Soft Covers: this is not a new one. It is from 2020 but it is indeed a new discovery for me. Soft Covers hails from Sydney, Australia, and in 2020 they released a cassette tape titled “Permanent Part Time” that sounds superb. This is perfect lo-fi pop. The cassette is still available through the band and it includes 6 songs. I recommend this very much.
Melby: now we head to Stockholm. The four-piece Melby have just released “Looks Like a Map” on CD and vinyl. The band formed by Matilda, Are, David and Teo, released in 2019 their debut album which got them the chance to play in many European countries. WIth this new album, I hope they get the chance to cross the Atlantic and play here in NYC. That’d be sweet.
Fine.: one of my favourite bands of the last few years is back with a new song, “Forgive Me”. It is top pop! What a song honestly. Alice Kat and Liam James Marsh seem to know the trick to produce great jangly tunes. Now, I really can’t wait for their debut album “Love, Death, Dreams and the Sleep Between” that will be released in December.
Phantom Handshakes: now we get closer to home, with the duo formed by Federica Tassano and Matt Sklar. I have recommended the band a few times before, and sadly I haven’t seen them live yet. Their latest release is coming out next month and it is a 10 song album titled “A Passport to Remain”. IT doesn’t look like it will be released in physical format though.
Housewife: and a band that will play NY this year is Housewife from Toronto. On December 9th they’ll be playing at The Broadway in Brooklyn. Their latest release is “You’ll Be Forgiven”, a 5 song EP that sounds really nice. The band is just a duo, formed by Brighid Fry and Pascale Padilla.
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Another fantastic find on Soundcloud is the eponymous EP by The Word Merchants!
The band formed by Helen Bolton on vocals, David Gates on guitars, Alex Forryan on guitar and sax, Andy Smith on drums and percussion and Daren Allder on bass and trumpet, released this EP on tape in 1987. It featured a simple white sleeve with yellow ink showing an illustration of a man riding a horse with a tree behind. Maybe it was a merchant? Was that the intention?
The songs uploaded in 2018 to Soundcloud and that were on this tape are “Glass 4 Heads”, “I Said”, “Insect Rain” and “Take a Look”.
Were the band from the Woking area? I find a Daren Allder, which I would think is not a common name, that is a worship minister at St. Mary of Bethany in Woking. He is described as a skilled musician that plays guitar and bass. I also believe he has a graphic design website where he specializes in logo design. It seems he attended Collingwood Secondary School.
Then I think I found Alex Forryan, but instead of playing guitar and sax now he is into drums. It seems he teaches drumming online through RSL, the Rockshool that is based in Teddington.
The other band members have more common names so it proves harder to know what they are up to. Sadly there is no mention about their music and their band.
The one other bit of info I found is that Allder and Gates were in a band called Which One’s Maurice? And after The Word Merchants were no more David Gates went to form Salt Tank.
Oh yeah, David Gates was the main songwriter for the band.
You wonder if they had more songs. The sound of their 4 songs is great. And I honestly would love to have more details about The Word Merchants! Who remembers them?
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