Struggling this week to write about new music finds… finding time is complicated…

Swansea Sound: the supergroup formed by Hue, Rob, Amelia and Ian is back with a Christmas release! The “Music Lover EP” is being released on CD on December 1st! This EP will have 3 songs, “Music Lover”, “Happy Christmas To Me” and “Merry Christmas to Me”. The last two songs had been previously released on a limited edition Snowflakes 7″ single from last year.

Spice World: the Australian band is back with a new album, “There’s No I in Spice World”. The four piece is putting this record out on vinyl through Meritorio Records and Tenth Court Records. The album is coming out on January 20 and will include 10 songs. 3 of them are available to preview and they are ace. Definitely check them out.

Love, Burns: when there is a new Love, Burns release one has to be happy. You know it is going to be quality. That the jangle is going to be on point. That there will be good lyrics. Overall, you are going to get top songs. “Fade in the Sun EP” is no exception. Four songs by one of the best indiepop projects of the last few years. Not sure if it is being released physically, but it is on Bandcamp now.

Holy Now: out now on vinyl is the latest album by the Swedish band Holy Now. It was released last month by Lazy Octopus Records and it has 9 pop tunes that deserve every indniepop’s attention! The album is titled “Dream of Me”, and I wonder how Swedish pop continues to create great pop music. I know, it is not in the amounts as a decade ago or so, but still, they know what they are doing.

Fanny & Alexander: From Santiago de Compostela, Spain, comes this project that makes songs in Galician. Named after the well-known Bergman movie, the band’s latest is a 9 song album titled “A Túa Ausencia Neste Ar”. The sound of the band is quite interesting, reminding me of another Spanish band from the past, Portonovo. Electronic arrangements and introspective lyrics, a good combo I think!

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Antic Hay is a comic novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1923. The story takes place in London, and depicts the aimless or self-absorbed cultural elite in the sad and turbulent times following the end of World War I.

We head to Norfolk, North Carolina. I see them listed in a website called Hardcore Norfolk, but the songs I found on Soundcloud sound jangly to me.

The band was formed by Gary Ziroli on vocals, Vernon Guinn on guitar, Anthony Torres on guitar, Charles Grant on bass and Howard Swartz on drums. Drummers changed though, and we know many drummers were part of the band at some point: Joey Mishkofski, Dave Warshaw , Bill Shearin, Mike Dugan and Joey Rudicil.

The band only released one record, a CD album in 1991 titled “A Few Cuts in Heaven”. This CD was released by Merkin Records (MM 321), a label based in Baltimore. The CD included 11 songs: “Another Song for You”, “And”, “All So Easy”, “Fear Alone”, “Cold Steel”, “Spring”, “One That Go Away”, “Common Ground”, “Kill the Watchdog”, “Everything is Beautiful” and “Where I Am”. The songs were recorded at Earworks in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1991. The CD artwork by Sam Sebren and photography by Mark Williamson. The engineer for the recordings was Robert Smith.

The Soundcloud recordings I found date from 5 years earlier, 1986. The songs had been recorded between the 8 and 9 of March of that year. This demo tape had the songs “Drowning Ulysses”, the superb “Here and Now” and “The Hand That Takes”. On these recordings the drummer was Dave Warshaw. The songs were produced by ISIDORE and engineered by Vic Lipscombe. They were recorded at CMC Studios in Zebulon, North Carolina.

This same account, restlessnoise, has more songs by Antic Hay. We find there “The Town You Left Behind“, another jangly track from 1986. This song was originally titled “Space to be Naked” and on this recording Antic Hay had Howard Swartz on drums.

Another track we find is “Flatfall“. This one is also from 1986 and it is said it was a fan-favourite at gigs.

Then I stumble upon a Facebook group for the band. There I find some more info. For example that the band played the Virginia Beach Civic Center on April 26, 1991, alongside The M-8o’s and Ant Man Bee.

Another gig they played, thanks to the Hardcore Norfolk site, dates from October 12, 1990, at The Boathouse in Norfolk. That time they played along Ant Man Bee and Buttsteak. They also share a Youtube link, a snippet from the film “Hardcore Norfolk”, a documentary of the scene of that city. There they interview Vernon Guinn, Anthony Torres and Charles Grant and show a bunch of cool flyers and photos from the band.

The band also played the Kings Head Inn along Worthless Dizzies and the 92 WOFM Block Party. Also at The Boathouse on December 29, 1989, with Waxing Poetics and Dreams So Real.

Another good find is a photography of 3 demo tapes by the band! Wow! So we see the tape I mentioned earlier but two more.

One that was recorded in January 1987 at Hit and Run Studios in Rockville, Maryland. Produced by the band and engineered by Steve Carr. This one had four songs, “Space to be Naked”, “Flatfall”, “Here and Now” and “Cold Steel”.

The other one was recorded in January 1988 on 8-track at Ear Works Studio in Virginia Beach. This tape had four songs, “No One Likes a Fool”, “Like it or Not”, “Spring” and “Before and After the Fact”.

Then this same photo has some more tapes with other songs by the band. We see song titles like “Before & After the Facts”, “Everything is Beautiful”, “Face it”, “Do it Clean”, “Noise”, “Subtle as Fire”, “That’s All”, “Never Going Back”, “Feel Free”, “Lovers Leap” or “Where I Am”.

Another interesting bit. There’s a cover of the song “The Town You Left Behind” and also “Here and Now” by Paul Unger.

Then there are some videos of some of the band members playing “Spring”  in 2012 as well as a performance of both Gary Ziroli and Vernon Guinn playing at the Naro Cinema of Norfolk before the showing of “Spinal Tap”.

Then I find some strange news on The Virginia Pilot. In 2014 Vernon Guinn, the guitarist for Antic Hay, robbed a bank. The police arrested him seven hours later.

On the Daily Press I read that in 1998 the band reformed under another name, God and Famous. They lasted until 1999. Then the members reformed again, minus Gary Ziroli, as Action Habit.

And this is what I found out about this cool sounding band. I wonder why they took so long to release their record. They seem to have had tons of songs. Anyone remembers them?

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Listen
Antic Hay – Here and Now