Since forming their first band in High School back in Dunedin, the duo of Michael Prain and Andrew Wilson have been consistently at the forefront of New Zealand independent music. Die! Die! Die! formed in 2003 as an Auckland-based post-punk group with an explosive, propulsive sound and excellent songs.
Dunedin mid-90s experimental trio with a handful of impossible to find releases, including a lathe on Crawlspace, and 2 releases on drummer Stefan Neville’s own ‘A Stabbies and the Rocket Recording’ label.
Experimental music from Nick Hodgson (later known as Nick Harte), High Tension House’s Hamish Noonan and Tim McDonald. Scattered drums and treated guitars form a free-noise vibe that’s not entirely unpleasant
Monkey records is an independent record label, founded mid-2000, dedicated to releasing and promoting New Zealand based artists of an innovative or experimental nature.
Youthful New wave pop group who put out an album in 1987 on Auckland label Ode Records before disappearing. Frontman Neil de Jong would resurface in another short-lived group (Voodoo Love); however the most well-known group he’s associated with would be Alien Weapony, as brothers Henry and Lewis de Jong are his songs, and he’s assisted as a live sound engineer and manager for the group.
The Clean have left a giant stamp on New Zealand Independent Music. The group that came to define ‘The Dunedin Sound’ had a terrific topsy-turvy career that spanned 5 albums and a number of EPs, singles, compilations and live releases over a 31 year time-span.
Jangly indie-rock 4 piece from early 1980’s Christchurch. During their life they put out a well-received 7″ single on Flying Nun before going their separate ways. Failsafe Records released a retrospective compilation of their recordings in 2021.
Mid 1990s rock’n’roll outfit from Andrew Tolley, before he found fame with The Hasselhoff Experiment. Tolley formed the group with This will kill that drummer Andrew Goodchild, before expanding the band to a 4 piece (and both Tolley and Goodchild switching to guitar).
Jawload were based in Wellington and released an album and two singles on Tolley’s own Kato Records label.
An Iggy Pop and the Stooges obsessed proto-punk outfit from the early 80s. After recording New Zealand’s very first full-length punk LP (1981’s ‘Let there be noise’) the group morphed into The Henchmen.
Open-plan two-story Cafe on a (previously) busy corner in central Christchurch – Java was a quirky place with a colorful interior, good coffee and food. When Cafe’s were starting to explode in the late 90’s, Java was one of the places to be for young people in Christchurch.
Wellington based garage surf-punk band headed up by Marty Squire (guitar/vocals) wit brothers Dave (drums) and Luke Benge (keyboards), and Jules Desmond (bass). Formed from the ashes of Letterbox Lambs.
Had one catchy single ‘We Ride Tonight’ released as a New Zealand On Air music video
3 piece featuring Paul Toohey, later of K-Group – freeform Wellington-based experimentation using:
Synth drones, guitars and mutilated electronic debris to create a soundspace where layers of distortion, hum and buzz hang like veils in the air, each disrupting the aural view of the layer beneath, without completely obscuring it from audibility
– Bruce Russell
Hamilton-based former Datura multi-instrumentalist Craig Williamson has released an ever-growing discography of solo albums since Datura’s demise in the late 1990s, originally under his own name, but now under the bizarre hippy-pseudonym Lamp of the Universe.
Between stints in King Loser, Snapper and a million other bands, Cameron Bain released a 7″ release on Stella Corkery and Alan Holt’s excellent Pink Air label.
One-half of the oft-referenced, seldom heard Constant Pain. Bain passed away in 2014.
Christchurch-based art-rock group from the mid 1980’s who put out one EP on Bill Direen’s South Indies label. Several members came from low-key Flying Nun acts Mainly Spaniards and Ballon D’Essai.