The Winebirds - Seance Hill

Indie folksters Winebirds herald from Portland, Oregon and are made up of two girls and three guys and make the most of this line-up vocally with male and female vocals. The female vocals dominate and at times bring to mind the strenth of the harmonies are reminiscent ofThe Corrs.

It's not all female vocals though there's a Mick Jagger style rasping at the forefront on "The Solution" and "Out in The Van which the accompanying female voice softens. Upbeat chirpy female voice lend "Hit Machine" a happy indie pop feel. "Tideman" sways in and out with searching melacholic undertones. That one song is titled "Cassandra" offers a clue as "Vanity" travels back from modern folk to the sixties courtesy of Mamas and The Papas. To say that Jagger style vocals take the role of Nancy Sinatra's boots and walk all over the song is understating it.

While the switch between female and vocals often doesn't work for me and the band's direction is uncertain. Possibly this is simply because "Seance Hill" doesn't really fit with my usual listening diet so I can't identify find a bad song on it. It'll be interesting to see which direction this band go in the future.

3/5

The Winebirds on myspace.

Ninjas!

If you're over thirty you can probably when the abbreviation FTW was somewhat shocking. With a change of pace, psychobillies from the Rising Sun, Battle of the Ninjamanz are living within that time period. What they lack in imagination they make up for in pace whether this is a good or bad thing is up to the listener personally I think it's a good thang.

Ninjas are better than Pirates.

GBH San Francisco Bathhouse, Wellington 8 october

NB: Click on the pics for a larger version.


Haven't really seen a whole lot of bands over the last couple of years but decided I'd go and see GBH despite it being well over ten years since I'd even listened to one of those albums and in those days it would have been "City Baby Attacked by Rats" and "Leather, Bristles, Studs and Acne" on cassette.

First band up were Shut the Hell Up, who were playing their second to last show and it was my first time ever seeing them. They played punk rock 'n' roll type stuff so I liked them more than I would have cared for any new hardcore band.




Above: Shut The Hell Up

Black Lick were up next and had a clearer sound and made good use of samples and a rumbling Motorhead style bass combined with pummeling drums.



Above: Black Lick

Gripper made their way out of their retirement home in the South Island in Nelson due to Sticky Filth not being able to play. Like last time I saw them, Gripper were a lot of fun accompanied with great banter and introduced themselves at GBH at one point.



Above pic: Gripper

GBH then took the stage and proceed to rip through their catalogue with a lot of material from Leather, Bristles, Studs and Acne" and "City Baby Attacked By Rats" plus a few songs from their new album "Perfume and Piss". I remember reading a review of one of the band's London shows in the magazine Metal Forces about twenty years ago which stated that Colin was one of the best frontmen in punk rock and twenty or so years on it's hard to argue as his onstage energy puts an awful lot of younger bands to shame. The band ended their set with a cover of The Clash's "White Riot" and left the stage ignoring encore chants. A twenty-something year old in an Anti-flag T-shirt who knew two GBH songs before seeing them stated that it was the best 90 minutes of his life and more than a few much older would have agreed though probably questioned why a band with a strong catalogue played a Clash cover.

The Monks

I bought this from the Matsu Temple in the small town of Tachia in Taiwan. Every year the town comes alive with people and fireworks due to the Matsu parade. Depending on your mood towards crowding and fireworks, it can be great or terrible.
Anyway I find out the name of this CD years later and it turns out that this is Monks chanting a mantra and it's called Sahasrabhujasahasranetra.

Chant.

Trusty - Sugar Smack

You know how they have out-takes on DVD's and often it's stuff that isn't quite good enough or the actors are goofing around and fluffing up their lines or expressions. If Trusty's Sugar Smack were parts from a movie, a lot of it would have made it to a movie. Unfortunately a lot of this material got lost in moving or some such story. It's not bad but due to the band changing style, the progression's not quite there as this is a mixture of the band's more hardcore material and punk-pop bordering more on pop.

Smack.

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.

A reader's re-repost request

A fair while ago I posted Arkansas band Trusty's A Name You Can Depend On from before the days they signed to Dischord records. Most of the songs off that single can be heard on their myspace page.

Here is Trusty's pre-Dischord single compilation album, The Paul Years. The album is available on cd through amazon but the cheapest price is U.S. $44. It's 23 songs of eighties melodic hardcore in the vain of early 7 seconds. Brushback in his excellent One Base On an Overthrow blog pointed out the whole Dischord catalogue is now available download which includes two Trusty albums.

Get it. Warning: It's big at 139 MB and won't last long.