The Mint Chicks - F**kThe Golden Youth

Fri 22nd Apr, 2005 in Music Reviews

Is it 1983 all over again? I’m not talking bad perms – I’m talking about the glory days of one of the worlds greatest indie labels – Flying Nun Records. This gem of a label, tucked away under the armpit of New Zealand’s South Island, produced a flurry of legendary bands such as The Chills, The Verlaines, Tall Dwarfs and The Gordons. Early Flying Nun releases had a distinctive sound, which was only partly thanks to rough recording techniques. This “sound” was typically marked by the use of droning or jangling guitars, indistinct vocals and often copious quantities of reverberation. Punk amateurism was a big influence, but the bands tended to lack punk aggression, and favour, at least in theory, a more pop approach.

So now we have The Mint Chicks releasing a flash back to that era on the celebrated label. F**k The Golden Youth was recorded, mixed and mastered in absolute seclusion by brothers Kody and Ruban Nielson in an abandoned shed on a Northland, NZ beach capturing that muffled unpolished sound redolent of the halcyon days at Flying Nun. But with a difference. This album packs an angry punch.

Musically, F**k The Golden Youth offers an eccentric array of post-punk power-pop. Opener Fat Gut Strut is a little miracle of a three-chord jangle, with reverse-gated electric guitars under its verses and sharp staccato chorus. It’s a simple, silly song about, er, obnoxious plus size people – as if we’ve all heard it in our heads before, but it took Kody and Ruban to pull it, fully formed, from the “Mysterious Dimension of Songs Just Waiting To Be Written”. You’ll notice the same phenomenon at work elsewhere on the album; Licking Letters, I Don’t Want To Grow Old and You’re Bored Because You’re Boring all seem to be anchored in an intangible collective experience, though F**k The Golden Youth remains the front-runner in the catchy-chorus stakes.

Check out Silver Homeless Man to hear the fruits of the sonic tinkering: they stretch riffs into squelchy synth beds and hack distorted chords into syncopated bowstring swipes; add Kody’s most strident and confident vocal performance, and create a sort of post-punk guitar waltz-anthem. If you prefer The Mint Chicks in experimental mode, stick around for Nothing Is A Switch with its less structured explorations, psychedelia and punk-o screams.

The Mint Chicks are more daring than their stable mates [such as The D4 and The Shocking Pinks] when it comes to pushing the creative envelope, especially where vocals are concerned. Kody’s layered harmonies add body to the otherwise under-formed although, at one point, an overkill of sound effects stretches that edge a little too far for comfort, thrusting the album briefly into horror-movie territory.

F**k The Golden Youth is a timeless album of 1-3 minute tracks that scream out “intelligent artistes need only apply”. The Mint Chicks are an offensive band infamous for their raucous on-stage antics and abusive off-stage ones. And for that reason alone the band has received recognition. But musically, I believe, The Mint Chicks are, and will continue to be, an underrated band. But, like many bands in this league, will be revered in retrospect. Get your hands on this album now and any other pretty gems released on vinyl.