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.