DUNEDIN/THE SOUTH ISLAND.
Blossoming ground in the 80s and 90s, its been comparatively cold this decade. The better acts to come out either never played then broke up (oh hi Mestar), are busy exploring overseas fanbases (Minisnap/The Bats), or devolving into something loosely resembling Pig Out (Tiger Tones. Sigh.) This year’s seen somewhat of a resurgence, particularly in Dunedin. Awesome Feeling III may have focussed its celebration on Auckland and the numerous badass acts there, but outside that torrent link lie several promising bands, including Funedin 3-piece Brains. Taking cues from Die! Die! Die! EPs and a shitload of ritalin, they’re also the closest thing you’re likely to find here to A HYPE BAND. Given the relatively enormous following they got at their second ever show (it was at Camp), it was apparent that there was a certain level of expectation on them. Which totally sucks, since bassist Hugh apparently only picked up the instrument in July last year. The show was sloppy and soaked in cask wine, the crowd wasn’t entirely won over, and petty NZ hype claimed its first victim of 2009. Double-edged sword, really – it’s awesome to see people get so excited about a new local band, but expectations were unfairly high for their first show without beer-soaked fratboys present and requesting Bryan Adams. Moral of the story: I don’t really know. What was that John Lennon song – Give Brains A Chance?
ANYWAY.
Several months down the track, Hugh’s WAY better at bass and pretty sweet behind the wheel, Brains have recorded their debut EP entitled Nine Minutes, and we chatted them up via the internet to find out what the fuck is going on in Dunedin, being the web 2.0 MASTERS that we are.
TKS ASL?
BRAINS 10 months/male/funedin.
TKS Dundedin: what the hell? After what (from a Wellington perspective) has seemed a bit of a drought period, Dunedin seems pretty awash with new bands and regular shows and the like. Have I been reading the wrong blogs/ignorant? Have bands like Brains/TFF/Bad Sav just decided to get onto playing more/promoting more? Whats been the catalyst???
BRAINS Maybe a bit of both, eh. There’s ALWAYS been shit going on down here, it just sort of tends to be that the bands we love from here don’t tour very much. Like, TFF have been around for ages, as have Onanon (srsly check out Onanon, they rule), but they just don’t tour. Slash can’t tour. Obligations fucking suck. Luckily, we’re all students, so can take weeks off whenever we want. Except for exam time.
Brains and Bad Sav are both real new though, and this tour’s basically happening at the earliest possible time it could. Our set at Camp a Low Hum this year was our second ever. Apart from a bad party we played.
TKS Also, is Dunedin the musical hub it seems to be? Despite there being some really good acts down there at the moment, I imagine its not the easiest place in which to consistently play good venues? Whats the dirrrt…
BRAINS Matt says Chicks is where we play most often, and it’s actually really amazing. Like, probably my favourite of the New Zealand venues I’ve been to.
Hugh says Matty likes it heaps cause he never has to be driver, cause he can’t drive. Me and Will have to drive, so it’s coo… but you’ve got to drive out. So it’s almost as good as he says, just not quite. And musical hub don’t know, not enough venues other than Chicks and dark dank Refuel. But there’s lots of people doing good things, just have to look for it. We’ve got a release happening sometime in the next while on a label called Ltll Paisley, which is run by a couple of our friends, and their catalogue is pretty worth looking up. Nothing but good good good.
TKS Touring: when’s it happening/where/with whom?
BRAINS It WAS going to be late July/early August, but we’ve had to push it back a week coz we got offered a really big support slot for a Dunedin show (secret secret). But we’ll be in Auckland on August 6th, Whanganui 7th, Wellington 8th, and Christchurch 9th. Yeah. Nevernudes are (HOPEFULLY) playing the North Island dates with us, which’ll be great.
TKS I don’t want to use the term ‘hype’, cause you know, its New Zealand, but there does seem to be a certain level of expectation around Brains. It probably doesn’t help that new bands aren’t cropping up as quickly as people would like (in Wellington, at least), so there’s a tendency to jump onto any new band that shows up here. Considering your first show outside of Dunedin was at Camp and since then you’ve been kind of a ‘buzz band’ (in NZ terms), do you feel like there’s any sort of onus on you to be ‘a new good nz noise band’?
BRAINS I think this is something that concerned us a lot more a few months ago. Like, before we’d played some shows, and before we’d recorded more than one song, it was really disconcerting to be getting so much ‘hype’. But I think we’ve matured to the point where we’re confident in what we’re playing. We’ve cut some stuff from our set, and we plan to do a lot more writing (and therefore, more cutting) before the tour, so I think we’re pretty confident we’ll be able to live up to these expectations. If they actually exist, that is.
TKS Obviously, you guys were on the Awesome Feeling comp, and it was the first one to feature predominantly bands from the last 12 months – do you think its doing a good job/giving a good cross-section? Will it be able to maintain 20-ish new bands every year?
BRAINS Our inclusion aside, I genuinely think that this year’s comp was the best they’ve done thus far. It’s always going to be totally hard to be representative with something like that, especially with a publication where so many of the writers are Auckland-based, but they seem to be doing ok. I’d like to think that finding new bands won’t be too difficult, but obviously stuff like that moves in waves. Looking at touring, and bands to play with, has made me realise that there’s definitely a lot of really, really good stuff happening at the moment. Except people keep moving to Melbourne 
TKS WHY AREN’T YOU OPENING FOR FLIPPER?
BRAINS WHY AREN’T THE AESTHETICS OPENING FOR FLIPPER? Na dunno eh, tbh didn’t really seek that slot. Should be a good show though. I saw Mountaineater last year, and wasn’t that impressed, but their live to air on Radio One a few weeks ago was some heavy shit.
TKS I think you’re the only band who have ever been described as ‘a pastiche of Thought Creature, Modest Mouse and Godspeed! You Black Emperor’. How the FUCK do you manage to give vibes of those three bands in a set???
BRAINS I think the key is to somehow piss off someone who writes for the university magazine, so that he’ll write a review of your EP in which he namechecks the only 3 “indie” bands he knows. The whole EP is only 9 minutes long. Do Godspeed even have a song that short? He gave us 2/5 for that, actually. For the record, Sonic Youth/MBV/Die! Die! Die! baiting is a way more accurate description.
TKS How does Flying Nun exist for you? Nostalgia/viable label/godlike but unapproachable presence in Dunedin/nonexistent? Since Shocking Pinks it seems there’s only been bands like Minisnap/The Bats keeping in with the Golden Tome of Flying Nun yesteryear…
Ah. hmm.
BRAINS Nostalgia, really. So much stuff that they released is so fucking good, but does it exist anymore? No. Can’t even find half of those albums anywhere except the radio one vaults, release the tapes! Dunedin’s good though, all those Flying Nun faces still play around for cheap – Bob Scott et al. Yes. We like Flying Nun cause it released lots of awesome music. But it’s not a current happening thing ya know. But if it does start up agains, then sure, sign us, pay us and release our songs.
TKS If there was one scene in any movie that Brains would soundtrack, what would it be… (OBLIGATORY QUESTION)
BRAINS I think, ideally, we’d be in that episode of the OC where Rooney play, and Luke’s way excited about it, and singing along and shit. It’d be us instead of Rooney. Not a movie but whatever, shit rules anyway.
ENDS
Given their propensity for savagely fast noise and refusal to take themselves too seriously, Brains forthcoming tour promises to be a screamy, hyperactive affair well worth the meagre funding you donate to their cause.
Brains hit it up here on the 8th of August, playing the motherbitch of all house parties at Brownnote 2.0 and also partaking in a rap vs noise battle at the preceding Crack Wednesday on the 5th. It’ll be somewhat similar to the Mint Chicks vs King Kapisi show, only instead of fighting each other with music, there will be oil wrestling, brutal beatings with basses, and jousting*. Who will win???? You will friend, it’s all free!
*Exaggeration, but totally a possibility
