The strange world of New Zealand's Post Punk scene

Recovered from my old blog, Not Too Amused.

A few years ago, I came across this article: Unraveling the Mystery of Forgotten Seattle Pre-Grunge Band The Macs. It’s an article about a completely unknown band from Seattle called The Macs. This post is not exactly about them (although I think I’ll cover them in the future. What I really want to talk about is what showed on my Youtube recommendations after I listened to The Macs, a path that led me to a rabbit hole of New Zealand’s post punk bands.

The first band that I found was The Rip. Unfortunately, I can’t find the video anymore, but it sure was obscure. It didn’t sound much like post punk, it was more like something close to folk or country music. Hopefully, this is what I could find from this band on Youtube:

Another band that I found back then was The Verlaines. The track “Death and the Maiden” sounds a little bit like Television. Maybe they really wanted to sound like Television, maybe the name “The Verlaines” was an homage to Television’s Tom Verlaine… but actually, it was clearly inspired by Paul Verlaine [1]. It’s a quite lofi, yet upbeat track, dancy and with a strong bass line.

From the same label, we have The Chills. I really love the sound, again with a real lofi aesthetic, a strong bassline that was so common in the 80s, the melancholic vocal. I remember watching these videos the other day, a cold June morning, as early as 4AM, for some reason. It’s kind of relatable to see such cold weather in these videos, as it was probably also winter in New Zealand.

Free all the Monsters, by The Bats, sounds strangely nostalgic. It’s probably closer to pop music than post punk, but the baritone singer still shows some influence from the post punk scene.

Some songs are just very different from things that we are used to listen, but they are very interesting, such as Hold Me by Able Tasmans. I really like it.

What do all these bands have in common? They are part of the Flying Nun label. #TODO What I dig about these bands are not just the post punk influence, but how obscure they are. The may be well known in their home country, but they aren’t as known in the rest of the world.

If you want to enter this rabbit hole, here’s the Flying Nun’s playlist

References

[1] https://www.indeepmusicarchive.net/2017/09/20917-verlaines-death-maiden-1983/ [x] https://www.audioculture.co.nz/people/the-rip [x] https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/death-and-the-maiden-1982.