in these cities to save on postage. I know there is still a lot of time until then (I’ll do a reminder later on), but do let me know if you’d like any of the label’s releases.

Now let’s see what we found over the weekend.

Los Lucha: the Glasgow band that was an amazing surprise last year with their first tape is back and better than before. Their new release is also a tape. It is aptly titled “Tape 2” and has that superb guitars we fell in love with. The EP has 5 songs that carry the flag of the c86 bands and Galaxie 500. A good mix indeed.

Sapphire & Steel: a new track by this great duo formed by Jørn Åleskjær and Estella Rosa. This new digital single is titled “Evelina” and it is a fine jangly tune. The long-distance project has been releasing fine songs every couple of months. I hope they are thinking of putting something out soon!

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: there were some t-shirts being sold by the San Francisco band. They are sold out now. But 3 songs are available, “Life in the Void”, “Nothing Between the Lines at All” and “Evening at Land’s End”. As usual they are excellent. How does Glenn Donaldson do it?

Shiny Times: 4 songs recorded in Garageband between February 2020 and February 2021 by Kim Hart. “Start with S” has four songs that start with the letter S. That’s right. According to Kim this is a song dump, I guess these songs didn’t find a place where to be released but glad that we can listen to them in the end.

Love, Burns: and now a live set by our friends from New York! Phil’s band played at Pete’s Candy Store on February 10, 2022, and the 8 songs from that night are here to listen and enjoy! For this live gig the band formed with Phil on vocals, Alex on bass, Kenny on lead guitar and Hampus on drums.

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Another draft I left years ago was my intended post on the fantastic German band Painting by Numbers.

Of course, you’ll figure out immediately that they took their name from the Television Personalities. And that’s a good thing. That tells us a lot of the band’s intentions.

The band was active in the early 90s and were based in the city of Darmstadt. I’ve been to Germany many times, but not to this city. Oh dear…. it hurts me that I was supposed to go to Germany on 2020, but with the pandemic that plan was killed. I may have been able to visit their city… who knows…

Maybe soon?

Anyhow, according to Discogs we know of at least two releases. The first one is a demo tape that dates from 1990. This tape had four songs on it, two on each side. The A side had “Von Einem Fremden Stern Zurück” and “Samstag Abend” while the B side had “Lied Für Werner Enke” and “Rette Mich (Live Am 9.2.199 Krone-Darmstadt)”. There is no artwork uploaded for this release so sadly don’t know how this tape looked like.

The second release is a CDR live album released in 1996 on the label Declaration of Santo (DoS 12). According to the small bio  I found, this label was founded by the band The Dass Sägebett to release and distribute material of their own band and related bands. I don’t think any of the Painting By Numbers were in that band, so maybe they were just friends? Or what was the relation?

Anyhow, this live album was titled “Samstag Abend”. I really hope I could find it. The songs were recorded live on October 10, 1996, at Goldene Krone, a music venue in Darmstadt and mixed by Achim Lowitsch. The songs were “Lilac Car”, “Jesus Comes Again”, “Pet Cementary”, “Atomic Café”, “All Gone”, “Samstag Abend”, “Lied Für Werner Enke”, “Carol”, “Der Auftrag Lautet: Töte Sie!”, “Fremder Stern”, “Der Schönste Mann Dieser Welt”, “Die Zeit Läuft Dir Davon”, “Hassliebe”, “Tief Über Irland”, “Fantastic Feeling”, “Einsam”, “Leuchtturm” and “Eisbär”.

I was curious then about the song they dedicated to Werner Enke. I didn’t know who he was so I had a look. Turns out he is a film actor and screenwriter. I have to say I haven’t seen any of his films. Anyone has any recommendations where to start?

The other detail we know about the band is that of the band members. They were 6 people in the band. Four guys, two girls. The band was formed then by Andreas Debus, Cornelia Henker, Felix Bayer, Frank Koriath, Herbert Sterzik, Peter Horsch and Silke Dressler. Okay, I have said 7 members and in the photo there are six. So one of the guys listed is not on the photo. I want to say it is Felix Bayer the one missing. But can’t be sure. In any case all of them were members at some point of the band.

When it comes to compilations the band did appear on a few. That’s how I discovered them actually, thanks to appearing on “Hier Super 21 – Bitte Maiden!” LP compilation released by Viel Leicht (Propeller 005) in 1993. I own this record where they appear with the song “Samstag Abend”.

But there’s more. In 1989 the band started appearing already on compilations. On the P-fanzine issue number four a 7″ compilation came with it. On it the band contributed the song “Lied Für Werner Enke”. That same year they contributed two songs, “Lilac Car” and “Jesus Comes Again” to the fantastic indiepop compilation “Mit Sonnenschirmen Fingen Wir Den Blütenzauber” on Frischluft Tonträger (FRL 002). So good! I had interviewed Krischan! who ran this amazing label.

Another label I had interviewed, Blam-A-Bit, included them on a cassette tape called “Instants of Pleasure” (BLAM 001) in 1990. The song on this tape was “All Gone”. Then on the classic cassette tape compilation “Heaven Sent” (HS 002) released by Heaven Sent that same year the band had the song “Kill Them All”.

Lastly in 1990 the band had the songs “Einsam” and “Von Einem Fremden Stern Zurück (Remix)” on a compilation LP titled “Hurra, Wir Leben Noch!” that came out on Daxl-Musicx (52-489).

In 1992 we seee the band include “Samstag Abend” on “Mermaid Employee of the Month: Gustav Sackmüller” (MIRABELL 665), a CD, cassette and 7″ compilation. Their song appears on the tape.

The other compilations are more recent. So in 2016 the band contributed “Lied F¨¨ür Werner Enke” to “Falscher Ort Falsche Zeit” (TR331) and “Fremder Stern” to “Falscher Ort Falsche Zeit Volume 2” (TR345) released both by Tapete Records.

Now, on what other bands were the band members involved with? Well it turns out that Andreas Debus did contribute to The Dass Sägebett, playing guitar on one of their songs as far as I know. Felix Bayer on the other hand was in Der Heitere Himmel and the legendary Die Fünf Freunde. Frank Koriath, the same, he was on Die Fünf Freunde.

What else have I found out?

There is an official video for the song “All Gone” on Youtube! This is a great find. I believe the video is not from the time when the band was active, but the footage is. So this is amazing actually.

Om this same account, by Petrus Morsch (I want to think he is Peter Horsch?) I find live performances of the band. There is a video of them playing “Lilac Car” in 1997 at Negativ in Frankfurt, supporting the Cosmic Psychos. Then there’s them playing “Eisbär” with the help of Hardy Zech from The Dass Sägebett. And lastly them playing a cover of Die Sterne’s “Ein Verregneter Sommer“.

And that’s what I could find out. I wonder why they didn’t release any records on their own at the time. They had fantastic songs. Would be great to find out more details about this amazing German band!

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Painting by Numbers – All Gone