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

The Man From Del Monte

There are two qestions people often ask me; "who are you favourite 90s band named after a 1980s hat-wearing fruit-based advertising front man?" and "have you got any really scratchy 12 inch singles?". The answer to these questions is The Man From Del Monte and "yes, coincidentally I have a copy of The Man From Del Monte EP right here that's scratched to buggery, want to hear it?". Of course you do, so here it is:

The Man From Del Monte - Australia Fair (right click, save as to download, you know the drill)
The band in question are a great forgotten Manchester four piece; formed around 1987 mand consisting of Mike West on singing and guitar, Martin Vincent on guitar, Sheila Seal on bass and Howard Goody on drums (now, it's probably my mind playing tricks on me, but these names sound awfully familiar, did they go on to other things?) the first bit of excitement I had was discovering that the band were managed by Jon Ronson; yes, that Jon Ronson, him off the telly.

There's a nice little biog here and the usual wikipedia page.

Apart from that, if you can get pass the hissing and popping on the mp3 above you can get some idea of how different TMFDM (as I'm sure the NME would have called them) were from other 1989 Manchester bands. Not for them the ludicrous baggy of the Stone Roses or the shuffling miserableness of bloody Morrissey, no, these were a jolly jangly indie pop band, and one that I'm glad to have been pointed at; this is what we want.

Close Lobsters

Close Lobsters 7" anyone? That's handy, because that's exactly what I've got here and we're instantly back in familiar territory with a band that were featured on the legendary C86 tape and were released on the marvellous Fire Records; erstwhile home of Teenage Fanclub, Pulp, Spaceman 3 et al.

So, formed in Scotland by brothers Andy and Bob Burnett (vocals and bass respectively), Tom Donnelly (guitar), Stuart McFadyen (drums) and Graham Wilkington (possibly also bass; two basses! RÖCK!), the band were moderately successful and troubled the indie charts scorers regularly from 1986-1989; they supported such luminaries as the Jesus and Mary Chain (although from a quick look around the internet it seems that pretty much anybody from Scotland who ever picked up a guitar supported JAMC at some point) and latterly had a song covered by The Wedding Present in their 12 singles in a year phase.

Their official site is a Geocities monstrosity, so you'll be lucky to see it (one day I must get around to rescuing all those poor band pages that live on Geocities...) and there's a wiki and myspace page needless to say.

I'll apologise in advance for the terrible quality of this recording, the vinyl was just too battered for even the old tuppence-on-the-arm-trick to work:

("Close Lobsters - Nature Thing", right click, 'Save as...' to download)

14 Iced Bears

...or possibly Fourteen Iced Bears depending on who you believe (I'm going with the numbers, I like a good number in pop) are another Sarah Records band and this time they're from Brighton.

Formed in 1985 by Rob Sekula, Nick Emery and Alan White, the line-up was pretty fluid over the years and featured, amongst others the fantastically named Dominic Minques, Kevin Canham, Will Taylor and Rob Colley. I've got a page of a book called "The Great Indie Discography" in front of me and, while they might not quite be up there with The Fall, there's certainly a few names on the page...

Anyhow, the band started off with some cracking jingly-jangly-Sarah-twee (I'd thoroughly recommend getting hold of "Come Get Me") before moving on to what the book calls "a more focused retro sound", which to my ears means going a bit rock, but hey! The featured track today is 14 Iced Bears - The World I love in the natty embedded player below (if only I'd realised what everyone else did 5 years ago you'd have had it more already!), and is from the latter stages of the career and is a bit more 'focused and retro' but still a cracking bit of very late 80s indie.

(right click and 'save as' to download)
The band released a good lot of singles (see Tweenet) including one on Sarah (which is why they're here, I'm finally doing a sweep of the label), recorded a couple of Peel Sessions, were on the semi-legendary Alvin Lives in Leeds compilation, belatedly released an album and split in 1991; not a bad half dozen years by anyone's reckoning.

There is of course a wiki page and a myspace. Happy Friday the 13th!

Oh, and you can buy the best of here: 14 Iced Bears - "In the Beginning"or 'Come Get Me' as a new-fangled mp3here

The Servants

The fame of this place is spreading. If you're the young lady who was talking to my mate Dan at the weekend about music and mentioned this place out of the blue, this one's for you! Also, if anyone wants signed photos or me to open their local Spar, let me know. My rates are very reasonable.

But I digress. Today for your delight and delectation it's The Servants. A cracking C86 band, featured on the tape of the same name and immortalised in Peel Session, The Servants came out of the indie heartland that is Hayes in Middlesex, the band were fronted by David Westlake and Auteurs stalwart Luke Haines (with whom there's an interesting interview here) and Phil King, latterly out of Lush - I don't just throw this crap together you know!

There's a nice biog on the Cherry Red site here and here's the usual wiki link, plus a little review of the Best of... album.

Here you go then: The Servants - It's my turn, that there is some fine jingly-jangly! And they use the phrase "the light at the end of a tunnel is a train", which is kind of used by Half Man Half Biscuit, so that's nice; and coincidentally they are right before HMHB on the C86 tape. Coincidence?



ps. Don't worry, it's not your eyes, I've just realised how blurry the photo of the sleeve is, I'll sort that out at some point.

You can buy Reserved - The Best of The Servants here

The Waltones

We're lumbering towards actually famous today with The Waltones, not least because they may, or may not, have been offered a deal by legendary Manchester DJ and producer Dave Haslam and soon-to-be Happy Mondays Manager Nathan McGough; and of course after the band's eventual split, Mark Collins the guitarist went off to join The Charlatans.

The Waltones were formed in Manchester in 1986, comprised Alex Fyans (Drums), Mark Collins (Guitar), James Knox (Vocals, Harmonica) and Manny Lee (Bass, Backing Vocals), recorded four singles and an album, are alleged on wikipedia to have recorded a Peel Session (although the official Peel pages seem to contradict that and, thanks to the internet we know that:

"...despite gaining much streetcred and selling out their LP, their distributor Red Rhino went bankrupt. The new distributor APT refused to take on Red Rhino's debts and thus no re-press of the album was undertaken. When Medium Cool was taken over by Midnight Music records a fall-out occured between the label and the Waltones ex-manager over ownership of the mastertapes for 'Listen To Your Heart' (the bands 5th unreleased single)."

There are a number of good sites about for the band, including their myspace pages which really covers everything, James, the singer's page - which tells it from his point of view and this nice blog post.

The Waltones are great; they played proper pre-Madchester indie that reminds me of one of my favourite bands, Bob, though which came first I'll leave up to you...

So, this is The Waltones - Everything's just Fine, the first song off the album Deepest, boy, does that take me back...

You can buy You've Gotta Hand It To 'Em the re-released Best of... here.

McCarthy

McCarthy are another band that came up in conversation on the Facebook group and are can be added to the list of top notch Essex-based indie bands. Formed in 1985 and active until about 1990, the band released a good few singles and three albums as well as recording three Peel Sessions and appearing in the Festive 50 twice; the sign of a good band in anybody's book.

There's a number of very good histories available on the old internet; this one particularly details their history and influences and tells us that:

"[the band were] named for the infamous US Senator Joseph McCarthy, who led the Communist witch hunt [in the USA] in the 1950's, McCarthy were ironic to say the least. Due to their chosen name and politically charged lyrics, as often satirically far right as they were sincerely far left, as well as their rumored association with the Revolutionary Communist Party in England, most critics were quick to label McCarthy as "Marxist" or "anarchist" rock and roll. The band, for their part, didn't take themselves quite as seriously. from left to right: Gary, Malcolm, Tim, and John Malcolm's lyrics are filled to bursting with irony, humor, and contradiction."

They really were a great band and this mp3, McCarthy - Keep an open mind or else, captures them in essence (it was released as one of 600,000 copies according to the insert!).

The Tweenet page is also very good and so is the wikipedia page.

The Band split in about 1990; you can still buy "That's All Very Well But...", their Best Of album.

Felt

Felt inspire something of a dedicated following; with uni-monickered Lawrence, the man behind the band (and latterly Denim - of who more to come at some point) being regarded as something of a stereotypical English "eccentric genius" type in the true wacky genius-cum-scatterbrained old professor sort of way. There are numerous stories, some probably true, some probably apocryphal about his compulsive cleanliness (of the "he wouldn't let anyone else use the loo in his house" type) and Mark E Smith recruitment policies for the band (sacking the drummer for having curly hair).

There's no denying that Felt were great, a band who developed and grew through their ten years of existence into a genuinely briliant new wave/indie pop band who were capable of producing some fantastic records.

I don't want to cover too much ground as there are several sites that will tell you the story in more detail than I can fit here; the Perfect Sound Forever, Felt Tribute Site and Adrian Denning's site especially. You can also see what's what from wikipedia.

For today, content yourself with listening to Felt - Get Out of My Mirror, taken from a flexi (yay!) sampler of the band's 1989 album Me And A Monkey On The Moon. It is bloody excellent, I'd forgotten just how good the band could be.

There's loads of Felt CDs and stuff available, and you really should look into the band.

Eat

Eat were a cracking band; formed in London in the mid-1980s by indie genius Ange Dolittle (latterly of criminally over looked band Dolittle). Splitting in 1990 due to "musical differences", not least Ange's heroin addiction, the original bluesy-folky-cajun inspired Eat reformed with a new line-up in 1992 as the seminal indie pop band we now know and love; something we should all be glad for.

Big in the UK, but never breaking the big time in the States, Ange and Eat gave it all up in 1995; playing to empty rooms in an abortive tour being the final straw.

There's a good Wikipedia entry and the biography at Forgotten Band Planet is particularly good, so we won't cover too much old ground. Instead, enjoy Eat - Mr and Mrs Smack from the Plastic Bag EP, it's a lovely bit of swooping indie pop; one more reason to be glad for Eat.

You can buy Eat's second album "Epicure" here. You should

The Popguns

Well well, April again and I just realised that not only did I miss the anniversary of putting this tosh on a too-full internet, but I also missed the chance to put Kylie in as a hilarious April Fool's joke. Well, PWL were an independent label...

Ah well. Instead, why not have another of Brighton's jingly-jangly massive, yes it's The Popguns ladies and gentlemen, and here recorded from the lovely one-sided promo pictured; always the best way to hear a piece of indie pop if a flexi disk is not readily available.

The Popguns score several points on the "How Indie Are You?" Facebook application of life. Not only are they from the aforementioned Sussex seaside indie wonderland, but they had a lady singer and, get this, the ex-drummer from the Wedding Present; one Shaun Charman. Marvellous stuff.

The wikipedia page is a little sparse and their 'official' page hasn't been updated since 2003, but we do know that they banged out a load of cracking singles and albums (discography here), bashed around from 1988 to 1996 and made the Festive 50 at least once (certainly 1989 with Landslide) and certainly had a touch of the Wedding Present about them. OK, they might not have had David Gedge's angst down, but they certainly had lyrics that were deeper then you might have thought from first listen.

So this is The Popguns - waiting for the Winter; the height of twee. Lovely stuff.

You can buy The Popguns best of "Another Year Another Address: the Best of the Midnight Years" by clicking here

Galaxie 500

I guess it should be pretty obvious that I'm a big fan of scratchy old indie records by now. What is probably less obvious is jus thow much I love flexi disks. A couple have snuck in already from The Family Cat and A House, and these are absolutely my favouritest things so far. It's pretty fair to say that if I had a load of money and nothing better to do then I'd get completely obsessed with them. Just take a look on ebay and see how much cool stuff there is.

Anyway, suffice to say when I found this combination of Galaxie 500 and top notch 'free off of a magazine' flexi disk I was as happy as happy can be. This particular flexi was given away with a magazine called "The Catalogue" which I have to admit I'm not familiar with and comes with another tune from a New Zealand band called "Straitjacket Fits".

Anyway, I digress. Galaxie 500 were part of the late 80s American shoegazing invasion and owe more than a nod (in this recording at least) to bands like Spaceman 3. For a couple of years the band swirled around the UK, banged out a Peel Session and made a lot of friends, not least Liz Phair who cited them as an influence. Unfortunately Rough Trade, their label, went bust in 1991 and that rather spelled the end of the band in the UK at least.

There's some really good stuff available here and an mp3 of the flexi here in all it's scratchy plasticky wonderousness - Galaxie 500 - Victory Garden.

Jesus Jones

There was quite a fashion in the early 1990s for 'indie dance' music; along with Jesus Jones, bands like EMF, The Shamen and Pop Will Eat Itself were plying their trade around the indie discos and concert circuit and were making quite a name for themselves.

Jesus Jones were the next big thing. Again big in Japan, they also had not inconsiderable success in the USA; something few English bands manage at the best of times, and something usually reserved for middle-of-the-road cobblers.

Info Freako was the band's first EP and it's still as good today as it was then. A grinding, shouting, emotive primal scream of a record. The 12" was originally something of a rarity and at the height of their fame a copy would set you back £15 if you could find one. I know this because my mate Will bought one (from Vinyl Exchange in Manchester I think) as he was convinced Jesus Jones were going to be the next U2.

They weren't of course and you can now pick up a copy for £3 off ebay. And you should. It's fantastic. I've listened to this track 10 times in a row today and it still sounds as good.

Jesus Jones - Info Freako

Senseless Things

A genuine rarity this one, no fannying around. Selling for almost £15 on some sites I give you one of 1000 original copies of "The Shape of Things to Hum", a 7inch EP that came with Issue 8 of "Cloth Ears" a fanzine that I must have bought at a gig in either Top Spot or The Wharf in Huddersfield in about 1990.

The EP features outings from such luminaries as Exit Condition, Playground and Perfect Daze, but it's the Senseless Things that are getting an outing here, what with them being a proper indie band and that, as well as being chums with cartoonist Jamie Hewlitt - he of 2000AD, Tank Girl and latterly Gorillaz fame.

Wikipedia has this to say about the band: "Before they split up, the Senseless Things consisted of the following: Mark Keds - vocals/guitar Ben Harding - guitar/vocals Morgan Nicholls - bass Cass Browne - Drums

The Senseless Things formed around the musical partnership of songwriter Mark Keds (vocals, guitar) and Morgan Nicholls (bass, originally guitar), who as 11-year-old schoolboys in Twickenham, London, England, put together Wild Division in the early 80s. With the addition of drummer Cass 'Cade' Browne they became the Psychotics, playing various venues in their local area despite still being at school. Their first gig together as the Senseless Things followed at the subsequently demolished Clarendon in Hammersmith, London, in October 1986. Auxiliary members at this stage included a keyboard player Ben, then a guitarist, Gerry, who deputized for Nicholls while the latter was studying for his 'O' Levels.

In 1995, the band released a final album Taking Care Of Business, and a controversial single "Christian Killer" (renamed "Christine Keeler" for the album). They split up after one last UK tour.

Before they split up, the Senseless Things consisted of the following: Mark Keds - vocals/guitar Ben Harding - guitar/vocals Morgan Nicholls - bass Cass Browne - Drums

Keds went onto form Jolt then Trip Fontaine and now The Lams. He very briefly played with The Wildhearts. Ben went onto join 3 Colours Red and is now a press officer for Help the Aged. Morgan joined Vent with Miles Hunt from The Wonder Stuff then went on to play with The Streets. He is now part of Muse's live set-up. Cass went on to sing for Delakota and then Gorillaz. He also briefly played with Urge Overkill."

The EP was released on 4th Dimension Records (FD22 for completists), a proper independent label based in Kent. In the olden days there were loads of these real 'indie' labels that had grown from the late 70s/early 80s punk scene and were knocking out this sort of stuff. Before the internet and myspace, this was one way to learn about new bands and had something to show for it at the end of the day (or indeed century as this offering shows).

The whole things has survived remarkably well and recorded with only a minor jump and scratch on the first try; the insert for the "Things" reads: "Their intended track for this EP was "I'm on black and White", a real stormer of a song with a truly amazing chorus...However their manager ran off with the master reel on the day it was due to be cut and so poor mark in panic took along a newly-recorded, unmixed version of "Teenage" as a desperate attempt to save the whole thing from total chaos..."; which explains why the record and sleeve say one thing and the actual music says another.

And the fanzine? Well, it's what you'd expect (if you were a chap of a certain age with an unhealthy early addiction to punk, indie and and gigs dirty pubs); although it's got a picture of a rabbit on the cover.

So here you go, "Teenage" by The Senseless Things.

Birdland

Before Richie Edwards took a header off the Severn Bridge and the Manic Street Preachers became mid-table rock tedium-mongers extraordinaire they are now, they were mid-table sub-punk-mongers extraordinaire; but the Manics don't interest us here.

What does interest me are Birdland; by God they wanted to be the Manics and who knows, with a little less swagger and a bit more talent they may have been; and now we'd be subjected to a bloated Robert twatting around on Radio 2 like a performing seal instead.

The entire Wikipedia entry for the boys from Brum says "Formed in 1989 by brothers Robert and Lee Vincent. Their debut single 'Hollow Heart', released on 'Lazy Records', was much hyped in the British weekly music press, due partly to their adrenalised live shows but also to their striking cartoonish 'four peroxide blondes' image, one which suggested in equal parts Brian Jones, Andy Warhol and Transvision Vamp. Despite the release of two well received singles and a Peel Session, by the time of the release of their debut album 'Paradise' their time had passed."

And passed it had. Even releasing a limited edition all-white version of the album (which of course I bought) didn't help. Caught up in their own hype and believing their talent far beyond what it was, they covered Patti Smith's "Rock 'n' Roll Nigger" in a last ditch attempt to salvage some critical credibility. They failed.

When I was a lad, Birdland were one of my favourite bands, something that has led to unremitting mockery for the past 15 years. I don't care though. They shouted, they swore, they bleached their hair, they were cool to me, I bloody loved them. It doesn't matter now that they are long forgotten, I can hold my hands up here and say with pride that I own everything they released in Britain. I've even got a bootleg album called Kamikaze Kids.

I went to see them playing a gig in Leeds in what must have been their post-halcyon days - I'd guess 1991. They were bloody awful. Still, like many bands would have loved to have been, they were big in Japan and that was the main thing.

So hats off to Birdland, and have a vinyl-to-mp3 of Paradise to remember the mop-topped ones by.

Buy Paradise the Birdland Anthology