Not much to share today for news, but hey, there’s always new music to share!

Charles y los Amapola: some time ago in Chile there was a band called Los Polares. One of their members has started his own project and called it Charles y los Amapola. He has just released two songs in digital format on the label Preservación Discogs. These jangly tracks are “Junto a Ti” and “Se Acabó el Verano”, both of them sweetly influenced by Donosti-sound bands like La Buena Vida or Le Mans.

Los Lagartos: the Peruvian band from Lima has released a new video for their song “Mosquitos”. I wonder if the song was released in any physical format, there is no info on the Youtube link! Maybe it is just a digital release. In any case I am really liking the video and the song! It is terribly catchy and fun. Hopefully next time I am around Lima, I can catch them live.

Deadbeat Beat: this band hails from Detroit, Michigan, and released an LP album some weeks ago and it seems it is already sould out. The album titled “How Far” includes some fine pop tunes like “You Lift Me Up” or “From What I Can Tell”. The band mentions The Clean as an influence, and that is a good thing in my book. I especially like too when they combine girl/boy vocals. That you know, I am a sucker for.

Jay Som: I think I saw Jay Som on the Wall Street Journal music reviews page not so long ago. So yeah, maybe it is too big for this small blog. She is on Polyvinyl and that is a biggish label. But well, I am listening to the one song “Superbike” which I quite like a lot. I am thinking The Sundays you know. I know the label says that influences are awful bands like Death Cab for Cutie, and that might be true, as the rest of the songs of the album “Anak Ko” are not my cup of tea, they are really blah, whatever, but here there is the one very good dreamy pop song.

Lunar Vacation: this is a band I recommended quite some time ago. The band released a collection of their EPs last June called “The Lunar Vacation EPs”. IT was released on tape by Human Sounds from Atlanta, Georgia. The tape comes with 9 tracks, not all of them being great, but there are some great moments as the opening track, “Blue Honey”, and “Sleepy Couch”, which are blissful, and fantastic.

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Jules is the French form of the Latin “Julius” (e.g. Jules César, the French name for Julius Caesar).

Time to get über obscure…. with Where’s Jules?

There have been quite a few famous Jules of course. I can think of Jules verne and Jules Rimet. I wonder if the band knew a Jules, or why did they call themselves like this?

What I do know is that the band only released one record, a 7″. I believe it was self-released in 1986, with no catalog number, no label name. The cover art and the design in general is really nice. There is a cool illustration of a guitar and the name on the front cover within a rectangular frame. On the back cover the rectangular frame appears empty. All printed in a nice tint of blue over cream white.

Two songs were included in this record, the wonderful “Nothing at All” (A side) and “Wasted” (B side). Both songs are credited to Isaac, Partridge and Isaac. Does this mean that there were two siblings with Isaac as their last name?

The back cover lists the first names of the band members in a particular way:
Andy: voice and feeling
Donna: contralto
Jules: stringed instruments
Paul: to play an instrument of the lower register

Which instruments did they play? It does look too that the band had their own Jules. I believe Jules played guitar? Andy sang? What about the rest? Also Stan is credited for ebony, ivory and larynx while William played drums.

I see a phone number that starts 0752. I wonder if it means that the band hailed from Plymouth? Could it be?

Aside from that there are no other clues or pieces information that I could use to track the band down. As I said, they are very obscure. I do hope I can find out more about them in the future. Finding a copy of their record would be great as well. Maybe some of you remember them and can help?

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Listen
Where’s Jules? – Nothing at All