This weekend I put the final touches to the fanzine. I should be printing it the next week!

Music finds too of course. Sharing them with you now!

Cold Beat: we know them as one of the best bands in the US and so it is great to see them back again with a new album. It is called “Mother” and it will be released on CD and vinyl on February 28th! It sounds as you can expect from them, great melodies, pop sensibilities mixed with post punk attitude. 10 songs which you can preview already on Bandcamp!

Fragile Animals: this shoegaze band from Brisbane has just released a new digital single called “Only Until It’s Over”. It is a very nice dreamy song with girl vocals. The lyrics are posted on the Bandcamp for singing along!

Pop at Summer: I love this Bandung, Indonesia, band. They make shiny sunny pop! I once worked with them in the past, including them in a compilation. Many years ago. I can’t help to be happy to see that they have just released a new song called “Sunny Day Parade”. Play it on repeat!

Zoo Gazer: the Xuzhou, China, band has just released a new 5 song EP titled “Hiding in your Room”. I have heard this cool band that loves classy and elegant pop before. The five-piece have crafted here a very good record, but sadly is only available digitally. Maybe some of the very good indiepop labels in China will pick them up?!

Un Día Soleado: this is a very interesting cover of Another Sunny Day’s (the band is actually named after the classic Sarah band) “I’m in Love With a Girl Who Doesn’t Know I Exist”. It comes all the way from Argentina and is a true mystery. The band is based in Viedma, Río Negro, and they are on the Hikikomori Discos label!

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You know that lately I’ve been checking out a bunch of Japanese indiepop bands. I love them. It is also true that I don’t own many of their records, which is a shame. I should try to catch up. For example, the album and 7″ Dizzy Joghurt released would be great. I’d love them to be part of my collection. Not only that. I’d love to find more information about them. Possibly interview them. Their music was fantastic and I belive they deserve to get some attention. Not that I think my blog is read by millions of people, but still some do!

Oddly enough the first release by this Japanese indiepop combo was their album. It was titled “Inside Out Upside Down” and was released by the fine K.O.G.A. Records (K.O.G.A. 042). It was released on both vinyl LP and CD and included 14 top tracks: “Nonsense is Good”, “Maria”, “All the Way”, “Not All Are Need”, “Sunday Girl”, “Get Back to Smile”, “Weekend”, “Do As You Like”, “Wake Up”, “Plastic Drop”, “He Versus My Mind”, “Here Come all the Shine”, “Terminal” and “Anorak Co-La Mix-Version”.

The next year, 1999, they would release the “Dizzy Joghurt Theme” EP. It came out on 7″ vinyl and also as a CDEP. It was released by K.O.G.A. as well (K.O.G.A. 070). For those that have the 7″, you’d know that it came with three songs “Dizzy Joghurt Theme”, “Over Again” and “Rainy Sunday is Over”. The first was on the A side while the other two were on the B side.

The CDEP version had a different tracklist. So, yes, “Dizzy Joghurt Theme” was first, but then we find “How Do You Do It?” and “In My Eyelid”, and then in reverse order there’s “Rainy Sunday Is Over” and “Over Again”.

There’s a scan on Discogs of the 7″. It is very low-res but I think I can figure out the band members. They were
Hitomi & Kanako – vocals guitar, tambourine and keyboard
Makoto Otsuru – bass, backing vocals
Hirokazu Ohashi – drums, percussion
Mikoto Akutsu – guitar

“Dizzy Joghurt Theme” and “Over Again” are credited to Hitomi & Kanako while “Rainy Sunday is Over” to Hirokazu Ohashi. We know the band produced these three songs. Then I find a scan on Amazon (of all places!) of the CDEP back sleeve. Thanks to this I know that “In My Eyelid” was penned by Hitomi & Kanako, but most importantly that “How Do You Do it?” is actually a cover of The Impossible’s original! Wow! I wrote about The Impossibles on the blog a year or so ago I believe!

All songs on the EP were recorded and mixed at Rinky Dink Studio in February 1999. They were produced by the band and they were engineered and mixed by Tsutomu Oikawa. They were mastered at AST studio by Hikari Mitsufuji. The art for the sleeve is credited to Akiko Ito and the design to Kanako Matsuzawa.

Happily the band recorded more songs and they lie scattered among various compilations.

The first one dates from 1996 and it was a 7″ compilation called “Anorak Must! 2”, what a great title! This record was released by 15 MINS P.F. (FIFII-005). The band contributed the song “You’ll See, Take Your Time”. That same year the band contributed one of their best songs, “Anorak Co-la” to the “Anorak Must! 3” flexi compilation! This was also released by 15 MINS P.F. (FIFII-006).

In 1997 they had their song “You’ll See, Take Your Time” on the compilation “Dave Parasite Presents… Japan Punk Kills You!” which was released on CD by the American Pop Project (AmPop 201CD). Then again on the 4th of the Anorak Must series, “Anorak Must! 4”, which was now released on tape by 15 MINS P.F. (FIF2-008). They had the song “Not All Are Need” on this one.

Then in 1998 the band had their song “Here Comes All the Shine” on a CD comp that accompanied the well-known Indies Magazine on it’s 16th issue. The CD was just named like that, “Indies Magazine Vol. 16”. This was released by Rittor Music (ICB-016). That same year their song “Nonsense is Good” appears on the American compilation “Pure Spun Sugar” released by Candy Floss (CF-017) and the American Pop Project (AmPop 201).

Lastly in 2003 the band contributed two songs to a very good compilation called “Good Girls Don’t! (K.O.G.A. Records 10th Anniversary Compilation Album Vol. 1)”. (KOGA 159). To this CD comp the band contributed two songs, “Nonsense is Good” and “Dizzy Joghurt Theme”. There are many great bands on this record, I hope to cover many of them in the future.

Interestingly it seems Hitomi & Kanako did solo recordings later on, appearing on compilations like “Ring Her Bell!!!”, “Indies Magazine Vol. 44” and “Flowers Are Go! Vol.4 – Under Flower Records Sampler”. Not sure about the other members. Were they involved in other bands?

Not much more information about them. I wonder why they spelled Joghurt that way. Why they didn’t release more records. What are the band members doing now. From where in Japan were they from. And many more questions I’d love to ask them. So I ask you all, help me! Would be great to know more about them!

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Listen
Dizzy Joghurt – Anorak Co-La