Day 190. Getting close to 200 days working from home. What day are you all on? Or have you returned to your workplaces?
Puff Punch: so cool to hear this band! I believe it is the first time I am listening to the Jakarta based combo and it is a delight. Their latest release is called “Can We Go Out Now?”, a 4 song EP of catchy punky pop!
Rosehip Teahouse: I have recommending this band from Cardiff in the past, and why not do it again? They have a new song up on their Bandcamp and it sounds quite nice. It is called “I Meant What I Said” and lyrics are posted to sing along.
Still Corners: the classic London band is back with a new song called “The Last Exit”! It is a superb song and there’s even a video for it which you can check right here.
Nah..: as we know our friends Sebastian and Estella are releasing an album on Shelflife Records. It may as well be our favourite new record this year right? Top five? I can’t wait to get my hands on it. In the meantime they have unveiled a new song, not included in the album, that sounds amazing, “Finger on the Map”!
Pet Dreams: now the bedroom project of Ryan Davis from Seattle, Washington. This is a lo-fi dreampop record, it is called “Time Away”, and it is available now on CD. It includes 6 songs, all written, recorded, mixed and mastered by himself!
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“Autumn, September” is the song by The Maybellines that I am going to choose to clear the month of September in this silly challenge of me. Good times! Do you remember this lovely Denver band?
We can go in chronological order, right?
So first time we hear about them was in 1997 on two compilations according to Discogs but I feel this may be wrong? These two compilations are for Edmonton, Canada, bands. We know the Maybellines hailed from Denver, so I will skip. So I’ll jump to 1998, there’s a compilation called “Today’s Top Girl Groups Vol. 1” with a song called “No Jive” by The Maybellines.
So those years are confusing to me. I don know that the band’s first release came in 1999 for sure. That is the band we know, The Maybellines. The 7″ was called “”Towel Off” EP and had four songs, “Our Midnight” and “What About Me?” on the A side and “Rocky Mountain High” and “Haynes Point” on the B side. We see on the sleeve the cute characteristic illustrations we’d see from the band, this time a ladybug, and we know that the record was recorded and produced by Brian Feutchtinger in 1999 at Uneven Studios in Denver. The photo on the insert is credited to James Bludworth, Jimmy Gapinski did the drawing and we get the names of the band members, Julie, Mike, Dave and Alice.
The year 2000 would be more prolific. The band would release a split 7″ with the band The Pin Downs. This release was self-released by both bands and came with a fanzine. There is no catalog numbers. The Maybellines appear on the B side with two songs, “Bright Eyes” and “Punker”.
The band would include their song “Low-Fi” to a double CD compilation called “Local Shakedown” released by Smooch Records (SMOOTCH 01). This compilation was sold to promote local Colorado artists and Radio 1190 KCVU from Boulder. But more interestingly the band would release an 8-song album on the great Shelflife Records. It would be self-titled (LIFE 024) and the songs on it were “Sleep Over”, “Watch Out”, “Bomb Pop”, “Space Mission Bible Camp”, “Sally”, “I Hope You Like Me Too”, “One Thousand” and “Happiness Digest”. The album was recorded between January 13 and 18 at Uneven Studios. Brian Feuchtinger was the engineer as well as co-producer. Jon Chaikin did the mastering at Nonstpsound. The artwork was created by Jill from Shelflife.
In 2001 the band appeared on many comps. The song “Big Wheel” is on the “White Shirts = Stains” cassette comp released by Unread. Two songs, “Battleship” and “Oregon” appear on another US comp, the “Amateur Rocket Club” double 7″ released by Amateur Rocket Club. On this one, as in many comps they appear alongside The Breezy Porticos. The other two bands in these 7″s are The Jenni Jensens and Kudzu Towers. In the classic “Picnic Basket (A Shelflife International Pop Compilation)” (LIFE 020) the band appears with “Our Midnight”. Then the song “Oregon” appears on “Joe’s Blue Plate Special Volumes 56-59” a four CD compilation set released by Joe’s Grill. Lastly, “Sprawl Forever” does appear on “One” another Shelflife classic compilation (LIFE 040).
In 2002 the band stops releasing on Shelflife, not sure why, but they join Best Friends Records where they release their second album “Chatfield Holiday” (FR-02). This album which was recorded between September and December 2001, was again recorded by Bryan Feuchtinger and mastered by Jon Chaikin as the same places. The photography again by James Bludworth and the artwork by Jimmy Gapinski. Liner notes by Jason Heller. This CD had 11 songs, “Oregon”, “Wait for You”, “Kid Pop Unite”, “Drama Queen”, “Battleship”, “I Just had the Best Time”, “Until I Met You”, “7 Blocks Away”, “Big Wheel”, “Walking Down the Street” and “Untitled”.
More compilation appearances of course. Their song “Watermelon” gets included in the Planting Seeds Records CD comp “Dreaming Up the Perfect Pop” (PSRCD 12).
In 2003 the band continues contributing songs. “This and That” is on the “You’re Still Young at Heart” (LIFE 050) on Shelflife and “Wish You Dead” is on “I Am A Victim of this Song” CD compilation released by Baka-Poi from France. This one came with a 40 page A5 fanzine!
In 2004 they have “On & On” on the CD compilation “Happy Happy Birthday to Me Vol. 3” and also their song “Our Town” appears on “Radio 1190 Local Shakedown Vol II”.
In 2005 the EP “A La Carte” is released by Best Friends Records (FR-08) including 6 songs, “The Only One”, “Dream Vacation”, “Autumn, September”, “Come On”, “Our Hearts Keep Time” and “Night Ranger”. That same year the video for their song “Wait For You” gets included in two DVD compilations, “2005 Colorado Indie Music Video Competition” and “No Parachute, Volume 1: A Compilation of Indie Music Videos”.
Lastly in 2007 the band released a CDR on a label I don’t like (what can you do?) called “Our Secret Lives”. There are 9 songs that are actually early four-track home recordings. Only 150 copies were available. The songs are “Quietly”, “Chatfield Holiday”, “Ms. Sheriff”, “Froggy”, “Jamaholic”, “HMO”, “Maybelline”, “Stupid Love”, “Low-fi”. The label is the American Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records (HHBTM077A).
I also know that there was a live session of the band at KFJC, where they recorded at least a song that remains unreleased,”Uh Oh”.
The Maybellines video for “Wait For You” is available in Youtube of course. Check it out. Also if you want to check the two released on Best Friends Records, they are on Bandcamp.
Then I start to find articles on the web about them. We know the band played for example a CD release show for “A La Carte” at the Hi-Dive in Denver on August 26, 2005. Another show dates from November 14, 2002, at Meow Meow in Denver alongside Joy Electric and I am the World Trade Center. October 19, 2005, saw them play alongside with Broken Spindles and Porlolo at the Larimer Lounge in Denver. April 30, 2005, they played Benders Tavern with the Breezy Porticos in Denver as well. More gigs, now thanks to the Dressy Bessy gigography page. Dressy Bessy of course also a Denver band. So we know that they played together with Dressy Bessy and Mates of State on July 11th 2000 at Lions Lair, and then again with Dressy Bessy, Breezy Porticos and Kudzu Tower at the Mike & Johannes house on October 31st, 2000. 2002, June 8th, they played at the Bluebird Theatre with Dressy Bessy and Thank God for Astronauts. Lastly another gig I found dates from October 2nd 2002 at the 15th St. Tavern with The Love Letter Band.
Aside from Denver I know they played in Durango, Colorado, at Thee Olde Shcool House Rocks on July 3rd 2005 with Bunnygrunt.
Another article by Westword mentions that Jason Heller, the one who wrote the liner notes is nowadays a renowned science-fiction writer! Wow, I found his website even.
Last.fm has a biography. I should have started there probably. I see that the band started in 1998, so yeah, those previous compilations appearances were not the same band. It says that Julie Dorough, Al Adams and Mike Levasseur were the original band members. Actually Al and Mike had started this project and asked Julie to join them to be the singer. Then Dave Reeves was the last to join them. It mentions that for Mike and Julie this was their first band, but Dave and Al had been in previous band, Al for example was in The Hood.
Then a very cool article on the Peace Corps Online. How come? It seems Al Smith met Mike Levasseur on a plane bound for Africa as they were joining the Peace Corps! Al hailed from Virginia, Mike from Maine, and somehow both would end up in Denver. The band’s first show was at Al and Mike’s old house, the crowd were 15 friends.
It seems there used to be a video on PBS were Dave Reeves, the bass player, appears playing. The video was part of a program called Sounds on 29th and in this video they were featuring Kristin Rand & Sara Belle and Friends.
And that’s it. Quite a lot of information. Maybe there’s more online. But still would be great to find more!
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