A bunch of pre-orders for the BV’s 7″s have been posted, as well as copies to some stores and mailorders. You can also always ask your local mailorder or store to order from Cloudberry, if you want to save some bucks from shipping. Or as many people do, get organized with friends within your country or town and order many copies to save on shipping. I know how annoying are the shipping costs from the US for international buyers. So I’m happy to help of course.
What are the new finds for today?
The Passmore Sisters: one of my favourite 80s indiepop bands has just put together a retrospective compilation CD which you can get from their Bandcamp. You can also stream there all 12 songs! It includes all singles and B sides between the years 1985 and 1987. No one should miss this. I ordered mine of course. Essential!
Toy Tambourine: this fantastic Bandung, Indonesia, band have been appearing on our blog a lot. They have great songs, that’s why. Their latest is called “She Never” and it will be included in their upcoming “Vaguely Maybe” EP to be released sometime soon. Will keep an eye!
The Perfect English Weather: the song “Rockin’ to That Beat” was part of a two track single that Matinée released digitally a month ago. As it happens with many digital-only releases I missed it. I wasn’t paying attention. That’s bad. Because even though I refuse and will refuse forever to pay for digital releases I can stream this beauty of a song. And I urge everyone to do that. And hoping the band releases a new record soon too!
Bootchy Temple: I was recommended this band a few days ago by Fuzztone Tom who runs Howlin’ Banana Records telling me he was releasing an album by this French band from Paris that was heavily influenced by Sarah, C86 and Flying Nun Records. So as it is normal in me that picked up my curiosity. The album has 13 songs and it happens to be the 3rd album by the band. It is available now on vinyl LP.
Cariño: this November 9th this lovely Spanish band will be releasing a new 10″ with 8 songs! Three of them are available to stream now from the Elefant Records Bandcamp: “Canción de Pop de Amor”, “Bisexual” and “Momento Inadecuado”. It is true that two of these songs we have heard before on their 7″, but at least “Bisexual” is new to listen and it is great. The 10″ is called “Movidas”.
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One Hundred and One Dalmatians, often abbreviated as 101 Dalmatians, is a 1961 American animated adventure film produced by Walt Disney and based on the 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith. The 17th Disney animated feature film, the film tells the story of a litter of Dalmatian puppies who are kidnapped by the villainous Cruella de Vil, who wants to use their fur to make into coats. Their parents, Pongo and Perdita, set out to save their children from Cruella, all the while rescuing 84 additional puppies that were bought in pet shops, bringing the total of Dalmatians to 101.
I did watch that move when I was a kid. But having named themselves after this novel and movie, it is going to prove very hard to find information about this brilliant mid and late 90s Japanese band.
As I was checking out Bobbie’s Rockin’ Chair I thought about the label that released them, Left Bank. I have to say I’m not very familiar with it. There’s a lot there to investigate and discover. The first release of this record label happened to be a 7″ EP by 101 Dalmatians. So I should start from there.
The “Love Goes Down the Drain EP” (LBRD-01) was released in 1995. It included 4 songs, two on each side. The A side had “Love Goes Down the Drain” and “MG MAN” while the B side was “Old Fashioned Lovers Song (Paddy Just Drags Me Down)” and “Fly My Boy Fly”. At first I thought that “Love Goes Down the Drain” would be a cover of The Monochrome Set classic song of the same name, but no, it is a wonderful pop song by the Japanese band.
The band at this point was formed by Tsuyoshi Shimoda on vocals and guitar, Sho Tajiri on bass, Kei Tajiri on bass, Yuki Takezai on vocals and cornet, Youichiro Nakayama on drums. The songs were all written by Tsuyoshi Shimoda and were recorded at Suizenji Strawberry Studio and Studio Brown House. Masaki Yamaguchi was the producer for the record. The design for the record is credited to Atsushi Itoh. Now, if I can find a copy of this record…
Two years later, in 1998, and on the same label, the band released their debut album “Permanent Waves” (LBCD-01). Again the artwork for the record is credited to Atsushi Itoh who I believe run the record label. Tsuyoshi Shimoda is once again credited for writing the songs with the help of Siji Fukuda in a few of them.
The album included 11 tracks: “Opening (Permanent Waves)”, “Love Goes Down the Drain”, “Half a Turtle”, “Old Fashioned Lover’s Song”, “My Idiotic Love”, “MG Man”, “Fly, My Boy, Fly!”, “Everything Will be Cool”, “Bell”, “Holly Sign” and “Ending (We’re Delicate Dogs)”.
Discogs doesn’t list any other records by the band nor compilation appearances. I do know though that the band appeared on a compilation called “Cherrios!’98” released by Bananafish Records in Japan. On this CD comp released in 1998 the band appears with the song “But I’m Trying A.K.I.”. There was also a tape called “Left Bank Presents Top of the World” (LBCT-01) that was released in 1998. I can’t tell which song the band contributed to this cassette.
What else do we know? Well of course Tsuyoshi Shimoda had been in the legendary band Johnny Dee and Thee Windless Gates. But was he also involved in any other bands?
I can’t find bands related to the other band members though. There is so little written about them. Even in Japanese there’s absolutely nothing.
I just ordered a copy of the CD album. But I doubt it will give me any important details. So I need to get in touch with the band members to interview them and learn their story. Maybe some of the Japanese readers of the blog remember them? I would love to find out so many things about them. Are the band members still making music for example? Did they play many gigs? Are there any unreleased tracks? Anyone knows?
Edit 1/11/2018 – On Twitter I was told that Sho Tajiri was involved in a CD called “Volume Contras One” that was released in 2006. Don’t know much details about this, but here is a blog post about the CD (in Japanese).
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