Day 359.
The Sleeping Years: this is a really cool find for me! Dale Grundie, who is behind The Sleeping Years, was one of the members of the amazing band Catchers! His latest release on Bandcamp dates from 2013, but still, it is great to know he continued making music. The songs are a bit different to Catchers’ sound, this is a bit more pastoral, more folky. But there are great pop melodies like in “Into Sunlight”, which I believe is still available as a 7″. Maybe we could get in touch and interview him about Catchers? “Cotton Dress” is one of the best indiepop songs I think!
Corduroy: back in October I was raving about this Swedish band and wondering if they were going to release something. Well at least it seems they have found a record label, Vårø Records. There is no announcement here but a song, “Gråa Dagar” is available to stream as a digital single. I hope this means something is going to be released in the near future!
Friends Don’t Die: now we head to Los Angeles and discover Friends Don’t Die. Their latest song was released back in December and is called “Backwards”. There is not much information about the band, just a previous release, “She’s a Headrush”, dating from October. I am guessing it is a new-ish band. The sound is really good, catchy, indiepoppy with wave and post/punk influences with vocals reminding me of The Mary Onettes. Really enjoyable.
LaPara: it is rare to find a good Italian indiepop band! LaPara sounds good to me immediately. I play their latest track, “Traballa”, with the catchy female vocals and melodies, that I am sold. The band started in 2018 by Rebecca Paraciani and will be releasing an EP in April titled “Tutti Gli Animali del Mondo”.
All Under Heaven: lastly we discover All Under Heaven, a shoegaze band from Freehold, New Jersey. The band has signed to the fine Brighton label Shore Drive Records and is releasing a CD EP titled “Collider” which is already out! Four songs are included in this debut EP!
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I’m going to head to Japan to day to discover this band with an intersting name, Plain Cream Puff Spray. The band didn’t release any records as far as I know but recorded at least 4 songs and appeared on 5 compilations in the 90s. So let’s check them out.
It is in 1993 that we hear about the band for the first time. Their song “I Have a Butter Cup” appears on a cassette compilation called “We Don’t Need Another Hero” released by the Haarnadel label (HAAR02). This label I believe was run by two people, Hiroshi Kawano from Sgamihara-city and Tetsuya Ono from Atsugi-city. Not very familiar with many of the bands on this tape but a few have appeared on the blog like Tip Top Planets, All Twin’s Birthday and Sunshower.
The next year, 1994, the band would appear on the CD compilation “The Cacaos Go Like Hotcakes” released by Chocolat Art Records (CA010) and Pushbike Records (UFPB005). On this tape the band contribute the song “Lu”. Again not very familiar with the bands on this compilation, I know of Tip Top Planets, Sunny Gets Blue and Sunnychar. All great bands. I am familiar though with the Pushbike label, a superb Japanese record label.
Now it is 1995. The band starts collaborating with Clover Records, one of the best Japanese indiepop labels. They contribute, to the compilation cassette “The Solar System – Clover Records Compilation Vol.2” (C-010), the song “I Have a Buttercup (First Version)”. I don’t know if the song sounds much different to the version they contributed to the first compilation I mentioned, “We Don’t Need Another Her”, but would be nice to know. On this compilation I find another band I’ve featured in the past, Peatmos.
In 1997 the band appears on “Pop Jingu Volume 1 (A Japanese Pop Compilation)” released by Sonorama Records (Sonorama 004) and Clover Records (CLCD 1101). Thanks to this CD I discovered the band. On this compilation the band actually had two songs, “Forever” and “Prism”.
It is worth mentioning that I interviewed Dan from Sonorama Records not too long ago, so check that out.
Lastly in 1998 the band appears with “I Have a Buttercup” on the compilation tape “A Very Limited Special Promotion Tape from Clover Records”. This compilation was actually not for sale. All songs in this tape were selected from Spooky Music Club cassette only series up to catalog number 045 in the 2 years by Masato from Clover Records. Here it mentions that Clover started releasing tapes in 1995 and by the time they put out this tape they had made more than 8 thousand tapes. That’s a lot! Also by this time the label had been releasing 7″s, CDs, fanzines and more. This is what says on the sleeve of course, but I am curious though what was the Spooky Music Club series. Does anyone have more information?
Now we know the songs and where they appeared but we don’t really know anything about the band so far. Well, on the “Pop Jingu” compilation there are some credits and that do help me find more about the band. Here it says that Naomi Funakoshi played all instruments and sang. There is address too for the Luv Lab Label in the Uguisadani area in Tokyo. Was that her own label?
So we know too that Naomi was part of Tip Top Planets. She was the vocalist. Cool. So that’s an interesting connection. On most of these compilations that Plain Cream Puff Spray appeared, Tip Top planets also appeared.
Really cool. Maybe some day I’ll be able to get in touch with Naomi then and maybe I’ll be able to learn about these two bands she was involved with, her solo bedroom project Plain Cream Puff Spray which I am writing about today and the super band she was in, Tip Top Planets, which I wrote about some time ago!
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