Still enjoying the 9th anniversary of the blog and continuing with this ongoing blog feature or reviewing on each post different bands from different countries celebrating how international indiepop is and has been. But first it is time to check out some new discoveries, new indiepop sounds, from around the web!

A new song by Papa Topo has appeared on the Elefant Records’ Youtube: the short but sweet Debbie Harry cover, “Me Besaste”. This song is part of the soundtrack of the films “La Maldita Primavera” and “Nos Parecía Importante” which will be released by Elefant as a digital album. On it there are 7 Papa Topo songs, another 7 by Adrià Arbona, Papa Topo’s vocalist, and one by Masonieria, Sonia from Papa Topo. I’m not very keen on the artwork for the record, looks terribly cheesy, but as it will be MP3 it doesn’t matter. The song is great though and I look forward to hearing the rest (well, we have already heard and recommended on the blog the track “La Llamada” which is brilliant!).

Underground Lovers from Australia. Have you heard them? They sound pretty ace. I wasn’t aware of them, even though it seems they have been releasing records since 1990! I must do my homework and look into their past work. What I heard today was their latest effort, the “Staring at You Staring at Me” album that was released this year on Rubber Records. It is available on CD and vinyl LP, as well as in all digital platforms. I’m not sure where to link you, as there is no Bandcamp and their Soundcloud only allows you to preview the songs, play like 30 seconds. So when you click the band’s name you’ll go to Youtube to listen the blissful “You Let Sunshine Pass You By”.

Foliage is the solo project of Manuel Joseph Walker from San Bernardino, California. I’m listening now his latest songs, the ones that appear on the tape titled “Foliage”. There are 12 songs on this white cassette that seems to be about to sell out. They are really good. Actually you can also get a CD version of the album from the label Spirit Goth Records (scary name!). As usual this is a late discovery, on his BandCamp I can see he has been uploading songs since 2014. I guess it is better now than never. Check out songs like “Silence” or “Dare” and you’ll understand why I’m liking this!

Something quite rare I found on BandCamp, a new Paris Angels‘ tape? It seems that for Cassette Store Day 2017, which was October 14th (?), four Paris Angels songs were released as the “Stairs to the Sun” EP by the Swansea label Lavender Sweep. The songs being “Stairs to the Sun”, “Rise”, “Door to Summer” and “Shake”. These songs were recorded between 1988 and 1992. Of course, this is already sold out. Why not release it now as a CD EP or a 7″ vinyl?

Another strange sighting is that by St. John’s, Canada, band Lo Siento. Why is it strange? Because this is a Canadian band singing in Spanish. I check the band member names and I don’t see any indicative that they have Spanish names. Maybe the vocalist? Pepa Chan? Could be, but definitely not Andrea McGuire or Alligita Graves, though that is always relative. You could have any last name and be from anywhere in the world. I do notice an accent which of course I don’t mind, I celebrate. I actually like this a lot!! I wonder what are their influences? I wonder why did they decide to sing in Spanish instead of English? Infectious, catchy, fun, I don’t know how else to explain this? It is pretty awesome. 7 songs, and I would say that somehow there is an Argentinean connection. Why do I say that? Well there is a song called “Historia en el Placard”. I think the only country to call a closet a “placard” instead of “armario”. Maybe that’s where they learned Spanish? Or had an Argentinean teacher? I wonder. Anyways, lovely stuff!

Lastly, remember Battery Point? The band that released two wonderful EPs on their BandCamp that I duly championed? They were fantastic, right? Well, if you didn’t want any more tapes, here is a new one titled “Six Songs of Endearment for your Livelihood”. This tape released by the Toronto label Fallen Love Records includes both EPs for the first time in a physical format. I was hoping for a CD or vinyl, but well, it seems cassettes are winning the war and I’m losing it. I don’t even know where to put the few tapes I have in my new apartment, so can’t think of myself buying any. Shame. I’d love to play these songs home, read the liner notes, the credits. But that’s how it is. But for those who love tapes, here is a great opportunity to get 6 wonderful songs!

And if that wasn’t all bad news when it comes to tapes. Verandan confirmed that their EP will be released physically on tape. It must be a nightmare! Tapes, tapes, tapes. Give me a CDR any day over tapes. Hopefully next year this trend changes (?). I cross my fingers.

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It is time to fly to another country in our indiepop world tour. How many months have we been featuring bands from different prominent indiepop countries?! Must be two or three now. We’ve visited countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Oceania. Today we visit another European country, Italy!

It is very well known that Italy is not famous for its indiepop. Here on the blog only once we featured an indiepop band, Blanco y Tango, and on that post we talked quite a bit about the Italian cassette label Shiny Sunset. I actually got in touch with whom used to run that label and asked to do an interview, sadly I never heard back. Would have been great as I would have heard a first-hand account of the Italian indiepop scene.

Today I want to go back many decades, to the late 80s, to check out a band I know very little, Views.

It is a very common name, Views. I wonder why they called themselves Views.  The band didn’t sing in Italian, their songs were in English. And released as far as Discogs confirms, 2 records.

Namby-pamby: is a term for affected, weak, and maudlin speech/verse. It originates from Namby Pamby (1725) by Henry Carey.

“Namby Pamby” came out in 1988 on the Tramite label (MLP 88003). This label was based in Brescia and released a few records, especially that year. This 12″ release was a miniLP and included 6 songs. 3 on each side. On the A side there was “Till the Money Gone”, “Please Linda Talk” and “Ocean”. The B side had “Flowers on the Desert Sand”, “Enough For You” and “Tell You Something”.  It was published by Ala Bianca and recorded at Magic Frog Studio in Brescia. Would this confirm that the band hailed from that city?

Brescia is a city and comune in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometres from the lakes Garda and Iseo. With a population of 196,480, it is the second largest city in the region and the fourth of northwest Italy. The urban area of Brescia extends beyond the administrative city limits and has a population of 672,822,[2] while over 1.5 million people live in its metropolitan area. The city is the administrative capital of the Province of Brescia, one of the largest in Italy, with over 1,200,000 inhabitants. Founded over 3,200 years ago, Brescia (in antiquity Brixia) has been an important regional centre since pre-Roman times. Its old town contains the best-preserved Roman public buildings in northern Italy and numerous monuments, among these the medieval castle, the Old and New cathedral, the Renaissance Piazza della Loggia and the rationalist Piazza della Vittoria.

There are some credits for the record. We know the bassist was Nico Meteo and the drummer was Dario Pironi. On electric and acoustic guitar was Livio Rug, on keyboards we had Luca Rug and on guitars and vocals there was Giovanni Iside. The record producer was G.B. Castews, the technician was Dario Caglioni and the photography on the cover art, the same that illustrates this post, was taken by Guido Biagi.

I click on those names, looking to find any connections. I notice that Dario Pironi had also been drummer on the band Vega Enduro in the mid 2000s. Livio and Luca Rug also played in Vega Enduro’s album “BigTime25:33p.m.”. No other credits for the rest of the band members.

I haven’t heard any of the 6 songs included in “Namby Pamby”, their first release. That is not the case with “Mummycat the World N° 2”. I have actually heard all 10 songs thanks to a user on Youtube that has uploaded all songs. The LP album, released in 1990 by Crazy Mannequin Records (CRAZY 00019), had 10 songs. On the A side we find, “Say It!“, “The Raining Men“, “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey“, “Red Flowers Moon Light” and “Patty Flan“. The B side had “Mummycat“, “Circle“, “She’s Going Out“, “Real Good Time Together” and “The Mirror“. It is worth mentioning that Crazy Mannequin Records was a new wave label based in Milano, in Italy.

For this record there are no credits on Discogs, just Stefano Castagna who is credited as engineer. The songs were recorded at the Ritmo & Blu studio.

At that same studio the band was going to record “Not for Sale” which was going to be included on the “Pegorock” compilation LP that was released in 1990. This record wasn’t released by a label, I assume it was a record released by the studio Ritmo & Blu and its owner, Stefano Castagna. Other bands on this compilation were Taken to the Bottle, Hang Ten, Dorian Gray or Bambini in Bikini.

I keep googling, trying to find any worthy information. I start to notice a name that shows up a few times, Giovanni Ferrario. From what I can see he was part of the Views. The only Giovanni I could see on the credits was Giovanni Iside. Must be the same Giovanni. It does seem that Giovanni continues making music. I found a biography where it mentions he was born in Monti-Chiari and that in 1984 he formed Views. It also mentions that the band was around for 10 years. After the band split he moved to Catania. Not much other information about the Views, but it does tell that the had been involved in a band called Micevice in the late 90s and that these days he records and releases music under his own name. He has collaborated with PJ Harvey, Morgan and Cristina Donà.

Then I found the blog Tutto Disco. On it I find some interesting facts about the band. Firstly that on the 2nd record, on the album, there was a female guitar player, Emanuela Esquilli, who also did backing vocals. But most importantly the band recorded in 1993 a demo tape titled “Warm”. This demo tape was never released. What happened with it?!

That’s all I could find. For me this was a cool discovery, it is not common to find fine guitar pop from Italy. There’s some but not many, it is like digging gold. I wonder what happened to the rest of the band members. Were they involved with any other guitar pop bands? What happened to that “Warm” demo tape? Are there any other unreleased songs? Or perhaps other compilation appearances? Where did they gig in those 10 years they were around? Did they get any attention from aborad? Were they from Brescia? Many questions, but I’m sure we’ll find the answers someday soon!

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Listen
Views – Say It!‎