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LP
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FTR 206LP
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"The Coolies have been blurting out random batches of high order avant garage spew since 1997. Sjionel Timu and Tina Pihema are the core of the band. Formed in the sprawl of South Auckland while they were still teens, the Coolies were ostensibly a 'punk' unit, but their sound was never doctrinaire. Through sheer weirdness and strength of vision, they created music that paralleled aspects of underground noise from the forests of Olympia Washington, the squats of West London, and the basements of Dunedin. Without resorting to formal revisionism, they've managed to take the basics of the early Rough Trade sound and smudge it with fingers dipped in the art-readymades of NZ's underground pop groups and their own fevered experimentalism. For a good chunk of the last decade, Stefan Neville (aka Pumice) was their drummer. This line-up cut a great LP, Master, for Chapter Music, and an even more dastardly EP, Punk Is Bread, for Epic Sweep. Now, we are delighted to present their third album, Kaka, gruntily produced by Neville. The tunes on Kaka (the title refers to either Maori slang for 'shit,' or the name of an indigenous NZ parrot, depending on how you ask) were recorded in a couple of long jam sessions, then teased and smooshed into 'shape' over the course of a year or so. The results are both propulsively fetching and utterly fried. We've been listening to this one incessantly. So will you." -Byron Coley, 2015. Limited edition of 400.
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CD
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CH 083CD
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In the beginning, there was South Auckland's own Coolies, three teenage school chums Tina, Sjionel and Melissa, playing the kind of racket that might have caused Johnny Rotten himself to spin in his grave, had he actually been dead (might as well have been). Back then in the mid/late-'90s, the Coolies' punk/rock'n'roll/was inspired, it must be pointed out, by nobody... nobody at all. Nonetheless, their signature was a sweet and swinging rah-rah sound (a rah-Ramones/rah-Ronettes car-crash). That, and a burning teenage desire to actually burn things down. The trio recorded a 10-song tape on a ghetto blaster... the tapes circulated Auckland's oh-so-hip & scenester K Road and the Coolies built up a cult following amongst the crowd who were, er, not their peers at all. For a while, the band played support to virtually every decent touring band to come thru AK, and a bunch of terrible ones who deserve their fate languishing in obscurity. Eventually they got it together to release a self titled 7'', with timeless fucking hits "Madonnas The Bomb," "Yr So 1960s," "Go! Hot Metal" and "Pimpmobile." Also around the turn of the century, Kill Rock Stars put a Coolies song on the Fields And Streams compilation which, at the time, was a big deal. So, not for the last time, the Coolies seized defeat from the jaws of victory and Melissa split. The Coolies either took the first of many breaks or just couldn't be fucked carrying on. In 2004-ish, Tina & Sjionel recruited Fiona to "man" the drums -- a real life drum machine. The Coolies ripped up the plans and returned with a fresh new sound for a new-era/new/no/wave -- Sjionel switched it up with synths and samples, Tina stuck with basic blitzkrieg guitar & blah blah lyrics. With a new buzz, the Coolies set off to take on the world. Like lightning, they released a self-titled album (produced by nobody), and toured NZ, Australia + America with a bunch of bands (Erase Errata/Ariel Pink/Bobbyteens/Wives/Mika Miko/Weird War/Coachwhips/Deerhoof). Later, the trio put out a tour EP, Bless The Babies And The Mothers, which was well received in the SF region. They decided to recruit legend mate and drummer Stefan (of Pumice un-fame), and their first show was at Sjionel's house with Calvin Johnson. This reinvigorated line-up was the perfect scenario band-wise... new/old attitude to music/underground noise staple/post-punk/oioioi like a Shangri-Las and Crass tea party. Master is a collection of Coolies at their finest -- raw, lo-fi, annoying, brilliant, monumental, and totally necessary. An accumulation of material recorded and mixed by Stefan Neville reel-to-reel at random places around Auckland....mastered by Rachel Shearer (Lovely Midget) and loved by all.
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