She Speeds

Just two more "second wave" FN bands before closing out Flying Nun week. Here are Straitjacket Fits, with "She Speeds" from their brilliantly-titled ep Life In One Chord.



The first time I heard this song on Live 105 in the late 80s, I thought it sounded like music from the future, and I wasn't that far off. It features that same wall of guitars that was later exploited utilized by bands like Ride and the Stone Roses and My Bloody Valentine, matched with something that sounded vaguely like Radiohead before Radiohead was. In other words, music from the future, circa 1988.

After this, Straitjacket Fits signed to Arista (when every major label had to have their own "New Zealand band") and made a couple of albums (Melt and Blow) that used to be easy to find in used bins, and worth finding.

I assumed they were largely forgotten, but the APRA selected "She Speeds" as the 9th best NZ song ever in a 2001 poll, so Straitjacket Fits are still remembered fondly in their home country. Twenty years on, their stuff sometimes sounds very much "of its time", but sometimes it still sounds like music from the future.