Beatin Hearts | |
---|---|
Studio album by | |
Released | July 1983 (NZ) |
Recorded | July–September, 1982 |
Studio | Progressive Studio, Auckland New Zealand |
Genre | |
Length | 57:00 |
Label | Flying Nun, South Indies, Grapefruit |
Producer | Flying Nun |
Beatin Hearts is the debut studio album by New Zealand band Builders. It was recorded in August 1982 [1] and released in 1983. Characteristically for the band, the album caused typographical difficulties for critics writing about the album, as its title contains an ambiguous character. The capital "I" of the word "Beatin" contains a cross bar in the centre, so that it doubles as an "E". The title may therefore be read (but not spoken) as both "Beatin' Hearts" and "Beaten Hearts".
Sessions for the album were held in three days at Progressive Studios in Anzac Ave, Auckland, with Terry King engineering. The album was mixed at Progressive. The entire project was financed by Flying Nun and steered by Chris Knox and promoter Doug Hood. Two years after its initial release the album was purchased by South Indies, who licensed the album to Grapefruit in the USA for 2016 vinyl re-release. Flying Nun re-released the album as a CD, in 1994.
"Direen's masterpiece, Beatin Hearts (1983), was recorded in Auckland's Progressive studios with prize money from the 1982 Battle of the Bands in Christchurch. The album is chock-full of smoky beat musings." [2]
"The early Builders ... played gritty garage punk that owed a heavy musical debt to the Velvet Underground while addressing more indigenous lyrical concerns." Bill Meyer. [3]
"He [Direen] plays fucking brilliantly, throws all his gut feelings, hard-won insights and barbed intellect into these unique songs while the pinball machines and drunken flirtations drown him out" Chris Knox, quoted in 1994. [4]
Flying Nun Records is a New Zealand independent record label formed in Christchurch in 1981 by music store manager Roger Shepherd. Described by The Guardian as "one of the world's great independent labels", Flying Nun is notable for bringing global attention to the Dunedin sound, a cultural and musical movement in early 1980s Dunedin.
The Dunedin sound was a musical and cultural movement in Dunedin, Otago, in the early 1980s. It helped found indie rock as a genre. The scene is associated with Flying Nun Records an independent label.
Chris Knox is a New Zealand rock and roll musician, cartoonist and movie reviewer who emerged during the punk rock era with his bands The Enemy and Toy Love. After Toy Love disbanded in the early 1980s, he formed the group Tall Dwarfs with guitarist Alec Bathgate. The Tall Dwarfs were noted for their unpolished sound and intense live shows. His 4-track machine was used to record most of the early Flying Nun singles.
Tall Dwarfs are a New Zealand rock band formed in 1981 by Chris Knox and Alec Bathgate, who helped pioneer the lo-fi style of rock music. The duo were former members of Toy Love.
Krokus is a Swiss hard rock and heavy metal band formed in 1975. They were popular in North America during the 1980s. The band was founded in Solothurn in 1975 by Chris von Rohr and Tommy Kiefer (guitar), both former members of Kaktus. Former TEA vocalist Marc Storace joined the band as frontman in time for their Metal Rendez-vous album in 1980.
The Clean was a New Zealand indie rock band formed in Dunedin in 1978. They have been described as the most influential band to come from the Flying Nun label, which recorded many artists associated with the "Dunedin sound", and one of the first bands to be described as "indie rock".
White Heart, also listed as Whiteheart, was an American contemporary Christian music and pop-rock band which formed in 1982. White Heart's discography includes thirteen albums, the most recent of which was released in 1997. Original members Billy Smiley and Mark Gersmehl worked with a continually changing cast of bandmates. In 1985, former roadie Rick Florian became the lead singer.
Greatest Hits is a compilation album by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, released in 1994. Certified Diamond by the RIAA, it is Seger's most successful album to date. In December 2009, Billboard and Nielsen SoundScan confirmed that with nearly nine million copies sold. Bob Seger's Greatest Hits was the decade's best-selling catalog album in the United States, even out-selling The Beatles' 1 and Michael Jackson's Number Ones. By September 2011, the album had sold a total of 9,062,000 copies in the United States.
Donato Joseph "Danny" Cedrone was an American guitarist and bandleader, best known for his work with Bill Haley & His Comets on their epochal "Rock Around the Clock" in 1954.
The Exponents, formerly The Dance Exponents, is a New Zealand rock group led by vocalist and songwriter Jordan Luck.
Peter James Stapleton was a musician from New Zealand, best known as the drummer and co-founder of the alternative rock band The Terminals. Stapleton was also a member of the groups Vacuum, The Pin Group, Dadamah, Flies Inside the Sun, Eye, and Scorched Earth Policy.
Fall in a Hole is a live album by the Fall, recorded in Auckland in August 1982 and released in December 1983 on the Flying Nun label of New Zealand.
The Dunedin Double EP was a seminal record in New Zealand music. An unusual format, it contain two 45rpm 12" discs, and at nearly 50 minutes length, it is longer than many albums.
The Axemen is a New Zealand indie rock band formed in 1983. They played at the protests for homosexual law reform in 1983, where member Little Stevie McCabe was severely beaten up in the Christchurch Cathedral Square toilets.
Pickin' on Nashville is the debut studio album by American country rock/southern rock band The Kentucky Headhunters. It features the singles "Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine", "Oh Lonesome Me", "Dumas Walker", and "Rock 'n' Roll Angel", all of which charted in the Top 40 on the Hot Country Songs charts. "Oh Lonesome Me" was also the highest charting, at #8. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for the band in 1991.
South Indies is a rights and publishing label established in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1984 as a vinyl records label and small book publisher. It released vinyl, books, cassettes and video-cassettes before moving into the leasing of material to distributing labels, and the protection of existing copyright. It subsumes various "one-off" projects and imprints such as Alpha Books (NZ), Tank Publishing, 5 to 12 publishing and some early Titus Books titles. It has entered into collaborative or licensed releases with enterprises Powertool Records (NZ), Sophomore Lounge (USA), Grapefruit (USA), Partizanska (Serbia) and Zelle (Austria). It has facilitated use of existing artwork for publications such as In Love With These Times and, more recently, a 92-page colour illustrated artbook dedicated to the artists of the early Flying Nun period, Hellzapoppin.
Bilders is a New Zealand music group of varying lineups that produced a string of self-recorded 7-inch vinyl releases between 1980 and 1982 leading to Beatin Hearts, the first studio-album from fledgling New Zealand independent record label 'Flying Nun Records'.
Tales of Wonder is the eighth album by the Christian rock band White Heart and the band's first with Jon Knox as drummer. Chris McHugh played all drum tracks although Knox was the official drummer for the tour. It is their second album on Star Song Records released in 1992. The album is produced by White Heart founders Mark Gersmehl and Billy Smiley with Brown Bannister as a production consultant and who previously worked with them on their 1989 album Freedom. Every track on Tales of Wonder charted on both Christian Rock and Radio (AC/CHR) charts, except "Morningstar" and "Gabriella." A full-length track of "Morningstar" is heard on their 1994 compilation Nothing But the Best: Radio Classics. The album peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Top Christian Albums chart. White Heart earned their second Grammy nomination, their first since 1984, for Best Rock Gospel Album for Tales of Wonder at the 35th Grammy Awards.
Kaleidoscope World is an early song by New Zealand band The Chills. It appeared as the first track on the Dunedin Double, a seminal EP shared between four bands, which launched those bands' careers nationally and internationally.
"Pink Frost" is a song by New Zealand band The Chills. The song was originally recorded in 1982. It was released as a single in 1984. Its B-side was the instrumental track "Purple Girl". It reached number 17 on the New Zealand singles chart.