Double Happys brought together former Bored Games bandmates Shayne Carter and Wayne Else – originally with an unreliable drum-machine (named ‘Herbie Fuckface’), but eventually replaced with their High School friend John Collie. A wonderful, sometimes confrontational group who came to a tragic conclusion with the accidental death of Wayne Elsie in June 1985.
Throwback to the October 2008 (15 years ago!) Borderline Ballroom show at the Christchurch Media Club. Performances by Birchville Cat Motel, Antony Milton, Peter Wright and Sally Ann McIntyre DJing.
Clangy Auckland post-punk / indie-pop from the mid 1980’s. Released a brash, tuneful and fun LP-sized EP on Meltdown Records in 1987 before going their separate ways.
The Cartilage Family were a short-lived Dunedin group featuring Peter Gutteridge (and a bunch of his best early songs), Shayne Carter, Lesley Paris and Francisca Griffin. No official recordings exist and they only performed live twice; but the Cartilage Family were an important stepping stone for New Zealand Music.
Noisy Dunedin rock group formed by Ex-Alpaca Brothers Bruce Blucher and Paul Cahill. Robbie Yeats was their primary drummer, but their recordings feature contributions from a number of well-known underground performers. Released 3 albums and a couple 7″ singles.
Excellent Dunedin 4-piece with a stellar line-up. Dark, noisy guitar and driving rhythm, but sadly only a single hard-to-find album (plus a couple 7″ singles) to their name. Closely tied to Bruce Blucher concurrent band Trash.
Christchurch eletro-pop troop that burst onto the All-Ages scene with the super-fun home-recorded MySpace single (‘Nikee’) and then a flurry of live shows, including achieving success as a wildcard entry in the Smoke-Free Rock-Quest regional finals. An exciting mix of electronics, guitar and pulsating rhythm, Bang! Bang! Eche! are Charlie Ryder (guitar), James Sullivan (Drums), T’Nealle Worsley (Bass) and Zach Doney (Vocals / Effects).
Flashback to August 26th, 2012. Photos from an All Plastics house party, celebrating the release of Shacklock Meth Party’s album with Zen Mantra, Ipswich, Anthony Drent and Raygun.
Rhett has since deleted most evidence of the band (and all his other bands) from the web, so it’s a bit of a blind alley.
Cool photos though.
Indie pop-rock out of Christchurch based around Joe Sampson (guitar / vocals / keys / bass etc) with James Sullivan (drums) and Ben Ordering (bass) on most of their recordings.
Strong on melody with big chiming guitar and unfussy rhythmic backing, their songs have a timeless quality to them – sometimes jangling, sometimes driving, and with Sampson’s powerful guitar playing always ready to attack.
Christchurch-based 4-piece mixing up a bit of Dunedin-jangle, punk vocal attitude and Krautrock or post-punk groovy rhythms. A superb band of musically gifted individuals producing catchy and at times challenging music.
Fronted by Stephen Nouwens with the very handy Brian Feary on the drums, Joe Sampson on guitar and Ben Odering on bass. Feary and Sampson created the Melted Ice Cream label to release the bands recordings, and subsequently the label has become a big part of Christchurch’s underground music community.
Doctors was a slick and prolific band formed by Christchurch musician Rhett Copland who put out a whole heap of releases between 2009 and 2012, however Copland has now disappeared from the web, deleting all the previously available releases.
Sadly defunct fun surf-guitar trio from Christchurch who released a handful of live recordings on BandCamp before moving on.
Brash, noisy, post-Earthquake Christchurch group who made a bit of a splash with the ‘Welcome to Mediocrity’ release on local label Melted Ice Cream in 2012.
Flashback to Japanese experimental noise legend Merzbow playing Dux Live in Noverember 2013, alongside Rotorua’s Acclimate and Christchurch’s own Stanier-Black Five.
Christchurch power-pop Pop Mechanix began their life as ‘Splash Alley’. They built up a strong reputation locally and around the country with Dick Driver (and later, Peter McLennan) as front-man; but never quite made it to the next level in Australia.