Fri 12 Mar 2010
Photos by Michael Harvey
More photos of Street Chant, The Transistors and The Datsuns
Posted by Nick Fulton under Wellington
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Thu 11 Mar 2010
Photos by Ema Richards
More Deerhoof, Grayson Gilmour and Seth Frightening live photos
Posted by Nick Fulton under Wellington
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Sat 6 Mar 2010
Photos by Ema Richards
More Mint Chicks, Die! Die! Die! and BANG BANG ECHE live photos
Posted by Nick Fulton under Wellington
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Sat 6 Mar 2010
Photos by Ema Richards
More Street Chant and Nevernudes photos
Posted by Nick Fulton under Wellington
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Mon 22 Feb 2010
Photos by Michael Harvey
Posted by Nick Fulton under Wellington
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Fri 20 Nov 2009
It’s been a pretty quiet year for The Phoenix Foundation while the individual band members all focus on their own solo projects. Luke Buda and Samuel Flynn Scott both released their second solo albums last year and Will Ricketts (Wild Bill Ricketts) and Richie Singleton (Rebel Peasant) both released their debut albums in 2009. Sam Scott and Luke Buda also composed and compiled the soundtrack for the film Separation City and they’ve also helped out on a number of their friends’ albums, most notably Lawrence Arabia’s fantastic Chant Darling. Late in 2009 the band has again linked arms, recording an EP with Lee Prebble and Brett Stanton. They’ve named it Merry Kriskmass and EMJ has a free download of their new single.
Unlike the band’s previous single choices, which have always been outrageously obvious pop songs, ‘Everybody’s Money’ has a smoother groove, offering a kind blend of indie psychedelia and ambient electronica. It’s very somber and sleepy like a rocking lullaby staring up into the stars, drifting gently through the night and waking to an organic home cooked breakfast cooked by Nik Brinkman and Primal Scream. They sound more relaxed, content on sitting back and letting their music glide through a revolving door that refuses to allow them to hit the pop panic button. Perhaps they have been listening to the same records as James Milne because ‘Everybody’s Money’ is quite easily comparable to a lot of Chant Darling.
Merry Kriskmass has an official release date of December 7 and will be available on CD, as a digital download and on limited edition 12″ vinyl. It will be followed closely by a brand new Phoenix Foundation album in early 2010. You can see The Phoenix Foundation playing live, supporting Jarvis Cocker in Wellington on December 3 and in Auckland on December 4.
The Phoenix Foundation- Myspace
Posted by Nick Fulton under New Zealand, Wellington
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Mon 2 Nov 2009
Wellington’s Signer, aka Bevan Smith, toured the world with Panda Bear and Ariel Pink in 2005. The latter two acts have since gone on to be crowned kings of modern psychedelic music and amazingly Signer has remained criminally unrecognised – until now. Breaking a five-year drought, Smith released his fourth album Next We Bring You The Fire on September 23 in the US via Carpark Records, and on November 23 A Low Hum and Border are releasing it in New Zealand with two extra bonus tracks.
Recording with help from longtime friend Ryan McPhun (The Ruby Suns) as well as Matthew Mitchell and Jeremy Coubrough, Smith is no stranger to collaboration. Together with Nik Brinkman (Psychic Powers) Smith is also one half of the recording side of Over The Atlantic, and has also released three albums with Signer bandmate Matthew Mitchell as Skallander.
Next We Bring You The Fire is very much ambient electronica, utilising Smith’s experience as a rave DJ in the ’90s to create an exciting blend of dreamy shoegaze and analog pop with sparking techno embers. An obvious highlight is the oddly poppy single ‘Kicks And Kicks’, but later ‘Languidly Toot’ unearths a hazy euphoric vision with clapping rhythms. The much raved about ‘Don’t Be A Forest Cow’ serves as somewhat of a climax of the album. Percussion is surprisingly sparse throughout the whole album, giving it a drifting, haunting quality that seems to be without time. The album feels tense and spiritual as the swirling synths and spooky vocals hover over transparent noise, songs are submerged and then rise up to float and bob on the surface, becoming lighter and friendlier, sometimes ending suddenly, sometimes coasting on infinitely.
Posted by Sarah Gooding under New Zealand, Wellington
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Sat 31 Oct 2009
One of New Zealand’s most adventurous punk bands, Mr Sterile Assembly, has just released a new album and they’re taking it on the road this December, playing shows in Auckland, New Plymouth and Wellington. More on that soon, first a bit about the band.
Mr Sterile Assembly began in 2002 as a outlet for Kieran Monaghan (Mr. Sterile) to explore politics, poetry and music and to make art that combined all three. He was soon joined by a collective of musicians who all added their own individual nous, exploring the world of DIY art and later inventing their own record label (Skirted). At it’s fullest the band had seven members, there’s now just three.
They’ve covered territory rarely explored by any other New Zealand band, touring Eastern Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia) in 2005, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore in 2006, Australia in 2008 and New Zealand in between. They’ve also released a vast back catalogue of music that can be viewed and downloaded from their label website. It includes a full-length album titled Hugalu (2004), a tour EP titled 15 Minute Crib (2006) and their new album Bug My Ride (2009). Monaghan has also released a range of solo recordings under both his own name and Mr Sterile.
Bug My Ride is a rare assault of European influenced punk rock and social ethics. Heavily lined with bass guitars and drums it has a very distinct sound; one witnessed throughout the Assembly’s entire back catalogue. As a three piece they have become more of a forceful unit, sounding tighter and driven to produce a noisier sound. Monaghan’s lyrics again play a major role, blending political poetry and instrumental friction, angrily targeting financial greed and censorship. In the liner notes the story behind each song is fully detailed giving an insight into his thoughts and readings; title track ‘Bug My Ride’ is about increased surveillance following the 2007 New Zealand terrorism raids. The band has previously explored elements of free jazz, new wave and country music, but Bug My Ride sticks firmly to the punk rock genre.
Mr Sterile Assembly is playing three shows in December with Uz jsme doma, a band whose history and legacy deserves a post all on it’s own. Uz jsme doma formed in 1985 in Prague, Czech Republic, when the country was still firmly locked under communism, you can read more about them here.
Bug My Ride can be purchased from trade me or bought at one of Mr Sterile Assembly’s shows for $15.
Mr Sterile Assembly and Uze jsme doma tour
Mr Sterile Assembly- Bug My Ride: MP3
Posted by Nick Fulton under New Zealand, Wellington
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Wed 21 Oct 2009
He’s become known for his extroverted experimental synth pop band So So Modern, but Grayson Gilmour is a little more reserved with his solo output. Famed for playing few live shows, he graces Wellington’s San Francisco Bath House this Saturday in celebration of completing his sixth album, No Constellation.
The year’s been busy for Grayson Gilmour. Having covered a gamut of styles with his previous five albums, he’s been busy developing his more acoustic folk-oriented music to include more symphonic, orchestral pop, putting his degree in composition to good use. “The year’s been really busy in the studio side of things,” Grayson says. “So So Modern’s finished an album, I’ve finished my latest studio album and also started working on short film soundtracks, and a larger body of work for a feature film next year, so I’ve just been at work at home in Wellington for the last six months or so.”
His latest output is explained as a stepping-stone between his former folky flame and the next big move towards something else entirely. It’s “in the middle of some label talks”, he says. “I’m quite excited about a particular person who is keen on releasing the record for me, but it’s a bit hush-hush right now so I can’t really talk about it,” he says.
This comes after many years of working as a solo operation, doing all promo and distribution himself. “It started when I was young as something I liked doing and didn’t really see an end to doing. I wanted to always be writing music and releasing it and seeing what people’s reactions would be to it. And regardless of whether it was good or bad I’d just keep doing it, cos it was something that I really enjoy doing. But now that it’s six albums in I’ve started to think about how it could get received wider, which is why I’ve become open to the idea of releasing through a label instead of doing things myself, which has got its advantages, but it’s also got its disadvantages.”
His band, So So Modern, is on Transgressive Records in the UK and Unter Schafen Records in Germany. “The only thing that gets tiring is writing press releases in the third person! But yeah, I’ve never had a problem doing physical promotion, sending out CDs and stuff like that, I quite like it in fact. I guess I still like the approach of sending out CDs to people and physical copies of things as opposed to just shooting off MP3s in the hopes that someone will listen to them.”
He’s been described as a perfectionist, and this could in part explain the lack of shows. “I continuously recycle or reinvent ideas to eventuate at a point where I feel the song is at its best possible version.” The permanence of the resulting object serves to somewhat dictate his strict regime. A record store employee by day, Grayson says, “A record has got almost an eternal life, so your work is there, on display, for whoever knows how long, and I guess I kind of want that to be the best work it could be.”
With No Constellation he let go of some of the control to his band mates, Troy Cooper (The Actualities, Dial Square) and Chris Conaglen (Standing On Chairs). “We recorded it as a trio, drums, bass and piano. The idea was to try and get more a live feeling to it, which has come across to my ears, but I’m not sure if it really has come across over the whole record, because it was only really the main trio of instruments that was recorded live. Everything else, like the cello parts and the giant xylophone parts and guitar parts and things like that were just all overdubbed later on.
“I’ve played around quite a lot with doubling up the drums in this album, it really lifts the feel of the song when a part comes in and the drums pan hard left and hard right, and you get this big orchestra of drums happening. It actually makes the album feel quite rhythmic focused in a way.
“The drums and the piano were done properly in a studio, but everything else was recorded by me in different locations here and there,” he says. Part of it was done in his hometown of Palmerston North, and the rest he did in his attic bedroom in his Mt Vic flat. “I set up all my instruments and my home recording booth made out of mattresses and duvets and stuff.”
It’s his first record where he’s done the larger part of the recording himself, and this has made the whole process “a lot more relaxed”, he says.
Striving for continuity, Grayson kept the same band he’s worked with in the past. It’s been “the longest run” that he’s worked with the same people on his solo compositions. Now he’s approaching it more like a band – bringing song ideas to practice with his band mates and working them out together.
“It’s definitely a learning curve,” he says. “I’m coming in with a lot of little root ideas to see what the other guys make of them, and they can change them and see if they feel good. I think it’s good because it allows you to see a song in a way you probably wouldn’t see it if you were working on it by yourself, like I usually do. So that’s what I’m opening myself up to now, the idea of working with two other guys that know my music fairly well cos they’ve been playing it with me live, to then see what it’s like to work on new stuff.”
He’ll be working on a different type of project soon, with plans to score a feature film called The Most Fun You Could Have Dying. “That’s a really exciting and interesting opportunity, that’s where I want to take my composition side of things and make use of my degree.
“It seems like between me and this director we’ll be able to come up with something that’s really good. From reading the script it seems like a really moving film. She said her favourite movie was Trainspotting… I wouldn’t say it’s as drugged up as Trainspotting, but it’s definitely got that element of debauchery to it, but in more of a romantic kind of way. And she’s a big fan of post-rocky kind of soundscape stuff, so that’s right up my alley!”
To fit everything in, he’s working on his follow up to No Constellation now, before the former’s even out. “Ideally I’d like to do a little bit of recording maybe before the end of the year, but that might be a big wish, I don’t know if I could actually pull it off! I guess I don’t really plan song writing, it just sort of happens continuously.”
No Constellation is yet to have a release date, but Grayson intends to award his listeners who download it with special early b-side versions of songs from the album, “to show how they were originally conceived. Because of opening my brain to new arrangements, anything from here is going to sound quite different, I hope!” he laughs.
He aims to make his live performances as thoughtful and spotless as his recordings. Originally the lack of shows was an issue of shyness, “I always liked playing in bands cos in a way it’s like playing sport; if you make a mistake you’re part of a team, so no one really notices! This is a terrible metaphor, but if you’re playing a game of tennis, it’s up to you to make the right moves, so that’s how I kind of felt in a way, about playing live originally. It was a shyness/confidence thing. I actually really do enjoy playing, it’s just a matter of making sure that everything is going to be as good as it can be.”
His So So Modern showmanship comes through in his approach to performance. “Something that I’m attempting to work on more is playing live more often, because I like making shows quite special occasions. Because it’s a show, I’m going to put on a really good concert and it’s gonna sound great. In a way it’s just me wanting to give the best performance as I could give the best recording on a CD.”
Grayson’s supporting WHY? at the SFBH on December 18 and is also planning a few “bare-bones kind of shows” for later in the year. “Just me,” he says shyly, “because I did that in the past and it was nerve-wracking, but it was a good experience in the long run.”
Tickets- Under The Radar (w/ free download of ‘Loose Change’)
Grayson Gilmour- Little Victories: MP3
Posted by Sarah Gooding under New Zealand, Wellington
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Fri 9 Oct 2009
Remember back in June when we introduced you to Psychic Powers? Well Nik Brinkman (Over The Atlantic) and Alejandro Cohen (Languis) have just released their latest single ‘Wellington’ as a free download via the RCRD LBL website. The song was originally released (and is still available for purchase) on limited edition pink 7-inch vinyl as part of Geographic North’s You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever series. It’s strictly limited to 300 copies so you better get in real fast if you want one. It costs just $6US and is backed by another new Psychic Powers song, ‘Foreign Photograph’.
The song has a kind of majestic grandeur with a rather epic ’80s new-wave sound drowned in synths and loud electronic drum beats, but it also has some live drums in the mix as well. It is louder and more imposing than their previous EP Frozen and is more abrupt and direct than Over The Atlantic’s fabulous album Dimensions.
Psychic Powers- Wellington: MP3
Posted by Nick Fulton under Los Angeles, New Zealand, Wellington
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