Day 197.
No Wave Charles: From Boston comes this bedroom pop band will be releasing their debut album called “Bulk”. We can’t listen to all of the songs on Bandcamp and it is not available in physical formats, but there are at least two songs to get a taste of the sort of indiepop the band makes. So check out “Self-Obsessed” and “Enforced Suicide”. The album (and perhaps all songs available to preview) is out on October 2nd.
Staring Problem: Modern Tapes from Brooklyn, NY, are releasing the album “Eclipse” by this Chicago band. There are some great guitar pop songs here, some are a bit goth-y, that’s true, but for example “Cheshire Cat” is a very fine song. The record includes 7 songs and all are available to preview on Bandcamp.
Latitude: this San Francisco band makes some wonderful pop music. They are releasing their album “Mystic Hotline” on October 6 on vinyl and will include 10 effervescent songs. We can now preview two of them, “Thursday is the New Sunday” and “Tick Tock”! Good stuff!
Drawing Boards: just discovered this band from Queens, New York. They must be somewhere close to me! They have released a few albums, one in 2018 and another in 2019. They are still available (in vinyl their last one, and tape the first one) For their latest album, “The Message”, we can only preview one song, “UFOs”, which is very nice, whereas for their first self-titled record, you can preview all 12 songs!
The Minettas: Seamus has played all instruments on these two songs and covered two classic songs from Sarah Records, “I’ve Got a Habit” by The Orchids and “Anorak City” by Another Sunny Day. The first one has some vocals it seems but very difficult to listen, while the second one is just instrumental. It is an interesting effort, and the guitars sound cool, just wish the vocals were there or at least more clear.
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And last, to complete this challenge of bands that wrote a song about one of the months of the year I have here Happy Go Lucky from Sweden who in 2004 released the song “From December to Summer”! I did it! Now what could be my next challenge? I did bands that start with each letter of the alphabet, bands from different countries of the world, bands that wrote about a day of the week, now bands that wrote about a month of the year. If you have any ideas let me know!
So Happy Go Lucky. At least we need to go back to 2001. That’s the year when the band started. The the heyday of Swedish indiepop DIY times. Where bands, fanzines, club nights, festivals, everything was exciting! So many good music happened then. And Happy Go Lucky was part of it.
In 2003 the band self-released a CDR called “Friends from Way Back Then” that included 6 songs. I want to think this was their first ever release. The songs on it were “I Need Someone to Die For”, “Whatever Made U Think”, “Trip & Fall”, “I Hope I’ll Never See U Again”, “Out of Tune” and “How Far”. These songs were played, written and recorded by Happy Go Lucky. Yes, Happy Go Lucky was just the one guy. But here on track four, “I Hope I’ll Never See U Again” Carin Hubbe is credited for vocals.
So it was one guy. His name was Jan Lundgren and he was based in Malmö. He even had a website then. And a hotmail. Perhaps that’s how the Italian label Best Kept Secret contacted him that year to release “The Pet Rescue” (LIE 080) cassette. This tape had 3 songs on each side, the A side had “Going Out” and “Upstate”, “U Are a Star” while the B side had “Storee”, “Undone” and “How Far”.
In 2004 the band would release another EP, this time on the very fine Smashing Time label. “Trip & Fall” (SMT 003) had 5 songs, “Trip & Fall”, “Going Out”, “December to Summer”, “I Need Someone to Die For” and “We Stand”. Carin Hubbe would also sing in this release, on the song “We Stand”. The artwork is credited to Nina Canell (who was in bands like Champagne Diamond, Luftfluks, Luftkluster, Obscured by Light, The Brilliant Light, The New Heat).
That same year the band would contribute a few songs to compilations. “Going Out” appeared on the comp CD “Är Jag Förändrad Eller Är Jag Ny?”. This compilation featured 10 bands from the Malmö’s scene included The Radio Dept.! The well known Hybris label would include the track “Pet Rescue” in a CDR compilation called “A Hybris Sampler – A Collection of Hybris Artists Summer 04”. It is interesting to me as far as I know Happy Go Lucky didn’t release anything with Hybris. Maybe at some point there was the intention to do so? Then on the Popknst CDR compilation “This is Popkonst and We Love You” the band appears with the song “Going Out”. This is a fantastic compilation by the way, I wish I had a copy, so many great bands. All of this happened in 2004.
2005 was another good year for the band. Now on Bedroom Records they would release the CDR mini-album “The Snowball Parade” (BED022). This EP had 6 songs, “Cuomo”, “The Snowball Parade”, “Going Home”, “Safe Haven #2”, “Homesick” and “Biguela”. The artwork for this cool looking CD is credited to Une Estétique Nouvelle.
That same year the band would appear with the song “Happy Go Lucky Personality” in the “Our Hearts Beat Out of Tune” compilation released by the magnificent Yellow Mica Recordings (YMR021).
The last time we hear from Jan is in 2008, his song “I Hope I’ll Never See U Again” appeared on the “Series Two Compilation Vol. 9” CDr compilation.
I found an article dating from July 17 2004 in the Sydsvenskan newspaper. Here Jan explains his creative process, which usually starts with an acoustic guitar. It also has some interesting info like that Jan had been once part of the band Ambulance from Jönköping. In Jönköping he had worked for a record store. Happy Go Lucky would start in 2001 when he moved to Malmö to study. And his first gig was in 2003 at the Blekingska nationen in Lund. Don’t know if he performed live again. It may have been his one and only gig.
Another good find is an article from Louder Than Bombs. This one must be from 2004 too. In this article Jan is not the only one interviewed but also Sarah from Action Biker. Here Jan mentions the it was a problem that there is a famous jazz pianist with his same name. That was one of the reasons to not use his name. Then he does mention that he has used more people in gigs, to be a full band. So yes, he did play more gigs. Now the question is where? People that helped him include friends that have been in bands like Piotor, Dialog Cet, Log Cabin and Ed Green.
And that’s it. That’s all I could find about him. Who remembers him? If you have any other info please share!
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