Thursday, July 24, 2008

Lung Album discography

Hailing from Palmerston North, New Zealand band, Lung were around from 1990 -1995. In his book Ready To Fly, David Eggleton describes the band as an industrial band heavily influenced by former Palmerston band The Skeptics. In the early nineties Rip It Up magazine grouped the band with Shihad and Bailterspace as part of a local industrial movement. Lung were originally The Clear who came out of the ashes of Palmerston North's Ode records signing Thin Red Line and released an EP of New wave/pop.



The Clear's line up changed completely and the band recorded Live Stomach in 1990 on a 4 track at Palmerston North's Stomach music centre which had recently been set up. On the Yellow Bike records catalogue Live Stomach was described as thrashy pop based punk rock songs from the precursor to Lung.

Tracklist

1. Temptation
2. The quiet sleeping
3. Trees in Autumn
4. Dinosaur
5. Backyard Boy
6. Full Moon
7. Why did we ever come to this place?
8. This darkness
9. Killing time
10. I like to Fish

If I remember rightly, why did we ever come to this place? had a video which received TV airplay on the revamped Radio With Pictures.

Get Live Stomach.


The band changed their name as they were sometimes confused with the Flying Nun band The Clean and a few people were disappointed learning that it was not the reformed Dunedin band touring. Lung's Cactii album was recorded at Writhe studios by Brent McLachlan from Bailter Space and The Gordons. Screams from the gutter describes Lung as one of the greatest bands you never heard. Their sound could easily fit in with the sound of Touch and Go Records or Amphetamine Reptile. The only band that comes to mind with a similar sound is Wreck(on C/Z Records. Their sound could be described as dark, a little noisy, moody, disturbed. Like a strange blend of Chokebore, old Cows, and Flour.

Full Moon again is not on this file as it's the same song as Full Moon on the Live Stomach album. As I lived in Palmerston North for quite some time I saw Lung/The Clear a number of times. Cactii was one of the first CDs I bought. At one stage I lived around the corner from the imaginatively named Albert pub which was on Albert street which was a band venue for a number of years. Times changed and the Albert became a sports bar and the former venue turned into a karoake bar. Noise complaints were still received. I know this because I lived opposite the Albert for almost a year. Also I was doing a computer course at Manawatu Polytechnic in 1991 and one of my tutors was a fill-in bassist for Lung at the Massey University orientation toga party.

Get Cactii

Cactii tracklist

1 She's got a gun 3:24
2 Sarah 3:36
3 Sleep 3:20
4 Sub 2:24
5 Lurch 2:47
6 Hardwired 6:15
7 Numb 3:52
8 Eat the Poor 3:51
9 Ride 2:34



Lung's 3 Heads on a Plate (1993) was mostly recorded in Germany but three songs were recorded at Palmerston North's Stomach studio. The Yellow Bike pressing had a different tracklisting to the US Restless pressing which included a couple of songs from the Cactii album. My tracklisting is possibly different again.

1. Car Crash
2. Compellor
3. Elvis Arsehole
4. Exit
5. Johnny Favourite
6. Melonoma
7. Paralysis
8. Resuscitate
9. Slaughterhouse
10. Splinter
11. Swing

Have 3 Heads On A Plate





Sticky Filth, White Hart Inn, New Plymouth, July 19 2008



Pic: Craig Radford from Sticky Filth

I arrived in New Plymouth and some of the most amazing lightning struck the town accompanied by torrents of rain. Joe Satriani was headlining a show elsewhere in town and just down from the White Hart Hamilton metal band Chuganaut were playing an after-party for that particular show. The Sticky Filth show had been promoted as an after-party for the Roller Derby event. Before this show I'd never made it to New Plymouth's White Hart Inn despite seeing a lot of shows that I'd like to have gone to advertised over the years. I arrived soon after the doors opened and watched a little bit of the Auckland Warriors beating the Canterbury Bulldogs Rugby League game.

The White Hart started filling up and the first band Inebriation took the stage. They hadn't played for a number of years because their singer died in a motorcycle accident. At times the band seemed to be a wall of noise but occasionally they came together well. Personally I thought they sounded best when Renae from 1080 sang with them although the final song with three different vocalists sounded great.



Pic: Inebriation

Next up were Sticky Filth who most people had come to see since they don't play many shows any more. They started with some teething sound problems.






The band started with the prologue and Craig got the audience to yell out 'Play some fucken beats, beatmaster' at the start of "Nadia". Sticky Filth played most of their material from the last twenty something years. Chris Snowdon stated from the stage "This band never ends. When we're eighty we'll still be playing gigs at anywhere that will have us." So they played most of the stuff from all three of their albums and a few newer songs but they did threaten to play all the songs they'd ever written. I'm sure they didn't do that but as they played for nearly 2 hours they must have come close. I don't remember either member talking between songs in past shows I've attended but I also don't remember Chris Snowdon doing vocals.

Highlights were hearing all of the Stainless album live, "Witch Hazel" and "Weep Woman Weep". I filmed some of the show with my digital camera but the sound from the camera doesn't do the band justice. It was well worth driving to New Plymouth for this show.


Sticky Filth have now added songs to their myspace page including the catchy classic Weep Woman Weep and there are also photos from this show.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

NZ ROCK 1987-2007 by Gareth Shute


A book spanning twenty years of rock in one country is an ambitious project even if that particular country only has a population of 3.5 - 4 million. Gareth Shute's book starts where John Dix's Stranded in Paradise left off. The first chapter starts covering a usual suspect in the form of Neil Finn and tells the story of how the Crowded House song Don't Dream It's Over had to become successful overseas before receiving commercial radio airplay within New Zealand. Also covered in this chapter are Jan Hellreigel (who received local commercial radio airplay because it was assumed she was from Switzerland due to her last name but when it was realized she was local airplay started to fizzle), Shona Laing, Jenny Morris, Graham Brazier, Andrew Fagan, Dave Dobbyn and details the Dance Exponents move to London and later return to New Zealand with the name change to the Exponents.

Personally I remember the Exponents 1991 return well as I was one of the crowd at the live shows in Palmerston North. Unmentioned in the book is as local glam metal band Push Push were strong in the charts with their song Trippin'. The final band to be covered in this chapter is The Mutton Birds.

In any book about New Zealand rock it is inevitable that the Flying Nun record label will be mentioned and the second chapter of this book. The usual Flying Nun bands (the Chills, the Bats, Sneaky Feelings, The Clean, Tall Dwarfs, The Verlaines and Straitjacket Fits) are covered. The most interesting story to me in the chapter was Green Day supporting the Tall Dwarfs in Cologne after Green Day's Dookie album had came out and over half the audience leaving before the Tall Dwarfs played.

The third chapter also covers Flying Nun and concentrates on the label's harder bands such as The Gordons Bailter Space and the Skeptics, The 3Ds S.P.U.D. and The Headless Chickens. I learned from this chapter that the Skeptics started Snailclamps nightclub in my hometown of Palmerston North although it's not mentioned that the Skeptics started at Freyberg high school which had a poor reputation during the mid-80's but that later changed

Wildside records and hard rock are covered in the fourth chapter. This starts covering the Grunt records metal awards which were held in Christchurch in the late 80's. What's not mentioned in the book is that Bruce Rae, the owner of Grunt Records presented a metal segment on a Friday night music video show called C.V. (Complete Video) and usually featured thrash metal videos as he had written to the show stating that they weren't playing REAL metal. In the first year of the Grunt awards Shihad won the Grunt Records award and clips from the show were shown on C.V. Clip Below.



Hamilton's Knightshade are covered as are Push Push. The move toward funk metal is documented covering Voodoo Love Deep Sea Racing Mullets, Rumblefish and Semi Lemon Kola. The history of Supergroove is very well documented here. The Warners are mentioned briefly and considered to be Auckland's answer to the Ramones due to singer, Allen Stephenson's ever-present leather jacket. The affect of both the US grunge and punk scene on New Zealand bands is chronicled with the examples of Salad Daze, Balance, Bygone Era, Freak Power, Fatal Jelly Space and Second Child.

In a chapter about New Zealand rock and the Wildside record label during this time period it is inevitible that Wellington bands Shihad and Head Like A Hole would be mentioned.

Auckland band Hallelujah Picassos receive only two paragraphs but Gareth Shute acknowledges that their strenth was their live act. The only time I was ever turned away from a show in Palmerston North was a Hallelujah Picasso's show due to the venue being full. Not mentioned in the book is that the band recorded a video entitled to their song 'Clap Your Hands' for about $138 which is now either in the TVNZ archives or taped over. Dead Flowers receive 3 pages of text and a two page photo. Pumpkinhead, Breathe and Weta are also well covered.


Chapter Five documents the rise of the indie labels across New Zealand covering Bruce Russell's Christchurch Xpressway and Failsafe, Palmerston North's Yellow Bike Records(unfortunately there is an error here, The Clear's Live Stomach album is a studio album that was recorded live on a 4-track. The reason for the band's name change to Lung was because due to confusion some people overseas were excited that the Flying Nun band The Clean were touring which isn't mentioned in the book). New Plymouth label Ima Hitt records is well covered as is Brian Wafer's promoting of international shows. The info on Sticky Filth has dated as Mark (Boot) Hill has been the Sticky Filth drummer since about 2005. It is nice to see the T.A.B. The Argumentative Bastards EP rates a mention as one of the 300 records that were swapped in groups of 100 with an Australian label. It was interesting to learn that a Henchmen/Reptiles at Dawn split LP was pressed and a pressing of an LP from the Palmerston North band Harry Death was planned. It would have been nice if this band and record had received further coverage. Also not mentioned is that high speed noise dudes Tension were previously Das Unter Mensch and released a live 7 inch single entitled 'Winning Hearts and Minds' limited to 250 copies on Ima Hitt. The artwork the band chose was later used by the Sepultura/Fudge Tunnel side project Nailbomb. Nefarious and Horror Story receive deserved coverage. I really liked how this chapter gave Ima Hitt and Yellow Bike detailed coverage as previously the best coverage of both these labels I've seen in book form has been in David Eggleton's Ready to Fly which gives both labels a couple of paragraphs and in contrast Gareth Shute gives them both two and a half pages.

Auckland's Pagan records is covered with its roots in blues and country and follows The Warratahs, Chicago Smoke Shop, The Greg Johnson Set and The Nixons who later became Eye TV.

Chapter six revisits Flying Nun and covers the bands who later joined and left the label in favour of the newest independents. Chapter seven is entitled the new generation of hit-makers and covers Bic and Boh Runga's success and then covers Christchurch band The Feelers (who recive a two page photo spread), Zed, solo artists Brooke. Fraser and Anika Moa. The eighth chapter is entitled Expanding The Indie scene and covers Fur Patrol, Goodshirt, Cassette, Goldenhorse, Lucid 3, Tadpole and The Phoenix Foundation, Pluto. This chapter also documents new labels such as Stink Magnetic tapes and promoters Carla Potter and Blink(A Low Hum).

Chapter Nine is entitled old becomes new and goes back to covering the usual supects Tim and Neil Finn, Dave Dobbyn, Shane Carter (Dimmer, Straitjacket Fits), Don McGlashan(The Mutton Birds, Blam Blam Blam), The Verlaines, Chris Knox, David Kilgour, The Bats, Shihad and The Clean and the reviving and re-inventing of their musical careers.

Chapter Ten is entitled NZ Rock Spread Across Genres and covers more recent New Zealand punk bands such as Balance, Sommerset, Missing Teeth, The Bleeders, Cobra Khan, Kitsch, Antagonist, Foamy Ed and 48May. False Start are also covered here and here is the first mention of the myspace site which has become an easy way for bands to get their music out and messages about shows and other band related info. Rock bands Opshop, Elemeno P plus many more get covered. The final sentence of this chapter shows how times have changed. "Getting on local commercial radio isn't the feat it once was, and the measure of success for local groups has now become how well they can do overseas". Which is a great lead into the next chapter "Taking on the World" which details the overseas success of Betchadupa, The Mint Chicks, The D4, The Datsuns, The Veils, The Checks, Evermore, Blindspott, Steriogram and metal bands, 8 Foot Sativa and Dawn of Azrael.

This book is 358 pages and heavy on text with nice black and white photos either supplied by the record companies or live photos taken by Blink. It retails for NZ$45 and is one of the most informative reads on New Zealand rock music in the last twenty years. Recommended.

Here is a Radio New Zealand interview about this book with Gareth Shute ,here is a BFM interview by Mikey Havoc with the same person about the same subject and a New Zealand Herald interview.

Beastwars - IV

After over a year off for various reasons, we have returned solely because we wanted to review the new Beastwars album. I really w...