Day 434
Ocean Blender: Indonesian Shoegazer Compilation Vol. 2: here’s a new cassette released by Anoa Records from Jakarta. It features 16 shoegaze songs by 16 different bands including some classic bands like Sharesprings or Astrolab. This is the 2nd tape in this series after “Holy Noise” that came out on 2016. Lots of great songs, lots of bands to discover.
Themilo: one of the bands I just discovered on that compilation, Themilo, actually has a new release on Anoa Records. It is a 3″ mini CD with two versions of the same song “Lazy”. We find on the 3″ an extended version that lasts almost 8 minutes an d the “Let Me Begin” version which is shorter so you can pick your favourite.
Bubble Tea and Cigarettes: Elefant Records has signed a New York band I have never heard before. I wonder if when the pandemic is over I’ll catch them live here. They seem to be a duo and they have released a new song with a video called “Santa Monica”. I suppose a phyical release will be announced soon.
Big Thing: I wasn’t aware of the label The Popty Ping Recording Company but will start looking into their catalogue. Their latest release is a fine indiepop 7″ single by Big Thing. The songs included are “Say When” and “Eye to Eye” and we can preview the opening truck. It is a fun pop song, clearly influenced by 90s sound, catchy and punchy!
The Smashing Times: the Baltimore band is back with a new album! It is titled “Summer Inside” and it includes 11 lo-fi pop songs. The band is formed by Thee Jasmine Monk, Zelda Anais and Ole “Juice Johnson” Johnson. The album is out now on tape and is limited to 100 copies. Good stuff!
—————————————————————–
Time for more Reading-based bands! This time around I want to find out more info about this combo that I discovered through the “Small Town Scenery” (RCLP 018) compilation that Record Collector Magazine put together to accompany one of their issues back in January 26, 2016.
I’ve mentioned before that I don’t have this 10″ yet. I will get it soon I hope. So far I’ve written about a few bands that appear on it like Triple Blind, Blue Velvet or Pretty Green. I’ve written about Final Hour too, but not sure if it is the same Final Hour. I need to go back to that and check. But what’s interesting about Blindmans Rainbow is that they appear with four songs on this comp, “She’s the Sea”, “Love Surrenders”, “Calibration” and “Banks”. It is worth noting that the last three songs appeared by themselves as a separate 12″ in this compilation.
On the sleeve of this record we see the band members:
Brendan Carr (vocals), Damian Jones (guitar), Nick Carter (drums) and Adam Blay (bass). There is some info about the band too. Former lead singer Brendan Carr said: “We were all just 18 when the song “She’s the Sea” emerged during our morning rehearsals at the Cell Studios in Reading. You can hear the backwards guitars picked up from the Stone Roses, a band we were lined up to support at the Majestic nightbclub but couldn’t because Adam (bass player) had his Math’s A level the next morning. Back then all that really mattered was to get the music into vinyl. It just never happened to us”.
They did appear on two compilation tapes during their time. Their song “Bus Journey” was on thee “You Can’t Bee Loved Forever No.2” that our friend Phil Ball put together. Two years later, in 1991, they had their song “All Gone” in the “Farnborough Groove Volume 1” tape compilation that Pete Cole put together and whose series of compilations are now in volume number 12!
The only other thing we know they put out was a demo tape from 1990 titled “The Sand and the Sky”. This tape had four songs, “She’s the Sea”, “All Gone”, “Rudi” and “Brighter Day”. I believe there are more demo tapes by them. At least one more. But who knows… this is just me guessing as the songs “Bus Journey”, “Love Surrenders”, “Calibration” and “Banks” are not part of this tape.
What else have I found…
I know the band played at the After Dark Club on April 21st of some year supporting Neds Atomic Dusbin.
But there’s more. It seems the band reunited in 2016 to play on the launch of the Record Collector compilation. At Corsica Studios in London they played “Blue Skies” and there’s video for that. On Soundcloud there is a recording of “Ship of Fools” at the same gig.
Not much more on the web. But some good details about the band. Would be nice to know if the band members were involved with other bands for example. Or if there are more recordings. Or how come they didn’t get to release their music back then… Who remembers them?
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
