The Musicians

Blackie - Guitar  •  Ray Ahn - Bass  •  Joel Ellis - Drums

Recording Details

Produced by Mark Thomas and Nunchukka Superfly  •  Engineered by Mark Thomas  •  Recorded at Festival Studios  •  Vocals recorded at Big Jesus Burger Studios  •  Engineered by Chris Townend

Press Release

By the time the Hard-Ons called it a day in 1994 they had taken their energised pop to the ninth degree and beyond. The dimensions of the band had begun dictating the music that could be created.

Blackie, guitarist and musical powerhouse, was hungry for a fresh musical challenge. The band's hard hitting but virtually ignored final album, Too Far Gone, was a reasonable outline of his ambitions. He had a great force of nature beast of a band in mind that, like The Stooges and The Birthday Party, merges rock 'n' roll's primal and primary basics with something unconsciously twisted both musically and thematically.

The third lineup of Nunchukka Superfly, which is rounded out by bassist and brother Hard-On Ray Ahn and drummer Joel Ellis, has finally put flesh on the bones of what has been screaming in Blackie's head and in his bedroom for the last few years.

At its absolute core it's punk rock but not like anything you've ever heard in this lifetime. Even the Ramones wouldn't know what the hell it was though former Dead Kennedy and musical outlaw, Jello Biafra would probably love it. It's from a dark place where everyone plays like virtuoso madmen and love Captain Beefheart as much as Black Sabbath. If Primus loved Black Flag they might, just might sound something like what Nunchukka are clawing at. Or maybe if the Jesus Lizard were deprived of sleep for a week ...

"I'm almost a slave to the stuff that we come up with" says Blackie, who also handles vocals. "Whatever comes I accept gratefully. I just want to be interesting. I don't want to be straight down the line. I don't want to be meat and potatoes. I don't want to be Oz rock. I don't want to be anything like that. I want to make interesting music."

"The stuff that's been moving me is more like Zorn and other sort of jazz artists that I never really paid attention to before. Also I've been rediscovering some great bands like King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, The Birthday Party, Wire, Public Image, Chrome's first two albums and heaps of Krautrock which I love a lot."

The first recordings of the outfit are bound to drop jaws thought to be wired shut and relocate internal organs at the same time. The time in the studio certainly had that effect on Blackie.

"A couple of times I felt really overwhelmed by what we were doing. I really enjoy that feeling."

Could there possibly be a better musical bottom line?