Day 516

Blueboy: probably the best release this month is Blueboy’s Peel Session from March 12, 1994. It is being released by the great Precious Recordings of London and it is a deluxe package, a double single, just like their previous releases of BMX Bandits and Jasmine Minks. This record comes with four songs, “Toulouse”, “Good News Week”, “Dirty Mags”and “Loony Tunes”. Essential.

Un Día Soleado: the Viedma, Argentina, pop band that takes their name from Another Sunny Day has a new song out on their Bandcamp. This new digital single is called “Lxs Chicx Ya Van a Llegar” and it is a fun guitar driven track. This is proper Patagonia Indie Pop!

Layzi: and now we head to Boston, Mass., to discover this lovely lo-fi bedroom pop project. Their latest release, a self-titled EP, sounds gorgeous. Introspective, melancholic and upbeat at the same time, the four songs pack a lot of feeling. Let’s keep an eye on them.

The Raft: a new song by Phil Wilson’s project that has been going since 2003 and have been featured on the blog many times. “Hola, I Don’t Think So” is a good track, influenced by bands like The Sundays, Ride or The Stone Roses. The song is available on Shore Dive Records.

Comet Gain: another album-worth of songs from David Feck! 14 homemade pop songs recorded in a lo-fi way. But it is so fun to hear Comet Gain this way! This album is called “Bubblegum Summer Beach Bash!” and I totally recommend it.

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Today I wanted to know a little bit more about one of my favourite Norwegian bands.

There are quite a few Norwegian bands I love, and most of them released records on the mighty Perfect Pop Records. The girl group The Blind Bats was no exception. A 7″ single, an EP and an album were their legacy (as well as a few compilation appearances). I do believe we owe them a little bit more than that. Their songs were a explosion of fresh pop. Punchy and fun. They should have been bigger I would say!

And I am sure I am not the only one that thought this. Little Teddy Recordings from Germany believed in the band too and released the album on vinyl and their 7″. So let’s see what we can tell about them.

The band’s first record was “The Banshee Girl EP” that came out in 1992. Released by Perfect Pop (POP 6), the EP was a success having a second edition right after (the first edition has a white sleeve while the 2nd edition a red sleeve). This record came with four terrific songs, “Banshee Girl” and “Vacation” on the A side and “Polaroid City” and “Last Orders” on the B side. The record had cool artwork (a normal thing for records in this label) and fun inserts.

THe band was formed by Vibeke Whiplash on vocals and guitar, Sandy Shore on farfisa and backing vocals, Tuesday Knight on bass,  and handclaps, Reg Trademark on guitar and handclps and Mrs. F*** on drums, handclaps and tambourine. The record was produced by Tom Trøbråten from The Time Lodgers and recorded at Endless Studio by Ulf Knudsen (Betong Hysteria, Feel, Sister Rain, Hellige, Norske Gutter, Kaare Og Partiet, etc) and Eystein Hopland (Bio-Logic, Ex Lex, Sister Rain, Skogvokterne). The photos are credited to Maya Glaser.

So I never knew the names behind these aliases. I found out now that Tuesday Knight was Tonje Ludvigsen who played in The Vacuum Dreamers. Reg Trademark was Ståle Caspersen who played with The Tables. Sandy Shore was Kjersti Gravklev. Vibeke Viken used to use the alias Holly Wood as well and played on The Vacuum Dreamers. Mrs. F*** was Heidi Cleven.

Their second release came out in Germany, on Little Teddy Recordings. “Waiting for the Summer” 7″ (LITe708) came out in 1993 with three terrific songs, “Waiting for the Summer” and “Killing Time” on the A side and “Fall” on the B side. This time on drums we see Max O’Malley (Ine Merete Johanssen). The design of the sleeve is credited to Erling Vestnes. The producer was again Tom Trøbråten and Geir Holtbakk was the engineer and co-producer. Again beautiful art, beautiful inserts. Top release.

Lastly in 1994 the band released the classic “Pop the Question” album. Perfect Pop released the CD version (POP 13) while Little Teddy released the LP version. The vinyl version actually had a first pressing on black vinyl of 300 copies and then a 2nd of 200 copies on coloured vinyl. Also bear in mind the art for both releases differ a lot. The songs were the same.

Again all of them recorded at Endless Studio and mastered at Stype Audio with Eystein Hopland and Tom Trøbråten, the songs were “Sleep the Whole Night Through”, “Alice in Wonderland?, “She Goes to Parties”, “By Accident”, “Nolan Bigsby’s Wonderful Story”, “Candy Flavoured!”, “Buick Outside my House”, “Everywhere I Go”, “Daydreamer”, “Run Around in the Sun”, “The Wind Blows Your Hair” and “Susan”.

On the album the got help from Robert Birdeye from The Tables and Tom from The Time Lodgers. The drummer for this record was someone else, J. Slingerland.

When it coms to compilations the band appeared on 4. The first was a CD comp plus cassette plus 7″ released by Mermaid Record from Germany. This one is from 1992 and was called “Mermaid Employee of the Month: Gustav Sackmüller” (MIRABELL 665). The song the band contributed was “Polaroid City”.

In 1995 their song “Alice in Wonderland” ends up on “(Gardene of Delights Presents…) Seek Refuge… (From Your Intolerable Situation)” a vinyl compilation put together by Garden of Delights (Garden 3). That same year the songs “Banshee Girl” and “I’m a Believer” are included in “A Perfect Pop Compilation 1991-1994” released by Perfect Pop Records (POP20) on CD.

Lastly “Waiting for the Summer” ends up on the 2001 CD comp “Woosh! Little Teddy Recordings 1991-2001” released by Little Teddy (BiTe025).

Looking at the Perfect Pop website I found a bunch of photos taken of thee band by Moren “Mortan” Andersen, Maya Glaser and Steinar Buholm. Also flyers of a gig the band shared with The Time Lodgers and Astroburger at Cosmopolite and another from February 5th 1992 at Headache.

On the label it also tells that that the band members went to be on different bands including New York based Oscar and the Pidgin Sisters, SS Bondevik, Ljodahått, Frequency TV and The Vacuum Dreamers. The only one I know is the last one! Never heard the other ones… and don’t know which members were on which band!

Another interesting tidbit I found is that last year Tuesday Knight released a 32-page booklet titled “Drinking Songs for Dirty Blondes” with her lyrics and illustrated by Ronny Haugeland. I should try to get this. Some info for it and a link to buy it can be found here.

The website Rockipedia says that the band played a French festival in 1994. Which festival was this one?

Not many blogs have written about them, but one who has is 7iete Pulgadas by my good friend Alex. His post dates from back in 2007!

Sadly couldn’t find any more details about them. But I am sure many of you remember them. Did they record more songs? What about the other bands they were involved with? Worth investigating? What are they up to these days? Many questions and hopefully answers soon!

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Listen
The Blind Bats – Banshee Girl

Day 513

Secret Attraction: nice discovery from Phoenix, Arizona, thanks to my friend Casio Van Doesburg! “Sensitivity/Drifting”is the name of this release that includes 3 songs, “You”, “Drifting” and “Sensitivity” in that order. There is very little info about this project, but it doesn’t matter. It chimes, it jangles, sounds very 80s. What’s not to like!

Fine.: this has to be one of my favourite bands as of late. The Boston, UK, band makes perfect pop. They have a new EP out called “How I feel Now”. Or is it a single with two B sides? I always get confused in how to categorize these. Anyhow. 3 songs. Digital only as far as I know. Perfect pop. Yes, I insist. Perfect pop.

Shesawsins: this band from West Java, Indonesia, has just released their first demo on Bandcamp. Their originally titled “Demo 2021” has two songs, “Memories” and “Mothra”. The band is formed by Ekop, Fachri and Dendy and let’s keep an eye on them. Indonesian bands know how to make good indiepop!

Swirlpool: this German band does make some pretty shoegaze! I just discovered the band thanks to their latest song, “Cinnamon Sun”. The band seems to be a bit more pro than the bands I usually feature. They have their own website, and all sorts of accounts on social media. But don’t let that bother you. The songs are nice.

Cor de Lux: I like this melodic post punk band from Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Their latest song jangles and chimes just like I like and the vocals, albeit different to your normal indiepop fare, work just fine. It is a very cool sounding band. I need to check their other songs, but I have to say “Futures” won me over.

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One more from Hull, thanks to Chris Warkup’s Soundcloud page!

After discovering The Sandcastles, with their gorgeous female vocals, I wasn’t expecting to find another girl-fronted band. Well, Promise, sounds as good!

I have so far heard one song by them. It is called “Stay With Me” and I totally recommend it. If you like The Fat Tulips, I am sure you’ll like this one too.

This song appeared on the compilation tape “Now That’s What We Call Hull” that came out in 1992. This is the same compilation where I discovered the aforementioned The Sandcastles and the band Full Cry which I have written about already. And I’m sure I’ll keep discovering more great indiepop sounds here. The song is on the A side, it is the 3rd song, sandwiched between Joyce Victoria’s “Fortunate Thing” and Juniper Chute’s “Me and Mrs Jones”.

I try to find more information about the band but as you can imagine with a name like Promise it is very hard. Googling promise gives me thousands, millions, of hits, but nothing to do with the band.

I do find something. In 1992 the band released a tape, an EP. It was probably a demo, would be nice to know. It was called “Sneeze like a Cat” and had four songs. “Sooner or Later” and “Jolly” on the A side and “She Shall Whisper” and “My Pretty Baby” on the B side.

That’s all I could find. So yeah, if anyone has any info about this obscure but lovely sounding band let me know!

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Listen
Promise – Stay With Me

Day 511

Magic Roundabout: the awesome Manchester 80s band that I interviewed not too long ago announced the album “Up”! The album is available now to pre-order (I already did!) on Third Man Records. It will be out on September 24 and includes just 6 songs from what I understand. So maybe more of a mini-album?! If you want to hear one of the songs from the album, “She’s a Waterfall”, follow the link. Wonderful track, classic sounding indiepop!

Swansea Sound: the band formed by Hue, Amelia, Rob and Ian is back with a cassette tape and mini CD with two songs, “Swansea Sound (English)” and “Swansea Sound (Cwmraeg)”. We can listen to the English version, but the Welsh version not! And I am so very curious to hear Amelia and Hue sing in Welsh.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: two more songs by Glenn Donaldson, the incombustible man behind the San Francisco band. The new songs are titled “Leave it All Behind” and “Can’t Stop the World from Going By”. As usual jangly and chiming!

Dummy: now we head to Los Angeles and discover this band that is releasing “Mandatory Enjoyment” on October 22nd. I am surprised with labels and bands being able to say when their vinyl record will be out with all the current delays! Anyhow, the album will be available on CD too and cassette thanks to Trouble In Mind Records. You can preview just one track now, “Daffodils”, which sounds ace.

Pia Fraus: and this is amazing news! On November 1st the Tallinn band is releasing “Now You Know it Still Feels the Same”, a new album! It will be available on CD and vinyl and will include 12 songs. Two of them are available to preview, “How Fast Can You Love” and “In Mind”. As usual, this is so good. Cracking pop!

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Today is the turn for a very obscure band from Ottawa, Canada, that I stumbled upon on Soundcloud a few days ago. The account that has three songs by the Paisley Cowboys is owned by Billy Lidbetter, who was a member of the band.

The songs you will be able to find here are the fantastic “Start All Over Again“, “Blue Bride“, “Black” and “The Hurting Kind“. I believe “Black” is the oldest song, it was part of a demo recording produced by Karlin Shewman in 1984. “Blue Bride” and “Start All Over Again” date from 1985 and we don’t know the date for “The Hurting Kind”.

I can see that Billy has been involved with many bands here. They include Doorbell Dogs, Strange Angels, Original Supreme, Lesbian Seagull, Billy Slinks, Spray Paint, Porco Dio, Omni-Directional, The Pussys, Karlin August Kidd, Rare Groove, Smokecrusher, The Foundation, Eat Crow, Tainted Meat, Dorsey Burnette, Future Toys and The Hammerheads. I think the most indiepop band out of them all, he played so many musical genres, were The Paisley Cowboys.

A photo on Soundcloud may indicate the band was a five-piece. It looks like 4 guys and 1 girl? It is a bit blurry so hard to say.

There is barely any information about the band. A blog called Ottawa Punk History has a gigography for the city. Here we find a few gigs the band played in their hometown. On April 10 and April 11 of 1985 the band played along Bugs Harvey Oswald at The Underground. On April 20 of that same year the band played with Porcelain Forehead, Fluid Waffle and Skull Giver at the Glebe Community Center.

May 17 of 1985, now they play with Beat Crazy again at The Underground. That’s the last gig listed for them. Too little.

On Twitter I find a reply to a photo of Ron Sexmith. The person commenting mentions he used to manage the band. Pretty sure his first name is Mike, but can’t tell the last name.

I notice stoneeyedkiller has uploaded the song “Start All Over Again” to Youtube. Ah! he has good taste and again discovered the band before me. The important thing is that he found a photo for the band. Where? It looks like a proper promo photo!

Anyhow, that’s all I could track down on the web. So yes, any help finding out more details about the Paisley Cowboys will be appreciated! Canadian friends, do you remember them?

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Listen
Paisley Cowboys – Start All Over Again

Day 509

Lauds: discovering this Wilmington, North Carolina, label called Fort Lowell Records. Their self-titled release by Lauds caught my attention immediately. The “Lauds EP” sounds amazing. Jangly. Chiming. Four songs of pure pop. Great stuff. Digital only it seems?

Archie Sagers: another new label for me, Crafting Room Recordings from Brighton. They have released “Glitter” by Archie Sagers which is the second and final single from the upcoming EP “New Colours in the Sky”. The song is great, with a superb melody and dreamy sparkling guitars. Let’s keep an eye on Archie, right?

Parasouls: now we head to Manila, Philippines. It is another digital single I want to present you today, “Sunny Beach” by Parasouls. Sounds perfect for this summer, right? Also Philippines have great beaches, many that I’d love to visit some day. Anyhow, it is great to discover this pop trio from Lilystars Records.

Seoul Magic Club: the wizards from Seoul. That’s how they define themselves. Interesting. I have just discovered them through the song “Que Sera Que Sera”. And I like it! It is a sweet dreamy song, moody and mellow. The band is formed by SIAN on vocals. Shin on synth and Na on drums.

300 D: Jen Weisberg and Bean Pearce are 300 D from Oakland, California. They just have two songs on Bandcamp, their latest that was released last week is called “Grocery Vaping” which is a fine slice of bedroom pop!

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And yet one more post discovering Hull bands thanks to Chris Warkup’s Soundcloud page!

Today is the turn of The Brontes, which I guess their name is pretty obvious where it comes from. Right?

The Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary family, born in the village of Thornton and later associated with the village of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte (1816–1855), Emily (1818–1848), and Anne (1820–1849), are well known as poets and novelists. Like many contemporary female writers, they originally published their poems and novels under male pseudonyms: Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Their stories immediately attracted attention for their passion and originality. Charlotte’s Jane Eyre was the first to know success, while Emily’s Wuthering Heights, Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and other works were later to be accepted as masterpieces of literature.

The song Chris shared on his Soundcloud is called “Precious” and it was included in the compilation tape “Hull North of Manchester” that came out in 1990. This tape included a band I love, The Penny Candles, who I interviewed ages ago. The Brontes’ song was the first song on the A side, pretty sure whoever put this tape together had great consideration for this track and I think it is not a surprise, the song is good!

I could find out that the band appeared on another compilation that same year. It was called “There’s Something Stirring in King Billy’s Bogs”. This tape was released by the label Hull, Hell and Happiness and the song that was included by The Brontes was called “Crime”. I notice too that I could find credits for who wrote the song, Graham Smith and Jasper Bolton. Good! Two names. This tape also included The Penny Candles and yet another band I’ve interviewed in the past, Pink Noise!

And then I find some more stuff! One thing that I find out is that the band wasn’t technically from Hull but from a place called Driffield. Never heard of it…

Driffield, also known as Great Driffield, is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The civil parish is formed by the town of Driffield and the village of Little Driffield. By road, it is 53 miles (85 km) north-east of Leeds, 70 miles (110 km) north-east of Sheffield, 29 miles (47 km) east of York, 23 miles (37 km) north of Hull, 72 miles (116 km) south-east of Middlesbrough, and 218 miles (351 km) north of London. Driffield is named The Capital of the Wolds, due to its location sitting centrally within the Yorkshire Wolds.

And then a true surprise. A video! A promo video for the song “Crime“. I wasn’t expecting that!

There is a bit of info here. It mentions that the video was recorded in 1989 on Beverly Westwood, Hen Cooper’s mum’s shed and garden in Nafferton and many roads around England, and that it was aired in MTV, NHK Japan, Eurochannel, ITV UK and more. Wow. Who remembers watching it?

Also the lineup of the band is listed here. Claire Binnington on vocals, Hen Cooper on backing vocals, Smirt on guitar, Jasper Bolton on guitar, Andy Bingham on bass and Neil Drury on drums. Sadly it seems Neil has passed away. His last gig was at Liverpool University on January 22, 1991.

Back to the names, I believe Smirt is Graham Smith. Can someone confirm that?

And then a Facebook and an Instagram! Seems the band are still going!

On the Facebook page I read that the band recorded an album called “House of Dreams”. But I haven’t been able to find a tracklist for it. The Facebook page has a lot of stuff about the band. On an newspaper clipping it mentions that the band usually packed the Camden Falcon and that they were signed to a German label D.S.B. that was to release an EP. Did that happen? Other places the band played included The Adelphi, Border Lines, Solem Bar in Manchester Uni, or Blue Lamp. Other gigs happened at The White Horse in London on October 11, 1990, at the Redcar Folk Festival on July 14, 1995, supporting The Buzzcocks at Leeds Uni on October 1990, at the Royal Standard in Bradford, Gullivers in Grimsby, The Alex Goole in Goole, The Norseman in Driffield, Old Angel in Nottingham, Leisure World in Bridlington, Spotted Cow in York, Polytechnic in Leeds, LA’S in Kings Lynn, Leicester uni, The Alex in Goole, Lower School in Driffield, GOing Underground in Berkhamsted, Saxon Suite in Driffield, Steamers in Bridlington, The George in Bridlington, Room 1795 in Hull, Sewerby Park in Bridlington, Bell Hotel in Driffield.

Bands they supported included Eat, The Heart Throbs, Cast, Katrina and The Waves, Full Cry, Hunnys Birthday and Matthew Hogg.

Also we find more names for songs like “Basement Love”, “Catch Me”, “Mr. Sometimes”, “County Line”, “Into the Night”, “Forever”, “What a Fool Believes”, “The Only One”, “She Got”, “Catch Me”, Fat” and “If”. Some of these songs are found on the band’s Soundcloud. I believe most if not all of these songs were recorded at Fairview Studio in Kings Lynn.

Another thing that caught my attention is that they were to be featured on a CD called “A Perfect Combination – Fairview Studios 1973-1990”. That indeed happened in 2016. The song they contributed was “Crime”. Other indiepop bands in this comp include International Rescue, The Gargoyles, THe Beautiful South, Pink Noise and 3-Action! among others. There was even a gig for the release of this CD and the band played that gig on December 9, 2016 at the Kingmaker.

After this reunion the band played on May 6, 2017 at the Maple Room in Driffield and on June 9, 2017 at Tidal Waves Festival in Bridlington. On May 28, 2017 the band played The Priory Bar and on July 15 of that same year at the Newtobury Music & Beer Festival. On September 21 2017 the band played at Hull Fruit. On February 2, 2019, the band played at Kardomah94 for the Perfect Combination 3 Stephen Hughes gig.

The German label was to release an album. On Facebook the band has notes of what the album would be. The tracks for it were in this order, “Only One, “Catch Me”, “Basement Love”, “She Got”, “If”, “Forever”, “Into the Night”, “The House of Dreams”, “Fat” and “Rebound”. On the drums now we find Joel Cash. Graeme Smith is credited for guitar on the song “House of Dreams” and Fraz Ward for keyboards on “She Got”, “House of Dreams” and “Only One”. The album was produced by the band and John Spence and was engineered and mixed by John Spence.

A 14 track CD was put together by the band in 2017 for their gigs. Wonder if copies of it are still available. The band went to record once again, in 2018. It was to be an EP and three songs of this session are available on Soundcloud, “What a Fool Believes”, “County Line” and “Heat of the Day”.

Another compilation that seems obscure is the one called “Sight & Sound”. This compilation featured the band and was put together to support SightSupport Hull & East Yorkshire. Wonder which song the band contributed to it.

Oh well, that was quite a lot of info in one day! I wasn’t expecting this much! Hopefully we’ll learn more details soon. Do you Hull indiepop fans remember The Brontes? Did you see them at their reunion gigs?

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Listen
The Brontes – Precious