Surf City: Dickshakers Union

Posted by Charles Stepczyk on Nov 19, 2008 in IR: Daily Dose | 30490 commentsSurf+City%3A+Dickshakers+Union2008-11-19+08%3A00%3A10Charles+Stepczyk

New Zealand group Surf City first came in to existence when bored friends Davin Stoddard and Josh Kennedy met at a party in Mt Roskill in 2004. Tired of the heavy avant-garde music that was prolific at the time Stoddard and Kennedy teamed up with Josh’s brother Jamie and Logan Collins to form the band. Originally called The Fibs and then Kill Surf City their fascination with fast guitar pop and the early ’80s sound of Dunedin soon saw them develop their own unique and catchy sound.

Known as Kill Surf City for the last 3 years they recently shortened their name to just Surf City. As the name is a throw back to an old Jesus and Mary Chain B-side a couple of other bands in America and the UK had adopted the same alias. With the likelihood of overseas travel in the future and to avoid subsequent confusion the name was changed.

Following a couple of tours of New Zealand, numerous day jobs and several flat evictions, Surf City released their debut self titled EP on Arch Hill Recordings on August 6th. The majority of the six song EP was recorded in 2006 in various lounges and bedrooms around Auckland. After the mixes were finalized by Murray Fisher, Davin hunted out infamous American artist Steve Keene to produce the EP’s artwork. Keene has created paintings for bands like the Silver Jews and Pavement and was more than happy to design for Surf City. With the direction of ‘chickens, guns and the desert’ Keene has created a perfectly colourful haphazard scene. [bio]

[audio:https://insomniaradio.net/audio/dailydose/irdd-surfcity-dickshakersunion.mp3]