And here we are, yet another new week. Hopefully this week will just bring good news.
I did some music listening this past weekend. And here’s what I liked the most.
Pony in the Pancake: who are behind this band?! First time I’m listening this sweet guitar pop band from Albany, New York, the state capital. The band will be releasing an album on September 20th and it doesn’t say in which format it will be available, we only have the one song, “Summer Has a Way”, to preview, and it is very nice… summery indeed!
The Surrounded: now is the turn to go all the way to the West, to Sacramento, California. Here the band formed by John Grow, Jason Grow and Kyle Fowler have put together a dreamy self-titled EP that consists of 5 songs. Sounds great, and for those that are into important details, it has been mastered by Kramer!
Soft Blue Shimmer: also from California, but not from the capital but from Los Angeles, we discover the badn formed by Charlie, Kenzo, Martin and Meredith, who have just released a superb EP called “Nothing Happens Here”. It is available on tape, which is a shame for me, but not for all of you tape lovers. And again just in case you didn’t get it, let me say it, this is a superb debut.
The Understudies: our friends from London are back with their sophomore effort, “If Destroyed True”. This record, which is already available for pre-order is being released by Carbide & Carbon Records and will include 11 songs. It will only be available on vinyl. And if you want to get a taster, you can preview a magnificent track called “Grousebeat”. That’s it. You can’t miss this one.
Topographies: and yet another California band! At least not from the cities that I mentioned earlier, but this time this three-piece hail from San Francisco. This is the first time I am listening to them, through their two songs “Cherry Blossom” and “Half Asleep”. It seems they are signed to the fine Sonic Cathedral label, though not sure if these two songs are only available digitally or there will be a vinyl release. The band is also heading to London playing there early September.
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A long time ago I discovered the Japanese shoegaze band White Come Come.
It was thanks to the classic compilation “Birth of the True” which is one of the most important indiepop compilations ever. If you are not aware of it, you should check it out. It was released in 1992 by the super Sugarfrost Records (FROSTY 2) whose Akiko Yamauchi I have interviewed on the blog in the past too. This compilation included amazing bands like Nelories, Secret Shine, B-Flower and more. Interestingly enough the band appears on this compilation with the name White Kam Kam. The song they contributed was “Rise”. On the CD version of this compilation the band’s name appear as White Come Come. It is to be noted that the CD compilation was released not by Sugarfrost but by ¡Por Supuesto! Records (STAP-0203) also from Japan.
This is not the only compilation appearance by the band. That same year, Quattro (QTCA-1003) released a compilation CD called “Brand New Skip Decoration” where White Come Come opens the comp with the song “How I Feel” and also closes it with he track “Broken Bird”. This compilation includes too many unknown bands for me, the only ones I know are Secret Goldfish and Venus Peter. I should investigate! Also there was a 12″ version of this compilation with the same two tracks by White Come Come. It looks like it was a promo release put together by Parco Sectary for Quattro.
Then the band would contribute, in 1993, one track for “The Birth of the True II”. This time around it was only released on CD by ¡Por Supuesto! Records (STAP 0314) and like the first volume, the cover art had a photo of our friend Akiko. White Come Come contributed the song “Like A Tea”.
Aside from these compilations the band did release one proper release, an EP which not surprisingly was released on vinyl by Sugarfrost (Frosty 3) and on CD by ¡Por Supuesto! (STAP 0206).
“Skin EP” came out in 1992 and had four songs. The A side had “Broken Bird” and “Rise” while the B side had “Sink” and “Luv Lemon Lies”. Again the photography for the art is credited to Akiko on the 12″ while for the CD Jun Itoh is credited for art and photos.
The band was formed by Hiromi Homura on bass and vocals, Yoshihisa Nanbu on drums and percussion, Hirokazu Kasayuki on guitar and Riyou Kinugasa on vocals and guitar. Riyou was the main lyricist and also wrote the music for “Sink”. Hiromi wrote the music for “Rise” and “Broken Bird” while Hirokazu and Yoshihisa wrote the music for “Luv Lemon Lies”. The engineer for these recordings was Yoshiaki Kondo while the record was produced by Masa Tsuruta.
I look for any other involvements music-wise by the band members. I find that Riyou Kinugasa has actually written soundtracks for the videogame Resident Evil. The other band members don’t appear listed for other music projects on Discogs. What happened to them?
When I asked Akiko about them she told me: As for the spelling of WCC, for the LP we insisted WCC to use Ks instead of Cs for obvious reason. However they then insisted to spell it with Cs for the 12″. I think if they had a better name, would have sold more – we had to throw boxes of them away when we moved, which was painful – but who knows?
So lots of copies were lost. I still don’t have one.
Sugarfrost has a little information about them on their website. They mention that the band hailed from Osaka and that they were smashing when playing live. That when Akiko approached them and asked them for their influences they just said that they didn’t really have favourite bands… strange, no? It seems the band didn’t last long, that the label, Sugarfrost, stopped hearing from them after a few years. The band formed at an art college, maybe after graduation the band was over? That’s one theory. Last thing the label heard from them is that one of them got a job in Osaka and was colleagues at this job with Ian Masters of Pale Saints. Small world?
I keep looking but I can’t find any other interesting details about them. I wonder what happened to them? Did they play in other bands? What did they study at art school? Where are they now? Why no more releases? Did they have more songs? Do my friends from Osaka remember them?
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