Not much to update on this US holiday for Labor Day. I’m just staying home and relaxing after visiting Yale University and it’s museums this weekend. Here are a few finds from last Friday. See you Wednesday!

Blushing: released back in January, the 5 song EP “Weak”, is a lovely record. It is only available on tape, sadly, and you know I’m no fan of tapes. Those who female fronted jangly bands, this is for you. It is a winner I think. The band formed by Christina Carmona, Michelle Soto, Noe Carmona and Jake Soto (are they two pairs of siblings?) are based in Austin, Texas. And as you know, I also love when I see more latino people in indiepop.

Gauche:  sounding a bit like The Modettes or our contemporaries Shopping, this DC band has a tape mini-album called “Get Away With…” where their fun and catchy post-punk is a very nice discovery for me. Especially as this tape was released back in 2015! As the time I write these lines only 1 copy of the tape is available direct from the band.

Hearts and Tigers: another band from some years ago. I guess I couldn’t find much new stuff this weekend! But at least these are all new for the blog (and for me). Their self-titled album might be my favourite find this weekend, an upbeat and catchy indiepop band, with brilliant songs like “Sunny the Bully”. Don’t know much about them, especially would like to know if they are still going. The band is formed by Anna Wallis, Graye Guidotti, Ian White, Sarah Cameron-Puttonen, Sawyer Simonson and Zachariah Shelley. They are from Portland.

Babyteeth: some noisy guitar pop from this girl band from St. Petersburg, Florida. Formed by Gigi La Roux, Zsa Zsa St. Maire and Bunny Von Doren, they have their debut EP on Bandcamp streaming now. There are 5 songs of punky pop quality. My favourite? “Timothy”.

Strawberry Generation: lastly just one song out of their “Losing Our Way” EP. It is called “Coffee” and sounds pretty good to me. This Providence, Rhode Island, band is formed by Luk Yeah, Valerie Zhu, Max Lowndes, Michelle Bazile and Alejandro Subiotto Marqués and I’m guessing that the record will be available in a physical format as they are only sharing one song instead of all 4 that comprise this EP. It is slated to release on October 12th.

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C-Saim were ‘born’ in Bedford in 1980 when Bryn Daniels, Andy Bennette and Steve Brown were brought together from different bands in the local area. The blend of humor and common goals held the band together for 3 years during which time they built a solid and loyal following across the UK. With influences drawn from many different sources from hard rock to jazz and punk, the songs produced by C-Saim were always very original and in some cases, downright quirky!
Although the band stopped performing in 1983 the three original members still work together occasionally on song writing projects. 

Those lines were my introduction to C-Saim on “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 3” compilation. On that classic CD released in 2003 by Firestation Records, the band contributed “Give and Take” one of the the songs that appeared on their one and only 7″.

Many years would pass until I got a copy of the 7″. Maybe a decade or more. It was Ed from Shelflife Records who helped me find their 7″. I believe he was the first to write a proper blog post featuring C-Saim. Definitely a lot of information on this post will come from there.

Two songs were included in the record, “Night Air” and “Give and Take”. It was released in 1983 by Summit Records (SUM 3 T). This label is quite unknown to me, but I notice they released two records before C-Saim by the bands Rizz Wah Wah and Close to Tears. The credits tell us: Andy Bennette (on guitar, vocals, piano, whistle, and whoops), Bryn Daniels (on 8 & 4 string bass, whistle, and whoops), and Steve Brown (on drums, congas, additional perc, whoops, and whistles).

Discogs lists two compilation appearances by the band. The first in 1982 on a Vroom Records compilation called “Lend An Ear 1992?” (TRY 1) where the band contributed the songs “Only Yesterday” and “General Custer”. I don’t know any of the other bands on this vinyl LP. Their other compilation appearance was with the song “Night Air”. This song was included in the “Disco Mix Club – July 1983 – Tape 2”, a cassette that was available exclusively to the Disco Club members for use in their discotheques and bars and to radio programmers for their information and convenience. Not sure how the band ended up here alongside Aretha Franklin!

As Ed wrote on his blog post, there was a website for Night Air Music, Andy Bennette’s publishing company. It doesn’t exist anymore but one can access to its contents through the Web Archive. And that’s what I’m doing now.

The band started in 1980. Andy and Bryn were in a cover band with a drummer and a bassist. When the drummer left, Steve Brown joined them and Bryn went to play bass, with the old bassist quitting. That’s how C-Saim was formed. The band became very busy playing in their hometown of Bedford and also all around the UK. There is a list of all the gigs the bands played.

Bedford. By the way, I feel it is the first time I’m featuring a band from that town. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, England. The town has a population of around 80,000, whereas the Borough of Bedford had a population of 169,912 in mid 2017 together with Kempston. Bedford was founded at a ford on the River Great Ouse, and is thought to have been the burial place of Offa of Mercia. Bedford Castle was built by Henry I, although it was destroyed in 1224. Bedford was granted borough status in 1165 and has been represented in Parliament since 1265. It is well known for its large population of Italian descent. Bedford is on the Midland Main Line, with stopping services to London and Brighton operated by Thameslink, and express services to London and the East Midlands operated by East Midlands Trains. The name of the town is thought to derive from the name of a Saxon chief called Beda, and a ford crossing the River Great Ouse. Bedford was a market town for the surrounding agricultural region from the early Middle Ages

It seems they played quite a lot at The Crown Cellar Bar in Bedford. But they also played at Horse and Groom (Bedford), Blowins (Luton), The White Hart (Bletchley), The White Horse (Husborne Crawley – an open air festival), Blowins (Luton), Fosseway Hotel (Leicester), The Crawford Arms (Wolverton), Bedford Town F.C. (Bedford), The Barron of Beef (Luton), Silsoe College (Luton), Ye Olde White Swan (Milton Keynes), Kempston Rovers F.C. (Kempston), The Swan (Stevenage), Nags Head (Woolston), Gladstone Arms (Peterborough), Kings Head (Bicester), Shuttleworth College (Old Warden), The Griffin (Bury St Edmunds), Mander College (Bedford), The Corn Dolly (Oxford), Motorcycle Festival (Peterborough), The Windsor Castle (London), The Red Lion (Watford), Civic Theatre (Bedford), The Art College Basement (Brighton), The Target Club (Reading), The Nowhere Club (Bicester), The Bull and Dolphin (Peterborough), National Youthrama (Rushdan), The Olde Black Lion (Northampton), The Romany (Northampton), The Youth Club (Olney), Mad Hatter (Luton), Verulum Arms (Watford), Althorpe Community Centre (Bedford), The Crown (Leamington Spa), The Penny Farthing (Oxford), The Chequers (Wellingborough), The Queen Victoria Hotel (Rushden), City Hall (St Albans), The Mail Coach (Northampton), The Starlight Rooms (London), The Gemma (Watford), The Sportsman (Chorley Wood), Polhill College (Bedford), Goodyear (Wolverhampton), Compass Club (Bletchley), Technical College (Luton), The Moonlight Club (London), Xtreems (Brighton), Clapham School (Bedford), Woughton Leisure Centre (Milton Keynes), Drury Lane (London), Boys Club (Bedford) and The Fortune of War (Brighton).

They got support by many bands too, Junction 13, Tobruk, Dave Ellis Band, Trimmer and Jenkins, A Bigger Splash, Jaxs, Sly Device, Primitive Culture, Alan Norman (Magician), Graphyte, Reasonable Man, Zip Code, Psy-Kicks, Ballon Sculpter, Why?, Chinatown, Bone, Faded Secret, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Kulture Kamp, Gone Fission, Dave Pugh, Rubber Chex, Diving Club, PLE, Giraffe, Liquorice Allsorts, Gambit of Shame, Going Straight, Living Daylights, Terminal Spectators and Actors and Famous People. To be honest, I don’t know any of these bands.

This interesting event list also mentions an interview with Soundmaker and a live session recorded at MK Radio in Milton Keynes.

But what is most interesting is that they recorded a 1st demo at the Crypt Studios in Stevenage on September 5th 1980. Which songs were they recorded then? That same year, on December 1st, at the same studio, they recorded their 2nd demo. Would be great to find out what songs appeared on both of these demos.

The band also want to record at Leyland Farm Studios in 1981. In 1982 the band went to record more demos at Rocksnake Studios in Rushden. What was recorded there? And in April and May that year they headed to Vroom Studio and Woppalong Studio to record again. My guess here is that they recorded the 2 songs that appear on the compilation LP released by Vroom.

In 1983 it seems they recorded another demo at Rocksnake Studios and Wilbury Studios. But not sure which songs they were.

The old C-Saim website gives us more. It seems Bryn Daniels went to be in a band called Tough at the Top after the demise of C-Saim. Also we learn two song names from the demos, “Johny’s Stripey Jumper” and “Last Time”. Seems the band lost the original DAT tapes for these recordings sadly.

Then I stumble upon a C-Saim Facebook page. But there is not much info there aside from photos. It was last updated in 2015.

Lastly, my last find on the web, is quite sad news. It seems that in 2013, Steve Brown, the band’s drummer passed away.

That is all I could find on the web. Quite a load of information thanks to that list the band had put together back in the day. But it also made me very very curious. They had made many more recordings other than the 4 songs that were released. There are more. And I really would love to listen to them someday! Does anyone remember them?

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Listen
C-Saim – Give and Take