Back to Brighton and Sarah Records again today with Brighter, a lovely little three piece who briefly illuminated the indie scene from 1989 to 1992 with Keris Howard on vocals and guitar, Alex Sharkey on bass and Howard's girlfriend Alison Cousens on keyboard.
For a change the internet knows a lot about the band; an interview on the marvellous Penny Black site with Howard and reveals his musical tastes as the usual Smiths and OMD and shows his thoughts of forming the band - more for the thrill of putting out records than performing live and hated being lumped in with other twee bands (but happy for the massive following that the band inherited); a similar interview on the Mundane Sounds blog; a bit of background from his own blog and lots more background from the also excellent Pop Matters site.
I rather like this twee little offering from their debut EP "Around the world in eighty days", but my big boys book of indie describes the band's output as "mediocre pop tunes" that lacked the "vital sparkle [of] other groups of the time" which seems little harsh; judge for yourselves...
Brighter - Inside Out (right click etc to download
And of course there's full discographies at discogs and tweenet
hi there! thanks for the link, but just to clarify i'm not howard, nor do i have any affiliation with the band. i do love their music, though: )
ReplyDeleteBrighter is one of my Favorite Sarah bands...Thanks for the post!
ReplyDeletewow, i remember that interview! keris is so underrated.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the best bands from Sarah. I'd like to be able to inject these songs directly into my blood.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog.
both tracks I dl'ed here are noisy, where do you get 'em the radio?
ReplyDeleteSeems not only are Midway Still not coming back, neither are you. There's little sadder than a dead music blog. Was it kids? Marriage? Illness? Or just The Man?
ReplyDeleteHello. I am planning to re-start this at some point in the not too distant future. The past 18 months (I can't believe it's been that long) have been distracting for various reasons, and although they aren't exactly free from problems now, I've been collecting bands and records so hopefully I'll be back soon.
ReplyDeleteI might even buy some proper hosting :)
Well wouldn't you know it? While you were busy elsewhere, Midway Still only went and came back! This time it's for real too, after the abortive effort of ten years ago.
ReplyDeleteRussell Lee is still filling Jan Konopka's shoes, but Paul and Declan are still going strong. They released a surprisingly-excellent album in April 2010 titled Note To Self, and are recording the follow-up as we speak.
The dilemma now is: Do you rename the blog? ;-)