Some good music to enjoy over the weekend! Today I will finally finish sending all outstanding orders for Baby Lemonade! So yeah, thanks everyone for that! Hope you liked the album!
Unhappy Fly: Emotional Response are releasing a lathe cut 7″ that is very very limited, just 100 copies and it seems at the time I am writing this post there are only 8 left! The 7″ contains two songs, “The Vision and the Poison” and “Unhappy Fly”. None of this songs were included in the band’s LP.
Rei Clone: now a dreamy, shoegazy, band from Denton, Texas. First time I am listening to them and it is thanks to their latest effort, a digital single called “Heaven is Eternity”. It sounds pretty good I must say! The band describes themselves as an anime shoegaze band, which is quite interesting. They are formed by Ash, Zach, Charlie and Simon.
Perrogato: the superb Chilean duo has a new digital single out on Mexico’s Stupid Decisions netlabel! It is a perfect song for Halloween, even though that was yesterday! It is called “Noche de Muertes” (night of the dead). It is a fun track with boy/girl vocals, and it makes you want to see a Perrogato album on physical format soon! Terrific band indeed.
The Epigones: this band from Ontario, Canada, is actually a duo comprised of guitarist Vic Ciampini and vocalist/bassist Darko Smolcic. They have just put up a four song debut EP on Bandcamp that sounds great! It is poppy postpunk, with class and elegance. Definitely check it out. I can’t wait to hear more by them.
West Coast Music Club: from West Kirby, UK, we meet this sweet sounding band! They have a 3 song EP now out on CD called “Sometimes EP”. The songs on it are “Saturday”, “Sometimes” and “Fall” and all three are really really good. Top vocals, chiming guitars, good melodies, everything one wants on an indiepop record!
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I had this post prepared for later in the year if I am honest. But just a few days ago my friend Vernon was talking about Rebecca Fishpond and ended up getting in touch with one of the members of the band, Zack Yusof, so I decided to unearth the draft with the little bits and bobs I had from them and see if eventually, there’s a way to get in touch with this fantastic band.
I am hoping of course there will be an interview in the coming days, but I still thought it would be a good idea not to lose all this information and maybe it serves as a good introduction to this great band!
You see I heard of Rebecca Fishpond’s existence thanks to the Firestation blog back in 2010. Back then the Uwe was running a terrific blog where he shared his knowledge of all sorts of obscure indiepop. He would have these posts called “Something to Look Out For” where he listed bands he’d like to know more or get in touch with. Many of these, if not most, were unknown to me. He wrote about Rebecca Fishpond saying that he couldn’t tell if the band existed or were just a dream. He didn’t know any details but he had listened to them. One of the songs even made a big impression and he took one of the lines from it and named the sixteenth release on his label, Firestation Records, “You Thought it was the End of the World when the Rain Ruined Your Hair”. It was a compilation CD, and yes it would have made lots of sense to have Rebecca Fishpond there, but no, no luck.
Second time I heard about them was on an interview I did on my blog with the band Kind. They hailed from the Deptford/Bermondsey area in Southeast London. I asked them if they were part of a scene and yes, he mentioned they did of the one that was happening in their area, a scene that included the bands Lavern and Shirley and Rebecca Fishpond. So I could place them now, early 90s and in SE London.
But what about sounds?
Well there is Soundcloud page by someone called Dan Rowlands. He must have been part of the band. As he has uploaded the demo of the band which seems to consist of 5 songs: “All I Ever Wanted”, “Tell Me When it’s Twelve”, “Beauty”, “Laugh” and “Always in a Dream”. This demo was recorded in 1989. At this point we know that previously the band members had been in The Kildares. There are songs on the Soundcloud by this outfit too, jangly and awesome. Maybe I should even dedicate a post to them eventually. So I believe The Kildares hailed from not SE London but from Shropshire, so did they move? And then there were some lineup changes. The bassist of The Kildares left. The drummer switched to bass and a new drummer came in. A third singer joined. So about the same people as The Kildares but two new ones.
But aside from this demo there are two more songs, “Revolved” and “Bought and Sold”. So in total we know of 7 songs. And perhaps one more, there is one called “Two Ways to Die” that at least I know there is a live performance from 1989 online, on Youtube.
Other little tidbit of information is that the band played at The Falcon in Camden on November 18, 1989 supporting the amazing Jesse Garon and the Desperadoes!
Aside from that I believe one of the members, Zack Yusof, lives now in Australia. He had been in bands like Release, Fast Boyfriends, Trafford (in Malaysia), and as of 2007 he was going under the name Kid Kowalski as well as playing in a band in Kuala Lumpur called Deserters. He is also a music journalist and DJ. Dan Rowlands, in the other hand, seems to have been in Emergency Exit, Open Up, as well as making music on his own.
Of course you also end up wondering who was Rebecca Fishpond? Why that name? But wonder if I’ll ever know. I did try to get in touch through Soundcloud but no luck. Maybe this post will help. I’ll definitely would love to hear more songs, if there are more. And as many friends have suggested, maybe these songs should be re-released. Of course I can offer myself to do that. But if anyone else does it, that’s great as well. The thing is. We want to know more about them? And what happened to the other band members?
Any help would be appreciated!
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