Say Yes To Apes were a loose, noisy, often sloppy and usually creative Dunedin-then-Christchurch-based underground rock outfit formed by frontman Kevin Smith (several years before his acting career took off), drummer Pat Faigan (aka Duane Zarakov of Space Dust, King Loserand multi-instrumentalist Steve Watson, born out of the earlier Picnic Boys.
Biography Straitjacket Fits were a corner stone in New Zealand independent rock from their formation in 1986 till their inevitable break-up in February 1994. Though predominantly a kiwi indie-rock group, they were at times dissonant (and incredibly loud), hiding their… Read More »Straitjacket Fits
Marginal Era were a synth and based-driven pop act formed in 1981 by song-writer Warwick Paul Agar (ex Vivid Militia).
Probably best known for ‘This Heaven’, originally an instrumental track that would later become the theme to the popular ‘Radio with Pictures’ television show.
#nzmusic #marginalera
Fuzzy guitar-rock with surf-trash overtones from Stink Magnetic one-man band (and purveyor of classic New Zealand guitars) Aidan Moody; formerly of super-group The Dallas Pro-Drag Allstars. Moody started out in the Manawatu region but moved to Christchurch around 2006.
Expanded to a 3-piece for a handful of shows with support from ‘The Dirty Germs’, a pickup group featuring the likes of his Grand Chancellors bandmate Luke Wood (drums) Violet French (bass) and others.
#nzmusic #badevil #stinkmagnetic
3-piece indie-rock group formed by the Melted Ice Cream label’s Brian Feary in August 2009. Though connected to the label the trio never recorded and released any material, with Feary playing in a whole swag of other groups.
#nzmusic #magiceye
Palmerston North indie-rock 3-piece featuring ex-members of Foisemaster, Feast of Stevens and Shoeshine. Appeared on ‘Swamp MUSAK’, a compilation of local groups compiled and distributed by Radio Control 99.4 (Massey University’s student radio station).
Ross Harkness passed away in May 2020.
#nzmusic #cancermaidens
Christchurch free-noise group featuring future Breathing Cage bandmates Greg Malcolm and Michael Kime, plus Into the Void’s Paul Sutherland and the drums of John Kennedy.
#nzmusic #dontmakenoise
Christchurch-based indie-rock group that formed the Beat Atlas Records label, then relocated to London. 20 years later they resurfaced, contributing a couple of faithful covers to 2 distinct Galaxie 500 tribute albums.
#nzmusic #upperiscope #beatatlasrecords
Excellent Christchurch shoegaze / electronic group with a unique, spacey sound. Released an EP and 2 7″ lathe cut singles on the Beat Atlas imprint in the late 1990’s before going their seperate ways.
#nzmusic #barnardsstar
Wellington-based electronic / art-music group from the mid 1980’s who recorded and released their debut 12″ ‘Polarities’ with the assistance of a QEII Arts Council grant under the Demonstration Recording Subsidy Scheme. Formed by New York-born classical composer Jonathan Besser and former Victoria University lecturer and composer Ross Harris.
#nzmusic #freeradicals
Molly Says Go were a young, frenetic and super-productive Christchurch-based Ska-Punk who formed in 1996, and played all around Canterbury and some shows in the North Island.
Split an album with Wellington’s Channel Thirteen in 2001 or Palmerston North punk-focused label Stakeout Records, and the group split up in 2002. Guitarist Toby Retallick went on to Ill Received.
#nzmusic #nzpunk #mollysaysgo
80’s synth-pop from Ian Morris (Th’ Dudes, DD Smash), and sometimes his brother Rikki. Tex Pistol had 2 huge hit singles in 1987/1988 then promptly disappeared, with Morris concentrating on production until his death in 2010.
#nzmusic #texpistol #rikkimorris
Biography A Nelson punk (or rather, super upbeat rock’n’roll) 3-piece, with Johnny Trousers formerly of Killtrain. The 2 DIY releases contain a handful of covers from the likes of the Jam, the Pogues (including a snappy cover of The Searchers… Read More »Johnny Christ
Nux Vomica were a punky underground-rock group from mid-1980’s Christchurch featuring snotty, ranting vocals from Lawrence Kennett (aka Lawrence Lens), driving bass from Phillip Hubbard, and a young Lisa Preston on her Yamaha Electone keyboard.
The group played regularly and toured with The Axemen (Lawrence was responsible for a lot of their Super 8 films), with saxophonist Alan Wright playing double-duty in both bands at the time.
#nzmusic #nuxvomica #theaxemen #theportage
An experimental lo-fi/noise release from Lynton Denovan, recorded on a simple 4-track setup (with ‘Thanx tay Don Kebab fer ze teknickel assistance’ – presumably Donald Campbell of Thee Strapons) and released in a Peter King lathe cut 7″ format through Denovan’s one-off THE HITLIST label.
#nzmusic #experimentalmusic #satanspitbull #lyntondenovan