The Gaps - Shooting the Gap

You want hardcore NZ punk? You got it dork.
The Gaps bring you 'Shooting the Gap'. A fabulously bad ass piece of NZ underground hardcore hailing from the wrong side of the tracks in Christchurch.
I saw these guys play live a few times and they were great. I think they were so named 'The Gaps' because most of them had some of their front teeth missing. Unlike most suburban punk kids today, these blokes didn't sit around polishing their doc martens at their mum's place. They probably wore them into the ground by having to run from the police after robbing people's houses.....!
Funny thing is, I haven't listened to this tape in over 20 years but every now and then, songs like 'I'm a Mongol' pop into my head and I find myself wandering around Melbourne chanting 'I'm a Mongol,  I'm a Mongol'....etc. Lets face it, these guys have some catchy tunes and lyrics... they stick in your head like a crowbar.
Actually there is a lyric sheet with this tape which I should probably attach somehow in the download as there's some great lyrical content on these tracks. Here's a good example:

Stupid little girl on TV
Imitation flavour, that's me
Bubble gum songs, painted eyes
We agree, she must die
She must die, she must die.....

That song's called 'Kill Kylie'. And it's about your favourite Neighbours star come pop star.
Hilarious.

I spent a weekend drinking out on Banks peninsula at some party with a few of these guys once. I thought I was a bit of a heavy drinker but by about 3am when I was passing out, these guys were just warming up. A bunch of hard boozing dudes......
I remember they entered a band competition once and I think they won because their fans nicked the voting forms off peoples tables and voted on their behalf. Dedicated fans. And why not? They deserved to win. These guys remind me of the fabulous 'Mindfuckers' (who I have to say are my favorite NZ punk band ever to date) who I think share a similar sensibility. Drunken angry punk doom with a good sense of humour and that has not a care in the world.....barely recorded to tape before the studio blows up and the band miraculously escapes with the master tape without paying the engineer....  and probably raiding the fridge on the way out to grab any stray alcohol.
That, my friends, is The Gaps. The guys you don't invite to the party.

A cassette-only release. From around 1990.

And here it is.....

Animalypse - Struggles In Deafbridge

So here's the second tape I dug out from these guys. A mix of Live and Studio stuff from '88 mostly by the looks. Inside info includes this statement: 'this cassette chronicles Animalypse from its conception as a three piece up to and including the earlier performances with Day Boy'.
Beautifully crafted wacky, strung out Dunedin pop, smacking of the Clean / Great Unwashed on speed (or the wrong speed if you think in turntable terms) in this instance. I would say 3Ds too but interestingly they pre-date 3Ds first release by two years. There's probably more of a leaning towards the Expressway sound overall & I can hear Sferic Experiments' crazed anti-pop sensibilities in there I'm certain of it....although a lot more structured than that ensemble. Being from that incestuous Dunedin scene, it's hard to know who's distilling who anyway. Sferics were around at pretty much the same time and shared at least one band member I know of. Still, Animalypse are a highly original band that should avoid too many comparisons (it's just easier for hack writers like myself and gives the newcomers references.....and you gold diggers should just be grateful for their existence... they light up our crummy lives). It's a shame some label didn't lock these guys in a studio for a weekend and put out a nice slab of grubbily produced lolly on a small run of vinyl, so all us old timers could have copies. Sux. At least we have these tapes to keep us happy. Also includes a version of the David Lynch song 'Heaven', which would be the first 'rock' version of this I would ever have heard. There was a wave of bands (including the Pixies who sort of made it famous...) who did that early 90's, but then you already know that don't you. And, as with the last tape, there's supposed to be 13 songs but there are actually 14 on here. Who knows what the last track is... or whether the tracks are in order? Frankly, who cares? Just listen and be shocked at what you missed and how these kids blow away the rock monkey crowd these days.

Again, ripped with minimal intervention. Only volume balanced for an even listen....don't complain if it's not exactly right. Or my big sister will beat you senseless.

Get it here.

Animalypse - Aliva Neurotica

And so back to the tape box..... This little beauty shoulda been ripped & chucked on this blog long ago as it's been sitting on the shelf staring at me for over a year now. Finally, sitting around twiddling my thumbs today I realised its time had come.
Recorded live in Dunedin (yes, a Dunedin band....) in late 1989 at various locations including the Nerve Centre, The Empire and The University. Slightly rough round the edges raw recordings but interestingly everything's in the mix to some degree and therefore it doesn't lack any power because of low-fi tactics. I utterly thrashed this tape when Greg (drummer) gave it to me in 1990 so I'm surprised at how well it played. Greg moved up to Christchurch & got us into all this crazed Dunedin shit. We were very naive to it all so lapped this stuff up like a cat goes for the spilt cream on the kitchen floor.
Mostly originals played here but the cover of Fiction Romance (Buzzcocks) is great & shows how blistering these guys must have been live.
I did see Animalypse play live in Lyttleton (I think it was at the Harbourlight venue?) years after this release with a different line up which was still good but not as brutally manic as this stuff.
There's another cassette of theirs I have buried deep in the tape box that I have to dig out too so hopefully will get around to that soon. You should thank your lucky stars.....
Animalypse on this occasion were > Bryan Spittle ( Guitar), Jeff Mitchell (Guitar, Vocals), Greg Cairns (Drums), Alan Thomasson (Bass).
I've just realised the last song is actually two songs, which means there are 12 songs on the cassette, not 11 as suggested on the cover. Hmmmmmm..... god knows.......

Ripped to digital files with minimum intervention.

Aliva Neurotica (Here)