These first few days at my new job have been hectic. Haven’t had much time for music-related things. I’m writing this on an evening, but I have not much energy. Nonetheless here are a few cool finds for your listening pleasure:

Las Infrarrojas: listening to these two brand new songs by this Alicante, Spain, band that have just been released on vinyl as a 7″ by the Madrid based label Hurrah! Musica, and I think, no surprise, the Spanish language song, meaning the B side, is the better one. It is a really nice tune. That doesn’t mean the A side is bad, but I am picking the B side over it. The A side is sung in English and is called “Can’t Have it All”, while the B side is titled “Infrarrojas”.

Manon Meurt: if you want to be transported back to the mid and late 90s, this Czech band from Rakovnik has the music for that. Their self-titled six song mini-album on Bandcamp mixes dreampop, shoegaze and more spacey sounds in a good way. It is quite a surprise to listen a band from this small town that lies in between Prague and Plzen. For sure it is the first time I listen to a band from there. They are formed by Katerina, Vojtech, Dave and Jiri.

Sugar Pond: hailing not too far from where I am at. From upstate New York, from the town of Hastings of Houston, this band’s latest effort is a 3 song digital single called “Triple You” with the songs “What End?”, “Wings” and “Wit’s End”.

Owls of Now: time for a London band. I was missing bands from the UK, I feel I’m not finding that many these days. Anyhow, this band has just put out a 4 song tape with the label For the Sake of Tapes. The band is formed by Caz, J Bell, Kate and Becky and I think some of them are based in Glasgow? I don’t have that part very clear. The superb “Lead Singer” opens the tape and then we find “Powers”, “Creature” and “Peg (We Rise From the Lake)”. Some nice pop tunes here. Definitely worth checking them out!

Enids: three Fat Tulips influenced demos? That’s what I found on this Copenhagen based Bandcamp! That is a great find if you ask me. Check out “Forget You”, “Scenekid of Misery” and “Springtime” by the trio formed by Louise, Julia and Charlotte. Hopefully these songs get recorded properly and they find a physical release!

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Here is another very obscure band that I will need help with. I don’t really have many ideas where to look. I stumbled upon wall after wall. Every path has been taken on the web and no information was found. The only real information that exists is that Splendour in the Grass put out one song called “Twist Me” on a split flexi in 1988.

It was 1988 when Penetration Records put out a flexi shared by 14 Iced Bears and Splendour in the Grass with the catalog number 001. It seems this was the only release by this label. It is definitely not the first split record that I feature on the blog with 14 Iced Bears on it. Not too long ago I was writing about Crocodile Ride and before that The Hermit Crabs who shared a split with the Brighton band.

Does this mean, maybe, that Splendour in the Grass also hailed from Brighton? Probably not. You see, on the sleeve of the flexi there’s an address for the band. It has Croydon in it. A bit north of Brighton.

The sleeve also gives us some little details about the band members.
Nic – vocals
Christopher – bass
Tim – drums
James – guitars

But there are no last names. So it is pretty hard to track them down with just first names. We know also that the band thanks Laurence for the gear, Dave for engineering and Robert Black for living.

There is no more information on the web. I can’t seem to find anything else. Maybe some of you, south of London, remember them? Were they involved in any other bands perhaps? What can you tell me?

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Listen
Splendour in the Grass – Twist Me