OK, so I have a gap when it comes to music from New Zealand. I know Flying Nun a bit, the Clean, the Dunedin sound. I think I owned a Chris Knox tribute CD long before I had a clue who he was. I am by no means an expert, or even possess intermediate knowledge. Hell, I have Music of New Zealand open on Wikipedia as I write this, just to have a point of reference. Like, I just learned that "How Bizarre" by OMC, a record I've never owned but whose black and white and red cover is burned into my brain by a million dollar bin encounters, is the best-selling New Zealand pop song of all time.
I'm guessing that was the whole point of the Phase Five series, a government-funded collection that ran 12 volumes from 2007 to 2009. This first one was a penny snag on eBay for me several months ago, but I think it fell behind a sofa cushion or something, b/c I only turned it back up this week. The Mint Chicks and the Phoenix Foundation are the big hitters here; both bands are the types of which I would have happily seen time and time again during tihs period. That's not to say that the other artists here are slouches. Pluto, Gasoline Cowboy, and Dimmer don't have great names, but I found their sampling of songs to be perfectly cromulent. Two songs each; if you get the CD, there's videos available also. It's a fitting relic of a pre-YouTube world, and a great use of national cultural funds.
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