My friend Andreas has disappeared in oblivion. I wonder what happened to him. Great guy the swede. For a while I contributed with some band recommendations on his blog Dance to the Sun. He had an exquisite taste and championed the same bands as me. Of course he liked eBay and getting rare records, like that Pristine Christine in mint condition, was the sport he most liked. To all of those rare findings he would call them his Holy Grails. And yes, today I stumbled with one of his Holy Grails: Pastel Collision. I remember the day he nudged me on MSN saying he got “Trouble with Capital T”.

Strangely enough, today by googling I found this website. A blog run by Duncan from the band! I’m also a big fan of this band mind you. I have a couple (or maybe three? I’m terrible recalling how many records I have) of their 7″s. I also have the album by Kaleida (the band they evolved to) which is GREAT! You could throw a party just by playing that record. I wonder if he is up for an interview for the blog. I’ve just sent him a message on his Youtube account. He has uploaded the video for Wherever You Go, Take Me With You if you mind.

It would be cool that all Pastel Collision was released on a CD. I would like to do it, but I bet Siesta would make such complications as they like to do. They pay recordings and they keep the copyrights. I guess it would be a matter of negotiations… but nowadays paying to get a license of songs is silly. It’s just not worth it. Okay, it is but if it’s Camera Obscura or something bigger than that.

I sent the questions to Darrel for the Home and Abroad interview. Maybe that will be up soon! Also I wrote Uwe to see what he thinks about these compilation ideas. Maybe both labels can join forces and make a compilation every year? It’s a possibility! We’ll see what he says!

Today I listened the Napoleon Sweetheart EP from Northern Portrait. Ok, it’s good. But for me it doesn’t live the hype. I think their labelmates Bubblegum Lemonade have more of an edge. Still I recommend it, 4 fine jangly songs. Also got today in the mail La La Love You debut album. This is a Spanish band, so I bet you haven’t heard from them. It’s punk pop, lovely stuff, fun, boy-girl chorus, handclaps, you know… the classic sugus and chupa chups bands from the early 2000s on Elefant: Juniper Moon, Vacaciones, even some Los Fresones Rebeldes (though they only had one 7″ on Elefant, everything else on Subterfuge). This is a strong debut. I may continue listening to it tomorrow!

On the Cloudberry street… got all the songs for the Christmas EP and boy it does sound great! Twig counts again with Kalle from Elenette to bring that marvelous sax to Antoinette’s Christmas Wedding! Strega bring the #Poundsign# pedigree, girl boy vocals, and chimes! The Soft City, now with female vocals… for a moment I thought it was Kicker! and closing the EP, Champagne Riot with pure elegance.

I just finished watching Le Cercle Rouge. What a good movie. The robbery scene, wow, Melville knows how to keep you in suspense! Tension is perfectly executed. Would Hitchock be proud?

Okay enough gossip, that should do it for today.

I promised five lines to Emma. Maybe I can start writing again? You tell me just before you take that bus to school.

I thought writing often in this blog but it just hasn’t happened. I always tend to get myself busy. I’ve sent some questions to Allan Kingdom from The Siddeleys, for an interview that I hope to post here soon. Also I already asked Darrell Mitchell from Home and Abroad and Mark Marrable from How Many Beans Make Five to do an interview with me. Hopefully I’ll get around those soon too. Maybe it is a good idea to have this blog up and running? Perhaps it helps as practice? For instance, I need to write asap for the Hari and Aino and Play People inserts. I want to have an smashing message. I have a couple of ideas.

The Indiepopedia could be a great tool. I found Peter Twee.net message on the poplist really bitter. He is one of the best friends I have in indiepop, I really hope he doesn’t get mad! Twee.net is great, is legendary, but the idea of the wiki is totally something else, is a community experience, it’s like the mass, not the bible. Twee.net is the bible.

I usually print the Cloudberry sleeves up north, a 45 minute bus ride. I went up there today, needed to print the new Java and Christmas CDs. Ironically the print shop had run out of paper. Then another 45minutes back home. 2 hours wasted. They say they’ll get paper on Monday. I’ll be very tight with time on the release schedule it seems.

Today I had two songs in my head. Feverfew’s ‘Give it Up’ and Nine Steps to Ugly’s ‘Vaudeville’. Both are pure pop bliss. I really wonder, as the state of the indiepop labels is, will these gems will ever pop up on CD. I wish I had the money right now, I would put them out. Maybe later? I would like to have in Plastilina a series of compilations of these forgotten gems. I know Firestation Records does it on the Leamington Spa series. But a release every two years seem like ages to me. I can’t get enough of these jangle slices. If I do something like that, will Uwe and the gang get mad? I really like those guys, and Uwe’s lemon juice is the best!

At least we are putting out the Bluetrain retrospective this month. And we are preparing The Bollweevils and The Cudgels ones. That for now. I really hope to do a couple more next year!

Records bought today? Yeah The Sorayas “Hours to Days” CD EP (this song I put out on a tape called C-06!!) and the new Fosca 7″… I just can’t remember the name. I got an email from their label, doing their promo. I immediately ordered it.

I just noticed that I have lots to tell. Maybe I can continue tomorrow? I hate long posts. I bet you do too. Let’s keep it this size.

PS. Have a nice ride.