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Clowndog Articles
New Zealand Musician, interviewed by Jennifer Scott
With sausage throwing, a drummer called Idiot Pants and songs such as Amway Changed My Life, the last thing you can say about Clowndog is that they take themselves too seriously.
They recently released their first "real" album, 'The Cantankerous Mainstream', distributed through Global Routes. Blending snarling grunge-tinged rock with cheeky social satire, the CD was produced from the spoils of the last year's rdu Not So Young Entertainers' competition, which they won.
Spanky (vocals/guitar), Idiot Pants (drums, & kitchen sink!) and Sherbert (bass), formed Clowndog in Nelson in 1996.
"We started out as a very bad fast grunge band," says Spanky. "We liked to think of ourselves as Nirvana meets NOFX but the truth was that we were just not very good. We had whiny, nasal vocals that were mistaken for being alternative and bad guitar tones that we mistook for being lo-fi and extreme - but we were only 16 at the time."
Since moving to Christchurch in 1999, Clowndog have refined their sound and developed a strong live following. Their demo album, 'Mystery Meat' secured b-net airplay and the song Mates With Marxist was included on the 'Bride of Brat' compilation.
While their sense of humour is always near the surface, it's not all sausage throwing and quips: "We try to make our music and the experience of our band good, that's the main thing. The funny things are the minority ...well, sometimes the minority."
Following the 'Bride of Brat' release they embarked on a national tour and have also toured with Auckland bands Kitsch and Sommerset and plan to be back on the road supporting 'The Cantankerous Mainstream' in coming months.
But of course the most crucial Clowndog question has to be, what sausages are the best for throwing? Spanky spills: "I prefer crumbed sausages, while Pants is into the mint and lamb ones. Saveloys are good for variation while Sizzlers are always on hand at the last minute from a service station, if you're willing to pay through the nose for them.
"I got frisked for sausages before we went on stage to open for Bic Runga, and when we threw them in a vegetarian restaurant the owners got angry so the next time we had to throw vegetarian sausages. We've also thrown a No 8 chicken, but it turned out to be a bad idea. It got thrown back at us by a testosterone ridden teenager and knocked my guitar head off my quad box."
www.Punkas.com
The three-piece Clowndog were formed away back in 1996 as a Nelson high school grunge band. Since then, they have evolved into one of the foremost punk bands on the Christchurch scene. Their latest album, "Mystery Meat" has seen them get a high level of student radio play across the country.
Clowndog's first appearance on a recording was with a song called Cheese Obsession on a Nelson compilation called, "The Hairy Armpit Sessions". They followed this with their debut album, the 12-song "Who's Eating The Dead Fish?", which the band released themselves in a cassette-only run.
The band continued on in Nelson, winning the regional Smokefree Rockquest, and opening (bizarrely) for the likes of Bic Runga, Salmonella Dub and Breathe. Clowndog also released a double EP, where one side was their usual brand of grungy punk, and the other were all "unplugged songs". This EP was released under the name of "Soggy/Saggy".
Clowndog has since moved to Christchurch, where they have firmly established themselves as one of the top bands in the scene, producing noisy punk with a broad streak of humour and a refreshing lack of pretension.