Wednesday, so far so good.

Managed to have the two posts. Only Friday left. I have an interview to do, write the questions, but I haven’t had the time. It is a band I really love. So I want to do it asap. But it is hard. Let’s see if I have some extra time soon.

Other than that today I finished mailing all Alfie orders. I hope more come my way!

I should have some good offers on the website this weekend. We need some space at home you know, so there should be 10 7″s boxes for cheap. It will be random 7″s. I did a similar offer a few years ago and people enjoyed it. And I should do a similar one with random Cloudberry Cake Kitchen releases. Probably 5 CDs in a package. What do you think? Just need space now with the baby.

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One more time exploring the excellent “Everything But the Boys and the Girl” CDR compilation that Happy Extreme! put out in 2019. I’ve written so far two times about bands that appeared on it, The Boy’s Short Hair and Forest Stroll. This is the 3rd band and probably there will be more!

More because many of the band on this CDR, which is not for sale and came along a book titled “1986-1991”, are unknown to me. Just one song by these bands is not enough for me. I have a big pop appetite! Need to hear more about these great sounding bands!

Sadly there is no info about them. So I need all the help I can get. For Somerset Club Boy it is clear that the band is Japanese. The song they have, “素敵な日曜日 (Version)” is in Japanese. So I need my friends from the land of the rising sun to help me get more info about them.

From what I can gather the band named themselves after Somerset, a county in England.

Somerset is a rural county of rolling hills, the Blackdown Hills, Mendip Hills, Quantock Hills and Exmoor National Park, and large flat expanses of land including the Somerset Levels. There is evidence of human occupation from Paleolithic times, and of subsequent settlement by the Celts, Romans and Anglo-Saxons. The county played a significant part in Alfred the Great’s rise to power, and later the English Civil War and the Monmouth Rebellion. The city of Bath is famous for its Georgian architecture and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Also their British-love goes further. I believe the song is actually a version of a Jesus Couldn’t Drum original. Which song, I am not sure yet. I have a few records by the English band, but not all. And I am not very good at figuring these things out. But I think this is in the right path.

Anyhow, the song sounds great. So we wonder if the band recorded more songs, maybe songs of their own? Would be great to find out. Anyone that knows anything about them please leave a comment on the blog! And thanks again for reading and following this humble space!

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Listen
Somerset Club Boy – 素敵な日曜日

Okay. So I thought first to do the 3 posts a week before going into reviewing new bands. I think that’s a fair effort. I feel this is a good way to get myself back to it. It’s some progress. If this week and the next I can manage to do the story of 6 bands, I guess I can go back to reviewing new music. Time is priceless for me right now you know. I have emails I have to answer waiting and waiting. I have projects I want to do but are hard to follow up. So, bear with me.

In the meantime I want to share the good news that Shizuoka mailorder The Stone Records will be having Alfie copies for our Japanese friends. That’s a great thing indeed! Still no news from mailorders in Europe. I hope that changes soon.

About adding Alfie to Bandcamp, I decided not to as Bandcamp was sold to Epic Games. Also I don’t find a way to just share a few songs of the CD, it asks me to share all 18 songs. I don’t want to do that. These retrospectives should be a surprise to those buying them. I think there’s beauty to that.

Anyways, I have started looking for a new project for the Cloudberry Cake Kitchen. I have some ideas, but we’ll see if they work out.

Hope you all had a nice weekend.

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For many Flirt are Barcelona’s best kept secret. I only know their song “Arquitectura” which was such a hit for indiepop lovers at the time, the late 90s, early 2000s. Well, those of us who liked obscure Spanish indiepop… because the band didn’t have any releases you know. Most of us discovered Flirt through Soulseek or similar programs, where lots of demos used to be shared.

“Arquitectura” was part of one said-demos. It was actually put out on a eponymous CDR in 1999 and included 6 songs: “Arquitectura”, “Any of Those Crazy Things”, “Una Liga Menor”, “Caustique”, “Tu O Do, My Cultura” and “Why Do I Dance Alone?”.

We know the leader of the band was Lucas Arraut and that they appeared on two compilations, always with the song “Arquitectura”. First on the CD compilation (+ DVD) “100% Sinammon” released by Sinnamon Records (SINCD100) and later on a download MP3 compilation called “Planes de Futuro, Presente y Pasado” released by Discos de Kirlian.

It is through this last compilation that I learn that the band recorded another demo. I am looking for it now. See if I can find any info. But what also caught my attention is that Discos de Kirlian planned to release “Arquitectura” as an A side on a vinyl single. It seems they were working on it in 2011 with another label, Federación de Universos Pop. I guess that never happened? They even said what color the vinyl was going to be, red. Oh, what a shame! Would have loved this on record.

Discogs also lists the project Sideral as a related band to Flirt. Sideral was the moniker Aleix Vergés used as a dj and member of Peanut Pie. Was he in Flirt as well? The website Mondo Sonoro gives us some info about that…. he was the bassist! It seems though he has sadly passed away…

Then I find the blog Top 100 Vermouthsport Español that dedicates a post to them. Here we learn that “Arquitectura” is actually the 2nd demo.

I find an interview in Rafa Skam’s Yellow Melodies fanzine/e-zine. What info do we get from here? Well, that the band place the Ice Cream Pop Festival first of all and they also played the BAM festival… but then there’s so much more!

We find the band members names, Rodrigo on guitar, Joaquín on piano, Alberto on drums, N´éstor on bass and Lucas on vocals and acoustic guitar. It mentions that Joaquín was studying slavic philology and Alberto classic philology and was working in a computer-based job. Néstor had just graduated in law. We also know that Rodrigo was previously in a punk band called Los Nervios Rotos. Lucas had been in a band called Glamour. Alberto had played in Marea Baja, Sosas Cáusticas, Minema and Peanut Pie.

The songs were usually written by Lucas, a 90%. The other 10% were co-written with Rodrigo. They then go through the songs they played at BAM 1999, there we discover the names of two songs that weren’t on the demo I mentioned earlier, “Gloomy Words” and “Aro Emo Emotional”. And then I finally find information about their first demo, also on the Yellow Melodies!

So this first demo had four songs, “Gloomy Words”, “Where Do Stories End”, “She’s A Rebel” and “Putz Boy”. It was released on tape and from what I understand Rafa, from the Yellow Melodies, always had a dream of releasing these four songs on blue vinyl on his label Discos Imprescindibles. Sadly this hasn’t happened yet.

Then another article about them. Now on the well-known website Jenesaispop. This article was part of the website ‘archaeology’ series, where they cover obscure bands from the past. I haven’t read them yet but I see they wrote about El Viaje de las Flores, a superb band I interviewed ages ago!

Anyhow, here it mentions the band started in 1997. That their first demo dates from 1998 and the second from 1999. That they played in Madrid alongside Mishima. Suddenly, when everyone loves them, from fanzines to the music press, the band stops making noise. There’s silence. And the band splits. Lucas then becomes a journalist and works at Marie Claire, Vanidad and El País.

And that’s all I could find about them. One wonders if they played more cities other than Barcelona and Madrid. Why did they last so little and didn’t get to release anything? What labels were interested in them? Who knows, hopefully we’ll find out more about them soon!

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Listen
Flirt – Arquitectura

Still being very difficult to organize myself and find time to review new bands. Let’s see if by Monday I can do it.

Alfie news. Still no outlets for Europe. But in Brazil there will be copies at Locomotiva Discos in Sao Paulo. They are also getting copies of the Macguffins and Baby Lemonade compilations.

For US fans you can find the record at the best mailorder there is for indiepop, Jigsaw Records.

And that’s it. CDs are doing well. I will add the CDs to Bandcamp, see if those Bandcamp Fridays work for Cloudberry too.

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I return to the excellent “Everything But the Boys and the Girl” CDR compilation that Happy Extreme! put out in 2019. I wrote a bit about this compilation when I wrote about the band The Boy’s Short Hair on the blog.

The CDR is not for sale and came along a book titled “1986-1991” that is worth looking for even if you don’t understand Japanese. Right, forgot to say this was a Japanese release!

On this compilation there are many amazing bands I had never heard in my life and you wonder where they come from. There is no information!

So in the case of the band that I present you today, Forest Stroll, again I know absolutely nothing. That’s why I am writing about them, hoping to find out more details. Maybe some of you know something, even as little as where they where from. Anything will help.

The song I heard by them is the one included in the comp. It is called “Behind the Tree” and it is really amazing. It has this great female vocals, this classic 80s guitars, a bit like Marine Girls, and then some male vocals on the chorus. Thinking too of Grab Grab the Haddock. Anyhow, it is fantastic.

I wonder if the band hailed from Japan, though from the accents I’d like to thing they were British, but I have no idea. So yes, help me please!

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Listen
Forest Stroll – Behind the Tree

I think this week won’t be possible to review new bands. Let’s see if next week.

The good news is that Alfie CDs have started shipping! Very good news. The CDs look and sound great. The website is updated with the info and I will add the release to Bandcamp on the weekend. I will end up adding all Cloudberry Kitchen releases to Bandcamp but they will be a couple of dollars more expensive there as Bandcamp takes a cut you know.

For those in Japan the good news is that Disques Blue-very will be carrying some copies. I hope other mailorders, from other countries, also start carrying the CDs. I know the shipping is expensive but what can I do. Wish it was under my control.

If you have never heard of Alfie. I interviewed the band some years ago here. And you can listen to their superb single “Play On” on our Soundcloud!

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Yet another post that I left as a draft a few years back. I never ended up investigating and researching the Canadian band the Plasterscene Replicas!

I start on the safest place, on Discogs. There I see two releases. The first one from 1985. A 12″ vinyl EP. Self-titled. Released by a label called Voicespondence with catalog number VSP 015. I am not very familiar with Canadian independent pop or rock. So don’t know any of the band’s in the catalog. I do notice that Clive Robertson who engineered and produced this EP released solo records in this label.

Other credits on this record include of course the band members. This is helpful for sure. Wee know that Brenden Cavin was on bass and vocals, Rob Christie on drums, Stephen Stewart on guitar and vocals, Chas Salmon on guitar, keyboards and vocals and Rod Cohen on percussion.

The EP that had a photo of the band playing in the snow on the cover, and photos of the band (well, with the band members cut out, just leaving the instruments and background) playing live on the back cover, included four songs. The A side had “Turtle Song” and “New Warm” while the B side had “Somewhere in the Middle” and “Images are Clear”.

In 1988 the band releases their debut album “Glow”. It came out on vinyl and cassette and was released by Raining Records (RA101). 12 songs on this record, “We Can Walk”, “Things You Hold”, “Doldrums”, “What Could Be Incomplete”, “Trains” and “Pull Out” on the A side and “All I See”, “Hot Sands”, “Holler”, “Town Crier”, “Falling Down the Stairs” and “You’ve Got the Way” on the B side. The album was recorded and engineered at Umbrella Sound and Triton Sound, mixed at Umbrella Sound and also at Fifth Avenue Studio. These were studios in Toronto.

The art for this record is credited to Elaine Halpert with design by Annabelle Stanley. The photography was taken by Paul Orenstein. The producer and engineer was Michael Phillip-Wojewoda who also added piano, bells, scissors and tambourine to some tracks. He was part of the bands Disband, Pig Farm, Rheostatics and The Faceless Forces of Bigness.

We also know that Brenden Cavin was part of the band The Station Twang. Don’t know if the other band members were involved in any other bands. Then the only other info Discogs provides is for compilation appearances.

Both appearances date from 1987. On the LP compilation “For No Apparent Reason” released by X REcords (XR87001) the band contributed the song “Turtle Song”. And on the US cassette comp “Lake Toronto Compilation” released by Sound of Pig (SOP 117) the band had three songs, “New Warm”, “Something in the Middle” and “Images are Clear”.

I google a little bit more and find that the blog Wilfully Obscure wrote about the band in 2017. There I find some info as always. Most importantly a link the Now Toronto website. There an article dating from November 21, 2013, tells that sadly Charlie (Chas) Salmon passed away. On this article written by Joshua Kloke we find more details of course. We know that Salmon was born in 1960 and that he also was involved in many Toronto bands including FiIfth Column. Also that the Plasterscenee Replicas stopped playing in 1989 but did a reunion show at the Cameron House in August of 2007.

And there’s more. On Youtube I find that the band made a promo video for the song “We Can Walk” from their album. It is amazing the amount of comments praising and remembering this song. Wow! It seems they were very well known in Canada and were played in TV and radio a lot. Then there’s a another promo video, this time for the song “All I See“. On the comments I read that Dough Koch was the cinematographer of the video.

This same Youtube account has even more treasures. There is a whole live gig of the band playing at The Cameron in 1987. It is audio only, no footage and has 15 songs in total including “You’ve Got the Way”, “Doldrums”, “What Could Be Incomplete”, “Pull Out”, “Photographs”, “Infant Outfant”, “Today”, “Painful Upset”, “Don’t Go Back Again”, “Trains”, “Holler”, “We Can Walk”, “Marjorie”, “How to Be” and “Falling Down the Stairs”. There is another gig, same format, from November 3, 1989, at Lee’s Palace. This time the songs are 11, “Town Crier”, “Hot Sand”, “Last Sunday Night”, “Holler”, “Magic Carpet Ride”, “Darkness”, “Distributing”, “Unwind”, “We Can Walk”, “All I See” and “Painful Upset”. Lots of new songs here. Maybe they were working on a new release?

A proper gig, with video footage is available too, from the time they played a CFNY sponsored event at El Mocambo on  November 7, 1985.

One of the songs from the gigs, “Don’t Go Back Again“, is available recorded in a studio. Maybe it is from a demo tape? We know some demo sessions happened at MCA in 1989. Some lo-fi recordings were done prior to them at Mike Duggan’s basement. On Youtube we find “Distributing” and “New Rules” as 4-track demos at the aforementioned basement.

Lastly it is worth mentioning the band has a Facebook page. Not much info there, some photos of DAT tapes, but not much more.

Anyways, this was a nice discovery for me. Hope it was for you as well. Anyone that has any more info, please share!

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Listen
Plasterscene Replicas – Trains