Later today I’m going to see St. Etienne once again. Pretty excited about it. As always. Still some quiet days for me and the label. I’m taking it easy this week as the next one I start a new job, so want to be relaxed and not anxious if you know what I mean. Also there are some footie games I want to check these coming days. Plus I’ve been playing a lot of PES 2019!

Alpaca Sports: sweetness, that’s what I thought when I heard “Eiffel Tower”, the latest song the band is sharing to promote their 2nd album “From Paris With Love”. The album which I’ve seen shared on different social networks is out now on Elefant Records.  It is one not to be missed.

Deerful: I end up listening Emma Winston’s last album “Tell Me I Can Fix This On My Own” thanks to some friends sharing the song “Sunset Drive” on Facebook. I thought the electronic pop song was really nice! Then I was reading at the blurb on her Bandcamp and I learn that she created this album by programming all songs on a music programming language called ixi lang. I have never heard of such a thing. So this is quite a novelty to me. I wonder how many indiepop bands are using it? If any?

Cloudgazing: by Weatnu Records: this Oklahoma label has put together a very nice compilation, with a bunch of dreampop tracks. It is odd to have the label name on the compilation title, but maybe that’s their style. Some of the best ones are the songs by Citrus Clouds, Fluffytails and Wake in June. Definitely worth a listen.

Bye Bye Pride, A Tribute to the Go-Betweens: another compilation but this time put together by a blog. The Sao Paulo, Brazil, based blog The Blog that Celebrates Itself has compiled 15 tracks of bands from different corners of the world covering the one and only Go-Betweens. Of course, I prefer the originals, but it is pretty interesting to see how the bands have reinterpreted these classics.

True Primitives: formed by Clint Sargent, John Mason IV, Tony Hilsmeier and Eric Rubalcava, the Portland based band are definitely a good surprise. They have just released their album on vinyl LP and CD and called it “Revolutions”. There are 8 songs of dreamy and fuzzy pop. Can’t say I know much about them, but I believe this is their debut record. I think my favourite track so far on it is “Real Love”.

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I do own many Japanese bands records. But my collection is quite small percentage wise when you think of the huge output of indiepop that has been produced in the island country of the rising sun. One thing that makes this matter complicated is that the price of their records normally is higher than usual. The shipping is not that bad though. Today I was looking into getting the discography of another band with numbers on their name, just like the previous I featured, Cyclon86. The band in question is called Pitcher56 and I have to say I have just discovered them and I liked what I heard. So would be nice to own their records and listen to all of their songs, not just the ones available on the web. Right?

As far as I know, thanks to Discogs, the band put out two CDs in the first decade of the 2000s. The first one being a mini-album consisting of 7 songs called “A Direction of the Ball She Hit”. The cover shows a girl with a baseball uniform with the name Pitcher 56. It is clear to me the band was big fan of baseball. The mini-album included the songs “Tears of the Banana”, “Chubby”, “175”, “My Special Sneakers”, “Splash!!!”, “Good Night in Dim Light” and “Green Cart”. Quite a strange name the one for the first song. But I really like that song! The album was released by the label Broccolo with the catalog number BRO 801 in 2003. This label was a sub-label of the more known abcdefg*record label. This parent label is a fine one, and here on the blog we’ve featured one of their bands as it is Pastelshot. Would be nice to get in touch with whoever run this label and find out more. An interview would be great.

The song “Splash!!!” which appears on this record also appears on a compilation called “Good Compi” (a-g010) released by abcdefg*record in 2002. I’m not familiar with this CD but it does look pretty interesting with Spaghetti Vabune! or Naivepop or Petitfool.

5 years later, in 2008, the band now signed to TKO New Music Corporation releases their first album called “Her Abiding Memory”(TKOK0003) with that lovely artwork of a blond cartoon girl. I don’t know much about this label but it is true that a few of their releases were compilations of bands and labels from abroad as it is the case of La Casa Azul’s “Cerca de Shibuya” compilation or Firestation Records’ “Firestation Pavilion” double CD.

This album is kind of short. It includes 9 songs: “1,2,3!”, “Humming Word”, “Dewy Roses”, “WOMAN”, “すじをえがく”, “Another Season”, “Jump Out From the Bed”, “Love Letter (Original Version)” and “サヨナラマタイツカ”. One of these songs, “Jump Out from the Bed” was to appear on the 2005 compilation “Guitar Pop Crazy! (Bluebadge Compilation Vol.3)” that was released by Bluebadge Label (BBCD-009). On this compilation of course they appear alongside a bunch of terrific bands like The Pancakes, Cyclon86, Melting Holidays or Hairsalon.

Thanks to this compilation, we find some credits. We know the lyrics, at least for “Jump out from the Bed”, were written by Yuki Nakano while the music was by Hiroyuki Morita.

I look for them. Hiroyuki Morita doesn’t seem involved with music these days. Instead it looks like he is a medical economic journalist and formed director of the Yubari municipal clinic. From the Japanese Wikipedia I could find out that all members are doctors, and at the time of their debut mini-album they were medical students.

Then I figure too that “Tears of the Banana” is actually a cover! The original was called “Banana no Namida” by Ushiroyubi Sasaregumi, a female Japanese pop music duo from the 80s.

Then a third member. Now I have the complete lineup and what each of them played.
Hiroyuki Morita played guitar, bass, drums and programming
Manabu Takano played acoustic guitar, guitar and sang
Yuki Nakano, vocals

Then there is even more interesting facts. The band also released a single called “すじをえがく” on the Way Escape Sound label (WES – 056). I look for it, and find that it was a CD single with 4 songs: “To Draw Squirrel”, “Humming Word”, “Love Letter” and “Hypocratical Waltz”.

There are also more compilations where the band appeared. Damn. Discogs is so incomplete! So…

2007 – “Vol.1 Headstart for Happiness” on the TKO Music corporation with the song “1,2,3!”
2007 – “Vol.2 Boys (& Girls) Wonder” on the TKO Music corporation with the song “Another Season”
2010 – “TOKYO Auto Reverse” on the Studio Rissen label with the song “My Revolution” which is another cover, this time a cover of the Misato Watanabe 1986 single
2012 – “TKO New Music Corporation” with the song “Camera full of Kisses”

And now I hit a wall. I need to find the records. And I would love to find out more about the band. Where were they based? Where were they students at? In Tokyo? Have I figured out their whole discography? Were they involved in any other bands? Did they play any other covers? My Japanese friends who have been very helfpul as of late, give me a hand! Would love to hear more about this superb band!

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Listen
Pitcher56 – Tears of the Banana