Happy Birthday Barbara Manning!

Cheers to singer/songwriter deluxe Barbara Manning on her birthday! Here's a few stellar performances worth checking.

Remarkably resilient NZ crew The Bats keep rolling on with Corner Coming Up

Robert Scott and and his mates in The Bats are all about travelling on their latest album Corner Coming Up out now via Flying Nun.

Get a copy of The Bats' new album Corner Coming Up via Bandcamp right here. 

Happy Birthday Robert Scott of The Bats!

Celebrating Robert Scott's birthday with a couple of interviews and "Lazyboy" from his 2014 album The Green House and more. 

Watch The Bats play "North By North" for Flying Nun's 40th

Here's Robert Scott and crew reprising their 1987 classic "North By North" at Auckland's Town Hall back in July. 

Midweek Mixdown: Flying Nun founder Roger Shepherd

To celebrate 40 years of Flying Nun, Roger plays a selection of NZ classics by The Verlaines, The Chills, The Bats, etc. 

Flying Nun's Roger Shepherd on The Mixtape

Our guest on The Mixtape this week is Flying Nun Records founder Roger Shepherd.

A music fan who decided that someone should be recording the bands he loved to watch each weekend - Roger decided to begin Flying nun Records in Christchurch City in 1981.

Armed with this idea and a mere $50, Flying Nun Records went on to document one of the most diverse and interesting bodies of music in New Zealand - and, some would say, the world.

Flying Nun is one of the great rock 'n' roll stories, full of big personalities, high ideals, opportunities both seized and lost, and so much amazing music. 

Rodger opens up about the early Flying Nun years, his thoughts on the label now, and chooses a great selection of Flying Nun tunes. Listen to Roger on The Mixtape right here. 

Check out the video clips for The Verlaines' "Death and the Maiden" and The Bats' "In The Subway" below. 

Members of The Bats, The Clean & Tall Dwarfs form Sundae Painters

Sundae Painters are Hamish Kilgour, Kaye Woodward, Paul Kean & Alec Bathgate. Listen to "Thin Air" and "Aversion"

 

Watch The Bats' video for "Another Door"

"Another Door" is taken from The Bats' forthcoming Foothills album for Flying Nun available for pre-order here.

The Bats preview their new Foothills album with "Warwick"

The Bats preview their new Foothills album with the intriguing video for "Warwick" directed and starring Conor Bowden(s).  

Here's the scoop....

Spanning the last 38 years, The Bats have clocked nine incredible albums; each one seeing the band evolve with new material from the prolific songwriting hand of Robert Scott. Add to that tally the extra singles, b-sides, EPs, compilations and tribute songs they’ve recorded, creating a succinct setlist is a nearly impossible task. 

Foothills was recorded in Spring 2018 at a country retreat pop-up studio. At that time, 15 songs were captured and immortalised in the Canterbury foothills of the Southern Alps, Aotearoa (New Zealand). Only too well, The Bats know the possibilities, potentialities and sonic vistas that arise when one takes the reins for the recording process in a beautiful place that’s on home turf. 

Robert Scott, on the making of Foothills has said “Time marches on... finally, we found a gap in our busy lives and chose a week to convene. We found a house that is usually inhabited by ski field workers — Kowai Bush, near Springfield about an hour west of Christchurch and of course nestled in the foothills of the mighty Southern Alps. The songs had been written, demo’d and arranged for some time, but still with a little room for trying things out in the studio. Many carloads arrived at the house, full of amps guitars and recording gear, we set up camp and soon made it feel like home; coloured lights, a log fire, and home cooked meals in the kitchen. We worked fast, and within a few days had all the basic backing tracks done, live together in one room, the way we like to do it - it’s all about ‘the feel’ for songs like ours.” 

The Bats must hold a record in New Zealand (perhaps the whole world, once The Rolling Stones throw in the towel) as a band that has survived with the same line-up for 38 years. No split ups, no reforming for nostalgia’s sake. 

So far, half the band have spots in The New Zealand Music Hall Of Fame, vocalist/guitarist Robert Scott (The Clean) and bassist/producer Paul Kean (Toy Love), and it’s only a matter of time before lead guitarist Kaye Woodward and drummer Malcolm Grant find themselves in there too. The four-piece has created twisted wistful folk, psychedelic rock, bouncy twee pop, and everything in between, but whatever the genre, their sound is always distinctively, unmistakably The Bats. 

Foothills is out November 13th but you can pre-order it now right here. Watch the video for "Warwick" below. 

Midweek Mixdown: Toy Box Smoke: A Tribute To Flying Nun

Check out the Toy Box Smoke selection of covers of songs by The Clean, The Chills, Snapper etc. Click on the link below. 

 

Various Artists – Toy Box Smoke:  A Tribute To Flying Nun

Josh Burkett - "Clover" (Chris Knox)

Dire Wolves - "Indigo Blue" (The Clean)

Skyjelly - "Life In One Chord" (Straitjacket Fits)

Landing - "North By North" (The Bats)

New Parents - "Rolling Moon" (The Chills)

Late Model - "The Other’s Way" (Doublehappys)

Plastic Crimewave Syndicate - "Future Shock" (The Gordons)

Pigeons - "Days Of Old" (Look Blue Go Purple)

The Arnold Lanes - "Point That Thing Somewhere Else" (The Clean)

Land, Man - "Swimming Pool" (Toy Love)

Huevos II - "You Forget" (David Kilgour)

The Prefab Messiahs - "Buddy" (Snapper)

Vehicle Jr. - "One Fell Swoop" (Chris Knox)

Archie Moore - "Dan Destiny & The Silver Dawn" (The Chills)

Night School - "The Slide" (Tall Dwarfs)

Listen to Toy Box Smoke on Mixcloud right here. 

Happy Birthday Robert Scott!

Happy Birthday Robert Scott!

Too Early by Robert Scott

The Verlaines, Flying Nun turn 30

Believe it or not, three decades have passed since Roger Shepherd started up New Zealand's fabulous Flying Nun label. Coincidentally, it was also in 1981 that Graeme Downes founded The Verlaines in Dunedin. With word now that Downes is putting the finishing touches on a new Verlaines album, it seems worthwhile to look back at the development of the Dunedin scene which spawned many of the amazing groups that helped launch Flying Nun globally, inspiring countless artists, from Pavement to Guided By Voices and Barbara Manning to the late Jay Reatard. Here are a couple of clips which document the South Island origins of New Zealand's influential musical exports The Clean, The Chills, The Bats and The Verlaines whose members are still musically active today.

Friends Of The Enemy



Getting Older by The Clean 1981



Flamethrower by The Chills 1982



Pyromaniac by The Verlaines 1984


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