I was hoping this week would only bring good news. Last week Winston from The Brilliant Corners passed away. And this past weekend I learned that Inés Bayo, vocalist of the legendary Barcelona band Los Fresones Rebeldes during their early years and also in their reunion tour in 2014 and 2015 passed away too. This is terrible. I never saw them live, it was/is a dream of mine as Los Fresones Rebeldes has been a favourite of mine since forever I think. I feel very sad of this, even though I never met her, but her vocals, all over the band’s first LP, were as important as the music I thought. They were punky and sweet, you know. I have been planning to do a Los Popov post, another band she was in, for some months now, but never got round to do it. I hope I can put that together soon, as a way of tribute and of course to know more details about the band. RIP Inés.
More music that has been found around the internet.
Ruby Haunt: this Los Angeles band is a very nice discovery methinks. Their latest song, “Jeune”, is the second single off their upcoming album “The Middle of Nowhere” which will be released on August 30th and I must say it sounds great. It is dreamy and hypnotic in it’s own way. Hopefully this album will be released in physical format!
Laughed the Boy: here is a fine album by this Whitby, Onteario, three piece formed by brothers Chris and Sean Panacci and Brennan Hrehoruk. The album is titled “Change of Scenery” and has 9 tracks of guitar pop! My favourite track? Maybe it is “Post Card”.
TARA: now a Brooklyn band. This shoegaze band formed by Saagar Kurani and Wesley Diemling has just two songs available to preview. Their latest is called “Wander” while the previous one was “Second Guess”. Let’s continue checking them out, see if they play live perhaps or maybe they have a release in the horizon.
Local Visions: from Izumo, Japan! This Japanese band that reminds me a lot of 90s Japanese bands, with their elegant and catchy Shibuya-kei sounds, has just put out a 3 song EP titled “主観 “. Don’t ask me to translate, as I don’t know Japanese, but I can say it sounds great.
Long Beard: seems this New Brunswick, New Jersey, band is popular. It has many supporters on Bandcamp. And they are releasing an album called “Means to Me” on vinyl this September 13th. A 10 song album which has two songs to preview, “Sweetheart” and “Means to Me” which sounds ace, with lovely girl vocals and chiming guitars. Maybe I should check them out on September 26th at Baby’s All Right?
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I was reading a bio I found on the web about the Derby indiepop band The Moving Jelly Brothers that formed in 1987 and split in 1991 and thought that they deserved a post even though this bio has already a lot of interesting background info about the band and it is perhaps enough for the regular indiepop fan. Well, I’m no regular indiepop fan and I thought I’d try to find as many details as possible.
From what I gather from the bio the band was formed by Matt Holmes (vocals), Mike Cousin (drums, backing vocals), Chris Dorricott (lead guitar), James Upton (rhythm guitar) and Gary Roberts (bass, backing vocals). I believe after the band split Holmes started to run his own recording studio and became a producer. He was also involved in the band The Stance. At some point Holmes and Roberts joined another Derby band for a brief time, White Town. And something curious is that Matt Holmes was elected in May 2008 as a Conservative councillor for the Chellaston ward in the city of Derby. Mike Cousins died that same month that same year.
The band received a lot of help from their photographer and roadie Mark ‘Gordon’ Bennett. If the roadie was their photographer, then there must be lots of photos of the band. Where are they? Would love to see them.
It seems the band started playing and practicing at the Mickleover Youth Center in Derby. Their first gig was at a house party. Afterwards they played all over the place including Leeds, Hull and Northampton. They opened for bands like Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, The Levellers, Senseless Things and Snuff. At home, in Derby, they were headlining gigs all the time.
Carter U.S.M. and Mega City Four wore their promo t-shirts and this helped to get some attention by record companies. Sadly it never happened. Just some mention in the The Derby Evening Telegraph but not the NME or the music press.
The band released one 7″, which was their only proper release in 1990. It seems this record didn’t do well at all. After this release the band did some recording sessions but nothing came out of it. The band was to fizzle out and split. That’s a shame. I for sure would love to listen to these recordings!
Many copies of the 7″ were destroyed by the band after poor sales. They were disappointed and angry I suppose. Funny enough many years after the song “Oddball” was included in a popular skateboarding video compilation and that gained them many new fans, especially in the US.
That 7″ came out on a label called Terminal Spoon Records (Spoo 001). It seems as it was a self-release, there are no other releases listed for this label. The record had 3 songs: “Oddball” on the A side and “Blotch” and “Twang” on the B side. These were recorded at The Spacedome Studios..
Discogs has 4 compilation appearances listed. The first dates from 1989 and it was on my friend Phil Ball’s compilation “You Can’t Be Loved Forever No.2” that is indeed a classic indiepop compilation with lots of top bands. On this compilation the band contributes the song “Michael, Michael, Michael”.
Then in 1990 the band contributes the song “Girl, Money, Pleasure Rides Again” to the compilation tape “Life After Chairman Mao” that was released by J.A.F.P.S.A.D. It is actually the first time I’m checking out this compilation and I see some fine bands like Giraffes, Cudgels or Barbel.
That same year, on the classic indiepop tape comp “Audacious” they contribute the same song, “Girl, Money, Pleasure Rides Again” and then on the tape “How to Be a Popstar” they have the song “Gapping Tunnel”. This last tape was a tape sampler of bands from Derby and the surrounding area that was compiled by Matthew Stack of Chaddesden.
Then a great find on the blog An Alternate Derby. It is from a post dating from 2011 where there is scan of the sleeve of a demo tape released by the band in 1989. This demo tape is called “The Last of the Turbonic Pineapples” and had four songs. “God is Dog” and “You Can Call Me Trevor” on the A side and “Elvis Presley Drunk My Beer” and “What’s it Like to be a Boulderhead” on the B side. Again all songs were recorded at SpaceDome.
Not much more on the web about them sadly. I would definitely love to hear the songs that didn’t appear on the 7″. I also wonder if the members continued making music afterwards. We know Matt Holmes did, but what about the rest? And what about before the Moving Jelly Brothers? Or was it their first band? I am sure a lot of you remember them, it seems the early 90s was a very exciting time to be in Derby
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