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As an act of pop patriotism, it wasn’t exactly of flashmob haka proportions, but it was a moment of local pride nonetheless. I’d been away for New Zealand for seven months travelling through the Middle East when I saw a face I recognised collecting tickets backstage at the Reading Festival back in August 1995. Starved of familiar pop culture and news from home, I raised a fist and yelled “Flying Nun!” as a slightly confused Roger Shepherd smiled nervously, gathered his tickets, and disappeared into the crowd.
EDITOR: Sam Wicks sam.wicks@volumemagazine.co.nz WEB EDITOR: Hugh Sundae hugh.sundae@nzherald.co.nz DEPARTMENT OF VOLUME SALES: John Baker john.baker@volumemagazine.co.nz DESIGN: Xanthe Williams WRITERS: John Baker, David Benge, Gavin Bertram, Matthew Davis, Duncan Greive, Jessica Hansell, Dino Karlis, Joe Nunweek, Will Pollard, Jessica Prendergast, Charlotte Ryan, Matt Scobie, Hugh Sundae ILLUSTRATOR: Henrietta Harris PHOTOGRAPHERS: Ted Baghurst, Roger Grauwmeijer, Melanie Kamsler, Tom Neal, Milana Radojcic, Mikhail Ruzhanskiy
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We’ve been under the influence of the label Shepherd “accidentally” founded in Christchurch for 30 years now, and this week the team at VOLUME presents our collective Nun memories across 40 freshly inked pages. We’re celebrating the anniversary with an all nun everything issue, from Sundae Roast to Stuff and Nunsense, Sound of the Overground to History Made. We’ve got Roger Shepherd in conversation with Dunedinbred journalist and Nun nut Richard Langston for Talking Heads, vintage Flying Nun tour posters, an all Nun review section, and we even tracked down exMandrill Studios’ Dave Hurley, the man who sold Chris Knox that four-track back in 1981. Big thanks to Roger, Matthew Davis and Charlotte Ryan for digging deep into the vaults for the content we’ve furnished you with for this week’s issue – and special thanks to our cover artist, the very talented Henrietta Harris, who joins a revered line of Nun artists like Chris Knox, David Mitchell and Michael Morley. Charge your glasses with 30 Year Ale, VOLUME readers – Happy Birthday, Flying Nun!
APP
SEND ME A POSTCARD HDU’s Dino Karlis is currently based in Berlin – he returns to New Zealand in November to play HDU shows in Wellington, Auckland, Dunedin and Christchurch.
T54’s MATT SCOBIE Flying Nun started in Christchurch – how does it feel being the latest Christchurch addition to the roster? It feels pretty cool. I’m glad they’ve been looking down here because there really is a lot of good shit happening – I guess that’s what Flying Nun has always had the eye for. T54 play the ‘New Nun Night’ shows with Popstrangers, Grayson Gilmour, Surf Friends and Badd Energy. Who are you keen to check out? Pretty keen to check everyone out. Nice to be part of a group of artists from around the country, not just the neighbourhood. Our old bands used to play with Joel Flyger from Popstrangers’ old band a bit, so I’m really looking forward to finally seeing his new thing live. Will you be covering any gems from Flying Nun artists of the past? We have done quite a lot in the past – it’s always fun. It depends on how we feel on the night. Popstrangers played CMJ in New York last Tuesday. Has T54 got plans to follow them overseas? Stuff like that is a bit intimidating for us at the moment but, if someone organised it for us, we’d love to – guess we’re a bit lazy! We’re open to suggestions… If you were buying Flying Nun a birthday present, what would it be and why? Probably the first season of The Flying Nun starring Sally Field – I hear Roger’s got a massive crush on her. How old is she anyway? 54? T54 play the New Nun Night with Popstrangers, Grayson Gilmour, T54, Surf Friends and Badd Energy on Friday 4 November at Kings Arms in Auckland and Saturday 5 November at San Francisco Bath House in Wellington.
TEX HOUSTON – SOUND GUY
I was lucky enough to record a bunch of stonkingly good Flying Nun bands back in the day. Here’s 10 ways we’d go about it back then: 1: Find a derelict building to record in. Favourites included old industrial spaces, community halls, Masonic lodges and ex-psychiatric hospitals. 2: Get in lots of tape. It was pretty much all analogue back then – from quarter-inch four-track to two-inch 24-track. Two-inch tape cost about $300 for 15 minutes! 3: Record the whole band ‘live’ – that way there’d be tons of leakage into the drum mics adding to the atmosphere. 4: Have the tape rolling even when it was just a rehearsal – you didn’t want to miss any moments of brilliance.
5: Never use a click track. 6: Record overdubs in cupboards, toilets, stairwells, chilly bins, coffins – anywhere that sounded weird or wonderful. 7: Guitar amps should be mind-bogglingly loud. The Hiwatt head was popular as was the good ol’ Fender twin. No Marshalls. 8: When it comes to mixing, have everyone involved – collective genius. 9: Have lots of refreshments. 10: End up with timeless recordings that still sound fresh 20 years on.
GIMME THE NUN To celebrate Nunvember, Flying Nun has furnished us with one helluva prize pack to give away – behold the booty: 1 x David Mitchell limited edition print 1 x numbered print of the Henrietta Harris’ Tally Ho! painting 1 x pack of 30 Year Ale, the specially brewed Flying Nun beer by Epic 1 x Robert Scott comic 1 x Flying Nun/Barkers t-shirt 1 x Tally Ho! compilation 1 x The Bats’ Free All the Monsters For your chance to take home the loot, we want to hear your Flying Nun story – email loot@ volumemagazine.co.nz with your recollection of a History Made-worthy Nun gig, an obscure vinyl purchase, unheard songs committed to tape on Chris Knox’s four-track...
ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN…
Straitjacket
Fits
I may be a touch older than Flying Nun, but it still feels like an older, wiser, cooler sibling. In fact, having attended both its 21st (as part of the team behind the Heavenly Pop Hits documentary) and 30th, it’s almost like being extended family. NOT BEING OF gig-attending age at the time, I think my earliest memories of Flying Nun were hearing it mentioned on Radio with Pictures or by an equally un-animated announcer on student radio. Its reputation preceded it even then. Around 1994 (I guess Flying Nun was just becoming a teenager) I’d look forward to the occasional Friday afternoon when the bFM programme director would lead us down to the Nun offices above the ASB on Queen Street for Friday drinks at the coolest shithole in town. I’d stand around in the stockroom and listen to the adults (often band members) talking crap as they packaged up vinyl and CDs to fill orders. If I was really lucky I’d be privy to a bit of industry gossip in the office of the impeccably cool Paul McKessar or Lesley Paris. But my fondest memory of Flying Nun is simply one of my fondest memories. In 2000 I worked on the final season (coincidence?) of TV3’s Ice As. Arwen the production manager kept telling us about her fiancé, David. “You should see how cool he looks when he plays bass,” she said. We’d only known Arwen for weeks when she invited the team to her wedding on 25 March 2000. I’d long since accepted that there were bands I was simply never going to get to see live. Even arriving at
the wedding and seeing instruments set up, even knowing Mark Petersen, John Collie and Shayne Carter were all there, I never actually thought Straitjacket Fits would play together again. Arwen later told me that leading up to the wedding she spread the word as much as possible that there would be instruments there if anyone wanted to jam “just in case”.
“Even knowing Mark Petersen, John Collie and Shayne Carter were all there, I never actually thought Straitjacket Fits would play together again.” If there was other live music that night I have no recollection of it. All night I’d heard “will they?”/”won’t they?”, but the general consensus was that they wouldn’t. Until about 60 seconds before they did. It was so casual. Arwen said they never spoke about it, never planned it. John sat down at the drum kit while Shayne, Mark and David picked up their guitars, exchanging glances so nonchalant it was like they were
MORE GRAVY Speaking of Heavenly Pop Hits (or if you didn’t read Sundae Roast, the documentary that marked 21 years of Flying Nun), you can watch it in its entirety at the excellent nzonscreen.com. Back on our own domain, you can catch the latest Make My Movie webisode, get a look at the new Sione’s Wedding 2 trailer, and on Friday at midday catch up with Shihad’s Jon Toogood, as he takes your questions in an nzherald.co.nz live chat to mark the release of The Meanest Hits – out 7 November. This week’s album stream is The Unfaithful Ways’ Free Rein – and you can still watch their Critics’ Choice Prize performance at nzherald. co.nz/musicawards. checking if anyone wanted a cup of tea while they were up. I don’t even think they said anything before launching into… whatever they launched into. My memory of exactly what the four or five songs were is a little hazy. Same for Arwen and Mark, but we agree they definitely played ‘She Speeds’, a cover of ‘Trouble’ (originally performed by Elvis Presley), and my favourite Fits song to this day: ‘Dialing A Prayer’. One song was abandoned after a few bars. Something about the opening guitar riff being “a bit tricky after all these years”. It may have been a bit rough’n’ready, but I watched them play those songs with a stupid grin, knowing it was going to be one of those memories. Of course years later they did reform for a tour. I saw them in Auckland (The Studio?) and Sammy’s in Dunedin. I think they opened both sets with ‘Burn It Up’. Watching David wrestle his bass as though he was trying to break a piece of metal by bending it back and forth gave me a new appreciation for the song I’d never heard in the recording. But as amazing as both those shows were – and they really were amazing – if I could only have experienced Straitjacket Fits live once, it would have been that special night – 25 March 2000.
Dunedin-bred journalist Richard Langston was the brains behind Garage, a short-lived fanzine that documented some of Flying Nun’s formative bands – the first issue alone covered The Great Unwashed, The Verlaines, The Chills and Tall Dwarves. Langston and Roger Shepherd talk street press for Talking Heads. Photography Milana Radojcic RICHARD LANGSTON: I must have met you at the Flying Nun office, but I remember going to your flat by the Dux de Lux across the road, and I remember you had a lot of Landfalls. And you had a lot of records I was coveting as well, but I tried not to show that in my eagerness to get my hands on your records. ROGER SHEPHERD: Right, so what were you doing in Christchurch? I must have been doing Garage by then. I dealt with Hamish [Kilgour] a lot early on in Garage – he actually did a lot of stuff for us. This would have been after Hamish left, because he was working for us. Oh, he was still at Flying Nun. Okay – so this is really early on. I remember I was writing to him, and I must have said I’m going to do this fanzine. I must have talked a wee bit about it to him because he sent down an envelope with graphics he’d made with headlines like “Great
Unwashed”, and they were in Garage One. I had no idea! So that’s what he was doing… He was great – he was very enthusiastic about it. I mean, I only had half a notion of what we might do. I guess that notion of organising and
“You always claim everything happened by accident, Roger, but irrespective it’s a really important piece of our history.” – RICHARD LANGSTON having a fanzine worked quite well in that you went back home to Dunedin and it actually had a scene, a proper scene developing, and a really strong one at that. So I guess there was plenty to write about; plenty to be enthusiastic about, which was probably the key thing. And there were lots of people who were enthusiastic – fellow travellers like Robert Scott. Now I talked a lot to Robert because he was doing Every Secret Thing, his fanzine. Were you a journalist at that stage?
Oh, yeah – I’d been a journalist since I was 17 so I knew the conventions of what it took to make a newspaper story, but it struck me that so much of it was anaemic. Even the writing on the music page – apart from Roy Colbert – it was done by elderly men, you know. It was awful! Yeah, I seem to remember the Otago Daily Times wouldn’t review The Clean’s Boodle Boodle Boodle EP ’cause it wasn’t an album, and I think by the time we got around to making albums they weren’t necessarily interested in reviewing those either. So the coverage was pretty much limited. I mean, there were important characters like Colin Hogg at the Auckland Star, Rob White at the Christchurch Star, who would write about music, but really what was the exposure? There weren’t any in-depth interviews, reviews were invariably quite short – those guys were pretty much trying to cover everything, all genres. So I guess print media was the few big newspapers and the space you could squeeze. I mean, even Rip It Up didn’t have time to get into the substrata, nitty gritty of things. And [Garage] certainly didn’t in the first instance, but I think as Garage kept going we realised, ‘Oh, actually – we can do something quite useful here – we can record a lot of what happens with these bands, how it all came about.’ Yeah, I remember bands almost aspiring to be in the little summaries of what was happening in the main centres. In Rip It Up? Yeah, getting a little mention like, ‘So and so thinking about recording a single’ – that would be, ‘yay, we’re away!’ If you think about a band like The Clean even, there weren’t that many interviews. I think the one that was in Garage Three is probably the most comprehensive one that exists from that period of The Clean. But even today, bands generally don’t
get in-depth interviews because there’s simply not enough space or time to do it properly, so the conversation revolves around the new album or the big national tour that’s about to happen. It seems silly really because we talk about so much nonsense, yet it seems to me that’s really important history – it should be recorded somewhere. I mean, maybe that’s an old fuddyduddy notion of things, but I think the Flying Nun story’s going to continue to be told. You always claim everything happened by accident, Roger, but irrespective it’s a really important piece of our history. Yeah, that idea of recording things, essentially that was the original notion behind the label – bands like Victor Dimisich Band or The Vacuum. They were the real inspirations, and I was conscious of the fact that this stuff was happening in Christchurch and there weren’t necessarily a whole lot of people who were particularly interested, but I thought it was really worthwhile music and I thought it needed to be recorded, I guess for the sake of history. To listen to the full audio of Richard Langston and Roger Shepherd in conversation, head to nzherald.co.nz/volume – live from 2pm Tuesday. Flying Nun is republishing the Garage fanzine online throughout the rest of the year – download the first four issues from flyingnun.co.nz.
The Film Archive Collecting our past
Protecting our future Connecting with our country For thirty years
Tally Ho 1981. NZFA Stills Collection.
1981 was quite a year. In 1981, New Zealand was populated by 3,195,800 people and 69,884,000 sheep. It was an election year, Punk was fashionable and so were knickerbockers. That year, the feature Goodbye Pork Pie was released, the documentary Patu!, was filmed, the music video Tally Ho screened on local TV; and it was the year both Flying Nun and the New Zealand Film Archive were established. Come and discover New Zealand’s national moving image archive for yourself. Nau mai, haere ma ki Nga Kaitiaki O Nga Taonga Whitiahua.
CNR GHUZNEE & TARANAKI STREETS WELLINGTON NEW ZEALANd
300 KARANGAHAPE Rd AUCKLAND NEW ZEALANd
www.filmarchive.org.nz
Flying Nun’s new signing defies all convention, throwing stoned guitar and wry hip hop into a heady lo-fi brew. So really, Badd Energy are where they should be. Text Joe Nunweek Photography Milana Radojcic WHEN I MEET up with Badd Energy, I get a bit worried I’m witnessing a group’s end before I’ve even said my ‘hello’s’. Sam Moore is haltingly responding to questions from Jessica Hansell (Coco Solid) in Espanol, prepping for what will hopefully be a year’s travel in Latin America in 2012. But then Badd Energy, as you might expect from Hansell’s prolific, genre-bending catalogue, aren’t the most linear or typical of projects.
“Google ‘bad energy’ and you get a whole bunch of stuff about crystals and chakras. And a crazy German dance act on YouTube.” – Jessica Hansell Getting to grips with a second ‘d’ in their name (“Google ‘bad energy’ and you get a whole bunch of stuff about crystals and chakras,” Hansell explains. “And a crazy German dance act on YouTube”), the group are finally putting a successor out to 2009’s Tropic of Scorpio. That feral release jammed through nine songs in under 20 minutes; it’s an odd mix of thwarted greed and relief to learn that their upcoming release on Flying Nun, due out this summer, will be a similar deal.
Hansell and Moore met occupying the same “big, stoner flat” about four years ago. She was recording her double-album, The Radical Bad Attack, in the shed out back, while he was an Auckland-from-Hamilton transplant, playing in discordant Mole Music rockers like The Neverends. “It was one of those things where we already liked the same movies, went to the same shows, everything like that. So when you’ve got heaps in common, you think, why not collab?” The Radical Bad Attack was a brilliant schizoid affair – half-hip hop hedonism, half-riot grrrl agitprop. Moore “came into the shed and we ended up with these two sweet tracks with surf-rock guitar laid down”. In fact, Bad(d) Energy is a bit of a wilful misnomer because, as Moore explains, “the energy between us all is actually really good”. Tropic was effectively spur of the moment – “it’s totally a document of everything we went through, talked about, or were into over those six weeks in the same flat. We had a flatmate who would blare huge
amounts of dubstep at all hours, so that crept in at the bottom end.” It shows in the woozy, blunted dancehall of ‘The Seed’, while elsewhere the record splits the difference between Hansell’s effortlessly cutting bon mots and the grungier, exploratory interludes Moore lurches out. The first single from the new album, ‘Third Eye’, with its glitchy breakdown (care of Moore, who tells me he first got into generating this stuff “playing backing for a folky singer-songwriter guy”) and whipsmart lyrics, suggests these are set to merge. “The first record was definitely about figuring out what we were and how we went together,” Hansell explains. “Sam will have me doing stuff outside of what I’d usually do on my other records. He might decide that I need to play guitar, or that I’ll be playing drums. We’re basically swapping instruments around all the time.”
As Coco Solid, she’s cut a prolific blue streak of good material, not being too concerned with the legacybuilding or passive waiting on public funding that staggers so many other New Zealand musicians. Her “solo” work deflates a lot of the braggadocio and machismo that burdens rap here and abroad, just as outrageous but far less shallow. Parallel Dance Ensemble, her superb partnership with Danish producer Robin Hannibal, matches meticulous ’80s r’n’b production to some of her most apt social and self-commentary. Badd Energy, by comparison, is simply a riot grrrl extravaganza where she gets to let loose with skewering disses of creepy guys and our ruling classes alike. “It feels really good to have these opportunities to bring out different facets of what we do.” So are we seeing the end of the core duo? Hardly – Hansell
took her own year off in South Korea last year, and it seems like the whole group are at their best when they keep it casual. “I remember being in Hamilton and getting in heaps of trouble because I was in an interview because I said my then-band would keep messing around for a year then split up,” Moore recalls. “Apparently that wasn’t the plan.” A side-project of many sideprojects, with no masterplan and a sternly DIY attitude, signing up to Flying Nun? It’s hard to think of a better signing to enter the label’s fourth decade.
This week Duncan Greive celebrates a very un-pop label – at least according to the generally accepted definitions of ‘pop’. But we’ll do it via their most significant chart performances across three formats, to keep some connection with the theme. EPs
It’s a peculiar quirk of Flying Nun lore that the EP was so central to so many of their artists. Top of these pops is Boodle Boodle Boodle, without which we might not be here in the first place – a perfect five-song nugget which spent half a year on the charts and financed much of the weird and wild stuff to follow. Next up comes The Chills’ The Lost EP from the most chart-dominant band the label ever produced. Deeper in there are appearances from notable EP monsters like Tall Dwarfs and Look Blue Go Purple, along with hits you might’ve forgotten from the likes of Garageland and Bird Nest Roys.
ALBUMS
The same faulty economics which lead to much of the early FN catalogue being EPs similarly meant that not much of it was album length. Say what you want about the label, but they were never the most conventional businessmen in the world. It took a decade for their first hit LP to come out, 1990’s Submarine Bells, and of the 10 most notable chart placings none come from the ’80s. Through the ’90s the most bankable FN artists were undeniably Headless Chickens, whose gorgeous ‘Cruise Control’ propelled Body Blow to double platinum sales, while Garageland,
JPSE and Dimmer all took the label into the top 10.
SINGLES
The Chooks again dominate here, with the gnarly ‘George’ topping the charts in ’94, before The Chills come in with a bonafide bFM hit in ‘I Love My Leather Jacket’. Sneaky Feelings, subject of a bunch of sniping then and later, were one of the label’s most reliable singles artists of the ’80s, while ‘Breathe’ and ‘Done’ point to how close to crossover successes Straitjacket Fits and JPSE came in the early ’90s. Perhaps most striking about this list, though, is the absence of so many of the most iconic songs. Despite my bloodyminded ruling of one entry per chart, plenty of the songs which have echoed loudest (‘North by North’, ‘Death and the Maiden’, ‘Buddy’) didn’t chart. Despite this it’s a pretty fucking impressive line-up, maybe the weirdest music to chart regularly in an Englishspeaking country. They, and we, should be proud as hell of what has become our pop music. Note: These placings and listings were compiled from a variety of sources, all eminently unreliable, so if I’ve missed anything or got anything wrong, profuse apologies and extreme blame-shifting.
(ALL LISTINGS RUN RELEASE DATE/PEAK CHART POSITION/ WEEKS ON CHART)
EPs 1 The Clean – Boodle Boodle Boodle (29/11/’81 – 5 – 26) 2 The Chills – The Lost EP (2/8/’85 – 4 – 17) 3 Straitjacket Fits – Life in One Chord (15/1/’88 – 16 – 10) 4 Look Blue Go Purple – Bewitched (30/8/’85 – 21 – 8) 5 Tall Dwarfs – Louis Likes His Daily Dip (24/9/’82 – 20 – 5) 6 Garageland – Comeback Special EP (8/9/’95 – 21 – 6) 7 The Verlaines – Ten O’Clock In the Afternoon (21/9/’84 – 23 – 8) 8 Bird Nest Roys – Whack it All Down (31/1/’86 – 20 – 4) 9 The Double Happys – Cut it Out (11/10/’85 – 33 – 6) 10 The Bats – By Night (5/10/’84 – 34 – 4)
ALBUMS 1 The Chills – Submarine Bells (15/6/’90 – 1 – 14) 2 Headless Chickens – Body Blow (29/11/’91 – 17 – 19) 3 Garageland – Last Exit to Garageland (14/6/’96 – 3 – 10) 4 JPSE – Bleeding Star (2/4/’93 – 6 – 7) 5 Dimmer – There My Dear (4/8/’06 – 7 – 7) 6 The 3D’s – Venus Trail (22/10/’93 – 12 – 5) 7 Straitjacket Fits – Blow (30/4/’93 – 12 – 9) 8 Bailterspace – Vortura (6/5/’94 – 22 – 2) 9 The Mint Chicks – Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! (4/9/’06 – 23 – 7) 10 Fiona McDonald – A Different Hunger (15/10/’99 – 8 – 5)
SINGLES 1 Headless Chickens – ‘George’ (25/11/’94 – 1 – 17) 2 The Chills – ‘I Love My Leather Jacket’ (16/1/’87 – 4 – 11) 3 JPSE – ‘Breathe’ (20/1/’92 – 9 – 7) 4 Straitjacket Fits – ‘Done’ (11/9/’92 – 11 – 7)
HEY! THEY SAY IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY? IT’S MY BIRTHDAY TOO! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU. 30 YEARS OF BRILLIANT MUSIC. GREAT TO BE CONNECTED FROM BEGINNING. 537 mt eden road, mt eden. ph 623 3930
5 Sneaky Feelings – ‘Husband House’ (4/10/’85 – 16 – 7) 6 The Clean – ‘Tally Ho’ (20/9/’81 – 19 – 7) 7 Garageland – ‘Fingerpops’ (1/3/’96 – 29 – 4) 8 Bike – ‘Circus Kids’ (8/8/’97 – 31 – 2) 9 Pin Group – ‘Coat’ (27/11/’81 – 38 – 2) 10 The 3D’s – ‘Beautiful Things’ (17/9/’93 – 49 – 1)
TOP FIVES ROGER SHEPHERD’S TOP FIVE BANDS HE WISHED HE HAD SIGNED TO FLYING NUN
Free All the Monsters (Flying Nun) THE LAST BATS’ release on Flying Nun Records was 2000’s Thousands of Luminous Spheres compilation, and a lot has happened since then. Given their long association, it’s fitting they’ve been reunited for Free All the Monsters, which coincides nicely with the label’s 30 th anniversary. And better, it’s The Bats’ strongest effort in years. Although recorded in what’s left of the notorious Seacliff Asylum on the coast north of Dunedin, the band’s eighth album is permeated with the warmth of human relationships and experiences. That’s long been the case of Robert Scott’s songs, but his writing has become even more nuanced and well realised in recent years. It’s surely no coincidence that Dale Cotton, who produced Scott’s 2010 solo album Ends Run Together, also worked on (A quick note on all these remasters: a small and frustrating window of Flying Nun CD releases in the late ’80s and early ’90s were mastered terribly to CD (and, in the case of The Chills’ Brave Words, sometimes botched entirely). While improvements on latter-day releases from The Subliminals and HDU aren’t too clear, hearing Vehicle and Hellzapoppin’ this way is a small, unshowy treat, especially since they haven’t just EQ-ed them to all hell. In saying this, you’re not listening to an old Flying Nun record for next-level multimillion quadraphonic madness, so your perception may vary. The songs are still very good.) THE CLEAN Vehicle The Clean’s first, best reunion album. The production is far cleaner than on their initial EPs, and if the songs aren’t all as spectacular as that first stretch, it hasn’t dated at all and the strongest songs (like ‘Draw(i)ng To A W(hole’) and Bob Scott’s ‘Big Soft Punch’) are among their most gorgeous. THE SUBLIMINALS Crystal Chain EP Forget the fulllength, United State – this EP captures these latter-day Flying Nun drone-rockers at their best, never outstaying its welcome. The title track is a neo-Krautrock masterpiece that rises from a taciturn bassline into a maelstrom
1: The Beatles – by the time I was blown away by The Beatles in 1968 they had unfortunately already been signed. 2: The Enemy – oh, for a decent recording and a release of the band that changed my life.
Free All the Monsters. In Cotton, The Bats have found a producer with a sympathetic ear for the gentle melodies and simple but sweet arrangements they’ve long excelled in. From radiant opener ‘Long Halls’ onwards it’s immediately obvious this is a classic album from the band. Other highlights include the title track, the melancholic ‘See Right Through Me’, ‘In the Subway’, which is redolent of past Bats’ glories, and the utterly perfect ‘Fingers of Dawn’. Review Gavin Bertram
of guitar wail; ‘Bug Powder’ could almost be a classic rock FM-radio jam if it wasn’t so consumed with its own RSI-inducing repetition. THE 3D’S Hellzapoppin’ Hard to understand how important this must have felt in 1992 or so: The Pixies were falling apart having already reined in their freak flag, and grunge had turned lazy in months. Even out of that context, Hellzapoppin’ still feels like a triumph for unfashionable and flannelled kids who like to really wring hell out a guitar. It hasn’t aged a day. HDU Methamatics This is only from 2008, but HDU didn’t really have a version of the label to go through at the time, so it’s nice to have them put it out for completion’s sake. In saying that, this isn’t the trio’s best album – ‘Stupormodel’ is a serrating, urgent blast, but longer tracks like ‘Tunguska’ and ‘The National Grid’ feel thinly stretched and a little wan compared to career highlight Fireworks. SKEPTICS III Don’t get too excited – this one (or other Skeptics records, for the moment) hasn’t been released – but we’re hoping if we do this someone at the label will read it and do it. So much critical ‘reappraisal’ falls
on reissues of third-rate shit now (including the industrial genre: Pretty Hate Machine?!); surely it’s time for this group to blow some new minds. BADD ENERGY ‘Third Eye’ Based around a haunting, vaguely Middle Eastern melody, ‘Third Eye’ oddly enough ties Badd Energy into the esoteric New Age stuff that always used to come up when one Googled them. Awesomely, Coco Solid weaves Quest for Glory-style RPG references through (“Like a shaman hella-druid/ Prepare to watch your dreams go fluid”) before it all screws and chops into electronic burble. POPSTRANGERS ‘What Else Could They Do’ Definitely a signing that harkens back to the label’s ’90s highlights, the new Popstrangers cuts between the winsome heaviness of Garageland’s ‘Nude Star’ and Bailterspace’s huge, metallic chords. But the strung-out, choppy guitar work before it takes off for the last chorus is all theirs. T54 ‘Black on Black’ Simply tremendous, this Christchurch band’s first single on the label manages to capture that unbearably huge and poignant feeling of the two enduring Smashing Pumpkins songs (we could only be talking about ‘1979’ and ‘Perfect’, obviously) – the exhilaration, the winding streets, the suburban light – while not directly cribbing. A teenage anthem in its own right. Reviews Joe Nunweek
3: Can – when I first heard Tago Mago, I realised there was another musical world outside what we perceived to be the rock/pop norm. 4: The Features – they showed a way forward at a time when so much was mired in the muddled cliché that punk had become. 5: The Able Tasmans – we managed to release four of their albums on Flying Nun without ever getting the band to sign a contract. RADIO NEW ZEALAND NATIONAL’S MUSIC 101 LIISA MCMILLAN’S TOP FIVE FLYING NUN MUSIC VIDEOS 1: First impact: The Clean – ‘Beatnik’ (vivid memories of seeing this on Radio with Pictures for the first time – life-changing). 2: Ashamed I wasn’t turned vegetarian by: Skeptics – ‘AFFCO’ (was also amazing to experience this live). 3: Strange, peculiar and bizarre (in the best way): Chris Knox – ‘My Only Friend’ (but so hard to narrow down the Knox videos). 4: Inspiring romantic ideas of the Dunedin scene: Look Blue, Go Purple – ‘Circumspect Penelope’ (and great New Zealand music made by females. Very cool). 5: Roadies: Straightjacket Fits – ‘She Speeds’ (evergreen).
Catch these past and present Flying Nun acts touring the country in November.
THE CLEAN (ARCH HILL/ MERGE RECORDS) The Clean has been around since the earliest days of Flying Nun, spawning musical descendants both here and overseas. The band sparked the Dunedin music scene and inspired virtually every other band that came in their wake, but their more recent performances have shown they’ve lost nothing in the 30-something years since ‘Tally Ho!’
HIGH DEPENDENCY UNIT (HDU) HDU formed during the mid-’90s and have remained unwaveringly noisy ever since. They’re heavier than some of their Dunedin counterparts, but theirs is an intelligent breed of psych rock. John Peel once called them “one of the 10 best bands in the world you’ve never heard of,” and Steve Albini is a fan. Not bad.
THE BATS For nearly three decades, The Bats have been writing their honest, influential and understated pop gems. With instantly loveable records and unmissable live shows, they are masters of the form, and their latest and eighth album Free All the Monsters proves this yet again.
SHAYNE P. CARTER Shayne Carter has become one of the most respected musicians around and still burns with an intense fire live. Growing up with Bored Games and The Doublehappys before taking a shot at the big time with Straitjacket Fits, he has since varied his output with a number of releases as Dimmer and a stint as an Adult. Earlier this year he performed and released a retrospective collection Last Train to Brockville which he is now taking down south this November.
THE VERLAINES Formed in 1981 by Graeme Downes and named after French poet Paul Verlaine, The Verlaines have made countless fans around the world with songs that combine classical composition, romanticism and pop. Downes was an outstanding schoolboy cricketer before the cigarette smoke and whisky of rock’n’roll slowed his reflexes, but this has never once stopped him producing and performing some of the most mesmerising live shows in the last 30 years.
GHOST CLUB Ghost Club was formed in 1996 by David Mitchell and Denise Roughan in Dunedin. They relocated to London the following year where they hooked up with drummer Jim Abbott. With members previously in bands The Exploding Budgies, Goblin Mix, Look Blue Go Purple and The 3D’s, it fits rather well to know they recorded their last album Suicide Train over a single day in the basement of a derelict Victorian pub in North London. This quick, no-frills way of working successfully captures the immediacy of the band’s live performances in which David Mitchell continues to fry his long-suffering amp.
THE SUBLIMINALS The story goes The Subliminals were formed in Auckland following a chance meeting between Stephen Reay and Brendan Moran, both stopping by bFM’s radio show Freak the Sheep. Reay and Moran jammed together before ex-Loves Ugly Children Simon MacLaren joined. Some kraut-guitar-skronk was dished up before the trio recruited Jared Johanson on bass. FETUS PRODUCTIONS + X FEATURES Known for mixing post-punk with loud, heavy industrial percussion, Fetus Productions was the band behind the superb ‘What’s Going On’ and ‘State to Be In’ from the Fetalmania EP. Fetus Productions’ Jed Town, Sarah Fort and Mike Brookfield are reforming for a special one-off performance in Nunvember. Joining them will be a version of Jed Town’s punk band The Features, aptly called the X FEATURES.
THE PUDDLE (FISHRIDER RECORDS) The Puddle have always been one of the most stubbornly underground of the bands associated with Flying Nun, despite founder George Henderson’s lifelong desire to write “pop music”. Their debut album Pop Lib was picked by SPIN magazine as one of the best New Zealand albums. After 25 years largely lost in the mist, The Puddle finally re-emerged in 2006, releasing three albums since with a fourth due later this year.
SOLID GOLD HELL It’s time to welcome back the murderous, misanthropic, lurching beast that is Solid Gold Hell. Emerging from the smoldering ashes of SPUD, Glenn Campbell (vocals), Matthew Heine (guitar) joined forces with Colleen Brennan (bass) and JPSE drummer Gary Sullivan in an unholy alliance that delivered a heavy brew from the outset. Pure southern gothic, with a sound that threatens to take on all-comers and put a little fear in your soul.
DEAD C Since 1987 the Dead C have walked a tightrope stretched between rock and free improvisation, from which they have yet to fall. They have released over 20 albums, most recently Patience, on BaDaBing Records. Dusted webzine recently opined that “without the Dead C the face and sound of modern noise and experimental music would be unfathomably different”. Who doesn’t want a piece of that? F IN MATH How can one person make so much noise? The answer to this question has something to do with what former Mint Chick Michael Logie’s feet are doing when he performs as F In Math. He doesn’t really sound like anyone else right now – but you can feel the same about-tounhinge excitement that Mint Chicks once created during his one-man electro-noise-pop explosions. Joining him is turntablist Alphabethead with a selection of Flying Nun vinyl to cut up, remix and rewrite.
GRAYSON GILMOUR From the murky Manawatu swamps, Grayson Gilmour was the first on the newfound Flying Nun releasing No Constellation last year. At times a “bedroom studio recluse” as well as member of So So Modern, Grayson’s repertoire already boasts five albums and soon a handful of film scores. Music that is smart, poppy and with a varied song writing craft that matches his dynamic live shows.
POPSTRANGERS Auckland trio Popstrangers are carrying the flag for noisy grunge rock at the moment. The band recently signed to Flying Nun after two short years in which they’ve played their way around the biggest local festivals and joined the likes of Peaches and Crocodiles on-stage. They have just returned from New York playing CMJ, and they haven’t even released a fulllength album yet.
T54 T54 have some five EPs to their name – including one called Drone Attacks, which may be a statement of intent. The Christchurch band, known for their prolific songwriting, can certainly muster an impressively large sound for a three-piece. Well, they do share their name with a tank.
BADD ENERGY Badd as in good, okay? Coco Solid et al have banded together to make something as eclectic as it is exciting. Since 2009, Badd Energy have been blowing people’s minds with their cross-genre 808-backed electro-psych-rock tunes. The video for their latest single features a laser gun battle with cat people from outer space. Enough said. SURF FRIENDS The sea, the sand, reverberating guitars, bass, synth keyboard and looped samples, Surf Friends have it all. An original and distinctly New Zealand take on the best post-punk inspirations and plenty of surf psychedlia to match. And in case you were wondering, yes, they do surf.
SHARPIE CROWS Sharpie Crows have been called “deranged, loud, and brilliant”, “the future”, and also “drunken shite”. Their live shows make true believers of youngsters desperate for a band they can believe in and old hands who thought they were disenchanted with music. Sharpie Crows take everything seriously, except themselves, and their favourite cut of meat is brisket. TRIBUTE NIGHTS Curated by A Low Hum, bands from around the country are getting together in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin to play a selection of their favourite Flying Nun-related tracks along with some originals. Featuring the likes of The Phoenix Foundation, She’s So Rad, Delaney Davidson, Idiot Prayer and many more! Look out for other shows in Hamilton, Melbourne, Brisbane and New York – check out flyingnun.co.nz for more details Written and compiled by Will Pollard, Charlotte Ryan, Jessica Prendergast and Matthew Davis.
ALL SHOWS R18. FOR MORE INFO VISIT WWW.THECHECKS.NET
After an amazing resurrection from near death, New Zealand’s venerable independent label Flying Nun Records celebrates its 30th anniversary next month in fine style. Text Gavin Bertram JUST TWO YEARS ago there was consternation over the future of what had been New Zealand’s most celebrated independent label. Flying Nun Records, founded in Christchurch in 1981 by Roger Shepherd, was in 2009 an insignificant and dusty corner of Warner Music. Much of its celebrated catalogue of classic New Zealand music was long out of print, while the people who’d created them became increasingly concerned about their legacies. But due to Shepherd somehow seizing the label back from Warner in December 2009, Flying Nun has
“It was fresh and new and nothing had been done like that in the country before.” – ROBERT SCOTT
Early Flying Nun singles
survived to see another day. “I can’t think of a more reliable master of the ship,” The 3D’s and Ghost Club guitarist David Mitchell said at the time. “Roger’s got a really good spirit about music still, and I think it’s a great debacle about to start all over again.” There were spirited events marking the label’s 10th, 15 th and 20th birthday anniversaries. To illustrate Warner’s indifference, the 25th wasn’t celebrated, and so Shepherd and co are going all out for Flying Nun’s 30th anniversary in November. Throughout the month there are shows across the country, with performances from acts associated with the label from the beginning through to their most recent signing. The Clean’s ‘Tally Ho’ single was the second release on Flying Nun in 1981, and the trio are playing four shows as part of the anniversary.
Other veterans of various vintages performing include The Bats, HDU, Ghost Club, Shayne Carter, The Subliminals and The Verlaines. While that’s all exciting, perhaps even more so are the New Nun Nights in Auckland and Wellington, which showcase the young talent Flying Nun has signed since Shepherd took the helm again. Badd Energy, Popstrangers, T54, Grayson Gilmour and Surf Friends are those acts, and they represent what should be a bright future for the label. “It’s just an absolute honour, it’s awesome,” Surf Friends’ Brad Coley says. “Those gigs are going to be the first time we’re going to be together and we get to do a little roadie from Auckland to Wellington, so it’ll be the first time we bond, I guess.” When Shepherd discussed his plans for Flying Nun after buying it back from Warner, he said along with signing new acts, an intensive reissue programme was the priority. This has certainly ensued; numerous out-of-print records are now back in circulation, with artists including Bailter Space, Straitjacket Fits, The 3D’s, The Verlaines and The Bats benefitting. Along with having their classic Couchmaster and Daddy’s Highway albums re-released by Flying Nun, The Bats’ new Free All the Monsters has just been released by the label. Robert Scott is a member of both The Clean and The Bats, and so he’s certainly facing a busy November, with eight shows between those two bands. He’s been around long enough to remember previous Flying Nun anniversary celebrations. “They’ve all been slightly different and equally good fun,” Scott says. “In 1991 a few bands got together and did ‘Roger Sings the Hits’; that was a fun evening. In 1996 they flew a few
DIALLING A PRAYER
journalists over so there was quite a big media contingent around it. I think The Clean had just got back from overseas in 2001. John Peel was at that one and I got to meet him so that was nice.” He also has memories of the legendary Roger’s Ruin, a special brew created by Mac’s Brewery for the 1996 celebrations. To keep up the tradition of one-off beers, this year Auckland’s Epic Brewing Company is making the 30 Year Ale. It’s a nice touch, showing that what was special about Flying Nun through the 1980s and ‘90s remains to some degree. Although Scott says it would be a stretch to say the label retains the naïve spirit it had during its early years. “It was fresh and new and nothing
had been done like that in the country before,” he reflects of the label’s genesis. “There was an explosion of activity and releases. And there wasn’t a lot to compete with it, whereas now there’s so much stuff online that things are kind of swamped. When something’s been going 30 years it’s hard to keep up that level of excitement.” However, with 30 th anniversary celebrations which include Shayne Carter’s Last Train to Brockville career overview, the always compelling Ghost Club, rare shows from HDU and The Clean, an unexpected reunion from The Subliminals, and the new band showcase, there’s still cause for a lot of excitement where Flying Nun Records is concerned.
“I said something about how I’d really like to start a label,” Flying Nun Records founder Roger Shepherd said of the label’s beginnings. “I put myself in the situation where I talked about it enough that I felt obliged to follow through.” The Christchurch-raised Shepherd certainly followed through, often in a manner that ran counter to prevailing attitudes in the music industry. The early Nun was built around a community of like-minded musicians and music lovers, and the success of The Clean’s early recordings Tally Ho! and the Boodle Boodle Boodle EP. These and other early releases on the label were distributed on foot in Auckland by the be-jandaled Chris Knox. From these charmingly humble beginnings Flying Nun became New Zealand’s pre-eminent independent label through the 1980s and into the ’90s. Along the way Shepherd signed a distribution deal with WEA, and later partnered with Australia’s Mushroom Records. While these deals allowed the label to grow and bands to have larger recording budgets and tour overseas, the results weren’t always favourable. “There became all these commercial pressures,” Straitjacket Fits’ Shayne Carter said.“It was kind of a clash of two cultures.” After moving to the UK in the mid-1990s, Shepherd finally left the label, which went into a slow decline, eventually becoming a forgotten part of the vast Warner Music empire. But now Flying Nun is back under Shepherd’s control, and looking like it’s again going to be a vital part of New Zealand’s cultural landscape.
HISTORY MADE...
ox
Kn mirror), Chris Doug Hood (in k. ac and the four-tr
DAVE HURLEY SOLD CHRIS KNOX A TEAC A-334O S FOURTRACK RECORDER FROM MANDRILL STUDIOS IN 1981 I STARTED MANDRILL Studios with Glynn Tucker, and we began with nothing. I went to Fiji in 1976 to buy gear because, due to import restrictions in those days, you couldn’t get gear in New Zealand. I knew this guy in Fiji called Ken Jansen who had a musical instrument shop and a nightclub. We phoned him up and told him we wanted a TEAC fourtrack recorder, a mixer plus a few bits and pieces. I went over with Maurice Greer from the Human Instinct, who’s
a good mate. He brought a whole lot of Fender gear and I brought those other bits and bobs we needed to start the studio. Those were the beginnings of Mandrill Studios, and it turned out they were also the beginnings of Flying Nun. We had lots of bands coming to us at Mandrill and did quite well, so we got a 16-track recorder. So what would we do with the four-track? Chris Knox said, ‘I’ll take that!’ We’d recorded Toy Love at Mandrill – he probably saw the fourtrack there or knew we were selling it. I can’t remember the exact details, but he ended up with it. I know every time I’d run into Chris he’d say, ‘I’ve still got that four-track and I’m still recording on it!’ I remember going around to his house when he got it and going over some things with him. It was pretty primitive what he was doing; the recorder was in the same room as the band, where ideally you’d have the recorder in a separate room. You could record one track, play it back and record subsequent tracks. You could do a nice stereo backing track over two tracks, then you’d have
two tracks left to do vocals on. It was revolutionary looking back on it now, and it had these big switches on the heads that you could switch over to playback so you could play and record at the same time. You had to have a lot of technical nous to get stuff out of that machine. You couldn’t just say, ‘Oh, let’s record something’ – it would take a lot of
“So what would we do with the four-track? Chris Knox said, ‘I’ll take that!’” head-scratching. It had to be live and it had to be good on the day. You couldn’t say, ‘I’ll fix that bass later on’ – the only thing you could muck around with later on was your vocals. It’s only recently that it’s become apparent to me that Chris recording on that four-track in his front room has become part of the sound of Flying Nun – I hadn’t given it much thought beforehand. That bloody machine created history!
The Dunedin Double EP and The Clean’s Boodle Boodle Bood le EP recorded on the four-track and Rip It Up adverts for Flying Nun
Wyld Bill Sticking from wayback
PROFILE PLUS wishes Flying Nun a happy 30th Birthday! Contact Bill Stickers on 09 373 2332 - 24 hours
AND In THE MAKING...
Popstrangers David Benge & Popstrangers
unes
Pikach
NEW ZEALAND @ CMJ 2011 SHOWCASE W/ POPSTRANGERS, STREET CHANT, PRINCESS CHELSEA, PIKACHUNES, THE GOLDEN AWESOME, ANDREW KEOGHAN AND CAIRO KNIFE FIGHT (LE) POISSON ROUGE, NEW YORK CITY TUESDAY 18 OCTOBER Review David Benge Photography Melanie Kamsler & Tom Neal
NOW IN ITS 31st year, New York’s annual CMJ festival is an opportunity for industry types and musicians from all over the globe to perform, peruse and participate in a week of musical frivolity. This year’s New Zealand showcase (generally regarded as one of the week’s highlights) was kicked off by Lil’ Chief Records’ Princess Chelsea, and her well-crafted pop songs had the room swaying along. Rapturous applause followed, and then Andrew Keoghan took the stage with Lawrence Arabia drummer Dan Ward for their first show of the CMJ conference. At times reminiscent of Scott Walker’s unique vocal styling,
Keoghan’s voice is stunning. Armed with a violin, a guitar and an array of pedals used to great effect, his songs build and swell, demanding the listener’s attention. Pikachunes received the best reception of the evening with one audience member noting, “I want to dance and hug him all at once!” His upbeat synth-driven dance music had hands in the air as he proclaimed, “Let’s bring the house down!” Wellington band The Golden Awesome was here to support the release of their debut album Autumn. The band gave a definite nod to
“a Bailterspace meets Skeptics tension all channelled through their own unique swagger.”
JPSE and stepped everything up a notch sonically. Wall of sound guitars and a rhythm section reminiscent of HDU, this four-piece gave it their all, flowing through their 20 minutes virtually uninterrupted. Flying Nun’s Popstrangers sounded like they were well versed in the label’s history. With a Bailterspace-meets-Skeptics tension channelled through their own unique swagger, the band put on an abrasive
Street C
hant
and accomplished performance. Street Chant were genuine crowdpleasers, bringing their ’90s slacker aesthetic to the stage. Why this band isn’t huge in the States is beyond me. Their undeniable hooks are as strong as anything by the current ’90s revivalist set, and it’s surely only a matter of time before the band is everywhere. The New Zealand @ CMJ showcase was closed out by Cairo Knife Fight, and these guys can really play. They managed to get three songs out of their 20 minutes and every single second was accounted for. It was brutal and hypnotic, and provided a blinding finish to a brilliant and varied representation of New Zealand music in New York.
AY D H N RT U BI G N PY IN AP FLY
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MAINZ Christchurch Open Night 7-9pm Wed 26 October Papanui Youth Development Trust - 1a Harewood Road Papanui PRIZES/LIVE BAND RECORDING SESSION/PRO TOOLS DEMONSTRATIONS Come and check out the facilities, talk to tutors about our great programmes, and be in with a chance to win prizes INCLUDING TICKETS TO THE MUSIC AWARDS
0800 265 526 www.mainz.ac.nz
MUSIC + AUDIO INSTITUTE OF NEW ZEALAND
Slow Boat Records wishes Flying Nun a very happy 30th birthday from one NZ music institution to another!
183 cuba street, wellington ph 04 385 1330 www.slowboatrecords.co.nz
30 EARS OF LISTENING. HAPPY NUN
LIVE AT THE the first UK punk act to tour the US. 35-years on and the rush of witnessing a Damned live show is still comparable to that first buzz of energy released at some long-forgotten sweat box of youth.
first show back in New Zealand since playing the inaugural Laneways festival in 2010. For the newcomers, imagine, the Beastie Boys playing Nuggets influenced rock and roll. Did you see them last time they were over If you did you’ll know that their live show involves three front men singing lead, flying blood, group kissing, sudden nudity and sometimes fireworks explosions. If you didn’t then time to pull your finger out of your ass and get wise.
BLACK JOE LEWIS & THE HONEYBEARS WITH SUPPORT FROM TYRA HAMMOND AND THE BLUE BIRDS
MONDAY 7 DECEMBER
“...They were probably booked off their live rep, and the astonishing spectacle of the slight Joe screaming curse words like a modern day Howlin’ Wolf was a sight to behold. With a swaying Honeybears horn section (Swaying!) and a tinny, but still brutal, double guitar attack, any modern-day pastiche fears were put to rest with the call-and-response on ‘It’s Alright’ getting louder as it went on. A raucous ‘Booty City’ followed, featuring the band screaming together into the one mic as Black Joe stretched his wail to breaking point – they were that good.”
THE DAMNED
WEDS 25 JANUARY 2012 English punk rock legends The Damned will perform in New Zealand, for the first time in 25 years when they play at the Powerstation on Wednesday 25th January (and coincidentally it’s at the same location they last performed, back in 1987, when the room was called The Galaxy). Creating punk rock history in 1976 alongside The Clash, Sex Pistols and Ramones, they were the first UK group to release a ‘punk rock’ single with the scorching ‘New Rose’, and
SISTERS OF MERCY
WEDS 22 FEBRUARY 2012 “Be advised that the Sisters are going on tour again. We will behave very badly. We will wear some very loud shirts. We will wear some very wrong trousers. We will perform some very legendary rock music. It’s what we do.” Take these words as a warning – 30 years after The Sisters of Mercy premiered their dense soundscapes in their spiritual home of Leeds, the band is finally coming to New Zealand. After postponing their near sold-out September show don’t miss the band make history when they play New Zealand for the very first time.
BLACK LIPS
TUES 28 FEBRUARY 2012 Atlanta flower-punk quartet the Black Lips bring their hell-raising antics and raw garagerock sound back to our shores on Tuesday 28th February. Infamous for their stage riots, being deported from India for ‘criminal acts’ on stage (witness on YouTube!) and other good time nogood-nik-ness across the globe it will be their
ROKY ERICKSON WEDS 7 MARCH 2012
The Godfather of Psychedelic Rock, Roky (prounced Rocky) Erickson will perform one New Zealand show at the Powerstation in March. A strong influence in New Zealand on the early Flying Nun sound, legendary rock n’ roll pioneer Roger Kynard “Roky” Erickson has been called one of the unknown heroes of rock and roll. As the frontman for the 13th Floor Elevators, he helped pioneer a unique brand of heavy, hard-rocking electric blues and Erickson and his band were the first rock n’ rollers to describe their music as “psychedelic”. The group had a profound impact on the San Francisco scene when they travelled there in 1966, and that impact is still being felt some 45-years later, with artists such as The White Stripes, Sonic Youth, Wooden Shjips, Dead Meadow, Television and even Robert Plant citing Erickson as an influence.
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The Dum Dum Girls Friday 6 January – Kings Arms, Auckland
THE DAMNED
The ’70s punk rock pioneers play their first New Zealand show in 25 years on Wednesday 25 January at The Powerstation.
The Sisters of Mercy
Andrew Eldritch and co rescheduled for Wednesday 22 February at The Powerstation.
BEAST WARS
Friday 28 October – The Royal, Palmerston North Saturday 29 October – Space Monster, Whanganui Friday 4 November – Biddy Mulligan’s, Hamilton Saturday 5 November – 4:20, Auckland Saturday 12 November – Bodega, Wellington
PORTISHEAD Thursday 10 November – Vector Arena, Auckland
The Black Lips Atlanta’s favourite garage rockers return for one Auckland show at The Powerstation on Tuesday 28 February.
ROKY ERICKSON
The Godfather of psychedelic rock and an influence on the early Flying Nun sound will play one New Zealand show at The Powerstation on Wednesday 7 March.
FRENZAL RHOMB
MULATU ASTATKE & THE BLACK JESUS EXPERIENCE Friday 25 November – The Powerstation, Auckland
KURT VILE AND THE VIOLATORS W/ ALASTAIR GALBRAITH
Thursday 1 December – Kings Arms, Auckland
Friday 28 October – Bodega, Wellington Saturday 29 October – Kings Arms, Auckland
BLACK JOE LEWIS AND THE HONEYBEARS
THE CHECKS
EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY
Friday 11 November – Zeal, Wellington Friday 11 November – Bodega, Wellington Saturday 12 November – The Royal, Palmerston North Thursday 17 November – Cabana, Napier Friday 18 November – Butlers Reef, New Plymouth Saturday 19 November – The Shed, Rotorua Friday 25 November – Flow Bar, Hamilton Saturday 26 November – The Powerstation, Auckland Thursday 1 December – PBC, Gisborne Friday 2 December – Illuminati, Tauranga Saturday 3 December – Onewhero Rugby Club, Onewhero Saturday 10 December – Yot Club, Raglan
Wednesday 7 December – The Powerstation, Auckland
Thursday 15 December – San Francisco Bath House, Wellington Friday 16 December – Kings Arms, Auckland
UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA Friday 16 December – San Francisco Bath House, Wellington Saturday 17 December – Kings Arms, Auckland
HORACE ANDY & SHAPESHIFTER
Thursday 29 December – Ascension Vineyard, Matakana Monday 2 January – Riwaka Hotel, Riwaka Friday 6 January – Brewers Field, Mt Maunganui Saturday 7 January – Waihi Beach Hotel, Waihi Beach
FAT FREDDY’S DROP’S ONE DROP Monday 2 January – Ascension Wine Estate, Matakana w/ TrinityRoots & Cornerstone Roots Saturday 7 January – Black Barn, Havelock North w/ The Nudge
DEERHOOF
Saturday 7 January – Whammy Bar, Auckland Sunday 8 January – Bodega, Wellington
TUNEYARDS
Thursday 12 January – Kings Arms, Auckland
BIG DAY OUT 2012 Soundgarden, Kanye West, Odd Future, Kasabian, Royksopp, Mariachi el Bronx, Battles, Beastwars, Best Coast, My Chemical Romance and more Friday 20 January – Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland
FLEET FOXES
Friday 13 January – Hunter Lounge, Wellington Saturday 14 January – Town Hall, Auckland
BEIRUT
Saturday 14 January – San Francisco Bath House, Wellington Monday 16 January – The Powerstation, Auckland
ST JEROME’S LANEWAY FESTIVAL
Anna Calvi, Feist, The Horrors, Gotye, Laura Marling, Pajama Club, SBTRKT Live, Shayne P. Carter, Washed Out, Twin Shadow, M83, Cults, Girls, EMA, Yuck, Toro Y Moi, Wu Lyf, Glasser, Opossom, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Austra, Transistors and more Monday 30 January – Silo Park, Wynyard Quarter, Auckland
NICK LOWE
March 31 – The Powerstation, Auckland
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