Last post for about two weeks! I will be back to posting on July 17th. Also all orders placed between today and the 16th won’t be mailed until the 17th. Sorry about that! The thing is I will be on holidays in Spain! Very very excited! Not much indiepop though in this trip as I haven’t seen any good concerts while I am there but I am really excited to see many friends!
Den Baron: aside from the 7″ that we have just released that no one should miss, the German project has a bunch of new songs to stream. 11 of them! They are collected together as the album “The Story So Far…” and the good news, other than they sound fantastic, is that this album will be released on CD by the Indonesian label Shiny Happy Records! One not to miss!
Los Bonsáis: what a pretty pretty video. The band from Asturias (yes the same place I will be visiting starting Friday) have just released a video for their song “No Es Para Tanto”. This song is part of “Hinoki” the latest album by the duo based in the city of Gijón. Lovely song too!
Las Densas: this band from Neuquen, Argentina, has a mini-album called “N ♡ T” out now in digital format only I believe. Mostly influenced by punk pop we find half of the songs to be quite poppish, and even jangly, and the other half much slower and with heavier guitars. You know which ones I like best of course.
Violentenne: this 80s shoegazy band from Ottawa, Canada’s capital, sounds really good! Their latest will be a 5 song EP called “Phantom Youth” which will be released on August 30th. We can preview the opening track, “Frozen Heart” which is hauntingly beautiful, with shimmering guitars and female vocals!
Jetstream Pony: and lastly one of my favourite contemporary bands, Brighton’s finest Jetstream Pony! They have a new song, in demo format, and it sounds ace! It is titled “Mitte” and it brings memories of my travels to Berlin of course. Now, when will this be released properly? Soon I hope! It deserves a 7″ of course!
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From Oslo, Norway, I’ll tell you a bit today about the obscure 90s band The Release Party. The bit I can find on the web, hoping of course that later on someone will be able to fill in the blanks!
Tona Gulpinar on guitar and vocals, Line Susann Berg on bass, Steinar Buholm on drums, Pål Lind on guitar and the legendary Tøre Sorensen aka. Bartleby of The Tables on guitar formed the band. They would release two 7″s and one album during their time.
The first 7″ came out in 1991 on the best label from Norway, Perfect Pop Records (POP 3). Their debut had two songs, “Don’t Say it Again” on the A side and “Pink Bubblegum” on the B side. The first written by Tona while the second by Line. Both songs were recorded at Endless Studios in Oslo, produced and engineer by Eystein Hopland (who had been in Bio-Logic, Ex Lex, Sister Rain among other bands). The jacket photo on the cover was taken by Maya Glaser and the one on the inserts was taken by Paal A. The record came with a postcard in various colours with credits, lyrics and contact info. It also came with an actual pink bubblegum that came inside the polybag.
Two years after the band was to release their self-titled debut album on Perfect Pop (POP10) and also on the German label Little Teddy Recordings (BiTe005). Perfect Pop released the CD while the German label released it on vinyl LP. The tracklist was the same on both records, 13 songs that on the vinyl version was divided like this. The A side had “Post Party”, “Done by Mirrors”, “In Her Brand New Shoes”, “Lovely”, “Turn Away” and “He’ll Be Daydreaming”. The B side had “Land of the Fog”, “Poor, Little You”, “Watch Me Capture You”, “My Only Song”, “Too Young to Be a Bitch”, “Parachute Song” and “Don’t Say it Again”. The vinyl version was first limited to 300 copies on black vinyl and stencil hand sprayed cover. After these 300 copies were sold Little Teddy repressed 200 more copies.
The art as mentioned was different on both CD and vinyl. The CD has a very cool art, with illustrations of the headshots of the band members in red and black colours. It was designed by Tone Lise Skomsvold. Again the tracks were recorded in Endless Sound and I noticed that the drummer was now Johnny instead of Steinar who actually is credited for photography in the record. Then I see that Bartleby is not listed anymore on guitar. Instead I see Geir Holtbakk (who was in The Time Lodgers). The songs were mixed by Ulv Knudsen (from Betong Hysteria, Feel, Sister Rain, and many more bands).
Lasty in 1996 the band released the “Right Here Right Now” (POP23) single. This 7″. with its sleeve of a blue flower had the title song on the A side and “Follow Me” on the B side.
The band appeared on more than a few compilations. The first dating from 1992 on Mermaid Records’ “He Didn’t Even Draw a Fish on My Shower Curtain” CD (MIRABELL 001). On this comp the band had the song “Parachute Jumping From the Sky”. This compilation was a fake tribute album to the Hungarian “beat poetess” named Eleine D. Jezús.
That same year the band contributed the song “Why Aren’t You Mine?” on the “Nova 92” CD comp released by Radio Nova Records (003). This was a compilation of live recordings from the NOVA Festival that was held on the 8th and 9th of May, 1992, at Kampen Verksted in Oslo, Norway. I found out that this song was actually a cover of The Chills’ “Wet Blanket”.
The German label Mermaid Records was to include them again on a compilation in 1992. The CD comp “Mermaid Employee of the Month: Gustav Sackmüller” (MIRABELL 685) had the song “Parachute Jumping From the Sky”. Yes, the same song as the previous Mermaid comp. Odd no? Well, no. This release was a boxset that included the previous compilation plus a 6 track tape with extra songs, a test pressing and a bootleg. This boxset is quite rare. Only 50 copies were made.
The Norwegian label Rock Furore released “Rock Furore” (RFCD7) a compilation that had the song “Lovely” by The Release Party. This 1993 compilation also included The Wedding Present.
In 1995 they would appear on “A Perfect Pop Compilation 1991-1994” (POP20) with three songs, “Don’t Say it Again”, “Done by Mirrors” and “The Return of the King Bees”. This last one, written by Geir Holtbakk, was previously unreleased. In 2001, Perfect Pop would include their song “Right Here Right Now” on the compilation “Bestrummed! Perfect Pop 1995-2001” (POP40).
I look at the band members on Discogs. I find that Line Susann Berg was originally from the town of Bodø. Bodø is a municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Salten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Bodø (which is also the capital of Nordland county). The municipality of Bodø is located just north of the Arctic Circle and the town of Bodø is the largest urban area and town in Nordland county, and the second-largest town in North Norway.
Then we know that Pål Lind was on groups like Peder Pung & De Kåte and Politisk Hjærnesvikt A/S. Steinar Buholm, also known as Birdeye, was in The Tables, The Time Lodgers, Sister Rain and Monsters of Doom who I have featured on the blog before. Tona doesn’t seem to have been involved in other bands but did backing vocals in the Astroburger “Stand On It” album
I google a lot but can’t find much. I do find an Archive.org bio of the band. I think it comes from a page called Cryptic Times, but I’m not 100% sure. It mentions here that the band played their first show just four days after forming, doing covers of The Pastels and The Chills.
Not much more information about them on the web. Happily I do own their album which I’ve played many times. I think it is great. I wonder though if I’ll get to find more information about them. I don’t think I’ve interviewed a Norwegian band before? If they get in touch could this be the first time?
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