Day 350.

Texpack: Anoa Records is a very good label from Jakarta. So it is a good idea to check them out now and then. Their latest is a limited edition 3″ single by the band Texpack. Titled “Early Serenade”, this short EP comes with three songs, “The Early Serenade”, “Between 4 and 10 (Strawberry etc.)” and “My Trumpet”. The last one is a cover of the classic Eggstone song!

The Catenary Wires: what a cool thing to see The Catenary Wires on Shelflife Records! The band is releasing a 7″ with two songs, “Mirrorball” and “I Wish You Were Here Now” and has a very nice sleeve with Amelia Fletcher, a chair, nice typography… I dunno, I was sold even before listening to the very good title song “Mirrorball” that is available to preview! The record is coming out on April 16.

Shiny Times: not too long ago, a few posts ago, I was recommending some new songs by the project from Charleston, South Carolina. Kim Hart Weldin’s Shiny Times have now four new songs on Bandcamp that are maybe not that new? They seem to date from February 2020 to February 2021. Which are the old ones? Which are the new ones? Check out this nice EP titled “Starts with S”.

Orion Lake: let’s cross the Hudson river. Now we are in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and checking out the song “Rabbit” by Oriol Lake. And it does impress at first listen. It is fuzzy and warm track, with upbeat melodies. Happy to meet you Orion Lake.

Genders: and lastly we discover this duo formed by Maggie Morris and Stephen Leisy from Portland, Oregon. Their first single from their second album is called “The World Fades Away” and it is quite good! Jangly, female vocals, and classic indiepop melodies.

—————————————————————–

What a lovely discovery! I stumbled on Youtube upon The Grain’s song “A Splendid Day” and was hooked! Very Choo Choo Train, very jangly, great melodies. Everything you want to ask for a pop song!

As it is normal with these discoveries the band ends up being terribly obscure. We can see on Discogs that the band released one tape in 1991, and that’s where this song was released. We also know that the band hailed from Calgary, Alberta, in Canada. That’s some good info already, right?

The tape seems to have been self-released and was titled “A Moment’s insight”. It included 7 songs. The A side had “Will I Be Here”, “Save it for Another Day”, “A Splendid Day” and “Watch You Smile”. The B side featured “Happenings”, “Now and Then” and “People Say”. The songs were recorded and mixed by Frank Slide at ReelRock Studios in Calgary. They were produced by the band and Frank Slide.

Who were the band? That we know too:
Mike Hendrix – bass
Craig Clements – acoustic & electric guitar, vocals
Rob Virdis – acoustic & lead guitar, vocals
Dino Finot – drums

A little more googling lets me know that Rob Virdis had been in a band called Glider afterwards releasing two tapes. I believe he also played in a few songs of Matt Gillespie’s self-titled EP released earlier this year.

Then I find that Dino Finot is a motorcycle enthusiast who attends the Calgary Motorcycle Show every year. Interesting! But what about music?

And that’s it. Not much more information on the web, but some great music here, right? Hopefully we’ll learn more about them soon!

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

Listen
The Grain – A Splendid Day