Magnus back here from Paris, almost burnt to crisps. Glad to be back in the 10 degrees celsius. Yesterday my old playing grounds at Klambratún in Reykjavik was turned into a giant outdoor concert venue for Sigur Ros who played a free concert there. Luckily I haven't moved far in these 30-something years and just strolled over there with the family and joined the 15.000 or so people who enjoyed their beautiful wailing as twilight descended on the city. Amazing concert, and apparently they are going to play an even more amazing concert in the beautiful Ásbyrgi, which is a bit further away.

A somewhat less grandeous venue is The Elevens in Northampton, Connecticut. It will however be home to the grandeous New England Popfest in october, and I've made it my mission not to be totally ignorant when I attend it, and I hope to sparkle other's interest in attending. The best I've found so far are The Besties, The Icicles and Secret Shine. And now the limelight turns upon two figures on the stage, a chubby guy with an ancor tattoed on his forearm, with a guitar, and a skinny lass standing behind a minimalistic drum set..... The Sawtelles.

At first I wasn't altogether impressed by the music on their website. I had to stream "She's a star" from their Myspace page to fully appreciate their low-key and careless style, and from there on the other songs sounded much better. Their somewhat outdated web page tells us they're from Connectut themselves and that they've signed a deal with Thin Man Music. The band currently conists of husband and wife duo Peter and Julie Riccio, who play what they call "nerve rock".

Take a listen, and stream from their Myspace page.

The Sawtelles - Notion
The Sawtelles - Garden

The Poppyheads - Cremation Town

Sarah Records On Koogy
Sarah Records - An Introduction
Sarah Records On Twee Net

How can I say it better than this?

muut ramonia is electronic brother of the indie mutt ramon.
muut ramonia believe in bringing basslines to the people.
muut ramonia want to make the snare drum our friend.
muut ramonia bring order to chaos and chaos to order.
muut ramonia is antidote to shambolic noises.
muut ramonia is darker yang to ramon's yin.
muut ramonia is for none.
muut ramonia is for all.
muut ramonia is.

In plain English then Muut Ramonia is the remix arm of Mutt Ramon who are indie mp3 faves and whose album Utterly Mutterly should be in your collection. There are three remixes available with Flexible Thumb Poly*.... being far and away the best of the three.

Muut Ramonia - Flexible Thumb Poly....

Download the others from the My Space page.

As for the indie Mutt's there are two new lo-fi demos posted to My Space.

*Am I the only one annoyed by the song titles being cut on my Space. Pain in the mutt, I mean butt.....

Wintergreen, the self confessed "worse band on My Space", have some new songs up on their My Space page.

It seems to be a busy time for the band whose Clockwork Mice single was one of my favourites from last year. Their debut single The Magic Road is included on The Kids At The club compilation I mentioned here and finally they are working on their debut album.

Of the two new tracks available for downloading Droning Starlight is the better of the two with it's boy/girl vocals and rockier, faster spound.

Wintergreen - Droning Starlight

Head to the bands free stuff page for more mp3's.

From the latest Cherry Red newsletter. I cannot find any details on the actual site but it's due for release in August.

Also released is the Darling Buds 'Pop Said' (CDMRED 305.) Originally from South Wales, the band released one self financed single and were picked up by indie label Native. After two further singles they were signed by Sony imprint Epic and in the January 1989 released their debut long-player ‘Pop Said’ which reached No 23 in the National album charts. The album contains the four hit singles ‘Let’s Go Round There’, ‘Burst’, ‘Hit The Ground’ & ‘You’ve Got To Choose’ as well as 9 bonus tracks.

If you want a time capsule then buy this album!

I was aware of The Priscillas due to their Gonna Rip Up Your Photograph single but this particular discovery was down to how good the Priscillas were live.

Imagine, if you will, the plot of the fly. Instead of Jeff Goldblum and a bluebottle (okay I am using the re-make here) merging in the machine swap them for The Ramones, Cramps and Shangri La's and you may get an idea of the bands sound.

Live they simply erm, rocked. Lead singer Jen was one of the most charasmatic front-person of any bands I have seen. She certainly knew how to play the crowd and photographers having all and sundry eating out of hands. The rest of the band (Guri, Mavis and Kate) all had smiles on their faces and were obviously enjoying the gig unlike some of the other miserable bastards appearing on the same stage over the weekend. Go and see them. It's good fun!

I cannot find any of the bands songs for downloading although you can stream them via their My Space page.

As regular readers of this blog may know I am also a contributor to the Sounds XP webzine. Myself and some other contributors have now taken this one step further and formed a record label titled Sounds Experience.

I am pleased to say that what seems like ages (a few months) the first single on the label is due for release on 21st Auguest 2006. It's by The Piney Gir Country Roadshow and is a double a-side titled The Great Divide c/w Trouble. Piney is better known for her electronica output and she also is a member of The Schla La La's.

Part of the press release explains more:

Piney Gir’s gone back to her Kansas roots for her debut as the Piney Gir Country Roadshow: “we got these gigs playing at workingmen’s clubs and it didn’t seem suitable to play our electro-pop-jazz-whatever and so we took our songwriting back to the basics and did a country version”.Whatever the genre, Great Divide is one of Piney’s finest songs. It’s based on a true story of Piney’s Jack Kerouac existence after being stranded in the Rocky Mountains.

The song is a swinging country tune but has a gritty urban edge and comes with some fine, sassy singing from MissPiney. The AA-side, Trouble, was co-written with Robin Bennett from Dusty’s Sound System and Goldrush. The sleeve, designed by Steven A Wood, is based on an illustration that Piney saw in a child’s cowboy annual.

The single is limited to 500 copies and on 7" vinyl. There will be digital downloads provided by Truck Records.

You can listen to previews of the track on our My Space page and/or buy it from the shop.

Hopefully the next two singles will be by The Bridge Gang and The Schla La Las.

Persil are a Dutch duo who have three Peel Sessions, a couple of singles and an album behind them. Comfort Noise is the follow up to 2004's Duotone album and last years excellent Tune-Up EP. It's a welcome return for the bands brand of fuzzy pop music which is sampler/synth based and supplemented by David's chainsaw guitar and Martines' vocals.

The album kicks off with Light Up My Life which is one of the best songs they have made to date with it's frantic pace and vocals. They slow it down with Vox and Feet before upping gear yet again with excellent songs such as Arkadelphia and Alice Austen. That's pretty much the pattern for the whole album with the songs changing from the jangle pop to the more serious electronica based variety.

With the twelve songs clocking at under forty minutes Comfort Noise isn't going to be the album of the year nor will it change your life. However it will leave you with a grin on your face and a renewed sense of energy. Top stuff! (7/10)

You can listen to the album online here and you can buy it from Transformed Dreams.

Download Light Up My Life by Persil

Amazing. From bemoaning the fact that there is not enough socialism in music anymore on the way to the festival along came Chris TT in the acoustic tent to play my favourite set of the whole Truck Weekend.

"I've never been in favour of police brutality but when the huntsman comes a-marchin' well give him one for me, officer, give him one for me."

Chris TT is a folk singer whose songs deal with all aspects of life. However his last release, 9 Red Songs, was full of modern protest songs the likes of which Billy Bragg used to sing a long time ago. Indeed Billy gets a ribbing on Preaching To The Converted:

Nobody's got any good red songs anymore.
And Billy Bragg's gone fishing in his four by four.

He sung with such conviction and passion that one of our party had tears in his eyes. I found myself choking on some of the lyrics myself especially when he sung about the destruction of Britain's forests which covered half this country in 1945 and now barely covers 10% such is the need for motorways and bypasses. And judging by the applause at the end he was certainly preaching to the converted.

Poverty's bad war is bad racism's bad,
Well done, have a biscuit
Sing it out loud to a partisan crowd,
If everybody here agrees with me
Maybe I should go and sing to the enemies
But no, I don't want to risk it.

Chris TT - The Huntsman Comes A-Marchin (better download quick - it's due to be pulled very shortly)

Stream or download more songs via My Space - and before anyone comments on that he knows the irony!

Needless to say I picked up the album without hesitation.

Buy Chris TT

Rather than write a review about the Truck Festival (which was excellent by the way) I thought I would write about the bands/artists who I managed to catch but whom were previously unknown to me.

Shimura Curves are a South London band but don't hold that against them. If you can imagine The Pipettes fronting Kraftwerk then you may get a small inkling on how the band sounds. I can also hear hints of Sterolab in there amongst the Jesus and Mary Chain samples. The band consist of Kate (ex-The Lollies), Miss AMP, Marianna, and Anna Fielding. Apart from Kate's guitar the music just comes from the casio banks stored on their powerbook. The band had a certain charm amongst Marianna's sore throat, the heat, Anna's giggles and the computerised beats were just what was needed after the earlier disappointments in the lounge tent (I mean you Harlettes!). The songs are simple affairs although I'm not sure what they were called. Luckily I can recognise some of them from the demos I picked up. The Mary Chain samples on Just Like Friends means it's a standout for me although their ode to chocolate Sticky and Brown glides along smoothly. Shimura Curves - just like, erm, honey!

Shimura Curves - Just Like Friends

Shimura Curves - Sticky and Brown

Stream or download tracks from their My Space page.

The band have not yet released anything apart from tracks on compilations although a 7" single release is imminent on Brainlove Records as part of their 7" records club.

I have been busy these past few days hence the lack of posts. This sad state of affairs is set to continue as I am off to the Truck Festival for today and tomorrow. I hope to catch the likes of The Madeleines, Brakes, iForward Russia!, The Futureheads, Persil, Manic Cough and too many more to mention.

On the news front Love Ends In Disaster have released a free download three track single. Titled Fort Washington you can download it from here. There are also some other excellent tracks available for downloading too.

The Mayfields, another band from the late eighties, have a brand new track available exclusively at Mira El Pendulo. You can hear more on the bands My Space page.

Savefile has also stopped working on my machine hence the lack of updates to the Sarah singles series. I will have a look at other services on my return but it could be a return to rapidshare which I have never had problems with but I know a small minority of you do.

The Legends released a new single this week. Titled Lucky Star it's the follow up to the Play It For Today which was released a couple of months ago. Those nice people at Labrador have made a mp3 of the single available and after one listen my order was made!

The Legends - Lucky Star

Watch the video.

Buy Lucky Star

Indie MP3 - Keeping C86 Alive!

Please let me introduce, not myself, but what my contributions to this site will look like.

As Tom B is already making posts on a daily basis, as well as Magnus and Trev at times, this site is already great.

What I hope to add is some more depth in form of short interviews. These will be conducted with various people who are connected to music in one way or another.
(artists, labels, magazines, fanzines, radiochannels etc…)

The interviews will have four specifically made questions for each correspondent and five “My favourite” questions. Those five questions will be shorter and varied slightly from time to time.

Hope you will enjoy this feature on an already great site. Please feel free to comment the interviews and give feedback.

LOVE

It's hot. Unbearably so. It's hotter than Malta, Athens or even Bermuda. I certainly wouldn't want to be on a bus or tube in London today. Global warming eh? You would be a fool & a communist to suggest such a thing.

The Fall - British People In Hot Weather

I hope you are enjoying the Sarah Records posts. It diverts attention away from me not writing anything of note these past few days! In the meantime you can head over to some blogs I have come across or have been informed about:

xpqwrtz - this is my favourite blog at the moment with stories from the C86 years from Crayola who is also in the band Sarandon. Well funny and strikes a chord.

Fire Escape Talking - some good writing here. Check out the Anoraky In The UK post.

Pop 'N' Cherries - A blog from Belgium writing about indie pop.

17 Seconds - a brand new blog with an indie pop slant.

Open Your Eyes - An American music blog writing about new music.

14 Iced Bears - Come Get Me

Sarah Records On Koogy
Sarah Records - An Introduction
Sarah Records On Twee Net

Buy 14 Iced Bears

If you are wondering where Sarah # 004 is and why is it missing it's because it was a fanzine

I daresay probably most people who read this blog will know more about Secret Shine than I do. Tom did an excellent post about them the other day, and sometime soon their Sarah singles will be popping up here on this blog, namely Sarah #58, 61, 71 and the only one I've listened to and love to pieces, no. 89. This Popfest appears to be turning into a wholesome Sarah records reunion show as The Orchids are also playing.

Talking about no 89, I was immediately struck by the similarity to My Bloody Valentine, and since I love My Bloody Valentine I have no problem with listening to a band so obviously and delightfully influenced by them (on these tracks at least). I'd like to whet your appetite whilst waiting for the whole single/EP for download, and offer up for grabs two songs, and hope to meet some of you gazing at your shoes at New England Popfest this year.

Secret Shine - Deep thinker
Secret Shine - Liquid indigo

They have a new EP forthcoming in september.


In other news, I, Magnus, am off to Paris tomorrow to escape from the constaint rain and chilling wind in Reykjavik. Apparently there is a heatwave over there, and people are actually dying of heat, so I might be going out of the frying pan and into the fire.

However this imminent trip reminded me of a french band I meant to post about ages ago, Willial. An article about them which appaears to have been translated using Babelfish and posted unedited hardly reveals anything of interest. Suffice to say they write catchy guitar-layered pop, sometimes reminding me of The Pixies, but also revealing retro 60's trash influence much like that which The Raveonettes feed on. Sadly Willials official website is so infested with popups and ads that I dare not even go there again. But we can always enjoy these totally free mp3's that I highly recommend:

Willial - Je n'ai pas les temps
Willial - Je reve

Also from France are Watoo Watoo. They've just been hooked by Skipping Stones Records and derive some inspiration from the 70's, not least from the somewhat vulgar yet likeable hedgehog Serge Gainsbourg. I heartily recommend the song "Perdu" which can be streamed from their MySpace page.

Watoo Watoo - Gold mine

And here are lots of other mp3 goodies from Watoo Watoo. ....And so off to pack my toothbrush and passport!

Another Sunny Day - Anorak City

Sarah Records On Koogy
Sarah Records - An Introduction
Sarah Records On Twee Net

Buy Another Sunny Day

I'm guesting at The Bubble Death...All About Snappy Comebacks today. I have written a short piece on the Acid House Kings.

The Orchids - I've Got A Habit

Sarah Records On Koogy
Sarah Records - An Introduction
Sarah Records On Twee Net
Buy The Orchids from e-bay

The Orchids have released their first new track for ten years. Titled Another Saturday Night it can be found on the Little Darla Has A Treat For You: Endless Summer Edition: V24 Summer 2006 which is out now. The band have also been recording ten new tracks for an album, provisionally titled Good To Be A Stranger which is due for release this autumn. This is on top of all their previous material being released by LTM last year.

The Orchids - Another Saturday Night

Buy Little Darla Has A Treat For You: Endless Summer Edition: V24 Summer 2006

Buy the LTM Reissues of Lyceum, Striving For The Lazy Perfection and Unholy Soul.

The Sea Urchins - Pristine Christine

Sarah Records On Koogy
Sarah Records - An Introduction
Sarah Records On Twee Net
Buy Sea Urchins from e-bay

When The Loft split somewhat acrimoniously in 1985 few would have bet on them reforming some 21 years later complete with the somewhat condescending godfathers of indie tag. The band have been gigging again showcasing some new material resulting in the double a side Model Village/Rickerty Frame. It's their first release since 1985's wonderful Up The Hill And Down The Slope on Creation discounting 1989's posthumous roundup Once Around The Fair.

Has it been worth the wait? Simply put yes and I guess once you have class you will never lose it. The trademark Loft sound complete with the jangling guitars are still there as are the almost sullen vocals of Pete Astor. Model Village is a melancholy affair whilst Rickerty Frame is the livelier of the two as they hurry to finish the song before it's subject's wheels come off. And they still sing about the rain!

21 years you say? It's like they have never been away. Buy it!

The 7" single is limted to 400 copies. Alternatively you can purchase it digitally from indiestore.

Listen to previews of the tracks and old classics via their bands My Space Page.

The Loft have also had their previous recordings collated and released earlier this year on Revola (Cherry Red Records).

Article by Loft member Bill Prince in the Guardian on the release and the reformation.

Bunnygrunt's music has many characteristics of the so-called Twee-pop, yet the band apparently dislikes being labeled as such. Twee or not, their songs are short, simple and somewhat childish. The band was formed in 1993 and released their first album in 1995. The second album saw the light of day in 1998 and then promptly dissapeared from sight until a song of theirs appeared in the soundtrack to the movie Bad Santa in 2003.

To celebrate the movies release the band reformed to play a house party, and then there was no way back, again. 2005 saw the release of their third album on Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records.

I simply can't find an mp3 with the band on the internet, and they don't have an official website. Even hhbtm don't have any info on the band at all, so I considered myself lucky to find a fan page on MySpace devoted to them, to which you can head and stream four songs. Enjoy!

There's excellent info on them to be found on Wikipedia also.

A Real Life Drama is the follow up to last years The Best Is Yet To Come by The Swedish Band The Charade and boy they were not kidding.

It opens with the wonderful My Song To You which sets a benchmark for the rest of the album which passes with flying colours. Dressed In Yellow & Blue could well be the best known song on the album especially as this unofficial world cup anthem was recently voted the best Swedish World Cup song in Expressen which is biggest newspaper in that country. Don't You Know That A Goal Can Change Your Life sings Ingela and the rest of the album finds the back of the net as consistent as any in-form striker. The songs are blissful and focus on love, life, and relationships. The lyrics, which are sung beautifully by Ingela, are so simple but quite tender in their own sweet, and dare I say it, twee way.

Listening to the ten songs here is like a bowlie kid being let loose in the indie-pop sweetshop. 30 minutes of pure pop candy!

The Charade - Dressed In Yellow & Blue
The Charade - A Tough Decision

You can also stream songs from bands My Space page.

You can buy the album direct from Skipping Stones.

The Audrey album Visible Forms has now got a release date for the UK. It will be released on Stereo Test Kit Records on July 31st. I for one cannot wait. You can pre-order it here. In the meantime you can download two tracks from the album:

Audrey - Mecklenburg
Audrey - Views

Review to follow!

The album is currently available in Europe via Tendervision Recordings.

It is available from Parasol or It's A Trap for those in North America.

The Icicles have been one of my favorite bands since I first hit upon them over a year ago. They still manage to fascinate me with their lively and simple songs, and my band covered their Snowman Song and played it at quite a few concerts, spreading the word here in Reykjavik also. God, I love this band, and you will too!

Released on Microindie Records they've put out two albums so far, the EP Pure Sugar, and the LP A Hundred Patterns. Both are overflowing with delightfully catchy and boppy popsongs, laden with heartwarming backing vocals, toe-tapping drum beats and a squirt of 60's influence. If there's one thing I'm looking forward to seeing at the Popfest, it's this band. And they will also be boppin' and a hoppin' along with Dýrðin in Cake Shop in NYC on october 9th.

The Icicles - Snowman Song
The Icicels - Sugar Sweet (excerpt)

Visit them on Myspace, official site, or see about buying A Hundred Patterns.

I've never heard of The Brother Kite until now, but "walls of guitar" very accurately describe their sound. Hailing from Providence, Rhode Island, they generate a lot of energy with their sonic textures, so much that I'd not be surprised if they could light up a small town with it. Or a city. Here's some info from their one-sheet:

Thebrotherkite began crafting their shoegaze-inflected
rock sound in 2001, when founding members Patrick Boutwell and Jon Downs began writing and recording original material as a duo. Bassist Andrea Mason and guitarist Mark Howard joined them in 2002. As a quartet, thebrotherkite released a split 7" record with Ocean State cohorts Vaguely Starshaped on Boston's Losing Blueprint Records.

In early 2003, thebrotherkite set about recording their self-titled debut which, due to their phobia of conventional recording studios and methods, was a homegrown project in every sense of the word. Upon the album's completion, thebrotherkite found their fifth and final member, percussionist Matt Rozzero. As a quintet(and with the valuable assistance of a carefully-programmed Apple iPod) they were finally able to successfully recreate their layered sound in a live setting. thebrotherkite is a stirring dream-pop experiment that is as absorbing as it is challenging-and one that no discerning listener should go without.

They'll be playing the sunday night show of the New England Popfest. Do check out their energetic mp3's:

The Brother Kite - Simply say my name
The Brother Kite - The music box

There are more songs available for download on their website, and streaming via their MySpace page.

Next up: Bunnygrunt!

The Envelopes released their latest single yesterday. It's a remix of a track taken from the Demons album. Titled "I Don´t Even Know" it has been remixed by LA Priest and it's a killer! It's available on 12" only and is limited to 500 copies.

You can listen to it via My Space and/or buy from HMV or Rough Trade although it's not showing up on their website yet.

Krister, who wrote the excellent C86 essay, also wrote to me to say that he put together a compilation based on the same theme in April this year. This was a one-off and the only CD produced was given away as a competition prize. Actually no one won so he gave it to a friend:

The track listing was:

A
1. Primal Scream – Subterranean
2. Postal Blue – It Won’t Last
3. The Sealevel – My Mistakes
4. Math & Physics Club – Graduation Day
5. The Liberty Ship – Cubans In the Bluefields
6. The Snowdrops – Sleepydust (12” version)
7. Apple Orchard – A Hiding Smile
8. The Budgies – Friends In Literature
9. The Lil’ Hospital – Heavy Metal
10. The Parcels – Jessica Pancakes
11. Javelins – Nastacular
12. The Groove Farm – Just a Silly Phase I’m Going Through

B
1. Tales of Jenny – Prague Spring
2. Belle & Sebastian – For the Price of a Cup of Tea
3. Saturday Looks Good to Me – Love Will Find You
4. The Arrogants – Cool Shoes
5. The Carousel – Like a Honey Bee (Honey Bee)
6. Snow Fairies – Thank God For the New York Public Library
7. The Film Stills – Let’s Go Away
8. The Clientele – When She’s Tired of Dancing
9. The June Brides – Enemies
10. Hey Paulette – Commonplace
11. The Hepburns – Tokyo Rollerball Cheerleader Chant
12. Prefab Sprout – Goodbye Lucille #1
13. Gentle Touch – Smedby

Actually it got me thinking. If I put together a compilation for the C06 theme it would differ to the one compiled by readers of this blog. I'm sure it would be the same for others as well. What would yours be? Again compile a list (no more than 20 tracks) of mp3's freely available on the net with links to the artist page and the mp3 itself then send it to me at the site address. Prizes, compiled from the CD's I have been sent for review, will be available to the winners. Entries to be in no later than August 11th 2006 and moi decision will be final.

I bumped into Ian from How Does It Feel To Be Loved at the Love Is All gig the other week. He suggested that this compilation he has put together could be called C06! And with that track listing who can blame him. It's titled The Kids At The Club:

Voxtrot, "The Start Of Something"
I'm From Barcelona, "We're From Barcelona"
Irene, "Stardust"
Saturday Looks Good To Me, "Edison Girls"
Butcher Boy, "Days Like These Will Be The Death Of Me"
Lucky Soul, "Give Me Love"
Fanfalo, "Elephant Graveyard"
Salty Pirates, "Black Minds, White Lies"
Tender Trap, "Ampersand"
Stars Of Aviation, "Marie Et L'Accordeon"
Wintergreen, "The Magic Road"
Shimura Curves, "Noyfriend"
The Gresham Flyers, "Blackpool"
Language Of Flowers, "You're The One"
Amida, "Virtue Was Your Downfall"
Strange Idols, "She's Gonna Let You Down Again"
Pocketbooks, "The First World Record"
Fosca, "I've Agreed To Something I Shouldn't Have"
Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, "Seems To Be On My Mind"

It's released on September 4th 2006. Pre-order it here.

It's finally complete. A month or so ago I asked for readers of this blog to suggest tracks for a compilation called C06 or CDR 2006 as a few of you wags have suggested! A big thanks to all those who made suggestions or entered the artwork contest. I have been making my way through the nominations and some had to be left out due to quality of the available mp3 or that they are no longer available. Where this was the case I substituted another track by the same artist. Well its been compiled, the tracks have been tagged & mp3 gained and the artwork competition was won by Ulla (who still needs to contact me for her goodies).

There are some great tracks here from bands I have not heard before. These include tracks by Cowboy X, Bubblegum Lemonade, Michael Knight and Goof. I was also torn between what tracks to suggest so maybe we should start compiling volume two!!!

The track listing is:

01 - The Love Letter Band - This World Is Not My Home
02 - Mon Fio - Alexis
03 - Apple Orchard - A Hiding Smile
04 - Celestial - Dream On
05 - Santa Dog - Rosa
06 - Umlaut - Lea Green
07 - A Place To Bury Strangers - Dont Think Lover
08 - Chuzzlewit - Verga
09 - Loveninjas - Keep Your Love
10 - Rocket Punch - Pink Cashmere
11 - Shrugged - Tattooed Heart
12 - Crumb - Follow Me Home
13 - Pelle Carlberg - Clever Girls
14 - Compute - Every Chance
15 - Bib - I Wanna Be A Better
16 - Bobby Baby - Lucky Moments
17 - Goof - Dancing Shoes
18 - Sarandon - Meet Warren
19 - Bubblegum Lemonade - Tyler
20 - Michael Knight - Waves To The Shore
21 - The Sweethearts - Into The Woods
22 - The Factory Owners - Elephants Mean Death
23 - Cowboy X - Gabbi
24 - Math And Physics Club - Movie Ending Romance

All tracks were made freely available by the artists when this compilation was put together.

Let me know what you think in the comments or via e-mail.

Download from here.

EDIT: People have mentioned that the CD Covers have printed too small. Sorry about that and creativity is not my strong point. I have enclosed the original image so you can make up your own covers. Note that Mono Fio (track two) should read Mon Fio!

In this months Uncut (August 2006 issue) under the feature The Stars That Time Forgot is an interview with Stephen Pastel. It's an excellent interview and I will upload a scan at some point. However the most telling part of the interview, aside from two new Pastel's albums, is that the band are currently preparing for the 20th anniversary gig at the ICA this autumn!

This is the first confirmation I have seen in print since Uncut broke the story earlier this year. However there is still no news on the ICA site nor is there anything about the proposed documentary by Bob Stanley.

Thanks to Julian for the tip off. I'm a Mojo man myself!

Tomihira hail from the San Francisco Bay area, and have been getting rave reviews for their recent album, Play Dead. They do remind me a little bit of Joydivison, and have been likened to them as well as The Cure, Radiohead and various great bands of shoegaze fame. Indeed as I write this I hear the Cure influence in the song "Maddy and Josh" which is currently playing on my computer, and I like it.

"Heartbroken", "Sad", "Melancholic" and "Dreamy" are all words that have been used to describe them, and even "Erotic". You'd do well to take notice of this band, they seem poised to make a name for themselves in the near future.

Tomihira - Color of Destroyed
Tomihira - Maddy and Josh

Lots more songs on their website, where their album can be bought for measly $5.

T.C.R. Another excellent spanish band, much like Juniper Moon, that has now disbanded. I found this song on the excellent Dance to the Sun blog, and I quote;

T.C.R. were a group from Barcelona that do not exist anymore. They released two CDs full of angry and edgy songs on the Subterfuge label. They had fantastic live performances and lots of good reviews but nothing major seemed to happen when they were around and the band disintregrated soon. This track (De la A a la Z - From A to Z) was included in their 2nd CD "Paro, Siesta, Días de Fiesta".

You can read more about them on the Subterfuge website, and the album featuring this song can be bought here.

T.C.R. - De la ‘A’ a la ‘Z’ (From A to Z)

Anyone who has been described as if Felt had signed to 4ad is going to get me to stand up and take notice. Easy to please eh? Anyway that's what has been said about the Californian based Hope Chest so I thought I had better check them out.

The band, who may have possibly been named after a 10,000 Maniacs album, have been around for years according to their biography and their first line-up was formed in 1992. They have released a number of cassettes and CD's including the My Huckleberry Friend 7" released in 2004. They hope to have a new album released later this year.

There are four songs available on their My Space page culled from various releases including, I presume, from, the forthcoming release. Three comes from 1993's A Sentimental EP and the music sounds very much in a Lush like vein. Of course the male vocals sound nothing like Miki Berenyi's!!! October comes from Ecstasy on Main Street which is not listed on the bands biography and has a much more mature sound. The other two tracks come from the album due for release this year - i'm presuming here. Killjoy is a gentler affair and it still has that Lush like guitar sound. Sadly I could not get the other track to play despite my best endeavours. Still there is enough here to warrant investigating.

My Space is up the creek at the moment (and has been for a couple of days now) so I cannot download anything or link directly to the files. You will need to stream them from here. There are tracks available for downloading from Soundclick but you need a free account before downloading.

You can also listen to the band's cover of New Order's 1963 here.

EDIT: I have collected the two soundclick tracks plus a wma of 1963 and have uploaded them to yousendit.com.

A round up of news and snippets:

The Nightingales who reformed in 2004 have a new single out. Titled Let's Think About It it is out on Fake Records. The band are playing London's Buffalo Bar on Saturday 8th July 2006 with support from Manic Cough and Theoretical Girl. You can stream the single from the bands My Space page or head to their sites music page where you can listen to recent live recordings or listen to tracks from eons ago!

Tender Trap have released their latest album on Matinee. It's called 6 Billion People and you can listen to previews here. It includes the single Talking Backwards which I reviewed here. Sounds XP likes the album.

I got an e-mail from someone called Jon who was concerned that I have not covered Champion Kickboxer or Smokers Die Younger. Sadly I cannot write about everything (although I wish I could) and it's not like I have not mentioned Thee SPC recently. Anyway here are some mp3's from both bands:

Smokers Die Younger - I Spy Dry Fear
Champion Kickboxer - Perforations
Champion Kickboxer - Maximum

Another recommendation this time in the form of The Mustonens. This lot are Swedish and I saw them mentioned on Swedes Please a while back. Craig from the blog was struggling with how to describe their sound and to be honest I cannot blame him. Someone thinks they could be influenced by cheesy dating shows from the 1970's and they may have a point. Anyway see what you think:

The Mustonens - Disco Ok
The Mustonens - Fly Fly Fly

See the bands music page for more tracks. They also have a My Space page.

And the recommendations keep on coming:

Aiden Eve & The Innocent - Hmmm and now for something different?
Tomihira - Indie rock with a wide ranging source of influences such as The Cure, New Order, Cocteau twins and Slowdive amongst the many given. They have a new CD out at the moment which sixeyes likes.
Unearthred Treasures - A new blog complete with the motto digging up new music. It comes complete with reviews and a podcast.

And Finally

Talking about My Space has anyone managed to download anything from there in the past few days? I'm trying to download tracks nominated for the C06 compilation and keep getting the file not found error. Any ideas or help gratefully received!