Day 118.

Something for those looking for old Cloudberry zines, it seems Horowitz, the fantastic Stoke-on-Trent band who did a few releases with us have a bunch of copies for the first 7 fanzines that have been long sold out! So run before they disappear https://horowitz.bandcamp.com/merch

More new music from around the web!

The Bunbury: this Indonesian band has become a favourite. Now what is odd though is their shoes in Bandcamp, in Zaragoza and Mexico. I wonder if Bandcamp is listing Enrique Bunbury’s gigs there? Could be. Heroes del Silencio, the band Enrique was in the 80s and 90s hailed from Zaragoza and they are big in Mexico, the places where the gigs are to happen. In any case the Indonesian band who may or may not have taken their name from him have a wonderful new song called “Track 4”.

Tough Age: who are this Toronto/Vancouver band? They sound amazing to me! They will be releasing an album on August 6 called “Which Way Am I?”. It is going to be released by Mint Records and it will be available both on vinyl and CD. It seems the band has many other previous releases, but this is the first time (I think?!) that I’m enjoying these shambolic songs!

Bdrmm: the Hull’s band album “Bedroom”, released on July 3rd, seems to be sold out already. Both CD and vinyl versions are sold out. This is quite incredible I must say. How many copies were made? I am curious. Who sells out so fast? This shoegaze band must have the answer!

Caucus: so happy to see our Japanese friends making music again! Now on the great Galaxy Train label they have released a four song EP titled “Exploration of the Moon” and it is wonderful! Among these songs there is even a cover of the classic hit “You and Me Song” by the Wannadies. So cool!

122 North: Danny Provencher is back with another amazing song, “Drive”! I feel this is a special song for sure! Wow. I am speechless. It is part of a four song EP called “Drive” which includes the song “Better Stranger” and two mixes/remixes of Drive, Highway mix and Love Dance remix

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Another band I discovered doing my research for the series of compilations featuring Australian indiepop from the late 80s and early 90s was The Goddards. Prior to 2019 I had never heard of them.

I was lucky with them. I was to find a Soundcloud page that included lotsof songs. Even the A side, “From You For Now”, that was included in their only release they put out back in 1989. Sadly not the B side, “In Your Hands”, which I still hope to listen sometime soon! Maybe I’ll get a copy of the record. That might be easier as it seems the Soundcloud hasn’t been updated for 8 years.

The band released their 7″ in 1989 as I said. It came out on the label Lunchbox Spider (JDJ 100). It does look as if this label was the band’s own as there are no other releases listed. The front of the sleeve has a very cool illustration of a city, airplanes, a highway and men in hats. This illustration was created by T. Edwards.  The back of the sleeve has a photo of the band members and credits.

So thanks to that we know the band was formed by John Fitzgerald on drums and vocals, James Vidler on guitars and vocals and Richard Vidler on guitars and vocals. We know that both songs were recorded at Trackdown Studios in Sydney and were engineered by Tim Ryan. The band produced both tracks with help from Tim Ryan. Also Natassia Broofkisser played all strings on “From You For Now”.

And that’s it. No other releases are listed for them, not even compilation appearances.

But thanks to Soundcloud we know the band hailed from Newcastle in Australia. And that they recorded more songs like: “Thread”, “In My Mind”, “Invisible Blue”, “Best Friend”, “Skin Fest”, “Natasia”, “Fade Away Pretty”, “The Push”, “That’s How I love”, “Sea Shed”, “Randy”, “No Time” and “Hurt”.

Then I found an article on the Newscastle Star dating from April 2, 2016. Here I learn more about James Vidler, the guitarist and vocalist. There was a documentary in 2008 called “Rock I Gave You the Best Years of My Life” were four Newscastle bands were featured. The Goddards was one of them.

Something I learn from the article is that the band was originally formed by James, the youngest of the Vidler brothers. Then it mentions another Vidler brother that didn’t appear on the record it seems, Bob Vidler, who was a bassist.

Their first gig was at the Lass O’Gowrie Hotel in January 1988. At some point Richard got into a business relationship with the Troy Horse studio. This would lead to the creation of the Troy Horse label.

It seems they were recording an EP but they broke before they released it. Maybe many of the songs on Soundcloud were intended for that EP? That would make sense. After the breakup James was in bands like Bloodloop Beautiful and The Donkey Brothers.

Interesting.

Found quite some info and most importantly a bunch of music by The Goddards! That’s great! Now I’d love to hear the story directly from the band members. Will that ever happen?!

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Listen
The Goddards – From You For Now