Pierced Arrows are ex-Dead Moon members, Fred and Toody Cole's new band. I've only ever heard one Dead Moon album and had never seen them live before despite the fact they've toured(yes, toured rather than just playing Auckland)New Zealand.
I decided to go and check this band out. I missed the support bands due to getting lost somewhere in Wellington so I have no idea what they were like. I very much doubt they were anywhere near as good as Pierced Arrows who rocked hard and would have been a very tough act to follow. The Wellington Dominion picked this as one of their gig choice despite featuring a large article about Kings of Leon.
I guess the music of Pierced Arrows could be described as folk influenced punk rock. If all bands who play this year have a show as good as Pierced Arrows 2008 will be a great year for touring bands.
I guess it should be noted that Pierced Arrows played a song for Craig Radford from Sticky Filth who let the band know of his presence(Sticky Filth toured with Dead Moon at least once in the past). I talked briefly with Craig and he said that there are plans for a new Sticky Filth single this year so that's definitely something else to look forward to.
My camera started playing up during this show so there may not be anymore of my photos or youtube clips on this blog for a little while.
Now for something completely different. While I was living in Taichung, Taiwan I lived not too far from a Live House which was an underground music venue that not many foreigners frequented. After watching a Japanese ska-punkers Double Negative and glam metal influenced rockers Trashbox a woman with a keyboard, a microphone and an anime painting, played. She stood out because her music was different from the four on floor rock band format and she was a small woman with a fantastic voice. After seeing Ryoko Mizoguchi play I got her to sign my CD. It's the first time I've ever done this but I had to get the female singer from Japanese hip-hop group Poplar translate for me. I really wanted to know the artist's English name and also wanted her to know I really liked her music.
Here's a snippet of an online English review I found
Mizoguchi's mini-album 1, 2 no 3 de is short, but then my five foot two inch tall mother always told me that the best things come in small packages, and after listening to this record over and over for the past few days I'm starting to think she may have been right all along. Armed mainly with a piano and a voice pitched somewhere between Kate Bush and Cerys Matthews, Mizoguchi has crafted a collection of songs that burrow themselves deeply within your subconscious, then keep bringing you back to them even when you know you ought to be listening to other things.
This 2007 Red Hot Pussy Liquor CD-R is one very impressive package presentation wise. The layout and design and lyric sheet rivals a lot of regular CD releases. I didn't realize it was a CD-R until I tried playing it on a CD player I have that refuses to play it.
In his excellent New Zealand music book Ready to Fly New Zealand music writer/poet/reviewer, David Eggleton wrote something along the lines that a lot of New Plymouth bands were influenced by heavy metal and were heavy on comic-shlock imagery. The cover to this CD carries on that tradition in fine form. Pussy, Drugs, Liquor, complaining neighbours are Red Hot Pussy Liquor's main lyrical themes.
On to the music, it's punk with a touch of a metal influence. The album was recorded live in one hour so there's very much a live feel to this release. To my ears the drums sound louder than they really should be in places but I suspect that's due to live recording. At times vocalist Grady Waite sounds a lot like Sticky Filth's Craig Radford but that's hardly a complaint.
The first song Live For One Day is a song that wouldn't sound out of place on a Sloppy Seconds album.
The band's theme song Red Hot Pussy Liquor is a raging chug-long sing-song. Pussy Liquor!! Smack the Bitch Back is a great revenge anthem. Some call me a loser. Some call me hardcore. I'm just glad I broke this motherfucker's jaw S.O.S. is a song where Grady's voice reminds me a lot of Sticky Filth. The chorus is catchy as hell. Suicidal Land shows the serious side of this band. This is another song that reminds me of Sloppy Seconds with a touch of the Ramones and sprinkle of Suicidal Tendencies. Wicked Wicked is one of the highlights. An ode to rock and roll and women that is bound to offend a few. 40 hour week is another highly catchy number about the futility of working life. Buteel street is the first song about a complaining item and there is a copy of the newspaper clip that this incident is about attached to the lyric sheet. Burn Mikey Burn is a highly catchy punk number that could either be about a boy racer or someone that has an expensive car for show rather than driving. I love the fast chorus. Drugs and Scum would be my pick for the best song on this release. The mixture of slow and fast parts are perfect.
A few of the song on this CD can be heard on Red Hot Pussy Liquor's myspace page
To order this release email demonnationmusic[AT]gmail.com
Happy New Year. After saying that music download file blogs suck I've decided to post an out of print album for download. So I guess my New Year's resolution is to stop saying things I will later contradict(actually it's not).
Anyway now that it's 2008 it's been 20 years since above pictured album was released. Dag Nasty were a highly influential pop-punk band during the 80s. Some credit them with being one of the originators of the emo movement. I first heard of Dag Nasty in the late 80s/early 90s due to pre-internet tape trading being one way of discovering new bands(to you). I was interested in hearing Minor Threat and was sent a tape with Dag Nasty's Wig Out at Denko's album because Dag Nasty featured ex-Minor Threat members. To my ears at the time, the more personal lyrics and punk sound crossed with pop was much more appealing than Minor Threat's straight edge thrash which had lyrics and a philosphy that meant nothing to me.
Eventually I discovered a double CD which had both Dag Nasty's Wig Out at Denko's album and Can I Say. Can I Say features Dave Smalley(who is now better known for fronting Down By Law) on vocals and retains a hardcore punk sound but Wig Out at Denko's has Peter Cortner on vocals and largely due to his vocals is more pop-orientated.
Dag Nasty had a reputation as a straight edge band partially due to having an ex-Minor Threat member. The Wig Out at Denko's song Crucial Three hints at the 'rules' of straight edge set down by Minor Threat. However during the time of Field Day Dag Nasty had decided to experiment with being coke-heads so some of the band's recording budget disappeared on 'inspiration'. At times it sounds like Peter Cortner is singing with a bad dose of the flu. However the song All Ages Show sounds like it could have come from Field Day and was my reason for searching high and low for this album. Field Day never earned Dag Nasty any money however Peter Cortner still receives royalties from Wig Out. The band cover The Ruts song Staring at the Rude Boys, Wire's 12XU (when the band played this live many people thought they were discovering the guitarist's better band as Minor Threat also covered the song. There are re-recordings of the songs I've Heard and Under Your Influence(which features a tacky Led Zeppelin 'baby baby' part) which originally appeared on Can I Say with Dave Smalley on vocals.
Field Day is very much a mixed bag of alternative/pop/punk/metal and at least one song sounds rooted in 80s glam metal. It seems fitting that guitarist Brian Baker joined the glam metal Junkyard a year after the recording of this album. After Dag Nasty finished touring this album they became more or less a studio band with Dave Smalley on vocals that seems to release an album every ten years.
I grabbed this CD when I saw Palmerston North band,Wall of Silents live at Valve in Wellington. It's definitely metal with a heavy punk and maybe death metal/grind influence. On their myspace page Wall of Silents claim BBlack Sabbath, Motorhead, Sticky Filth, High on Fire, Slayer, Exploited, Poison Idea, The Misfits, Turbonegro, Punk Rock, Hardcore, Heavy Metal, Stoner Rock, Doom, Horror movies, comics, and skulls as influences.
The CD opens with a sample from a horror movie which sets the feel of this CD then a sample from the cult movie, Repoman which gets the thumbs up here. The vocals of James Skeletor bring slower death metal bands like Obituary to mind or Lemmy doing imitation zombie vocals. The guitar sound is heavy on distortion and the drums thankfully don't go into all out thrash or death mode and give the music more of a rock/punk/metal feel. The production could be described as murky but it fits with the style of music. This is a CD to play loud. My picks for standout songs are Samurai, Fuck Off and Last House on The Left.
I was given this CD-R back in October by this Christchurch band after Wellington Punkfest 2007 when I gave them a lift in my car to their accommodation. After hearing an album of the UK's Oizone who are an oi band who mainly do Oi Boyzone covers plus a cover of Babybird's You're gorgeous I approached this CD with trepidation. My fears were misplaced unlike the Oizone CD this survives a number of listens. The band play Oi but don't quite measure up to Cock Sparrer or Sham 69(lets face it though, few oi bands do)however they're a tonne better than the ghastly Oizone. There is no imitation Cockney accent to be found as Ois 2 men frontman, Aidan probably couldn't hide his New Zealand accent if he tried which is a plus. The theme to Australian soap opera is sung in a pseudo Aussie accent though.
The lyrics are repetitive and work as chants as you would expect with an Oi band. Subject matter covers hunger after drinking, working on Mondays, telling both the boss and the cops to fuck off and beating up hippies. Samples come from The Simpsons and Romper Stomper and I don't doubt that the Romper Stomper soundtrack has been an influence on this band musically.
Another website states that the band's theme song Ois 2 men is a highligh but I found the CDs last two songs to be filler material. Hippie Stombie, Fuck The Cops and Fuck off Boss are my picks for song highlights.
This was a punk show I was really looking forward to. I'd been told last time I saw Sticky Filth play at the Royal in Palmerston North(sometime back in the early to mid-nineties)I was told Goat Fucking Nun Rapers were a New Plymouth band of kids who were well worth checking out. At least ten years have past and these guys still play the material they played when they were kids which they consider immature now and perhaps a little baffled by the fact that people liked it. Wellington two piece instrumental band, Thumper were meant to be the first band but they were a no-show. GFNR suggested it was because they'd heard GFNR were playing. I had heard GFNR's opening song Samantha Fox before but had no idea who it was by. Below is a clip of GFNR with their song One For The Gutter, One For The Road.
While I was watching GFNR from the bar the guy standing next to me asked what I thought of them. I said that I really liked them. He stated that they'd tamed down their stage act from sticking drum sticks up their asses and then said if I liked the band that was playing I'd love the next band Red Hot Pussy Liquor and said he was the singer. It turned out he was absolutely correct as I really enjoyed their set and bought their CD.
Below is a clip of their song Live For One Day
After the two New Plymouth bands were Wellington band Nonetheless who seemed more polished and melodic in style. I went and ate a kebab around the corner for most of their set and a fellow customer pointed out the Red Hot Pussy Liquor CD artwork in a complimentary way. Nonetheless were still playing when I got back and I remember enjoying hearing their song Hawaii again.
Above pic: Nonetheless
Next up were Horror Story who were the band most people had come to see although due to another show happening right next door quite a few people had left by the time they came on. They played a solid and enjoyable set. I really like hearing Rock and Roll Frankenstein live at the moment. No photos or youtube clips as the undead don't show up well on film and best seen in the flesh.
