Renderers

[For some reason, I drafted this post on Sunday and never got around to posting it. An mp3 will be added shortly.]

The Renderers are in town - they're playing tonight - and I'm excited. I've been a bit of a fan for quite a few years now and it's been quite a few years since I saw them play.

If Alt.country is a genre-tag you can dig, the Renderers have been doing it for long before it was fashionable; their albums, particularly
That Dog's Head in the Gutter Gives Off Vibrations, and Surface of Jupiter, should be in every fan's collection.

Oddly enough, these albums don't fare very well critically on Allmusic.com; but as is often the case with slightly more obscure music, especially that from New Zealand, Allmusic.com is fulla shit. Here's a neat Renderers page instead.

It should also be noted that while they haven't been on the cover of NME, they have a large (cult) following overseas; indeed their albums, save for the first, have been released by top American indie labels such as Siltbreeze and Ajax (both now a lot more quiet than they were in the 80s and 90s though - no jokes please). Also, on a family-related note, James Kirk - drummer in my band The Stumps - is the photographer responsible for the creepy cover-image on the Surface of Jupiter CD.

While they are up here singer and guitarist Mary-Rose Crook is taking the opportunity to show a solo exhibition of her paintings at Mary Newton Gallery (I could have sworn that MNG had updated their website but if they have, I can't find it anywhere). Anyway, the show opens on Tuesday night (25th October).