The hotly-anticipated third studio album, ‘Screens’ to be released in New Zealand on 16 March 2009.
When The Mint Chicks’ second album Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! became a runaway success and netted the band five Tuis at the 2007 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards alongside another seven b-Net Awards, it was clear the odds were finally stacked in The Mint Chicks’ favour after seven years of underground acclaim.
Naturally, they did what no other band in their position would do: Kody Nielson, Ruban Nielson and Paul Roper decamped to Portland, Oregon where they were entirely unknown, to be left alone and make a follow-up record far away from the weight of expectations back in New Zealand.
The result is Screens: a glorious record showing the conceptual songwriting genius of the Nielson brothers translating perfectly into one of the most exciting, non-formulaic pop albums so far this decade.
Recorded at The Mint Chicks’ home base in Portland, Screens was produced by the Nielson Brothers with Jacob Portrait and mixed in four separate studios, each with proven histories: the Dandy Warhols’ Odditorium, Supernatural (Modest Mouse), Audible Alchemy (The Shins) and award-winning producer Chris Nielson’s studio in Orewa.
Ecstatic hooks and melodies are interwoven with the band’s signature sonic adventurousness, while The Mint Chicks’ rather unique world view characterises the tone of Screens. First single ‘I Can’t Stop Being Foolish’ captures the very essence of the group’s troublegum sensibilities: the infectious charm of their pop spirit aligned with oblique lyrical content hinting at an existential darkness.
With a refined musical approach and creative escalation of songwriting ideas, Screens is a new phase Mint Chicks album and another milestone in a consistently-surprising journey.
“ . . . a vocoder-heavy pop record that sounds like it's target audience are bubble-gum chewing, teenage robot punks with a soft spot for Queen and Brainiac . . . ” - Portland Mercury
“We made this record for creepy teenaged girls with one glass eye . . . ” - Ruban Nielson
“ . . . wherein The Mint Chicks are fully revealed as the ‘little Enos’ many suspected they were all along” - Radio New Zealand
" . . . more joy, less long division…the only band in the Southern hemisphere”
‘Screens’ will be released in New Zealand on 16 March 2009 by Flying Nun.
www.themintchicks.com