Day 404

The Pleasures Pale: you know I interviewed the Dayton, Ohio, band and that I am a big fan. Last week I received the CD for “Daily Living is a Herculean Art”, the second CD release by the band after their self-titled album.  This CD is out now and comes in a carefully packaged edition. 13 songs that show a rougher, edgier, band than in their album. Good stuff!

Rachel Love: according to Bandcamp Rachel from Dolly Mixture released “Down the Line” back on March 1! I can’t believe I missed it. I recommended her previous song, “Primrose Hill”, but this one passed me by. But what’s great is that this song is also a s pretty!  But that’s not surprise as this song was a Dolly Mixture original! It will be included in her forthcoming album!

Still Dreams: Been wanting to listen to all the songs on the “Make Believe” mini-album by the Japanese duo. A song here, a video there. Little by little discovering their music. Well, now finally we can listen to all 8 songs on Bandcamp. I eagerly wait for Jigsaw Records in the US to get copies as I want one!

My Lucky Day: now we head to Kumamoto, Japan, to discover this self-defined shoegaze-pop band. Their first release is a self-titled 5 song EP that sounds great! It is fun, it is catchy. It seems it is only available in digital format but I really hope someone puts this out. I am really enjoying My Lucky Day.

Desperate Journalist: and lastly there’s “Maximum Sorrow!” the new album by the London combo. The album is coming out on July 2nd and will be released on vinyl and CD. Right now we can preview just one song, “Fault”. It is not my favourite song of theirs if I am honest, but I like so many songs and records by them, that I am hoping any of the other 10 songs win me over. I am sure they will.

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Not too long ago I discovered the Irish band The Boy The Boy. In that post I mentioned that Martin Harte, the bassist, had previously been in a band called Absolute Zero. On a soundcloud account I find that time I actually found some songs by Absolute Zero, and I liked the songs. So I totally thought they deserved a post.

The band hailed from Sligo, Ireland, and was active between 1983 and 1986. Absolute Zero was formed by Joe Hunt on vocals, Sean Sweeney on guitar, Martin Harte on keyboards and Tommy Kivlehan on drums. The same band members plus Micky Barr had previously been in a band called Reverb.

According to Irishrock.org the band appeared at the 1984 Drumcliff Festival and at the Dublin Mega-Bash at the Ivy Rooms on August 29, 1985.

After the demise of the band Martin Harte continued as mentioned on The Boy The Boy and Sean Sweeney was on Sid & the Stonecrushers. Martin Harte and Joe Hunt would later be in Indian and The Pink Spiders.

But there’s more good info about this Irish band. They do appear on Discogs. We know then that the band released 3 7″s.

The first seems to date from 1984. It had no sleeve. It was most probably a self-release. It had red labels and it is credited to SRS Records (SRS 1A). The A side was “Go For Your Gun” written by Sweeney and Harte and the B side was “Running”, written by Sweeney and Kivlehan.

In 1985 the band released the “You Will Fall” 7″. This is the song I’ve enjoyed the most. The A side, “You Will Fall”. The B side was “I Want to See Your Face”. Both songs were produced by Eamon Carr. The 7″ was released by Hotwire (HWS 858). The sleeve was designed by Jackie O’Connell and it has the photo of someone who looks like a politician. But I can’t say. Maybe this character is well known in Ireland? The A side is credited to Sweeney and Harte while the B side to Sweeney, Harte and Meehan. Who was Meehan? As far as I know there was no Meehan in the band?

Another interesting fact of this record is that all royalties from it were to be donated to the Irish Anti Apartheid Movement.

Lastly in 1986 the band released the “Vision” 7″ on Direction Records (DIR 001). The B side was “Vale of Tears”. Again no sleeve. A shame. The producer for the songs, as well as the engineer, was Brian Taheny. This time around the songs are credited to the band.

The Fanning Sessions Archive blog also wrote about them, all the way back in 2011. They don’t add much details, but they do share a recording of “Go For Your Gun”.

Sadly I couldn’t find more info about them. Maybe I’ll find more info and details about them, now that there are posts about two related bands. I can only hope so. I have heard a few songs, but I am sure there must be more. I will try to track down their records. I think that would be a good idea.

Anyone remembers them?

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Listen
Absolute Zero – You Will Fall