Day 325.

I said I was going to share the Bandcamp for the new Verandan release, so here it is. Enjoy, and order the record of course!!

La Merienda: La Merienda is a great pop radio show from Extremadura, Spain. Agustín, who is behind the show, has put together a compilation of different intros for the show that many pop bands have recorded through the years including Cariño, Guatafan, Cristina Quesada and Marcos y Molduras among others.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: Slumberland announced the album “Uncommon Weather” by their neighbours (both label and band based in the Bay Area) and seems to be doing well! It will be released on April 9th, and the limited version of the release that includes a 7″ single and photo zine is already sold out. But don’t despair, the CD and regular vinyl versions are available. There are 13 songs in the album and the opening track, “Don’t Ever Pray in the Church of My Street” is available to preview.

Fine.: one of my favourite bands from the last months is this Boston, UK, combo formed by James Marsh and Alice Kat. It is jangly, upbeat, with great vocal melodies. I find it perfect. Great band and it seems they are working on an album. That’s very good news. I’d buy that album for sure. A 7″ would be nice wouldn’t it?

Telepathic Traffic: just discovered this Los Angeles dreampop band thanks to their cover of The Specials song “You’re Wondering Now”. It is an interesting twist. The band is formed by Harris Pittman, just him.

No Suits in Miami: before 2020 ended the great Lund, Sweden, band released “I’ll Never Lie Again (Just to Get a Synth from You)”. The band, who I have featured a few times, makes wonderful pop music, with classy arrangements and lovely melodies. Listening to this song of course I feel like I need a physical record of theirs… they don’t exist sadly, just a tape from back in 2018…

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So a few weeks ago I created an Instagram account to post photos of my records. Yeah, I know, not very original, but it is fun for me. There are so many good records I have that a little promotion doesn’t hurt anyone. And maybe I get to learn some stories people will share. Who knows.

Actually when I posted a photo of Oh Sweet Music!’s CDR (their one and only) that was released in 2004 by the great Smashing Time (SMT008), a few friends commented. One of them telling me he would pay good money for a copy of it! Another telling me he has been looking for it for ages with no luck. I wouldn’t have known!

You see, I was lucky. I got a copy of this CDR thanks to the great Martin Cannert from The Javelins/The Faintest Ideas, last time I met with him in Gothenburg. That was really great of course. Those days, traveling, having fun, new cities, seeing friends. He gave me a bunch of CDRs from the 2000s, a time where indiepop seemed to reign supreme in Sweden. A time that I tried to capture in a compilation called The Sound of Starke Adolf. I planned to do more volumes of these series of compilations, but it turned out a bit more difficult when trying to put together the 2nd volume, the bands seemed so uninterested that it was hard to get tracks and the CD booklet together. You know, you need photo and bio of a band for a proper release of this kind.

I don’t think I reached to Oh Sweet Music! then. I had this very long list of bands I had to contact, enough bands for 5 or 6 volumes. They were on that list of course.

So going back to this CD, we know that there were five songs on it, “Let’s Go to War”, “Reconsider Peace”, “Long Time Since Bedtime”, “The Astronaut” and “You Can’t Hug Your Children With Nuclear Arms Pt II”. The CDR came in a plastic sleeve. Taped to the sleeve was the tracklist and written down the URL to a website which doesn’t exist anymore.. And there was also a cloth sleeve, single sided, with the name of the band.

The band did appear on two compilations later on, so we know they had more songs. There are four songs by the band on the 2007 “Series Two Compilation Vol. 1” CDR that were “For Long Years”, “Song to Iraq”, “My Trip to Asia” and “Long Time Since Bedtime”. The year after on the “Series Two Compilation Vol. 12” they had just one song, “Oh, Daniel” which I believe was a Tafra cover.

On Last.fm it seems there were more songs by the band like “Oh Sweet Christmas!”, “I Can Win it Back”, “Poor Man’s Heaven”, “I’ve Lost Track of the World”, “(Fly Away For) Christmas”, “Berlin”, “Winter in Stockholm” and “Midsummer”

Sadly there’s not much more info on the web. I did find something interesting, I think Oh Sweet Music! performed in Buenos Aires in 2011. There’s a video of Oh Sweet Music! performing “Long Time Since Bedtime” at Zorzal-Mané in San Telmo, Buenos Aires. The light on the video is quite dark, so it is hard to see. But still, it is quite a treasure to find!

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Listen
Oh Sweet Music! – Let’s Go to War

Day 323. Today can finally share the Verandan new single, “Hideaway”, which will be the A side of the forthcoming 7″ by the great Finnish band. It will be released on Cloudberry of course, next month, on physical format. Wish it had been ready by now, but there are delays (no surprise there… grrr) with the pressing plant. Anyhow, pre-order button is up on the website and later today the Bandcamp page with this release will be up and running. Right now you can preview it on Soundcloud if you like! So yeah, very exc ited!! But can’t wait to receive the records, I’ll be more excited then ha ha!

Detective Larsson: Amanda Larsson has recorded a very nice EP called “21” which has 3 songs. The first one is the only original in the EP (the other two are covers of Dean Martin and Marianne Faithfull). This first track, called “21 (Dreamt of Freedom)” is really nice and haunting! One thing that takes it to another level are the superb and brilliant guitar arrangements by a friend of mine, Miguel Navarro, who used to be the jangle master in The Felt Tips.

Rachel Love: Rachel of Dolly Mixture, indeed! Here is a new song she has recorded called “Primrose Hill” which is utterly beautiful! Wow. Will this be released in some way soon? I would like that. There is the hint that she is signed to a record label called Cowchow Records, so might that mean we’ll see a proper physical release in the near future?

Lentillas de Colores: Cristina León and Dado (ex-Juniper Moon) from the city of León (I visited this city a year and a half ago and really liked it!), in Spain, are Lentillas de Colores. They have released not too long ago a 7″ vinyl with 4 songs called “Arrancacorazones”. They’ve recorded many demos before but this is their first proper EP release. It is really lovely, with fun melodies and lyrics.

Botanic Garden zine: this Shanghai fanzine is really good, even though I don’t understand Chinese. I have a few issues and you can tell it is done with love. In their latest number, #4, they interview the band All Romantic Days, which you can check their song “In Your Court”, if you follow the link. There’s also essays by BoringProductions’ Jovi and more.

Diaphane: I am not a big fan of instrumentals as you might know but this “Demo EP” from 1993 by ex-Les Autres’ Jimmy Arfosea is pretty good. You can listen luminous and chiming guitars on the 4 songs that make up this EP.

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Another band I’ve discovered recently through the WokingSoundscene Soundcloud is Eat the Sofa. What a curious name, right?

The song they shared is called “Love of My Life” and this song actually was included in a tape compilation from 1996 called “The Best of Farnborough Groove in the World – Ever! (Volume 6)”. Many of the bands that are featured on the Soundcloud have been part of these compilation series I’ve noticed.

The good thing with the people behind the Soundcloud and also the Facebook page is that they share a lot of interesting details which make my life easier when featuring the bands. For example we know that the band released two CD albums, “So Far So Good” and “Absolute Pondlife”. Neither of the two are on Discogs so I need to track them down in a different way.

One thing that is for sure is that the band played at the Guildford Folk & Blues Festival in Stoke Park, in Guidlford, in 1994. They also polayed alongside Vox Pop and Manfred Mann at the Guildford Civic Hall. I guess we can say that the band hailed from Guildford? Is that a good assumption?

The band was formed by Allen Broad, Jamie Legg, Dee Coley and another member whose name is still a mystery (!). May it be Duncan Siggers? The band was formed in 1994 and lasted until 1999. There were lineup changes of course. Allen Broad fronted the band until 1999 when he relocated to Amsterdam. We also know that Coley started as the drummer but moved to play bass when Legg joined.

In 2004 the band reunited and played a gig at the Holloway Hill Sports Club  in Godalming supported by Graham Firth. In 2006 they were still gigging, there was at least one gig in December of that year at The Sun, in Godalming, where they got support by The Two Deceivers and Sigg & Si.

Another gig we know of is the ones are from Friday January 14, 1994, at The Cricketers in Woking and from Saturday January 15, 1994, at The Parrot in Slyfield.

I’ve also seen at least a demo tape of the band called “So Far So Good”. Maybe that was the album? Maybe it wasn’t released as a tape?

Another thing I found is that Coley joined the band The Blazing Homesteads after Eat the Sofa split up.

And then I find a Facebook page for the band! Well actually, it is more of a Allan Broad page and his latest music. But there are some links to videos and songs by Eat the Sofa, so that’s good. I am just looking for information about the albums! And I finally do. I find the tracklist, but not yet how or who released them. So…

“So Far So Good” had ten songs, “Will You Ever Come Home”, “Now I Know Where I Am Going”, “It’s So Easy”, “You Can Come Along”, “Set Me Free”, “Searchin’ On a Monday”, “Aborigine Call / Getting Away from it All”, “Dry Your Eyes”, “Mailman” and “Here’s Looking at You”.

“Absolute Pondlife” on the other hand had 12 songs! They were “Behind the Bushes”, “To Keep You Here”, “Love’s Unkind”, “You Took it all Away”, “Midnight Train”, “Make it On Our Own”, “I Was for the Summertime”, “Hang Around a While”, “Out with the Girls”, “If it Takes Us All Night”, “Memory Coloured Gold” and “A.P.L.”.

There are more songs. There was a session called The Summer Sessions where the band recorded 9 songs. These were “I Love My Life”, “The Sunshine”, “Me Disease”, “Monsoon”, “If It Takes Us All Night”, “I Love My Life”, “Monsoon” and “I Was for the Summertime”. These seem to date from 1996.

Then I saw a tape from 1993 that seems to have more songs by the band. Not sure if these songs were released in any way, but they were called “It’s So Easy”, “Moon in Your Eyes”, “Will You Ever Come Home”, “Take a Little Look”, “Searchin’ on a Monday”, “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness”, “Young to Run”, “Sally”, “Now I Know Where I’m Going”, “Run Together”, “Mailman”, “English Boy (Miles Away from Home)”, “Me + Julio Down by the School Yard”, “Set Me Free”, :”Here’s Looking at You”, “You Can Come Along”, “Dry Your Eyes” and “Pleasant Valley Sunday”.

Then on Youtube there’s a video of the band playing in April 1994 at the Guildford Lions! Cool!

More details. Before Eat the Sofa, Allan, Duncan and Dee were recording as The Hometown Boys. I should check them out.

And that’s it. I couldn’t find any info about the albums. They are on all digital platforms though. But you know, I like the physical format!

Who remembers this band?

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Listen
Eat the Sofa – Love My Life

Day 321.

Motorama: the most well-known Russian pop band is back with a new video for their song “Pole Star”. It is a gorgeous song, beautiful and haunting. The video’s vibe accompanies it perfectly. I dream of one day seeing them live. I doubt they’ll come to the US, so who knows…

The Young Untold: nice to stumble upon Baltimore’s The Young Untold on Bandcamp. Yeah, these recordings are not new, they date from 2008-2011. It is great crash-pop in the same being as The Faintest Ideas (who they toured with). Would be cool to do an interview sometime I think! Discover them if you don’t know them yet!

Still Dreams: two new songs by this Japanese duo are now a digital single on Elefant Records. The songs are “Live with Excuse” and “Telepathy”, both streaming on the label’s Bandcamp. Very lovely upbeat dreampop here by the duo formed by Ryuta and Maaya!

Axolotes Mexicanos: and there’s more from Elefant Records with a new song from this favourite band of mine. The song is called “Que te Pires” and there’s even a fun video for it! This song should be included in the upcoming album that will be released this year!

Aiko el Grupo: And lastly, on this quick review of Elefant Records we find the song “Amigos para Nunca (Confía y te la Lían)” by Aiko el Grupo. The song is only available digitally and has a cool video as well. Good start for the Madrid label this year.

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Time to fly to Sweden and check a very underrated band from the second part of the noughties, the Utah Rangers.

I was looking into my CD collection, especially those that came in a plastic sleeve, as those are harder to look at, as there is no spine. And of course, you guessed right, a Utah Rangers CD showed up. The only one of theirs that I own actually. Also the only one that came out on a label, their other releases were self-released. But I want to go in chronological order through their discography. So let’s do that.

The band was part of the explosion of CDr bands. Also of the explosion of Myspace bands. It was a great time for indiepop. Sweden was providing us amazing bedroom pop, lo-fi, upbeat songs. Utah Rangers was no exception.

They were a duo formed by Emil and Kristoffer. They play all the instruments in their songs including guitar, drums and synths. I am not sure where from Sweden they hailed from, but hopefully by the end of the post I’ll find out. One thing that is problematic is that there seems to be a soccer team from Utah called Utah Rangers FC. It was established back in 1982. I wonder if the band named after this club. Googling the band and filtering it not to show the soccer club is quite tricky.

Anyhow, one thing I do know is that the band started recording songs in 2006. But on Discogs the first release dates from 2007. It was a CDr called “The Golden Winter Tape” and included the songs “Far Side Galaxy”, “When the Snow Closed Down the Parks”, “Theme Song” and “You Will Be There, Outside My Window”. That same year the band released another CDr EP called “Breaking Your Heart Takes Training” which included the songs “Bad Day for a Bad Hair Day”, “March”, “Winter Suits” and “Let’s Sleep Now”. Both of these releases seem hard to track down now. I do hope to find these songs to listen.

In 2008 the band released another CDr EP. Again, all of these three releases I’ve mentioned were self-released. This one from 2008 was also self-titled and had 6 songs, “And You Will Know Us by the Eagle Slope”, “Bandit in a Box”, “Aquarium Bike Tour”, “Minor Estate”, “Sally” and “Pnts”.

The CDr I own was called “Old Statistics” and was released by the French label Anorak Records (anorakcd8). This EP actually was sort of a compilation of previously recorded songs. It included 5 of them and on the back of the sleeve it mentions who wrote the song and what year it was recorded. So, “Cracking up My Heart” was written by Emil and recorded in 2006, “Theme Song” was written by Kristoffer and recorded in 2007, “March” was written by Emil and recorded in 2007, “You and Me in a Rented Car, Two Small Bags and a Plastic Guitar” was written by Emil and recorded in 2006 and “Far Side Gallery” which was written by Emil and recorded in 2007.

Another cool thing is that they give song scores to each of the songs, ranging from Cool! all the way to Awesome!

The band also contributed songs to three compilations. The first one dates from 2007 and it was on the compilation “Club King Kong: Med Musiken i Mitten Vol. 2 Säsongen 06-07” released by Donkeyboys Records (DNKYBYS002). This CDR compiled by Mikael Andersson of course was put together for the Stockholm indie pop club night Club King Kong. The song the band contributed was called “Nick Krill”. That same year the band would contribute the song “You and Me in a Rented Car, Two Small Bags and a Plastic Guitar” to the CD comp “Souvenir Desde Umea” that was put together by the Spanish label Fikasound (FIKA001).

Lastly in 2009 there was a compilation called “SvenneCompilation #01” which included their song “Theme Song”. It is the first time I hear about this compilation, but looking at the playlist it looks great! This was put together in Vienna, Austria, fro the indiepop night Svennedisko. I had no clue there had been an indiepop night in Vienna!

The band also had a Myspace of course and there we see there was at least another song that wasn’t included in the releases, it was called “Manor Estate”.

What else can we find about them on the web? Well we know the band played the legendary Emmaboda Festival in 2007. They also played the New England Popfest in 2008 in Northampton, Massachusetts. Other gigs I found were at the Kafé De Luxe on November 9th, 2005, and on September 27, 2006, alongside the Salty Pirates. The Kafé de Luxe is a venue in Växjö. Did the band hail from there?

Not much more info on the web. I wonder if either Emil or Kristoffer were involved in any other bands. If there are more songs. It’d be great to know. What I’ve heard sounds great. But yeah, very little info. We need more info!

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Listen
Utah Rangers – Aquarium Bike Tour

Day 318

Crabber: the German band that features ex-members of classic bands like Kristallin or Dr. König Arthus is back with a new song called “A Kind of Tragic”! The band, who in the past released a superb album called “Bluesbusters” on our friend Chris’ label Jigsaw Records, is preparing a mew album where they will include this new track. That’s a great thing! Fun, fast-paced guitar pop, packed with good hooks, not many bands sounding like this these days.

93millionmilesfromthesun: this Doncaster band have put together a collection of cover songs they’ve done through the years. No obscure bands are covered but favourite bands like Slowdive, Lush, JAMC, The Stone Roses and Primal Scream are!

The Raft: the new release from Phil Wilson’s The Raft, many times recommended in the blog, is an album called “Summerheads and Winter Beds”. Sadly it seems his limited edition CD is already sold out at the label, Shore Drive Records. The 13 songs are available to stream and listen on Bandcamp, and I’m thankful for that!

Echo Lake: the London band is making an appearance on Bandcamp, adding now two songs from 2011, “Another Day” and “Breathe Deep”. My memory is not the best and I don’t think I heard these songs back then. So I am sharing them now as they sound nice to me.

Motion Picture: another band that is now on Bandcamp is the late 90s Minneapolis band Motion Picture. There are three releases up now, “Every Last Romance”, “For a Distant Movie Star” and “A Paper Gift”. What to expect? Well beautiful chamber pop reminiscent of B&S. Would be great to do an interview at some point.

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When it comes to Irish pop music the best resource, without a doubt, is The Fanning Sessons Archive blog. I have discovered so many great bands there and The Dry Season is the latest! Their 1990 demo is uploaded in its entirety in the blog so, if you want to check it out do it now!

So why do I post something that’s already been posted. I guess just because it may give us more chances to connect with the band and learn more. Also some readers of my blog don’t know that other blog and viceversa. So it is not a bad idea, right?

This demo we are talking about included four songs, “Dominion”, “Through Your Eyes”, “Jason” and “The World Inside Your Mind”. They are terrific, especially “Through Your Eyes”. What is interesting too is that the band recorded a Dave Fanning Session in March 1990. What songs were recorded for this session? The same ones? We hope someday we’ll find out.

The other bit of information that is important is the lineup. We know the band was formed by Paul Gaffney on guitar and vocals, Paul Harper on bass, Gavan Duffy on drums and vocals and John Cantillon on hammond organ and guitar.

Do we know where in Ireland where they from? Yes, that too, from Dublin.

Other info I could gather from the web was that Paul Gaffney and Paul Harper had been in the band The Cracker Factory in the mid 80s. Haven’t heard this band, were they a pop band as well?

And that’s it. I guess that’s the only other detail that is not on the Fanning Sessions blog, It is something, but not much. I hope we find more info about them!

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Listen
The Dry Season – Through Your Eyes

Day 316.

The Jasmine Minks: their John Peel Session from February 17, 1986 as well as their Janice Long session from November 24, 1986, are being released on vinyl by Precious Recordings from London. One thing that is very cool is that there is a combo for 25 pounds where you can get both releases and will also include all the postcards. On the label’s Bandcamp there is two songs to preview, “The Ballad of Johnny Eye” (from the Peel Session) and “Follow Me Away” (from the Janice Long Session), and as expected they are great. Pre-orders are available now (I am a bit skint now! but hopefully will order next week).

BMX Bandits: again on the same label, Precious Recordings, two more vinyl releases, two sessions as well! This time they are two Janice Long sessions. One dates from June 23, 1986, while the other from April 9, 1987. Again there is a 25 pound package for both records. So yeah, we need to save 50 pounds. Plus postage! Ah, and yes, these all are double 7″ vinyl releases.

The Earthmen: the album “Periscope” has just been released on CD by the Australian label Sound as Ever. This “lost” album comes with 12 songs, recorded in 1995 with Wayne Connolly as an intended release on Summershine Records. Then of course Warner came and took the band under their wing. Some of these songs would end up on some B sides, but most of it remained unreleased until now! This is another reason why I am skint and saving. The CD is 20 Aussie dollars, but then the postage is another 22 Aussie dollars. And the other releases from the label I already have, so no chance to combine postage here. Tough luck. I want to wait until the label releases something new, but who knows when that will be… and if this release will sell out. I am having a difficult time with buying records these days.

The Autumn Leaves: always loved the Autumn Leaves from Minneapolis! So it is amazing to see this 90s band appear on Bandcamp. Their album “Treats and Treasures” is a US jangle pop classic. But I am most curious about this other 9 song album that they have on there called “The Twilight Hours of the Autumn Leaves”. There is no information about this release, other that it came out in early 2002. Would be great if we get in touch and do an interview, right? That’d be cool!

The Boy Who Paints Rainbows (A Colourful Tribute to Television Personalities): a cool tribute to the TVPs is out now on tape thanks to the label Jour de Pluie Records from Villefranche de Rouergue, France. There are 26 songs in total. Yeah, a lot! It has bands from many many different countries, including the US, Japan, Germany, France, Australia, Belgium, the UK… and has some bands that are favourites of mine like Red Go-Cart or The Catherines.

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With discoveries like this one can only want a compilation of obscure jangle Australian pop bands from the late 80s, early 90s. There are some great songs by God Nose from Australia.

On a Bandcamp page by House of Garthwater there are three releases from this band dating from the early 90s. I don’t see the band on Discogs, so we’ll have to base our research here first. Let’s see what we find out.

The first release was a cassette demo tape from 1991 titled “Antiquitapes c. 1991“. The songs on it were “Cryptic Song”, “Can’t Take it Anymore”, “Everything I Do”, “Sweet Sour Wine” and “Amnesty”. The only info on the page mentions that the band hailed from Sydney, that the songwriter was only 18 at the time, and that it got a review by Stuart Coupe on “On the Street” on February of 1992.

The year after this release, same year as the review, 1992, the band released another tape called “Antiquitapes c. 1992“. This 2nd cassette demo included 6 songs, “Mirrorman”, “Lacquer my Love”, “Lost My Pride”, “Dead Cat in Villawood”, “Don’t Think” and “Anyone But Me”. Here it mentions that the band was a 3-piece. What are their names? We don’t know yet. Maybe we’ll find. We do know that this year some of the songs were featured on radio shows.

The last release is the “Antiquitapest” recordings. These are two songs, “Cryptic Songs” and “Mirrorman”, dating from 1993. These were recorded at Tim Farriss’ (INXS) project studio with programmed drums. Thanks to these recordings the band would get airplay on 2JJJ radio.

And that’s really it. I couldn’t find any other details about the band. There are some great jangly songs in their repertoire, so I hope we find more details about them soon. One thing that might be interesting is that the band’s name may be inspired on the American comic book “God Nose” that was produced in 1964 by Jack “Jaxon” Jackson that is considered one of the first underground comics.

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Listen
God Nose – Lost My Pride

Day 314.

Submotile: based in Dublin, we find this shoegaze Italian-Irish duo. Their latest song is the cracking “Exit Cracks” which was released a few days ago as a digital single. The band has more songs in their Bandcamp and I look forward to discover them.

Spunsugar: the Malmö band is back with a new song called “(You Never) Turn Around”. And guess what…. once again they deliver a superb track. One would wonder when they will release a record? An album, an EP, a 7″ single would be nice. Great stuff.

Rupe: now we head to Ruston, Louisiana, to discover a 22 songwriter that goes under the name Rupe. His latest song is a classic indiepop slice called “Box Fan”, sounding very mid-2000s. Very enjoyable.

Jilted Jonas: now we find a band that hails from Berlin and Stockhom, but I think based in Berlin, right? Formed by Jonas Markbäck, Nick Petricevic, Fredd Jakobsen and Gabi Otero, we are listening to their first ever track, “Born to be Bla Bla Bla Bla”, an infectious, catchy, fun pop song. Can’t wait for any new songs they’ll publish. I’ll keep an eye on them!

Eng.Kanalen: and back to Malmö, to investigate this Soundcloud that seems to have all sorts of recordings. I especially paid attention to one song called “I Never Knew in Words” that my friend David from Barcelona shared. It is very good and reminds me of the heyday of Swedish bedroom pop of the early, mid-2000s.

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Ah! the CDR days of the 2000s, between 2001 and 2009 so many bands released their music on CDR. Self-released or by labels, like Cloudberry for example. It was a good time where DIY reigned supreme. One of the places where we saw an explosion of lo-fi, bedroom, CDR, bands was Sweden. That’s why I did that compilation once, The Sound of Starke Adolf and have always wanted to release a second volume. Maybe one day I’ll get back to that project.

Now, one of the bands that made a splash then and was quite known at the time, though probably forgotten these days, were the duo Bare Knees.

The duo was formed by Kasper Lurcock and Kathrin Jarosch in Gothenburg. They released three CDRs during their time and they also appeared on a handful of compilations. So let’s check them out!

The first release was self-released and was a CDR EP titled “Bit My Daughter!”. It was recorded in July 2005 in Gothenburg and included 5 songs, “Led Astray”, “Skinny! Baby”, “Coming Slash Going”, “Goosebumps” and “Making Up with You”. This last song is a cover of “Sleeping in My Car” by Roxette.

The next year, 2006, the band would sign to Dig Your Own Grave Records, a small Swedish label. With them they would release the album “Pump Up the Lump” (DIG005) on CDR. The release was limited to 100 copies and it came with a lyrics sheet and liner notes. The songs on this release were “Kazoo Song”, “Do What I Want to Do”, “Always on your Side”, “Sex and Communism”, “Brighton Slash Bristol”, “Kanadia”, “People Like Us”, “Fidelity” and “Bob & Jim”.

That same year, on the same label, Dig Your Own Grave Records, the band would contribute a cover of Haddaway’s classic “What is Love” to the compilation “This is Love” (DIG003). On this compilation 12 bands covered this classic song, including The Mexicos (who had been featured on the blog), Komon (who had a 3″ CD on Cloudberry) and other cool bands like My Enemy or All of My Brother’s Girlfriends.

In 2006 the band also contributed “Fidelity” and “Led Astray” to the CDR compilation “Sjung! Med I’m From Bräkne-Hoby” released by Cosy Recordings (COSY 002) and the song “People Like Us” appeared on “Exhibit L – Nomocrime”, a mini CDR compilation released by Homocrime Singles Club (EXHIBIT L) in the UK.

2007 would see the band contribute the song “Greedy Fat Old Men” to the 10″ compilation “Points.//.Lines” release6). d in Germany by IRRK (IRKSOME 006).

In 2008 the band released a split CDR on Cosy Recordings. This CDR was called “Songs to Play at Sleep-Overs” (COSY 10) and it was a split CDR with the band Ray Rumours. Each band contributed 7 songs. Bare Knees had these ones, “Wine Stains”, “Love in Stereo”, “Oslo Girls”, “Second Hand Ebay Underwear”, “Fidelity (Less Lo-Fi Version)”, “Sleep in your Bed Tonight” and “Secret Hideout”. This last one was a cover of the Ray Rumours original. On the other hand Ray Rumours covered the Bare Knees song “Rose + Tim”.

Lastly in 2010 the song “People Like Us” was to be included in the 3xCDR compilation “The Complete Homocrime Singles Club” released by Everard Records.

What else do we know about the band? We know that Kasper had been in the Arctic Circle (I interviewed the band, and it mentions that Kasper joined the British band as a keyboardist) and was part of The No-Eyed Deers. Kathrin on the other hand contributed her vocals to the song “No Love” of Let’s Be Honeys (you can listen to it here).

One thing I find about them on the web is that the band was multilingual, that they could speak German, English, Swedish and Finnish. Wow! And I believe too that at some point they moved to Brighton.

There was this podcast called Phoning it In during those years. The MP3 at their site, when the band were featured on February 6th of 2006, is still working. There they played these songs, “Fidelity”, “Always On your Side”, “Coming Slash Going”, “Do What I Want to Do”, “People Like Us”, “Kanadia”, “The Prettiest Girl in Picton Street” and “All that she Wants”. This last one a cover of Ace of Base!

I also found a live video of the duo playing at the “I’m From Bräkne-Hoby” on August 8th of 2006.

And that’s it. Of course the question is, where are they now? Are they still making music? Had they been involved in any other projects? Who remembers them?

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Listen
Bare Knees – Kanadia

Day 311.

Ring Snuten: well, well, what a nice surprise to get a new song by Patrik and his solo project Ring Snuten! The new song, “Början på Slutet” is terrific (as usual!). I just hope we get to see more songs of his this year. Last tring ime he shared one was back in 2019! That’s not right! We fans of his multiple projects, including the legendary Hormones in Abundance, want to listen more Ring Snuten songs!

Mt. Misery: two songs by this band on Prefect Records from London. They were released last September and I’m only listening these two fine slices of pop. They are “The Dreaming Days are Over” and “I Was Wrong” and they were released on 7″.

Tijeras: what a lovely song, written, performed and recorded by Nikki Navarro from Chicago. The song is called “In the Darkness” and we find the regular version with electric guitars and an acoustic version on her Bandcamp. And that’s all. We really would love to hear more!

Still Corners: they have just released the third single for their upcoming album “The Last Exit” that is coming out on January 22. The new song is called “White Sands” and here I am sharing the video which I feel they got it very right, it is a song that feels like a road movie.

Annual Leaf: and we head back to Australia, to Melbourne, to be exact to discover the song “Fairground Weather” which is the first single of the band’s forthcoming EP “Another Wave Home”. It sounds good! Pleasure to meet you Matt Bruorton, Mel Bruorton, Jesse Williams and Paul Glubb. Looking forward to the EP.

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Lately I’ve been looking into bands from the Marsh-Marigold catalogue. So let’s check one more!

The Purelove seems a very obscure band. I don’t know much about them. I own one album, “King Pop”, released by Marsh-Marigold in 1997. And that’s it. From what I understand they didn’t release anything else nor appeared on compilations. So yeah, they were German, that much is clear. But that’s it. Let’s try to find out more then.

So their album was released on CD, with catalog number Mari 11. It had 12 songs in this order, “By My Side”, “Dance”, “Two Faces”, “Ascendancy”, “Leaving You”, “Sister Death”, “Pretty Confusion”, “Little Devil”, “Grey Day”, “First Sight”, “Fall in Love” and “Fairweather Friends”.

From the CD booklet we know behind the band there were two guys, Arne Jasse and Jörg Fiedler (who seems to go under the name Fidel). Jasse was on vocals while Fiedler played keys and programming. The album songs were recorded and mixed by Clemens Kinder and mastered by Helge Helvé.

Now here is an interesting fact, Pat Fish from The Jazz Butcher played acoustic and electric guitars in the album. How cool is that. I didn’t know this. Michèle Bernard played backing vocals.

All songs were written by Jasse and the music by Fiedler, but one, “Sister Death” is of course a song by The Jazz Butcher. The photos on the booklet were taken by Fiedler while the band photo on the back of the CD was taken by Christian Stoll. The overall artwork design is credited to Robert Fliegel.

One detail I find on The Jazz Butcher page is that Pat Fish also joined the band on a 1997 tour around Germany. How cool. Another thing I find is that there was a tribute album from 2000 called “the Butcher is my Friend – A Shameless Tribute to the Jazz Butcher” were The Purelove appears with  “Sister Death Pt. 1” and “Sister Death Pt. 2”. This CD was only available to those in the Jazz Butcher email list. It doesn’t even appear on Discogs!

There seems to be very little information about the band. There is one review on Amazon Germany where they mention the band mostly played gigs in Hamburg. Okay, I think we can assume the band hailed from that great side. This same person mentions that the band was working on a second album and they had a song called “Bullet for A Rainy Day” and some cover that were going to be included in it. But this album never got released! Shame…. but can we find these songs somewhere?

One thing I do find, that is a website for Jörg Fiedler. It is called Fidel Musik, where he offers his service as a composer. It mentions that he has been in the Hamburg scene since 1994… would be nice to know then what other bands he was involved prior The Purelove! Then it mentions that he has collaborated with The Jazz Butcher and since the year 2000 he has been playing solo and in German under the name Fidel.

Among his work as a composer he has done lyrics and music for trailers, sports clubs, “The Song of the North” and the charity campaign “Hand in Hand for Northern Germany” by the television station NDR.

Well, that’s all I could find! What happened to Arne? Did he continue making music as well? Maybe we should try and get in touch with Jörg and find out more about The Purelove, their beautiful and classy music, and what happened to that second album!

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Listen
The Purelove – Little Devil

Day 309.

Magic Bullets: the classic San Francisco band has finally showed up on Bandcamp. Among the releases they have added is their classic “A Child But in Life Yet a Doctor in Love”. But that’s not all, you can find more songs and records here. Hopefully we’ll be in touch for an interview. It’d be good to know more about them.

The Lucy Show: another band that suddenly appeared on Bandcamp is this classic London band that released 2 albums, 7 singles and 1 EP! Here I am linking to their classic album “Mania” that was reissued by the label Words on Music back in 2005.

The Shop Window: readers of the blog might be familiar with the Maidstone, UK, band as I’ve previously recommended them. Now it is good to know that the band is releasing a 7″ double A side single on January 29. It will have the song “Out of Reach”, which you can check on Bandcamp now, as well as the song “Evacuate”.

Corvair: the latest signing on the veritable WIAIWYA Records from London is a Portland, US, combo. They are releasing an album on February 19 that will have 10 songs. Right now we can preview two of the tracks, “Sailor Down” and “Sunday Runner”. Something interesting is that the album was largely created during the COVID pandemic. I guess we will start seeing more of this in the coming months!

Lunarette: we haven’t heard much about the Gingerlys members in a while. But that just changed. They’ve been working on a new project called Lunarette and what’s even nicer is that they have one song we can preview called “Austin St.”. It is is pretty pretty. It will be part of a cassette called “Clair de Lunarette” to be released on March 19. Check it out! I can’t wait to hear the rest of the EP!

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Another band, another “The Sound of Leamington Spa” compilation. This time it is volume 5 (FST 065, BILB 09, W6 7CD). That means released by Firestation Records, Bilberry Records and Clarendon Records. In 2005. Which band am I talking about? I am talking about The Shrew Kings from London who contributed the song “Losing My Cool” to this compilation.

That was not the only time they contributed a song though. Back in 1987, during their heyday, they had the song “Why Do We Sit Here” on a flexi that came along The Catalogue on October of that year. It was a square shaped flexi where two other bands appeared as well, Billy Jenkins and Rain Gods. The second track was The Shrew Kings’. This flexi was titled “Thin Sliced Records Flexi sampler”.

But they were already around in 1985, releasing then their first 7″ on the label Thin Sliced Records (TSR 6). This first 7″ was titled “Play Brecht” and the two songs on it were “Alabama Song” on the A side and “Mac the Knife” on the B side. The two songs were produced by Clive Jackson, Geoff Beaumont and the band. I don’t have this record, but on Discogs it tells that the sleeve has a snakeskin texture! Interesting! And that the two songs were written by Bertolt Brecht!

In 1986 the band released a 12″ mini-album called “Sad But True” on Thin Sliced Records (SLICE 10). This one had 7 songs, “Loosing My Cool”, “Funeral Tango” and “All Dressed Up” on the A side and “The Bird Has Flown”, “Paradise”, “Ship of Fools” and “Dr. Love” on the B side. The A side had an etching saying “Tamed at Last?” while the B etching said “A Complete Distortion of Truth”.

On this album we find some credits, so then we know that Ian Nixon was on bass, Eoin Shannon on drums, Noel Byde and Michael Hughes on guitar and Bill Tidnam and Jef Harvey on vocals. The producer was Nick Page.

Afterwards came the “Dr. Love” 7″ also on Thin Sliced Records (TSR 11). This single had “Dr. Love” on the A side and “This is the Land” and “Train on Time” on the B side. That same year, 1986, a 12″ EP called “Green Eyed Kid” was also released again on Thin Sliced Records (TSR 12 t). This record that has a cat on the sleeve had 5 songs, “Green Eyed Kid” and “One Day in Hell” on the A side while we find “This is the Land”, “Mac the Knife (Radio Version)” and “Alabama Song” on the flipside.

Sometime earlier, the date is unknown, the band released a tape called “Ten Times Over” on Thin Sliced Records (CRUST 15). This tape included 9 songs: “Ten Times Over”, “She’s the Good Part”, “Lightning Strikes”, “My Mind Just Walked Away”, “Clacking Teeth”, “One Day in Hell”, “Doctor Love”, “All Dressed Up” and “Why Do We Sit Here and Wait”.

Looking at the band members I notice that Jef Harvey had been in the bands King Kurt and V.D.U.’s. and Ian Nixon had played in The Clamheads.

Now back to “The Sound of Leamington Spa” compilation booklet. What does it say there?

One rainy winter’s night after pub closing time and kebabs, the Shrew Kings stormed to their south London squat and picked up guitars, percussion and microphones and drunkenly fumbled for inspiration… then it happened! Clive on guitar came up with a melody out of nowhere, Noel and Mike backed him up on yet more guitars, Ian on slapbass (replacing Mark & Jason) and Eion on drums laid down the lacking rhythm and, in the corner, the two voices, Jef and Bill, scribbled words that became Loosing My Cool – the first of many ironic testimonies to unrequited love. The band included ex-founding member of fellow rocking songsters form London layabouts King Kurt, whom Shrews often supported. Once described as Ian Getz meet Stan Ogden, the band were a musical melange of styles, ranging from the Velvets, through Gene Vincent to Jacques Brel, Virtuosos they may not have been, sexy they certainly were – well kind of… Their first single in 1984, Plays Brecht, received national radio airplay and the Shrews took their show on the road, busking by day and cramming onto small stages by night, building up a following that enabled them to produce an album Sad But True (Thin Sliced Records) two years later. Being obstinate and impossible to categorise the Shrews went very much their own way until deciding to call it a day in 1987. Loosing My Cool, their first and finest song, seemed like a good idea at the time… and it was! Play it loud after several pints and a kebab!

Here we also see that the band did a session for Radio One and “Play Brecht” was record of the week on the Janice Long Show.

Online I find an interview with the band on the website No Class. It seems this is an old interview, just before a gig at the Bull and Gate.

Not much more info on the web, but that’s good, right? Maybe we’ll find out more soon!

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Listen
The Shrew Kings – Losing My Cool

Day 307.

Fuck You and Your A-Sides: a very nice discovery coming from Brighton, UK. This band have released online an EP titled “B-Side Yourself”. The one thing is that it is not that recent, it dates from October, 2019! But I am only finding about it now. It sounds great. Superb indiepop, lo-fi, charming and all. There are four songs in the EP and that’s it. That’s all they’ve released. I hope they do more. Please!

Prints in the Snow: another band that sounds amazing. Now we go a further north, to York, UK. Here we find this 3 song EP titled “I Hate the Silence…” which is packed with superb melodies and boy/girl vocals. It actually says that the band was formed in Nottingham by singer/songwriter Laurie Armitt and bassist Catherine Preston in 2010. Really lovely.

Llawgne: what a strange name you’d say for a band. Well, the person behind the band is Mathias Engwall from Gothenburg. Engwall spelled backwards… you get the idea. I have just discovered the band thanks to their song “Reverie Neverending” which is a really nice upbeat indiepop guitar-driven song. Looking to discover more of his songs now.

Makeout Point: some time ago I had featured the band Makeout Point from Sweden. Formed by Hugo Ewald, Shiva Kazemi, Simon Hjort and Åsa Horakova they had released a few great demos. Fast forward to 2020, when they release their “Carnival of Love” EP on Topoli Records. Four songs are included here, “Date Night” “Hollywood”, “Princess” and “Don’t Be Sad”.

Project Culture: and lastly two songs from a London combo. The songs are “The Girl with the Sun in her Eyes” and “Me, Myself and I (And the Other Five Guys)” that were released in October. Yeah, I had to dig a bit this week as there were not many brand new songs on the web. But this is pretty good and is worth everyone’s attention!

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As I mentioned on previous posts I took photos of the booklets that came with the great compilation series “The Sound of Leamington Spa”. That’s because I am out of town until mid January and don’t have my record collection at hand. So just in case, to be able to post on the blog, to find more information about obscure indiepop bands, I did that. So thanks to that I can write today about the London-based band Ginger Bottles!

On the blog I had mentioned them quickly, when I wrote about The Honeymooners. Martin Connelly, the guitar player of The Honeymooners, a band from Glasgow, had moved the London. There he would join two other Glaswegians, Martin Muir (who had been in The Original Mixed Up Kid) and Steve (Sam) Davis (from the Playing Soldiers).

Ginger Bottles only released the “Unwind” EP in 1991. It was a 12″ vinyl record and it was released by Sunflower Records (SUN 003). This record label is a little bit familiar with me as they had put out Cut Cut Emma who had been featured on the blog. This record had four songs. The A side had “Unwind”. while the B side had “Haywire”, “Sell Your Soul” and “Moment of Madness”. The sleeve was designed by Pero Trivunovic while the artwork was done by Steve Ellefsen. John Kane did the photography.

The band’s song “Goldfish” was to appear many years late, I was talking before of the early 90s. “Goldfish”, a song not included in their one and only release, appeared on “The Sound of Leamington Spa Volume 6” released by Firestation Records (FST 075), Billberry Records (Bild10) and Clarendon Records (W6 8CD) in 2009.

This booklet of this compilation adds more information.

Formed in London in 1989, Ginger Bottles were Stuart Barrett on bass guitar and Glaswegians, Steve Davis (ex Playing Soldiers), on vocals and acoustic guitar, Martin Connelly (ex Honeymooners) on lead guitar and Martin Muir (ex Original Mixed Up Kid) on drums. Guitarist, Brian Carson, played on this track “Goldfish”. When their demo of “Unwind” knocked out the competition 5 weeks in a row on Gary Crowley’s then infamous Demo Clash (GLR Radio), Ginger Bottles were championed by producer Stephen Street and DJ Janice Long and were stirring up much interest amongst the many A&R pundits who trusted the show’s record for spotting promising bands. Indie record label Sunflower Records quickly jumped in and offered the band their first and only release. “Unwind:, backed by “Haywire”, the free and easy mix of “Sell Your Soul” and rare acoustic track, “Moment of Madness”, which featured ex Raymonde guitarist, Phil Huish.
When Connelly relocated to Berlin, Huish joined the boys and brought his harder edge to the band’s sound. And with his Raymonde credentials, Smiths comparisons were inevitable – no bad thing at the time though. More relocation! And with Davis’ return to sunny Glasgow, came the amicable demise of the band. Davis is currently operating as The Tattooed Detective, Barrett joined Trian and recorded with some time Primal Scream producer, Brian O’Shaughnessy and both Muir and Huish formed Fletcher and, more recently, Rocket Sam. Connelly with his itchy feet returned to Glasgow and – small world – is working with Jean Honeymoon. Ginger Bottles are considering – not reforming – but joining the Myspace Bandwagon. Just for the hell of it!

A very cool thing to be aware of is that the band made a promo video for the song “Unwind“. It is up on Youtube. It was directed by Kenny Laurenson.

Another important find is a Soundcloud by Martin Muir, the drummer. In his Souncloud he has a demo version of “Goldfish” which was recorded in London, in 1989, Here he mentions too that sadly that Brian Carson has passed away. This is from the demo tape that was sent to Gary Crowley. But what ended happening was that Crowley would chose the second track, “Unwind” which would end up knocking an early demo from Suede off the top spot after they won 5 weeks running. Ginger Bottles would win the next 5 weeks as well. Aside from this  song, he has “Seven Forty Five” by Ginger Bottles. Here he mentions that this song was a demo recorded at La Rocka Studios in Hornsey, London, and engineered by Simon Daniels.

Looking at his Soundcloud we also know he has been in bands like Manic Noises, Rocket Sam, Napoleon Chrome, Hanging Shed and Fletcher.

Sadly not much more information about the band on the web. Hopefully we’ll find more about them, maybe someone will contact me!

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Listen
Ginger Bottles – Goldfish