Death and the Maiden

The Verlaines were another acclaimed Flying Nun band from Dunedin. Here's the video for their first single "Death & the Maiden".



The Verlaines took their name from poet Paul (not the former Thomas Miller), which when added Graeme Downes classical training and penchant for writing songs with deep musical and artistic allusions caused them to be tagged as "pretentious", which was a bad thing to be in the postpunk era.

While they were cutting this single in Auckland, the Verlaines opened a concert for the Fall which was recorded by Flying Nun for the NZ-only live album Fall In A Hole. When Mark E. Smith spotted a copy in a London record shop a few months later (for an exhorbitant price), he made an angry phone call to Chris Knox for releasing the album for import without telling him. Flying Nun had to reimburse Mark E. for all sales of the album, which caused them to go into financial duress and prevented them from promoting homegrown bands like the Verlaines.

Fortunately, the Verlaines went on to sign to a major label and have a long and fruitful career, interrupted by breaking up every decade or so. They even have a new album called Corporate Moronic coming out sometime before the end of this decade.

Pink Frost

The Chills were probably the most notable Flying Nun band, especially in these United States. Their first few singles (from the Dunedin Double ep) showed them to be on the verge of greatness, and the fourth one "Pink Frost" went from greatness to transcendence - one of those great songs that seemingly fell from the sky!



The Chills went through a myriad of lineup changes during their early years; the liner notes for Kaleidoscope World showed a different lineup for every one of their early singles with Martin Phillips being the only constant. This bandmember flux has continued through the life of the band.

Over the years, I've been lucky to see the Chills live a handful of times (actually six times between 1988 and 1996, which is probably more times than you've seen them unless you live in NZ), and they've all been some of the best shows I've ever seen. I've seen them opening for lesser bands in 1988 and 1988, selling out the I-Beam and Berkeley Square during the Submarine Bells tour at the top of their reign, and playing for about 60 people on the Sunburnt tour. Hopefully I'll be able to see them again in this new millennium.

Next: How Mark E. Smith ended up steering Flying Nun to bankruptcy.

Nothing's Going To Happen

Roger Shepherd was the founder of Flying Nun, but the forefather of the "Flying Nun Sound" was Chris Knox. Knox's 4-track was the source for most of the label's early releases, including Knox's own songs with the Tall Dwarfs. Here's "Nothing's Going To Happen" from 1981.



I always want to write that title as "Nothing's Gonna Happen", because it reminds me of another homemade 1981 single from the other side of the world.

The Tall Dwarfs were lo-fi pioneers that paved the way for GBV and the Mountain Goats and many others, and transferred that outlook to the entire Flying Nun label. Chris Knox became an antipodean Alan Lomax, capturing local NZ bands on his portable 4-track before they got corrupted by major labels and slick studios, and Flying Nun released a much this early material on the Dunedin Double EP, which included the three bands that I'm going to profile in the next three days.

Chris Knox went on to release a bunch of material, both solo and with the Tall Dwarfs, becoming the poster boy for the DIY aesthetic. I remember two shows where I saw him play in SF - once at the Kennel Club in the early 90s where he did an amazing set with a cheap Casio and a guitar borrowed from Barbara Manning and wore shorts and flip-flops in the middle of February, and another one at the Bottom of the Hill in the early 2000s where he brought a friend of mine to play guitar with him for the encore.

Another friend of mine wrote a song about the joy of finding a Chris Knox CD in the discount bin of a used record store. Chris Knox recently suffered a stroke, so his performing and recording days are probably over, but he's fortunate enough to live in a country with universal healthcare, and even more fortunate that he had a song in a beer commercial last year that should keep him well compensated.

I just hope Chris Knox can spend the rest of his days knowing how many lives he touched over the years. The roster for the upcoming Chris Knox benefit album reads like a who's who of indie rock, but most of these artists probably wouldn't be where they were if Chris hadn't paved the way.

Tally Ho

The most famous brothers in NZ pop (After Neil and Tim Finn) are David and Hamish Kilgour of The Clean.

Their first single "Tally Ho" put both a town (Dunedin) and a record label (Flying Nun) on the rock and roll map in the early 80s.



As well as the Kilgour brothers, this song features guitarist Peter Gutteridge, bassist Robert Scott, and two-fingered keyboard by Martin Phillips -- guys who later went on to bigger things with their own bands. It was a top 20 single in NZ (not a top 20 "indie" single, a Top 20 Single: "Here's Split Enz, here's Duran Duran, and here's the Clean!") and ground zero for the New Zealand's indie scene.

Following "Tally Ho", The Clean made another single and an EP for Flying Nun, but then split up for the rest of the decade. They reformed in 1990 for the Vehicle album, split up and reformed again in the mid 90s for the albums Modern Rock and Unknown Country, then again in 2001 for the Getaway album (which wasn't that great, but allowed them to tour the U.S. as a headliner and opener for YLT).

Now, following another eight year absence, the Clean have a new upcoming album called Mister Pop coming out in September on Merge. That's four albums in twenty years -- slow down guys!

Flying Nun week

This week of my NZ music month is dedicated to the music of Flying Nun Records, the legendary NZ label formed by Roger Shepherd in 1981 (and yes he did name the label after the TV show!). The best history I've seen of the label is the "Heavenly Pop Hits" documentary, which is available in eight minute installments on youtube.

Here's the first installment, but the entire program is worth seeing.

I See Red

Closing out Finns week with Eddie Vedder rocking out to the Enz's "I See Red" with Liam Finn's band Betchadupa. I've never been much of a Vedder fan, but Eddie & Betchadupa's performance of this song was one of the highlights of the 7 Worlds Collide CD/DVD.



I also had difficulty getting into Betchadupa (even if they did record for Flying Nun, providing a tenuous link between this week's blog theme and next week's theme), but Liam's solo debut I'll Be Lightning proves that the kiwifruit never falls too far from the tree.

Take the weather with you

A wonderful performance of one of my favorite songs ever.



Crowded House are usually categorized as an "Aussie band", but I think 1991's Woodface sounds like the work of a "Kiwi band", especially with both Finn brothers on board.