Snapper - Shotgun Blossom (1990)

Noisy, motorik indie-pop from New Zealand. Snapper were formed in the late '80s by Peter Gutteridge, previously a member of New Zealand favourites The Chills and The Clean, but Snapper wore their punk attitude and love of Neu! and Suicide on their sleeves and came out with their teeth bared.

Tracklist:

01 Pop Your Top
02 Can
03 Telepod Fly
04 Eyes That Shine
05 Dark Sensation
06 Dead Pictures
07 Snapper And The Ocean
08 What Are You Thinking
09 Hot Sun
10 I Don't Know
11 Emmanuelle
12 Dry Spot
13 Rain

Get it HERE.

The Chills - Brave Words (1987)

I thought I would try to do my bit to spread the love on the first day of 2011 by sharing this beautiful album with the world. Brave Words has grown with me over the past twenty three years and has gradually become one of my favourite ever records. My vinyl copy went missing years ago but the songs stayed with me, and I was ecstatic when I found this scratchy old copy in a charity shop a few weeks ago.

The Chills came from Dunedin in New Zealand and were active throughout the 1980s and into '90s. This was the group's first proper album and, for me it contains some of the finest pop songs of that, or any other, period. I hope that these songs will give you as much pleasure as they have given me over the years.

The House with A Hundred Rooms was a secret bonus track on some pressings (and the cd) of this album, unfortunately not the one here, however it serves a fantastic taster for a real aural treat:


Tracklist:

01 Push
02 Rain
03 Speak For Yourself
04 Look For The Good In Others And They'll See The Good In You
05 Wet Blanket
06 Ghosts
07 Dan Destiny And The Silver Dawn
08 Night Of Chill Blue
09 16 Heart-throbs
10 Brave Words
11 Dark Carnival
12 Creep

Get it HERE.

Straitjacket Fits - Hail (1987)

Straitjacket Fits were from Dunedin in New Zealand and played a noisy indie-pop that swoons with adolescent trauma. I never liked them as much as The Chills (whose great album Brave Words was produced by the legendary Mayo Thompson of Red Krayola) or Snapper, but I was still excited to find this in a local charity shop. She Speeds is a bit lovely, if you like this kind of shimmering, melancholic bedroom pop:

Tracklist:

01 Dialling A Prayer
02 All That That Brings
03 Hail
04 Sparkle That Shines
05 She Speeds
06 So Long Marianne
07 Grate
08 Fabulous Things
09 Life Is One Chord
10 This Taste Delight

Get it HERE.