Start this Monday with the news of the new Sound of Leamington Spa volume. This is the info that is on the Firestation Records website as of now:
The Sound Of Leamington Spa volume 9 – out on 20th of october on cd and limited gatefold-sleeve double vinyl! The vinyl version will contain a secret bonus track! pre-orders starts on 5th of october.
tracklist:
The Flex – You Lose
The Persuaders – You Turn Me On (1986)
Chinese Gangster Element – Joey
Fragile – Time To Be Together
Moloko+ – Never Know What You’ve Got
Spish – Honesty
The Fontaines – I Want Everything
Public Address – James Dean
Queue Dance – Crumbling Town
Circus X3 – Man Like You
This Certain Kind – Unfortunate
Daniel Takes A Train – Wonderland (Original)
Cajun Moon – In The Waves
A Game Of Soldiers – Big Bad Money World
3 Boys & A Girl – I’ll Be Standing There
Ice Factory – Jerusalem
The Dancing Bears – The Lonliest Sound
Future World Moves – Wednesday
Work – That Certain Feeling
Ten Million Quentins – He’s Not Smiling
Quite a few bands that have been featured on the blog, some that have been interviewed too. Wonder if the blog, in any way, helped the Firestation people track down these bands. It does look great, the compilation.
The Catherines: it does look like every time the Hamburg bedroom indiepop band has a new song I recommend it in the blog. Of course I do. The songs are always fresh and great, perfect for any mixtape you might be doing, for any season, for any reason. On top of that their song titles are usually quite smart and whimsical, this time around their new song is called “Why are you always so sarcastic... you prick?”, and it is a terrific upbeat pop song. Check it out!
Candy Opera: another piece of news from Firestation Records, is that the label is putting together another release by the superb 80s Liverpool band. The “Rarities LP/CD” is an album full of rare recordings and will be out by the end of October. This very limited release is especially made for their forthcoming gig at the Firestation Records Birthday Allnighter at the Privat Club on 20th of October. Join the gig and buy your copy a week before official release date! “Rarities” will contain 11 tracks including demos and unreleased recordings! No pre-order available for this special release, but remain copies will be available from us from the 26th of October on. Sadly there are no songs to preview this record. Yet.
Astragal: it has been a while since we heard of the Houston band. I really liked their previous recordings and now they have just unveiled a new track on their Bandcamp. It is called “Bloomer” and I’m expecting it to be sort of a teaser for an EP, an album, or even a single. But something! There is not much information about the song, just the lyrics, but it is pretty good. So keep it in repeat?
The Age of Coloured Lizards: once again we get to feature the Oslo noisy band. Their shoegazey sounds are back with 8 new songs that make up their album “Daydreamer”. It looks like it is available right now only digitally, but here I’m hoping they can put it out in some physical format. My favourite songs at first listen? “What’s Wrong” and “Still Around” perhaps? What are yours?
Bad Sav: lastly this wonderful self-titled record by the Dunedin, New Zealand band. It is now available on CD and vinyl LP on Fishrider Records and it is indeed a discovery. I had never heard of this band in the past so facing the band formed by Hope Robertson (guitars, vocals), Lucinda King (bass, vocals) and Mike McLeod (drums) has been definitely a surprise. Here we get treated to 10 songs of guitar driven pop that are enigmatic, difficult sometimes, but rewarding at the same time. Reminding me sometimes of the The album is also available in the UK through Occultation Records.
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Today I have very little to write about as I’m going to tackle a very obscure record. The one and only 7″ released by The Stacks in 1984 on Brand New Records (BN 452). I don’t own it. And I’ve only heard the A side thanks to Youtube. I think it is brilliant, and I’m hoping to get in touch with the band one day to interview them, find out about more. Hence this post.
A 7″ with two songs. That’s all they left us. The songs being “You’re On My Mind” on the A side and “Maybe Monday” on the B side. The front cover of the record shows as a cool photo of the band and the band’s logo. Then the labels of the record tell us two interesting details. Paul Carr wrote “You’re On My Mind” and it was produced by Mike Vernon for Handle Music. The second song, “Maybe Monday” is credited to Trevor Jones and was also produced by Vernon.
So we got two names. Most probably band members. Sadly the back sleeve doesn’t give any other details just that the record was distributed by Pinnacle. That doesn’t help at all. The only other record I know that was released by this label is one by a Chris Farlowe, a 7″ in 1983. So nothing much either.
I look for both names together, and I could find something that might be a clue perhaps. Both names are credited in music/sound duties in a 2006 movie called Stormbreaker. Could these be the same Trevor and Paul? I start to suspect it might be true. I see both names again, working together on the 1998 TV series Merlin featuring Sam Neill and Helena Bonham Carter. Could they really be the same two guys that once were in The Stacks?
I don’t know much more about them. There is a musician Trevor Jones from Cambridge but he doesn’t mention The Stacks in his bio. Probably it is not him. Then there is a Paul Carr, a musician too that seems to have been involved mostly in jazz music in London, playing in the mid 80s in the James Taylor Quartet. Can it be the same Paul? This same Paul is now a professor in Popular Music Analysis in the University of South Wales. Maybe?
Anyone remember them? Where were they from? Did they record any other songs? Any other releases? Other bands they might have been involved? Would love to hear from you!
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