My grass was long and was cut down. After a bit of sun drying I raked it up into bundles and now it’s mostly mulch around the trees. You get into certain rhythms raking up grass. At night I headed to the cottage and let the music flow. The next day it would be working in the sun to the rhythms created the night before. All in all, a very grounding experience. And the blisters didn’t last too long.
Click on the banner to see all tracks and dip on in.
About 8 months ago I began to upload tracks to Tindeck. There are tracks from the 80,s through to now. By late November there had been 5000 listens. Today (Jan14th) there are around 10000. Getting over a thousand a week now. Cool!
Hey, like a theme song or something! A few drunken moments from the Shorn Sheep Session, On the Road to Wellsford and the Newmarket Xmas Gallery sessions. All completely self indulgent cos like we care!
Strap yourself in and enjoy the ride.
The links allow you to listen and/or download. (For better sound I recommend download and burn yourself and friends a cd 🙂
First up is the near legendary “History Of the Wetas”. Originally released in 1988 on Loaded tapes ( a near forgotten Auckland tape label released by Andrew Moore). The tape consisted of 6 tracks by three versions of the same band:
Download History Of The Wetas here
Luau and Follow You – The Hope Children
Mushroom and Cowboys – Silver Dream Rocket live
96 Tears and Wetarock – Wetagogo Live.
I have included here versions from a Grooveweta concert in Rotterdam in 2004. (Thanks to Marcel for setting up the gig and recording it.)
I will place some further rare recordings up as they become available.
A collection of spikey bits best served with creamy frothy milk fresh from the cowshed, brown sugar and a handful of stewed Black Doris plums. A side dish of greens of your choice wouldn’t go astray either.
First up the final known recording of Luau, recorded at JD’s ranch. First time we’d played together for months. A 16 year old Mel was playing full on wiggy lead guitar. Where is he now? Track two is the only known recording of Sad Song and is guitar and bass only.
Mr Steel and Dance are a couple of live tracks from the three piece line-up. With the band scattered from Northland to Nelson pulling everyone together for a gig was difficult. The usual was for those playing to turn up the day before and have a relaxed rehearsal session running into a party ending sometime after the gig was finished.
Man who shot Mepaw could extend for many minutes and basically involved telling a long running joke about a three legged dog in the desert hunting for the man who shot me paw…although we were reliably informed that Mepaw was some famous renegade of the East. I’m goin down was an early piece that variously featured an extended break with cello and/or bagpipes (unfortunately never recorded).
Rainbow Connexions was a protest song written when the Lange government gave up the French terrorists, who sank the Rainbow Warrior in our hometown, under pressure from EU for butter sales. It owes a whole lot to The Fall (spot the riff!) Also in the ‘that resembles a song I know’ category is Wildeman. Being fans of early US garage sounds we had a shot replicating a song we heard once or twice, but which was exceedingly difficult to locate. I think the only other songs we covered per se were 96 Tears, Sister Ray and Sugar Sugar.
Last up is Short Song, something we often started a gig with, again the three piece Tony, Rod and Glenn.
Ol’ Weta he bin scratchin round, Listen to what he all found…..
A bit of The Unknown, from (1998) the day before Ian Unknown first left for Osaka – short and long versions (long for afficianados – *irony*). There are a few nice soundscapes on this tape I have yet to turn digital, so keep your knees pealed…
Then a couple of goodies from the Dodo Duo
Some new stuff… ‘ inspired ‘ by the recent weather… recorded live in the cottage as per usual. I’d recommend listening to The Truth Dream followed by The Wind, whilst snuggled in a warm bed and going to sleep.
As father of three under fives the concept of free time is somewhat devoid of context. However there are times (usually between 9pm and 3am) when I get together with my instruments in the cottage to create. The following tracks are from this year and were all recorded live,extemporaneously and as first takes. Delve on in…
Rawcous , noisy, wild and free. Enter the darker wilder side as various combos of Andrew, Ian, Glenn and Rod serve it up live and kickin on the plate.
Billy was recorded the day of William Burroughs death.
Here’s a blast from the 80’s. Ian and Andrew Unknown were a tight little duo with a bluesy/rnr heart and a beat soul. Who could forget the night at the Rising Sun tavern when they took the stage with a guitar and a panic drum ( a concoction made from a tin can and a guitar string which Ian wielded as a percussive/rhythmic accompaniment to Andrews burning guitar. The panic drum on Billy was version no. 27 from memory-welded up on the day by Rod Unknown) These tracks are from a recording in the 80’s on a Tascam portable cassette recorder They are a nice snapshot of the Duo. Hopefully I can elicit some more raw material to put up here.
Here’s a little sample of cottage action from a long weekend in 2008. Three tracks featuring Rod Unknown and Crunchy Weta.
Back around the time of Di’s death we had it in us to write a playlet about chaos. We were aiming to forgo any structures we knew of. All the characters names began with the letter C. As absurdity piled upon inanity the whole process took on a life of it’s own. The roof caught fire, the word processor joined the party and began spewing forth a bunch of Omegas, cars broke down,synchronicities screamed, relationships came adrift and people died.
Well one day someone got the idea to set the play to music. Whilst far from convincing I’m putting it back out in the ether. Maybe we will revisit it one day. Anyway the words are here and the sounds follow.
It was a glorious weekend back in 1988. The Weta-a-gogo clan swarmed north to Waipu and enjoyed a high ol’ time at JD’s ranch. The band had a warm up jam as JD sorted out a gig at the local bar. A few short hours later and a few of the locals were completely blown away – it’s doubtful they knew what hit them.
Anyway here’s a few tracks from that jam session, recorded at acoustic levels in the homestead. The quality is about what you would expect from a 20 year old tape recorded on a cheap cassette recorder. I have chosen these tracks as most of them were not included in the History Of The Wetas release – although the versions of Mushroom and Follow You from that day are here. They are nicely complementary to the History versions.
Back in 2004 and expecting our first child, I had a little free time on my hands.(sigh). Late at nights I sat and tried my hand at sampling, deconstructing and remixing a few favourite tunes.
I was recording these over the period of Sir Ed Hilary’s death, so there is a bit of an Ed theme in the titles. Again live as Crunchy Weta.
A triumvirate of songs recorded live in 2008 as Crunchy Weta.
Weta-A-Cide 