The Stupid Cupids - Big Blue Bus

Definitely up there with the worst band names ever to appear on this blog, though in fairness, the Stupid Cupids weren't a real band so much as one of the many identities used by Paul Chastain and Ric Menck (the Springfields, Velvet Crush) over the years. And besides, it's hardly like they were trying for a good name.

This pleasant and fun little tune was released on a 1987 Bus Stop flexi, and was later re-recorded by another Chastain/Menck alter ego, Choo Choo Train, under the title "Big Blue Buzz".

Honeybunch - I Won't Stand In Your Way

A track that never made it onto any proper Honeybunch release, and only saw the light on their compilation album Time Trials 1987-1995. It says something about the quality of a band when even their outtakes are this good. True, it's not really a patch on their previous entry at this blog (here), but then there aren't many songs anywhere that reach those heights. This one is perfectly charming in its own right.

Small Factory - The Giant Merry-Go-Round

It's a source of great sadness to me that I will never be able to make the Small Factory post I want to make. That's because it would require the technology to go back in time to 1992, grab Small Factory as they were then and transport them not onto a crappy mpeg to view in your browser but actually off the screen and into your living room. Because no recording will ever, ever capture what Small Factory were live. I know it's a cliché but you really did have to be there.

This recording, a b-side to their second single "What to Want", comes closer than most to capturing their live spirit. Still pretty far off though.

Honeybunch - Hey Blue Sky

Yet another gem from Providence, Rhode Island's incestuous indie scene. Honeybunch were active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and nearly perfected the folky-twee sound that most of their related bands (Velvet Crush, Springfields etc) were famous for.

This was their absolutely exhilarating debut single. For more, check out the compilation Time Trials 1987-1995.

Bag-O-Shells - Markers

Bag-O-Shells were another Providence, Rhode Island outfit featuring the people who brought us Velvet Crush, the Springfields, etc. They put out two singles under that name in 1988 and 1990 on the Bus Stop label.

There are obvious similarities between Bag-O-Shells and their related bands, but to me this sounds a lot more like the kind of thing REM were doing in the early '80s than the twee sound the Springfields (and Bus Stop generally) became known for. I don't like it as much as the Springfields, or their earlier incarnation the Reverbs, but it's nice enough.

The Springfields - Wonder

The Springfields were from Providence, Rhode Island, and might have been the only American Sarah band in the "classic" Sarah era, but don't quote me on that.

Providence being a small town, most of the bands that came out of there that anyone ever heard of (and I'm using those words quite generously, as will soon be apparent) were interrelated. The same characters turned up in the Reverbs, Honeybunch, Velvet Crush and I'm sure a few others I've long since forgotten. Velvet Crush were probably the best known of these and, not surprisingly, they were also the least interesting.

As for the Springfields, they had a really wonderful '60s pop aspect to their music which set them apart from the rest of the Sarah roster. Not that far apart though.

Small Factory - Hopefully

Small Factory were, in the early 1990s, the Happiest Band in the World (TM). With their breezy pop melodies and gorgeous male/female harmonies (the latter provided by improbably-named drummer Phoebe Summersquash, who everyone and I mean everyone fell in love with), they charmed the US indiepop scene like no band of that era that I can recall. When they finally called it a day around 1995, their goodbye gig was filled with fans who had travelled from far and wide for the occasion. I know because I was one of them.

You'll have to take my word for it how great they were, unfortunately, because their recordings were never a patch on their live show.