It is with undeniable pleasure Valve makes available in Australia the latest album by New Zealand’s Mint Chicks. With no uncertainty I can honestly say THE MINT CHICKS are my all-time favourite New Zealand band… and I have to say that is a big call given my love for KING LOSER, THE TALL DWARFS, THE CHILLS, BAILTER SPACE and even early SPLIT ENZ among others. Out of the static comes new album SCREENS = sheer f**king brilliance!
THE MINT CHICKS …a Bio (of sorts)
The first Mint Chicks bio distributed was for F**k The Golden Youth, the jaw-droppingly astonishing debut album the band served up in 2004. It served none of the usual bio purposes at all. Instead, it seemed to be a slightly-crazed communiqué from a fringe group with indeterminate goals, containing the kind of muddled leaps and erratic proclamations familiar from scribbled notes reproduced in books about cults or serial killers. Perhaps that’s exactly what the source of the bio was, transposed and presented with a Flying Nun letterhead as some sort of odd representation of whoever it was opposing the Golden Youth of the album’s title. Maybe it was some kind of attempt to articulate the ragged pop melodies and hyper-kinetic energy that the album was characterized by, which is something particularly hard to convey without actually hearing it. Possibly, it was something to do with having the word “f**k” in an album title, usually the domain of committed politico-types. Really, who has any idea what it meant — but most agree that the album is one of the finest debut releases in New Zealand’s musical history, one that will be discovered and rediscovered for many years to come. Still, it is quite conceivable that a rather different piece of paper could have been sent out, stating only three things. “Written by the Nielson Brothers and performed by The Mint Chicks”; “This record is our idea of fun pop music”; and “Everything on this album is EXACTLY the way you hear it”. That’s it in a nutshell, and in fact would be entirely suitable for any release in the consistently-engrossing Mint Chicks catalogue, from the initial excitement of the EPs Octagon Octagon Octagon and Anti Tiger, their handful of 7” singles, the multi-award winning Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No’ right up to (and including) their brand new album, Screens. And as much as we could concentrate on The Mint Chicks’ past accomplishments and deserved success, Screens takes us somewhere else entirely. When the first hints of what The Mint Chicks were recording in their new home-base of Portland, Oregon, started creeping out — tunes like ‘Enemies’, ‘Life Will Get Better Some Day’ and ‘What A Way’ — it was immediately apparent that The Mint Chicks had taken another inadvertent creative leap, one that they are probably too focussed or too modest to realize. When pressed, Ruban Nielson mentioned that he had figured out that they were making “troublegum” music — technicolour, vibrant pop with welcoming melodic thrills and an emotive heart, yet nonetheless containing aspects and themes which could be considered either antisocial, keenly-intelligent, or real, depending on your perspective. It’s the kind of inclusive music that’s made to be enjoyed, yet doesn’t underestimate an audience’s intelligence or short-change anybody by tempering creativity with commercial compromises. The Mint Chicks have already proven it works beyond any vague pop cultural theorising: Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! — grand-slam winner of five 2007 New Zealand Music Awards, and an additional six bNet awards — is certainly troublegum by any other name. And now Screens — even brighter, more stimulating, further in and way farther out, tightly-packed with multiple bubblegum hooks. Or should that be “barbs”? Take the first single ‘I Can’t Stop Being Foolish’, a song which may be about being punished for your true nature, and a kid thinking about his dad being sent to jail and pondering his own future, knowing that he’s inherited all of his father’s vices. Musically though – a candy party! Then there’s the aforementioned ‘Life Will Get Better Some Day’, impressive enough as a bNet hit late last year, but in it’s final Screens glory with the calm vocodered plea nestled amidst some mightily-ringing percussive clangs, it’s the difference between a hand-stencilled sign and glorious neon, or the spectral and the Spectoral. Now, an existential crisis takes on the characteristics of a great spiritual truth, further highlighting the acceptance of isolation expressed by the song’s narrator and transforming loneliness into a uniting sense of jubilation. In fact, all of Screens is exuberantly-constructed and arranged. Produced by The Nielson Brothers and Jacob Portrait, it necessitated mixing in four different studios to exactly capture the elusive sounds swirling about the Mint Chicks imaginations and make them tangible. Work took place in The Dandy Warhols’ Odditorium studio; two other Portland studios with proven track records — Audible Alchemy (Modest Mouse) and Supernatural (The Shins); and the Orewa studio of award-winning producer Chris Nielson. If anything, the refining of The Mint Chicks’ sound is entirely in keeping with the escalating might of the
Nielson/Nielson songwriting force. Having never been distracted by external trends or flavour-of-the-moment sounds, Kody and Ruban Nielson have only ever had to keep up with each other; and in the nine years since their collaboration began, the pair have been driven to develop one of the most distinct and original styles in New Zealand post-everything popular music. With their third album Screens, the full picture created by The Mint Chicks is now becoming recognisable. Never lacking in ambition or foresight, it’s nothing less than the sound of a band creating their own future.
THE MINT CHICKS:
KODY NIELSON
RUBAN NIELSON
PAUL ROPER
That’s not to say it doesn’t sound like The Mint Chicks, because there’s definitely only one band on earth (specific location irrelevant) who could have made this, but it has the energy and pure new sound of a band spewing out a lifetime’s worth of ideas into their first album. (Groove Guide)
Screens’ is the sound of a band swallowed by video game playing, Guitar Hero waving robots. At all times sounding like everything and nothing before them, it’s another bold statement that will have fans rejoicing. (NZ Musician)
Screens is addictive and deliciously obnoxious. (NZ Herald)
SCREENS by MINT CHICKS out now through Valve/MGM in Australia!
Features HOT ON YOUR HEELS, I CAN’T STOP BEING FOOLISH, RED WHITE OR BLUE, and SWEET JANINE!
ALBUM REVIEWS
The Mint Chicks – Screens – Reviewer: Duncan Greive Issue: April 2009
Following the unparallelled artistic and commercial success of Crazy?Yes!Dumb?No! in 2006, The Mint Chicks made a series of moves which might have made no sense to outsiders, but mirrored perfectly the internal logic of their machine. Firstly, when you’ve finally cracked the local market, won a boatload of Tuis and gotten mainstream radio play with your bizarro pop, surely it behooves you to retrench and pay back some of that faith? Instead they booked tickets to Portland, capital of the indie rock universe maybe, but around 11,000 kilometres away from the place which had finally, after five years, figured out how to love the prickly young men. And when the chemistry of your band is paramount, the strange impulses audible in your music now making perfect sense, speaking in unison for maybe the first time, surely then it’s incumbent upon you to keep that unit together? So parting company with (and not replacing) bassist Michael Logie, often the only guy who looked like he was actively enjoying the process, almost takes you back to square one. Which, it turns it out, is probably exactly where they want to be. Screens sounds like a brand new band making their first record. That’s not to say it doesn’t sound like The Mint Chicks, because there’s definitely only one band on earth (specific location irrelevant) who could have made this, but it has the energy and pure new sound of a band spewing out a lifetime’s worth of ideas into their first album. Which, it barely needs pointing out, is a very good thing. The album opens with Red, White Or Blue, a song which functions as something of a national anthem for their newly colonised territory, celestial harmonies floating over a thin but fierce noise-pop bed. It has that Beach Boys thread running though it, a band I’ve heard The Mint Chicks call out on more than one occasion, but sounds like Brian Wilson grew up on the shores of Three Mile Island rather than California. As a primer for the album, it’s perfect, and one of the best sounds they’ve ever made. That bleeds into 2010, one of the earliest songs from the three-piece era, with a piece of Mussorgsky’s Pictures At An Exhibition jacked for a staccato melody before dissolving into a bashfully romantic pop lyric, highlighted by some spectacularly free guitar playing from Ruban Nielson, which nonetheless fails to detract from the wistful love song at its core. The 7” version from over a year ago was rougher and lacked the finesse present here, a predominantly production-based riddle which they’ve largely solved. Where C?Y!D?N! sounded like a technicolour explosion, Screens is more a riot of pastels, and at first this is somewhat disorienting, even disappointing, to those expecting a repeat of the immediate thrills of its predecessor. But it’s a time thing. Give yours and Screens reveals its secrets, in some ways as an album purer and less manic than the one that came before it. That wistful tone found on 2010 is repeated throughout; Don’t Sell Your Brain Out could be 1910 Fruitgum Company with its bubblegum vocal line, though the music is far too clanky. In some ways this is Kody Nielson’s album, he actually sings more than ever and often provides the hooks via his keyboard playing, allowing Roper and Ruban to go deeper into their robot pop, safe in the knowledge they’re always tethered to the melody by Kody’s expansive mood. Singles like What A Way and Life Will Get Better Some Day provide a welcome respite from a mid-tempo which would otherwise see the songs congeal, the latter’s treated vocal as affecting as anything they’ve ever conjured. There’s nothing so shocking as the title track of C?Y!D?N!, and I hope that doesn’t affect the commercial impact of the album, but in Life Will… they’ve found a song which might even outdo it for emotional impact. It closes out on a calmly reflective note, the end of an album not nearly so surprising as the predecessor to which it will inevitably be compared, but one that shows they’ve survived and thrived through their self-imposed trials, and retained the intense magnetism which drew us here in the first place. Screens won’t shock you from your apathy, but given time it proves again that the three-piece Mint Chicks remain the country’s benchmark for evolution and ambition, and have delivered their second truly great album.
THE MINT CHICKS: Screens By Shaun Chait (NZ Musician)
The Mint Chicks compelling second album ‘Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!’ certainly got people raving, cementing their status as one of the most interesting, relevant and even genius bands coming out of this country. The now three-piece have since literally moved out and set themselves up in Portland, Oregon, where this follow up has had its tortured genesis. ‘Screens’ is the sound of a band swallowed by video game playing, Guitar Hero waving robots. At all times sounding like everything and nothing before them, it’s another bold statement that will have fans rejoicing. I’m not going to even go into comparisons – suffice to say this is kooky, indie, electric, electronic, synthy, pop rock and dance album with plenty of colours. ‘Screens’ is vocoder and keys heavy – I would love to hear a companion album mixed in reverse, with the drums and guitars turned up, but as it is their producer/mixer mate Jacob Portrait did what even the Nielson brothers hadn’t anticipated, making the less standard stuff the central focus. Clocking in at a sharp 30 minutes it’s short enough for the whole album to be a highlight, however I’ll nominate Sweet Janine, What A Way and Telephone. It’s bound to have everyone raving.
Mint Chicks – Screens Scott Kara Rating: * * * * (NZ Herald)
There has always been more than a dash of arsenic laced through the Mint Chicks’ sherbet-flavoured pop. And it may not seem like it at first but the Portland-based Auckland trio have upped the dose of poison on their third album, Screens. It’s a record of extremes, with the throwaway catchiness of I Can’t Stop Being Foolish and Don’t Sell Your Brain Out, Baby off set by the warped and mangled stylings of What A Way and Enemies. And in between there’s the Clean on P jaunt of the title track.Yet songwriting brothers Kody and Ruban Nielson manage to make the album coast along on a pure pop rock plane (something they call “troublegum”). And it’s all underlined by the Nielsons’ devilish and wry sentiment, with deadpan stories – this time round often told through fruity vocal processors – about being caged up, haunted by demons, and having a noose around your neck. At around 30 minutes it’s over pretty quickly, and because it includes almost intentionally disposable gems like I Can’t Stop Being Foolish, it doesn’t have the substance of 2006’s Crazy?Yes!Dumb?No!, which makes you wonder whether it has the same durability as that classic Kiwi album. One friend said he’s listened to it so much in the car he sometimes feels like throwing it out of the window. Then again, it’s near impossible not to enjoy the agitating delights of Enemies and Life Will Get Better Some Day – the last and best tracks – with hand-wringing and gold teeth-flashing glee. Screens is addictive and deliciously obnoxious.
