Day 602. Reminder that in a week time I will stop orders for about to month, until February. Please place your orders now if there are any records you’d like. Upon we return next year there will be a new release! More info on it very soon!

The Legendary Hearts: this is really amazing! A Christmas single by the Scottish legends! “Cold Christmas” is included in a new 7″ that they have just released. This 7″ which is actually a split with The Sacred Angels is among the best I’ve heard this year. Also, I got the 7″ already and I have to say it sounds superb. Released by the band’s own Surfin’ Pict Records, the label that they’ve used to put out classic pop since the 80s, the single is one not to be missed. The Sacred Angels song is very good as well! I think this is a one-off band, but they know how to make a fine song! Best Christmas single so far!

Hits: this is a difficult name for a band. I wonder how can people google for info about Hits? Well, who knows! But their “Cielo Nublado” LP seems to be doing well. Released by Paisley Shirt Records from San Francisco, the Oakland trio released this album back in September. It is a nice mix of post-punk and pop. It works really well here. So check it out!

En Mi Mente: now a dreampop band from Chihuahua, Mexico. This project by Alan Aviles, a 24 year old chavo, has just released their latest digital single “Girasolestelar”. It is a fine jangly upbeat song, with somewhat buried vocals and ace melodies.

Dream Room: another dreampop band. Another digital single. This one seems to be the only song available by this Melbourne based band. From a photo on their Bandcamp it seems to be a 3-piece, one of them wearing a Newcastle United jersey. Not much more info. The single is called “Ride” and it sounds good.

Hidden Pears: as usual my friend David Chalé finds the bestest obscure Swedish pop. Who are Hidden Pears? Who knows. The one thing we know is that their Soundcloud has a bunch of demos that are really nice. Feels like going back in time to the heyday of Swedish bedroom pop circa 2004. Wow! So good, check “Vackrast Som Vän” if you want to start by one of the songs. Really nice!

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Another band I’ve tried to interview with no luck. You know, it happens more often than not. But I still want to recommend this fine Sheffield band that in 1993 released their one and only record, a 7″ on the American label Sunday Records.

“Change EP” came out that year. It had the catalog number Sunday 023 and included 4 songs, two on each side. “Hurts Me to Think” and “Change” on the A side and “Sha La La” and “Rainy Afternoon” on the B side. The sleeve is printed on a tone of purple, it looks like a statue. Perhaps from a cemetery? Who’d know?

This record is probably among the first records I had. I can’t remember when I bought it but it was early on when I started buying records. I always liked their sound.

The four songs were recorded in March of 93 at Epichead Studios in Sheffield. The engineer was Matt Robson from the band Slumber while the songs were mastered by L. Nix.

The band was formed by Julian Arthur on bass, Adam Ash on drums, James Wood on guitar, Kirsty McGee on vocals and guitar and Mark Wainwright on guitar. I have met Mark many times as he was part of the fantastic band The Parallelograms who released a 7″ and a 3″ with Cloudberry. He was also in The Total Rejection.

Kirsty McGee had been in Slumber and Kirsty McGee & the Hobopop Collective. And yeah, speaking of Slumber I should prepare a post about them as well. She has become a renowned folk singer and even has her own Wikipedia page!

Aside from the 7″ songs the band recorded some more for different compilations.

“Take Me Back to Heaven” appeared on the 9″ flexi “Happy Sunday (A Sunday Records Anniversary Single)” (Sunday 021) in 1993. That same year they appeared on the classic compilation “The Sound of Music (An Anti Racist Benefit)” that Bring on Bull Records (C233) released on CD and vinyl. Here they did a version of “Lonely Goatherd” from the movie The Sound of Music of course.

1993 also sees them appear on “Sunny Sunday Smile” (Sunday 640) a Sunday Records compilation on CD that included two of their songs, “She Wasn’t In” and “Bent Backwards”. 7 years later, in 2000, there is a second volume, “Sunny Sunday Smile Volume 2” (Sunday 880) where the band contributes two more songs “Human After All” and “Mrs. Kipling”.

One thing that I wonder is if their name had a period after Mrs or not. I’ve seen it both ways. I wonder what was their preferred way. Also, where does their name come from?

“Rainy Afternoon” appears on “Rolling Meadows Songs About Our Past Vol. 2” (Sunday 850) another CD compilation released by Sunday Records on the year 2000.

Lastly, in 2018, when Sunday Records came back from a long hiatus, their songs “Take Me Back to Heaven” and “Waiting” get included in the compilation “Songs About Our Past Vol. 3” (Sunday 970).

I look for more info about them on the web and the information is scarce. I notice my friend Alex from 7iete Pulgadas recommended the single back in 2011. He doesn’t have any extra details but he does some dead-on comparisons of the band to the likes of Marine Girls, The Carousel, The Popguns or Moving Pictures.

I don’t have much more to say. Maybe one day we’ll learn more about them. Why there weren’t more records? Did they gig a lot? Are there more unreleased tracks? Who knows… maybe some of you remember them?

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Listen
Mrs Kipling – Change