Recent Vinyl Video #36

Recent Vinyl #2

Roger Shepherd from Flying Nun

A little while ago I got the chance to have a chat with Roger Shepherd, founder and owner of New Zealand's iconic Flying Nun record label. Having formed the label in 1982 Shepherd was at the helm until he sold it 1999. In the new century Flying Nun lost it's spirit and direction as it shifted through a range of corporate owners but in late 2009 Shepherd bought back the label and has embarked on a mission to not only release a wealth of long lost gems from the vaults but also to sign and release new material.

The first releases on Flying Nun since Shepherd took over again, Grayson Gilmour's No Constellation and Die! Die! Die!'s Form. The third release, just out is a new solo album from Robert Scott of the The Bats and The Clean, Ends Run Together.

I also spoke with Shepherd about his plans for re-releasing Flying Nun's back catalogue. While even well known acts like The Bats have classic material that is unreleased there is a wealth EPs from lesser-known acts. While some of this material, like the two 1983 EPs by Marie and The Atom, has a fairly niche audience it would be good to have it available in some form.

There are also a number of Dunedin bands who released material that was significant in the development of New Zealand music throughout the eighties and beyond which at present can't be heard.

After I turned off the recorder Roger and I kept on chatting and we discussed the possibility of previously unreleased material emerging. In a Counting The Beat exclusive this podcast includes a song from the 3Ds David Mitchell, recorded in the lead up to their Fying Nun EP Swarthy Songs for Swabs - a portastudio recording called Some Thing.

There are videos from Robert Scott, Die! Die! Die! and Grayson Gilmour on the video page.

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New Releases June 2010

A round up of new and recent releases.

BARB is a supergroup of sorts made up of Liam Finn, Lawrence Arabia, Connan Mockasin, Eliza-Jane and Seamus Ebbs. Liam Finn has said "It seemed only natural. We have been involved in each others music for so long... getting up to play at each others shows... touring together when possible, we knew starting a band together would be fun... but we had no idea what it would sound like." What it sounds like, at least on their first released track 'Leo', is an amalgam of the respective members strengths with each member's contribution standing out, without becaming a 'We Are the World' type turn taking affair. Liam Finn's drumming is outstanding. You would expect this group to deliver a multi-layered catchy pop song and they do. I've posted a live version of the song from Liam Finn and Connon Mockasin on the video page.

Folk/Pop duo The Gladeyes (Jade Farley and Gwen Norcliffe) have just released a new song 'The Light' that wouldn't be out of place on their album Psychosis of Love, released late 2009. It's a melancholic guitar pop tune based around the refrain "There's a light shining on you tonight" and lifted above the ordinary by the backing harmonies and a touch of strings.

There's very little to tell about Cat and Sock, an experimental duo buried away in a Wellington studio producing music built with layers of electronica, pop-culture samples and field recordings. The duo's approach is well showcased on 'Winter of 1979', the stand-out track from their self-titled 4 track EP. The track has electronic textures building through the first half of the track overlaid by spoken word half-heard conversation which becomes clear as the textures give way to guitar and the sound of gentle surf. The EP has been released by, and can be bought from, Powertool Records.

Also with an EP out on Powertool are Surf Friends, another duo but this time based around a more traditional vocals, guitar, bass, keys and drums set-up, but given there's only two of them Surf Friends drumming duties are handled by a machine. I'm not 100% convinced about drum machines but I do like their guitar and keyboard sound which move between chugging Flying Nun and shimmering post-punk. As well as the self-titled EP Surf Friends have just released a new single 'Your On my Mind'.

Although Tim Guy has previously worked with Bic Runga, Anika Moa and Anna Coddington I hadn't really paid him much attention. His acoustic pop songs were pleasant and accomplished but didn't strike me as essential. However, Guy has just released his third album Big World and I'm really impressed. His songs are given extra depth with sympathetic use of wurlistzer and keys supplementing the guitar, bass drums line up while my current favourite 'You Bring The Gold' slides along with a slow groove, aided by the drumming of Julien Dyne (who has himself recently released an excellent album) of the Opensouls.

Die! Die! Die! have been around since 2003 and they've been getting better and better as their noisy punky songs develop more groove and swing. Their third album, apparently to be titled Form, will be released mid 2010, the second album album to come out on Flying Nun under Roger Shepherd's renewed stewardship. The first song from it is 'We Built Our Own Oppressors'. The video is posted on the video page.

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Auckland

City of Sails, the Queen City, the Big Smoke, latte supping drain on the nation, call it what you will but everyone in the country has some kind of opinion on Auckland. And some of our musicians have expressed this in song, ranging from odes to the city's suburbs to ferocious attacks on the city's decay with the odd bit of strangeness in between. Here's a very localised version of one of my favourite Counting the Beat topics - a Place Name Special.

Matthew Bannister is, of course, best known for his time in Sneaky Feelings, the Beatles influences odd one out of the early Flying Nun scene ( I highly recommend his book on this period, Positively George Street ). He went on to form Dribbling Darts of Love, he's dabbled with a solo career and now he's released an album with his band The Weather. His songs have always had a melancholic touch and this album continues in that vein. It's full of songs about suburban life including odes to the area that was his home during much of the writing of the album, 'Aroha Ave' in the suburb of 'Sandringham'.

Ska/punk band The Poisoners tackle a couple of big Auckland issues on their debut self-titled album, including the gentrification of 'Grey Lynn' and hold-ups of suburban shopping centres in 'Pt Chev Shops'. Their album is available through Amplifier.

Ponsonby wasn't always the well-heeled, wealthy area that it is now. In days gone by the gentrified villas of today were rental accomodation for low income earners, students and musicians. Years before they went to Australia and hit the big time with songs like 'April Sun in Cuba' and 'Rain' Dragon lived together in a Ponsonby house and they wrote about their time there in 'Rock'n'Roll Ponsonby'.

Just about every suburb of Auckland is name-checked in 'Auckland' a great satirical look at the city by The Moth, the name adopted by Tim Mahon for his 2003 album Music From A Lightbulb. Tim was once the bass-player in Blam Blam Blam. He has also played in The Plague, The Whizz Kids and Avant Garage. For the album Tim pulled in a bunch of musical colleagues form all of his past outfits to create something that didn't sound any the bands he had been in before. Music From A Lightbulb is a bit of an oddball album - it's big bold and satirical, a little bit left of centre, (a bit) jazzy and avant garde - it will probably appeal to fans of Six Volts and The Labcoats.

The Moth poke fun at Auckland, but others just plain don't like the place. Honourable mention needs to go to Alpha Plan who put a picture of the SkyTower on their 1997 album City of Bastards. But first to express distaste were The Androidss whose ' Auckland Tonight' has he chorus "I don't wanna be in Auckland tonight". The song can be found on the compilation Bigger Than Both Of Us and the video is a must-see, a night-time journey around central Auckland in 1981. You can see it on the video page.

Die! Die! Die! made the move from Dunedin to Auckland, but maybe they didn't like what they found when they got there. 'Auckland is Burning' is from the bands 2005 self titled E.P. and it's a fitting and ferocious way to close. There is a free download of a march 2008 concert from the band at Have You Heard, which includes another Auckland song, 'Britomart Sunset'.


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Covering The Beat 4

This episode is another instalment in an occasional Counting The Beat series, Covering The Beat, where I feature kiwi bands covering kiwi bands. You may be interested in checking out the previous Covering The Beat episodes - one (MP3), two and three.

I've got an eclectic bunch of originals and covering acts in this episode starting off with a rap novelty from 1989, Mod Rap - Double J and Twice the T covering Ray Columbus and The Invaders huge hit, 'She's a Mod' (read the story of the original song on NZhistory.net and see a promo clip for it on the video page). In 1989 Double J and Twice the T won most promising group at the NZ music awards. They were up against Upper Hutt Posse, another hip hop outfit who actually did go on to have a lasting legacy. There's great article about that on the Critic archives.

Die! Die! Die! claim to be influenced by The Gordons, Skeptics and The Dead C. They're also equally influenced by American outfits like Big Black and Shellac. It's probably easiest to call them punk. So what are The Gladeyes, an Auckland indie pop-folk duo doing covering them? Who knows, but their version of 'Shyness Will get You Nowhere' has rightfully been receiving wide acclaim. (By the way The Gladeyes shouldn't be confused with The Gladeyes, an altogether different band from Dunedin.)

I've featured punk-pop band Elemeno P's cover of The Verlaines' classic "Death and the Maiden' in an earlier Covering The Beat epiosde but I'm repeating it here because I recently had the chance to talk to Dave Gibson from Elemeno P about how that cover came about. That interview is included in the podcast - Gibson describes the song as one he is jealous he didn't write. The video for the original is one the video page.

Shihad were once managed by Gerald Dwyer, who had been frontman of notorious punk band Flesh D-Vice. After Gerald passed away Shihad released a cover of Flesh D-Vice's best known songs, 'Flaming Soul'. Cover lovers will also want to track down this single for Shihad's version of the Devo song 'Gates of Steel'. Incidentally there's a great little story about Dwyer and Shihad that I stumbled upon on From The Morgue.

And to finish - a band that you probably wouldn't expect anyone to cover is post-punk avant-garde noise merchants, The Dead C. However, although the bands performances and releases are now mainly improvisational, in earlier days the band were a little more song based, although it is still a brave band that would attempt a cover. That band is Xanadu. Their version of 'Sky' appeared on a CD issued with A Low Hum magazine a couple of years back. The original is from what I consider to be one of the greatest named albums of all time, Trapdoor Fucking Exit and you just have to watch the Dead C clip on the video page where they perform live on national TV in a style completely at odds with the show on which they were guests - simply stunning.

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