The Hasselhoff Experiment Adelaide Tavern, Wellingon May 17, 2008

The long awaited reunion of New Zealand garage rock duo who Counting The Beat blog describes as a late nineties outfit about three years too early for the international boom in drums and guitar blues rock duos. These guys are hyped as possibly the noisiest two piece in the world and I'd have to agree with both those assessments of this band.

I purposely arrived late hoping to miss at least one of the two support bands but unfortunately luck wasn't with me on that count. I arrived before Auckland band Golden Axe had started. Golden Axe are experimental synth band trio with a drummer. I don't know who they sound like because I walked out on them because their music just didn't appeal to me at all. I tried listening to their myspace songs and like the Butthole Surfers and many other weird for weird sake bands I just don't get it. I came back and the band was still playing and had more of a rock sound going on.

Here's a crappy picture (it reflects my opinion in more ways than one) of them



Next up were Voodoo Savage and His Savages who are a three piece band with a singing drummer. They play beer soaked garage rock and therefore had more appeal (for me personally) than the first band plus they get bonus points for playing a Billy Childish song. Although their between song breaks were often longer than needed. I admire any drummer who also does vocals and no, Phil Collins isn't the exception to the rule. Below are a couple of photos of Voodoo Savage and His Savages.





Finally the Hasselhoff Experiment took the stage. I'd never seen them live before although I'd seen live clips on TV and just been blown away that a two piece band could be that good. Here's a couple of Youtube clips taken from the recent Wellington show that prove my point. I was bumped while filming the first one but it is still a good capture of the band.

Down By Law - Punkrockacademyfightsong

Down By Law were a band I discovered through a Punk-o-rama CD that came free with some surfing/skating magazine. When I first heard them I had no idea that the singer was Dave Smalley from Dag Nasty and was at one time fronting ALL.
At the time I was familiar with his work on Can I Say.

It came as a shock to me to recently learn that Epitaph records put all the Down By Law albums on their label out of print. However Dag Nasty albums are still in print. This may or may not be because Epitaph is owned by a Bad Religion member and another Bad Religion member is the Dag Nasty guitarist.

This album is the first album to feature Florida native, Sam Williams on guitar. Sam has been a stable band member ever since. On a more personal sidenote, Sam has recently became a father to twin daughters.

Many consider this Down By Law's best album. I haven't heard them all but I like the music on this album more than a lot of melodic punk that's around today. Haircut is somewhat dated lyrically with its Pearl Jam clones and grunge movement references. There is also a punked up cover of The Proclaimers song 500 miles. Edit: Found this youtube video clip of their song Hit or miss which is featured on this album: Check it out.

Songlist:

01. Punk Won

02. Hit Or Miss

03. Flower Tattoo

04. Sympathy For The World

05. 500 Miles

06. Brief Tommy

07. Bright Green Globe

08. Minusame

09. Drummin' Dave, Hunter Up

10. Punk As Fuck

11. 1944

12. The King & I

13. Haircut

14. Chocolate Jerk

15. Sam I

16. Heroes & Hooligans

17. Soldier Boy

18. Goodnight Song


Get it.

Coffin Break - Thirteen

Coffin Break were a Seattle band who were signed to c/z records before signing to Epitaph. The band seemed to straddle the line between Seattle's grunge movement and Epitaph's pop-punk (think early 90s pop punk). Here some of the songs would comfortably fit on a number of grunge albums that were released in the early nineties. These are mostly the songs written by Peter Litwin however the other songwriter(Rob Skinner)'s songs sound similar to Cruz record band Big Drill Car. So it does sound like this is more than just one band. On a side note, I used to think Cruz records and c/z records were the same label and that all bands had the melodic punk sound. Various sites on the web suggest this band stayed true to their punk and hardcore roots but looking at the Epitaph records wikipedia and listening to some of this album suggests signing this band may have been their attempt at breaking into the grunge movement of the early nineties while keeping one foot in the pop punk camp that the label would later become renowned for. There is a cover of Black Sabbath's Hole in the Sky which fits in well with the grunge songs. Confused? Get it!

Against Me, Bodega, Wellington May 6

Pic: Not Quite Right



Arrived at this one too late to catch the first band Fighting The Shakes. However when I got to Bodega Not Quite Right were onstage and seemed at home in front of a larger than usual (for them) crowd. I got burnt out on seeing them as they seemed to playing every single weekend but obviously this has been good for them development as a band. I was impressed with both their music and stage presence at this show.



Against Me!

Against Me! are a band I'm not overly familiar with. They did seem like an interesting band when I read an interview with them in Razorcake a few years back. Only recently I'd heard some of their New Wave album and listened to one of their albums As The Eternal Cowboy a few days before seeing them. They played only a few songs I knew but that's fine. Half Against Me!'s set reminded me of INXS, Pseudo Echo or other 80s bands. It seems no coincidence that Billy Idol's 80's breakthtough Rebel Yell is name-checked as most of their new direction seems to have originated from the same era. It's probably just as well for them most of their newfound audience are barely out of their twenties and missed the New Wave movement while it was actually happening.



While they were great tight and energetic live act I found half their music fell flat on my ears. Earlier in the year I saw The Dirtbombs knowing nearly nothing about them and came out impressed and would definitely go see them again. However I wouldn't see Against Me! again as they didn't grab me musically nearly as much.

Setlist for those who care:
Up The Cuts (New Wave)
New Wave (New Wave)
White People For Peace (New Wave)
Thrash Unreal (New Wave)
Pints of Guinness Make You Strong (RAR)
Walking is Still Honest (RAR)
Reinventing Axl Rose (RAR)
Americans Abroad (New Wave)
From Her Lips to God's Ears (The Energizer) (SFAC)
Borne On The FM Waves Of The Heart (New Wave)
Stop! (New Wave)
Don't Lose Touch (SFAC)
Sink, Florida, Sink (ATEC)
The Ocean (New Wave)

Encore:
Piss And Vinegar (New Wave)
Cliche Guevara (ATEC)
We Laugh at Danger (And Break all the Rules) (RAR)

Chemical People - Ten Fold Hate (1989)

Here's more Chemical people. This album is more punk oriented than the self-titled. Most of the songs are around a minute and an a half. This album includes an instrumental called Metallica. No points for guessing what it sounds like. Cherry also features some metal type guitar work as does All The Best Things .

The only song I don't really like on this album is Black Throat which is a rap metal ode to porn.

Song list is:

1. New Food
2. Aquaman
3. Old Habits
4. Strange Taste
5. She's Got a Bad Case
6. Ed Intro
7. Cherry
8. Intro
9. All the Best Things
10. Nudist Camp
11. Metallica
12. Cop a Feel
13. Moodchanger
14. Vacation
15. Outrage
16. Black Throat

Get it

Smoking Popes - Born To Quit (1995)

This band is made up of three Caterer brothers. The band sound like Frank Sinatra fronting a pop punk band ala The Ramones or The Buzzcocks although at times vocalist Josh Caterer sounds like Morrisey and the guy from They Might Be Giants.

The Morrisey-like vocals are definitely on the song "Need You Round" but there is a lack of the depressing tongue and cheek humour so this band come across as far more chirpy than the misunderstood English misery guts. The song "Rubella" is the band's strongest song in my opinion and there is a Rubella youtube video.

Born To Quit

Stisism - Coping With Society

I don't know a whole lot about this New York band who have a 77 punk sound not far from the sound of The Sex Pistols or fellow New Yorkers The Dead Boys but this album is a largely unknown gem.

Allmusic guide wrote: When punk rock took the music world by storm in the late '70s, punk bands ranged from angry socio-political agitators like the Sex Pistols, Sham 69, the Dead Kennedys and the Clash to bands with fun, goofy lyrics such as the Ramones, Stiff Little Fingers and the Dickies. Twenty years later, punk bands still ran the gamut -- some were angrily political, while others just wanted to have fun. Stisism, an East Coast punk band, favored the fun and the humorous on Coping with Society, which first came out on Intensive Scare and was reissued by Man's Ruin in early 1999. Recalling the Pistols, the Buzzcocks and others, Stisism brings a lot of exuberance and bratty aggression to this engaging album. The Pistols have had a heavy influence on Stisism, although their influence is musical more than lyrical. The singing and playing is Pistols-influenced, but lyrically, Stisism has a lot more in common with Stiff Little Fingers and the Ramones. Nutty humor is exactly what you can expect on "It's Not My Fault You Left Your Hair at Home, Dude," "Formaldehyde Baby," "Mr. Slawson and the Teenage Dolls" and other items. Drawing on Peggy Lee's "I'm a Woman" and the Muddy Waters hit "Mannish Boy," the catchy "Bacon Man" starts off as a stop-and-start blues tune before turning into fast, hyper punk. Coping With Society is an album that punk lovers should definitely be aware of. ~ Alex Henderson.

Alex Henderson may have listened to this album but I doubt he's ever listened to Stiff Little Fingers or read their lyrics. This album contains a punked up cover of the Beach Boys' song Vegetables. A few of the songs of this album appear on Stisism's my space page.

Get Stisism - Coping With Society