Cancer Maidens - Insects of Sound

Cancer Maidens were a Palmerston North band from the mid-nineties featuring members of Earwigs Under Fire/Feast of Stephens and Ross Harkness from Foisemaster. Earwigs Under Fire and Feast of Stephens were pop bands with a sound not too far from the poppier Flying Nun records bands.

Ross had a reputation as being a lunatic and a huge vinyl fanatic. I once witnessed him getting stuck into a record clerk at one of Palmerston North's music shops, which was once called the Record Hunter, due to not being able to buy a Butthole Surfers vinyl. They were definitely an influence on the Cancer Maidens. Written in type on the CD are the immortal words "I wish this was a vinyl record".

The first song mentions fellow local bands ,State of Hate(due to drummer, Ham committing suicide) and Wholesale Drainage who may or may not have been important factors on the sound of the Cancer Maidens. James Bond author Ian Fleming also pays a couple of visits.

Shaken not stirred

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.

Pseudopodia

All small towns have a mystery band. The band you never seemed to catch yet their name is on every second show or they recorded and split up after recording leaving no evidence of members names on their recorded product. On this four Palmerston North band compilation from 1992, Sausage Roll are such a band. Musically they take their cue from Velvet Underground, Violent Femmes, Camper Van Beethoven and other things brought to us by the letter V.

The first band Rake were heavily influenced by Big Black. I remember seeing them many moons ago on a cool mismatched bill with Eye TV when they were The Nixons. Rake and industrial band, Froithead shared a drummer at the time of this comp. A friend of mine reviewed this release for the Manawatu Standard and upset the drummer by describing Froithead as industrial. Unfortunately the paper wouldn't allow the word "shit" in their review section. Chances are if you like Crass and lisping female singers shouting over noise and loops you may actually like them. Ethiopian Lard Farmers are punk and in places, Paul Morris aka Boris sounds a little like Keith Morris of The Circle Jerks. Each band gets roughly a sixteen minute quarter before taking a break.



Get it.

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.

Flamin' Werepigs - Hellway to High LP (Kato Records)

I found this Kato records vinyl release of Palmerston North's garage rock band, The Flamin' Werepigs at Slowboat records in their rare and interesting bin. It turns out it's not really all that rare as Kato records, Smokecds and a few other places have mail order copies.

The band is fronted by veteran Palmerton punk band frontman, Boris (ex-Ethiopian Lard Farmers, Blunt etc) and helping out on Drums is Sowboy Badger(who fronted the Ashvins )who supported ALL when they played at the stomach.
The two other members go by the alisases of Rev. M.Pune(guitar) and Puck Weiner(drums). One reviewer at Savage Magazine states that The Flamin' Werepigs sound a lot like The Datsuns annother says it sounds like The Scientists mixing hard rock. As these guys were knocking around in the late 90s, I'd guess The Datsuns comparison is used because they're the New Zealand garage band most people know. The Scientists comparison is more accurate. This is far more lo-fi and there are a few AC/DC hard rock blues swagger riffs here and there however on my first listen John Spencer Blues Explosion came to mind although The Flamin' Werepigs budget was obviously far lower. I wish the vocals had been stronger but ultimately who cares when the overall lo-fi sound is actually very good.

As this has Kato Music 002 I guess it was the Andrew Tolley (ex-Hasselhoff Experiment)'s label second release. Good on him for getting it out.

Motorsheep - The Passionless is Fearless

Years before the internet I was tape-trading as a way to hear new music. I often traded tapes with Kelvin from Levin who also put out the Brainless Child fanzine which interviewed many New Zealand punk bands including TAB and Salad Daze. I discovered a lot of new punk bands that I still listen to and love today such as Descendents, Leatherface, Snuff, Sloppy Seconds etc through trading tapes with Kelvin.


Kelvin was also in a band called Motorsheep. I suspect the band name was taken from Jello Biafra's Name for Bands rants on his spoken word album No More Cocoons. While Motorsheep were based in Levin they released a cassette called The Mot or She EP. Later in the piece the band moved to Palmerston North. Many members seemed to come and go but bass player, Jarrod and guitarist, Kelvin were always the main members of Motorsheep.
The band released two red and blue 7"s with a pressing of 500 each.

Pinochet/Moisture(blue vinyl) was a personal favourite. This 7" featured Scott on vocals and Kevin on drums. The song Pinochet received a of airplay on the local student radio station, Radio Massey and was extremely catchy. (If anyone has a copy I'd be interested in buying it) Later Ryskie played the drum and American import Justus took over on vocals. This line-up recorded the red vinyl, Incomplete Loser 4 song 7". Scott's vocals differed greatly to Justus despite both being somewhat melodic and for some reason or another I never saw the band live with Justus. The band got it together to record a full length CD which, in a city like Palmerston North in the 90s where many bands popped up and then disappeared almost straight away, is no small feat.

On their myspace page Motorsheep describe their sound as skapunkthrashjazznoisedubshit and a few of the bands songs can be heard there as well.

The band's CD The Passionless are Fearless can be downloaded here. I've used MP3 format instead of WMA since I've recently worked out how. Enjoy.

Wall of Silents - Wall of Silents CD-R 2005

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.

Some of the bands older and more recent material can be heard on their myspace page

This CD is NZ $10 from the band. For more info email the band wallofsilentsATslaveDOTcoDOTnz

Massacre at Mode Palmerston North Nov 10 2007

Headed back to the hometown for this show. Hamilton band The Bludgers pulled out leaving the show down to four bands which is a better number in my mind. Bar Mode isn't really a great venue being a converted nightclub and having windows which see out into the carpark (parking lot for any Americans reading this). However I appreciate that there is the option of watching a band from an upstairs position. Bar mode really needs curtains across some of the windows when bands play as the cars outside can be distracting. I was far from being the out of towner.

Local boysThe Neckstretchers started the night off with their garage punk rock. First time I'd seen these guys. I wouldn't be surprised if these boys owned every Motorhead and MC5 album and I'd guess all the stuff by The Datsuns and The D4 too. The frontman's gymnast on speed antics were amusing. He kept doing handstands and flips. The lap of bar mode which included a bartop move which put those Coyote Ugly girls to shame. Really, it was just a bartop sprint which was part of a lap of the entire bar. It was something I've never seen any frontman do before.





Above: The Neckstretchers

The Neckstretchers song Astropoker Gimme The Future which sounds demo quality can be found on their Myspace page



Next up were more Palmerston North locals in the form of Black Chrome and they were great as usual. They do seem to be getting heavier with the two guitar sound now. I think they're now incapable of playing a bad show. Black Chrome play melodic Punk Rock. The band claim Turbonegro
,Social Distortion, Flesh D-Vice ,Leatherface, Ramones, Backyard Babies, AC/DC, Nashville Pussy,Misfits and The Beatsteaks as influences.



Pic: Black Chrome

Here's a youtube clip of Black Chrome playing My Band at this show




Black Chrome can also be heard on their myspace page.


Horror Story from New Plymouth were great too. They played with their original bassist, Semp. Their type of Horror Punk has most thinking of The Misfits but there's definitely a Cramps influence in there too. Horror Story playing one of their slower songs that night can be seen in the youtube clip below.





Horror Story can be heard on their myspace page or their full 2001 album, Monsterpiece can be downloaded here

The cops showed up just before the local politically incorrect named The Bali Bombers played. As the terrorist suppression act doesn't work they used the city liquor band as a reason to do paperwork. Someone told me the Bali Bombers new guy, Jason on drums was awesome, I'd never seen The Bali Bombers before and I was blown away by the whole band. One of the previous drummers is now a guitarist in the hardcore punk band Gaylordz. I'd guess the Bali Bombers are influenced by a whole gamut of punk. Going on Band T-shirts you'd pick Arch Enemy, Sick of It All and Agnostic Front as influences but actually listening to the band you can hear Slayer, Black Sabbath, UK Subs; The Exploited; GBH; Discharge; Circle Jerks; Black Flag and Anti-Nowhere League The Bali Bombers can be heard on their



Pic: The Bali Bombers

A Youtube clip of the Bali Bombers playing at Massacre of Mode can be seen here.

It should be mentioned that Craig, the Horror Story drummer has an excellent streaming radio show of New Plymouth based punk and metal bands which can be found on his website.

Click NPROCKROCKNROLL radio. I highly recommend checking out 1080 and Nefarious.