Day 478

Hotel Artesia: nice to see Mr. Wright, Kevin, back. You have to remember his wonderful music as The Dreamers and Always as well. This new project is called Hotel Artesia and he has already recorded a bunch of songs that are available on his own Youtube channel. He has so far five songs worth checking out, “Stardust”, “Station”, “Seconds”, “South” and “Space”.

Three Berry Icecream/Funny Little Dream: wow! what a nice release Shiny Happy Records from Indonesia is putting out on July 27. A split tape by the legendary Three Berry Icecream (who I interviewed on the blog not too long ago) and Funny Little Dream a band we love and released a 3″ CD back in the day! Each band contributes four songs to this release and you can preview one song each on Bandcamp!

The Oilies: now we have to listen “Free all the Monsters” by The Oilies. It is actually a cover of the classic song by The Bats. Carly Putnam  and Michael O. are the people behind this fine sounding California band that as you know I’ve recommended time and time again. Hoping for a release in the future.

Geddy Laurence/Michael O: and I had to check what was new with Michael Olivares solo, not just in The Oilies. Well there is a split tape with Geddy Laurence (Ged McGurn from Boyracer) out now on Safe Suburban Home Records from York, UK. In this split each of them contribute two fine popsongs.

Galaxy Lodge: what a nice discovery! This Manila band formed by Emeer, Gerard, Ron, and Otits, is now on Lilystars Records. On top of that they have just released a very good single called “Kiss this Goodbye”. Really enjoyable. I feel I don’t stumble upon many filipino bands as often as I want to, but when I do it is usually quality!

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We head to the US today, to discover the self-titled album by The Allisons.

Released by Spindletop Records (SPT 128), who had released Janet Jackson (!), in 1989, I don’t know how much of a success it was. It does look like the label trusted the band and released it on vinyl, CD and cassette. Uncommon those days!

The jangly band had 11 songs on their record. On the A side they had “Sixth Dimension Flower”, “Wild Wild Rain”, “A Second Coming”, “Sherry Goes Round” and “They Pulled My City Down”. The B side had “Roanne”, “Of Speaking my Mind”, “Naivete”, “Waters Rise and Lower”, “Homeward Bound” and “Listen”. All songs were recorded at January Sound Studio in Dallas, Texas, and mixed at Amigo Studios in LA.

The artwork shows us the four band members in the front cover. They were  Adym Roy on vocals and bass guitar, Jim Harville on vocals and guitars, Karl Teten on lead vocals, guitar, harmonica and bass and Kevin Tate on drums.

Other credits include Daniela de Stefanis, Bill Kennedy and Garth Richardson as engineers. The executive producers was W. Barry Wilson. The songs were mastered by Michele Stone, while the producer was Rob Meurer (who also played percussion and organ on the record). Novi Novog played viola. She has played viola in more than 150 records including 10,000 Maniacs or Dolly Parton!

The song “Homeward Bound” is actually a cover of Paul Simon and the first track, “Sixth Flower Dimension” was written by Errol Hughes. Who was he?

There were no compilation appearances for the band nor any other releases. How strange.

I look at any other bands they might have been on. Kevin Tate seems to have drummed for Gorges Borges who released a 12″ in 1985. And that’s it. What about the other members? They must have played music somewhere else, no?

To me it looks clear the label had a lot of hope in the band. I read that their cover of “Homeward Bound” had a video and used to be played in MTV Europe. I haven’t been able to find this video on Youtube.

There is absolutely no more info about the band. I think they hailed from Texas. But that’s what I think. I don’t have prove.

Hopefully we’ll learn more details about them in the future. Anyone remembers them?

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Listen
The Allisons – Sherry Goes Round