Happy Monday!
Seems like I’ll be in Paris in July. Also in Brussels for the first time. As every time I get to travel I am happy to bring records to anyone living in these cities to save on postage. I know there is still a lot of time until then (I’ll do a reminder later on), but do let me know if you’d like any of the label’s releases.
Now let’s see what we found over the weekend.
Los Lucha: the Glasgow band that was an amazing surprise last year with their first tape is back and better than before. Their new release is also a tape. It is aptly titled “Tape 2” and has that superb guitars we fell in love with. The EP has 5 songs that carry the flag of the c86 bands and Galaxie 500. A good mix indeed.
Sapphire & Steel: a new track by this great duo formed by Jørn Åleskjær and Estella Rosa. This new digital single is titled “Evelina” and it is a fine jangly tune. The long-distance project has been releasing fine songs every couple of months. I hope they are thinking of putting something out soon!
The Reds, Pinks & Purples: there were some t-shirts being sold by the San Francisco band. They are sold out now. But 3 songs are available, “Life in the Void”, “Nothing Between the Lines at All” and “Evening at Land’s End”. As usual they are excellent. How does Glenn Donaldson do it?
Shiny Times: 4 songs recorded in Garageband between February 2020 and February 2021 by Kim Hart. “Start with S” has four songs that start with the letter S. That’s right. According to Kim this is a song dump, I guess these songs didn’t find a place where to be released but glad that we can listen to them in the end.
Love, Burns: and now a live set by our friends from New York! Phil’s band played at Pete’s Candy Store on February 10, 2022, and the 8 songs from that night are here to listen and enjoy! For this live gig the band formed with Phil on vocals, Alex on bass, Kenny on lead guitar and Hampus on drums.
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Another draft I left years ago was my intended post on the fantastic German band Painting by Numbers.
Of course, you’ll figure out immediately that they took their name from the Television Personalities. And that’s a good thing. That tells us a lot of the band’s intentions.
The band was active in the early 90s and were based in the city of Darmstadt. I’ve been to Germany many times, but not to this city. Oh dear…. it hurts me that I was supposed to go to Germany on 2020, but with the pandemic that plan was killed. I may have been able to visit their city… who knows…
Maybe soon?
Anyhow, according to Discogs we know of at least two releases. The first one is a demo tape that dates from 1990. This tape had four songs on it, two on each side. The A side had “Von Einem Fremden Stern Zurück” and “Samstag Abend” while the B side had “Lied Für Werner Enke” and “Rette Mich (Live Am 9.2.199 Krone-Darmstadt)”. There is no artwork uploaded for this release so sadly don’t know how this tape looked like.
The second release is a CDR live album released in 1996 on the label Declaration of Santo (DoS 12). According to the small bio I found, this label was founded by the band The Dass Sägebett to release and distribute material of their own band and related bands. I don’t think any of the Painting By Numbers were in that band, so maybe they were just friends? Or what was the relation?
Anyhow, this live album was titled “Samstag Abend”. I really hope I could find it. The songs were recorded live on October 10, 1996, at Goldene Krone, a music venue in Darmstadt and mixed by Achim Lowitsch. The songs were “Lilac Car”, “Jesus Comes Again”, “Pet Cementary”, “Atomic Café”, “All Gone”, “Samstag Abend”, “Lied Für Werner Enke”, “Carol”, “Der Auftrag Lautet: Töte Sie!”, “Fremder Stern”, “Der Schönste Mann Dieser Welt”, “Die Zeit Läuft Dir Davon”, “Hassliebe”, “Tief Über Irland”, “Fantastic Feeling”, “Einsam”, “Leuchtturm” and “Eisbär”.
I was curious then about the song they dedicated to Werner Enke. I didn’t know who he was so I had a look. Turns out he is a film actor and screenwriter. I have to say I haven’t seen any of his films. Anyone has any recommendations where to start?
The other detail we know about the band is that of the band members. They were 6 people in the band. Four guys, two girls. The band was formed then by Andreas Debus, Cornelia Henker, Felix Bayer, Frank Koriath, Herbert Sterzik, Peter Horsch and Silke Dressler. Okay, I have said 7 members and in the photo there are six. So one of the guys listed is not on the photo. I want to say it is Felix Bayer the one missing. But can’t be sure. In any case all of them were members at some point of the band.
When it comes to compilations the band did appear on a few. That’s how I discovered them actually, thanks to appearing on “Hier Super 21 – Bitte Maiden!” LP compilation released by Viel Leicht (Propeller 005) in 1993. I own this record where they appear with the song “Samstag Abend”.
But there’s more. In 1989 the band started appearing already on compilations. On the P-fanzine issue number four a 7″ compilation came with it. On it the band contributed the song “Lied Für Werner Enke”. That same year they contributed two songs, “Lilac Car” and “Jesus Comes Again” to the fantastic indiepop compilation “Mit Sonnenschirmen Fingen Wir Den Blütenzauber” on Frischluft Tonträger (FRL 002). So good! I had interviewed Krischan! who ran this amazing label.
Another label I had interviewed, Blam-A-Bit, included them on a cassette tape called “Instants of Pleasure” (BLAM 001) in 1990. The song on this tape was “All Gone”. Then on the classic cassette tape compilation “Heaven Sent” (HS 002) released by Heaven Sent that same year the band had the song “Kill Them All”.
Lastly in 1990 the band had the songs “Einsam” and “Von Einem Fremden Stern Zurück (Remix)” on a compilation LP titled “Hurra, Wir Leben Noch!” that came out on Daxl-Musicx (52-489).
In 1992 we seee the band include “Samstag Abend” on “Mermaid Employee of the Month: Gustav Sackmüller” (MIRABELL 665), a CD, cassette and 7″ compilation. Their song appears on the tape.
The other compilations are more recent. So in 2016 the band contributed “Lied F¨¨ür Werner Enke” to “Falscher Ort Falsche Zeit” (TR331) and “Fremder Stern” to “Falscher Ort Falsche Zeit Volume 2” (TR345) released both by Tapete Records.
Now, on what other bands were the band members involved with? Well it turns out that Andreas Debus did contribute to The Dass Sägebett, playing guitar on one of their songs as far as I know. Felix Bayer on the other hand was in Der Heitere Himmel and the legendary Die Fünf Freunde. Frank Koriath, the same, he was on Die Fünf Freunde.
What else have I found out?
There is an official video for the song “All Gone” on Youtube! This is a great find. I believe the video is not from the time when the band was active, but the footage is. So this is amazing actually.
Om this same account, by Petrus Morsch (I want to think he is Peter Horsch?) I find live performances of the band. There is a video of them playing “Lilac Car” in 1997 at Negativ in Frankfurt, supporting the Cosmic Psychos. Then there’s them playing “Eisbär” with the help of Hardy Zech from The Dass Sägebett. And lastly them playing a cover of Die Sterne’s “Ein Verregneter Sommer“.
And that’s what I could find out. I wonder why they didn’t release any records on their own at the time. They had fantastic songs. Would be great to find out more details about this amazing German band!
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