Today is a holiday in most of the world. I have to work. We get our “labor day” in September in the US. How original! If you are not traveling and are just resting at home and want some fine new music, here are some of my latest finds!
Marieske: a French band from Rennes who just a week ago released a tape limited to 45 copies with two great dreampop tracks, “Track the Days” and “Marieske”. The band is formed by Laura Bruneau, Olivier Duval, Marc Corlett and Julien Perri and they’ve been going for some time now. Their first release on Bandcamp dates from 2016! This is the first time I’m listening to them and I think it is a great introduction to their music!
Todos tus Tanques Soviéticos: what a superb song is “La Nave de Carlos”. I believe this track was released on an 11 song album tape that the netlabel Stupid Decisions from Mexico put out. The album was originally released last December by the band only in digital format. This band hails from Buenos Aires, Argentina and it is quite a very nice surprise, the capital city of the South American country keeps producing great pop talent!
Blue Unit: more dreampop. This time from Milwaukee in the US. The band will be releasing a 6 song mini-album on May 19th. Right now only the last track, called “Drop”, is available to preview, and it is really really pretty.
Group Photos: and one more dreampop band, this time from San Bernardino, California. The latest release is a digital 6 song mini-album titled “33rpm [UK]”. And I wonder, with that title, is there a vinyl release for this record? Perhaps in the UK? What I do know is that the guitars sound excellent. And that matters a lot to me.
The Death of Pop: the great London band was back last month with a limited edition tape called “Six (Live Session)” which I suppose was a live session (at Six?). The songs on it are “Don’t Hang Around”, “Kiss Me Quickly”, “Gardens”, “Last”, “700 Spas” and “Sun in My Eyes” and they sound wonderful. Top stuff!
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The letter L. I picked the French band Loons. I know next to nothing about them. I remember they had an album on Elefant Records but not much more. So I feel it is a good time now to find out more about them.
Discogs lists two albums. There are no singles. That’s interesting. The first one is the self-titled album that I remember, the one on Elefant. I don’t know how I remember it as it was released in 1996. In 1996 I wasn’t listening indiepop, I was quite young. It may be that I downloaded the album on Soulseek the next decade as I was exploring the music of many labels. I should get myself a copy now.
The “Loons” (ER-1035) album had 12 songs: “The Way the Rain Drives In”, “Listeners”, “What’s to Become of Bristol”, “Nosy Skies”, “Red Haired”, “Settled Ice”, “Perfect Noise”, “Some Lunatic”, “Wednesday”, “Consolation”, “The Light of Swansea” and “Cressant Cakes”. The cover art has this intriguing black and white photo of school children playing on a roundabout. This album was recorded at their home in Paris and mixed in October 1995.
5 years later, in 2001, the band released their second album on the Japanese label Galaxy Train and it was called “Dim Movies” (GAL-016). This record included 10 songs, “Leisure”, “Notting Hill Gate”, “Wind Erosion’, “Never Understand” (which is a cover of The Jesus and Mary Chain), “Holiday Run”, “Passageways”, “The Cannister”, “A Week on the Mile”, “Leaf” and “I Knew Him When He Was a Nobody”. This record has some viola played by Catherine Moraleau.
There is another interesting release. The Italian label Shiny Sunset was to include them in their 1997 tape “Split-Pop Hits #2”. Loons and the band À Table, which I believe was also French, were to split a tape, each band having one of the sides. Loons appears on the B sides with seven tracks, “Hold”, “Would That Be Spring Which Chimes”, “Streamer”, “I Desperately Ran Into Cynical Diversion”, “Wednesday (demo)”, “Some Renegade Affair” and “Lovesickness”.
The band has appeared on many compilations. The first one actually dates from 1994 on a cassette tape called “After Nine” that was released by the French label Pâte A Modeler (PAM 002). The band contributed two songs here, “Even Eyes” and “Crescent Cakes”. This tape includes also a band that I have featured in the past, Les Fleurs.
In 1996 the band appears on an Elefant compilation called “Elefant Radio 68.2 Fm Stereo” (ER-1029). On this classic compilation where they are alongside bands like Le Mans, Heavenly or Los Flechazos, the band contributes the track “Wednesday”. That same year they contribute their JAMC cover of “Never Understand” and “Seven Eyes” to the French compilation “Press Play” that Candy Chérie put out.
In 1998 the band participated on a tribute to The Cardigans called….. “A Tribute to The Cardigans” that was released by Tribute Records (TR 012) in Sweden. The band covered the song “Daddy’s Car”. That same year Elefant Records was to include the song “Ne Sois Pas Si Bête” on the compilation “Supermarket – Another Electrodinamic Elefant Compilation” (ER 1051). That same song appears on the 1999 compilation “Sniegowe Rytmy” that came out on Arnold Records (AD01) from Poland.
There’s more. In 2000 the band contributed the song “Sunny Days” to Galaxy Beach, a cassette compilation released by Galaxy Train (GAL-015). Then in 2000, on a French tape called “Eden Love” released by A Secret Song the band had three songs, “Consolation”, “Way the Rain Drive” and “Crescent Cakes”. Two years later, 2001, the band had the song “Love Scented Bicycle” on the American CD comp “Stamp Collecting (For Beginners)” that was released by Secret Crush Records (SCRT010.
Lastly there is a tape that has no date that was called “Frances Two”. that was released by the French Les Tartines. Two songs were included, “Settled Ice” and “X-Ray”.
What else do we know about them? Well they do have a Bandcamp and I’ll scrape all important details I can find. For starters we know they were a trio formed by Erwan (guitar, vocals, backing vocals, programming and synths), Caroline (vocals) and Morgan (bass and guitar). Then I go to the Elefant Records page to find info. There is a bio there. So, the band starts in 1993 as a duo, Erwan and Morgan. Eight months later Caroline joins after Erwan had left a note looking for a singer at the famous Danceteria venue in Paris. Their name comes from a bird called loon. I didn’t know them. Did you?
The loons (North America) or divers (Great Britain/Ireland) are a group of aquatic birds found in many parts of North America and northern Eurasia. All living species of loons are members of the genus Gavia, family Gaviidae and order Gaviiformes.
I find a website for a band called Flowers From the Man Who Shot Your Cousin. It looks as it is a one-person band, the ex-Loons Morgan Caris with the help of many friends like the also ex-Loons Erwan and Catherine Maroleau who played viola in the 2nd album of Loons. There is a small bio for Morgan where it mentions she grew up in Wappingers Falls in New York. When she moved to Paris, France, she met Erwan in school.
I keep following the thread. And I stumble upon a Facebook page for the band. Here they list two more members Pauline and Catherine. Catherine must be the viola player. What about Pauline? Could it be Pauline Callandreau who played flute? It also mentions that Erwan Broussine was in a band called Cowbird. He also runs the recording studio Waterhouse Records.
That’s quite a bit, and many links to check. Not a bad investigation. Still I can’t tell if the band played live much. If they had been in bands before Loons. If there are more recordings. Why they didn’t release any singles and only albums. What was the last name of the vocalist? There are always many questions!
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Listen
Loons – Nosy Skies
