The Australian compilation is shaping up day by day. Every day there is progress and I’m getting excited as I start receiving assets from the bands. Hopefully very soon I can announce the tracklist.
Enids: last year I recommended their demo. Well, this year I recommend a 4-song EP titled “Worriers” which I believe is so far only available digitally. The songs included are “Jeanie’s Bueller’s Day Off”, “Worriers”, “Gutted” and “Take My Heart” and you can expect some punky pop influenced by the Fat Tulips by this Copenhagen all-girl combo!
Hobby Club: a song for a local hero called Maurice. The song is called “For Maurice”. But who are Hobby Club? It looks like a boy/girl duo from London. The song is superb, reminding me a lot of The Siddeleys. The first two minutes are pure jangle pop bliss, perfect pop. Then it gets slow, maybe it is another song? I’m not sure. I’m not that fond of the slow part, not that it is bad, but the first 2 minutes are just perfect. PERFECT. Really! Do listen to them!
Fuvk: this Austin, Texas, makes introspective pop band. The person behind the band seems to like to go nameless, anonymous. They have put a tape on the Slovakian label Z Tapes and it is already sold out. “Time Series” is the name of this 5 song EP and it sounds quite lovely, especially in songs like “Fkbdy” and “Calm Down”. It does bring to mind some Swedish bands from the noughties, right?
The Vapour Trails: “Godspeed It” is the name of the first song and also the name of the 3-song EP that includes “The Inner Truth” and “Golden Sunshine (demo)” that this Scottish band have released on Futureman Records from Detroit, Michigan. I recommend checking this out for sure, there is some quality jangle here!
Strange Passage: 8 songs on a 12″ vinyl record, that’s what “Shouldn’t Be Too Long” is. The Somerville, Massachusetts band sounds great. Formed by Greg Witz, Ricky Hartman, Andrew Jackmauh and Renato Montenegro, they seem to know the right influences to put together a superb album. And a good thing is that they are not overpricing their record as many other people do, $12 is a good price I think. So yes, order it. It is pretty good!
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As it is the case with many of the records and bands I like to feature, the information is scarce. But as always, let’s try to find out as much as possible about them. So, what do we know from the get go? This Scottish band put out a 12″ single with two songs in 1987. On the A side there was “Next Time” and on the B side the superb “Clean Living”. It was released in 1987 by V Records. It seems it was a self-release. It doesn’t even have a catalog number.
Ok. That’s all we really know about them. But I was to find a connection on ReverbNation.
There was a band from Edinburgh in the mid 1980s called The Story So Far. They used to play gigs at venues like Nite Club, Astoria, Wee Red Bar, Potterrow, La Sorbonne and more. Their style was a bit eclectic, pop, punk, jazz, etc. The band would break up in 1985. After that, in 1987, two members, Jake and Allan, formed Five and released the 12″. You can listen both songs from the 12″ and a bunch of The Story So Far if you follow this link. Or you can check a few songs on their Soundcloud as well.
We know that Jake used to play vocals, trumpet, bass, guitar and more on the Story So Far. Allan was a drummer. What was their last name by the way? I believe Allan’s was Spence. What about Jake? We do know that in 2011 they reunited as The Story So Far to play charity gigs. But what about Five? was it just a side-project then? It does look though, from their Facebook page, that the band has added the two Five songs to their live repertoire.
Maybe doing a proper post about The Story So Far would give me more of a background of the band. Just focusing on Five seems to give me just little results. Not much information available. Perhaps they didn’t last long. I wonder. But I’m sure my Scottish readers remember them? Any information would be great! And if anyone has a spare copy of the record let me know! Would love to have it!
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Listen
Five – Clean Living
