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Constant Pain

The Verlaines

Formed in late 1980, The Verlaines is Graeme Downes’ long-standing song-writing vehicle, and one-hell of a brilliant, literate band at that. With the classic early 1980’s line-up of Downes on guitar and vocals, Alan Haig on drums and Jane Dodd on bass, the Verlaines released excellent singles such as ’10 O’Clock In The Afternoon’ from the EP of the same name, and of course their signature tune ‘Death And The Maiden’, which stands as one of the true kiwi classics.

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King Loser

Led by the dynamic duo of Celia Mancini and Chris Heazlewood, New Zealand’s surf and noise guitar gods King Loser were one of the best local groups for much of the 1990’s with 3 terrific albums and a handful of singles and bootleg releases before their split in 1997.

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Cease to Exist

Presumably named after a song by notorious cult leading serial killer (and Beach Boys collaborator) Charles Manson. One of Duane Zarakov, Celia Mancini and Brother Love’s many psychedelic rock acts – this time a Christchurch-based group who were around during 1991 (after the demise of The Axel Grinders, but before Space Dust and King Loser) and recorded a single cassette EP.

#nzmusic #undergroundmusic #ceasetoexist #theaxelgrinders #kingloser #spacedust

Constant Pain

Constant Pain were a sadly under-recorded group featuring brilliant underground noisy guitar legends Cameron Bain and Roddy Pain, along with a revolving drummers seat of some of New Zealand’s finest drummers. Walls of wailing feedback and rolling rhythm drive some immense tunes. Both guitarists passed away in the 2010’s.

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Snapper

The key group of New Zealand underground legend Peter Gutteridge (despite being a founding member of BOTH the Clean and the Chills). Snapper made driving, droning guitars-infused with synths post-punk throughout the 1980s and 1990s before Gutteridge disappeared from the public eye.

Figure 60

Heavy free-noise-metal from Auckland 3, occasionally expanded to a 4 piece with the addition of Constant Pain’s Cameron Bain.

Cameron Bain

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.

Crawlspace

Not-quite defunct label based out of an Auckland record store that put out several limited edition underground releases in the 90s and early 00s. One compilation of this material (Fit for Kings) was actually issued on well-known US indie Drunken Fish.

Since the closure of the Crawlspace record store, Crawlspace have been limited to short one-off 7″ releases and casually distribution through mail-order and the K-road market. Truly worth visiting, the market is the place to go to find one-off Snapper and Victor Dimisich Band 7″s, and a variety of abstract low run vinyl releases and even imports.

Mothertrucker

Biography Celia Mancini‘s post King Loser band, consisting of herself on vocals and guitar and various other contributors such as Clayton Noone, Cameron Bain (formerly of Constant Pain) and many others, as the band had trouble keeping line-ups. More heavy metal… Read More »Mothertrucker

Brother Love

Biography Fuzzy, bluesy Rock’n’Roll from Martin Henderson, aka Brother Love. Henderson has lent his name to a number of groups (‘The Homebacon Gang’, ‘The Second Hand Emotions’, The Free Association’, His Dark Horses’, ‘His Far Out Space Nuts’ etc), featuring… Read More »Brother Love

The Renderers

The Renderers are New Zealand’s prime example of southern-fried country, and are indeed one of our finest ever bands. Brian Crook formed the Renderers with his partner Maryrose in early 90’s Christchurch when The Max Block failed to go anywhere,… Read More »The Renderers

Space Dust

Biography A Christchurch institution of absent idols (only John Christoffels still resides in the garden city from the classic line-up), dating back to 1993 but seldom surfacing more than a single gig every couple of years. The group was original… Read More »Space Dust