Day 193. Not many news today, but I can tell you a little secret, I’ve started working on a new retrospective compilation! I hope I can let you know which band will be next in our amazing Cloudberry Cake Kitchen series!!
Pop at Summer: the fantastic Bandung band is back again with a new song full of summer vibes called “Summer is Coming!”. It is really really good! The band formed by Givani, Roni Tresnawan and Rifky Rahman is quickly becoming my favourite band from Indonesia that is still going. I really want a release of them to happen!
Dream Suicides: this Riverside, California, band makes bedroom shoegazy songs and they have a new release coming out in October 16 called “Reflections of Ourselves in Scars Within Others”. It doesn’t say if it is an album, an EP or just a song. But what is interesting is that just a few weeks ago they put out an EP called “The Darkness That Follows Me” which is totally worth checking out. Also so great to see Irene Jacob on the top banner.
Peachblood: more shoegaze sounds! this time from the Brighton based label Shore Dive Records. The band Peachblood hailing from East Sussex has just released a 5 song EP titled “Longing Sky” and it is available on CD (though 3 copies were left at the time of writing this post). It sounds quite good, so maybe they should do a second CD pressing?
Victorian Tin: our friends Erik and Christian are releasing a new CD on Everlasting Records, one self-titled EP that will include the songs “Chagall”, “Above Our Heads”, “Silver and Perfume” and “Borders”. This is great stuff.
Misty Coast: and lastly we head to Bergen, Norway. This is a city that gave us three bands that released on Cloudberry, The April Skies, Soda Fountain Rag and Princess Niko, so it has a special place in my heart, I just hope to visit someday! Well, Misty Coast makes some lovely music as I can tell from their latest effort, “In a Million Years”!
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Let’s head to Canada today. That’s where Tara Landry White, aka. Tara S’Appart, is from. As you know I am doing this challenge with songs that have a month in their title. Tara wrote “October Daze”, so I can give October a check mark now. So, back in the 90s she recorded a bunch of songs. Some were released in time, and many more had to wait until 2001 to get released. Let’s find out more about her.
In 2019 a lot of her recordings showed up on Rick White’s Bandcamp. But I’ll come back to this later. I want to do this chronologically.
Tara recorded 50+ songs between 1994 and 1999. According to Discogs in 1994 there was a tape called “Space So Pretty”. Maybe this was her first release ever? It clearly looks self-released and we can see that Rick White recorded and mixed all 9 songs on the tape. The A side had “Space So Pretty”, “I Can’t”, “Blind Hit”, “Notes” and “Universe of Mine”. The B side had “Beautiful Dreamer”, “Untouchable Eyes”, “Grass” and “Night… The Hardest Time for Me Without You”.
OK, so Rick White. Who is he? He is definitely an important figure in Canadian independent music. He was in Eric’s Trip as well as in other bands like Elevator, Moon Socket, The Underdogs and The Unintended among others.
Rick would also record Tara S’Appart first and only vinyl release. It was a 7″ titled “Little 7″” that was released by the Canadian label Homemade Hearts Records (HOM-002) in 1996. I have no clue about this label but they at least released another record that same year for the band Soft Blanket. Tara S’Appart 7″ included four songs, “Mending Time” and “The Land of Where Lost Dreams Go” on the A side and “Trees” and “Pretty” on the B side. Tara wrote the songs as well as playing guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion and sang. Rick played the drums. All four songs were recorded between November 1995 and April 1996 by both of them.
Lastly, the Moncton based Great Beyond Recordings would release in 1999 a CDR with 14 songs called “The Faces of the Moon” (GBR002). This album was recorded by Tara and Rick in Riverview, New Brunswick during the summer and autumn of 1998. The songs on this album were: “Faces of the Moon”, “How I Long to Hear Clearly”, “Phase of the Moon”, “No Good Reason”, “Lights and Shadows Cast”, “Further Past Our Time”, “Faces of the Moon (Part Two)”, “Inhale / Exhale”, “Full Moon Song”, “So Far”, “A New Guitar”, “October Daze”, “Kind of Cruel” and “Faces of the Moon (Part Three)”.
These releases weren’t everything she put out. Actually Tara S’Appart appeared on at least 5 compilations. The first one dates from 1996 and was a cassette (1996) and CD (1997) compilation called “The Stareoscopic Scary Show. An Audiological View of Moncton N.B.”. This was released by Rick White himself and included the song “The Land Where Lose Dreams Go”.
Ramona Records (RAM 003) would include the song “The Light and Shadows Cast” on the 1997 CD compilation “Super Secret Songs: A Benefit for Kitchener’s Korova Cafe”. It does look like that there was a Korova Cafe in Ontario, I am guessing the proceeds of the CD were donated to it?
In 1998 the band would appear on “Hypnodia Lost” a 7″ compilation released by Hypnodia (H-06) from Canada. Tara S’Appart would include the song “Further Past Our Time” which was recorded at Xandu Room in October 1997 by Rick White.
Then in 2005 the wonderful song “October Daze” would appear on Kittridge Records compilation “Homemade Hits Vol. 2” (KITT 021). It was through this compilation that I discovered the band.
Lastly there is a compilation called “Hear the Water Freezes Faster: A CHMA FM 106.9 Compilation of Artists from the Trantramar Region and Beyond”. I dont know much about this compilation, but we know that the band appeared with the song “Another Day”.
Now back to the Bandcamp.
So yes, here are all the songs from the “Faces of the Moon” album as well as the “Little 7” and “Space so Pretty cassette plus the song “Another Day” that was in the last compilation I mentioned. We also learn that on “Full Moon Song” and “Kind of Cruel” Joel Plaskett played pedal steel. And that’s it. No further information. I am starting ton be curious about the 50+ songs it was said Tara had recorded. Where are they?
I keep digging and find that actually Tara and Rick married according to a blog post on the blog Songadayforever.com. We also know that Tara was in a bunch of bands including Elevator to Hell, Elevator and Orange Glass.
Not much more about this band. I wonder if they played much live, if at all? I couldn’t find any information about that. So I am hoping to hear from you, do you remember them?
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Listen
Tara S’Appart – October Daze
