Bilders/Bill Direen -- I know there gotta be fans out there!

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So I think. I keep adding to my collection with them all bit by bit, usually by finding something random used -- like I did with a Direen solo from 1996, Human Kindness, that I found yesterday.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 April 2006 00:44 (eighteen years ago) link

Never heard of them, but I am a Bill Ding fan!

http://www.timewarptoys.com/billdingbox.jpg

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 10 April 2006 00:48 (eighteen years ago) link

Yay Bill Ding! Perhaps this can be a random love-o-Bill thread.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 April 2006 00:49 (eighteen years ago) link

i remember a pretty good builders video that got shown on Nz tv in the 80s...i'm guessing it has'nt popped up on youtube yet though

― toe-foo (toe-foo), Monday, 10 April 2006 00:51 (eighteen years ago) link

ned, you are the walkabouts fan, right? or was that the walkmen?

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 10 April 2006 00:55 (eighteen years ago) link

Walkabouts, good sir -- yes, I'm a major fanatic of theirs.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 April 2006 01:08 (eighteen years ago) link

Bill Direen does some of the best VU apings I've ever heard. I'd really like to hear more than the two comps that came out on Flying Nun (volume 1: max quitz/volume 2: beatin hearts)

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Monday, 10 April 2006 01:21 (eighteen years ago) link

okay, that's what i thought. they have some of their records for cheap at the record store. i might have to try one.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 10 April 2006 01:21 (eighteen years ago) link

I have the Bilders Vol 1 and Vol 2 CDs, Max Quitz and Beatin Hearts. A bunch of different versions of the same great songs between the two.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Monday, 10 April 2006 01:22 (eighteen years ago) link

i like russian rug and that one maryrose crook sang but i never listen to anything by him these days. the record on IMD was a dud. he's allegedly a legend but he's really not very good. there were four comps on flying nun, the last one was a bit cabaret. max quitz is probably best. the other guys he played with turned into the terminals, they got the better of it.

― keyth (keyth), Monday, 10 April 2006 03:52 (eighteen years ago) link

I was trying to remember the Terminals connection.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 10 April 2006 04:16 (eighteen years ago) link

I posted a pretty great Bilders track from "divina comedia" on the ol' mixotheque..."clifford flat" was the track, easily my favorite of their lower-key tunes. best collection is "split seconds" I reckon. the confusing discography tends to downplay that one since it was released under the "bilderene" moniker. but it's got "love in the retail trade" which is the classic Direen VU-style anthem.

― naturemorte (naturemorte), Monday, 10 April 2006 06:17 (eighteen years ago) link

I remember: BEATIN' HEARTS on FLYING NUN NZ LP '82

CONCH 3 on SOUTH INDIES LP '85

SCHWIMMEN IN DER SEE on FLYING NUN NZ 7" '82

...and I seem to recall a record about frogs made in collaboration with someone. And Flying Nun (or Bill himself?) definitely made some neat videos in the 80's...

― So Ho La (So Ho La), Monday, 10 April 2006 13:59 (eighteen years ago) link

He turned into a novelist, and I think he's finished with music for the most part, save for an occasional show. He released a couple of albums in the 90s, which had some good material on them but didn't quite reach the greatness of his classic period which I think is Vol 2 & 3 in the 4 Vol Flying Nun series. I'm not sure that series is even in print right now. All of them have excellent material, though 4 has a few clunkers.

Favorite tracks: Bedrock Bay, Alien, Magazine, High 30s Piano, Retail Trade...

I dunno. I think he's great.

― TRG (TRG), Monday, 10 April 2006 15:34 (eighteen years ago) link

the first two - 'beati/en hearts' and 'split seconds' are both awesome, but it gets a bit patchier from their, dropping the vu-ness of the vacuum and going in more odd and sometimes unsuited directions. bill's a crafty song-writer though. i got emailed by him late last year - he lives in france these days and spends a lot of time writing (in the written form rather than music). still, he did manage a couple of shows in NZ last year.

― chris andrews (fraew), Monday, 10 April 2006 20:30 (eighteen years ago) link

It's funny, I heard him on a cassette in 1990 or so; the next week I was in NYC and there was Bill Direen playing in a record store to about 4 people. He was great, and looking for a deal. No one bit, I'm sad to say. I've got two copies of all those Flying Nun CDs, if anyone's desperate.

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Monday, 10 April 2006 20:57 (eighteen years ago) link

Hi, I'm Bill Direen and still alive. Powertools Records in Auckland have just released New York Sack, recording unreleased commercially, fom two sessions with Hamish Kilgour, Tony O'Blaney Allen Meek and others.
Otherwise, yes, I am writing novels. My new one is called Song of the BRakeman and is about... go to http://titus.books.online.fr if you realy want to know more. it's about terorism. Enough said.
Cheers,
Bill

― bill direen, Saturday, 22 April 2006 16:10 (eighteen years ago) link

Bill here again,
you can try http://titus.books.online.fr/html/Coma.html
that's the one set backstage at a concert,

or for music
the http://www.powertoolrecords.co.nz
sites.

willie boy

― bill direen, Saturday, 22 April 2006 16:13 (eighteen years ago) link

ten years pass...

Going through a Bill Direen phase at the moment - digging his "disco" (well, the closest you'd get in NZ so v.lo-fi punk-funk/Talking Heads) album Let's Play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntEZhYETPdo

Vinyl reissue of Beatin Hearts & a new book! Sadly missed his Wellington show due to a clash, tho.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/85440299/palmerston-north-rock-n-roll-legand-bill-direen-returns-to-promote-his-new-book

Also, nice AudioCulture overview:
http://www.audioculture.co.nz/people/bill-direen-and-the-bilders/stories/bill-direen-part-1-a-maverick-voice-1975-to-1984
http://www.audioculture.co.nz/people/bill-direen-and-the-bilders/stories/bill-direen-part-2-1985-and-into-the-present

― etc, Wednesday, 19 October 2016 23:43 (seven years ago) link

nine months pass...

Bill Direen documentary, A Memory Of Others showing at this year's film festival. I couldn't attend either of the local screenings but hoping to grab a DVD at some stage ... was ambivalent of the filmmaker's earlier musical documentaries, but some people I trust reckon this is a lot better. It's been a nice occasion for a bunch of decent articles on him, anyway.

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hPBDIGV8fc

http://pantograph-punch.com/post/bill-direen-a-memory-of-others

https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/94366287/bill-direen-feeding-the-spirit-of-the-people

http://offthetracks.co.nz/bill-direen-a-memory-of-others-film/

― etc, Wednesday, 16 August 2017 00:00 (six years ago) link

I have the Flying Nun comps that came out in the 90s, I dig them. Could go for a similar overview of the past 20 years.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 16 August 2017 03:15 (six years ago) link

six years pass...

very much enjoying this, I guess it's a 2008 album?

https://thokeitapes.bandcamp.com/album/bilders-mindful-expanded-mc

― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Monday, 25 March 2024 20:09 (four weeks ago) link

The documentary mentioned above was quite good!

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 25 March 2024 20:12 (four weeks ago) link

Also I appreciate how we all posted initially and then Bill himself showed up and nobody responded! What was up with us?

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 25 March 2024 20:12 (four weeks ago) link

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