Funky Monkey

Todays tracks come from a 7" single released by the band Funky Monkey in 2002. I know little about the band but the A-side "Tomorrow's Girl" features the vocals of Saint Etienne's Sarah Cracknell while the b-side "L.A. Riot" is slightly more funkier than I'd imagine a riot to be. Both songs were featured on the band's CD "Join Us In Tomorrow" which is apparently a mixture of old songs and singles.

All I Am Is Loving You

Continuing on from yesterday and Scottish pop that emerged after the likes of Orange Juice and Aztec Camera we have The Bluebells who on the back of, I think, a car commercial scored a number one hit single during 93 in the UK with the re-rerelease of their song "Young At Heart" by which time the band had long since broken up but got back together to mime on Top Of The Pops. In their lifetime the band only released one album "Sisters" in 1984 but it still stands up as a fine album today but it is a strange mix of pop singles mixed with overtly political songs like "The Patriot Game" and the of its time "South Atlantic Way" after the band split the songs recorded for their next album eventually surfaced as the aptly titled "Second" but for a good introduction to the band there is also a singles album still available.

Swallows In The Rain

In the post-Postcard era of Scottish pop Glasgow bands were ensuring the clothes stores of the city were doing a roaring trade in Aztec Camera style checked shirts and fringed suede jackets. Of these some bands dented the charts with varying degrees of success (The Bluebells, Lloyd Cole & The Commontions) and others, like Friends Again really should have but for whatever reason it wasn't to be. The band released one album "Trapped and Unwrapped" in 1984 and several singles from it including Honey At The Core with the immortal line about moon boots chaffing! How could have not been a hit. When the band split the two songwriters James Grant and Chris Thompson formed Love and Money and The Bather respectively and released several albums between them.

California One

The Decemberists are one of those bands I knew existed and on the few times I heard a song of theirs I thought "I really like this" and then promptly forget about them. Well oh foolish me! Having now heard their three albums, including "Picaresque" out TODAY I have seen the error of my ways and if you haven't already implore you to do likewise. Definitely ploughing their own furrow the band take that mainstay of pop songs the sailors lament, or tales of Chim(b)ley sweeps and turn them into wonderful pop moments with a sprig of amateur dramatics thrown in for good measure. Basically the whole thing has the capacity to suck badly but the band carry it off with aplomb. Ten years ago the band would have found their spiritual home on El Records and now they're on Kill Rock Stars. Go figure. The songs below represent one track from each of thier albums and if you pop over to the Brooklyn Vegan blog you can find a live cover version of a Joanna Newsom song. If you like the image above you can purchase the limited edition poster of it at the link below as well.

Download - The Decemberists - The Soldering Life from "Her Majsty The Decemberists

Download - The Decemberists - How I Dreamt I Was An Architect from "Castaways And Cutouts"

Download - The Decemberists - The Engine Driver from "Picaresque"

The Decemberists cover Joanna Newsom here

The bands website canne be found here

Buy the poster show above here

Draining The Pool For You

Back after my own little spring break. I've meant to post concerning The Go-Betweens for probably as long as I've been doing this blog. Simply put, The Go-Betweens are my favorite band and have been for many years. In fact they played a big part in turning me on to indie music in general. I was lent a copy of their "16 Lovers Lane" album and fell in love with the pop simplicity of it. I was then steered in the direction of Aztec Camera, Orange Juice, The Smiths and the rest is history (and far too many albums). Sadly I never got to see the classic Go-Betweens lineup before they split but when songwriters Robert Forster and Grant McLennan got back together to record the album "The Friends Of Rachel Worth" and tour with it we got to see them three times in NY/NJ. Since then all of the band's albums have been re-released with the extra disc treatment and a new album "Oceans Apart" will be out in April. So for those who haven't heard the band before today we have a link to their UK label site where you can download a whole bunch of their best singles and by way of a change here we have a video clip of the band playing one of the songs from the new album.


Download Go-Betweens MP3s here

Excellant Go-Betweens website can be found here

Stuff I've written about the band can be found here

Autour De Lucie

The two songs today from Autour De Lucie’s debut album “L’ échappée Belle” which was released in 1994. Since then the band released three albums in the US and last year another self titled album in France only. Over the course of these albums the band have added more electronic sounds to their songs but these two are fine examples of the great music on this first album. I haven’t got anything else to say today as most of the websites with pieces about the band are in French and I only got as far as being able to tell someone the dog is in the garden in French. I checked and I found no mention of this in these articles concerned.


The band's website can be found here

Rainy Days and Mondays

If I Were A Carpenter released in 1994 was a (then) all-star tribute to The Carpenters, which, like most tribute albums was a decidely hit or miss affair. The best tracks on it take the original songs and add at least something a bit different to them while some you're much better off listening to the originals. What's probably most interesting is looking at the bands involved and seeing how their careers haave fluctuated in the last ten years. So alongside the still with us (Sonic Youth, Matthew Sweet) and the reformed (American Music Club, Cracker) we have the best forgotton (4 Non Blondes) and who the hell were they in the first place? (Johnette Napolitano). Two of the better songs were the covers by American Music Club and Shonen Knife and I wish I had the Paul Quinn versiion of "Superstar" to post as well, maybe someone could hook us up?


Buy The Album here

The new Peters and Lee

Why is it that any male/female duo that comes along are now labelled as "The White Stripes if blah blah blah"? Were the WWhite Stripes referred to as "Royal Trux if they took less drugs" so The Kills are "The White Stripes but even more bluesy" and on the front of "American Whip" the second album by Joy Zipper their record label have helpfully put a sticker telling the world that the band are like The White Stripes if they jumped into Brian Wilson's sandbox and started building castles. Or something like that. It's just as well the actual music contained within warrents looking past this sad marketing as the band have taken the dreamy classic pop quality of thier debut album and whereas the first album was made up of their demos this time they have beeen given time to let the songs develop totally and although the songs do look back to influences like The Beach Boys they also contain nods to the likes of Stereolab.

Download - Joy Zipper - Check Out My New Jesus from their debut album

Download - Joy Zipper - Out Of The Sun from "American Whip

More streaming songs can be found at the band's website here

Boo Up!

The Boo Radleys are definitely a band that history appears to have forgotten in terms of how popular they are. It wasn't until I looked up the history of the band that I realised they had a number one album in the UK with "Wake Up!" in 95. The problem was this was on the back of the top ten success of the "Wake Up Boo!" single which ended up being so overplayed that the albums that followed sold less and less copies so by the time their final album "Kingsize" appeared in 98 it peaked at a low 62. It seems that the band's earlier releases are now cruelly overlooked, with their first two albums "Everythings Alright Forver" in 92 and their best album "Giant Steps" in 93 displaying a band full of fire and imagination. Todays downloads are tracks from these two albums and their cover of New Order's "True Faith." The website listed below has a bunch of tracks from their earlier singles.

A Gentle Sound

At one point Factory Records came up with the great idea of releasing the cassette versions of their albums in larger card boxes with typically lush inserts. This may have been just so they could fit the title of the debut Happy Mondays album on the sleeve, but amongst the New Order albums they also brought out the mini album by The Railway Children in this format which I bought at the time because they included their debut single "A Gentle Sound" on the tape which they left off the vinyl version. After "Reunion Wilderness" the band moved onto Virgin records who tried to push the band by focussing on the pin-up qualities of vocalist Gary Newby and resorted to releasing up to five different versions of each single and still seeing it falter at 59 in the charts. After two albums, "Recurrence" in 88 and "Native Place" in 90 the band split until Newby kept the name and released "Dream Arccade" in 99. A great introduction to the band would be one of the best ofs currently out there and Newby has recently released anm album of acoustic versions of their most popular songs.

The Railway Children website can be found here

Bed, Table, Chair

The Edsel Auctioneer were Leeds' answer to Dinosaur Jr. and appeared around the time (98) when UK bands like Teenage Fanclub were taking elements from US bands like Dinosaur and Buffalo Tom, throwing in influences like Neil Young and producing a glorious pop noise. The two songs today were the double A Sides of their debut 7". The band released two albums "Simmer" in 92 and "The Good Time Music Of" in 95.

Kick Over The Statues!

One of my collection of surreal pop moments would be turning on breakfast television one morning to find, in the 7.55 “pop” slot just before the wacky weather forecast and the 30 seconds of new at 8.00, The Redskins' video for “Keep On Keepin’ On.” Suitably ready to smash the system I then went off to my work experience placement at Barclays Bank and put checks through a franking machine!
For one brief moment in the mid eighties the Redskins brand of Motown meets punk meets The Jam and political manifestos made perfect sense. Thatcher was bringing the UK to its knees and removing the last remnants of trade union power and music in the UK had embraced politics to such an extent that the likes of Wham! and Spandau Ballet were even writing social commentary. So when The Redskins appeared on the scene with NME writer and main Redskin Chris Moore declaring he wanted the band to sing like the Supremes and walk like The Clash we all pretended to know exactly what he meant. The band released a series of great singles and they were all featured on their only album “Neither Washington…Nor Moscow”


A history of the band can be found here

Buy the album here

The Anti Midas Touch

Isn't it nice when someone does your job for you? This is definitely the case with The Wolfhounds There really is no need to go into any detail about this fine band as the website linked to below contains everything you would possibly need to know about the band along with a slew of MP3's. You will also find there an unreleased Stereolab track. The two MP3s here today were both singles by the band. If aanyone out there has an MP3 of their song "Anti-Midas Touch" please let me know.

Also today after the shocking news concerning Edwyn Collins who was admitted to hospital over the weekend after suffering a brain haemorrhage I thought it would be apt to post the track below and hope his condition improves.


The complete guide to The Wolfhounds can be found here

The Cassingle Revival

The Lucksmiths are the other band that got me to where I am today.....

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Driving on what seems the wrong side of the road from East Brunswick to Princeton, the air conditioning not working so the windows wound right down, the warm summer air flooding in. I'm marvelling at fire hydrants & yellow school buses while she's doing her level best not to get us both killed. Both of us singing along, her loudly & in tune me vainly trying to hide my tunelessness but guessing by her occasional giggles failing badly........

Squashed into an airline seat at four in the morning, somewhere over the Atlantic, still rewinding the previous week in my head, feeling like the kid who got up on Xmas morning to find not only the Subbuteo table football set under the tree but a stand full of plastic supporters as well. Looking out the window and the ever diminishing darkness, the deep red fire of sunset & the brightness of daybreak beyond. The comfort that I'm almost home, give or take several hundred miles, so I can phone at least & hear her voice again.

Looking down & suddenly realising I'm staring at Portchester, the castle & my parents house & then three hours later drawing into Portsmouth railway station and at that very moment it starts to pour with rain. Pretty much summing up my depression at being back here, back to mundaneness & even worse that now it felt like I'd managed to stand on half my table football team & the dog's eaten the plastic football. Or as The Lucksmiths put it:

"Here's me
Here's you
Draw a line between the two
This is cartography for beginners
On a map the gap's three fingers
But it's much more than that"

The song, "Guess How Much I Love You", one of many wonderful pop moments from their most recent album "A Good Kind Of Nervous" Songs that you'll want to hug, to laugh along to. Songs about train robbers wives & serial killers, about big dreams & stifled relationships delivered with a simple charm. Songs to treasure.

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When Amanda and I got married the band's "Guess How Much I Love You" was our wedding song which probably confused the guests expecting Celine Dion. When we put out our first CD, "A Boy, A Girl & A Rendez-Vous" they kindly recorded "Mars" for us, the vocals sang down a phone line between Australia and England and a resulting song that is different from all their others and one that was perfect for us. "Little Athletics" is another favorite from their album "A Good Kind Of Nervous" which is still the one I play the most. The band have just released another great EP which you can hear the title track of by following the link to the Matinee website below. You can buy a bunch of their recordings there and most of the others from the Microindie site also linked. The band are coming back to the US in late April for a short tour so if you can I'd highly recommend getting out to see them.

Download - The Lucksmiths - Mars

Hear the bands new single and buy lots of CDs here

Buy even more CDs here

The band's website can be found here

Just Moved In

Idha Ovelius it can be safe to say owes her relative success to her boyfriend/husband Andy Bell of Ride/Hurricane #1/Oasis fame. Bell inspired her to take up guitar after meeting him at a Ride concert and his influence no doubt helped her end up on Creation. This would usually be the end of this story but things took a turn for the interesting when her first album "Melody Inn" showed a songwriter with a deep love of the likes of Bobbie Gentry and eclipsed anything the plodding dull Hurricane #1 managed. Her follow up, "Troublemaker" was even better with the two songs here today examples of the strength of the music. Sadly nothing has been heard of Idha since but hopefully another poor Oasis album may mean Mrs Bell may need to go back to her day job.

Slip So Low

See See Rider were a band dogged with bad luck throughout their brief existance. Signed to Lazy Records, briefly in vogue as home to The Primitives and Birdland, the band also featured Pete Tweedie ex drummer of The Primitives. They picked up a bunch of press for their debut EP which featured the two songs here today "She Sings Alone" a fine example of Nico fronting the Velvet Underground via East Kilbride and "See See" on the flipside a longer, epic song that was probably their finest moment. At this point, when another single would have really pushed the band forward, singer May ROCK Marshall was involved in a motorbike acccident and it took over a year for the follow-up single to appear. The band then signed to Elektra but Tweedie then left after an onstage fight. He was then followed by guitarist Phil King who went on to join Lush.

For the story of play-doh Katamari Damacy and more pictures go here

Public Service or Hit Counting?

I'm sure people's perception of the point to blogs specifically MP3 blogs may be different from mine. I do this primarily to hopefully introduce people to music I love that they are often unlikely to hear otherwise. Usually because it's from ten plus years ago from a band that no longer exist and it only came out on vinyl. Now it is of course heartening to see how many people visit Turquoise Days on a day to day basis and to know people are listening to this music. New/Current bands are a different matter to me, If a band is releasing music now I have (so far) only linked to MP3 files that the band/label have posted because this is what the band want people to hear or something like a radio session that again the band did for the public to hear for free. What I tend to have a problem with is a blog posting a whole bunch of tracks or a link to a whole album by a band which have been ripped from a pre-release CD. Maybe I'm missing the point here but if all you want to do is download an album before its released why not sit on Limewire or whatever?

My point if I have one is the whole point of an MP3 blog to me is:

1. Go to blog, in this case Bzangy Groink

2. Read about Jyoti's favorite albums of 2004 and see mention of Say Hi To Your Mom

3. Download songs, discover a band making the most subtle of pop music that taps you on the shoulder several days after you heard it and whsipers the chorus into your ear so you can't forget it.

4. Go to store, buy both their albums, "Numbers and Mumbles" released last year and "Discosadness" from 2002.

5. Eagerly await forthcoming releases.

6. In the meantime check out more MP3 blogs not offering the new Beck album.

Download lots of great songs by Say Hi To Your Mom here

Born In A Maisonette

I'm sure the fact that Mighty Mighty spent most of their career on Chapter 22 records didn't help them. Some labels encourage collectors to eagerly await their next release and investigate every new signing. Chapter 22, well I love The Mission and Rose Of Avalanche so this jingly jangly indie band is right up my street. What is strange is the fact that the band managed one album when still around, "Sharks", and three, count em, three albums since they split. So for all you Mighty Mighty fans out there (there must be thousands judging by that release program!) we have the a-sides of two of their singles. Apparently the singer wanted a girl built like a car? I guess this was a specific car as my car is a 91 Cadillac with a leaky fuel tank and speakers that intermitantly blast me with feedback, almost nothing like my wife! Actually if anyone's interested email me with an offer, for the car that is. All of their albums can be purchased from Vinyl Japan at the link below.


Vinyl Japan and their landfill of Mighty Mighty releases can be found here

Lonesome Music

The Lonesome Music blog has sadly appeared to have gone into hibernation but one of the last posts features a downloadable American Music Club compilation. 24 songs from throughout their career this is the perfect introduction to the band and should show you if you don't know already why so many people love this band.
Download the zipped file here

The Strange Famous Mullet Remover

Two artists today who couldn’t be more different from one another on the surface but who’s recent, and not so recent, albums have been my most played at the moment. I’ll be interested to see if regular readers/listeners like both or either so please comment.

New York based Laura Cantrell has recently signed to Matador records for her forthcoming album but has already released two great albums “Not The Tremblin’ Kind” in 2000 and “When The Roses Bloom Again” in 2002. The first album moved John Peel enough to say:
“My favorite record of the last ten years and possibly my life is an LP by a New York woman born in Nashville called Laura Cantrell. It’s country, and I don’t know why I like it, but it has the same sort of effect on me as Roy Orbison had in the ‘60s.”
Yes both albums are to be found in the country section of your record store but this is country music that takes its influences from the roots of the genre mixes in folk and classic singer songwriters. It really is country music for people who have no interest in guys in cowboy hats singing about good ol boys. On her website there are a slew of fine downloads including this duet with Ballboy, an Elvis Costello cover and the title track of her second album, which was an outtake from the Wilco/Billy Bragg Woody Guthrie sessions.


Download - Laura Cantrell w/ Ballboy - I Lost You

Download - Laura Cantrell - Indoor Fireworks

Download - Laura Cantrell - When The Roses Bloom Again

Buy CDs and more downloads are here

Now this may come as a huge shock but I am no expert on hip-hop. Like most people as a student I brought “It Takes A Nation Of Millions”, “Three Feet High and Rising” and the first A Tribe Called Quest album but apart from dipping into the Quannum/Blackalicious catalogues I know little about the music. I know I have no frame of reference or interest in the majority of releases and I’m sure that’s just fine with Lil Jon or whoever. But every so often I’ll hear a track that is so good even I get it. One of those was “Makeshift Patriot” a free download from Sage Francis in the wake of 911, which perfectly captured my mood, and many of my friends at the time. This seemed to marked a shift in direction for Francis as his prior album “Personal Journals” was just that a rap album dominated by fear and loathing, boast free and was labeled as Emo rap by journalists who just love to categorize. The new album “A Healthy Distrust” sees Francis turns his gaze and lyrical dexterity to the world around him to glorious effect, delivering raps on the invasion of Iraq and raps gun fixation. Probably the closest album I have to this was the debut from The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, which also combined rap with politics and at times industrial beats. Francis is also joined by Will Oldham on the track “Sea Lions” which many regard as the highlight of the album. The album actually ends with Francis’ tribute to his hero Johnny Cash so maybe he does have a link to Cantrell.

Sage Francis downloads from "A Healthy Distrust" can be found here

Download - Sage Francis - Different from "Personal Journals"

Sweet Peas

Cub were an all female trio from Canada who between 93 and 96 released three albums of ramshackle guitar pop that would appeal to fans of Go Sailor and Beat Happening. Todays song pretty much sums up everything that was good about them and can be found on their first album "Betti-Cola" Obviously the song should be called My Guinea Pig but I guess it wouldn't scan properly.

Today's other song is by, Manchester band I think, Laugh. Way back when the NME or Melody Maker did a benefit video cassette of indie bands for the UK housing charity Shelter. This included this song by Laugh and I very taken I was by it to. So taken in fact that I promptly forgot about the band until finding this single in a store recently. Apparenttly the band also released an album "Sensation Number One" on sub-aqua records so if anyone can knows more about the album let me know.

The Good Humor Man Is A Polar Bear

Go here for a Valentine's day video from Aberfeldy

Bring Trouble

Excerpts from Red Roses For Me 6 - The perfect solution is now at hand, it's called "Understand" it's by Brian and features eight perfectly formed pop gems bought to you by those bastions of good taste at Setanta. Recorded for a staggeringly small amount of money in a living room, Brian isn't in fact a band but one person. This gives my poor comparison of an overall feeling that this would sit somewhere between the pop sensibilities of early Lightning Seeds & the already mentioned before but hell lets be reckless Another Sunny Day some credence at least.

The songs get off to a fine start with the title track itself, a basic drum machine beat interwoven with chiming guitar producing a perfect simple melody & a mournful whisper in the ear vocal. This makes the don't worry I've been through it before chorus of "I Understand" actually ring true. "You Don't Want A Boyfriend" is a tear stained letter to THAT person asking that age old question "why are you going out with him when he treats you so badly, while I worship the ground you walk on?" As the song sums itself up "I've heard it said before & I find it's true, the more you give yourself away to someone the less they think of you"

Since then Brian released three EPs and a full length album "Bring Trouble" but nothing since 2000. A couple of the CDs including "Understand" is available at the Setanta store link below.

Brian releases are available here

Flippin Heck Tucker!

I feel like I have finally arrived or something. Actually I think the link below just proves you can sell any old crap on ebay. I have to say even with inflation I'm not sure my first attempt at a fanzine, produced on a typerwriter with pictures quite literally cut an pasted and then badly photocopied at work before anyone got in every morning is worth the massive 99p the bidding currently stands at but I can confirm it's one of the first few copies where I forgot how to spell Goodbye Mr Mckenzine on the cover.

Forget toast that looks like a member of The Arcade Fire, bid on a real piece of indie history! it's item number 3872330292 or you can find it by searching for red roses for me fanzine

When The Truth Hits Home

As the trend for mash-up mixes or whatever this week's name have taken hold you have of course been deluged by a lot of bad Beastie Boys/Jay-Z/Missey Elliott vs. whoever mixes but amongst the sea of mediocrity you have people like The Kleptones, the recent DJ Food megamix and Go Home Productions alias Mark Vidler who has consistantly produced mixes overflowing with imagination, humor and most importantly don't just take the acapella mix and try and cram it over another song.

Now, you may well be asking where this all fits in with the usual Turquoise Days fare, where's the tale of the smallish indie band who were met with apathy released some fine songs and then trudged back to their day jobs? Well in 1991 there was a band called Chicane who, yes you guessed it, released some fine singles, were met with apathy and that of course is usually that. But in this case fast forward a few years and it turns out Mark Vidler was a member of that band and started producing these great mixes. These got more and more attention with regular plays on the like of XFM in the UK and then he produced "Ray Of Gob" the mix which as he put it enabled him to give up his day job and concentrate on music again. Official mixes have followed for the likes of Bowie, The Vines and a chance to mix stuff for the new Gang Of Four release and he still finds time to produce tracks like the one posted on hiss website this week "Breakin' My Bloody Process" fuses Kasabian, The Music and My Bloody Valentine with bits of The Stone Roses thrown in for good measure. Check out his website and I guarantee you'll find at least one thing you'll enjoy. His blog linkeed below also contains a complete history of Chicane with a whole slew of songs to download.

Go Home Productions mixes are here

The History of Chicane can be found here

Wensleydale

Tart not to be confused with those other bands Tart and Tart were based in Chicago in the mid nineties. At one point someone from Number One Cup was in the band and they released at least one other single apart from the one the song below "Kite" comes from. This song has a kind of Belly sound to it and I wish I could tell you more about the band or find some more recordings so if anyone can help apparently blogger have tweaked the comments process on here so maybe you could give it a try?

Tiger were music press darlings between 96-98 and started off releasing the single "Shining In The Woods" on Fierce Panda. What I especially like about this song is you can make up nonsense to shout out during the female vocal parts of the verses but maybe that's just me? The band released two albums on Island offshoot Trade 2 which are worth a listen especially the second "Rosaria"

Plink Plonk Fizz

I was so excited to be browsing ebay a week or so ago and find that Jim at Egg Records had released a CD EP by The Hardy Boys. The CD features what was meant to be a single in 1991 but never happened. I released a song by the band on a compilation tape around that time and had heard these songs then but managed to lost the cassette they were on at some point. So to get the chance to hear them again after all this time was such a pleasure. The EP also highlights the depth of the bands songs from the guitar pop of "Let The World Smother You" to the dancier "Plink Plonk Fizz" featuring a samplee of I believe future Loaded magazine editor James Brown extolling the benefits of ecstacy. Even better news is there will soon be a full length CD compilation containing everything the band recorded. This will include the other song you can download from Tom at indie MP3, "Harbour Lights" once again another side of the band.

Download The Hardy Boys "Let The World Smother You" and "Harbour Lights" here

The Egg Records website can be found here

Back In Your Town

In the late eighties Ric Menck and Paul Chastain seemed to be releasing singles under different names at an alarming but very welcome rate, The Big Maybe, Stupid Cupids, Springfields, and Velvet Crush all beared their hallmarks of great pop tunes infused with an appreciation of the best of 60s music. Added to this list can be the two singles they released on the Bus Stop label under the name Bag O Shells, the first of which is featured here today. "Markers" b/w "Almost Home" is probably one of my favorite 7" singles of all time, it just emcompasses everything that is just so right about the format and the two songs just scream out for an old fashioned record player that could be set up to replay a single without you having to get up and move the arm.

Download - Bag O Shells - Almost Home

Download - Bag O Shells - Markers

We Walk Around

So in the interests of picking up records I never brought with me when I moved to the US, and to find songs I really want to feature here I have frequently found myself "diggin in the crates" as I believe the cool kids call it at the used music stores in this part of New Jersey (Princeton record exchange, vintage vinyl) and here I have come to the conclusion that in your better used vinyl stores along side every 70s rock album you wouldn't want you will without fail find the very excellant one and only full length album by Colourbox. First things first, don't confuse this self titled album with their mini album of early singles also self titled. Easy to spot difference the mini album has a sleeve featuring a fetching photograph of a horse's penis.

Colourbox consisted of brothers Martyn and Steve Young and stuck out like a sore thumb on the 4AD rosta at the time that consisted of The Cocteau Twins and lots of bad goth bands. Colourbox were really a band out of time mixing samples, guitars and beats, dub influences and single sleeves of Jimmy Hill at long before dance "pioneers" Leftfield and Underworld discovered it. The last release featuring the band was the classic "Pump Up The Volume" under the MARRS name with AR Kane which in hindsight didn't appear to be much of a collaboration as one side is obviously a Colourbox track with the b-side sounding like AR Kane. Now you would think after a massive hit the time would have been ripe for more Colourbox recordings but that was it nothing else ever appeared and we just have the one album to remember them by and used record stores of America have a bin filler.

Half There And Dancing

Taking a quick diversion into the here and now today I want to recommend a band whose albums you can still find hopefully in your discerning music emporium and if not order from the links below. My Favorite are a New York based five piece taking ispiration from all the right people (The Smiths, New Order, Go-Betweens) and adding that little something, that spark that seperates the muscial haves from the have-not and never ever wills. The majority of their songs can be found on two CDs 1999s "Love At Absolute Zero" and 2003's collection of EPs and new remixes "The Happiest Days Of Our Lives" both albums are well worth purchasing and show a band in love with great music and adding a fresh twist to their songs to leave you thinking you've heard the songs before but its just because they're so immediately memorable. The downloads today, via their label Double Agents website, are a song from each album and you go to the website you can see videos and of course buy the albums.

Download - My Favorite - Working Class Jacket

Download - My Favorite - Burning Hearts

Buy the albums, watch the videos here

The band's own website can be found here

Heard It All

Today we have two bands linked together firstly as I only have one single by each and secondly as they were both of Creation records briefly and may be argued would have been better off staying there, hanging around the offcie making the tea and as a reward be allowed to bring out a new album every year. It appeared to work for Ed(ward) Ball!

Anyway, first we have The Bodines who after a run of excellant singles looked set for greatness. Major labels came a calling and they settled on the mighty Magnet label. For those who don't know Magnet were famous for getting hits but with artists of their manufactured/novelty genre. At some point they decdied what they needed was some credability signed The Bodines, made videos, got them on TV, re-released the classic single "Threase" and even kitted the band out in nice stripey t-shirts but alas it had little effect. After the bands one and only album "Played" the band split, reformed & split again but left behind some great songs like the one here "God Bless" a fine piece of C86 style jangle pop. For even more great downloads and a much better history you can visit Tom of indie mp3 blogs's page below.

Brighton's Blow Up released two singles on Creation including the wonderful "Pool Valley" I must confess I know bugger all about the band apart from that, and the fact they then released today's other download "Forever Holiday" for another label and made a video for the song of the band falling over alot on Brighton beach. If my hazy memory serves me correctly they then changed their name to something else (Spitfire?) which maybe someone out there can confirm. Yes I know you're out there!


More Bodines downloads can be found here

Candlestick Park

It's sad to think The Waltones will only go down as a footnote in pop history as the band that guitarist Mark Collins was in before joining The Charlatans. The band in the space of eighteen months released four singles and an album on Medium Cool (them again) before the label folded. The band resurfaced as Candlestick Park released one single and had an album scheduled which never appeared. The band in their short existence produced a slew of great songs three of which are here today. "The Deepest" and "She Looks Right Through Me" were both singles while "Bold" appeared on the great Medium Cool compilation "Edge Of The Road"

In The Pines

The Triffids were the other Australian bands of the 80s who alongside The Go-Betweens should have been able to move past being critical darlings and be heard by a much wider audience. Whereas the Go-Betweens sound often conjured up images of dusty libraries and sepia photographs The Triffids were all about wide open spaces and winding roads. The band released six albums and came closest to cracking their charts when one of their songs was used in a wedding scene of top Australian soap Neighbours but alas it didn't have the desired effect. After the bands final album "Black Swan" in 1989 the band disbanded with singer David McComb releasing one solo album "Love Of Will" in 1994. Sadly there wouldn't be a second or a Triffids reunion as McComb died in 1999 after what appeared to be a minor car accident. The downloads here are songs from the band's last two albums and if you follow the link below you'll find a site maintained by the band's guitarist Graham Lee with a bunch of rare tracks to download.


Lots more downloads can be found here

The Grown Up Way

Brighton's How Many Beans Make Five had the dubious distinction of being the first band I ever interviewd for my fanzine. In those days my obtaining an interview technique was very simple: choose a support band who were playing locally, in this case at The Joiners Arms in Southampton, show them I was visibly enjoying their set, which didn't take much more than standing up and facing the stage, and then grab a bandmember after they'd played and were no doubt more interested in getting drunk. So the bass player of How Many Beans Make Five had to endure my inane questions and my very unprofessionally large tape recorder while whoever the headline band were made an ungodly noise in the next room. I seem to remember he was very friendly and due to the several page interview that resulted THAT is why you are all aware of How Many Beans Make Five! Hmm ok, the band released one 12" EP, were on several compilations related to the label they were conncted to La-Di-Da productions, toured Japan, and then split with 3/4 of the band moving to the US. In fact it appears the only one who remained in Brighton was the bass player, obviously worried about me stalking him. All of their recordings were collected on the CD "One Last Look" which I was overjoyed to find on ebay recently.

The Darkest Hearts

New Zealand's Garageland started off, as every Kiwi band appears to, on the Flying Nun label releasing their first single in 1996. After getting some good press the band were signed by the slightly high profile Discordant records with whom they released two underated and so available very cheaply albums in "Last Exit To Garageland" in 97 and "Do What You Want" in 99 featuring a stack of great pop tunes, the main reason I feel the band are off of most people's radar is there's no real uniformity to the albums too many songs could be by different bands, good bands admitedly, but it's hard to hook fans if you keep changing that much. Maybe the band, or at least songwriter Jeremy Eade as the rest of the band had jumped ship, relaised this as the band's final album "Scorpio Righting" in 2001 had a more uniform feel, unfortunately it was the feel of a band trying to be The Rolling Stones. Here we have songs from the band's first two albums and Bus Stops from their debut EP.

Be With Me

The Housemartins always used to call themselves the fourth best band in Hull and although I don't think it was ever revealed who numbers one, two, and three were (because no-one cared) I'd like to think they had the good sense to put the Red Guitars ahead of them. The band were fiercely independent in their earliest incarnation, releasing their own records and playing free gigs whenever possible ands mixing political sentiment with stark music that actually sounds more currrent today with so many bands delving back to new wave influences. They released four singles, and their debut album "Slow To Fade" before getting signed by Virgin and suddenly getting very dull. These two songs were early singles and were added to the CD re-issue of their debut album.


Buy the album here

Deeper Than The Ocean

The Mayfields were always at a disadvantage as they came from Salisbury in Dorset, now Salisbury may be famous for many things, actually it isn't apart from having the cathedral with the tallest spire in England, but being a hotbed for bands isn't one of them. In their brief existence I saw them several times supporting the likes of The Las and The Pooh Sticks and blowing both of them offstage. The band released two 7" singles, a flexidisc and had a few other songs on various compilation tapes before disappearing from whence they came. Two of today's songs are from their 7" on the Ambition label, the other 7" was on BusStop, while "Seasons Pass" comes from a tape so isn't that hi-fi but is still listenable.

Hangover Square

So we're back, laden down with vinyl finds from the crevices of Brighton's used record emporiums to hopefully delight you with in the coming weeks.

First up, The Caretaker Race as mentioned before when The Loft split up the members formed three great bands, The Weather Prophets I posted about previously, The Wishing Stones we will hopefully get to in the future, and the third band formed by guitarist/vocalist Andy Strickland was The Caretaker Race. I once wrote to Mr Strickland asking to interview him for my fledgling fanzine and even probably threw in some chummy comment regarding Portsmouth football club as we both have the misfortune of being fans but alas he never wrote back. Obviously this was his loss, and the fact that despite producing four great singles and then an album, "Hangover Square" on the Foundation label the band never got the attention their songs deserved can solely be put down to the exposure the band lost through this snub. The two songs today, were both on the album, which if anyone has and wants to sell/copy let me know, but were also on singles, twice in the case of "All Love Offers"

Manic Pop Thrill

We're heading off for a well earned vacation back to the UK tonight so for the next week or so posts may be few and far between. So this seems like an opportune moment to thank everyone for their support for Turquoise Days so far, and if you've arrived here and once again there's nothing new to download be sure to pick out some of the links to other blogs.



After the demise of The Undertones it was proably expected that singer Feargal Sharkey to be the one who would have the most success. He in fact did have two hit singles, "Never Never" with Vince Clarke as The Asembley and a number one with "A Good Heart" but then appears to have given up releasing records and became an A&R man for Virgin. The rest of the band recruited vocalist Steve Mack and re-emerged as That Petrol Emotion over the course of the next eight years and five albums the band continually looked like their next album or single was going to be THE ONE but it just never happened. Singles would stall just outside the top 40 and their second album "Babble" was their highest seller reaching No.30 in 1987. They often seemed just ahead of the curve, mixing beats, rock guitars, and rap before it was common place, getting Andy Weatherall Boys Own mixes before they were on every pasty guitar bands 12" and displaying a political edge on their sleeves and lyrics which is never in fashion. Their energy live was never truly matched on their recordings and after regularly moving labels they finally called it a day in 1993. The songs today are each from different albums and give a good representation of their sound. If you go to the excellant fan-site linked below you can also get a couple of extra songs including the excellant single "Keen" which never appeared on any album (NOTE - the downloads here are labelled back to front Keen is the MP3 download labelled A Great Depression).

More downloads can be found at the website here

Flying Down To Mono Valley

This was the title of the second album by The Popinjays and was where they eclipsed the promise of their first album "Bang Up To Date," and before they turned their back on jaunty speedball pop with their introspective third, and final, album "Tales From The Urban Prairie." On Mono Valley, helped out by the assured production of Ian Broudie, the band's core duo of Wendy Robinson and Polly Hancock delivered a set of songs on first listen jaunty sing along pop but with more depth to the lyrics than their chartbound contemporaries. Maybe that was the problem, despite being able to turn out radio friendly pop the band wasn't about to totally sell their soul to get on top of the pops.

An Amonite For Bill

In the highly recommended The Great Indie Discography, the author M.C. Strong describes V-Twin as a "warped ambient pop outfit" with a "skewed, unbalanced musical landscape" which wouldn't to be honest give you any indication of what the two songs below sound like. The rest of V-Twin's songs do often veer off into weird and sometimes wonderful directions but these two singles although not representative and excellant in their own right. "Gifted" features core members Jason McPhail and Mike McGaughrin added by the vocals of Katrina Mitchell from The Pastels. "Thank You Baby" featured the likes of Stevie Jackson of Belle and Sebastian and wwas mixed by Kid Loco. There was also a cool video to accompany the song featuring jenga, swimming pools and several other B&S members. You can view it still at the Domino Records site and pick up V-Twin releases at the same time including the early singles compilation "Free The Twin."


Buy V-Twin recordings/Watch the video here

The Adam Faith Experience

Made up of members of several other Edinburgh bands Jesse Garon And The Desperadoes eclipsed these bands and consistantly produced pop songs that have stood the test of time far better then nearly every other band they'd get lumped together with. Yes they had their share of fuzzy ramshackle songs which could have also been by The Shop Assistants, early Primitives or Darling Buds but their best songs, like the two here, should have brought the band to the atttention of far more people then they ultimately did. Both of these songs were collected together with most of their singles on the compilation "A Cabinet Of Curiosities" although deleted this, and their only proper album "Nixon" often turn up on ebay sold by Avalanche Records who released the albums.
Fran Schoppler the band's vocalist has also released her own album in recent years, featuring Mick Cooke from Belle and Sebastian details of that can be found at her website below.


Fran Schoppler's website can be found here

Flexi POP!

I wish I could maintain an air of indie credability by telling you the first time I experienced the crackling joys of a flexidisc, creased neatly where the post/mail man had folded it to get it through the letterbox was when I got say The Darling Buds one, or the 5" Another Sunny Day one that accompanied the first Sarah fanzine or of course any ShaLaLa release. But no, my first flexi disc was of British actor Richard Briers impersonating a Basset Hound for a promtional flexi for a brand of dog biscuits. I so wish I could share that with you but instead we have three songs from a bunch of flexis I recently bought.
Firstly we have a song by Honeybunch, a band featuring Jeffrey Underhill, the third member of Velvet Crush this flexi was released in 1991 and the band have sporadically beeen releasing records ever since. Then we have a demo of a song by Luna who I'm sure need no introduction. If you like this, you'll like any of their albums pretty much. Thirdly we have a song by Speedboat, one of the many excellant bands who have released stuff on the Showshine records label. Most of these bands feature contributions in some shape by Francis MacDonald who has also played with Teenage Fanclub and The BMX Bandits. He also owns the label come to think of it.

Everything We Never Really Did

Steps To Discovering A Wonderful New Band

1 - Browsing the excellant blog/website Think Small I found their best of 2004 list of bands/downloads and found mention of Tiger Baby and the description "Danish students from the school of Saint Etienne (the band, not the town." Sounds interesting, I thought and followed the link to the band's website.
2 - At the site here I downloaded three songs by the band, and discovered dance pop clearly influenced by Saint Etienne but also showing a band who can write catchy immediate songs that quickly get stuck in your head. The band have been together since 1999 and released their first album "Lost In You" on their own lablel in Denmark, and on Souvenir Records in the US. Hearing these three songs was enough to convince me I wanted to hear more so went to the Souvenir Records site.
3 - Souvenir Records, have an on-line store where the album costs just $10, so I ordered the album and can't wait to hear more. Check out the downloads today, and hopefully you'll feel the same way.

Download - Tiger Baby - Chinese Fairytale

Download - Tiger Baby - Shy

Download - Tiger Baby - Sweetheart

The Tiger Baby website is here

Buy the album here

Are You With Us?

A few more "H" bands for today. Details on these bands for me are all pretty sketchy, mainly as I only ever bought these singles. First up, Hipkiss with I believe their first single "Glamour Pussy" After this single was well received they apparently signed to Sony Germany and released an album "Bluebird" described as Trip Hop Bond Themes, so Portishead wannabes I guess. Hunky Dory released this single back in the mists of time on El Records but it took years for their one and only album to come out on Siesta records I think three years ago. The band consisted of some school friends from Lewes in East Sussex with one of their fathers as the manager. Sadly the tag of the Brighton Beach Boys (& girls) wasn't lept upon by the music press. Rounding things off, we have a tribute to the Beach Boys and in particular "Mr Wilson" from The Hormones who for somme reason I've decided were Irish, signed to V2 and released one album "Where The Old Ghosts Meet" but sadly V2 were more concerned with inflicting The Stereophonics on an unsuspecting world.

Wintercomessummer

Jack sit somewhere between Tindersticks, Divine Comedy, and My Life Story on the spice rack of pop. Since 1995 they have released a batch of fine albums as both Jack, and sometimes as Jacques when they have enlisted the likes of Kirk Lake and Momus to conttribute. When their first album was released they looked like they would follow the Tindersticks glowing reviews into the lower reaches of the charts but alas it was not to be. Personally, my favorite album is still the first, "Pioneer Soundtracks" along with their first few singles. The first song today "Biography Of A First Son" comes from that album and was also a single, while Lolita Elle was the first single release from their second album "The Jazz Age"

Beneath The Apple Tree

Blink and you missed them. Hopkirk And Lee, one EP, four wonderful songs of acoustic pop about five years before the likes of Turn Brakes and Kings Of Convienence were in vogue. Apparently they signed to Deconstruction after the EP, the label folded and we never heard from them again. A total tragedy, but if you're gonna leave behind one single, it should be as one as good as this. Plus they did indeed free Arthur Lee, maybe there was a deal cut and now Hopkirk and Lee are incarcerated so they couldn't release anything else?

Brought To You Today By The Letter H

The Harvest Ministers were one of the last batch of bands to release singles on Sarah records who didn't really fit in with the by that time cliched "Sarah" sound, in fact the band themselves didn't seem to know where they fitted in either, going from this up-tempo tune to an album which was almost Sarah's first, and last, foray into Irish Alternative Country. The band followed up with two more albums on Setanta in the UK.




If I had to name my favorite band of all time it would have to be The Go-Betweens and so anytime anyone releases a cover version of one of their songs I'll take notice. This track by Harvey's Rabbit is in fact a cover of a Robert Forster solo release but, hey cut a guy some slack. Apparently, the band did release an album but as I didn't like the follow up single to this, it didn't register on the Turquoise Days radar (you didn't know we had a radar did you!)

The Paisley Underground Part Two

The first time I ever went to Scotland I somehow ended up in Paisley, which for those of you who are interested is a town a few miles outside of Glasgow. I remember three things from the time spent there: firstly spending Saturday night in a club where the DJ resided in a cage, secondly, spending Sunday night in maybe the same club but tonight was goth night and discovering that there was some goth hybrid of line dancing which took place to the sounds of "Alice" by The Sisters Of Mercy and thirdly fearing for my life the whole time I was in the town.
Paisley was also the home to The Close Lobsters who left us with two great albums and seemed to do better in the US than their homeland. The two songs to download are their first single "Going To Heaven To See If It Rains" and "Nature Thing" from their second album "Headache Rhetoric"

The Paisley Underground Part One

During the mid eighties some journalist with an urge to create a new “scene” came up with The Paisley Underground, pretty much defined as US bands who loved the likes of The Byrds ands Buffalo Springfield and played Rickenbacker guitars. This included the likes of The Long Ryders, The Dream Syndicate, and The Rain Parade featuring David Roback who went on to form Opal and had his biggest success with Mazzy Star. Rainy Day both the band and album is described on trouserpress.com thusly:
“While the Rain Parade was still a going concern, David Roback organized and produced Rainy Day, a heartfelt but uneven paisley underground supersession, with members of the Bangles, Three O'Clock, Dream Syndicate and Rain Parade covering their fave tunes by the Velvets, Bob Dylan, Alex Chilton, Jimi Hendrix, Who, Beach Boys, etc. The simple arrangements and enthusiastic readings are fine-to-sublime, but the casual vocal performances are occasionally one-take second-rate.” Not sure I agree about the vocals especially on today’s two tracks to download. “I’ll Keep It With Mine” sang by Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles is one of my favorite Dylan covers ever, while “Flying On The Ground Is Wrong” sang by Kendra Smith who went on to Opal and then some solo releases actually got me to purchase the first Buffalo Springfield album which I think is pretty high praise for a cover version. Sadly, the album is nigh on impossible to find on Cd and vinyl version change hands for around $50 a time, so if anything deserves a reissue this is it.

Boy, have they got it!

Firstly, Happy New Year!




Secondly, to start a new year I thought I’d talk about one album I’m most looking forward to in the next few weeks. That is “Wild Mercury Years,” the debut album by Kicker, which is due out on the excellent Track and Field label in the UK in the next few weeks. I first heard the band as they had made the questionable decision to link to Turquoise Days on their website so of course I felt duty bound to check out their MP3 both there and on the Track and Field website. The first songs I heard were two recorded acoustically for a radio show and I was totally blown away, a mixture of indie guitar pop that’s got a Northern soul edge, and the spoken interlude in “No More Tears” is just so cool. Prior to the album the band has released five excellent singles, which are all collected on the compilation “Fivefortyfives” and after getting this it’s made my wait for the album even harder.

Download - Kicker - Get Rid Of Him (acoustic version)

Download - Kicker - No More Tears

The Kicker website with more downloads can be found here

Track and Field website with even more downloads is here