19 January 2023 - 0 Comments

Bruce Blucher (guitar) and Nick Wilkinson (bass) formed the Alpaca Brothers in Dunedin 1984. Named for their penchant for wearing a very similar style of alpaca jersey, but without a drummer, they roped in the services of Steve Cournane who still believes he may never have done a gig in his life if it hadn’t been for that unusual invite. However, hearing the duo at their practice rooms for the first time Cournane did wonder what he had gotten himself into: they were extremely loud, discordant, and truly unlike anything he had ever heard before.

With no more than few days rehearsal Alpaca Brothers played their debut gig supporting The Weeds at a packed Empire Tavern on 7th June 1984. Steve clearly remembers borrowing Lesley Paris’ drum kit for the show. People liked that raucous, untrained din for some reason, and pretty soon they were playing all over the city and heading to Christchurch supporting different luminaries like The Great Unwashed, The DoubleHappys, The Bilders and Look Blue Go Purple. It was frenzy of playing during a magic time in NZ music history, now well documented by Mathew Goody’s recent book Needles and Plastic.

The band went to Auckland several times including a short NZ tour in 1985 where they supported The Chills and later jaunts north in 1986 which included their final gig as a support for The Cramps. They also released an EP, Legless, on Flying Nun in 1986 which surprised the critics somewhat as live shows were often unruly with long, meandering blasts of noise. Legless, with its unusual mix of pop songs like Hey Man and It’s No Joke, and more instrumental, improvisational material like Zither and Wilderness on its B side was critically well received.

However, by August 1986, following problems between Blucher and Wilkinson, it was all over. Blucher went on to form Trash Hotel with Paul Cahill who had joined the Alpaca Brothers that same year. Cournane went back to a geology degree. In the 90’s he moved to Wellington to study jazz eventually forming CL-Bob who toured NZ relentlessly and won the 2002 NZ Jazz album of the year. Wilkinson moved to Auckland and formed Clapomatic.

Alpaca Brothers completely disappeared for over three decades until December 2020 when Steve got talking to Bruce following the news that Flying Nun had digitised the two track master of the EP. Just like the impromptu manner in which the band had formed, it was suddenly decided to record again. Nick was unavailable due to ill health, so Cournane and Blucher enlisted the help of Robert Scott (The Clean, The Bats) on bass.

What started as an attempt to only document a few songs turned into an album with the help of engineer Rikki Lind who recorded the band in his living room just as Terry Moore had done with Legless in Bruce Blucher’s flat. Jason Horner then laboured on the material with Bruce, mixing and adding various overdubs as they both could spare time in Dunedin. The final result is Figment, a nine song amalgam of pop and weirdness that hints at conspiracy theories and a world under COVID. The influence of time and a new bass player has rendered this a very different band to the original trio, yet Blucher’s cutting Gibson Les Paul sound remains ever present on material like Alien On My Doorstep which has the sonic edge of old and the frantic instrumental Green Guitar, which beckons to The Gordons, and is dedicated to bass player Nick Wilkinson.

On 6th August 2022 the new five piece Alpaca Brothers headlined the Zelle Festival in Port Chalmers with new members Robert Scott on bass, Jason Horner on 2nd guitar and Bruce’s daughter Eva Blucher on vocals. Look out for this band as it gets out on the road to promote the new album!

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