Tuesday, February 21, 2017

ABCs of My Vinyl Collection (Letter D, Part 21)

Here's the one that put Flying Nun on the map all over the world. 'The Dunedin Double,' as it's known, is a four-sided 50-minute EP featuring four early signings from the legendary label. All four bands, the Chills, Sneaky Feelings, the Stone and the Verlaines, hailed from Dunedin, New Zealand, thus the name of the EP, and the term "Dunedin Sound" was born out of this compilation from 1982. Lo-fi. Jangly. Perfect.

Sneaky Feelings is a particular favorite of mine, second only to the Clean of Flying Nun's stable of stars, and I plan a separate post on them later in this vinyl-ripping series. For many years, 'The Dunedin Double' was out of print and ridiculously priced at secondary marketplaces. Thanks to a joint partnership with Captured Tracks, many of Flying Nun's albums are on store shelves again, including this vital title.

The Chills - "Kaleidoscope World"
Sneaky Feelings - "Pity's Sake"
The Stones - "Down and Around"
The Verlaines - "Angela"

7 comments:

Rol said...

Not heard any of those before, I don't think. All sound pretty good to me.

You have to admire the balls of a band that decides to call itself The Stones... although, ironically, Sneaky Feelings sound more like the other Stones.

George said...

The Sneaky Feeling track is by far and away the best of the four. Maybe my 20-year old self would disagree and say it's the Chills.

Charity Chic said...

I was going to take you to task for having a band starting with C under
D until I read further!

Brian said...

Rol, You're right about that. The Stones are the only one of the four bands I didn't go on to investigate further with other albums. To me, Sneaky Feelings are the band with the titillating name. From the Costello song on My Aim Is True. I knew they had to be good.

George, For me, that particular song by the Chills is an anthem for the Dunedin Sound. When I think of Flying Nun, that's the first or second song that comes to mind. Maybe Tally Ho! by the Clean eclipses it, but just barely. All of these songs were recorded on a four track. Lo-fi but beautiful.

Brian said...

CC, This might be one only I can find on my shelves. I don't have a various artists section. The Chills might be as good a place to put it as any.

Misterprime said...

I saw the Chills in 1987, supporting Nico at the Astoria in Leeds. I'd never heard of them but they were great. The only release that Jumbo Records had was the 'Kaleidoscope World' compilation on cassette. I've still got it somewhere...

Brian said...

Misterprime, First off, wow, what a bill you saw! I would love to brag that I saw Nico. 'Kaleidoscope World' is a great comp that has been reissued a few times through the years, and it just keeps getting better each time. Having said that, the Chills are still making really good music, and the 2015 album 'Silver Bullets' comes highly recommended.