Day 53. Monday. Another trip to the post office. Almost done with all fanzine orders now. Next week I should finish. Again sorry for the delay, and also all my Spanish friends whose orders I can post yet, as soon as I can, I will. Be sure of that.
New weekend finds.
Milkfilm: a new song and a few remixes of it by the Japanese tweepop band and that makes me terribly happy! With artwork by the fantastic Ma, we find “Someone Who Needs You” in three versions, cloudgazer mix, no.5 mix and no.5 mix intrumental version. Be aware that these songs are just a digital release, that they won’t appear on their album slated for October.
Den Baron: our German friend is back with a new EP called “Old But New” which has 4 older songs that have never been released before. They are “(Oh No, You Can’t Leave Me) Halfway to Mexico”, “Riding Cows”, “Dusty Roads” and “Wintertime”. When were they recorded? That’s a good question. But most importantly these songs are great so do give them your time!
Dummy: I had reviewed this band in the past when there was just one song to preview of their self-titled EP. Well now the good news is that the Los Angeles band has the 5 songs available to listen. The EP will be released on cassette from the Pop Wig Records label in the near future. This is very good, I hope it also gets a CD or vinyl release!
Dolly Dr: Melbourne, Australia. Not that new. A year or so ago these songs were recorded. Only now we find them on Bandcamp. There are 5 songs on the “Make and Model” but the mystery is that it mentions that the band is/was Claire Spooner, Chiara Grassia, Lloyd Davies and Gemma Nourse. Does that mean the band is still active or not?
Goin’ Steady: the first song by this tweepop project from LA is called “I’ll Do Anything” and it sounds great! With pa-pa-pas and boy/girl vocals. It is a rough demo, but it doesn’t matter, you get what this song can sound like if recorded a bit better. Fun!
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Another Swedish band I discovered as of late are Gluebellies who were around the mid 90s mainly. They released a string of CD singles plus a mini-album, and then I guess disappeared into oblivion. Or maybe not? Let’s find out together.
The first release listed on Discogs is actually a demo tape released in 1995 with two songs. The A side had the song “The Benefits of Erudition” while the B side had “Charles and Lucie”.
This demo would catch the attention of Payola Records in Sweden who would offer them to release their self-titled mini-album in 1996. The “Gluebellies” (BRIBE2) CD album included 7 tracks recorded and produced at Studion, in Malmö, during the summer of 1995. Was the band from Malmö then? The tracks were “The Benefits of Erudition”, “Her Favourite Crooner”, “No Worse Than She”, “Bleach Your Hair”, “Around the World”, “Don’t Let Me Interrupt” and “The Dead”.
Ole Andersson was on vocals and guitar, Hanna Hansson on bass and vocals and Ulrika Andersson on drums. They also had Ulrika Mårtensson playing cello on “No Worse than She” and Martin Hennel playing harmonium on “The Dead”. The sleeve for the record was put together by Johan Jardevall with the photography by Martin Bogren. Bogren being the one who took photos for a few of The Cardigans’ albums and other cool albums by Brainpool and Eggstone.
We don’t know of any other bands the three band members could have been involved with. Not yet at least. That same year though they contribute the song “Her Favourite Crooner” to the CD compilation “Popnation – Best of Bekingska Nationen 1994-1996” released by Beat That! (BEAT013). But that’s not the only compilation they appeared on. There was another one that we don’t know what year it was released. It was called “Godmorgon Världen” where they contributed the track “Around the World”. This one was relesed by Sydsvenskan (MMR CDD1). Was this the Sydsvenskan newspaper perhaps?
All these caught the attention of the English label Jealous Records who would include them on a CD single (COUP 004) as part of their Revolution singles club. This CD single was shared with the Derby band The Beekeepers who were on Beggars Banquet. The band would contribute the song “Don’t Let Me Interrupt” and The Beekeepers had the song “Catgut”. The Gluebellies track would be license by Payola Records of course.
As I mentioned earlier there were more singles by the band. All of them in the CD single format. Yes. That one would be awfully unusual these days. All were to be released by Payola Records. The first one dates from 1999 and was the one for “Chemical Light” (BRIBE 005). The other song accompanying it was “Seminal”. Both soongs were recorded and produced by Martin Hennel at Studion. The art for this release was created by Nils-Petter Ekwall.
“You Can” / “Another Thing Needful” (BRIBE 006) was released in the year 2000. Same credits for art and production. Lastly, that same year, the badn released the CD single “Who Are You?” / “End up Nowhere” (Bribe 008). I am guessing same credits for art and production.
Then I stumble upon a Soundcloud with tons of recordings! There are no new uploads though, the latest ones date from 8 years ago. These recordings that were not previously released include some demo tracks that were recorded in the first half of the noughties and some more recent remixes and versions like “The Waterfront (demo)”, “The Waterfront (Peter Ebbeson remix)”, “The Waterfront (My Lambertsen remix)”, “The Waterfront (Mikael Jönsson version)”, “Golden Opportunity”.
There are also other tracks recorded in 1997 intended to be released on the UK label Jealous Records. That included a cover of Abba’s “Dancing Queen” and the tracks “As if the Sun Is Out”, “You’ll Find Yourself Alone”, “The One Who Never Would Tell” and “Clock on the Mountain”.
And there are other songs like “Launderette Love”, “Embers Glowing”, “Something Made it Seem Alright”, “In the Eye”, “Do You Expect Me to Cry?”, “Colder” and “Chemical (demo)”.
Then a video on Youtube of the band playing at Malmöfestival on August 16 of 1999. it is the whole gig. Interesting outfits for the band I must say! But that’s not all. There is a video of the band playing sometime in 2003 at Klubb Omnichord. It is a very short video. But still cool that they were still playing then.
Another interesting place to look for information is Popfakta. Here I find that the band recorded more demo cassettes. There was one with the track “Kicking the Moon Around”, another with the track “Golden Opportunity” and lastly one with “Do You Expect Me to Cry?”. What songs came with them? Or maybe it was just the one song on these demo tapes?
Then I find some online articles about them. Some interesting things I learn is that the band was originally from Lund but moved eventually to greater Malmö (according to Popviminns). Then I believe the band played in the Siesta! festival from 2004 in Hässleholm.
So when did they stop making music? Or better, when did they stop playing live? Who’d know. Whatever happened to the band members? And had they been involved in other bands? That’d be interesting to know.
Any information about the Gluebellies (where does their name come from?), would be appreciated!
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