Zer0

I have a bit of a habit of downloading obscure and long forgotten indie-pop recordings from years ago and this one of my latest finds. The Bedflowers hailed from just outside Manchester and was mainly vocalist Janice White and guitarist Danny Moran, but they also had the help of various musicians on this recording. This 3-song cassette single was the bands only release and the 3 songs consist of some wonderful chiming, jangly guitars and most distinctively frontwoman Janice White's irresistibly sassy schoolgirl vocal melodies and penchant for sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek lyrics. They were also picked up by the late John Peel I believe. Rumour has it that they recorded a full-length album that was never released and apparently Oasis supported these guys when they had just started gigging, if a comment on Youtube is to be believed.

The guitar and drum interplay on the intro to the first song 'Madly In Love With 25 People' is impressive but it is Janice's melodic vocals in the first verse that really grabs your attention and doesn't let go. The song has some really great guitar work throughout and works really well with the vocals. Each song on the single is better than the last. 'You're Not Blonde and Stupid, But Nobody's Perfect' is just the right side of twee, Janice's vocals sounding really sweet and mellow over some really great-sounding jangly electric guitars and acoustic guitars. The highlight though is the final song 'I'm So Cool', which playfully makes fun of the Manchester music scene at the time and perhaps even poking fun at themselves. A brilliantly catchy and well done song.

I found some cool stuff lately, including this, off a very interesting blog called I was a Teenage Shoegazer. It mostly deals with late 80's/early-90's shoegaze but also posts plenty of indie music from around that period as well. Not updated that frequently but well worth checking out from time to time.

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