So you probably have that one friend who’s all about Flying Nun and New Zealand. You try to keep up, but all you have is a download of that In Love with These Times compilation and season 1 of Flight of the Conchords. You fall back on The Clean in conversation, and maybe last year you checked out the Verlaines CD reissues (if you didn’t… do it), but that smug sonovabitch still thinks he’s got one up on you every time he puts on a new record and talks about members going solo. Well, we’ve got one bit of news for you that your oh-so-cool, kiwi (bird)-loving buddy might not know. He probably tells you he’s got the whole discography for The Bats, but that’s when — BAM! You’ll lay it on him. The Bats are coming out with a another album.
Yes, the group has been issuing pop songs from the land just to the side of the Down Under for years now (about 29), and their eighth studio album is slated for release November 22 from Flying Nun. Free All the Monsters (safely not an homage to Destroy All Monsters) was recorded just outside Dunedin, New Zealand, in an old Victorian insane asylum that Ghost Hunters is just dying to visit for an episode. With the new album, there are the usual incestuous connections that go with Flying Nun territory: singer Robert Scott is the bassist for The Clean (old news), but Dale Cotton, the producer for Free All the Monsters, has also worked with The Clean.
Watch the video for “In the Subway” here, and check out the tracklisting below.
Free All the Monsters tracklisting:
01. Long Halls
02. Simpletons
03. Free All the Monsters
04. See Right Through Me
05. Its Not the Same
06. In the Subway
07. Fingers of Dawn
08. Space Junk
09. On the Bank
10. Canopy
11. When the Day Comes
12. Getting Over You
• The Bats: http://www.thebats.co.nz
• Flying Nun: http://www.flyingnun.co.nz
