Please don’t forget that on March 9th, if you are in Stockholm, you must attend Bongo Bar in Jarlsgatan 37, at 9pm. Why? Because one of our favourite bands from the city, one that we were lucky to put out a 7″, Salt Lake Alley, will be playing a gig!! And that is not common. I wish I could be there. So please don’t miss it. More information here.
And today I will be going to see the brilliant New Zealand band The Beths!! I’ll tell you on Monday how it went!
The Artisans: the jangly band that our friend Kevin McGrother is part these days is releasing their debut album. And what can I tell you? It shimmers and shimmers. It is one not to be missed. There are 12 songs which I’ve been lucky to listen so far, including a cover of “A Week of Wednesdays” which was released on Cloudberry years ago by Kevin. The self-titled album is going to be out on April 8th and on Soundcloud you are able to check two of the songs that will be included “Two Hits, Three Misses” and “A Week of Wednesdays”. I believe we already have a contender for best indiepop album of the year here.
Hatchie: “Without a Blush” is the latest from Hatchie who surprised all of us with a wonderful EP not too long ago. This song has a video as you can see and it will be included in the debut album that is to be released on June 21st on Double Double Whammy and Heavenly Recordings.
Melenas: the most amazing Melenas have a new single out. To promote it they’ve made a video that is super cool. The song is called “Ya No Me Importa” and I’m hooked. I just ordered a copy myself of the record which is on pre-order at Snap! Clap! Club Records. This is a total winner! Definitely one of the best bands right now! So lucky to have seen them last year in Madrid. Living this side of the Atlantic is not ideal I must say!
Robert Forster: another video! now it is the video for the song “Inferno (Brisbane in Summer)” by the ex-Go-Betweens! This song is part of the new album “Inferno” which was just released on March 1st on Tapete Records. It sounds great! I really hope Robert comes to play in NYC!
Stars in Coma: our friend André has just unveiled a new video to promote his upcoming album “Every Evening, Sunset Crooks its Thumb Across the River”. The promo video is for the song “Destroying the Love” and we can see his new home, Lisbon, on the video. The album will be out on March 29th.
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Time again to fly to Japan, one of the countries that has produced lots of indiepop but for some reason many of their bands still remain unknown to the rest of the indiepopworld.
I keep exploring these Bluebadge Label compilations that were released in the early 2000s. That was a great label. It should be famous. Maybe it is in Japan. The quality of the bands they put out was great, and the bands they picked for the compilations too. I was revisiting the 3rd compilation they did, “Guitar Pop Crazy! (Bluebadge Compilation Vol. 3)” (BBCD-009) and I found out about a lovely jangly band called Showcase. I said to myself, I need to know more!
This compilation was released in 2005 on CD and included a bunch of great bands of course. Among them I see Pitcher56, Margarets Hope* and Cyclon 86 among others. Showcase appears with the second song, the aforementioned “Hello”. There are some credits for it, the lyrics and music were written by Ikunori Nakaya. Was it a one-man band perhaps?
Two years later they appear on another compilation. The 2007 CD comp “Boys (& Girls) Wonder Shibuya-K Indie-Pop Collection Vol. 2” that was released by TKO New Music Corporation (TKOK-0002) included the band’s song “Fireman”. I haven’t listened to this song yet, so I’m hoping someone can hook me up. Other bands that you might know thanks to the blog that appear on this CD are Pastelshot, Flannel, Cherry Letter and Trans Alphabet.
There is not other information about the band sadly. I believe though that I have found some information about Ikunori. It seems he is based in Tokyo and works in the information technology and services industry.
I am not sure how to continue this search. “Hello” and its guitars are fantastic. I definitely want to hear more by this band. I am hoping they had more recordings. But I probably will need some Japanese indiepop fans to help me on this one. Anyone remember the band Showcase?
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Listen
Showcase – Hello
