Day 583

Miseryslims: from Manitoba, Canada, this trio is making a comeback since their releases in 2017. 4 years later they release the digital EP “HELLO”. Four songs of upbeat noisy guitar pop. The band is formed by Brady, Randy and Simon, and we hope to hear more from them and more often!

Power Blush: now to discover this four-piece from Chemnitz, Germany. Is it the first time I recommend a band from that city? It must be! The band has released the EP “Vomiting Emotions” digitally last month. It has 6 songs of sweet pop, with girl vocals and shiny melodies. And they have many gigs coming up. If you are in Germany, maybe try checking them out?

Luster Dust: here is another digital EP, and this one comes again from Canada. From Toronto, to be exact. 5 songs of lo-fi shoegaze are what we find in the band’s latest release “Sunflower”. These songs were recorded back in January but for some reason, Daniel Wilson, the man behind these tracks, has decided to put them out now. It’s nice!

Cathedral Bells: a new single by the Florida band that is quite nice. It is called “I Don’t Care Anymore” and it has some very nice guitars, jingle jangling. Also the band seems to be going on a big US tour this November. Feels good to see that things are coming back to normal, though I still feel not ready for this!

Grazer: and one more time I have to recommend Melbourne’s duo Grazer. This is just a new song, a new single, called “Reunion”, but it is a lovely piece of pop music that Matt and Mollie have put together again. So yeah, have a listen, and enjoy the weekend!

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Back in 2011 I tried to interview The Visitors. I was in touch with Tim Hopkins then and sent him a bunch of questions. Sadly never heard back.

A lot of indiepop fans know The Visitors. They know the split flexi that Sha La La released in 1987 and also the great retrospective compilation Matinée Recordings put out in the year 2000. Aside from that, there is not much info about them, I think?

The band was active in the late 80s, in Somerset. As mentioned the first time we hear from them is in 1987, thanks to the Sha La La flexi. On this flexi, which they shared with The Magic Shop, the band appeared second and contributed the song “Goldmining”. The catalog number for this record was Ba Ba Ba-Ba Ba 008 and as you know the flexi came alongside a variety of fanzines including “Make it Ongar”, “Simply Thrilled” (issue 4), “Hedgehogs & Porcupines” (issue 8) and “5,000 Miles from George Square” (issue 2, copies that were distributed just in Japan).

Many years after, in 2000, Matinée Recordings would surprise us all with an 11 song compilation titled “Miss” (MATCD003). “Goldmining” was the opening track, and we also find “Bliss”, “Flat on My Back”, “Never Has, Never Will”, “Alice Aisgill”, “Waking Up to Nothing”, “Seeing Stars”, “Fridays and Saturdays”, “Housewife’s Choice”, “Age Old” and “I Remember”. On the credits there’s not much. It says that the songs were written and recorded by Stuart Troop, Paul Hooper, Christian Jones, Jon Cleary, Tim Hopkins and David Griffiths at various times between 1986 and 1988.

Of course we know that Stuart Troop would later be in Hope and Telstarr. As you see I’ve written about Hope. David Griffiths was in the wonderful Endless Bob Brown (I need to write about them), Lightspeed, Lightspeed Future Lullaby and Piano Magic.

And we know Tim Hopkins who alongside Joe Brooker were The First Division who released a 3″ CD with Cloudberry.

When it comes to compilations the band appeared on “C188 Papercuts” a CD compilation released by Sheepish Records in the year 2000. the band contributed the song “Waking Up to Nothing”. Many good bands on this record like Jinx, The Foxgloves, The Clientele, Spearmint and The Pines. Later, in 2003, Matinée included their song “Sad Kaleidoscope” on the “Matinée 50!” CD compilation. One thing I notice then is that these songs weren’t in the retrospective and I wonder why? It may be the case that there are even more songs by The Visitors? Who would know?

There’s not much more online written about them. I would love to know more about this project… maybe some of you have more details!?

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Listen
The Visitors – Fridays and Saturdays