Posting a bit later than other days. I’ve been quite busy I must say!

Olivia’s World: our friend Lica from Go Violets and Tempura Nights moved from Brisbane to Vancouver some time ago. But she didn’t stop making music. Now she fronts Olivia’s World and she just released a new song called “Cereal Boxes” that even features the great Rose Melberg drumming and doing backing vocals!

Cariño: definitely one of the most exciting Spanish bands at the moment. The band who released a wonderful 10″ on Elefant Records have just unveiled a new video, this time for their song “Mierda Seca”. And we can only say it is great!

Westkust: on March 1st the terrific Luxury Records band will be releasinga  new album on vinyl and CD. It will be self-titled and it will have 9 songs. One of them is available to stream on the band’s Bandcamp, the song “Swebeach”, which is great combo of shoegaze and indiepop with female vocals. Looking forward to listening to the whole thing!

Charm: some punky power pop here by this Welland, Canada band. Their latest online single has two songs, “U Don’t Talk” and “Lie To Me” and they sound bouncy, poppy and fun. The band is formed by Martine, Mich, Drew and Shane.

Apple Orchard: and lastly this blast from the past. The 6 songs by the California by way of the Philippines band that was released by Popgun Recordings as a cassette EP in 2003 is now available on Bandcamp. Definitely worth spending some time listening to this lo-fi beauty.

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From Blackpool, in Lancashire, came the band Yeh-Yeh. I suppose they were more of a powerpop or mod band but I think their single “You Will Pay” is a fantastic slice of guitar pop, so why not find out what happened to them?

It seems there are two versions of their 7″ “You Will Pay”. One released by Berlin (BRS 001) and another by TMA (BRS 001). I guess what differs is the sleeve and the year it was released, the B side was “7 Bells” for both versions.

On the back of the sleeve the band members are listed: Andy Houghton on bass and lead vocals, Shem on guitar, Keith Suede on harmonica and vocals and Simon Knowles on drums. Steve Borsley played horns and Teddy Corvo the piano. The two songs were recorded at Berlin Studios and were produced by Ian Richardson and was assisted by Lyth. Both songs are credited to Andy Houghton.

The TMA 7″ came out in 1986, one year after the Berlin one (1985). As mentioned the sleeve was different. This one looks more 60s. The back sleeve has much less information, only the band members. I wonder why this re-release? Anyone knows?

There is a tape called “Live at La Cage” which was released by TMA (TMAC003) in 1988. I am guessing here that La Cage was a venue in Blackpool. Also on this tape I don’t see Simon Knowles listed as a drummer but Darren Adamson. Keith Suede is not in the band either but someone nicknamed Ringo. This tape included 7 songs: “99 1/2 Won’t Do”, “Baby Blue”, “Sweet Sweet Lovin'”, “Lovers Lane”, “Long Legged Baby”, “My Babe” and “7 Bells”. Lots of babies in these songs! I would love to listen to this tape sometime.

There are a bunch of compilation appearances but they are all from recent times, not from they were around.

In 2004’s “Shake” compilation released by Biff Bang Pow Records they contributed “Don’t Try (To Deceive Me)”. The next year on the same label’s comp “Shout!” they had the song “Weekend”. In 2006 on Biff Bang Pow’s “Shimmy” CD comp they had the song “What the Papers Say” and that same year on “The Young Idea: A Pop Tribute to Anthony Meynell & Squire” they contributed “It’s Getting Better”. Lastly that same year, “Mr Jones” was included in “News of the World MK II – Songs for Scootering” that was released by Howitzer Records.

“Does it Look Like Rain?” was included in the 2009 “Do You Wanna Be in the Show? – A Pop Tribute to The Jetset” that was released by Twist Records. That same year they had “And So Begins Another Day” on the “Mods Mayday 2009″ 7” comp released by Rowed Out Records and “And We Still Feel The Same” on “Forty One Sixty: The Songs of the Shambles” released by Blindspot Records. In 2011 they contributed “To All Who Can’t Attend” on Twist Record’s “Power Chords, Harmonies and Mistletoe” and on an unknown date, their song “You Will Pay” was included in “Shake Some Action Vol. 1 UK – A Collection of Powerpop, Mod & New Wave Rarities 197501986”.

Lots of compilations, lots of songs, but only one single. Strange isn’t it?

I check if the members had been involved in other projects. I see that Andy Houghton had been in Tempercalm, releasing an album in 2007 and Simon Knowles had been involved lately in The Freakbeats.

I find a comment on the blog The Songs That People Sing, a comment by Andy Houghton. In it he mentions that the band reformed in 2004 and released 2 CD albums and a 3rd was in progress. The year of the comment is 2008. They were also touring the UK at that time. They were playing Aug. 24 2008 in Burnley.

Then I stumble upon a Facebook page! On it there are plenty of photos and also links to songs by the band. For example here is “This Town“!

I keep digging. I find out that the band started in 1983 as The Catch. I also believe that prior to that they had been in XFX. They released a tape called “Read It About It”. What songs were in it?

There used to be a Myspace. I think that’s were they sold their newer albums. I couldn’t find what their names were. I suppose that many of the songs they contributed to the compilations were from their reformed period. Are they still playing together? There is little information on the web about them. Few blogs have written about them. Why? Anyone remembers them?

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Listen
Yeh-Yeh = You Will Pay

Not much to discuss today either. Lots of new music on the web though, so let’s pick five!

The Sunny Street: is this a comeback? I don’t know. But here is a track of the most wonderful band The Sunny Street covering  The Bats’ “Up to the Sky”. You can’t imagine how happy this has made me, hearing them again, Delphine vocals and Remi’s thoughtful music. Can I hope for more?

Melt: this Jakarta, Indonesia, band released their digital single “RRAD” last January and it sounds great! This shoegaze ensamble is formed by Irfan Muhammad on guitar/vocals, Abba Gabrillin on bass and Rinaldy Shofwan on drums. This  band sounds very promising to me!

Blankenberge: superb! the song “Right Now” by the Saint Petersburg, Russia, dream pop band have released last January are really great!  As a “B side” of the digital single we find “Radiogaze (éntha Remix)” which it is not exactly my taste. But it definitely feels like Russia has a very exciting guitar pop scene these days, every couple of weeks I discover a new band. Blankenberge is formed by Danlil Levshin, Yana Guselnikova, Dmitriy Marakov, Sergey Vorontsov and Dalan Alziatov.

Mini Dresses: the Boston band is back with a tape album called “Heaven Sent” that will be released on March 22nd. 10 songs will be included and at the moment one of them is available for preview on Bandcamp: “Rand and File”.

Fog: and lastly another shoegaze band. So there shoegaze bands today. Those are the trends I guess. This one hails from Seoul, South Korea, and their latest is a digital single with two songs, “Shine” and “DreamingDreamingDreaming”. These two songs were written by one of the members, Gyungwon before the band had formed. it seems that now, as a unit, they are recording new music which will soon be released as an album (or singles?).

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The last few posts about Japanese bands have been focused on the Left Bank label. That because I know very little about the label and the releases they put out. I only own a few of them, and everything I’ve heard has been of great quality. So it makes perfect sense to keep digging their treasures.

The 9th release on the label was a 7″ by the band Trans Alphabet. It was an EP titled “Brighter than the Brightest Star” and it came out in the year 2000 (LBRD-09). It included 4 songs, on the A side there was the title song “Brighter than the Brightest Star” and “Sweet and Sour Love Song” while the B side had “Tomorrow” and “Dreams in Stereo”. I’ve only listened the last one. Hoping to listen to the rest sometime. According to Discogs there were only 1000 copies made.

It seems it was a one-man band. The person behind it was Katsuya Hozaki. He produced, composed, arranged and performed the four songs. The songs were mastered by Katsunari Owa at Studio You. The art for the record is credited to Shie Kutsuna while there is a direction credit for Masaki Yamaguchi from the Left Bank label. Mayumi Hozaki, maybe family of Katsuya, is credited for playing flute and doing backing vocals.

Then on the back of the sleeve there are a bunch of thank yous, to bands, labels and friends. There is a link to a fan site for the band and also for Sunny Spring Day. Is this another band that Katsuya was involved with? We’ll investigate.

But first the compilation appearances. In 2000 the band contributed the song “Dreams in Stereo” to the “Minty Fresh Japan Compilation Vol. 1 A Small, Good Thing” CD. It was released by Minty Fresh Japan (MFJ-1002) which I suppose was sort of a franchise of the US label (?).

5 years later, in 2005, the band contribute a song in Japanese, “恋の花”, to the “Guitar Pop Crazy! (Bluebadge Compilation Vol. 3)” CD comp that came out on the Bluebadge label (BBCD-009). Lastly, on the TKO New Music Corporation CD “Boys (& Girls) Wonder Shibuya-K Indie-pop Collection Vol. 2” (TKOK-002) that came out in 2007 the band contributed the track “We Can Fly Together”.

I found a Soundcloud page for the band. Sadly there are no tracks nor information. But something that caught my attention. The band was based in Tokyo.

Sadly I couldn’t find on Discogs any band by the name Sunny Spring Day. There is a song by Three Berry Icecream with that name though. I do know that Trans Alphabet played some gigs with that band too. Aside from that Google only gives me lots of links to the band’s record on various sites in Japan that sell it. I couldn’t find any worthy bit of information. We know a little about the band. But I find it odd that they only recorded 5 songs. There must be more. Also, what other bands did Katsuya play on? It can’t just be his solo project? Does any of my Japanese friends remember Trans Alphabet?

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Listen
Trans Alphabet – Dreams in Stereo

Straight to my new finds today. Happy Monday!

Botschaft: one of my favourite German bands who were on the lovely Kleine Untergrund label is now signing to Tapete Records with whom they will be releasing the 10-song album “Musik Verändert Nichts “. Right now you can preview two of the tracks that will be included in the album, “Treptower Park” and “Zwischen den Jahren” on their Bandcamp. And they are top tracks of course.

The Rightovers: “Die Cruisin'” is the name of the new album by this San Diego band. It is the first time I’m listening to this band and I’m happily surprise by their music. The album has 12 songs of poppy guitar pop. As far as I know the album is only available digitally.

Go Fever: another band that I’m hearing for the first time. Go Fever hail from Austin, Texas, and they are fronted by the Australian Acey Monaro with Benjamin Burdick, Keith Lough and Merry. The band just released a digital EP called “Daydream Hawker” that includes 5 indiepop songs: “Olivia”, “Feel So Much”, “Cling”, “Say the Word” and “KOTRA”.

Sambassadeur: yes, they are back and I am ultra happy about it. I can’t wait to get the album that will be released on April 12. I never saw them live. I probably never will, but I have hopes still. “Foot of Afrikka” is the name of the single the band is promoting the album “Survival” with. And they have a video for it. And I have it on repeat and repeat. Because it is a beauty.

Foxi Euler Syndikat: the latest on the Frischluft! Tontrager label that our friend Krischan runs from Friedberg, Germany, is a terrific 8(!) song 7″ titled “Märzfragen (Hoffnung in der Mauerstadt)”. I really need a copy of this. It is WAY too good and I am very curious about who is behind this band. Where did this come from?! I need to know more!

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A very good find. I just discovered The Stir and I’m really enjoying what I hear! Superb 80s upbeat and poppy guitar pop. How come this is not more known? I don’t know if I would be able to answer that question, solve that mystery. But I’ll try to find out more about them.

The first song I heard from them was “The Office of Love” which was the A side from their one and only 12″ that was released in 1988 by Spoonin Records (SPOON01). This record sadly is not listed on Discogs, so don’t know much details about it. I don’t own it mind you. But I’ll share what I know.

The B side had two songs, “Carry on Shrinking” and “Take My Heart Away”. All three songs were recorded in December 1987 at the Islington Music workshop. It was engineered by Julie Anne and produced by H. Lime esq. The EP was titled “Cheeky Monkey”

We also know the band members:
John Hutchings – guitar and drums
David Loversedge – keyboards and additional guitaring
Ali Menthes – bass guitar
Mark E. Moone – vocals

And that’s all. I’m supposing they were based in London if they recorded in Islington. Aside from that there’s not much more I can guess. That it was a self-release? Probably. But what about them playing gigs? There are no records of that on the web. I’m sure they did. And possibly shared bills with many bands we know. Did they appear on compilations? Would love to know. Any information about them is appreciated!

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Listen
The Stir – The Office of Love

Friday…. great the weekend starts now. It’s been a good week for the label as I’ve been getting assets and confirmations by many Australian bands. I am having trouble contacting 3 of them and 1 is not being easy as the recordings are own by a big label. So we’ll see. As soon as there are more news I’ll let you know. Also I will start looking for a 7″ release for sometime this year. Any tips about bands that fit in the Cloudberry roster would be appreciated.

The Age of Colored Lizards: “I’ll Be Waiting” is the brand new song by this Oslo, Norway, band that have been featured many times in the blog. So it is worth checking out of course. The noise-pop trio is formed by Christian Dam, Cato Holmen and Fredrik Ness Sevendal.

Artista Fiera: their song “Lo Consigo” sounds great. I found it in the El Genio Equivocado, a label based in Barcelona. I know little about the band but it doesn’t matter for me to enjoin this fuzzy song with girl vocals. Good stuff.

Feather Shuttles Forever: time for some Jpop! The last few weeks I’ve stumbled upon bands that sound as if they were from the Japanese noughties, Shibuya-kei, and all that. So that’s quite cool. Now I find this band on the Local Visions label Bandcamp, with its 8 song album. The band is formed by Hikaru Yamada and Mukuchi.

Los Ships: the superb band that our friend Simon from The Kites fronts these days are releasing a CDR EP with the South African label Subjangle. This label based in Pretoria have these 4 song-EPs already available to order on their website. The songs are the same as the digital EP the band put out last June, so we have “Best Laid Plans”, “Half Life”, “Rose Sings the Big Tunes” and “Here’s What You Could Have Won”, but this time in physical format. And that is a very very good thing!

Tight Knit: our friend Brogues from Glasgow, who runs the Not Unloved blog and label, is putting out his 3rd record this February. This new record will feature the Australian band Tight Knit with two of their songs: “Too Hot” and “Want You”. Both of these songs are available to stream in the band’s Bandcamp to check them out. There’s more info on the release here.

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Word Association is a common word game involving an exchange of words that are associated together. The game is based on the noun phrase word association, meaning “stimulation of an associative pattern by a word” or “the connection and production of other words in response to a given word, done spontaneously as a game, creative technique, or in a psychiatric evaluation.”

I don’t have a photo nor any information about this band. This may prove as one of the most difficult cases for the indiepop detectives out there. I will tell you what I know, maybe with these hints you’ll be able to solve this case.

– There was a 7″ released by Word Association. Because of the sound of it, it seems to be from the 80s.

– One of the songs, I believe it is the A side, was called “Mary Mary”. I don’t know what the B side’s name is.

– Don’t know if it was released by a label or it was a self-release. I would guess it is latter.

– It doesn’t seem that the record had a picture sleeve.

That’s it. Not much more. That’s all I give you. Let me know if you find anything about them!

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Listen
Word Association – Mary Mary