In The Trashcan
Records GEM032
"There something wrong with these rules and
regulations when you're shy and wasted looking back in
the shadow..."
Written by the enigmatic Kim Fowley and the then 17-year old Joan Jett as flipside to "School day". That's all I have to say about this wild all-girl hard rock group everybody knows.
"I don't wanna be friends with you" is my fave Shop Assistants song. "Looking back" is the flipside, played by 4 girls and 1 guy. A Scottish band formed in 1983 and disbanded in 1990, released only 1 studio album and a handful of 45s. Their indie pop sound was a bit harder than The Primitives, but softer than The Jesus And Mary Chain and they never had a breakthrough outside the UK.
"I'm in love with a German film star" was their sole hit in 1981. This is the long forgotten flipside, by a girl band that started as The Derelicts but changed names in 1978. This 45 is from 1981.
I've always loved this band. Formed in 1985 and disbanded 6 years later. Almost 20 years later they reformed and delivered a terrific cover album in 2012 "Echoes and rhymes". This psychedelic indie pop tune is my fave choice. Released in 1987 on Lazy Records as a promo-7" b/w "Ocean blue".
I still can't understand why she was called the Belgian Siouxsie. I can only agree that her voice in those early days resembled Anja Huwe's from X-Mal Deutschland. "Existences" was the B-side of "Precious time", a 1981 Vertigo release.
Belgian band on a Belgian Record label. Late '60s flavoured indie pop tune sung by the lovely Veerle, recorded in the summer of 1988. For more about The Tribe, see vol 52.
If you listen very carefully and add a little bit of imagination, you could swear that Turbonegro have been listening to this song when writing their best known track "Get it on". This song was written and recorded in 1981 by Holly, a wild woman on Virgin Records.
A sugar sweet acoustic version of their own "Evolution Evie" on the flipside of "I want your love", their best selling single from 1988. Peroxide singer Wendy James became a plastic pop pin-up icon overnight.
"Mickey" being the best she ever recorded, this 1981 B-side of "Nobody", on Electrola, is not so bad after all. Uptempo 80s beats, simple synths loops and a catchy melody.
As one of the four Headcoatees she was already well known when she chose for a solo career, delivering at least twenty 45s and more than a dozen albums. She even got the attention of Jack White. Born in 1966 as Holly Golightly Smith after her parents saw the movie Breakfast At Tiffany's. A moody female version of Billy Childish on this limited Teenage Kicks release.
"We got the beat", "Our lips are sealed" were US hits for this all-girl band from Los Angeles, but "Automatic", which I consider their best recording, failed completely. Belinda Carlisle went solo a few years later.
My favourite Jane Birkin song, not written by Gainsbourg, is this one. And I must admit that Baby Birkin transformed it into a song I regularly play at parties. A must have for girly trash pop lovers who like Stereo Total, Pizzicato 5, Le Tigre,…
From their debut EP and their second best recording, from 1986. Four girls with Robert Smith hairdos have found a fuzzbox somewhere and they would like to use it, so they went to the recording studio and had this released on Vindaloo. Go to vol 40 for more info.
Britrock trio from Windsor fronted by glamour babe Samantha Sprackling aka Saffron, who went solo a while later. A 1998 release on the band's own label Deconstruction Records.
"Marcia baila" from 1984 and "Andy" from 1986 were chart toppers in Europe and "C'est comme ça" wasn't. I don't understand. It's great French new wave pop from 1986. See vol 75 for a lesser known track.
These three girls call their own sound Mutant Pop. Let's call it girlie power pop punk. Released in 1998 on Mutant Pop, an Oregon based record label giving us releases by Boris The Sprinkler, The Automatics, The Kung-Fu Monkeys and many more unknown outfits in the second half of the 90s.
