I am still very excited about the news that The BV’s are releasing a 7″ with our little label. You must have listened already the A side, “Every Story is a Ghost Story‘, and loved it as I did? I hope so! If that’s the case let me tell you that the pre-order button is now live at our website. So don’t miss out! The record went to press today, so hopefully in around two months time we will have it at home shipping first to everyone who placed a pre-order.

I’m really impressed that in these times we’ve managed to put out 45 7″ singles. And we are getting closer and closer to 50 7″s. It is not an easy task. But can only thank your support. I hope you keep supporting the label as you’ve been doing for the past 10 years!

Now here are some new finds for you to enjoy in the middle of the week (?).

The Science of Words: our friend Pete from Horowitz, The Rosehips and more is now in a band called The Science of Words alongside Corinne Plant and have just released their debut single called “In a Space” on Next Phase:Normal Records as a 7″. They’ve made a video too for it, which I’m linking here. The sound is a bit different, a bit rougher and rockier, but still you can find the pop sensibility in it.  And the video is very cool!

Foundlings: a London band formed by Amber, Bry, Matty and Oly. Another lovely sounding band that didn’t get invited to Indietracks. The list keeps getting longer and longer. Their latest song was just released on their Bandcamp and it is called “Horizon” and it is just sweet sounds for my ears. The band have a few more songs available like “Misery” and “Your Sister”. Looking forward to them releasing them in physical format!

Tight Knit: a bit of shambolic pop from this Melbourne trio. I don’t know much about them, but there are two songs on their Bandcamp, “Too Hot” and “Want You”, and they are not that new, they are from 2017. Crashpop, lo-finess, and female vocals. It is a good combination.

Todavía: this dreampop project by Rhyan Riesgo from Los Angeles have just uploaded a new song called “Visitor” to their Bandcamp. And what can I say other than it is dreamy? That is pretty obvious, right? It is the first time I’m listening to his music, but I see there are many more songs to keep me busy all afternoon. Good stuff!

Grupo de Inventores: the Zaragoza band has a new song called “La Edad de Oro” which will be included in their new EP “Abgrund”. The band formed by G. Inventor, J. Parra, J. Castejón, Thomas Mazel and Enrique Villanueva, are not new in the blog, last year I recommended their song “Sin Ayuda (Joseph K)”, and now, little by little, they unveil new music.

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I’ve been featuring some 90s Swedish bands in the last few months, and I hope to continue doing son in the coming months as well. As I’ve mentioned before I’m much more familiar with Swedish guitar pop from the 2000s, and the 90s are a time when the Scandinavian country released a massive output of quality music.

As I’m trying to familiarize with many of these bands by buying their records I’m also writing these posts about them, hoping to understand and figure out their scene. A few interviews have been posted and some others are underway, maybe we could paint a picture of it in the near future.

Suredo is one of these bands I’m only giving a proper listen these days. I have heard a few songs on compilations in the past, but only know I’m paying attention to their album and EP. But looking at Discogs, that is not exactly where their story starts.

There are two demo tapes listed, from the early 90s. The first one is quite mysterious. It is just called “3 Songs”, those being “Spoiled”, “Stronger” and “Think” and the band appears with the name Suredoh, instead of Suredo. There is no date on it, and it says that all songs were written by Louis Barlow. Is this not Lou Barlow from Sebadoh? These were cover versions then by the band clearly.

The second tape, from 1990, is for sure our Suredo. The tape titled “…Is Manhate” was self-released and included 4 songs: “Down to the Sea”, “See the Sea”, “Still I’m Counting” and “Cracking”. All of them were recorded between April and May at The Forest studio by Lachen Jonsson. The band members were at this time Anders G. Mobjörk on bass, Ulf Stenport on drums, Anders Arfvidsson on guitara and Mikael Mynerts on guitar. It is important to mention that the last song on the tape was a cover of the Suzanne Vega original.

Two years after the band from Linköping was signing to the legendary Ceilidh Productions and releasing their first proper record. The “Swell EP” (CEI 029) included four new songs, “Sonic Atmosphere”, “Levitate”, “Harmonizer” and “Inside Your Eyes”. The band style was already there, that mix of guitar pop with rough edges, sometimes rockier than poppier, but a good mix altogether.

That same year the band contributes the song “Sonic Atmosphere” to the “Stockholm Party” CD compilation released by Stockholm Records (STOPROCD2).

In 1993 the band appears on another compilation CD. This time on Rainbow Music. The comp was called “Life’s A Joke” (RMCD 3020) and interestingly enough it was compiled by Nicke Boström, the same person behind the classic record store Delicious Goldfish Records, right?

That same year the band was going to release their debut album, “Whatahandsomeface?” on Ceilidh (CEI 035). There were eleven songs on it, all recorded, mixed and produced by Micke Herrström at Decibel Studios in Stockholm. The artwork was created by Anders Arfvidsson, H V Platen and Anette Nantell who had done some artwork for other Swedish bands, like Drug who were featured on the blog not so long ago.

The eleven songs on the album were “Byes”, “Swell”, “Here On My Own”, “Turboprop”, “Childlike”, “Pullover”, “Down-Come”, “Average Cell”, “Pituitary Gland”, “Spare Me Logic” and “Ultramarine”. Everyone of them great, except “Turboprop” that is kind of a metal track (!). Yes, odd. But well, it was the 90s.

Something interesting is that the album was re-released in 2003 as a CDR by the label Commercial Suicide (CSR010). It included 4 bonus tracks, the ones that were on the “Swell EP”. I believe this was the band’s own label  which also was to release a compilation of rare tracks by the band that same year called “Wewerenotespeciallyyounganddiditonlyforthemoney”. A difficult name indeed!

This compilation included 10 songs: “Stronger”, “Spoiled”, “Harmonizer”, “Levitate My Heart”, “Follow”, “She’s Thinking”, “What’s Your Profession”, “Down to the Sea”, “Think!” and “Sonic Atmosphere”.

The first two songs on the record were recorded by Jörgen Värnström at Toodle Recordings in 1994. They were meant to be released as a follow up to the album. “Harmonizer” and “Sonic Atmosphere” were recorded by Lachen Jonsson in 1991 at the Forest and these were the edit versions of the songs that appeared on their third demo called “Gibbon”. “Levitate My Heart” on the other hand was also an edited version of the song that appeared on their fourth demo “Burgundi”.

“Follow” was an outtake from the “Gibbon” demo sessions. The next song, “She’s Thinking” was taken from the band’s second demo “SeaweedIknomore” and “What’s Your Profession” is an outtake from the sessions for that demo in 1991.  “Down to the Sea” was included in the first demo which I mentioned earlier “…Is Manhate”. Lastly, “Think!” was recorded on a 4-track in their rehearsal studios in 1994.

As mentioned, all of the songs but the first two and “Think!” at The Forest between 1990 and 1992. Some other musicians appear on these recordings like Markus Lindén playing bass on “Spoiled” or Jan Altsjö playing a guitar solo in the same song. I would love to listen to these rare recordings.

So now we know that there were more demo tapes, at least three more, “Gibbon”, “Burgundi” and “SeaweedIknowmore”. What other songs did these tapes include? There were more recordings then by Suredo clearly?

I could find on Popfakta some information about “SeaweedIknowmore”. It was released in 1991 and included 4 songs, “She’s Thinking”, “See You”, “Man in the Moon” and “Inside Your Eyes”.

Lastly there are a few other compilations where the band appears. In 1997 on the “Ceilidh 039 Singles & Vinyls” which has been mentioned in the past on the blog several times with the song “Sonic Atmosphere” and lastly their song “Average Cell” appears on the North of No South Records double CD compilation “Svensk Indie 1988-2006 – En Kärleks Historia”.

There is a very good find I did almost immediately I started looking for them. There is a promo video for their song “Byes” on Youtube!

I keep looking for information about them and there is a short bio on the Ceilidh website. There it mentions that the band formed in Linköping in 1990 and they played that same year the annual Ceilidh party on December 28th. Then after the album was released the band split. Mikael Myrnerts went to play in a band called Aloon while the other three members, both Anders (Arfvidsson and Mobjörk) and Ulf were joined by Per Byström of Cloudberry Jam and started the band Auntie Nell which was then renamed to Coach Bob.

I also had a look on Discogs, see what other bands the band members might have been involved with. Anders Mobjörk seems to have been in Galler, Njurmännen and Kvinnan. Not other bands listed for the rest.

On the blog Popvinminns there is a short interview from 2011 where they say that their favourite color was red. Another find on the same blog is a review of their album where they criticise their EP but rave about their album saying the song “Average Cell” could rival Popsicle’s “Hey Princess”.

Then on Last.fm there is a proper biography of the band. Here we learn that originally they wanted a female bassist and proposed Eva from the band Abdullah to join them, but she turned them down. The name came from from the first demo, which was originally called “Sure Do is Manhate”. They decided to combine Sure and Do. They got airplay on the radio show Bommen and the fanzine Sound Affects featured them. In 1994 Anders Arfvidsson left the band as he went to Finland to study architecture and it is at this point that Markus Lindén joins the band. Sadly the year after, 1995, the band split.

At some point the CDR releases were available to order from the Commercial Suicide website, but now it looks that the website is about a totally different thing. So no way to order them. Shame.

What else? Not much more sadly. I lost their trail too soon. Not sure if the band members are still making music or what. Whatever happened to them? Why didn’t they continue with the band? How did their other projects sound like? Did they play all over Sweden? Why so few releases, even though it seems they were very prolific, recording 4 demo tapes? And what songs were included in the demos “Gibbon” and “Burgundi”? Would be great to know. Do you remember them?

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Listen
Suredo – Sonic Atmosphere