Reptiles At Dawn - Naked In The Wilderness

Back in the late eighties while staying in Taupo with a great aunt, I first read of Reptiles At Dawn in the UK Heavy Metal magazine, Metal Hammer, in an issue which came free with a huge foldout poster of Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson holding a box of the game Risk whilst surrounded by topless women. The review stated that they were a New Zealand band who had moved their reptile house to France. Back then, I had no idea they were the same band as The Henchmen and The Dum Dum Boys whose records I would often see for sale new in the local second hand record and book shop. The Stooges sound stayed and a dedication to Radio Birdman mixes things up just a little. All the references to reptiles and lizards would have made Jim Morrison's leather pants tighten as the blood rushed from his brain to another place or at least made him smile. Jimmy Dean would just drive his death machine.

Get this cold blooded creature

Dum Dum Boys - Let There Be Noise

As you can probaly tell from their name alone, New Zealand's Dum Dum Boys wore their influences on their sleeves. This '81 release was possibly the first NZ release to be more influenced by US punk than the UK stuff. The story goes that the band sold their beds and whatever else they owned and could sell to get this vinyl record released. These guys liked The Stooges a lot and there's certainly nothing at all wrong with that.

Get their noise.

The Henchmen - Death Machine/Bitch Goddess

This Henchmen single may be well known for the song 'Bitch Goddess' due to the Get a Haircut NZ 2004 NZ rock and roll CD compilation however looking at the cover there is the impression that Death Machine, "I'm gonna die like Jimmy Dean." was the intended single. Truth is both sides rock equally. The Henchmen came out of the ashes of independent punk legends The Dum Dum Boys. This single was released on Cadaver records which was the band's own record label.

Recorded June 1983 at Progressive Studios, Anzac Ave, Auckland. Produced by Terry King, Terry Goth, Norm Dillinger and Robyn Vamp. Originally released 1983 on Cadaver Records LP We've Come To Play. Later released on Cadaver Records 7". Tony Goth-vocals Norm Dillinger - guitar Jeremy Chunn -bass Billy Williams- drums

This song was originally written and composed by Tony Collins and Tony Norman in 1983 and appeared on The Henchmen album We've Come To Play which was released the same year. It was musically formed with the spirit of MC5's 'Come Together' in mind whilst the lyrics used the imagery of the whore/angel heaven/hell duality in referring to rock and roll Babylon, Television New Zealand made a video of this song and it was subsequently selected in the top ten local video clips for the year 1984. By this time however, the Henchmen had left the shores of New Zealand for Australia later to evolve into Reptiles at Dawn with European record contract and tours to begin forming a new legend. (I remember reading a review of their album in the UK metal magazine Metal Hammer back in the late 80s). Tony Collins now lives in France and sings for his new band Lost Disciples having released two albums to date and is busy working on the third. Tony Norman lives in New Zealand.
Tony Collins, 19th March 2003. Taken from Get a Haircut CD Booklet

The band also released a 7" in 1982 I Got A Right / R 'n' R Attack

Other Henchmen releases are:
Lust For Glory LP (2000) [1.7", 12" and unreleased]
Lust For Glory CD (2002) [7", 12" and live tracks]
Grim Relics LP (Sonic Heist) (1989)

It seems the Lust for Glory LP and CD are now hard to find in New Zealand but interpunk carries them. Also there are filesharing blogs which have the NZ Hate Your Neighbours compilation album which can be found by googling for Henchmen Bitch Goddess. I'm not putting the link because filesharing blogs are lame which is why I've only linked to MP3 blogs in the sidebar.