The NZ Music Month Daily Playlist Challenge
24th May, 2018
Compiled by Andrew Boak.
Today’s playlist is brought to you by New Zealand punk royalty!
Andrew Boak is well known to many as not only the guitarist for No Tag (and now San Francisco based street punk band Blank Spots) but as the legendary instigator and organizer of the Punk It Up gigs held at the now defunct Kings Arms in 2015, 17’ and 18’, each one an absolute rip snorter of a night!
Growing up with musical parents Andrew progressed from piano to guitar in his early teens (much to the horror of his “aged” classical piano teacher). Discovering punk rock thanks to a cousin in 1977, Andrew’s first band was The Regulators, the formation of No Tag happening after their disbandment.
Since then Andrew has lived a life that some could only dream of – Andrew worked at Radio B (yes kids that’s what bFM used to be called before it was called… well bFM!) and was one of the first local DJ’s to cross over into commercial FM radio. Later he moved to London, fully assimilating himself into the scene (he admits he still misses London) and later working for Rough Trade Distribution. Andrew then moved to San Francisco going on to be a guitar tech and touring with such infamous bands such as My Bloody Valentine, The Chills, PJ Harvey and Alain Toussaint, before leaving the tour life behind and returning to the world of distribution. The rest as they say is history (and oh what a history it is!)
Let’s hand it over to Andrew to tell us about his playlist;
“Firstly, I could do a 100 song playlist and still be pissed off that I missed something out, so 18 songs is kinda small, if you see what I mean. I started with Fetus Productions ‘What’s Going On’, because there’s something about this song, for me at least, that reaches the ‘feels’ and emotions that other songs don’t and never will.
I followed it up with a couple of tunes that prove Kiwis can write a good ditty when they want to! Big ups to Bulletbelt for doing their version of the No Tag song ‘Mistaken Identity’; It’s always super fuckin’ neat to have someone do their own version of something you wrote, plus these guys did the proper thing and contacted us to ask first if they could record and release it…Respect!
‘The Crunch’, ‘Riot Squad’, ‘The Man Inside’, and ‘Megaton’ are just more proof that Kiwis can write a good punk number. I included Alien Weaponry because there’s something kinda cool about a native tongue being used in the vocal, plus Maori is very guttural, so good for metal; pretty much how Laibach sounds in my opinion. I mean, after all, the English language and the pronunciation/inflection of it, can be pretty mundane compared to other dialects.
Highlights of the second half of the playlist are; John Rowles…why not? I remember this one as a kid, it was a bigggggg hit! The Herco Pilots, one of the best band names ever (Herco is a make of guitar pick). Shayne Carter and Peter Jefferies because I couldn’t include Joe 90; The Chills because Martin can write a bloody good “choon” every now and then too.
City Scenes because I fulfilled one of my bucket list items by performing this with Jed and X-Features at this years ‘Punk It Up’. More good LOUD NOIZE from The Gordons and The Terrorways; NOIZE with extra NOIZE from Concord Dawn (I’m partial to a bit of D’n’B), and closing with Th’ Dudes, because when it comes to New Zealand Music, don’t remain in the past, “forget about the last one, get yourself another”.
Bliss is the state I get in when I’m listening to good music, especially if it’s coming from my countrymen and women (and computers with NZ IP addys lol)
Thanks to Ambient Light for letting me do this! Up the Punx! And see y’all next year for another ‘Punk It Up’ cheers!”
For more info on what else Andrew Boak is up to you can check out the Blank Spots Facebook page, the Skinaffect Facebook page or check out Blank Spots on Spotify.
Andrew Boak’s Playlist: (Click to play)
This content is a part of our NZ Music Month coverage, celebrating old, new and upcoming Kiwi artists. For more information on NZ Music Month you can visit their website.
