Do The Headless Chicken(s)

She just looked at me...

fiona mcdonald was the worst thing that happened to that band. err and there is a reason that head like a hole don't sound FN. its cos they aren't.

Actually, i've heard little from FN that inspred me for some time now. i'll be eager to here this chickenshits thingy. Gaskrankin station rips.

I really disagree with this but I can't summon a response right now but I just couldn't let tthat stand in the meanwhile.

1. Nature, Wayne Mason (Fourmyula, 1969) 2. Don't Dream It's Over, Neil Finn (Crowded House, 1987) 3. Loyal, Dave Dobbyn (1988) 4. Counting The Beat, Phil Judd/Mark Hough/Wayne Stevens (The Swingers, 1981)  5. Six Months In A Leaky Boat, Tim Finn (Split Enz, 1982) 6. Sway, Bic Runga (1997) 7. Slice Of Heaven, Dave Dobbyn (Dave Dobbyn with Herbs, 1986) 8. Victoria, Jordan Luck (Dance Exponents, 1982) 9. She Speeds, Shayne Carter (StraitjacketFits, 1987) 10. April Sun In Cuba, Paul Hewson/Marc Hunter (Dragon, 1978) 11. I Got You, Neil Finn (Split Enz, 1980) 12. Whaling, Dave Dobbyn (DD Smash, 1984) 13. Not Given Lightly, Chris Knox (1990) 14. Pink Frost, Martin Phillipps (The Chills, 1984) 15. Jesus I Was Evil, Darcy Clay (1997) 16. Weather With You, Tim Finn/Neil Finn (Crowded House, 1991) 17. Blue Smoke, Ruru Karaitiana (Pixie Williams & Ruru Karaitiana Quartet, 1949) 18. Dance All Around the World, Corben Simpson/Geoff Murphy (Blerta, 1972) 19. Lydia, Julia Deans (Fur Patrol, 2000) 20. Blue Lady, Graham Brazier (Hello Sailor, 1977) 21. Drive, Bic Runga (1996) 22. Chains, Che Fu/DLT/Angus McNaughton/Kevin Rangihuna (1996) 23. Dominion Rd, Don McGlashan (Muttonbirds, 1993) 24. Glad I'm Not a Kennedy, Shona Laing (1986) 25. I Hope I Never, Tim Finn (Split Enz, 1980) 26. Tears, Fane Flaws/Arthur Baysting (Crocodiles, 1980) 27. Be Mine Tonight, Dave Dobbyn/Ian Morris (Th'Dudes, 1978) 28. I See Red, Tim Finn (Split Enz, 1979) 29. Beside You, Dave Dobbyn (1998) 30. Home Again, Karl Kippenberger/Tom Larkin/Phil Knight/ Jon Toogood (Shihad,1997)

> (ha ha, the dirty truth/secret-shame re:NZ musical heritage/curatorship - SHIHAD(!) are the only living descendents of the Skeptics

I've heard a few HDU tracks that remind me of the Skeptics.

And while a lot of quality NZ hip-hop has been released over the past few years (P-Money, DLT, Dam Native), Dark Tower is really poor I think. Great concept, great ideas, but just lacking the skills to make it work.

1. Nature, Wayne Mason (Fourmyula, 1969)
2. Don't Dream It's Over, Neil Finn (Crowded House, 1987)
3. Loyal, Dave Dobbyn (1988)
4. Counting The Beat, Phil Judd/Mark Hough/Wayne Stevens (The Swingers, 1981)
5. Six Months In A Leaky Boat, Tim Finn (Split Enz, 1982)
6. Sway, Bic Runga (1997)
7. Slice Of Heaven, Dave Dobbyn (Dave Dobbyn with Herbs, 1986)
8. Victoria, Jordan Luck (Dance Exponents, 1982)
9. She Speeds, Shayne Carter (StraitjacketFits, 1987)
10. April Sun In Cuba, Paul Hewson/Marc Hunter (Dragon, 1978)
11. I Got You, Neil Finn (Split Enz, 1980)
12. Whaling, Dave Dobbyn (DD Smash, 1984)
13. Not Given Lightly, Chris Knox (1990)
14. Pink Frost, Martin Phillipps (The Chills, 1984)
15. Jesus I Was Evil, Darcy Clay (1997)
16. Weather With You, Tim Finn/Neil Finn (Crowded House, 1991)
17. Blue Smoke, Ruru Karaitiana (Pixie Williams & Ruru Karaitiana Quartet, 1949)
18. Dance All Around the World, Corben Simpson/Geoff Murphy (Blerta, 1972)
19. Lydia, Julia Deans (Fur Patrol, 2000)
20. Blue Lady, Graham Brazier (Hello Sailor, 1977)
21. Drive, Bic Runga (1996)
22. Chains, Che Fu/DLT/Angus McNaughton/Kevin Rangihuna (1996)
23. Dominion Rd, Don McGlashan (Muttonbirds, 1993)
24. Glad I'm Not a Kennedy, Shona Laing (1986)
25. I Hope I Never, Tim Finn (Split Enz, 1980)
26. Tears, Fane Flaws/Arthur Baysting (Crocodiles, 1980)
27. Be Mine Tonight, Dave Dobbyn/Ian Morris (Th'Dudes, 1978)
28. I See Red, Tim Finn (Split Enz, 1979)
29. Beside You, Dave Dobbyn (1998)
30. Home Again, Karl Kippenberger/Tom Larkin/Phil Knight/ Jon Toogood (Shihad,1997)

Donde esta la pollo? Reformed and playing Homebake 2008 in Sydney!

Sold out in ten minutes.

"totalling dad's car" = awesome song.

and up there with "the wheel" by dead c as one of the greatest and most un-flying nun sounding things f.n. ever released...

but i do not know the later stuff, need to track it down.

Really liked the one album I heard by these guys around '86 or so (wish I still had it), but the Flyin Nun album (well, EP actually) that I thought was even weirder (and less Flying Nun like) at the time was the one by the Puddle (which I reviewed in the Village Voice, and put in my year-end top ten, but stupidly also got rid of during some moving purge in the '90s.) Anybody remember them? Anybody have any idea whatever happened to them? How hard is their EP to find two decades later? Etc...

hey chuck--

yeah the puddle is def. pretty un-fn-like, and i'd totally forgotten about them, actually.

somehow i think they might have been connected to the renderers (possibly the least xpressway-ish xp. act)? or maybe not.

but they have a myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/thepuddlenz

and a new record:
http://www.insanitywetrust.com/Puddle.htm

seems like a lot of nz acts are getting back together of late. hidey ho.

i think their album was 'into the moon'? it's here on cd for under $20, though with shipping it might be a little pricey since they're overseas...

http://www.gemm.com/item/PUDDLE/INTO--THE--MOON/GML1417867025/

the puddle love is always a bit of a mystery. is it because he's inherently creepy? but then i love Mink and he's a driving force there but that's probably down to demarnia lloyd and genevieve mclean. allegedly mink are extant, no idea if anything is forthcoming. the puddle release excellent singles and terrible albums. into the moon and pop lib are always lauded, so mediocre.

Pop Lib is the one I liked (and the only one I ever heard.) Here's what I said I liked about it in a Voice review at the time: "Two women and four men playing borrowed instruments they haven't learned yet. The sextet's got a bona fide kidlike kidding quality, and seems happy just to be speaking through their incompetence to make us understand why love gets them twisted. Mistakes don't matter, and the soundmix is horrible (therefore awesome) -- three times in the first track there's this dense electronic buzz that sounds like a fan accidentally switched on, or a fuse blew; nowhere are the players and/or vocals entirely in sync. Lindsay Maitland honks French horn like Lora Logic blew sax, just exhaling every which way 'til a sound comes out that means something to him. Everything's carried along on a simple drum-tap and a two-note bassline or Casiotone-riff; George Henderson's rhythm guitar, apparently untuned, computes Mobius-strip equations. But there's shape and structure, drifting off like supernal marshmallows, tensing up with microcosmic repetition, erupting into absolute, uncontrolled wrath." (Whatever the heck all that means. I went on to compare the song "Spaceship #9" to Amon Duul and "Junk", to the Velvet Undeground's "Heroin" by way of "My Girl," which are quoted in its lyrics.)

Weirdly, here's what I write earlier in the piece: "This was all set to be a review of Headless Chickens, by New Zealanders of the same name: trumped-up gargoyle-gurgle, solidly conistent, like if the Buttholes' Another Man's Sac was 'pop' instead of 'rock.'" I say it was one of my most-played albums of 1987, but I apparently got fed up by what hit me as "willful weirdness." I never explain what made their weirdness seem so willful.