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WANGO BANGO

by Not The Merkins

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1.
Hands On Me 05:05
let me tell you a story you don't really want to know these prison walls are cold & grey it's to the hangman i must go i curse this day, i curse this age i curse this very century darkness creeping everywhere now it's got its hands on me i met a man, i loved his wife i killed that man, i took his life i was quick, i left that town but the lawman came & tracked me down i rode that mare through sleet & mud now i'll pay with my blood i was once young & free now the law's got its hands on me i guess there must be a moon outside shining down on good folk's fears but i don't need it anymore i say goodbye to bad ideas somewhere outside this prison cell i hear a strange melody i never heard before now it's got its hands on me
2.
(instrumental)
3.
Premonition 03:49
living in the sun, smell & you will find two legs in front & two behind breathing through the nose it’s just a crust of bread you’re crawling over a perfect evening that’s grey & green (the colour of gloat) it knows it is so fabulous, it looks like a boat i want to get in i want to get in the waiters watch the boulevard from every window ledge of the hotel cos men cost money now in her prime she wanders by a hooded sack, a chin & nose head bowed & hobbling to wherever it is she goes after curfew on the steps to the underground the new sub-human choir so cool they’re animals how fascinating i want to get in standing on the corner at the station five buskers singing like angels & i want to…
4.
Hone Heke 02:24
(instrumental)
5.
in these fields one hundred days walking the death walk waiting for those eyes of blue & if they were green they would do & if they were red they would do & if they were grey they will do & if they are blue i will never miss you a thousand white folks' pity hanging in trees yellow flowers cover me & hide me in your cellar dress me in your colours take away their guns so they're not pointing at me curse the dogs that come around you call this winning? shattered sons, who will bury you? & if they were green they would do & if they were red they would do & if they were grey they will do & if they are blue i will never miss you
6.
Rosie's Song 01:55
in rosie’s song the shutter clicks as least i think it does the words were so like cleverese someone had to dumb them up e.g. like a bird of the air a flower in a field if she were dressed like one of these or she must have died when she was young now she’s just a memory now who can tell where rosie’s gone? she was here, then she left you never know there maybe a method to her madness yet

about

Review by Grant Smithies in Sunday Star Times 27 Nov 2011 CD Of The Week (four stars) reads:

Feisty Mongrel Has Rough Charm

This band has three main things going for it. One: Like The Ramones, all members have adopted the same surname – "Merkin", an Olde-English term for a pubic wig. Two: They live in Nelson like me, and can therefore expect a generous review so they don't thump me in the street. And three: Their press release is not only terrible but deliberately terrible, full of bogus quotes and claims that their sound is a distillation of "cowboy music, 21st century Caspian fishing shanties, proto-surf and civil war children's verse".
Singer/guitarist Terry Merkin furtively inserted the CD into my letterbox one night with a note promising "a lifetime supply of pear wine" if I bothered to listen to it, so I did. I was delighted to discover this six-song "mini album" is a ripper, brimming with unpolished garage rock/surf-punk energy – a feisty musical mongrel with the rough charm, suspect parentage and ripe aroma of a stray pooch rescued from the SPCA. Album highlight "Premonition" sounds like Tom Waits with a migraine, with a malevolent Bad Seeds chiming in on the choruses. This, of course, is a very good thing, which is more than can be said for that pear wine.

The following is the letter Laughing Cloud Records wrote to the Sunday Star Times in the hope of getting the Merkins' album WANGO BANGO reviewed:

Dear Grant,

the recently released smoke-signal-only mini album ”Wango Bango” from Nelson band The Merkins, that is: Terry Merkin, his father Leon, half brother & uncle Oliver, plus neighbour Rick Merkin (no relation), & not to be confused with the bona fide, original Merkins out of Illinois USA, fuses elements of Cowboy, 21st century Caspian fishing shanty, proto-Surf, Punk & civil war children’s verse.
Recorded at Mohawk Cars New & Used, the six songs of ”Wango Bango” reek of a garage heroism, a half-borrowed incantationism aboard a visigothic influx of fossilised pear wine. Influenced by prog-cajun paranoia, the symbolism of symbols & their own practice sessions, The Merkins blithely refuse to pigeonhole their music, asserting instead that “We know what we is. We jus dunno what we aint.”
Playing ‘live’ The Merkins descend ghost-like within the preordained cracks littering respectable riot-free suburban concrete porches everywhere to mine a molten hoodwinking of future regret, a seismic stubble; the incestuous rhythms & cathartic membranous screams of unsquashable magic.
Says singer & guitarist Terry: “The wild persiflagious merkinisms attendant to the private foot-rubbings of teenage bravettes represent a mundane glory, a semi-disassociation of lyricity steeped in itself, a truly false leonine wholistic armed with the epic minutiae of a global demo, a cicada-like sense of self importance before ever-approaching headlights.”
Adds bassist Oliver: “Like when you repeat a word over & over, it loses its meaning & just becomes funny-sounding.”
The rest of the band are mute.
A history of The Merkins’ inception can be found in Terry ‘Two Fingers’ – an ebook by TJ Monkley available free at laughingcloudrecords.co.nz
I would appreciate any feedback you can give me regarding “Wango Bango” as we at Laughing Cloud Records, having forked out for the recording, are now confused by the band’s seeming lack of commitment to sound marketing principles.
On a personal note, I was truly sad to discover a few months ago that you are no longer writing the music reviews for the Sunday Star Times exactly as before. Your majestic whole page reviews made my Sunday. Nevertheless, if you could see your way to the wangling of a halfway decent review for the above mini album (regardless of its worth), I can assure you I am in a position to have delivered to you a lifetime’s supply of pear wine which, although undrinkable, is perfectly serviceable as a fuel for your lawnmower.

Yours sincerely etc etc

credits

released July 22, 2011

All songs TJ Heraud except "Hands On Me" (Heraud/Kerr) & "Whistling Days" (Heraud/Kerr/Flower)

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Not The Merkins New Zealand

Not The Merkins are Rewi McLay (slide, el. guitar, vocals), Dorland Bray (el. guitar, banjo, vocals), Joss Colling (bass, vocals),Tim Heraud (vocals, ac. guitar), & Kerry Fraser (drums, vocals).
The Merkins, on the other hand, are as much not Not The Merkins as Not The Merkins are not The Merkins, except for an FX box, a couple of leads & (well ok) maybe a singer they share in common.
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