Matt Lyon aka C86
via @joshwills

Brilliant Colors debut Introducing, ute på Slumberland nu, består av tio låtar som klockar in på 24 minuter. C86-klingande med ekon av Primitives och Shop Assistants, Sarah Records power-pop och Talulah Gosh! Inledningsspåret på plattan låter lite annorlunda och påminner om Rides fantastiska Taste. Andraspåret Absolutely anything finns att ladda ner gratis från Slumberland.

Brilliant Colors – Absolutely anything

Betydligt snällare är Pants Yell! som på samma bolag nu har släppt Received Pronunciation, deras fjärde album. Cold hands från albumet är en soldränkt gitarrhistoria med klara stänk av The Lucksmiths, och är ett smakprov i form av en fri mp3.

Pants Yell! – Cold hands

Båda skivorna finns tillgängliga på Slumberland som både CD och LP.

Slumberland

Cineplexx

That Argentinean born and current Barcelona resident Sebastian Litmanovich is joined on Picnic by Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub, Jad Fair of Half Japanese and Duglas Stewart of BMX Bandits, is really all you need to know about Cineplexx. But if you’re still inquisitive, Picnic sees Litmanovich guiding the C86-inspired lo-fi through rippling landscapes that take in the Vaselines, Magnetic Fields, Gruf Rhys and Camera Obscura along the way.

Litmanovich’s lush, subtle, Spanish lends Cineplexx an absorbing warmth, while light, ethereal bounce and 60s psychedelic conjures up an absorbing setting where the Velvet Underground and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynchi hang with Belle & Sebastian and Gilberto Gil. It’s luscious stuff and very easy to get sucked into the fuzzy ether. But that’s all the fun.

Cineplexx – Hojas

…it’s Amazon that fails. I placed an order October 11th for these inks. It is now December 5th and they have not yet shipped. I have contacted Amazon about this. Simply put, they do not have these in stock despite their statement, “usually ships in 1 to 2 days.”
As you know, you can not print with your printer (in my case, Epson C84) if you run out of any single ink tank.
So, my advice is this: if you order from Amazon, keep tabs on your order. If it isn’t being prepared for shipment within a reasonable amount of time…cancel and buy elsewhere unless you are prepared to go without a printer for God knows how long.
As for these inks, I only use inks made by Epson for our Epson printers. I have heard others resort to using “3rd party” inks and while some haven’t had a problem, many have!
In any case, good luck on your purchase. Hopefully you’ll receive your ink-set before the cows come home.

Product Description
Three pack including Cyan – Magenta – Yellow cartridges

Click Here to see more reviews about: Epson Color Ink Cartridge Multipack (C64, C66 ,C84, C86, and CX6400 Printers) T044520

Álbum: I could be in heaven 7″ (Subway, 1986)

Love and death LP (Subway, 1989)

The Flatmates

Corría el año 1986 y  The Flatmates editaban su primer 7″: I could be in heaven en el modesto sello The  Subway Organization. En ese mismo año, y en ese mismo sello, vieron la luz las primeras grabaciones de grupos como Shop Assistants, The Soup Dragons, Razorcuts… A su vez, la revista NME reunía muchas de estas canciones en una cassette llamada C86. El resto, es historia..

Puedes escucharla aquí

Y si te ha gustado, descárgala aquí

Picture Perfect EP - Design by Jimmy with image from Gordon

Once upon a time, I told you about a band from Glasgow. No, not that one. Not that one either. This one. At the time, Strawberry Whiplash were coming off the release of their debut single “Who’s in Your Dreams” on Matinée Recordings. With it, Sandra and Laz (the same man behind Bubblegum Lemonade, also on Matinée), found an audience well prepared to be seduced by their brand of fuzzed-up C86. And now, this month, Strawberry Whiplash are back with their follow-up, the Picture Perfect EP (and, dare I say it, it nearly is).

Strawberry Whiplash reach a degree of excellence in the opening measures of this EP that few bands can even dream of and, even more impressive, manage to sustain it throughout all four tracks without ever becoming pretentious. Sandra’s vocals are hypnotic and intoxicating; delivered with such a straightforward, unassuming sweetness that the listener would certainly feel like the scum of the earth for turning a deaf ear. And yet, the fuzzy (at times, even crunchy) sound of Laz’s guitar, keeps things from ever turning saccharine.

And the Picture Perfect EP has the sixties stamped all over it. The title track features the perfect simple sixties drumbeat, reminiscent of just about every good song released from 1961-1965, whilst “Celestial” betrays shades of Strawberry Alarm Clock in between bursts of organ, a la The Doors. “Hay in a Needlestack”, with the prominent pairing of a glockenspiel doubling Sandra’s vocals on the refrain, is by far the pinnacle of sweetness on this EP. The EP closes with “Falling Through”, which is, quite simply, quintessentially Strawberry Whiplash.

I’ve been spinning this EP since Saturday. I must have listened to it about a bazillion times by now. At 11 minutes, this is not a difficult feat to accomplish, made all the easier by the fact that the band’s trademark brand of shoegaze-y C86 is particularly easy to swallow. My only issue with this picture perfect EP is that I wish it was longer; now that would be even perfecter.

You would be well advised to head over to Matinée and make your purchase as this release is limited to 1000 copies. However, if you’re the sort of person who likes to try before you buy, you can download the title track, “Picture Perfect”, here.

MP3 – Strawberry Whiplash, “Picture Perfect”

The Art Of Hanging Out [2004] <-Download

O escocês Francis MacDonald é mais conhecido como ex-baterista do Teenage Fanblub, embora já tenha gravado com BMX Bandits, Pastels, Belle & Sebastian e Eugenius, entre outros nomes ilustres de seu país. Tocando todos os instrumentos e sob a alcunha de Nice Man, Francis lançou-se em carreira solo no começo desta década. O debute, Sauchiehall & Hope, de 2003, é uma auto-intitulada Opera Pop sem contra-indicações para quem gostou dos últimos trabalhos do Teenage. O disco foi lançado no Brasil pela Slag, e até rendeu uma turnê por aqui. The Art of Hanging Out saiu no ano seguinte, e traz melodias mais felizes, guitarras mais distorcidas e letras um pouco mais otimistas em relação ao amor. A sonoridade elétrica é fruto da companhia dos Bad Boys, que em faixas como Mine Mine Mine restabelecem um elo não tão perdido entre o Teenage Fanclub e o shoegaze.

Mine Mine Mine

Hey Slinky

Two Sunsets [2009] <-Download

Vazou o tão esperado novo álbum do seminal Pastels, a banda mais importante a surgir na fértil Escócia. Two Sunsets foi lançado em parceria com os japoneses do Tenniscoats, que também é formado por um casal. Das doze músicas que compõem este split, apenas a abertura Tokyo Glasgow é creditada às duas bandas.  Stephen Pastel e Katrina Mitchell contribuem com oito faixas, entre elas a que dá nome ao disco e o single Vivid Youth – cujo clipe, rodado em super 8, deixou os fãs de indie pop ainda mais ansiosos por este lançamento. O coadjuvante duo nipônico contribui com apenas três, sendo que uma delas é About You, cover do Jesus and Mary Chain, já lançada anteriormente como b-side. Um álbum irretocável, assim como tudo que leva a assinatura de Stephen McRobbie.

Pastels - Yomigaeru

Tenniscoats - About You (Jesus and Mary Chain)

ps. O arquivo está em 224 kbps, mas parece que foi ripado do vinil. Algumas faixas apresentam problemas, em breve postaremos uma versão melhor.

Orginally published on Fuzzy Pop. Note Dave Newton’s comments!

This is another article I had been working on for no one in particular earlier this year and which I found during a My Documents clear out! It ends in 1986 but I plan on finishing this as best I can in the future. I will try and find the fanzine/music press articles to add the quotes. I have also added to it but not that much. You can see where. Enjoy the songs. They are brilliant!

Other indie pop bands who have also been waylaid by the twee pop revisionists include the guitar pop bands such as The Mighty Lemon Drops and The Bodines (maybe they had their guitars turned up too loud?). This is despite the predictable token appearances on recent indie pop compilations.

The former in particular laid the foundation for many an indie pop band that followed them. Get hold of any fanzine from 1985 or 1986 and I will guarantee you that there will be an interview with this or that band who would say the same thing.

The band came from England’s black country and were originally called The Sherbet Monsters. Three of the band members (Marsh, Linehan and Newton) had been in Active Restraint previously and got together once more when Dave Newton quit the Wild Flowers. The bands influences ranged from Slade, Teardrop Explodes, Wah, Bunnymen, The Beatles etc and they soon signed to Dan Treacy’s Dreamworld Records. In 1985 they released one of the best indie pop records of all time, Like An Angel. How it soared and soon it nestled pretty on top of the indie charts.

Funny enough though the b-sides sounded superior. Something Happens and Sympathise With Us were fine examples of 1960’s psychedelic rock and Dave Newton and Tony Linehan demonstrated a fine songwriting partnership. However the principle pop nugget was to be found on the 7″ version of the single. Now She’s Gone was the poppiest punk single you would ever hear but for some reason the band rarely played it live. Talking about live. Just how how good this band? Whether it was at the back of The Boston Arms or in a sold out Astoria the band were simply dynamite and there lay a problem. To me they just couldn’t cut their live performance on record but played so frequently it didn’t really matter!

At this point the band had recorded a Peel session and a demo of the track Happy Head was included on NME 022 (C86) . In support of the tape the band headlined the NME’s showcase of gigs at London’s ICA:

“Initially dogged by sound problems and swathed in a crazy psychedelic backdrop, The Mighty Lemon Drops still cranked up some gold chords with a buzzing vitality that must number them among the most optimistic, uplifting and danceable Men In Black in the history of pop.

After nearly a year of playing basically the same tunes, they have suddenly been smitten by a burst of creative activity, introducing five new songs that give their set better texture and syncopation without straying too far from the instantly recognisable taste of Lemon sorbet. Ending on the forthcoming single ‘Other Side Of You’ single, they showed quite that this is just the start.”

That review was typical of many. The band were proclaimed as pop’s saving grace by the UK music press as they seemingly marched from strength to strength. Of course the UK music press were fickle and would turn on the band in later years.

The band signed to Chrysalis Records subsidiary Blue Guitar in 1986 alongside The Shop Assistants. Both bands had considerable success on the independent scene and it was hoped that that would be replicated by the label. Along with The Bodines The Droppies (& Shoppies!) had no qualms about mainstream chart success and indeed in interviews at the time they would mention that as a goal.

In August 1986 the band released the single The Other Side Of You which was another rickenbacker inspired punk pop track. It was to become their best selling major single reaching number 51 in the UK charts. A month later The début album Happy Head was released.

It wasn’t really a début album as these songs were known off by heart in pretty much the same way as The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart’s forthcoming début album is a collection of songs known to their fans. The album contained re-recorded Dreamworld tracks but some sparkle was lost in the production. That said it was a great pop album purchased by many of the black clad indie pop class of 1986 but failed to dent the top 40 reaching number 58. Still it made me wonder at the time if it was best to release it on a major rather than an indie label. They could have closure the first part of their career that way but I guess no indie labels were forthcoming or they couldn’t compete with Blue Guitar’s resources.

1986 came to a close with another track from the album released as a single. My Biggest Thrill was a 1960’s throwback and included across the formats were some of the bands best work in Rollercoaster which became a live favourite and Take My Heart which became nobody’s favourite apart from mine.

The Mighty Lemon Drops – Pass You By (speeded up take from 12″ version of the Other Side Of You )
The Mighty Lemon Drops – Take My Heart (from My Biggest Thrill double pack)

Recommended Listening: Rollercoaster The Best Of The Mighty Lemon Drops 1986 – 1989. Released on Cherry Red Records.

Photo by Julius Beltrame

Here it is! The first of my three most anticipated albums of 2009 is here (or at least it will be on 14 September). If you want to know more about Piney Gir, read this post, because there is so much to cover with The Yearling (16 tracks totaling about 50 minutes), that I don’t want to waste space regurgitating old information. So, to begin with, let me say this:

The Yearling is even better than I’d hoped it would be.

This is a far cry from Piney’s first album, Peakahokahoo, but those who, like me, fell in love with her early electronic tinkering, will not be disappointed. Blended alongside folk, twee, and jazz elements are shades of that retro Casio keyboard sound (a PT-20, to be exact). Mostly, this manifests as a sort of undercurrent, riding beneath and propelling forward about a dozen tracks, but in other places, such as “Early Days” (which bears a stylistic resemblance to “Janet Schmanet” from Peakahokahoo), it plays a more prominent role.

The album opens with “Hello Halo”, a sort of slowed down, gypsy-less hot club jazz ditty with guitar and violin supporting the simplest lyrics on the album, and the first of three miniatures that provide some of the most endearing moments on the album. The meat of the album begins with the second track, “Say I’m Sorry”, which also happens to be one of the highlights of the album for me. This is more straightforward C86 than I ever thought Piney Gir could get, right down to the handclaps and jangly guitars (all that’s missing now is the glockenspiel). “Say I’m Sorry” flows right into “Blithe Spirit”, which you may remember from that old entry I mentioned earlier. And whilst, in listening to the two songs in succession, one may be inclined to believe that, whoever this girl is, she must have died of twee fever, the sentiment is still a wee bit creepy. I love it.

A few tracks down the list, comes the next (and my favorite) miniature, “Blixa Bargeld’s Bicycle”, ostensibly about a bicycle for sale. Yes, perhaps it sounds like a simple vocalise and maybe you don’t need a bicycle, but “say you have a toothache / and you need to see a dentist / and you don’t know how to get there. / You could always ride a bike”, and wouldn’t you like to know Mr. Bargeld was selling his before moving to Shanghai? I thought so. The last of these miniatures is the a cappella “199 to Elephant and Castle”, a tiny, textless interlude opening with a bit of bus driverly wisdom and bridging beautifully the gap between “Abelha – Bumblebee” and “Lion (I Am One)”.

Speaking of which, “Lion (I Am One)” is an interesting number and another one of my favorites. With its opening Beat era cool jazz walking bass groove, it sets a chill, stalking tone for the track to come. With the introduction of some extra noise about halfway, this track becomes something akin to a shoegaze version of Audrey Hepburn’s café dance scene from Funny Face. Also of note here, is what could possibly be considered a bit of involuted songwriting: “I walk the forest across the floor / A piney forest / A piney floor”. Lewis Carroll would be so proud. “Oleanna”, which follows, about a man scouring the country searching for the woman of is dreams, is probably one of the more radio-friendly tracks on this record. (Incidentally, it features some fine Spanish diction on Piney’s part.)

The album closes out beautifully with the flute and harp accompanied “Love Is a Lonely Thing” (which reminds me, for no good reason, of Chet Baker’s “Born to Be Blue”), the considerably folksier “Weeping Machine” (one of the darkest Piney Gir songs I know: “I clean my house the best I can / discarding every hair and flake of skin, / so I can start again in a space that’s mine”), and ends on the more lilting, sing-along style of “For the Love of Others”.

Yes, it’s true that I still haven’t heard Piney Gir’s second album, Hold Yer Horses, but somehow, after having listened to The Yearling, I don’t feel so bad about that. Yes, I’d still like to hear it, but this album is so good, I am inclined to believe those who are calling it her masterpiece. It is more focused than Peakahokahoo and consistently entertaining. Having listened to this album eight times already today, I am about to get back in my car, where it is sitting in my CD player, waiting for me and it is likely to stay there for several days. Kristin says the mark of a great album is the inability to pick one favorite song. My favorite track from The Yearling has changed three times over the course of writing this review. It is just that good. It will be out on Hotel Records in the UK starting Monday, 14 September with a US release planned (I think) for some time in October. You owe it to yourself to buy this record and listen to it on repeat until you die.

I don’t really have any songs of the week, as such, however, even better is that I found someone who posted online the unreleased debut album of The Motorcycle Boy. Scarlet was set to be released in 1989 and it just never happened. The singer, Alex Taylor, was formerly of the more well-known indiepop royalty from the C86 era, The Shop Assistants. The Motorcycle Boy was a more rock orientated incarnation with some amazing hooks. I can’t believe this stuff is unreleased. This is a real treat and I just wanted to share it with as many people as possible.

Here’s the blog that originally posted it.

More importantly here is the link to download it.

The band’s name came from the character from the S.E. Hinton novel, Rumblefish and also the Coppola film adaptation featuring Mickey Rourke and Matt Dillion in 1983. All are swell.

-stay gold

So when does a pallid copy of the past cease to be a pallid copy of the past? It is simply when enough time has gone by, that everyone has forgotten how rush-of-blood energising this music can be?

Sure, this sounds like some marketing man’s or Bob Stanley’s dream of what C86 sounded like (but NEVER really did), or a Pitchfork critic’s vision of indiepop 2009, but does that make it any good? Really? Sure, there’s some C86 in there – if by C86, we’re talking the (spit) Close Lobsters, or a fifth generation copy of The Wedding Present. My wife was way more into cutie than I ever was and even she immediately had this down as “generic indie”.

Listen up. I’m genuinely intrigued. What the hell is the appeal of this band? Is it simply that their fans have never heard The Wedding Present, Heavenly, the bloody Smiths, The Field Mice, Vivian Girls, Brilliant Colors, Liechtenstein, etc etc etc?

Why don’t they just call themselves The American Smiths and be done with it?

P.S. In response to the blogger who reckoned that I have no past form when it comes to writing about cutie music. Um. That would be right. Yep. That would be about right. (Etc, etc, etc.)

Photo by Alison Wonderland

I know, I’ve been talking about this for a long time (here, for instance, and here, and here) and, before you ask, no, it’s not here quite yet. The School’s debut LP, Loveless Unbeliever, is slated for release in October, so you have still a couple of months to wait (for you Druids out there, that’s one autumnal equinox – two full moons for you werewolves). But far be it for me to go more than 45 seconds without thinking of my favourite Welsh pop purveyors or the album which is quickly becoming the most exciting thing to happen in 2009 (and it hasn’t even happened yet!).

Thankfully, for those like me, suffering – willfully, faithfully – from twee fever, The School have preempted their LP with the release of a split 7” (Searching for the Now 6) on Slumberland Records this week (the School take the A side with two tracks from George Washington Brown, the latest nom de rock of Pete Gofton, Kenickie’s Johnny X, on the flipside). Of course, if you’ve taken my advice in the past and visited The School on MySpace, you will recognise their cover of Left Banke’s ‘And Suddenly’. The School are perfectly equipped to pay homage to these pioneers of baroque pop with their uncanny evocation of the 1960s girl group sound with a pinch of C86 and just a dash of Camera Obscura. The performance is so well executed, in fact, that it is difficult believe that this is a cover song at all and even more difficult, still, to stop listening. When you’ve had a month like I have, this is the music that keeps you alive; listen to it about a dozen times, and suddenly, the world is full of sunshine.

You ought to know, however, that this song will not be on the album. This is the only release planned for this track (except for the B-sides and rarities collection bound to be compiled in about a decade in celebration of the band’s inevitably illustrious career). And, as if that is not enough of a reason to entice you to open your pocketbook, there are two tracks (‘End of the…’ and ‘Twin Towers’) by George Washington Brown on the B-side. No, he is not likely to be mistaken for The Angels or Shelley Fabares, but is still well worth your attention. So check it out on the Slumberland page. You will not regret it, because, as I’ve said before, at any given moment, The School are reminiscent of everything that you love about music.

Well, I can’t NOT put this up, one of the absolute primary influences on the Talulah Gosh side of C86. Apologies for the video, but… well, does anyone know if Girls At Our Best! ever made one?

Spent this weekend catching up on some CDs that I’d recently bought. I also looked through some of the vinyl that I have out here. The vinyl I have in Dubai falls into two categories; vinyl I’ve bought from Dubai, and vinyl I brought to Dubai. The second set contains some interesting releases; there’s the Fetish “Last Testament” compilation, “Revolutionary Spirit” 12″ by The Wild Swans, all my A Certain Ratio albums and early singles, ditto for 23 Skidoo and a fairly anonymous, but highly significant compilation; “Different For Domeheads”.

I decided to give “Domeheads” a spin, it has been a while since I’d last listened to it. Those opening guitar chimes at the start of “Why Does The Rain” still has the desired effect – gives me me the shivers. (Just like the bass that propels you into “Destroy The Heart”). Ok, so I’m jumping ahead. But that compilation goes a long way to defining 1986 for me.

1986. I’ve heard many of my friends say that the mid-80s were a desolate period for British music. I disagree. The mid-80s were a swirling mass of so many different styles it’s hard to see a theme, but everything exploded out of this period. My musical tastes had started to spin out of control from about 1984 onwards. I was still loyal to my Factory Records and 4AD obsessions, but I’d started to pick up 7″ singles from lots of new bands, all with differing styles. I’d tune in to Tony “The Greek” on his Sunday evening Piccadilly Radio show and listen to the usual run of Manchester bands; The Fall, The Chameleons, the Factory groups, fledgling The Stone Roses, but he was also slipping in the odd surprise. “New Day Rising” and “Candy Apple Grey” – I heard both first on “The Last Radio Programme”, Husker Du prepared me for the coming deluge; Pixies.

1986 was the Festival Of The Tenth Summer. There was a stunning James/Bodines double-bill at the Russell Club and of course the massive GMex event; The Fall, ACR, New Order, Pete Shelley, The Smiths and others..

Different for Domeheads. A showcase of all that was good back then; The Loft, The Jasmine Minks, Primal Scream, The Pastels, Biff Bang Pow!, Slaughter Joe, The Bodines and The Weather Prophets. I had secured my copy of C86 and was trying to grow my small collection of Creation records. My favourites at the time were The Pastels and The Loft. (Peter Astor later turned up on 4AD with Heidi Berry – most odd). 1986 saw a few great singles releases by; Primal Scream “Crystal Crescent”, Weather Prophets “Almost Prayed” and of course the mighty “Therese” by The Bodines (where did they go?). In Warrington it seemed that everyone was spinning around with flowers sprouting out of their arses, and growing monumental quiffs (“The Queen Is Dead” had just been released). I tried to avoid it as much as possible. I was listening to “Sound Of Confusion” that August, it offered me much more than Morrissey/Marr ever could.

1986 was the year I went to Newcastle Polytechnic. Just before I headed up to Newcastle I listened to an interview with Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook on “The Last Radio Programme”. They talked about a new signing to Factory. Bernard had produced their second single – “Freaky Dancing”. (That day-glo cover and indie-dancefloor-funk-crossover rhythm certainly spoke of things to come!).

1986. I certainly don’t think it was a bad year. I’d say it was the year things started to move again. We had House Of Love and My Bloody Valentine within a year. And by April 88 I was packed into the Newcastle Polytechnic SU to watch the Pixies open for Throwing Muses. Madchester was kicking by 1988.

(Oh, and in the middle of all that I saw The Wild Swans!)

Someone quoted me all over this:

“The strange thing was that Huggy Bear’s musical template was hardly revolutionary. It was a relatively straightforward mix between the twee, non-macho, post-C86 bands such as Heavenly and The Field Mice, caught up in the DIY cassette and fanzine culture emanating from labels such as Calvin Johnson’s K Records, and Bristol, England’s Sarah Records, and the noise/pop experimentation of the sonic overlords/ladies Lydia Lunch and Sonic Youth…with a little Fifties beat poetry thrown in. No, it wasn’t so much the music that was revolutionary, as what they did with it. Scratch that. Huggy Bear’s deliberately naïve, anti-societal approach to playing guitar — there is no right and wrong way to play guitar, to paint a picture, to view art —was revolutionary inasmuch as it challenged accepted mores, forced listeners to re-evaluate their entire approach to music.

“In a way, the act of declaring oneself a revolutionary is revolutionary in itself. Despite their musical leanings, Huggy Bear with their rudimentary anarcho-syndicalism, ideas of equal ‘prime movers’ (not leaders) and impassioned feminism had more in common with mischief-mongers and Government-baiters Crass than any of the toy rabbit-clutching bands that followed. One listen to the fury threatening to devour the songs alive on their Wiiija compilation Taking The Rough With The Smooch proves that.”

So I thought I’d re-re-up the part they re-upped here, post a link to the original article here, and give a link to the place that re-upped it, cos it looks like a pretty fucking cool blog.

You can find the Riot Grrrl series of interviews here.

OK. Thought I’d shove up some random archive stuff, especially as my hard drive backup seems to be eating my old files, never to return. First, an interview from 2005 conducted for… where? I have no recollection, but I feel that perhaps I used some of this later in a Plan B feature. There’s already plenty of stuff about some of these bands elsewhere on my blogs (particularly here) and there’s a great article from Alistair Fitchett about it here, but I really can’t be arsed to link to it all. Sorry.

Alright, first the basic questions that I ask everyone:
Which were the most important earlier bands leading up to the C-86 wave?
Orange Juice, Josef K, Aztec Camera (the sound of Young Scotland): the ideology behind Creation Records but not the bands themselves (with the exception of the Mary Chain and The Pastels): anything on Rough Trade records post-1978 (except The Smiths who always were corporate sell-outs): The Fall (because they influences EVERY independent band from the UK post-1977): Buzzcocks, Subway Sect, Captain Beefheart (half the bands on that NME tape ripped the good Captain off), The Velvet Underground (and the other half ripped the Velvets off): Trixie’s Big Red Motorbike, Sophisticated Boom Boom and any of the girl-led pop groups that Peel used to play in the early Eighties: Captain Beefheart again: The Byrds and The Creation and The Kinks and all that white boy jangling guitar Sixties stuff: Television Personalities: plenty more, but that’ll do for now.

If I were to pick 10 bands from the C-86 era to write more about – which should I choose?
The Pastels
Talulah Gosh
Shop Assistants
The Wolfhounds
Jasmine Minks
The Membranes
Big Flame
The Wedding Present
June Brides
The Legend!

(This is a random list, drawn from the top of my head – and I’d be amazed if I haven’t forgotten a load of great bands.)

Are there are any bands that surfaced after the tape but are still considered to be C-86?
Not for me to say – but some people may consider what Matt and Claire put out on Sarah Records to fall firmly within the “C86 category”. Talulah Cosh were actually post-C86 if my memory serves me correctly. Comet Gain are totally C86 – as were many of the Riot Grrrl bands (especially the later ones that lost the politics but retained the cutie edge). Oh, and I guess BMX Bandits would’ve loved to have been.

What other musical events (gigs, record releases etc) except for the tape made the year 1986 stand out?
I remember standing at a Soup Dragons Hammersmith Clarendon (upstairs) concert with a basket full of new Legend! fanzines (Wolfhounds/Razorcuts flexi) and not moving all evening – people coming up to me in a constant stream, as I sold about 130 copies. Also, I’d travel up to Bedford Esquires (and other venues) a great deal for their fine triple bills starring folk like Talulah Gosh and Big Flame and Membranes – shows put on by Nigel Turner, who now runs Pickled Egg Records. I can’t recall events – was ’86 Live Aid? USA Against Warmongering By Capitalist Countries? C86 was actually a massive disappointment to me: for a compilation that so clearly had its roots in all the bands I would write about for NME at the time, it was incredible I hated so much of it (it’s cos the compilers were too arrogant to consult a “kid” like me). I still don’t like much of the tape – it’s unrepresentative of its times certainly (as opposed to the brilliant C81 comp, five years earlier) and even unrepresentative of the small narrow strata of music it thought it was representing. I recall a Troublefunk show that I danced my ass off at.

Were there any venues or clubs that were central to C-86?
Was McGee still putting on shows then? If so, then whatever he was behind would have been central. If not, then certainly Dan Treacy’s Room At The Top, upstairs at the Enterprise Chalk Farm, next to the excellent Marine Ices shop where everyone would hang out before bands, was vital. As were Leigh’s shows at Woolwich Polytechnic and Nigel’s shows in Bedford. They were the main three I’d go to.

Was C-86 in general political – lyrically or musically? Or was it just shaped by the politics of the time? And was it working-class or middle-class?
Depends which strata of C86 you’re talking about: the crap pop bands like The Bodines and Mighty Mighty or god-awful Close Lobsters certainly weren’t political. The more obviously Beefheart-influenced bands like Stump and The Shrubs and Big Flame and The MacKenzies seemed to be on the surface – although it’s arguable that was only because of the style of music (angular, awkward, challenging) they were aping. The Age of Chance seemed revolutionary, the way they matched guitar pop to dance rhythms, and were unfortunately (for them) 10 year ahead of their time. Half-Man Half-Morons (who should NEVER have been near the compilation) were an out-and-out joke band.

The temptation nowadays when faced with a crop of ‘indie’ bands is to automatically think of them as middle-class but looking down the list on C86 I’d have to say most of them are working-class (probably in some last echo of punk’s diverse roots that spread out to the working-class communities from its middle-class origins with Strummer and McClaren and that whole London thing). Most of those C86 would’ve played benefits for the miner’s strike and the like… again, I think this was probably part genuine outrage at the Thatcher years, and probably part follow-on from punk and post-punk’s obvious political leanings. Yes, of course the bands were shaped by their times, and among that section of society in the mid-Eighties, dissent was very much to the front.

Interesting that, out of 22 bands on the compilation, only three of them are female.

I’ve heard that there wasn’t a homogenous indiepop sub-culture before C-86. Is that true? And what were the identifying markers of anoraks, both on the surface and ideologically?
No, there wasn’t – not readily identifiable, at least. The most it amounted to was boys like Bobby Gillespie and Edwyn Collins who wore their hair like members of The Byrds: there was definitely a Mod and Sixties crossover with some of the more jangling elements of the independent sector (thanks a lot to the Creation Records aesthetic) but no… To be honest, I don’t think C86 was the main factor behind ‘indiepop’… that was more down to the law of diminishing returns and Sarah Records’ (in particular) sometimes inspirational but more often damn right annoying tunnel vision and insistence on sticking with ONE PARTICULAR SOUND, no messing (and certainly with no room for females, barring the ever-present Amelia Fletcher). Anoraks were NOT the norm in ’86 (Stephen Pastel wore one, but with leather trousers) not at all… it was the younger brothers of the C86 generation who decided that they were cool, not the people of the time.

Where did C-86 go? Did it merge with other genres or did it all turn into twee?
Let’s get this straight. C86 didn’t actually exist as a sound, or style. It was supposed to be a “state of the independents” compilation, similar to C81. The reason it wasn’t was down to the myopic vision of its compilers. The reason it wasn’t stronger was because major contributor behind the scenes, Neil Taylor – who only ever chose to write about bands I’d reviewed two weeks before – had no actual idea about music beyond reading other journalists. I loved soul and dance music at the time of C86. But the compilation didn’t reflect any of that. One half of C86 obviously turned twee – was already on the verge even as the tape was being put together. The other half continued existing merrily on its own terms thanks very much.

What’s your definition of C-86 today?
I don’t have one. See above. And I find it weird bordering on surreal that people are starting to use it again, specifically to sell seven-inch singles on eBay. No one used the term back then. They really didn’t.

And now the more important questions, especially tailored for you:
I assume you wrote the fanzine The Legend! – how would you describe it?
Impassioned, arrogant, self-obsessed, determined to strike its own path separate to the great morass of fanzines who all just seemed to be content with being third-rate copies of NME (I always knew I couldn’t do interviews, so I never ran a single one in any of the five issues of The Legend!)…naïve, futile, excitable, plenty of exclamation marks, instant, brutally honest, refused to take any ads whatsoever (and yes, I was offered some), very proud of what it did… almost entirely written by me, designed and published by me…

What other fanzines do you remember liking and what distinguished them?
Idiot Strength, Are You Scared To Get Happy?, Juniper Beri-Beri, Attack On Bzag, The Rox, that damn magazine Miki and Emma did years before they formed Lush (Alphabet Soup), Incendiary, Hungry Beat… for pretty much the same reasons as I’ve detailed in the description of The Legend! (None were as passionate or extreme as mine, of course.)

You were writing both for your own fanzine as well as for the NME – was that uncommon? And what did you think about the NME ca 1986?
There were several of us who wrote for both our own magazines and the music press – me, John Robb, James Brown, probably several more. It wasn’t that uncommon, there was a great tradition of writers coming to the music press from fanzines that started during the early punk days – and to the best of my knowledge has continued through even till today. I hated NME but of course I secretly loved it too. I didn’t exactly socialise with any of the other journalists there… I was routinely ridiculed and looked down upon by my fellow writers, especially the more august ones (and with some reason: I still couldn’t string a sentence together at that point). Danny Kelly supported me, and Steven Wells and David Quantick. Cheers mates.

Were you involved with compiling the C-86 tape? Why was it put out and what determined which bands were on it? (If possible, compare with C-81.)
I think I’ve already answered this question above: it was basically intended as a “state of the independents” round up – NME had a tradition of putting out tape compilations, like C81, but covering all forms of music (Rebellious Jukebox was my all-time favourite, introducing me as it did to the wonders of Southern Soul Music: there were several others also, covering jazz and hip hop). This was at least a decade before the idea of giving music away with a music magazine had become so thoroughly devalued that nowadays you don’t even bother buying Mojo or Uncut unless they have a free CD attached, and even the broadsheets get in on the act…

I wasn’t involved. I should have been, but I was a jumped-up fanzine kid (who just happened to be introducing most of these previously ignored bands to the music press and their readers). The standing joke at the time was that the tape comprised all the bands who’d slept on my floor when they played London – Shop Assistants, Wedding Present, Pastels, Bogshed, A Witness, Age of Chance, Soup Dragons….If I’d been involved there’s no way bands like Mighty Mighty or Half-Man Half-Biscuit (neither of whom had ANYTHING to do with anything) would have been allowed near the tape.

How come the two in retrospect perhaps most classic C-86 bands, Razorcuts and Talulah Gosh, were not on the tape?
I’m fairly sure Talulah Gosh were only just emerging right about the time the tape came out, so you can hardly blame the NME for not including them. (Why no June Brides, though? That was a bigger scandal.) And same held true of Razorcuts (although I absolutely LOVED that band by the time C86 appeared)… as I say, I had nothing to do with that tape despite being part of the inspiration for it. If I had then of course the ‘cuts would’ve been on it.

What were the connections between C-86 and other related terms such as anorak, shambling, jangle or twee? What did they mean and in what order did they emerge?
Anorak was something Simon Reynolds invented a couple of years later, in Melody Maker (he wrote a big article in ’88 on the whole fanzine ‘scene’, which by that time had moved along to the Canterbury Arms in Brixton, I think, that included massive pictures of John Robb and me – much to NME’s disgust). I think he may have invented ‘twee’ at the same time. Both are horrible condescending words. Ugh! Jangle was probably around since ’81 or so, with Orange Juice and the bands that loved Sixties groups like The Byrds. Shambling (and the thankfully underused grebo) has been credited to John Peel circa ’85 – but I never listened to him so I wouldn’t know. I think it was taken to mean bands like The Fall, and the Beefheart-influenced lot, who didn’t care so much whether everything was perfectly produced or polished, but had a more ‘shambolic’ approach to recording and playing live. I used to think it meant any band that took more than three attempts to start a song… in which case Teenage Fanclub early on were the ultimate shambling band. But to me, Bogshed always were.

Why did the NME turn on a scene of their own creation and start using the term ‘C-86’ in a scornful manner?
That was because most of the writers never liked it in the first place – and also cos the description quickly codified into a certain sound. And that always sucks when that happens.

Some people seem to think the invention of ‘C-86’ killed off indiepop. What were the negative as well as the positive effects?
I can’t comment here; neither term actually means much to me as descriptions of a genre of music (the two are synonymous as far as I’m concerned) so the question is meaningless. Cheers, Everett

So in the past few days some stuff arrived in the mail and I bought a couple of things. When there’s this much, I feel a little like someone who has been starving let loose on a banquet. There’s really no cohesion to the selection, so just skim through and pick what you’re interested in.

The Vaselines Enter The Vaselines- I was lucky I managed to get my copy for 10 bucks off because I had used up all my little stamps on a card at the record store, so that was a bonus, but even so for the $24.99 it was originally priced at, it’s a great deal from the bastards at Sub Pop. First off, this is a collection of their entire discography: 2 EPs, 1 album and live shows, on three 12″ vinyls. Second of all, just try finding any of these elsewhere. Like many indie acts, The Vaselines were only really appreciated after they disbanded. Kurt Cobain famously covered a couple of their songs, exposing the band to a wider album. The lyrics are full of double-entendres and the singing is very pleasant to the ears, contrasting France’s soft voice with Eugene’s, which reminds me a little of The Jesus and Mary Chain. The music itself is this amazing bridge between 80s twee and dirtier bands like Sonic Youth, borrowing from both movements to create a hybrid. Inside is a booklet with some photos and a couple of interviews, plus a free mp3 download. Granted, they definitely weren’t a fantastic live band, but there’s some charm. I love it. You will too.

The Mighty Lemon Drops Out of Hand EP- I found this fun dual gatefold 7″ EP with two previously unreleased tracks on it from 1987 for 5 bucks. How could I refuse? You know, I don’t even like their more well-known “Happy Head” track from the famous C86 compilation, but the lead song, “Out of Hand” is full of jangly 12 string guitar joy. If you find it cheap, get it.

So four things I ordered from Shelflife arrived.

From the 1000 series, limited to 300 copies (why don’t they call it the 300 series? It’d be less confusing) which features an EP length CD with a 7″ and fancy packaging. First off, I have to say, while I love the aesthetics of these releases, the packaging is a total pain! The slim piece of dark grey paper with the band name and label name on it that slips over the gatefold, is quite difficult to get back on. I find it really annoying, despite the looks. I have a Blonde Redhead album that uses a similar piece of paper that slips over and I’m always afraid of ripping it. I actually seemed to have lost the slip that goes with my Days Downhill from this series that I bought a few months ago, which pisses me off! Also, the vinyl doesn’t ever seem to want to come out of the case. All of this makes for pretty, but finicky packaging, that deters me from wanting to play any of the releases often, simply because opening it up and closing it is too annoying.

Anyway that aside,

Champagne Riot Paris and I- Frankly, a super awesome collection of pop songs, ranging from subtle to more in-your-face, modern, yet owing so much to the 80s. There isn’t one bad track on it at all, such seems to be the trend of most Scandinavian bands lately; they’re having a real pop rennaisance over there. There’s also a fun blog written by one of the band members.

The band may benefit from some actual promo photos! Jesus. That's some nice architecture?

The Socialist Leisure Party Tactical POP!  For Coffee Cadets- I’ll be honest, I’m a little disappointed with this. After listening to the fun track “Head in the Hay” on the Shelflife site, I was expecting a bunch of songs on par. Unfortunately, a lot of them are actually kind of forgetably indiepop, reminiscent of 80s Orange Juice, but lacking the same charm of Edwyn Collins. I actually prefer the two instrumental tracks to the ones with singing. It’s not bad, but it isn’t inspired either. I’m beginning to think bands with these kinds of names are usually a little overwrought.

CDs! I have to say Shelflife offers very reasonably priced albums on CD, for only $10. Most places opt for about $15ish.

Language of Flowers Songs About You- Obviously inspired by The Smiths and The Shop Assistants, and the singer Tara Simpson does a convincing rendition of Alex of The Shop Assistants. The songs are definitely pop and definitely twee. Some are hit and miss, because there lacks variety in the actual songcrafting. “Leaving” is a stick-out track for me. Maybe this is a grower, because at the moment I can’t really differentiate between a lot of the tunes. Also, I’m definitely slow on the uptake here, because the album is from 2004. I think the band split up too because their website and Myspace are defunct–too bad.

Burning Hearts Aboa Sleeping- This is a great album, but I can’t decide if it’s for good reason or illegitimate reason. A couple weeks ago I wrote a post on songs that sound like other songs, and I have to say that several songs on this walk the thin line between brilliant originality and plagiarism. “I Lost My Colour Vision” grabs the classic monophonic opening to the Soft Cell song, “Tainted Love”, but that’s forgivable and the rest of the song is pop heaven. “We Walked Among the Trees” basically copies the riff from David Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes”; it’s rather shameless. I mean, yes, it’s a great riff and everyone loves it, but it’s also instantly recognizable. “Sea Birds” seems to borrow the rhythm, bass and bits of the guitar from The Cure’s “A Forest”, although it’s more subtle and the song is certainly their own. “Close to Her” sounds like Fleetwood Mac on synthesizers. I would classify this as being more akin to great songwriting than copying, although I can hear bits from “Dreams” and “Sara”, but that’s really a heavy-handed influence that’s all; I could make the same comparison between a couple Cut Copy songs like “Strangers in the Wind”. I honestly was waiting for Stevie Nicks to come in after the intro for “Close to Her”, and yet, I wasn’t disappointed when singer, Jessika Rapo sang instead. Rapo has a very nice voice, very melodic and gentle without being mushy or annoying. Despite the similarities to the aforementioned songs, the similarities was only ever in the actual instrumentation–Rapo’s singing was never like any of those songs; her singing was completely original. Anyway, I’m torn between loving and being annoyed by this album because of some of the ripoffs. Let’s just say that I certainly like Burning Hearts’ influences!

Just about the only band I followed round the UK (me and Geoff the Postman, in his car).

The Membranes have sort of been written out of DIY UK 80s pop history, thanks to the people who put the NME’s C86 compilation tape together – it was supposed to have been a Snapshot of the Nation collection, similar to the excellent C81: as it was, it was a reflection of a couple of staff members’ rather blinkered tastes. Also, The Membranes were from up North – and the London media notoriously only covers what’s on its own doorstep.

Ex-singer John Robb is writing a book documenting the times that should be out later this year, so maybe that will help rectify the balance. Until then, I totally recommend the excellent compilation, Commercially Unfriendly.

The C86 tape was originally a tape you had to send away for from the NME for a token and a few quid. It later appeared as a limited run of 500 as a radio only copy before getting a full release on Rough Trade Records.

The tape collated bands from the UK Indie Scene in 1985/86 with the angle that some (Bodines, Shop Assistants, Mighty Lemon Drops) would burst through on the commercial scene. This never happened although bands like The Wedding Present and Primal Scream scored success a few years later.

Another striking point, compared to the the “indie” scene today was how political some of the bands on the tape were. After all, at this time, the NME was a socialist music paper in all but name. Why was this? It was certainly a reaction to the policies of Thatcher’s Conservative government which had ripped the heart out of the traditional working class industries and left them in ruins resulting in mass unemployment, poverty and depravation. The steel workers, the ship yard workers, the UK car industry and more importantly the miners who were crushed by Thatcher’s government with help from the police and the British industrial ruling class, rendering the British trade unions all but useless. It’s no wonder that bands like McCarthy and The Wolfhounds emerged carrying on the musical struggles of The Gang Of Four and The Redskins amongst others. It is also no surprise that many of the non-political bands on the tape came from those areas affected by Tory policies and formed bands, no doubt on benefits for some of the time, because of lack of work and it was better than being on the dole – a quote I read in many interviews with the likes of the Shop Assistants etc at the time.

What other impacts did C86 have? Leading on from punk anyone could be in a band playing shambling Ramones covers! I was even a stand up drummer for two weeks! It didn’t matter if you couldn’t play as it was all about passion resulting from the disillusion that was prevalent. I never saw as many fanzines as I did at the heights of 1985/86! Fanzines written in the bedroom, bands rehearsing and recording in the living room and 7″ records, in plastic bags with paper inserts, distributed from the kitchen. A real cottage industry if there ever was one.

C86 certainly wasn’t twee as you may have been lead to believe. Just listen to bands like Bogshed or A Witness. Twee came later with bands like Talulah Gosh and the likes of Sarah Records but was certainly inspired by the bands of 1985/86 as are many today such as Camera Obscura, Belle and Sebastian and American bands like Dressy Bessy.

Was C86 a definitive round up of the time? No, not really as it contrasted greatly to the sounds of it’s predecessor, C81 which covered a wide range of genres unlike C86. As Alistair Fitchett writes the bands on C86, many who looked towards Orange Juice, Fire Engines and Josef K for inspiration but not these bands love of genres such as funk and disco, resulting in a lack of diversity on the tape (apart from maybe Age Of Chance and Mighty Mighty). No reggae, no dance, no dub but it had a little soul so to speak!

Further Reading

C86 on Wikipedia

indie pop on Wikipedia

Twee As Fuck – Pitchfork

Tracklisting

Side One

1. Primal Scream / Velocity Girl
2. The Mighty Lemon Drops / Happy Head
3. The Soup Dragons / Pleasantly Surprised
4. The Wolfhounds / Feeling So Strange Again
5. The Bodines / Therese
6. Mighty Mighty / Law
7. Stump / Buffalo
8. Bogshed / Run to the Temple
9. A Witness / Sharps And Sticks
10. The Pastels / Breaking Lines
11. The Age of Chance / From Now On This Will Be Your God

Side Two

1. Shop Assistants / It’s Up To You
2. Close Lobsters / Firestation Towers
3. Miaow / Sport Most Royal
4. Half Man Half Biscuit / I Hate Nerys Hughes
5. The Servants / Transparent
6. The MacKenzies / Big Jim(there’s No Pubs In Heaven)
7. Big Flame / New Way(Quick Wash And Brush Up…)
8. We’ve Got Fuzzbox… / Console Me
9. McCarthy / Celestial City
10. The Shrubs / Bullfighter Blues
11. The Wedding Present / This Boy Can Wait

C86 – Side One
C86 – Side Two

If posting this tape causes offence to any of the bands featured on the it or any publishers then please contact me in the first instance.

New album from Nina Persson’s other band A Camp today. I haven’t listened to it yet, but I’m still excited.

In light of the admittedly surprising success of Dutch Week, we will probably have to sponsor a Welsh Week sometime soon. I swear, this has nothing to do with the fact that I have a weakness for Welsh accents or that if I were ever fortunate enough to meet a woman who spoke with one that she could have me do her bidding with the mere utterance of a few words. Nor has it to do with the fact that Hay-on-Wye is reputed to have more bookshops per capita than any other municipality in the world (be still my heart!) or that Doctor Who and Torchwood are filmed in Cardiff (David Tennant!!!). It’s just that they make so much good music. (Ok, so maybe it is a little bit about the accents.) But can you blame me? Based on that description, it sounds like Heaven on Earth.

For now, we’ll stick with one band (the Handbook’s second Welsh act to date), Cardiff’s 60s pop throwbacks, The School. Put simply, the band are, at any given moment, reminiscent of everything you love about music. “Let It Slip”, with its handclaps and shoop-pop background vocals has the distinct ring of the early 60s girl groups (The Angels, Shelley Fabares). “And Suddenly”, a cover of a Left Banke song, is layered with Beach Boys-like harmonies. “I Want You Back” is the School at their Belle & Sebastianiest, reminiscent of the indie idols’ Dear Catastrophe Waitress era brand of tweeness with a hint of Camera Obscura. And “Kiss You In the Snow” would make a perfect centerpiece for an Indie Handbook Christmas compilation (if we were ever allowed to make one). I love love love this song. All of this is executed with a dash of Northern Soul and maybe even a hint of Glaswegian C86.

The albums. There is a 7-inch on bubble gum pink vinyl and another four track EP. “All I Wanna Do” was also included on the Rough Trade Counter Culture 08 compilation released back in February. So, there you go, three more reasons to resent the hip hop dominated American music scene and the skinny jeans indie hipster counterculture.

Visit them at theschoolband.blogspot.com and on Twitter and, of course, on MySpace. Seriously guys, you need to listen to this one, or we will never be friends.

P.S. How amazing would it be if we were allowed to make a Christmas compilation?! I am totally serious about this. Write your MP! Pester your congressman! Beg your favorite band (the nice ones, anyway)!

In many ways, the city of Glasgow is a driving force behind The Indie Handbook (and not just because I am of Scottish descent and not-so-secretly wish I could live there)–it is also the home of indie gods Belle & Sebastian (and one of my celebrity crushes, Isobel Campbell). No, this is not about Belle & Sebastian, seminal as they may be, you already know how fabulous they are. This is about fellow Glaswegians, Strawberry Whiplash, a band with one of the best names I have ever heard.

Strawberry Whiplash are Laz McLuskey (who writes the songs, plays the instruments, and also records as Bubblegum Lemonade) and someone named Sandra (who sings the songs that Laz writes). You probably wouldn’t actually have to listen to Strawberry Whiplash or see a list of their influences to have an idea what to expect, a photo of Laz with his classic red Rickenbacker would be sufficient. But for those of you not as presumptious as I am, think of that jangly C86 guitar sound with a Velvet Underground fuzziness (see also: “Factory Girl”, a musical homage to Warhol’s “poor little rich girl”, Edie Sedgwick).

The band is part of an impressive lineup on Santa Barbara’s own Matinée Recordings (including Bubblegum Lemonade, Cats on Fire, the Electric Pop Group, and the Hermit Crabs). I will probably refer to this roster a lot in the future. But right now, I am only concerned with the distinctive, cutting Rickenbacker jangle and Isobel Campbell-like vocals of Strawberry Whiplash. They have released one EP, Who’s In Your Dreams, all of which you can hear on their MySpace.

My favorite thing about Strawberry Whiplash: they are self-defined “part-time indie popsters” with real jobs, like we are, but we (much to my dismay) do not live among the Scots (and their intoxicating accents).

i wish for this to be my replacement art… except, it’s kind of out of my budget range. sob*
[c86 on flickr]