Day 495

Den Baron: what great news! Our friend Den Baron from Germany is releasing a CD album called “From Now On” on the very good Blue-Very label! Wow! Limited to 200 copies the new album will have 13 songs and you can preview four of them on the label’s Bandcamp. As usual, as you could see in the 7″ we released, this is classic jangle pop of the highest quality!

The Summer Triangle: I recommended a vinyl release for the self-titled mini-album back in April. Now this record will be re-released by Greece’s Melotron Recordings on CD. The edition is very limited, there are 25 copies of the limited art edition and 45 of the standard one. A true boutique label you would say. But yeah, it seems it is the way forward for bands and labels, fewer and fewer copies. One not to miss.

Always You: Discos de Kirlian and Shelflife Records have released the album “Bloom Off the Rose” by the ex-Pains of Being Pure at Heart Anton and Christoph Hochheim. The 11 song album can be previewed in its entirety on Bandcamp and it seems very few copies are available now. Sadly for CD fans like me the album is only available on vinyl.

Harriet Records: fantastic news! Tim Alborn has put together a Bandcamp for his 90s label! Wow! Not all of the releases are up there yet, but I can count 11 so far. In total the label released 45 singles and 10 CDs. Tim has promised to also add actual records to be on sale on the Bandcamp in the near future so keep an eye here!

Gabriel’s Dawn: and lastly a new song from this Midlands band that features Gudg, Fran Feely, Leon Jones and Stuart Gray. Their new track is titled “I Don’t Believe (in the Summer of Love)” and it is a superb bright jangly track.

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The Reinheitsgebot, literally “purity order”, is a series of regulations limiting the ingredients in beer in Germany and the states of the former Holy Roman Empire. The best known version of the law was adopted in Bavaria in 1516, but similar regulations predate the Bavarian order, and modern regulations also significantly differ from the 1516 Bavarian version.

We head to Bangor, Wales today. That’s where the band Reinheitsgebot was from!

I discovered the band last year thanks to the blog Janglepophub.  In November they reviewed the band’s recordings that had popped up on Bandcamp.

Two sets of recordings are available there, “The Complete R.S.C. Recordings – Volume 1: December 1984” and “The Complete R.S.C. Recordings – Volume 2: May 1985“.

The band only lasted 9 months. The 27 songs in these two sessions are their legacy. I wonder if they recorded any other songs or this is it. The R.S.C. on the releases on Bandcamp is actually the name of the music studios in Bath. The producer was Rob Craven.

The first volume was recorded between the 17th-20th December of 1984 for the first 5 songs, while the rest were recorded live on the 21st of that same months. The songs on this volume were: “Winter’s Warmth”, “Sunday Sunday”, “One Apart”, “Linda Says”, “Words Don’t Know”, “Autumn”, “Help Eleanor Come Home”, “Waiting for Daybreak”, “Summer”, “Sunset Sky”, “Cry Again”, “In the Morning”, “Quicksand”, “Still not There”, “Cheer Up”, “It’s Only Fortune’, “Splendid View” and “Sad Angel”.

The 2nd volume was recorded on May 17, 18, 20 and 21st of 1985. 9 songs were recorded this time, “Waiting for Daybreak”, “Winter”, “Linda Says”, “Wrong Side of the River”, ” “In the Morning”, “One Apart”, “Winter’s Warmth”, “1000 Different Things” and “Still Not There”. So many songs. One wonders how come they didn’t release anything. Not even compilation appearances.

The band was formed by Ian McMillan on vocals and harmonica, Maeyc Hewitt on bass, Scott Saunders on guitar, Alan Holmes on guitar and Mark Thomas on drums. This lineup played a live mostly around North Wales, including a support of The Blow Monkeys.

The band’s last gig was on June 15, 1985, in Treborth playing fields in their home, Bangor. After this gig Mark Thomas left the band. The remaining members went to form Third Spain.

But they were actually involved in more bands. Alan Holmes, who is the one running Turquoise Coal Records which has published these songs on Bandcamp, had been in Boreas y Gogledd, Ectogram, Fflaps, Normal Shed Uses, Parking Non-Stop, Spectralate, The Groceries, The Lungs and The Serpents. He was also on The Insects while he was just a kid and then in The Zuggs, The Pinecones and A Silly Tree. So many bands. He also was a session musician on the debut album of Melys and produced records fro Gorky’s Zigotic Mynci.

Maeyc sadly passed away on October 1st, 2015. He had been in Ectogram, Nixon & Jarvis, Radio 23, The Lungs and The Serepents. Scott Saunders was on Normal Shed Uses. And yes, all three of them on Third Spain.

I wish these recordings had been released on CD or vinyl. Would be fantastic. I now need to check the other bands they were on.  This has been a great discovery for sure, there was some info, but not enough… I want to know more details about them!

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Listen
Reinheitsgebot – Winter’s Warmth

Day 492

Dan Dan Dero: been a fan of the Lima, Peru, band for years. The band had released the song “Como Rei Ayanami” some time ago but just this weekend they published a video for it. And as it is a very nice video I had to share it. It is very well made and the song is ace, so do check it out.

Comet Gain: “David Christian sings Comet Gain/Feckbook” is a collection of 12 Comet Gains from the vault. Recorded at home, “3am-style” by David Feck. These superb set of songs include classics like “Footstompers”, “You Can Hide Your Love Forever” or “Say Yes! to International Socialism” among others. Super interesting to hear these songs in this way.

Coffee Garden: two new songs by the guitarist from the lovely Japanese band Milk Film. Coffee Garden is his solo project and his last release are two instrumental tracks, “Nica’s Holiday” and “How Sweet to do Nothing”. The art for this digital songs are by the terribly talented Ma, who did the art for Parcel Post 7″ and The Danny Says mini CD on Cloudberry!

The Biirthday Party: yes, two i on Biirthday here. This band hails from Ubon Ratchathani in Thailand and make some nice jangly dreamy pop. Their only release dates from May 2020 and was titled “stayalonewithmyloveliesfriends”. It has three terrific songs but we don’t know anything else about the band. There is a profile photo which is blurry. Looks like a three-piece. Would be great to know more about this Thai band! Have to thank my friend David for this discovery!

Hovvdy: and we end this week recommending this four-piece from Austin, Texas, who are releasing their album “True Love” on October 1st. The album will have 12 songs and is coming out on vinyl, cassette and CD. Ambitious! Right now we can preview just one song, “True Love”, which won me over, enough to recommend twelve songs and only having heard one. Hope they don’t disappoint!

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Another good discovery I just made through stoneeyedkiller is the Hull band Full Cry. On his Youtube channel, this like-minded pop fan, has uploaded the song “High With You” which immediately made me a fan of the band.

Sadly I haven’t been able to find any other songs by them to listen. But as always I need to find out more about the band. Any details would help.

The band seems to have been around the early 90s and most of their songs appeared on various tapes. The first song I know from them is called “Seashell Michelle” which appeared on a tape called “Tales from the Riverbank”.

In 1992 the band released a self-titled tape with 5 songs. These were “High with You”, “Melted”, “Seashell Michelle”, “None the Wiser” and “Brutal Children”. Maybe this was a demo tape they used to try to get the attention of labels? Or radio? Would be good to know about this release.

That same year they released “Now That’s What we Call Hull”. This is where I think our friend stoneeyedkiller found the wonderful “High With You”. Full Cry appears on this compilation tape on the A side with the eight song.  What is cool is that this compilation is up on Soundcloud and you can check all the songs. I will do the same. As I think there are more pop bands here worth tracking down!

In 1993 the band also contributed to the “Nice 1” compilation tape. The song they had on this tape was “None the Wiser”.

That same year the band releases their second tape, “My Angel Died a Radio Death”. 5 more original songs on this one, “All be the Same”, “Slap Ya Daft”, “Doubt”, “Orgasm Head” and “Suicide’s Kiss”.

1994 sees them releasing another tape, “Confidence with Asthma”. This time they record 8 songs, “Hand”, “Honey”, “Razorwire”, “Poker Sexy” and “Ming’s Ring” on the A side and “Dolphin Chrome”, “Pressure” and “Headhum” on the B side.

Lastly in 1995 one more tape. “Howard’s End” may have been the last release of the band, and on it they had 7 songs, “Plastic Girl”, “All Day Forever” and “Born in Time for Star Wars” on the A side and “Pedestrian”, “Stalker (improv.)”, “Dreamless Sleep, Lifeless Dream” and “If the Clouds Come” on the B side.

So ok, we know a bunch of their songs. We dont know any of the band members names. We have only heard one song. It is something. The good thing too is that it has allowed me to discover more Hull bands that will be featured on the blog shortly. I hope we find more details about Full Cry, but I think this investigation has gone in the right direction!

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Listen
Full Cry – High with You

Day 490

Doble Pletina: always a fan of the Spanish band who have written many indiepop hits through the years. Their latest single is called “Esdrújulos Epítetos” and the band has made a lovely video for it. I remember still the day they came and played in NYC. Those days seem so far away. Hoping good times come back.

The Planes: “Eternity on its Edge” is the name of the album this Brooklyn band released on June 11. It came out on tape on the label Totally Real Records and I believe very few copies are still available. The album has 12 songs of classic American indiepop, good hooks and catchy tunes.

Bridge Dog: this sounds amazing! I really enjoy the song “Lemon” by the Sydney two-piece Bridge Dog. The band seems to be quite new, they have released so far three songs, all of them in the past 3 months. Definitely is a band to follow.

Five Beans Chup: I had never heard the band Five Beans Chup that released the album “The First Day of Summer” back in 2000. It turns out the band features 3 members of the legendary B-Flower. How cool. The Japanese band has made available the album on Bandcamp so of course, I am having a good time listening and discovering this little treasure.

93MillionMilesFromTheSun: and we end today’s recommendations with some fine shoegaze from the Doncaster band. They have just released an EP titled “The View from Woodhead” that includes 5 songs and a remix. Punchy. Thumbs up.

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Time for an obscure band a lot of people that are into obscure bands would be familiar with, Hulme’s That Ted.

Hulme is an inner city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England, immediately south of Manchester city centre. It has a significant industrial heritage. Historically in Lancashire, the name Hulme is derived from the Old Norse word for a small island, or land surrounded by water or marsh, indicating that it may have been first settled by Norse invaders in the period of the Danelaw.

Yeah, we have to be in Manchester today. A city that has given us so many fantastic bands and it is no exception with That Ted.

The band was formed by Terry on guitar and Andy singing according to a Soundcloud account that uploaded many songs 8 years ago. But according a paper clipping on the same account we have to add Julian and Tom. These songs as far as I know weren’t released properly so it is fantastic to be able to listen to them. They are: “Beg to Fall”, “Autopsy”, “Concrete Beats Brick 1”, “Mind to Get its Way 2”, “Refridgerator”, “Soylent Green”, “You Snitch and I’ll Blast You”, “The Stricken Hand” and “Dance with the Apple”.

On Discogs the information is lackluster. Just a split flexi that was released in 1986 with the song “Long-Expected One and Twenty”. The other band in the flexi is Vee V.V. with the song “Romance is Over”. This flexi was released to accompany issue number 12 of Debris.

The Manchester Music Archive has a few interesting artifacts related to That Ted. The first is a fanzine called “Made in Manchester”. This was a free fanzine that included a 14 song compilation. Not sure if the band was in the tape, but they were written about on the zine.

Next is a flyer from 1986. There we see that the band opened on Saturday 4th of October The Pastels and Too Much Texas. This was at the mythic venue The Boardwalk.

And lastly, again a Boardwalk gig, this time on June 28th of 1987 they opened to The Wedding Present.

One thinks and wonders why there’s so little info about them. They did have some fantastic songs. Why they didn’t get to release anything back in the day.  And were they in any other Mancunian bands before or after? It’d be great to find out. But yeah, info is hard to come by. So I hope someone may help us find out more about this terrific band!

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Listen
That Ted – Beg to Fall

Day 488

Fortitude Valley: Fika Recordings will be releasing on September 29 the self-titled album by this combo from Durham that has Brisbane’s Laura Kovic on vocals. I believe Fortitude Valley is a place in her home city, right? Anyhow, this new album will be released on CD and vinyl and right now we can preview three tracks, “Baby, I’m Afraid”, “Wreck” and “Cassini”, this last one even has a video!

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: two new songs by the prolific Glenn Donaldson. Check out “I’d Rather Astral Project” and “Work it Out While You Can”, two lovely jangly songs that we hope get releeased someday!

Fenix: I’ve always enjoyed the synthpop by Eskilstuna, Sweden, band Fenix! It took a few months since their previous release, but glad that the band has just released “Sommarregn (Edit)”. Catchy and classy, it is a great new track by the duo formed by Stefan Eriksson and Louise Marchione.

Marinita Precaria: this is the latest discovery from Elefant Records. Behind Marinita Precaria is Marina Gómez Marín who after being laid off in June 2020 started making songs in her bedroom. Two of these songs are now being released as a digital single, “Siento Todavía” and “Tú Pa Qué” and immediately one gets hooked to them. They are beautiful!  We need a proper record now! And Elefant will deliver sometime in 2022 a mini-LP. Great news!

The Halamays: and we finish today’s recommendations with the duo formed by Katie and Patrick from Columbus, Ohio. Their latest track is called “Wasted Time” and it is a classic indiepop song. Just as how we like them, one that could have fitted perfectly in the legendary comp “Pop American Style”!

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Who remembers the indiepop/powerpop band Dorian Mood? I know very little about them, maybe you can help me fill in the blanks?

The band hailed from Ireland, from the town of Drogheda.

Drogheda, meaning “bridge at the ford”) is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, 56 km north of Dublin. It is located on the Dublin–Belfast corridor on the east coast of Ireland

According to the Irishrock.org website the band was active between 1985 and 1990 and was formed by Roland Hoek on vocals and guitar, John White on keyboards, Eamon Foley on bass and Graham Hoek on drums. That was the band’s first lineup.

This lineup would release the “It’s a Funny Thing” 7″ in 1986 on the label One by One (1×3). The songs on this record were the title song and “Brand New Dream” on the B side. The songs were recorded at TMW Studios and were produced by Keith McCormick. They were engineered by Barry and Mike. The design of the sleeve is credited to Micko.

In 1989 the band lineup had changed a bit. Roland and Graham Hoek and John White continued in the band but we see Paul McQuillan joining the band to play guitar and vocals and Gavan Kierans on bass. Kierans had been actually their manager previously. Their new manager became Eoin Holmes.

This lineup released the album “Can’t Stand Still” in 1989 on Big Mood Records (BMR 1). The songs on it were recorded at R’N’R Studios in Drogheda in April 1089. This 7-track record included “The Tide”, “Can’t Stand Still” and “Annie Baby” on A side. The B side had “Didn’t See It”, “Late for a Day”, “Thumbnail Express” and “Just Do it”.

On Discogs we don’t see any other releases nor compilation appearances. So I go back to Irishrock.org. There I learn that the band made their Dublin debut at the Underground on February 15, 1986. That same year they appeared on TV as well.

The band recorded many tracks for the Dave Fanning Show. Songs recorded for this show included “Fallen Deep Inside”, “It’s a Funny Thing”, “What You Want”, “Sleazy Attic”, “Vigilance”.

There is also a 1985 demo tape recorded at Slane Studios that included four songs, “Tomorrow”, “I Will Help”, “Inspiration” and “A.O.?”

Another great find online is that of a live performance at RTE’s “Visual Eyes” in 1986. There they played the song “Tomorrow“.

When it comes to other projects members had been involved there’s little info. Paul McQuillan seems to have worked with Hope Sandoval and the band Accidents and Gavin Kierans was later in the band Sharpesville.

I find some gig mentions like the one from July 25, 1985, at The Dome ifor the Funanza Festival, the April 18, 1987 gig playing with the band In a Lifetime and on April 30, 1988 with the band The Dangerous Brothers.

Then another good find. Three songs on Soundcloud that I have never heard before, “Slowly Sinking”, “In the Morning” and “Thumb Nail Express”. There’s no info about them, but they sound great. It seems they were taken from tapes.

My last find is a press clipping from Drogheda Magazine in 1985 written by Enda Murray were it mentions another song by the band, “Isolation”.

Not much more on the web. But this was a good introduction for me to the band. I hope to find out more soon!

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Listen
Dorian Mood – It’s a Funny Thing

Day 485

Ducks Ltd.: I still haven’t got around getting the first album by this superb Toronto band. I know, I know. I am a slow listener now. I used to listen many more records per week. Now one or two are about what I can handle. And there are so many (and not that much money!). You might think I get free records from the blog, but in due honesty that is SUPER rare. And I don’t expect any either. I do this for love. Anyhow, that’s a long introduction! Ducks Ltd. is releasing a new album, on vinyl and CD, called “Modern Fiction”. So far we can preview one song, “18 Cigarettes”, which sounds ace. The album will be out on October 1st. One not to miss for sure!

The No-Yeahs: two new songs and this time on a flexi! How cool! There’s even a video for the title song “Catto in the Ghetto”. And yes, there’s a second song in this flexi titled “Let’s Go” and it is as nice. Anna makes wonderful bedroom pop and she is also a great visual artist, so you can expect some nice art with the record!

Love, Burns: it burns. Missing the 7″ burns. now there are three new songs by Phil’s band but this time around they are only available digitally. These are “She Will Leave, Unless”, “Say What You Mean” and “The Push and Pull of the Great Outdoors”. All are terrific as usual. I really hope I can catch him and his band live soon!

The Bunbury: in this blog we like the Yogyakarta band, a lot! A new song, after a year, is good news. Of course I want more, one song is never enough, but “Hide me from the Sun” meets all of my expectations. Great work guys!

Tears to Go: remember the fantastic When Nalda Became Punk? Elena, the Vigo based, indiepop star is back with a new project. It is called Tears to Go and it is a bit different. The punchy pop has been replaced by classy and elegantly arranged introspective pop. And it works! Works fine to me. The first preview we are getting from the upcoming album “Patronizing Self-Help” is an eponymous song which is up now on Bandcamp.

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A fantastic record. That’s the “Your Island” 7″ that was released in 1984 by Final Diners. This record just had two songs, “Your Island” on the A side and “No Windows” on the B side.

I have a copy of the record but just of the vinyl, I don’t have the sleeve. It was my friend Jessel who was kind enough to gift me this record. I hope to find a sleeve someday though. It feels a bit incomplete, not having the sleeve. When that happens to you? That you have the record but no jacket or sleeve, how do you feel?

Many years ago I was actually contacted by one of the band members, Neil was his name. He was the guitar player. He told me that there were only 200 sleeves made as they couldn’t afford making more, that they did them all themselves.

I tried to interview him, he seemed keen on it, saying that Martin, who was the drummer, would also be up for doing the interview. For some reason I never heard from them again. A shame. It would have been fantastic to learn any information about them.

The 7″ was released by a label called Slow Death by Starlight (CAV 019). Discogs doesn’t list any other releases on the label, so I wonder as the catalog number is 19 if there were any other releases. I read that the catalog might have to do with Cavalier Recording Studios in Stockport. The record got some nice distribution thanks to Probe Plus and The Cartel.

The record shows the three band members, Neil, Martin and Alyson, on the front of the sleeve. It is a drawing of them, having picnic. There is a rope hanging too… is it going to hang anyone? This sleeve was designed by Jenny.

No compilation appearances are listed. Were these the only two songs the band recorded? I hope not. Probably just the only two they released. Are there demos?

I do find some more info thanks to a comment on Youtube. There it mentions that the band hailed from Manchester, from the Cheadle/Heald Green area. It also mentions that the vocalist was probably named Alison.

Sadly that’s all I’ve been able to find. I don’t know the last names of the band members and have no clue if they were in other bands afterwards (or before!). Any information would be appreciated, I would love to hear any other songs by the band too!

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Listen
Final Diners – Your Island

As I’ve been terribly busy with the birth of my song I haven’t had time to digest what happened to my friend Toshiko Matsumoto. Just a few weeks ago she passed away. This was such sad news that I had a hard time understanding how this could happen. Why such a passionate person would leave us so young.

I never met Toshiko in real life. And that is definitely something I regret. Of course she told me many times to visit Tokyo. I would have loved to. It is a place I want to go, but still it is in my bucket list.

Toshiko used to run a store there called Apple Crumble. It carried indiepop records from all around the world. Small labels had the same opportunities there as bigger labels. She was the first one to open the doors to the two labels I had, Plastilina and Cloudberry, when no other store cared for my releases. She even made special sections for the labels thus promoting better my records in Japan. That was truly amazing. And I am very thankful for that. She helped Cloudberry a lot to become a known label within the Japanese fans.

And that wasn’t all she did. She wrote a column on the Cookie Magazine. This cool music magazine featured so many great bands and labels. And again, Toshiko championed Cloudberry dedicating a whole article to the label back in the day when I was putting out 3″ CDs. It was the first time the label was on a magazine and it was thanks to Toshiko.

Another time she translated a text about my time in Berlin and Europe, when I DJed in 2009 with Uwe from Firestation Records. I just found this text. I totally forgot about it. Maybe I will share the English version which I think has never been published before.

Years went by, Toshiko ordering and carrying Cloudberry in her store until the store closed many years ago. The Shibuya-located store is sorely missed today. It was a cultural center you could say.

I interviewed Toshiko too. Hearing from someone so involved in indiepop and to be able to share her passion was what pushed me to ask her to do this for the blog. You can read it here. There you can see she wasn’t just running a store and writing articles, but she also organized indiepop parties as well as running a fine label called Rosemary Records! On that label she released the likes of Sloppy Joe, Labrador, Bananaskin, Mocca and Seaside Stars (who I am sharing one of the songs she released from the album “The Stranded Whale”). She was definitely a true activist for the music we like.

She continued until the last days of her life promoting indiepop, doing a blog with her beloved Fabien which she called of course Apple Crumble. The blog was last updated on May 13. But you can visit and check out the good taste Toshiko had with all her wonderful recommendations. There’s even a small interview she did with me a few months back.

It was fun to chat with her. We didn’t do often lately,  after her store and online mailorder closed, but she was supportive of Cloudberry, always. I would always get nice emoticons from her whenever I shared posts on Facebook. Made me so happy.

Perhaps the biggest collaboration we did was the Apple Crumble EP. This was a 3″ CD I put together in 2007. This EP that featured Zipper, The Atom Miksa Reservation, Princess Niko, The Medalist and Robert Church and the Holy Community was only sold at Toshiko’s store. It was a different time and shipping from Japan was affordable. I wanted to support her store and wanted Cloudberry fans to be aware of what Toshiko was doing. So I wanted to direct people to Apple Crumble and get this CD which was wonderful of course. It sold out needless to say.

But that was not all. I dedicated a 7″ insert text to Toshiko. For those who own the Caucus 7″ they will know what I am talking about. On that insert I celebrated my friend Toshiko and her unending support.

I am sad to know she won’t be around anymore. I considered here a like-minded spirit. She knew how to enjoy music. She knew how to project that passion in so many different activities that brought joy to friends and fans. She will be missed. But what she inspired me and many more will continue alive, we wave the indiepop flag high, the same way she always did!

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Listen
Seaside Stars – Guiding Star

Day 481

Croma Nueve: just discovered the label Sursum Tapes from Granada, Spain. Their latest release, the self-titled Croma Nueve tape is already sold out. But here I am checking it out. It was released last May and included 5 songs. You can check their lo-fi bedroom pop on Bandcamp.

A Days Wait: another nice discovery is this project from Hamilton, Canada. Just a week ago Adam Alfano, the person behind this band, published a punchy pop track called “Lost Anyway”. Previously he had released “Ties that Bind (B-Side)” and “Falling Forward iPhone Demo” on Soundcloud.

Fantasy Postcards: wow! a new song by my friends Johan and Mattias Jonsson from Uppsala, Sweden. This one is called “(Where there was) No Goodbye” and as usual is a superb slice of jangly pop!! Thumbs up! I heard a rumour somewhere that they are releasing something in the near future? I hope it is true!

Evergreen Days: remember I told you that My Secret Garden Recordings are releasing a compilation by the amazing Evergreen Days on November 25? Well, to promote this wonderful release a video has been made for the song “Until Then”. This is one release that is essential this year.

Frown Line: and we end this Monday recommendations with another Canadian band, Frown Line from Ottawa. I’ve been meaning to visit the capital for many years, but I haven’t yet. Would be nice. The one song on Bandcamp have reminded me of those plans. This song is called “September” and was recorded by a girl whose name we don’t know but that she is 19 and played everything on it. Nice!

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Back in 2014 the venerable Jigsaw Records that our friend Chris Mac runs released “Thank You for Nothing!” (PZL064) a retrospective compilation of the band formed by Andy Huscroft on bass, Malcolm (Mala) Reay on vocals and guitar and Steve Minto on drums, in the early 90s.

This compilation is available to listen in its entirety on Bandcamp. It includes a whopping 28 songs! These came from their three singles, one split flexi and many compilations, which we’ll look later on, and some from their never released album. The songs for you completists were “Make it Better”, “Why Does the Sun Fall from the Sky?”, “4 Walls”, “Salt in the Wound”, “Sacred Ground”, “Another Day”, “Wish You Luck”, “St. George’s Way”, “Worldly Wise”, “Come in from the Cold”, “Do You Really Know What’s Going On?”, “Money Talks”, “Make a Big Decision”, “Goodbye to Stephen”, “A World of your Own”, “Pull the Boat in”, “Close to Home”, “Think it Over… And Start Again”, “Happy Again”, “The Devil’s In your Shoes”, “This is Your Life”, “A Suit of Wood”, “Watch the Rain”, “You Live by the Sword… You Die by the Sword”, “Sad”, “Chocolate Rain”, “You Need a Heart of Stone” and “Ever Get the Feeling You’ve Been Cheated?”. If you remember, once upon a time I named a Cloudberry 3″ compilation like the last song.

That last song, “Ever Get the Feeling You’ve Been Cheated?” appeared on the split flexi I mentioned. This flexi, shared with The Lavender Faction, came alongside the This Almighty Pop fanzine, number 3. Catalog number for it was DR002, the label was Dolphin 7. The artwork features The Beatles.

On this flexi we learn too that the band hailed from Gateshead.

Gateshead is a large town in Tyne and Wear, England, on the southern bank of the River Tyne opposite Newcastle upon Tyne. Gateshead and Newcastle are joined by seven bridges across the Tyne, including the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. The town is known for its architecture, including the Sage Gateshead, the Angel of the North and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. Residents of Gateshead, like the rest of Tyneside, are usually referred to as Geordies.

In 1991 the band released their first proper 7″, the “Make it Better” single (TURN 05). It came out on the German label A Turntable Friend and had three songs. “Make it Better” appears on the A side and “Pull the Boat In” and “Sad” on the B side. The songs had been recorded in June of that year and on the sleeve there seems to be a woman I should know perhaps, but I can’t tell who it is, looks like a movie actress. Who is she?

In 1992 the band releases a tape on Elefant Records called “Happy Hymns” (ER-014). This tape had 15 tracks, can it be considered an album? Maybe not, most probably a collection of demos: “All Fall Down”, “Money Talks”, “The Devils in Your Shoes”, “Chocolate Rain”, “Think it Over, Start Again”, “Good Luck” and “Happy Again” on the A side and “Come in from the Cold”, “Watch the Rain”, “This Could be Heaven”, “Sacred Ground”, “Goodbye Stephen” and “Do You Really Know What’s Going On?”. Impressive as many of these songs don’t appear on the Jigsaw compilation.

1993 sees the band release “St George’s Way” 7″ (TURN 13) again on A Turntable Friend. Two songs on this one, “St George’s Way” and “Why Does the Sun Fall from the Sky?” on the flipside. Again some interesting photos for the artwork, perhaps known images from TV or movies but I can’t pinpoint them. Not much more info other than who wrote the songs, Graham for “St Georges Way” and Huscroft and Reay for the B side. Now, who is Graham? Was he a new member?

Elefant would work again with the band and release “The Route of Evil – 4 Songs” 7″ (ER-128) in 1994. This EP had “Salt in the Wound” and “Another Day” on the A side and “Make a Big Decision” and “Worldly Wise” on the B side. Weirdly in Elefant’s website it says that the band hailed from Australia.

When it comes to compilations the band shines. They were very active during the 90s! I’ll try to do it quickly and chronologically.

On the 1990 legendary tape “Positively Teenage” released by Stephen Maughan’s Dolphin 7 label we find their songs “All Fall Down” and “Devil in Your Shoe”. In 1991 the song “Watch the Rain” is on the Red Roses for Me tape compilation “Honey at the Core”. That same year on the Spanish tapee “Film Fun ‘There’s No Stopping Her!'” released by El Vicio Secreto de Sister Mary to accompany the first number of thee eponymous  band contributed “Come in from the Cold” and “Sacred Ground”.  Lastly that same year the song “Sleep like a Dream” ended up in the tape “123456 Road Runner” by Glidge Records (Glidge001).

1992 was quite prolific as well. On the French Anorak Records tape “Teeny Poppers” (SHOUBIDOUWA 01) they included the songs “Worldly Wise” and “Everything Today”. On another French tape, “Garden Party” released by Aliénor Records (Alien alpha) they had the song “Happy Again”. Elefant included the song “Sad (Demo Version)” on “Positively Dolphin Friendly” (ER-007) tape. Lastly on the classic “C92” released by Rainbow the band had yet another two songs “Come in from the Cold” and “Why Does the Sun Fall from the Sky?”.

In 1993 the songs “Make a Big Decision” and “World of Your Own” ended up on Grapefruit’s “Lime Green” (Grapefruit Four) tape comp. Bliss Aquamarine would also have them on “Peacock Blue” (BLISS 002) compilation with the songs “Chocolate Rain” and “Watch the Rain”.

More recently the band had “Why Does the Sun Fall…” on the “Jigsaw Records 2015 Sampler” a CDR sampler by Jigsaw Records and in 2017 they appeared on “The Test of Time” (TURN50) a CD and vinyl compilation by A Turntable Friend that announced the comeback of the mighty label.

When it comes to other bands they have been involved with, well we know Malcolm Reay had worked with our friend Stephen in Kosmonaut. Very cool indeed. I don’t know much about the other two members. Did they play in any other indiepop bands? I believe Andy Huscroft was on The Hipflasks who I wrote about (but still haven’t been in touch with!)

I look for more info. I find a blog called “…Your Heart Out“. Here the author writes a nice post about Malcolm Reay. This piece dates from November 2010 and teells us that The Gravy Train had great t-shirts. Would love to see one. He mentions too that the Malcolm loved the band Hurrah!

The other blog that wrote about the band is the great 7pulgadas by my friend Alex from Spain. Not much info about the band but always lovely to read the passionate texts of this blog.

Not much info, but hopefully we’ll find out more details about the band soon! I hope the connections between bands that I am friendly with may help with contacting The Gravy Train members!

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Listen
The Gravy Train – Come from the Cold

Day 478

Hotel Artesia: nice to see Mr. Wright, Kevin, back. You have to remember his wonderful music as The Dreamers and Always as well. This new project is called Hotel Artesia and he has already recorded a bunch of songs that are available on his own Youtube channel. He has so far five songs worth checking out, “Stardust”, “Station”, “Seconds”, “South” and “Space”.

Three Berry Icecream/Funny Little Dream: wow! what a nice release Shiny Happy Records from Indonesia is putting out on July 27. A split tape by the legendary Three Berry Icecream (who I interviewed on the blog not too long ago) and Funny Little Dream a band we love and released a 3″ CD back in the day! Each band contributes four songs to this release and you can preview one song each on Bandcamp!

The Oilies: now we have to listen “Free all the Monsters” by The Oilies. It is actually a cover of the classic song by The Bats. Carly Putnam  and Michael O. are the people behind this fine sounding California band that as you know I’ve recommended time and time again. Hoping for a release in the future.

Geddy Laurence/Michael O: and I had to check what was new with Michael Olivares solo, not just in The Oilies. Well there is a split tape with Geddy Laurence (Ged McGurn from Boyracer) out now on Safe Suburban Home Records from York, UK. In this split each of them contribute two fine popsongs.

Galaxy Lodge: what a nice discovery! This Manila band formed by Emeer, Gerard, Ron, and Otits, is now on Lilystars Records. On top of that they have just released a very good single called “Kiss this Goodbye”. Really enjoyable. I feel I don’t stumble upon many filipino bands as often as I want to, but when I do it is usually quality!

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We head to the US today, to discover the self-titled album by The Allisons.

Released by Spindletop Records (SPT 128), who had released Janet Jackson (!), in 1989, I don’t know how much of a success it was. It does look like the label trusted the band and released it on vinyl, CD and cassette. Uncommon those days!

The jangly band had 11 songs on their record. On the A side they had “Sixth Dimension Flower”, “Wild Wild Rain”, “A Second Coming”, “Sherry Goes Round” and “They Pulled My City Down”. The B side had “Roanne”, “Of Speaking my Mind”, “Naivete”, “Waters Rise and Lower”, “Homeward Bound” and “Listen”. All songs were recorded at January Sound Studio in Dallas, Texas, and mixed at Amigo Studios in LA.

The artwork shows us the four band members in the front cover. They were  Adym Roy on vocals and bass guitar, Jim Harville on vocals and guitars, Karl Teten on lead vocals, guitar, harmonica and bass and Kevin Tate on drums.

Other credits include Daniela de Stefanis, Bill Kennedy and Garth Richardson as engineers. The executive producers was W. Barry Wilson. The songs were mastered by Michele Stone, while the producer was Rob Meurer (who also played percussion and organ on the record). Novi Novog played viola. She has played viola in more than 150 records including 10,000 Maniacs or Dolly Parton!

The song “Homeward Bound” is actually a cover of Paul Simon and the first track, “Sixth Flower Dimension” was written by Errol Hughes. Who was he?

There were no compilation appearances for the band nor any other releases. How strange.

I look at any other bands they might have been on. Kevin Tate seems to have drummed for Gorges Borges who released a 12″ in 1985. And that’s it. What about the other members? They must have played music somewhere else, no?

To me it looks clear the label had a lot of hope in the band. I read that their cover of “Homeward Bound” had a video and used to be played in MTV Europe. I haven’t been able to find this video on Youtube.

There is absolutely no more info about the band. I think they hailed from Texas. But that’s what I think. I don’t have prove.

Hopefully we’ll learn more details about them in the future. Anyone remembers them?

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Listen
The Allisons – Sherry Goes Round

Day 476. I just became a father of a beautiful baby boy. Honestly don’t know how much time I’ll be able to invest on the blog now. I have a few posts about obscure bands that I have written already, like this one, but I always look for new recommendations just before posting. So those you can expect to be published in the next few days. The blog may not update as often now, until I get the grip of this new life, but I will continue writing and posting when time allows is. Maybe it continues the same, I don’t know, but just wanted to let everyone know that don’t worry, that everything is great. Just very busy!

Love, Burns: so because of the events I just told you I missed the limited edition 7″ that Love, Burns released. I hope you did not. That because the two songs included in it, “Wired Eyes (alternate mix)” and “Hard to Fall” are two terrific pieces by Phil Sutton’s solo project. He also played live a few weekends back and I missed that. Oh well, at least we can play these songs over and over and wait for the next release!

Melenas: the Pamplona all-girl band is back with a superb rendition of Grauzone’s “Eisbär”. This time in Spanish though. The song is “Osa Polar” and sounds like a popstatic pop bomb! Punchy and catchy, you wonder if they will release it in any way. It sounds great. What a superb band they are. They should keep getting bigger and bigger!

Red Go-Cart: a new flexi by a favourite Japanese band of mine! Just one song though, but a nice song nonetheless! “Jellyfish” is out now on Galaxy Train Records and it also comes with a lovely sleeve by Heather Marigold. The band formed by Tomomi Usui, Miki Hirose and Yuji Usui continues to craft perfect pop!

Eggs on Mars: now we head to Kansas City, to check out the latest by this four-piece formed by Brad, Mason, Bennie and Doug. Their latest is indeed a  7-song mini-album called “Brighter Now”. It is available on CD, and as I was writing this post only 7 copies were left! So don’t miss it.

Hurry: we stay in  the US, but we head now to Philadelphia. Here I discover the solo project of Matt Scottoline. Hurry is the name of this fine guitar pop project who released the album “Fake Ideas” on June 25. Again few copies are left of this 12″ that came out on Lame-O-Records. 10 songs worth your time.

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I think I need to get back to the idea of making a cool compilation of Australian indiepop. I had the front cover done, I got the name for it (though that was a bit complicated because I was using a band’s song and they were sort of ok of me using it), and had contacted many bands though I really didn’t get a song from any! I wanted a song, a bio and a photo. Simple! But no one was giving me that. One band was making it more complicated asking to sign a contract for one song. That was quite disheartening. I can’t be dealing with contracts and stuff at this point. Too busy. It is just me. Oh well… The whole point was to give another life to all these songs that are wonderful. And I keep discovering more and more wonderful Australian pop. The Handmedowns is the latest discovery.

The band formed in Adelaide at the end of 1986 and was part of the underground scene along Dust Collection, Mad Turks and Scremaing Believers among others. Discogs has a pretty good informative bio that tells us that they were formed by:
Trevor Comley on vocals and lead guitar
Tony Dyer on vocals and rhythm guitar
Dave Gray on bass
Jason Kilic on drums

This lineup recorded a 6 track demo in 1987.

After the demo was done, Dave Gray left (he would form the band Rocket Science) and was replaced by Rohan Belton who had been on the Verge, Dust Collection and Garden Path. Rohan would add some vocals to the previously recorded demo and these songs would have to wait 27 years to be released. More on that in a bit!

In 1987 Tony Dyer would also leave the band and the three remaining members would record the 12″ EP “Back to Yourself” that was released by Greasy Pop Records (GPR 140). Eventually another member of Dust Collection would join the band, Scott Allan, on vocals and rhythm guitar.

The band would call it quits in 1989.

Comley, Dyer and Kilic would later form the band Swerve. Dyer would also be in the Stoneage Hearts in the 2010s. Comley went to join the Sack. Belton would start a label, Smashed Records. Gray would move to Melbourne and be in bands like the Electric Guitars and the Freeloadere. Kilic would become president of the SANFL football club “Sturt” in Adelaide.

Okay, that was quite interesting. Now let’s look at the records!

The “Back to Yourself” 12″ would be good to listen. I need to try to get a copy of it. In the meantime we know that it was recorded at Foundation Studios, Salisbury East. The engineer was Richard Goodbridge. The photography on the sleeve is credited to Amanda Belton (sister or wife of Rohan?).

The songs on this 12″ were “State of Confusion”, “What if I” and “Home” on the A side and “When All the World Was Young”, “Back to Yourself” and “Cornerstone” on the B side.

Now comes the 6 song demo that was released in 2004. It came out on Belton’s label, Smashed Reecords (SMA 103), and was titled “Free Set of Steak Knives”. These tracks were recorded at Bartels St. Studio and remixed at Artec Studios. The engineer was Kim Horne while the remixing is credited to Stuart Sheldon.

The songs on this CD were “Goodbye”, “Slip Away”, “Quarter to 12”, “What’s in a Heart”, “Reflections” and “Really Hot Woman”.

The band also appeared on a few compilations.

Back in the day, 1988, their song “Quarter to Twelve” appeared on “Oasis 2 (the 1988 Greasy Pop Compilation of Adelaide Bands)”, a 12″ comp released by their label, Greasy Pop (GPR143).

In 1998 their song “Goodbye” ended up in the classic Swedish music magazine Sound Affects’ compilation 7″ “4×4”. I didn’t know the existence of this 7″ that came along the number 38 of this magazine. The Handmedowns appear as the second song on the A side. The first song on the A side is by The Flatmates.

Smashed Records would give new life to the songs starting in 2003. First including two songs, “Home” and “When all the World Was Young” to the CDr compilation “South Central Indi Pop from the Mullet Era” (SMA101). This looks like something I’d like as it includes two bands that I know are good, Dust Collection and The Garden Path. Would be nice to hear Trailer Park and The Verge that are the other bands in this collection.

“Slip Away” was included in the 2005 compilation  of songs written by Tony Dyer called “Your Eyes” (SMA108). On this CD all songs are but Swerve but “Slip Away”.

Lastly in 2005 we see “Smashed MMV” (SMA110), another compilation where The Handmedowns include “Goodbye” and “Home”.

And as I was looking for their songs I stumble upon a Bandcamp for The Handmedowns with all of their songs! Perfect!

One thing I notice too is that the “Back to Yourself” 12″ was re-released in 2004 by Smashed Records (SMA105) on CDR. This one included the same six songs plus “Goodbye (Swedish Edition)”, the track that was on the Sound Affects compilation.

Great! I found more info and all the songs! This was a good research project. But were there even more songs recorded? Why haven’t I heard this band before? They sound good! I find that with Greasy Pop Records I haven’t been able to listen most of their catalogue. It is not easy available. I need to invest some money in it.

And yeah, that compilation has to happen someday. So many great indiepop bands in Australia in the late 80s, early 90s!

Anyhow, who remembers the Handmedowns? What are the band members up to these days?

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Listen
The Handmedowns – Slip Away

Day 474

Reminiscent: we start this Wednesday with this Spanish band with an English name. Their latest release is a four-song EP called “Primavera”. The band seems to be a duo, boy/girl, formed by Guardian and Dafne, who make some lovely lo-fi bedroompop.

Capitol: now we head to Hamilton, Ontario. That’s Canada. A cool EP titled “All the Rest of my Heads” will be released on September 15 by this postpunk/janglepop band. Four songs that will be released by Meritorio Records in Spain. Yeah, it is not just digital but we’ll get a 12″. That’s always good news. Preview one of the tracks, “Always Saying Nothing”, and get hooked.

Flight Mode: now to Oslo, Norway. Very international post. A punky pop EP that actually dates from the summer of 2017. But it is online now on Bandcamp, a few years after. The EP is titled “TX, ’98” and it is very catchy and fun. Two songs out of the four are available to preview, “Sixteen” and “Fossil Fuel”.

Pip Blom: next up is Amsterdam. Here we discover this superb sounding pop band who will be releasing their album “Welcome Break” on October 8. But they don’t want us to wait with no news. They are sharing “Keep it Together” a great slice of indiepop. The band will be releasing their record on Heavenly Recordings, the label of Saint Etienne.

Tapeworms: I wanted to end this review with the latest video by Tapeworms. The Lille, France, band released the album “Magic Pierrot” and they have put together this fun video for the eponymous song. Enjoy!

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Another day, another obscure band.

Another band that I know barely anything. I hope the web will help me find details about them, any information that would paint for me some of the big picture of who they were.

Loveskip were British as far as I know and released just one record. That happened in 1988 and was a 12″ single with “Carry On at Large” on the A side and “I Will Not Wash this Hand” on the B side. The B side makes me giggle, that song title, in these times of pandemic, seems so wrong! But it is a great slice of pop music I have to say.

The black and white sleeve of the record, that was self-released by the way, catalog Loveskip 001, shows a guy sitting on a beach chair. The back of the chair and of this individual face us. The guy is wearing a hat that says “Kiss me quick, squeeze me slow”. He is not wearing beach clothes, looks like he has shoes and jeans, event though he is clearly on a beach.

On the back we find the band members, Dominic Bell on vocals, Daniel Sutton on guitars, Andy Goldie on bass and Tim Bryant on drums. There’s a photo of the four of them, on a beach. Looks cold, and windy.  All photos were taken by Stevan Zivanovic. Oh, and the cover was created by Graham Watts while the sleeve was designed by Naomi Davies. The band logo was created by Sid Sutton.

Both songs on the record were penned by Daniel Sutton and the lyrics are printed on the back of the sleeve. Other credits on the record include that of Sharon Harvey who did backing vocals on the B side and Martin Cantwell who played keyboards on both songs.

Both songs were recorded at F2 Studios and were engineered by Serge. They were produced by Loveskip and Serge.

On Discogs they don’t have any compilations listed. So that’s a dead end.

There’s a Tim Bryant on many releases on Discogs. But I think that’s not the same Tim Bryant. Would be nice to confirm in which other bands they were involved with. Dominic appears on two releases by Gymnastics in the Seventies but this band hails from Australia. So maybe he migrated there? Or maybe not. Can’t tell.

Daniel Sutton on the other hand appears on a band called Munroe Effect that released a 7″ and a CDEP in the 2000s. I can’t be a 100% sure it is the same Daniel, but chances are higher compared to Tim and Dominic’s.

One random thing I found was a sale listing for a Yamaha BB3000 bass. Here the seller mentions this was the choice of bass of Andy Rourke from The Smiths and Andy Goldie of Loveskip!

No more info on the web. Would be nice to know where in the UK they were from. And of course if they recorded more songs! Anyone remembers them?

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Listen
Loveskip – I Will Not Wash this Hand