Some new music!

The Umbrella Puzzles: two new recordings by our friend Ryan Marquez. The first one is an acoustic track called “Dusty Pages” while the second one is an alternate mix of “Leave the City” which appeared on the band’s debut EP that was released last year. Perfect pop.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: and once again the San Francisco band graces the blog. They continue writing great pop songs, there’s no stopping them. Two new songs are up on their Bandcamp, “Don’t Ever Pray in the Church on my Street” and “I’d Rather Astral Project”, which I suggest checking them out, as they are pretty good!

The Crystal Furs: the Portland, Oregon, band is back with a digital single called “Too Kind to Be Cruel”. It comes in two versions, the standard stereo mix but also a mono mix of the song. The trio formed by Steph on guitar, Kara on keys and Rowan on bass, are in great form here! What a lovely song.

Bathe Alone: if the previous ones were familiar to me, this Atlanta project is totally new to me. Behind it there’s only one person, Bailey Crone, a talented multi-instrumentalist clearly! Her latest track is a luminous song called “Calm Down” that is catchy and dreamy at the same time!

Sissy Space Echo & the Invisible Collaborators / The Edible Eyes: this split 7″ released on Next Phase : Normal Records sounds terrific. Each band contribute one song, “Fill the Frame”a and “You’re Void” in that order. On top of that it seems that the first 100 copies will come with a bonus CD featuring both tracks from the single. Order now?

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1986 in the US. There was no C86 or anything similar. But there were some fine guitar pop bands. I just discovered one that I can call that, a fine guitar pop band. One from Booklyn, NY, actually, just the next borough to me. A few miles down south. And they were called The Few.

The band was formed by Jonathan Fogler, Clay Ketter, William Pescatore and JD Zeik. Not sure which instruments they each played, that is not listed on the back of the sleeve of their one and only release, a 12″ self-released record with catalog number FW 101. No label.

The record had two songs on each side. We find on the A side the tracks “Grownup” and “My Romance” while on the B side there’s “Where’s the Fire” and “Mrs. Charles”. The record was produced by the band and Robin Danar at the New Breed Studios in New York. The engineer was Robin Danar as well.

Other credits include horns on the song “Where’s the Fire” by The Urban Blight Horns and keyboards on “Grownup” by Dave Kumin and Jaime Carse. The design of the sleeve is credited to Marianne Geist while the photography on the back cover was taken by Wayne Geist. Their manager was Luciano Guerrero. Something to be aware too is that the record came with a lyric sheet.

I find some information about Clay Ketter. He seems to have moved to Sweden in the 80s. Good for him, I am jealous. He is these days a painter and photographer and has shown his work in many galleries. I believe he is originally from Brunswick, Maine, and is now based in Malmö. I found his website and it is cool to see that after The Few he kept playing music in Sweden with bands like Self Made Man, The Art Farmer and Gustafsson, Ketter and Lindsjö. He also lists a 2002 release on Criminal Records called “Will Fisher” by The Few. But I can’t find any info about it! What was on this? Was it some sort of retrospective of The Few songs?

JD Zeik. I find a screenwriter by that name, one who wrote the movies Ronin, Pistol Whipped and The Touch. Could it be the same as the one in The Few? I tend to think it might be, you see, he studied at SUNY, just like Clay Ketter. Maybe they met there. Maybe they started the band while they were there. Also age-wise it makes sense. It fits.

Well, some interesting background information there. I am mostly curious now about that “Will Fisher” release listed on Clay’s website. What was it? Anyone remembers them? Maybe some fellow New Yorkers?

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Listen
The Few – Grownup