Day 476. I just became a father of a beautiful baby boy. Honestly don’t know how much time I’ll be able to invest on the blog now. I have a few posts about obscure bands that I have written already, like this one, but I always look for new recommendations just before posting. So those you can expect to be published in the next few days. The blog may not update as often now, until I get the grip of this new life, but I will continue writing and posting when time allows is. Maybe it continues the same, I don’t know, but just wanted to let everyone know that don’t worry, that everything is great. Just very busy!

Love, Burns: so because of the events I just told you I missed the limited edition 7″ that Love, Burns released. I hope you did not. That because the two songs included in it, “Wired Eyes (alternate mix)” and “Hard to Fall” are two terrific pieces by Phil Sutton’s solo project. He also played live a few weekends back and I missed that. Oh well, at least we can play these songs over and over and wait for the next release!

Melenas: the Pamplona all-girl band is back with a superb rendition of Grauzone’s “Eisbär”. This time in Spanish though. The song is “Osa Polar” and sounds like a popstatic pop bomb! Punchy and catchy, you wonder if they will release it in any way. It sounds great. What a superb band they are. They should keep getting bigger and bigger!

Red Go-Cart: a new flexi by a favourite Japanese band of mine! Just one song though, but a nice song nonetheless! “Jellyfish” is out now on Galaxy Train Records and it also comes with a lovely sleeve by Heather Marigold. The band formed by Tomomi Usui, Miki Hirose and Yuji Usui continues to craft perfect pop!

Eggs on Mars: now we head to Kansas City, to check out the latest by this four-piece formed by Brad, Mason, Bennie and Doug. Their latest is indeed a  7-song mini-album called “Brighter Now”. It is available on CD, and as I was writing this post only 7 copies were left! So don’t miss it.

Hurry: we stay in  the US, but we head now to Philadelphia. Here I discover the solo project of Matt Scottoline. Hurry is the name of this fine guitar pop project who released the album “Fake Ideas” on June 25. Again few copies are left of this 12″ that came out on Lame-O-Records. 10 songs worth your time.

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I think I need to get back to the idea of making a cool compilation of Australian indiepop. I had the front cover done, I got the name for it (though that was a bit complicated because I was using a band’s song and they were sort of ok of me using it), and had contacted many bands though I really didn’t get a song from any! I wanted a song, a bio and a photo. Simple! But no one was giving me that. One band was making it more complicated asking to sign a contract for one song. That was quite disheartening. I can’t be dealing with contracts and stuff at this point. Too busy. It is just me. Oh well… The whole point was to give another life to all these songs that are wonderful. And I keep discovering more and more wonderful Australian pop. The Handmedowns is the latest discovery.

The band formed in Adelaide at the end of 1986 and was part of the underground scene along Dust Collection, Mad Turks and Scremaing Believers among others. Discogs has a pretty good informative bio that tells us that they were formed by:
Trevor Comley on vocals and lead guitar
Tony Dyer on vocals and rhythm guitar
Dave Gray on bass
Jason Kilic on drums

This lineup recorded a 6 track demo in 1987.

After the demo was done, Dave Gray left (he would form the band Rocket Science) and was replaced by Rohan Belton who had been on the Verge, Dust Collection and Garden Path. Rohan would add some vocals to the previously recorded demo and these songs would have to wait 27 years to be released. More on that in a bit!

In 1987 Tony Dyer would also leave the band and the three remaining members would record the 12″ EP “Back to Yourself” that was released by Greasy Pop Records (GPR 140). Eventually another member of Dust Collection would join the band, Scott Allan, on vocals and rhythm guitar.

The band would call it quits in 1989.

Comley, Dyer and Kilic would later form the band Swerve. Dyer would also be in the Stoneage Hearts in the 2010s. Comley went to join the Sack. Belton would start a label, Smashed Records. Gray would move to Melbourne and be in bands like the Electric Guitars and the Freeloadere. Kilic would become president of the SANFL football club “Sturt” in Adelaide.

Okay, that was quite interesting. Now let’s look at the records!

The “Back to Yourself” 12″ would be good to listen. I need to try to get a copy of it. In the meantime we know that it was recorded at Foundation Studios, Salisbury East. The engineer was Richard Goodbridge. The photography on the sleeve is credited to Amanda Belton (sister or wife of Rohan?).

The songs on this 12″ were “State of Confusion”, “What if I” and “Home” on the A side and “When All the World Was Young”, “Back to Yourself” and “Cornerstone” on the B side.

Now comes the 6 song demo that was released in 2004. It came out on Belton’s label, Smashed Reecords (SMA 103), and was titled “Free Set of Steak Knives”. These tracks were recorded at Bartels St. Studio and remixed at Artec Studios. The engineer was Kim Horne while the remixing is credited to Stuart Sheldon.

The songs on this CD were “Goodbye”, “Slip Away”, “Quarter to 12”, “What’s in a Heart”, “Reflections” and “Really Hot Woman”.

The band also appeared on a few compilations.

Back in the day, 1988, their song “Quarter to Twelve” appeared on “Oasis 2 (the 1988 Greasy Pop Compilation of Adelaide Bands)”, a 12″ comp released by their label, Greasy Pop (GPR143).

In 1998 their song “Goodbye” ended up in the classic Swedish music magazine Sound Affects’ compilation 7″ “4×4”. I didn’t know the existence of this 7″ that came along the number 38 of this magazine. The Handmedowns appear as the second song on the A side. The first song on the A side is by The Flatmates.

Smashed Records would give new life to the songs starting in 2003. First including two songs, “Home” and “When all the World Was Young” to the CDr compilation “South Central Indi Pop from the Mullet Era” (SMA101). This looks like something I’d like as it includes two bands that I know are good, Dust Collection and The Garden Path. Would be nice to hear Trailer Park and The Verge that are the other bands in this collection.

“Slip Away” was included in the 2005 compilation  of songs written by Tony Dyer called “Your Eyes” (SMA108). On this CD all songs are but Swerve but “Slip Away”.

Lastly in 2005 we see “Smashed MMV” (SMA110), another compilation where The Handmedowns include “Goodbye” and “Home”.

And as I was looking for their songs I stumble upon a Bandcamp for The Handmedowns with all of their songs! Perfect!

One thing I notice too is that the “Back to Yourself” 12″ was re-released in 2004 by Smashed Records (SMA105) on CDR. This one included the same six songs plus “Goodbye (Swedish Edition)”, the track that was on the Sound Affects compilation.

Great! I found more info and all the songs! This was a good research project. But were there even more songs recorded? Why haven’t I heard this band before? They sound good! I find that with Greasy Pop Records I haven’t been able to listen most of their catalogue. It is not easy available. I need to invest some money in it.

And yeah, that compilation has to happen someday. So many great indiepop bands in Australia in the late 80s, early 90s!

Anyhow, who remembers the Handmedowns? What are the band members up to these days?

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Listen
The Handmedowns – Slip Away

Day 474

Reminiscent: we start this Wednesday with this Spanish band with an English name. Their latest release is a four-song EP called “Primavera”. The band seems to be a duo, boy/girl, formed by Guardian and Dafne, who make some lovely lo-fi bedroompop.

Capitol: now we head to Hamilton, Ontario. That’s Canada. A cool EP titled “All the Rest of my Heads” will be released on September 15 by this postpunk/janglepop band. Four songs that will be released by Meritorio Records in Spain. Yeah, it is not just digital but we’ll get a 12″. That’s always good news. Preview one of the tracks, “Always Saying Nothing”, and get hooked.

Flight Mode: now to Oslo, Norway. Very international post. A punky pop EP that actually dates from the summer of 2017. But it is online now on Bandcamp, a few years after. The EP is titled “TX, ’98” and it is very catchy and fun. Two songs out of the four are available to preview, “Sixteen” and “Fossil Fuel”.

Pip Blom: next up is Amsterdam. Here we discover this superb sounding pop band who will be releasing their album “Welcome Break” on October 8. But they don’t want us to wait with no news. They are sharing “Keep it Together” a great slice of indiepop. The band will be releasing their record on Heavenly Recordings, the label of Saint Etienne.

Tapeworms: I wanted to end this review with the latest video by Tapeworms. The Lille, France, band released the album “Magic Pierrot” and they have put together this fun video for the eponymous song. Enjoy!

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Another day, another obscure band.

Another band that I know barely anything. I hope the web will help me find details about them, any information that would paint for me some of the big picture of who they were.

Loveskip were British as far as I know and released just one record. That happened in 1988 and was a 12″ single with “Carry On at Large” on the A side and “I Will Not Wash this Hand” on the B side. The B side makes me giggle, that song title, in these times of pandemic, seems so wrong! But it is a great slice of pop music I have to say.

The black and white sleeve of the record, that was self-released by the way, catalog Loveskip 001, shows a guy sitting on a beach chair. The back of the chair and of this individual face us. The guy is wearing a hat that says “Kiss me quick, squeeze me slow”. He is not wearing beach clothes, looks like he has shoes and jeans, event though he is clearly on a beach.

On the back we find the band members, Dominic Bell on vocals, Daniel Sutton on guitars, Andy Goldie on bass and Tim Bryant on drums. There’s a photo of the four of them, on a beach. Looks cold, and windy.  All photos were taken by Stevan Zivanovic. Oh, and the cover was created by Graham Watts while the sleeve was designed by Naomi Davies. The band logo was created by Sid Sutton.

Both songs on the record were penned by Daniel Sutton and the lyrics are printed on the back of the sleeve. Other credits on the record include that of Sharon Harvey who did backing vocals on the B side and Martin Cantwell who played keyboards on both songs.

Both songs were recorded at F2 Studios and were engineered by Serge. They were produced by Loveskip and Serge.

On Discogs they don’t have any compilations listed. So that’s a dead end.

There’s a Tim Bryant on many releases on Discogs. But I think that’s not the same Tim Bryant. Would be nice to confirm in which other bands they were involved with. Dominic appears on two releases by Gymnastics in the Seventies but this band hails from Australia. So maybe he migrated there? Or maybe not. Can’t tell.

Daniel Sutton on the other hand appears on a band called Munroe Effect that released a 7″ and a CDEP in the 2000s. I can’t be a 100% sure it is the same Daniel, but chances are higher compared to Tim and Dominic’s.

One random thing I found was a sale listing for a Yamaha BB3000 bass. Here the seller mentions this was the choice of bass of Andy Rourke from The Smiths and Andy Goldie of Loveskip!

No more info on the web. Would be nice to know where in the UK they were from. And of course if they recorded more songs! Anyone remembers them?

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Listen
Loveskip – I Will Not Wash this Hand

The songs were there but we split before releasing an album.

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

Day 467

The Slow Summits: I love the band from Linköping. They know how to craft perfect pop songs. I don’t understand yet how come they haven’t released a record. They should. A 7″ would be wonderful. There latest song “Then Again” is a fine pop slice. Would be a great single!

Starry Eyed Cadet: the San Francisco band doesn’t need an introduction. They are wonderful. They are another favourite band of the blog. They know how to make gorgeous songs. Their latest is no exception, “Feathers”, which is also their first release on Lilystars Records.

Pelopincho: I shared a video a few posts ago for one of the songs from Pelopincho’s latest album “Loop Adolescente”. Well, now the whole album, all 8 songs, are up on Bandcamp for us to enjoy. The Buenos Aires band is also another favourite, one of the best of Argentina. Just wish their releases were available in physical format!

Subterfuge: now we head to Düsseldorf, Germany. “Stephanie Said” is the first song the band has released since 2017! This song will be included in the band’s forthcoming album “Dots”. We don’t know when will it be released, but it will mark 30 years since the German popsters starting making music back in 1991!

Spearmint: the classic English back will be releasing a new album on September 10th on the fine WIAIWYA Records that our friend Jerv runs in London. The album will be available as a double gatefold 10″ vinyl. Pretty pretty. Right now we can preview one of the songs, “Walk Away from Hollywood”, out of 14! Yeah. This is great. I can’t wait to hear all songs. I’m sure it will be great as al previous records by “Britain’s best kept secret”.

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15 or so years ago I discovered Stella Rocket from Stockholm. It was the time of Myspace and that’s exactly where I found about them. I really liked them then and since I haven’t listened to them much. But yeah, I was a fan, and I think it would be a good time to revisit them.

The band actually had formed much earlier, in 2001. I think I must have discovered them around 2004. The band was formed by Tove Leander (vocals, guitars and strings), Tobias Larsson (bass), Andreas Lindkvist (drums) and Linda Portnoff (vocals and keyboards).

The band’s first release was the self-titled album from 2004. It was self-released (SR 001) on CD. It was recorded at Studio Gröndal at Dubious Studios and mastered at Polar Studios. The album included 11 songs, “Stella Anthem”, “Animals”, “Regret”, “Tokyo”, “Distance”, “I Don’t Want it”, “Why Don’t You Love Me?”, “Empty Hands”, “Bapada”, “Speed” and “With You”.

The engineers for this record were Björn Hansell, Christoffer Roth, Johan Gustanfsson and Pelle Gunnerfeldt. So many! For mastering we just see the credit for Henrik Jonsson. The producer was the great Jari Hapalainen from Céleste, Mary-Go-Round, The Bear Quartet and more.

Other credits in the record include Jezzica Sunmo on photography and Lisa Rydell for the sleeve artwork.

But one thing I notice is that Jenny Kai-Larsen was the vocalist (as well as doing the art) on this record.

In 2004 the band would release the “Animals” CD single. This one was released by Planekonomi (PLAN6). The recording credits are the same as in the album. The CD single included the title song as well as the lovely track “Lips”. One thing to note is that the band made a video for the song “Animals” which I actually uploaded myself to Youtube back in 2006!! And it is still there!

In 2009 the band would release more records. They would also sign to a new label, Fashionpolice Records.

Not sure if the album or the CD single came first. But I’ll start with the CD single “Keep On”. This one was released by the aforementioned label (FP0032) and included the songs “Keep On” and “Gothenburg Boys”. The songs were mixed by Mattias Glavå and were mastered by Alf Håkan Åkesson at the Cutting Room.

Lastly the band released the album “To the Birds” on Fashionpolice Records (FP0036) in 2009. This album included 11 tracks, “To the Birds”, “Keep On”, “Tomorrow”, “Old Nuns”, “Black Rabbit”, “Single Inga”, “Thérèse”, “My Princess”, “A Face Without Eyes”, “Sebastian” and “Stella Anthem #2”.

According to the Swedish Wikipedia I am missing another releases, a CD single from 2007 with the song “Armstrong”. I haven’t been able to find any information about it.

And yeah, no compilation appearances.

Not great. Not much info. I start looking for the band members, if they had been in any other bands. I don’t see Tove to appear on any other bands, though she did do backing vocals on the second album by Jari Hapalainen’s band Heikki. It is the same case for Linda. No other bands but backing vocals on the “Open Field” album by Taken by Trees.

That’s strange. No other bands for any of the members of Stella Rocket!

I keep looking. I believe the band played some gigs or a gig with The Tough Alliance back in 2004. That same year the band performed at the famous Emmaboda Festival. Another gig I find about is one from 2010, on March 22nd at the Jazzhuset in Gothenburg.

I don’t have an account on the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper and can’t get behind the firewall. But there I notice that Jenny Kai-Larsen left the band after the first album, and it was the remaining members who continued and released the second album.

And that’s all the info I could gather. I am sure many of my Swedish friends remember them. I believe there was a buzz about the band, people thought they could have been bigger than they ended up being. Would be great to know what are they up to these days.

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Listen
Stella Rocket – Animals

Day 464

Olivia’s World: “Debutante” is the first single off the band’s new EP “Tuff 2B Tender” which is out now by the veritable Lost Sound Tapes. Alicia’s band has been a favourite of the blog, as were her previous bands!, and it is great to be treated to this lovely video. Don’t miss it!

Evergreen Days: “Essential // The Sound of…” is the retrospective compilation we’ve all been wanting by Emelie Berg’s solo project, the wonderful Evergreen Days from Sweden! This compilation has been put together by My Secret Garden Recordings and includes 14 tracks! More than I expected. I would love to interview Emelie, I will try to do that soon! Love this band and as the name of the compilation tells you, it is essential. Pre-orders for the CD version are up!

Vocal Age: this is an oldie but a new discovery! Hailing from Stockholm, Vocal Age only put together an EP called “What If” which is up on Bandcamp. I haven’t heard this band before but sounds great! It dates from 2015 and I wonder how come it flew under our radar. The songs are really good, jangly, fun, dreamy, with female/male vocals. Amazing really. If I had heard this in 2015 I would have been more than interested to put it out!

Stutter Steps: this project by Ben Harrison, with the help from Anthony LaMarca, Phil Jacoby and Cindy Yogmas, has released a very nice album calleed “Reeling” in 2020. It is out now on vinyl and includes 12 songs. The Pittsburgh based band crafts some introspective and well-crafted pop songs. Worth a listen for sure.

Lightning Love: now we head to Ypsilanti, Michigan. I always liked that city’s name. Anyhow, that’s where Lightning Love are from. This trio are re-releasing their 2008 album “November Birthday” on July 30th on vinyl and CD! You can  two of the tracks as of now, “Everyone I Know”, “Friends” and “Good Time”. If you like upbeat pop definitely check out, especially “Everyone I Know” which is a bonafide pop single!

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This find comes from the Youtube channel stoneeyedkiller, a great resource for obscure indiepop!

I had never heard about this band nor the compilation “Too Nice for Words”. It is in this compilation that the song “God’s Shelf”, the one shared in the Youtube channel, appears.

I think it won’t surprise anyone if I can’t find much more information about the band. But I am going to try my best. Maybe there’s something somewhere?

Discogs has nothing about them. But suddenly I find something, on the Hull Music Archive website. It is an entry of this compilation. Great! Immediately we find out that it was released in 1993 and included 18 different bands. Were they all from the Hull area? Were they all indiepop? I guess that is something we should try to find out eventually. Bow Jangles’ song appears on the B side, it is the 6th song on that side.

There is an interesting tidbit here. It mentions that this tape was compiled by the promoter and musician Chris Warkup. This was actually the fifth of a series of tape compilations he put together in the early 90s.

I keep digging.

And I find that the band had more songs. They released at least two demo tapes that same year, 1993. The first one included the songs “Let it Go”, “Get Out of Bed” and “Coming on Strong”. The second tape had “Lost Ego”, “God’s Shelf”, “Pick Yourself Up” and “A World on Focus”. Okay, now we know 7 songs. I want to listen to them!

I think though these will be all of the details I will find today. It’s not great, but it is not as bad as I thought it would be. It’d be great to find some band members names.

Hopefully someone remembers them. Maybe a reader from Hull. It’d be great to learn more info about them!

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Listen
Bow Jangles – God’s Shelf

Day 462

Gap Year: the cassette album “Flat Out” is now sold out. It is a shame. It is a wonderful 9 song album. The Perth, Australia, band jangles like indiepop bands from the heyday. Chiming and chiming, 9 wonderful songs that deserve every indiepop fan’s attention! A band to keep an eye for sure!

Neil Brogan: “Magnolia Day” is the first track out of the new album by the Belfast bedroom popster. The album will be titled the same way, “Magnolia Day” and will be released on July 9th. Not sure in which formats though. The song is a bright sunny pop song, a feel good song, that makes me want to listen to the rest of the record. Hopefully it is good as this one!

Stomp Talk Modstone: the Japanese band is a favourite of the blog, been recommended time and time again. Their brand of shoegaze is up my street, with poppy melodies and superb walls of guitar. They have just released a new digital single, “The Locket”, which I had to recommend. So head to their Bandcamp and have a listen.

Palm Ghosts: the Nashville, Tennessee, guitar pop band has just released a collection of digital singles and b sides which is a delight. The compilation released on CD and titled “Singles + B Sides” is out now. It includes 13 songs of classic jangle!

Space Daze: and we finish this Wednesday’s recommendations with Seattle’s Space Daze. The ex-Seapony has made a wonderful new EP titled “Visible Spectrum”. A dreamy EP, packed with beautiful melodies, that I am enjoying today. Feels like perfect music for a rainy day. Just like today.

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It is 1991 and The Monk Bought Lunch released a 7″ that remains quite obscure.

I have a copy of this record, with it’s black and white sleeve, with a dog on the front cover. What sort of dog is it? Was this dog the pet of one of the band members? I wonder…

The information is scarce. The 7″ had three songs, “Love and Hate” on the A side and “Paint it White” and “The Sailors Tilted Hat” on the B side. The back of the sleeve tells us that the band was just a duo, Andy on music and vocals and Louise on vocals.

The other info we find on the sleeve is an address for Studio Adelaide. This is to contact the band. The band (and the studio) were based in Maldon, Essex. I’ve looked for this place in Google Maps. It doesn’t look like a studio, but a two floor house. It looks pretty and quiet. Seems far away from everything. The closest city looks to be Chelmsford.

On the label we get some more info. We know that the songs were produced by Andy Hayes and Grant Matthews at Studio Adelaide. Andy Hayes, that must be Andy from the band.

There are no compilation appearances.

I keep looking for any info. I read someone saying that the band was actually a solo project of Andy Hayes. So no Louise in the band? Andy would later form a band called Is She Weird? This band would release 2 7″s in the early 90s. The sound was a bit different though, less indiepop…

From what I understand the phrase The Monk bought lunch comes from the song “The Soft Parade” by The Doors.

The only other things I could find were some anecdotes, like that Andy pressed few copies of this record, that he gave a lot of them away to friends, and that he isn’t happy about the music on this record. Hmmm… oh well…

Not much more information on the web, but hopefully someone can enlighten us soon. Would be great to know any details about this obscure band that at some point a lot of indiepop collectors were looking for their sole record!

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Listen
The Monk Bought Lunch – Love and Hate

Day 460

Lentillas de Colores: just a month ago I was recommending a CD release by the León, Spain. Well, it didn’t take long for them to announce a new vinyl release! It is coming out on July 19 and includes 4 songs! You can preview all four songs on Bandcamp as well as grab some lovely merch like totebags and t-shirts!

The Goon Sax: after the announcement of their upcoming album “Mirror II”, the Brisbane-trio has released a video for the song “Psychic”! Great video, great song. Can’t wait for the album.

Jilted Jonas: oh! It’s been a while since we heard from the Swede based in Berlin. Well, the wait is over and there’s a new catchy indiepop track called “Silent Kisses”. It is a fine slice of lo-fi indiepop. Perfect for this sunny weekend!

Pelopincho: one of our favourite Latin American bands, the Buenos Aires combo has released a new video for their song “Tijeras Oxidadas” which was released on June 10th. The album is “Loop Adolecente” and will be available digitally.

Skiftande Enheter: oh, I feel bad for having missed this 7″. I only discovered it the other day. It came out on a label I was not aware of, Chunklet Industries from Atlanta. The 7″ which is now sold out included two songs, “Lögn” and “Bättre Förr”. The band is very Flying Nun sounding, that’s a good thing. The songs are really good. So yeah, let’s listen to them on Bandcamp. 50 copies are too little…

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A few days ago I got a request to look into this US band. I must say I have never heard of them before so that picked my curiosity. On top of that, the one song I was able to listen on the web, “Space of Ten Days”, sounded like candy to my ears. So I couldn’t say no, and I am here doing some detective work on the blog.

The song I mentioned was included in an 8-song album called “Priests & Poets” that was released by S.H.C. Records (002A) in 1987. I would guess that this was the band’s own label as both releases listed are by the same band.

Indeed, the other release, a 7″ with two songs, “All the Guns” on the A side and “Conversation” on the B side, was released in 1986 by the same label (001A). I am checking the back of the jacket and I find some information that may help us find out more about them.

To start the two songs were produced by Chan Poling and thee band. The first song, “All the Guns”, was engineered by D. Goulet while the B side was engineered by M. Owens and K. Glynn. Sadly there are no first names anywhere but on the sleeve design credits, John Myron Hansen.

One thing though is that the label has an address in Minneapolis. And the contact person of the label is not one of the band members. We see this name, S. Koebel Price. Maybe then, the band and the label were two different entities?

Oh! And yes, of course, the band members appear here too. Michael Jacobson on words and guitars, Davids Sarma on guitar, D. Moriarty on bass and Mike Padilla on drums and percussion.

Now let’s get back to the 1987 album. I mentioned 8 songs. These were “Daylight”, “25th Year”, “Martyr” and “In this Life” on the A side and “Grayed Expectations”, “Space of Ten Days”, “Until You Smile” and “Drop the Ball” on the B side. All songs were recorded at Nicollet Studios which was based in Minneapolis. I feel by this point we can safely assume that the band hailed from there.

I also notice some changes in the band. I don’t see a D. Moriarty but a Ben Peters on bass and vocals. Davids Sarma is now credited on cello as well. The producers for this record was Chris Osgood (from Buzz Barker & the Atomic Bums, L73 and The Suicide Commandos) and the band. The engineeer was Steve Fjelstad (who had done some remixes for R.E.M. and was part of L73, Fingerprints and Figures). The art is credited again to John Myron Hansen.

I don’t see on Discogs any compilation appearances. I don’t see any other bands they might have been involved with.

I look for them. I find that Davids Sarma was once part of the Tau Beta Pi and graduated cum laude at the University of Minnesota in 1994. It proves a bit harder to track the other band members as their names are a bit more common.

And that’s really it. I couldn’t find any more info. But I hope some of the readers from Minneapolis can help with more details!

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Listen
Circle of Eyes – Space of Ten Days

Day 457

Jane and John: from London comes this cool duo that started during the pandemic. They have released three songs so far. The latest two are brand new, “Here at Last” and “Boing Boing”. They are fun electronic pop, influenced by Helen Love I’d say. Or if you liked Supercute, that’s a good comparison too. This is great. Fun, addictive pop!

Famous Mammals: we head to Oakland, California, now to discover this combo of lo-fi pop. They released a self-titled EP last month and it is still available. It comes with 10 songs of bedroom pop goodness, an amateur-ish vibe that can easily win over your heart (and ears).

Amor Butano: now I am checking the Madrid based label Jeanne D’Arc and I discover a few things. The first one is a cassette titled “Benimaclet” by the Valencia band Amor Butano. The tape, which is still available, has 4 songs of fun straight up wavey synthpop. Good summer music.

Perdón: the next one I wanted to tell you about from Jeanne D’Arc is the band Perdón from Murcia, Spain. They have a tape also. It is called “Te Invito a mi Fiesta” and it is an 8-song album. This one is much more an indiepop record. With male/female vocals, fun melodies, catchy choruses, you know, all the stuff we like! The band is formed by Arturo, Irene and Leyre, and of course I will keep an eye on them!

Dismal Plight: our friend Gustav from the fantastic Salt Lake Alley has another project that you should know about. That’s how I want to end the week! Presenting you the two songs he has on Soundcloud as they are really good, especially “A Man Who’s Already Drowning” which I think is terrific! The other song is good too, “I Want to Take You There” but it is much less indiepop, more of a post punk song. So give them a listen, they won’t disappoint.

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After I wrote about the Swedish band Violett my friend David shared with me yet another wonderful demo tape from Sweden, Alexis’ “…In Sun” from 1995.

I looked for more info on Discogs but it is not listed there. But I can tell you a few details about this Swedish band and maybe you can help me fill in the rest.

The tape released by Clown Productions, the same as Violett (!), had 5 songs, “Afternoon Tea”, “Barbie”, “Sunny Side Up”, “Meadow” and “Sunbeams”. As mentioned it was released in 1995 and that same year was when the band recorded and mixed the songs at Studio Mary in Ystad. Oh! Ystad again!

Right, so there is a connection between both bands! So in Alexis all songs are by Daniel Permbo while the music is by Mårten Cervin (with the exception of “Sunbeams” which is by Cervin and Dan Lindgren). Okay, these three are the same band members as in Violett! The Violett tape is also from 1995. Why did they have two different bands?!

This is truly a mystery to me. On the sleeve of the tape we find what each of them played on this tape.

M. Cervin: lead and backing vocals, guitars
D. Lindgren: bass, backing vocals on “Barbie” and grand piano on “Sunbeams:
D. Permbo: drums and percussion

All of them are credited for keyboards, handclaps and fingersnaps. The design of the sleeve is credited to the band and the oil painting for the sleeve to Daniel Permbo.

In my post about Violett I mentioned some of the stuff I found about the band members, but I’ll add them here just in case!

I look for the band members then. I believe Mårten has been playing keyboards with a singer songwriter called Fredrik Larsson as of late. I don’t find any music related projects by Daniel Permbo but I think he has his own film/animation company called DejPej Film and has made this cool video about the city and Wallander! Even cooler he used a Sambassadeur song as background music for the video. Class.

No more information. But now we know two bands by this trio. Will we find more about them soon? A third band? A fourth? This is quite interesting!

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Listen
Alexis – Meadow

Day 455

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: two new songs from Glenn Donaldson. That’s always good news, isn’t it? The most prolific indiepop songwriter out there I would say. The latest songs are now on Bandcamp and they are usual, full of jangly power. Check them out, “Dull Panic & Sunday Gloom” and “I Almost Changed”.

Mad Honey: this three-piece formed by Tiff Sutcliffe, Branden Palesano and Austin Valdez hails from Oklahoma City. They make some sweet dreampop as you’ll be aware from their latest digital single, “Good Grief”. The band seems to have been around since 2018, so I need to check out their back catalogue.

Airu: time ago I had recommended some songs from this Bilbao, Spain, band. Now I have to recommend a 7″ that will be out on June 14. The two songs on this fine slice of plastic are “Con las Ventanas tan Grandes me da Vergüenza Mirar” and “Voy tan Deprisa”.

The Umbrellas: Many say this is pop perfection, and it might as well be! Slumberland is releasing the band’s debut album on August 6th and we’ve already heard the song “She Buys Herself Flowers”. But we hadn’t seen the video. At least until now! So have a look!

HANN: and here is another two song, it seems this is the way to release digital singles too. It makes sense. Why just the one song. HANN hails from Manchester. HANN is a band but is also Hannah. The two songs in this latest single are pretty good, poppy, catchy, fun and with an edge. They are called “Daddy’s Drugs” and “Essential Travel Only”.

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Yet another band that released just one 7″ and disappeared. How many of them are there?!

Sons of Shane released the “Fly” 7″ in 1987. It came out on Whippet Records (WHIP 1), probably their own label. The A side was “Fly” and the B side was “All I Had”. I’ve only heard the A side which is a fine slice of indiepop.

The cover art shows a huge pigeon and some people walking in the background. On the back of the sleeve there is not much info. There is an address, 116 Galton Road, Bearwood, Birmingham. As I am curious I have Googled it. It is a two floor house with a light blue door. Looks nice. It is sort of close to Birmingham center, about 30 minutes on train.

On Discogs there are no other releases listed nor compilation appearances.

The name of the band may have been inspired by:

MacShane was also the name given to the group of sons of Shane “An Diomas O’Neill”, Prince of Ulster, Lord O’Neill, and Chief of all the O’Neill clans from 1558-1567. When he died, his ten or more sons were spread out among family within Ulster and Scotland. In the early 1580s they regrouped and for nearly a decade battled with their O’Neill cousins for dominance of Ulster and their father and grandfather’s estate, the Earldom of Tír Eoghain. The English officials used the term “the Mac Shanes” (the sons of Shane) as an all encompassing term to describe many sons that made up this army in Ireland.

Or maybe not.

The only other info we have is that both songs are credited to someone with last name Wilson.

I hit a wall quite fast. I can’t seem to find any more info. One thing though, this blog, your always reliable Cloudberry Cake Proselytism, has a mention of the band. When I interviewed the Subtonics many many years ago, I asked them for any bands that they liked. They mentioned Sons of Shane. They say they hailed from Stafford. That is not close to Bearwood. That is even much further north of Birmingham, actually in between Birmingham and Stoke.

The Subtonics also give us a name, Deryck. He was in Sons of Shane and also played keys on some Subtonics recordings. And that the Subtonics suggested to join forces with Sons of Shane to create a label but they declined.

Well, any other details would be appreciated! Oh! And I need a copy of this 7″, anyone able to help?

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Listen
Sons of Shane – Fly

++ Under the name of Borgnine you released an album called “None the Wiser”. There is no information about this album on the web. How many songs did it have? Who released it?

You’ll receive a copy soon!

++ Where was the album recorded? Did you produce it yourselves?

Partly in Croydon, partly in Dungeon Studio in Warwickshire. We produced it with help from the engineers.

++ Was there interest from any labels?

Yes there was but we were too disorganised to follow it up.

++ Were there plans for any other releases?

That would have been nice but we stopped just after NtW was released.

++ Aside from appearing on the “Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 7” compilation you appeared on one called “Here Comes Everybody – A City Fathers Collection”. This record seems like something I should get as it includes a family tree of the bands there… all Oxford bands. Was wondering who put this compilation together and if you were familiar with all of these bands?

That’s weird, I didn’t even know about that but just looked it up and I know all the bands! I’ll see if I can locate a copy, should be possible.

++ Immediately after the release of the album the band split. How come? Why didn’t you wait a little bit longer?!

As I said, we didn’t split, we just stopped. I had too many other responsibilities to make it work. I don’t regret that, kids come first. Nothing to do with drugs and debauchery I’m afraid! Or maybe there wasn’t enough drugs and debauchery 😉

++ And there was a reunion in 2005, how was that? Was that the last one?

That was fun, and we did another in 2017 at a friend’s birthday party. I would have liked to do more, the vibe was there and we were and are still friends.