Posts tagged with Flying Nun
December 17, 2011 | New Music | 
by Princess Chelsea |
Shaft are the project of Bob Cardy (from Flying Nun band The Axemen). Bob Cardy has an encyclopaedic knowledge of pop, rock and soul and is a truly exceptional songwriter with a very unique singing voice. Shaft is his straight up rock n roll project and Downhill Racer sounds as timeless as any Rolling Stones hit to me. The two Shaft albums are available on Lil’ Chief Records.
December 17, 2011 | New Music | 
by Princess Chelsea |
Vassafor is the project of Phil Kusabs (also a touring member of Blasphemy and oddly enough one time member of Flying Nun band, The Chills) who writes, produces and engineers their work. Emotive, dark, ritualistic and intelligent metal that I’ve been enamoured with since seeing them open for Mayhem earlier this year. Beautiful scary, and quite otherworldly.
December 17, 2011 | New Music | by Princess Chelsea |
The Tokey Tones are the recording project of Scott Mannion and Li Ming Hu. The two mini albums, Caterpillar and Butterfly, were released simultaneously in 2003 and were a big influence on me in my teenage years. Mannion tinkered with old pump organs, celestes, glockenspiels, and analog synthesizers for a few years before completing these two fragile masterpieces. There is something intrinsically Pacific or New Zealand to this sound, and it’s not just because the albums sample native birds and bugs.
December 15, 2010 | New Music | by Zolton |
My friend, Simon Sun, rocks out as the frontman and chief songwriter in Brooklyn-band Sidewalk TV, an intriguing mesh of interwining guitar lines, subtle keyboard effects and four to the floor beats. The band clearly draws sonic references from the embers of the late 80s UK pop resurgence (My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream), but there’s also the discordant pop-ism that characterised early Flying Nun recordings (Straitjackets Fits in particularly) which swirls enticingly across their picturesquely named debut EP , Magnificent Desolation In the Sea of Tranquility. I especially dig the instrumental track, Tunnel Vision (stream below).
March 16, 2010 | New Events | by Zolton |
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.
January 26, 2010 | New Music | by Zolton |
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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December 23, 2009 | Video | by Zolton |
Tragically, Chris Knox, the grandfather of low-fi New Zealand pop, had a stroke a few months back, which has left him considerably restricted and probably out of the Kiwi music scene that he worked so hard to foster. This 1980s track, Slide, was a classic Knox production: melodic, slightly unnerving, gloriously challenging – never an easy listen, but always worth fighting past the sticking points.
September 9, 2009 | New Music | by Zolton |
The Chills were the first band I ever saw. Well, actually, they were the first band I never saw, despite my best intentions. I was fifteen at the time, and my friend got word that the seminal Flying Nun act, who hailed from the deepest, darkest trenches of Dunedin, New Zealand, were to play a show that night at the now long gone Max’s in Petersham, Sydney. We had to go. It was The Chills, the very symbol of low-fi sullen rebellion, with their ruddy cheeks and out of tune guitars. So we whacked handfulls of gel in our hair and resolved to sneak our way past the doorman. Only my friend arrived at the venue a little earlier than me (his Dad was clearly a better driver than mine) and promptly sauntered into the venue, while I was turned away for ‘obviously being a minor’. Dammit! They were probably better on record anyway.
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Jennifer Poon’s work gets graphic at times, but it’s always subtle and beautiful in the same way Egon Schiele’s work is.
As part of his ongoing Buildings series, German street artist EVOL was invited to create this Rural City installation for the MS Dockville Music Festival in Hamburg. I wish I could have seen it in person to live out my Godzilla fantasies! Read more
An intelligently told, morally complex tale with a raft of unexpected twists, Gone Baby Gone is one of the most original films of recent times. Most films give you a sense of their narrative arc and it is easy to recognise the major plot points. Read more
This isn’t an outdoor art installation, but it is still somewhat curated. Or maybe hoarded is a better description. Somewhere in the inner western suburb of Sydney’s Summer Hill, there is a brightly coloured collection of garden gnomes on display. The owner of the home is yet to be seen, but there are hundreds of gnomes, side by side, all with equally dopey expressions on their faces and accompanied by a second fixation: caterpillar soft toys. There are so many gnomes, the garden is no longer visible. Maybe it’s an Amelie style prank that has just piled up over the years? Read more
DM Stith recently signed to Asthmatic Kitty, the same label as Sufjan Stevens, and has a new EP out this week titled Curtain Speech, featuring contributions from Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), Rafter, Sebastian Krueger and the string quartet Osso. Think Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear meets Arthur Russell. We got the rundown from him on his eight favourite songs right now and he kicked off with The Shangri-Las’ Out In The Streets [listen below]: ’1:22 – 1:43 is a miracle. I’ve never been so obsessed with twenty seconds of high-hat and high school girl shrieks: it’s a raging teenage fantasy that all the composition notebooks in all the lockers of 1965 couldn’t write better. That the singers have managed to preserve their naivety perfectly in this three minute song may be the reason I feel recording pop music is worthwhile’. Read the rest of DM Stith’s Secret Playlist.
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Monarch are an incredibly grim, lumbering doom metal band from Basque country in France. Frontwoman Emilie Bresson is one of those rare female singers in metal that’s at once fierce and raspy, yet identifiably female, creating a haunting, menacing sound that can stand up against the most ragingly macho bands out there.
Whoa, check out these sweet jackets by Natalie Rae Richardson that are embroidered to look like fur and feathers. Read more
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Get lost in a daydream or a craving for something sweet while gazing at these cool sculptures by Brooklyn-based WiNK WiNK PONY. Made using clay, tree bark, wood, and mossy moss.
It’s refreshing to see artists like Joe Kievitt who are contented to explore the beauty in simple forms and asymmetrical patterns. Read more
Pitched as ‘Ulterior Motives in Contemporary Art’, Disorder Disorder is running until November 14 at Penrith Regional Gallery. It’ll be well worth the trip out west of Sydney: the Australian, Japanese, American and European cast reads like a warriors of street art roundup and includes Mike Giant, Ed Templeton, Anthony Lister [artwork above], Ozzie Wright, and Jonathan Zawada. Read more
Here are a couple awesome pieces by Matt Leines that were recently on display in the Doubting Thomases exhibit at Nudashank gallery in Baltimore. Gives me ideas for Halloween. Read more
How ’bout this Jose Manuel Hortelano-Pi guy, huh? Quite the illustrator, yessiree Bob. From Spain, too. Spain is great! Read more
This cool black unisex t shirt by UK label Client is made in England, printed in Berlin, and beautifully packaged in East Berlin cartonage, especially designed for Client. Read more
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