Day 366
Nos Etés Trop Courts: another tape has surfaced from the Nantes 90s pop band. This one is a rehearsal tape, dating from spring 1991. Here we find 8 songs, one being a Sonic Youth cover. Included is my favourite song of theirs, “Diaphane”. It is interesting to listen to this tracks like this, in a total different way.
The Primary Colours: wow! remember I interviewed this great 80s band on the blog some time ago? They released just one 7″ back in 1987 and now the band has added this 7″ to their Bandcamp (well the Bandcamp of their current band, Wily). So if you have never heard them before this it is definitely a good idea to do so now.
The Telephone Numbers: not too long I was recommending this San Francisco band and now I find out they have signed to the Madrid label Meritorio Records and are releasing an album called “The Ballad of Doug” on vinyl on June 4! Great news! We can preview one of the songs now, “You’re Nowhere”, which sounds really good!
A Estas Alturas: from Puerto Rico comes this band which I believe is now based in Dallas, Texas. The band seems to be actually a solo project by Daniel Vicente and his latest song is called “Efectos Secundarios”. He makes nice guitar driven bedroom pop. This year he has released previously two other songs, so three in total. This is a nice discovery, especially the 2nd track he put out, “Agua Que Cae del Cielo”, which is my favourite.
Julia Amor: and lastly we head to Valencia, Spain. There we discover a label called Futuras Licenciadas. Never heard about them before but I plan to check all their releases. For now I am listening to their latest, Julia Amor, which was released on tape earlier this year. Now it is sold out. But at least we can listen the 5 songs that were included in it and they make a nice surprise.
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Who were the Crimson Mints? They wrote “Makes Me Want To”, one of my favourite songs from the legendary tape “Positively Teenage”, and I don’t know of any other song by them!
There must be more songs. You don’t record just one! If you go to a studio you take advantage and at least record two. Right? Who would know?
Maybe Stephen Maughan could know? He did the fantastic This Almighty Pop! fanzine and he released the tape, “Positively Teenage” (DOLPHIN 7), in 1990.
This tape included so many great bands from Love Parade to The Penny Candles. You find the Fat Tulips, The Williams, Mousefolk, The Church Grims, The Mayfields, The Sohfas, etc, etc. One wonders how was this tape put together! It’s so good. How did Stephen found all these songs? all these bands? And of course how he found about the Crimson Mints!
I’ve found a tape with two songs on the web. The songs are “Don’t Take Me” and “Here Lies Dust”. This tape dates from 1995 and has a black and white sleeve with a dog in the cover. The band hails from Newscastle. Is it the same band?
The vocalist in this tape is Julie Grant. She suffered of myalgic encephalomyelitis. This tape came with an folded insert informing about the illness. There was an address for the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Association and also a request to help them. Also on the sleeve of the tape it mentions that Julie has been suffering of this illness since May 1986 and that 1 pound of each copy of the cassette was to be donated for research into the virus. The song “Don’t Take Me” is written about and dedicated to those who suffer.
When I interviewed Bulldozer Crash’s Stephen and Marc they mention the band though they don’t give any details. Marc does tell me that his brother Graeme from Love Parade though the song “Final Kick” by The Liberty Ship (Marc’s band in the early 2000s) sounded like pure Crimson Mints.
I know some more little details. For example that the Crimson Mints supported The Blue Aeroplanes in a venue called Riverside in 1990. Where was this venue? Probably Newcastle. What day? That I don’t know…
The other gig I know of is of November 8, 1990, a Thursday. That time the band played alongside Halfway House at Joe Wilsons in Newcastle.
And that’s all I could find. Anyone remembers them? Have any more information?!
Edit: on the This Almighty Pop fanzine volume 2 from autumn 1988 there is a mention of the Crimson Mints. There are not many details but two that are important. One is that the guitar player was called Alan. and that Julie was the bassist. The only other interesting bit is that they played a gig with The Wishing Stones at the Broken Doll club on Oct. 28th of that same year. (Thanks to Elias for the info)
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