Day 448. A difficult weekend, my phone died. It feels very strange not to have one. So used to it. Like you lose a limb. Hopefully I should have a replacement phone by the time I am publishing this. Hopefully. Then add all the apps and set up anything that needs setting up. I probably lost a lot of information and files. But well, what can you do. Tough luck.
The Suede Crocodiles: One of the best indiepop songs ever is “Stop the Rain” by The Suede Crocodiles. Who can’t argue that. The Glasgow band that was fronted by Kevin McDermott has now a Bandcamp page. Also on this same page you can find all other projects and recordings by Kevin which is great as I was unaware of them. So there’s lots of listening here. Would be a good idea to do a Suede Crocodiles interview, right? Should try soon!
Robert Scott: The Bats’ Robert Scott also has a Bandcamp now. In there we find both albums by The Magick Heads (which are wonderful!) as well as other recordings. But there’s also a new record called “Level 4” which is a collaboration between him and Dallas Henley. It is a bit different to what one is used but quite enjoyable, especially for a rainy day like today.
Lazy Eye: the Pelambang, Indonesia, band has been making some pretty tunes in the last few years. I can’t remember when was the last time I recommended them. Probably last January? Well, today is also a good time. I found out they have a new song called “Polaris” which is really pretty. Dreamy, poppy, chiming, good all around.
Río Arga: I love this Spanish band from Pamplona. They make terrific songs. And it is great news they are releasing a new album called “Piscina y Lagos”. Sadly it is coming out on a label that has been problematic for me. But you may have had better communication, better experience with Caballito Records. I guess in the end what matters is the music, and that’s why I keep recommending them, because they are favourites for sure. The album is coming out on 12″ vinyl on June 9 and will include 8 songs. You can preview two songs now on Bandcamp.
The Umbrella Puzzles: and we finish today’s review with Ryan Marquez’s lovely project. Here he presents us 4 acoustic recordings, an acoustic session he has called “All Our Friends”. This set was recorded for Alternatrip’s All Our Friends Online Music Festival on May 29. The songs are very nice, as usual, influenced by the BMX Bandits, right? And a cover of The Steinbecks!
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We return to Sweden, to the CDR days of early 2000s. Great times. Great memories. A period I miss a lot. And I am sure many of you do too.
The Winston Solution was a band from Göteborg. There is not much information on the web, but there are a few things we can say about the band. We can say that the band started in 1999 by Erik Jonsson and Jonas Lundvall. They previously had been in a band called Odd Man Out.
Their home studio was called PlayNow. It was there that they recorded their songs. As far as I know there were three demo CDs released. The first one dates from 2001 and was called “Nine Wrong Songs”. The songs on this CDR were “I Know I’m Wrong”, “Read Between the Lines”, “The Magic of a Shy Conversation”, “Empty Streets and City Lights”, “The Look in Your Eyes”, “The Story Ends When the Paper is Full”, “Sister” and “Is this Real?”.
The 2nd CDR was called “Good Things Will Come to Those Who Can’t Wait”. This one was released in 2005. I don’t know the track list for this one. I know the name of some of the songs, “It’s Easier to Say”, “Jenny Fame” and “Left Hand Writing”.
The third one was called “The Diplomat EP”. Again, don’t know the tracklist but songs names were “I Don’t Know What I Would Have Done Without You” or “Make a Plan to Love Me”. I think it was released in 2008 but I could totally be wrong.
On Discogs they only appear listed on a compilation CD called “CD 7 2008” released by Groove (GROOVE0807). On this comp they appear with the song “History Book”.
The only other detail I could find was that the band played at the Malmö festival “We and You” in 2003 that was organized by Revolution 9, a fanzine from that time.
I don’t know if this actually covers well everything they released. There might have been more CDRs. There were definitely more songs, having a look at Last.fm tracks, I see some that I don’t know where they were released like “Your Boyfriend Does Not Understand”, “Photographs from a Broken Planet”, “Consider Me in Love”, “Nothing is Natural Only Impossible”, and many more.
I know that Jonas Lundvall was later in a project of his own called Klifton Filente.
So yeah, who remembers them? Whatever happened to them?
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