Day 560. This is the week of our new release, Stars on Fire 7″! I have already mailed all pre-orders to many people, many countries, around the world. The official release date is on Friday, FYI! So yeah, if you want to keep supporting the label, indiepop, and the bands, you know what to do 🙂

Meyverlin: Thierry from My Raining Stars and Philippe from Les Freluquets have joined forces and this song, “Archangel”, is their first effort. It is really good!! It is perfect pop music and they know it. So there’s a video made for it. Which is cool too!

Johnny Crimes: this band from Salt Lake City formed by Johnny, Gio and Will is a new discovery for me. Their latest release on Bandcamp includes two songs, “Darling, It’s Simple Now” and “Alternate Version for Class Assignment”. It is clearly influenced by The Smiths but with it’s own trademark sound. Really nice.

Still Corners: this well known London band is a favourite of many of us. So Yeah, even though they are famous I can recommend their new song, right? It is called “Heavy Days” and sounds ace. I still remember when I saw them in Berlin so many many years ago at the Indie Pop Days Berlin, not as known then as now! Good for them!

Sweet Nobody: now a Long Beach, California, band! “We’re Trying Our Best” is the band’s second album. It was recorded prior to the pandemic but it is only being released now. Sadly it seems to be only available digitally. But nonetheless it is a great listen. 10 songs of sweet jangle with female vocals and bright melodies.

Sloe Noon: the latest on Manchester’s Box Bedroom Rebels Records is a 7 track EP called “(Storeys of) Embassy Court” by Sloe Noon. This is nice dreampop record on 7″ vinyl and on ttop of that it comes with a 12 page booklet, stickers, postcard and more. A very nice pop package!

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I discovered the Jerusalem Taxis on Soundcloud. Then I noticed they were an Irish band and immediately found them on the Fanning Sessions blog. So I’ll start there.

A post from March 2012, shares a Fanning Session from 1991. Here the Kilkenny band formed by Malcolm Noonan (vocals), Kevin Conroy (guitar), Frankie Morgan (bass) and JJ Cantwell (drums) recorded three songs, “Chicken Man”, “Fall Into Nowhere” and “Long Blue Tube”.

For me their best song is called “Something in My Head“. This song was later covered by a band called Kerbdog. This cover would end up on a 1994 7” as. B side.

The only other song I am aware by them is called “What is It About Her“. Both of these songs I just mentioned and linked to Soundcloud were recorded in 1990.

From the image on the Fanning Sessions blog, we see that there was a tape release by the band. A 3 track EP. I wonder which songs were the ones included in it.

The comments on the blog also give us some more info. For example that Malcolm Noonan was/is the Kilkenny County Councillor for the Green Party. Maybe he still is? that was in 2012.

Malcolm Noonan also commented and mentioned that The Gun Club was a a big influence in their music. He also says that the band stopped making music in 1993.

An interview with Malcolm Noonan for Hot Press, he says that:
“I was in one serious band called the Jerusalem Taxis for about three years. It was good punky stuff – Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, that sort of thing. We played a lot of gigs with The Slowest Clock who had a similar approach and style to us. We were both culchie bands – their drummer was from Kikenny but they were based in Laois – and recorded in the same Dublin studio, Sonic, with Albert Cohen. We also supported Engine Alley quite a bit both in the Newpark Inn, which was the hopping Kilkenny venue at the time, and in venues like The Baggot Inn. There’s a 1991 Fanning Session of ours on the web. We went over to London to do a showcase for Setanta and 4AD, which is when it all fell apart.”

On Youtube someone has uploaded “Fall into Nowhere“. Here on the comments we learn that Noonan continues being involved with the Green Party. And it also says that all the members remain in Ireland but the drummer who lives in London these days.

And then a proper amazing discovery!! 16 songs by the Jerusalem Taxis! These 16 songs are all their RTE radio sessions. So this is indeed fantastic. The songs are: “What is it About Her”, “Jellybean Orgy”, “Something in My Head”, “Long Blue Tube”, “The Chicken Man”, “Fall into Nowhere”, “Newpark Inn (Intro)”, “Leave it all Behind”, “So You’re Back Again”, “Restless”, “Why Should I Fucking Care?”, “Don’t Turn Me Away”, “Newpark Inn (Outro)”, “Tremelo Kill”, “Cheap Imitation” and “Ballad of Mary-Jo”.

And that’s it. Sure, some songs are punkier and much more angular that what I usually enjoy, but there are some fine jangly songs here. “Something in My Mind” is a treasure!

Who remembers them? Why didn’t they release any records? Did they continue making music with other bands?

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Listen
Jerusalem Taxis – Something in My Head