Escape before the mental hospital with the aid of Rolling Stones’ ex-manager

Maximo Claps arrived in London in 2008 on a one-way ticket from Buenos Aires, aided by former Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, who had produced a record by Claps’  Argentinian band, but the group had fallen apart in a mess of drugs and acrimony. In those days Claps’ family were attempting to intervene by sending him to a mental hospital. The only option seemed to be to flee the country. As Claps recalls, „The day before flying to the UK I got run over by a car and had to escape hospital in order to make it so I arrived with bandages and my head all stitched up.”
A few weeks later Max walked into the vintage clothes shop where James Hoare (guitarist of the great Scottish indie pop band Veronica Falls) sat behind the counter reading a book on The Velvet Underground, and attempted to make a diversion while his kleptomaniac girlfriend stole a pair of boots. The distraction was such successful as that since then they have been writing and playing psychedelic pop music together, taking inspiration from Berlin-era Lou Reed, Jesus and Mary Chains, Television Personalities and West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band.

The Proper Ornaments – Wooden Head on Slumberland (US) and Fortuna Pop Records (UK)

Anyway: “She didn’t steal them in the end, they weren’t her size” – says Max.

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Kraut-like psychedelic space pop by Bear In Heaven from New York

Time Is Over One Day Old LP/CD/digital on Dead Oceans (US, buy here) and Home Tapes (US)