The Den Baron 7″ is already in the process of being pressed. Hopefully in a few days Baby Lemonade CD will be in the same spot. Pre-order buttons for both new upcoming releases are available on the website. Very very excited about them. At the same time I’m working on new releases!! I believe this will end up being a good year for Cloudberry!
So the week started and I started to look for new music as always… what did I find?
The Reds, Pinks & Purples: why not? once again I’m recommending a new set of songs by the San Francisco pop project. “Shop Windows” is a digital EP that has four jangly tracks, “Anxiety Art (demo)”, “Living on Sunday (electric)”, “Shop Windows (demo)” and “Not Quite Sentimental (demo)”. Really good stuff!
Purplespace: is a lovely dreampop electronic band that hails from Jacksonville, Florida. I stumbled upon their Soundcloud and heard the first song “Heavy on My Chest” and was impressed. Lovely vocals, and top melodies. And I start to wonder, how come I’ve never heard them before. It seems the band has released 6 albums already! The question is then, are they available in physical formats too?
Processions: this San Antonio, Texas, band is formed by Phil Alfonso, Michael Bankston, Orion Abernathy and Justin Mora. Their latest is a superb track called “Dalliance” and it sounds great. I believe this is the first time I feature a San Antonio band… and I wonder, I lived there back back in the day for 8 months and I thought it was a wasteland when it came to indiepop… maybe things are changing!
Texpack: out on Hujan! Records from Bogor in Indonesia was the cassette EP “Courageous” by this band. 6 songs of guitar based music. Fuzzy alternative songs where the song “Kids Out” is the standout (must be because it is the poppiest?).
Turquoise: I started with the song my friend David shared on his Facebook, “Parabole”, a superb dreampop track… so so good. Never heard this band before. They hail from Brussels and it seems the band is compared to bands like Slowdive, Broadcast or even The Chameleons but with French lyrics. The band just has the one self-titled EP available on Bandcamp. The 4 songs on it are pretty pretty.
—————————————————————–
Today the letter I. The I of Incredible Force of Junior from the US.
The band started in the mid 1990s when Chris Mumford (guitar, vocals) and Susan Robb (bass, vocals) moved from upstate New York to Seattle. There Steve Lodefink (drums) joined them and thus Incredible Force of Junior was born.
Their first release was a 7″ (SWING 001) on Swingset Records in 1994. Two songs were included in this record, “Jet Propulsion” and “Greatest Thing”, both of them engineered by Dave Dubh Black.This was a self-release.
The next year the band would release a second 7″ this time in the beloved Cher Doll Records (CHER 06). Again the band put out two songs, “Stronger” and “Walter Johnson”. There are two versions of this 7″, one with a color xerox sleeve that was limited, and another with a white, black and blue race car illustration on it. The insert mentions that the songs were recorded mostly live on August 27th in 1994 for the KCMU “live room” at Jack Straw Studios. The lyrics for “Walter Johnson” were written by Jonathan Richman while the song “Stronger” was inspired by a trip to Bellingham, Wa.
That same year the band released yet another 7″. “Blue Cheer”/”Driving in Your Car” came out in Up Records (UP 019) in 1995. Up Records being a local label that started in 1994 by Chris Takino and Rich Jensen. This label would release big names before they were big like Built to Spill or Modest Mouse.
Up was to release the debut album of the band in 1996. Titled “Let the World Fall Apart” (UP 026), the record came out on CD and vinyl LP. Ten songs were recorded at Avast! in spring 1996 by Phil Ek, “Blue Cheer”, “Five-Eight”, “Trailer Home”, “Walrus”, “Sweet and Sour”, “Stronger”, “Kid Champion”, “Playa”, “Spanish Tiger” and “Roswell”.
There were many compilation appearances by the band, from 1994 to the year 2000. Let’s go in chronological order.
Their song “Greatest Thing” was included in the CD comp “Shreds Volume 2 – American Underground” (SH-27) that Shredder Records put out in 1994. This is a cool compilation that included bands like Coloring Book, Cub or Red Number Nine.
In 1995 the band contributed the song “Freaks” to the compilation 7″ “The Airplane” (PCT 002) that Papercut Records put out. On this record they appear next to Belmondo, The Nonpareils and Wimp Factor 14. The song was engineered by Rich Hinklin and mastered by Greg Vaughn. It is said that this was one of the very first songs the band wrote together, dating from 1992.
“Hold Me Now”, a cover of the Thompson Twins original, was included in the 1996 Double Agent Records compilation “Double Agent 1980, A Tribute to the 1980’s” (DA 1980). This song was recorded together by Tullycraft and Incredible Force of Junior.
Up Records would include their song “Trailer Home” in the CD compilation “Up in Orbit!” (UP045) in 1997. That same year “Decay ’em” appears in Cher Doll’s CD comp “Something Cool” (CHER 09).
Then in 1999 the band contributes the track “Generation” to the “We Can Still Be Friends” (MMR 001) CD comp that the fellow Pacific Northwest label Magic Marker put out to start their label.
Lastly their song “Blue Cheer” appears on “Experience Music Project Presents Wild and Wooly – The Northwest Rock Collection” a double CD compilation released by Experience Music Project (EMPCD 001) in 2000. It is a strange compilation this one, as you see the band appear next to Nirvana, Pearl Jam or Mudhoney…. odd at least to me.
Then the band toured and played shows at The Frying Pan and CMJ. It seems after this touring the band split. Chris Mumford decided to focus only on the other band he was part of, the great Tullycraft who have just released a new album by the way. Susan Robb went to play on her own as Milksnake and today she is an artist works in different media like sculpture, photography, video, performance and more.
It also seems that Susan Robb started a project after the split called Goatmax1. Chris Munford recorded a bunch of the songs of Goatmax1 but they were never released.
I look for more information on the web of course. I’m curious about their name. I find that it is actually a mishearing of a NYC double dutch team called Incredible Foursome Junior. Interesting. I also found that they opened for Supechunk at Rock Candy.
The band actually started in Syracuse, NY when Susan was 18 years old and attending Syracuse University as well as Chris. They were originally called Sweet Like a Boy. Before that Susan had been DJing at WCNI, a radio station at Connecticut College.
The band was a staple in the 90s in Seattle, playing gigs with many breakthrough bands of the period like Modest Mouse or Apples in Stereo. I would love to know how much of a following they had. And if there are more songs from those early days when they were called Sweet Like a Boy. Who remembers them?
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
