Christchurch, New Zealand's Bats were a perfect hour's accompaniment to a sunny afternoon Primavera Sound fest in Barcelona (where WFMU broadcast for three days from May 28-30). Since 1983, the steady lineup of Kaye Woodward, Paul Kean, Malcolm Grant and Robert Scott (who was also a founding member of the Clean) have specialized in a distinct brand of delicate and surging electric folk-pop which sometimes got them tagged as the Kiwi answer to early 80's R.E.M. However, the Bats drew from a much more varied well (influenced by everything from the Troggs to Stereolab and onward), and kept their recording and touring lives relatively simple yet steady (with breaks for having kids, solo projects, and the occassional Clean reunion). They've been long regarded a seminal core band of the Flying Nun label universe, with critics and fans alike continually heralding them throughout their long history. We've been longtime fans and friends here at the station, the band even put out a Live at WFMU 7" single on Merge back in 1994. Their latest, the Guilty Ones, is out now on Hidden Agenda, and we're happy they've agreed to let us archive their great Primavera set for download. 20 of the Primavera sets WFMU carried are archived for streaming here, by the way, and a few of those bands have OK'd downloads, which you can check out on the Free Music Archive site.
The Bats - live on WFMU at Primavera Sound, Barcelona, May 28, 2009
Boogie Man (MP3)
Supernova (MP3)
Later On That Night (MP3)
Up To the Sky (MP3)
Horizon (MP3)
Castle Lights (MP3)
Mir (MP3)
North By North (MP3)
Afternoon In Bed (MP3)
Crimson Enemy (MP3)
Countersign (MP3)
Flowers and Trees (MP3)
refeshing change of pace from all the drone/noise/psych/doom etc. stuff I'm swarming myself with these days. . . oh and the vaselines show was great as well!
thanks wfmu for always keeping things interesting!
Posted by: lane | June 22, 2009 at 03:25 PM
it goes without saying that this is one of the band's finest performances!
Posted by: will rodgers | June 22, 2009 at 05:36 PM
very much looking forward to grooving to this on my a.m. bike ride to work. havent heard em since Fear Of God lp. which i liked at the time but i just sorta lost track of em over the years. something tells me theyll have me grinning like an idjit within the first 60 secs. as always thanks wfmu u guys're the BEST!!
Posted by: Joel Rizzo | June 23, 2009 at 07:11 AM
Hooray!! I will be 1and0ing this and The Guilty Office CD when I get home today!
Posted by: Bryan G | June 23, 2009 at 05:18 PM
Hi to the good folk at WFMU and listeners/readers.
Thanks for posting this recording. We enjoyed our Primavera experience - what a great festival - The recording is a pretty bare bones live Bats sound but the songs are there. Our album, The Guilty Office, is embellished on a few track by strings, harps and accordian and a nice rich full bass sound.
Magnet Magazine are doing a poll which includes us. This is shameless self promotion here but we'd appreciate some more votes if you'd care to oblige. Go here ..
http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2009/06/19/what-album-are-you-most-looking-forward-to-in-the-second-half-of-june/
thanks, Paul, The Bats
Posted by: Paul | June 23, 2009 at 10:50 PM
Thanks for this, saw them on one of the recent UK dates & they're sounding as good as ever. BTW the 'unknown' track is "Mir" off "At The National Grid"
Posted by: Gavin | June 29, 2009 at 05:19 PM
Thanks for that title, Gavin.
Posted by: Brian Turner | June 29, 2009 at 05:31 PM
thanks for the great sounds!
Posted by: CastleQwayR | July 23, 2009 at 02:28 PM