The concept of ‘perfect pop’ is a long-standing one amongst indie kids. It’s a term often thrown back at critics of songs, almost a defense mechanism: ‘yes, it’s very badly-recorded, but it’s perfect pop!’, ‘I know it’s Girls Aloud, and they’re completely manufactured, but it’s just a perfect pop song!’, and so forth. It’s a […]
Author: simonminter
THE GO-BETWEENS: Before Hollywood (LP, Rough Trade ROUGH 54, 1982)
Item number one, inspired by the selection of this record 2345. As I fired up the random number generator to select a record for this post, I noticed that the number of records in the list of possibilities now stands at 2,345. That number must surely have some kind of numerological, Kabbalistic meaning? I bet […]
TALKING HEADS: Remain In Light (LP, Sire SRK 6095 NP, 1980)
I have a strange relationship with Talking Heads. They’re one of those bands that I feel I should really like, because they – at least the context of endless name-dropping by music reviewers the world over – tick several of my ‘this is my kind of thing’ boxes: ‘edgy’, slightly angular music weirdness art-school sensibilities […]
LOIS: The Trouble With Me (7″, K IPU 40, ?)
No release date is given on this record, but I think it came out in the very early 1990s. Lois Maffeo was an intrinsic part of the more indie-pop end of the nascent American Riot Grrl scene of that time, and part of the excellently-named Courtney Love, who for ever after would need to be […]
GOD IS MY CO-PILOT/GAG: Grow Your Own Country Wide Primary School Band EP (7″, Guided Missile GUIDE 003, 1995)
If you’re keen-eyed, you may spot the remains of a sticker on the front of this record’s sleeve. I tried my best to remove it, I really did, but it was stuck on with some kind of industrial-strength super-super-glue, and what you see that’s left is a pretty good outcome, I can tell you. If […]
VARIOUS: Streetsounds Electro 2 (LP, Street Sounds ELCST 2, 1983)
I picked up this record at some point within the past few years, either in some charity/second-hand shop somewhere, or from eBay. Having taken the opportunity to investigate my eBay history to see whether it was the latter, I realise that said history seems to effectively end – for me, at least – at December […]
ANOTHER SUNNY DAY: You Should All Be Murdered (Three Songs) (7″, Sarah SARAH 22, ?)
Another Sunny Day. Another Sarah record! Right after the previous post about a Blueboy record, the random number machine points me at this single. It’s got no release date (or copyright date) mentioned anywhere, but the catalogue number would suggest that this came out in around 1990 or so. Another Sunny Day not only have […]
BLUEBOY: Clearer (7″, Sarah SARAH 55, 1991)
This is only the second Sarah Records release so far that’s come up as a candidate for my witterings on here. That’s quite a surprise to me. As I’ve said before, Sarah was one of the first record labels that I pointed my fevered collector attentions at, and as such there are a lot of […]
VARIOUS: Saturday Night Special (7″, Leadmill LEAD002, 1995)
I have no recollection of when and where I picked up this record. It was definitely some time after its release date of 1995 (or, specifically, 14 August 1995 as an associated insert confirms); instinct suggests it was at some point during the last three or four years from now. What I mean by that […]
BOUQUET: Elderberry Place (7″, Caramel CARAMEL ONE, ?)
Ah, records don’t get much more archetypally cute indie-pop than this! This was a self-released record that came out in the early nineties. Bouquet were something of a big player in the letter/fanzine-based indie-pop scene of those times; they contributed to a lot of compilation tapes, flexis and fanzines, including some that I put out […]