Kiddy Filth

I was searching for more info on Sticky Filth for the previous post and came across this article.



When Craig Radford was at school his teachers were forever telling him to put down his guitar and pick up the maths book.

"Now it's `pick up that guitar and play'," says the 20-year veteran of Taranaki heavy metal band Sticky Filth.

This week he was back at the school where he first learnt to play the bass guitar.

But this time he was the teacher.

Mr Radford has been at Coastal Taranaki school in Okato for the past three days passing on his musical knowledge, under the New Zealand Industry Commission's music mentors programme.

Mr Radford was asked to come to Okato by the school's music teacher, Anita Anker.

"I knew Craig already, so I got him into the school. The programme is about real musos coming into schools and sharing their music experience," Ms Anker said.

Mr Radford went to the school when it was Okato College and says he likes the changed attitude towards playing music.

"Kids are more inspired to play instruments and that's pretty awesome."

Music and writing songs should be encouraged, which is why he says he is doing the workshop.

"Some of these kids have already formed their own bands, but they are playing other people's songs. I want to show them they can write their own and do their own thing."

The 41-year-old says he loves working with the students and is impressed so many of them play instruments.

"It's great teaching the kids, it's just amazing. I want them to form their own bands. I have been in one for years and it's the coolest thing."

Sticky Filth formed in 1986 and has since made six albums.

This youtube clip of Craig Radford singing with the kids was on one of their bebo pages.

Sticky Filth - Stainless CD (Alley cat records 2005)

Before I even start this review, I'd better state that I'm a Sticky Filth fan from way back. This New Plymouth band were the first original band I ever saw in at a bar show back in the late eighties. Last time I saw them play was sometime in the nineties though. I have the German Gift of Life Weep Woman Weep on vinyl which sells for high prices now days.(bought new in Palmerston North for $30) and I have Nektar Der Gotter on vinyl (So I'm much better than you unless of course you have the Ima-Hitt copy of Weep Woman Weep.
After claims of elitism I'll admit to selling my copy of Def through Misadventure 7" cause I didn't like it much at the time.

There was meant to be a new Sticky Filth album some before this album was released The master recordings were sent to an Australian vinyl pressing plant which closed down and the masters were lost. This explains the lengthy gaps between albums.

This came out in 2005 but due to living in Taiwan and Smokecds giving up shipping to Taiwan I wasn't able to get this album when it first came out. What do Sticky Filth sound like? Imagine Napalm Death, G.B.H.Dinosaur Junior, Suicidal Tendencies, Motorhead, eighties speed metal and The Birthday Party all meeting together and that's a rough idea of this band's overall sound.

Anyway to the Stainless album. It's great and retains the old Sticky Filth sound. Craig Radford's vocal have to be some of the coolest melodic punk vocals in NZ. There's thankfully no whooooah whoooooah type stuff. At times Radford does sound close to Mike Muir of Suicidal Tendencies but that's hardly a complaint. A few of the songs are more metal than previous Sticky Filth First song Nadia recalls Sticky Filth of old sing about witches and has the one of the rhyming couplets I love hearing this band do (In 1993/she cast a spell on me). ("Alice was there in her wonderland/dancing naked, she stole my hand" was my fave from Nektar and can't be topped). Hate Remains has the coolest Motorhead type bass which Radford does so well. Sucidal Tendencies influence can be heard on this song.
Flesh recalls the slower songs from the Nektar Der Gotter LP(i.e cooler than pre-shark jumping fonzie). Same thing could be said for the next song, Cold. (although there is a riff that sounds a lot like Motorhead. Astronaut is a thrasher with an unrelentess drum beat. The intro of Jahbullheboosay has me wishing Shihad still played the style they did on Churn cause that's what is sounds like. Anyone yearning for Shihad of old could get their fix from this song.

Mary-Mary is Sticky Filth ska.It sounds like The Stranglers. Two Thumbs from me.

Mother is an awesome punk/metal crossover song.
Vanguard Hellride 6 is another song that sounds like it could have been on Nektar Der Gotter as does Already Alright.
Girl with the Luger is one the same thing could be said. This song is so catchy and cool.
30 Days harks back to the slower stuff on Weep Woman Weep and the Birthday Party influences can be heard in Craig's vocals on this song. Then it's back to thrashy punk with Scrap Metal Man.
Too Deep which features guitarist Chris Snowden on vocals brings Slayer's South of Heaven album too mind though Snowden's vocals are more melodic than Tom Araya's.
A great album by New Zealand's longest running punk band which ends with a couple of Techno remixes by Concord Dawn of Nadia and Mother which personally I have to be in the right mood to listen to.

A clip of Astronaut from the forthcoming Sticky Filth DVD



Order this CD from smokecds

Offbeats, Vicious Rumour, Skaface Claw, Lead Pipe Larry at Valve November 30

This show was advertised as being Wellington Ska band, The Offbeats Christmas party. I'm not a huge fan of modern ska and don't really like The Offbeats. I attended this because I wanted to see Vicious Rumour and Skaface Claw again. I purposely arrived sometime after 10:30 thinking I'd at least miss the first band since there were really only two bands of any interest to me. When I arrived the first band, Lead Pipe Larry and The Dangermen were playing No Doubt's spiderwebs. They were nothing special really.





Skaface Claw have now changed their name to Otis Claw but the ska/punk/surf crossover three piece is still the same great band. They seem to have got even better than last time saw them. The ska audience seemed more appreciative than the confused pop punk audience did the previous time I saw them despite the first songs seeming more rock/cow punk. They played a few new songs plus called one called Dennis From Accounts that vocalist, Varnya, apologised for due to it being the first time they'd played it. He really didn't need to apologize as it sounded great. Otis Claw still sound mostly like Man or Astro-Man crossed with Operation Ivy and maybe Motorhead.
Definitely a band worth checking out both live and recorded.





Above pics: Otis Claw


The Offbeats played next. They weren't really my thing but lots of people seemed to enjoy them more than I did. I found the length of their set hard to take and went across to the fish and chip shop across the road to buy a bacon and egg toasted sandwich after they'd already played for what seemed like an hour. When I got back they were still playing. This show had been promoted as The Offbeats Christmas party so I'd assumed they'd play last and I'd just go home after seeing the two bands I wanted to see. I think they many played covers. The only one I could place was Rancid's 'Timebomb' which was also sung by a member of Vicious Rumour. Highlight of their set was my bacon and egg toastie.



Above pic: The Offbeats

Napier band punk band Vicious Rumour played next. They played what I thought was a lengthy set. Even playing the same cover twice. They seemed to be having fun. It has to be said that now the frontman's huge mohawk has disappeared. At least two guys in this band look like they've watched Trainspotting too many times. They seemed to play a lot of covers but I dunno really as I didn't recognize too many of their songs. They covered Lars and The Bastards playing Billy Bragg and passed it off as a Billy Bragg song. Weird. Left straight after the bands finished because I was incredibly tired.

Audience band T-shirts read like a list of who's toured New Zealand lately. A lot of Bad Religion and Motorhead shirts.



Above pic: Vicious Rumour

TAB - The Argumentative Bastards EP

This 1989 Ima-Hitt 7 track LP from Wellington band TAB is a New Zealand underground punk rock classic. I've seen it listed for sale recently at US $35 on some punk vinyl website. The band were sometimes compared to Bad Brains due to their reggae song Sniffin' and vocalist Aaron Watson's dreadlocks. Sniffin' was about teenage frustration, drugs and unemployment. The singer, Aaron Watson, now the editor of the Capital Times, grew up in Porirua and wrote about the bored kids in the streets of Porirua at the time. Set to a slow two-chord reggae beat with a searing guitar solo at the end, it received some lukewarm reviews at the time but was ultimately classified as not radio friendly. However student radio loved it..

I remember Fred, a fast melodic punk song with a mid-song reggae beat about a cop killer receiving a life prison sentence, getting heavy student radio airplay from Radio Massey in Palmerston North at the time this record came out. The cover of John Denver's Country Roads is a classic New Zealand punk cover version.

I contacted Brian Wafer from Ima-Hitt records about a year ago seeing if I could get a replacement copy for my vinyl but unfortunately he didn't have one and his comment was that TAB record was bloody excellent.

The band line-up on this EP was Rob Stewart(bass guitar), J.P. de Raad(drums), Simon Gotlieb(guitars), Aaron Watson vocals. There were only ever 500 copies pressed. I recently contacted Simon and asked a few questions.

Smalltakeover: Why were there only 500 copies pressed and is there any chance of it ever appearing on CD?

Simon: We had NO money. Brian Wafer from ImaHitt records in New Plymouth fronted up with the bucks for the pressings and yes we only made 500. I have both this EP as mp3s. I have the final 1 inch master of Ganja and Chocolate Fish but have not as yet had it digitised as it's really hard and expensive to find a cheap-ish recording studio with this sort of analogue equipment nowadays. But there's always the idea there. Ganja and Chocolate Fish is a MUCH better recording. Looking back Argumentative Bastards is a very naiive record, but hey, we were only 19, 20, 20 and 21 then.

Smalltakeover: I read that Hamish Laing (who played bass on the first Shihad
EP Devolve also played for TAB, is that true?

Simon: Yeah Mishy and me go way back. He was playing in both bands for a while. Played rhythm guitar (not bass) for TAB and bass for Shihad before he quit both bands to go semi-professional motorcycle racing. Karl Kippenburg took over from Mishy and he's a bloody good bass player. AFAIK Hamish is still with Avery Ford.

Smalltakeover: Why did TAB split?

Simon: TAB pretty much split up because it had run its course. Both Aaron and Jean-Pierre were pre-uni students when we started the band and I guess Uni and work commitments took over too much. It was very difficult to make money out of music back then.

Smalltakeover: What do the guys in the band do nowadays?

Simon: Not sure what Rob is doing. I manage a digitisation company after spending many years working in the advertising industry. Aaron is the editor of Capital Times(the free Wellington weekly), and JP is the Deputy Director of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research and has been a policy advisor in economics to the Government for ages.

Smalltakeover: What other bands have you been in?

Simon: Be cool to find a band to muck around with. I haven't played with others in a while. There's been a number of other bands (played Mountain Rock with Open Oyster and got good reviews) but none quite as much fun as TAB.

Cheers to Simon for answering my questions

Evance: Fucker! Fucker! Fucker! 7"

I can't find much English information about this Japanese hardcore band, Evance. A Youtube search turned up a Japanese Rolex TV advertisement featuring Brad Pitt and google turns up info about Evanescence.

This 2 track 1998 7" on the Fast Nail record label comes with not only Japanese lyrics but a separate insert sheet with English lyrics. Musically I'd say it falls somewhere between Japanese hardcore bands, GISM and Gauze The song Fucker towards the end features spoken female vocals. The English names of the other two songs are I wanna see the outside and Feel Pain?

The info below was provided by Kev Japan.

Evance were a great band. They split up quite a few years ago now. Kouki (guitarist) now plays in Warhead (another fantastic Japanese band) and lives in Osaka. Would also recommend the Evance/Jabara split 12" or the "False Peace" 7". Other members of Evance went on to play in the punkier-sounding Slowmotions.

Evance were a part of the "Burning Spirits" scene which is still going strong. Legendary Tokyo hardcore band Tetsu Arei first started the "Burning Spirits" tours 18 or 19 years ago and they would get a bunch of bands together and tour all over Japan. Some of the greats to feature on this tour are Death Side, Nightmare, Poison Arts, Bastard, Warhead, Judgement, Rocky and the Sweden, Order, Liberate, Paintbox, Extinct Government, Forward and even Melt Banana at one point. Due to serious and often very violent inter-band/fan feuds that created a rift between the Japakoa scene and the crusties, the hardcore scene in Japan remained quite segregated. About four years ago this division began to disappear thanks to the efforts of Framtid/Nightmare / Punk and Destroy Record's Shin Takayama who strived to encourage more diversity at shows in Osaka and gradually throughout the rest of Japan. A lot of the older trouble makers either settled down and had families, went to jail or died and with a younger, more open minded scene it continues to thrive today without violence or feuds. It is interesting to note that G.I.S.M and Gauze (two very well-known Tokyo bands the time) were seperate from both the Japakoa and crusty scenes and had their own thing going on. Burning Spirits have also brought over international bands to tour with such as Chaos UK, FUK, Disorder, Poison Idea and Tragedy and two years ago Forward and Warhead took the tour to the US where it was very well received.

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.

Salad Daze

Digging through the smalltakeover vault I came across an old New Zealand Levin based punk zine called Brainless Child from 1991 which featured an interview with now long since defunct Auckland hardcore band Salad Daze. Here it is in full with a few details added.

Salad Daze are a way cool hardcore band made up of some cooler people!!!! Their first 7" is sold out, but go and see 'em live because they don't half fucking RIPPPPP!!! (I saw them live once and agree, they didn't seem to care how many people they played to when I saw them in Palmerston North with The Warners back in the day.)



Brainless Child: Okay, can you fill me in how Salad Daze came to be and what connection you had with the late Bygone Era?

Salad Daze: Yeah, a couple of us were in Bygone Era at various times, but we formed a while before they split and had actually intended to gig with them. Salad Daze was put on hold for a while, when Bygone Era were gigging constantly, building up to their final gigs. We've been playing around ever since '89.

Brainless Child: Many people agree on the fact that you play a very D.C. ish hardcore, plus with the name Salad Daze, are bands like 7 Seconds, Minor Threat....etc your main influence?

Salad Daze: We all love and groove out on a lotta past and present D.C. bands of the like and it probably does show (Government Issue and Dag Nasty) to some extent in our sound. We also love a lotta other sounds from The Hard-ons to S.S.Decontrol and countless others ....(blah, blah)

Brainless Child: Another thing people say is that you are a "young" band with "tight, excellent" musicians. How old is each member of the band and how often do you practice?

Salad Daze: Us??? Thanks for the compliment (Hi Das Unter Mensch) Well, Rob and Simon have been playing for five years off and on, Luke's been drumming for about 8 years and Kieren's had that voice ever since his skating accident. Our ages range from 18 to 23 and we usually practice once a week all going well.

Brainless Child: Did you have any trouble releasing the 7", didn't Casualty have something to do with the pressing and what sort of advantages/disadvantages are there in releasing your own material?

Salad Daze: We financed the record ourselves, and it did take a little longer than usual (6 months) due to it being pressed in Sydney, plus the mix-ups on the 2-track, but we wanted to know the ins and outs of it all. It wasn't hard to do really, it was just the distance and the lack of communication, like what's going on with the 7", Brucie? Greg - Casualty's "hard" man gave us all the contacts and he overlooked the cutting etc...It was financially viable, I just wish more NZ bands would D.I.Y. instead of typically moaning can't! There's no real disavantage of pressing 250, this way we get every sale cash up front and aren't owed money for years to come. Just go for it!!!!

Brainless Child: So do you try to communicate any ideas through your lyrics/music or do you just play to entertain??

Salad Daze: Kieren writes most of the words and as does Luke sometimes and there is no real message in them, and we do try to put the emphasis of "fun" into a gig these days. It's pretty depressing watching a band with their backs turned and looking as though they're bored as fuck!

Brainless Child: What sort of positive things can you see happening in the NZ music scene at the moment?

Salad Daze: Some of the posi things happenin' would have to be people starting up new 'zines/bands and gig organizers looking into new venues. It's not as busy as it used to be, but hopefully things will get better.

Brainless Child: Is there any particular city/country in the world you would love to play in?

We would love to play virtually anywhere (even Levin) but preferably on a bill with heaps of other top bands, so we could check 'em out, which would probably have to be in the states somewhere. How about Western Springs guys??

Brainless Child: Right any future plans and anything else to add?

Salad Daze: Plans include a 12" EP out before the end of the year and a trip down to Wellington and New Plymouth. If one thing we wanna do is play more all age gigs. Thanks for the time and trouble for the interview.

I don't think the 12" EP came out but the band released three 7" EPs in total. The first one was also reviewed in Brainless Child.

Yeah, this is more like it. Four tracks of tight D.C. ish hardcore, with melody and power. The lyrics are in the inner/personal vein so that gets the thumbs up from me with the best tracks comin from 'Rain' and 'Fast Life'
Needs a fuller sound to make it top notch material, but I'm looking forward to more.

At one stage I owned all three salad daze 7"'s but in a bid to downsize, make a profit or de-punk I stupidly sold the lot of them. I recently found a taped copy of the first EP and agree that it needs a fuller sound however I'm a sucker for a chorus and would have picked 'Child Cannot Remain' as the standout song.

Salad Daze's second EP Gib was their finest moment in my opinion. It was put out on green vinyl only which probably has more appeal, simply due to the colour, to the record collector scum of today than the collector/fans at the time. There is an online copy on the new zealand Punk Archive page

Their next EP, Uncle Dad was heavily Fugazi influenced. Searching the web for info on Salad Daze turned up this recent photo of Simon Kay (the interviewee) and Ian Mckaye.



Kieren later went onto front another hardcore band called Balance I'm not sure exactly when drummer Luke Casey left Salad Daze but he played in a lot of bands but the most steady was The Nixons who later became Eye TV for legal reasons. Luke was replaced by Miles Gillet who went on to drum for San Diego pop punk band Fluf. Miles Gillet later that band to return to New Zealand when his father became ill.