Cheese Toasted

The Checks w/ White Birds & Lemons and The Coshercot Honeys - live review

2006-04-23T23:45:00.000+12:00

The Checks w/ White Birds & Lemons and The Coshercot Honeys - live review by Bree Huntley

The Coshercot Honeys are young purveyors of retro jangle-pop, emerging in the wake of the Checks zeitgeist. Possessing a twee name and a singer who brandishes his microphone much like Morrissey brandished gladiola, they’re very much in the low-key, shambling tradition: no Ed Knowles style pelvic thrusting here, though there were a few shouts of “I love you Sasha!”: evidently some found his microphone twirling alluring. The keyboard and lack of bass reinforced the twee feel. Nothing really original there: they had the meandering guitar and the poppy keyboards, played by a Graham Coxon/Matt-from-Bloc Party lookalike. Fair to middling but pleasant enough.

Devonport denizens White Birds and Lemons are my new pet cause: I’m like an apostle preaching the gospel, sans religiosity. They write good retro pop songs and are musically tight. WB&L were not quite as impressive as the other couple of times I’ve seen them: their greatest asset is Scott Penberthy’s voice, and it was not exploited fully at this performance. His rich, soulful voice can do bluesy wailing alongside Beach Boys style warbling. The band should focus on letting that shine. Of course, they are a very new band and this is completely understandable -- with more performing and more working together, they can iron that out. Having said this, the band occupies a place in my heart, and any performance of theirs is a pleasure. I must say that the perfect integration of Penberthy’s voice and a stomping, yet not overpowering, instrumental remains “Easy Love”: there is a good balance there, which is what the band should aim for. It seems they’ve gained in confidence as they’ve been playing a lot of gigs lately, and their profile should rise.

Hoping desperately that the Checks would make their final New Zealand gig (for a fair while) something to remember, I was not disappointed. This was a show, this was performance: honestly, probably the most electrifying gig I’ve seen. They are a band that benefit from the intimacy of the bar gig; Ed Knowles’ antics and Sven Petterson’s flamboyant guitar soloing are best appreciated in close up. Frontman and guitarist with mystique were in fine form, along with the rest of the band. All the ingredients were there, marvelously there. Knowles howled like a wolf (the beast du jour in music), and, indeed, like Howlin’ Wolf. He also traipsed about the stage, not like he just owned it, but as if he’d bought Mayfair whilst playing Monopoly and covered it with hotels. We had note-perfect renditions of the songs from the EP (“Oh Please”, “What You Heard”, and a particularly fantastic “Mercedes Children”). A female vocalist took to the stage for a duet, “Terrible Easy”; a thousand Shore girls bitched inwardly. The duet itself was fairly subdued in comparison to other Checks songs, Knowles repressing his galaxy-gobbling voice. It had that singsong quality you get on boy-girl duets like the one between Jack White and Holly Golightly, “It’s True That We Love One Another”. There was no ambiguity: everyone present knew that the band was, to coin a phrase, on fire. We all grinned ingenuously; we shivered with delight in unison. Perfectly balancing their swampy, gator-infested rock with retro rock n’roll, they were excellent.

- Bree Huntley

Sigur Ros - live review by Cathrin Schaer

2006-04-23T23:40:00.000+12:00

So what is it with all these multi-instrumentalist nerds with saws from Iceland? Why is it that they feel the urge to band together and make music that sounds like it comes from heaven?
Maybe it’s the way they look. Completely unprepossessing, the four girls of Amina and the four boys from Sigur Ros appear to be shy librarians who have just emerged from their cottage in a distant European forest. Or maybe particularly bookish elves.

Yet the music they make is the sound that angels would, if they could. Somehow, last Monday night, they transformed the St James, from the very back tier of seating to the respectfully silent moshpit, into a church for music. Jolly appropriate for a secular Easter Monday.

But by now (sorry, this review is a bit late) you’ve probably heard from one of your friends – who sobbed and emoted the whole way through and who told you, you’d regret it if you didn’t go - how incredible this concert was. Sigur Ros’ uncategorizable sound tends to make reviewers babble and rant about volcanoes and glaciers and epic soundscapes and, hmm, yes, angels and heaven and stuff. So we’ll try our very best to avoid that - a quick rundown for those fools who didn’t attend will suffice.

Basically the band started off behind a diaphanous screen – hazy and shifting lighting from behind meant you could only see vague silhouettes. In fact, the whole concert was accompanied by delightfully misty pictures, a kaleidoscope of things like fuzzy birdies flying from their perches or what seem to be snowflakes falling in slow motion. Oddly the extremely well executed and very flash pictures and lighting displays reminded mostly of the Rolling Stones concert the night before at Western Springs – and it was such a contrast. The Stones had this giant video screen and their lighting and filmed moments were (as you might expect) also really slick and well done. And OK, so this might not be a fair comparison, but the Rolling Stones visuals didn’t make you feel very much at all (except maybe annoyed at the tall drunk bogun in front of you who kept hoisting his pain-in-the-ass girlfriend onto his shoulders so you couldn’t see anything). Whereas Sigur Ros’ filmic contributions went so well with the emotions they managed to create with their, yep, epic and heavenly soundscapes.
Eventually when that diaphanous screen lifted you could see the band members bashing, pulling and stroking at the mass of instruments on the stage while singer Jonsi Birgisson stood in the middle of the stage and blew everyone away with his incredible and powerful falsetto. And that crazy sweeping sound he makes with his guitar is because he uses a bow from a cello to play his electric guitar.

A good live performance will always add another dimension to the love you feel for your favourite band. They’ll expand on the recorded sounds in your album collection when they play live. And this was so much more than that. Surprising as it may seem, playing Sigur Ros very loud on your stereo doesn’t compare to the sheer organic goodness you feel when you see them live.

As the band once told a British journalist, although their songs suggest epic vistas, they are really about the small things. “Those moments that are really perfect in your life,” Birgisson told the writer. “When you hold somebody's hand and spin around. Being with somebody you love and the smell of their hair.” Often, it comes back to the simplicity and innocence of childhood. “There's no acting, there's no bullshit, there's no mask,” he explained, “I think we seek things that are quite pure, quite honest.”

Awww. Deep sigh. We be feelin' it. Because then the St James shrank - your eyes were blurry with tears, you felt calm, you felt enraged, your ears were begging for more, then you came over all quivery and spiritual and finally, all that mattered was the weird and heavenly symphony that these strangely normal Icelandic folk were making.
And really we may as well stop there because “incredible” is probably the only description that’s actually required. And we’ve already said that.

So to finish, just in case you’re bored with all your mates who keep raving about Sigur Ros, following are some little known factoids about the band.

While onstage in Auckland the singer only said one thing to the audience: “takk”. This is the name of their most recent album but it also means “thanks” in Icelandic.

The night before their concert the band went to see The Rolling Stones at Western Springs.

Apparently more people bought concert tickets than have ever bought Sigur Ros albums in this country.

Back in Iceland the band make music at their own studio, ten miles outside the capital Reykjavik in a converted swimming pool.

Their second album, Ágætis byrjun (which means “An All Right Start”) from 1999 was voted best Icelandic album of the 20th century.

In the mid 90s singer Jónsi, who only has sight in one eye, fronted a band called “Bee Spiders”. Apparently they were a bit like the Smashing Pumpkins.

The name Sigur Rós is actually the name of Jónsi's little sister, except it's spelled Sigurrós. She was born around the same time that the band was formed. This was also the name of his late grandmother

And finally, here’s some kinda gross celebrity Sigur Ros gossip for all you NW readers out there (you know you want it). Apparently when Apple, daughter of Chris Marton of Coldplay and Gwyneth was born Sigur Ros was playing. Gillian Anderson of the X Files uses it as a yoga soundtrack. Tommy Lee of Motley Crue listens to it, curled up in a ball on the floor. And Brad Pitt likes it too. So does David Bowie. Crikey.

- Cathrin Schaer

V for Vendetta - movie review

2006-04-23T23:37:00.000+12:00

There is a certain level of fluidity connected to any film that the Watchowski brothers (writers, did 'Bound' & 'The Matrix') are remotely connected with. It's mainly some smooth steady cam work. They must stipulate it exactly in their scripts. Or something. All their films look the same.

Anyways.

In light of Tony Blair's visit and all, it might be a fine idea of have a gander of V. Worth the price of a ticket, it's a solid choice but be aware of a few things going in. Namely its use of politics as a direct vehicle to get across the different ways people achieve freedom. It's also a mystery, completely over explanatory, and the pacing can be very choppy. The acting is tight enough, Portman does a fine job, as does Hugo Weaving's voice. There are a number of ways of looking at the film, as it makes a big effort to show political, tolerance centered, and governmental issues. Anarchy is kind of shown as utopian and possible, yet through all these ideas we are only given a few solid and fully fleshed out storylines that enable a better understanding of the messages that the film is striving for. As mentioned before, the core of the film lies in the dissection and dissemination of how mental freedom can be achieved. It's a solid theme, well acted out via Miss Portman and well written.

Funnily enough, I kept thinking about '12 Monkeys' throughout the entire film. Films that throw all their weight into issues that are critical of how humans are just total muppets when it comes to creating societies that actually work are difficult to come by. Unfortunately they're few in number, when '12 Monkeys' did reach great critical and commercial success Terry Gilliam (the director) was told that if it wasn't for Brad Pitt the film would have flopped. A bunch of hoo-ha, but there it is. The underlying enjoyment that I namely got out of 'V' was that the thing was even made. Although there are a number of places where the film stumbles with OTT scenes and the editing is painfully dumbed down to make sure that even the guy in the back of the theatre who's been sucking face with his girlfriend is going to have a total grip on the plot. But it doesn't matter all that much because the film has a good message, entertains, and has all these lovely steady cam shots.

- Kimberly Lesch

Live Review : White Birds and Lemons, Don Julio & the Hispanic Mechanic, and Teen Wolf

2006-04-18T11:06:00.000+12:00

Live Review : White Birds and Lemons, Don Julio & the Hispanic Mechanic, and Teen Wolf
by Bree Huntley

Ah, I knew it was going to be a good night when, as my friend and me cruised across the fuzzy borderline between “crappy low rent area” and “The City”, I spotted three dashing young sailor boys. That’s a good omen if I ever saw one. Sighting sailors trolling the streets of Auckland is akin to the ancient Greeks interpreting some particularly lucky bird entrails.

What has to be said for the Schooner is that there is reasonably straightforward access to parking. We scored a free park right outside the venue. Compare this to the kerfuffle involving finding a park before Minuit at Rising Sun a few weeks ago. A park was eventually spotted in one of the terribly sordid back streets behind K Rd, resulting in a stroll through St Kevin’s Arcade and polite nodding to homeless people in Myers Park as we climbed the arduous hilly roads.

Another thing that has to be said for the Schooner is its pleasant décor (this coming from someone who thinks Burger King is the last word in chic) and abundance of seating. Also, on this occasion, an abundance of fragrant, shaggy hair among the punters. There were three bands, in particular, I was excited to see - White Birds And Lemons, Don Julio & The Hispanic Mechanic and Teenwolf – and these were the performances I enjoyed the most. All the bands, though, were quite impressive; I also noticed the sound quality had improved since the last time I was at the Schooner.

Now I am quite mild-mannered; I do not like to lambaste bands. Though I do enjoy thinking up witty ripostes. And there are not many bands that I actually hate. However, I do wish to make it clear that White Birds and Lemons are not “OK” or “good” or any other mealy-mouthed words like that: they were, and are, bloody fantastic! This might be an elementary method of judgment, and it’s obviously not the only indicator, but one of the ways I determine how good I think a band is, is to evaluate how narrow or wide the disparity between their recordings and their live performance is (though I suppose bands with really low budget recordings could be at an advantage!). The sound was just phenomenal, above all vocalist Scott Penberthy’s vocals- it was actually difficult to believe they were live, it was that good. When he did a bit of vocal acrobatics, a mate and I actually clutched our hearts and mock-swooned. Covertly. Scott Penberthy: oh, Scott. When you type “Penberthy” into MS Word it tries to correct it to “Puberty”. Which lets me segue nicely into a discussion on the youth of the group. I don’t know exactly how old the members of White Birds and Lemons are but they do look extremely bright-eyed and dewy-faced to me, making the solidity of both the songwriting and the performance all the more impressive. While unrehearsed sounding jam style music can sometimes be refreshing, you know what’s better? Absolute precision and perfectly balanced group dynamics. Just superb. I’ll mention the vocals again, just to reiterate how magnificent they are: it sounded as if someone had cued up a tape of some old bluesman; it was both wonderful and bizarre to hear such a voice issuing from a skinny white boy. All the old fogies from the ‘serious’ publications raved about the voice of Ed Knowles; now listen to Penberthy. Speaking of the Checks, a few words on what I shall term “The Devonport Renaissance”. There are some seriously exciting new bands emerging from Devonport. My favourites are the Electric Confectionaires and, of course, White Birds and Lemons but there are quite a few more making catchy, dance-worthy indie tunes. They’re all very young and all obscenely talented. Takapuna Grammar is an undercover stage school, I swear. My parents actually lived in Takapuna before it was fashionable, so there. Sadly they moved before I was born, but if I had attended Takapuna Grammar I would probably be the Electric Confectionaires’ manager or their second guitarist or something. Cruel, cruel fate.

Don Julio And The Hispanic Mechanic scored points for all three major categories: stage presence, clothes (ahem), and, wait for it… sound. But first, a shameless anecdote: My friend’s brother actually, like, knows, the frontman. Like, he talked to him and everything and, anyway, he (my friend’s brother) was telling us about him and his good ol’ mate joking about doing joint guitar lessons with kids; a dueling banjos-type affair, I imagine. As I watched the gig, I thought: what would make the lessons even better is if the kids received lessons on stage antics from the Don Julio leader. What a star. He jumped up on the drum kit, writhed round on the floor and generally romped about as if he had, in the words of Morrissey, “exploding kegs between [his] legs”. Proceeding in a linear fashion, I now turn to clothes. The front man sported rather tight skinny jeans, but it was OK: he pulled it off. Not for the first time I looked at male thighs and wished mine were as slender. I was actually hoping to see the purple skinnies again but he had apparently chosen something a bit more demure. Well, that sounded very stalkeresque didn’t it? Yes, I often peer through his bedroom window at night while humming “Brothel Creeper” to myself. The bassist was a revelation: a jumpsuit, alluring eyewear… a wee beauty. The drummer was, well, he was behind the drum kit most of the time, though I did admire his springy bouffant. La musique: Well, I have to say, extremely, extremely impressive. I sensed a definite masculinity to it, more than the obvious masculinity that comes with having an all-male band (ha ha very ha). It was weighty, sultry, densely layered music, with meandering guitars and slow, heavy drumming exhibited most prominently in “Brothel Creeper”. This boys club feel was also in large part due to the mixture of crazy Jimmy Page guitar tricks and showoffy Robert Plant stage presence of the frontman. It wasn’t the scourge of mankind that I call cock rock at all (see ‘Poison’) but it did have that retrograde, strongly male sense. The guitar work was consistently impressive, traversing genre and epoch, and, like White Birds and Lemons, the group worked very well together.

Teenagers and wolves are a potent combination, particularly in the world of film and television, producing the Michael J. Fox masterpiece “Teen Wolf” and the vastly underrated sitcom “Big Wolf On Campus” which starred one of the fictional loves of my life, Merton the geek. Teenwolf, the band, is similarly impressive. The keyboardist Chelsea Cola had cool hair, a stripy t-shirt and mad keyboarding skillz and thus is now a role model. Still smarting from when I was 14 and a friend compared me to lame Ross from Friends because I played the keyboard, I now feel vindicated. Though I do wish people danced when I played “Turkish March”. People will think “like omg that is the lamest, laziest comparison evar!” when I write that Chelsea Cola’s playing reminded me of Amanda from the Dresden Dolls, but I really felt that the theatrical pauses and heavy, plodding style of playing on some songs were similar. It was all eighties/psychedelic keyboard-driven music punctuated with yelps and squeals, and best of all, dialogues between the Sam-from-Lord-of-the-Rings resembling stringsmith Bradley Artist and aforementioned keyboardist. Lyrics referred to lycanthropy (I chuckled because I am a genius and I know what that means) when we didn’t have sudden, bizarre screeches. I must also mention the unexpected falsetto stylings of Mr. Artist, which went over pretty well. Yeah, that’s the word to describe Teenwolf: unexpected. Unexpected but fab. One of my top two Wolf Bands (the other being Wolf Parade), I really enjoyed their performance. I thought their drummer resembled a guy from my English 101 lecture but then I found out their drummer is from Whipping Cats. So apparently not in my English class.

- Bree Huntley

Eavesdrop Listening Party 11 April 2006 - Programme

2006-04-10T16:36:00.000+12:00

(times are approximate)

7.00pm Welcome to the Eavesdrop
We kick tonight off with a couple of tracks from The Howling Bells, from Australia (you might recognise the vocals of Juanita Stein from Waikiki). Low Happening is also set to be making an appearance on The O.C. in April, expect an album by the end of 2006.
And then we have the primary songwriting partnership from the acclaimed Able Tasmans – Graeme Humphreys and Peter Keen with a tease from their forthcoming long player – The Overflow. Get a drink, sit back, relax and enjoy. Welcome to The Eavesdrop. - AT

7.10pm Teddy Thompson – Separate Ways
This is the latest record from the son of folk icons Richard and Linda Thompson (who both make appearances, along with Rufus and Martha Wainwright), As the Times of London exclaimed, "not Since Jackson Browne issued from 1970s California a succession of mournful masterpieces has a songwriter so completely nailed the sense that, in every celebration, the sense of imminent regret hovers... Brilliant". Or if that isn't enough; Q Magazine States, "Finely crafted songs...effortless grace". - MC

7.20pm Mudhoney – Under a Billion Suns
Formerly known as a grunge band – it’s Mudhoney. You might remember the names Mark Arm and Steve Turner from when you used to be obsessed with Nirvana and you read the Seattle family tree. That’s right – Mudhoney survived (literally) all those guys… And, well… they’re still rocking. As much as I’m going through a period of questioning my relations with “rock”, this is still a very good, very rocking good time. Thanks Sub Pop, you guys really look after us. - MC

7.30pm The Vines – Vision Valley
Vision Valley is the Vines’ third album and it’s a brief affair – with nothing over three minutes (‘less you count the epic closing track) – but that makes for a tight, compacted and punchy album with no filler. If you enjoy the idiom of rock and roll then you’ll enjoy this, it’s straight to the point with no fuss. – AT

7.40pm Graham Coxon – Love Travels at Illegal Speeds
Graham Coxon is one of the only celebrities my girlfriend has ever admitted having a long-standing crush on. Therefore I hate the guy, naturally. However, the first Coxon album was killer. Picking up again at the fifth solo (used to be in Blur, blah blah) album, I discover that I still rather like his music. It’s a lot more rock these days; reminiscent of the Buzzcocks and co, but there are still some quirky, pretty moments. In general this guy is nothing but a potential girlfriend stealer, but he is also a genius. Wanker. – MC

7.55pm Mates of State – Bring it Back
Oh CUTE – they’re husband and wife, and they make danceable indie-pop gems! The good thing about Mates of State pop music is that it’s smart, it’s sweet and did I mention they’re married? Cute! Anyway, this new record is their fourth, and I like it lots and lots. By the sounds of it one plays organs and the other is on drums, and they both sing. Radical. I think they even write love songs for each other and stuff. - MC

8.10pm Jane Birkin – Fictions
First let me list some of the people involved in the making of this record: Gonzales, Manu Chao, Beth Gibbons, Jamie Lidell, Johnny Marr… Oui oui, it’s Jane Birkin! It seems that making one brilliant comeback album wasn’t enough, so she’s gone and recorded a collection of superb songs by some of the world’s finest songwriters. Tom Waits, Neil Young, Kate Bush, Rufus Wainwright and many more all get the chanteuse treatment, and with delightful results! Je t’aime to you to, Jane Birkin. – MC

8.30pm Loose Fur – Born Again in the USA
Born out of some kind of too-much-genius spillover; Loose Fur is the excellent “side-project” from Wilco fellows Jeff Tweedy and Glenn Kotche, with the addition of awesome amazing guy JIM O’ROURKE. Supergroup eh? So there are rocking tracks, there are some real pretty tracks – and all with the trademarks left by the various trio members. I prefer Jim’s songs, but they’re all good. It’s all good. Good. This is their second album. It’s good. - MC

8.40pm Giant Drag – Hearts & Unicorns
When Matthew and I were going through this weeks box of CD’s auditioning them for The Eavesdrop, Matthew said “You’ll like Giant Drag”. And guess what – as per bloody usual, he was right. Fronted by guitarist/vocalist Annie Hardy, Giant Drag are a two piece from LA who recently have toured with The Like. Think The Breeders versus Cat Power versus Sonic Youth versus The Sundays versus My Bloody Valentine .. damn just think Giant Drag! This kicks arse. Thanks Matthew! -AT

8.55pm Gerling – 4
Recorded on the same gear that was used to record “Beggars Banquet by the Rolling Stones and “Combat Rock by the Clash – the fourth record from Australian multi-directional rockers Gerling is to be reckoned with. Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Kings of Leon…) recorded the album on the vintage equipment, and then Gerling put it all through their laptop-things creating some weird hybrid of solid 70’s rock and electrono-rock… It’s pretty cool for Aussie music. Oh ha ha. – MC

9.05pm Roots Manuva – Alternately Deep
We’re playing this again this week. Why? Because it’s so damned good! That’s why! (Oh, and because those kind people at Shock gave us some copies to give away, never look a gift-horse in the mouth I say…). With his second album in a year, Rodney Smith aka Roots Manuva reveals a vault of alternative mixes and rarities that are truly brilliant.
Seeing clearer than most, sitting contented with his cheese on toast. – AT

9.15pm Secret Machines – Ten Silver Drops
The internet says that they “blend songcraft and melody with their acclaimed power to sculpt epic, dreamy, neo-psychedelic soundscapes” on this their second full length album. That sounds awful. But in direct contrast, the record itself is quite wonderful – and anyone who knows me, knows that I am a fan of the two-and-a-half minute pop song, so tracks of six to eight minutes usually daunt me – but here, as each track progresses rather than repeats, it’s like you get 3 or 4 songs in each one! - MC

9.30pm Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – self titled
With easily one of the best band names, ever, why would you choose anything but eponymous title for your album? These New Yorkers are sitting on the fence between super-stardom and obscurity – David Bowie has even been spotted at their gigs! This record was initially self released and they sold over 20,000 units by mail order before signing to a label. Why? Because, simply, it’s beautifully brilliant. - AT

9.50pm Xiu Xiu – La Foret
"La Foret" is the most harrowing and beautiful Xiu Xiu record to date; waltzing between acoustic parts so intimate you can hear his shoe scooting on the studio floor as he inches closer to the mic, and pounding dark-wave thunderstorms where electronics go Mogwai-loud and Jamie screams over the hissing, spitting deluge. Give your heart to the darkness; the rewards are immense.
Xiu Xiu play live at the Schooner Tavern, April 22nd with Pumice and Phelps & Munro. - MC

10.00pm The Concretes – In Colour
Of course we love them; they’re Swedish and they’re good looking and they’re indie poppers! I’d say this is for fans of Belle & Sebastian and Camera Obscura… not in a bad way. More like, “Attention fellow fans of twee pop! There is a new record for us all to love! Haters! There’s a new record to hate!” Even Jens Lekman is hiding in the mix somewhere! Perfect summery pop for a rainy day. La la! - MC

10.10pm The (International) Noise Conspiracy – Armed Love
From Sweden T(I)NC were inspired by Phil Ochs' sage comment that the perfect rock band would be a "combination of Elvis and Che Guevara.". They hybrid 60’s garage thrash with 70’s punk and a clear left-wing agenda. And here, this record, perhaps purposefully aimed at a US market, is produced by Rick Ruban – but was recorded pretty much live, the basic tracks were finished in five days with very few overdubs.
T(I)NC make energetic music for you to dance to and you can bear witness to that yourself as they play at The Kings Arms on Thursday this week with supprt from The Mint Chicks. - AT

10.25pm Morrissey – Ringleader of the Tormentors
Did you hear that Morrissey turned down $5M (presumably US$) for a Smiths re-union, perhaps indicative of his apparent wealth or perhaps a measure of his current regard for Johnny Marr, or probably, it’s a little of each. He himself said that money didn’t come into it and that “I do what I do because it's all that I am”. Typical Morrissey! What also is typical Morrissey is the brilliant new record Ringleader of the Tormentors. -AT

10.35pm Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Show Your Bones
Yeah, yeah we played some tracks from this album last time. We know. But c’mon, it’s the NEW RECORD FROM YEAH YEAH YEAHS! And, frankly it’s destined to be huge, huger than huge, in fact. My personal pick for the dance-floor is Phenomena which appropriates some lyrical content from Grand Master Flash’s White Lines. This tune will get any and every party rocking this year, mark my words. My girlfriend also reckons it’ll be big in the strip clubs – I am beginning to worry about her past… - AT

10.50pm Dresden Dolls – Yes Virginia
Were you one of us who were stunned by the performance by Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione at the Kings Arms in December 2004? I have to admit, until that show I was merely a cursory fan of the duo, but I was captured by their theatre and presence and have been eagerly awaiting this second album ever since, and I’m now happily satisfied – at least for a while until I start wishing they’d play here again.
Oh, and, the photography on the album is by our very own Mr Troy Ferguson (The Rock and Roll Wire, bFM / www.84tigers.com) - AT

INTERVIEW : Hannah and Rebecca from The Mid-Week Swoon on 95bFM

2006-04-10T16:10:00.000+12:00

Hannah and Rebecca host the Mid-Week Swoon on 95bFM every Thursday morning 4-7am (or Wednesday night depending on your perspective, I guess!).
Recently thge show made bFM history by becoming teh first graveyard show to get a sponsor.
On top of that, it's a bloody good show, so I thought I'd ask them a few questions...

How long have you been doing your show?

We've been doing a graveyard show since July last year. The Midweek Swoon evolved into its current form late last year.

How did you two meet? Did you know eachother before the show or did you become kindred spirits through the radio?

IIt was an indie speed dating occurance.

First week of semester one, last year, and in our first media studies tutorial, we had to do the awkward meet-and-greet. There were frequent glances made across the room with periods of uncomfortable, extended eye contact.

Despite both being socially inept on most normal occassions around people we admire and don't already know, we managed to stumble our way through a "hi, I like your bag" and a "oh wow, thanks, I liked your choice in favourite tv program." We sat next to each other in the following lecture, drew faces onto our hands, sat stiffling laughter for two hours, and were friends for life.

...then we conspired a plan and managed to get on the radio early in the morning together.

Do you plan out your playlists? Do you have a rough idea of what you are going to play when? or do you just go with the flow?

Hannah's an audioblog trawler, while Rebecca's an I-already-own-the-full-album-Hannah.
So there is planning of tracks, burning of CD's each week with those tracks on them, filling of CD wallets, and a fair bit of last minute decisions.

Tell us about the name of your show, we get the "Mid-week" bit, that's rather self explanatory...

Swoon is a black and white art house film written and directed by Tom Kalin, released in 1992. It is an account of the 1924 Leopold and Loeb murder case, focusing more on the homosexuality of the killers than other movies based on the case. It starred Daniel Schlachet (as Loeb) and Craig Chester (as Leopold).

Swooning over anyone you can hint to right now?

With this Rebecca pulls her jacket up and over her head and Hannah sinks into her scarf with a smirk on her face.

No, there isn't. maybe. yes. maybe.

Do you have swooners for you? Like, are there any regular listeners who call in every week and stuff?

The plus fourty, truck-driving/security guard/courier/father-of-two, male bracket is our niche.

So, like, you have the FIRST Graveyard shift on bFM to be sponsored... how'd that happen??

We're people who possess unusual innate abilities in some field or activity. Not radio, but The Black Crow Cafe is super-my-goodness-awesome and wanted to put their name on a graveyard that we happen to host anyway.

What was the reaction to that at the rest of bFM?

Good... it's money, isn't it? We got a pat on the back for being promotionally pro-active (in that we suggested to converse on-air at quarter to six in the morning that we thought that they should give us new shoes because we like them - good thing is, we prefer food).

Have you thought about podcasting for those of us who ACTUALLY sleep?

No. Well, yes. But no, we aren't going to pod-cast even if we knew how. We really don't think any of our attempts at humour will trancend well into any form of "reasonable" listening hours. It's definately a ' you-had-to-be-there-at-5.26am' deal.

How do you keep awake on a Thursday morning?

With considerable difficulty?

Do you go to bed BEFORE your show or sleep all day on Thursdays?

We have ambitions for a regular sleeping pattern; our goals are often not met.

What do you think of the current state of bFM? What direction do you think it's heading and whats your take on this?

It's just lovely. Like a whole lot of people holding hands in a big circle chanting "we care."
Being circular, we're not to sure quite what direction it is heading.. but I'm sure it'll have music in it. One would hope anyway.

What annoys you the most about bFM?

We wouldn't get up at 3am once a week (or live in the offices between lectures in Hannah's case) if there was anything that annoyed us about it. bFM is quite remarkable in being one of the few things in our lives that don't get us figitting with frustration.

Really, it just earns itself a constant High-Five.

What (apart form you guys!) is the best thing?

We aren't so sure why you felt the need for the added specificity in the brackets Andrew..

..we may, or may not, but really do, think everyone up at b is the bees-knees. Just having our first names and a non-illustrative picture on the same shedule makes us need to sit down with big grins on our faces. To say we look up to them doesn't really do them all justice. The bagels are pretty spectacular too.

What bands / artists are you currently swooning over? Tell us about them

Luke Buda's Special Surprise has Hannah buckling over into a goopey heap of happiness
Cat Power's The Greatest has an equal effect on both
Mr. David Viner's - This Boy Don't Care has Rebecca buckling over into a bluesy heap of swoon
The Boy Least Likely To's The Best Party Ever should be listened to and myspace top8'ed by many more people
The Magic Numbers
The Raconteurs
Belle & Sebastian's The Life Pursuit of course..
The Greenhorne's Sewed Soles - do we really have to do more than just mention these names for an understanding of mutual appreciation to be established?

And mix cd's/tapes various good folk have made us...

Tell us when it's an appropriate time to stop...

The Opensouls, Connan & the Mockasins, Whipping Cats, TeenWolf, Seu Jorge, Black Keys, M.I.A., Richard Hawley, The Recoys... Ella Fitzgerald, Otis Redding, Otis Rush, Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, Little Barrie, The Shins, Saturday Looks Good To Me, Smoosh, The Supremes, The Mountain Goats, Kings of Convinience, Deerhoof, Nouvelle Vauge, Neko Case, Jordan O'Jordan, Shout Out Louds, Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah!, So So Modern, Cream, The Recoys, Peaches, Gillette, The Blow Justin Timberlake, Tegan & Sara, Oh No! Oh My!, Pants Yell!, Pas/Cal, SJD, The Sneaks, The Kinks, Phoenix Foundation, Fat Freddys, Shaky Hands, Ponies in the Surf, Wolf Parade, Sea Wolf, Sigur Ros, The White Stripes, Xiu Xiu, The Zombies...

...it's not time to stop.. my hands just getting tired...

CURRENT TOP FIVE TRACKS (from each of you) please

Please refer to the difficulty had above to be brief - there is no way that either of us could ever conceive narrowing ourselves down to five tracks each.

REVIEW : The Romanovas, The Tutts and Cat!Cat!Cat!

2006-04-10T16:05:00.000+12:00

REVIEW : The Romanovas, The Tutts and Cat!Cat!Cat! at the Schooner Tavern- Saturday 8 April
by Bree Huntley

The Romanovas, young and full of that electrifying youthful vitriol, brought a dash of keen amateurism to proceedings- amateurism that was funny and endearing rather than annoying. The enthusiasm was contagious, they grinned like loons at each other as they played and chattered amongst themselves and to the audience, commenting, a tad nervously, on the quietness of the venue. The vocalist, ostensibly named Amelia SkeleWaggySkeleton Bon Bon, has a stage name to rival Chris Chinchilla (ex- Art Brut) and Kobé Winona (from one of my fave new bands, Elle Milano). She parodied grandmaster of cheese DJs, whispering, “This next one’s a slow jam. For the laydeeees…” She was an attention-grabbing vocalist, with her highly inflected meandering wail. The group have some good songs, there’s no doubt about that- “1/2 Price Bitch” was a standout- and a welcome dose of originality. What they lack is nothing that can’t be gained over time and from practising; they just need some polish, especially in their live performances. It’s just like showing your assignment to your tutor before you have to hand it in, so you can neaten it up and gain a few points. However, it would be great if they could get this polish without losing their genuine, uncheesy stage presence. To extend my metaphor into the realms of redundancy, it would be like your tutor improving your essay, while making sure to preserve your best points and your own phrasing.

The Tutts, the Tutts. There was a fair amount of rock star posturing, there were deliberately straggly and askew coiffures, there was a smoke machine, and there were strobe lights, evoking embarrassing memories of discos I went to when I was twelve. But I digress. It could be wagered that the Tutts been studying old tapes of The Tube with Jools and Paula, such was the influence of the eighties on their performance. Suggestions of The Cure, in particular (in fact, smear some red lippy on the vocalist and you’re away), and modern eighties revivalist bands like The Bravery were, actually, less suggestions than tributes. The integration of their influences was about as subtle as a slap in the face with an oversized fish. But now I’ve got that out of the way, it has to be said that the Tutts do what they do very well: none of its members are lacking in musicianship. It’s a trap anyone can fall into, I suppose, but wanting to be as good as your favourite bands shouldn’t mean imitating them. As they clearly have the musical ability, it would be rewarding to hear them subdue their dominant influences and look for some new ideas and forms.

Cat!Cat!Cat! – I knew I would like this performance, partly because I’d heard their celebrated song “Crushed (By The Cute Boy)” and partly because I adore bands with unique grammar in their names. The headliners were the shyest of the lot, and bassist Shaun had that whole lowered-eyelids,“I’m-not-being-coquettish”, Richey Manic thing going on (minus eyeliner and “4 REAL” and plus instrumental ability). Having what the other two bands lacked – experience and original, awesome songs – Cat!Cat!Cat! gave an excellent performance- vocals, guitars and rhythm section working in perfect synergy. Whilst trying to convert some plebeian mates into realizing the wonder of the Smiths by playing Louder Than Bombs in the car, one remarked, “I’ve heard more bass in songs by the White Stripes.” Undeterred, I prepared to launch into a dissertation on the genius of Andy Rourke on “Girl Afraid”, but that’s neither here nor there. The point of that was I can recognize a good rhythm section, and Cat!Cat!Cat!’s was very strong, anchoring the songs, providing ballast and a sense of underlying musical direction. This friction between the melodious female vocals and the meaty rhythm section was key to my enjoyment of the band’s sound. Sadly, my first and last chance to see Cat!Cat!Cat! gig, as this was their last performance in Auckland.

- Bree Huntley

The Devonport Day Out

2006-04-02T21:53:00.000+12:00

REVIEW by Bree Huntley

Ah, the Devonport Day Out: what a day, what a day of unfettered revelry by the seaside. Devonport is adored by me for two reasons: firstly for its great new bands, secondly for its topnotch chippy. Needless to say, this review will focus on the former.

The first anniversary (or thereabouts) of the Electric Confectionaires first live gig, the Devonport Day Out was like some sort of indie commune, where stars mingled among yeomen. (An aside: Don’t you just love it when you can’t tell the band members from the audience? At this event, it was attributable to the youth of the bands and the fashion sense of the revelers. A couple of times I was surprised to notice people I had assumed were punters climbing onstage.) I saw Jaisi from the Electric Confectionaires outside the dairy, but we were like two ships passing in the night. Well, more accurately, one of the ships had its lights on and could see the other ship, while this other ship was sailing merrily by, averting its gaze from the first ship. Ahem.

Such a relaxed, happy atmosphere: I didn’t even witness any road rage from drivers waiting at the zebra crossings, which were in almost constant use. I even braved the dance floor/ patch of grass. Nobody cared if you moved like a robot on speed; in fact, they embraced it.

Families with young children mingled among indie kids. Despite some amazing contenders, best dancer had to go to a little toddler who decided to start rocking out in style. And this wasn’t half-arsed Girls Aloud dancing, this was crazy spastic indie dancing, complete with jerky limbs (enhanced by the fact that the wee lass couldn’t actually walk perfectly yet). This kid had rhythm!

The lineup was as follows:
1. The Coshercot Honeys: self-described “psychobilly madness”
2. Tyre Damage: a band of 13 year olds with a virtuoso lead guitarist Josh, who performed the old play your guitar behind your head trick, and they also had a gutsy female vocalist. Cover “Free Falling” was really well executed.
3. White Birds and Lemons
4. Dionysus, fully embracing the indie ethos with their twee Belle & Sebastian-esquely titled “Cigarettes and Honeysuckle” (Sample lyric: “I smoke cigarettes and you smoke honeysuckle / And that’s the way it goes”). Points to the vocalist for his awesome red shades.
5. The Earlybirds: Stripes a common theme with their attire. Jackson Fitzgerald’s hat was a wee beauty. “Bright Lights” and “Paperback Love” were highlights.
6. Electric Confectionaires

It was interesting to note the common influences the bands had. There was the Hendrix, of course; there was the Orange Juice-esque eighties jangle pop thing going on, as well as sixties British guitar group inspirations, from bands like the Kinks. The whole park setting and the retro musical stylings evoked, for me anyway (!), the “The Village Green Preservation Society” LP with its emphasis on close-knit communities and longing for a bygone era. One wonders if this donning of dapper sixties suits, this rifling through Mum and Dad’s old records is really just a craving for what we imagine to be a simpler time, free of terrorists and gangsta rap. (Although, I must admit, the sixties did rock in terms of music. And clothes.) When I say “one” I mean ‘me’, and when I say “wonder” I mean ‘spends a ridiculously huge amount of time pondering philosophical and sociological concerns in relation to popular music’.

Now, perhaps you have noticed the lack of elucidation beside entries 3 and 6 above. Was I so singularly unimpressed that I couldn’t be bothered to jot down a couple of comments. Ha ha! Nay, nay and thrice nay.

Henceforth I shall devote the remainder of this review to the two most impressive performances: that of the Electric Confectionaires (but of course!) and that of White Birds and Lemons- the dark horse, the underdog of the bands, the Rocky of rock, the ‘that Kiwi guy who won the gold in running at the Commonwealth Games’ of groups. Maybe I’m getting a mite too excited, but after seeing this band, of which I’d heard very little, it seemed criminal for them to be so obscure. Having said that, they did only form near the end of last year. This is surprising: the group has a tightness usually associated with longtime band mates. In trying to find the words to describe their performance, I’m oscillating wildly between headmaster speak (eg. “superb” and “commendable effort, lads”) and inarticulate fangirling (e.g. “White Birds and Lemons are liek omgz awesum!”). First and foremost, The Voice. Vocalist Scott Penberthy was just magnificent, there is no other word for it. His tortured, bluesy wail is not thin and reedy; it’s rich and full-bodied like a fine wine (not that cheap wine in a box crap I saw people guzzling). He was, I must say, a pleasure to listen to – oh God, am I sounding weird yet?

“Easy Love” was beautiful. It’s the kind of song you feel with your whole body- OK, I have definitely strayed into the realm of the weird now. I’m sitting here, streaming it through Myspace and I’ve yet to tire of it. It’s immensely beat driven, with Raif Dickens supplying extremely danceable percussion. The guitars have an underlying quirkiness, and manage to sound both rambling and to retain that Franz Ferdinandish jagged tightness. It’s as if the guitar lines start to “wander off” and then are reined in, this tension supplying the key to the song.

As I write, White Birds and Lemons have 143 Myspace friends, a number that should rapidly increase if the band continues with performances like this. Well, they definitely deserve to, that’s all I can say.

“Is everyone excited to see the Electric Confectionaires? Me too, me too.” Thus spake the MC of the Devonport Day Out, and truer words were never spake.

The Electric Confectionaires (and please note I’ve taken it upon myself to trial possible shortened versions of the Electric Confectionaires’ name) took the stage in consummate style. To begin, a word about their choices of attire. Lead singer Jaisi Sheehan sported a huge fur coat: not quite as eyecatching as the white catsuit he donned at the Big Day Out, but impressive nonetheless… and that was the Big Day Out- I suppose it did call for something Super Fantastisch. The other fashion icon (well, my fashion icon, anyway) was Haddon Smith (keyboards, trumpet and harmonica), who donned a white tie with red polka dots, and had mismatched colourful buttons on his suit jacket… in other words, a couture dream, as always. Marvellous.

The highlights of the Lolly Boys’ (my friend suggested this one) set were single “All My Love”, and of course “Piece of My Heart” while “Chimpanzee” was fun and cute.

The best of the three times I’ve seen the Leccies, I enjoyed their short, sharp set: it was wonderful, and didn’t overstay its welcome. Also, I cannot go without mentioning the barbershop quartet style piece they performed, showing off the fact that the boys have both enthusiasm and talent in spades- they’re also connoisseurs of a multitude of genres, drawing from a range of influences, as far reaching as Jimi Hendrix and hints of Britpop.
Excellent, but I’ve come to expect that from them!

- Bree Huntley

Interview with Inge Johansson of The (International) Noise Conspiracy

2006-03-30T15:33:00.000+12:00

In 1998, fascinated by a quote from singer/songwriter Phil Ochs that "the perfect rock outfit would be a combination of Elvis and Che Guevara,", guitarist/vocalist Lars Strömberg and lead vocalist Dennis Lyxzén, from Sweden formed The (International) Noise Conspiracy.

T(I)NC set out to use their music as an attack against capitalist culture at large by taking the universal idea of popular culture and molding the basis of its phenomenon into statements of resistance. They have released four albums including their latest, produced by Rick Rubin, Armed Love.

T(I)NC play Auckland's Kings Arms, thanks to Velvet Tiger, with support from The Mint Chicks on Thursday 13 April - the night before Good Friday.

Milana Radojcic interviewed the bassist Inge Johansson...

Milana :
Your latest album, Armed Love, has gone in a bit of a different direction from the previous recordings. How much of that do you think is due to it being produced by Rick Rubin, best known for his work with rap and metal?
Inge :
First – We were all fans of Rick Rubin before we started to work with him. Bands like Public Enemy and Slayer has had a big influence on all of the members of T(i)NC. And he is one of the few producers out there that you actually know what he looks like. He’s almost like a rock star in that sense.
Rick and us had pretty much the same idea of what we wanted to do with this record, but of course you can tell when you listen to the record that it’s a “Rick-record”. He wanted to capture the sound of the band live, and that’s basically what the record is! It’s just us, in a room, playing our music with very very few overdubs. I think we finished the basic tracks in five days, which is fast considering it’s a major label release.

Milana :
Since the release of The First Conspiracy in 1999, there has usually been only a year between recordings. However, it took three years for Armed Love to be created. Do you feel that worked in your favour and allowed you to develop your ideas more or do you prefer the fast-paced production of the previous albums?
Inge :
It didn’t take three years for Armed Love to be created. It took about half a year to write, rehearse and record the record. But then the album was delayed due to label issues that was out of our control. We have actually started to work on a new record now and I’m excited to record a new record as soon as possible.

Milana :
In the liner notes of Survival Sickness, instead of including lyrics, you have explored the ideas behind each song. In the liner notes of A New Morning, Changing Weather, before each song lyric there is a quote from various writers, academics, political activists, other musicians as well as a recommended list of books specific to that song.
I have read in an interview that this time around you allowed yourselves to be more straightforward with your lyrics and politics. Is this why the liner notes of Armed Love only include the lyrics without other additional information?
Inge :
Yes. I do think the lyrics speak for themselves. And that’s also thanks to Rick Rubin. He tortured Dennis a lot when it came to the structure of the lyrics and so on, but I really think that was a good thing for him to do. For the first time it'’ actually easy to sing along to our songs. And that makes them more powerful. And we didn’t want to do the same old thing over again.

Milana :
The (International) Noise conspiracy has been described as “perfect symbiosis of Elvis and Che Guevara". When writing songs, how do you go about finding a balance between the two?
Inge :
We try not to compromise with either the music or the message, which can be hard sometimes. But we feel just as passionate about music as we do about the ideas of changing the world, and that mix has worked before. Look at bands like The Clash or Public Enemy or Rage against The machine, they manage to combine timeless songwriting with radical politics and that’s the concept and tradition we feel inspired by.

Milana :
Radical politics are clearly a huge influence on The (International) Noise Conspiracy. What are other major influences on your music that you want people to know about?
Inge :
Inspiration is everywhere. It’s not like that we are reading heavy German philosophy 24/7. Even though I’m a materialist and a Marxist, my politics has firsthand always been based upon the things I see close to home. Growing up in a working class community in the north of Sweden shaped a lot of my ideas and thoughts.

Milana :
Your live shows have been described as high ”energy, infectious and acrobatic”. Now that we know what to expect from you, what do you expect from us, as this is your first tour of New Zealand?
Inge :
I don’t know what to expect – I’m just very, very excited!

Milana :
A statement by Emma Goldman, “If I can’t dance to it, it is not my revolution” is something that you have quoted in interviews previously. Why is this important to you?
Inge :
It sums up so much what this band is all about and what politics should be all about. Politics to us has nothing to do with middle aged white men in suits and ties. Politics to us is about a driving passion to be a part of a movement that will change something and if there’s no place for music, love, passion or dancing in politics, we don’t want to have anything to do with it.

Milana :
When kids are dancing at your shows, do you see them as taking part in some kind of a revolution regardless of whether or not they know or even care about your message?
Inge :
No. When we are on stage we just try to combine all the elements of the band – the music, the looks, the message, the volume, the dancing and it’s up to everyone in the audience to do what they want with what we try to give.

Milana :
This brings me to my final question (which is actually from my mum!), would you consider covering ABBA’s "Thank You For The Music" for your next album?
Inge :
No. We have political issues with ABBA. We are, what we in Sweden call, “proggare” and therefore we are against ABBA.

The (International) Noise Conspiracy w/ The Mint Chicks - Kings Arms 13 April 2006

The Eavesdrop Listening Party - Programme for 28 March 2006

2006-03-27T17:42:00.000+12:00

Richard Julian - Slow New York
How did that Norah Jones creep sneak back into our playlist two weeks in a row? Through the gosh-darned back door is how! With a record partly produced and featuring the aforementioned daughter of Ravi Shankar, you always have to be careful. But with comparisons to such artists as Randy Newman, Lyle Lovett, and even John Prine – it seem there's more to Richard Julian than being the guy with glasses who helps Norah out sometimes. Check it out, it's not bad… - MC

Michael Messer – Lucky Charms
Michael Messer has a reputation as a virtuoso acoustic slide guitarist, so this album is rather unexpected – as he mixes, rock, soul, blues, turntables and old vinyl, loops and world rhythms to interesting effect – producing an accessible and contemporary record. It’s certainly worth a listen or two. – AT

The Robocop Kraus – The Think They Are The Robocop Kraus
Yeah, I know, we played this record to you last year; but finally it has been released in New Zealand – and so it bloody well should be, because its brilliant. The Robocop Kraus are German AND they are funny - that doesn’t happen very often, so sit up and take note. One notable Auckland deejay, respected for being three steps ahead of everyone else and knowing everything about everything, asked for a copy of this – “have you got that record by those gay Germans”. – AT

She Wants Revenge – self-titled
Joy Division are back with a new record.
She Wants Revenge are, in fact, a duo - Justin Warfield and Adam Bravin (aka DJ Adam 12) who met as kids in the San Fernando Valley in 1986 – who, with this project, wear their influence almost ridiculously on their collective sleeve –Peter Hook’s New Order side project was called Revenge; and the lead single is called Tear You Apart. Either they are simply proud of the references or they figure ‘the kids’ won’t have heard of Joy Division – after all Girls Aloud hadn’t when Troy Ferguson asked them – although they did barely recognize New Order as “that band who sound like Daft Punk”. – AT

The Zutons – Tired of Hangin’ Around
The Zutons are set to follow up their debut Who Killed The Zutons in April, with the Stephen Street-produced Tired of Hangin’ Around. This song is all we have as a teaser, so far – the radio single, Why Won’t You Give Me Your Love? And it’s pretty damned good I reckon; I look forward to featuring the album more fully at Eavesdrop soon. – AT

Band of Horses – Everything All the Time
I like this other person's review better than the one I wrote:
"Guitarist/vocalist Ben Bridwell and bassist Mat Brooke formed Band of Horses in 2004 after the dissolution of their nearly ten-year run in northwest melancholic darlings Carissa's Wierd. Buoyed by Bridwell's warm, reverb-heavy vocals (which channel a strange brew of Wayne Coyne, Neil Young, and Doug Martsch), the group's woodsy, dreamy songs ooze with amorphous tension, longing, and hope. Both raggedly epic and delicately pensive, this is an album painted gorgeously in fragile highs and lows." – not MC

The Charlatans – Simpatico
Did you know that this is The Charlatan’s ninth studio album and is the follow up to 2004’s Up At The Lake? I was about ready to write something about the inevitability, after the re-invention (and, all-too-often, poorly) of the 1980s of a re-interest in the 90’s. But it appears that The Charlatans actually never went away – and pleasantly, it appears, with this record, at least – never went stale. I have to admit to being a little bit surprised by how good this is! – AT

Roots Manuva – Alternatively Deep
Little known fact; NZ Indie Music Website Cheese on Toast is named after a Roots Manuva lyric – from Witness (One Hope) – “I see clearer than most / I sit here contented with this cheese on toast”. But, enough with the self-referencing, Andrew. Roots Manuva is, in my opinion, one of the most interesting things in modern hip hop, and Alternatively Deep is a collection of unreleased and rare mixes and songs which are guaranteed to make any Roots Manuva fan start salivating. – AT

The Puddle – Songs for Emily Valentine
Recorded in 1992; this is considered to be the great lost Puddle album. Now, thanks to Powertool Records, we can finally hear it! Featuring would-be pop hits from start to finish, 'Songs for Emily Valentine' is essential listening for NZ music historians and fans of "the Dunedin sound". You may remember the song "Southern Man" from being THE GREATEST POP SONG EVER WRITTEN. Rumour has it that George D Henderson is at it again; gigging and recording his next masterpiece. Thanks Powertool! - MC

Pretty Girls Make Graves – Elan Vital
After the acclaimed “A New Romance” comes Seattle based Pretty Girls Make Graves follow up with the addition of the keyboardist Leona Marrs. The material on this record was pretty much road tested to hell with the band playing around the globe with Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, and Death Cab For Cutie – and these tracks passed the warrant of fitness with flying colours. – AT

Shaky Hands – Cut Off Your Hands
Auckland band Shaky Hands used to be called Nova Echo; I didn’t used to like them all that much to be honest – I once likened them to Raspberry Coke… the idea seemed good at the time, but it tasted funny. But, with the departure of one member, who I can only assume, now, to be the Raspberry, they have become, undeniably, one of the best new bands in the country – with kinetic live performances and infectious songs and, now, a superbly recorded EP. I love this! – AT

Chris Knox & the Nothing – self-titled
It's almost dangerous, to give Chris Knox a band. He was almost containable as a solo artist; we knew what to expect. Now he's gone and released a record that simultaneously defies what you think you know of him, and backs up all the hope you ever had that he'd remember how great he is… It's a genuine pleasure to report that this LP is packed with the prettiest, most volatile, and enjoyable Chris Knox songs in my recent memory. He's even started wearing trousers! Just kidding. - MC

Luke Buda – Special Surprise
Surprise! It's a very special new album… from the Phoenix Foundation's Lukasz Buda. This is not the bitter "I want to be more famous than the other guys" record; rather a collection of kick-ass songs that Buda has been hiding under his hat for a bit. There are moments where inevitably it sounds like his "other" band, but it's also a platform for new and mind-bending ideas to take shape. Great!Pop!Record! - MC

Rogers Sisters – Invisible Deck
Q - How do you avoid the all-to-often ill fated ‘bad sophomore album syndrome’?
A – You release a “mini-album” after your debut bridging the four-year gap between full length albums; thus not disappearing off the radar all-together while at the same time allowing your band to develop sufficiently, progressing forward without losing the important sparks that made your band awesome in the first place.
This record is still danceable and brutal, but more complex and less calculable than before. Well done, Rogers Sisters, top marks. – AT

Morrissey – Ringleader of the Tormentors
IT'S THE NEW MORRISSEY ALBUM. It's pompous, it's emotive, it's rocking, and it's produced by the legendary Tony Visconti… IT'S THE NEW MORRISSEY ALBUM. Touted by many as a grand return to form, his best solo album, etc… IT'S THE NEW MORRISSEY ALBUM. There are track titles like 'Dear God, Please Help Me' and 'I'll Never Be Anybody's Hero Now"… that's right… IT'S THE NEW MORRISSEY ALBUM. You heard it here… tonight… it's… - MC

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Show Your Bones
Finally, the long awaited follow up to the 2003 debut is here; and it’s a more polished and, to my ears, more cohesive record. Perhaps this is no surprise with Alan Moulder at the production desk. “Fever To Tell” showed us a glimpse of promise but this record delivers in full. You will have heard the lead-single Gold Lion by now, so we’re playing the Nick Zinner remix of that track (which isn’t actually on the album, it’s a b-side). Incidently, my girlfriend is the envy of many with her YYY t shirt she found at an op-shop for $3. True. – AT

Stereolab – Fab Four Suture
Stereolab release their best album in a long time. No disrespect to the band, but this is a total return to poptastic form! How come it's so damn good? It could be because the record is a collection of 7" singles the band have recently released (and are yet to release)… So, literally every song is a single! For those who've felt Stereolab were just going through the motions (and sucked after that girl got bike-killed), think again... oui oui! - MC

Mogwai – Mr Beast
Scottish quiet-loud experts Mogwai are back, with ten more aural treats! This time around there are no sprawling twenty minute epics (the longest track is five minutes…) and business seems to have been booming. The band has kept it interesting; partly by upping the production level, employing some ominous vocal, and also by doing what they do best: penning beautiful and/or blistering tunes that kill you. - MC

Minuit, Rising Sun 25 March - review

2006-03-26T21:41:00.000+12:00

Album release party for Minuit’s The Guards Themselves at Rising Sun on Saturday 25 March.
Review By Bree Huntley

It’s a testament to both the musicianship of Minuit and the stage presence of, in particular, vocalist Ruth Carr, that someone like me, who is less than an expert on any kind of electronica enjoyed the gig so thoroughly. Most of the songs on my iPod are categorized under Indie and it s various subgenres (“Indie Pop”, “Indie Folk”, “Wry Anecdote-Based Indie”, etc.). My friend, who also loved it, usually opts for the sweet sounds of Herbs and their ilk. Minuit didn’t take the stage until a little after 1am, but before that we were treated to the musical stylings of the intriguingly named Funknslocuts & the Kurnel MC plus Mr Boinkin and the Mank. Performing immediately before Minuit was Nick D (that bloke from C4, to me). Most audience members were seated or loitering by the bar before Minuit came on, however: preserving their energy, perhaps? A couple of brave souls did venture out onto the dancefloor around midnight or so, however, demonstrating moves that appeared to derive from some bizarre Druidic cult. (Oh, it is so easy to say harsh words now, but anyone who has seen me dance knows the sad truth.)

Springing onto the stage, Minuit got right into it, and we were gifted with “Except You” earlier than expected, as the second song, which was a bonus. A key reason why I find Minuit so appealing is that they have recognizable songs, and not just repetitive droning background noise laced with endlessly looping vocals. Hearing the openings of the two biggest crowd pleasers, “Fuji” and “Except You”, was akin to hearing the opening bars of a song like “Seven Nation Army”. Without compromising their musical integrity, Minuit are enjoyable for breakbeat dilettantes as well as connoisseurs.

The group benefits hugely from having a singer fronting them, unlike other electronica groups who use faceless guest vocalists, and therefore can sometimes lack a cohesive style, and mainstream appeal. Carr has acknowledged her similarity to Martina Topley Bird, who provided female vocals for Tricky. She could also be likened to other trip hop singers such as Portishead’s Beth Gibbons, with her ethereal yet twisted voice. It must be said, Carr is not just any old frontperson. Wriggling and dancing around the stage like someone who has well exceeded the recommended daily intake of Red Bull, she was the backbone of the show, holding the interest of punters throughout. Inexplicably, the animated and slightly camp hand actions that accompanied some of the lyrics reminded me of the Spice Girls circa “Stop”. Ah, youth. Although it is a bit more difficult to bust out the moves with your hands otherwise occupied, DJs Ryan Beehre and Paul Dodge participated gamely, contributing a jerking background to Carr’s frontstage antics.

Overall, the gig was a success, with Minuit cementing their reputation with solid live renditions of songs from the forthcoming album, an album which was well-served by this promotional show.

-Bree Huntley

The Shaky Hands - Review

2006-03-26T17:58:00.000+12:00

The Shaky Hands - Media Club, Christchurch
Review by Darlene Brown

The Shaky Hands (you spell shaky without an "e") came on Thursday the 23rd and I was happy. Seriously, it's not often that Christchurch gets any decent alternative rock bands down. Or do I describe them as an "indie" band. Nah, I hate that term. They played alongside local acts A Million Lights, A Flight to Blackout, and the newly expanded edition of the House of Dolls, all of which were well received, despite the lack of dancing. The Media Club is not exactly dance central you see. I'm not certain why this is...it's like that, it's just the way it is.

I missed most of A Million Lights, but from what I did manage to catch, it was very loud. Chris Andrews, the man behind the name, creates the bands sound by computer...don't ask me how. From what I understand, whenever he plays a gig, he records it and then uses old recordings to layer on top of new sounds. Add to this miasma a distorted electric bass played over top, and you've got yourself a nice wee soundscape happening. Not a band for dancing.

Next was fellow locals A Flight to Blackout. This instrumental 3 piece have a mournful quality, very similar to Tool, balanced out with a dash nu-rock, akin to the Deftones. They're good musicians but there's definitely a progressive rock element to their sound. I'm not sure how long their set was, but it only seemed like they played 3 songs. Maybe they did! I feel that a vocalist would help break up the repetition.
House of Dolls followed, playing an unrecognisable set. I hadn't seen them play for quite a while, but I pretty much did not recognise any of their material. Even Touch with Knives had been adapted! I didn't expect the addition of Frase on bass guitar would have such sonic repercussions. They have a more rock based sound now, as opposed to their early moog-ish dance style. Perhaps they are leaving that stuff to Pig Out, who are brilliant I might add.

Moving on to the headline act. It was my first time seeing them live, so all I had to go on was their new EP "Cut off Your Hands", which I like...but is NOTHING compared to their live set! It was simply fantastic. I had seen these boys as Nova Echo last year, but I feel that soundwise, they are substantially different. Culling a member has definitely minimised their sound. Some of their stuff makes me think early Gang of Four in terms of simplicity, crossed with the Talking Heads purely in terms of vocals - their singer’s voice bears an uncanny resemblance to David Byrnes in timbre. They're definitely more punk now I reckon, and my surmising was supported by the frenzied mob of boys moshing up front, causing general mayhem and discomfort among the generally stagnant punters on the dancefloor.
All in all, a good night out - all that entertainment for $7.

Interview with Davin of Kill Surf City

2006-03-26T17:47:00.000+12:00

Kill Surf City recently played to their biggest audience. It was their 19th ever gig, I am told, and they supported Dinosaur Jr at St James last week. So I thought I'd ask them a few questions....

Tell us, who is Kill Surf City?

Josh: lead guitar
Jamie: bass, vox
Logan: drums
Davin: guitar, vox

How long have you been together? What is the Kill Surf City history?

Josh, Logan and Jamie had the beginnings of a band in the garage at Josh and Jamies parents house...I'd just finished uni and had nothing to do, I had known Josh for a long time since we were kids and saw him at a party. We got talking and he said he was starting a band and I decided to join...none of us had played in a band before...I could, and can still, barely play guitar, somehow I was roped into doing the vocals...pretty much by default cos no-one else was willing, I didnt really want to do them as well but we couldnt be an instrumental band..Logan had never drummed before..somehow it worked i guess...that was the end of 2004. We played for awhile at Joshs parents house and then got kicked out cos of noise...so we stopped playing for about three months..then we found a practice room (which we got kicked out of last week) and started gigging about August last year.

Why did you choose a name of a Jesus & Mary Chain b-side (b-side of April Skies) as your name?

Because the words looked cool next to each other...I had a 7" single that I had bought for a dollar and never listened to cos I didnt have a record player...it just popped up at the right time when we were trying to name the band..so yeah its kinda lame cos none of us had even heard the song and we named the band after it...the song turned out to be real good tho.
Now we’re going to wait for all the true J&MC fans to get up in arms...that’ll be fun.

Why did you form a band in the first place?

Maybe because we could...most of the time you can never find people that want to be in a band and luckily or unluckily enough we did.

The obvious question: what did it feel like to play at the St James?

There were all these people that you could tell were really into bands like Alice in Chains or something in the audience..we had no proper soundcheck and we were forced to play side by side cos d jr came and set all their gear up really close to the edge of the stage and they wouldnt move it for us..and i think we may have had the worst onstage sound we’ve ever had...maybe even worse than Eden’s Bar..but we got to play, so i guess we cant complain to much....or maybe we can..

Did you meet any of Dinosaur Jr? Who? What were they like?

Lou barlow came in and said hi but J Mascis kinda walked around the place all high and mighty, Logan said he looked like an indian chief with two or three people in tow the whole time..I dunno, he kind of seemed like a dick...but whatever, he’s just a human like us.

Who do you consider to be your influences? One pundit remarked that you were like every good Dunedin band rolled into one. What do you reckon to that?

I think we get that sound because our gear is really shit and we have to do with it what we can like all those bands did...Jamie and I don’t even have our own guitars; we have to borrow them whenever we practice...Josh was the only one with an amp but his has been blown now and Logan just got his cymbols together and then lost them at the St James...so yeah.... Bands like The Clean were pretty much punk bands and in a way i guess (i hope this doesnt sound to self- important) we are too. Influence wise we’re all really into The Clean..more than any other Flying Nun band, Flying Nuns cool but some of the bands on it were really bad. Other stuff I guess would be bands like Pavement and Sonic Youth..mostly their pop songs though - the ones that aren’t to noisy, Teenage Riot’s good.

There are few tunes on your MySpace page people can listen to - are you planning on any further recordings / releasing anything for people to buy soon?

When we get the money together we will record properly; at the moment we have quite a few demos in the works. Maybe we could release them as some sort of ep but it would be a pretty wonky affair, like a proper producer would listen to it and have a whinge about the quality but the songs are ok.

Who writes the songs? What is the song-writing process for Kill Surf City?

Its kind of all different...someone might have a riff to play and we all jam on that until it pieces itself together over time, someone else will come up with the chorus and so on...Logan actually came up with a drumbeat for a song before anything else and we built the song on top of that. Sometimes a song takes ten minutes sometimes it takes a month. After all the music’s pieced together I have to go and put all the vocals and other stuff like that...and on and on it goes until its done. So I guess no particular person writes the song. It just starts with an idea and hopefully finds its way from there.

KILL SURF CITY play this Friday at The Kings Arms with Teen Wolf and Whipping Cats.

Interview with Shanye Carter of Dimmer

2006-03-19T22:10:00.000+12:00

There’s a post-it note on my computer that reads, ‘The truth is in the grooves.’ The author of that truism of, I suppose, all good art is Shayne P. Carter. Just back from the food court, he’s full of good quotes. Check this self-determined little beauty: "I haven't got a grand design, I just write cool tunes."

Anyone familiar with Shayne Carter will no doubt place him with a guitar around his shoulders fronting seminal Flying Nun acts The Double Happys, Bored Games, and of course, Straightjacket Fits. The latter were set for crossover success when, in 1993 they stumbled, fell, and broke up in a heap. Carter had become frustrated with the ridged structure of rock music. “I went through this big trip after the Straightjackets where I basically dropped out for a couple of years,” he says. “I felt disillusioned with it all.”

It took two years of downtime in Dunedin before Carter re-emerged with Dimmer. The new outfit was dark and smoky, aptly summed up by Carter as 'spooky grooves '. The first album, I Believe You Are A Star was released to much acclaim in 2001. Its 2004 follow up, You’ve Got To Hear The Music, capped off many end-of-year lists.

A retrospective of the two albums’- It All Looks The Same At Night- has just been compiled as an introduction to Australian audiences. “It was actually quite fun,” Carter says of the song selection process. “Like putting together an entirely new record, trying to make it a coherent whole. It was kind of weird in that you end up leaving off stuff that you really like, purely because of space; but I was really pleased with the way the music has held up and the way the two albums flow into each other, it sounds pretty natural.

The compilation- and its accompanying music video DVD - will mark the debut release of Dimmer material in Australia. Carter is no stranger to industry red tape and distribution headaches. After the first Dimmer album, he was dropped from Sony (who financed him a home studio). The second album was released on Festival Mushroom in New Zealand, but the label’s Australian wing couldn’t find a pigeonhole broad enough to place it and refused its release. “The kinda thing I got was ' oh, we really like it, but it doesn’t fit in anywhere,’” he says dismissively. “I thought the fact that if it doesn't fit in anywhere then it’s probably quite unique.” Both records have since gone gold in New Zealand. “Lets just say, that was very satisfying bro,” he laughs.” I actually did pretty well out of (Sony) in the end. I got my record out, I got a studio, and because they chose not to do the next record, I didn't have to pay them back any money. So, thanks Sony," he deadpans.

A self-taught producer, Carter has a reputation for being a perfectionist in the studio, taking five years to release the first Dimmer album, and almost four for the next. “When I first got my computer, the only thing I could work was the calculator,” he explains. “I’m not a tech guy at all, but it's just like anything. If you do it, you'll eventually learn. Carter only last week finished what will be the third Dimmer album, as yet untitled. “It’s a lighter affair, he explains. “I wanted to play some guitar on the record actually, so I think there's some real strong tunes but there’s some pretty drifting sad guy guitar shit going on as well, which I kind of dig. People always say their latest records the shizzer. And then when they put out the next one, they diss the last one. Yeah, I've done that heaps myself.”

So, only two years between albums this time? "I just got kinda sick of being the Pro-Tools noodling guy, he explains. “Bro, you can shift around stuff on the screen until you die if you want to. I’d also just come off the Straightjackets re-formation tour last year; that experience really reminded me that it doesn't have to be complicated, that a four-piece band can totally do the business.”

Despite an ‘ex-Straightjacket Fits’ profile in North America, and Dimmer garnering rave reviews, Carter has no plans to pack up his band and hit the overseas tour circuit. "I like New Zealand. I like living here, it's a good country and I think, as Fred Dagg used to say, 'We don't know how lucky we are.' As far as this thing of slogging my guts out in a van around Europe for six months, I’ve done that. I'm not desperate to sell a million records, but at the same time I'm a musician and if I was destined to play Hamilton for the rest of my life, well I might as well give up."

- Troy D.Colvin

P.S: It All Looks The Same At Night is out on Rouge Records through Inertia. (I don’t think it has a NZ release). Bye!

History of Violence - movie review

2006-03-19T15:02:00.000+12:00

History of Violence
Dir: David Cronenberg

My parents are Americans. They would not be described as subversive. In fact, they're fairly conservative at the core. This is worth noting as their reaction to 'History of Violence' ties so closely to exactly what the film so skillfully illustrates in its message.

My Mom liked it! I have to say that I had extreme difficulty believing why she would ever pick up a Cronenberg film unless it had a winning lottery ticket taped to it. However- she chose the dvd in context of its 'New Release' status the same night I attended the press screening. Fate brought this review to include my Mother's opinions. After remarking that the Lord of the Rings trilogy didn't really showcase Viggo Mortensen's acting skills she went on to gush about the acting. It's true- the acting in the film is astonishing and when Cronenberg casts his leads right his films seem to work on a smoothness that successfully goes in for the jugular when the morales of his film start popping up left, right, and center. 'Dead Ringers' is a key example, as is 'Crash.' But I digress- my Mom went on to talk about the violence itself. She clearly understood what Cronenberg was after, the condoning of violence and the demonstration on how it radically affects every relationship you have, its aftereffects rippling out long after the initial punch. Violence isn't just bad, and it isn't just damning here, it's perpetuating and ongoing and like an oil spill it never fully leaves the healthy environment it destroyed. Violence effectively replaces communication with force, reason with force, personality with force.

My Dad wasn't so keen. I had to go into a quick Cronenberg 101 lecture (I did my undergrad thesis on him) before he started to see the merits of the film. The most important point I felt that I could make to him was explaining the way Cronenberg's film are not supposed to be realistic, but they are true. Cronenberg has effectively spent all his celluloid reflecting theory, philosophy, and the sadness of being human itself through these little films. They can be read as Aesop's fables, Orwellian fairy tales, Sci Fis that through showing the gooey & gross illustrate the gooey & gross of human nature. The man is a total genius, but you have to get your head around the above before you can move into enjoying them or giving his films serious thought. I may or may not have convinced my father into rewatching it. I think he was way more keen to watch 'The Quiet Man' as it was St. Patrick's Day and that's the tradition in my household, not Cronenberg.

A bit more information: The film follows the aftereffects of an attempted robbery at a local diner when the owner Tom Stall (Mortensen) effectively sends said thieves to go sleep with the floor. In typical Cronenbergian fashion, things are not what they seem and we are privy to the unrelenting spiral of destruction one good intentioned but violent action creates for each seemingly solid and caring relationship in the film. It is a harsh and poignant morality play that points a large finger at society's (and America's) treatment and use of violence. Every actor knocks every damn line right out of the park, John Hurt received an Oscar nomination and effectively succeeded in repressing my memory of 'Lost in Space'. Already my favorite for this year (even though it came out about 8 years ago in America).

-Kimberly Lesch

Brokeback Mountain - movie review

2006-03-19T15:01:00.000+12:00

Brokeback Mountain
Dir: Ang Lee

Imagery, when used skillfully, leaves this kind of gentle, yet fairly firm impact on your brain long after exposure. Ang Lee's ability to create these images within the medium of film is extraordinary, especially in terms of how his actors time their movements and pace their actions. 'Brokeback' has the same timing elements of his most celebrated previous effort, 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'- yet with 'Brokeback' he has the luxury of three hours to fully exercise his actor's ability to do what most cinephiles crave- to simply ride out a scene uninterrupted and let the emotional impact come to a full and complete apex on its own accord. Part of the strength in these performances lies in the open lack of dialogue and the solid blocking on the part of the actors and director. Instead of relying on spectacle or writing that changes on a dime we get acting that speaks plainly yet delicately through action and movements.

All that said- the film has a terrifying sense of reality and truth about it. We are not in a fairy tale or romance, western or American type of film. We are privy to the uncomfortable, cruel things that people do to each other for fruitless and structured reasons. These two men are unable to fully see through their own relationship so they take this out on those who care the most about them. The women who provided the costarring roles had to hold their own in light of two such formidable leads and invoke sympathy from an audience primed to pull for the two male leads impossible 'happily ever after.' Enough has been written in wild praise of Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall's acting abilities, but not nearly enough to Michelle WIlliams who plays Ledger's wife. Anne Hathaway's voice is up to the challenge, but her flawless 20 something skin ring totally false as she plays out a woman in her 40s. All the other actors are aged with precision and Hathaway's youthful appearance looks out of place and silly when paired with her decent acting.

'Brokeback's pacing, acting, and themes are not going to be appealing for some, yet it is important to note that even within the highly homophobic and conservative atmosphere of America it has won several film accolades and attention despite the main relationship's gay context. Definitely recommended.

- Kimberly Lesch

Jens Lekman - live review

2006-03-17T11:29:00.000+13:00

Jens Lekman - Thursday 16 March, The Schooner

It’s the kind of music that makes you feel like kissing small, red cheeked children, skipping and donning candy-striped pyjamas. In fact, it also seemed to make the various couples in the room want to hold hands, rub knees and just generally get closer together.

Yes, Jens Lekman’s music is that sweet. So sweet that if it had gone on for too much longer one may have felt like puking. But happily it didn’t – and anyway, according Lekman, puking isn’t always a bad thing.

A smallish, dark haired, dapper kinda guy, he mostly resembled some sort of elfin troubadour, as he ignored the microphone (rather brutally at one stage) and wandered about the Schooner tavern plucking at his acoustic guitar, standing on various ledges and telling the enchanted audience his fairy-esque tales.

And what charming tales they were too. Stories about holding her hand while she throws up, ploughing snow, then eating chilli and, hilariously, pretending he was his lesbian’s friend’s fiancé so that she wouldn’t get in trouble at a family dinner.
Lekman sings to us that her father knew his music, played it to him and then kept e-mailing afterwards all in the belief that Lekman was his daughter’s boyfriend. Lekman’s message to his lesbian friend: if you love someone, “don’t let anyone get in your way”.

Awww….

In the wrong hands, this could have added up to a tooth ache’s worth of cuteness. But every time you thought you couldn’t stomach anymore (and certainly that you couldn’t watch the loving couple in front of you exchange meaningful looks one more time), Lekman would throw a joke into his deadpan lyrics or stop and make a sarcastic comment, intentional or not. For someone who says he didn’t know what irony was until very recently, he’s definitely learned pretty quickly how to use it to his advantage.

Clearly he sees magic in odd, everyday things – and then makes intelligent, interesting music about them - but he also knows the dark side. And therein lies his appeal.

Eventually even the black hearted and bitter in the audience were bewitched for minutes at a time.

And sorry, Morrissey fans, although there are moments when Lekman’s voice and content gets that familiar whine, during this solo show comparisons with Jonathan Richman, formerly of the Modern Lovers, are probably much more accurate. If you’ve never heard any, then he’s the guy who played all those quirky guitar songs all the way through “There’s Something About Mary”. And there’s definitely more than a dash of this in Lekman’s own solo performance.

Besides guitar, he also plays the harmonica and a West African instrument we didn’t catch the name of that he told us, sounding like one of his own songs, “was strange because it made in Africa but it sounded like snow” to him. He also whistles.

But wait there’s more! For the cutest, most heart warming moment was yet to come.

Lekman said he didn’t do encores but that if someone made a request, he’d sing a little more later on. Someone must have so about twenty minutes after the concert proper ended, he got up on another ledge and plucked out a few more gorgeous ditties. About half the crowd had gone but those who remained were obviously his truest fans (and possibly knew what was coming up).

And we know this because during two of the songs, surprisingly a chorus of off-key masculine voices joined in. During the show, he had asked members of the audience to whistle along with him if they could – and they did – which had been beguiling enough. But this – a chorus of low, New Zealand bloke voices singing along about love with a small Swedish troubadour – was just, well, honestly quite lovely. Basically, just, awwww…

Somehow, all on his own, this man with the funny accent and red T-shirt had managed to bewitch this Thursday night crowd, who then left feeling charmed, happy and hopeful and possibly asking eachother, “isn’t it cool when music soothes the savage inner cynic?”

- Cathrin Schaer

Kanye West Review

2006-03-17T10:55:00.000+13:00

Kanye West
My First Hip Hop Show by Milana Radojcic

If you look at my CD collection, you might notice that, apart from a few titles, there is a lack of hip hop. Regardless of that, I do think that there is some really great hip hop out there. Kanye West may not exactly fit the “great” category, but the few songs that I have heard are pretty good (I do especially like the remix version of Gold Digger, George Bush Don’t Like Black People by Legendary K.O.). When Andrew asked me if I was interested in going to this show and taking photos for the site I thought “Sure, could be interesting” (and I have to admit I have a fascination for big production shows- I also dream about seeing something like Britney Spears or Usher live in Las Vegas!).

One of the first things that I noticed when I got there was how much the crowd was getting into the opening act, something that I haven’t seen at a rock show before (we are talking international acts here).

After a bit of a wait, Kanye took the stage. It was a pretty impressive sight to behold. On the left of the stage were two very charismatic back up singers, a man and a woman; on the right a DJ and in the back on a bit of a podium of their own was a five piece string orchestra which included four violins and a harp*. One of the four violinists was the main focus, as unlike the others, she was standing, not seated and wearing a beautiful white dress. Why do I mention this lady in particular I hear you ask? Well, she was almost as entertaining to watch as Kanye because whenever the orchestra wasn’t playing, she was really getting into the show from her seat, all hand waving and clapping along to the music. I was petty disappointed that she did not leap up and start dancing along! The orchestra really stood out with the very cool Eurhythmics-Sweet Dreams/Eminem/The Verve-Bitter Sweet Symphony medley.

After the first three songs ended (which was all the time I was allowed to take photos) I got the chance to step back and really see what was going on and start enjoying the show. The thing that really hit me was how much the crowd was getting into this show! And I don’t mean just a few people up the front, but the whole of St. James, including the people in the seated areas up at the top, were all hands up in the air, dancing and singing along. It is really refreshing to see something like that after so many rock shows (international or otherwise) where the crowd is just too cool for school. And let me tell you something else, it’s fucking infectious! Soon enough, I was right there with them. In other words, there is a thing or two indie kids can learn from hip hop kids.

Mr. West’s performance tonight was very impressive and energetic (after all, he has been doing this “hip hop shit for 14 years”!). He performed a lot of his much older songs, which the crowd clearly knew well and enjoyed. This did come as a bit of surprise to be honest. I guess this is really showing off my ignorance, but I just assumed that most of the people there would generally be into his latest singles rather than earlier stuff that wasn’t in the charts…

Speaking of his singles, I was also surprised to hear one of his bigger singles, Gold Digger, two thirds of the way through the set, as I expected it to be the encore. When the encore did eventually come, and the first sounds of the somewhat apocalyptic and very amazing Jesus Walks came on, I thought, “Oh yeah, that works too!”

Other highlights of the night were when Kanye decided that not only did he want to take us back to his earlier songs, but that he wanted to take us back further still and share his influences with us. The DJ then kicked off into a medley that consisted of Al Green, Michael Jackson and to my personal delight A-Ha, during which he did the 80s dance moves that would put most indie kids to shame.

The show tonight was so enjoyable that I just cannot complain about anything! I could even forgive the slightly tucked in at the front t-shirt that I could just imagine a Carson-like stylist doing to show off his red belt which incidentally matched his Libertinesque silk bomber jacket and red rimmed sunglasses!

I think that it goes without saying that in my opinion, Knaye West has graduated from a “few good songs” to some of that “great hip hop out there”.

-Milana Radojcic

Jens Lekman - interview

2006-03-14T08:09:00.000+13:00

Jens Lekman is a 25 year old Swedish singer-songwriter-samplemeister whose critically acclaimed indie pop songs have been described as "delicately witty", "unorthodox" and "bittersweet". He's had a Number 2 single in Sweden, his live performance are apparently captivating and gorgeous and strangely, he was also once beaten up by a wild gang of Morrissey fans. When Cheese on Toast spoke with him, shortly before he was getting on a plane to New Zealand, he seemed to be in an imaginative and feisty mood, telling tales and sharing his uncommon desires for violence and heckling.
You're well known for what might best be described as pretty quirky and witty lyrics – you sing about holding your girlfriend's hand while she vomits, volunteering to sing at the weddings of strangers and how you'd like to be someone's dog (but, like, literally – where you're licking their face, running after birds and so on). Where do all these ideas come from?

"The lyrics are usually just one good line and then the rest is filling them out. It's something someone says or maybe some stupid old comedy show, or overhearing someone on the bus. I guess [in terms of picking up on this stuff] its going on all the time. I pick up on words in conversations or I write it in my diary."

A lot of your songs are about love and about girlfriends. And apparently you were recently ranked as fifteenth most beautiful person in Sweden (which would probably make you the number one best looking in New Zealand while you're here). So can we assume you meet a lot of lovely ladies?

"Not really. Quite a few of the songs are actually about the same girl."

The same one whose hand you held while she was being sick?

"Yeah. The same one."

Some fans and critics have described your music as cute and whimsical. Others have described it as ironic. So which one is it?

"Actually I think I'm just being very, very honest. In fact up until one or two years ago I didn't really understand irony at all. When you write things that are very straight forward it sometimes comes across as ironic. I think that's because most people are afraid of telling the truth."

How come you didn't know about irony? Don't Swedes do irony?

"No, it's not because I'm Swedish. I just never really got into that stuff. There may be something wrong with my head."

So how did you figure out what irony was?

"I guess it was when people started laughing at me onstage. I thought I was going to sing the most serious songs but when I first sang the song Psychogirl everyone burst into laughter.

They practically fell over! First off. I got a bit upset. But now I quite like it when people laugh at me. I also like it when people react, when they come up and punch me in the face after they've misinterpreted a song or something."

You're kidding, right?

"I'm telling the truth."

But why would they want to punch you?

"Maybe they think I've written something they just don't believe it's true. Sometimes they know the person I've written about. Sometimes they are the person!"

If the New Zealand audience doesn't feel moved to violence, what else might you like them to do while you're performing? Would you prefer they listen respectfully, dance or laugh perhaps?

"Well, dancing and laughing are always good. But I especially like hecklers. I love hecklers. I have played so many shows that it's really refreshing when someone starts throwing bottles at you. For instance, when I played in Jackson, Mississippi, these guys kept coming up and mooning me and they were throwing bottles and calling me a fag boy. But I kind of like that. Then at the end of the show this guy wearing a giant sombrero came up to them and said "hey guys, pay some respect to this guy". And at that stage, everyone came up and apologized and they bought my album."

You won them over?

"I like to think so."

People are always comparing relatively new acts to other better established acts – in your case, you get everything from touches of Nick Drake to Belle and Sebastian to Beck to (ironically!) Morrissey to Jonathon Richman to some cheeseball Las Vegas lounge act. But what's the best thing you personally have ever heard said about your music?

"Once I was kind of bitching about all the Morrissey references and while I was doing that, I was hanging out with a friend of mine from another band. And he told me, "you know, when I listen to Morrissey I just want to kill myself. But when I listen to you, I just want to go swimming." So yeah, maybe when I get to New Zealand we could do some shows by the beach.

How do you feel about becoming better known and more successful - do you have plans for world domination?

"Not at all. I just don't think it will happen like that. Well, maybe in another twenty years if I keep making records. I'm not sure that I would like it either. I remember when I sold over a thousand records for the first time and I suddenly realised I didn't know all the people who owned my music anymore. I was kind of freaking out about it for a while. I really like to get to know everyone in my audience – and there are always ways to connect with people while you're performing. But with selling records, it's a little weirder."

Obviously there are all those people out there whom you don't know, doing stuff to your music – maybe some of them are having sex. Or maybe they're washing the dishes?

"Exactly. They're doing all kinds of weird stuff to my music and I don't know what it is [the stuff]."

Late last year, you trashed a lot of your music and you got yourself a "real" job in a bingo hall in Sweden for two weeks before realising the error of your ways and going back to writing songs. What do you think you'd be doing if you weren't a musician.

"I don't know really."

Well, if you were a rapper, you'd probably tell us that you'd be in jail…

"Actually I probably would be in jail. Because I like making up stories. I'd probably be in jail for lying in court. Or something."

Lekman plays at the Schooner Tavern on Thursday March 16th, Odeon Lounge on Friday March 17th and in Wellington at happy bar on Saturday March 18th...

The Eavesdrop Listening Party - Programme for 14 March 2006

2006-03-13T14:00:00.000+13:00

Tuesday 14 March, The Wine Cellar, 7-11pm

7.00pm We Shouldn’t Be Playing This But….
There are three new albums due for release in the forthcoming months that I am sure we will feature properly in the coming weeks, but for now, as a special treat for those of you who arrived early, we’re going to play a couple of tracks from each – The Dresden Dolls, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Flaming Lips. We can’t say how with happen to have obtained these gems – but they’re pretty exciting tidbits that perhaps only serve as a teaser for the full albums when they arrive from more official sources. - AT
Sex Changes – Dresden Dolls / Cheated Hearts – Yeah Yeah Yeahs / My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion – The Flaming Lips / Shores of California – Dresden Dolls / Phenomena – Yeah Yeah Yeahs / Yeah Yeah Yeah Song – The Flaming Lips

7.25pm Little Willies
Well, whoever thought Norah Jones would show her face at the Eavesdrop? Not me, that’s for damn sure. However, when she starts a country/ragtime/jazz outfit and has the bizarre nerve to call the band “The Little Willies” – then sure she can get a feature! The other reason is that it’s actually not too bad. The songs are mostly covers of other artists (Willie Nelson, Fred Rose, Kris Kristofferson…) and it’s here that the band works best. Now hear it for yourself! – MC
Roly Poly / I’ll Never Get Out of this World Alive / I Gotta Get Drunk / Tennessee Stud

7.40pm Late Night Tales – Belle & Sebastion
The latest installation of this fine series comes as a pleasant surprise. Hot on the heels of their recent masterpiece, Belle & Sebastian have cobbled together a collection of their collective favorites for our listening pleasure. Don’t go expecting 26 tracks of sugar pop – here we have the finest blues, soul and gospel you never heard – with a bit of Steve Miller and Icelandic electronica thrown in for good measure… PLUS an exclusive B&S track makes this essential! - MC
French Disko – Stereolab / On a Clear Day You Can See Forever – The Peddlers / Ring of Fire – Johnny Cash / Freeman – The Ethopians / Do You Really Want to Rescue Me Pt 1 – Elsie Mae / Uhuru – Ramsey Lewis / Get Thy Bearings – Donovan / Green Grass of Tunnel – Mum / Cassaco Marron – Belle & Sebastian / When I Was a Little Girl (spoken word) – David Shringley

8.10pm Neko Case
I’m a late entry to the Neko Case fanatics club, but I’m an enthusiastic member nonetheless. This incredible new album will have Jenny Lewis crying emo tears into her pretty red dress. Neko has teamed up with the Calexico boys to record a killer alt. country record that surpasses all the other pretenders’ efforts. The music sounds effortlessly cool, and the voice of Ms Case is unfailingly listenable, yet powerful and beautiful. Ten points! – MC
Hold On, Hold On / A Widow’s Toast / Fox Confessor Brings The Flood

8.25pm Killing Joke
“Hearts of darkness and hate o evil oblivion your fate o betrayer I come a war without end my enemy’s enemy is my friend mankind becomes the whore temples are empty – no law false religions shall rise flags of scarlet shall fly o destroyer of world Babylon implosion we come into this life in blood and tears…” etc… Orchestrated gothic metal from the basements of Hell, LITERALLY. Doesn’t the guy live on Waiheke now?! - MC
Invocation / Majestic

8.35pm The Raconteurs
The Raconteurs are Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler, from The Greenhornes on bass and drums, Brendan Benson on guitar, keys and vocals and Jack White (yes, THE Jack White from The White Stripes) also on guitar, keys and vocals. They have recorded an album, entitled Broken Boy Soldiers which is due out in May 2006, but for now – they have a 7” single, which I suspect might be quite difficult to get your hands on, which is a bit of a shame, because, well, it’s awesome. – AT
Steady As She Goes / Store Bought Bone

8.40pm John Fahey
Originally released in 1969, ‘The Yellow Princess’ is a re-issue being released in conjunction with “I Am the Resurrection”; the tribute album we featured last time. Containing three new bonus tracks, this is an excellent introduction to John Fahey at his best. Fahey, who died five years ago, is ultimately remembered for his unique application of classical guitar to steel-stringed folk and blues classics. “The Yellow Princess” marked the beginning of his experimenting with sound, and proves just how important a musician he was.- MC
March! For Martin Luther King / Dance of the Inhabitants of the Invisible City of Bladensburg / Charles A. Lee : In Memorium

8.50pm Tony Allen
With a name like Tony Allen, the un-informed might be forgiven for thinking he’s a second-rate British stand-up comic who has turned his hand to releasing a lounge album, but the Nigerian drummer is in fact one of the prime movers of Afro-Beat – and he played with the acknowledged architecture of the movement – Fela Kuti from 1964- 1979. Here, solo, record in Lagos last year – Lagos No Shaking provides a fresh opportunity to enjoy the Afro-tantric, sub-Saharan grooves with soulful brass stabs reminiscent of the JBs. – AT
Ise Nla / Aye Le

9.00pm Punches
Moving gracefully and slow, it’s the debut from Auckland duo Punches. The group is comprised of maestro James Duncan (SJD, Dimmer, and author of his own fine works) and Kelly Steven (last seen playing bass for Voom). Punches is dream music, with vocals to make the girls and boys swoon, and music to mesmerize. Always present in the b-net Top Ten, crossing from late night ballad to dark country with ease – you will be hearing this name again and again… Punches Punches Punches… - MC
Dark Horse / Four Feet / Day By Day / Tell

9.15pm Anoushka Shankar
Anoushka Shankar is the daughter of sitar legend Ravi Shankar. So, she has, not only the blood-line, but also a teacher who is inarguably the one of the greatest Sitar players ever to have laid hand on the instrument. Purists might call this album pop, but Rise shows her versatility as a composer, arranger, and producer. She orders the ragas logically, starting with morning and working toward the final one at the end of the night, each one capturing the mood of its particular time of day. - AT
Naked / Voice of the Moon / Beloved (Theivery Corporation Remix)

9.35pm Batrider
Do you remember Batrider? They were based in Wellington until they got itchy feet and moved to Melbourne. Well, they are currently working on a new record, are touring New Zealand starting this week, Thursday in Hamilton (you might as well get Hamilton over and done with) and Auckland on Friday (at the Schooner), and making plans for a further relocation to London. This evening we’re featuring tracks their debut album They Said You’re Hideous, which is, in fact about two years old, but one Australian reviewer said that it made her want to f**k something (they’re so eloquent aren’t they) – AT
Dirty / Santatanana / Number One

9.50pm This Night Creeps
Easily one of the more exciting things to come from Hamilton in a while (and I say that with no sarcasm about the Waikato) – This Night Creeps follow up last years full length debut with the more intense and aggressive Hear a Body Tone EP – which sticks to their manifesto of “tangent and return” song structures filled with frantic hooks and, what they say is a disregard for the satisfaction of others. But I think you will be satisfied with these five courses. – AT
Course One / Course Two / Course Four

10.00pm Whipping Cats
I remember Matthew telling me about “these three young guys’ new band” probably well over 18months ago, something about cats, and I foolishly was late to their second ever gig and only caught the last two songs. But I was hooked. They were, then, nervous as all hell and probably still a little sloppy, but I knew they had something. Now the Whipping Cats are easily one of the hottest bands in Auckland, with their tight blues-punk grooves that never fail to get a crowd dancing as Vincent barks his lyrics, Straton yelps and stabs you with his harmonica all while Chanel stoically keeps the beat. - AT
Finally they have managed to capture some of this onto CD with their 4-track EP.
Dog-Faced Boy / You Can Never Find a Home / Fighting Cats Can’t Be Bargained With / These Murdering Hands

10.10pm Weird War
Ian Svenonious (Nation of Ulysses, The Makeup) fronts Weird War who continue on his commitment to making subversive yet danceable music – a kind of deranged retro R&B with rant-infused grooves. Weird War are going to play here this month – Friday 24th at the Kings Arms (and, tell your Wellingtonian friends – Saturday 25th at Indigo) and it’s destined to be a muthafuckin’ party. It’s going to be one of those shows friends will say, in years to come, “Did you see Weird War play here in 2006? No? Oh dude – what the hell were you thinking? It was am-aaaaazing” in a sort of smug patronizing tone if you don’t go. Mark my words, and avoid social awkwardness at future parties. – AT
Grand Fraud / If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Bite ‘Em / AK-47

10.20pm Massive Attack
When Massive Attack’s classic single Unfinished Sympathy and their debut Blue Lines came out in 1991 they sounded like no other. Truly pioneers and I would say one of the most important bands of the past fifteen years. So it is fitting now that Collected – a collection of singles is being released. And, if you’re a real fan, hunt down the limited edition with contains a second disc of rarities and a DVD of videos. Everything you will ever need, perhaps. – AT
Karmacoma / Teardrop / Unfinished Sympathy

10.40pm Ok Go
Oh No is the second album from this Chicago based four-piece and is produced by Tore Johansson (Franz Ferdinand, The Cardigans). The video for the lead single apparently cost less than $50 to make – and features just one shot of the band doing a choreographed dance routine a la boy bands – it has officially become the worlds most downloaded video on the internet. Sure, the record company executive, when describing the video to me said they were “four unattractive guys” but if the album is, at all, indicative of the musicians (which I’m sure it is) – fun, smart and quirky, then I’d say you’d be a fool not to date one of them. I’ll hook you up with their numbers… - AT
Here It Goes Again / A Million Ways / Television Television / Maybe, This Time

10.50pm Gary Numan
The electronic pop pioneer is back, with his first studio album in five years - Jagged. The album is co-produced by underground electronica artist DJ Ade Fenton, and is both aggressive and progressive. It would be easy for someone with Numan’s pedigree to rest upon his laurels a little and release an album to cash in on the re-interest in things sounding eighties – but he totally defies that temptation, had it even crossed his mind, here, pulling off an album that is dark and heavy and features, possibly, some of his best song writing to date. – AT
Halo / Haunted / Melt

Interview with Sarah Chadwick of Batrider

2006-03-12T22:45:00.000+13:00

There is, perhaps some notoriety associated with Batrider. Especially in New Zealand. Is this founded or unfounded do you think?

Unfounded I think, but then I am rather biased. On the other hand I have a huge inferiority complex, which makes me act very defensively. Much like Marty Mcfly in back to the future, I feel an overwhelming urge to prove myself in ridiculous situations. Unfortunately, unlike Marty, I do not have a friend like doc, who would inevitably use his Delorian to help me fix any mistakes I may make, thus rendering me well liked to the entire human race. Also maybe we need to show our boobs more, or pout more, while saying nothing. Saying nothing would definitely make us more liked. If there is any ill feeling towards us, this is really disappointing, as up until now, the 'miss congieniality' sash was almost tangibly within
reach.

Tell us about your move to Melbourne from Wellington. When? Why? How?

We moved to Melbourne a year and a half ago, after feeling well and truly stagnant in Wellington, also none of us had travelled, so it was going to happen at some stage. So eight of us (the band and our partners) saved about two hundred dollars each and came over here. It was hard work, and still is, but it is also really fun and rewarding.
We didn't move here so that we could brag about how much better Australia is and use huge hyperbole when we write back to NZ to describe how much people love us here, we did it because we were getting itchy feet, like anyone that wants to travel. Allso I for one am pretty sick of making cheese and tomato toasties for a living, and moving was the only way we could envisage being someday able to be in a band for a living.

Any further plans to move on?

Yes, we are planning to move to London later this year, after we have saved enough pennies.

"They Said You're Hideous" is about two years old now - it was released in NZ only, back then, but now I understand that you are releasing the album in Australia?
Why have you not chosen to record a fresh new album for a release?

We are recording a new album at present, which we are also releasing this year. We have got 'They Said You're Hideous' though, so we thought we may as well release it first, as we are playing shitloads of shows, and people were always asking about if we had recordings out. Also, we still like it, even if it is not exactly representative of where we are now as a band, so we did not have many issues with releasing it now, especially as a second release is coming directly after. Also the time frame between talking to labels etc and the actual release date is far longer and drawn out than we could really hurry up, and this is how everything turned out.

I assume you have been writing new material? Anything recorded?

We have recorded things ourselves and have been trialing studios of late for the next album. Yes we have new songs, otherwise things would be pretty dire, wouldn't they?

How would you describe the sound of Batrider and how it has progressed since relocating to Melbourne?

I would say that we have come into our own a lot more, and I have learnt to play more than one chord on the guitar; I can now play three.

Melbourne is renowned for a very busy live music scene - and indeed, many bands manage to carve a living out of playing live gigs there. I imagine that in an environment where gig playing is more of a commercial venture that there may be more competition among bands. Has that been your experience of Melbourne?

Not at all. I have not met one band of our level that manages to make enough money to support themselves by playing live. And so far as competition, Melbourne is big enough to sustain the hundreds of bands that play here every week, there is less of the unhealthy competition that we observe in NZ. I always got the feeling of NZ being super competitive and also very gossipy amoungst bands etc, in a small town kind of way. Melbourne is bigger, so people are not right up in each other's faces all the time, and there is more than enough room for everybody. Bands seem to be more supportive of each other here, if anything.

What else would you say the difference between playing shows in Australia and New Zealand is?

Pretty similar, except for the likelihood of knowing everyone in the audience is non existent here. Same ratio of good bands to shit bands, same ratio of dancing to non dancing. Australians are more confident though, so more likely to tell you if they had a good time, rather than a 'got to be staunch to be cool' attitude.

I imagine that being in Australia has provided you more opportunities to play more often and to a wider audience than perhaps you were able to in Wellington. How has this affected the band and the sound of Batrider?

We've kind of touched on this already, but we've just had way more practise playing live because you do it so much more. we still sound like us, which hopefully will never change. Not unless I get a heliport on top of my condo one day, and start thinking drugs are really great, then our sound might change a little.

What bands from Melbourne would you recommend our readers check out - and tell us what they sound like, in your opinion.

Actor/Model and Baseball are both really cool. They have good songs and are both interesting and weird to watch on stage. Lovethebomb are cool and hilarious, they don't take themselves seriously in the slightest which is awesome to watch, funny songs too like, 'Why don't you go home and fuck'. Group Seizure are a cool party band.

You've dubbed this NZ Tour "You'll Never Play In Our Town Again" - a tongue-in-cheek reference to some burnt bridges? Are you looking forward to coming back to NZ and playing? Any anxiety?

Yes I am looking forward to going to NZ because I like travelling around with friends, and I like playing gigs. Which is lucky, because that's what we hope to do for actual money one day. Anxiety levels are reading at 'normal' on my spaz-out-o-meter, which means that a nervous breakdown is the standard three catastrophes away, so I am in the clear.
Why, any anxiety about having us?

BATRIDER are playing a whole host of shows starting this week in Hamilton in Thursday and Auckland (The Schooner Tavern) on Friday.

- Andrew Tidball

Who is Weird War?

2006-03-10T16:06:00.000+13:00

In 1995, The Makeup emerged from the remains of Nation of Ulysses. Ian Svenonious fronted the band – described as subversion gospel – they released their debut single Blue is Beautiful a declaration of their self-styled liberation theology. In the next four years they would release five influential albums – deranged retro R&B completed with socialist rants.
Last year, Auckland’s the Blunts were identified as being heavily influenced by the Makeup – despite, and I know this to be absolutely true, never having heard them. It wasn’t until Kim from the Blunts was lent a Makeup record that he conceded not only a huge (unbeknownst to him until then) influence, but a huge admiration.

In 2002 Svenonious and Michelle Mae from The Makeup recorded an album together with Neil Hagarty (Royal Trux) under the name Weird War which was described some of the finest slop-rock. In 2003 Svenonious all but even dismissed Weird War : “it was an actual band for a minute” – and released “I Suck On That Emotion” and a single “AK-47” under the band name Scene Creamers.

All of the group's incarnations continued the Makeup's commitment to subversive yet danceable music, expanding this definition to include elements of Krautrock, psychedelic rock and experimental jazz.

Scene Creamers came under fire for allegedly using the same name as a group of French graffiti artists so the name Weird War was re-adopted for the release of “If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Bite ‘Em” in 2004 and “Illuminated by the Light” in 2005.

The live experience of Weird War is said to be something to behold. Svenonious is apparently proof that the lead-singers of bands are not made, they are born – as he will deftly launch himself off the shoulders of the audience, jump from amps and speaker stacks and perform the most impressive scissor kicks.

Weird War play Auckland at the Kings Arms Friday March 24th with Coco & Erik (Coco Solid) and The Bloody Souls and in Wellington at Indigo with So So Modern and Knife Fight on Saturday 25 March.

- Andrew Tidball

Connan and the Mockasins w/ The Sneaks and The Tutts (live)

2006-02-24T12:00:00.000+13:00

Connan and the Mockasins w/ The Sneaks and The Tutts (live)
Tuesday the 21st of Feb at the UCSA Ballroom
review by Darlene Brown

Yeah yeah, so I went out last night to check out Connan and the Mockasins with the Sneaks and the Tutts at a gig for Orientation week at uni. I arrived with my trusty gig buddy Mandy, and we presented our id as the bouncer gestured. He made some crack along the lines of "1984?!? Shouldn't you old ladies be in bed?" (which came off lamely I might add). We thought "huh? was that an attempt to be flirtatious?" but as we entered the room, we realised he was kinda serious - the new wave of fresh 18 year olds littered the room, and soon began to dominate the dancefloor with their jilted, stiff armed and legged, shaky-haired conniptions. I felt like mutton dressed as lamb compared to these puppies! So I got my imaginary gun out and shot them…

Well anyway, bitterness aside, first band of the night were Auckland 5 piece outfit the Tutts, who graced the stage dressed in the necessary tight blacks, some equipped with shirts and ties, and other stuff that I can't remember...anyway, their look is SHARP. Musically, they impressed, with their sound ranging between the guitar style of the Strokes mixed with the vocal and stylistic sound of the Cure. Although they were very danceable, I thought that a few of their tracks played a little too long - influenced perhaps by a couple of the members past house music phases? Overall, I was into them, and look forward to seeing a release in the future. I think this is a band to watch out for...plus they were super cool guys to boot. Hoorah!

Next up, the band that I had been waiting to see since the Orientation lineup was announced - bnet winners of "most promising new act" the Sneaks. I've listened to their ep "You all Suck" so many times, and I was eager to see if their live performance matched the coolness of the release. And let me tell you, it bloody well did. They possess a high energy, quirky punk pop sound that sits just right with me - a perfect sound balance between hard and guitar driven, yet humourous and light hearted in ALL the right places. Catchy, infectious, infection. My mind is still plagued with their hooks. They got the crowd jumping and shouting, plus laughing at all the cracks between songs. A treasure of a performance. Yes that's right, a treasure. Definitely a new favourite act of mine.

Last, but certainly not least the headliner of the gig, 3 piece Wellington outfit Connan and the Mockasins. Connan is most definitely the driving force in this trio, but the talent of the drummer and double bass player definitely shone through, with numerous solos demonstrating this fact to the fairly large crowd. Connan is tiny, his blonde hair and sweet looks reminded me of Shirley Temple crossed with a yellow gummy bear (one of the BIG gummy bears I should add). His voice has a James Brown quality, and his sense of blues is astonishing. I mean, to look at him, you would not think that he has this almost innate feel of the blues sound and rhythm. Plus his stage tricks (playing guitar over his head, and with his teeth no less, and other stuff probably that I couldn't see or forgot) would rival a Jimi Hendrix performance any day; he just needs to light his guitar on fire, and he's there! Connan and the Mockasins had the crowd frothing over with excitement, leaking into a spot of crowd surfing here and there. I just had to stand their gawking at the sheer talent of this guy - his guitar playing skills are phenomenal. Go and see them if you get a chance.

Interview with Lou Barlow (Dinosaur Jr)

2006-02-22T16:13:00.000+13:00

Questions by Chris Metcalfe for Cheese on Toast.
Replies in italics from Lou Barlow.

This reformation tour has been underway for a number of months now, is it a hectic schedule this time around? Where are you heading next?
We have tended to maximize our touring; as many shows as possible with only a few days off but we have had some breaks. When we begin this particular leg we will have been 'off' for nearly three months - that's not to say we haven't been playing, we're currently recording but it's very relaxed, we're doing it at J's house.

Given that your relationship with J. Mascis has been somewhat tumultuous in the past, how did the reformation of Dinosaur Jr come about?
J began showing up at Sebadoh shows in the mid-90's, which confused me at the time; eventually I went to a few of his shows, starting in 2002. We played a benefit together, he solo, me with Jason Loewenstein as Sebadoh, and during the course of the night we did an impromptu reunion of our first band, Deep Wound. Then the talk of a dinosaur reunion began, culminating in J's management contacting Murph and I and officially pitching a tour in late 2004.

With a number of bands staging very successful reformations recently (Stooges/Pixies etc) and the re-release of the first 3 Dinosaur records, it's hard not to be a little cynical towards the reasons behind this tour.
When you decided to reform were you looking to bury a few demons and relive your youth, or were there other motivating factors?
It's easy enough for an armchair music commentator to be cynical. There are obviously a host of motivations behind it. Not the least of which was the opportunity to make some cash. Dinosaur was my formative band experience and I would have been a fool not accept the challenge. The fact that we put the past behind us and worked together, in close quarters, on this reunion obliterates any cynicism as far as I'm concerned; it's a fucking miracle!

Do you have a different perspective now about your exit from the group and the publicly aired animosity that followed?
Of course. I was 22 when I left the band; I turned 39 when we toured this summer. My experiences post dinosaur eventually healed any lingering resentment. The “public airing'’, though necessary for me to work through the break-up at the time, seemed immature in hindsight.

Was there much preparation for the tour? Did the songs need a lot of rehearsal?
Not really - there was a lot of muscle memory involved! I learned to play bass to Murph's drumming so when he kicked in I just followed and it ended up sounding and feeling very similar to the way it did 1989. The songs are ingrained and I love them so it only took a week of practice.

Having had 20 odd years of space from the songs, what is like to come back to them? Have they developed in their delivery or have they stood the test of time?
I think so, I think we are more consistent than we were back in the day - we are all better players but, with the exception of J extending the leads, we play the same as we did back then.

Obviously you guys are older and wiser now, how has this affected the dynamics within the band? Does it feel like it used to?
The dynamic is similar but without the pathos. We're 85 percent less evil, 50 percent less annoying - to each other anyway!

Will the band only be playing songs from the first 3 records or can we expect a few of the later Dinosaur Jr songs as well? Perhaps some of your own material?
We've only ventured as far as 'the wagon', which was the first release after I left the band.

There's a bit of a tenuous Sebadoh/New Folk Implosion link to NZ that you might be aware of. Imaad Wassif's and Russ Pollard's band alaska! released their first record on the legendary NZ label Flying Nun. Are you aware of the tradition of indie groups to come from their stable?
Of course! Everyone I knew who was listening to underground music in the late 80's early 90's loved New Zealand bands...from The Chills, The Gordons, Tall Dwarves through to Anapper, Dead C (though they were Xpressway) etc etc...

Both J. Mascis and yourself have maintained a devoted fan-base and more or less avoided the fickle "indie" trap that hypes one fad band and then moves quickly to the next, pouring scorn on anything that is remotely yesterday.
What is it about you guys that keeps what you do relevant and places you outside of all that crap?
I don't think many share your opinion, I'm commonly known as a has-been to any self-respecting indie kid! I’ve seen my audience in America dwindle drastically.

How do you see Dinosaur Jr's place in the legacy of the bands that emerged on SST during the 80's?
I think we managed to distill the sound of the SST signature bands : Meatpuppets, Black Flag, Husker Du. I think J's songs from our SST period are classic and in many ways surpass our influences.

Your own work with Sebadoh and Folk Implosion is somewhat removed sonically from Dinosaur Jr. Is it musically challenging for you to work within the Dinosaur sound nowadays or are there interactions and synergies between the two approaches?
Dino comes natural to me, I never attempted to replicate the sound because it was too massive and individual. It was necessary for me to start over - coming back to it has been a pleasure. Folk Implosion, in general, isn't much like Sebadoh either, I adapt to the people I play with - that's one of the things I love about playing music.

You've recently released your first full-length solo album 'emoh'. Are you planning on touring that record? Any plans to bring a Lou Barlow group down these ways?
I can't afford to tour with a group really, but I am doing a solo show in Wellington a few days after I play in Auckland. I toured emoh in the US and Europe before starting with Dinosaur last spring and after in the fall. 2005 was a real good year for me.

Your website is quite personal and comprehensive, do you do all that yourself?
Yup…

What's on Lou Barlow's record player currently?
Animal Collective 'Feels'. And I just re-listened to an album I did in 2003 ‘The New Folk Implosion' trying to gain some perspective as I try to write for Dinosaur. NFI was my last experience in a rock band - it's a pretty good record too; much better than I remember..heh..

DINOSAUR JR play Shadows in Auckland on Monday 13 March

Cheese on Toast Radio Valentines Day Special

2006-02-14T15:00:00.000+13:00

CHRIS KNOX - Not Given Lightly
SUFJAN STEVENS - The One I Love (REM cover)
THE SNEAKS - Kuzai Heart U Girl
WHITE STRIPES - Fell In Love With a Girl
THE MAGIC NUMBERS - Love Me Like You (live)
THE TEARS - Lovers
THE POSTAL SERVICE - Such Great Heights
DEERHOOF - The Eyebright Bugler
BELLE & SEBASTIAN - Funny Little Frog
THE LIKE - The One
THE REDUCTION AGENTS - Waiting For Your Love
BOY LEAST LIKELY TO... - Be Gentle With Me
WE ARE SCIENTISTS - The Scene Is Dead
FANFARLO - Talking Backwards
THE BUZZCOCKS - Ever Fallen In Love
CAT! CAT! CAT! - Crushed (By The Cute Boy)
JOHNNY CASH - A Thing Called Love
FEATURE 02 - Employed As Decoy

anti-valentines songs... (for the bitter exes)

STARS - Your Ex-Lover IS Dead
BEN FOLDS - Bitches AInt Shit (Dr Dre Cover)
ANN SEXTON - You're Losing Me
THE LIBERTINES - Can't Stand Me Now
WOLF PARADE - Grounds For Divorce
HUMAN LEAGUE - Don't You Want Me?

back to love....

THE FLAMING LIPS (AKA GOD) - Do You Realise
THE SHINS - Kissing The Lipless
JENNY LEWIS AND THE WATSON TWINS - You Are What You Love
JENS LEKMAN - I Saw Her In The Anti War Demonstration
THE BRUNETTES - The Mood In June And Stuff
THE RAVONETTES - My Boyfriend's Back
THE GREENHORNES - Shelter Of Your Arms
BLOC PARTY - This Modern Love
THE KUNG FU MONKEYS - Crush On You
CAT POWER - Could We
BONNIE "PRINCE" BILLY - I Send My Love You
DRESDEN DOLLS - Sex Change
METRIC - The Twist

The Greenhornes

2006-02-04T17:35:00.000+13:00

They caused a commotion with their side show the night before Big Day Out, playing a tiny venue with only a handful of door-sale tickets available – the balance of the already small capacity taken up by a guest-list that was one of the most coveted in Auckland in a pretty long time. But who are this, perhaps rather unassuming, three piece from Cincinnati, Ohio? And why was Meg White in the front row shaking her tail feather?

The Greenhornes have just released their first New Zealand record – Sewed Souls which is, actually, a bit of a ‘best-of’ compilation – and it certainly is as good a place as any to start.

The Greenhornes are Craig Fox, guitar / vox; Jack Lawrence, bass; and Patrick Keeler, drums.
I met Patrick Keeler in his hotel foyer the afternoon before Big Day Out for a quick chat.

“I don’t really know why we formed the band really – it was just five guys at high school all into the same sort of music.” he tells me, rather modestly, “The only thing I ever really wanted to do was to travel.” It was a shared love of The Byrds, The Kinks, and The Yardbirds that brought the three plus Jared McKinney and Brian Olive together.

The Greenhornes have had some line-up changes, Patrick laughs “I guess one way to keep the band feeling different is to keep having line-up changes” – probably making light of what is probably a bit of a predictable question. He explains that McKinney got married and decided that that was going to be his priority over the band and left in 2001 while Olive left a bit later to join The Soledad Brothers.

“There were probably some personality issues that were really just easier to deal with by walking away” Keeler, enigmatically smiles. Eric Stein joined to replace Olive but the band just evolved into a three piece as Stein had other projects and the old adage of less is more seemed to make more sense.

I’ve read that the Greenhornes are the next band on the verge of something.

“It’s a fuckin’ big verge, man!” laughs Keeler saying it’s also probably a very optimistic point of view. He’s modest of their achievements – having just completed a 35 date North American tour and 20+ date European Tour with The White Stripes. The Greenhornes also provided some music to the Broken Flowers soundtrack last year. So it’s true that people are starting to take some notice of them.

“We started off real slow – we did everything ourselves. If this is the verge, I’m cool with it. It’s nice.” he smiles.

The Greenhornes have long been friends with The White Stripes, so this is no new association.

“We both started off around the sound time – we used to play together a lot back then – as soon as we met them we became friends – we used to go up to Detroit and they’d come to Cincinnati to play together.” Patrick explains.

Patrick Keeler and Jack Lawrence also featured as the rhythm section on last years Jack White produced Loretta Lynn album. “She’s amazing.” He tells me, with no attempt to hide how awestruck he was – “when she sings, you know she means it – it comes from her experience, really having lived. It really put us in our place a bit.”

But it seems that they like to keep busy – both Keeler and Lawrence also working on an album with Karen O last year. “I’m not sure what is happening with that though - she’s so secretive” Patrick laughs.

Patrick and “little Jack” have also formed a new band with Jack White and Brendan Benson, (who, incidentally, recorded the Greenhornes last EP, and who they are waiting for to have time in his schedule to record their new album) called The Raconteurs. Patrick tells me that album is ready to be released within the next couple of months.

THE GREENHORNES – SEWED SOULS out now

Cheese on Toast Radio 31 Jan 2006

2006-01-31T15:28:00.000+13:00

Smoosh - Rad
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Christine
Grayson Gilmour -The Shiver
So So Modern - Loose Threads and Theremins
House of Dolls - Touch With Knives
House of Dolls - Chinese Gardens
House of Dolls - Homage
The Like - (So I Sit Here) Waiting
Ryan McPhun & the Ruby Suns - Maasai Mara
Garageland - Beelines to Heaven
Stars - This Charming Man
Corinne Bailey Rae - Like A Star
Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins - Rise Up With Fists
The Postal Service - Nothing Better
The Kills - No Wow (MSTRKRFT remix)
LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk Is Playing In My House
Ice T - Im Your Pusher
Cookie Crew - Born This Way
Archtecture in Helsinki - Do The Whirlwind
The Artic Monkeys - Fake Tales of San Francisco
We Are Scientists - Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt
Interpol - Narc (Paul Banks Remix)
Walking With the ghost - The White Stripes (Tegan and Sara cover)
The Greenhornes - Pattern Skies
Belle & Sebastian - White Collered Boy
The Sneaks - Kuzai Heart U
Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)
Suede - Shipbuilding
Bloc Party - Two More Years

The Romanovas

2006-01-25T10:47:00.000+13:00

The other week, I saw The Romanovas play for the first time and I was more than impressed. I meet Volita and Amelia for a cup of tea a few days later for a bit of a chat.

They told me that they have been together for about two and half years. They met through school but they were quite quick to point out that there was no school-lessons for music. They met at Music-Tech classes and it was their shared love of music, and I imagine, talking with them, their collected irreverence for authority, that brought them together. By the third year of Music Tech they had thrown the curriculum out of the window and we're doing band practices instead.

Amelia tells me how they 'worked the system' by entering Rock Quest in order to get the teachers off their backs about not doing class-work. The first time they got into the regionals, but the second time they didn't make it that far. A failed Rock-Quest band - surely that is a GOOD thing!

photo by Aiden

Vi sites Velvet Underground and A Janis Joplin as influences. Volita points out that despite 4/5 of The Romanovas are female, that they are not a "girl band". Imagine, instead, perhaps if Nick Cave and Karen O had love-children who had just left high-school. To their advantage, the individual members of the band are into quite different things, from rap to Smashing Pumpkins to Joanna Newsom to r'n'b. The Romanovas avoid sounding too much like anything else, really.

The Romanova's are
Amelia Martin - Vocals
Volita Bioletti - Rhythm Guitar and b/vox
Hester Neate - Drums
Joe Locke - Riff Guitar
Helen Sheehan - Bass Guitar

Cheese on Toast Radio 24 Jan 2006

2006-01-24T15:02:00.000+13:00

Joey Ramone - Don't Worry About Me
Cat! Cat! Cat! - Crushed (By the Cute Boy)
The Magic Numbers - Forever Lost (Live)
Human League - Don't You Want Me
Sleater-Kinney - Step Aside
Sleater-Kinney - Sympathy
The Smiths - This Charming Man
Thunderbirds Are Now - This World is Made of Paper
Smoosh - Rad
The Go! Team - Huddle Flash (Kevin Shields vs The Go! Team Mix)
Hayden Eastman-Mein - Manly Umbrella *
Tubeway Army - Are Firends Electric
The Grates - Sukkafish
Billy Wilson - The Plunger
Adam & Andrew - Emo Song
The Arcade Fire - Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)
Cocteau Twins - Lorelei
So So Modern - Loose Threads and Theremins
The Greenhornes - Pattern Skies
The Strokes - Juicebox
The Jam - Down in the Tube Station at Midnight
The Ravonettes - My Boyfriend's Back
X-Ray Spex - Oh Bondage Up Yours
DJ Bytemaster B - Whoomp There's The West End Girls
The Magic Numbers - Love Me Like You Do (live)
Massive Attack - Blue Lines
Deerhoof - Running Thoughts
White Stripes - Walking With a Ghost
Public Enemy - 911 is a Joke
The Datsuns - Don't Shine Your Light On Me

* Hannah popped in to get out of therain and played this off her iPod!

Cheese on Toast Radio 17 Jan 2005 w/ guest Troy from Melbourne

2006-01-17T15:12:00.000+13:00

Adam & Andrew - Emo Kid
Coco Solid - B.A.S.S.
Stars - This Charming Man
Tiger By the Tail - Get Set to Go
We Are Scientists - The Scene Is Dead
The Stickmen - Without a Clue
The Greenhornes - Pattern Skies
The Morning After Girls - Shadows Evolve
So So Modern - Loose Threads and Theremins
Romanovas - 1/2 Price Bitch
Be Your Own Pet - Let's Get Sandy
Sleater Kinney - Entertain
Billy Wilson - Plunger
The Drones - Sharkfin Blues
Filmschool - On & On
The Datsuns - Sky is Falling
We Are Wolves - Little Birds
Lesbians On Ecstacy - Revolt (Le Tigre Remix)
Belle & Sebastian - Sukie in the Graveyard
Sons & Daughters - Dance Me In
Chris Knox and the Nothing - Great Big Puppy Eyes
Gentle Ben & His Sensative Side - The First Song of the last day of the rest of your life
Gerling - Good Timing
Gutterville Splendor 6 - Unzip the Monkey
Iggy Pop - The Passenger
Drones - Baby 2
Magic Numbers - Love Me Like You
White Streips - Waking With The Ghost
Ellen & Rae - Six Months in a Leaky Boat
Funkadelic - Knee Deep
Avenue D - You Love This Ass

GESTALT SWITCH - Profile

2006-01-13T16:47:00.000+13:00

They are playing at the Big Day Out on the Fresh Produce Stage at 1.15pm, but who are Gestalt Switch.

Well, for a start they are a 4 piece from Dunedin - Ashley: Guitar/vox - Blair: guitar - Rach: Bass - Sam: drums who have been together since 2001. You might have already heard their last single Nothing Has Changed which enjoyed quite a good run on the bNet Stations.

People say they sound a bit like early Janes Addiction. Sort of distorted and metallic pop, I guess. Their bassist is classically trained and their drummer a bit of a metal-core fan - together an interesting rhythm section - Sam isn't afraid to belt those beats nice and loud , while Rach manages to add a dance-able edge to the sound. Ashley and Blair, it seems, bring the "80's indie rock" into the mix.

Sam tell's me that The Pixies only shared about three records in common among them and that it's a little like that for Gestalt Switch too. It's the diversity that prevents them from sounding too much like anything else and keeping their sound theirs. Whilst it is apparently always Ashley who is the catalyst in writing their songs, and the lyricist, the formation of the song is very much a four way collaboration.

So, they are playing at the Big Day Out. How exciting is that?
"Not as exciting as duty-free tobacco, but still very exciting." Sam tells me, "I've only been once, so to get to go again AND play is killer."

And, what is a Gestalt Switch?
"That's a secret" they reply.

Download an mp3 of Nothing Has Changed from their website or check out their MySpace to hear some more stuff.

In addition to playing Big Day Out on Jan 20th, they are playing
17 Jan Arc Cafe, Dunedin
18 Radiant Records, Timaru
and
21 Bar Bodega, Wellington

Cheese on Toast Radio 10 Jan 2006

2006-01-10T15:05:00.000+13:00

BELLE & SEBASTIAN - Blues Are Still Blue
LITTLE BARRIE - Free Salute *
THE ROMANOVAS - 1/2 Price Bitch
OH NO! OH MY! - Walk in the Park *
DEERHOOF - Running Thoughts
BOY LEAST LIKELY TO - Be Gentle With Me *
SO SO MODERN - Loose Threads and Theremins
POPES OF DEL RAY - What You Do *
ELLEN & RAE -Six Months in a Leaky Boat
SOLEDAD BROTHERS - Ellucidator (Bootleg)*
AVENUE D - You Love This Ass
NOUVELLE VAGUE - Too Drunk To Fuck
THE MAGIC NUMBERS - Love Me Like You
HAPPY END - Kaze Wo Atsumete *
CAT! CAT! CAT! - Crushed By The Cute Boy
THE ZOMBIES - The Way I Feel Inside *
INTERPOL - Narc (Paul Banks Remix)
THE WHITE STRIPES - Look Me Over Closely *
ROBOT CUB - Space Cubs Read Our Mail
THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE - Got My Eye On You *
THE GO! TEAM - Huddle Flash (Kevin Shields vs The Go! Team Mix)
THE KINKS - You Really Got Me *
THE ROBOCOP KRAUS - Too Shy To Play Tennis
THE RECOYS - Shake Off Your Nerve *
THE KILLS - No Wow (MSTRKFT Remix)
DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979 - Sexy Results *
DFA feat BRITNEY SPEARS - Get It / Go (Demo / Unreleased)
KINGS OF CONVINIENCE - I'd Rather Dance With You *
WE ARE SCIENTISTS - Nobody Move Nobody Get Hurt
PETER AND THE WOLF - Silent Movies *
BE YOUR OWN PET - Girls on TV
ROCK AND ROLL MACHINE - Want You So Bad *
TV ON THE RADIO - New Health Rock
BLACK KEYS - Busted *

* tracks selected by Hannah and Rebecca

Cheese on Toast Radio 3 Jan 2006

2006-01-03T14:53:00.000+13:00

with special guest Chris in the studio

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE - New Year
WHIPPING CATS - Murdering Hands (live bootleg)
THE SHINS - Kissing the Lipless
BROTHERS JOHNSON - Get The Funk Out Of Ma Face
ANNIE - Heartbeat
GRANDMASTER FLASH & MELLE MEL - White Lines
THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO - Hugging My Grudge
THE DATSUNS - Don't Shine Your Light On Me
BRIGHT EYES - When The President Talks To God (live)
BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB - Whenever You're Ready
CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH - In This Home On Ice
WE ARE SCIENTISTS - Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt
THE MAGIC NUMBERS - Love Me Like You
BELLE & SEBASTIAN - White Collar Boy
ROGUE WAVE - Publish My Love
JUSTIFIED ANCIENTS OF MU MU - The Queen & I
THE ROBOCOP KRAUS - Fashion
A.C NEWMAN - Miracle Drug
ARCTIC MONKEYS - Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured
DEERHOOF - Chatterboxes
DRESDEN DOLLS - Glass Slipper
SILVER JEWS - How Can I Love You (If You Wont Lie Down)
THE KILLS - No Wow (kings arms bootleg)
BRENDAN BENSON - Tiny Spark
MULDOONS - 70's Punk Rocker
WHITE STRIPES - Walking With The Ghost
TEGAN AND SARA - I Bet It Stung
MAGIC NUMBERS - Forever Lost
YO LA TENGO - Today Is The Day
SO SO MODERN - Loose Threads Theremin
SIGUR ROS - Hopppinpola

Cheese on Toast Top 60 for 2005 (Part Two - the top thirty)

2006-01-02T09:51:00.000+13:00

30 - CONNAN & THE MOCKASINS - Naughty Holidays
29 - THE BOXCAR GUITARS - My Love Is Blue
28 - SMOOSH - I've Got My Own Problems
27 - FRANZ FERDINAND - Do You Want To
26 - WOLFMOTHER - Dimension
25 - THE PRESETS - Are You The One
24 - THE FALL - Pacifying Joint
23 - THE RAKES - Retreat
22 - THE SNEAKS - Kuzai Heart You
21 - WE ARE SCIENTISTS - Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt
20 - BABYSHAMBLES - Fuck Forever
19 - BILLY CHILDISH & THE BUFF MEDWAYS - Troubled Mind
18 - THE KILLS - No Wow
17 - THE ROBOCOP KRAUS - You Don't Have To Shout
16 - THE D4 - What I Want
15 - DEVENDRA BANHART - I Feel Just Like a Child
14 - THE CHECKS - What You Heard
13 - THE WHITE STRIPES - Blue Orchid
12 - BLOC PARTY - Two More Years
11 - THE EDITORS - Blood
10 - THE STROKES - Juicebox
09 - ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN - Stormy Weather
08 - TEST-ICICLES - Boa VS Python
07 - WHIRLWIND HEAT - Reagan
06 - THE LEGENDARY K.O. - George Bush Don't Like Black People
05 - COCO SOLID - B.A.S.S.
04 - SO SO MODERN - Loose Threads and Theremins
03 - TEEN WOLF - Werewolf Tries to Get a Date
02 - THE MINT CHICKS - Fuck the Golden Youth
01 - DIE!DIE!DIE! - Year Nine, Yeah!

Cheese on Toast Top 60 for 2005 (Part One)

2005-12-26T12:00:00.000+13:00

Here's the countdown from 60-31 as played on Cheese on Toast Radio last Tuesday 3-5pm on Fleet FM

60 - GANG OF FOUR - I Love a Man in Uniform (Yeah Yeah Yeah Remix)
59 - RAINY DAYS - Face Work
58 - MEW - Special
57 - MIXTURE - You Know What To Do
56 - THE GRATES - Sukkafish
55 - MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUGHTS - Raised by Wolves
54 - BE YOUR OWN PET - Damn Damn Leash
53 - WOLF & CUB - 1000 Cuts
52 - STARS - Ageless Beauty
51 - CLOR - Love+Pain
50 - ROBYN - Konichiwa Bitches
49 - BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB - Ain't No Easy Way
48 - THIS NIGHT CREEPS - The Dancing Mania
47 - ROBOT TIGERS - !!! Robots Tigers Are Go !!!
46 - WOLF PARADE - Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts
45 - THE DEPARTURE - All Mapped Out
44 - TIM FITE - No Good Here
43 - THE BLUNTS - Weapon of Mass Destruction
42 - THE TEARS - Lovers
41 - ANTHONY & THE JOHNSONS - You Are My Sister
40 - RIVERSEDGE - C'mon Lets Go Baby
39 - KILL SURF CITY - Free The Sity
38 - THE CHANDELIERS - 1/4 Mile Burnout
37 - THE MAGIC NUMBERS - Forever Lost
36 - RYAN McPHUN & THE RUBY SUNS - Maasai Mara
35 - THE JUAN MACLEAN - Every Little Thing
34 - LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - Daft Punk Is Play In My House
33 - THE REDUCTION AGENTS - 80s Celebration
32 - TEGAN & SARA - Walking With A Ghost
31 - DIRTY LITTLE SECRET - Guns Guns Guns

Tune into Cheese on Toast Radio Tuesday 27 Dec 2005 3-5pm on Fleet FM for the Cheese on Toast Top Thirty for 2005!

The Kills - Kings Arms, Auckland

2005-12-14T17:25:00.000+13:00

[live review, Kings Arms 13 December 2005]

Some of the dirtier readers out there may have, at one stage or another, fantasized about having a sweaty one night stand featuring more than one partner. But last night The Kills actually did it.

On a damn hot Tuesday night at the King’s Arms, the two musicians got intimate with each other, with their guitars and with a crowd of hundreds. As one shocked young innocent put it later, “you almost felt like you shouldn’t have been there, it was that intimate.”

But it was also a seriously electrifying show. It was a bit like the best one night stand - a combination of hot, sweaty sex, sweet, languorous lovin’ and an unexpected but breath taking perversion or two. No swapping of phone numbers the next morning, no guilt or recrimination afterwards, just a fine adult time had by all.

So it may have been the pre-thunderstorm humidity, the slow liquefaction of the scowling crowd due to the heat or the way that Jamie “Hotel” Hince played his guitar and Alison “VV” Mosshart whipped her long black hair around or shook from the hips as though she was being exorcised of demons.

Or, more likely it may have been the music. The critics who tried to ban Elvis knew the truth – the essence of rock music really is sex. Filthy sex – and that’s what you can hear on The Kills’ minimally produced albums.

Sure, some of their songs may sound a little similar and the song structure isn’t the most complicated stuff you’ve ever heard. But there’s a raw malevolence to it, Jamie’s skillfully hacked-at guitars and Alison’s growling, breathy vocals that curse, demand and bear witness. Yep, the Kills really mean it.

Which means that live, in a crowded bar with sweat trickling down from the nape of everyone’s necks into their underpants, they mean it even more.

None of the songs sounded particularly different from the albums and the audience was not introduced to a new dimension of the group, but maybe that’s because The Kills are, in essence, a live act.

And what an act it was. Apparently in reality Alison’s pretty sweet and shy – but she obviously has a provocative onstage persona, VV, that she brandishes as wildly as her hair and hips while performing. And Jamie’s onstage character, Hotel, throws his guitar around like a machine gun.

And between Hotel and VV, there’s more sexual chemistry than a cocktail of cheap beer, eighteen year olds and Viagra. We’re talking serious stage presence for a two personality band with only a drum machine for company. And although, some might disagree, other reviewers have said they leave Jack and Meg for dead.

There was maniacal teasing, intense eye contact, flirtatious brushing of hands, too-close crossed microphones and dramatic pelvic sparring and then, in an over-the-top finale, the use of the guitar-as-penis-extension.

Their bodies barely touch but it’s unmistakably all about, well, fucking really. It also felt quite exclusive. Yet because of the music, it was inclusive as well. Which is probably why we felt both like we should and shouldn’t have been there watching. It’s probably also why the closest most of the enamoured crowd got to dancing themselves was the occasional twitch of a randy leg; though there’s plenty of rhythm, it wasn’t a pogo-ing or moshing sort of gig. It was more of a rock’n’roll “show”.
In fact, the only time that VV and Hotel dropped the act, and the multiple personalities, was when Jamie missed a beat during the encore, a song had to be restarted and they both cracked up like normal people.

By the end of the gig, it would be fair to say most people were wondering about the relationship between VV and Hotel, and maybe Alison and Jamie too.

“Wow, do they go out together?,” another shocked, young innocent queried on the way out.
Nah, apparently not. As Alison told an Australian journalist during the Sydney leg of the tour recently, they’ve never been more than just friends. “I don't think we really rely on sexual tension,” she explained. “We just rely on kind of artistic tension, y'know? Wanting more out of each other all the time and pushing each other to the point of insanity. There's a lot of stress and anxiety and excitement ... We're absolutely, uh, committed.” And by that, one assumes that she means committed to the music and the show.

Anyway as long as they come back to fuck (with) us all again some time soon, who really cares.

Cathrin Schaer

The Warlocks - Surgery

2005-12-12T13:53:00.000+13:00

Bobby Hecksher used to be in the Brian Jonestown Massacre. So did Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's Peter Hayes. Before BRMC's latest 'alt country' stripped down Howl, cynics among us used to call BRMC a poor imitation of Jesus and Mary Chain.

They were wrong. I thought it was a damned fine imitation of Jesus and Mary Chain. On the other hand, Hecksher's band The Warlocks, don't deserve the honor.

I can't, I'm afraid, help but cringe through Heckshers vocals and lyrics. Oh, he had a drug problem. How dangerous. And comparing, metaphorically, a relationship break-up to surgery because, while it hurts, in the long run, it's good for you.... oh please - the "it's just like surgery" sing-a-long, complete with the quasi-crying moans - really, kill me now.

Surgery is like, as I say, if Jesus and Mary Chain were Emo. While, sonically they manage a wall of sound to compare favorably, Hecksher just doesn't quite cut it with his limp wristed lyrics telling us, in all ernesty, that there are Angels in Heaven and in Hell. He's been there, man.

I read somewhere that Surgery and The Warlocks "give neo-psychedelia a good name". You gotta laugh.

- Andrew Tidball

The Glory Sea - demo's

2005-12-12T13:31:00.000+13:00

The Glory Sea deliver strong pop-rock songs with more than an endearing ounce of modesty and romance and dare I say, innocence. Let's be honest, the best songs are love songs. I know it's uncool to admit that, so I know you'll be reading this thinking I'm a sad git who's missing his girlfriend too much - and perhaps that's true.

But The Glory Sea unashamedly play love songs. Songs that teenage girls might sing along to in the mirror with the hairbrush microphone, imagining that Joel's voice is actually that of their latest unobtainable object of desire.

These same girls, in between swooning, like to dance as well.

The Glory Sea oblige with songs you can sing and dance to.

Expect big things from this up and coming young band - take it from an overgrown teenage girl.

- Andrew Tidball

Wolf Parade - Apollogies to the Queen Mary

2005-12-12T13:05:00.000+13:00

Apologies to the Queen Mary is said to be, and I quote, "the most eagerly anticipated Canadian indie album of the year". What the fuck does that mean anyway. I mean, talk about being overly specific. They might as well say it's the "most eagerly anticipated Canadian indie album by a all-male four piece who have two vocalists and facial hair of the year."

But anyway. Wolf Parade are from Montreal and have been together for just over two years. They were 'brought to the attention' of Sub Pop Records by Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse.

The album kicks of with the disjointed beats of You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son and features the vocals of Spencer Krug - who also provides keyboards for the band. I have to say that I prefer the lyrical and vocal stylings of Spencer over Dan Boeckner - so it follows, that I am biased toward those songs he sings - they seem less 'standard' in their structure and Krug's vocal's more interesting.

That said, Boeckner lead Shine a Light and The Heart's on Fire have an anthemic feel about them which is hard to ignore or not enjoy. But Grounds For Divorce, Dear Sons and Daughter of Hungry Ghosts and I'll Believe in Anything are truly beautiful in their peculiarity.

- Andrew Tidball

Cheese on Toast Radio 29 Nov

2005-12-02T10:08:00.000+13:00

ANDREW THOMPSON - We're In Business
"Discovered" by my flatmate and left on my desk on my birthday last week, you'd be forgiven that this is some lost 1980's electro track, but it turns out that New Yorker Andrew Thompson put out his album Egad this year. Full of choice casiotones and melodies. This song is about robots and your foolish trust in them.
Website MySpace

BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE - Beyond the Pale
From the 1986 album No. 10 Upping St. Big Audio Dyname was Mick Jones' (The Clash) band with Don Letts. This album was produced by Jones and Joe Strummer (RIP). After Big Audio Dynamite (B.I.G) Jones' formed Big Audio Dynamite II and is now in a band called Carbon/Silicon with ex Generation X bassist Tony James (who formed Sigue Sigue Sputnik in the late 80s.) Co-inciently it's Billy Idol's birthday tomorrow (30 Nov).
Mick Jones produced the first Libertines album Up The Bracket, but much like Pete Doherty, he didn't have much to do with the second album. Doherty was of course famously thrown out of the Libertines and has gone on to concentrate on his project Babyshambles.

BABYSHAMBLES - Down in Albion
Babyshambles is, of course, Pete Doherty (ex The Libertines) new band. Babyshambles started off really as more of side project while The Libertines were in New York. The first eponymously titled single was relased in April 2004 - with only 1000 copies made on CD and vinyl, they have become quite rare and sought after, changing hands on the internet for well over $100(NZD) each.
La Belle et la Bete is the opening track on Down in Albion and it fatures Kate Moss on vocals with Pete. Kate is also creditted for co-writing the song What Katy Did Next. Which, of course, if you read the gossip rags, is dump Pete. There are some rumours around that Pete himself leaked images / footage of Kate snorting coke to the UK tabloids for money. He's rumoured to have done the same thing to himself in order to help fund his habits.
The song is a fittingly shambolic and self doubting opening to the album which I was, admittedly, expecting little from having not been initially impressed by Fuck Forever. However, now heard in context of the entire album I'm loving that song.
The album also features a re-recording of their first top-ten single Killamangiro in it's understated chaotic greatness.
Albion is the next single from the album where Doherty appropriates Willam Blake (Albion being an old name for the British Isles). Perhaps upon first listen an atypical single, slow and melodic, but about half way in you are hooked and by three quarters you''l be joining Pete in his plea to get away from whatever it is you need to come away from.
Back From the Dead There are a number of references to death on the album, and tracks like A'rebours have Donerty sounding like a hybrid between cheer leaders Robert Smith and Morrissey. Back from the Dead is most certainly Smiths-esque - in a really good way.
The 32nd of December is an (im)perfect pop song, opening with a quasi-ironic funk tinged organ before it becomes the punctuation to the slurry world and words of Doherty.
Pentoville has been dismissed by some critics as nonsence and filler - a ragga rap by The General, who Doherty apparently met in jail. But I feel the inclusion of the almost acapella ragamuffin track adds depth and warmth to the album, this is modern Albion.

BILLY CHILDISH & THE BUFF MEDWAYS - Girl from '62
Billy Childish & the Buff Medways are playing this coming Sunday (4th) at The Kings Arms with support from The Chandeliers. Billy is also doing apoetry readin on Saturday night at The Odeon with support, after his reading by the Nudie Suits.

TEEN WOLF
Teen Wolf are Brad on bass/guitar/vox, Chelsea on keys/vocals and Vincent on Drums. Vincent is also singer/guitarist in Whipping Cats. Teen Wolf are presently on nationwide tour with A Low Hum after a brief hiatus while Chelsea was in Europe with family.
Just before Chelsea's trip overseas Teen Wolf did a short recording session at The Rock Factory and some fruits from this session have now been put out as two very gorgeous and very collectable 3" CDs by the band. You can buy them from gigs.
The recordings are, admittedly, a little rough and the band really havent had time to go back over them to correct the odd mistake - but they are most certainly gems. This band had people singing along by their second ever gig, and by their third - Fleet FM's Pelvic Trust party, had the crowd chanting their name. They're not always the tightest, but they always deliver the most amazing fun. Imagine The Pixies in a fucked up circus.
Brad's voice is absolutely huge - as his his stage presence and is complimented and contrasted perfectly by Chelsea's classically trained keyboard lines - all backed up with stoic disco rhythms.
King of the Beasts / Cosby Song / Papa Lazarau's Circus / Werefolf Tries to Get a Date

WE ARE SCIENTISTS - With Love and Squalor
With no New Zealand release date scheduled it's criminal. We Are Scientists are from New York, but you'd be forgiven for thinking the are part of the recent British exlosion of the likes of Bloc Party and Franz Ferdinand. And frankly, they are easily up there with those bands in terms of dancability. They are presently on tiur in the UK with Test-Icicles and have some European dates sceduled for December with Wolf Parade and Stars.
At a show in Glasgow Kieth Murray, vocalist, was presented with a cock-ring by a new fan as a gift in appreciation of the show - purchased from a vending machine in the toilets.
Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt / Can't Lose / Cash Cow
website

THE GRATES - The Ouch. The Touch.
The Grates are a trio from Brisbane. You'd might think that Karen O is in the band. But she's not. Vocals actually supplied by Patience, guitar by John and drums by Alana - three friends who met slacking off sports at high-school. The Ouch. The Touch. is a 4 track EP and features tehir debut radio single which enjoyed high rotate on JJJ - Trampoline.
Message / Trampoline / Wash Me
website MySpace

THE ROBOCOP KRAUS
From Nuremberg in Germany, The Robocop Kraus' fourth album The Think They Are Robocop Kraus is their debut to be released internationally. At this tage, however, there is no set date for a New Zealand release - which is disappointing.
Think Devo meets Franz Ferdinand or DFA and Talking Heads on a date; The Robocop Kraus are a party with a distinctive Germanic sense of humour (yes, they do have one!). This album is their first to use a producer - Pelle Gunnerfeldt (who worked with The Hives, among others) and was recorded at his studios in Stockholme.
Thomas Lang's epileptic vocals remind me of David Byrne at Talking Heads finest moments. Organs and hand-claps punctuate this song about Matthias Rust - who famously flew a cessna aircraft into Soviet airspace and landed in Red Square in 1987. Anyone who writes songs about such subjects is sheer genius in my books!
Too Shy For Tennis Taken from the 1999 album Inferno Nihilistic - this track is evidence that Robocop Kraus are in no way jumping on a bandwidth of eighties influenced bands which are making popular right now. In it's finer moments it sounds like The Cure before a somewhat disappointing finish.
Concerned, Your Secular Friends Written about their former bassist who left the band after becoming a Christian during a trip, by the band, to Amsterdam. Suitably snotty and defiant, complete with "Amsterdam" refrains.
All The Good MenContinues the the melding of Talking Heads and DFA with quirky disco beats. This album will make you dance.

BE YOUR OWN PET
From Nashville, Tennessee, Be Your Own Pet are a four-piece of teenagers who had to recently turn down a tour with The Kills due to school committments. They've been recorded by Roger Moutenot (Sleater Kinny) and produced by Angelo (Kings of Leon). A fansite describes them as a riot between, among other things Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Black Flag, The Jam, Blondie, The Buzzcocks and The Von Bondies.
Damn, Damn Leash/ Wildcat!

THE FIERY FURNACES - Rehearsing My Choir
Siblings Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger have delivered on their promise, or depending on your perspective, threat to record an album with their grandmother Olga Sarantos. The duo seem dead-set on producing albums to defy the mainstream and radio programmers. Pitchfork called this album "every bit as terrible and fantastic as it sounds" - and I'd have to agree. Taking a concept that some bands might limit to a single, or perhaps, the more adventurous to an EP, The Fiery Furnaces take the concept to its fullest reaches with a full length album. Does it work? My jury's still out overall, but there are definitely some stand out moments of genius.
Though Let's Be Fair / The Wayward Granddaughter

MEW - And The glass Handed Kites
This is actually their fourth album - but only the second to be released internationally by this Danish quartet. It's rich and lush in melodies that will wash over and engulf you.
Mew won a ZULU for Zookeepers Boy as Best Hit Song, and one for Best Album and Best Male Vocalist.
Zookeepers Boy / Apocalypso

Cheese on Toast Radio 15 Nov 2005

2005-11-16T14:42:00.000+13:00
Playlist - Includes the Cheese on Toast Top 15

[--] THE MAGIC NUMBERS - Crazy in Love *
[--] GLORIA JONES - Tainted Love
[--] BILLY CHILDISH & THE BUFF MEDWAYS - You Piss Me Off **
[--] SHAFT - I Just Wanna Have Your Baby ***
[--] THE NUDIE SUITS - Little Too Loose There ***
[15] ANTHONY & THE JOHNSONS - You Are My Sister
[14] WOLFMOTHER - Apple Tree
[13] REAISED BY WOLVES - Little Birds
[--] THE SNEAKS - Kuzai Heart U ****
[--] ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN - The Killing Moon *+
[12] THE STROKES - Juicebox *++
[11] FRANZ FERDINAND vs THE KNACK - Do You Want My Sharona
[10] THE FALL - Pacifying Joint
[--] IGGY & THE STOOGES - Shake Appeal
[--] MORRISSEY & SIOUXSIE SIOUX - Interlude
[--] THE ACRTIC MONKEYS - I Bet You look Good on the Dancefloor
[09] MY MORNING JACKET - Off the Record
[08] SONS & DAUGHTERS - Dance Me In
[07] BABYSHAMBLES - Fuck Forever
[06] THE EVILS - 101
[05] BLOC PARTY - Two More Years
[04] THE MAGIC NUMBERS - Forever Lost
[--] TEST-ICICLES - Boa Vs Python
[--] KAPOW! - Make You Mine
[--] DOTDASH - Am I
[--] THE FIERY FURNACES - The Garfield El *+++
[--] SOULWAX - Teachers *++++
[03] WOLF & CUB - Thousand Cuts
[02] SO SO MODERN - Loose Threads and Theramins *+*
[01] THE WHITE STRIPES - Walking The Ghost *+**

Notes
* Live cover of Beyonce and Jay-Z (sans rap).
** Playing Kings Arms Dec 4th.
*** Shaft and The Nudie Suits are playing with The Rainy Days on Saturday at the Odeon.
**** Happy Birthday to James from the Sneaks today!
*+ Today is the anniversary of Echo & the Bunnymen's first ever public performance at Eric's Club in Liverpool in 1978.
*++ Leaked track from forthcoming album, possibly the lead single.
*+++ From their forthcoming new album which was recorded with their grandmother.
*++++ Their cover of the Daft Punk song.
*+* Playing Friday at A Low Hum at Kings Arms with Teen Wolf, Kill Surf City, The Vacants and Fields of Love (Die!Die!Die! side-project)
*+** Tegan & Sara cover.

Wolfmother - album review

2005-11-13T11:04:00.000+13:00
an album review by Andrew Tidball

Have you heard the latest rumours that various ex-members of Black Sabbath have been collaborating with Led Zepplin? To make it all the more curious, they are pretending to be three skinny guys from Sydney, Australia with rad afro's.

But the truth is, the skinny guys have made a debut album that far exceeds anything that might be created, even if Jack White dressed as a mad scientist were to genetically splice together DNA of Ozzy and Plant.

There are only a handful of adjectives, Colossal, being used already as the opening song title, to adequately describe the mammoth sound of Wolfmother.
Indeed, it sets the scene perfectly with giant guitar riffs punctuated with drums heavy as lead. Andrew Stockdale's vocals are impossible to not make immediate comparisons to Jack White and Robert Plant. Most jaw-droppingly so in songs like Apple Tree and Joker and the Thief.

Turn up this album to as loud as a very loud thing, light some joss-sticks and maybe dig out those sunglasses that are circles. Gather some friends to join you in your room, preferably including hot hippy girls, and you'll find yourself in the early 1970s. Perfectly. You'll probably even listen to some Uriah Heep afterward.

In Tales From The Forest of Gnomes, Wolfmother explore their most psychedelic aesthetic and in Pyramid Stockdale's vocal chords become a theremin. Wolfmother is a stoner rock album with no muthafucking apologies.

- Andrew Tidball

Cheese on Toast Radio Show 8 Nov 2005 Fleet FM 3-5pm

2005-11-09T10:16:00.000+13:00
PLAYLIST FOR THE SHOW

[--] DANIEL LINDEBERG - Heart of Glass *
[15] HANDSOME BOY MODELLING SCHOOL feat CAT POWER - I've Been Thinking
[14] SONS AND DAUGHTERS - Dance Me In
[13] THE FALL - Pacifying Joint
[--] RICK JAMES IS PLAYING AT MY HOUSE - LCD Soundsystem VS Rick James **
[--] THE STROKES - Fiftenn Minutes of Pain ***
[--] DETROIT COBRAS - Last Night ****
[12] THE PRESETS - Are You The One
[11] SMOOSH - I've Got My Own Problems
[10] MY MORNING JACKET - Off the Record
[--] BACHELORETTE - My Electric Husband *****
[--] MADONNA - Like a Virgin *+
[09] THE MARS VOLTA - Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt
[08] MEW - Special
[--] TEGAN AND SARA - Walk witha Ghost
[07] THE MAGIC NUMBERS - Forever Lost
[--] THE RAINY DAYS - Face Work *++
[--] SALT N PEPA - I am Down *+++
[06] FRANZ FERDINAND - Do You Want To
[05] BLOC PARTY - Two More Years
[04] THE STROKES - You Only Live Once
[03] WOLF & CUB - Thousand Cuts --- Not played
[--] BEATSIE BOYS - Rock Hard
[--] VELVET UNDERGROUND - Run, Run, Run *++++
[--] DEPECHE MODE - Precious
[--] KAPOW! - Make You Mine *@
[02] THE WHITE STRIPES - Walking With a Ghost *@@
[--] FASHION GIRL - The Situations
[--] ROBYN - Konichiwa Bitches
[--] THE KUNG FU MONKEYS - Roller Skate Date
[01] SO SO MODERN - Loose Threads and Theremins

Notes
* A weird little cover of the Blondie classic
** This week in 1998 Rick James suffered a stroke after bursting a blood vessel in his neck while head-banging during a performance in Denver.
*** The Strokes go all Emo on us with yet another leaked track from the forthcoming album.
**** Detroit Cobras cover the classic Strokes song.
***** Bachelorette play this week at Shanghai Lils on Thursday.
*+ Madonna's Like a Virgin was released this week in 1984
*++ The Rainy Days play with Whipping Cats and Boxcar Guitars at the Masonic Tavern on Friday.
*+++ It's Sandy "PEPA" Delton's birthday on Wednesday this week. She's one year younger than me!
*++++ This week marks the anniversary of the Velvet Underground's debut perfromance at a high school dance in Summit New Jersey in 1965.
*@ ex-Fiery Furnace Toshi Yano's new group. Fiery Furnaces have a new album coming out that they made with their Gran.
*@@ White Stripes cover Tegan and Sara

The Fall - Heads Roll

2005-11-03T02:17:00.000+13:00
an album review by Andrew Tidball

So, The Fall have a new album. One might be forgiven for thinking that it might be an amusing novelty item. A stocking filler for your older brother who now has a sensible job, wife, kid and another on the way, mortgage and a sensible family car. He’s doing well for himself now, finally, after a mis-spent youth which concerned your mother as it crept well into his late-twenties. But you recall, when you were much younger and he still lived at home he was a Fall fan.

But don’t make the mistake of writing this album off as an amusing recollection of a bygone era; something to make your older sibling smile, perhaps a tear in his eye, fondly recalling his now lost record collection. He made his bed, let him sleep in it and, instead keep The Fall’s Heads Roll for your greedy little self to enjoy – because, perhaps quite shockingly and unexpectedly it’s a freaking good album!
Unmistakably The Fall – Mark E Smith un-sings and un-hinges, sneering as perhaps only Smith can – with a heady mix of sarcasm and disinterest – perfectly captured among their non-standard song structures. I imagine Smith flicking the proverbial bird to all and sundry with the choice of covering the Move’s I Can hear The Grass Grow, and then, smirking, lifting the second finger by releasing the cover as the first single to compliment the album.

Other highlights include the disjointed groove of Ride Away, the synth electro driven Pacifying Joint, the urgent siren calls of Assume, and the taunting Youwnner including Smiths perhaps self-disdain of “You’re always a work in progress’, sarcastically sugar of Breaking the Rules.

- Andrew Tidball

Ghostplane - Beneath the Sleepy Lagoon

2005-11-03T02:15:00.000+13:00
An album review by Andrew Tidball

Beneath the Sleepy Lagoon by Ghostplane is their follow up to their debut, and acclaimed EP – The Panther Valley Country Cub which was released last year, and with it they present an arguably more cohesive and complete sound. From the outset with the instrumental title track, the scene is set for an album of crafted songs with complexities woven in and throughout which will keep you joyously discovering them over repeated listens. You’ll find yourself quietly addicted, returning for repeat performances looking for another hit of unexpected pleasure. Ghostplane balance their sound quite perfectly between indie pop and alt country with this album.

Somehow, they cleverly create songs which transform into intricately woven sound-scapes while remaining gorgeously pop with understated hooks. Imagine weaving with cotton candy and flax. Wonderfully it works and keeps you coming back for more.

Stand out moments for me, so far, (and I say so far because I know I’m sure to discover a new nuance that’ll become my new favorite upon my next listen) include the quasi –psychedelic Lazy Bones, the driving pop of High Sierra, the winding road of Southern Hill and the delicate drops of Wash of Gold.

- Andrew Tidball

Dirty Little Secret

2005-11-03T02:12:00.000+13:00
EP Review by Andrew Tidball

I’m a sucker for angular rock music with a sturdy dance beat and Dirty Little Secret with their eponymous titled five-track EP deliver more than enough for this sucker. Dirty Little Secret have, it seems gone criminally under the radar for many – perhaps it was too easy for some to file under “sounds like Bloc Party” – which is a damned shame.
From Los Angeles, Dirty Little Secret, are playing in Australia this month but sadly no New Zealand dates.

Only too often a five-track EP can be a bit of a let down – with one good idea for a song – but not much else. But here Dirty Little Secret provide five solid tunes. From the eerie openings of the first track We Want To You, vocalist Louise Castle delivers modernist lyrics with a plaintiff tone more befitting, perhaps admittedly, the recent British boom.
Long Gone and Perfect For Sex serve up all the best bits of darker edge electronic rock without the melodrama but my favorite track is Guns, Guns, Guns - with lyrics and beats that dart past you at breakneck speed to bounce off the back wall and kick your butt on their return.

- Andrew Tidball

Cheese on Toast Radio Playlist 1 November 2005

2005-11-01T18:18:00.000+13:00
This week's show was not streamed because Fleet moved studio's this week and teh interweb wasn't up and running yet.

I have re-introduced the chart-show this week.

[--] DEVENDRA BANHART - I Feel Just Like a Child
[--] IGGY POP - The Passenger
[--] THE CHECKS - What You Heard
[15] LESBIANS ON ECSTACY - Revolt (Le Tigre Remix)
[14] THE JUAN MACLEAN - Give Me Every Little Thing
[13] GANG OF FOUR - Love a Man in Uniform (Yeah Yeah Yeah's Mix)
[12] THE PRESETS - Are You The One?
[--] THE BRUNETTES - When Ice Met Cream
[11] THE MAGIC NUMBERS - Forever Lost
[--] WOLF PARADE - Dead Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts
[--] THE KILLS - No Wow (MSTRKFT Remix)
[--] THE EVILS - 101
[--] THE FALL - Pacifying Joint
[10] ROBYN - Konichiwa Bitches
[09] FRANZ FERDINAND vs THE KNACK - Do You Want My Sharona
[08] THE STROKES - The Other Side
[--] YOUTH GROUP - Skeleton Jar
[--] TIM GUY w/ BIC RUNGA - Question
[07] MORRISSEY & SIOUXSIE SIOUX - Interlude
[--] GUITAR WOLF Violent Letter
[06] SMOOSH - I've Got My Own Problems
[05] THE PLOT TO BLOW UP THE EIFFEL TOWER - Riechstag Rock
[04] HANDSOEM BOY MODELLING SCHOOL feat CAT POWER - I've Been Thinking
[03] THE MARS VOLTA - Take the Viel Cerpin Taxt
[02] BLOC PARTY - Two More Years
[01] SO SO MODERN - Loose Threads and Theremins

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang - movie review

2005-10-29T12:01:00.000+13:00
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
(2005) Written & Directed by Shane Black
Robert Downey Jr, Val Kilmer

movie review by Kimbery Lesch

Hey, do you like Val Kilmer? I mean, like in the-past-ten-years-minus-Heat-Val-Kilmer? Neither do I. 'Real Genuis' was somewhat an institution in the 80s; 'Willow' was enlightened by his tongue in cheek performance that included such gems as "Willow, this is war, not agriculture." But! Val Kilmer lately? 'The Island of Dr. Moreau?' Hello?

Hi. Turns out Kilmer is funny, I mean, really hilarious. He finally lives up to his full 'youngest-Juillard-student-ever' potential in 'Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang' as Detective 'Gay' Perry alongside another fine actor who has been known to take trite roles (coughGothikacough), Robert Downey Jr. Both actors can handle the whip smart, insult laden, fast paced dialogue from Shane Black, better known for creating 'Lethal Weapon' and redefining just exactly what an action comedy should be. The pairing of the two might seem a bit old school, but I assure you, gentle readers, it works. It doesn't just work though, it does so with a great deal of finesse and smoothness that only actors truely comfortable in their medium possess. The movie itself has the sort of film making which induces the "That took effort. Nice." feeling that all cinephiles adore. However, just as I entered the theatre knowing little except that the reviews for the film had been positive, I should let you to do the same.

Ok, fine, so you'll actually GO out and plunk down fifteen clams to see this gem, know this: It's a mystery. It's a comedy. It's ever so slightly romantic. There is a poor man's Liv Tyler in it. Yes, she gets naked. No, Kilmer does not. Yes, you will be crowing with infantile delight over the plot and jumping upon one's seat with surprise over the entire course of the film. It wins. What else can I say?

Run along.
Go see it.

- Kimberly Lesch

Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary [Sub Pop]

2005-10-29T11:53:00.000+13:00
an album review by Joanna Mathers

If you're to believe the US indie press there's something of a revolution going on north of the border. The last few years have seen a batch of quirky Canadian pop releases sending music reviewers into paroxysms of delight (The Arcade Fire's Funeral album a case in point). Montreal is touted as the new Seattle and releases from artists within the scene are being met with an underground hype verging on hysteria.

Enter Wolf Parade. Pals with The Arcade Fire and name dropped by Modest Mouse, Wolf Parade's debut was always going to be a highly anticipated outing. Following on from two much lauded eps, Apologies to the Queen Mary consolidates the band's position as the latest proponents of the whimsical northern sound.

Fronted by Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug, Wolf Parade's influences aren't hard to spot. David Bowie, The Pixies and even Bauhaus are referenced here, but rather than coming off as a cheap 80s parody, the Wolves manage to weave these influences quite effortlessly into a unique sonic tapestry.

The album's opening tracks are probably its weakest. "You are a runner and I am my father's son" and "Modern World", sung by Krug and Boeckner respectively, are pretty much just scene setters. It's only with "Grounds for Divorce" that the album really hits its stride. A kind of pop requiem for lost love and a simpler world, it's littered with plaintive references to whales and buses and wedding cakes. Krug is in fine form - his Ziggy-infused vocals flitter playfully over simple guitar riffs and melodic keyboards.

"We built another world" which follows sees Boeckner in charge again. A Pixies inspired slice of acerbic pop it's the perfect counterpoint to Krug's whimsical dittie.

Boeckner is definitely the straight man of the pair. His vocals are harsher, his delivery more straightforward. His talents are most evident in the anthemic "Shine a light". With a killer pared back rock riff and urgent driving vocals, its guaranteed to have you reaching for the repeat button.

Whilst Apologies to the Queen Mary mightn't change the course of music history, it's an intelligent and interesting listen sprinkled with some real gems. Just ignore the hype and let the music do the talking.

- Joanna Mathers

Tim Fite - Gone Aint Gone

2005-10-17T23:00:00.000+13:00
Another album steeped in Americana is the initial and natural response to Gone Aint Gone as the opening refrains of I Hope Yer There ask you to say hello to your mama and your pa over what seem to be banjo picks.

And, yes Tim Fite's vocal stylings continue to tip his hat to American blue grass and country, but hold on a minute. What if I told you that it's actually a hip-hop record?

Yeah, you heard me. Hip Hop meets country. Not in a crappy Kid Rock redneck bumpkin parody way, or Hayseed Dixie ripping the piss out of Outcast (sic - hey, Hayseed guys, if you are going to parody something, at least know how to spell their muthafucken name properly!)

Tim Fite is a collagist, like Avalanches and Go!Team - building the musical landscapes of his songs, nay, constructing them, painstakingly, from samples excluisively from cd's rescued from from budget bins. He claims that no cd used to create his music cost him more than one dollar.

Conceptually, perhaps, upon reading this, it sounds terrible. But trust me, it really works. Fite delivers hooks and quasi-raps that will have you singing along with songs like Forty-Five Remedies, Shook, This Is Not a Hit Song, A Little Bit, and the wonderful No Good Here with an adopted twang.

Like other hip-hop albums, Fite turns his hand to humor in the form of some 30 - 45 second 'skits' and, just like more traditional hip-hop - they fail abysmally and serve only as an annoyance to force your hand to the skip-track button.

Echo & the Bunnymen - Siberia [Album Review]

2005-10-17T22:45:00.000+13:00
So it struck me, with just a little bit of horror, that I had been more than remiss in not posting a review of Siberia by Echo & the Bunnymen. Not simply because Echo & the Bunnymen were / are one of the most important bands ever (okay, somewhat of a hyperbole, but you have to agree that they were fucken great in their time!), but really, because, from the day I got my copy of this album I kept returning to it over and over on a daily basis.

So, basically, what I am saying is that, Siberia has some addictive quality. Not in a heroine or meth-amphetamine kinda of way, more like, oh I dunno, a good cup of earl grey tea.

And, I mean a really fucken good cup of tea.

Siberia is the fourth album since Echo & the Bunnymen "reformed" in 1997 - and it's fundamentally Will Sergent and Ian McCulloch. They have engaged their production talents of Hugh Jones and the result is a prestinely polished sound - something that kind of stands out these days - where, often the trend seems to be faux-lo-fi.

Despite the absence of s Pattinson and the late Pete de Freitas, Siberia returns you to the classic years of the Bunnymen, but you can't help but pose yourself the question is it classic or nostalgic? But frankly, I can't help but recall the old addage - if it aint broke then don't fix it - they know that their sound of the early to mid eighties was by no means broke, so here they have made absolutely no effort to "fix" it.

So, if you've never been a fan of Echo & the Bunnymen, this album is not going to change your mind, but if you 'learnt and sung' those songs from those years ago, then Siberia makes perfect sense twenty years later - proving that Sergent and McCulloch still are masters at song writing - perhaps moreso now with the benefit of age and confidence - and will provide you with eleven new songs to sing along to once you've learned them.

You Could Have It So Much Better with Franz Ferdinand[Album Review]

2005-10-17T17:12:00.000+13:00
Through the wonders (?) of the inter-web I had managed to acquire a number of the tracks off the, then forthcoming and "strictly embargoed" sophomore album from Franz Ferdinand - and before that a copy of the lead single Do You Want To - and nothing really grabbed me. I was ready to right it off as the almost obligatory "difficult" second album - and perhaps the first nail in their collective coffin.

But then, I got the proper copy of the album; within moments, quite literally, it all became very clear to me.

I recall that feeling I got when I first listened to their debut album - I remember I was with some friends at the time and we all sat there with stupid smiles on our faces. Franz Ferdinand don't make ernest, thought provocking music. They don't write songs that are going to become the way you feel or felt about that boy or girl - you know, it never would have worked, but you don't know why.

No, Franz Ferdinand make songs designed to make you dance. And smile. And be happy. And dance again. So, away with you, ye serious music critic! Begone angst-ridden teenager who is convinced that every song from Antics was written for you and that boy you secretly like. Because, frankly you CAN have it so much better with Franz Ferdinand who have a new collection of hit singles; a new best-of collection which they mockingly call an album.

The lead single has taken on new life for me, not only because I found a rad mash-up of it with The Knacks' My Sharona, but honestly, it's so goddamned catchy - I challenge you to hear it in the morning on the way to work / school / whereever and then NOT be humming it well past lunch-time. Impossible, I say!

But then, to follow it up there's more dancefloor hits ready to roll - The Fallen, This Villian, Well That Was Easy, This Boy, You're The Reason I'm Leaving.... the list goes on. Will some of the kids in Auckland drop the pretence on the indie-dancefloor for a moment and have some fun!? I fucking well hope so! You Could Have It So Much Better!

Sure, they've dropped the tempo on a few tracks - Eleanor Put Your Boots On, Walk Away and Fade Away - but even here they drip with pop goodness on an album so full of hooks that fish are scared.

Crooked Fingers - Dignity & Shame [Album Review]

2005-10-17T16:50:00.000+13:00
Crooked Fingers is, fundamentally, Eric Bachman, former frontman of Archers of Loaf - and Dignity & Shame is his forth album under this moniker.

With Dignity & Shame, Bachman explores the traditions of American music from Appalachian folk through to south-western blues, country and rock and roll - all with a splash of Spanish/Latin influence. Imagine yourself in a Quentin Tarantino film, and this is your soundtrack.

Bachman's voice is the key identifing feature of Crooked Fingers - dark, deep, almost mornful at times - reminiscent of Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen - all mised into one. But, while that sound like all doom and gloom, Dignity & Shame manages to juxtapose Bachmans meloncholic voice with upbeat tempos (appropriately so, we're not talking happy-house here) and a few songs feature duets with Australian singer Lara Meyerratke - which, perhaps a little obviously, are personal stand out tracks for me. Her voice provides a perfect contrast to his gritty tones.

Call To Love is a gloriously poppy, catchy tune - Bachman who almost sounds wonderfully awkward in female company while Meyerratke deadpan deflects his advances. In Twilight Creeps and Sleep All Summer their voices intertwine quite perfectly.

But solo, in tracks such as Destroyer, Andalucia, Wrecking Ball and the title track - Bachman's darkness shines. Lyrically he cuts like a knife - and none sharper than in Dignity and Shame; sparsely instrumented to highlight the blade.

Dignity & Shame is a collection of fragile yet tough, beautifully ugly songs which, as is often the case, might pass you by on the first listen; in fact you might even be forgiven for thinking it's all a bit nampy-pampy - but brace yourself for a second or thrid listen and a firm slap across the face for your dismissive insolence.

Crooked Fingers is playing
Auckland, Friday 21st Oct - Kings Arms
Wellington, Saturday 22nd Oct - Bar Bodega
(both shows with John White and Renee-Louise Carafice

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Howl [Album Review]

2005-09-28T14:08:00.000+12:00
Howl grabs you with the eerie vocal refrain "time wont save our souls" before the twang of americana Shuffles its Feet into the opening track.

Much has already been said and speculated over the new album from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - in particular over the massive shift in direction for the band. But, pay no heed to the cynics, yeah I know they are generally the more amusing, but, with Howl, BRMC have simply delivered a stunning blues driven album quite unlike anything they have done before; an album that will polarize old fans and gain new ones.

But forget about it. Forget that BRMC used to take more influence from The Jesus and Mary Chain than Johnny Cash, that's obvious and old news. Just appreciate Howl for what it is; a new album and a new direction. The songs were all written, apparently, acoustically, on the road - so it seems to make sense that they be portrayed in this manner. And frankly, I rather an artist expand and grow and try new things than put out the upteenth album that sounded just like the last one.

From the haunting organ refrains of the title-track to the gospel of tracks like Suspicion and Restless Sinner to the honky-tonk of the leading single Aint No Easy Way, through to the perfect-day-ness of Promise, Howl totally pulls it off. Howl is an honest album; cynics take note - there is no hint of any desperate career-rescuing direction change - it's simply a natural response to what was happening for the band at the time of writing. Through adversity, truly, comes triumph, and let the triumph Howl.

Shocking Pinks - Infinity Land[Album Review]

2005-09-27T11:00:00.003+12:00
You know that dark intense guy who stares at everyone like he's looking right through them into their soul? He's brooding and good looking in a misfit kinda way, you know the type - girls love him; he's difficult and misunderstood. Mysterious and enigmatic. He is a Shocking Pinks album.

And more particularly, he is Infinity Land, the third and possibly the most complete album from Nick Harte aka The Shocking Pinks.

The album, after waking you up, kicks off with a perfect quartet of pop songs - each driving and relentlessly intense, destined to become classic Shocking Pinks each one of them - each layered and intense, building from the previous without diminishing what has preceded.

Lyrically, Infinity Land seems darker and grittier than other outtings, and it's at it's finest when Nick's heavier lyrics are juxtaposed by the fragility of his voice - "I love you when you're happy / I love you when you're sad / but I rather be your retard than to be your muthafucking dad" is a perfect example when sung in almost falsetto in How Am I Not Myself.

Musically, the rhythms are clean and sharp, danceable and wonderfully contrasted by the dirty layers of instrumentation, like on Yes!No! or the quasi-calypso beats of SmokeScreen where Harte's voice and lyrics are almost disengaged and swamped by a psychotic carnival, you bearly hear him utter, urging you to "just take the medicine".

The album closes, eerily returning you to a quite slumber who which it awoke you from briefly.

Infinity Land by The Shocking Pinks
Released on Flying Nun
3 Oct 2005

Die!Die!Die! [Album Review]

2005-09-27T11:00:00.002+12:00
Michael Prain beats out a rhythmic clarion call to open the debut album by one of New Zealand's most exciting bands (ever) before Andrew Wilson bites you with the anger and angst of his lyrics in Disappear Here and continues to maul you with his guitar and voice for a further twenty or so minutes, while Henry Oliver's basslines induce and reduce you to dance.

This is the anticipated debut album from Die! Die! Die!

I recall Andrew telling me of his plans, some time ago, to take the band to Chicago and record this album with Steve Albini and then master it in London's Abbey Road studios. They seemed, at the time, worthy and ambitious goals. But sheer determination, will, tenacity and, frankly raw talent has seen this band deliver on this promise. And, they have delivered ten-fold. Truly, this album has to be one of the most important records you will possess in your record collection.

Two tracks from the previously released EP have been re-recorded and included on the album, Auckland is Burning and Ashtray! Ashtray! - now, often when this happens you feel a little jip'd, y'know like when you were a kid and you snuck a look at your birthday present early and then were overwhelmed with a sense of disappointment, not because you didn't like the gift - but because there was no longer a surprise waiting for you on November 22nd (or whenever your birthday is). Well, that hasn't happened here - the recordings are so crisp and new it's like you never heard them before. In fact the whole album is like this; sure you know these songs if you have been going to Die!Die!Die! gigs - but there's a new immediacy, a new urgency, a new edge in these recordings.

Imagine pumping a puppy with amphetamine; well call the SPCA on Steve Albini and Steve Rooke - they have pumped new life into a band who already were the most kinetic thing you could imagine.

The Rainy Days - Face Work [Album Review]

2005-09-27T11:00:00.001+12:00
The Rainy Days are, perversely, one of the funkiest bands in Auckland. Why perversely? Well, listen to them with your eyes closed and then open them and take a good hard look at the cover; there's a huge and wonderful disparity there. The Rainy Days take your pre-conceptions, your pre-occupations and your pre-tense and turn them all the way up-side down and inside out.

FaceWork is the third record by The Rainy Days and is a continuation of the aesthetic explored in the 2004 album Hot Shit (I got that bit from the bio!). It's a collection of songs that, frankly, will have you tapping the rhythms in time with Aimee within moments and singing along with Dave by the second listen before, by the time you hear it a third time, you're fully drenched by The Rainy Days (see what I did there?)

By their own admission, there is no over-lying theme to this album, it is more like a photo album of snap shots - each song a picture of it's own, it's own story, it's own feel. From the funk-driven rhythms of the title-track, Way Out West and Swing That Thing to the more intense The Photographer, Liquid Oxygen and Youth of Today to the almost alt country tendencies of It's A Way Out and Personal Best.

With seemingly unrelated pieces that come together to form a bigger picture, or perhaps, probably more like one of those jigsaws where the picture on the front of the box is the other perspective of the image you are building. FaceWork is an album of diversity that is cleverly, and in it's own contradiction, cohesive.

Ryan McPhun & the Ruby Suns [Album Review]

2005-09-27T11:00:00.000+12:00
Delivered in time for a (hopefully) blissful summer, comes the debut album from Ryan McPhun & the Ruby Suns, and one will be hard-pressed to find another more befitting of melting away the greyness of the antipodean winter.

The album opens, like spring, gently warming the chills away with the acapella Trees Like Kids. You know on TV, when they do that stop-motion photography of a flower opening in the morning? Sleep In The Garden is the soundtrack to precisely that, gloriously unassuming while at the same time inexplicably perfect.

Ryan originally harks from California and, clearly upon listening, this heritage has left a sun-kiss of Brian Wilson in his tunes; but there is nothing derivative here - each song is its own original masterpiece has been lovingly crafted.

Stand out tunes for me include the ode to a lone zebra, Maasai Mara, the beautifully jangly Look Out SOS, which seems to tell the story of Ryan's relocation to Aotearoa, the romance of Criterion, and My Ten Years On Auto-Pilot where Ryan unashamedly sings his girlfriends real name, and she's in the band too. Can you get more romantic than that?

This album is one of those records that you can listen to over and over again and every time you'll discover a new favorite piece. Each song journeys it's own wonderful little path in an overgrown summer garden.

I sun burn easily, but this record makes me want to go lie down on the lawn in the mid-morning of a hot summers day.

Eavesdropping & weightloss

2005-09-06T20:37:00.000+12:00
You'd be forgiven for thinking this post was in some way a promotion of The Eavesdrop, the new fortnightly Listening Party that I have been organizing with Matthew Crawley, starting 13th at The Wine Cellar. Well, it's not - what it is, though, is a little story about what I was treated to while having a quickcup of coffee on Symonds Street today.

(But, did you notice how I did manage to get that promotion in there? Tricky aye?)

So, I was a little early to go up to Fleet FM for my show this afternoon, so I stopped it at a pretty no-frills kinda cafe for a coffee. I sat outside, enjoying the spring air and the passers-by and attended to some text messages.

Two older women came outside and sat at the tabel next to me. Now these weren;t your typical nice old ladies; let's just say my mother wouldn't have much in common with them, as one ate her mince pie and the other had a bottle of coke. It always strikes me odd when people over the age of 45 drink coke, to my mind, it's a beverage of folly and youth - not usually the choice of the older generation, who generally like a nice cup of tea.

The woman who was drinking the coke was a larger lady, the mince-pie eater was, perhaps conversely, moe slender. I continued to attend to text messages; but my attention was drawn to their conversation.

Pie eater : Summer's coming.
Coke drinker : Who?
Pie eater : Summer. It's getting warmer.
Coke drinker : Oh, yes. It's nice today, but I can't handle the summer. I cary a lot of weight, as you can see.
Pie eater :
Coke drinker : It's not the food though.
Pie eater :
Coke drinker : I mean. I like my food. Don't you?
Pie eater :
Coke drinker : But it's not the food that puts on the weight. It's the drinking.
Pie eater : I haven't had a drink since Saturday.
Coke drinker : Yeah, I'm giving it up.
Pie eater :
Coke drinker : Yeah, its the alcohol that puts the weight on.
Pie eater :
Coke drinker : I saw something on TV. It got my mind thinking.
Pie eater :
Coke drinker : Gotta give up the booze. I lost heaps of weight when I was in jail. I still ate and smoked heaps, but I wasn't drinking. And I lost heaps of weight.

So, there you go - weight loss tip - commit a felony and get imprisonment.

My coffee companions continued.

Pie eater : I know a place you can stay, it real good. Only $195 per week including meals.
Coke drinker : F**K! That's cheap! Where's that?
Pie eater : I'll give you the address.
Coke drinker : And that includes meals?
Pie eater : Yeah breakfast and dinner.
Coke drinker : For real? And like what's for breakfast - like bacon and eggs?
Pie eater : Yeah stuff like that - breakfast might be served a bit too early for you though
Coke drinker : So bacon and eggs?
Pie eater : Yeah
Coke drinker : All for $195 a week? F**k that's cheap.
Pie eater : It's real good. And, you can drink there. They don't mind.
Coke drinker : Yeah? Oh that's f**king great.

She was already falling off the wagon.

They parted ways, coke drinker headed down Symonds Street - to run so errands on K Rd; Pie eater refusung to accompany her since s "f**king hates that road". Don't go to 24-7 she called after her coke-drinking companion.

Office Wonderland

2005-08-13T06:40:00.000+12:00
So, last night, for reasons far too inexplicable, I found myself dragged, for the scond time ever, to Boogie Wonderland.

It was truly a scene from The Office playing out before my eyes as men who had discarded their neck-ties and opened the top button of their business shirts in order to appear casual after work took to the flashing dancefloor to shake their rump to the funk and impress the ladies from accounts.

But the interactions between the two gentlemen at the bar were what really caught my attention as I tried my best to eaves-drop over The Jackson Five.

Subject One : Short, perhaps 5'4", very overwieght, facial hair that wasn't so much planned as accidental, balding, but hidden with a not-so-cunning comb-over, which had been slicked down with Bryl-creme, thick-set with thick framed spectacles. But, here's the particularly striking thing - in an immaculate tuxedo, complete with bow-tie.

Subject Two : Taller, perhaps 6'1", slender, clean shaved, sensable haircut. Light coloured blazer, dark trousers, shirt, tie and v-necked pull-over, tucked in.

They are introduced to eachother by a mutual friend, who soon becomes redundent.

Overheard Subject Two : (enthusiastically shaking Subject One's hand) Yes, Yes I have seen you around.

Subject Two buys them drinks (note-worthy - not a drink for the person who introduced them - who was being ignored). he buys Chardonnay for them both.

Overheard Subject Two : Yes, I just don't feel comfortable going out wearing, say jeans and a T-shirt. I think one should dress appropriately, which is why I had noticed you

Subject Two prances and preens himself. Striking the most extra-ordinary poses. It seriously was like watching a mating ritual and Subject One looked on, much like Jabba the Hutt. I was waiting for him to lick his lips at any moment. Subject two repeatedly clinks wine glasses with Subject One.

They soon retired from the bar, leaving the introducer to his own devices (which, incidentally, included a failed attempt to dance with one of the people who had dragged me to the bar in the first place) - to find themselves a booth for, perhaps, a more intimate conversation.

Somebody was getting cock tonight.

As that cabaret ended the room filled with a large number of people dressed in the 1920s. Obviously the end of an office doo with a theme, probably to celebrate the end of the fiscal year, but running a little late because July is always so busy reporting on the outputs and bedding in the plans for the next year.

Thank Christ I don't work in The Office anymore.

Shhh!

2005-08-12T06:10:00.000+12:00
So, after being bed-ridden since Sunday evening with a malais quite disgusting involving all manner of unpleasantries, I managed, last night, to go to the movies.

We had been squirrelling away our vouchers from the back of pak 'n' save reciepts almost religiously; we had accumulated quite a stock-pile, although I'm not really sure what we had intended to do with them all - a movie marathon perhaps? But we soon discovered that our devoted hoarding of these scraps of paper was in vien. They had all expired.

Luck was not all bad, however - we managed to find a two other discount vouchers courtesy of a hambuger outlet.

We went to see The Machinist. or El Maquinista, since its a Spanish film. Only, its all in English, appears to be set in the States and stars Christian Bale and Jennifer Jason Liegh. We just enjoyed saying we're going to see El Maquinista. I ever wore my glasses to add to the effect.

I'm not going to be tiresome and review the film and discuss plot etc. Suffice to say, I really enjoyed the film - a good quality thriller.

But, everyone, and I mean everyone, hates move-talkers. You know - those people who talk throughout a movie. So I'm not altogether original in sharing my abhorance for these people with you. But I have found that they have sub-genus' there are the more common, less observant ones - they are those who conistently, in hushed tone, ask their movie date what just happend and who said what to who and why.

But last night I discovered another genus - the explainer. This guy sat three seats from me with his partner, explained every detail. Who each character was, how they were related to eachother, what was happening on the screen as it unfolded before our eyes. My particular favorite insight of his was "Uhhh-ohhhh..... something's going to happen now...". Sheer brilliance! How did he see that coming? Such insight!

So, for the first time in my life I hushed someone at a movie. And it worked!