Rip It Up 360 by Rip It Up

FREE I S S U E . 360

SOC IAL S I NC E 77’

Liam F inn APRIL - ‘14 DAMON ALBARN, TILDA SWINTON, JAKE BUGG, KAISER CHIEFS, EELS, BROKEN BELLS BAND OF SKULLS, TAMI NEILSON, GEORGE EZRA, FLIP GRATER

CREDITS Creators Murray Cammick Alistair Dougal Publisher Grant Hislop Editorial Manager Tyler Hislop - tyler@harkentertainment.com Designer Greta Gotlieb - greta@harkentertainment.com Sub-Editor Louise Adams Sales Director Pauline Cousens - pauline@harkentertainment.com Distribution Jamie Hislop - jamie@harkentertainment.com Accounts Gail Hislop - accounts@harkentertainment.com Cover Photo Credit Ken Clark Contributors Nick Collings, Tim Gruar, Gary Steel, Sebastian Mackay, Riccardo Ball, Ren Kirk, Laura Weaser, Alexander Bisley, Alan Bell, Des Sampson, Sarah Thomsom, Tiffany Allen, Nick Rado

Rip It Up Magazine is published by Hark Entertainment Ltd Office 2a Waverly Street, Auckland CBD, New Zealand Postal PO Box 6032 Wellesley Street, Auckland 1141, New Zealand Phone (09) 366 4616 Website ripitup.co.nz Printers Webstar | Blue Star Group Limited | Shit Hot Printers Rip It Up is subject to copyright in its entirety. The contents may not be reproduced in any form, either in whole or in part, without written permission of the publisher. All rights reserved in material accepted for publication, unless initially specified otherwise. All letters and other material forwarded to the magazine will be assumed intended for publication unless clearly labeled â&#x20AC;&#x153;NOT FOR PUBLICATIONâ&#x20AC;?. Opinions express in the magazine are not necessarily those of Hark Entertainment Limited. No responsibility is accepted for unsolicited material. ISSN 0114-0876

CONTENTS

12.

10. 22.

35. 16.

39.

8. What Goes On, 10. Damon Albarn, 12. Flip Grater, 14. So What…/Tweet Talk, 16. Jake Bugg, 16. This Month In Metaland, 20. Who’s Next?, 22. Kurt Cobain, 24. This Month In Clubland, 26. Style Like Tami Neilson, 28. Style Like Dizzee Rascal, 30. Gadgets, 32. Gaming, 34. Film Reviews, 35. Tilda Swinton, 36. Album Reviews, 38. Album Reviews, 39. Kaiser Chiefs, 40. Liam Finn, 42. Tami Neilson, 43. George Ezra, 44. New Zealand International Comedy Festival 2014 Guide, 45. Jordan Mooney, 46. Band Of Skulls, 47. MakingTracks, 48. Eels, 49. Broken Bells, 50. #Winning, 51. King Kapisi

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WHAT GOES ON

RECORDED MUSIC NZ Recorded Music NZ, the industry representation and licensing organisation for recording artists and their labels released its wholesale figures for the New Zealand recorded music industry in 2013. Digital music services are now the number one source of revenue for rights owners accounting for 51 per cent of all music sales by format, overtaking physical music products for the first time. 2013 was also a year of massive growth for streaming services and adoption by Kiwis. Music streaming revenues have tripled since 2012 and now make up approximately nine per cent of all revenues by format. There was also modest growth in digital album purchases an increase of three per cent in 2013. Whilst

increases in digital revenue fell short of countering the decline in physical album purchases (down 24 per cent), vinyl sales - accounting for only a small fraction of the overall revenues were up 29 per cent in 2013. This transition period experienced by the NZ Recorded Music industry in 2013 resulted in a decrease of 9.84 per cent in annual recorded music revenues.

SCHOOLBOY Q Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE) recording artist, ScHoolboy Q has announced a series of dates across Australia and New Zealand this June. ScHoolboy Q made his debut with the album Oxymoron and is one quarter of hip-hop group Black Hippy - alongside Ab-Soul, Jay Rock and Kendrick Lamar. Joining him on tour will be TDE’s newest signee, Isaiah Rashad. New Zealand tickets are on sale now at dashticket.co.nz. SEE HIM LIVE: SCHOOLBOY Q FRI 13 JUN THE STUDIO, AUCKLAND SAT 14 JUN JAMES CABARET, WELLINGTON

PARACHUTE MUSIC Parachute Music, the charitable organisation behind the music festival, has announced that the event would be discontinued. “While we celebrate a great run in this country, it’s important to us that we end well” says Parachute CEO and festival founder Mark de Jong, “This event is no longer viable financially and our Board doesn’t believe it is prudent to continue the event. Continuing the festival will put all the other activities of Parachute Music at risk. It’s no secret that running an event of this scale in Australasia has become increasingly harder to do in a saturated events market” continues de Jong, “Over the last few years, we’ve reduced ticket prices, slashed operational budgets, increased artist spend and done many other things to try to make this festival work; we’ve come to the point where we believe this festival’s season is at an end. The last thing we want to do is to ruin this festival’s legacy by forcing it past a natural conclusion.” All pre-purchased

tickets to the 2015 event will be refunded in full from iTicket.co.nz.

THE SEARCH FOR THE GREAT KIWI SONG The Shadowland performance in the United Kingdom saw dance theatre exponents Pilobolus craft a work to The Clash’s ‘London Calling’ – and now, the company is looking for a song from our shores to inspire a dance piece for the Auckland season of Shadowland. Pilobolus aren’t merely looking for a song by a New Zealand artist – rather, they are looking for the song that represents the location they are performing in, creating a segment in the show featuring music and images of the area and are asking you for their help. Nominations can be made by visiting the-edge. co.nz - where you can also take a look at what the theatre company did in London and find out more about Pilobolus. SEE IT LIVE: SHADOWLAND TUE 03 JUN – SUN 08 JUN THE CIVIC, AUCKLAND TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ

ON THE RIP IT UP STEREO

TAMI NEILSON DYNAMITE! (2014) TUNE-YARDS ‘WATER FOUNTAIN’ (2014) DAVID BOWIE HUNKY DORY (1971) IGGY AZALEA  ‘FANCY’ FT CHARLI XCX (2014) FUTURE ISLANDS SINGLES (2014)

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SEBADOH BUBBLE AND SCRAPE (1993) LO-FANG BLUE FILM (2014) THE BLACK KEYS ATTACK & RELEASE (2008) BEYONCE ‘DRUNK IN LOVE’ (2014) DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS ENGLISH OCEANS (2014)

NZ EXCLUSIVE

DAMON ALBARN

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DES SAMPSON BLUR CATAPAULTED DAMON ALBARN TO STARDOM, WHILE GORILLAZ OFFERED HIM VIRTUAL REALITY ANONYMITY. NOW HE’S BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT WITH HIS VERY OWN OFFERING, EVERYDAY ROBOTS, SAYS DES SAMPSON. Better late than never: it’s an apt adage to describe the protracted delay between Blur’s finale, Think Tank, in 2003 and Damon Albarn’s first solo album, Everyday Robots – eleven years later. The most pressing question is: what took him so long? “I’m lazy, and just don’t get round to doing things,” shrugs Albarn, yawning absentmindedly. “It’s like I’ll fill a dishwasher with dirty plates, without bothering to take out the clean plates already in there from the previous wash - and hope no-one notices – because I just can’t be bothered putting the dishes away!” Despite his confession, Albarn’s prolific musical output with Blur, then Grammy Award winners Gorillaz – the most successful virtual band in history – and side-projects like Mali Music and The Good, the Bad and the Queen suggest he’s anything but lazy. In fact, if you include the myriad film scores he’s written and the two operas he’s adapted, including the classic Chinese tale Monkey: Journey to the West, it’s evident he’s more workaholic than work-shy.

of his mind, tracing his life from childhood through to fatherhood. “Yeah, it’s totally autobiographical; every line is based on reality. But I didn’t intend it to be like that, or to be so honest,” he insists. “Actually, I didn’t even realise it was all about my life until someone pointed out how personal the lyrics were! But I guess if you’re going to do a solo record then it should be all about you, shouldn’t it? Otherwise what’s the point?” Consequently, Everyday Robots delves into Albarn’s childhood escapades on yarns like ‘You and Me’ and ‘Hollow Ponds’ and his reflections on getting older on the haunting, introspective midlife-crisis paranoia of ‘The Selfish Giant’ and ‘The History of a Cheating Heart.’ Is that how he feels, hitting his mid-40s? “Yes, in a very real sense. I remember waking up on my 45th birthday, opening the door in my [under]pants and discovering there was a snowstorm! I can clearly recall standing there and thinking, ‘okay, 15 more years ‘til I’m 60, five more ‘til I’m 50…’ So, yeah, there’s

I went from being a normal, happy kid to being a – still happy – but slightly confused and alienated kid cast amongst these terrible mono-culture, Anglo-Saxons in Essex!

“Ok, ok, you got me; I’m not lazy in that way,” he concedes, throwing his hands-up into the air in mock-surrender and laughing. “The reality is, I just never thought about doing a solo album because I was so busy doing other things.”

definitely that feeling of midlife-crisis,” he nods, thoughtfully. “But as my friend said, ‘as long as you wake up and everything is working, then it’s a good day…’ So that’s how I look at things now.”

That all changed when he co-produced Bobby Womack’s album, The Bravest Man in the Universe, with Richard Russell, the owner of XL Recordings - a label that boasts Prodigy, Radiohead, White Stripes, The xx and Adele amongst its alumni.

Making Everyday Robots also made Albarn look at his own life and realise – and reassess - how much he, and the world he lives in, has changed since he was a child.

“Yeah, I only did a solo album because Richard Russell asked me to,” he accedes. “Before that, it just never occurred to me to do one because I had no desire to and also felt I had nothing to say.” It’s ironic because Everyday Robots is packed with passion and says so much about life, love, loneliness, alienation, the past, the present and the future – mainly Albarn’s. At times it’s like trawling through the deepest, darkest recesses

“The crux of the record is the transformation and the transition I went through by moving from the East End of London, which is a very rich, multi-cultural part of London, to rural Essex when I was a kid,” he explains. “I hadn’t really thought about it, or the impact it had on me, until I came to make this record. But now I realise it was a very powerful moment in my life that completely changed me both personally and creatively because I went from being a normal, happy kid to being a – still happy – but slightly confused and alienated kid cast amongst these terrible mono-culture,

“It’s totally autobiographical; every line is based on reality. But I didn’t intend it to be like that, or to be so honest.” Anglo-Saxons in Essex! “The other thing I tried to explore on this album, which I think works in parallel with the narrative of the record of moving from early childhood to the present, is the incredible impact of technology on our lives,” adds Albarn, explaining songs like ‘Lonely Press Play,’ ‘Photographs (You Are Taking Now’) and the beguiling title track. “We’re in a period of huge transition and extraordinary, unbelievable things are happening to us because of technology. But is it to a place which will take us closer to our true selves, or are we distancing ourselves from our true selves with those changes and technology?” It’s definitely food for thought and also a reminder of Albarn’s vision and genius which makes Everyday Robots an extraordinary, compelling journey that only slowly reveals its hidden depths and gems like ‘Hostiles’ and ‘Seven High’ after repeated listens. So, while it may have taken Albarn an age to finally realise and release his debut solo album, the wait has definitely been worth it. NEW ALBUM: EVERYDAY ROBOTS OUT FRI 25 APR

WIN

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TIM GRUAR

FLIP GRATER experiences. “For example ‘Digging for the Devil’ is about a trip I did to Argentina when I was dating a local actor and went up to the north of the country to a Carnival. We explored the villages up there. These villages are the kind where there’s dust everywhere, very ‘country-fied’, traditional. At the start of the week of carnival they dig all these holes to let the devil out. And for the rest of the week they dress up as the devil and have all these parades, party hard and they get up to all sorts of debauchery. Then at the end of the week, they fill up the holes again – put the devil back again. It’s a bit like the Day of the Dead. It’s quite a good way to deal with things – my own demons.”

FLIP GRATER’S PIGALLE, which includes collaborations with Goldenhorse’s Geoff Maddock and Herve Peroncini (from Italian band, The Peawees), and Nicolas Ker from Poni Hoax, is finally here – almost! It’s been over four years since the last one, 2010’s While I’m Awake I’m At War. A long time between drinks. Tim Gruar calls her up for some light refreshment and finds out all about the dark and graceful journey that is possibly Flip Grater’s most outstanding and possibly her dustiest, effort to date. The last time I saw Flip Grater it was over six months ago, touring with Fly My Pretties. Until now though, she’s been pretty quiet. That’s because Flip’s been living between Christchurch and Paris – six months each. “Logistically, this has presented a few problems. I wouldn’t live here, if I was to be honest but my family live here,” she says of Christchurch, “but I’m here so I can be a family member and I’m in Paris because my

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manager was based there. I wanted to be based there for a fraction of the year, so I could tour Europe frequently. I thought about Berlin but I didn’t fancy learning German. Plus Paris has that romantic air for me – of being broke in Paris. Of course that wasn’t nearly as much fun as I thought. Actually, being broke anywhere kinda sucks!” Flip’s dream didn’t exactly go smoothly, either. “When I first arrived, my guitar got stolen and then my manager left Paris for San Francisco. I got stuck in this apartment outside the city – I didn’t know anyone, I was isolated. It was kinda a bad time. So I was stuck there writing. However, it was also good because I finished my new album.” This all happened in 2012. “I was spending a lot of time alone, when I was writing. There was a lot of regret and nostalgia – old relationships, memories from my teen-hood. There were old stories I was re-telling.” But there were also some about her extensive travel

By the end of the year Flip was over her hermit lifestyle. “I decided to get out and record this album and make some friends.” So she hooked up with popular French artist Babx, who in turn found her “a few musicians and through him I also met the producer of my album and headed down to Studio Pigalle. It’s one of the earliest studios in Paris (located at the foot of Montmartre, in the red light district). It’s down this little alley way, full of this old vintage equipment. It’s quite a big space, the most spacious in Paris. Most studios in Paris are shoeboxes. It’s this hidden, enormous space. It’s very cool!” This is the studio that famous French artists like Serge Gainsbourg recorded. So walking in to the place, was she overcome by the ghosts of 1000 stale Gitanes? “Totally! You do feel that. You do feel that sense of history. But there’s nothing so ostentatious as a corridor of gold records on display or photos of the previous recording artists. It’s grungy and down to earth. It’s kind of got the old dust along the edges of each wall. Amazing to think that some of Serge’s skin might be in that dust! I really enjoyed walking to the studio. past all these guitar shops and brothels. It’s where Edith Piaf used to busk. You pass the Moulin Rouge and all these gritty, grungy places and it gets you in the mood to make a real gritty album.” NEW ALBUM: PIGALLE OUT NOW FRI 04 APR SEE HER LIVE: FLIP GRATER THU 03 APR MIGHTY MIGHTY, WELLINGTON   FRI 11 APR QUEENS, DUNEDIN   SAT 12 APR WUNDERBAR, CHRISTCHURCH   THU 24 APR WINE CELLAR, AUCKLAND   FRI 25 APR HILLTOP TAVERN, BANKS PENINSULA

Visit www.fender.co.nz to find your nearest authorised reseller or email misales@direct-imports.co.nz

SO WHAT... VICTORIA BECKHAM Victoria Beckham has given the Spice Girls “her blessing” to reunite without her. The British fashion designer’s former bandmate Mel C says the group, which also includes Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell and Mel B, may consider getting back together as a four-piece in the near future.”We’ve talked about it. Victoria doesn’t want to, which we completely understand. We are so proud of her and her incredible foray into fashion, it’s incredible what she’s achieved as a designer.” She added: “The four of us could consider it maybe. We have Victoria’s blessing to do that.”

HAIM Haim have injections “in the ass” every day on tour. The Californian trio - sisters Este, Alana and Danielle Haim - admit they struggle to perform well if they have been partying, so think the key to a successful tour is to stay healthy and watch what they eat. Alana Haim explained: “I’d love to think we were the Rolling Stones back in the day, getting drunk and partying all the time, but we’re not. We’re too scared to get sick. B12 shots go in the ass, yes. Does it hurt? I have a cushion, it’s not really a problem for me.”

LILY ALLEN Lily Allen would like to be “anything like” Kanye West. The singer, who named her latest album Sheezus, a play on the rapper’s Yeezus record, wants to be just like the star and is trying to break the American music market. Lily told New York radio station Z100: “I’m totally for Kanye, he’s a G, he’s cool, he’s Yeezus, I’d like to be anything like him. (sic)” Asked what she would say to new American fans who are just discovering her music, she quipped: “[I’d say] pleazus buy Sheezus (sic)”

T WEET TALK “when terrible people get their comeuppance” Lorde @lordemusic

“My doctors have decided to operate and remove my gall bladder tomorrow morning.” Tim Bergling @Avicii

“Hey guys! It’s Lily Allen’s eyebrow here! #sheezus” Lilys Eyebrow @LilsEyebrows

“needa get outta this weird mood” Miley Ray Cyrus @MileyCyrus

“You are water. I’m water. We’re all water in different containers. That’s why it’s so easy to meet. Someday we’ll evaporate together.” Yoko Ono @yokoono

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P. DIDDY P. Diddy wants to be known as Puff Daddy again. The rap mogul - real name Sean Combs - announced in 2001 that he had changed his stage name to P. Diddy, but started using the moniker he was best known by in the late ‘90s again this week, as he took to Twitter to share a teaser for his upcoming video ‘Big Homie,’ in which he introduces himself as Puff Daddy. Addressing the issue on last week, the record producer tweeted: “For the record, I did not change my name. I always have been and always will be PUFF DADDY! :) Be cool Man lol #MMM #BigHomie RT!!!! (sic)” He later asked: “#DIDDYORDADDY ???”

TIM GRUAR

PHOTO CREDIT: HEDI SLIMAINE

JAKE BUGG

“I’VE BEEN TALKING to about 10 journalists, so it’s been a pretty busy day,” says English singer songwriter Jake Bugg, who over the phone describes his location to me as, “where I am.” It’s not the greatest of connections, but I can detect weariness in his voice. “I’m looking forward to finishing up and getting to the Slay Station.” No doubt everyone wants a piece of him. There’s no denying English Bugg is on a wild ride. Following his self-titled debut album, which he co-wrote with Iain Archer, Bugg scooped a bag full of accolades from the fickle, career-bending UK music press plus similar nods at the Brits and nominations for the Mercury Prize. He’s also found himself performing at gala events such as the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Norway, just prior to Christmas, alongside Morrissey. “Yes, that was a pretty surreal moment; pretty sneaky to get in to that. People in suits, champagne, etc.” Did he get to meet any of the nominees? “I’m not sure if they were nominees, but I was inspired by a group calling for the stopping chemical weapons in Syria (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, a Netherlands-based group challenging forces loyal to Syrian

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President Bashar al-Assad who have used chemical weapons in the ongoing conflict). I don’t really follow politics, I just do my own thing, get on with my own business. But these guys are inspiring, they were bringing the message, you know what I mean?” Bringing the message is what he does. Bugg, real name Jake Kennedy, is a bit of a working class hero, having been brought up in Nottingham in a family of non-musicians. It’s old territory for him but I have to ask: How’s his family coping with all this? “Pretty well, they’re involved in my career in various ways,” he tells me. Bugg’s been wall to wall with interviews all day. Still, he’s pretty chilled and if there’s any signs of stress from the process, he’s not showing them. “I don’t really travel with my parents, on tour. You wouldn’t travel with your mum if you were a sales rep, would you?” Perhaps not but then when you’re only just approaching your 20th birthday and heading all the way “Down Under”, it wouldn’t really be that unusual.

there a whole land of them?” Good question. Travel and its mysteries are the subject of Bugg’s sophomore effort Shangri La, which was released just prior to Christmas last year. The album features a fuller sound, with the inclusion of a three piece – bass, guitars and Pete Thomas, also of The Attractions, on drums. Plus, it has the production talents of Rick Rubin. Initially this sounds a little odd, given Rubin’s heavy rock/rap pedigree. But Bugg’s more philosophical. “My management said he was really good to work with, and he loves all that folk and retro/vintage that I like, so it was a good fit. My manager phoned him up and we got in his schedule, flew out to his house [in Miami] and just got started. He knows how to get all the ideas I had out of me. That’s what I learned from him.” ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ became the first single, loaded with every experience between shopping mall appearances to stadiums and everywhere in between. “For a 20-year old I was experiencing comments of overwhelming saturation.” But Bugg’s not like that. If I didn’t know any better I’d consider him a Kiwi his laid back nonchalance is pretty close to the way our own artists express themselves. But then again, many of us also come from English stock. Bugg comments that his new album was informed by his travel but not influenced directly from it. He’s learned a lot, too, supporting bands like Noel Gallagher and Snow Patrol. “It’s good to be the minor to their major. The audiences have been really accepting because they are such a diverse crowd. They’re parents, adults, young ones , every one. I look up to those artists because I grew up with them so it’s an honour to be part of their tours.” It’s no surprise really, given Gallagher’s love of Brit-pop, that Bugg should tour with him. “He and I have talked about Donovan, The Beatles, Nick Drake. He showed me a couple of Oasis licks.” Bugg’s laid-back responses seem almost nonchalant. But that’s him all over. I wanted to know if Bugg was concerned about kids’ tastes these days. You were into Dylan, he was a protest singer. “You are not listening,” he scolds, “Youth do care. You only see the Ipods and the tweets and the Face-bollocks. My music, its popularity we’ve always cared.” SEE HIM LIVE: JAKE BUGG

“I’ve been to Auckland before, for a promotional tour. I’m looking forward to bringing this new album there, staying a bit longer. By way, what’s an ‘Auck’? Why is

THU 10 APR TOWN HALL, AUCKLAND NEW ALBUM: SHANGRI LA OUT NOW

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THIS MONTH IN METAL AND BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE METAL BAR. MONDAY’S 10PM JUICE TV SKY CHANNEL 112 NEWS Arch Enemy’s Angel Gossow has resigned her position as frontwoman of the band saying, “After 13 years of pure fucking metal, six studio albums and countless tours through five continents, I feel the need to enter a different phase in my life, be with my family and pursue other interests.” Gossow will remain the band’s business manager and Alissa White-Gluz of The Agonist will take over vocals. Arch Enemy’s new album War Eternal will be released in June. Judas Priest singer Rob Halford says the band’s new album is finished. “It’s done. I just heard from the mastering sessions that [guitarist] Glenn [Tipton] is looking over in England, it’s finished. It’s coming out at some point. We’ve got some more information we’re about to drop.” When pressed on the direction of the album, Halford gave a short sharp answer: “It’s fucking heavy,” he proclaimed.

Gwar mastermind Dave ‘Oderus Urungus’ Brockie has passed away aged 50. He was found dead at his home on the 23rd of March, though no cause of death has been released at this time. Former Gwar bass player Mike Bishop remembered his onetime band-mate saying, “Dave was one of the funniest, smartest, most creative and energetic persons I’ve known.” Bishop added, “His penchant for scatological humors belied a lucid wit. He was a criminally underrated lyricist and hard rock vocalist, one of the best, ever! A great front man, painter, writer, he was also a hell of a bass guitarist. I loved him.”

What’s your poison? Little bit of everything. What’s your weirdest fan experience? I got sent homemade biscuits and a teddy bear that said “I love you.”

5 MINUTES ALONE WITH JACK HAMMER FROM 8 FOOT SATIVA The first metal album you heard was… ‘No Prayer For The Dying’ by Iron Maiden. A good friend of mine gave this to me at school, it was the day school became pointless and music became everything.

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RONNIE JAMES DIO (A TRIBUTE TO) RONNIE JAMES DIO THIS IS YOUR LIFE

PANTERA FAR BEYOND DRIVEN - 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

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It doesn’t seem that long ago that I saw Ronnie James Dio fronting Heaven & Hell and absolutely mesmerizing the audience. But it was seven years ago and this May will mark four years since he lost his battle with stomach cancer. The great and good of heavy metal have gathered to pay tribute here and RJD’s well celebrated. Anthrax kick things off with Joey Belladonna owning ‘Neon Knights’, Corey Taylor and associates do justice to ‘Rainbow in the Dark’ and the previously released ‘Holy Diver’ by Howard Jones era Killswitch Engage is a treat. The highlight though is Metallica’s epic nine-minute Ronnie’s Rising four song medley. As good as this tribute is I just hope it inspires you to break out the old records and hear the original Ronnie James Dio in all his glory.

There is no subtlety about Far Beyond Driven. It’s just BANG! in your face, how do you like that muthafucker attitude from the moment ‘Strength Beyond Strength’ assaults your senses. It’s the album that best embodies Pantera. From the dragging your ear drums over broken glass crunch of ‘Becoming’ to the venom spitting delivery on ‘5 Minutes Alone’ and the beautifully depressed cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘Planet Caravan’ to close the record – everything is a perfect balance and captures the band at the height of their powers. 20 years on the influence is rife. As Dimebag-inspired wannabe guitar gods everywhere can attest, plain and simple, this album is the shit.

What’s the most disgusting habit of anyone in the band? Nose picking – I’ve heard it replenishes the brain.

GIVEAWAYS

What one album defines Metal for you? Cowboys from Hell by Pantera. Hearing this, all I could think was ‘holy FUCK!’ To this day it’s 10/10 on my list. It just defines brutal. Pantera become my alltime favourite band and drove me harder into my music, Opening for them was a dream come true. Still the highlight of my life.

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WHO’S NEXT?

JANE DEEZEY “I first remember wanting to make music after seeing my brother and his boys in a cypher in his room and not being allowed to join. ‘Nobody puts baby in the corner!’ is what I thought.” Admittedly a bit of a tomboy as a kid, Jane Deezey hated the idea of not being as good as the boys. So after everyone had left, she’d sneak in to the makeshift studios of her childhood and play. Starting out as a bit of a girlscan-do-anything-boys-can-do challenge, it wasn’t long before Deezey became an integral part of the group. Always a bit tongue in cheek with her raps, Deezey admits she’s “chilled a bit with the purposely offensive shit.” And the music she’s making now compared to when she started out is a bit more refined, because, she admits, “I’m not as nonchalant as I used to be. I’ve lived a lot since I first started releasing music, which also means I have more stories to write about.” The writing process usually happens for Deezey whenever there’s a mic in front of her: “It’s hard for me to sit down with the intention of writing a whole track. Maybe because I feel like it’s not organic that way.” She goes on to explain that for her,

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it’s all about production and she’s always looking for a beat where’s there’s an instant attraction. Her latest track, ‘Ask Me Again’, came to fruition after hearing a beat on S.F.T’s Soundcloud page: “I was like ‘Yo, can I please, can I please?’ and he was like ‘Get iiit’ (loosely quoted, of course). So I did, and Rizvån joined too.” Sporting plenty of ‘90s swag, Deezey likes the company she’s keeping on the track and that other people like it. This is particularly relevant after a bit of a musical hiatus: “I shut myself away working so hard on a new body of work I neglected the people I was working to share this music with.” Working towards an album, the other recent release, ‘Tobacco, Wine & Green’ was resurrected to include Louie Knuxx because this girl’s all about the collab. In fact there’s a sizable list of locals she’s like to work with: “I just heard ‘Never Gonna Change’ by Broods and I felt excitement in my pants. I also think Dan Aux and I could make a banger together. I’d like some production from damn near every young producer in the game right now. And I love Che-Fu…I’d be happy just being present during a jam sesh.” SOUNDCLOUD.COM/JANEDEEZYBABY

HARMER AND HOLDER Talking to Alex Harmer about his track ‘Living The Real Thing feat. Kz & Libeau’, these guys are so fresh they don’t officially have a band name yet. But Harmer and Khuzwane Holder are no strangers to making music together, already in a band with Libeau (who features in their track as the female lead). “At this stage it’s ‘Alexander Harmer ft. Kz and Libeau’, but I think we’ll come up with a band name when the project gets some more songs under its belt.” Harmer’s earliest music memory, he thinks, was seeing a decorative trumpet on a wall somewhere and wanting it badly. From there he progressed, not to trumpet but guitar, and having no internet access while learning he made up songs to teach himself to play. Fast forward a few years and the duo have produced a track referencing pop culture and musical trends of times past, with late ‘70s funk, the deep bass and groove of ‘90s hip hop (though neither have done hip-hop before), and the gospel and blues inspired addition of a choir and motif guitar outro. “The track was initially destined for a short

promo film, but got rejected. I liked it and persevered with it, and when I realised it had a lot of potential I got in touch with Kz.” Though Harmer’s a bit of a techy whizz-kid he’s also got plenty of gear – “A Gibson Les Paul, a Fender Precision Bass, a sixties Premier drum kit, a Nord keyboard, lots of microphones, some preamps and lots of guitar pedals” – for all the music to have come from real instruments. “There is no MIDI or sequencing, although I use lots of production tricks to make the drums sound fat and heavy, dry, or in a big space. I never use samples and all sounds are sourced from the stick or pick in my hand.” A lament about the monotonous cycle of work, marketing, money, the track is lifted and rounded out nicely by some sublime soul vocals from Harmer’s girlfriend Charlotte and Libeau. Kz’s wordplay is also noteworthy, with an obvious skill for bending and shaping words into smart and snappy lyrics. Though they’re unsure about exactly what’s next, there’s definitely the makings of something pretty great here and I just want more!

VOODOO GANGSTER ARTHUR AHBEZ Arthur Ahbez is a 60s-inspired songsmith – and not the musical accompaniment application for Microsoft Windows either, but a sandal-wearing, bushy-bearded, real life, human version. A true troubadour who’s always been “obsessed with music”, Ahbez explains that he never made a conscious decision to start making his own music and that the creating is simply a natural extension of his obsession. Combined with a penchant for folk, psychedelia and rock ‘n’ roll, his music spans many genres and the result is somewhere between nu-folk and acid-infused pop. Some two and a half years ago Ahbez started on a DIY recording journey, which culminated late last year in the release of his debut Gold. “I’m really happy that I managed to complete it. It was a fun, yet gruelling process at times.” Describing his biggest hurdle as “finding the strength to believe in my work”, Ahbez’s songs are honest and compelling, with a musicality that seems effortless. From sombre acoustic ballads to

toe-tapping folk jams, and even a meandering instrumental or two, Ahbez expresses his ideals in shared moments that are both intimate and inviting. Although inspiration for his lyrics comes from the subconscious, there is plenty of intention behind his songs: “The trick is getting them sounding as organic as possible.” He goes on to explain that his writing process is to “wait by the rabbit hole, don’t chase them.” Comforting as a pair of old slippers, these tracks linger long after the music’s stopped. While he may be borrowing from the 1960s arrangements and sounds that he loves, Ahbez still somehow manages to create music that feels unique and original - Gold has set the bar high. Let’s hope he’s up for the challenge. But of course he’s already on to the next: “I’ve got a lot of new material I’ve been playing with my band Superbird. We are just working on our groove, getting ready to record the follow up to Gold.” ARTHURAHBEZ.BANDCAMP.COM

As a youngster, Voodoo Gangster discovered that if he strapped headphones on and to an acoustic guitar and plugged it into the line input of the home VHS to TV he sounded just like his mum’s psychedelic rock records. This and other experimentation with distortion, trade aid instruments, feedback and recording to tape led to a desire to create his own music and went on to inform his unique musical style – think afro-surf, experimental sci-fi disco and plenty of distorted ‘80s-inspired synths and vocals. Describing the music he’s currently making as, “amorphous”, Voodoo is one of those children of the (technical) revolution, another talented bedroom producer. He has a drum kit, guitars and of course uses his computer to full affect. But it’s not just the usual suspects for this experimental muss; he also utilises found sounds. “I like to capture sounds on my cellphone and bury them into my recordings. It’s a pretty low rent affair.” Low rent it may (or may not) be, but most conducive to making music for this is a dark room and headphones. “Usually it starts with beats, then bass,

then all embellished with other instrumentation and vox. I usually write and edit the lyrics down heavily, culling the guff.” Inspired by nature, pop and folk, there’s plenty for him to work with. Currently working towards a debut album, Voodoo’s already enlisted Lttl Paisly to help out – described on their Facebook page as, “A lttl music, art, fashion & screenprinting thing from Dunedin, New Zealand.” While this ensures that the artwork will be out there, the tracks probably will be too. A fairly eclectic offering, those who’ve had a listen note similarities to Skinny Puppy, Captain Beefheart, Caetano Veloso, and The Residents. “It’s a mixed bag of psychedelic cosmotronic sweets that I’m happy to hand out.” Balancing technical limitations and holding down a day job as well, Voodoo has come to appreciate his not-so-flash gear and is also enjoying flying solo: “It’s [the music] close to my personal artistic vision. I like that my vocals sound fucked up a lot of the time. I like how dirty and expansive (both with the amount of time it’s taken to record and the technique involved) it sounds.” VOODOOGANGSTER.BANDCAMP.COM

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KURT COBAIN

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GARY STEEL CAN IT REALLY BE 20 YEARS SINCE KURT COBAIN TOOK ONE LAST, SHINY BULLET FOR THE TEAM? The conjecture over the particulars of Kurt Cobain’s death will probably never end. Was it really suicide, or homicide? A small industry of self-appointed experts took the latter view, but there’s one indisputable fact, and to us, the only one that matters: Kurt Cobain died on April 5, 1994, in his house in Seattle. There was a shotgun, a head wound, and a suicide note addressed to his wife, Courtney Love. Like all rock deaths of young stars, Cobain’s passing – and the lurid, drug and depression-fuelled lifestyle that led inexorably to the tragic event – was deeply shocking, but at the same time, not unexpected. Like Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Sid Vicious and Ian Curtis before him, Cobain was clearly walking along a cliff-edge, and you could sense it in the music of his band, Nirvana, and especially, in his increasingly desperate lyrics and vocals. And perhaps that’s why it still resonates: unlike so many groups, who simply form a soundtrack to people’s lives, Nirvana were perhaps the last band to really matter. After the waning of rock music as an art form in the late Eighties and the rise of the machine, and in particular a hedonistic headlong rush amongst converts to acid house and clubbing, the so-called grunge movement that sprung out of Seattle acted as a medicated reality check. It was as if punk rock and its nihilism and cynicism and raw power and honesty had gotten another big wind, and it would take Nirvana to put it on the map – and Cobain’s specific blend of jagged, almost atonal rage, throat-in-need-of-lozenge caterwauling, killer word play,

unbelievable riffing and that amazing contrast of real melodies, to send it all catapulting to the top of charts worldwide. The figures are real: 75 million records sold, one of the bestselling bands in the history of popular music, and one of the most critically acclaimed. The group’s second album, Nevermind, was the one that sent the group into the realm of celebrity-hood, and featured the unforgettable anthem, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. In Utero, its 1993 follow-up, was to be Cobain’s swansong, and even now, it sounds like a dead man singing. Reissued last year in several different versions, everything about In Utero sounds tired, defeated, deeply disgusted. In retrospect, you wonder (as you do) why the hell no one picked up on Cobain’s personal anguish. As happens so often in popular music, when troubled individuals suddenly find themselves in a whirlwind of fame, success isn’t enough to fix them; broke is broke, and celebrity and the demands of maintaining sudden popularity just intensify all the personal problems. And a peek into Cobain’s pre-fame life shows pretty clearly that he was an accident waiting to happen: dislocated, lonely childhood, drug and alcohol addiction from an early age, fragile artistic ego. If it hadn’t have been for Nirvana, and its driving force, Kurt Cobain, perhaps the grunge scene, and its other big groups – like Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden – may never have taken off, and maybe there never would have been a style of music inextricably linked to “Generation X”. But what really matters about Cobain was that he was for real, and you could hear it in the music. The guy was clearly a creatively-driven individual, mercurial and maybe just a little bit unreliable in the way

rock stars often were before the industry got so big and corporate that the deal never got signed unless you showed life stability and passed the drug test. When he died at the age of 27 – joining the growing roster, or “club”, of rock stars who died at that young age – it felt like the world shook a little on its axis, and fans around the world were inconsolable. Like Joy Division before them, Nirvana were still a young band, having made only three albums, and the world was ready for more. (And on a personal level, Kurt had a year-old daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, that he would never see grow up). But the cult of Ian Curtis hadn’t started until after the young singer’s death, and Joy Division had just been teetering on the edge of stardom when Curtis hung himself. Nirvana, and Kurt Cobain, were already big stars, and tabloid fodder,

Cobain having had a rocky and very public romance with Hole singer Courtney Love, who many viewed as his downfall as an echo of the doomed relationship between Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen little more than a decade earlier. After 20 years, it’s the music of Nirvana, not the tabloid nonsense, that still speaks volumes, and the group’s music sounds curiously ageless, one of a kind, out on a limb, a never-to-be-repeated glitch in the fabric of the industrial entertainment complex.

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NICK COLLINGS

THIS MONTH IN CLUBL AND FOR EXTENDED INTERVIEWS CHECK OUT RIPITUP.CO.NZ/CLUBLAND

FAR TOO LOUD Far Too Loud has steadily forged his way into the eardrums of those in the know for nearly a decade. Think high-energy, aggressive funk, big basslines, crazy edits, intricate production and you’ll know the sound. It’s 2014, how would you best describe what Far Too Loud is doing musically? Pretty much Electro House. It’s still what I enjoy producing and playing out the most and all the tracks I’ve got on the go at the moment are at 128 BPM. I’m aiming to do more collaborating this year too, to keep things challenging and interesting in the studio. Already got a couple under way! Do you think it is a positive or a negative that pop music has taken such a major influence from electronic artists? Dance music BECAME pop music. It had a massive surge in popularity, in part I think because more people started realising it is actually good but also because people like Zedd and Calvin Harris, who are just as much pop stars now as electronic artists, started making stuff that appeals to the commercial popular market. I think it’s generally a positive thing that more people are being exposed to and liking dance music than ever before. As some of those people start digging further they’ll come across

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artists like me. The audience has gotten way younger as a result of this too. I remember a couple of years back, my 14-year-old cousin told me her favourite artist was Deadmau5, followed by Skrillex. I get messages from people saying they’re gutted because they’re too young to come see me play. But young people have energy and vibrancy and are more willing to dedicate themselves as hardcore fans, which is great for an artist. In this digital age, how important do you think it is to interact on a personal level with your fans/haters online? It’s very important. Social networking gives you the opportunity to provide much more than just music. Fans want to see into an artist’s life, thoughts, studio etc so they feel more part of something and can relate to them more. It’s cool when I meet fans at gigs and start talking about something they saw on my Instagram or my studio set up which they saw in a video. Plus it’s your core fans that matter the most. . .interaction retains and builds that core. I’m not sure there are any benefits to interacting with haters on a personal level. . .if they don’t like your music there’s not much point in trying to reason them into liking it. The effort is best spent on people who WILL support you.

you get a lot of downtime waiting in airports. What’s your favourite time-wasting hobby and why? Reading, for sure. I don’t get that much of a chance to read at home, generally too much else to do or I’m too tired. I love travelling mainly as it gives me a good few hours of reading time with noone to disturb me. I’m currently reading David Wong’s John Dies At The End. It’s massively weird and entertaining.

experience? I stopped there for a couple of weeks on my round-the-world travels when I was about 19. Only really had time to tour the North Island, but it was still amazing. We hired a little sail boat and went out around the Bay of Islands for a few days and those were some of the most beautiful days of my life. . .amazing scenery and seafood! ESSENTIAL LISTENING BRING BACK BOOGIE WITH ALEX MIND

This isn’t your first time in New Zealand, but it is your first time performing here. What are your fondest memories of our country from past

(2010)

TURNING THE TABLES WITH… DEADBOY

6. Currently signed to forward thinking London label Numbers but has also had releases on Jamie XX’s label Young Turks and Ninja Tune.

1. Deadboy hails from South East London. 2. He is half of the duo of 8-bit GameBoy dancehall collab Hyper Black Bass. 3. He DJs sleazy RnB under the moniker DJ T€ARJ€RKER. 4. He got his name from sampling old zombie movie sounds for his productions. He says, “I wasn’t that serious about the name but it just stuck from there.” 5. When making tunes, Deadboy draws from his inspiration from his experiences in the UK Garage rave scene.

MEGALOUD (2011) TRAILMIXING (2013) SEE HIM DJ: FAR TOO LOUD (UK) SAT 26 APR CODE, AUCKLAND

7. One of his favourite bassline tunes is Iron Soul’s ‘You Liar’. 8. For the past three years, Deadboy has released a Halloween mixtape full of spooky bangers. 9. His ultimate gig would be seeing Discoteque DJ Larry Levan at the infamous Paradise Garage. 10. One of his favourite Jungle tunes is ‘Dubbing You’ by Foul Play. SEE HIM DJ: DEADBOY (UK) SAT 05 APR CASSETTE NINE,

As an international performer,

AUCKLAND

own label “slurp music” after a super successful crowd funding adventure. Loving the fact that the people around me really support what I do.

SEE HIM LIVE: OPIUO (AU/NZ) THU 10 APR UNION HALL, DUNEDIN FRI 11 APR BEDFORD MARQUEE, CHRISTCHURCH SAT 12 APR STUDIO, AUCKLAND THU 17 APR JAMES SMITH BASEMENT,

OPIUO Opiuo is an ever-evolving feast for the ears. From a one-man show equipped with drum machines and synths, his production is that of a warm syrupy bass sauce to compliment your daily adventures. What drew you into the electronic scene in NZ to begin with? I grew up around the early versions of The Gathering, a New Year’s Eve party set at the top of the South Island. Being a little kid at big parties was awesome to see and feel the power of electronic music, and the freedom that surrounds parties like that. I never thought it’d be more than a hobby, but now it’s truly become my life. You grew up in Motueka, New Zealand but now call Melbourne, Australia home. How important is it for you to represent Aotearoa in a foreign country? Extremely important. I’ll always be a proud kiwi. It’s the most beautiful place on the planet and every time I fly in I feel at home. We got our own vibe. Everywhere in the world I go we got respect. And we make some of the best music! With the evolution of music creating genres with in genres, How do you see the Opiuo sound developing in the next 12 months? I’m getting more and more into incorporating real instrumentation in electronic music. It’s an evolution into something I think all humans can

The Opiuo album MERAKI is out now through Slurp music or go to Opiuo.bandcamp.com

WELLINGTON

SCRATCHING THE SURFACE PRINCE CLUB

grooves build into the top lead, that then leads to the main vocals which then falls right in the main baseline drop. Every single time we drop it the crowd’s reaction is what keeps us running at the end of the day. ‘The Dip’ edit we made for Dirtybird’s ‘Birdhouse’ also always gets really well received and so does our track we did with Poupon on Nurvous, ‘Before’, never disappoints either. ‘Love Jackson’ is also a classic.

relate to. Real music will always shine through. So many styles of electronic music these days have totally lost the “music”. They’re just noise. No soul. I never wanna become that. Most of your releases to date have been solely produced by yourself. Is that a conscious decision to work alone? If not, what is your process when working with someone else versus on your own? I’m a control freak. Haha. Nah. So many times though it’s the late night random sessions by myself that the gold happens. It’s all about trying different things and keeping myself entertained. But in saying that, when I have others on in the studio it’s dope, because a new set of ears and vibes pushes me harder to be creative. I’m good with doing either. I love being surrounded by talented friends. You’ve had releases and remixes on some of the biggest imprints in the world including Circus, OWSLA, Bomb Strikes, Dim Mak and even Walt Disney Records. How easy/hard is it getting your material heard by these big labels? I don’t know to be honest. It usually happens organically and just through the music speaking for itself. A big piece of advice is always be open to meet new people and be a good human and doors will open much quicker. I’ve always tried to keep an open mind and never settled for one label or home for my music. I’ve actually just started my

Prince Club are Zach & Max, two young house producers out of Montreal, Canada. The duo has released a number of chart-topping EPs on Toolroom Records, Snatch!, Play it Down & Made to Play, receiving support from industry heavyweights Mark Knight, Joris Voorn, Claude Von Stroke, Riva Starr, Brodinski, Noir, Uner, and many more. Clubland scratches the surface on Zach from Prince Club. When you were coming up in electronic music, who was your DJ/Producer hero? In the past year MK was a major influence for us. Meeting, taking some mentor advice and him supporting our music was definitely a game-changer. Claude Vonstroke was a big one for us as well. The whole Dirtybird sound: bassy, hooky melodies and generally profound hip-hop influences. What track of yours do you recommend to people who have never heard your music before? ‘This Kinda Love’ is pretty spot-on our current style. The

What are your thoughts on the current commercialism of “EDM” in the world right now? There needs to be less SUBGENRE SEGREGATION, haha. Quality tracks are more or less entitled to a certain period of the night or even day/morning. Some tracks make more sense at a big festival, others in a dirty basement at 4:00am and that’s precisely what makes producing music so beautiful. Diversity will go a long way. What’s the musical equivalent of the G-Spot? Bass-Kick-Vocals-PeopleTripping-Out-Girls-ShakingGood-Crowd-Big-Subs-MakesUs-Real-Happy. Prince Club’s This Kinda Love is out now on Toolroom Records.

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ST YLE LIKE TAMI NEILSON

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ST YLE LIKE DIZZEE R ASCAL

NY college hoodie, RRP $49.95 cosmicnz.co.nz . Jordan Prime Flight, RRP $179.95, footlocker.co.nz . Imprint Chrono Safari, Toy Watch, $629, superette.co.nz Youth Gone Wild, RRP $10 USD, shirtsanddestroy.com . Men’s 10Ct Yellow Gold 55Cm (22”) Curb Chain, RRP $7,899, michaelhill.co.nz Dizzee Rascal, The Fifth, RRP $27.95, realgroovy.co.nz . Air Jordan IV (4) Retro Fire Red 2012, RRP $400, kctstreetwear.com Micasa Hair Clipper Set, RRP $39, harveynorman.co.nz . New York Yankees Red Logo, RRP$ $80, kctstreetwear.com Men’s Jacket Eclipse Blue/Pinot-Flour, by Lacoste Live, RRP $599, superette.co.nz

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GADGETS

Philips CitiScape Fixie Headband Headphones, RRP $90.40, asos.com . The LEGO® Movie Videogame, RRP $58-98, ebgames.co.nz Tetris Puzzle Light, RRP $69.95, thecollectorsco.com . D3100 Digital SLR Single Lens Kit, by Nikon. RRP $839, dicksmith.co.nz Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, RRP $68, ebgames.co.nz . Pro-Ject Debut Carbon , by Pro-Ject Audio, RRP $699, realgroovy.co.nz The Connected Watch, by Cookoo, RRP $199, thecollectorsco.com . Sony Vaio Tap 20” Desktop, by Sony, RRP $ 1699, jbhifi.co.nz Pono Music, by Neil Young, RRP via kickstarter.com, ponomusic.com

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M/M (PARIS) NIKI CARO AUGUSTIN TEBOUL DAITO MANABE ASHLEY GILBERTSON KAYT JONES GOLAN LEVIN TIFFANY BOZIC MATT WILLEY MIKE MIZRAHI PENTAGRAM NAT CHESHIRE IAN WHARTON FRAME STORE

Semi-Permanent provides a refreshing look at the current state of the art & design world both educational and inspiring, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not to be missed. Whether your interested in fashion, design, digital or photography, SP has it all. Tickets on sale now www.semipermanent.com

GEEKS

FACEBOOK BUY OCULUS VR

INFAMOUS: SECOND SON PLAYSTATION 4 EXCLUSIVE

First things first: if you’ve been hoping for a game that justifies having your shiny new PlayStation 4 – or even your fancy television, for that matter – Second Son is it. The latest InFAMOUS game is, hands-down, the best looking game I’ve ever seen – bar none. But let’s put that aside for a moment for some quick background. Despite the title, Second Son is in fact the third game in the InFAMOUS series. The game is an open-world action adventure, throughout the course of which you’ll attain (and extensively use) various abilities as you attempt to complete the main quest (as well as the numerous side-quests and such that you choose to embark upon). The powers you get range from Smoke, which you start with to... well, I’m not going to spoil it. There’s more than one, and you’ll get plenty of hints at two more by looking at the screenshots Sucker Punch have released. The game is a lot of fun and feels packed with possibilities, thanks largely to the incredibly inventive design of Delsin’s abilities, which include

super powers that let you run up walls, shoot neon lights from your fingertips, and much more. Each power also has – eventually, once you unlock it – a superability, which is powered up by performing karma-related activities that are in keeping with your chosen path. I chose the hero path, which meant doing heroic things, like sparing the life of an enemy by subduing instead of executing, or taking down some drug dealers. This would power up the mega-ability, while accidentally doing something villainous (most commonly: killing a civilian), would completely drain my meter. Second Son is all about living out your dreams of playing Heroes protagonist Peter Petrelli, pinching powers from other super-beings and flying around Seattle (where the game is set) like a badass. It looks amazing in action, with gorgeous environments, stunning animation, lighting most movies would kill for, and special effects like nothing else on the market. The combination results in a game that takes your breath away every time you play it. So if you’ll excuse me, virtual Seattle’s in need of a hero; I’ve got a job to do. ALAN BELL

Facebook have announced that the social media giant has reached “a definitive agreement” to acquire Oculus VR, Inc., the company behind the hotly anticipated Oculus Rift virtual reality (VR) headset. “Mobile is the platform of today, and now we’re also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow,” said Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. “Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate.” “We are excited to work with

XBOX LIVE REPUTATION NOTIFICATIONS COMING SOON Starting this month, Xbox Live users whose reputations drop due to community feedback will receive warnings to encourage more positive interactions, with repeated offences resulting in penalties such as matchmaking restrictions or the inability to use features like Twitch streaming. Currently, Xbox Live has three levels of reputation, with the majority of users falling into the “Green = Good Player” category. If a player is often blocked or muted, their reputation will fall to the “Yellow = Needs Work”

Mark and the Facebook team to deliver the very best virtual reality platform in the world,” said Brendan Iribe, co-founder and CEO of Oculus VR. “We believe virtual reality will be heavily defined by social experiences that connect people in magical, new ways. It is a transformative and disruptive technology, that enables the world to experience the impossible, and it’s only just the beginning.” Oculus will maintain its headquarters in Irvine, CA, according to today’s announcement, and will continue development of the Oculus Rift.

or “Red = Avoid Me” categories, while consistent good behaviour sees reputation rise. Beginning this month, some players will start receiving reputation warnings as their reputations drop due to feedback from the community. The purpose of these communications, according to Program Manager Michael Dunn, “is to remind players about their effect on the community and encourage them to have more positive interactions.” The warnings will begin based on community feedback collected since Xbox One launched.

GEEKS

EIGHT GBA TITLES COMING TO WII U IN APRIL Nintendo have revealed that eight Game Boy Advance (GBA) games will be released for the Wii U’s Virtual Console service in April. When the publisher first announced that GBA games would come to Wii U, they revealed that Metroid Fusion, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island would be among the first titles brought to Virtual Console, a list that was added to recently with Advance Wars. A new trailer for GBA’s

LINKIN PARK INTERACTIVE MUSIC VIDEO DEBUTS Linkin Park has joined forces with Team Dakota and Microsoft Studios to release a new music video for the song ‘Guilty All The Same’. The video was created using Project Spark - an upcoming game creation utility for Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Windows 8 devices. “Built by Project Spark developers Team Dakota in collaboration with Linkin

introduction to Virtual Console reveals that Golden Sun, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!, Kirby & the Amazing Mirror, and F-Zero: Maximum Velocity will round out the first batch of games for the service. As is possible with the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Nintendo Entertainment System games that are currently available for Virtual Console, players will be able to save their progress at any point in a game, alter the controls as they see fit, and access Miiverse communities while playing.

Park,” Microsoft explained, “the game level ‘Guilty All The Same’ features the new hit single and provides everyone with a remixable gameplay experience and audio remix station enabling them to build whatever they want.” Project Spark is currently in open beta testing on Xbox One and can be freely downloaded by anyone on the platform. The full game creation system is expected to release some time this year.

LAURASSCREENING.COM LAURA WEASER

FILM REVIEWS

DIRECTED BY ANTHONY RUSSO, JOE RUSSO STARRING CHRIS EVANS, FRANK GRILLO, SEBASTIAN STAN

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

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After Thor: The Dark World smashed its way into cinemas, it was Captain America’s turn to prove he has what it takes to carry the franchise into 2015 for Age of Ultron. But our all-American hero returns to a frosty reception

POMPEII

*****

While historical accuracy may have been one of director Paul W.S Anderson’s concerns when making Pompeii, sensitivity apparently was not a priority. Using the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which killed 16,000 citizens in Pompeii and neighbouring cities, as a backdrop for a thinly-constructed love triangle, Anderson takes liberties left, right and centre to give us a hot mess of popcorn fodder. Game of Thrones star Kit Harington gets his time in the sun (and out of the winter), as orphan slave Milo, whose talents in the gladiator arena become highly sought after and he’s sold off to prove his worth in Pompeii. Along the journey, he runs into Cassia (Emily Browning), daughter of the city’s ruler. However, corrupt senator Corvus (Kiefer

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in The Winter Soldier as the “post-New York” world has no time for the stars and stripes spiel. The Winter Solider is grounded in reality, with political tensions and espionage tearing the world asunder. With Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Captain America (Chris Evans), is sent to uncover who is behind the plot to pull

SHIELD apart. Doing away with the campy dialogue and one-liners that comic book adaptations are so good at, The Winter Soldier takes things more seriously, bringing a chilling element to the storyline. Our current political climate is an influence and themes surrounding the abuse of power hit close to home. It leans towards political thrillers, such as Three Days of Condor (of which Robert Redford’s casting is an homage to). It’s a lot to take in, but it adds an unexpected depth. Chris Evans is stoic in his alpha male role, conveying limited emotions, but displays exceptional muay thai and kickboxing skills. Johansson shines as more than the beauty in the black catsuit, as her character’s dark past is developed, while Redford is powerful and commanding. CA:TWS provides a strong bridge towards the next film, but also manages to stand on its own two feet, rising above the trappings of the 2011 origin tale.

DIRECTED BY PAUL W.S. ANDERSON

DIRECTED BY GARETH EVANS

STARRING KIT HARINGTON, EMILY BROWNING, KIEFER SUTHERLAND

STARRING IKO UWAIS, YAYAN RUHIAN, ARIFIN PUTRA

Sutherland), has his eye on the Pompeii beauty. Meanwhile, the earth is starting to rumble… While lingering flyover shots of Vesuvius dominate our welcome to Pompeii, the eruption is such an afterthought to the rest of the cliché plot that the film becomes farcical. Harington broods, grunting a few lines at a time, and Sutherland’s hammy “English” accent makes him nothing more than a two-dimensional villain. Neither have any substance. Meanwhile, Browning’s Cassia is nothing more than a pretty face. Credit where credit’s due, Anderson’s detailed reconstruction of the fallen city is a visual treat, with seamless CGI building an authentic feel to a beautiful place that’s suddenly been destroyed. It’s a pity he didn’t put the same attention to detail into his characters or plot.

THE RAID 2

*****

Combining a Hollywood budget with Hong Kong action cinema aesthetic and Indonesian fighting techniques, The Raid 2 is truly a sum of its parts to become perhaps the greatest action movie of all time. Our hero Rama (Iko Uwais) is sent head first into Jakarta’s underworld. Set two hours after the events of the first film, in which his police squad was unceremoniously dispatched in a fire fight with drug dealers, Rama goes undercover to hunt down corrupt officers and bring them to justice. But he’s pulled into the seedy underbelly of drugs and violence between two rival crime mobs. Commitment to authenticity is what sets The Raid 2 apart from any of its Hollywood counterparts. Fights are carefully choreographed by a team of

martial arts experts in the style of silat. The furiously precise hand movements and bone-crushing kicks are not only entertaining but aesthetically pleasing to watch. However, from baseball bats (and baseball), to hammers and broom handles, the violence is confrontingly realistic, with director Gareth Evans taking a no-holds-barred approach. After 30 minutes of nonstop hand-tohand combat, it’s easy to become desensitised to the brutality and just enjoy the ride. With that in mind, however, The Raid 2 is more than just chaos. Beneath the violence is a complex story of double crosses and one man’s fight to be free. Characters are more than caricatures, with the mob and officers alike being developed beyond a Hollywood formula to evoke real emotion. Innovative and extraordinarily cool.

ALEXANDER BISLEY

TILDA SWINTON about all of that; we talked about the texture of a really long friendship, and we also noticed that we hadn’t necessarily seen that in a film – a man and a woman who obviously really fancied each other still, but really love talking to each other as well. So we cut that off by the yard and laid that down as well. How is it playing a very old character, witnessing history? It felt like home I have to confess. Not just because of Orlando, but because I have a particular love for this kind of atmosphere, the feeling of downloading all your ancestors and all your futures and looking for your blood relations. It’s just something I get a kick out of. So when Jim first proposed to me that we make this film years and years ago, he rang me up I think on New Year’s Eve and said [impersonating Jarmusch] “Hey man, let’s make a film about vampire lovers.” It just felt really right.

DIRECTED BY JIM JARMUSCH STARRING TOM HIDDLESTON, TILDA SWINTON, MIA WASIKOWSKA

SHE RAN A film festival where you paid in cake, went to school with Princess Diana, claimed to have taken a five-year-long vow of silence, is dubbed the female David Bowie, and lives with Kiwi painter-partner Sandro Kopp nearish to Loch Ness. Around the time of the New York Film Festival press screening of Jim Jarmusch’s vampire romance Only Lovers Left Alive, Tilda Swinton cuts an extraordinary, elegant presence. Lorde – Tilda-infatuated like Jarmusch, David Bowie etc – tweeted later: “performed at the MOMA’s film benefit honouring Tilda Swinton. Such an honour, that woman is phenomenal. A true heroine.” Tilda co-starred with Bowie in 2013’s ‘The Stars Are Out Tonight’, the music video highlight from The Next Day, his first album in a decade. She was one of the drawcards of Austin’s South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) 2014 this March. Though Only Lovers Left Alive had already done Cannes, NYC, and Sundance, SXSW made the unusual decision to still let it play: because Tilda was coming. 2014 is a big year for Tilda at NZ cinemas. Only Lovers Left Alive opens on Thursday the 1st of May. She’s one of the umpteen names with supporting roles in Wes Anderson’s new film The Grand Budapest Hotel out on April 10th. The big Korean/international collaboration Snowpiercer should be one of the filmic highlights of 2014. Terry Gilliam’s The Zero Theorem will be Swinton’s fourth local release.

Narnia’s wicked queen, We Need to Talk About Kevin’s mother and Michael Clayton’s nervous lawyer (a role that won her an Oscar), are three film highlights. Further big movies include the Coen brothers’ hilarious Burn After Reading, David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Spike Jonze’s Adaptation. At New York’s Lincoln Centre, speaking to a group of journalists, including me, Tilda is eloquent and entertaining. Only Lovers Left Alive is romantic, isn’t it? It is about surviving things in general; about life in general; about being together in love. This relationship of course is many hundreds of years; sometimes all our relationships feel like they’ve been many hundreds of years even if they haven’t been. Rebooting one’s connection; rebooting the reasons to not get out a gun or get really depressed and sit in your underpants all day and do nothing else. Just that feeling of being there in support; that was something that Jim and Tom [Hiddleston] and I talked about for a long time before we starting shooting. We were all so clear that what we wanted was a couple who really felt familiar. Familiar in the way that you do long after you’ve first been fancying each other and you just end up in bed for a long time: people who have really talked constantly about everything. She says at one point, “You love telling me stuff about all the fancy people you used to know.” That’s one of those things she’s learned to put up with – and love, as well. We talked

How did you conceptualise the look of gloved vampires? We set ourselves this really fantastical task which was to make these fantastical beings. They are now immortal, but they were originally human and mortal. Of course, their history and their zoology is based on [covers mouth and whispers] myth – don’t tell Jim that – so we were looking at all the references from movies, books, and fantasies about garlic and crosses. So we decided to make a couple of inventions of our own so that in future vampire films, there will be people with gloves [nods head]. Were there challenges working with Jim? Simply that it was challenging for us to want to make this film for quite a while, and have to be patient [waiting for financing]. Once we start shooting, as ever when you’ve been developing something for a while, it’s like cream. You’re just like, “Oh wow there’s a camera, there are colleagues, there’s a schedule, and there’s a call-sheet and there’s catering!” It’s just Christmas every day. But having patience, pacing our energies for the years that Jim was talking to me about making this film, that was a challenge. ALEXANDER BISLEY IS EDITOR-AT-LARGE OF THE LUMIERE READER.

ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE IN CINEMAS NATIONWIDE THU 01 MAY

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ALBUM REVIEWS LIAM FINN THE NIHILIST

WIN

*****

LIBERATION

The Nihilist reputedly features 67 instruments, many of them performed by Finn in a labour of love, sweated out over seven months of nighttime sessions, fixing and unfixing the raw tracks bashed out originally by a band of siblings and mates. It’s the first Liam Finn work worth writing home about. The Nihilist is soaked in New York, Finn’s current home, and is a series of half-real, half-imagined psychotropic city scenarios that glow and grind and shadow your life just like a real city. This is Finn at the top

***** FUTURE ISLANDS SINGLES

SOUTHBOUND

SELF-RELEASED

4AD

Joan Wasser was once the girlfriend of the fêted (and ill-fated) Jeff Buckley, which is irrelevant except for one thing: Buckley had one of the most extraordinary voices in rock, while Wasser sings with several of the most excruciating vocal mannerisms known to man or womankind. The Classic is Wasser’s fourth album, and it’s very much the work of an alt-rock chick sidling up to soul and rhythm and blues tropes. The result is mutant and mildly transgressive. It’s never clear whether she’s trying to be authentic to the styles she emulates, from doo-wop through to angsty, gospel-inflected ballads, but the hollow sound mix and the artificial sound of the Moog bass make it sound wrong, in a good way. Similarly, her doom-laden lyrics run contrary to soul music’s unstated rulebook to always uplift and reassure. That’s both good, and bad.

Regardless of being born into a Canadian country music family who shared stages with the likes of Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn, a cursory context-free listen to Tami Neilson’s voice is all that’s needed to attest to her real-deal powers: the woman can sing. While it’s a plain good ol’ time on Dynamite!’s rockabilly tinged tracks, Neilson’s voice really comes into its own when laced with sparser accompaniment. Red McKelvie’s stunning pedal steel paired with Neilson’s killer torch song technique creates Orbison/ Cline quality weepers across the album and her duet with Delaney Davidson on the stunning ‘Running to You’ deserves gross repeat button abuse. Firmly in charge of the creation of country narratives that are all her own, Neilson deserves both your time and your dollars. Maybe even, listener dependent, your empathetic whiskey-fuelled heart.

The first band on the “thank you” list on the cover of this Canterbury trio’s debut is Mountaineater, and while No Broadcast doesn’t exactly sound like that ensemble, they’re firmly in the tradition established by groups like Gordons, Bailter Space and yes, Mountaineater: NZ bands whose heaviosity doesn’t translate to lyrics about the nookie they’re getting or game fantasy, but instead, uses over-amped and feedbacking gear to effectively articulate the real threats facing us every day. For example, their two-part epic ‘Drone’ captures the imminent dread of drone attacks with an apocalyptic feel and some giant riffing. Josh Braden’s vocals ensure that they’re not just another band of moody mumblers, and on the more melodically oriented tracks, they are like the unholy spawn of Radiohead and Bailter Space jamming on a radioactive atoll. The louder it’s played, the more resounding the palliative effect.

Instrumentally, on the accurately titled Singles (as all tracks could easily be released thusly) Future Islands make the kind of wistful, buoyant synthpop our Antipodean neighbours (Cut Copy, Atlas Genius) create so well. While Future Islands’ tight bass-propelled melodies alone can sail past such worries on their own steam, the album’s real sit-up-and-pay-attention saviour is frontman Sam Herring. Performing with an earnest theatricality and timbre that has The Innernette scrambling for simile (Bane x Billy McKenzie? Bowie x Bruce Banner?), Herring throws himself into every simple lyric couplet with pathological verve. This insistent vocal honesty, far from appearing embarrassing, renders as almost most punk-rock. Perhaps Stewart Lee was right when he posited the last performance taboo as “trying to do something sincerely and well.”

GARY STEEL

SARAH THOMSON

GARY STEEL

SARAH THOMSON

PLAY IT AGAIN SAM

GARY STEEL

NO BROADCAST***** NO BROADCAST

JOAN AS POLICE***** WOMAN THE CLASSIC

of his game, building his songs around genuinely fascinating sonic architecture. The rhythms, timbre and texture of the bass and drums, and that extensive layering – but never a layering too much – make for the perfect, physically compelling ligaments for the tunes to circle around. There’s no obscuring those tunes, either: sometimes they’re subtle, or spare, but never boring. You’ll hear cool guitar solos, gnarly Stranglers-style organ, and odd snatches of lyrics like: “I saw you at the diner with that dinosaur.” Ha. Liam Finn. Story starts here. Near perfect.

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TAMI NEILSON DYNAMITE!

*****

ALBUM REVIEWS METRONOMY LOVE LETTERS

****

WARNER

Love Letters is a beautiful album about the painful inevitability of things that exist as their opposites: the hatred that really means love; the hipster confidence that really means utter self-doubt; the asshole lyric kiss-off that really signifies a totally destroyed heart; the loud, loving noises of long-distance relationships that really admit they’re already dead in the water. Joseph Mount uses similarly contradictory musical methods to explore these liminal

SARAH THOMSON

***** ALOE BLACC LIFT YOUR SPIRIT

FLIP GRATER PIGALLE

***** DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS ENGLISH OCEANS

THE JEZABELS THE BRINK

ATO RECORDS

PIAS

XIX/INTERSCOPE

MAIDEN

Ten studio releases into their 18 year career and English Oceans sees Drive-By Truckers mainstays Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley split the singer/songwriter duties at a near 50:50. Usually weighted heavily in Patterson’s favour on previous releases, the load sharing begets an album of pleasant Shoals-steeped chugging and lolloping balladry reminiscent of a time when Whiskeytown wasn’t just ‘that Ryan Adams band’. A broadening of song focus seems destined to invite new listeners that were previously alienated by the batshit narrative specificity present on DBT albums of old. There are still tracks on English Oceans about Lee Atwater and Karl Rove (!), as well as lengthier bids inspired by novelist Willy Vlautin and bandfamily members passed (Athens, GA music scene mainstay Craig Lieske). Even when choosing to drive an overworn alt-country highway, the Truckers’ efforts still weigh-in more substantial than most.

You know that thing when you’re half-listening to something and sort of really enjoying it, but something disturbing rises from your submerged consciousness, building up until it finally screams: “This is just CRAP!” I had that thing when listening to the second album from this Aussie group, who awkwardly describe themselves as ‘intensindie’. Their music is like an update of the 1980s shoegaze atmospheres of The Cure, Cocteau Twins and The Church, but Hayley Mary’s vocals shift the goalposts. Mostly, she sings in a lemon-kissed voice that has just enough spunk to stop the music from floating away in a numinous pool of atmospherics, but then she goes and ups it all an octave, sounding like Celine Dion on a few tabs of Owsley’s original acid. It’s horrible. And the same formula is repeated on nearly every song. If you can handle that, then The Brink isn’t so bad.

Aloe Blacc is either a genius or a bit of an ever-increasing shill. Over the last few years Blacc has homogenized his soul-schooled sound, smoothing out socially conscious edges and experimental bumps, in a largely successful bid for wider audience. Media omnipresence helps in such a bid, of course, and there ain’t much better guide in such matters than Svengali Simon Fuller’s allpervasive XIX Management. Add a guest vocal spot on a Swedish DJ’s #1-in-a-millionty-countries summer anthem (Avicii’s ‘Wake Me Up’) and you’ve got the US primetime talkshow circuit in the bag. Is there anything wrong with this picture? Not really. Is there anything wrong with the album? Not really, it’s a largely inoffensive Gaye/Wonder/ Mumford/Jackson 5 pastiche. (But if you’re the type that finds eggy zen kōan lyricism, watercolour reproductions of soul masters and ‘Keep Calm & Carry On’ poster references offensive, then perhaps give this one a miss).

The charmingly-monikered Flip Grater started out with a neat little novelty: the Christchurch singer-songwriter was also a vegan, and one of her recordings even came with a book of her delectable recipes. As appealing as Grater is as an advocate for animal rights organisation SAFE, I’m pleased that with Pigalle, she has apparently decided to put her body and soul (and legumes), into her music; eleven gorgeous, atmospheric ruminations on love and addiction that come imbued with a layer of experience and sophistication courtesy of her time in Europe. Now based in France (is great cheese the reason she is now calling herself a vegetarian, rather than a vegan?), Grater has made an album at least twice as good as her last, leaving behind the pleasant one-dimensionality for songs that have a lived-in candour. Her voice, too, is more revealing: still pretty, but flecked with sorrow, and road miles.

SARAH THOMSON

GARY STEEL

SARAH THOMSON

spaces of self-delusion, recording all Love Letters’ oft-anaemic sounding digital melodies within the rich analog tape hiss of Hackney’s Toe Rag studios. His vocal performance, too, sits somewhere between the bored vitriol of Ray Davies and a denial ridden heartbroken teen. Far more fragile (and perhaps destined to be less popular for this reason) than any other Metronomy release, Mount and team demonstrate here that even when the Riviera’s turned cold it’s still no less striking.

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GARY STEEL

** **

*****

SEBASTIAN MACKAY

K AISER CHIEFS the underdog and learning to be a new band again because our drummer left. It’s about politics.” For the band the title of the album sums up the need to survive as a band and in the music world. “We were fighting to keep the band going, fighting amongst ourselves, fighting to keep it against people that thought it was over because we lost our drummer. Plus it’s about the futility of life and it’s about hope. And going to work just to make money and breaking that cycle.”

SURVIVAL: NOUN. MEANING: the state or fact of continuing to live or exist. It’s been a long road for the Kaiser Chiefs. There was a time where they were looked at as the newcomers and now they’re in that position themselves; looking at each band that seems to come from nowhere and is chomping at the bit to replace them. If love is a battlefield then music is a Roman arena and for the Kaiser Chiefs, and many other indie bands, they’re playing a game of survival. Their first move – before the brilliant new album Education, Education, Education & War comes out – was to put frontman Ricky Wilson onto Britain’s The Voice, a TV talent show. This earned the band a lot of press coverage, a place in front of ten million viewers each episode, and an immeasurable amount of interest. Bassist and backing vocalist Simon Rix says it’s interest

that they’re trying to generate. The band have been together for more than ten years, it’s been three years since their last album and people’s attention spans are decreasing. “It’s about making people aware of it and getting people to talk about it. There’s no way of knowing if it will have helped us or not.” Though he does concede that they didn’t make it easy for themselves. “The first two records sort of exploded and the later ones did fairly well.” Rix says nowadays in order to survive, bands need to do more than release an album. The Voice was their approach – as they’ve reasoned in other interviews, if you can be in front of ten million for 12 weeks, why would you say no? Although, he is not against alternative release ideas. Their last album broke new ground allowing fans to build their own album from 20 tracks and download them. Half of the

people, according to Rix, loved the idea. The other half wanted to buy a hard copy. He, along with many others, believes the album isn’t dead. Enter move number two: Education, Education, Education & War. “We want to make a point; you’ve got to poke people.” Album number five has been bred from the same desire to survive as the drive for more publicity. The main difference being it’s much deeper than guest appearances on TV shows. This time around the band wanted to have “more of a message than just words.” Rix remarks that the message may be tongue in cheek but that this is a record they hope people can connect to emotionally.

What they’ve delivered is proof that the Kaiser Chiefs have adapted and will survive. The songs are bigger, there are more hooks, they’ve pushed themselves harder than before, and Rix says Wilson has also upped his game vocally. “We have a new sound and it’s weird because we wanted to sound modern and 2014 but not so 2014 that it was trendy. We were going for a classic but contemporary sound and that was hard.” It’s their best attempt at making an album, according to Rix, in the sense that it’s not a collection of finished songs but a journey. From the first song to the last each one is placed exactly where it needs to be. It’s a reflection, he says, not of the Kaiser Chiefs as they were in 2005 but as the Kaiser Chiefs as they are in 2014. “Kaiser Chiefs 2.1,” Rix says, and you can hear the smile on his lips. NEW ALBUM: EDUCATION,

“Education, Education, Education & War has many layers to it. It’s about struggle and it’s about coming from a place of jeopardy. It’s about being

EDUCATION, EDUCATION & WAR OUT NOW

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TIM GRUAR

LIAM FINN forcing things through a door that didn’t quite fit, compromising my own ideas. I’m now rediscovering my unapologetic fearlessness. I took my time. That’s where the real painstaking obsession came in to get it just the way I had it the sound in my head.” Finn’s relocation to Brooklyn was definitely part of this process. After looking at a multitude of tiny padded cells, Finn found a room with a large window overlooking the park and river. Over seven months he watched the city change and grow. He built his own studio and worked when he could, unburdened by studio fees and schedules. “I was a nocturne, working feverishly in my own little world.” The results range between the dreamy to the full on rage-stomp. “It’s shaped by the commotion and drama of New York. It’s a different reality, like a movie sort of, keeps it interesting and inspiring.”

WELLINGTON’S PUPPIES IS really just an oversized student flat, small enough that the punters in the front row can almost rest their drinks on the bar at the back of the room. It’s night two for Liam Finn and his four-piece, The Salty Women, which includes collaborators Eliza-Jane Barnes, brothers Elroy and Lawrence Arabia (aka James Milne) filling in on bass. The gig is well under the radar, but still packed to the fire hazard point. Finn and his merry crew are well appreciated, whipping through new material along with the oldies, too. In town for this little sojourn, a crack of time opens up in his ultra-busy schedule. Between working on his dad’s new album, a Finn family concert and appearing next to ‘uncle’ Eddie Vedder at the Big Day Out, he finds time to chat about his new album, The Nihilist, which is due to drop in early April. Two days prior to the gig we meet under the “shrine to Lorde” at the National Library, where images of the Grammy acceptance speeches flash up on a big screen. “Do you think it’s ironic, that we’re meeting here? Because she won and I didn’t?” he quips. A good place to start our conversation. Err,

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what exactly did you mean by calling it The Nihilist? “It’s a big question. For a lot of people, particularly if they’re brought up in a religious household, it has a bad rap because it’s the denial not only of a higher being but denial of self, too. But I think in a wider sense, I guess I’m fascinated by this manipulation of information – online lives, people pretending to be someone else. The more you explore the more you don’t know what’s going on. The Nihilist is me taking on different personae and characters to explore ideas about life. In other words, there’s more to the picture that’s not necessarily out there but in here,” Finn says, touching his heart and head. Finn refers to his new music as a series of portraits, coming at things from different angles. “I wanted to make something fearless and experimental (such as the innovations observed on I’ll Be Lightning), when I had no record company, and didn’t understand how I was supposed to use a studio, musicians, a producer. I still had this idea that you’re supposed to make things in a certain way, and when making FOMO (his second album), I’d lost some of that random wildness. I was

Much of Liam’s wild, experimental kitchen sink mentality comes from Neil and that becomes apparent when you stand up Neil’s new one Dizzy Heights against The Nihilist. “He too has always had this punk, wild streak. He’s not known for it because he made these beautifully crafted songs (with Crowded House). I’m really happy that he chose to go with Dave Fridmann (producer for The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev), and to be ‘unsafe’ and push the boundaries further. We definitely egg each other to produce our best work.” The Nihilist starts off with ‘Ocean Emmanuelle’ a slightly disturbing, unhinged number. “Me and Joel Mulholland wrote it for the last Twilight film. We developed our own little story to create this cool midnight blue atmosphere and that’s when I realised how we need to make these for all the songs and New York has this weird tension, just bubbling all the time and it’s exciting to tap into this.” In contrast, ‘Snug as Fuck’ is a cosy singalong duet with Eliza-Jane and ‘Track Stomper’, Finn’s favourite, is a full on super-duperBetchadupa-thumper. “I couldn’t avoid making naturally complicated diverse records. There are certain records you can just put on and play at certain occasions. This is not one to put on at your BBQ – there’ll be one track in the middle that just fucks with it – I dunno when to play my record – maybe when taking – umm, acid?” NEW ALBUM: THE NIHILIST OUT FRI 04 APR PHOTO CREDIT: KEN CLARK

WIN

TIM GRUAR

TAMI NEILSON

RNZ’S NICK BOLLINGER refers to her “soulful voice straight from the golden age of country and rockabilly”, when referring to country/rockabilly singer Tami Neilson. Tim Gruar caught up with her between supporting Pokey LaFarge at Wellington’s Mighty Mighty to chat about a li’l bit of history and her new record Dynamite! “I remember when I was about eight or so, we were all on tour with Kitty Wells; she was the original Queen of Country Music, the one that Loretta Lynn and everyone else modelled their careers on. She was about 60 or so but she was still the Queen of Country. My dad pointed her out to me sitting on a little stool in the corridor of a hotel, because there was no green room, and waiters were all zooming by her, ignoring her! There she was, this big country legend all dressed up in an amazing sequinned dress, and li’l handbag sitting there like any li’l ol’ lady, on a little stool. This is a woman who had standing ovations and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in the corridor and nobody cared who she was offstage! It was a valuable lesson: not to forget where you are in the order of things.” So you may be the king’s minstrel but please leave through the tradesmen’s entrance? “Exactly!” It’s no surprise that five-time Tui award winner Tami Neilson is a bit tour savvy – she’s been on the road touring with big stars virtually her whole life. Tami performed with her family band, the Neilsons, who have toured both Canada and the States numerous times,

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opening for the likes of Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn. “I guess I hit the road with the road with my family band when I was 12 and we travelled all over in a 40 foot motor-home. Everyone thought we were the Carter family or the Partridge Family. We toured supporting a lot of iconic country legends but I guess at the time you don’t think of it that way. Now you think “Hold on – not everyone got to do this. . .I didn’t get to perform with Johnny but I went on stage with Joanne Cash, his sister, and wrote a duet with her (‘Sister Cash’).” Dynamite!, Tami explains, is her first proper “Kiwi” album. It was recorded at the Sitting Room in Lyttleton and showcases Tami’s skill at writing and crafting a song, as well as her diversity as an artist. “(Until then) all of my albums were recorded back in Canada because I could go back and get my family to perform on them; my brother had a studio. Also I didn’t know anyone here until recently, now that I’ve put together my band.” That band now includes ‘Gunslingers’ performers Dave Khan, Marlon Williams and Delaney Davidson. “I met the last two in Lyttleton a couple of years ago – I was due to do a gig and unfortunately the earthquake hit. So we ended up hooking up with Adam from the Eastern and doing these little ‘pop up’ gigs in parks around Christchurch – all unplugged. Well, there was no power! People would start trickling out of their homes. This was the first time I met Delaney. . .two years later we hooked up and he’s playing and writing with me.”

Okay, but the question remains – why is a successful Canadian singer living way over here in Aotearoa? “Well, that’s not new, I’ve been out here seven or eight years now. I followed a gorgeous Kiwi boy. I guess I got suckered in by the accent as a lot of Canadian girls do!” Tami is well ensconced now. When I catch her at the Mighty Mighty show she’s six months pregnant with her second, but still dolled up to the nines in a beehive and slinky red number – although the bump is making it harder for her guitar playing. “I’m surrounded by gorgeous boys,” she laughs, indicating Delaney and Khan, “360 degrees!” she continues, pointing to the bump. Her show is impressive, and shows her professionalism off to a Texas “T”. The set is pure Dynamite! moving easily through blues driven numbers like ‘Walk (Back to Your Arms)’, which she penned with her brother, and the title track down to her soulful side with ‘Cry Over You’ and her maple-sweetness in ‘Honey Girl’. The best ones are the hayride pick-me-ups ‘WooHoo’ and ‘Come Over’, which show off her pedigree perfectly. The Mighty Mighty show is but a warm up for the upcoming Very Vintage Day Out, , though from what I’ve seen already half that hillside is already crumbling. If you were adverse to the Grand Ole Opry side of country/rockabilly you might want to think again. Boom! NEW ALBUM: DYNAMITE! OUT NOW

LAURA WEASER

GEORGE EZR A means necessary gives him an opportunity to find more material. “My writing process is all over the show,” he admits. “I think compared to a lot of people my process must seem a bit messy because I just write in different places about all kinds of things that are going on around me. I think I’m most creative when I’m out and about, you know, when you take the bus to work and you see things happen, you meet people.” On the road to his next European destination, a six-hour drive from Berlin to Copenhagen as part of a mammoth 15-date tour, it’s still a surreal experience for the young rising star. He admits nowadays he looks in his diary and “it gives me a headache” with the number of shows and performances he has lined up, and that looking back over the last six months feels like a blur since his singles ‘Did You Hear the Rain?’ and ‘Budapest’ blew up in late 2013.

MAN OF THE MOMENT, BRISTOL-BASED SINGERSONGWRITER GEORGE EZRA, REVEALS THE SECRET BEHIND HIS SUCCESS – HARD WORK.

bass,” he recalls. “We did ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ and I sang the girl’s part! Then at 14 or 15 I was playing guitar and started to sing. It came very easily to me to do that. It just sounds like my voice to me.”

“Luck” is a recurring word during my 20-minute conversation with George Ezra. The singer-songwriter can’t stop feeling like it’s been “the right time” or “meeting the right people” that’s led him to sold-out shows in his home country, an EP and a debut album on the way.

That voice, which has been described by music critics as bluesy and “beyond his years” led him to the bustling metropolis of Bristol, South West England three years ago, joined by his older sister, to make his dream become a reality.

“I’ve done the right things to be in this position,” he explains when asked how it all began. “A lot of people want to make music and I feel lucky it worked out this way.” But as George opens up, it quickly becomes clear that luck had nothing to do with the success he’s currently experiencing. Growing up in the country town Hertford, north of London, the 20-year-old was raised on the sounds of Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Paul Simon from his parents’ record player. A passion for American folk music and old-school sounds was music to the then13 year old’s ears and he began playing in contemporary cover bands at school. “At my first gig I was 13 or 14 and I played

“Hertford had no live music venue to go to. I knew that unless I started gigging nothing would happen. So I just got out there and worked hard and made it happen. Moving to Bristol got me playing live, writing more and meeting so many more like-minded people,” he says. Tentatively playing open mic nights, George turned casual shows into an 18-month tour of the UK, travelling across the country by plane, train and automobile. Now, he’s in more “sophisticated” means – a van, accompanied by a sound engineer who he describes as “larger than life”, a tour manager and his sister. But he wouldn’t have it any other way, saying a lot of where his inspiration for his songs comes from is all around him, and travelling by any

Labelled a “one to watch” and “hot artist of 2014” can put a lot of pressure on a young performer, and George admits that there are always pre-show nerves – but “not so bad that I can’t go on stage! Just enough to give me a push to give the crowd the best show.” George has also channeled his nervous energy into an EP, Cassy O’, as well as a soon-to-be released album, both of which were produced with the aid of Cam Blackwood, who has worked with artists including Jamiroquai and Paolo Nutini. “We really just understood each other,” says George. “I’m really lucky as I’d been looking for a producer for a long time and we just clicked and quickly became good friends. It made sense to keep working with him after doing the EP.” With the European leg going “brilliantly” and a number of shows sold out back home, the future of George’s music career is an exciting prospect – something his 13-year-old self had always hoped would become a reality. “I had imagined [this kind of success], but I didn’t think it would come true,” he says, before adding with a laugh, “But I’d imagined a lot of things!” NEW EP: CASSY O’ OUT NOW

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NICK RADO

NZ INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2014 HOW TO board again and it’s going to be the greatest two hours of live comedy since they did it last year. Gala aside, there are also a plethora of shows I’m looking forward to, maybe we could go together? Here are said shows in no particular order: Reginald D Hunter, Sam Simmons, Chris Martin, James Acaster, Carl Donnelly, Jarred Christmas, Fan Fiction, Creeping Charlie Showcase, Paul Ego, Rhys Mathewson, Urzila Carlson, John Robins, Steve Hughes, Tom Wrigglesworth, Next Big Things and Nick Rado’s show How did we survive the 90’s? I hear that fellow Nick Rado really brings the ROFL-makers. HI, MY NAME is Nick Rado, which is short for Nicholas Radovanovich. I shortened it because people would always pronounce my last name wrong like Ranoverabitch, Ramalamadingdong and the worst pronunciation of my last name was from an old homeless dude who just kept screaming at me SUSAN! SUSAN! I didn’t correct him, because as an up and coming stand-up comedian, it’s just nice to be noticed. Last year my show Nick Rado in the Funniest Joke in the World was lucky enough to be nominated for the Fred Award (Best NZ Show in the Comedy Festival), so the good people at Groove Guide have asked me to put together an insider’s guide to the NZ International Comedy Festival in cahoots with Old Mout Cider. So here goes: 1. To heckle or not to heckle That is the question, and here is an answer. Some comedians love hecklers, others dread them. When I was starting out someone yelled out at me “You’re rubbish, get off!” to which I replied, “Now is not the time to yell out quotes from your sex life!” BOOM! Take that Mr. Heckler-pants! The only problem was, I came up with that six months after the gig. If you are going to heckle, remember you are yelling out to professional comedians. It’s their job to make fun of things. Don’t let that thing be you. 2. How to act around a comedian If you catch a comedian’s show and you see them later that evening, during the festival or two years later, tell them you enjoyed their show. For a very brief moment you can see the joy in the comedian’s eyes that is so beautiful, as your compliment is the only real reason they sacrifice everything to put on a show at the festival; then watch two seconds later as

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your compliment fades into the darkness and they remember and shudder at the thousands upon thousands of dollars they’ve invested in the show and contemplate what depths they have to sink to pay that money back. With that cheery thought, why not buy a comedian a drink? It’s the very least you could do. 3. What if I have no money to see shows? For those of you who have read this far, well done, I tapped out at the heckler part and I’m writing this. So to reward you, here is an actual festival tip that is going to save you a lot of money on tickets. Go see Joseph Harper, Guy Williams and Hamish Parkinson’s Koha shows. They are free to get in but you have to give them a donation on the way out; please give generously as they are very funny shows. P.S: Don’t just give them your old coins from foreign countries. Give them buttons as well. 4. “Reviewer” If you see someone in a show that has a pad and pen they are what we call in the comedy business a ‘reviewer’. You can help the comedian greatly by laughing really loudly and loving the show. In fact, with technology these days, you never know who could be a ‘reviewer’, so to be safe laugh really loudly and enjoy every show just in case. 5. Recommendations A lot of people say to me “Nick Rado, you have something hanging on your nose, no the other side, not quite, yup you got it”. They also say, “What shows are you looking forward to this year?” Good question, I’m glad you asked. Well, it all kicks off on Thu 24 April with the Old Mout Cider Comedy Gala hosted by comedy legend Jason Byrne. TV3 are on

My last and final tip for the festival is go and see something and somebody you have never seen before. Make sure they actually have a show in the festival though, otherwise you are asking a lot of a stranger on the street to entertain you for an hour. My How Did We Survive the 90’s plays Wellington Tue 06 May - Sat 10 May and the Auckland Tue 13 May - Sat 17 May. Nick’s show was recently nominated ‘Best Comedy’ at the Dunedin Fringe March 2014 and as this went to print I was confirmed as part of the 2014 Old Mout Cider Comedy Gala lineup. For info on all the other shows at the 2014 NZ International Comedy Festival in cahoots with Old Mout Cider, comedyfestival.co.nz. THU 24 APR – SUN 18 MAY MULTIPLE LOCATIONS, NATIONWIDE

CARL DONNELLY

REGINALD D HUNTER

ARTIST Q&A

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Who’s in the dead supergroup for your dream hologram show? Jeff Buckley and The Count from Sesame Street.

You’d get arrested if the police knew that you… Molotov.

What’s an upcoming film you’re jazzed about? The Trip To Italy! The sequel to The Trip. Steve Coogan. Rob Brydon. Just great, y’know.

PLANETARIUM

Where can your stalkers find you during the weekend? At the theatre. Or standing frozen as the statue ‘Coalman’ at the end of Vulcan Lane. What happens when you mix Coca Cola with Pepsi? You get one hell of a root canal?

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Your fantasy spirit animal is… A hippogriff. Your signature “I’m an amazing cook” dish is… Spaghetti and meatballs? Or anything that goes in a wok! Woks are easy. Wham it in. No preheat to this, chill that, melt this, simmer that.

People say you look like… Tom Hiddleston. Five celebs on your fucklist? Oh oh oh oh. Miley Cyrus – yeah say what you will! But Miley represents something for the world right now, she has created an icon that is her. Natalie Portman. Zooey Deschanel. Jennifer Lawrence. Carey Mulligan. (And James Franco if I was a girl, but I’m not). Kittens or puppies? Puppies, mate. What generic current affair has your blood boiled? AMERICA. All the time. Making calls, being cool in The White House. Trying to sort out everyone’s problems. Really annoying. And texting people about the people who died on the missing flight MH370?! Not cool. SEE HIS PRODUCTION:

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The best TV show around at the moment is… The Truman Show. It’s a real thing.

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SEBASTIAN MACKAY

BAND OF SKULLS “We’re always experimenting and trying to do something that’s new for us and that our audience hasn’t heard from us or maybe haven’t heard before.” moment. It’s going to be epic live.” These skulls have truly banded together and while their writing process seems less than cohesive – “it’s like putting a big jigsaw together” – when it falls into place, it is almost like magic.

IT’S HARD TO imagine the soft-spoken covocalist and bassist for Band of Skulls, Emma Richardson, sitting in her living room with a skull on the mantlepiece. Her British accent is more one of aristocracy than that of the great unwashed. She shies away from such tribute to the dead. “That’s a dark question.” She muses. Band of Skulls take their name more from Hamlet than from a penchant for ritualistic death. It began with a pub night at a bar called Taking Heads on the front of which hung a banner. On the banner was a depiction of Hamlet holding Yorick’s skull. “Picasso,” Richardson says after a few moments of thought.

Clearly these three skulls aren’t yet destined for the mantlepiece of a super fan, thankfully, because Richardson says they still have a lot to learn as a three-piece. “We’re always experimenting and trying to do something that’s new for us and that our audience hasn’t heard from us or maybe haven’t heard before.” The band were pushing themselves away from making part two of Sweet Sour and Richardson says there’s a need to be selfish in deciding what comes next. “As a band we want to keep working and getting better and if the fans we have now… stick with us then we really appreciate that.”

“I’ll write on the acoustic guitar or start with a drum loop on GarageBand. The guys write differently and might start on the acoustic or the electric. We then bring it all together.” “You’re working everyday and you’ve got to be militant about it. You can’t stop at five good songs, you have to keep going until you have twenty.” Once the jigsaw was finished and they’d chosen the songs that would become the album, the next logical step for the band was their artwork. Richardson says they had more vision for this record overall than they did for the last two and for the band; it’s about being mountainous. “The artwork is actually the sound waves of the song ‘Himalayan’ itself. We ran it through a computer program that did either solid or liquid versions of the sound waves and we got both.”

“We do whatever feels natural for us.” If there were to be a skull on her mantlepiece it would be his and it’s safe to say the novelty of that great man’s skull wouldn’t wear off. Richardson is reassuring when she says that the idea behind the name was more about “putting our three skulls together” than about taking heads. And their third album Himalayan is a testament to what they can do. ‘Wanderlust’ from their second album Sweet Sour was a statement of technicality. On Himalayan the statement has been replaced with an album so technical they’re learning how to play it. “We’re currently relearning the songs so that we can play them live,” says Richardson. “We tend to write songs we can’t yet play so we write beyond our current ability and get better by learning them and pushing ourselves.”

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Himalayan, as natural and grand as the mountain range, is bolder, bigger and heavier than anything that’s come before it. Richardson quips that melting their audience’s faces off night after night gave them an idea about what was to come next. The album, they decided, was going to be as grand live as it is recorded. “We wanted to play more heavy songs so we wrote heavier, faster paced, songs. There are moments that are slow and soulful but they end quite heavy.” The live show is more about bringing the album to life (or death, as it were) than getting on stage and playing songs. While Richardson does say they’re working out the challenges, it’ll be one of a kind. “[We have] over dubs and time signature changes and we’re working those out at the

The image is a combination of the solid and liquid versions of the sound wave, and in true Band of Skulls tradition, it’s been reflected. And what you see is the visual representation of Himalayan. They’re a long way now from the pub Taking Heads and while that may mean they’ve moved more towards melting faces, as this album will, the succession of skull ownership for now ends with the Richardson. Because Hamlet has Yorick’s and Richardson would have Picasso’s. So whoever will take the members of Band of Skulls will have a mantelpiece that bears the collection of three heads that have come together and created an album that truly deserves the title of Himalayan. NEW ALBUM: HIMALAYAN OUT NOW

MAKING TR ACKS

NZ On Air have announced the successful recipients for the March 2014 round. Congratulations from the Rip It Up team! Recording & Video Brooke Duff – ‘What Can I Say’ Jonathan Bree – ‘Weird Hardcore’ Lawrence Arabia – ‘The Palest Of Them All’ Luckless – ‘When You Asked Her To Stay’ Mulholland – ‘Before It All Falls Apart’ Paquin – ‘You’re My Thrill’ Popstrangers – ‘Country Kills’ Princess Chelsea – ‘We Were Meant 2 B’ Rackets – ‘Wash My Brain Out’ Savage – ‘Take These Shots’ Shihad – ‘Song’ Tyra Hammond – ‘So Good At Being In Trouble’ Benny Tipene – ‘Lonely’

Video Only Breaks Co-Op – ‘Home’ Clap Clap Riot – ‘Cold As Ice’ David Dallas – ‘Southside’ ft Sid Diamond & Mareko Deceptikonz – ‘Blood In Blood Out’ ft David Dallas Flip Grater – ‘The Smell Of Strangers’ Josh Leys – ‘Hold On To Your Love’ Ladi6 – ‘Hold Tight’ NO – ‘Hold On’ She’s So Rad – ‘Breakout’ ft. Grandmaster Caz, Grandmaster Caz, Coco Solid & JayKin The Naked And Famous – ‘Grow Old’ The Tiny Lies – ‘The Walls Came Down’ Young Tapz – ‘Eminence’ ft The Wyld The March 2014 Panel Tim Homer - Kiwi FM Pennie Blair - 95bFM Daniel Wrightson - Juice TV Sam Wicks - Radio New Zealand Neil Cox - CHART Lee Prebble - The Surgery

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4/03/14 6:10 PM

TIFFANY ALLAN

EELS with a subdued and reminiscent tone. A far cry from the bouncy world of Shrek and quirky tunes of Wonderful, Glorious, but powerful and valuable in its own right.

ANY FAN OF the movie Shrek will recognise the Eels. Songs like ‘Need Some Sleep’ and ‘Beloved Monster’ bring back moments of late night melancholy, bashful love, and ogres making frog balloons. The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett is the Eels’ newest album, with a more serious and personal relationship to the lead singer “E” (Mark). Coming out mid-April, this new album deals with life lessons and regret in a way that is intended to relate honestly to listeners. I got the chance to have a listen, and to talk to E about the upcoming release. The album opens like the beginning of an old movie. You can imagine heavy red curtains pulling open to the first brass notes, then the piano plinks over a wide shot that slowly focuses in to a full scene. It’s a beginning no one can rush, and

shows exactly what E means when he says this album was “very planned out and written ahead of time. There was a lot of orchestration that had to be written.” When he elaborates on this he admits, “It’s not a very fun kind of album. Our last album, Wonderful, Glorious was a fun kind of album to make, ‘cause that one was very fun and experimental.” That, and the subject matter of this new album has a darker tone. E has always been one for dealing honestly with life’s issues, and this album seems to have taken this to a deeply reflective level. Although this album wasn’t as “fun”, E says “there are two different approaches, and as long as the results are something you like at the end of it, they’re both good ways to go about it.” The measured approach for this album has definitely paid off, as the music mirrors its content

really into ping pong. We play a lot of ping pong.”

On the subject of movies, I couldn’t help but ask how the Eels songs got into so many great ones, including American Beauty, Holes, and Yes Man. E says, “It’s just something that happened…we just happened to have fans that make movies, so they come and ask for it.” When asked which was his favourite he said, “My most recent favourite was a movie that came out just a few months ago called Enough Said, James Gandolfini’s last movie. We have a song in that and I really liked that one a lot.”

One thing is for certain, E takes his music very seriously. When I asked what he’d have been if he wasn’t a musician, expecting an answer like “chef”, he said he’d probably be dead. With someone who puts as much of himself into his songs as E does, listeners are in for an experience that will feel nothing short of genuine. Of the songs on The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett, E says, “I have no way of knowing what people are going to react to. You can only treat yourself as the audience and I always try to impress myself.” With high standards like these, the new album is no exception to the consistency of the Eels’ work.

E is a talented musician as well as a great singer, with skill in a range of instruments. When I

The final song of the album, aptly titled ‘Where I’m Going’ (in contrast to the first song ‘Where

“I have no way of knowing what people are going to react to. You can only treat yourself as the audience and I always try to impress myself.” asked how many he could play he was humble, saying, “I’m not sure how many instruments I play but I’m not very good on any of ‘em…I’m a jack of all trades. I surround myself with guys that are really good musicians, so they make me sound better.” When talking about being a musician and the process of making the album, E says, “The nice thing about my life is that there isn’t really a typical day… we go through different phases. Sometimes you’re writing songs every day, and you’re recording every day, sometimes doing concerts every day…lately it’s the worst of all the possibilities where I’m doing this every day. But you know, there are worse jobs to have.” There certainly are. As for band hobbies… “Currently we’re

I’m At’), provides the final curtain. It’s a backward shot out of the scene, the final voiceover. The experience of the album with all its regrets and pains is nicely summed up in the line “I can’t say how long I’ll stand/at the line that I’m toein’/‘But I’ve got a good feeling/‘bout where I’m goin.” An idiosyncratic voice, talented musicians, and a gift for self-exploration, this album has everything we love about the Eels. NEW ALBUM: THE CAUTIONARY TALES OF OLIVER EVERETT OUT FRI 18 APR

SEBASTIAN MACKAY

BROKEN BELLS you almost don’t want to be relevant.” To say After The Disco is an album of radio friendly tracks is entirely untrue. It’s one part of an album that has more dimensions than a 3D movie. One of the dimensions is faking it. “When you’re recording you can fake it. You only need to learn how to play a part well enough to play it once and then you can forget it and move on.” Mercer says he could never do what the Black Keys do — “that takes a type of athleticism that I don’t have and guitar work that I can’t do.” But instead of coming across as defeatist, he sounds as though he knows that there is a great secret. MORTALITY. CONVERSATION. DEBATE. After The Disco is the result of long talks that ran the gamut from the mundanities of life, to members James Mercer (The Shins) and Brian Burton’s (Danger Mouse) own mortality. Mercer, vocalist and co-instrumentalist, he says that some of the melancholy of the album comes from the lyrics – lyrics, he says, born from the conversations that spanned hours – because musically it’s much less melancholic. When talking about how songs develop, Mercer says succinctly, “It’s funny, because you can take a simple chord and play it on the piano and it sounds sad. But if you add a beat and guitars and a bass line it can change the emotional structure and framework.” Mercer and Burton have taken what would otherwise be fairly melancholic (Mercer confesses that his writing tends more toward the melancholic), and have added enough production and instrumentation to alter the emotional framework of an album. The idea of “after the disco” – what comes next when you’re grown up, where you go from there and what life’s like after the honeymoon – tying the record together was entirely unintentional. “It’s Brian and I hanging out and talking. Sometimes we’re debating when we’re trying to get our thoughts and ideas across and all of our conversations get dumped into the songs.” After The Disco was a true collaboration;

Mercer and Burton shared all writing and recording duties. The album was, in Mercer’s words, “pretty damn organic.” There was no overarching vision other than Mercer wanted the album to be more uptempo than its predecessor. His idea was that it would help them with radio play, something Burton is familiar with. “Brian has had radio success and he can get it and so I was saying if we can do it, why wouldn’t we?” Burton was responsible for the success of ‘Crazy’ performed by Cee Lo Green and dubbed song of the decade by Rolling Stone magazine. Mercer was encouraged by the radio success of the first album, which they released in 2010, simply titled Broken Bells. The idea was that more upbeat tracks would help with public perception. He’s also quick to point out that upbeat songs have more of a chance on air. “It was a first for me and it was the perfect opportunity. Radio play is an important aspect and it’s more important now than ever.” Despite wanting radio play there was never any consideration given to how the duo could make a record that sounded relevant. As Mercer says, being relevant only gets you lost in the noise. “When you listen to the radio, the songs that really stick out for you are the ones that aren’t really relevant and don’t sound like the rest…

“If you’re incredibly good at playing the piano then you’ll do a piano record and that’ll be what people expect from you. It’s hard to break out of it. You could say my extraordinary skill is that I don’t have one and so I can do whatever I want.” Part of doing whatever Mercer and Burton wanted was pushing themselves outside of their musical comfort zones. The result opened up different possibilities for the duo that they built on from the first album. “This didn’t feel like a sophomore album. It felt like we were continuing to work together. We added parts from the first album onto this one. It felt like we were finishing things off and starting a new session.” As part of The Shins, Mercer was the sole songwriter. He would write what he calls the “coffee shop” version of a song. The bare melodies, lyrics, chords and harmonies. As part of Broken Bells, Mercer says they wrote and recorded at the same time, songs usually took between three to five days, and so by the time the song was written it was also recorded. Despite there being four years in between releases Mercer says it didn’t take that long to write. The time was broken up between tours and other projects but he and Burton continued to come back to Broken Bells. The result is an album that’s aged like fine whiskey. NEW ALBUM: AFTER THE DISCO OUT NOW

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ON THE RECORD

KING KAPISI MUSICIAN/EMCEE/ DJ/MUSIC PRODUCER/ HOST Your house is on fire, what do save? My wife and kids. Everything else is replaceable. Favourite ‘80s TV show? Knight Rider or Automan. Dream job as a kid? Policeman. First album? The first album I brought was either Done By The Force of Nature by Jungle Brothers or Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. If you weren’t a musician, what would you be? I’d be a professional basketball player. Ultimate festival line-up? Rakim, KRS-One, Big Daddy Kane, Public Enemy, XCLAN, A Tribe Called Quest, Brand Nubian, EPMD, LL Cool J, Cypress Hill, Wu-Tang Clan, Redman and DJ Crews would be: The X-cutioner’s, Invisibl Skratch Piklz and Beat Junkies.

FM also as DJs on there play a lot of new tracks or else I grab crates/playlists from other artists and DJs whose taste I respect. Worst job you’ve had? Having to get up super early to clean a bakery in Newtown, Wellington. Which song do you wish you wrote? ‘A Ribbon In The Sky’ by Stevie Wonder. Biggest fear? My parents passing away or losing anyone in my immediate family. Any vices? Basketball and music… I collect Transformers, Star Wars, Gundam, Star Trek, Lord Of The Rings action figures. Favourite lyric? “I was a fiend, before I became a teen, I melted microphones instead of cones of ice-cream” – ‘Microphone Fiend’ by Eric B. & Rakim. SEE HIM LIVE: KING KAPISI WITH SOLJAH FRI 28 MAR TIKI PUNGA TAVERN, WHANGAREI SAT 29 MAR BELL BIRD TAVERN, MANUREWA

Who would play you in a film? I’d act as myself or the Samoan professional actor The Rock.

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How do you discover new music? My sons jam me new tracks, as I’m so busy making my own new music constantly. I listen to Base

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