The end

Well my indiepop friends, after almost three and a half years I have decided to wrap up the blog. Sadly, I don't have much time for it any more, and because of this it's become more of a chore than a pleasure. So it's time to call it a day.

Many thanks to those who read and commented, those who regularly read without commenting (I know who where you are :)) and especially those who sent me stuff. I love getting stuff. Sorry I couldn't use it all.

Let's end this on a classic, shall we?

Bunnygrunt - Favorite Food

Lo-fi punkish twee from St Louis, Missouri. I never saw Bunnygrunt, but listening to this makes me flash back to a million gigs in people's garages during my US East Coast visits of the mid-1990s. Anyway, haven't they got one of the best names ever?

From a 1993 EP, Standing Hampton.

Dead Angle - Why Don't You

Lo-fi fuzzy girlpop from an LA band who used to be the Tartans (well, most of them anyway). It's familiar, but I still can't get enough.

Released last month on Loglady Records, part of a split 7" with Terry Malts.

The Would-Be-Goods - The Camera Loves Me

1988 single and title track to the Would-Be-Goods' debut album, a collection of ornate and sophisticated twee girlpop with lyrics and vocals so contrivedly upper-crusty I almost feel like a class traitor just listening to them. I always thought they had a bit of the novelty act about them, though they're not without their charms.

Baffin Island - You Make Two Weeks Two Days

As much as I love the idea of EardrumsPop - I mean, free downloadable indiepop, what's not to love - I do think you have to be willing to wade through a fair amount of mediocrity to get to the really good stuff. Fortunately, tracks like this one make it worth the wade (sorry). It's a Mel Hermit Crab/Jeremy Very Most collaboration, a charming '60s-influenced bubblegum girlpop tune from a 2010 EP which you can get here.

Colour Me Wednesday - Holiday From Your Life

Here's another one that I knew I would like before I ever heard it, just from the band's name and song title. To say I was not disappointed would be something of an understatement. In fact, I fucking love this song. They're cute as buttons, too.

It's from a 2011 demo. How good will they be when they start making proper releases?

The Birthday Kiss - Starting to Come Back to Life

Wonderful song from this new(-ish) project of Ben from The Lodger (but featuring someone called Sarah on vocals). It has a real '60s feel but not in a psychedelic or Phil Spector sort of way - this is more up the Sandie Shaw alley. It dates from last year, I think.

Annemarie - Lovely Afternoon

One of the leading lights of Indonesian indiepop - and with the quality of bands coming out of there in recent years, that's quite a compliment indeed. What makes Annemarie stand out is their singer, Rima, who may well have the sweetest voice I have ever heard in my life. It's almost unreal.

This is a track from Fall to Fall, a 2011 split EP with Italian band Tiny Tide.

Tiny Fireflies - Snow

I liked this band as soon as I first saw their name, before hearing them or knowing anything else about them. How could a band called Tiny Fireflies not be filled with indie twee wondrousness? Then I found out they were actually a collaboration between members of Tiny Microphone and Fireflies, the same members who also collaborate as Very Truly Yours, and I still didn't need to hear them to know I would love them. And then I finally actually did hear them and even with my high expectations they still knocked me out. This is almost unbearably gorgeous, I could listen to it for hours.

You can get it here. Do yourself a favour.

 

Whistler Post - Sebastian Says

One of a number of great bands to come out of Indonesia over the recent past. This 7" was released last year and reminds me a lot of the Nightblooms (for those unfamiliar, that means it sounds like the Cardigans on shoegaze). Very nice.

Lisa Mitchell - Neopolitan Dreams

This may have been ridiculously overexposed a few years ago through being used in about twelve different companies' advertising but, erm, that's because it's really really good. I never realised she was "discovered" on Australian Idol, and actually did pretty well on it; the TV audience for singing competitions must be different down under because I can't imagine a twee-indie-folk artist getting beyond the first round over here. In saying that I suppose I have to admit I never watch those programmes anyway.

From her second (2008) EP, Welcome to the Afternoon.

The Limiñanas - I'm Dead

A brilliant, buoyant, very '60s-influenced pop tune from this south-of-France band. It was their first single, released in 2010, and they've since followed it up with a self-titled album on the Trouble in Mind label. They do actually sing in French on some of their songs, which is something I always like in a French pop band. Not because it's French, I just think pop bands shouldn't always feel they have to sing in English, if their native language is something else. Anyway, great tune, this one.

Voice of the Beehive - Monsters and Angels

Voice of the Beehive's debut album was a hit-and-miss affair, but its high points were, really, quite fabulous. The audaciously-titled follow-up, Honey Lingers, was inferior in terms of both the number and, erm, height of its own "high points": there's really only a couple of worthwhile tracks on it, and if they never existed you wouldn't really miss them. In fact, you could pretty much turn it off after this song - the first on the album - which would be a keeper for its opening couplet alone.

From 1991, though still seems stubbornly stuck in the '80s.

Chalk and Numbers - I Really Wanna Work This Out

There's a lot of very '60s, Phil Spectorish girlpop around these days but few of the bands take it quite this far - going beyond a mere "influenced by" or even "very influenced by" to actually sounding like a lost relic of the Gold Star studio. Whether that makes them unforgivably derivative or deliciously authentic is probably a matter of personal opinion. FWIW, I fall unapologetically into the latter camp.

Their debut EP, He Knew, was released last year and can be downloaded for free here.

From Brooklyn, of course.

Catnaps - Lullaby

Catnaps are from Philadelphia, used to be called When I Was 12, and play such ridiculously appealing twee indie girl-pop that part of me wants to just turn this into the Catnaps Blog for a while and post nothing else. Except they already have their own blog (here). So this will have to suffice. Just listen, though, you'll know what I mean.

It's from their 2011 album Why Don't You Whisper?, their first under their new name.

The School - I Want You Back

Cardiff band. Dreadful name, Heavenly music. And I do mean capital-H Heavenly.

This was originally released on a 2008 EP and subsequently reappeared on their 2010 debut album, Loveless Unbeliever, on the wonderful Elefant Records.

Yeh Deadlies - Magazine

Another Dublin band (with a brilliantly Dublin-esque name), this one is led by Annie Tierney, a former member of The Radio who I put up here a few days ago. She's been/remains a member of about a zillion other Irish bands, too - I told you The Radio were a supergroup - though if you're outside of Ireland you probably haven't heard of them.

This was a 2010 single, which makes me think of a lo-fi Go-Gos.

Guatafán - Cucurucho

A song that grabs you from the very first note, this is an utterly delightful piece of perfect twee-indie-girl-pop, sung in Spanish. It's also a wonderful video, every bit as joyously full of life as the song itself is; if you haven't fallen completely in love with Guatafán by the first 30 seconds of it you're probably at the wrong blog.

It's a 2010 single, on Elefant Records.

Elephant Parade - For You

Totally adorable song from this Brooklyn (of course) duo, from their 2007 album Bedroom Recordings. It's sort of a modern "I'm Sticking With You", which is not a bad thing at all.

Number 4 Joystreet - Flowers

Kind of a strange little band, Number 4 Joystreet, from Somerset in southwest England, combined jangly guitars, violin, cello and really high-pitched female vocals to, erm, interesting effect. Even I find them a little too precious for anything more than small doses at a time. But those small doses can be very nice.

This was a b-side to a 1986 single, "Watch the World".