Axemen One-Sheet -- Album Out Next Week

The Axemen -- Sac Tap Nut Jam

Spacecase Records is pleased to release Sac Tap Nut Jam—the first new Axemen full length in twenty-one years.

            Originally from Christchurch, New Zealand, The Axemen formed in 1983. Shortly afterwards the band solidified around the core of Steve McCabe, Stu Kawowski and Bob Brannigan. (More than two dozen musicians have played in the Axemen, notably Johnny Segovia, George D. Henderson, Mick Elborado and Peter Gutteridge). Initial Axemen releases came out on Steve McCabe's cassette label, Sleek Bott. The Axemen signed to Flying Nun in the mid '80s, releasing the label's first double album, Three Virgins (1986). Like The Swell Maps, The Axemen sound is hard to define—Three Virgins runs the gamut, from country to punk to avant-garde. The Axemen released their second Flying Nun record Derry Legend in 1987. The band put out further cassettes on Sleek Bott, notably Scary (Part III) and Three Rooms (An Elton John Tribute Album), before going on hiatus in the early '90s.

           In 2009, The Axemen caught their second wind thanks to Tom Lax at Siltbreeze who reissued the band's cassette-only releases Big Cheap Motel and Scary (Part III). The Axemen toured the United States with Times New Viking the same year. In 2011 The Axemen visited Australia and put out a tour 7"— a label split between McCabe's Sleek Bott and the late Brendon Annesley's Negative Guest List Records. Siltbreeze came through again that year, reissuing Three Virgins on vinyl (original pressings were going for well over fifty dollars).

            Sac Tap Nut Jam finds Steve McCabe and Stu Kawowski reuniting with Dragan Stojanovic (who played on 1987's Derry Legend); rounding out the lineup is William Daymond. Recorded in early 2013 in Wellington and Taita, Lower Hutt, Sac Tap Nut Jam—like all Axemen releases—defies easy categorization. There's The Beatles/Dylan pop of Stojanovic's "These Days"; McCabe's post punk-influenced "Doctor's on Speed Dial"; Steve McCabe's inimitable voice and stream-of-consciousness lyric writing comes to the forefront on "Google That Girl".

            500 vinyl copies of Sac Tap Nut Jam were pressed up—400 on black, 100 on gold. The Axemen are currently planning a tour of New Zealand in support of Sac Tap Nut Jam.  

            Sac Tap Nut Jam is the sixth release from Camarillo, California-based Spacecase Records.

Spacecase to release next Axemen 7″ – Recording Party at Mighty Mighty

via theaxemen.org

US label Spacecase Records is proud to announce they will be releasing the next Axemen 7″ single – just as soon as it is recorded! Axemen spokesperson Stevie McCabe, speaking from his beach retreat at Te Puru, Coromandel Peninsula, stated: “Me and the lads are over the moon about the Spacecase deal – we can’t wait to record the new material in Wellington later this month!”

The single will feature new material and the 7″ track-list will be finalised after the recording sessions later on this month (February).

“We’ll be recording in the studio and at a special free live recording party at the Mighty Mighty on Wednesday 27th Feb – we’ll use the best of the best of the recordings and we hope to do some writing as well – all in all its going to be super-intense” enthused McCabe.

The recordings and gig will feature the same Axemen line-up which toured Australia in December 2011 – Steve McCabe, Dragan Stojanovic, Stu Kawowski and William Daymond.

Axemen - Big Cheap Motel (Album Review)

Review by Mor Fleisher-Leach

The Axemen are kinda like the Electric Eels with more brain power—one of the most underrated bands on Flying Nun Records. These guys put together art punk and politics like no other New Zealand act to date.

Big Cheap Motel—re-issued on American record  label Siltbreeze in 2009—was first released on cassette in 1984 to protest Australian milk company Big M’s sexist advertizing campaign. The ads were featured at Christchurch’s Summertimes Festival which the Axemen played in January of that year. Each track, with titles such as “Stoopid Symbol of Womin-Hate!” and “Your Milk Comes from Cows”, is a Mark E. Smith-inspired attack on the corporation. “Sorry Mister Mayor/Can’t support your good-time fests./Not when they’re supported by exploiting women’s breasts” (lyrics, “Your Milk Comes from Cows”).

Fidelity wise, the recording quality is low. Lower than low. Song structures are minimal with each track standing out on its own and stating its objective. I’ve always liked the idea of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music, but didn't care for the execution. Reed should have done that record this way.

If you’re looking for something standard and classifiable, stay away from this. It’s like nothing else Flying Nun ever put out. But it’s rockin’, humorous and thoughtful. These Kiwi cats hit the nail on the head, brother.