Not many news this week. It’s been a very quiet one. At least I could finish answering all emails that I had piling and bought a plane ticket to Chicago for the 4th of July weekend. It will be my first time in the Windy City. For sure I’ll visit the Millenium Park and the Art Institute. Would like to see Adler Planetarium and the Navy Pier as well. And it seems I will go onto a ghost tour as well. That sounds quite exciting!
This week I’ve been listening to the new-ish BMX Bandits reissue on Rev-Ola/Poppydisc, the “C86+Star Wars” CD. By doing this on last.fm the Banditos are my top band ever. What would McCarthy say to this! It’s interesting though that Rev-Ola is not part of Cherry Red anymore, I wonder why. Other albums that were on rotation were Vitesse’s “Chelsea 27099”, The Big Dish’s “Swimmer” and Johnny Rasheed’s “Inspiration”. Today was a day for listening to an indiepop compilation called “Working Titles”. This CD that comes in a DVD case has been a great surprise as there are no fillers in it, it’s just good from start to finish. Also it comes with a great booklet, with interviews to every band that appears on the compilation. This was released in Philippines in 2002. Also this week I’ve got the chance to listen all the recordings done by Feverfew, a bunch of rare and unreleased Man of Delmonte tracks and some unreleased Tender Engines.
But now onto the obscure band recommendation for this week: The Philips. As I’ve never done a Japanese lost band, I thought it was time to do so. And I’m quite curious about them as there is absolutely no information about them. There was one release though, a split flexi shared with The Ammonites. So let’s talk about that.
The 7″ flexi was a co-release between A Rare Breed Records and The Boshi Label. I don’t know much about the first label, aside that their first release was another flexi, the Hopscotch flexi by my beloved PO! The Boshi Label on the other hand was Akiko’s first “label” before the much more known Sugarfrost Records. On the Boshi Label there were 5 fanzines, 1 t-shirt, 2 cassette tapes, and 2 flexis. This one, the Ammonites/Philips flexi, was the first of the two, it was released in 1990 and was catalog number RODDY 007. Big fan of Aztec Camera huh?
I’m quite bummed after seeing on Discogs that the flexi came with a picture sleeve. The copy I have has no sleeve. Kind of annoying. I did pay 1 pound for it so I shouldn’t complain much, but still. The Philips song on the flexi is called “Young Love Be Your Monkey Tonight”. The Ammonites one is called “Jennifer”. I do wonder what does the name of the Philips song means. In any case, the song is a really fun one, with a catchy chorus and great melodies. I’d say it sounds like a stripped down Flipper’s Guitar’s tune!
And after listening one more time “Young Love Be Your Monkey Tonight”, I wonder if did they only record 1 song? That doesn’t sound right to me. I’m sure they had more stuff recorded. Was this their only release? Whatever happened to them? I feel there was a great scene in Japan in the early 90s, but it hasn’t been documented properly. Maybe it’s time to do so! So if you have any other information about the band, please share!
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2 Responses to “:: The Philips”
I could be wrong, but I imagine this is the same group who released “A Fantastic Day” with Por supuesto. The album’s catalogue number is STAP-0647, but details are a bit sparse.
Same band, Sean.
I’ve watched them more than 10 times. They released couple of demo cassettes around Young love flexi era. All songs were sung in English. After few years of hiatus, they released two CD mini albums on por supuest (funded by major label) and Red Car on mod label Lovin’ Circle in 90s. Both of them, lyrics are in Japanese. Also some non-CD tracks were included on various compilation albums. After the end of last century, I am not sure what they’re doing….