Menswear

I wasn't too sure about putting up Menswear (or indeed Menswe@r as they appear to have variously branded themselves) as I've said that Britpop was rubbish on a number of occasions in the past, but then two things changed my mind.

One was the constant references to Wire in write ups about the song below and the other was reading that the band apparently signed a big money deal and appeared in long forgotten music mag "Select" before they'd even put a record out; apparently because they were at the forefront of the mod revival. Well, 1994's mod revival, there's a mod revival every other year pretty much; it's like the NME saying that Ska will be back this year in their "What's Going To Be Cool This Year" articles like they have every year from about 1904.

Sorry, I digress, this is Menswear's second release - Daydreamer, and excitingly it's taken from a 7" in special plastic bag:

Right click, "saves as..." to download
So, formed in London (Camden probably) in 1994 the band signed a major deal after only a few gigs and with hardly any material written. Menswear/Menswe@r were Johnny Dean, Todd Parmenter [who was replaced by Matt Everitt (who now does the music news on BBC 6Music fact fans)], Chris Gentry, Simon White and Stuart Black.

The band were briefly pretty popular in 1994/95/96 and surfed the wave of Britpop that was taking over the country; I'm pretty sure I saw them live somewhere at the end of 1995 but can't for the life of me remember whether this actually happened or it's just something I made up to sound cool. They definitely had a couple of appearances on Top of the Pops and recorded a Peel Session.

Excitingly, when Matt Everitt left at the end of the band's life, he was replaced by "Tud" the band's roadie and Chris Gentry may (or may not) be the boyfriend/husband of Donna Matthews out of Elastica.

There's a full story and some interviews on this page which is definitely worth a read and of course, there's a ubiqitous wikipedia page.

The Keatons

Now, I'll be honest, I can't remember when I came across The Keatons, I'm assuming it was during looking up the S*M*A*S*H stuff from before as the band are also from Welwyn Garden City (sort of, two of the band live there) and I remember an email conversation with a chap about them, but I'm buggered if I can find it, sorry if it was you!

Anyway, The Keatons. Most of what you need to know, including the recording of the spectacularly names debut LP "Ex Vide Betamaxi In Honda Cotopaxi" in the Czech Republic, the members of the band and all the history is covered in the Myspace page and on Rhodri Marsden's (who got in the band by eating an orange, writes for the Independent and the Radio Times and is in Scritti Politti!) blog.

In short, the band formed in London in 1986, recorded some great singles, got played by John Peel, toured long and hard, released the album (which is great, try and get hold of a copy), and toured even more. Read the myspace page, it's worth it and has a few other tracks on that are just as good as this: The Keatons - Gold Vane; it's track 1 on the album which would be a lazy bit of recording and mp3ing, but it captures the spirit.

I can only apologise for forgetting everything I was going to say, none of my notes to myself make any sense...

Disco

Another band that was brought to my attention by an email, this time by a very nice chap called Martin. The band in question? Disco. No, me either.

They were around in about 1995, appeared at the In the City expo in Manchester, and released two singles by the look at it. I've got a scan of a cutting from the NME, it says that Stop Me and Buy One, the mp3 below is:

"a simpering, simmering cauldron of feisty, femme-tastic shenanigans... All bloody marvellous."

Well, I guess that's one way of putting it. Listen to the mp3 below; it's rough and exciting in a 'two girls shouting into a bin' way.

I managed to hunt a copy of this single down from a very helpful Dutch chap at a record shop called Distortion Records in Amsterdam (and if I'm ever in that fine city again I'm certainly popping in to see them; Amond was a great help).

Anyway, this is Disco - Stop Me and Buy One and I think you'll see why they are a long lost band. I hate being rude about people who managed to form a band, get a single out, get reviewed and get heard of by people; my respect for them is part of why I'm doing this. But, and it's a big but, I'm sorry, the NME were talking out of their hats. This really isn't that good...

Blessed Ethel

Right then, let's get February underway with Blessed Ethel. Now, I've a nasty feeling that this lot were American; they're certainly likened to the Pixies and Debbie Harry and people like that, but that seems to be a lazy comparison. There's definitely some good old fashioned grindy-twanging going on and the track featured below seems to be agenuinely good bit of indie pop; but once more dear friends I'm at a loss as to who the band actually were. In my rather limited opinion there's certainly a thread from the shoegazers of the (then) previous few years and more than a nod to the Sleepers of the time and you might spot a mention in the comments to the S*M*A*S*H entry in this here blog thing. Oh, and they also appear to have supported Lush at the Leadmill in Sheffield in 1994 at some point and S*M*A*S*H at "Fibbers" in the same year. And the drummer may have been called Tim James, or possibly Rick...

Actually, strike Tim James (whoever he may be), the official "off of the album" band list is:
· Sara Doran (Vocals)
· Dan Barnes (Guitar)
· Mike Harris (Bass)
· Rick Hunaban (Drums)

And apparently they also won the Best New Band award in 1993 at Manchester's In The City ahead of some no-hopers called Oasis...

The All Music Guide (which is a pretty good place to start and in this case all I can really find out about the band) says:

You may be happy to know that the spirit (and sound) of early Blondie has not been lost to the world -- it's alive and well and powerpopping along in the form of Blessed Ethel, a Britpop bunch who can probably lay claim to the Rezillos as another spiritual ancestor (though there's a lot less shrieking going on here.) What we have are buzzsaw guitars, snapping drums, sprightly rhythms, and Sara Doran's voice cutting through the mix like a searchlight -- no claim to range, but she uses what she has in the best way possible.

Which seems a bit rude about Sara Doran whose singing is far from bad and certainly no worse than any of the cobblers you hear on the radio these days.

There's an album and few singles in the 1993/4/5 era from the band before they seem to disappear from history with only the occasional nod from anyone in the next 10 or so years.

Whatever and whoever the band were, you'll like this: Blessed Ethel - Fat Star, this is off a white label promo as you'll see in the picture. That's a fiver on the open market to you sir.

And once more there's a Wikipedia page to add to (or there would be if the cocking editors stopped just fucking unilaterally deleting everything. Wankers).

Perfume

So what do we know about Perfume? Well, after being made aware of their existence in the Blab Happy post back in the mists of time, what we know is summed up in the Wikipedia page dedicated to them:

When Blab Happy split up, singer/guitarist Mick McCarthy and bassist Tony Owen recruited John "Johnny Wadd" Waddington to form Perfume, initially releasing records on their own "Aromasound" label.

Their first releases was "Yoga" in December 1993. Second single "Young" (which was perfume-scented) appeared in April 1994. Third single "Lover" was picked up on by BBC Radio One DJ's Steve Lamacq and Jo Whiley (the latter getting the band in to record a session for her show), and they toured with Gene, the band's profile rising as a result, leading to a minor (UK Top 75) hit in January 1996 with the single "Haven't Seen You".

That year's success saw them sign to Big Star Records, who reissued "Lover", to be followed by the debut album One in 1997. Perfume performed at the Glastonbury Festival in 1997. The band split later that year, with a posthumous "best of" compilation Yesterday Rising released in 1998.

And now thanks to our old friend Mr eBay, of course, we also know that this tune Perfume - Lover is a bang on bit of indie pop, very much in the Big Star label's vein of Teenage-Fanclubbery.

Bang Bang Machine

I was reminded of Bang Bang Machine when I was doing the Catherine Wheel post down there, so had to rush off to ebay and spend some hard earned (well, adsense-earned) cash on this particular 12". Partially because it turns out it was one of the last records the band released, partially because it was released in 1995 and that's the first missing year from the 90s in this blog so far, but mostly because it's an absolute cracker of a record.

So who were Bang Bang Machine? Well, they were only Worcestershire's finest purveyors of the indie-pop, jingly-jangly, shoe-gazing type of music that we all know and love. Actually, that's a bit unfair; the band experimented with various musical styles from proper indie pop to grunge to, well, goth really and towards the end of their existence firmly fell into the Brit Pop category.

The band's indie pop pedigree can't be denied of course, a Peel session and number 1 in the 1992 Festive 50 above such lumiaries as Pavement, Jesus and Mary Chain, The Wedding Present, Sonic Youth and The Fall attest to that, and if you've got a copy of Geek Love (said number 1) on CD, then that's worth about £20 on ebay to you guv!

There's a nice unoffical site here and for your listening pleasure, here is Bang Bang Machine - Breathless.

I think this post is going to be one of those where everyone remebers far more about the band than I do. This is probably due to an excess of snakebite in the early 1990s than anything, so please fill in the gaps!