the bats: C/D

robert scott has some new tracks up, including some co-written, weirdly, with adalita from magic dirt

http://www.myspace.com/robertscottx

this new album is really good!

I understand why people dismiss the Bats as NZ milquetoast indie. Their sound is generic jangle pop, not nearly as interesting as some other Flying Nun Bands. However, I do love the first two EPs; Bats by Night and Here Is Music by the Fireside because they sound more off and askew. Maybe that's attributable to Alastair Galbraith's violin work which pushes the music into more drone and less jangle. The only song on "Daddy's Highway" that recaptures that sound is "North By North." The rest of the album is not nearly as strong.

I'd be interested to hear which FN bands Paul likes, if any.

Yeah, I like quite a lot. The idea of the Bats still leaves me feeling like I'm drying my pajama bottoms by a two-bar heater in a boring wintry smoggy Chch smog suburb, but stuff I adore (and listen to a lot) includes:

Bailter Space - all albums, but Thermos and Vortura-era especially. Robot World is also great.
Verlaines - from Hallelujah through to Way out where. Five of my most cherished albums right there. Is their new stuff any good?
Chills - a little bit. Parts of Brave Words and Kaleidoscope World are terrific, but parts veer into Bats / Abel Tasmans / Look Blue Go Purple type awfulness.
Straitjacket Fits - Hail. The rest is a bit shit. Shayne Carter was never as verge-of-world-domination as the NZ press liked to suggest, but he was OK. Shit like Cat inna can was bad.
3Ds - all their stuff is so much fun.
Some Skeptics. Some Gordons. Some Tall Dwarfs, but getting past Chris Knox's dickish personality is hard. Yeah actually he's awful.

So Bailter Space, Verlaines. Also a band called This will kill that, but they weren't FN.

I didn't keep up much after I left NZ in 1996...it seems that they moved more towards a Garageland / American-Australian indie direction by the mid 90s?

Oh yeah meant to add that The Clean's "Compilation" is probably 2nd only to Buzzcock's "Going Steady" as the most essential band comp ever. For some reason I never bothered with their albums and eps, and Kilgour's stuff is boring as hell.

and Kilgour's stuff is boring as hell

this is preposterous. i'd say most of the three members' best work has been done outside of the clean, which i suppose is more a function of comparable volume. 'here come the cars' is one of the most classic records ever.

yeah Kilgour's solo records (at least the ones I've heard) are actually brilliant, in a low key way.

and Kilgour's stuff is boring as hell.

Yeah, a really stupid comment. I'd reckon Here Come The Cars to be one of the top 5 all-time classic rock albums to have never been released in America. It's a nearly perfect record, sublime in every way. It's got a little bit of that low-key charm that Love's Forever Changes does, in that it seems pretty mellow at first, but really gets under your skin until you just imagine it being any other way. Most of the rest of his albums are pretty good, but the Ajax one is utterly disposable, aside from a moment or two.

The Far Now (his last one) was great, though the songs might've been even better live.

i'll have to get Here Come the Cars -- never heard it!

Opinions etc. But if you like Forever Changes...yeah, nuff...

the bats: C/D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X1faAqRrCs

this new album is really good!

it really is. probably my favourite since law of things.

Really? I find it just sort of there. "Couchmaster" was the last thing they did that knocked my socks off.

I realize that the influence runs the other way, but The Guilty Office reminds me a lot of Yung Wu, much moreso than older Bats stuff. I agree with those who say this is a really good album. I always like their stuff, but this one grabbed me more than recent ones have.

Magicks Heads "Before We Go Under" better than almost anything the Bats did. Well, at least today it seems that way...

daddy's highway > before we go under > other bats records

imo

but yes it's a really great record, and the female singer (whose name i can't recall) suits the songs well

Ok, I'm down with that ranking.

Magick Heads is sort of like bured treasure in my collection - I forget about them and when I dig them out it's fantastic.

god 'Daddy's Highway' rules so hard. have to dig that one out now

I've been looking for a vinyl copy of 'Couchmaster' for like three years

Upthread somebody asked if the recent Verlaines records are good or not. The most recent one that I'm aware of is 'Pot Boiler,' and it is the only thing they've done that I dislike.

Daddy's Highway remains one of the great understated quirky pop records. Severe classic.

daddy's highway > before we go under > other bats records

I think I'd agree in terms of proper longplayers, although Compiletely might even have had most spins here. This is pleasantly surprising though; I've don't recall ever reading anything (praise or otherwise) about the Magick Heads. Did anyone hear their 2nd and 3rd records?

the 2nd Magick Heads record 'woody' is great. it starts off slow but around the fourth song it turns terrific. it seems as if it is more of a jane sinnott record as i think she took on more of the songwriting. i could be wrong. the 3rd record is a compilation though they left off their most famous song but it is rather good too and it has a few more of the songs they did with the dave's from the 3ds. i am not much for the most recent bats record. it is a bit dull. new minisnap ep is out. i think.

i came in with low expectations for the guilty office but i feel it's a pretty good record, if not especially mind blowing..

nned 'Couchmaster' on vinyl ... very much seeking, will pay reasonable price, thx

also, I didn't need to say it , but of course this band rules all time!!!!

(now about that 'Couchmaster' vinyl ... :-) )

Seems that there's about tot be a bunch of reissuing and remastering of the early stuff. Hope that Daddy doesn't get transformed from a sleepy gem to a monster of rock in the process. And it'd also be a treat if they found a way to get the "North by North" 12" and its amazing b-sides into the light of day. It was left of Compiletley, but it's some of their best stuff, especially "Get Fat," which has all the hooks and a little more muscle than the other early material. And I'll put in a vote for "Passed By" off the "Smoking her Wings" 7"; it's the loveliest thing I've heard by them, or pretty much anyone.

The "North by North" 12" is actually called the Four Songs EP, if anyone out there starts searching for it....

Good news, I've been looking to get Daddy's Highway for years, think it's been reissued a few times but they always seem to be gone by the time I notice. Or perhaps I keep reading it's going to be reissued and it never actually comes out?

I finally tracked down some flacs of Compiletely, which sounds like it was ripped from vinyl. Love it! I'd buy the reissues of that and Daddy's Highway. Seems like the Thousands Of Tiny Luminous Spheres comp would be enough for the later stuff.

So according to Amazon.co.uk the Daddy's Highway reissue came out May 2011 and is already of stock. WTF Flying Nun do you not want people to own this album or what?

i hope it was remastered--i have an old cd (on Communion, i think?) that sounds crappy--although, i played the vinyl a few weeks ago and it sounded thin and tinny too, so... but w/e it's a great album.

Thanks for bumping this thread, listening to "Compiletely" for the first time in years. "Earwig" is such a great, goofy left-field song. But this is just filled with gem after gem. "Mad On You", the driving "Claudine", "I Go Wild". I'm in a kiwi state of mind after spinning Able Tasmans "A Cuppa Tea" earlier.

All killer no filler for sure.

after thinking the last couple sorta dud the new album is really beautiful. at times it reminds me more of the magick heads than the bats.

US (North American?) tour now. Looking forward to seeing them live.

saw them live last night! wish they'd played longer, so much pretty guitar playing

Love this band, psyched to see them in a couple of weeks.

Anyone going to make it to the Hoboken show with me?

Going to the Washington D.C. show tonight

Oh they were so good on Monday!! Have fun.

Did they have t-shirts?

Errr, yes? I only remember tote bags

I've heard from buds out east that they've perhaps sold out of t-shirts, but Robert Scott is selling his artworks for $50 a pop.

Yes to artwork, but I saw a t-shirt taped to the wall last night with some sort of generic expression on it ("Ooh" or something in big letters, I forget). Not sure if that was a Bats shirt. CDs for $15, vinyl for varying prices.

They encored with "Block of Wood" and "North by North." The strumming and jangling was sublime as were the ocassional harmonies. Before the opener, D.C.'s Dot Dash came on, I was sitting in a diner like booth in the room when a guy asked if he could sit on the other side of the table in the booth. I said sure. He had a manila folder filled with sheets of paper, some of which he took out. Each sheet was filled with columns of words. Yep, it was Robert Scott with his songlists and lyric sheet hints. He had them at his feet during the gig, and grabbed 'em at the end and put them back in his folder. He also sang all night with gum in his mouth. Virtually everyone who was ever in a DC area Slumberland band was in the crowd, along with assorted local scribes and djs.

They said they last played DC in 1992; but I don't remember them ever playing DC nor did someone else I spoke to.