Tuesday, 2 January 2007

Shakes and the Swell Guys


Saw these Dunedin musicians on Youtube a few months back .. and absolutely loved their sound, great that Dunedin has such a rich surf culture in music and of course the arts.



Chris "Shakes" Prendergast (guitar, vocals), Anthony Pavlic (twangy guitar), Tony Ryder (Bass), Ian Henderson (drums)

About Shakes & The Swell Guys
The musical phenomena known as Shakes began in the late 1970’s when the Dunedin Sound was first being conceived. Sacked as bass-player in The Enemy for wearing white freezing works gumboots on stage (the legend) or leaving The Enemy because he thought he was a surfer rather than a punk (the truth), Shakes then formed the unforgettable snot-rock band The Terls. And in the process confirmed he was a surf-punk. Shakes has never stopped playing since then - bands like Tomorrow's Parties (in Auckland) Rhythm Cocktail, Tuatara, and then in Stingray, a 3 piece party band which recorded the long overdue Shakes album, released in 2004. By which time 3 new musicians (the current line-up) were backing Shakes. All the new band surf. Except Anthony, the smooth foreign lead guitarist who was brought up in the Canadian prairies, several days travel from the nearest beach. But he plays the twangiest surf guitar this side of Redondo Beach and was initiated with a ritual near-drowing surf experience in the Catlins so he’s counted as an honorary surfer now. The band’s spiritual home (apart for the beaches of Dunedin) is the South Coast Board Riders Clubrooms at St Clair, where they always reckon they play best to their home crowd. The new line-up has toured extensively – Arc, Refuel, Mannequins in North-East Valley, the Surf Club at St. Clair, a barn at Osborne and the Town Hall in Port Chalmers. Contact Shakes for bookings (see the website for contact details).

check out their myspace at http://www.myspace.com/shakestheswellguys
and their website at http://www.shakes.co.nz/

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was cool.
Phoam, do you go back to the punk days in Dunedin? Any Enemy gigs in your past?

Man I LOVE the music of The Stones, The Clean (I understand David Kilgour is a surfer), The Chills...all had great songs for the surf mood. Dunedin Double- classic lp.

Who else is new and good and playing out around there?

nic on 04 January, 2007 09:23 said...

sorry eh.. my days days of teen youth in dunnos involved different activities.. and I never followed the music/pub scene. . was usually out horse-riding, fishing, trail riding, and shooting.
Love The Chills though, and might check out if I can get a copy of 'Dunedin Double'on your word.

Have no idea who is new and whats happening now in Dunnos music wise either. I just came across Surf Cowboy, and loved the sound.. you can check out other short audio files of some of the other song on the album they have out too on their website

 

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