I thought it was good time to revisit the great Bi-Joopiter label founded by Paul Rixon from Gilroy, The McTells and more, and Gilliam Elam also from The McTells in 1983 in Hertford, UK.

Among their many releases in different formats I thought looking into one that I know nothing about, The Big Paintings 7″. I have this record but have no clue who are behind it. Anyone knows?

What I do know is that it was released in 1994 with catalog number BIJOOP 027 and included three songs, “The Strangest Secret of a Daisy Head” and “This Does Not Mean a Thing” on the A side and “Long Over Drawn” on the B side.

Okay, it is true that the sides on the record are not marked as A or B. But this is how Discogs lists it.

There’s some runout etchings on this record, again on what we say is the A side it says “Thee Alvins Children Mike’s – The Exchange”, and on the B it says “The Big Painting Number One”.

This wasn’t the band’s first release. There was another one many years before, in 1987. I don’t own this one sadly. It was a tape titled “Weats the Most Important Thing in Your Life? Money” (BIJOOP 016). This cassette mini-album had six songs, “All the Times”, “I Like it Here” and “Instrumental One” on the A side, and “Penny Picture Poseman”, “The Girl with Green Eyes” and “My Minitrend Friend” on the B side. We know that Kenneth Williams (who had released a song called “Kenneth Williams” on the 1988 tape compilation “Best Before Oct 88 (A Shropshire Compilation) was the producer.

Mark Flunder was the drummer on this record. Mark has been in many top bands including The McTells, Sportique, Television Personalities, Emil, Sindy Arthur, Moscovite Five, Elusive Diplomats and Cee Bee Beaumont.

The other band members of Big Paintings were Owen on bass and vocals, William on vocals and guitar (I believe he is Bill from The McTells), and Paul who is credited for Woodblocks. The Timothy Stevens orchestra is also credited.

The Brighton band also released some songs on compilations. In 1989 they had “I Like It Here” on “What Feet” tape comp released by Bi-Joopiter (BIJOOP 020) and the song “Charity” was on another tape comp called “Purveyors of Domestic Genius – Volume One” released by Swell Cassette Recording (SWELL TEN).

In 1991 on the classic “A Prospect of the Sea” compilation tape released by Cloud Production (Smile 003) they had the song “Penny Picture Postman”. Lastly in 1992 “This Does Not Mean a Thing”, a video of theirs, was on “Dead Eye One” VHS tape. Sadly this video is not on Youtube.

That’s all there is about them online, but I am sure some of you may know more details about them. Were there more recordings by The Big Paintings? Why no more releases? Who saw them live?

Use the comment box below to share any info on them!

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The Big Paintings – The Long Overdraw

I found 5 demos by In the Bus, a 1990s French band, on Bandcamp.

The information about them is little. Ovvk Archives, which is run by Jimmy Arfosea from Les Autres, has rescued these 5 songs and we should be thankful for that.

There’s a little bio that is terribly helpful:

Between the winter of 1992-1993 and the fall of 1993, Olivier, singer of the french Noise Pop band Les Autres and Yann, designer of the fanzine Tea Time (well known for having released a split flexi featuring rare demos of Stereolab) teamed up and recorded a series of superb pieces of naïve and playful Twee Pop giving pride of place to jangly guitars, a Casio toy organ and that would not have gone wrong on Sarah Records.

We know too that the songs were recorded between the winter of 1992 and the spring of 1993. They were recorded in Rennes, France.

As mentioned there are five demos, “Ugly Little World”, “Sunday Song”, “Virginie”, “Orange Flower” and “In a Different World”. Some of them got released in the 90s.

The song “Ugly Little Girl”  appeared on the compilation tape “Summer Hits 93” released by Lo Label from France. This tape came with a 32 page mini booklet. How I wish I would see a copy of this.

“Sunday Song” and “Orange Flower” were included on “Breeze 4” compilation tape released by Alphyen Viwit (004) from Germany in 1994. This tape also came with a large zine.

Also there was another song by In the Bus, “Radio-Active-Coffee”. This song is not among the demos on Bandcamp. But we know this track was released on the compilation 7″ Box set released by Aliénor Records in 1994 titled “The Onion Most Dangerous Game”. This boxset came alongside the French fanzine “Onion’s Soup” and was limited to 500 copies.

All of the songs recorded by this band were written and recorded by Olivier Doreille and Yann Brien, with the exception of “Virginie” which Olivier wrote on his own.

The last detail we know about the band is what instruments each of them played. Olivier Doreille played electric guitar, bass, vocals, casio keyboards, drums programming, flute and noises. Yann Brien, on the other hand, was on electric guitar, casio keyboards, vocals, drums programming and noises.

Now the question is, are there more recordings? Did they play live? Would love to know!

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In the Bus – Ugly Little Girl

Tara Mackay on vocals and bass, Christian Elton on guitars, vocals and keyboards and AJ Naito on drums was the original lineup of the New Jersey band The Parcels.

This lineup would release a self-titled 7″ in 1998 on the label Brentwood Estates (BES-005). The songs on this record were “Oh, What a Busy Day” and “Green Means Go” on the A side and “I Dream of Jean Genet” on the B side. The three songs had been recorded in mid September of that year at Pain and Pleasure Studios, Small Factory’s Dave Auenbach’s studios in Providence, Rhode Island, and were mastered at Greg Lee Processing.

Melissa Wysocki would take over bass and vocals replacing Tara in 1999. This new lineup would record the wonderful album “Have a Go with The Parcels” which was also released by Brentwood Estates (BES-013) in 2000.

The songs for the album were recorded with Bill Wells and Gary Olson at Marlborough Farms Studio in Brooklyn, NY.

This album had 12 songs, “Snappy New Haircut”, “Jessica Pancakes”, “I Could Be a Dinosaur”, “Horton Hears The Who”, “Patchoulie Julie”, “She’s a Good Witch”, “Minor Disturbance Grrrl”, “Green Means Go”, “I Stole a Star’, “Measure Me Sky”, “Lobster Kids” and “Monkey Bars”.

The songs were mastered at Nonstop Studio and the design and layout is credited to Ryan Lewis from Kincaid, Grape Soda and The Weight.

The band would appear on a few compilations too. The song “Snappy New Haircut” would find its way on “New Atmosphere for the Future: U.S. Pop Life Vol.3-International” CD released by the Japanese label Contact Records (CR-10) in 2000. Then “She’s a Good Witch” was on “Will there be Time for Tea?” released by Morgan Leah Records (MORGAN 348) in 2001. That same year the band would have “If I Ever Get the Chance Again” on Shelflife Records’ “One” CD (LIFE 040).

Lastly in 2002 the band had the wonderful “Jessica Pancakes” on my friend Tommy’s compilation “Hit Music Only” released by thee Swedish label Heavenly Pop Hits (POPH01).

The band played only a few gigs from what I’ve read. But gigs included ones with Wolfie, Barcelona, Masters of the Hemisphere and Calvin Johnson. Also they toured the East Coast during the summer of 2000 and played the Kindercore Records’ Expo 2000 FFesrtival. The band would call it a day in 2002.

About being in other bands I didn’t find much information. I saw that Christian Elton played bass on a Panda Riot song called “Marker” in the 2007 album “She Dares all Things. AJ Naito was in the band Pecan Sandies. I also read about a band called Home Economics, Scary Monster and another called The Dares were members could have been involved with.

What is good to know too is that the band’s website still exists. The first thing you’ll see is the band’s appearance on the I-Pop segment of the Japanese TV show Hakai that aired in February 1999.

Then there’s a few little pieces of info I picked here and there… for example the band playing at Yat’s in 2000, or on April of 2001 they played with The Ladybug Transistor at Smith College, or that the band was based in Sewell, New Jersey.

Anyone remembers them? I loved this band back in the day and I just remembered them today, and thought… how come I’ve never written about them or even recommended them on my blog!

EDIT: some interesting bit that have been shared on Facebook: It seems that the band was supposed to contribute a brand new song for the “Hit Music Only” CD comp. What happened was that the producer had disappeared with all the master recordings to in the end the band contributed a song off the album.

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The Parcels – Jessica Pancakes

I think it has been about 10 years since we heard from Torquay band Big Wave. Anyone remembers them? They played Indietracks in 2013, and London Popfest that same year.

The band was formed by flatmates: Ella on vocals and guitar, Rik on guitar, Matt on drums, Pete on bass and Mel on keyboards.

They took their name from a song called “Big Wave” by Jenny and Johnny.

The band released just a few records and appeared on some compilations. So maybe you don’t remember them. But the good thing is that their Bandcamp has all their releases. There’s a Soundcloud too but that has way many less songs.

I think the first time we heard about them was in 2011 when their song “Wild Strawberries” was on the CD compilation “Dry Route to Devon” released by Art is Hard Records (AIH005).

That same year the band released the EP “Another Year or Two” that included the songs “Another Year or Two”, “The Rosenbergs” and “Wild Strawberries”. There was a video made for “Another Year or Two” worth checking out!

In 2012 the band would release a tape album on Soft Power Records from Scotland. “The Roots of Love (Come Tumbling Down)” (SOFT007) had 5 songs: “Circumstance”, “Blissed Out”, “The Roots of Love (Come Tumbling Down)”, “Another Year or Two” and “Leavers Party”. You would find the same songs on the A side and also on the B side. The edition was limited tom 100 tapes, 50 white cassettes and 50 pink cassettes. Out of these songs the band decided to make a video for the song “Circumstance“.

“Only You” was the first and only vinyl release by the band, also in 2012. Released by Beautiful Strange (BS005) on November of that year. It included the title song on the A side and “Living Room” on the B side. Both songs were recorded at Middle Farm Studios in South Devon and were produced, mixed and mastered by James Bragg. This superb track on the A side also has a video.

There was a very interesting release that year too, “Dying on the Vine”. This song was part of the Pizza box collection of Art is Hard Records. Recorded by James Bragg at Middle Farm Studios, I believe the release came out in a pizza box actually and had catalog number PIZZAIH17. The band continued making videos, so of course there is one for “Dying on the Vine“.

The band made a video with London on the Inside, an interview. There they share some interesting details about them.

Lastly in 2013 the band released a cassingle with “Goldmine” on the A side and “GW Bridge” on the flipside. It came out in Art is Hard Records (AIH019) and was recorded at Middle Farm Studios, again with James Bragg producing, mixing and mastering. Video this time for “Goldmine“.

“GW Bridge” would also appear on a double cassette compilation called “Bleed in Gold” released by Art is Hard (AIH023) in 2013. This tape was a celebration of the label’s 3rd anniversary and had some great bands like Joanna Gruesome or The Black Tambourines.

When it comes to gig we know the band played the End of the Road festival, the Lemonfest, Knee Deep Festival 2012 in Cornwall, Dance of Days Fes in Falmouth in 2012, Start the Bus, One World Cafe, the 27 Club with Fire Island Pines, The Buffalo Bar, the Brixton Windmill, The Cavern in Exeter, The George Tavern with Evans the Death, Model Village and Violet Woods, toured with the Magnetic Fields, supported Metronomy and Tender Trap

The band made merch including tote bags and t-shirts.

And then they sort of disappeared?

Where are they now? Still playing in bands?

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Big Wave – Only You

Back in 2007 the French label Anorak Records released a wonderful EP by a band called En Français. It was self-titled and had the catalog number ANORAKCD4.

This CDR had 6 lovely indiepop songs, “Every Last Chance”, “Limits”, “Seasonal”, “Eat Great, Even Late”, “The City of Life” and “Hold on Tight”.

Searching about the band is almost impossible. Their name usually gives you results of translations from English to French. Right…

Discogs only has this release and no compilation appearances.

Back in the day when I interviewed Fabien Garcia, head honcho of Anorak Records, he mentioned that the band hailed from the U.S.

On the 3rd Anorak fanzine there’s an interview with the band and this is actually the best resource for info about the band. We know thanks to it that it was a duo formed by Scott and Dean. Sadly we don’t get last names or whereabouts in the U.S. they were based. They do mention that they had played in Washington D.C. so I think that they must be from the East Coast at least. (They are from Virginia – Thanks Evan for the tip!)

I wonder of course what happened to them. Where are they now? If they continued to make music? Did they release anything else?

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En Français – Every Last Chance

Back in August 2021 there was a superb release by a label called Smiling C from Santa Cruz, California. It was a 12″ by the obscure Manchester band The Bernhardts. These days these record, titled “Moonglow” is long sold out but I was lucky to find a copy myself. Did you got yours?

The Bernhardts was formed by Simon Milner on vocals and trumpet, Steve Hopkins on keyboards and Neil Fitzpatrick on percussion and guitar. Simon and Neil had been friends since grade school and they had been together previously on a band called The Smirks. Steve on the other hand had produced music for Dislocation Dance, Jilted John and Happy Mondays. He also worked with Morrissey. At some point in the early 80s they all decided to collaborate.

They used aliases when they played. Steve was called Rio Fortune, Neil was Claude Walloon and Simon was Oscar Bernhardt. They played as The Oscar Bernhardt Ensemble. They were more jazzy in this early incarnation but eventually their sound evolved and decided to go by the name The Bernhardts.

They recorded some songs for Parlophone with producer Mike Howlett. The “Moonglow” 12″ includes songs from that session. Some released, some unreleased. The four songs on the record were “Send Your Heart to Me” and “I Hear Your Calling” on the A side and “Crescent Moon (Instrumental)” and “Love Breaks In” on the B side.

The band managed to play a few gigs, got radio play and had the backing of a major. But they never got the chance to become bigger even though they did put out the single “I Hear You Calling”. This fine record came out in 1984 on both 7″ and 12″. The 7″ had “Send Your Heart to Me” on the B side while the 12″ had “I Hear You Calling (Extended Mix)” on the A side, and the 7″ of this song plus and extended mix of “Send Your Heart to Me” on the B side. The design and photography for the record was credited to Iain McKell.

One thing that caught my attention was that there were some acetate 7″s that the band put out in 1983. I don’t know much about these releases but I assume they are very limited and hard to come by. There’s one that had “Send Your Heart to Me” and “Now or Never (LA Test Master)”  and another with “Crescent Moon” and “Love Breaks In (Version 3 Strawberry)”.

Eventually they would become Distant Cousins when Simon’s wife Doreen joined the band. That’s a band I also have planned to write about. Maybe I should do that soon.

These days Simon busks in Manchester with The Charleston Charlies, Neil plays indiepop with his daughter Hann and Steve plays in a Latin-soul-jazz quintet called Urban Rooftops after finishing a PHD in laser physics (WOW).

I couldn’t find much more info about the band. I am curious about their gigs. Did they play many? Did anyone caught them live? Are there more recordings by them? How come they reappeared in 2021 with “Moonglow”?

I’d love to know more about The Bernhardts!

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The Bernhardts – Send Your Heart to Me

Who knew about this German band? I just found about them thanks to stoneeyedkiller’s Youtube channel and they have a very distinct and interesting sound.

7 years ago they uploaded a ton of songs to Soundcloud and that’s what I am listening today.

The band was active between 1985 and 1993. During that time they made a lot of recordings. There is a collection of their demos, which include 17 tracks: “40 Years”, “All My Love is in My Veins”, “Blue Planet I”, “Blue Planet II”, “Born to Love”, “Carol of the Night II”, “City of the Outcast I”, “City of the Outcast II”, “Don’t Trust the Luck” and “Games they Play Tomorrow”.

Then there’s another collection of songs, these from a 1987 gig at Fabrik COE. Not sure where this venue is/was though. The songs that night were: “Art of Hell”, “Blue Planet”, “City of the Outcast”, “Don’t Trust the Luck”, “Eamination”, “Endless Capture”, “In the Night”, “It’s Gonna Get Better”, “O My Girl”, “Scotland”, “Seconds of Love”, “Sheela”, “The Hound of Baskerville” and “Thinking in the Car”.

And there are even more songs though I don’t know the date or any other details. These are “U2-Song”, “Thinking in the Car”, “Sheela”, “Seconds of Love”, “No Name”, “In the Night”, “In the Night (added)”, “Don’t Trust the Luck”, “Born to Love”, “Blue Planet” and “Art of Hell”.

The person who uploaded the tracks is called Ludger Holdschlag. I want to think he was part of the band. There is also a re-recording of the song “Games They Play Tomorrow” that was written in 1990. The new version is from 2019.

Then I find a website by Ludger! Here there’s more info about the band!

So we learn the names of the band members, Thomas Welzel on guitar, Rene Staron on drums, Olaf Staron on keyboards, Oliver Kopplin on vocals and Ludger Holdschlag on bass. Originally the band was formed by Olaf, Thomas and Ludger when they were 17. 8 months later after starting the band Rene and Oliver joined them.

The band hailed from the small town of Dorf Hochmoor. This place is in thee municipality of Gesher, in the border with the Netherlands.

Then there’s a timeline. There we learn that the band played a music festival at the fire station in Hochmoor in August 3, 1985. At the end of September of that year the band played at the Hochmoor Youth Center.

Thomas leaves the band in 1986 but he was to return later in 1989.

In 1987 the bands make their first studio recordings at the Peter Waigel Rocck-Pop-Tonstudios Bocholt. They play many gigs including a gig supporting The Jazz Butcher in the Fabrik in Coesfeld. Later that year the band records the band’s second demo at Oliver’s house.

They play more towns in 1988 including Borken, Weseke and Olpe.

In 1991 the band records their first CD at Principal Studios Ottmarsbocholt. What CD is this? would love to find info about it. Was it an album?!

In 1992 the band appears on TV! It was a programme called Vox and it was based in Berlin. That same year the band plays in Nordhorn, Cuxhaven and Stadtlohn.

We also know that Ludger was involved in other bands like Who is Anna, TV 2016 and lately DNAlien. We also learn he is actually from Mellrichstadt in Bavaria where he was born in 1968.

Also important to mention that the Tableaux Vivants reunited in 2016 and lasted until 2018. Two of the original members were in this reunion, Oliver and Ludger. Sebastian Winkel played drums and Christian Wilkes played keyboards. For this reunion they even created a Facebook page. On that page I see some song titles that I wasn’t aware of like “Caren Lives in Amerika”, “Holes”, “Rock this Wasted Town”, “Living on the Edge of Life”, “There’s Something Like”, “A View Through Your Eyes”, “In the Night”, “Monochrome”, “Daydream”, “Only Give”, “World’s Apart” , “Loser” and more.

Then there are some videos on Youtube! Here is them playing “Sometime in Autumn” at the TV show on ELF99. Then a live gig on June 6, 1992, in Vreden. And another one of them playing at Fabrik in Coesfeld in 1989.

Lots of great info no? But couldn’t find anything about their CD release. Or about their demos. What songs were on them?!

So yeah, any information about them would be fantastic!

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Tableaux Vivants – Don’t Trust the Luck

In 2021 I recommended everyone to get a 12″ vinyl record titled “May Never Happen” by the Kent, Ohio, band Moonlove. I hope you listened to me as that compilation is sold out.

This band is really good. And was obscure for many decades (and probably still is). The label Concentric Circles was smart to see the quality of the songs and released it as the fifth release on their catalogue (CC005).

The 10 songs on the album were recorded at Sprucewood Studios in Sandusky, Ohio, on a cassette deck and a Betamax videocassette recorder. The songs were “Level Ground”, “All Your Mysteries”, “Cast Your Troubles and Dreams Away”, “Triangle” and “Goodbye” on the A side and “Venus”, “Blue Skies”, “Trying to Find”, “Moroccan Moon” and “Hearse on the Highway” on the B side.

The band was formed by Jeff Curtis on guitar, bass and vocals, Randy Russell on electric guitar, bass, drums and vocals and Edda Blaine on acoustic guitar, violin and voice.

A name I notice in the credits is that of Beth Erickson who co-wrote “Venus” with Randy and “Trying to Find” with Jeff. It seems Beth Erickson was an alias of Edda actually!

Other credits include Jim Clinefelter who took the photography on the record.

I look for other music they may have made. I noticed Edda had contributed violin to a song by the band Gibson Bros on their album “Dedicated Fool” in 1989. Randy Russell and Jeff Curtis had been in a band called The Channel Masters. Jeff was even in more bands including Gem, Iron Oxide, Mohammed Cartoon, My Dad is Dead, Satan’s Satellites, The Bad Crabs and Vengeance Space Quartet.

The only other song the band released was “Call it Love” that appeared on “Azimith Tape Adjustment: Best of Own the Whole World Cassette Compilation ’84-’85” in 2019.

You can listen to all the songs on Bandcamp. There you’ll also find some description fo what to expect from the album. The sound is likened to the Velvet Underground, the Paisley underground and also to the Dunedin Sound. A band they compare Moonlove to is the great Look Blue Go Purple.

I keep looking for more info. One important detail is that the album was actually released in 1985, in an edition of probably fewer than 25 copies. That limited edition was a cassette on the classic Kent, Ohio, label Discographies for the Deaf (DFTD 4).

I can’t find any other bits of info about the band. It is great though to see that the label has managed to get the record be sold by many mailorders abroad and even on Walmart domestically. Don’t know how they do it with an unknown band. But good for them of course.

Would love to hear from the band members directly about the band. Did they play many gigs? Why they didnt release more records? Are these all the recordings they made? Hope we find out!

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Moonlove – Level Ground

Par avion: by airmail (written on a letter or parcel to indicate how it is to reach its destination).

I have been rediscovering the Shelflife CD-R series. Not too long ago I wrote about Citra Super. In the past I had written about Bunny Nightlight and Punky’s Dilemma.

There were 12 releases total. So I have covered less than half of the bands that were part of this cool series.

Par Avion was the 10th release, coming out in 2003. The EP was titled “The Various Laneways of Colonel Light Gardens” and included 5 tracks: “Modern Love”, “Clarity”, “Ruth Chew”, “I Don’t Care About Your Tuesday” and “Time Piece (12″ Megamix)”.

The sound of this release is not classic indiepop but more of lo-fi electronic pop. As previous releases in the series there were only 100 numbered copies.

Par Avion was a duo. It was formed by Janiece Pope and Jason Sweeney. Jason was well known from bands like Sweet William, Other People’s Children, Simpático, Panoptique Electrical, Mist & Sea, Luxury Gap, Pretty Boy Crossover, School of Two, The Millards and Sweeney. He hailed from Adelaide in Australia. Did Janiece too?

It is also worth mentioning that Par Avion had previously released another record. In 2001 the band put out “A Song a Day” a cassette on the Italian label Best Kept Secret (LIE 038). This tape had seven songs, “Ackland Crescent”, “Child Star”, “Horrid Burger” and “By Air” on the A side and “I Don’t Want to be Interesting”, “Dip the Paddle” and “Dragon’s Blood” on the B side.

The songs were recorded at Panoptiqué Electrical between 1996 and 1999 and were mastered in January 2001 by Dubhustler.

That info is quite interesting, right? The band had started in the mid-90s!

On Discogs there are two songs listed for compilation appearances dating from 2018. I believe this must be a different Par Avion. But correct me if I’m wrong.

I couldn’t find any other details about this project. For other Jason Sweeney’s bands there’s much more info. But not for this one. So yeah, any other details will be appreciated.

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Par Avion – I Don’t Care About Your Tuesday