Hello popular music buffs and welcome to the latest Matinée news page! We are gearing up for a splendid September of POP, but before we get there we have some reports on our sparkling new releases.

Foremost, thanks to everybody for the great response to our latest release, Matinée 50! This is a very special one for us, as it's the 50th release in the singles category and has exclusive tracks from our favorite bands in the world. Of course, it's not really a single at all but a 20-track album and at just $8 who could resist? But don't take our word for it...read some of the brilliant early reviews and decide for yourself:

"We are not exaggerating when we say that one in love with these times in spite of these times contributor fell off his chair when disclosed the tantalising tracklist to this record. Suffice it to say that you will collectively be toppling from your bar stools no later than track one... if you have liked anything you've heard on the Matinée roster, this release is absolutely compulsory." In Love With These Times

"Here's to 50 great releases so far - and hopefully 50 more! Jimmy's really struck gold with his label, and it's a safe bet to say that the Matinée logo is one to trust. A toast, then, to quality pop music!!" Mundane Sounds

"It doesn't matter whether you've heard the original songs before or are already familiar with these artists or not, the plain and simple truth is that this is a fantastic, diverse collection of superb pop songs." Erasing Clouds

"The bands and songs on Matinée 50! are precious, sweet, heart-breaking, and totally heartfelt: all the things that make indie pop so great. A fitting tribute to one of the labels keeping indie pop alive." - All Music Guide

Hurrah! We knew it would be a hit as soon as the first masters arrived back in February. The great thing about the reviews so far is that everybody appears to have different favorites, with each of the 20 songs highlighted someplace in the reviews to date. The CD is now available from all good record shops and mailorders, or direct from us via the order page.

Also winning friends on the new release shelves and in the music press is the superb "Do You Dream In Colour?" EP (matinée 037) from Airport Girl. Those hip cats at In Love with These Times said it best: "It's been too long since we last heard from Airport Girl, but perhaps the renaissance can start here." We agree! The single was delayed due to the burglary of the studio housing the original master tapes, and in the end the songs had to be recorded all over again. The band has subsequently pushed back the release of their second album to 2004, so this EP is all you'll hear from Airport Girl for the next few months. Of course, the band also contributes a superb cover of the Windmills "Three Sixty Degrees" to the Matinée 50 compilation so anyone anxious for more music from the band should pick that up too.

Meanwhile, Slipslide is winning fans around the globe with the new album "The World Can Wait" (matcd025). Following ten singles over as many years as leader of The Love Parade, Pure, Eva Luna and Slipslide, Graeme Elston has finally delivered his first full length release and what a gem it is! Legendary fanzine This Almighty Pop! was the first to turn me on to the sounds of Mr. Elston many years ago with his debut release as The Love Parade. A somewhat resurrected This Almighty Pop! was also one of the first to review this new album, calling it "a great combination of The Orchids, Sugargliders and Edwyn Collins all at their very best. Listen to it, sing along to it and fall for it, just like I do everytime it's on. Soundtrack to my summer." Erasing Clouds chimed in, remarking "Clearly influenced both by Postcard Records pop groups (Orange Juice, Aztec Camera) and the Byrds (listen to that 12-string shine), Slipslide deftly take genuine human emotions and mold them into songs that work their way into your brain." Finally, In Love With These Times declared "The World Can Wait" as "worth the wait...it displays a wealth of strength in depth [and] leaves you shimmering with a real ready brek glow. We knew it was only a matter of time before somebody took the bait on this pun, but we couldn't agree more. An essential purchase indeed. In other news, the band was invited to record a session for the Gideon Coe show on BBC's 6 Music! They played "Palm House Crawling" and "Back To Work" and had a nice chat with Gideon as well. The session will eventually be archived at 6 Music.

Following their outright domination of the hit parade last month, The Snowdrops have collected a nice clutch of reviews for their double A-side 45 "Mad World"/"Don't Buy Anything." Tangents wrote "hmmm, isn't the Snowdrops' version of 'Mad World' the best thing ever (this week)? Yes it is"...while In Love With These Times said "you will find the melancholy that the vocals bring out trailing you around for days...and the b side "Don't Buy Anything" is also tenderly brilliant, Girdler's soft lead vocal peeping out from under the rain." The band also received a threat this week, courtesy of Saint Mary Mead Zine, who wrote: "Don't buy anything" is shockingly short and shockingly good, possessing a gentle naiveté which makes me squeal "Come back soon! Or else!" The band is scheduled to record a new single and several compilation tracks for release over the next few months, so hopefully we'll keep St. Mary Mead from knocking down our doors!

Wow, all those words and I still haven't mentioned the brilliance that was the San Francisco Pop Holiday! Suffice it to say it was one of the best four days of pop we have experienced in our humble lifetime...so many great bands and great people all together in one dark club! Highlights would be the brilliant sets from our own Pipas, Gregory Webster and The Lucksmiths, but for the non-Matinée crowd, I'd have to give the nod to The Radio Dept. for one of the best live sets I've seen in a very long time. Thanks so much to the Popfest organizers for a great job!!!

Pipas and Gregory Webster also did an interview at KALX radio on Friday which was loads of fun. Anyone in the station at the time would have witnessed me and Lupe of Pipas dancing madly to Razorcuts' "Summer In Your Heart" while Greg was trying to concentrate on answering some serious questions posed by Nommi. Thanks to Mike and Nommi for making this possible and putting us all up Thursday night!

Of course, the absolute best thing about the weekend was the Saturday afternoon party we hosted with Shelflife Records to celebrate our 50th compilations. The bands for the party were kept secret, but now that it's over we can tell you the crowd marvelled to fantastic sets by The Guild League, Free Loan Investments, Pipas, The Frenchmen, Gregory Webster, Laura Watling, and The Lucksmiths. And we did it outside in the sunshine instead of inside a dark club! Thanks to the bands for making the day great, to Jaime for hosting the party, to Brent for supplying the PA, and to Ed for serving as co-organizer!

Anyone at the Pop Holiday knows we had some groovy Matinée and Razorcuts t-shirts at the merchandise stall, and for anyone who missed it, we have limited quantities of all shirts still available! See the fanclub page for shirt details, or go straight to the order page to secure your very own! We don't have many of some sizes left, so please order early if you want one.

The Lucksmiths US tour is winding down, but you still have four opportunities to catch them before they jet off to Japan and Australia. Here are the details:

August 8th - Washington, DC Signal 66 w/Sprites & Mosquitos
August 9th - Santa Barbara, CA The Mercury Lounge (5871 Hollister Avenue) w/The Flower Machine, 9pm, $5
August 10th - Los Angeles, CA instore @ Sea Level Records (1716 West Sunset Blvd.), 4pm, all ages, free!
August 12th - San Francisco, CA @ The Hemlock Tavern w/Dear Nora, 10:30pm

After a few weeks home in Australia, the band heads to the UK, Spain and Sweden for shows in October and November. Check back here for details!

Our coming attractions list seems to grow each day, with close to 20 new releases on the horizon! The next one up is a sparkling new mini-album from The Lucksmiths! Entitled "A Little Distraction" (matcd027), the CD features six brand new songs that we think are among the best they've recorded to date. Anyone who has seen the band during their US tour will recognize a few they are now playing live. The tracklisting is: 1. Transpontine; 2. Successlessness; 3. Little Distraction; 4. Moving; 5. After the After Party; 6. Honey Honey Honey. It comes in a suave matte digipak in lovely shades of blue. The release will also come out on Candle Records in Australia with an alternate yellow sleeve in jewel case, and on Fortuna Pop! in the UK on dashing 10" vinyl! Collectors of the world unite, this one's for you! The CD is at the plant now, and we will begin taking preorders this month. The official release date is September 1st, but we will have advance copies available here sooner than that if you just can't wait. There is also a preview from the album up now on the updated sounds page.

Also on course for September release is the stunning retrospective CD "Singles, 1989 - 1992" (matcd026) from Brighter! A band that should need no introduction to our astute readership, Brighter recorded four singles and an album for legendary UK indie label Sarah Records before calling it a day in 1993. Keris Howard and Alex Sharkey of the band went on to record a one-off single under the name Hal for Vinyl Japan in 1994. Five years later, Keris formed the beloved Harper Lee with Laura Bridge, and a few years later Alex resurfaced with his new project Pinkie. This highly anticipated CD compiles the 15 tracks from Brighter's four Sarah singles - long out of print and highly sought after - and is an essential release for any good student of indiepop. The tracklisting is: 1. Inside Out; 2. Tinsel Heart; 3. Around the World in 80 Days; 4. Things Will Get Better; 5. Noah's Ark; 6. I Don't Think It Matters; 7. Does Love Last Forever?; 8. Poppy Day; 9. Half-hearted; 10. So You Said; 11. Killjoy; 12. British Summertime; 13. Hope Springs Eternal; 14. Never Ever; 15. End. More release details next month.

Two albums in production for release this autumn are "Now Is Then" (matcd028), the third album from Southend-on-Sea popstars The Windmills... and "Tide" (matcd029), the debut album from Nottingham's The Liberty Ship. We will reveal tracklistings and release dates in the next update, but you can hear an exclusive preview from each album now on the sounds page!

The Young Tradition and Pines singles are also in production, and WILL see the light of day sometime soon. We promise. Just for the record, these delays have nothing to do with us... You can listen to a preview from each release now on the sounds page.

Alright then...in upcoming live action, The Liberty Ship and Slipslide play September 20th at the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham in support of Camera Obscura (who have an absolutely brilliant new album out soon on Elefant Records). Pipas play September 23rd at Waterrats in London, also in support of Camera Obscura. We are booking Matinée shows for London, Madrid, and Barcelona in October, so check back next month for details. You could have the chance to see as many as 12 Matinée bands in the span of a week if you play your cards just right. Living in London would help.

We've added lots and lots of new reviews to the site since the last update, so check the catalog pages for all the latest. Here are a few favorite quotes for our spring collection:

"an 18-minute volley of righteous indignation, pitch-black humour, and the sort of sharp-cornered post-punk hooks that Wire and The Fall used to throw down as effortlessly as falling asleep disappointed and waking up tired." Careless Talk Costs Lives

"this album is a riot of colour and sound, with the nihilism of the buzzcocks' "boredom", the knowing cynicism of the adverts and the prickly melodies of the stranglers. second consecutive ilwtt album of the month." In Love With These Times

"With the ear for buzz-saw melodies of Buzzcocks and a stripped-down minimalism that's one part '90s lo-fi, one part post-punk experimentalism, Sportique creates a record that balances punk's rough edges against a sometimes challenging use of space. In the day of overproduced punk records, it's shocking." Aversion.com

"Oh dear, just how incredible this 'A Weekend With Jane' by Pale Sunday really is. I've listened to it about dozen times during the weekend. If you have any interest in jangly indie pop, you'll love this." One Chord To Another

"Pale Sunday is a near perfect soft pop band. They are Belle and Sebastian with a heart-breaking grin. They are the Smiths all through with irony and truly, madly, deeply in love." Splendid

"More choice cuts from the distant past in another lovingly packaged Razorcuts release from Matinée. How I wish I'd been able to grow up with this band. But how glad I am that Matinée has seen fit to introduce them to me now." Tasty

"Naive, formative and devastatingly beautiful." Careless Talk Costs Lives

"Guitars shimmer. Tambourine shakes. Harmonies harmonize. Business as usual from Nottingham, then." Careless Talk Costs Lives

"The versatility you'll encounter within this EP's thirteen minutes is remarkably refreshing, and helps to diversify The Liberty Ship from the ever-congested English pop crowd." Splendid

"Jason Sweeney: is there anything he can't do? The fact that I have a new Sweeney record every couple of months is a delight that I've yet to tire of. If you've yet to become familiar with his work, 'Club Life' is the perfect introduction." dB Magazine

"This is bittersweet technoPop with beats and bleeps that make you move, topped off by guitar lines and seeping synth strings that pirouette in cornflower skies. Lovely." Tangents

Two recent interviews should be requisite for your summer reading list: part two of the Gregory Webster interview with Pennyblack, and a nice chat with The Liberty Ship on Indiepop.it. Check them out if you want to stay on top of the latest Matinée happenings.

In our blatent promotion for other labels department, this month we bring you details of a superb new compilation from long-lost Scottish indie Egg Records. Their brand new "An Introduction to Egg Records: 1988 - 1991" CD features 14 songs by Remember Fun, The Bachelor Pad, The Prayers, The Church Grims, and Change of Seasons. All ace pop! Of course, Egg graduates Remember Fun released the brilliant four track "Train Journeys" EP (matinée 015) for us back in 2001 which you all undoubtedly own by now. The band has two songs on the new compilation: "Cold Inside" and "Apple of My Eye." The CD is available direct from the label.

Thanks for a great month with the mailorder! The Matinée 50 compilation left everything else in the dust, outselling the closest competition by nearly 50 copies. Here's the top ten:

10. Sportique - Communiqué No. 9 CD
9. Pale Sunday - A Weekend with Jane CDEP
8. Airport Girl - Do You Dream In Colour? CDEP
7. Slipslide - The World Can Wait CD
6. Razorcuts - A is for Alphabet CDEP
5. The Guild League - Private Transport CD
4. The Snowdrops - Mad World 7"
3. The Lucksmiths - Where Were We? CD
2. Pipas - A Cat Escaped CD
1. Various - Matinée 50! CD

We need to clear space for the autumn releases, so we have a summer clearance sale going on now through August 25th. Check the Order page for great savings on all in stock albums and singles!

Speak to you in September!

cheers
Jimmy