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.
On Sunday, Radio New Zealand National spoke to the Joystick Orchestra. Here's the podcast from radionz.co.nz. Check out their site for more interesting audio.
While it is too late to join this orchestra, it looks like an amazing project worth checking out:
The New Orchestra Practices (NOP) group have been working on an audiovisual composition with music-minded amateurs and artists, using joysticks to control soundscapes. They will be performing their work on before the France – New Zealand rugby game this Saturday, 24 September at Auckland’s waterfront.
The concept involves gathering people from different ethnic backgrounds, music abilities, ages and social classes to collectively play sound and visual parts.
This inter-arts orchestra will perform pieces from both France and New Zealand. NOP.nz’s main goal is to bring together various audiences, cultures and artistic practices. NOP.nz Project began in New Zealand in April 2011. The project will return to France in 2012.
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.
There's too much going on. Fashion Week just finished and Rugby World Cup hasn't even kicked off yet. But even today, at 11am Mayor Len Brown opened the newly renovated Auckland Art Gallery to the public. Full of amazing new spaces and beautiful views over to Albert Park. It is definitely worth a visit as soon as possible. Especially today, as the Gallery is open until 10pm, and has a number of performances and activities.
Then at 3.30 over in Aotea Square, the All Blacks are officially receiving their World Cup caps. Get there early to see Hollie Smith performing!
A new CD arrived here at Auckland Libraries yesterday: Rucks, tries & choruses : the history of NZ rugby... in song. It includes a track by George Nepia, the All Blacks hero of the 1930s, and also a recording artist. Chris Bourke, who recently won the NZ Post Book Award for Blue Smoke, writes a great piece about him here.
So here are my favourite for Rugby World Cup anthems:
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
Have you recorded music that you would like to share with others? Here is a brief overview of some of the many websites enabling musicians to make their recordings available online for streaming, purchase, or download.
One of the best new sites of recent times is Bandcamp, which enables musicians/bands to make their music available for free download or (with options for the artist or fan to name a price). Bandcamp charge 10% of profits made by the artist, but the service they offer is more than worth it: all in all it is a great concept.
If a classic website is more what you’re after, Flavors.me is reputedly good for setting up a simple page for little cost, and 1st Domains NZ offers reasonable priced domain names which can 'host' any other site you wish to be your band's main landing page.
Consider setting up a musician/band 'page' on Facebook. While it offers little aesthetic charm or mystique, its attraction lies in its connectedness to almost every member of the public. While it requires having a personal account, you can interact solely as your musician/band name, proving useful for announcing shows or spreading news. BandPage allows you to stream music via Soundcloud on your Facebook page, and has a user-friendly function for adding any upcoming shows.
Blogging site Tumblr is great for posting music news in more detail, and gives room for creative license on the ‘look’ of the page. Some Tumblr layouts resemble websites rather than blogs, and can be customised to act as fixed, editable landing pages where the public can find out more about a musician/band. Embeddable players from Bandcamp or Soundcloud are compatible for streaming.
Amplifier.co.nz has supported New Zealand music for many years now and continues to provide an excellent service to both purchasers and local players of music. Check out their Artist Services information on uploading music and more to their site.
Another NZ business, Marbecks, have recently launched an online store, where artists can make their music available for purchase through their My Music portal.
Lastly, and in a somewhat more local and tangible context, we suggest Auckland musicians who have self-produced recordings (ie. not signed to a major record label) submit their music to the 'Made in Auckland' display, found beside the music section on the first floor of the Auckland Central library.
Check out our website here for more info on Made in Auckland.
Regarded by many as the father of NZ classical music, we were delighted to hear that the manuscript score of his Overture: Aotearoa was recently registered with UNESCO, for inclusion as part of New Zealand's 'Memory of the World'.
In his biography of the composer, Philip Norman describes the work as 'the first contemporary orchestral composition to enter the national psyche', perhaps because it so unconsciously reflects the rugged beauty and expansiveness of our country.
We've also recently received a new book to mark the 10th anniversary of his death. A search for tradition: & a search for a language, two talks in which Lilburn describes 'with astounding clarity the uncertainties and demands of a creative life,…worked out in the totally new context of these islands'.
If you'd like to find out more about Douglas Lilburn, you can visit:
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:
Winter may finally have arrived, but it's been a great month for music lovers across the city.
The Michael Hill International violin competition concluded with a thrilling concert of Bartok, Prokofiev and Brahms at Auckland's Town Hall.
Since 2001, this competition has helped launch the careers of many young soloists from across the globe, including Bella Hristova, Feng Ning and Natalia Lomeiko. Check out their recordings available from Auckland Libraries here.
Congratulations to Sergey Malov from Russia, who took first prize with a passionate performance of Bartok's 2nd concerto, accompanied by our very own Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.
The 'Big Sing' festival, showcasing secondary school choirs from around the region, had its Auckland heats last week. Auckland libraries got in the mood with a lunchtime concert from the guys at Aorere College. For those of you who couldn't make it, check them out here.
Finally, Wagner fans are no doubt anticipating the upcoming performances of the operas Das Rheingold and Die Valkyrie. Rheingold, performed in concert at Auckland Town Hall by the APO under Music Director Ekhehard Stier, features a largely NZ cast, including Paul Whelan and Anna Leese. Valkyrie is the 2nd instalment of Robert Le Page's striking production for the Metropolitan Opera, showing at cinemas nationwide from June 30.
If you just can't wait, check out these resources available from Auckland Libraries:
After suffering a stroke last week, Big Man Clarence Clemons, the iconic saxophonist of Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band, died on Saturday.
A former football player, and one of the few men to make saxophone cool, Clemons' characteristic sound helped Springsteen to create a number of rock music's greatest albums, especially Born To Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town.
Read a bit about him in this Rolling Stone interview.
There's an urban myth that Clemons' show rider frequently included a whole roast chicken. Who knows how true it is, but this might be proof.
So in Clarence's honour, here's a recommended list:
