More from Kiwi Land, a taste of the 90's. The Mutton Birds, clean guitar sounds, folk elements in the structure of the songs with passion and beauty. An extraordinary band.
The Mutton Birds formed in 1991 in New Zealand. Main songwriter Don McGlashan, guitarist David Long and drummer Ross Burge had made quite a few albums between them in the anti-Darwinian environment that makes New Zealand so unique in the musical world. Bands like Blam Blam Blam and The Front Lawn (Don), The Six Volts (David), The Spines, Sneaky Feelings and The Dribbling Darts (Ross), had provided a testing ground for their ideas about songs and how to play them. When bassist Alan Gregg (also of The Dribbling Darts) joined in 1992, and they made their first, self-titled album, college radio picked it up with a vengeance and mainstream radio in New Zealand was forced to follow suit.
The Mutton Birds began making sorties to England in 1995. That year, they released "Nature" (Virgin Records), a 12-song compilation of tracks from "The Mutton Birds" and "Salty", with additional production courtesy of Neil Finn. The release won the band some firm friends: ".....Robust, sad melodies, folk harmonies and beautifully weighted arrangements" **** Q magazine. Like many bands of their genre the popularity of grunge during the 90’s music restricted the amount of exposure and subsequently the levels of popularity these bands had.
Their third album, Nature, was a collection of songs from their first two CDs with production assistance from Neil Finn, released by Virgin Records in 1995.
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