The Umbrellas: the San Francisco band released a wonderful album not too long ago. Now there’s news that they are releasing a 7″ with two songs, “Write in the Sky” and “I’ll Never Understand”. The A side is now available to preview and it is very nice. The 7″ is being released by so many labels, and depending whereabouts in the world you are you could probably save on shipping ordering from the closest label. I am always curious how labels do this. Having other label tell me how the artwork should look like would give me a heart attack… for example…

Pet Shimmers: now we cross the Atlantic for Pet Shimmers. They hail from Bristol and will be releasing on July 15 a 7″ with two songs as well. They are “Sonder” and “Edgelord”. Again the first song is available to listen. It is a fine lo-fi song, with some fun arrangements reminding me of Bearsuit.

Pulse Park: the Brighton label Shore Dive Records know how to find great shoegaze bands. The one problem is that their records sell out so quick. True they are in limited quantities and this is not bad news for the label at all. “Phonac Music” is the name of the album by this German band. 10 songs that you can check out online.

Films on Song: I have recommended this Charlottesville, Virginia, band in the past. Their latest is a digital single titled “Still I Try”. This song will be included on a split cassette release with the band Work Wear.

La Bien Querida: always a fan of Ana Fernández-Villaverde’s music. Her latest song “La Perra del Hortelano” is no exception. I like her vocals, her lyrics, and melodies. And there’s also a video for this song, so that’s even better.

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Following my post on Head for Texas, I will follow with the band Paul Sands, their bassist, was involved afterwards: Presidents Men.

It was through his Soundcloud that I found out about both bands. Most of the recordings here are actually of him reading his poetry. If you check the post about Head for Texas there is a bit more of background info, that I won’t go into in this post.

Why? Well, try not repeating myself, and also because I am hoping there’s more to write about The President’s Men. They actually released something, a 7″ single!

With the Statue of Liberty on the sleeve, the vinyl record was released by Be Bop Records in 1984. Catalog number was TPM 1. TPM clearly means The President’s Men. The songs on it were “Candidate” on the A side and “The Day Before” and “One in a Million” on the B side.

I’ve linked to all three songs. They are all on his Soundcloud. One interesting detail is that Discogs has it as a 1984 release while Paul says it is from 1983.

We also know the band members thanks to the sleeve. Jeremy Cotterill was on vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, Lee Watt on drums, Jon Harris on electric guitars and keyboards and Paul Sands on bass. The saxophone was played by Scott Povey.

All songs were recorded at Q Studios and were produced by the band and Paul Branston. The photos of the band members on the back of the sleeve are credited to Andrew Bentley.

We also find an address for the band in Gedling, Nottingham. I’ve looked at it on Google Maps. It is a two-floor house. Probably one of the members lived there. It is on the northern part of Nottingham, close to Mapperley Golf Club and Gedling Country Park.

Googling around I believe Lee Watt was involved later on in a band called The Marcel Marceau Sound. Also as a drummer.

Other than that no more info. Again I hit a wall. I couldn’t find if any of the other members were in other bands. I saw Lisa Keenan from Head for Texas listed as part of The President’s Men in Rateyourmusic. Is that true? The one she was replacing was Jon Harris who does appear on the sleeve.

Anyhow, I am hoping we find more info about this band and what happened to their members afterwards!

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Listen
The President’s Men – Candidate