Over the past year, one of my very favourite things in music has been Cloudberry Records, whose rigorous schedule includes several releases per month. Although Cloudberry has recently added a fanzine and vinyl singles, the vast majority of their releases have been 3-song singles on 3-inch mini-CDR's! Who doesn't like mini-sized stuff?! It's just so fun! Specialising in the twee end of the pop spectrum, there's nonetheless a lot of variety to be found in the 100+ Cloudberry releases, which include both new bands and re-releases of out-of-print stuff.  

Since the singles are limited to 100 copies, most of the early ones have sold out, but if you go to the Cloudberry Records site here, you can download a free MP3 from each single, even the out-of-print ones. You could end up spending hours there, but for starters I personally would recommend checking out the delicious indiepop confection that is "Orchard of My Eye" by the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Sounding like the second coming of the Pastels or Small Factory, this New York-based band has been very active over the past year, releasing their Cloudberry single, a 5-song EP, a split 7" with the Parallelograms, and touring the UK and Iceland. You can also head over to their MySpace to hear and download some more from them. All that listening and re-listening should be enough to hold you over til a week from today, when you can look forward to the next installment of Mixtape Staple Thursday.