Swansea Sound Announce Live at the Rum Puncheon

Surprise! We’re working with Swansea Sound! The band, made up of members of Pooh Sticks and Heavenly (as well as Catenary Wires and Talulah Gosh) will be releasing Live at the Rum Puncheon on November 19th; it’s a join affair with various media available; we’ll be handling the cassette version here in the States on ATH Records. While a few of the tracks have been tossed out as early singles, not to mention the incredible E-Bay auction, everyone involved felt it only worked to announce the album with a brand new track for you all to enjoy! Plus, if you head to the band’s site, you can hear the song in Cymraeg. We’ll keep you up to date with things, but we wanted to celebrate and with you all and tell you how stoked we are to be part of this. Keep up to date with various ways to grab the album by checking in on the group HERE.

Heavenly!

Heavenly is not new obviously, it was the band we were in in the 1990s. But lockdown also gave us the time to delve into the storage boxes in our cupboards and get a bit nostalgic. Ian from Damaged Goods Records had suggested putting out a compilation of material a while ago. We thought it would be good to collect up all the singles and make an album out of them. Some of those singles are very hard to get hold of now. The process of putting the album together was great in that it also brought us back in touch with people wed known back then, and reminded us of the amazing scenes we were lucky to be part of. Sarah Records in Bristol, determinedly releasing music for the love of it in the face of contempt from the major labels and the London journalists who serviced them; K Records and the Olympia scene generally, where Beat Happening were creating great music and where Riot Grrrl was coming into being. Plus the vibrant indie scenes in Europe and Japan. Hearing the old songs brought that all back to us. We got hold of some old footage that was shot in the Capitol Theatre in Olympia in the 90s, and we edited it into a video for P.U.N.K. Girl. Its archive material, but it captures something of the time.

Buy from Damaged Goods

ATH Takeover: Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey – the Introduction

Thanks for having us ATH. Its a real honour to be allowed to take over the hall for a day! Our home – in rural Kent, England – is a long way from Texas, and we haven’t left it very often for the past few months, so its exciting to go on a long journey and hang out with you in Austin.

2020 has been a strange old year, and a terrible one for many people. Like everyone else, weve spent much of it in lockdowns of one sort or another. We’ve been pretty lucky compared to many. The worst of it for us is that we’ve not been able to play live shows. On the upside, being stuck at home has meant we’ve had the time to create lots of new things. So we thought wed take a look back on our 2020 the stuff we made, and a few things weve enjoyed listening to.

Follow them over on twitter via @heavenlyindie or @catenarywires

Heavenly Share So Little Deserve Video + Announce Singles Compilation

One of the great thing about the vinyl resurgence has been the reemergence of hard to find gems through various reissues. If you’re like me, and a Sarah Records fan, those original hits can be hard to find, and if found, quite pricy! But, thanks to Damaged Goods, we’re all being gifted the deserved compilation treatment for Heavenly; they’ve organized all the singles for A Bout De Heavenly: The Singles. Now, we could go on and on and rave about the band’s signature sound, trace lineage back to Talulah Gosh or move forward to current projects like Catenary Wires/European Sun…but don’t you just want to hear Amelia sing? I love how her voice soars over that jangling jittery guitar as everything falls into messy pop euphoria for the chorus. We all deserve such great pop music. This never before seen video has just recently been digitized from Super 8 footage Rob had.

He had this to say about the video: “This video has never been made public before. We didnt like it at the time, but now I think its the best one. I only had a couple of rolls of Super 8, which is one of the reasons its in slow motion: I had to make a little go a long way! I love the footage of Mathew in this video, though the fact that he is clearly so happy in it makes it a bit hard to watch.”

Enjoy the video and Pre-Order the LP.

Rock n’ Recipes: European Sun

A little over a week ago European Sun released their self-titled LP on one of my favorite labels WIAIWYA. But, despite being a relatively new band, the pedigree of the members is really special for all the indiepop fans (Heavenly, Talulah Gosh, Short Stories)…enough heavy-hitters to pique your interest I would reckon. We caught up with the bunch via email to chat a bit and a recipe for “Steve’s Daal.” Click on below for a great read…and be sure to listen to the entirety of the self-titled LP.

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Flying Fish Cove Share Magic Wand

In what seems like Christmas all over, the last several days have given me new music from Rosie Tucker…and now Flying Fish Cove. At Moonset was one of the great indiepop gems of last year, followed quickly by the En Garde EP, so being back at it again only means we’ve got more great music for our ears. A buzzy entry and light churning jangle open the scene with Dena’s voice soon joining; it rises up and down on the natural melody of the tune, warming you with its pop sensibility. Perhaps my favorite part of the tune comes in the middle where it’s just sparkling electronic notes and the strum of the guitar…a special moment for sure. The band pair this new single with a cover of Heavenly‘s “Shallow” off the excellent Heavnly vs Satan LP (1991), which you can find below the video.

 

More New Tunes from Plastic Flowers

plasticThis new album from Plastic Flowers is shaping up to be a gem of a listen. I was already convinced by early singles, but this new one only continues in the vein of glorious bedroom pop. There’s this little distorted guitar that meanders in the middle of the song, almost noodling about before it all circles back to reemphasize the pop hooks that George Samaras has constructed. Heavenly is being released on April 22nd via Native Sound, aiming to win over hearts and ears everywhere.

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Dream Pop Hit from Plastic Flowers

plasticI have a feeling this song is going to be in heavy rotation throughout the rest of this week. It hits almost immediately with the drum work, then the coated vocals come in to drive home that emotional pull that makes pop fans swoon. There’s something about the immediacy of this song that makes it so endearing; I found it hard to turn off from the moment I pressed play, and I have a feeling that if you’re into this sound, you’ll feel the same. Heavenly, the new Plastic Flowers album, will be out April 22nd…and this is our first (great) taste.

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Perfect Indiepop from The Catenary Wires

CD72There’s two things at work here: one, Matinee Recordings is back at it this year and two, The Catenary Wires are made up of members of Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, Tender Trap, etc.  With the first, I’m extremely happy, as the label is one of my favorite purveyors of divine indie pop.  As to the second, I think the aforementioned bands make this track alone worthy of your time. I couldn’t think of a better way to begin my week than to listen to a track where the male and female vocals fit so well that your can’t help but feel yourself swoon. They’ll be releasing their Red Red Skies CD via the label in June.

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