Day 408.
Pony in the Pancake: a new album by the Albany, New York, band. It is called “Ocean Love” and has 13 songs of lo-fi bedroom pop. The album is out now digitally and also on cassette. I have previously recommended the band, their previous singles, so it is good to see a good old-fashioned album out.
Ta To Boy: The news of the new album by Ta To Boy hasn’t reached to me until now. It seems they are releasing their new album on May 10th on Make Me Happy Records from Athens. There is no Bandcamp or anything similar. But there have been a few songs posted on Youtube. The latest is called “Disco in Heaven”. Let’s see when they announce pre-orders and so on.
The Spires: last year I recommended this Ventura, California, band as they released the album “LOOK”. Last December they released another album called “Era Was” and I totally missed it. It is now sold out, both on vinyl and CD. The album had 10 poppy songs which you can still check out on Bandcamp.
Plastic Palms: It is always a surprise when I discover an Italian band that sounds good! That is proper indiepop! Plastic Palms from Turin is a total surprise then. Their 7-song mini-album “Yellow Panda” sounds lovely. Poppy and fun. Great melodies, great vocals by Clarissa Ghelli. This is pretty good. Hopefully gets properly released.
The Obsessives: and to end this week we check out Philadelphia’s The Obsessives. They are releasing on April 30 a very limited 7″ single for their song “Lala”. The 7″ will have two more songs, “I’ll Always Love You” and “Divine Hammer” which are not available to listen on Bandcamp. But “Lala” is and it sounds very good.
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I just discovered The Penguins. I have no clue whatsoever of who they are. There is this song on Soundcloud called “Any Minute Now” and it seems it came from a demo tape. It sounds great, with female vocals and chiming guitars. and as you will probably be able to tell it dates from the early 80s. It sounds a bit like The Big Outdoor Type or Tralala, bands like that. And I enjoy that sort of sound, of course!
The only info we get is that the song was recorded at Catch 44 Studio in Godalming. We know that this studio was run by Greg & Guy Skerman and that The Housemartins recorded in this same studio. We know too that the band was based in Basingstoke. And we get something that may or may not help me find more info about them, the band members.
Raz on rhythm guitar, synth and backing vocals, Andi Harris on lead and backing vocals, Delta Del on lead guitar, Mike on drums and Tim on bass and engineering.
On the web I find that Delta Del was in other bands like Out to Lunch and Against the Grain. But nothing about the other band members.
This is going to prove hard. To find any info about The Penguins I will require the help of the blog readers. So I trust you all. Maybe some of you were around that time in Basingstoke? Who remembers them?
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One Response to “:: The Penguins”
Hi there – I don’t known anything about the Penguins – but I do know about Catch 44 Recording Studios, since I lived next door (about 1985-1986) and maintained neighbourly friends with them. Tim and Mike were in a local band which recorded at the studio. In approximately (1987-1988) they bought the studio from Greg and Guy, and played on tracks as session musicians. I note you mention Tim played on the Penguins’ track as ‘bass and engineer’ so it is possible this was recorded at a time when Tim and Mike owned the studio.