New Zealand rockers Leatherhead release debut, ‘Needles’
New Zealand band Leatherhead have released their first album Needles on Last Libretto, a digital label based on Waiheke Island, New Zealand specialising in artists from this tiny part of the world.
Despite the isolation of island life Leatherhead guitarist, Brendan Mooney is not an insular musician by any stretch. Mooney was guitarist for David Vanian, lead singer of British punk legends The Damned, in Vanian’s acclaimed side-project David Vanian & the Phantom Chords, and has also earned crust supporting the likes of Eartha Kitt on the Jools Holland Show. Since having washed up on the musical shores of this particular pacific island, Mooney’s iconic rockabilly coffee cart has become a regular island pit stop for musical conversation and shots of the hard stuff. Moonlighting as Leatherhead’s resident guitar expert Mooney’s twitchy blues fingers search out the notes left over from the death of Hubert Sumlin while simultaneously bashing out the case for a class action lawsuit against Colombian coffee producers.
Leatherhead’s writer and vocalist Bede Taylor is a well worn piece of fabric from Waiheke Island’s musical tapestry having supplied the lyrical stitching for a number of local bands (Three Legged Horse, Clench, Tank & Pump) as well as his own numerous solo releases. Described by Vessel bassist Louis Bo Charles as the “gravel skulling poet exorcist” Taylor’s voice in this band snaps, crackles, and pops from the side-effects of too many prescription anti-inflammatories and an unhealthy addiction to guitar pedals.
Add to this already considerable local mix of talent, Moik Brennan’s (Oyawa, Tank & Pump) baseline legacy from more local bands than there are local bands, and then liquid nail all this together with skinman Carl Blutner (Loose Trigger) and the sound of Leatherhead has quickly outgrown the shipping container practice space it was born into.
For Music and Downloads:
Leatherheadconsortium.bandcamp.com
Spotify, Google Play, iTunes – Feb 10th.
For up to date information on Leatherhead, see:
