To find out more about C81 visit the wikipedia entry which contains information and images which used to be found on the old indie mp3 site.

Side One

1. "The "Sweetest Girl"" – Scritti Politti
2. "Twist and Crawl Dub" – The Beat
3. "Misery Goats" – Pere Ubu
4. "7,000 Names of Wah!" – Wah! Heat
5. "Blue Boy" – Orange Juice
6. "Raising the Count" – Cabaret Voltaire
7. "Kebab Traume Live" – D.A.F
8. "Bare Pork" – Furious Pig
9. "Raquel" – The Specials
10. "I Look Alone" – Buzzcocks
11. "Fanfare in the Garden" – Essential Logic
12. "Born Again Cretin" – Robert Wyatt

Side Two

1. "Shouting Out Loud" – The Raincoats
2. "Endless Soul" – Josef K
3. "Low Profile" – Blue Orchids
4. "Red Nettle" – Virgin Prunes
5. "We Could Send Letters" – Aztec Camera
6. "Milkmaid" – Red Crayola
7. "Don't Get in My Way" – Linx
8. "The Day My Pad Went Mad" – The Massed Carnaby St John Cooper Clarkes
9. "Jazz Is the Teacher, Funk Is the Preacher" – James Blood Ulmer
10. "Close to Home" – Ian Dury
11. "Greener Grass" – Gist
12. "Parallel Lines" – Subway Sect
13. "81 Minutes" - John Cooper Clarke

NOTE: For some reason tracks 24 & 25 were missing. I have now re-uploaded this part of the tape. If you have previously downloaded the second part you can download the missing two tracks from here.

C81 Part One (Tracks 1 - 12)
C81 Part Two (Tracks 13 - 25)

Stylus Magazine - A Review of C81

Following on from my Postal Blue post Adriano from the band e-mailed me to say that they are getting a number of releases ready. The first will be a free download-only ep on Shelflife in a few months. I will keep you posted.

Take Your Medicine has posted some new tracks from Sky Larkin who are a Leeds based three piece consisting of Katie, Nestor and Lindsay. Any band who cite Blondie, The Pixies, Sleater Kinney and Interpol as influences are alright by me and luckily they stand up to the inspirations with a neat brand of indie rock/pop. Hopefully if the band, who are amazingly unsigned, are kind enough to send some material my way I can do a more in depth post as plenty has been said about them in blogosphere already (here and here for starters). In the meantime the band released their recent "Ghost Town" demos to some of the blogs I've linked to and I have collated these here (Rapidshare, 11m)b. Before downloading you may want to listen to their songs via their My Space page.

Obscure Sound is a new blog and it is via there that I found out that the SXSW blog is offering a torrent file with 713 mp3's (2.5gb) of material from bands that are playing this year. Now that's what I call promotion!

The Sex Pistols are still at it and to be honest who can blame them? What a load of old pony the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame is.

Unpeeled is a monthly magazine and website covering all forms of music. They have also been trawling through my space and don't seem to impressed!

Do any readers of this blog reside in either Montreal or Toronto? I'm off to both those cities, spending a few days in each, from the 24th March. Any recommendations on where to visit, buy records or get a decent real ale in either city will be appreciated.

And talking about Montreal that's where Shoot The Moon hail from. Head to their my space page to hear what they sound like. It's pleasant enough melodic indie rock.

Sweden's The Milestone Corporation have a free web EP for download. You can listen on their Last FM page (what, no My Space?) before downloading or indeed buying for a measley 6 Euros.

The Milestone Corporation - Surburban Boredom.

Talking about free EP's the excellent named Track A Tiger have also released one in order to bring their music to the masses. Again you can buy it if it grabs you from Future Apple Tree (another great name!) when it is released tomorrow (28/02/2005). The mandatory My Space page is here. This is the sound of lo-fi indie bliss especially on the almost falling over it's so laid back on the beautiful Sound As Ever. Top stuff and I will cover in depth at some point in the future.

Track A Tiger - Sound As Ever

The Madeleines are James Stephens (Guitar/Vocals), Matt Jacobsen (Guitar/Vocals), Mike Beevor (Bass) and Duncan Parker(Drums) who hail from London and this double a-sided release is their debut single.

Sadly Safety Net (or should that be thankfully?) is not a cover version of the Shop Assistants classic as I first thought it might be when I saw the title! It is however a great romp through the lands of power-pop! Fast flowing frantic guitars set the pace and are coupled with some pretty decent vocals from both guitarists. The other double a-side Trouble carries on in pretty much the same vein.

Both tracks are extremely catchy songs with hooks in the right places. The downside is that I cannot imagine listening to these tracks in a couple of months time and remembering too much about them. There are plenty of other bands out there these days (especially on the London circuit) and it takes something special, as in The Bridge Gang's case, to stand out from the crowd. Recommended purchase for a short term fix only.

You can listen to the single on the bands My Space page. There are two tracks to download as well:

The Madelienes - Pilot Light
The Madelienes - Alias

You can buy the single, which is out now on Destructible, here or buy it digitally from Karmadownload.

When the Leeds based band The Lost Pandas disintegrated in 1984 the remaining members Dave Gedge and Keith Gregory formed The Wedding Present. The two quickly recruited an old school friend of Gedge's Pete Solowka on guitar and after audtioning a number of drummers settled on Shaun Charman. The band formed their own label called Reception Records and although initially it was for their own releases they did put out records for This Poison! and Cud.

The debut single Go Out and Get Em, Boy! was released in 1985 and was followed by Once More which did pretty well in the indie charts. It was around this time that the late John Peel took an interest in the band and invited them to record a session which was later released as a 12" EP on Strange Fruit in 1986. The band at this time contributed This Boy Can Wait to the NME C86 tape which rounded up the so called UK "shambling" indie scene of the time.

1987 saw the release of two singles and the acclaimed debut album George Best which was named after the ex Manchester United, Fulham and Northern Ireland football player. 1988 saw the release of Tommy which rounded up their early releases and the Peel session. It also saw the band reaching the top 50 in UK national charts for the first time with Nobody's Twisting Your Arm and Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?

The band also started recording Ukrainian folk music due to Solowka's roots in that country recording two sessions for John Peel. It was during these sessions that Charman was fired from the band (he later joined The Popguns) and was replaced by Simon Smith.

When the bands distributor Rhino Records went into receivership the band folded their label and signed to RCA in late 1988 which is another story!

I saw the band a number of times in this period and they were excellent live as they always were and now as this includes their comeback tour last year (well Cinerama using The Wedding Present name!).

The Wedding Present - (The Moment Before) Everythings Spoiled Again
The Wedding Present - At the Edge Of The Sea

Links:

Westnet Wedding Present Site
The Moments Gone
Something & Nothing
The Wedding Present (Fan Site)
The Ukrainians

Buy The Wedding Present:



Download from e-music:

You can download the Wedding Present, including George Best and Tommy, for free from e-music if you are not an existing subscriber and sign up to their free 50 mp3 download trial!

This new EP from the Brazilian indie-pop Postal Blue sees five tracks recorded in 2004 finally getting a release on the Canadian Humblebee Recordings label.

The band are heavily influenced by the late 1980's UK indie scene and opening track The World Doesn't Need You sounds like it was lifted straight from the back catalogue of Sarah Records. It wouldn't have been out of place on last years indie-pop compilation on Rough Trade if the compilers have bothered to broaden their horizons outside of Europe and the states.

The rest of the EP is delivered along the same lines. Twee jangle pop with bittersweet lyrics although i'm not sure what is being sung on Vou Deixar Pra Depois which is the first song they have released in their native Portuguese.

This is a fine collection of songs although we will have to wait and see whether any new recordings emerge. In the meantime the band have covered Josef's Gone for inclusion on the June Brides Tribute album due for release at the end of this month.

Postal Blue - The World Doesn't Need You

Over the past few years the sound of shoegazing has been making a resurgence. Bands such as Aerial, Air Formation and countless others have been making music inspired by the likes of Ride, My Bloody Valentine, The Pale Saints to name but a few whilst The Telescopes and Slowdive have either reformed or had their back catalogue re-issued.

Towards the end of it's existence in the mid 1990's the cult record label Sarah was moving away from it's jangle pop roots and was releasing music which fitted in the shoegazing/dreampop remit. One of the bands on Sarah was Bristol's Secret Shine who have now emerged ten years later and have released an EP which sounds like they have never been away despite suffering the tragic loss of drummer Tim Morris in early 2005 just as work had commenced on the new material.

On You Are Inside, which was the last song to feature contributions from Morris and is actually dedicated to him, Kathryn Smith's vocals barely rise above the disorted guitars which results in an epic encounter for supremacy leaving the listener barely able to pause for breath. Adored continues in the same vein with vocals, guitars and the sampler lost in the swirling mists of time. Only on final track Evermore is the focus and rhythm of the EP somewhat lost as it struggles to keep pace with the previous two tracks.

This is an enjoyable EP and should be purchased for the first two tracks alone. The band have already recorded a follow up EP with an album and live dates due later this year.

Clips:

Secret Shine - You Are Inside
Secret Shine - Adored
Secret Shine - Evermore

New Release - Widdershins "Now You Know" Download Single

3 track download single from the Widdershins "Know You Now" originally released as a 45 on Sydney's Waterfront Records (1988) plus 2 tracks "Changeling" and "A Place in Time" from a unreleased single from 1990. "Changeling" and "A Place in Time" are unavailable in any other format (and only at 50p a track in high quality mp3! - Tom)

Follow the link on the home page of www.eggrecords.co.uk for more info and samples.

The Widdershins where formed by Greg Appel and Juliet Ward in 1987 after the The Lighthouse Keepers disbanded early 1986, "The first time I saw them they performed, as an encore, a song that made everything else that night seem almost clumsy by comparison. It was, I knew at once, nothing less than a manifestation of that rarest of beasts the perfect pop song. It was Return Of The King" RAM Magazine

Future Releases

Widdershins 19 track retrospective collection. See www.eggrecords.co.uk/eggrest017.asp for info.

Then it is the Egg Records bumper 27 track compilation of past, present and future releases. This has been delayed for 101 reasons, now hope to have it for Apr/May 06


Simply Thrilled Web zine Latest article - The Singular Adventures of Phil Wilson

Some news from Iceland now. Or from USA via Iceland. Bart Cameron and Paul Nikolov are the prolific editors of an english language newspaper in Iceland, about Iceland and Icelanders, the target group being tourists, but equally read and enjoyed by locals as well. They also happen to be The Foghorns, an interesting, lo-fi duo consisting of Bart's singing and guitaring, and Paul's appalling yet strangely enjoyable banging on an enormous steel bucket, thus providing what might be called a beat of some sorts. Now I haven't seen them play in a while, but I've heard they've expanded their live set, indeed it seems the band has up to 8 members currently.

Here's what they have to say about themselves:

From Brooklyn, Bart went home to Racine Wisconsin and put together the first Foghorns album in summer 2002. Another one came along in 2003, with Bart beginning to scrounge Brooklyn for live musicians. With his move to Iceland, he found new sounds. The Foghorns now often feature a bucket, flat-picking guitar and harmonica. In 2004, the Icelandic version of the Foghorns released So Sober, and they have since played regularly throughout Iceland. 2006 will see the release of another Wisconsin album, New Low, a re-release of So Sober with live tracks, and quite possibly, a new Iceland album. All albums are limited in distribution. On sale at 12 Tonar, Smekkleysa or Naked Ape or the live shows.

You might wanna check out their official home page, their myspace page or begin by downloading a few tracks to have a nibble. And read their magazine while listening.

The Foghorns - Sunny days
The Foghorns - Worst song
The Foghorns - Filthy old man

I have written about Celestial more than once now so I will leave it up to the Press Release from Music Is My Girlfriend:

Heavenly good news! We are very proud to announce the release of two EP's (EP1 and EP2) with our favourite, Celestial. This is a true lovestory for us. We have totally fallen in love with Celestial's songs and want more than anything else that you also get in touch with these heavenly tunes!

"Shimmering, gliding, haunting and tantalising, Celestial hover in the indie pop shadows waiting for their next victim, for the next unwilling, unwitting innocent to idle by before being seduced by the sweet, sweet slices of effortless beauty that slide through the darkness and sink deep into your heart without a sound. Without you realising that they have you, held down, absorbed and taken, you can't resist and if you wanted to it would be futile. Celestial swish and sway, they swoon and sashay, impossible to nail them down and stare them right in the eyes you simply just submit, and it's a fate that I would wish on you all."
/Johnny Mac (Review from "Friends of the heroes")

The EP's are strictly limited to 100 copies each, so hurry up and buy your copy from our shop today!

Celestial - Nothing Happens Twice

As you maybe aware this year is the 20th anniversary of C86 the tape that lauched a thousand bands. or something like that.

I hope to bring a number of posts over the next few months featuring bands that appeared on the tape and to include those that came before and after, those who influenced and those who were influenced by, the said tape and the bands that appeared on it.

So it's time to dust down some old 7" singles and get them into digital format. By the way if anyone reading this has the archive of recordings the old mp3 site could I have a copy. Sadly the back up disc I was sent corrupted.

In the meantime have a look at the special posts (see menu) I have done on the tape including being able to download the C86 tape in it's entirety - I will be removing the links soon.

And who do you think influenced C86? The Jesus and Mary Chain? The Buzzcocks? Captain Beefheart? The Ramones? Orange Juice? Postcard Records? Let me know via the comments and I may well feature some in future posts. The same goes for who you think were influenced by C86 such as Belle & Sebastian, Dressy Bessy, Labrador Records, Matinee Recordings etc etc.

I wrote about Lucky Misu earlier this month and as promised he has released some new recordings but under a different name, Sayessayes.

There are two tracks and they are slanted towards an electronic sound rather the lo-fi musings of the Lucky Misu recordings. There is quite a lot of 1980's influenced electronica coming out of Sweden these days (which reminds me the Gentle Touch EP is out now!) and most of it is of a high standard and Sayesayes is no exception. Two tracks worthy of your attention and if you think that is a cover of the Cure track with different lyrics then you as confused as me!

Sayesayes - The Halls of School
Sayesayes - Boys don´t Cry

Hic Jacet are the remains of Swedish female heavy rockers Satirine and on this release they possess more rock and roll cliches than the rest of the Swedish music scene put together.

Heavy rock as a genre has always given us dodgy lyrics and this demo is no exception. "We'll Come Again" shout the black clad threesome, guitars in hand on We'll Come Again. "Over and over again" they scream "I swear we'll come again"! It's enough to make you impotent.

On D.O.A they sing they will be your probation - whatever that means! This demo is tired and dated, both musically and lyrically and is more Girlschool than Sahara Hotnights who I think they would rather be compared with.

Hic Jacet are going to need some divine intervention if they don't want to end up in the state their latin name suggests:

Hic Jacet: Here lies, buried!

US label Matinee Recordings have been releasing some fine indie-pop for a few years now and the Sleepydust EP by The Snowdrops further adds to that reputation. The band, who are an indie supergroup of sorts, consist of Keith Girdler (Blueboy, Beaumont, Lovejoy), Dick Preece (Lovejoy, Beaumont) and Pam Berry (The Pines, Shapiros, Black Tambourine, Glo Worm).

Title track Sleepydust is lo-fi electronica with a nod towards the likes of The Other Two and The Pet Shop Boys. The vocals dreamily glide seamlessly over fragile electronic beats, accompanied by Pam's wispful backing vocals resulting in a winning recipe for a pop tune.

The other three tracks are short and sweet. Too Cold To Snow is an instrumental which throws up visions of light breaking through the trees in a forest whilst you shiver in the biting wind. The Boy with the Hummingbird Eyes is a more laid back affair than the lead track with Dick Preece taking over on vocal duties whilst an appearance by Keris Howard (Harper Lee, Brighter) adds to the bands, and the songs, mystique. Teddy Dragons is a brief interlude that paves the way for the 12" version of Sleepydust which has a different vocal introduction but not much else.

The Sleepydust EP is out now and is limited to 1000 copies in custom minijacket sleeve.

The Snowdrops - Sleepydust (Real Audio File)

Buy The Snowdrops

After splitting up acrimoniously some 20 years ago The Loft reformed last year. This also coincided with the release of Magpie Eyes which was a compilation of everything the band released.

Now there is news of a new single and possibly an album release! The single will be Model Village backed by Rickerty Frame. The band will also be supporting Darren Hayman, ex Hefner and The French, during April 2006 with the venue to be announced but most likely to be The Spitz. Good news indeed.

The Loft - Time
The Loft - Like

Videos

The Loft - Worm In My Brain
The Loft - Your Door Shines Just Like Gold
The Loft - at Alan McGee's 'The Living Room' Club

BUY:



If you are not an existing subscriber to the e-music download service you can sign up to their free 50 mp3 trial and download Magpie Eyes free!

The Bishops - Menace About Town - My Space Page

And What Will Be left Of Them? - L'amour Violent (Live) - My Space Page

The Sequins - Dear Old Bill - My Space Page

Invisible Lead Soup - Revolver - My Space Page

The latest Sounds XP Podcast also has tracks by most of the bands who are playing. Subscribe or download it from here.

I have been sent a number of mp3's and links over the past few weeks. Sadly time constraints have prevented me writing/reviewing about these but I guess a mention is better than nothing at all. So download or visit and feel free to leave your "reviews" in the comments box!

First up are two bands playing the Billboard Mag official SXSW showcase later this year who are People In Planes and The Exit.

People In Planes - Moth (Acoustic)
People In Planes - If You Talk Too Much (My Head Will Explode)
The Exit - Soldier
The Exit - Don't Push

Other tracks/links:

Maximo Park - Stay (Field Music Remix)

Victor Scott whose albums have been released on SVC Records (Spoilt Victorian Child).

Victor Scott - Northern Star
Victor Scott - Fallen Arrow

Grogshow. More on their history and tracks can be streamed via their My Space Page

Slaraffenland are a Danish/Swedish band playing a blend of avant-rock, electronica and improvisation.

Slaraffenland - Cockaigne
Slaraffenland - Shuto-Uchi

Colin MacIntyre (who recorded under the pseudonym Mull Historical Society):

Colin MacIntyre - How About I Love You More
Mull Historical Society - This Is Hope

Kid Theodore - Stream tracks via their My Space page.

Series Two Record Label - Stream tracks from their My Space page.

Ultimo Volume Internet Radio Station

Coffee Snorter Blog

Phew!

Mutt Ramon, who I have written about previously and have reviewed for Sounds XP, have announced that their debut album will be released on April 1st 2006.

Titled "Utterly Mutterly" it will originally be released on CDR. Currently there are no tracks available for downloading but you can stream demos of tracks that will be available on the album on their My Space page.

You may also want to see Ramon's blog at the Republic of Ramonia.

New Yorks The Liars released their latest single this past week which is titled The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack. It precedes a brand new album, Drum's Not Dead, out on 20th February 2006. Both are released on Mute.

You can find out more about the album here .

The Liars - Drum And The Uncomfortable Can

You can stream some more tracks from the bands My Space page which includes a cover of Nirvana's Territorial Pissing.

Buy The Liars

Harvey Williams (Another Sunny Day) has his own blog here. His last posting was uploading a Primal Scream Session from December 1985 (or was it January 1986?). The session features Aftermath, I Love You, Crystal Crescent and Subterranean, which Williams claims is the greatest song ever and was never released officially. You can download it from here.

The Envelopes released a new single earlier this week. Titled Free Jazz it's released on Brille and is availble in 7", CD and download formats.

You can listen to the track on the bands My Space page. It's a mix of indie-pop and post punk. Audrey's vocals remind me of a female Andy Partridge!

Drowned In Sound like the single.

The band played London's Barfly last night. Here is a list of venues they are playing for the rest of February starting in Preston tonight. If you haven't seen them yet I suggest you should as they are excellent live.

Thursday 16th - PRESTON, Uni
Friday 17th - WAKEFIELD, Club Escobar
Saturday 18th - OLDHAM, Castle – Club NME
Monday 20th - SHEFFIELD, Plug – Club NME
Tuesday 21st - HUDDERSFIELD, Tokyo – Club NME
Wednesday 22nd - LEEDS, Faversham – Club NME
Thursday 23rd - MIDDLESBOROUGH, Empire – Club NME
Saturday 25th - GLASGOW, School of Art – Club NME
Monday 27th - NEWCASTLE, Digital – Club NME

Previous Tracks By the Envelopes:

The Envelopes - Audrey In the Country
The Envelopes - It's The Law (Acoustic Version)

Buy Free Jazz by The Envelopes

Angry Robot has posted Amelia Fletcher's "disco" record from the mid 1990's. Check it out!

I posted about the Gentle Touch the other day about their impending release on the Songs I Wish I Had Written label which is due on the 22nd February. I have two more bits of news about the band.

Firstly the band now have a website. The second is that Martin from the label has allowed me to post another track from the EP. If the previously posted track Memories did not make you want to buy the EP Smedby will!

Gentle Touch - Smedby (Link Fixed)
Gentle Touch - Memories

Buy the EP

Mighty Six Ninety are an American band band who are releasing their new single on Kids on 13th March 2006. It's the follow up to the critically acclaimed debut single Leave This World and like previous releases on Kids it wears a Manc heart on it's sleeve.

Believable is a playful romp through various Manchester influences (New Order, The Smiths etc) with frontman Rich Gardner's vocals dominating. Northern Border should have been the a-side. It's a fine slab of indie pop and reminds me of the Railway Children when they were on Factory Records. It has a catchy feel and a sing along chorus to match although I did start to hum "a gentle sound" when the chorus kicked in but that's no bad thing!

The band, who incidently are named after a radio station in singer Gardner's home city of San Diego are lining up various gigs with the Brixton Windmill pencilled in for the 26th March 2006 and they appear at The Islington Acamdemy on the 28th.

You can stream Mighty Six Ninety on My Space or download the previous single:

Mighty Six Ninety - Leave This World

Extra: This is another fine release from Kids who also released the excellent Frustration single by The Whip which I reviewed here. Visit the Kids page on My Space to listen to tracks from their roster including the long gone 7" by Paper Cut and I Like Trains.

Take Your Medicine recently published their first ever podcast. And mighty entertaining it was too featuring tracks from the likes of Mutt Ramon, Voxtrot and many others. It also introduced me to the delights of Preston's The KBC and their new single Pride Before The Fall which is one hell of a footstomper. I have sent off for a copy and will review it in due course. Meanwhile download a clip of the track or buy it from High Voltage.

The KBC - Penny For Your Thoughts

See here for more on the TYM blogcast and how to subscribe or download it.


Dan from Indie Pop Radio dropped me a line about his new live 365 radio station.


Indiepop Radio plays indie songs with proper tunes and proper lyrics: Acoustic, Indiepop, Sarah Records, Brit-Pop, Shoegaze, Twee...

Every week I set my generic-brand MP3 player to shuffle, and upload the first 25 tracks to the station's playlist. Then I top them up with 25 classic indiepop gems from past and present, to create the perfect indiepop blend.

What will it be this week? Classic indiepop from the likes of Sarah Records' Field Mice or Orchids? Melodic gems from legendary Australian popsters The Go-Betweens or The Lucksmiths? Or will it be that Debbie Gibson record I liked when I was 12 but still secretly sing along to when I think no-one is looking???!

Listen to indiepop radio.

Bruce from Angry Robot dropped me a line about yesterday's Voxtrot post. He let me know that the bass player and drummer from the band are in another called Belaire where they are joined by members of Arkay, Fozlur, Flashlight Fiction and Fancy Feast. You can download or stream tracks from their my space page and they are well worth a listen being far more influenced by the whole indie pop thing than Voxtrot. Of the four tracks available Ces Mots was my favourite. That's more records to buy added to the my ever growing list then!

Now for some news of releases on Swedish labels. Songs I Wish I Have Written will be releasing a new CD on 22 February by Gentle Touch, a band based in Kalmar which is in south east Sweden. The Gentle Touch, like the other acts on the label, make a brand of electro pop that draws influences from the 1980's whilst giving them a modern touch. Memories the track that is available to download is a wonderful dreamy affair.

The Gentle Touch - Memories

The other release comes from the Music Is My Girlfriend Label who will be releasing a 10- track CD by Stars In Coma called My Sunshine Years. It's actually the work of a chap called André Brorsson and is a compilation of some his older tracks and is typical of the lo-fi indie pop that is so loved by Swedes at the present. The tracks have great melodies and are classic examples of highly enjoyable throwaway pop music.

Stars In Coma - I Saw My Heart Passing By
Stars In Coma - Life Without The Community

Stars In Coma have also an EP lined up for release which is titled Moonsport Sickness and there is a preview track also available.

Stars In Coma - All Day Long (in Fog and Wind)

Buy My Sunshine Years by Stars In Coma

Voxtrot seem to be all the rage at the moment and I have stayed away from posting about them because they have been written about on most blogs over the past few weeks and I was fast developing a sheep mentality about them. Frontman Ramesh Srivastava (who has a blog here) also dj'ed at How Does It Feel To be Loved recently to acclaim.

However I was going through the pile of CD's I have been sent to review over this past week and I found the Voxtrot debut one amongst them. It's a bit of a surprise because I don't remember receiving it so apologies to the band. A quick spin soon has my ears informing my brain that I have been missing out and I am soon heading for the mint sauce.

The band have taken the best elements of C86, twee with the Smiths thrown in for good measure to produce a classic British sound despite them hailing from Texas! This is demonstrated on The Start Of Something which is the lead track from the debut EP,Raised By Wolves. However Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives from the forthcoming EP of the same name is just as good and Srivastava's excellent voice and vocal style are a treat to the ears.

Voxtrot - The Start Of Something
Voxtrot - Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives

You can also stream tracks via My Space.

Based on these tracks the praise heaped on them by the blogging community is justified unlike that given to a certain simian band of late.

The Raised By Wolves EP can be purchased from their site which is also taking pre-orders for the Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives EP which is due to be shipped in mid March.

Sneaky Feelings are probably the most well known of the bands selected for the NZ track of the week, starting out of the FN early release the "Dunedin Double" EP with the Chills, the Verlaines and the Stones, this gave the band a bit of notoriety.

Sneaky Feelings , in my opinion, where ever appreciated as much of the others early Flying Nun bands, Sneaky Feelings were the most straight forward and poppiest of the lot, less garage band influenced more Beatles, soul, commercial pop influenced.

In 1983 they recorded their debut LP Send You subsequently the original bass player Kat left the band and was replaced by John Kelcher (of the National Grid fame). In 1985 they recorded the single Husband House and reached number 17 in the NZ singles charts. The LP Sentimental Education came out in 1987. It favoured a more varied musical palette to a typical guitar based sound. In 1987 the Sneakies toured Europe and In 1988, they recorded their final LP Hard Love Stories before the members going their separate ways.

The band have reformed on a couple of occasions in 1992, to promote the re-release on CD of Send You (they also recorded three new songs for it) and in 1996 for the Nunfest.

1999 saw the release of the compilation Positively George Street in conjunction with the book by Matthew Bannister of the same name.

I've selected “better than before” for this track of the week.

Sneaky Feelings - Better Than Before

This is the final part of a four week series by Egg Records Jim Kavanagh on New Zealand indie-pop.

Buy Egg Records Releases

Visit the Sneaky Feelings website which is hosted by indie-mp3.

Buy The Sneaky Feelings

Surfing around on Myspace today I came across a page devoted to Kukl, which was a highly experimental band created in Iceland in the eighties from the remains of a few of the better punk bands there. KUKL were also highly underrated and misunderstood, the controversy surrounding the band probably reaching it's heights when they performed in national television with Bjork 7 months pregnant, her naked protruding belly creating much havoc among decent citizens.

Admittedly many of their songs do not appeal to me, but then again quite a few do, and some of them are available for streaming from the fan based Myspace page. Although not as poppy as the later Sugarcubes, which were formed out of this band, the trademark voices of both Bjork and Einar Orn were at this time laying the foundations of what would later be world-wide reckognition, and any fan of Bjork, or Einar Orn for that matter, should find this interesting.

Here's also one Kukl song available for download from the Bad Taste web site:

Kukl - Assassin

Murmansk hail from Finland and are based in the capital Helsinki. They are currently unsigned but will be relasing their Teeth EP in March 2006.

The band play a blend of well crafted indie rock with some fine guitar playing whilst lead singer Elisabeth's voice is superb and is quite defining without dominating the actual songs.

These tunes will not change your life but are highly enjoyable and that's all what matters. You can stream songs from the EP's direct from their site whilst lead track 2nd Floor Thrash is available for download.

Murmansk - 2nd Floor Thrash
Murmansk - Dead Toys (video)

The band will tour Northern Europe this spring. See their site for a full list of gigs.

Last year The Acid House Kings released Sing Along with Acid House Kings. It seems plenty of people do because for their latest release Everyone Sings Along With Acid House Kings the band have invited their favourite singers to do their own versions of their favourite Acid House Kings Songs.

There are five tracks and the guest singers are Magnus Carlson (Weeping Willows), Lasse Lindh (Tribeca), Suzette (Les Trés Bien Ensemble), Montt Mardie and Don Lennond.

This is a limited release and you can buy it direct from Labrador.

Labrador have only made extracts of the tracks available as mp3 downloads.

Will you love me in the morning? by Magnus Carlson
Do what you wanna do by Montt Mardié
Tonight is forever by Don Lennon

The Besties are twee. In fact they are as the saying goes, twee as fuck. Singer is their debut release and it consists of eight wonderful bubblegum pop moments and clocks in at just under 25 minutes. Perfect!

The Besties hail from New York via Florida and their songs are based around certain topics and all end in song! For a start they sing about being from outer space (Space Song), having a zombie lover (Zombie Song) and cowboys (Western Song). All the songs have lovely vocal harmonies because Marissa and Kelly were too scared to sing on their own. They both play keyboards whilst guitar player Rikky provides lo-fi melodies with the occasional vocal. There are no drums because they didn't know any drummers and they use the keyboards drums to great effect.

The songs are cute and are reminiscent of bands such as All Girl Summer Fun Band and The Softies. From the start to the finish the songs are bright, bubbly and down right infectious. The stand out track Pirate Song is still as spine tingling as when I first heard it a couple of years ago. It's just lush and it's a song to fall in love too. They even have their own theme song and not surprisingly it's called Theme Song. "We are the Besties" they sing. You know what? They certainly are.

Singer will be released on Valentines Day on Skipping Stone Records. You can download more songs from the band's Music Download.com page or stream them via My Space.

Lost Music likes The Besties too!

Avo-8 were a band who hailed from Edinburgh. They released three singles, one on their own label with the other two for Cherry Red. They also toured with the likes of the Darling Buds but in 1990 they decided it wasn't fun anymore and disbanded the band.

I featured the band on the old indie mp3 site and at that time there was nothing, apart from a page on Twee Net, about them on the net. However this has changed as a new site has appeared covering the band in far greater detail than I ever could and what's more it seems most of their catalogue is available in mp3 format!

The singles are far and away their best tracks but there is a nugget or two amongst the rest.

Avo-8 - Is This The End?
Avo-8 - Big Car

Loads more songs here. Go and explore some indie pop history!

Santa Dog have announced details of their new EP which will be titled Belle De Jour.

The first pressing is going to be a limited edition of just 100 copies. Each copy will be individually numbered with hand-printed sleeves and artwork by the band. The EP will be officially released in March but for this first numbered and hand-printed pressing we are inviting pre-orders. Everyone who pre-orders in February will also have their name printed on the sleeve notes. CDs will be shipped in March.

Rowena from the band designs their artwork and based on previous releases and their website design this could be a desireable purchase!

The band have made a track from the EP available. Titled Rosa it is a dangling taster for the EP release and is a harder take on indie-pop harking (barking?) towards American influences rather than British ones.

I have written about Santa Dog previously. This post has two exclusive live tracks and this post is where I first wrote about them.

EDIT: Take Your Medicine has also covered this release. See here for more.

Shaktar is a site in Swedish but don't let that put you off as it has a load of mp3's available from Swedish artists with the last two from Unarmed Enemies and My Darling You who are two bands I have covered previously.

Unarmed Enemies - The Binging

My Darling YOU! - Everythin