The Hermitts: the solo project of Matt Hicks, a member of the mighty Horowitz, released a 7″ EP last May on the Greek label Old Bad Habits. The record is titled “Weight of the World” and includes 4 songs, the title track, “On the Other Hand”, “Hold Tight” and “Tables Turned”. The songs are melodic and fuzzy. It sounds a bit like Horowitz sometimes, but also you see the Jesus and Mary Chain, or what about the Prayers? Yeah! This is a very fine record and is limited to 150 copies.
Blues Lawyer: here’s a very nice flexi with two songs by this Oakland, California, combo. I wasn’t aware of them until today which is a shame as this flexi was released last July, a year ago! The good thing, is that this limited release, 250 copies, is still available!
The No-Yeahs: always happy to find a new song by girlonbus’ musical project. “Reno” is a superb lo-fi bedroom pop song that brings to memory the days of CDR, soulseek, Mitt Sista Liv, Starke Adolf, and yeah… those wonderful days. It is a sound that you don’t hear much anymore!
Phandom Handshakes: here’s a new digital single by the New York duo formed by Federica Tassano and Matt Sklar from New York. The song has some superb vocals I think and was inspired about a New Yorker article about an elderly lady who suddenly starts having hallucinations. Interesting. It is titled “The Flowery Man” and is great!
Launder: now a dreampop band from Los Angeles. Actually a solo project of John Cudlip. He is releasing “Happening” on July 15 on vinyl and CD. This album will include 13 songs and four of them can be previewed in his Bandcamp. It’s good!
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If I had done this in order I would have written about Moonscope first and about Burning Winter second. But as I discovered Burning Winter first…
Glad that I discovered Moonscope though…
You can read about Burning Winter in my previous post. Two of their members, Darren Rowe and Phillippa Rees, were previously in the late 80s, Newcastle, New South Wales, band Moonscope.
On the Youtube account by redwalrus68 I had discovered many songs by Burning Winter, but there was one upload by Moonscope. It was for the song “Coming Back”.
There we learn some details about it. There was actually a 7″ for this song. On the B side we find the song “Bitterness”.m
The single came out in 1989 on Skink Records (SR-01). I don’t know about this label but doesn’t look like a self-release. There is a second release by this label by a Newcastle band called Bark. Probably a local label then?
The band was formed by Darren Rowe on lead vocals and bass, Matthew Laver on guitar, Phillippa Rees on flute and vocals, Drew Mellor on drums and percussion. They mention that “Coming Back” was an uncommon song for them. That the song’s pop sound was atypical for the band’s ambient and progressive style. This is the only song I’ve heard from them so far, so I can’t compare. In any case, as I love pop music, I really enjoy “Coming Back”.
The two songs on the single were recorded by Tim Ryan at Trackdown Studios in Bondi Junction, Sydney, in 1989. Darren wrote thee A side while Matthew Laver the B side.
On Discogs we find the 7″ but there are no compilation appearances listed. No other releases either.
Thanks to Discogs I found more bands that Darren Rowe had been involved with and that I didn’t list on my Burning Winter post. These include the bands Hipslingers and Doradus.
Not much more info online. I wonder about their other songs, if they weren’t pop enough as mentioned on Youtube. Would be good to listen to them of course and see. “Coming Back” is a terrific song, and how I wish I could do one day a compilation of obscure Australian indiepop… a project that didn’t happen for so many reasons…
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Listen
Moonscope – Coming Back
