Terribly busy week for me. But I managed to find some good music!

Будни: this superb Russian band has two new songs out. I may know two or three words in Russian, but don’t think I can hear them in these songs. But that does not matter. Understanding is important, and I am sure I would enjoy much more this band if I could, but nonetheless I am hooked to their songs. They are elegant, moody and cool! Very catchy too!

The Four Hit Wonder: lo-fi bedroom pop as I haven’t heard in a while! It feels as I am a trip backwards in time, to the early 2000s. And that is exciting! The Four Hit Wonder is the project of Max. He grew up in between Austria and Italy and now it seems to be based in Spain. He has just released a 6 song EP called “I’m Depressed”.

Señalada: Discos de Kirlian is a label you can trust when it comes to god indiepop releases. The album “Luz y Delirios” by this Spanish band is actually a co-release by Discos de Kirlian and Hermanos Segundos, both Spanish labels. The 8 song jangly album is available on CD too, though it seems as I am writing this lines only one is left!! Hurry up!

Minutes from June: now we head to New Mexico for three songs that might be kind of old. So it seems these songs were actually written when Minutes from June was in high school years ago. They were very good songs of course, so it is no surprise they’ve been re-recorded. And I am glad she did. Good stuff.

Dilary Huff: and an Australian band. I had to have one. They are perhaps the country I am most excited about lately when it comes to new indiepop (though for some reason I haven’t found a band that I think fits perfectly for a 7″ release in Cloudberry, odd, right?). Hilary Duff are a lo-fi pop band and they have just released a tape EP called “Overused Sayings” on the UK label Devil Town Records. The EP seems to be the brainchild of Sally Hull and it is packed with fuzzy and snappy tracks.

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I suppose most are familiar with the names of Kahimie Karie and Takako Minekawa. But I didn’t know they were in a band together at the beginning of the 90s called Fancy Face Groovy Name. Did you?

Maybe if you are a big fan of Japanese indiepop and/or the Shibuya-kei scene you are very aware of this. I know a bit, but I can’t say I am that knowledgeable. I feel with Japan I keep discovering bands and new songs all the time. I do own many records by Kahimie solo though when it comes to Takako I don’t own her records yet nor the ones when she was in L⇔R. Maybe I should check them out.

But what about this band they had together? I was reading the Wikipedia entry for Takako Minekawa, about her early years in music. It mentions that she used to go under the name of Mamene Kirerie when she was in Fancy Face Groovy Name. It also mentions that aside from having herself and Kahimie in it, they had Flipper’s Guitar as their backing band. It was indeed a true superstar band!

Something to note of course is that Keigo Oyamada, part of Flipper’s Guitar, was husband of Takako for 12 years (2000-12). They collaborated on several projects.

The band used to perform live. But when it comes to recordings I only know of one song that was recorded: “Love is Yé-Yé (Looking for my Idol)”. Did they record more? I would love to know.

This one song I mentioned appeared on a compilation CD released by Polystar Co. Ltd. (PSCR-1016). in 1990. This compilation was called “Fab Gear” and was re-released in 1993 by the same label with the same track list. Fancy Face Groovy Name appears with this song as the 7th track. It is a very fine compilation that seems to be inspired by él Records if you look at the design of the sleeve. On it we find bands like The Monochrome Set, Flipper’s Guitar, Momus and Bridge.

Thanks to this compilation, and the credits listed, we know that on this one track: Hitoshi Watanabe played bass, Reich and Yoshie Hiragakura played drums and percussion, Keigo Oyaamada and Kenji Ozawa played guitar and Koichiro Shiraishi played organ. The engineer was Tohru Takayama who also mixed the track while the production is credited to Double Knockout Corporation.

Of course there’s quite a bit written about Takako and Kahimie, but I am curious about this band, about 1990 and this period. I would love to find out more. If they had more songs especially! This one they recorded for the comp “Fab Gear” sounds so much fun!

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Listen
Fancy Face Groovy Name – Love is Yé-Yé (Looking for my Idol)