Looking forward to a nice weekend. A weekend to rest. Today I will be attending the Hatchie & Alvvays gig and that should be good. Quite excited as I haven’t seen any of them in the past. I think it is Hatchie’s first time in the US and Alvvays for some reason or another I never saw in New York. I believe I had worked once with Hatchie, when she was part of Go Violets and included a song on a CD that came alongside a fanzine. Would have loved to put out more Go Violets stuff but that didn’t happen. Anyways… here are some good finds for you to enjoy this weekend!

DEAF: Luke Kavanagh on guitar and vocals, Hayden Ellis on bass, Craig Rattray on drums, Ma Machray on synth and Jarrod Crossland also on synths make up this Wellington band that have two terrific songs on Bandcamp. I’m checking their latest one called “Shards” and it is truly a surprise. I don’t think there are any phyiscal releases yet, but we should keep an eye on them.

Lo! Peninsula: this is a first for the blog, the first band from India being featured here! This band formed by Nitin, Jyotin and Avinash from the city of Imphal have a new EP called “Aka Lo Peninsula” that was just put up on Bandcamp last August. There are 6 songs total of classy shoegaze! Pretty interesting, I wonder if there is a guitar pop scene in India? Anyone knows?

Juárez: I should have been following in a better way the label Caballito Records from Spain. For example I would have known that I needed the 8-song 12″ record by Juárez called “Boreal”. A collection of songs packed with brilliant jangle pop that I need in my collection. Now, what’s the best way to get this Spanish label’s releases?

Papa Top & Yurena: today I saw that Papa Topo are going to be playing some gigs in Argentina and Chile, how cool! But the latest recording-wise by the band is a digital single called “Ese Hombre” played in duo with Yurena. This song, originally written by Manuel Alejandro and Ana Magdalena and made famous by Rocío Jurado, is included in the new movie by Marc Ferrer “Puta y Amada”.

Pete Astor: as part of the WIAIWYA 7″ singles collection that have featured so far top bands like The Orchids or Spearmint, Pete Astor from The Weather Prophets and The Loft is releasing two songs in this format. They are “Peter Cook” and “Petrol and Ash”. Right now only the second one is available to stream but it is a nice low-key song.

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Now a 7″ that any of you might be aware of because of its connection with the band Flying Saucer Attack. I must say that I have arrived late to the party and it is now the first time I’m listening some of the songs on it. I should also try to track a copy, right? My economy needs to get better to buy all the records I want!

Released by Hobby Horse Records (SRT5KS387) in 1985 the “Up and Down” EP is a mystery to me. The sleeve is mysterious, with what looks like a cave opening on the front, and the band outside a small tunnel on the back, all printed in black and white. The song titles are also enigmatic, don’t you think? The A side having “Up and Down” and “Visiting a House” while the B side has “Waiting” and “Arabelle”.

Of course this label only released this record. It is safe to assume it is a self-release. The sleeve doesn’t have any information about the band. One of the labels has a knight armor while the other one, the name of the songs on handwriting. But we do know, through many comments about this record that David Pearce played guitar on it before forming Flying Saucer Attack.

There used to be a Flying Saucer Attack early year essay on the website Caught by The River. Haven’t been able to find it. But on it, according to Factmag, Pearce mentions a meeting with John Peel, who politely explained to Pearce that their Ha Ha Ha EP was “just too shambolic for the radio”. Years later, Flying Saucer Attack eventually won him over and received radio play.

There is another mention by Pearce about Ha Ha Ha. It is on an article on the Quietus. Here he says that he remembers being in Ha Ha Ha [who became Rosemary’s Children] and we borrowed this reel-to-reel four-track because gear was so expensive back then, and it had that awful boxy, clunky sound.

So, some of Rosemary’s Children were on Ha Ha Ha? Who exactly? I suppose Robert Dimery, why? Because it is worth noting too that the Rosemary’s Children recorded a cover of Ha Ha Ha. The song “Visiting A House” was covered on the album “Kings and Princes” that was released in 1987. This song appears on the album credited to Robert. Meaning most probably then that Robert wrote it while in Ha Ha Ha.

What about Toby Chislett? I know Dave Pearce wrote at least one song for them “W.W.1” alongside Robert. Maybe I should do a post about the fantastic Rosemary’s Children sometime. Maybe by figuring out some details about them I could put together a better picture of Ha Ha Ha?

It does seem like Ha Ha Ha is just a footnote on David’s career. That is strange. I find this record quite good myself. Well, the two songs which I’ve been lucky to listen on the web, which are the two that are on the A side.

There’s not much more written about them as I expected. It is kind of forgotten. Definitely would like to know who were the band members. If they recorded more songs. Where were they based. All of the basic details. Even from what year to what year were they active. If they were gigging continuously. It’d be fantastic to find out. In the meantime perhaps I should prepare a post about the Rosemary’s Children? What do you say? Anyone remember Ha Ha Ha?

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Listen
Ha Ha Ha – Up and Down