Day 246.

Las Ligas Menores: perhaps my favourite Argentinean band of the last decade is back with a new song called “Hice Todo Mal” and they even have made a promo video for it! It is great as usual and I wonder of course if it will be released in a record in the near future. I hope so!

The B-Team: the classic London mod band that were interviewed on the blog not too long ago have just published on Bandcamp a new live EP! They are four songs recorded live at the Wood Green Community Centre in North London in 1986!

Midden Heap: who are Eric and Blake, the two guys behind this great sounding EP titled “Do You Think It’s Not the Other Way Around?” We know they hail from Baltimore and that the 5 songs on the EP were recorded this year between May and September. Right now we can preview two of them, “Girl on a Train” and “Lower Ground” and expecting to hear the rest on December 11th!

The Permits: we hop now to Melbourne, Australia, one of the hotspots of guitar pop these days. The band formed by Tristan Davies, Tam Matlakowski, Dusy Anastassiou and Rob Remedios are releasing a 10 song album on tape! The album is called “Time Permits” and right now we can preview two songs, “It Takes a Long Time (To Be Free of Society)” and “World in Numbers”.

Flower Maze: and lastly just the one song, “Divided Shades”, from this Pomona, California, band. There is no other information available, but the song is nice! It looks like their first ever song too?

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I was looking at my Liechtenstein collection the other day and noticed I was missing a cassette they had put out in Japan. It was actually a split tape from 2011 with the Japanese band Twinkle Twinkles that was called “SWE & JPN Girls Unite”. It included two songs by Liechtenstein that I have never heard, “The Book” and “The Angel in the House”. That was something that bothers me. I was trying to burn me a CD with all Liechtenstein songs that weren’t in their album. I was thinking a singles and B-sides compilation would be nice. Maybe I should ask them? Maybe I could do it?

Then my mind went the other way. The band that shared that split tape was called Twinkle Twinkles. I actually own a CD by them. But I honestly know nothing about them! So, I went back to the tape page on Discogs.

This split tape was released by my friend Sumire who ran the lovely shop Violet and Claire. At some point the store started releasing records and called their label the same way, Violet and Claire. The catalog number for this tape was V&C008. The store and label was based in Tokyo and for a few years it was a beacon of indiepop in Japan. Thanks to them I was introduced to a lot of great music. One day I should try and ask Sumire to do an interview for the blog. Would be great to hear from her, her take on indiepop during the 2000s.

Anyhow, on this tape Twinkle Twinkle had the B side and contributed three songs, “Vintage Boys and Girls”, “His Presents Were Tons of Daughnuts” and “Strawberry Heavenly”.

The year after, 2012, the band released a CD on their own. It was self-titled with 7 songs, “Secret Love”, “Cinderella”, “Will be Happier Girl Song”, “Strawberry Heavenly”, “Vintage Boys and Girls”, “His Presents were Tons of Doughnuts” and “Sukissukissu”. This is the CD I have. Sadly there is no other information on the simple cardboard sleeve it came on.

4 years later, in 2016, the band would release another EP. It will be called “Take Me to the Star”. I just found a copy of it on Discogs and I am happy about it. This CD was released by 2670records from Japan with catalog number TSSO-1021. I am not that familiar with the label but noticed that the label had released some great bands including Old Lacy Bed, Gingerlys or Babaganoüj.

This CD had 6 songs, “Too Pure”, “The Hill”, “Burst into Tears”, “Merry Go Round”, “Summer” and “I Can See”. I find in Youtube that the band made a trailer for the album! It includes some photos of the band and I recognize one of them…. one of the guitar players was in Betty and the Werewolves! Even cooler the label has uploaded to Youtube another video, a proper promo video for the song “Summer“! And then another video, for the song “Merry Go Round“!

Thanks to this video I end up on a Bandcamp page where you can stream all 6 songs. There is also some information about the band! This is what it says:  Twinkle Twinkles is an all-girl twee/indie/pop band led by Nana(G&Vo). They performs with many overseas artists such as Sea Lions(USA), Razika(Norway), as well as NIGHTS(USA), Colleen Green(USA), and Cassie Ramone(ex:Vivian Girls) under the solo name of Nana. They released their first self-titled album in 2012. They also released a split cassette tape with Liechtenstein from Sweden. Released their 2nd mini album “take me to the star” created in London in November 2016. For 2017 ‘Record Store Day’, their 7 inch “CRUSH” is going to be released for the first time. 

Ok, now we know the name of one of the band members, Nana. It is not much. But what leaves me very curious is this “Crush” 7″? Was it ever released?

So it was released for record store day on May 10 of 2017. It came out on the same label, 2670records with catalog number TSSO-2003. I want a copy of this! It included two songs, “1:28” on the A side and “A Piece of a Broken Red Heart”. How can I find a copy? The two songs can be streamed here on Bandcamp.

I continue digging and find a live video of the band playing “Vintage Boys and Girls” on February 26, 2012 at Vio. I see that at this point the band was just 2 girls! This same user has uploaded more live videos. We have “Cinderella” live at Zoot Horn Rollo on February 25, 2012. “Strawberry Heavenly” on November 20, 2011 at Amp Cafe. “Vintage Boys & Girls” on November 18, 2011 at Echo. “Cinderella” on November 12, 2011 at Bar Ripple. “Vintage Boys & Girls” and “Sukissukissu” on August 7, 2011 at 地下一階. Then “Will be Happier Girl Song” and “Strawberry Heavenly” and another video at Para-Dice on March 16, 2011.

Other users have uploaded more videos. I find one live at Day in Day Out at Bar Ripple. I think this is their full gig that day on November 12, 2011. Then I find the band playing  many songs in Fukuoka. These include “Theme, Secret Love“, “Michel“, “Cinderella“, “Will Be Happier Girl Song” and “Sukissukissu“.

Then I finally find that the band was formed by Nana on guitar and vocals, Natsuki on drums and Emily on guitar and vocals. They played in the UK too, at The Underbelly on Wednesday October 5th, 2016 alongside Community, Nikki Loy and Val Maugenest.

Then what else? It seems Nana was in other bands like The Harriets and Sylvanias!

Wow, now it all makes sense. I have written about The Harriets not too long ago! And loved them. And will be interviewing them soon! I’ve sent questions to them at least. Now this is really great. I can ask her to do a Twinkle Twinkles interview afterwards! That’d be fantastic!

Who remembers this band that sounded so good, a twee mix of The Primitives, Lush, Talulah Gosh and more. Anyone saw them when they played in UK? What about in Japan? I think they should have been much more known. So good!

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Listen
Twinkle Twinkles – Summer