Salad Boys - This Is Glue - Trouble In Mind Records TIM128 - New Zealand 2018.

Perhaps Christchurch's premier indie rock band at present, The Salad Boys are mostly Joe Sampson and a revolving number of local muso's playing with him when needed. This was Salad Boys second full album on vinyl, although they have some other very limited cassette releases.

 Pretty straight ahead jangly catchy indie pop/rock, with some pretty cool guitar and melodies, plenty to keep the foot tapping, strong songs and a pretty good recording. Nice mix of fast and slower numbers showing off Joe's song writing chops and it can also get a bit heavier at times just to mix it up a bit. A strong album and their best so far as these melodies worm their way into my subconscious. Live they really kick arse. Rating 4/5. 

'Sickest Smashes from Arson City: Legacy Edition' Release Show No.3 - Darkroom Christchurch 18th August 2018

Night three and I'm excited to see Salad Boys and Dark Matter, having records by both groups and having seen both play live before. This final night is at my most visited of local venues, The Darkroom. I arrived just before 9pm and they still have not opened the doors so I wait in my car for several minutes untill doors open and get myself my only drink of the night as I soon find my wallet I left at home and I only had $5 left in my pocket. The first band sets up quickly and soon we are entertained by The Teasers, a drums and guitar duo with the White Stripes set up of female drummer and male guitarist and singer. An enjoyable if somewhat unmemorable set if my tired mind remembers correctly but I liked some of their songs and the added backing vocals from  the drummer.

  Next up is Dark Matter, bass, drums, guitar, violin and electric cello. I really liked their first LP. Some of the line up, especially the legendary lead singer/guitarist, Steve Cogal, also play as The Terminals, another legendary Christchurch underground band. They play with energy and tempo, creating a real dirge/wall of sound with the violinist fiddling madly at the back of the stage and the drummer going full tilt. It is kinda hard to make a lot out from the wall of noise but it is still pretty cool, and I always like Steve Cogal's singing, he has a real distinctive voice. Their songs do tend to blur together and sound the same with so much loudly amplified music going on.

 Third band are Salad Boys, perhaps one of the best known local indie acts with two full albums out and a great live act IMO. The band is the brainchild of  Joe Sampson with a revolving catalog of local musicians playing with him under the Salad Boy Moniker. Their set tonight is perhaps the best and most intense I have seen from them with Joe's guitar playing fantastic and the speed and energy of the three players the best of the three nights. Their cover of Wire's Ex lion Tamer was a surprise and a highlight in amongst the strong self penned songs that I knew from their records. This is one band that although they make great records, live they are even better. Brian Feary was again drumming in this band. 

 Lastly was perhaps the newest band from the three nights, Pavolvs Puss. This time it is our man Joe Sampson on guitar again with bass, drums and lead singer. The singer turns out to be another of those extroverts I had seen in the audience over the last couple of days and he was certainly pretty outspoken. He kinda sings/speaks/shouts his lyrics which sorta reminded of Sleaford Mods. Joe's guitar noodling in this band were not the power cords he played in Salad Boys but much more restrained and clear sounding and were pretty damn cool. This band will sound fucking cool on record I believe and were really enjoyable live. They ended their set but were threatening to play on maybe improvising some stuff as I think they had played all their repertoire, but I chose to opt out at this point as it was past midnight again and I wanted to get home again before I turned into a pumpkin. Last night was the best but all three night were totally enjoyable and worthwhile.

Evil Kid - Salad Boys - Dogfish - PGX - Darkroom - Christchurch - 9th June 2018

Two nights in a row I get to see some great live music, this time it is back to a regular venue, the Darkroom for the first time this year. Evil Kid hail from Dunedin and the bass player is someone I know from one of the music related Facebook groups I belong to and also he runs a local record label, Monkey Killer Records, and I have bought some records from him, so I hoped to meet him and have a chat.

  They had enlisted support from three local Christchurch bands, two I had not heard of and the third being the Salad Boys, who I have a couple of their records and had seen them play live before and liked their music.

 I arrived just as the doors opened at 9pm, bought a drink and waited for the bands to get set up. Dave from Galaxy Records soon arrived and opened his shop and I had a quick browse through his selections and a chat untill the first band was ready to go on.

 PGX were unfamiliar to me, an all girl band playing a great post punky music that really impressed and had some really cool guitar riffs going on in their bouncy music. Some of he other musos who knew them commented on how far they had come in their playing and songwriting. Look forward to some recordings soon.

Here is a short Video I posted to Facebook during their set.

https://www.facebook.com/Roddus1/videos/10156434267244731/UzpfSTcwNjMxNDczMDoxMDE1NjQzNTYzMzI3NDczMQ/

 Dogfish were next and they too are new to me. Guitar, Drums Keyboard and a sort of electric violin of some sort, they played long jammy instrumentals that I really liked and they appeared a little disorganized but it was a lot of fun.

https://www.facebook.com/Roddus1/videos/10156434327129731/UzpfSTcwNjMxNDczMDoxMDE1NjQzNTYzMjg3NDczMQ/

Evil Kid played next as they decided to let Salad Boys go last they are the best known band of the four. A four piece playing punky indie rock, their songs were all pretty good and catchy and had some great guitar licks that I enjoyed. The singer sounded familiar to me and I confirmed with David, the Bass played after their set that he had in fact been the vocalist of a band called Onanon of whom I have the records they put out on David's monkey killer Records.

https://www.facebook.com/Roddus1/videos/10156434384359731/UzpfSTcwNjMxNDczMDoxMDE1NjQzNTYzMjQ2NDczMQ/

Last up was Salad Boys, playing pretty fast tempo versions of the songs from their last LP, they really punked it up and were full of energy and played a good and enjoyable set. I heard Dave from Galaxy Records mention that the bass and drum players in the band keep changing every time he sees them play and I thought the bass playing was different from the last time I saw them play late last year. I though the Drummer missed a couple of beats also. They were the loudest band of the night and thinks did get a little more distorted, especially the vocals as both the leader and bass player were really screaming the lyrics sometimes and it was a little too much, but overall it was a great and energetic set.

https://www.facebook.com/Roddus1/videos/10156434452409731/UzpfSTcwNjMxNDczMDoxMDE1NjQzNTYzMTk2OTczMQ/

Not sure if you can access these videos links on facebook that I posted and unfortunately the videos are rather jumpy from my phone for some reason.