Still Quarantined Almost a Year Ago.

Like the title says.

Which is good news, since it means I was surviving into last April.

We'll see if it lasts

If nothing else this is the 700th fucking lame ass post on this shitty blog.

Seriously. WTF?

Funny (1992)

Hope.

A pretty generic name for a band which doesn't necessarily make for easy searching via the google machine and which even confused the usually pretty good cloudberry folks.

So this may or may not be the product of one person named Stuart Troop.

Not that it matters.

It was released on A Turntable Friend so you already know it's quality.

Telescope (1994)

This band calling itself the Mary Janes hailed from Indianapolis, IN and haven't apparently updated their website since 2003. It's probably safe to assume it's merely a ghost ship at this point.

According to that website "the mary janes play honest american music from the heart of the midwest."

I'm not exactly sure how that relates to what they were doing way back in 1994, but it's a description of some sort which is usually in short supply around these parts because blah blah blah "dancing about architecture"

But there's some scratchy fiddle and acoustic guitars in there.

"Telescope" is the winner here though. 

I'd play that one. It's a good one

The North Will Rise Again

My wife is hungry.

I need to make this quick.

This is the 700th post on this silly exercise and about a week ago it apparently topped 100k page views. (he types as an update maybe six months after popping it into the posting queue)

Crazy.

Make It Better (1991)

Jangly UK indiepop from the Gravy Train who hailed from the North of England which if I am to understand things correctly is kind of like the UK's version of the US South.

Released on A Turntable Friend which always put out quality in both content and really really nice pressings even in the depths of the 90s when cheap and quick was the order of the day.

St George's Way (1993)

Three singles and a handful of compilation appearances are all that remain of the Gravy Train which is quite a shame. There's a certain timeless quality to them.

Though to be fair it just might be that I lived through that time, so it doesn't sound out of place to me nearly thirty years down the line.

It just sounds like I remember things sounded.

I don't really care though. I enjoy both of these quite a bit.

Everyday is Sunday

Looks like this will actually post on a Friday.

You can wait a couple of days to listen to it if you want.

Joybang! (1991)

Sunday Records out of Rolling Meadows, Il. In so many ways the label is the spiritual successor of Sarah Records even though the both existed together for a brief period of time.

Fortunately for me and perhaps you following this silly blog the Sunday Records back catalog is still relatively affordable. Or at the very least, not yet out of the range of what I consider reasonably priced.

And they, at least at the point that I got them, had a fair number of their older singles still on hand. I binged and picked up quite a few of them.

Like this one by the Cudgels.

How could I possibly resist a song called "Joybang!"?

It was worth it and one of my personal faves on the label.

Birthday (1993)

After some searching it's been determined that this particular band calling itself Dolores Haze (after the preteen object of Humbert Humbert's obsession in Nabokov's "Lolita") was, in fact, from Coventry and had previously called themselves Perfect.

Another record that absolutely would not have been out of place were it to have been released by Sarah Records and would command a larger price tag for it.

You know what you need to do.

The Pop International

It's April  2020 where I'm typing this.
Still in lockdown.
Still alive and kind of bored.
So I will post some more.
You're welcome.

An Evening Out (1996)

Brincando de Deus were from Brazil. It's not the first place to pop into your mind when you think of jangly indiepop, but there it is.

And it's quite a good example of what the middle of the 90s had to offer.

They did release a few full lengths but they go for a lot more than I'm willing to spend on Discogs but given the rarity and quality, I don't fully doubt that they're worth it.

This particular record was released by Quiddity and I bought it as part of my gathering up a complete discography of the label. Mission happily accomplished.

My Tailor is Rich (1996)



Meanwhile in Limoges, France the band that called itself Caramel recorded this little seven inch in English and French for Harriet Records and which seems to have been their swan song release. I'm still working on getting all the releases on Harriet.

Compilations & Other Things to Embarrass People With

I swear I have a shit ton of indiepop in the pipeline..

Marty Thau Presents 2x5 (1980)

1.“Shadow Line” Fleshtones
2.“Fascination” Fleshtones
3. “Bloodless Pharaoh” Bloodless Pharaohs
4.“Nowhere Fast” Bloodless Pharaohs
5.“Overseas” Comateens
6.“Late Night Cry” Comateens
7.“Red Hot Women” Revelons
8.“Cindy” Revelons
9.“Looks” Student Teachers
10.“What I Can’t Feel” Student Teachers

Ok, you can never embarrass the Fleshtones because there's no shame in being consistently awesome.

However if you ever run into Brian Setzer you can always hum a few bars of "Nowhere Fast" by his pre-Stray Cats band, Bloodless Pharaohs. It's really hilariously terrible.

Student Teachers had a single on Ork Records. That's a heavy recommendation.

Comateens are/were. I have no feelings of animosity or love.
 I'm feeling very neutral. (Tell my wife, hello)

A Quick One and I'm Away

I got nothing.

Modern Gal (2001)

Bunsen Honeydew.
From New York.
Their final release under that name on Little Teddy Recordings.

The little label says "Original New York Punk Rock"

Don't take that at face value.

I can't remember how I came to have this. Part of me wants to say it was a bonus that somebody threw in the box with a large order of 45s and another part of me thinks I picked it up for a pittance because it was on Little Teddy.
Either way. I got my money's worth.

Sideshow All the Way (1996)

Flowchart.

This is very pleasant to listen to on a rainy day.
I hope it's raining where you are.

Three's a Crowd Pleaser

Well, at least that's what I want to tell myself.

It doesn't really matter since I inadvertently end up being somewhat of a contrarian in the long run and I make a last minute decision that goes against the last thing I had said.

SO, yes, I still have a lot of 90s/early 00s indiepop to come.

This is not quite it.

But then again, it doesn't really fall too far outside of the realm, just a bit more on the weirder side of it. A tad more experimental or something.
I don't know.
It's still rock and roll to me.

And here's a trio of releases by Famous Boyfriend.

I Can't See My Way Out of This (1996)

So what do you need to know about this....

Famous Boyfriend is the brainchild of  Andrew Johnson and Craig Tattersall who were together in a band that somebody out there in the world may as yet still remember called Hood.
Local favorite Stewart Anderson of Boyracer fame also played with Hood at one point so it's not far fetched that Famous Boyfriend should have a couple of releases on his 555 Recordings label.

This particular one however is on the French Orgasm label just to be thoroughly confusing.

No One Will Give You Anything (1997)

A bit of weird experimentation and some melancholic pop songs buried in between the static.

That's kind of the order of the day.

This one is on 555 and it makes perfect sense that it is.

At Least We're Trying (1998)

It's so odd to me when I type dates like 1998 to realize that this was over a twenty years ago by now when it still feels like a recent time to me mentally.
But time accelerates with age as every year becomes a smaller fraction of the time you've lived. (eg. at 10 a year is 1/10th of your life, 1/20th at 20, 1/40th at 40 etc...)

Which is deep as fuck if you want to think about it.
I don't really. I want another cup of coffee and perhaps some of the leftover okonomyaki I made last night.

That's how I'm rolling these days.

Another One Just Because

I need to blow my nose.

And it's an accidentally Maryland post today.
It was unintentional, but it's nice when things come together like that.

If you've been following along at home I can tell you right now that it's somewhere around here in the Swinging Singles Club "To Post" folder that my vinyl collecting and listening pleasure turned to almost exclusively 90s - early 00s indiepop.

If I've survived the COVID-19, expect a lot of that shit in the coming months.
You're welcome or forewarned whichever fits.

Bright Coloured Lights (2000)

Ok, released in 2000, but the recordings date to  1992, so there's that.

It's one of the hundreds of bands that Pam Berry was part of and as is the case with all of them, I like it enough that you get the insert. But by now you already know that. It also explains the origin of these particular recordings, so you get that too. Of note is the English spelling of "Coloured". So Continental.


Listen at volume.

One Wish Too Many (1991)


Our American Cousins have a "Write to" address of Frederick, MD and named themselves after the play that Abraham Lincoln was watching at Ford's Theater the night he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. The band however make loud brash pop songs. I picked it up at Jigsaw Records when they were still in Seattle. Chris recommended it. He was not incorrect to do so. (though I'm not putting up the insert for this one)

I also didn't intend to post this now since I have another of their singles apparently and I should have waited until I had that ready and posted them together as a pair. This explains why this one's been languishing in the folder for a while.

If you like it then I suppose you have something to look forward to in a long while whence I finally get around to the other one.