Day 76.
Not much news on this front. Here are some good finds:
The Ashenden Papers: Jason Dezember, Marie Davenport and Ella Cross are The Ashenden Papers from Alameda, California. And what’s great is that they have a mini-album out on Secret Center Records called “Asphodel Meadows”. It is available now on vinyl and it comes with 7 fine indiepop songs!
Prepare My Glider: I know this band is from Canada, but no clue where in Canada. Their latest release is a two song digital single which is available to listen on Bandcamp. The songs are “Smokesong” and “No Early Warning – demo”. How do they sound? This three-piece make some fine dreampop in the vein of Slowdive or My Bloody Valentine.
Pizza Daddy: first time I’m listening to this superb sounding sound from London. Their latest track is called “Too Many Boyfriends” which was just put up on Bandcamp. Previously they had released the song “Family Time” which is really nice too. I have a bit of hard time with the band name, that’s my only complain.
Shiny Happy Fanzine 04 – Please Rain Fall Companion: the Indonesian label has released a new fanzine and to accompany it they have made a compilation including 19 top indiepop songs by the likes of Tullycraft, Marc Elston, Fernando Torres, The Suncharms, Den Baron and more. For me the best release this week!
The Umbrella Puzzles: three new recordings by the great Ryan Marquez (Apple Orchard, Golden Teardrops). This is very very good and I think everyone should have a listen. The songs here are a cover of Luna’s “Anesthesia”, “Fountain Morning (Quarantine session)” which was recorded for Our Secret World sessions organized by Shiny Happy Records a few days ago and “Somersaulting (demo version)” that dates from last year.
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Here’s a US band I have never heard before. I believe US jangly bands from the 80s are still quite obscure. I think starting in the 90s they become much more well-known in indiepop circles. But before that only a handful are well known and the rest continue being obscure. And that I believe is the case of The Need, a band that released a full-length album in 1985 and nothing else. They just disappeared it seems. Or not? Let’s find out.
The album was called “Obviously Four Believers”. It makes sense to call the album like that, the band was a four-piece formed by George Edmonson on bass, Brad Holtzman on drums, Rajesh Makwana on guitar and Bill See on vocals. This album, as I said, was released in 1985 on the label 221B Records (no catalog number). It doesn’t surprise me that this is the only release listed for this label. Everything indicates that this was a self-release.
11 songs were on the record, 5 on the A side and 6 on the B side. The A side had the following tracks, “Stranger”, “(Time) for the Breakout”, “Last Time I Saw Her”, “Like the City” and “Reach You”. The B side had “Tell Me”, “Clandestine Shield”, “When the Winter Comes”, “House of Cards”, “I Will” and “Wishing Well”.
All of the songs were recorded at Radio Tokyo in Los Angeles by Ethan James but two, “House of Cards” and “Wishing Well” which were engineered at Sound Advice by Matt Wright. The producer was Ron Jolly. An interesting credit on the back of the sleeve is that of Mary Susan Herczog who was their manager (den mother and avatar).
And then an interesting find, it seems that at some point the band changed names to be called Divine Weeks. As Divine Weeks they would release three albums and two EPs mostly in the early 90s (their last album though dates from 2018!). The story says that the band hailed from LA and that they were childhood friends. They formed in 1983 and practiced at George Edmondson’s basement. Holtzman wasn’t part of the gang yet, but would meet George at UCLA and join the other three friends. They called themselves The Need. Then they would release the album, mostly a collection of demos, on 221B Records as I mentioned earlier. It was in 1987, when Holtzman left the band that they would change names to Divine Weeks and get a much more important career, even with national tours.
The best article about them is on the very fine Wilfully Obscure blog. It mostly talks about Divine Weeks but does give us some idea of what to expect throughout the album. Jangly psych-pop.
Some other interesting facts I found on the web is that George Edmonson is now a Professor of Medieval Studies at Dartmouth! So cool!
And that’s it. Not much more info about this band. Probably there’s much more written about Divine Weeks, but maybe I’ll have a listen to them next. Any other information regarding The Needs would be great!
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