There are only 6 more bands from Indietracks that I am not familiar with. So I’ll cover the six today and hopefully this has helped everyone a bit to decide which are the bands to check out. I’ve discovered a few that were pretty good and I am happy about that. I do believe the lineup so far is better than the last 3 or 4 editions. And that is of course a good thing!
Thud: This is quite a surprise, a band from Hong Kong playing Indietracks? It must be the same time. Dreamy shoegaze is what I found on their EP “Floret” that was released in 2015. It sounds pretty good, I would add them to the list of bands to check out this year.
Molar: four girls from London form Molar. Their latest is a 5 track 12″ called “Straniero” which is the record I’m listening now. Sadly for me it is not the kind of music I like, this is way too rocky, too garagey for my taste. I would skip them.
Randolph’s Leap: from Glasgow, an 8 piece folk-pop band. They have a lot of releases on their Bandcamp, so I decided to check out their latest, the album “The Isle of Love” that was released last June. It is a long one, 21 songs! IT does sound ok I think. It is poppy and they seem to care to craft songs with good melodies. So that I appreciate. It is the kind of pop I love the most, but it is totally fine.
Porridge Radio: their latest release is called “Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers”. I try listening to their first song and I don’t get it. Then their second song “Lemonade” gets better, but I don’t like them much in the end. I tried. Not indiepop at all.
Stealing Sheep: 60s sounding girl trio. Odd enough the latest seems to be a December 2013 release on Bandcamp. That’s quite a long time ago. Oh well. It is also a “Remixes” release. So I skip that and end up listening a 2011 EP called “I Am the Rain”. It is nice. But I do wonder if in all these years they have changed at all?
Big Joanie: I read the description they have, The Ronettes filtered through the 80s DIY and riot grrrl. I dunno if that is right. I guess on some songs I could see it. But I feel it has lost a lot of the poppy parts of The Ronettes as Big Joanie is much rockier. Not exactly what I like to listen.
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When I found a very old website, probably dating from 2001, by the French band Sandy Shores I thought I had stumbled upon something great. There were 8 songs to stream on a tiny Flash player and that was quite exciting. How many times I’ve found an old website that is broken, that you can’t play any songs or the images are not found?
So, even though I didn’t know absolutely anything about the band yet I could hear their songs “Star”, “Last Night”, “She’s Going Out”, “331”, “Love’s Not Me”, “Martinis and Bikinis”, “Listen” and “Whenever”. And that was fantastic!
On Discogs I found out that their song “Last Night” (25F025) had appeared on a compilation called “Out of Order” that was released by 25 Records in 2001. That was all. But it can’t be, right? If there are 8 songs shared on their website. So I start reading the only piece written in French on their site, one that seems to be written by Marielle Armand. I don’t think she was part of the band.
She talks about the latest album of the band, an album called “Start”. She mentions a song called “Pacifique”. That one is not available to stream. So there were more songs other than these 8. Then I get to know that the band live and work in Paris and that they are very much influenced by English pop. England is also the nationality of their vocalist, Angus. He had met the Frédéric, the bassist, at the Reading festival of 1998. Then David, drums, and Thierry, guitars, joined them. Most importantly at the time of this note the band had recorded around 20 songs, some of them that appeared on their debut album “Plymouth Sound”. Also they had gigged extensively, more than 150 gigs in Paris and its region.
Many of these gigs are listed on this site. Their first gig being at Denfert Rochereau in May 1998. Then they have played at many venues. They played in St. Etienne, in Lyon, and Nanterre. They played many Irish pubs it seems too like Flan O’Briens, Bally Roan and Le My Goodness for example.
Then I find something even better! A soundcloud by Angus Newton, the vocalist! There are 8 songs of the album “Plymouth Sound” to stream too! Plus many more songs of himself going solo. These are really great! From what I read in his short bio he has been living in France since 1983 and started playing in bands since 1995. His first band was called Swanlake. Then it says that Sandy Shores released another album called “Trainspotting”. Then he went back to London to play in a band for a year. Then he decided to go solo. He moved to Chamonix where he still lives.
Sadly I can’t find any information about any of these records. I wish I could find a copy for myself. But they are not even listed in Discogs. It is a big shame as everything I have heard sounds terrific! But having played so many gigs in Paris and around France, someone must remember them! Someone must have their records. I would love to know what is the story of the other band members. What songs appear on each album. If they appear on any compilations. Who can help me with all that?
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