Day 127. Happy Friday. No news. Just some new music today.

Bathe Alone: Bailey Crone’s solo dreampop project is back with a wonderful new song called “Go Away”. This song is actually the 6th single off her upcoming LP that will be released this year. The album should be called “Last Looks” but we don’t know yet when this Atlanta band will release it!

Dog Day: first time listening this band that will release their album “Present” on the Halifax, Canada, label Fundog Records. It seems to be all about dogs! The album will be out on August 12 and we can preview one of the tracks, “Hell on Earth”, which is great! A luminous pop song that hints us what the album may offer! Looking forward to it!

Sonntag: Who are Sonntag? We know they hail from Los Angeles and that their latest track called “Vespa” is a lovely sweet one. It is the first time I listen to them so I must say I am very curious. I will have to check the previous releases.

H!: the latest from the Shiny Happy Records digital club is the song “B’day” by this Jakarta tweepop one-man project. Behind H! is Adi Cumi who is a big fan of Another Sunny Day and St. Christopher. Sounds good indeed!

Mary Queen of Scots: so great to hear a new song by this classic UK band! This new song is taken from the upcoming album “With Friends Like Us Who Needs the NME?” and is titled “Only Time Will Tell”. It is really really good!

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Continuing with great Australian bands from the 80s, I just discovered Other Voices and their song “She Walks Down”. What a track!

Now I need to track down the 7″ that had this song and hopefully their other single from the early 80s. In the meantime I’ll try to find more information about them. Join me?

So there is a small blurb on Discogs about them where they say that the band formed in Brisbane and moved to Sydney in 1983. What year did they form? That is something I’d need to find out. I do know though that in that same year, 1983, they would release the “Other Voices” 7″ (SUN 0035) on Sundown Records. This label was set up by Eleanor and John Briskey in 1981 in Lawnton, Queensland. I think at this point they were still in Brisbane.

This first 7″ was a double A side, with “World War III” on one side and “Another Tuesday” on the other. Both songs were recorded in Brisbane in December 1982. The songs were engineered by Ashley Keating and Lee Faulkner at Basement Studios. Here we also learn who formed the band:
Glenn Bevan – bass
Cameron Earl – drums
Richard Farmer – guitar
Graeme Norris – saxophone
Roger Norris – vocals

The cool art of the artwork is credited to the band. That’s great.

Then after moving to Sydney they would sign with the well-known Waterfront Records and release their second 7″, “She Walks Down” (DAMP 12). Discogs has the release date for it for 1985. The A side has the title song while the B side had the song “Cats Neva Land”. We also notice some lineup changes here. Paul McGrath had replaced Glenn Bevan on bass and Andrew Clement replaced Cameron Earl on drums.

According to the blurb on Discogs the band split up just after this single. Afterwards vocalist Roger Norris would front the Plug Uglies in 1990 and then join Panacea in 1994. I also see that he was in another bands called The Dobie Gills Experience and Fie on Love. Graeme Norris also was in different bands like The Original Otto Orchestra, The Dobie Gills Experience and West End Composer Collective. Richard Farmer was also in the Dobie Gills Experience, so maybe we can say that this band, who released a tape album in 1983, was the seed of Other Voices? Seems like a fair assumption.

The band also left us some more songs on a few compilations. For example on the cassette compilation “Castrak” that came along the Ratsack fanzine 3rd number in 1983, the band contributed the track “Scene/Unseen”. Then their song “Another Tuesday” was included in the double vinyl compilation album “The Southern Cross”. This comp was released by Ink Records (INK 4D) in the UK in 1984.

And then I find some treasure, a promo video for “She Walks Down“! Amazing! Here we learn that the songs for the 2nd single were recorded at the M Squared Studio in Surry Hills and the video was filmed at various locations around Sydney. This was uploaded by Roger Norris himself. ON the comments I find something interesting, that a Greek student made a short film called “One Way” that included their song “Another Tuesday” as part of the soundtrack! Would be cool to find that!

That was quite something. I couldn’t find anything else nor a fair-priced copy of the 7″s. But I am sure some of you remember them and will let me know any details about them that come up to mind!

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Listen
Other Voices – She Walks Down