Day 364
The Kensingtons: great news! Our friends are back with the “All it Was, Was Everything” EP! Now back in England, the band has made 7 terrific indiepop slices for this EP for everyone to enjoy. Jangly, catchy, poppy, upbeat, the sort of indiepop we need to end the winter!
Moon Museum: this is a new band from San Francisco and sounds really good! There is just one song on Bandcamp and it is called “Pleasures of Peace” which is a swirling dreamy track. The band is formed by Olivia Barchard, Ryan Joseph, Ian Zazueta and Aaron Hazen. This sounds very promising. Let’s hope for more songs soon.
Boyracer: wow! a new EP by Boyracer! That’s great news. The songs for “Right or Wrong” are going to be released in cassette on March 25. But for those that are no fans of tapes like me there are the good news that the band recorded another 14 songs that will be released as a vinyl LP later this year. Good news indeed!
Ural Mountains: now we head to Argentina to find a French band there. Yeah that’s a bit confusing but interesting at the same time. Their latest release “Synthetic Lights” is an 8 song album packed with superb chiming, jangly and shoegazy guitars. Really nice!
Dyl: not much information about this Portland project, but I am really enjoying “Picture demo”, the latest track on their Soundcloud. It is a fun lo-fi bedroom-pop song. Will check their rest of songs now…
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Do you remember the Bristol label Big Pink Cake? Do you remember the club nights, the great indiepop nights at the Mothers’ Ruin in Bristol that Big Pink Cake organized? I attended once and it was fantastic. I wish I had attended many more times. The job Matthew and Heather did was just inspiring.
My memories bring me back to their label. Mind you, they started as a club night and then they did the label, not the other way around. And I always find that interesting. Hopefully one day we’ll hear their story. Today I wanted to revisit the band Vanilla Ride, who I believe, correct me if I’m wrong, the last release on the label.
Their release was a self-titled album and came out in 2012. Catalog number was BPC 008. It was a CDR in the style that was common those days, in a small plastic sleeve.There you’d find the sleeve, which was printed on both sides, an insert thanking you for buying the release, another insert with the catalog telling that the next releases were going to be by The Sunny Street and The Fireworks, and lastly a folded A4 page with a photo of the band and lyrics of the song “Rocket Bicycle”. One thing though that I was curious about is that in most photos we see three people, but the band is listed as a four-piece. How come?
The album included 9 songs, “Two 107”, “Rocket Bicycle”, “Hilma”, “You and I”, “A Boring Day in Oslo”, “Katherine”, “Anti Rock Chick Song”, “Two 107 (Version 2)” and “Me Against You”.
The band members were Veronica Dajani on guitar and vocals, Bret Fulton on drums and backing vocals, Sachiko Fukuda on bass and backing vocals and Corinne Alvarado on bass. Now, the sleeve sort of solves the mystery of the band members. Corinne was in the band only in 2007. Sachiko would join in 2007 and be in the band until 2009.
Till when did the band last? Was the CD release posthumously? One thing that I notice on the photos is that the three members that were around in the end show their arms. There they have something written or something drawn. Bret has “Manc” written, he must be from Manchester, Veronica has a Norwegian flag, so was she from Norway? And Sachiko has a Japanese flag, was she from Japan?
We know too that all songs were written by Veronica Dajani but “Anti Rock Chick Song” where the music was created by the whole band.
The CD also gives us information and sort of tells you this is a compilation of different recordings. So “Two 107”, “You and I”, “A Boring Day in Oslo”, “Katherine” and “Me Against You” were recorded in 2007 at Vatican Recording Studios in Bethnal Green, London. Then we know that “Rocket Bicycle”, “Hilma”, “Anti Rock Chick Song” and “Two 107 (Version 2)” were recorded by George C. Coombs at Elderfield Studios in Homerton, London. Lastly all songs for these CD were mastered by Rocker Rosehip. Our old friend Rocker.
The photos in the sleeve are credited to Neil Anderson. The front cover art to Veronica Dajani.
Aside from this cool album the band contributed to two compilations, both in 2009. Their song “Rocket Bicycle” appeared on the first release of the Big Pink Cake Label, “Piece of Cake! – An Indiepop Compilation” (BPC 001). Also that same year “A Boring Day in Oslo” appeared on the CDR comp “Series Two Compilation Vol. 18”.
So what happened afterwards with the London band? Is that something we can find out? Bret Bolton continued making music, he was involved in MFC Chicken, The Baron Four, The Bridge Gang, The Roves, The Teamsters and in The Choo Choo Trains. Sachiko was in umez, No Cars and also on The Choo Choo Trains. She also contributed on a song by The Projects. Veronica did release a solo album on Meat ‘N’ Tatty Tapes last year and was also on The Choo Choo Trains. I didn’t know of this connection. Would it make sense to say Vanilla Ride evolved into the Choo Choo Trains?
The Choo Choo Trains last release was in 2015. What happened afterwards? Ok, we know Veronica continued making music on her own. I also believe Bret and Sachiko weren’t in the Choo Choo Trains long, The Choo Choo Trains were a three girl-piece.
Another interesting detail I find is that Vanilla Ride is actually the name of a crime fiction novel by American author Joe R. Lansdale. It is the eight book of the Hap and Leonard series. Did they take the name from this book? Were they fans of crime fiction?
Then we find a Bandcamp by the band. Here you can preview all the songs though it doesn’t any more details than what I’ve shared so far.
The Wildblanket blog has an article where they mention the band. Here it tells that the band presented themselves just as Veronica and Sachiko at the Dublin Castle. The writer mentions he has seen Vanilla Ride as Veronica solo and also as Veronica and Bret. And also there’s a nice collection of photos here of that gig.
The band also played at the Big Pink Cake Indie-Pop! all weekender on July 11th of 2009. That time they shared bill with great bands like Pocketbooks, The Westfield Mining Disaster, Amida or Electrophonvitage!
On May 9, same year, Big Pink Cake organized a gig at the Mother’s Ruin with Pocketbooks, The Kick Insid and Vanilla Ride.
Another gig they did was sometime in April 2009 alongside The Manhattan Love Suicides, Dirtblonde and Fnords. I believe this was a gig organized by Lostmusic.
I also believe they played on April 15 at the Bull & Gate in London with Alien Milk, Elettronora and Sparky’s Magic Piano.
Well, that’s what I could find about them. There was internet back then of course, not so hard to find info about the band as with obscure 80s band, but still I feel there’s more story to tell. I hope we find out more about Vanilla Ride in the near future!
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