Thanks to everyone who have pre-ordered the Dayflower 7″! The masters should be sent to the pressing plant any day now, just need to organize myself, and then it is just a matter of waiting. Waiting for the records to arrive! Of course in the meantime there is the process of writing and getting the inserts printed, and that is a cool part of the process. Then the records arrive, and then it is time to dress them in polybags and get the inserts inside the jackets. Then ready to be mailed. This is much fun. And I can’t wait for it.

Now new finds? Of course.

Cattle: the great Japanese band is back and will be releasing their debut album “Sweet Dream, Tender Light and Your Memory” on September 4th!! There are going to be 10 songs on this album and we can preview the first one called “Shooting Star” on Youtube! The fine Testcard Reecords is releasing it.

Fern Murphy: this Indianapolis band have a new EP out called “Gringo Love” and it is a great introduction to their quality dreampop. The EP contains 5 tracks and I find it intriguing why they called their EP and one of their songs “Gringo Love”. Curious.

Superdrone: another shoegazey kind of band, but this time from Southampton in the UK. Their latest is the album “Starcade” that was released digitally last June. A 10 song shimmery and dreamy guitar pop album that is thoroughly enjoyable.

The Reds, Pinks and Purples: and finally the Califonia band will be releasing an album! It will be called “Anxiety Art” and it is coming out on our friend Javi’s label Pretty Olivia, all the way from Alicante in Spain. The album will include 14 of the already classic jingle jangly tracks the band has been showing us on their Bandcamp for years now. At the moment you can preview the first 4 on the album on the label’s Bandcamp as well as preordering the vinyl version of it!

Airhockey: lastly a band from Miami!! Wow, when I lived there I think there was only one good pop band, Little Beard, then there was nothing else. So I am happy to discover a new band that likes these sort of sounds! Their latest track is called “Hidden by the Sun” and it is a fine slice of dreampop. The band is formed by Melanie Sarria on bass, Sebastian Hidalgo on vocals, guitar and synth, Mike Diaz on guitar and synth and John Olin on drums.

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Many years ago, way too many I got in touch with the wonderful The Ammonites. Remember them? They put out a split flexi on Waterbomb! Records (Splat 001) in 1990 alongside a band called Paintbox. This flexi came alongside the fifth issue of the Waterbomb! fanzine. Does this sound a bell to you? I wonder. The Ammonites of course released a 7″ and appeared on many compilations. But what about Paintbox? I must say that I’m totally clueless about them. So today, after a long long time, I return to that flexi, see what I can find about them!

Paintbox appeared first on the single sided flexi with the song “Hatebomb”. The Ammonites were to appear second with “Missing You”. The cool thing was that the flexi came with an insert and thanks to that we know that the band was formed by Dean Morbey, Matthew Smith, Hilary Jeffery, Edward Dickens, Simon Glenister and Dan Preece. Dean Morbey wrote the song. The song was recorded at the Music Shop in Kidderminster and was engineered by Snowy. It is also noted that the band hailed from Kidderminster too. First time I hear of this place!

Kidderminster is a town in Worcestershire, England, 27 km south-west of Birmingham and 24 km north of Worcester. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 55,530. The town is twinned with Husum, Germany.

That same year the band contributed the song “Opus 10″, again penned by Dean Morbey, to the flexi 7” compilation “Four Bands Four Songs” (WINDMILL ONE) that came out on Windmill Records from Cheshire. Yes, the same label that put out in 1988 the “Corrupt Postman” tape that has been mentioned so many times on the blog in the past. And don’t worry, I’ll get back to it again in a second.

This flexi was double sided, which is a cool thing you’ll agree. On the A side we’d find The Fat Tulips and The Applicants while on the B side there was The Haywains (whose Paul Towler did the artwork for the record) and Paintbox.

So as I said, returning to “Corrupt Postman”, Paintbox also contributed a song to this classic tape. It was the one titled “Who’s Got the Money” and it appears as the twelfth track on the A side. And as many of you know, there was a sort of similar version of the tape that was re-released by Elefant Records from Spain in 1990 called “Hacia la Luz” (ER-5). This time though, this same song, appeared as the sixth track on the B side.

I look on Discogs for the band members, if they had been involved in any other bands. I could only find info about Hilary Jeffery. It seems he is a trombonist and composer in the fields of improvised electronic and contemporary music. He had played in the Band of Holy Joy, Chora(s)san, Kreepa, The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation and many more. But what about the others?

Then I stumble upon a Soundcloud where the song “Hatebomb” has been uploaded. The user which seems to be based in Manchester comments that this was the band he was in in the 90s. He has other songs but they are quite different. They are mainly electronic. Who is behind this account? Is it Dean Morbey?

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Listen
Paintbox – Hatebomb