New Zealand's music community is mourning the recent passing of Sam Prebble. Sam was a prolific musician who lent his talents to a number of projects, culminating in the late 2013 release of his critically acclaimed Bond Street Bridge album The Explorers Club: Antarctica. Our thoughts are with his friends and family. Rest in peace Sam.

Broods and Yumi Zouma

It's been a big year for Kiwi acts Broods and Yumi Zouma. The two bands have very different origins and takes on electronic pop, but have similarly found themselves darlings of the international blogosphere. While the former is a brother/sister duo produced by Lorde producer Joel Little, the latter formed when all three of their members were based in three different countries (and funnily enough they'll be touring with Lorde in the US).

The two acts have found themselves signed to overseas labels and blog aggregator Hype Machine has them both sitting in their 2014 (and a half) ones to watch list. Head over there to check out what they had to say and listen to the rest of the blogosphere's heir apparents.

www.broods.co
www.yumizouma.com

If you read Blink's e-book The Problem With Music in New Zealand & How To Fix It (covered in a post over here), you'll have heard his thoughts on the work that APRA does collecting songwriting royalties for New Zealand artists. Without going into detail, his argument is that the performing rights organisation perhaps doesn't do the most rigorous job of ensuring that their collected royalties are paid out to the appropriate songwriters. The e-book is well worth a read.

Local music and pop culture website The Corner have announced their decision to shut down. Notorious for sometimes brutally honest reviews of local bands' singles, the site always inspired debate, as a lively comments section attested to. In addition to reviews, features and Q&As, The Corner felt like the spiritual successor to Real Groove and Volume when it took over releasing new installments of the local band compilation Awesome Feeling (check out our post and interview about the Awesome Feeling compilations over here) in mp3 format. In a fishbowl music scene, The Corner was notable in the way it was never beholden to advertisers, record companies or the bands themselves. As they put it themselves, The Corner tried to prioritise "quality music, quality writing and a loose unwritten philosophy of gentle agitation over appeasement, holding no cows sacred and avoiding assumed local critical convention wherever possible".

They posted something of an obituary to themselves today, and you can read the post (sadly for the last time) over at The Corner. You heard em, start your own website.

Parachute Music has announced that their 2014 festival was the last of such events for the organisation. Check out the interview above to hear Mark De Jong talking about the decision. And here's a presser from the organisation.

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With the independent music world mourning the death of alt-country heartbreaker Jason Molina, Magnolia Electric Company is streaming his very extensive catalog on their bandcamp.

His record label Secretly Canadian had this to say:
　

"We are deeply saddened to announce that Jason Andrew Molina passed away in his home in Indianapolis this past Saturday, March 16th of natural causes at age 39. Jason was a world class musician, songwriter & recording artist. He was also a beloved friend. He first caught international attention in 1996 when he began releasing albums under the name Songs: Ohia. In 2003 he started the band Magnolia Electric Co. Between those two bands he released over a dozen critically-acclaimed albums and — starting in 1997 — he toured the world every year until he had to stop in 2009 to deal with severe alcoholism. Jason was incredibly humbled by his fans’ support through the years and said that the two most important words he could ever say are 'Thank you.'

This is especially hard for us to share. Jason is the cornerstone of Secretly Canadian. Without him there would be no us — plain and simple. His singular, stirring body of work is the foundation upon which all else has been constructed. After hearing and falling in love with the mysterious voice on his debut single "Soul" in early 1996, we approached him about releasing a single on our newly formed label. For some reason he said yes. We drove from Indiana to New York to meet him in person and he handed us what would become the first of many JMo master tapes. And with the Songs: Ohia One Pronunciation of Glory 7" we were given a voice as a label. The subsequent self-titled debut was often referred to by fans as The Black Album. Each Songs: Ohia album to follow proved a new, haunting thesis statement from a prodigal songwriter whose voice and soul burned far beyond that of the average twenty-something. There was organ-laced, sepia-toned econimica (1998’s Impala) and charred-hearted, free form balladry (1999’s Axxess and Ace). There were the dark glacial make-out epics of 2000’s The Lioness and the jungle incantations of 2000’s Ghost Tropic. There was the career-defining agnostic’s gospel of 2002’s Didn’t It Rain, an album about setting roots that also seemed to offer solace to a world that had recently seen its bar on terror raised. It was followed in 2003 by a thrilling about-face, the instant classic Magnolia Electric Co., which took Jason’s songwriting to ’70s classic rock heights. The move was such a powerful moment for Molina that Magnolia Electric Co. became the new moniker under which would perform until 2009. With Magnolia Electric Co., Jason found a brotherhood in his bandmates, with whom he built an incredible live experience and made a truly classic album in Josephine (2009).

We’re going to miss Jason. He was generous. He was a one of a kind. And he had a voice unlike any other."

Fans can contribute to Jason’s medical fund as a memorial gift by sending money via PayPal

Carrying on the great tradition of Real Groove's (RIP) yearly compilation of the best and most exciting new acts in New Zealand - one of our favourite blogs The Corner has announced plans for the latest installment of Awesome Feeling. Over the years Awesome Feeling has introduced new artists to the wider consciousness. It first started dispensing its awesomeness on the cover of Real Groove in 2007, and its early volumes collected tracks from such artists as Cut Off Your Hands, So So Modern, Collapsing Cities, The Naked and Famous, Princess Chelsea and Street Chant (then called Mean Street). Here's the guff straight from The Corner:

Similar to how we’ve done things for the previous two years, we want you to submit your song for consideration – you can do that via our dropbox on Soundcloud or by emailing us at editor@thecorner.co.nz. It’ll help if you have some bio information, a press shot, links to Facebook/Twitter/Soundcloud/Bandcamp etc, but it’s not essential either – we’ll still listen to everything that comes our way. Tracks should be submitted as an mp3 at 320kbps. We’ll be revealing one new artist/track every weekday throughout May, and posting the entire compilation for download at the end of the month. Submissions close on Friday April 5 2013.

Check out the last two installments, free to download at the following links.
Download: Awesome Feeling 5
Download: Awesome Feeling 6