Guardian Singles 2 Items

Guardian Singles hail from Auckland, New Zealand, home to (among many things) storied label Flying Nun and just about every great indie band of the last century. After seeing the band's livestream from Auckland for Gonerfest 17 in fall of 2020, Trouble In Mind is honored to welcome the band to the roster and reissue their excellent 2020 self-titled album outside of New Zealand for the first time. Formed in 2015, by Thom Burton on guitar (SoccerPractise, Moppy)and Fiona Campbell on drums (Vivian Girls, Coolies), the band hit the ground running, supporting touring bands in New Zealand like Metz, slots on the Chronophonium festival and tours in Australia. The band had recorded what would become their debut album in early 2018, simply as Campbell puts it "We just wanted good versions of the songs in our live set we were playing at the time." The addition of Yolanda Fagan on bass (Na Noise, Echo Ohs) and Durham Fenwick on lead guitar (Green Grove) solidified the current lineup in late-2018, and Auckland label Moral Support released it in a micro-edition of 150 copies in the spring of 2020. The debut album packs a wallop; driving guitar lines dance across the rhythm sections propulsive throb hearkening back to greats like Mission of Burma, The Wipers and The Sound. Opener "Tea Lights Exploding" does just that, with an instantly memorable hook and sticky guitar line written as Burton explains as "a sort of "Fuck you" to a certain kind of pervasive rape culture and culturally lobotomized idea of masculinity that I was seeing too much of ", followed by the moody "Being Alone". "Roll Undead" is next, with its persistent shuffle springing forth over a synth-siren before breaking open into an anthemic howl of a chorus. Side one closes with the crunchy stutter-step of "Never Gonna See The RainAgain". Side two doesn't let up, with aptly-titled opener "Can't Stop Moving"s ragged guitar sting hanging in the air before the band launches in with Campbell's drums skipping underneath like an arrhythmic heartbeat. Their vital cover of The Sound's "Heartbeat" (from 1980's "Jeopardy") is next, injecting a nouveau sense of modern urgency into Adrian Borland's post-punk rager. "Gold Plated Cars"s razor-wire sway comes next, with Burton & Fenwick's guitar squall waltzing over a robust bassline. Album closer "Midnight Swim" is the album's moody anthem, ratcheting up tension the old-fashioned way balancing jangle and drone with one guitar 's persistent strum and the other 's strategic punches, all while the rhythm section holds down a steady forward motion. "Guardian Singles" is a vital document of a band breaking out of the chrysalis near-fully formed; melodic, urgent and on the verge of greatness. Look for more from the band soon as they head into the studio in 2021 to record the follow-up.

Auckland, New Zealand post-punk group Guardian Singles return to Trouble In Mind for their follow-up to 2021's debut with "Feed Me To The Doves", a ten-track socio-political burner addressing our collective spiritual chaos that pulls influence from across the history of punk & permeates it into something decidedly Aotearoan & uniquely their own in ways that are both personal & universal. "Feed Me To The Doves" is the first album to feature the current, long-standing lineup of Thom Burton (guitar, vocals), Fiona Campbell (drums), Yolanda Fagan (bass), and Durham Fenwick (lead guitar). The band has been playing live together now for a few years & it shows. The songs herein vary from the deeply personal, to sketches or postcards, as Burton says "_scribbled while watching the dregs of a delirious culture war play out through broken smartphones and praline vape clouds." Expertly recorded at Neil Finn's Roundhead Studios in Auckland by engineer Steven Marr, who Burton says had a "great sense of being able to keep the urgency of the songs while adding lushness and keeping things sounding like they're about to break at any second". Marr helped turn the album's scrappy beginnings into something more cohesive and beautiful.