Like A Death Of The Heart Jesus, Where Do I Start? Grooms at Death By Audio, Brooklyn, New York This past winter Sarah and I ditched our computers and went backpacking across North America. We visited sixteen cities, doing a mix of tourist and offbeat cultural activities - we saw loads of live music, in DIY venues, bars, parks, festivals and large outdoor arenas and stayed with and met friends we've made through this blog. It really was an amazing adventure. [...]
Jellybean Explosion I first met Headaches' Jeff Bell at DOC, a tiny bar in Auckland. He bounded up to me and asked if I could play bass. I told him I could. I soon realised he was going around asking pretty much every person in the bar the same question, but his excitement and energy for finding the final member of his band was fun to witness. Little did I know his band was perfectly formed already, and (to my mind) didn't [...]
Capital FMLY//FMLY Vibes Here's a wee preview of a festival we'll be hitting up when we're in New York this June. It's the latest compilation put together by the good folks behind FMLY Fest - featuring new songs from Truman Peyote, Alaskas and Winks, plus a number of dope jams from a bunch of sweet artists we're yet to become acquainted with. We're particularly feeling the dark vibe of Yohuna's track, 'It's All Yours', Alpha MC's casio-hop number 'By Any Means' and Bayatas' tropical-pop [...]
Crystal Magic When I last wrote about Dead Mellotron Josh Frazier was going it alone, making a hazy lo-fi racket from his home in Louisiana. He's now based in Baltimore and has teamed up with three more musicians, known only to us as CC, Aimee and Russell - together producing Dead Mellotron's third album, Glitter . The album's first single 'Stranger' dropped recently and it's equally as epic and hazy as his previous two records, but has more depth and polish. At 2 [...]
Eye of the beholder One of the highlights from Camp A Low Hum , The All Seeing Hand are now embarking on a nationwide tour, playing 12 shows over four weeks around New Zealand. The Wellington trio combine staggering thrash drums at breakneck speed with indiscernible avant-garde vocals and extreme samples. The high-energy noise they create is like a religious experience, engulfing you in their creationism until you're basically preaching at their altar. When we saw them play a little low-ceilinged hall in [...]
A Dead Forest Index Friday, 30 March, 2012 San Francisco Bathhouse, Wellington Photos by Richard Sando View more photos of A Dead Forest Index live in Wellington
Rocket to the deep Since Cool Rainbows' debut single came out in December I'd been looking forward to hearing their full-length album. Now Whale Rocket is finally out and making a fine impression. With various veins of psychedelic pop and pretty layers of reverb-soaked guitars pushed along by jumpy drums, it's a cohesive release that brings together central member Djeisan Suskov's wistful voice that belies his years, with the influences of other musicians that have since come to be an [...]
Vegetarians Don't Eat Fish Some of you may remember an ex-Invercargill band named V!xens, led by Joel Wood. The band produced one excellent electro-pop 73 before disappearing to Australia. Now fully established in Byron Bay, Joel has started a new band called Swamprattts, with Luke Yeaman and Brett Jansh, who both bring their own reputable musical talents to the band. They began performing together in late 2010 and have just posted 3 short "sketches" to their bandcamp. Joel says that, "over time the sketches [...]
Fix It With Funk From the comfy confines of bedroom pop , once simple-indie-ode purveyors Miniature Tigers have graduated to slick, funky pop the likes Phoenix might proffer, on their latest album Mia Pharaoh . We first wrote about them in 2009 – almost three years ago – when they were mainly a two-piece drumming up hype for their Wes Anderson-like all-American pop. Since then they've morphed into a modern amalgamation of catchy indie [...]
... Without His Punx Hunx And His Punx first entered my life via Vice Magazine's New Garage Explosion , which went live in 2011. The documentary features a wave of new garage rock bands sweeping across America, including Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees and Girls and details cities such as Memphis, Detroit and San Francisco. It also features one of the last interviews ever conducted with Jay Reatard, before his untimely death in January 2010. The documentary still blows my mind [...]
Scraping On Wire For the past week I've had a song on my playlist that every time it's come on has made my ears prick up. I originally thought it was one of several WOMEN tracks I added to my playlist upon hearing the sad news that the band's guitarist Christopher Reimer had died in his sleep on February 21. But then it started reminding me a lot of Sic Alps, and Mike Donovan's equivocal ramblings. When I finally got around to [...]
Bon Iver Monday, February 27, 2012 Wellington Town Hall Photos by Rachel Brandon Click to view more photos of Bon Iver playing live at the Wellington Town Hall
Soft Machine Gun I've never been much of a fan of Regina Spektor's operatic bubblegum pop, but her latest offering has a lot more grit, opening and closing with blasting snare drums and running with a dark, emotive piano riff. 'All The Rowboats' is the first single off her new album What We Saw From The Cheap Seats , her first since 20092s Far. The new album has an unconfirmed release date of May 12, via Sire/Warner Bros. Records. Recorded in Los Angeles [...]
Coming Up For Air Experimental punk purveyors Xiu Xiu release their eighth album on March 6. Sole constant band member Jamie Stewart opens up about what drives his impressive productivity, why the band is in such fine form and some of the creative partnerships that have fed into it throughout its 10 years. Hi! How are you doing? Stressed out! Too much work right now, but it's [...]
Camp A Low Hum February 10-12, 2012 Homedale, Wellington Photos by Rachel Brandon [...]
Laneway Festival Monday, January 30, 2012 Silo Park, Auckland Photos by Rachel Brandon [...]
It's curtains for you Shadowy shoegaze dream-punk/pop band Night Manager released a perfectly-formed 73 via Japanese label Big Love two months back, and yesterday it became available worldwide via Rough Trade. The three-song release captures the essence of the Brooklyn-via-Paris-and-San-Fra ncisco band's succinct pop with echoey melodies and doo wop-style vocals aching with an on-off nonchalance. Coming across as a softer, day-dreamier Be Your Own Pet or a more complex Best Coast, Night Manager heaps layers of scuzzy guitar reverb over [...]
Pirates of the Weird and Wonderful The excitement of 9 new Chad VanGaalen tracks landing in my inbox is a little bit overwhelming, especially when it's delivered with news of a split 123 with the ever evolving and extremely weird Xiu Xiu. The 123 is the second release in a series of amazing collaborations being pedalled by German label The Altin Village & Mine Records. The first release came in March 2010, featuring the primal drone of Oneida and the [...]
Thee Oh Sees The Grand Chancellors The Spunks | Mr. Slackjaw Saturday, January 28, 2012 Mighty Mighty, Wellington Photos by Rachel Brandon More photos of Thee Oh Sees, The Grand Chancellors, The [...]
Einstein Music Journal
Sexy Track // “Devil Or Angel” // Lou Doillon
HAERTS: “All The Days”
Daft Punk - Lose Yourself to Dance (Simøne Remix)
