Girvin Sisters and The Dukes – Dream Up A Dream

The Girvin Sisters comprised of Elizabeth and Marilyn, singing sisters who had been talentime semifinalists in the 1964 Radio and Television Singapore talentime. They were backed on this recording by The Dukes. The record was released in June 1966. I got this track from a now out of print cd put out by the bass guitarist of The Dukes, Zainal Abidin, in 2003. A self-release but very well put together, including excellent liner notes by Joseph Pereira.

The Dukes covered various “foreigners” (ie. Caucasians) such as Bobby Lambert, Stevie Lorraine, and Winston Walters. According to these liner notes, it was “trendy” at that time “to have your band fronted by a foreigner”. Another interesting tidbit – The Dukes’ amplifiers and drum set were loaned to the Rolling Stones for their legendary performance in Singapore Badminton Hall in February 1965!

I sought to find a nice quality photo of The Girvin Sisters to accompany this post, but could only find clippings from good ol’ NewspaperSg. Yes, Elizabeth and Marilyn were Convent girls!

Regarding the advert above, I’m not sure why there was this huge craze for the songs Guantanamera and San Francisco, because there must have been numerous recordings of it here, in English, Chinese, and instrumental! My mum also remembers her neighbor constantly practicing the song San Francisco on his guitar. Another story for another day.

I scanned some pages from a lucky find – Lady Penelope Annual, 1966! I can only imagine the 1960s teenage girl in Singapore, reading about UK birds and mod boys (Walker Brothers are featured in this issue, as is Biba Boutique).

Adrienne Poster – Shang A Doo Lang

Check out the scans at my Flickr set, here!

My Little Airport – When The Party’s Over, I Miss My Dear Pornstar (Demo)

Obedient Wives Club’s EP on my label Happy Teardrop sold out within a month of its release! If you missed out on the limited edition cd, you can get it digitally here. It was an amazing, amazing experience putting the cd together with the band, and I must have listened to the tracks a hundred times over. Thank you if you’ve bought the EP! If you haven’t, perhaps this track will change your mind:

Obedient Wives Club – This Is It

The band has been getting lots of buzz in Singapore lately, and I hope you agree that the hype is certainly valid! Can’t wait to do Happy Teardrop’s next release!

I’m thrilled to announce that my tiny distro, Happy Teardrop is releasing its very first DIY cd! And it’s a band that I couldn’t be happier to support – Obedient Wives Club. Their warm, melodic songs bring the Phil Spector Wall of Sound to Singapore!

So, this will be a limited cd EP (80 pcs!) featuring 4 exciting tracks by the band. A DIY release!

We are gunning for a 30 December 2011 release date. I’ve heard the tracks that will be on the EP, and I’m truly excited about sharing it with you! PRE-ORDER this EP here!

This is one of the new songs to be featured on the EP (This Is It):

You can download the band’s live jam recordings of the other two songs – This Boy and Fragments – here!

If anyone here writes for a blog and would be interested in featuring / reviewing the EP, please let me know!

Counting down!

I’m giving a short guest lecture on Singapore 60s pop music this Friday. Honestly I fear public speaking to the max. But this is a chance to share some Singapore 60s pop-love so I’m giving it a shot. Unearthed this gem while digging my hard disk of vinyl rips for music to burn onto some mix cds for the students. Sometimes I forget what local vinyl I have once I’ve ripped them to mp3 for posterity.

Heather & The Thunderbirds – I’ll Never Fall In Love Again

I’ve been waiting a long time for a Phil Spectorized band to form in Singapore. My friend’s new band has the most unlikely of names – Obedient Wives Club, but their live demos on their Bandcamp harks back to the early demos of Tennis and Best Coast for sure. They are performing at Home Club on October 14. I’ll go if I didn’t have class. I think this song is super catchy, and can you catch the little 1960-ish guitar bits? Perhaps I’ll consider skipping class.

Add them on Facebook!

It’s been a while since I’ve come across a stunning newly recorded cover song. Emmy the Great does George Harrison! It’s on the compilation cd with November’s issue of MOJO! Hurray For The Riff Raff’s cover of My Sweet Lord is pretty amazing too. I love cover songs. Especially covers of songs I already love.

Emmy The Great – All Those Years Ago

Hope the new George Harrison biopic comes to Singapore tv.

Yes I listen to a lot of happy pop music (60s pop, garage girls, French Ye Ye, indie pop, etc). But, I also have a fondness for dark atmospheric music (but with melody, that’s important). There are two albums that I rely on for my dose of *epic* musical melodrama – DeVotchKa’s A Mad & Faithful Telling and Beach House’s Devotion. Now I have something new to add to the list – Dead Man’s Bones! To be honest, what sparked my interest initially was the fact that it’s Ryan Gosling’s project (I was on a Google search mission after catching Crazy Stupid Love). I would sum up Dead Man’s Bones as being the perfect soundtrack to Halloween and all your favourite zombie films. I’m also reminded of the Shangri las, and those old teardrop songs of dead boyfriends and etc (eg. Tell Laura I Love Her) And, best of all – there’s a children’s choir! I just received my copy of the cd in the mail, and already I’ve played it twice.

Dead Man’s Bones – Lose Your Soul

Some videos:

Dead Man’s Bones – In The Room Where You Sleep

Dead Man’s Bones – Dead Hearts

My other favourite standbys when I need something epic:

Devotchka – Undone

Beach House – Heart of Chambers

And early this week, I downloaded the new Slow Club album, Paradise, from eMusic.

Slow Club – Where I’m Waking

This is very overdue, but I’ve been meaning to post about bands I fell in love with at Indietracks 2011. First up is The History of Apple Pie. From their name, they might be easily mistaken for a twee band. But The History of Apple Pie play melodious shoe-gazey music with long guitar solos that never get too noisy. They were captivating live – a young group that hopefully goes far! Some people have been going on about a similar band Yuck, and that revival of 90s grunge-era sound. Is 90s grunge the next BIG sound, after the current indie pop lo fi trend?

The History of Apple Pie – Science For The Young

The History of Apple Pie – You’re So Cool