I keep posting Dayflower and Baby Lemonade records and also sent a few to different mailorders. Have you ordered your copy already? I am very proud about them and will start working on new releases soon! Hopefully I’ll be able to announce some news before the year ends. In the meantime support the label as that always helps to fund future releases!

Now, I know you came for new music. Here’s a fine share of that.

Dream, Ivory: the California band, from Lake Elsinore, keeps giving us wonderful songs. “Making Faces” is the third single from their upcoming album “Lost Dogs” and one can only wonder when this record will be out. Because everything we’ve heard so far sounds terrific. At least a release date would be good!

Turnover: another American band, this one hailing from Virginia. They have released their album “Altogether” and that is good news. It is out now on vinyl LP, CD and cassette. There are 10 songs of dreamy sweet songs with standout tracks like “Still in Motion” or “Plant Sugar”.

K. Campbell: two very cool songs by this Houston project are now available on tape and also on lathe cut 7″. The songs are “Chords Come Easy” and “Static Threads” and they take me back to the 90s, to American indiepop sounds from labels like Bus Stop or Harriet. Good stuff.

Basic Plumbing: I wasn’t aware that Patrick Doyle from Veronica Falls left us an album. This is very good news and it seems that all profits from the “Keeping Up Appearances” album will go to the LA LGBT Center + CALM. That’s nice. The record will be out on vinyl and CD. At the moment we can preview two tracks on Bandcamp, “As You Disappear” and “Constant Attention”. And they sound great!

Quivers: from Hobart, Tasmania, and sounding amazing, I discover this four piece formed by Sam Nicholson, Bella Quinlan, Holly Thomas and Michael Panton. Their latest track is a shimmering song called “When it Breaks” and I am really enjoying it. As their small bio says, they sit somewhere in between the janglepop that was done in Australia in the 80s with a touch of American 90s. It is a good combination. A winning one.

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I remember many years ago Kris from the Heavens is Above Your Head blog and also from the Don’t Die on My Doorstep club in Malmo recommended me to find a record. He actually wrote about it and I was intrigued…

Delphine Passant, Fabien Guidollet, Alexandre Cayrac and Thierry Tonelli might be four of my favourite French indiepopsters. No, I haven’t met them nor they probably know Cloudberry exists. But, they left a perfect 7″ that for years has been a treasure of mine, their “Longer Lasting Beauty” 7″!

Four perfect pop songs. That’s what you’ll find on this record released in France by Nessie Records (Loch 1) back in 1994. Was it their own label? I don’t really know. I’ve mentioned this label when I talked about the tape “Superqualifragilistic” when I posted about Nothing Else or Les Poissons Solubles who appear on it.

The A side, called “The Rhythm Side”, opens with one of my favourite songs ever, “Laurie”, and includes another top hit, “House of Magic Cards”. The B side, “The Ballad Side”, has two more songs, “Time” and “Close-Up”. All four were recorded at Lutecia Garden Studio with Damien Bertrand and Jean François-Marvaud as engineers. Marvaud used to run this recording studio in Clamart, a southwestern suburb of Paris. Does this mean then, that the band hailed from the French capital? The answer is yes. A small insert with the label’s catalog gives us an address for Fabien in Paris and for Thierry in Montmorency, a suburb in the north of Paris.

It is also worth mentioning that Sabine Dubocage played violin in the record. She had been in the past in a band called Christine.

The sleeve of the record reminds all of us of classic indiepop art from the late 80s. They clearly knew what they were doing. The record even comes with a sticker with the band’s name. All packaged beautifully. On the back of the sleeve we learn that all songs were written by the band, and “Time” is actually co-written with Alexandra Easton. Then we get what each of the band members played, Alex played the drums, Delphine the guitar, Fabien sang and played guitar and Thierry the bass.

Aside from this release it seems there was a 2-track tape that had “Longer Lasting Beauty” on the A side and “UFO” on the B side. It seems it came with an insert featuring a small interview with the band. This was released in 1995 and I wonder if it was some sort of demo tape, or a tape sold at gigs. Would be good to find out.

No other releases are listed but they did appear on a few compilations. On the Italian label Shiny Sunset (which I tried to interview and I hope one day I’ll get interview answers as this label is such a mystery!) they contributed two songs to a tape called “The Colours of an Enchanted Dawn” (SUNSET 9). The songs were “Drowning Memories” and “Longer Lasting Beauty”. Oh! I would really like to listen to them! No year is specified for this release.

In 1995 they contributed “Longer Lasting Beauty” and “Why Not Your Baby” to “Nine Month Summer” a compilation tape released by Does This Work? (DTW 20) from the UK. Interestingly the band Sabine, the violinist, was in, Christine, also appears on this one.

That same year on the “Sapphire” comp cassette released by the British Bliss Aquamarine (BLISS 20) they had the last song of the tape, “Drowning Memories”.

On another tape that has no release date, “Fairy Tales”, released by the German Meller Welle Produkte (MEL 23) they appear with two tracks, “Drowning Memories” and “Knife”.

Lastly in 1996 two songs, “Knife” and “Abilene”, appear on a CD comp called “Les Belles Promesses – Collection “Acoustique”” released by XIII Bis Records and Ora Pro Nobis.

In total then we know of 9 songs? Are there any more?

About the band members we know a few things too.

Fabien had been in other bands like Facteurs Chevaux and Verone. Delphine was also involved in Verone while Thierry played in Pills and Saez. Thierry Cayrac seems to go now by Leax or Alexandre Cayrac, a techno DJ (!).

But there is more. I am pretty sure that at some point they had to change names to Lollypops as there was an American band with the name Evergreen. With Lollypops they even recorded “House of Magic Cards”, “Laurie” and “Time”. Were these different versions? They even recorded at least another song called “The Girl Who Never Know Whether She Can Do it Or Not”. How did that one sound? Lollypops were also known for covering The Pastels’ “A Million Tears“.

But as it is the same band let’s check out their discography which was only appearances on compilations. Firstly they recorded a cover of “Darklands” for “A Tribute to the Jesus and Mary Chain” cassette compilation released in 1994 by Candy Chérie Records (001). This was a French comp.

Then their song “The Girl Who Never Knows Wheter She Can Do It or Not” appears on the cassette “Entendons Nous Bien” released by Loaded (LOAD 001) in 1994, in the tape “Plouf” released by Les Tartines and also on the “Des Gents Simples” another tape compilation this one released by Ora Pro Nobis (OPN 9402) in 1994. This last one was perhaps a different version, it says (version Huit Pistes), meaning 8-track version.

Their song “Time” would appear on the “Breeze” double cassette comp released by Alphyen Viwit (004) in 1994 and also on the “Superqualifragilistic” tape I mentioned earlier. on Nessie (NES587). Lastly on the Meller Welle Produkte compilation “Europopsongs” they had “Laurie” and “House of Magic Cards”.

Now all of these songs are wonderful, I am starting to think it would make a very nice collection as a compilation album. That’s an idea. What do you think? I’d be interested to explore that idea with the Cake Kitchen!

Ah! Evergreen, Lollypops, such beauty. What a wonderful pop band. I need to know more about them. French friends, do you remember them?!

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Listen
Evergreen – Laurie

On Monday we  awoke to the news that The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are no more. They call it quits. As a music fan it makes me look with nostalgia the gigs and the times I saw them. As an indiepop fan it may feel like an end of an era. As Cloudberry, I feel gratitude once again for having being able to work with them in the very beginning of the band (and the label). This is the message Kip Berman, the main driving force of the band shared on various social media:

Kip here.

My life has changed radically from the time I started Pains with Peggy, Alex and (soon after) Kurt in 2007, and I’ve decided to focus on a new project @the_natvral.

Pains was a distinct moment in my life. I started the group when I first moved to New York and completed our last record, “The Echo of Pleasure,” shortly before my daughter was born and I moved to Princeton, NJ. From that time forward, I never really felt the same – and the music I was creating didn’t feel the same either.

I could probably tell a few anecdotes from the early days, don’t know if they would add to the legend of the band as they are personal of course.

I think it was thanks to the Summer Cats 3″ that Cloudberry caught Kip’s attention. At that time the indiepop-list was much more active than today. And yeah, Scott from Summer Cats sent a message to it promoting his band’s upcoming 3″ as well as Horowitz’s one. A day or a few days later I heard from Kip on Myspace. They didn’t have any songs uploaded or anything. They were a brand new band.

I am by nature skeptical, so it was quite a surprise to hear such wonderful music. They shared with me the three songs that would appear on the 3″, 3 songs that are classic in their repertoire, “This Love is Fucking Right!”, “Orchard of My Eye” and “Doing All the Things That Wouldn’t Make Your Parents Proud”. They were the second U.S. band to release on the label after Apple Orchard.

They were the second band to design their own sleeve after the Summer Cats. Let me tell you, this is the hardest thing for me to give away, the artwork of the sleeve. It is hard for me to trust that to anyone! But it came out good and in the early days that sort of fuzzy aesthetics became a trademark of the band. A very similar sleeve would be used for their next release, the EP on their own Painbow Records.

At that time Kip said very nice things about the label on the poplist, things that reading them now, makes me really miss 2007, when indiepop was beginning to make some noise (and to be honest, a lot had to do with The Pains).

I feel The Cloudberry series is one of the most exciting things going on in indiepop right now. I’m consistently amazed by the quality (and volume) of bands Roque is releasing almost every week! It’s really a great thing, and it was an honor to be a part of the series. We really love Roque & Cloudberry a lot– he’s really doing it for all the right reasons. Please do check the bands he’s putting out– it’s all quality.

I don’t think the label gets that sort of praise anymore! At least not publicly. I am very thankful to the band, especially the earlier lineup as that was the one I knew best. Kip, Peggy and Alex. The first time I met them, I remember clearly, it was so cool. It was at NYC Popfest 2007. Then I would see them many times, even abroad like in the UK, or in Miami once, a place no band would visit. And that time I remember now they played a song called, “You’re Better by Far Than Everything Around Here”, and I wonder today, is there a proper recording of that track? I can’t seem to recall how that sounded!

I could write many stories as I said, but in retrospect, we must be thankful for the music as they left us many hits, songs that should be classics in the indiepop canon like “Young Adult Friction”, “Higher than the Stars” or “Everything With You”. But they also had a big part in the indiepop renaissance of 2007-2012. They managed to be in the spotlight of just not indiepop fans but also on more mainstream media and that helped indiepop gain more fans. And that is important.

I have a huge poster of a gig in Stoke-On-Trent were The Pains played alongside Horowitz, The Parallelograms and Slow Down Tallahasse… a Cloudberry Night. Dear dear. And it is signed by all band members. On top of that at a later Cloudberry gig, organized by LostMusic, we gave away a CD with a song each for the first 50 that attended. The bands playing were The Manhattan Love Suicides, Strawberry Story, The Hillfields and The Pains of Being pure at Heart. They contributed “A Teenager in Love”. The band was always up for doing these sort of things, gaining popularity didn’t mean forgetting their DIY beliefs. That speaks greatly of them.

It is true that in the last few years I lost a bit of touch. I wish I had attended more gigs of them while in NYC. I regret not doing that now. I didn’t think the band was going to end for some reason. All things end of course. I was naive. Sure I can still go and check out their new projects, and I should do so. I am especially curious about Store Front, Peggy’s band, as it sounds amazing, just up my street. I’ll make a note to go to their next gig. Especially as it was always lovely to see her, always happy and smiling!

But that didn’t mean I didn’t follow them. I bought all the records they put out. They are not signed by them like the earlier ones, but it’s all good.

I remember too working at the Miami newspaper and receiving a promo copy of “Heart in Your Heartbreak”, according to Kip, a very rare CD. How random was that.

As I write these lines I can think of more and more stories. And I am happy about that. Because they were a big part of the label, it happens that a lot of people knew the label thanks to them. And even today, 2019, I get emails asking if I still have a copy of the 3″ single. Can you imagine?

I don’t think this post has any sort of structure. I am just writing as thoughts come to me. I wanted to say thanks for all the years of great music, of waving the indiepop flag with pride. I guess that’s about it. But I can’t stop thinking of good moments, jokes, beers, and different cities we coincided.

I wish them the best in their next adventures and hope to have a beer with them soon. Or as how Kip said just before meeting for the first time, “a beer”? LET’S HAVE AT LEAST THREE!!!!!

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Listen
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – This Love is Fucking Right!

Back in 2012 I shared a cab ride with Colm and Bentley. That was the one and only time I talked with Bentley and I must say it was a fun ride. From the Travelodge to the Indietracks grounds. Joking and gossiping about the indiepop scene. Me sharing a cab with these two friends that have formed the wonderful Language of Flowers, a friendship which I believe started in the mid-90s when both of them shared a flat in Leicester. The story says that they would eventually record a 4 track demo, when Colm and the rest of the band (Marc, Ashton and Tara) were looking for a drummer in Belfast. It didn’t matter that Bentley was in Manchester at the time, Colm would get him into the band, it was the right choice, and then with the new completed lineup in 2003, they would record a demo that would get them to release the album “Songs About You” in 2004.

It was going to take 8 more years for me to see them at Indietracks.  Yes, Language of Flowers was playing! The band had already split by 2012, but they were doing a reunion gig just because, I am guessing here, it was Indietracks, the most important indiepop festival.

In the past I had seen him playing, in 2011, with Help Stamp Out Loneliness with him now as guitarist extraordinaire. An amazing gig at the outdoor stage. It was truly fantastic. Of course I had a softer spot for Language of Flowers, they were the older band and for many years I had played their CD on Shelflife Records time and time again. I knew the songs by heart and I always wondered if I was ever going to release some of their songs. That was a dream. I had bugged Colm many times about three songs that were never released, if they could be put in a 7″. As you might have noticed that never happened. But yeah, it was special.

Maybe now that I think of it, I may be mixing 2011 and 2012 Indietracks festival. Maybe the cab ride took in 2012 and not 2011. I can’t say. But that wasn’t the only time that I shared a moment with Bentley. As many Indietracks goers that stay at the Travelodge might know, after the festival closes its doors for the day, those staying at this hotel in Alfreton, hang around for some more drinks in the wooden picnic table that is just outside the front door. I remember a night that Bentley was there, among many of my indiepop friends. Sharing a drink and having a good time.

And last week I get to learn that Bentley is no longer with us. It came as a shock.

I really wish I had met and talked to him properly. As I said earlier, I was quite the fan of this two bands he was involved with and he seemed a genuinely interesting person. I only have this two snapshots of him, plus of course the gigs when I saw him play. Always at Indietracks. I know the bands played many other places but I wasn’t lucky enough to travel to Europe in those occasions. But I was terribly happy to at least be able to say that I saw them and that they were brilliant.

I am very sorry and hope things get better with time for his family, friends and bandmates. Condolences to them. In memory of him, a charity has been put together for The Smile Train, who empower medical professionals to provide free cleft treatment to children. At the time I am writing this post 89% of the goal money has been raised. I am sure any help will be appreciated.

Rest in peace.

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Listen
Language of Flowers – Songs About You

Some good music to enjoy over the weekend! Today I will finally finish sending all outstanding orders for Baby Lemonade! So yeah, thanks everyone for that!  Hope you liked the album!

Unhappy Fly: Emotional Response are releasing a lathe cut 7″ that is very very limited, just 100 copies and it seems at the time I am writing this post there are only 8 left! The 7″ contains two songs, “The Vision and the Poison” and “Unhappy Fly”. None of this songs were included in the band’s LP.

Rei Clone: now a dreamy, shoegazy, band from Denton, Texas. First time I am listening to them and it is thanks to their latest effort, a digital single called “Heaven is Eternity”. It sounds pretty good I must say! The band describes themselves as an anime shoegaze band, which is quite interesting. They are formed by Ash, Zach, Charlie and Simon.

Perrogato: the superb Chilean duo has a new digital single out on Mexico’s Stupid Decisions netlabel! It is a perfect song for Halloween, even though that was yesterday!  It is called “Noche de Muertes” (night of the dead). It is a fun track with boy/girl vocals, and it makes you want to see a Perrogato album on physical format soon! Terrific band indeed.

The Epigones: this band from Ontario, Canada, is actually a duo comprised of guitarist Vic Ciampini and vocalist/bassist Darko Smolcic. They have just put up a four song debut EP on Bandcamp that sounds great! It is poppy postpunk, with class and elegance. Definitely check it out. I can’t wait to hear more by them.

West Coast Music Club: from West Kirby, UK, we meet this sweet sounding band! They have a 3 song EP now out on CD called “Sometimes EP”. The songs on it are “Saturday”, “Sometimes” and “Fall” and all three are really really good. Top vocals, chiming guitars, good melodies, everything one wants on an indiepop record!

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I had this post prepared for later in the year if I am honest. But just a few days ago my friend Vernon was talking about Rebecca Fishpond and ended up getting in touch with one of the members of the band, Zack Yusof, so I decided to unearth the draft with the little bits and bobs I had from them and see if eventually, there’s a way to get in touch with this fantastic band.

I am hoping of course there will be an interview in the coming days, but I still thought it would be a good idea not to lose all this information and maybe it serves as a good introduction to this great band!

You see I heard of Rebecca Fishpond’s existence thanks to the Firestation blog back in 2010. Back then the Uwe was running a terrific blog where he shared his knowledge of all sorts of obscure indiepop. He would have these posts called “Something to Look Out For” where he listed bands he’d like to know more or get in touch with. Many of these, if not most, were unknown to me. He wrote about Rebecca Fishpond saying that he couldn’t tell if the band existed or were just a dream. He didn’t know any details but he had listened to them. One of the songs even made a big impression and he took one of the lines from it and named the sixteenth release on his label, Firestation Records, “You Thought it was the End of the World when the Rain Ruined Your Hair”. It was a compilation CD, and yes it would have made lots of sense to have Rebecca Fishpond there, but no, no luck.

Second time I heard about them was on an interview I did on my blog with the band Kind. They hailed from the Deptford/Bermondsey area in Southeast London. I asked them if they were part of a scene and yes, he mentioned they did of the one that was happening in their area, a scene that included the bands Lavern and Shirley and Rebecca Fishpond. So I could place them now, early 90s and in SE London.

But what about sounds?

Well there is Soundcloud page by someone called Dan Rowlands. He must have been part of the band. As he has uploaded the demo of the band which seems to consist of 5 songs: “All I Ever Wanted”, “Tell Me When it’s Twelve”, “Beauty”, “Laugh” and “Always in a Dream”. This demo was recorded in 1989. At this point we know that previously the band members had been in The Kildares. There are songs on the Soundcloud by this outfit too, jangly and awesome. Maybe I should even dedicate a post to them eventually. So I believe The Kildares hailed from not SE London but from Shropshire, so did they move? And then there were some lineup changes. The bassist of The Kildares left. The drummer switched to bass and a new drummer came in. A third singer joined. So about the same people as The Kildares but two new ones.

But aside from this demo there are two more songs, “Revolved” and “Bought and Sold”. So in total we know of 7 songs. And perhaps one more, there is one called “Two Ways to Die” that at least I know there is a live performance from 1989 online, on Youtube.

Other little tidbit of information is that the band played at The Falcon in Camden on November 18, 1989 supporting the amazing Jesse Garon and the Desperadoes!

Aside from that I believe one of the members, Zack Yusof, lives now in Australia. He had been in bands like Release, Fast Boyfriends, Trafford (in Malaysia), and as of 2007 he was going under the name Kid Kowalski as well as playing in a band in Kuala Lumpur called Deserters. He is also a music journalist and DJ. Dan Rowlands, in the other hand, seems to have been in Emergency Exit, Open Up, as well as making music on his own.

Of course you also end up wondering who was Rebecca Fishpond? Why that name? But wonder if I’ll ever know. I did try to get in touch through Soundcloud but no luck. Maybe this post will help. I’ll definitely would love to hear more songs, if there are more. And as many friends have suggested, maybe these songs should be re-released. Of course I can offer myself to do that. But if anyone else does it, that’s great as well. The thing is. We want to know more about them? And what happened to the other band members?

Any help would be appreciated!

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Listen
Rebecca Fishpond – All I Ever Wanted