SEARCH! AND DESTROY!: NEW ZEALAND

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)

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.

As long as this thread's being revived.....Search: Renderers "A Dream of the Sea" from 1999.

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

Good luck finding much worth buying in New Zealand. I certainly didn't have much luck when I was there.

I did, however, get a very funny Dead C story. I wound up dropping off a hitchhiker at a friend's house and began talking with a person there. (In Christchurch, as I recall.) Anyway, I mentioned that I felt like I'd do okay meeting people if I moved there or something, because I have specific interests, like New Zealand music ... like the Dead C. ...

her eyes lit up, and she took me next door. Next door was a musician and recording engineer. He was not in the Dead C. Nor was he related to the Dead C. in any way. However, he had a Dead C. record that he couldn't get rid of, and both of them were absolutely delighted that an American had come all the way from Texas to take the Dead C. CD in question off their hands.

They were so delighted I couldn't bear to tell them that the CD, TRAPDOOR FUCKING EXIT, was one of the only Dead C. CDs I had at the time. I wound up giving it to the radio station when I got home. I think they also gave me a copy of Pieters/Russell/Stapleton's LAST GLASS, which I also already had.

On the other hand, I got to see Fence and Sandoz Lab Technicians at a club Alastair Galbraith runs in Dunedin (the Arc), and I went to the museum Michael Morley works at there as well.

Search: Omit, instrumental Roy Montgomery, Alastair Galbraith, Dead C., Doramaar, Surface of the Earth, Chris Knox, Tall Dwarfs, some Peter Jefferies.

Destroy: Flies Inside The Sun, and the Bilders records don't do much for me.

forgetting a bunch.

Currently I really enjoy thrashing Goodshirts power pop albulm "Good",

Oh, the Sferic Experiment are awesome too.

Who gets the obscure prize?

oh yeah, & the upcoming Clean Anthology looks to be the BEST THING EVER.

If anyone's interested, there's an entire concert by The Enemy available here. Not great sound quality, but "Iggy Told Me" at the very least is worth hearing.

I'd also like to stick up for the Bats' Couchmaster - excellent album, with some really nice use of textural feedback that doesn't appear in much else that they've done.

so from the sounds of it, a safe bet for someone getting into NZ music would be to get albums from the clean, the bats and birchville cat motel? any other necessities?

the chills are the best

The Terminals

EXPONENTS!

No love for The Shocking Pinks?

Messages From The Cakekitchen, This Kind of Punishment, Alaistar Galbraith are all pretty essential.

Verlaines first album "Juvenalia" is a favorite of mine.

No love for The Shocking Pinks?

― Treblekicker, Thursday, 9 October 2008 08:46 (1 hour ago) [IP: 86.151.0.227] Bookmark

no they are rubbish

Man, this post must be pretty confusing for someone new to the joys of NZ music who's trying to figure out what to buy in 2008. Just read the query above about the albums worth getting being those by the Clean, the Bats, and Birchville Cat. Birchville Cat? Also, it's no use going on about the likes of Dead Famous People, Shoes This High, No Tag, This is Heaven, and Ballon D'essai—amazing as they were, no person who hasn't been the sort of geek to get at that stuff already is likely to find those records quickly, or cheaply.

A quick survey of the immortal (well, for the first decade) Flying Nun could be had by going and downloading (for research purposes only, mind you) the four-CD box set from one of the blogs posting it. The early bands are well represented, and the first two cds are very strong; the third CD is about half good, and the fourth is weak. But overall, the set might give someone a sense for what they’re getting into. Keep in mind that you aren't getting any of NZ's punk sounds from labels like Ripper or Propeller, or the more experimental rock that the Xpressway label would deliver.

If I were new to the NZ game and wanted to go online and order a bunch of cds, I’d want someone to make sure I got something like these Flying Nun heroes:

Clean – either the old Compilation cd or the newer double cd on Merge. The Merge cd obviously has more, but leaves off some of the first cd’s stuff.

Chills – Kaleidoscope World CD

Verlaines – Juvenalia CD

Bats – Compiletely Bats CD. The early 12”s (except the amazing “Four-Song” 12”). Or Daddy’s Highway.

Able Tasmans – A Cuppa Tea and a Lie Down CD

Chris Knox –There’s a CD that compiles Seizure and Croaker.

Tall Dwarfs – Hello Cruel World CD or Fork Songs CD

And one of the early comps like Tuatara, In Love With These Times, or Getting Older. Or all of them.

From the less jangly side of NZ:

Gordons – The CD with First Album and Future Shock

Terminals – Cul-de-sac CD

This Kind of Punishment – the CD with In The Same Room + 5 By Four (This is the Jefferies brothers band after Nocturnal Projections)

Dead CD – Trap Door Fucking Exit

Peter Jefferies – The Last Great Challenge in a Dull World

And two Xpressway comps: Making Losers Happy, and Pile=Up

From the earlier wave of NZ punk and new wave, you might scare these up:

Bilders – “Max Quitz” CD of early vinyl micro releases. Post Velvets diy.
Nocturnal Projections – Nerve Ends in Power Lines CD. Jefferies brothers. My NZ fave. Ringing goth punk, experimental grinders, acoustic lullabies.
Toy Love – Cuts double cd of LP, 7”s, and unreleased. Chris Knox.
AK79 – Great NZ punk rock.
It's Bigger Than Both of Us is a nice survey of early punk, new wave, jangle, and commercial misses.

These bands were less important to me, but they’re loved by many and certainly worth knowing:

Jean Paul Sartre Experience – The Size of Food
Snapper – Shotgun Blossom
Cakekitchen – Messages from the…
Straitjacket Fits – Hail
Bailter Space – Bailterspace comp CD

And last, and least, a pitch for some lesser-known faves that still got cds out, if belatedly:

Scorched Earth Policy – Keep Away from the Wires. Pre-Terminals and amazing. "Green Cigar" defines the NZ sound for me. "Too Far Gone" also. "Maniacs"!
Double Happys – Nerves
Bird Nest Roys – CD that compiles the first LP and earlier stuff.

For those new to the game, just understand that every NZ band is connected to another. Just start pulling on the threads....

The Bats are far beyond awful

S: Fat Mannequin

I guess that's a common opinion on The Bats because i can recall seeing their records in used bins everywhere for a while, but I think they're pretty good if not with much of a sense of humour and regret not picking those cd's up while I had the chance.

Search also the Flying Nun documentary on youtube, newcomers and everyone else

The Bats are far beyond awful

I strongly disagree.

What do you like about them?

mostly the bass sound, the focus on the low end as instrument/integral part of their sound. the physical presence.

this may have a lot to do with seeing them live.

i like their tunes and lyrics and sound

Well that's a little hard to argue about... how do you rate them comp to the Chills, the Clean, etc? Or the Gordons for that matter

I defer to electricsound as far as comparisons but I will say that as far as relatively upbeat and poppy NZ stuff goes it is totally unfair to characterize The Bats as "far beyond awful". to me, that would suggest, like, Miley Cyrus or something.

You mean something that actually sells? Oh, the horror. I'll take MC over the Bats ta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjJY95_Kj9E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayV0dlQNMMA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyObGLciBRA

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

takes all sorts i guess