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28 FEBRUARY 2012 #024 HERE WE GO AGAIN, IT’S ROOTS MANUVA THE SAGA OF ROKY ERIKSON TALKING HEADS – GHOST WAVE MEETS RAINBOWMONKEY

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28 FEBRUARY 2012 #024

HERE WE GO AGAIN, IT’S ROOTS MANUVA

THE SAGA OF ROKY ERIKSON

TALKING HEADS – GHOST WAVE MEETS RAINBOWMONKEY

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THERE WAS THAT time at Manchester Airport when I was served with a strip-search notice – until the customs officer grilling me established that she belonged to the same yacht club as my aunt and uncle (a yacht club in Manchester – seriously), and my cavity was offered an 11th hour reprieve. And if I had a dollar for every time I was

taken aside and my luggage turned inside-out at border control, I’d be flush with Pringles and VB money for those Jetstar flights I keep swearing off.

That’s why when I turned up at the US consulate in Auckland last week with Hugh – both of us unshaven – the “arrange the meeting” T-shirt of the ex-Marine in front of us didn’t bode well for the meeting we’d arranged. But once we made it past a wall of security armed with passports, paperwork for days, and God on our side, there was the simple matter of fingerprinting, some questions about our employment history, and then – with framed photographs of Barack and Hillary looking on – our journalist visas were approved.

That means that after we sign off on next week’s VOLUME, we’re Texas-bound. Destination: SXSW.

I don’t have a great track record with customs officials and consulates. I always promise myself I’ll shave before I front up, and I swear I don’t look too shifty, but despite a crime-free past I’ve got a long history of being singled out for interrogation about my travel plans.

Facebook.com/volumemag @__volume__

EDITOR: Sam [email protected]

WEB EDITOR: Hugh [email protected]

DEPARTMENT OF VOLUME SALES: John [email protected]

DESIGN: Xanthe Williams

WRITERS: Gavin Bertram, Dean Cameron, David Carroll, Marty Duda, Duncan Greive, Jessica Hansell, Joe Nunweek, Hugh Sundae, Aaron Yap, Luke Yeoward

ILLUSTRATION: Mitch Marks

PHOTOGRAPHERS: Ted Baghurst, Jonathan Ganley, Georgia Schofield

AN APN PUBLICATION

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How does it feel to be travelling to the US to open for Guitar Wolf? It feels awesome! We loved travelling around New Zealand with these guys so to be doing it on a much bigger scale can only be a recipe for a good time. It’s going to be hard work keeping up with their work rate though – they won’t accept less than 1000 per cent at all times.

Who will be doing all the driving? We will (hopefully) all be driving. I say hopefully because I am sitting my full licence test tomorrow and if I fail then you can strike me off that list. Colin drives like a dad, so he is always a safe option, and James is the only one of us who has been to the States before (when he was 10) so I hope he was picking up driving tips.

What fitness regimes have you been going through in preparation? Guitar Wolf seem to possess the strength of 10 men, so we have had to prepare ourselves physically for battle. I have been taking Rocky’s cue and getting pretty sharp with a skipping rope. James has been spending long hours on a cross trainer, and Colin is actively trying to put on weight so that he may have some to lose.

I hear you’re keen on visiting Minneapolis. You guys fans of His Royal Badness?Who wouldn’t be keen to visit the birthplace of Prince? We are also big fans of the ’70s and ’80s music scene in Minneapolis that includes bands like The Replacements, Suicide Commandos and Hüsker Du, so to visit some famous sites will be a boon. James has already mapped out the route to the ‘Let it Be’ house.

Queen or Cream?Only one of those bands had Eric Clapton in it, so the answer is obvious. Queen.

Rangiora’s finest power-pop trio The Transistors are heading Stateside to play 30-something dates that will see them start in Nashville and circulate anti-clockwise to New York, Des Moines, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and back across to Memphis.

DEAN CAMERON – PPNZ DISTRIBUTION & MEMBER SERVICES MANAGERPPNZ Music Licensing (PPNZ) is a not-for-profit music licensing company established to obtain fair compensation for recording artists and record labels for their public performance rights. Representing many thousands of artists and record companies both locally and internationally, PPNZ licenses recorded music for public performance, broadcast and new media/online communication. That’s where the money comes in; my job is to manage the distribution of these funds to the local recording artists and record labels within New Zealand. For local recording artists and labels this is done via the RAP Fund (Recording, Artist, Producer fund) – recording artists and labels register directly in order to

collect broadcast income of their recordings. Education is also a big thing for us – getting more knowledge to artists. Copyright is pretty complicated so part of my job is getting out and contacting local artists, talking at seminars and so on, basically letting people know what we do.

Queens New York hardcore punk outfi t Sick of It All return to New Zealand in May with Agnostic Front in tow – read Dean Cameron’s History Made about one of Sick of It All’s 1995 shows in this week’s issue. We’ve got two double-passes to be won to their Kings Arms show on Wednesday 2 May – for a chance to win, email [email protected] and let us know the name of the local musician who went on to join Sick’s of It All’s road crew after their ’95 tour.

OLLY CRAWFORD-ELLIS– THE TRANSISTORS

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SEND ME A POSTCARDKing Cannons’ Shoot to Kill tour takes them to Auckland’s Kings Arms on Friday 30 March and Wellington’s San Francisco Bath House on Saturday 31 March. Tickets available from Dash Tickets, Real Groovy and Rough Peel Records.

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HERE IN NEW Zealand, you would think we’d be more inclined to be accepting of some good old-fashioned shitfaced behaviour on the box, but since the 1987 television awards we don’t get the chance. That drunken affair – the Goftas – saw hosts and recipients get so rat-faced it made the Wellington Sevens look like Parachute Festival. Ever since, awards ceremonies either have delayed coverage or they don’t open the bar until it’s over.

Perhaps faux pas are on the way back. If MasterChef New Zealand’s Ray McVinnie can eat a falafel and pronounce in primetime “if that’s what they’re serving in the Middle East I can see why there is so much unrest” then it can’t be too long until Mike

King makes it into Parliament. “YOU HAVE FUCKED WITH THE WRONG PERSON, MISTER SPEAKER!”

But forget awards, forget television – I’ve discovered that if you want a drunken interruption you should just go to the movies. At a 2010 media

screening of Predicament, one punter was so unimpressed with the onscreen offering he started telling us – in a small theatrette – all about it. It was about 25 minutes in when he started by telling us the film really didn’t live up to the book, but after a few minutes

he changed tack and explained that critics didn’t have enough sex. “But do you really fuck?” He was escorted from the cinema by plainclothes critics. I wish you’d been there. Don’t worry though – I recorded most of it. Search “media screening meltdown” on nzherald.co.nz – I gave him five stars.

Surely that was a one-off? I thought so, until I had the pleasure of attending the Auckland screening of Netherwood, a fully-independent local feature film made with blood, sweat and bourbon. A good film with a good story, and stand-out performances from Owen Black and Mick Innes (Innes will also turn heads in a new TV3 comedy out later this year – Hounds).

The thing is, I’ll have to go and watch it again so I can hear the dialogue. When some drunk woman started harping on I think the audience all just thought she was a proud friend of the crew supporting her mates. But it wasn’t long before she was drowning out every second scene, complete with sound effects and previews of what we could expect in the next scene. Then someone from the crew called out “shut up, Miriama!” “Surely not the Miriama Smith who was the female lead?” I thought to myself.

Then I noticed a pattern. The offender kept quiet whenever Miriama Smith was on screen. Busted. Maybe there is a new candidate to host this year’s Television Awards…

“YOU HAVE FUCKED WITH THE WRONG PERSON, MISTER SPEAKER!”

MEDIA SCREENING MELDOWN…I hope there is a good inappropriate joke at the Oscars. Better yet a drunken meltdown. With Ricky Gervais not offending all and sundry as much as we would have liked at the Golden Globes this year there’s room for ye olde faithful Billy Crystal to drop some sort of letter bomb. C, perhaps.

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presents

Beck’s has a long involvement with art and music. Now they’ve worked with local artists and up-and-coming designers to create special labels inspired by musicians, and the limited edition bottles available in bars and specially marked packs are the result of this project. For Talking Heads, Beck’s collaborators Markus Hofko aka Rainbowmonkey and Ghost Wave’s Matt Paul and Eammon Logan talked about their partnership.

MATT PAUL: I think the fi rst time I heard about the collaboration was probably in an email from [Arch Hill Records’] Ben Howe.

It was just like, ‘Hey, these dudes might be interested in working with you’, and outlined the general gist of things. We had already recorded the song

and released it, so it was a pleasant surprise. There were seven songs that it could have potentially been, but it was ‘Hippy’.

MARKUS HOFKO: Was it a drinking song?

MP: I guess it suits having a beer to!

MH: The brief sounded fabulous to a visual artist; just visualise some music. That’s a pretty open brief – you can’t do anything wrong. First off, that

sounds like, yup, cool – I’m in. But then, if you take it seriously, it might not

be that easy if you want to be true to the music. What does this really represent? You can probably spend some time on that.

EAMMON LOGAN: That was one of the exciting things about us waiting to find out about what the label would look like. Everybody is going to interpret your music differently, so seeing someone’s personal response to the track is really cool. It was pretty exciting to see what they would look like.

MH: You liked the labels?

EL: Yeah, totally.

MP: We got this email that said, ‘Don’t share this with anyone ’cause it’s not finalised yet, but here’s a sneak preview’. We were a bit out of our element because like, wow, someone’s done something in response to your jam.

MH: I think it was one of the first songs I received, and that song has already got a music video, right?

EL: Yeah, Ben Howe made a video for us during some time off that he had.

MH: So that already gave me a visual introduction, and I just copied that! [laughs]. I mean, it’s got an identical approach, the music video – there’s a lot of cuts, there’s lots of movement, more of a general vibe rather than something that is really clear, and the music is a bit like that – in the end that was my approach as well. Rather than anally putting things together, the design came together in a few seconds. I was like, ‘Yup, I think this is the song’. It’s basically just a piece of chalk – black, white and a few bits of blue – and I just scratched it on black cardboard, which represented the scratchy guitar going all the way through the song. I had this idea of speed, and in the end it looked almost like a universe sort of thing.

“The brief sounded fabulous to a visual artist; just visualise some music.”– MARKUS HOFKO

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presentspresentspresents

MP: Yeah, that’s what we thought it was. I was definitely surprised when you told us it was chalk. But even on that point of getting this piece of chalk and coming up with it really quick and having it done within a second, I think that’s almost something that we strive for with music. We don’t want to work too hard or intellectualise what we’re doing too much. We’re waiting for those moments when the chalk hits the ground, and you’re just like, ‘Sweet!’

MH: And in this regard I really enjoyed the project because this is usually completely not how I work – usually I spend ages refining things and doing lots of digital work, so this was the opposite. I started off on the computer but I quickly realised this is not the way to go with this. It’s basically when you listen to a song and you close your eyes, you probably wouldn’t see concrete things.

MP: Yeah, it’s a little more abstract.

MH: Yeah, so that was the approach for all three images for me in the end, almost working with your eyes half-closed and listening to the song.

MP: It’s almost the eyes-closed technique when you’re doing recording, and then you’ve got to sit back and make sure it all sounds like it should, but not working at it on the computer and making sure all the edits are 100 per cent. It’s more having the flow.

MH: Maybe there was chance involved as well – sometimes it just works out.

MP: Yeah, it actually seems like the approach that you took with the artwork almost coincides with the approach we took with the song on different levels – thought processing and actual product. Most of our songs are based around

pretty simple chord structure, but then it’s like: what are you actually going to do with that simple motif? I definitely believe that the simplest stuff is the stuff that actually comes through a little clearer in terms of the image or whatever.

MH: Yeah, in all regards.

EL: Yeah, I think all of the art opened up my thoughts to what other people – not even the artists necessarily – were thinking when they listened to the song or how it might come across. MH: I’d be curious to see the bands doing a song based on the visuals.

EL: Yeah, totally – that would be cool to do.

To listen to the audio of Ghost Wave and Markus Hofko in conversation, head to nzherald.co.nz/volume – live from 2pm Tuesday.

Markus Hofko is online at rainbowmonkey.de and Ghost Wave is at facebook.com/ghostwave.

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The word “legendary” gets bandied about pretty loosely these days. But it definitely applies to Roky Erickson, whose mind-bending music with The 13th Floor Elevators in the 1960s stands up as some of the most exciting and adventurous music of the era – but his long strange trip was far from over when The Elevators came unstuck.Text Marty Duda

ROKY ERICKSON IS from Texas, not the most enlightened state in the Union, then, or now. He was busted for possession of one joint and eventually committed to the Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane where he was forced to undergo electroshock therapy.

By the time Erickson was released in 1972, he was a shell of his former self. Even then, he began making music again. His songs were inhabited with two-headed dogs, zombies, aliens and alligators in the sewers. Musically, he had turned up his guitar, unleashing a proto-punk sound that still resonates today.

The 1980s were a washout for Erickson, his brain giving way to the demons and voices in his head. It looked like he was doomed to become one of rock’s great lost souls alongside Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett and The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson.

Things started to turn around for Erickson over the last 15 years or so. His brother helped sort out his medical and legal problems and he began making music again. A feature length documentary, You’re Gonna Miss Me, was produced in 2005 and two years later a book on The 13th Floor Elevators was published. Erikson began gigging around his hometown of Austin, Texas, and in 2010 he released a new album, True Love Cast Out All Evil, with assistance from Austin band Okkervil River.

That’s a lot of history. Which makes it seem all the more remarkable to learn that Erickson will play a date in Auckland at the Kings Arms. With some trepidation, I placed a call to Erickson’s home in Austin, spoke briefly with his wife, and then, there he was, greeting me with a strong Texas twang. It was

a holiday in the US and Erickson and his wife were relaxing, contemplating cooking up a barbeque.

“Just taking it easy. We got a new George Forman grill. They’re pretty weird, we love it.”

Talking with Erickson proved to be something of an adventure. Sometimes his answers didn’t necessarily correlate with my questions. And he has a habit of ending each sentence with “you know”, which was rather endearing. When I called he was watching TV. I asked what

was on and this was our exchange:ROKY ERIKSON: “Just lots of

cartoons. Right now I’m watching cartoons and everything, you know.”

“What’s your favourite?”“Well, I like Bugs Bunny a lot, and I

like Scooby-Doo. And I’m drinkin’ water right now – water with ice in it – yeah.”

When asked if he enjoys playing his music from his days with The Elevators, Erikson responded with: “Yeah, I study it. I always asked them where they got their stuff, The Elevators, and apparently they read the Bible and would write songs about the words that they would discover in the Bible, you know.”

He was happy to recount the time he and The Elevators appeared on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand in 1967 to perform ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me’.

“We did one song there, that’s all we’d ever do is one song, you know. Seems like we’d do more, but we just did the one. We said, ‘Hey, Mr Clark, would you ask us who the head of the band is?’ Then Tommy Hall [Elevators’ jug player] got up and said, ‘We’re all heads!’ Very strange.”

I was curious to find out if Erickson was familiar with Pink Floyd’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn since he has been compared so often to the Floyd’s Syd Barrett.

“No, I’ve never heard of Pink Floyd. I’d like to be introduced to his music some. You like him? Is he pretty good?”

I assured him that the first Pink Floyd album was impressive and moved on to asking him about the songs he wrote after his release from hospital in the 1970s.

“Oh, mostly just writing about things that I had studied in school. Reading about people like this janitor who went up in the attic and he’d make the sound of a hammer and people would wonder about him and everything. They wrote a story about him. Kinda strange, you know. He was a benevolent creature. One you could talk to and get to know.”

When asked if he was aware of his legacy, he answered with an appropriately psychedelic-tinged answer.

“I just have to rely on my friends and acquaintances and find out more and more about being attuned to different vibrations that have happened that are good. I’ve been having a good time, I know that.”

Roky Erikson plays The Powerstation in Auckland on Wednesday 7 March.

“I like Bugs Bunny a lot, and I like Scooby-Doo. And I’m drinkin’ water right now – water with ice in it.”

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SINGLE OF THE WEEK

RIANZ TOP 10 NEW ZEALAND SINGLES CHART1 Katy Perry – ‘Part of Me’

2 Reece Mastin – ‘Good Night’

3 Flo Rida ft. Sia – ‘Wild Ones’

4 Train – ‘Drive By’

5 David Guetta ft. Nicki Minaj – ‘Turn Me On’

6 Annah Mac – ‘Girl in Stilettos’

7 Whitney Houston – ‘I Will Always Love You’

8 Ed Sheeran – ‘Lego House’

9 Chris Brown – ‘Turn Up the Music’

10 David Guetta ft. Sia – ‘Titanium’

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

Adele

ONE DIRECTION – ‘I Should Have Kissed You’From the first chords I was sold. like our ‘Enter Sandman’”. The cool thing about One Direction is that they know what they’re about sound-wise. Their whole sonic universe is contained within the first few

seconds of the chorus of ‘Since U Been Gone’, and as much as Avril, The Veronicas and many others have been to that well there seems plenty more of value down there. So sure, this is music by middle-aged men puppeteering some teenagers, but it’s extremely well put together, hooky as hell, and just makes you want to brush the shit out of your hair, metaphorically speaking.

JUPITER PROJECT – ‘Catch Me’A New Zealand act I know nothing about (the link is unlisted, and was forwarded me by Hussein Moses at thecorner.co.nz – if you don’t regularly check in there,

start doing that now), except that if they want to be, they could be pretty huge here. And I think they want to be, as there’s no good reason to create this music without stadium-size ambition.

It basically sounds like Kid Cudi (an obvious comparison they’d love) meets Stan Walker (and one they’d hate) – there is very little of either themselves or anyone else evident here. But seeing as both those artists are pretty damn huge it suggests a vast potential audience. I guess it was inevitable that Cudi’s style would get appropriated, given that it was both distinctive and successful, but it’s still disconcerting to hear it done so slavishly.

Their saving grace is that there’s a monster hook in here (that’s the Stan Walker part). With a slightly cleaned-up production this is a top 10 single – and that ability is very rare. I’m not sold yet, but am willing to be persuaded.

CHRIS BROWN – ‘Turn Up the Music’I’m trying with this shit, I swear to God. But no part of me will allow that the world is better off with Chris Brown singing this stuff instead of ‘Run It’. I hold no

grudge against him for what happened with Rihanna. I mean, it was awful, but he was a teenager at the eye of a hurricane. I feel bad for everyone involved. But it has been through the courts, the whole world knows his shame – I don’t see why it should stop him making music.

But this music is terrible. You compare it to a song like ‘Forever’, paid for by Wrigleys even down to its “double your pleasure/ double your fun” line. Ostensibly that song was much more compromised. But the raw desperation of hearing these natural-born r’n’b guys on this terrible trance-y production is infinitely depressing, whereas ‘Forever’ felt supple and nuanced. But it’s straight in at number nine on our charts. Until that stops happening we’ll just get more and more of it.

NICKI MINAJ – ‘Starships’Speaking of which – here’s Nicki Minaj debasing herself chasing the same audience. I guess pop music has always been basically the same as toys or fashion

or whatever – you don’t keep bringing out board games when everyone wants Bratz. But we pretend that these artists are, like “artists” – that their music is the product of their creative urges. And there’s just no way an artist who’s as deeply in love with rapping as Nicki Minaj obviously is is enjoying the “higher than a motherfucker” break in this song.

It’s not entirely without merit, and the intro’s One Direction (obligatory reference) style guitars have a stoopid faux-Caribbean charm. But hearing talent this huge on material this slight, knowing that the window is only ever two or three records at most – that’ll drive you to drink at 10 in the morning.

Each week Duncan Greive performs some low grade analysis on the week’s New Zealand Singles Chart and reviews a few new release pop singles. To submit or suggest a track for review email [email protected] or tweet @duncangreive.

Katy Perry has dethroned Flo Rida, and honestly this could have been a field recording of child murder and I’d probably still be pleased with the outcome. Perry’s ‘Part of Me’ is a classic sixth single, it basically sounds like her people have made

some sickly robot out of bits of her previous hits – the remorseless thump of ‘Hot n Cold’, the false yearning of ‘Firework’ – but once a singer’s had enough hits that were actually good then even their lesser material starts to feel reassuring on some base biochemical level.

Maybe the best thing about her new entry at the top is that she’s merely the first of a clutch of new singles and re-entries to give the chart a much-needed refresh. The key new entries are discussed alongside here – but it’s re-entries that make up the bulk of what’s new.

The death of Whitney Houston, the seismic Beyoncé grade talent of her day, has seen a bunch of her immortals come back to the charts, and the Grammys see some of the last humans to want-but-not-have Adele singles push them back in. Ho and hum.

The re-invigorated chart is tinged with sadness for me, as LMFAO’s ‘Party Rock Anthem’ was finally pushed out of the chart, two weeks shy of making a full calendar year. This sucks because A) I grew to adore the song, the most joyously, heroically silly in a long time, and B) it robs me of the opportunity to refer to it as “this generation’s Dark Side of the Moon” on account of its longevity, and make the Herald online commenters go fully mental. Very sad about that.

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Glass Swords(Warp Records)

BASE FM

CHIP MATTHEW’S TOP FIVE BASS-CRUSHES

(Warp Records)

1: Aston “Family Man” Barrett – My favourite player. I grew up listening to Marley, and therefore Family Man has been there as long as I’ve actively engaged with music both as a consumer and as a player.

2: Robbie Shakespeare – How could he not be in a top five? Just as influential in the rhythm foundation of my bass playing, but where Family Man extended my thought lyrically, Robbie ruled the riddim.

3: Francis Harawira – I replaced Francis in Token Village (live band with Che Fu, King Kapisi, Ras Dan and Phatmospheric). From the first practice learning the tunes from Francis up to today, he has been the most influential local player on my bass style.

4: Pino Palladino – I was obsessed with D’Angelo’s Voodoo and the tracks that Pino played bass on. For my playing, it was an advancement on ideas first influenced by Jamiroquai’s Stuart Zender.

5: Jaco Pastorius – Just for so many different things, from trio through to his big band. But for me, it was his playing on Joni Mitchell’s Shadows and Light live album. Continually amazing.

NEW AGE STEPPERSLove Forever(On-U Sound)Definitely one of the less-expected

reunions from the ’80s post-punk movement, the New Age Steppers were in the thick of the anarchic dub that emerged from the likes of The Pop Group and The Slits – Ari Up was actually a member. It’s Up’s last recording before she passed away in 2010 – and it’s surprising how fresh and inventive some of the tracks are. Puts certain modern acts to shame.

BONOBOBlack Sands Remixed(Ninja Tune)Post-interesting downtempo

Ninja Tune artist gets the remix treatment on his 2010 album. Bad sequencing means four versions of the same song (‘Eyesdown’) in quick succession, although at least one (Machinedrum’s remix) is quite good, and one of Bonobo’s originals on here, ‘Brace Brace’, is like tumble-dried Broken Social Scene.

MR WINTERUrban Shepherd(Stubba Recordings)Wellington-based multi-instrumentalist

Chris Winter attaches his jazz-bo sensibilities to actual songs, painstakingly recorded over

the past few years. The results sometimes feel a little stilted, but are also entertainingly over the map – nothing really connects the throbbing ‘Blue Line’ and the ebullient ‘Who’s Hidin’, but they’re impressive just for cohabiting on the same strange album.

VARIOUS ARTISTSWOMAD: The World’s Festival 2012(Cartell Music)

I still feel like WOMAD is likely to attract an unselfconsciously curious older audience rather than Blogspot dudes who trade rare African beatz, so yes, a compact disc comp is well in order. Highlights include the totalising and throaty folk-drone of Mongolia’s Anda Union and extraordinary Aboriginal vocalist Geoffrey Gurrumul. Should be a pretty nice weekend.

VARIOUS ARTISTSGeorge Yearbook 2011(Frequency Media)Such wonderful,

celebratory design! I like being reminded that a radio station is a bunch of living, breathing people with distinct tastes. bFM used to market this really well and seems to have lost sight of it a bit. Whatever to the tracks themselves, I love SBTRKT and David Dallas but Nero and PNAU are on here to remind

you you’re ultimately listening to 30-something middle-management scum music. Good idea, though.

THE SUMMER SETEverything’s Fine(Razor and Tie)I bet that when I delve further into

this Scottsdale, Arizona emo band’s record everything won’t be fine. The “street art” on the cover has sad faces that told me so. Sure enough I basically started ejaculating blood the moment I heard it and when I frantically tried to eject I accidentally started ripping the CD instead. Now that’s a sad song.

BAND OF SKULLSSweet Sour(Pias)Lumbering, finger-tapping hard-rock

revivalists. They don’t have the wilful pop moves of The Black Keys or The Dead Weather’s supergroup absurdity – their “thing” is merging it all to a sort of mid-tempo Brit-rock balladry. Nah, no.

BEN HOWARDEvery Kingdom(Island)There’s this Melbourne folk singer-songwriter

called Ned Collette who has released two of the most beautiful, beguiling funny and sad albums I have ever heard in the past five

years. He’s my go-to whenever I wonder if I just don’t like folk singer-songwriters, and from now I’m going to just highlight his greatness rather than give leching sub-Bon Iver put-this-in-an-ad-thanks dudes like this another inch of press.

PET SHOP BOYSFormat(Parlophone)Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe figured

it out – weather out a decade or so of being grotesquely unfashionable, and your squelchy combination of acid-house synths and sophisti-pop becomes de rigeur again. Here we are, with B-sides from 1996 to the present. It collates plenty of their gloomy lesser efforts around this time – but the stuff that sounds firmly like they’re in their campy, chirpy comfort zone works well.

AMOS LEEAs The Crow Flies…(Blue Note)Adult-alternative rustic Americana stuff that does the

job in its EP size. If Lee occasionally sounds like Bill Withers if he met Jesus at the crossroads and exchanged salvation for the curse of being Dave Matthews, the songs have a certain swelling and stately effect which I can’t write off (highlights: ‘The Darkness’, ‘May I Remind You’).

Reviews Joe Nunweek

IT SEEMS PECULIAR that some of the most fluorescent music recently has emanated from somewhere as bleak as Glasgow. But the resolutely

effervescent productions of Hudson Mohawke and Rustie are no doubt an antidote to the prevailing greyness.

Rustie’s outrageously good debut album Glass Swords would inspire joie de vivre in the worst climate. In that sense it’s the aural equivalent of cocaine; it’s also the inverse of Burial’s dejected works. Both have their roots in 2-step, and use that as a canvas for painting highly-detailed sonic worlds. But where Burial’s palette is catatonically muted, Rustie’s is an explosion of day-glo brilliance. These inspire an unending series of synthetic anthems that would set even the most reticent dancefloor alight.

While it’s an immediately gratuitous experience, there’s unquestionably a depth to Rustie’s electronic confections – expressing a human need for some pleasure amidst the grimy realities of life. Like Burial, the ghost of rave inhabits Glass Swords, but here it’s the jubilant peak of the party rather than the inevitable comedown. With a dose of funk bass, spiralling, insistent synth lines, and twisted vocal samples, the likes of ‘Ultra Thizz’, ‘Hover Traps’, and ‘City Star’ are euphoric dancefloor wonders of the highest order.

Review Gavin Bertram

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at the same time I always liked things like Human League and even Duran Duran,” he says.

As a young Black man growing up in post-Second World War Britain, he had an increasing opportunity to seek out new sounds, but travelling back to Jamaica as a young teenager exposed him to an even greater variety of music.

“Jamaicans like cheesy British and American pop more than they like dancehall. I mean, often in a party you can hear something like Michael Bolton alongside the most crazy ragga tunes. That was when I was about 12. It just blew my mind and freed up my mind to think, ‘Hey, I can be into anything!’”

Smith says he still has the desire to perform and record music and continue pushing boundaries while doing so. When asked if his approach

ROOTS MANUVA HAS long been held up as a leading light of UK hip hop, though it’s a term he dismisses.

“I can understand it. It starts conversations and it’s good hype at the time, but, you know, after more than 10 years in the game now, you gotta look at things a little more thoroughly in their context to the universe and the art and creativity.”

Even so, it’s clear he’s still passionate about hip hop music and the lifestyle.

“If it wasn’t for hip hop I wouldn’t be doing music. It was because of people like KRS-One and Chuck D who brought a whole different perspective to the subject matter, it seemed like more than music, and the fact that hip hop as a culture is more than music, that’s what was attractive.” He pauses, chuckling again: “It wasn’t so much like, ‘Hey,

Roots Manuva has a reputation as a sweet but somewhat grumpy interview subject. Yet when VOLUME spoke with him prior to his forthcoming shows, he came across as more of a loveable rogue. Settled back home in Stockwell after an evening spent downing a few pints of bitter, Roots Manuva aka Rodney Smith opened up about learning to embrace growing older.Text David Carroll

let’s put on lipstick and a wig and flares and let’s get famous!’ We’re doing this for a living, we’re doing this regardless.”

Rodney Smith has been “doing this regardless” for the best part of two decades, first appearing on a handful of singles in the mid-’90s, then dropping his groundbreaking debut album Brand New Second Hand in 1999. His fifth full-length, 4everevolution, was released late last year, and it’s one of his most innovative, blending reggae, ’80s pop-funk, straight up hip hop and even a sung ballad – but it has always been one of Smith’s strengths that he is able to take inspiration from all corners and produce something uniquely his own.

“The first sonic palette was obviously Jamaican-made music or UK Jamaican-influenced music, but

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to making music has changed since he first began, his answer is disarmingly honest – and tongue-in-cheek: “Oh yeah, I think it’s just growing up as a professional, tax-paying musician I kind of learned how to condense and compartmentalise the kind of emotional tantrums into the context of song.”

Growing older has become something of a recurring theme in our conversation, with the allied feelings of having an obligation to pass on to the young what has been learned from many years in the business (“A lot of the young kids just think of the pizzazz straight away!”) to planning a career beyond being Roots Manuva.

“It was always my thing to develop a label and have artists coming through, and the Roots Manuva thing was never supposed to be beyond a couple of records. I just wanted that to be where I just expressed myself. The thing that paid the bills was I wanted to be a jobbing studio owner or a jobbing beatmaker,” he chuckles. “It’s not really worked out like that at all!”

But it has worked out. Despite an approach Smith describes as “A bit more organic, a bit more like if the vibe and the feeling is right”, the man has carved himself a place in the hip hop history books, and remains as relevant and vital to music – let alone hip hop – as ever.

Roots Manuva plays The Front Room in Wellington on Wednesday 29 February, The Powerstation in Auckland on Thursday 1 March and The Colombo in Christchurch on Friday 2 March.

“What moves me are beautiful songs on the piano or the guitar and really, really heavy music.”

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BILLY THE KID

Gael Garcia Bernal is set to star in Fox’s futuristic Zorro reboot called Zorro Reborn. No director has been attached yet.

Transformers 4 is definitely happening and Michael Bay will return to direct. Apparently there’ll be less goofy comedy this time around and more action. It’s due for release in 2014.

Veena Sud, the show runner of AMC’s The Killing series, is to write and direct a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1941 film Suspicion.

A sequel to I Am Legend is moving forward, and Warner is hoping to have Will Smith back on board to reprise his role.

For a less dialled-up, melodramatic Hollywood treatment of autism, it’s worth watching Jennifer Venditti’s 2007 documentary Billy the Kid. This intimate, affecting film about Billy Piper, a boy from Maine with Asperger’s syndrome, paints its subject not as a medical freak but a heart-stealing teenager who digs Kiss, slasher films and girls.

The war-vet-returning-home genre is currently enjoying some good screen time on TV’s Homeland, and if you’re looking for one of the most underappreciated fi lms of its type, check out John Flynn’s 1972 revenge pic Rolling Thunder (Studio Canal). William Devane plays a former POW who gets a rather shitty homecoming when his family are killed by thugs. What to do? Grab war buddy Tommy Lee Jones and get even. Written by Paul Schrader (who penned that other better known vet-fl ick Taxi something), this is a wounded beast of a movie, tough, bone-chilling and heart-breaking.

Director Stephen Daldry

Starring Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Thomas Horn, Max von Sydow

EXTREMELY LOUD& INCREDIBLY CLOSE

9/11 MOVIES ARE a pretty uneven bunch. For every resonant, punchy 24th Hour and United 93, there’s a misguided World Trade

Center and Remember Me reminding us that mixing recent history/tragedy and cinema is a tricky feat to pull off.

Based on Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2005 novel, Stephen Daldry’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close falls into the latter camp. However well-intentioned, it’s a cloying chunk of awards-season fodder that immediately calls into question its taste level in the opening shot of a man falling from the Twin Towers in dreamy-reverie slow-mo.

I’ll give newcomer Thomas Horn a couple of brownie points for his enthusiasm and pluck as Oskar Schell, the possibly autistic nine-year-

old attempting to make sense of his father’s (Tom Hanks: All-American Best Dad Ever) untimely passing in the WTC attacks – or “the worst day” as he repeatedly refers to it. But his performance is also a point of annoyance, its screeching unrestrained precociousness in every scene growing from being agreeably cute to bothersome as the film plods through Oskar’s journey to find the lock for a mysterious key his dad left behind.

The adventure he embarks on plays like Wes Anderson without the formal compositions, complete with clue-gathering, detail-obsessed scrapbook-making and mute Holocaust survivor Max von Sydow along for the ride. In other words, it’s too contrived and phony in its willingness to tug at our emotions to actually do so.

Review Aaron Yap

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SQUID, AUCKLANDThursday 20 April 1995Photos courtesy of Simon R. KayDean Cameron saw New York hardcore outfit Sick of It All play Squid in Auckland on Thursday 20 April 1995.

I WASN’T PLAYING music at that stage. I was close to a band called Balance, which I later joined – there

was a group of friends who hung out, and we were very into the New York hardcore scene. We’d buy seven-inches and so on by mail-order, and have them sent to us from various small record stores in America.

Sick of It All were one of my favourites, and for them to come to New Zealand was a big deal. You’d get the California punk bands coming through town, but New York hardcore was a different sort of sound – a bit more heavy and abrasive.

It was a small scene back then in New Zealand, but in that circle people were really excited because we were

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starved of that kind of sound, and Sick of It All really kicked it off for that genre of music. They played fi ve dates – they started in Auckland with the Squid show, then they went to Wellington, New Plymouth, Hamilton, and finished the tour with another Auckland show. I went to both Auckland shows and the Hamilton show.

Squid was upstairs in O’Connell St – it was Mikey Havoc’s bar at the time. It probably held 150 people, 200 tops, so it was an intimate show. The first night of Sick Of It All’s tour was definitely the inspiration for a lot of people to join bands or make music and

tour, and maybe even get overseas – it gave you an understanding that you could do it as well.

A close friend of mine who was the drummer for Balance, Ben Lythberg, ended up driving for the band. There were some issues with Sick of It All’s transportation, and we met them outside the show as we arrived and we were just talking, and they asked if someone was willing to drive them on this tour. Ben put his hand up, and that was the start of something for him.

After the tour, we went on a road trip across the US, and the band had said to him, “Anytime you’re in

the States, ’cause you hooked us up, come on tour with us”. It was the first Warped Tour in ’95, and Ben joined them for half-a-dozen dates or so. He now lives in the US and he’s been there for the past 13 years. He became their drum tech, and then he went on to work for bands like Rancid, The Offspring, he drummed in Snapcase for a while, and it was all a connection from that one show.

Sick of It All’s Squid show was 17 years ago, but I’d still be excited to see them tomorrow. They’re a band that I think everyone needs to see – they deliver one of the best live shows you’ll ever see. One thing with Sick of It All, they haven’t changed since day one and their stage presence, enthusiasm and intensity are definitely still there. They run at 150 per cent every show.

Sick of It All play Auckland’s Kings Arms with Agnostic Front on Wednesday 2 May.

“It was defi nitely the inspiration for a lot of people to join bands or make music and tour.”

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THE POWERSTATION, AUCKLANDWEDNESDAY 22 FEBRUARYReview Grant BastardPhotography Jonathan Ganley

THE ASTUTE, PERHAPS just early, arrivals to what ultimately turned into a large, if not capacity crowd were treated to something which would have seemed unlikely, if not downright implausible in years past. That hardest core of the hardcore from the only wild west frontier we could ever call our own – Taranaki – presented seated and intimate with acoustic guitar and voice. Here was Craig Radford, Sticky Filth’s vocalist and bassist, belting out a cache from the catalogue of Filth together with more recently penned numbers.

Hardcore recontextualised is an interesting proposition, here ostensibly fitting in the wake of the personal tragedies that derailed Sticky Filth’s 25th anniversary plans in 2010. Does it work? In spades. The fire and grit and defiance are all intact. The integrity remains. Think Ian MacKaye in The Evens for a touchstone, but better than thinking, seize the opportunity to catch the man live.

The anticipation for the main event was palpable, as these icons with unbroken roots stretching back to the very inception of post-punk gothdom took the stage, customarily drowned in dense purple smoke.

Doktor Avalanche – tonight a wall of Apple Macs – initiated the metronomic rhythms, and the ritual began. Guitarists Chris Catalyst and Ben Christo provided the strutting rock spectacle, carving the heavy, crystalline riffs with dexterity and panache, trading blow for blow.

For his part, Eldritch doesn’t rely on any rock gimmicks. He doesn’t pout or pose, he neither swaggers nor swings. He sure as hell doesn’t smile. He doesn’t have to – he wrote his own rules decades ago. He has that quality of presence that cannot be learned or faked; it’s called charisma. And that voice. Eldritch evokes the air of a man in control. From a performance standpoint, he’s physically subdued, yet simply mesmerising.

The staples come think and fast. There is no between song chit-

chat, in fact there’s barely any acknowledgment of the crowd until the closing stages. With their infamously truncated recording career, it’s obvious that nigh on everything – the occasional unfamiliar, unreleased track notwithstanding – are going to be bonafide crowd-pleasers. To name the chestnuts among the chestnuts, ‘First and Last and Always’ set the tone early on, with ‘This Corrosion’, ‘Dominion’ et al rousing a boisterous, ecstatic, crowd to punish the venue foundations.

Gratifying too that the grimy gems from their earlier years were not overlooked, with a decadently tensile ‘Alice’ and the brooding ‘Anaconda’

from 1983 hitting hard. By the time ‘Vision Thing’ and ‘Lucretia’ arrived, the damage was done, the boxes largely ticked for the most hotchpotch of crowds I’ve ever stood shoulder to shoulder with – from every sub-genre of hip young thing through to otherwise mild-mannered, gone mental for a night 50-somethings.

The Sisters ultimately delivered what is uniquely theirs. By the time of set closer, the epic ‘Temple of Love’, and as the dense purple smoke ushered us out into the humid night air, there was little question that 30 years of waiting and wondering had been consummately rewarded.

“He sure as hell doesn’t smile. He doesn’t have to – he wrote his own rules decades ago.”

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NORTHLANDWEDNESDAY 29Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – Salut Bar, Whangarei, 9pmFRIDAY 2Batucada Sound Machine Album Release – Don’t Keep Silent – Old Library Building Arts Centre, Whangarei, 8:30pm, $27The Hewson Project – 35 Degrees South Aquarium Restaurant and Bar, Paihia, 6pm, FreeWizard & Oz – Turner Centre, Kerikeri, 7:30pm, $25-$28SATURDAY 3Urban Country – Aratapu Tavern, Dargaville, 5:30pm, FreeSUNDAY 4Northern Jazz Society Club Day ft. Lounge Sweet – Salut Bar, Whangarei, 2pm

AUCKLANDTUESDAY 28Florries Irish Music Jam Sessions – Florrie McGreals Irish Pub, Takapuna, 7:30pm, FreeGreg Wilson Q&A – Conch Records, Ponsonby, 6pm, FreeAk Jazz & Blues Club presents John Wilcox Gumbo – Pt Chevalier RSA, Pt Chevalier, 7:30pm, $5Jessie J – Vector Arena, Auckland CBD, 7pm, $87Led Zeppelin & Space Park – Double Feature – Stardome Observatory & Planetarium, Royal Oak, 8pm, $35The Black Lips – Powerstation, Eden Terrace, 8pm, $65WEDNESDAY 29Granduo – Goode Brothers, Botany Downs, 3pm, FreeWednesdays at Flight Lounge ft. Computers Want Me DeaD – Flight Lounge, Auckland CBD, 10pm, FreeCreative Jazz Club: Chris Mason Battley Group – 1885 Basement, Auckland CBD, 8pm, $5-$10Nikola Memedovic Jazz Duet – C.A.C. Bar & Restaurant, Mt Eden, 6:30pm, FreeThe Circling Sun Band + DJ Truent – Ponsonby Social Club, Ponsonby, 9pm, FreeLive Latin and Brazilian Music – The Mexican Cafe, Auckland CBD, 8:30pm, FreePetra Rijnbeek & Paul Voight – Sugar Bar, Newmarket, 7pm, FreeWednesday R&B Jam Night – Flo Bar & Cafe, Newmarket, 9pm, FreeSAE Social Club Presents: In The Mix – Juice Bar at The Windsor Castle, Parnell, 7:30pm, FreeThe Mutton Birds – Kings Arms, Newton, 7:30pm, $49THURSDAY 1Gerry Rooderkerk Alive & Acoustic – The Fiddler Bar, Auckland CBD, 10pm, FreeMason Clinic Prisoners EP Release Tour – Wine Cellar, Newton, 9pm, $10Nero Zero (LA) w/ guests Devil Skin – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pm, $15Jennifer Zea – 1885 Basement, Auckland CBD, 10pm, FreePetra Rijnbeek & Paul Voight – The Lumsden, Newmarket, 6:30pm, FreeGreg Tell – Auckland Fish Market, Auckland CBD, 5pm, FreeFRIDAY 2Greg Wilson – Finally In NZ – The Nathan Club, Auckland CBD, 9pm, $30-$35Jason – The Fiddler Bar, Auckland CBD, 11pm, FreeSon’s Of Melody w/ Hipstamatics and Other Special Guests – Kings Arms, Newton, 7:30pm, $10

Flaming Mudcats – Grey Lynn Returned Services Club, Grey Lynn, 8pm, FreeMusic in Parks 2012 – Summer Sounds – Blockhouse Bay Beach Reserve, Blockhouse Bay, 6pm, FreeBrett Polley – De Post, Mt Eden, 8:30pm, FreeDavid Shanhun – Moretons Bar and Restaurant, St Heliers, 8pm, FreeFranko – Florrie McGreals Irish Pub, Takapuna, 9:30pm, FreeJason Smith – QF Tavern, Auckland CBD, 9pm, FreeKiwi Express – Henderson RSA, Henderson, 7pm, FreeEssential ft. Bulletproof [Dub Me Crazy] – Smart Bar, Pukekohe, 9pm, $15-$20C.O. Jones Band at East Coast Folk Club – Senior Citizens Social Centre, Torbay, 8pm, $5-$7DJ Thane Kirby & Guitarist Joe Bax – The Deck, Auckland CBD, 8pm, FreeSDNZ Auckland Regional Championships 2012 Prelims – TelstraClear Pacifi c Events Centre, Manukau City CBD, 6pm, $15-$25Fridays at Trench Bar – Trench Bar, Auckland CBD, 10pm, FreeIan Pooley (Ger), Dick Johnson, Soane & Bogan Laker – InkCoherent, Newton, 10pm, $10Chaste Embrace Duo – Warkworth RSA, Warkworth, 6:45pm, FreeJohn McGough Trumpeter/DJ – Papakura RSA, Papakura, 6:45pm, FreePonsonby Cruising Summer Rhythm and Jazz – Ponsonby Cruising Club, Westhaven, 7:30pm, FreeCuban Accent – Havana Club, Auckland CBD, 9pmLive Latin Music – Besos Latinos Restaurant, Auckland CBD, 7:30pm, FreeContagious – Cock & Bull, Botany Downs, 9:30pm, FreeThe Kavalliers – Avondale RSA, Avondale, 7pm, FreeSATURDAY 3Lipton Ice Tea Sounds In the Sun – Unitec, Mt Albert, 1pm, $20TV3 Carnival ft. Kimbra – TV3 Derby Day – Ellerslie Racecourse, Ellerslie, 11am, $40-$360Rocksteady Shake Down – The Thirsty Dog, Newton, 8pm, $10Drop Dead Redhead, Beach Pigs, The Future’s Bright & Frend – Rising Sun, Auckland CBD, 9pmSherpa Album Release – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pmSurf Friends, The Leers and Favela – Whammy Bar, Newton, 10pm, $5-$102’s A Crowd – Blacksalt Bar & Eatery, New Lynn, 8pm, FreeDavid Shanhun – Florrie McGreals Irish Pub, Takapuna, 9:30pm, FreeDire Straits Rocky Road Tribute Tour – East Coast Bays RSA, Browns Bay, 8pm, $15-$20Mitch French – De Post, Mt Eden, 8:30pm, FreeKylie Austin and Trevor V Stevens Country Duo – Howick RSA, Howick, 7pm, FreeDJ Jason Eli & Percussionist John Ellis – The Deck, Auckland CBD, 8pm, FreeEddie Numbers – Sawmill Cafe, Leigh, 9:30pm, $10SDNZ Auckland Regional Championships 2012 Finals – TelstraClear Pacifi c Events Centre, Manukau City CBD, 7pm, $15-$25Pure Trench Bar – Trench Bar, Auckland CBD, 10pm, FreeMusic in Parks 2012 – Jazz at the Rotunda – Puhoi Domain, Puhoi, 6pm, FreeHabana Noches – Tropical Flavour – QF Tavern, Auckland CBD, 9pm, Free

Classic Hits Winery Tour : Gin, Mutton Birds, Avalanche City – Villa Maria Estate Winery, Mangere, 5pm, $59-$69Contagious – Cock & Bull, Botany Downs, 9:30pm, FreeJason Mohi – Malt Bar, Grey Lynn, 8pm, FreeDreams: The Fleetwood Mac Experience – Bar Africa, North Harbour, 3:30pm, $15The Kavalliers – A Rocking Great Band – Birkenhead RSA, Birkenhead, 7pm, FreeThe Riff Raff Raise the Roof – Flo Bar & Cafe, Newmarket, 7:30pmSUNDAY 4Mason Clinic Prisoners EP Release Tour – Kings Arms, Newton, 3pm, $10Shae Snell – The Fiddler Bar, Auckland CBD, 6pm, FreeA Summer of Free Music in the Market – Artisan Wines, Oratia, 1pm, FreeBlues in The Boat House – Riverhead Slide – The Riverhead, Riverhead, 2pm, FreeFrancis Jakeman – Goode Brothers, Botany Downs, 3pm, FreeSandpaper Tango – Corelli’s Cafe, Devonport, 6pm, FreeMusic in Parks 2012 – The Culture Garden – Auckland Domain Wintergardens, Parnell, 6pm, FreeFlorries Irish Music Jam Sessions – Florrie McGreals Irish Pub, Takapuna, 5:30pm, FreeKath Tait at the Thirsty Dog Folk Club – The Thirsty Dog, Newton, 3pmDJ Murry Sweetpants & Saxophonist Lewis McCallum – The Deck, Auckland CBD, 5pm, FreeOuter Base – Sawmill Cafe, Leigh, 3pm, FreeCat Tunks & BlackSandDiva – Music in Parks – Auckland Domain Band Rotunda, Parnell, 2:30pm, FreeChicane Duo – Bill Fish Cafe, St Marys Bay, 1pmCoopers Creek Summer Sunday Jazz – Coopers Creek Vineyard, Huapai, 1pm, FreeMusic in Parks 2012 – Jazz at the Rotunda – Auckland Domain Band Rotunda, Parnell, 2pm, FreeBrazilian Night – Cosh Bar, Ponsonby, 4pm, FreeCeltic Colours Around the World – St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Takapuna, 3pm, $25Sunday Jazz, Rock, Reggae Session – Shooters Saloon, Kingsland, 2pm, FreeMONDAY 5Karaoke Kate – QF Tavern, Auckland CBD, 9pm, FreeSalon Kingsadore: Explore the Galaxies of the Known Universe – Stardome Observatory & Planetarium, Royal Oak, 7:30pm, $20VIVA Jazz Quartet – The Windsor Castle, Parnell, 6pm, Free

HAWKE’S BAY / GISBORNESATURDAY 3Natural – Brezz N Sportsbar, Gisborne, 10pmMountaineater w/ An Emerald City & Bond Street Bridge – The Cabana, Napier, 9pm, $15-$20

WAIKATOFRIDAY 2Sherpa Album Launch w/ The Good Fun + The Changing Same – Static Bar, Hamilton, 9pmClassic Hits Winery Tour : Gin, Mutton Birds, Avalanche City – Vilagrad Vineyard & Winery, Hamilton, 5pm, $59-$69

SATURDAY 33rd Bass – FLOW, Hamilton, 9pm, $10-$15SUNDAY 4Jimmy Hopper One Heart’s Journey Tour 2012 – Clarence St Theatre, Hamilton, 7:30pm

BAY OF PLENTYFRIDAY 2I Am Giant – Let It Go Summer Tour w/ Cairo Knife Fight – The Colosseum, Tauranga, 8pm, $32.85SUNDAY 4Katikati Twilight Concerts – Shane Cortese & Class of 58 – Katikati Haiku Pathway, Katikati, 6pm, $15MONDAY 5Jimmy & Perry – The Pheasant Plucker, Rotorua, 7pm, Free

TARANAKITHURSDAY 1I Am Giant – Let It Go Summer Tour w/ Cairo Knife Fight – The Basement, New Plymouth, 8pm, $32.85

MANAWATU / WHANGANUITHURSDAY 1Midnight Switch – The Square, Palmerston North, 12pm, FreeMountaineater w/ Von Thundersvolt & Caves – Space Monster, Whanganui, 9pm, $10-$15FRIDAY 2Henpicked – Savage Club Rooms, Whanganui, 7pm, $10I am Giant – The Colosseum Event Centre @ High Flyers, Palmerston North, 8pm, $30Turbostill Vinyl Release Party w Boss Christ, Pompom, STT – The Royal, Palmerston North, 9pm, $10-$20SATURDAY 3Mason Clinic Prisoners EP Release Tour – The ARC Theatre, Whanganui, 9pm, $10Welcome to the Jungle – Dress Up Dance Party – Mr Cue, Palmerston North, 10:30pmIn Our Hands – Charity Concert – Regent on Broadway, Palmerston North, 7pm, $5-$35Led Zeppelin – Whole Lotta Led & Guns and Roses – GnFnR – The Royal, Palmerston North, 8:30pm, $15SUNDAY 4Summer Concert Series – Concert in the Park – Fitzherbert Park, Palmerston North, 2pm, FreeWelcome to the Jungle – Dress Up Dance Party – Mr Cue, Palmerston North, 10:30pmMONDAY 5Shenandoah Davis (USA) w/ Timothy Blackman – The ARC Theatre, Whanganui, 8pm

WELLINGTON REGIONTUESDAY 28Bon Iver – NZIAF – Wellington Town Hall, 8pm, $38-$88The Topp Twins – NZIAF – TelstraClear Festival Club, 7:30pm, $58-$520Live Music – The Library, 5pm, FreeWEDNESDAY 29Death Cab For Cutie – Wellington Town Hall, 8pm, $38-$75Emily Fairlight, Katreena Erin, Seth Frightening & Dr Thmpsn – Mighty Mighty, 9:30pmTubular Bells for Two – NZIAF – TelstraClear Festival Club, 7:30pm, $48-$440Jonathan Butler – Little Theatre, Lower Hutt, 8pmKahu – Tristan Dingeman’s Solo (HDU/ Mountaineater) – Evil Genius Records, 5pm

powered by eventfi nder.co.nz

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Red Sky Blues – Bodega, 9pm, $5-$10THURSDAY 1An Emerald City – NZIAF – TelstraClear Festival Club, 10:15pm, $48-$440Late Lounge: Johanna Mystery – The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, 7pm, FreeVBC Party: Badd Energy, Terror of The Deep & Golden Awesome – San Francisco Bath House, 8pmWellington Heads – Hotel Bristol, 8:30pm, FreeTubular Bells for Two – NZIAF – TelstraClear Festival Club, 7:30pm, $48-$440In Like Flynn – Molly Malones, 9pmEmily Smith and Jamie McClennan – Meow, 7:30pm, $25Meat, Lizardfolk & Finn Johansson – Fast Eddie’s, 9pmFRIDAY 2An Emerald City – NZIAF – St Peters Hall, Paekakariki, 9pm, $15New Media New Music – Wellington Waterfront, 7:30pm, $10Mason Clinic Prisoners EP Release Tour – Happy, 9pm, $10Orange Farm w/ Bruce Intemann – Meow, 8pmElectric Wire Hustle – San Francisco Bath House, 9pm, $30Hot Club Sandwich & Friends – Old St Paul’s, 5:30pm, $20Crash-Scan & Needless Cane, Ghost Daddy & Nullity – Bar Medusa, 9pm, $5Labretta Suede and The Motel 6 & Friends – Mighty Mighty, 9:30pmMountaineater w/ About The Deadlines – Newtown Cultural Community Centre, 7pm, $10-$15SATURDAY 3Shenandoah Davis (USA) w/Timothy Blackman & Seth Frightening – Happy, 9pmPaul Ubana Jones – Newtown Cultural Community Centre, 7pm, $20The Nudge – Wellington Waterfront, 8:30pm, $12Ras G & the Afrikan Space Program (LA, Brainfeeder) – San Francisco Bath House, 11:45am, $5-$10Ian Pooley (Germany) – Sandwiches, 11pm, $15Heart Attack Alley & Stompin’ Nick – Mighty Mighty, 9:30pmThe X-Ray Catz – The Lido Cafe, 8:30pm, FreeI Am Giant – Let It Go Summer Tour w/ Cairo Knife Fight – San Francisco Bath House, 8pm, $32.85SUNDAY 4Stomping Nick & His Blues Grenade – Evil Genius Records, 2:30pm, FreeThe Sunday Jazz Club – Public Bar & Eatery, 7:30pm, Free

NELSON / TASMANFRIDAY 2The Sou’westers – The Boathouse, Nelson, 8pm, $10SUNDAY 4Music on the Lawn – Mint Jazz – Woollaston Estates, Upper Moutere, 1pm, Free

MARLBOROUGHSATURDAY 3Moa Pre Vintage Party – Moa Brewery and Cellar Door, Blenheim, 8pm, Free

WEST COASTSUNDAY 4Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra – I Love You Tour – Regent Theatre, Greymouth, 7:30pm, $38

CANTERBURYTUESDAY 28Fuse 2012 – Funk Night – CPIT, 8pm, $10-$50THURSDAY 1Shenandoah Davis (USA) w/ Valdera – darkroom, 8pm, FreeStomping Nick & His Blues Grenade – The Strawberry Tree, Kaikoura, 9pm, FreeTaos – Dux Live, 8pm, $5Salsa On Thursdays – Salsa Latina Dance Studio, 8:45pm, FreeJimmy Hopper – One Heart’s Journey Tour 2012 – Aurora Centre for the Performing Arts, 7:30pmFRIDAY 2Shotgun Alley – Dux Live, 8pm, $15Music Centre of Christchurch Musical Mentors Series – St Augustine Anglican Church, 1pm, $5Jimmy Hopper – One Heart’s Journey Tour 2012 – Aurora Centre for the Performing Arts, 7:30pmWellington International Ukulele Orchestra – I Love You Tour – Geraldine Cinema, Geraldine, 7:30pm, $38D’sendantz – Becks Southern Alehouse, 9pm, FreeFuse 2012 – Rock Wrap Up – CPIT, 9:30pm, $10-$50SATURDAY 3Lupus Luna – Dux Live, 8pm, FreeDel Girl – Dux Live, 2pm, FreeBlacklight Party w/ Smashproof – Fuel Bar and Grill, 9pm, $10-$20Under 18 Blacklight Party – Fuel Bar and Grill, 3:30pmJimmy Hopper – One Heart’s Journey Tour 2012 – Aurora Centre for the Performing Arts, 7:30pmDivision St – Becks Southern Alehouse, 9pm, FreeSUNDAY 4Electric Wire Hustle and Little Bushman After Party – Riccarton House & Bush, 7pm, $10Little Bushman and Electric Wire Hustle – Riccarton House & Bush, 2pm, $39.50-$49.50Emily Smith and Jamie McClennan – Irish Society Hall, 7:30pm, $15-$20

OTAGOTHURSDAY 1Jo Little & Jared Smith – Carey’s Bay Hotel, Dunedin, 8pm, $5Greg Wilson (UK) – Debajo, Queenstown, 10pm, $10SATURDAY 3Jackie Bristow – Coming Home Tour – Waitiri Creek Winery, Queenstown, 3pm, $30That’s Country – Regent Theatre, Dunedin, 7:30pm, $67-$90SUNDAY 4Hollie Smith – Summer Playground Series – The Winehouse, Gibbston, 3pm, $45

SOUTHLANDFRIDAY 2That’s Country – Civic Theatre, Invercargill, 7:30pm, $67-$90SATURDAY 3Just Blaze – Saints and Sinners, Invercargill, 10pm, Free

has teamed with Eventfi nder for gig listings. To get your gig considered, go to eventfi nder.co.nz and submit your show for publication. Due to space constraints, we can’t guarantee that every show will be listed.

TUE28 FEB

WED7 MARCH

SAT31 MARCH

FRI13 APRIL

NICK LOWEEASTER SUN

8 APRIL SHIHAD

WED18 APRIL MARK LANEGANTHURS10 MAY KAISER CHIEFS

SIX60SAT

14 APRIL SIX60

THE BLACK LIPSWITH RACKETS AND THE TRANSISTORS

THURS1 MARCH ROOTS MANUVA

www.powerstation.net.nz

POWERSTATIONJUST ANNOUNCED:SHIHAD - APRIL 8

KAISER CHIEFS - MAY 10

ROKY ERICKSONWITH SHAFT

WED14 MARCH THE DIRTY THREE

SAT17 MARCH EILEN JEWELL

THURS22 MARCH ALABAMA 3

WED28 MARCH ELBOW

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Got some news for More Volume? Email us at [email protected].

Much excitement in the local hardcore community about the forthcoming NYC double-bill at Kings Arms with Sick of It All and Agnostic Front playing one show on Friday 30 March… The Askew-directed video for Home Brew’s ‘Yellow Snot Funk’ is bonkers and all the party props are apparently the real deal… Craig Radford did a great job of opening for The Sisters of Mercy… UK DJ legend Greg Wilson plays the Nathan Club in Britomart on Friday 2 March, the same night Fatboy Slim – the man he taught to scratch – plays Vector… Poor You Poor Me slayed it at Lucha last Wednesday at midnight… Fats White seen crashing gigs again… Labretta Suede & co

swung by Auckland recently – bass players in fishnets – great pics by Georgia Schofield on Cheese on Toast… Mojo mag faves Endless Boogie are coming – keep an ear out for their jams in mid-March with The X-Ray Fiends. The X-Ray Fiends trod the boards recently after an absence and debuted new material… After more than two years of making noise around Auckland the Mason Clinic are releasing their Prisoners EP with a short burst around the North Island kicking off 1 March at the Wine Cellar with Imploder and guests... In conjunction with First Thursdays and the NZ Fashion Festival, In House Creative Projects brings you Space is the Place, the official launch party and exhibition at Number 4 Gallery,

Cross Street at 8pm on Thursday 1 March. Korean-born, Auckland-based artist Clara Chon is exhibiting with local and international artists Aimee Kathryn Robinson, Ben Tankard, Paul E Sothers, Erin Forsyth, Imogen Taylor, Chris Stapp, Josh Slater (NYC) and more. Golden Axe and The Drab Doo-Riffs are playing live sets alongside K Rd genius DJ Raw Chicken. The exhibition runs from 3 March–8 March with access hours from 4pm–8pm weekdays and 12–4pm on weekends.

Who is Sunken Seas? Check out their new video at youtube/WFoGR4MAImM... Tristan Dingeman of Mountaineater and HDU makes a very rare solo performance as Kahu on Wednesday evening. His venue of choice? Evil Genius Records in Berhampore. Even rarer signed copies of the Kahu album will be on sale at the gig for $20… Later on that night, the Wellington leg of The Nark relaunches at Betty’s with a DJ lineup which includes Chaos in the CBD, Cool Kids Club, Marek, El Pasko, Micah, Diamond Traders and Stumble… Thursday night, Scottish folk siren Emily Smith performs at Meow Cafe & Bar with assistance from multi-instrumentalist Jamie McClennan… Friday night, Labretta Suede and The Motel 6 launch their new album at Mighty Mighty – party times!... The main event this weekend is the Newtown Festival on Sunday – a whole lot of stages, a whole lot of culture, a whole lot of good food and good tunes. Highlights include Heart Attack Alley, Delaney Davidson, DJ Spell, Paul Ubana Jones, Silva MC, The Nudge and So So Modern – newtownfestival.org.nz for more info… Friday 9 March, Julien Dyne launches his new album Glimpses in Wellington at San Francisco Bath House. Assistance from Parks and DJs Alphabethead, Nat Walker and Marek… Saturday 10 March, world wanderers Urbantramper launch their new music video ‘Kate Bush Saved My Life’ at Mighty Mighty… Wednesday 14 March, the man, the myth, the legend Ariel Pink and his Haunted Graffiti roll through town. One night only at Bar Bodega… Mara TK, Billy TK Snr and friends are recording towards a new project Data Hui – more details soon, bro.

The iconic Lyttelton Wunderbar is booking bands for its reopening on the last week of March. The Eastern, who are climbing back into gigging now their album is ready for release, are set to headline. One could assume all the other local suspects will be there as well!... Runaround Sue have been rehearsing with their new lineup. Anthea, Hayley and Spud have been joined by guitarists Ben Brady and Al Park, and drummer Simon Nunns. The album Tonight Expect Delays is close to release and the band are working on new songs… Jackie Bristow played a great set at the Naval Point Club. Her guitar player Mark Punch has just been named Aussie musician of the year, and the combination treated the enthusiastic audience to a show that showed the benefit of being based in Austin, Texas for the last 18 months. Definitely worth checking out on her current tour… Soul System and House of Mountain played to a couple of thousand punters at the Riccarton House Beerfest last Saturday. Promoters were real happy with the turnout… Pecha Kucha night presented by Gapfiller on Sunday 26 February at 8pm on the corner of Manchester and Dundas. See chartfest.co.nz for more details.

Masses of students donned white sheets (well, they were white at the start of the night) and toga’d the night away to Bulletproof and DJ Dhalsim, which begs the question, was Castle St burning while Nero was being DJ’d?... Alizarin Lizard building a strong following their tour – will Louis Smith ever be the same again?... Feastock lineups due to be announced soon, with perhaps a break from tradition... Manthyng’s ‘Nek Minnit’ video goes viral with 6500 views in first 24 hours… Two Cartoons tour details out soon – having broken in the P-Lab Basement and Radio One at O week, they are now preparing to bring the noise to wider New Zaland… Marcus Tuwairua has a new single out on Bandcamp… Three internationals play ReFuel in March… Katie Raven in the studio recording her first EP… Goofest was a massive success with a very bottom-up attitude and featured eight acts including The Forgotten Guests, 1000 Hues of Gold Fries and Opposite Sex.

Craig Radford

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BLACK LIPS Tuesday 28 February – The Powerstation, Auckland

EILEN JEWELLFriday 16 March – Bodega, WellingtonSaturday 17 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

ROOTS MANUVAWednesday 29 February – The Front Room, WellingtonThursday 1 March – The Powerstation, AucklandFriday 2 March – The Colombo, Christchurch

URGE OVERKILLTuesday 6 March – The Powerstation

RYAN ADAMSTuesday 6 March – The Regent Theatre, DunedinThursday 8 March – The Civic Theatre, Auckland

ROKY ERICKSONWednesday 7 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFITTI Tuesday 13 March – Kings Arms, AucklandWednesday 14 March – Bodega, Wellington

DIRTY THREEWednesday 14 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

REAL ESTATEThursday 15 March – Kings Arms, AucklandFriday 16 March – San Francisco Bath House, WellingtonSaturday 17 March – ReFuel, Dunedin

ST VINCENTSunday 18 March – Kings Arms, AucklandMonday 19 March – San Francisco Bath House, Wellington

MARK LANEGAN BANDWednesday 18 April – The Powerstation, Auckland

JOE SATRIANI, STEVE VAI AND STEVE LUKATHER – G3 JOE SATRIANI, STEVE VAI AND STEVE LUKATHER – G3 JOE SATRIANI, STEVE VAI Sunday 25 March – Logan Campbell Centre, AucklandMonday 26 March – Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington

BORISTuesday 27 March – Bodega, WellingtonWednesday 28 March – Kings Arms, Auckland

ELBOWWednesday 28/Thursday 29 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

NICK LOWE Saturday 13 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

STEVE EARLE Wednesday 11 April – Kings Arms, AucklandThursday 12 April – Bodega, Wellington

THE SONICSWednesday 18 April – Kings Arms, Auckland

JOHN COOPER CLARKEWednesday 21 March – Dunedin Fringe FestivalThursday 22 March – Kings Arms, AucklandFriday 23 March – Bodega, WellingtonSaturday 24 March – Marchfest, Nelson

PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT PLAYING CLOSER – A JOY DIVISION CELEBRATIONWednesday 18/Thursday 19 April – Bodega, WellingtonFriday 20 April – Studio, Auckland

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLEThursday 19 April – Dux Live, ChristchurchFriday 20 April – Bar Bodega, WellingtonSatuday 21 April – Kings Arms, AucklandSunday 22 April – Sawmill Café, Leigh

KRS-ONETown Hall, Wellington – Friday 20 AprilAuckland (venue TBC) – Saturday 21 April

THE 5.6.7.8’SFriday 27 April – Kings Arms, AucklandSaturday 28 April – Bodega, Wellington

WAVVESThursday 3 May – Kings Arms, Auckland

LADY GAGAThursday 7/Friday 8/Sunday 10 June – Vector Arena, Auckland

WOODEN SHJIPSSunday 1 April – Kings Arms, AucklandMonday 2 April – Bodega, Wellington

HENRY ROLLINSWednesday 11 April – Clarence St Theatre, HamiltonThursday 12 April – Dux Live, ChristchurchFriday 13 April – The Opera House, WellingtonSaturday 14 April – SkyCity Theatre, Auckland

KAISER CHIEFSThursday 10 May – The Powerstation, Auckland

ALABAMA 3Thursday 22 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

CITY AND COLOURSunday 29 April – Town Hall, Auckland

MARCHFEST CRAFT BEER AND MUSIC FESTIVALAlabama 3, John Cooper Clarke, The Drab Doo-Riffs, The Immigrants and The Ukes of Hazard.Saturday 24 March – Founders Mark, Nelson

LUCINDA WILLIAMSTuesday 10 April – Town Hall, AucklandWednesday 11 April – St James Theatre, Wellington

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THE POWERSTATION, AUCKLANDTHURSDAY 23 FEBRUARYReview David CarrollPhotography Georgia Schofi eld

“THIS IS A SHOW, not a concert! I want to get that straight right now!” Mayer Hawthorne says after he and his band The County have torn through a white-hot version of ‘Maybe So, Maybe No’. As far as statements of intent go, his opening words are nothing but honest.

From the moment Hawthorne came bounding on-stage he was the consummate frontman, always addressing the crowd with grace and good humour – even free-pouring Hennessey into the front row’s upheld beer glasses at one point – while he led his impressive four-piece band through a set peppered with covers ranging from Snoop Dogg to The Doobie Brothers. The County were genuine showmen too, from the bass player with his LMFAO-styled haircut and leopard-skin towel to the seriously bad-ass drummer, whose vibrant playing gave the songs a

driving, exciting backbone. Most of the time that is, as there was an awkward 10-minute stretch of over-egged blue-eyed soul where even he couldn’t stop them sounding more like The Eagles than Steely Dan. However, the audience didn’t seem to care, lapping up everything Hawthorne laid down, including an inspired take on Snoop’s ‘Gangsta’ Luv and an underwhelming limp through Waajeed’s Dilla tribute ‘Jeedo Suave’.

There’s a reason we were prepared to humour him the odd stumble though, and it’s important I labour this: Hawthorne and his band had already won us over. He had us eating out of the palm of his hand thanks to storming renditions of ‘Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out’, ‘Your Easy Lovin’ Ain’t Pleasin’ Nothin’’, ‘The Ills’, ‘The Walk’ and ‘Long Time’, with songs blending into one another, synchronised dance-steps from the band and plenty of crowd interaction. That was one of the great surprises of the evening: how many folks knew the words, singing along to almost everything, including ‘I Wish It Would Rain’, the B-side of that famous heart-shaped debut single.

The other great surprise was the quality of Hawthorne’s singing voice. He cops a lot of flak over this, with negative comparisons to his old label mate Aloe Blacc and question marks over his credibility even singing soul music. Let’s set the record straight, shall we? Mayer Hawthorne can sing. He can really sing. He hit all the high notes and seemed to genuinely engage with each and every

song. He also engaged with a huge number of punters, if the deliriously ass-shaking crowd on the night – and Facebook comments (“I Heart Mayer”, “Swoooon!”, etc) the morning after the show – are anything to go by.

Hawthorne claims to make “soul music for hip hop heads”, and that’s important: this wasn’t a soul revue or a retro-styled throwback concert. This was simple, uncomplicated fun, and we could all do with more of that.

“Let’s set the record straight, shall we? Mayer Hawthorne can sing.”

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