LIL' CHIEF RECORDS: TWO DECADES OF MUSIC AND ALBUM ART (2022): Cigarettes and cybernetics

Auckland's Lil' Chief label first came to attention 20 years ago with the debut album by the Brunettes, Holding Hands Feeding Ducks and the paired release of the Tokey Tones' Caterpillar and Butterfly albums.

This was music which was poised, cool, enjoyably effete and well crafted. It was also music which ran against the tenor of the times in local music when garageband rock (the D4, the Datsuns), the Mint Chicks, the Wellington scene around Phoenix Foundation/Black Seeds etc were all taking off.

Lil' Chief's music and ethos was modest, as modest as the label's beginnings in a rundown flat on Sandringham Road (before nearby Kingsland became hip) when Jonathan Bree and Scott Mannion hatched their plan to record themselves, their friends and bands they liked.

And so the Brunettes (Bree, Heather Mansfield and friends), Tokey Tones (Mannion, Bree, Li-Ming Hu, Nick Buckton, Gareth Shute and others), Shaft, Voom, Edmund Cake, Nudie Suits, Reduction Agents (James Milne, Jol Mulholland, Ben Eldridge, Ryan McPhun), Princess Chelsea . . .

After 20 years Lil' Chief can look back on almost 50 original albums (not counting compilations and different versions), and dozens of EPs and singles.

There have been conspicuous international successes, notably the Bree-Princess Chelsea clip for Cigarette Duet which racked up more than 80 million views (although Chelsea had something to say about what that actually meant) and Bree's You're So Cool video (26 million views).

The label has distribution in Europe and the US, and acts like Princess Chelsea, Ruby Suns, the Brunettes (the latter two were signed to Sub Pop), Sheep Dog and Wolf, Mannion as a solo artist and others have built a substantial following. Bigger than a cult, but not quite household names.

Elsewhere has long had an affection for Lil' Chief releases, right from the Brunettes and the very wonderful if short-lived Tokey Tones.

With assistance from Gareth Shute we here pay small tribute to the lil' label that could. And did . . . in covers as distinctive as the music.

(For a complete list of Lil' Chief releases go here. Where Elsewhere has reviewed an album or has an interview with a Lil' Chief artist we will make the link after the cover image).

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For Elsewhere's review of Caterpillar/Butterfly go here

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For Elsewhere's review see here

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For Elsewhere's review see here

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For Elsewhere's review see here

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For Elsewhere's review see here

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For Elsewhere's review see here

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For Elsewhere's review see here

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For an interview with Princess Chelsea around the release of this album see here

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For Elsewhere's review see here

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For Elsewhere's review see here

For a track by track breakdown see here

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For Elsewhere's review see here

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For a Scott Mannion interview see here

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For Elsewhere's review see here

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and that is 20 . . . but here's another, the new and different album by Princess Chelsea which Elsewhere will review shortly.

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For more on Lil' Chief check their website here.