Day 565

Subsonic Eye: we are fans of the Singaporean band Subsonic Eye. I interviewed them not that long ago, this year, actually. So you know their music is good. And since January’s album we haven’t heard from them. Well, don’t despair. Here is a new 7″ with two songs, “Dijangka” and “Matahari”. And it is really good!

Shoestrings: another band I interviewed, but this time many years ago, is releasing a record! “Expectations” is the new work from Mario and Rose Suau since… like forever! This album is coming out on LP and CD on November 4. This was quite a surprise when it was announced like a week ago. At least for me! “Gone” is the only song we can preview and it is really amazing. This one I need for sure. A record not to miss. Ed Shelflife, will you save me a copy?

Violentene: the latest from the Ottawa based duo is “September Falls”. This is the second single from the band’s forthcoming “Otherworld” EP that should be released this year I think. The Canadian band sounds at its best in this song. It is a fine pop song, with classic melodies.

Lunarette: the New Yorkers are back too with a new song. The ex-Gingerlys have just added the track “Low Sky” to their Bandcamp and I am enjoying it! Jackie’s vocals sound quite special on this one. The song has a nice feeling, a bit like The Sundays perhaps? It is lovely. I hope they release something properly soon!

English Summer: Clare, Australia, project English Summer is back sounding very much like Rumblefish and The Bodines! Wow. I like this! The latest song they have put out is “Tall Stories” and it sounds like a classic, lost, indiepop song from 1987. Wow!

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As you know I am going through old drafts of the blog, checking bands that I hoped to write about years ago and I didn’t.

Today I opened the draft link for Spit the Pips. And what did I find? Just a link for a Myspace. Oh dear. That’s all! How come I didn’t write about them then. Now that Myspace link doesn’t work. And I am quite surprised that I didn’t even do any more research!

I don’t know much about the band. I don’t own any of their records. So this will be my first time exploring their music. I vaguely remember their music, being fun catchy pop. Now that I listen to them again, especially their song “Love Town”, I understand why I wanted to recommend them! What a pop song that is!

Their records came out on the band’s own Pipsqueak Records. The first release was the “Up a Gum Tree” 12″ released in 1990 (PSQK 01). This mini-album is the one that includes the wonderful “Love Town”. That is the opening track on the A side. The other two songs on this side are “Flat Top for President” and “Rich in Years”. The B side has “Charmed Life”, “Birds, Bees & Housekeys” and “Stairway to Devon”.

In 1990 the band also appeared on a compilation tape called “Aliens Too!” released by SMAC-Media (SMACC 1). On this tape they have a duo with Billy Oblivion “Gun (Stairway to Devon)”. They also appear on “Aliens Too 2 (Black Woolly Tights & Dr. Martens)”. On this tape released by SMAC-Media (SMACC 4) too, the band contributed the songs “What’s Yours is Mine” and “Drop in the Ocean”. It is worth mentioning that SMAC is the Stockton Music & Arts Collective.

In 1991 the band releases “Never Crib a Boggy EP” 7″. This record has a strange cover. I wonder if the two guys on the front are the band members. They have some facial hair with masking tape. On this record we find five songs, “Bring me the Head of John the Bastard”, “Still Goes On” and “Learn the Lingo” on the A side and “Gravy Tree” and “Stay” on the B side. My favourite I think on this record is “Learn the Lingo”. Great song!

Something cool about this record is that there are etchings on each side. The A side says “Sent to Coventry” while the B side says “Toothpaste for dogs”.

In 1992 the band releases their sole album, “Kefuffle”. This record came out on Pipsqueak Records (PSQK 3) on vinyl. 16 songs appear here, “Infectious”, “Sanity Shelf”, “Needle & Fred”, “(Christmas Sisters) Wedded-Blisters”, “Thieves”, “The Linthorpe Rd. Man”, “Backseat to History”, “McLure!”, “Flatmate!”, “Cosmic It’s a Knock Out”, “Clifftastic”, “Hoover McGroover”, “Bloody Big Knife”, “…..Bit…..”, “Bogey Man” and “Kerfuffle”. On this record we see that the all songs were performed, written and recorded by Michael Baines.

In 1992 the band appears on yet another compilation, “Live Lust”. The tracks on this tape are not live. There is no label for the release. But we do know that Spit the Pips contributed the song “Infectious”.

The last time we hear from them is on the CD compilation “Exposed No. IV” that came with the Exposed Magazine in 1993. On this record the band appears with the song “Back Seat to History”.

I now search for Michael Baines. We see he has been in many bands including Emergency Stairs, Retardot, Snotnosed, The Prestidigitators,  Burnt Dennis & the Injunctions, Werbeniuk and Woolcraft. He used to work at Studio 64 in Middlesbrough.

I look back at the Myspace link. Some songs appear, of course you can’t play them, but we see three songs I don’t know about, “Mouth (Ring) Piece”, “Quentin Tarantino is Shit” and “Shrapnel (The Axe Men Cometh)”. This three songs seem to have appeared on a release called “Show-Biz-Tool-Shed”. Let’s see if we can find any info about it.

And yes! That release exists even though it is not on Discogs. It was a CD album from 1994! It was released by Pipsqueak Records (PSQK 04). I don’t know the order of the songs but these are the songs included: “Flattop for President”, “Headsashedsa”, “Shrapnel (the Axemen Cometh)”, “Mouth (Piece) Ring”,  “Ice Block Drip”, “Deadwood”, “Quentin Tarantino is Shit”, “Kiddy Krime”, “Return of the Shitkicker Six”, “Show-Biz-Tool-Shed”, “Your Days are Numbered”, “Shakin’ All Over”, “Hungover on Life” and “Isle of Dogs”.

I find some reviews of Michael’s later bands. I find a Soundcloud he set up but only uploaded the song “Infectious”.

And that’s all I could gather about Spit the Pips. Who remembers them?

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Listen
Spit the Pips – Love Town