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Matinée Recordings have just released a holiday ep, that harkens back to the time of their Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter themed compilations of yesteryears. Back then, during my first few years of indiepop obsession, Matinée was very important. I think the first mp3 I ever downloaded was "Poppy Day" by Brighter, and subsequently Jimmy did a commendable job on introducing me to bands like The Visitors, Razorcuts, Slipslide, The Pines and The Fairways - bands that are still among my favourites. Today their roster is different, but in a year that hasn't seen many great indiepop albums released, Matinée again saves the day with Bubblegum Lemonade's new album (more about that soon). Another thing that was important about Matinée was their idiosyncrasy when it came to releasing vinyl. Not many other indiepop labels did at the time. Now that new vinyl is becoming collectible again, Matinée have returned to the format, and that makes me smile.
To get back to the ep, it features the best of the current roster, including Northern Portrait, Bubblegum Lemonade, and Laz' other group Strawberry Whiplash. And it is the latter's "Santa Needs a Holiday" that really hits the spot. Perhaps their best recording to date, with the catchiest 12-string fill this side of The Rain Parade. You can stream all the tracks on the Matinée facebook.
CLOUD 122 Strawberry Whiplash - Santa Needs a Holiday
I never think that I am going to make a Halloween mix, but as you know, it has happened before. Here is one for 2010, with the cover being another Ngaio Marsh adaptation. It includes new nerve-tingling material from Black Time, The Limiñans, Vermillion Sands, Nerve City, Unwed Teenage Mothers, Royal Baths, Harlem, The Girls At Dawn, Outer Minds and Guards. And of course a few carefully selected moody garage numbers, like The Affection Collection track which is only included on a single compilation, Larry & Blue Notes' unreleased "Night of the Sadist" (censored and recut as "Night of the Phantom") and a track from Ludella Black's (Thee Headcoatees) second album. Through in a few classics from Skywave, Lost Sounds and Forbidden Tigers and you have a winner!
CLOUD 121 V/A - Grave Mistaken
[altered found image]
Who was Brian Arthur? All I can tell you is that he released a single on the relatively big Coral Records (Decca subsidiary) in 1966, called "What Can You Do With a Broken Heart" b/w "I'd Like to Know". The a-side was compiled by the Australian who goes by the pseudonym Gyro66 in 2003, on Teen Blast USA Vol. 2, and it's the closest anyone has got to recreating Roger McGuinn's unique Rickenbacker tone on record. It seems to go for about £50, but is it really rare?
CLOUD 120 Brian Arthur - What Can You Do With a Broken Heart?
The last track of the second podcast for Slumberland that I just finished is the amazing "Please Stay With Me" by Charlotte & Emily from 1965. I haven't found any information about the artists except that they were from New York and released this one single for New Voice, the sister label to Bob Crewe's Dynovoice. Both sides of this fantastic release have been compiled (for example on the Lost Jukebox series and The Dynovoice Story 1965-68) and I recently heard the a-side, the haunting "Love Not Have I", and you simply must hear it. And look out for the new Slumberland podcast - if you're subscribed to the HIAYH feed you will already have got it!
CLOUD 119 Charlotte & Emily - Love Not Have I
In Berlin I got to spend a few hours in the great shop Bis Auf's Messer in Friedrichshain, and I remember thinking they had most of the records I've wanted to buy this year. There was even a section marked Sacred Bones / Captured Tracks / HoZac / Goner etc... One of the things I picked up was a tape by Brown Recluse that I didn't even know about. The tape section was quite big, and items reasonably priced. This tape was the band's second release, while they still carried the "...sings" bit of their name. It's got 11 songs on it, all of them basic, early versions of tracks meant for their first LP. The Evening Tapestry should hopefully be out this year on Slumberland, and though this tape is naturally far from what the full arrangements will sound like, one can still tell that there is enough songwriting quality in there to make for a magnificent album.
In the meantime you should pick up the excellent Zombies-flavoured The Soft Skin 12" on Slumberland. Apart from this tape and the brilliant new Flips 7" (even better than the Bankcroft one!) I also picked up the first single from Chicago's Outer Minds. The cover of this HoZac release is unfortunately too hideous to show here, but the three songs are the best garage I've heard since Dead Ghosts, sometimes not a far cry from Count Five. I have yet to acquire a copy of their tape, which is out now on Plustapes, but I should. There are mp3s of two tracks off of the single floating around already, so I will direct you to their myspace, and instead present you with a Brown Recluse tape rip.
CLOUD 118 Brown Recluse Sings - Monday Moon
It's been quite a while since I posted an mp3 here, but recently I found a group that simply requires a post. I'm talking about Houston-based group The Coastliners. Apparently they still play together occasionally, as this article suggests, but they formed in 1963 and released their first single in 1966. "The Lonely Sea" was a cover of The Beach Boys song, with a b-side in the same style - which you can stream here. For their next single they were picked up by International Artists (later to sign groups like 13th Floor Elevators). The slightly more rocking "Alright" was backed with a more bubblegum number, "Wonderful You", which you'll find below. At about the same time they also signed with the Back Beat label, for whom they cut two singles. The first one, "She's My Girl", had the great garage stormer "I'll Be Gone" on the flip, using the riff of The Turtles' "Almost There". That song has been blogged here.
Their final single "California On My Mind" from 1967, is almost ruined by a phaser effect that is sadly typical of its time. However, the group's finest moment arrive with the b-side "I See Me", which I've already decided to end my set in Berlin with. Oh yes, I am playing records at the indiepop weekender in Berlin (September 3-5th).
The Coastliners changed their name to The U.S. Males after this, recording one more single in 1968 "Come Out of the Rain"/"Open Up Your Heart". These songs are included on vol. 122 & 125 of Lost Jukebox, so I expect to have them soon.
CLOUD 117 The Coastliners - Wonderful You
Summer and no more school means posting should be picking up here! To kick things off, here is our mix for the summer featuring many old and even more new tracks. Make sure you hold your tape-player high above the water while swimming. Cover included.
CLOUD 116 V/A - Meet Me At the Beach
Captured Tracks have done well in picking up the best new bands of the year so far, La La Vasquez and Girls Names from London and Belfast respectively. The former have done a 3-track 7" and have one more coming up on M'Lady's. Girls Names offer us a 12" with the prospect of future greatness in the form of a Tough Love release. But the best band bar none, that I've heard this year is actually French. The Liminanas, or The Limiñanas, have two singles out right about... now.
One is part of HoZac's Hookup Club and features the fantastic "I'm Dead", which could have been on the French volume of Girls In the Garage. The other one is pictured above, and while you are ordering from Trouble In Mind anyway (who have quiet cheap overseas postage!) you should also pick up the new single by Hollows. Unfortunately the 4-way split featuring, amongst others, Ty Segall's take on "2+2=?" (by Bob Seger System), can only be bought in person at gigs.
CLOUD 115 The Limiñanas - I'm Dead
It was a unique experience playing with Warm Morning under the scorching Piacenza sun at the height of last summer. Unique also, beacause rather than playing with the full band Andrea and Simone made do on their own accompanied only by their acoustic guitars. All the songs sounded new to me, but I assume they played most of what now make up their second album Too Far From the Stars, a self-released lp in 500 numbered copies.
Second album? Yes in 2005 the brothers released an album called Feather, another self-release, but then 6 of the 10 tracks (plus a new song) saw a more proper release as the Silver Rain ep on Shelflife, the first in the 1000 series and the first release by the 'new' Shelflife. A convenient way to get your hands on the remaining songs that made up Feather is to pick up the 3" cd that came out on Series Two last year. Or maybe not all that convenient, since it's part of their ep club, which means you can only get it as part of a parcel of 5 eps by different bands. So that's three of the four other songs accounted for, the last one "Diamond Lies" was on the compilation Series Two Vol. 2 in 2008. Last year a second ep was released on Edition 59, featuring three songs from the upcoming lp.
But now it's here! Definitely a progression from their previous work, it sounds less folky and more like sunshine pop. You can really hear the influence from Roger Nichols that they mention themselves. It is a very ambitious production full of lush orchestration and unusual instruments, and in scope I can only compare it to Butcher Boy's React Or Die among last year's releases. One of my immediate favourites is "Catch the Thrill" with its rim clicking smoothness. "What a Nice Day" is probably the closest to the sound of Silver Rain, all stripped-down folk-rock and banjo solo. "I Curse the Day I Met You" relies on ukelele and piano while building up a complex blanket of sustained notes. Below you'll find another great song, called "I'll Be Fine".
Also ready soon is The Rookies' second album. The Rookies is Italy's best garage revival group since The Others and features Simone on guitar and a singer that looks and sounds like a curly Lenny Helsing. They share The Thanes' love of Dutch freakbeat and on Out of Fashion - released on Teen Sound (run by Massimo of The Others and Misty Lane) in 2005 - they cover The Outsiders, The Bumble Bees and The Motions. There's also a version of the classic "I Want to Live" by Sweden's The Mascots, a brilliant take on "I Don't Care" by Thor's Hammer not to mention some quality originals. For the new album they've given up covers and have focused on developing their own material. The results, judging from the new songs on myspace, are astounding. I can't wait to hear the jangle of "Another Rainy Morning" on vinyl!
CLOUD 113 Warm Morning - I'll Be Fine
Been listening to Dolly Mixture singles today, and I can't seem to find that website that had all the demos and live stuff. So in case anyone missed it here is their intended (or so I've read) first single "Dead Rainbow". It's mentioned on Wikipedia as a cover, but that can't be right. It may well be that it is about Gary Glitter though. In any case here it is, in lo-fi mp3 form. I can understand if the members are hesitant to re-releasing their 'white album' since the sound quality of the demos seems to have been average even on the original pressing. But why not a singles compilation? After all, "Everything and More" and "Remember This" are among the best singles of the 80s.
CLOUD 112 Dolly Mixture - Dead Rainbow
I recently heard two Bulldozer Crash songs I'd never seen before. They were on this tape from Bliss Aquamarine called Turquoise Trees:
Turned out they were from a recording session which spawned four tracks that must have been meant for release on Sunday Records. But BC never managed to get drums recorded for them so they remained unreleased. Until now! Stephen has just put them up over at This Almighty Pop! as a download single, and also tells us the full story behind the songs. The sleeve, as you can see, has the same layout as the band's two 7"s on Sunday.
If the especially made-up Monday Records had been a real label and this an actual 7" it would be among my favourites this year! And while we are on this theme I thought I'd upload Bulldozer Crash's cover of one of Po!'s most beautiful songs, "Fay". It's got a gorgeous vocal by Marc and was on a compilation flexi Sunday released in 1993, called Happy Sunday, on which Sunday bands do versions of each others' songs.
CLOUD 111 Bulldozer Crash - Fay
Los Angeles-based Best Coast is not only Don't Die On My Doorstep's band of the month, they've also released a new single which is so great it must be featured here. 'They' because Bethany has now put a full band together, and they make the two new tracks sound better than anything Vivian Girls or Brilliant Colors have recorded this year. Unfortunately it looks like what could have been one of the best 7"s of the year is only available in digital format, from the label Black Iris. I sure can't find a physical copy anywhere! Well, here is the a-side, shared by the label. Naturally it didn't take long for "This Is Real" to appear on a blog as well, but I'd be happy to pay for it if it was a real b-side!
CLOUD 110 Best Coast - When I'm With You
More bands should record songs like this! This is actually an instrumental version of "You're Always Around". One of my favourite songs, penned by Jon Williams of fantastic folkrock outfit The WordD. The intertwined story of The WordD and The Penthouse 5 can be unraveled with the help of Cicadelic, who have released a retrospective compilation of the two groups. Essentially, when The WordD broke up, Williams and 12-string player Richard Keithley joined the other band. This resulted in the re-recording of a few WordD songs, including the aforementioned "You're Always Around". Keithley is one of the best 12-string players I've heard, with a sound almost as rich as McGuinn's.
CLOUD 109 The Penthouse 5 - Twelve String Jangle
I just got hold of a record I've wanted for at least four years. French pop group Evergreen has reached a legend-like status in my mind by now, since hearing about them from a euphoric Jyrki at the Emmaboda festival years ago. At that time all I could find about them was a twee.net entry. I picked up the trail again last week when I heard a track by Lollypops via a There and Back Again Lane post, loved it and soon found out that was an early incarnation of Evergreen. So I searched for their ep again and found a cheap copy via the French CD and LP service. It was a private seller so there might not be anymore copies.
Receiving the 7" in the mail today was most special and after only about 5 spins I have to say it's one of my favourite records ever, at least as good as the Rainyard 7". Great jangly pop with surprisingly good English! Each of the four songs is amazing, with the two songs on the b-side (the 'ballad' side, even though one of them does have a rhythm section) augmented by some prominent violin which makes one of the hooks in "Close-Up" sound just like "A Century of Fakers" by Belle & Sebastian. This record came out only a couple of years before Tigermilk and seems strangely isolated both in time and place (France!). The first five seconds of "House of Magic Cards" sounds exactly like another song, which I can't place now - I thought it was a Celestial track but that can't be right. Check the Lollypops version on the There and Back Again Lane blog and enlighten me!
Actually, if anyone has any more information about the band please let me know. All we can gather from the sleeve (hideous use of the Brush Script font!) are the first names of the members (female guitarist!) and the insert has some more info about the label Nessie - maybe a tribute to Scotland's pioneering efforts in pop? Their first release was a tape compilation called Superqualifragilistic after a Mary Poppins song (anyone have that?) which I found a tracklisting for here. As you can see it includes another Lollypops track - a version of "Time" - and a track from their great French contemporaries Mumbly (pre-Watoo Watoo). Otherwise I don't recognise any of the bands. They also list a Christmas 7" featuring Louis Philippe, Gregory Webster and two other bands, which I found here for 3990 yen (or 27 pounds), if anyone wants to pick it up. I can't find anything on the 'forthcoming' Tribute to él EP.
Anyway here's the first track for you to enjoy.
CLOUD 108 Evergreen - Laurie
We can all agree that The Cavalcade is one of the best new bands this year. I was lucky to find a copy of their second ep, released by Edition 59. It's sold out but Unisex might have some more copies. It's got three great songs, which are bit more pop than most of Meet You In the Rain.
Also, be sure not to miss the great new singles on Slumberland - like a new Bats ep (!) which is an excellent companion to last year's brilliant album on Arch Hill. The first single from Frankie Rose (or Frankie & the Outs, as they're called on myspace) is easily one of the best this year and reminds me of Henry's Dress or The Aislers Set at their noisiest. Gregory Webster's recent single on WIAIWYA sees an American release as well, still with Daniel's (So Tough! So Cute!) trademark artwork. But most intriguing is the new Mantles single "Bad Design" which is the first record in ages to be catalogued as a I Wish I Was a Slumberland Record. It's a co-release with Dulc-i-Tone and holds two great non-album tracks. Read more and listen to the a-side here.
CLOUD 107 The Cavalcade - Secret Signs On Stone
No one really mentions the Wolfhounds compilation The Essential Wolfhounds, which came out on September already in 1988. It contains some of their best songs, from singles and their first album. The liner notes (courtesy of glassdarkly.com) tell us that "they were born in East London in 1985. After years of working in a wool warehouse, a laboratory, a plastics factory and a coffee bar their first record 'Cut The Cake', was published in 1986. Since then they have written many songs on philosophy, the occult, crime and sexual deviance plus a host of successful songs which have won them an international reputation. Their work has been translated into Spanish, French, Swedish, Dutch, Welsh, Arabic, Urdu, Japanese, German, Finnish and Hebrew." Why then may I ask, are their albums not available on cd? All there is, is the compilation Lost But Happy on Cherry Red (who own the rights to all their songs). And if you're lucky you might find the reissue of The Essential Wolfhounds that Midnight did.
Anyway, I just got to hear it, and after some scouring of online sources I was able to find pretty much all the band's songs. With a few exceptions: "Whale On the Beach" from the 12" version of Cruelty, the b-sides to Son of Nothing, the Happy Shopper 12" and their cover of "I'm Not Like Everybody Else". Who's got these?
One of the best songs I hadn't had the pleasure of hearing before is "Cold Shoulder", from The Anti-Midas Touch released on the Pink Label in 1986.
CLOUD 104 The Wolfhounds - Cold Shoulder
I thought I'd steal a Slumberland catalogue number, as they're up to about the same numbers as here anyway. We've all enjoyed Skatterbrain's Subjective Best of Slumberland 90-95, and I wanted to compile my favourites from their whole catalogue, now that they've been around for 20 years. Some of the best stuff has come out in the last two years actually. I've stuck to no re-releases as a rule, so I've not included anything previously released on other labels - there went the Black Tambourine and 14 Iced Bears comps, the Bright Coloured Lights single and the Just a Taste Summershine retrospective! Here are my favourite Slumberland songs, presented in an order that couples bands for the old and new era, to reveal some interesting lineages.
1. Liechtenstein - All At Once (SLR 96, 2009)
2. Rocketship - I Love You Like the Way I Used to Do (SLR 40, 1996)
3. The Lodger - A Year Since Last Summer (SLR 80, 2008)
4. The Ropers - I Don't Mind (SLR 38, 1994)
5. Summer Cats - In June (SLR 101, 2009)
6. The Saturday People - Working For the Weekend (SLR 67, 2001)
7. Brown Recluse - Contour and Context (SLR 102, 2009)
8. The Clientele - Porcelain (single version) (SLR 63, 2001)
9. The Softies - Half As Much (SLR 47, 1998)
10. Glo-Worm - Change of Heart (SLR 45, 1995)
11. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Stay Alive (SLR 89, 2009)
12. Black Tambourine - Drown (DRYL 9, 1991)
13. Crystal Stilts - Love Is a Wave (SLR 91, 2009)
14. Henry's Dress - You Killed a Boy For Me (SLR 34, 1995)
15. caUSE co-MOTION! - Leave It All (SLR 93, 2009)
16. Go Sailor - The Boy Who Sailed Around the World (SLR 36, 1995)
17. Sexy Kids - Drown Me (SLR 79, 2008)
18. The Aislers Set - Been Hiding (SLR 52, 1999)
19. Boyracer - Vitamin B (SLR 48, 1996)
20. Honeybunch - Candy Breath (DRYL 5, 1991)
SLR 106 V/A - I Wish I Was Slumberland Records
...you should step out tonight for the last So Tough! So Cute! (at Retro). It's sad to see it go as I've always regarded it as the only indiepop club in Sweden with a proper dancefloor. Tonight is a tribute to Slumberland, and the late Ellie Greenwich. By a stroke of luck I found the only Raindrops album earlier today (The Raindrops was of course the alias Ellie and her songwriting partner Jeff Barry used for their own recordings), perched delicately on a pile of rubble. I bet the guy or girl who once picked it up for the considerable sum of 1 crown is kicking themselves now! It's also available on cd these days (on Sequel I think) with a bunch of bonus tracks. But this 1963 Jubilee release is so much nicer, pressed on that super-thick vinyl you only got back in those days. It proves that not only were they able to pen megahits like "The Kind of Boy You Can't Forget", but also swooning tracks like "That Boy's Messin' Up My Mind" and my new favorite "Isn't That Love".
CLOUD 103 The Raindrops - Isn't That Love
What do these bands have in common? Cartwheel, Colors & Shapes, Casino Ashtrays, The Autocollants, Tears Run Rings, In a Day and Evening Lights. Well probably several things, but one is Laura Watling. Perhaps most well-known for being the female voice in The Autocollants, she now plays with Tears Run Rings (the picture is from one of their gigs). Apart from all these pseudonyms she also has releases under her own name. The album Early Morning Walk is one the finest things Shelflife have ever put out, and it's a true honour to be in a band that has a record out on the same label! The sound is so brittle and beautiful that the only thing I can really compare it to is a Motifs record. From the poignant lyrics of "Perfect Penmanship", to the laudable cover of The Motorcycle Boy's perhaps best number "The World Falls Into Place", to the gorgeous harmonies of "It's All I Can Do" (that always reminds me of a West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band song), the whole album bears the mark of Watling's penchant for simple arrangements, utilised to the fullest to accompany her plainly wonderful voice.
I've put together one song each by the bands of hers that I know of (there might be more?), starting with a solo number from a Popgun tape I have dated to 1997. Casino Ashtrays were Watling and Raoul who runs Popgun, and formed after The Autocollants split. Someone should really compile a full discography of Laura's releases, because even though I thought I had gotten hold of everything, at least digitally, I just found out that there is Popgun cassette from 2006 with three leftover Casino Ashtrays songs!
Colors & Shapes' (Watling + Tim Gauslin) only release was also a Popgun tape, with two songs, however doubled over both sides. In a Day (perhaps named after the Evening Lights song?) only had one release as well, a split-7" with the reformed Even As We Speak in 2003. Evening Lights themselves seem to be the group that prefigured Tears Run Rings, as it also included Shelflife proprietors Matthew and Ed. The song here is from their only ep, released of course, on Shelflife. Cartwheel was Watling and Dwayne Palasek (also in Autocollants and In a Day) and they released a 7" on Sandcastle. That label isn't around anymore, but their site is still up at Indiepages.
As you can see there is also a 'Library tape' with Laura Watling songs. If anyone knows where you could get hold of these songs please let me know! Apparently Sandcastle's idea was to create a library of songs, so that when you ordered something you could get a tape with your own selections recorded. What a great idea!
Just now I also found another band called The Disappointment, who had the same members as Evening Lights it would seem. I don't have any of their songs, but you can hear a few on Myspace. Right now you'll have to do with these:
Laura Watling - I Fell In Love On Saturday
Casino Ashtrays - Comfortable Distance
Colors & Shapes - Song One
The Autocollants - Skybloom
In a Day - Lazy Summer Days
Cartwheel - Halfway There
Evening Lights - Starless
Tears Run Rings - Waiting For the End
CLOUD 102 V/A - We're Still Fun
NEWS!
Ed told me that there is a Laura Watling retrospective coming out soon, with some unreleased songs. It's called Songs From Dreams and a track is included in the Shelflife sampler that you can get here. Also included is a track from an upcoming Evening Lights cd, compiling the odds and ends they never released! Called The Disappointment, not surprisingly.
Matinée Recordings have just released a holiday ep, that harkens back to the time of their Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter themed compilations of yesteryears. Back then, during my first few years of indiepop obsession, Matinée was very important. I think the first mp3 I ever downloaded was "Poppy Day" by Brighter, and subsequently Jimmy did a commendable job on introducing me to bands like The Visitors, Razorcuts, Slipslide, The Pines and The Fairways - bands that are still among my favourites. Today their roster is different, but in a year that hasn't seen many great indiepop albums released, Matinée again saves the day with Bubblegum Lemonade's new album (more about that soon). Another thing that was important about Matinée was their idiosyncrasy when it came to releasing vinyl. Not many other indiepop labels did at the time. Now that new vinyl is becoming collectible again, Matinée have returned to the format, and that makes me smile.
