FORGOTTEN MUSIC : LE JOSHUA

I know we could fill this whole blog with forgotten music and I guess when my last day comes it will be far from completed.
Why doing it then?
Nothing better to do I guess...the thrill of the game as it's been so beautifully said.
Le Joshua are such a band no one has ever heard from, and if you look on the net then you'll only be dissapointed but at least I found a My Space-page.
All I know is that Le Joshua were from Los Angeles and their music was vivid hardcore mixed with pop.
Something like The Make Up meets Unwound I guess...
You're thrilled? I feel it...
Also do know that they once released a classic album (well for me, it's a classic album!) named "Point to the sky"...I know find that, but if you do then, well then....
http://www.myspace.com/lejoshuaband

FORGOTTEN MUSIC : THE CHARLOTTES

Where are the times we were watching our 120 Minutes on MTV? Where are the times at where we were waiting to see Paul King or Miles Hunt coming up with the next alternative selection of the week?
Today, MTV turned out in a bunch of dreadful shows. Thing is, I don't wanna be sounding like your grandpa (even if I'm afraid that I am) but when we're young we had music on MTV and not the ass of Paris Hilton.
And where are the times that we saw that DIY-clip from "Liar" by The Charlottes?
Anyone remember? Well, in case not you better jump to You Tube or so because The Charlottes where a band that got formed in 1998 and they had the right C86-spirit!
How short their debutalbum "Lovehappy" might have been, it was not only a John Peel-favourite but it also made every indiekid happy who threw his arms around "George Best" by The Wedding Present.
It was called indie these days and it sounded like indie!!! They did another album called "Things come apart" but three years later Simon Scott already decided to join Slowdive and The Charlottes were dead history....so dead history that even today no one cares...
Forgotten music? What a shame my blog has such a section!

FORGOTTEN MUSIC : ETHER AURA

Which band can we include this time? I know you can fill up this blog with 10.000 bands and at the end of the day there's still some endless list on the table from other bands that has to be include as well.
So why not a shoegazeband this time? And why not a shoegazeband from the States and even a shoegazeband from the 90's?
Their name is Ether Aura and I'm pretty sure it won't be that easy to find a soulmate who knows them as well.
And yet, Ether Aura released two albums ("Crash" and "Before we could sing").
The reason why I like them so much is because they're like a copy from Curve. This time, I'm quite convinced that there are readers around who know who Curve are.
But, admit it, shoegazefans can easily come up with tons of bands that are sounding like Cocteau Twins or Slowdive, but a band who is sounding similar to Curve...you won't find them that easily!!! And I mean really similar...nope,...bursted my brains but I can only think of Ether Aura.
Is it a shame to sound as Curve? Let me tell you, if I were in a band and they said that I was sounding like Curve, I'll send you a bucket of kisses...naaaah, would not!!!
http://www.myspace.com/etheraura

FORGOTTEN MUSIC : ALLEN CLAPP AND HIS ORCHESTRA

With a band's name like that, you should think we start reviewing stuff like Mantovani or James Last but as I hate all that muzakstuff, the answer is a big no.
There's even no orchestra involved because Allan is, if you don't count some basslines by his wife, doing everything himself.
DIY-pop was such music once called.
Recorded with the cheapest instruments you can imagine, Allan made in the early 90's one of the finest indiepopalbums.
Indiepop, indiekids...or is it like Jyoti from White Town stated on these pages that there should not be terms like that? Heavenly pop then?
Whatever, you know what you're getting if you like DIY-indiepop. Jingle-jangleguitars, strong melodies, danceable stuff to shake your hips at, not a cat who's interested in the music...
Allan only made one album. Where do you find that? Well, the Bus Stop-label reiussed the label and these days you can see Alan playing in The Orange Peels.
Anyway, if you like strong indiepop in the league of The Feelies or even Jonathan Richman, you should check it out then...
http://www.allenclapp.com/

FORGOTTEN MUSIC : THE STRATFORD 4

You can wonder if there is any use of mentioning bands no one, and then I sadly enough mean almost no one, talks about.
It won't help and seeing it as a tribute is a good job but the big question that remains is who the hell is reading it, let alone the fact who's actually checking it out...but as long as we're alive we're hoping.
The Straftford 4 are such a band who nobody knows and I still have to meet the first person who's coming up to me saying he likes 'em.
And yet they could be big...no actually, Chris Streng (the vocalist) could be very big. Simply because his former bandmates decided to start a little band called Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Chris decided to go his own way.
Along with 3 other persons from Seattle he started The Stratford 4.
Apart from some EP's the band made two albums (" The Revolt Against Tired Noises" and " Love & Distortion" in 2003.
The fact that you don't know who they are says enough about their popularity. Sometimes classified as powerpunk, sometimes classified as shoegazers and I liked what I found on the net "think Only Ones being performed by Spiritualized".
You can't make stars of them, but you can check them out.
http://www.stratford4.com/music.html

FORGOTTEN MUSIC : KITCHENS OF DISTINCTION

Are Kitchens Of Distinction a forgotten band? It's of course how you see it, you rather adore them or have never heard from them, but I dare you to walk on the street and stop 100 strangers and ask them who Kitchens Of Distinction are and it'd be a wonder if one could tell you that they're a band, let alone that they can answer how they're sounding like. Having said that, I agree that this counts for almost all artists who appear in my blog but I don't care as today I decided I want to write about Kitchens Of Distinction. Why? Cos I love them....
I always thought it was a rather dumb name for a band but I recently found at that it was just the name of an existing firm that was specialized in plumbing which made an advert on the bus, and the story wants that guitarist Julian Swales saw that bus...
Julian Swales, Dan Goodwin and Patrick Fitzergald were the kind of band who were there at the right time cos their self released debutsingle made it single of the week in the NME and it got them a contract with One Little Indian.
Due to The Sugarcubes, I was a collector from everything that got released on One Little Indian (I know, I collect a lot) so with pride I can say I was a fan from the first hour.
From the moment I got their debut "Love is hell" and listened to the openingtrack "The third time we opened the capsule", I couldn't believe my ears when they started these crazy dreamguitarsolos in the middle of the song! It was a song I played to death in my DJ-years and even if I never saw someone dancing on it, I never saw someone complaining about it either, so I guess it worked.
Unfortunately, "Love is hell" was like so many One Little Indian-records...in fact, I mean that no one cared about it.
The big thing had to come when I saw on Snub TV that video and that song..."Drive that fast"...it was like the ultimate shoegazepopsong of my generation. How many times do I have danced on that song??? And it was soon confirmed on their 2nd album "Strange Free World" which is in my eyes one of the most underrated albums...ever!!! I was so lucky to see them on stage in Brussels but luck didn't last that long as two hours after the show I stood at the highway with a car that was down....but at least I saw Kitchens Of Distinction.
"Strange Free World" always played a strange role in my life, for personal reasons which I don't want to share in private (but the cause starts with the letter l and there are 3 other letters left). I am not the kind of person who sits with a lyricsheet in his hand when hearing an album, but this album I know word per word as it were all fairytales of life that were oh so real in my life....but we're talking about Kitchens Of Distinction, not about me!
I guess "Strange Free World" must have been their famemoment as later followed three albums "The death of cool" (renamed after the album by Miles Davis) and "Cowboys and aliens". It was an other sound, especially with "Cowboys and aliens", and even as a fan I must admit that it took time before I got into it.
It was clear that the band were no longer, even if there was a short reincarnation as Kitchens OD with a release on the Fierce Panda-label.
Patrick returned later with Fruit and even if the singletrack "What is fruit?" wasn't the strongest choice as a single, once again I must tell that their album was an underrated indieclassic, and no...I didn't bought it because Miki from Lush appeared on the album.
Since some years Patrick is known as Stephen Hero and you can follow his musical adventures on his blog http://stephenheroband.wordpress.com/.
Somewhere it's a painful thing to classify them under the category of forgotten music (at least not everyone did), a category like worldwide superstars would have been more deserved...but at least thank you Patrick, Julian and Dan.

FORGOTTEN MUSIC : THE USERS

Well, wellcome to a new dimension in this fanzine.
After the classic albums the world forgot-series, we add another section (cuz we love it!) named forgotten music in where we feature, well...bands nobody gives a shit about.
Why should you care about music that's been forgotten? I can't answer this question but there are people who enjoy tv-series like "Dallas" being re-released on DVD, so why not care about old music?
I know, I know...the times at where you enter a recordshop and search for the copy of your fave band is already history but I guess there's something like the internet...
The Users are a band from whom I heard nothing from till Bin Liner Records released a retrospective by them.
The Users are what you call a powerpunkband from the 70's who were literally formed in the basement of an independent record shop ("Remember Those Oldies") and over the length of 3 years (1976-1979) these Cambridge-punks released 2 singles (plus a taperelease).
Recently there was a box found by our friend John Peel in where he kept some rare 7"inches seperated from his record collection and there were 2 copies from "Sick of you" among them! (The Users also played at the John Peel Roadshow in Cambridge).
Little is known about these punks but they did everything in the name of punkrock (their indielabel was called Raw Records after the "Raw Power"-album by The Stooges).
There's no need to start searching these singles as there isn't any chance you'll find them but as said there is a brilliant retrospective out from this band on CD. If you dig Undertones, even some New York Dolls or The Ramones (I know it's a cliché but that's how it works) you'll dig them too....
http://www.myspace.com/theuserspunk