Lost for Words

Lost for Words features great kiwi instrumentals, songs sans vocals.

The big question is how do you define an instrumental. On the surface it seems quite simple, a piece of music that doesn't feature voice. But the whole electronic / dance music thang muddies the water. Sure it might not feature vocals but is the music made by Pitch Black or Concord Dawn what you think of as an instrumental. (Come to think of it some of that music doesn't even feature instruments, unless you're going to count a laptop.)

If we look back a bit it gets easier. Many early kiwi rock acts in the 1960s aped their overseas counterparts such as theBeatles, Stones etc and some also picked up on huge instrumental acts like The Shadows or the American surf guitar sound of Dick Dale, Link Wray and so on. In New Zealand the biggest instrumental act was Peter Posa, his most famous tune - White Rabbit. He drew on the surf guitar sound but wasn't quite so drenched in reverb and was a mighty fine picker. Peter Posa is the kiwi instrumental master. He is still around playing gospel and in fact he put out an album a couple of years back.

You all know the Ray Columbus and the Invaders hit 'She's A Mod'. What is less well known is that The Invaders recorded several instrumental B sides without Ray. A couple of these can be found on an the Very Best of Kiwi Instrumentals, an interesting budget price CD, you'll pick up Amplifier or The Warehouse.

Three decades later the debut single from Shayne Carter's post Straightjacket Fits band Dimmer was the classic, thrilling instrumental 'Crystalator', a song that exhibits both control and paint stripping ferocity. This is one of my favourite NZ singles of all time.

The podcast closes with HDU's 'Tunguska', first released as a single in 2006 after a lengthy hiatus and then included on last year's excellent Metamatics album. This song was recently described by Flying Nun founder Roger Shepherd as his summer anthem. Hardly an accurate description 'Tunguska' is, never-the-less, brilliant. It's a moody and brooding guitar soundscape that invokes the feeling of isolation and menace of Tunguska, the site of a devastating early 20th century meteorite strike in Siberia.

Download the Counting The Beat - Lost for Words podcast

NZ? Isn't That Part of Australia? - Covering The Beat International Special

I don't know about you but I can't help but feel a slight flush of excitement when our little country is acknowledged overseas. I was in the US when David Lange resigned as PM, and I was quite impressed that the story was the lead in the World News section of the San Francisco Chronicle. And I remember once when watching an episode of the original Star Trek that when Captain Kirk and the crew beamed down to a strange alien planet it was clear that the scene had been filmed in a New Zealand section of some botanic gardens. They were surrounded by flax, toi toi and cabbage trees. Then just recently I was watching an episode of the TV series Weeds and was completely distracted from the plot when I heard some kiwi dub playing on the soundtrack.

Many NZ musicians have tried to make it overseas, but the reality of competing in a global market from the bottom of the earth means the successes are few. So it's nice when the musical and songwriting talent of our musicians is recognised overseas. In a bit of depature from the norm this episode of Counting The Beat features overseas artists- but performing New Zealand songs.

Two New Zealand artists who have received considerable overseas recognition are Crowded House and OMC. Both have also been covered, albeit in very different ways. OMC's worldwide hit, 'How Bizzare' has been given a lo-fi indie treatment (with ukelele!) by Montreal band, The Diskettes. And while there are many covers of Neil Finn and Crowded House tunes, one that stands out has to be Donny Osmond's cover of 'Don't Dream It's Over' - unfortunately it stands out for being bland, saccahrine and utterly beyond redemption. (See the video for the originals on the video page)

Marshall Crenshaw is a musician from Detroit, Michigan. He got his break playing John Lennon in the stage show Beatlemania, and he also played Buddy Holly in the film, La Bamba. His sound has been described as, clear, clean-lined, guitar-centered pop-rock with roots in classic soul music, British invasion songcraft and Burt Bacharach." So it was somewhat of a surprise when he covered a song by lo-fi Flying Nun band, Tall Dwarfs. The song appears on Crenshaw's 1991 album Life's Too Short.

Also from Detroit are The Dirtbombs, although rather than clear and clean-lined, they're distinctly rough, ready and dirty, fusing punk and soul with an unusual line-up of two drummers, two bassists and one guitar. Although they've released four albums they were originally conceived as a singles band and they still release a number of limited edition 7" records. These are often released in conjunction with tours, covering bands from the region being visited. The Dirtbombs recently toured New Zealand and recorded two covers of Ray Columbus and The Invaders, 'Kick Me' and 'The Crunch'. The single is yet to be released.

The Lemonheads 1988 album Lick contained a couple of covers - well known songs like Suzanne Vega's 'Luka' and less well-known songs, that is outside of NZ punk rock circles, like Proud Scum's 'I Am A Rabbit', a song from the classic punk compilation AK79. If anything, The Lemonheads version is more raucous than Proud Scum's, showing the influence of American hardcore in the intervening years. (On the video page is an interview with Proud Scum recorded when they reformed for last years AK79 show)

What I'm looking forward to now is to see if any overseas musicians have a go at reinterpreting Scribe's massive US hit, 'Swing'. If they do I'll be sure to be it playing here on Counting The Beat.

Download the Counting The Beat - International Covers podcast

Previous cover specials:
Covering The Beat - Chills special (mp3)
Covering The Beat 2 (blog post and podcast)
Covering The Beat 3 (blog post and podcast)
Covering The Beat 4 (blog post and podcast)