Ah! It’s been two weeks since the last obscure band, isn’t it? Hope you forgive me being sloppy. My grandma was in town and I was pretty busy pushing her wheelchair all over Marshalls, Ross, and the like, for 4 days. I hate going out for shopping. Though, having a wheelchair saved us from waiting in those long, damn long, lines that form at these stores’ checkout counters. We breezed by all the people thanks to some very bright store managers. Can’t thank them enough.

My energy, which was sucked up by the bright lights of cosmetic stores, is slowly regenerating and this week already conducted a couple of interviews for the blog. And I have a couple more that I have to write this weekend. Still very much excited to research and document indiepop. Which brings up to my mind what Yuiko was asking me the other day, that a Western version of the great Japanese Neo-Acoustic Guide should be done. I think it is a great idea, I’d love to organize it, but I wonder if there will be enough people willing to buy a copy. What do you say? If you are not familiar with this  guide, it compiles/recommends hundreds of records that are indiepop with a little photo and a blurb. It even has a checkbox with each entry to mark which records you already own. Records are broken up in records from the 80s and then from the 90s-00s. On each of these categories they are broken up again in singles and albums.  Many great people helped with recommendations in the book like Hitoshi Oka from Sloppy Joe or Toshiko Matsumoto from Apple Crumble Record. So I would think we could do something similar with help from Mike Slumberland, Ed Shelflife, Jörgen Fraction Discs, Uwe Firestation, etc, right? Could be very interesting. Worst case scenario it could be an e-book? Not so sure about that. I haven’t read an e-book ever and don’t own a kindle or whatever is used these days to read those.

So this week I posted the Feverfew master to the pressing plant. Hopefully it gets pressed soon. Our target release date will be December 15th, but I’m waiting a confirmation from the pressing plant just to know that’s a safe date. Pre-orders are already been taken. Remember, the first 100 orders (the ones straight from our Cloudberry page not international mailorders), will receive three pins (or badges as they call them here in the US) that are an exact copy of the pins Feverfew used to have back in the 80s.

After this release you’ll probably hear little from me as I will be in the middle of moving to NYC. Sadly this means that the release of Cassolette and Nixon 7″s will be pushed down a bit to early 2012, as I need to settle and have an address to be able to press these records. Bear with me. In the next couple of weeks we should have an MP3 teaser for the Nixon 7″. Songs are already recorded and they sound great. Just waiting for the final mixes.

And that’s about it about Cloudberry. If I remember of some other news, will post them next week.

These are the lot of CDs that have been played at home these past two weeks:
1. Harper Lee – Everything’s Going to be OK (Matinée)
2. Harper Lee – All Things Can Be Mended (Matinée)
3. Slipslide – The World Can Wait (Matinée)
4. Boat Club – Caught the Breeze (Luxury)
5. The Wedding Present – Evening Sessions 1986-1994 (Strange Fruit)
6. Various Artists – As Rare as a Kiss (Greek compilation CD-R)
7. The Sunny Street – Hidden for Decades (Plastilina)
8. My Darling YOU! – Saying Things You Don’t Want to Hear (Luxury)

And today I noticed that even though I utterly adore Spanish indiepop I haven’t presented you all any obscure Spanish band. So weird. So I want to introduce you the lush and beautiful El Viaje de las Flores (The Flower’s Trip).

Earlier today I was checking cities close to Madrid that I want to visit while I’m in Spain for Madrid Popfest. I already knew that I wanted to go to Segovia, Toledo and Avila. Those are classic tourist destinations. That’s 3 days. . I hope to arrive on the previous Saturday, and that day visit El Prado. So Sunday thru Tuesday are already booked. I was looking into another place to visit on Wednesday. I thought El Escorial, but I think I can do El Escorial on Thursday before the Popfest starts, return kind of early. So I believe in the end I’ll end up going to Cuenca on Wednesday, though one of the options was Valladolid. And it was when I was doing a wee research about Valladolid that I remembered this fabulous band.

As many boys, the first time I heard about Valladolid was through football. I remember Real Valladolid in La Liga. I always found kind of exciting that they had two Bolivian players in their team: Juan Manuel Peña (who lasted many seasons) and Marco Sandy (for one season). I’m no Bolivian, but I have a very strong bond with them, they are like Peru’s little brother, if it wasn’t for Bolivar’s stupidity we’d still be one single country. We  are the same people, though ok, Bolivians are a bit slower and nicer.

About Valladolid, well, it is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales. It is the capital of the province of Valladolid. And it’s name origin seems to come from a derivation from the demonym Vallisoletano, which was, in fact, the Spanish demonym of the city, and means “from sunny valley”. Supporting this are texts from the Middle Ages, which use Vallisoletum, a word which continued to be used as late as the 16th century.

So let’s go there back in time. To December 1989 to be exact.That’s when Oskar Vizán (guitars, vocals), Espe Laburu (vocals), Luis Gil (bass) left the band La Red and together with Miguel Alonso, who had just left Los Invasores, formed this great band. The story says that they practiced and practiced around 20 brand new songs until they got them right. That’s when they play their first show in May 1990. It was at a venue called Pigalle. This venue in the past seems to have been a whorehouse and these days I believe it’s called Tío Molonio. After a couple of gigs, the band sign a contract with Los 40 Principales to go on tour and play all over Spain. Mind you,  Los 40 Principales is the main musical radio station in Spain with more than 4,000,000 listeners.

What happens next is their only and sole release. It was a split flexi with St.Christopher on the Stamp label. St. Christopher, who I assume everyone reading this post knows, contributed the song  “If I Could Capture” and El Viaje de las Flores, “No Te Estoy Mintiendo” (I’m not lying to you). I’m not sure if Miguel Stamp who ran the small label along his fanzine was still living in the UK when this release happened or he was already back in Madrid. He is such a mysterious man, but a very nice one indeed. Very knowledgeable of indiepop. Had many interesting email exchanges during the years, and I used to be an avid reader of his blog Federica Pulla Dixit which closed in December 2010. Anyhow, hope to meet you in Madrid Miguel!

Last time I asked him about the band he replied to me:

“El Viaje de las Flores was a guitar group from Valladolid, with a girl vocalist, very much in the same style of the British bands from the 80s that we loved (Darling Buds, Primitives, Popguns, etc). They sent us their demos and we were amazed. We didn’t doubt to ask them straight away to be part of one of our flexis, which over time, became the only release they ever did. They also played at the STAMP party where they left all the crowd asking for more as their live sets were strong and powerful. It is very curious that they had never heard these British bands I mentioned earlier, they were more into the psychedelic stuff, which as you know it somehow connected all these bands. The thing is, that they had EVERYTHING to take over the scene, songs, a live set, and looks, but like it happens many times, they trusted those who offered them the moon and the stars, and them who could have been HUGE ended up in very little. I still have their demos and I still think they are EXPLOSIVE. Hopefully one day they are rescued and giving the value they deserve as it just happened with Ataque de Caspa”

This single, “No te Estoy Mintiendo”, gets a lot of airplay in Spanish radio during 1990. Sadly that same year, in October, Miguel, the drummer, leaves the band and starts his own project called “Los Substitutos”, a 60s inspired pop band. This is when Diego  Martinfrom Celtas Cortos joins as a drummer but the band’s run was about to end soon. In 1991 Oskar leaves the band to join “Rosas en Blanco y Negro” and this is when El Viaje de las Flores decide that it’s time to fold. A shame.

There are a couple more songs by the band to listen at their Myspace (or maybe it’s a fan made Myspace, not sure). Here you can listen the fabulous “Tinieblas y Rosas” and “Chica Mala” that are from the same time more or less as “No the Estoy Mintiendo”, a time which the band considers their first period where they were more into pop music. The two other songs on the player, “En el Infierno” and “Devuelveme tu Amor” are from the second period, when Diego Martin had already joined the band. With him the songs became more rockier as you can hear. With these two songs they came out 3rd on the Gordon’s y 40 Principales contest of 1991.

For those who know Spanish and have good vision, I suggest reading these clips from newspapers from those days: Article in El Espectador, Interview 16/09/1991, Article 20/07/1991, Article in El Norte de Castilla.

And that’s about it. If you know more, want to share any memories, or you have a spare copy of that flexi, please get in touch. Now enjoy this fabulous track, one of the best of Spanish indiepop history!

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Listen
El Viaje de las Flores – No Te Estoy Mintiendo