Avondale's finest, and one of Auckland's most entertaining and imaginative hip hop groups; Home Brew have finally announced their debut (double) album, as well as a 48 hour release party.

And right now their frontman Tom Scott is talking to Kim Hill on Radio NZ National. The full podcast of the interview will be on their site here this afternoon.

I still can't believe Steve Earle is playing the King's Arms tonight. It's pretty exciting to be in such a small place with one of the biggest guys in country music.

From his session songwriting days in Nashville to his rockabilly journeys with Elvis Costello and The Pogues, through addiction, incarceration, rehabilitation, pivotal roles in two of TV's best shows ever: The Wire & Treme, to short story and novel writing. Steve Earle has quite a few stories, and no better suited place to share them than The King's Arms.

If you haven't got a ticket, I highly recommend you check out his son Justin Townes Earle next week, who is proving to step out his Dad's shadow in skill and imagination.

Many of you will know Helena Bonham Carter as the insane Bellatrix Lestrange from the Harry Potter films, some may know her as crazy Marla from Fight Club, or weird Elizabeth in Frankenstein. She's generally regarded as a babe of gothic cinema, and has kindly lent her character to Rufus Wainwright's latest music video, where she plays a librarian. Check it out:

There's also a podcast supplement, where you hear one of the hook writers singing a track. Download it here.

Don't forget to cast your votes for your favourite local music video! See my last post here.

And wishing you all I fine weekend, I leave you with something for the season:

Happy April! We are less than one month from another fine NZ Music Month, and to celebrate some local quality, whether it's NZ On Air funded or not, I will be posting your favourite NZ music videos each day through May. Or I might just post my own favourites. It depends what you request.

In other news, two excellent new albums are online and on the shelves right now for your listening pleasure. Both recorded in Auckland: Tono & The Finance Company, as I mentioned in the last post, and Cool Rainbows: Whale Rocket.

So get commenting below with your music video requests, and while you're here check out one of my favourites for inspiration:

Tono has been in town for a couple of years now, and has been writing some brilliant songs which have culminated in this album: Up Here For Dancing.

The album is available for free streaming on the Bandcamp page, and you can download it for US $8 or more.

Formed in uncertain times, with a loaded name, in the faded glow of Dunedin city. Moved to Auckland, hungry for hot air. Ladies and gentlemen, an ambitious, awkward spectacle of a pop group - Tono and the Finance Company.

My picks for this weekend:

Friday: The ARC with Submariner at Rakinos

Saturday: the very entertaining Dictaphone Blues & An Emerald City at Silo Park

Sunday is a tough decision, both these shows are going to be excellent:
The long awaited / much anticipated Cool Rainbows ‘Whale Rocket’ album release at Wine Cellar.

Southern Fried Sundays, featuring Alaska, Lisa Crawley & the Conversations and Tattletale Saints.

We've had a very busy week preparing for NZ Music Month 2012, which, I'm sure you'll know is throughout May. This year we're celebrating regionally, with music events in libraries from Wellsford up north to Waiuku down south. I'm looking forward to getting out of the city and doing ukulele classes all over the place. There are also a lot more exciting things happening which I'm not allowed to announce just yet...

Also this week I've been enjoying the new Bruce Springsteen album, Wrecking Ball. While it's not quite as amazing as other recents like Magic or The Rising, there's still a whole lot of beauty and attitude in it. And it features some of the last recorded saxophone of the late great Clarence Clemons. Download some of the tracks from Freegal Music.

The Boss just spent the some time in Texas for South By Southwest(SXSW) which is a music/film/media conference extravaganza held for a week each year in Austin. David Dallas got over there after Pasifika. I hope he saw Bruce play. Here's an interview with DJBooth:

Music 101 on Radio NZ National have done a great feature on SXSW today, as well as other great happenings about the place. Check it out here.

This post is way late, but it is Pasifika today at Western Springs!

It's not raining and it's free, so no excuses, get there now. Pasifika is one of the best eating experiences you will have this year.

And to top it all off, David Dallas is playing at 4.30! If you haven't already heard his album The Rose Tint, you're missing out on something brilliant. Check it out.

I've just had a fantastic week beginning with Mayer Hawthorne last Thursday night at the Powerstation, followed by Bon Iver on Monday at the Wellington Town Hall, amidst days of amazing food & coffee in the capital. All things I highly recommend.

Good to be back in muggy old Auckland though. Wish I was going to Roots Manuva tonight. Here's one of my favourite music videos:

But if you're saving your coins and you have an Auckland University Student ID card, you can check out The Naked & Famous, Ruby Frost & Artisan Guns, tonight for free!

On another note, here are two online music resources I have been using a lot lately:

http://grooveshark.com: Grooveshark is the world's largest on-demand music streaming and discovery service. Over 30 million users flock to Grooveshark to listen to their favorite music, create playlists, discover new tunes, and share it all with friends via Facebook, Twitter, social news sites, and more.

Give it a go - if you're looking for a song, I have found it a lot more efficient than Youtube.

And of course: Freegal Music. A brilliantly simple new eresource from Auckland Libraries, giving you access to New Zealand's Sony Music Digital Catalogue, where you can download 3 mp3s a week for free, for keeps.

I recently discovered Dimmer's first album I Believe You Are A Star is out of print: you cannot get it anywhere on disc, but it is all available for free on Freegal. See what other discoveries you make, and let me know!

"I rate the Submariner as the best hip hop producer in the country." - DJ Mu (Fat Freddy's Drop)

"He's one of my favourite producers and DJs in the world hands down." - Zane Lowe (Breaks Co-op and BBC radio guy)

There is a hidden history in liner notes and production credits. Pay attention and patterns emerge. The same people and places appear and reappear. Look closer and you will see the social fault lines that run through the New Zealand music scene. Most of the names featured are not famous.

Andy Morton, aka the Submariner, is a DJ and producer who emerged into the Auckland club scene of the late eighties and early nineties, a scene that revolved around the central city and the bars and clubs running along High Street – De Bretts, Box, Cause Celeb and Shortland Bar. The soundtrack of those years was a mix of hip-hop, dance beats and live jazz. This music would form the basis of Morton's sound. The production talents that he would later utilise with such skill were also honed in that time and place. The clip below shows the Submariner demostrating those talents at the 2008 MPC Championships in Wellington.

Morton’s name first appears in fine print on a couple of Deepgooves releases, Jules Issa's Discomfort in their eyes (1994) and Babel's A is for atom (1994). A few years later he is credited with mixing on the Breaks Co-Op’s track 'transister' from the album Roofers (1997). The same year he is listed on Dam Native’s excellent Kaupapa Driven Rhymes Uplifted as a co-composer on ‘The Son’. From there he moves to a co-producer role on Mark de Clive-Lowe’s Six Degrees (1999) and King Kapisi’s Savage Thoughts (2000). But it is on a trilogy of Pacifican hip-hop albums that Morton’s influence emerges in a powerful and creative manner: Ermehn’s Samoans – Part 2 (1998), Che-Fu’s 2b S-Pacific (1998) and Feelstyle’s Break it to Pieces (2004). Three albums with hardly a dud track between them.

Each artist is very much the focus of his individual album. Indeed an aspect of Morton’s production genius seems to lie in allowing the performer to manifest him or herself. For Ermehn and Feelstyle this is as skilful raconteurs. Each has tales to tell. In the case of Ermehn it is with convincing stories of street life and growing up in a dangerous and oppressive South Auckland. There is a gangsta bravado that drives the tracks but Ermehn never loses sight of the heartbreak that lies behind the words. Feelstyle’s approach is a more grounded reminiscing of a life lived, of hard times and lessons learned. Break it to Pieces is an extraordinary album full of pathos and a keen sense of humanity. Stinky Jim called it a man’s album in an industry largely made up of boys. A masterpiece. The emphasis for Che Fu is on his golden vocals. Freed from the fast paced, frantic ensemble that was Supergroove, Morton allowed Che’s voice to soar and justifiably command all the attention.

It is clear however that Morton is an essential part of each album. Listen to them back to back and there is a consistent link between the three. Voices play off against one another, augmenting and emphasising individual strengths. Under the vocals a rich bed of sound is made up of beats, samples and live instrumentals. Often the instruments are curtsey of Morton. With restrained taste he teases a lush range of sounds from his collection of keyboards. This is the work of a fertile, free-ranging imagination that does not rest. Ideas and musical textures abound. Always there is a detail to appreciate, a unique tone to savour, a sample to relish.

Morton's attitude to production can be seen in the short documentary below. He talks about meeting the needs of the performer and supporting them in their quest to be as good as possible. The soundclip after is the remix that he is working on in the video.

And then there is Dimmer. The first two albums of Shayne Carter’s comeback vehicle, I believe you are a star and You’ve got to hear the music, feature tracks co-produced by Morton (not the Submariner). As with the hip-hop trilogy the album belong to the performer and to isolate Morton’s contribution is difficult. But it seems that those tracks attached to his name on I Believe you are a star are more intricate in nature. Carter spent nearly four years making this stark magnum opus and the standards on it are in keeping with Morton’s own. Spooky, whirling, glittering sound fragments flit in and out of terse guitar lines and almost whispered vocals. You’ve got to hear the music is a different beast. Here Morton seems to contribute by opening up the sonic pallette of the band. The tracks he co-produces feature various effects and instruments not found on the first album. It is not surprising that Morton’s name is missing from the third album, There my dear, full as it is with powerful, cathartic emotions. A long way from the intricate, haunted atmospherics that mark the albums featuring Morton.

Links and further reading
1. Andy Morton's discography (more complete and up to date than space allowed me to be). 2. A great history of the Auckland club scene by Simon Grigg. (The link is to the years relivant to this blog posting but it's all a great read) 3. Submariner remixes. 4. An ongoing overview of the Deepgrooves label over at Dub dot dash. The DLT interview is hilarious.

As I'm sure you will know, following the death of Whitney Houston, the price of her music was raised on iTunes: a move which was criticised as exploiting the tragedy.

Interestingly enough, I found that Houston's songs remained available for free download through Freegal, our new music eresource, which provides access to the Sony Music digital catalogue.

Follow this link with your library card and password to see Whitney Houston's music on Freegal.

Big news everybody: Freegal Music is here.

This is a new eresource at Auckland Libraries, which basically allows all you lucky library cardholders to legally browse, listen to and download music from Sony Music's digital catalogue.

That's a catalogue of at least 500,000 songs.

You can download 3 mp3s a week, for free, for keeps. No extra software needed, no threat of the FBI, and no connections to Mr. Kim Dotcom.

Sony Music is one of the largest music labels in the world, and a lot of smaller record labels/companys are under its umbrella. That means there's a healthy amount of quality local music on Freegal. For an idea of which NZ artists are linked to Sony, check out this Amplifier page.

Next week, Kelly is going to publish a beautifully comprehensive investigation of Andy Morton's musical oeuvre, which includes such artists as Che Fu - one of the many you can download through Freegal Music. Be sure to check it out.

Happy Chinese New Year!

We're currently in the midst of music festival deluge. Much of Auckland is sleepwalking today after a weekend at Parachute or Raggamuffin, and a Monday at Laneway. And I've heard good reports from all. Watch out for upcoming performance reviews soon.

It's the legendary Year of the Dragon, which could mean for a year of firey, fast and heavy musical creation. To celebrate and welcome the new year in, I have taken on the challenge of finding some interesting and good quality Chinese rock. Some may say that's an oxymoron, but there does exist some great stuff within the great red wall of the People's Republic...

Beijing Bubbles is a documentary on local Chinese punk culture. It was a popular at the film festival a few years ago, and their website lists a number of bands worth checking out, including:

Joyside

Sha Zi

Hang On The Box

The entire documentary seems to be online, but here's a clip from YouTube for now:

And for something a bit more local, check out PAIRS!

Pairs are from China, but currently touring New Zealand. Follow the link above for their Bandcamp page, and interview links. THEY ARE PLAYING A SECRET SHOW IN AUCKLAND TOMORROW NIGHT. Keep watching their Twitter feed.

And finally, what I'm really looking forward to this weekend: The Auckland Chinese Lantern Festival. Not just for the amazing lights through Albert Park but most of all the food, especially those ice creams with nuts wrapped in rice paper. Best dessert ever.

Important information from the NZ Herald:
Chinese dumplings are a popular lantern festival food and there will be dumpling stalls as well as red bean cakes and barbecue pork buns for sale at the festival. Food from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and Vietnam will be sold as will a South Pacific take on the traditional food. Fresh coconuts will be available to drink.

Tea ceremonies will also be held nearby at Maclaurin Chapel Hall at the University of Auckland and you can enter competitions to win trips to Asia.

In the Year of the Dragon, the most highly anticipated year of the Chinese zodiac, you might just be lucky enough to win.

The Auckland Lantern Festival runs from February 3-5, from 5pm-10.30pm each evening, at Albert Park, Princes St, Auckland City.

The Auckland Art Gallery will be open late on the nights of the Lantern Festival, with extended hours to 10pm.

Well, the holiday season is almost over. For many it was an early start back to work, trying to face a computer screen again while wondering where the time and sun had gone, and where summer really was.

Rhythm & Vines, Coro Gold and High Life persevered through the storms as Warehouses around the country were emptied of gumboots and ponchos. It was a sure reminder that we are a Pacific island, and camping at the beach through January cyclones is a way of life.

Yesterday was Big Day Out in Auckland, and the weather looked ok out there. It will probably be the last. Though that has been said before, it seems a number of factors are sealing Big Day Out’s fate. Laneway, coming up on Auckland Anniversary Day, offers a more refreshing variety of new local and international acts, as well as Splore later in February, which features Erykah Badu. Not to mention the plethora of independent shows coming through over the next few months: Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle...

So, to celebrate the strange humid summer we’ve had so far, here’s a New Orleans song by John Hiatt: