Hibernation, putting your feet up, downtime, breather....Whatever you want to call it , you may well say that about Pine for the last 12 months. But as it turns out they've actually been pretty damn busy under the radar touring the country playing in peoples lounges from Kumeu to Oamaru filming it all on 16mm film and recording their brand new EP 12 Hour Collision for release on 14th of May. Well it's actually more a mini album with 7 new tracks, 2 live recordings and 2 live videos from the house tour. They're also going the full hog releasing a limited edition 12" vinyl to foil the ipod hacks out there.
12 Hour Collision was recorded at the new Pine space (nestled literally in the port of Lyttelton...we're talking cruise liners 100 metres away). A combined effort with Brendon Davies Patrick producing the EP (they've never had one of those before!) and Dale Cotton (HDU, Conray, Subliminals) is on mixing and mastering duties again from his pimp Dunedin Attic giving more time for Aaron, Hannah and Stephen to concentrate on the songs instead of the mic cables.
The house tour came about as a conscious departure from the traditional venue, poster, flyer, radio ad, wait for the punter game it's so easy to get into. "We decided to play at friends houses throughout the country and become the personal guests to an invited few. It meant more intimate, relaxed performances from us and the feeling of always playing among friends in a personal setting of a lounge, a kitchen or a backyard. It's a way of framing the traditional live setting into a totally different location and the results were... a lot more enjoyable! "
As well as making audio recordings of each event ( you can hear two of these on the EP) Pine also brought cinematographer John Christoffels along to each show, armed wth his 16mm film camera and bolex, he documented each gig and 2 of the bands favourites ended up as clips on the EP.
And the Pine live sound has evolved into a sort of loud, quiet, whisper, shout set with half on the snare and brushes and then the guitars get turned up and the kick drums and hi-hats dusted off for a sonically louder trio to end things off.
The first single Hosanna has been employed on afternoon rotate on the bnet and kiwi for the tail end of summer. Lo fi pop at it's best... catchy as chicken pox, punky and sweet - Hosanna will have you reaching for your stirrups in no time. There's a new single due for May once we stop arguing about which song gets to the chorus in the quickest time.
With gigs this year with The Lemonheads, David Kilgour and SJD so far Pine are heading out for some limited shows in Auckland, Welington and Christchurch in May.
A Bit Of History
Pine will already be known to many New Zealanders through their first EP Speeding(2001) and debut album Longplayer (2002). These yielded the singles (and some videos) for Speeding, Make Way for the King, Beaten Again, Cried All Night and Days on End, all of which received considerable airing on B-net and ChannelZ radio, as well as C4 and Juice TV. Many favorable reviews were written on these releases and the band toured up and down the country sometimes in small bright orange 1970s ford escort. In the northern summer of 2003 Pine headed to London and New York to play five shows including Summerstage in Central Park and the infamous CBGBs.
So the new coketunes has been launched - great you cry seeing as itunes isn't here yet...downloads for everyone.... but alas the dumbasses have designed a system that isn't supported by macs. disappointed.
New single out today from Pine (1/5/02) just in time for nz music month. It's called "Beaten Again" and comes from the debut album due out in June....that one's called "LongPlayer" out through Arch Hill and FMR Records.
Also just found out that the nice fellas from nz on air have given a grant for a video for Beaten Again so they're aiming to get a superfast video done before the end of the month!...anyone got any ideas?
Saw these guys live a while back, great to watch but what's up with the american accent from the singer?
nah...pacifier is the new name...straight from an official warners press release, just read it over at bands.co.nz this morning...I like it
re arch hill compilation review in the the news...pine sounding like oasis? how do you work that one out?
yeah... Debut Pine Album is nearly there....13 songs have just been finished with Nick Abbott in Auckland this weekend and there'll be 1 or 2 singles (and a vid)out before the album and national tour before the end of may
oh i doubt that. paint by numbers is more his thing