Day 83.

As always the indiepopworld keeps providing us with music. Good music.

Victorian Tin: the fantastic Swedish band formed by Erik Bergqvist and Christian Gustafsson have a new song up on their Bandcamp. It is actually a song they had written back in 1998 and now they have partly re-recorded. It is great to see them back in top form!

Hater: I would have seen them supporting The Radio Dept. last April if things would have been normal. Oh well. Tough luck. Maybe next year. The Swedish band has put together a new video with footage taken from the Prelinger Archives. The songs is called “Sift” and it is quite nice.

Slowly: this German shoegaze band is to release an album called “Reveal” on the 12th. The special version of the release on 12″ vinyl is now sold out, but the standard is still available. There are 10 finely crafted songs in the vein of Slowdive or the Daysleepers.

Teen Idle: from Asbury Park, in New Jersey, comes this band formed by Sara Barry, Max Connery and Danny Murray. They have just released a digital single called “In the Morning”  which doesn’t seem to be available physically. Maybe it will be included later in an album or something.

Sleuth: and the best release in this review is the 7-song album “Gold” by the Vancouver band Sleuth. By far. The album is available in tape on Lost Sound Tapes and on CD on Jigsaw Records. It has been a while since we heard from these jangle wizards and so I am very happy to see my friends Jasper and Julian back in top shape!

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I return to Japan, to that country that keeps providing me new obscure bands and songs. Maybe they are not that obscure, but for me the Japanese scene of the 90s is a treasure box that I am not that familiar. And so, I am lucky to keep finding gems there!

I discovered Candy Eyes through their song “Red Bike” that was included in the CD compilation “Television Personalities From Japan, Too” that A Trumpet Trumpet Records (TT006) released in 1992. I have actually written about this comp before, when I wrote about another band that appeared on it, The Spotnick Candy.

But happily that is not everything they put out. There was more. 1993 being their most prolific year.

They would contribute the songs “いつも恋してるなんて嘘” and “Blue Shirts Afternoon” to another Japanese compilation, “Let’s Muc Out On Sound”. This one was released on tape, limited to 100 copies, by Loose Sound (LSCT-001). The question is then, was this their own label perhaps? I ask because this same label would release “Me Japanese Boy” (LSCT-002), a 12 song album on cassette by Candy Eyes.

Also limited to 100 copies, the A side had “Winter, Windy, Wednesday”, “Red Bike (It’s as My Best Friend)”, ” 海沿いのポストまで”, “Siesta”, “The Boutique Monster” and “Perfect Sunday Pt. 1” while the B side had “Blue Shirts Afternoon”, “Summer Dazzling Light”, “Motorcycle Teenage”, “Water Down Orange Juice”, “Sonic-Bang Ladybird” and “Perfect Sunday Pt. 2”. I haven’t heard any of them, so if anyone can help I’d be very very grateful!

Then Discogs lists some demo tapes I believe called “Candy Eyes Cassette”. They have three volumes. Number 3, 4 and 5. Were there more? Was there a 1 and 2? I would like to find out. In any case we know volume 3 had “Winter, Windy Wednesday” and “Summer Dazzling Light”, volume 4 had “Blue Shirts Afternoon (Japanese Ver.)” and “Perfect Sunday”, and volume 5 had “Red Bike (It’s as My Best Friend)” and “The Boutique Monster”.

The very fine Behavior Saviour label would include them, in 1994, on the CD comp “Come All Ye Faithful” (BS011). The band would contribute the song “Winter, Windy, Wednesday”. And then, many years later, in 2007, the band would have their song “Television’s Speed (Home demo ’95)” on the TKO New Music Corporation compilation “Boys (& Girls) Wonder Shibuya-K-Indie-Pop Collection Vol. 2” (TKOK 0002).

I do have a little more info. I know the band was formed by Dai Ogasawara on vocals and guitar, Norihide Takano on bass, Sachico Kimura on keyboards and Nobuo Osawa on drums.

Thanks to this info I was able to find a Soundcloud by Dai Ogasawara where he has a bunch of Candy Eyes tracks as well as from his other project Twangy Twangy,  But that’s not all, Dai has continued to be involved in indiepop as he has been running the very fine netlabel Ano(t)racks!

And then something cool, an interview with Dai on the Japan Times from 2012. Here he tells a bit about his work on the netlabel though not much about his involvement in Candy Eyes.

These are some good finds indeed! Now I would love to get in touch with Dai and the rest of the members of Candy Eyes. Would be great to interview them and find out more about them, about those early 90s in Japan too. And especially I’d love to hear that cassette album they released back in the day! What I have heard by them so far is brilliant!

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Listen
Candy Eyes – Red Bike