THAT SHORTENED DEADLINE aside, there’s a gang of post-Easter content in this one. One-man-army Henry Rollins is on the campaign trail again, bringing The Long March Tour for a run of four shows beginning in Hamilton tomorrow night – Gavin Bertram talks to the veteran traveller about his latest round of intrepid adventures and why he has no plans to

make music again. Check out Stuff and Nonsense for your chance to score The Long March tickets.

Ahead of shows in New Zealand next week, we also catch up with fellow survivor Justin Townes Earle, and we get a first look at writer and director Kirstin Marcon’s debut feature film The Most Fun You Can Have Dying out nationwide from Thursday 26 April – Marcon goes one on one with The Most Fun’s composer Grayson Gilmour in Talking Heads. Gilmour mentioned that So So Modern is back and working on new material – hyped to hear fresh music from them.

And next week we have some special treats in store for Record Store Day that you’ll want to get your hands on. Viva la vinyl!

Last week was a short, sharp, focused one for VOLUME – staring down the barrel of an Easter weekend, we knocked out the issue you hold in your hands quick smart, VOLUME’s designer Xanthe Williams squeezing a week’s work into three days so we could smash a Thursday morning deadline to get the PDFs to our printers in Tauranga and get this here issue into your back pocket for Tuesday morn.

Facebook.com/volumemag @__volume__

EDITOR: Sam Wickssam.wicks@volumemagazine.co.nzWEB EDITOR: Hugh Sundaehugh.sundae@nzherald.co.nzDEPARTMENT OF VOLUME SALES: Brad Morganbrad.morgan@apn.co.nzDESIGN: Xanthe WilliamsWRITERS: Gavin Bertram, Maddie Collier, Marty Duda, Duncan Greive, Jessica Hansell, Louisa Kasza, Leilani Momoisea, Joe Nunweek, Hugh Sundae, Tourettes, Andre Upston, Barnaby Weir, Aaron YapILLUSTRATION: Lopeti Tu’itahiPHOTOGRAPHERS: Ted Baghurst, Chris Gee, Jenna ToddAN APN PUBLICATION

How does it feel to be stepping out solo from Kidz in Space as Get Well Soon?It’s pretty nerve-wracking. I’ve always been in the background of KiS and had the others to hide behind. This time all the songs are completely my own so I’m feeling much more vulnerable. Now that I’ve got the depressing songs out the way I can start doing something a bit more upbeat!

Could you have made this music under the KiS banner?I don’t think so. Kidz in Space is a much more collaborative effort and has a more intense sound. We’re starting to write new KiS at the moment and we’re really excited about the direction we’ve decided to go in.

Your Twitter game is solid. Does tweeting get in the way of making music?Ha-ha! I can definitely get easily distracted by it. I think it’s affected me more in the sense that everything I do or hear becomes a potential tweet. #tweetlife

The hook you sung on KiS’ ‘On the Road’ was written for Dane Rumble. Got a wishlist of local voices you’d like to hear on your songs?There’s a bunch of people I would love to work with under Get Well Soon; Janine and the Mixtape, Loui the ZU, Tom Scott, D.Dallas etc. Wishful thinking perhaps! I’d love to write a full-on guilty-pleasure pop song for someone at some stage too.

You just submitted an application for this year’s Red Bull Music Academy. How do you rate your chances?I won’t be holding my breath! It’s sort of like when you a buy a lotto ticket and there’s a small part of you that really believes you’ll win, but you know deep down the odds are not good. The hardest part was working out whether to be completely honest and write about uncool music that I love or try and impress the selectors with your musical knowledge about a little-known moombahton remix of an unsigned indie act. I think honesty was the best policy...

Download the Get Well Soon EP from get-well-soon.bandcamp.com.

Last year The Corner picked up where Real Groove (RIP) left off with the release of AF5, the latest instalment in Real Groove’s Awesome Feeling compilations of box-fresh local talent, a series which offered a fi rst look on the likes of So So Modern, Home Brew, Delaney Davidson and The Golden Awesome. The Corner in association with VOLUME is back at it in ’12 for Awesome Feeling 6. Submit your song for consideration at soundcloud.com/the_corner or email editor@thecorner.co.nz. Submissions close on Saturday 21 April 2012.

JOSH FOUNTAIN – GET WELL SOON

THE RETURN OF AWESOME FEELING

Got tickets? We’ve got passes to get you to Wavves’ show at the Kings Arms in Auckland on Thursday 3 May, and tickets to The Long March Tour, the latest campaign from Henry Rollins, playing Wednesday 11 April at Hamilton’s Clarence St Theatre, Thursday 12 April at Dux Live in Christchurch, Friday 13 April at Wellington’s Opera House and Saturday 14 April at SkyCity Theatre, Auckland. Email loot@volumemagazine.co.nz and let us know why you want to be in one of these audiences for a chance to get the loot. Easy.

SEND ME A POSTCARD

Writer, poet and musician Tourettes is crowdfunding to take up an Nes Artist Residency (neslist.is) in the Icelandic village of Skagaströnd where he’ll be working on his first novel set in his original stomping ground of Grey Lynn, Auckland. To help get him there, make a donation at pozible.com.au/index.php/archive/index/5062/description/0/0.

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THIS LIST INCLUDES self-appointed cewebs (web-celebrities) taking to Twitter to ask for products/services and including the Twitter handle of the company they obviously feel they deserve free things from. Self-appointed cewebs taking to Twitter to beg for airline upgrades and lounge access. God-awful ’90s-style comedic observations by idiots you deliberately don’t follow but whose inane cries for attention appear in your feed because one of your less angry acquaintances retweets them.

Lists of Guardian articles friends read knowing full well that the app would tell us all what they were reading. Lists of Guardian articles friends read obviously forgetting that the app would tell us all what they were reading.

Linkedin invitations. Cewebs who successfully whored themselves getting airline upgrades or lounge access telling us they were successful. Facebook status updates we already saw on your Twitter feed three minutes ago. “Cut and paste this into your status if you know, or have ever known, anyone, etc.”

People “checking in” at LAX or Heathrow (see last week’s Roast). Vague updates designed to elicit sympathy or further questioning. Detailed updates airing dirty washing about acquaintances when we all know whom you’re talking about. “We’re doing a story on sharks – does anyone know any sharks?”

Hashtags used as punch lines. Reminders about Linkedin invitations. People who accept friend requests then

immediately de-friend you to fuck with your head. Sneaky buggers who invite you to events but don’t let you see who else was invited. “Nuff said.” “Just saying.” “Just sayin’.”

Open letters addressed to days of the week or other non-human recipients. Open letters to people. Not knowing how to turn off notifications from Facebook pages you “liked” as a favour for a friend. People and companies that do their daily burst of retweeting about themselves in one 15-minute period. Not having anywhere near as many followers as David Farrier.

Television networks asking if we’re about to watch a show. Television networks retweeting people who are, yes, about to watch the show. Up and coming “it”-girls tweeting photos of themselves in magazines. “It”-girl mothers of up and coming “it”-girls retweeting said photos. Google+.

Yes, once you wade though all that, people were uploading photos of themselves as Goths back in the day! Turns out we were all Goths! Just sayin’.

“We’re doing a story on sharks – does anyone know any sharks?”

There was some gold on social media this past week. That’s once you look past the rage-inducing carnival of shit.

presents

KIRSTIN MARCON Seven years in the making, writer and director Kirstin Marcon’s The Most Fun You Can Have Dying opens in cinemas nationwide later this month. Soundtracking the adventures of Michael – the film’s protagonist who flees New Zealand with the money raised for his liver cancer treatment – is the music of young composer and So So Modern member Grayson Gilmour. Marcon and Gilmour talked about matching Michael’s rollercoaster ride with music for Talking Heads. Photography Ted Baghurst

KIRSTIN MARCON: How on earth did you actually go about beginning to

write music for this film?

GRAYSON GILMOUR: I read an interview about Neil Young doing the Dead Man soundtrack and how he just played guitar watching the film. I took that approach when I got the first assemble and I came up with all these crazy things that I wouldn’t have got if I had sat down in front of a monitor and notated my thoughts. It left me with completely different results to just reading the script, just letting those images soak in my brain.

I know that when you first read the script years and years

ago, you started doodling around a little bit. Do you think any of those original pieces of music made it into the final soundtrack or did they all just get subsumed?

They did make an appearance. It’s quite funny going back and seeing all the little archival fi les of demos and

outtakes – it’s like a giant scrapbook of ideas that got reincarnated into

the fi nal product.

We used a similar approach in the final edit. We would play around with where music was sitting. On

the whole nothing would change, but in one or two cases you had written music for a specific part of the film and it ended up in another part.

I like the idea that one day something can sound really good with an image, and then the next day it goes completely haywire and your taste changes completely – it’s like you’ve eaten tinfoil or something.

It’s an interesting process because scenes or music, when you look at them on their own, any music can work with any scene on the whole. But when you’re looking at a whole film, sometimes a piece of music that works beautifully with images suddenly stops working because you need it to be slightly more upbeat or downbeat at that moment.

There’s definitely a certain trajectory throughout the whole film you need to adhere to, and one of the things that I found in The Most Fun is that it’s a rollercoaster ride – it goes from big highs to big lows – so the tone of the music follows that quite closely.

“The Most Fun goes from big highs to big lows – so the tone of the music follows that quite closely.”– GRAYSON GILMOUR

presents

It follows it exactly. I think that the music is one of the key ways – other than Matt Whelan’s amazing performance [as Michael] – that really allows us to get inside his head. It just feels so emotionally true and right for the film. One thing I’d love to ask you about is how did you manage to be such a chameleon and write music in so many different genres?

I guess I’ve always liked a lot of different styles and I listen to the polar-opposite music than the stuff that I make when I’m at home. I guess that was quite a good thing for the film because you needed soft acoustic music through to slamming club tracks to drony post-rock. It was a really enjoyable process for me because I managed to exorcise all of those demons.

I knew from the beginning that music was going to be incredibly important to the film, partly because we were aiming it at a youthful audience and I wanted them to feel that it was for them, and a huge part of that is having music that’s not classical and isn’t in any way your typical film music. You were on board with the film for three years – how did that process of finding Michael’s character through music happen?

I sort of formulated my own images of him through the script, and it’s quite interesting how some of them matched up to the first cut. I was just trying to map that internal journey for Michael. It’s a bit far-fetched to claim I can put myself in his shoes, but I could understand that kind of behaviour – taking off with the money for his cancer treatment. It was quite an existential reaction, and I’m a bit of an existentialist! That resonated with me and I like his hedonistic attitude to his illness, taking off and living life exactly how you want to live it. There’s a certain roughness to his character as well – you get to see a lot of sides to him in the film, but you never really forget that he is a guy in his early 20s from New Zealand. You can throw as many

stereotypes at that as you like, and a lot of them will stick – like, he’s sensitive but at the same time he is a “dude”.

What I love about him is that he never wears his heart on his sleeve at all. He doesn’t talk about his feelings, he’s not intellectually weak – I feel that he doesn’t need to be understood. The music is so important because I got to have my cake and eat it too – I’ve got this beautiful silent main character who hardly ever speaks, with his beautiful face that’s so expressive, and then I’ve got this great soundtrack that you wrote that helps us get inside his head. Michael doesn’t have to talk about his feelings because the music gets you there.

The Most Fun You Can Have Dying is in cinemas nationwide from Thursday 26 April – themostfunyoucanhavedying.com.

Flying Nun will release Grayson Gilmour’s soundtrack to The Most Fun You Can Have Dying digitally on Friday 20 April.

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.

GRAYSON GILMOURGRAYSON GILMOURGRAYSON GILMOUR

Like his father before him, Justin Townes Earle seems determined to make life difficult for himself – JTE, as his fans know him, has spent a good portion of his adult life under the influence and occasionally incarcerated. On the back of a new album and ahead of shows in New Zealand next week, VOLUME talked to the talented and troubled songwriter and performer.Text Marty Duda

HOPEFULLY 13 IS Justin Townes Earle’s lucky number. That’s how many times Earle has been to rehab. Life as a touring musician seemed too much for the man and there were rumours that he was thinking of giving up music. Yet here he is with a new album, Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now, and another tour that brings him to New Zealand.

Speaking from his home in Nashville on a cold, gloomy winter’s day, JTE confesses there was some truth in those rumours.

“I definitely thought about it for a minute. This life, it offers a lot of great things, but unfortunately there are a lot of other things that are kind of hidden, that are offered to you. It’s a very diffi cult way of life. You’re making record after record and there’s the pressure to make a step up a little more every time. On top of that, in between records, you’re just touring constantly, so you’re rag-tired. And everybody’s got opinions.

“I did ask myself whether I thought I could continue living like this and still survive and still live the life that I think that I should lead, which has nothing to do with any kind of religious point – it’s just not in jail.”

Instead Earle did what all good singer-songwriters do – he poured his trials and tribulations into his songs.

“Last year I had a fairly rough start and things weren’t looking too up. I learned that there are very few

holes that you can fall into that you can’t climb out of. I think this record definitely reflects that, reflects my rough passage into this year.”

Musically, the new album proves to be a departure as well.

“There are two kinds of music that come from my immediate vicinity in middle Tennessee. From the west you have Memphis and to the east you have the hills of Eastern Tennessee, and so two very different sounding musics come from both of those areas that I see a connection in. I see the connection between The Carter Family and The Staple Singers being the church. I decided to go more the soul direction this time. I think on Harlem River Blues, what I was trying to do was show the connection between The Staple Singers and The Carter Family, and then I just decided to keep following this Staple Singers kind of vibe. I’d kind of done the Carter Family thing for a while.”

So how did a skinny white kid from South Nashville, Tennessee, get exposed to rhythm’n’blues?

“I grew up in a very mixed neighbourhood so my black friends, when I’d go over to their house, their parents would be listening to Al Green. I received a whole other music education other than what my parents taught me. It’s always kind of stuck with me. The fi rst time I ever heard Al Green sing ‘So Tired of Being Alone’ I thought it was about the coolest thing I’d ever heard.”

A close listen to the new album will reveal a more relaxed singing style as well. That’s the result of another change in approach.

“This past year I got tired of straining to sing. So I stepped back and retaught myself to sing a little bit softer and use the dynamics of the microphone more than the dynamics of

my voice. I just tried to sing where my veins weren’t sticking out of my throat. I definitely have become a better singer with every record and I think it’s always a work in progress.”

Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now is notable for another major change for JTE – the entire record was recorded live in the studio. So what exactly does that mean in 2012?

“It means the same thing it meant when Buddy Holly did it. It means that anything you hear on the record was done in a single take. Everything was cut at once. It was something that I’d wanted to do for a very long time. I’d finally gotten to a point in my career where a record label would not freak out. Of course they did freak out. When I told them of my intention, everybody did. I got a whole lot of, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ kind of questions. I’d been working with the same group of musicians for several years so I thought we were all ready.”

Is this the way he plans to record from now on?

“I’ll decide that on a record-by-record basis. I think sometimes you write a group of songs that are gonna work like that and sometimes you write a group of songs that you want to play with a little bit more. Now that I know that I can do it, you’re damn right that I’ll be doing it again. I don’t think anything can make you feel better as far as being a musician than sitting down and listening to 35 minutes worth of music that was all single takes.”

See Justin Townes Earle live – Thursday 19 April, Dux Live, Christchurch; Friday 20 April, Bodega, Wellington; Saturday 21 April, Kings Arms, Auckland; Sunday 22 April, Sawmill Café, Leigh.

“I did ask myself whether I thought I could continue living like this and still survive.”

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

Justin Bieber

RIANZ TOP 10 NEW ZEALAND SINGLES CHART1 Carly Rae Jepsen – ‘Call Me Maybe’

2 Justin Bieber – ‘Boyfriend’

3 Chris Rene – ‘Young Homie’

4 Nicki Minaj – ‘Starships’

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

6 Havana Brown – ‘We Run the Night’

7 Taylor Swift – ‘Eyes Open’

8 Emeli Sande – ‘Next to Me’

9 Cher Lloyd – ‘Want U Back’

10 K’Naan ft. Nelly Furtado – ‘Is Anybody Out There’

ZOWIE – ‘My Calculator’Zoe Fleury’s career seems to have consisted of several false starts, moments when it felt like everything was coalescing for her only for momentum to stall. It surely didn’t help matters that she played a live set (under the name Bionic

Pixie) at a Sound of the Overground live show a few years back – a nadir few artists have ever been able to crawl back from. Thankfully she has shown a real stoicism, and returns with a single that might be the closest any New Zealander has come to true pop royalty. Written by Swede (!) Henrik Jonback (!) whose other credits include Britney’s ‘Piece of Me’ (!!!), aka the greatest single of the ’00s, ‘My Calculator’ has a frantic pace which recalls Jonback’s frequent collaborators Bloodshy & Avant, which is to say the production is superb. Fleury’s vocals are great, constantly switching between sweet and hard, processed and chanting, and manic all the while like a good upbeat pop single should be. I don’t think it’s a smash hit, not in this climate, but it’s a very exciting record that bodes extremely well for her debut.

RIHANNA – ‘Where Have You Been?’The second Calvin Harris-assisted single from Talk That Talk will inevitably suffer due to not being ‘We Found Love’. If your elder sibling was a Harvard grad and starting

point guard for the New York Knicks, you’ll always be in their shadow. So it is with ‘Where Have You Been?’, which is less lyrically desolate, but has a similar tone – Rihanna seems to have discovered this deep emotional well, and her biggest singles (‘Umbrella’; ‘Only Girl in the World’; ‘We Found Love’) all used it. So the temptation is to go back there more often than perhaps is prudent. Because ‘Where Have You Been?’ is about wanting to fi nd a nice man to have dinner and sex with, which is an issue, sure, but not one that could conceivably destroy her world. The production is similarly a shadow of its predecessor, enough similarities to know they’re related, but the differences which ensure one is a star and the other just nice to have around.

T-PAIN – ‘Turn All the Lights On’One thing which doesn’t tend to be acknowledged about T-Pain is his sense of humour. The vocal effect he has constantly deployed is right at the cusp of self-parody

to begin with, and ever since dubbing himself “Teddy Bend-Her-Ass” down on his debut hit ‘I’m ‘n Luv (Wit a Stripper)’ he’s leavened the crudity of his lyrics with sly acknowledgements of their ridiculousness. My personal favourite was his line from the remix to R. Kelly’s ‘Number One’, which featured Pain promising to put his “BMI/ All over your ASCAP/ Shaaaawty”, twisting two key song publishers associations into some variety of X-rated action. Anyway, ‘Turn On All the Lights’ doesn’t reach those heights directly, but it’s got his habit of seemingly arbitrary lyrical emphasis down pat – “booze” and “shoes” get it here. It’s got a fine, though fairly inconsequential Ne-Yo cameo (that guy fell so far and fast, sadly) but Pain owns the song – rough, dumb but somehow thrilling.

AWA FT. CHE FU – ‘Papatuanuku’ Ex-Nesian Mystik singer Awa delivers a third single from his upcoming debut solo LP, and it’s a beautiful slice of throwback r’n’b. The production is pretty monumental,

managing to walk that ultrafine line between having very “live” sounding instrumentation without feeling weedy and beholden to the past. ‘Papatuanuku’ is much more akin to Lloyd’s ‘Sex Education’, sonically, than that depressing live local soul scene, which is to say it’s muscular and taut rather than weedy and smug. Lyrically it’s characterised by elements of self-loathing which have been notably absent in our too feelgood r’n’b (“You know better/ Than to believe the words I say/ You know I’m a liar”). Really impressive.

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 sam.wicks@volumemagazine.co.nz or tweet @duncangreive.

A NEW BOYFRIENDBieber bolts in at number two with his excellent ‘Boyfriend’ (reviewed last week), in a chart with a number of solid new entries, and one which maintains a recent streak of the songs that are coming being far better than those which are going. Rihanna and T-Pain (reviewed this week)

debut at 19 and 25 respectively, while Stan Walker’s very ordinary ‘Music Won’t Break Your Heart’ is at 32. The most interesting new entrant is Aucklander Jamie McDell’s ‘You’ll Never Take That Away’ at 27. She’s emblematic of how a new pop artist needs to rise – a prolific YouTube uploader (90,000 views of 26 videos) and with a specific MO (her, a guitar, and a beach, super candid) which is all her own. The only thing is that while I played this song my two-year-old daughter Robyn looked at me and solemnly pronounced, ‘It’s Taylor Swift, daddy’. When kids in nappies can pick your influences that easily you probably need to work on your own identity some, and while I have genuinely very high hopes for both McDell and this bottom-up approach, she needs to veer away from the covers and the accent and become her own thing to achieve the potential her voice and songwriting clearly possess.

Habits & Contradictions (Top Dawg)

GET WELL SOONGet Well Soon EP(get-well-soon.bandcamp.com)Kidz in Space

producer Josh Fountain has always drawn from a larger and more timely pool than a good number of his peers. It made sense that he would release some of his solo stuff eventually, but this heartbroken exercise in economy – a three-song EP – shows a knack for creating productions that are lush but not overblown and a cutting eye for the details of a disintegrating relationship that we never knew he had.

COOL RAINBOWSWhale Rocket(Lil Chief)It’s sort of a redletter month

for Auckland producers. Djeisan Suskov has produced the mid-hitter likes of Artisan Guns and Ruby Frost, and often his tracks are their own dusty self-contained environments. A little like Damon Albarn’s more winsome material over the last 10 years, he starts from road-worn strums and loops that build their rewards gradually (see: ‘Reality and a Clue’ as it un-cans its chamber-pop and goes into full flight).

XIU XIUAlways(Polyvinyl)Just wanna do a shout-out to

William Bowers’ 2009 piece on Xiu Xiu for Pitchfork, which remains hands-down one of the best pieces of music writing I’ve ever encountered. Jamie Stewart’s project won’t be attracting curious latecomer Feist fans at this stage (choice track titles: ‘Born to Suffer’, ‘I Love Abortion’) but the singular intensity of his vision has therapeutic meaning for those who need it, and there’s not much a capsule review like this could say that wouldn’t cheapen that.

BLACK CITY LIGHTSParallels(Stars & Letters)New Zealand group gets their first EP

put out on an NYC label – good shit! This is the sort of zeitgeisty music that kind of needs to go large or go home – it’s dark, icy synth-pop that has Drive’s skidmarks all over it, made with serious care but obviously of the here-and-now. Standout ‘Rivers’ smoothes the edges of Zola Jesus for a kinder, more conciliatory result and deserves a wider audience.

THE SHIFTING SANDSFeel(Fishrider)Dunedin’s Michael McLeod has an ear

for a good phrase that pulls you into the thick of his somewhat low-key, post-Clean guitar pop – I can’t tell you how much I’m into a line like “Everyone’s pretending that they’re organised/ Everyone’s

pretending that they’re on to it… I think they’re out of it”. Elsewhere, it ditches the sonambulance of actual songs to jam awesomely on two-chord organ-drone freakouts (see: ‘The Kitchen Sink’).

ANTI-FLAGThe General Strike(SideOneDummy)At their height, Anti-Flag didn’t have to be something you loved

or wanted any part in to respect – now it’s a sort of dwindling and uncomfortable force when energy is being better and more productively expended elsewhere. Bit like Occupy, really, but with less Ron Paul-worship and anti-Semitism.

ROY AND THE DEVIL’S MOTORCYCLETell It to the People(Voodoo Rhythm)Like this just

fine – slurred, spaced-out ’60s space-rock. Like Wooden Shjips through the prism of weird Swiss people who mean it for real. ‘Cristina’ feels like one of those hazy comedowns Spacemen 3 would break up the stereo-panning madness with; their cover of ‘Will the Circle Be Unbroken’ is a scorched-earth stunner.

DR. DOGBe the Void(Anti-)Dr. Dog is one of those stolidly trad bands that, like,

Nick Hornby uses as an exemplar when he’s angry about Radiohead doing bloops. I actually listened to

their last album (Shame, Shame) voluntarily once, and the band has its moments on both records where it forgets about trying to sound like The Beatles/Tom Petty/Bowie and gets caught up in a sense of play and fun. Their albums are pretty similar so start here by all means. NB: A dog cannot become a doctor.

DEAR FRONTIERActs for the Frozen Sea(Self-released)Wellington

duo makes cosy, folksy stuff that sounds suitably raw and unvarnished. The gypsy-boho moments, as always, do nothing for me – I really enjoy the way ‘Space Age Ending’ turns on a dime from a trite strum-along to hushed, sprightly pop, though, and waiting for when these songs will pick up speed and energy can actually be really engaging and unpredictable (see: ‘Politician’, ‘It’s Your Turf’).

AUDRA MAE AND THE ALMIGHTY SOUNDAudra Mae and The Almighty Sound

(SideOneDummy)Sassy, rootsy corpo-folk-soul rock from people dressed like idiots! You can’t see the cover next to this, it’s too little, but definitely try and find a larger copy and decide which of these people you hate most. This game is suitable for up to six players – the loser has to listen to the entire CD.

Reviews Joe Nunweek

FADER MAGAZINE’S RECENT profile

of West Coast hip hop crew Black Hippy reveals that Schoolboy Q was a reluctant latecomer to the rap game and the most fl ippant, hesitant member of the exploding collective. Since his blasé outset he’s been steadily releasing consistently good stuff, culminating in his raved-about Habits & Contradictions. The album’s worth the praise: the production is thick and satisfying, his flow fluent and at times almost bored-sounding. It’s structured like a sequel to last year’s equally-good Setbacks: a Jhene Aiko jam for your sex mix (‘Sex Drive’), moody street bangers set on LA’s Figueora St (‘Nightmare on Figg St.’). More riffs on dealing Oxycontin, and a

feature each from the rest of the Black Hippy cohort. Other highlights include the rapper’s manic, shit-talking turn on the shimmering ‘There He Go’ and the genuinely touching ‘Blessed’, a vulnerable display of unfl inching loyalty from Q featuring what may be Kendrick Lamar’s strongest verse yet.

Speaking of Lamar, Pitchfork’s rave review of Habits & Contradictions credits Q with making better music than his fellow Black Hippy “alpha”. I’m tempted to bristle and defend Lamar, but that would be taking the bait: this is one of those fluffy reviewer claims calculated to add page hits and controversy but not much else. The review goes on to lament the fact that Lamar is rising faster than Q, and I can’t help but get a whiff of Pitchfork washing their hands of peaking overgrounder stuff and stacking their chips behind someone fresher.

Aside from being painfully contrary, the Q > Lamar declaration doesn’t make much sense given that some of Q’s most exciting tracks have the Black Hippy ringleader on or behind them to jawdropping effect. The point is, these two are complementary rather than competing forces, and I don’t have a dog in the alpha vs foot soldier fight that’s been set up here. Both these guys are making some of the most genuinely impressive rap music out there right now. Together, they’re electric.

Review Maddie Collier

Veteran traveller Henry Rollins hits New Zealand for a spoken word tour soon. VOLUME caught up with him for a State of the World address.Text Gavin Bertram

the better for it.” That would act as a fitting

statement of intent for a man who’s been travelling hard since joining Black Flag in 1981.

His five-year spell in that defining Los Angeles hardcore group was tour of duty enough, but Rollins was never going to stop at that.

Even during his Black Flag tenure he’d begun shaping parallel careers in spoken word performance, writing and publishing.

This month his spoken word tour The Long March visits New Zealand for four dates. Naturally his provocative, humorous, charged performances are informed by the things he’s experienced around the world.

“I’m always looking for new material to talk about, things to challenge my mind,” Rollins reflects. “The more ingredients the better: I’m always looking for more source material. Some things jump right out at you and sometimes it’s weeks later when you learn the lesson about what you saw. There’s always something to get.”

He admits that the endless travel takes a toll emotionally and physically, but to some extent he’s

come to live for the long periods of dead time spent waiting, exhausted, in transit lounges.

But, as Rollins explains, he’s obsessed with his work. And nowadays that work spans television, radio, acting, publishing and human rights activism. But no longer music – not since the Rollins Band ended in 2006.

“I just don’t think I have anything more to add to it except repetition or being a caricature,” Rollins says. “If I can’t do anything new with it then I’d rather not do it. I just think me in it would be me not being courageous enough to go off and pursue other things. A few years ago I said, ‘Okay, let’s see what I can do without the band’ and I’m working eight days a week trying to keep things contained. I consider that a good thing.”

And so, after three decades of relentless hard work across multiple realms, Rollins can still say he enjoys every aspect of what he does.

“The biggest part is that I get to do it,” he considers. “I can still go on tour and tickets are sold. I can still be that guy up on stage. There’s work to be done. I like getting up every day with something to do. Nothing holds no interest for me. It’s not about money, it’s about activity.”

See Henry Rollins on The Long March Tour – Wednesday 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.

“I’m working eight days a week trying to keep things contained. I consider that a good thing.”

HAVING TRAVELLED TO the shadiest corners of the world, Henry Rollins reports that it is not a scary place.

In recent times the ex-Black Flag frontman has been to destinations including North Korea, Haiti, Mongolia, Iran and Cuba. He says while that doesn’t necessarily make him an expert on world affairs, it does give him an insight, particularly into the United States’ self-appointed global policing role.

“I don’t know who made America the boss,” Rollins exclaims. “When any other country has the temerity to say ‘we want to do what we want’, the fact my country has a thing to say about it strikes me as odd sometimes.”

The fact that he’s generally had a good time and been treated well by the people in the Middle East has made Rollins question the way those countries are framed in Western media.

That’s convinced him that there’s not as much to fear in the world as some would have us believe, and that the US could instead serve the far greater purpose of making things better for people around the world.

It is for this kind of hard-won education that Rollins travels in the first place.

“To take the myth away from something,” he muses of his motivation for visiting places many view as difficult. “My country has a very intense relationship with Iran, and I’m one of the only people I know who’s been there. It’s not an easy place to get to and it’s not cheap either. But I did it and I think I’m all

STEPPIN’ UP

Directors Max Giwa, Dania Pasquini

Starring George Sampson, Tom Conti, Falk Hentschel

STREETDANCE 2

SOMETIMES THERE’S A trade-off you have to make to enjoy films like StreetDance 2. It’s akin to watching generic old-

school kung fu flicks, where threadbare narratives only exist to prop up fight scenes at every opportunity, no matter how implausible or gratuitous. Dance movies of the same low-tier calibre do the same. There’s never a question of the film aspiring beyond its sole purpose: to show people, um, dancing.

If you haven’t seen the first StreetDance – aka the first 3D film to be shot in Britain – no worries, the slate’s mostly wiped clean. The only returning character is Eddie (Britain’s Got Talent winner George Sampson), who now plays manager to Ash (Falk Hentschel), a popcorn-selling beefcake with dreams of winning the StreetDance championships. Together they trek across Europe to handpick an ethnically diverse range of talent

off the streets with cute names like Terabyte, Bam Bam and Yo Yo (all this occurs before the opening credits are up, fastest crew-assembling exposition I’ve seen in ages).

But needing a new twist in their b-boy-strong team, Ash brings aboard sultry, leggy salsa queen Eva (Sofia Boutella), who reluctantly agrees to lend her Latin moves to their routine. It’s formulaic plotting all the way, with training montages galore, “Dance with your heart”-type speeches, and some perfectly cringey romance and comic relief to sit through. The acting’s amateur – Hentschel’s line readings are so drained of personality it makes Vin Diesel’s mumblings seem eloquent in comparison – but the dance sequences are pretty good, choreographed for such crowd-pleasing exuberance that you almost wish they didn’t bother with all the piddly narrative stuff in the middle.

Review Aaron Yap

Universal wants to make a sequel to the 1988 Arnold Schwarzenegger/Danny DeVito comedy Twins and call it Triplets. The story will find the pair discovering they have another brother: Eddie Murphy.

Joel Kinnaman, star of the upcoming RoboCop reboot, says the new version of the character will be “more human” and we’ll see more of his actual face, with the visor design being “see-through”.

The Captain America sequel is all go, and Marvel is currently eyeing three possible directors to take on the project: F. Gary Gray (Law Abiding Citizen), George Nolfi (The Adjustment Bureau) and brothers Anthony and Joseph Russo (of TV’s Community).

The central gimmick of John Huston’s 1963 fi lm The List of Adrian Messenger (Universal Vault) must have seemed like a good idea at the time: A-list stars Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum and Tony Curtis appeared onscreen buried in prosthetics so audiences had to guess who they were. Today it just begs the question “what the heck?”, since their rubbery disguises aren’t too convincing. But the fi lm’s still an enjoyable Agatha Christie-esque curio, with George C. Scott in delightful form as a retired MI5 agent investigating a list of names whose “accidental” deaths may be connected.

More dancey shenanigans are forthcoming with Step Up Revolution, the fourth entry in the highly lucrative Step Up franchise. Scott Speer is taking over directing duties from Jon M. Chu, who helmed 2 and 3, and judging by the trailer, the series is taking a socio-politically conscious twist with its premise of flashmobbing dancers protesting against the nefarious plans of greedy real estate businessmen.

The Black Seeds’ Barnaby Weir recalls the October/November 2009 New Zealand tour that saw the Seeds link with US reggae outfit John Brown’s Body for a run of shows.Photography Chris Gee

WHEN SOLID GROUND was released in the US, we followed it up with a US tour with a reggae band from Boston called John Brown’s Body. We got signed to their label Easy Star, so it made sense for us to connect with them. We’d been to the States before but we hadn’t played many shows, so that was the biggest dent we’d made there. A lot of the music

the Seeds draw on like soul and funk comes from America, so we were playing in the home of some of our influences and the response we got was really good.

We didn’t know John Brown’s Body personally or know much of their music before we went over, but they are a really good band and we got to know them over the course of these great US shows we played with them.

We had planned a New Zealand show for when we got back and we asked them to join us, and they were really keen. It was a country they’d never been to

before so it was a big experience for them, and it really felt like a cultural exchange because we got to introduce them to our fans. It was a big mission for them to come down to New Zealand and there was no guarantee they were going to sell any albums – it’s a small part of the world – but they did it for the musical camaraderie and for the experience.

We felt like ambassadors for the country, in a sense. The John Brown’s Body guys got to see New Zealand from the road and we got them pretty much all the way from the bottom to the top of the country. Along the way we played

to some decent crowds – we played a sold-out show at the Wellington Town Hall, The Powerstation in Auckland, and, considering they didn’t have a local fan base when they came here, they sure made a few fans.

We tried our best to show the band around and let them see the country through our eyes. We went bungee jumping with some of the guys and we had a powhiri from Ngai Tahu before our Queenstown show, which was really special. It was just us at soundcheck and John Brown’s Body didn’t know we were surprising them with this – they heard waiata and saw the haka, and got the whole thing.

The Opononi gig was the last show of the tour, so their horn section joined us on our last couple of songs. Afterwards we went backstage at the Opononi Hotel, which is a whole series of cottages, and took our gear up there and had a really long jam. We went through to about seven in the morning, and got high on music and other things. We actually recorded some of this as well and there are jams in there

that came out really good. It was an awesome way to close out what was an amazing music exchange for us.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen those guys, but we’ll be meeting up again when we’re back over in the States this time. I’m looking forward to collaborating again and getting up to more malarkey.

The Black Seeds’ new album Dust and Dirt is out now on Rhythmethod.

See The Black Seeds on the Dust and Dirt Release Tour – Thursday 24 May, Sammy’s Dunedin; Friday 25 May, Lake Wanaka Centre, Wanaka; Saturday 26 May, The Bedford, Christchurch; Sunday 27 May, Nelson School of Music, Nelson; Wednesday 30 May, Altitude Bar, Hamilton; Thursday 31 May, The Powerstation, Auckland.

“We went bungee jumping with some of the guys and we had a powhiri from Ngai Tahu before our Queenstown show.”– Barnaby Weir

WINE CELLAR, AUCKLANDWednesday 4 APRIL Review Louisa KaszaPhotography Jenna ToddAS THE DIM light of the Wine Cellar’s back room dimmed even further, a motley audience sank into the deep couches to watch one of the more unique acts in town.

It started off innocuously enough: two men shambled onstage and commenced beatboxing as a duo. Skilful and clever beatboxing, but nothing too outrageous. The sounds produced were almost flawlessly electronic-sounding,

but with that disconcertingly human edge: the involuntary click of a tongue, the patter of spit on the microphone. Nothing to really hint at the journey we were all about to embark on except the promise or threat, depending on your point of view, of some kind of audience participation soon to come.

San Franciscan Sam Rogers – One Mouth Band – has been touring and couchsurfing for some time as exactly that: a whole band, all in one mouth. Rogers provides himself with both a mellow lead vocalist and a musical accompaniment that transverses musical genres with the flick of a loop switch. With his laidback stage presence, he tends to set an audience

at ease with what he dubs his “100 per cent organic human music”.

Acting as counterpart is Melbourne-born musician and funnyman Mal Webb, adding comedy and tension to Rogers’ melodious boots’n’cats-ing. Webb tends to use more tricks, more body parts, and generally more effervescent craziness in his musical numbers, including his impressive “sideways yodelling”.

It’s rare to attend a gig where there is quite literally never a dull moment. This was achieved through a variety of simple, but very clever methods. Rogers and Webb’s “tagging in” system meant the two took turns on stage, interspersed with collaborations and duets. They kept

it fresh through the sheer number of musical styles on display, from Rogers’ wonderful ‘Foxy Lady’ cover to Webb’s eerily delightful original number

‘Morning Song’ (complete with an entire dawn chorus and an array of death-defying vocal gymnastics). It was a dynamic that worked, and you could tell the two were enjoying themselves.

The relaxed, conversational tone

created by the musicians’ obvious rapport made for a comfortable arena for a short lesson in beatboxing, which most of the audience took part in with aplomb. For those who were not so keen, it was a relief that wheedling and cajoling were pretty much absent.

We were promised surprises and special guests, and both were delivered. Caitlin Smith sang Sam Cooke’s ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ with beatboxing accompaniment from Rogers and Webb, then saucy cabaret-style singer Scarlett Lashes got the same treatment. While both singers were impressive entertainers in their own right, their numbers felt a little fl at coming well into the set, especially following the ebullient

shenanigans Rogers and Webb achieved when onstage alone, together.

Their set was a long one, and while the musicians never seemed to tire, the audience began to visibly sag towards the end. Webb mentioned after the show that an intermission might not have been a bad idea. It was the kind of hybrid theatrical-musical-improvisational production you might see in a Fringe festival, and the high-energy style of the performance, while laudable, was perhaps a little draining. However, as in a Fringe performance, you got plenty of value for money, and it was the most absorbing entertainment I’d had for five bucks in a long, long while.

“Flawlessly electronic-sounding, but with that disconcertingly human edge.”

NORTHLANDFRIDAY 13Texas Swing Party – Aratapu Tavern, Dargaville, 7:30pm, FreeThe Hewson Project – 35 Degrees South Aquarium Restaurant and Bar, Paihia, 6pm, Free

SATURDAY 14Andrew White & Gillian Boucher – Mount Manaia Club, Whangarei Heads, 8pm, $5-$25The Rock ‘n’ Roll Allstars – Kamo Club, Whangarei, 7:30pm, Free

SUNDAY 15About Time – Schnappa Rock Cafe, Tutukaka, 1pm, Free

AUCKLANDTUESDAY 10Lucinda Williams – The Blessed Tour – Auckland Town Hall, THE EDGE, Auckland CBD, 7:30pmAk Jazz & Blues Club presents Malcolm McNeill – Pt Chevalier RSA, Pt Chevalier, 7:30pm, $5The Specials – Shed 10, Auckland CBD, 7pm, $89

WEDNESDAY 11Steve Earle – Solo & Acoustic – Kings Arms, Newton, 7:30pm, $53The Pipi Pickers at the Bluegrass Club – The Bunker, Devonport, 8pm, $5-$8Mike Jones Acoustic Sessions – My Bar, Auckland CBD, 7:30pm, FreeWednesdays at Flight lounge – Flight Lounge, Auckland CBD, 10pm, FreeCreative Jazz Club Presents Mike Booth/Craig Walters (AUS) – 1885 Basement, Auckland CBD, 8pm, $5-$10Live Music Wednesday – De Vine Duo – Charlie Baxter’s, Ellerslie, 7pm, FreeLive Latin and Brazilian Music – The Mexican Cafe, Auckland CBD, 8:30pm, FreePetra Rijnbeek & Paul Voight – Sugar Bar, Newmarket, 7pm, Free

THURSDAY 12Thursday Night Live – Luckless & Pikachunes – 1885 Britomart, Auckland CBD, 9pm, FreeGerry Rooderkerk Alive & Acoustic – The Fiddler Irish Bar, Auckland CBD, 10pm, FreeInfamous Night Owls – Khuja Lounge, Auckland CBD, 8pm, FreeThe Indie Club ft. White Rabbit Black Monkey & Edward Waaka – Khuja Lounge, Auckland CBD, 8pm, FreeScalper Album Launch – Whammy Bar, Newton, 9:30pm, $10Auckland Jazz Orchestra – Masonic Tavern, Devonport, 7:30pm, $10Live Piano and Double-bass Duo – Sugar Bar, Newmarket, 7pm, FreeFrankenbok (AUS), Sinate & Incarnium – The Thirsty Dog, Newton, 8pm, $15Acoustic Covers Competition – Shadows Bar, Auckland CBD, 7pm, FreeCold Harvest Trust – New Bones EP Release Party – The Lucha Lounge, Newmarket, 8pm, $10Petra Rijnbeek & Paul Voight – The Lumsden, Newmarket, 6:30pm, FreeTriceratops, Heathen Eyes, El Bajo, Kasium and Kive – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pm, $5-$10

FRIDAY 13French for Rabbits ‘Claimed by the Sea’ Tour – Wine Cellar, Newton, 8pm, $8Tenement Yard “Out West” – Glen Eden RSA, Glen Eden, 8pm, $5The Comedowns – The Fiddler Irish Bar, Auckland CBD, 11pm, FreeTom Rodwell & Storehouse – Trident Tavern, Onehunga, 7pm, FreeBrett Polley – De Post, Mt Eden, 8:30pm, FreeDavid Shanhun – Moretons Bar and

Restaurant, St Heliers, 8pm, FreeGranduo – The Dominion Bar, Mt Eden, 9pm, FreeMal MacCallum – GBS Bar & Restaurant @ The Prospect, Howick, 8:30pm, FreeJamesRAy’s Texas Rock Roundup w/ Geronimo – Henderson RSA, Henderson, 7:30pm, FreeStetson Club – Trevor V. Stevens & The Beasts of Bourbon – Dairy Flat Community Hall, Dairy Flat, 7:30pmMetrik, Malicious Mayhem, Jax’d &Hollow Crooks – InkCoherent, Newton, 10pm, $15Xavier Rudd – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pm, $35Optimus Gryme & Organikismness – 4:20, Newton, 9pm, $10-$30Fridays at Trench Bar – Trench Bar, Auckland CBD, 10pm, FreeAuckland Vintage Jazz Society – Nixon Park Community Hall, Howick, 7:30pm, $10-$15Chico con Tumbao – Besos Latinos Restaurant, Auckland CBD, 7:30pm, FreeContagious – Cock & Bull, Newmarket, 9:30pm, FreeThe DHDFD’s, Jurassic Penguin & Mean Girls – Whammy Bar, Newton, 10pm, $5Oceania Storm – New Brew Tavern, Albany, 7:30pm, FreeThe Kavalliers – A Rocking Great Band – Warkworth RSA, Warkworth, 7pm, FreeThe Spoilers of Utopia w/ Auckland City Brass – Aotea Square, Auckland CBD, 5pm, FreeProsad: Traditional and Trance Sitar – Artworks Community Theatre, Waiheke Island, 8pm, $15-$20

SATURDAY 14Mojo – The Fiddler Irish Bar, Auckland CBD, 11pm, FreeStevie Ray Vaughan 22nd Tribute – Tony Painting & The Power – Juice Bar at The Windsor Castle, Parnell, 8pm, $10The Blues Underground – Wine Cellar, Newton, 8pm, $5Regrooved NZ 2nd birthday ft. BadBoE (Denmark) – Rakinos, Auckland CBD, 9pm, $10-$15Dave Clark Revival – Freeman’s Bay Community Hall, Freemans Bay, 7:30pm, $12David Shanhun – Rickshaw Eddy’s, Mission Bay, 9pm, FreeFranko & James – The Merchant Bar & Kitchen, Albany, 9pm, FreeMitch French – De Post, Mt Eden, 8:30pm, FreeSuper System – U2 and Green Day Tribute Show – Murphy’s Law, Drury, 7pm, FreeTake 2 – Blacksalt Bar & Eatery, New Lynn, 8pm, FreeKylie Austin & Trevor V Stevens Country Duo – Waiuku Cosmopolitan Club, Waiuku, 7pm, FreeRitual 006 – Rhyas, Andy Q & DJVJ3000 – Rising Sun, Auckland CBD, 10pm, $10TFMC presents Kath Tait – Titirangi Beach Hall, Titirangi, 8pm, $8J Williams – Stampede Bar & Grill, Papakura, 9pm, $15-$20Pure Trench Bar – Trench Bar, Auckland CBD, 10pm, FreeLatin Jazz Night – Atico Cocina, Auckland CBD, 7:30pm, FreeAugust Burns Red & Bless The Fall w/ Special Guests – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pmBrendan Dugan & Lynne Toner – Papakura RSA, Papakura, 7:30pm, $15Contagious – Cock & Bull, Newmarket, 9:30pm, FreeD’Starlites – East Coast Bays RSA, Browns Bay, 7:30pm, $5Three Houses Down – Sawmill Cafe, Leigh, 9:30pm, $15

Reece Mastin – Vector Arena, Auckland CBD, 7pm, $52.90-$67.90Singles Live Music & Entertainers – Pt Chevalier RSA, Pt Chevalier, 7:30pm, FreeThe Kavalliers – A Rocking Great Band – Silverdale RSA, Whangaparaoa Peninsula, 7pm, Free

SUNDAY 15Shae Snell – The Fiddler Irish Bar, Auckland CBD, 6pm, FreeThe Drama Dept. EP Release – Kings Arms, Newton, 2pm, $10Blues in The Boat House – Black Dog – The Riverhead, Riverhead, 2pm, FreeGranduo – Goode Brothers, Botany Downs, 3pm, FreeJamesRAy’s Acoustic Country Sunday – Bar Africa, North Harbour, 12pm, FreeJamesRAy’s Encore Acoustic Country Sunday – Bar Africa, Highland Park, 5:30pm, FreeCelebration of Scottish Fiddle – Somervell Presbyterian Church, Remuera, 7:30pm, $5-$20Thirsty Dog Folk Club features John McGowan – The Thirsty Dog, Newton, 3pm, $10Social Sundaze – Sawmill Cafe, Leigh, 3pm, FreeAndrea Lisa Trio – SkyCity Casino, Auckland CBD, 6:15pm, FreeAuckland Vintage Jazz Society – Takapuna Boating Club, Takapuna, 7pm, $10-$15Chicane Duo – Bill Fish Cafe, St Marys Bay, 1pmRay Woolf – East Coast Bays RSA, Browns Bay, 6:30pm, $15Sunday Sessions – Slipp Inn Pub, Birkenhead, 3:45pm, FreeSunday Jazz, Rock, Reggae Session – Shooters Saloon, Kingsland, 2pm, FreeQueen City Big Band – Hawkins Theatre, Papakura, 2:30pm, $8-$15Swing Junction w/ Tuxedo Swing – Ponsonby Cruising Club, Westhaven, 7pm, $10-$20

MONDAY 16KA Music Quiz – Kings Arms, Newton, 7pm, FreeThe Make Believe New Zealand Tour – Zeal, Henderson, 7:30pm, $10Traditional Irish Music Session – The Clare Inn, Mt Eden, 7pm, FreeViva Jazz Quartet – The Windsor Castle, Parnell, 6pm, Free

HAWKE’S BAY / GISBORNEFRIDAY 13Dictaphone Blues – Beneath The Crystal Palace Album Tour – The Cabana, Napier, 8pmCountry Music Hoedown – Hukarere Girls College, Napier, 6pm, $3-$30

SATURDAY 14The Exponents – The Sideline Bar, Napier, 7:30pm, $42-$45Country Music Hoedown – Hukarere Girls College, Napier, 9am, $3-$30MC Tiki (Tiki Taane) vs Dick ‘Magik’ Johnson – Poverty Bay Club, Gisborne, 10pm, $15

SUNDAY 15Country Music Hoedown – Hukarere Girls College, Napier, 9am, $3-$30

MONDAY 16Reece Mastin – Pettigrew Green Arena, Napier, 7pm, $52.90-$67.90

WAIKATOFRIDAY 13The Brendon Ham Band – Waitomo Club, Te Kuiti, 8pm, Free

SATURDAY 14Rock N Waitomo – Civic Centre, Te Kuiti, 6:15pm, $30

SUNDAY 15The Make Believe New Zealand Tour – Void, Hamilton, 7:30pm, $10

BAY OF PLENTYTHURSDAY 12The Exponents – Whakatane Hotel, Whakatane, 7:30pm, $36-$45

FRIDAY 13The Exponents – Brewers Bar, Mt Maunganui, 7:30pm, $42-$45Sanders Alley Khan – Katikati Folk Club – Katikati Bowling Club, Katikati, 7:30pm

SATURDAY 14Oceania Storm – Te Puke Citizens Club, Te Puke, 7:30pm, $15-$20

MANAWATU / WHANGANUISATURDAY 14Dictaphone Blues – Beneath The Crystal Palace Album Tour – Space Monster, Whanganui, 8pmHurricane Shayn Wills – The Bent Horseshoe Cafe, Tokomaru, 7:30pm, $20The Blue Grizzly Band Takes Over Whanganui – The Grand Hotel, Whanganui, 9:30pm, Free

SUNDAY 15Malted Milk – Ohau Cafe, Ohau, 2pm

WELLINGTON REGIONTUESDAY 10Live Music – The Library, 5pm, Free

WEDNESDAY 11Lucinda Williams – The Blessed Tour – St James Theatre, 7:30pmPatti Austin – Wellington Town Hall, 8pm, $59-$79

THURSDAY 12Steve Earle – Solo & Acoustic – Bodega, 7:30pm, $53Chris Bryant – El Horno, 9:30pm, FreeJake Stokes – Hotel Bristol, 8:30pm, FreeJohn Egenes w/ Special Guest Bob McNeill – Meow, 8:30pmReece Mastin – TSB Bank Arena, 7pm, $52.90-$67.90

FRIDAY 13Uncle Monkey – Dockside Restaurant & Bar, 8pm, FreeDubcheck – Fast Eddie’s, 10pm, $5Wagtails – Baobab Cafe, 8pm, FreeHi-Jacked House Music Club Night – Bar Medusa, 9pmA Tribute to Type O Negative – Bodega, 8pm, $10Mtown – Petone Working Mens Club, Lower Hutt, 8pm, Free

SATURDAY 14Faster Pussycat Kill Kill – Mighty Mighty, 10pmShihad – The Meanest – The Station Village Complex, Lower Hutt, 8pmDarren Watson & The Real Deal Blues Band – The Lido Cafe, 8:30pm, FreeCountry Music Great Rodger Tibbs & Friends – The Tote Bar & Furnace Restaurant, Upper Hutt, 7:30pm, $7.50-$10Metrik (Viper UK) – Sandwiches, 11pm, $20Xavier Rudd – Bodega, 8pm, $35Optimus Gryme & Organikismness – San Francisco Bath House, 8pm, $10-$30A Celebration of Scottish Fiddle – Expressions Arts and Entertainment Centre, Upper Hutt, 8pm, $5-$20John Egenes Solo Tour – Resonator House, 8pmNikita the Spooky and a Circus of Men Debut CD Release – Matterhorn, 11pm, FreeThe Make Believe New Zealand Tour – Zeal, 7:30pm, $10

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Klaus Doldinger’s Passport – The Frontroom, 8pm, $48

SUNDAY 15The Boptet – The Lido Cafe, 7pm, FreeThe Sunday Jazz Club – Public Bar & Eatery, 7:30pm, FreeAugust Burns Red & Bless The Fall w/ Special Guests – San Francisco Bath House, 8pm

NELSON / TASMANWEDNESDAY 11Big Daddy Wilson Acoustic Duo – Mussel Inn, Golden Bay, 8:30pm

THURSDAY 12Shihad – The Meanest – The Trafalgar Centre, Nelson, 8pmBig Daddy Wilson Acoustic Duo – Moutere Inn, Upper Moutere, 8pmHonest Jazz – The Honest Lawyer, Nelson, 7pm

FRIDAY 13Big Daddy Wilson – The Boathouse, Nelson, 8pm, $15-$20

MARLBOROUGHSATURDAY 14Big Daddy Wilson Acoustic Duo – Chequers Cafe & Wine Bar, Blenheim, 8pm

WEST COASTTUESDAY 10Jo Little – Till the Blue Skies Come Tour w/ Jared Smith – Cooks Saddle Cafe, Fox Glacier Township, 8pm, Free

WEDNESDAY 11Shihad – The Meanest – Railway Hotel, Greymouth, 8pm

THURSDAY 12Jo Little – Till the Blue Skies Come Tour w/ Jared Smith – Frank’s, Greymouth, 8pm, Free

FRIDAY 13Jo Little – Till the Blue Skies Come Tour w/ Jared Smith – Barrytown Hall, Greymouth, 8pm, Free

SATURDAY 14Vorn – 2012 South Island Tour – Frank’s, Greymouth, 9pm, $12Jo Little – Till the Blue Skies Come Tour w/ Jared Smith – Drifters Cafe, Granity, 8pm, Free

CANTERBURYTUESDAY 10Reece Mastin – CBS Canterbury Arena, 7pm, $52.90-$67.90

WEDNESDAY 11CPIT Jazz School Student Series – CPIT, 7pm, $5Swing 42 – North Hagley Park Events Village, 1pm, $10Women In Jazz – North Hagley Park Events Village, 8pm, $35Awakened Inferno + Guests – Dux Live, 9pm, Free

THURSDAY 12Klaus Doldinger’s Passport – North Hagley Park Events Village, 8pm, $35Freddy Fudd Pucker – darkroom, 9pm, FreeSteve Abel, The Tiny Lies and Marlon Williams – Wunderbar, Lyttelton, 8pm, $15Christchurch Jazz Icons – CPIT, 7pm, $15Jeff Bradley & the Delta Swing – North Hagley Park Events Village, 1pm, $10Modern Masters – A Box of Birds, Reuben Bradley Band – CPIT, 9:30pmSalsa On Thursdays – Salsa Latina Dance Studio, 8:45pm, FreePuree Cocktail Evening – Christchurch Casino, 7:30pm, Free

FRIDAY 13Shihad – The Meanest – The Bedford, 8pm

Nothin’ But the Blues – North Hagley Park Events Village, 8pm, $35The Make Believe New Zealand Tour – Phillipstown Youth Centre, 7:30pm, $10CPIT Jazz School Student Series – CPIT, 7pm, $5James Morrison – a Tribute to Duke Ellington – CBS Canterbury Arena, 8pm, $39La Petite Manouche – North Hagley Park Events Village, 1pm, $10World of Jazz – Tim Sellars, Wontanara, Mundi – CPIT, 8:30pmFleck – Christchurch Casino, 8pm, FreeRetrosonic – Becks Southern Alehouse, 9pm, FreeD’sendnatz – Live @ Beach Breaks – Pierside Cafe and Bar, 8:30pm, FreeUndacuva – Christchurch Casino, 11pm, Free

SATURDAY 14The All Seeing Hand New Zealand Tour 2012 – darkroom, 9pmAmiria Grenell – North Hagley Park Events Village, 1pm, $10Annie Crummer w/ Oval Offi ce – North Hagley Park Events Village, 8pm, $25CPIT Jazz School Student Series – CPIT, 7pm, $5Saxophone Colossus – CPIT, 8:30pmEcholypse Demo Release Gig + Awakened Inferno EP Release – Zebedees, 8:15pm, $5Puree – Christchurch Casino, 8pm, FreeNero Zero – Dux Live, 9pm, FreeStudio 54 – Christchurch Casino, 11pm, FreeThe Shameless Few – Pierside Cafe and Bar, 8:30pm, Free

SUNDAY 15Vorn – Down For It South Island Tour 2012 – Wunderbar, Lyttelton, 8pm, $12The All Seeing Hand New Zealand Tour 2012 – The Roastery, Lyttelton, 8pmBig Daddy Wilson Acoustic Duo – The Mayfair Theatre, Kaikoura, 7:30pmTaos Soundsystem – Dux Live, 4:30pm, FreeMalcolm McNeill – a Matinee of Music – North Hagley Park Events Village, 2pm, $20Mainland Big Band – Kaiapoi Club, Kaiapoi, 5:30pm

OTAGOTHURSDAY 12Vorn – 2012 South Island Tour – Chicks Hotel, Dunedin, 9pm, $12Stomping Nick & His Blues Grenade – The Penguin Club, Oamaru, 8pmThe All Seeing Hand New Zealand Tour – None Gallery, Dunedin, 9pm

FRIDAY 13The All Seeing Hand New Zealand Tour 2012 – Chicks Hotel, Dunedin, 9pm

SATURDAY 14Stomping Nick & His Blues Grenade – Chicks Hotel, Dunedin, 9:30pmRhythmonyx – The World Bar, Queenstown, 10pm, Free

SOUTHLANDFRIDAY 13Rhythmonyx – Tillermans, Invercargill, 10pm, 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.

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WED18 APRIL MARK LANEGAN

THURS10 MAY KAISER CHIEFSTHURS31 MAY THE BLACK SEEDS

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You may have seen the teaser ads and the old school poster run around Auckland on 1 April – Real Groovy celebrates Record Store Day in style this year with a unique release – Toy Love Live at The Gluepot – 29 songs on a double LP (on vinyl only) limited to 400 copies and only available from Real Groovy. This will be the first dedicated Record Store Day release by a New Zealand store... Tickets selling

well for The Specials… The Beat are strongly rumoured for August... Shihad’s Easter assault went down a treat after mean preparation... Jaz Coleman seen around town. New Killing Joke album released last week with many local interviews, dinners with fans and listening parties. And who’s that local band he wants to take to Cairo?... Rackets won over King Cannons’ fans recently – the KCs packed the Kings Arms... On same night Dunedin’s Two Cartoons won over a packed Wine Cellar... Rackets and Beach Pigs prepping for a May tour with at least 20 dates where they will play everywhere and anywhere... Rumours of the Gunslingers Ball hitting the road taking in centres around the country... Little Band of Gold is returning to Auckland in July... Opossum album now out in June – expect psychedelic pop perfection... Poster of the week would be DHDFDs’ Nocturnal Collections show – DHDFDs created their usual mayhem at Cassette recently... Fu Manchu play Studio on Saturday 28 April... Former rehearsal space and studio The Manor is now lying

empty – a beautiful building behind Real Groovy... The Vietnam War just returned from successful shows in Australia... Heart Attack Alley and Thee Rum Coves ripped it up at the Hot Rod bash at Patiki Rd. Heart Attack Alley’s European jaunt fast approaching... Mind still blown from Wooden Shjips – top blokes and super groovy sounds – drummer’s kit must have been the most minimalist on that stage for some time, and, yes, they played ‘Buddy’ as if it was written for them. Big-ups to Rohan from the Wine Cellar for excellent sound and Matthew Crawley for pulling together a great vibed show... Six60 is probably selling out another show as you read this.

Tickets are selling well to Atmosphere’s 2 May appearance at San Francisco Bath House… A performance from Dub FX is on the horizon for 12 May at Bar Bodega… Hold Tight La De Da/Section Zero… Radio Active 88.6 FM is in the process of relocating premises from 175 Victoria St to just around the corner at 75 Ghuznee St, directly opposite Superfino Café. The third epoch begins… Steve Earle aka Walon from The Wire, also seen in Treme, plays Bodega on Thursday night. “Everybody told me you can’t get far/ On $37 and a Jap guitar”… Saturday night, local dubstep/drum’n’bass heroes Optimus Gryme and Organikismness will deliver an epic eight-hour DJ set performance at San Francisco Bath House. One for the all-night rave massive. The same night, Wellington’s very own Shihad play The Station Village Complex in the Hutt Valley. Touring in support of their new retrospective album, The Meanest, this will be a big night… Wednesday 18 April, The All Seeing Hand perform a free gig at San Francisco Bath House with special guests. This will be a cosmological, freaky party in the most threat-free (oc)cult way possible… Friday night live music sessions are going down well at Carribean Coffee House on Cuba St (opposite Spacesuit). Check it out sometime, and grab some jerk chicken while you’re at it… Thursday 19 April, Volcana and Von Thundersvolt bring their respective garage and stoner rock vibes to Mighty Mighty – cheaper for students! The following night, Dictaphone Blues launch their new album Beneath the Crystal Palace,

also at Mighty Mighty… Wellington’s very own Iva Lamkum is set to release her debut album Black Eagle later this year. More details soon… Things are progressing nicely at new community arts/music space 19 Tory St… For those who haven’t checked it out, the new issue of Wellington-founded but Taichung City, Taiwan-based arts/culture journal White Fungus is looking, reading and even sounding (thanks to the free CD) great. Check them out at whitefungus.com.

Paul Winders’ tour kicked off at Taste Merchants to a capacity house. Album now available on iTunes and dunedinmusic.com… Feastock hosted 400+ guests in their native bush clad backyard with all generations in attendance, and unlike the Hyde St keg party it was an oasis of calm with no destruction or trouble. They even had buses to transport folks direct to the afterparty. Some in Dunedin could learn some lessons there... Which Feastock band member got locked in to ReFuel at soundcheck, fell asleep and was left behind, but managed to keep hold of his cowboy hat?... Beastwars packed out the Feastock afterparty at ReFuel. Toasted sandwiches ahoy... Jo Little’s album Till the Blue Skies Come launched at the Church cafe and is now available on Bandcamp…

Proxy Music back catalogue (TFF, Sewage, CRR, Hyenas, OPC) now all available on iTunes… Transforming Dunedin group delivered a visionary creative summary from their March symposium. The question now is “will the council listen?” Submissions can be made online at dcc.govt.nz… Knasty Knight has a new electronic project out on Bandcamp... Alley Cantina now hosting live music...Dunedin Fringe bigger and better than ever and likely to exceed crowd numbers of 2011 – dunedinfringe.org.nz.

Toy Love

Alizarin Lizard – Feastock

FESTIVALS CALENDARFESTIVALS CALENDARTHAILAND FULL MOON PARTYThe Full Moon Party needs no introduction, long has it held its well-deserved post of being one of the wildest beach parties in the world. From humble beginnings in 1985 where 20 gathered at an improvised wooden disco near the beach, through to the heaving parties of today (with a good 10,000 more revellers)!

The Full Moon Party is a must on your bucket list, so make sure you time your trip to coincide with one of the dates below. Be prepared to leave your inhibitions and your jandals at your backpackers, because you’re more than likely to lose both after a few ‘buckets’ of Red Bull and vodka! Oh and if you’re into jumping ropes of fi re, the odd bit of glow paint and a good old fashioned all-nighter, then step right up…

KOH SAMUIFLIGHTS + 8 NIGHTS FROM $1485 (incl overnight in Bangkok)

Return fl ights from Auckland to Koh Samui1 night in Bangkok at the Sawasdee Bangkok Inn7 nights in Koh Samui at Al’s HutReturn transfer by boat to Koh Phangan

Spend a night in crazy Bangkok then onward to Koh Samui for a solid week of island time at Al’s Hut, a cool set of bungalows located right on Chaweng beach. By day, dodge the heat in the pool or get your fi ll of Thai and International food at the beachside restaurant. At night head to the bars and clubs for a practice run of what’s to come. Then, on Full Moon night, you’ll get picked up from Al’s for your boat transfer to crazy Koh Phangan for a night of unadulterated good times!

FULL MOON PARTY PACKAGE(EX BANGKOK) FROM $389

5 nights at the Best Western Phanganburi Free breakfast dailyClose (but not too close!) to the Full Moon beach

Don the neon, slap on the glow paint and step into beach party regulation jandals for the world famous Full Moon Party. This package includes travel from Bangkok to Koh Phangan and fi ve nights at the Best Western Phanganburi resort, where you’re sorted with your own private balcony, air-con and free WiFi. Ask us about our latest cheap � ights to Bangkok.

VISIT STATRAVEL.CO.NZ, POP INTO A BRANCH NEAR YOU OR PHONE 0508 STA TRAVELTerms and conditions apply. All prices are correct as at 04/04/12 and are subject to currency fl uctuations and change without notice. Prices advertised are for cash sale only, payment by any other method will attract a non-cash administration fee. Koh Samui package is valid for travel 01/05/12 – 30/09/12, and for sales until 30/04/12. Ask us about upgrade options. Full moon party package is per person based on twin share. STA Travel cannot guarantee Full Moon Party dates, ensure you check these independently and just before travel.

BEACH BREAKS ON SALE NOW, ASK US ABOUT ALL-INCLUSIVE PACKAGES TO

2012 FULL MOON PARTY CALENDARSAT 5 MAY TUE 30 OCTOBERTUE 03 JULY TUE 25 DECEMBERSAT 01 SEPTEMBER MON 31 DECEMBERSUN 30 SEPTEMBER*Note that Full Moon Party dates sometimes change due to

Buddhist Holidays.

BEACH BREAKS ON SALE NOW, ASK US ABOUT ALL-INCLUSIVE PACKAGES TO

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

WAVVESThursday 3 May – Kings Arms, Auckland

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

KAISER CHIEFSThursday 10 May –The Powerstation, Auckland

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

FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS Wednesday 13 June – Hawke’s Bay Opera House, Hastings Thursday 14 June – Founders Theatre, Hamilton Saturday 16 June – Town Hall, Auckland Sunday 17 June – TSB Showplace, New Plymouth Tuesday 19/Wednesday 20 June – Michael Fowler Centre, WellingtonSaturday 23 June – Regent Theatre, Dunedin Sunday 24 June – Events Centre, Queenstown Tuesday 26 June – CBS Canterbury Arena, ChristchurchWednesday 27 June – Trafalgar Centre, NelsonFriday 29 June/Sunday 1 July – Vector Arena, Auckland

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

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

ATMOSPHEREWednesday 2 May – San Francisco Bath House, WellingtonThursday 3 May – The 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

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

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

CITY AND COLOURSunday 29 April –Town Hall, Auckland

LADYHAWKESaturday 14 July – The Studio, Auckland Friday 13 July – San Francisco Bath House, Wellington

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REAL GROOVYRECORDSPRESENTS

THURS 5 HAMILTON ALTITUDEFRI 6 (GOOD FRIDAY) TAURANGA BREWERS FIELD

SAT 7 COROGLEN COROGLEN TAVERNSUN 8 (EASTER SUNDAY) AUCKLAND POWERSTATION

WEDS 11 GREYMOUTH RAILWAY HOTELTHURS 12 NELSON VICTORY ROOM AT THE TRAFALGAR CENTRE

FRI 13 CHRISTCHURCH THE BEDFORDSAT 14 WELLINGTON (LOWER HUTT) STATION VILLAGE

THE MEANEST LIVE IN APRIL 2012WITH A LEGACY OF SINGLES AND HITS THAT EASILY FILL A DOUBLE CD IT IS NOSURPRISE THAT SHIHAD ANNOUNCE A TOUR TO CELEBRATE THEIR GREATEST HITS

COLLECTION THE MEANEST, LAYING OUT A 100+ MINUTE SET TO GIVE ENOUGH TIMETO COVER THE BULK OF HITS AND FAVORITES FROM THEIR ENTIRE CATALOGUE…

PRESENTS

TICKETS ON SALE NOW FROM TICKETMASTERTHE VENUES AND REGIONAL OUTLETSFOR ALL SHOW AND TICKETING INFOGO TO WWW.SHIHAD.COMWWW.MUCHMOREMUSIC.CO.NZ

SHIHAD“THE MEANEST HITS”OUT NOW