The Photocopies: I think every week there’s some news by The Photocopies. Sean Turner’s solo project is the most prolific indiepop band this year and he has a new digital EP titled “Make Up Your Mind”. This EP consists of 4 jangly tracks that are very enjoyable.

The Spanish Amanda: finally! After a little wait since the English band announced their “Le Petit Magritte” EP, and then saying that an album titled “Magritte” was on the way, we finally get to listen to this very good album! It is released digitally and includes 10 songs that I think are very good. You know I am a big fan of Huw’s humor and his lyrics, so pay attention on them, and of course, if you need an introduction to the world of The Spanish Amanda, check out an interview on the blog from ages ago!

Scott Robertson: didn’t know that Kevin Robertson’s (The Vapour Trails) son made music. It is quite a surprise. Subjangle must have been happily surprised too and decided to release an album titled “Footprints in the Butter”. The album is out now on CD and few copies remain. The album features 11 songs of jingle jangly loveliness.

Silver Biplanes: “Silver Bells” is a wonderful version of the Christmas classic! I think that this song should be in everyone’s playlist this holiday season. This has been released as a digital single by the fine London label WIAIWYA.

The Happy Somethings: and lastly we should check out another English band, The Happy Somethings. They also have a Christmas song titled “Kind of True”. This one is an original and they share the lyrics. The song is not as upbeat, more of a mellow song. I think this one should be added to that holidays playlist. Do you have any other Christmas indiepop songs recommendations?

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Johnny Moran on guitar and vocals, Paul Gaffney on vocals and guitar, Paul Harper on bass and Anton Moran on drums formed the mid-eighties Irish band The Cracker Factory.

The band was active between 1985 and 1987.  They formed in Dublin and they came from the East Wall area except Paul who was from Finglas.

According to Irishrock.org Johnny and Anton were brothers. It also mentions that the band’s name came from a line in the song “Two Steps Back” from The Fall.

It says that Paul Gaffney left the band before the band recorded their first 2-song demo. This tape from 1985 included the songs “Dead Man’s Shoes” and “Plastic Life”. The bio also mentions that the band added Dave O’Reilly to play trumpet. Eventually they had a trombone player and a female backing vocalist that might have been named Kate for a few shows. O’Reilly wouldn’t last long in the band, he would leave and join bands like Crime of Passion and Icon Trial.

In 1986 the band found a new frontman, Martin Lynch. Paul Harper would also be replaced. Declan Mulligan would be now on bass. This lineup recorded a 1986 demo tape at Sun Studios in Dublin. This cassette had the song “This is Where the Fire Starts”.

What is clear is that in 1987 Lynch left the band and was replaced by Dave Radford. Rasford had previously been in Cotton Mill Boys and Roly Daniels. It says that at this point the band’s sound had changed a lot. It wasn’t the jangly pop band from the early days but now a country-sounding band.

So it made sense to change names. They were now called Keeper of the Fire. There was a 1987 demo tape with three songs but not sure which songs were on it. Was it released under their new name? Or before they changed their name?

Other interesting bits I found is that Paul Gaffney was in Tony St. James and Dry Season. Declan Mulligan would later play in Inside Cairo, The Lesser Gods, The Candyshop and Dry Season. Anto Moran would be in The Promise. I think it is quite important to mention that I have written about the Dry Season on the blog! There was very little information about this band…

Then a superb find. Declan Mulligan has a Soundcloud. Still based in Dublin (or actually in a small coastal area south of Dublin City), he has uploaded many songs over his 40 years of making music. Among these recordings we find the 1985 demo with “Dead Man’s Shoes” and “Plastic Life”. He shares a few more details, that the songs were recorded at Temple Lane Studios in Dublin and were produced and engineered by Ian Bryan who would go to work with The Golden Horde, The Hothouse Flowers and U2.

Another great find among his Soundcloud is the song “Thin Disguise“. This demo song was recorded at the same studios in 1986, also by Ian Bryan.

He has also shared the song “This is Where the Fire Starts” from the 1986 demo tape. And “Seán” is another song from that session.

And that’s what I could find about the band. Some good info and some great tunes. Anyone remember them?

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Listen
The Cracker Factory – Thin Disguise

It’s tough to find new music these past weeks. I can’t seem to find much going on in the indiepopworld. I need some recommendations myself!

Waving Blue: a nice discovery here. Hailing from Italy, Waving Blue makes dreamy jangly pop. Earlier this month they released a digital EP titled “Fill the Void” with 4 songs. Weirdly they cover a Blink 182 song, which is interesting. But the best song in the EP is the last one, “Lazy Sunday”.

Cruush: now to Manchester. We check out what is the latest by the shoegazer combo Cruush. Well, they just released a digital single titled “Sombre by the Weekend”. It is not in the dreamy side of shoegaze by the heavy side and sounds good.

Whitelands: more shoegaze (I know, hard to come with indiepop releases as I was saying) this time from London. The band that started as a duo in 2017 and now a four-piece just put out a digital single. This one is in the dreamy side of shoegaze and is titled “Born in Understanding”. Very nice tune.

Kevin Robertson: from Aberdeen, the leader of The Vapour Trails, is releasing a solo 7″. It has two songs, “Why” and “D.C.B.A.-25” and the record is very limited, so act fast. 50 copies only! Both songs are jangly and poppy!

The Science of Words: great news that there are two brand new songs by Pete and Ian’s post-Horowitz project. On this band they also have Corinne of the classic band Jack inn the Green on vocals and Dave on rhythm guitar. The two songs, “Day Crash” and “Weekend Away” are superb, and proper indiepop! And they are now out on 7″ thanks to the Greek label Old Bad Habits!

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Who were Red Banner?

6 years ago a bunch of their recordings popped up on Soundcloud.

The band was based in London and was active in the early 80s. During that time they gigged and recorded widely. But for some reason they never got the attention they deserved.

The band was formed by Steve Connelly on rhythm guitar and vocals, Peter Markham on lead guitar, Trevor Williams on drums and Martin Bostock on bass. Peter wrote most of the songs.

Sometimes Richard Cottan from Tenpole Tudor helped the band adding violins to the songs.

The band went by a number of different names. In the early days they were named The Cubes. Under this name they recorded songs like “Events (Beyond Your Control)”, “Hello Moscow”, “Red Sky at Night” and “Crossing the Rhine”.

As mentioned there are many songs here.

I found the tape “Looking for a Living Room”. This tape was recorded in various London living rooms in the mid-1980s on a Tascam 4-track tape recorder. The songs on this tape were: “Looking for a Living Room”, “Indians”, “Will You Follow Them”, “The Base”, “Remains of the Guardian”, “No Love Lost”, “Simple Days in a White House”, “Harvest Time”, “Play at Home”, “Remain, Remain”, “Gods (Dead Gods)”, “Satellites (ft. Sue)”, “A Bunker of Our Own” and “Satellites (ft. Sue)”.

Another collection of songs is “Songs from the Basement”. This set of songs are recordings from the band’s home studio. These include: “A Girl Like You”, “Not for the First Time”, “Heroes”, “Strange”, “Here and Now””, “The Light in Your Eyes”, “Love is the Answer”, “Something Before”, “Baltimore to Washington, “The Reprieve” and “The More Things Change”

And there are a few more like “The Strangest Thing of All”, “A Time Like This” and “Your Country Needs You”.

Then I find out that the band did release at least one record. In 1982 they put out a 7″ with the songs “Events (Beyond Your Control” on the A side and “One of the Boys” on the B side. This record was released by the band’s own Banner Records (BR001) and was produced by the band and Ian Roche.

I couldn’t find more info about them. But if anyone remembers them please share. It’d be fantastic to know more details about them!

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Listen
Red Banner – Looking for a Living Room

Skytone: the Ottawa band have been recommended here in the past. They have had their music released on the fine The Beautiful Music label. A few days ago they released a new album called “Adrift” that has 11 songs. I am not sure if it is going to be released in physical format but all of the album us up now on Bandcamp and it sounds really nice. Jangly synth pop they call it.

Fuvk: Z Tapes is releasing “Goodnight Moon” by this Austin, Texas, solo project. It is a cassette tape limited to 100 copies and will include 6 songs. The EP will be out on December 31 and comes with a very nice artwork made by Jules Boucher.

Slaney Bay: As the two previous bands, Slaney Bay has also been recommended in the past. The London band is a new favourite of mine. They have a great sound. Proper indiepop with top guitars. Their latest came out a week or so ago, a digital EP titled “A Life Worth Living”. This EP has 5 terrific songs that I highly recommend.

Hadda Be:  another London band, and this time around one I had never heard before! “Mercurial” is the band’s latest single and sounds ace. They previously released an album called “Another Life” which I need to check out. The remind me a bit to Desperate Journalist. And that’s a good thing of course.

The Chrysanthemums: a new album by the classic band formed by Yukio Yung and Alan Jenkins! After two decades the pop duo have released “Decoy for a Dognapper!” How cool! The album is being released as a double CD on Egg Plant Records and includes 23 songs. A must have for every indiepop lover!

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I keep discovering amazing new songs. Maybe they are not that new to you. Stoneeyedkiller had shared it about a year ago on his Youtube channel. But for me it is new. I just discovered and I thought it was wonderful.

“Daylight”, the one song I have heard so far from Cyan, is gorgeous. It is lo-fi and it has that sound of 80s British indiepop I love. The female vocals, the naivet´é, the DIY vibe. Reminds me of my beloved Nine Steps to Ugly. But who were Cyan? Will I be able to find any more information about them?

I google with little hope. The name Cyan is of course taken from the colour of the same name. For those who might not be aware of this colour, it is the colour between green and blue. The name Cyan comes from the Greek word kynos which means dark blue enamel.

I guess I am lucky as I find the track “Daylight” on Soundcloud. Someone called Steve Redford has uploaded this song 9 years ago. I want to think he was in the band. The only detail he has shared about this track is that it was recorded on an old Amstrad 4-track in June of 1991.

Steve has also uploaded other songs by another band. It seems a previous band called The Avenue from 1990. He has uploaded three songs and the sound is quite different to Cyan. There is an image uploaded for The Avenue tracks but it is hard to make out the text. But I am pretty confident that in the address it says that the band hailed from Nottingham. I wouldn’t be surprised that Cyan hailed from Nottingham. So many superb bands came from there in the early 90s.

I try to track down Steve. But I don’t seem to find any great info about him or the band Cyan. I want to think that there were more songs recorded and I’d love to hear them. Anyone remembers them? Maybe saw them live?

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Listen
Cyan – Daylight

Struggling this week to write about new music finds… finding time is complicated…

Swansea Sound: the supergroup formed by Hue, Rob, Amelia and Ian is back with a Christmas release! The “Music Lover EP” is being released on CD on December 1st! This EP will have 3 songs, “Music Lover”, “Happy Christmas To Me” and “Merry Christmas to Me”. The last two songs had been previously released on a limited edition Snowflakes 7″ single from last year.

Spice World: the Australian band is back with a new album, “There’s No I in Spice World”. The four piece is putting this record out on vinyl through Meritorio Records and Tenth Court Records. The album is coming out on January 20 and will include 10 songs. 3 of them are available to preview and they are ace. Definitely check them out.

Love, Burns: when there is a new Love, Burns release one has to be happy. You know it is going to be quality. That the jangle is going to be on point. That there will be good lyrics. Overall, you are going to get top songs. “Fade in the Sun EP” is no exception. Four songs by one of the best indiepop projects of the last few years. Not sure if it is being released physically, but it is on Bandcamp now.

Holy Now: out now on vinyl is the latest album by the Swedish band Holy Now. It was released last month by Lazy Octopus Records and it has 9 pop tunes that deserve every indniepop’s attention! The album is titled “Dream of Me”, and I wonder how Swedish pop continues to create great pop music. I know, it is not in the amounts as a decade ago or so, but still, they know what they are doing.

Fanny & Alexander: From Santiago de Compostela, Spain, comes this project that makes songs in Galician. Named after the well-known Bergman movie, the band’s latest is a 9 song album titled “A Túa Ausencia Neste Ar”. The sound of the band is quite interesting, reminding me of another Spanish band from the past, Portonovo. Electronic arrangements and introspective lyrics, a good combo I think!

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Antic Hay is a comic novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1923. The story takes place in London, and depicts the aimless or self-absorbed cultural elite in the sad and turbulent times following the end of World War I.

We head to Norfolk, North Carolina. I see them listed in a website called Hardcore Norfolk, but the songs I found on Soundcloud sound jangly to me.

The band was formed by Gary Ziroli on vocals, Vernon Guinn on guitar, Anthony Torres on guitar, Charles Grant on bass and Howard Swartz on drums. Drummers changed though, and we know many drummers were part of the band at some point: Joey Mishkofski, Dave Warshaw , Bill Shearin, Mike Dugan and Joey Rudicil.

The band only released one record, a CD album in 1991 titled “A Few Cuts in Heaven”. This CD was released by Merkin Records (MM 321), a label based in Baltimore. The CD included 11 songs: “Another Song for You”, “And”, “All So Easy”, “Fear Alone”, “Cold Steel”, “Spring”, “One That Go Away”, “Common Ground”, “Kill the Watchdog”, “Everything is Beautiful” and “Where I Am”. The songs were recorded at Earworks in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1991. The CD artwork by Sam Sebren and photography by Mark Williamson. The engineer for the recordings was Robert Smith.

The Soundcloud recordings I found date from 5 years earlier, 1986. The songs had been recorded between the 8 and 9 of March of that year. This demo tape had the songs “Drowning Ulysses”, the superb “Here and Now” and “The Hand That Takes”. On these recordings the drummer was Dave Warshaw. The songs were produced by ISIDORE and engineered by Vic Lipscombe. They were recorded at CMC Studios in Zebulon, North Carolina.

This same account, restlessnoise, has more songs by Antic Hay. We find there “The Town You Left Behind“, another jangly track from 1986. This song was originally titled “Space to be Naked” and on this recording Antic Hay had Howard Swartz on drums.

Another track we find is “Flatfall“. This one is also from 1986 and it is said it was a fan-favourite at gigs.

Then I stumble upon a Facebook group for the band. There I find some more info. For example that the band played the Virginia Beach Civic Center on April 26, 1991, alongside The M-8o’s and Ant Man Bee.

Another gig they played, thanks to the Hardcore Norfolk site, dates from October 12, 1990, at The Boathouse in Norfolk. That time they played along Ant Man Bee and Buttsteak. They also share a Youtube link, a snippet from the film “Hardcore Norfolk”, a documentary of the scene of that city. There they interview Vernon Guinn, Anthony Torres and Charles Grant and show a bunch of cool flyers and photos from the band.

The band also played the Kings Head Inn along Worthless Dizzies and the 92 WOFM Block Party. Also at The Boathouse on December 29, 1989, with Waxing Poetics and Dreams So Real.

Another good find is a photography of 3 demo tapes by the band! Wow! So we see the tape I mentioned earlier but two more.

One that was recorded in January 1987 at Hit and Run Studios in Rockville, Maryland. Produced by the band and engineered by Steve Carr. This one had four songs, “Space to be Naked”, “Flatfall”, “Here and Now” and “Cold Steel”.

The other one was recorded in January 1988 on 8-track at Ear Works Studio in Virginia Beach. This tape had four songs, “No One Likes a Fool”, “Like it or Not”, “Spring” and “Before and After the Fact”.

Then this same photo has some more tapes with other songs by the band. We see song titles like “Before & After the Facts”, “Everything is Beautiful”, “Face it”, “Do it Clean”, “Noise”, “Subtle as Fire”, “That’s All”, “Never Going Back”, “Feel Free”, “Lovers Leap” or “Where I Am”.

Another interesting bit. There’s a cover of the song “The Town You Left Behind” and also “Here and Now” by Paul Unger.

Then there are some videos of some of the band members playing “Spring”  in 2012 as well as a performance of both Gary Ziroli and Vernon Guinn playing at the Naro Cinema of Norfolk before the showing of “Spinal Tap”.

Then I find some strange news on The Virginia Pilot. In 2014 Vernon Guinn, the guitarist for Antic Hay, robbed a bank. The police arrested him seven hours later.

On the Daily Press I read that in 1998 the band reformed under another name, God and Famous. They lasted until 1999. Then the members reformed again, minus Gary Ziroli, as Action Habit.

And this is what I found out about this cool sounding band. I wonder why they took so long to release their record. They seem to have had tons of songs. Anyone remembers them?

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Listen
Antic Hay – Here and Now

The Photocopies: it seems I write about Sean Turner’s band every single week. Well this time I think it makes all sense to do it. He has a new CD that is coming out on December 2 on Discos de Kirlian. It is a collection of 26 songs titled “Wrong Century”. It includes a bunch of covers too, including the TVPs, Primal Scream and Kylie Minogue!

Reina Republicana: I haven’t been following the Pamplona band for many years. It was nice to hear them again, as their music is up now on Bandcamp. Yeah, their 2012 debut album released by Limbo Starr is up and I am really enjoying it again. Copies of the record are still available.

Herr Wade: “Willkommen Zurück” is a new 4 song Christmas EP from the band formed by Sebastian Voss and Jørn Åleskjaer. The release is available on CD starting November 22nd. It comes with beautiful art by Roberto Chessa. A must have for the holiday season!

The Catherines: another band that is back is Hamburg’s The Catherines. They have just released a new single titled “But Sundays are the Best” which as usual is a top poppy song. This song will be included in the upcoming album “Wanna Meet Our Neighbours?” to be released in 2023.

My Raining Stars: and lastly this top release, “The Life We Planned EP”! So good! 5 songs that were recorded during the sessions of their album “89 Memories”. Thierry Haliniak band is top class on this record that is now on Bandcamp and that he has promised that it wont be on digital platforms. Very recommended!

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Now to Australia. Where in Australia? Not sure. This is another find on Soundcloud and thanks to stoneeyedkiller who posted this song first on his excellent Youtube channel.

The one and only song that has been uploaded to Soundcloud by this band is called “Stay with Me” and dates from 1988. We know that this song was part of a cassette, as we see a photo of a tape uploaded along the song, where it shows that it was the second song on this particular side of the cassette. The first track was called “Tracey” but it hasn’t been uploaded.

“Tracey” is credited to Kieran Butler for words and music. “Stay with Me” to Sean Pentecost and Chris Collins for words and music. The three of them were members of the band. Anthony Simmons, Russell Taplin and Rob Philpot completed Inside Out.

The only other details we know about this tape is that it was mixed and engineered by Mark Forrester at Platinum Australia in August 1988. There is a Platinum Studios in Melbourne. Maybe then the band hailed from there?

The uploader of this song was Chris Collins. He has also uploaded some other songs to his account and they are all titled “Lockdown”. Most probably these were recorded at the height of the pandemic.

There is a Kieran Butler, that I think could be the same Kieeran Butler. He is a comedian, musician and satirist that has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, Adelaide Fringe and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. He also has had a stand up show called “Collingwood Ruined my Life” that seems was quite successful. Is he the same one as in Inside Out?

I want to think Rob Philpot is an uncommon name. If that is so, I found an Australian Rob Philpot that was co-owner of a company called Aconex that was sold to US tech giant Oraccle in 2018. Could that be him?

Same with Sean Pentecost. Must be an uncommon name. Sadly I find that a drummer called Sean Pentecost, also known as “Seanheist”, died in 2020. That’s sad news. He seems he had a good career in a nu-metal band called Seanheist between 1994 and 2004.

And that’s what I could gather on my detective work. Maybe I got the wrong people, I am just making conjectures here. There is very little info about this band Inside Out. But it is clear to me that they had more songs, so I hope we get more details about them in the future.

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Listen
Inside Out – Stay With Me

The Photocopies: here’s the “Hopelessly Devoted” album! A few days ago I mentioned Sean Turner was preparing a new album but didn’t know it was going to land so quick. The album is on the short side, 8 songs. But that doesn’t mean it ends up feeling thin. There’s lots of great jangle and melodies in here.

David Christian: the Comet Gain leader is back with another collection of tunes. Recorded last October “Alive from the Acorn Lake Cafe” is a lovely bunch of songs. 18 in total. Acoustic and lo-fi, and a melancholic feel throughout, it’s definitely a record to enjoy this upcoming winter, it has the right mood.

EGGS: and another new album, this one available on vinyl. The Paris band has just released “A Glitter Year” on Safe inn the Rain Records and it is tremendous! The album has 12 songs and I suggest getting a copy. I would want one myself too! Punchy pop, jangly, girl/boy vocals, ramshackle glory!

Flores de Uranio: the Madrid band caught my attention time ago. I am very happy to find out they have a new digital single titled “Por los Siglos de los Siglos”, a terrific jingle jangly song. Can I suggest them to play the upcoming Madrid Popfest? I won’t be going sadly, but I am sure pop fans going would enjoy their sound!

Roller Derby: and lastly this week I want to stop inn Hamburg. Another band that has been previously featured on the blog, Roller Derby. They have a new single, “Say How Come”. It is a bit darker than previous tunes, but still very enjoyable!

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The Faraway Tree is a series of popular novels for children by British author Enid Blyton. The titles in the series are The Enchanted Wood (1939), The Magic Faraway Tree (1943), The Folk of the Faraway Tree (1946) and Up the Faraway Tree (1951).

The stories take place in an enchanted wood in which a gigantic magical tree grows – the eponymous ‘Faraway Tree’. The tree is so tall that its topmost branches reach into the clouds and it is wide enough to contain small houses carved into its trunk. The wood and the tree are discovered by three children who move into a house nearby. They befriend many of the residents and have adventures in magical lands that visit the top of the tree.

There’s this British band called The Faraway Tree. I believe from the early 90s. I can’t be 100% sure.

2 years ago a bunch of their songs popped up on Soundcloud. The person that uploaded them is Jonathan Farley, Jon Farley. Was he part of the band? I think so. I want to say yes. The band, from the photos that are uploaded, waas formed by 5 guys and a girl. The girl was the vocalist.

There is no details about the band, but at least there are a bunch of songs that come from various demo tapes.

The songs “Dreams”, “And She Wants” and “Resurrection” are tagged as early 4 track demos. Then we find some live recordings at the legendary venue The Boardwalk in Manchester. These live songs are a cover of “Unbearable” by The Wonderstuff, “Way to Be” and “Hey U”.

Other demo songs that are uploaded include “State of Mind”, “Winter”, “Sailaway”, “I Know”, “Hey U”, “Unbearable” and “Fortuna”.

Then there’s a bunch of demos that perhaps were unfinished as they remain untitled. You’ll find them as “Demo 1”, “Untitled demo”, “Untitled demo3”, “Untitled. demo 2”, “Untitled demo1” and “Lost demo”.

Jon has also uploaded some rare recordings of The Wedding Present. Did he have a connection with the band? Or was just a big fan?

I continue trying to find more info about them and notice that Jon is originally from Staybridge and lives in Southport these days.

But that’s it. I can’t find info about the other band members. What were their names? What instruments did each play? Did they release anything? Did they play in any other bands? Would be great to find out!

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Listen
The Faraway Tree – Dreams

The Spanish Amanda: Huw Darling is back with more songs! “Le Petit Magritte” is actual a prequel EP to the band’s forthcoming album “Magritte”. This EP has three songs, “A Starling’s Egg”, “Steve McQueen” and “In a Matchbox”. Thee songs are ace as usual and we can have them on repeat while we await the full-length “Maagritte” in about 3 weeks, and on CD too!

Boyracer: you know I haven’t loved the change from 7″ to 10″ by Precious Recordings for their sessions series. Now I can’t have the collection look nice and ordered all looking similar and alike. But that doesn’t matter I won’t keep getting their releases. Their latest is a must have, Boyracer’s sole Pell Session. This session, dating from 1994, comes with four songs, including a cover of Even as We Speak.

The Laughing Chimes: 6 new songs by the brothers Evan and Quinn Seurkamp from Ohio. These 6, influenced by the Dunedin-sound and American and UK jangle, will be out on November 18 in the “Zoo Avenue EP”. This EP will be released as a cassette.

The Deddingtons: this is something really cool! The Deddingtons just got together to re-record their wonderful “Sheila”. The original song was on the retrospective we released by them in 2012, and this new version is quite cool, it features Jack the Sticks, drummer for Johnny Marr playing drums! Enjoy it!

Freddyboy: and we end this review with this lovely sounding project by Freddy Kwon from Toronto. His latest single “On and On” is a lovely slice of dreamy pop. I believe it is part now of the Spirit Goth label. Oh and the song has a video too!

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Now onto another Soundcloud find. Thanks to stoneeyedkiller’s Youtube channel, I follow the thread and end up finding new bands and new songs that I had never heard before.

An account called “Sellin’ Cotton” uploaded two tracks by the band Fly on the Wall that hailed from Tamworth. This is an interesting town, as I have written about many bands that hailed from there, and even released Some Other Day that was from there too.

There is a website called Tamworth Bands but there is no mention there of Fly on the Wall. This must be terribly obscure!

The two songs uploaded, 4 years ago mind you, are “(There’s No) Electricity in Heaven” and “Different Flavours of Jam”. They are great jangly tunes, but my favourite one is the first one. Top tune!

We know some little details about these songs.

They were recorded at Expresso Bongo Studio which was located behind The Boot in Tamworth. I get curious, why do they mention The Boot? It turns out The Boot Inn, which is now called The Coven, is a classic place in town.

Tamworth Bands does have a bio for this studio, Expresso Bongo, which if you have time, I suggest reading.

Anyhow, back to the tape by Fly on the Wall. The songs had been recorded in 1990 or around that time. They were produced by the band and Paul Speare. Paul was the owner of the studio.

We know the band was formed by Domonic Service on vocals, David Ewing and Paul Donovan on guitars, Richard Edkins on bass and James “Chuddy” Mitchell on drums.

I keep looking for more info. I want to think Richard Edkins is the one that appears on IMDB as a film maker who shot and directed the documentaries Team Tibet and Black Swan Story.

And that’s what I could find about this band. As usual, I am hoping you can help me with more information about them!

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Listen
Fly on the Wall – (There’s No) Electricity in Heaven

So Much Fun: here is a wonderful compilation on Shiny Happy Records. It has many many bands covering Indonesian pop bands! For example The Very Most covers Funny Little Dream or Den Baron covers Mocca. Or Cinema Lumiere covering Annemarie! This is such a great idea. And it is packed with quality. Happily the label will make a physical version of this release later on.

Excerpts From: My Secret Garden: the essential Gothenburg label My Secret Garden will be releasing on November 30 a cassette compilation with this title. The interesting thing about this release is that it includes bands from the mid 2000s that weren’t released on the label. So I am curious. Were these bands going to be part of the label at some point? It includes songs by favourite bands like The Busy Band, Hormones in Abundance or The Snow Fairies.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: a new EP called “Everything You Ever Loved” is on the San Francisco band’s Bandcamp. This EP is made up by remixed tracks from the bonus CD that was included with the Monorail Records edition of Uncommon Weather in 2020. You can check one of the songs now, “Brave & Cruel”.

The Shop Window: great news that the indiepop band from Maidstone is back! And back with an album on Spinout Nuggets! The album that will be released on CD and vinyl on November 25 is called “The 4 Letter Word” and will have 10 songs. Right now you can listen to two of them, and they are ace, “Eyes Wide Shut” and “Low”.

Dot Dash: I haven’t heard from Terry Banks in a while. The ex-Tree Fort Angst, has been making wonderful music with DC based Dot Dash for more than a decade now. And happily the band is back with a new CD album titled “Madman in the Rain”. It is being released by the Canadian label The Beautiful Music and it is available now to listen on Bandcamp and also to order a copy. 12 songs of punchy pop!

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Lutterworth is a market town and civil parish in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England. The town is located in southern Leicestershire, close to the borders with Warwickshire and Northamptonshire. It is located 6.4 miles (10.3 kilometres) north of Rugby, Warwickshire and 12 miles (19 kilometres) south of Leicester.
At the 2011 UK census, the civil parish of Lutterworth had a population of 9,353. The built up area of Lutterworth, which also includes the adjacent village of Bitteswell had a population of 9,907.
Lutterworth was originally an Anglo Saxon settlement, its name is probably derived from the Old English Hlutre Worth: Lutterworth was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.

Never heard of the town of Lutterworth. But that’s from where the band Summerhouse was from.

A Soundcloud account with 8 songs, uploaded 11 years ago, exists. The uploader is called Mark Whiteman and from what I understand he wasn’t part of the band.

The band was formed by Jon Durnin on guitar and vocals, Charlie Holton on guitar and vocals, Tony Mead on drums and vocals and John Cummins on bass.

All of the songs uploaded date from early 1991 and they were part of a tape release titled “Remember Kids… Life’s Too Short to Dance with Fat Chicks”. These songs were written and arranged by the band. Recorded and mixed at Exite 1 Studios and engineered by the band and Austen Kilburn who was in the band Nowhere Men.

The art for the sleeve is credited to Hilary Clinton and Charlie Holton.

We also know the name of the songs of course. These were “Middle Name is Honest”, “Aqua Pura”, “Swirl” and “Thinner” on the A side and “4 Miles Long”, “Big Thing”, “No Damn Words” and “Thinner (Remix)” on the B side.

They appeared on a compilation called “LE 1” in 1993. This was a CD on Trashcan Records (CT 01) that featured unsigned bands from the Eeast Midlands. The CD came along the CLAG magazine, which was a free monthly listings and reviews magazine. The song the band contributed was “Hard to Make Noise”. I look at the tracklist and I only recognize another band, Antiseptic Beauty (who I haven’t wrote about yet)!.

I couldn’t find much more about the band. I wonder if anyone remembers them? Maybe you saw them supporting some cool indiepop band? Did they record more songs? Were the band members involved in other projects? Any detail would be appreciated!

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Listen
Summerhouse – Swirl

The Photocopies: two new songs from Sean Turner, the Michigan-based Londoner. These two songs, “Like Teenage Love” and “Grown-Up Political Discourse” are songs that for being too rowdy didn’t end up on the band’s upcoming mini-album “Hopelessly Devoted”.

Slaney Bay: now we head to London to discover this trio. Their latest is a lovely dreamy and mellow pop single titled “LS6”. There’s not much info on them on their Bandcamp, but going through the band’s website I find out that the band is formed by Caitlin Whitley, William Nicola-Thompson and Joel Martin, all friends since childhood.

Aerofall: here’s “Rh”, an 8-song album by this band from Rostov-on-Don, Russia’s shoegaze capital. The album is out now on the Japanese label Hands and Moment, and it is really nice. Yana Komeshko’s vocals are ace and the melodies really enjoyable.

SPOOL: now to Tokyo, for more shoegazer sounds. SPOOL is a girl band formed by Ayumi, Sumika, Minako and Aran. The four have just releaseed their latest single “(Image for) Drawing on Canvas”.

3 A.M. Again: the Massachusetts band has appeared on the blog many times. The latest EP has 9 songs, it is more of an album than EP. It is called “Cherry Street EP” and was recorded last summer. It is now available digitally and continues exploring the sound the band has been crafting in previous releases. Sweet, classic pop.

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I think there might have been a confusion about King Buffalo on our friend stoneeyedkiller Youtube channel. I was happily surprised when I heard their song “Run Away” that was uploaded to said channel, and I was curious about it. It was tagged as a London, UK, band, but I have started to believe it may be a London, Ohio, band.

You see, a demo tape of theirs dating from 1987 was uploaded to Soundcloud by an account called Cleveland Live Music. Behind this account there’s a music fan called Kenneth Dixon from Chagrin Falls, which is a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.

He mentions that King Buffalo handed him a tape in the late 80s when he saw them in a pub. Kenneth at that time was working in London he says. And he has tagged the music as Americana and describe their music as American Brit sound. So everything points to me that they were local, from Ohio.

The demo included 7 songs, and they all are on Soundcloud. The songs are “I Break Down”, “One Day”, “Run Away”, “Rainbow”, “How Much Higher” and “You Got Love”.

Sadly he doesn’t have any other details about the band. I wonder if the tape he has, the demo, had any more info on the sleeve. Band members names? An address? He hasn’t uploaded the sleeve…

Online it proves very hard to find any other information about them. So I am hoping someone remembers them. Would be good to confirm if they hailed from such a small town in Ohio. And if they have more music? Involved in other bands?

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Listen
King Buffalo – Run Away