Crowbarred's Mellow Mix Volume 1: MM Vol 1 - 018

MM Vol 1 #018

Shihad

"Debs Night Out"

(1995)
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Genre:Rock

art by sue-enfys
New Zealand music is something i usually don't talk about much as i should. Its not that I'm embarrassed of our music, it just feels, most times, too garage sounding. I am quite loyal and passionate about my country but musically something is amiss. However, in current times i have been impressed with bands/artists like The Feelers, Shihad (obviously), Op-Shop, Scribe, Mutton Birds, Strawpeople & especially Blindspott's debut album and only the debut album. Shihad (but wait we are a PC nation run by lesbian fascists) come Pacifier (Lets not upset the nice white audience who might think we are suicide terrorist Muslims) have all the right creds and by that i mean could pack arenas worldwide (if they desired) without sounding like a amatuer garage music basher band singing Nirvana to Jack Johnson copies. If i look back in time, it hasn't been that bad, from 70's Split Enz to 80's Dragon to 90's Feelers to milleniums Blindspott .... its been a cool ride really, so why do i fear the future for NZ music? Just a hunch.

ya listening?

The origins of the New Zealand-based speed metal band Shihad date back to 1985, when guitarist Jon Toogood and drummer Tom Larkin formed their first group, Exit, while attending high school in the Wellington area. Various other aspiring musicans came and went, but by the middle of 1988, with the addition of guitarist Phil Knight and bassist Geoff Duncan and a change to the name Shihad, the group was ready to begin playing live. (According to legend, while covering the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K." during their debut performance, they blew out the club's P.A. system.) Duncan quickly exited, and after a few false starts bassist Hamish Laing was tapped as his permanent replacement; the group soon made their recorded debut with "Down Dance," the flip side to a split single with the Angels.

wanna go? onya!

Shihad's debut EP, Devolve, appeared in mid-1991, and to the surprise of many reached the New Zealand Top 20; Laing soon departed, and was replaced by bassist Karl Kippenberger. 1992 was a hiatus year, with Toogood and Larking forming a side project, SML, with Head Like a Hole's Nigel Regan. When Shihad resurfaced with 1993's Churn, their sound had grown more industrial; influenced by the likes of Skinny Puppy and Einsturzende Neubauten, the group even began experimenting with samplers. The results were immediately positive -- not only did the LP reach the Top Ten, but the single "I Only Said" hit number three. The follow-up, 1995's Killjoy, was also hugely successful, and was followed in 1996 by the EP Deb's Night Out. Shihad's self-titled third LP followed in 1998. Nearly four years later, Shihad changed their name to Pacifier and headed to L.A. to make a fifth album. ~ [Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide]

so.....Why did you change your name?

hear me now?

The name "Shihad" was chosen after members of the band heard the Fremen name for the Sandworms in the 1984 David Lynch movie, Dune. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks the band decided to change their name due to the similarity between the band's name Shihad and the Arabic word jihad. At the 2002 Big Day Out music festival in Auckland, New Zealand they released t-shirts with 'Shihad' on them, and 'Remote' below, indicating that 'Remote' was to be the new name. However, due to this name being taken already, they settled on "Pacifier", which was a successful single from their album "The General Electric". They released an album, Pacifier, under this name in 2002.

Innocent (yea right)

On 17 September 2004, the band announced to the world that they would change their name back to Shihad. To quote the band, "The events surrounding the name change and our choice to be known as Pacifier are well documented. As much as we believed in what we were doing, and the reasons for doing it at the time – the truth is we were wrong." On an appearance on the Australian Broadcasting Commissions TV show 'Spicks and Specks', Jon Toogood talked about how band members don't usually have to consider holy war when thinking of a band name.
In an interview, Jon Toogood spoke about an event that contributed to their decision:

do we look pacified?

“We were in America while it invaded Iraq and had to play at festivals that were supposedly `support the troops festivals' when we didn't believe in the war at all. That's what the song "All the Young Fascists" is about – the day we played Miami in front of 30,000 kids at this festival that was originally just a rock festival. A week out, just because of the timing, it was turned into the support the troops show and it was being simulcast live to Iraq. We were on this bill with these really ugly – what we call WWF – metal bands, and we were shitting ourselves. I just wanted to get out of there. Beside the stage was a paintball gun alley where kids were lining up to shoot effigies of Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and (French president) Jacques Chirac. That was the weirdest one. The amount of times I actually pointed out to Americans the fact that their Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French and they were supposed to be mates.”
The band name "Pacifier" was immediately raffled on the Australian radio station Triple J by Jay and the Doctor and was claimed by a little known band from Tasmania, Theory of Everything. ~ [Source:wikipedia]

For The Mutton Birds visit The Def 1000 #710

For Strawpeople see Number 125

For more Strawpeople visit The Def 1000 #854

For Split Enz visit The Def 1000 #671 & #618

This song has a crowbarred rating of 87.4 out of 108 pts