The tide of bands relocating to Portland these days can be overwhelming and occasionally infuriating. They come here, take our jobs, our women, bring diseases like herpes and gonorrhea…you know, all the things Columbus did when he came to America.

Anyway, Auckland (that’s New Zealand!) noise/punk/electro/experimental/new-wave/etc./pop imports the Mint Chicks ain’t cut from the out-for-glory cloth that occasionally irks us about new Portland bands. In fact, these dudes really didn’t need to leave their native New Zealand in the first place, as they were cleaning up over there. At the ‘07 New Zealand Music Awards (an annual celebration since 1965), the Mint Chicks won (deep breath) album of the year, best group, best music video, best album and best album cover (designed and drawn by Mint Chick Ruban Nielson).

So why leave the comfort of home, where you’re literally the most critically acclaimed band in the country, for Portland? I’ll let the Chicks tell you themselves, live from the red carpet, 3 minutes and 20 seconds into this video:

Now, you might think the Chicks are being coy when frontman (and Ruban’s brother) Kody Nielson says “making it big is…who cares?” But I’m pretty sure he means it. I wrote the Mint Chicks after noticing a Q&A in Auckland’s Times Online that mentioned Portland and the band’s move, so I wrote and asked if they’d send me a cd. The band was back home touring the NZ at the time (a lot like the OC: beaches, babes, bands…), but when I got the Chicks’ package last week, not only did they send the new album, Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!, they sent the band’s entire discography on burned cds, each with intricate hand-drawn art the disc and homemade packaging, a 7-inch and the Anti-Tiger 10-inch (which, like most of the band’s discography, was put out by seminal New Zealand label Flying Nun Records, longtime home of the Verlaines).

This was one of the sweetest packages I’ve ever gotten from anybody, and it’s not the kind of thing you usually get from an established band—usually just from really excited young people. So I’m pretty sure these guys haven’t let success in their (admittedly small) home country go to their heads or follow them overseas. But I’ll let you know for sure, as we’re scheduled for a “cuppa and a chat” (cuppa? all the New Zealand slang I’m going to learn!) in the near future. Meanwhile, meet the Mint Chicks.

By way of introduction, here’s a two-part video documentary called Welcome to Auckland that the Chicks produced for YouTube. It’s low-fi and funny and proves that these kiwis don’t take themselves too seriously:

It’s also worth noting that I’ve now seen two separate accounts of a story including a chainsaw and a corporate sponsor’s overbearing logo: Here’s one of them.

Lastly, here’s an introduction to the band via its music videos (they have TONS), also collected via YouTube. Due to sheer quantity, I’m putting my three favorites (great song + great video = my favorites) first:

“Walking off a Cliff Again” from Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!. The little Lego dudes are rad, and this is one of my favorite Chicks songs to date (pretty much all I’ve been listening to as of late, you understand):

“I Don’t Want to Grow Old” from Fuck the Golden Youth. The hyperactive cartoon craziness seems a good visualization of the Chicks’ live shows, some of which look rather dangerous:

“Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!” from Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!. This is a gorgeous looking video by any standards, and it’s a song that shows the band’s recent growth. A little on the long side with a repetitive pop chorus, but the video is well worth sticking with, and the song will get totally stuck in your head. The unreleased song the band sent my way, “Life Will Get Better Some Day,” had a similar restraint to it (but I like the new one a bit more):

Now here’s a shit ton more videos:

“Opium for the People” from the Anti-Tiger EP:

“Fuck the Golden Youth” from Fuck the Golden Youth. Jeez, we gotta introduce these guys to the Thermals:

“Post No Bills” from Octagon, Octagon, Octagon EP. This one reminds me a bit of At The Drive-In:

“Licking Letters,” also from Octagon, Octagon, Octagon. Dude has mic tricks I ain’t seen since the Refused was still around:

“Blue Team Go” from Anti-Tiger. Again, the visual stuff reminds me of the Thermals:

“If My Arm Was A Mic Stand, Would You Hold My Hand” from Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! The end of it makes me think of the end of 2001:

Live at the ‘07 New Zealand Music Awards:

And, by way of contrast, “This is Your Last Chance to be Famous, My Love” live at Todd P’s Patio in Austin, TX:

And last but not least, a video cut from live footage that features some of the Chicks’ finest dance moves:

There ya have it. Seldom does a band move to Portland with so much history behind them, and I’m pretty stoked about keeping an eye on these guys. The fact that they seem like good dudes, though, is the most encouraging thing about this whole story. So, you know, we’ll stay on the beat.

(P.S. While the idea of a New Zealand band moving to the U.S. instantly makes us think of Flight of the Conchords, we’re trying really hard not to mention ‘em. The Chicks are indeed blessed with a sense of humor, but are otherwise dissimilar, and we’d imagine any such comparisons will grow old really fast. If you can restrain yourself, I’ll do the same.)

The Mint Chicks just (like today, I think) scheduled a Portland show for August 11. It’s at Tube. Expect craziness. Not a lot of places to hang upside down at Tube, though.

Links:
The Mint Chicks dot Com
Mint ChickSpace