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!
Inspired by the Norwegian Institute of Recorded Sound's Advent Calendar, our music team, with the helpful suggestions of library colleagues, will post our favourite Christmas song for each day through Advent leading up to Christmas Day.
As it's already the second, let's kick it off with two goodies:
(Click on the titles for a link to CDs in our collection)
Steve Earle: Nothing but a child
Tim Minchin: White wine in the sun
Big Day Out is preparing for its 20th birthday this summer, and as of this very morning, the first announcement is being made. And here's something exciting: headline acts are Soundgarden and Kanye West!
The list so far:
This just in from the BBC:
A "lost" Beethoven movement is to be performed for the first time in more than 200 years, after being pieced together from early drafts.
Another in the spirit of the season, here is some brilliant footage from France's 1979 tour of New Zealand, cut and edited to a Tchaikovsky score.
This is very exciting and very FREE. Check out the Press Release:
Independent Music New Zealand, the New Zealand Music Commission and the Music Managers’ Forum are thrilled to announce the Going Global Music Summit which is running in Auckland and Wellington as part of the REAL New Zealand Festival.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU GO:
If you are looking to take your music overseas, come and hear from people who are working with both new and established artists on the global stage.
DELEGATES APPEARING:
Natalie Judge (UK) - Matador Records UK
Jen Long (UK) - BBC6 New Music DJ/Programmer
Paul Hanly (USA) - Frenchkiss Records USA
Dick Huey (USA) - Toolshed
Adam Lewis (USA) - The Planetary Group, Boston
Graham Ashton (AUS) - Footstomp /BigSound
Will Larnach-Jones (AUS) - Parallel Management
THE EVENTS:
Auckland: Monday 12th September - Free Entry
Seminars, Noon - 5pm: VIP Room, The Cloud, Queens Wharf
Live Music Showcase, 6pm-10:30pm: Shed10, Queens Wharf Featuring: Collapsing Cities / The Sami Sisters / Zowie / The Vietnam War / Ghost Wave / Bang Bang Eche! / The Stereo Bus / Seth Haapu / The Transistors / Computers Want Me Dead
Wellington: Wednesday 14th September - Free Entry Seminars, Noon - 5pm: : Wharewaka, Wellington Waterfront Live Music Showcase, 6pm-10:30pm: San Francisco Bath House featuring: Beastwars / Cairo Knife Fight / Glass Vaults / Iva Lamkum / The Eversons / Family Cactus
Last weekend brought the tragic death of Amy Winehouse, one of the most talented performers of the last decade. Q magazine described her thus:
Billie Holiday crossed with ball-busting rapper Eve, Camden’s Amy Winehouse is easily the most entertaining product of the Sylvia Young stage school – admittedly she was expelled for not applying herself. Instead she immersed herself in jazz, hip hop and soul, and for her debut album comes out fighting like a vintage diva with an attitude problem.
It is tragic that her reputation for drug use almost outweighed her amazing talent. But listening to her albums makes you realise how important she was in bringing good soul/R&B back into mainstream popularity.
Read interviews & reviews in Rock's Backpages, through the Digital Library.
Transport yourself to the glitz and glamour of Broadway, courtesy of Auckland Libraries!
We have a great range of musicals on DVD and CD to suit every taste, from the classics of Jerome Kern and Cole Porter (Showboat, High Society), ever-popular favourites by Andrew Lloyd-Webber (Cats, Phantom of the Opera), to the wit and realism of Stephen Sondheim- perfect entertainment for the long winter evenings.
Fancy singing along? Why not browse the vocal scores, great if you can't quite remember all the words!
If you're interested in exploring musical theatre in more depth, we also have a wide range of books and e-resources.
Some I'd recommend:
In the meantime, here's a little something to put you in the mood:
I'd always known that classic American sound of The Band from growing up with Dad playing songs like The Weight, or Dylan's Basement tapes. But I really fell in love with them after watching The Last Waltz.
Levon Helm was one of the key figures in The Band, and one of its survivors. He's released a couple of beautiful country albums in the last few years, Dirt Farmer and Electric Dirt. Not only that but he featured as a blind old cowboy in the film The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. And back home in Woodstock, NY state, he regularly performs shows in his barn.
Ain't in It for My Health, on at this year's International Film Festival, is a captivating documentary on this legendary musician. Don't miss it on the big screen.
Related Resources in Auckland Libraries:
It's still the 4th of July in USA right now so we can get away with this!
Independence Day Mixtape:
This is awesome: Lawrence Arabia (formerly of Reduction Agents) getting his hipster on in Auckland city. Swimming at some North Shore mansion, dressed up sharp in a Crane Brothers suit, walking Queen St, taking the ferry, flicking through his iPhone in Myers Park, reading Sartre in Vulcan Lane... Is he having a go at us?
Lucky Christchurch City Libraries get to see him play live between the shelves this month.
It’s week 3 of NZ Music Month, and there’s still a whole lot more to come at Auckland Libraries.
In last week’s ukulele lesson, we worked our way through Iko Iko and Pokarekare Ana, and tried to come to terms with the D major chord.
For all our students who would like to learn more, check out these links:
And if you don’t yet have a uke, here are a few good ideas:
The Rock Shop has ukuleles from $35 to $1299.
Mr Hewitt at Hewitt's Fiddle Shop makes Kapono, some of the most beautiful ukuleles around. See his site here.
And of course there’s an interesting range of new and pre-loved ukuleles on Trademe.
So what’s coming up?
The Grey Lynn Ukuladies continue to tour, playing Grey Lynn Library on Friday 27, and Blockhouse Bay on Sunday 29!
This week Avondale Library has two musical storytimes on Thursday 19 and Saturday 21.
Tomorrow at 3.30pm in Glen Innes Library, local legend: Tony Paki with Julius bust out their favourite grooves.
Remuera Library continue to feature a fantastic range of classical performances, including St Kentigern Boys Soloists and Jazz Quartet on the 19th at 11.30, Remuera Intermediate School Orchestra and Ensemble on Friday 20, at 12.15, and the beautiful sounds of the Baradene Girls' Orchestra on Thursday 26 May at 11am.
Over on the island, Waiheke Library have Waiheke High School's all-girls choir, led by Sarah McNabb performing Canto Isola on Saturday 21 at 11am, and at the same time the following week, Little Sister – Four 'sisters' of big Sister Shout bring a full house with their a capella set.
To find out more check the What's On page!
Come one come all and find your inner Hawaiian! All you need are four fingers for four nylon strings and one day this might be you:
Whether you're in a mid-life crisis and can't afford a Fender Stratocaster, or you've been learning the recorder and would like to upgrade, this class is perfect for you.
So book your place and get to Auckland Central City Library tomorrow, Wednesday 11 May, at 1.30pm on Level 2, for an intensively fun session with our resident ukulele-qualified librarians.
All ukuleles will be supplied.
This looks interesting!
From Radio New Zealand:
Rachel Dawick is a blues/folk musician who has returned home after eight years in the UK studying for a Masters in Songwriting. Wanting to re-connect with her homeland, she began searching for songs written by early female European settlers of Aotearoa, and finding very little, she's decided to collect the stories and write the songs herself.
Listen to her on Music 101 on Radio New Zealand National tomorrow.
And for more stories check out her website here.
Prepare for a combination of cuteness overload and amazement as young
Jonathan conducts Beethoven's 5th, with more passion than any
professional I've seen, picking his nose AND keeping in time.
Incredible.
If you want your baby to be a musical prodigy, click here, and here
Also this week on Youtube: on March 20, after decades of
amazing, influential recordings, Tom Waits was inducted into the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He was inducted by the legendary godfather
of grunge, Neil Young. What follows is a glimpse of genius which has only burned brighter with age.
If you want to know more about this strange poet/musician/magician/actor/performer, click here.
Or here, for an insightful book about the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
