Kurt habe ich damals im englischen Wigan kennengelernt. Dort haben wir gemeinsam eine Show gespielt. Dies war einer der ersten der dreimonatigen Hollywoodfun Downstairs Tour. Die Neuseeländer geben Gas und touren ohne Ende, aber genau so sollte es als Band auch laufen! Letztendlich ist eine gute Show sowieso die beste Werbung für eine Band! Nun stellt uns der gute Mann erstmal seine Lieblingsalben vor!
Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
This band is at the center of what i love – dark, moody, out of it noise. ‚Shes lost control‘ is such a beauty of a song. The whole scene with factory records and Peter Saville being the graphic designer is like a package all in one. A band that really has its place in any noise scene today.
Blur – Modern Life is Rubbish
These guys have always had a massive influence om personally esp Graham Coxon on guitar. I just love how he plays and the tones he gets, its just not standard chords and riff guitars. More like odd ball weird chords and timings. But the whole band gels esp on this album songs like Advert and Oily water stand out and have since the mid 90s from my high school years.
The Blood Brothers – Young Machetes
Set fire to the face on Fire, is just a song full of flavor and bloody loud noise. Its what really has pushed punk boundaries in my eyes. These guys are a massive influence on Hollywoodfun Downstairs. Mark Has some very tasty chops on drums like ‚lazer life‘ and ‚Camouflage Camouflage‘. These guys are a band that came and played but no one was really listening a bit like refused back in their time.
Deafheaven – New Bermuda
How can pass up on this band – yes we know people call them hipster black metal – but come on these tasty drums going full boar and sonic-ally aware guitarists giving the music lots of space to breathe. Even my wife is into this band and she don’t like metal. I’m yet to see them live as they haven’t been to New Zealand so hopefully soon.
Deftones – Around the fur
A band that really took a shine in my eyes at high school and still do – i wasn’t really into American music when younger but these guys know how to lay down big beats and massive guitars. This album really pushed Deftones into the limelight. Be quiet and drive still is a favorite track.
Pet Shop Boys – Please
People tend to not believe that im big into this band – but really they are huge in my eyes. Niel really knows how to write good music. The electronic sounds im a big sucker for. These guys pushed so many boundaries in the 80s that today you still hear people rip them off. Its just pure goodness.
Violent Soho – Hungry Ghost
A modern Australian band with great song writing. These dudes are catchy as hell. With great artwork on t-shirts and album covers. Just on the album release tour for Tetris around NZ i showed them to the Closet Disco Queen and they loved it. Songs like ‚In the Isle‘ ‚Saramona Said‘ and ‚Covered in Chrome‘ rock the house down.
At the Drive In – Relationship of Command
Crazy Crazy Crazy noise. When this first came out my brother cranked the living life out of this in his car on road trips. I was like man this stuff goes nuts. Full bore drums and bass, guitars screeching with mad riffs and a vocalist sounding like its his last ever song to sing. A band that has so much influence in today’s punk and hardcore scenes.
Thursday – Full Collapse
Unusual vocals is what drew me to this band! ‚Cross out the Eyes‘ is the first song i heard from these guys and it rocked. I was hooked and bought all the albums on vinyl. The way these guys have developed as a band is incredible, but this album really made me change my thinking and approach on the guitar.
Head Wound City – A new wave of violence
A sound so huge my stereo cant handle hahaha – Its a super-group but a good one as it features musicians from bands i like. It took me awhile to access this record in New Zealand, i even looked in stores around Uk Europe while touring but no luck. Cody’s guitar work with Nick from Yeah Yeah Yeahs really sit well and have so much colour. Its a band im so curious to see live.
