Friday! Later today I’ll be heading to Mexico City. Last chance then for letting me know if you want some records.
I hope to update the blog while I am there as I will be working there, not on holidays. So I should have my computer with me. I’ll try to do it on Wednesday and Friday. Monday is a holiday.
Probably won’t have much news during this time, but I am sure when I return to NYC there will be some good news to announce. In the meantime here are some good finds!
The Reds, Pinks & Purples: the San Francisco band have just released two new songs, “I’m Sorry About Your Life (ver 2)” and “Marty as a Youth (ver 2)”. But that’s not all they have also announced that they will be releasing a 7″ on a Swedish label called Dischi del Barone and they will also play Madrid Popfest in March! A really great year is coming up for them!
East Village: the reissue of “Hotrod Hotel” that Slumberland is releasing is already available to pre-order on Bandcamp. The album will be coming out on January 24th and will be available on vinyl only it seems. No CD. If you have never heard this classic and legendary band I urge you to discover them now! Start with the two songs available to preview, “Cubans in the Bluefields” and “Violin”.
Die Katapult: Anna and Elena form the Swedish/Spanish duo that sings in German, Die Katapult. They make quirky and fun indiepop. Their latest is a videoclip for their track “Für Einen Moment” and it is super cool and fun! Oh! And it is catchy too. This song was included in their album “DKXD” that was released by Elefant Records.
Basic Plumbing: this Los Angeles band is releasing their album “Keeping Up Appearances” on January 24. It will be coming out both on vinyl and CD and that’s a great thing of course. At the moment we can preview three tracks, “As You Disappear”, “Bad Mood” and “Constant Attention, all of them great indiepop songs. Another interesting detail is that profits from the album will be going to the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the Campaign Against Living Miserably.
Luby Sparks: and lastly the great Japanese band is back with a cover of “Birthday” by The Sugarcubes. They have a video too for this rendition of theirs. It sounds great to my ears. It seems this cover will be only released as a digital single.
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I discovered a few days ago a Soundcloud full of goodies from the area of Woking in the UK. The WokingSoundscene group also has a Facebook group which has photos from many of the bands they feature. So I started digging and found many cool tracks from bands I have never ever heard about. So in the next few weeks or months I may be covering some of them. I want to start with the band Summersalt, whose song “Forever” sounded pretty cool to me!
The song that introduced me to the band is called “Forever”. Where does it come from? When was it recorded? Let’s see if I can find out.
The information on the WokingSoundscene Soundcloud tells that the band was formed by Barney Jeavons (bass, vocals), Anthony Read (drums) and Alex Ballentine (guitar, vocals). This three piece recorded a demo tape called “Better than Nothing” which included 8 songs it seems. It was recorded at DNA Studios in Brixton.
The name of the songs on the “Better than Nothing” tape were on the A side we find “Mind Sigh”, “Puppet Playground”, “Forever” and “Autumn”, while on the B side we find “Spirit”, “Mirrorglide”, “Laughing Box” and “Neverend”. Was this the only songs the band ever recorded?
It is also worth mentioning that on this tape Alex Steinitz played violin. On which song or songs? It doesn’t specify. The photography is credited to Rae.
Aside from this tape we know the band contributed the song “Autumn” to the tape compilation “Revenge of Farnborough Groove” that was the 5th volume of the tape compilation series “The Farnborough Groove”. This tape series had the very important goal to promote up and coming unsigned and local bands from the Farnborough area in Hampshire.
Not much more info about them on the web.
I did find though that Barney Jeavons has been, since 2001, the Aldershot West End Centre’s director. Before that he had been manager of the band Reuben and I found out that he is the son of the actor Colin Jeavons.
What about the other two members? What happened to them?
That’s really all the info I could dig from every corner of the web. I am sure someone must remember them. Did they play lots of gigs? Were they involved with any other bands? Any other recordings?
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Listen
Summersalt – Forever
