H 6 MARC
25 2012 #0
velvet tiger presents from Japan.. .
WELLINGTON BODEGA
TUESDAY 27 th MARCH doors 8pm
AUCKLAND KINGS ARMS
WEDNESDAY 28 th MARCH doors 8pm
T i ckets availabl e from u n d e r thefucking radar & re al groovy
Brought to you by 95bFM and Unde r The Radar
From: Joseph Nunweek Date: March 1, 2012 11:48:16 PM GMT+13:00 To: Sam Wicks, Duncan Greive Subject: Auckland’s #1 bad boy strikes again Enjoyed this a lot but I dunno if any review I wrote (or anyone else, for that matter) could have saved sales of a “dude-from-Bloc-Party-goes-dubstep” EP... AFTER WE SIGN off on issue #025 and Hugh and I brave an Air Tahiti flight to La La Land, “Auckland’s #1 bad boy” Joe Nunweek is stepping in to edit VOLUME for the next couple of weeks – and Kele Okereke will no doubt be pleased to know he’s on the look-out for another writer to take on the thumbnail album reviews while he’s juggling VOLUME with his day job. He did say something about much-missed former Real Groove writer Stevie Kaye... Back in Real Groove days, Nunweek’s assessment of Andrew Stockdale and co’s latest had had me at “Hypothesis: every time that dude in Wolfmother wails ‘Wommmmmmuuuuuuuaaahhhhn!!!!’ a woman working in a western Australian bar is sexually harassed.” So wrong, yet almost certainly right. For my money, his pithy, at times barbed, and always illuminating reviews are one of the mag’s best features. They might not have helped shift any units of Kele’s The Hunter, but that’s not his job, right? From the distance of Austin, I’m looking forward to seeing what he brings to the table for the next couple of issues.
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EDITOR: Sam Wicks sam.wicks@volumemagazine.co.nz WEB EDITOR: Hugh Sundae hugh.sundae@nzherald.co.nz DEPARTMENT OF VOLUME SALES: John Baker john.baker@volumemagazine.co.nz DESIGN: Xanthe Williams WRITERS: Marty Duda, Jonathan Ganley, Duncan Greive, Jessica Hansell, Matt Heath, Joe Nunweek, Danielle Street, Hugh Sundae, Dan Trevarthen, Aaron Yap, ILLUSTRATION: Mitch Marks PHOTOGRAPHERS: Ted Baghurst, Jonathan Ganley, Dallas Pickering, Milana Radojcic AN APN PUBLICATION
“It’s grimy, adrenalised, sweetly-satisfying and your parents probably won’t like it.” In this week’s issue, VOLUME’s Danielle Street reviews Reign of Terror, the new album from noise pop duo Sleigh Bells, and talks to the voice of Sleigh Bells, Alexis Krauss. We’ve got five box-fresh copies of Reign of Terror to give away – email loot@volumemagazine.co.nz and let us know what you know about Krauss’ background with teen-pop outfit Rubyblue.
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Hi New Zealanders! We are excited about playing in the most beautiful place in the world, WOMAD, New Plymouth. Also, I have planned to stay on a couple of days after the festival to get to know your culture – I’ll leave you my number in case you want to invite me to your house for lunch. Ha ha! Diego Guerrero y El Solar de Artistas from Spain is one of more than 30 bands and musicians from 20 different countries heading to WOMAD New Zealand 2012 in New Plymouth from 16–18 March. Taft.co.nz/womad.
FRAN KORA – THE HEAVY METAL NINJAS
Nice masks. How does it feel to be a Heavy Metal Ninja? (Silence followed by a smoke bomb – *poooof*). Who are your top-five masked musicians? Michael Jackson lol, Bruce Dickinson’s mask while singing ‘Powerslave’ live, Erik from Phantom of the Opera, Gwar (old school – out of it) and of course Slipknot. The Kora brothers have a background in martial arts. What’s your discipline? Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (cue another smoke bomb – *poooof*).
What inspired the band to don disguises? (Smoke bombs – *pooof*). The boys like ninjas and undercover identities. If The Heavy Metal Ninjas squared off against Chuck Norris, Steven Segal and Jean-Claude Van Damme, who’d come up on top and why? Easy – Chuck Norris every time! He has more hair on his chest and has a moustache (final smoke bomb and disappear – *pooof*). The Heavy Metal Ninjas’ self-titled EP is out now on Warner Music.
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MAMA, I DON’T WANT TO CRY…
All this talk of leap-year proposals reminded me that technically I never turned 18. That milestone – celebrated with gusto on a later date, naturally – fell victim to the international dateline. I couldn’t really tell anyone at the time without revealing my embarrassment over the events that preceded the whole damned affair. But now, 16 years later, I feel ready to come clean.
HAVING A FULLTIME job at the age of 17 means one thing – disposable income. I hadn’t yet burdened the taxpayer with a student loan (that was three years later and I’ll be lucky if I pay that sucker off by Xmas) and so I set about saving up for my dream holiday. The plan was to fly to LA then head up to San Francisco where a friend would come down from Vancouver to meet me. After a couple of days we’d hop on a two-week bus tour that would head through California and end up in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Seattle would be the next stop – not to see the home of grunge but to see the Boeing factory – before spending a few weeks in Vancouver. Sounds great, right? Things were pretty much going to plan up until the bus tour, but the “bigness” of the US was starting to get to me. San Francisco was great,
I visited Haight-Ashbury, blah blah blah. But the bus tour was not what I’d thought. Maybe I didn’t read the fine print but I kinda thought the two busloads of youths would stay in actual
“The size of the US – not just the country but everything in it – had got to me and I was too stubborn to pull myself out of the K-hole.” accommodation each night. It turned out to be a bit more feral than that. It was day two of the two-week bus tour when I revealed to my friend – who had taken time off work for my
trip – that I’d be leaving the tour and heading back to San Fran. I’d freaked out. The size of the US – not just the country but everything in it – had got to me and I was too stubborn to pull myself out of the K-hole. A teary phone call home, a taxi to Phoenix, and a bus to San Fran later, I was calling the airline to book a flight home barely a week after my arrival. My independent and adventurous eyes had proven bigger than my belly. Of course, having enough money for a few weeks and only one night to spend it in, I did what any red-blooded teenager would do. I stayed in a flash hotel and went to FAO Schwarz and spent hundreds of dollars on Lego. Flying home the next day – and missing 5 February – I knew I would have to lay low at home for a few weeks so my secret wouldn’t get out. In many ways I haven’t grown up since then, but I hope I have a thicker skin. Later this week – as Sam mentioned last week – we head to Austin to cover as much of the SXSW festival as possible. I’m sure the US is as big as it ever was, and we’ll be trying to fit as much of it into the coming pages of VOLUME and on nzherald.co.nz as we can. It’s a tough job, as they say.
presents
That’s Country dominated Saturday night television when it was broadcast on the country’s only channel from 1976 to 1983. This month the original stars of the countrythemed entertainment show are on the road including Ray Columbus, Suzanne Prentice and the original That’s Country band. For Talking Heads, Ray Columbus and fellow southern son Delaney Davidson talked about country music’s relationship to New Zealand, the roots of the “Mod’s Nod” and more. Photography Ted Baghurst RAY COLUMBUS: In television you’ve got to walk the line between commerciality and originality. So, anyway, [TVNZ’s] head of entertainment called me in and said, ‘The specials we made last year were really successful, and they were Columbus Discovers, Xmas, country, brass bands and so on’. And he said, ‘The one that rated through the roof was country music’. DELANEY DAVIDSON: What do you think country music’s relationship to New Zealand is? We obviously have a big agricultural population… Yeah – farming, the Irish, the Welsh, the fiddles, the banjos, the harmonicas. And even though I didn’t know it at the time, I only really discovered country with rockabilly. Was that before you went to the States? Oh yeah, long before. The first Elvis song I heard was Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s ‘That’s Alright’. When I went to Austin for the first time it really reminded me of the concept of Christchurch. It’s a big agricultural area and you can imagine guys coming in after working on the farm and going to a big hotel and buying a steak, going to see some music in the pub. Absolutely. I’ve been to Fort Worth, and the same sort of thing applies
– you really get the same feeling in a place like Texas. So it was long before – it was in my crystal set days – but I discovered Elvis singing ‘That’s Alright’. I was weaned between rockabilly and… Where was that station you were picking up coming from if you were picking it up on your crystal set? Was it an American station? No, often at night you’d pick up Australian stations because after midnight all our radio went off the air – in fact that’s how I learned years later that The Invaders were quite successful in Australia already with an instrumental that we did which was a flipside called ‘Kupow’. And it was through those midnight airwaves.
“I almost burned myself out but I was so driven to live my dream that nothing got in my way.” – RAY COLUMBUS The record wasn’t even released there. I always believe if you know what you want to do, start doing it now, because if you wait for the right time it’s never going to come, and it’s going to take you so long to do it anyway so you might as well get on with it. I was just so lucky – I woke up one day and I had the number one band in Australia and New Zealand, and I was only 21. I was the lead booker/agent/choreographer/ songwriter and lead singer. And I didn’t even think of myself like that, but I do now. I almost
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burned myself out but I was so driven to live my dream that nothing got in my way. I never thought much of my singing so I made sure I had the best bloody band around. And I wanted to make sure they all did dance steps and performed and entertained the audience too – they didn’t just rely on me to do that. And the boys – The Invaders – loathed it initially, but I know now – I mean, there’s only two of them alive now – but while they were alive they all made statements finally saying that actually the dream, the drive of their mad leader was what made The Invaders happen. I often think about dance – when you see someone performing and they’re incorporating any bit of dance into their performance it makes it so much stronger as a medium. Oh, and it doesn’t matter if it’s Mick Jagger – when I toured with The Rolling Stones and Roy Orbison on Big Beat ’65 with The Invaders and The Newbeats, Charlie Watts one day, we were waiting at Melbourne Airport to get on a flight to Adelaide for the next couple of shows. Charlie was sitting down with Bill Wyman and Brian Jones, and I arrived with the boys, and Mick and Keith were probably over there with Andrew Loog Oldham – they were always slightly away from us – and Charlie just said to me, ‘Eh, where did you learn to do all that dancing, playing the maracas and all that?’ I said, ‘Well, I was a tap dancer as a kid but when this band was really young we played the enlistment club at the American Deep Freeze base at the airport. There were no girls allowed in there, there were all young guys – teenagers from South Carolina and Georgia and Tennessee and whatever, and many of them were African-American. And when we had a set break they would put on their jukebox, and we would hear songs that I would never hear on my crystal set – rhythm’n’blues music and country – and all these young guys would get up and dance, and they were doing the mashed potato, they were doing all sorts of interesting dances.’ So there was no partner dancing going on. Were they dancing with each other?
They were just dancing individually, and so I would get down and join them, and my band would say, ‘What are ya?’ and I said, ‘Hey look, this is a natural thing just to get up and dance and not be hung up.’ I integrated all those steps into the Mod’s Nod years later, and that’s what I was telling Charlie. I said, ‘I learned a lot of these steps from American servicemen’. I said, ‘Where did Mick get his from?’ He said, ‘Oh, he copied James Brown, didn’t he!’ Well I said, ‘It’s the same thing, man!’ To listen to the full audio of Delaney Davidson and Ray Columbus in conversation, head to nzherald.co.nz/ volume – live from 2pm Tuesday. Delaney Davidson is online at delaneydavidson.com. Ray Columbus is part of the That’s Country nationwide tour this month – tour details at stetsongroup.com.
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Saturday 15 February 1997 – Dirty Three’s Warren Ellis is a bloody mess. The band has just finished playing a stunning set at a club called Luna on Symonds Street in Auckland. Ellis’ hand is bleeding after a close encounter with bandmate Mick Turner’s guitar. Ellis’ playing was so frenzied that he lost track of where he was. Next week the band will again put their bodies on the line. Text Marty Duda
“I REMEMBER THAT!” Ellis says down the line from his home in Paris. “I’ve still got a really big scar from that.” Apparently that wasn’t the only damage Ellis inflicted on himself back then in New Zealand. “I decided to go swimming and surfing and ended up in an ambulance having to go to hospital because I got thrown and then ground into the bottom of the sea. They thought my neck had been broken. That was a wild show, that one.” Monday 1 February 2010 – Dirty Three are back in Auckland, this time playing at the inaugural Laneway Festival at Britomart Square. Again, the Grim Reaper makes another attempt on the band. “Our mixer was nearly killed, poisoned by a chicken. He thought he was gonna die. He’s lived one of the wildest lives of anyone I know, and then to have it all brought down by a piece of chicken would have been funny.” Fortunately the technician survived. And Ellis has more pleasant memories of that show. “I met Shayne Carter from Straitjacket Fits, which was a real treat for me. I really loved that band; I used to see them a lot. I saw Shayne again at the Big Day Out in the rain. I remember his face in the rain there.” Ellis was playing with Nick Cave in Grinderman at the Big Day Out in January 2011. The band has since dissolved. When asked what happened, Ellis sounds genuinely confused.
“I’ve got no idea what happened. I’m still trying to get answers. The drummer went off his medication and we’re picking up the pieces. I don’t actually know what’s going on.” Dirty Three (guitarist Mick Turner, drummer Jim White and violin player Warren Ellis) is returning to Auckland with a new album, Toward the Low Sun. It’s the trio’s first since 2005’s Cinder. That record found the mostly-instrumental act working with vocalists such as Cat Power and Sally Timms (of The Mekons) and more structured songs. The new record is a move back to improvisational playing.
“I hope there’s no blood this time. At least I hope it’s not mine.” – WARREN ELLIS “The last album before this was certainly more organised. We tried to record this album a couple of times and it just wasn’t ready for various reasons. Every time we tried the material wouldn’t sound inspired. We’ve never wanted to put anything out that we didn’t feel proud of. I guess we just had to wait for it to present itself.” Although they are originally from Melbourne, the three band members now each live on separate continents. “I think the last time we lived in the same city, we nearly killed each other,” admits Ellis. In the intervening seven years since Cinder the three musicians
have had plenty to keep them busy, together and apart. All of that creativity finds its way into Dirty Three’s music. “I just finished a documentary with Peter Jackson on the West Memphis Three. Doing something like that’s a very different thing, but it’s all grist for the mill. The last thing you do informs the thing you’re about to go to and it doesn’t really matter what it is. It’s all related in a way, whether I’ve just done a film or a Grinderman tour or a Dirty Three album, it takes you to a different spot. It means that the thing you go to next is going to be in a different spot as well. The great thing about Dirty Three is that between the last album and this album Jim and myself have played on 20 albums. I’ve made something like five soundtracks. Mick’s made a couple of solo albums and a couple of exhibitions of paintings so there’s been lots of creative things going on. It feels good to be able to have branched out and do different things. Warren Ellis is looking forward to Dirty Three’s show at The Powerstation with some trepidation. “I hope there’s no blood this time. At least I hope it’s not mine.” Dirty Three play The Powerstation in Auckland on Wednesday 14 March. Dirty Three’s Toward the Low Sun is out now on Hope & Anchor/Rhythmethod.
Each week Duncan Greive performs some low grade analysis on the week’s New Zealand Singles Chart and reviews a few new release pop singles. To submit or suggest a track for review email singles@volumemagazine.co.nz or tweet @duncangreive. THE CHART SLIPS FURTHER INTO THE ABYSS Reece Mastin, the English-born (warning sign) winner of The X-Factor (flashing bright red) opens his new single, which Reece Mastin has just topped our charts with this neat couplet: “Let’s go back to rock’n’roll/ When people just let go/ And let the music flow, oh oh oh”. Last year, when he topped the Australian charts I described this thusly: “a repellent slice of perky plod that has the temerity to yearn for a return to the days of good time rock’n’roll.” Nothing has changed. I love TV, but sometimes it can be almost too powerful. If you really hate music, he has a cover of ‘She Will Be Loved’ further down the chart. Further down Minaj’s end-is-nigh ‘Starships’ rises from 12 to four, and still sounds like it could displace Mastin at some point. New entry-wise Cher Lloyd’s ‘Want U Back’ is distinguished by this intense, guttural “uugh” that acts as percussion. It’s so strange, but it makes me feel very positively toward the song. The number of people who had to approve that weird sound for it to get on our radio... just makes me happy is all. And Breathe Carolina (GREAT band name, guys) have a song called ‘Blackout’. When I saw the sleeve I freaked out and thought it might be the English crew of “donk” fame with a song called ‘Breathe Carolina’. But it’s an American “electronica” duo instead :-( Still, due to the mental amount of auto-tune they use, I can’t stay mad at them. Enjoyably crazy.
RIANZ TOP 10 NEW ZEALAND SINGLES CHART 1 Reece Mastin – ‘Good Night’ 2 Flo Rida ft. Sia – ‘Wild Ones’ 3 Katy Perry – ‘Part of Me’ 4 Nicki Minaj – ‘Starships’ 5 David Guetta ft. Nicki Minaj – ‘Turn Me On’ 6 Cher Lloyd – ‘Want U Back’ 7 Train – ‘Drive By’ 8 Ed Sheeran – ‘Lego House’ 9 Annah Mac – ‘Girl in Stilettos’ 10 Chris Brown – ‘Turn Up the Music’
SINGLE OF THE WEEK
FAR EAST MOVEMENT FT. JUSTIN BIEBER – ‘Live My Life’ The only thing that could make Bieber better (oxymoron alert!) is a big dumb pop-house beat, right? It’s finally arrived! It’s actually not as bad as the whole Guettaverse – the beat has a slight syncopation that stops it being pure dull thud. But Bieber’s role here is akin to Rihanna’s on the song’s near namesake ‘Live Your Life’, and it’s nowhere near the cold stunner that anthem was. So for the most part it’s the Far East Movement doing their sub-LMFAO exhortations. Probably going to make some people involved a lot of money is about the best thing you can say about it.
RIA – ‘The One’ After breaking out last year with ‘Over You’, and with one song becoming basically the most exciting r’n’b singer in New Zealand, Ria struggled a little to follow it up. ‘All My Ladies’ came toward the end of the year, and now ‘The One’ arrives, with similar strengths and deficiencies intact. The reason ‘Over You’ worked was it channelled the late ’90s/early ’00s US r’n’b sound which is clearly a touchstone for her, and worked so brilliantly with her voice. ‘The One’ is nominally a more modern sound, leaning far more toward a pure contemporary pop production, but suffers because it doesn’t feel like the natural area for anyone involved (ie writers/singer/producer). It’s not bad, by any means, and when she really gets to linger on a syllable her voice is still very affecting. But it could be so much better if she just ignored this chart disease and did right by her. K’NAAN’ FT. NELLY FURTADO – ‘Is Anybody Out There?’ During the last golden era for pop Timbaland put together two outrageously good albums within the space of a few months. Justin Timberlake’s FutureSex/ LoveSounds and Nelly Furtado’s Loose did everything pop music was supposed to – huge, sky scraping melodies, production that moved the whole form forward, clear interest in a bunch of underground/historical genres without being beholden to any of them. We didn’t know how lucky we were. The crazy thing is that neither singer has released anything of consequence since. And over the six years which have passed the world of pop has been on an increasingly steep slope downward, quality-wise. One “featuring” spot doesn’t change that trend. But Furtado does a great job on this “uplifting” (that’s the feel, not how I felt) ballad, and her instincts around a hook sound as good today as when she last came through. She’s supposed to be bringing a new album this year, and you should all hope and pray that it signals the end of this nuclear winter we’ve endured under the reign of Guetta and the BEPs. ARCTIC MONKEYS – ‘R U Mine?’ A one-off single ahead of the shitty English band’s tour with that shitty American band The Black Keys. This is the epitome of the flesh-eating virus gnawing at the heart of English rock music – or at least the stuff which gets approving nods from the NME, then Q, Mojo etc. Which basically means that history stopped in 1989, when the The Stone Roses came out. So everything that has come since has had to pick some arbitrary period from the previous 25 years (’64 –’89) to slavishly replicate. This month, the Arctic Monkeys have chosen Thin Lizzy-ish boogie-ish prole rock circa 1976. It’s entirely creatively bankrupt, but secret racists who yearn for simpler times will love it.
DANIELLE STREET’S TOP FIVE CRIMINAL COUPLES 1: Bonnie and Clyde – An obvious but necessary couple to kick off this list. Nothing says love like getting riddled with a bazillion bullet holes together. True inspiration for the law-breaking lovers out there.
Reign of Terror (Mom+Pop/Liberator) THE LATEST ALBUM by Brooklyn-based duo Sleigh Bells could be likened to vandalism: It’s grimy, adrenalised, sweetly-satisfying and your parents probably won’t like it. Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller, who form the noise pop pair, have graduated from the cheerleading chants of 2010’s Treats to release the guitar-slinging Reign of Terror. Written on the road while touring, Reign of Terror takes a turn towards the dark side with Miller evoking recent personal tragedies during the penning process. But his thick, crunchy guitar riffs and impossible drumbeats are softened by the ethereal vocals of his partner-in-crime Krauss, her delicate lines layered over his stylised cacophony of musicianship. Despite spending almost twice as long in the studio than for their debut, Reign of Terror is lacking a little experimentation in the composition SHARON VAN ETTEN Tramp (Jagjaguwar) The best singersongwriters don’t really capture a zeitgeist or serve as “what you’ve been waiting for” – they catch you off-guard and hit you like a tonne. Van Etten echoes Hope Sandoval in her breathy rasp, but the songs and the sense of small-scale desolation are all hers. ‘Serpents’ is a strident train out of The National’s ruined town, while ‘In Line’ is as powerful as the first time you heard Cat Power’s ‘Paper Heart’. Fantastic. ARAABMUSIK Instrumental University (Duke) Last year’s Electronic Dream established this guy as a force to be reckoned with close to Clams Casino, though his tracks carried a crisper, harder DJ Shadow edge. This compilation of recent work is a dynamic reminder of how he skirts between more out-there concepts and populist dubstep/electro gestures. Some reviews have criticised it because the tracks “were just meant to be used for rappers”. Errr... GRIMES Visions (4AD) Montreal’s Clare Boucher has been compared to
2: Sailor and Lula – For a start, onehalf of this couple is Nicolas Cage in a snakeskin jacket. Next you add Laura Dern writhing around in teeny tiny outfits. Definitely a wild at heart twosome. Thanks again, Lynch.
department. However, there are some heavy-hitters nestled within the 11 tracks, each song title more ominous than the last. Sonorous call-and-response number ‘Born to Lose’ kicks the album off in fine style, and later songs like ‘Demons’ unleash monstrous amounts of bass and catchy chorused vocals. It all sounds a little heavy metal on paper, which is possibly not all that surprising for a band that started life with the moniker Slay (as in Slayer) Bells, but the line between good and evil is walked well here. Review Danielle Street
everything from Lykke Li (oh okay, she’s a girl) to J-pop (actually closer – from the wild, inscrutable artwork to the way these weird spectral compositions feel like they never quite hew to our Western expectations of synth-pop or r’n’b). She reminds me more than a little of our own Bachelorette – idiosyncratic music responding to but not beholden to current trends. THE MENZINGERS On the Impossible Past (Epitaph) Pretty solid postpop-punk, if such a genre exists. Epitaph has always been amiable to its aging pogo-ers exploring more sort of heartland/Tom Petty territory, and this is rife with striking, direct imagery – tattooed kids caught in parking lots, crashed muscle cars – complimenting some memorable, elegantly-wasted guitar anthems. JETSAM ISLES Physical Copy (Independent) Wellington avant-rock act – frontwoman Jess Prendergast sounds like she’s coming from a bottom of a well on songs that only serve to bury her in clangorous, exhilarating murk. On ‘Can of Mace’ the band’s sludgy groove almost verges on being “funky”, like a Dead C with hips. Proudly Creative Commons – go seek it out.
3: Joker and Harley Quinn – So he’s a green-haired, white-faced, homicidal psychopath with a hard-on for Batman... but no matter what supervillainry he does, Harley’s still got mad love for Mr J. 4: Tank Girl and Booga – These outback outlaws are completely adorable. She’s a boot-wearing babe who lives in a tank, and he’s a walking, talking kangaroo. Swoon. 5: Woody and Lol – Common miscreants Woody and Lol from the This is England film and series make me want to tattoo my knuckles, get a Chelsea hair-do and start wearing suspenders on a daily basis.
FREND Frend (Matron Records) Thanks to the site-that-shall-notspeak-its-status you can’t actually Google the word “frend” without it autocorrecting to “friend”, but this is an incongruous little Auckland EP that is actually kinda well-served by its mystery. ‘Kissed the Door’ is like if Collapsing Cities were ’70s soft-rock, ‘Freudian’ is a stiffly Caucasian TV on the Garageland. Awkwardly appealing. HUNX Hairdresser Blues (Hardly Art) US artist Seth Bogart’s big thing up till now has been subverting ’50s girl-group yearning with high camp and subversion, kind of like a lesser Stephen Merritt. His solo album might actually be the strongest thing we’ve seen from him today, if only because in letting its guard down for emotional directness it often functions as a set of songs, rather than in-jokes. SHEARWATER Animal Joy (Sub Pop) Jonathan Meiburg’s project has worked its tricky furrow between pastoral ambient music that’s all quivering tenor and the
more embarrassing corners of your dad’s record collection for some time now. Got told this was a “poppier effort” and hoped they’d do their ‘Owner of a Lonely Heart’ – ‘You as You Were’ and ‘Pushing the River’ get really close though the whole album flags a bit. GONJASUFI Mu.Zz.Le (Warp) Newest EP from this shamanic West Coast electronic artist moves even further away from the knotty beats that were displayed sometimes on A Sufi and a Killer and slotted him closer to the likes of Flying Lotus. He’s still an inscrutable vocalist and his raspy incantations always make for interesting listening, though the tracks tend to blur into each other. WILEY Evolve or Be Extinct (Big Dada) No ‘Wearing My Rolex’ on here, but I think that’s how he likes it. This is fun, fluid UK hip hop, not begging for a hit and reassuring to see a 30-something man make – how much fun is he having on the title track, joining in with the skittering backing melody off the cuff? Elsewhere, ‘Can I Have a Taxi Please’ reminds us of a time before Mike Skinner took himself seriously. Long may Wiley not. Reviews Joe Nunweek
Noise pop duo Sleigh Bells have gone from strength to strength since meeting four years ago. Singer Alexis Krauss talked to VOLUME about the pair’s new album Reign of Terror, which is bigger, louder and more metal than ever before. Text Danielle Street AS FAR AS band origin stories go, Sleigh Bells’ formation comes under the serendipitous category. “I’ve done several interviews where people are like, ‘So what’s the real story of how you guys met? You obviously didn’t meet in a restaurant,’” laughs Alexis Krauss, one-half of the Brooklyn-based duo. But Krauss insists that’s exactly how it went down. Her musical other-half Derek Miller had quit hardcore band Poison the Well after becoming disenchanted with the music he was making and wanted to branch into production. In the interim, Miller found himself waiting tables at a neighbourhood restaurant. The same restaurant where former teenpop singer Krauss, who was working as a schoolteacher at the time, went for dinner with her mother. There,
her mother casually struck up a conversation with Miller. “He started explaining that he is a musician and that he was really looking for somebody to work with,” Krauss recalls. “My mom sort of looked at me and said, ‘Oh, my daughter’s a singer’ and I looked at her like, ‘Stop talking mom, please... stop talking right now!’ But she kept going.” Four years later the twosome have the incredibly successful debut Treats under their belt, and have just released
their new record, Reign of Terror. While just as loud as Treats, Reign of Terror marks a definite shift in sound for Sleigh Bells. Miller wrote much of the music using guitar, creating a heavier, more metal-influenced tone than its predecessor. “Derek would tell you that the inspiration for Reign of Terror was a lot more difficult than for Treats, because it reflects on the personal strife that he was going through with his family, things that were very dark and bleak.
“The melodies and the delivery are very poporientated – with the exception of songs where I’m shouting my brains out.” – ALEXIS KRAUSS
her singing is often recorded at a very low volume with her almost whispering into the microphone, and then layered to effect. “I definitely approach the recording with a very childlike way of singing,” she says. “The melodies and the delivery are very pop-orientated – with the exception of songs where I’m shouting my brains out.” In the midfield between the shredding guitar tracks and the jumparound party numbers lies ‘Comeback Kid’, the first true single from Reign of Terror. A video for the single has been released which features a sweetlysmiling Krauss holding a rifle and jumping around in an immaculatelykitsch bedroom setting, playing with contrasting elements in the same manner as their music. To shoot the low-budget video the two flew to Miller’s hometown of Florida, and had it directed by his old high school friend, Gregory Kohn. “We kind of kept in the family,” Krauss says. “The scenes in the bedroom and in the house are actually Derek’s parents’ home, so everything was done in terms of production and props – it was just all right there.” Krauss says the pair will soon be looking to get into the studio and make another record and keep putting out music. She attributes their tenacity to the lack of romance in their friendship.
So it’s a lot more personal record for him,” explains Krauss. “But there are certain songs that are just pretty over the top and hopefully make people want to throw their hands up and dance and jump around. I think it’s a nice balance of the different moods.” Working on the new album also saw Krauss and Miller evolve into a more tight-knit partnership. For the singer it was a huge step forward in terms of bringing her ideas to the table for proper collaboration.
“For many years after Derek left Poison the Well he was really self-reliant and very controlling of being able to do things himself,” says Krauss. “But he understands full-well that this band is now very much my band as well. It’s both of our lives that I needed to be more involved with the creation of the music.” While her strong suit in the development of the duo’s sound is writing melodies, much of the Sleigh Bells identity relies on Krauss’ trademark saccharine vocals. She says
“We’ve never been in a relationship, there’s no baggage. It’s always been about working together as musicians, which is really great because from the start everything about Sleigh Bells was extremely focused.” But before that, Sleigh Bells is touring around the world to promote Reign of Terror, a journey that Krauss says will hopefully bring them to these shores. Sleigh Bells’ Reign of Terror is out now on Mom+Pop/Liberator.
KING FRAT PROJECT X Director Nima Nourizadeh
Starring Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper, Jonathan Daniel Brown FEATURING A PEABRAINED concept so simple it could’ve jumped out of bog-level MTV reality programming (tip of the hat to Melbourne’s BestParty-of-’08 champ Corey Delaney, of course), Nima Nourizadeh’s Project X is perhaps the Ground Zero, the Apocalypse Now of moronic YouTubegen teens-gone-wild comedies. An execrable excuse for using found footage-style shooting, it’s distinctive only for its unabashed underlying message that the only way to have your social status validated in high school is to throw the wildest party ever known to mankind. Geeky Thomas (Thomas Mann) has turned 17 and buddies Costa (Oliver Cooper) and J.B. (Jonathan Daniel Brown) have decided to invite everyone to his house for a bash while his parents are away. Weirdo cameraman
James William Guercio may be better known as the Grammy-winning manager of Chicago, but he also managed to make a movie: Electra Glide in Blue (Shock). Deemed “fascist” when it premiered at Cannes in ’73, the film starred pre-Beretta Robert Blake as a highway police officer aspiring to be a detective. Standard notions of cop heroism and “sticking it to the Man” are muddied in this post-’Nam pigs-vs-hippies tale, up to its unforgettable downer ending. Guercio took a salary of $1 so he could pay DP Conrad Hall to shoot the film, which incidentally looks stunning.
Dax Flame is on hand to capture the action, which is about on par with producer Todd Phillips’ (The Hangover) brand of juvenile filth. Soon Thomas is making out with the hottest girl in school, and we’re treated to dildo sniffing, Taser-toting 12-year-old security guards, an angry midget punching people in the balls, and an ex-military drug dealer hellbent on finding his stolen garden gnome. It goes without saying they probably had more fun making this than we have watching it. Nourizadeh, whose background is in music vids and commercials, is clearly more skilled at trailing his camera on the copious T&A than grounding the ecstasy-laced, beerswilling mayhem in any semblance of narrative and providing us with a good reason to give a shit about Thomas and his cohorts’ idiocy. Review Aaron Yap
Project X producer Todd Phillips has been down the “reality” road before feature filmmaking, having made the GG Allin doco Hated (1994) and the lesserknown Frat House (1998). The latter, a rare HBO-commissioned doco that was never broadcast, is an unflinching look at American fraternity life and its brutal hazing rituals. It drew flak for being partially staged and is still not readily available on home video.
Director Edgar Wright and Johnny Depp are teaming up to make a big screen version of the cult ’70s ABC TV movie/ series The Night Stalker. Disney is planning the movie to be family-friendly and PG-13. Joel Kinnaman, co-star of TV’s The Killing and recently seen in Safe House, has been offered the role of Robocop in the upcoming MGM reboot being directed by José Padilha (Elite Squad). Dreamworks have announced the voice cast of their garden snail animated film Turbo. In addition to Ryan Renolds in the lead, the cast includes Maya Rudolph, Paul Giamatti, Michael Pena, Ken Jeong, Bill Hader, Snoop Dogg and Samuel L. Jackson.
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THE POWERSTATION, AUCKLAND WEDNESDAY 22 JUNE 1994 Review Alan Perrott Photo courtesy of Gary Baildon I THOUGHT I was going mad. Memory says I saw Radiohead at The Powerstation in June 1994, some website says it was the Auckland Town Hall. Eh? I’ve got damned vivid memories of watching Thom doing some Jesus Christ pose from the balcony as Andrew Moore offhandedly dismissed them in my left ear: “Small Faces wannabes...” Either way, it had been a week early happy birthday to me. And why not? I’d just been made redundant from my brain-numbing job at the old Auckland Area Health Board – best thing Helen Clark ever did for me, cheers Helen. And in my book, rock’n’roll was always better medicine than laughter. Not always as good as proper medicine mind, like I wouldn’t prescribe it to someone whose head had dropped off, but a bit of mindless jumping about has never done me any harm. Which, as we did back then, was how the night began. I had a mate who lived behind Al & Pete’s in Newmarket. It was our launching pad of choice whenever a big night beckoned. And we had it down pat. Oil slicks posing as cheeseburgers washed down with beer, rum, Bad Brains and Motörhead as we jumped up and down on his couch, then off we’d jet. There must have been a support band – being big on local sounds at the time, we would most definitely have seen them – but God knows who it was. Anyway, if any band could have claimed to possess the alt-zeitgeist of the time, it was
Radiohead. ‘Creep’ had been one of those rare songs that gave you an instant clip round the ears. Then ‘Iron Lung’ came along and I was an obsessive teenager all over again. So yes, I was excited. I guess the thing is that back then they were a rock’n’roll band, pure and simple. No bleeps, androids or smart-arse marketing, just guitars, bung eyes and a contrary attitude. They dropped ‘Creep’ four or so songs in which pretty much told you all you needed to know about their attitude toward stardom and
“No bleeps, androids or smart-arse marketing, just guitars, bung eyes and a contrary attitude” catering to the fans. But still, that voice was in full-effect, the crunching guitar was present and correct, and they played what they wanted to play. Now, I’m not saying it was best gig I’ve ever seen (at the bloody Powerstation, I don’t care what the web says) – that’ll always be Fugazi’s first visit, but hey, I’m just happy to say I saw Radiohead before they got allimportant. Radiohead play Vector Arena in Auckland on Tuesday 6 November.
VECTOR ARENA, AUCKLAND MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY Review and photography Jonathan Ganley GIVEN THE TASK by the VOLUME editor of both photographing and reviewing the New Order show at Vector Arena, your correspondent had some misgivings about the early start (“doors at seven”), the overpriced merchandise, the instructions over the venue loudspeakers, the $5 bottles of water and $9 draft beer in a plastic cup. However, once the talisman of a laminated photo pass was placed around my neck, all cynicism disappeared. The security was helpful, the venue interior had been reconfigured to a more intimate size, and the crowd was buzzing. Welcome to the machine. Support band Junica played a short but impressive set. Guitarist and vocalist Nik Brinkman’s influences are clear – there’s plenty of ’80s/’90s Church/ Cure/New Order/Creation Records in the mix. But the songs were well-constructed pop rock: loud, swirling and dynamic. No complaints about the sound. Then waiting for New Order. Pondering the big questions: would they cut it without Peter Hook? Is this really The Other Two plus Bernard? The arena floor was comfortably packed when the lights went down and the group appeared, starting with a truncated ‘Elegia’ and moving through a 90-minute set that touched on almost every album and aspect of their career. It was a retrospective journey from their beginning, but with no surprises: from plangent guitars and hesitant vocals (‘Ceremony’) to synthesisers, sequencers and drum machines (‘Bizarre Love Triangle’, ‘Blue Monday’ and ‘Temptation’). They finished with a rousing football stadium version of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, which would have made me cringe if I hadn’t already been appalled by the same
treatment meted out to the song 10 years ago at the Big Day Out. The show reminded me of Kraftwerk’s performance in 2008, where the band was anonymous and the visuals became a seamless part of the whole package. This was especially
“Once the talisman of a laminated photo pass was placed around my neck, all cynicism disappeared.” noticeable during ‘586’. That visual anonymity added to my feeling that there was something missing. Tom Chapman has to fill a big pair of badass motorbike boots. He plays Peter Hook’s bass parts well, and adds some new flourishes of his own, but the sight of Hook’s ridiculous but endearing rock
star posing, flailing his low-slung bass, always made a great foil to Sumner’s trademark yearning vocals, airpunching, whooping and dancing. I enjoyed the show. Unlike the 1982 gig this was nothing revolutionary, although I wasn’t expecting anything except good songs played to a receptive crowd who were well up for it. I was dancing really badly, and I wore earplugs but took them out halfway through ‘The Perfect Kiss’ because I wanted to hear the rest of the set at full volume. I wouldn’t go so far as one local promoter who bagged the show on Twitter, describing one song as “a mid-morning singalong at Sunny Hills retirement home”. New Order may record again, take chances again, and one day surprise us again. But I can see Bernard Sumner 10 years from now, onstage like Ralf Hütter, with huge video screens, three faceless accomplices and a row of laptops: the new New Order.
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NORTHLAND
FRIDAY 9 Urban Country – Whangarei RSA, Whangarei, 6pm, Free The Hewson Project – 35 Degrees South Aquarium Restaurant and Bar, Paihia, 6pm, Free The Joe Carbery Trio – Aratapu Tavern, Dargaville, 7:30pm, Free
AUCKLAND
TUESDAY 6 Florries Irish Music Jam Sessions – Florrie McGreals Irish Pub, Takapuna, 7:30pm, Free Ak Jazz & Blues Club – Frank E. Evans Band – Pt Chevalier RSA, Pt Chevalier, 7:30pm, $5 Joel Vinsen – Spencer on Byron Hotel, Takapuna, 7pm, Free Urge Overkill w/ The Dirty Sweets – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pm, $65 WEDNESDAY 7 Swamp Thing w/ guests the Bads and Dianne Swann – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pm Wednesdays at Flight lounge ft Sam Hill & General Lee – Flight Lounge, Auckland CBD, 10pm, Free Chicane Duo – Sugar Bar, Newmarket, 7pm, Free Creative Jazz Club: Alain Koetsier Quartet – 1885 Basement, Auckland CBD, 8pm, $5-$10 Eli Moore – Spencer on Byron Hotel, Takapuna, 7pm, Free Live Latin and Brazilian Music – The Mexican Cafe, Auckland CBD, 8:30pm, Free Wednesday R&B Jam Night – Flo Bar & Cafe, Newmarket, 9pm, Free Roky Erickson – Powerstation, Eden Terrace, 8pm, $65 THURSDAY 8 Ryan Adams w/ guest Jason Isbell (Drive-By Truckers) – The Civic, THE EDGE, Auckland CBD, 7pm Luger Boa & Black River Drive – Presented by AuSM & The Rock – Vesbar, Auckland CBD, 7:30pm, $5-$20 2Five9 Jazz Trio – 1885 Basement, Auckland CBD, 10pm, Free Nikola Memedovic Jazz Duet – C.A.C. Bar & Restaurant, Mt Eden, 6:30pm, Free Petra Rijnbeek & Paul Voight – The Lumsden, Newmarket, 6:30pm, Free Greg Tell – Auckland Fish Market, Auckland CBD, 5pm, Free D’Starlights – Papatoetoe RSA, Papatoetoe, 6:30pm, $5 These Automatic Changers – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pm FRIDAY 9 Shenandoah Davis (USA), Timothy Blackman, Panther & the Zoo – Wine Cellar, Newton, 8pm The Mysterians, X-ray Fiends, Wild and The Cavemen – Snake Pit, Auckland CBD, 8pm, $5 Opiuo – The Butternut Slap Tour – 4:20, Newton, 10pm, $20 Chris Cope – QF Tavern, Auckland CBD, 10pm, Free Mitch French – Florrie McGreals
Irish Pub, Takapuna, 9:30pm, Free Riqi Harawera – Moretons Bar and Restaurant, St Heliers, 8pm, Free Steve Tulloch Band w/ Karen Davy – Dairy Flat Community Hall, Dairy Flat, 7:30pm, Free Jackie Bristow – Coming Home Tour – One 2 One Cafe (121), Ponsonby, 8pm, $15 Tiki Taane, Dick Johnson, Greg Churchill, Bevan Keys + More – InkCoherent, Newton, 10pm, $10 AC Slater (New York/USA) – Code, Auckland CBD, 10pm, $10 Emily Smith and Jamie McClennan – Artworks Community Theatre, Waiheke Island, 8pm, $20-$25 Sunshine Sound System – Sawmill Cafe, Leigh, 9:30pm, $10-$15 Fridays at Trench Bar – Trench Bar, Auckland CBD, 10pm, Free Auckland Vintage Jazz Society – Nixon Park Community Hall, Howick, 7:30pm, $10-$15 Sandy Lynch – Spencer on Byron Hotel, Takapuna, 7pm, Free Cuban Accent – Havana Club, Auckland CBD, 9pm Live Latin Music – Besos Latinos Restaurant, Auckland CBD, 7:30pm, Free Subtract, Resporn and Fractured – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pm, $10 Triceratops, Dust Up At Dawn, Faults & Apex – Masonic Tavern, Devonport, 8pm, $10 Contagious – Cock & Bull, Lynfield, 9:30pm, Free SugarBang Band – The Flying Moa, Mt Wellington, 8:30pm, Free The Rock ‘n’ Roll Allstars – Silverdale RSA, Whangaparaoa Peninsula, 7pm, Free SATURDAY 10 Alaska, Great North, Jupiter Project – The Basement, Auckland CBD, 8:30pm, $10 The Underground Festival – Kings Arms, Newton, 3pm, Free Brett Polley – Fibber McPhee’s Irish Bar, Botany Downs, 7pm, Free David Shanhun Duo – Blacksalt Bar & Eatery, New Lynn, 8pm, Free Francis Jakeman – De Post, Mt Eden, 8:30pm, Free Franko – Florrie McGreals Irish Pub, Takapuna, 9:30pm, Free Mal McCallum – Rickshaw Eddy’s, Mission Bay, 9pm, Free Jackie Bristow – Coming Home Tour – Uxbridge Creative Centre, Howick, 8pm, $15 Back to It – Northern Steamship Co., Auckland CBD, 9pm, Free Big Ass Party – Be Club, Auckland CBD, 10pm, $5 Music in Parks 2012 – Jazz at the Rotunda – Puhoi Domain, Puhoi, 6pm, Free Neville Chamberlain – Spencer on Byron Hotel, Takapuna, 7pm, Free Habana Noches – Tropical Flavour – QF Tavern, Auckland CBD, 9pm, Free Jason Mohi – Malt Bar, Grey Lynn, 8pm, Free Timesplitters, Jinetero MC and Sam Rivers – Khuja Lounge, Auckland CBD, 9pm, $5-$10
Crimson Rain, Assinine & L Caro – Juice Bar at The Windsor Castle, Parnell, 8pm, $5 John & John Live – The Clare Inn, Mt Eden, 9pm, Free Lunar Pupil w/ Fuser & Identity Slip – Dogs Bollix, Newton, 8pm, $10 The Riff Raff Raise the Roof – Glenfield Tavern, Glenfield, 7:30pm The Rock ‘n’ Roll Allstars – Ponsonby Cruising Club, Westhaven, 7pm, $45 SUNDAY 11 Unplugged Underground – Brooklyn Bar, Auckland CBD, 4pm, Free Black Dog – Malthouse, Greenhithe, 2pm, Free Blues in The Boat House – Mike Garner – The Riverhead, Riverhead, 2pm, Free Diana Harris and Brilleaux – Volvo Ocean Race Auckland – Viaduct Events Centre, Westhaven, 7:30pm, Free Jason Smith Duo – The Merchant Bar & Kitchen, Albany, 3pm, Free Music Box – Goode Brothers, Botany Downs, 3pm, Free Sandpaper Tango – Corelli’s Cafe, Devonport, 7pm, Free Emily Smith & Jamie McClennan – The Bunker, Devonport, 8pm, $25 Florries Irish Music Jam Sessions – Florrie McGreals Irish Pub, Takapuna, 5:30pm, Free Chicane Duo – Bill Fish Cafe, St Marys Bay, 1pm Coopers Creek Summer Sunday Jazz – Coopers Creek Vineyard, Huapai, 1pm, Free Music in Parks 2012 – Jazz at the Rotunda – Auckland Domain Band Rotunda, Parnell, 2pm, Free Trudy Lile and Mojave – Coopers Creek Vineyard, Huapai, 1pm, Free Emma G – The Clare Inn, Mt Eden, 6pm, Free Mandy Pickering – The Heart Strings Concert – The Wharf, Northcote, 3:30pm, $49 Sunday Jazz, Rock, Reggae Session – Shooters Saloon, Kingsland, 2pm, Free Music in Parks 2012 – The Culture Garden – Auckland Domain Wintergardens, Parnell, 6pm, Free Rudely Interrupted – Kings Arms, Newton, 5pm, $10 MONDAY 12 Traditional Irish Music Session – The Clare Inn, Mt Eden, 7pm, Free Viva Jazz Quartet – The Windsor Castle, Parnell, 6pm, Free
THE COROMANDEL
WEDNESDAY 7 Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – The Grange, Hahei, 9pm, Free SATURDAY 10 Sundaise Festival – Dickey Flat Campsite, Waihi, 10am, $65 Thames Country Music Festival – Thames War Memorial Civic Centre, Thames, 11am, $30-$45 SUNDAY 11 Sundaise Festival – Dickey Flat Campsite, Waihi, 10am, $65 Kiwi Folk Music Historian Phil Garland – St George’s Church, Thames, 2pm
HAWKE’S BAY / GISBORNE
WEDNESDAY 7 Shenandoah Davis (USA) w/ Timothy Blackman – The Cabana, Napier, 8pm SATURDAY 10 MTI Jam – Aladdin’s Bar & Pool Hall, Gisborne, 9pm
WAIKATO
THURSDAY 8 Shenandoah Davis (USA) w/ Der Kranks – Vinnies Restaurant & Bar, Raglan, 10pm, Free Stomping Nick & His Blues Grenade – YOT Club, Raglan, 10pm FRIDAY 9 Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – YOT Club, Raglan, 9pm JamesRAy’s Texas Rock Roundup w/ Geronimo – Hamilton Workingmen’s Club, Hamilton, 8pm, Free Waikato O Week – Out Of Time – FLOW, Hamilton, 9pm, $5 The Drab Doo-Riffs, The Bloody Souls + Bomb$trappers – Static Bar, Hamilton, 9pm, $10 SATURDAY 10 Soundscape – Alexandra St, Hamilton, 9pm, $20-$49.90 SUNDAY 11 Joy Adams – SKYCITY Hamilton, Hamilton, 1pm, Free
BAY OF PLENTY
FRIDAY 9 Six60 – Rotorua Convention Centre, Rotorua, 7pm, $40 Hedlok – King Kapisi & Che Fu “A Night With 2 Kingz” – The Side Pocket Bar, Rotorua, 9pm, $15 SATURDAY 10 Whakatane Truck and Bike Show Bluez Night – Boiler Room, Whakatane, 7pm, $10 MONDAY 12 Jimmy & Perry – The Pheasant Plucker, Rotorua, 7pm, Free
MANAWATU / WHANGANUI
FRIDAY 9 Phil Drane @ Levin Folk Club – Horowhenua Scottish Society Hall, Levin, 7:30pm SATURDAY 10 Anna Coddington – Whanganui Regional Museum, Whanganui, 7:30pm, $20 Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – Space Monster, Whanganui, 9pm Deaths Door Presents: End Of Days Onslaught – The Royal, Palmerston North, 9:30pm, Free SUNDAY 11 Phil Drane – The Bent Horseshoe Cafe, Tokomaru, 7:30pm
WELLINGTON REGION
TUESDAY 6 Lawnmaster – San Francisco Bath House, 8pm, Free Live Music – The Library, 5pm, Free WEDNESDAY 7 The Mutton Birds – Bodega,
7:30pm, $49 Miles Calder & the Rumours, Sean Kirkwood & Lakewood Avenue – Mighty Mighty, 9:30pm Home Brew w/ 8 Piece Band – San Francisco Bath House, 9pm, $20 The Dijretts – Little Beer Quarter, 7pm, Free THURSDAY 8 The Dions / Triplet / Steezin’ Hawkings – Bar Medusa, 8pm Throw it to the Placid Snap – Mighty Mighty, 9pm, Free Dr Phil and the Money Bags Blues Band – Hotel Bristol, 8:30pm, Free In Like Flynn – Molly Malones, 9pm First Aid Kit – NZIAF – Odlins Plaza, 7:30pm, $48-$440 Opiuo w/ Russ Liquid – San Francisco Bath House, 10pm, $15 FRIDAY 9 The Phoenix Foundation – NZIAF – TelstraClear Festival Club, 7:30pm, $58-$520 Bar 9 (UK) & Redial (Aus) – Sandwiches, 11pm, $15 Julien Dyne & Parks (Ladi6) – Album release – San Francisco Bath House, 9pm, $10 SATURDAY 10 The Phoenix Foundation – NZIAF – TelstraClear Festival Club, 7:30pm, $58-$520 The Lost Boys & The Boxcar Rattle – San Francisco Bath House, 8pm, $5 Urbantramper: KBSML Video Release Party – Mighty Mighty, 9:30pm Rongotai Hi Fi – Mixjah, 9pm, $5 Angela Fisken & Greg Churchill (Aural Trash) – Sandwiches, 11pm, $10 The Tessa Quayle Quartet – The Lido Cafe, 8:30pm, Free Paekak In The Park 2012 – Campbell Park, Paekakariki, 12pm, Free Barefoot Divas – Walk A Mile in My Shoes – Wellington Town Hall, 8pm, $35 SUNDAY 11 Malted Milk at the Wineys – The Winemakers Daughter, Te Horo, 3pm The Sunday Jazz Club – Public Bar & Eatery, 7:30pm, Free Barefoot Divas – Walk A Mile in My Shoes – Wellington Town Hall, 8pm, $35
CANTERBURY
SATURDAY 10 Kat Riddell – McCashin’s Brewery, Nelson, 3pm, Free I Am Giant – Let It Go Summer Tour w/ Cairo Knife Fight – Riwaka Hotel, Motueka, 8pm, $32.85 SUNDAY 11 Kat Riddell – McCashin’s Brewery, Nelson, 2pm, Free
SOUTHLAND
NELSON / TASMAN
MARLBOROUGH
FRIDAY 9 Framingham Harvest Concert 2012 – Framingham Wines, Blenheim, 6:30pm, $30 The Cutty Wren – Lennys on Main Irish Pub and Cafe, Marlborough Sounds, 8pm, Free
TUESDAY 6 Secret Show No. 2 – Dux Live, 6pm, Free THURSDAY 8 Fiona Pears – Ashburton Trust Event Centre, Ashburton, 7:30pm, $15-$25 FRIDAY 9 I Am Giant – Let It Go Summer Tour w/ Cairo Knife Fight – The Bedford, 8pm, $32.85 Fiona Pears – St Mary’s Church, Geraldine, 7:30pm, $20 TangoVibe presents Practica X – Latin Addiction Dance Studios, 8pm, $7 Retrosonic – Becks Southern Alehouse, 9pm, Free D’sendantz – Pierside Cafe and Bar, 8:30pm, Free Mountaineater w/ An Emerald City & Anthesiac – Dux Live, 9pm, $15-$20 SATURDAY 10 Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – Dux Live, 9pm, Free The Shameless Few – Pierside Cafe and Bar, 8:30pm, Free SUNDAY 11 The Petticoat Federation – Irish Society Hall, 7:30pm, $15-$20
OTAGO
TUESDAY 6 Ryan Adams w/ guest Jason Isbell (Drive-By Truckers) – Regent Theatre, Dunedin, 7pm WEDNESDAY 7 Jo Little & Jared Smith – Robbie Burns Pub, Dunedin, 7pm, Free THURSDAY 8 I Am Giant – Let It Go Summer Tour w/ Cairo Knife Fight – ReFuel Bar, Dunedin, 8pm, $32.85 Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra – I Love You Tour – Queenstown Memorial Hall, Queenstown, 7:30pm, $38 FRIDAY 9 Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra – I Love You Tour – Sammy’s, Dunedin, 9pm, $38 Beef EP Release – ReFuel Bar, Dunedin, 9pm, $5-$8 SATURDAY 10 Fiona Pears – Oamaru Opera House, Oamaru, 7:30pm, $25 Mountaineater w/ An Emerald City & Ink Mathematics – Sammy’s, Dunedin, 9pm, $15-$20 SUNDAY 11 Fiona Pears – Cromwell Memorial Hall, Cromwell, 7:30pm, $5-$25
WEDNESDAY 7 I Am Giant – Let It Go Summer Tour w/ Cairo Knife Fight – Saints and Sinners, Invercargill, 8pm, $32.85 THURSDAY 8 Jackie Bristow – Coming Home Tour – Artsouth, Gore, 8pm, $15 has teamed with Eventfinder for gig listings. To get your gig considered, go to eventfinder.co.nz and submit your show for publication. Due to space constraints, we can’t guarantee that every show will be listed.
POWERSTATION WED ROKY ERICKSON 7 MARCH WITH SHAFT WED 14 MARCH SAT 17 MARCH THURS 22 MARCH WED SOLD OUT 28 MARCH THURS 29 MARCH SAT 31 MARCH EASTER SUN 8 APRIL
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ALABAMA 3 ELBOW ELBOW NICK LOWE SHIHAD FRI 13 APRIL SIX60 SAT 14 APRIL SIX60 WED 18 APRIL MARK LANEGAN THURS 10 MAY KAISER CHIEFS
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One Direction fans queuing up on Friday morning at 7am outside Real Groovy – where was Sound of the Overground’s Duncan Greive at?… Peter McLennan’s Fruity Loop label has released the next instalment in the Hallelujah Picassos’ reissue series, Picasso Core Jukebox. It’s a digital collection of cover versions, including ‘Peanut Butter’, ‘It’s a Man’s World’, ‘Who Do You Love?’, and some previously unreleased tunes. Look out for a Talking Heads with McLennan, fellow Picasso Harold “Roland” Rorschach and Trevor Reekie in next week’s VOLUME… Ali Ikram has been doing great pieces for TV3 lately – recent visitors Black Lips commented on the freedom he allowed them: “You can’t say penis on television in the US.” The band put on a stonking show at Kings Arms with Rackets and Transistors sounding HUGE… Monday nights at the Wine Cellar are a merry affair and worth checking out if you’re stuck – good vibe, great sounds and quality brews… VOLUME recently looked at an Auckland Star from September 1980 – in one night in the city The Gordons, Toy Love, The Spelling Mistakes and XTC all played within two nights of each other… Last week’s Sick of It All piece made it onto the band’s Facebook page and got a heap of comments… Heart Attack Alley is very pleased to announce their upcoming tour of Europe for Voodoo Rhythm Records. In April and May the band will perform in Switzerland, Italy, France and Germany – and record their first full album at Italy’s Outside Inside Studios. To boost the coffers, HAA will hold a fundraiser party at the Wine Cellar on Saturday 17 March with the help of Coopers Beer, bFM, and performances by Heart Attack Alley, Evil Twins and Gaytime – tickets are $15 – presales from undertheradar.co.nz… Seen Taco Truck NZ serving up tasty Mexican food on the streets of Auckland? The new enterprise is led by Fat Freddy’s Drop horn man Scott Towers and Julien Dyne, and the truck graf design comes courtesy of Otis Frizzell – the boys give away CDs and do taco cooking with special guests at each event. The next cook-up party is Saturday 11 March with Hit It & Quit It’s Recloose and Frank Booker as special guests… Busy week for Auckland with New Order, the aforementioned Black Lips, Roots Manuva all clocking in stage time, and much excitement about Radiohead and The Specials shows coming to Auckland… A big psychedelic welcome to Roky Erickson who finally
makes it to New Zealand this week – one of the first international covers of a 13th Floor Elevators’ tune was by Wellington group Tom Thumb in early 1967 when they did a much respected cover of ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me’ on the La Gloria label… Big 13th Floor Elevators fans The X-Ray Fiends ripped it up at Lucha Lounge show in the weekend with brothers in arms Thee Rum Coves… Paul from The Cavemen jumped up and joined Doug Jerebine on stage at Silo Park recently – Dargaville blood runs in their veins… Endless Boogie from New York hit town for an intimate jam at Lucha on 15 March… The forthcoming Shihad movie Beautiful Machine features footage of the band preparing for their infamous showcase at the Viper Room. Great to see Gerald D-Wyre on the big screen in his inimitable style. Shihad’s Meanest tour is coming to a centre near you in April. @Peace’s recent Wellington show at San Francisco Bath House was a sellout success, impromptu stage dancers and everything… Notorious local DJ Ddog recently spotted playing dubstep at a Massey University orientation toga party – the crowd literally rushed the stage when he dropped a Skrillex tune… Melodic folk duo French for Rabbits have a new EP coming out soon – you can check a teaser at youtu.be/rfGe77goQ3Q... Caribbean Cafe on Cuba Street is now serving ackee, saltfish and festival bread – a culinary explosion to die for… Martyn Pepperell is now blogging on a regular basis about music, art and literature over at vanguardredmagazine.co.nz... Home Brew play at San Francisco Bath House on Wednesday with a full sevenpiece band. They will be debuting new material from their forthcoming double album… On Friday night, Auckland’s musical auteur Julien Dyne launches his amazing second album Glimpse in Wellington with assistance from Parks and support from the likes of Alphabeathead… Radio Active DJ Peter May, the man serving a 25-tolife sentence in progressive electronic culture, is bringing his Rongotai Hi-Fi soundsystem into town on Saturday – 71 Cuba Street, $5 on the door and some serious bass pressure… DJ Hype (UK), the original True Playa, plays Sandwiches Nightclub on 16 March – old school jungle drum’n’bass all night… And the next night, the legendary James Lavelle of Unkle and Mo’ Wax hits the venue as well…Who is Bone Church? b0n3church.bandcamp.com/...
Beastwars will record a new album with Dale Cotton in Dunedin on 1 April so the band is playing a fundraising show on 23 March at San Fran with Spook the Horses and Robin. The Beer festival in Hagley Park sold out with 10,000 people turning out for beer-tasting and music. Punters got to see great sets from The Black Seeds, AhoriBuzz, The Nudge and The Unfaithful Ways… In contrast, not enough punters turned out the night before to the CPIT show featuring T54, Ghostwave and The Transistors – the high ticket price of $25 was no doubt the reason… Dux Live was well attended on Saturday when Bang! Bang! Eche! played their first show in quite some time. The Transistors, The Guest and Ghost Wave all turned in crowd-pleasing sets… The Bedford is up and running from a large marquee on Moorhouse Ave. Roots Manuva played last Friday and Shihad booked for April. Well done, Wendy!… Christchurch’s worst keep secret The Transistors will travel to the States in late March to start a 27-date tour in 30 days opening for Guitar Wolf. They will be picking up two singles at United Record Pressing to sell on the road. Open Mic Nights at ReFuel suddenly very busy – must have been waiting a while as they were queued up a week before the bar opened… The National opened to rapturous praise – “It’s like having Chicks Hotel in the city,” was heard on many a lip... Osmium’s new album The Misery Harvest out now on Bandcamp and soon to be on iTunes... Jared Smith (ex Soulseller) and partner Jo Little to follow in Alizarin Lizard’s footsteps and announce a massive New Zealand tour soon… Meanwhile Alizarin Lizard continues to build a strong following with relentless touring and are back in Dunedin soon for a release party for their album The Weekend Went Without You... Two Cartoon’s Jelly Tip Lips EP getting traction on US blogs and the band seems to be a hit with the Eastern bloc including Moldova, Hungary and Poland.... R1 on hunt for a production manager... Liam O’Connell has a new EP Thoughts Intertwined out now on Bandcamp... Manthyng’s ‘Nek Minnit’ track now at 21,000 views and climbing, despite (or perhaps because of) the haters on YouTube. Haters gon’ hate... John Cooper Clark tickets flying out the door with even English uni lecturers waxing lyrical about the man. Can’t wait, Dunedin.
Got some news for More Volume? Email us at morevolume@volumemagazine.co.nz.
URGE OVERKILL
ALABAMA 3
RYAN ADAMS
MARCHFEST CRAFT BEER AND MUSIC FESTIVAL
Tuesday 6 March – The Powerstation
Tuesday 6 March – The Regent Theatre, Dunedin Thursday 8 March – The Civic Theatre, Auckland
ROKY ERICKSON Wednesday 7 March – The Powerstation, Auckland
ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFITTI Tuesday 13 March – Kings Arms, Auckland Wednesday 14 March – Bodega, Wellington
DIRTY THREE Wednesday 14 March – The Powerstation, Auckland
REAL ESTATE Thursday 15 March – Kings Arms, Auckland Friday 16 March – San Francisco Bath House, Wellington Saturday 17 March – ReFuel, Dunedin
EILEN JEWELL Friday 16 March – Bodega, Wellington Saturday 17 March – The Powerstation, Auckland
ST VINCENT Sunday 18 March – Kings Arms, Auckland Monday 19 March – San Francisco Bath House, Wellington
JOHN COOPER CLARKE Wednesday 21 March – Dunedin Fringe Festival Thursday 22 March – Kings Arms, Auckland Friday 23 March – Bodega, Wellington Saturday 24 March – Marchfest, Nelson
Thursday 22 March – The Powerstation, Auckland
Alabama 3, John Cooper Clarke, The Drab Doo-Riffs, The Immigrants and The Ukes of Hazard. Saturday 24 March – Founders Mark, Nelson
JOE SATRIANI, STEVE VAI AND STEVE LUKATHER – G3 Saturday 24 March – Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington Sunday 25 March – Logan Campbell Centre, Auckland
BORIS Tuesday 27 March – Bodega, Wellington Wednesday 28 March – Kings Arms, Auckland
ELBOW Wednesday 28/Thursday 29 March – The Powerstation, Auckland
NICK LOWE Saturday 31 March – The Powerstation, Auckland
STEVE EARLE Wednesday 11 April – Kings Arms, Auckland Thursday 12 April – Bodega, Wellington
MARK LANEGAN BAND Wednesday 18 April – The Powerstation, Auckland
THE SONICS Wednesday 18 April – Kings Arms, Auckland
PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT PLAYING CLOSER – A JOY DIVISION CELEBRATION Wednesday 18/Thursday 19 April – Bodega, Wellington Friday 20 April – Studio, Auckland
JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE Thursday 19 April – Dux Live, Christchurch Friday 20 April – Bar Bodega, Wellington Satuday 21 April – Kings Arms, Auckland Sunday 22 April – Sawmill Café, Leigh
KRS-ONE Friday 20 April – Town Hall, Wellington Saturday 21 April – Auckland (venue TBC)
THE 5.6.7.8’S Friday 27 April – Kings Arms, Auckland Saturday 28 April – Bodega, Wellington
WOODEN SHJIPS CITY AND COLOUR Sunday 1 April – Kings Arms, Auckland Monday 2 April – Bodega, Wellington
LUCINDA WILLIAMS Tuesday 10 April – Town Hall, Auckland Wednesday 11 April – St James Theatre, Wellington
Sunday 29 April – Town Hall, Auckland
KAISER CHIEFS Thursday 10 May – The Powerstation, Auckland
HENRY ROLLINS WAVVES Wednesday 11 April – Clarence St Theatre, Hamilton Thursday 12 April – Dux Live, Christchurch Friday 13 April – The Opera House, Wellington Saturday 14 April – SkyCity Theatre, Auckland
Thursday 3 May – Kings Arms, Auckland
LADY GAGA Thursday 7/Friday 8/Sunday 10 June – Vector Arena, Auckland
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DIE ANTWOORD, SKRILLEX AND FATBOY SLIM VECTOR ARENA, AUCKLAND FRIDAY 2 MARCH Review Matt Heath Photography Milana Radojcic I’M A DJ at a rock station, I like my riffs played on guitars and I don’t even know what dubstep is. However I was in Wellington a few weeks ago eating a kebab when I accidentally stumbled up some stairs into a gig. For the first minute the music was all techno and wussy, and then suddenly I was hit in the face with an incredibly loud digital “BOOOOOM WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP”, and everyone went loose for a bit then it went back to wussy again. Apparently it was dubstep. It was kind of cool but before I could get my head around it, the dangerously drunk mate I was with started yelling at the stage “you wankers just downloaded Skrillex off YouTube”. We had to leave.
“I’m no dance aficionado but I couldn’t help but be impressed with the superwasted moves going down.” First thing in the morning I looked up Skrillex, and every clip had 70 million views. This is either the biggest thing on the planet or it’s the first YouTube-only music phenomenon. So with mild excitement I went to Vector Arena Friday night for the incredibly early Die Antwoord, Skrillex and Fatboy Slim show. Strangely, millions and millions of views translate into an only half-full Vector. Two weeks ago Roger Waters sold the place out four nights in a row. Clearly Skrillex isn’t as big as Floyd, yet. He is however really popular with kids. Well, children. The place was crawling with groups of flashily-dressed 12-year-olds. Die Antwoord was funny but not as exciting as a few years back at the Big Day Out, and then Skrillex hit the
Skrillex
stage. A little dreadlocked chap dancing around like a spider behind his decks. It wasn’t too bad. Especially when it went “BOOOOOM WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP” in time with Mortal Kombat graphics. The lighting was spectacular and the crowd was great. The whole thing was very futuristic – I’m no dance aficionado but I couldn’t help but be impressed with the super-wasted moves going down. As for Skrillex’s skills, who knows how much of the music he generates or alters, but it all seemed pretty complicated. So I was enjoying myself, smiling, nodding my head, and then suddenly out of the blue I
got bored and went to the bar. There are some forms of music that I just don’t get, but I get why people like Skrillex. The guitar-riff/dubstep-drop comparison isn’t a new one. They both generate the same “fuck yeah” feeling. I got it from Iron Maiden at Mt Smart, these kids get if from Skrillex. Sweet as. Fatboy Slim was on next and the old bloke has his act sorted. I reckon Fatboy was a little bit better than Skrillex at whatever it is they do. All in all a pretty good night out, but in my books live guitars will always be cooler.
KINGS ARMS, AUCKLAND TUESDAY 28 FEBRUARY Review Dan Trevarthen Photography Dallas Pickering IT SAYS SOMETHING for Black Lips that I missed the first few songs and this room already reeks of sweat (and there’s word that a guitarist has spewed on stage). But that’s the modus operandi – smelly rock’n’roll that really doesn’t waste a lot of time. Drink your beer fast and play the song faster. In one sense that’s great, you get these really economical songs – straight to the point and beautifully simple. But as the set progresses, a few more diversions would probably do them well. Admittedly the differentiation between songs is a lot more notable on record, but here it kind of bleeds into one big distorted burst of adrenalin. Still, there’s a little mutated doo-wop influence hiding on a few, and a bouncy Supremes-like bassline that shows up later is a welcome diversion. They tend to embrace the skeletons of older songs – think of it as American graffiti scrawled on junk shop guitars
and fuzz pedals with glow in the dark paint. Maybe throw in a bit of The Ramones for something like ‘Raw Meat’, which has the audience going crazy. It’s kind of interesting to imagine what these songs would sound like slowed down 20 per cent, not that I’m recommending doing it. Something like ‘Cold Hands’ would probably sound vaguely country, but here it comes across like a swampy take on the shouty blues The Whipping
“This room already reeks of sweat (and there’s word that a guitarist has spewed on stage).” Cats used to ply around Auckland dives. The whooping, hollering hoedown of ‘O Katrina!’ is a highlight, and the stupendously bratty ‘New Direction’ was born to make people dance – it has vocalist/bassist Jared Swilley slurring out these joyfully simple lines that come back to a hook that’s repeated at the end of every phrase. The words he’s singing
each time are “I’ve been looking in a new direction”, which isn’t exactly the mantra of the night, but that comes soon. On a night filled with exuberance and a particularly youthful take on rock’n’roll, the leader of these grown men opens the song ‘Bad Kids’ with some teenage rebellion: “This one’s about how our parents are thousands of miles away and they can’t do shit”, and the sweat keeps on dripping.
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