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Episode 100

Welcome to the centennial episode of Counting the Beat. For 100 podcasts, over around 2 and a half years, I've been bringing you NZ music rarities, obscurities and new releases. Counting The Beat started out as a New Zealand music radio show on a station called The Beach on Waiheke Island. But when The Beach folded I shifted from an on-air format to a podcast. When we started a new station, Waiheke Radio, I kept the podcast going although it is broadcast on Waiheke Radio and a few other stations beside.

To mark the 100th episode I thought I'd take a look back at some of my favourite features and tracks from the Counting The Beat back catalogue.

I've made six cover specials - four featuring NZ bands covering other kiwi acts and two of international artists covering New Zealand songs. In the Covering The Beat International Special one of the tracks I included was The Diskettes covering Pauly Fuemana's 'How Bizzare'. Another favourite cover is from Covering The Beat 3, here's Cut Off Your Hands covering Split Enz's 'Shark Attack'.

If you take a look down the sidebar of my site you'll find tags that let you find episodes featuring particular artists. There are a couple who feature more than others - I think Chris Knox is up there but there are also a couple more obscure acts who have turned up again and again. One of them is Bear Cat - here they are with 'Red Panda Blues'.

One of the things I like to do on Counting The Beat is take a theme or subject and look at how that's been approached by different New Zealand artists over the years. In True Crime Stories (mp3) I featured songs about real life crimes and criminals including a number by The Howard Morrison Quartet about escaped convict George Wilder. Over the time I've been making Counting the Beat I've become quite a fan of The Howard Morrison Quartet, as well as true Crime Stories they've been included in episodes on Rugby and The Honours System.

Another thing I've tried to do on Counting The Beat is give people a chance to hear music that is out of print. A neighbour let me borrow a pile of records to have a look through to see if there was anything I was interested in laying. In the middle of the pile was a record I had heard rumours of but never had really confirmed even existed. It was the second album by The Gordons, titled Volume 2 - It featured in the episode Rare as Hen's Teeth in Jan 2008.

One of my favourite theme shows was one titled Like An Illuminated Ping Pong Ball That's the Only Way I can Describe It, the show collected together NZ songs about UFOs along with excerpts of a TV news report on UFO sightings over the Kaikoura Ranges.

I have a thing about songs that are about, inspired by or named after New Zealand place names. In fact the very first Counting The Beat (mp3) was a place name special. One song included in that episode was 'Sandringham' written by Matthew Bannister, formerly of Sneaky Feelings and performed by his band The Weather. I first heard this song when that band played a free city council funded show on Waiheke Island and when I was putting together my 1st place name special I tracked down Bannister and asked him if he could supply me a copy of the then unreleased song. The songs out now on an album it that itself is named after a location, Aroha Ave. Also in that special is a song by NZ folk pioneer Peter Cape, the man who wrote the iconic 'Taumaranui on the Main Trunk Line'. it took me a while to get my tongue around it but the song is 'Taumatawhakatangihangakouauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu' (and that's an abbreviation of the actual place name).


Sometimes there's some real detective work involved in putting together an episode of Counting the Beat. For a long time I wanted to a make special on music featuring the input of iconic NZ poet Sam Hunt. But there was one thing missing. In the seventies Hunt had collaborated and released an album with a kiwi folk rock band called Mammal. I has seen it listed on Ebay auctions for US$500 but couldn't find a copy I could hear anywhere. After months and months I managed to track down one of the members of Mamma, Tony Backhouse, who was still making music. I made contact asking if he had a copy, which he did, one a friend had copied because he didn't have one himself, but he was in Australia and the recording was in a garage in NZ. Eventually after a few more emails I had a recording and the Sam Hunt special could finally be made.

The Free Music Archive is a project started by American free-form radio station WFMU. The Archive is an on-line repository of creative commons licensed music free to stream and download. Since it started early in 2009 I've been monitoring the the music added to the Archive trying to identify and tag all the NZ music. There are a bunch of kiwi artists there such as The Veils, Bang Bang Eche, Dub Terminator, Bruce Russell and Surf City. You can also find full live sets from The Mint Chicks and The Bats.

To close my retrospective of 100 CTBs I've got something from one of the highlights of producing the show which has been going to the Silver Scroll Awards - a competition organised by RIANZ, the songwriters organisation to recognise excellence in songwriting. The tradition at the awards ceremony is to have the nominated finalist songs performed by other kiwi artists. I've been luck enough to be able to get along twice to interview the finalists and record the show You can hear Counting The Beat Silver Scroll specials from 2007 and 2008 (in 2009 it was held in Ch Ch). In recent years the show has also closed with a grand finale. In 2008 the closing act was The Chills on stage at the Auckland Town Hall with pipe organ, choir and bells performing 'Heavenly Pop Hit'. You can see a video of the performance on the video page.

Thanks for listening and following the blog everyone. I might not be the most regular but I've still got a few more in me yet.

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In the Belfry

They've been around since 1982, releasing their first recordings in 1984. They've been in the American college radio charts over three decades and they're still going strong - releasing a new album and retrospective EP and playing around the world this year. The Bats haven't been consistently active over their 27 year career, often due to the many musical commitments of band member Robert Scott, however, they have been consistently excellent. The melodic pop and chugging bass lines of the The Bats have become iconic, internationally known as one the key alternative New Zealand bands along with the likes of The Chills and The Clean.

This year The Bats released album The Guilty Office, retaining all of their key elements of their sound but expanding it a little with more vocals from Kaye Woodward and a touch of strings. They've also released an EP, Don't You Rise, collecting unreleased songs from 1998-2003.

While releases by The Bats have been fairly sporadic over the years there's also been solo material by Robert Scott, Scott's ongoing work with The Clean and from the other three members, side project Minisnap, who have been releasing material in a similar vein to The Bats, but with Kaye Woodward on vocals since 2002. Minisnap released EPs in 2002 and 2004, followed by their debut album Bounce Around in 2008 and later in that year a 7"single, 'Whistler' on Cloudberry records. The Clean have also released a new album, Mister Pop, this year and Robert Scott has been consistently releasing solo material since instrumental solo debut the Creeping Unknown in 2001, taking in pop and historical folk songs from Otago along the way.

This year The Bats have been touring the world, from Spain to the US and, of course, New Zealand. They'll play Dunedin later this year at a show which will be filmed for fans around the world who would love to be there but can't make it. The video of two songs from each of the three acts on the bill, The Bats, David Kilgour and The Puddle will be released to virtual ticket holders around the world following the show, and as an extra those who but tickets get a bundle of mp3s of unreleased songs before the show too. You can get your tickets at Undertheradar.

The entire set of The Bats playing is Spain is available for free download at the Free Music Archive and videos from The Bats, Robert Scott and Minisnap are available on the video page.

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Free Music Archive

The Free Music Archive (FMA) is a fantastic project initiated by one my favourite radio stations in the world, WFMU, a freeform non-commercial station from New York. The Free Music Archive is a curated on-line collection of music that is free and legal to listen to and download. The music in the collection reflects the wide-ranging and left-field approach of WFMU and the other stations that are contributing. Being a US initiative there's not a lot of New Zealand music on there, but there is a bit. I've been following the FMA since it was started trying to keep track of any kiwi contributions. If you know of any I've missed I'd love to hear from you.

Many of the recordings on the FMA are live-to-air performances. The Veils played a four track set live on Seattle radio station KEXP in July of this year. One of these songs 'The House She Lived In' has been submitted to the FMA but you can also hear sets from The Veils recorded live at KEXP in 2004 and 2007 on the KEXP site.

KEXP also submitted a track to the FMA from Christchurch dance-punkers Bang Bang Eche who performed a set for the station at 2008's CMJ music expo. You can hear that whole set here (mp3).

Another freeform radio station KDVS in Davis, California has a great feature called Phoning It In. The idea is they get hold of a musician on the phone who then plays a live set down the line. Some of these sets have been contributed to the FMA but of particular interest to NZ music fans is a 2005 performance from David Kilgour where he plays solo and Clean material across the phone line from Dunedin to California. Hear the entire set here on the FMA.

FMA originators WFMU often broadcast alternative music festivals like All Tomorrow's Parties and Primavera, in Spain. The Bats performed at the latter in 2009 and their set was one that WFMU broadcast. The entire set is available on the FMA.

One of the great things about WFMU and the FMA is that they provide exposure to very experimental music and artists. One New Zealand experimental musician who has made it to the FMA is Stefan Neville, who performs as Pumice. Pumice is featured in a duet with US experimental artist Mudboy, who played a live to air at WFMU on the same show as Pumice. You can stream the entire Pumice performance on the WFMU archives.

Bruce Russell of the Dead C is another experimental kiwi musician featured on the FMA. His contribution is a recorded rather than live work. His album 21st Century Field Hollers and Prison Songs is an audio collage made entirely from samples taken from the Midnight Crossroads Tape Recorder Blues, an earlier album he recorded with Ralf Wehowsky. russell describes the album as "a tribute to the spirit of the blues, viewed through a prism of 21st century cultural criticism".

Please use he comments to let me know of any other NZ acts who appear on the FMA. In the mean-time I'll keep trawling this amazing resource and I'll hopefully bring you another kiwi update soon.

UPDATE: A day after I posted this a live set from The Mint Chicks was added to the Free Music Archive.

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Covering The Beat 3

This is the third in an occasional series that focuses on kiwi musicians covering kiwi songs (Links to downloads of the previous two are posted below).

Kicking things off is a version of The Clean's 'Fish' from the 1997 Flying Nun Clean tribute entitled God Save the Clean. Perhaps one of the least expected artists to appear on the album was Gray Bartlett, a country musician who was often on TV in the 70s and has since moved onto tour promotion and a 12 year foray into right wing local body politics. Now he's back on the road and back into the political sphere too. Bartlett recently launched an ill-informed attack on a variety of music funding initiatives which has certainly got people talking. The new Freeview TV show Media 7 ran a debate between Bartlett, NZ On Air chief Brendan Smythe and the Real Groove editor, Duncan Grieve, which is well worth watching. You can also hear Gray Bartlett perform live on National Radio here (stream).

I'm not sure if it was ever released anywhere else but on the Yellow Eye Records 3CD Dunedin music retrospective But I Can Write Songs Okay you will find a version of Look Blue Go Purple's 'I Don't Want You Anyway' performed by The Bats. The compilation itself is great, spanning 40
years of music from Dunedin. I'm not sure if it's still in print but it's worth picking up second hand or try your library.

From She's Lost, an internet only compilation of dark-alt/industrial/electro/experimental acts covering favourite NZ songs, comes The Fanatics with an electro version of The Gordons' post-punk guitar classic 'Adults and Children'.

Cut Off Your Hands have been playing Split Enz's 'Shark Attack' live for a while now but they have just leaked a studio recording of the song as a teaser for their forthcoming album. The track can be downloaded here. In 2006, under their former name, Shaky Hands, the band performed the song live on TV. The clip can be found on the video page.

Finally in this covers round up is a raucous take on the La De Da's' 1966 hit 'How Is the Air Up There?' from the Hasslehoff Experiment, a late nineties outfit about three years too early for the international boom in drums and guitar blues rock duos (pictured right). They were a phenomenal live act and the good news is that there are rumours floating around of a reunion.

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Previous Covering The Beat posts and podcasts here