c86
NEWS: Damaged Goods announce Heavenly and Talulah Gosh singles comps in time for Christmas!
NOW that’s the kinda Christmas present every proper indiekid needs. Damaged Goods have announced a 2xLP and CD reissue of their classic round-up of Talulah Gosh’s entire recorded output, Was It Just A Dream? – and as if that wasn’t enough to make December already a far more welcoming prospect, they’ve also, in the absolute …
NEWS: Optic Nerve’s sexy singles club announces v3.0
OPTIC NERVE, the wonderful Preston label that tickles the delighted fancy of any indie kid, has just announced the third edition of its singles club, which in the past has brought us such brilliant (and entirely unexpected in the 21st century) 7″ reissues as The Revolving Paint Dream’s “In The Afternoon” and One Thousand Violins’ …
Feature: Soundtrack of Our Lives – The Flatmates
THEY came bursting outta Brizzle on the back of one-foot-in-the-Spector-camp fizzbomb pop classics like “Shimmer” and “I Could Be In Heaven”. And this year, a mere 34 years after their first show, Bristol indie-pop-punk band The Flatmates released their eponymous first studio album and official debut LP on their alma mater, The Subway Organisation. The …
ALBUM REVIEW: McCarthy – ‘The Enraged Shall Inherit the Earth’
IF YOU’RE an old-skool, proper indie kid (and full disclosure, I count myself among that number), with campaign medals from the C86 wars – you saw action on the Creation, Midnight Music, 53rd & 3rd and Subway front lines, clutched fanzines with the finest, sipped snakebite during a set by Mighty Mighty – then Optic …
NEWS: Alex Taylor, RIP: the indie world pays tribute
AS THE sad news of the death of Alex Taylor, singer of fuzzpop legends The Shop Assistants and The Motorcyle Boy, reverberated around the indie music world, peers and contemporaries paid tribute on social media. RIDE said, via their Twitter portal Ride – The Network: “Sad news about Alex Taylor … a small but significant …
NEWS: Shop Assistants’ singer reported to have died
IT’S been reported across C86 newsgroups and fan sites over the past 48 hours that Alex Taylor, dulcet singer with Edinburgh’s great and ramshackle Shop Assistants and later of The Motorcycle Boy, has died – as long ago as 2005. The Shop Assistants formed in the Scottish capital in 1984, and were originally called Buba …
SEE: The Close Lobsters have still got the guitar shimmer nailed – ‘Godless’
STRAIGHT outta Paisley on the back of the C86 guitar pop wave, Close Lobsters were a little unfortunate to fly under the radar compared to some of their contemporaries. The pristine jangle shimmer of singles such as “ Never Seen Before” and “Going To Heaven To See If It Rains” led to a brace of …
Track: Swansea’s Mojo Jnr make hazy bedroom pop with Miles Away
SWANSEA’S Josh David-Read might just be Cymru music scene’s latest little treasure. The nation that brought us Super Furry Animals, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and Cate Le Bon will have a new songster to embrace with the debut track from Josh, who records as Mojo JNR. He said: “My goal is to make great …
Track: Even as we speak – Blue Suburban Skies
Out right now as part of the brilliant Optic Nerve Sevens 2.0 reissue series is this rather lovely slice of jangly indie pop from Australia’s Even as we Speak. After releasing a run of singles in their native Australia on labels such as Phantom and Big Home productions – the latter providing a home for …
Track: Wildhoney – Naive Castle
Slumberland Records have been a mighty presence within the independent community since their formation 30 years ago. This is a label who have worked with such indie luminaries as The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Stereolab, Dum Dum Girls and even Flying Nun alum Robert Scott via. The Bats. Risky to some but perhaps …