Hope to be working on new releases this weekend, it’s been quite a busy week for me but I’m trying to get everything in a good spot. I do have a few interviews coming up, and need to write a few more which I hope I can these two days. I still have lots of posts kind of ready which helps, but I’m afraid at some point I may need to slow the pace. We’ll see. In the meantime I’m sharing a few new finds of course.

The Ocean Blue: there is a new song and video by the classic American jangle pop band and it is called “Therein Lies the Problem With My Life”. The song will be included in a compilation called “Korda 4 comp” that will be released by Korda Records on October 12th. More on that on the next item.

Korda 4 comp: so I wanted to share the video of the Ocean Blue but now I want to share the whole compilation which is available to stream on Bandcamp. It is brilliant and it includes so many classic bands like The Hang Ups, The Jim Ruiz Group and of course The Ocean Blue. It looks to be only available digitally at the moment, but hopefully it will get a physical release.

Tracyanne & Danny: saw them a few months back and loved the gig. Their album is superb and now they treat us with a new video for one of the best songs on the album, “Cellophane Girl”. Even better lots of footage of New York on the video, felt very much at home seeing Tracyanne and Danny getting food at the taco truck.

Dukla: some interesting pop from Prague, Czechia by the band Dukla here. The album “Život perfektní” that was released on September 14th is their latest work. I don’t know much about them but it seems that the record is out now on Theremin Records. The band is formed by Lukas Vydra and Josef Hradlek. 8 songs on the album and more releases are available on their Bandcamp.

Los Reyna: “Estaciones” is the name of the album this guitar pop band from Mexico City released last September. There are 9 songs of sweet pop tunes in the vein of late 90s and early 2000s Spanish indiepop. The band was formed in 2010 and have more than a handful of other releases under their belt.

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I think I have mixed feelings with this 90s Gothenburg band. I like a bunch of their songs but I never got used to their band name. Saliva? Sounds like a metal band to me! Doesn’t it? I mean, the band does list hard rock an influence, and many of their songs are not exactly poppy. But still, it is strange, isn’t it?

I know of this band because they were the first band on the catalog of Dorian Records. Dorian Records being the label of one of my heroes, Roger Gunnarsson from Nixon, The Garlands, Cloetta Paris, Dune, etc, etc, etc. So of course I was going to have a listen. And it was the song “Tender Castration” the first one I ever heard. That one appeared on the compilation “A Chance to Shine. A Dorian Records Compilation” (Dorian 002) that was released in 1996. But it is not my favourite song of theirs.

That “prize” goes to “Turn Off the Engine, Dear”, a sort of Orange Juice-y song that appears on their one and only proper record, an EP titled “Hooligan at Heart”. This song I heard for the first time on Youtube, I believe uploaded there by the great Jörg Winzer. The EP, as mentioned, was released on Dorian Records also in 1996 and had the catalog number Dorian 01. It  was released on CD and included 4 songs: “Turn Off the Engine, Dear”, “Whoever You Are, I’m Your Neighbour”, “Polyester Convention, (Des Moines)” and “To Erase You”. The sleeve, showing a guy in a bathing suit on the cover, does have some information on the back.

The band members were Fredrik Berggren on guitar, Henrik Edberg on guitar, Patrik Landgren on vocals, Tobias Mattson on drums and Erik Norinder on bass. For these recordings Jimmi Hardberg played piano and Annika Rolandsson backing vocals. The four songs were recorded at Studio Lare in Gothenburg and were mixed by Stefan Svensson. They were mastered at Digitalfabriken by Kenetth Svensson. And an address letting us know that the band hailed from Gothenburg.

Almost immediately I stumble upon a SoundCloud page for the band put up by Fredrik Berggren. Here there are in total 5 songs put together in a playlist called “the Complete Work 1992-1995”. That is odd because some of the songs from the EP are missing. In any case we can assume that the band only lasted those years. The songs available to stream are “Tender Castration”, “To Erase you”, “Twinsoul Lulu”, “Turn Off the Engine, Dear” and “Coming Home Being Good”.  It’s been 7 years since these were uploaded.

But the band didn’t stop their digital expansion there. They are also on Facebook. Here in the band members section they mention more people like Per Strömberg, Pekka Häkkinen, Erik Jacobsson and Henrik Edberg. At what point were they in the band? I could find a photo of Per Strömberg playing drums in the band in 1994.

There is a photo of a demo tape with “new” songs. On the A side there’s “Turn Off the Engine, Dear”, “In Between Smiles” and “Nothing, Really”. The B side has “Making Annie Glad”, “Twinsoul Lulu” and “Coming Home Being Good”. There are also photos of press clippings, for example one from Göteborgs Posten dating from sometime in 1996 and more.

There is a compilation CD where the band appeared with their two hardest songs, “Twinsoul Lulu” and “Coming Home Being Good”. It is no surprise then that this compilation is “Rockslaget 1994” and it has a bunch of hard rock bands in it. Not for me definitely.

I don’t know what happened to them afterwards. Or if they were involved in any other bands. What are they doing now? And I’m very curious still about the mixed bag of styles they played. They could play some songs very influenced by Morrissey, The Smiths or Orange Juice and then have some songs that sound like a heavy metal band. It is odd. I wonder what sort of crowd they used to have. And how come they didn’t get to do more releases? No other compilation appearances?

I’m sure some Göteborgare readers must remember them!

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Listen
Saliva – Turn Off the Engine, Dear