Christmas break!

I'm taking a long Christmas break folks. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you back on January 5th :)

The Young Bryan Superstar - You're Magnetic

A nice little piece of indiepop from San Sebastian in the Basque country. They also went by the name El Joven Brian.

This was a self-titled four-song 7" from 1993.

The Harvest Ministers - You Do My World The World Of Good

Surprised I haven't posted these yet. An Irish band on Sarah? They ought to be all over this blog. *hangs head in shame*

The Harvest Ministers have been around forever (well, since 1987) but don't have a huge discography to show for it: their fifth album was released only last year. They tend to be thought of as sort of a Will Merriman project rather than a proper band, though that's a bit unfair to Padraig McCaul, multi-instrumentalist, who I think has been a Harvest Minister for the duration. And who's a brilliant landscape painter in his own right, btw.

This was their first single, from 1992.

Primal Scream - Imperial

A lot of indie snobs like me will tell you Sonic Flower Groove is the only Primal Scream album worth buying. I would beg to differ - not because I think any of the others are great, but because I don't think this one has that much going for it, either. It's all very earnest and innocuous neo-psychedelic pop but I just think it tries too hard and doesn't live up, in songwriting terms, to its influences.

And if I wasn't mad about it when it came out, most of it really hasn't aged well. But I always liked this one a lot, and still do.

The Radio Arts - 04:30 AM

Decent little electro-pop band from Sweden, who don't seem to be around anymore. Shame.

This was from a 2005 EP.

Sloppy Joe - Sometimes

Now here's a real treat, all the way from Tokyo. Sloppy Joe's debut album With Kisses Four came out this year, but you could be forgiven for thinking you'd discovered a lost treasure from the C86 era - they really do an amazing job of capturing that sound. To say that I absolutely love it! would be a significant understatement.

Check out Bandcamp for more.

The Calloways - Kalamazoo

There is a decided lack of information available about this band. They may have been from Edinburgh, but they don't seem to have released much of anything. This very new-wavey track, which dates to the early-mid '80s, appeared on the wonderful 1996 cassette compilation A Sandwich and a Sweater. Anyone know anything about them?