| All things musical

Moments of genius on YouTube...

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.

End of summer & back to work

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It has been nearly two months since the last post! All Things Musical has been on hiatus while summer has come to an end, many festivals have come and gone, and now it’s raining, so time to get reporting again.

There’s too much to summarise, but here’s a list of highlights over the last month or so:

Auckland Arts Festival: a lot of good free music in Aotea Square, an international premiere of a John Psathas work, not to mention the amazing Paul Kelly and beautiful Martha Wainwright.

Gang of Four played an energetic set at the Powerstation, one of many classic reunited bands who Auckland’s been lucky enough to host.

The city lost a number of its indie kids for a weekend, for Campus a Low Hum in Bulls. A few of Auckland’s most exciting bands played, including Street Chant.

Nas & Damian Marley satisfied the city’s need for some good hip-hop, after Mos Def’s strange show. And Queens of the Stone Age played a deserved three rocking shows, as well as doing an instore signing at Real Groovy.

On the record releases front, well, there is so much to mention we’ll just link you to our New & Recommended! Lucinda Williams – Blessed, is a good listen if you’re into country. And for the best local release, check out Dudley Benson – Forest: Songs of Hirini Melbourne.

And what’s coming up? NZ Music Month is not far away, and Auckland Central Library’s Thursday Lunchtime Concerts are starting in April! Check out the link for who’s playing.

And Bob Dylan is coming to play Vector in a month or so. Have a listen to his latest single, a cover of Rebecca Black – Friday.

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Here's a little something to whet your Laneway Festival appetite. Videos from Kiwi indie stalwarts Lawrence Arabia and LA dreamsters Warpaint.

See you at Aotea Square on Auckland Anniversary Day

More concerts than you can shake a stick at

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So January’s almost over: Christmas, New Year’s, weeks at the beach have been and gone, and all the while Auckland has seen & heard plenty of great music through the days and nights. But there’s still plenty more to come.

Big Day Out, despite the rain and timetable clashes, was its usual rocking success, featuring Iggy & the Stooges Tool and Rammstein . Best of the local acts was Home Brew, as expected. Unfortunately we don’t have any of their material in the library but you can by their record at the local Marbecks. For a review of BDO’s highlights, check out the city's finest writers at The Corner.

This weekend is shaping up to be very musical with Laneway Festival in Aotea Square, featuring Ariel Pink, Beach House, Blonde Redhead, with our very own amazing Lawrence Arabia and Lady Hawke.

Meanwhile a whole lot of Auckland will be descending on Hamilton for Parachute, which is hosting the likes of ex-Korn man Brian Welch, Stan Walker, Chris Tomlin, Elemeno P, Rapture Ruckus and Ruby Frost.

And to top it all off: Music in Parks is happening! There is truly something for everyone with this lineup. Do not let these gigs pass you by! Yes they are free! Yes they are in your neighbourhood! So no excuses. For some beautiful sounds this Saturday, treat yourself to a magical evening of opera in the idyllic setting of Dingle Dell, from 6-8pm at 29 Dingle Road, St Heliers. The NBR New Zealand Opera presents a programme featuring both 2011 resident and emerging artists for this concert. Or if you're into a bit of rock n roll, see you at Coyle Park Sat 5 March for Anika Moa, Autozamm and Julia Deans.

And this is just the beginning. Check here for our next post on the Bfm Summer Series, and did I mention Bob Dylan is returning in April? It couldn’t get much better.

Free Avalanche City

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While we await the beautiful sounds of Christmas (see last week's post), and stage our plans of attack on the local mall, here's a free album download to get you in the summer spirit. Yep, it's a whole album, it's full of toe-tapping singalongs, it's free for all to keep. And who knows, your love for Avalanche City's debut album will hopefully inspire you to donate some cash so they can make more. Definitely check this out.

Avalanche City : Our New Life Above the Ground

A Merry Little Monster Christmas

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Mr Dave Parker, music producer/engineer extraordinaire, has been working away in his home-based studio on a beautiful Oratia farm for quite a while now. The man behind such increasingly admired recordings of Artisan Guns, Bear Cat and Great North, has recently been assembling some local favourites for a Christmas album.

Auckland Central Library was lucky enough to host a number of the album’s contributors back in NZ Music Month, who have all since released their own EPs and albums to generate some of 2010’s best New Zealand music.

Dear Time’s Waste, Tono (of the Finance Company) and Great North, whose recent releases have all won the admiration of the country’s major critics, appear on the Very Little Christmas compilation. The album includes an impressive line-up of the city’s finest alternative/folk/rock/miscellaneous artists, who are inspired by Christmas time, Christmas Songs, and Christmas Pudding.

The best part is the album will be available for free download! You can send the link to your loved ones as a priceless Christmas present! So thank you Mr Parker for getting this amazing project together, and to all the artists for contributing! It’s going to be a sweet sweet Christmas.

Keep your eyes on Little Monster Studio and A Very Little Christmas

~ Matthew

30 years of The Chills

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So legendary Dunedin band The Chills have announced a one-off Dunedin show in celebration of their 30th anniversary. In tribute, please enjoy The House of Love's cover of The Chills' classic, Pink Frost below.

~Jerome

Laneways Here We Come

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The 2011 Laneways Festival line-up was just announced. Being held on Auckland Anniversary Day (31 January 2011) at the re-christened Aotea Square, this year's announced line-up are: Yeasayer - Foals -Ladyhawke - !!! (CHK CHK CHK) - Deerhunter - Blonde Redhead -Children's Hour - Warpaint - Beach House - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti- Lawrence Arabia - Holy F*** - An Emerald City.

Acts I'm looking forward to seeing:

Georgian dreamgazers Deerhunter
dance punksters !!! (pronounced chick chick chick)
the LA art pop of Warpaint
the lo-fi psychedelia of Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti
electro instrumentalists Holy F***

This an indie heavyweight line-up for sure, but it does omit lots of great artists that are on the Australian leg of the tour. Why couldn't Auckland get the insanely amazing Les Savy Fav, Los Angeles upstarts Local Natives, skewed popsters Menomena, and the cutesy duo of Jenny and Johnny? Yes, I'll end up going and will probably enjoy myself in the sun(fingers crossed) and sonics of Aotea Square. Although one has to ask, when does Auckland begin to not get the short end of the stick when it comes to Laneways? Just saying.

~Jerome

Making Music in Auckland

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With the vast amount of technically brilliant studio albums released today, the result has been the great improvement and ease of home recording. What used to involve a bedroom full of heavy and expensive analogue equipment is now refined into a laptop with Garageband or Protools. It has become so readily available, anyone with a microphone and a bit of computer know-how can record.

All you need next are some songs.

And plenty of fellow Aucklanders have swooped on these new opportunities to produce their own music. To encourage this creativity, Auckland City Libraries started the Made In Auckland CD collection, for unsigned artists who do not have the funding to professionally record and distribute their works.

The cool thing about Made in Auckland is the CDs are free rentals! They’re also an ideal way to share and archive artists’ work, as we all know by now: itunes hardly caters for tangible album artwork, or familiar names in the credits and thanks notes. So if you have an EP or album that you would like to see stored in hard copy on a shelf, send it in to the Music department.

Our latest donations to the collection include quality sounds from The Roulettes, Toi Ora Live Art, and Anna Kaye. Check out the collectionhere, or come into Central Library and have a listen.

There's so much coming and going musically through town right now, we're trying to keep up. Coming up soon on the blog: Metallica, Laneways and Super City Summer Anthems!

~Matthew

Making Music Part 2!

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WANT TO WRITE THE SONG OF NZMM 2011?

This awesome opportunity just came through on the wire. If you're a student with a song to sing, enter this competition and be the 2011 NZ Music Month anthem!

~Matthew

Big Day Out: First Announcement!

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One of the most important signs of Spring, along with lambs and blossoms, is the first Big Day Out lineup announcement. And man it is a big one! Tool, Rammstein, Deftones, Iggy and the Stooges, The Black Keys, MIA, LCD Soundsystem, Lupe Fiasco, Grinderman, Andrew WK, Primal Scream, Crystal Castles CSS, Birds of Tokyo, Airbourne, Plan B, Ratatat, John Butler Trio, Wolfmother, Jim Jones Revue, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Bloody Beetroots Death Crew 77, Booka Shade, Die Antwoord and Vitalic.

Joining this international colossal contingent are a bunch of NZ youngbloods and heavyweights: Shihad, The Naked and Famous, Six60, I Am Giant, Kids of 88, Die!Die!Die!, Bulletproof and Street Chant. If you have read earlier posts you will know about the success of some of these bands at the APRA Silver Scroll Awards.

With Tool, Rammstein, Deftones, and Airbourne covering the main corners of Metal, it's going to be a loud day. But if you're not going to wear a black t-shirt, there's still plenty to choose from. A perfect day of dancing would involve the psychedelic MIA, punk-funkers LCD Soundsystem, sexy CSS with some Ratatat on the side, and of course, Lupe Fiasco.

As usual with BDO, there are quite a few happy returners, like John Butler Trio, who I'm sure will put many in that summer mood. My pick of the day is Grinderman: a reanimated Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, who will definitely rock your face off should you have the courage to get to their front row. I highly suggest you do.

Check out the Catalogue for these artists to prepare for what will be a very fun day.

~Matthew

NZ Music Awards

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It’s awards season for New Zealand Music again! While Juice TV moved their celebrations to tie in with the end of May’s NZ Music Month, it’s still a Spring party for the prestigious APRA Silver Scroll Awards and Vodafone Music Awards 2010.

Last Wednesday at Auckland’s Town Hall, the Australasian Performing Rights Association awarded the Silver Scroll songwriting award to local kids The Naked & Famous for their anthem “Young Blood”. It was an interesting mix of contenders, including the charming Artisan Guns (who kindly performed a free show for us at Central Library in May), Julia Deans, The Mint Chicks and Anika Moa.

One of the most interesting elements of each year’s ceremony are the performances of finalist songs by different bands. This year, fellow Aucklanders Street Chant had a lot of fun turning up the volume on Artisan Guns’ “Autumn”. Which points to another noticeable thing about the 2010 awards: it’s great to see the celebration of so many young Auckland bands. It is a testament to how the current music scene here is thriving.

Artisan Guns "Hearts" EP

The Naked & Famous "Passive me, aggressive you"

Street Chant "Means"

~Matthew

Songs about Superheroes

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It's widely known that musicians are some of the biggest geeks in the world (this is meant to be a compliment). So in honour of comic book month at Auckland City Libraries, I've come up with nine songs that mention superheroes or comic books.

1. Matter-Eater Lad by Guided by Voices. A song about an obscure Legion of Super Heroes character.

2. Superman by R.E.M. I am Superman and I can do anything.

3. Ghost Rider by Suicide. Also covered by Henry Rollins for the soundtrack of The Crow.

4. Can U Dig It? by Pop Will Eat Itself. We dig Marvel and D.C., Bruce Wayne auf weidersehn, Alan Moore knows the score.

5. Waiting for a Superman by The Flaming Lips. Song about the heavy burden of being Superman. Also covered by Iron and Wine.

6. I Am the Law by Anthrax. Every time I think of Judge Dredd, I think of Sylvester Stallone mumbling "I am the law."

7. That's Really Super, Supergirl by XTC. That's really super, supergirl, how you're changing all the world's weather, but you couldn't put us back together.

8. Flash Gordon by Queen. Theme song to one of the cheesiest and campiest movies ever.

9. DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake by Art Brut. Because sometimes nothing is ever as good as a good comic book and a milkshake together.

So go out and buy/borrow some comic books, listen to music and be inspired.

~Jerome

A little Big Star

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In a very sad year of losing important musicians, another lesser known musician quietly passed with little fanfare. Andy Hummel, founding bassist of cult 70s power-pop band Big Star, died on the 19th of July. Andy Hummel's death followed the March passing of Big Star's lead singer and main songwriter, Alex Chilton.

Never achieving mainstream success, Big Star, in the words of Rolling Stone, released "a seminal body of work that never stopped inspiring succeeding generations". Combining catchy pop with dark themes, Big Star would directly influence and make fans of important 80s and 90s indie alternative bands such as REM, Teenage Fanclub, The Lemonheads, and The Replacements.

Although critically acclaimed, Big Star's three records: #1 Record, Radio City, and Third/Sister Lovers were commercially unsuccesful. It is only through word of mouth by these bands and their loyal fans that renewed interest in the 1980s and 1990s would follow in reissues of the band's catalogue. Such devoted fans were The Replacements that they wrote and released a song called "Alex Chilton". This is how I discovered Big Star. Paul Westerberg sang that he "never travelled far, without a little Big Star". Thank you Paul, because of you I don't ever travel far without Big Star on my iPod.

Although I own all of their records, you might want to take my advice and borrow Big Star's albums:

They may not change your life but they may change how you listen to music.

~Jerome

NZ Music Month in pictures

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NZ Music Month is over for 2010, so I thought it was time to have a look back at some of our events. If you're anything like me you didn't have time to make it along to everything we had going on. Lucky for us Matthew was on hand throughout the month with a camera. Click the image to enlarge.

A massive thanks to everyone who played, and to everyone who came along to listen.

~Ashley