RIP IT UP - OCT - 377

FREE I S S U E . 376 S E P T E M B E R 2015

SOC IAL S I NC E 77’

IRON MAIDEN DEVILSKIN’S JENNIE SKULLANDER TALL POPPY SYNDROME DAVID SHEARER GRAHAM BRAZIER RIP IT UP

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EDITORIAL Auckland band Like A Storm, who are doing big things in the USA, led the September edition of Rip It Up as the cover feature. So far so good, until the band posted an image of the cover on their Facebook page (67,000 followers) and all hell broke loose.

We were flooded with requests from all corners of the globe for copies of the magazine, which we soon realised would be very costly. We explained this and our correspondents quickly replied that they were happy to pay for postage. Jamie, our Operation Manager, hastily set up a PayPal account and we started sending magazines out.

The band are currently on tour in the US and fans, anxious to secure a copy in time for upcoming gigs and band signing sessions, were happy to pay as much a $100 for expedited international courier delivery. Yes, we were gobsmacked and wondered how long this would go on for. Sadly, for an increasingly harassed Jamie, it is still going on as we prepare this edition for the printers. Of course the band is thrilled and we have learned something about the devotion of fans. The band’s lead guitarist Matt Brooks tells me that it now takes the band two hours to get through the signing lines waiting backstage after shows.

New al b u m

E v e r y Open Eye o u t 2 5 S e p t e m b e r

Featuring Leave A Trace, Never Ending Circles + Clearest Blue chvrch.es

In this edition of the magazine we have the usual eclectic collection of music, film and entertainment stories as well as an interesting piece by our Hollywood based correspondent Shoshana Sachi on the tall poppy syndrome. I get her point about Hollywood and the need to stand out from the crowd with confidence if you want to get noticed, but there are also some positives to be had from keeping people real, especially in a small society intent on maintaining social cohesion.

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Peter Hartcher, a journalist at the Sydney Morning Herald, offers a positive twist on the tall poppy syndrome, one that is in keeping with the Kiwi definition of the term: “(Australian) citizens know that some among them will have more power and money than others... But according to the unspoken national ethos, no Australian is permitted to assume that he or she is better than any other Australian. How is this enforced? By the prompt corrective of levelling derision. It has a name - the tall poppy syndrome.

The tallest flowers in the field will be cut down to the same size as all the others. This is sometimes misunderstood. It isn’t success that offends Australians, it’s the affront committed by anyone who starts to put on superior airs.”

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The highly successful Nordic countries, who like NZ and Australia value an egalitarian social ethos, offer a variation on the theme called The Law of Jante:

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The ten rules state: You’re not to think you are anything special.

You’re not to think you are as good as we are.

You’re not to think you are smarter than we are.

You’re not to convince yourself that you are better than we are.

You’re not to think you know more than we do.

You’re not to think you are more important than we are.

You’re not to think you are good at anything.

You’re not to laugh at us.

You’re not to think anyone cares about you.

You’re not to think you can teach us anything.

Enjoy the October edition of Rip It Up and we will be back in November with a special edition featuring a selection of stories about Kiwi women working in the arts and wider world, examining experiences both positive and negative. Until then…

FOALS.COM WARNERMUSIC.CO.NZ

Andrew Johnstone - Editor

CONTENTS

60.

18.

20.

31.

24.

47.

60. Sportt Review . 18. Brendan Thomas & the Vibes, and Strangley Arousing. 31. Album Reivews. 20. How Bizarre.

47. Eb & Sparrow. 24. Otautahi Tattoo

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ON THE RIP IT UP STEREO THE KITE STRING TANGLE ‘ARCADIA’ (2014) MILKY CHANCE ‘STOLEN DANCE’ (2013) MISTERWIVES ‘RIPTIDE’ (2014) MAALA MAALA (2015)

LIKE A STORM AWAKEN THE FIRE (2015) YOUTH GROUP ‘FOREVER YOUNG’ (2006) RYAN ADAMS 1989 (2015) JARRYD JAMES JARRYD JAMES EP (2015)

CREDITS Rip It Up Creators Murray Cammick Alistair Dougal Publisher & Editor Grant Hislop

Postal PO Box 6032 Wellesley Street, Auckland 1141, New Zealand

Co-Editor Andrew Johnstone

Website ripitup.co.nz or grooveguide.co.nz

Designer Ashley Keen ashley@harkentertainment.com

Printers Webstar | Blue Star Group Limited | Shit Hot Printers

Operations Manager Jamie Hislop

Rip It Up and Groove Guide are 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 “NOT FOR PUBLICATION”.

Opinions express in the magazine are not necessarily those of Passion Publishing Limited. No responsibility is accepted for unsolicited material.

Sub-Editor Gary Steel Sales Grant Hislop grant@ripitup.co.nz Accounts accounts@harkentertainment. com Contributors Andrew Johnstone, Jake Ebdale, Nick Collings, Vera Bucsu, Richard Swainson, Shoshana Sachi, Riccardo Ball, Tim Gruar, Ren Kirk, Kate Powell, Anna Loveys Rip It Up Magazine is published

by Passion Publishing Limited.

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Office 2a Waverly Street, Auckland CBD, New Zealand

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ISSN 0114-0876

WHAT GOES ON

AUCKLAND CITY LIMITS ANNOUNCED A new music festival by the name of Auckland City Limits has been announced to take place at Western Springs Stadium. Set down for Saturday 19 March, the festival promises a diverse lineup of international music stars and local talent with the confirmation on performers to come in early October. Inspired by the American festival, Austin City Limits, the single day festival will include local artworks, an artisan market, festival fashion and a kids’ zone. Tickets will go on sale soon and are sure to sell fast, so best be in quick.

LANEWAY PERFORMERS ANNOUNCED Details of the performers for the 2016 edition of Laneway been released and they have failed to disappoint. The lineup which will travel across three countries and seven cities boasts the best of all genres includes the likes of Chvrches, Beach House, Flume, Nadia Reid, Purity Ring and Shamir. The day will also see ‘90s rock band High Dependency Unit take the stage for the first time since their 2011 tour. Returning to its traditional home at Auckland’s Silo Park, the festival will take place on Monday 1st February, and tickets are on sale now.

AVALANCHE CITY CHANGE VENUE Avalanche City’s concert, which was previously to be held at the Auckland Town Hall’s Concert Chamber, has moved to the Mercury Theatre in order to cope with high demand for tickets.

In support of his latest album, We Are For The Wild Places, the tour will see Dave Baxter travel to Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin with support from fellow solo artist Benny Tipene. All tickets for the original venue will be valid for the relocated concert and allocated an equivalent seat.

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A show at St James Theatre in Auckland has been announced for Father John Misty. The show will be the first New Zealand visit by the former Fleet Foxes drummer since turning solo again. As of late Misty and his band have been on the festival trail, playing Glastonbury, Coachella and Lollapalooza followed by US and European dates in support of his album I Love You, Honeybear.

Tickets for the one-off show are on sale now via Ticketek.

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RICCARDO BALL

IRON MAIDEN The Soul of Metal

HARD ROCK AFFICIANADO RICCARDO BALL EXAMINES THE LEGACY OF IRON MAIDEN AND REVIEWS THEIR NEW ALBUM, BOOK OF SOULS. IT’S BEEN 35 years since Iron Maiden released their debut self-titled album, and it’s safe to assume that no one foresaw what they would become. Maiden have transcended being a mere metal band: they are for all intents and purposes the quintessential metal band. They’ve stayed strong and true to their essence without stagnating, and have been a constant for a legion of fans.

While others sold out to

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commercial temptations, wrestled with their identities or just gave it away altogether, Maiden battled on. Even the sixyear hiatus of frontman Bruce Dickinson couldn’t stop them, and when he came back into the fold in 1999 it was as if he never left ,and the band continued to produce what can only be described as ‘more Maiden’.

You could argue that Black Sabbath gave birth to the genre or that Judas Priest have been as influential or that Metallica have a larger fan base and bigger reach, but none of them have dominated the musical consciousness and imagination of metal fans in quite the way Iron Maiden have.

The iconography of the band

“My first metal t-shirt, like thousands of metal fans, was Iron Maiden. The fact that my Mum hated it only added to the attraction and Iron Maiden had a new fan just like that” sets them apart too: as important a member of the Iron Maiden family as Steve Harris, Nicko McBrain, Bruce Dickinson, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith or Janick Gers is the unofficial seventh member of the band, Eddie. The creation of artist Derek Riggs, Eddie or Eddie The Head has adorned Iron Maiden album and single covers in one guise or another since that self-titled debut. Hell, he even has his own video game.

My first metal t –shirt, like thousands of metal fans, was

Iron Maiden. A gift from my metal-loving cousin, who had earlier introduced me to Twisted Sister, it featured a Sphinx like Eddie on the front and though I was yet to hear Powerslave I loved it already. The fact that my Mum hated it only added to the attraction, and Iron Maiden had a new fan just like that.

It’s the power of the band’s artwork and Eddie that makes the packaging and everything that comes with a new record so exciting. While waiting on a new album, the anticipation isn’t just

what will the new record sound like but also what will Eddie look like this time? We’ve had Zombie punks, time travelling gunslingers and lobotomised mental patients amongst many incarnations of Eddie, and for the band’s 16th album, The Book Of Souls, we have possibly the most intimidating and striking Eddie yet – the living dead Mayan sacrifice complete with a hole in the chest cavity and ruby red eyes – well done lads, you’ve out done yourselves!

foretelling of a bleak, perhaps non-existent future, is possibly the strongest statement they’ve ever made to open a record.

Testament as the rest of the band delivers what may be the most complete performance on the album.

First single ‘Speed Of Light’ is a raw throwback track that echoes classic Deep Purple and drives home with real intensity, while ‘The Great Unknown’, the first of three Smith/Harris compositions, builds like the cadence of marching jack boots with Dickinson’s commanding wail soaring over the top.

What follows is probably the weak point of the record in ‘Tears Of The Clown’, a song written about the late Robin Williams.

It’s the only track on The Book Of Souls that I think is predictable, with its ‘80s hard rock feel. ‘The Man Of Sorrows’ is as close as the album gets to a ballad, and is guilty of building nicely without really going anywhere, but Dickinson’s vocal really carries the song through to the guitar solo, which is superb.

“With The Book of Souls, we have possibly the most intimidating and striking Eddie yet – the living dead Mayan sacrifice complete with a hole in the chest cavity and ruby red eyes.”

So for me, Iron Maiden is the first thing that comes to my mind when I think metal, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The group’s sixteenth album, The Book of Souls, has been delivered in their 40th year of existence and it’s testament to the drive and artistry of the band themselves that after so long they keep evolving and exploring their talents. The scope of what Steve Harris and co have achieved here is remarkable, not only delivering fresh takes on what you would expect from these bastions of British metal but also pushing the boundaries at every opportunity.

That said, it’s only natural that a band with this kind of longevity will eventually borrow some ideas from their own back catalogue. The intro to ‘Shadows Of The Valley’ for example has a real ‘Wasted Years’ feel, and in ‘Death Or Glory’ there’s an echo of the ‘Running Free’ melody through the chorus, but it feels more like a nod to the past than dredging for inspiration.

There are some truly epic new Iron Maiden classics on The Book Of Souls, and the opening track ‘If Eternity Should Fail’ with its eerie cosmic effects, Maiden’s trademark gallop and Bruce Dickinson’s soaring vocal

Commander-in-chief Steve Harris has just the one solo writing credit on The Book Of Souls and the warm bass intro on ‘The Red And The Black’ follows on with a vague promise of doom, leading your ears into a near 14-minute odyssey of twisting riffs and a Dickinsonian shanty of woe.

‘The River Runs Deep’ is a frenetic guitar duel that decelerates into the chorus just enough for the vocal to catch up before disappearing ahead again in a blur of fret-dancing axemanship. Then, to use a vinyl parlance, we hit the end of ‘side one’.

The title track is a brooding atmospheric with a sense of most definite mortality. Interestingly, the song takes a departure at the midway mark, driving deeper in the darkness and offering some of the heaviest moments on he album.

Bruce Dickinson’s love of historic flight gets its first outing on the album in the form of ‘Death Or Glory’, a hooky mid-tempo single in the making that’s an ode to the Red Barron, while ‘Shadows Of The Valley’ has Dickinson referencing both Edgar Allan Poe and the Old

The final track, ‘Empire Of The Clouds’, at 18 minutes is the longest track the group have ever recorded, and possibly their most challenging piece. Steve Harris refers to the Dickinsonpenned song about the death of the Airship R101 in 1930 as a metal opera, and it’s easy to see why. The opening four minutes features just the vocalist on piano and McBrain accenting the melody, and when the guitars are brought in it’s subtly backing up what the former have built.

It’s very definitely Maiden, but there’s more than a touch of prog influence at play here too.

Recorded at the same Parisian studio that the band used for Brave New World in 2000, The Book Of Souls marks a change in the way Maiden write and record.

Instead of bringing completed songs into play, they wrote in the studio and laid down the tracks as soon as the song was completed, and this approach has captured them at the their best, uninhibited and playing with the vim and vigour of a band half their age. This doesn’t feel like a swan song but more like the start of a new chapter, with confidence and direction for the challenge still to come.

THE WISDOM OF BRUCE DICKINSON * Engineering stimulates the mind. Kids get bored easily.

They have got to get out and get their hands dirty: make things, dismantle things, fix things. When the schools can offer that, you’ll have an engineer for life. * If heavy metal bands ruled the world, we’d be a lot better off. * Rock music should be gross: that’s the fun of it. It gets up and drops its trousers. * I think the best way to find out about something is to try to do it to the max. A lot of people take up a hobby or sport and then find an excuse not to carry on with it.

Once I start something, I won’t stop until I’m as good at it as I’ll ever be. * Apart from death and taxes, the one thing that’s certain in this life is that I’ll never be a fashion icon. * My aim as a frontman is always to try and shrink the venue, if you can, to turn that football stadium into the world’s smallest club. At least you have to try. * I’m very good at daydreaming.

Ask any of my schoolteachers. * My dad always told me, ‘I don’t care what you do. Just aim to be the best at it. Even if it’s the world’s best window cleaner.’ * Business is just about enabling human beings, nothing more, nothing less. Businesses need to recognize this fundamental fact. * I don’t like being recognised, I have no interest in being famous at all, I just do what I do. If I could be like Captain Kirk and beam myself up and then beam myself down, I would! * Life on the road can get a little one-dimensional. I didn’t want to reach 40 and have to say all I’d done was look out the window of a tour bus and get drunk. * I find that fencing and training give me more stamina and help me deal with the craziness of being on the road so much.

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SO WHAT...

ADELE IN TALKS FOR TV SPECIAL The anticipation for Adele’s new album continues with news that the Skyfall Hitmaker is in talks to launch the album with a TV special. According to sources a possible one-hour special is being created by BBC for screening close to the November release date to lessen the amount of chat show interviews to promote the album. BBC has a history of special music programming with similar specials screening to coincide with Oasis’ 1997 release Be Here Now and Gary Barlow’s 2013 album Since I Saw You Last. The latest album will be a follow up to her 2011 release, 21, which sold over 30 million copies worldwide.

NEW ORDER RIFT JACKMAN’S SUCCESS A MYSTERY Australian actor Hugh Jackman has said the early success of his career was as a result of what he calls a combination of fate and good fortune. Jackman revealed that originally Dougray Scott was cast in the iconic role of Wolverine. However, the Scotsman had to pull out after getting injured just prior to filming started and the rest is history. In promoting his new movie, Pan, the actor said, “I can look back and go, maybe it’s fate or something in there. Or call it luck, whatever you want.”

TWEET TALK “REAL WORLD MATH PROBLEM: 3 people are hanging out, 2 of them are checking their phones, how long before the 3rd person takes out their phone.”

Aparna Nancherla @aparnapkin

“Is mombod a thing yet?

Because if that starts trending I could finally fit in.”

C(hristy) Love @LoveNLunchmeat

“I question religion the same way I question McNuggets. Where does this come from? Is it man made? Can i get a refund?”

Matteo Lane @MatteoLane

“Breakfast has been brought to you by the letter A for Arguing and the number 3 as in I’m going to count to 3 if you don’t stop right now.”

The Dose of Reality @TheDoseTweets

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New Order’s Bernard Sumner has called out ex-bandmate Peter Hook for the way he left the band.

The group has just released their first studio album in 10 years and the first without Hook, who left the band in 2007. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Sumner explained that it must be boring for fans to constantly hear Hook’s hateful comments due to the fact he can’t move on. He did however qualify his comments by saying, “I think we made some great records with Peter. I would never diss what he’s done as a musician.

But we couldn’t get on together, so he’s gone off to do his thing and it’s his choice.”

DEMPSEY CONFIRMS BRIDGET JONES ROLE Former Grey’s Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey has confirmed his involvement in the Bridget Jones movie. Following rumours linking him with the movie, which stars Colin Firth and Renee Zellweger, McDreamy posted a picture on social media captioning it: “Nice to be working in England. Renee and Colin are an absolute joy to work with! A good couple of days rehearsing at Pinewood Studios. I really like it here! (sic)” Meanwhile, earlier in the year filming began with a body double for Zellweger shooting at an Ed Sheeran concert in Dublin.

SHOSHANA SACHI

THE TALL POPPY SYNDROME If You Don’t Believe in You, No One Will

IT’S TIME FOR ALL KIWIS TO STOP BEING WILTING LILLIES AND INSTEAD STAND PROUD LIKE TALL POPPIES, WRITES EXPAT SCREENWRITER SHOSHANA SACHI. I’M A 27-YEAR-OLD New Zealander living in Los Angeles and pursuing a Masters in Screenwriting at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). To say it’s been a daunting, intense experience does little justice to what living and writing out here in big bad Hollywood is actually like.

It’s a dog-eat-dog, survival-ofthe-fittest kind of experience that’s definitely not for the faint of heart or those lacking in self-assuredness, and being self-assured is exceptionally important to staying afloat.

The most important bit of advice I could ever give to another person hoping to plunge into the world of showbiz is this: If you don’t believe in “you”, no one will.

When I first moved here in September 2014, I was the sort of girl you’d see standing pigeontoed in the corner of networking functions, hoping to dissolve into a corner. Now I’m the headheld-high sort of woman who cuts a line through the crowd and shakes the hand of the guest of honour. It’s been a hard road getting there, but I think it’s important.

I can’t speak to every Kiwi’s universal experience, but in my personal life journey, I believe growing up in our culture may lend itself to breeding an atmosphere of self-deprecation.

We’re a laid-back people with an intricate way of life and social history, but we also have a problem with success and selfappreciation. Ever stop to think about how we have a problem so deep-set that we even have a unique name for it? Tall Poppy Syndrome is such a pervasive part of our culture that it’s right up there with jandals, Kiwis, and fish and chips. It’s just a part of our existence as a people – but it shouldn’t be. Too many young Kiwis learn to resent self-assuredness and confidence.

People who know their worth are ‘up themselves’, and people who pursue high levels of success are cut off at the knees for the sake of ‘keeping them grounded’.

Here’s a simple observation I’ve made about confidence between American and New Zealand women. Compliment an American woman, and she’ll say thank you, and perhaps respond with a compliment of her own.

Compliment a New Zealand woman, and she’ll rebut with some sort of self-deprecating response. “You have great skin” is met with, “Oh it’s just makeup, I would look terrible without it.”

It’s a social absurdity, but it’s so deeply ingrained that I’ve even noticed myself being caught in a vortex of self-deprecation.

Preparing for a night out on the town with the girls becomes an awkward dance of who can say more hateful things about themselves, and become the champion of rosacea, muffin tops, and cankles. Kiwi women need to be taught self-love, and more importantly, they need to know it is okay to like themselves. If you don’t believe that this is a real problem, I recently received a compliment from a New Zealand male about my appearance, to which my response of agreement (“Yes, I do look hot in that dress, don’t I?”), was met with a scoff and “You’re up yourself, aren’t you?”

Sure, being a tall, self-loving poppy may be met with eager garden shears, but you can’t put a price on what confidence can do for your personal emotional health. There’s a big difference between confidence, and being self-involved.

Tall Poppy Syndrome doesn’t just pervade our self-image, but extends to the way in which we view ourselves as creative individuals. Too many young creative Kiwis believe that all they are capable of is the bare minimum, and we need to start teaching them to be more selfassured than that. I’ve caught myself countless times feeling awkward, self-conscious and just plain bad because someone is complimenting my work. Do you know what all of that reads as in a fast-paced, break-neck world of show biz and Hollywood? It reads as ‘I am not, and will never be successful’. It doesn’t get you any respect, and it doesn’t get you any contacts or steady work. Selling yourself short is the antidote to the career of your dreams, it’s as simple as that.

Once again, there’s a difference between believing you’re good, and believing you’re a god at

what you do. And here’s the difference: ‘I’m a winner’ versus ‘I’ve defeated everyone else’. One is a positive affirmation, and the other is a negative comparative statement.

I know, being confident is scary.

Doesn’t that mean we have to be accountable? Doesn’t that mean we have to stand tall in the crowd? Doesn’t that mean we have to say ‘yes’ instead of ‘I’m not sure’? It’s a daunting process going from a pigeon-toed girl to a head-held-high girl. After all, it’s so deeply engrained in our psyche what happens to tall poppies. But having the strength to be self-assured is the best way forward into a positive, successful culture that breeds positive, successful people.

Do we really want the next generation of brilliant writers, sportspersons, and awardwinners to be too afraid to step up?

Looking back at some of the experiences I’ve been blessed enough to have while living here in LA, I can say with absolute certainty that I would not have had those experiences if I was still void of self-confidence. I would’ve stood in the corner of the 2015 Showcase Awards instead of marching up to Oscar winner Graham Moore and shaking his hand. I wouldn’t have had any screenplay reads from industry professionals if I hadn’t put myself out there.

And I wouldn’t have pursued excellence if all I thought I was capable of was the absolute bare minimum. So my advice to you, dear reader, is to be a strong tall poppy that blunts jealous shears.

You deserve self-belief and selflove. As a friend once said to me: “You are a gift to the world. Act accordingly.”

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ANDREW JOHNSTONE

R.I.P GR AHAM BR A ZIER 6 May 1952 - 4 September 2015

RIP IT UP EDITOR ANDREW JOHNSTONE’S APPRECIATION OF OUR OWN ELVIS/ MICK JAGGER/ ROCK’N’ROLL GOD. I WAS 14 years old when Rip It Up first hit the streets in 1977 and I was an immediate fan.

Among the first acts I discovered through the magazine was Hello Sailor, who were featured prominently through the early days of the publication. I heard the band a few times on Hauraki and was impressed enough to cut their pictures out of the magazine and add them to the growing collection of Rip It Up images that plastered my bedroom walls.

I never did get to see them live but did eventually manage to buy their first two albums. I was a huge fan of Sailor’s second and last album, 1978’s Pacifica Amour, and in particular the tracks ‘Disco’s Dead’ and ‘I’m A Texan’. I loved the angular guitar parts and I especially loved vocalist Graham Brazier’s voice.

As the years progressed I remained a fan and purchased the various solo projects by band members as they came out, but the one that stood out for me

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was Brazier’s Inside Out (1981), which I still consider to be one of the great Kiwi albums. ‘Six Piece Chamber’, ‘High Wind In Jamaica’ and the deeply affecting ‘Billy Bold’ (which outlined Brazier’s life as it might have been if his father had not migrated to NZ), are still songs I turn to when in need of certain musical flavours.

“Inside Out showed me that New Zealand music wasn’t a particular sound or look, it was an expression of the artist creating it. Their collected experiences, influences, anecdotes and talents. This record could’ve been made by a British or Australian or American artist but it is still completely and undeniably a product of New Zealand. A Kiwi lad a generation removed from another place firmly at home but always looking out to sea and lands beyond” - Ted Brown, Musician.

Besides the music, all I ever knew of Brazier was what I read and I saw on TV so I can’t comment further on the man, I will leave that to others. But in my mind he was a great Kiwi rock god, all swagger and pouting lips, our Elvis/ Mick Jagger.

When YouTube arrived I finally got to see him in action on stage and the videos I most enjoy are those taken during the band’s infamous sojourn in LA. Watching Brazier here, I know without a shadow of a doubt that if the dice had landed in their favour, he would have become a superstar.

closing with some of the group’s better-known songs. Manzarek wanted Graham to sing the songs made famous by Morrison.

Knowing what that would mean for Hello Sailor, he turned the offer down.

I will leave the final words to the man himself from this poem lifted off his website:

As for the story that says he was invited to replace Jim Morrison in The Doors, it’s true:

MR ASIA

by Graham Brazier

Extract from: Hello Sailor Hits Hollywood - 1978-79

by Jeremy Templer:

Funny when he came to tea He didn’t really look Chinese

“The Doors’ manager Danny Sugerman, later the co-author of the Jim Morrison biography Noone Here Gets Out Alive, was a frequent visitor to the Hello Sailor house. And Ray Manzarek, keyboard player for The Doors, got interested in the band too.

Manzarek, at the time the house producer at Elektra/Asylum, actually joined Sailor onstage at The Whisky, playing with them on ‘Blue Lady’ and ‘Dr Jazz’.”

Manzarek also asked Hello Sailor’s Graham Brazier if he’d join The Doors on a tour to promote An American Prayer, the posthumous record release of Morrison’s poetry. There was to be a nationwide tour, each gig

Mr Asia’s gone From the back streets of Singapore can’t find him anymore Mr Asia’s Gone Sampan’s in dry-dock, what’s the rickshaw for?

Mr Asia’s gone Now there’s no more Mr Asia let’s give the job to Graham Brazier Mr Asia’s gone

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ANDREW JOHNSTONE

HUNTED, HAUNTED The Unique Musical Stylings of Eden Mulholland At this point in the interview we stop for a moment to examine Eden’s childhood and his obsession with Lego bricks, a segue that offers some insight into his creative process. “I liked to make spaceships and all the bricks had to be the same colour. My poor parents spent a fortune feeding my obsession”. Expressing his unique take on things, as evident in his particular brand of pop music, Eden built his Lego spaceships/stations on pieces of driftwood. The driftwood shape would determine the overall concept of the finished product and allow him a solid base to grasp as he moved the completed object about in the air.

Eden lives in Queensland, where he makes a steady living from music, composing for theatre, television and contemporary dance.

He is, for the moment, back in NZ promoting his new album Hunted, Haunted. The title is

EDEN MULHOLLAND IS FEELING HUNTED, AND ALSO HAUNTED, ACCORDING TO THE TITLE OF HIS SECOND PROPER POP SOLO ALBUM. ANDREW JOHNSTONE MEETS ONE OF OUR PRIME SINGER-SONGWRITERS. WHAT IS IT with Kiwi brothers and music?

There’s the Finn Brothers, the Nielson brothers (Ruben and Kody - The Mint Chicks, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Opossum, Silicon), The Brooks Brothers (Like A Storm) and the Mulholland’s (Eden and Joel). Perhaps it’s something in the water?

Eden Mulholland and brother Joel have both carved out solid musical careers since kicking off with their first band The Motts back in 2008. Since then, Joel has become and indemand producer and Eden has built a solid reputation as a composer for hire.

Eden and Joel are two of four brothers from Timaru who discovered a shared love of music around an old guitar their father found sitting on the side of the road.

“Except for one six-month period in our early teens when we went through a stage of serious ‘biffo’, Joel and I have always been mates,” says Eden at our interview over coffee at a swanky inner city café in central Auckland.

Both brothers have long encouraged each other’s musical aspirations and make a solid team, when time and schedules allow.

“I liked to make lego spaceships and all the bricks had to be the same colour. My poor parents spent a fortune feeding my obsession”

I ask about the Mots, the brothers’ first band who, armed with great musical chops and an arsenal of good songs, could have gone all the way. Joel: “Yeah, good question, why didn’t we do better? I guess we didn’t take it seriously enough.” As for Motocade, Eden’s other main squeeze, the band is still going though “it’s been four years since we have played together.”

a reference to that combination of fear and hope that is the artist’s constant companion.

Recorded in LA, Hunted, Haunted is a beautifully realised collection of songs with all Eden’s musical trademarks: angular guitar riffs, daring melodies, and like its predecessor, 2013’s Feed The Beast (Eden’s first solo album), is a dish rich in oddball arrangements and lyrical finesse. While some singer/songwriters wear their pain, fear and disappointment on their sleeves, Eden throws it about like confetti, laughing uproariously at life’s absurdities and ironies, all the while asking us to laugh along with him.

Lead single ‘Utopia’ is an infectious tune with a choppy guitar part that earworms with succinct effectiveness, much like the rest of the album. My favourite track is the ironic ‘River Of Hurt’, an ‘80s-style synth-driven pop tune that addresses the fear of rejection with the startling opening lines: “Don’t be such an arsehole, don’t be such a pussy,” before adding insult to injury with the line “don’t be such a mummy’s boy.”

NZ is a small country, but in every field of endeavour we punch way above our weight, and as I compare Hunted, Haunted and a host of other local albums that have crossed my desk this year with their overseas equivalents, I can’t help but think that we are doing it better.

Hunted, Haunted is challenging, entertaining, wry and fascinating. It deserves to be a smash hit.

ANDREW JOHNSTONE

C DUNCAN’S DREAM POP SHAPES

From Scotland to the World

and living in Scotland. This is of particular interest because Scotland and New Zealand are culturally similar and many NZers were hoping that Scotland would choose independence in last year’s referendum and discover the joys of self-determination.

Scotland is a reasonably liberal and progressive place. It’s got an amazing art and music scene, an education system to be envious of and a society that cares for its poorest. For whatever reason, we’re a fairly unified bunch in terms of our political beliefs, so I think it’s a shame we didn’t believe in ourselves a bit more when the referendum came around. Low self-esteem I guess. We don’t get much vitamin D up here.

HE’S A VISUAL ARTIST FROM GLASGOW WITH A DEBUT ALBUM OF GLISTENING DREAM POP THAT’S GETTING RAVE REVIEWS IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES. CHRISTOPHER DUNCAN SUBMITS TO OUR FAMOUS GRILLING. A FEW WEEKS ago your album Architect passed across our desk and all of us at Rip It Up Magazine were suitably impressed.

Our reviewer gave it a rave and our radio programmer immediately put two tracks on high rotate, which brings us to this Q&A. We want to know more about you.

I’m 26 and grew up in the countryside near Glasgow where I’m currently based. I’m an artist as well as a musician – the album art for Architect is my own creation. As a child I had a very musical home, with three close family members being professional string players.

Some words that will give us some impression of who you are as a person.

Hmmm... My partner says I’m gregarious.

You and music: how long have you been making music for and what instruments do you play?

I play guitar, piano, vocals, viola. Jack of all instruments, master of none! I’ve been making music since I was 10.

Please tell us about your first musical memories, first songs or pieces of music that deeply affected you?

The Carpenters and Burt Bacharach were big influences in my youth, and indeed still are.

My Dad used to listen to them so they were

instilled at an early age, something I’m very grateful for nowadays, of course.

Architect: Please describe the ideas behind the album and something about the recording process.

I recorded Architect at home, in my room, spending most of that time laying down layer after layer of vocal harmonies. It was largely inspired by my surroundings. Glasgow is a wonderful city – it’s well known for its art and music scene, of course, but it also has some hidden architectural beauty scattered throughout. At the same time, it can be a very bleak place. I guess all this comes through in both the songwriting and the album art - I love it here, but I’m often longing to be elsewhere.

“The Carpenters and Burt Bacharach were big influences in my youth, and indeed still are. My Dad used to listen to them so they were instilled at an early age.”

You have a day to yourself and pocket full of cash. What are you going to do?

That’s an easy one: buy a box of wine and write some music.

Please list your 5 favourite albums and or musical compositions.

Bjork – Vespertine

As a creative artist: How do go about writing music and from where do you glean inspiration?

In general, I write my melodies first and work the rest around that, though of course to some extent the process is symbiotic. I glean inspiration from a variety of musicians, but also visual artists such as Gerhard Richter, Jonathan Wilkinson, Grant Wood… It’s hard to say how exactly, but they all work their way in there.

What hopes and aspirations do you have for yourself as a musical artist?

I’m so happy to be able to write music for a living – I’m mainly just aspiring to keep myself in that position! I guess I’m also hoping to expand the set-up of my live performances, get some string quartets involved, that sort of thing.

Please tell us something about being a Scot

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion Cocteau Twins – Heaven Or Las Vegas tUnE-yArDs – Nikki Nack Connan Mockasin – Caramel Please list your 5 favourite musical artists, composers, and performers.

Maurice Ravel Claude Vivier Louis Andriessen Frank Bridge Olivier Messiaen

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ANDREW JOHNSTONE

BRENDON THOMAS AND THE VIBES From X-Factor to Classic Rock after school playing music and developing the fusion and we knew instantly in our hearts that this is what we were meant to be doing on this planet, and as time progressed we’re starting to make this a reality. Timmy is a buzzy dude, always in a world of his own yet so understanding of all perspectives. That makes it hard for him to settle at times. His ‘Animal’ groove and charismatic energy on stage sets the atmosphere alive and always

THEY PLACED THIRD IN X FACTOR NZ, BUT WHO IS BRENDON THOMAS AND THE VIBES, WHERE DID THEY COME FROM, AND WHAT DO THEY MEAN? WE PUT THEM THROUGH THE RIGOROUS RIP IT UP Q&A MACHINE. Let’s begin with introductions. Can you give our readers some insight into each other’s personalities and your working relationship? Don’t forget to tell us who plays what in the band!

Mikey - Brendon is a mystical fantastical human being. He thinks of things that extend into the far reaches of musical reason and crafts his ideas into works of absolute art. He is a steadfast dude who knows what he wants and will go the extra distance to get it. Brendon is critical and unforgiving with a perfectionist attitude, but it is the only reason we have reached the level of success we have attained so far.

A fantastic character and our best friend.

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Tim Tam is hilarious and kind-hearted. The most skilled drummer I have ever met in his age group, the master of funk and creator of groove. If entertainment were an emotion Tim would be the embodiment.

Just like Brendon, Tim strives for perfection at every turn and is a lot more ‘on to it’ than he may appear at first glance. A creative soul and our best friend.

Brendon - Mikey never ceases to fascinate me as he’s always got so much on his mind yet always gets the job done, whether it be on the bass or at university. It’s quite inspiring really, and I’m super proud of the lad and his focused, creative and expressive spirit which even seems to ground me at times and bring me back to the person I used to be when at school, striving for high academic achievement.

His Funkadelic bass style and enigmatic persona on stage definitely keeps our vibe on a groovy cloud.

Timothee was the first dude I jammed one of my own songs with, and from that moment I was at his house every day

as a band. We were motivated to enter it literally because reality singing competitions are the most watched television shows in New Zealand. It was a perfect platform for a rebellious rock band that wanted some exposure.

Brendon - The show pushed us to do songs in ways that we’d never thought of covering which showed me we could do anything.

“We pay tribute to the great artists of the ‘60s and ‘70s, The Beatles, Hendrix, The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Grateful Dead, King Crimson, Cream and many more.” keeps the moment seamlessly grooving forward. His presence is loved by everybody and is a key component to the Vibes Sound.

Describe your sound, musical philosophy and creative process.

Brendon - We pay tribute to the great artists of the ‘60s and ‘70s, The Beatles, Hendrix, The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Grateful Dead, King Crimson, Cream and many more. Our music, like our live shows, tends to be incredibly dynamic and we play a range of different styles within our set ranging from psychedelic blues, jazz, funk, Motown, rock ‘n’ roll and soul.

You were the first band to make it through to the final X-Factor NZ. What motivated you to enter the contest, and tell us about the effect the contest had on you as a band.

Mikey - The contest has been the biggest thing we’ve done together

Best memories of the experience?

Brendon - Playing Vector arena to 5000 people and hearing the roar of the crowd as we finished our 3-minute performance and playing to Georgia, a cancer patient at Starship and seeing her face light up at our presence and music. That was truly beautiful, seeing first-hand how powerful music is to human beings and how we can be affected by the sounds of soul. Also, gaining a new family of friends through the show such as Beau, Lili, Finlay, Nyssa and Nofo. We still hang on the weekends and inspire each other to be better musicians.

You have a pocket full of cash and a day to do anything you want. Tell us about it.

Mikey - Find a way to work with Paul McCartney for that day.

Brendon - Put on a fat gig in a busy public place, pay-out noise control and see what happens.

METALLICA MADE ME DO IT

BRING ME THE HORIZON ARE WORKING CLASS LADS MADE GOOD WHO JUST KEEP ON GETTING BETTER. ANDREW JOHNSTONE TALKS TO GUITARIST LEE MALIA. LEE MALIA, the lead guitarist of Sheffield band Bring Me The Horizon, is on the phone and sounds tired. It’s 9am for him and the band were up late partying after their final gig supporting Metallica during their brief tour of British festivals, an experience he describes as “exhilarating” and “surreal”. Not surprising really: Metallica was the reason they got into music in the first place.

When Lee was 11 years old his father bought a guitar and placed it in his bedroom. “Dad is a huge music fan and he wanted me to take up the guitar and become a rock star, but I didn’t bite. The guitar sat there untouched except for when mates came around. It was getting a bit abused and I thought that it might be ruined so I asked Dad to sell it while it was still in good condition. He asked me if I was sure and I said yeah, I wasn’t interested.”

The guitar was duly sold and

with some of the money Lee’s Dad purchased the Metallica album S&M. “He came home and put it on and I was amazed.

I listened to it over and over for a week before asking Dad if we could buy another guitar. He laughed and we went off and found a really nice guitar at a dodgy back alley shop.”

Lee was 14 at the time and within a year he had formed a Metallica covers band, and by the age of 16, the genesis of what was to become Bring Me The Horizon was well underway.

“We started playing to people in a pub basement in Rotherham (the band’s home town and a satellite city of Sheffield), to audiences of 50 people or so and took on every gig we were offered. We didn’t care about money, we just wanted to play.”

The band quickly built up a fanatical following and found themselves becoming unwilling celebrities. “We were just normal kids who did all the stuff that kids do, like getting drunk and being loose and crazy, except it got written down in magazines.” This celebrity was a rude shock for the guys who found themselves embroiled in a number of controversies. “We realised that we couldn’t just

do whatever we wanted so we learned, very fast, to tone things down and be more disciplined, especially in public.”

Having spent all his adult life on the road, the 28-year-old is clearly proud of his staying power, explaining that, “I come from a working class family and they are really proud of what I have achieved. “It’s been 12 years of hard grind but the effort has paid off handsomely. The new album, That’s The Spirit, went straight to number one in Australia (their third in this territory) and peaked at number two in NZ, Britain and in the US, making it their most successful effort so far.

“I love the new album and it is without doubt the best album we have made so far,” says Lee. The album was written in Sheffield during the harsh British winter and the band decided to record it somewhere warm and sunny as a reward for their efforts.

“We chose a recording studio on the Greek Island of Santorini and to save money produced it ourselves. We hired a personal trainer, got fit, lay about in the sun and ate good food. It was a brilliant experience.”

that the album is a “loose concept album about life’s darker moods, such as depression, and a way of making light of it.” He cited Jane’s Addiction, Panic! At The Disco, Interpol and Radiohead as influences for the new album.

Lee expands on this by explaining the group draw a lot of influence from TV themes, especially HBO shows and big films like The Dark Knight. “We really liked the emotive feeling of the music in this film and we really love big cinematic sounds.”

I ask him about the future. “I try not to build stuff up or take anything for granted because it took so long to get to where we are now, so if it carries on it’s amazing, if it doesn’t I will just be grateful for the opportunities and experiences that being in this band has given me.” Lee goes onto say that these days the band members are ‘super close’ and devoted to each other and that there is no ego at work in the band dynamic, “a blessing” which he hopes will continue.

As for NZ, it’s been several years since the band has played here, but we are definitely on the itinerary for the current tour, so expect to see them sometime early in 2016.

In an interview with NME, the band’s vocalist Ollie Sykes said

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ANDREW JOHNSTONE

HOW BIZARRE The Story of the Biggest Kiwi Song of All Time

A NEW BOOK BY SIMON GRIGG TELLS THE STORY PAULY FUEMANA AND THE SONG THAT STORMED THE WORLD. MUSIC IMPRESARIO Simon Grigg first met Pauly Fuemana through his Cause Celebre nightclub on Auckland’s High St in the late 1980s. A young and ‘devastatingly charming’ young Pauly was a regular, and rather naively (as it turned out), Grigg offered him a small bar tab, one that was quickly used up and looked like it was never going to be repaid.

Anxious to recover something from the deal, Grigg set Pauly to work at various tasks around the club and discovered in Pauly ‘the worst employee ever’, one more concerned with his looks and the ladies than clearing tables and washing glasses.

Regardless, it turned out pretty good for all concerned when a few years later Grigg heard a track that Pauly had been working on with producer Alan

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Jansson, called ‘Doof It Up.’ Impressed, he immediately signed him to a fledgling label he had created to release Nathan Haines’ debut album. ‘Doof It Up’ (street slang meaning ‘to have a scrap to work things out’, but not in an overly aggressive way) became ‘Big Top’ and then finally ‘How Bizarre’, a phrase Pauly borrowed from Alan’s wife Bernie, who was a frequent user of the term.

Grigg knew he was onto something pretty special and organised a licensing deal with a less than enthusiastic PolyGram NZ, whose opinion quickly changed after the Australian arm of the label saw the song’s commercial potential and rushed it to release. The song went to number one across Australasia in 1996. Next stop was Britain, where the song failed to take off until British radio DJ superstar Chris Evans heard the song while on holiday Australia and started playing it on his BBC 1 breakfast show. Grigg: ‘When the song hit in Britain we were rushed over to appear on Top Of The Pops and there we were (Pauly

was broke and still living in a council flat in Auckland) sitting in the green room with the Spice Girls. Baby Spice came over to Pauly and said ‘You’re Bizarre’, and Pauly replied, ‘You’re Spicy.’ It was all pretty surreal.’

From there the song set Europe alight – especially in Germany, the world’s third biggest music market - and finally in ‘97, it cracked the really big time, America.

The rest of the story is history.

With the Lorde phenomenon lighting up the local scene in recent years, it’s easy to forget the impact of ‘How Bizarre’, our first really big international hit.

Kawerau boy John Rowles had scored first with two substantial hits in Britain back in the late ‘60s (‘If I Only Had Time’ and ‘Hush, Not A Word To Mary’), and in 1980 Split Enz came

“Baby Spice came over to Pauly and said ‘You’re Bizarre’, and Pauly replied, ‘You’re Spicy.’”

Initial attempts to get the song released in the States had been met with resistance from labels with comments like ‘too quirky’.

But on its release it went straight to the top of the Canadian charts, and radio listeners on the other side of the border locked onto it, and started asking their local stations to play it. A radio station in Buffalo (upstate NY) put it on high rotate and it spread like a virus, hitting right across the state and most notably in New York City, where it went ballistic.

close with the True Colours album and the single ‘I Got You’, but it wasn’t until Neil Finn’s Australian-based Crowded House scored internationally with the single ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ in ‘86 that a native child hit the really big time. Big as it was, however, ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ looked a bit pale in comparison with ‘How Bizarre’, a genuine all-purpose hit in every market in the world, from Asia to the Americas, Europe, Africa and everywhere else in between.

Between ’95 and ‘97, the song sold some four million copies, and the album around 1.5 million copies, and is still a money making goldmine today thanks to royalties from advertising, movies, TV show placements and ongoing airplay. Grigg: ‘It’s the song that keeps on giving, and the amount of money one song can generate is phenomenal.’

Grigg’s book How Bizarre: Pauly Fuemana And The Song That Stormed The World charts the course of the song from its humble origins to its worlddominating success, but this is not just the story of a song, it’s also the story of the creative minds behind it, most notably Mr Fuemana himself, a man Grigg describes as being ‘both extraordinarily talented and deeply flawed.’

Pauly came from humble origins.

The son of a Niuean father and a Tuhoe mother, he grew up

on the mean streets of Otara and suffered ongoing wounds from a deeply dysfunctional family life. Grigg: ‘Pauly was psychologically ill-equipped to deal with fame and handled it rather badly despite the efforts of a robust management team. At his worst he was a fantasist who loved the bling and surrounded

and mortgages, but fell pray to those within the family who felt entitled and demanded ever more money from him.’ Grigg goes onto explain that for a time Pauly was seriously wealthy, but his need to be seen as ‘the man’ and his spendthrift ways led to his financial undoing and eventual bankruptcy.

While taken to fits of violence and paranoia, ‘Pauly also had a good heart. He took care of his wider family, paying off debts

Simon Grigg was there and it was during ‘the very moving funeral service’ that he decided to write it all down, as it was (the good, the bad and the ugly), fearing that if he didn’t, the real story would never be told as it actually was.

He was there all the way through, a hands-on witness to one of the more cautionary tales in the Kiwi canon, and his account is one grand ripping yarn from the first page to the last.

“‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ looked a bit pale in comparison with ‘How Bizarre’, a genuine all-purpose hit in every market in the world, from Asia to the Americas, Europe, Africa and everywhere else in between.” himself with sycophants.

At his best he was a humble collaborator and a loyal friend with a generous spirit.’

Church just off K-Rd in Central Auckland. There were 200 people in attendance.

Pauly died in 2010 from respiratory failure following a protracted battle with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, an inflammatory disorder of the peripheral nervous system. His funeral was held on 5 February 2010 at a Pacific Island Presbyterian

Grigg’s book is a modern fable about the pitfalls of fame and celebrity, a riveting account of a highly complex man and a detailed exposition of the machinations at work in the music industry at large. Destined to be a classic, How Bizarre the book is not just for music fans, it is a story for the ages.

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ANDREW JOHNSTONE

TOMMY THAYER An Accidental Kiss

KISS GUITARIST TOMMY THAYER SPEAKS TO ANDREW JOHNSTONE ABOUT ‘ACCIDENTLY JOINING ONE OF THE BIGGEST BANDS IN THE WORLD’.

WAY BACK IN the early 1980s, when I was still fresh faced and callow, I hived off to Sydney in search of adventure, of which I found plenty, but one of my most abiding memories was walking past a theatre that was due to host a Kiss show.

As I threaded my way through a slew of outraged priests, pastors and others waving banners disclaiming Kiss as ‘Minions of Satan’, I found my curiosity piqued and interested to see what the fuss was all about. I called into the box office to purchase a ticket. Sadly they were all sold out and my opportunity to join the legion of the damned was curtailed.

I asked Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer if this kind of nonsense still goes on. “Not as much

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anymore, but when it does I can’t help but think how misguided these people are. Kiss is an empowering and enlightening circus experience, it’s about having a great time and partying and I don’t understand the reasoning of these religious types. Regardless, I get a chuckle whenever it happens.”

Which brings us around to Kiss fans and a conversation I had recently with the winner of the Rip It Up Iron Maiden competition, Clinton Stead. He described metal as ‘a religion’ and Tommy concurs: “The Kiss Army are a cut above any other fans. They are fanatical and dedicated to a degree that it is indeed almost like a religion. I pinch myself every day thinking how lucky I am to be a part of this strange phenomenon.”

Hmmm, idol worship. I can see why the god botherers might have a problem, though I think their outrage might be more to do with the makeup and its demonic overtones. These are after all, literal thinking types who take everything at face value.

I ask Tommy if it is uncomfortable wearing all that makeup under the lights.

He doesn’t quite give me the answer I am looking for, but does offer some insight into a ritual experience that again, offers some religious overtones.

“Putting on the makeup… people think we have makeup artists to do that but we do it ourselves… and getting into our costumes and boots is a special larger

and quirky,” is better known for its alternative music, it also has a thriving hard rock scene.

“Around Portland are lots of industrial blue collar towns and a big workingman’s scene that loves to rock out on the weekends. Heart comes from this area and as a teenager I was heavily influenced by them, Iron Maiden and Def Leppard.”

Tommy goes on to say that the music scene in the Pacific

“The Kiss Army are a cut above any other fans.

They are fanatical and dedicated to a degree that it’s almost like a religion.” than life feeling and once we are dressed, we become characters and the feeling is quite powerful.

The imagery has an amazing effect on the audience, they go nuts, and there is nothing else quite like it on the rock scene.”

Tommy Thayer hails originally from Beaverton, just outside of Portland in the US Pacific North West and while the region, which Tommy describes as “eccentric

North West is unlike any other in the States in that it is very British-centric. “Well I’m not exactly sure, but again, I think the working class ethic of the British bands really strikes a chord with the people of the region, that and the weather. Our climate is remarkably similar to the British climate and I think it helps engender a similar musical disposition.”

“Putting on the makeup and getting into our costumes and boots is a special ‘larger than life feeling’ and once we are dressed, we become ‘characters’ and the feeling is quite powerful.”

Tommy’s first band, Black And Blue, was formed in High School and the guys dropped out to see if they could make a living from playing music.

Heavily influenced by the British nu-metal scene, the band quickly realised that LA (where that particular scene was booming) would offer them more opportunity. This was in 1983, and within five months of their move, found themselves signed to the legendary Geffen label and being groomed for the big time.

It was about this time that Black And Blue scored a slot supporting Kiss on a three-month tour of the USA. Thayer: “We got on the road and met the band and got to know them. We were a baby band and they took us under their wing, kept an eye on us and mentored us.” Later in 1985, Gene Simmons became the band’s producer and helmed 1996’s Nasty, Nasty and 1988’s In Heat.

Thayer: “With our first two albums, 1984’s Black And Blue and 1985’s Without Love, Geffen had been pushing us in a more pop-metal direction and Gene took us back to our rock and blues roots, which was more in line with where we wanted to be as a band. I was a huge fan and working with Gene was a thrilling experience.

“He liked my songwriting and asked me if I wanted to write with him for Kiss. We did some demos together and I shared a couple of co-writes with him on the Hot In The Shade record, which sold a million copies. That was my first Gold record and I remember it came in the post.

Unwrapping it was one of the most exciting experiences in my life up to that point.”

By this time Black And Blue had run its course and Kiss invited Thayer to come and work behind the scenes with them. His first job was to sort through boxes of photographs and select the images for the first Kiss photo book. Otherwise they kept him occupied with tasks that included, according to Wikipedia, fetching coffee and cleaning the gutters on various band members’ houses.

Thayer laughs and confirms that this is actually a story without foundation. “I did not clean any gutters but I did get coffee and did whatever else needed to be done. By nature I am co-operative and helpful and this worked to my advantage.”

So much so that he eventually became the band’s road manager.

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Thayer: “By 2001, the band dynamic was fraying and Ace (Frehley) was becoming unreliable, so as an insurance policy the band would make me up and keep me close at hand. I knew all the guitar parts so could step up if needed.”

He finally got his chance in 2002.

The band had been hired to play a private gig in Jamaica and Ace did not show. It was a rousing success and he was appointed the band’s fulltime lead guitarist.

“My friends thought that I had planned the whole thing but I had not planned on it at all in any way, it all happened organically.

I was more interested in management and production and suddenly I was a member of one of the biggest bands in the world.

Life is surprising.”

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ANDREW JOHNSTONE

BODY ARTISANS Why the World comes to Otautahi for Tattoos

ANDREW JOHNSTONE DOESN’T HAVE A SINGLE TATTOO, BUT HE LIKES TO WATCH. I DON’T HAVE any tattoos, wear any jewellery (or a watch) or carry a cell phone. Except for clothes (sneakers, jeans, wallet and t-shirt) I am unadorned, which probably makes me the complete opposite of most Kiwis who are, according to Ryan, the manager at Otautahi Tattoo, the most tattooed people in the world.

Lonely Planet backs up this claim and also describes NZ as the second best place in the world to get a quality tattoo after Thailand, but these numbers are hard to verify. Statistical research suggests that the British are in fact the most tattooed people on the planet, and here’s where it gets interesting, because a fair whack of Otautahi’s clientele are from Britain - followed by happy punters from Germany, Holland, Austria and Australia. They’re

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all body art enthusiasts who have come down to get inked, encouraged by NZ’s sterling reputation for nurturing and producing high-class tattooists.

To prove the point I get chatting to a guy from Birmingham who is getting Eddie the Head (he’s the Iron Maiden icon) on top of the Union Jack applied to his right bicep. It’s for the Rugby World Cup as a sign of patriotism for his home team. The tattooist wonders at the wisdom of getting a tattoo in honour of “such a crap team,” but the guy (who does not want to be named) takes it all in his stride.

This rugby fan is also an unabashed Bruce Dickenson admirer (hence Eddie the Head), and has been for 20 years since discovering the band as a 15-year-old. “I used to daydream that Bruce was my uncle.

Imagine having an uncle like that - he is an Olympic fencer, he can fly 747s, he sings brilliantly and writes amazing lyrics. He is

a kind of genius who excels at everything he turns his mind to.

I used to imagine all the amazing things he could have taught me.”

While this conversation is going on I am carefully watching the young guy applying the ink.

Considering that his canvas is living flesh and that any mistake is a potential disaster, I am in awe of his calm and steady hand.

Otautahi Tattoo is a chain of three parlours that take in Auckland, Christchurch and Queenstown. The brand began eight years ago in Christchurch in a location that turned out to be slap bang in the centre of the red zone. Owner/founder Brad Cone, finding himself without a location and bills to pay, made the decision to relocate to Auckland and pick up where the earthquake left off.

Put together in two frenzied weeks, Otautahi on K-Rd was an immediate success, as was the next location in Queenstown.

Ryan: “When we opened in Queenstown the standard was pretty ordinary and our presence lifted the bar.” Most of Otautahi’s Queenstown business comes from tourists and the location, which employs five fulltime artists, is “seriously busy.”

The K-Rd location employs 10 fulltime inkers and three apprentices, and the artists specialise in various categories that include Traditional, NeoTraditional, Polynesian and Moko. Arapeta is Ngati Porou from Gisborne and is the moko specialist. He began his working life in the bush, but by his mid20s was over it. It was while searching out something new that he met master carver Mark Kopu, “who saw something in me and basically railroaded me into an apprenticeship.” Carving led him to tattooing and finally Otautahi K-Rd, where he happily applies his skills to a variety of customers.

Arapeta’s own body art includes

a Puhoro around his midriff, a tattoo that is gifted to an artist when they have achieved the ink world’s equivalent of a university degree. While most of his body work is traditional, his left arm is an interesting experiment that combines classic Maori design with Hawaiian, Mexican and biomechanical elements. The effect is a striking statement about the evolving nature of traditional Maori body art.

Ryan, the manager at Otautahi, is a towering figure (a mixture of Dalmatian and Samoan genes), and to put it succinctly, he is built like a brick shit house. An imposing figure for sure, but like everyone at Otautahi he is friendly, open and the antithesis of the tattooist enthusiast of lore, the hard Sailor Jack/Gangland figure. These days body is a socially acceptable form of selfexpression, one that makes Ryan feel “more complete as a person.”

I share Ryan’s words to patrons and inkers alike and they all agree that body art makes them feel “special, whole, distinct and at peace.” This last word is especially interesting and wholly fitting with the environment at Otautahi.

I have enjoyed my brief exploration of this rather fascinating world, but when asked if I will be coming back to get a tattoo for myself my answer is a firm “no.” It’s not for me. I like having an unadorned body so much that I even shave my hair off. Plain and simple, that’s me. It was a different story for Ren, our photographer. She was quite taken by the experience and just before we left, she signed up for a tattoo, as did our intern, Ann-Kirsten, and as we walked back to the office both girls were all abuzz with ideas for their impending ink work.

Otautahi K-Rd is open 7 days a week from 10am (except Sundays, when they open at 11am). They apply some 75-100 tattoos a week and close

SOULFEST 10 Things About Lauryn Hill 4. The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill (1998) remains Hill’s only solo studio album. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and has sold approximately eight million copies to date.

“As a kid, I didn’t realize being able to write a hit song was a rare gift. It was so natural you just assume everyone has that ability.”

LAURYN HILL MAY HAVE RELEASED JUST ONE ALBUM SINCE FUGEES SPLIT ACRIMONIOUSLY, BUT THIS ENIGMATIC FIGURE NEVER QUITE LOSES HER STAR APPEAL. ON THE EVE OF HER APPEARANCE AT SOULFEST THIS MONTH, WE GIVE RIP IT UP READERS A REFRESH/REBOOT ON THE SINGER-RAPPER.

“I know that I was blessed to grow up the way that I grew up.

We didn’t have everything, but we had a whole lotta love and a whole lotta family, and I was exposed to different things. I knew that there was opportunity and different careers and different directions that I could live my life. Some people grow up with very few options, or at least knowing about very few options.

So, to me, it’s always about letting people know what their options and possibilities are.”

1. Lauryn Hill (born May 26, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, producer and actress. She is best known for being a member of Fugees and for her solo album, The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill.

3. In high school, Hill was approached by Pras Michel to start a band with his cousin Wyclef Jean. They called themselves Fugees and released two studio albums, Blunted On Reality (1994) and The Score (1996), which sold six million copies on release. Hill›s tumultuous romantic relationship with Jean led to the split of the band in 1997, after which she began to focus on solo projects.

2. Raised in South Orange, New Jersey, Hill began singing as a child with her music-oriented family. She enjoyed success as an actress at an early age, appearing in a recurring role on the television soap opera As The World Turns, and starring in the film Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit.

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“Hip-Hop isn’t just music, it is also a spiritual movement of the blacks! You can’t just call hiphop a trend!”

5. Soon afterward, Hill dropped out of the public eye, suffering from the pressures of fame and dissatisfied with the music industry. Her last full-length recording, the live album, MTV Unplugged No. 2.0 (2002) sharply divided critics and sold poorly compared to her previous work. Hill’s subsequent activity, which includes the release of a few songs and occasional festival appearances, has been sporadic and erratic. It has sometimes caused audience dissatisfaction; a reunion with her former group did not last long.

“I don’t schmooze, I don’t shoot the shit. I’m highly intuitive, and can smell bullshit a mile away.

It’s highly uncomfortable for me to be about. You don’t see me out.

I can’t be around nonsense.”

6. Her music, as well as a series of public statements she has issued, have become critical of pop culture and societal institutions: “As musicians and artists, it’s important we have an environment - and I guess when I say environment, I really mean an industry that really nurtures these gifts. Oftentimes, the machine can overlook the need to take care of the people who produce the sounds that have a lot to do with the health and wellbeing of society.”

7. Hill has six children, five of whom are with Rohan Marley, son of reggae legend Bob Marley.

8. In 2012, she pled guilty to tax evasion for failure to pay federal income taxes, and in 2013, served a three-month prison sentence. By this point Hill had fully paid back $970,000 in back taxes and penalties she owed, which also took into account an additional $500,000 that Hill had in unreported income for 2008 and 2009. Hill was released from prison on October 4, 2013, a few days early for good behaviour.

9. ‘A Rose Is Still A Rose’ is a 1998 single written and produced

by Lauryn Hill and recorded and released by singer Aretha Franklin. The song is feministbased, focused on a motherly figure giving advice to a younger woman who keeps getting into bad relationships. Throughout the song, Franklin advises that in spite of everything and despite her “scorned roses and thorn crowns”, that the woman is “still a rose”.

10. “Success is incredible, but it doesn’t change the essence of who I am. I’m still not convinced that I’m a success. I’m still like one day something might happen, and I’ll have to get another career. I kinda fell into this business, because I loved it, did it, but always stayed in school, always had other jobs, made sure that the bills were paid and the grades were good, just in case it didn’t work out.”

LAURYN HILL IS ON HER WAY TO PLAY SOUL FEST NZ 2015, MONDAY 26 OCTOBER, WESTERN SPRINGS STADIUM, AUCKLAND.

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ANDREW JOHNSTONE

JAMIE L AWSON

Teething problems

Filled out with a little piano, bass and drums, the result is warm and personable and belies the fact that the whole thing was recorded in a scant two weeks by sometime Sheeran producer Will

ED SHEERAN’S LATEST PROTÉGÉ JAMIE LAWSON HAS GOT AN ISSUE WITH HIS TEETH, BUT ISN’T AS SERIOUS AS HE LOOKS, REPORTS ANDREW JOHNSTONE. JAMIE LAWSON IS giving me a brief peak inside his mouth.

He’s showing me why he doesn’t smile in any of his publicity photos, which tends to make him look a very serious individual.

It turns out that Lawson - who has signed up to Ed Sheeran’s Gingerbread Man label and is being fast-tracked for the bigtime – has got a thing about his crooked teeth. They look okay to me, but apparently they’re crooked and misshapen, and clearly he’s waiting to hit it big so he can get them fixed and finally beam gleefully from his record covers.

Lawson is actually no spring chicken, but a 39-year-old singer-songwriter who has been struggling to get heard for 20 long years. And now he’s in New Zealand promoting his first major label release, a self-titled album out on October 9, hence our chat and his invitation to have a gawk at his apparently appalling fangs.

A relaxed and chatty individual, Lawson explains that he is off to the States tomorrow to play a series of arena shows in support of his mentor, the aforementioned Mr Sheeran. He is well aware

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of the American obsession with shiny white ivories, and this is making him a little extra nervous. I do my best to reassure him that his smile is just fine, and that his in-mouth chewing utensils will not put people off his music.

Lawson has spent most of his adult life playing covers in restaurants, and sometimes performing his own music in small clubs. It was after leaving school and ensconced in his first year at art college (he had aspirations to be a photographer) that he discovered the music of Mark Eitzel (American Music Club). Deeply impressed by Eitzel’s solo album 60 Watt Silver Lining, Lawson realised that music was his first true love and he dropped out of college to pursue his dream. Isn’t 20 years a long time waiting for that big break? Did he ever feel like it might never come?

“Never,” he replies. “I have always felt that things were going along well and that I have been steadily improving as a songwriter and that one day all my hard work would pay off.” He pauses. “I have been able to make a living off music since dropping out of college, except for a brief period where I worked in a record store in Dublin, and to me that is success.”

The new album, Jamie Lawson, is a collection of finely honed songs that flow seamlessly from one into another, the end result feeling very akin to a song cycle.

collection of songs.

As for Lawson’s connection with superstar Sheeran, it came about via their record company.

In 2011 he had an unexpected

“Lawson is heavily influenced by Van Morrison, and prior to the recording process was listening to Morrison’s Moondance.”

Hicks (Elton John, James Blunt, Lilly Allen).

“I went into the studio and recorded 16 tracks with just me and the guitar, and we sent them off to Ed (Sheeran) who chose the songs for the album. After that, we just filled them out and tidied them up.”

Lawson is heavily influenced by Van Morrison, and prior to the recording process was listening to Morrison’s Moondance. “I like the space in that record, the freshness and the soul. I wanted to emulate something of those qualities, but missed the mark.”

Or so he says. Regardless, he did achieve his other goal, to create a record that was “warm and kind” to the ears.

“I find a lot of music oppressive to listen to, harsh and over compressed and I wanted to create a record that was easy to embrace.”

You could easily place Lawson somewhere between James Blunt and Ed Sheeran, a MOR singer/songwriter whose music is concerned with love, loss and affairs of the heart. While the new album is less personal than previous efforts (he has been working toward a broader style of songwriting, less concerned with his personal state of mind and more concerned with ideas outside of himself), it still struck me as an emotionally intense

hit in Ireland with his song ‘I Wasn’t Expecting That’, which he had recorded himself at home.

He dropped it off at a Dublin’s biggest radio station, Today FM, who immediately put it on high rotate. Two weeks later it was holding down the Number 3 spot on the Irish singles charts.

He explains that it was not that great a version - the 2015 version recently went top 10 across Australasia - but it did bring him to the attention of several major labels. He came close to signing with Universal but it all fell through at the last moment. Nevertheless, the label kept shopping the song around, thinking it could be a hit for someone else, including Ed Sheeran who was so impressed by the track that he got in touch with Lawson and promptly signed him to his new Ginger Bread Man label. Ironically, Sheeran’s label is under the umbrella of Universal, who only two years earlier had passed on Lawson.

So, is he going to get his teeth fixed now that the money is rolling in?

“No,” he laughs, “that seems like such an American kind of thing to do and that’s not me at all.” He smiles, and I tell him he should do it more often. I think we’ll be seeing more of Lawson’s teeth, whether they’re recalibrated or left in their natural state.

DAVID SHEARER’S MUSIC LIST

DAVID SHEARER IS the MP for Mt Albert and Spokesman for Foreign Affairs and Consumer Affairs. His life has been dedicated to the service of others both in New Zealand and internationally. Prior to entering politics he ran largescale humanitarian operations for the United Nations and Save the Children in areas of conflict including Iraq, West Bank and Gaza, Afghanistan, Somalia and Rwanda. He believes New Zealand should be the best country in the world, where everyone can get a fair go and anyone prepared to work for it can achieve their dreams.

ESSENTIAL SONGS:

ESSENTIAL ALBUMS:

Steve Earle - Goodbye.

A beautiful ballad. My friend Cam and I do a pretty respectable cover version.

The Beatles White Album I was just a kid but I remember hearing it for the first time and being blown away by the range of styles and sounds.

Johnny Cash’s cover of Hurt by Trent Reznor: Also Cash’s video of Hurt is one of the most outstanding videos I’ve seen – totally evocative of his life.

The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations.

I remember hearing it when I was really young and it set the bar musically for the sixties.

Lera Lynn - Lately Watching True Detective led me to this moody masterpiece.

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit My number one rock anthem of the last 20 years.

FAVOURITE MUSICAL ARTISTS:

REM Automatic For The People I remember crossing over the border from Tanzania and driving across Rwanda with only one CD in the car. We gave some Africans a lift and they had to suffer through five hours of it on repeat-play. If I hear it now, it takes me back there.

Keith Richards - one of the all-time rock guitar greats. Not technically, but musically so innovative with the distinctive G tuning.

David Bowie - the ultimate experimenter, always pushing the boundaries, you never know what he’ll come out with next.

Elton John - You never forget your first live concert. Mine was Elton John in 1971.

Linkin Park Hybrid Theory Every time I flew in to Baghdad for another fortnight’s work, I’d put Linkin Park up loud on my headphones during the spiral landing we did to avoid rockets.

It always made me feel at least a bit bulletproof.

Foo Fighters - I like their music and their outlook, the way they treat their fans.

The Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street The stones at their best and one of the classic albums of all time.

Springsteen - I still think he puts on consistently the best show.

The Muttonbirds and Don McGlashan - we used to listen to them overseas and they really evoked home.

T H E V I S U A L A R T - W O R L D G AV E U S B A N K S Y .

T H E AU RA L NOW G I VE S U S K A D I N G TON . .

F RE E ' D O N ' T K I C K T H E C AT ' E P D OW N LOA D AVA I L A B L E F R O M

K A D I N G T O N M U S I C .C O M

K A D I N G T O N M U S I C .C O M facebook.com/kadingtonmusic

soundcloud.com/kadington

contact@kadingtonmusic.com

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ANDREW JOHNSTONE

INTRODUCING...MA AL A Out of the Warehouse and into the World first song I released, ‘Touch’, and apparently loved it and wanted to hear more. I sent through ‘In The Air’ and he was keen to premiere it. That was never an opportunity I was going to turn down! Being on a global radio station, it got worldwide attention. I’ve had people get in touch from all around the globe showing their support, which is a crazy feeling.

The encouragement always helps and I’m super appreciative, especially so early on.

EX-PAT KIWI BROADCASTER ZANE LOWE RECENTLY INTRODUCED FELLOW KIWI MAALA TO THE WORLD VIA HIS APPLE BEATS SHOW. THE CITY OF SAILS RESIDENT, WHO HAS JUST RELEASED HIS DEBUT EP, AGREED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE FAMOUS RIP IT UP Q&A. If you Google Maala, the first thing that comes up are Indian prayer beads. I take it you are not prayer beads?

MAALA is a solo project.

The name came about simply because I liked the way that it both looked and sounded. I was just scribbling down ideas and picking letters that I thought complemented each other.

MAALA was the result and I didn’t look back. It doesn’t have any special meaning.

Some biographical details please: Age, occupation, that sort of thing.

I’m 20 years old. My interests outside of music are few and far between, quite frankly. I enjoy spending time with friends, watching films; very easygoing

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things. Music keeps me quite occupied. I also work full time in a warehouse. I pick and pack orders - rather mundane but it allows me more time to really focus on writing and recording outside of work hours.

Music: Please describe your music to us and in so describing, please tell us about your relationship to music.

Music has always played an integral part of my day-to-day life, ever since I was a young kid, starting out on the piano and eventually trying my hand at writing and recording. I’ve really enjoyed reflecting on how my sound has developed.

I first started writing and releasing songs under a more “acoustic singer-songwritertype” style - playing the guitar alongside a more typical band accompaniment. This new EP takes an electronic direction, with an emphasis on larger production and a focus on creating stronger, “hookier” melodies.

Zane Lowe introduced you to the world via Apple Beats. Did this come as a surprise? What effect has this exposure had on your life and career?

Absolutely! He’d been sent the

I ask every local artist this question because Rip It Up is participating in the current national discussion on what it means to be a New Zealander.

What does being a Kiwi mean to you?

I’m really proud to identify myself as a Kiwi. I’ve lived in Auckland my whole life and so I guess I find it hard to show some perspective at times. Musically speaking I’ve found New Zealand to be a really positive environment to grow up in. I’ve been lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with a lot of

Music recommendations: This is important because it gives us some insight into your nature.

Miguel’s Wildheart and Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Multi-Love are two albums I’ve had on repeat for the last while.

Gallant’s single, ‘Weight In Gold’ is another massive tune I’ve been getting into.

Please name your favourite musical artists.

Led Zeppelin always leads the list - I’m obsessed. I love Kanye West. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is one of my favourite albums.

Your five favourite songs ever.

Since I’ve Been Loving You Led Zeppelin Mojo Pin - Jeff Buckley Boots Of Spanish Leather - Bob Dylan The Wolves (Act I And II) - Bon Iver All We Ask - Grizzly Bear

“Musically speaking I’ve found New Zealand to be a really positive environment to grow up in. I love collaborating, especially in an environment that seems to be so free of massive egos.” local artists and writers. I love collaborating, especially in an environment that seems to be so free of massive egos.

You have a day to yourself and a pocket full of cash. What are you going to do?

Cool. I’ll start the morning off with a massive breakfast.

I’ll make sure there’s plenty of beer in the fridge and spend the day at home writing. Not an expensive day - but an ideal one nevertheless.

Five albums you can’t live without.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kayne West Yeezus - Kanye West Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear Grace - Jeff Buckley The Times They Are A-Changin’ - Bob Dylan

ALBUM REVIEWS

When it comes to fandom, sometimes I feel like I suffer the musical equivalent of battered wife syndrome. Take Pink Floyd.

The best thing they ever did was their first album, Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967), and they

were sporadically brilliant up to their last listenable album, Wish You Were Here (1975). The law of diminishing returns has applied ever since, and to be frank, one of the best bands on the planet eventually became possibly the most boring. And yet, I can’t resist checking out their latest work, pointlessly hoping for a miracle.

Blame it on drummer Nick Mason, who in 1981 released a wonderful solo album, Fictitious Sports, which I still pull out for a spin with surprising regularity.

Sadly, that seems to have been a one-off, and neither of the Floyd’s competing leaders, Roger Waters or David Gilmour, has given signs of a return to form. Gilmour’s Rattle That Lock is the guitarist’s fourth solo release, and comes in a beautiful hardbound cover. (Then

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE

present anything new or exciting.

Overall, it sounds a bit contrived, and with all the lyrical cliches you’d expect. It’s 2015, and we want a little more substance and imagination, please. It’s nothing new or ground breaking, but with their loyal fanbase it’s likely to be welcomed, despite coming on like the uncle that always brings the pleasant (but bland) potato salad to every family gathering.

VENOM

ANNA LOVEYS

DAVID GILMOUR RATTLE THAT LOCK 3.5 STARS (SONY MUSIC)

(RCA)

The Welsh quartet has become the standard of mainstream British heavy metal, and with their fifth studio album, take things right back to where they started in the early 2000s.

Dropping into slightly harsher and thrashier soundscapes, this new slice of Valentine pie evokes an airy sense of nostalgia for the teenage metal-core sounds on trend around the time they dropped their debut, Poison.

Sometimes going back to your roots can be a knowledgeable artistic progression, but trying to recreate what you did before can come across as overdone and unconvincing. There are some great guitar solos, breakdowns and supercharged drumming that only emphasize the high level of musical skill BFMV possess. That said, the songs themselves don’t

again, you could always take it up a notch and invest in the deluxe edition for its ‘David Gilmour plectrum’, postcard, doublesided poster, 48-page hardback copy of the book Paradise Lost, Book II by John Milton, 32-page hardback lyric/photo book, four documentaries, etcetera.) Um, the music? The feeling persists throughout that it’s just the leisurely hobby project of the idle rich: a chance for Gilmour to say, ‘Look at me, I can do this, too!’ There’s plenty here for the hardcore Floyd freak, including oodles of squiggly patented slow guitar solos and a few sections that mimic the more dramatic vocal climaxes (complete with female backing singers) of Dark Side Of The Moon. But it’s mostly

a collection of fairly disparate, rather short songs. For instance, the title track is stiff, slick, blueeyed funk, while ‘Faces Of Stone’ improbably incorporates verses that have Gilmour aping klezmerlite Leonard Cohen, and ‘The Girl In The Yellow Dress’ goes all faux-jazz/blues. Produced by Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera and featuring a bunch of distinguished players (names like Jools Holland, Robert Wyatt and Brian’s bro Roger Eno pop up), Rattle That Lock is probably the best outing from a former Floyd member in at least 25 years. Nevertheless, it never feels like it actually needed to be made.

recordings of their own songs (three tracks), new songs (two tracks) or the bizarre choices that make up their selection of charming covers. Who else would think of tackling a 1992 Cure song (‘Friday I’m In Love’) alongside Hank Williams (‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’) and The Lovin’ Spoonful (‘Butchie’s Tune’)? It gets odder with superobscure songs by Sun Ra and The Parliaments (who later changed their name simply to Parliament), where the organic, laconic, postCowboy Junkies style is applied to doo-wop. And successfully, I might add. Stuff Like That There, the group’s 14th album.

Pop. Its album cover was swathed in red velvet. If you were to use the local vernacular, Beach House would be called Bach. Semantics aside, the name suits their music.

Both are inviting spaces that live outside of time, and change comes gradually and subtly - as seen on Depression Cherry. It does not have the big pop moments of Teen Dream or Bloom, which means that some of the emotional clout is lost, but that does not mean that Depression Cherry is lacking.

Rather, it is yet another perfectly timed, lucid step forward for this dream pop band. Overall, like velvet on skin, Depression Cherry feels heavily luxurious and perpetually elegant.

GARY STEEL

YO LA TENGO STUFF LIKE THAT THERE

TO SUBMIT YOUR ALBUM FOR REVIEW, SEND A

(MATADOR)

YLT are famous for their skewered (as opposed to skewed) cover versions, but what at first appears like a covers project is rather more interesting than that implies. They’ve reassembled themselves as a semi-acoustic folk-rock group for this session, which gives the songs a uniform intimacy, whether they’re re-

PHYSICAL COPY TO:

PO BOX 6032

BEACH HOUSE

WELLESLEY STREET

DEPRESSION CHERRY

1141 AUCKLAND

(SUB POP)

I was in love before I even opened the case of Beach House’s fifth studio album, Depression Cherry.

It was Beach House. It was Sub

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ALBUM REVIEWS TAMI NEILSON DON’T BE AFRAID 5 STARS (SOUTHBOUND)

Before you come close of Tami Neilson’s new release, Don’t Be Afraid, I encourage you to take the time to read the liner notes.

Inside, you will find a note written to her father, Ron Neilson. It begins with the tender line: “Dad, this is for you.” As the title track unfolds you get a sense of the soulful emotion of the following tracks.

It’s a quick and sobering moment, where Tami gives life to the song co-penned with her father. Her duet with Marlon Williams on ‘Lonely’ is a moving moment, as is

her ballad ‘Heavy Heart’. The album closes with a demo recording of ‘Don’t Be Afraid’, where you hear her Dad’s voice one last time. It’s a heartfelt piece of work that deserves a moment of silence in the aftermath. This is one of the most poignant new releases of the year, and it may just move you to tears.

ANNA LOVEYS

LIFEHOUSE

CORIDIAN

LOW

WHAT NOISY CATS

OUT OF THE WASTELAND

OCEANIC EP

ONES AND SIXES

A DIFFERENT OCEAN

(IRONWORKS)

(INDEPENDENT)

(SUB POP)

(INDEPENDENT)

Can the words ‘alternative’ and ‘mainstream’ legitimately be used to describe the same band?

In the case of Lifehouse, you might want to add ‘mind-numbing predictability’ to give the reader a taste of the American group’s sixth (sixth!) album. Out Of The Wasteland is a comeback of sorts: after a collective yawn greeted Almeria (2012), they canceled tours and suspended corporate activities. But instead of a complete factory recall, they opted for refurbishment.

Every now and then their melodic sensibilities remind me of Crowded House, but with lines that go no deeper than “I don’t wanna be alone/I close my eyes and I’m at home”, Neil Finn hasn’t got a thing to worry about. It’s adeptly performed and produced, but the word ‘forgettable’ was made for this album. In fact, it was so forgettable I had to write this review really quickly.

Local band Coridian has come storming out the gate with their debut EP, Oceanic. Break-neck drumming, ethereal solos, a visceral, punishing tone – yep, it’s been a long time since Kiwi hard rock has sounded this bloody good. Their large fan base, carried over from their sojourn as instrumental band Chuck Norris, is testament to the quality of this new material. With soaring vocals from ex-Mile High

Ones And Sixes is the 11th studio album from Low, the quintessential slowcore trio, and it further proves that they are an economic band where a little equates to a lot, their greatest strength lying in their musical intuition. It is this knack for nuances that stops them from getting lost in the haze. Overall, this record has an uneasy energy that is exquisitely ugly, and both draws you in and pushes you away in equal measures. It is a mood that is helped by the jumbly lyrics that are heavy with violent verbs.

The 10-minute long ‘Landslide’ is a real highlight, where all of the salient elements of Low’s musical ethos are given an outing. The sparse instrumentation offers a counterpoint to delicate backing vocals while Alan Sparhawk’s vocal delivery carries a keenly felt vitality that has been lacking in Low’s more recent efforts. A welcome return.

What Noisy Cats mix altcountry and noisy rock guitar, and the result is a well-cooked grainy swagger that can’t fail to somewhat resemble some of Neil Young’s more ampedup moments. The Wellington group still have that debut album freshness on A Different Ocean, and not having anything in particular to live up to, they allow themselves enough room to experiment on tracks like ‘In The Morning’, a minimal, ambient mood-piece and ‘The Meadows’, which leans towards fuzzy, introverted shoegaze territory. Helmed by two different writer/singers, Luke Marlow and Vincent Waide, What Noisy Cats never allow themselves to sink into a comfy alt-country rut, and the album has the added benefit of having been captured in all its dynamic glory, complete with some very intense climaxes. The only real caveat is the singing, which sounds uniformly a little unsure of itself. But then, that’s the Kiwi way.

GARY STEEL

member Dity Stranger, tracks like ‘Brave Disguise’ and ‘Alexandria’ are begging to be playlisted on rock radio, while ‘Frogs And Crossbones’ is a beautiful assault on your ear holes. To truly witness their power, check these Ravens live. To keep things simple, this is quality shit, son. Available on Soundcloud.

JAKE EBDALE

KATE POWELL

GARY STEEL

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ALBUM REVIEWS

THE MAP ROOM THE MAP ROOM (INDEPENDENT)

Treading ground lying somewhere between Avalanche City and Breaks Co-Op, Auckland duo

The Map Room are Brendon Morrow and Simon Gooding, who met while studying audio engineering. During a year-long trip from Argentina to Colombia, the duo developed their sound by writing and playing shows along the way. The result is The Map Room, their self-titled debut album.

The track ‘City’ is set in under the neon lights of an unnamed metropolis, and follows a displaced and scorned lover as he traverses a twilight world examining his thoughts, and like the opening track ‘All You’ll Ever Find’ and

the second track ‘Pilot’, it’s an enormously catchy song. The acoustic sensibilities of the duo’s sound are filled out with bass, drums and synths and the albums dynamic is tastefully pushed along by the inclusion of a couple of rockier tracks, ‘Lay Down Here’ and ‘Elastic Tongue’: songs that breeze along nicely on top a classic Flying Nun style pop/ rock guitar jangle. With The Map Room, the duo has produced an album of incredibly assured and atmospheric guitar-based pop that examines life and love against a

deft canvas of rich melody and glorious harmony. This album was released in 2013 but only recently came to my attention when a friend passed it on to me.

I put it on and haven’t stopped playing it since. Buy this album now, it is amazing. (Available through the band’s website, Bandcamp and iTunes).

ANDREW JOHNSTONE

EMPRESS OF

GREG JOHNSON

THE WEEKND

DURAN DURAN

ME

SWING THE LANTERN

BEAUTY BEHIND THE

PAPER GODS

(XL RECORDINGS)

(JOHNSON MUSIC)

MADNESS

(WARNER BROS)

The title of this album signals what could be a potently personal and vulnerable ride, and that is fittingly the case. Over the course of the 10 tracks, you begin to empathise with Lorely Rodriquez (Empress Of) as she tells half of a love story on the rocks.

Over five weeks, Rodriguez spent time in a small town in Central Mexico, where she was inspired to materialise the content of this slightly off-center, experimental pop release. She pushes the boundaries of pop structures and ideas, experimenting with synth and percussive textures.

Me isn’t an easy walk in the park, and that’s what I love about it. You’ll notice the almost paradoxical standpoint between the sweetness of Lorely’s voice and the combo of the clunky, mellow synth pad, throbbing bass and sleek drum machinery, which presents something that is breathtaking and beautiful in its complexities, while distressing and uncomfortable in the same moment.

Johnson’s been a local stalwart since grabbing attention in ‘91 with the very radio friendly ‘Isabelle’, and he’s since continued to produce solid, well-crafted, catchy music, setting a safe harbour in the storm of drivel and dross of modern culture. This crowdsourced effort takes a leaf out of Amanda Palmer’s logbook and respectfully names all the people who contributed on the inside cover. The highly appropriate ‘Low Tide’ sails straight into familiar territory, humming along pleasurably and establishing the disc’s nautical theme. ‘Waiting For Rain’ is classic melancholic Johnson, while ‘Downtown Shanghai’ draws on adventures of salty dogs, as does the equally precocious ‘How The Sphinx Lost Its Nose’. A keen sailor, Johnson pays no mind to the trend winds, doffing his cap liberally to our maritime past, and in turn creating a welcoming vessel and a highly agreeable voyage.

(REPUBLIC)

Duran Duran was despised in the ‘80s for their Thatcher-supporting stance and a pop aesthetic that was the antithesis of punk. Duran Duran were all about fatally attractive under-dressed models on big yachts and glitz.

Their shtick pointed the way towards an increasingly shallow future, but even their bitterest detractors had to s admit they were capable of churning out some good tunes but as I pointed out in my two star review of the group’s 2010 album, All You Need Is Now, the only reason for DD to exist in the present era is because they can. Paper Gods is more or less a re-run of that last sad outing. It’s like waking up seasick on the yacht in dry dock at 4am, and discovering that all the models have turned to Lego and the band themselves have huge orangutan tummies and craggy crow’s feet under their sunnies.

SWING THE LANTERN IS AVAILABLE

What is it about contemporary R&B producers that makes them want to process the vocals so they make your teeth hurt when you turn the volume up? Abel Tesfaye, the singer/songwriter behind The Weeknd, has a particularly keening, high voice that’s like Michael Jackson on amphetamines but he’s got a few tricks down his throat, like that tight little vibrato he applies when he wants to play Mr Sensitive.

Tesfaye’s second album is one of those perplexing discs that impresses and annoys in equal measure, but just when you’re ready to write him off, you notice you’re getting off on those little touches that make a record special, like the triumphant trumpet fanfare towards the end of ‘Losers’ or the spasming synth-guitar moves on ‘Tell Your Friends’ or the strange mood contrasts in ‘Acquainted’. The Ed Sheeran (Ed Sheeran?!) duet is a bore, but really, honestly, it’s worth a spin.

ANNA LOVEYS

FROM GREG JOHNSON’S WEBSITE.

GARY STEEL

GARY STEEL

TIM GRUAR RIPITUP.CO.NZ

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WIRED THIS WAY

VERA BUCSU MOVED FROM HUNGARY TO NZ AFTER DISCOVERING OUR WINE. SHE IS A PUBLISHED POET, VISUAL ARTIST AND NOTED WINE AND BEER CRITIC. A RESIDENT OF CAMBRIDGE IN THE CENTRAL WAIKATO, VERA SPENDS HER TIME CONTRIBUTING TO THE RICH CULTURAL LIFE OF THE REGION. SHAKE YOUR DAGGY BOOTY ‘These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, as Nancy Sinatra sang it, and New Zealand’s boot shape is full of dynamism and movement, especially when it comes to making craft beer and fine wine. Boots are ever-present in our country and always make a bold fashion statement – Riff Raff’s sexy-spacey heels, farmers’ black gumboots covered with you-don’t-wannaknow that you have to remove when entering any tidy interior space, Docs at music festivals, furry boots under the scorching sun in the summer that just make no sense at all. Boots are always around, no matter the weather.

They’re always out there to stand on, stomp on, walk in, protect, help to get the job done, and – most importantly – to get noticed.

GARAGE PROJECT: DIRTY BOOTS It’s hard not to get excited about pretty much every single Garage Project release. Even if

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I don’t resonate with one of their intended flavour combinations I can always appreciate the journey their experimental spirit takes me on, both aesthetically and gustatorially.

Dirty Boots is a big, juicy American Pale Ale, admittedly brewed to the beat of Sonic Youth.

Similarly to how knowledgeable listeners consider Sonic Youth to be a pioneering band in the noise rock and alternative rock genres, Garage Project beers employ a vast collection of unique and exclusive instruments, from beer styles altered to meet the needs of their unique tunings to flavour effects using hops to express their whims. This APA has floral hoppiness on the nose followed by a dry, refreshing golden liquid. It is yet another nice drop from the brewery – a hardcore, hoppy celebration of the no-matter-what you achieved at work after a hard day in the office.

PINK BOOTS: MATA’S CARIBBEAN QUEEN People are talking about the Pink Boots Society, a collaboration of dedicated enthusiasts and a collective of creative professionals in the beer industry who are always aiming for the highest quality in everything they do. This includes brewing, designing, serving, and writing about beer.

They are passionately devoted to every aspect of beer culture.

This rich, chocolate-coconut porter, a Pink Boots Society collaboration from Mata brewery, is like a dessert in a glass. It’s

a sublime expression of Girl Power for both women and men to enjoy. It brings an understanding mouth feel of the warmth of vanilla, the texture of cacao and nurturing coconut, and the textural support of carbonation. Although sometimes cited as a beer ‘by women for women’, I’ve seen this fluid bounty bar making men happy as well, maybe because it excites a deeper understanding of the real meaning of girl power, rather like the androgynous highheeled footwear in the movie Kinky Boots.

Mysteriously irresistible, you may find it hard to explain why you’re so eager to go back for a second glass.

Slartibartfast, the Magrathean and a designer of planets from the comedy-science-fiction series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, particularly enjoyed creating coastlines for the sole reason of enabling the making of the best wines in the world. I remember clearly how fascinating I found it that Italy (an extremely successful country when it comes to wine making) and New Zealand are shaped like two halves of a pair of boots, as if he designed us that way.

It will be interesting to see where this takes us.

As Bilbo Baggins once said, ‘It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.’

He just forgot to add ‘in your boots’.

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO SHIT WORTH DOING IN NEW ZEALAND

IMAGE: DAWES SOUTHERN FORK AMERICANA FEST p06

RELEASES NZMOVIE MUSIC MONTH

p12

EATING

GIGS

SEPTEMBER 2015 RIPITUP.CO.NZ

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ANDREW JOHNSTONE

DEVILSKIN’S JENNIE SKUL ANDER I Had No Idea...

ON TOUR

DEVILSKIN VOCALIST JENNIE SKULANDER ANSWERS OUR QUESTIONS AND LISTS HER FAVOURITE MUSIC. Who are you, where do you come from, where are you going, what do you do, and how do you do it? (In other words: age, job, hobbies and stuff like that).

Jennie Marie Skulander, 30 years old, barista/Devilskin vocalist.

Born in Tokoroa, raised in Rotorua, currently living in Hamilton.

Hobbies: Music, fitness, cross fit, hanging with my partner and pets and making couch forts. I like sweatpants and jandals, I shop at Kmart and drive a Nissan Bluebird.

Music. When did you first start

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getting interested in music and is there any particular moment when you thought to yourself, ‘this is for me?’

I used to watch the bands play at high school. Sometimes there would be lunchtime concerts or they would just jam in the music room. I used to get such a rush from watching these musicians on stage and really got the itch to do it. I starting learning guitar but then kinda fell into vocals (used to sing in a vocals group to get out of maths class` The school music teacher saw something in me and starting pushing me into singing competitions.

I entered the BOP Rockquest with my band Inches Per Second in 2001 and won the regional.

That’s when I decided that being in a band was pretty sweet!

Before Devilskin you were in Slipping Tongue. Tell us about

this band and any other bands you are in or were in.

The very first band I was in was back in 2000 and was called Leash. We played parties and such.

band. I still talk to all the old members except Sir Sabotage.

Simon Power, the original drummer, plays in a great band called Barracks, and Rik Gainsford in Super Narco Man.

“I entered the BOP Rockquest with my band Inches Per Second in 2001 and won the regional.

That’s when I decided that being in a band was pretty sweet!”

Slipping Tongue was formed in 2002 (my last year of high school) after some young boys approached me wanting a singer for a Rock Quest band. After placing second at the Rock Quest regionals we carried on for a few years, playing, touring and recording.

The band went through several different members and after seven years I decided to call it quits after a member I shall not name pretty much sabotaged the

Paul Martin describes your voice as a game changer. Tell us about the voice and your relationship with it. Do you play any other instruments besides the vocal chords?

I used to play piano when I was younger. My first piano teacher drank herself to death. I also took guitar lessons as a teenager.

I never really wanted to be a singer, it just kind of happened. I loved listening to rock/metal and would copy the high notes some of the vocalists would do. I saw

“When I’m not on stage I am just regular Jennie.

I hardly drink and like to stay home. On stage I am outgoing, loud, silly, kinda crazy, and I guess I could come across as a party girl.” it as a challenge. It wasn’t until last year’s tour I decided to learn vocal warm ups.

Devilskin. How did it all come about and did you expect it to blow up the way it has?

I had just finished with Slipping Tongue in 2009 and moved to Hamilton. Paul approached me to start something but I wasn’t keen at the time. Six months later Nail approached me about the same thing so I said yes. I do remember saying I didn’t want to play out of Hamilton, tour or do recording. (I’m glad I changed my mind!)

I didn’t expect it to blow up the way it did at all! I still have trouble comprehending what has happened in the last six years!

The band’s creative process.

How does it work and how do you contribute?

The boys normally come up with the base of a song. Sometimes its just two parts and I will add vocal melody and lyrics. Paul also writes the lyrics.

Being the front person of a hard rock band with a delirious fan base must be quite an interesting thing. What are the best and worst things about being famous?

The best thing is I get endorsed by some amazing people and businesses. I get to meet all sorts of different people and it’s a great conversation starter, ha-ha.

The worst thing is people presume since your band is doing well you must be loaded with money and don’t do normal things. Also, people tend to think that the way you dress on stage is the way you dress off stage.

Is there a difference between your onstage and onstage

persona or are you pretty much one and the same?

They are very different! Off stage I am quiet, kinda shy at first, like to keep to myself.

When I’m not on stage I am just regular Jennie. I hardly drink and like to stay home. On stage I am outgoing, loud, silly, kinda crazy, and I guess I could come across as a party girl.

Recently you and the band went overseas on a short promotional tour. Tell us a little about the trip, the highlights and the things you learned from it.

I had such a great time! London and LA were fantastic. Playing with jet lag was hard! The highlights were recording in beautiful Tetbury, playing the Borderline in London and using Debbie Harry’s mic stand, playing at the one and only Whisky A Go Go, performing to Jimi Hendrix’s daughter and the saxophonist of Pink Floyd.

Meeting and becoming friends with Jeff Abercrombie (ex-bassist of Fuel) and celebrating my 30th Birthday by the Tower Of London.

I learnt it’s just as hard making a name for yourself over there as it is here.

Here’s a tricky one: Life. What does life mean to you and what do you want from it?

To me life is all about setting goals and achieving them. Not just in music but in everyday life.

If I really want to do something or become something I will do it because I don’t want to look back on my life when I’m older and have regrets. Over the last few years I have tried out roller derby, cheerleading, a spot of pin-up modeling, and being a wedding singer. Why? Why not!

I am currently studying nutrition

online, simply because I want to!

It’s a beautiful day. You have nowhere to be and a pocket full of cash. What are you going to do?

Go get a massage, go to the beach and have some drinks, then find the nearest Kmart.

What does being a New Zealander mean to you?

Being a New Zealander to me means being down to earth and a bit rough around the edges.

It means respecting people because we live in such a small country and everybody knows everybody!

JENNIE’S 5 ESSENTIAL METAL ALBUMS:

JENNIE’S 5 ALL-TIME FAVOURITE ALBUMS: Jeff Buckley Grace Red Hot Chili Peppers Sugar Sex Magic Shapeshifter Delta Shapeshifter Solstice Kora Kora

JENNIE’S FAVOURITE MUSICAL ARTISTS: Faith No More

Deftones Around The Fur Deftones White Pony

Coheed And Cambria The Mars Volta Deftones

Dillinger Escape Plan Irony Is A Dead Scene Dio Holy Diver

Dio Frank Zappa Shapeshifter

Glassjaw Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence

Clutch Cry Of Love

JENNIE’S 5 ESSENTIAL HARD ROCK ALBUMS: Faith No More King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime The Mars Volta De-Loused In The Comatorium Coheed And Cambria In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth 3 Coheed And Cambria Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV

5 SONGS JENNIE CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: Shapeshifter Monarch Deftones Change (In The House Of Flies) The Mars Volta Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of) Coheed And Cambria Ten Speed (Of God’s Blood And Burial) Faith No More Ashes To Ashes

Clutch From Beale Street To Oblivion

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OCTOBER GIG GUIDE

SUN 04 OCT FRI 02 OCT

STRANGELY AROUSING WITH BRENDON THOMAS AND THE VIBES DIGGERS BAR HAMILTON 8:30PM, $15, EVENTFINDA.CO.NZ

MAROON 5 VECTOR ARENA AUCKLAND 6PM, $99.90, TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ

Maroon 5 wins the award for ‘band name that sounds most like a pack of men’s business socks’, but their music is insanely

Two talented, free-spirited, stinky young bands join forces in a quest to rock the North Island to smithereens. Brendon Thomas & The Vibes – ex-X Factorians who channel Hendrixian bohemia, and the aptly titled Strangely Arousing are bound to put on a rollicking good show. Look out for groupies - rock’n’roll is like the OG Tinder.

catchy, sexy, radio-ready, or any other buzzword you can think of.

Adam Levine, who unknowingly butchered D’Angelo’s ‘Untitled’ on The Voice with Usher, will bring that mightily shrill voice of his.

SAT 10 OCT

JAKOB & BEASTWARS STUDIO AUCKLAND 7PM, $37.50, UTR.CO.NZ

If you’ve ever thought, ‘NZ as a nation has dominated every music genre except instrumental postrock and heavyweight-metal,’ that very thought would be sorely misjudged, and you would look like a fool. Make a peace offering to Jakob and Beastwars by plucking your beard hairs one-byone and grating off your Stryper tattoo immediately.

MON 06 OCT

THE CHURCH TOUR 2015 OLD ST PAUL’S CHURCH WELLINGTON 8PM, $69.50, TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ

Many bands have been through the last-ditch church tour gamut, and are usually as old and dusty as brittle Rick Astley cassettes. This

time around though, the beautiful and youthful Tami Neilson and Marlon Williams join slightly older Delaney Davidson and the slightly cowpat encrusted (but only on the soles of his boots) Barry Saunders for some swampy blues country revivin’.

Praise Jebus.

WED 07 OCT FRI 16 OCT

PARKWAY DRIVE

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LOGAN CAMPBELL CENTRE

KISS

AUCKLAND

VECTOR ARENA

7PM, $62, AAATICKETING.CO.NZ

AUCKLAND

Heavier than John Goodman’s doggy bag, Parkway Drive are coming in support of their highly anticipated fifth album, Ire. First single ‘Vice Grip’ is a shit-ripping track, and the video of them jumping out of planes and stuff is metal as. Giving American cigarettes a good name everywhere, don’t give PD the flick this time ‘round.

7:30PM, $109, TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ

RIPITUP.CO.NZ

FRI 09 OCT

GLASS VAULTS GOLDEN DAWN AUCKLAND 9PM, $5, DOOR SALES ONLY

Psych pop outfit Glass Vaults have announced a nationwide tour for their debut full length, Sojourn.

A six-piece band, Glass Vaults

expertly craft wisps of melody amid shrouds of feedback into loopy-looped goodness. Indie hip craft beer kings Golden Dawn are the perfect hosts for their immeasurable talents. Eight shows, y’all.

After seven Kissless years, Kiss are back in NZ to rock’n’roll all nite… in October! Get ready for ‘The Spider’, a ridiculous stage production with 900kg of Simmons-scorching pyros. If you’re holding out for Kiss to cover ‘Kiss’ by Prince like I am, this is your last shot – it’s the big farewell tour.

THU 22 OCT

DAWES

TRINITY ROOTS

TUNING FORK

OLD ST PAULS

THOUSAND FOOT KRUTCH

AUCKLAND

WELLINGTON

7PM, $49, TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ

8PM, $55, EVENTFINDA.CO.NZ

KINGS ARMS

The brothers Goldsmith – Taylor and Griffin – are here as Dawes, an acoustic-based group that channels ‘70s stalwarts America, Joni Mitchell, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Neil and The Band – basically, your Dad will love ‘em.

With tunes ‘Right On Time’ and ‘Now That It’s Too Late, Maria’, Dawes are bound to be your new favourite band.

A collaboration between muchloved Trinity Roots and a hoard of Ireland’s most celebrated musicians, Motu : Oileain (‘islands’ in Te Reo and Irish, respectively) is bound to be one of the more interesting shows to happen at Wellington’s historical Old St Paul’s. Witness some astounding talents share the gift of the global language.

TUE 20 OCT

FRI 16 OCT

AUCKLAND 7PM, $51, UTR.CO.NZ

AVALANCHE CITY & BENNY TIPENE MERCURY THEATRE AUCKLAND 6PM, $42.75, TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ

Avalanche City aka Beardyhat Dave Baxter is, well, back-ster.

‘Inside Out’, all syrupy and mysterious, has definitely earned the guy a few coffees with the royalties (‘Most Coffees Earned’ - a new VNZMA category) and who else but Benny Tipene to ‘step on up’! If I had a little sister, I’d buy her tickets to this.

FRI 23 OCT

Despite a very douchey name and a promo photo so ‘rawk’ you want to stick a hot tuning fork in your eye to stop the madness, Thousand Foot Krutch write surprisingly catchy and good rock songs littered with RATMsized funk and Linkin Park-ish choruses. They’re aiming to obliterate the Kings Arms with all those complex rock emotions, bra.

SAT 31 OCT MON 26 OCT

SUN 18 OCT MON 19 OCT

BOYZ II MEN

EB & SPARROW

SOULFEST 2015

OLD ST PETERS HALL

ST JAMES THEATRE

NEIL DIAMOND

WESTERN SPRINGS STADIUM

PAEKAKARIKI

WELLINGTON

VECTOR ARENA

AUCKLAND

7:30PM, $15, UTR.CO.NZ

7PM, $90.50, TICKETEK.CO.NZ

AUCKLAND

12PM, $109, EVENTFINDA.CO.NZ

Boyz II Men are great. Their revivalist barbershop harmonies laid down over sparkly R’n’B rap grooves go down smoother than a cup of blended Philly cheese steak and honey butter. ‘Motownphilly’, ‘End Of The Road’ – yep, some big hits there. It’ll be a nostalgiaheavy night with a loud crowd of off-key 30-somethings, and I can’t wait.

7PM, $69, TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ

After an amazing (ahem, D’Angelo) inaugural festival last year, Soulfest is back with a stupidly good bill… again. With Lauryn Hill (bucket list – tick!), De La Soul, The Gap Band’s Charlie Wilson and the immortal Black Star (if Mos Def shows up), this could be 2015’s most star studded festival. Additional tickets just released!

One of 2015’s most critically acclaimed releases, Sun/ Son was Eb & Sparrow’s big announcement: ‘New Zealand! We are here! Notice our extraordinary penchant for ethereal blues, jazz and rockabilly!’ The thing is this material begs to be heard in a live setting, with the truly captivating voices of Lamb and Heveldt hard to beat.

Though he’s one of the lesser Neils in my book (after Neil Young and, um, Vince Neil) Neil Diamond is here to stay. His hits get better with age like a fine (red, red) wine, and I’d never noticed how dirty ‘Sweet Caroline’ really was (‘Touchin’ me, touchin’ you’? Get a room with yourself, Diamond). Tickets selling fast.

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OCTOBER GIG LISTINGS ANIKA MOA Thu 01 Oct OSPA, Onewhero Fri 02 Oct Eggsentric Café, Coromandel Sat 03 Oct Gravity Bar, Hamilton Sun 04 Oct Butlers Reef, Oakura

AVALANCHE CITY & BENNY TIPENE Fri 02 Oct Cardboard Cathedral, Christchurch Sat 03 Oct The Glenroy Auditorium, Dunedin Fri 16 Oct Mercury Theatre, Auckland Sat 17 Oct Opera House, Wellington

BIG DADDY WILSON (US) Thu 01 Oct The Playhouse Cafe, Mapua Fri 02 Oct The Boathouse, Nelson Sat 03 Oct The Wunderbar, Lyttelton Sun 04 Oct Dux Live, Christchurch

Fri 09 Oct Hilltop Tavern, Akaroa Sat 10 Oct Barrytown Hall, Barrytown Sun 11 Oct Mussel Inn, Takaka Thu 15 Oct The Globe Theatre, Palmerston North Fri 16 Oct St Peters Hall, Paekakariki Sat 17 Oct King Street Live, Masterton

THE EASTERN & FRIENDS Sat 10 Oct Tuning Fork, Auckland

EB & SPARROW

Fri 30 Oct ASB Theatre, Auckland

Fri 02 Oct Musicians Club, Whanganui Fri 16 Oct Nelson Arts Festival, Nelson Sat 17 Oct Dharma Bums Club, Blenheim Sun 18 Oct Barrytown Hall, Greymouth Thu 22 Oct Hilltop Tavern, Akaroa Fri 23 Oct Wunderbar, Lyttelton Sat 24 Oct Chicks Hotel, Dunedin Sun 25 Oct Lot 3 Café, Wanaka Sat 31 Oct St Peters Hall, Paekakariki

Sat 17 Oct ASB Theatre, Auckland Sun 18 Oct St James Theatre, Wellington

THE CHURCH TOUR 2015 Thu 01 Oct St John’s Cathedral, Napier Fri 02 Oct Holy Trinity Church, Tauranga Sat 03 Oct Holy Trinity Cathedral, Auckland Sun 04 Oct St Mary’s @ Holy trinity Cathedral, Auckland Mon 05 Oct Old St Paul’s Church, Wellington Tue 06 Oct Old St Paul’s Church, Wellington Thu 08 Oct St Michael & All Angels Church, Christchurch Fri 09 Oct The Cardboard Cathedral, Christchurch Sat 10 Oct Knox Church, Dunedin

DAWES (US) Thu 22 Oct Tuning Fork, Auckland

DEVILSKIN Thu 01 Oct The Royal, Palmerston North Fri 02 Oct San Fran, Wellington

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BONEY M (DE)

BOYZ II MEN (US)

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Sat 03 Oct Trentham Racecourse, Upper Hutt Thu 08 Oct Tokoroa Club, Tokoroa Fri 09 Oct Stadium Lounge Baypark, Mt Maunganui, Sat 10 Oct The Mayfair, New Plymouth Sat 17 Oct Altitude Bar, Hamilton

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GLASS VAULTS Thu 01 Oct Taste Merchants, Dunedin Fri 02 Oct Sherwood, Queenstown Sat 03 Oct Darkroom, Christchurch Fri 09 Oct Golden Dawn, Auckland Sat 10 Oct Leigh Sawmill Café, Leigh

JAKOB & BEASTWARS Fri 02 Oct Allen St Rock Club, Christchurch Sat 03 Oct Refuel, Dunedin Fri 09 Oct San Fran, Wellington Sat 10 Oct The Studio, Auckland

JAMESTOWN REVIVAL (US) Sun 18 Oct Tuning Fork, Auckland

JOAN BAEZ (US) Thu 15 Oct Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch Sat 17 Oct Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington Tue 20 Oct ASB Theatre, Auckland

Dunedin

PARKWAY DRIVE (AU) Wed 07 Oct Logan Campbell Centre, Auckland

THE PHOENIX FOUNDATION Thu 01 Oct The Mayfair, New Plymouth Fri 02 Oct Powerstation, Auckland Sat 03 Oct Mauao Performing Arts Centre, Tauranga

RAE SREMMURD (US) Thu 01 Oct Studio, Auckland

ROBBIE WILLIAMS (UK) Sat 31 Oct Basin Reserve, Wellington

SJD JON TOOGOOD Thu 08 Oct Tuning Fork, Auckland Fri 09 Oct Tuning Fork, Auckland Sat 10 Oct Yot Club, Raglan Sun 11 Oct Leigh Sawmill, Leigh Thu 15 Oct The Playhouse Café, Nelson Fri 16 Oct The Sherwood, Queenstown Sat 17 Oct Allen Street Live, Christchurch Sun 17 Oct Allen Street Live, Christchurch Thu 22 Oct The Glenroy Auditorium, Dunedin Fri 23 Oct King Street Live, Masterton Sat 24 Oct Meow, Wellington Sun 25 Oct Meow, Wellington

Sat 10 Oct Mercury Theatre, Auckland

SOULFEST 2015 Mon 26 Oct Western Springs Stadium, Auckland

STRANGELY AROUSING WITH BRENDON THOMAS AND THE VIBES Fri 02 Oct Diggers Bar, Hamilton Wed 07 Oct Cabana, Napier Fri 09 Oct Bodega, Wellington Sat 10 Oct Butlers Reef, Taranaki Fri 23 Oct Rogue Stage, Rotorua

THOUSAND FOOT KRUTCH (CA) Tue 20 Oct Kings Arms, Auckland

TRINITY ROOTS

Mon 19 Oct Town Hall, Auckland

Fri 23 Oct Old St Pauls, Wellingon Sat 24 Oct Founders Heritage Park, Nelson Sun 25 Oct Events Centre, Carterton Mon 26 Oct Baycourt Addison Theatre, Tauranga

MAALA

WAGONS (AU)

Sat 16 Oct Neck Of The Woods, Auckland

Sat 17 Oct Tuning Fork, Auckland

KISS (US) Fri 16 Oct Vector Arena, Auckland

LIFEHOUSE (US)

MAROON 5 (US) Thu 01 Oct Horncastle Arena, Christchurch Sat 03 Oct Vector Arena, Auckland Sun 04 Oct Vector Arena, Auckland

NEIL DIAMOND (US) Mon 19 Oct Vector Arena, Auckland Sat 24 Oct Forsyth Barr Stadium,

UPCOMING GIGS 10CC (UK) Tue 10 Nov ASB Theatre, Auckland Wed 11 Nov TSB Showplace, New Plymouth Thu 12 Nov Regent On Broadway, Palmerston North Fri 13 Nov St James Theatre, Wellington Sat 14 Nov Municipal Theatre, Napier Mon 16 Nov ASB Arena, Tauranga Tue 17 Nov Founders Theatre, Hamilton

Sat 21 Nov Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch Mon 23 Nov Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington Thu 26 Nov ASB Theatre, Auckland Fri 27 Nov ASB Theatre, Auckland Sat 28 Nov ASB Theatre Auckland

COLD CHISEL (AU)

Wellington Sun 29 Nov Blackbarn Winery, Havelock North Tue 01 Dec TSB Showplace, New Plymouth Wed 02 Dec Civic Theatre, Rotorua Fri 04 Dec Town Hall, Auckland

HALESTORM (US) Sat 05 Dec Powerstation, Auckland

RISE AGAINST (US) Tue 08 Dec Town Hall, Auckland

ROBBIE WILLIAMS (UK) Tue 03 Nov Vector Arena, Auckland

SIX60 Thu 31 Dec Cathedral Square, Christchurch Sat 16 Jan Villa Maria Winery, Auckland

Fri 04 Dec Horncastle Arena, Christchurch Sun 06 Dec Villa Maria Winery, Auckland

HOZIER (IE)

THE 1975 (UK)

THE CORONAS (IE)

Fri 15 Jan Town Hall, Auckland

Mon 30 Nov Dux Live, Christchurch Wed 02 Dec The Kings Arms, Auckland

Fri 29 Apr Horncastle Arena Christchurch Sun 01 May Vector Arena, Auckland

Sat 23 Jan Gibbston Valley Winery, Queenstown Sat 30 Jan Taupo Amphitheatre, Taupo Sun 31 Jan Whitianga Waterways Arena, Whitianga

AC/DC (AU) Sat 12 Dec Westpac Stadium, Wellington Tue 15 Dec Western Springs Stadium, Auckland

ADAM LAMBERT (US) Fri 22 Jan Town Hall, Auckland

AUCKLAND CITY LIMITS Sat 19 Mar Western Springs Stadium, Auckland

Thu 05 Nov Vector Arena, Auckland

IRON MAIDEN (UK)

SUMMER CONCERT TOUR

JAMES BAY (UK)

TAME IMPALA (AU)

COURTNEY BARNETT (AU)

Tue 09 Feb Town Hall, Auckland

Thu 05 Nov Bodega, Wellington Fri 06 Nov St James Theatre, Auckland Sat 07 Nov The Foundry, Christchurch

Sat 27 Feb Tuning Fork, Auckland

Tue 24 Nov Logan Campbell Centre, Auckland Wed 25 Nov Shed 6, Wellington

JD MCPHERSON (US)

JOSH GROBAN (US)

THURSTON MOORE BAND (US)

Sat 30 Apr Vector Arena, Auckland

Thu 03 Dec Powerstation, Auckland

ED SHEERAN (UK)

LANEWAY

UB40 (UK)

THE BEACH BOYS (US)

Sat 12 Dec Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland

Mon 01 Feb Silo Park, Auckland

Tue 24 Nov ASB Arena, Tauranga

ELTON JOHN (UK)

LAURA MARLING (UK)

Sat 21 Nov Westpac Stadium, Wellington

Fri 23 Oct The Powerstation, Auckland

Thu 19 Nov Matterhorn, Wellington Fri 20 Nov Neck of the Woods, Auckland

FATHER JOHN MISTY (US)

MADONNA (US)

BLACK SABBATH (US)

FAT FREDDY’S DROP

Fri 08 Jan Black Barn Offsite, Havelock North Sat 09 Jan Lakefront Reserve, Rotorua Sun 10 Jan Sentry Hill Winery, New Plymouth Sat 16 Jan Waipara Hills Winery, Waipara Sun 17 Jan Matua Wines, Auckland

Thu 28 Apr Vector Arena, Auckland Sat 30 Apr Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin

Sat 24 Oct Town Hall, Auckland Sun 31 Jan Cable Bay Vineyard, Waiheke Island

BICEP (IE)

Thu 03 Dec St James Theatre, Auckland

Sat 05 Mar Vector Arena, Auckland Sun 06 Mar Vector Arena, Auckland

THE MISFITS (US) Thu 03 Dec Allen St Rock Club, Christchurch Fri 04 Dec Bodega, Wellington Sat 05 Dec Studio, Auckland

UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA

Wed 18 Nov Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin Sat 21 Nov Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland Sun 22 Nov Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland

MUMFORD & SONS (US)

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE (US)

Sun 15 Nov Studio, Auckland

Sat 12 Dec St James Theatre, Auckland Mon 14 Dec Bodega, Wellington Tue 15 Dec Allen St, Christchurch Wed 16 Dec Chicks Hotel, Dunedin Thu 17 Dec Chicks Hotel, Dunedin Fri 18 Dec Bodega, Wellington

NORTHERN BASS

YELAWOLF (US)

BRING ME THE HORIZON (US)

Sat 21 Nov Vector Arena, Auckland

Tue 29 - Thu 31 Dec Worsfold Farm, Mangawhai

Fri 04 Dec Trusts Stadium, Auckland

Thu 21 Jan Logan Campbell Centre, Auckland

GIN WIGMORE

OUR:HOUSE FESTIVAL 2015

THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE (US) Fri 06 Nov Allen St Rock Club , Christchurch Sat 07 Nov Sammy’s, Dunedin Sun 08 Nov Bodega, Wellington Tue 10 Nov Powerstation, Auckland

CHRIS BROWN (US) Fri 18 Dec Vector Arena, Auckland

CHRIS CORNELL (US) Fri 20 Nov Isaac theatre Royal, Christchurch

FLEETWOOD MAC (UK/US)

Sun 22 Nov Civic Theatre, Invercargill Tue 24 Nov Memorial Theatre, Queenstown Thu 26 Nov Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch Sat 28 Nov Opera House,

Tue 10 Nov Vector Arena, Auckland

NAUGHTY BY NATURE (US)

Fri 27 Nov Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland

RHYTHM & ALPS Wed 30 - Thu 31 Dec Cardrona Valley, Wanaka

LIST YOUR EVENTS BUSINESS & JOBS AT WWW.RIPITUP.CO.NZ

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NICK COLLINGS

THIS MONTH IN CLUBL AND For the extended interviews and more check out ripitup.co.nz/clubland

CRITICAL SOUND The brainchild of London D&B enthusiast Kasra, Critical Music has seen genre defining moments from the likes of Mefjus, Concord Dawn, Break, Rockwell, Cyantific, Marcus Intalex, S.P.Y, Calibre, Enei, Total Science and many more.

EMPEROR Bristol’s Emperor has proved himself a heavyweight with drum and bass gems for labels Symmetry, Titan, Ammunition and some exquisite dubstep gems on the Caliber label, all in 2011.

In 2013 it was his Begin EP on Critical that furthered his notoriety and his records continue to be heavily rotated by Andy C, Hype, Phace & Misanthop, Prolix and Wilkinson.

IVY LAB North London trio Ivy Lab were brought together out of a shared enthusiasm for experimentation on the fringes of the drum and bass scene. A string of standout singles and EPs for Critical, with tracks like ‘Live On Your Smile’

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and ‘20 Questions’ have followed up on the group’s melancholic, acid-tinged strand first showcased in the anthemic single ‘Oblique’, which initially brought the trio into the limelight. Additional support has come in the form of Goldie’s Metalheadz recordings with the release of ‘Make It Clear’ and a string of remixes for acts and labels including Sub Focus (Universal), TC (3beat) and Anushka (Brownwood).

FOREIGN CONCEPT The London born, but now Bristol dwelling talent took to the turntables in 2004. The eclectic producer has consistently experimented in his music with a devout focus on the quality of his repertoire. His more recent work has involved the vocal talents of DRS, T-Man, Punchline (Emc), and Naomi Olive, plus talk of more in the pipeline. In only three years, Foreign Concept has amassed support from some of the biggest players in the UK’s electronic music game including Andy C, Friction, Sub Focus, Benji B, Zed Bias and Mista Jam. SEE THEM DJ: EMPEROR (UK), IVY LAB (UK) & FOREIGN CONCEPT (UK) SAT 24 OCT NECK OF THE WOODS, AUCKLAND FRI 30 OCT SAN FRAN, WELLINGTON SAT 31 OCT DUX LIVE, CHRISTCHURCH

CYAN

DARREN C

NIK DENTON & PAUL KING - SPACEHOPPER (TIDY TRAX) 2001 The cheeky riff was always a cracker on the dance floor with a massive break down. This always made the old Base dance floor in Colombo Street jump up and down.

NICK SENTIENCE & NICK ROWLAND – INNOVATION (RIOT!) 2006

CAPTAIN TINRIB – 2001: THE FINAL FRONTNOSE (TINRIB) 2000 This classic picture disc is such an anthem on both sides. This tune reminds me of when Tinrib headlined an epic event at Orton Bradley Park, turning up in full costume and his space odyssey helmet as featured on the picture disc. Rumour has it he chased sheep around the hills.

EDISON FACTOR HALLUCINATION (FREEZING POINT) 2003 Hard trance was really the sound of the CHCH hard house scene.

Edison Factors productions always stuck in my head for many weeks after hearing them played out. Hallucination was a soughtafter and thrashed beast. I always felt the crowd get down and dirty to that classic riff.

Innovation encompasses everything modern hard trance should be. Solid production as always by Sentience with elements of Psy Trance, a killer acid line, amazing main synth line, structure and emotion.

STIMULANT DJS LEGITIMATE SOUNDS (PAUL MADDOX REMIX) (STIMULANT) Tough as nails. Paul Maddox at his best. A unique hard house tune that always brings the true fiends to the front and centre.

PARKER & CLIND – GENERATOR (UK BONZAI GOLD SERIES) 2001 How can this not be in my top 3? A classic anthem. Move over Huntly & Palmers, this is how you get a party started.

SEE THEM DJ: THE REUNION (1999-2015) SUN 17 OCT WINNIE BAGOES, CHRISTCHURCH

Probably a bit of a cliché but guys like Flume, What So Not, RUFUS and most of the Future Classic and Sweat It Out signees are who we look to for inspiration at the moment.

TURNING THE TABLES WITH… BAAUER 1. Baauer is the alias of Harry Bauer Rodrigues.

2. He has been producing electronic music since the age of 13.

3. He got introduced to dance music through UK garage while living in England.

4. He was in a duo called SX N DRGS and has gone by the DJ name Captain Harry.

5.

In 2007 he studied audio technology at City College in New York.

6. He has done official remixes for The Prodigy, No Doubt, First Aid Kit, Disclosure, Nero, What So Not and more.

STACK & PIECE Stack & Piece is the Waikatoraised, Auckland-based producer and DJ duo comprised of Scott Tindale (Piece) and Jack Stack.

With a slew of singles hitting the Beatport and iTunes charts and a number of remixes on high rotation, the twosome are set

7. His collaboration ‘Higher’ with Just Blaze featuring Jay Z was made in one night.

8. His track ‘Harlem Shake’ spawned a viral craze with over 450 million collective YouTube views due to people uploading their own ‘Harlem Shake’ videos.

9. ‘Harlem Shake’ was a New Zealand Number 1 pop hit and won Dance Song Of The Year and EDM Song Of The Year at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards in the USA. 10.He released a collaboration, ‘Promises’, with Fetty Wap and Dubbel Dutch back in March 2015.

SEE HIM DJ: BAAUER (USA) Sat 24 Oct The Powerstation, Auckland Sun 25 Oct The Foundry, Christchurch

to release their debut EP in the coming months.

Clubland scratches the surface of Stack & Piece.

Coming up in electronic music, who was your DJ/producer hero?

What aspect of making music excites you the most right now?

The potential. New Zealand is a hotbed of musical activity – there are so many amazing Kiwi acts blowing up at the moment! People like Ian Munro, T1R and Quix have all made huge songs and are getting support from some of the biggest names in dance music.

Then there’s a bunch of the guys within the creative collective we’re part of (G7NG) that are doing amazing things: Diaz Grimm self-released his debut album and it hit the Top 5 on iTunes, Saachi is getting airplay on Triple J in Australia, Dealt Fairly has just been signed to a huge D&B label and CTFD has songs on the new Born To Dance movie. It feels like NZ electronic music is on the cusp of something big, and that’s fucking exciting.

there and it’s one of our favourite places to play in NZ. Those sets are always pretty insane and usually end with some form of property damage (thanks Jack Stack). Other highlights include the last time we played at Chinese Laundry in Sydney and every time we play Dunedin – ‘cause holy shit they really know how to party.

2014 was the year of deep house.

2015 will be the year of…?

G7NG What’s the musical equivalent of the G-Spot?

The kick drum. A good kick drum will get us going more than any other part of a track.

Do you think paternity insurance is an essential item on the road?

Only for Stack but with the amount of times he injures himself and gets into trouble I’m sure that he can’t get any form of insurance at this point.

STACK & PIECE THE LOVE GOES EP

What track of yours do you recommend to people who have never heard your music before?

If you jump on our Soundcloud (soundcloud.com/stackpiece) you can get a bit of an idea of what we do through our remixes of Maala, The Leers and Jupiter Project.

We don’t like genres as such but Piece describes what we do as ‘pop bass’.

What projects are you currently working on?

We’ve just released a remix of MAALA’s phenomenal debut Touch on Sony, which has led to us putting together our fourtrack debut EP The Love Goes EP, and we have a remix of the forthcoming track from MILOUX called ‘Beaches’, which we’re particularly proud of.

Most memorable DJ moment to date?

Once a year we play a seven-hour set at an amazing venue called Static in Hamilton. It’s a tiny bar but massive acts always stop in

COMING SOON

CHRISTCHURCH HARD HOUSE REUNITES The harder-edged club scene in Christchurch in the late ‘90s/ early ‘00s was sculpted in part by club nights such as Fevah, Serotonin, Quake, Déjà vu, Nitrate, Smile, Rehab and One, to name a few. Two innovators from those times kindly take us back with their favourite hard house tunes ever.

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OCTOBER CULTURE GUIDE

THU 01 OCT

LITTLE ESTHER POVITSKY

MON 05 OCT

WELLINGTON

MOCKTOBER RAW COMEDY

8:30PM, $31.50, EVENTFINDA.CO.NZ

THE CLASSIC COMEDY CLUB

While other little LA children would watch Sesame Street, a small Esther Povinsky would studiously watch Saturday Night Live and save her pennies up to attend Second City Shows.

Povinsky is a ‘theatrical’ comedian with an idiosyncratic, millennial sense of humour, and has steadily appeared in shows on Netflix and MTV. Catch her at the Fringe Bar.

AUCKLAND

THE FRINGE BAR

8PM, $5, EVENTFINDA.CO.NZ

Celebrating 18 years at the home of live comedy, MOCKtober showcases the finest of the

funny, from the furrowed to the fresh-faced. With MCs like Guy Williams (Jono And Ben, The Edge), Jeremy Corbett (7 Days, most things) and Urzila Carlson (ditto), gaffer up your girthy muffintops and head along to Mocktober Raw Comedy!

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AL MURRAY SKYCITY THEATRE AUCKLAND 8PM, $69, TICKETEK.CO.NZ

To watch Al Murray firing on both comedy barrels is to witness a rare bird shit on a postman – you’re damn lucky to have seen it. Having hosted an array of TV series’ over the years, Murray is bringing his live show One Man, One Guvnor here for one show only. Get ‘em while they hot.

SAT 10 OCT

SAT 10 OCT WED 07 OCT

TUE 13 OCT

SUN 11 OCT

FRESH

SHATNER’S WORLD WE JUST LIVE IN IT

THE COMEDY GRAPEVINE TOUR

Q THEATRE

AOTEA CENTRE

FOUNDERS THEATRE

BREAKERS VS TOWNSVILLE CROCS

AUCKLAND

AUCKLAND

HAMILTON

VECTOR ARENA

8:30PM, $20, QTHEATRE.CO.NZ

8PM, $99, TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ

8PM, $40.25, TICKETEK.CO.NZ

AUCKLAND

Mixing Pacific Folklore with interactive props and aerial circus, FRESH features the dancing talents of Rosa Strati, Jess Quaid, Chris Ofanoa and others, breathing fresh air into an already sophisticated style of dance here in New Zealand. With separate acts from these talented artists, watch in awe as they each tell their respective original pieces.

Captain Kirk and Denny Crane – only two extensions of the enigma that is William Shatner. He’s also a highly respected author, comedian, and spoken… word… recording… artist. Described as a chatty, digressive tour of Shatner’s acting career by the New York Times, and lauded over the world, Mr Shatner finally brings this galactic production to our shores.

Comedy, comedy, comedy - if you just can’t get enough of wry observation, anecdotes, tangents, set ups, breakdowns, and an audience’s irrational distrust of female comedians, then head along to the Hopt Comedy Grapevine Tour to witness all this and more. Featuring Urzila Carlson, Steve Wrigley and Nick Radio being, presumably, pretty funny.

2PM, $20, TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ

RIPITUP.CO.NZ

You know what the deal is – it’s the Breakers. They’re big, they’re tall, they’re bad, but they’re oh-so good. The atmos is second to none at a Breakers game, so rock on up and watch ‘em beat the Townsville Crocs. And if you’re that much of a b-ball fan, sign up for Breakers Nation online and get sweet discounts on game tickets!

CULTURE GUIDE

WED 14 OCT

FRI 30 OCT

PRIME AUCKLAND

NZSO PRESENTS: BOLD WORLDS FIRE & ICE

8:30PM, $27, QTHEATRE.CO.NZ

MICHAEL FOWLER CENTRE

Prime is a unique platform for already established choreographic artists to present their latest creations. With performances absurd, hilarious, cheeky and deeply touching, such pieces as Everyday, Small Losses, (Sarah Knox) Good Evening, Vietnam (Georgie Goater) and 2 x 2 x 2 (Touch Compass) confront the conventional. Prime is classy through and through.

WELLINGTON

Q THEATRE

WED 14 OCT

RUSSELL BRAND VECTOR ARENA AUCKLAND 8PM, $89.90, TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ

A British comedy warrior fighting depravity, oppression, sex and addiction with a slightly crooked rock ‘n’ roll sword, Russell Brand is an overtly articulate stand up artiste who is pretty much spellbinding on stage, if not a little exhausting. Check out this walking mass of stubble and leather as he tells us about the Trew World Order.

MON 26 OCT

DIWALI FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS TSB BANK ARENA WELLINGTON 1PM, FREE

Being India’s best-loved festival, Diwali symbolises the triumph of light over darkness, good over evil, and the general renewal of life. The colours, the delicious food that may or may not give you gas, and the beautiful celebrations of all things positive – head along to the Diwali Festival Of Lights, in partnership with Asia NZ Foundation.

6:30PM, $33, TICKETEK.CO.NZ

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra takes you on a journey to the new world of classical music. A thrilling programme that celebrates the interesting, the eclectric and the virtuosic, you’ll witness such greats as Jimmy Lopez’s Peru Negro and Kari Kriikku playing Hakola’s rapid fire Clarinet Concerto.

Lutoslawski’s Concerto for

SAT 24 OCT THU 22 SEP THU 15 OCT THU 15 OCT

JOHN BISHOP

JOSEPH PARKER VS KALI MEEHAN

BRUCE MASON CENTRE

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LIVE

MAGICIANS IN THE CAPITAL THE OPERA HOUSE

SOUNDINGS THEATRE

WELLINGTON

TRUSTS ARENA

WELLINGTON

7:30PM, $49, TICKETEK.CO.NZ

AUCKLAND

AUCKLAND

7:30PM, $49, TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ

8PM, $79.90, TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ

6:30PM, $39, EVENTFINDA.CO.NZ

One of the biggest names in UK comedy, and the man with the greatest accent and biggest teeth in the game, John Bishop will be here for the first time ever. You may have seen him on Graham Norton, offering a charming quip, often upstaging bigger celebs in the process. This guy is genuinely, effortlessly hilarious.

NZ heavyweight sensation Joseph Parker takes on Super 8 champion Kali Meehan in a 12-round clash of the titans. Meehan has the respect of NZ boxing purists, with an 18-year career in which he famously sent Shane Cameron into retirement. Does Parker have what it takes to beat the veteran?

Get them ringsides now!

Brian Skerry has spent over 10,000 hours underwater – at least 9,999 hours more than I have. He’s seen all sorts of elusive creatures in a quest for the perfect wildlife photograph, and my God, he’s taken some amazing shots.

On stage, Skerry will educate us about the intelligence of marine creatures and the global fish crisis.

Sure, you laughed at them in high school. But who’s got the last laugh now, huh? Hosted

by Canada’s leading comedian magician, David Merry, this show features some of magic’s greatest stars, including Lukas Lee, Charlie Frye, and mental mentalist Paul Romhany. With a mix of comedy, shock and wonder, get some real magic in ya.

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CULTURE LISTINGS THE 21ST NARCISSUS Mon 12 - Sat 24 Oct Basement Theatre, Auckland

A FINE BALANCE Thu 08 Oct - Sun 11 Oct TPAC, Auckland Fri 16 Oct - Sun 18 Oct TPAC, Auckland

ABORIA BY ARCHITECTS OF AIR Thu 01 Oct Aotea Square, Auckland

AL MURRAY - THE PUB LANDLORD (UK) Tue 13 Oct Skycity Theatre, Auckland

JOHN GRANT (US)

Fri 09 - Sat 24 Oct Seed Gallery, Auckland

Thu 01 Oct - Sun 04 Oct Claudelands Arena, Hamilton

NICK & MEGAN (US)

JOHN BISHOP (UK) Thu 15 Oct ASB Theatre, Auckland Fri 16 Oct Bruce Mason Centre, Auckland

THE LESSON Tue 27 - Sat 31 Oct

BASEMENT THEATRE, AUCKLAND LITTLE ESTHER POVITSKY (US)

FUTURE EVENTS

Thu 17 & Sat 19 Mar Town Hall, Auckland

Wed 16 Dec Vector Arena, Auckland

NZSO PRESENTS: BOLD WORLDS - FIRE & ICE

BIG BOYS TOYS Sun 01 Nov ASB Showgrounds, Auckland

Fri 23 - Mon 26 Oct ASB Showgrounds, Auckland

MAGICIANS IN THE CAPITAL

BIG BOYS TOYS

Sat 24 Oct The Opera House, Wellington

Fri Feb 05 - Sun Feb 14 Vector Arena, Auckland Thu Feb 18 - Sun Feb 21 Horncastle Arena, Christchurch

MANGOPARE

DAWN FRENCH (UK)

Wed 14 Oct Aotea Centre, Auckland

Mon 14 Mar Isaac theatre Royal, Christchurch Tue 15 Mar Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch Mon 21 Mar Opera House, Wellington Tue 22 Mar Opera

Sat 17 - Sun 18 Oct Aotea Square, Auckland Mon 26 Oct TSB Bank Arena, Wellington

DEMENTED ARCHITECTURE Thu 01 - Sat 31 Oct City Gallery, Wellington

THE FIRST 7500 DAYS OF MY LIFE Sat 10 - Sat 24 Oct Basement Theatre, Auckland

GALLIPOLI IN MINECRAFT EXHIBITION Thu 01 - Sun 31 Oct War Memorial Museum, Auckland

HIRAETH Sat 03 - Wed 07 Oct Basement Theatre, Auckland

RIPITUP.CO.NZ

Mon 05 Oct Classic Comedy Club, Auckland Mon 12 Oct Classic Comedy Club, Auckland Mon 19 Oct Classic Comedy Club, Auckland

Thu 11 Feb Bruce Mason Centre, Auckland Fri 12 Feb Opera House, Wellington

NIXON IN CHINA

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL - QUIDAM

MOCKTOBER RAW COMEDY

Fri 18 Mar Town Hall, Auckland

AN EVENING WITH OPRAH (US)

Thu 01 Oct The Fringe, Wellington

DIWALI FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

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WAIKATO HOME & GARDEN SHOW

ARMAGEDDON EXPO

Fri 30 - Sat 31 Oct ASB Showgrounds, Auckland THE COMEDY GRAPEVINE TOUR Thu 01 Oct Baycourt Community & Arts Centre, Tauranga Fri 02 Oct Regent on Broadway, Palmerston North Sat 03 Oct Mac’s Function Centre, Wellington Tue 06 Oct Winnie Bagoes City, Christchurch Wed 07 Oct Glenroy Auditorium, Dunedin Thu 08 Oct Pub on Wharf, Queenstown Sat 10 Oct Founders Theatre, Hamilton

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JAMES ROBINSON, CORRECTIONS

DEMENTED ARCHITECTURE

Wed 04 Nov Horncastle Arena, Christchurch Fri 06 Nov Town Hall, Auckland Sat 07 Nov Founders Theatre, Hamilton

NZSO PRESENTS: RITE OF SPRING Fri 20 Nov Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington Tue 24 Nov Town Hall, Dunedin Wed 25 Nov Horncastle Arena, Christchurch Fri 27 Nov Town Hall, Auckland

SHEN YUN 2016 (CN) Fri 12 Feb Aotea Centre, Auckland

STEPHEN FRY (UK)

Sun 01 - Sun 08 Nov City Gallery, Wellington

Wed 02 Dec Civic Theatre, Auckland

DR WHO PETER CAPALDI IN CONVERSATION (UK)

TIM AND ERIC (US)

Tue 24 Nov Civic Theatre, Auckland

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

DUNCAN TRUSSELL (US)

Thu 11 Feb - Sun 06 Mar Civic Theatre, Auckland

Thu 12 Nov Tuning Fork, Auckland

TOAST MARTINBOROUGH

Fri 30 Oct Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington

GARRICK OHLSSON PLAYS BRAHMS

Sun 15 Nov Martinborough Wine Village, Wairarapa

RUSSELL BRAND (UK) Wed 14 Oct Vector Arena, Auckland

Fri 13 Nov Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington Sat 14 Nov Town Hall, Auckland

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

RUSSIAN FILM FESTIVAL

GOOD MOURNING MRS. BROWN (UK)

Wed 21 - Mon 26 Oct Rialto Newmarket, Auckland

Fri 25 - Sat 26 Mar Vector Arena, Auckland

SHATNER’S WORLD..

WE JUST LIVE IN IT (US)

GUYS & DOLLS

Sat 10 Oct Aotea Centre, Auckland

JIMMY CARR (UK)

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LIVE (US) Wed 21 Oct Aotea Centre, Auckland Thu 22 Oct Soundings Theatre, Wellington

NZSO PRESENTS: BOLD WORLDS - FIRE & ICE

TEMPO DANCE FESTIVAL Thu 01 Oct - Sun 18 Oct Q Theatre, Auckland

Mon 02 Nov - Sun 22 Nov Q Theatre, Auckland Fri 08 Jan St James Theatre, Wellington Sun 10 Jan Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch Mon 11 Jan ASB Theatre, Auckland

Fri 18 Dec Skycity Theatre, Auckland

Thu 11 Feb - Sun 06 Mar Civic Theatre, Auckland

WEIRD AL YANKOVIC Tue 05 Jan Powerstation, Auckland Wed 06 Jan Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch

WEIRD AL YANKOVIC Tue 05 Jan Powerstation, Auckland Wed 06 Jan Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch

TIM GRUAR

EB & SPARROW: SHINING LIGHT Ebony Lamb on Men, Music & Life ON TOUR

IT’S SPRING SO IT’S TIME FOR LAMB. EBONY LAMB, THAT IS, OF AMERICANA/ ROOTS GROUP EB & SPARROW. OUR ROVING WELLINGTON HOUND DOG TIM GRUAR TRACKED HER FOR THE LOWDOWN. CONTINUING THEIR HAUNTING journey into the depths of Americana, folk and sweet gloaming, Wellington based Eb & Sparrow return this month with a new album, Sun/ Son. I met up with composer/ singer Ebony Lamb at the appropriately named Home cafe in the National Library. It’s a place surrounded by heritage, perched on the site of an ancient river that flows directly into the harbour. The connection to nature, the land and to people is very strong here. And so is this new work. The striking, upbeat, cartoon-like cover by Grimoire is a bright juxtaposition to Lamb’s often-brooding vocals and her band’s uniquely understated but very catchy melodies.

The album starts with memories of small town New Zealand – ‘Kimbolton’ - where Lamb’s family chose to spend the Christmas holidays. “It’s the Rhododendron capital of the Country. It’s really an old lady flower, sort of a reminder of past times, when these little towns

as well.”

used to be destinations. We spent the summer down by the local river, and in hammocks and running on the grass - even sheep in the back garden!” It’s the perfect Kiwi summer - as portrayed through a Vaselinesmeared lens of golden light and happy memories.

The last time we talked Lamb told me about her endless car trips back and forth to the Bay of Plenty to visit her sick father.

Lamb was raised by her solo Dad and they had a strong connection, which is not only evident when she speaks but in her songs, too. ‘I Want You’ features the ominous lines, ‘I went through my father’s things. He passed away three years ago. He was a huge influence on me, growing up. His music collection and his collection of philosophy books. Such a great wealth.’ The song, she tells me, is more than just about her father, it’s about the wanting of a man, strong love, safe love, holding tight, comforting.

In a different way, the song ‘Coward Son’ is Lamb’s challenge to love a man for who he is, and for that man to be proud of himself, to be strong. “I’m saying you don’t have to be frightened. You don’t have to be a soldier. We should accept men for who they are, not change them into something they aren’t. And that goes for men who are a bit dark, difficult,

Men are prominent in Lamb’s life. Her band features some of the country’s most talented and experienced players. Chris Winter infuses a delicious, soulful, Latin trumpet, like Calexico, into many of the songs - when he’s not playing guitar or bass, that is. He also adds a unique tone, with a melaphone to (the ghostly ‘Liberator’).

Jason Johnson, who has a background with the Auckland Boys’ Choir, lends his pipes to many of the harmonies scattered across the new album. Bryn Heveldt’s lap-steel is a reminder that at the heart this has a folk/ Americana feel, and drummer Nick Brown keeps everyone on beat. Also giving voice to the ambience on this record was one prominent player: a vintage ‘50s, time worn Selmer brand amplifier, which “creates guitar warbles and distortions, making these finely crafted tunes more timeless and slightly ethereal.”

Contrasted with Lamb’s haunting vocals, which slide along between Margo Timmins, Cat Power and Gillian Welch, it’s the sound of a band that’s used a whole year, she tells me, to design their own aural architecture. But also very prominent on this album is producer Brett Stanton (Phoenix Foundation, The Surgery).”I’ve known him for two or three years and he’s a good bench mark of what is good music.” Lamb tells me that he recently relocated to the small Hawkes Bay beach town of Te Awanga, where the band converged to take over his parents’ house to record.

Lamb talks fondly about her time there, with the band spread out into different rooms, leads connecting each like an umbilical cord to Stanton’s control desk set up in the master bedroom.

“We’d also tried to record on the balcony, before the competing cicadas completely took over the evenings. It’s a beautiful place, in the middle of this tranquil olive grove.”

Eb & Sparrow’s last album was made in Lyttelton’s The Sitting Room, home of groups like The Eastern. While the connections with the Southern music scene are still there, Lamb was determined to make the next record in the North Island. “It was easier to travel to the Bay, not so far to go but also the vibe was different this time. So we made it over three separate sessions. We had less time but I had a very capable and energetic band. So we made all of it, except ‘Little Hands’. I made that with Tom Healy (of Tiny Ruins).”

Lamb tells me the title is an amalgam. A reference to the many males in her life, it’s also a reference to the sun. “It’s about enlightenment. You have to be in the dark, to find the light. The sun is the ultimate light.” The album is a collection of new material and material that has finally found its way - like ‘Mother Mary’, which Lamb says is an old song that the band brought back to life. “By adding some violin, we were experimenting. Because we’d not done the song for a while it felt that we could experiment. The song goes from a quiet nothing to a huge building tension.” Other songs were almost inventions of their environment, like ‘Mighty Wind’, which features a recording of a rattling cutlery drawer. Brett’s parents might still be counting the silver after that session. Nonetheless, the final result shows Eb & Sparrow has grown both from the road and from working with each other.

They’re about to go on tour - so there’s a chance to see that for yourself.

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OCTOBER SCREEN GUIDE

FRI 02 OCT

EWEN GILMOUR: WESTIE LEGEND TV 3, 9:30PM

Comedian Ewen Gilmour, who sadly died last year, was an incredibly funny, caring soul, and a big name within the wider NZ

comedy scene. Westie Legend documents his rise through the ranks and also includes his last brilliant set, which he was planning to perform on TV before he tragically passed. West is best.

TUE 06 OCT

KILLER MEDICS ON DEATH ROW CRIME & INVESTIGATION, 8:30PM

As doctors are responsible for your life, it’s pretty scary that these same people can be some truly sadistic money grubbing motherfuckers, casually

murdering unsuspecting victims.

This is a look into the convicted doctors and nurses on death row who were thankfully caught.

‘Drop your drawers and cough’ has a whole new meaning in prison.

SUN 04 OCT

NRL TELSTRA PREMIERSHIP FINAL SKY SPORT 2, 8:30PM

Yeah, the Warriors are - again out of the battle towards the end of the NRL season. No worries

though, as this is bound to be a quality battle for the Provan Summons Trophy. With all the biff, drama and prescription drug use you could ask for, the NRL final is gonna be a cracker.

FRI 09 OCT WED 07 OCT

TALIBAN OIL HISTORY CHANNEL, 9:30PM

Taliban Oil is the unknown story of secret negotiations between the Taliban and America to build a pipeline through Afghanistan.

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This is the inside story of corruption, politics, a battle for power and, most of all, the battle for money that could have resulted in the most devastating terrorist attack on American soil – 9/11.

OJ SPEAKS: THE HIDDEN TAPES CRIME & INVESTIGATION, 7:30PM

The white Ford Bronco, the gloves that did not fit, the pools of blood, OJ’s big-ass head – on the 20th anniversary of the historic

OJ Simpson double murder trial, this doco gives us access to the exclusive disposition tapes, where lawyer Tony Petrocelli brilliantly dismantles OJ’s wonky version of events. Some truly chilling stuff.

FRI 09 OCT

LOOTERS OF THE GODS SKY ARTS, 8:30PM

A shitload of cash changes hands daily in the illegal art trade.

With countless middlemen, tomb robbers and big shot dealers

working with millions, this is a surprisingly functional criminal industry that is only second to the drugs trafficking. Looters Of The Gods reveals the roles of those involved in stealing history’s artistic heritage.

FRI 09 OCT

BANKSY DOES NEW YORK RIALTO, 8:30PM

Banksy, a mercurial and enigmatic street artist from the UK, is pretty good at getting his stuff noticed (case in point: Dismaland).

This documentary sees Banksy installing daily street pieces in the city of New York over the course of one month, and how the public receives them. A thrilling scavenger hunt by the rebellious mastermind.

SUN 18 OCT

COMIC BOOK HEROES SKY ARTS, 8:30PM

Through their company Gestalt Publishing, Wolfgang Bylsma and Skye Ogden have devoted time, money and talent to producing some of Australia’s most unique

comic books. This two-part documentary shows them trying to crack the lucrative US market in the quest for a well-deserved profit, while also providing insight into the bizarre comic book industry.

MON 26 OCT

BRAIN SURGERY LIVE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, 2PM

This is Brain Surgery: Live, which takes us into the operating room during the nightmare that is an ‘awake craniotomy’. To put it

simply, one poor fucker is awake while a surgeon pokes and cuts his exposed brain. They can talk and shit, and you get to see what his brain does during. Wow.

MON 26 OCT SUN 01 NOV

DARA & ED’S PAN-AMERICAN ROAD TRIP CHOICE TV, 9:30PM

Ed Byrne and Dara O Briain embark on an epic journey on the Pan America Highway, one of the greatest roads in the world.

Sharing a love for America and having both travelled its gruelling comedy circuit, Byrne and O Briain retrace the steps of American adventurers of the 1940s, witnessing danger and excitement along the way.

RUGBY WORLD CUP FINAL SKY SPORTS 1, 5AM

The biggie. The final. An outcome so important that people legitimately suffer from post-RWC depression and cry

afterwards. Can the All Blacks take it out two times in a row?

Will Japan make it? Or will they be pipped by Scotland before this magazine is printed, making me look like a dick? Stay tuned.

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FILM REVIEWS

ROCK THE KASBAH DIRECTED BY BARRY LEVINSON STARRING BRUCE WILLIS, BILL MURRAY, KATE HUDSON

It goes like this: Bill Murray plays a music promoter who finds himself stranded in Afghanistan after the singer he has brought over to perform for the troops (Zooey Deschanel) gets cold feet and absconds with his money and passport. While he is trying to sort himself out he becomes involved with an arms dealer (Danny McBride), falls in love with a prostitute (Kate Hudson), battles a wicked warlord (with Bruce Willis) and discovers a female singer who eventually wins the Afghan version of X-Factor.

Apparently, the film is based on the true story of 17-year-old Latifa Azizi who braved death threats and abuse from ultra-conservative religious types when she entered the talent show Afghan Star in 2013, breaking all kinds of anti-female taboos in the process. The narrative construct of the film is as wobbly as hell and large bits of it make no sense at all, but frankly it’s all about Bill Murray, who at 65 has not lost a bit of his wit. Every time he starts to deliver his lines he stops, pauses, then starts riffing. The supporting cast look endlessly bemused as they try and adjust to Murray’s unplanned deviations, and one can image the crew off screen scrabbling as Murray dances about, missing his marks and making it up as the fancy takes him. Always the jester, Murray steals every scene and makes an otherwise ho-hum script into something special, simply by being there.

Yep, it’s a load of old bollocks but hey, it’s fucking Bill Murray and a good time is had by all.

yet still manages to seem a generation younger than raspy voiced geriatric Nick Nolte, a shaggy dog of a thespian who could pass for Methuselah’s elder brother. At least Nolte has something to do: Katz’s battle with booze provides the material for what little dramatic spark it possesses and his flirtation with a fat woman in a laundry mat is good for an embarrassed, guilty snigger. Redford, by contrast, is saddled with such banal dialogue that Bryson barely registers as literate, and his interactions with spouse Emma Thompson - an actress 23 years his junior - have all the complexity of a television sit-com. A Walk In The Woods is guilty of the greatest crime there is in narrative art: not knowing what the story is or what the point of telling it might be. A failure as travelogue - though, of course, there is plenty of postcard pretty imagery - it also falls flat as a character study, a midlife crisis film or even an Odd Couple-like buddy movie. Dull incident is piled upon dull incident without evident structure or thematic, and then it all just ends. It’s as though its makers were inventing a new genre: the adventure-less adventure film. Even the bears are boring.

RICHARD SWAINSON

ANDREW JOHNSTONE

THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL DIRECTED BY MARIELLE HELLER STARRING BEL POWLEY, ALEXANDER SKARSGARD, KRISTEN WIIG

A WALK IN THE WOODS DIRECTED BY KEN KWAPIS STARRING ROBERT REDFORD, NICK NOLTE, EMMA THOMPSON

Bill Bryson is one of the world’s best selling travel writers. A man of wit and some erudition, he’s also published extensively on language, history and science and at the age of 50 he decided to attempt the Appalachian Trail, a hike of some 3,500 kilometres. As a travelling companion Bryson chose old friend and sparring partner Stephen Katz, an alcoholic that he had not seen for over two decades. Though he had not intended the experience to be raw material for a book, he wrote it up anyway. A Walk In The Woods is an adaptation of that slim volume, and it disappoints on every level. As Bryson, 79-year-old Robert Redford is a quarter century too old for the part

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“I had sex today,” says 15-year-old Minnie (played by Bel Powley) in the attention-grabbing opening lines of Marielle Heller’s fresh and inspired version of Phoebe Gloeckner’s graphic novel, The Diary Of A Teenage Girl. But this is no tale of abuse of exploitation, despite the owner of the penis being her mother’s 35-year-old boyfriend. He should have known better, of course, but then again, Minnie started it.Heller, an actress who has herself played Minnie on stage, draws a brilliant performance from Powley as the fearlessly experimental heroine, and a laconic one from Alexander Skarsgard as the laid back, aging hippy caught between mother and daughter. Driven by Minnie’s taped confessions and illuminated by her increasingly carnal sketches, The Diary Of A Teenage Girl manages to be both wildly cinematic and true to its comic book origins. When Aline Kominsky turns up as a non-committal sage and sounding board, animated on screen as she draws herself, it feels just right, yet Heller ensures the flights of visual fantasy are always grounded in dirty reality. It’s not all fun and games for Minnie: giving blow jobs to strangers for money or being pimped out by your lesbian girlfriend are but two adventures subsequently regretted. Its end point is never really in doubt, but it’s the journey that counts. Heller and Gloeckner rescue the female coming-of-age narrative from the realm of dirty old men without sacrificing either sensuality or the truth. That’s an achievement.

RICHARD SWAINSON

prolific Japanese movie star Shun Oguri who is suitably handsome, cool and wry. In this adaptation, (there have been many: Lupin is to Japan as James Bond is to Britain), Lupin and his gang of crack thieves set their sights on criminal mastermind Mamrachiao Pramuk or more to the point, the Crimson Heart of Cleopatra, (a necklace commissioned by Mark Antony to symbolize his love for Cleopatra), which Mamrachiao keeps locked away in his supposedly impenetrable fortress deep in the Thai jungle.

What follows is rollicking good fun as Lupin sets about securing the heist of a lifetime pursued by his lifelong nemesis, the hapless Inspector Koichi Zenigata who is always one step out of phase with Lupin’s scheming.

Ok, some of the acting is hokey and the special effects a little wobbly, but if you are hankering after an evening of light entertainment filled out by thrills and spills, slapstick humour and a knowing nod and wink, this film will fit the bill perfectly. Of special note, Lupin drives a Fiat 500, (no flash sports cars with tricks for this dude), and watching him put it through its paces in numerous car chases is the icing on the cake.

DOPE

ANDREW JOHNSTONE

DIRECTED BY RICK FAMUYIWA

Dope is a Hip Hop film that explores what it means to be a ‘nigger’.

First off, what is a Hip Hop film? Well, I guess it’s just a normal film with a few visual flourishes drawn from music videos and some stylistic elements associated with the music genre itself. Secondly, and most importantly, what is a ‘nigger’? According to popular culture, a ‘nigger’ likes bling and deals drugs, is armed and dangerous and usually drives some sort of ostentatious vehicle with rap music blaring from the massive speakers set in the doors. Actually, a ‘nigger’ is a range of personalities and temperaments that transcend stereotypes, a point that film make over and over. Malcolm Adekanbi (Shameik Moore) is a geek, a straight A student with his sights on Harvard. He hangs out with his geek friends, is a reluctant virgin and clumsily navigates the mean streets of his neighbourhood, streets occupied by that other kind of ‘nigger’, the dangerous kind of lore. Dope is feel good movie about black kids who are not stereotypes, just kids with dreams, goals and ambitions, kids who do dumb things, amazing things, coping the best they can with what they have. Vibrant, often ludicrous, self-aware and satirical, Dope is fun, informed and buzzy.

MONSTERZ

ANDREW JOHNSTONE

DIRECTED BY HIDEO NAKATA STARRING TATSUYA FUJIWARA, TAKAYUKI YAMADA, SATOMI ISHIHARA

DVD REVIEWS

LUPIN THE 3RD DIRECTED BY RYUHEI KITAMURA MADMAN DVD

The closest analogy I can make to the Japanese phenomenon Lupin the 3rd is the Pink Panther. Like the aforementioned Pink Panther, Lupin is a gentleman thief with Robin Hood sensibilities: his personal code of conduct dictates that he only steals from those that can afford the loss and like the debonair Pink Panther, Lupin is full of wily tricks, possessed of a selfdeprecating sense of humour and a suave devil-may-care attitude.

Lupin 3rd, (the 2014 live-action edition), stars the charismatic and highly

Way back in 1999, American filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan broke box office records with his second feature film The Sixth Sense, a smart supernatural thriller with a twist ending so carefully concealed that when the reveal came, it left theatre audiences gasping. His follow up was the less heralded but similarly successful Unbreakable, a wholly original superhero film about two men born for one purpose - to balance out each other’s presence within nature. Despite its originality, this film has spawned no imitators until recently, and they’ve come from the booming Asian film industry rather than Hollywood. South Korean film Haunters (2010) is a variation on the Unbreakable theme, except that this time the fragile character representing evil is possessed of psychic powers that allow him to exert mental control over others. One day he discovers a man he cannot control, a man who is his opposite in every way - virtuous, courageous and indestructible. He cannot tolerate this man in his world and he uses every means at his disposal to destroy him. Monsterz is a 2014 Japanese remake of Haunters directed by the chap responsible for The Ring, and could be described as the grandchild of Unbreakable, a film possessed of the same genetic material as the grandparent, albeit in a somewhat diluted form. While it lacks the art, craft and singular vision of that film, it is still a diverting story about good vs evil, and typically of Japanese cinema it is full of strange juxtapositions of slapstick humour and visceral violence.

It’s no masterpiece, but delivers as a diverting addition to a variation on a theme we are sure to see more of in the future.

ANDREW JOHNSTONE

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DVD REVIEWS

AMAL SIDDHARTH THE LIFE AFFIRMING FILMS OF RICHIE MEHTA

THE FACE OF AN ANGEL DIRECTED BY MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM STARRING CARA DELEVINGNE, KATE BECKINSALE, DANIEL BRUHL

It takes a few minutes and a number of quite bewildering scenes before the penny drops. The Face Of An Angel is, nominally at least, meant to be a movie about Meredith Kercher, the 21-year-old British woman who was murdered while studying in Italy in 2007. Reportage of the killing and the subsequent trial and conviction of her flatmate Amanda Knox sold a lot of tabloid newspapers, and the story has been kept alive through various legal appeals, culminating in Knox’s exoneration back in March. Not content with just telling this tale, the prolific Michael Winterbottom attempts a much deeper exploration of life, death, art and the subjective nature of being, referencing everything from Citizen Kane to Rashomon and 8 1/2.

There are liberal helpings of Dante, monster-movie like computer-generated imagery, shady villains, drug-induced fantasy scenes, and some sentimental tosh about the joys of being a parent. Winterbottom’s point - established in the moment alluded to above, an instance of banally literal dialogue that also burdens the movie, especially at the outset - is that you have to make a fiction to tell the truth. Why, the question could be asked, does that fiction have to involve a dour middle-aged filmmaker, depressed about his recent marriage break-up, given to snorting cocaine, casually screwing a woman he appears to despise and lecturing the press on their ethical shortcomings?

The normally charismatic Daniel Bruhl is one hundred percent unsympathetic in the part, choosing to play him as a paranoid film noir pasty, but I feel more sorry for Kate Beckinsale, cast as a well-intentioned writer who’s required to do little more than groan in the sex scenes. Though it’s no achievement whatsoever, the movie is stolen by the de rigueur model of the moment, the heavily eye-browed Cara Delevingne, playing the type of female innocent that Fellini used to conjure in his sleep. If you were feeling charitable you might label The Face Of An Angel a weird hybrid.

I’m more inclined toward seeing it as an outright mess. The attempt at a big transcendent ending, as Bruhl’s character gets his head straight and enjoys the startlingly original epiphany that life is all about love falls as flat as a pizza base, and an end credit dedication to the memory of Kercher is both unearned and unwarranted. Winterbottom’s only real achievement is to set a new record for the amount of cheek kissing in a movie, an irritation that unintentionally symbolises the director’s all too superficial take on the story’s cultural backdrop.

RICHARD SWAINSON

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Indian cinema is a vast and sprawling beast usually identified as Bollywood, but is in actuality a conglomerate of 21 regional languagebased filmmaking industries with Bollywood sitting at the top of the pyramid.Some 1600 films are made annually in India, making it the world’s largest producer of movies, followed by Nigeria, China and the USA. A new entrant into the vast array of genres that define Indian film is one being led by the children of immigrants who are turning to their ancestral homeland for stories and inspiration. These stories are often told in English and are dominated by British filmmakers, but recently an astonishing new talent has arisen out of Canada. His name is Ritchie Mehta, and his first two films are a must-see for film fans. Mehta’s first feature film, Amal, was released in 2008 and is available to view on YouTube. Amal is a goodhearted autorickshaw driver plying his trade on the crowded streets of New Delhi. He shares a room with his widowed mother and goes about his work with diligence. As we are getting to know Amal we are introduced to another character, a slightly crazed elderly man who to the casual observer, could be mistaken for a homeless eccentric. He is in fact dying billionaire GK Jayaram, a jaded individual who is seeking a worthy soul to whom he might bequeath his fortune. When he crosses paths with Amal, a chain of events is set in motion that look set to change Amal’s future and fortunes on a grand scale. Amal is a film with several faces. It’s all at once a delightful and affecting romance, a searing examination of the corrupting effects of wealth and privilege, and an edge-of-seat thriller that’s also a portrait of the heart of a virtuous man. I have watched Amal three times since I first stumbled upon it amongst the crowded shelves of Hamilton’s eccentric DVD rental store Auteur House back in 2010, returning to it again and again when in need of a story to warm my soul. Profound and entertaining, Amal is a special film of rare quality. Siddharth, on the other hand, is both a travelogue of the human heart and the bewildering cultural landscape that is India. Along the way, the filmmaker examines the human experience and the changing nature of India, a society on the fast track to modernity.

Mahendra is a chain-wallah who walks the crowded streets of New Delhi in search of broken zippers in need of repair. As the camera follows Mahendra on his daily rounds, we are quietly drawn into the drama that is playing out in the small room that Mahendra and his wife call home. Months earlier they had sent their pre-teen son off to a nearby city to work in a factory in order to assist the family to shore up their fragile finances. They have lost contact with him and without a clue as to the fate of their beloved boy, Mahendra sets out to find his son. Like Amal, Mahendra is a virtuous man swept up in events beyond his control and like Amal, his stance in the face of adversity is resolute. Should I be as good as these two men, I would be content with my life.

ANDREW JOHNSTONE

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RICHARD SWAINSON

A SECOND XI OF NEW ZEALAND FILMS 1. REWI’S LAST STAND (1940)

RICHARD SWAINSON KNOWS HIS KIWI CULTURE IN FILM, SO RIP IT UP ASKED HIM FOR HIS CHOICE OF BEST LOCAL FLICKS. HERE WE GO...

Top 10 lists have inherent limitations. For a start, only 10 selections are possible. When it comes to Top 10 movie lists there tends to be only two possibilities, depending on whether those voting suffer from cultural snobbery or cultural amnesia.

Fairfax’s Top 50 of New Zealand movies, the result of an internet poll, rounds up the usual suspects. In their Top 10, ‘80s classics Goodbye Pork Pie, The Quiet Earth, Smash Palace and Utu co-exist with those two celebrated gems from 1994, Once Were Warriors and Heavenly Creatures. The rules are bent to include The Piano - technically an Australian/French coproduction - and space is found for Boy, Whale Rider and perhaps our most satisfying local drama, In My Father’s Den. The choices are solid enough. I would quibble about the order and of course would substitute

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many a selection. Where are the early Peter Jackson splatter films? How can The Navigator be relegated to number 29? Why are there no titles made before 1977? Have those who voted never heard of Rudall Hayward or John O’Shea? What about Len Lye, an ex-patriot to be sure, but our most revolutionary and unique filmmaker? If you include The Piano, The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and even Avatar, why not Lye’s Free Radicals or Swinging The Lambert Walk?

What follows is not so much an alternative Top 10 as a personal choice of titles that either didn’t make the cut in the Fairfax Top 50, or only feature toward the rear. Like any Second XI it includes a couple of selections that could make the top team in the case of injury or loss of form.

Even when they were obviously influenced by international trends of the moment, when I first saw these films they all resonated as outstanding examples of local culture. That’s as good a criteria for a list as I can think of.

Sure it’s an old fashioned, even jaundiced and patronising view of what used to be called the ‘Maori wars’, but Rudall Hayward’s sound remake of his 1925 epic about Rewi Maniapoto and the 1864 Battle of Ōrākau was the only New Zealand film you were likely to be exposed to if you grew up in the early 1970s. I saw it three times at primary school, each time swelling with pride that something as exciting as this could be made in my country. Unfortunately, only the heavily edited international print survives.

2. RUNAWAY (1964) John O’Shea’s insanely ambitious response to 1960s European art films combines visuals worthy of Antonioni with a bleak man alone narrative consistent with established trends in New Zealand literature. It’s at once a road movie, a thriller and an existential drama. The fascinating supporting cast includes Kiri Te Kanawa in an ingénue part, Ray Columbus and - best of all Barry Crump playing a dark and nasty variation on deer hunter persona.

3. DON’T LET IT GET YOU (1966) From an objective point of view this loosely structured comedy, heavily influenced by A Hard Day’s Night and the rock ‘n’ roll films that followed in its wake, isn’t really that good. I saw it 30 years after it was first released, personally introduced by its director, John O’Shea, and its leading man, Howard Morrison, with many of the original extras in attendance. On that occasion it seemed a masterpiece. As a cultural snapshot of my home-

town Rotorua, made in the year of my birth, it’s essential local cinema.

4. CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS (1976) The father of the New Zealand horror film and one of the first directors ever to obtain state funding for his work, David Blyth is also New Zealand cinema’s largely unsung sensualist. Angel Mine (1978), his bizarre satire on bourgeois life and Death Warmed Up (1983), the country’s first science fiction splatter movie, were serious contenders for this list and Blyth’s more recent documentaries on sadomasochism deserve far more exposure than they have received. However, my favourite film of his is still Circadian Rhythms, his debut short, which combines the hippy aesthetic of its day with a surrealist vibe reminiscent of Bunuel. Hairy nudity and a man with a detachable penis are but two of its charms.

5. SKIN DEEP (1978) Sex and small town New Zealand make for a powerful combination in this funny yet dramatically compelling social satire. When a masseuse is brought to a country town by the local council, all hell breaks loose. Sounds like a Len Brown wet dream. Don’t believe the IMDB rating of 5.3: this is the most overlooked Kiwi picture of its era.

6. PARTICLES IN SPACE (1966/1979) Len Lye reached a kind of apotheosis with his last film, begun in 1966 and completed with the assistance of some money from the land of his birth just before the great man’s death.

Though the bulk of the short comprises what the Harvard Film Archive describes as “white ziggle-zag-splutter scratches in quite doodling fashion,” its credit sequence is perhaps the most innovative in film history, displaying the letters of the title in the manner of the forthcoming abstraction. A typically eclectic score combines drumming from the Bahamas and Nigeria with the sounds of Lye’s own metal kinetic sculptures.

7. PALLET ON THE FLOOR (1986) The literary works of Ronald Hugh Morrieson, Hawera’s least favourite drunken son, have proven an inconsistent source for the cinema. While The Scarecrow (1982) adaptation brought Hollywood legend John Carradine to our shores and Came A Hot Friday (1984) gave Billy T James the vehicle he so richly deserved, the more recent The Predicament (2010) was a disaster both commercially and critically. Many would say as much about Pallet On The Floor, a little seen black comedy based on Morrieson’s final novel, set in and around an abattoir. I have fonder memories, especially of the rich lead performance by Australian Bruce Spence. The supporting cast is a who’s who of 1980s Kiwi film acting, including the ubiquitous Bruno Lawrence, cameoing as Morrieson himself.

8. MEET THE FEEBLES (1989) From today’s perspective it seems impossible that multi-Academy Award winner and Hollywood power player Peter Jackson could ever have made anything as anarchic and genuinely subversive as the puppet satire Meet The Feebles. Describing it as a parody of The Muppet Show doesn’t even come close: a fox sings a song about sodomy, a fly literally buzzes around shit, there is sex, perversion, AIDS jokes and several characters are eaten. A cultural treasure.

9. A SOLDIER’S TALE (1989) This quiet but powerful World War II drama set during the liberation of France has obvious affinities with Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima Mon Amour but is more a chamber piece. Gabriel Byrne plays a British soldier who begins a relationship with a French woman suspected of collaboration. There’s nothing obviously ‘New Zealand’ about A Soldier’s Tale - it feels like a well crafted, if low key European art film - but its nonetheless one of our best films, based on a New Zealand novel and well directed by Larry Parr, a man better known for producing.

10. THE LOCALS (2003) Another indulgent choice about which no objectivity can be claimed. More a ghost story and psychological horror than a splatter film, The Locals plays on big city fears about rural back roads and what happens down on the farm. A couple of Auckland lads get more than they bargain for when they travel to the Waikato for the weekend. Though it failed to find much of an audience in cinemas, The Locals did exceptionally well on video and DVD and now enjoys a solid fan base.

11. THE DEVIL DARED ME TO (2007) The Back of the Y had a cult, albeit brief following on television. It was a purposefully repetitive, mostly poorly scripted local variation on Jack Ass, both sending up and celebrating stunt and car culture. The Devil Dared Me To improbably shifted the characters and basic scenario to the big screen, fleshing out a back-story with genuine wit and black as shoot humour. New Zealand cinema had not seen anything as funny since the early days of Peter Jackson.

MOVIE GUIDE *THE RATINGS ARE BY REVIEW SITE ROTTEN TOMATOES UNLESS INDICATED. ROTTEN TOMATOES TAKES ALL AVAILABLE REVIEWS AND COMPILES A RELIABLE AGGREGATE RATING.

ARTHOUSE

13 MINUTES – 59% approval 5 FLIGHTS UP – 52% approval A WALK IN THE WOODS – 45% approval Assassination – 86% approval DOPE – 87% approval FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD – 84% approval HOLDING THE MAN – 93% approval IRRATIONAL MAN – 42% approval KATTI BATTI – 4.5/10 stars IMDB LAST CAB TO DARWIN – 7.6/10 stars IMDB LEARNING TO DRIVE – 67% approval LOVE & MERCY – 89% approval MADAME BOVARY – 42% approval MARSHLAND – 87% approval OFFICE – 89% approval PEOPLE PLACES THINGS – 73% approval TANGERINE – 95% approval THE BEAUTY INSIDE – 75% approval THE GUEST – 90% approval THE TRIBE – 87% approval WAR ROOM – 37% approval BLOCKBUSTER

A LITTLE CHAOS – 40% approval ANT-MAN – 80% approval BIG GAME: OWN IT NOW – 75% approval BOYCHOIR – 52% approval EVEREST – 73% approval FANTASTIC FOUR – 9% approval HITMAN: AGENT 47 – 7% approval JURASSIC WORLD – 71% approval MAN UP – 81% approval

MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS – 50% approval ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL – 81% approval MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – ROGUE NATION – 92% approval MR. HOLMES – 87% approval PAPER TOWNS – 55% approval RICKI AND THE FLASH – 64% approval SHE’S FUNNY THAT WAY – 38% approval SICARIO – 88% approval SOUTHPAW – 59% approval STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON – 90% approval THE MEN FROM U.N.C.L.E. – 7.6/10 stars IMDB THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED – 16% approval TRAINWRECK – 85% approval VACATION – 27% approval WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS – 42% approval FAMILY

INSIDE OUT – 98% approval MINIONS – 54% approval PETER PAN – 75% approval DOCUMENTARY

IRIS – 97% approval SUNSHINE SUPERMAN – 90% approval AMY – 97% approval WALKING THE CAMINO: SIX WAYS TO SANTIAGO – 88% approval THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES – 71% approval NOBLE – 86% approval DAVID BOWIE IS – 64% approval BANKSY DOES NEW YORK – 100% approval THE WOLFPACK – 84% approval EVER THE LAND - Rip It Up 5/5 stars WOMEN HE’S UNDRESSED – 7.4/10 stars IMDB

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THE BOX ANDREW JOHNSTONE BRINGS YOUR ATTENTION TO A VARIETY OF TELEVISUAL DELIGHTS. The internet, subscripion streaming and ‘TV on demand’ has revolutionised the way we watch TV shows. No longer beholden to television networks and their programming whims and scheduling, we can watch back-to-back episodes of new and old shows to our heart’s content, and without those annoying ads interrupting the narrative flow. TV viewing has suddenly become more accessible, democratic and a hell of a lot more fun.

MR ROBOT (2015)

WAYWARD PINES (2015) A government agent who knows too much announces his decision to retire from the service. Next thing, he wakes up in a perplexing situation, one that defies his every attempt to understand. The show was called The Prisoner and ran for 17 episodes on British TV between ’67 and ‘68. It has since become a cult phenomenon, enthralling and influencing generations with its strange otherworldliness and surreal expositions. Baffling, balmy and elusive, The Prisoner has not met its match, not even closely, until recently. Wayward Pines is not The Prisoner, but it shares many of the same characteristics.

This time the Government agent is sent in search of two missing colleagues, there is a car crash and Matt Dillon wakes up, as Patrick McGoohan did some 50 years before him, in a confounding mystery. Wayward

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Pines appears to be the picture perfect all-American town, but as Dillon’s character Ethan Burke soon discovers, nothing is as it seems and the deeper he delves, the stranger the mystery becomes.

What is the truth? Well, according to the town’s sheriff, the creepy Arnold Pope (Terrence Howard), it’s beyond anything he could possibly imagine. Wayward Pines is a project partially helmed by M. Night Shyamalan, the guy who makes those strange esoteric thrillers like Unbreakable, The Sixth Sense and The Village, and walking into Wayward Pines is like entering a long form version of one of these intensely atmospheric films; and like those films, the plot twists are startling, especially the final one, a narrative manoeuvre so bold it left this viewer shaken and somewhat upset. Like The Prisoner, Wayward Pines is a limited edition series and is by any account close to perfect.

Elliot Alderson suffers from an acute anxiety disorder and selfmedicates with morphine. He is also a master computer hacker who is involved in a scheme to bring down a conglomerate called E-Corp, or as he refers to them Evil Corp. E-Corp holds some 75 percent of the world’s personal debt in its systems and Elliot’s goal is to wipe that debt and free people from the bondage of debt slavery. Obviously inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement, Mr Robot sets out to examine both the movement and the money system it opposed, and while the show is somewhat sympathetic to the movement’s sensibilities, the writers never shy from the central problem: heartfelt though that revolution was, it offered no solid solutions to the excesses of Capitalism and the way we create and utilise money. Yes, the scheme Elliot finds himself caught up in is an elegant one, but one without a vision beyond collapsing the system of money creation and management. The other major

narrative thread is a visceral examination of the psychopathic nature of corporations and the people that run them. Much in the news of late, this realisation that psychopathy is a major force at play in the business world is beautifully played out in the series. The first thing that the viewer must understand about this show is that nothing is as it seems. We are seeing the world through Elliot’s lens and Elliot may or may not be insane (he is certainly delusional), and on this note it must be said that Mr Robot is not for the faint of heart. In fact, it’s a complex and difficult narrative experiment that requires much concentration on the part of the viewer. Is it entertaining? Hard to say, it is certainly provocative and leaves one with ample food for thought.

It also successfully feeds the ongoing debate about Capitalism and its worst tendencies. Rather than entertaining, Mr Robot is important and essential viewing for anyone concerned with the current direction of Western style democratic society. I am looking forward to season two.

ATTRACTION GUIDE

HOBBIT MOVIE TOURS 501 BUCKLAND ROAD, HINUERA, MATAMATA MATAMATA

Small men with hairy feet trippin’ balls with elves and dwarves – it’s the Hobbiton Movie Set, and it has transformed the once humble farmland economy of Matamata into a cold hard Hollywood dolla pumpin’ machine.

Trek through the picturesque movie sets in a fascinating two-hour guided tour. Always wanted to crawl into a Hobbit Hole.

KELLY TARLTONS 23 TAMAKI DRIVE, ORAKEI AUCKLAND

Parents, if you’ve got a car full of kids and Mission Bay seems too much of a mission, pull in to Tarlton’s on Tamaki and let your wee ones run free in a marine haven. You can get a coffee at the cafe, they look at fish and shit – done deal. Kelly Tarlton’s is it.

NEW ZEALAND CRICKET MUSEUM 2 RUGBY STREET, MOUNT COOK

BLASTACARS DRIFT KARTS

WELLINGTON

83 THE CONCOURSE, HENDERSON

If watching cricket doesn’t make your day incredibly long-winded and slow enough, head along to the NZ Cricket Museum… where time stands still.

But in all seriousness, there is some fascinating memorabilia here, including old pictures, uniforms, records and stats, and incredibly detailed documents surrounding the history of our second most popular sport. Feeling sleepy yet?

AUCKLAND

A 220-metre indoor track, BBQ area, arcade games?! All the fun you’ll ever need is here at Blastacars Drift Karts. Get yo drift on against a group of mates rain or shine – this is an indoor track – and make a day of it. Just a 15-minute drive from the CBD over at The Concourse, Henderson.

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E ATING

ANDREW JOHNSTONE

fried until golden and crispy. So big are they that one can almost imagine them as great big sides of deep-fried battered fish. The potato inside is soft and the grease pours down your chin. What more can you say? The onion rings are the same deal: humongous, crispy and devilishly moreish.

Whenever I pass through this town the Queen Vic is an essential destination and the six people manning the fryers and the mass of seated patrons flicking through the generous selection of magazines on offer as they wait for their orders attest to the quality of the food, which includes homemade burgers, cheesecake and mushy peas. Yep, this place is the real deal, a proper old school fish and chip shop.

ODETTE’S EATERY CITY WORKS DEPOT, 90 WELLESLEY ST, AUCKLAND

The City Works Depot, formerly home of the city’s infrastructure team, is a collection of eateries, bars and a brewery scattered across a former industrial site with one tremendous asset, parking and lots of it, all without pesky meters. I discovered Odette’s when I turned up to interview local musician Eden Mulholland recently. The coffee was nothing out of the ordinary, but Eden’s plate of bacon and eggs looked pretty damned good, even to a dedicated vego. The bacon was streaky style and cooked crispy, the poached eggs were perfectly formed and the side of sourdough rye dripping in butter topped off a substantial looking feast. A couple of weeks later, my companion and I rocked up to try a couple of items from Odette’s extensive and rather eclectic menu, and one of the more interesting I have seen in recent times. We started with the coffee (still nothing special going on here) and followed it up with the Olive Pickle - olives in a sauce made from sweet peppers, walnuts and seasoned with cumin. This affair was accompanied by a generous piece of Lavosh. This thin and crunchy Middle Eastern bread was seriously tasty, but the best was yet to come. Yes, I’m talking fries: hand cut agria potatoes (that’s the yellow fleshed frying spud) sitting on a bed of rich mayonnaise. The fries were crispy on the outside and light and fluffy in the middle and sitting on a bed of mayo as they were, you could not escape the rich garlicky goodness that coated every chip. Odette’s is a beautifully appointed café/restaurant with particular attention to design details. The seating is especially comfortable, the music subtle, the staff attentive and the service fast. The whole effect is quite special, and I look forward visiting again.

THE QUEEN VIC CHIPPY 85 VICTORIA ST, CAMBRIDGE

The Queen Vic Chippy is across the road from the BP station on State Highway One as you drive into the town and is an essential destination for all connoisseurs of NZ’s favourite deep fried cuisine. Okay, I’m a vegetarian so I cannot comment on the fish (which is fresh and like everything else served up here, is made in house - none of that frozen battered stuff), but I can comment on the chips, potato fritters and onion rings. The chips are cooked to your liking, and I like them crispy, and not once have I been disappointed. As for the potato fritters, these babies are huge: big slices of fresh potato dipped in the Queen Vic’s secret batter and

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POPA’S PRETZELS 350 QUEEN ST, AUCKLAND

The street food scene in central Auckland is booming, and on this corner of Queen St is a virtual cornucopia of international styles that includes Popa’s Pretzels. Iulia and Narcis Popa migrated to NZ from Romania six years ago in search of fresh seafood. Iulia (a lab technician) and Narcis (an irrigation engineer) thought that NZ, being surrounded by ocean, would be the perfect destination for a family dedicated to the gastronomic delights of the sea. They weren’t wrong, but what they didn’t count on was the price.

Narcis: “We were quite shocked at how much fish costs here, it is cheaper to buy frozen NZ fish in Romania than it is to buy it fresh here.” Nevertheless, the couple have settled in and have built a thriving business around one of Romania’s favourite street foods, the humble pretzel, a type of baked bread product made from dough and shaped into a twisty knot. Iulia: “In Romania, a good pretzel maker will always have line of people waiting their turn to buy,” but “Kiwis won’t stand in line, and a line turns customers away.” A bit of a shame really because the wait is worth it. The pretzels here are not only sensational – delightfully crispy and salty - but are only the start of what’s on offer. The other house specialty is the Manakesh, a kind of Middle Eastern variant on the pizza with a sauce made from herbs and spices rather than tomato. On top of the sauce is layered spinach, a variety of cheeses, olives and peppers, and of course meat for the so inclined. Once the Manakesh comes out of the oven it is folded and cut in half. The result is comfort food of the first order and frankly, I could eat this all day, everyday.

Also on the menu is the Pretzel Pie, a Popa’s innovation that turns the traditional pie on its head. Using bread dough instead of pastry, the result is remarkably similar to what one would expect from pastry. The outside is crispy while the inside is soft and flaky without any of the fat that is the norm with a standard pie. Among the flavours is that old Kiwi favourite, mince and cheese as well as a number of vegetarian and vegan options.

The pretzel pie is a triumph: warm and nourishing, they are generously proportioned and keep one satiated for hours. If you want a pie without all the guilt, the Pretzel Pie is the perfect solution. I still haven’t fully explored Popa’s menu, but intend to do so as time, money and appetite allow.

BEER BEER IS HEALTH FOOD. True, well perhaps not if you are consuming a 12- pack over the course of an evening, but the odd glass can add some real benefit to your diet. The essential component of all beer is whole grain, usually barley, sometimes wheat and occasionally oats and rye. Malting is the process by which the natural sugars latent in the grain are activated (these sugars sustain the sprouting grain while it establishes itself in the soil in preparation for growing into an adult plant), and this malted grain is a rich source of B-vitamins and minerals, and depending on the quality of soil on which the grain is grown, beer can be an excellent source of the trace element selenium, rare in NZ soils and vital to heart health and the vigour of our immune systems. Hops, the main flavouring ingredient in beer, are the female flowers of the hop plant, and are a powerhouse of antioxidants and medically beneficial bio-chemicals.

Hops are used in brewing for an antibacterial effect that favours the activity of brewer’s yeast over less desirable microorganisms and for their flavour, which balances the sweetness of the malt with bitterness. The other main ingredient of beer is the yeast bacterium; a nifty little organism that turns the grain sugars into alcohol, and scientific research tells us that a little alcohol is good for our cardio-vascular system, brains and a rollicking good time. In the summer months I am partial to hoppy ale or larger, something light and refreshing with plenty of underlying oomph, but in the colder months my tastes orientate toward a maltier beer, a brew that is warm and comforting. With the cold weather in mind, this month I have been drinking a selection of malty beers and here is my verdict:

ANDREW JOHNSTONE

TUATARA PORTER Tuatara’s Porter is dominated by the rich floral hop style typical of their beer and sadly, to these taste buds, drowns out the malty complexity that is the hallmark of a decent Porter.

BOUNDARY ROAD PORTER

STOKE BREWERY OATMEAL STOUT

Porter is a hearty dark beer that was favoured by the porters who delivered goods around the narrow streets of London prior to mechanised transport. After the barley grains have been activated, or malted, they are dried and roasted, lightly for ales and lagers and darker for stouts and porter styles. Bold and nutritious, porter provided these hard-working men with the energy they need to sustain them through their hard days. Boundary Road’s Porter offers the drinker no surprises, not even a ‘nudge and a wink’.

Quite ordinary and for the price, better value can be found elsewhere.

Oats make for thick and hearty malt style that is slightly bitterer than your standard barley based brew. Stoke’s Oatmeal Stout is rich in complex malt tones and possesses just enough hops to remind you why you like beer in the first place. A superior and fortifying drink that keeps the cold at bay and goes nicely with a grilled cheese sandwich. Ah yes, comfort food, exactly what winter

HANCOCK AND CO BISMARCK BROWN ALE KROMBACHER DARK Krombacher is one of the biggest breweries in Germany and this brand can be purchased for a very reasonable price at your local Countdown. Price aside, Krombacher Dark is a modest easy drinking dark beer with no personality whatsoever. Better to spend another dollar or two and get something local and half decent.

STOKE DARK Stoke has produced a brew with plenty of malty complexity and with just enough hops to paint a decent picture. This brew looses a star because the six bottles came bound with those environmentally pesky plastic ties. Stoke, you should know better!

Hancock and Co have been brewing beer in Auckland since 1859 and produce a nice selection of well balanced beers, none more so than the Bismarck Brown Ale. This beer is all about the malt and possesses a rich undercurrent of everything you could expect from a malty beer: coffee, caramel, liquorice and more. This hearty brew is an ode to tradition and is the perfect defence against the chill ides of winter.

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JAMIE HISLOP

THIS MONTH IN SPORT A-LEAGUE Football fans rejoice – the A League is back in town. The Wellington Phoenix open their season on October 11th vs Newcastle Jets at the Cake Tin in what will be an interesting gauge of life without goal scoring freak, Nathan Burns. The Phoenix have had a relatively quiet off-season in terms of results after winning their first game of the FFA cup vs Central Coast Mariners 1-0 before going down in spectacular fashion to Melbourne City in the next round 5-1, and then completing their pre-season with a 2-2 against Fifa Club World cup success story Auckland City.

During the off-season following the loss of Burns, a new attacking midfielder, Jeffrey Sarpong, was recruited, and hopefully he’ll be able to link with former Ajax team mate Roly Bonevacia. But if the Capital-based team are going to find success it will rely on Roy Krishna recapturing some of his form from last year. Following their opening round match the Phoenix will go on the longest road trip in world sport (5255km) to play Perth Glory before returning home on October 24th for a game against Brisbane Roar. If the men in yellow can find anything close to the form they found last season they will be a force to be reckoned with.

ICONIC KIWI SATIRIST JOHN CLARKE OFFERS 5 REASONS WHY NEW ZEALAND HAS ALREADY WON THE RUGBY WORLD CUP * Reason Wales beat England.

The Welsh coach is from Hamilton. * Reason Japan beat South Africa. Michael Broadhurst is from Gisborne, Justin Ives is from Mosgiel, Michael Leitch and Luke Thompson are from Christchurch, Male Sa’u and Hendrick Tui are from Auckland and Karne

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Hesketh is from Napier. * Reason Australia beat Uruguay.

Quade Cooper is from Tokoroa. * Reason Ireland beat Canada.

Jared Payne is from Auckland and Nathan White is from Te Awamutu. * Reason you can’t count the French out. Uni Atonio is from Timaru. * Reason Scotland beat USA. John Hardie is from Lumsden and Sean Maitland is Quade Cooper’s cousin.

MORE NEWS AS IT COMES TO HAND.

RUGBY WORLD CUP We are now getting to the point end of the Rugby World Cup. The All Blacks have breezed through the group stages without much difficulty. Much has been made of whether their lack of quality opposition will hinder or help their ability to retain the Webb Ellis trophy. Given the men in black will top their pool they have set up a quarter final at the Millennium Stadium in Wales against the loser of the France vs Ireland game on the 12 October 12th. Given that they were

knocked out by France in 2007 and then beat France in the final of 2011, if that matchup was to occur it would have all the more meaning for both teams. On the other side of the draw, the Australia vs England game on October 4th & Australia vs Wales game on October 11th will be defining games for the tournament, given that they will ultimately decide which two teams are able to progress to the quarter finals from the pool of death. We are predicting an All Blacks win in the final on November 1st at Twickenham vs Australia.

ANBL The ANBL also tips off this month with the Breakers going for a fifth title in six years. In the off-season they have retained most of their star power with the likes of Tom Abercrombie and Cedric Jackson remaining in the squad, despite strong overseas interest. Their main losses being Rhys Carter, who was let go to return to his homeland, and Corey Webster, who has headed off to the NBA. In the opening month of the competition the Breakers will play a brace of games at Vector Arena as well as one game at their traditional home of the North Shore Events Centre.

An early season game against the Perth Wildcats in Perth on October 16th will be a good early gauge of where the team’s at. However, the experience that the team have that has seen them win four of the last five titles should see them through the first month of the competition near the top of the table.

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE In October the EPL will kick into gear with a number of key fixtures coming after the international break, including Liverpool vs Tottenham and Manchester United vs Everton. This season is shaping up to be as good as any with Manchester United finding

some early success and last season’s champions, Chelsea, starting particularly poorly by their standards after losses at Everton & Crystal Palace. Given we are still very early in the season, teams’ current positions in the table are little gauge for where they will end up come May; however, there is little to split the top teams early. With Liverpool having an indifferent start to their season there is also increasing pressure on their manager, Brendon Rodgers, which means the month of October could be his last if he is unable to pick up the results,

which have seen them lose to rivals Manchester United as well as West Ham. However, they will be bolstered by the return of Daniel Sturridge who may just save Rodgers if he is at his goal-scoring best. Early surprise packets West Ham have managed to beat City, Liverpool & Arsenal early on, so interest will be high as to whether they can continue their giant killing ways with fixtures against Chelsea, Everton and Spurs over the next couple of months. This month will be a cracker for fans of the round ball game.

SPORT LISTINGS NZ BREAKERS Sun 11 Oct Vector Arena, Auckland, Vs Townsville Crocs Wed 21 Oct North Shore Events Centre, Auckland, Vs Sydney Kings Wed 28 Oct Vector Arena, Auckland, Vs Cairns Taipans

JOSEPH PARKER VS KALI MEEHAN Thu 15 Oct Trusts Arena, Auckland

SILVER FERNS VS AUSTRALIA Tue 20 Oct Horncastle Arena, Christchurch Thu 22 Oct Vector Arena, Auckland

WELLINGTON PHOENIX Sun 11 Oct Westpac Stadium, Wellington, Vs Newcastle Jets Sat 24 Oct Westpac Stadium, Wellington, vs Brisbane Roar FUTURE EVENTS

AUCKLAND ACES Sun 15 Nov Eden Park, Auckland Vs Central Stags Wed 18 Nov Eden Park, Auckland Vs Canterbury Kings Sun 22 Nov Eden Park, Auckland Vs Otago Vaults Sun 06 Dec Eden Park, Auckland Vs Wellington Firebirds

AUCKLAND MARATHON Sun 01 Nov Viaduct Events Centre, Auckland

AUCKLAND V8 SUPERCARS Fri 06 - Sun 08 Nov Pukekohe Park Raceway, Auckland

BLACKCAPS Fri 18 - Tue 22 Dec Seddon Park, Hamilton, Test Vs Sri Lanka Sun 10 Jan Eden Park, Auckland, ODI Vs Sri Lanka Fri 15 Jan Eden Park, Auckland, ODI Vs Pakistan Sun 17 Jan Seddon Park, Hamilton, 20/20 Vs Pakistan Fri 22 Jan Westpac Stadium, Wellington, 20/20 Vs Pakistan Mon 25 Jan Basin Reserve, Wellington, ODI Vs Pakistan Sun 31 Jan Eden Park, Auckland, ODI Vs Pakistan Wed 03 Feb Eden Park, Auckland, ODI Vs Australia Sat 06 Feb Westpac Stadium, Wellington, ODI Vs Australia Mon 08 Feb Seddon Park, Hamilton, ODI Vs Australia Fri 12 - Tue 16 Feb Basin Reserve, Wellington, Test Vs Australia

HIGHLANDS 101 Fri 13 - Sun 15 Nov Highlands Motorsport Park, Cromwell

KARAKA MILLION Sun 24 Jan Ellerslie Racecourse, Auckland

NORTHERN KNIGHTS Fri 06 Nov Seddon Park, Hamilton Vs Canterbury Kings Thu 12 Nov Seddon Park, Hamilton Vs Wellington Firebirds Fri 20 Nov Seddon Park, Hamilton Vs Auckland Aces

Thu 26 Nov Seddon Park, Hamilton Vs Central Stags Sat 05 Dec Seddon Park, Hamilton Vs Auckland Aces

NRL AUCKLAND NINES Sat 06 - Sun 07 Feb Eden Park, Auckland

NZ BREAKERS Thu 05 Nov North Shore Events Centre, Auckland, Vs Adelaide 36ers Fri 13 Nov Vector Arena, Auckland, Vs Perth Wildcats Sun 22 Nov Vector Arena, Auckland, Vs Melbourne United Wed 02 Dec North Shore Events Centre, Auckland, Vs Perth Wildcats Fri 11 Dec Vector Arena, Auckland, Vs Sydney Kings Sun 20 Dec Vector Arena, Auckland, Vs Illawarra Hawks Fri 08 Dec North Shore Events Centre, Auckland, Vs Adelaide 36Ers Sun 17 Jan Vector Arena, Auckland, Vs Illawarra Hawks Fri 29 Jan Vector Arena, Auckland, Vs Townsville Crocodiles Sun 07 Feb North Shore Events Centre, Auckland, Vs Cairns Taipans Fri 12 Feb North Shore Events Centre, Auckland, Vs Melbourne United

SOUTHERN BOWL: AMERICAN FOOTBALL

Wellington

WELLINGTON FIREBIRDS Sun 22 Nov Basin Reserve, Wellington Vs Northern Knights Wed 25 Nov Basin Reserve, Wellington Vs Otago Vaults Sun 29 Nov Basin Reserve, Wellington Vs Auckland Aces Wed 02 Dec Basin Reserve, Wellington Vs Canterbury Kings

WELLINGTON PHOENIX Fri 13 Nov Westpac Stadium, Wellington, Vs Adelaide United Sat 05 Dec QBE Stadium, Auckland Vs Melbourne Victory Sat 19 Dec Westpac Stadium, Wellington, Vs Sydney Fc Sun 10 Jan Westpac Stadium, Wellington, Vs Brisbane Roar Sat 30 Jan AMI Stadium, Christchurch, Vs Central Coast Mariners Sun 07 Feb Westpac Stadium, Wellington, Vs Perth Glory Fri 26 Feb Westpac Stadium, Wellington, Vs Melbourne City Sat 05 Mar Westpac Stadium, Wellington, Vs Adelaide United Sun 20 Mar Westpac Stadium, Wellington, Vs Perth Glory Sat 02 Apr Westpac Stadium, Wellington, Vs Melbourne Victory Sun 10 Apr Westpac Stadium, Wellington, Vs Western Sydney Wanderers

Sat 05 Mar Eden Park, Auckland Sat 12 Mar Westpac Stadium,

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RIP IT UP RECOMMENDED

SOUTHERN FORK AMERICANA FEST WE ARE TRULY stoked to welcome the Americana Southern Fork Festival to the cosy but crazy confines of the Tuning Fork. Starting on Saturday the 10th, the festival features 16 premier Americana and folk acts over six steamy October nights, concluding on Saturday the 31st.

And whoa, mama, there’s some quality involved. Along with our own Kiwi stars, some of the world’s best ragtag folk n’ rollers will make the trek to Auckland for a day of knees up, suspenders down, beer on the ground good timin’. Skyscraper Stan, Wagons, Jamestown Revival, Dawes, The Broken Heartbreakers and waaay more are giving up those oaky bits of ragtag goodness for the gig-going public. Tickets are flyin’ out, so be sure you catch this amazing line-up while you still can. To give you the folkin’ 411, here’s a little feature on this year’s Americana Southern Folk Festival line-up.

SKYSCRAPER STAN & THE COMMISSION FLATS WITH BRENDAN & ALISON TURNER, DEAD LITTLE PENNY & THE MILTONES TUNING FORK AUCKLAND 7PM, $35, TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ SAT 10 OCT

Skyscraper Stan is bound to jolt the crowd into life with a dynamic performance, fresh from Melbs. With new backing band The Commission Flats, we’re sure to see some jaw dropping musicianship and some slightly sick surly dance moves.

Supported by some of NZ’s finest folkster talents, including

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Dead Little Penny (Goodshirt’s Rodney Fisher, Hayley Smith) The Miltones and Brendan and Alison Turner, this is one hell of an opening ceremony.

WAGONS WITH TOM CUNLIFFE & BAND TUNING FORK

Revival, they are graciously gifting some gritty, bare bones soul to the festival, having just released a small masterpiece in their album UTAH. Special guests Devilish Mary and the Holy Rollers, a South Island three-piece, will bring the swing as openers.

AUCKLAND

DAWES & THE BADS TUNING FORK

7PM, $35, TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ

AUCKLAND

SAT 17 OCT

7PM, $49, TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ

An off-the-hinge slab of Aussie punk ruggedness mixed with the prime rollick of Americana, Wagons are bound to bring the authentic goods to the Fork. The brainchild of energetic singer songwriter Henry Wagons, the band’s sixth album Acid Rain and Sugar Cane manages to cement their multi-layered, majestic prime on wax. With support from corky crooner Tom Cunliffe.

THU 22 OCT

Dawes are making some big ol’ waves abroad of their native California, and being the festival’s big draw-card, they’ll live up to the hype no sweat. Influenced by Neil Young, The Band and Joni Mitchell, new album All Your Favourite Bands is an astonishing collection of tracks bold, pensive, hymn-like and most importantly, made to be played live. And loud.

With support from local country legends and ex- expats, The Bads, witness the Goldsmith brothers in all of their joyous glory.

JAMESTOWN REVIVAL WITH DEVILISH MARY AND THE HOLY ROLLERS TUNING FORK AUCKLAND $45, 7PM, TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ SUN 18 OCT

Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance have always shared a love for the country rock greats – your Cash, Creedence, Clark; not to mention a good ol’ bit of Willie. As the Austin-based duo Jamestown

KIWI COUNTRY PIONEERS – DONNA DEAN, AARON CARPENTER & THE REVELATORS & GREG FLEMING TUNING FORK AUCKLAND 7PM, $25, TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ THU 29 OCT

A very special night indeed, The Kiwi Country Pioneers, featuring three of NZ’s most respected, critically revered country artists, will show us how it really gets done. With the first lady of Kiwi country, the award winning Donna Dean, razor sharp travellin’ bluesman Greg Fleming, and next big thing Aaron Carpenter and his band The Revelators, the Pioneers will treat us to some old favourites and new gems in a dazzling display of local talent.

THE BROKEN HEARTBREAKERS WITH REB FOUNTAIN & STEVE ABEL TUNING FORK AUCKLAND 7PM, $25, TICKETMASTER.CO.NZ SAT 31 OCT

Since 2002, the Broken Heartbreakers – Rachel Bailey, John Guy Howell and drummer Jeff Harford – have been tugging at heartstrings, mystifying eyeballs and all the while writing shiny lil’ nuggets of west coast country pop. Touring the world with a penchant for beautiful melody and eclectic instrumentation, the BHBs will be playing songs from their new album How We Got to Now as well as some fave oldies. Special guests for this show are sassy Southern Californian kiwi Reb Fountain and Steve Abel. An embarrassment of riches here!

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