Thanks so much to Jimmy Arfosea for the interview! Some weeks ago I was reviewing the OVVK Recordings Bandcamp as there were many releases available to stream by Les Autres. Then Jimmy got in touch and it was a superb opportunity to do an interview for the blog! Les Autres was one of the most important bands in the French indiepop scene of the 90s and released an album and a bunch of singles mostly on the label Cornflakes Zoo. It is then a good time to rediscover them, even more so as they do have a CD compilation with unreleased bits and bobs that is still available on Jigsaw Records.

++ Hi Jimmy! Thanks so much for getting in touch! How are you? You are not in Rennes anymore, right, but in Nantes, how come?

Hi Roque ! Pretty good thanks.
Oh actually i was the only member coming from Nantes. When i joined the band i was starting studies in Rennes. Rennes and Nantes are like twin cities only like 70 miles from each other.

++ I hear you are still making music these days with your band Ocean of Embers. Tell me a bit about this band? Have you released anything so far? Are there any similarities with Les Autres?

I started An Ocean Of Embers in september 2017 with Elsa Muller on vocals.
I lost myself in various projects during years from electronica to ambient post-rock but i wasn’t really satisfied with my productions apart of Extreme Shoegaze, the experimental project i made with my friends Pascal Riffaud and Camille Michel.
In 2012 i felt like coming back to shoegaze. I have a lot of demos that i’m now ready to finalyze.
There will be four digital singles before releasing an album. I self-released two of them on Ovvk Recordings and i’m looking for a real label to release the album on vinyl or CD.

The singles are available on Bandcamp : https://aooe.bandcamp.com/

And i’m currently working on a Moose cover to be released on The Blog That Celebrates Itself in August.

An Ocean Of Embers have probably similarities with Les Autres in the manner of building harmonic progressions. I have reflexes acquired during these years in the band.

++ Are you still in touch to this day with the rest of the band? What are you all up to?

Yes, specially with Olivier, the singer of the band. He released recently a very good indie rock album on Jigsaw Records with his new band Megrim.

https://jigsawrecords.bandcamp.com/album/pzl137-megrim-families

Morgan, the bassist, was in the excellent electronica/IDM band Mils in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. He also produced M83 who were fans of Les Autres in their teenage years. He has now an experimental electronic project named Bertùf, focusing on circuit bending recently.

David, the drummer, is a photographer now. I’m not sure if he’s still playing music.

++ I heard that Les Autres will be having exciting news very soon with a limited 7″ single coming out. Tell me about that! Which songs will appear on it? When was it recorded? When will it be available?

It’s out now ! It was released on Fissile, a label releasing only lathe cuts. Therefore it’s a very limited edition. The label is led by Stéphane from the band Acetate Zero, one of the best french bands in my opinion.
All tracks were the last ever recorded songs after our album in a period when we were including new influences in our music : slowcore, early post-rock, minimalism… The lead track sounds a lot like Slint’s Spiderland while the two other tracks sound a bit like Gastr Del Sol and Bark Psychosis. This last track is only available on the digital version of the single on Ovvk Recordings : https://ovvkrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/my-friend-henry

++ Let’s start from the beginning. Like what are your first musical memories? What was the first instrument did you get and how?

I can’t tell for the other members but the first vinyl i bought was Talk Talk’s It’s My Life in 1984 and the first indie vinyl i owned was McCarthy’s Keep An Open Mind Or Else. McCarthy is still one of my favorite band ever.
I bought a bass at the age of 17. I was working in a factory at that time and bought it as soon as i saved the money !

++ Had any of you been involved with other bands prior to Les Autres?

Actually the three other members met when they were only 16 or 17. They started to play under the moniker Stern. Their music was already very good in my opinion. Their style was Cold Wave but with a slight touch of Jangly Pop wich made their sound original and interesting. Some of their recordings are available on the band’s Bandcamp.

Meanwhile i was playing in a band in Nantes for which i wrote my first songs. After i moved to Rennes , three members of this band ended in a band called Crash who made an album and opened for House Of Love, BMX Bandits, The Frank & Walters…

++ Were all of you originally from Rennes?

All except me from Nantes.

++ How was Rennes back then? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

We were friends with the twee pop band Des Garçons Ordinaires and Guitare Boy who made a split flexi single with Stereolab. Also with In Sense, a band very Too Pure oriented musically who never released anything officially but whose members ended up with our bassist forming Mils.

Rennes was the city for indie pop in France in the early 90’s. A nice place to live with a lot of gigs in bars. The classical venue for indie gigs since the 70’s was Ubu and there was an indie record store, Rennes Musique, where local bands could sell their demos.

++ When and how did the band start? How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?

The other members started when they were like 16-17 years old, a few years before i moved to Rennes for my studies. Two of them were in the same school if i remember well.

As soon as i was in Rennes, i pinned an ad at university. The drummer saw it and they called me. The funny thing is that they wanted to recruit a female singer playing guitar and i was a male bassist. But it worked so well between us that we decided that i would learn how to play guitar.
Five weeks after my first gig ever on guitar we were supposed to open for Blur at Ubu but hopefully for me it was cancelled a bit later 🙂

++ Why the name Les Autres?

Nobody remembers how it was really chosen but i think it was by opening a dictionnary randomly.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

During most of our career we had a rehearsal room where to play at least two nights per week.

Usually someone, most of the time Olivier the singer, would come with a basic chord grid and the song was built jamming around that base. That’s probably why our songs were known for having complex structures for a pop band.

++ And how did it happen that some songs were in French, some others in English? What came easiest to you?

On the studio demo the guys made before i joined the band (I’ve Lost Everything I Held) all the songs were in english. But Olivier was more cumfortable writing in french. After the first single we all agreed that english worked better on noisy pop. We all wrote lyrics for the band. In particular David, the drummer who was studying english. He would either write his own lyrics or translate Olivier’s ideas.

++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

At the beginning of the band we were often compared to Pale Saints and The Boo Radleys. But our sound evolved dramatically a bit before our second single Hoppy, progressively being more influenced by american bands. And i would say that on the album the main influence was Codeine but also Idaho, Sonic Youth, Swell, Pavement, Gastr Del Sol, Shellac… Even Don Caballero !

++ Just out of curiosity, what would be your favourite all-time French indie bands?

I don’t know if you know that one : Carmine. They were fantastic.
Acetate Zero are great too and they’re still playing !

++ Your first release was a 7″ on Cornflakes Zoo (Zoo 1). Do tell me how did you end up signing to this label and how was your relationship with them?

In spring 1992, when our sound was evolving to shoegaze, one of our demos came to the ears of Martial Solis who was running the fanzine Onion’s Soup. He was living in Bordeaux and knew Stéphane Teynie, the owner of Cornflakes Zoo based in the same city.
Living in Rennes, we didn’t have a close relationship but things were working well between the label and the band.

++ This first 7″ was “Belle Est Ta Journée” that had two songs. It was recorded at Studio Son Colombier. Was it your first experience at a proper recording? And how did that go?

The other members already had an experience in studio before when they recorded I’ve Lost Everything I Held, a recording that i like a lot.

On the opposite i think that the sound on the first single was awful and the engineer did a very bad work. I have master copies on cassette and i’ll remaster this single soon as i’m in the process of remastering chronollogically everything we’ve done.

That bad experience in studio is the reason why we decided to record everything by ourselves after that. The second single which sounds far better was recorded in Olivier’s kitchen on a 4 track cassette recorder.
For the album we bought a 8 track tape recorder and recorded in the caves of a castle.

++ And do tell, who is in that picture of the sleeve?

Nice sleeve isn’t it ? I think she was the little sister or cousin of the designer. The sleeve is nice. We loved dit. Disappointed with the sound but at least the design was nice, in the like of Sarah Records.

The funny thing is that for the album cover, Morgan, the bassist, had a crush on that photography in an exhibition. Well, the photographer, a girl our age, actually photographed her little sister too.

++ Your second 7″ came out again on Cornflakes Zoo. Wondering how was your relationship with the other bands on this label? Did you happen to play with them often? Was there some sort of scene?

Yes there was a label festival two succesive years in Bordeaux and a in Paris shortly before the recording of the album. We played with most of the french bands of the label. Olympia and Des Garçons Ordinaires were from Rennes too.

++ Afterwards you released your album, “Le Retour À La Lune”, in 1994. How was the album received? Was it much different recording an album than the singles?

The album was pressed in 1994 and released in january 1995. It was well received by most of the press but the sellings were poor because the label ended in 1995 just after the release (it started again in 1998 with the release of Shrink by The Notwist).

Yes, you’re right it was very different. We wanted to have a total control on the sound so we recorded and mixed the album ourselves on that 8 track tape recorder. We knew that a lot of great albums, like the first Swell, were recorded on that kind of recorder.

We took our time to record the album, two months to record nine songs.
We wanted to experiment. That’s why there are tape samples on the album. And we wanted the album to sound coherent like a concept album, like a soundtrack.
Most of the engineering was made by Olivier and Morgan but all of us were involved and would give ideas on the sound, on how to set a guitar amplifier, how to equalize etc…

++ I keep seeing a trend with the art for your records, some evocative photography. Who took care of the art/design? Was it you or the label?

On the first single the label did the job. But on the second single and the album we decided everything about the artwork and Morgan did the design.
With the remasters i release on Ovvk Recordings i try to create designs that work with the artworks our records had in the 90’s.

++ There is a split 7″ with two other bands, Antiseptic Beauty and Mosaic Eyes on the Contrast label. I’m quite curious about this label as it was based in Belgium, which is not that common I’d say. Anything you could tell me about them? How did they contact you? Did you ever meet ?

The label was led by Thierry Nollet and Nicolas Cendrowicz. They were also involved in a european indie radios network. Thanks to them everything started for us because they recommanded the band to Martial Solis from the fanzine Onion’s Soup and who later played one of our first demos to Stéphane Teynie of Cornflakes Zoo.
This demo was our first shoegaze demo recorded in spring 1992 in an attic on the 4 track cassette recorder of Des Garçons Ordinaires. If i remember well ! This 5 tracks demo will be the next remaster i’ll release after the summer. Three of these tracks were re-recorded later for our first single and this split single on Contrast International.
Sadly we never met the guys of the label. We owe them a lot ! We were very happy to be on this split single. Mosaic Eyes and Antiseptic Beauty were excellent bands and so was the label.

++ Your last proper release came out two years ago on Jigsaw Records. It was called “Backwards” and it was a collection of bits and pieces from different releases and recordings. This is still available and it may be a good introduction for people to your music. How did this release came about many years after the band’s demise and why decide for this sort of compilation instead of perhaps one that included all your previous releases?

I contacted Chris of Jigsaw when i was looking for a label for my new shoegaze project wich wasn’t named An Ocean Of Embers yet.
Chris is not that much into shoegaze and i think that my project wasn’t ready at that time anyway and i didn’t even have a singer.
But when Chris heard that i’m an ex-member of Les Autres he told me that he remembered well the band and that he was interested in releasing unreleased material if there was some.
It was cool to see a CD release of the band 21 years after our last one. The only thing i regret is that the remasters i made weren’t as good as the ones i’m technically able to make now as i’ve studied sound engineering meanwhile. That’s why i remaster step by step all the band’s material on Ovvk Recordings.

++ What is Ovvk Recordings? I notice you have the intention to rescue old recordings of Les Autres and some other side projects? Where do these recordings come from?

Ovvk Recordings is a digital label i started in 2010 with a friend who makes music under the moniker Triton, a nice ambient electronica project. When we started we wanted to release music mainly from various electronic styles (IDM, Glitch, Drones…). But when i started the band Extreme Shoegaze and when my friend had to leave the label, i decided to focus on everything wich is related to noisy and experimental guitars.

Ovvk Archives is a sub-label where to release things that were related to Les Autres in the 90’s, side and solo projects and friends projects.
One of the next releases will be an excellent Guitare Boy demo.

++ One of this releasas is a CDR called “Ubu 1991”. I notice that you, Jimmy, don’t appear on the band credits. You weren’t in the band yet in 91? And how was that gig? how was that venue?

I joined the band in november 1991. I think that this gig was good for the band to increase their fame locally. The soundboard recording is excellent. Sadly we don’t have many live recordings like that.

++ Another one is “I’ve Lost Everything I Held” and “Garden” from 1991. I’m quite curious, why weren’t none of this Ovvk releases out back in the 90s? Or maybe they were in different formats? Maybe on cassettes?

Yes exactly. I’ve Lost Everything I Held was a demo tape, recorded in good conditions in studio. One of the best recordings of the band in my opinion. The demo tape was sold locally only and sent to venues and labels.

++ Then there is the “Stern EP” which dates from 1990 and that also you have released as a CDR. This might be the earliest recordings by the band? Or not? Are there earlier ones?

There might have been earlier recordings but i think that everything was lost…

++ Back in the 90s you were very involved in the tape compilation scene. You appeared on so many of them. How did that work out? How would one end up on these tapes? How was the process?

The first we were involved in was released by In The Limelight a local cassette label. It was ran by Thomas Leyrie who saw us on stage. We owe a lot to him too ! This label did a good job for the indie french bands in the early 90’s.

After our first single, labels would simply contact us to have us on tape compilations. There was this international network of tape labels owners, fanzines writers. All these people would write to each other. There was this « pen pal » spirit you know, thanks to fanzines mostly that would put people in contact, by leaving an adress or a phone number. It was before the internet. It was a nice period. Most of the time mails themselves were little pieces of art. Mail art.

++ And from the many tapes that you appeared which one would be your favourite?

My favorite tapes we were involved in would be Bedroom Palace on Lo-Fi Recordings and Shattered Fragments on Fluff because Hood were on them long before their success.

Whirl-Wheels on CD was great too. It was the first ever release on ShelfLife Records ! A must-have. We were happy to be on CD with Boyracer, Penelope Trip, They Go Boom !! Bands that we liked a lot.

++ There are a few that I would love to know more, probably you don’t remember them, but if you do, what do you know of the “In the Limelight” tape? Who were behind it? Or the “Garage-Flowers” one?

I told about In The Limelight. About Garage Flowers i don’t know much apart that the guy was german and Baby Talk was basically a fanzine if i remember well.

++ Then there’s a curious compilation called “Shopping in Rennes”. Is that an all Rennes bands compilation perhaps?

Haha exactly ! Emmanuel, drummer of Des Garçons Ordinaires made a remix of our song Outside My Ken on that one. Long after the end of the band.

++ Are there more unreleased songs by the band?

There are some unfinished songs, unreleased versions and one live soundboard recording from a Cornflakes Zoo festival. But almost everything that was recorded on demo or in studio was released in some form. Some were removed by me from the band’s Bandcamp because i now wish to release them in better quality, better remasters.
The remaining unreleased songs are unfinished demos or rehearsals. There are rehearsals of songs we were working on for a second album when our sound was evolving to Post Rock. I’ll release them someday.

++ There are so many songs by Les Autres, so wondering if you had to pick a top five of favourite songs by the band, what would it be and why?

Hmm , i’d pick songs from different periods then…

« Si Ridicule Maintenant », a song from our first shoegaze demo that i’ll release after the summer.
« Leave Me Alone » a shoegaze song wich was unreleased until the Backwards compilation.
I love the end of « Pourquoi La fin ? » on the second single, it sounds so tragic, very intense.
« Letterboxes Symmetry » wich is one of the highlights of the album in my opinion.
I love the album version of « Hoppy ». Love the idea that it’s a completly different version from the single. And a nice tribute to Codeine’s sound in someways.

++ Was there any interest from other labels? Maybe abroad?

Yes. From David of Liechtenstein Girl who was running the label Fluff where there were Aspidistra, Hood, Boyracer and his own band.
He took one track on his compilation Shattered Fragments and said he was interested in releasing an EP.
In the same period we had the opportunity to record in a 24 track studio at the University of Brest where a friend of us, Damien Bertrand, was studying sound engineering. He later produced the full lengh of Des Garçons Ordinaires and Clair, Newell…
The tracks we recorded there where probably the most shoegaze we ever made with the songs of Hoppy EP. They are on Backwards.
I’ll remaster all these tracks someday and put them together to make a coherent shoegaze album. The one that i think we should have released in 1993 on Fluff or elsewhere instead of releasing Hoppy and leaving the other songs unreleased.

++ What about gigs? Any anecdotes that you can share?

Yes. In february 1993 when we opened for The Wedding Present in Bordeaux.
Our van broke down on the highway outside Bordeaux and one hour before playing we were at fifty miles from the venue.
When we came on stage there were already hundreds of people in the audience and we had to set everything on stage in front of them. Five minutes later we were playing without having done a proper soundcheck.
But everything went well and David Gedge told us kind words on our music after the show.

++ I see a very cool live video of you playing at a venue called Le Flore in Rennes, 1994. Here you cover the Lavender Faction, that is amazing really. It is not that common to see bands covering obscure bands. Were you big fans? What other covers did you use to do? And what are your memories of that gig?

No particular memory of that gig as it was only a small one in a bar in Rennes. But sadly, it’s the only video existing on the band.
We loved The Lavender Faction. Their Ride EP was fantastic. A good exemple of Noise Pop at a time when people weren’t using the word shoegaze. From My Bloody Valentine to Lavender Faction, everything that had noisy guitars was Noise Pop or Noisy Pop, an evolution of post punk through Anorak Pop etc…
Among the obscure bands we loved The Becketts, The Charlottes, The Nightblooms and many others.
During our career we only made three covers : Foxy Lady by Jimi Hendrix, Who Loves The Sun by The Velvet Undergroud and Ride by The Lavender Faction.
Sadly we never made a proper recording of this cover. There’s only an unfinished demo with no vocals.

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? Any anecdotes you could share?

Yes. A very good gig actually. The same month, in march 1994, we played at Arapaho in Paris for the Cornflakes Zoo Festival. I remember that we were reaching a very, very good level on stage as you can guess on this video in the bar. That gig in Arapaho was just perfect and we were very sober on stage. By sober, i mean like most of shoegaze bands we wouldn’t posture at all. The music alone would do the job. And our sound was perfect. In this period, the last year of the band, a soundcheck would last 10 minutes. We only had to play two or three chords and the sound was perfect. We had very good settings. I remember seing Codeine doing a soundcheck like that. John Engle playing two chords, Stephen Immerwahr singing La Vie En Rose a capella and it was done.

++ When and why did Les Autres stop making music? And what happened immediately after?

The album was released in January 1995 and in April Stéphane of Cornflakes Zoo told us he was cancelling the label. We were discouraged.
Morgan was already playing with Mils and David wasn’t satisfied with the way we were taking musically. He wanted to play something simplier, just something pop. Only Olivier and I wanted to carry on but we were so discouraged after putting so much energy in producing an album that we liked…

++ And have you been involved in any other bands after the demise of Les Autres?

Morgan made several albums with Mils, a band we became friends with.
And let’s say that Olivier and I are back with Megrim and An Ocean Of Embers. I’m very happy that it happens now in a period when people show interest for what we’ve done in the 1990’s.
In the 2000’s i lost myself trying to play IDM without any device, only softwares. It was a waste of time really.
But in 2010, everything started again when i started Extreme Shoegaze with my friends Camille Michel and Pascal Riffaud. It’s an experimental guitar band. I’m proud of this project. We’ve done good stuff.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

Not really. There was this magazine Les Inrockuptibles leading the french musical press. They hated french bands singing in english. So most of french indie bands were condemned to remain underground in France.

++ What about from fanzines?

Fanzines were cool. The exact opposite. They were a great support for bands like our. And they wouldn’t lose their time writing about bands they don’t like. They were positive, all the time.

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

I have a passion for the golden age of cinema from the beginnings to the 70’s. I’m an absolute fan of Andreï Tarkovsky who is, i believe, one of the greatest artists of all times.

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

Hard to say. We didn’t really have an highlight…

++ Never visited Rennes (though I did stop by the train station on the way to Mt. Saint Michel) but would love to go one day, maybe I can ask for some suggestions? Like what are the sights I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks I should try?

Haha, you should go to Brocéliande between Rennes and Vannes. It’s the forest of Merlin The Wizard ! And eat some crèpes 😉

++ Thanks again Jimmy! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I only want to thank you too Roque ! Thanks for the invitation. And people, check out An Ocean Of Embers and Megrim ! And Les Autres re-releases of course 🙂

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Listen
Les Autres – Ce Moment​-​Là

I had not the best of weekends. Saturday turned up exactly how I didn’t want it with Peru losing the game against Denmark. We were the better team, we create enough chances not even to tie, but to win, but none of the players were precise and effective. We couldn’t score. We even missed a penalty at the end of the first half. It was very lucky for Denmark to get the result, but that’s footie. We made a mistake and we paid it. One counterattack, our defense not  being positioned rightly and they scored. Then we created chances, one after the other and it was their keeper and our anxious players who didn’t let us celebrate. Now, need to wait for Thursday, so we can beat France. I won’t be calm until that day arrives.

But there is good news. According to DHL the Salt Lake Alley 7″s arrive today home after taking the longest at the pressing plant of any of my previous releases. I’ll take some pics and announce it rightly when I have the records in my hands. Can’t really wait to go home today after work!!

And that’s it for now, hope you are happy with your teams in the World Cup. I know my Mexican friends are really thrilled and hopeful now!!

Dumb Things: the Brisbane band has a new video/song out now and I will tell you that it is worth checking it out. “Crash Barrier” is a pretty pretty song, with light and luminous guitars and female vocals. I had in the past recommended this band and I’m very happy to see they continue putting out top music. Now, I do need them to release some CD or vinyl so I can have their music at home!

The King in Mirrors: another band I follow is the Swindon based King of Mirrors. I know little about them but I do know they make some great jangle pop and their latest release, a digital EP titled “So Long Serenade” is no exception. The solo project by Rich May has now 5 more songs in their repertoire, “Fall into Place”, “Big Tomorrow”, “When Love Takes Hold of You”, “The Wrong Turn” and “Sleep in the Day”, and they are thoroughly enjoyable.

The Salient Braves: “Delusions of Grandeur”, the debut album by this Barnsley band is now available on vinyl. From what I gather there are only 10 songs on the record, but you get three extra ones with the digital download code. The 13 songs are also available to stream on Bandcamp at the moment. It was released last September but I’ve only stumbled upon it. Worth checking out!

L-Kan: I’ve been a fan of the Madrid, Spain, band for years now, maybe around 15 or so years. Maybe more. I met Belén from L-Kan briefly at Madrid Popfest this year and was kind of bummed that she didn’t have a clue what Cloudberry Records was. Not that I mentioned it to her, but my crazy friend Miguel Stamp did. But doesn’t matter, I didn’t expect her to. But what is something cool is that the band have just published a new video for the song “Animal en Extinción”. And I’m really digging it. And of course the came of Putochinomaricón was quite a surprise.

En Attendant Ana: Margaux, Romain, Camille, Antoine and Adrien form this French band who were unknown to me until now. I discovered thanks to who else, the great David Cano. The band has released an album on the Parisian label Buddy Records and it is titled “Lost and Found’ and as soon as I start playing the song “(Not) So Hard” I know I’m going to enjoy it. The female vocals and the guitars are exactly what I like. The album is available now on vinyl and it has 10 songs. Definitely would be good for next year’s Paris Popfest? I would try to go to that.

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Who were The Steelchain?

I can’t say for sure. I remember discovering them through a blog many years ago. One of those blogs that don’t exist anymore. They had shared one of their songs, and I believe it was the same one I’ll share with you, “The Restless”. Until now I haven’t got around in acquiring a copy of their one and only record, a 1988 12″ EP. But today, when I started writing the post I saw a fair priced copy on eBay which I’m duly bidding. Will I win? Hope so!

“The Restless EP” came out on Nigthshift Records (NISHI 207T) in 1988 and it included 4 songs. The A side had “Life in a Zoo (Wonder Why)” and “The Children” while the B side had “The Restless” and “Where the Heart Is”. This label has been mentioned before on the blog as they had released the superb This Scarlet Train 12″. It was a label based in Grangemouth, Scotland. It was created by the original Cocteau Twins bassist Will Heggie and the ex-Dead Neighbours vocalist Craig Lorentson. They mostly released records by Lowlife. But according to This Scarlet Train’s Robert Polson, when I interviewed him, Nightshift were a local label, run by Brain Guthrie who managed Lowlife.

On Discogs there are no other releases by the band nor compilation appearances. That’s really not good for me when I’m looking for information about the band.

The Steelchain record has some credits on the back cover. We see that all songs were composed by the band and that they were recorded at Palladium Studios. This Edinburgh studio was used quite a lot by many important Scottish bands like Cocteau Twins or Friends Again among others. Kieth Mitchell produced and engineered the record. The sleeve design is credited to S. An S within a circle. Maybe it was the designer’s logo? The illustration on the back cover was done by Michelle Butler. But no, no band member names. That is not good for this investigation for sure.

I did find something interesting on a page I found from The List. The List is a paper that has many listings of what’s going on in town and is still going in the UK as far as I know. The page I found actually dates from September 13th 1991 (issue 158). Here I find that there was going to be a gig on Saturday September 21st, in Glasgow, a gig by Better Ways at Traders. The thing is, Better Ways is described as a slinky danceable pop band from ex members of Savana Lamar and The Steelchain. There is also another gig listed for Better Ways the day before, Friday 20th, in the city of Penicuik at the Complex. This time it mentions that the sound of the band was a composite of the two groups, The Steelchain and Savana Lamar, upfront acoustic guitar and some hummable melodies, with perhaps a dose of slinky Botany-5 style dance grooves into the bargain. I couldn’t find much more about these bands, not about The Steelchain nor Savana Lamar. Well, one thing, there was another offshoot band from the latter, Buy Me an Umbrella. If I could find some music by them, I’d be very interested in listening.

Though I could find out that Better Ways continued the relationship The Steelchain had started with Nightshift Records. Better Ways was to release the “Standing in the Middle” 12″ with them in 1992. Happily here I could find some band members names: Steve Vantsis on bass, Daniel Dodds on vocals, Ross Cockburn on guitars, Brian Gibb on keys, Larry Magrina on guitar and Stuart McLean on drums and percussion. It also confirms that they hailed from Edinburgh. Now we know the city they were from. But we don’t know which of these members were in The Steelchain and which in Savana Lamar.

That is the last question, my last doubt. If I could only connect the dots. Which band members were in The Steelchain, maybe I could find out more about this obscure Scottish band! Anyone remember them?

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Listen
The Steelchain – The Restless

World Cup is on! Not much more to say today. Tomorrow my dear Peru plays Denmark and I can only think about that!

Pocket Knife: I saw my friend Jörg post about this band on Facebook, and me, thinking it was a new band, went to check them out. Well, it turned out they had released their album back in 2014, in August of that year. “Dying to Pretend” is the album I found on Bandcamp, and thought it sounded great. Where did this come from? Why wasn’t this in anyone’s radar? It does seem that the LP is still available and that’s a good thing. Would love to get a copy soon of this album by this Portland, US, band. Great boy/girl vocals and melodies!

Sound and Fury: the superb Chengdu dreampop band is back with a 7″ on the best Chinese indiepop label ever, Boring Productions. The 7″ was released on June 9th and include two great songs, “Coming Down” and “Heaven Song”. I have raved about this band in the past and I will have to tell you once again that this one is a record not to be missed!

Thin City: another release on the Boring Productions label was the lathe cut 7″ by this Glaswegian band. This is pretty impressive, a Scottish band on a Chinese label. If someone would have told me this was going to happen 5 years ago I wouldn’t have imagined it. But Jovi and Boring Productions keep surprising us. Two fun songs, “Rock City Baishizhou” and “The Loop”, by this band with ex members of Bricolage and The Sexual Objects.

Alpaca Sports: I was recommending the video for “Nobody Cares But Me” the other day but now I am aware that this song is also being promoted as a digital single. And a digital single with a B side which I’m listening now. It is called “Baby Pop” and it is really lovely, and thinking I may like it a bit better than the first song. A hard decision to make. But this one is brilliant! Hope it gets included in the album “From Paris with Love” that will be released later this year.

Ring Snuten: and perhaps my favourite find this week, because of the people involved, is the song “Natur/Natur” by Patrik Lindgren’s alter ego Ring Snuten. This song, co-written by the brilliant Roger Gunnarsson and Patrik, two of the most important figures in Swedish indiepop in the noughties, is such a cool synth-pop track. I can only hope they continue collaborating, because I want to hear more by them!!

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A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees. Honey bees produce commodities such as honey, beeswax, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly, while some beekeepers also raise queens and bees to sell to other farmers and to satisfy scientific curiosity. Beekeepers also use honeybees to provide pollination services to fruit and vegetable growers. Many people keep bees as a hobby. Others do it for income either as a sideline to other work or as a commercial operator. These factors affect the number of colonies maintained by the beekeeper.

Perth, Western Australia. 1989. Perhaps earlier. A band under the name The Beekeepers is formed by Mick Sim, Shaun Lohoar, Mal Secourable, Darren Leitch and Bernice Smith. They were going to release 2 records, 1 single and 1 EP,  and then disappear into oblivion.

That could resume the life of The Beekeepers, but I’m going to try to find more about them. Maybe find myself a copy of their records if I’m lucky. If not, listening to some new songs would make me happy. Let’s see what there is in that huge mess of information that is the world wide web.

As usual I stop at Discogs first. Here the two records are listed. The first one, which was self-released but did have a catalog number (BK001) had two songs, “Take Me Back” which was composed by Mick and “Why” which is credited to Mark Ghirardi and Mick Sim. Who is Mark Ghirardi? It seems he was the band’s manager. Strange, no? A manager that could write songs. Both songs were recorded at Planet Recording Studios and they were produced by Greg Dear and John Vilani, who also was the engineer. Greg Dear of course is a well known name in the Australian scene having being part of The Holy Rollers and The Beautiful Losers.

Something I don’t know about this first single is if the record had any art, if it had a sleeve or not. I couldn’t find any information about it.

It does seem like this first 7″ got some radio play and it caught the attention of a proper indie label in Australia, Zero Hour Records. The same label that released my beloved Pearly Gatecrashers. This label was going to put out, in 1991, a 12″ EP titled “Beefarm Road” (ZERO 401). The songs were once again recorded at Planet Studios with James Hegwill as the engineer and co-producer alongside the band. Here we know what each member played:
Darren Leitch – bass,  vocals
Shaun Lohoar – drums, percussion
Mick Sim – guitar, vocals
Mal Secourable – guitar, vocals
Bernice Smith – violin, vocals

According to a comment on the Discogs listing, a comment coming from the label itself, Zero Hour Records, 500 copies of the record were pressed. But here comes the sad part. More than 300 of them were destroyed by the label’s distributor Shock Records. Why? How did this happen? Why would anyone do this? Now of course my hopes of finding one become slimmer and slimmer.

Aside from these 2 records there is nothing else listed. No compilation appearances. That is odd I think as there was quite a healthy scene of tape compilations at that time. They must have been on one or two. Though it seems like they weren’t.

The band members do seem to have been part of other bands. For example Mal Secourable and Mick Sim had been part of a band called The Fate who released one album. Also Mick was involved in a band called Holocene that was based not in Perth but in Melbourne. This band released a string of EPs and two albums in the 90s and had also among their members people from Autohaze and Ripe, two great Summershine Records bands. And lastly I know that Shaun Lohoar was in The Favourite Game, Blueline Medic and Saidaside.

I keep looking for more information. It is said that the band did one national tour before disbanding just after releasing the 12″. But on Youtube I was to find a bunch of live footage of the band! Sometimes you just hit the jackpot! There are a bunch of songs of them when they played at Appealathon 1991, there is “Forever”, “There’s a Way“, “When You Smile“, “This City“, “Winter’s Gone“, “Forever“, “Take Me Back“, “The Zoo” and “Why?“.

Then there is a list of musical acts from Western Australia Wiki page where it details the years the band was active, 1987 to 1993. On this list The Beekeepers have a few more band members listed, Nick Tweedie, Alannah Hunt and Astrid Peterson. When did they join?

I keep looking for any other mentions of the band. There are not many. I see someone on a forum crediting Mal for introducing him to the Pixies. And then a comment on Youtube that is actually pretty interesting. It seems there was some news about the Beekeepers earlier this year! On January 5th the band did a one off show at the Monks Brew. Wow, there was a reunion! Was it the first reunion gig since the band split? How was it? Did anyone reading this went and saw them?

And that’s all I could find. It is clear that the band had more songs in their repertoire, not just the ones released on the records. Did they record them properly? Would love to hear any unreleased tracks. And when and why did they split? Had they been involved in bands before being in the Beekeepers? And what about that national tour? Whereabouts in Australia did they play. Perth at that time had a great scene, one that is covered in the book “Way Out West” by George Matzkov.

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Listen
Beekeepers – That Girl

Thanks so much to Yuichi Abe for the interview! I wrote a few weeks ago about Archaic Smile on the blog and thanks to some twitter Japanese friends I was pointed out to Yuichi. Happily Yuichi was up for answering my questions and finally I get to know more about his terrific band. Archaic Smile only released an album back in the day on the Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club and appeared on a few compilations. Then the band just went silent. For those in love with Japanese pop, definitely have a read and a listen!

++ Hi Yuichi! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still based in Japan?

Yes, I have been living in Japan.

++ Are you still making music these days?

No. I am very busy these days because I am a pediatrician and a neurologist. But I often play the guitar at home.

++ Let’s start from the beginning. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?

When I was in my early teens, I was interested in Yellow Magic Orchestra. They looked unconventional and cool and were very popular in Japan. And I also loved Culture Club, A-ha, and so on. In my late teens, I become aware of Punk Rock and new wave music such as New Order, the Smiths, JAMC, and Japanese Punk Bands. When I was twenty years old, The Flipper’s Guitar made their debut and looked very cool. So I became a lover of pop music released by independent labels such as Sarah records, Cherry Red, Rough Trade and so on.
The first instrument I played was a guitar I got from the garbage, and I taught myself guitar.

++ Were you involved in other bands before Archaic Smile? 

When I was a university student In 1991 in Yokohama, Japan, the first band I joined was called Je t’aime, this band played original songs in Japanese. Next in 1993, I played bass guitar in a band called “the South pole the third”. In this band, I met Osamu Sakai, he became a member of Archaic Smile later. In the fall of 1993 in Fukushima, Japan, Osamu and me got together with Archaic smile!!

++ When did the Archaic Smile start as a band? Were you based in Tokyo or which city? 

In 1993, Archaic Smile started as a band covering songs of “Bridge”, one of the popular bands in Japan. Archaic Smile consisted of Miyuki on vocals, two guitar players Osamu and Tada, keyboards by Kumi, drums by Toshi, and bass by me. We were classmates of a medical university in Fukushima, Japan. We soon played our songs. Soon after I was wring songs for Archaic Smile, and we began to play them. We made two original tapes (in 1995, 1996). After that, unfortunately, this first version of Archaic Smile disbanded in 1996.

I was at a loss as to what to do, but Osamu, Kumi and me restart Archaic Smile in 1996. During this time, we wrote some songs and made self-released tapes and CD-R. In addition, our song “And birds ARE singing” was packed in “Pop Japanese Style” (Flavour of Sound, 1998). During this time, we had an offer from Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club by Mike, and he kindly released CD, “In This Night…” and made a video clip of “ Square Love” which was included in a compilation video. In 1999, we had to be medical physicians, and the 2nd version of Archaic Smile came to an end.

In 1999, I moved in Tokyo and I began to play again solo. And in 2001, I started to play with Yoshie, a new member of Archaic Smile. We had played in Archaic smile from 2001 to 2003. In 2018, we remain on a break.

++ What bands do you liked? 

I like bands and labels: Aztec Camera, The Smiths, Joy Division, New Order, JAMC, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Bell and Sebastian, Softies, Friends, McCarthy, Stereolab, Tiger Trap, Sarah records’s bands especially BlueBoy, Heavenly, Another Sunny Day, CherryRed, Rough Trade Tallulah Gosh and more. Of course, The Flipper’s guitar too.

Now I like: Swimming tapes, Luby Sparks, Cornelius, Day Wave, Radio Dept. and more. Recently in Japan, many music festival were held in every summer, and I often go to see and enjoy many bands.

++ Why the name Archaic Smile? 

As said above, I was inspired by Miyuki’s smile which looked like Buddha’s smile, so the name “Archaic Smile”.

++ I noticed all of you wrote the songs. How was the creative process for you? 

I was inspired by my experience and my day-to-day life to write songs.

++ Where did you usually practice?

I did at home or studio in our university.

++ And who would you say were influences of the band?

As written above. In addition, some titles of our songs were derived from my favorite songs: “And birds ARE singing” was inspired from “And the birds aren’t singing” by Heavenly, and “The boy wounded in his side” was named after “the boy with thorn in his side by the Smiths.

++ What would be your top five Japanese indiepop bands all-time?

800 Cherries, Luby Sparks, Bridge, Luminous Orange, Daffodil 19, Three Berry Icecream

++ Do tell me too why did you prefer to sing in English and not in Japanese? Did you write any Japanese songs?

In the past, I had written some songs in Japanese. Of course I love Japanese, but always write a song in English because I wanted to play for listeners in the world.

++ Someone that surprised me was that you released your album in the USA and not in Japan. Was there no interest in Japan for your music? Or you liked the idea of releasing abroad perhaps?

I don’t know why is that. Perhaps this is because we played in Fukushima where it is a rural city in japan, we sang and played in English, so maybe that’s why an overseas label gave us this chance.

++ And how did you end up releasing with the Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club? How was your relationship with them?

A Japanese band “Aikagi” introduced us to the owner of BBPTC, Mike Landucci.

++ Before recording the album had you made any other recordings? Perhaps demo tapes?

As mentioned above, we made and released several tapes and CD-R.

++ Where was the album recorded and who produced it? Any anecdotes you can share from the recording session?

We were making, producing, and recording our songs by ourselves using “VS-880” by Roland.

++ Why the name of the album “In This Night, The Red Guitar Whispers”? What’s the story behind it?

I had and played a red guitar, Tennessee Rose, G6119 made by Gretchen.

++ One of my favourite songs in the album is “Makes Me Blind”. What inspired this song?

I have no idea because this song was written by Osamu.

++ And for you, what would be your favourite song by Archaic Smile and why?

I love all songs but especially like “And bird ARE singing???” I don’t decide one.

++ You contributed songs to various compilations, but one that surprised me is the one called “A Young Is…” as it was a Hong Kong label that released it. Hong Kong wasn’t and isn’t much of an indiepop country, do you remember who were behind it? And how did they find you?

One day, all of sudden, I had their offer. I think wherever we go there are people who love guitar pop musics.

++ How come there were no more releases by Archaic Smile?

There ware some old tapes and CD-R you don’t know.

++ Are there more unreleased songs by the band? 

Some songs remain unreleased.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? What were the best gigs you remember?

Our last gig was held in 2003, in Tokyo.

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? 

In a gig, Viva pop vol. 2, held in Fukushima in 1998, I made a mistake at the beginning of the song called “Behind Your Eyes”.

++ When and why did Archaic Smile stop making music? Did you continue making music after? I noticed you collaborated with Three Berry Icecream and also did solo gigs, right?

The last gig was held in 2003 and since I usually play guitar at home. As my other activities, I was a DJ in clubs and a DJ on Radio. I am often playing guitar but I have no time to make songs because I am a medical physician in a national hospital for children. Three Berry Icecream by Mayumi is a friend of mine. In addition, Tomomi from Red Go-Cart and Usuda from Dronjo kept by 4 were friends of mine.

++ And what about the other band members? Were they involved in other bands?

The last member, Yoshie makes musics for Anime. Everyone else of all members don’t play music because they are all medical doctors.

++ There was also a video recorded for the song “Square Love”. Where was it recorded? How was that experience? And will it be available in Youtube someday?

That video film was recorded in Jan 1999. It was just before the time when we took the national exam for medical doctors. Film directors listened our song before they made our video. I don’t have the soft in digital file.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

Around 1996 and 1998, An local FM radio and a local TV featured Archaic Smile. After that, I became a DJ on a local FM radio. The radio show was called “Fukushima neo-acoustic night”

++ What about from fanzines?

Some fanzines and music magazine featured Archaic Smile.

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

My hobbies are: Playing guitar, Fishing, and playing with a robot dog, “Aibo”.

++ Looking back in time, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

A song called “And birds ARE singing was included in a compilation CD, “Pop Japanese Style” in 1998.

++ Never visited Japan. So maybe I can ask for some suggestions? Like what are the sights in your town that I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try? 

I recommend places to visit in Japan such as Asakusa, Akihabara, and Marunouchi and Ginza around Tokyo station (Tokyo), Nikko (Tochigi, a little far away from Tokyo), Kamakura (Kanagawa, nearby Tokyo), and Kyoto (Kyoto). You can eat many various Japanese foods in Tukiji Jogai (near Ginza, Tokyo), and Asakusa. I think you will like Sushi, Tempura, Soba, Udon, Okonomiyaki, Ramen, Yakitori, Gyudon, Edamame, Tohu and more.

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Listen
Archaic Smile – It Makes Me Blind

Not many news this Wednesday, just preparing myself for the World Cup, to start tomorrow with what may be one of the most uninteresting games, Russia vs. Saudi Arabia. But as it is the WC, one has to try to watch them all, right?

Alpaca Sports: this September our very good friends from Gothenburg, Sweden, are releasing their second album, “From Paris With Love”. To start promoting it the band has unveiled a video for the song “Nobody Cares But Me”. And it is lovely, and brilliant, and cute, and all things Alpaca Sports. According to the description the song explores the disillusionment of discovering life doesn’t always turn out the way you expect it to, and the struggles of trying to reclaim our youthful idealism. The video was directed by the great Calle Jirestedt.

The Legendary Hearts: the classic Scottish band has released a new CD EP titled “The Caledonian Scars ‘n Bars” and one of the songs, “Ten Thousand Miles Away”, is available to stream on SoundCloud. The EP has 4 songs, the aforementioned “Ten Thousand Miles Away”, “Blue Eyed Soul”, “Shouting at the Sea” and “Into the Woods” and it is released by the band’s own Surfin’ Pict label. It is great to know that this legendary Edinburgh band continues making music!

Linda Guilala: a very cool video by the Vigo band where on the background we see LPs falling and falling, LPs that I assume come from their collection, LPs that are influences for the band. That is the new video for the song “Mucho Mejor” which is the newest digital single by the band. Don’t know much more about this track, which sounds great, though I do hope it gets released in physical format soon!

Red Red Eyes: I believe I’ve recommended the “Horology” album before on the blog, but it was only a few days ago that I stumbled upon a video for “Low Light”, one of the songs on that album. Maybe I thought you also missed it, so thought sharing it with everyone. Why not?

The Essex Green: the classic US band is back with a new album out later this month that will be titled “Electronic”. It will be released by Merge Records and of course there’s a video for one of the songs. The chosen song, to be the first single out of this album is “Don’t Leave It In Our Hands”, and hey, it sounds great. You know I’m a sucker for boy/girl vocals. And here there’s a song that does it very well!

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Time to return to Sweden and try to dig any information I can find about one of the many fantastic bands that country has given us. This time around I wanted to find who were Pleasurehouse, a band whose records I don’t own yet but I’m trying to catch up now, having ordered their CDEP from eBay just a few hours ago. Now I’m missing the mini-album and their split flexi but maybe that will take some time, I can’t just buy all the records in the world. Not enough money, not enough space at home!

The first release was actually the mini-album “Marseille” (WeCD042) that was released by the legendary A West Side Fabrication label in 1992. Remember that this label was based in the northern city of Skellefteå and that it was founded in 1987. They had released so many classic bands, from This Perfect Day or The Wannadies to Mary-Go-Round who have been interviewed on the blog. It is interesting that they named the album after that French city. I wonder why?

Marseille, is the second-largest city of France and the largest city of the Provence historical region. The capital of the Bouches-du-Rhône department and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur administrative region, it is located on France’s south coast and had a population of 852,516 in 2012, and an area of 241 km2 , the third-largest metropolitan area in France after Paris and Lyon. Known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Massalia, Marseille was the most important trading centre in the region and the main commercial port of the French Republic. Marseille is now France’s largest city on the Mediterranean coast and the largest port for commerce, freight and cruise ships. The city was European Capital of Culture, together with Košice, Slovakia, in 2013. It hosted the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the UEFA Euro 2016, and it was the European Capital of Sport in 2017. The city is home to several campuses of Aix-Marseille University and part of one of the largest metropolitan conurbations in France, the Metropolis of Aix-Marseille-Provence.

The CD had 6 songs, “Breathe”, “Summer”, “Blind”, “Happy When You Leave”, “Regrets” and “This is How it Feels”.

That last song, “This is How it Feels”, was to give name to their next release, a CDEP on Snap Records. This was released the next year, 1993 by this label that in the year 1994 had to change names to Soap Records because some legal complaints from a German disco band called Snap!. The label had only been around for a year when they put this CDEP out. They had started in 1992 when Lars Tengroth and Jonas Sjöström, who were part of the label MNW Records, decided to start a new label to put out indiepop. They signed Pleasurehouse of course but also had Eggstone, Easy and more. Something that was interesting about this label was the very particular graphic design and look of the releases thanks to designer Lars Sundh. Though in the case of this CDEP I believe the art is credited to Camilla Blom who also was a musician and released records on Soap Records under the name Cam. Anyways, “This is How it Feels” (SNAPC 19) EP had 4 songs, “Cindy”, “This is How it Feels”, “Perfect Summer” and “Happy When You Leave”.

The CDEP was recorded by Stefan Pettersson at KM Studio in Norrköping in Sweden. Did the band hail from that city?

Norrköping is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm. The city has a population of 95,618 inhabitants in 2016,[2] out of a municipal total of 130,050, making it Sweden’s tenth largest city and eighth largest municipality. The city is situated by the mouth of the river Motala ström, at Bråviken, an inlet of the Baltic Sea. Water power from the Motala ström and the good harbour were factors that facilitated the rapid growth of this once industrial city, known for its textile industry. It has several nicknames such as: “Sweden’s Manchester”, “Peking” and “Surbullestan” (Surbulle [sour bun] was a local nickname for the textile workers, and stan is short for Staden, which means The City or The Town in Swedish).

“This is How it Feels” and “Perfect Summer” were mixed by Daniel Gese while the other two were mixed by Michael J. Herrström.

Lastly, there was a split flexi released that year. Not on a label and not for sale. It  came for free with the legendary Sound Affects Music Magazine, on its 19th volume. It was only available for subscribers. This flexi had catalog number SAFPD 012 and Pleasurehouse appears second on this single sided flexi with the song “Cindy”. The band that shares the flexi and appears first was the classic band Easy (who have reformed and have a reissue on A Turntable Friend – I need to get that) who contributed the song “Marinelove (Demo)”.

The band has a few compilation appearances listed. The first one dating from 1990 and these might as well be the first recordings by the band. It would be good to find out if that was the case. Also on this compilation titled “SND Records Vol. 1” released by SND Records (SND 009) the band’s name appears as Pleasure House. The band had the first song on the A side which was “Fall On Me” and the last song on the B side “She’s All I Want”. Again all songs were recorded at KM in Norrköping.  A familiar name appears on this compilation too, the brilliant Saturday Kids who have been interviewed in the blog many years ago. This compilation was released in 1990.

Next was the “Pet Sounds Vol. 4” compilation tape that was released by the Pet Sounds Fanzine in 1991. This was the 4th volume out of 5 that was issued by the people behind the Gothenburg based zine. From what I know these tapes are very rare, only 80 to 100 copies were usually made and these tapes didn’t come as a bundle with the fanzine normally, you had to acquire them separately. On this compilation the band contributes “Fall On Me” and at this time the band’s name appears now as Pleasurehouse. No space.

A West Side Fabrication was to include them on a compilation named “West Side. Strikes Back Vol IV” (WeCD 46) in 1993. On this comp the band has the song “You Will Never Know”. This comp was a collection of previously unreleased songs.

There was one more compilation on A West Side Fabrication in 1994 that saw Pleasurehouse having a song. Their track “Candyfloss Summer” appears on the CD compilation “We’re All Part of a Family” (WeCD 073) alongside other classic Swedish bands as Puffin, Cod Lovers (interviewed on the blog), Popundret and more.

Something that surprised me was that I was going to find information about the band on another label’s website, another legendary Swedish label, Ceilidh Productions. Why? I don’t know. Maybe someone can explain me the connection between labels? That I don’t know. In any case the band was actually formed in 1986 (!) by Niklas Larsson on guitar and Joakim Nordqvist on vocals and guitar. Are there any recordings from this period? When they were a duo?

In 1989 the band expanded and added Björn Brunnberg on bass and vocals, Torbjörn Gustavsson on keyboards and Stefan Nilsson on drums. In 1990 Torbjörn leaves and the band adds a second guitar player with Johan Skaneby. In 1993 Skaneby leaves and Per Sparf replaces him.

Some of these names are familiar. For example, from the top of my head, I remember Johan Skaneby had been involved in Cod Lovers. I believe Torbjörn had been involved in a punk band in the 80s called Klunk’s Klan. And hen Bjorn had been in a band called Tivoli who released  a couple of 7″s. Not sure about the rest of the band members. Maybe someone can help me with that?

Afterwards I find an interview on the mailing list Scandinavian Indie conducted by Erik Söderström. The interview seems to have happened in Linköping at a venue called Herrgårn after a gig they played in that city. What do I learn from it? Well that one of the guitar players, probably Skaneby or Sparf, played before in a band called My Favorite Martian. Then that some of the songs on “Marseille” were kind of old, like “This is How it Feels” and “Happy When You Leave”, that date from the first period of the band, 1986.

The album “Marseille” was to be released in October 1991 but was released in March 1992. The band had some more songs that weren’t included in the records like “Vals”, “September” and “Six Eyes”. These were played live, but who knows if they were ever recorded.

And at last we get confirmation that the band hailed from Norrköping. All of them were originally from there but the drummer who was from Småland. And their favourite drink were Carlsberg beer and gin/tonic. That is important information indeed.

Another good find is the one article from Sound Affects I stumbled upon. Here it mentions that early on the band was mostly influenced by The Cure and later they were more into the Go-Betweens. If you understand Swedish you can check out this profile the zine did with the band at what was then the only Indian restaurant in Norrköping. if not, well, you can use Google Translate?

But that’s all I really could find. I start to wonder how many pop bands have come from Norrköping. I think quite a few. I do wonder if the band members continued involved in music, and in which projects? And if so, did they continue making indiepop? And why no more releases? Why no album? Also what about more recordings? I mean they were around as a band for many years but we only know a few songs. Does anyone remember them?

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Listen
Pleasurehouse – Cindy

Thanks a lot to Matt and Geoff for the interview! I wrote just a few weeks ago about the Dudley, UK, band The Mercenary Tree Freaks, who were around in the early 90s. They didn’t release any records but did appear on a few compilations and released a bunch of demo tapes. I liked their music and even found a website, but there was really not much information about them. So I asked them for an interview so they could tell the whole story about the band!

++ Hi Matt & Geoff! Thanks so much for getting in touch! How are you? Where are you based now? Still in Dudley?

Matt: I’m good thanks and now live about 2 miles from Dudley.

Geoff: I’m good too, I actually made it to Dudley!

Matt: I think the other two have much posher addresses; Martin is in Leamington Spa while Steve is  living it up in Surrey’s stockbroker belt.

++ I believe you all are still in touch. What are you up to? Are you still involved with music?

Matt: After MTF ended we all went our own way, all of us left the Midlands. It was 13 years before I met up with Geoff again. 21 years before Geoff and I met up with Martin and 26 years before we saw Steve again. Blokes are so rubbish at keeping in touch.

Geoff: After MTF I jumped straight into another band- a 3 piece post punk band called ‘Phantom Planet’ who then became ‘Push The planet’ and finally ‘Subway’ that lasted around 2 years and we had a similar setup to MTF whereas we would release demo cassettes and sell Tshirts. I then moved away and did nothing musically for over ten years. After returning to the Midlands I Joined a band called ‘The Knowing’ a 4 piece made up of a couple of work colleagues and the Bass player from Subway, this again though only lasted around 18 months. The last 12 months I have been working on an electronica/ sound track project called Agents of Evolution- we have been gigging locally and been involved with a couple of film festivals- we play live to a backdrop of horror/ sci-fi influenced visuals!

++ Let’s start from the beginning. Like what are your first musical memories? What was the first instrument did you get and how?

Matt: I loved The Wombles as kid and wanted a Gibson flying V just like Wellington Womble’s. Then I saw Thin Lizzy in 1979 and that was it, I wanted to be a rock guitarist. 12 months later I had a cheap Les Paul copy and could just about manage the riff to ‘Smoke on the Water’. I’ve been through about 15 guitars since, but never did get a Flying V, I now own a proper Gibson Les Paul!

Geoff: Drums- my parents pressurised us into learning a musical instrument- I think I just chose the one that would give them the most grief!

++ Had any of you been involved with other bands prior to the Mercenary Tree Freaks?

Matt: Loads, Argon & Sea Witch were both (shockingly awful) metal bands with school mates. The Imps of the Perverse (shockingly awful Bauhaus wanna bes). The Bobbles (just two of us with amped up acoustics belting out Beatles songs in Portugal). Incee Wincee Spider (post punk, not quite goth) was where I met Steve, from there Oddfellows 151 (REM wanna bes) morphed into MTF after a fall out with the guitarist.

Geoff: just a couple of school ‘garage’ band really, nothing serious- MTF were the first band I played with that gigged on a regular basis and actually recorded something!

++ Were all of you originally from Dudley?

Matt: Actually, not one of us came from Dudley, we were all quite close to it though, and rightly or wrongly, we chose to distance ourselves from the Stourbridge bands.

Geoff: We all lived in the leafy suburban outskirts.

++ How was Dudley back then? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores?

Geoff: Dudley and Stourbridge pretty much blended into one for me, the obvious bands I liked all hung around the area- Neds, PWEI and The Wonder stuff. It was such a vibrant time for music and most people we knew were in a band- you could go see up and coming bands most nights of the week and JBs seemed to have the best of them- you got to see bands like Blur, Jesus Jones, Ride, The levellers and The Stone Roses just as they were breaking- great times for live music.

Matt: I liked Fretblanket, they used to support us, then they overtook us and we supported them.

++ What about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands? I heard there was a popular one called JB’s?

Geoff: Think I just answered this one!

Matt: The Mitre in Stourbridge, The Source in Worsdley, The Hummingbird and Barrel Organ in Birmingham.

++ When and how did the band start? How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?

Matt: Steve and I came from Oddfellows 151, with the Doc (drums). Martin answered an ad in local music shop. The Doc left after our first demo, we then had another drummer briefly before we just used a drum machine until Geoff came along a year later.

Geoff: I answered an advert for a drummer wanted in local magazine, spoke to Steve and arranged to go see MTF at Wolverhampton and go along for a rehearsal- Matt was a little frosty towards me at first as he wanted to keep the drum machine, until I told him we could keep both me and the drum machine- I then became a ‘stand up’ drummer/ drum machine programmer and our relationship blossomed!

++ Why the name Mercenary Tree Freaks?

Matt: Ugh, I never liked it, much preferred just MTF. The Doc (our original drummer) wanted to be called Lemon Tree Creek, Steve misheard it as Lemon Tree Freaks, we dropped the Lemon and ended up with Mercenary from a random word point in a copy of Macbeth!

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

Matt: I used to put the bare bones of a song together, words and rough intro, verse, chorus then take it to our rehearsal room behind Donovan’s Music in Stourbridge, where everyone would add their own touches to it.

Geoff: I remember going around to Matt’s mum and dads house once a week to program the drum machine to any new songs we were working on (and play Sonic the hedgehog)

++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

Matt: When we started we weren’t sure what we wanted to sound like. It was a bit confused. In fact our musical tastes were quite diverse, from Metallica to Duran Duran! Then we did have a brief The Wonder Stuff period. In fact, it was only when Geoff came along that we developed our own identity. Having heard ‘Michelin Man’ do you think we sound like anyone?

Geoff: As I said earlier this was such a great time for music- I worked in a record shop and so got to listen to loads of stuff- I’d count it all as influence!

++ The first time I heard your music was through the Elefant Records 7″ compilation “La Línea del Arco” from 1992. How did you end up contributing a song to this compilation, on a Spanish label?

Matt: Elefant contacted us, I think they had picked up on us from a fanzine interview.

++ And before this recording, had you put out anything at all? Perhaps demo tapes?

Matt: Yeah, we put out five demo tapes. Demo-One (no idea who we sounded like on this 3 song one; Disintergrating, Mascara and I really can’t remember the last song), Swooosh (four songs from our The Wonder Stuff period; Marshmellow Brain, Alfie Can’t Stop, Silly Stupid Eyes and Mr Twilight). Geoff joined after those first two and it gets better from there; 152 or Faster (three songs, sadly recorded at a poor studio; Bitter End, Shot Down Big Sky and Overdose[a song from Incee Wincee Spider days]). Then we started using the studio where The Wonder Stuff recorded their early b-sides. Ou est le canard? (3 songs; Colonel Clutz, Mania Maniac and Beautifully Absurd) and finally The Cogwinder (I think our four finest songs; Michelin Man, Bitter End, Cynicism and One for the Disco Kids).

++ The song that appeared on that 7″ was “Michelin Man”, wondering if you could tell me the story behind this song?

Matt: It was a self-deprecating look at growing old and fat. I think we had been over doing the fast food and beer while hanging around to sound check at gigs.

++ You were to appear on more compilations in the 90s. How was that tape comp scene? How did people find out about the new tapes? How did you find out that there was a new compilation you could contribute to?

Matt: It was strange, sometimes we’d be asked to contribute, other times I think they just lifted our songs from our demos without even letting us know.

++ And who is “Colonel Clutz”?

Matt: Not a real person, just sort of inspired by one of the friendly-fire incidents in the 1991 Gulf War. Whether he was based on British or an American colonel, you can make your own mind up.

++ And how come you set up a web, so many years after?

Matt: I think this is Steve’s handiwork? Did you know about it Geoff?

Geoff: No, not until you found it. They must be his favourite songs, ‘cos only ‘Michelin Man’ was on The Cogwinder of the four there.

++ Was there any interest from any labels? I would have thought Elefant would have been interasted?

Matt: Sony were interested and we also had a vague interest from Food (Blur’s label).

Geoff: Oh yeah, Food, do you remember when we crashed a management meeting at their offices, after a few in the pub? I think they went off us after that.

++ Did you consider self-releasing?

Matt: We’d self funded a 7” when in Incee Wincee Spider. That put us off ever going down that path again, we were much happier with the cost of producing demo tapes. Geoff used to sell them in his record shop. I think we made the top ten a couple of times?

Geoff: And we did put all our money into T-Shirts, I think we sold more t-shirts than tapes.

++ Are there any more unreleased recordings by the band?

Matt: No, everything we ever recorded appears on the five demo tapes. There were about four other songs that would have been recorded had we not split.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? What were the best ones that you remember?

Matt: I lost count, I guess over the 3 years of MTF we probably played around 100 gigs. Before Geoff joined it has to be at Wolverhampton’s Wulfrun Hall in front of 700 people. JBs was always a good gig and I used to like playing at the Sir George Robey in London.

++ It is mentioned that you supported Blur once. How was that?

Geoff: We did an interview in a local paper where we mentioned we had been on Japanese TV with Blur and I think he took ‘artistic licence’ with it.

Matt: I think it was good job we never supported them, in the green room Alex James offered Geoff a very warm can of beer. We don’t think the liquid was beer.

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? Any anecdotes you could share?

Matt: Can you remember when Steve knocked himself out at the Hummingbird in Birmingham during the second song? He played the rest of the gig, but I’m not sure he was playing the same songs as us. Another bad one was when we left Geoff’s drum kit outside the venue, how we missed a drum kit while loading the van? I assume beer was involved.

Geoff: There was The Fire Station in Oxford, actually a good gig but only there was only the bar staff in there. And also, once at JBs we got a whole crate of Red Stripe as a rider, we probably shouldn’t have touched it until after the set.

++ When and why did the Mercenary Tree Freaks split? What happened immediately after?

Matt: Wrong place wrong time I think, we were peaking as indie-pop was on a downward curve and Brit Pop was rising. Label interest died down almost over-night and I took the opportunity to go to university.

Geoff: Plus we didn’t have a fiddle player.

++ Have you been involved in any other bands afterwards?

Matt: Not me, MTF was my musical peak. I tried out with a couple of bands but never found ‘the vibe’ with either of them.

Geoff: Yes as I said earlier- Subway, The Knowing, Agents of Evolution

++ Matt Rothwell has published two books, and he mentions that the story of the band is on the book “The Electric Guitar Daydream Quest”. I want to read this book for sure. Have you all read it? And for people reading this interview, where can they get it?

Matt: I think I told it like it was? Didn’t I? You can get it from Amazon either as a paperback or a download for Kindle.

Geoff: It was pretty much like how I remembered it, and a ripping good read.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

Matt: loads from local press and we had gigs reviewed in NME and Sounds. It is rumoured that the late John Peel had played us more than once, I’ve never been able to confirm that.

Geoff: A local journo really seemed to like us. He still works at the same paper.

++ You appeared on TV, on a Japanese music TV show called Bandbreakers? And what was the contest about? Did you win?

Matt: That wasn’t the first time! Our first TV appearance was on Sky 1, a talent show called Kieth Chegwins Star Search. I entered us without telling Steve or Martin. It all became clear to them at the auditions; we were lining up against juggling clowns, nine year old disco dancers and a man with a singing dog.

Geoff: On Bandbreakers we made the final five! I think we came second…, we didn’t win the keyboard or drink Alex James’ warm beer.

++ How was the experience of playing on TV? Any anecdotes you could share?

Geoff: Being able to mime to a backing track gave me the ability to down three bottles of Merrydown cider. I then managed to lose my contact lens’ during a very frantic drum mime while we were recording.

Matt: I had to sing live, so unusually for me I waited until we’d finished recording.

Geoff: Do you remember when we recording the backing tracks? It was the day Freddie Mercury died and in the studio’s green room was a grand piano. Bohemian Rhapsody was on a loop on MTV and Mart was playing the piano along ‘Les Dawson’ style.

Matt: Oh yeah, we were in stitches and a couple of other bands told us off for not showing respect.

++ What about from fanzines?

Matt: We were in a lot of fanzines, but I can’t remember the names of them. We usually found them in record stores and sent one of our demos off. Nine times out of ten we never knew if we’d been mentioned or not.

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

Matt: Cycling and sitting in the garden, drinking beer whilst listening to MTF.

Geoff: Professional stay at home dad

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

Matt: The biggest highlight for me was having fun with three of my mates, enjoying what we were doing and actually getting a very brief five minutes of fame.

Geoff: Agreed, I don’t think any of us were bothered that we never ‘made it’ it was all about having a laugh and playing great music with a great bunch of lads!

++ Never visited Dudley, so maybe I can ask for some suggestions? Like what are the sights I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks I should try?

Geoff: Dudley Zoo and Banks’s Bitter

Matt: Faggots and grey peas!

++ Thanks again! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Matt: It was a real shock that someone had shown interest in our band after all this time. So thanks for giving us yet another opportunity to reminisce.

Geoff: We were both very impressed with your keen investigative skills too!

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Listen
Mercenary Tree Freaks – Michelin Man

I’ll start this week’s post telling you a bit about my latest indiepop adventure, that happened last Thursday. I went to see the brilliant Brisbane band The Goon Sax at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn.

They were actually opening the night for two other acts, Shana Falana and Lou Barlow. I honestly didn’t care about these two, so even though it was pricey, I thought of just going, see The Goon Sax, and then leave. Just call it early, go back home while the subway is still running continuously and not waiting 30 minutes to transfer to another line. I thought that it wouldn’t matter much paying 25 bucks just to see them as it was the first time the band was coming to America and because I didn’t expect them to come again in the near future. It seems I was wrong, they would later tell me that they are planning to come around September or October this year. Oh well…

The crowd was odd, I didn’t see any of the casual indiepop faces. None of them. Maybe they went to Union Pool the day before as The Goon Sax played there. I just don’t like Union Pool that much myself so I chose the Knitting Factory gig instead. But before checking the crowd, we went for pizza at the pizza parlour that faces The Knitting Factory on the other side of the street. Guess what, the band was already having pizza there. So, I said hello of course and talked a bit with them. They were really friendly.

The gig was lovely though it run into some hiccups. Louis’ guitar string broke and no one could lend him another guitar. So he had to change strings and that took a bit of time. That happened just at the start, after the first song. The lady Shana Falana, who seemed to be the organizer of the gig, went onstage and tried to entertain the crowd. Anyways, after that break, the band started playing again and they did it in full form. It was terrific. Energetic, fun, and with great attitude. To my surprise they didn’t play their first single, “Boyfriend”, and I was to ask them later why. It seems they haven’t played it in a year! They are a bit bored by it. But they did end the gig with their new single, “She Knows”, that has that delicious chorus of girl/boy vocals.

The gig was kind of short sadly. They were the openers. For me of course they should have been headliners. But, that’s how the world is. It doesn’t know a thing.

After it we had a good chat, took a photo, and met the people behind Chapter Music. Talked with Louis about The Particles and other obscure Australian bands. Then mentioned that that same day I had published an interview on the blog with an Australian band, The Mars Bastards. The Chapter Music people, knew about the band of course, and even knew about the blog. He mentioned that they had plans to do at some point sort of a compilation of guitar pop bands from the time. The same idea I’ve had for years. Maybe it would be good if they do it. Who knows. It would be good for it to happen sooner or later.

It was a great conversation with the band, knowing they preferred NYC over Chicago, and that they were heading to Los Angeles the next day to play 3 shows. That they hadn’t had much time to do touristy stuff but had been around Manhattan and Brooklyn for few days, even visiting the MOMA. It was great to meet them and I had a good time talking to them. Maybe next time they are here they have a bigger crowd and more fans, and photo requests, that I won’t have the chance to meet and talk with them. So was happy for this opportunity.

And here are some of my latest finds:

Tracyanne & Danny: I believe next week Tracyanne & Danny are playing in NYC and I haven’t got around into buying tickets. Hmm. I want to go for sure, but are there tickets available? Do I want to go to Brooklyn? Small decisions. And how much are the tickets? I need to find out that too. But I must say I didn’t need to hear or watch this beautiful video for the song “It Can’t Be Love Unless it Hurts” to know that I would love to be there. And that I would like to get a copy of the album. Gorgeous really.

Samt: the latest release by the brilliant Augsburg label Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten is a 7″ by this Austrian band. It is not strictly indiepop but the one song I’ve heard so far, “I Wü Di”, is catchy and quirky. The label underlines that the band has an Upper Austrian dialect. As I don’t understand much of what they are saying, can’t say if that’s important, but for sure it is a great detail to know about. The band is described as post punk meets Austropop. That’s another term I’m not familiar with! What is Austropop? Are there more good Austrian pop bands? A release that opens many doors is for sure a good one. The record is available through the label and was released on May 29th.

Foundlings: Amber, Bry, Matty and Ol form his punky pop band from London. They have just two songs in their Bandcamp, “Misery” and “Tragedy”, and they are catchy and filled with energy. I haven’t been to London in ages, but I wonder if they are part of an indiepop scene? Or probably not. If they will be releasing a record soon? Or not. If they will be invited to Indietracks? Or not. I need to go back to the UK and find out how things are going there!

Simmer: another British band, this time from Manchester. And this latest song of theirs called “Juno” is terrific. A great introduction to their music. The band has been going since January 2017 and is formed by Bonnie, Julius, Jake, Gary and Adam. I must say though that I listened to their previous effort, an album “Paper Prisms”, but it wasn’t something I liked. I definitely like their new direction, the poppy “Juno” is a winner.

акульи слёзы: from Ufa, Russia. 4 songs in Russian. Three girls with cool haircuts and cool dresses. Don’t ask me more about them, I don’t understand Russian. But their digital EP “в музее моей памяти” is great. There are 4 songs to stream and I hope they get a proper release. Anyone know any details about them?

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My friend David, who I’ve mentioned many times in the blog before, just made me remember of a wonderful song after he shared it on Youtube, Hitch’s “You Should Stay Inside”. Now, the problem is who were Hitch and if there are any more songs by them?

That is a big problem. I only know that song. I don’t know where the band was from, or who the members were. I know them thanks to a French tape, a compilation tape that was released by Nessie (NESS587) called “Superqualifragilistic”.

Supercalifragilistic: The Oxford English Dictionary estimates that the word “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” was first attested in the 1940s. The roots of the word have been defined as follows: super- “above”, cali- “beauty”, fragilistic- “delicate”, expiali- “to atone”, and -docious “educable”, with the sum of these parts signifying roughly “Atoning for educability through delicate beauty.” According to the film, in which the word gained its popularity, it is defined as “something to say when you have nothing to say”. However, it is commonly defined as “extraordinarily good” or “wonderful” as all references to the word in the film “Mary Poppins” can be perceived as positive. Dictionary.com also notes that the word is “used as a nonsense word by children to express approval or to represent the longest word in English.”

This label had released in 1994 one of my favourite 7″s by any French bands, Evergreen’s “Longer Lasting Beauty”. I know, I know, I should dedicate a post to Evergreen. I will try to do it soon. But today I’m checking this compilation, see if there’s any chance to find anything about Hitch.

According to Michaël from Watoo Watoo on a comment he posted back in 2010 on the blog Heaven is Above: “Nessie was a small label in the southern suburbs of Paris. They released this comp that you mention, a couple of eps & then got bored, less interested in tracking small indie bands.”

Well, before they got bored they put out this tape and the two 7″s (aside from the Evergreen one, there’s a 7″ Christmas comp). This tape sadly doesn’t have a release year. It may have been also from 1994, as the other two releases on the label. On this tape compilation, which I mentioned before when I wrote about the French bands Nothing Else and Les Poissons Solubles, Hitch appears on the A side, with the eighth track. Other bands on this compilation were The Penguins, Caramel, Pillows, Meek, Lollypops, Newell and more.

One of the few credits that appear on this tape is that it was mixed by Jean-François Marvaud. Marvaud had been part of the band Meek, where he played guitar. That’s another band that deserves a post on the blog. Aside from this band he had been involved doing technical work for many bands, including Evergreen or Spring.

The tape came with a booklet, 8 pages long. I don’t own the tape, but I hope someone does and can maybe find out if there’s any information about the band. After you hear the beauty of the song you’ll understand my interest.

Maybe someone out there can help me. At least let me know if they were French? I assume they were as all the bands on the tape are French as far as I know. I think that is a fair guess. But where in France? If they had any releases? Any other songs recorded? Would be great to know!

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Listen
Hitch – You Should Stay Inside

Happy to end the week after booking a flight to Mexico City next month. Just around the time for the World Cup finals. I will have to watch it there. Hopefully it is fun. I remember watching some games from the last World Cup in Montreal, the Colombia vs Uruguay and some others that I can’t recall now. But there wasn’t much of a good vibe and wasn’t easy to find places to watch it. I’m sure Mexicans are more football-crazy than Canadians.

I will just be for around 10 days and I believe I will be doing a little tour visiting some new towns I’ve never been to like Queretaro, San Miguel de Allende, Peña del Bernal and Guanajuato. Any tips will be appreciated. If not my Lonely Planet guide will be used for the third time in Mexico(!).

Then I still have just 7 days left for more vacations later this year. Was looking for flights in August, but everything seems complicated. For example, when I find a cheap flight, I can’t find good deals for places to stay.

Anyways, according to Mobineko they are sending the records for Salt Lake Alley next week… should I trust them? When they arrive home I’ll let everyone know.

In the meantime, here is some new indiepop items worth checking out!

Sobs: seems to be a new crop of pop bands from Singapore. The latest one I’ve discovered is called Sobs which is formed by Celine Autumn, Jared Lim and Raphael Ong. They have put out a tape album with 8 songs that has lovely artwork by Mich Cervantes. I don’t know if the whole album sounds great, I have only been able to stream one of the songs, the last one, “Telltale Signs” which I recommend to everyone who loves female vocals and pop melodies. Even better, this song has a video on Youtube. The only bad news here is that the tape is sold out. Hope there’s a CD version soon. Or vinyl.

El Sonido del Río Hablador: Impermeable Records from Peru is doing their sort of Leamington Spa compilation. Yes, they are doing a retrospective compilation of indiepop bands from that country for the period of 2000 to 2009. And there are 20 songs in total! It is definitely a fantastic compendium of the sounds and bands that were part of the fractured scene of Lima and other Peruvian cities. The CD comes with a booklet with information about every single band on it. And you’ll learn that barely a few of these bands really have proper releases, most of these songs are demos in true DIY spirit. So giving a new life to these songs is a superb job by Joel, who compiled this soon to be cult object.

Davey Woodward: I wasn’t aware Davey from The Brilliant Corners has a Bandcamp page. On it he has many things available for one to order and also to have a listen. There are records by The Experimental Pop Band, there’s a download EP by the band Karen, the single by Davey Woodward and The Winter Orphans (which I believe will soon be releasing an album), and also Davey’s solo album from 2010.

Masonieria: Sonia from the Barcelona band Papa Topo, who had contributed a few songs to a soundtrack some months ago, now has uploaded 5 great demo tracks to Bandcamp. There are 5 catchy and fun songs for everyone to stream: “El Mal Hermano”, “Tengo Tu Número Apuntado en un Folio”, “Pin de Arquero”, “Cançó per a Tu (plata i forma)” and “Falloppio”. Lovely bedroom casio pop.

Rik Rak: those of us who love great jangle pop can rejoice because Firestation will be releasing a retrospective compilation by the Blackpool band Rik Rak this August 3rd. The album will be titled “Illuminated” and I can’t wait for it to be out. An interview with the band would be nice too as I don’t know much about them. I hope so! For the time being, for those who don’t know them check out their video for the song “It’s Not Easy”.

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Killing time, the act of being idle
The Killing Time, a period in late 17th century Scottish history

I wonder how to start a blog post about a band that there is nothing at all written on the web. That has only one known song in their repertoire. That their band name is not easy to search on the web and that there are many bands sharing the same name. It is indeed complicated. But I hope, that by writing this post someone will remember them or maybe the band itself will get in touch, and maybe, we will learn their story. That would be the ideal scenario, right?

As many indiepop fans know, the “Corrupt Postman” tape is one of the most famous cassette compilations from the 80s. I have in the past featured more than a few bands that appeared on it like Nine Steps to Ugly, The Felicitys, The Apple Moths, Steamtown and more. I sadly don’t own this tape comp, but I believe there wasn’t much information about the bands on the sleeve. I do have MP3s for all the songs on the tape, and Killing Time’s “Perishing Flowers” has always been a favourite. I wonder why? Perhaps it starts sounding a bit like “Teenage Kicks”, and then it has a very simple structure, it is direct, and has a catchy chorus. I don’t think there’s much mystery why one would like this song. It is 3 minutes and a half of pop effervescence, with a punk attitude.

The “Corrupt Postman” tape was released by Windmill Records in 1988 and had no catalog number. It had 28 songs in total, 14 on each side. Most of it is proper indiepop though there are some strange tracks. Killing Time appears halfway on the B side. It is the 7th song there.

Windmill Records was based in Cheshire and released another tape compilation that is quite legendary, the “Are You Ready?” one also in 1998. Aside from these two there were two flexis, both of them compilations as well, “Four Bands Four Songs” that included The Fat Tulips, The Applicants, The Haywains and Paintbox and “Three Bands Three Songs” that had “They Go Boom!!, The Dreamscape and Strawberry Story. The people behind this label were called Chris and Neil. I don’t know their last names, but I figure that it would be super interesting to do a Windmill Records interview at some point. Learn the story of the label, how they worked, if there were more releases, etc, etc. Someone can put me in touch? And maybe they remember who Killing Time were!

I have the suspicion though that Chris was Chris Mabbs who did Popstar Records. And that Neil was the person behind Caramel Records who released the first Bouquet 7”. Could someone confirm this?

Killing Time contributed the same song to the Elefant Records tape “Hacia la Luz” (ER-5) in 1990. Two years later. This tape includes many of the bands that were on “Corrupt Postman” and I was surprised to see a comment on Discogs calling the tape as a cheap rip-off of “Corrupt Postman”. Don’t know why the animosity! On this tape Killing Time also appear on the B side, but now they are the tenth song. This tape actually had one more song, there were 29 songs in total. But again, I don’t own this tape, so there might be a chance that Elefant had some info about the bands on the tape artwork. Anyone would know?

But that’s all there is really. I’m just curious about this one little song and would love to know more. And in general, would also learn more about Windmill Records. And even if it is not the same Neil or Chris, it would also be great to do a Bouquet interview on the blog, right? So any help is much appreciated.

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Listen
Killing Time – Perishing Flowers

Thanks so much to Ian Freeman for the interview! In the past I had interviewed Ian about The Palisades, another classic Perth band, and now it was time to talk about The Mars Bastards! Don’t know if it will be the last interview as Ian has been involved in so many fantastic jangly bands, the latest being The Golden Rail who have released  an album this year. The Mars Bastards may not be much of a household name but the band released a bunch of tapes back in Australia and had quite a following. Sadly there were no proper releases at the time. Fast forward and today we have access to most of their songs thanks to them uploading “Observation City“, the album that was to be, on Bandcamp. And now everyone can rediscover this brilliant band from down under!

++ Hi Ian! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? You are still making music with The Golden Rail and have put a new album this year! It is great! For those who haven’t heard it yet what can people expect from it?

Hi Roque! It’s great to talk to you again. All good here just getting set for another great Melbourne winter. We had a lot of fun making the first album (Electric Trails From Nowhere). Quite a lot of different styles on there really, power pop, jangle, folk rock I guess, some baroque pop for good measure. We didn’t really know what we were going to get until we went into Aviary Studios and Fraser and Nick (producer/engineer) pulled a great sound out of us. Very happy with the final product.

++ And what is in store for the future for The Golden Rail? Are you working on a new release? Perhaps gigs?

We just released an interim single “Shouldn’t Get Hung Up About It/Fined For Wrestling” … very much in that C86 ball park. We have written the next album, a little more focused on what we want this time around, a little heavier in parts, which has been influenced by our live performances. We play as often as we can. Hoping to bring some strings in and additional musicians for the second album as well. Hopefully be finished by end of this year.

++ In the past we did an interview about The Palisades, that great band you were involved with. Now it is time to talk about the Mars Bastards. But first I kind of want to do a recap, how many bands have you been involved with? And which bands were they?

Wow! I sometimes lose count! The bands were Palisades, Mars Bastards, Header, Lazybirds, Village Idiots and now Jangle Band and The Golden Rail. There have been side projects as well along the way though like Los Palicassos Brothers which was me and Marty from Stolen Picassos.

++ Let’s start from the beginning. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?

My first music memories are of watching David Bowie on Top of the Pops when I was kid back in the UK. I was obsessed with music from that point forward. I had always been involved in choirs, school, church choirs etc. right up to my teens. The only instrument we had in our house was a kids xylophone! I didn’t get my first guitar until I was about 18 which I bought for about $50. A plywood copy of a Gibson 335. At home my mum listened to a lot of soul and R & B and my dad wasn’t very interested in music but he did drag home two Beatles albums (Rubber Soul/Revolver) and a Slade LP he picked up from somewhere. That was enough! Oh and there was an ABBA album and John Denver greatest hits. The first LP I paid for with my own money was All Mod Cons by the Jam.

++ When did the Mars Bastards start as a band? Was it immediately after the demise of The Rainyard?

It’s a long convoluted story really. I was in Sydney with the Palisades. I’d moved there in the late 80’s although Jeff had stayed in Perth. Our good friend Gil Bradley joined on guitar in his place and the Palisades gigged around Sydney for a year or so. The Rainyard had started in Perth during that time and Jeff joined them on guitar. I would get sent tapes to Sydney and really dug what they were doing so went back for a holiday to check them out. Had a great time and Perth was really jumping music wise whereas Sydney was starting to become a drag so we all moved back to Perth. Jeff and I started writing on the side and recorded a single released as the Mars Bastards. Liam from The Rainyard actually sings backing vocals and Gil did some guitar. We decided to play a show as the Mars Bastards with myself, Jeff, Gil, Mark Scarparolo on bass and Shaun Lohoar on drums. Mark later left and was replaced by Cliff Kent. Jeff quit The Rainyard to concentrate fulltime on The MB and Dave Chadwick replaced him in the Rainyard and now plays bass in The Golden Rail! We can also slide Header, Lazybirds, Ammonia, A Month of Sundays into this story of musical chairs.

++ Were all of you originally from Perth?

Yes we are all from the West Coast.

++ How was Perth then? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

Looking back it was really quite a scene. Heaps of great bands around that 1985 to 1995 time. I guess Mars Bastards was 1990 to 1993? So during that time, A Month of Sundays was one of my faves and of course the new version of the Rainyard with Davey C on guitar. Orange was Dom Marianis band at that time. Human Jukebox was Kim Salmons outfit. The Cherrytones, Jack and the Beanstalks, Fuzzswirl, Northern Lights, Mardi Picasso, so many… Some good record stores as well 78’s, Da Da’s, Mills Records. Pubs at the time; the Coronado, Shenton Park, Newport, The Grosvenor, Old Melbourne..too many too mention really.

++ Why the name The Mars Bastards?

Jeff came up with the name. I’m not sure why…I think it had something to do with Melbourne Bitter beer? They had MB on the cans back then so we used that as our guide or inspiration..there was definitely beer involved!

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

Jeff and I would write usually together around the kitchen table or in the lounge. We would then take the tunes down to a rehearsal space in East Perth next to a VW repair shop (Herbies!) across from the East Perth Tavern, all knocked down now. We would spend a few hours jamming them out. Then off to the pub for a cheese and onion toasty. Then back to rehearsal. Then get shut down around 11pm by Herbie screaming “Wrrrrrapppp it upppp!!!! It worked for us.

++ And who would you say were influences of the band?

Around this time I was listening to a lot of XTC. Wedding Present. Always had some Pale Fountains playing. Wonderstuff was another big influence around this time. The Beatles, Byrds, Bowie always a constant. Jelly Fish. I would say all the Perth bands we were watching at the time was really inspiring as well. They encouraged you to write.

++ You were supposed to release an album in 1992 called “Observation City”. What happened? Why did it never come out?

Not sure what happened there to be honest. I think I was just burned out and decided to take a break. Then we never got back to it.

++ What’s the story behind the name of the album?

Observation City was the name of a hotel that was built on the beach in Perth. They knocked down an old icon of a hotel called the “Snake Pit’ that went back to the 50s that had so much history and heritage and replaced it with this monstrosity. Think Alan Bond may have been behind it, before he got sent to prison.

++ And where was it recorded? And how were those recording sessions?

I think at Planet Studios with James Hewgill. That time is all a little fuzzy for me.

++ The Bandcamp album has a bonus song, “It’s Been a While” which was recorded live. Where was it recorded live?

Yes that was recorded at the old Perth ABC studios for radio station JJJ Live at the Wireless. Played live to the whole of Australia! Well, to those who were listening!

++ Now the album is up on Bandcamp and I’ve had such a great time listening to it. But I wonder if there is any intention in releasing it in physical format at some point?

There’s a bunch of songs from various singles, eps, albums, that Jeff tied into the Rainyard Bandcamp page. We are thinking of revisiting the back catalogue and putting together a selected works type release.

++ Which label was supposed to have released it? Was there much interest for it at the time?

We had our own label Candlestick Records and released all our music on cassettes independently and we produced small runs that would all sell out. We would have released Observation City through that outlet. We have just revived the label for The Golden Rail single.

++ And why did you decide to shelf it?

We did well in Perth. We got to the same point as the Palisades where it was time to talk about taking the band to the next step – going to Melbourne or Sydney and touring the East coast. But everyone had pretty established jobs and other bands etc. We just decided to step back for a little while.

++ But there were two tapes released back in the early 90s, right? The first one being “This Windy City” / “That Was My First Mistake” tape released by Candlestick Records. This was your own label, no? How was running it? Did you make many tapes? How did you distribute them?

We released 6 tapes in all. Last Night I Dreamt I Killed My Best Friend (Ricky Dickson), Crazy, This Windy City, Six, Rollercoaster …and one other I can’t recall (plus the unreleased Observation City).
It was a pretty handmade affair. We water coloured the covers on some of the singles ourselves. Would press a few hundred and sell them at gigs or in the local record stores. We had total control over the whole production. We had a list of promos, friends we would post off copies to. It was a quick turn around and onto the next single, ep whatever. Fun times.

++ Afterwards you released “Roller Coaster” also on tape. That was in 1991. This tape has 6 songs and I’m for sure wondering how rare are these tapes. But also curious about the engineer credited on it, James Hewgill. How was working with him? IT seems he had worked with many classic Australian bands like Kryptonics or the Chevelles.

Yeah as mentioned earlier we only produced a few hundred of each tape so they are pretty rare now. I seem to have misplaced the elusive fifth cassette. James was lovely to work with. He played piano on one or two tracks. He worked with various bands with differing styles so had a lot of production ideas to bring to the table. I got on really well with him.

++ I really like the songs “Lollipop” and the super jangly “Dan Electro vs The Single Girl”. Was wondering if in a couple of sentences you could tell me the story behind them?

They are very Perth centric to my ears. Sum up the scene in a guitar/power/jangle pop way.
“Dano” was a contest we had going with Marty Picasso (Martin Gambie) to see who could write the shortest pop song. We had a couple others, Only Happy When I’m Right and Can’t See For Smiles that are sub 1 minute. He ended winning with a 15 second ditty. Very competitive was Marty.

++ And from all your songs, what would you say was your favourite and why?

“This Windy City”. Key changes. Ode to Perth.

++ I couldn’t find any information, but did the band appear on any compilations? I think there was just the one, “The Western Front”?

Yeah just that one to my knowledge. There could have been a Bedtime Beats You Brainless comp? Or was that the Rainyard???

++ Are there more unreleased songs by the band?

In a way they are all unreleased in a global sense. Only Observation City really. There are some demos I have on tape that will remain there.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many?

We played heaps of shows. Continually gigging. It was a very active time.

++ And were there any bad gigs at all?

Hmmm…there was a fight on stage one night so I guess it was bad for that guy! But no we generally played pretty well all things considered.

++ There are videos of you all playing “Lollipop” and “Crazy” at the Fremantle Metropolis! Wow! Do you know if there are more videos of live footage? And do you remember at all that gig?

I think that whole gig was filmed. We had played the night before and got home pretty late in the a.m. from memory. That was an all ages afternoon gig the next day. Shaun and myself where particularly struggling. Irony is that it was an alcohol awareness benefit or something. Respect Yourself children! Actually that was one of the bad ones!

++ When and why did The Mars Bastards stop making music?

We stopped end of 92 early 93 I think? Can’t remember why we stopped really. Just to have a break I guess. Then we all went off and did other things.

++ And afterwards came Header, is that right?

93 … I was writing a bit, had a jam with Brad Bolton (Rainyard guitarist ex Stolen Picassos) then Davey C turned up then Liam so it was basically the Rainyard with myself singing. Call the cops!!

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

Mars Bastards? We had always been lucky in getting attention.

++ What about from fanzines?

Not sure if we were picked up in many fanzines besides Party Fears which was an ace Perth publication.

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

Writing, rehearsing, recording, playing, watching music takes up pretty much all my spare time. Travel when I can to France, Spain, Italy.. as an ex-chef I try to eat out a bit or cook at home.

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

We won local music awards and made the cover of street press etc. which is always nice but the biggest highlight was the comradery. Just hanging out with the guys making music. Loved every second of it.

++ Never visited Perth, nor Australia. So maybe I can ask for some suggestions? Like what are the sights I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?

Go to South Perth foreshore, hire a catamaran , sail it out into the Swan river, get it stuck in the mud bank and make the hire dude come out in his tinny and tow you back in. Heaps of fun. Best food; a Chico roll with a cold frothy.

++ Thanks again Ian! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks for taking me down memory lane Roque. They were great times even if we didn’t realise it when they were happening. Cheers

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Listen
The Mars Bastards – Lollipop

I’ve discovered a bunch of new songs and releases the past few days. Why not share them with you?

Red Sleeping Beauty: our friends from Sweden have recorded the unofficial Swedish World Cup song “Dressed in Yellow and Blue” and it will be included in the Official Matinée World Cup EP. A World Cup EP! That is really exciting! Who else will be participating in it? Also, when will this EP be released? I can’t wait. I love indiepop, I love football. There’s no better combination. And to be honest, there aren’t that many footie songs that I can’t think of! This song, if you remember was originally released by The Charade back in the day for 2006 World Cup.

Tulip: thanks to a recommendation by Iván from Juniper Moon/Linda Guilala I ended up on Tulip’s Bandcamp and listening to their self-titled debut EP. There is very little information about the band, so can’t say much. But they do hail from Vigo, in Galicia, Spain, and this EP has 5 terrific pop songs!! Songs that are dreamy, lo-fi, jangly, and so fragile that it is impossible not to love them. The 5 songs on the EP are “On The Sidelines”, “Wax & Wine”, “Cous-Cous”, “Arrecife” and “Nada Nuevo”. It is truly interesting to see a band that can make great songs both in Spanish and English. I hope these songs get a proper physical release.

Distant Shore: the new project by Ben Sidall is Distant Shore. And he has uploaded three lovely songs, three jangly classics: “Moving Up North”, “Former Life” and “A Quick Goodbye”. He hasn’t shared much information about these songs, so I can’t say much about them, only that I really enjoy them and I hope they get a release. Or maybe I can also ask that Distant Shore be booked at Indietracks? Or another good indiepop festival?

Saturday Night: this one came through the indiepop-list. Saturday Night is a band from Washington D.C. formed by Cash Langdon who used to be in the very fine Catholic Easter Colors, Luke Reddick, Jesse Sattler and Nora Button. The self-titled album will have ten songs and so far only one of the songs is available to stream, “Fish in the Pond”. It sounds great, especially when female backing vocals kick in. That works so so well! the album will be released on August 17th as a limited edition tape.

The Catherines: a new tune by Heiko Schneider and Sandra Ost. Actually a digital single, with an A side and a B side. If you like jangly, if you like good indiepop, look no further. Check out “Every time You Say Its Okay I Know Its Okay” and “Yes You’re Beautiful To Look At But So Ugly Inside” and fall in love with them.

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Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a giant planet with a mass one-thousandth that of the Sun, but two-and-a-half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined. Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants; the other two giant planets, Uranus and Neptune are ice giants. Jupiter has been known to astronomers since antiquity. The Romans named it after their god Jupiter. When viewed from Earth, Jupiter can reach an apparent magnitude of −2.94, bright enough for its reflected light to cast shadows, and making it on average the third-brightest object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus.

Just ordered the “Leave the Ground” 7″ by the Sydney, Australia, band Jupiter. I thought I had some of their releases in my collection but I noticed I didn’t. So now I’m missing two other records, a 12″ maxi single and an album. All of them released on Summershine Records, the Australian indiepop label par excellence. Time to find out more about them then.

On Discogs it says that the band was short-lived. It may be true, their releases span two years, 1991 and 1992. They were a trio formed by Simon McLean on bass and vocals, Chris Stephens on guitar and Alison Galloway on drums. And as I said before, they put out 3 records.

The first of these records was a 12″ single called “‘3′” (Shine 011t) that was released by Summershine in 1991. As mentioned before on the blog, many times actually, Summershine was a Melbourne based label that was founded in 1989 by Jason Reynolds, a label that would release many classic records, from the Rainyard to The Earthmen, and who would later move to America. Maybe the only indiepop label that has moved to a different country and continued releasing records. The “‘3′” 12″ had four songs, two on each side. The A side had “Sense” and “Glow” while the B side had “New” and “Day1”.

The second 7″ is the one I bought just now. The “Leave the Ground” 7″ (Shine 015) was released in 1992 and had the title song on the A side and “T” on the B side. I start to notice a trend in their song titles. They are simple, very simple. They don’t tell much at all. This 7″ was limited to 500 copies.

Lastly the band was going to release their debut album that same year, 1992. “Arum” (ShineCD003) is a fantastic dreampop/shoegaze album, and that was a very good year indeed to release it. I was to read on the Wilfuly Obscure blog some comments from the vocalist of the band, Chris, were he mentions that they were big fans of Ride and that shows in the songs. He also says that they supported Ride once and that it was the pinnacle of his music career. That now he is a web developer.

Interesting. I wonder what does Arum means. It seems it is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to Europe, northern Africa, and western and central Asia, with the highest species diversity in the Mediterranean region. Frequently called “arum lilies”, they are not closely related to the true lilies Lilium. Plants in closely related Zantedeschia are also called “arum lilies”. Was that the reason of the album name?

The CD had 11 songs. The 6 songs released on the singles are included. So 5 songs were brand new for the album, though two of them titled “@” are just instrumentals. The tracklist was as follows: “Leave the Ground”, “T”, “Carefully”, “Lost”, “@”, “Sense”, “Glow”, “New”, “Day 1”, “@” and “Meltdown”. Some of the songs (1-5 and 10-11) were recorded at Troy Horse Studios in Sydney. The rest were recorded “somewhere else”. It was engineered and produced by Michael Levis (tracks 1 to 4) and Steve Wilson (tracks 6 to 9). Song 11 is credited to have been included thanks to the courtesy of Half a Cow label. Wilson had been part of the band Sneeze that released on the Half a Cow label. Lastly the photography for hte album is credited to Jason Fisher.

There are four compilation appearances listed on Discogs. In 1991 they contributed the song “Meltdown” to the 7″ comp “Slice: A Half a Cow Compilation” (MOO-03) released by Half a Cow of course. There were four songs on the record, two on each side. The A side had Swirl and Smude, while the B side had Jupiter’s “Meltdown” and a track by Studley Lush and his Teenyboppers from Hell.

The second appearance was once again on a Half a Cow compilation. I start to wonder why didn’t they release a record on this label. The compilation “Slice Two: A Half a Cow Compilation” (HAC CD09) included again the song “Meltdown”. Actually it includes the 4 songs that had appeared before in the 7″ comp.

Next for them was the 1994 compilation “Tomorrow’s Hits Today”, released by Summershine on CD both in Australia and in the US. I believe it was 1994 when Jason Reynolds moved to the US. The band appears on this compilation with the song “T”. This compilation is a very good entry point, a sampler, for the music and artists on this label. You’ll find the Tender Engines, Autohaze, The Sugargliders and more.

Lastly on the classic compilation “Just a Taste” (Slumberland 008) that Slumberland Records released in 1995 celebrating the Summershine label they have 2 songs, “Lost” and “Leave the Ground”

There is an old website by the band with very little information but very nice goodies! Firstly all songs are uploaded and you can stream them. That is a treat for any music lover. You can even download them. But even better there are live video clips! 3 of them. The first one is of them playing the song “Ride” when they supported Ride in Sydney 1992. There is also another one of “T” at the same gig. And once again, at the same gig, them playing “Sense” and “Leave the Ground”. I suppose now that this website was created before Youtube?

I keep looking, and see that last year Fensepost dedicated a post to the band’s “Leave the Ground” 7″. Seems they haven’t been truly forgotten.

Are they listed as having played in other bands? Alison seems to have been involved in a few actually, 51 Monday, Carton, Godstar, Seventeen and Smudge. Quite a CV. But there’s not much for Simon or Chris. I did notice though that Simon’s photography was used on the Bughouse self-titled album art and Chris had worked as engineer and editor in records by Kaktus Mantras, Edrenalin, The Catholics and The Necks.

Then I find a very curious article on the Washington City Paper written by Leonard Roberge who I interviewed in the past about his band Bella Vista. He mentions that Simon McLean grew up to be a cowboy with the band January. Here he reviews the album “I Heard Myself In You”. Here he joined forces with ex-Seefeel vocalist Sarah Peacock and alongside Jon Wood and Jonny Mathers the band released two albums and four singles in the early 2000s. This means then that Simon moved to the UK at some point in the 90s, right?

Then there’s a Sydney Morning Herald page dating from May 17, 1991 available but it asks for my credit card so I could see it. That sucks.

Aside from all of this, there’s not much more on the web. The band disappeared. I wonder if they had more songs. Someone on the Wilfuly Obscure blog asks for a song called “What a Blast”. This one doesn’t appear in any of their releases. Was it recorded? Was it released somewhere? Why was the band short-lived? Why didn’t they continue making music? Had they been involved in any other bands? Why did Simon move to the UK? What are they up to these days? Would be great to find out!

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Listen
Jupiter – Leave the Ground