If This Is Paradise, I'll Take The Bag
10.08.09
Today we're going back in time to the 80's to a Auckland band whose debut album has just been remastered and re-released.
Record of the day: Screaming MeeMees - If This Is Paradise, I'll Take The Bag (Remastered And Extended)
"Between 1980 and 1982 The Screaming Meemees were far and away New Zealand's biggest independent (it was called indie pop then but that pop tag means something quite different now) band, and, with DD Smash, one of the two biggest live acts in the country. But the Meemees were far more than an indie pop act. They were at the same time extraordinarily innovative, and commercially successful, in a way that no longer seems possible." Simon Grigg
"Existing from 1980 to 1982, the Screaming Meemees were probably New Zealand's biggest pop band of the post-punk and new wave era. The quartet of Tony Drumm, Yoh, Peter van der Fluit, and Michael O'Neill initially dealt in the three-chord power pop derivative of the Buzzcocks.
If This Is Paradise, I'll take the Bag was recorded in 1981 with producer Ian Morris and boasted a eclectic range of influences in the mix of power pop, electro, dub, and funk -- styles not usually associated with New Zealand rock sound.
Their work for the album brought the Screaming Meemees closer to what U.K. groups A Certain Ratio and Rip Rig and Panic were up to.
The Screaming Meemees were as essential to the history of New Zealand rock as Split Enz and Blam Blam Blam." Skip Jansen, All Music Guide
If This is Paradise.....I'll take the Bag has been remastered and extended for your enjoyment.
For more on the Screaming MeeMees check out Simon Grigg's informative write up about the band on his site.
Enjoy
Ed
