The Bats

[bearman🐻]

Anyone know if they're still active and if they tour (especially in the States)? I recently discovered "Daddy's Highway". God, what a great record. It blew me away the first time I heard it and it keeps getting better and better. It would be great to see some of those songs performed live.

[Deathprod]

Originally posted by bearman:
  Anyone know if they're still active and if they tour (especially in the States)? I recently discovered "Daddy's Highway". God, what a great record. It blew me away the first time I heard it and it keeps getting better and better. It would be great to see some of those songs performed live.

You should hear the early Clean records

[bearman🐻]

Which ones should I get?

[BookerT]

saw the bats at ritchie in 1993 opening for belly and radiohead. they were obviously the best band on the bill. "daddy's highway" is a pretty crucial album. they just released a new album about a month ago on magic marker records. haven't heard it yet, but have read good things. they seem like a band that would age pretty gracefully.
 
 deathprod is right on about the clean, one of my all-time favorites. just get "anthology," which merge released a couple years ago or so. it has everything you need and is just downright amazing. man, i'm going to listen to that right now...

[bearman🐻]

Thanks bookerT, I'll check it out. It's so great to discover music like this that I have missed.

[snailhook]

awesome...new zealand music discussion!
 
 the bats are indeed a fantastic band, and i am jealous of bookert because i have still not seen them live. daddy's highway is considered their best, but all of their albums are solid. my personal favorite is couchmaster (1995), which really reminds me of yo la tengo. in fact, it is safe to say that YLT is highly influenced by the bats, the clean, and the verlaines (who were aussie, but might as well have been kiwi).
 
 the clean were, arguably, the velvet underground of new zealand. every single thing they've ever recorded is great, no exaggeration. when they opened for built to spill in 2001, i thought they were easily the best band that night. if you're looking for a place to start, i completely agree with booker's suggestion.
 
 another great NZ pop band was the chills, whose bassist, justin harwood, was in luna.
 
 i love all things flying nun and expressway; new zealand bands have been responsible for some of the most amazing music of the last 25 years, from jangly indie-rock to drony space-rock and abstract noise. i could go on for another hour about tall dwarfs/chris knox, roy montgomery, dead c, jean paul sartre experience, gate, and bailterspace, among others.

[BookerT]

one of the absolute loudest shows i ever saw (which, admittedly, probably wouldn't rank in the snailhook's top 100 -- of this year!) was bailter space at some tiny cafe in pittsburgh in 1995. i forget the name. shoeshine, were you there?
 
 anyway, i thought they might get a little more notice since they were on matador during its heyday, but it never really happened. i saw david kilgour open for pavement back at WUST in 10/94, playing solo electric. the clean opened for BtS in 2k1? really? "hello cruel world" is a pretty sweet tall dwarfs comp, if people are looking to get started on them. i also love "bird dog" by the verlaines and, honestly, i thought graeme downes's 2001 solo record on matador was quite excellent.

[bearman🐻]

I met Bailter Space in like 1994 I think at Steve Albini's house in Chicago. Really nice guys.

[snailhook]

what was that? i can't hear you!
 
 i saw that pavement/GBV/kilgour tour in NYC in '94...first time i saw both pavement and GBV. both bands were at their peak, IMO.

[mrpee]

Also completey amazing and life-affirming were The Verlaines, who mixed classical motifs with garage rock and heartwrechingly poetic ---while still managing to be marvelously straightforward--- lyrics. "Death and the Maiden" is one of Flying Nun's most indelible moments. They played a jaw dropping show at the original 930 where main-Verlaine Graeme Downes played at least 43 different chords...in every song.

[Deathprod]

Originally posted by mrpee:
  Also completey amazing and life-affirming were The Verlaines, who mixed classical motifs with garage rock and heartwrechingly poetic ---while still managing to be marvelously straightforward--- lyrics. "Death and the Maiden" is one of Flying Nun's most indelible moments. They played a jaw dropping show at the original 930 where main-Verlaine Graeme Downes played at least 43 different chords...in every song.

Bearman, I would start with The Clean "Anthology" 2CD set on Merge... 2 discs for the price as one; while they're not as "tight" as The Bats, it's the same idea, and Robert Scott ("leader" of The Bats) plays bass and sings the occasional song.
 
 Flying Nun RULES

[Reechard D Taylor]

bearman---
 
 just wanted to say you are an extremely lucky duck for getting your hands on "daddy's highway." i've been searching for that cd for years and no dice.
 
 treasure it. savor it. makes copies for friends. spread the gospel my man, spread the gospel...

[Venerable Bede]

did the clean open for BTS in 01?  hmmm, i could have sworn they opened for luna.  maybe that was another show.

[Deathprod]

Oh, and look for "Compiletely Bats", a compilation of their early singles; very nice