This week I’ve been catching up. I can say Cloudberry is in good form after my little vacations. Despite this, there’s still plenty to do. The fanzine has to be finished, the inserts for the Tripping the Light Fantastic need to go to print and The Rileys artwork has to be done. On top of that there is some Plastilina stuff that I need to finish. Perhaps this Sunday I should stay in.

One of the best news of the week for me was the arrival of the Eva & John flexi singles to Lima. I believe the foldover sleeves will be printed this week. I don’t know much as when the release date will be as it’s all in the band’s and Jalito’s hands right now. But the photo of the actual single that they sent me was, just wow! It looks really good on yellow plastic. Deliciously good. I can’t wait. It might be one of my favourite releases this year. Sadly, I know, it will fly under the radar. A Peruvian band? Who cares, right? Thing is that there are less than 300 copies of it, and I’m sure it’s going to sell out fast.

Among other important news is that the Boyish 7″ artwork is finally done. It was made by David at A Little Island and it’s striking. Iwasawa really wanted to include some sort of classic indiepop imagery and it, so it’s kind of a mix of Orange Juice and Field Mice artwork, if you know what I mean. Right now Cris is doing the mastering for the tracks and soon I’ll update the website with a downloadable track for everyone to have a taste of this wonderful Japanese band.

About other Cloudberry releases I promise to have pre-order buttons for The Occasional Flickers and the upcoming fanzine no later than this weekend.

And finally I bought my NYC Popfest 4 day pass tickets. So that’s set. Good to go.

Speaking of Popfests, the Madrid one is still so fresh to me. I can’t believe March is still not over. It was just weeks since I was there celebrating with so many good friends. It was just weeks since I got to see many bands I’ve been a fan of for the first time.

One of the bands I’ve been wanting and meaning to see for many years now were Northern Portrait. I’ve never had luck. They never play the festivals I go to. They haven’t played the US yet either. The thing is, I see Stefan quite often at these festivals. But he is like me, he goes for having fun, to enjoy himself, not to play. But I wondered always, why and why and why is his band not playing if he is here? Maybe a bit selfish of me, but you have to understand that I’m scared about band’s life spans. I know band’s don’t last forever, so I have to catch them before they are gone. For example, I never got to see Summer Cats or The Bridal Shop. I doubt I’ll ever get a chance to see them ever again.

Funny thing is that I once “attended” an acoustic set of Northern Portrait, over whiskey and Tuborg beers, in Copenhagen. It was just Stefan on his acoustic guitar. It was wonderful and so beautiful. It only made me wish to hear all these songs with an electric guitar, because me, as a Chesterf¡elds fan, I have an electric guitar in my heart. Danielle joined on some songs with Stefan too. These songs, that should be filed under The Maritime Club, were truly beautiful as well, a bit of a departure from Northern Portrait, but still, having all that passion and heart that Mr. Larsen’s songs always have. That was 2010. That’s when I visited Malmö and I saw them both at So Tough So Cute. When I abandoned Jennifer at the DJ booth while I just socialized with everyone else. The next day we crossed Oresund and visited Copenhagen. We stayed in Valby and Danielle showed us the Carlsberg beer plant. And then Tivoli where I ran out of battery of my camera. Then Stefan met us at Nyhavn for some wonderful fish. Those were the days. Jennifer surprised that taxi cabs had special racks to place your bicycle. Me impressed by the Peruvian pan flute players at the main square. Represent!

After many Indietracks were I got to see Stefan and Danielle. And after learning some Japanese with our mutual friends Sloppy Joe, finally I was attending a Popfest with Northern Portrait playing. I can only thank enough the Madrid Popfest organizers for having such fantastic taste to book them. I won’t thank them for buying all the 10″s Northern Portrait brought with them! Sure, they didn’t bring many, but the organizers, with first dibs, got the most of them. Oh! I was so disappointed! I wanted to get one and get it signed by the band in person. But fair enough, I can’t complain or blame anyone. Who wouldn’t want that precious release? Now, I do need to get it straight from Jimmy at Matinée. And wait until I see them in NYC so they can sign it.

They headlined the Friday night show. Everyone went crazy when they played “Crazy”. Pardon the pun. It was a magical night. They sounded so good. So much class, so much elegance. Jingle jangle guitars, chiming and chiming. Just how I like them. They should release ten records in Cloudberry I thought.

I hadn’t seen them on Thursday. I looked all over the place. Some told me they had been at the Clamores venue, but I wonder where. Maybe way in the back. I was usually around the stage. I got to see them earlier that Friday. I met Caspar for the first time too. We had emailed a bit before when the song “December Slopes” was included in our “Last Train to Christmas” 3″ CD compilation. Such a nice guy. We talked quite a bit about Champagne Riot, his previous band. He told me there is a new project he is involved with. It does sound promising. I really liked both his releases in Shelflife and Matinée.

I got their setlist after the gig. I’ve never seen such a minimalist setlist. Everything was written in initials. Even Northern Portrait was just NP. Must be a Danish thing. Saving energy and all that. They played 15 songs. All of their hits. But not my favourite song! Again, I can’t complain, I’m already spoiled by seeing them live. But, you know, how much I’d love to hear “A Quiet Night in Copenhagen”. That song is genius. Next time I hope!

And as my life is just full of coincidences, they guys were taking the same flight to leave Madrid as me. My next stop was Stockholm and theirs Copenhagen of course. But we both were having connecting flights in Amsterdam. So yes, we were on the same KLM flight from Madrid to the Dutch capital. The logistics seemed a bit more complicated when we talked over beers, how to meet, where and when to take a cab and all. Thing is that it was so easy despite our flight being at 6:00am on Sunday morning, just immediately after Madrid’s Popfest last night of party!

So I grabbed all my bags from my hostel which was a stone throw away from the venue. Took one of those white cabs and headed to Gran Vía where they were staying. It was a lot of fun to take the same flight with them even though we were seated on the plane very far from each other. But going through check-in, where some Spaniards were asking me who where they, where they played and more, impressed by the amount of instruments they were carrying, and then through security, was quite something. Even better, while waiting for the airplane, at 5am, they managed to find some wine bottles to keep the party going. Popstar life you’d say? You just have to enjoy yourself when traveling I think. Upon arriving to Amsterdam we met again. We had some sandwiches for breakfast. Stefan told me about an amazing orange soda that you can only find in Copenhagen. I promised to try it next time.

And then they left. I stayed for 30 more minutes in Schiphol airport charging my phone in the meantime. It was time to go to Stockholm. But what a great time I had with my Danish friends. And how impressive and powerful they were on stage. No disappointment whatsoever. Hope I get to see them again. They are truly one of the best bands of the last ten years or so. For sure.

—————————————————————————-

So, an obscure band for the week? I’ve got one. Again this one comes thanks to Rupert’s fantastic CD that I got from him last July at Indietracks. And speaking of Indietracks, I really want to go, but the plane tickets are really expensive at the moment. I’ll have to see if prices go down at some point, or maybe look into using my miles.

keen
adj. keen·er, keen·est
1. Having a fine, sharp cutting edge or point.
2. Having or marked by intellectual quickness and acuity. See Synonyms at sharp.
3. Acutely sensitive: a keen ear.
4. Sharp; vivid; strong: “His entire body hungered for keen sensation, something exciting” (Richard Wright).
5. Intense; piercing: a keen wind.
6. Pungent; acrid: A keen smell of skunk was left behind.
7.
    a. Ardent; enthusiastic: a keen chess player.
    b. Eagerly desirous: keen on going to Europe in the spring.
8. Slang Great; splendid; fine: What a keen day!

This is one of those very obscure bands that I usually can’t find anything about them on the internet.

The song here, “Missed the Point”, appeared on the 12″ EP called “Feline Groovy”. A very good title for all the Swedish indiepop girls. Because they all love cats. The tracks on this record were “Missed the Point” (of course), “Darker Glasses”, “Down” and “Spinster”. The label was Scaredy Cat (there was a Swedish band years later with that same name), and the catalog number was PURR 003. Which were number 1 and 2 in the catalog? That’s a question that I’d love to be answered by you, my five readers. The record was released in 1990.

It seems that the band came from Morden and that they played some gigs along Heavenly.

On a blog I found a little bit of info, written by someone nicknamed “severin”

1980s indie band, beloved of Everett True (and me). This from their much sought after EP “Feline Groovy” features Gillian on lead vocal. Their other singer, Pauline, is on the chorus and wrote the lyric. They only recorded two EPs and then retired never to be heard of again. Until now.

The other release by Keen was the “Sad EP”. The songs in it were “Made Up”, “On Your Knees”, “Waiting” and “Tears Into Me”. This record was produced by Maurice Ruiz & Keen. It had a painting on Nicci Hastings on the cover.

Whatever happened to them? When and why did they split? Did they have more songs? And so many other questions I would love to ask. If anyone out there knows any other tidbits, anecdotes, or even the whole story of the band please share! And if anyone has spare copies of the records let me know. I’d love to hear their other songs!

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

Listen
Keen – Missing the Point