First week after holidays. Also first week going back to the office since the pandemic started. Two days a week for now I have to come to the office. The bad news of the weekend was that my refrigerator stopped working. I am hoping that can be solved asap from the landlord. But yeah, not the best situation! Hope everything is going well for you all!
Mo Dotti: time to discover this cool sounding noise pop band from Los Angeles. Their latest release dates from March and was a CD EP titled “Guided Imagery”. There is also a a cassette version of this I believe. The EP has 6 songs, one of them being a cover of The 6ths’ “All Dressed Up in Dreams”.
Cassettes on Tape: now to Chicago. There we discover this band that says they are heavily influenced by college radio and the 80s and 90s UK indie scene. They mention usual names like The Smiths and My Bloody Valentine so it is no surprise that their songs are quite nice. Their latest release is “Pinks and Greys”, a digital single.
The Bug Club: when I found out about this Welsh band a few months ago I was happily surprised. Now there’s great news about them. “Green Dream in F#” is an album they will be releasing on October digitally and CD and next February in vinyl. The album will have 14 songs, one of them, “It’s Art”, is available to preview.
The Reds, Pinks & Purples: two new songs by Glenn Donaldson’s prolific project. These are “The World Should be Ashamed” and “Take the Long Way Through a Day”. I was wondering the other day if all of his songs would be compiled in a way or another, especially the ones that haven’t been on albums…
CIEL: and lastly the South Coast of England band CIEL. The second single of their upcoming EP “Not in the Sun, Nor in the Dark” has just been released. It is titled “Baby Don’t You Know” and it is a superb song. It has great melodies but at the same time has an edge. They also have a few gigs lined up in London coming up at The Victoria in Dalston and The Shacklewell Arms.
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I found an account on Youtube now, through a stoneeyedkiller post, by someone that was in a band called Marc and his Members. This band sounds ace, clearly influenced by The Smiths. So yes, had to find out more details about them.
11 years ago three videos were uploaded to Youtube. The band hailed from Germany, where from? Not sure yet. Let’s see if I can find that out. The account owner is called MrBassgott. No names. But let’s see what we find.
The first song I find is “Schoolboy“. This one dates from 1987 and was part of a 4 track demo I think. On the photo of the band we see they were a three-piece.
The second song is called “So Close“. This is also a demo but dates from 1988.
Lastly, there is a cool video of the band playing the Hamburger Journal in May of 1988. I don’t know which song this one is…
But there are some other details. We know now that the band hailed from Wilhelmshaven.
Wilhelmshaven is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmshaven is the centre of the “JadeBay” business region (which has around 330,000 inhabitants) and is Germany’s main military port. The adjacent Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park (part of the Wattenmeer UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site) provides the basis for the major tourism industry in the region.
Then we know the band was around 1986 to 1990. Then from 1991 to 1992 there was a different lineup but kept the name.
The original members were:
Marcus Gensior on vocals and guitar
Jürgen Kussin on guitar and vocals
Andre Hofinga on bass
Ralf Neumann on drums
Thorsten Eckhardt on keys
Marcus was the one who usually wrote the band’s songs. And on the TV video the person playing keys was Volker Rath who was also the band’s manager.
On the Youtube channel there’s lots of stuff. For example I find a band called Certain Images that had thee same lineup. There’s a great song called “Some How” from 1989 that you wonder why they didn’t use the name Marc and his Members.
By now I have the feeling the channel is Andre Hofinga’s. There’s a few videos of his solo music as well of other bands he has been like Die Tip Tops and Die Citrusrüden.
I find a website for a musician called Marc Gensior. Is it the same Marcus Gensior from Marc and his Members? I wonder as I don’t see a mention of his 80s band on his website.
This is a great find and if someone does a new volume of obscure German indiepop they should be aware of them and have them for sure! I also wonder about their demo tapes. How many were there, and how many songs did they record. I would definitely like to hear more by them!
Edit: Just heard from the band BOB, they say that Marc and his Members opened for them at Wilhelmshaven on November 30, 1990 at the Kling Klang venue.
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