News: You can now pre-order the next 7″ on Cloudberry: The Color Waves!! It’s should be coming out in September.

Today I’m doing a special post. In the last months I’ve noticed an exciting crop of bands coming out from Peru. Guitar pop bands, with what seem the right influence. I don’t know much about them, I haven’t been in touch either. It’s true that I’ve been championing the band Eva & John for a couple of years now, but there is a new generation of people bringing an exciting and fresh sound to a scene that I remember being really bland. From far away, in NYC, I have a look into these newish bands and recommend them to you.

• Almirante Ackbar:  so far they have released a split CD last year. They have a video for one of their songs, “Cientos Truenos“, which is perhaps their best. The band is formed by Kevin, Richard, Diego and Danimon. From what I gather they seem to be the band that is making a bigger splash at the moment. I hope there’s another release coming up to carry on the momentum. Their still unreleased song “Fiebre de la Amplitud” sounds pretty cool.
• Serto Mercurio: another very young band formed by Emiliano, Bronto, Piero and Alonso. They have released a digital album called “Recuerdos de Cuando Aprendí a Nadar” this year. 9 songs that have not only pop influences, but a bit of shoegaze here and there. They have released a video for the song “Hacia el Mar” but “Buenas Noches Romulanos” is my favourite song of theirs.
• Dan Dan Dero: my latest find. Really nice indiepop from this one-girl band named Valeria. There are 4 cool songs on her bandcamp. Her song titles are a bit long, but clever.
• Los Lagartos: luminous guitar pop from this new band. Formed by Renzo, Raúl and Lucíathey have a CD out that was just released on June 22nd. It includes 6 songs. There are 3 in English and 3 in Spanish. Skip the English ones, and stick to the Spanish ones that are pretty good.
• Fútbol en la Escuela: Sayo, Edgar, Carlos, Blanca and Ricardo, have recorded a bunch of songs that I feel are closer to the 90s indiepop sound. They have a digital album called “Cancionero para Víctimas de Siniestros” that includes 11 songs. A pretty strong debut.
• Ciudad Gragea: all the other bands hail from Lima, but this one hails from Trujillo, a city north of Lima. No releases as far as I know, but this young band has a bunch of catchy songs on their bandcamp heavily influenced by La Movida Madrileña. They participated in last year’s Lima Popfest.
• Las Tetris: the last band in this review is a pure punky pop all-girl band and perhaps my favourite so far (sans their English song, I don’t know why, but I’m not liking the English songs by the Peruvian bands!). With clear influences of like-minded Spanish bands from the early noughties (I was thinking of Galactica, do you remember them?), the four songs on their bandcamp shine bright. A friend told me the girls in the band are still underage.  Claudia, Angiela, Majo and Grecia have a promising future then. Hoping that they release something proper soon!

————————————————–

Some months ago, through a comment on my blog, I was introduced to a tape named “Move Over Manchester”. It was a collection of of Birmingham and Black Country indie bands from the late 80s early 90s. On the A side we find bands like Innocent Bliss, The Raree Show, The Honey Turtles, Dan Dare’s Dog, The Cantels (who have been covered in the blog) and The Love Hysterics. On the B side we find Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, The Zone, The Sandkings (a favourite of mine), The Mossbacks, The C’Zone Farm, Elisabeth Jane and The Kilbanes. Sadly the name of their songs is not included in the sleeve. After some searching I found out about some info about The Honey Turtles song, it was titled “Never Never Again” and that lead me to find more about them.

They had one release, a 12″ back in 1991 on the label Pulse-8 Records (12LOSE4 is the catalog number). The songs included were “Don’t You Know” (which you can actually find on Youtube), “Don’t You Know (Radio Mix)”, both on the A side, and “Love Me” on the B side. On Discogs aside from the regular 12″ release, there are also listed two white labels. One that is single sided, and one that is not. Someone on Youtube commented saying there was a 7″ also for this song that included remixes. But I can’t certify that it existed.

We keep digging on Youtube. If I seartch for Honeyturtles altogether, I find a video for the “Don’t You Know” song. The sound is very low sadly, and the quality of the image is not the best either. But it’s a great document of the time. It says that this song was the only single they ever released after successfully touring with The Charlatans in 1990. We also learn that the band was formed by Marc Newey on vocals, Nick on bass, Steve Greaves on guitar and Nigel on drums.

This same user has uploaded some live performances of the band. There are three of them, for “Never Never Again” and “Love Me” (both recorded at Wovlerhampton Poly when supporting Ned’s Atomic Dustbin) and for “PML” (a song written after The Charlatans tour).

I keep googling and I find that Marc is (or was?) managing a band called Of Kings and Captains who have toured with Bon Jovi. Time changes indeed.

Steve Greaves appears on Tim Burgess’ autobiography. It’s documented that he almost became The Charlatans guitarist. On the book, “The Charlatans We Are Rock” I also find some interesting stuff. It says: “… the Honey Turtles, a Midlands-based outfit originally called The Mock Turtles who had to change their name so that they wouldn’t be confused with the Manchester band“.

And that’s where I hit a wall. Anyone remember anything else about this band? Any other compilation appearances? Other recordings? Perhaps demo tapes? I’m quite curious! I should try to get a nice copy of their record now.

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

Listen
The Honey Turtles – Never Never Again