Friday! I hope I have news next week! In the meantime I leave you with some great music!

Ultracrush: it is by no no mystery that Australia is one of the indiepop hotspots of the world. All the time I find new quality songs coming from there. The latest discovery is this Sydney five-piece and their track “Leave”, a lovely bouncy jangly track. But also don’t forget to check their other song on Bandcamp, “Swimming” as it is as good!

Peel Dream Magazine: “Agitprop Alterna” is the name of the new album Joe Stevens from NYC is releasing with Slumberland Records and Tough Love Records on April 3rd. To promote this terrific second album by his band (After 2018’s “Modern Meta Physic”) they just released a new video for the track “Pill”!

Figure Austère: this Paris band is releasing a tape on February 14th called “That’s Gone Now”. The tape will include 8 tracks but at this point we can only preview the first song, “Drippy Eyes”, which is a wonderful catchy bedroom pop song, like the ones from 15 or so years ago, a popsong like they don’t do anymore!

Tops: the Montreal, Canada, band is back with a new album called “I Feel Alive” which will be released on April 3rd. 11 tracks of superb pop I am guessing. Guessing because I have only heard the song that gives the name to the album, “I Feel Alive”. That’s the one song we can preview on Bandcamp but what a good song it is. The album will be available on vinyl, CD and even cassette!

Sunfruits: another Australian band, this time from Melbourne but on a French label! Wow. The label is called Six Tonnes de Chair Records and are releasing the band’s “Certified Organic EP” on February 11th and I think this is my favourite new release at the moment. I want a copy of it. The EP comes with 6 songs and you can preview two of them, “Above the Clouds” and “Sunfruits”. Catchy, good melodies, boy/girl vocals, just up my street.

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I’m heading to Sweden and not to Mexico on this post. Some swedes had no better idea to call their band The Mexicos and I don’t blame it, it is a beautiful country. Did they ever visit it? I hope they did.

I remember listening to them back in the mid 2000s. It was the time of Soulseek and blogs. I used to love all things Sweden then and collected CDRs, demos and live gigs of small Swedish indiepop acts. Among the labels that were important at the time, one that championed bedroom lofi pop was Bedroom Records. And it was them indeed who would release the self-titled mini-album “The Mexicos” (BED018).

This CDR was released in 2005 and included six songs: “Lofi Referee”, “Grenoble”, “The Paralympics”, “Undone & Undo”, “The Mexican Fury” and “It Takes Two to Finish Disco”. The art for the record is credited to Lisa Hall and Tommy Svenningson and the only other credit on the sleeve is that of John Haglund who played drums on “Undone & Undo” and “It Takes Two to Finish Disco”.

The band did appear on three compilations. The first one was from 2005 and was the very fine “Popkonst, Love & Understanding” which was released by Popkonst Recordings (POPK12). The band contributed the song “Undone & Done”.

A cover of Haddaway’s euro-pop hit “What is Love”, was included in the “This is Love” CD compilation released by Dig Your Own Grave (DIG003) in 2006. Actually every band on this compilation covered this same song. 12 bands! Among them we find Komon, My Enemy, Bare Knees and All of My Brother’s Girlfriends.

Lastly the band had the song “Förmögenhet” on a compilation called “Har Du Hört Den Förut? – 29 Svenska Artister Tolkak Förmögenhet” that was released by Diskret Förlag. Some very fine bands appear here like Action Biker, Ring Snuten, Gentle Touch among others.

I kow the band used to have a website and also a Myspace. Sadly these don’t exist anymore. So there’s barely any information about them. I will rely on you, my Swedish friends, to fill in the blanks! Who were The Mexicos? From where in Sweden did they come from? Did they have more songs? What happened to them? Were they in other bands? Many questions that I hope get answered some day!

EDIT February 22nd 2020.

My friend David has pointed me to some interesting new info about The Mexicos!

First of all there was a blog for The Mexicos. Here there were shared a bunch of songs which are not available to download anymore. Among these covers we find: “Sweet Chili of Mind”, “What is Love”, “Strange Things”, a cover of Aaliyah’s “Try Again (Remexified)”, three covers of Håkan Hellström “Klubbland – betaversion”, “Nu kan du få mig så lätt (who can hell stream)” and “En midvinternatts dröm”. According to David the band’s leader was called Mikael and he also found out that he used to collaborate with a Douglas Holmquist. Together they were called the Mex-Icons and they would do more songs like “Shooting Star” a cover of the Amy Diamond’s original.

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Listen
The Mexicos – Undone & Undo

So in the end I didn’t find time to post while I was away in Mexico. I’m now organizing myself starting with the many emails that are not answered. I did mail yesterday every order from last week and that is quite some progress I think. But, I have already got a lot of assets for the fanzine so that’s what I plan to do on the weekend. I also need to see the status of the new releases. Many things then.

There’s always time for new music though, right?

Deserta: the LA dreampop band has just released their album “Black Aura My Sun” on Felte Records just a few weeks ago. The record is available on vinyl LP (in black only now, the mint green/sea foam colored vinyl is now sold out) and CD. We can preview three out of seven tracks on Bandcamp at the moment and that is enough to know this is a very promising record.

Seablite: Meritorio Records from Spain and Emotional Response from the US are releasing a 10″ vinyl EP by the terrific California based band on February 21st. The EP will come with 4 songs and is going to be titled “High-Rise Mannequins”. At the moment we can preview the third track. It is called “Skeleton Crunch” and what a song it is! This release is one not to miss!

Flowerbed: the Denton, Texas, shoegaze/dreampop combo has released a new song a few days ago. It is titled “Blame” and it is a terrific track. It seems it is only available as a digital single but as it is very good I hope it makes it to a record sometime!

Elsa Lester: “Back from Vacation” is the name of the new EP by Lisa Van Kampen. It has 5 poppy tracks of fine bedroom pop all made by herself. It looks like the release is only available digitally at the moment, but that doesn’t mean one shouldn’t enjoy tracks like “Sweet Ghost Inc.” or “Cactus”. Good stuff.

My Violainé Morning: I remember them from many years ago, but I haven’t been following the Bandung, Indonesia, band for the last few years I must admit. Their latest track is called “Memories” and it is a digital single that sounds ace! Let’s keep an eye on them, see what’s coming up in the future!

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Wilde Clube Records have released many of my favourite records of the early 90s. At the same time many of the bands they released are still unknown to me. Especially the ones among the last releases of their catalogue. One of them were The Badgers, who I know very little about.

They released a 12″, 4-track EP, in 1992. It had the catalogue number Wilde 12. The EP was titled “Picnic” and included two songs on each side. The A side had the title song “Picnic” and “Cycleface” whereas the B side had “Ragged Jack” and “Rejuve”.

I should order a copy of the record for myself. In the meantime I am using Discogs to get some information. It seems that the four songs were recorded at Purple Rain Studios in Yarmouth and were produced by Richard Hammerton and the band.

The band was formed by Emma Hewitt on vocals, Robin Jeynes on guitar, Mike Jeynes on drums and Darren Long. An obvious question, were Robin and Mike related?

Interestingly enough the blog Wilfully Obscure dedicated a post to the band back in April 2013. Why did I miss this post? The author complains about the band’s name, that it is quite hard to search for them in Google. I agree about this. But then, in the early 90s, who would have thought that! Something interesting I learn from the comments from a reader called David Dent is that the band recorded an album but split before it could be released. Another reader says that the album was supposed to be called “Giants at Sea”.

Then there is a comment from someone that was in the band but sadly doesn’t has the real name, instead it appears as “White Boots”. Thanks to that we know that the band started as a two piece that were going under the name of The Railway Badgers. This two piece was formed by Rob Jeynes on four string guitar and Luke Barrett on bass. Then people joined the band and the 12″ was recorded. Also at some point a Scot called Tony Aldridge joined the band. He mentions too a band called The Volunteers who were also from the local North Norfolk area (as many of the Wilde Club bands) who they played many gigs together.

Indeed the band hailed from the village of Guist, in Norfolk. Guist is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of 6.80 km2 and had a population of 242 in 102 households at the 2001 census, including Twyford and increasing slightly to a population of 250 in 110 households at the 2011 Census. Twyford House is a Grade II listed manor house on the edge of the village. The local pub is called The Ordnance Arms, where they have an adjacent Thai restaurant. As well as this business, the village also has a number of prospering farms in and around the local area.

And that’s all I could find on the web really. I would have loved to attend any of these Wilde Club gigs, with the bands that were in the label. The Badger sounds great. At the same time they sound quite different to other bands in the label, with the female vocals. I would love to listen to their long lost album. If it sounds as good as the songs on the 12″, then it is a true treasure waiting to be rediscovered.

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Listen
The Badgers – Cycleface

Friday! Later today I’ll be heading to Mexico City. Last chance then for letting me know if you want some records.

I hope to update the blog while I am there as I will be working there, not on holidays. So I should have my computer with me. I’ll  try to do it on Wednesday and Friday. Monday is a holiday.

Probably won’t have much news during this time, but I am sure when I return to NYC there will be some good news to announce. In the meantime here are some good finds!

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: the San Francisco band have just released two new songs, “I’m Sorry About Your Life (ver 2)” and “Marty as a Youth (ver 2)”. But that’s not all they have also announced that they will be releasing a 7″ on a Swedish label called Dischi del Barone and they will also play  Madrid Popfest in March! A really great year is coming up for them!

East Village: the reissue of “Hotrod Hotel” that Slumberland is releasing is already available to pre-order on Bandcamp. The album will be coming out on January 24th and will be available on vinyl only it seems. No CD. If you have never heard this classic and legendary band I urge you to discover them now! Start with the two songs available to preview, “Cubans in the Bluefields” and “Violin”.

Die Katapult: Anna and Elena form the Swedish/Spanish duo that sings in German, Die Katapult. They make quirky and fun indiepop. Their latest is a videoclip for their track “Für Einen Moment” and it is super cool and fun! Oh! And it is catchy too. This song was included in their album “DKXD” that was released by Elefant Records.

Basic Plumbing: this Los Angeles band is releasing their album “Keeping Up Appearances” on January 24. It will be coming out both on vinyl and CD and that’s a great thing of course. At the moment we can preview three tracks, “As You Disappear”, “Bad Mood” and “Constant Attention, all of them great indiepop songs. Another interesting detail is that profits from the album will be going to the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the Campaign Against Living Miserably.

Luby Sparks: and lastly the great Japanese band is back with a cover of “Birthday” by The Sugarcubes. They have a video too for this rendition of theirs. It sounds great to my ears. It seems this cover will be only released as a digital single.

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I discovered a few days ago a Soundcloud full of goodies from the area of Woking in the UK. The WokingSoundscene group also has a Facebook group which has photos from many of the bands they feature. So I started digging and found many cool tracks from bands I have never ever heard about. So in the next few weeks or months I may be covering some of them. I want to start with the band Summersalt, whose song “Forever” sounded pretty cool to me!

The song that introduced me to the band is called “Forever”. Where does it come from? When was it recorded? Let’s see if I can find out.

The information on the WokingSoundscene Soundcloud tells that the band was formed by Barney Jeavons (bass, vocals), Anthony Read (drums) and Alex Ballentine (guitar, vocals). This three piece recorded a demo tape called “Better than Nothing” which included 8 songs it seems. It was recorded at DNA Studios in Brixton.

The name of the songs on the “Better than Nothing” tape were on the A side we find “Mind Sigh”, “Puppet Playground”, “Forever” and “Autumn”, while on the B side we find “Spirit”, “Mirrorglide”, “Laughing Box” and “Neverend”. Was this the only songs the band ever recorded?

It is also worth mentioning that on this tape Alex Steinitz played violin. On which song or songs? It doesn’t specify. The photography is credited to Rae.

Aside from this tape we know the band contributed the song “Autumn” to the tape compilation “Revenge of Farnborough Groove” that was the 5th volume of the tape compilation series “The Farnborough Groove”. This tape series had the very important goal to promote up and coming unsigned and local bands from the Farnborough area in Hampshire.

Not much more info about them on the web.

I did find though that Barney Jeavons has been, since 2001, the Aldershot West End Centre’s director. Before that he had been manager of the band Reuben and I found out that he is the son of the actor Colin Jeavons.

What about the other two members? What happened to them?

That’s really all the info I could dig from every corner of the web. I am sure someone must remember them. Did they play lots of gigs? Were they involved with any other bands? Any other recordings?

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Summersalt – Forever

Just a reminder that I’ll be heading to Mexico this Friday night. Any orders placed after Thursday will be posted on January 28th. Also if you are in Mexico and want any records from the Cloudberry catalog or any that we distribute let me know. I’ll be happy to meet or mail them to you from within Mexico and save you shipping.

About Cloudberry news, I should have a bunch upon my return. In the meantime, here are some great new finds you shouldn’t miss!

The Lousy Pop Group: the Indonesian band is preparing a new 7″ to be released on the German label Entes Anomicos. And that is great news for sure! The band led by Eko, Erlan, Andy and Addil, have released one of the songs that will be part of this release, “Days”! It is jangly, moody, and sweet. Also worth mentioning is that the artwork is being done by my friend David! He is also on a roll lately!

Selma: this Norwegian band from the town of Seljord has just released an album called “Sjøormpop”. 9 songs packed with cool folky sounds and very catchy melodies! Yes. I don’t usually get hooked by folky stuff, but when it is poppy, fun and quirky, I can buy it. The album seems to be available only in digital format for the time being.

Flying Fish Cove: the Seattle band have released a new digital single with two tracks, “Magic Wand” and a cover of Heavenly’s “Shallow”. Wow! That is a treat indeed. And that is not the only treat of course. “Magic Wand” has a promo video too. I really hope this West Coast band gets to play some East Coast gigs in the near future!

Plainbow: their “Super Super Super” EP is out now on tape on Hidden Bay Records, the terrific label from Toulouse. This tape has some very fine shoegaze in it, packed nicely in 4 songs. Something that caught my attention of course was their name, which looks very much like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s own label, Painbow. Was it a nod to them?

Honey Cutt: lastly there’s this new band for me that hails from Boston. There is a new album coming out called “Coasting” which will be released in vinyl and CD on March 13. Around that time they will be playing NYC. Maybe I should catch them there. Two (out of ten) of the songs of the album are available to preview, “Vacation” and “Suburban Dream”. If you like Alvvays and similar female-led jangly bands this is up your street for sure!

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Cinnamon Toast Crunch (known as Croque-Cannelle in French Canada, Curiously Cinnamon in the UK (previously Cinnamon Grahams), and as a different-tasting but similar-looking variant called Cini Minis in other European and Latin American countries where available), is a brand of breakfast cereal produced by General Mills and Nestlé. The cereal was first produced in 1984.

I was looking the other day into completing my Cinnamon Toast Crunch collection but I feel it will be quite hard. You see I own the “Charmless Harm” mini-album but I am missing the “Jumpers Survive” album and “Chelsea Wood” EP, but the thing is they seem a bit pricey for me!

At least I have one of the three releases. And I am playing it now. As it is so pretty. But in due honesty I know very little about this late 90s Japanese band. So maybe it is good time to find out more about them?

The band was formed by:
Sai – vocals, backing vocals and words
Kenji Imada – bass, guitar, xylophone and lyrics
Daichi Hamazaki – drums and percussion
Masaru Funaki – guitar

The first release by the band was in 1998. It was the album “Jumpers Survive” (SP-002) released by Smile Records and Sunshine Pop. I suppose it was a co-release though there is just the one catalog number. This album had just 8 songs on it, “Néron”, “Swing Parade 1964”, “Sharing Opportunity”, “Grassy”, “If I Dream in September”, “Candyfool”, “Lord, It’s Winter and Snowing Outside” and “Thrown Thrown”.

On this album we see that it included very nice arrangements as Takayuki Taneda played violin in “Grassy” and cello on “If I Dream in September”, Masayo Maeda played flute on “Sharing Opportunity”, Mizue Oikawa played accordion on “Swing Parade 1964” and “Grassy”, Yasuhiro Narita played mandolin on “Thrown Thrown”, Yuki Makita played piano accordion on “Candyfool” and “Lord, It’s Winter and Snowing Outside” and Susumucci Fujibayashi played harmonica on “Thrown Thrown”. Other credits include design by Tomonori Iwasaki, photography by Ani Hayashi and Aya Kawasaki. Kenji Imada produced the songs.

The band released in 1998 the “Chelsea Wood” EP (SP-006) on Smile Records and Sunshine Pop.  I read that this EP came with a free mini sticker. What was this sticker about? Would be fun to know. This EP was sweet and short, four songs were on it: “Chelsea Wood”, “Sandmill and Sandals”, “Passengers State” and “Slightly Funny”.

Other credits on this EP are for Mizue Oikawa who played accordion, Susumucci Fujibayashi  played harmonica, Daisuke Hara who art directed, Osamu Matsuo who took the photography.  Also it is worth mentioning that Kenji Imada produced the record.

Lastly the band moved to the very fine Under Flower Records/Pusbike Records. With them they released the “Charmless Harm” EP (UFPB 022). This is the one I have. The songs on this one were “Try Little Piece”, “Inverted Forest”, “Rain”, “Wave of Love”, “Misery-Bernard’s Case” and “Irish Testament”.

Aside from these releases we know the band appeared on a few compilations. In 1998 they had their song “Passengers State” on the Sunshine Pop comp “Sunshine Pop Show! Vol. 2” (SP-008). The year after, 1999, they had the song “Rain” on the Under Flower Records comp CD “Flowers are Go! Vol. 3” (FLOWER 026) and one year later, 2000, this same song was included in “Indies Magazine Vol. 32” compilation that was released by Rittor Music (ICB-032). This last one was a comp that came with the February 2000 issue of the Indies Magazine in Japan.

I look too if the members had been involved in any other bands. I can see that the drummer Daichi Hamazaki played in Chappie, Dream, Ayumi Hamasaki and more. Can’t find any info for the rest!

The problem, as it is quite obvious, is that the band’s name makes it very hard to find any information about them. I only get hits for the cereal! Tough. I wonder if there’s a way to track the band members down, as I’d love to interview them and find out more about this very curious Japanese band, who released fine records but it seems they are not remembered much!

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Cinnamon Toast Crunch – Inverted Forest

Okay, I hear our friend Cris is mastering now the next Cloudberry Cake Kitchen release. Then we are figuring out now our next 7″ and this past weekend I finally had some time to work on the fanzine, at least send all the bands, I wanted to interview, questions. That is important as I will be away in Mexico City starting this Saturday. I will be going to work there so I should have my computer with me and will be able to update the blog I think. We’ll see. In any case here are a bunch of cool new finds from over the weekend!

Dayflower: this is amazing news really. Our latest 7″ was Dayflower’s “Sweet Georgia Gazes” and now it has a video! It is terrific to see images accompanying this terrific song! The video was directed by Keith Allott with the help of Paul Daniels and Bill Newsinger and with actress Jess O’Brien.  We still have copies of the 7″ just so you know!

The Know: this moody shoegaze track called “Hold Me Like You Know Me” is the latest by this husband and wife band from Los Angeles. It was released just last week and aside from the lyrics that are posted on Bandcamp we don’t have more info about it. Will it be released somewhere? Will it be part of an album or something? Who knows. Just know it sounds good!

Soma Lake: more shoegaze! This time from Mexico’s Stupid Decisions label. They will be putting a six song mini-album by Soma Lake on January 13. We can only preview the first track, “When We Were (Angels)” which sounds very good. Also I like the artwork, very Cloudberry blue.

Tom Boyle: it has been a while since I heard the Spanish band from Getxo, Tom Boyle. More than a year. And their comeback is quite a surprise! A quirky rendition of “Burbujas de Amor”, the mega-hit of Juan Luis Guerra, a Dominican bachata/pop star from the 80s/90s. I think this is very cool!

The Hazy Seas: not too long ago I discovered this terrific Chicago pop band!  heard their song “Heavy Heads” and was hooked. And that was it. But now they have a proper release, a self-titled album of 8 tracks of superb guitar pop! It is available now on tape and they also have some t-shirts for sale. Really really enjoying this.

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The Prayers, that Scottish band that I love. Whatever happened to them? I discovered them quite late, when Egg Records started their restoration programme in the early 2000s. Oddly enough I didn’t manage to get a copy of the release they put out then, the retrospective CD “Everything but the Rubber Cat”, but I did end up getting the 7″s released in the 80s. It’s something.

The story starts with Egg One, the first release on Jim Kavanagh’s Egg Records. It was a 7″ with two songs by The Prayers. The A side was the magnificent “Sister Goodbye” and the B side had “Under the Deep Blue”. The 7″ came out in October 1988 after the songs had been recorded in March that same year.

EGG 002 was the “A Lighthouse in the Desert” 12″ sampler. Here the band appears with the track “Puppet Clouds” that was produced and engineered by Nick Quail from Playing Soldiers. Other bands on this record were The Church Grims, The Bachelor Pad and Remember Fun. The song was recorded in Autumn 1989. It is also worth mentioning that the German Edition 59 Records would re-release this as a mini-CD (EDL-051) in 2010.

Then in November of 1990, the band released another 7″, this one being EGG 004. The A side was “Fingerdips” and the B side was “Head Start”. These were recorded in December 1988. This 7″ also had a 12″ version where the two songs, “Fingerdips” and “Head Start” appear on the A side, while on the B side we find “Puppet Clouds” from the sampler and “Sister Goodbye” and “Under the Deep Blue” from the first 7″. This was EGG 005.

In 1991 Egg would release a tape with the four songs included in the 7″s on a split tape with The Bachelor Pad. The Prayers would appear on the B side. It seems more like a promo tape but can’t say much about it even though it appears listed on Discogs. It has no catalog number.

As I mentioned, in 2003 Egg Records reappeared in the indiepop scene. They released a bunch of great compilations of long lost bands. The fourth in that series (EGGREST 004) was “Everything but the Rubber Cat” that included the 5 songs we know from the early vinyl records but added 5 more: “Feet (demo)”, “Daze (demo)”, “Sister Goodbye (demo)”, “Under the Deep Blue (demo)” and “Puppet Clouds (demo)”.

Thanks to this compilation we learn that the band was formed by Hugh McLachlan on vocals and guitar, Colin Murray on guitar, Andy Muiry on drums and Bob Gregory on bass. we know too that most of the songs are credited to the whole band but “Sister Goodbye” and “Under the Deep Blue” to McLachlan and Murray only. The demos were recorded as follow:  “Feet (demo)”, “Daze (demo)” and “Puppet Clouds (demo)” in the spring of 1989, “Sister Goodbye (demo)” in October 1987 while “Under the Deep Blue (demo)” in November 1987.

The band through the years have appeared on many compilations. Back in 1991 they had their song “Puppet Clouds” in the tape compilation “Beneath the Valley of the Magnetic Monster” released by Hypertonia World Enterprises (HWE 050). This was a compilation put together in Norway by J. R. Bruun. That same year Elefant Records from Spain released “Egg Records compilation” (ER-008), a sort of sampler featuring many bands from the Scottish label. The Prayers contribute “Sister Goodbye” and “Under the Deep Blue”.

In 1992 the band appears on the tape comp “Garden Party” (ALIEN α) released by the French Aliénor Records. The band shows up with “sister Goodbye”.

Then we jump to 2003, for the CD comp “Egg Records: an Introduction To 1988-1991”. the first of the Egg Records releases during their “restoration programme”. They have the songs “Sister Goodbye”, “Puppet Clouds” and “Fingerdips” in it.

In 2006 appears the CD compilation “Souvenirs from Egg Records”, the 15th release in the Egg Records restoration programme (EGGREST 015). “Sister Goodbye” and a track we hadn’t heard before, “Forevers Over”, appear on this CD.

Then comes Cherry Red and their arsenal of boxsets. First their song “Puppet Clouds” on the “Still in a Dream: A Story of Shoegaze 1988-1995” in 2016 and then “Sister Goodbye” on the “C88” boxset from 2017. A year later, 2018, “Fingerdips” is included in “C89” and lastly this year, 2019, “Head Start” appears in “Big Gold Dreams-A Story of Scottish Independent Music 1977-1989”. Seems Cherry Red will be releasing all of their songs, one per year?

And yes, the only name I found was that of John Connor, their bassist, on a Youtube comment.

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Listen
The Prayers – Sister Goodbye

I think this weekend I’ll be finally able to work on the fanzine. This is exciting. At the same time I want to remind you all that next week I’ll be heading once again to Mexico City. Please let me know if you need any records and we can find a way for you to save on shipping costs!

New finds? You got them!

Sloome: this Modesto, California, band took two years to record and release their first album “Smorgasbord”. There are 12 songs of classic American indiepop, quirky and fun. There are some songs that I am not crazy about but there are some good ones like “Squeaky Bones” or “Whisper to Me”.

Corriendo por el Bajo: here is an Argentinean band, from Buenos Aires, making some cool music. Their latest track is called “Radiación Solar” which was recorded at the same time they did their “Sístema” EP that was released last September. If you like dreampop and postpunk, this is for you.

Fule: this Japanese band formed by Ryohei Enoki on vocals and guitar, Miyu Knno on bass and Anri He on drums has recorded a very nice shoegazy track called “Morning Glow” that will be part of a 3 song EP titled “藍、梔子”.

Closer Preys: the 19 year old Minjun Kim has recorded a lo-fi dreampop EP called “Betrayed” EP. It has three songs, “Distant Friends”, “Dark Room” and “I Tried to Swim Across the Ocean”. It is dreamy sure, but at the same time it is gloomy and the vocals are buried and mysterious.

Jimbo: some classic tweepop from Pensacola, Florida? Sure thing. A collection of seven songs form the mini-album “Epic” by the band Jimbo. This sounds very early 2000s US indiepop to me, with it’s lo-finess and fun vocals with catchy choruses.  Worth a listen.

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Let’s head back to Sweden, to the year 2006. That was a great time in Sweden’s indiepop. Lots of bands, labels, festivals, and fans. I wish I had lived there then. At the time I wished so very much. I wanted to be there. It wouldn’t be until 2009 that I would finally visit that country I had dreamed of so many times and meet many popfriends.

Anyhow, 2006. As I was saying it was a good year for indiepop in general. It was kind of the year building up for the revival that would be 2007. 2007 was a worldwide revival. I even started Cloudberry in 2007. But of course, Sweden had been brewing great indiepop for many years now. The rest of the world was just catching up.

One of the labels that made a splash was Friendly Noise, releasing records by Friday Bridge, Action Biker and more. Lots of superb stuff. Today I wanted to look into a band that is quite obscure, that I know very little of, but left a song that is truly great, Dianas Tempel.

I assume there was a girl vocalist in the band. That is obvious. But was there a band? Or was it just her playing everything? In those days I would stumble upon so many talented people that would just create songs on their own. I wouldn’t be surprised. The song Dianas Tempel recorded and contributed to the Friendly Noise compilation “Are You Scared to Get Happy?” (FYN 30) was called “I’ll Be Different This Time”. It is gorgeous.

On this compilation that was released on CD and was compiled by two greats of Swedish indie, Mattias Holmberg and Stefan Zachrisson, we find top music by The Radio Dept., Kuryakin, Sarto and many more. The album was mastered by Andreas Tilliander.

Not much written about the compilation, aside from some very favourable reviews on blogs and webzines, and whenever Dianas Tempel is mentioned the reviewer is very supportive about the great track that “I’ll Be Different This Time” is. Now, if only I knew who is behind it, and if there are more recordings…. who’d know? The vocals remind me quite a bit of Sarah from Action Biker… but I don’t know if I’m in the right track there. Maybe the CD booklet has information, I should try to get myself a copy. But any help would be appreciated!

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Dianas Tempel – It’ll Be Different This Time

The bit of news this week is that the anniversary sale for records released in 2009 is not available anymore. Replacing it we have a similar sale for records released in 2010. Here you can pick 3 of the 7″s that were released that year (Horowitz, Zipper, Sad Day for Puppets, Oh! Custer, A Smile and  Ribbon, Bonne Idée) for a very fair price including shipping. So take advantage of it if you are missing any of these records in your collection as they are, I think, fantastic!

The Go-Betweens: I don’t remember sharing this Youtube link with a conversation between Robert Forster and Peter Paphides talking about the new “G Stands for Go-Betweens Vol. 2” boxset. I post it a bit late here, but I really want to make sure no one misses this. It is not to be missed.

Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters: Optic Nerve has just announce a new LP retrospective compilation for this amazing band that released just a few records back in the 80s, notably on Dan Treacy’s label Dreamworld Records! The new compilation is called “Smashed Full of Wonder” and will have 14 tracks including 2 demos that have never been released in the past!

Teenagers from Outer Space Comeback (A Tribute to Bee Keeper): the Portuguese label Bee Keeper was for sure the most important independent label in that country. Maybe it is still. I wouldn’t know if there has been a better one afterwards. Most probably not. It is no surprise then that there is a tribute to the label being released now by the label Skud & Smarty Records from Castelo Branco on vinyl LP. This tribute includes 19 tracks!! An amazing feat and it includes even The Pastels or Tullycraft. But that’s not all, there are familiar faces here, like Safety Matches who released a 3″ CD with Cloudberry many years ago. Very very cool!

Anuncio en Blanco: now a bedroom project coming from Cuernavaca in Mexico. The man behind this project is Marco Mendoza. He has put together 7 tracks as a mini album called “Este Año”, this year. It is a lovely effort packed with jangle and drum machines!

Mint Julep: “So You Say” is the newest track by Keith and Hollie Kenniff. And as their previous releases it is a superb song. Guitars chime, Hollie’s vocals swoon and the melodies are dreamy. What else can one ask for? Maybe I need this in a physical record? That’d be nice.

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High Wycombe, often referred to as Wycombe is a large town in Buckinghamshire, England. It is 47 km west north west of Charing Cross in London; this information is also engraved on the Corn Market building in the centre of the town. The name Wycombe appears to come from the river Wye and the old English word for a wooded valley, combe, but according to the Oxford English Dictionary of Place-Names the name, which was first recorded in 799-802 as ‘Wichama’, is more likely to be Old English ‘wic’ and the plural of Old English ‘ham’, and probably means ‘dwellings’; the name of the river was a late back-formation.

That’s where I am transporting the blog today. Because I have just discovered a band that sounds great from there. A band that was around during the early 90s. One that seems left to us a few recorded tracks and nothing else.

It seems that the Record Collector Magazine rediscovered them for new fans back in 2016, when they included their song “Stoke” on a compilation LP called “Small Town Scenery”. It also looks like that the first 100 copies of the magazine then (Jan. 26 2016), came with a bonus 10″ (featuring the band Blindmans Rainbow). I didn’t know of this release. I wish I did. I hope I can find a copy as I am not familiar with any of the bands on it! Maybe I can explore them later on. the blog? One by one?

Anyhow, Triple Blind. Happily on Discogs there are scans of the LP and thanks to that I found out more about the band.

Triple Blind formed in the late 80s and played lots of gigs including an episode of Eastenders. “The Levellers were supposed to do it but refused to sign a deal regarding insurance,” recalls drummer Neil Peters. So Triple Blind performed threesongs in the background before 17 million people and got paid £1,000 for the pleasure. This money funded the recording of “Stoke” in a proper studio and is probably the most exciting thing to come out of the show after Ian Beale’s love life.

I think the band actually recorded 3 songs that time. Not just “Stoke”. The other two songs being “Bus Shelter Boy” and “Take Me Back”. I know that because I found the tracks on Soundcloud! There I find the band’s lineup:

Phil Bird – guitar
Iain Wooster – bass
Neil Peters – drums
Rev A Floyd – guitar and vocals

I believe later on some of the band members were in a band called SubRosa5.

And that’s it really. No more information about them. I hope I can find out more about the band members, if they were in other bands, and if there were more Triple Blind recordings. In any case I need to get this record and I will definitely start checking on the other bands in it. I think this might prove a trove of great indiepop bands!

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Triple Blind – Stoke

Had a busy weekend so I haven’t finished writing the fanzine questions for the bands, but it is shaping up. Also not this weekend but the next I will be traveling to Mexico City for a week. Again if anyone needs some records in the Mexican capital let me know and I’ll be happy to bring some!

Here are some finds from over the weekend!

Debonaire: it really pains me that the Blue-very label releases cassettes. I just don’t like tapes. And here this label is putting amazing music by classic and legendary Japanese bands on tape! Oh dear. What to do? Their latest release is an album by the superb Debonaire from the 80s titled “Lost from the Pictures”. It is coming out on February 5th and will include 11 tracks! Great stuff!

Curling Dreams: what a discovery this band from Halmstad, Sweden. They only have two songs on their Soundcloud, “Falling Down” and “Happy Now”, but the good thing is that even though their is no big quantity there’s lots of quality here! There’s not many details about them on the web but we know they are formed by Jonas Börjesson, Anton Albertsson, Tobias Söderblom, Jonatan Axetorn. I hope to listen more from them soon!

Big Baby: the Richmond, VA, based band is releasing on January 10th a new EP called “Fizzy Cola” on Jigsaw Records (CD) and Hidden Bay Records (tape). At the moment we can preview the track “String of Pearls” which is a terrific fuzzy jangly track. I can’t wait to hear the rest of the songs on the EP and I have to say I am very glad this will be available on CD and not just tape. Makes my life easier.

Flower Crown: the latest from this Pittsburgh band is a terrific track called “High Fantasy”. Released last December, this song even has a video for us to enjoy. This dreamy band is formed by Richie Colosimo, Mike Iverson, Chris Sexauer, Zach Bronder and Jon Sampson.

Decepción Cromática: “Hace Frío Afuera” was released just before Christmas by this Barcelona project. The song title translates as “It is Could Outside” and of course it makes sense that it was put out then. I discover it a bit later, but nonetheless it is very enjoyable!

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From Manchester, a band that had in its rank Craig Gannon who would end up in The Smiths. But The Smiths is a story we all know. I want to know about The Cradle. Who were they?

The band was formed by Craig Gannon on guitar, Ivor Perry on guitar, Gary Rostock on drums, Lee Bennett on bass and Andy Housley on vocals. They released just one record when they were around, in 1987. It was released by Rough Trade on both 7″ and 12″ formats (RT 202).

The A side for this record was “It’s Too High” and the B side had “Walk Around” (both written by Ivor Perry) and, on the 12″, the song “Wires” which was penned by Philip Larkin. The A side was recorded at Amazon Studios in Liverpool while the songs on the B side were corded at Out of the Blue Studios in Manchester. All songs were engineered by Nick Garside who we know from the superb band The Distractions.

Discogs doesn’t list any songs on compilations. Just this release. I wonder then if there were more recordings. If there were demo tapes made. Who’d know. And how did they end up on Rough Trade? Were they big or supposed to become big? Well, they did have people in the band that had been in important bands. For example Gary Rostock was in Easterhouse. Craig Gannon was not only in The Smiths, he was in The Bluebells and played with the Blue Orchids, Adult Net, Vinny Peculiar, Terry Hall and even helped on a track on the sole album by the lovely Help Stamp Out Loneliness.

According to Wikipedia, “It’s Too High” was actually a number 12 indie chart hit. In 1987, when Johnny Marr left The Smiths, The Cradle was put on hold. Why? It says that Ivor Perry was considered to replace Marr. He even recorded some new material with the band, including an early version of “Bengali on Platforms”. Perry was uncomfortable with the situation within The Smiths and in the end decided to leave and resurrect The Cradle with new vocalist Craig Davies. But soon enough Davies signed a solo deal with Rough Trade. This in turn made Rough Trade drop The Cradle. It mentions too that the band continued with another singer. Which singer?

I continue digging and find a name, John Barratt, he was The Cradle’s manager. Then on a book “Meetings with Morrissey” by Len Brown it mentions that Ivor got Gannon to join The Cradle after seeing him “staggering round, pissed, at the Hacienda”.

What about the other members? How did The Cradle start as a band?

There’s many questions, especially if there are more recordings, and what happened with the band after they were dropped by Rough Trade. Who knows. It feels like they were supposed to be bigger. Maybe they played live a lot? Maybe they got good gigs supporting top bands? How long did the band last too? Many questions, few answers on the web.

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The Cradle – It’s Too High

Happy new year to everyone!! Hope this 2020 brings lots of good news to all, more great indiepop records, gigs and bands to all of us. For Cloudberry I really hope it is a good year. Last year we put one retrospective and 2 7″s. Hopefully this year we can do the same or more. That’s the plan at least! This year for sure we are adding a fanzine, that already makes it different!

Have I found any good music in the past few days?

Nah…: “Perfect Game” is the treat the German band is giving us for 2020! It is a song about darts & love and it is darn good! Very influenced by Orange Juice, the jangly track gallops and swoons. It is one of their finest moments and so I hope they release this physically this year!

Golden Teardrops: another band that treats us with new music in 2020 is the duo of Ryan and Lei Marquez! They have a new song “I Won’t Be Fooled Again” that continues what they have been releasing in the past few years. Another great entry to their catalogue of shiny summery songs.

Jetstream Pony: our favourite Brightonians cover 20/20’s “Yellow Pills” for New Year’s. And they do it great! What do I wish the band for 2020? I hope they release more records. Maybe an album. And definitely to come play NYC!

Dummy: a five people band from Los Angeles. That’s all I know about them. They have a self-titled EP supposedly (their artwork looks like a tape with 3 songs on the A side and 2 on the B side), but on Bandcamp I can only find one track, “Angel’s Gear”. It is terrific, so I hope to hear the rest. If it exists!

Tawings: this trio from Tokyo released a few weeks ago a self-titled album consisting of 8 tracks. Dreampop and shoegaze fans will definitely enjoy this, with it’s sweet melodies and dreamy female vocals. The record is available on CD now.

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This might be a short post because I think this is one of those ultra obscure bands that no information is available on the web. And that’s kind of funny as the one and only song I know by Alphabet Extravaganza was released not THAT long ago, in 2007. Not in the 80s. There was internet then. But still there’s nothing about them online.

This one and only song I know they recorded was called “Don’t Pay Attention”. It has female vocals and the sound of it reminds me a lot of the Marine Girls. So yes, it is pretty nice.

The song wasn’t even released in physical format. It was part of an MP3 compilation released by the Swedish label Friendly Noise called “I Godan Ro” (FYN 51). This Stockholm based label was founded by Stefan Zachrisson and Mattias Holmberg and released some very good albums, among my favourite those by The Dreamers and Action Biker.

This compilation included four songs. The Alphabet Extravaganza was the second one in the tracklist. The other bands were We Feed Them Knives, Kim Ki O and The Radio Dept. (doing a glorious version of the Go-Betweens’ “Bachelor Kisses”). The songs were compiled by Per Johansson who had once been in the amazing band Kissing Mirrors.

Aside from all of these connections, I can’t find who was behind the band. I can’t find other songs either. So, I need your help as it would be nice to hear more songs by Alphabet Extravaganza!

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Alphabet Extravaganza – Don’t Pay Attention