Ever expanding in the breadth of Switched Out's postings, (I reckon soon I'll even post some non-Zealandish stuff) here's a big fat dose of c1977-80 Auckland punk.
This posting comes courtesy of the considerable closet of new contributor and old mate, Andrew Schmidt. Andy's been documenting NZ music since the early 1980s, producing exhaustive histories of NZ punk/pop/rock in 'zines Social End Product and Mysterex. As Andy is far more informed a writer than myself, I'll just cheat and quote him here:
'We Still Hate The Spelling Mistakes [was] the first reunion show giveaway CD of live and studio tracks from the group's hey day.
All I Know How To Be alone justified a revisiting, but really this was a band with no shortage of quality songs. Ergophobia, X-Teenager, the misanthropic Anti-Social, their lost 1977 style snarler, Latest Photograph, What's Wrong With Me? and Nothing To Say all deserved the studio treatment.
They got it in November 1998 at Frisbee Studios in Auckland. Bob Frisbee recording. They scrubbed up well those old Spelling Mistakes gems. There's brash pop smarts and punk rock power all over this great lost album. X-Teenager is a Kiwi 1970s punk anthem in absentia. The relentlessly upbeat All I Know How To Be combines power pop Buzzcocks with the grander structures of early Magazine and a peerless Nick vocal. Latest Photograph is pure pop. Helium Head, written by Julian after The Spelling Mistakes demise, is spacey Beatles psych with Nigel Russel keyboards, druggy harmonies, and a stray Chuck Berry riff. An intriguing hint of where The Spelling Mistakes might have gone.
Ergophobia, Anti-Social, Nothing To Say, and What's Wrong With Me? crackle with punk's original electricity and hard humour. Warwick getting that Detroit amphetamine - Chuck Berry guitar sound down. Age has not wearied them nor the past condemned.'
Link to the full article is here.
Track Listing:
The Spelling Mistakes – We Still Hate The Spelling Mistakes (reunion show giveaway CD) - 1998
Stingy
Hate Me, Hate Me
No Contact (all recorded in December 1979 at Mascot Studios in Auckland with Steve Crane)
I Want You
Feels So Good
I Hate The Spelling Mistakes
Hate Me Hate Me (all recorded with Fane Flaws at Mandrill Studios in Auckland – April 1980)
The Ballad of Reena’s Piss Flaps (recorded by Bryan Staff at Mandrill Studios in Auckland – May 1980)
Live at Radio B at Mainstreet in Auckland – May 1980
No Contact
Germany
X Teenager
Moscow
I Want You
Live at XS Café in Auckland by Terry King – October 1980
Ergophobia
X Teenager
Nothing To Say
Stingy
All I Know How To Be
Shell Shock Victim
thx men
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