I have some news finally about Baby Lemonade. The CD is being pressed at the moment and should be out late October. So sorry for the delay but I hope the wait was worth it! Pre-order button and tracklist information are available on the website. This is the 11th retrospective release on the Cloudberry Cake Kitchen series, and it is also the first Scottish band to get this treatment, so you can imagine how excited I am!
Here are some new finds for this Wednesday!
Comet Gain: the great UK band is back with a new album called “Fireraisers Forever!” which will be released on October 11 on the German label Tapete who seem to be snatching all the cult-ish indie bands! The band has just shared one of the tracks that will be on the record, “Mid 8Ts” which sounds really lovely.
Linda Guilala: my Vigo friends are also back with a new 7″ on the German label Dreams Never End. It comes with just two songs, “Agosto” and “Salga Bien”, but what songs they are! The band keeps showing that they are in full form! You can preview the songs now on Elefant Records which seems to be dealing with the digital part of the single.
The Last Detail: Erin Moran from A Girl Called Eddy and Mehdi Zannad from Fugu formed this band some time ago. They have released some records now on Elefant but they have a new 7″ coming out on September 6th. 3 of the songs included, “Places”, “Killing Time” and “Fairweather Friend” are available to check out on Bandcamp now.
Pigments: José Pantoja, Maddie Razook, Lacey Elaine Dillard and Atlee Hickerson form the Oklahoma City band Pigments. Their latest is a 4 song EP they have on Bandcamp called “Nothing at All”. The songs soar, with Maddie’s luminous vocals. It is a very nice surprise to me! I can’t remember of any Oklahoma band I’ve liked in the past!
Wojtek the Bear: out now on the Glasgow label Scottish Fiction there’s this new 12″ vinyl record called “Old Names for New Shapes”. Two songs are available to stream (does the record only include 2 songs?) on Bandcamp, “Tonic Youth” and “A Long Wait for Bad News”, both sounding excellent. The record is to be released on November 8th. Not to miss this one.
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The third Japanese shoegaze band from the early 90s that I will feature in less than a month is Paint in Watercolour, which also a new one for me. First time I’m listening to them, just discovering their lovely music.
The band hailed from Niigata and were formed originally by Masato Nunokawa (vocals, guitar), Kenichi Sekiguchi (guitars), Manabu Shimizu (bass) and Shigemi Sakyo (drums). The band were to release two albums and a couple of singles and EPs as well as appearing in many compilations.
I discovered them through the compilation that I’ve been talking in the last few posts, “Brand New Skip Decoration” (QTCA-1003) that was released by Quattro in 1992. This compilation as I mentioned featured White Come Come and Loco-Holidays, the two bands I showcased earlier this week. Now is the turn for Paint in Watercolour who appear on this CD with two songs, “Guess” and “It Will Fall”. Other bands in it are the more known Venus Peter and Secret Goldfish, but still to be discovered a few names like Plagues, Brick Flower or Love Gloom Cash Love. Maybe if I like them they will show up in the blog later on. Why not?
The band had been active already. In 1990 the band released their first EP, “In These Things” on 12″ vinyl. The record included three songs, “In These Things” on the A side and “Make Up My Mind” and “I Can’t Stand” on the B side. All three songs were recorded at Sound Garage studio and this 12″ was released by CLIMB Records (CR-001S). It feels like it was a self-release, no other releases listed by this label.
A year after the band would release a 6 song CD EP titled “Flow” on Aja Records (AJA 1002). This label was actually a subsidiary of the bigger label Victor. The songs were recorded at Studio Moo by Takaaki Enomoto who also mixed the songs. Hiroshi Kawasaki mastered them. I also see credits for direction by Akira Sekiguchi, Keiichi Hoshi and Tasuo Ohba. What did they direct? It is a strange credit. Also executive producers, Hiroyuki Takahashi and Kenji Kakuta. What does an executive producer does on a CD? I wonder. The songs names were “Heaven”, “Hype”, “Velveteen”, “It Will Fall”, “Knives” and “Tower”.
That same year, 1991, the band contributed a track to “Dance 2 Noise 001” a compilation released by Invitation Records (VICL-229) as part of their Dance 2 Noise series. The band they contributed was “Heaven”.
1992 would see the band become more active. First releasing on Invitation Records the “Glare” CD single on Invitation Records (VICL-12007) which had three songs, “Cradle”, “Glare” and “Tower”. I believe Invitation was also another subsidiary of Victor Musical Industries. Two of these songs would be also part of the “Unknown” (VICL-312) album released by Invitation that year. This album had 10 songs, “The Sweetest Sugar”, “You Are Here”, “Glare”, “Melt”, “I’ll Be Your Eyes”, “Creeper”, “Hypocrite”, “Guess”, “I Wish to Die” and “Cradle (version)”. This time the songs were recorded by Masayuki Nakahara while they were mastered by Yasutaka Arikado. The band also got help from a friend on percussion, Yoshikazu Ishikawa.
XEO Invitation would include them in two CD promo compilations that year. Both times would be their remixed song “Melt (Hell River Reverb Mix)”. The first on the “Futurama of Rock Special Re-Mix Sampler” (CDES-67) while the second time would be the same song but on the compilation called “XEO Invitation sampler” (CDS-172).
In 1993 their second album, “Velocity”, would be released. I read that Manabu Shimizu, the bassist, was replaced for this album by Masayuki Maruyama. This album is also interesting as it will see the band playing songs with Japanese lyrics. The songs on the CD album were “Heal All”, “Crafty”, “Mare”, “Gang Up On”, “Popularity”, “Floor”, “Gullible”, “Blame”, “Distinction” and “Naked”. 10 songs released by XEO Invitation (VICL389).
XEO Invitation would include them again in two compilations that year. On the “Dance 2 Noise 004” (VICL-374) they would have their song “Unknown” while on “Dance 2 Noise 005” (VICL-463) the song “See My Friends”.
And then the band went silent.
I do believe that in the year 2000 Manabu Shimizu released a solo record called ” サンキューニッポン” that included three songs on the Factory Orumok label. I couldn’t find any other musical involvements for the other members.
I keep looking but I only find more silence. No hits. Really. Whatever happened to them? I read that their second album was a failure when it came to sales. Did they split because of that reason? And they must have done more music afterwards, right? Where are they now? Who remembers them?
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