I’ll start this week’s post telling you a bit about my latest indiepop adventure, that happened last Thursday. I went to see the brilliant Brisbane band The Goon Sax at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn.

They were actually opening the night for two other acts, Shana Falana and Lou Barlow. I honestly didn’t care about these two, so even though it was pricey, I thought of just going, see The Goon Sax, and then leave. Just call it early, go back home while the subway is still running continuously and not waiting 30 minutes to transfer to another line. I thought that it wouldn’t matter much paying 25 bucks just to see them as it was the first time the band was coming to America and because I didn’t expect them to come again in the near future. It seems I was wrong, they would later tell me that they are planning to come around September or October this year. Oh well…

The crowd was odd, I didn’t see any of the casual indiepop faces. None of them. Maybe they went to Union Pool the day before as The Goon Sax played there. I just don’t like Union Pool that much myself so I chose the Knitting Factory gig instead. But before checking the crowd, we went for pizza at the pizza parlour that faces The Knitting Factory on the other side of the street. Guess what, the band was already having pizza there. So, I said hello of course and talked a bit with them. They were really friendly.

The gig was lovely though it run into some hiccups. Louis’ guitar string broke and no one could lend him another guitar. So he had to change strings and that took a bit of time. That happened just at the start, after the first song. The lady Shana Falana, who seemed to be the organizer of the gig, went onstage and tried to entertain the crowd. Anyways, after that break, the band started playing again and they did it in full form. It was terrific. Energetic, fun, and with great attitude. To my surprise they didn’t play their first single, “Boyfriend”, and I was to ask them later why. It seems they haven’t played it in a year! They are a bit bored by it. But they did end the gig with their new single, “She Knows”, that has that delicious chorus of girl/boy vocals.

The gig was kind of short sadly. They were the openers. For me of course they should have been headliners. But, that’s how the world is. It doesn’t know a thing.

After it we had a good chat, took a photo, and met the people behind Chapter Music. Talked with Louis about The Particles and other obscure Australian bands. Then mentioned that that same day I had published an interview on the blog with an Australian band, The Mars Bastards. The Chapter Music people, knew about the band of course, and even knew about the blog. He mentioned that they had plans to do at some point sort of a compilation of guitar pop bands from the time. The same idea I’ve had for years. Maybe it would be good if they do it. Who knows. It would be good for it to happen sooner or later.

It was a great conversation with the band, knowing they preferred NYC over Chicago, and that they were heading to Los Angeles the next day to play 3 shows. That they hadn’t had much time to do touristy stuff but had been around Manhattan and Brooklyn for few days, even visiting the MOMA. It was great to meet them and I had a good time talking to them. Maybe next time they are here they have a bigger crowd and more fans, and photo requests, that I won’t have the chance to meet and talk with them. So was happy for this opportunity.

And here are some of my latest finds:

Tracyanne & Danny: I believe next week Tracyanne & Danny are playing in NYC and I haven’t got around into buying tickets. Hmm. I want to go for sure, but are there tickets available? Do I want to go to Brooklyn? Small decisions. And how much are the tickets? I need to find out that too. But I must say I didn’t need to hear or watch this beautiful video for the song “It Can’t Be Love Unless it Hurts” to know that I would love to be there. And that I would like to get a copy of the album. Gorgeous really.

Samt: the latest release by the brilliant Augsburg label Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten is a 7″ by this Austrian band. It is not strictly indiepop but the one song I’ve heard so far, “I Wü Di”, is catchy and quirky. The label underlines that the band has an Upper Austrian dialect. As I don’t understand much of what they are saying, can’t say if that’s important, but for sure it is a great detail to know about. The band is described as post punk meets Austropop. That’s another term I’m not familiar with! What is Austropop? Are there more good Austrian pop bands? A release that opens many doors is for sure a good one. The record is available through the label and was released on May 29th.

Foundlings: Amber, Bry, Matty and Ol form his punky pop band from London. They have just two songs in their Bandcamp, “Misery” and “Tragedy”, and they are catchy and filled with energy. I haven’t been to London in ages, but I wonder if they are part of an indiepop scene? Or probably not. If they will be releasing a record soon? Or not. If they will be invited to Indietracks? Or not. I need to go back to the UK and find out how things are going there!

Simmer: another British band, this time from Manchester. And this latest song of theirs called “Juno” is terrific. A great introduction to their music. The band has been going since January 2017 and is formed by Bonnie, Julius, Jake, Gary and Adam. I must say though that I listened to their previous effort, an album “Paper Prisms”, but it wasn’t something I liked. I definitely like their new direction, the poppy “Juno” is a winner.

акульи слёзы: from Ufa, Russia. 4 songs in Russian. Three girls with cool haircuts and cool dresses. Don’t ask me more about them, I don’t understand Russian. But their digital EP “в музее моей памяти” is great. There are 4 songs to stream and I hope they get a proper release. Anyone know any details about them?

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My friend David, who I’ve mentioned many times in the blog before, just made me remember of a wonderful song after he shared it on Youtube, Hitch’s “You Should Stay Inside”. Now, the problem is who were Hitch and if there are any more songs by them?

That is a big problem. I only know that song. I don’t know where the band was from, or who the members were. I know them thanks to a French tape, a compilation tape that was released by Nessie (NESS587) called “Superqualifragilistic”.

Supercalifragilistic: The Oxford English Dictionary estimates that the word “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” was first attested in the 1940s. The roots of the word have been defined as follows: super- “above”, cali- “beauty”, fragilistic- “delicate”, expiali- “to atone”, and -docious “educable”, with the sum of these parts signifying roughly “Atoning for educability through delicate beauty.” According to the film, in which the word gained its popularity, it is defined as “something to say when you have nothing to say”. However, it is commonly defined as “extraordinarily good” or “wonderful” as all references to the word in the film “Mary Poppins” can be perceived as positive. Dictionary.com also notes that the word is “used as a nonsense word by children to express approval or to represent the longest word in English.”

This label had released in 1994 one of my favourite 7″s by any French bands, Evergreen’s “Longer Lasting Beauty”. I know, I know, I should dedicate a post to Evergreen. I will try to do it soon. But today I’m checking this compilation, see if there’s any chance to find anything about Hitch.

According to Michaël from Watoo Watoo on a comment he posted back in 2010 on the blog Heaven is Above: “Nessie was a small label in the southern suburbs of Paris. They released this comp that you mention, a couple of eps & then got bored, less interested in tracking small indie bands.”

Well, before they got bored they put out this tape and the two 7″s (aside from the Evergreen one, there’s a 7″ Christmas comp). This tape sadly doesn’t have a release year. It may have been also from 1994, as the other two releases on the label. On this tape compilation, which I mentioned before when I wrote about the French bands Nothing Else and Les Poissons Solubles, Hitch appears on the A side, with the eighth track. Other bands on this compilation were The Penguins, Caramel, Pillows, Meek, Lollypops, Newell and more.

One of the few credits that appear on this tape is that it was mixed by Jean-François Marvaud. Marvaud had been part of the band Meek, where he played guitar. That’s another band that deserves a post on the blog. Aside from this band he had been involved doing technical work for many bands, including Evergreen or Spring.

The tape came with a booklet, 8 pages long. I don’t own the tape, but I hope someone does and can maybe find out if there’s any information about the band. After you hear the beauty of the song you’ll understand my interest.

Maybe someone out there can help me. At least let me know if they were French? I assume they were as all the bands on the tape are French as far as I know. I think that is a fair guess. But where in France? If they had any releases? Any other songs recorded? Would be great to know!

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Listen
Hitch – You Should Stay Inside