Monday! And where do I start? Well I must say that I heard from the pressing plant and The County Fathers CDs have been shipped and they are on my way. So everything looks good and I will just make the release date for March 15th as that day is my birthday and why not, I would love to celebrate with a new Cloudberry release! I’m very very happy about it, and I look forward to receiving them. And after, I need to start planning on a new collection for the Cake Kitchen releases! I’ve spoken in the past to a few bands but things haven’t progressed in the way I’d like, still waiting for songs, memorabilia, etc etc, so they are just more like “projects” than a serious release at the moment. So need to start planning a new one that I can put out in the next few months!
On my last post I talked about Madrid Popfest and how the organization worked. Now I need to talk about other aspects of it. What about the DJs?
On Friday I believe my favourite DJs were Los del Oso DJs. They opened the DJ sets for the whole festival, just after The Tuts finished their show. Los del Oso were a three popfans, all of them who had been part of the previous Madrid Popfest organization: Alex, Carlos and Maria. And they played indiepop hits one after another. My only complain of course, is that of repeating bands, and they did play God Help the Girl many times! Aside from that their choices were spot on, even playing many Cloudberry bands like Hari and Aino, Afternoon Naps, Flowers and Cassolette. Also they played a request of mine, The Modettes’ “White Mice”. Many classic bands were played too, from The Brilliant Corners to The Siddeleys. All in all a strong playlist that made everyone dance and kept the spirits high!
Later on that day there was Pretty Olivia DJ, that is Javi who rans the label of the same name and I believe an organizer of Madrid Popfest too. I must have been a bit drunk as I can’t remember much of his set! I did ask him later why he didn’t play the Go-Betweens, his favourite band, and he told me he did! So I must have been totally out of it. I believe at this point and while the next DJs played music I was mostly socializing, chit-chatting with friends.
Afterwards DJed Lady Dilema and Blanca DB DJed but by this point I can’t remember much! It must have been late and way too many beers! I did dance though! But can’t recall the songs!
On Saturday afternoon I didn’t really noptice DJ Manazas. Did she DJ between bands? Or after? I didn’t stay for the last gig, that of Fakuta, I left after Soda Fountain Rag. So not sure. I did meet DJ Manazas on Friday night though as Miguel Stamp introduced me telling her I was going to release a record by her band Bla and that I had a fantastic label. Of course, Belén, didn’t had a clue what Cloudberry was at all.
At night, after the great gig of Melenas, it was the turn for HDIF. I have always mixed feelings with HDIF, you know I get bored with the 60s stuff. This time around Ian played normally one classic indiepop song to get the excitement up, and then just after a soul/60s song. There was not really a good flow, I always felt a strong contrast between songs, so it kind of got my excitement down. Also the songs picked were way too obvious crowd pleasers, so I wasn’t really into it I must say. I dunno, I have had good times at his club, but when Ian DJs at festivals I haven’t really felt the same vibe.
I was happily surprised with Bombas para Desayunar. I don’t really know who she is but a friend told me she does fanzines. I would like to read them sometime. What surprised me was her choices, playing classic Spanish pop!! Even though I wasn’t dancing at this point, I was mostly talking to Maria del Mar and Oscar from Zipper, I did enjoy dancing and singing along from the bar area to songs from Los Fresones Rebeldes or TCR.
To finish the festival, there were the Madrid Popfest DJs. At this point I was dancing of course. The problem was that I was probably drunk, and having mixed feelings for leaving Madrid Popfest, because it was over and it felt very short. Also having to say goodbyes to many friends I saw and who I probably won’t see in years! But all in all, I danced quite a bit! And that is what matters! It had been a while since I danced to my favourite music!
On my next post, I should be covering the bands that played Madrid Popfest!
Now a quick roundup of indiepop finds (and pending is a review of the Indietracks lineup of course)!
Emotional Response: some exciting news from Jen and Stew’s label. They are releasing a bunch of Sarah related records to fund the Indietracks trip for Even as We Speak. So, right now you can pre-order, aside from t-shirts and badges, the following:
– Action Painting’s “Trial Cuts” LP – a compilation with Sarah material plus a bunch of unreleased material
– Boyracer’s “Fling Yr Bonnet Over Windmill” LP – a compilation of the three Sarah singles by Boyracer
– Even as We Speak’s “Feral Pop Frenzy” LP – a reissue of the classic album
– Sarah Artists Compilation LP – featuring two new and previously unreleased tracks from Even As We Speak, Action Painting!, Boyracer and Secret Shine
Arlie: I’m checking this song out after the great Michael Mybackpages shared it on a Facebook group. He always, since the Soulseek days when I met him, had good taste. The song is titled “Big Fat Mouth” and the band seems to hail from Nashville though it sounds kinda Swedish to my ears! I like it! But to my bad luck I notice they played on March 7th here in NYC. Too late. I missed them. I look if they have any proper releases but it doesn’t seem so. There is also a video for their song “Didya Think” but I must say I don’t like this song too much.
Tracyanne & Danny: Merge Records announced the return of Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell with a 10 song album release. The mystery to me was who was Danny. It turns out his name is Danny Coughlan and from what I found out he released a 2012 album titled “Crybaby”. He is Bristol based. Now this duo is releasing this new album that will be out on May 25th on CD and LP and right now you can stream and check out the song “Home & Dry”.
——————————
I did miss looking for obscure new bands while I was away on holidays in Spain. I was happy to hear from old and new friends that they really enjoy the blog. That meant a lot. Makes me think I should continue sharing my discoveries with everyone. I mean, this year will be 10 years of writing this blog in October. 10 years!! My previous blog that lasted like 3 years is remembered with nostalgia by many. Just last year I was answering questions about the Mira el Péndulo blog to a Mexican fanzine. People haven’t forgotten about it! What will happen with this one? Will it be remembered as well if it is to stop someday? I want to think it will.
A 7″ that has never been listed or sold on Discogs. That is bad news for me because I’m looking for it. I have no idea how much anyone would pay for it. Or how rare it really is. Who knows. It is a mystery that right now I’ll try to solve. I hope I can at least find some details.
So I heard their song “Marie” thanks to the From a Northern Place blog which sadly hasn’t been updated in a while. I wonder why. I never knew who was behind it. That song was the A side. The B side was a song called “Don’t Try”, which I haven’t had the chance yet to listen.
The 7″ was self-released by the band in 1988 and has no label or catalog number on the sleeve. There is just a phone number, actually two numbers, if anyone wants to contact the band. I suppose those numbers don’t work anymore. We do get the first names of the band members on the back of the sleeve:
Rich – vocals
Graham – guitar
Glenn – bass
Paul – drums
Now, the labels say Hole in One! as it was the name of the label. Might it be? It gives that impression to me. But whoever listed the record on Discogs decided there is no label. The only other information on the labels is that both songs play at 45rpm.
Discogs as always wants to be confusing and lists them on compilations that date from 2000 to 2004. The thing is that these are African music compilations. These Villagers are definitely not the indiepop Villagers I’m looking for. That should be fixed on the website, some clueless fan might buy the African Renaissance compilation in hope of hearing a rare The Villagers track.
Now comes the problem. Searching for The Villagers gives me way too many results that it is impossible to find anything related to them. “Marie” or “Don’t Try” are not great search words either. I can’t seem to find anything. If only I had some last names. Or maybe where they were from. My only guess comes from the phone numbers. They start with 0225 and 0793 and I believe these are old codes, so I added a 1 to them, so they would be now 01225 and 01793. In that case the first number would be from the Bath area and the second from Swindon. These two cities are not that far away from each other.
Still having figured out their probable city doesn’t mean a thing. There’s nothing else about them on the web it seems. So I have to ask you indiepop fans from the late 80s. Do you remember them? Did they play any gigs that you remember? If they had any other releases or if they went to play with other bands? Any information will be appreciated!
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Listen
The Villagers – Marie
