Opposite Sex

Dunedin-based pop-subersive trio Opposite Sex release their debut album on Fishrider Records on 7 November 2011 on CD. Their sound is, they say, “an absurdist-logico mix of Euro pop, Beat poetry, and subterranean lo-fi adventuring. Drawing musical inspiration from such disparate elements as The Velvet Underground, Half Japanese and The Beatles and marrying it to lyrical themes of animal kingdoms, love and loss, and master/slave dialectics, Opposite Sex reinvent alternative pop in a style of their own with something novel to express.”

For those who are not sure what that means, their music ranges from oddly poppy carnival waltzes through to manic and melodic post-punk and no wave weirdness. In between those extremes is a little bit of gothic rockabilly and classic post-punk Undertones/ Buzzcocks-style pop.

Opposite Sex came together by chance in 2010 in Gisborne. Following time in Wellington and a trip to Europe with Connan Mockasin’s band, Lucy had returned to her isolated hometown with a new bass guitar and nothing to do. She invented her own percussive style of playing to add to her keyboard and trumpet playing and wrote sweet, strange and disturbing songs of darkness and light, animals and monsters. She met 2nd hand bookshop owner Tim, who had found a drum-kit put out for rubbish on the side of the road, and taught him how to play drums. Fergus, self-taught from listening to Guitar Player magazine CDs in his bedroom, completed the trio.

In February 2011 Opposite Sex played in Gisborne with Dunedin underground psych-pop band The Puddle. The Puddle heard a shared spirit of subverting pop music; re-inventing the familiarity of pop in unexpected ways. On hearing they were thinking of relocating to Dunedin, Opposite Sex were invited to record at Fishrider Studio in Dunedin. The album, recorded by The Puddle’s Ian Henderson, and mixed by Tom Bell, was the unexpected result of one remarkable weekend.

The song Sea Shanty has charted on Radio One’s Top 11 and Opposite Sex have played at every opportunity in their year in Dunedin, from warehouse parties to Otago University Union pint- nights. They toured the deep south with The Puddle, including an epic mid-winter show in a Riverton shooting gallery during a freezing snow storm complete with thunder and hail. Album release shows are planned for late 2011 in the south and North Island shows early in 2012.