INTERNATIONAL POP UNDERGROUND : VOL. LXVI

K Records is a record label based in Olympia, Washington that was founded in 1982 by the musician Calvin Johnson.  Many of the initial releases were on cassette, but in 1987, a decision was taken to launch International Pop Underground, which would take the form of 7″ releases featuring a diverse range of indie-musicians from all over the world.

Some of the most prominent singers/bands to feature in the early years included Courtney Love, Teenage Fanclub, The Pastels, Modest Mouse, Heavenly, Beck and Robyn Hitchcock, along with a myriad of cult acts.

There have been something like 140 releases in the series, with the majority of them being plentiful and inexpensive on the second-hand market.  Maybe if I lived in the USA I would have been more interested in tracking them down, but as it is, with me being quite unaware of the output of most of those involved, I’ve been happy to give things a miss.

I do have just one single that I picked up in a second-hand store in Glasgow a couple of years back.  It was Volume LXVI in the series (#66 to those who don’t do Roman numerals) and was released in 1996.  There is one track from the afore-mentioned Heavenly and two from bis, which probably explains why a copy ended up in a shop in my home city.

mp3: Heavenly – Trophy Girlfriend
mp3: bis – Keroleen
mp3: bis – Grand Royale With Cheese

The Heavenly track was lifted from the 1996 album, Operation Heavenly, that came out on Wiija Records.  Some of you might recall from a previous posting on the blog that the group’s drummer, Matthew Fletcher, tragically took his own life in June 1996 shortly after the recording of the album was complete.  The level of promotional activity around the album was, understandably, almost non-existent, and I’m assuming that K Records also went about things in a low-key manner with this single.

Heavenly were near-veterans of the indie-music scene, having started out on Sarah Records in 1990.  bis, on the other hand, were very much the new kids on the block, having seemingly emerged out of nowhere in 1995 to release a debut single on Chemikal Underground, later finding themselves attached, in America, to the Grand Royale label which was owned and run by the Beastie Boys, which perhaps gives you an idea where the title of the instrumental second track came from.

The single is a bit battered and bruised, with is why the sound quality on offer is a bit iffy in places on the two bis tracks – Trophy Girlfriend has been sourced from a different piece of vinyl.  No apologies are offered!!!!!

JC