c86
Track: The Hit Parade release Happy World / Otaku Boy for RSD 2018
One of the UK’s most cherished indie bands The Hit Parade releases its thirteenth single on JSH Records tomorrow to mark Record Store Day 2018. The Hit Parade was formed by three school friends in 1984. They have released six albums and 12 singles since and built a small but determined following amongst record fans in …
Track: Flowertruck – Good Enough for Now
For those of us who remember the famous C86 cassette release from the NME, Postcard Records and bands like The Go-Betweens, Orange Juice, Jonathan Richmond and Prefab Sprout, hearing Flowertruck is like time travelling back to the eighties. This band, from the inner west of Sydney, Australia, has that certain twee ingredient, a sense of …
Track: Close Lobsters – Under London Skies
It’s been more than two years since we heard anything from indie pop legends (I think its fair to use that term) Close Lobsters, but Shelflife will be releasing the Scottish bands new EP featuring “Under London Skies” b/w “Wander Epic Part II” on (wait for it) limited Gold 7″ vinyl. There’s going to be …
Album Review: McCarthy – I am a Wallet (reissue)
Trust me, there was a time before you’re average indie band shied away from politics, because it might affect their ‘careers’. Today it seems that more bands are worried about saying the wrong thing, than maybe saying the right thing. It seems rather just, that at a time where Jeremy Corbyn, the almost antithesis of …
Album Review: St. Christopher – Evermore Starts Here 1984-2000
This is weird. Me and St Christopher have history. I bought, direct from Sarah Records, that beacon of all things indie and (in some cases) twee, All of a tremble, and fairly shortly afterwards stole one of their other singles for the label from my brother, Say Yes To Everything. Fast forward a long time …
Album Review: Various Artists – A Sunday Matinee
Where would we be without Matinee Recordings? The Santa Barbara label is celebrating its fifteenth year of releasing indie pop, and have just released this compilation of track as a celebration of that fact. Straight away what’s evident is the worldwide appeal of both sides of the indie pop coin, the scuzzy and the twee, …
Sarah Records, and an interview with Clare Wadd, co-founder
Both me and my brother went through a period of waiting furtively for the postman to deliver these plain brown packages, which we ripped open and almost tore the plastic covering off to get to the good stuff inside. And no, it wasn’t what you’re thinking. These were singles from a small Bristol based record company, …
Track: Dick Diver – Water Damage
I think I was about 13 or 14 when I discovered the ‘carry on’ films. I remember, I think maybe my mother was working late, and I happened upon it. I think in those simple days of four channels you could still find a good ‘carry on’ most nights, if you looked hard enough (altogether …