Timothy Blackman, Stelth Ulvang and Shenandoah Davis.

Timothy Blackman is one of my favourite local artists, and he was kind enough to let me interview him in the basement of the Auckland Central Library. In a happy coincidence, we were able to be joined by Stelth Ulvang - a multi-instrumentalist for the Grammy nominated band The Lumineers (who were in town to play the Big Day Out), and Shenandoah Davis - a classically influenced songwriter who was touring with Anthonie Tonnon. Later that night, I recorded some of their live set at an Auckland art space on New North Road.

You can download it directly here (right click the link and chose "save link as"): Podcast: Timothy Blackman, Stelth Ulvang and Shenandoah Davis

The appropriate response to Hula Hope's charming debut album is this.



Formerly of the excellent, maximalist Wellington all-girl troupe St Rupertsberg and long-serving folksters UrbanTramper, Hula Hope has been playing solo for a few years alongside those projects and has finally released the above solo record all of her own.

Enlisting the help of two different young producers - Lehmann B. Smith (listen to his 40-deep record of his extremely short, extremely good indie pop songs on his bandcamp) of Melbourne and Dave Parker of West Auckland (download his lushly produced, all New Zealand collection of original Christmas songs here), Lamp is blessed with a cohesive amalgamation of 60s girl pop, modern indie pop and alt country. She sings with an unashamed local accent, trades quips with Steve Abel's powerful baritone pipes, and has epiphanies that a boy's refusal to wait for the bus with her is one of those minor details that sounds innocuous but should maybe be a dealbreaker. It's well worth a listen and if she charms you like she did me, you can buy it straight from her bandcamp site (or straight from the bandcamp streaming widget above).