VOLUME #027

THE MARS VOLTA –

REUNIONS & REIGNITIONS

YES - PROG’S ELDER STATESMEN HIT NZ

BIRTH OF THE MEANEST –

SHIHAD’S CHURNING BEGINNINGS

20 MARCH 2012 #027

THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA – THE MARS VOLTA –










































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































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“THE BESTACTION MOVIEOF THE YEAR.”

TWITCH FILM

“INSANELY AWESOME...AMAZING”

FIRST SHOWING

THERAIDMOVIE.CO.NZ

R18 Graphic violence andoffensive language

madmannzmadmanentnzBrought to you by

95bFM and Under The Radar

velvet tiger presents from Japan...

WELLINGTONBODEGA

TUESDAY 27th MARCHdoors 8pm

AUCKLANDKINGS ARMS

WEDNESDAY 28th MARCHdoors 8pm

Tickets available fromunderthefucking radar

& real groovy

Brought to you by95bFM and Under The Radar

Facebook.com/volumemag @__volume__

EDITOR: Joe [email protected]

WEB EDITOR: Hugh [email protected]

DEPARTMENT OF VOLUME SALES: John [email protected]

DESIGN: Xanthe Williams

WRITERS: Gavin Bertram, Paul Gallagher, Duncan Greive, Jessica Hansell, King Kapisi, Joe Nunweek, Teremoana Rapley, Rosabel Tan, Aaron Yap

ILLUSTRATION: Mitch Marks, Lopeti Tu’itahi

PHOTOGRAPHERS: Ted Baghurst, Dallas Pickering, Milana Radojcic, Georgia Schofield

AN APN PUBLICATION

FLASH-BACK TO MY early teens when I first started ransacking my parents’ vinyl collection. As a ballpark figure my parents’ record purchasing heyday lay between 1969 and 1985 approx – this is a standard period of human coolness and relevance that varies in length but

is usually defined as the period from when you start high school to when you inadvertently conceive your first child. There was something I discovered in the collection that I was acutely aware wasn’t cool though, and that was Yes’s Close To The Edge. I knew this partly from reading old NME articles and partly from Dad’s own jeering at prog’s excesses (see accompanying photo of Peter Gabriel as flora). The conversation ran a something little like this:

“Dad, is this yours?””Fuck off, I think your mum bought that when she was at high school.””Mum, Dad says this is yours.””I’d never even seen that record before I met your father. Why don’t you ask him?”

I probably used the ensuing row to steal a light beer from the fridge and not do my homework that night. Older and wiser, I actually have zero ill will toward Yes, or anything like that now – they’re all part of the delirious, entertaining mix, with their DNA embedded into everything from Mastodon, to UMO, to this week’s cover stars Mars Volta. The music’s that’s come since would definitely be less interesting without it.

Double-heading The Mars Volta and Yes in the same magazine was always going to cause me some hardship. I have used prog-rock as a tool for ill, and I am not proud.

You screamed yourself hoarse in the sixties – how do the vocal chords feel now? Pretty good! I nicknamed myself Rusty Pipes but they’re pretty good. Sometimes I get carried away at a show but it recovers pretty quick.

What do you know about NZ?Not much – I’m looking forward to it – I hear you are close to Antarctica – will it be cold?

What can we expect? Mainly songs off the first two albums – I still enjoy performing them after 47 years!

Its a pretty amazing comeback after 40-plus years – how’s the passport looking?Well – I’d never been to New York until it all happened – and then it was all on – London, Paris, Spain, Italy, Greece, Norway, Sweden, and now New Zealand and Australia – I’m blessed.

Can you give VOLUME one scream? WOAJHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

The Sonics play the Kings Arms, Auckland, on Wednesday 18 April.

JERRY ROSLIE –

ABBIE RUTLEDGE – GENERAL MANAGER, NEW ZEALAND MUSIC FOUNDATIONI’ve worked in the music biz since my teens, and bar a quick dalliance with the world of advertising, that’s where I’ve stayed. Figuring out how to make people feel passionate about toothpaste or beer was an interesting challenge in itself, but music isn’t something you need to ‘sell’ in the same way. The sort of inspiration and emotion it stirs up doesn’t begin to compare. So the NZ Music Foundation is a new and exciting step, but not necessarily an unfamiliar one. We’re a charitable trust with a twofold mandate. Firstly, offering a general fund to those entities that enrich the lives of needy New Zealanders through music. Music therapy for New Zealanders with special needs, for example. The other is to provide emergency financial assistance to members of the local music industry. It goes without saying

that performers make a lot of sacrifice and can face real hardship trying to pursue their craft – we’re here to help when real challenges arise in their lives. As part of its launch, the NZ Music Foundation is offering anyone who becomes a member before March (joining fee $35) the chance to win a double pass to any and every concert or festival in NZ for a year – for details see www.musicfoundation.co.nz.

THE SONICS

Crosby, Stills and Nash play the highlights of their great American songbook at Trusts Stadium, Waitakere, Auckland on Saturday 24 March. We’ve got two double passes to give away to the show – email [email protected] and let us know in 80 words or less who your favourite CSN member is and why (no Neil Young entries – you had your moment a few Big Day Outs ago). The best entries win.

SEND ME A POSTCARD

Pioneering partners of local rap, King Kapisi and Teremoana Rapley, are in Austin, Texas for SXSW and will have rocked its Planet Hip-Hop showcase by the time you read this. Kapisi drops his fourth album, Hip-Hop Lives Here, later this year.

Teremoana Rapley

presents

They’re two of Auckland’s finest percussion journeymen, but Julien Dyne and Chris O’Connor have each followed a more complicated rhythm in their approaches to making music. For Talking Heads, we got Julien and Chris to come together and chew over the strange

duality of the drum kit, the intersections of melody and noise, and the rejuvenating power of playing live. Photography Ted BaghurstJULIEN DYNE: When I’m working on my own music, I’m trying to create a patina or a certain layer of grit

before I put anything else on top. It involves using found sound and stuff that’s derived from other sources – like, if you’re sampling

a record and the record has been mistreated and has got lots of crackle and dirt on it. It’s like underpainting on a painting, or making a mess before you can build something on top of it. It’s not so much about being a drummer and everything being an extension of that.

CHRIS O’CONNOR: I mean, I don’t really think of you as a drummer. I kind of do and I don’t. I think – ‘oh, my mate Julian. He’s a drummer’, but hard on the heels of that is that ‘he’s a creative artist’. Which is great.

The drums can be quite an abstract form of communication, too. If you’re trying to outlay a melody

and it’s not clear what song you’re playing you have to have a little bit of imagination

to hear it. But it’s also something that’s kind of inherent in all of us in terms of the whole heartbeat

and rhythms which are integral to everyday

life. I think drums have that duality of being something

that we’re made of basically,

but also something

that has the potential to be something quite abstract and alienating to a lot of people.

I’m really resonating with what you’re saying, but from the perspective of the difference between music and noise, and I feel like the drum kit is right in that nexus. The drum kit is something that is musical – a lot of the great music of the 20th century has one at the heart

of it – but you’re not dealing with any notes. When you play a drum kit you’re dealing with noises, and that’s exactly at the heart of what I’m really interested in at the moment, which is noise and music. I’m interested in how noises can be musical.

So maybe in an abstract way being a drummer does help me with making music in that kind of way, rather than being steadfast and staying to a traditional drummer’s or musician’s

“I think drums have that duality of being something that we’re made of, while also being something that’s potentially quite abstract and alienating to a lot of people.– JULIEN DYNE

presents

role. I’m willing to bastardise it. I mean I know there’s definitely ‘drummer’s drummers’ out there and I think that maybe you and I have one foot in that world but are not fully engrossed in it and are kind of more interested in making music and sound than in being a drummer.

Yeah, I totally agree. I think maybe the foot in the world that we have – that sort of ‘drummer’s drummer’ thing – is more about us appreciating the craft behind being a drummer, and that lovely bottomless abyss of challenge, and room for just improving your proficiency in the craft of what it is that you do.

But then, it’s all in the service of music. I’m sure that when you’re playing the drum kit at a gig, you’re not worried about the craft of what your doing, your listening to the music and nailing it.

I mean, I think there’s a danger of being too aware of that stuff and playing a string of clichés or licks together and fobbing that off as music. I’m sure I’ve kind of done a bit of that in my playing in the past, but where the true magic happens you’re less aware of your technical faculties and more in tune with the vibe and the energy of the music.

And I think what’s important for sure is that sound of what you do, and however you get to that is however you get to it. And it seems to be to be ultimately about an attitude. You can completely nail it while being totally illiterate, because you’ve got the right attitude.

That’s what I dig about your beats, man! Those fantastic wobbly beats that you guys do. It blows me out! And it’s totally attitudinal, it’s like there’s no other way into playing like that and getting that sound other than having the right attitude.

It is about a swagger and an attitude, and sometimes you don’t always feel

like being that person, and you have to kind of be adept at getting into that role and mindset. Like an actor. I think that’s what separates good musicians from great musicians in terms of live performance especially. People who will always throw down no matter what. If you’ve been driving in a van for eight hours and you get out and you’re wrecked, but it’s still showtime…it feels best when you’re laying out that kind of music when you have the intent behind it to do that and you’re feeling the way. You’d rather go to bed, but from the first note it’s all go. Do you subscribe to that train of thought?

Yeah, I do. In the theatre, they call it ‘Doctor Theatre’. It happens to actors – they’ll be sick, but they get the five-minute call to go on stage and suddenly their nasal passage is clear and they walk out and they can do the job. So there’s something about performing to people that really lifts me, that’s for sure. You have to be in the mood.

To listen to the full audio of Julien Dyne and Chris O’Connor in conversation, head to nzherald.co.nz/volume – live from 2pm Tuesday.

Julien Dyne’s second album, Glimpse, is out now on Rhythmmethod. Check out his recent work at soundcloud.com/julien-dyne.

Chris O’Connor will be onto his next project by the time you finish reading this sentence. He continues to tease at that space between pure noise and music in a range of improvisational lineups at Auckland’s Wine Cellar and Audio Foundation, and beyond.

Beck’s has worked with local artists and up-and-coming designers to create special labels inspired by musicians, and the limited edition bottles available in bars and specially marked packs are the result of this project.

PROGRESSIVE ROCK HAS often been cast as the singular inspiration for the rise of punk in the mid-1970s.

Prog’s lengthy musical excursions, classical overtones, and expansive themes purportedly served all the young punks a natural-born enemy on a platter.

“For those people there was a bit too much going on, and it wasn’t really rock’n’roll enough I suppose,” Yes bassist Chris Squire reflects. “But rock’n’roll has many faces. And of course all the elements of musical expression tend to stay around and get rewoven into the fabric of what comes afterwards. I don’t

think prog rock is a dirty word.”The quintessential prog band,

which visits New Zealand for the first time on 1 April, was formed by Squire and vocalist Jon Anderson in 1968. Both were active in the colourful, unrestrained cultural scene of Swinging London, but imagined an even more expansive strain of music.

Along with Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Genesis and others, Yes would be at the vanguard of a movement that sound-tracked the fuzzy fantasy world of the post-60s milieu.

“It was a very creative time, and there was a lot of use of various

stimulants to fire the imagination,” Squire says. “Nothing seemed that ridiculous a concept really at the time, so we just went for it.”

After the mediocre reception to 1969’s eponymous debut album and 1970’s Time and a Word, Yes began their ascendancy with 1971’s The Yes Album – the first to feature guitar virtuoso Steve Howe.

It was made on a small recording budget due to the band’s tenuous relationship with Atlantic Records, but ended up charting in the United Kingdom – under peculiar circumstances.

“We were quite lucky because there

For the first time in their 44-year history, progressive rock institution Yes is soon to visit New Zealand. Founding bassist Chris Squire talked to VOLUME. Text Gavin Bertram

was a postal strike in England when it was released,” Squire notes. “There was no post for six weeks, so they took all the charts from the very first Virgin Record store in Oxford St in London. I think our manager probably went in and bought a few copies.”

The band’s most successful line up (also including drummer Bill Bruford) was completed when keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman joined for 1971’s Fragile. Around this time they began touring outside of Europe, and discovered large audiences awaited them in North America.

Prog classic Close to the Edge, with its phantasmagorical Roger Dean cover art and lengthy multi-part opuses, saw Yes hit the UK and US Top 10 album charts in 1972.

But it was what came next that they’re perhaps best known for. 1973’s Tales From Topographic Oceans was an ambitious double album, a sprawling conceptual effort that came to epitomise prog’s bloat to the ears of cynics.

“We were pushing the boundaries and it gave us a reputation,” Squire considers. “In retrospect it was an experiment worth taking on and has probably contributed to the longevity of the band because of the fact we took a chance and people respected that.”

Unlike Yes’s earlier albums, Tales From Topographic Oceans was written and constructed in the studio rather than being formed beforehand.

Squire relates that the band essentially lived in London’s Morgan

Studios for four months in 1973, with musical parts constantly being added as the album took shape.

It was created, he admits, using a “ramshackle approach”, which no doubt contributed to Wakeman’s departure from the band.

Despite the ups and downs, including the muted reception to 2011’s Fly From Here album, the only member of Yes who’s been there since the beginning continues to enjoy the ride.

“We’ve made different records in different ways, and had a whole gamut of experience of making music,” Squire says. “But I still enjoy it a tremendous amount.”

Yes play the Vector Arena on Sunday 1 April.

SINGLE OF THE WEEKTHE WEEK

K’naan

RIANZ TOP 10 NEW ZEALAND SINGLES CHART1 K’Naan ft. Nelly Furtado – ‘Is Anybody Out There?’

2 Fun ft. Janelle Monae – ‘We Are Young’

3 Nicki Minaj – ‘Starships’

4 Reece Mastin – ‘Good Night’

5 Carly Rae Jepsen – ‘Call Me Maybe’

6 Cher Lloyd – ‘Want U Back’

7 Ed Sheeran – ‘Lego House’

8 Flo Rida ft. Sia – ‘Wild Ones’

9 Train – ‘Drive By’

10 Emeli Sande – ‘Next To Me’

SANTIGOLD – ‘Disparate Youth’I panned the first single off this record earlier this year for playing away from her strengths, but this plays right to them.

Production is basically Kelis’ ‘Trick Me’ as imagined by TV on the Radio, deep and groaning and emotional while still having the requisite pace and melodic fever. Santi sounds more reflective than usual here, but that dazzling stylistic range is evidenced throughout the song, which leavens the defeated tone with periodic chanted sections that show the fight in her. There’s so much going on in here it’ll play forever and still have more to give. Fantastic single.

DANIEL BEDINGFIELD – ‘Rocks Off’We really should claim Daniel Bedingfield a lot harder than we

do. Like give him music awards and all that stuff. Because ‘Gotta Get Thru This’ is a stone-classic 2-step pop single. And he’s just released ‘Rocks Off ’, a two minute long song with the some of the most exciting production I’ve heard on a pop single in a while. The percussion is manic, pounding, distorted and coupled to a nonsensical vocal refrain. The lyrics are dumb and repetitive, but the song absolutely requires such an approach – it’s more MIA than Ricky Martin. A truly remarkable little nugget.

LIL JON FT. LMFAO – ‘Drink’Lil Jon ft. LMFAO – ‘Drink’. Just reading it, you know you’re in for some intense, intellectual

shit eh. This is exactly what you imagine, a pounding, retarded synth production, with Lil Jon shouting the chorus. Which goes ‘drink/drink/drink/drink/drink/drink/drink/drink/everybody’. Yep. It’s that good.

SEAN PAUL – ‘Hold On’A few years ago Sean Paul released Dutty Rock, which should be ranked alongside the

best pop albums of the ‘00s, with Blackout, Good Girl Gone Bad, Future Sex/Love Sounds and all the rest. He’s never quite regained that peak, mostly because he never figured out whether to stay with the producers and approach which inspired that record (basically a compilation of Jamaican 7” singles) or go with the all-in-on-one song technique they play in the US. So the hits have been sporadic. This is from Tomahawk Technique (?!), and is wistful and sweet and extraordinarily vacant, but I still find his voice tremendously affecting, so it works.

Each week Duncan Greive performs some low grade analysis on the week’s New Zealand Singles Chart and reviews a few new release pop singles. To submit or suggest a track for review email [email protected] or tweet @duncangreive.

A SOMALI, A CANADIAN, AND A GLIMMER OF HOPERegular readers will be aware that I don’t have a high opinion of the state of chart pop music right now. It’s mostly marching to the same beat, and the rest is just perky post–Idol garbage. Or it has been until now.

This week though, we see not just signs of the resistance, but an outright takeover. The brand new number one single is one I

can happily endorse, K’naan’s ‘Is There Anybody Out There?’, highlighted by a great hook from Nelly Furtado. Reminds me a little of Wyclef’s ‘Gone Til November’ or ‘Sweetest Girl’ in its strange combination of nominally ‘conscious’ lyrics with unabashedly commercial construction. I liked those singles, and I like this.

Shooting to number two is ‘We Are Young’ by Fun featuring the immaculate Janelle Monae. This I did not foresee – a teenage ‘world coming to an end’ power-prom emo ballad that is clearly attracting a huge audience. Tellingly, neither song has a 4/4 beat. And while number three does, I can’t stay mad at Nicki Minaj for any length of time. In fact, the top ten only features one full blown Guetta-descended atrocity, Flo Rida’s ‘Wild Ones’ at eight.

It’s as if the world has woken up brutally hungover from taking bad pills and Red Bull for two years straight, and just wants to forget the whole mess. Truly, the coolest chart in years. Look at number fi ve – Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Call Me Maybe’, which I unjustly dismissed as ‘fi ne’ last week. Turns out it’s a classic, bouncy synth-pop record.

It may be a false dawn – record companies will have a lot of trance-pop inventory backed up on production lines that needs to go somewhere. But people have been caught short when the market’s swung before, and there’s plenty of great emo/rap/synth-pop still being manufactured. They just need to sign those guys up and dump the excess stock into the ocean.

The only new entries are way deep, Havana Brown’s ‘We Run the Night’, which is a trance-pop single and thus starts to sound like a requiem, despite my actually enjoying its berserker Cascada-esque production. Much weirder is what’s new at 36 – a second Australian hip-hop single charting for the year (360’s “Boys Like You”, if you’re a masochist). Let’s stop that gross trend right now, yes?

Bangarang(Beatport)(Beatport)

TANLINESMixed Emotions(Matador)Brooklyn duo are intergenerational trend-hoppers, sort of! One was in this not

very good Rapture clone fi ve years ago and the other was in Don Cab playing shreddy and noodly math-rock. So it doesn’t make for a surprise that this is pretty impeccable in terms of timing but also sonics – though ‘All Of Me’ is trite and yelpy Afro-kitsch, ‘Green Grass’ and ‘Real Life’ are New Wave executed with Battles-like precision and rave blares.

LEE RANALDOBetween the Tides and the Times(Matador)If Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore’s separation was like

your parents divorcing (oh-yes-it-was), then Lee’s new solo album is like your cool uncle taking you to North Head and buying you ice cream and telling you you’re still a special kid. This is not as creepy as it sounds and sort of fundamentally nurturing. Choice, affi rming cuts: ‘Fire Island (Phases)’, ‘Lost (Plane T Nice)’.

MISSING TEETHSame Ol’ Brew Rebottled(Puppy Killer Records)44 songs in 60 minutes. I’ve never understood how so many punk bands can trim out

everything extraneous and still be a drag – Missing Teeth’s comprehensive retrospective shows they often skipped this pitfall. ‘David Bain’ and ‘Dead Baby Shakedown’ are tuneful reminders of when fast, gobby

IN HOUSE GALLERY’S TOP 5 MUSIC VIDEOS TO INSPIRE BLANK

bands existed to offend parents and inspire spontaneous air-bass simultaneously.

THE EASTERNHope and Wire(Rough Peel)I’m torn between the impressive scope of this Chch band’s double-album(!) – the way it locates itself

with angry, glorious obstinacy in a world of State Houses and union-bashing and wrecked cathedrals, the take-no-prisoners humour – and the fact that it’s ultimately too much keening heartland rock for me to ever take in one sitting. In saying this, there won’t be a more admirable country album released in NZ this year.

RUDELY INTERRUPTEDTragedy of the Commons(Independent)This Australian band’s music, an appealing mixture of chunky late-

era Wire punk chords and slightly fey Britpop synths, wouldn’t need apology or explanation. Since the group trumpet it proudly, though, it’s worth noting that the band is comprised entirely of members with physical and intellectual disabilities, but beats a lot of more ‘able’ musicians for inventiveness and energy hands down.

FLY MY PRETTIESFly My Pretties IV(Loop Recordings)I feel pretty bad that The Eastern simply aren’t my bag, so I’ll give them the last word on this one,

from Hope and Wire standout ‘Turn It Round’: ‘Sweatshop owning, model boning/Earthquake funding, supergroup c**ting/Won’t you fly my pretties, fly?” Thanks, guys and girls.

1: Fever Ray’s ‘When I Grow Up’ – Danish Director Martin de Thurah’s take on this track explores child-like imagery and themes of darkness and mystery within suburbia. We love the styling and eerie atmosphere he creates; the movement of the model within the video is paired with the beat of the song perfectly. 2: Thieves Like Us’ ‘Stay Blue’ – Through the simplicity of the camera work, ‘Stay Blue’ really evokes that feeling of teenage nostalgia. We don’t remember engaging in the same activities as these teens, but maybe that’s a good thing?3: Tyler The Creator’s ‘Yonkers’ – After “getting to know” Tyler the Creator through the media, don’t you just want to punch him in the face? Us too. This song and video are still incredible though; the single shot narrative is unnerving and straight to the point. 4: Aphex Twin’s ‘Window Licker’ – In this ten-minute parody of American hip-hop videos, Chris Cunningham cleverly introduces confusion and fear into a world that is usually full of glitz and glamour. All in all, it’s a well-balanced psychological equation of humour and perturbation.5: Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ ‘Y Control’ – Karen O’s style alone is inspiration enough, but there’s also kids brandishing weapons and smashing. Awesome.

In House is online at facebook.com/inhousecreativeprojects and in reality on 4 Cross St, Newton. Their new gallery, BLANK, opens on 5 April.

LAMBCHOPMr. M(Merge)Kurt Wagner’s Nashville ensemble has shifted into treating country music as glacial soul-minimalism

for a while now, but they’ve inhabited this space so fully it’d be churlish to criticise more of the same. Wagner doesn’t sing so much as rustle synaesthesically from his armchair – on ‘Gone Tomorrow’, he unfurls a line like “The wine tasted like sunshine from a basement”, before a glorious string ensemble lets through and lets you know exactly what that sounds like.

HEAVY METAL NINJASEP(Warner)Kind of fascinated by Kora’s enduring NYE-tavern show

hugeness as against their weird career moves and sense of humour. Their power metal side-project with ex-bandmate Richie Allan does a little more for me than their day job – ‘What If’ does a good job of matching grandstanding arena-level heroics to their hazier vibes.

DVAPretty Ugly(Hyperdub)British producer’s debut full-length feels a little like a well-written Sonic Engineering paper

presented at a bass music symposium. It’s all very competent but dense and unapproachable to the outsider. Some neat sounds but everything from song structure to the guest vocalist turns feels like an afterthought.

Reviews Joe Nunweek

LISTENING TO Bangarang is like attending a therapy session where I’m forced to relive my worst teenage nights out without closure

or comfort, and – like all good practitioners – Skrillex operates with clinical efficiency. My trust is won with ‘Right In’, a song that makes me want to seizure, but in a sexy way. After this, things take a turn for the seriously dark and by the time we reach ‘The Devil’s Den’ I’m my every vulnerability, being tortured by a sampling machine featuring frequencies pitched perfectly to match the vibrations of my intestines. But the real break-through is ‘Right On Time’. This track flawlessly captures the moment when it’s four in the morning and you’re slumped on the beer-soaked carpet in the corner of a club. You’ve just had your

third pill and your heart is beating heavily against your ribcage, and as your eyeballs start shuddering to the back of your skull, somebody hands you a lollipop. You can see tiny carpet fibres sticking to it, but you put it in your mouth anyway and tell yourself that bro, seriously: things will be okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Despite the less assaulting nature of the final track, ‘Summit,’ it’s not quite enough to dull the utter sense of post-traumatic distress this EP leaves me with. If there’s one good thing about this experience in comparison to the original experience, it’s this: at least it’s short.

Review Rosabel Tan

EVEN AT THE conclusion of a long string of interviews, Omar Rodríguez-López is lucid, philosophical, and candid.

In a short period The Mars Volta mastermind relays more wisdom than many artists struggle to achieve in far longer exchanges.

Clearly Rodríguez-López is a musician who through struggle and an inexhaustible drive has achieved an acute insight into what he does and precisely why he does it.

It’s a wisdom that has been won over the course of the guitarist and his vocalist song-writing partner Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s long, productive collaboration – first in defining Texan post-hardcore act At The Drive-In, and subsequently over six albums with The Mars Volta.

“Self analysis is what’s happening all through the process,” Rodríguez-López says of creating music, with reference to The Mars Volta’s new album Noctourniquet. “Because you do things instinctually, just by nature. Then through the process you start examining what it is that you’re doing. I don’t mean it to be cold or clinical or intellectual, I’m talking about that instinct that says ‘why exactly this and why not something else?’”

That process has led to certain re-evaluations by the duo. It’s impacted on how they work in The Mars Volta, and also in the form of a reunion of At The Drive-In for this year’s Coachella Festival in California.

A few years ago, neither of those things would have seemed likely. Rodríguez-López’s drive to create new music was such that no one had the stamina to keep up, and what was in the past seemed likely to remain there.

But the musician says his focus

has been redirected in the intervening period, and he’s learnt to appreciate what’s really important.

“Before, maybe I felt like time was running out and I had to do it all then and there,” Rodríguez-López reflects. “Now I realise that time is what you

make it, because you don’t really know the bigger picture. I’m reminding myself that the most important parts of making a record are having dinner, or having a great conversation, or making love to your woman, or sitting and watching the leaves rustling in the

As The Mars Volta releases its impressive sixth album, Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala also prepare for the much anticipated At The Drive-In reunion.Text Gavin Bertram

wind. When you lose sight of that, that’s when it starts to sound the same.”

With that in mind, Noctourniquet exhibits perhaps a more direct approach than previous records from The Mars Volta. Once their avant-garde prog rock often felt like every

idea had been included at the expense of discernment and decency.

That could be thrilling, but Rodríguez-López’s comparison between children playing with toys and bands working in the studio appears fairly accurate.

“Just by nature you want to play with everything,” he admits. “When you’re in the studio it’s too easy to keep adding shit, and after a while you’ve got to ask why? Am I adding it just because I can? Am I really expressing something or am I just playing with that toy because I saw some other kid playing with it?”

The album was recorded straight after 2009’s Octahedron was released. Rodríguez-López and Bixler-Zavala allegedly argued, as the latter struggled to maintain the songwriter’s pace.

Despite his self-confessed stubbornness and selfishness during his musical career, the self-analysis above suggests Rodríguez-López is at least open to change.

That’s clearly benefitted The Mars Volta, while also informing the decision to reignite At The Drive-In after more than a decade in hiatus. No one really believed the hugely influential act, which also includes Jim Ward, Paul Hinojos and Tony Hajjar, would ever reform – including Rodríguez-López.

“Before I was so stubborn and would go ‘fuck that, I’m never doing that again’,” he says. “But you start to appreciate things in your life a lot more. I get to revisit something from a completely different point of view, 11 years later. I get to revisit these friendships and see them in a different way. And see it all again in a much more light hearted way.”

The Mars Volta’s Noctourniquet is released Tuesday 27 March on Warner Bros. Music. At The Drive-In perform at the Coachella Festival in California on both 15 and 22 April.

“When you’re in the studio it’s too easy to keep adding shit, andafter a while you’ve got to ask why?” – Omar Rodríguez-López

SUCKER PUNCHED

Disney’s monstrously under-performing space adventure John Carter is projected to lose around US$165 million according to a Wall Street analyst. The film, the live-action debut for Pixar man Andrew Stanton (Wall-E), cost US$250 million to make.

With the massive business Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol did worldwide, Paramount are pretty keen on making number 5. The initial idea was to have Tom Cruise hand over the franchise to Jeremy Renner after 4, but this may not happen so quickly now.

Ridley Scott’s highly anticipated return to sci-fi Prometheus is being digitally remastered for an IMAX 3D release, though it wasn’t shot on IMAX stock.

Sometimes the difference between “run-of-the-mill” and “must-see” need only be one killer scene. Case in point: Wilson Yip’s Flash Point (2007), a watchable but unremarkable cop thriller that happens to fi nish with one of the greatest fi ght scenes ever: Donnie Yen and Collin Chou obliterating each other in a delirious, frantic display of mixed martial arts. Must. See.

What a treat to find an obscure jewel like Clay Jeter’s Jess + Moss (Vendetta Films) on DVD here less than a week after its theatrical release in the US on Feb 17. This impressionistic tone poem, Jeter’s fi rst feature, was shot on over 30 different kinds of 16mm fi lm stock – short-ends, some expired 30 years ago – and evokes the ghostly memories of childhood as it follows 18-year-old Jess (Sarah Hagan) and her 12-year old second cousin Moss (Austin Vickers) over a lazy summer in Kentucky. A poignant, beautifully rustic dream, at times recalling Terence Malick at his most otherworldly.

Director Gareth Evans

Starring Iko Uwais, Ananda George, Ray Sahetapy

THE RAID

IT’S PRETTY RARE that I’ll be so bowled over by an action flick that I’m temporarily unable to string together words without

collapsing into orgasmic incoherence. But that’s precisely the effect Gareth Evans’ The Raid has on you. This Indonesian movie is pretty much next-level stuff as far as martial arts movies go. If you take the lightning-speed agility of prime Jet Li and Donnie Yen, the back-breaking stunts of Jackie Chan, the fleet brutality of Tony Jaa, and then push it all waay over the edge, you’ll have an idea of the frankly fucking insane mayhem than Evans has cooked up.

Unlike many Muay Thai-centred movies spawned in the wake of Ong Bak’s success, and indeed, Evans’ own Silat-showcasing debut Merantau (whose star Iko Uwais returns here), the action in The Raid flows more

organically into the plot and feels less like a show-reel. Lacking in polish, the gritty, rough-and-tumble quality of the production works in favour of the zombie-siege-style, anything-goes scenario the film’s SWAT protagonists find themselves in.

With the exception of a few breathers – the still opening scenes, some perfunctory plot filler – most of the duration is devoted to unrelenting suspense and eye-watering ultra-violence. The exhilarating choreography will make even the most hardened of martial arts fans buckle at the knees: there’s sufficient rhythmic variation and escalating intensity, and most importantly, nothing looks remotely faked. An American remake is on the way, but it’s unlikely that it’ll surpass the bone-crunching, throat-slitting, torso-stabbing frenzy you’ll experience here.

Review Aaron Yap

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Murray Cammick already had a decade’s music journalism and a hip-hop label under his belt by the time he launched Wildside Records in 1991. Ahead of their ‘The Meanest’ tour next month, he recalls how he met a leatherjacketed, longhaired, take-no-prisoners and impossibly young Wellington group by the name of Shihad.I SAW SHIHAD for the first time at the Powerstation in July 1991, playing as part of the tour for their first EP, Devolve. I remember, I was watching them from the backstage and Johnny Toogood was playing a white guitar. As he went on, one of his fingers started bleeding onto the white guitar, which I thought was very showbiz. White is generally a flamboyant colour – blood, of course, more so.

At that stage I had no idea that Shihad would become available for signing – at that time I was working with Head Like A Hole, who Shihad given their break. HLAH were sharing an practice space in a half-abandoned warehouse with Shihad in Hopper Street in Wellington, and they’d managed to work their way both into playing support of the tour for Devolve, the fi rst EP, and managing to get Gerald Dwyer, who had picked up on Shihad first, to manage them as well. The first time I actually met the group was at the Aseana restaurant in Auckland.

For the record, it was Gerald that

put Shihad together with Jaz Coleman to record the debut – John Dix’s book Stranded in Paradise wrongly says that I did, but that’s not true. I had nothing to do with Shihad at the time that came together. However, when the Churn album was completed – Shihad had problems paying the studio bill. The band urged Gerald to approach all the major labels, to try and secure some sort of advance for its release. No one at EMI had even heard the band and the only major label people remotely interested were some of the guys at

Sony. Wildside and Pagan (who put out Devolve) were interested as well. There was a listening party for the album – the Sony people did turn up, but it became pretty clear pretty fast that they weren’t seriously interested.

To be honest, I couldn’t hear a single on the record but we did go

Jon Toogood and Murray Cammick

ahead and release ‘I Only Said’ to lead things off. Gerald had some unique ideas to sell the single – one of which was to push it through the Wellington record stores two members worked at, which were incidentally also the same stores you could buy tickets for their shows from. It was no coincidence you could buy a ticket to the show and get a free EP at the same time.

These sales methods of Gerald’s worked, and we were able to get reasonable chart action for the single – it ended up reaching number three on

the charts proper. We managed to get some support from radio for the single but at this stage, the bNet was still in its infancy and radio programmers for the commercial stations still thought of Shihad as a “metal band”. One of the most amazing things about Gerald was that he was always on to the next plan – the national tour to promote Churn didn’t make any money, but he worked in Germany with a label called Noise Records to secure a European album release and a two-month European tour. Ultimately, it didn’t

come to a lot but it gave the band some great formative experiences. I enjoyed working with them for several years, although I became a bit of a spare wheel when they went to live in Melbourne in around 1999 or so.

Shihad’s ‘The Meanest’ Tour, a 100 minute-plus set that encompasses their entire catalogue, is heading up and down New Zealand from 5-15 April. Sam Peacocke’s documentary Shihad: Beautiful Machine opens in cinemas on 17 May.

Shihad with original manager Gerald Dwyer (second from left)

VECTOR ARENA,AUCKLANDSUNDAY 18 MARCHReview Duncan GrievePhotographer Dallas Pickering

THE SOUND WAS unlike any I’ve ever heard before. Incredibly shrill, impossibly loud and with a sustained intensity that implied the hordes were working in shifts to achieve the lengthiest possible shriek. And we were only watching Hot Chelle Rae.

This was the final show of Taylor Swift’s 111-date Speak Now tour, and the majority of the room had pre-banked this as the best night of their life to that point. The crowd was awash with home made t-shirts and signs, with many more two-or-three-days labour banners binned out front (including this beautifully rendered heartbreaker: ‘I came from Fiji to see you!’). Swift’s fans mightn’t have a name attached to them like Gaga’s ‘little monsters’, but they can step to anyone for mad, expressive fandom.

When she came out the room exploded, and she opened super-strong, picking the pop-rock-country nuggets from Speak Now like ‘Sparks Fly’ (through a hail of sparking fireworks

- Swift is nothing if not hyper-literal) and ‘Mine’. The stage set is ludicrously opulent, festooned with trapezes, a bridge, a ballustrade, all in ornate fairytale style. Which is to say that unlike many touring artists, Taylor spends the money you pay for tickets, rather than banking it. (And makes it back in pre-show commercials, which are a little jarring, but very forgivable).

The general feel of the show is that of a dreamy, old-fashioned kid who has been given the chance to bring her pre-adolescent fantasies to life. It’s a cloyingly romantic vision, and at times can get a little too sugary, but the scale of it is remarkable - as a production it dwarfs any other arena show I’ve witnessed - it feels beyond music, so deeply woven are the theatrical and balletic elements.

The set heats up and stays strong with ‘Back to December’, ‘Mean’ and ‘Speak Now’, all of which pop ferociously, songs so stark and clear there is no room for ambiguity or nuance. With other artists the tendency can feel lazy and unrepresentative of reality - but with Swift, it’s precisely the world as she has always seen it, and she’s fought to let it retain those qualities for herself and her fans.

One of the best things about the

show is how inclusive it feels – like she would sing personally for everyone on the arena if she could - and she runs straight through the crowd to a tree nestled behind the sound-desk at one point, giving those in the nosebleed seats as good a view as the flash ones at the front. Up close, she’s like a porcelain doll, like a flawless human manufactured in a lab. On anyone else that would be immensely irritating, but on her all the starry-eyed adoration of the crowd feels like it’s being entirely reciprocated, however improbable that might sound.

The night dips a little with some of the maudlin balladry which remains her weakest suit - the likes of ‘Dear John’ and ‘Safe & Sound’ - before elevating obscenely to a closing rendition of ‘Love Story’, her greatest hit, and one that sees her swung through arena on a balcony made for one, the Juliet to our 10,000 Romeos (I know! But if you were there...).

Filing out, the atmosphere is surprisingly quiet and subdued, the crowd emotionally spent and hoarse from the shrieking. The one thing abundantly clear to all concerned was that we’re unlikely to witness a show like that again in a long, long time. Maybe ever.

NORTHLANDFRIDAY 23The Hewson Project – 35 Degrees South Aquarium Restaurant and Bar, Paihia, 6pm, FreeSATURDAY 24Tempist Fugit – Mangawhai Tavern, Mangawhai, 9pmSUNDAY 25Fiona Pears and Band – Old Library Building Arts Centre, Whangarei, 7:30pm, $22

AUCKLANDTUESDAY 20Florries Irish Music Jam Sessions – Florrie McGreals Irish Pub, Takapuna, 7:30pm, FreeAk Jazz & Blues Club – Alain Koetsier Band – Pt Chevalier RSA, Pt Chevalier, 7:30pm, $5Joel Vinsen – Spencer on Byron Hotel, Takapuna, 6pm, FreeLed Zeppelin & Space Park – Double Feature – Stardome Observatory & Planetarium, Royal Oak, 8pm, $35WEDNESDAY 21Dirty Sweets, Ream Fist Haze of Pedition & Blackleaf Gardens – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pmKaraoke Kate – QF Tavern, Auckland CBD, 9pm, FreeFlorries Irish Music Jam Sessions – Florrie McGreals Irish Pub, Takapuna, 7:30pm, FreeWednesdays at Flight lounge – Flight Lounge, Auckland CBD, 10pm, FreeBen Fernandez & Maria O’Flaherty – CAC Bar & Eatery, Mt Eden, 6:30pmChicane Duo – Sugar Bar, Newmarket, 7pm, FreeLive Music Wednesdays – De Vine Duo – Charlie Baxter’s, Ellerslie, 7pm, FreeMusic from Japan with a Twist – One 2 One Cafe (121), Ponsonby, 8pm, FreeLive Latin and Brazilian Music – The Mexican Cafe, Auckland CBD, 8:30pm, FreeWednesday R&B Jam Night – Flo Bar & Cafe, Newmarket, 9pm, FreeTHURSDAY 22Auckland Uni Battle of the Bands – Shadows Bar, Auckland CBD, 6:30pm, FreeElectric Salon – A Murder Mystery – The Thirsty Dog, Newton, 7:30pm, $10Gerry Rooderkerk Alive & Acoustic – The Fiddler Irish Bar, Auckland CBD, 10pm, FreeJohn Cooper Clark w/ Guests – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pm, $55Thursday Night Live – Coast – 1885 Britomart, Auckland CBD, 9pm, FreeLee Gray – QF Tavern, Auckland CBD, 10pm, FreeAlabama 3 – Powerstation, Eden Terrace, 8pm, $60Ben Fernandez – Spencer on Byron Hotel, Takapuna, 6:30pm, FreeJennifer Zea – 1885 Basement, Auckland CBD, 10pm, FreeMusic in Parks Presents: Club Manouche avec Carolina Moon – Crawford Reserve, Howick, 6pm, FreePetra Rijnbeek & Paul Voight – The Lumsden, Newmarket, 6:30pm, FreeGreg Tell – Auckland Fish Market, Auckland CBD, 5pm, FreeRoger & The Ram Jets – Papatoetoe RSA, Papatoetoe, 6:30pm, $5FRIDAY 23Phil Edwards Band 6am Tour – Flo Bar & Cafe, Newmarket, 8pm, $10Nathan Haines – The Poet’s Embrace Album Launch – Toto / Montecristo, Auckland CBD, 8pm, $25

These Four Walls, Decortica & Enercia – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pm, $14-$15The Comedowns – The Fiddler Irish Bar, Auckland CBD, 11pm, FreeUrbantramper: The In Memory There’s Always Sun Tour – Artworks Community Theatre, Waiheke Island, 8pmDr Rhythm & Mr Blues – Grey Lynn Returned Services Club, Grey Lynn, 8pm, FreeMitch French – Florrie McGreals Irish Pub, Takapuna, 9:30pm, FreePat 4 President – GBS Bar & Restaurant @ The Prospect, Howick, 8:30pm, FreeRiqi Harawera – Moretons Bar and Restaurant, St Heliers, 8pm, Free2 Wheel Drive – Warkworth RSA, Warkworth, 7pm, FreeStetson Club: Brendon Ham Band – Dairy Flat Community Hall, Dairy Flat, 8pm, $5-$10The Brendon Ham Band – Dairy Flat Community Hall, Dairy Flat, 8pm, FreeDJ Thane Kirby & Guitarist Adam Stevenson – The Deck, Auckland CBD, 8pm, FreeFridays at Trench Bar – Trench Bar, Auckland CBD, 10pm, FreeSteam:Jason Howson, Dutty Ranks, Chaos in the CBD & More – InkCoherent, Newton, 10pm, $10Music from Japan with a Twist and Guests – Lewis Eady, Remuera, 8pm, FreeChico con Tumbao – Besos Latinos Restaurant, Auckland CBD, 7:30pm, FreeTango Maestro Jorge Manzanero – Latin Rhythm Dance School, Auckland CBD, 8pm, $10Will Martin – Holy Trinity Cathedral, Parnell, 7:30pm, $25-$35RnB Night w/ DJ Fluffy – Red Lion and Pineapple, Highland Park, 10pm, FreeSugarBang Band – The Flying Moa, Mt Wellington, 8:30pm, FreeBrazil Tech – InkCoherent, Newton, 10:30pm, $5-$10SATURDAY 24The Riverhead Rhythm & Blues Festival – The Riverhead, Riverhead, 1pm, $50Don McGlashan ‘Don at the DUAL’ Concert – Motutapu Island Recreation Reserve, Motutapu Island, 12pm, $20Crosby, Stills & Nash – The Trusts Stadium Arena, Henderson, 7:30pm, $99-$199Aroha – Music For the Soul: Vikram Hazra and Gavin Libotte – St Cuthbert’s College, Greenlane, 7:30pm, $12Diving + Karaoke Taxi + Daniel Boobyer North Island Tour – Wine Cellar, Newton, 8pmSick Disco presents Weird Together – Cassette Number Nine, Auckland CBD, 7pm, $10Silo Sessions presented by An Emerald City – Silo Park, Auckland CBD, 12pm, FreeUrbantramper, Autumn Splendour & She’s So Rad – Whammy Bar, Newton, 10pmDave Clark Revival – Birkenhead RSA, Birkenhead, 7pm, FreeDavid Shanhun Duo – Blacksalt Bar & Eatery, New Lynn, 8pm, FreeFrancis Jakeman – De Post, Mt Eden, 8:30pm, FreeGranduo – Florrie McGreals Irish Pub, Takapuna, 9:30pm, FreeSuper System – U2 and Green Day Tribute Show – The Clare Inn, Mt Eden, 9pm, FreeAural Trash – InkCoherent, Newton, 11pm, $10DJ Ned Roy & Percussionist Majic

Hands – The Deck, Auckland CBD, 8pm, FreeGet Down: Soane, Bevan Keys, Rachel Sabin & Levani – InkCoherent, Newton, 10pm, $15Phoenix – 4:20, Newton, 10pm, $20-$25Neville Chamberlain – Spencer on Byron Hotel, Takapuna, 6:30pm, FreeNew Way Home, Snakes of Iron & Molest the Episcopate – The Thirsty Dog, Newton, 9pm, $5NZ Blues Brothers Tribute Show – The Riverhead, Riverhead, 1pm, $50Mark Armstrong Acoustic – De Fontein, Mission Bay, 8:30pm, FreeRehab – The Bay at Matiatia, Waiheke Island, 7pm, $10Missing Teeth – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pmJason Mohi – Malt Bar, Grey Lynn, 8pm, FreeDire Straits Rocky Road Tribute Tour – Howick RSA, Howick, 8pm, $10-$15Harlequin Swing Orchestra & Guests: Arts Festival Out East – Harlequin Musical Theatre, Howick, 7:30pm, $25Harlequin’s Swing Orchestra and Guest – Harlequin Musical Theatre, Howick, 7:30pmThe Alibis – Papatoetoe Cosmopolitan Club, Papatoetoe, 7:30pm, Free

SUNDAY 25Shae Snell – The Fiddler Irish Bar, Auckland CBD, 6pm, FreeBlues in The Boat House – DaveBoy Ferry – The Riverhead, Riverhead, 2pm, FreeBlend – Goode Brothers, Botany Downs, 3pm, FreeKara Gordon – Carrington’s Pump House, Mt Albert, 12:30pm, FreeJamesRAy’s Acoustic Country Sunday – Bar Africa, North Harbour, 12pm, FreeJamesRAy’s Encore Acoustic Country Sunday – Bar Africa, Highland Park, 5:30pm, FreeMusic in Parks 2012 – The Culture Garden – Auckland Domain Wintergardens, Parnell, 6pm, FreeSouthern Fried Sundays – Kings Arms, Newton, 5pm, $10Florries Irish Music Jam Sessions – Florrie McGreals Irish Pub, Takapuna, 5:30pm, FreeChicane Duo – Bill Fish Cafe, St Marys Bay, 1pmCoopers Creek Summer Sunday Jazz – Coopers Creek Vineyard, Huapai, 1pm, FreeJazz Afternoon: Arts Festival Out East – Harlequin Musical Theatre, Howick, 2pm, $20Music in Parks 2012 – Jazz at the Rotunda – Auckland Domain Band Rotunda, Parnell, 2pm, FreeSoul Sax Plus – Rewi Alley Reserve, Wairau Valley, 3pm, FreeSunday Sessions – Slipp Inn Pub, Birkenhead, 3:30pm, FreeThe Calm – Huapai Tavern, Huapai, 3:30pm, FreeSt Andrew’s Big Band and St Andrew’s Trio – Harlequin Musical Theatre, Howick, 2pmMONDAY 26Traditional Irish Music Session – The Clare Inn, Mt Eden, 7pm, FreeBen Fernandez – Spencer on Byron Hotel, Takapuna, 6:30pm, FreeViva Jazz Quartet – The Windsor Castle, Parnell, 6pm, Free

THE COROMANDELSATURDAY 24Fiona Pears – Kauaeranga Hall, Kauaeranga, 7:30pm, $20

HAWKE’S BAY / GISBORNETUESDAY 20That’s Country – Napier Municipal Theatre, Napier, 7:30pm, $75SATURDAY 24The Paepae Soundsystem presents Spawnbreezie NZ Tour – Gisborne A&P Showgrounds and Events Centre, Gisborne, 7pm, $30SUNDAY 25The ABBA Show – Napier Municipal Theatre, Napier, 8pm, $26.50-$50.50The Paepae Soundsystem presents Spawnbreezie NZ Tour – Gisborne A&P Showgrounds and Events Centre, Gisborne, 12pm, $10

WAIKATOTHURSDAY 22Urbantramper: The In Memory There’s Always Sun Tour – YOT Club, Raglan, 9pmFRIDAY 23Agora Goes Live – Cafe Agora, Hamilton, 7pmThe Hollow Grinders, Thee Rum Coves + Guests – Static Bar, Hamilton, 9pmSATURDAY 24Hilltop Wines Sunset Concert 2012 w/ Sola Rosa – Hilltop Vineyard, Hamilton, 2:30pm, $69Darkwater & Art of Alchemy w/ Scotty Stone – Biddy Mulligan’s Irish Pub, Hamilton, 9pm, $5Peacekeeper Pdigsss (Shapeshifter) – FLOW, Hamilton, 9pm, 12am, $15-$20The Skitz – YOT Club, Raglan, 9pm, $10SUNDAY 25Joy Adams – Waipa Workingmen’s Club, Te Awamutu, 1pmPeacekeeper Pdigsss (Shapeshifter) – FLOW, Hamilton, 12am, $15-$20Jazz on a Sunday Evening – International Star Line-Up – Te Rapa Racecourse, Hamilton, 5:30pm, $8-$15

BAY OF PLENTYFRIDAY 23Reggae Love – Rotorua RSA, Rotorua, 8pm, $25Opotiki Charity Concert – Opotiki College, Opotiki, 7pm, $20-$30Fiona Pears – Whakatane Little Theatre, Whakatane, 7:30pmSATURDAY 24These Four Walls, Decortica & Enercia – Brewers Bar, Mt Maunganui, 8pm, $14-$15Opotiki Charity Concert – Opotiki College, Opotiki, 12pm, $20-$30SUNDAY 25Opotiki Charity Concert – Opotiki College, Opotiki, 7pm, $20-$30MONDAY 26Jimmy & Perry – The Pheasant Plucker, Rotorua, 7pm, Free

TARANAKIWEDNESDAY 21Fiona Pears – Sandfords Event Centre, Opunake, 7:30pm, $25FRIDAY 23Diving + Karaoke Taxi + Daniel Boobyer North Island Tour – Matinee, New Plymouth, 8pm

MANAWATU / WHANGANUIWEDNESDAY 21That’s Country – Regent on

powered by eventfi nder.co.nz

Broadway, Palmerston North, 7:30pm, $67-$75THURSDAY 22Diving + Karaoke Taxi + Daniel Boobyer North Island Tour – Space Monster, Whanganui, 8pmFRIDAY 23Unbridled Tales of Terror and Suspense – The Royal, Palmerston North, 9pm, $5SATURDAY 24The ABBA Show – Royal Whanganui Opera House, Whanganui, 8pm, $26.60-$50.60SUNDAY 25Feilding Country Music Club – Senior Centre, Feilding, 1pm, $2-$5

WELLINGTON REGIONTUESDAY 20Space Cake & Project H – San Francisco Bath House, 9pm, FreeFiona Pears – Carterton Exhibition Centre, Carterton, 7:30pm, $25Live Music – The Library, 5pm, FreeWEDNESDAY 21Diving + Karaoke Taxi + Daniel Boobyer North Island Tour – San Francisco Bath House, 8pm, FreeNZ’s Balkan Brass Explosion – Mighty Mighty, 9pmTHURSDAY 22Emma Davey and the Monks of Cool – Hotel Bristol, 8:30pm, FreeIn Like Flynn – Molly Malones, 6pmThat’s Country – The Opera House, 7:30pm, $68.50-$91.50Sigma (UK) – San Francisco Bath House, 10pm, $19.90-$30Liam O’Connell – Writing in the Dark Release – Meow, 8:30pm, $5King Homeboy World Champ Send Off – Mighty Mighty, 9pmThe Paepae Soundsystem presents Spawnbreezie NZ Tour – Hill 16, Porirua – Mana, 7pm, $30FRIDAY 23Aroha – Music For the Soul: Vikram Hazra and Gavin Libotte – Little Theatre, Lower Hutt, 7:30pm, $12-$15Drab Doo Riffs, Gaytime & Raw Nerves – Mighty Mighty, 9pmThe Paepae Soundsystem presents Spawnbreezie NZ Tour – Masterton Town Hall, Masterton, 8pm, $30Beastwars 2nd Album Fundraiser – San Francisco Bath House, 9pm, $10-$15SATURDAY 24Ghost Wave w/ Beach Pigs – Mighty Mighty, 9pmThe Upbeats – Sandwiches, 11pm, $20Nick Granville Trio – The Lido Cafe, 8:30pm, FreeThe Thomas Oliver Band – One of These Days – Bodega, 9pm, $20-$30SUNDAY 25Big Day Dowse – The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, 1pm, FreeKath Tait In Concert – Meow, 7:30pm, $15Alphabet Street – Capital E, 2pm, $13The Boptet – The Lido Cafe, 7pm, Free

NELSON / TASMANFRIDAY 23Honey & Wine – The Boathouse, Nelson, 7:30pm, FreeSATURDAY 24MarchFest 2012 – Founders Heritage Park, Nelson, 12pm, $25-$35Tiki Tour Aotearoa – Liquid NZ Bar, Nelson, 9pm, Free

MARLBOROUGHFRIDAY 23Midge Mccleary – Lennys on Main Irish Pub and Cafe, Marlborough Sounds, 5pm, FreeSATURDAY 24Midge McCleary – Waikawa Boating Club, Marlborough Sounds, 7pm, $50

CANTERBURYWEDNESDAY 21Aroha – Music For the Soul: Vikram Hazra and Gavin Libotte – Hornby High School, 7:30pm, $12-$15THURSDAY 22Salsa On Thursdays – Salsa Latina Dance Studio, 8:45pm, FreeFRIDAY 23The Exponents – Ferrymead Speights Ale House, 7:30pm, $42-$45Thatta (Japan) New Zealand Tour w/ Guests – Dux Live, 9pm, FreeRetrosonic – Becks Southern Alehouse, 9pm, FreeSATURDAY 24The Exponents – No 8 Wired Live, Timaru, 7:30pm, $42-$45Atarmies – Woodend Hotel (The Woody), Woodend, 8pm, FreeThomas Coffey and the Grinders – Pierside Cafe and Bar, 8:30pm, FreeAutumnMatic 80s – The Venue-Musicbar, 8pm, $15-$20

OTAGOTHURSDAY 22Thatta (Japan) New Zealand Tour w/ Guests – ReFuel Bar, Dunedin, 9pm, $10Two Cartoons – Jelly Tip Lips Tour – ReFuel Bar, Dunedin, 9pm, $10FRIDAY 23Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – Dux de Lux, Queenstown, 9pm, FreeThe Jazz Sessions – Carousel Bar, Dunedin, 8pm, FreeSATURDAY 24Southern Celtic – Mark Wilson & Karen Reid – Thomas L. Brown Gallery, Queenstown, 7:30pm, $10-$20Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – Mint Bar, Wanaka, 9pm, FreeIndustry: The Sound of Modern Machinery – ReFuel Bar, Dunedin, 9pm, $5SUNDAY 25The Exponents – Sammy’s, Dunedin, 7:30pm, $42-$45Orokonui Presents The OXO Cubans – Orokonui Ecosanctuary, Dunedin, 5:30pm, $20

SOUTHLANDTUESDAY 20The ABBA Show – Civic Theatre, Invercargill, 8pm, $25-$94WEDNESDAY 21Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – The New Eagle Hotel, Invercargill, 9pm, Free

has teamed with Eventfi nder for gig listings. To get your gig considered, go to eventfi nder.co.nz and submit your show for publication. Due to space constraints, we can’t guarantee that every show will be listed.

SAT31 MARCH

FRI13 APRIL

NICK LOWEEASTER SUN

8 APRIL SHIHAD

WED18 APRIL MARK LANEGANTHURS10 MAY KAISER CHIEFS

SIX60SAT

14 APRIL SIX60

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POWERSTATIONTHURS

22 MARCH ALABAMA 3WED

28 MARCH ELBOWTHURS

29 MARCH ELBOWSOLD OUT

Got some news for More Volume? Email us at [email protected].

The Dirty Three’s Auckland show was a hit of the week – with the ebuillient and witty Warren Ellis between song banter a hit of the night… did Emily from Street Chant make it to Taylor Swift??… the Doug Jerebine release show was a success but his 59-minute “Sister Ray” funhouse jam with Endless Boogie at Lucha Lounge the following night was stratospheric – speaking of Endless Boogie, here was a great band with a fantastic knowledge of all things on vinyl from NZ… The Manor rehearsal space will soon be closing its doors, citing raising overheads as one reason for its closure – Antony Corban’s chuckle and eye-spinning coffee will be sorely missed… Gaytime have pressed 300 LPs at United and kicked off with a raucous set at Lucha Lounge… Eilen Jewell wowed the Powerstation…Real Estate did the numbers at the

Kings Arms last Thursday with all of them purchasing large at Real Groovy prior to the show… Ariel Pink’s show was very LA according to one source… Static is still the best rock and roll bar in South Auckland… Keiran from the X-Ray Fiends is causing many a heart to flutter… the newly-minted New Zealand Music Foundation had its launch on Tuesday night and its fundraising event promises to be an annual, Finn-and-McGlashan-curated extravganza for needy Kiwi musos…Karaoke Taxi will join Diving and Daniel Boobyer (both from Wellington) on the following dates – Wed 21 March at San Francisco Bath House, Wellington, Thu 22 March at Space Monster, Whanganui, Fri 23 March at Matinee, New Plymouth, Sat 24 March at Wine Cellar, Auckland

and Sun 25 March at The Strand Stage in Tauranga (outdoors, 1pm). Karaoke Taxi have just released a new album The Ever Escaping Now, for which the press release reads: “One of the more elusive bands this side of the map, Karaoke Taxi rarely venture beyond the cardioid patterns of their microphones. But around once in a solar orbit, often as Southern Hemisphere reclines from its tenure as sun’s ultra-violet rays’ primary target, armed with a new album of manic doom-psychedelia, Karaoke Taxi return to stages nation-wide to twist guitar-effect madness around a tight, drum-filled core, setting audiences awash in a torrent of mentally conceived and electrically realised sonic energy. Like a weird dream you wake up from to discover you’ve set your radio alarm to a number station... Karaoke Taxi will seep into your head and start turning knobs until... Will that be tube or solid-state distortion, you ask?” Sounds like fun?… Lawrence Arabia busy on an interesting project for late April… and word of a local movie being made about a band trying to get the opening slot for the Bob Marley show at Western Springs – could be great?

Rich Decibel is busy reading a new series of DIY Synthmaking Workshops to be held later in the year. Check out www.richdecibels.com for more details… There’s a Balkan Brass Explosion going down at Mighty Mighty on Wednesday night, $10 on the door, fans of Beirut and the like will want to get familiar… Beastwars are throwing a fundraising gig for their second album on Friday at San Francisco Bathhouse. The same night, The Drab Doo Riffs play at Mighty Mighty with Gaytime and Raw Nerves… Post-dubstep/modern house beatmaker Nat Walker impressed before Julien Dyne and Parks at their show at San Francisco Bath House the other weekend. You can check out Walker’s sounds at www.soundcloud.com/natwalker... Boris play Bar Bodega on Tuesday the 27th of March – killer Japanese experimental rock for those who know… Electric Wire Hustle are currently on tour in America, and by the time you read this, will have made multiple performances at the storied SXSW festival… come Monday the 2nd of April, Wooden Shjips bring their fuzzy space-rock to Bar Bodega, very essential… King Homeboy is throwing a fundraising

party at Mighty Mighty on the 22nd of March. All proceeds go towards his trip to Berlin to compete in the World Beatbox Championships 2012. Head to www.pledgeme.co.nz/Crowd/Details/110 if you want to donate via PledgeMe… French For Rabbits have just released their debut EP Claimed By The Sea via Home Alone Music, you can purchase it online at www.frenchforrabbits.bandcamp.com... Tickets to legendary hip-hop icon KRS-One’s Wellington show at the Town Hall on the 20th of April are now available via ticketek.co.nz.

It’s hard to believe it has been 30 years of (Dance) Exponents, but it just goes to show that time flies when you’re havin’ fun! This Friday 23 March, at the Speight’s Alehouse, Ferrymead, they celebrate those 30 years with some of the best pop music this country has produced… The hardest-working band in the country,The Eastern, also have cause to celebrate.Their just-released double album, Hope and Wire, entered the NZ chart at number 11. Their gig at Mighty Mighty last week with Lindon Puffin and Barry Saunders was a sellout and bodes well for their national tour… Authentic bluegrass band, The Greyhounds – featuring Lyttelton musicians, Anita Clark, Marlon Williams, Hamish Thorpe and Ben Woolley – make their debut at the Canterbury Folk Festival on Easter Weekend at Waipara.

The Fringe Festival is getting great crowds in its first few days – will Dunedin ever be the same again...? The Puddle released their new double EP Secret Holiday/Victory Blues at the Fringe Festival... Planning is well underway for Music Month at the Dunedin Public Library – but which Dunedin musicians will blow the cobwebs off the books?… Locals Posse in Effect drop a new release on Bandcamp...Dear Time’s Waste are to play with Tom Lark and Alizarin Lizard at the National on 4 April – courtesy R1… John Cooper Clarke fever sweeps Dunedin with all sorts of old coveys and denizens coming out from the dark corners... Hunting Bears’ album Eye Contact With Strangers is out this week… Two Cartoons in astride both the 95bFM and R1 charts amid stories circulating of shenanigans in Queenstown on a double bill with Manthyng.

Doug Jerebine and Jesper Eklow from Endless Boogie

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLEThursday 19 April – Dux Live, Christchurch Friday 20 April – Bar Bodega, Wellington Satuday 21 April – Kings Arms, Auckland Sunday 22 April – Sawmill Café, Leigh

WOODEN SHJIPSSunday 1 April – Kings Arms, AucklandMonday 2 April – Bodega, Wellington

MARK LANEGAN BANDWednesday 18 April – The Powerstation, Auckland

STEVE EARLE Wednesday 11 April – Kings Arms, Auckland Thursday 12 April – Bodega, Wellington

THE SONICSWednesday 18 April – Kings Arms, Auckland

PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT PLAYING CLOSER – A JOY CLOSER – A JOY CLOSERDIVISION CELEBRATIONWednesday 18/Thursday 19 April – Bodega, Wellington Friday 20 April – Studio, Auckland

HENRY ROLLINSWednesday 11 April – Clarence St Theatre, Hamilton Thursday 12 April – Dux Live, Christchurch Friday 13 April – The Opera House, Wellington Saturday 14 April – SkyCity Theatre, Auckland

KRS-ONEFriday 20 April – Town Hall, Wellington Saturday 21 April – The Cloud, Auckland

WAVVESThursday 3 May – Kings Arms, Auckland

LADY GAGAThursday 7/Friday 8/Sunday 10 June – Vector Arena, Auckland

KAISER CHIEFSThursday 10 May –The Powerstation, Auckland

CITY AND COLOURSunday 29 April – Town Hall, Auckland

JOE SATRIANI, STEVE VAI AND STEVE LUKATHER – G3 JOE SATRIANI, STEVE VAI AND STEVE LUKATHER – G3 JOE SATRIANI, STEVE VAI Saturday 24 March – Michael Fowler Centre, WellingtonSunday 25 March – Logan Campbell Centre, Auckland

BORISTuesday 27 March – Bodega, WellingtonWednesday 28 March – Kings Arms, Auckland

ELBOWWednesday 28/Thursday 29 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

NICK LOWE Saturday 31 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

JOHN COOPER CLARKEWednesday 21 March – Dunedin Fringe Festival Thursday 22 March – Kings Arms, Auckland Friday 23 March – Bodega, Wellington Saturday 24 March – Marchfest, Nelson

ALABAMA 3Thursday 22 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

MARCHFEST CRAFT BEER AND MUSIC FESTIVALAlabama 3, John Cooper Clarke, TheDrab Doo-Riffs, The Immigrants and The Ukes of Hazard.Saturday 24 March – Founders Mark, Nelson

LUCINDA WILLIAMSTuesday 10 April – Town Hall, AucklandWednesday 11 April – St James Theatre, Wellington

THE SPECIALSTuesday 10 April – Shed 10, Queens Wharf, Auckland

SAN FRANCISCO BATH HOUSE, WELLINGTONFRIDAY 16 MARCHReview Paul GallagherPhotography Georgia Schofi eldIN ALL HONESTY, Wellington’s summer has not really gone to plan. So a band

like Real Estate is exactly what’s been needed - a panacea of sorts at San Francisco Bath House to make up for the miry grey days the capital has endured over recent months. It’s evident that these New Jersey natives should know what they are doing. Their home state is after all the birthplace of

the seedless watermelon, the ice-cream cone and the drive-in cinema – symbols of a more Arcadian time. As you might imagine, a blended suburban sprawl of sections, pavements, picket fences and sun-soaked asphalt could be enough to instill in anyone a certain lackadaisical approach to life. But for Real Estate, it’s

seemingly sparked a need to share the good times with their airy concoction of dreamy pop tunes.

Quite simply, the band has got that relaxed feeling of a simpler era. The brilliance of their music is that it’s personable and endearing enough to put you at ease. The band has seen a few lineup changes in recent years – but it’s still held up by the bones of its original members: singer/guitarist Martin Courtney, guitarist Matt Mondanile (also of Ducktails) and bassist Alex Bleeker (also of Alex Bleeker and the Freaks).

Focusing mainly on tracks from of their most recent album Days, the band was always going to deliver a warm and breezy set. From the hand-holding swell of ‘Green Aisles’ to the coursing inflation of ‘Municipality’, the floating bliss of the ‘Easy’ and the sing-along

surge of the single ‘It’s Real’, each song overlaid the last to construct an alluring night out. The straightforward relationship between Mondanile and Courtney in particular was notable, as they playfully courted each track to its fruition on their respective guitars. Bleeker’s plodding baselines melded well with Jackson Pollis’ drum work, to ensure satisfaction for all those who paid to see them perform.

There are derivative accusations that could be levelled at Real Estate, with obvious comparisons to the Go-Betweens or Lucksmiths. But their relevance lies in their competence and poise. So often, there’s a tendency for touring bands to get bullish or too full of themselves, but Real Estate’s comfortable and humble confidence exuded charm. It came through in their

performance as songs melted into each other with succinct effortlessness, with each audience member coveting every riff and every jangle played coming across with ease.

Part of Real Estate’s attraction is based in that their listeners feel like they can relate to them – suburban, affable, twentysometings. So it was no surprise to see them walk offstage at the completion of their set, only to reappear to mingle at the bar with genuinely appreciative fans.

New Jersey is the only state without a state song. But who needs a pompous show tune when your residents are already at full voice? Real Estate’s members are a refreshing display of a band that is unassumingly comfortable, not only in their abilities but also in their own skins.

Real Estate at the Kings Arms, Auckland, Thursday 15 March. Reproduced with kind permission of entertainme.co.nz”

KINGS ARMS, AUCKLANDTUESDAY 13 MarchReview Chris CudbyPhotography Milana Radojcic

AFTER SUCCESSFULLY NAVIGATING through Auckland’s bizarro public transport system (55 minute wait for a bus on New North road!) I made it to the Kings Arms in time to catch the tail end of local favorites Poor You Poor Me – a six-piece tangle of guitar, bass, drums and fiddle. Fronted by Rackets’ Oscar Davies-Kay, Poor You Poor Me produced a commendable wall of sound with dive-bombing melody lines and an energetic sensibility somewhere between punk-pop and folk – a fitting warmup for the genre-melting acts to follow.

The crowd was humming in anticipation for Geneva Jacuzzi, with fans packed close to catch a glimpse of the US pop-video goddess. She didn’t disappoint, running through a choice selection of her most popular tunes, singing into her headset mic and dancing semi-choreographed dance moves in front of a projection while

dressed like some kind of gothic mime. The volume of the backing tracks was set to a puzzlingly low level but that couldn’t contain the cosmic energies radiating from Jacuzzi’s ritualistic stage performance. With her monochromatic, heavily tassled stage getup Jacuzzi gave off an almost Klaus Nomi vibe, cackling like a German performance artist along with her catchy-as-fuck synth-pop tunes. An unforgettable show.

Ariel Pink hit the stage with his group almost immediately breaking into what seemed to be new material (Pink started the first number singing directly from a lyric sheet). An immediate point of interest was Pink’s ridiculous new Slade-like hairstyle, which made him look even more goblin-like than usual. Another point was how incredibly prog-rock Pink’s songs actually are in a live setting. When removed from their home-recorded, beat-boxed context they seem almost stadium-like in their epic-ness – especially evident in the newer material where unfamiliar ears had to play tag with Pink’s unpredictable, stuttering pop structures. There were a fair amount of older tunes on offer though, sprinkled with a generous selection of recent hits from Before Today, drawing a

warm reception from the grinning, dancing punters. Particular favorites were the Worn Copy material (‘One On One’, ‘Life In LA’) and the sonic swoon of his Doledrums songs also adapted well to the stage. A pretty cool aspect to the show was that there didn’t seem to be too much overlap with Pink’s Laneway performance last year, meaning they complimented each other nicely. Pink’s Haunted Graffi ti group

gave off a noodly, relaxed barroom vibe, like encountering the Mothers Of Invention playing in a dive bar. They ended up playing two encores, with Jacuzzi joining Pink on stage for vox, but the delighted crowd could have easily lapped up more – an excellent night was had by all.

“An immediate point of interest was Pink’s ridiculous new Slade-like hairstyle, which made him look even more goblin-like than usual.”

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