Wasp Factory - Hick Hate
The recent influx of New Zealand-based blogs has added this weird pressure, like I have to prove I know more than two things about New Zealand music.
I mean, I am a blogspot kid, so my firsthand exposure to music scenes has been limited to an extremely awful metalcore scene that refuses to let up in Ohio. I need to buy a Casio and a distortion pedal and show everyone that Brainiac were cherubs descending from music heaven, but that’s besides the point. Basically, everything I’ve learned about New Zealand has come from everyone else, and I cannot thank forgotten blogs like The Doldrums and Kiwi Music enough.
So now I ask all of you, hip-kiwi-tumblr users, why does New Zealand have the best hit/miss ratio for great music of any country ever? Are you just naturally bitter and awesome from living in a country that the rest of the world sees as New Jersey to Australia’s New York, or what?
Okay, that’s cool, so we’ll interrupt this string of passive-aggressive music posts directed at my girlfriend to introduce you all to Wasp Factory. The band existed in the mid-80s, hailing from a small town called Gisborne that I can only imagine no one reading this will ever visit. I’ve only acquired their Hick Hate EP, from which this title track is culled, but one day I’ll hunt down their LP. They’ve got a pretty diverse sound and aren’t easily tied down to a simple “imagine X and Y having a baby with Z singing lead.” What you will find in this song is oddball percussion (it sounds like sleigh bells, congas, and a fucking triangle!), a guitar that bounces between a subdued verse melody and jubilant leads in the breaks, and then mumbly vocals that are pretending to be mad at a girl. But c’mon, he’s crazy about her and we all know it.
So check it out, I suppose.
Am I supposed to talk about The Clean or is that whole scene well-documented by now? Ooh! David Kilgour solo! “You Forget” is a perfect pop song.
Whatever kiwis. It’s like what, 8 o’clock or something over there? That’s cool.
