Forest Surprise Pond created an amazing dream funk revival party with their set at Campus A Low Hum , enticing the sun-drenched crowd to dance like they were at Woodstock. With exotic, grandiose songs steeped in nostalgia for 60s and 70s radio rock, their psychedelia-soaked synth meltdowns and catastrophic drum beats backed with swirling europhic sounds was a delightful afternoon surprise. 'Annie Orangetree' is definitely my favourite song of theirs, it sounds ecstatic with its [...]
Springs Breaking In The Clockwork Describing his band as "label polygamists", Sic Alps' drummer Matt Hartman talks about label hopping, album sequencing and reading reviews of Sic Alps' latest album Napa Asylum. A character of acute sensibility, Matt Hartman's personality instantly takes shape. He's totally in control of every aspect of his band's output. For seven years the band he fronts with [...]
Die! Die! Die! Glass Vaults Zowie Disasteradio Electric Wire Hustle Friday, March 4, 2011 Hunter Lounge, Wellington [...]
Dream Magnet Connan Mockasin, the eccentric wizard of majestic pop, has a new tour de force of sorts. His album Please Turn Me Into The Snat is being re-released just over a year after it came out, by the possibly more accessible name Forever Dolphin Love in the UK. The occasion has been celebrated with the release last week of an amazing video for the title track. Arguably his finest work yet, 'Forever Dolphin Love' (above) features London-based [...]
Secret Knives Tuesday, March 1, 2011 Hunter Lounge, Wellington Photos by Rachel Brandon View more photos of Secret Knives live in the Hunter Lounge
Smokers Delight Amber Gold - it is not just the colour of Gabrielle Smith's glasses, it's also the colour that jumps out from her music. Performing as Eskimeaux, her music has a classical quality that mixes perfectly with her twee ambition, laying down soft, soothing vocals atop a bed of delicate strings and keyboard drone. She's been releasing music since early 2008 and yesterday released her latest album Two Mountains as a free download via Bandcamp . Recorded in her New [...]
Spiritual Heatwave/ No Doz NO ZU were one of the best kept secrets of Campus A Low Hum 2011, a wonderfully surprising party band that encouraged everyone to dance. Once Nick and I arrived home in Auckland and wiped the grins off our faces and the camping grime off our skin, we discovered a lovely email from NO ZU's main man, Nicolaas Oogjes. The multi-instrumentalist (who played in Tantrums for a year and also [...]
Total Hacker My favourite psychedelic sludge pop band from New York, Total Slacker , released a new song the other day, and it's a gem. 'Life on Easy Street (U Could Die In BedStuy)' is a classic grunge-pop song featuring raunchy guitars and Emily Oppenheimer's brilliant sleepy sing-along vocals with Tucker Rountree's weird yet matter-of-fact depiction of New York life. His typical awesome glam-out guitar solo steals the show [...]
Love Is A Dog From Hell Yesterday a press release from Shock Records reminded me of Noah and the Whale, a band whose debut album in 2008 I adored, but then only briefly listened to a few tracks from their follow-up album The First Days Of Spring. That album was also accompanied by a short film, directed by front-man Charlie Fink. Now the band are about to release their third album, named after Charles Bukowski's poetry collection The Last Night Of [...]
Rocky Mountain High Blasts of rough-around-the-edges shimmering pop stirs your senses, giving you a hay-fever addiction totally unprovoked by the outside world. Secret Cities, a trio from Fargo, North Dakota, released their debut album last year titled Pink Graffiti and it gained rave reviews across the blogosphere. On February 12 they released their follow-up single; a dizzy garage reflective pop jam titled 'Love Crime'. It's less sprinkled with tangerine style hooks than Pink Graffiti, but it retains much of the [...]
Campus A Low Hum 2011 highlights Words by Sarah Gooding, Photos by Rachel Brandon High Places High Places' ramshackle beauty was always going to stand out. And after talking to Rob and Mary while waiting in line for dinner at the restaurant, I found out they didn't even mind the crowd invasion that happened [...]
Stoned Again... Released a few days ago, Puro Instinct's latest track 'Silky Eyes' has engraved itself on my mind. It's slack comatose vocals are lazy and infectious, with shimmering discord guitars starting all loose before descending into an incredible pop melody. There's a hint of '80s prog in the rhythms that the band seem to be channelling, and as a concept it ties in perfectly to create a carefree, easy listening sound. Ariel Pink has obviously been an influence as well, evident in the [...]
Protest You Get sucked into the driving sound of Disappears, Brian Case from The Ponys ' epic new tour de force with Damon Carruesco and Jonathan Van Herik. 'Halo' is an emphatic and shouty take on shimmering trance-inducing reverb rhythm and blues, with a drone krautpop slant that brings to mind the bottled-up nerve of Wilberforces and the sustained release of '60s prog. It's a huge sound that doesn't need to build - it's that [...]
A n A c u r a t e R e f l e c t i o n From Tasmania, Australia, Tiger Choir's washy rhythms spread like a contagious disease, sending cascading electronics and heavily cushioned reverb out into the atmosphere. The three-piece band consisting of Hamish Cruickshank, Sam Nicholson and Eliot Taylor describe themselves as "a bit all over the place", bouncing between songs littered with electronic samples to songs cut using guitars, adopting a more traditional post-punk [...]
Laneway Festival Monday, January 31, 2011 Aotea Square, Auckland Photos by Rachel Brandon [...]
Spirit Master Named after a Playstation game, Sheep,Dog&Wolf is the dedicated project of Daniel McBride, known to many as the drumming talent behind the short-lived but legendary riotous punk trio Bandicoot . Fortunately all the members have continued to do creative things after the band's split, and Daniel is no different. His project Sheep,Dog&Wolf has flown under the radar for the past six months since he started it, but with the gradual upload of songs onto his myspace he is slowly revealing his [...]
Surf City with Ghost Wave, Wilberforces and Grass Cannons Saturday, January 29, 2011 Mt Eden Carpark, Auckland Photos by Frances Carter More photos of Surf City, Ghost [...]
I Hope Nothing Happens Wellington songwriter, Tobias Brockie has been releasing music under various rhinoceros related pseudonyms for like five years or something - maybe longer than that. It's hard to tell with fiercely 'in bedroom' musicians like this, who you hear traces of on and off for as long as you can remember 'local music' being a thing that exists. Currently working under the Rhinoceros Brave moniker, Brockie's efforts make for [...]
The Unicorn Lives Having a penchant for silly things like unicorns is more common than you might think. If memory serves, I think that's how I discovered insane band Gay Against You long ago, whose song 'Gay Unicorn' brought me endless joy (and still does). Nowadays Joe Howe has moved away from the high-pitched exuberant glee of that band and is making some spacier, deeper, but still crazy songs in their own right. Joined by Bastian Hagedorn, Joe now creates clumsy, fun [...]
Einstein Music Journal
Princesse - Tell Me | MP3
Prince – Controversy (Mighty Mouse Re-Edit)
Beck - 'I Just Started Hating Some People Today' [Listen]
[LISTEN] Gotye (Passion Pit Remix)
Azealia Banks – ’1991′ & ‘Van Vouge’
