Day 78. Friday.

The Airfields:  Well, I always dreamed of releasing these (some) of the songs that are part of the “Home is Always an Imaginary Place EP” on Bandcamp. I loved The Airfields and was lucky to release a 3″ back in the day. Their music was precious. Amazing really.  So here you’ll find two original songs and two covers (The Field Mice, My Bloody Valentine). Great to hear from the Toronto combo again.

Names for Pebbles: Another blast from the past on Bandcamp is this retrospective compilation by the New Haven, Connecticut, band. The bedroom pop project of Joey Maddalena released songs between 1993 and 1998 including 7″s on Motorway and Black Bean and Placenta. Here they are all (I hope). So definitely give it a check. I would love to interview them now that there is an easy way to contact them. So I’ll try that.

Herlights: this cool Russian project is back with a new digital single titled “Stockholm Syndrome”. Chiming guitars, elegant melodies, and very fuzzy, sort of hidden, vocals, make this a wonderful song.

Free Ice Cream: Rose Melberg fans from Atlanta Free Ice Cream have recorded a self-titled album and it is a lot of fun. There are 11 songs that pack DIY attitude, quirky lyrics, twee melodies and girl/boy vocals. Some songs are better than others, and some are hits in their own right like “Holland 1986”.

ユワ: this dreampop bedroom Japanese musician from Saitama is quite an interesting discovery. Especially the last song he has published titled “エンプティ・エイプリル” is quite good!

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I was remembering some cool bands from the time I started Cloudberry. Bands that I got in touch with and for a reason or another we never worked together. One that came to mind were The Bumblebees from Bristol.

At some point I think they were playing many of the cool indiepop gigs in London, Bristol, and probably other cities. I remember seeing them in posters and flyers alongside many bands that liked and many bands I would end up being friends with. But I wonder how I discovered them? Maybe because the fine Big Pink Cake club night invited them to their gigs in Bristol? Matthew had very good taste, so that could have been possible.

The Bumblebees wouldn’t be exactly classic jangly indiepop. They were the fun kind, with a punkish attitude. A bit of Tullycraft playfulness thrown in there. But I liked them. Though I don’t think I was ever lucky to see them play live.

As far as I know they only released one CDR. It is not even listed on Discogs, but I could find it on Bandcamp. It was self-titled and included four songs. Surprisingly you can still order a copy of it! Wow. Though it does look like a re-release of the original 2008 CDR. This new re-release was put out by a local label called Local Kid and features new art in 2010. How did the first version of this release look like? Who remembers?

The EP comes with four songs, “My Kaleidoscope”, “Fluffy Clouds of Joy”, “Internal World” and “Cool Science”.

The band was formed by Rosalind Glennie on vocals and keyboards, Ellis Jones on vocals and guitar and Daniel Howard on vocals and drums. The band started as such in November of 2007. Question then, had they been in other bands previously? A small bio on last.fm tells us that the band was actually working on a debut album that was to be released by Local Kid too. What happened to that?

The band also had a Myspace. That was how I contacted them most probably. There I find that the band had at least another song called “The Way”.

The only other place I found information was on a Twitter they used to run (last post dates from 2013). Here I found a bunch of notices of gigs mostly, at places like The Cube Cinema (Bristol), Fuel (Manchester), Wheatsheaf (Oxford), Buffalo Bar (London) and more. More importantly they played 2011 Indietracks.

And so Indietracks interviewed them that year. Thanks to that we know that the three members must have moved from Bristol as they say at that time, 2011, they were in Bristol, Oxford and Staines. And then something… it mentions that the band canceled their gig at Indietracks that year and were replaced by the Sock Puppets. What happened?!

It seems they disappeared. Were they involved in other bands afterwards? Did they finish recording that album? Are there at least any more songs recorded? Who would know? Maybe some Bristol indiepop fans? I look forward to hearing what happened to The Bumblebees!

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Listen
The Bumblebees – My Kaleidoscope

Last September I wrote about the great mod/powerpop band The B-Team! And just last week Paul Rosendale from the band got in touch with me! And even faster I sent the questions for the interview today, and he replied also today! Exciting! So without further ado, it is time to learn more about this terrific band that left just a few songs but how good are these songs, right?!

++ Hi Paul! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Still making music?

Hi Roque, I’m good thanks, I no longer play live (last live gig was in 2011) but would be up for it if I knew of a band that required a bass player and who wanted to recreate the authentic late 70s early 80s Mod/Powerpop sound. Still making music though, I currently produce music as backing for video productions.

++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?

My very first Music memory was Queens performance of Bohemian Rhapsody on TV. I was 9 years old at the time and music hadnt been a big part of my life before that, but I was blown away by something I had never heard the likes of before.

My first Instrument was in 1976, an old battered Columbus Bass Guitar in burgundy red.
Later on in 1981, I purchased a 1974 Gibson Grabber bass with sliding pickup. This was the instrument I played during my time in The B-Team.

I am totally self taught, I would play along by ear mainly to songs by The Jam or Dr Feelgood. Bruce Foxton being a big influence and John Entwistle an idol.

What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?

After hearing Queen I started to explore music more, and through my parents records I picked up on Dr Feelgood —my dad had their first two albums, ‘Down by the Jetty’ and ‘Malpractice’ and R&B Blues became my first love. I started to listen to The Who, The Spencer Davis Group and a lot of 60s R&B. Then punk came along in 1976 —I loved the energy of punk but never got truly into it as I wanted more melody in the music I listened to. Then along came The Jam and thats when it all changed for me.

++ Had you been in other bands before The B-Team? Are there any recordings?

Yes. I formed a band with my cousin Mark. He had been playing in a band called The Gliders with Steve Moran (of Long Tall Shorty/The Rage). When the Gliders split, Steve joined LTS and I joined up with Mark and we formed a band called ‘Annex’ —It was all synthesizers with me on bass guitar —very OMD and not my thing really.

Annex were of the time really, early 80s sounding, very like Ochestral Manouvres in the Dark or Depeche Mode.

There was a Demo EP made with four tracks.
‘Looking at You’ – ‘Starshot’ –
‘Turn out the Lights’ – ‘Souvenir’
but I havent seen one for about 30 years.

++ Where were you from originally?

I was born in Edgware, Middlesex and lived in Enfield from 1970. All the members of The B-Team were from the Enfield area in Middlesex just outside London.

++ How was your town at the time of The B-Team? Were there any bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

There was a good little independent record shop called Backtrack Records who stocked all the vintage stuff and collectables, spent many a day in there. As for venues the best was The Fox Hotel. Steve Marriott (Small Faces), Wilko Johnson (Dr Feelgood), Geno Washington all featured as well as local bands such as The B-Team, The Way Out and XL.

++ When and how did the band start? How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?

The B-Team were already going strong when I joined. I was playing for Annex and we had a support spot at a B-Team gig in Enfield, a week or so later I heard the B-Team were playing locally, I had enjoyed their sound, so I decided to see them again. To my surprise, when they took to the stage it was as a three piece with no bass player. I learned from a friend that Tony Vesey had left to form another band, so I approached Kelvin after the gig asking if they were looking for a bass player.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

Kelvin wrote all of the lyrics and we would just jam around the chord progressions he came up with, inputting our own ideas for each instrument until the songs just came together. Most of our rehearsals were done in The Haringey Centre near Tottenham in North London.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name? 

It was decided before I joined, but from how I heard it, it was a play on the word ‘Beat’
—The B-Team sounds like ‘The Beat Team”

++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

We were all influenced by The Jam, however, other influences that crept into the sound came from 60s soul, Powerpop, Elvis Costello and Squeeze.

++ As far as I know you only released one 7″ back in 1985. I was wondering before this 7″, had you been recording already? Or was this the first time you were going to a proper studio?

Tony Vesey was the Bass player for the recording of All I Ever Wanted/Bad Day. I dont know if it was the first time for them at the time.

I had been in the Studio before, recording for Annex in 1982.

++ And how was the experience of recording at Empire Studio in Manor Park? Who produced it?

Again, that would be a question for those that were there. Tony recorded the bass but left the band before the single release, so I only ever played those songs live.

++ The “All I Ever Wanted” 7″ was released by the Diamond Record Corporation. Who were they and how did you end up working with them? Was it a good relationship?

They were an independent record label in London in the Mid 1980s. Mainly specialising in The Mod Revival happening in the UK at the time. They were run by a man called Martin Hampton who used to also promote gigs at The Fox Hotel. As well as The B-Team they recorded tracks by Long Tall Shorty, The Moment, The Scene, The Way Out and The Rage.

++ The record sleeve is interesting too. It was designed by the Artschool. Were they friends of yours or who were they? Was it their own idea the band logo?

The design was all done before I joined the band so cant help you on that one, sorry.

++ Then the band photos taken by Deborah Laight and Jo Baker, where were they taken? Do you remember?

This I can answer as Jo Baker was my partner and Deb Laight was Kelvins partner. The photos were taken at a place called Gentlemans Row in Enfield Town, Middlesex.

++ And how come both sides of the record are B sides? Was that a mistake?

No, it was not a mistake. It was a small joke that the name of the band was the B-Team so the songs were released as B-Sides.

++ Many years after you would get your two songs from the 7″ released on the “This is Mod Volume 3 – A Diamond Collection”. Did this create any new attention for the band?

Yes, a new generation of Mods discovered the band and also those that missed us first time around became aware of us. I was living in Spain when I discovered its release and on my return to the UK became aware of more people knowing who we were.

++ And what about in 2018 when you were included in the Japanese compilation “Ita Cemetry Gates Volume 3”?

I have heard that copies of the Diamond release of ‘All I Ever Wanted/Bad Day’ have been going to Japan for over £100 each, but that was before the release of this compilation.

++ I read that there used to be a live tape from a gig at the Wood Green in London 1986. Was this tape sold at gigs? Were there any other tapes by the band?

Yes, the tape was sold at subsequent gigs and I have been unable to trace a copy since losing mine in a move 20 years ago. I would dearly love to trace a copy if anybody has one.

++ Then was there a 2nd single? I read that “And All Because” was released by ASM Records. Is this true? What format was it in? How many copies were made?

The second single was ‘All Because (I Love You)’  a split single with another artist on the flipside. Again the matrix listed it as the B-Side (ASM001-B). It was released on 7″ vinyl by Main Feature Records, Marketed and Distributed by ASM records

++ Was there any interest by any labels in your music?

In 1985 Stiff records had an interest, turning up to some gigs at The Fox Hotel but nothing came of it and In 1986 John Weller had an interest in managing the band at one point.

++ And were there more songs recorded by the band aside from the 3 we’ve mentioned?

No. Just the three releases unfortunately.

++ I think my favourite song of yours might as well be “All I Ever Wanted”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

That would have to be a question for Mr Kelvin Davis I’m afraid.

++ If you were to choose your favorite The B-Team song, which one would that be and why?

It was a song called ‘Helen Please’ from the live set. I came up with a Foxton inspired bass line that I loved playing live, I also liked the harmonies in the chorus and the whole 60s/Powerpop feel to the song.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? 

A lot in ’85/86. From Dingwalls, The Fulham Greyhound and The Rock Garden to The 100 club —which is probably the one remembered by most of the mod fraternity.

++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

Supporting Steve Marriott’s packet of Three at The Fox was easily my most memorable gig. He had been an idol of mine since my discovery of The Small Faces as a 10-year old. The fact that it was my first live performance for The B-Team made it even more memorable.

After that first rehearsal when Steve had said “He’s in”, Kelvin gave me a tape of the B-Team full live set and said,
“You’re going to need to learn all these for the next gig.”
I replied “No problem, when is it?”
He said “Saturday, supporting Steve Marriott”.
..It was Tuesday.. I had three days to learn a whole new set and go into a live gig without rehearsals.

++ And were there any bad ones?

At RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire 1986.
I had to follow the band van up to the gig on a scooter and it rained heavily all the way up. I played the gig soaked through and then at 1am had to follow the van back home while it rained even harder.

++ When and why did The B-Team stop making music? Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?

I left the band in 1986 bought a house and started a family, I think they continued on for a short while after.
Kelvin started a project called ‘Screamboat’ who I rehearsed with a couple of times but never joined. Steve was also involved with them at some point. After separating from Jo I joined a band called Thirsty for a while in 1996 and then moved to Mallorca in 1999 where I had a solo show that I took around the island. On return to the UK I formed a covers band called The Retrobates and we played up until 2011. Unbelievably the last gig I played was back at RAF Wyton, the scene of my horror gig.

++ What about the rest of the band, had they been in other bands afterwards?

There was The Screamboat project for Kelvin and Steve still plays, he has been in a couple of bands, one of which I think was called ‘Wellah’.

++ Has there been any The B-Team reunion?

No. And none is planned. Sadly Doug passed away around 10 years ago while I was living in Mallorca.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio? TV?

Had record of the week on Capital Radio in London in 1986 but sadly it was the show between 4am and 6am so nobody really heard it.

++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?

The local press gave us lots of coverage but nothing nationally.

++ What about from fanzines?

The band was interviewed for a modzine after the gig at the 100 club. Sadly it folded before going to press. The interview was passed to ‘In The Crowd’ —a mod fanzine, but I dont know if it ever got used.

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

I would say the gigs to promote the release of the first single. Playing at places like Dingwalls, The 100 club, The Rock Garden gave the band exposure to a much wider audience.

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

Its all music, music, music.

++ And lastly, you just put together a Bandcamp for the band as well as a Facebook group! Tell me a bit about them, and what sort of updates we’ll be able to see in the future?

I wanted to keep the memory of the band alive as I know there is still an interest in Mod/Mod Revival spreading over four generations from the 60s to the present day. I would love it if somebody came forward with a copy of the live tape so that I could remaster it and release it on Bandcamp as a live album. I would also like to collaborate with singer/songwriters on a project as I have unfinished studio tracks needing vocals.

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Listen
The B-Team – All I Ever Wanted

Day 76.

Not much news on this front. Here are some good finds:

The Ashenden Papers: Jason Dezember, Marie Davenport and Ella Cross are The Ashenden Papers from Alameda, California. And what’s great is that they have a mini-album out on Secret Center Records called “Asphodel Meadows”. It is available now on vinyl and it comes with 7 fine indiepop songs!

Prepare My Glider: I know this band is from Canada, but no clue where in Canada. Their latest release is a two song digital single which is available to listen on Bandcamp. The songs are “Smokesong” and “No Early Warning – demo”. How do they sound? This three-piece make some fine dreampop in the vein of Slowdive or My Bloody Valentine.

Pizza Daddy: first time I’m listening to this superb sounding sound from London. Their latest track is called “Too Many Boyfriends” which was just put up on Bandcamp. Previously they had released the song “Family Time” which is really nice too. I have a bit of hard time with the band name, that’s my only complain.

Shiny Happy Fanzine 04 – Please Rain Fall Companion: the Indonesian label has released a new fanzine and to accompany it they have made a compilation including 19 top indiepop songs by the likes of Tullycraft, Marc Elston, Fernando Torres, The Suncharms, Den Baron and more. For me the best release this week!

The Umbrella Puzzles: three new recordings by the great Ryan Marquez (Apple Orchard, Golden Teardrops). This is very very good and I think everyone should have a listen. The songs here are a cover of Luna’s “Anesthesia”, “Fountain Morning (Quarantine session)” which was recorded for Our Secret World sessions organized by Shiny Happy Records a few days ago and “Somersaulting (demo version)” that dates from last year.

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Here’s a US band I have never heard before. I believe US jangly bands from the 80s are still quite obscure. I think starting in the 90s they become much more well-known in indiepop circles. But before that only a handful are well known and the rest continue being obscure. And that I believe is the case of The Need, a band that released a full-length album in 1985 and nothing else. They just disappeared it seems. Or not? Let’s find out.

The album was called “Obviously Four Believers”. It makes sense to call the album like that, the band was a four-piece formed by George Edmonson on bass, Brad Holtzman on drums, Rajesh Makwana on guitar and Bill See on vocals. This album, as I said, was released in 1985 on the label 221B Records (no catalog number). It doesn’t surprise me that this is the only release listed for this label. Everything indicates that this was a self-release.

11 songs were on the record, 5 on the A side and 6 on the B side. The A side had the following tracks, “Stranger”, “(Time) for the Breakout”, “Last Time I Saw Her”, “Like the City” and “Reach You”. The B side had “Tell Me”, “Clandestine Shield”, “When the Winter Comes”, “House of Cards”, “I Will” and “Wishing Well”.

All of the songs were recorded at Radio Tokyo in Los Angeles by Ethan James but two, “House of Cards” and “Wishing Well” which were engineered at Sound Advice by Matt Wright. The producer was Ron Jolly. An interesting credit on the back of the sleeve is that of Mary Susan Herczog who was their manager (den mother and avatar).

And then an interesting find, it seems that at some point the band changed names to be called Divine Weeks. As Divine Weeks they would release three albums and two EPs mostly in the early 90s (their last album though dates from 2018!). The story says that the band hailed from LA and that they were childhood friends. They formed in 1983 and practiced at George Edmondson’s basement. Holtzman wasn’t part of the gang yet, but would meet George at UCLA and join the other three friends. They called themselves The Need. Then they would release the album, mostly a collection of demos, on 221B Records as I mentioned earlier. It was in 1987, when Holtzman left the band that they would change names to Divine Weeks and get a much more important career, even with national tours.

The best article about them is on the very fine Wilfully Obscure blog. It mostly talks about Divine Weeks but does give us some idea of what to expect throughout the album. Jangly psych-pop.

Some other interesting facts I found on the web is that George Edmonson is now a Professor of Medieval Studies at Dartmouth! So cool!

And that’s it. Not much more info about this band. Probably there’s much more written about Divine Weeks, but maybe I’ll have a listen to them next.  Any other information regarding The Needs would be great!

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Listen
The Need – Last Time I Saw Her

Day 74. No news today. Quiet. It was a long weekend here, but couldn’t take advantage of it. Before the virus I was planning to go to Boston this weekend. But nah, I stayed put. Videogames, reading, answering emails, writing this post, writing a few interviews for the blog. I spent my time doing that. What about you all?

Here are some good finds from this past weekend.

Las Margaritas: last post I shared a video of Las Margaritas, the band that has Mai from My Light Shines From You. Now I found an amazing EP called “Invierno” that packs all the sweetness and twee in 6 songs. It is one of my favourite releases this year already. Jangly, bouncy and fun!

The Suncharms/Mirrorlakes: out now on Shiny Happy Records from Indonesia is the tape of two of my favourite bands of the moment. About The Suncharms I don’t know what else to say. A classic band who released records in the 90s and who we put a retrospective compilation a few years ago. So we love them. You know that. Mirrorlakes on the other hand have been reviewed on the blog in the past. Always recommending them as they sound great. Each of the bands contribute 3 songs to this cassette.

The National Honor Society: this Seattle band sounds amazing. We know that. Wish we had known about them early on before they putting out their first record. Yes, because they are releasing an album on May 29 and will be called “To all the Glory We Never Had”. It will include 10 songs and we can now preview one of them, “Cristalize”. It sounds terrific.

Airu: what a great discovery! This Bilbao, Spain, band has a dreamy and jangly sound. Their latest song is called “Me Sabe Casi Igual” and I am already hooked to it. From what I understand this song is the second single out of their up and coming EP “Do It for the Catharsis” that the trustworthy label Snap! Clap! Club will be releasing this year! We have to keep and eye on them!

Space Daze: the new project of Danny Rowland from Seapony has just put up on Bandcamp an album called “Phantosmia”. You can listen to all 10 songs in which we can see Danny’s talent. He recorded and wrote all of them! My favourite track? It is hard to pick, but I’ll go for “Get By”.

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A reader on Facebook asked me about this German band after reading a very old interview I did with the Firestation Records guys. So of course I said yes, we aim to please. So let’s see what we can find about this classic German band!

On that interview with Uwe Firestation, he told us the label started when Bungalow Records passed him the demotape of Bazooka Cain. What songs were on this demotape? I am guessing the same or similar to the ones that appear on Firestation Tower Records first release, the “Viele Grüße” 10″ (FST 001) in 1997. There were 10 songs on it, 5 by side. The A side had “Annahmeschluß” which Uwe told me was his favourite German indiepop song in that interview, “Wilkommen”, “Les Jours Parfaits”, “Immer Wieder” and “Ich Lach Mich Tot”. While the B side had “Juanita”, “Das Schönste Paar”, “Stop!”, “Zeit Zu Gehen” and “Egal”.

This record would be re-released the next year by Elbtonal on CD (CD ET 17). It will include 2 more songs: “Verlangen” and “Bitte Weine Noch Ein Letztes Mal”. This release had totally different art thanks to Sebastian Hartmann (from the bands Golden Toast Quartett and The Looney Tunes) and photography by Rüdiger Nehmzow. The liner notes were written by Reinhard Jellen a well known german journalist and Northern Soul DJ. And then we find the credits. The band members were Henry Grant on drums, Marcel Vega on vocals, guitar and lyrics, Matthias Pacht on bass and Max Knoth on guitar, mandolin and arrangements.

There would be many guest musicians in these recordings too, starting by Harald Monse on bass clarinet, Bea Kopyto and Julia Hinrichsen on backing vocals, Christian Wohlers and Udo Kern on clarinet, Stefan Sieveking on keyboards and melodica, Gabriel Coburger on saxophone and flute, Jonathan Myers on trombone, Christian Regel on trumpet, Nils Ostendor on trumpet and flugelhorn, Michael Biel on vibraphone, glockenspiel, timpani and percussion and Schorsch Külzer on zither and percussion.

The songs were mastered by Tom Meyer and were recorded by Clemens Kinder.

One thing to be aware of, is that a tape, with the same running order and 12 songs as the CD is listed in Discogs. It dates from 1997. It may as well be the demo tape that Firestation received? Who could confirm this?!

But let’s actually go back in time. This wasn’t the first ever release by the band. The band had already put out a 7″ back in 1992. Perhaps on their own. The label has no catalog number and was named No Harm Done Publications. The song titles are now in English, “Savings Of My Soul” on the A side and “Blank Space” and “Laughing” on the B side. Songs are credited to Marcel Vega but “Laughing” to someone with last name Loeseke. This is truly a mystery to me. What happened then between 1992 and 1997? Were there more songs recorded? How did these songs from the 7″ sounded like? Differently? Were the band members different? It is something we should try to find out.

In 2001 the band would release a split 7″ on Quince Records from Japan (QREP-06). It was shared with Cakeheads and Bazooka Cain had the A side. There they contributed the songs “Here Come the Days” and “Superschmoozer do Brasil”. The songs were written by Marcel and arranged by Max. They were recorded and mixed by Karsten Boettcher and Max Knoth. Produced by the band.

At this point in time the band had signed with Apricot Records. So, in 2002 the band would release a new album with this German label. Called “Here Come the Days Of” (APRICD025) it would come out in CD and LP vinyl as well as getting licensed in Japan by Quince Records (QRCP-05).

The album would have now 14 songs. The A side had “Frühling Im Herbst”,
“Hauptsache Gesund”, “Fürst-Pückler-Art”, “Fehit Dir Was”, “Superschmoozer”, “Schaf Um Schaf”, ” L’Homme À La Tête Gonflée” and “Am Morgen”. The B side had “Here Come the Days”, “Tais-Toi”, “Kurze Fahrt”, “I’m Lost”, “Komm Mit Mir” and “Allein”.

The Quince Records release had a different tracklist though. I don’t know exactly why. And it had 16 songs total. “One Fine Day”, “Fruehling Im Herbst”, “I’m Lost”, “Tais-Toi”, “Kurze Fahrt”, “Fuerst-Puekler Art”, “I Could Spell”, “Superschmoozer”, “Here Come the Days”, “Fehlt Dir Was”, “Hauptsache Gesund”, “Komm Mit Mir”, “Am Morgen”, “Superschmoozer do Brasil”, “Here Come the Days (Rremicks by Merricks)” and “Am Morgen (Remix by Erobique)”.

On this album Erich Abel appears as part of the band, playing the organ.

The album would be mastered by Tom Meyer and mixed by Karsten Böttcher and Max Knocht. The band would produce the album. Again too the band would seek many guest musicians for the record including Markus Bersing on alto saxophone, Rolf von Nordenskjöld on baritone saxophone and concert flute, Falk Breitkreuz on tenor saxophone, Ralf Zickerick on trombone and Wolfram Borchert and Eddie Hayes on trumpet. The wind section was recorded by Max Knoth and Michael Pregler. The photography was taken by Frenzy Höhne.

But that wasn’t all. The band would appear on many compilations. Starting in 1990!

Yes, that might be the earliest we know of the band. When were they formed then? So on the “Karls Unruhe” compilation released by Manick Turttle in 1990 they included the song “Nashville Tennessee”. This compilation featured bands from the city of Karlsruhe and surroundings.

But then I find in the Apricot Records biography that the band actually  was founded in 1989 by Marcel.

In 1992 their song “Laughing” would be included in a 7″ compilation called “Garbage Pearls Vol. 1” also released by Manick Turttle (MTP 002).

Then there is silence until 1998 when their song “Zeit Zu Gehen” appears on the promotional CD “Komm Küssen Kompilation #5” that came alongside the Komm Küssen fanzine’s 5th number. In the year 2000 their song “Here Come the Days” gets included in the Firestation compilation CD “You Thought It Was the End of the World When the Rain Ruined Your Hair” (FST 016). Again that same year on the “Brausepulver” a joint-release by Apricot (APRICD032) and Firestation (FST044) they would contribute a song, “Frühling Im Herbst”. This same song and “Cigarillo” a song by them and Die Soundmasters would be included in Hazelwood Records (HAZ 022) compilation “Pop Ist Sheriff 2” that year too.

In 2003 they would have their song “Fürst-Pückler-Art” on Tapete Record’s “Müssen Alle Mit.” (TR 013) compilation.

In 2003 the band would contribute the song “Hauptsache Gesund” to ZYX Music double CD compilation “Aufnahmezustand – Neue Deutsche Vielfalt”. The next year also oin the same label, their song “Here Come the Days” appear on “Digging Your Scene” CD comp. Lastly, on the DVD “Neue Deutsche Vielfalt” from 2005, the band would have their video for “Annahmeschluss”.

This video was actually shot in 1995, before the Firestation release. It was shot mainly in Poland by Bernhard Marsch.

Then it is worth mentioning that sometime along these years there was a compilation on triple vinyl called “Maximum Beatbox HKTC 01” released by Fidel Bastro (FB 05). The band appears here too, with could be a live set, or a live song (I am not sure). The recordings come from the legendary Heinz Karmer’s Tanzcafé in Hamburg.

Lastly in 2013 the band appears with two songs, “Annahmeschlus” and “Immer Wieder” on the compilation “Firestation Pavilion” that was released in Japan by TKO New Music Corporation (TKOK-0015) that features songs by many Firestation releases!

There are some more videos too on Youtube worth watching. For example a live performance of “Besame Mucho” and “Mountain King” at the Treuanisch Ship in 1995 as well as “Immer Wieder” at the ShuShuShow in 1997. There is a trailer for a movie of the band that was to be shot by Bernhard Marsch. The year is 1999 and one wonders what happened? Why wasn’t it filmed? There is also a small interview of the band on the Polylux tv programme in 2002.

What are they up to now? Max Knoth seems to be successful as a composer, arranger, orchestrator and sound designer, working for many movies including “Die Sterne” and “Lassie Come Home”. He was also involved in other bands like Frank Spilker Gruppe and Mobylettes. Harry Grant went to play with Charles Curtis Trio and Die Antwort. Matthias Pacht played on Go Plus.

I also was told that Marcel Vega had released one 7″ under the name of Jean de St. Malo on the Hochverdichtet Schallplatten label (HVS 0601). I don’t know the year for this release but it included two songs. Would like to listen to them!

There is not much more about them on the web. It is true that some years ago they had a website. But it doesn’t exist anymore. Something that I thought I was going to find was interviews or articles about them, as they had been around in the late 90s and early 2000s. Not in pre-internet days. So kind of unlucky there.

I did find an article from June 16, 1994. Here it mentions another name that was part of the band then, Markus Lezaun. It says that the band had toured Prague in 1992. In 1993 they had been to Moscow and that year, 1994, they were planning to go to St. Petersburg. Another tidbit I found on the web is that they played at least once at the Atomic Café in Munich.

Now it is time for you all to help me fill in the blanks. Especially those years in the 90s were we don’t know much about them. It seems they had been traveling all over Europe. But what about songs? Had they been recording at that time? Why didn’t they put more releases? Would be great to find out!

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Listen
Bazooka Cain – Annahmeschluß

Day 71. Not much news today. Just that it is weekend and that’s a good thing. New releases on Cloudberry are progressing slowly, but surely. What about you all? I’ve got a few requests on bands to feature. That was cool, one after the other. I’d like that. Keep the ideas coming.

Littler: “This Boulder Won’t Push Itself” and “Natural Disaster” are two brand new songs by this Philly band whose proceeds they will be donating to Movement for Black Lives COVID19 Mutual Aid Fund. Even though the band tags themselves as a punk band, at least in these two songs I can see a lot of American 90s noisy pop!

Dig Nitty: is Reggie Bender, Erin McGraith and Bernardo Ochoa. I believe they hail from Brooklyn, so pretty close to me. And they are releasing an album on July 24 on Exploding Sounds Records. It is coming out on vinyl with 11 songs as well as digital. Only one song available to preview, “Lomita”, which sounds promising.

Las Margaritas: this cool band that features Mai from My Light Shines For You has just put together a wonderful video for their song “Las Flores”! It is a great jangly song by this Chilean band. The video are a collage of little snippets she recorded on her trip to the island of Chiloé, in her countries’ southern region.

Un Día Soleado: we cross to the other side of the Andes, to Argentina. There we find this great new project called Another Sunny Day, well, in Spanish. A tribute to Harvey Williams for sure. The band has just put together a digital two-track single on Hikikomori Discos. These two songs are lovely crafted jangle pop songs, “Patinando con los Muertos” and “La Lluvia Vuelve a Caer”.

The Spanish Amanda: the album “Pop’s Gone and Bought a Gun” is a terrific comeback of the London (now Luton) band! Remember them? They released a classic album on Firestation Records in 2000. I interviewed them also on the blog. Amazing pop. Terrific lyrics. Is great to hear Huw’s songs again. Here you’ll find 10 smartly crafted songs, with no guitar solos as he says. To play time and time again.

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Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. He produced major works in a variety of media but considered himself a painter above all. He was best known for his photography, and he was a renowned fashion and portrait photographer. Man Ray is also noted for his work with photograms, which he called “rayographs” in reference to himself.

Here is yet another amazing Irish band I discover through one of my favourite blogs, The Fanning Sessions Archive!

it is true I mentioned Man Ray on my post about Bam Bam and the Calling as they both shared a flexi back in 1988. But I hadn’t had the chance to listen the wonderful track Man Ray contributed until not too long ago. I could finally listen to “Apology” thanks to that blog!

It doesn’t look as if the band released any other songs which is a shame. This one song, “Apology”, appeared as an A2 on the flexi released by Helden Magazine (HL03) after Bam Bam and the Calling’s “New Surroundings”. This flexi was given away the Helden fanzine in Northern Ireland and was their way to support the local music scene.

The quality of the track doesn’t seem to be the best, but I am very thankful to the Fanning Sessions blog. You can appreciate what a good indiepop track this is. You wonder if there were more tracks recorded by the band. Perhaps this one song was part of a two or three song demo cassette. Who would know?

The little bio on the Fanning Sessions blog tells us three names that were in the band: Robert McGlone on drums, Brendan Morrison on vocals and guitar and Mary Mulrine on backing vocals. He also says that Robert McGlone now plays in Jam Pact.

The comment sections do shed some more light. We know that Anthony O’Kane on rhythm guitar and Phil Crothers on bass completed the lineup. It is actually Phil Crothers who shares this info and also lets know that the band started in 1986, with all the members but Robert at the Foundation Year Art courise in Rupert Stanley College in Belfast. The band would later play across Ireland and even recording a session for the BBC show Across the Line as well as appearing on the BBC show Channel One hosted by Jackie Hamilton of the Moondogs. I would love to watch it! And listen to the session!

Another interesting bit of info is that EMI and Polydor had interest in the band just after the band had decided to split!

Aside from this information there’s not much more on the web. Maybe Mary Mulrine played played in a band Gráscar in the early 90s. But that’s really all I could find. Oh! And it seems too that Robert McGlone collaborated with The Knievels. Then we know Brendan moved to Chile and plays there. Mary has been playing folk and traditional music. Phil would end up playing in a band called Stonefish through the 90s who have recently reformed. But no other information about Man Ray. And I’d really like to find out if there are more songs about them. And where are they now? Why didn’t they release any other records? How long did Man Ray lasted as a band?

Please let me know if you have any other details about them! They do sounds amazing on this one song, “Apology”!

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Listen
Man Ray – Apology

Day 69. Tired of wearing a mask. My glasses get foggy all the time. Yesterday went to the post office and was able to mail the orders from Spain, Germany and Japan that I couldn’t in the past.  I have mailed everything now. Don’t owe any records. That feels good.

New music:

The Royal Landscaping Society: The Facebook page From a Social Distance has been putting together some videos of bands playing live from home. And that is really cool in these times of Covid-19. The latest one is by my talented friends from Seville. 15 minutes of pop perfection. Totally enjoyable. I really can’t wait to release them!

Daiistar: this one man project hails from Austin. I don’t know the name of the person behind it, but it looks like it is just the one telling from the photo on Bandcamp. He has just released a 3-song EP digitally, where the songs are burst of noisy/fuzzy wall of guitars. Nice!

Fryturama: this duo from Mexico formed by Fryda Magaña and Arturo Tranquilino have released a shoegazy EP called “El Mutante Más Lindo”. There are 6 songs of hazy shoegazy with female vocals. It is quite interesting, first time I hear a band from Mexico sounding like this. Are they from Mexico City? or where?

Anna’s Bones: from the town of Manningtree in the UK, comes this trio with what looks like their first song ever as a band! It is called “Sow” and was released on May 1st. The band is formed by Rebecca Simmonds (vocals), Aaron Munday (bass and synth) and Harry Dickens (guitar).

Stomp Talk Modstone: and our last stop in this tour will be Japan. This cool band formed by Takamitsu Kawashima, Naoki Nishino, Kouta Hoshino, Megumi Asai and Mimu Sano, have recorded two wonderful shoegaze/dreampop songs and are now on Bandcamp. They are “Fade Out” and “Untitled”, both very enjoyable! I need to check their back catalogue as they are new to me!

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“Skafferi”. It means pantry in Swedish. It is also the name of a compilation released in 1996 by Slask Records (GOSPEL! 3). If my memory serves me right, it was my friend Jörg Winzer who recommended me to get it, mostly because it had two songs by a band called Iller. Two songs sung in Swedish. Two superb songs.

The names of the songs by Iller are “Innan Jag Förstår” and “Om Fägerna Bleks Ur”. As far as I know these are the two only songs released by them. I am hoping of course that there are more recordings by them as I would love to hear them someday. Other bands in this compilation include Eden, Index and Polio. Each of them contributing two songs as well.

Of course for many the interesting part is that Iller features Per Idborg from Girlfrendo, and The Golden Boy (as well as the Kakofoni label), on vocals, guitar and bass. The other band member was Lars Mattsson on bass and tambourine. They got help from Carl-Magnus Mattsson on trumpet and Mathias Svenungson-Erestam on violin on both tracks.

It is also worth mentioning that this tape was curated by Stefan Zachrisson, who is well known by running the superb magazine Benno. He was then doing a fanzine called Gospel! and so together with Bo Stefan Lundquist who was running the label Slask, they put together this comp, named after a song by Webstrarna.

All the bands on the comp hailed from Gothenburg. Stefan wrote about this compilation and he gives us a few interesting facts about Iller. He mentions that before the compilation was put together the band had already put together demo tapes. What songs were on it? We don’t know. How many demo tapes? Don’t know. But they did get interviewed on a fanzine called “Nowhere”, on it’s sixth issue (winter 1994/spring 1995). This fanzine was made by the brothers Gelin.

Iller’s track “Innan Jag Förstår” got very good reviews on Pet Sounds and Twisterella. In Twisterella it says it should be considered a Swedish pop classic. I agree with Kristoffer Lecander, the reviewer.

Not much written about them on the web. Of course it would be great to find out if they played live or not. And most importantly find out about those demo tapes. If there are more songs. I would love to listen to them. Maybe there are enough for a compilation? Wouldn’t that be something?

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Listen
Iller – Innan Jag Förstår

Day 67. Not much news now. Just a reminder that the fanzine is out and you should all get copies. That’s it for now.

Very soon I should have more news I hope! This year is making everything slower than usual!

Finds from over the weekend:

Good Dog: Suse Bear is behind this band that will be releasing a new album on May 22nd on Lost Map Records. The album, consisting of 15 tracks, seems promising. Especially thanks the song “Floating”, one of two that we can preview at the moment. Some interesting facts about here are that she has worked with The Pastels and Tracyanne & Danny.

Jetstream Pony: Back in April I was telling everyone to check out “It’s Fine”. This was the only song available to preview out of their upcoming album. Well now there are two more that sounds amazing. They are “Trapped in Amber” and “Gone to Ground”. For sure this is looking like an album not to be missed this year, three songs that sound glorious. The album will be out on May 22nd!

eGgs: the French band will be back on June 26 with a new 7″ on Howlin’ Banana Records. On this terrific 7″, with a funny photo of a kid (maybe a band member?) dressed as a Power Ranger, there will be three songs: “Still Life”, “Life During Wartime” and “Guess What”. If you like to jangle, this is for you.

The Telephone Numbers: now a San Francisco band. Just discovered them and I am glad I did. The band has just released a 4 song guitar pop record called “Pictures of Lee”. It sounds really nice, like classic 90s American indiepop. Sadly it looks like this release is only available digitally.

The Finest Drops: and now we cross the Atlantic and head to Newcastle, UK. The Finest Drops just released their “Safe Like No Other” EP a few weeks ago and it sounds great. Four songs are included in it, “Safe Like No Other”, “Loss is Love”, “Lights” and “For Another Time”. Digital only.

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I didn’t remember but a quick search showed me that I had bought the sole 7″ single by Whipcrackaway back in 2009. 10 years later I am writing a post about them, of a 7″ that was released even before, in 1986!

To be honest I know very little about them. I know John Peel played the A side, “The Horses Tale”, as a clip from his radio show, dating from September 4th 1986, is on Youtube. But what else can we find out?

The 7″ was released on a pretty important label at the time, In Tape (IT 035).  This was Marc Riley’s label. Marc is much more known now as a BBC DJ. On this label he would release superb acts like The June Brides, Yeah Yeah Noh or Rote Kapelle.

The songs on the 7″ were “The Horses Tale” on the A side, and “Gingham Dress” and “Betrayed” on the B side. The music is quite poppy, but it definitely has a bit of what they called cow-punk at the time, some country influences. “The Horses Tale” is a fun song, with female vocals, that is catchy and all. But of course you’d think more USA than England if you didn’t know that the band hailed from the British isles.

The sleeve gives us band members and that’s always something to thank. We know on vocals were Ian Marlon Moss, Koyote Karen, Rhinestone Rhonda and Stetson Sue. On guitars there was Simon Taylor and Neil Moss. On drums we find Nick Kokotaylo. The songs were produced by The Box Team and were recorded at “Touch” in Denton and at “Box” in Heckmondwike.. A credit that I don’t understand completely is that Goldie played “Fury”. What does that mean? Other funny credits are included for example it says hair by Carl, meringues eaten by Jeff Brown, unbiased opinions by Family Abused by Stuart and Wendy.

The photo on the front sleeve is credited to Paul Keelagher.

“The Horses’ Tale” would also appear on a compilation album called “Just A Mish Mash” that In Tape (IT 47) released in 1987. This release even had a US version.

Then I stumble onto some important information on the German Shepherd Records Bandcamp. There is a release uploaded for a band called The Bears from Belle Vue Zoo. The interesting thing is that Ian Moss, guitar player in Whipcrackaway, had been in this band. It mentions that before The Bears from Belle Vue Zoo, he had been in a band called The DoDos. And after, he was in the band Oochikomis. After the Oochikomis he went to lead the band Whipcrackaway. After the demise of Whipcrackaway he wasn’t involved with music until he released a record in 1993 with the Stepbrothers, also on the German Shepherd Records. It looks, after checking all of these three releases on Bandcamp that he was based in the Salford area, close to Manchester.

Interesting enough, I would find that actually Ian Moss is the co-owner of German Shepherd Records. It is no surprise then that there are other releases here that feature him like the ones by Ian and Neil Moss or  Ian Moss and Talented Friends. But what about the other members of Whipcrackaway? Were they involved in any of the bands he has put out?

But there’s more. There’s a book by Stephen Dobson called “The Man Who Killed the Hamsters – a biography of Ian Moss” that was published in 2012. Here it tells us that the song was called not “The Horses Tale” but “The Horses Tail”! You can read how the contact between Ian and Marc Riley happened, and how the girls, Sue, Rhonda and Karen convinced Ian to be part of the band. It seems it was originally recorded as demo, and it was the re-recorded, but they still used the demo version for the single. The newly recorded track would end up in the compilation I talked about earlier. The other songs, the ones recorded at Hekmanwike had the help of Bill Clarke, who played for the George Hamilton IV band. We also learn that it was the three girls who wrote “Gingham Dress”. It does look though that the recording was a bit of a disaster and things didn’t get better, so the band ended up splitting soon enough.

Quite interesting!j

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Listen
Whipcrackaway – The Horse’s Tale

Day 64. How is everyone holding?

Weekend again. Halfway through May. Days start to go fast.

New finds here:

The Beths: the superb New Zealand band is releasing a new album very soon. It will be called “Jump Rope Gazer” and will be out on July 10 on Carpark Records. This is not all, the band has put together a video for the song “I’m Not Getting Excited” that sounds and looks great! Definitely we can’t miss this one!

Chavales: the latest on Elefant is a digital single by this duo formed by Daniel Rodriguez from Mallorca and Javier Paredes from Extremadura. Influenced by La Mode, Estación Victoria and The Human League this new song is terribly catchy, makes me think the label wants to continue placing their music on all the Spanish Netflix series. I wouldn’t be surprised if this song “Ey, Que Estoy Aquí” happens to follow that route!

The Wolfhounds: “Electric Music” is the name of the new album the legendary band will be releasing on July 3rd on the very fine A Turntable Friend Records. The album will be available on LP and CD and will have 9 songs total. Right now we can preview the first track on Bandcamp. It is called “Can’t See the Light”.

Ballboy: another classic band. The Edinburgh based band  has been publishing some live sets during the time of Pandemic. I am not sure when where these recorded but this new live set includes the songs “Godzilla vs. the Island of Manhattan (With You and I Somewhere in-between)”, “Olympic Cyclist” and “Oh Lord”.

Flannel: my friend Tomohiro has remastered two of his songs, “Little” and “At Least I” and they are now on Bandcamp. These are timeless songs, beautifully crafted pop. Dreamy and sweet. It is always a good time to rediscover him!

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The Office from Belgium. First time I’ve heard them. Stumbled upon them on Youtube and thought the song “That Girl Too” sounded cool. But who were they? Did they release more records? I honestly don’t know. Need to do some research.

Then I stumbled upon more songs, “Your Loving” and “Liverpool”. Actually “Your Loving” might be my favourite one! Wow! What a track! I really need to find more.

It turns out these two last songs, “Your Loving” and “Liverpool” were  A and B sides respectively on a 7″ released in 1986 by Colour Records (CR 615). This was actually the first record the band put out. What a sound really! Definitely influenced by, no surprise, the Liverpool pop scene of the time.

The 2nd 7″ was the one with “That Girl Too” on the A side and “Girl Scouts” on the flipside. This record came out in 1988 again on Colour Records (CR 804). This label put out a bunch of records mostly in the 80s. It was founded by Marc van Beveren in the city of Gent. Did the band hailed from there as well?

The 7″ had some etchings on runout according to Discogs. The A side said “Enjoy it – The Office” while the B side said “The Hit?……..”. Happily this 7″ has scans of the sleeve on Discogs and I notice that on the back sleeve there are a bunch of brands that sponsored the release! Even big names like FIAT! Other ones were Cafe Barfly, Atlas Reizen, Piet Lair, AnHyp, LP Center, RAF and Bossuyt. I suppose all of these were local businesses. And these businesses were based in Waregem, not in Gent. So, does it make more sense for them to be from Waregem? I would think so!

Then on the labels I finally find a name, that of Frédéric Maenhout! Interestingly enough he would later be part of a band called The Candy Dates who I’ve been meaning to write about! Small world! But what other band members were in The Office?

The band appeared on four compilations too. The first dates from 1987, an LP compilation called “The 2nd Belgian 6T’s Boom Vol. 1” where they appear with the track “Your Loving”. This release came out on Waterloo Sunset Records (WSR004) and 007 Records. That same year this same song would appear on the LP comp “From Behind the Bushes” released by Mad Colour Record (MCR 001). It seems this release was actually a co-release of their label, Colour Records, and the magazine Mad in Belgium. It makes sense.

Lastly their track “The Daze” appeared on the LP compilation “The Belgian Garagemania Vol. 3” in 1988. This LP was released by Boom! Records (Boom 3). and Waterloo Sunset Records (RUSS 106).

In 2008 the Belgian label Coincidence Records put a band called The Office on a digital compilation called “2 Years of Coincidences” with the track “Ultimatum”. I am not 100% sure if it is the same band. So I will need some confirmation. Other bands in this comp are techno and electronic bands. And the years don’t match. Who would know?

As you can expect not much more info about the band. So I really hope someone can answer all my questions!

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Listen
The Office – Your Loving

Day 62. Last batch of orders I could mail were sent. Still at home orders for Spain, Germany and Japan waiting. I will try next week, see if the postal service has resumed service to these countries.

In the meantime, there are a bunch of great releases out there now:

C19: our friend Joel in Peru has just put together a new digital compilation under the Impermeable Records name. This compilation is titled “C19”. It is an interesting name, right? It is 2020 now. But yeah, these are all songs recorded in 2019, and I must say this is a very careful and thoughtful compilation. The songs have been cherry-picked and you can see it as it includes amazing bands like Astral Brain, Dayflower, Nah…, The Umbrella Puzzles and more! 22 songs in total and artwork by the great Casio Van Doesburg!

Los Monocromos: two songs recorded during the shelter in place in Chile, “Un Lugar” and “Hace Tiempo”, that is how Matías Valmore presents his new project. The sound of DIY, of bedroom pop with poppy guitars, are what makes this a charming digital single.

Eterna Joventut: the debut song (!) for this Barcelona duo formed by Júlia and Asier is called “Vuelve Junto a Mí”. It is a sweet short song (under 3 minutes) with jangly guitars and female/male vocals! From what I see this is the first song they have been recording during the pandemic, so we should keep an eye on them, probably there will be more soon!

Apple Orchard: are our friends Ryan and Dale back? It looks that way! “A Slow Dissolve” was just recorded during the past few weeks! How cool is that. Sporting a cool artwork, this new digital single sounds excellent. It is noisy, poppy, and just so good! Are they preparing a release? I really hope so!

Dan Dan Dero: the Lima band is back with a new video for their brand new song “La Camiseta de James Rodriguez”. It is a great song, catchy and fun. But I must say that it causes me some problems! I really don’t think highly of James Rodriguez. He is terribly overrated in my book! Well, all Colombian players are overrated these days, they always choke at important matches. The last great Colombian for me was Iván Ramiro Córdoba. Not that you care, you came to read about indiepop and not football. But I am passionate about football too. So nevermind me. This song is GREAT and the video is FUN!

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I have had the intention of writing about the Autumn Parade for a long time. Finally I will do it. It is hard to plan ahead for these things to be honest. I just write and write about bands and I leave drafts ready or almost ready to publish. Then I revisit them when it is time to publish. Sometimes on a post I’d say “a few weeks ago”, but then when publishing three months have passed. It is funny.

The Autumn Parade didn’t leave us any records. No releases. But they did leave at least two songs recorded and published in a compilation called “Expo 1” that was released both in vinyl and CD in 1991 by the label Beachwood Music (EXPO1). These songs were “White Sand” and “Julia Blue”.

This record was compiled by Colin Simmons and Tim Millington. And I am thinking all tracks were recorded for this compilation. Why? Because there is one producer, Chris Nagle, for the record. Though ok, there are many engineers, Alastair McMillan, Dave Drennan, Huw David Price, Paul Tipler and Richard Scott. The photography on the sleeve is credited to Sheena Land.

Then in the credits it mentions that the songs were recorded at different places, like Blackwing in London, Strawberry in Stockport and Homestead in County Antrim. Where then did Autumn Parade recorded their songs? I think Stockport. There is a small bio on Last.fm that mentions that they hailed from there and were around 1988 to 1992.

Shelflife Records wrote about them many years ago, in 2009. That’s how I heard about them for the first time. It was a cool time, there were many good blogs discovering lost gems. Shelflife shared a Myspace page for Autumn Parade, and there were two more songs, “Skylight” and “Phased”. It also mentions that the band had an album to be released called “Indian Summer”.

We also know the names of the band members:
John Hamlin – vocals, songwriter and guitar
Phil Pearson – keyboards and backing vocals
Rob Bennet – bass
Ben Power – drums

It mentions that indeed two songs were recorded at Strawberry Studios but also two other were recorded at Amazon Studios in Liverpool. We find out too that the band toured a lot and got some demo budgets from labels like Phonogram and Siren but nothing came to fruition. Then in 1991 the American label Atlantic Records showed interest but again, nothing happened in the end. What a shame really!

I keep looking for more info and I find that at some point John Hamlin was making music with Emmy McIntyre and released two with Invisible Girl Records.

Not much more information sadly, but this is good stuff right? Now I do hope someday we get to listen to more of the songs that were recorded for “Indian Summer”. And also of course, I do hope to interview them sometime and find out the story behind the band!

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Listen
Autumn Parade – Julia Blue

Day 60. Tomorrow have to go again to the post office. That’s all the news I have. Now it is 2 months since I started sheltering in place.  As many of you I’ve been playing Animal Crossing a lot these past weeks. Want to be friends? Maybe that way I can get some people to comment on the blog! It’s been a bit quiet!

New music from Bandcamp, found this weekend.

The Honeydrips: Our friend Mikael is back with a new fantastic track called “Here Comes the Sun #1″! The ex-Dorotea, and also half of Salt Lake Alley (who have a 7” on Cloudberry, don’t miss that one!) has made a name under The Honeydrips, already a classic band when you think of Swedish indiepop, with so many indiepop hits in their hand. This song is no exception to that. Terrific!

Did You Die: from Victoria, Canada. The capital of British Columbia. I visited once. So nice. How I miss traveling. The band’s latest is a digital single, just the one song, called “Shine So Real”. You’ll find nose, and jangly guitars buried in it, and what’s kind of interesting too, is that the song was recorded in an airplane hangar.

Glaswen: more shoegaze sounds, now from Russia. Noisier than the previous band, their latest track is called “Definition”. It seems that during the pandemic shoegaze music is much easier for me to find than canonical indiepop. It is an interesting trend.

Blume: now another shoegaze band, but on the other side of the spectrum, not the noisy but the fragile and dreamy. This project by Arthur Bennell from Edmonton, Canada, has released a new EP called “Take your Time” with 4 songs. They was all recorded by Arthur in hos own computer.

Star-Crossed Lovers: last shoegaze sounds for today. The debut EP from this California cambo! It is self-titled and has 5 songs. It is also on the dreamy sound, with jangly guitars. I think a bit of Secret Shine when listening to this. That’s a good thing, right?

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This is definitely a blast from the past. I was going down memory lane and remembered those days of Myspace, when we befriended bands and musicians and listened to their tracks easily. I remember discovering so many bands then. All sorts. Old and new. And from all over the world. I always say that if there hadn’t been that social platform, Cloudberry would have been a total different thing. Who knows, maybe it wouldn’t have existed.

One of the bands I discovered there was the Swedish Lucky Lucky Pigeons. I really liked their catchy tunes. They were fun and they had a special punk attitude to them. I was a fan. I think I wrote them at some point. I can’t remember tho. It was before Cloudberry. Maybe I wanted to do something with them on Plastilina Records? Maybe not. Maybe I dreamed that. I do know, that I found some of the members if not all on Last.fm. I was friends with them there. Those were the days when you added people and it didn’t feel weird. Or maybe it is like that still and I’ve become old and have strange ideas. Who knows. The fact being, I was a fan.

Today I can’t remember much about them. I didn’t get round getting a copy of their demo CDR that they self-released as the “Happy Birds Day EP” in 2006 and that was later re-released by Freedom Road Records (FR009). It had three terrific songs on it, mind you. Not surprising the UK label ran by Russell Barker re-released them also on CDR. These songs were “Who Smells Marshmallows?”, “Lucky Song” and “N to the Ice”.

The band was formed by Hanna Olsson on guitar and backing vocals, Elin Pärsson on keyboards and backing vocals and Amna Maksumic on vocals and tambourine. Artee 123 is credited for drums and bass on the CDR. That was a drum machine.

Happily the band had more songs. I know that the track “Red Santa” was included in the Cherryade compilation “A Very Cherry Christmas 2” (CHY 006) in 2006. And then their terrific track, “Keep On, Kingie!” was included in the CDR comp “Club King Kong: Med Musiken I Mitten Vol. 2 Säsongen 06-07” released by Donkeyboys Recordings  (DNKYBYS002). This was a compilation that was put out by Club King Kong, a cool indiepop night from Stockholm.

Other songs by the band were “Knife for Life”, “No Lips on Locos” and “Make Money Money”, which I believe were intended for a second EP titled “Bird Flu”. Was that ever released? It looks as if it is available in digital formats and include some remixes for “Who Smells Marshmallows?”. There are the following remixes for this track, “TIAC remix”, “Lucky Misu remix”, “Compute remix” and “Jmyhaze Beatbox remix)”.

Something that we can’t forget is that there was a video for “Keep on Kingie” that of course you need to check out! This video was made by Amna Maksumic and Linnea Rutz. This same account, which probably belongs to a member, has some live videos of the band playing in the city of Gävle. This first video have the band playing “N to the Ice” and “Red Santa”.  The second video has “Make Money Money”, “Who Smells Marshmallows?” and “No Lips on Locos”, while a third video has “Keep on Kingie” and “Knife for Life”. There is also a collage of photos on video with the title “2005-2008“. I am guessing those are the years the band existed.

Then I find an article on Dala-Demokraten, and this tells me that the band was formed in Dalarna, in Borlänge precisely. They were teenagers then and attended the Kristinegymnasiet school. They mention that they weren’t really accepted in Falun, as they were making lovely indiepop and the city was more into hard rock. I learn too that they played the Seaside Festival in Falun in 2008.

There are a few blog posts about them, like on well remembers blogs like Unpopular or Skatterbrain, though aside from praising the band (well deserved of course) don’t add any details about them. I am curious for example if the band members ended up playing in other bands. Who’d know?

Another article, on DT.se, tells that the band’s first gig was at the Christmas party at Forssaklackskolans. They band also played Emmaboda Festival and the Lund club Phone Me. Here are more details too, for example Hanna hails from Falun, Amna from Borlänge and Elin from Gagnef. All are the same age. They were in the humanities program in the Kristinegymnasiet. They were fans of The Radio Dept. and the Magnetic Fields. The band name comes from an inner joke, they translated “turturduvor” (lovebirds) into Lucky Lucky Pigeons!

But I still look forthem and find out that Amna Maksumic works in the film industry. She worked for example as a production manager on the movie Midsommar. She also was project manager of the TV series “Älska mig”. She even acted on a short called “Half Brother”.

The other band members are harder to track. Still this has helped me remember them, remember those days of Myspace when indiepop was once again exciting. I hope you also enjoyed this trip down memory lane and if you remember anything else, about the band, please leave a comment! Would love to know if they had more songs, or if they had been involved in any other projects!

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Listen
Lucky Lucky Pigeons – Keep On Kingie