About to start the second half of the year, June is almost over. Last week I was saying that there had been a lot of new indiepop videos released lately and definitely that is a healthy thing. So I want to introduce you to some of these new videos that I’ve been enjoying the past few weeks. But before that many of you might have seen the news that The Seashells, the legendary band from Umeå, Sweden, will be releasing a 7″ with us later this year. You can listen the A side, “Thoughtlessness” on the band’s Soundcloud, you are going to love it! I’ll have more news about this release as soon as the artwork for the single is completed, so keep an eye here, on the blog or our Facebook for that. Should be out hopefully by October or November.

I’ll start these recommendations by the latest video that has been released, and that’s Ay, Carmela’s “Crying in Public“. This song comes out from an EP titled “Working Weeks” that will be released on July 28th. The sound is a bit different to Carmela’s other band, Colour Me Wednesday, where she plays bass. The song is refreshing, it is classic guitar pop, simple, straight to the point, with punkish guitar and poppy vocals, but especially it is different to much of what the UK has been giving us the last few years, that folky/punkish stuff that Indietracks had been championing. For me that is important and it is already a victory.

Next up is a household name, a band that had released with us on Cloudberry: Lost Tapes. They have released a video for the song “Girls” that appears in their first album on Mushroom Pillow that is highly recommended. I remember this video started being recorded the first time the band was in NY a couple years back. It took quite a while but it has been worth the wait.

Perhaps the most exciting news was that Burning Hearts were back. They released a new song, a new video, called “Work of Art“. And guess what? It is a work of art. I’ve always been a sucker for all of their songs, and I’ve been lucky to have seen them play live. I love the imagery, the lyrics, Jessica’s vocals. I don’t know much about where or when this song will be released physically, but I hope it is soon. Top stuff.

Then another band that has a connection with Cloudberry, my friends Tiny Fireflies who I just saw once again at NYC Popfest. They have made a video for one of their best songs on their first album: “Ghost“. I suppose all of you reading me own a copy of their album, but if you haven’t you should grab one before they sell out. Gems like this song abound on it. Kristine and Lisle are two of the most talented musicians I know, and better people even. Now I look forward to their next album effort which they’ve told me they have started working on!

Expert Alterations is one of the few American bands I really like. On top of that they make indiepop the way I like it and not many does anymore. That one that ramshackles and feels like everything is breaking apart. Crashpop some call it. That one that owes a lot to the TVPs, to the McTells, to O Level and more. They’ve made a video for “Such a Stupid Fool” and it’s a lo-fi bike ride filled with Pa Pa Pas that is just infectious.

Barcelona’s Papa Topo are releasing a new album called “Ópalo Negro” this coming month. Their second promo video for this record is “Lágrimas de Cocodrilo” and it is a cracker. Very influenced by La Movida, very Berlanga, very Dinarama. A video full of Egyptian imagery, a saxophone and even a mummy! It looks like it was a lot of fun to make it. I can’t wait to have this album, hopefully Jigsaw Records carries it as Elefant prices are always a bit steep for us in this side of the Atlantic.

And actually today I got on the snail mail an EP from a very cool Japanese band that has really surprised me that I want to recommend to all of you. They are called With Me and they hail from Tokyo. They have just released this CD Ep called “Love Letter” and it includes 5 songs that you can have a quick sample here. The band is formed by Aota (vocals and guitar), Miki (guitar), Sakura (bass) and Fumi (drums). It’s top indiepop in the classic tradition of Japanese indiepop of course, that one that gets influenced by Momoko Yoshino’s bands for example. You can get this album from many stores including Disk Union, Stone Records, Sone Records, File-Under, Thistime, and more! They are also trying to make a 7″ version of this EP and have put together a crowdfunding project if you’d like to help. I’m really enjoying it and I hope to hear more from them in the near future.

So a lot of things going in indiepop world at the moment, hopefully it continues like this for the time to come!

Riviera, pronounced, is an Italian word which means “coastline”, ultimately derived from Latin ripa, through Ligurian rivea. It came to be applied as a proper name to the coast of Liguria, in the form riviera ligure, then shortened to riviera. 

I heard Riviera for the first time on a Dublab Podcast where Peter Hahndorf from Twee.net was a guest. You can listen and download this session from October 2008 here. In it he introduced a bunch of bands from Asia mostly, like Monte Carlo, Carnival Park, The Oddfellows and more. The penultimate song he played was Riviera’s “Heaven Knows I Love You” and they weren’t from Asia, but Sweden. It was a nice surprise for me.

I don’t know much about this band that only released one CD EP in 1997. I don’t own the record yet. I don’t know how hard it is to find it. Maybe I’ll be lucky someday soon as I have only added it today to my Discogs wantlist.

The CD EPwas released on Trampolene Records (TRACDS513), mostly known for being home of The Cardigans. This label was also a subsidiary label for Stockholm Records that eventually was going to be sold in 2000 to Universal. Maybe then it was sort of mainstream their releases. I don’t know how well known Riviera was in Sweden. At least, some attention they might have gotten thanks to being in the same label as The Cardigans?

The CD was economically released in a card sleeve jacket. Three songs were included, “Heaven Knows I Love You”, “Same Old Story” and “Why Was I The Last To Know?”. The credits tell us that the record was written and produced by Claes Molander. Engineered and co-produced by Charlie Hillson. Mastered by Åsa Winzell at Polar Studios. The photography of the band on the cover and back cover by Peter Larsson.

On the sleeve it is said that “Heaven Knows I Love You” is taken from the forthcoming album “A Lover’s Work is Never Done”. Thing is, I believe this album was never released as I can’t find any information about it. Nevertheless a song by the same name was included in a Japanese compilation of Swedish bands called “Pop Hits the North”. This compilation was released by Polydor (POCP-7163) in 1996, a year before the CD EP. On this compilation we could see some very fine and well known bands like The Cardigans, Cloudberry Jam or Happydeadmen among others.

So 4 songs seem to be all their recorded output.

I could find a blog post on a Swedish page called “Tidskriften Pop Revisited” about them. From it I gather a couple of interesting facts, most especially about Claes Molander who seems to be the driving force behind Riviera. We know that he lived in London between 1973 and 1978 and he became inspired by Gary Glitter when he saw him on Top of the Pops. He would come back to Sweden and have a band there called The Varlets in the nineties.

The blog continues telling us some of Claes’ influences, from Tamla Motown to Phil Spector. There’s definitely that sort of sound. But sadly there’s no more info. Luckily through The Varlets I could find out that at least they released a cassette tape in 1994. Seems it was self-released and it included 5 songs (which I found them on Youtube): “Please Let Me Know“, “I’m In Love With You“, “Sooner or Later“, “You’re Being Fooled“, “Doctor Believe Me“.

The Varlets was formed by Benny Björk on bass and vocals, Kent Alfredsson on drums, Johan Elb on guitar, Claes Molander on vocals, guitar and percussion. The produced for this tape was Håkan Göstas and they even had a manager in Jacke Nummelin. Did they release anything else? I don’t know.

Another band I know Claes was involved with was Revelation. I believe it was after the demise of Riviera. They released a 7” on Dolores Recordings in 1999 and it included the song “That’s How Much You Mean to Me” and an instrumental version of the same song on the B side.

I wonder whatever happened to Claes during the 2000s, seems like he disappeared, or perhaps not? What other bands was he part of? What happened to the Riviera album? Did they play a lot live? Whereabout in Sweden were they based? Would be interesting to find answers to all of these questions and more!

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Listen
Riviera – Heaven Knows I Love You

A few of you might have already seen on Facebook that I’m working on a Some Other Day retrospective compilation for the Cloudberry Cake Kitchen. I do have to ask you for some patience though! There are still a few more steps before it’s ready, and we have some records we are putting out in the next few months so, I think this compilation will be ready by the end of the year. Definitely.

Aside from that we have at least 3 7″s already in the pipeline. Cloudberry is very busy, and we hope you can keep supporting us the way you do. It’s the only way we can keep helping bands put out their magnificent sounds!

The last week I’ve seen so many new videos by indiepop bands. I don’t know exactly why. I want to do a review and recommend them to all of you but I know I have promised the final chapter of my NYC Popfest review. So I’ll try to keep in mind, remember, that idea for next week (hopefully there are even more new videos too). But today let’s see what I can remember from that Sunday almost a month ago where everyone was in awe for such historic, classic, legendary bands!

Sunday, as it has become a tradition for me, as long as Popfest is held at Littlefield, I go to Ghenet, an Ethiopian restaurant just a few blocks down on the main street. We met there with Alex as well, like last year, and we had our tibs and injera, spices and all. It was delicious. At Littlefield for some reason I always have Shiner Bock beers. It’s not exactly the best beer in the universe but it’s the only thing here in NYC that gives me nostalgia for the months I lived in Texas back in 2005.

On the way to Littlefield, crossed paths with Hampus, Alpaca Sports’ drummer, who lives quite close. He wasn’t going to Popfest but just came from rehearsing for another band in the city. I don’t know what got into me, that I surprised him, he wasn’t expecting me showing up like that and I gave him a big scare!

When we arrived Lake Ruth was playing. I liked what I had hear on the web, but I wasn’t captured totally by their live gig. It was nice though, and soothing. It was a good way to start the evening for me. I was already very tired because of the past days, legs hurt even. I’m becoming old! So after a while we went and sat down at the front room. There Kevin was making portraits of people, at the time he was doing Maz’s. I think he was charging a dollar per portrait. Maz didn’t come out that good, but the next one he did was dead on.

I met some people that evening, I met one of the Catholic Easter Colors boys that was very kind. Also I met a friend from the Soulseek days, from Ohio. Then more people at the small patio outside too were very friendly but I can’t remember their names now. Then it was very cool to talk for a while with Mary from Even as We Speak. I even took my fan photo with her. Getting older but I’m not changing!

We went for a walk. Mariana needed some coffee. The day was quite nice. But we were tired still. I don’t drink coffee, so I had to get myself together and get some strength from somewhere. Beer probably. When it was time for Secret Shine, I think the excitement started to grow on me.

I had seen Secret Shine a couple of times already. First time a long time ago in Berlin. They even invited me to the backstage and it was the first time they even met me! It was thanks to my friend Andi of course, the same who released their last 7″ that I actually have here on the distro on the website. Last time I saw them was at Indietracks. That was great as well. I remember buying a flexi from them last time there at the merch stall. They are always so great. Funny enough today I just lost an eBay bid for the “Ephemeral” 7″, one of the few Sarahs I’m missing. Oh well…

They opened with “Burning Star”s and of course closed their set with “Loveblind”. What an end was that! The guitars were just ringing! “Drift Away”, “Perfect Life”,” Into the Ether”, were a few of the songs they played. I got their setlist, written on a paper towel. Not the most glamorous setlist I’ve gotten, but I’ve gotten worse.

Next were Even as We Speak, Secret Shine’s labelmates. As I had said before this was the band I was looking forward the most. Because I love their songs, and also because of geography, chances are that this was going to be my one and only chance for me to see them. Sure I can travel to Australia, but for them to be playing a gig at the same time? Difficult! So, there I was all so giddy. And then the band came out dressed as marsupials, in the most surprising entrance to stage I’ve ever seen an indiepop band!

If I can remember correctly, Julian was dressed as a kangaroo, Mary as a koala, Matt as a platypus, but can’t remember what the rest were dressed as. I know there’s videos but the rest of the band look a bit far away and I can’t distinguish what animal they are. Maybe some of you can help me? Anyhow, why not start with “One Step Forward”?

Then the classics, “Blue Suburban Skies”, “Nothing Ever Happens”, and after a couple more songs, we got a beautiful rendition of The Go-Betweens “Right Here”. That was fantastic. The show was only getting better and better. Mary would invite two people from stage to learn some steps and sing along. Then she would ask the stage what song did we prefer, “Bizarre Love Triangle” or “Blue Eyes”? The crowd of course wanted the original song, not the cover song!

And to end the night, why not get Vernon and Cris to join the band to dance and sing and have fun on stage? Why not! That was fab! Definitely my favourite gig, and not just because of the music. I loved the communication between band and fans, how they prepared the gig with the costumes, and that they had even prepared a special cover song for the occasion. I think Popfest gigs have the potential to be special, because the fans know the songs and are fans of the bands, so when a band goes the extra mile it becomes at least for me, a gig to never forget, a legendary gig in my book. This was one for sure.

We had already secured a good spot on the front by now. And that was good. But we got so hungry. We decided to go as fast as possible to get some dinner and come back running for The Railway Children. The thing was, interesting for me, that The Railway Children had the most fans in all Popfest. Mostly older people that had been listening to them on college radio. As I didn’t grow up here I wasn’t aware of this. We grabbed some fast tacos, very mediocre to say the least, at Oaxaca, and then we arrived just when the band was playing “Every Beat of the Heart”. Lucky! That is perhaps my favourite song of theirs. I’m not a super fan as I said, but I like them, but because of that I decided to stay at the back and leave the super fans have the better places on the floor. This meant of course, no setlist for me.

The last band was The Chills. Oh dear. How exciting to see them again after seeing them in London a couple of years back. That time was amazing, with the great company of Jennifer, Miguel, Miguel #2, Christos and Matthew. Now it was time for New York, and what a gig it was. It was long, they played so many hits, a lot of songs from their last album (that I think is VERY good if you haven’t checked out).

I think the moment everyone got the chills (sorry for the bad pun), was when they played “Pink Frost”. What a moment that was. They also played songs like “Wet Blanket”, “Doledrums”, “I Love My Leather Jacket” and they closed their fabulous set with the incomparable “Heavenly Pop Hit”. Before the encore someone was about to take the setlist! And I’m all so shy asking if I can have it! That I tried so hard in London to get it, but it was impossible. He was very kind and told me that if he could take a photo, I could have it! Fantastic!! Then the band came back and the guitar player was, “oh! where’s my setlist, someone stole my setlist already!”. I kept quiet!! It was the first time I see a band ask for their setlist for the encore, don’t they already know what they are playing?

I found later the guy who gave me the setlist and gave him one CD as a gift. But he already had it! Amazing! He already knew about Cloudberry and all. So I gave him another, I hope he liked it!

A fanboy photo with Martin Philipps was next. Of course. A little chat were he told me that the plan is for The Chill come back next year for bigger concerts. Oh wow, I hope so! Then saying goodbye to everyone. To Vernon, to Cris. It was a bit of a bittersweet night. Great gigs, great fun, but always saying goodbye to friends that one doesn’t see as often as one would like.

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I got a message the other day on Facebook asking me about a band from Sheffield, from the 80s, called The Seaside. I was told that their one EP was brilliant, bloody brilliant, and that they recorded even more stuff. I was curious and I started to dig.

Sheffield has been a fantastic city when it comes to indiepop. A lot of great bands hail from there. Just lately of course I released The Suncharms compilation. They are from there. But who were these The Seaside whose only EP dates from 1991?

Their EP included two songs on the A side, “Idolise” and “Completely”. The first’s lyrics are credited to a Stan. The second to a Clix. On the B side we find “Wild C. Wilder”, lyrics by Clix and Rhinow. We don’t know the complete names sadly. I ordered the record this past week, but doubt they will shed more light on the names or any other details.

The record was composed by The Seaside, the engineer was Pete Stewart who had also worked with bands like Pulp, The Comsat Angels, Harbourkings, and even Take That. Mastered by Metalwork (MAX) and the producer was John Avery. It was recorded at Axis Studios in Sheffield.

The record came out on the Vlaw label (VLAW ONE). As you can imagine the label only released this one single. Safe to assume it was the band’s own label? Probably.

A blog called The Independent Music Review is the only other place where I found anything written about them. The reviewer says that the music sounds like flower power, like if it came from the 60s but it’s really from the early 90s. That this is a gem that never got past the mainstream baggy madchester that was reigning at the time. He mentions too that the band may have released a track on a single alongside March to the Grave, but it is only his speculation. Well, about this I have no clue. Maybe someone knows?

What I do know is that they contributed one song called “Begging Bowl” to a compilation on spinART Records in 1995. The compilation is called “LemonLime volume One… A Pop Compilation”, and it includes of course a lot of great bands like Holiday Flyer or Bomb Pops. I have a few compilations on spinART, sadly I’m missing this one. Should I track it down just for this song?

Then on Youtube our last hints. “Idolise” and “Wild C. Wilder” have been uploaded. On the “Idolise” upload I see that there used to be a The Seaside Facebook page at some point but it doesn’t exist anymore. A person remembers that one of the members used to work in Warp Records and another one lived in Greenhill.

Another fan mentions seeing them supporting The Dylans at the Borderline.

And that’s about it on the web about The Seaside. The name of the band doesn’t help much either for googling them. But maybe some of you remember them, and went to their gigs, or had some demo tapes or more recordings. I wonder what happened to them, if they had been in bands before or after, and where are they now?

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Listen
The Seaside – Idolise

Maybe you know but maybe you don’t. But now you can pre-order the debut 7″ by Stephen’s Shore on our website. It will be out on August 15th and it includes 4 songs, “Ocean Blue”, “If You”, “Turn Your Head” and “Let’s Go Home”. Artwork by Fabio Consoli. I’m very excited by this newish band from Stockholm, Sweden, and its jangly songs. I’m sure you all are going to like them!

I have more release news to announce in the next few weeks, so it is very exciting. I know summers usually are the time when people are traveling and having vacations, going to festivals or even disconnecting with the world, avoiding phones and internet and doing that hippie thing of reconnecting with nature. Nevertheless I really hope you can have a listen to all these new amazing sounds I have in store and feel the excitement for indiepop music once again! Indiepop is alive and kicking!

Last week I was just all about NYC Popfest. The first two nights. The beers, the songs, the bands, the gigs, the friends, everything was just so much fun! It’s a bit painful now, 4 or 5 weeks after to go back to happy times when now there’s nothing even close to it happening! How I wish I could go back in time once again to that weekend when so many good friends and such good music was making all us feel the joy of our small, minuscule indiepop scene.

Saturday was at Baby’s All Right for an early afternoon show. It was free and who can complain about that? It was packed naturally even though none of the bands are very well known in the US, or at least that’s the impression I have. I had a very quick Indian lunch a couple of blocks away as I was running very late sadly. At least I had to be there at 3pm to catch Los Bonsáis who I had seen before in Madrid Popfest but I utterly love their songs, so just couldn’t miss them. It was a bit stressful because of the train situation in Brooklyn, with several lines, like the F or the G, not stopping at their usual stops and so on. But we made it at 3pm, just on time when Los Bonsáis were playing their first song. Their was still some space in the front so we managed to get there. Vernon was already there, and we saw out friend José from Chicago who we had been missing the previous days.

As expected they were marvelous, Nel and Helena opened with “Nordeste” and ended their set with a cover of the Vaselines’ “Son of a Gun”, translated to Spanish as “Hijo del Señor”. They even had a couple of their friends get on stage to sing with them this last song. Before that they had played my favourite “Ultramarinos” and a Television Personalities cover, “Punks a Tiempo Parcial”.

The next band in my list to check out were Snow Fairies. It was quite a surprise for me to know that they were playing Popfest when they were first announced. I was a big fan of their songs back when I was a student and as it is the case with smaller bands, I never thought they would do a reunion gig at all. I know that after their demise they kept making music, especially as The Skywriters, but The Snow Fairies were in a different league I always thought. Actually yesterday I found myself listening to their album “Get Married” (I’m still missing their other album, help!) and I was enjoying it so much. No one makes music like this I thought. Back in the early 2000s there were many like-minded bands it seems. Today, none. It’s a shame.

Joanny was super surprised by The Snow Fairies. Other friends as well. They put a great show that one would have thought that they deserved to play a better slot other than headlining the afternoon show. But that’s how it is, who would have expected such a brilliant gig.

A walk through Williamsburg, now to the Knitting Factory. On the way a stop for pizza as the group was hungry. Not me. On the way we saw Remi walking by herself, of course she was to join us. Then at the pizza place Amanda would join us too. Big table, like the old times. After some coffee, and we met Sean on the line. Catching up a bit with Fortuna Pop’s leader. But it was getting closer to the moment of truth, a lineup of Cristina Quesada, Tiny Fireflies, Alpaca Sports, Mercury Girls, The Chesterfields and The Primitives was waiting for us!

There were garlands on the stage. We had been shopping earlier in the week and Andreas had found these in a stationary shop in Soho. Now it looked great. Even better Cristina’s dressed matched with the garlands almost. To open, “Pineapple Princess”. Of course. Andreas would eventually join her. “Just Like Honey” by JAMC was loved by everyone. I was very happy when she played Family’s classic “Viaje a los Sueños Polares”, but everyone just accepted defeat to sweetness with their rendition of Alpaca Sports’ “Just For Fun”, now an indiepop classic.

Tiny Fireflies and their return to NYC Popfest was next. Now adding a third member to the band. The sound was bigger, and Kristine was a superstar on stage! The songs from the album sounded gorgeously, and they also played songs from earlier on, even one from a Cloudberry release which they kindly dedicated to me <3 . It was kind of a short set, seven songs or so. “Brightest Star”, “Ghost”, “Farewell” and more illuminated the Knitting Factory with a sound that was refreshing, much different to the rest of the bands in the festival. But when it was over it wasn’t time for them to leave the stage. Oh no, they were going to join Alpaca Sports as part of the band.

Suddenly Alpaca Sports was a behemoth of a band! So many people, but so worth it!! I can’t remember now the bass player name, but we had Andreas, Amanda, Cristina, Lisle, Kristine and Hampus on stage too. Heck, I wanted to join them too! It was such a good gig really, they played the classics, “Just for Fun”, “I was Running” and “She’ll Come Back for Indian Summer”. They played some of the new ones, “I Love You”, “Need Me the Most”, too. It was also a return for Alpaca. A couple of years back they had played Popfest at Littlefield. It was a triumphant return, I could see people dancing and singing along the songs on the front. I was happy to see them once again and I start to wonder if they are becoming rapidly the band I’ve seen the most these past few years. Perhaps!

Burger time. And a small break. We got way too many fries so we took them to the gig. Joanny was happy to exchange pretzels for fries. Everyone happy. I couldn’t get to the front now sadly. The Chesterfields were about to go and halfway to the front will have to do. “Shame About the Rain” to start. “Oh Mr. Wilson” to warm up, until “Sweet Revenge” came on and I was all happy and singing every song. And suddenly I start to wonder when will they play “Ask Johnny Dee”. It wasnt happening! But hell, they played “Anywhere But Home” by The Caretaker Race. Wow! That was one of the best moments of the Popfest for me. I know Andy Strickland was playing now in The Chesterfields, so it kind of made sense. I do wonder though how many people in the crowd was aware of this fantastic band and amazing song. I hope many! In any case I was terribly happy. And then “Goodbye Goodbye”, I got even happier! Then they started asking which song to play or something else, I can’t remember. I just shouted “Johnny Dee”. But first was another classic, “Last Train to Yeovil”, and then finally, “Ask Johnny Dee”. The band would finish the gig with an indiepop anthem, “Completely & Utterly”. Afterwards I was happy to meet Simon Barber and that was ace too (and hopefully a Chesterfields interview in the blog soon!).

Funny enough a friend from work was also in the crowd. He had come for The Primitives! I thought that was a bit strange. I know a couple of co-workers like music, but they are more into indierock I’d say. But you can never stop getting surprised by what college radio did years before I went to uni. I think a lot of people learned a lot about some indiepop bands thanks to that (and this would definitely explain the crowd The Railway Children would bring the next day). Anyhow, The Primitives were on stage, and I was going to see them for the second time after Indietracks. Now this was a bit of a longer gig, almost 20 songs! And of course they played the ones everyone wanted, from “Thru the Flowers” to the mega hit “Crash”. I was just terribly happy with “Stop Killing Me”, “Buzz Buzz Buzz” or “Way Behind Me”. Who could complain?

And to top it all, it was time for dancing just after. Right now I can’t recall all the songs that were played. I remember one by Spearmint. I think The Smiths were played as well. I remember dancing though. But the songs seem blurry. It was Mondo Djs at this time, but they havent posted a list of what was played. In any case, it was late when we left Knitting Factory. Happy, exhausted, and with a huge smile in my face.

Seems I’ve written more than I expected! Seems the review of Sunday at Popfest will have to wait another week!

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Chaperone: a person who accompanies and looks after another person or group of people.

So here’s this band with a very early 80s name called Daryl and the Chaperones whose one and only 7″ I’ve been trying to track down for some time. Years now. Maybe some of you could help me. Especially those who are fans of White Town.

I like White Town of course, especially their classic indiepop records, “Hair Like Alain Delon” is such a wonderful song. I got to see Jyoti play in New York and also in the UK. But I’ve never even talked to him! Anyhow, you must be asking what does White Town has to do with this Daryl and the Chaperones. Well well, it was 1982 and a very young Jyoti Mishra was in this band.

As far as I know two songs were released by this band, both on this 7″ released by Shark Records in 82 (catalog SHARK 1). The songs were “My Baby’s a Spy” and “B Movie”. One in each side. The artwork of the record is a bit strange, there’s circles, triangles and squares times four, what looks like a beach chair, and then a silhouette of a guy wearing shades and a hat. Also on the cover we can read Aris_Tographics, MaestroM Ltd Spacematic Print. I wonder why the name of the printer was on it?

The A side, “My Baby’s a Spy”, would also appear on a compilation called “Low Down Kids Companion, Volume 2”, released in 2003 (!!). It was limited to a 100 copies and I’m not very sure what sort of compilation this is as I’m not familiar with the bands on it. Names like The Agents, The Spies, The Wild Boys or The Escorts don’t ring a bell to me. Seems this was a DIY label that released some cool stuff, at least it looks very cool to me. The aesthetics are just like out of a fanzine from the 80s. The strange thing of course is that this was out in the past decade.

I have never had the chance to listen to the B side. Not yet. But the A side is a wonderful slice of guitar pop, proto-indiepop if you like to call it something. It’s a lost classic in my book! You’ll see now by yourselves.

The only other information I could find comes from the always reliable Tamworth Bands website.

The band was formed by:
James Woodward – drums and percussion
Ian Hewitt – guitar and vocals
Andy Redfern – bass guitar
Jyoti Mishra – keyboards

They had a slogan, “You are never alone with a chaperone”, and it seems the only member of the band with links to Tamworth area was the drummer, James. He was from Clifton Campville.

Clifton Campville is a village and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. It lies on the River Mease, about 10 miles (16 km) east of the City of Lichfield, 6 miles (10 km) west of Measham and 7 miles (11 km) north of Tamworth. The village lies very close to Stafforshire’s borders with Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Warwickshire. In 2001 the parish had a population of 764,[5] increasing to 912 at the 2011 census. There is a fine gothic church, dedicated to St Andrew,[6] and listed Grade I. The village pub, The Green Man, is also a historic building.

From this website we learn some more interesting facts:

• The record was recorded and produced at Steve Adam’s Studio in Birchmoor.
• The band was formed 12 months before the single was released (so 1981).
• The band originally had a Daryl in the band, Daryl Ainsworth, and thus the name of the band.
• They seem to have gigged in Birmingham, Burton, Derby and Leicester.

And that’s about it. Then of course we know that in 1990 Jyoti started releasing stuff under White Town. But that’s 8 years in between! What happened in the meantime? What other bands was he in? And what about the rest of his bandmates? What did they do afterwards? Were they involved in other bands? Are there more Daryl and the Chaperones recordings? Would like to know more! Do you remember them?

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Listen
Daryl and the Chaperones – My Baby’s A Spy

Back from 9 days in Mexico and there’s so so so much to do! There was barely indiepop related things in this vacation, but got to eat great food, see the lucha libre, visit pre-columbian ruins and colonial churches, and even got sunburnt. It was a happy time in good company.

But as I promised I will review my experience at NYC Popfest, three weekends ago. It all started on Thursday at Le Poisson Rouge. I arrived late because of work so I only caught the last band, The Trashcan Sinatras.  I had already met many friends before Popfest even started. On Wednesday Alpaca Sports played at Cake Shop, and even though I missed them again because of work, we went for a legendary karaoke session.Tiny Fireflies’ Lisle and Kristine also joined as they become part of the Alpaca Sports team this year. From cheesy to cheesiest, the song choices were really funny and we had two great hours in the Lower East Side.  It was so much fun!

When I arrived to Le Poisson Rouge, Young Romance were playing their last songs. I wasn’t keen on them so I stayed outside the main room where the merch tables were set. It was great to meet again with Chris Jigsaw once again and with Jerv who I hadn’t seen for years. One after another I saw friends passing by and that was so great. I saw Joanny and Emmanuel who came all the way from France for Popfest, Alex and Scott who I haven’t seen in many years, and Vernon from Singapore who gave himself a New York Popfest trip as a birthday gift.

I found a small spot in the front row to the left to catch The Trash Can Sinatras. To the right was Frank Reader’s mum taking pictures. They started with “Easy Read” and went onto play many favourites like “Only Tongue Can Tell”, “Hayfever” or “I’ve Seen Everything”. They ended with “Weightlifting” and played “Obscurity Knocks” as their encore. The band was promoting their last album titled “Pendulum”, which for some reason I didn’t buy at Popfest but hope to get it soon.

Friday we met Vernon at Cafe Himalaya for lunch special Nepalese food. Two blocks down the afternoon show was happening at Cake Shop. We were mostly going there to see Silver Screen. I had met Cris Miller before in LA but have never seen him play. We arrived on time for the first band but we really didn’t pay much attention. We met Alex who was going to play guitar alongside Cris on this sort of two-man Silver Screen that was playing that day. They played a gorgeous gig on the strength of their songs. Cris was very kind to dedicate me the song “Little More Each Day” that first appeared on a Cloudberry 3″ in 2007!

I met Remi from Japan there too. I hadn’t seen her since Indietracks 2014. It was very cool that she was carrying all over Popfest a Cloudberry tote bag. Least I could do was help her get tickets for her and her friend for the next show later that night as it was sold out.

We all headed to Brooklyn afterwards, took the J train to Marcy Ave. and went for an early dinner at Bia, blocks away from Baby’s All Right. After some beers and some noodles or banh mis, it was time to go see Chorusgirl! But there was a surprise before I even saw them as Vernon introduced me to Mary from Even as We Speak. Wow! I won’t lie if I say that the band I wanted to see the most this Popfest was EAWS. But that Friday night the band I wanted to see and listen was Chorusgirl. So again moving forward to the front I enjoyed up close one of the albums I’ve enjoyed the most lately. How I wish I had discovered them earlier, would have loved to put a 7″ before they signed to Fortuna Pop, but oh well, can’t be up to date with every single band! Anyhow they played fan favourites “No Moon”, “Dream On” and “Oh, To be a Defector”. It was a bit of a short set, but it was powerful and exciting. I hope they become even more popular and come back to the US!

The only other band I liked that night was Spook School who once again proved to be one of the best indiepop bands around. What can I say? For the last three years they might be the favourite band of many of the Popfest goers. Niall always cracks me up with his jokes and their songs are a burst of pure pop and energy, hook after hook.

I wasn’t feeling that well at the end of the night but still headed to Trophy Bar as I had promised Joanny as he was DJing alongside Emmanuel the afterparty. Joanny, with his pretzels and always looking for the better deal when it comes to beers, and Emmanuel played a superb selection of indiepop. They even played a Les Calamités song as I had requested them a song by them. The Hit Parade, The Haywains, Pushy Parents, Another Sunny Day, Girls at Our Best, Barcelona and more!

Two days of Popfest and I was having so much fun. But two long days were ahead, Saturday and Sunday. A lot of great bands, more beers, merch to buy, and friends to meet were on the way. But that’s for next week post. Now is time for the obscure band of the week.

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Clondalkin is a town situated 10 km west of Dublin, Ireland, in the county of South Dublin. The name is also used in relation to the area’s religious parishes. Clondalkin is home to an eighth-century round tower that acts as a focal point for the area. Acknowledged as one of the oldest and best preserved in the country, it is 25.6 metres high and has its original conical cap.

Based in Clondalkin, The Cherry Brogues is a band I’ve been curious for a long time. I remember them on Myspace but these days the songs uploaded there don’t even stream. That must have been the first time I heard them, I’m talking of 2006 or 2007. And since them I’ve been trying to track their one and only record they released without any luck.

The Brogue (derived from the Old Irish bróg) is a style of low-heeled shoe or boot traditionally characterised by multiple-piece, sturdy leather uppers with decorative perforations (or “broguing”) and serration along the pieces’ visible edges. Modern brogues trace their roots to a rudimentary shoe originating in Ireland that was constructed using untanned hide with perforations, allowing water to drain when crossing wet terrain such as a bog. Brogues were traditionally considered to be outdoor or country footwear not otherwise appropriate for casual or business occasions, but brogues are now considered appropriate in most contexts. Brogues are most commonly found in one of four toe cap styles (full or “wingtip”, semi-, quarter and longwing) and four closure styles (Oxford, Derby, ghillie, and monk). Today, in addition to their typical form of sturdy leather shoes or boots, brogues may also take the form of business dress shoes, sneakers, high-heeled women’s shoes, or any other shoe form that utilises or evokes the multi-piece construction and perforated, serrated piece edges characteristic of brogues.

The songs that were on their Myspace don’t appear on the record and it would be interesting to know where they come from. Perhaps from demo tapes or rehearsals. The song names were “Undercurrent”, “Just Like Saturday”, “Only Better”, “210”, “What the Boy Say” and “Temptation”.

The band was active between 1991 and 1994 and was formed by Ray Gilligan, Ray Murray, Joe Rodgers, Des Connaughton and Phil Healy. From the Irish Rock website we know that Ray Gilligan went to play on The Josephs (perhaps a band to cover on another post?).

The one and only 7″ they released came out on C.G.B.G. Records (catalog CBGBS 8) in 1992. The songs included were “She Makes Me Nervous” as the A side and “Here Comes the New Kid” on the B side. They also had another song released in 1993 on a compilation called “Break Records Present… 100% Irish ’93”. On this CD they contributed the song “Look Back in Anger” and was released by Break Records.

The only other important information we could find about them was that they recorded a Fanning Session. The great Fanning Sessions blog has written a bit about the band and have asked for help without any luck in 2012. They shared the song “Numbers in Your Heart” which happens to be the third track from five from the session the band recorded in 1992. They (and now I), are looking for the other 4 songs.

Youtube also gives as a couple of clues. Someone has uploaded a song called “Options 1,2,3” and because of the intro I dare to say this might come from the Fanning Sessions though of course I can’t confirm it. Then there’s a reworked recording of the song “Two-Ten” (also written 210) by Joe Rodgers uploaded as well. This one dates from 2011.

And it was in 2011 that the band actually reformed for a reunion gig at the Grand Social in Dublin.

The band also have a Facebook page were there are a lot of photos and goodies. Time to do some archaeology on old posts there and find more about the band.

I learn the names of other songs by the band like “Weekend Teen”, “Buckle at the Knees”, “Buttercup”, “Only Better”, “It’s Over”, “Another Leo”, “No Reaction (The Penny Song”), “Trusting Emma”, “Stormin’ the Gulf” and “Social Butter”.

I also read that they went into the recording studio in 2009. Don’t know if these recordings ever saw the light of day. They also mention having played a gig at a venue called Fox and the Phaesant back in the early 90s. Other gigs happened at the Rock Garden, Whelans, Route 66, Round Towers, Tivoli and the Tower Road Clondalkin. But their first gig was at the Red Cow on New Years Eve 1991. They were the 2nd band after Big Sky while the Headliners were Jamie Cotton.

Thanks to this Facebook page I could find a recording of “Buttercup” on Youtube. And from there I could find a live recording of the song “Stormin the Gulf” being played at the Baggot Inn in 1992.

That’s all I could find about them. But I’m sure many remember them. Was wondering if anyone have a spare of the 7″? Or the other Fanning Session songs? Or what about all those songs that seem to have been recorded? Would be great to know what happened to the members afterwards, or if they had played in other bands before or at the same time. If they are playing any other reunion gigs? What do you remember about them?

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Listen
The Cherry Brogues – Numbers in Your Heart