My Wednesday post. Trying to figure out what to do with Mobineko, the pressing plant I’ve been using to press records. Now they want to take up to 6 months for pressing our next 7″. I’m beyond furious. It is not serious at all. This makes my release schedule useless. Other bands whose release I want to put out have to wait now. It is unfair. It has never taken this long. At the most 3 months. Now it is taking double. What should I do? Perhaps looking for another pressing plant is the solution. I was happy with Mobineko since I changed from United Record to them. They had a very good price and it was great to get the records and sleeves printed together. But this terrible service I’m getting today is unbearable. Seriously, this is stuff of nightmares for me. What should I do?
Well, having said that, how can one get happy? It is hard. It is stressful.
I will try with some good music for you.
Optic Sevens: I ordered this series of monthly 7″ reissues. I must say it is very pricey but thought I’d treat myself. The label Optic Nerve Recordings who have reissued a few of very good and classic records will start pressing 500 copies of legendary 7″s of the indiepop golden days. There will be 12 of them. So far they have announced all but one of them. The 11 that have been announced are: Apple Boutique’s “Love Resistance”, East Village’s “Cubans in the Bluefields”, McCarthy’s “Red Sleeping Beauty”, One Thousand Violins’ “Halcyon Days”, Pale Fountains’ “(There’s Always) Something on My Mind”, Pooh Sticks’ “On Tape”, Pulp’s “Everybody’s Problem”, The Servants’ “The Sun a Small Star”, The Siddeleys’ “What Went Wrong This Time” and The Wake’s “Pale Spectre”.
Guitar Pop Festa: maybe my Japanese friends can help me track this new double CD compilation of Japanese guitar pop bands that was just released. It came out on the 19th of this month on the label Thistime Records and includes 44 tracks in total. There are many bands I have no clue about but would love to listen like Belinda May, Strike Three!, You Said Something and mode. There are a few though that are familiar names too like Cattle, Spaghetti Vabune! or Boyish. Would be interesting if someone distributes this compilation in the US as it seems to paint a good picture of the Japanese scene.
Nelories: speaking of Japanese bands it was a BIG surprise to learn that the label Fish Prints from Boston, Massachusetts, will be reissuing the 1990 demo tape of the Nelories. Sadly it is reissued on tape, which as you all know I’m not a big fan but still. Would love a copy. Sadly it is sold out already. Life is hard. Just 50 copies were made. That explains it. But why not make some CDR copies? Please? There are 6 songs on this tape, and three of them are available to stream on the label’s Bandcamp. The songs on the cassette are “The Chestnutfield Family (demo)”, “Cadillac for Montevideo (demo)”, “Glass Chocolate”, “Keith (demo)”, “May” and “Plasticky (demo)”.
Sodajerk: this was the Valenzuela City, Philippines, band that our friend Ryan Marquez used to have with Remi John Noman, Ronald Santiago and Manny Gallo back in the mid 90s. Most of their songs, I don’t think, were easily available. Heavily influenced by Scottish pop (BMX Bandits, Teenage Fanclub, Eugenius), the band recorded a bunch of demos and now they are all compiled on their Bandcamp page. And that’s not all, some live tracks, radio session tracks, are added to make it a very comprehensive look at the band’s life. It would be interesting to do an interview with Sodajerk, right? Talk about those years in pinoy indiepop! Ryan are you up for it?
The Yetis: the latest from the Barcelona label Discos de Kirlian is a 4 song 7″ by this Allentown, Pennsylvania band. There are four sunny songs on it, “Little Surfer Girl”, “Warm California”, “Where You Goin'” and “Mysterion”, that feels like the band was really longing for summer. The band is formed by Christian, Nick, Stefan and Patrick.
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An inflated whoopee cushion A whoopee (or whoopie) cushion, also known as a farting bag, poo-poo cushion, windy blaster, and Razzberry Cushion, is a practical joke device involving flatulence humour, which produces a noise resembling a “raspberry” or human flatulence. It is made from two sheets of rubber that are glued together at the edges. There is a small opening with a flap at one end for air to enter and leave the cushion.
As you know of my favourite time periods for pop music was the early and mid 2000s with the explosion of indiepop bands in Sweden. Bands that wore indiepop in their sleeves. There were so many. And many labels and clubs too. That’s why I put together the first volume of “The Sound of Starke Adolf” and would have loved to continue doing them if only bands had been more supportive and interested in documenting that period of time. For me it is one of the biggest disappointments as I would have loved to continue the series and release a 2nd, a 3rd and even a 4th volume.
I contacted many bands as I said, but many I couldn’t find any information about. There were very obscure I suppose. Remember that most of their releases happened to be very limited CDRs. Maybe 50 copies, sometimes no more than 10 copies. Their songs were shared on Soulseek and that’s how I discovered many of them. I discovered a whole scene, that had their own festivals, and their fanzines. One of these fanzines was Picknick from Umeå. I believe that zine was ran by a girl called Elin. There might have been a Teresa too. In today’s story, a story that has many blanks and little certainties, they have a main role.
You see, I’m trying to find out more information about a band called Whoopie Cushions! Until some days ago I thought their only song available was one called “The Only Way I Know How” that appeared on a tape compilation called “Picknick Picks” in 2003. I have actually talked about this tape time ago, when I was trying to find out more about Fibi Frap. Probably you don’t remember. This tape, which was “a compilation of Swedish Twee Pop hand-picked by Picknick fanzine!” was actually released by a California label called Popgun Recordings which is no other than the tape label Raoulie de la Cruz used to run. This tape had the catalog number 055 and to make it more cooler it hadArgentinean comic strip cult hero Mafalda on the cover. It included five songs by five Swedish indiepop bands, The Tidy Ups, Strawberry Fair, Whoopie Cushions, Hormones in Abundance and Fibi Frap. Maybe one day all of them will grace the blog.
So I was saying that until a few days ago I thought the song that appeared on that tape, “The Only Way I Know How”, was their only song recorded. I haven’t been aware of any demos, or CDRs by them. Not even know who was behind it. It seems like a bedroom band. It sounds lo-fi, but with that charm from the Swedish bands that I haven’t encountered again. Well, I stumbled on Youtube with a song called “So You See; We Are Perfect For Each Other”.
This song was uploaded back in February, but as you know, it is hard to keep up with everything! It was uploaded by the great indiepop connoisseur David Chalé from Barcelona. He has posted an image, a cover of what looks like a CDR that has the title “Razorblades and Lemonades”. This might be a hint. We know that this was also the name of a legendary club in Göteborg back in those years. Was this some sort of sampler or compilation of bands that played there? Or perhaps bands that were friendly with the club’s organizers? Nothing is clear, I can’t find information about this release anywhere.
But, this might mean that the band hailed from Göteborg. Many did. One of the bands I tried to contact, Sugar Spun Charge, were involved in the organization of the club. I wrote about them too time ago. But I still haven’t been able to get in touch. I wonder who has the answers about Whoopie Cushions! and most importantly let me know if they had any more songs?
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Listen
Whoopie Cushions! – So You Seel We Are Perfect For Each Other
