Lung - Full Moon Again

Here is The video to Palmerston North band's Lung's song "Full Moon Again". I used to see these guys play a lot during the nineties and it's nearing twenty years since I last saw the video. Thanks to the wonders of youtube, Noisyland and hats off to Kowalski for the tip.

The Clear EP 1988

The Clear were a Palmerston North band that changed from a five piece band into a trio who later became the amphetamine reptile sounding LUNG and then toured the US and Europe. This EP is closer to the B-52's than the COWS. The song "Roger Says" is about Roger Douglas who was the Minister of Finance at the time. Despite the dated subject of one song it's still an interesting listen.

Edit linked changed. Let us know if it works or not. Here.

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

The Clear - Live Stomach

The previous incarnation of Palmerston North band, The Clear before the EP was an 80s band called Thin Red Line who released a number of vinyl 12 inch releases. Thin Red Line usually used a drum machine and their music often used elements of punk and jazz and the band's lyrical subject were often Maori, activist issues and Christianity. The band used both male and female vocals at differing times.

The band were a five or six piece when The Clear EP was released. They later became a trio and released the Live Stomach in 1990. The album was called Live Stomach not because it was a live album but because it was the first album recorded at Palmerston North's venue/practice space/music class area, The Stomach. Guitarist/vocalist, Dave White was the driving force in the Stomach's existence.

In the early days of the Stomach there were often jam sessions where anyone could turn up and play. I went along to one of the early ones around 89 and watched Dave and Boris who was later in Flamin' Werepigs play S.O.D. covers and the song I like To Fish which appears on this CD only release. It seems amazing thinking that was half my lifetime ago.

Kelvin from Brainless Child zine reviewed this album and wrote: The Clear, like the 3Ds have the ability to move form speed, distortion and grunge to more melodic guitar pop songs.
All 10 songs on this CD are good, stand out songs include Dinosaur, This Darkness and I like to Fish Overall this CD has a good atmosphere, probably something to do with the fact that it was recorded live in a stomach.

The Clear later became Lung when they were touring outside New Zealand because a few people had thought the Flying Nun records band The Clean were doing a reunion tour.

Get Live Stomach

Lung interview with Brian Wafer (1994)

This is a long one for those that just want music just go straight to the bottom of the page and start downloading.
Dave White(the Lung singer guitarist was married to one of my high school teachers and Dave founded Palmerston North's underage venue/band practice space, The Stomach. Brian Wafer ran Ima-Hitt records(both a shop and a record label)in New Plymouth and brought a number of punk bands to New Zealand in the 90's. I saw Lung play, as both Lung and The Clear a number of times as they were a band from my hometown of Palmerston North. Screams from the Gutter blog gave their 1991 Cactii album a very positive review. This interview appeared in Raw Beat for the Malcontents #4 August 1994

Brian Wafer: Why are you back in New Zealand? The grimy details please.

Dave White: I'm back in NZ /cause I'm totally fucked and desperately need a rest..we've been on tour more or less constantly since the start on our NZ tour June last year, after which we did six months in Europe and then three intensive(played every night) months in the States.

The three of us all need a rest from each other since we've been stuck in each other's faces over the last year and no way we could escape. I guess everyone knows pretty well how to fuck off everyone else now and that happens easily when you're doing 20 hour drives between gigs.

I also had to end up here eventually to make sure the new record got released in good old NZ, the rights to which we've kept ourselves.


Brian Wafer: Tell us how the wandering band of minstrels fucked over the evil giant record company and why

Dave White: Restless, as you have correctly described them, turned out to be like Albini warns everyone about.... a normal money grabbing lawyer baiting, band hating bunch of rich cunts that sit in their fucking offices in Hollywood and decree which lucky group of noise-mongers will get paid this week seemingly at random.

Every so called independent record company in the States(and there are very few who truly are independent of the majors) sign bands for two reasons (a): They think the band will make them a shitload of money, or (b): They think the band will give them credibility in the eyes of the punk-rock press/punters/record buyers, which will mean people don't think their record company is full of shit, which means they sell more records overall and make a shitload of money!

Lung were signed for the second reason as we already had good reviews/college radio airplay from our own releases in the States and they were hoping to give their company more credibility by signing a NZ band, which unfortunately a 'cool' thing to be seen doing at the moment.

They made a fundamental error, however, in that they thought we'd be ever so impressed and grateful to be a part of their big fucking company that we'd just lay down and take all their bullshit that American bands put up with. Things like, not getting our visas in time(we missed out on the Ed Hall support tour because of this, not getting the tour support money promised, not getting the promotional shit promised etc etc.

Our booking agents, who were also our sub-label, Kevin and Todd at Rave(who tour Neurosis, Lungfish, Unsane and heaps of cool bands) eventually became so pissed off with Restlessleaving us kind of in the firing line. The worst thing was we signed for a five album deal and we didn't want to get our next four album releases tied up in some legal nightmare, so our only form of escape was to get ourselves dumped. So, at the Los Angeles show, we invited along all the wankers from the company, got hideously pissed and did the classic ssmash a few things, blow up the PA and play like total shit....the next day we had the letter we wanted and our first big signing was over.

Brian Wafer: Did you see any bands that totally inspired you, did you come across any band that would be better off under a wheel of a truck?

Dave White: Godheadsilo were the best, just a bass player and a drummer and they were louder than The Melvins, who I saw twice and had to be the second best show. Godheadsilo have an album called 'The Scientific Supercake LP' on the Kill Rock Superstars label which also releases The Unwound and Bikini Kill, it's an wesome record but nowhere near as full on as their live show which completely fucked me over.

A Japanese band called The Boredoms were fucking outrageous as well, two drummers, one of which plays for Kim Gordon's band Free Kitten. I bought their album after, but it sucked unfortunately. Ed Hall from Texas did a great show.

To list all the bands that were full of shit would take up your entire magazine but I guess the very worst would have to include King Missile whose corporate fucking management ,road crew, team gave us a few problems, the Supersuckers who sound like a very dull version of that horrible fucking Australian band The Johnnies live, and some rockers we had to play with in New York called Mindfunk...terminal boredom.

Brian Wafer: Who was the biggest arsehole you met on your travels and why?

The promoter at Twisters, a club in Richmond, Virginia. The only person to get away with ripping us off, but future tourers need not fear, he was dealt to later by someone who liked us and has since been fired. We met very few arseholes surprisingly enough, apart from the record company people who just can't help what they are I guess, most people were extremely friendly and helpful, whether you need an amp(we blew three) or something to smoke...

Brian Wafer: Who did you come across that deserves heaps of praise and pats on the back, why does this individual deserve this honour?

Dave White: James, our soundman in the States deserves huge amounts of praise. One night he'd be mixing on a huge PA where his biggest problem was fighting off the management for being too loud and the next he'd be hard-wiring a couple of guitar amps together to build a PA out of nothing in some fucked up small town. He became an expert ensuring the chemicals for a great show were in our bloodstream before each performance...like a mother I guess.

Brian Wafer : What is next for Lung?

Dave White: A few good record companies (including Trance in Austin, Texas) came to see us live once the word was out we'd been dumped by Restless and they're all keen to hear this tape we made on an 8-track in Muncie, Indiana at the end of the tour, but I can't say I'm in a hurry to rush into another 'deal'. We're gonna sit back and take our time this time round, I suppose we'll release it in NZ first, once all our legal hassles to get back the money we are owed are over and we've paid off the $US5000 debt still owing.

Brian Wafer: Can I have a poster from each gig that Lung played overseas?

We started collecting posters, but you know what happens, they end up trashed on the floor of the van, or as set lists, or to wipe up vomit, or to wipe off with....


Brain Wafer: What are the other members of Lung going to do while you are back in NZ?

Brent and Graeme are holed up in the states with all our equipment waiting for the start of the next tour which will probably happen around May, next year. Last I heard, they had jobs in different States, a long way apart.

DISCOGRAPHY: The Clear 12" EP (1989) Ode Records
The Clear: Live Stomach CD Yellow Bike 1990
Lung: Cactii CD Yellow Bike 1991
Two downloadable songs from Cactii can be found at Screams from the Gutter Lung: Paralysis 7" Yellow Bike 1993
Lung: Three heads on a plate Yellow Bike 1994

Download The Clear 1989 12" EP The 1989 12" is closer to the B-52s in sound than to the amrep records sound of the Cactii CD. However Why did we ever come to this place? appears on both this release and Live Stomach, though both versions differ soundwise due to the 89 band being a five piece.

Edit: A link to the Cactii and 3 heads on a plate CD are now in comments. Thanks to Old School Punk from Screams From The Gutter blog.