Auckland trio Drill were formed in 1989, featured on the 1st ‘Freak the Sheep’ (bFM Kiwi radio station) compilation, put out the single ‘Happy Home’ and a self-titled album -all on Flying Nun Records in the mid 1990’s. The songs were collected from sessions going right back to 1990.
With the Mint Chicks breaking up in 2010 and Ruban Nielson going on to find success with Unknown Mortal Orchestra, former Mint Chicks vocalist Kody Nielson started recording new material as Opossom. The material seems to follow a fairly tight neo-psych-pop template popularized by the likes of Tame Impala and UMD, bouncy and catchy without setting the world on fire.
One off x-mas theme side-project (joke release?) from Toy Love’s Chris Knox and his soundman cohort Doug Hood (who both lived in Jessel Street in Grey Lynn, Auckland) featuring their partners Barbara Ward and Carol Hood. Sometimes credited to David Kilgour and Martin Phillips too.
Wonderful home-brewed recordings from Annabelle Alpers. Guitarist, keyboardist and singer-songwriter formerly of the supremely under-recognized Christchurch troop Hawaii Five-0. Her solo recordings are infused with electronic flourishes and wispy, emotive lyrics – but with a distinct and almost robotic approach to harmonic vocals.
Shaft is the long-standing vehicle of prominent song-writer Bob Cardy (aka Bob Brannigan), guitarist for the Axemen and a stalwart of the New Zealand underground scene. With a rotating cast of musicians backing him, Shaft always sounds like Shaft; a terrific band brimming with brilliant, dynamic and catchy songs.
An offshoot of Mobile Stud Unit, but with more serious intentions, The Nerve released a CD ‘Gobby’ in October 1995. The Nerve were Jamie Stone (guitar, vocals, synth, bass, slide guitar), Jocko Ellis (guitar, vocals), Jude Richards (bass, vocals) and Jamie Low (drums). They also have one song, Fat little fucker, on the Green Eggs and Hamilton compilation. The Nerve won the Contact 89FM Battle of the Bands in 1997. Jamie Stone went on to form Trucker.
Short-lived Industrial Punk from notable Palmerston North musician, venue owner / manager / promoter Dave White, with Zane Hookham and Rob Groats.
White was the manager of The Stomach, which served as the focal-point of Palmerston North’s underground music scene in the 1990’s and he self-produced and released their extremely rare 7″ single and 10″ EP lathe’s individually (with handmade covers) on old EMI blank acetates.
Wellington 1980’s Hair Metal group, played alongside the likes of Strikemaster and Knightshade (on the 3 band metal compilation ‘3 points of Metal’. Formed after the dissolution of popular group Rose Bayonet.
Christchurch-based pop-group, The Insurgents were the darlings of the all-ages scene courtesy of their involvement with Will Edmonds’ Out of Kilter. The original line-up of Young, Coffey and Ellis displayed a strong Brit-pop influence on Chris Young’s songs, whilst Mike Ellis added an element of US Indie-Pop to proceedings.
Ellis and Young have tremendous chemistry together, shaping their songs with perfect harmonies and huge hooks, whilst Coffey keeps things nice and tight.
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.
Production group that merged modern technology with visual elements and audience interactions. Key members Angus McNaughten would go on to form Unitone HiFi and Michael Hodgson is one half of Pitch Black.
Fairly rudimentary punk coming out of Wellington’s late 1970’s / early 1980’s Terrace scene. Famously organized the **** compilation – which is a pretty effective scene document.
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.
The starting point for two key members of the Christchurch Music Community, Pihed featured Andrew Penman (Salmonella Dub, bass and vocals) and Tom Mahon (The Strange Loves, guitar and vocals), along with Carolyn O’Neill (vocals), Bede Pascoe (keyboards), and Andrew Cavanagh (drums).