Sisters with no mercy

Probably the most obscure band in this obscure blog, Scent Merci were an interesting italian post punk band of the eighties. It’s hard to know, as there is no entry on the official sites, only brief posts about them on a few lost blogs. Scent Merci never seems to get mentioned in the endless articles about the post punk/new wave period in Italy. One blogger rated their song "Secret of Joy" in the top ten best post-punk italian songs over the likes of Diaframma, Litfiba etc...  anyway, a lot of italian bands could also have been good candidates for a list of completely underrated bands, but Scent Merci is the one I’d never actually heard of until incidentally saw a youtube video by ex Wax Heroes guitarist and soon after this, the great blog Systems of Romance gave us the wonderful Treviso 1986 Compilation on cassette only "Treviso Underground". And between the others, Scent Merci are really interesting. It may require some patience to navigate their relaxing jingle jangle murky atmospheres, but is rewarding for any fans of those lost italian sounds. It seems also there is a renew interest in their music nowadays. They have a new Facebook page and finally an exhaustive page on Last.fm with some good infos about their history and their discography too, from the ‘Cabaret du Chat Noir’ demo (1986) to their partecipation in various compilations like Amnesty International P.E.A.C.E. Benefit Compilation (1987). From their FB profile they recently promise good news about a possible compilation of old material... let's wait for them listening to their old tunes. 

Eric & the rabbits

Were they the best band on the planet? Possibly although it's really hard to remember now how much Echo and the Bunnymen meant. No doubt that Bunnymen were one of my top band in those days... ah the Liverpool scene, the shores of Lake Placid, the sound of a drum machine and those "pictures" on my wall... I think you'll find plenty of younger bands today will namecheck them and an influence. "The second best band ever to come from Liverpool", as Paul du Noyer once put it. Seen them many times playing live and they never disappointed... One thing for sure anyway, they probably weren't the same band when they reformed after Pete De Freitas died (what a drummer he was!). The latter-day Bunnies have, sadly, become something of a nostalgia act so, before listening to their new album "Meteorites", hoping could be a little better than the horrible 2009's "The Fountain", let's get back to the days that count... It was 21 June 1985, and they played a 'secret' gig at the Manchester International club. They went under the name of Eric and the Rabbits, and they played two sets. The first was a set of covers, while the second was all Bunnymen gems. Listen to their version of Talking Heads' "The Big Country" and put your dusty long raincoat on once again...

Loosing by win

Back to our beloved Italian New Wave, let's briefly talk about Wax Heroes this time, "a band that mattered" in the italian eighties scenario. The "wax thing" hailing from Treviso (where?!) put out only a great debut ep "Sher", a track on the seminal compilation "Gathered" by Rockerilla magazine and some 1982 demos... but that song, the percussive, foreboding "Win by loosing" is really something, a sort of masterpiece of Italian Post Punk. The band did not achieve any sort of popularity due to some bad luck and media noncurance. Rather than persevere and record their debut album, they gave up so soon and some of them ended up in Scent Merci, another band who had no future but great songs. The only discernible impact they had is that their influence could possibly be heard in many italian bands of the late eighties and first nineties, though the similarities could be a only coincidence.  A complete reissue with all their songs has been realised by Spittle records and, in my opinion, is badly needed for a nostalgic post punk lover.

The sound of happiness

Orange Juice stylistic influence can be seen across the board in UK  independent music, from DIY bands to later indie labels like Rough Trade, Sarah Records and Jeepster. Musically, bands like The Smiths, Franz Ferdinand and Belle and Sebastian have been outspoken about the influence of Orange Juice and others from the Postcard stable. It's not a surprise that still, their influence on the culture of alternative pop music and labels to follow has been huge. In the 1970's, Glasgow music scene had a reputation for hard drinking and hard rocking, not a lot more. Postcard changed that with bands like OJs that were fey, witty, intelligent and clean and had a sound influenced by the pop of the 60's and Northern Soul too. Also Orange Juice changed my life in those faraway years, first with their "sound of happiness" then with Postcard symbolism and subversiveness. Nothing special, just a kitten beating a drum, based on an early twentieth century Louis Wain illustration. At the time it was genuinely radical in its playfulness, going against the macho rock stereotype. In this redemption I believed and soon went to buy those old suede jackets & the same Davey Crocket hat Edwyn Collins used to wear... and what about their first 3 singles, what about those refrains!!! Anyway,  35 years after "the event", Domino is going to re-issue once again their 4 albums and OJ still seem so totally evocative of their time. According to their guru Alan Horne, "It was a time when it did not seem quite so naïve to be thinking that popular music might be something other than light entertainment from ‘dumb meets stupid’.” That's "all that ever mattered".

Here's for you "The Sound of Happiness" ( Blog only Rarities compilation)

1 Falling and Laughing - live 1981 at Valentinos Edinburgh
2 Blueboy - live at Glasgow Tech. Inst. 1980
4 You-Old-Eccentric (peel)
5 Breakfast time - live somewhere 1982
6 Lovesick [Janice Long Session]
7 Simply thrilled honey (cassette free -  live)
8 The Postcard version of Texas Fever
9 Poor Old Soul/Rip it Up (live medley 83)
10 I Can`t Help Myself (live at ogwt)
11 Salmon fishing in new york (bbc session feb 1984)
12 Aztec Camera & Edwyn Collins _ Consolation Prize live (b-side)
13 Edwyn Collins - Felicity live at Ica 94
bonus track - Nu Sonics-I-Dont-Care

Entering the secret world again!

As everybody probably knows, "Sarah Records was a truly independent record label founded by Clare Wadd and Matt Haynes in Bristol, England. Active between 1987-1995, Sarah Records set out to be different from other record labels. Committed to socialism and feminism and influenced by the fanzines and DIY attitude of the 70s punk scene, Clare and Matt were as vocal about their causes as their music. They were brave and uncompromising, refusing to play the music industry game to the very end and proved you can run a successful business without surrendering personal ethics. Sarah Records released a wide variety of music by bands based all over the UK and overseas. The fact that the label continues to attract new fans is testament to the quality and breadth of Sarah's discography." 

The good new is that there is now a documentary "My Secret World - The Story Of Sarah Records" that is the first  attempt to explore this legendary, influential and often misunderstood label.Please visit youtube, vimeo, twitter and anywhere else you can find the trailer and help to make distributors aware of  the film! My personal homage to Sarah Records is  a self made collection full of demos & alternate versions of Sarah classics.... Hope you like it!!!

A summer's tale (the sarah demos v.1)

01 The Springfields -  Sunflower (demo).mp3

02 the field mice emmas house demo.mp3

03 the sea urchins please rain fall demo.mp3

04 The orchids - An Ill Wind That Blows (Caff 7_ Demo).mp3

05 14 iced bear - first demo - Ring the Far Bell [#].mp3

06 Heavenly - peel - So Little Deserve.MP3

07 Tramway - Technical college (Demo version).mp3

08 Another Sunny Day - Genetic Engineering.mp3

09 St. Christopher - Crystal Clear.mp3

10 The sweetest ache - when you see her (demo).mp3

11 East River Pipe - Fatherland (rare track).mp3

12- Breathe (Eternal Demo).mp3

13 Even As We Speak - Straight As An Arrow.PEEL

14 Northern Picture Library - Snowscene (Alaska outtake).mp3

15 Primal scream - Tomorrow Ends Today.mp3

Sending letters from East Kilbride

Aztec Camera, from East Kilbride, it seems yesterday that they were the next Postcard stars ready to shine, but it was more or less 35 years ago.... Main man, Roddy Frame at the time was still a very young whippersnapper with an enourmous talent for writing songs, even more than his friend Edwyn, He was quite a flashy guitarist also, not in a Jimi Hendrix way, but it showed through in his choice of chords and his solo runs and he was a great player anyway. Quite sophisticated for bright & breezy pop songs. I mean, goodness knows how many chord changes there are in their songs if you ever tried to play them in years. Anyway, it was the sound of Young Scotland (?!) or was it only bunch of upbeat sparkly tunes for people tired of post punk gothic anthems... I don't know. No need to say how important the've been in "our" music and in my life... I  bought anything of theirs I could find including live tapes and badges for years... High Land Hard Rain definitely ranks among the very greatest debut albums of all times. Years after came the C86 bands, the new folk heroes etc... What I know for sure is that these early songs (recorded live in 1982 at the Astor Univ.) certainly show an incredible emotional depth and tug at the heart strings here and there... Sadly, this was the 80's,and progress, unfortunately,meant getting in big name producers and spending weeks/months achieving big drum sounds! Quality and the special touches get blown away by the sheer gloss and polish of the production...A crying shame,but it has its moments...

Flewing jets again (for the US airforce)

Having recently seen them pithily reviewed online somewhere as "Joy Division without the joy", someone forgets (or maybe he never knew) that Artery was one of the bands that sprung up in 1978 and they developed a large following also here in Italy where they incredibily had a minor hit with their single "Into the garden"! "People wanted to express themselves and that opened doorways" said Mark while reforming his band in 2007... It's a real pleasure to hear them again with a lot of new powerful songs to perform... welcome back Mark it's really a a huge pleasure to hear your great band again after 25 years with your magic intact, "never to late to spread the word"...