Let’s start a new week with some weekend finds!
Able: my friends from Uppsala, who I interviewed some time ago, are back with a new single called “Another Of Our Things”. It sounds lovely, bright and chiming. There will be a B side called “Talking” soon too, and both will be available in all digital outlets.
Azure Blue: “Event Horizon” is the latest song Matinée is letting us preview of the wonderful new album “Images of You”! It is brilliant. I can’t wait for the album. It is already to pre-order with June as its release date. So I guess it will be out any day now? From what I’ve heard, it is already a favourite record this year.
The Motorcycle Boy: not really some music to hear if you click the link, but perhaps the best piece of news in ages. So yes, remember the wonderful band that had Alex Taylor on vocals? They had recorded an album called “Scarlet” back in the 80s but it never got released. Now Michael Kerr, who played guitar in the band, is going to release this album this October in his own Forgotten Astronaut Records. I’ll be keeping an eye on any news about it!
Sushi Backpack: the Japanese label Galaxy Train is releasing a tape by this quirky and fun band. The tape EP is titled “Your Room Looks the Same” and has 5 brand new songs that reminds one of Vehicle Flips, Tullycraft and Beanpole. Very 90s American pop sounding!
Naive Super: Yushi Ibuki, the keyboardist of Pictured Resort, is the man behind this project. So far I’ve been able to listen the fantastic “Pacific Sketches”, the opening track of the debut 7″ the band is releasing on Sailyard Records on July 3rd. 3 more songs should be included in it and will feature guest musicians from bands like Pictured Resort, Wallflower and Luby Sparks!
—————————————————————–
Formed in Streatham, South London, Jamie Wednesday is definitely more famous for the band it became afterwards, Carter USM.
The band formed in 1984 with James Morrison on acoustic guitar and lead vocals, Leslie George Carter (later renamed as Fruitbat) on bass guitar and backing vocals, Dean Leggett on drums and percussion, Lindsey Lowe on trumpet and Simon Herny on saxophone. They sounded quite different to Carter USM, they more more jangly, more poppy, just as the many bands from the period. Before being named Jamie Wednesday they were called Jeepster, The Ballpoints and Peter Pan’s Playground. I wonder if there are any recordings by these bands?
A Wikipedia entry on the band mentions that Ray Buckley may have played drums in the band. What does that mean? Did he or did he not?
The band released two EPs but it looks like they didn’t sell well at all. Both of them on the Pink Label that was run by Simon Down between 1984 and 1987. It is not the first band from this label I get to feature here as The Ringing was interviewed on the blog.
The first release was the “Vote for Love” single that was available in 1985 on 7″ and 12″ (PINKY 6). The A side, written by Morrison and Carter, was “Vote for Love”, while the B side was “White Horses”, a song written by Michael Carr and Ben Nisbet which was first released by Jacky in 1968. The 12″ included two more songs. The A had also “The Wall” which was written by Harlan Howard but made famous by Johnny Cash and the B2 was an original song, “Buttons and Bows”. All songs were recorded at Scarf Studios in London with Tony Poole as the engineer and Paul Simmonds as producer. The photgraphy on the jacked was taken by Maria Mortimer.
Their next release was the year after, 1986. The 7″ had “We Three Kings of Orient Aren’t” on the A side and “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream” on the B side. This last song written by Ed McCurdy and made famous by Simon & Garfunkel. The record, with catalog number PINKY 10 was also released on 12″ and included one extra B side, “I Think I’ll Throw a Party For Myself”.
The band appeared on two Pink compilations back then and lately they’ve appeared on Cherry Red boxsets. In 1986 the band contributed the song “Till the Cows Come Home” to the 12″ compilation “It Sells or it Smells” (PINKY 11). This song was an original by the band and was recorded in London.
In 1987 the band appears on the “Beauty” (PINKY 15) compilation . They contributed two songs here, “Buttons and Bows” and “We Three Kings of Orient Aren’t”. This same compilation was reissued the same year by Justine Records (GREEN 1) in Spain.
In 2013 their song “Vote for Love” is part of the Cherry Red boxed “Scared to Get Happy” and in 2016 the song “We Three Kings of Orient Aren’t” appeared on the “CD87” boxset.
The only other information available on Discogs is that Ray Buckley aka. Mutley was also on Buddy Curtess & The Grasshoppers and Hidden Charms. James, Jim Bob, had also been in Who’s The Daddy Now? And Lesley Carter has been in Abdoujaparov, Ferocious Dog and Who’s the Daddy Now?
The band is also responsible for the name of the band Pop Will Eat Itself as an article by David Quantick about Jamie Wednesday in the NME, mentioned that pop music is ever-recycling its ideas and that eventually ‘pop will eat itself’.
The band split up in 1987 just before a scheduled gig. Some of the band members, James Morrison and Leslie Carter, decided to stay and play that gig. That is how Carter USM was born. Later on Dean Leggett was to join the superb indiepop band Bob.
Some information I find odd is that that it says that the band have many unrecorded and unreleased songs. Many of these were recorded on a portastudio which was sold to a friend of the band Aqua Maria Monday who was the Maria who took the photos for the first record. The rights of these songs seem to be now in possession of hers. One of them was “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You”. There is actually an interview on the website Everything Over 40 where Jim Bob talks about these songs, saying he doesn’t want to be available. On this interview he also mentions how Jamie Wednesday started as a band. It seems it was his alter ego, Jim Bob was playing these songs by himself while Leslie was calling himself Cartoon Carter. When Jim Bob wanted to play live that’s when Leslie joined and the rest of the band did too.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
