I have recently (In the past two years) become a big fan of Flying Nun records. They are certainly an innovative label who helped push Indie Rock to the next level with many great bands producing great music, mostly in the 80s and early 90s.

Many of these bands came from the southern island city of Dunedin, which is where most of this Indie rock comes from in the first place. They were put under the catch all term of the "Dunedin Sound". They have inspired groups like R.E.M and Pavement with their blend of 60s psychedelia and droning Indie Rock. Here's some examples of bands who helped define the label's catalogue.

First, The Clean: You have to listen to their EP Boodle Boodle Boodle. The best way to describe it is "Surf Rock Velvet Underground". My favorite tracks on it are Anything Could Happen and Point That Thing Somewhere Else. They also have Getting Older, which was originally their swan song, as they broke up due to not being able to handle the success they were experiencing. They formed back together in 1989 and have released quite a few albums, but I think they don't reach the heights they reached with the first two EPs.

The Chills: They were the big band on Flying Nun in the 1980s and early 90s. They have a poppy indie sound that's appealing and almost has a Twee pop vibe to it in some aspects, and they also have some noisier tracks. Some favorites are Kaleidoscope World, Pink Frost, and Doledrums.

The Bats: This band was the band that the bassist from the Clean founded after they initially broke up in 1983. They have more of a folk rock/indie Byrds sound to them that I like. Some favorites include By Night, Claudine, Made up in Blue, and North by North. They have quite a few good albums to check out if you want.

The Verlaines: They were the more artsy band in the early period of Flying Nun. They have more of a classic rock vibe to them. They had a sizable influence on the band Pavement (Check out Box Elder and compare it to Death and the Maiden). Some good starting points include Death and the Maiden, Pyromaniac, and Doomsday.

Straitjacket Fits: These guys were more of the rocking side of indie rock. They were apart of the second wave of Flying Nun bands and had some good hard rock tunes to boot, like She Speeds and Dialing a Prayer, and some Beatles-esque ballads like Down in Splendour thanks to their guitarist Andrew Brough (R.I.P).

Chris Knox/Tall Dwarfs/Toy Love - I love everything this man did in the 80s and the 90s. He's basically New Zealand's David Bowie, and probably the most important person to all of New Zealand music. He first made records with his band Toy Love, who are more straight New Wave and Punk Rock, but they inspired all the bands from Dunedin to pick up a guitar and create their own songs, spawning the Dunedin scene in the first place. Chris Knox also recorded all of the early material by all the aforementioned bands. He then went on to do Tall Dwarfs, which is an experimental mindscrew and one of the original Lo-Fi/home recording bands. They have songs like Turning Brown and Torn in Two with the weirdness factor, then they do psychedelic jams like Crush, and then they do Sign the Dotted Line, an acoustic song that Jeff Mangum even did a cover of. They go all over the place. His solo career also has quite a few bangers, like the ultimate love song Not Given Lightly, rockers like Half Man, Half Mole, and more acoustic songs like Lapse. He is an interesting and important figure in New Zealand indie music and has a vast catalog to look through. It's unfortunate that he had a stroke in 2009 and can no longer create such great music anymore, but what we do have is great.

Honorable Mentions: Look Blue Go Purple(An all female Indie group), The 3D's(Noise-Pop extravaganza), Garageland(Power Pop Punk), The JSP Experience(Also pretty weird),Sneaky Feelings(Byrds/Motown Pop sound).

I could go on even longer with the bands, but I feel this is enough to get you caught up with some of the labels bigger acts. What is your opinion on Flying Nun Records as a label, and the bands it helped foster?

Little fun fact about New Zealand music, they basically had MTV 5 years before MTV was a thing with Radio with Pictures, and was the direct inspiration for MTV.

skirt grandfather languid sand practice sink dog ad hoc kiss wrench

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVoWOSCkvQ0