This whole weekend I’ve been working on the fanzine! Today I will continue doing so. It is really shaping up nicely and I am hoping it will be ready by the end of next month as the latest!
And here is some great music from over the weekend!
SeafoodCake: the very good Guangzhou based label Qiii Snacks Records has just uploaded a new song called “Telephone Honey” by this new band from China. They are formed by Bee on vocals, Yongchao on guitar, Jiayu on guitar, Phil on drums and ACong on bass. The song sounds terrific, a sweet indiepop slice that leaves me looking for more music by them!
Un.Real: not a great name for a band but still this Puerto Rican band make some terrific shoegaze. Their latest offering is the track “Lovely One / Islands” and we know the band is formed by Bernice Cruz, Gardy Perez-Ruiz, Hector Caolo and Eden Cruz. Is there a cool up and coming scene in San Juan?
“Somewhere in England”: Sunday Records has just released on CD a tribute to the wonderful band They Go Boom!! It features 12 bands including Cloudberry favourites like the Royal Landscaping Society, Shoestrings, The Sunbathers, The Pristines and more. Definitely it is not a release one can miss. Essential.
Store Front: maybe my favourite new New York band formed by Amy Rose Spiegel, Brandon Louro, Bob Marshall, Peggy Wang and Chalky have just released their “Task EP”. It has 5 songs of superb indiepop. I still haven’t seen them play live. I see their next gig is next week but SO FAR away from me, at Elsewhere… I really hope I can catch up with them soon, and also hoping they put a proper record on vinyl or CD. These songs deserve that!
Massage: and if I was mentioning Peggy from the Pains of Being Pure at Heart in the previous band, now it is time to see what Alex is doing. He and his band Massage have just released a superb slice of jangle called “Michael is My Girlfriend”. Yes this also deserves to be released as a single though it seems this track will be part of their second LP later this year. Not to be missed clearly!
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Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist of the early twentieth century.[1]Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels as well as many short stories, dramatic works, and novellas. He is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing. His books, written and published from the 1920s to the 1940s, vividly reflect on American culture and the mores of that period, filtered through Wolfe’s sensitive, sophisticated, and hyper-analytical perspective.
I was introduced to The DaVincis through their song “Thomas Wolfe”. I wonder of course if the name of the song was after the American writer? Maybe? Perhaps? Who could confirm me that?
Before The DaVincis, there was The Dream Play. That was 1984 and they were formed by Paul McCormick (vocals, guitars), Martin Smith (guitars), Chris Stevens (bass) and Faith Moore (drums). I wonder if there are recordings for this band somewhere? Then in 1985 Smith would be replaced by Martin Ward and Moore by Iain Bickle and thus The DaVincis were born. They were part of the scene that worked at the Vulcan Studios. That included great bands like The Jactars or The Decemberists. It is worth mentioning that in 1987, Vulcan Studios put together a compilation LP called “Ways to Wear Coats – A Compilation From Vulcan Studios” (VULC 001) that included The DaVincis’ track “The Book”. This track was engineered by Noddy Knowler. On this compilation the band appears under the name Da Vincis. Yeah, I’ve seen their name written in different ways.
That same year, 1987, they contributed the song “Ava Gardner” to the “Merseyside Musicians Bureau” demo compilation tape. Another compilation appearance of theirs is on the tape “D.O.A. – Brochure Two”. They had two songs on this one, “Pull” and “on And On”. There were many fine bands on this one like Fallover 24 and The Dubious Brothers among others. The date for this release must have been sometime between 1987 and 1989. D.O.A. stood for Definite Option Agency, a music press based in Liverpool.
Much later on, in 2018, the band would contribute tracks to two Cherry Red boxsets. Their track “Thomas Wolfe” was included in “C89” (CRCDBOX59) and “When You’re In” on “Revolutionary Spirit: The Sound of Liverpool 1976-1988″ (CRCDBOX39).
But most importantly the band left us two releases. A 12” maxi single and a mini-LP, both released in 1988 on Pink Moon Records.
I know this label because they released the wonderful Jactars and Barbel. But I also notice that in 1989 they released a record for Paul McCormick, the DaVincis’ vocalist, called “Another Day at Home”.
I guess that the 12″ single (PMT 12) came second and the mini-albm (PMM 1) came first. So let’s start with the mini-album.
It had six songs, three on each side. The A side had “When You’re In”, “Thoughtless” and “Charlotte” while the B side had “Thomas Wolfe”, “Safe Locked Alone” and “Chris Said”. The engineer was Keith Hartley and the art is credited to Malcolm’s House with Martin Smith’s photography. The songs were recorded in February 1988 at Amazon Studios. Something interesting too is that there were runout etchings on the record. The A side said “1234 Sun Ray Lamp!!” whilst the B side had “Strings for Breakfast”.
Now the 12″ single. The A side had “Pull” while the B side included “Something Missing” and “On and On”. The band is credited for producing the record while Keith Hartley was the engineer. The tracks were recorded on the 15 and 16 of October of 1988 at Amazon Studios. The photography on the sleeve was from Colin Heaney while the artwork is credited to Malcolm’s House. The executive producer was Andy Jones. Here we find etchings as well. The A side said “Townhouse Bye Bye” while the B side said “A Byrd song of the Mersey”. I believe that on this 12″ the band had replaced drummers, having Steve Ashton on drums.
It seems that in 1989 the band replaced Martin Ward with Mike James according to the blog “Music-isms“. With this new lineup the band toured Germany during November and December that year. Then they toured France and many lineup changes happened, even working as a three-piece for some time. Then in 1990 the band split. Their last gig was in March 1990.
But there is more about them. The band actually recorded two Peel Sessions! The first one was recorded January 18th 1987 and broadcast on February 2nd that year. The songs recorded for this session were “Something Missing”, “Ava Gardner”, “When You’re In” and “New Ways to Wear Coats”. This last song title parodying the compilation they had been in.
The second Peel Session was recorded in Septrember 27 of 1988 and broadcast on October 10 that same year. The songs for this second session were “This is What We Look Like”, “Eating Gifted Children”, “On and On” and “Second Home”.
About other music involvements I know that later on Chris Stevens would be involved in bands like Mugstar, Cicada Falls and Rattlebus. Martin Ward had been in Redo Zebri, Mugstar and Rattlebus as well. Iain Bickle had been in Fire.
Lastly I found a promo video the band did for the song “Pull“! Great find!
What else? Were there more songs by the band? Where are they now? Who remembers the Liverpool band The DaVincis?!
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Listen
The DaVincis – Thomas Wolfe
