The Pastels & Tenniscoats

Two Sunsets

The Pastels & Tenniscoats

12 SONGS • 42 MINUTES • SEP 21 2009

  • TRACKS
    TRACKS
  • DETAILS
    DETAILS
TRACKS
DETAILS
1
Tokyo Glasgow
02:55
2
Two Sunsets
04:30
3
Song For A Friend
05:24
4
Vivid Youth
04:25
5
Yomigaeru
E
01:50
6
Modesty Piece
01:33
7
About You
03:05
8
Boats
03:31
9
Hikoki
01:22
10
Sodane
03:49
11
Mou Mou Rainbow
06:53
12
Start Slowly So We Sound Like A Loch
03:00
℗© Domino Recording Co Ltd

Artist bios

Although virtually unknown outside of indie rock circles, the Pastels were one of the most inspirational and enduring groups of the genre, in their early days spearheading a movement toward a renewed sense of wistful musical primitivism and willful naivete known variously as "shambling" and "anorak pop." In addition, their influence helped bring international notice to a resurgent Scottish musical community, with frontman Stephen Pastel's legendary 53rd and 3rd label helping to launch the careers of bands including the Jesus & Mary Chain, Shop Assistants, BMX Bandits, the Vaselines, and the Soup Dragons. Formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1981, the band initially comprised vocalist/guitarist Pastel (nee McRobbie), guitarist Brian Superstar (born Brian Taylor), and drummer Chris Gordon; they debuted that autumn on the Whaam label with the single "Songs for Children," but Gordon soon exited, the first of many subsequent lineup shuffles.

Ambition was never the Pastels' strong suit, and luck was rarely on their side; as the group's members -- now including bassist Martin Hayward and drummer Bernice Simpson -- devoted their primary focus to their studies, new music appeared only sporadically and to little notice, on a seemingly random series of labels. After 1983's "I Wonder Why" was released on Rough Trade, they moved to Creation, where they hit their stride with the 1984 drone-pop gems "Something's Going On" and "A Million Tears." After one further single, 1985's "I'm Alright with You," the Pastels split with Creation, moving to the tiny Glass label. In 1986, their track "Breaking Lines" appeared on the influential C-86 collection assembled by the New Music Express, transforming the anorak movement into an overnight media sensation quickly accompanied by intense critical backlash.

Regardless of prevailing musical trends, however, the Pastels soldiered on: after recruiting one-time Shop Assistants keyboardist Aggi Wright, they recorded the 1986 single "Truck Train Tractor," followed by Crawl Babies and Comin' Through. Finally, in 1987 the group found time to assemble an LP, Up for a Bit with the Pastels, followed in 1988 by Suck on the Pastels, a collection of unreleased Creation-era material. In 1989, former Vaselines frontman Eugene Kelly and ex-Shop Assistant David Keegan joined the fold for Sittin' Pretty, the final LP to include Superstar, Hayward, and Simpson. The remaining duo of Pastel and Wright expanded to include Katrina Mitchell for the 1991 collaboration Jad Fair and the Pastels, followed by the 1994 EP Olympic World of Pastelism. Their third album, Mobile Safari, was released in 1995 by Domino in the U.K. (which began a long-running alliance) and Up Records in the U.S. It featured a lineup including longtime band associates Norman Blake and Gerald Love (both from Teenage Fanclub) and ex-Shop Assistant guitarist David Keegan, and a guest appearance from Luna's Dean Wareham.

Their next album, 1997's Illumination, was issued by the same configuration of record labels and featured a similar lineup, only with the addition of guitarist Jonathan Kilgour and guest shots from Belle & Sebastian's Isobel Campbell and pianist Bill Wells. A remix album, Illuminati, was released in 1998 and featured reworks of tracks by Kevin Shields, Stereolab, Cornelius, and other A-list indie rockers. This burst of recognition and activity was derailed when Wright decided to leave the band in 1998, throwing Mitchell and Pastel into a spin. Instead of jumping back into making music right away, the band went on hiatus while figuring things out. The duo next formed Geographic Records in 2000 as an offshoot of Domino, and began releasing records by friends (Future Pilot AKA, International Airport) and obscure acts (Nagisa Ni Te, Maher Shalal Hash Baz.) The band reappeared at last in 2003 with the mostly instrumental soundtrack for the film The Last Great Wilderness. The album was produced by the Sea and Cake's John McEntire and featured International Airport's Tom Crossley along with a vocal feature for Jarvis Cocker. A friendship with Japanese band Tenniscoats led to their next release, 2009's collaborative effort Two Sunsets. The core band was expanded to include Crossley and Mitchell's sister Alison, with Love still there, too. With the record label slowing its pace and releasing one album a year, the band turned toward recording an album of their own, and in 2013 their fifth record, Slow Summits, was released. McEntire was again in the producer's chair and guitarist John Hogarty had joined the ranks. Also on board as guests were To Rococo Rot's Stefan Schneider and Robert Lippok, as well as Norman Blake (again), and original bandmember Annabel Wright. ~ Jason Ankeny & Tim Sendra

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Tenniscoats are a Japanese indie avant-pop duo comprised of Saya and Takashi Ueno. With the help of an ever-shifting lineup of backing musicians (the likes of which have included LSD-March, Eddie Marcon, Secai, Popo, Saibou Bungaku, Tim Barnes, and Tetsuya Umeda), the Uneos make the kind of gentle, willowy, cerebral tunes that bring together austere chamber folk instrumentation and interesting production methods. The duo's prolific nature and affinity for collaboration led to a large and sonically diverse discography, including highlights like 2009's Two Sunsets, a joint album with Glaswegian indie legends the Pastels, 2012's Papa's Ear, one of several beautiful albums made with Swedish band Tape, and their extensive Music Exists series which collected their hard to find sounds over five individual volumes and culminated in a box set repackaging in 2020.

Tenniscoats released their first EP, The Theme of Tenniscoats, via the Majikick label in 2000. This was followed two years later by another mini-album, The Ending Theme, which was released on Noble/MIDI Creative. Tenniscoats' first proper full-length album, We Are Everyone, arrived in 2004. Several more releases followed in the next four years, including Totemo Aimasho (2007) and Tenniscoats & Secai (2008). In addition to their own recordings, Tenniscoats were involved with various collaborations and side projects at this time, including Tan-Tan Therapy with Swedish ambient rockers Tape in 2008 and OneOne, a collaboration between Saya and Deerhoof's Satomi.

Tenniscoats released another full-length, Temporacha, via the ROOM40 label in 2009. Two Sunsets, an album made in collaboration with the seminal Scottish indie pop group the Pastels, was released on Domino that fall. Tokinouta appeared in 2011, and the following year the duo reconvened with Tape for help on production of the quiet chamber pop collection Papa's Ear. Later in 2012, the group released All Aboard!, an LP they recorded between 2005 and 2009 that featured Ikuro Takahashi, a drummer known best for his work with Japanese noise rock bands High Rise and Fushitsusha. They collaborated with Pastacas (musician Ramo Teder) for the lo-fi folk of Yaki-Läki in 2013, and with Jad Fair and Norman Blake for 2014's How Many Glasgow. (A second album with Fair and Blake, Raindrops, was issued in 2017.) Their Music Exists series began in 2015, collecting Tenniscoats material that may have been hard to track down outside of Japan. The series eventually grew to include five volumes, and in 2020, a limited-edition vinyl box set with all five discs was released on the Alien Transistor label. As the 2020s began, the group put out several cassette only releases and other minor projects, and some of their long out-of-print albums were reissued, beginning with remastered versions of their Tape collaborations Papa's Ear and Tan-Tan Therapy. ~ TiVo Staff

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