#the 3ds

[bandcampsnoop]

4/21/26.

Supergroup is a word thrown around often. In this case, I think Leather Jacket Records meant it in a genuine national sense. Living Clipboards is a New Zealand supergroup. For me personally, they are a supergroup as well. I own recordings representing each of the band members.

Living Clipboards "All Over Tawa" sounds like a New Zealand record in the best possible way. Reminders of The 3Ds and The Clean (and both David and Hamish solo projects) hit within the first few songs. This is a band whose members were in MarineVille, The 3Ds, Look Blue Go Purple, and Ghost Club.

The Bandcamp page states that this veers "between low-slung menace, petulant snarl, and languid pop”. The LP was originally issued in 2024 on Burning Log and was reissued as part of Record Store Day 2026 by the aforementioned Leather Jacket Records.

Living Clipboards is a Wellington/Dunedin based band.

[indieephemera]

Flying Nun Records 1993 calendar featuring the month of October as illustrated and designed by David Mitchell of The 3Ds, Goblin Mix, the Magick Heads, Plagal Grind, Chug and the Exploding Budgies.

Here’s an appropriately spooky (and actually kind of disturbing) October illustration from musician and artist David Mitchell. I listed most of his bands in the caption because a) relative to other bands in the Flying Nun stable, they are not well-known enough, and b) I love them all!

[bandcampsnoop]

7/4/26.

I recently learned of the Floating Eels project. It's made up of three people: David Mitchell, Paul Jones, Björn Magnusson and is described as an album of improvised music that "was recorded live to 4 tracks during a couple of long sessions in London [where Mitchell currently lives] late summer 2025".

I got pretty excited by the name David Mitchell - yes, it is THAT David Mitchell: The Exploding Budgies, Plagal Grind, Goblin Mix, 3Ds, and Ghost Club are just some of the bands he's been a key member of.

There is no physical release of "Get Down With the Floating Eels" yet, but David Mitchell is all over the release-iverse so I hardly feel like I'm breaking my "release-must-exist" rule. If you want to hear David Mitchell on vinyl, cassette or CD, you have many options (including Leather Apron, another Mitchell band I'd never heard of).

As far as sound goes, this does sound like David Mitchell, and it does sound improvised. It also sounds amazing.

[bandcampsnoop]

12/16/25.

Piggietails are coming to the U.S. Not on tour, but on mpls ltd, the label. Spoilsport Records (Naarm/Melbourne, Australia) and mpls ltd are teaming up for a limited LP release of this excellent debut. The Spoilsport Bandcamp page mentions Yo La Tengo/jumble pop as inspiration. I would say it's a great combo of Richard Davies/The Moles with Aussie dolewave.

While you're at mpls ltd, check out their 12" reissue of The Perfect Garden - a late 1980s/early 1990s Dunedin, New Zealand band inspired by "the sound of the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Primitives, the Shop Assistants and Loop." They wanted to do something different from the Flying Nun sound and they did. But there is still Flying Nun in their DNA - they proudly played shows with The Bats and The 3Ds. This was originally released on CD through Failsafe Records.

[bandcampsnoop]

6/17/26.

I'm not sure how I missed a new release from Arno Loeffler and his label Zelle Records, but I did. It remains an even greater mystery given that the release is "Bad Astrology" by The New Existentialists, George Henderson's most recent band.

Henderson is now based in Auckland, New Zealand, and has been making music as The New Existentialists since 2012. We covered the band back in 2020 for the excellent 7" "Mysteries of the Worm b/w Elton John" (released on Spacecase Records).

Henderson's best known work was made via The Puddle, but everything I've heard from The New Existentialists I've liked. The locked first song for "Bad Astrology" is "Invocation", but I would start at "Last Days of the Internet" (which has a poppy 3Ds feel). Like everything else Henderson has released, this album is quite varied. There are pop gems galore, but there are also moments of doom that David E. Williams or Peter Jefferies would be proud of.

As a reminder, George Henderson's brother Ian, runs Fishrider Records in Dunedin, New Zealand.

[bandcampsnoop]

6/10/25.

Pearly* are a Dunedin, New Zealand band whose debut 7" is out now on mpls ltd. (Minneapolis Limited). This is a wonderful 4 song slab that does sounds Kiwi without sounding derivative at all. "Say Whatever" starts off with the clearest nod to a Flying Nun past - with an almost Hamish Kilgour/The Feelies beat, while "Post Key BCP" feels Snapper-esque. And if I had to make a New Zealand comp for final song "Hit The Ground Beside You", I'd say The 3Ds.

But really, none of those comparisons are obvious. The fact of the matter is that Pearly* make distorted, propulsive pop/post-punk.

I'm a bit surprised Ian Henderson didn't release this on Fishrider, but maybe that can be a future release.

[bandcampsnoop]

3/8/25.

The first few moments of the opening salvo, "Overheat", on Underbelly's album "And I've Told You of My Past Lives" reminds me of a sludgy Superchunk.

New label, West MI Punk is setting out to chronicle the fertile scene in Western Michigan. In fact, the label's website features a spreadsheet of Western Michigan bands. And West MI Punk has been around a while - just in digital form. This release (7" lathe and CD) represents the first physical release from the label.

At times Underbelly (a three piece whose genre is called "queer punk" on the spreadsheet) remind me of early Sonic Youth, or maybe demo-phase songs from The 3D's.

If you peruse the digital releases from West MI Punk, you'll see several lives shows from the Fruitport Bandshell (right on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan). A quick search returned several pictures of this picturesque scene that has hosted pretty gnarly/noisy punk sounds over the years.

Underbelly are as much a portrait of the state of music in Western Michigan, as they are a rollicking, messy punk band.