You get intrigued when a sixties duo is said to be "twee pop decades before the term existed," and also; Smokey's sweet hairdo helps keep the interest up. Smokey and his Sister was Connecticut siblings Viki and Larry "Smokey" Mims, and they recorded a few songs after moving to New York in the late sixties. Their music can be said to be an orchestrated form of Sunshine Pop mixed with a bit of folk music.
Columbia put out a couple of singles with them in 1967, but wouldn't release an album as they didn't have a hit. The two singles along with nine unreleased tracks from the same period did get a release when Sundazed Records put it out forty years later, in 2007. Smokey and his Sister did however get an album out in 1968 on Warner Brothers, confusingly enough both the Warner and Sundazed albums are self-titled. Hopefully someone will re-release the Warner album too as the vinyl record is difficult to get a hold of.
Success eluded them though, and little has been heard from them since the late sixties. Viki died from cancer in 2006, and Smokey is believed to live somewhere in the south. The first song he wrote told about a young man who left his home for half a century so maybe he'll return in a few years.
As mentioned in a post a few days ago I've been buying alot of used cd's at a sale at local Oslo recordstore Big Dipper. Well, I went back there yesterday and bought a few more; making the total 159. Which admittedly is insane. But still, they were cheap and most of them were in 'like new'-condition. Like many other collectors I've kinda veered away from buying cd's, last year I only bought 30-40 of them rather concentrating on vinyl. I do like cd's though, along with vinyl and cassettes. (Although my cassette-collection is small and mostly consisting of releases from friends' bands in my hometown.) Anyways, here's a complete list of what I found on Big Dipper. I can't promise there won't be more incoming.
Echo Troopers - They Said I Shouldn't Care, But I Did (1997)
Ehm..what to say about Echo Troopers..what to say.. Well, Echo Troopers is a pre-Stuntbike solo-project by Truls Haugland released on his brother Joakim's label Smalltown Supersound. This was back when the label released lo-fi indiepop gems like this. This sounds alot like, and is more than likely inspired by, Lou Barlow's bedroom projects both under his own name and with Sentridoh. That is; if his solomaterial were any good. This is a bit poppier than Barlow's noisy demos and whatnot; Haugland would refine his sound in Stuntbike, but just barely.
The cover package is a dream for collectors, a spiral pad(!) with a beautiful cover shot. The first page has an Axel Jensen quote, and the following pages some information about the record and Smalltown Supersound releases. Who knew they had released two cassettes before this record. Echo Troopers also released a split 7" with Slowburn and had tracks on collections by both Apartment and Krank Records. They Said I Shouldn't.. is filled with short and sweet songs and is, as the Slowburn-split, curiously enough still available from Norwegian mailorder Popopdrops.
Old feature returns! One update every year, this should really go faster as there's usually just a couple of songs on these vinylslabs of delight (c). Hopkirk & Lee - Beneath the Apple Tree (1998)
This one however has four, and that's probably for the better as Hopkirk & Lee didn't release anything but this seven inch. Not as Hopkirk & Lee, and not as anything else. The lead track is !Free Arthur Lee!, how can you lose with a title like that, and I first heard it on a mixtape my ex-girlfriend sent me five years ago. Last year I bought this seven inch on eBay for a reasonable amount of money.
Nobody seems to know who these two are, although cute-named blog The Finest Kiss has come up with a few tidbits of information. It seems they're named Alex Hopkirk and Ronnie Lee, and they might've recorded som demos for Island that never got released according to a post on indie/tweepop-forum Anorak. A contract with Concrete/BMG led nowhere and Hopkirk & Lee vanished without much trace.
What we are left with is this are four perfect pop songs, kinda sounds like indiepop-versions of some Laurel Canyon band. It's so slow, and it's so, so good. Have a listen:
Yes, I haven't updated this blog for a long time, mostly because my computer got busted last summer and there's been little in the ways of money around. But I've bought a new laptop and it's springtime. So that's better. Also;
1. Me and my longtime girlfriend broke up. I met a new girl right away, but it didn't last. Rebound? Anyways, single again. Did this blog get too personal all of a sudden?
2. I've started buying records again, and by that I mean both cd's and vinyl. In fact; I bought 138 cd's from a used-cd sale at the excellent record shop Big Dipper. There were alot of records I've been meaning to buy for some time now, and quite a few that my ex had. Which may not be an excellent idea. But so be it.
3. I went on tour with my friends in the excellent post-rock/old-school emo band Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson. I was their roadie, meaning I sold merch, drove the tour-bus a little and took some pictures at their shows, but mostly just drank a lot of beer and had a bloody brilliant time. In fact, the best time I've ever had. In the two and half weeks we travelled we visited Sweden, Germany, Belgium, Holland, England, the Czech Republic and Austria. Anyways, here's a tour video:
4. I made this song with a couple of the guys from Youth Pictures. It's me on vocal, Morfar on drums and Blomert on guitars.
5. This dj-thing is starting to happen, well what I do is just change records really. Mostly I've been playing with Stian from the excellent blog Heartworn Highways, he also works at the aforementioned record shop Big Dipper. We've been playing hits (and hits that should've been hits) at Revolver, Gloria Flames and Parkteatret as You're Too Obscure For Me (Hey, that's the same name as this blog!) Also; I've playing with other friends, or alone, at Q, Tilt, Black Box Theater and, like last year, at the How is Annie-festival at Parkteateret.
Last, but definitely not least; You're Too Obscure For Me will be spinning records at the Norway's best band-festival this friday. The bands playing are Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson, Monzano and Nomber 5s. This should be awesome/epic/legendary.
This saturday I'll be spinning records again with Stian from the Heartworn Highways blog. Hits all around, we'll be playing indiepop, country-rock, new wave, girlgroups, obscure sixties pop, french pop and maybe a guilty pleasure or two. The fun starts at eleven, downstairs at Revolver.
Just found out that Will Owsley - releasing records as Owsley - took his own life. Actually this happened in April, but he was so obscure I didn't find out about it until just now. He leaves behind three amazing powerpop records that always will be cherished. Here's some more info from Addicted to Vinyl.
Seems these things been happening all the time these last few months starting with Vic Chesnutts suicide in late December. Mark Linkous also took his own life a few months later. Big Star singer and bassist Alex Chilton and Andy Hummel has also passed away. And the list goes on.
Columbia put out a couple of singles with them in 1967, but wouldn't release an album as they didn't have a hit. The two singles along with nine unreleased tracks from the same period did get a release when Sundazed Records put it out forty years later, in 2007. Smokey and his Sister did however get an album out in 1968 on Warner Brothers, confusingly enough both the Warner and Sundazed albums are self-titled. Hopefully someone will re-release the Warner album too as the vinyl record is difficult to get a hold of.
