Day 546

The Stars on Fire 7″s are finally home! They arrived yesterday. Now just waiting for the inserts. As soon as they arrive I’ll start mailing the pre-orders. Remember that the official release date is Sept. 24, but I’m taking pre-orders both on www.cloudberryrecords.com and on cloudberryrecords.bandcamp.com. Thanks again for your support!

The Proctors: “Silhouttes” is the new 7″ single by the great West Midlands band! Wow! Two songs aree included in this pink vinyl record, the title song and “You and Me and the Sea”. The songs are ace, as usual, and it is only limited to 300 copies. Seems like a record no one would like to miss out!

Tapioca Tundra / Sounds Incarcerated: Tapioca Tundra is the collaboration between Mary Wyer and Julian Knowles from Even as We Speak and Beth Arzy from Jetstream Pony, Aberdeen and The Luxembourg Signal. The English label Spinout Nuggets is releasing a split 7″ with them and Sounds Incarcerated, which is the band formed by Viv Bonsels and Allan Crockford. Each of them contribute a song and yeah, it is really good!

The Happy Somethings: now a Derbyhire/Nottinghamshire band. A trio. Two guys, one girl. “Lollipop Licks EP” is the latest by them. Four pop songs, “Forward Now”, “Ignore You”, “Doctor Lollipop” and “Pretty Pants”, which are available to download for free on Bandcamp.

Chime School: Andy Pastalaniec (Seablite) from San Francisco is the person behind this new band that is releasing a self-titled album on Slumberland Records on November 5. The album will be out on vinyl and CD and will include 10 songs. Right now we can preview one of the songs, “Taking Time To Tell You” which sounds really nice!

Splashing Rainbows: Giorgos Kyriazis from the legendary band One Night Suzan has a new project, Splashing Rainbows. The fine Greek label Make Me Happy will be releasing a 12″ EP titled “Numbers” with 6 songs. So far I’ve been able to listen to one of the songs, “One (is Fine)”, which is a goodie.

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I return to an old post of mine. I’ve been doing a bit of revisionism. Azure Days from Ireland. Remember that post? Here I mention that Azure Days’ drummer Robbie Robinson was in a band called The Practical Householders. So, yeah, I wanted to find out more about this obscure Irish band!

The superb blog The Fanning Sessions Archive wrote about the band back in 2009. On this post it doesn’t mention Robbie Robinson as a member of the band. So that is a bit confusing. Here we see that the band was formed by Trisha Smyth on vocals, Jackie Kelly on backing vocals, Mick O’Rourke on guitar, Colm Walsh on accordion, Pat Casey on bass and Dave Ward on drums. Later on Paul Donahue replaced Pat and Dave Mulhall replaced Dave Ward. So when was Robbie part of the band? Or maybe that was an error I made when I wrote about Azure Days?

What wee know about the band is very little. The band appeared on Comet Records compilation LP “Comet LP Two” (COME 2 TP) in 1987 with the song “Your Love is Just a Four Letter Word”.  On this sampler compilation they appeared alongside the aforementioned Azure Days and the amazing Cypress, Mine! The song was recorded at The Studios in Clonegal, produced by the band and engineered by Seamus Cullinane.

There is yet another compilation where they appeared. It was a tape comp called “Long Road to Travel” (ATHY 001) that was part of The Council Collection. This was the first volume of such tapes. The band contributed “4 Letter Word”. Is it the same song?

The Fanning Sessions blog mentions that the band recorded a 3 song demo that was produced by Stano. The blog promised doing a post when they got a copy of such demo. But it seems it never happened. I’d love to listen to it!

My best find online is an interview with Colm Walsh on the Leinster Leader newspaper. The interview is sort of recent, December 2019. Here we find that Colm was manager of the Sultans of Ping and was behind the wonderful Made of Athy Project.

Indeed, I didn’t mention it earlier, the band hailed from Athy in County Kildare.

Athy is a market town at the meeting of the River Barrow and the Grand Canal in south-west County Kildare, Ireland, 72 kilometres southwest of Dublin. Athy or Baile Átha Í is named after a 2nd century Celtic chieftain, Ae, who is said to have been killed on the river crossing, thus giving the town its name “the town of Ae’s ford”.

Another thing I find out is that the band is name-checked in the 2020 book “Made in Ireland – Studies in Popular Music” that was edited by Áine Mangaoang, John O’Flynn and Lonán Ó Briain. The book seems to be available for academic purposes, and is not on Amazon. Would be nice to get a copy of it.

Not much more info about them on the web. Hopefully we’ll find out more, and maybe we’ll hear that 3 song demo!

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Listen
The Practical Householders – Your Love is Just a Four Letter Word

Day 544

The Vegetablets: nice! Koichi and Miki from Nagoya, our friends that run Tulip House Records and have been in different sweet and lovely bands including Chain Letter, are releasing a new 9 song album titled “The Vegetablets 4”. This is proper DIY bedroom pop, with terrific songs like “SKKY” or “A Waste of Time”.

David Lance Callahan: the leader of The Wolfhounds and Moonshake is back with a solo record titled “English Primitive”. It will be available on October 29 on vinyl and CD but pre-orders are available on his Bandcamp. It is a short record, 7 songs, but they are very good songs! Some of them not strictily indiepop, but I think they are totally enjoyable.

Miracle Legion: the legendary New Haven band has just put together “GLADDER” on Bandcamp. These recordings, 10 songs, come from a gig at The Ritz Ballroom in New York City, November 7, 1987. Four of these songs had been released previously in an EP titled “GLAD” but the band thinks, and I agree with them, why not release all the songs from that gig! That is exactly what “GLADDER” is.

Lavender Blush: the dreampop band from San Francisco will be back with “You are My Moonlight” on January 27. This new album will be released on vinyl by Blue Aurora Audio and on tape by Shelflife Records. The album will include 8 songs and we can preview one of them so far, “You are My Moonlight”, and it is pretty good!

Maida Rose: a few Dutch dreampop bands have been in my radar as of late. Maida Rose from The Hague is one of them. “Within” is the band’s new digital single and it is quite lovely. The band says this is the only song they’ve written about love. Previously the band had released two digital singles, “Where do We Go” and “Harmony of Heartache”, all in 2021.

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I urge everyone to get the Sound as Ever compilations. They cover the Australian indie between 1990 and 1999 and it includes many indiepop gems. There is some indierock too, which surely it’s not my favourite, but I totally understand the approach of the compilations. And yes, I have discovered some great bands that I had no clue about. Raw Nerves is one of them, and I want to share with you my excitement.

Raw Nerves appear on the second volume of these compilations which is titled “Stuck in the 90s” (SAE:02). This comp came out late 2020 and was compiled by Scott Thurling of the fine Popboomerang Records. Yeah, it is him who is behind these compilations. Makes sense!

On this second volume the band appear alongside some bands that probably you know like Blindside, Autohaze or The Glory Box. And there are others worth discovering. Raw Nerves contributes the song “Dead Sinister”.

On the liner notes there is actually some info about this song:
Dead Sinister was an early composition recorded in May 1990 as part of the sessions for Raw Nerves’ sole release, the double A-side single, Life On The Run/Rosebud. While it was built around a 2-string guitar riff, Jean Claude’s bass provides much of the colour and shape. As with many other Raw Nerves songs, the lyrics are driven by contemporary demons and dramas. The recording was completed at Studio 52 in Collingwood and was self-produced.

The song was produced and performed by the band. The band being Jean-Claude Le Bret on bass, Matt Palmer on guitar, Brian Retallick on guitar, Phil Turnour on vocals and Ian Williams on drums.

As mentioned the band put out a 7″ single. That happened in 1990 on Roar Records (52715). This 7″ had a simple sleeve, a die-cut sleeve with the band’s name logo on the top left corner. Two songs were on this record, “Life on the Run” on the A side and “Rosebud” on the B side.

I’ve found both songs online. They are ok. Not as good as “Dead Sinister”. Not indiepop like that one! Of the two I prefer “Life on the Run” which is poppier of course. I wonder why the change of styles? I guess it was the 90s?

Maybe I’m not being fair. But I got hooked to “Dead Sinister”. I think it is a terrific pop song. I wonder if there are more songs recorded at that same recording session. Would be amazing, no? Maybe they are as good as this one!

Thanks to Discogs I find that Brian Retallick played on a band called Global Mantra afterwards. Ian Williams was in Rail and Sleeper as well as in The Wick Effect. Sadly Ian died in 1999.

The Melbourne band seems to have been around until 1993. A short-lived band.

I keep looking for info and find that Phil Turnour was making music under the name FILL. Not sure what years this project was active, I can say sometime around 2011 according to a page on Triple J Unearthed.

And then a Youtube channel by Phil Turnour too. Here there are some more songs by the band. And he writes about each song!

“Memorise” (1989 rehearsal boombox recording) – This recording is from very early in the band’s history. I’d probably been with it for a couple of months (In was the last to join). I was probably reciting lyrics from the tons of notes and poems I’d take to rehearsal – we’d work up riffs etc then I’d extemporize until I hit something I liked and take that away for further writing at home. I suspect we’d already played this a couple of times and we were getting closer. I’m not sure this song survived all the way through our time together but I think we enjoyed playing it. The reference to “a walk in the Black Forest” was, I suspect, derived from a re-run of the Goodies episode where they ran a pirate radio station that had only one record – A Walk in the Black Forest by the Bert Kampfert Orchestra(?). I’d try to write profound lyrics exploring the outer reaches of language but I’d chuck in cheap and absurd pop culture references. 1989 was a very bad time for popular culture but it was the darkness before the light of a number of revolutions that seemed to come after the Soviet Bloc revolutions (Nirvana; The Simpsons; Seinfeld; Goodfellas etc) that continue to influence and keep us sane today. My lyrics were my reaction to that darkness. The organ’s a Farfisa – one of those red desk-looking types from the 60s. Brian had cool gear (Rickenbacker 360; Vox AC30).

“Clear Confusion” (1989 rehearsal boombox recording) – A very early rehearsal. This song was written before I joined the band although I think I re-wrote a couple of lines of lyrics. It’s faster than I remember but we were young!

“Red Death” (1989 rehearsal boombox recording) – This is one I wrote before I joined the band. We did it for a while but it was clear we were writing good stuff together so we gradually replaced songs like this with group efforts. I changed some the lyrics in later years and it’s now one of my favourite old songs of mine. I wrote it in about 1987 after a night amongst the skinheads at the Prince of Wales in StKilda. Our guitar player Brian is singing the bridge and I think I’m playing the harmonica – neither of us are enhancing the song at that point!

“Sky Sweats” (excerpt – rehearsal boombox recording) – I wrote this prior to joining the band. We stopped doing it once we had enough material we’d written together. What amazes me about this and Red Death is that the band had become proficient at playing them so quickly – this would be within about 1 or 2 months of me joining the band. I wrote this on a bus from Melbourne to Shep when I was about 21. It was about 40 degrees and the bus air con wasn’t working. Can’t remember why I was on a bus and not a train.

I think the last three are good. Especially “Clear Confusion”. I think these early recordings are indiepop enough for me. And I enjoy them! Good find. Now, are there more? Would be great to find out!

Who remembers the Raw Nerves from Melbourne? Especially their early days?! :O

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Listen
Raw Nerves – Dead Sinister

Day 541

Today is a great day! But yesterday was better! If you missed it, yesterday I announced the newest release on Cloudberry Records, a 7″ by the Seoul by way of California based band Stars on Fire! Cristoph Mark’s project have been recommended a few times on the blog, he is a great craftsman when it comes to indiepop. When he presented me early this year a bunch of songs that were just a perfect fit for Cloudberry, things started moving fast. In the end I had to pick two songs, “Ready, Steady, Go!” that would end up as the A side and “Angel in White”, the B side. After many delays on thee pressing plant side, the record will be out on September 24. It also features lovely original art for the record sleeve art by Polish illustrator Jola Bankowska. So yeah, don’t miss it! We are taking pre-orders on our website as well as on Bandcamp!

Falconet: what a superb discovery! Sally Jati from the wonderful Starry Eyed Cadet sings and plays guitar and Ken Aki also sings, plays guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, in this wonderful project. “Magic Potion” is their debut album that has 8 songs that are all so good! September starts with this treasure. Now I hope it gets released properly. This deserves to be a CD, a vinyl, and even a tape (even if I don’t like tapes much!)

The Skating Party: Melotron Recordings from Thessaloniki, Greece, is a label that always delivers the good stuff. The Skating Party’s “Night Ruins” EP is the latest release. This 4 song CD that is limited to 30 copies will be out on September 10. Right now we can preview the opening track, “Seventeen Cages”, and yes it is good!

April Blue: a new song by this Tokyo five-piece is out now on Bandcamp! The song is titled “Pink Paper Planes” and it is a fine slice of jangly pop with female vocals. There’s not much info about this release but we can enjoy it. Lots of great Japanese bands these days making a similar sound. I still wonder why there was never a Tokyo Popfest or similar!

Kammahav: Cloudberry blog favourites Kammahav are back with “Fly the Flag”. The project formed by Christian Gustafsson and Tony Jenkins have penned another fine pop song with their traditional style. It’s always good to know that this long-distance project keeps going on.

Poster Paints: I recommended Poster Paints back in May as they were a lovely surprise. Their music was precious and well-crafted, and today I have to do it again. I have to tell you to go listen “Never Saw it Coming”, their latest song. Simon Liddell and Carla J Easton from Glasgow know what they are doing. Really good.

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As you know the great blog Fanning Sessions is probably the best resource for Irish bands. But this time around I discovered first the band on Soundcloud and then I ended up on the blog. Usually it is the other way. But this is cool nonetheless!

Wheels on Fire hailed from Lahinch, County Clare, Ireland. They were around the late 80s and early 90s. Though I’ve seen some recordings from 2018 on Soundcloud!

The band was formed by Jennie McGrath (vocals), Anne Parker (vocals), Paul O’Brien (guitar), Anthony Edwards (guitar), Maureen Comber (bass) and Teresa O’Brien (drums).

On Soundcloud we mostly find live recordings and recordings from their practice studio. But there are two demo songs that sound ace, “Beach Walking” and “Growing in the Dark”. These two songs come from a 1987 demo tape that had a green sleeve and printed in black ink, a photo of the band. The song “Beach Walking” was played in 1990 by Dave Fanning on his influential radio show.

We know that at least a year ago Paul and Anthony were playing in a band called Kohima.

What else do we know? The band participated at the Hot Press Band of 1988 competition  that happened in Sir Henrys in Cork.

Now what songs do we find in their repertoire?

“Empty Bottle of Beer” is from a 1987 practice session. “Can You Hear Me”, “Waiting for a Sign”, “The Bank”, “Broken Hearted” and “Last Night as I Lay Dreaming” from a 1988 practice session. “Had a Dream”, “Black” and “Who’s Hungry” is from a 1989 session.

“Oochie Coochie” and “Honey & Locusts” is from a gig at Nagles Ennistymon on June 23rd, 1988. “Heaven Was Looking”, “Broken Down”, “Happy Ever After” and “You Should Know” comes from a gig at Lifford Arms in Ennis on December 4th 1988. “Groovy Party”, “Middle of Night”, “She’s Crazy”, “Strangers”, “The Highwayman”, “Into the Street”, “The Last War”, “Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, “Acting & I’m Evil”, “Gold” and “Ennistymon Rock On” from a gig at Spellmans in Gort in March 11, 1989.

Some of these songs were played by other bands. I am guessing by bands that featured some of the band members. Like “Helpless” and “Honey and Locusts” were played in 1990 by Rowagaga & the Wellers. And “Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll” was played in 1992 by The Foonspeeders”.

And then there are unplugged, two acoustic guitars, versions of “Broken Down” and “Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll” from 2018!

Lots of songs, a trove. But no information about the band. No releases I believe. Would be good to find more details about them. Anyone remember Wheels on Fire? Their two demo songs are really good!

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Listen
Wheels on Fire – Beach Walking

Day 539

Smudge: the classic Sydney band is on Bandcamp. They have just uploaded a full live set of 9 songs when they played in Adelaide on February 1993. This is good! Included is their classic “Don’t Want to be Grant McLennan”, it is the first time I hear this track live! I wish I could interview them, I reached them many times in the past on Facebook with no luck… but who knows!

3 A.M. Again: it is great news to hear new songs by this project from Gloucester, Massachusetts. They always treat us with sweetness for our ears. Their latest release is the “How the Leaves Lie EP”, a 6 song EP that is quite precious! Very recommended.

The Day: time to discover this band formeed by Laura Loeters from Antwerp and Gregor Sonnenberg from Hamburg. They have a few songs released on their Bandcamp but I have just discovered them, so I am starting by their latest track, “Empty”. Wow! It is a fine jangly song, catchy and upbeat. Definitely I’ll keep an eye on them.

We the North: this band seems like a mystery to me. It says they are based in Hong Kong. But then the latest song, “Exil”, is sung in perfect Swedish. Could it be a swede living in Hong Kong? I wonder. We the North describes their music as Nordic Noir and that sounds on point!

A Estas Alturas: I had recommended Daniel Vicente’s project some time ago. Back then the Puerto Rican artist, based in Dallas, had loose songs on Bandcamp. It seems that now he has put them together as an EP which is titled “EP I”. This EP consists of 5 songs, of melancholic and sweet pop music in Spanish.

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I think I need to reorder my CD collection. I can’t seem to find Red Money’s “A Kind of Retrospective 1990-1995” (FST 093) that Firestation Records released in 2012.

I know it is somewhere. I haven’t lost it. This compilation CD came  out in 2012 before the German label had included Red Money on “Still Mad at Me? (15 Years Firestation Records 1998-2013)” boxset. But they weren’t included in the seventh volume of The Sound of Leamington Spa series, but on the second CD of the boxset. On this compilation the band appears with “Come On and Find Me” and “Take Care of Me”. Both songs are on the 2nd CD.

“A Kind of Retrospective 1990-1995” came together after Uwe discovered the record at the Utrecht Record fair. Shortly after he was able to track down the band members and well, voila! the compilation was done. It included 14 songs, “My Erstwhile Companion”, “The Crying Shame”, “Blaming Himself”, “Swerve”, “Me and My Big Mouth”, “Thicker than Thieves”, “No Questions”, “Tangled Up in Her”, “Heaven”, “Now (it seems) They’re Here”, “A Kind of Loving”, “Options”, “Swerve (Adventure Club Mix)” and “My Erstwhile Companion (Version with 2nd guitar)”. It was limited to 300 copies.

Let me give some context. The band as the title of the compilation was around the first half of the 90s. In 1990 the band released their one proper release, a 7″ released by P.F. & G. Records (PFG 001). This was probably the band’s own label. Three songs were on the record, “My Erstwhile Companion”, “Tangled Up in Her” and “No Questions”.

While I look for my CD, (I’ve already spent 30 minutes, and losing my patience) I find that the band has a website that is still working.

As usual I am interested in the biography part. What do we learn here?

That the band’s first gig was at the Fulham Greyhound in London in 1990. Originally it was going to be a full line-up, many members, but they dropped out. In the end Richard and Jules decided to go as a duo accompanied this time by Roz Bateman on sax. Roz would also appear on the 7″.

This stripped down lineup worked. People enjoyed it. So the band went to record their 7″ in Croydon and got cut at Abbey Road. Some gigs followed at the Acoustic Room, Mean Fiddler, The Aztec Room, The Moonlight Club, The Fresh Club, The Orange, Café de Piaf and the 100 Club.

In 1991 Roz moved to the north of England and didn’t continue playing sax with Jules and Richard. That didn’t matter for the duo as they went to the studio to record more songs. Pre-production was done with Woodie Taylor (Morrissey, Comet Gain) and Paul Simm engineered the session as well as playing trumpet and piano. The song “Swerve” was to be the next single but was put on hold.

The band continued gigging. Yvonne Wembley would accompany the band on backing vocals and they also got a new saxophone player (they don’t say the name!)

The band continued recording in 1994, this time working with David Levy on bass and Richard Newman on drums. And it was around this time that an indie label approached them to release the debut album. Sadly that never happened.

Jules would later move to Cornwall with his family and that made it impossible for the band to continue.

And one last thing I found. There seems to be a 2015 EP titled “Hard to Believe”. It doesn’t look like it was properly released but seems available on digital platforms. There are four songs in this release, “Hard to Believe”, “I Left a Note”, “I Tried Not to Care (Can’t Settle Now)” and “I Left a Note – Acoustic & Strings”. Would be nice to know more about this release. There is no info whatsoever on the web.

That’s right, I couldn’t find more info about them, but I think this was worthy. I haven’t heard their music in years I feel. It was a good way to remind me of their elegant jangle pop.

Anyone saw them in London when they were around?

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Listen
Red Money – Thicker than Thieves

Day 537

The Spanish Amanda: as you know I am a fan of The Spanish Amanda! Huw makes wonderful popsongs since forever now. I interviewed him once when I didn’t think he would make more Spanish Amanda songs. Today i discover four new songs on an EP called “Ça Suffit, Sophie, C’est Mauvais Pour Les Dents EP”. And this is great! According to him this EP will bring down Boris Johnson! Wow! Can he make it?!

The False Dawns: and as if it wasn’t enough, we know “members” of the Spanish Amanda are behind this project that should be filed between C87 and Casio keyboard demo tunes circa 1984! The False Dawns, based in Letchworth Garden City, have an EP called “You’re Drunk!” that has 5 songs that indeed sound like from a long time ago!

The Fisherman and his Soul: I’d love to get the new album “Nothing Ever Stays the Same” by Sebastian Voss’ pop project. The al bum is being released by the fine Subjangle Records on CD and also on cassette by Shiny Happy Records. The new album has 10 songs and as usual we find his smart German-pop tunes. Definitely a record I have to have! Limited to 100 copies.

The Would-Be-Goods: I can only be happy when I hear new songs by Jessica Griffin!! As you know The Would-Be-Goods is one of my favourite bands ever and Jessica’s vocals sound perfect to my ears. Always. Also as I always remember, the only one time I’ve been shy with a band, has been with The Would-Be-Goods. And I regret it! Now, who knows when I’ll see them again! “Saturn’s Child” is the name of the EP that has 5 wonderful songs. With the classic trademark lyrics of the band. I know these songs are not done with a full-band, but I can see them being re-recorded, or released as they are!

Rob Boyd: “Side Ways EP” is the latest by our friend Rob Boyd. Rob used to be in the London-based band The Hillfields who released a classic 3″ on Cloudberry. This EP has 5 songs of elegant and classy indiepop. What I don’t understand 100% is that it says that the songs were recorded by Ian Catt in 2006. Is that so? Then the EP has been waiting forever to see the light of day! In any case, this is very good, so don’t miss it!

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“The Sound of Leamington Spa Volume 8” (FST 155) released by Firestation Records in 2018 introduced me to the south London band The Believers.

The song that was included in this compilation was “Save the Planet”. But I was going to be surprised online as I was to find many more songs by them!

According to the liner notes on this comp:
“London band, The Believers were formed in 1987 when songwriting partnership Dean Whitbread and Kevin Goldsborough was joined by Richard Woods on guitar, who contributed his own songs as well as collaborations, Hollie Gibson on keyboards and Michele Drees on drums. The band played gigs all over the UK, supporting the Stone Roses at Middlesex Poly, playing Glastonbury town, and the Avalon Stage at Glastonbury Festival.

The 7″ vinyl single “Save the Planet” was released June 1989, proceeds donated to Greenpeace and the Women’s Environmental Network.

The Believers underwent several shifts of personnel. After Richard survived a bad road accident, guitarist Peredur Ap Gwynedd joined whilst still studying music at Goldsmiths college. Saxophonist Tree Peacock joined the band. The Believers recorded often at Beethoven Street studios in Kensal Rise, London, where guests included Seal, whose backing vocals can be heard on “How Can You Know” and his writing partner Guy Sigsworth who played on “Paperboy”.

The Believers didn’t ever really split up – the band simply morphed into a funkier ensemble called Fundamental in 1990, before DJ’s from Leeds stole their name but got away with it by adding hyphens. This latter incarnation played UK and Europe, particularly Italy, playing rock-dance material in nightclubs with choreographed acrobatics in the live show.

Kevin and Richard now record as Unio and Petitio.”

And there’s a link there to a Bandcamp. It is in this Bandcamp that we find the band’s eponymous album, “The Believers”, which was recorded between 1987 and 1990 in various London studios. The album is actually a compilation of 14 songs from The Believers’ archives. According to the info here the songs included were recorded in 24 track, 16 track, 8 track, 4 track and even live stereo recordings, all made using analogue (mostly Ampex) tape, and mastered onto DAT. Some of the live recordings have studio overdubs.

This album includes the “Save the Planet” 7″ and its B-side “Sheets”. Discogs doesn’t have this 7″ listed, but I found it on 45cat. So, it was a self-released single with catalogue number SAVE 1. It came out in 1989 and both songs are credited to Dean Whitbread. The sleeve was a poster sleeve, where on one side we see someone kicking a ball (which is the planet) to the goal and the goalkeeper not reaching it! On the other side of the sleeve there’s a photo of just three of The Believers. How come not the other members? The sleeve was designed by Sarah Habershon and illustrated by Simon Thorpe from Viz Comic.

The sleeve tells us that the record was engineered by Mike Campbell, assisted by Janice, at Cold Storage.  Backing vocals are credited to Sophie Moore, Hazel Noel and Cathy Tozer. There are credits for The Greenhorns appear courtesy of Antilles Records. The Greenhorns were John Ecott (trumpet) and Ashley Slater (trombone) who was in bands like Microgroove, Freakpower, Loose Tube and Kitteen and tthe Hip.

On this record the band was Dean Whitbread on vocals and guitar, Kevin Goldborough on bass, Hollie Gibson on keys, Richard Woods on electric guitar and Paul Cavaciuti on drums. There is a project coordinator too, Danny Brittain, through Allied Agency.

Now what are the songs that appear on this 14-song album? They are “You Can Have It”, “Pain and Pleasure”, “Save the Planet”, “Airport”, “All I Ever Wanted”, “Paperboy”, “The Impossible”, “Sheets”, “Top of the City”, “Mystery Man”, “How Can You Know?”, “When I Think About You”, “Truth Will Out” and “Use the Phone”.

According to the Bandcamp many more musicians that I haven’t mentioned so far appear on these recordings including Ray Swingler on saxophone and Dale Davis on bass.

On Discogs there is another bio. Here there are not many more details to add but that the band played with John Otway, The Long Pigs, Microgroove and Silver on the Tree. Other venues they played at include The Jazz Café, Club Orange and London Uni.

But then I find a Soundcloud which I believe belongs to Dean Whitbread. Here there are even more songs by The Believers. And you wonder why they weren’t included in Bandcamp? They are very good!

The songs on this Soundcloud by The Believers are “That Song About the Rain” from 1988 and  “History“.

Now, if you want to be a fan of theirs on Facebook, the band also has a Facebook page. Wow, I’ve been missing a lot of stuff! There is not much info here but it seems at some point there were plans to release the album on CD. Shame it didn’t happen, would have been great!

Dean is online and has his own website. There is info about his other projects as well as music and videos. Sadly my browser gives me a potential security risk warning when I try to open the landing page. Maybe it hasn’t been updated in a while?

And that’s it, quite good info. I now want to track a copy of their 7″. Would be great to have it.

And you Londoners, do you remember The Believers? Where in South London were they based? And yeah, it is clear the band had more songs too, I’d love to listen to them someday.

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Listen
The Believers – Save the Planet

Day 534

Starrgazy: just discovered this English band formed by Lucie Hill and Benjamin Wesley Morgan. They like to make dreamy, hazy, shoegaze with pop influences. Their latest song is titled “Octopus” and it sounds great! I recommend it!

Silent Coast: previously I’ve recommended the Doncaster, UK, band 93MillionMilesFromTheSun. As you know they are a fine shoegaze project. Well, there is now a solo project by Nick Noble from that band. It is called Silent Coast and has released on Bandcamp a 11 song album with the same name. It’s a good listen!

Snow Coats: the latest from the Doetinchem, Netherlands, band is a digital single titled “Right Fit”. I believe I had recommended the band last August, a year ago, when they released “Navy Blue”. Since then they released the “Pool Girl EP” and this new song. Fun pop!

Colatura: Digo Best, Jennica Best, Meredith Lampe and Alex Kirkpatrick are Colatura, a New York based band. They consider themselves a neo-surf indie band. I am not that familiar with that term. I do know though that their latest effort, the digital single “King Kalm” is a fine slice of guitar pop. And that’s good enough for me to recommend them!

Collision Theory: almost all digital singles this Friday! That’s ok! We can finish this week with Collision Theory from Oxford, UK. The song they have on Bandcamp, the only song actually, is titled “Shut Down”. It is a fun poppy, catchy track. It may be my favourite this Friday. So if you only hvae time to check one song, check out this poppy with punky attitude track.

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I continue exploring Soundcloud for rare indiepop sounds! And it is always a pleasure to hit the jackpot.

I have found 3 songs by The Carrol Singers. These are “Loosen Up”, “Made a Vow” and “Splitting Sides”.

I have listened to the three and decided I really really love “Made a Vow”, what a track! Perfect pop with boy/girl vocals. That’s just perfect! Somedays I think I want to start a flexi label and release songs like this. Would I recover the investment? Would people be interested in gems like this? I wonder… I would for sure!

There is very little information about the band. We have the names of the band members, Paul, Ian, Marie and Gary Lincoln. We know the last name of the last member as the Soundcloud is his! That’s why! The only other detail we have is that the band was around just for about a year, from 1988 to 1989.

The band seems to have started after the demise of the band The Fact. You can find many songs by the band on Soundcloud. The Fact wasn’t exactly indiepop, more of a post-punk/rock outfit.

Later on, after The Carrol Singers, Gary would be in a band I’ve been meaning to write about, The Saving Graces, who were around 1989 to 1990. The song “Loosen Up” would also be played and recorded by The Saving Graces. Yeah, I’ll write about them in my next post. Two songs by The Saving Graces would end up on a compilation called “Extract of Breeze A” on the German label Alphyen Viwit sometime in the early 90s (there is a CDR version of this one too, probably in the late 90s). And all four songs we know were on the “Breeze 4” double cassette compilation by the same label in 1994. But that’s another story…

Enjoy these songs by The Carrol Singers! Hopefully we’ll find more info soon! At least we need to know where were they from! Or if they had any release? Were these tapes released as a demo tape?! Any info will be appreciated!

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Listen
The Carrol Singers – Made a Vow

Day 532

Days of Television: a nice new discovery! This time all the way from Singapore! Aman Sidhu’s solo project has just a few songs on Bandcamp but they are really nice. Very well crafted dreamy indiepop. Their latest song is titled “Ghost Eyes” and I suggest giving it a listen.

Letting Up Despite Great Faults: so good to hear a new song by the Austin, Texas, shoegazers! The song is called “Gemini” and it will be part of the band’s forthcoming album which I believe will be titled “IV”. There’s no info when it will be released but this sounds great.

We Melt Chocolate: didn’t know there was an Italian shoegaze band that loved The Nightblooms. Well, they have released an EP with the Argentinean label No Me Escucho Records which is titled “EP 59#1”. Of course, they cover The Nightblooms song “59#1” and it is a fine rendition! The other two songs are live versions of their own.

Film School: another single that is a preview of a forthcoming album. “Said Your Name” by the dreamy Los Angeles band Film School is to be included in the album “We Weren’t Here” that is coming out on vinyl on September 24th. Lyrics available to sing along.

The Ashenden Papers: if Rose Melberg is involved in a project, you know it is going to be good. The Ashenden Papers is the solo project of Jason Dezember from Concord, California. His latest release is “Summer”, a two song digital single (“Left on Henderson” is the 2nd song) and it is really lovely and jangly. Rose participates doing backing vocals. And again, this is really good!

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Time ago I wrote about the band Bookemdanno. Remember? If you don’t I’ve made it easy to do so. I’ve linked to it.

John Done (guitar and vocals) has an extraordinary voice that almost defines the roomthirteen sound. John previous incarnations include front-man with Suburban Daze and Ink. John also joined local pop outfit Yootha Joyce where a long term fraternal relationship was cemented with Mitchell. John also shared lead vocal responsibilities in the band bookemdanno.

Yeah John Done. I am back to the Soundcloud page he put together and checking out other projects he was involved with. Suburban Daze is the band I wanted to discover today and share with you as their songs are indiepop of course!

Based in Manchester, I believe Suburban Daze was the first proper band John was in. Later on he would be in Ink and then in Bookemdanno.

On the Soundcloud page we find a nice list of songs by Suburban Daze. Are they all of the band’s recordings? We find the songs “Blue Skies”, “Friends”, “Northern Town”, “Suburban Daze”, “Save Me”, “In My Dreams”, “Ocean Blue”, “Slug” “All I Know is This”, “Safe Sex”, “Weekend”, “Franco”, “Salt”, “Don’t Bring Me Down”, “Looking for the Answer” and “Got To Know You Better”. Lots of songs. Enough for an album!

Only one of the songs haa a little more info. “Blue Skies” was written and recorded by John and Paul Walster at Shipwreck Studios in Glossop. The vocals were by John and the all instruments by Paul Walster. Was Suburban Daze a duo then? Paul Walster was also on Bookemdanno as far as I know…

I find then an interview with Mark Revell about his band The Trend, a mod band that was around in the late 70s and got back together in 2016. There he mentions a song called “September Daze” that was included in the band’s latest album. It mentions that Stephen Scott, the band bassist, was in The Trend and afterwards he was in Suburban Daze. “September Daze” was written as a tribute to John Done who sadly died a few years back. I didn’t know that…

And then something quite cool on Youtube, live footage of the band. The band is playing live in Manor Park in Glossop in 1994. The song they are playing is called “The Cosmic Kid (Magic Bus)”. The guitar is much rockier than in Soundcloud. So is it the same band? Geographically and the name it makes sense it is. Who could confirm? I think it is the same band… but with a different sound!

And lastly the Manchester Music Archive has a gig flyer where we see that Suburban Daze played on Sunday 22nd of 1991 at The Witchwood.

Sadly this was all I could find about Suburban Daze. They were played in a Mixcloud featuring Glossop bands. But no more info there. Did they release anything? Appear on compilations? Who were the other band members? Hopefully we’ll find more info about them soon.

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Listen
Suburban Daze – Got to Know You Better

Day 530

Something that gets on my nerve has been happening more and more lately. I write about bands I recommend band because I want to. I find them. I take my time to scout Bandcamp, my friend’s recommendations, Soundcloud, Youtube, etc. And then suddenly I see promo companies tagging me on Twitter or Facebook thanking me for reviewing the bands they represent. It sort of pisses me. They didn’t do any work at all, they didn’t reach me, didn’t offer me an opportunity to listen to the music, a record, a link, nothing. And suddenly they take credit for my small and probably insignificant recommendation. This just happened to me with Pia Fraus. But in the past it has happened to me with other bands.

Maybe this happens a lot. Maybe there are other blogs and pages that do the same. They just like the music and recommend it. The bands must be elated. They must think that the PR company is doing a great job. But that is crap. They didn’t move a finger.

I really have a thing against PR companies. I don’t trust them at all. What’s their job? Sending mass emails with silly praise for bands they don’t even probably care and a link or two? That doesn’t sound like people passionate for music.

Again this behavior of tagging me and thanking me for a recommendation, really pisses me. One thing is the band thanking me. But a PR company? I don’t do it for them. I would never do it. Also. I have never EVER accepted anything from a PR company. Whenever I receive an email from them, I ignore. I don’t have time nor the will to recommend bands that can afford a PR company. That’s not the indie way in my book.

So yeah, I will continue supporting the music of these bands by getting their records, because their music is ace, but I won’t be recommending the music in the blog.

The Caraway: what great news! The Japanese band, a favourite of the blog (check the interview), will be releasing an EP with the fine Blue-Very Label! The EP is holiday-themed. It is titled “Another Christmas Will Come Around this Year” and we can preview the title song right now. The EP consists of 3 more songs, including a cover of Johnny Dee!

A Great Big Pile of Leaves: very close by to me, just down south, Brooklyn. That’s where this trio comes from. They released an album  called “Pono” this month on vinyl, CD and tape. I am not familiar with the band I must say. This is their third album! So yeah, I am discovering the 10 songs that make up their album on Bandcamp, and they are a nice surprise.

Sunnbrella: now we head to London to discover the solo project of David Zbirka. His latest song is a very fine slice of bedroom dreampop. It is titled “Pauline” and as is quite normal, a song with a girl name for a title is usually good. This is no exception!

The Ghost Ease: another new discovery for me, never heard about Portland’s The Ghost Ease. Their latest single is a lovely pop song called “Angel”. I guess what I like the most are the vocal melodies… it is cool, catchy song!

Fantasy Postcards: and I have to end this review of new discoveries with “Caught in Our Shadow” the new song by Johan and Mathias! I am a fan of all the music they’ve been involved with, including Able and The Seashells, two terrific indiepop bands of course! Base in Uppsala the band knows how to make timeless pop music!

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I have wanted to write about Los Murciélagos for ages. The thing is I have hoped to find copies of their records for many years and I haven’t been able to do so. Their album, 7″ and split 12″ (especially this last one) have been on my wishlist for long. At this point I feel I won’t ever be able to find copies. So maybe, perhaps, just maybe, someone has spare copies and can help me. Anyways… who were Los Murciélagos?

They were from Spain, from the city of Oviedo in Asturias. That’s the north of Spain. That’s where my wife’s family comes from and a place I visited two summers ago and fell in love immediately. The vibe, the food, everything was perfect. I wouldn’t mind retiring there, if I ever retire!

Los Murciélagos translate in English as The Bats. Of course we know two very good bands called The Bats. The band is strictly not indiepop but considered a mod band. And actually the band’s original name was quite long, Los Murciélagos de Assisí Underground. Not sure why that name. Anyways, they started in 1987 and would release a 7″, an album and a split 12″ with the band Los Cautivos.

Most of what I am going to tell you about the band appeared on a post by the Spanish blog Nueva Ola 80. I hope they don’t mind as it this will be in English and hopefully a larger crowd can find out about their music.

The band was formed by Mercedes Covisa on vocals, Pablo Martínez Vaquero on guitar and keyboards, Flower Riesgo on guitar and Chús Gil on drums. All of them had previously been in the band Crónicas Húmedas. Flower had also been on the Langreo band La Tentación alongside Chús. This was their hometown.

In 1989 Chús passed away. But before that José Labra had replaced him as their drummer.

Their first demo tape had the songs “Amor a Mordiscos”, “Bat is Back (Voy a por ti)” and “Prefiero Ser Clark Kent”. Their second demo tape which was titled “4 Greatest Hits” had the a cover of Spencer Davies Group’s “Keep on Running”, “Los Tres Asientos de Atrás”, “Chico Duro” and “El Otro Infierno”. Both demos were released in 1987.

In 1988 Labra leaves the band for yet another drummer, José Moragón. This lineup gets signed to Misfit, a new indie label that Rico Roces, from Radio Asturias, put together. The idea was to put a single out. They recorded “Amor a Mordiscos” and “Prefiero Ser Clark Kent” but in the end the label went bust. The songs end up then in their third demo tape, “Misfit Times”.

The song “Los Tres del Asiento de Atrás” is included in a compilation called “Tapes 85-88″ released by Bluestone. There are good bands in this compilation like Kamenbert, Los Canguros or Los Flechazos. Maybe one day I should write about many of these great mod bands.

Javier ‘Gum’ Méndez becomes the new drummer in 1989. This lineup would play a good show in Luanco alongside Los Cautivos and Los Módicos. After this the band would start playing more and more gigs in their region and also at the KGB venue in Barcelona.

The first release the band puts out is the split 12” with Los Cautivos. Released by the label KM 444 from Oviedo, the record was titled “Pow! Oviedo”. Los Murciélagos appear on the A side with two songs, the magnificent “Verde de Guerra (Pow! Oviedo)” and “Los Tres del Asiento de Atrás”. On the B side Los Cautivos have two songs as well. Some other details on the record show that Pablo wrote both songs for Los Murciélagos, Jorge Méndez played guitar on “Verde de Guerra”, Tomás Fernández played sax on that song too. Fran Elías produced the songs which were recorded and mixed at KM444 Studios by Joaquín Lacalle and Carlos Pinto.

There is a video of the band playing “Verde de Guerra” and “Los Tres del Asiento de Atrás” and “Keep on Running” at the Cathedral Square of Oviedo in 1989. I read that “Verde de Guerra” was actually written by Pablo for a previous band he was involved with, Los Cómplices.

On this same label, in 1990, the band releases a 7″ with two songs, “El Color de tu Alma” on the A side and “Prefiero Ser Clark Kent” on the B side. The catalog number is KP 002. Tomás Fernández once again played sax. Rita Beluche sang backing vocals, Javi Monge played guitar and César (I’m missing the last name) played keyboards.

Now it was time for the band to release their álbum “Directo al Corazón”. Released on tape and vinyl, the album had 12 songs. The A side had “El Color de tu Alma”, “Sonrisa Ácida’, “Prefiero Ser Clark Kent”, “Canción Absurda sobre la Muerte de Jim Cook”, “Taxi Driver (You Talking to Me?)” and “Para Siempre”. The B side had “Amor a Mordiscos”, “Directo al Corazón”, “Elena Francis”, “Bat is Back (Voy a por ti)”, “Do You Believe it Now?” and “La Próxima Vez”.

The record was once again recorded at the KM444 Studios and mixed there as well. The same people worked on it, Joaquín Lacalle and Carlos Pinto. The artwork for the record was created by Ringo Julián while the photos are by Puri Méndez and Johnny K. Prat. The illustrations for the back cover are by Javi ‘Gum’ Méndez. The record is dedicated to Chus.

After the album Flower leaves the band to be in the band Los Canallas and is replaced by Ángel Parada from Los Cautivos. Fernando Malva also joins the band on keyboards and Jorge Méndez and Tomás Fernández become permanent in the band playing sax and guitar. This new lineup plays many gigs and start recording the band’s second album which was titled “Reza lo que Sepas”.

The band starts hurting when Ángel and Javi start a band called the Beat Fever’s. I guess they start having problems to dedicate time to both. Also Pablo is working on the radio and even joins for a short time Los Flechazos to play bass. All of this doesn’t help the band and they decide to split.

Later on, in 1992, we see Mercedes and Pablo in a band that lasted very little, Les Paris Match. Pablo would release a solo record in 1994 called “Tal Como Éramos”. Other band that Pablo was Ritmods.  Javi Méndez would participate in Eurovision with the band El Sueño de Morfeo.

The band appeared on a few compilations, but all in this century. In 2003, on Bon Vivant Records’ “Moderno… Pero Español (Vol. 1)” compilation CD the band contribuetd “Bat is Back” and “Amor a Mordiscos”. In 2007, on a compilation CD called “No Se Salva Nadie” (NS2044) that came with the eponymous book by Rafa Balbuena that covered rock and pop from Asturias, the band contributed “Sonrisa Ácida”.

Lastly in 2009, the song “El Color de tu Alma” appeared on “Mi Generación (Lo  Mejor de la Escena Mod de los Ochenta)” (BCD067) a compilation CD released by Bip Bip Records.

I don’t know why I have the idea the band reissued their LP. Maybe they didn’t. For some reason I remember they did, maybe called “Directo al Corazón Plus”. But I can’t find any info. Maybe I dreamed it. Or maybe it was just online? On blogs?

Anyhow, who remembers them? Anyone from Asturias saw them? Or maybe friends from Barcelona saw them when they toured? What other songs did the band record? Did they record some for the second album that didn’t get released? Hopefully we’ll find out soon!

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Listen
Los Murciélagos – Verde de Guerra (Pow Pow Oviedo!)

Day 527

Lunarette: a new song by the New York band that formed from the ashes from the fantastic Gingerlys! “Tangerine Spritz” sounds great. Makes me want to see them live. When will that be? I don’t know. But would be great to hang out with Jackie and Colin after many years!

Letters to Annika: the project of Asuza Suga from For Tracy Hyde and AprilBlue is lovely. I’ve been enjoying it since I discovered it. His latest song is called “Tether” and is its a fine slice of dreamy pop. On top of it all there’s a video for it!

Bleach Lab: there are more and more bands these days that seem to be influenced by the mighty The Sundays. That’s not a bad thing. It is actually a good thing. I love jangly pop with female vocals. And vocals that are different of course. That have a special quality. “Real Thing” is the latest digital single by this London band. It is good!

Librarians with Hickeys: out on Big Stir Records is a digital double A single with the songs “I Can’t Stop Thinking About You” and “Stumbling Down Memory Lane”. The band is formed by Mike Crooker, Ray Carmen, Andrew Wilco and Rob Crossley and it is clear that they like their pop. These are two fine songs!

Blondeking: and we finish this week’s recommendations with this Utah project. It is not common to hear bands from Utah that I like. Blondeking’s latest single won me over immediately. Titled “Higher than the Rain”  it has that lovely feeling of early 90s bands… for some reason makes me think of The Lightning Seeds? What about you?

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Another discovery from Soundcloud, thanks to the many raids I am doing through that platform.

Picture the Scene is obscure as it gets. 10 years ago two songs were uploaded to Soundcloud by Gregg Corbett. These were “Decisions” and “It’s Over Now”. 2 months ago he added a third song, “Question of Love”.

There are some details available for us. We know Gregg was part of the band. He played guitar and drums. He also was vocals. Kenny played guitar and vocals and Paul Bass. We don’t know the last names for them. The three songs we are able to listen are from a 3 track demo tape that was recorded on a Fostex 4-track. When? Sometime between 1987 or 1988. Those were the years when the band was active in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Now there are other bands in his Soundcloud. Other projects he was involved with. The one that catches my attention is Pastis 51. I wrote about this Falkirk band years ago, but I don’t remember reading that Gregg was part of the band.

Other projects that I do know he was part of include The Dream, Bed in the Sea, Fear of Sex  and New Germany (these last three hailed from Falkirk, maybe this was Gregg’s hometown?).

Sadly this is all I found about the band. It is something of course. No releases. Just this demo of 3 songs it seems. Maybe they played live? Maybe my Scottish friends remember them?

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Listen
Picture the Scene – Decisions

Day 525

Astral Brain: the best news in a while is that the project by Einar Ekström (Le Futur Pompiste, The Garlands) and Siri af Burén (Testbild!, Band in Box) will be releasing their album “The Bewildered Mind” on October 15! Wow!  10 songs of perfect pop is what I expect. The album is coming out on Shelflife Records, only on vinyl (oh… I wanted a CD!). You can preview one track now, “Five Thousand Miles”, which is the song I included in the latest Cloudberry fanzine. A killer song!

This is My Secret Garden: on October 8 this essential compilation by the Gothenburg based label My Secret Garden Recordings will be released. You can preview one of the tracks now, Strawberry Fair’s “Attack”, which is wonderful. Other bands included are favourites of mine like Everyday Sensations, Fibi Frap, Evergreen Days and more!

Sweet Season: Phoenix, Arizona, band Sweet Season sounds good to me. A trio formed by Mella Barnes, Dan Radel and Monte Ewert, they will be releasing on September 1st their “Ever” EP. It will have 6 songs and we are able to preview two of them, “For You My Friend” and “Really Really (Love Someone)”. They are nice slices of jangle pop, especially the second track, which I recommend!

The Age of Colored Lizards: the Oslo band is usually featured on the blog. They make some very good pop songs you know. It’s been a while though, I think last time we heard from them was back in January. Now they have just one new song, “The Other Side”, which is a bit different to previous recordings. This time we find a more introspective, acoustic, band.

Michelle & Sebastian: and we end today’s recommendations with this quirky band from Chile. Released as a digital single by the label Gemelo Parásito Records from the southern country, we find here two members of the band Paracaídistas, Joaquín and Mari. Together they have written “Libre al Fin”, a fun twee song!

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Today we head to Wellington, New Zealand.

I discovered a Soundcloud page for The Jonahs with a trove of songs by this 80s band and one wonders why it took so long to find this. The songs here have been uploaded 9 years ago!

It seems that they considered themselves an alt country band?

I don’t know anything about them, I just know they played some nice guitar pop tunes. But here are a bunch of songs and that helps me get an idea.

Four of their songs they tag them as demos that were recorded sometime around 1986. These songs are “Stranger in his Own Home Toungue”, “History of the Rock’nr’Roll Revival Club”, “Short Letter, Long Farewell” and “So Leisurely”.

Then there are 10 songs that were recorded live at the Clyde Quay Tavern in Wellington also in 1986. These were “Bills of Happiness”, “Tour Spiel”, “Short Letter, Long Farewell”, “Stranger in his Own Home Toungue”, “Gone Callin'”, “Halfway to Heaven”, “History of the Rock’nr’Roll Revival Club”, “Unknown”, “Vegas Kings” and “So Leisurely”.

Then I find that the band actually put out a record! Yeah! In 1987 the band released a 12″ mini-album. It was a co-release by Burnt Offerings Music (LIS001) and Lost in Space Records (LIS001). This EP had 5 songs. The A side had “Short Letter, Long Farewell”, “Bills of Happiness” and “Doctoring”. The B side had “So Leisurely” and “History of the Rock & Roll Revival”. The title of the record was “Bills of Happiness”.

On the back of the sleeve we find that Grant Guillosson played bass, Laurence Tyler guitar and vocals, Damien Wilkins guitar and vocals and Victor Foon drums. The songs were recorded in December 1986 and January 1987 at Frontier Recording Studio in Wellington. They were engineered by Nick Roughen (from the bands Dimmer, Go Cats and Skeptics) and Brent McLaughlin (who produced the wonderful “The Law of Things” by The Bats). They were mixed by Brent. The front cover photo is credited to James Gilberd while the band members photos on the back to Evelyn Baden. The design of the sleeve to Margie Mouat.

I read that the record came with a colored insert with song lyrics and more credits. But I haven’t seen this.

We also know that Laurence Tyler was in Cattlebirds, The Gardening Angels and Pit Pony. And we also know the band appeared on a 12″ vinyl compilation called “When the Wind Blows” released in 1987 by Skank Records (SKANK 001). On this compilation the band contributed the song “Stranger Speaks in his Own Tongue”. I have never heard of this comp, but I do see a familiar name in it, The Wild Poppies.

In 1989 the band appears on another comp, compiled by Trevor Reekie. This compilation was called “Positive Vibrations” and was released by Pagan Records (PAL 1052) on both cassette and vinyl. The band contributed the song “Throwaway”.

The website Wellington Music interviewed Damien Wilkins back in 2017. He was at the time in the band The Close Readers. It mentions that he is an award building novelist and Director of the International Institute of Modern Letters. In this interview he mentions the band started in the garage of the Guillosson family in Wainuiomata. Victor was working in Grant’s father’s milk truck! And he become the drummer! Wow.

Places the band played included The Cricketer Arms and Clyde Quay Tavern. They supported The Chills at Victoria University in January 1987. The band played for about a year and then Damien left to London. The band continued for another year  and then broke up. Bands he mentions as influences include R.E.M. and The Go-Betweens.

Then I stumble upon a blog by Damien where he tells a bit of the story of the band. Good find! Read it, it’s very interesting.

And that’s it. Damien mentions in his blog the band is a footnote of The Chills history and nothing more, as they supported them. I would like to disagree! Here there are some terrific songs. And I am going to try to find myself a copy of the record soon. So yeah, good stuff. Who remembers them? Any other detail that you’d like to add?

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Listen
The Jonahs – So Leisurely