Old Hong Kong late 90’s punk band The Green Partner have record re-released

Hong Kong-based, pay-whatever, download label Artefracture is proud and extremely honoured to be re-releasing the recently unearthed seminal HK Punk Rock artifact ‘Kevin’ by THE GREEN PARTNER on 15th October.

While ostensibly a Punk Rock band, featuring members of NOPDOGS, Tokyo Sex Wale, That Guy’s Belly and Star Whores, for teenagers in the late ’90s The Green Partner was also the first exposure to what came next when we started to look towards other music that wasn’t on Fatwreck or Epitaph. Originally released in 1999, ‘Kevin’ has songs that crack the seven-minute mark, have clean and delicate dual-guitar interplay and then there were acoustic tunes. On the whole, ‘Kevin’ seemed far more ambitious and important than what was going on with many local bands at the time. Meanwhile this was a band of high school kids that were playing shows at the Warehouse, using the same Metal Zone guitar pedals that the rest of us had and making this record themselves.

There were two versions of ‘Kevin’ – a cd version and a cassette tape with a couple of extras that were thrown in. These extras are included in the digital re-release.

It’s easy to look back at The Green Partner while perhaps assigning more meaning than they’re worth and glorifying them. This is particularly true if their one year of live performances is wrapped up in memories of high school bands and some of your earliest shows at the Warehouse and at school assembly halls. But listening today there still isn’t anything that sounds quite like ‘Kevin’. At the time this was only available on dubbed cassettes and on cdrs distributed at the band’s their final shows and to friends. Here’s to not letting this one slip through the cracks.

Artefracture has put together a video featuring a medley of tracks on ‘Kevin’