Brighter

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

Katydids

Hello again, want to hear some Katydids? Good, because they're another of those bands that the internet doesn't know much about and nor do I.

We know, probably, that they were about from 1989 to 1991 and released four or five singles and an album or two; we know that they were Susie Hug (vocals) Adam Seymour (guitars), Dan James (guitar), David Hunter (bass) and Shane Young on drums - excellent, another lady singer, doesn't get much better than that! - but to be honest, that's more than even their myspace page knows so we're stabbing in the dark a bit and even the normally infallible discogs has nothing to report.

So, as we're a bit stuck for information, have a listen to this and please let me know if you know anytyhing, they were obviously a cracking indie band who could knock out a catchy tune, but seem to have been dropped from their label for commercial reasons; I guess being 1990/1991 nobody wanted punchy less-than-3-minute jangle and were only interested in grunge. More fool them.

Katydids - Lights Out (Read my Lips) [usual ways to download]