The Mint Chicks - Screens

MINE

So I had really no idea about this band before listening to this album, other than they're from New Zealand and on the Flying Nun label (which most of the better NZ acts seem to be).  I'll have to admit I thought they were a bit noisier than they are - a pleasant surprise when I realised they're on the pop side of indie pop (mostly).

I'll also have to admit that I haven't really given this album the detailed listen I think it deserves, as I was cooking madly at the time.  But it was good cooking music apart from the last track Life Will Get Better Someday which didn't get better the longer I listened to it, just worse.  It was one of those tunes that crossed over from indie pop to indie yuk. A fine line to travel, and many better bands ahve fallen over it before the Mint Chicks, so I guess I'll forgive them one dud song.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

YOURZ

Signed to my favourite New Zealand label, Flying Nun, The Mint Chicks are some seriously crazy dudes (in fact, their second full length album acknowledged this with the title Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! )  Led by brothers Koby and Rubin Neilson, they take pop music down a twisted, idiosyncratic path and leave it to fend for itself.  Thankfully, under the Chicks tutelage, it thrives.

Screens, the third album from this now Portland, Oregon-based four-piece, sees them continue on this odyssey of giving the world their skewed pop fancies, devoid of any restrictions or limitations.  The melodies dart about like spastic birds in a psychedelic sky, led by Koby Neilson's effected vocal delivery.  And musically, theirs is a mixed-up world of vocoders, analog synths and garage punk rock.  I like it a lot.

But then, with titles like Don't Sell Your Brain Out, Baby, Life Will Get Better Someday and I Can't Stop Being Foolish, this is ultimately an album of well-disguised pop enthusiasm, something that always appeals to me.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information go to http://www.themintchicks.com/

In our collection we also have Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No, Octagon Octagon Octagon (EP) and Anti-Tiger (EP)

Goodshirt - Good

MINE

When I first started listening to this album I couldn't figure out if they wanted to be The Cure or The Cars.  That was until track 7 - Sophie - which is damn good.  But one good song (which I've since discovered earned them a number one on the New Zealand charts) does not a good album make.

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

YOURZ

We saw this New Zealand four piece supporting Butterfingers and Grinspoon years ago.  Live the band provided a energetic show and we liked what we saw.  As a consequence, we bought Good.  Initial listens had me thinking it reminds me of an updated version of The Cars or maybe a bit like Custard, both of whom we've reviewed here in the past.

But Good doesn't do anything new.  In fact, given some of the other acts I've recently listened to, this pales into the ordinary.  Maybe it was late in the day and I was tired, but I actually found myself yawning while I listened to this.  Not a good sign, no, not good at all. 

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

For more information: http://www.myspace.com/goodshirtnz

The Datsuns - The Datsuns

YOURZ

The Datsuns brand of rock picks me up and drops me right back into my teen years, where summer days stretched out deliciously, skateboards were thick, the roads were smooth as glass and the waves were just perfect for body surfing.  Okay, maybe it wasn't all as great as this but my memories won't have it any other way.

This is the soundtrack in rock's revival tent, where the hair is long and the hands all throw up the devil's horns.  It is how rock should be remembered, not as a lumbering beast with too many serious faces but as a raucous, screaming-crazy mofo who won't ever stop being the life of the party and refuses, for one second, to be taken seriously.

As bad as the world seems some days, I thank fuck for bands like The Datsuns to remind me of just how good it can be too.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP as loud as it can go until the neighbours call the cops

MINE

Why is it that I can hear Audioslave and feel like it's derivative junk, and yet The Datsuns full-throttle rawk just makes me smile?  It's certainly more on the pop side of rock, which is always better in my book, but there's no glorifying it: this CD doesn't do anything new for music.

What it does do is open with blistering, balls-to-the-wall rock - and doesn't let up till the last notes have died away.  While it's not the sort of music I'd play on any occasion, I'm sure it could help me get ready to go out for a night on the town.  It's weird - the screamingness of the lead vocals doesn't bother me at all.  Maybe I'm just discounting it - New Zealanders can't possibly really be that angry, they live in too nice a place.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For other information: http://www.thedatsuns.com/

In our collection we also have Head Stunts

Fast Crew - Set the Record Straight

YOURZ

My first reaction when the pointy stick touched down on this New Zealand posse's 2004 debut was 'oh, no, here we go' because it's another of those albums I bought when I started doing production for a local hip hop MC.  Fast Crew and my band had a similar line-up and were using much the same techniques to create our beats.

On the first listen through (it had been a while), I thought there were some great catchy tracks highlighting the machine-gun raps of Kid Deft and, despite myself, I was actually enjoying it.  But listening to the album through for a second time, there was no doubt it has dated and on top of this, the synth bass lines just started to aggravate me.  The production is polished, it also comes out sounding fairly bland.  And while I don't doubt his chops, I was struck by the obvious Eminem influence in the Kid's raps. 

Fast Crew lived up to their name, rising up pretty quickly and disappearing just as quick.  I think if they'd made some different choices for singles, as some of the album tracks (such as Don't Speak My Name) are much stronger, they might have lasted longer.  And while the big hit single I Got is a great party track (as is Oops My Bad) and Suburban Streets has a nice summery feel about it, the rest is, well, pretty average.

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

MINE

I was steeling myself for someone shouting at me and it didn't happen.  In fact, I Got is going on the gym workout playlist.  There are a bunch of tracks on there that are really great, although some got a bit same-y.  Whoever told them to open with Set the Record Straight (I know it's the title track)  has rocks in their head (YourZ sez: oh, yeah, I agree completely).  You gotta open with the killer on your debut album, right?

Anyway, these guys are fun, their raps are fast and smart, they're well worth a listen.  This is going to annoy YourZ but when I was listenng to it I thought - this is what he could have done his band if they'd had some more cash for studio time.  They were doing the same thing at the same time, using the same dreamy girl voice to lighten the rap, getting the rapper to sing... all of this, honey, YOU did.  But they got a gold record (OK, in New Zealand, whoopee) and you guys didn't.  What happened?  Did you guys overthink it?  Maybe you should have just marketed yourselves as the Aussie Fast Crew and got while the getting was good...  (YourZ sez: While I could probably point out that we weren't sycophantic or cool enough for the local hip hop community, which is true, I think it was probably more a case of losing a great, committed vocalist and musician and then having all sorts of trouble finding a replacement).

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://www.myspace.com/fastcrew