Debtfest E-Zine

SATURDAY 17 FEBRUARY THE GIG IS AT THE TOTE
DEB TF (NZ)
BILL
EST
DIR
EEN BAT
CAS RID
HG ER
UITA OPP
R OSI
CRU TE S
DE THE EX
LAS TRE
TET HOT NDE
AS TOP ES
I C
ASS
VOW ETS CRA
CAV TRIP
SH
E E PER
BLO MBE
ODY DDE
PER H E LL D FIGU
MIS O V RES
SIO PAIN
HUF N
listen up, u little maggots.
in a show of direct action, i took out a ten thousand dollar loan

from ANZ bank and put it towards a music fucking festival. what
was the worst that could happen?
so. after having done the stupidest thing possible, it was only
logical to do the most expensive thing possible: fly over loads
of new zealand bands to melbourne and pay them all $666 each.
and now we are all witness to the refined results; a kind of
alchemic reversal: instead of transmuting base metals into gold,
i have transmuted currency into thin air.
but this act was hardly a mythic craft. in fact, we all know how
easy it is to take after my radical act. we know this because
there are micro-debtfests taking place all over the world as we
speak. (chances are you’re engaging in a debtfest of your very
own right now.) in a remarkable show of solidarity, millions are
marching toward their own personal financial ruin as part of the
festive celebrations detailed herein. this is not just my debt. it is
a worldwide collaboration, distilled carefully into one weekend.
and it is a weekend that was carefully planned, right down to the

meticulous effort undertaken to ensure that the happening was
as disorganised as possible, so as to compliment the scabadelic
modern culture of work -- that which is sumarised by a
convenient pairing of the words ‘work’ and ‘force’, a ‘workforce’,
ie. the ideology that we are all forced to work. and to quote one
Mick Jagger, “let’s work”.
to summarise, my approach to emotions is not unlike that of

Keynesian economic policy: in times of depression, increase
spending so as to stimulate productivity and create growth.
the aim? well. to create jobs, of course.

-me
THURSDAY
////////////////////
SIDE
Terry & Bill Direen & Thomas Hardisty
@ The Yarra
FRIDAY
Centre Negative 7” Release
w/ Subterranean Rain, The Pits, Bitch Prefect
@ The Curtin
SATURDAY
666% NZ bands at the Tote
////////////////////
3pm-late
SHOWS
SUNDAY
The Trendees, The Shifters + special act
@ Lulu’s
MONDAY
Cash Guitar (feat. Matt Middleton)
@ Lulu’s
TUESDAY
Chris Heazlewood, Tim Player, Perry Mahoney
@ Make It Up Club
BILL DIREEN (DUNEDIN / PARIS)
Andrew Schmidt, audioculture.co.nz:
The Christchurch musician and songwriter’s art and sound was at the
core of one of the most sustained bodies of quality New Zealand indie
music in the early to mid-1980s. A prolific composer, Direen’s intellect
and energy took in and spun out poetry, film, theatre and literature.
A folk singer who studied sound under electronic sound pioneer Douglas Lilburn, he
edited and published small-run publications and went electric with pre-punk pioneers
Vacuum, who performed on the same night (albeit in a different hall) as Suburban
Reptiles at the University Arts Festival held at Wellington’s Victoria University in 1977.
Vacuum were regulars at Christchurch’s punk friendly Mollet Street venue in 1977 and 1978
before splitting into Victor Dimisich Band and eventually The Builders. Early recording attempts
failed to satisfy, but by 1980, Direen released the four song 7-inch EP Six Impossible Things
through Wellington’s Sausage Records.
Back home in Christchurch, he used the same format for the self-released Soloman’s Ball,
Schwimmen In Der See (on Flying Nun Records), High Thirties Piano and Feast Of Frogs in
1981, 1982 and 1983. Records that barely dented the

stack of Velvet Underground, garage punk and Tele-
vision-influenced songs Direen had in his catalogue.
He kept busy playing Christchurch’s The British,
Gladstone Hotel and the Star and Garter Tavern with
an ever-changing line-up of supporting musicians.
Direen’s masterpiece, Beatin Hearts (1983), was

recorded in Auckland’s Progressive studios with
prize money from the 1982 Battle of the Bands in
Christchurch. The album is chock-full of smoky beat
musings; deftly soundtracked Denis Glover poetry;
vital re-readings of Direen’s spooked ballad ‘Alien’
with Toy Love’s Chris Knox on organ and Mike Dooley
playing drums; the sublime ‘Dirty and Disgusting’ and
‘Moderation’; and gritty, literate Velvets-influenced
rockers ‘Kicks’, ‘Outer Date World’ and ‘Bedrock
Bay’. The core group – called Urbs while playing in
Wellington and Auckland and supporting The Fall in
mid-1982 – was Direen, Campbell McLay (bass) and
Malcolm Grant (drums).
The equally strong Split Seconds collected up early Vacuum recordings with more recent
efforts. It was followed in 1985 by the musically diverse C0NCH3, featuring the popular
‘Alligator Song’ and Let’s Play (on Direen’s South Indies imprint in 1985), playfully described
by Direen as his “disco album”. He toured New Zealand in 1984 and 1985.
Theatre, always part of the picture, soon became central on moving to Wellington in the late
1980s. South Indies revisited his catalogue, and released new work by associated groups.
Direen’s sound became jazzier and more experimental.
After a productive period in 1990s Wellington, during which he toured Europe and the United
States and had his work compiled over four CDs by Flying Nun Records, he chose to reside
in Berlin.
Bill Direen lived in Paris and was a frequent visitor to New Zealand to teach, perform, publish
novels, plays and poetry and release music through Powertool Records. He has recently
returned to New Zealand to live in 2014 and is as active as ever.
His 2013 album (as Bill Direen And The Hat) The Flavour of The Meat is a collaboration
with Hamish Kilgour, Miggy Littleton and David Watson. The recent the utopians are just
out boozin’ extended single from 2014, features three Bilders lineups, one each for Europe,
Australia and New Zealand.
CASH GUITAR (DUNEDIN)
Andrew Schmidt on Chris’ band KING LOSER, audioculture.co.nz:

Kurt and Courtney, Thurston and Kim, and even Nancy and Lee.
Memorable, offbeat alt-rock couples were popular enough in the 1980s
and 1990s. And New Zealand wasn’t long in locating its own, in King
Loser’s Chris Heazlewood and Celia Pavlova.
At odds with everyone, including each other, King Loser became the new band to see
in New Zealand in the early 1990s, especially when the band line-up settled in 1995
with the arrival of drummer Lance Strickland (AKA Tribal Thunder) and guitarist Sean
O’Reilly.
Born Celia Patel, Pavlova (later Mancini) was barely back in NZ after three months in
the USA when she met Heazlewood (AKA Hazelwood) in Auckland in 1991. It was a
chance encounter that threw up a new collaboration in King Loser and prompted the
pair’s shift to Dunedin, Heazlewood’s hometown.
Over the next six years the abrasive duo would record three progressively better
albums for Flying Nun Records and issue a string of challenging singles on NZ,
European and American labels.
Born in Auckland, Pavlova spent much of

her musical life in Christchurch, where she
was in The Axel Grinders, managed Into
The Void, and sang in The After Dinner
Mints – in pub residencies, at racehorse
launches and champagne breakfasts.
In Dunedin, mid-November 1994, King

Loser could be found in the Provincial
Hotel’s subterranean Cellar Bar with Steve
Dean drumming. Chris banging out his
dirty surf inflected rock, Celia heckling him
onstage and locals such as Roy Colbert
looking out over dewy pints. At one point,
Celia jammed a match between the keys of
the electric organ to get a sustaining drone,
before resuming bass.
As Heazlewood – one of a number of
different spellings and name variations he’d
use – the King Loser kingpin had the more
strictly song-based ‘Badge or Medallion’/
‘Speed’/ ‘Aero’ single out on Flying Nun
Records in 1995. It was one of his best
recordings.
He’d use the solo moniker again in 1996 for Introducing The Ron Asheton Club, a
multi-song instrumental release on new Auckland indie Crawlspace Records.
Asked about instrumentals, Chris replies, “Why ruin good music with bad words?”
All things considered, the [live] show, like King Loser’s six-year run, was still more fun
than friction. A tonic for the times rather than a drag on them.
King Loser briefly reformed in September 2016 with eight shows nationwide.
Celia Mancini passed away on 6 September 2017.

BATRIDER
(EXPAT)
“Sarah Chadwick, Sam Featherstone and

Stephanie Crase have survived ... years of
line-up changes, spending 191 days a year in
a van in foreign countries, supermarket bread
and cheese, countless moves and too many
cigarettes to bring to the surface a [BAND]
both depressing and fantastic, a work that is
laced with addictive raw emotional energy and
encapsulates terse and joyous times.”
-- Two Bright Lakes Records
CRUDE (EXPAT)
O:M L ET ST
LS AT D ON HE
E
A T ID TI
A
E M ,T CS
E
SE
H
“From 95-2005 I recorded fifty or so
albums on my own label, formed a
rock band called The Aesthetics,
met Thurston from Sonic Youth and
had further music released by him
on his label, explored experimen-
tal and electronic music realms,
got arrested several times for pub-
lic drunkenness, went quite mad,
‘mellowed out’, kept playing, found
my life partner, got much older,
got married then made the musical
mistake of going to Melbourne …
There will never be another time
like the nineties. I was truly only
able to record the corpus I did and
build the ‘career’ I did because I
was able to draw down a unemploy-
ment/sickness benefit. Never again
will this opportunity to create and
focus 100% on creating be afford-
ed to me. Well, maybe at retirement
age?”
OPPOSITE SEX (DUNEDIN)

Opposite sex are an outstanding band. Born in New Zealand’s hinterland where there is
plenty of time to soak up the best of music, they are now favorites in a once again thriving
Dunedin mix. Second album ‘Hamlet’ is a step up, with mainstays Lucy and Tim being
joined by Reg on guitar,who brings his own swagger and lurch to the potent brew. See
them live when you can, you will love it.
-Robbie Yeats (The Dead C)
Opposite Sex have been my favourite band in the last two or three years, and have been
from the second time I saw them play they are continually changing, consistently
excellent, and keep me honest musically by knowing that I can’t ever be complacent about
the music I’m a part of. I see a lot of local music, and the best performances in 2014 and
2015 were by Opposite Sex. I’m pretty sure it’ll be the same for 2016. And there’s a heck of
a lot of good and great local music in Dunedin. In any other band each of the members
would be the centre of attention, in Opposite Sex the balance is perfect. Three strong
writers, three great players, and three people that think very carefully about the music they
make. Their second CD, Hamlet, is the main gift I’ve given to the people I care about since it
was released. I think that says it all.
-Mick Elborado (The Terminals, Scorched Earth Policy, Axemen)
When I first saw Opposite Sex they were just a duo of Lucy and Tim and somehow they
reminded me of a postpunk band, but thinking about it afterwards I couldn’t put my finger
on exactly which one. Looking back and hearing them a lot more since I think it’s more they
have a postpunk sensibility. It’s nothing to do with the more fashionable soundalikes you
hear in some other cities, but rather the fact they possess a rare musical intelligence. Lucy’s
vocals stand out, but really they have three great vocalists and three songwriters, The music a
synthesis of punk thrash, catchy almostpop, swamp blues, and murder ballads
that’s entirely their own, plus the fact they’re actually the best live band in New Zealand
and this album captures all of that.
-Peter Stapleton (The Terminals, Victor Dimisich Band, The Pin Group)
The whole thing is so varied that when it ends you dive back in to make sure the movie of the
journey was real. Great gritty gurgling guitar lines, sentient urgent drumming, honest vernacular
postpunk wildness. But it keeps finding other gearsfloating you on a sea of piano waves and your
beloved is softly confiding that her secret hobby is murder – bending you under bleak vertiginous
tonepoem squall and unwinding spoken word ennui charming you with a miraculous straight
talking anthem giving it to the spectre of possessiveness. There’s tension between the “band
stuff” and the “ballads” and it’s perfect – like falling through a trapdoor onto a new stage in a dif-
ferent world.
-Alastair Galbraith (Plagal Grind, The Rip)

THE TRENDEES
(OAMARU)
Mounting frustration caused this – it felt

like it might be the last time. The four
track was set up on the ironing board. We
felt pissed off and ignored. We played
our songs slurping on beer and snarling
stupid between takes. There were cords
everywhere slack and trodden. Piles of
paper with felt tip words in a corner by the
mic stand. ‘Power Waves’ came out early
and I sang it feeling dumb looking out the
window at the same patch of water in the
lyric.
Sometimes we stamped our feet, yelled

or jerked unintentionally. Formula was
much later and by this stage I had cleared
out for more space to whirl about in
the far end of the room, hunched over
howling everything before I collapsed. The
performances had become increasingly
careless and unhinged. We felt giddy.
Afterwards someone got some cheap
champagne and we sat on the bonnet of
Austen’s car. It was sunny. We felt good.
‘WE ARE SONIC ART’ BY THE

TRENDEES AVAILABLE NOW
http://meltedicecream.bandcamp.com
http://albertsbasement.net
- - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -
-
-
-- ---
- -
-
-
-
-
-
-LAS TETAS
- - -
-
-
- - - - -
-
- (GREY- -LYNN) - -
- - - -
- - - - -
- -
-
- - - -
-
-
- -
- - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
- “We - - -
-are fundamentally - - a punk - - band and
- - - so I - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
- imagine
- always - - no
- -
matter what
- - we are
- -
doing -
there
- will
- - -
- - -
be- that element - - but - -
more - -
importantly - - we - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - up to-- -
- are- a- creatively - open band.
- of style -
- as long Las
- - Tetas-are
- - -
- -
play any - -
kind - - - - as
-we- all like - -
it. - -
- -
- And- -we like- the -
- idea- of - -trying- new - things. - - We- -
-
- - - - - - - - - -
- -have no - -wish to - -stick to - -any sound - - or genre.
- - - - -
- We- like - all -kinds - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - -
of music
- -
and are
- -constantly
- - - -
-
- inspiring- - each- - other with
- - - -
new bands/books/
- - - - - -
- - - - - -
which -always helps - - - - - -
- - artists -we get into
- a creative - - - - - influence
- - - -
- you - -as - - -
person.- I’m - -
looking
- -
forward -to- -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - seeing
- - future
- -
developments.”
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
Lucy-Stewart being-interviewed by -
- - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
Rupert Murdoch
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - -- - - -
- - - - - -
- - - - - -
- -
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
-- --- -- - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -- - - - - - - -
- - - - - -
- -
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
-- --- --- --- --- --- --- --
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
CRASH (E
XP
AT
)
SIAHN
WILL
Thanks for talking to me on your break Perry. I’m insulted. What was your favourite thing about
How long’s your break? not having a bank account?
Probably about 5 minutes. Having a million dollars in cash under my mattress.
What was your favourite high school subject? I only have a million dollars in assets under my
Geography. Because on a school trip our bus mattress.
started sliding towards a cliff on Arthur’s Pass. I’d hate to know what’s really under your mattress.
And that made geography your favourite Then I guess you really do hate overseas bank
subject? accounts. How do you feel about your drummer
It was the most thrilling thing that ever happened Will? And I mean *really* feel.
to me at high school. He’s very Tassie.
Is that how you got the band name? Catty?

No, that’s because Ride was already taken. No, I said Tassie.
So it’s not a J.G. Ballard reference? Jazzy?

No. Tassie.
Good. That would be pretentious. So, what’s Tassie?

the naughtiest thing you’ve ever done? Tassie.
Stealing Daniel Bedingfield’s towel.
Have you ever thought of calling your band
Do you like dying your hair? Jazzmania?
Did David Bain do it? The board rejected that one.
As in ‘is the pope a catholic’? Did you think of Lorde rejected it?
that yourself? No the BOARD rejected it!
Straight off the top off the dome.
Lorde?
The blonde dome. What’s your favourite band No!
interview?
When Yulia got interviewed on Good Morning.
HOT TOPIC (EXPAT)

1. i heard an american recent-
ly say “oh, hot topic -- that’s
a cool name.” do you agree?
Haha! well when we decid-
ed on the name I thought it
was funny and imagined it
was at odds really with the
band.
2. book?
I’m currently reading up above the world

by Paul Bowels- great plot but also good
sentences. And before that I was reading
Fran lebowitz. And no exit the play in one
act by jean Paul Sartre
3. speaking of good sen-

tences, do u think david
bain did it?
I’ve been meaning to listen to that pod-

cast about him that everyone’s crapped
on about- really struggled when someone
asked me about it the other day all I could
come up with was jumpers. If I had to take a
punt with a gun to my head I would say no.
I think I just stepped on the nz flag
we all stepped on the nz flag when
we moved to melbourne, let’s face it
UHHH what town you originally

from?
(#3.)
I grew up in Hamilton
5. whats the most amount of

debt youve ever been in?
currently owe 80 grand in student loans
in nz and have no degree to show for it.
I don’t know how that happened. I pur-
chased a degree in Australia after that
and have no debt so there’s something.
6. why did i take out a Because one day you’ll be dead, and what
ten thousand dollar bank is money? I don’t really know what it is, so
loan? my answer genuinely is because you must
be a genius
(E
XP
ASSETSTRIPPER
AT
)
He kicked his girlfriend out of the band.... you

won’t BELIEVE what happened next!
“Very horrible scum rock by a Melbourne, Australia [band] who follow
much more in the tradition of The Sick or Venom P Stinger than any
of that city’s so-called better groups. Their sound is a no-fi melange
of totally quiffed keyboard hideousness and randomized guitar/drum
gruntage. The lyrics just sound mean and the results are addictive.”
-Byron Coley, “Size Matters” column in a 2012 edition of The Wire re-
viewing Lynton’s old band Satanic Rockers
We KNOW this band will be even bettaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

VOW CAVE
(AKL)
(EXPAT)
P aul, Paul and L

a nd oui
s e.
is e .. L
u s e a n d L a ul, L au l
L o ou i ius and
, P e and
i s e
u $ $ * S Poo
. $ O
Po L 2 vs M,,,
. He
l, PO
el
L , iam
L L sd
n d ioam
a d
L P
P
L
P
L
L
P
SEE ALSO: DIANA TRIBUTE, ONE THOUSAND HUES OF GOLDEN FIRE
EMBEDDED
FIGURES(EXPAT)
Bianca from Dunedin

used to run her
radio show called
Synthesize Me and
now she moved here
where she plays in
Strange Harvest and
is also playing in
Embedded Figures
BLOODY HELL (EXPAT)
Ross the boss. Ross the boss. Ross the boss. Ross the boss. Ross the boss. Ross the boss.
OV PAIN
(EXPAT)
Members of OP-
POSITE SEX and
ELAN VITAL con-
join for one unholy
racket; crossfad-
ed tracks done live
and not without din.
Bioelectric themes
plus situationism;
such smarts do
make it P-ainful.
THE GIG IS AT THE TOTE
PERMISSION
ulle
tm m
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SATURDAY 17 FEBRUARY
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BANDS:
SHARPIE
CROWS,
CROWS
GIRLS PISS-
ING ON GIRLS
PISSING
AUTOGRAPHS
THIS FESTIVAL
WAS BROUGHT
TO YOU BY PURE
EVIL

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SATURDAY 17 FEBRUARY THE GIG IS AT THE TOTE

listen up, u little maggots.

in a show of direct action, i took out a ten thousand dollar loan

and it is a weekend that was carefully planned, right down to the

to summarise, my approach to emotions is not unlike that of

the aim? well. to create jobs, of course.

BILL DIREEN (DUNEDIN / PARIS)

Andrew Schmidt, audioculture.co.nz:

1981, 1982 and 1983. Records that barely dented the

Direen’s masterpiece, Beatin Hearts (1983), was

CASH GUITAR (DUNEDIN)

Andrew Schmidt on Chris’ band KING LOSER, audioculture.co.nz:

Born in Auckland, Pavlova spent much of

In Dunedin, mid-November 1994, King

Celia Mancini passed away on 6 September 2017.

“Sarah Chadwick, Sam Featherstone and

OPPOSITE SEX (DUNEDIN)

-­Robbie Yeats (The Dead C)

­-Mick Elborado (The Terminals, Scorched Earth Policy, Axemen)

­-Alastair Galbraith (Plagal Grind, The Rip)

Mounting frustration caused this – it felt

Sometimes we stamped our feet, yelled

‘WE ARE SONIC ART’ BY THE

Is that how you got the band name? Catty?

So it’s not a J.G. Ballard reference? Jazzy?

Good. That would be pretentious. So, what’s Tassie?

HOT TOPIC (EXPAT)

I’m currently reading up above the world

3. speaking of good sen-

I’ve been meaning to listen to that pod-

UHHH what town you originally

5. whats the most amount of

He kicked his girlfriend out of the band.... you

We KNOW this band will be even bettaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

P aul, Paul and L

Bianca from Dunedin

BLOODY HELL (EXPAT)

You might also like

-Robbie Yeats (The Dead C)

-Mick Elborado (The Terminals, Scorched Earth Policy, Axemen)

-Alastair Galbraith (Plagal Grind, The Rip)