First Single from Auckland's Wax Chattels

Wax Chattels by Guillaume Beaubatwix 

"Stay Disappointed"

Brooklyn label Captured Tracks and New Zealand's Flying Nun have had a label partnership for the last five years. On the fifth anniversary of that partnership, the labels finally came together to jointly sign Auckland, New Zealand trio Wax Chattels.

Captured Tracks' Mike Sniper saw just three songs from a Wax Chattels festival set; and, after agreeing with Flying Nun's Ben Howe that Wax Chattels were "the band," the labels had their first joint signing less than 24 hours later.

Wax Chattels don't have a guitar. The band combine keys, bass, and a two-piece drum set to produce dark, rhythmic post-punk. They just released their first single in the form of "Stay Disappointed," and it is jittery and jagged with the keyboards lending a kind of foreboding feel to the whole thing. Wax Chattels are something new for those of us who associate New Zealand and, especially, Flying Nun, with pristine and jangly guitar pop.

The Courtneys, The Courtneys II, 2017

Album Review

Vancouver trio, The Courtneys, sit somewhere in that sweet spot where garage rock, punk, and bubblegum pop meet. When I heard single "Silver Velvet" late last year, I started getting excited for the band's then forthcoming release on Flying Nun. The song has a propuslive vibe. It's what I'd call a "driving song." Jen Twynn Payne's almost sugary sweet vocals are offset by the fuzzed-out guitar of Courtney Loove and the chugging bass of Syndey Koke so that the song achieves a pretty blissful blend of noise and hooky pop.

The LP, The Courtneys II, came out this past Friday; and it's pretty much everything I was hoping for based on that first taste. There aren't really any ballads here. Each of the songs on The Courtneys II has that same forward-moving feeling of "Silver Velvet." And leaving or travel or moving through life are themes that come up quite a bit in the album's first half -- from "I know I'm going, but I don't know when" on "Country Song" to "It's time for us to let go. Slack off and hit the open road" on the amazingly catchy "Tour."

Payne isn't a belter by any stretch of the imagination, but her vocals weave pretty seamlessly in and out of some subtly different styles. She's dreamy on the psychedelic and jammy "Lost Boys" ("You look just like you did in 1986, and that's why you're a vampire teenage boyfriend"). She's deadpan on a song like the straightforward "25." Payne pulls off 60s retro-garage on "Mars Attacks" and "Frankie."

I don't mean to imply that The Courtneys II is all over the map. It's not. Like I said, the differences from song to song are subtle. Almost every song makes you want to roll down the car window and let your free hand bounce on the rushing air. For the most part, it's 90s-inspired grunge pop -- like Juliana Hatfield fronting Smashing Pumpkins, which is actually quite awesome -- but there is enough variation to keep The Courtneys II interesting throughout.

The Courtneys II is also a milestone of sorts. The band have said that Flying Nun Records, with its stable of bands like The Clean, The Chills, The Bats, Chris Knox, and more, has been a huge influence on their sound; so it's fitting that they would be the label's first-ever signing from outside of New Zealand.

This is one I'm going to be playing all spring and summer. The Courtneys II is out now on Flying Nun Records.

New (ish) Stuff from Sunflower, The Courtneys, and Aye Nako

Aye Nako at last year's New Alternative Music Festival in Asbury Park's Convention Hall

All Dug Out

After a pretty lazy -- except for the excruciating driveway shoveling workout -- day yesterday, I wanted to share with you some of the cool stuff I've been hearing over the past few weeks. If today's group of songs has a theme, I'd say it's probably that all of these draw on some 90s sounds that I've always loved. Check them out and see what you think.

Sunflower, "World of Porcelain"

Cedar Grove's Sunflower released their latest single back in January. The band's 2015 self-titled EP had the organic feel of the music that was coming out of the Elephant 6 Collective back in the 90s, and "World of Porcelain" captures that vibe as well.

Employing piano, ukulele, and strings with a more traditional guitar, bass, drums set-up, the song is simultaneously folksy, poppy, and psychedelic. It twirls, round-style, as the layers build. Like much of the most interesting stuff coming out of NJ these days, "World of Porcelain" was recorded and mixed by one Max Rauch.



The Courtneys, "Minnesota"

I've been obsessively listening to Vancouver's The Courtneys for the last month or so. Earlier this week, the band released the third single from their sophomore LP -- and their debut for New Zealand's legendary Flying Nun Records. The Courtneys II is due next Friday, February 17th; and it will be the first release of a non-New Zealand band for Flying Nun.

"Minnesota" is fuzzy, grungy power-pop. The song chugs forward on Courtney Loove's guitar and Sydney Koke's bass. Drummer / lead singer Jen Twynn Payne's vocals help to place the song somewhere between gritty and dreamy. The Courtneys (like so many others) are clearly influenced by the bands who preceded them on Flying Nun -- The Clean, The Chills, Chris Knox -- and are a perfect fit for the label. This one is shaping up to be one of my favorite releases of 2017.



Aye Nako, "Particle Mace"

Earlier this week, Brooklyn queer-punk four-piece, Aye Nako, announced their forthcoming album for Don Giovanni Records, Silver Haze, by releasing the jagged and explosive "Particle Mace." The band say, "they are actively seeking a planet where those who fall in the margins can feel OK about being themselves."

That comes through in the song as singer / guitarist Jade Payne deadpans, "...with a sigh of relief that we're finally safe here. That's what I want to believe." Aye Nako are political and bring a perspective that is all-too-often overlooked by genres that profess to be inclusive and progressive. That, and they flat out burn it up on "Particle Mace."

Silver Haze is due April 7th.

The Bats, The Deep Set, 2017

Album Review

By Henry Lipput

When a band has been around for a certain period of time, it's hard to say in a review that their music sounds like another group; they have their own sound.

That's certainly the case with The Bats from New Zealand. With the same line-up since their debut on New Year's Eve in 1982, Robert Scott, Kaye Woodward, Paul Kean, and Malcolm Grant have released eight albums. The wondrous and melody-rich The Deep Set is their ninth and the first in five years.

But what I can do is mention how they might have been influenced by, as well as influenced, their contemporaries. In the case of The Bats, there were -- and in some cases still are -- bands in New Zealand, Australia, and the UK that came up at about the same time in the 1980s: The Chills, The Go-Betweens, and Teenage Fanclub. And you can still hear it in the music of The Bats (and in recent releases from The Chills and Teenage Fanclub).

For one, there's that jangly, chiming guitar sound from Down Under bands, something that Robert Forster of The Go-Betweens described as "that striped sunlight sound." The Deep Set has that sound on many of the songs; but, like Teenage Fanclub's most recent album, there's also a sense of melancholy and maturity.

The first track, "Rooftops," has the best of both of these worlds. Over a driving beat and a dark, moody lead guitar, Scott sings of "small victories, battles lost and won." But in the bridge, a ringing guitar is introduced as Scott, joined by Woodward (in a mix that recalls what Amanda Brown brought to The Go-Betweens' work) sings, "I can float over the rooftops / In my dreams that's what I do."

The wistful "Looking For Sunshine" has terrific guitar work from Scott, lovely backing vocals (again) from Woodward, and one of my favorite tunes and some of my favorite lyrics on the album: "You might be looking for sunshine / You might be hiding from rain / Wherever you are it will be fine."

"Antlers," the single, is a shining example of the New Zealand sound. It rocks and the band sounds great. "Walking Man" is another upbeat, rocking gem and has another marvelous guitar workout.

In the jaunty "Rocks And Pillars," the guitar, bass, and drum are in lockstep as we find ourselves on a hiking tour of the country. In both mood and vocal, the elegant "Diamonds" could have been a Norman Blake-penned marvel from any of the last three Teenage Fanclub albums. And the album closes with a jangle on "Not So Good" about, it seems, someone who you can tell is lying because their mouth is moving.

The Deep Set is out now on Flying Nun Records.