― Maryann, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― AP, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Destroy: Crowded House. The bastards.
― Richard Tunnicliffe, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
2. The Chills - the early singles ("Rolling Moon"/"Pink Frost"/"Doledrums" etc) collected on the "Kaleidoscope World" album. There's more imagination and talent on this album than the whole of the sorry late 80's anglo-indie scene put together. Tuneful gently psych-pop with killer tunes and great dynamics.
3. The Chills - "Rain"/"Night of Chill Blue"/"Wet Blanket" from "Brave Words" album. Not even the worst production ever (Mayo Thompson) could hide the genius of these three songs. Hope they eventually get around to re-mixing it as rumoured.
4. Straightjacket Fits - "Hail" - two great songwriters in one band (Shane Carter and Andrew Brough). "Dialling a Prayer" and "She Speeds" (Carter) and "Sparkle that Shines" (Brough) are more than great.
5. The Clean - "Vehicle" - forget the earlier noisy, kraut-influenced stuff. It's not a patch on this Rough Trade release from 1990. Why? They discovered melodies - haphazard, drunken melodies, and they sound great! Best tracks - "Dunes", "I Wait Around" "Drawing to a Whole".
6. Verlaines - "Juvenilia". Collects the best early/early-mid material ("Death and the Maiden", "Joed Out")together avoiding the useless chamber-pop of "Hallelujah All the Way Home" and the later grunge-lite Slash albums.
7. Dead Famous People - not very good except for one fantastic song "Girl With an Attitude Problem" on a mini-album which IIRC was called "Arriving Late in Torn and Filthy Jeans". The singer, Donna Savage, sang on a St. Etienne single, but I can't remember which one.
The following are all worthwhile, but patchy : 3-D's, Tall Dwarfs, Bailter Space, Sneaky Feelings and Look Blue Go Purple.
For a while in the late 80's I bought just about everything that came out on Flying Nun - so much better than C-86.
― Dr. C, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Andrew L, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― steveM, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Kerry Keane, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I take offense @ the "grunge-lite" / "chamber pop" slander thrown @ the Verlaines - just because the man (Graeme Downes) is a classical music major and dresses his songs up in strings. It's not like the Bee Gees or Sgt. Pepper's, for the luvva. Granted, Way Out Where is more raucous that earlier output, but that's not a bad thing. I still haven't REALLY gotten into Juvenilia, but you can't go wrong with either Hallejuliah... or Some Disenchanted Evening. (The piano ballad @ the end of the latter album is the best Randy Newman song. Not that I know much Newman, but, still, it's good.)
Been listening to a lot of Peter Jefferies recently - singer/songwriter type with a penchant for dissonance & odd instrumentation. He & his brother (Graeme) had a band called This Kind of Punishment that's also worth checking out (assuming you like guys that sing like Leonard Cohen approximating Bela Lugosi - oddly enough, I do). Unfortunately, most of the TKOP / Jefferies stuff was released on the Ajax Label in the US, which has since let these releases go out of print.
There's SO much out there in just the Flying Nun section. I'm sure there's plenty of non-Nun stuff worth checking out as well - I know Popwatch (a quite-good somewhat-yearly 'zine from the northeastern US) had a comprehensive article on the NZ "noise" scene a couple of years ago.
Do yourself a favor - click over to Flying Nun and do some shopping. The exchange rate between NZ & the rest of the world is abnormally generous to non-NZers, so take advantage!
― David Raposa, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― duane zarakov, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― gareth, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I did have the It's Bigger Than Both Of Us comp of NZ punk - I still do have it somewhere probably - which had "Tally Ho!" on it which I liked a lot but forget who it was by.
― Tom, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Funny, here in Oz, we have this image of NZ as a parasidical place where veryone sits around trying to figure out how to get to Bondi. Though it's no worse than us oz'sters trying to figure out how to go anywhere but hree I guess.
― Geoff, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
See also: David Kilgour's solo work. His album (w/ the Heavy Eights, I believe) is wonderful. And he should have a new album coming soon (along w/ a new Clean album, both available via Merge Records in the US of A).
I was always under the impression that Garageland (radio-friendly & popular, in relation to other FN bands - supposedly Pixie-esque to a fault) was horribly blah. Am I wrong? (I've only heard one song of theirs off a - surprise! - Pixies tribute.)
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
AK79 is a patchy, but sometimes brilliant compilation of Auckland punk. And that reminds me - Toy Love by Toy Love.
Recently an Auckland label Kog Transmissions have been putting out some impressive dance stuff, Pitch Black, Concord Dawn.
― david in NZ, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― keith, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― di, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― lady die, Thursday, 7 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― guy pretending to be a student in the law library, Friday, 8 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― duane zarakov, Friday, 8 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Maryann, Friday, 8 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 8 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― dan, Friday, 8 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
ummm /rant
― Kim, Saturday, 9 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― gracie C Russlyn, Tuesday, 12 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― dottee doeswell, Thursday, 9 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Destroy: pretty much all FN stuff post 1990, all the KOG stuff ( wow we can make dance music just as crappy as the rest of the world can)NZ music in general has become increasingly influenced by overseas trends and very little seems to be interesting. Their seems to be more interest in copying genres (rap-metal bands popular, lame Californian punk etc) than developing an original voice. Garageland/Zed/Stellar*/HDU/etc anyone.And as David Cohen said "Neil Finn is about as exciting as porridge"...
― David, Friday, 10 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Stacey Winteringham, Tuesday, 15 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Bats - any of their recordings up to and including The Law of Things.
Chills - Heavenly Pop Hits and most of Brave Words
3Ds - Hellzapoppin'
Pretty much the entire of the Getting Older and Tuatara compilations.
Look Blue Go Purple - everything
Chug - Sassafras
Straitjacket Fits - Melt
The Verlaines - Bird Dog (my fave NZ LP ever)
The Clean - evereeeething. especially At The Bottom (that guitar sound!!!!!)
I'm sure there are heaps more but I'm sleepy..
Destroy: Garageland, most FN releases post Garageland (exception: The Subliminals first EP, released a couple of years ago)
― electric sound of jim, Tuesday, 15 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
As for non-FN, Roy Montgomery is my fave. I adore it when he sings, too. Dead C have their moments, but I'd be hard pressed to say I actually like them all that much.
― alex in mainhattan, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Alasdair, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― electric sound of jim, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― DUANE, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― XStatic Peace, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Alasdair, Tuesday, 22 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― duane, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
As long as this thread's being revived.....Search: Renderers "A Dream of the Sea" from 1999.
― Curt, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― alex in mainhattan, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Alasdair, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
how about:
the clean - getaway weta - geographica blair parkes - the end range - all the way to lunch the wrong records dollar mixture compilation letterbox lambs - not a private joke poultice - three beefmeisters and a french movie cloudboy - down at the end of the garden
can't find 'em? try noizyland.com
― James Guthrie, Thursday, 21 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
There is a What’s New in New Zealand Music thread that’s regularly updated, but I can’t find it in Search somehow.
― breastcrawl, Monday, 19 August 2019 13:16 (four years ago) link
That'd be What's New in New Zealand Music? , which I've been a bit slack about posting in.
Just moved to Auckland from Wellington, so I can probably help out a little. If you're into marquee Flying Nun stuff, there's a David Kilgour show in early Nov and the Beths are playing a homecoming show mid November (though the first date has sold out). For record stores, Flying Out and Real Groovy in Auckland and Slow Boat in Wellington will probably have what you're after. For indie-ish stuff, there are venues like Whammy Bar/Wine Cellar in Auckland, and Caroline/Meow/SFBH in Wellington; for more experimental/noise stuff, the Audio Foundation in Auckland and Pyramid Club in Wellington are havens.
Aldous Harding I'd lump in with both the Christchurch/Lyttleton folk/country scene (Marlon Williams, Delaney Davidson etc) plus a more NZ-wide wave of stuff like Nadia Reid/Tiny Ruins.
― etc, Tuesday, 20 August 2019 03:32 (four years ago) link
― breastcrawl, maandag 19 augustus 2019 15:16 bookmarkflaglink
― etc, dinsdag 20 augustus 2019 5:32 bookmarkflaglink
lol, it's literally called that? I should have looked harder, I guess, but I assumed it was a recent-ish thread.
― breastcrawl, Tuesday, 20 August 2019 11:12 (four years ago) link
This is great advice and direction. Thank you so much!
― neilasimpson, Friday, 23 August 2019 13:47 (four years ago) link
This is an extremely useful thread. Many thanks sbahnhof for your diligence.
― neilasimpson, Saturday, August 24, 2019 1:49 AM
Cheers, Neil...
I'm not from here either.
When you first arrive, you hope life is all gonna be like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evx3J-bzNRQ
But then it turns out it's mostly like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxm-wutKi7k
― sbahnhof, Wednesday, 11 September 2019 08:47 (four years ago) link
HHAHAHAHAHAHAH
― clouds (peanutbuttereverysingleday), Wednesday, 11 September 2019 10:50 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS5fN9bo1Vc
"Blue Smoke" was the first ever single from New Zealand, here's the story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMBBttcTVwo
If Pixie Williams had done nothing else, she would still be in the history books for what happened on October 3, 1948 when she turned up at a makeshift recording studio in Wellington, New Zealand, still wearing her hockey uniform. ... It was a huge hit (and was covered by the likes of Dean Martin) and it would have seemed Williams -- then living in a hostel and working in a battery factory -- would have a wonderful career. It was, however, brief.
Pixie Williams: "Maori Land" (1949)https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/fromthevaults/4306/pixie-williams-maori-land-1949
https://www.audioculture.co.nz/content/images/857/hero_thumb_Blue_Smoke_Songsheet.jpg
― sbahnhof, Wednesday, 22 April 2020 22:53 (three years ago) link
That's pretty cool.
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Friday, 24 April 2020 23:53 (three years ago) link
That RSA thing is great. And kinda topical today. I can see myself foisting it on others now.
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Saturday, 25 April 2020 00:01 (three years ago) link
I've long been puzzled by the relative lack of chatter about Blam Blam Blam. Including here, apparently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HVogejKx_c
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Saturday, 25 April 2020 00:08 (three years ago) link
They would've achieved Nunnesque popularity, if only they'd had a sensible name like The Blams
Good band tho – this is their last live gig, on Radio with Pictures
- https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/rwp-live-at-mainstreet-blam-blam-blam-1984-
― sbahnhof, Tuesday, 5 May 2020 00:40 (three years ago) link
That RSA thing is great. And kinda topical today. I can see myself foisting it on others now.― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Saturday, April 25, 2020 12:01
― Nag! Nag! Nag!, Saturday, April 25, 2020 12:01
OK, but
You must sign in
― sbahnhof, Tuesday, 5 May 2020 00:41 (three years ago) link
This may not be the right place to ask but an RFI question about NZ music scene...
I'm fairly familiar with the popular (and some fringe) releases of the Flying Nun/Xpressway catalogs, but something I've also been curious about: are/were there any indigenous/maori/polynesian members of any of the bands/scenes?
Living ~1/3 of the world away, my only exposure to crossover (non-traditional) NZ artists are like OMC or Jemaine Clement (or maybe Te Vaka counts?) which seems fairly scant, but maybe there could be other factors other than the obvious.
I should note that I'm fairly unfamiliar with the Urban Pasifika genre.
So there it is: RFI nontraditional NZ artists with indigenous/maori/polynesian roots.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Friday, 29 January 2021 19:08 (three years ago) link
(working through this thread backwards, that Pateo Maori Club - "Poi E" embed upthread is a jam)
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Friday, 29 January 2021 19:13 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8frPD7DgqI
OUT FRONT WITH THE KNOBZ
― lambert simnel (doo rag), Saturday, 1 October 2022 09:54 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKColaFHHg0
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 08:46 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tDBjJGnfrY
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 08:47 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiddntlexkY
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 08:50 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQFI2yqyYO4
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 08:56 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXxalI6Mg6w
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 08:58 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tdOCYQo_qQ
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 09:01 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdoNzewx3ko
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 09:06 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB4zTSG7k1M
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Tuesday, 11 October 2022 19:35 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SGy4e_UZ9Y
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Saturday, 15 October 2022 00:50 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNoCuTMfJa8
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Saturday, 15 October 2022 01:08 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYAa09jIn0o
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Saturday, 15 October 2022 01:12 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erE7NYEZLYY
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Wednesday, 19 October 2022 03:00 (one year ago) link
These guys! From my 2008 Voice review, when they were coming to NYC:
..."Blue Skies" is the last stop on Die! Die! Die!'s second album, Promises, Promises. The Steve Albini–recorded, self-titled 2006 debut's flying shards of impulsive/compulsive encounters were caught by walls thrown up, tracks tightened till they imploded: 10 songs, in just over 20 minutes. But now, all through this Shayne (of Straitjacket Fits) Carter–produced set, walls are pushed out as inner space-junk expands; shards reappear as pieces of Andrew Wilson's personal blue skies, of old hopes and dreams. Breathing room is found, yes, though his shattered, scattered voice and guitar can't help planting some bizarre memory garden of l-o-v-e and more, despite it all. The eloquent guts of Lachlan Anderson's bass will never digest such seeds very easily, and drummer Michael Prain's Keith Moon-schooled soloing-as-accompaniment dents craters in today's glazed maze, where Wilson and "You!" grapple in reflective gear. Die! Die! Die! play the Music Hall of Williamsburg March 29 and Highline Ballroom March 30.
― dow, Wednesday, 19 October 2022 03:24 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhfU8YfzOi4
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Friday, 21 October 2022 02:02 (one year ago) link
https://soundcloud.com/ladi6/ladi6-guru-mp3?ref=clipboard&p=a&c=0&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Sunday, 23 October 2022 02:09 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20C19KmI03g
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Sunday, 23 October 2022 02:20 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWGoqsAoKvI
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Sunday, 23 October 2022 09:37 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siBurrXFJ3g
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Sunday, 23 October 2022 09:44 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGIbSdnbgOE
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Sunday, 23 October 2022 09:53 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9uru4LJkps
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Friday, 28 October 2022 08:11 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjJY95_Kj9E
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Thursday, 12 October 2023 18:33 (five months ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayV0dlQNMMA
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Thursday, 12 October 2023 18:35 (five months ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyObGLciBRA
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Thursday, 12 October 2023 18:38 (five months ago) link
Hey do rag I was thinking of you - and George Gossett - when xyzzzz and I saw the Dead C in London this summer - good times
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 12 October 2023 19:49 (five months ago) link
takes all sorts i guess
― donald wears yer troosers (doo rag), Wednesday, 25 October 2023 06:54 (five months ago) link