Dunedin's favourite long-serving nuggety power trio Left or Right have just released their third full-length album, Trippy, and tonight will perform with a massive line-up of support at Sammy's.
''We seem to go in these three-year cycles,'' bassist and vocalist Steve Marshall says over a mid-afternoon drink.
''The first album was '09, then 2012, now 2015, and I like the symmetry of that and wanted to make sure it wasn't any longer than that. I don't think any of our shelf lives are that long, so we really wanted to get it out.
''We did the writing over about six weeks in October/November last year. Had a few sessions here, then going to down to Invers 'cos our drummer's based down there. Then leading into December we tracked it at Albany Street with Mike Holland and that was over about 10 days.
''Then there was a bit of a gap, the whole Christmas-New Year thing, and then the Cricket World Cup happened and messed us up for about two months,'' he laughs. Not surprising for a band whose last record included an ode to backyard cricket called Looking For A Tennis Ball.
''I was going all over the country to games and that. Once-in-a-generation kind of thing, I kept telling myself ... I've only just finished paying it off.''
The album is the third in a series of classic and oh-so Left or Right album titles: first Nuggety , then Buzzy, and now Trippy.
The words form part of a dialect of speech unique to the boys and their friends, which also includes terms like ''seedaz'', ''mish'', ''grom'', ''geg'' and ''daz az''.
''It's classic'', laughs Marshall.
''We're running out of words, man! Or, y'know, interesting-ish words. Every time our closest mates will be like 'no, don't know that, you've done that' but ah, I don't know. I think we'll always be a bit like that. Maybe the next one will be self-titled? But nah.
''I think all touring road bands have their little quirks, and I think those things have started to creep out a bit. The more you hang round with people, the more you pick up on those little things. And this time we've kind of immortalised a few of them.''
The first single off the album also fits the bill, telling the story of Gary's Nuggety Neighbour, a dog who ''nugs out'' but eventually ends up ''daz az'', with Left or Right's classic dub reggae rock genre mash-up and emphasis on soaring and psychedelic vocal harmonies.
''The single is just about a dog. It's my bro's dog and long story short, his work hours changed and he had to leave his dog at home every day and his neighbour was a real p**** about it.
"Anyway, we had to look after the dog all the time, and it was right about the time we were doing all that writing, so the dog would just be sitting in the room with us every day, wanting to get out. In half the demos, he's in there barking. It was impossible not to incorporate him.''
See Left or Right perform tonight at Sammy's.
GLASS VAULTS TOUR
Wellington band Glass Vaults is celebrating the release of its debut full-length album this week, heading nationwide with their full six-piece band.
The Glass Vaults' sound was once referred to as ''glacial pop'', but five years on from the ambient tribal landscapes of their majestic early EPs, the music of Sojourn comes from a warmer climate.
Written during a summer in New York, South Florida and Wellington, these lush psychedelic folk songs are a celebration of environment and love.
Recent single West Coast rollicks along like some mid-period Brian Jonestown Massacre psych revival, part country balladeering, part woozy synths, before the pulsating percussion cuts in with happy handclaps.
The gigs
• Left or Right Trippy album release, tonight at Sammy's, Dunedin, with special guests The Julian Temple Band, The Fu King, Iron Mammoth, Panther Claw and Oleh. Presales available from cosmicticketing.co.nz. 9pm doors. Stream the album at https://leftorright.bandcamp.com/
• Glass Vaults Sojourn album release, Thursday, October 1 at Taste Merchants (Lower Stuart St). Pre-sale tickets available from undertheradar.co.nz. 8pm doors.
