Sarah Records in 1988: Straight Outta Bristol
March 13th, 2009 | 10:35 am est |
Between shoegazers and ravers, the full-flowering of hair metal, some all-time classic rap and the peak of the American Underground, there was a hell of a lot going on musically in 1988. For a pop kid like me, what really made the year amazing was the incredible batch of releases on Sarah Records. They had come into existence the year before with the Sea Urchins‘ “Pristine Christine” but really began churning out the sensitive jams in ‘88 with singles by the Field Mice, the Orchids, Another Sunny Day and other great bands. With these releases the label became a long-lasting trademark of quality indie pop, for sure, but also through their writings (both in fanzines and on liner notes) and their fiercely independent way of doing business, they became a true inspiration. Let’s take a listen to some incredible indie pop from 1988.
14 Iced Bears - “Come Get Me”
Another Sunny Day - “I’m in Love with a Girl Who Doesn’t Know I Exist”
The Field Mice - “Emma’s House”
The Field Mice - “The Last Letter”
The Orchids - “Give Me Some Peppermint Freedom”
The Orchids - “Underneath the Window, Underneath the Sink”
The Sea Urchins - “Solace”
The Springfields - “Sunflower”
Full Discography for 1988:
SARAH 002 The Orchids - I’ve Got A Habit (7″) 1988
SARAH 003 Another Sunny Day - Anorak City (5″FLX)
SARAH 004 No Band - Sarah Fanzine No.1 (Fanzine) 1988
SARAH 005 14 Iced Bears - Come Get Me (7″) Apr 1988
SARAH 006 The Poppyheads - Cremation Town (7″) Apr 1988
SARAH 007 Another Sunny Day - I’m In Love With A Girl… (7″) Jul 1988
SARAH 008 The Sea Urchins - Please Rain Fall / Solace (7″) Jul 1988
SARAH 009 The Golden Dawn - My Secret World (7″) Jul 1988
SARAH 010 The Springfields - Sunflower (7″) Jul 1988
SARAH 011 The Orchids - Underneath The Window, Underneath The Sink (7″) 1988
SARAH 012 The Field Mice - Emma’s House (7″) Dec 1988
(Thanks to Tweenet for the discography. Go here to find out more about the label and what they got up to after 1988.)
Emma’s House! Yay!
~Austin
just curious, what’s stopping you from posting the whole song? these are great songs and i’m sure they’d have more of an impact on someone who has never heard them before if they could hear the whole thing.
and thank you for dedicating a post to sarah records. very cool.
Hey Matthew -
Good question. We only have rights to air 30 second song clips - anything more and we’d have to pay royalties and then probably cease to exist. I know how you feel though - I’m going to go home tonight and have a Sarah singles dance party.
maybe someday there will be a Sarah records box set with all the singles included but I’m not holding my breath.
thanks for the comment and for reading the blog!
Tim
Thanks for the post. As a long-time Sarah obsessive (and completist when I find that elusive last single), it’s music I never tire of and that I continue to introduce to people. Hard to imagine a box set given Matt’s feeling about the structure of the label, shutting it down at release 100 with the “day for destroying things” ad in the UK music press in August 1995, with the lines
“didn’t YOU ever want to creat something beautiful and pure
just so one day you could set it on fire
and then watch the city light up as it burned?”
I’d buy it in a heartbeat, but not holding breath is probably a good idea.
Thanks again!
Interesting blog…though as a (budding) music critic and a hip hop purist, I’m of the opinion that 1988 was the year of Hip Hop. Undeniably the genre’s greatest year, both in the influence of the records released that year for the future of the game, as well as aesthetically.