Day 523

Astragal: the Houston band is releasing a split 12″ with another band from their town, Bug Bites. The two songs by Astragal are up on their Bandcamp as well as pre-order links. The record is out on October 13 and one of the songs the trio formed by Jimmy, Sam and David, is up for preview. That song is called “Felt the Pain”, while the other one is called “Pendulum”.

The Crystal Furs: another trio, now from Portland. We are familiar with the great music The Crystal Furs make. So always excited to know they have more songs. Two new ones this time, “Miss Hughes” and “Please Fade Away”. Both up for streaming, both catchy and fun. Good stuff.

Kidsmoke: a new song by the Wrexham quartet. “Speaker Avenue” is a very nice effort. I am not that familiar with them, but I am reading here that the band is formed by James, Sophie, Ash and Lance and they make shimmering dreamy pop. I think that description is on target!

Maty de Planeta Tierra & Martu en Marte: this weirdly named band from Avellaneda, Argentina, is a very nice discovery. Their latest song “Pet Society” is catchy as hell. It sounds fun and you want to sing along their quirky lyrics. We should keep an eye on them!

Lurve: I got confused by the label name, Library Group Records from Australia. Do not confuse them with Library Records also from Australia! After I understood this fact, I discovered Lurve and their song “Right Moment”, a nice breeze of dreamy pop!

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Checking what are some of the latest discoveries of our pal stoneeyedkiller and his Youtube channel to find out this US band called The Earl Rays who I have never heard before. So as usual I went to look for any info about them.

The song that was shared on Youtube was “Smile”. This song was included in a 1988 demo tape that had two other songs, “Animal Friends” and “Ya’ Know?”.

We know the band hailed from Cleveland, in the US, and was around between 1987 and 1992. The band was formed by Steve Henry on guitar, Mark Simpson on bass, Jeff Craig on drums and Bernie Jungle on guitar. All of them sung.

Some more info about the demo. We know the songs “Animal Friends” and “Ya’ Know?” were recorded at White Room Studios in Detroit, Michigan by Mike Nehra and Al Sutton. “Smile” on the other hand was recorded at Kopperhead Studios in Canton, Ohio.

They didn’t have any proper releases but they did appear on at least 5 compilations.

“Animal Friends” appeared on “Exhibit ‘B’ – A Special Music Sampler” that was put together by Play Records in 1987 (PLAYC104241). This one was released on tape and CD. The next year, 1988, their song “Ya Know” appears on “Exhibit C: Ohio’s Undercurrent”, also released by Play Records (104244-C) on tape and cassette.

Kopperhead Productions released a tape in 1988 called “Rockin ‘U – The Class of ’87 Rocks!” (K10188). This tape would include the song “Smile”.

1989 would see a song not on their demo being released. “World for Tomorrow” is included in the CD compilation “Certain Damage! Volume 24” that came out on the College Music Journal (CMG-CD 024). Lastly, in 1991, their song “Phil” appears on “Clearing the Air” a 2CD compilation put together by Jim Clevo Presentations (JCP004 A/B). I believe this compilation also had to do with CMJ.

Another name I see involved with the band is Tim Ratley. It seems he was in the recording for “World of Tomorrow”. He was previously part of a band called The Wombats.

I have a suspicion too that the band’s name was based on James Earl Ray. Could it be?

James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 – April 23, 1998) was an American fugitive and felon convicted of assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. Ray was convicted in 1969 after entering a guilty plea—thus forgoing a jury trial and the possibility of a death sentence—and was sentenced to 99 years of imprisonment.

Then I stumble upon a Youtube video with all of their songs. Or most of them. This video has their “Red Tape” demo that had “Smile”, “Pretend Friends” and “She Knows” and the “White Tape” that had “Brand New Day”, “World for Tomorrow” and “9 Outta 10”. The first tape dates from 1987 while the second from 1988. Listen them here.

Then I find more information about them, a proper post about the band on The Listen Project. There’s a trove here including photos. Here it mentions that the original drummer was called Doyle Rice. Don Owens was also part of the original lineup but he would leave the band to be in The Outcasts.

They played gigs supporting the Stray Cats and The Hoodoo Gurus and playing gigs alongside Max Crucial and the Krushers, Scruffy the Cat, The Holy Cows, King Missile (at the Babylon A Go Go) and The French Lenards. The band toured from Chicago to New York and played a gig at CBGB in February 1989. Another gig they played was at the Living Room Set in Cedars in Youngstown.

An interesting thing is that in 1992 the band recorded eight songs with Bill Korecky at Mars Studios. I don’t know anything about these songs. Sadly it seems they never got released. But are they anywhere online?

Steve Henry and Rex Knots (Tim Ratley) formed the band Hadji’s Fruitbasket. Rex went to play too in Balloon Knot.

It seems the band regrouped at some point. There is a video dating from October 6, 2013, of the band playing the songs “World for Tomorrow” and “9 Outta 10” at the Lava Lounge in Pittsburgh.

And that’s it. That was a good amount of important details about the life of this cool band. I think it is the first time I dedicate a post to an Ohio band. That’s super. Let’s see if we discover more soon!

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Listen
The Earl Rays – Smile

Day 520

The Orange Peels: this is great news! The classic band fronted by Allen Clapp is back with a double album called “Celebrate the Moments of Your Life”. Yes, 17 songs, of great pop music! There is even a combo you can get that includes the double album and a 7″ remix single for about $28 plus shipping. Not bad! Also the release is very limited, just 100 copies. Good stuff!

Boyracer: another classic band that keeps releasing good music is Boyracer. A new album will be out on August 29 and it is titled “Assuaged”. 14 short and punchy songs, as usual, of their perfect brand of crashpop and on their own label Emotional Response. The album will be out on vinyl, on a first pressing of pink plastic. Exciting.

Flowertown: the San Francisco duo formed by Karina Gill and Mike Ramos is releasing an album called “Time Trials” on August 20th on the fine label Paisley Shirt Records. The record, which is being released on vinyl, will have 10 songs. Two of the songs are available to preview on Bandcamp, “Time Trials” and “The Way Back”.

SugarCandy Mountain: not much info about this shoegaze/dreampop band. But their album “Embers” has been available on Bandcamp since August 6th. Ten fine songs that seem to be available as digital-only. Looking at their Bandcamp I notice the band actually hails from Edinburgh and was originally active between 1991 and 1995 and has just started playing again together!

Lunatics on Pogosticks: oh! I haven’t checked this Melbourne indiepop band for a while and now that I do I discover they have a new album called “Whatver Gets You Through”! It doesn’t look like there is a physical release. But at least we can play on repeat the 12 songs here. Fun!

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A few days ago I got a nice recommendations from the Fanning Sessions blog, that extraordinaire blog that has let me discover so many obscure Irish bands.

The recommendation was a band called Good Sons. There is a post that dates from August 5th, 2021. So yeah, a brand new discovery. I am posting about it, even if it is repetitive as maybe two blogs may have more luck than one blog finding any more details about them. Who knows! It is good to share this info I think!

Many years ago there was a lot of friendship between bloggers, sharing and researching together. These days blogs are dying, we all know that. Very few exists. So I am happy to still have a little of those days long gone.

Anyhow, what do we know? It seems we don’t even know the name of the song! The guess is that the song is called “Deep Blue Sea”. Another guess is that it dates from 1990.

We know it is a demo because on the sound file shared, Dave Fanning says so. There is a tape cover that is shared. I wonder who made that tape. Someone recording the radio programme? I don’t know. Many bands that are unknown to me appear there. I think all of them are unknown!

Sadly I can’t find any other details. I am assuming the band is Irish of course. I read that Nick Jackson from Mirrors over Kiev had a band called Good Sons. But he was based in Manchester. So probably not. Anyone has a hint or any idea where to look!?

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Listen
Good Sons – Deep Blue Sea (title of the song not confirmed!)

++ When it comes to compilations you appeared on many. The first one I know is the “Zcheisch” comp put together by the Wansbeck Music Collective. I know very little about them. Where you part of this collective? Care telling me a little bit about it?

They were a group of musicians based in Ashington who put on gigs etc. Our first few gigs were through them. Playing with lots of other local groups. They then did the Zcheisch LP. We had two tracks on it. Our first decent recordings.

++ Then you appeared on a few compilations from Germany like “Mind the Gap”, “Heaven Sent” and “Instants of Pleasure” on Blam-a-Bit. How did this good friendship with German labels and fanzine happened? Did you ever meet the German fans?

Don’t really know but they were well into the group. A few writers came over to see us. Uwe from Firestation Records was one of these. Hence the compilation stuff years later. All lovely people who loved English indie bands.

++ And there was “My Favourite Sunday Vol.1” tape released in Japan by the Boshi label. This tape included the song “It’s True”. How did your music ended so far away?! That must have been very cool!

It was and I’m not really sure how it came about. I think they wrote to us and asked us.

Day 518

Television Personalities: First I want to say I don’t support Record Store Day. I honestly don’t know how many of them are a year, and I don’t care. Only big record labels get a benefit out of it. In any case, because at least the double vinyl album “Another Kind of Trip: Live 1985-1993” is available to stream on Bandcamp. Also there is no CD version of this release, previous Fire Records’ TVPs special boxset releases had CD versions and I bought them. But not this time. Anyways. You can purchase the album now and even though it says it was released for Record Store Day it seems available. It includes 21 tracks of unreleased versions and a song that never made it to studio.

Roller Derby: let’s discover this cool Hamburg band! Formed by Philine Meyer, Manuel Romero Soria and Max Nielsen, the band has been putting out some fantastic songs on Bandcamp. Dreamy and poppy, superb indiepop. The latest track is called “Whatever Works” and it is honey to my ears. Brings so many memories of trips to Hamburg, to hang out with indiepop friends and check out gigs at the Astrastube. Maybe one day I can catch them there?

The Fisherman and his Soul: a new single by our friend Sebastian Voss from The Grindcore Poppies and Nah… This one is called “Dimmish Grey Sky” and it is a fine slice of pop. There are also included 4 remixes and this I let you decide what you think. I am not a fan of remixes in general. I don’t remember a remix I’ve liked better than the original!

The Arctic Flow: “Lost You Long Ago” is the name of the album that Sunday Records will be releasing on August 20th on CD and tape. Good news! 11 songs by this wonderful project that knows how to chime and jingle jangle his guitars. We can preview two songs right now, “Rehearsals” and “Alive”, both very very strong!

The Suncharms: Sunday Records is also releasing the debut album by 90s popsters from Sheffield! Yes, The Suncharms we all love and that we got the chance to release a retrospective compilation some years ago. The band got together and have been making some terrific songs. The two songs we can preview from the upcoming album “Distant Lights” are no exception. “Liquid Through My Hands” and “Seas of Titan” sound ace. The album is out on August 20th on CD  and later on, in December, there will be a vinyl version. The CD version seems a better deal, with 12 songs, while the vinyl has just 10 songs. Looking forward to this one!

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We continue digging treasures from Hull, thanks to Chris Warkup’s Soundcloud page!

Now a band with a curious name, Fog. A bad name for the internet days. How can we find more information about a band with a name like that. How can that be googled?! I think we are in a difficult situation here. But let’s try.

I discovered Fog thanks to the tape “Now That’s What We Call Hull” from 1992. I’ve written many posts about bands that appeared on this compilations by now. And probably there will be more! So many good bands that I had no clue about less than a month ago.

Fog appears on this tape with the song “Enough”, which is the 5th song on the A side. Previously, in 1991 they had contributed another song, “The Happy One”, to a compilation tape called “Tales from the Riverbank”. I have just listened to both songs and I am happily impressed.

They made proper indiepop. Catchy and poppy! Did they make other songs?

I have an answer. YES.

Their song “Closed” appears on a compilation tape called “Nice 1” also from 1992. and then in 1993 they had the song “R.I.M.A.” on “2 Nice for Words”, yet another compilation tape.

I am aware too of a self-titled tape called “Who Pilots the Flying Saucers?”. This tape must have been a demo tape. It dates from 1992 and had three songs, “Slack”, “Snap” and “G.T.F.”.

In total then, 7 songs they recorded. Were there more? Who would know?

The Hull Music Archive sheds some light! And adds some more releases. Yes, there was another tape with three songs, “Tabloid Snipers”, “Tactic” and “Closed”. So now we know 10 songs.

We also get to know that the band was around from 1989 to 1993 and were formed by:
Grant Davison on guitar and vocals
Steve Porter on accordion
Kevin Riches on guitar
Kev Coulman on bass and guitar
Chris Hoyle on drums

Other people that were involved in the band included Neil Tallentyre on whistle, Mark Gallon on drums, Karl Isaksen on bass, Sean Pidd on bass and Ali Bee on backing vocals.

It i said that the band was formed after the demise of The Boys from County Hell. Neil was the original drummer but Mark Gallon was the first to replace him. With this lineup the band played the Adelphi and got a  weekly residency at the Alexandra Hotel. Another place the band played at was the Hebden Bridge Trades Club and the Room 1795. They played in London, Birmingham and Scarborough.

Then I find that there exists live footage of the band playing at The Adelphi! Check out the songs “Enough“, “Closed“, “Waterhouse Blues“, “Quite a Year“, “Tabloid Snipers“, “Tactic” and “Happy One“. These date from sometime in 1991.

The recordings for the songs “The Happy One”, “Enough” and “Waterhouse Blues” were made at Animal Tracks but for some reason these songs weren’t released as a proper demo.

Other songs in the band repertoire included “Tomorrow”, “Trolleybound”, “Boxes”, “Sheriff Song”, The Wild Rover” and “The Farmer”.

And that’s what I could find about them. Maybe someone remembers them? Maybe someone has more songs to let us listen? That’d be fantastic!

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Listen
Fog – Enough

Day 516

Blueboy: probably the best release this month is Blueboy’s Peel Session from March 12, 1994. It is being released by the great Precious Recordings of London and it is a deluxe package, a double single, just like their previous releases of BMX Bandits and Jasmine Minks. This record comes with four songs, “Toulouse”, “Good News Week”, “Dirty Mags”and “Loony Tunes”. Essential.

Un Día Soleado: the Viedma, Argentina, pop band that takes their name from Another Sunny Day has a new song out on their Bandcamp. This new digital single is called “Lxs Chicx Ya Van a Llegar” and it is a fun guitar driven track. This is proper Patagonia Indie Pop!

Layzi: and now we head to Boston, Mass., to discover this lovely lo-fi bedroom pop project. Their latest release, a self-titled EP, sounds gorgeous. Introspective, melancholic and upbeat at the same time, the four songs pack a lot of feeling. Let’s keep an eye on them.

The Raft: a new song by Phil Wilson’s project that has been going since 2003 and have been featured on the blog many times. “Hola, I Don’t Think So” is a good track, influenced by bands like The Sundays, Ride or The Stone Roses. The song is available on Shore Dive Records.

Comet Gain: another album-worth of songs from David Feck! 14 homemade pop songs recorded in a lo-fi way. But it is so fun to hear Comet Gain this way! This album is called “Bubblegum Summer Beach Bash!” and I totally recommend it.

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Today I wanted to know a little bit more about one of my favourite Norwegian bands.

There are quite a few Norwegian bands I love, and most of them released records on the mighty Perfect Pop Records. The girl group The Blind Bats was no exception. A 7″ single, an EP and an album were their legacy (as well as a few compilation appearances). I do believe we owe them a little bit more than that. Their songs were a explosion of fresh pop. Punchy and fun. They should have been bigger I would say!

And I am sure I am not the only one that thought this. Little Teddy Recordings from Germany believed in the band too and released the album on vinyl and their 7″. So let’s see what we can tell about them.

The band’s first record was “The Banshee Girl EP” that came out in 1992. Released by Perfect Pop (POP 6), the EP was a success having a second edition right after (the first edition has a white sleeve while the 2nd edition a red sleeve). This record came with four terrific songs, “Banshee Girl” and “Vacation” on the A side and “Polaroid City” and “Last Orders” on the B side. The record had cool artwork (a normal thing for records in this label) and fun inserts.

THe band was formed by Vibeke Whiplash on vocals and guitar, Sandy Shore on farfisa and backing vocals, Tuesday Knight on bass,  and handclaps, Reg Trademark on guitar and handclps and Mrs. F*** on drums, handclaps and tambourine. The record was produced by Tom Trøbråten from The Time Lodgers and recorded at Endless Studio by Ulf Knudsen (Betong Hysteria, Feel, Sister Rain, Hellige, Norske Gutter, Kaare Og Partiet, etc) and Eystein Hopland (Bio-Logic, Ex Lex, Sister Rain, Skogvokterne). The photos are credited to Maya Glaser.

So I never knew the names behind these aliases. I found out now that Tuesday Knight was Tonje Ludvigsen who played in The Vacuum Dreamers. Reg Trademark was Ståle Caspersen who played with The Tables. Sandy Shore was Kjersti Gravklev. Vibeke Viken used to use the alias Holly Wood as well and played on The Vacuum Dreamers. Mrs. F*** was Heidi Cleven.

Their second release came out in Germany, on Little Teddy Recordings. “Waiting for the Summer” 7″ (LITe708) came out in 1993 with three terrific songs, “Waiting for the Summer” and “Killing Time” on the A side and “Fall” on the B side. This time on drums we see Max O’Malley (Ine Merete Johanssen). The design of the sleeve is credited to Erling Vestnes. The producer was again Tom Trøbråten and Geir Holtbakk was the engineer and co-producer. Again beautiful art, beautiful inserts. Top release.

Lastly in 1994 the band released the classic “Pop the Question” album. Perfect Pop released the CD version (POP 13) while Little Teddy released the LP version. The vinyl version actually had a first pressing on black vinyl of 300 copies and then a 2nd of 200 copies on coloured vinyl. Also bear in mind the art for both releases differ a lot. The songs were the same.

Again all of them recorded at Endless Studio and mastered at Stype Audio with Eystein Hopland and Tom Trøbråten, the songs were “Sleep the Whole Night Through”, “Alice in Wonderland?, “She Goes to Parties”, “By Accident”, “Nolan Bigsby’s Wonderful Story”, “Candy Flavoured!”, “Buick Outside my House”, “Everywhere I Go”, “Daydreamer”, “Run Around in the Sun”, “The Wind Blows Your Hair” and “Susan”.

On the album the got help from Robert Birdeye from The Tables and Tom from The Time Lodgers. The drummer for this record was someone else, J. Slingerland.

When it coms to compilations the band appeared on 4. The first was a CD comp plus cassette plus 7″ released by Mermaid Record from Germany. This one is from 1992 and was called “Mermaid Employee of the Month: Gustav Sackmüller” (MIRABELL 665). The song the band contributed was “Polaroid City”.

In 1995 their song “Alice in Wonderland” ends up on “(Gardene of Delights Presents…) Seek Refuge… (From Your Intolerable Situation)” a vinyl compilation put together by Garden of Delights (Garden 3). That same year the songs “Banshee Girl” and “I’m a Believer” are included in “A Perfect Pop Compilation 1991-1994” released by Perfect Pop Records (POP20) on CD.

Lastly “Waiting for the Summer” ends up on the 2001 CD comp “Woosh! Little Teddy Recordings 1991-2001” released by Little Teddy (BiTe025).

Looking at the Perfect Pop website I found a bunch of photos taken of thee band by Moren “Mortan” Andersen, Maya Glaser and Steinar Buholm. Also flyers of a gig the band shared with The Time Lodgers and Astroburger at Cosmopolite and another from February 5th 1992 at Headache.

On the label it also tells that that the band members went to be on different bands including New York based Oscar and the Pidgin Sisters, SS Bondevik, Ljodahått, Frequency TV and The Vacuum Dreamers. The only one I know is the last one! Never heard the other ones… and don’t know which members were on which band!

Another interesting tidbit I found is that last year Tuesday Knight released a 32-page booklet titled “Drinking Songs for Dirty Blondes” with her lyrics and illustrated by Ronny Haugeland. I should try to get this. Some info for it and a link to buy it can be found here.

The website Rockipedia says that the band played a French festival in 1994. Which festival was this one?

Not many blogs have written about them, but one who has is 7iete Pulgadas by my good friend Alex. His post dates from back in 2007!

Sadly couldn’t find any more details about them. But I am sure many of you remember them. Did they record more songs? What about the other bands they were involved with? Worth investigating? What are they up to these days? Many questions and hopefully answers soon!

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Listen
The Blind Bats – Banshee Girl

Day 513

Secret Attraction: nice discovery from Phoenix, Arizona, thanks to my friend Casio Van Doesburg! “Sensitivity/Drifting”is the name of this release that includes 3 songs, “You”, “Drifting” and “Sensitivity” in that order. There is very little info about this project, but it doesn’t matter. It chimes, it jangles, sounds very 80s. What’s not to like!

Fine.: this has to be one of my favourite bands as of late. The Boston, UK, band makes perfect pop. They have a new EP out called “How I feel Now”. Or is it a single with two B sides? I always get confused in how to categorize these. Anyhow. 3 songs. Digital only as far as I know. Perfect pop. Yes, I insist. Perfect pop.

Shesawsins: this band from West Java, Indonesia, has just released their first demo on Bandcamp. Their originally titled “Demo 2021” has two songs, “Memories” and “Mothra”. The band is formed by Ekop, Fachri and Dendy and let’s keep an eye on them. Indonesian bands know how to make good indiepop!

Swirlpool: this German band does make some pretty shoegaze! I just discovered the band thanks to their latest song, “Cinnamon Sun”. The band seems to be a bit more pro than the bands I usually feature. They have their own website, and all sorts of accounts on social media. But don’t let that bother you. The songs are nice.

Cor de Lux: I like this melodic post punk band from Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Their latest song jangles and chimes just like I like and the vocals, albeit different to your normal indiepop fare, work just fine. It is a very cool sounding band. I need to check their other songs, but I have to say “Futures” won me over.

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One more from Hull, thanks to Chris Warkup’s Soundcloud page!

After discovering The Sandcastles, with their gorgeous female vocals, I wasn’t expecting to find another girl-fronted band. Well, Promise, sounds as good!

I have so far heard one song by them. It is called “Stay With Me” and I totally recommend it. If you like The Fat Tulips, I am sure you’ll like this one too.

This song appeared on the compilation tape “Now That’s What We Call Hull” that came out in 1992. This is the same compilation where I discovered the aforementioned The Sandcastles and the band Full Cry which I have written about already. And I’m sure I’ll keep discovering more great indiepop sounds here. The song is on the A side, it is the 3rd song, sandwiched between Joyce Victoria’s “Fortunate Thing” and Juniper Chute’s “Me and Mrs Jones”.

I try to find more information about the band but as you can imagine with a name like Promise it is very hard. Googling promise gives me thousands, millions, of hits, but nothing to do with the band.

I do find something. In 1992 the band released a tape, an EP. It was probably a demo, would be nice to know. It was called “Sneeze like a Cat” and had four songs. “Sooner or Later” and “Jolly” on the A side and “She Shall Whisper” and “My Pretty Baby” on the B side.

That’s all I could find. So yeah, if anyone has any info about this obscure but lovely sounding band let me know!

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Listen
Promise – Stay With Me

Day 511

Magic Roundabout: the awesome Manchester 80s band that I interviewed not too long ago announced the album “Up”! The album is available now to pre-order (I already did!) on Third Man Records. It will be out on September 24 and includes just 6 songs from what I understand. So maybe more of a mini-album?! If you want to hear one of the songs from the album, “She’s a Waterfall”, follow the link. Wonderful track, classic sounding indiepop!

Swansea Sound: the band formed by Hue, Amelia, Rob and Ian is back with a cassette tape and mini CD with two songs, “Swansea Sound (English)” and “Swansea Sound (Cwmraeg)”. We can listen to the English version, but the Welsh version not! And I am so very curious to hear Amelia and Hue sing in Welsh.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: two more songs by Glenn Donaldson, the incombustible man behind the San Francisco band. The new songs are titled “Leave it All Behind” and “Can’t Stop the World from Going By”. As usual jangly and chiming!

Dummy: now we head to Los Angeles and discover this band that is releasing “Mandatory Enjoyment” on October 22nd. I am surprised with labels and bands being able to say when their vinyl record will be out with all the current delays! Anyhow, the album will be available on CD too and cassette thanks to Trouble In Mind Records. You can preview just one track now, “Daffodils”, which sounds ace.

Pia Fraus: and this is amazing news! On November 1st the Tallinn band is releasing “Now You Know it Still Feels the Same”, a new album! It will be available on CD and vinyl and will include 12 songs. Two of them are available to preview, “How Fast Can You Love” and “In Mind”. As usual, this is so good. Cracking pop!

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Today is the turn for a very obscure band from Ottawa, Canada, that I stumbled upon on Soundcloud a few days ago. The account that has three songs by the Paisley Cowboys is owned by Billy Lidbetter, who was a member of the band.

The songs you will be able to find here are the fantastic “Start All Over Again“, “Blue Bride“, “Black” and “The Hurting Kind“. I believe “Black” is the oldest song, it was part of a demo recording produced by Karlin Shewman in 1984. “Blue Bride” and “Start All Over Again” date from 1985 and we don’t know the date for “The Hurting Kind”.

I can see that Billy has been involved with many bands here. They include Doorbell Dogs, Strange Angels, Original Supreme, Lesbian Seagull, Billy Slinks, Spray Paint, Porco Dio, Omni-Directional, The Pussys, Karlin August Kidd, Rare Groove, Smokecrusher, The Foundation, Eat Crow, Tainted Meat, Dorsey Burnette, Future Toys and The Hammerheads. I think the most indiepop band out of them all, he played so many musical genres, were The Paisley Cowboys.

A photo on Soundcloud may indicate the band was a five-piece. It looks like 4 guys and 1 girl? It is a bit blurry so hard to say.

There is barely any information about the band. A blog called Ottawa Punk History has a gigography for the city. Here we find a few gigs the band played in their hometown. On April 10 and April 11 of 1985 the band played along Bugs Harvey Oswald at The Underground. On April 20 of that same year the band played with Porcelain Forehead, Fluid Waffle and Skull Giver at the Glebe Community Center.

May 17 of 1985, now they play with Beat Crazy again at The Underground. That’s the last gig listed for them. Too little.

On Twitter I find a reply to a photo of Ron Sexmith. The person commenting mentions he used to manage the band. Pretty sure his first name is Mike, but can’t tell the last name.

I notice stoneeyedkiller has uploaded the song “Start All Over Again” to Youtube. Ah! he has good taste and again discovered the band before me. The important thing is that he found a photo for the band. Where? It looks like a proper promo photo!

Anyhow, that’s all I could track down on the web. So yes, any help finding out more details about the Paisley Cowboys will be appreciated! Canadian friends, do you remember them?

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Listen
Paisley Cowboys – Start All Over Again

Day 509

Lauds: discovering this Wilmington, North Carolina, label called Fort Lowell Records. Their self-titled release by Lauds caught my attention immediately. The “Lauds EP” sounds amazing. Jangly. Chiming. Four songs of pure pop. Great stuff. Digital only it seems?

Archie Sagers: another new label for me, Crafting Room Recordings from Brighton. They have released “Glitter” by Archie Sagers which is the second and final single from the upcoming EP “New Colours in the Sky”. The song is great, with a superb melody and dreamy sparkling guitars. Let’s keep an eye on Archie, right?

Parasouls: now we head to Manila, Philippines. It is another digital single I want to present you today, “Sunny Beach” by Parasouls. Sounds perfect for this summer, right? Also Philippines have great beaches, many that I’d love to visit some day. Anyhow, it is great to discover this pop trio from Lilystars Records.

Seoul Magic Club: the wizards from Seoul. That’s how they define themselves. Interesting. I have just discovered them through the song “Que Sera Que Sera”. And I like it! It is a sweet dreamy song, moody and mellow. The band is formed by SIAN on vocals. Shin on synth and Na on drums.

300 D: Jen Weisberg and Bean Pearce are 300 D from Oakland, California. They just have two songs on Bandcamp, their latest that was released last week is called “Grocery Vaping” which is a fine slice of bedroom pop!

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And yet one more post discovering Hull bands thanks to Chris Warkup’s Soundcloud page!

Today is the turn of The Brontes, which I guess their name is pretty obvious where it comes from. Right?

The Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary family, born in the village of Thornton and later associated with the village of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte (1816–1855), Emily (1818–1848), and Anne (1820–1849), are well known as poets and novelists. Like many contemporary female writers, they originally published their poems and novels under male pseudonyms: Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Their stories immediately attracted attention for their passion and originality. Charlotte’s Jane Eyre was the first to know success, while Emily’s Wuthering Heights, Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and other works were later to be accepted as masterpieces of literature.

The song Chris shared on his Soundcloud is called “Precious” and it was included in the compilation tape “Hull North of Manchester” that came out in 1990. This tape included a band I love, The Penny Candles, who I interviewed ages ago. The Brontes’ song was the first song on the A side, pretty sure whoever put this tape together had great consideration for this track and I think it is not a surprise, the song is good!

I could find out that the band appeared on another compilation that same year. It was called “There’s Something Stirring in King Billy’s Bogs”. This tape was released by the label Hull, Hell and Happiness and the song that was included by The Brontes was called “Crime”. I notice too that I could find credits for who wrote the song, Graham Smith and Jasper Bolton. Good! Two names. This tape also included The Penny Candles and yet another band I’ve interviewed in the past, Pink Noise!

And then I find some more stuff! One thing that I find out is that the band wasn’t technically from Hull but from a place called Driffield. Never heard of it…

Driffield, also known as Great Driffield, is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The civil parish is formed by the town of Driffield and the village of Little Driffield. By road, it is 53 miles (85 km) north-east of Leeds, 70 miles (110 km) north-east of Sheffield, 29 miles (47 km) east of York, 23 miles (37 km) north of Hull, 72 miles (116 km) south-east of Middlesbrough, and 218 miles (351 km) north of London. Driffield is named The Capital of the Wolds, due to its location sitting centrally within the Yorkshire Wolds.

And then a true surprise. A video! A promo video for the song “Crime“. I wasn’t expecting that!

There is a bit of info here. It mentions that the video was recorded in 1989 on Beverly Westwood, Hen Cooper’s mum’s shed and garden in Nafferton and many roads around England, and that it was aired in MTV, NHK Japan, Eurochannel, ITV UK and more. Wow. Who remembers watching it?

Also the lineup of the band is listed here. Claire Binnington on vocals, Hen Cooper on backing vocals, Smirt on guitar, Jasper Bolton on guitar, Andy Bingham on bass and Neil Drury on drums. Sadly it seems Neil has passed away. His last gig was at Liverpool University on January 22, 1991.

Back to the names, I believe Smirt is Graham Smith. Can someone confirm that?

And then a Facebook and an Instagram! Seems the band are still going!

On the Facebook page I read that the band recorded an album called “House of Dreams”. But I haven’t been able to find a tracklist for it. The Facebook page has a lot of stuff about the band. On an newspaper clipping it mentions that the band usually packed the Camden Falcon and that they were signed to a German label D.S.B. that was to release an EP. Did that happen? Other places the band played included The Adelphi, Border Lines, Solem Bar in Manchester Uni, or Blue Lamp. Other gigs happened at The White Horse in London on October 11, 1990, at the Redcar Folk Festival on July 14, 1995, supporting The Buzzcocks at Leeds Uni on October 1990, at the Royal Standard in Bradford, Gullivers in Grimsby, The Alex Goole in Goole, The Norseman in Driffield, Old Angel in Nottingham, Leisure World in Bridlington, Spotted Cow in York, Polytechnic in Leeds, LA’S in Kings Lynn, Leicester uni, The Alex in Goole, Lower School in Driffield, GOing Underground in Berkhamsted, Saxon Suite in Driffield, Steamers in Bridlington, The George in Bridlington, Room 1795 in Hull, Sewerby Park in Bridlington, Bell Hotel in Driffield.

Bands they supported included Eat, The Heart Throbs, Cast, Katrina and The Waves, Full Cry, Hunnys Birthday and Matthew Hogg.

Also we find more names for songs like “Basement Love”, “Catch Me”, “Mr. Sometimes”, “County Line”, “Into the Night”, “Forever”, “What a Fool Believes”, “The Only One”, “She Got”, “Catch Me”, Fat” and “If”. Some of these songs are found on the band’s Soundcloud. I believe most if not all of these songs were recorded at Fairview Studio in Kings Lynn.

Another thing that caught my attention is that they were to be featured on a CD called “A Perfect Combination – Fairview Studios 1973-1990”. That indeed happened in 2016. The song they contributed was “Crime”. Other indiepop bands in this comp include International Rescue, The Gargoyles, THe Beautiful South, Pink Noise and 3-Action! among others. There was even a gig for the release of this CD and the band played that gig on December 9, 2016 at the Kingmaker.

After this reunion the band played on May 6, 2017 at the Maple Room in Driffield and on June 9, 2017 at Tidal Waves Festival in Bridlington. On May 28, 2017 the band played The Priory Bar and on July 15 of that same year at the Newtobury Music & Beer Festival. On September 21 2017 the band played at Hull Fruit. On February 2, 2019, the band played at Kardomah94 for the Perfect Combination 3 Stephen Hughes gig.

The German label was to release an album. On Facebook the band has notes of what the album would be. The tracks for it were in this order, “Only One, “Catch Me”, “Basement Love”, “She Got”, “If”, “Forever”, “Into the Night”, “The House of Dreams”, “Fat” and “Rebound”. On the drums now we find Joel Cash. Graeme Smith is credited for guitar on the song “House of Dreams” and Fraz Ward for keyboards on “She Got”, “House of Dreams” and “Only One”. The album was produced by the band and John Spence and was engineered and mixed by John Spence.

A 14 track CD was put together by the band in 2017 for their gigs. Wonder if copies of it are still available. The band went to record once again, in 2018. It was to be an EP and three songs of this session are available on Soundcloud, “What a Fool Believes”, “County Line” and “Heat of the Day”.

Another compilation that seems obscure is the one called “Sight & Sound”. This compilation featured the band and was put together to support SightSupport Hull & East Yorkshire. Wonder which song the band contributed to it.

Oh well, that was quite a lot of info in one day! I wasn’t expecting this much! Hopefully we’ll learn more details soon. Do you Hull indiepop fans remember The Brontes? Did you see them at their reunion gigs?

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Listen
The Brontes – Precious

Day 506

Grandstands: Let’s start this Friday with the classy jangle pop band Grandstands from Melbourne, Australia. Their latest album was called “I Love That You Want to Live Here Too” and it actually came out last year. And I missed it. But I can make up to it a year later, right? The ten song album has great moments of guitar pop, so give it a listen. As far as I know it was released only digitally.

Main Street Light Parade: here’s another Australian band that I just discovered. Hailing from Adelaide, the band has just released on Bandcamp two new releases. A live set at the Golden Wattle dating from July 31, 2020 and an EP of demos from the years 2018 to 2021. Nice!

Wynona Bleach: now we head to Belfast for some punchy dreampop! The band’s latest single is titled “Drag” which will be the opening track of the band’s forthcoming album “Moonsoake”. When is this album released? No info! But I’ll keep an eye!

Lightfoils: the Chicago band is back with two new songs, “306” and “Summere Nights DEATHMIXX” which are being released on a limited edition tape. The tape that comes with some very cool artwork by Terrell Culbert is part of the band’s 4-single cassette collection. Previously they released the “Sunblind” single.

Submotile: and we end this week with shoegaze thanks to Submotile , an Iris-Italian band, and their label Shore Dive Records from Brighton. The band has just released a limited CD of 9 songs titled “Sonic Day Codas” and it is powerful buzz of walls of guitars. At the time of writing only 4 copies of the CD were left!

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Again looking for treasures and obscure bands. That’s what an indiepop fan does, right?

Today I want to know more about a band called Recruits. I believe they hailed from the UK but I have no other details about them. Once they were recommended by Uwe from Firestation Records on his blog, saying that “See My Face” was a superb indiepop song with male vocals in the vein of Rumblefish or This Final Frame.

So I am listening to that song. And it is good. That was on their 1989 7″ single. But let’s go in order.

Their first release dates from 1983, a 12″ single that was self-released with catalog number RE1.

This is much more synth-pop than indiepop to be honest. The three songs on this record were “Three Squeezes (The Mirror and Me)”, “Cherokee” and “Three Squeezes (remix)” is on the B side as an AA. The songs had been recorded at Studio 80 in London, produced and engineered by Martin Rex. The songs are good, catchy. But maybe not the usual stuff I would recommend in the blog. I guess we’ll care more about the 7″. But we need to know the whole history of the band, right?

The band was formed by Terry Hope on bass, Phil Shock on guitar and vocals, Phil Evans on keys, Pete “the Corporal” Bolger on percussion and vocals and Mel Wallis on vocals. For the second single Martin Aspland is credited for keyboards and Dane for vocals.

The 7″ as mentioned came out in 1989. It had two songs, “See My Face” on the A side and “Dream Heaven Scene” on the B side. The catalog number was RE2. Again self-released. This time the band recorded the songs at Ha Bloody Ha Recording Studios in Ashtead, Surrey. The engineer was Ade Orange, long time keyboard player for Gary Numan.

I couldn’t find any compilation appearances for the band.

One thing I find is that the band played in Yarmouth, in a venue called The Big Apple sometime in 1983.

Sadly I can’t find any other details. Very little indeed for this band. Maybe some of you remember them? Where in the UK were they from? Did they record more songs? Were they involved in any other bands?

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Listen
The Recruits – See My Face

Day 504

Thee Objects: The Magic Roundabout is a band we discovered this year and loved. The Manchester band will be releasing an album worth of songs very soon, but we know these are songs from the old days. But what are their band members doing now? Well, Nick and Linda have been recording some songs under the name Thee Objects. Their latest songs are “The Little Black Egg” and “What is Wrong With You?”. The first one being a very nice cover of the Nightcrawlers! Give it a listen!

Milk Film: the Tokyo 3-piece is releasing an EP titled “No Perspective” that is dedicated to the great Toshiko Matsumoto from Apple Crumble. The songs are previously released. “No Perspective!” and “Music for Bouganville” appeared on the band’s debut album “Honey, Sugar and Spice” while “Magic Room” was included in the compilation “Noon Records Compilation Vol. 1”.

Fandor: “En Quatrième Vitesse” is the latest by classic Bordeaux band. This is top quality French indiepop. 12 songs are included here that are just perfect. Great arrangements, superb performance, you get hooked immediately. The album is released on CD and is now available. Very few copies have been made.

Freezing Cold: now to this fine place called New York. Jeff, Leanne and Angie are Freezing Cold and they released this July a 7″ lathe cut with Salinas Records. The record had two songs, “Stuck on Hold” and “Drawn to Scale”. They are nice upbeat pop songs, especially the first track. The band will play in October at Saint Vitus. If only I could go… I feel gigs are something to look forward but in two years time or so?

Pierre: Who is Pierre? He hails from Landskrona in Sweden and his latest digital single “As One” is rather good. Previously Pierre Andersson Ek had released some more songs in 2019 and 2020. But I do think this latest one is his best. Check it out.

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Let’s continue discovering Hull bands thanks to Chris Warkup’s Soundcloud page!

So far I’ve written about Full Cry and The Cheapskates (Chris was on this band I found out), today I thought why not try to find more information about a band called The Sandcastles!

I first heard the song “Turquoise Mini” from the 1991 compilation tape “Tales from the Riverbank” and I immediately got hooked!  This was perfect pop for me. The vocals are just delicious. Who were they? Was it a girl band?

I think of the Twa Toots. That sort of indiepop. Sweet guitar-driven pop with female vocals. Will I be able to find any more details about them? Let’s try.

I do find on the web that the band released a few tapes and was on a few compilations.

The first one dates from 1991, a cassette single by the band. This self-titled tape had just three songs, “Turquoise Mini” and “Fitzbilly Street” on the A side and “Up Here” on the B side. I think Fitzbilly Street could be Fitzwilliam Street in Huddersfield? Or what else could it be? Maybe my UK friends would know.

Then that same year the band appeared on the aforementioned “Tales from the Riverbank”. This is a superb tape that you can listen in its entirety in the Soundcloud link I shared.

In 1992 the band appears on another compilation tape, “Now That’s What We Call Hull”. The song that the band contributed was called “Sad Love Songs” and appeared on the B side. This song sadly is not on Soundcloud.

Lastly the band released another tape in 1994. This one has a label, Sensual, but no catalog number listed on the website 45worlds. The tape was titled “Dance at Every Wedding… Mixes ’93-4” and included four songs, “Catherine Wheeling”, “Song”, “Dance at Every Wedding” and “These Moods”.

So in total I’ve counted 8 songs recorded by the band. Were there any more?

What else can we find? The band had some merch. The Hull Music Archive has a photo of a long-sleeved shirt.

I find a thread on the Hull Music Archive Facebook. There I see that the band actually released a CD for “Dance at Every Wedding”. I should try to track that down. Someone says that the songs were recorded at Badge Studios in Doncaster and were produced by Keith Angel. Another good detail to add is that the vocalist name was Jane.

And so I find the “Dance at Every Wedding” CD. It is actually different to the cassette. This one is a proper album! It includes 10 songs, “Black Dog”, “These Moods”, “What About the Time”, “You”, “Swimming”, “Heartache”, “Apples and Pears”, “Song”, “Catherine Wheeling” and “Dance at Every Weeding”. Now we know of 14 songs by the band!

And even better, I find a scan of the back of the CD case. The names of the band members are printed there. This is great detective work I tell to myself. The band was formed by Jayne Cooper, Zoe Oxaal, Shane Rhodes and Graham Denton. The label seems to be Nono Records, catalog number NNcd8. This is not on Discogs sadly. If anyone know where to get a copy let me know. I am curious about listening the album.

And that’s all I could find. Much more than I expected. So I feel good about it. Now I want to listen to the rest of their songs, “Turquoise Mini” is truly great!

Who remembers them?

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Listen
The Sandcastles – Turquoise Mini