Not much news on my side today, and it feels December might be a quiet month as our new compilations in all likelihood will be released early next year. Also remember that the offer for 3 CDs for the price of 2 is only going to be around for a little more of a week if you want to take advantage of it.

New finds though? I have some of those of course!

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: one more brilliant track by the San Francisco band. Yet another demo but sounding great, “Bad Habits” is the latest from Glenn Donaldson. The question, after hearing so many lovely jangly songs is, when will there be a proper release?!

Lazy Eye: now a new track by the Pelambang, Indonesia, band! It is called “Sunlover” and it is a winner. Jangly, with sweet male/female vocals, and a bouncy melody, it is a song you don’t want to end. We need more songs by R. Cahyo and Isabella!

Stolen Badges: the latest songs by our friend Ryan Marquez from Apple Orchard, Sodajerk, Golden Teardrops, etc, are being released under this name. There are 3 superb songs, recorded at home during the last months that are part of the “Places I’ve Been EP”. These songs are “Places I’ve Been”, “James Bay” and “San Francisco”. They are a bit different compared to previous projects, these are more shoegazy, with more effects on the guitar, but Ryan’s pop sensibilities are there, making these songs as dreamy and evocative as they can be.

Ivory Past / Snowflakes feat. Miléna: one of the best Japanese bands these days is Ivory Days.  There is a split tape with the band Snowflakes where each band contributes one song. Ivory Past’s song is “December” while Snowflakes, featuring Miléna, has the song “Emballance Dans Tes Bras”. The tape is called “Illuminated Songs EP” and should be available now!

Les Autres: some months ago I interviewed the band as they were adding a lot of back catalogue and rare songs to their Bandcamp. This month they’ve added a new release from back in the day, “Hélène K – The Attic Recordings “, that dates from 1992, just before the band’s first single. There are 5 songs by the noisy pop Rennes, France, band.

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I was going through some of my 7″s the other day and picked this one up to play at home. The lovely artwork was one of the reasons but also remembering that I used to like a lot the opening track called “Sol” and the cover version they did of Le Mans’ “Perezosa y Tonta”. And I thought I haven’t written about them on the blog, maybe it is good time to do that!

I believe their “Sol” EP 7″ released by Elefant Records (ER 235) was their only proper release. Released on white vinyl, it included 5 songs. 2 on the A side, “Sol” and “Mil Cosas (demo)” and three on the B side, “El interruptor maldito”, “John Cale” and “Peresoza y Tonta”. First question arises, why did they include a demo on the A side?

Now if you are curious and want to listen to all 5 songs, the good news are that they are all available to stream on Bandcamp.So you can head there. But I want to find out more about this band? Who were they? Where were they from? Did they record more songs?

There was at least one more song recorded and it was called “Desde Ayer”. We know of this son because it was included in the CD comp “Momentos Perdidos [Lost Moments]” released by Elefant Records in 2004. This CD was a collection of rare, unreleased and B-sides of various Elefant bands.

There was a 2007 compilation where the band appears too called “Modular para el Corazón”. This was released by Molecula Records (Molecd 011) which as many of you might or might not know is based in Mexico. The song that the band contributed for this CD was “John Cale” that appeared on the 7″.

I find a biography on the Elefant page. It turns out the band hailed from Murcia, a city that has given us a lot of great indiepop bands. And they were a two piece, Germán and Marcial. What were their last names?

On the website Murcia Rock I find a 2001 article where it talks about the split of Guillermine. So now we know that by November 2001 there was no more Guillermine. It does give us a couple of details about the band though. For example that they won a prize called Mola Joven in 1999. That they were from the town of Molina in Murcia and the only gig they played outside Molina was at the I Fiesta Lo+Pop alongside La Monja Enana and L-Kan.

The next mention I stumble upon is on El Planeta Amarillo webzine which is run by Rafa Skam and is based in Murcia. In 2007 he was reviewing a bunch demos by a band called Stefunny 6. This was at the time the band both Germán and Marcial were involved with. But here it also tells us that they had been in another band called The Muppets.

But even better, on this webzine, I find a mention of a 2000 demo called “Wash”. It doesn’t tell us what the tracklist was, but it does give a name of one of the tracks, “Play-back”. It also confirms that the band took their name from a La Buena Vida song.

On an article on the website Tímpanos y Luciérnagas I find that Germáns last name is Beteta. Progressing in this investigation. And thanks to knowing this I could find that he has played solo gigs in the Murcia area. An interview, one of his songs (“Desde Ayer” which was his favourite), and one by Guillermine, can be listened in this same website.

And that’s about it. What about Marcial? Was he involved in any other projects? What happened to him? What songs were included in the “Wash” demo? Did they record any other songs? Why did they split? Why were there no more releases by the band, just one 7″? Would be great to find out more about Guillermine!

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Listen
Guillermine – Sol