MV : "I hate milk" by Air Miami

Air Miami were a band in the mid-1990s that grew out of the earlier indie band Unrest, this is my favourite song of theirs.

Secret Shine - untouched

With their third studio album due for release on Christmas day and their second album from 2008 still doing the business for me i thought it was time to rediscover Secret Shine's first album though we have to go back all of the way to... 1993. This was one of my all-time favourite releases from Sarah Records and having a listen to it for the first time in years i was reminded just how brilliant this album is.

This album put the band firmly into shoegazing territory of course with swirling guitars, delicate female vocals, feedback noise but the songs! Songs like "Temporal" (one of my favourite songs of all time) and "Into the ether" are just unbeatable. All the songs are really, there are no duff tracks on here. All the songs are just in varying degrees of brilliance. The production is good too with pounding drums with a bit of space echo and grinding guitar noise. I suppose some may say Secret Shine were just part of the shoegazing scene. But so what, the scene rocked as do this band.

• Untouched (Amazon)

MV : "Liar" by The Charlottes

Why was the late 80s/early 90s so ace? Because of songs like this...

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

I don't really like the band's name which is a little clumsy but that is the only criticism i can think of for New York's The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. This is modern day C86 indie gold. Cutie pop with lots of cuteness but not cloying. Lovely energetic pop songs with exuberance and sweet melodies a plenty.

Favourite track is "Young adult friction" (love that title too). Its got the best pop hook i've heard for ages. Actually this is one of the best albums i've heard for ages too. Fantastic stuff.

• Pains of Being Pure at Heart  (Amazon)

MV : "Helmet on" by East River Pipe

Apparently made by a student for a film project for the epic track by East River Pipe, one of the highlights of the latter days of Sarah Records. Truly fabulous song and fabulous MV too.