Another reminder that in a little more than a week I’ll be heading to France and Belgium. Any people in Paris or Brussels that may want some records, please let me know in advance and I’ll be happy to bring them with me.
Flowertown: the upcoming tape album “Half Yesterday” by the Bay Area band Flowertown is available to pre-order but you need to act fast. Very few copies are still available from their label, Paisley Shirt Records. The album has just 8 songs and two of them, “Half Yesterday” and “Beachwalkers”, are available to listen at the moment. Great work here by the duo of Karina Gill and Mike Ramos.
Robert Sekula: this is really GREAT! There’s a new single by the `14 Iced Bears singer/songwriter! It is called “Pamela” and it sounds superb. For sure, the vocals take me back to hours and hours of me playing the 14 Iced Bears, but I do find the melodies and the song itself is much more upbeat than his mid-80s band. The song is out now as a download-only release on Shambotic Recordings. I really hope it gets released in a physical format!
Armstrong: the Welsh band that releases on the fine The Beautiful Music label has put together “Clarence Place”, a compilation album that includes new and old songs. And how many songs? 17 songs! Quite a bit! Julian Pitt, the man behind the band, has has made this available for free download.
Lisasinson: “Canción de Entretiempo” is the new hit by the Valencia duo! This song is just a digital single but the good news is that the band has put together a video for it. I hope they release a new record soon.
Cour de Récré: another digital single, with a video, on Elefant Records. This one is by a trio formed by Quentin, Stan and Chloé from Toulouse, France. The song is titled “À L’ombre D’une Jeune Fille En Pierre” and it is a nice mellow track that eventually becomes into a much more fun electronic disco song!
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After writing about Moose Club I needed to write about Rhythm Method. If you read my post on Moose Club you’ll see that I mention that Bill Blair had played keyboards in Moose Club, a project by Dean Gifford.
Before that project he was in Rhythm Method where he also coincided with Dean. Rhythm Method was formed by Andy Norton on vocals, Dean Gifford on guitar, Miles Dunkley on bass, Shane Blackshaw on drums and Bill Blair on keyboards.
The first recording I find by this band I find is “Straight Talk“. It dates from December 12, 1987 and was recorded at Attic Studios in Stroud. The engineer was Franco Lautieri. Bill plaayed an Ensoniq Mirage, a Roland Juno 106 and a Yamaha FB-01. He mentions that the piano solo he plays in this song was Bruce Hornsby inspired.
The next recordings date from Sunday May 22, 1988. Same engineer, same studios. Same keyboards for Bill too. Two songs were recorded that time,
“Jealous Heart” and “Hope in Hell”. So far “Jealous Heart” is my favourite song by this band and it is the one that made me write this post. It is a great song!
Two more songs were recorded on Saturday October 29, 1988. These were “Into Yourself” and “Strawberry Blonde”. These were recorded at Dungeon Studios in Chipping Norton. Of this set, “Strawberry Blonde” is my fave.
As you will notice the band’s music style changes quite a bit. Their next recordings prove that. Three songs were recorded on Sunday December 4, 1988, at Dungeon Studios. These are perhaps the songs I like the least by the band. Other style for sure, not what I normally like. These were “Walkin’ on Hot Coals”, “Only Myself to Blame” and “Prejudice”. As you’ll notice not very indiepop these ones.
The other recordings by Rhythm Method are live recordings! There is a full gig of them playing at Gloucester Park in July 1988. 9 songs were played that time: “Hope in Hell”, “Straight Talk”, “Crocodile Tears”, “Walk on By”, “Heart in Doubt”, “Up to My Neck”, “Strawberry Blonde”, “All Around the World” and “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg”.
At this gig, John Eeles was their engineer and Steve Clutson did backing vocals. It was on a Saturday. The date? July 30th. Bill shares some anecdotes about this gig: A few problems with the mix on the first couple of tracks (think it was John Eeles coping pretty well with a load of different bands and some really bad weather), but it settles down as the set progresses. Not a bad set, “Straight Talk” still stands out as one of the most complex pieces I’ve ever played live, in terms of the sheer number of keyboard sounds per minute, all played live and on just three keyboards.
Outside the Youtube channel couldn’t find any other info on the band. But this was a good investigative work! Any more details about them, please share!
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