The Jessels - Bobzilla b/w The Worst Noël (1982)

Belated xmas wishes from Switched Out (a week later) and from Flying Nun (30 years later)!

According to what my pal Google tells me, this joint is Chris Knox joined by his partner Barbara, David and Hamish Kilgour, Doug Hood and others around the flat. The a-sider is a fantasy about Doug's cat Bob becoming ten stories high and destroying Christchurch, and the b-side is a bunch of xmas-themed nonsense.

Extremely rare, this goes for heaps on eBay and TradeMe. I was lucky enough to get this from my mate Mac, who had two copies and was downsizing his collection.

All the Trendies Wore Bobzilla Hair

The Orange - Fruit Salad Lives (1985)

Nice tight little Dunedin pop outfit, with Andrew Brough of Straitjacket Fits and Jonathan Moore of Bored Games. Loads of reverb and that chimey jangle you love to love. Much less playful than most of the better known Dunedin Sound bands, though in that regard probably more akin to the Sneaky Feelings than the Verlaines.

I've posted this mostly to make up for the terrible rip that used to be up on kiwitapes -- it's been driving me crazy for a few years, so here is a nice quality rip for yez.


And Are You Going To Fly?

The Puddle - Live at the Teddy Bear Club (1991)

 

Overlooked for a long time and currently enjoying a well-deserved comeback, George D Henderson's The Puddle released this bootleg-ish live recording during a period when the band included two of the Look Blue Go Purples (before they, most Chills-ishly, began changing line-ups regularly). 

The Puddle probably wallowed in obscurity due to exceptionally muddy production on their studio releases ('Pop Lib' and 'Into the Moon') and the loose 'n' lo-fi vibe of this set. It didn't help that they never made it to any Flying Nun compilations, and George waited fourteen years between his last Flying Nun release and his first on Powertool, the long-thought-lost 'Songs for Emily Valentine' (recorded in '92 but not released til '06), which includes the thrice-comped anthem, 'Southern Man'.

To my ears, this is by far the best of the three early-era Puddle albums in terms of listenability. These songs are absolute classics -- so good you will swear that you already know them -- and it's a shame that there are no 'definitive' versions.  

The Puddle is touring again, and they are bloody terrific. Go see 'em.

It Was You That Was Makin' Me High [Link removed]

Sneaky Feelings - Send You (1983)

 

Look, I'll be the first to admit that it took me a long time to really get the Sneakies. As a latecomer to the Flying Nun and Dunedin Sounds, I actually read Matthew Bannister's memoir Positively George Street before I heard any of the Sneaky Feelings' music. Bannister does his band no favours in his juicy, gossipy, bitter book with his continuous sad sack whinging that all the "cool people" thought his band was "wet."

I dug their contribution to the uniformly excellent Dunedin Double EP, but always fourth out of four. A mate sent me Send You several years ago, but it always seemed just as wimpy as Bannister's perceived detractors complained. 

But it's a way homer, this one. It's excellently produced, jangles and chimes with the best of the F'Nuns as it moves between Shoes-y power pop ("Someone Else's Eyes") and growling Baroque garage ("P.I.T. Song/Won't Change"). Give it a chance. If you don't get it at first (as I sure didn't), keep trying.

Facing The Sad Sunrise [Link removed]

Massive Stereo Sellout - By Now (1988)

The only recording by duo Ben Hayman and Steve Roach, 'By Now' by Massive Stereo Sellout is colder and simpler than Fetus Productions, less aggressive than the Skeptics, and without the pop sensibilities of the Headless Chickens.

Hope, their 'hit', sounds like what Jack Nance might've danced to in an Eraserhead  nightclub.

Some of the sounds on here actually remind me of early Aphex Twin/AFX -- at his least self-indulgent -- as performed by Nigel Bunn.

'By Now' is an excellent and unexpected example of an underdocumented scene in eighties EnZed. Get some more info from BiFiM Magazine, October 1988, over at Club Bizzare.

Brain Dump