SEARCH! AND DESTROY!: NEW ZEALAND

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

I just really hate the Bats, it isn't all that rational

chills have higher highs but less consistent i think. i'd probably say the same for the clean. gordons ok but they don't excite me all that much. miley cyrus has too many crying teenagers in her videos

Yeah, Gordons don't really seem yr thing. If one likes the Bats, yr pretty much exactly right. The Clean esp have some fucking LOW lows.

I don't see how anyone could listen to "Get Fat," "Neighbours," "Passed By," or "Some Peace Tonight" and not think Robert Scott and the Bats capable of surpassing beauty, or at least something better than awfulness. The Chills (well, maybe not on "Rolling Moon") have always sounded slight to me by comparison--too smooth by half. Of course, the Clean are the best of the three; also, of course, they've all got enough material that you could fill entire cds with duds.

Live, the Bats were burly and blistering. Muscular on the low end as any post-punk outfit, and strumming nearly as frenetically as the Wedding Present at their most deft. Seeing them rock out might have convinced a few of the doubters here.

Would that I had seen the early Clean live...I did see the Chills, but only in the early '90s, by which point they were satin smooth and a bit punchless--though I can hear my pop friends saying that was the point....

niles is leading you astray, don't listen. in fact most of this thread is rubbish. listen to esoj. but yeah 'get fat' is marvelous! i think being slight is part of the chills thing isn't it? it's what makes 'this is the way', 'i soar', 'night of chill blue', 'water wolves', etc.. so wonderful, the barely thereness. i think the able tasmans are my fave fnun band of all time from now on.

new love is all has a song that lifts the keyboad riff from 'tally ho!'.

Terminals - Uncoffined
Axemen
Venus Trail
and as they said before - Sticky Filth
Matt Middleton/Crude
Xanadu
Gladeyes from Akl
those guys who did 'Pastor of Muppets'.
That Sisters Underground song.
The Puddle.

All good.

Man, I loved Daddy's Highway by the Bats, I liked the taut and sinewy way they play those songs.

Also, another big cheer here for the Bird Nest Roys.

Ya na na na na na na na na na na na naaaaah!

thanks, michael. this is a good start.

one that's gone unmentioned - Plagal Grind was a supergroup, except they didn't get individually big til afterwards. really great.

also, 'oddity' by the Clean is a great song, and Snapper is pretty good. Also, the Gordons.

"Wave Watching" will always be my favorite Chills song.

loved the Chills so so much. "Pink Frost" one of the great tracks.

Jean Paul Sartre Experience - "Walking Wild In Your Firetime", if you liked Galaxie 500...

Proud Scum's "Suicide 2" is the best song ever from New Zealand.

O YEZ I DiD

a wealth of material can be heard here: http://thedoledrums.blogspot.com/

That is to say:

Terminals- Touch

like Elvis having a very very very very very very bad dream.

of being crap

another website of note:

http://kiwitapes.blogspot.com/