[{"id":211732529303,"handle":"the-mad-scene","title":"The Mad Scene","updated_at":"2021-09-10T10:53:17+12:00","body_html":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0450\/3165\/3527\/files\/Mad_Scene_Flying_Nun_copy_1024x1024.jpg?v=1600763757\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHamish Kilgour and Lisa Siegel formed Monsterland, the first incarnation of their band, in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1990 with Danny Manetto. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHamish, former member of \u003cstrong\u003eThe Clean\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eBailter Space\u003c\/strong\u003e, and Lisa, a New York native, found a like-minded comrade in Danny, whose previous musical credits included that amazing cello noise at the start of \"She Speeds\" on the Straitjacket Fits' Life In One Chord EP and playing in Robert Scott's part-time Dunedin outfit, Electric Blood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe three shared a musical attitude in Monsterland that transcended normal, straitjacketing instrumental assignments. On the group's one major live outing -- supporting The Clean on their last NZ tour -- bass, guitar and drumsticks were passed from member to member from song to song.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe same principle applied to their Auckland recording sessions with engineer Gordon Rutherford which make up the bulk of A Trip Thru Monsterland. Their pastoral, sometimes Fall-ish sound leaps from quiet naivety to a messy celebration kind of picnic pop. Hamish pioneered this musical attitude of do-it-yourself and no-instrumental-hierarchy in The Clean and Great Unwashed but, among the three songwriters, it's perhaps Lisa's songs which especially benefit from the charm of this approach.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe story of the rest of the material on A Trip Thru Monsterland -- and of the group's change in name and the absurd wait there's been for this release -- has to do with Hamish and Lisa heading back to New York in 1991. In America, they kept the band and songs going but had to change the name cos there was already a band in NYC called Monsterland. So they became The Mad Scene and developed a reputation in New York's indie-alternative scene, releasing a 7\" EP on Homestead Records and recording the rest of what is here at Toxic Shock studio in 1991.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHamish and Lisa returned to New Zealand in 1993 to complete the mixing and artwork for this 14 track CD with Danny, who has since been playing in Auckland bands Shaft and Steam. The Mad Scene's on again off again career continues Stateside, except now we hear they're called Top Cat...\u003c\/p\u003e","published_at":"2020-08-09T19:30:21+12:00","sort_order":"best-selling","template_suffix":"","disjunctive":false,"rules":[{"column":"tag","relation":"equals","condition":"The Mad Scene"}],"published_scope":"global","image":{"created_at":"2020-09-22T20:36:09+12:00","alt":null,"width":1000,"height":1000,"src":"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0450\/3165\/3527\/collections\/Mad_Scene_Flying_Nun.jpg?v=1600763769"}}]