The Chills’ Pink Frost

The Chills perform Pink Frost

Oh man! Take me back. Yup, drag me kicking and screaming into those halcyon days of the mid to the late 80s when all I cared about was Archie Comics, extra full cream milk, and getting my hands the latest release off New Zealand’s Flying Nun label. This track — Pink Frost — from Dunedin band, The Chills, is a window back to a time when melody ruled, guitars were always slightly out of tune, and haircuts were just five dollars down at your local barber shop.

A collection of classic Flying Nun music videos

My favourite record label, the New Zealand-based Flying Nun — home to seminal acts such as The Chills, The Bats, The Clean, and The Verlaines — has been reinvigorated recently with the return of the label’s founder, Roger Shepherd, to steer the reigns and return this wonderful low-fi cottage industry back to its rightful glory. To mark the occasion, NZ On Screen has launched a collection of classic Flying Nun music videos, curated by Shepherd, including this frightfully progressive effort (it was made in 1981) from that doyen of Kiwi indie-pop, Chris Knox.

The Chills’ Heavenly Pop Hit

At first listen, The Chills were like nothing else when they burst out of the relatively cloistered confines of the Dunedin student set way back in the early 1980s. Only, in retrospect, they were kinda like so much of the rest of the Flying Nun roster: lo-fi, wearily melodic, understated, and joyously brash in their use of lush vocal harmonies and ringing guitar licks. It was simply divine. And the first time I heard this song, Heavenly Pop Hit, I thought it was exactly that: the most decadent single imaginable. Some twenty years later, it still sounds fresh. [Click here to listen to Heavenly Pop Hit]

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