Optic Nerve Indierock | Alternative 19 Items

7" | 1986 | UK | Reissue (Optic Nerve)

Release: 2013 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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A native of Toronto, Tess Parks moved to London, England at the age of seventeen where she briefly studied photography before deciding to focus on music.

Tess made an impression on industry legend Alan McGee, founder of Creation Records, albeit the timing of their meeting could hardly have been less ideal; McGee was no longer involved in music and Tess was due to move back to Toronto. After moving back to her hometown in 2012, Tess formed a band on the advice of McGee and less than a year after their meeting, he returned to music with his new label, 359 Music.

Tess became one of his first signings and released her debut record ‘Blood Hot’ in November 2013 to excellent reviews. One reviewer described her as “Patti Smith on Quaaludes”. Others have mentioned her “gauzy psychedelic sound” and“smouldering voice”.

Alan McGee himself said: “She’s only 24 and is already an amazing songwriter... she just doesn’t quite know she is yet ... her most beautiful quality is her lack of ego. Tess is an amazing lady”.

‘Blood Hot’ is inimitably confident. It’s slow and psychedelic at times, while being loud and ready to fill a stadium at others. There isn’t a moment on the album that isn’t relatable or that doesn’t ring to the tune of a timeless classic to be talked about for years to come (the same way people discuss The Velvet Underground or My Bloody Valentine records today).

Her cult-like following has turned into a movement. And Tess is gladly leading us all

back into that space within ourselves, both deeply personal and entirely universal. Incredibly relevant yet timeless.Cool and anti-cool. An enigma that doesn’t need solving. Tess Parks is as she’s always been. Her best work is already out there. And her best yet is still to come.

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The Flatmates

I Could Be In Heaven

7" | 2022 | EU | Original (Optic Nerve)

Release: 1986 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Part of The Optic Sevens 5.0 Reissue Series.

Limited to 500 copies worldwide. Pressed on Pink Vinyl. Includes poster.

Debut single by The Flatmates. Originally released in 1986 on The Subway Organization label giving them a Top 20 indie hit and an appearance in John Peel's Festive Fifty.

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East Village

Back Between Places

12,99 €*

Small Fish In A Big Machine Ep Green Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Originally released on the Sub Aqua label in 1988. It appears here on 7” for the first time. This is a previously unreleased version of Back Between Places. The band were never really happy with the original single release and having discovered the master tape of a superior version, it is to be mixed and released here for the very first time.

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Even As We Speak

12" | 2024 | UK | Original (Optic Nerve)

13,99 €*

7" | 1984 | UK | Reissue (Optic Nerve)

Release: 2024 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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4 track 7” on green vinyl . Individual hand painted sleeves. Limited to 500 copies worldwide. Includes poster.

Part of the Optic Sevens 5.0 Reissue Series.

Originally released in 1986 on Australian label Voyeur Records.

This is the first time that the single has been released in the UK.

Even As We Speak is an indie band from Sydney, Australia. Formed in the mid 1980s, founding members Matthew Love (guitar, banjo, vocals) and Mary Wyer (vocals, guitar) were later joined by Rob Irwin (bass) Anita Rayner (drums, banjo, mandolin), Julian Knowles (guitar, keyboards, production), and Paul Clarke (guitar, vocals.)

After a series of vinyl releases on Australian independent labels including Phantom Records, and success on the Australian indie scene, they came to the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel who started to play the band’s ‘Goes So Slow’ Phantom Records release on his show. This brought them to the attention of UK audiences and began a relationship with UK indie label Sarah Records.

The band released several singles and an album on Sarah Records, three of which reached the Top 5 of the Melody Maker and New Musical Express UK independent music charts in 1992 and 1993.

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The June Brides

In The Rain

7" | 1987 | UK | Reissue (Optic Nerve)

Release: 1984 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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The June Brides debut single originally released in 1984 on The Pink Label.

Both tracks are from fresh transfers from the master tapes which were then remastered by Jason Mitchell at Loud Mastering in Taunton in early 2021.

The June Brides are true innovators, hailing from the first wave of British indie, with fans that include Manic Street Preachers (who covered their song “The Instrumental” as a tribute) , Morrissey and Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch.

They have always been regarded as pioneers, and one of the most beloved of the bands that formed the original UK independent music scene, which has since been tagged as C86

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The House Of Love

Real Animal

LP | 2023 | UK | Original (Optic Nerve)

Release: 1987 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Part of The Optic Sevens 5.0 Reissue Series

Limited to 750 copies worldwide. Pressed on White Vinyl. Includes poster.

Second single released by The House of Love in 1987.

Previously issued as a 12” only single on Creation records. It appears here for the first time on 7” and includes all three tracks from the original .

‘Ushered in by deceptively innocent vocal trilligs and sha-las. The House of Love suddenly rip off the mask of Doctor Jekyll to become Mr. Hyde and burst out of the speakers like shrapnel

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The Exits

The Legendary Lost Album

29,99 €*

Pick Of The Pops Volume 1 Pale Blue Vinyl Edition

Release: 2023 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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The Hit Parade

LP | 2022 | EU | Original (Optic Nerve)

20,99 €*

Bright And Guilty Pale Blue Color Vinyl Edition

Release: 2022 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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14 track vinyl version of the 2012 CD compilation. Pressed on pale blue vinyl, with printed lyric inner sleeve. First time on vinyl. Includes poster and postcard. A swish compilation LP featuring fourteen of the most memorable songs in the career of the top notch indie band THE HIT Parade. Entitled ‘pick OF THE Pops (vol1)’ the LP collects together the most poignant moments in the career of THE HIT Parade, and includes their thoughtful recording for Sarah Records “In Gunnersbury Park”, their tubthumping single for Minty Fresh USA “Hitomi” as well as other cuts, both cheerful and desolate in style, that feature Cath Carroll (Factory Records), Amelia Fletcher (Heavenly and Talulah Gosh) and Harvey Williams (Another Sunny Day and The Field Mice). THE HIT Parade was formed by Julian Henry with his school friends Matt Moffatt and Raymond Watts in 1984 when they released their first single ‘Forever’ on JSH Records. Since then they’ve clung to the sensibilities of pure pop and have become a curiosity item with their retro attitudes and songs about dead writers, disused swimming pools and failed love affairs. Their early vinyl singles were lauded by John Peel, the NME and Melody Maker, the now defunct weekly paper that published Julian Henry’S writing. In the 1990s the band toured alongside Edwyn Collins, The Milkshakes and Sarah Records notables, and signed to Japanese and US labels, releasing a sequence of albums that have since become collectible.

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The Wolfhounds

2LP | 1989 | EU | Reissue (Optic Nerve)

39,99 €*

Tranquil Red Vinyl Edition

Release: 1989 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Deluxe reissue of their 1989 sophomore album pressed on pale blue Color Vinyl. Presented in a gloss laminated gatefold sleeve, which features the original LP plus a bonus disc with all the A and B sides, some compilation tracks and an outtake, plus a 12-page booklet containing previously unpublished lyrics and tons of contemporary reviews and photos.

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The Clouds

7" | 1987 | EU | Reissue (Optic Nerve)

Hangman's Beautiful Daughters

Release: 1987 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Part of The Optic Sevens 3.0 Reissue Series . Limited to 800 copies worldwide. Pressed on Red Vinyl Printed inner sleeve. Includes postcard and poster. Glasgow based The Clouds only single was originally released in 1988 on Subway and became an indie top 20 hit. This version is pressed on Red vinyl with inner sleeve. Includes all 3 tracks from the 12”.

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Smashed Full Of Wonder

LP | 2020 | EU | Original (Optic Nerve)

19,99 €*

7" | 1984 | EU | Reissue (Optic Nerve)

Release: 2020 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Includes two previously unreleased tracks. The album comes with a deluxe 12 page booklet, featuring never- seen before photos and a history of the band written by Jowe Head, of Television Personalities and Swell Maps fame. Limited Blue Swirl Vinyl. A mainstay of the indie and C86 scene, the London-based band were signed to Dan Treacy’s Dreamworld Records. Treacy, the genius behind The Television Personalities, played a major role in the band’s birth, contributing a few songs and as producer.

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The Wee Cherubs

Dreaming

7" | 1985 | EU | Reissue (Optic Nerve)

Release: 1984 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Includes postcard and poster. Impossibly rare 1984 UK 7” vinyl single, written by a pre- Bachelor Pad’s Martin Cotter. One of only three releases by the short-lived Glasgow based indie label Bogaten, although redolant of early Orange Juice in the sound of the A-side, also looks forward to Shoegaze, with a reverb-drenched cover of The Velvet Underground’s Waiting For My Man on the B-side

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Meat Whiplash

Dont Slip Up

7" | 2020 | EU | Original (Optic Nerve)

Release: 1985 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Includes postcard and poster. Their one and only single was originally released in 1985 on Creation and spent 19 weeks in the independent chart. From East Kilbride in Scotland, they morphed into Motorcycle Boy.

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Metro Trinity

Die Young EP

The Revolving Paint Dream

Release: 2020 / EU – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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The Die Young EP was released on the group’s own Cafeteria label, released early 1987. Michael Fury was inspired by James Joyce’s short story The Dead. Only previously available on a 4 track12” .This 7” version comprises 3 of those 4 tracks

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Flowers In The Sky

7" | 1984 | EU | Reissue (Optic Nerve)

7" | 1989 | EU | Reissue (Optic Nerve)

Release: 1984 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Released in 1984 and the second release on Creation Records. Flowers In The Sky Is a perfect piece of 80’s psychedelic pop.

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Bob

Convenience

Very Best Of (You've Got To Hand It To 'Em) Colored Vinyl Edition

Release: 1989 / EU – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Originally released in 1989 on The House Of Teeth label, this indie classic which made John Peels Festive fty of that year, gets a 30th anniversary reissue as part of our Optic Sevens 2.0 reissue series. It is backed with the Previously unreleased ‘Coquette’, which was recorded in 1992 , remixed in 2017 and only available on this release of the 7 inch.

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Waltones

LP+7" | 2013 | UK | Original (Optic Nerve)

15,99 €*

12" | 1988 | UK | Reissue (Optic Nerve)

Release: 2013 / UK – Original

Genre: Rock & Indie

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+ bonus 7"

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The Charlottes

Are You Happy Now

13,99 €*

7" | 1986 | UK | Reissue (Optic Nerve)

Release: 1988 / UK – Reissue

Genre: Rock & Indie

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Formed in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire after drummer Simon Scott met Guitarist Graham Garduilo in local band The Giant Polar Bears.

They were tour buddies to Ride and most of the late 1980s shoegaze bands. Simon Scott was stolen by Slowdive after a gig at the White Horse in Hampstead in 1990, where the Boo Radleys opened the three-band bill.

They split after releasing two albums. John Peel loved them and NME gave debut album Lovehappy 9 out of 10.

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The Primitives

Really Stupid