Good morning! Not much news today. It was a busy weekend for me. Went for the first time to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and we had a good time. Lunch was at a close by Hungarian café. All good. Then in the afternoon at the Welsh bar across my street. Next day was visiting old friends in the Upper East Side and going for a walk to Charles Schurz park. The weather was hot. Today the temperature is a bit cooler which is better!
R´émi Parson: wow! an unreleased demo from the sessions of Rémi’s first album just showed up on Bandcamp. The song is called “L’amour au temps de l’eurodance” and it is a catchy, lo-fi, electronic popsong… and it is great! I know Rémi likes his fair bit of eurodance, having covered “What is Love” with The Sunny Street, and so not surprised this is a great song.
The OK Nines: now we head to Berkeley, California. A new band it seems. There is no info. There are 5 songs though that make up the “Sunwoofer” EP. This is a nice ramshackle-pop release. Only available digitally.
Arts & Letters: Caleb Carr is clearly a talented indiepopster. He knows how to janle. Previously with his project English Summer he make us fall in love with his melodies. Then he changed names to Arts & Letters and continues doing so. The Clare, Australia, based-project has now a new song (well, a month old), which it’s really good. It has a great title too: “It’s People Like You that Make Me Want to Go to Prison”.
Horseface: Umeå, Sweden, band Horseface sings in Finnish. They have a new album out, 10 songs, on vinyl. It is titled “Sanakirjan Takana”. The band is formed by Hanna Kangassalo, Robert Tenevall, Erik Selim Lundkvist and Ellen Dahlgren. I am listening to it now. And I am really surprised. It sounds like an interesting mix of early 80s bands like Trixie’s Big Red Motorbike or The Avocados… or The Particles, with a little bit more experimentation in the melodies. They are pop melodies but with an interesting twist. I am hooked.
Cristina Quesada: the new album by our friend Cristina is going to be released on June 10th by Elefant Records. The album is titled “Dentro Al Tuo Sogno” and it has a few songs in Italian indeed. The album has 11 songs and will be available on vinyl and CD. Right now you can pre-order it as well as listen to two tracks, “The Only One” and “Primavera”.
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Wasn’t easy to follow the thread on this one. Stoneeeyedkiller had posted a superb song called “200 Miles” by The Reigning Days. And of course, as a good indiepop detective I needed to know more!
In the end I tracked down a Soundcloud account by Joss Smith. He was the sax player of this band.
The other band members were Simon Tomkies on vocals and guitar, Jon Lawton on guitar, Brett Findlay on drums and Warren Smith on bass.
Here we find a bunch of songs. Great jangly tracks. These are “200 Miles”, “Aggitation”, “Bitter Champagne” and “Going Blind Again”. These 4 songs were part (in that order) of a cassette release titled “Crooners”.
We also know that this, his college band, was active between 1988 and 1989.
Now, where were they from?
From the UK I would say after hearing Joss’s accent on his Youtube account. One thing that I notice is that he loves to repair typewriters and test them too! He also likes to play the keyboard.
Then there’s a video of a band called FLYX. They hailed from Somerset. Joss was their saxophonist. This dates from 1991. Just two years after the demise of The Reigning Days. Would it be safe to assume the band hailed from that area?
Maybe I’m not that far from being right. I see Simon Tomkies is on Bandcamp and he is based in Glastonbury. That’s 20 or so minutes car drive. Okay, I think we may know where the band was from now.
Now, can we find out other bands they might have involved with? Maybe find out if they played many gigs? Perhaps shared gigs with some of our indiepop heroes?
One thing we do know and should be added. The band contributed two songs to a classic pop compilation. Their songs “Bitter” and “Going Blind Again” appeared on the “Now That’s Righteous” cassette that Katrina Music put out in 1989. On this compilation they appear next to The Morrisons, The Driscolls, The Wilderness Children, Mousefolk and more.
And that’s what I could find. Not bad. I always have been aware of this tape, but there are a few bands on it that Ive never heard and maybe someone can help me with them, maybe I end up liking them or maybe not but never heard The Magic Roundabouts, The Lovers Madly or Rubber Base Angel. Before today I had never heard The Reigning Days.
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