A new week and I have a bunch of cool Bandcamp finds from the weekend. Hope you enjoy them.
Pealds: the label It Takes Time Records from St. Louis, Missouri, will be releasing a tape album by the band Pealds on November 9th. Titled “Melted” the album sounds really promising. The band, who also hails from the same city, have made two songs available to stream from the album, “Melted” and “Secrets”, and I can only say that they sound great!
VA-Para Siempre: this digital only compilation released by the Mexican netlabel Stupid Decisions sounds pretty good. Well, the 4 songs that you can stream sound pretty good. It is a strange setup though. It seems that the compilation will have 16 songs but only 9 are listed and other two have the band names. It seems they are completing the compilation as the days go by. You can now check tracks by La Última Isla, Yr Glow, Noizu and Diana Hutch.
The Seams: the new release on our friends Meritorio Records from Madrid, Spain, is a new album by The Seams. If you like jangle pop, this is definitely for you. There are 9 songs total and it will be available starting October 26 on vinyl LP. At the moment you can preview two songs, “Lemonade” and “on the Shelf”. The band is formed by Kyle Edward Connolly, Jonathan Kennedy Rogers, Jesse Mirsky and Omri Gondor.
The Phospenes: another Melbourne jangly band. It seems every week we discover a new band from there. And they are all usually pretty good! This quartet released earlier this year their album “Finally a Friendly Shore” on CD. There are 13 songs on it, and you can preview all of them on Bandcamp too.
Ghost Thoughts: after leaving the Vancouver band Thee Ahs and moving to Amsterdam, Davina Shell, has been recording songs under the name Ghost Thoughts. A 13 song album is now available on Jigsaw Records. It is a very personal album, packed with bittersweet popsongs. Definitely worth a listen.
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Japanese indiepop has a huge output and at the same time it is not documented enough. And I’m not talking only in English, even in Japanese is not easy to find information about the bands from the past.
With that situation in mind I should try to be more proactive, try to have a Japanese band now and then on the blog. The problem is too that I don’t own many of their records. It is not easy for me to find them. And it is also not that easy to get in touch with their members.
Bobbie’s Rockin’ Chair was a band that was active during the late 90s. Releasing two 7″s on the Left Bank label. A very fine label that for some reason I haven’t heard much about. It is not as popular or well known. But with releases of Photo Jenny, Chain Letter or 101 Dalmatians, it is a proper good label I think. Maybe their records didn’t get much distribution in the west? That might be it.
The second ever release on this label was Bobbie’s Rockin’ Chair first 7″. The “Love Can Make Your Mind” EP (LBRD-02) came out in 1998 and included four songs, two on each side. The A side had “Love Can Make Your Mind” and “It’s Starting Again”. The B side had “Summer in Love” and “Follow the Rainbow”.
At this point we already can tell the love of the band for 60s design, one that reminds me a lot of Siesta Records designs. Vintage photos, heavy fonts and lots of color. That would be the style for every release of the band. I really like when bands are faithful to their aesthetics.
The back of the sleeve gives us some names. The art direction for the record is credited to Atsushi Itoh. The record was produced by Masaki Yamaguchi. And then the band members: Tetsuya Ishiyama, Kazuki Morimoto, Takashi Yoshi, Yumiko Sone, Junya Miyake and Toshihiko Miyawaki.
“Young Friends” was their 2nd EP on Left Bank (LBRD-05). It was released in 1998 too. The A side had “Young Friends” and “What a Happy Day”. The B side had “Morning After Time” and “I Wish You Could Be There”.
The art for this record is credited to Shie Kutsuna. Then there are credits for many musicians that helped in this record. For example Toshihiko Miyawaki played drums on the A side while Yoshihisa Kawaguchi played drums on the B side. Kazumi Mimasu played piano. Naoyuji Tokota played trumpet and flugelhorn. Tetuji Kuriyama played trumpet and flugelhorn too. Nobunori Tsurukawa and Junichi Satour played trumpet. Junji Kawaguchi played trombone and Mayumi Hozaki played flute. Quite a bunch of instruments, it is clear that they loved to have some fancy arrangements in their songs!
Some years after, in 2004, the South Korean label Beatball Records put together a compilation called “… like Nothing Else You Ever Tasted” where all 8 songs of the 7″s plus the song “Here Comes the Sunshine”. So 9 songs in total.
Discogs lists one compilation appearance of the band. On the “Rabid Chords Compilation Vol.1 – Standby for “Action”” released by Victor Entertainment as part of their Rabid Chords series the band contributed the song “Young Friends”. This compilation came out on CD in 1999 and included a bunch of superb Japanese bands like Citrobal, Corniche Camomile, Penelopes and more.
Now, with their name misspelled as “Bobby’s” Rocking Chair they appear on two other compilations for Siesta Records. See? It is no surprise that their style fit nicely in the Spanish label. On the “Sombrero” (Siesta 80) compilation that came out on both CD and LP in 1999, the band appears with the song “Finders Keepers”. With that same song they appear on “Blanco y Negro Music For Siesta”(RBCS-2024) from 2002, a Rambling Records compilation of Siesta tracks for the Japanese market.
An interesting fact about this song, “Finders Keepers”, is actually an original by Rod McBrien from The Salt Water Taffy and the Goggles.
I keep looking for more information. It seems the band was actually based in Kansai. Thanks to Google Translate I find that their song “Young Friends” was used in a Japanese TV series.
Other interesting fact is that Yumiko, after leaving Bobbie’s Rockin’ Chair has played solo gigs, for example in 2013 in Osaka. Before that I find that the band played a gig on May 9th 1999 with Three Berry Icecream, Trans Alphabet and Uround Table. Other gig dates from January 8th, 2001, where the band played with Instant Cytron and Potbelly. And that Kazuki Morimoto also used to do DJ sets at pop gigs.
Speaking of Yummy (Yumiko) again, there is a compilation called “Boys (& Girls) Wonder” where she guests on a song by Lollipop Song (and Other Candy Pops) called “Speedy Wonder” where she is featured.
I believe the band was featured on the fanzine Beady on its edition of January 27 of 2000. It was the 3rd volume of this Japanese zine.
Kazuki Morimoto has remixed the Smiles song “Love So Fine” that appeared on their album “Strawberry TV Show”.
Nothing else I could find about them. Are they still involved with music? Were they involved in any other bands? I suppose they only recorded those 9 songs as they are the only ones that appear on the Korean CD. But maybe there are more? I would love to think that. Also where in Kansai where they from? Osaka? Most possibly. I would love to get in touch with them, interview them in possible. And of course find copies of their 7″s or at least their CD compilation!
My Japanese friends, do you remember them?
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