[{"id":399999205614,"handle":"flying-nun-records","updated_at":"2024-11-04T08:40:05+11:00","published_at":"2022-02-08T16:04:47+11:00","sort_order":"manual","template_suffix":"","published_scope":"web","title":"Flying Nun Records","body_html":"","image":{"created_at":"2022-02-08T16:04:46+11:00","alt":null,"width":300,"height":300,"src":"\/\/flyingnunaustralia.com\/cdn\/shop\/collections\/L-20365-1498236818-5866.jpg?v=1644296686"}},{"id":399997173998,"handle":"straightjacket-fits","updated_at":"2024-08-07T14:50:08+10:00","published_at":"2022-02-08T15:27:13+11:00","sort_order":"best-selling","template_suffix":"","published_scope":"web","title":"Straitjacket Fits","body_html":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThey had smouldering good looks, real star power and most importantly, their guitars rang with more than their rightful share of apocalyptic riffs blessed by Satan himself, or the Lord Jehovah, maybe. Who knows, but they were that good.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eThey nearly conquered the world, but it all ended in tears. \u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eStraitjacket Fits\u003c\/b\u003e left us with three achingly great albums and some of the best songs in NZ rock history, and that should be enough.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIf there was a typical “Flying Nun” band in the mid-‘80s, Straitjacket Fits were its antithesis. Short of star power and brooding good looks (unless you counted Graeme Downes’ handsome bookishness or Martin Phillipps’ round-faced cuteness), the label’s good shepherd (haw-haw) must have blanched (or maybe just smiled) at the cool cache ‘the Fits’ instantly brought to the label.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMind you, hindsight is often just poor memory, and maybe at the beginning they just seemed like another bunch of dour Dunedin youths with black jerseys and pudding bowl haircuts.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn fact, \u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBored Games\u003c\/b\u003e (and later \u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Double Happys\u003c\/b\u003e) had two potential rock stars in their ranks, Shayne Carter and Wayne Elsey, but that came to a messy, tragic end, and after a suitable period of mourning, we were warned of Carter’s impending greatness by the apocalyptic one-off with Peter Jefferies, ‘Randolph’s Going Home’.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eI find ‘She Speeds’ hard to listen to now, so coiled and intense and perfect and instantly gob-smackingly memorable that it’s branded permanently in my psyche; but when it was released in ‘86 it seemed like there had never been a song like it, and there probably isn’t. Blessed with a bridge that rang with the Byrds-like harmonies of former \u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOrange\u003c\/b\u003e man Andrew Brough, the song’s ultimate genius was in its contrast with the roller coaster “here we go again” momentum of the chorus and its unforgettable Carter guitar lines.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRock journalism talks too much about success and industry, and we’ve all heard those sob stories about \u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eStraitjacket Fits\u003c\/b\u003e and how they nearly made it overseas, but how it all went horribly wrong. None of that matters now, because we’ve got the music, and their albums are full of coruscating, surging genius. This is guitar-based rock music the way it is supposed to sound; informed by history, meaning every word and every gesture, surging with hormones, genuine and real but unconcerned with that boring word “authenticity”. \u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eStraitjacket Fits\u003c\/b\u003e were all about the imperative to burst through to the sublime, breaking on through to a different place (and Shayne would hate me for saying this, but they remind me of the Doors in that way. I know, I know, Carter is a much less pretentious shaman than Jim Morrison, but…)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSince ‘the Fits’, Shayne has gone on to Dimmer, and this sentiment goes against general opinion, but I think his songs are even better these days; now he really gets inside them, knows how to examine them, work his way back out from the song like a happy munching worm in an apple. And he still writes guitar riffs that come straight from Satan, or Jehovah, or wherever.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eStraitjacket Fits, then. A couple of classic albums, \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/flyingout.co.nz\/products\/straitjacket-fits-hail\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-href=\"http:\/\/flyingout.co.nz\/products\/straitjacket-fits-hail\"\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e'\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eHail\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/flyingout.co.nz\/products\/straitjacket-fits-hail\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-href=\"http:\/\/flyingout.co.nz\/products\/straitjacket-fits-hail\"\u003e'\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/flyingout.co.nz\/products\/straitjacket-fits-hail\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-href=\"http:\/\/flyingout.co.nz\/products\/straitjacket-fits-hail\"\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/a\u003eand '\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMelt\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e'\u003c\/b\u003e, combining Carter’s burning grooves with Brough’s harmonic splendour; one last without Brough ('Blow') that at the time seemed too dark, too monochromatic. Listen to it now, as I did the other day, and it’s stupendous; rich, and less dated than all that grunge stuff that was so hip at the time. But back to 'Hail': what a record, with their utterly cool version of Laughing Len Cohen’s ‘\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSo Long, Marianne’\u003c\/i\u003e and, on the CD, their first EP, \u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLife In One Chord\u003c\/b\u003e, added for good measure. But \u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMelt\u003c\/b\u003e is generally considered their best work, despite somewhat dated production, and contains key songs like ‘\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBad Note For A Heart’\u003c\/i\u003e and Brough’s ‘\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDown In Splendour\u003c\/i\u003e’.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAt its core, Straitjacket Fits were Shayne Carter with able accomplices (did I mention their powerhouse rhythm section of drummer John Collie and bassist David Wood?), but in the end, it was all about Carter’s brooding intent, and those malevolent riffs that have a sense of otherness that few “normal” rock groups could ever muster. They rock(ed).\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","image":{"created_at":"2022-02-10T10:49:20+11:00","alt":null,"width":1000,"height":1000,"src":"\/\/flyingnunaustralia.com\/cdn\/shop\/collections\/IMG_20200822_0018_SQUARE.jpg?v=1644450561"}},{"id":400792649966,"handle":"vinyl","updated_at":"2024-08-27T12:25:16+10:00","published_at":"2022-02-21T19:43:05+11:00","sort_order":"manual","template_suffix":"","published_scope":"web","title":"Vinyl","body_html":""}]
A very timely reissue of this classic slice of New Zealand indie-rock, and with the band performing dates in Aotearoa and Australia, there's no time like now to (re)discover the greatness of Straitjacket Fits.
A bit of background: It’s 1990 and the Straitjacket Fits are well on their way to conquering the world. The band of Shayne Carter, Andrew Brough, John Collie and David Wood are at peak songwriting and on performance fire. Some say they are the best band in the world. Flying Nun Recordsin New Zealand knows it and Arista Records agree and sign them for the rest of it.
It’s time to make a new record. Gavin MacKillop is recruited as producer, and Airforce in Auckland, New Zealand chosen as the studio. The result is Melt, a loud guitar complex thing dominated by Shayne Carter’s amplified and distorted guitar vision given light fop pop relief by Andrew Brough.
Melt is an album full of igneous rock majesty. Carter’s ‘Bad Note for a Heart”, “Headwind”,“A.P.S”, “Roller Ride” and “Cast Stone” are all abstractly chiseled boulders of guitar rock greatness and amongst Straitjacket Fits finest work. Andrew Brough’s gem like contributions, “Down in Splendour”and “Hand in Mine”, offer another perspective on another scale. These polished pieces of translucent sparkle are complete in themselves as high pop art and as needed balance and contrast to the monumental crush of Carter's work.
Let us remember that Straitjackets Fits were a band. A band at it’s very best on this album, Melt. As well as writing the songs Carter and Brough are very fine singers and guitarists mutually contributing to each of the songs on the album. At their best the interplay is seductive and key to the creative success of the album. Throughout, the rhythm section of Collie and Wood hold it all together at the heart of the musical maelstrom. Melt is the work of a band at its collective creative height.
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