Reprinted from: http://7inches.blogspot.com/2009/11/times-new-viking-axemen-tour-single.html

Times New Viking / Axemen tour single

Picked this up last night at the TNV show at Mercury Lounge with the Axemen…my friend Pat told me to look out for a tour only single at the merch table, and there it was.
Does a band with the power of Matador behind it have to press a split single, hand color the xerox sleeve and inscribe the inner label for their US tour with the Axemen? HELL NO.
But they did it anyway.

I have to admire this.
Plus they set out to educate an audience to a NZ band that probably deserves more due that I’ve never come across before, I’m always up for that.

Didn’t know anything about the Axemen before they went on other than the brief mentions at Siltblog after their reissue by Tom of a huge part of their back catalog.

I stood there watching thinking, ‘I’m sure these guys are important’ especially to the first few rows. I’ve been reading about their protest albums/accident (crash) into some government office in NZ, they weren’t in it for the money obviously.

I can respect anyone touring 20+ years later etc…but it just wasn’t my thing. The one time they got me was an insane hardcore blast, but honestly they didn’t seem happy about it. Have to dive further into the Siltbreeze catalog.
They cover each other on this thing which I wasn’t expecting at all.

The Axemen track on the single ‘SIcKh & TYRED’ is a great interpretation of the track from the TNV Stay Awake EP. I’m into it when they replicate the back and forth Beth Adam vocals. Sounds good.

They have to feel pretty cool that these guys covered one of their tracks for this. I honestly had no idea until I played it this morning.

Times New Viking on the other side cover ‘Rocks in my Heart’ by the Axemen. Which includes the lyric ‘Sick and Tired’ also I noticed…weird. They make this song fit into their catalog, emphasizing the pop chords and immediacy, all with just a touch their special fuzz. Excellent…can’t believe this really. I am honored guys. It’s too much.

Here’s Jared working on the covers…

History of 123 Pleasant Street [Morgantown, West Virginia]

reprinted from: http://www.123pleasantstreet.com/misc/history/4

Page 4: The Underground Railroad, the Dry House, and the Underground, 1982-1990 

In 1982, 123 (the stage room) and 125 (the upper room) became the home to a vibrant Morgantown music community with the opening of The Underground Railroad (URR), largely conceived and operated by the now-legendary (in Morgantown, at least) Marsha Ferber.

Marsha and a group of friends with a common interest in music and a distaste for the status quo of the early 1980s spawned the idea of a bar where music was the binding force bringing together all types of people in a peaceful atmosphere.

The Underground Railroad’s name came from her desire to have a place where people could “find their way to freedom,” by interacting and listening to music without regard to skin color, dress, sexuality, hair style, or ideas. Harriet Tubman, the heroine of the real Underground Railroad, was painted on the wall of 123 and came to symbolize the bar’s concept of basic equality among all people.

The bar reflected Marsha’s idealism, her politics, and her taste in music. To help things out, at nearly the same time U92 (the WVU student radio station) went on the air with an alternative format and began supporting local music, while the student newspaper, the DA, began to follow happenings and shows at the bar with interest. To complete the circle an independent record store on High Street called Backstreet Records began carrying local music in conjunction with stuff you couldn’t find anywhere else. Morgantown’s underground music scene was born.

The Underground Railroad specialized in music-inspired fun, with healthy doses of art and politics which emanated an energy that invigorated Morgantown. It was the Reagan years after all, and there was revolution in the air among those not of the conservative mind-set.

There had always been local bands and artists in Morgantown, but the arrival of a venue which supported them on a long-term basis inspired a flowering of original music, art, and nearly anything else people wanted to put on the stage or the walls. Moreover, beginning with a show by Bo Diddley in January 1985, nationally known bands started showing up on the URR stage at an ever-increasing rate. The Dry House, an all-ages venue, opened in the lower room in 1985. The Brick Row building was showing its age by this time, but it became a place that drew people back again and again.
[Note: During URR days the liquor bar was in the stage room. The upper room was turned into a vegetarian eatery (during the day) and bar area at night. The Blue Ribbon Restaurant, two doors up from 123 in what is now The Adventure's Edge store, was a standard visit for Undergrounders after long nights of music.]

The Daily Athenaeum, April 24, 1986

In the spring of 1988, the pivotal Morgantown band Th’ Inbred broke up, and student favorites Shank Swing and the Divots called it quits also. Still, April of 1988 was like any other month at the Underground RR, with a bevy of bands playing. This changed on April 25, the day owner Marsha Ferber walked out of the bar and disappeared without a trace. She was never seen again. Marsha was reported missing but the police, her family, and her friends never turned up any substantial leads to her whereabouts either dead or alive. Like Elvis, one can still hear rumours of Marsha sightings from ex-Morgantownies around the world. The case is still open.

An article about Marsha’s Disappearance from the DA, 1988

“Duff’s Band List,” 1989

The employees kept the venue running for another year but it closed, along with The Dry House, seemingly for good, in late May of 1989, one year after Marsha’s disappearance. In January, 1990, the bar changed hands and reopened as “The Underground.” The Underground only lasted about 6 months, when the bar changed hands again.

Reprinted from: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2009/11/new-zealands-axemen-at-wfmu.html

November 24, 2009

New Zealand’s Axemen at WFMU (MP3’s)

Posted by Brian Turner on November 24, 2009 at 06:27 PM in Brian Turner’s Posts, MP3s, Music, Video Clips | Permalink

Reprinted from: http://citypaper.net/blogs/criticalmass/2009/11/17/times-new-viking-the-axemen-the-mad-scene-nov-15-kung-fu-necktie/

posted by Brian Howard on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 11:34 am

CONCERT REVIEW: Times New Viking, The Axemen, The Mad Scene @ Kung Fu Necktie, 11/15

Reprinted from: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3072295/Man-who-drove-into-IRD-pays-third-of-damage

David Jerrold Theobald will have to pay for less than a third of the $41,500 damage he caused in his ram-raid protest at the Christchurch offices of the Inland Revenue Department.

The 48-year-old remained disarmingly frank to the end, when he was sentenced by Judge Jane McMeeken in the Christchurch District Court today.

When she began sentencing him for driving his car through two sets of glass doors at the department’s offices, he corrected her, explaining that it was actually three sets.

“Don’t interrupt me,” said the judge.

She ordered him to do 300 hours of community work and imposed reparation totalling $13,000 to the owners of the building and the department. She also disqualified him from driving for nine months.

Theobald, who has now lost his job after working for the department for 25 years, had pleaded guilty to charges of reckless driving and intentional damage.

He is now a sickness beneficiary but hoped to get more work. His ram-raid in his car at 6.30am on a Saturday was a protest about his ongoing employment dispute with the department.

He will struggle to pay the reparations, even though he is single, has no children, and has been working for 25 years, because he has only about $1000 in assets.

He lives in a rental property and has no car.

“What have you spent your money on?” the judge wanted to know.

Theobald explained that he had been generous to people.

Defence counsel Simon Clay explained that there was a medical background to the case. Theobald’s actions had been a protest gesture. He had never been in trouble with the law, but had difficulties with his employer. He had checked to ensure there would be no-one in the offices when he made his protest.

Judge McMeeken said Theobald had believed for some reason that what had been happening gave him the right to damage property, but the building did not just belong to the department.

“You need to understand that it is one thing to protest, but it is quite another thing to deliberately, and intentionally, and wantonly destroy property especially when the property is not directly related to the organisation you had a gripe with.”

Ordering the reparation payment, she said: “The possibility of you making payment in full seems to me to be extremely remote, but you must realise there are consequences from your actions. You are going to have to budget wisely.”

Venue

Venue:

Hi-Tone Cafe –   Website

Street:

1913 Poplar Ave.

ZIP:

38104

City:

Memphis

State:

TN

Country:

Description

Reprinted from:

http://reviews.citypaper.net/articles/2009/11/12/times-new-viking-the-axemen

Tags: axemen, Times New Viking

Poster courtesy of http://vinciple.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nutsacks abound here in the States.

We have been privileged enough to sample some of the best goddam nuts the US has to offer, and the boys digged em so much they wrote a song about it.

‘Nutsack’ has become the trailblazing anthem for the axemen’s debut us tour with its unguarded gargantuan thrust, a melody worthy of methusela for its longevity properties, the lyrics reminding one of Baez in her Dylanesque – Poe phase, plus a backbeat Ringo would kill for, the uncompromising one-note guitar overlayin the verses topped off with the cream on the pudding, the triple-X chorus of Brannigan, Stojanovic & McCabe  every 8 bars or so.

“It shall be the killer single in 2010″ – Nostradamus

Reprinted from: http://thecrepeplace.com/

30 October 2009

Santa Cruz Gig pre-nup

Times New Viking, The Axemen, The Happy Hollows
Times New Viking The Axemen The Axemen is a New Zealand band formed around 1981 in protest against the South African Springbok rugby team tour of New Zealand, a tour which created great controversy, especially as was in contradiction to New Zealand’s obligations under the Gleneagles Agreement. The Axemen played in Chch Cathedral 1981 in response to the Springbok tour. They also played at the protests for homosexual law reform in 1983, with member Little Stevie McCabe being severely beaten up in the Cathedral Square, Christchurch, toilets. The Axemen’s founding members, Bob Brannigan, Little Stevie McCabe and Stu Kawowski had played in various bands, apart and together, in the South Island cities of Christchurch and Dunedin, but cohesed in reaction to Sprinkbok rugby tour. Before Bob Brannigan and Steve McCabe met, Steve was playing in a two-piece band at Cashmere High School called The Gorillas with Peter Rees, evolving comix maestro and classical guitarist. Brannigan and McCabe met through a mutual friend and played gigs in Christchurch and Dunedin under many names including The Whining Plums, Hey, We’re Wolves and The Twins in the early ’80s. It was at a Twins gig at the notorious Empire Tavern in Dunedin in 1983 where Stu Kawowski was first unable to control himself and leapt on stage to commandeer the bongoes, instantly adding another dimension to the unit. Art School Photography graduate, photography guru, filmmaker, artist [1] , promotional maverick and explosives expert Kawowski was playing drums with Above Ground, Bill Direen’s band at the time he met the other members of the Axemen and soon ‘joined’ the Axemen as a permanent fixture. Brannigan, McCabe and Kawowski remain to this day the ‘core’ of the Axemen, however many New Zealand musicians played with them over the years as guest / transient / semi-permanent members, making their influence and the influences they assimilated (like the borg) an important breeding ground and virtual swap-meet of ideas and influence in Kiwi music circles. In February 2009, US record label Siltbreeze re-released the Axemen’s 1984 protest album :Big Cheap Motel” [2] on 12″ vinyl. Originally the album was released as a cassette packaged in a small bubble-sleeve with a straw, mimicking the milk drink “Big M” that the album was aimed at. The Axemen were invited to play at Christchurch’s “Summertimes” Festival in January 1984, a public music stage set up in Hagley Park. The band was shocked by the large-scale sexist “Big M” advertising surrounding the main stage, and decided to write a suite of protest songs about how the Christchurch City Council had “sold out” to the “Big M” sexist marketing. The Axemen recorded the concert, as well as studio versions of their songs and released a 45 min cassette entitled, “Big Cheap Motel” The Happy Hollows “The Happy Hollows have a lot of weapons in their arsenal, but chief among them is vocalist/guitarist Sarah Negahdari. ‘Faces,’ from the forthcoming Spells, gives Negahdari the perfect chance to show off her Polly Harvey-meets-Kim Deal croon.” — Magnet Magazine “A killer hybrid of Kim Deal, PJ Harvey and Emily Haines. Negahdari has the guitar chops, explosive energy and winning sense of humor that should make The Happy Hollows one of the more interesting bands of our new millennium’s next decade.” — Wired Magazine “A pugilistic mix of stinging guitars, turbulent rhythms, and shouted vocals. Alternates between childlike experimentation and ferocious firestorm.” — Los Angeles Times The much-anticipated and highly acclaimed debut album by Los Angeles trio The Happy Hollows officially hits streets today, October 6th, 2009. The album, Spells (listen/order here) is a culmination of their work with producer and former Mighty Lemon Drops guitarist David Newton (The Little Ones, The Blood Arm), who also produced the group’s 2008 EP Imaginary. In support of the album, The Happy Hollows will be performing a string of East Coast dates surrounding their CMJ New Music Marathon showcases. The band will then headline a residency at Spaceland in Los Angeles throughout November. Please see complete dates below. The young group’s infectious and irreverent noise-pop has earned considerable following up and down the west coast, with their energetic and charismatic performances. Vocalist/guitarist Sarah Negahdari wields ominous riffs and finger-tapped arpeggios while singing with a cherubic-yet-mischievous grin. Meanwhile, the agile rhythm section of Charles Mahoney (bass/vocals) and Chris Hernandez (drums/vocals) vault and lunge with precision. Wired Magazine recently described Negahdari as “a killer hybrid of Kim Deal, PJ Harvey and Emily Haines” and added that “Negahdari has the guitar chops, explosive energy and winning sense of humor that should make The Happy Hollows one of the more interesting bands of our new millennium’s next decade.” The BBC picked them as a band to watch for 2009, the Los Angeles Times has described the group’s sound as a “pugilistic mix of stinging guitars, turbulent rhythms, and shouted vocals” that “alternates between childlike experimentation and ferocious firestorm.” AllMusic wrote that the band’s “appeal is immediate” and LAist has labeled them “a must see!” The Happy Hollows’ catchy yet dissonant sound is influenced by genres as disparate as 90’s college rock, garage punk, art rock, and 80’s pop. The band combines innovative song structures, surreal lyrics, and fiercely adept instrumentation to recreate reality into a jagged panorama of vibrant, kaleidoscopic collage. Listening to their music, one cannot help but see visions of a place oddly askew from the world we experience everyday, a parallel universe that is at once whimsical, demented, and ferocious. Having born and bred their band in various corners of the L.A. music scene since forming 2006, The Happy Hollows played their first shows in Japanese restaurants, laundromats, and small local clubs. In their first year as a band, they snuck into a studio at night and, in two sessions, recorded Bunnies and Bombs, an EP that attracted the attention of the L.A.’s underground music scene. After seeing them play a show, established L.A. heroes Silversun Pickups asked The Happy Hollows to open for them at The Wiltern and The Fillmore. In 2008, fellow art-rock outfit Deerhoof invited the Hollows to open for them on their album release shows at The Avalon and The Great American Music Hall. ONLINE TICKETS
View The Happy Hollows myspace site View TNV ‘Move To California’ video
8pm doors, 9pm show $10

Stolen Gear List USA

1x Gibson Epiphone “tobacco starburst” electric guitar (US$275) with soft black Gibson travel case (US$150)

 

 

 

 

1x Aria Pro 2 bass guitar (white body, rosewood neck) in Ibanez hard case brown (US$750 serial No. in NZ)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STUART PAGE EQUIPMENT STOLEN

1x Bolex SBM 16mm camera Nr. 305828 (US$2000 approx)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1x Switar 10mm ƒ1.6 lens SN 1069999 (US$650 approx)

 

 

 

 

 

1x Switar 25mm ƒ1.4 lens S/N 974399 (US$450 approx)

 

 

 

 

 

1x small suitacse with wheels and handle similar to:

TravelPro 4070820-10 20-Inch Rollaboard Suiter Suitcase $175

Panasonic DMC GH1 accessories: charger, AC adapter, cables etc… approx US$200

de-a49c charger

K2CJ2DA00008 AC cable

DC cable VEKON98

AV cable K1HA14CD0001

USB cable K1HA14AD0001

CD-ROM software

Body cap VKF4385

lens rear cap VFC4315

Lens storage bag VFC4430

1x Panasonic LX2 battery charger $30.00

1x Wiebetech Ultradock

31205-2409-0000 UltraDock v4, FW800/FW400/eSATA/USB, access IDE or SATA drives, US power plug US$199

1x Hitachi 2TB SATA hard drive US$184.99

1x SEAGATE 1TB SATA hard-drive US$89.99

1x SEAGATE 320GB serial ATA notebook drive

1x Vantec NST-285S2 BK 2.5″ hard drive case  US$18.95

1x SABRENT EC-UEIS7 3.5″ hard drive case

1x power strip (NZ) 4 outlets US$10

Various US->NZ power adapters $100

Various firewire cables, 6pin and 9pin $100

1x Manfrotto clamp/ball-joint-camera attachment NZ$200

1x Manfrotto tripod 745B MDEVE TRIPOD BLACK, fitted with 1x 128LP MICRO FLUID VIDEO HEAD Approx NZ$600

1x Philips Electric shaver 8240 8200 Series NZ$399.00

1x Medium suitcase hard-sided Approx. US$100

Personal items (Stu):

1x “OMEN” brand (Hamburg, Germany)  light blue jersey wool US$300

1x Rodd & Gunn black moleskin trousers (NZ$159.00)

1x Icebreaker top greay NZ$64.99

3x Icebreaker BOXER BRIEF WITH FLY NZ$120

4x Icebreaker socks Hiker Heavy crew NZ$18.99 x3 NZ$57.00

1x MARMOT MEN’S PRECIP JACKET NZ$279.00

1x NORTH FACE MEN’S NUPTSE JACKET $399

2x pairs all cotton sox $NZ40

6x various t-shirts NZ$120

6x “SHUSTAK “DVDs NZ$120

OTHER:

3 dozen T-shirts Lime green in carrier bag US$75 shirts, US$97 printing

LAX, Los Angeles, CA

Mon-Oct-26

391 mi – about 5 hours 55 mins (up to 7 hours 20 mins in traffic)

Sacramento, CA

Tue-Oct-27, Sacramento, CA – Luigi’s Fungarden

86.7 mi – about 1 hour 30 mins (up to 2 hours 10 mins in traffic)

San Francisco, CA

Thu-Oct-29 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill confirmed

72.8 mi – about 1 hour 18 mins (up to 1 hour 40 mins in traffic)

Santa Cruz, CA

Fri-Oct-30 Santa Cruz, CA Crepe Place

US-101 S 367 mi 6 hours 5 mins (7 hours 20 mins in traffic)

or I-5 S 348 mi 5 hours 43 mins

Los Angeles, CA

Sun-Nov-01 Los Angeles, CA Echoplex/Part Time Punks

373 mi – about 5 hours 27 mins (up to 7 hours 0 mins in traffic)

Irvine, CA

Mon-Nov-02 Acrobatics Every Day / UC Irvine

I-5 S 41.7 mi – 40 mins (2 hours 10 mins in traffic)

Phoenix, AZ

Tue-Nov-03 Phoenix, AZ Modified Arts

I-10 E 1,066 mi 15 hours 7 mins

Dallas, TX

Fri-Nov-06 Dallas, TX The Lounge on Elm St

221 mi – about 3 hours 41 mins

Austin, TX

Sat-Nov-07, Axemen TBA, TNV playing Fun Fun Fun Festival

I-30 E 647 mi 9 hours 44 mins

Memphis, TN

Mon-Nov-09 Memphis, TN Hi Tone

US-78 E 237 mi 3 hours 54 mins

Birmingham, AL

Wed-Nov-11 Birmingham, AL Bottletree

146 mi – about 2 hours 22 mins

Atlanta, GA

Thu-Nov-12 Atlanta, GA Star Bar

I-85 N 382 mi 6 hours 2 mins

Carrboro, NC

Fri-Nov-13 Carrboro, NC Local 506

I-85 N 312 mi 5 hours 26 mins

Baltimore, MD

Sat-Nov-14 DC / Baltimore Otto Bar

98.3 mi – about 1 hour 55 mins

Philadelphia, PA

Sun-Nov-15 Philadelphia, PA Kung Fu Necktie

I-95 N 96.8 mi 1 hour 52 mins (2 hours 20 mins in traffic)

New York

Wed-Nov-18 NY Mercury Lounge

4.1 mi – about 13 mins

Brooklyn, NJ

Tue-Nov-19 NY NY Union Pool

Flatbush Ave 9.9 mi 30 mins

Hoboken, NJ

Fri-Nov-20. Maxwells

I-95 N 219 mi 3 hours 59 mins (4 hours 50 mins in traffic)

Boston, MA

Sat-Nov-21 Boston MA, Great Scott

I-81 S 779 mi 12 hours 42 mins

Morgantown, WV 123 Pleasant Street

Mon-Nov 23, Morgantown, WV 123 Pleasant Street

I-78 E 381 mi 6 hours 25 mins

Columbus, OH

Fri-Nov 27, Columbus, OH – TBC

205 mi – about 3 hours 15 mins

Chicago, Il

Sat-Nov-28, Chicago, Il – (instore & gig) venues TBC

I-70 W – 354 mi 5 hours 31 mins

New York

I-80 E 788 mi 12 hours 16 mins

TOTAL: Approx 7000 miles

The Axemen
Tuesday, November 24th, 3pm – 6pm on Brian Turner’s show,
http://www.wfmu.org (streaming/archiving)
91.1 fm (NYC metro NJ) 90.1 fm (Catskills/Hudson Valley/PA/WNJ)

One of the big touring surprises for 2009 has to be the visit of New Zealand’s legendary Axemen to U.S. shores. The band began in Christchurch in 1981 and stood somewhat aside of the pop path exhibited by much of the the Flying Nun label roster, but are without doubt one of the more fascinating Kiwi exports. Various live shows and releases displayed a loose but virulent amalgamation of avant-garage, Half Japanese style sax primitivism, confusion, and general air of maladjusted greatness.

They’ve got two reissues “Big Cheap Motel” and “Scary!” out now on Siltbreeze, and are hitting the road coast to coast with Times New Viking. You can catch them in the NYC area November 18th at Mercury Lounge, 19th at Union Pool, and 20th at Maxwells in Hoboken!

Please take a moment to write to your MP if you too are upset about the underlying causes leading to David Jerrold Theobold’s actions, ie

• Allegations of managerial incompetence in Inland Revenue / State Services
• Allegations of a culture of bullying in State Services, inhibiting the discussion, submission and implementation of any positive changes
• Inadequate dispute resolution outcomes where issues are raised leading to an unsatisfactory work environment
• Allegations of preferential treatment being given to the top echelons of taxpayers – old boys network
• Allegations of slanting of news stories on the state-owned television network to minimise damage to government infrastructure and make DJT look like a fruitcake by editing interview footage and moving the focus onto the damage to the building, and DJTs mental health rather than focusing on his reasoning for feeling that after 3 years of unresolved disputes he had exhausted all other avenues and had no choice but to take drastic action
• Allegations of a culture of wastefulness and excess in management at IRD
• Lack of accountability and public scrutiny of affairs in Inland Revenue

etc. etc.

Whether or not you are familiar with any or all of these issues you can still help by writing to your MPs saying that for a longterm (20 year) employee to take such drastic actions and feel that he had exhausted all other channels to try and resolve his dispute, there should be an independant enquiry into the management culture within State Services at the very least.

Some of the relevant Ministers are listed below, plus a link to a full list of MPs

*******************************************

TVNZ Complaints Form

Hon Tony Ryall
Ministerial Portfolios

• Minister of Health
• Minister of State Services

Contact Details
Email: tony.ryall@national.org.nz
Phone: (04)817 6804 (Parliament)
Phone: (07)5780175 (Electorate)

*******************************************

Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman

Ministerial Portfolios

• Minister of Immigration
• Minister of Broadcasting
• Associate Minister of Tourism
• Associate Minister of Health

Contact Details

Email: jonathan.coleman@national.org.nz
Website: www.jonathancoleman.co.nz
Phone: (04)817 6818 (Parliament)
Phone: (09)4198021 (Electorate)

*******************************************

Hon Simon Power

Ministerial Portfolios

• Minister for Justice
• Minister for State Owned Enterprises
• Minister of Commerce
• Minister Responsible for the Law Commission
• Associate Minister of Finance
• Deputy Leader of the House

Contact Details

Email: simon.power@national.org.nz
Website: www.simonpower.co.nz
Phone: (04)817 6803 (Parliament)
Phone: (06)3237253 (Electorate)

*******************************************

Hon Judith Collins
Ministerial Portfolios

• Minister of Police
• Minister of Corrections
• Minster of Veterans’ Affairs

Contact Details
Email: office@judithcollins.co.nz
Website: www.judithcollins.co.nz
Phone: (04)817 6806 (Parliament)
Phone: (09)2997426 (Electorate)

*******************************************

List of members of parliament and contact details as at 24 July 2009 [PDF 275k]

*********************************************

From Mick: “I’d like to add a comment at the top of Alastair’s letter that if every anyone’s begging, pleading, cajoling, screaming, crying for friends to help a simple testimonial or 1,000 of them would have done — Alastair also did what any moron would have done — complained to the broadcasting standards association — hands up who else thought of using the correct process first — I did for three years and that’s why I’m onmn bail and needing hospitalisation right now.”

By Alistair Galbraith

I’m sorry to bug you when you’re out of the country BUT
a very dear friend of mine has done something pretty newsworthy

David Theobald drove his car through 3 sets of plate-glass doors in to the IRD building in CHCH  on Saturday morning at 6.30 am (having checked with staff and cleaners to make sure no-one would be inside)
He did this to draw attention to a culture of waste,bullying, and “favours for the rich” within IRD
he has worked there for 20 years and had a 100% rating!
he has never been before the courts before and is 47 years old
He is highly intelligent and articulate yet the only news coverage was total crap on tv1 which described him as “a paranoid and depressive” and allowed him NOT ONE FULL SENTENCE.
His concerns, what his protest was about , were completely ignored!

One of the major issues he’d like to draw attention to
is the amount of time allocated for reviewing Refunds for more than $100,000. to trusts and business (9 per hour)
compared to the excessive attention paid to Refunds for low income brackets.

the lack of “public scrutiny” to which IRD are subject, despite it being a part of their charter that their work be carried out so as to be acceptable to the highest public scrutiny!
the culture of bullying within the department which prevents positive change.

the unfairness of fairly recent changes to the tax system.

IS THERE ANYONE STILL IN THE COUNTRY WHO IS NOT AFRAID TO LET THIS MAN TALK TO NEW ZEALAND ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON, WITHOUT CUTTING HIS WORDS TO MAKE HIM APPEAR MENTALLY ILL?

i WISH YOU WERE HERE, COS i’D TRUST YOU MORE THAN ANYONE TO INTERVIEW HIM

let me know if you can help, or anyone you know would pick up the story from its real angle – IRD failures – not “disgruntled employee”

My blood’s boiling, seen a lot of good people go down for silly things
but this is different – otherwise I really wouldn’t bug you

Reprinted from:

http://cryptome.org/0001/nz-tax-charade.htm

19 August 2009. Updated.

17 August 2009

---

I’m a long time Inland Revenue NZ employee of 20 years I have many frustrations with incompetent managers, absolute waste of taxpayer money, illiterate team leaders ( ‘waist bin’ in team minutes is not a typo, it’s a spelling mistake), a workplace bully, Carol Buckenham, who has had extraordinary protection, even by my union delegates, failed payroll systems, failing tools, and last but not least a tax system which is designed to overdeduct tax, but which the IRD adverts sold as ‘you never have to file a tax return again’ allowing a company to set up a very succesful business giving people back the money the government hoped they wouldn’t claim …

There’s also penalising of low income taxpayers but almost no scrutiny of huge refunds going out the door — my job was to check refunds of over $100,000 and I was told on Friday to do this at the rate of 9 per hour, if that was the work given to me.

In this case it was me the payroll system failed to pay — twice — and they had no idea why and asked me to get a bank statement to prove I wasn’t paid as they thought I had been. Complaints got me nowhere, requests for information got me nowhere and finally four official information requests (our FOIA equivalent) resulted in either no information, or on the last day an extension could be requested in a well-defined form, simply a statement that I’d be charged NZ$38 per half hour, without specifying what would be provided, when, or even whether they’d search all night for non-existent info.

Basically the New Zealand Inland Revenue Department believes it’s above the law.

Our code of conduct states in the preamble that the actions of the department should be able to withstand the closest public scrutiny — however Inland Revenue doesn’t open itself to any scrutiny. In an effort to draw attention to this and a major abuse of process …

… I drove my car through the Christchurch NZ Inland Revenue’s closed front entrance, through two sets of glass doors, through the staff only door, then backed out into the foyer to wait for police.

You sure as hell wouldn’t know it from Google or the papers. It was on Saturday morning and it’s now Monday night.

I filmed an interview, across from the patched up hole, done by our local television station CTV. I popped in there today because I’m out on bail of NZ$500. In fact today they forgot to serve a tresspass order so I walked inside, showed my tag, and almost got access through to the staff only area. This is symptomatic of the place — I’ve dealt with stupidity by pointing it out when and where it occurs and can give you megabytes of examples because I just BCC’d myself in on the responses. Walking out with taxpayer information (which I haven’t done — I have absolute integrity with regard to taxpayers) would be as simple as photographing the terminal the information is on.

Some of this is comic, some serious, but all worthy of public discussion. However the NZ Inland Revenue while driving staff harder for less, doesn’t permit any discussion. Discussion at team meetings is cut off if the team leader can even understand it.

This all sounds surreal, but I’ve played music, my job supported that, and part of their action screwed with my music. So one group have added a webpage where we intend to put everything up relating to the crash.

A sample page is at:

http://theaxemen.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/mick-elborado-the-car-crash-set/

We’re taking the piss and they know it. But Inland revenue have some pretty heavy lawyers — they’ve just upped the charge to Criminal damage which is 7 years maximum.

Can you add this to the Cryptome Collection? I assume then it would be archived on the DVD and any gag orders redundant. I did everything I could through the system. The checks and balances that should catch incompetence or bias failed. Also the checks that should stop Carol, the bully mentioned above from calling staff native to the country ‘my little black jungle bunny’ and then claiming it was a joke. In fromt of maybe 20 staff who all look the other way. She also tried to get me committed but my sanity hopefully is reasonably evidenced by the fact I’m on bail and not in jail.

It’s late … I’m tired … far more of this if you want it, my stack of paer is about 6 feet high. I’ve been with the place 20 years and believe it’s time the public scrutiny test was applied. I’ll name names, give detailed analyses of abuses, failures, incompetence. If our media is too scared to deal with it I will pass it to you until I’m gagged. I’ve played this for laughs to keep sane and am proud of some of there responses and the fact they couldn’t fire me, and it was I that ”was the decider” as our HRSouls put it.

If my kinetic statement about ‘moving forward’ won’t do it, I invite you to. I’ll give you the information until I’m stopped, principally so the low income NZ taxpayers see that a tax system called fair by IRD certainly isn’t t fair to them

Cheers

Dave Theobald. (aka Mick Elborrado)

---

A sends 18 August 2009:

There’s also a picture. See he did make the local news.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/2765173/IRD-drove-me-to-this

A taxman driven around the bend by continuing work woes drove his car
through the building where he had worked for 25 years.

David Jerrold Theobald, 47, drove his Mazda 626 through the foyer of the
Christchurch Inland Revenue building on Cashel St at 6.30am on Saturday
after a three-year employment dispute.

He crashed through two sets of glass doors and smashed a third on the other
side of the foyer before coming to a stop.

Mr Theobald said he had gone to great lengths to avoid risk to any staff.

“I checked with the cleaners the night before to make sure no-one would be
in the building. I drove right up to the doors, looked both ways, then
slowly pushed forward till the doors broke.”

Mr Theobald said he was fed up with what he saw as concealment of workplace
bullying and incompetent management at Inland Revenue.

“This has been going on for three years, and now I’ve got four official
information requests in with them and they’re making that as onerous as
possible … This was just a way to make a gesture.”

He also wanted to highlight how easy it would be for someone with terrorist
intentions to ramraid the building with a truck full of explosives. “It’s
just another 9/11 waiting to happen.”

Mr Theobald is a fixture of the Christchurch music scene. He is known as
Mick Elborado when he plays with his band The Axemen and in other groups.

He appeared in Christchurch District Court yesterday charged with
intentional damage and reckless driving and was remanded on bail till August 31.

He told The Dominion Post he had not decided how he would plead, but was
prepared to accept the consequences of his actions.

Inland Revenue would not comment on the incident as it was before the court,
but Mr Theobald has received a letter from human resources head Patrick
Crawford.

In it, Mr Crawford said: “Information has come to my attention which
indicates that you may have intentionally driven a car through Inland
Revenue’s Christchurch building … I am concerned that your conduct may be
inconsistent with the Code of Conduct.”

Mr Theobald could face up to seven years in prison if found guilty of
criminal damage.

---

Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:34:48 +1200
Subject: TV1 spin of the news
From: mickle Borrado <nosombrero[at]gmail.com>
To: John Young <jya[at]pipeline.com>

Hi John,

Want a story about news spin — TV1 (an NZ news station) are a bit clumsier at editing than the professionals.

Here’s the TV1 footage

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/disgruntled-employee-crashes-into-ird-building-2926890/video

All that information from a thirty minute plus interview — and camera stage directions — I think I must have spoke all of a hundred words in the newsbite — and the voice over described me — i certainly didn’t.

So let’s look at what happened today so people in NZ see how TV1’s news is spun.

Lisa Davies of TV1 news rang — I originally said where were you yesterday andprobably mentioned something about investigative journalism — the fact that NZ has no-one like Daniel Hopsicker is a national shame — anyway I said I’d meet her at Madras Cafe Bookshop — lovely place with lovely food. I ordered breakfast and they interrupted it. They apologised for that though.

Lisa then talked to me at length — we discussed numerous things including the way the rich (who I define as anyway with family trusts, loss attributing qualifying companies, and suchlike) are stopping the poor getting hospitals and education — we then filmed the segment completely disturbing the business of the cafe — I suggested they buy food — they bought coffees — If they don’t actually eat food maybe they could have given it to the people who follow the ‘Free Soup’ arrows in Latimer Square (to Christchurch’s shame).

Anyway look at what I personally say and do in the vid that link points at and read this:

1) 00:15 — ‘Dave let’s go through each of the photos on your camera one by one — no go back to that one’ — the actual photo on axeblog is at http://theaxemen.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/img_6421.jpg in its full glory — hmmm

2) 00:16 — that’s funny this looks like a home video — oh no it’s a professional cameraman (who knows a friend of mine so for once I’m not naming names) filming me holding my camera and either he or I are moving the camera — again the actual photo is up.

3) 00:17 ‘I feel pretty good actually’ — who knows what question was asked — could’ve been something sympathetic like ‘How do you feel after getting out of IRD after all those years of bullying’ or even ‘Dave ,me old friend, treat me as a confidant and tell me how you feel having barely eaten yesterday being able to buy that yummy empanada today’

We retook this shot two or three times because the cameraman wasn’t satisfied ‘higher, lower, tilt it a bit more to Lisa, Dave, yeah that’s fine’

4) 00:25 — hey that looks like it wasn’t a complete sentence ‘…at the end of my tether going for one last kamikaze move, this was a very carefully calcualted protest…’

Um a bit of context here Lisa — just put the whole sentence on the TV1 website or I’ll arrange for someone somewhere to find out what else you’ve put in less staunch peoples soundbites.

Let’s see did I say something like ‘{Instead of allowing my team leader Pip Lloyd and manager Yvonne van Grinsven to subject me to 4 weeks of pressure to achieve the impossible and putting me} at the end of my tether making one last kamikaze move, this was a very carefully calculated protest {when every other check and balance had failed to make an undeniable statement without hurting anyone}

I have no idea TV1 has the footage — so TV1 put up the whole thing say 20 seconds context either side of the soundbite if you’re too shit scared to broadcast what I told Lisa about massive abuse of the tax system — if your context in the soundbite is correct I’ll apologise in public, if it isn’t and you’ve distorted the one little bit of the interview you could (30 mins maybe) then I expect TV1 to either no longer use the word news in its ‘news’ coverage or as a fair compromise the TV1 Chief executive can donate an amount equal to his annual salary to Rape crisis and the Battered women’s refuge — I don’t think any rich men can find a way to benefit from those two and they really need the money.

00:37 ‘i-i Catharthic, I actually feel a great relief now’ — maybe ‘Dave my little innocent what did you say to the police straight after the crash’ Because I don’t feel that way now — it certainly isn’t a description of my current state.

My overwhelming feeling at the moment is a broadcast like the TV1 segment will drive (no pun intended) seriously unbalanced people or people with a grudge into similar acts — feeling that what I appear to have said in those tiny little bits reflects their own feelings. It doesn’t — I carefully read ‘The Psychology of Political Violence’ by Emma Goldman several times and even then I would have stopped if there was a person who could be harmed — even if it meant arrest. I’m pretty sure anyone unbalanced will not have similar concerns — I was already prepared to accept 50% of the responsibility if anyone died (along with the people responsible for closing off any more responses) — however now it’s 33% due to the TV1 spin — that feels better but I’ll still grieve, and apologise sincerely and personally, if anyone gets hurt by a deliberate car ramming incident.

00:39 — Newspaper shots under ‘catharthic’: ‘Dave you’ve got the paper on the table there, it’d be nice to get a shot of you reading it. Can you hold the paper a litte higher, no tilt it more toward me, now lookk at the photo, OK now the news item, look like you’re reading it for thefirst time, good’

I’d just bought the paper and was more interested in an article buried on page two suggesting shaming drunken drivers by publishing photos and names — I’m pretty sure I discussed that being a great idea to apply to white collar criminals, although in retrospect maybe they should do it for the criminals whole family if they took more tyhan $100,000 — might be just the disincentive they need.

00:41 ‘He describes himself as a paranoid and a depressive’ — um shouldn’t my voice be used to describe myself instead of Lisa’s, or even my doctor’s. I think my self description was I have had paranoia and depression, I take medication for it which works, I see my General Practitioner once every three months to obtain more medication (Venlafaxine and Quitiapine — we won’tr even look at the wiki article on discontinuation syndrome for Venlafaxine)

I’m currently not on any mental health registers or seeing anyone other than my GP and three police medical experts who had a very good understanding of mental illness talked to me at length to decide if I was paranoid or depressed. The record will show I crashed on the morning of Saturday and was released the same evening under my Brother’s recognizance.

Currently paranoid and depressed, Lisa? I don’t think so — I co-host a radio show most Thursdays, play music, and visit friends, I play trivial pursuit some Fridays, For f’k’s sake I’m so depressed and paranoid that I’ve arranged and learn’t Bohemian Raphsody for solo guitar and can play it without looking at any prompts (starts with C6 so a different key, and needs a 5 string guitar) — um, I think I’m a fully functional member of society who can dissect a hack and spin job the night it’s played — unless I’m being paranoid here

So Lisa, as you said you had to get back urgently to edit this so you couldn’t buy food — You’ve set mental health in NZ back from where it was gradually getting seen as being acceptable and possibly given a person or maybe 1,000,000 of them with no previous reason to identify with a person on TV1 news every reason to take their car and crash it.

I showed you photos of the front of the barely scratched car. I talked with you at length in the pre-interview discussing all of this.

OK, detour, back to the video ’says he was driven to it after a three year employment dispute with IRD’ — I’d imagine I cracked a wry smile with the word ‘driven’ — check Axeblog, you’ll see we’ve got a great sense of humour.

Oh that ‘employment dispute’? You didn’t really ask, Lisa, but in depth:

I have a record of depression (about once every ten years or so)

I self-referred myself to a doctor for paranoia, mainly — let’s see; Helicopter noises over the house at night, fleeting glimpses at the edge of peripheral vision, increased signification(?) — basically where every numberplate looks like a personalised numberplate, but part of that would go with the fact that Pynchon, Gaddis and Oakley Hall are my favourite authors.

Ah my outputs aren’t good and surprisingly I have trouble getting up occasionally. Let’s help him by assigning him someone everyone is shit-scared of (right up the line — all employees in CHCH in earshot of her voice will remember that the poor high ranking sod who dared to ask her not to call him Dick but to use Richard, was forever tagged with ‘Hello Richard not Dick’ when he visited. Maybe he enjoyed it. Anyway IRD NZ has a perfectly working Employee Assistance Program, usually you refer yourself, but according to the EAP website managers can refer staff who don’t wish to go on it if the referal is for behavioural or performance reasons.

Actually John — I’ll send this the way it is but I have my entire personal file on camera — put this up, I;ll send you the file (including psych reports) with my blessing to make ita lla vailable for downoad and I’ll carry on the story — eventaully returning to that video

Thanks heaps

Dave/Mick (work/Music)

---

Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 03:15:29 +1200
Subject: Re: David Theobald
From: mickle Borrado <nosombrero[at]gmail.com>
To: Lisa Davies <Lisa.Davies[at]tvnz.co.nz>
Cc: mcwilson[at]mediaworks.co.nz, jya[at]pipeline.com

(LSM — you konw the drill — blog it!)

(Mark — when I said I don’t like spin — this is to TV1 — the first interviewer and cameraman that messed me around. I have no problem CC’ing it to you)

John — this is becoming familiar!

Hey Lisa,

If they were interested in what I had to say they’d have heard it, rather than the guy whose glass I broke — analysis of the TV1 interview process including suggested poses for the guy thatr kinda new John on cryptome.org fairly shortly and I’ve very publically requested that TV1 at the same page add another video with 20 seconds context either side of each soundbite — double dare ya!

I’ve also pointed out publically that you were too cheap to even buy a pie from the poor shop that had to suffer the charade of getting ‘my side’ and losing business whileyou worked out just what you needed — I checked at MCB that you guys had paid for the drink, cause otherwise I would have.

More seriously — and this is also up in al ot of places — you should be aware I don’t mess around — if any unbalanced person does a copycat crash because they identify with a ‘Paranoid Depressive Kamikaze who needs catharsis’ I didn’t edit it and put it on National TV, you did.

I’m CC’ing this to cryptome.org — deal with it and start to learn what a reporter does. Or as I’ve already memed. Spin this ONE.

After talking with me, who went up against IR, you should quickly have realised not to mess with me — you did. Bad Mistrake.

Now about that stuff I said about massive abuse of the tax system by the wealthy. Donations, Imputation, Working for Families Credits, LAQC’s? Guess you’re a wannabe rich person.

Accountability/Transparency/Integrity it means something.

Bye

Dave

_________

On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 9:38 AM, Lisa Davies <Lisa.Davies[at]tvnz.co.nz> wrote:

Hi there,

I am really keen to catch up with David for an interview today – a lot of people are very interested to hear his version of what happened at the weekend!

Please get him to give me a call or email me his details?

Thanks heaps, Lisa

Lisa Davies
ONE NEWS – Reporter
[Phone numbers deleted]
lisa.davies[at]tvnz.co.nz

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Reprinted from:
http://cryptome.org/0001/nz-tax-charade.htm
17 August 2009

I’m a long time Inland Revenue NZ employee of 20 years I have many frustrations with incompetent managers, absolute waste of taxpayer money, illiterate team leaders ( ‘waist bin’ in team minutes is not a typo, it’s a spelling mistake), a workplace bully, Carol Buckenham, who has had extraordinary protection, even by my union delegates, failed payroll systems, failing tools, and last but not least a tax system which is designed to overdeduct tax, but which the IRD adverts sold as ‘you never have to file a tax return again’ allowing a company to set up a very succesful business giving people back the money the government hoped they wouldn’t claim …

There’s also penalising of low income taxpayers but almost no scrutiny of huge refunds going out the door — my job was to check refunds of over $100,000 and I was told on Friday to do this at the rate of 9 per hour, if that was the work given to me.

In this case it was me the payroll system failed to pay — twice — and they had no idea why and asked me to get a bank statement to prove I wasn’t paid as they thought I had been. Complaints got me nowhere, requests for information got me nowhere and finally four official information requests (our FOIA equivalent) resulted in either no information, or on the last day an extension could be requested in a well-defined form, simply a statement that I’d be charged NZ$38 per half hour, without specifying what would be provided, when, or even whether they’d search all night for non-existent info.

Basically the New Zealand Inland Revenue Department believes it’s above the law.

Our code of conduct states in the preamble that the actions of the department should be able to withstand the closest public scrutiny — however Inland Revenue doesn’t open itself to any scrutiny. In an effort to draw attention to this and a major abuse of process …

… I drove my car through the Christchurch NZ Inland Revenue’s closed front entrance, through two sets of glass doors, through the staff only door, then backed out into the foyer to wait for police.

You sure as hell wouldn’t know it from Google or the papers. It was on Saturday morning and it’s now Monday night.

I filmed an interview, across from the patched up hole, done by our local television station CTV. I popped in there today because I’m out on bail of NZ$500. In fact today they forgot to serve a tresspass order so I walked inside, showed my tag, and almost got access through to the staff only area. This is symptomatic of the place — I’ve dealt with stupidity by pointing it out when and where it occurs and can give you megabytes of examples because I just BCC’d myself in on the responses. Walking out with taxpayer information (which I haven’t done — I have absolute integrity with regard to taxpayers) would be as simple as photographing the terminal the information is on.

Some of this is comic, some serious, but all worthy of public discussion. However the NZ Inland Revenue while driving staff harder for less, doesn’t permit any discussion. Discussion at team meetings is cut off if the team leader can even understand it.

This all sounds surreal, but I’ve played music, my job supported that, and part of their action screwed with my music. So one group have added a webpage where we intend to put everything up relating to the crash.

A sample page is at:

http://theaxemen.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/mick-elborado-the-car-crash-set/

We’re taking the piss and they know it. But Inland revenue have some pretty heavy lawyers — they’ve just upped the charge to Criminal damage which is 7 years maximum.

Can you add this to the Cryptome Collection? I assume then it would be archived on the DVD and any gag orders redundant. I did everything I could through the system. The checks and balances that should catch incompetence or bias failed. Also the checks that should stop Carol, the bully mentioned above from calling staff native to the country ‘my little black jungle bunny’ and then claiming it was a joke. In fromt of maybe 20 staff who all look the other way. She also tried to get me committed but my sanity hopefully is reasonably evidenced by the fact I’m on bail and not in jail.

It’s late … I’m tired … far more of this if you want it, my stack of paer is about 6 feet high. I’ve been with the place 20 years and believe it’s time the public scrutiny test was applied. I’ll name names, give detailed analyses of abuses, failures, incompetence. If our media is too scared to deal with it I will pass it to you until I’m gagged. I’ve played this for laughs to keep sane and am proud of some of there responses and the fact they couldn’t fire me, and it was I that ”was the decider” as our HRSouls put it.

If my kinetic statement about ‘moving forward’ won’t do it, I invite you to. I’ll give you the information until I’m stopped, principally so the low income NZ taxpayers see that a tax system called fair by IRD certainly isn’t t fair to them

Cheers

Dave Theobald. (aka Mick Elborrado)

Show Your Support… join MICK ELBORADO IS INNOCENT now!

Reprinted From The Christchurch Press, 19 August 2009
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch/2764971/Its-OK-officer-I-work-here/

“It’s OK Officer, I work here”

By IAN STEWARD – The Christchurch Press

A Christchurch tax worker fed up with his bosses has made a spectacular protest by driving his car through three plate-glass windows in the Inland Revenue building.

David Theobald, 47, a musician and 25-year Inland Revenue employee, posted photographs on the internet of his protest, which he made at 6.30am on Saturday. The pictures showed his car “parked” in the Cashel St building.

A blog accompanying the photos said Theobald, a long-time member of rock and punk band The Axemen, “decided he had had enough and wasn’t going to take it any more after years of abuse” from Inland Revenue.

“Driving into the place that had been his nemesis for the past 25 years, he felt an eerie calm as he took the final turnoff, revved the vehicle and drove through three plate-glass windows and into the reception area,” it said.

Theobald said he was careful not to trample broken glass into the department’s new carpet because “I didn’t want to get in trouble”.

He waited “calmly” for police and quipped when they arrived: “It’s OK officer, I work here.”

Theobald appeared in the Christchurch District Court yesterday charged with intentional damage and reckless driving.

He was re-arrested and his bail conditions were altered, ordering him to stay away from the Inland Revenue building, after he stood outside and sent text messages to his workmates “to show them I’m not in the loony bin”.

Theobald is known in music circles as Mick Elborado. He has played in several bands since the early 1980s.

A picture on the blogsite of Theobald and his Mazda 626 was captioned: “Mick at grand opening of Inland Revenue’s new 24hr drive-thru in Chch.”

An Inland Revenue spokeswoman yesterday confirmed the incident and said no-one had been hurt. The damage “did not compromise activities”, she said.

She declined to comment further.

Theobald posted the letter suspending him from work, written by a human resources manager, on the internet.

“Information has come to my attention which indicates that you may have intentionally driven a vehicle through Inland Revenue’s Christchurch building,” the manager wrote.

“I am concerned that your conduct may be inconsistent with the code of conduct.”

Theobald said his actions were the culmination of a three-year employment dispute centred on “workplace bullying”.

Theobald said he believed destruction of property was a last resort after all other checks and balances had failed. “I take all responsibility for these actions. You’ve got an evangelist on your hands here,” he said.

A founding member of The Axemen, Steve McCabe, began a Facebook support group for Theobald titled “Mick Elborado is innocent”. McCabe said Theobald was innocent because he had been provoked into the act by years of bureaucratic and institutional bullying.

Reprinted from NZPA, 19 August 2009
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/mp/5836958/man-in-court-after-driving-into-ird-building/

Man in court after driving into IRD building 

NZPA, NZPA August 19, 2009, 7:26 am

Show Your support… join MICK ELBORADO IS INNOCENT now!

ask the same of anyone awake or woken up.

1: appear in court and behave

2: walk to the crime scene gathering a motley crowd of the slightly curious hoping for more action.

3: make a very short speech calling upon tony mccone senior human resources officer to resign within 24 hours if he believes the actions of ir human resources staff will not withstand the main code of conduct test of ‘the closest public scrutiny’

4: advise that because of the results of his incompetence i require payment in front of ir at this time tomorrow.

5: advise that if he does not resign and he’s found to have sanctioned any actions which arouse public disgust it’s 10 times his salary or everything he owns except his home.

6: give the commisioner of inland revenue one week to hear whether all actions can withstand public scrutiny – if not the same thing.

7: the next steps escalate to ir shifting all its banking to Kiwibankor another bank with nz ownership no matter what the cost and if they work theres leverage to change the world. You all helped!

I bet this is the first plan for world undomination transmitted by txt, facebook and hopefully youtube, if anyone films it

- let’s see anyone shut down fcbk youtube and txting in one week.

If this crazy strategy works we all work 3 day weeks and live better, all meaning NZ and the world – if it gets shut down then it was already too late, but then any opposition will be visible.

All the planets are in line and they won’t be again – forget scrabble and soaps – just for a day or so.

Huge thanks to all:

special mention to Amy, Ange, Alex, Ros, Steve, Joanne, Peter Hall-Jones, my union, and Emma Goldman.

I want you – I want you so bad

i want you – i want you so bad its driving me mad its driving me mad

40 years ago today sgt pepper took this photo on abbey road, london…. the mysterious eggman and walrus sketches have faded over the years but have been enhanced using y2k technology… you be the judge…

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“Beat It” (Jackson M.) (K Wow Loud mix)

AXEMEN recorded live on 4-track at the Star & Garter, Christchurch, New Zealand

Guy Fawkes Day 5/11/83 by Hamish Kilgour (features Steve, Bob, Mick & Stu). 06′29 dur.

Beat It (K Wow Loud mix)

[1st Verse]
They Told Him Don’t You Ever Come Around Here
Don’t Wanna See Your Face, You Better Disappear
The Fire’s In Their Eyes And Their Words Are Really Clear
So Beat It, Just Beat It

[2nd Verse]
You Better Run, You Better Do What You Can
Don’t Wanna See No Blood, Don’t Be A Macho Man
You Wanna Be Tough, Better Do What You Can
So Beat It, But You Wanna Be Bad

[Chorus]
Just Beat It, Beat It, Beat It, Beat It
No One Wants To Be Defeated
Show them How Funky Strong Is Your Fight
It Doesn’t Matter Who’s Wrong Or Right
Just Beat It, Beat It
Just Beat It, Beat It
Just Beat It, Beat It
Just Beat It, Beat It

[3rd Verse]
They’re Out To Get You, Better Leave While You Can
Don’t Wanna Be A Boy, You Wanna Be A Man
You Wanna Stay Alive, Better Do What You Can
So Beat It, Just Beat It

[4th Verse]
You Have To Show Them That You’re Really Not Scared
You’re Playin’ With Your Life, This Ain’t No Truth Or Dare
They’ll Kick You, Then They Beat You,
Then They’ll Tell You It’s Fair
So Beat It, But You Wanna Be Bad

[Chorus]
Just Beat It, Beat It, Beat It, Beat It
No One Wants To Be Defeated
Showin’ How Funky Strong Is Your Fight
It Doesn’t Matter Who’s Wrong Or Right

[Chorus]
Just Beat It, Beat It, Beat It, Beat It
No One Wants To Be Defeated
Showin’ How Funky Strong Is Your Fight
It Doesn’t Matter Who’s Wrong Or Right
Just Beat It, Beat It, Beat It, Beat It, Beat It

[Chorus]
Beat It, Beat It, Beat It, Beat It
No One Wants To Be Defeated
Showin’ How Funky Strong Is Your Fight
It Doesn’t Matter Who’s Wrong Or Right

[Chorus]
Just Beat It, Beat It, Beat It, Beat It
No One Wants To Be Defeated
Showin’ How Funky Strong Is Your Fight
It Doesn’t Matter Who’s Wrong Or Who’s Right

[Chorus]
Just Beat It, Beat It, Beat It, Beat It
No One Wants To Be Defeated
Showin’ How Funky Strong Is Your Fight
It Doesn’t Matter Who’s Wrong Or Right

[Chorus]
Just Beat It, Beat It, Beat It, Beat It
No One Wants To Be Defeated
Showin’ How Funky Strong Is Your Fight
It Doesn’t Matter Who’s Wrong Or Right
Just Beat It, Beat It
Beat It, Beat It, Beat It

wunderbar 28 july poster (Printable PDF)

Loliners

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=91638257606&h=d55fQ&u=szLNJ&ref=mf

Loliners Started 2004
Ex trash/grungeriotgrrlpunk with gats
Some history:
Lisa Preston – keyboard, drums, guitar, vocals
Bands: Portage, Nux-Vomica The Axemin, Snort, Thee Hellfire Club, The Luvin’ 44’s, The Ginger Group, The Tryhards, Loliners
Joanne Billesdon – lead and rhythm guitar & vocals
Bands: The Stepford 5, The Renderers, The Axemin, I M Force, Snort, The Hellfire Club, The Strap-ons, The Tryhards, Loliners
Sharon Warhurst – bass guitar
Bands: The Stepford 5, Snort, I M Force, Thee Hellfire Club, loliners
Russell Covyene – Drums…

100% New Zealand Music

Read More…

Reprinted from: Volcanic Tongue

TIP OF THE TONGUE 08 MARCH 2009

“…free jazz skronk…radical prole violence…”

“…punk primitive avant garde smarts…”

Axemen
Big Cheap Motel
Siltbreeze
LP
£13.99

Fantastic vinyl issue of what was originally a cassette from a group that were an anomaly even within the relatively eclectic environs of the original Flying Nun catalogue. This New Zealand group released a bunch of vinyl and cassettes, all of which took the basic Kiwi-pop blueprint and exploded it with classic UK art/damage moves, crude free jazz skronk, radical prole violence and punk primitive avant garde smarts. Big Cheap Motel was recorded live at Hagley Park Ritual and Peterboro Studios and was conceived as an anti-corporate/sexist action aimed at the sponsorship of a Christchurch Summer Rock festival by a milk company: “Stoopid Symbol Of Women Hate/The Pornographic Milk Drink”. Still, the sonics are nowhere near the kinda ‘worthy’ protest music that have sunk so many student duds, this kinda rallying owes more to the blunt, subversive style of the early Fall or the art-punk aggression of the Swell Maps/Steve Treatment cultus, referencing classic rock/roll yucks like Steve Mackay’s signature saxophone sound or the tantrums of Half Japanese while maintaining the kinda dazed topographical haze that defines alla the best NZ/FN action. This sits perfectly on the Siltbreeze label, joining the dots between early avant garage moves and the label’s own deeply-embedded crude-fi aesthetic and if you’re into classic outsider modes in the hands of musical Neanderthals but dig ’songs’ more than ‘noise’ then this is the white stuff: highly recommended.

 

 

 

Reprinted with permission of the author

This lp is an edition of 700.

All copies include an insert & most come w/stickers suitable for bodily application.

Step right up & order.

 

01_Rock_Mountain 02_Push-A-Way 03  What Is Rock? 04  Back_2_The_City 05  Man-i-mal 06_I Wanna_Rock_It 07  Rock-n-Roll_Neanderthal 08  Black_Snake 09  Heavy_Water 10  Iron_Eagle

In 1999, Marty Sauce and the Source’s principal songwriter and G.I.C.S.N. conceptual guru Davey G approached Little Stevie McCabe about doing the soundtrack arrangements for his visionary (but alas unreleased – until now!) apocalytic concept album and rock opera, tentatively entitled “This is WWIV!”* The libretto for this ethereal and ungodly masterpiece revolves around the epic journey of a young shepherd boy ‘Hombreo’  (to be played by a clean-shaven Marty Sauce) to the city after he sees a nuclear missile launch from the hills of his homeland, where he is tending his sheep. In the still of the clear Afghani night Hombreo can see its trajectory for miles with crystal clarity, and follows it with his keen shepherds night vision [his eyes being locally referred to as so-called 'sheep seeking missiles'] to its destination, where he sees an awe-inspiring and terrible sight; a huge white-orange flash followed by a billowing mushroom-shaped pillar of smoke rising in slow motion over the horizon like a startled king cobra emerging from its basket, shimmering against the rhinestoned velvet wallhanging which is the desert sky. “Red Sky at night, shepherds delight” he murmers to the assembled throng of sheep,  now huddled, shivering, at the base of his rough-hewn towelling and sackcloth candlewick bedspread. Hombreo takes off for the city and has his shepherd-boy eyes opened clockwork-orange style, real horrorshow like, by the myriad bestial and despicable sights he sees along the way, culminating in the grand finale, which takes plays in the lair of the bald, beclawed and bewildered Iron Eagle. Afight ensues ansd the inevitable happens. Hombreo at first tries to behead, then is bemused by, then finally befriends the metallic bird, and together they rule the land forever from 1000 feet below the scorched earth at ground level. * Other names shortlisted: “Apocalypse Soon”; “Nagasaki 2000″; “Boom!!!”; “Miss Afghanistan”; “Where Eagles Iron”; “It Aint Half Hot, Omam!” Post: Talc Betel Vices Emit You’re in the army, now, lad!

Thanks to our wandering AV recordist Norbert Haley, we have a 33 minute set of Eugene in full swing at the Happy Bar in Wellington last week (23/01/09), and a few snaps too.

Dr Chad live at Happy Bar Wellington (32MB mp3)

Check out 2 tracks from ‘Election’ [2008]:

Eugene Chadbourne – Your USA My Face

Eugene Chadbourne – I hate the man who runs this bar

Radio NZ interview with Chadmeister:

Radio NZ Interview 2 Feb 09 – Eva Radich / Eugene Chadbourne

At the recent MONSTER GIG at Christchurch’s glamorous crumbling Media Club, Bill Vosburgh handed Kawowski a single A4 sheet with a few paragraphs written on it all in capitals, relating to his earliest recollections of THE AXEMEN days in Christchurch (1983-1987).

Luckily he stuck around and performed an incendiary blues rock set that night, as well as jamming with Steve, Stu & Helm at 4am New Year’s Day out at South Brighton, and also playing a few songs on various acoustic guitars on subsequent visits to Kawowski’s seaside hideaway.

I REMEMBER WATCHING THE AXEMEN PLAY AT THE GLADSTONE AND THE FIRST 45 MINS CONSISTED OF STEVE FIDDLING AD INFINITUM WITH HIS ‘PAUL BUNYAN MACHINE’. AN ENTHUSIASTIC AMATEUR ELECTRICIAN, STEVE HAD SOMEHOW ATTACHED A FUZZ-BOX AND IT TOOK HIM THAT LONG TO FIX IT WHILE BOB AND STU MANFULLY IMPROVISED IN THE BACKGROUND.

AFTER A WHILE, THEY TRANSCENDED THE COMICAL AND THE PIECE BECAME A SURREAL EPISODE OF PERFORMANCE ART.

**********************************

AS I RECALL, THE AXEMEN WERE INCREDIBLY PROLIFIC, AND THEIR RECORDINGS, WHICH WERE PRIMITIVE TECHNICALLY IN THE EARLY STAGES, CAME THICK AND FAST. THEY GOT SOME LIMITED SUPPORT FROM RADIO U.

STU KAWOWSKI WAS AND IS A MARKETING GENIUS AND PRODUCED NOT JUST T-SHIRTS, BUT TROUSERS, STICKERS ETC, AND PRODUCED A MURAL THAT STOOD PROUDLY IN CHRISTCHURCH FOR OVER 10 YEARS, AS WELL AS MANY OTHERS THAT DIDN’T LAST SO LONG.

ALL IN ALL I WOULD HAVE TO SAY THAT THE AXEMEN ARE ONE OF THE LOOPIEST AND MOST ORIGINAL BANDS I’VE EVER SEEN AND I’M GLAD THEY’RE BACK ON THE ROAD.

A NOTE ABOUT STEVE’S COFFEE WINE: STEVE MADE THIS COFFEE WINE AND THEN DISTILLED IT – STRANGEST ALCOHOL I EVER TRIED. IT WAS MORE LIKE A BARB, AND I RECALL WALKING ACROSS THE SQUARE AFTER A COUPLE OF SHOTS AND HAVING TUNNEL VISION!

-Bill Vosburgh Dec 2008

Source: http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608002702/Eugene-Chadbourne.html

JANUARY 22 – 30, 2009

Jan 22 – Wellington – Happy, with Sign of the Hag, Manimanima and Basketcase

Jan 23 – Wellington – Happy, with the Bad Blues Band and others

Jan 24 – Christchurch – the Wunderbar

Jan 25 – Dunedin, Chicks Hotel Port Chalmers, with Greg Malcolm

Jan 29 – Auckland – the Whammy Bar [BREAKING NEWS: AXEMEN TO SUPPORT]

Jan 30 – Auckland – the Wine Cellar

An innovative guitarist and a true maverick of modern American music, Eugene Chadbourne has spent his career both undermining and energizing the contemporary rock scene, ignoring all of the barriers traditionally placed between folk, blues, country, jazz, and rock. In addition to working within these Western formats, he feels just as comfortable exploring the sounds of various other cultures, often incorporating Asian and Middle Eastern styles and instrumentation into his creations. Likewise, his trademark electric rake–a lawn rake fitted with a pickup–further demonstrates the musician’s knack for discovering new sound possibilities. “One of the things I liked about the music in the ’60s was how weird it got and how many sound effects were on the records,” Chadbourne told Los Angeles Times writer Josef Woodard. “I really missed that when we started weeding that out of rock.”

Because of his penchant for combining various forms, as well as inventing his own sound devices, critics find it difficult to place Chadbourne and his growing discography neatly within the scheme of American music. “He is many things at once: a hillbilly improviser, a self-made raconteur, a pop gemologist and a new music eclectic who mixes up jazz, folk, noise and neo-vaudeville,” noted Woodard. Nonetheless, the frizzy-haired Chadbourne has remained one of the underground community’s most famous and well-regarded eccentrics since the mid-1970s. In the 1990s, he found a wider audience surprisingly more receptive to his music than in the past, and enjoyed growing success. A man of self-reliance, Chadbourne regularly performs in odd places, such as record and book stores, as well as in smaller clubs and fringe music festivals. With no set lists, anything is liable to happen at a Eugene Chadbourne gig.

Chadbourne, born on January 4, 1954, in Mount Vernon, New York, grew up in the cultural hotbed of Boulder, Colorado. As an adult, he made his home base in the community of Greensboro, North Carolina, where he lives with his family. Raised by his mother, a refugee from the Nazis, Chadbourne took up the guitar at age 11 after watching the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. In high school, Chadbourne played covers of Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix with various bands. Hendrix, in particular, became an important influence, prompting him to begin experimenting with distortion pedals and fuzzboxes, as did protest singer Phil Ochs, an early rival to Dylan. However, Chadbourne soon grew tired of the conventions of rock and pop. Thus, he traded in his electric guitar for a Harmony six-string acoustic and learned to play bottleneck blues.

Jazz, too, served as an important formative discovery. First came exposure to John Coltrane and Roland Kirk, whose music puzzled him initially. Before long, however, Chadbourne found himself hooked on the whole catalog of the 1960s black jazz revolution. Some of his favorites included Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Pharoah Sanders, and Ornette Coleman, as well as England’s free improviser, Derek Bailey.

After recording his debut, Chadbourne delved further into more experimental music, building connections in New York’s “loft scene” of avant-garde artists throughout the 1970s. In 1977, he played on Frank Lowe’s Lowe & Behold alongside Billy Bang. Also during these years, John Zorn and Chadbourne, along with cellist Tom Cora, made notorious ventures into the Midwest with improvised country and western implosions.

Although Chadbourne became a leading figure on the improv scene, he returned to his initial interest in the folk tradition as well, taking a stand against corporate America and worldwide militarization and industrialization. He would often forsake his instrumental abilities in favor of a hard-hitting approach, living up to his personal vision of rock as a revolutionary form of expression. Through his myriad influences, Chadbourne soon carved out his own unique style, one comprised of protest music, free jazz, and noise experiments.

Throughout the following decade, he continued to collaborate with a variety of artists and explore various musical genres, releasing countless records with other musicians and a lengthy string of solo albums, most on his own Parachute label. One of his most recognized genre-bending projects included 1980’s There’ll Be No More Tears Tonight, a reunion with Zorn, which was an album Chadbourne self-styled as “Free Improvised Country and Western Be-Bop,” as quoted by Robert Murray in Rock: The Rough Guide. During the early part of the decade, Chadbourne also garnered some mainstream attention for his work as the frontman of Shockabilly, a rockabilly/revisionist outfit that also featured well-known producer and power grunge guru Mark Kramer. With Shockabilly, the East Coast reply to the Residents, Chadbourne tapped into the energy of rock music’s folk roots and made rock covers into noise rides.

After the group disbanded, Chadbourne released the folk/country album LSD C&W in 1987. That same year, he joined the band Camper Van Beethoven for a cover project. He has also recorded with musicians ranging from Fred Firth and Elliott Sharp to Evan Johns and ex-Mothers of Invention drummer Jimmy Carl Black, with whom he virtually rewrote the songs of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart. Additionally, the guitarist is credited with giving greater musical validity to 1960s psychedelic bands through his deconstructed covers of songs by Tim Buckley, Love, Pink Floyd, and others.

While Chadbourne himself says he would like to be remembered as the inventor of the electric rake and the dogskull harmonica, his noisy guitar, intelligent songwriting, and left-wing political stance have made him a somewhat unexpected cult hero. However, as Murray pointed out, “Chadbourne is most compelling as a live performer, switching at ease from electric guitar to banjo, zipping through a tune that sounds totally improvised and yet recalls something buried in the collective folk memory, like a punk Burl Ives, whipping off his spectacles to scrape them down the fretboard, adding another dimension to his wonderfully pixilated sound.”

Dragan Stojanovic, THE Dragan Stojanovic, is and will always be one of my very best friends but, as is the case with Bob Brannigan, I will always hate him for being a greater songwriter, in quality rather than quantity, and with the emphasis being on the songs polishedness and finishedness rather than the raw performancednedness which i try to embue into gigs and performances/recordings, to greater or lesser effect.

that is my gift, they have their own we are all our own magii and will face our own consequences come the time…

no matter, let us on with the show.
Jelly Roll (video)

This song made me weep when i first saw it, cry when i saw it for the second time, laugh on the third playing and hit out on the fourth – all for the same reason – jealousy that my buddy could write and record such a great song…!!!!

Grrr

well as it happens i can accept that and is truly such a great song there’s nothing i ca do to diss itt!

Dragan’s screeching guitar solo in the lower third is page-esque in its extrvagence, vai-anesque in its pitchetudisness (a plentitude of perhaps but not necessarilyy dissonant notes) , king-ish in its subtlety of tone where required, yet still screamingly hendrix-ish where it really matters.

Wow i can’t believe pitchetudisness  made it thru the spellcheck ….

the video version is superior to the audio track though if u ask me..l.

bastard

SHOCKING, REF!

Its not me
this is the epitomy of 70’s – nostalgic 80’s progressive playing, Mr Stojanovic fullfiiling the roles effortlessly of Carlos Alomar , Mic Ronson and Carlos Santana on the one song, seemingly without breaking a sweat. the voice , although suitably strained and therefore expressive, is passionate but could be improved a little with some projection (sonja please quit smoking and work your magic!) , but hey what would I know?
These Days

“You must know by now, we have nothing in common”

obviously written by a female, in fact by Dragans delectable sister Sonja, currently residing in an iron lung and not able to sing anything higher than a low ‘F’ because of her riddled smoke-infested (but still somehow ‘perky’) lungs

This song exhibits the jugoslavian gypsy themes of the stojanovics youth, before the cruel war which tore apart their villages and pitted brother against sister in an unjust war which brought about a great drought in songs, which had to be smuggled out in the heads or scraps of paper which allah could provide.

Smoking would indeed become an unavoidable theme in the Stojanovic’s life, with Sonja’s job at the cigarillo factory providing the staple income for the family (and de riguer entertainment for the troops and smugglers), but the price paid on her voice meaning she could not possibly sing the high parts of this song are a little sad when we consider what might have been…. but what could also be!!!

c’m on now sonja shake that whale!

Dyke Parties

This could be a great song simply for having the line “Memberess Members”  in it even if it weren’t refrained proliferously in the chorus… simply magic, effaces the dyke sensitivity-ness of the time and the staunch wellington feeling, that sympathetic yet hard-assed male immigrant attitude to a smallish but seemingly openly unprotected group of people in similar circumstances as regards protection under the law of the land.

Dyke Parties sums up the times and the world is the better for it, it probably played a large part in getting Helen Clark elected in NZ too.