Celia Mancini’s ‘lounge band in the ’80s.’ A Christchurch-based group that played a variety of upmarket events with Mancini fronting a killer backing band. Unknown for many years, a recording of Bobby Hebb’s ‘Sonny’ on the excellent ‘The Celia Mancini Tapes’ posthumous release in 2018.
#nzmusic #celiamancini #theafterdinnermints
The Axel Grinders were a hard-edged rock’n’roll group with touch of humour, formed by future King Loser members Celia Patel (aka Celia Mancini), Pat Faigan (Duane Zarakov) and Martin Henderson (Brother Love), with John Markie (John Segovia) and Phil Ascott. Their recordings were finally made freely available in 2014.
#nzmusic #theaxelgrinders #kingloser
Biography Haunting improvised soundscapes of dueling bass and guitar with brief smatterings of samples thrown in at just the right moments. Sumac Records Members Discography Links
Excellent instrumentalist trio from the garden city formed by Matt Craw (guitar), James Musgrave (bass), and Jared Kelly (drums) in early 2005. Taking cues from a variety of informed directions, the group were prolific features of the local live scene, and attached themselves to both R18 and all-age crowds with varying success. Playing an involved instrumental sound heavy on dynamics.
The very wayward guitar/electronics duo that eventually gave birth to Birchville Cat Motel.
Beguiling atonal plonkery and profound multi-stringed shingle slides by two irrepressible young guns utterly oblivious to the fact that most people wanted to stone them to death with spare change. I can’t believe we did this in public.
The And Band were an outgrowth of influential but undiscovered Wellington punk-oddities The Spies. When feed up with the limitations of the Wellington scene, the band, along with several of their friends relocated to a small Christchurch flat, sharing a recording space (and the actual 4-track) with Perfect Strangers.
In 2004 I (Chris Andrews) compiled a 4-song EP of original recordings and got them pressed in the very limited capacity of 20 copies through Peter King, down in Mt. Somers (in a single day!, June 24th 2004), each with a unique cover and hand-numbered. The music contained within varies between low-key melodic trembling’s on the a side, to caustic, but carefully controlled feedback-entrenched drones and shards of sound (extracted with the help of Cubase’s many distortion tools – from a bass guitar) on the b of an 8″ lathe-cut.
One of Bruce Russell’s (Dead C) and Alastair Galbraith’s darkest outfits, often dealing with distinct imagery and motif’s in their music and especially pronounced in their liner notes (most of which are distributed through Russell’s Corpus Hermeticum label).
Formed by the duo in Dunedin in 1984, and primarily a free noise group. Though primarily a duo, Peter Stapleton had been a regular contributor from 1993 until his passing in March 2020.
Ira Robbins (Trouser Press): “A jazzy-cum-classical nine-person ensemble with clarinets, cello, tuba and bassoon (in addition to guitar, bass and drums), New Zealand’s determinedly oddball Avant Garage sounds like something Zappa might have done in his Dada orchestral phase.”
Biography Christchurch hard-rock-with-female-vocals type group from the mid 00’s. Members Discography Links
Biography Dark Xpressway post-punk outfit featuring Rachel Shearer (Lovely Midget), Michael Morley (The Dead C, Wreck Small Speakers on Expensive Stereos), Stella Corkery and Deborah Hinden. Pretty much in the same vein (and influenced by) other port-chalmers based bands of… Read More »Angelhead
Biography Mysterious pseudo-metal outfit on Hawkes Bay based Hit Your Head Music. Their details and album names all seem to be written / described in rune-style letters – not exactly documentation friendly. The Hammer has crafted a live set which… Read More »Angel Hammer
Biography Wellington based rock’n’roll 4-piece who evolved out of the Shining Path, originally with the line-up of Marty Squire (Guitar/Vocals – Formerly Of D-Super), John Douglas (Bass – Ex-Marineville), Kirsty (Organ) and and the show-stealing Ricky Boyd (Drums – Ex-Canvas).… Read More »The Accelerants
Biography One of Bill Direen‘s many groups from the early 1980’s, with a young Maryrose Crook (of the Renderers) on Bass, Stu Page (The Axemen) on Drums and Bill’s partner Carol on Keyboards. Members Bill Direen (Vocals/Guitar, 1983) Stu Page… Read More »Above Ground
Biography Graham Carman (Bass, Vocals), Russ Mattar (Drums), Lance Wiltshire (keyboards, Vocals) and Greg White (Vocals, Guitar). Released a single and an EP on Jayrem in 1984. Members Graham Carman (Bass, Vocals, 1984) Russ Mattar (Drums, 1984) Lance Wiltshire (Keyboards,… Read More »Actors