Based in...: France

Label: Self-Released

Year: 2008

My Rate: 8/10

MySpace

Riding For a Fall

Gone For Ever More

Months ago I wrote about My Raining Stars here in MySpace Picks session (by the way, there is more to come soon.) but had listened only the songs from their MySpace page, and now that I've got the CD and listening to it I thought they deserve a proper review. So, My Raining Stars is a three-piece band based in France that shares each other all the passion for indiepop, passion that you feel when listening to their songs. I'm pretty impresioned about the way From St Saviour To Quickwell easily flows along every track, probably will be one of the finest pop songs you gonna hear this year - an amazing record from start to finish, for sure. The album is totally influenced by Creation Records, the "do it for fun/passion" C86 style and Sarah Records in fact, the songs are a perfect blend between early Primal Scream and Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque. From St Saviour To Quickwell is a solid record with well crafted infectuous pop melodies that fill our hearts with joy, just hear the jangle guitars of "Riding For a Fall" and the catchy "Gone For Ever More" (my fave ones!) - I just have to decide which one will be in my compilation of best songs this year.

The CD was self-released and I suggest you to visit their MySpace page and get to know the band or even order your copy of From St Saviour To Quickwell contacting Thierry (the lead singer, and a really nice person.). One of the best releases this year, and it's a self one!

Based in...: UK

Label: Chapter 22

Year: 1986

My Rate: 10/10

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Poppiecock is one of my favorite EPs from C86 era! This is the 12" version with the addition of five more dirty, upbeat, noisy and 1-2 minutes perfect pop songs. A classic must have.

Based in...: Tokyo

Label: Marsh Marigold

Year: 2003

My Rate: 9/10

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Guitar Pop band based in Japan but with members from Germany too and it's kind a Tokyo's answer to The Pastels. The songs are catchy and sung in English(except for one, Sonnige Tage) with guitars jangling through the whole album showing the unique Japanese skill of making an amateur indiepop sound without being bad played, if you know what I mean. This is one of the most played albums on my iPod, really enjoyable especcially for those who likes Brideshead and The Pastels. Don't miss this one, kid.

Based in...: Scotland

Label: Rev-Ola

Year: 1992, Recording date: 80-81

My Rate: 10/10

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Bio from Wikipedia:

Fire Engines are a post-punk band from Edinburgh, Scotland. The band was a part of the same literary art-punk scene as the Scars and their most famous contemporaries, Josef K. They grew out of the Dirty Reds which had actor Tam Dean Burn as singer. Vocals and guitar were performed by David Henderson, guitar by Murray Slade, bass by Graham Main, and on drums, Russell Burn. Henderson went on to form Win in the mid 1980s and then The Nectarine No. 9 from the early 1990s until 2004. He is now working on a new band called The Sexual Objects who released a single on the Creeping Bent label in 2007.
The Fire Engines were noted for Get Up And Use Me/Everything's Roses (Codex 1980), and singles and LPs in 1981. In 2004, the band released a limited edition collaboration single with Franz Ferdinand. The seven inch single contained a Franz Ferdinand cover of the Fire Engines song "Get Up and Use Me" with Fire Engines covering Franz Ferdinand's "Jacqueline". On Oct. 2, 2007, the Acute label issued Hungry Beat, a collection of the band's original studio recordings, was made available for the first time on CD in the US.

Based in...: San Francisco, CA

Label: Underpop

Year: 2000

My Rate: 7/10

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Review from AMG:

Neo-psychedelic pop bands are sprouting up like mushrooms in a dark forest. Taking their lead from the Apples in Stereo and the Olivia Tremor Control, these bands prize atmosphere over pristine recordings, energy over technique, and songwriting hooks above all else. Shimmer Kids Underpop Association immediately leap to the forefront of the scene with their debut album, Bury My Heart at Makeout Point. The sound is bedroom pop by way of Spector and Mercury Rev with acoustic guitars, spacy keyboards, and high-pitched, yearning vocals. A sound that has certainly been done before, but Shimmer Kids bring a sense of wide-eyed sonic adventurism and some great songs to the party. From the opening "Society of Rockets," which has a chorus that rises out of the murky sound collage of the verse like a shining space capsule, to the harmony-filled and rollicking title track, to the acoustic guitar-driven "The Candidate" with its Al Stewart-esque sax, to the heartbroken epic "Kiss Them All Goodbye," this is a record filled with highlights. They even take the time to lampoon the ripe-for-parody Belle & Sebastian on the hilarious "Full Color Love Affair," with its propulsive guitars, piping horns, and snarky lines about e.e. cummings and sex. This is an amazing debut that hopefully points toward a future full of great music. Long may these kids shimmer.

Based in...: UK

Label: Jeepster

Year: 1999

My Rate: 8/10

MySpace

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Review from AMG:

On its sophomore release, Musicality, Salako created a 17-song mini epic full of indie pop surprises. From the opening jangly guitar line of the first track, "The Bird and the Bag," an eclectic blend of sounds is offered by the emerging British pop band. The blissful singalong on "Come! Follow Me" gives way to "Truth in Me," which features handclaps, a structured bassline, and dancing vocals. "Arts and Crafts" includes precise high-pitched singing and downplayed instrumentation. "Devil's Feet Lullaby" was one of the first tracks written for Musicality after the completion of the band's debut album, Reinventing Punctuation. Yet it was one of the last tracks to be fully recorded, complete with John Taylor on guest flute. The majestic and playful "Look Left" features a 200-member choir at the song's end. [Read more]

Based in...: Australia

Label: Twin/Tone

Year: 1985

My Rate: 8/10

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Based in...: UK

Label: International Artist

Year: 1968

My Rate: 7/10

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The Red Krayola is one of the longest-lived underground rock groups and have influenced a plenty of post-punk and C86 bands with its psychedelic, spacy folk-rock sound. Truly a classic, enjoy it!

Review from AMG:

Far gentler than, though equally quirky as, their maiden effort, the Red Krayola's second album was a series of odd miniatures that, though far more restrained than Parable of Arable Land, was a much more solid indication of the direction Mayo Thompson would explore over the next few decades. These are less "songs" than stream-of-consciousness fragments. Thompson's wavering, quizzical voice intones disjointed but evocative lyrics that may appear to be non sequiturs. Odd time meters and musical shifts do their best to defy conventional rock song structures. It's not very poppy, no, but if the description sounds foreboding, be assured that as experimental rock goes, it's far warmer and friendlier than the norm.

Based in...: UK

Label: Mercury

Year: 1998

My Rate: 9/10

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Compilation that includes all Springfield's U.K. and U.S. chart successes from 1964 to 1967(the best ones for me!) resulting in an amazing 20 tracks collection of her best-known material. Don't miss this one.

Genre: Post-Punk / Jangle Pop

Based in...: UK

Label: In Tape

Year: 1985

My Rate: 9/10

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Bio from Wikipedia:

Yeah Yeah Noh was formed by Derek Hammond (vocals, guitar) and John Grayland (guitar), with Adrian Crossan (bass) joining them for the first single. Sue Dorey (drums, vocals) was then recruited to complete the line up, debuting on the second single. Two of the band members, John Grayland and Sue Dorey (along with Damian S), published Printhead, a free magazine focusing on independent music in Leicester and its environs. The magazine released Let's Cut a Rug, a compilation LP of songs from local independent bands.
Signing to In-Tape records, the band debuted in June 1984 with the Cottage Industry EP, featuring humorous and satirical lyrics and post-punk/jangle-pop music. After a further two ep's, the releases so far were collected on the album When I Am A Big Girl.
After adding Tom Slater on guitar, the band moved towards a more psychedelic sound and introduced more serious songwriting for first album proper, Cutting The Heavenly Lawn Of Greatness...Last Rites For The God Of Love in 1985. The band released a further single but split up in 1986. Hammond announced that he was forming two new groups, The New New Seekers and The Time Beings, but neither materialized, and he continued to work as a music journalist under the pseudonym D.J. Fontana.
The band's Peel sessions were collected on the Fun On The Lawn Lawn Lawn album in 1986, and a retrospective Leicester Square was issued by Cherry Red records in 2006.

Genre: Indie Pop / Lo-fi / Guitar Pop / Twee

Based in...: Australia

Label: K

Year: 1986

My Rate: 8/10

MySpace

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A rare cassette collection of out-takes from the Bored Angry and Jealous sessions and other direct to cassette recordings from 1985 & 1986. Very lo-fi recordings from one of the finest Australian popsters.

Genre: Indie Pop / Folk Pop / Lo-fi

Based in...: US

Label: K

Year: 1992

My Rate: 8/10

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This is truly a remarkable record from the 90s. Singer/songwriter Lois Maffeo reigned for a long time as one of the most respected voices in American indiepop. She had a considered solo career after leaving Courtney Love(the band!) and have recorded some really good folk-pop/lo-fi albums most of them on K Records. Butterfly Kiss was produced by ex-Young Marble Giant Stuart Moxham and it's my fave one cause the simplicity and beauty of the melodies, "Valentine" is a charming classic.

Based in...: UK

Label: Fire

Year: 1989

My Rate: 7/10

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Headache Rhetoric was the last album by The Close Lobsters and it's more agressive and tense than early releases, with roilling guitars and a sense of prediction/presentiment expressed in the lyrics. The whole album is enjoyable but there isn't any memorable song besides Lovely Little Swan, Nature Thing and Knee Trembler which is yet not that much. The lyrics are still great(check them here.) with the jangly guitars full of overall effects in addition producing an even more psychedelic sound . This was an appreciated effort to make a good album and kinda is after all.

Genre: Indie Pop / Sunshine Pop / Chamber Pop

Based in...: Canada

Label: Endearing

Year: 2004

My Rate: 7/10

MySpace

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Although I think this record got a bit repetitive melodies, there are some beautiful tracks that worths a listen like Unseasonably Sad and Filtered Light. The great Indie Pop Heaven blog has posted their second, The Heavy Blinkers, check it out here.

Review from AMG:

The Heavy Blinkers' fourth album is their lushest, most luscious record yet. The group has always been a sonic treat, but here the album is positively bathed in epic luxury. In fact, The Night and I Are Still So Young achieves twice what the Polyphonic Spree does with half as many members and 1/100th the hype. Much like on that band's record, each song here floats on waves of sweeping strings, blaring horns, massed harmony vocals, and bathtubs full of reverb, but unlike them there is a sweetness about the Heavy Blinkers, an easy grace which results in a perhaps less shocking and exuberant listening experience but also a richer one. Enough of the comparisons though: The Night and I Are Still So Young is a wonderful modern pop record that stands up to repeated listens, and given the right exposure could vault the group to the top of the chamber/intelligent pop heap. In the likely case that doesn't happen, at least be one of the few who fall under the spell of the autumnal charms of the record.

 

Genre: Indie Pop / Guitar Pop / Swedish Pop

Based in...: Sweden

Label: Marsh Marigold

Year: 1994

My Rate: 9/10

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Poprace was formed in 1992 by the finest pop musicians from Sweden, Johan Angergard (Acid House Kings, Club 8, The Legends), Joakim Ödlund (Acid House Kings, Starlet), Karolina Komstedt (Club 8), Henrik Mårtensson and Anders Baeck (Starlet). They released only two singles, Hanggliding At Sea on Marsh Marigold in 1994 and Clear, in 1996 on Elefant Records. Hanggliding At Sea was a bit more tough for Marsh Marigold patterns so the EP had bad sales at the time wich was unfair cause the record features 4 great guitar pop songs and an interesting cover of Depeche Mode's Photographic, besides the fact that is good for us to know wich kind of sound they were influenced to. The band has made some gigs in Sweden and Germany then split up in 1996 before the release of Clear.

 

 

 

 

Genre: 60s Pop / Sunshine Pop

Based in...: UK

Label: Rpm

Year: 2007

My Rate: 8/10

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These Dream Babes compilation series are fantastic. In this Volume 7, Beat Chic, are 22 tracks of rare, lost and groovy girl pop from the 60s UK scene with loads of delightful sunshine pop melodies.

Tracklist:

Genre: Indie Pop / Cuddle-Core / Twee

Based in...: Portland

Label: Magic Marker

Year: 2001

My Rate: 9/10

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