Happy Monday! last full week of posts. I think next week I’ll post on Monday and Wednesday only. Wednesday afternoon we fly to Paris. So yeah, again, just a friendly reminder that if you want to save on postage and want some releases from our label, send us a message and I’ll be more than happy to bring the records to your city.
Skiftande Enheter: I remember missing the first 7″ by this wonderful Gothenburg band. Well, I wasn’t going to miss their second! So I just ordered “Öppna Landskap EP”, a 7″ released by Happiest Place Records last February. The EP has 4 wonderful songs. Definitely a favourite band, one to continue following!
Shinowa/Alvysinger: last May the Blue-Very label released a special split tape with the wonderful Shinowa and the Cloudberry-favourite Alvysinger. On this tape each band contributes 3 songs. Shinowa covers “Wallflower” by The Monochrome Set and Alvysinger does a rendition of “Open Air Song” by Peter and the Lions. The EP is still available and includes a fanzine!
Axolotes Mexicanos feat. Ciberchico: this one is sort of an oldie. As you know I wasn’t posting on my blog for many months late last year and early this year. So I missed a bunch of releases. I just discovered that Axolotes Mexicanos released “Dile Que Me Quieres” last November. A poppy and fun song for which they also put together a video.
Pierre Andersson Ek: Here is the solo project by this artist and neighborhood rascal from Landskrona. He makes some top shoegaze sounds. For a taste of it do check his latest digital single “For a While”.
Orange & Lemons: the legendary pinoy band put together a sort of concept album last April. Titled “La Bulaqueña”, the album features a band going back to their Bulacan roots, paying tribute to the Tagalog language and important figures and artistic landmarks of their country including Juan Luna, Nicanor Abelardo and Jose Rizal (who I read not that long ago!).
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I just discovered that “The Meaning of Life” 7″ that The Loneliest Christmas Tree put out on the Bus Stop Label in 1992 is actually a reissue! Did you know this?
Turns out a 7″ with the songs “The Meaning of Life” and “Purgatory” was released years before, in 1987 on Loud Records Inc.(LOUD 01). I wanted to think this was the band’s own label but I see this label also released a 7″ by a band called Pariahs. That 7″ looks interesting by the way, anyone knows how it sounded like?
Back to “The Meaning of Life 7”. The songs had been recorded in autumn of 1987 at Pine Trax in Holyoake in Massachusetts. Mark Merrigan had been the producer with Dave Pine engineering.
A little more background info about this American band. They were formed by Stephen Rand on vocals, Dan Oxenberg on guitar and vocals, Jon Shere on guitar, Randy Peacock on bass and Josh Belknap on drums.
We know Josh Belknap had been in a few indiepop bands including The Caroline Know who released on Bus Stop and The Veronica Cartwrights. He was also in Kid Congo & the Pink Monkey Birds. Jon Shere was in the Supreme Dicks. Dan Oxemberg was also in the Supreme Dicks and Volume. And Stephen Rand was in The Caroline Know. Sadly I just found out that Stephen passed away in 2011.
I think the band hailed from Boston. I’ll see if I can confirm this while I write these lines. The 7″ that Bus Stop re-released in 1992 included one more song, “The Treasure Chest of Me” which was recorded at Chez Spike in February of 1992. Maybe there was a reunion of sorts? This song was written by Steve Ausbury and was engineered by Spike Priggen. The catalog number for this record was BUS020. Another interesting detail of this release is that the artwork has a credit unlike the original release. Andre Busi is credited for the cool sleeve graphic.
Then I find out that The Loneliest Christmas Tree is the name of a story by Deborah Allen. But this story came out in 2011. Did she steal the name?
Then I find something amazing. A reunion gig, 19:10 minutes of footage, of the band playing the Knitting Factory in New York City! This reunion gig dates from 1994 and it is terribly cool! In the comments section someone mentions the band had played at the Zone in Springfield in 1989.
That’s indeed a great find. Sadly I couldn’t find any other songs by the band. You’d think they would have recorded more. And also you wonder what are they up to now.
Anyone remembers them?
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