Some jangly perfection from the early 90s. That is what the British band The Rainhorns were. Do you remember them?

“Facefull of Tears” was their only release. And it was a rare tape. Who knows how many copies were made. Maybe not too many. Was it perhaps a demo tape with 12 songs? Or was it really sold as an album?

It was 1991 when Farm Records (FARM 4) released this tape. The label appears on Discogs but has nothing else listed other than this tape. Was it the band’s own label? Did the label put out FARM 1, 2 or 3? Maybe they were other demo tapes from The Rainhorns? Many questions, no answers.

The album with “facefull” misspelled had a black and white photocopy style sleeve. Who is the person on the sleeve? An actor/actress maybe?

What we do know is the tracklist though, “Fifteen”, “Fairground”, “Keep Me in Mind”, “Miderable Town”, “How Can I”, “Hillside Heroin”, “Swirl”, “Waiting for the Sun”, “Shine Right Through Me” on the A side and “The Summer’s Come”, “Kitchen” and “Marrygoaround” on the B side.

I hope to find who were behind this band. If they were in any other bands. Where were they from. Anyone could help me with details?

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
The Rainhorns – How Can I

Japan and all their bands that still remain obscure to me.

Clare being one of them. I have just discovered some of their songs on Youtube, mainly from their second album, the cassette tape “Womb Fantasy” released by the Italian label Best Kept Secret (LIE 046) in 2003.

Prior to that release they had put out a CD album titled “One Night 2001” (CAR 002) on the label Chocolat Art Returns which I have never heard before even though they had released an Orange Cake Mix album. This first album had 16 tracks, “Angel-Something Will Start-“, “Shining Star, Shining Sun”, “Stargazing”, “My Being”, “Yesterday and Today”, “One Night 2000”, “L/M/M”, “Kitten K”, “Nothing Makes Me Afraid”, “Not Here but Somewhere”, “A Boy Inside You”, “What Heaven Gives”, “Hand in Hand”, “Leave You To Me”, “SA-YO-NA-RA” and “Vaguness in Love”.

The album comes with some details about the band. Here we know that Kazu Ohno was on guitar, keyboards and programming, Yoko Takashima on vocals and keyboards and Isao Watanabe on guitar. The album art was created by Shigeki Komori and the album was recorded and produced by Room 203.

If you read the blog you’ll notice that the name Kazu Ohno is not unfamiliar. I have written about another of his projects, Tip Top Planets, before. He has also been on Room203, The Fruits Basket, Jenka and The Sun Never Sets.

After this album came “Womb Fantasy in 2003”. This time the album was recorded in 1999 at Studio K which seems to be Kazu’s own home-recording studio. The engineer for this record was Touru Isii and again the producer is Room 203 which clearly was Kazu. I suppose because of the time it took for this to release, these songs may have been demos or outtakes from the first album.

The album includes a guest guitarist, Yasuyuki Hatake.

And the tracklist was as follow, “Daze”, “Distorted Moon”, “Winged Angel” and “As You Think” on the A side and “Edge of the Top”, “Take Your Time”, “Here I Am” and “Fill My Room With Flowers” on the B side.

Two years later, in 2005, another album was released. Again on Best Kept Secret. The cassette album was titled “Easy” (LIE 098) and was recorded in 2004 again by Room 203. The songs were “Words Foil”, “Wanna Be Alone”, “Tears” and “This Life” on the A side and “Does That Answer Your Question?”, “Far Away”, “Itchy and Fidgety” and “If” on the B side.

The band would also contribute to a few compilations.

On the 2000 CD comp “Captain Circus! Chocolat Art Returns Compilation” released by the label Chocolat Art Returns (CAR 001) the band had the song “Friendship Makes the World Go Round”. A year later, 2001, the band would have songs on two compilations. First on “Prspctv” a CD comp released by the classic magazine Beikoku-Ongaku (BDBO-E0019) with the song “Something Will Start Part 2” and then on the “Bubblegum Factory” CD that Chocolat Art Returns (CAR-004) released with the track “Tears (Short version)”.

And that’s what I have. Not much background info, mostly the releases.

Where from Japan where they? Did they play many gigs? Were the other members involved in other bands? Who would know?

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Clare – As You Think

Anyone knows who were behind June Evenings? There is the one song I am aware of, just one… called “I Wasted All My Wishes On You” and as you might notice it is really great.

Problem is that even though it rings a bell to me, I can’t remember anything about them. My thinking is that it is not an old song. Not older than 15 years at least. Has to be from the 2000s. Maybe it was from one of those MP3 compilations that sometimes blogs would put together. Maybe?

The boy/girl vocals, the clear Sarah influences (think Field Mice, Brighter), and lo-fi recording make this a delicious slice of indiepop. But did they record anything else? Did they go to be in other bands?

Were they named after Air France’s song “June Evenings” perhaps? Where were they from?

The questions are many. I am just hoping someone remembers them and can give me a few details about this band.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
June Evenings – I Wasted All My Wishes On You

Dum spiro spero, which translates to “While I breathe, I hope”, is a Latin phrase of indeterminate origin. It is the motto of various places and organisations, including the U.S. state of South Carolina.

Next year I am going back to Manchester, I am very excited. I am going to see The Man from Delmonte at Band on the Wall on February 25. Will just be for a short time but I am hoping this time to see some of the sights. Last time I barely saw anything, it was too quick. Hope to see some friends too.

So far I am traveling solo, it seems not many indiepop kids from my generation are going to this gig. It seems the big crowd will be fans from the band’s heyday.

But today I want to talk about another band I’ve just discovered that hailed from the Manchester area.

Probably from Stockport, there was an 80s band with the name Dum Spiro Spero. They were formed by Simon Wroe on vocals and guitar, Isabel Keyes on vocals, James Michael on bass and Nick Berry on drums. To my surprise they released a 7″ in 1985 which makes them not as obscure as I thought they would be!

The “England Does Not Exist” 7″ came out on a label called Lizard Literature Records (LL 1). Probably it was their own, right? No other releases are listed for this label. Aside from the title song on the A side the record came with another track, the B side “The Hunter & The Hunted”.

The black and white sleeve shows headshots of all four members on the front, and on the back we find lyrics for the two tracks. We also find some credits, the band members names which I’ve shared and also that the record was engineered by Paul Machiavelli at Drone Studios in Manchester. The record is dedicated to Stephen Berry, and all songs are credited to Simon Wroe.

But then there’s the find… the tracks are online. They are on Isabel Keyes Soundcloud account. You can find both tracks from the 7″, “England Does Not Exist” and “The Hunter & the Hunted” as well as two other songs, “Tell Me” and “Looking for the First Time“.

One immediately wonders if these two extra tracks were a possible second single? Or maybe they were recorded as demos? Or even recorded at the same recording session of the 7” tracks?

There are no details.

What there is though are some other tracks from bands Isabel had been involved like two 80s bands The Blue Dolphins (the track “Secret” is very good) and Tortoise.

And that’s what I could find about them.

Maybe some of you have more details about this band who are categorized as a goth rock band on Discogs, but I didn’t think that was the case. But you tell me.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Dum Spero Spiro – England Does Not Exist