It’s hard not to keep thinking about how disappointing is the state of indiepop right now. It does feel labels are losing their magic, their power, their allure. I mean indiepop labels. I do see bands finding home in other sort of labels, ones that are not boutique labels but labels that release all sorts of music. Maybe that’s the future. Indiepop labels with the exception of a few are struggling these days. It would be silly to not notice that the problem is economic. Records are much more expensive these days. They are pressed in limited quantities, and then the shipping costs double the price of the record. Also the lack of festivals, where you’d set up a merch table and was able to sell many records, is another big factor. With the inflation that’s going on right now, there are definitely other priorities for people. I don’t know if this will be fixed someday. I want to be positive, but I don’t want to be naive now. What’s your take on this? Will we get back someday to what it was?
An Ocean of Embers: what a superb song is “Butterfly Girl”! The duo formed by Jimmy Arfosea and Elsa Muller cover here the classic song by The Nightblooms and they do it just right! The Nantes band gives us here different versions of their cover, 5 different versions. So do check them all out!
The Caraway: the Japanese band is back with “Starry Eyes EP”. That’s great news. The bad news is that this limited pressing on Blue-Very Label is already sold out. Two of the songs, “Starry Eyes” and “Flash Back” are available to listen on the band’s Bandcamp, and as you can expect, they are great.
Cheerbleederz: “Even in Jest” is the naame of the new album this London combo formed by Kathryn Woods, Phoebe Cross and Sophie Mackenzie are releasing on July 27. As far as I know Alcopop! Records is putting it out but I don’t see a physical release. The album will have 10 songs, and three of them are up to preview. Also the band is touring the UK in July, so if you are lucky and they play your town, check them out!
Grazer: The Melbourne shoegaze band is back with “Melancholics Anonymous”. The duo formed by Matt and Mollie are releasing their new album on August 12. No physical release it seems, just digital. One song to preview on this one, out of 9, the really really good “These Days (Pass Me By)”.
The OK Nines: on my previous post I recommended their EP “Chien Renaissance”. Today I recommend a new digital single called “Puppy Pants (I Lost My)”… a very surfy, 60-vibe track!
—————————————————————–
So stoneeyedkiller shared a killer song called “I Remember” by a band called Moose Club. I was immediately hooked and went on a detective investigation, see if there was anything I could find about this band!
Turns out the band is more of a solo project by Dean Gifford. Bill Blair had originally uploaded a 2-song demo back in 2019 with the songs “Don’t Want to Talk About It” and “I Remember”. This demo dates from 1990, and the only other detail Bill shares was that he played keys on this demo. He played a Korg M1.
I notice my friend Joel from Portugal beat me to it and asked Bill about more songs by Dean. Bill shares us another demo by Dean. It is a superb song, right? But we don’t know the name of it. Was this also a Moose Club track? Or on this one Dean preferred to just use his name?
But we do know too that Bill Blair and Dean Gifford were in a band called Rhythm Method prior to Moose Club. While looking at Bill’s account I notice I have written about his Youtube account before! When I wrote about Apple Mosaic! Bill was an early member of the Gloucester band.
I wonder why I didn’t listen to the songs by Rhythm Method or Dean Gifford’s projects before. They are there and maybe there’s even more to discover.
I definitely would love to find out more about all the projects Bill and Dean were involved with.
Anyone remember these cool bands?
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Listen
Moose Club – I Remember
