They went EAST!

Three Australian bands today, all of whom sad to say I know next to nothing about. Firstly we have The Marigolds who were based in Perth in the mid eighties. This song, “Waiting In Line” was the a-side of a 7” and in their lifetime they apparently recorded enough songs to make up an album as there’s a compilation CD “Wild!” which you can purchase from Not Lame here
The Glory Box released a hand full of singles each on different labels including this song “Raining Embers” which came out both in Australia and on Bristol’s Tea-Time records.
Rainyard, also from Perth, were featured on one of the first singles released by Summershine records which also releases the first Sugargliders singles and later moved to the US where they released the first Pernice Brothers 7”. Rainyard, according to Perthbands.com message boards (research y’see!) changed their name and headed East whatever that means in Australia? The person who posted did say he thought Rainyard sounded like a Ride tribute band, which definitely isn’t the case with this release.

Pick A Card, Any Card.......Wrong!

The Blue Aeroplanes are a Bristol institution, mainly because at one time or another the whole population of this English city has been a member of the band. Usually boasting at least four guitarists at any one time, live was where the band excelled. At earlier shows the band also featured an on-stage DJ mixing in various sound effects into the music, and they featured a dancer as part of the band years before Bez of The Happy Mondays infamy. As there were always around eight people in the band live, and they generally played smaller places with small stages it was always a bit cramped and often bloody as Wojtek, the aforementioned dancer frequently got hit by guitars etc. As this chaos took place around him the vocalist, Gerard Langley always tried to maintain an air of detached coolness but often ended up laughing at the absurdity of it all. The band had released several critically acclaimed albums before signing to Ensign where they made probably their two most consistent albums in “Swagger” and “Beatsongs” There have been a bunch of albums since and the band apparently are still going as new members of the Bristol public can be press-ganged into service.




A big thank you to everyone who has taken up the free CD offers below. I thought I’d post a Callow track so you could hear the band.

Download - Callow - Three More Years

Special Offer

If you follow this link and click on the record label button you will see details of two CDs we released, one is a compilation CD called "A Boy, A Girl & A Rendez-Vous" featuring the likes of The Lucksmiths, Aislers Set, Aberdeen, White Town and The Sugargliders. The other is a full length CD by a band called Callow who fans of The Pernice Brothers & American Music Club may like. If you'd like one, or both, email me with your name & address and we'll send you them free of charge. BUT what we'd like you to do is make a donation to the disaster relief efforts by clicking on the link below.

CD details are here Red Roses For Me

Click Here to Donate

If anyone with a blog wants to mention this offer or link to this feel free.

Until The World Stops Spinning

Turquoise Days Albums of the Year Part 5

Saturday Looks Good To Me - Every Night

2004 was the year that Saturday Looks Good To Me released the album in “Every Night” that they’ve been promising to make since their earliest recordings. Taking the highs of their previous album “Summer Songs” they continued their love affair with pop music that could have come from any period since the sixties but this time the production and lyricism eclipses everything they’ve done previously. In fact, it appears they were on such a roll different versions of some of the songs appear on the CD and vinyl versions of the album along with others turning up on various 7” singles the band have released recently. If I had to pick one new album to recommend to someone in the last year this would be it. Trawling around for downloads from the album I could only find one “This Girls Distracted” but it’s a pretty good place to start. For those of you who have already got the album though what may be of interest are these other tracks which are un-mastered versions of both vinyl and CD takes on some of the songs.

Download - Saturday Looks Good To Me - The Girl's Disatracted

Unmastered Mixes:

Download - Saturday Looks Good To Me - Empty Room (LP version)

Download - Saturday Looks Good To Me - Keep Walking (CD version)

Download - Saturday Looks Good To Me - When The Party Ends (CD version)

Download - Saturday Looks Good To Me - Keep Walking LP version

Download - Saturday Looks Good To Me - When The Party Ends (LP version)

The bands website is here

Click the sleeve, buy the album:

I Can Speak American

I’m sure it was quite a shock for the British public to find out that the catchy song about The Flintstones that they had collectively catapulted into the top thirty of the singles chart was not the product of a happy go lucky pop band. In fact when the scary visage of vocalist/guitarist Bill Carter and the other members of The Screaming Blue Messiahs lurched into the song on top of the pops it was probably the pinnacle and decline of the band’s fortunes in one fell swoop. From that point in their previous cannon of high-octane garage rock n roll was consigned to history and from here on in they would be known as the band with the Flintstone song. It also didn’t help that their third, and final, album that followed the next year “Totally Religious” was a lack luster shadow of their previous two albums “Gun Shy” and “Bikini Red.” Sad to say the only readily available album by the band is the last with the others, on CD, changing hands for silly money on ebay. So for today I present for you a song each from these two releases: “Wild Blue Yonder” from “Gun Shy” and the title track from “Bikini Red.”

Vinegar And Kit-Kats

It's almost inevitable that Animals That Swim have never got the recognition they deserve. When your songs deal with life's losers, the downtrodden, and beaten down there's no way your own career is going to scale any giddy heights, at least not commercially. I think their three albums are some of the most under-rated I own. Appearing around the same time as Tindersticks, both bands exist in a similar world of life with a seedy edge but Animals That Swim also display a sense of the absurd that makes them stand alone. Their lyrics are wonderful short stories as these two songs demonstrate, "Faded Glamour" tells the story of every English town with victorian-era terraced housing, while "Roy" recounts a chance meeting with the other man in black which perfectly highlights the band's humor.

Turkey for the rest of your life

Some downbeat tracks today to fit in with the mood of being overstuffed and realising how little you have in common with your relatives. Delta House Of Funk was, I think, a short lived project of DJ/Producer Ashley Beedle. These two tracks came from their first release "The State Tapes" which had that downtempo Massive Attack early Mo Wax vibe going on. I thought this was their only release but my extensive research (looking for a picture via google) turned up another single released after this one.

I Won't Piss Your Name In The Snow

Today we have a couple of singles that have a tenuous link to one another, first up is the only (I think) single by The Big Maybe. The band consisted of Nick Rudd, along with Ric Menck, and Paul Chastain who went on to become Velvet Crush. This was also the first release on their short-lived but excellent Picture book label. Menck and Chastain also around this time, 1987, were featured on the very first release on the Bus Stop label, a flexidisc under the name The Stupid Cupids. Since then Bus Stop have released a whole bunch of wonderful albums and singles and one of these singles was “Throw Me Out A Line” by Erik Voeks. So enamored were we by this single that it ended up being the third, and final, release on our fledgling record label at the time in the UK. Same songs, pretty much the same sleeve but ours came with a free Erik Voeks balloon (woo hoo). Voeks then released a much under-rated album “Sandbox” and one final 7” release “Christmas Singles” in my humble opinion the perfect Christmas single! That appeared to be that but it appears Mr. Voeks is now in a band called The Octopus Frontier who have recently made a couple of songs available to download at the link below.

Erik Voek's new band The Octopus Frontier can be found here

The Ballad Of Paul Verlaine

18 Wheeler will always have the dubious honor of being the band at whose show Alan McGee first encountered Oasis, and at that moment had their fate decided as being a small footnote in Creation records history. They were signed at the time when McGee appeared to be cruising the record stores of Glasgow and press-ganging anyone purchasing a Byrds/Big Star/Gram Parsons record into bands, and signing them to Creation. He then appeared to almost forget he’d signed them with records released at regular intervals for the music press to slate but no real promotion beyond that. Then, once Oasis had been signed, the label was broken down into Oasis and bands that weren’t Oasis. Sadly, this was the point when 18 Wheeler made the best music of their career with their last album “Year Zero” when they combined their love of Brian Wilson with their new love of dance beats. The problem was if they had been a new band it might have paid dividends but by then everyone had labeled the band as Creation also-rans.

You Can't Uneat The Apple

As I mentioned last week, parts of The Dears recent album really reminded me of the band My Life Story. More than likely down to the string parts, which My Life Story drenched their songs in along with brass and timpani drums. Live, was where the band really came into there own with about twelve people on stage creating a swirling sound that filled the room with vocalist Jake Shillingford’s best Anthony Newley impression on top, resplendent in a gold lame suit. Needless to say you either bought into this mixture of glamour and tales of love and London or found it as annoying as much of the music press. The band released two albums in this form with moderate success but after being dropped by EMI slimmed down to a conventional four piece for their final album. Since the band split Shillingford formed Exile Inside who have so far released two albums financed by investors via their website who get their money back once the albums have sold 2000 copies. You can download the band’s most recent single from their website link below.




Click the sleeve to buy My life Story albums:


The Exile Inside website/downloads can be found here

Do You Trust Me?

Turquoise Days Albums Of The Year Part Four

Blanche - If We Can't Trust The Doctors

A band from Detroit, there must be a White Stripes connection right? Yep, vocalist Dan Miller was apparently in a band, Goober and the Peas, with Jack White and contributes some guitar to one of the songs on this album. The two bands also share the same raw, dirt under your fingernails qualities but whereas The White Stripes worship at the alter of early blues, Blanche take inspiration from the dark American gothic brushstrokes of the blackest country and folk music. There are hints of The Gun Club, Violent Femmes, Wall Of Voodoo, and in the duets with the added vocals of Millers wife Tracee you get the mixture of drama and comedy previously found on Nick Cave’s “Murder Ballads” Actually if you’re a fan of Old Nick at his howl at the moon best, Blanche songs like “Jack On Fire” and “Garbage Picker” will be right up your street.


Download - Blanche - Superstition

Download - Blanche - Another Lost Summer

Buy the album, click the sleeve:


The Blanche Website can be found here

Map Of The World

Whoever ran the small indie label, Medium Cool, in the late eighties I salute your good taste. You released records by only a handful of bands but what a great collection of bands: The Waltones, The Raw Herbs, The Popguns, The Caretaker Race, and The Corn Dollies. Sadly your pockets didn’t appear to be as deep as your knack of spotting a great band so none of the bands created more than a ripple in the deep pool of pop but still you left a whole bunch of excellent music behind, even if it is difficult to find.
The Corn Dollies took the sound of early R.E.M. added touches of violin and didn’t fit into any of the indie genres that were in vogue at the time. Robert Forster of The Go-Betweens produced their early singles and after Medium Cool folded they released their only album “Wrecked” on Midnight Music. Midnight also put out in France a compilation of all the band’s singles, which is where today’s songs come from.

Last Expectations

Black Metallic, related to Bruce Dickenson of Iron Maiden, showgazing, America liked them more than the UK, band member went out with an ex-girlfriend, Recorded a song with Tanya Donnelly which was pretty good. That’s my knowledge of Catherine Wheel and would you know it, that’s not even the Catherine Wheel I’m posting about here. Nope this is the Australian Catherine Wheel I’m interested in but what do I know about them…nothing! They released three singles at least as I have three they had the male/female indie thing down to a tee and apparently from my extensive research (google) one band member went on to be inn a band called Eva Trout who I’m sure split up after realizing they had achieved their aim of worst band name EVER. As always, if you can fill in any blanks on Catherine Wheel please do.

An Idiot Sings

So for today’s episode of bands reunited one hit wonders special, we are in the northern English city that no one has heard of, Derby. We are here to track down the members of White Town who had a number one UK single in 1997 with “Your Woman.” This song also hit the top spot in eight other countries and the accompanying album “Women In Technology” sold nearly half a million copies in the US alone. Then…nothing, where did this mysterious band go? Ok, we’re knocking on the door, hi, we’re from VH1 and we’re looking for the members of White Town. What do you mean you’re White Town? You’re a big Indian guy with glasses, come on where are the band really???
It was quite surreal when White Town got to number one, how could someone I knew, who’s sofa I had slept on, who’s songs I had had released on crappy compilation tapes suddenly became a pop star? Then a few days later the Sun newspaper had an exclusive full-page photo of Jyoti looking distinctly un-popstar like clutching a shopping bag. The follow up single to “Your Woman” managed one week on the charts, and now “Women In Technology” is one of those CDs you see in every used CD store. Next time you happen to chance across it believe me it’s well worth the $2.
So what did happen to Jyoti and White Town, well there has been another White Town album “Peek and Poke” in 2000 and Jyoti seems content to fade back into a normal life. He publishes an excellent blog, Bzangy Groink that you can find the link to below. The downloads today are a version of his very first single and the b-side to “Your Woman”

For White Town releases click on the sleeve:


Jyoti's blog Bzangy Groink, can be found here

The White Town website can be found here

Letter From A Lifeboat

The Sugargliders were Josh and Joel Meadows, Australian brothers who started off releasing a bunch of wonderful 7” singles on the Melbourne label Summershine, one on short-lived English label Marineville and then ended up on Sarah records where another four or five singles followed. The perfect singles band, where their almost totally acoustic sound and harmonies blended perfectly in three minute moments they declared they would never record an album until it was as good as the first Orange Juice album. Rightly or wrongly they never did. The only full-length release, “We’re All Trying To Get There,” was a compilation of the Sarah records singles and sadly like everything else they released has long been deleted. Josh and Joel went on to form The Steinbecks who have intermittently released some fine songs since, most of which can be purchased from their US label, Microindie here.
So facing the dilemma of which Sugargliders songs to include today I whittled it down to four which is more than usual but I hope you enjoy them.


Download - The Sugargliders - Surprised – Released originally on a cassette with one of my Red Roses For Me fanzine and resurrected on our first CD “A Boy, A Girl and A Rendez-Vous” which you can find further details of here.

C'etait Pour La Passion

TURQUOISE DAYS ALBUMS OF THE YEAR Pt. THREE

THE DEARS - No Cities Left
After my fanzine, Red Roses For Me was up to its third issue we ended up on a bunch of mailing lists for promos. Seemed like heaven, an endless stream of new releases, and an irate postman who couldn’t fit the mailers through the letterbox. The problem was sitting down to review the things and finding after a while I was just listening to the music with a detached ear, not enjoying the music, just trying to work out what to write. I found myself constantly comparing the music to other bands. Everything I listened to, even records I loved, I’d be left thinking, “that bit sounds like whoever.” Soon after I decided formal reviews were not for me. Connected with this one thing that irks me is when people tell me “Well they’re ok, but so and so did it so much better 15 years ago.” That’s all well and good, but does that mean they have copyright on that style of music, that guitar sound, or that type of lyrics? No, and if you’re that bothered I’m sure you can just buy that band’s next remastered CD set with bonus disc of crap that wasn’t good enough to release first time around! My point is, I don’t want a carbon copy of The Stone Roses or whoever but if a band comes along who clearly loved them and include part of that sound amongst their own that’s just fine with me.
I’m sure you’ve seen the reviews for The Dears album, “blah blah The Smiths, blah blah Blur, blah blah Britpop.” So?! Well done, the band obviously love these bands, and it’s probably just me but I also hear in the strings hints of the much maligned My Life Story but when this is added to such a series of dramatic highs like this album I’ve got no complaints. As long as Morrissey doesn’t come out and say how much he likes them they’ll be fine. Here’s two songs from “No Cities Left” and one from their almost as good “End Of A Hollywood Bedtime Story” mini album.


Download (apple users need to right click today) - The Dears - We Can Have It

Download - The Dears - Lost In The Plot

Download - The Dears - Heartless Romantic

Click the logo/album for all your Dears purchases

Organized Confusion

A quick pop quiz: What do The Senseless Things, Muse, Vent 414, and The Streets have in common? Give up? Ok they have all at one time benefited from the have Hammond will travel talents of Morgan Nicholls. Since The Senseless Things split you would have gotten great odds if you had bet on the band’s bass player being the one to still avoiding looking for a day job, but Morgan Nicholls has managed it. He played on Mike Skinner’s Streets albums and touring with him, as well as filling in for Muse recently.
Nicholls’ was also responsible for an excellent solo album under the name Morgan. “Organized” also featured several other members of his family including his younger brother on his first single “Miss Parker” Each of the singles from the album demonstrated the album’s pop sensibilities drenched with the funky Hammond breaks. For whatever reason there’s been no sign of a follow up but the album is readily available and often at knockdown prices. Here we have the dancehall ska stylings of “Miss Parker” and my first Christmas song post with “Christmas in Waikiki”

Like Frankie Lymon

After The loft had released the classic single “Up The Hill and Down The Slope” great things were expected of them but the tensions of having three singers/songwriters in one band led to the band fragmenting into three separate groups: The Wishing Stones, The Caretaker Race, and The Weather Prophets.
The Weather Prophets were the brainchild of Pete Astor and when forming the band decided to distance himself from the indie clique that existed at that time and recruit other band members who had little knowledge or interest in that scene. Alan McGee of Creation decided that The Weather Prophets were the sure fire hit of the three bands and when he was approached by Warner Brothers to create a label for them he took the band along with Primal Scream along for the ride and the fame and fortune that was sure to follow. A few singles, and the debut albums by each band later (in the Weather Prophets case “Mayflower”) McGee and his bands returned to the fold of Creation maybe wiser but definitely not richer. It seemed the British public at large were falling over themselves to throw money at Velvet Underground and Byrds influenced pop. Primal Scream took note, deciding with the next album Stooges rock was where it was at while The Weather Prophets showed faith in their convictions with their second, and more consistent, album “Judges, Juries and Horsemen.” The album once again highlighted Astor’s capacity to craft a classic tune but at that point outside of the scene Astor didn’t feel a part of no one was listening. The band split soon after with Astor releasing a series of albums since both solo and under the Wisdom Of Harry name. This year Cherry Red released an excellent Weather Prophets collection which you can find details of from the link below.


You can buy the Weather Prophets compilation CD here

Lights Are Changing

The best busker I’ve ever seen was in the English city of Horsham. This old guy was armed with a $20 Casio style battery operated keyboard and was wowing the crowds of uninterested passers-by with his unique interpretation of Pulp’s then hit “Common People.” I gladly gave him 50p. Sadly, I’ve yet to experience the Mary Lou Lord busking experience, which apparently began on the London underground when she spent a year in the UK and still continues from time to time alongside real tours and sadly far too infrequent albums. You can only speculate how if Kurt Cobain’s life would have been different if his relationship with Mary Lou Lord had continued instead of him falling for Courtney Love but one thing that came out of their time together was Cobain introduced Lord to Kathleen Hannah, then of Bikini Kill who passed her demo tape onto Kill Rock Stars who released her first few singles and debut mini album. This led to a deal with one of those labels owned by a major, in this case Work who were part of Sony, but despite a bigger budget, a backing band, and a spot on that years Lillith Fair tour her first full length CD “Got No Shadow” didn’t win many new converts and coinciding with motherhood Lord took a couple of years off. Since then she has released two further albums, “Live City Sounds” and earlier this year “Baby Blue” recorded with and featuring several songs by long term collaborator Nick Solomon of the Bevis Frond. If you have a chance I would suggest her Kill Rock Stars mini album is the best introduction to Mary Lou Lord but at each point of her recording career she has perfectly meshed a punk rock sensibility, a joy of covering other people’s songs reminiscent of the 60’s folk explosion, and the talent to captivate with just her voice and an acoustic guitar.
To download today we have her Indie Rock "tribute" from the mini album, the homage to Alternative Country it evolved into from a radio session, and her take on Van Halen's "Jump"




The best Mary Lou Lord website can be found here

Favourite Fallen Idols

So Adorable, The Bardots, and Polak or maybe it should be written as Adorable + The Bardots = Polak as that pretty much explains the link between the three bands.
Adorable were one of many bands Creation signed in the early nineties and then almost seemed to forget they had. Not surprising as they appeared to have a roster of what seemed like hundreds at one point but this just meant that they had some notable successes but all the other bands were kind of there to make up the numbers and be farmed out to clueless US major labels every time the label needed a cash injection for My Bloody Valentine studio time. Adorable released a string of fine singles and two albums “Against Perfection” and “Fake” before deciding they’d recorded the best album they ever would and called it quits.



The Bardots meanwhile after the releasing a single on the Wilde Club label found a slightly more permanent home on Cheree Records, where three excellent EPs “Shallow,” “Pretty O”, and “Cruelty Blonde” were followed by an album “Eye Baby.” At this time the band if there was any justice would have had the success that Suede were enjoying but I guess the world only needed one Suede, actually that may be debatable. In 1996 there was another Bardots album “V-Neck” which is probably a stronger album but there was no one listening anymore.




Hop forward to 1998 and Pete the vocalist in Adorable joined with his brother Kryz and Simon from The Bardots to make up the Nucleus of Polak who brought the best from each of the previous groups and in the space of a year released three singles that were collected together on the 3x3 CD. A deal with One Little Indian followed and albums in 2000 (“Swansongs”) and (2002 “Rubbernecking”). Two songs, one of which can be downloaded here, were recorded in 2003 but since then the band have announced the dreaded “Sabbatical”


Polak website can be found here