From: higham@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: alt.music.alternative
Subject: Re: Flying Nun bands
Date: 31 Aug 92 12:05:07 +1200
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

In article <1992Aug29.195201.559@athena.mit.edu>, ben@athena.mit.edu (Ben) writes:
> Sean's paragraph was sort of accurate. Basically, most Flying Nun records are 
> some variation of guitar-jangle-pop, and most are good; some are one but not 
> the other (not janglepop but good, or janglepop but bad) and a few are 
> neither janglepop nor good. Fortunately the lousy Flying Nun records-- 
> defunct bands like the Fold (Cure wannabes from Wellington) and Fetus 
> Productions (bad industrial music, NOT the Jim Thirlwell outfit with the same 
> name) basically never turn up in record stores in the Western Hemisphere, so 
> if that's where you happen to live, buying almost anything on FN or X/Way 
> is a fairly good bet.
> 	Chainsaw Masochist, however, suck. 
> 	I wish to contribute to the Straitjacket Fits debate by agreeing that 
> "Down In Splendor" was a great song, but wondering whether the next SJF 
> will be any good, seeing as how most of Melt was so damned slick. And 
> "Randolph's Going Home" was the best song Shayne Carter has ever been 
> involved with, beating out even "Some Fantasy."

The new SJF record was on video on TV FM last night, called "DONE" its an EP I
think. Anyway, Shayne got his shirt off a la Red Hot Chillis. The song was
really excellent, much harder edged than the last album with a cool hook and
nice fits riff to carry it along.

> 	As for the Headless Chickens, I'm told that their last record, 
> Cruise Control, was a #1 dance hit in NZ- is this true? Yes, as of now 
> they are a rote-industrial-dance outfit and I can't stand 'em. However,

Yeah, it was a big hit here as is the followup "Donde esta la Pollo". I saw
them in Hamilton when they played here and I thought they were pretty crappy. 

> their first (self-titled) EP was genuinely interesting synth-plus-guitar 
> experimental rock- put me in mind of Recommended Records- with at least 
> one great tune, "Totalling Dad's Car." After they recorded this EP and 
> began work on their next one, chief songwriter Johnny Pierce died, and 
> they slowly became a dance group. Johnny Pierce also played on at least 
> one This Kind of Punishment record, along with group mainstays Peter and 
> Graeme Jeffries. And anyone who hasn't heard the new Peter Jeffries and 
> Robbie Muir double 7" on Ajax should shut off her modem right now and 
> mail Ajax Records a check for $3.50 plus postage, because it may well be 
> the 7" record of the year. Which in turn allows me to ask all of you to 
> whom this is not news: What band was Robbie Muir in? I have no idea.

Robbie was in the RIP when I was a runt in Dunedin but like every other muso
there he's played with almost everyone else at some stage.

> 	Whew! 
> 	To the guy who hates FN jangle music- 1. If you take all the bands 
> you named as good (which, for you, seems to mean harsh'n'loud) in NZ and 
> divide by the population, that's still a pretty good music-to-people 
> ratio relative to any other country I can think of. 2. Do you like the
> Dead C? 3. How can you reconcile your love for Bailterspace/Gordons, your
> hatred of the Clean and everything derived from them, and the fact that 
> Hamish Kilgour used to play in Bailterspace? 4. And what about the 3Ds?
> 	Has anyone seen those Flying Nun trading cards?
> 	Still waiting for Able Tasmans LP review and/or Bilderine discography.
> 	To the person (I forget your name) who owned only one Verlaines CD 
> and thought the Chills and the Bats were a lot better- WHICH ONE WAS IT? 
> They've all got excellent songs somewhere on 'em, but by far the most 
> consistent is the Juvenilia LP (homestead, 1987) which collects their early 
> singles and the 10:00 in the Afternoon EP, as far as I'm concerned among the 
> top 3 or 4 records ever to emerge from the South Island-- maybe "ever to 
> emerge," period.
> 	The new Dead C live LP is called Clyma Est Mort (It's Never )Live, and 
> I like it, or parts of it, more than any other Dead C I've heard.
-- 
Tom Higham,		        "If ever somethin' don't feel right to you,     
Radiocarbon Dating Lab,	        remember what Pancho said to the Cisco Kid:
University of Waikato,	        'Let's went, before we are dancing at the
Hamilton,		        end of a rope, without music.'"  
NEW ZEALAND.		                   Sailor Ripley, "wild at heart".
Higham@waikato.ac.nz
			  
Newsgroups: alt.music.alternative