This might be a stretch, but I believe that if polled at least 72% of all New Zealanders and Australians would probably have some story that involves meeting an American that didn't know the two South Pacific islands apart. I've personally managed to cut down on my confusion by using the “Do They Sound Anything Like Radio Birdmen or Nick Cave (Aussies), or do they remind me of The Clean (Kiwis)” test, but sadly this only works with bands, and I've also found myself mixing up quite a few Aussies with Kiwis in real life.
I mean seriously, look at the flags from each of the countries, and then try telling me they aren't all that similar:
Let's be honest, it isn't that hard to confuse people from the two places, and until I listened to the recently released collection of singles and demos from the Australian band Eddy Current Suppression Ring (Goner), I thought at least I could count on guessing where the band was from. Now that whole theory has been blown out of the water. Eddy Current Suppression Ring (or E.C.S.R. henceforth) hardly sound anything like my points of reference from the former penal colony, and share some similarities with bands on Flying Nun, but not enough to call the label a massive influence. E.C.S.R. actually pull off what Fugazi would have sounded like if they were from Manchester circa 1978, had no hardcore pedigree and had their stuff put out on the Hyped 2 Death reissue series. They're good musicians, but they hardly care about the quality of their recordings. It's borderline sloppy sounding (in a very good way), and it totally pays off with this cover they did of a song by fellow countrymen of yesteryear, The Chosen Few.
