Recent Vinyl video #35
Showing posts with label The Clean. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Clean. Show all posts
Waiheke Library DJ Set
To mark New Zealand Music Month Waiheke Library hosted a series of music performances each Saturday during May. On Sat 5 May I DJed a set of rare and interesting kiwi vinyl showcasing some of the more unusual items in my collection alongside new and classic NZ records.
Waiheke Library DJ Set
Download the Counting The Beat - Waiheke Library DJ Set
New and Recent Releases July 09
Sora Shima's third E.P. Destroy Electronica balances power, noise and beauty in five (sometimes lengthy) instrumentals. On E.P. opener 'Here be Dragons' the Hamilton drum, bass and guitar four piece create a moody, evocative soundscape, that shimmers and builds into thundering waves of sound. 'Calor Human' is more contemplative with a cello adding a warm touch, while 'Hello Big Sky' adds beats to the droning guitars. Sora Shima inhabit a position on the musical landscape close to Napier band Jakob, Dunedin's HDU, and defunct Christchurch band Barnard's Star. I wish I'd discovered this band earlier. At the Sora Shima website you'll find links to free downloads of two earlier E.P.s and info on how to get hold of Destroy Electronica. I've also posted a couple of Sora Shima clips on the video page - check out the video for 'Hovercraft' - it's really good.
Over the 30 odd year career of The Clean they've only released a handful of studio albums, but their reputation means each is eargerly awaited by fans around the world. They have taken their influences, punk, psychedelic pop, and more recently folk and eastern drones, and melded their own unique and instantly recognisible sound. The Clean are one of only a few kiwi musical acts who can be said to have had a global influence, cited as such by the likes of Pavement and Yo La Tengo. They've recently signed with American label Merge Records who will release Mister Pop in September, the band's first studio album, since 2001. The song 'In the Dreamlife You Need a Rubber Soul' is available from the Merge website as a free download. For more more info on the early days of the band check out Part 1 of National Radio's Flying Nun doco. There's a recent live clip on the video page.
The New Telepathics are led by Darren Harkness, born in Gore, and now living in Germany. Darren has a broad musical background, having played in rock group Dead Flowers, experimentalists From Scratch and indie group Spacesuit. The New Telepathics album Rudiments and Theories of Silence is a diverse collection of rich and complex songs ranging across, and melding, those various musical threads along with jazz and light touches of Afrobeat. Sometimes including up to ten members, The New Telepathics are an amazing live group. I've put a video of the group performing in studio on the video page and there are more songs at the Red Bull Studio site. There is a National Radio interview with Darren Harkness here (stream).
Download the Counting The Beat - New Releases July 09 podcast
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New Releases Aug 08
This episode of Counting The Beat is a catch up on some recent releases - from dance punk to country folk and a live release from some old favourites.
NZ seems to be undergoing a dance-punk revolution at the moment. The latest salvo comes from Wellington band Thought Creature who have a real knack with a bass-line, topped with post-punk surf guitar and vocals that are more yelped than sung. The band have been around for a while, releasing a self-titled four track EP in 2005 (available through Powertool records) but they've now released an album, Teleport Palace, that, along with a great live show are gaining them more of the attention they deserve.
Another band that deserve more attention are The Ribbon. They use guitar and sysnthesizers to create songs that build from minimalism to the dance floor. They have two songs available for download on their myspace page that are really growing on me. What I recommend is that you listen to the music of The Ribbon as the soundtrack for the online artwork of one half of the duo, Luke Munn.
Flip Grater has just released her second album, The Be All and End All. Flip's debut album Cage For A Song showed both the quiet and aggresive sides of her songwriting, ranging from quiet country to P.J.Harvey like rockers. While she is talented at both it resulted in an album that seemed disjointed. This release is far more cohesive, both in flow and in the way Flip has resolved the different elements of her songwriting. Her voice and acoustic guitar still lend the music a country / folk feel with a couple of numbers getting more edge, although more in a brooding than rocking way. She also avoids solo girl-with-a-guitar cliches with a subtle yet strong full band backing her symapathetically on many of the tracks. You'll find the video for the first single from this album on the video page.
One of the most striking releases of the year to date is Tells You To Fight, the debut album from Renee-Louise Carafice. The album's an autobiographical song cycle detailing her hospitalisation for mental illness, so obviously this isn't an album of cheery pop hits. In fact, Carafice is incredibly open and it can sometimes feel voyeuristic listening in on her account in songs like 'The Girl Saint Sufferer' or 'Song For A Cruel German Psychiatrist Woman'. After winning a $25,000 Big Break cash prize Carafice spent time living in Chicago and worked on this album there. The album was recorded at Steve Albini’s legendary analog recording studio “Electrical Audio” in Chicago, USA. It was engineered by Nick Abbott (engineer of Crowded House, Goldenhorse, Pluto), produced by Ben King (Goldenhorse) and mastered at Skye Mastering in Scotland (Talk Talk, Madness). The result is stunning in every way, from Carafice's love-it-or-hate-it vocal delivery, the album art-work and the songs. You can purchase the album direct from Monkey Records. There are videos of one of her songs and an interview on the video page.
Finally, New Zealand music icons The Clean have just released a live album, Mashed, recorded on their 2007 NZ tour. As you would expect, it's excellent. Despite being around for 27 odd years The Clean still put on a great live show. To hear what they were like back in the day check out this live recording from 1981.Download the Counting The Beat -New Releases Aug 08 podcast
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.Download the Counting The Beat - Covering The Beat 3 podcast
Previous Covering The Beat posts and podcasts here
Covering the Beat 2
If you spend a bit of time wandering around the internet reading music blogs (and since you're reading this, I presume you do) you'll find that there are a number of bloggers obsessed with covers. I'm pretty fond of them myself so a while back I decided that I would run an occassional series called Covering The Beat - NZ bands covering NZ bands. The first Covering The Beat featured three bands covering The Chills and is still available to download. This episode casts a wider net although Flying Nun originals still feature.
In 1997 Flying Nun released a tribute album entitled God Save The Clean featuring a diverse range of local and overseas acts covering songs by The Clean. There are a number of stand out tracks but one that received quite a bit of airplay at the time was Head Like A Hole's version of 'Beatnik'.
Also covering a Flying Nun classic are pop-punk outfit Elemeno-P. On their 2005 album Trouble in Paradise they unexpectedly included a pumped up version of The Verlaines' 'Death and The Maiden'. (original classic "rabbit" video on video page)
Now for something completely different. In 2007 Michel Rowland put together a real labour of love. She's Lost is an internet only compilation of dark-alt/industrial/electro/experimental acts covering favourite NZ songs. The whole album is worth a listen but there really is something special about industrial cyberpunk outfit N.U.T.E's take on John Rowles' song about his sister 'Cheryl Moana Marie'. (see John sing it on the video page)
To finish up, from the classic AK79 punk compilation I have The Terrorways' (pictured above) version of 'She's A Mod', originally by Ray Columbus and The Invaders.
Keep posted for more Covering the Beat specials in the future including a very special special, probably in two or three months time.Download the Counting The Beat - Covering The Beat 2 podcastDownload the Counting The Beat - Covering The Beat: Chills Covers podcast
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