Day 427. A busy week this one and the next, with posts everyday. Lots of interviews coming up!

Ta To Boy: remember I was wondering what about the 2nd album bu the Greek popsters. I had seen new music on Youtube but no real announcement. Well, the new album, “Endless Life” is up now on Bandcamp. 9 songs packed of finely crafted pop songs. There is no announcement of a proper physical release though. That worries me. I hope someone picks up this record. It sounds very good.

Kung-Fu Girl: the fantastic Japanese pop combo from Osaka is back with what looks a new tape. I can’t be sure as there are no order button for a tape but the artwork looks like a cassette as well as the name of the release, “Casette Tapes Series Vol. 1”. In any case, this release has two songs, “Rabuka” and “Ghost Girlfriend”. Good stuff.

Traveling with Monika: our favourite Bangkok band is also back. It is great to see bands continuing making music these days. Their newest song is called “Lost to Nothing” and it is a fine slice of sweet and cosy pop music.

Something Beautiful: that is the title of the new Sunday Records compilation that is coming out on June 4. The comp will be available on vinyl and CD and will include only good bands. That is a good thing, right? It has bands that have released on Cloudberry like The Suncharms or Alpaca Sports, friends of mine like the lovely Starry Eyed Cadet, and other favourites like The Arctic Flow or Mariana in Our Head. So this seems like a must have this summer!!

Ruth Po!: wow it is always a pleasure to listen to a new song by Ruth Po! Her voice, her way of writing lyrics, are always special. This new song, “Lonely Saturday”, was recorded in lockdown with Ruth playing every single instrument in it. Again, a pleasure to my ears.

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The other day I was asked if I was the Youtube account “stoneeyedkiller”. I am not of course. I do find a lot of great indiepop bands from him which I then write about on the blog, but I do think the person behind that Youtube account also checks the blog often because many discoveries of mine have appeared later there. Let’s say we inspire each other. And I don’t know this person. Which is kind of cool.

Of course I don’t like everything he posts, and I am sure he doesn’t like everything I like. For example sometimes he has bands that are too rocky or goth for my taste. And that’s fine. But the band I am writing about today, Lofthouse, I discovered thanks to stoneeyedkiller, and it is the sort of music I like.

I have very little info about them. I know they released a 12″ in 1991 with four songs on, probably their own label, Whyte Label (001). The songs on the record were “Hypnotised” and “Everywhere” on the A side and “Sky High” and “Space Head” on the B side. The sleeve of the record has these faces, 7 times, I am sure this person was someone famous, but I don’t know who it is. Maybe my British friends would know. Yeah, because the band hailed from the UK.

Last.fm seems to have a bio and I hope it is for the right Lofthouse. Here it mentions that the band was named after the football legend Nat Lofthouse.

Nathaniel Lofthouse (27 August 1925 – 15 January 2011) was an English professional footballer who played as a forward for Bolton Wanderers for his entire career. He won 33 caps for England between 1950 and 1958, scoring 30 goals, with one of the highest goals-per-game ratios of any England player.

I think Nat Lofthouse is the same person as in the sleeve. What do you think?

It says that they were from Bolton and were formed by Steve Robinson on guitars and vocals, Richard Whyte (and probably replaced at some point by Ed Warburton) on bass, Jakey (replaced by Ian Jones) on drums, Gary Connor on guitar and Michael Ryan on percussion. It also says that in 1994 some of the band members went to form Plainfield.

I haven’t found any other details about the band. I haven’t heard the other songs on the record yet. Do they sound like “Hypnotised”? I think I’d like to find out. I think the record is not that pricey, just the postage is annoying. But maybe that way I’ll be able to get a better idea of this band… or you can help me? Someone remembers Lofthouse?!

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Listen
Lofthouse – Sky High