Penultimate post before…. the World Cup final? Yes. But also before I head on holidays. I won’t be posting until the second week of January.

This also means I won’t be able to fulfill orders placed on Cloudberry Records website until then. Though of course you can find copies of the records on Jigsaw Records.

That’s all the announcements so far. Hope to have fantastic news as soon as the new year starts.

Nadie Canta: the latest release by Discos de Kirlian, the fine Barcelona label, is the single “Intención Comercial” by Nadia Canta. Behind this project we find Carlos Alcántara who was in the band Holögrama. Nadie Canta is his solo project. Will there be a proper release coming up soon on the label?

Castlebeat: Josh Hwang from Castlebeat has been making superb pop tunes for some time now. His latest is a digital single titled “Wish”. It doesn’t mention if it will be released in any other format later on, but this is really nice.

David Christian: now and then we get the treat of new songs from Comet Gain’s leader. The latest is a 5 song EP for Christmas! It is titled “A Christmas Gift for Grumps, Drunks and Other Chumps”. All of them are original songs by “Kitten Christmas”. Lovely. I feel this is the year where I have found more new Christmas indiepop songs.

Blue Canopy: this very nice band from Portland, Oregon, just released a new digital single titled “Bright Spot”. There’s not much info about the band, but we know it is formed by Alex Schiff on keyboards, uke, lead vocals and drums, Patrick Smith on guitar, David Baldwin on bass and Erick Lee on backing vocals.

Merry Xmas Darling: a holiday compilation by Emotional Response Records! The label run by Stew from Boyracer released this compilation back in 2017 and is still available on CD. I missed it first time around! It includes bands like Possum Moods, Seafang, Crayola Summer and more. There are a few more Christmas compilations released by Emotional Response in the past like “Hey! It’s Christmas” or “Chrimbo with You”

—————————————————————–

We head to Dundee today. It is 1989 and there’s a cool Scottish band called Baby Hurricane. Many of their tunes are up on Soundcloud since 2018.

The band was formed by Paul Smernicki on vocals and guitar, Ricky Goold on guitars, Kenny Penman on bass, Ally Fox on drums and Chris van der Kuyl on keyboards.

The earliest songs we find on Soundcloud date from 1989. They sound rough. Maybe it had to do where they were recording them, their rehearsal room in the basement of the Grey Lodge community centre in S. George St. Recorded there was the song “Take a Fall“.

The year after, 1990, they recorded more songs. For example “Something Special“, “Wishing Cup“, “You’re too Slow“, “Joe’s Garage“, “Lies“, “Take a Fall” and “Standing on My Own Two Feet” that were recorded in March of that year at the Fat Sam’s dancefloor with Nazz of Sons of the Shaking Earth at the controls.

In August of 1990 the band also went to Garage Studios on N. Isla St., Dundee. With Graeme Watt engineering the band recorded more songs including “Bridgebuilding” (where the voice at the start of the song is that of the band’s roadie/van driver Scott Brown reading an article about Sean Connery from The Scotsman), “Excellent Adventure“, “Full On“, “King of Candy“, “I Shall Be Spun” (name after a poem about St. Andrews University), “Spice” and “Sit Down & Listen“.

From the same session there is an alternative mix of “I Shall Be Spun“.

Then there are live tracks, recorded live at Fat Sam’s in Dundee, on July 1990. There are recordings of “Blaze” (the only time this song was played live), “One World” and “You“. Also from the same venue, but recorded live in December, we find “Bridgebuilding“, “King of Candy“, “Hello, I Love You“, “Tallness (Jack Ruby)” and “Wishing Cup“.

A few more live tracks are from a gig on April 18, 1990, at the Bar Chevrolet in Dundee. We find the songs “This is the Way it Was“, “Show You” and “You“.

The band also recorded at a mythical place, CaVa Studios in Glasgow in the spring of 1991. At that time the band recorded three songs, “Nova“, “Greenhouse” and “Lying Hands“.

Then it seems the band got together after 24 years in 2015. A reunion. At this point the band was to feature a new drummer, Rick Smernicki. Maybe Paul’s brother? The band rehearsed together and recorded a version of “King of Candy” and “Bridgebuilding“.

Two other songs were recorded in this period. In 2016 the band recorded “Modern Girls” and “Religion of Peace“.

Among the photos I see one where the drummer, Ally Fox, is wearing a Ride shirt. They were fans of the Oxford band? It wouldn’t surprise me of course. And also a shirt of The Happy Mondays.

Another detail I find is that they played at the legendary King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut on November 17, 1990.

The band also set up a Facebook page around the time of their reunion. There’s tons of details we can get from here.

We learn that the band’s first gig was at the Dundee Technical College (Bell Street Tech) Marketgait Students Union. On the same bill was a band called The Sandflowers (were they any good?). There’s a flyer for this gig. It appears as Baby Hurricanes. With an S. Also in parenthesis (The Daisies). Was that their previous band name? The other bands on the bill were Andi and Vari, Trouble in Doggie Land and Rock Against Loans.

Gigs that I find that the band played include, April 17, 1990 at West Port Bar and on April 4 and 18 and June 7, 1990, at Bar Chevrolet. Both venues were in Dundee. On April 14 of that same year the band played at The University of St. Andrews with The Deputies, Fat Freddy’s Cat, Last of England and The Twist. On December 12, 1990, Baby Hurricane played Cafe Drummond in Aberdeen. On that same month, on the 23 and with The Sandflowers, the band played at Fat Sams in Dundee. The band also played at the Aberdeen University Union in January of 1991.

There is a video too of the band playing live I think. There’s a video cover shared, I guess a VHS, dating from 1990. It was recorded at the Marketgait Union.

A cool thing is that on the movie Ferries Bueller’s Day Off, on a scene, there’s a poster of the band Flesh with support by Baby Hurricane. Didn’t notice that when Ii saw the movie!

Then there’s some videos on Youtube from the time of their reunion, 6 years ago, of the band rehearsing. And a Twitter account too.

On a post on the Retro Dundee blog about the flexi The Sandflowres released, I see that Paul Smernicki commented. He mentions that he used to work at the Bar Chevrolet.

And then some Youtube videos of the band playing live. Here’s “Bridgebuilding“, “King of Candy” and “Wishing Cup” at Fat Sam’s on December 23, 1990. Also from their first ever gig at the Marketgait Student Union there’s “Born to be Wild“.

And that’s it. That’s what I could collect about them. Anyone has any other interesting bits about them? Would love to know for example how many demo tapes they put out, or why they never released anything.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Baby Hurricane – Something Special