Three of a Kind #117

My first Three of a Kind post for about, what, three years is inspired by rediscovering one of my favourite bands of the early 90s, Revolver. To be honest, I could take or leave a lot of their stuff, but the following trio of songs - Heaven Sent An Angel, Red All Over and Molasses - are as good as anything I ever heard in the 90s, shoegaze-wise, dreampop-wise or otherwise. Pure brilliance from start to finish. They only ever sold about twelve records, too. Funny old world.

Quite Fonda this

Despite the fact that they've been around since the late nineties, I'd never heard of Californian duo Fonda until Lito posted recent single Better Days over on Lito Music last week. It immediately caught my ear anyway as it's one of the best slices of shoegazey dream pop I've heard this side of 1992. See what you make of it.



Fonda - Better Days mp3 (right click)

You can download Fonda's five-song Better Days EP for $5 at Bandcamp

Ride on time

Hello. I'm back (clearly).

How good is this?



(stretches arms out wide) This good!

Managed to find that on someone's MySpace page, by the way. If you try to watch the same video on YouTube you get the pictures but no audio and this message underneath, which will be familiar to anyone who's tried to watch more than about three music vids on that website: NOTICE: This video contains an audio track that has not been authorised by WMG. The audio has been disabled.

Gah! Such contempt for music lovers, the vast majority of whom will have paid for the actual music at least once (I own Chelsea Girl two times over, on CD single and on the Smile compilation). I genuinely don't think I could be more offended if they added the words "Now fuck off" at the end of that pompous snook cock of a notice. Anyway, arseholes!

1991 (Spotify playlist #3)

With apologies to See See Rider, The Popguns, The Would Be's, Intastella, Curve, Bleach and Mega City Four - all of who would've made this list had the songs of theirs I was after been available - here's my playlist for the best bits of 1991; or at least the bits I liked the best. As ever, simply click on the Spotify link below to listen to the whole thing.

1 Easy Come Easy Go - Grant McLennan
2 Star Sign - Teenage Fanclub
3 Bed-In - Eugenius (Captain America)
4 Oh No Won't Do - Cud
5 Not Too Soon - Throwing Muses
6 Happy - Ned's Atomic Dustbin
7 Heaven Sent An Angel - Revolver
8 Vapour Trail - Ride
9 De-luxe - Lush
10 Suzanne - Moose
11 Mesmerise - Chapterhouse
12 Dreaming - The Lilac Time
13 Nothing Can Stop Us - Saint Etienne
14 It's Too Late - Quartz featuring Dina Carroll
15 Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack
16 Get The Message - Electronic
17 Beautiful Love - Julian Cope
18 Take 5 - Northside
19 Sheriff Fatman - Carter USM
20 One Way - The Levellers
21 Texarkana - R.E.M.
22 Chocolate Cake - Crowded House
23 The King Is Half-Undressed - Jellyfish
24 Sensitize - That Petrol Emotion
25 Dalliance - The Wedding Present
26 Unfamiliar - Ride
27 You Made Me Realise - Midway Still
28 Love Your Money - Daisy Chainsaw
29 Rave Down - Swervedriver
30 Monsters & Angels - Voice of the Beehive
31 Kinky Love - Pale Saints
32 Falling On A Bruise - Carter USM

Click to listen to 1991 Spotify playlist


What do you reckon, have I made any glaring errors? Let me know! I'm guessing there might be some Manic Street Preachers and My Bloody Valentine fans who won't be overimpressed with their omissions, for a start. (Although, in mitigation, I have at least included a version of a MBV song!)

Fakes, Rattle & Roll

A gorgeous slice of ethereal dream pop in the vein of The Innocence Mission and Mazzy Star for a Friday afternoon*, courtesy of Melbourne combo The Fakes. Bloody marvellous this is. (N.B. Any resemblance to a Del Amitri song title is purely coincidental.)

The Fakes - Always The Last To Know mp3

The Fakes on MySpace

Buy The Fakes downloads at Klicktrack

*other days and times of day are available. Please see your local calendar/clock/wristwatch/sundial for details. Times and conditions apply.

Three of a Kind #66

Recorded in London at the fag end of 1989 and produced by Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins, the Mad Love EP was Lush's second release, and became their first UK singles chart entry, reaching #55 in March '90.

And what a corker it was. Hark! what's that noise? It's the sound of a band hitting the ground running. (either that or some good old-fashioned crackly vinyl.) Let's shoegaze!

Lush - De-Luxe mp3

Lush - Thoughtforms mp3

Lush - Leaves Me Cold mp3

Mildly Interesting Pop Fact: Miki Berenyi from Lush's real name is Beryl Grimsdale. Actually it's not. It's Miki Berenyi. Cheryl Baker from Bucks Fizz's real name is Rita Crudgington, though. I wonder why she changed it?

Buy Lush stuff

Simply Thrilled Like Honey

An old favourite from Malmo twee/shoegaze types Like Honey today, to celebrate the rather good news that the band are finally releasing their debut album, Leaves, in September. It would have been with us already but the pesky record company felt it would make more commercial sense to wait until the autumn, as the band explained in their MySpace blog recently:

We just had a chat with the executives of HYBRIS and we have agreed on releasing the album in early September instead of now. According to the marketing staff there its more strategic to release it after the summer. So we listen to the expertise, we want our little baby to get all the attention possible.

Ah well, as long as the album lives up to the likes of today's featured track, Airport, it'll be well worth the wait!




Like Honey - Airport mp3 (right click)

There's loads more Like Honey info, as you might expect, on their MySpace page.

PUPPETS Tonight

I've been listening to Hush* by the curiously-named Sad Day For PUPPETS a fair bit lately; I really cannot get enough of this song at the minute. If you liked bands like Ride, Lush and My Bloody Valentine, then this one should be right up your street. It's pure 1991 - in 2008.

Sad Day For PUPPETS - Hush mp3 (available for 7 days)

*Relax, those of you with an aversion to faux-psychedelic Britpop-era bands - this has absolutely nothing to do with Kula Shaker or any songs that particular combo may have recorded.

Sad Day For PUPPETS' (I'll never get used to those block capitals!) debut EP Just Like A Ghost is released on April 9th. You can order the CD here. You'll also be able to purchase all 6 tracks as a download for a bargain £1.35 here.

I'm getting round to thinking that today could bring me down

Sort of like a less successful version of Ride, Winchester upstarts Revolver burst (if that's the appropriate verb - which it probably isn't) onto the shoegazing scene in 1991 with the stupendously brilliant Heaven Sent An Angel EP. This release included not one but two of the year's finest indiepop moments - the title track plus the far-too-good-to-be-hidden-away-on-the-B-side Molasses.

Despite following this up with two more splendid releases (The Cradle Snatch and Venice EPs) in the subsequent twelve months, the success that this unusually melodic pre-Britpop band so richly deserved continued to elude them, and when they finally resurfaced in 1993 with their first (and only, as it turned out) studio album, Cold Water Flat, their moment seemed to have passed. The mildly underwhelming nature of some of the album's tracks only served to confirm this, for me.

A much safer bet is the 1992 US compilation album of the first three EPs, Baby's Angry. As a historical document of the UK indie scene at the time, this CD is as fine an example as you could wish to find. From it, here's the aforementioned Heaven Sent An Angel and Molasses, plus the equally thrilling Red All Over.

Revolver - Heaven Sent An Angel mp3

Revolver - Molasses mp3

Revolver - Red All Over mp3

(songs available for 7 days)

Buy Revolver stuff here here

"There's no sin in falling on your face every now and then"

The Silent Boys is a band that has been going for two decades, which is quite an achievement for any band! Singer/songwriter wallace Dietz, guitarist/bassist John Suchocki and drummer John Morand make the kind of music that would not sound out of place amongst the likes of Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen and the Field Mice, all of whom indiepop fan Wallace counts among his influences. The Silent Boys wear their influences on their sleeves and you know exactly what you're going to get from them - jangly guitars, strong melodies and heartfelt lyrics. Woohoo!

Previously The Silent Boys have released two albums: Beauty Tips (2004) and Wishing Well Eyes (2006), which are both available to buy from CD Baby. The following tracks are from those (in chronological order) and are indicative of the hummable jangle pop throughout both quality albums.

The Silent Boys - Another Lifeless Soul mp3 (available for 7 days)

The Silent Boys - Sonnet Of The Sea mp3 (available for 7 days)

On their new album One Step Closer (since taking so long to release their first full length album, the Silent Boys boys have been positively prolific!), there's a bit of a change in musical direction - not necessarily all to my taste - towards a slightly more sombre sound but there's still plenty of those jangly guitars and honest lyrics to be enjoyed. The tune below is my current favourite from One Step Closer.

The Silent Boys - Sweet Victory mp3 (available for 7 days)

I'm not sure One Step Closer quite lives up to the incredibly high standards set by the Silent Boys' previous efforts, but it's also more of a grower. I like it twice as much now as I did when I first heard it and I suspect if you ask me again in a few weeks' time I'll be even more of a fan!

You can buy One Step Closer by the Silent Boys from CDBaby and listen to more tracks from the album. And you can visit their website here.