17 JANUARY 2012 #018

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EDITOR: Sam Wicks sam.wicks@volumemagazine.co.nzWEB EDITOR: Hugh Sundae hugh.sundae@nzherald.co.nzDEPARTMENT OF VOLUME SALES: John Baker john.baker@volumemagazine.co.nzDESIGN: Xanthe WilliamsWRITERS: Nick Bollinger, Marty Duda, Duncan Greive, Jessica Hansell, Leslie Henkel, Matt Heath, Joe Nunweek, Sam Prebble, Hugh Sundae, Dan Trevarthen, Chris de Wit, Aaron YapILLUSTRATION: Hej Ganias, Henrietta Harris, Ruban Nielson, Chris StappPHOTOGRAPHERS: Don Fierro, Dallas Pickering, Milana RadojcicAN APN PUBLICATION

Days out from Big Day Out’s return, VOLUME’s BDO-heavy issue will prep you for Friday, when Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Das Racist, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Girl Talk, Parkway Drive, @Peace, Foster the People, Regurgitator, David Dallas, Cavalera Conspiracy, Cairo Knife Fight, The Vaccines, Nero, Soundgarden, Röyksopp, Mariachi el Bronx, Battles, Beastwars, Best Coast, My Chemical Romance, Tony Hawk and co descend on Mt Smart Stadium.

INSIDE THE MAG, UMO’s Ruban Nielson talks matching music and art with Henrietta Harris (and both artists illustrate their photos above for Talking Heads), we meet rap Dadaists, Das Racist, and Matt Heath recalls his pre-Deja Voodoo rock history in Kid Eternity, the first band to play the first ever Big Day Out in Auckland, all sandwiched between a Where’s Wally?-style cover from Heath’s partner-in-crime, Chris Stapp.

Stapp’s perfectly deranged cover is dripping with detail like Six60 answering a critic, Immortals Lounge debauchery, a full-frontal Soundgarden signing session, OG My Chemical Romance fans, a one-man anti-“Nek Minute” brigade, and Noel screening Liam’s drunk dial (give it three more years when (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?’s 20th anniversary rolls around, and he’ll be taking that call).

See you Friday – spotted Wally yet?

You’re returning from a hunting trip to play Big Day Out on Friday. Successful mission? I’m surprised we made it back at all to be honest. Surfboards + spear gun + rifle + a few hungry blood-lusting silverback hunter gatherers – let’s just say we can’t go back to Russell.

Your dad, Fuimaono Tuisau, was a founding member of the Polynesian Panthers. Was he the person who first put you on to music? He was definitely one of the people who opened my mind up to music when I was young, just by surrounding us with a gang of different genres. He recently gave me his old record collection, which has some gems.

Is he an @Peace fan? Yeah, he’s cool like that. I felt successful when I snapped my Mum singing the hook for ‘Dis Funk’ in the Kitchen. @Peace is working on new songs and you’re on a handful of tracks on the forthcoming Home Brew album. Still got time to make music with Nothing to Nobody?Those albums are fucking crazy. Def privileged to be able to work with such talented individuals. Nothing to Nobody seems to have run its course since my partner-in-crime went straight edge. But life goes on. Still love that dude. @Peace plays Big Day Out 2012 on Friday 20 January at Mt Smart Stadium.

Palmeston North’s finest PNC returns with his Matt Miller-produced new album Under the Influence brought to you by Crooks & Castles and VOLUME on Saturday 17 March – St Paddy’s Day. Hot on the heels of Under the Influence’s Gotye-sampling ‘Stranger Pt. 1 & 2’ comes ‘As I Fly’, available for free download at soundcloud.com/pnc-1/pnc-as-i-fly – check out Duncan Greive’s review in this week’s Sound of the Overground. Says PNC: “Matt chopped a Boyz II Men song, threw a Justin Bieber vocal in there, and made it sound like some underground hip hop. Genius. Lyrically this was pretty train-of-thought stuff. I was going through a bit of a rough time when I was writing Under the Influence, and I think it came through pretty strongly in this song. I guess it’s a combination of feeling down, but feeling defiant.”

@PEACELUI TUIASAU –

JOHN LEACH – BIG DAY OUT SITE MANAGERA friend of mine said to me when I first got involved in Big Day Out in 1994 that being a site manager is like being at a party and being the responsible one – a site manager is like a sober driver when everyone else is in party mode. I reckon I’ve got the coolest job because it involves deciding where we’re going to put marketplaces and who’s going in there, where we’re going to put the fairground rides, where we put the gates, what public transport initiatives we need… my focus is the audience and their experience. You need good lists and you need to be organised, and you need to be loose enough to roll with the punches on the day. It really is like setting up a little city at Mt Smart, and there’s a lot that goes into making that happen.

SEND ME A POSTCARDBond Street Bridge, the solo project of Sam Prebble, plays Wine Cellar in Auckland on Saturday 21 January with Luckless, Vinnies in Raglan on Friday 27 January with Karin Bettley, and the Auckland Museum on Saturday 4 February with The Broken Heartbreakers.

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I’M NOT TALKING about the reasonably well-considered and good-natured (if prickly) debates. Like when Dudley Benson took a swipe at the Taite Music Prize in the weeks following not winning it, or when bands take a swipe at NZ On Air funding in the weeks after not getting it.

No, I mean the real let-it-all-out slash show-your-true-colours rants that go late into the night when the only other person online is new NZ First MP Andrew Williams. Like the time that fashion-blagger DJed at some event whose advertising flyer was of questionable racial appropriateness. What fun!

The best ones are of course on Facebook, where following extreme outrage at a particular comment you can click on the culprit’s profile and immediately decide if their opinion is valid based on their place of employment. Or judge their music taste based on whether they’re smiling in their profile pic or not. Then wonder why you have 25 friends in common with such a fucktard. Or de-friend them. Take that!

Online newspapers can have good brouhahas too, but generally their good-taste policies prevent the most apocalyptic shock-and-awe vitriol from seeing the light of day. Luckily my job gives me justification to access the nirvana of na-na-na-na, where non-approved comments go to die. After giving a vegetarian contestant some gentle probing in my MasterChef blog last year, I got to read such pearlers as this one from gf569: “Also I thought writers where supposed to have great grammar and punctuation? wow who eva paid u to write this load has been severely ripped off.”

As you may have wondered by now, I got to thinking about all this after following the ongoing fallout from a recent opinion piece concerning a Dunedin band whose name escapes me.

Followers were outraged that a review could have such personal attacks and be written by someone who hadn’t actually heard the album, despite it not being an album review anyway. In truth it was no more a review of an album/gig than this page is a review of the Internet. They’re opinion pieces. That’s the point.

Rightly or wrongly, it was good entertainment. Watching those who think New Zealand music should be immune from having the piss taken/ wage war against those who believe spelling is important, and vice versa.

The Internet 8/10.

BABY, IT’S A REVOLUTION…

“Luckily my job gives me justification to access the nirvana of na-na-na-na, where non-approved comments go to die.”

Few online activities can cause as much entertainment and procrastination as watching a good shit-fight. I say shit-fight to avoid using the term “flame war” as I don’t know if that’s what the kids are saying these days, or if it’s the right term in the first place.

Yes, I know the Dictaphone Blues sessions took a while to get up – but they’re there now and a new one will go online each day up to the Big Day Out. Speaking of which, we’ll of course be there all day, live blogging, interviewing bands and punters alike... expect video, reviews, photos and more all day at nzherald.co.nz/bigdayout – plus we’re streaming Batucada Sound Machine’s new album, Don’t Keep Silent – all this week at nzherald.co.nz/music.

RUBAN NIELSON: I’d just come out of art school so I already had this style that I’d been working in, so I just told [Mint Chicks] that, if we wanted, I could do the same kind of style and have it go through everything, just because I knew I wasn’t going to have time to follow an art career if we got signed and started touring and stuff – must have wanted to have an excuse to keep drawing. Kody does artwork as well, but it just seemed like it would be more cohesive ’cause it seemed to have a look. HENRIETTA HARRIS: His seems to be quite similar to yours as well.

Yeah, I think there were a few times where he did some artwork that matched mine enough that we used his thing, but his style is usually more simple and usually taking photographs, and actually I’m probably more influenced by his thing now in UMO, the look that I’ve got on that stuff. I think because we separated for a while, we became more like each other. It’s quite weird. A tribute.

Yeah. Every time people write

about me, they always say I did lots of Mint Chicks’ stuff, but I didn’t really.

I did, like, two posters I think.

I think I did two posters as well! I guess our styles work well together, but it’s always the Mint

Chicks is top of the thing – well, not really. If I’ve never heard of the band, I definitely find out. Like, for the Ariel Pink poster I wanted to make it kind of psychedelic, so I found a picture and I made his eyes liquefied.

Oh, I saw that – yeah, that was cool. I try to obviously match [their style]. It’s always my style, but I like to think they all go with the band so it’s not about me. I did lots of research [for the Flying Nun 30th anniversary artwork] and they sent me files of pretty much all the Flying Nun art, and I just mashed it all together. Some stuff I made it look like my style and some stuff I just directly copied the other artists, like David Mitchell.

Cool. I noticed that you did the [Octagon, Octagon, Octagon artwork] – I couldn’t tell the difference between your one and my one – but then the Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! skulls, like a totally different skull but just with the blood eyes or whatever. Yeah, I did that skull first ’cause I was going to try and do my style, but then I think [I was] leaning more towards what they can recognise as well, so it’s all over the place.

Usually art comes first. Like, Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No!, before any of the songs were really written, I did the cover. Then I was showing the other guys and being like, ‘Okay, this is our next

The distinctive illustrations of Ruban Nielson and Henrietta Harris have appeared on album covers, tour posters and T-shirts and, in Nielson’s case, the artwork itself has often framed the songs that followed. Ahead

of Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Big Day Out appearance on Friday, Nielson and Harris got together for Talking Heads to talk matching

music and art.Illustrations Henrietta Harris/Ruban Nielson

HENRIETTA HARRIS

&album – we just have to make this album’. We didn’t have any songs yet and then we had that cover as a kind of a guide. I like doing that now – ever since then, I like doing the cover first. With UMO I had the cover on my desktop, but I didn’t know it was the cover, and for the next UMO cover I have this picture of my daughter. She fell on her face and there was all this blood on her face, and I took that photo and put the little UMO logo that’s on the first album cover on the photo and photoshopped it so it looks ready to go, so I have the album. For some reason it’s like the album already exists; I can kind of imagine the vinyl in my hands and I’m kind of like, ‘Okay, I just have to fill this gap’. It just feels like it’s in the future and I just have to fulfil my destiny!

’Cause it’s happened before, I kind of trust the idea. If you think the album already exists and you feel like the cover’s good, it makes you work hard enough to make the album that you imagined. That’s what it was like with Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No? I wanted to push ourselves like we had something to prove. I’m always messing around on Photoshop, so I’ve always got

too much artwork to… you know, I always look through stuff and think, ‘Oh, that’s good’, and use it for a T-shirt or something like that. Henrietta did a Mint Chicks T-shirt – that was really cool. Oh, yeah, I did that – I forgot! We had to do some art about a New Zealand song, so I chose ‘Life Will Get Better Someday’. It was Dave Gibson, his T-shirt company, and they chose a whole lot of designers to do New Zealand songs. I chose this guy who had a superhero mask on, but he looked really bummed out.

I was supposed to do one of those as well. I was going to do “Just the thought fills my heart with pink frost” [from The Chills’ ‘Pink Frost’], and then I did three different versions of it and then I trashed them. I was really, really not feeling my designs, and I thought that the song was too important to do a second-rate design.

To listen to the full audio of Ruban Nielson and Henrietta Harris in conversation, head to nzherald.co.nz/volume – live from 2pm Tuesday.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra play Big Day Out 2012 on Friday 20 January at Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Parkway Drive, Regurgitator, Cavalera Conspiracy, The Vaccines, Nero, Soundgarden, Kasabian, Röyksopp, Mariachi el Bronx, Battles, Beastwars, Best Coast, My Chemical Romance and more.

Find Henrietta Harris’ artwork online at scaredycat.co.nz.

RUBAN NIELSON

“I’m probably more influenced by [Kody Nielson’s art] in UMO... because we separated for a while, we became more like each other. It’s quite weird.”– RUBAN NIELSON

The last time Amanda Palmer performed in Auckland, she had narrowly avoided being caught up in the 22 February Christchurch earthquake – this time Palmer returns with drummer Brian Viglione as The Dresden Dolls. So what prompted the reunion when Palmer’s solo career seems to be doing so well?Text Marty Duda

“I’M KIND OF allergic to the word ‘reunion’ because The Dresden Dolls haven’t broken up,” Amanda Palmer relays. “The Dresden Dolls have just become the term Brian and I use when we tour, which we’re certainly doing less of since we took our first break in 2008. But we haven’t stopped being a band, we haven’t stopped touring. We’re doing it way less and not full-time.”

As anyone who has seen the duo perform knows, there is a high degree of musical precision that takes place on stage with the Dolls. Fans might wonder if the time apart changed the dynamic between the two of them.

“Brian and I kind of function like brother and sister. We have this weird matching musical DNA that means that we have an ultra-psychic connection the minute we get on the stage with each other. He’s a masterful drummer when it comes to understanding my musical motivations. He’s a complete ninja. That kind of chemistry just is priceless.”

So has performing solo changed the way Palmer performs and how she feels on stage with Brian?

“It has. The first time I toddled back to playing with The Dresden Dolls after I’d been on tour solo, I really had to readjust. It was very

strange being part of a band and then all of a sudden being alone up there, for better or for worse. And it’s a matter of flipping back to, ‘It’s not just me up here, this is now about me and Brian’. I had gotten so used to directly focusing my energy at the audience, not to anyone on stage, all of my energy going to the audience. It’s a different configuration which takes a different headspace, but I’ve

actually gotten used to switching back and forth between one and the other.”

The chances of hearing any new Dresden Dolls music on this tour are slim as they haven’t recorded any new material – yet. But Palmer does promise a few musical treats.

“We play Dresden Dolls favourites and we play rare Dresden Dolls stuff, which makes the

hardcore fans incredibly happy and keeps us from feeling like we’re getting too repetitive, and we sometimes play Amanda Palmer stuff and every time we tour we try to arrange new cover songs that will be specific to that tour only. So we’re definitely going to do that for this tour as well.”

On a personal note, Palmer’s husband, author Neil Gaiman, will be traveling Down Under as well. The couple celebrated their first wedding anniversary earlier this month and hosted a New Year’s Eve party in Melbourne. So, after a year, is married life what she expected?

“I think I very wisely expected nothing specific and I’m making all this shit up as I go along, like everything else. I know I love Neil Gaiman deeply and I know there’s probably not another man out there in the world who would tolerate having this kind of life,” she says, laughing. “I consider myself extremely lucky.”

VOLUME and 95bFM presents The Dresden DollsWednesday 25 January – Aurora Centre, ChristchurchFriday 27 January – The Powerstation, AucklandSaturday 28 January – The Opera House, Wellington

“We have this weird matching musical DNA that means that we have an ultra-psychic connection.” – AMANDA PALMER

OCCUPY AMANDAThe Dresden Dolls’ Amanda Palmer has always been outspoken in social as well as musical issues. This past year she spent time in several cities on the West Coast of the US hanging out with activists involved with the Occupy movement. What did she learn about the people behind the placards?

“The people behind the movement are as diverse as you would imagine. I think Occupy captured everybody’s romantic imagination. But it is definitely much less romantic to decide, ‘Okay, where do we move forward when we’re not all hanging out together throwing a very cool party where we’re all pitching tents? And how do we actually effect change?’ Sometimes that takes some very tedious and boring and non-romantic work, and no one wants to talk about that. But I think Occupy has been really positive. People put their energy behind it and took a stand about the fact that they’re dissatisfied with the way the system is running. That has to fucking happen in a democracy, otherwise it collapses.

“The one thing that has distressed me is how my generation reacted to Occupy,” Palmer sighs. “I don’t want to believe that my generation is jaded, but I sense it and it’s terrifying. It was sort of beautiful to see an oasis of action and togetherness in what seems like a sea of acceptance and apathy. I think part of the problem with our generation is there isn’t something specific and focussed to fight back against, but we can’t just lower our heads and trudge on, ignoring things falling apart on the greater scale. We’re screwed if that happens.”

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 singles@volumemagazine.co.nz or tweet @duncangreive.

PNC – ‘As I Fly’The second free track from PNC’s forthcoming “album with the soul of a mixtape”, ‘As I Fly’ cements what its predecessor ‘Stranger Pt. 1 & 2’ strongly

hinted at – that is, there’s a stone classic looming. ‘Stranger’ was brilliant in so many ways – the

pulsing delicacy of newcomer Matt Miller’s revision of Gotye’s ‘Somebody I Used to Know’ made Pt. 1 sonically enigmatic, with PNC revealing more of himself than anyone this side of Drake. Then the beat and tone switched violently on Pt. 2, a naked, wounded rage exposed. It was rap music with limitless ambition. Which is to say that ‘As I Fly’ needed to be great just to hold position.

Beat-wise, Miller is perfect again – airy, candyfloss synths with a boom clap that hits just right. The lyrics match the astral tone, dark shadows fall across it – “been on the verge of ending it all” – but PNC just floats, separated from reality’s weight by drugs or thoughts... it’s not really clear.

What is manifest is that PNC is back in the kind of form which birthed Bazooka Kid, his dazzling second LP. There’s no higher praise available than the sense that Under the Influence might top it.

VAN HALEN – ‘Tattoo’Reunited with David Lee Roth for the first time since the mid-’90s, when the world could not have cared less about solos

and spandex, Van Halen’s return is oddly welcome. The sound is pure mid-’80s lite-heavy (no goatee-and-piercing update), Eddie peels off a killer solo, and they remain funny to listen to without vamping à la the post-Darkness diaspora (Shotgun Alley, anyone?). Plus I’ll always have time for anyone who writes a memoir as entertaining as Crazy from the Heat.

MARY J BLIGE FT. DRAKE – ‘Mr Wrong’The first minute of ‘Mr Wrong’ features Drake on autopilot – which is to say it’s incredible. The guy is peaking so hard

right now that just doing him is fantastic. Mary always sounded best over stripped back, muscular productions, and she’s got one here, allowing her immensely emotional vocals to take centre stage.

TRAIN – ‘Drive By’Train come back with another of their trademark gritty street anthems, lamenting the loss of another corner

soldier to the titular ‘Drive By’.

JAY-Z – ‘Glory’Neptunes and Jay-Z together! That would’ve been exciting 10 years ago, now it’s kinda vomitous. “Did yoooou wiggle

your hands for her?” he coos over his new daughter Blue Ivy Carter. Sweet sentiment, and this isn’t actually all that awful, but I have a bad feeling that it signals the end of Jay’s brief Watch the Throne-era renaissance. I don’t think I’m alone in not wanting to hear any more raps about domestic bliss and how great his kids are.

As predicted last week LMFAO lasted just seven days atop the charts, falling to number five this week, adding fuel to my conspiracy theory that it was somehow manipulated to the top.

Replacing everyone’s favourite party rockers is Flo Rida, whose ‘Wild Ones’ is sadly not a cover of Suede’s doomy ballad of the same name.

Flo Rida might be the most characterless rapper ever created.

He makes Pitbull look like ODB. The production’s pretty fun – has the hyper-melodic thump that Chris Brown’s ‘Yeah 3X’ had, which recalls some of the giddy Scandinavian thrills of CEO or Junior Senior, if you squint hard enough. But I can’t endorse anything by Flo Rida if he doesn’t have a true fruitcake like T-Pain alongside. The only new entry is Jessie J’s collaboration with Guetta, ‘Laserlight’, at 39. Weirdly it takes over a minute to go all big room trance on us, a tease that will always be pretty effective to me. As far as similes go, ‘You’re like a laserlight’ is in the bottom 10 per cent of available material, certainly not worthy of putting front-and-centre in a song’s chorus. But Jessie J has basically been sprinting downhill ever since she followed up the excellent ‘Do It Like a Dude’ with the fetid platitudes of ‘Price Tag’. This is, better, but still shit.

RIANZ TOP 20 NEW ZEALAND SINGLES CHART1 Flo Rida ft. Sia – ‘Wild Ones’

2 Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa – ‘Young, Wild and Free’

3 Coldplay – ‘Paradise’

4 Ed Sheeran – ‘The A Team’

5 David Guetta ft. Sia – ‘Titanium’

6 LMFAO – ‘Sexy and I Know It’

7 Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris – ‘We Found Love’

8 One Direction – ‘What Makes You Beautiful’

9 Six60 – ‘Only To Be’

10 Labrinth ft. Tinie Tempah – ‘Earthquake’

11 Annah Mac – ‘Girl in Stilettos

12 Bruno Mars – ‘It Will Rain’

13 Christina Perri – ‘A Thousand Years’

14 Gotye ft. Kimbra – ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’

15 Pitbull ft. Chris Brown – ‘International Love’

16 Gym Class Heroes ft. Neon Hitch – ‘ Ass Back Home’

17 Flo Rida – ‘Good Feeling’

18 Cher Lloyd ft. Mike Posner – ‘With Ur Love’

19 The Babysitter’s Circus – ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Alright’

20 LMFAO – ‘Party Rock Anthem’

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

Flo Rida

DAVID LYNCH – YES, that David Lynch – has released his first album, a surprisingly eclectic affair, but maddeningly uneven. Thankfully, his first full spin as a musician rather than a filmmaker doesn’t come off as some carny Tom Waits thing, despite what its title and Lynch’s much-lauded absurdist depictions of middle-to-low

America would have you expect.If anything, the motorik

thrum and discordant spaghetti-guitar outbursts of Crazy Clown Time’s dark electronic soundscape recall the dusty, weird New Wave outcrop of bands like Wall of Voodoo and their attempts to recreate the blues on still-nascent digital technology. This is especially apparent on the skeletal trip hop of ‘Noah’s Ark’, where Lynch’s voice skips a groove as it hisses in your ear, or the oddly Neil Young-ish blue-collar warble of ‘These Are My Friends’. On the other hand, the title track and the seven-odd minutes of ‘Strange and Productive Thinking’ are all dated Vocoder meandering. For that Lynchian vibe, Angelo Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks soundtrack remains the seminal first stop, but this is a nice, seedy adjunct to his cinematic work.

Review Joe Nunweek

1: O’Neill Bay – The most preems beach in the world and just a little north of Te Henga on the West Coast. This epic bay is a flooded volcanic caldera that seems to trap heat. Better at low tide for the swimmer, in my opinion.2: Thorne Bay – Between Milford and Takapuna Beach on Auckland’s North Shore, everyone I know calls it Thorne’s. This small patch of coarse, shelly sand is supreme at high-tide on days when a strong sou’wester makes every other beach windswept and miserable. 3: Home Bay – At the end of Wallace St off Jervois Rd, it’s only worth swimming here an hour either side of high-water. If you fancy a longer swim, Watchman Island makes for an adventurous destination 700 metres off the beach.4: Herne Bay – It’s possible next summer Home Bay will get knocked off the number three spot by Herne Bay, one of the most stunning urban beaches anywhere. The new sand, originally dredged off the coast of Parkari, has improved the still very tidal experience. Herne Bay also has fresh water showers and toilets, which Home Bay lacks. 5: Lake Pupuke – Don’t let rumours of unrecovered bodies put you off these freshwater depths, which exceed that of the Hauraki Gulf, only 200 meters away from the lake’s eastern edge. Jump off the wharf near the Pumphouse, and you’re sweet-as.

THE MUSIC MIX

NICK ATKINSON’S TOP FIVE AUCKLAND BEACHES

RACKETSRackets(Rackets)Turns out that if you missed the excellent Auckland

trio’s Six Sick Singles project, they coalesce into their best work, a 24-minute album that nods to the best pop-punk music here (The Sneaks) or anywhere (Jay Reatard RIP, dogg) but adds deceptively tricky guitar work and superbly funny/glum lyrics. Their best yet.

THE BIG PINKFuture This(4AD)I was totally complicit in The Big Pink’s huge

electro bro-rock back in 2009, preferring the lascivious Alan Moulder-hugeness of ‘Velvet’ or ‘Dominoes’ to, say, MGMT. On first inspection, this is a way weaker balance of okay singles (‘Stay Gold’, ‘Rubbernecking’) alongside weird, overripe failures – some of which sample disco strings, some of which sample Laurie Anderson.

THE WEEKNDEchoes of Silence(Self-released)Album/mixtape/ ”statement” number three from Canadian

producer Abel Tesfaye suggests he’s becoming a sort of Ramones/Fall figure to 21st century r’n’b – a proliferation of songs similar to each

other, but an unmistakeable sound unto themselves. Less fresh than House of Balloons, but he’s still a better diarist than Drake, and the Clams Casino track here (‘The Fall’) is worth the admission price alone.

SMOKE DZASweet Baby Kushed God EP(Self-released)I – everyone? – slept on this dude

for too long because of some weird “authentic” loyalty to GZA/RZA. The Harlem rapper dropped this on Xmas day and, even if it’s Bad Santa-style elves’n’blunts riffing at the start is a bit dated, he’s supremely tight on a few supposedly throwaway tracks here. For fans of Curren$y, Big K.R.I.T.

TRENT REZNOR AND ATTICUS ROSSThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo OST(The Null

Corporation)The trite ’70s Eno-isms of Trent Reznor’s Social Network soundtrack were enough to get him an Oscar – this soundtrack is a bit more fun. The teeth-grinding covers of ‘Immigrant Song’ and ‘Is Your Love Strong Enough’, all Grand Guignol electric drumkit-pounding Reznor-isms, recall the over-the-top greatness of ’80s flicks like To Live and Die In LA. Hope the film earns its score.

UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATSBlood Lust(Rise Above)A wonderful oddity

of a 2011 metal release. The Deadbeats hail from somewhere in the UK and pair the campy Crowley obsessions of forebears like Sabbath with genuine groove and a vocalist who sounds like Connan Mockasin. Highlights include The Stooges chug of ‘I’ll Cut You Down’ and the sludgy dread of ‘Curse in the Trees’.

LABRETTA SUEDE & THE MOTEL 6Dirty & Dumb(Self-released)Swagger’n’sleaze

New Zealand rock’n’rollers have made good over in the Big Apple this past year, where their twangy chic must fit well in the perennial surf/rockabilly scene a place that size can sustain. While ballads like ‘You and Me’ show them extending themselves, it’s sort of one-note stuff overall, like the warm-up music before a Cramps tribute band.

HISS GOLDEN MESSENGERPoor Moon(Heaven and Earth Magic Recording Company)

The lack of new “official” releases has sent me stumping the

backwater Bandcamps, and this was one of the good finds – a folk-rock record made by total dilettantes. The frontman is a college lecturer in “expressive vernacular culture” who namedrops King Tubby. Spacious and headnodding. Best track to peep: ‘Blue Country Mystic’.

T.I.Fuck Da City Up(Self-released)When I worked in online news, I once made T.I.’s jail

sentence the headline front-page news of our national broadcaster. It’s my proudest achievement, though this hopefully won’t be T.I.’s – some stale beats from Dre and Just Blaze and way too many guests. But several things on here (‘Stuntin’ Like a Fool’ and ‘In a Nutshell’ in particular) are huge – his upcoming album proper could have an energy missing from No Mercy.

TWINSThe Insider Sings “Emotionals”(Double Phantom Digital)Another Bandcamp

scouting: Atlanta’s Matt Weiner creates an EP of slightly messy synthy post-punk, with big chilly Vangelis synths and hyper, “Future is NOW!” drum programming. Doesn’t outstay its welcome, scratches any itch for this sort of music well.

Reviews Joe Nunweek

Crazy Clown Time(PIAS/Sunday Best)

ALL TAN EVERYTHINGA breed of surrealist MCs like Kool Keith and Lil B have been known to say some pretty out-there things. But the most Dadaistic rappers of the lot may well be Heems, Kool A.D. and Dap of New York City’s Das Racist, here in New Zealand to play Big Day Out on Friday.Text Christiaan de Wit

LIKE ARCTIC MONKEYS, Lily Allen and Odd Future, Das Racist followed what is fast becoming a conventional, internet-facilitated path to fame. Their first two mixtapes were up for grabs on the web and won them a dedicated following. With a bunch of irreverent but highly inventive hits like ‘You Oughta Know’, ‘Rainbow in the Dark’ and, most notably the silliest of all, ‘Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell’, Das Racist were big way before they released their first official album Relax in September 2011.

So with such a crazy resume, would it make sense to ask them even half-serious questions? Well, the interview turned out to be a careful tug- of-war between the three of them and myself.

With a provocative name and some of the most nihilistic lyrics around, Das Racist aren’t about to be boxed in by other people’s expectations. Do they agree with Grandmaster Flash that hip hop is all about the message, or what?

Kool A.D.: “We’re having fun while spreading generally accepted ideas such as ‘be nice to people’ and ‘don’t be racist’. We started mostly having fun, but now it’s a career and we’re professional rappers doing this to eat food and pay rent, and whatever the content is, is whatever the content is. Everything can be interpreted in a political way regardless, but there is no mission statement.”

Adds Heems, “Making music for us now is almost exactly the same as it used to be when we just started. People like it because we have fun, so we just continue to have fun, and we’re figuring out how to do that. It’s a little more hard when you’re self-conscious about it, but we’ve constantly been in a state of work during the past year without really having time to reflect on what exactly has been happening. We take it as it goes and maybe next year we’ll be thinking more about ‘what have we done?’“

ALL TAN EVERYTHINGDap: “And we’ll have a long group of years

ahead of us to regret things.” In a wide-ranging conversation with VOLUME,

Das Racist do their best to ensure their surrealist image remains intact. So I allow them to teach me about the life of hippos while I try to talk hip hop culture, and go on about magicians when I prefer to discuss their lives as musicians. When their hazy brains are finally back with me, Dap expresses his annoyance regarding the regularly resurfacing messages in the media about the demise of hip hop: “I think people write articles to get a lot of page views so they have to say outlandish things like “hip hop is dead” every three years or so.” But then Dap quickly reconsiders his far too serious answer of just a second ago: “Hip hop is not an animal or a plant or a bacteria or a person, so it can’t die.”

So how does Das Racist contribute to the development of hip hop? Just by being generous, it turns out. Kool A.D.: “I usually donate between 100 and 200 dollars every month.” Luckily, with their first commercially released album in stores, they can now easily carry this burden. And for those of you who wondered why Das Racist decided to not officially release their earlier work, Heems has the answer: “It had unclearable samples and we didn’t have the time and legal power. But it seems people don’t really take you seriously until you sell music, which I think is ridiculous. So we decided to make an album for commercial gain regardless of the fact that most musicians don’t make money off their albums. We just hope people will shut up now!”

Das Racist play Big Day Out 2012 on Friday 20 January at Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Parkway Drive, Regurgitator, Cavalera Conspiracy, The Vaccines, Nero, Soundgarden, Kasabian, Röyksopp, Mariachi el Bronx, Battles, Beastwars, Best Coast, My Chemical Romance and more.

“We’re having fun while spreading generally accepted ideas such as ‘be nice to people’ and ‘don’t be racist’.”– KOOL A.D.

PRESENTS: LET IT GOSUMMER TOUR

WITH CAIRO KNIFE FIGHT*AND VILLAINY**

THE DEBUT ALBUM THE HORRIFYING TRUTH OUT NOW WWW.IAMGIANT.COM

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* FRI 10TH FEB - THE SHED - ROTORUA* SAT 11TH FEB - SIDELINE BAR - NAPIER

* THURS 1ST MAR - BASEMENT - NEW PLYMOUTH* FRI 2ND MAR - COLLESEUM - PALMERSTON NORTH

* SAT 3RD MAR - SFBH - WELLINGTON*WED 7TH MAR - SAINTS AND SINNERS - INVERCARGILL

* THURS 8TH MAR - REFUEL - DUNEDIN* FRI 9TH MAR - THE BEDFORD - CHRISTCHURCH* SAT 10TH MAR - RIWAKA HOTEL - *RIWAKA** THURS 15TH MAR - BALLROOM - WHANGAREI** FRI 16TH MAR - KINGS ARMS - AUCKLAND

Production on the American live-action adaptation of Japanese anime classic Akira has hit another brick wall as Warner Bros. shuts down the film. The studio wants to shave even more off its already tight $90 million budget. Still too much of a gamble, apparently.

Splice director Vincenzo Natali will start shooing his next film, Haunter, in March. The supernatural horror is said to be a “reverse ghost story”, being told from the perspective of a ghost.

Tim Burton is in talks to direct Pinocchio and has Robert Downey Jr in mind to star. The script is Bryan Fuller, who created the quirky ill-fated ABC series Pushing Daisies.

“Three high school friends gain superpowers after making an incredible discovery. Soon, though, they find their lives spinning out of control and their bond tested as they embrace their darker sides.” Keen to see new sci-fi thriller Chronicle when it opens nationwide on 2 February? We’ve got five double passes to get you there. To nab one, email loot@volumemagazine.co.nz with your list of top five sci-fi thrillers. Easy, eh?

TAKING PLACE IN a universe of espionage far, far away from the cartoony Burj Khalifa-scaling antics of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tomas Alfredson’s appropriately chilly but richly textured and immaculately performed adaptation of John le Carré 1974 spy novel, previously made into a BBC mini-series starring Alec Guinness.

Gary Oldman, in a remarkably reserved performance, stars as George Smiley, a former British Intelligence Spymaster who’s been pulled out of retirement to covertly investigate a claim by an agent that there’s a mole in the top ranks of the “Circus”. Sherlock’s Benedict Cumberbatch plays the intel officer assigned to assist Smiley in the investigation, which unfolds in a convoluted, regularly flashing-back plot that’ll either keep your brain engaged and ticking over or reduce it to mush.

Certainly not one for ADD-afflicted consumers of amped-up escapism à la Bourne/Bond, the unfashionably Cold War-set Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy stews in its clandestine atmosphere, forcing the audience to process a wealth of spy-speak on top of an already-snaking mole-hunt. Lest we switch off, the seductive meticulousness of Alfredson’s (Let the Right One In) execution – rich in period and milieu detail – and the uniform strength of the powerhouse Brit ensemble (Oldman! Firth! Hinds! Hurt! Strong! Hardy!) ensure the film is nothing less than absorbing, even if you may not entirely comprehend the specifics of its narrative.

Review Aaron Yap

Director Tomas Alfredson

Starring Gary Oldman,

Benedict Cumberbatch,

Colin Firth, John Hurt

TINKER TAILORSOLDIER SPY

HISTORY MADE...

Matt Heath was in the first band on stage at the first ever Big Day Out in Auckland. The band was called Kid Eternity.

KID ETERNITY WAS formed in Dunedin by Chris Stapp, Andy Popplewell and Phil Brough. After the trio’s first practice they decided to get a girl in the band because The Pixies had one. Sadly they couldn’t find a female who could play. As luck would have it I was just out of school and in a stink G N’ R covers band. I wasn’t a girl, but I had long girlie hair so they asked me to join. Kid Eternity was complete and we set about using the band to meet girls and scab beer.

We achieved both goals when we got a call from Auckland saying we

were playing the Big Day Out with Soundgarden and Smashing Pumpkin. There was a rumour back home that Soundgarden had asked for us by name. That was bollocks, but it made us look cool so we let the rumours fly.

Late January 1994 we hit the road, and one full-on drunken week later we turned up unannounced at Paul Rose’s house in Grey Lynn. Being a good dude he let us sleep in his backyard. Five days of looseness in the big city later, it was Big Day Out day.

Stage four was by the girl’s toilets under the West Stand. We couldn’t

believe how awesome it looked. But suddenly everything turned to shit. We had no guitars, amps, drums, picks, sticks, or leads. Absolutely nothing. The stage manager couldn’t believe how stupid we were and told us to “fuck off back to Dunedin”. With nothing to play the gig with and one hour till we were on stage, we had no choice but to steal The 3D’s gear from the main stage. We got yelled at and chased by security but managed to grab everything we needed.

We rushed back, set up and convinced the stage manager to let us play. Luckily he relented and the show

was great. We had a big crowd, we played better than we ever had before and even got a half decent review in the Herald. After the show we found hundreds of beers backstage that we assumed were in the Kid Eternity rider. We drank ourselves stupid before handing the rest over the barrier to girls in the crowd. Turns out we had given away the whole day’s beers for all the bands, and security banned us from backstage.

The rest of the day was awesome, stumbling around in the sun watching great acts while we drank smuggled

vodka mixed with smart drinks. Later at the Squid Bar afterparty, Phil and Andy met Chris Cornell. Kim Thayil hit on my mate’s girlfriend and our bass player Kane convinced Billy Corgan that he had the clap by screaming in pain at the urinal. Sadly I missed it all, unconscious under a table.

Kid Eternity drifted apart after that great day. Andy and Kane moved to Sydney, Phil moved to London, and the band kind of became Deja Voodoo. However, in 2009, exactly 15 years after Kid Eternity’s fate-filled appearance, Deja Voodoo played the main stage at the Big Day Out. This time we bought our own gear – but we were still on first.

Matt Heath hosts Matt Heath Drive with Tiny Tim on Hauraki, 4-7pm weeknights.

“There was a rumour back home that Soundgarden had asked for us by name. That was bollocks, but it made us look cool so we let the rumours fly.”

Left-to-right: Phil Brough, Andy Popplewell, Kane Sullivan and Matt Heath

Kid Eternity’s Matt Heath

and Chris Stapp, pre-BDO

THE FUNNY THING about this moment of rock’n’roll is that your parents probably approve of it. A pick and mix gathering of hipsters, bros and everyone in between have come to pack out the Town Hall and hear bearded men sing in four-part harmony and utilise the kind of picking you’ll find in your dad’s record collection.

This quiet rebellion takes on some volume pretty quickly though. Like The Shins cooing ‘New Slang’ before them, the most memorable part of Fleet Foxes’ songs is often the wordless vowel sounds sung in unison, and here

they’re aided by hundreds of voices – guess Sub Pop knows how to pick ’em. But when Fleet Foxes’ most memorable lyric often isn’t a lyric, it’s easy to be cynical about the collection of folk music signifiers involved. But they’re smart, and the peak supply of this type of rustic music isn’t lost on them. They feel like they’re in a transition stage, integrating songs with more instrumental progression and trying to be less of a folk band than just a band. The driving toms and billowing melody of ‘Grown Ocean’ makes it as anthemic as indie rock comes in

any genre. On the other hand, they increasingly close with frenzied finales which aren’t so much their forte. The atonal bass clarinet solo of ‘The Shine/An Argument’ seems a flippant use of baggage space if you’re not using it anywhere else/not seriously trying to integrate no-wave into your sound.

However, when you’re talking the more harmonic side of the ledger, their chops are stupendous. The Town Hall is about as perfect a venue as you could find outside of something less feasible like the Hopetoun Alpha. Gliding through the natural reverb of

FLEET FOXES Town Hall, Auckland Saturday 14 JanuaryReview Dan Trevarthen Photography Dallas Pickering

AND IN THE MAKING...

the room, ‘Ragged Wood’ is unstoppable, all Beach Boys’ harmony and a train-like snare shuffle. It’s got great forward momentum, but they know when to stop on a dime – Robin Pecknold hangs in the air singing, “You should come back home...” as the band halts, and it’s perfect for the moment you’re heading back to the comforts of the central hook. It gets even better when they strip things back to showcase their voices.

Nearing the end, with a single spotlight on him, Pecknold wades into ‘Blue Spotted Tail’, a lyrical highlight. The giant pipe organ seems to loom

even larger behind him as he asks, “Why is the earth moving around the sun/ Floating in the vacuum without a purpose/ Not a one”. It’s a spellbinding moment as he’s gradually joined by his bandmates singing a bed of unobtrusive harmony below him. From there they take things back up several notches, closing with a cacophonous encore that reminds you this is still (kind of) rock’n’roll. But, at many points in the night, this doesn’t feel a world away from some of the symphonic and choral works performed in this venue.

“A pick and mix gathering of hipsters, bros and everyone in between have come to hear bearded men sing in four-part harmony.”

AUCKLANDTUESDAY 17 Auckland Jazz & Blues Club – Jessie Bradshaw Group – Pt Chevalier RSA, Pt Chevalier, 7:30pm, $5WEDNESDAY 18 Popstrangers, Cool Cult, Poor You Poor Me & Tied On Teeth – Snake Pit, Auckland CBD, 8pmAndrew Dickeson (Sydney) – 1885 Basement, Auckland CBD, 8pm, $5-$10The Circling Sun Band + DJ Truent – Ponsonby Social Club, Ponsonby, 9pm, FreeLive Latin and Brazilian Music – The Mexican Cafe, Auckland CBD, 8:30pm, FreeABSU (US) with Guests – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pm, $60Paul Voight & Petra Rijnbeek – Sugar Bar, Newmarket, 7pm, FreeAcoustic Wednesdays with Eli – Neighbourhood, Kingsland, 7:30pm, FreeTHURSDAY 19 Ebb ‘n’ Flo “House of Love”NZ Tour With Special Guests – 4:20, Newton, 9pm, $16-$20Basket Of Hammers Presents – Las Tetas, The Mad Crept – Khuja Lounge, Auckland CBD, 8:30pmCaptain Sergeant Major, God Bows to Math, Parents and More – Whammy Bar, Newton, 10pm, $10Mark Cunningham – Union Post Brewbar, Ellerslie, 9pm, FreeLife FM’s Summer Tour – Windsor Park Baptist Church, Mairangi Bay, 7pm, $10Just Us – Papatoetoe RSA, Papatoetoe, 6:30pm, $2The Datsuns – The Bacco Room, Auckland CBD, 8pm, $30FRIDAY 20 Big Day Out 2012 – Mt Smart Stadium, Penrose, 11am, $160Captain Sergeant Major, Lost Rockets, Used to be Apes & More – The Lucha Lounge, Newmarket, 9pm, Free

Dust Up at Dawn with Guests – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pmDave Clark Revival Band – Howick RSA, Howick, 7pm, FreeDJ Yoda DJ/AV Tour, Scratch 22, Sambro & Greg Churchill – InkCoherent, Newton, 10pm, $15Immortal Technique – Studio, Newton, 8:30pm, $30-$45Sam Hill, Wade Marriner & Guests – Trench Bar, Auckland CBD, 9pm, FreeJohn McGough Trumpeter/DJ – Birkenhead RSA, Birkenhead, 7pm, FreeFriday Night Salsa – Latin Dance Studios Ltd (Latinissimo), Glenfield, 8:30pm, $5-$10Charlie Brown’s Bond Street Boys – East Coast Bays RSA, Browns Bay, 7:30pm, FreeItal (USA/100% Silk) – Whammy Bar, Newton, 9pmSATURDAY 21 The Broken Heartbreakers and Bond Street Bridge Summer Tour – Wine Cellar, Newton, 8pmHouse of Shem – The Bay at Matiatia, Waiheke Island, 7pm, $25Andy C and MC GQ – Studio, Newton, 10pm, $30-$45Pure Trench Bar – Trench Bar, Auckland CBD, 9pm, FreeHabana Noches – Tropical Flavour – QF Tavern, Auckland CBD, 9pm, FreeSinate Album Release with Guests – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pmBohemian Thought – Sawmill Cafe, Leigh, 9:30pm, $10The Kavalliers – A Rocking Great Band – East Coast Bays RSA, Browns Bay, 7pm, FreeThe Rock ‘n’ Roll Allstars – Kumeu Community Hall, Kumeu, 7:30pm, $15SUNDAY 22 Threat.Meet.Protocol, God Bows to Math, Holllywoodfun & More – UFO Live Music Venue, New Lynn, 4pm, $5Blues in The Boat House – Doc & Stray Falcon – Riverhead

Tavern, Riverhead, 2pm, FreeJamesRAy’s Acoustic Country Sunday – Bar Africa, North Harbour, 12pm, FreeJamesRAy’s Encore Acoustic Country Sunday – Bar Africa, Highland Park, 5:30pm, FreeNiamh O’Neill – The Bunker, Devonport, 8pm, $15Chicane Duo – Bill Fish Cafe, St Marys Bay, 1pmMusic in Parks 2012 – Jazz at the Rotunda – Auckland Domain Band Rotunda, Parnell, 2pm, FreeThe UP FM Solar Series 2012 – Phase 1 – Western Springs Stadium, Western Springs, 1pm, FreeSunday Jazz, Rock, Reggae Session – Shooters Saloon, Kingsland, 2pm, FreeTaco Truck – Let Them Eat Lunch – Barrio, Ponsonby, 12pm, FreeMusic in Parks 2012 – The Culture Garden – Cockle Bay Reserve, Howick, 4pm, FreeMONDAY 23 Salsa Nights – Atico Cocina, Auckland CBD, 6pm, Free

NORTHLANDTUESDAY 17 Nocturnal Habitz – Pub ‘round the Corner, Russell, 5pm, FreeNocturnal Habitz – The Duke of Marlborough Hotel, Russell, 4:30pm, FreeWEDNESDAY 18 Nocturnal Habitz – Pub ‘round the Corner, Russell, 5pm, FreeTHURSDAY 19 Nocturnal Habitz – Pub ‘round the Corner, Russell, 5pm, FreeFRIDAY 20 Nocturnal Habitz – 35 Degrees South Aquarium Restaurant and Bar, Paihia, 6pm, FreeAbout Time Jazz Trio – Butterbank, Whangarei, 6pm, FreeBlack Boy Peaches Summer Tour – Ruakaka Tavern, Bream Bay, 9pm, Free

SATURDAY 21 The Thomas Oliver Band – The Duke of Marlborough Hotel, Russell, 6pm, $20Ebb ‘n’ Flo “House of Love”NZ Tour With Special Guests – Opononi Hotel, Hokianga, 8pm, $16-$20Weekend Reggae Festival – Tikipunga Tavern, Whangarei, 7:30pm, $25Nocturnal Habitz – Beach House Cafe and Bar, Paihia, 8pm, FreeGunslingers Ball – Northern Invasion – Salut Bar, Whangarei, 8pm, $10Life FM Summer Tour – Alive Church, Whangarei, 7pm, FreeSUNDAY 22 Ebb ‘n’ Flo “House of Love”NZ Tour With Special Guests – Tikipunga Tavern, Whangarei, 4pm, $16-$20Nocturnal Habitz – Alfresco’s Restaurant and Bar, Paihia, 3pm, FreeMakareta Umbers and Daniel Hewson – Food at Wharepuke, Kerikeri, 12pm, Free

THE COROMANDELSATURDAY 21 Black Boy Peaches Summer Tour – The Salutation Hotel, Thames, 9pm, FreeThe Nowhere Effect – Go Vino, Cooks Beach, 9pm, Free

WAIKATOTHURSDAY 19 The Thomas Oliver Band – Raglan to Russell – YOT Club, Raglan, 8pmFRIDAY 20 Ebb ‘n’ Flo ‘House of Love’ New Zealand Tour – Altitude Bar, Hamilton, 9pm, $16-$20Hipstamatics – Harbour View Hotel, Raglan, 8pmIn The Pink – Pink Floyd Tribute Show – Raglan Club, Raglan, 8:30pm, $10

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HAWKE’S BAY / GISBORNESATURDAY 21 The DeSotos – Bushmere Estate Winery, Gisborne, 6:30pm, $20-$25SUNDAY 22 Beat Girls – Askerne Winery, Havelock North, 4:30pm, $25

BAY OF PLENTYWEDNESDAY 18 The Datsuns – Waihi Beach Hotel, Waihi Beach, 8pm, $28THURSDAY 19 LSG Group – The Pheasant Plucker, Rotorua, 9pm, FreeMONDAY 23 Jimmy & Perry – The Pheasant Plucker, Rotorua, 7pm, Free

WELLINGTON REGIONTUESDAY 17 Live Music – The Library, 5pm, FreeWEDNESDAY 18 Regurgitator w/ Disasteradio – San Francisco Bath House, 8pm, $18Hollywoodfun Downstairs – Mighty Mighty, 9:30pm, FreeTHURSDAY 19 The Grasshopper presents Mighty Good Music – Mighty Mighty, 8pmIn Like Flynn – Molly Malones, 9pmFRIDAY 20 Lips & Little Bark – Mighty Mighty, 9:30pmAio – San Francisco Bath House, 8pm, $10Suit Up To Throw Down Tour – All Ages – Zeal, 7pmSATURDAY 21 Chow Dwn – Chow Tory, 10pmKerretta with Force Fields – Mighty Mighty, 9:30pmImmortal Technique – San Francisco Bath House, 8pmHot Cafe – Gypsy Jazz – The Lido Cafe, 8:30pm, FreeSuit Up To Throw Down Tour – R18 – Bar Medusa, 7:30pmSUNDAY 22 Alphabet Street – Capital E, 4pm, $12The Boptet – The Lido Cafe, 7pm, FreeThe Sunday Jazz Club – Public Bar & Eatery, 7:30pm, FreeWe Heart Welly – The Southern Cross Bar and Restaurant, 3pm, Free

NELSON / TASMANWEDNESDAY 18 Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – Roots Bar, Golden Bay, 9pmTHURSDAY 19 Tom Rodwell & Storehouse – Adam in the Garden Single Release – The River Inn, Golden Bay, 8pm, FreeMandy Pickering – The Heart Strings Tour – Woollaston

Estates, Upper Moutere, 6pm, $25FRIDAY 20 Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – Baby G’s Lounge, Nelson, 9pm, FreeCrazy Corporation – Golden Bear Brewing Company, Waimea, 6pm, FreeTom Rodwell & Storehouse – Adam in the Garden Release Tour – The Boathouse, Nelson, 8pm, $15Astro Empire South Island Summer Tour – Mussel Inn, Golden Bay, 9pm, FreeSATURDAY 21 Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – Tap Ale House & Restaurant, Waimea, 9pmRalph Bennett-Eades – The Free House, Nelson, 8pm, FreeSUNDAY 22 Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – The Commercial Hotel, Nelson Lakes, 9pmTom Rodwell & Storehouse – Adam in the Garden Single Release – Alpine Lodge, Nelson Lakes, 3pm, FreeThe Klezmer Rebs – The Free House, Nelson, 7pm, $10

MARLBOROUGHSATURDAY 21 Tom Rodwell & Storehouse – Adam in the Garden Single Release – Dharma Bums Club, Blenheim, 8pm

CANTERBURYTHURSDAY 19 Salsa On Thursdays – Salsa Latina Dance Studio, 8:45pm, FreeFRIDAY 20 Lincoln Drive with djDmand – Pierside Cafe and Bar, 8:30pm, FreeTealight Acoustics – Phillipstown Youth Centre, 8:30pm, $5Woolston Club Garden Party – Woolston Club, 4pm, FreeSATURDAY 21 The Atarmies – Woodend Hotel (The Woody), Woodend, 8pm, FreeThe Stone Cold Chillers – Pierside Cafe and Bar, 8:30pm, FreeSUNDAY 22 Mandy Pickering featuring the Heartstring Guitars – Melton Estate, West Melton, 12pm, $69Pizza & a Pint @ the Woody – Woodend Hotel (The Woody), Woodend, 1pm, Free

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

BEIRUTMON16 JAN

FRI27 JAN

WEDS22 FEB

TUE28 FEB

WED7 MARCH

SAT31 MARCH NICK LOWE

TUE6 MARCH

THE SISTERS OF MERCYTHURS23 FEB MAYER HAWTHORNE

TUES31 JAN KITTY DAISY & LEWIS

THE BLACK LIPS

URGE OVERKILL THURS

1 MARCH ROOTS MANUVA

THE DRESDEN DOLLS

www.powerstation.net.nz

POWERSTATION

ROKY ERICKSONWED

14 MARCH THE DIRTY THREE

THE DAMNEDWED25 JAN

ODD FUTURETHURS19 JAN

SOLD OUT

What a week – indie-folk frenzy with Fleet Foxes, Beirut and Tune-Yards in last week… Beastwars play the night after Big Day Out at Lucha Lounge with Viking Weed and have just confirmed that Nottingham sludge metal specialists Witch Hunter Records will be taking care of the vinyl-only release of their album in the UK and Europe… Excitement brewing in the Heart Attack Alley camp with the Voodoo Rhythm connection taking shape… Who are The Sadnuts?... Labretta Suede & The Motel Six heading back to New Zealand to push new album… Zapp on Commerce St in city doing excellent spicy lunches, and Frasers at Mt Eden shops have the BEST Afghans in the country – especially with a dollop of cream on top... Another independent record store bites the dust with Beat

Merchants ceasing to be a physical store at the end of the month... Melbourne dub reggae outfit The Red Eyes featuring Kiwi frontman El Witeri celebrate their 10th birthday in 2012 with their first New Zealand tour, kicking off at Mint Bar, Wanaka (26 January), before taking in 12 Below, Dunedin (27 January), Bodega, Wellington (28 January), Sawmill Cafe, Leigh (3 February), Flow Bar, Hamilton (4 February) and Kings Arms, Auckland (5 February). They will also appear at the inaugural Winchfest music festival 28 January in New Plymouth, performing alongside Katchafire, Cornerstone Roots and more… Rackets, Rum Coves and The Transistors will rock Golden Dawn the night before the

Laneway Festival... Dylan Cherry booking some tribute nights to the Dead Kennedys, Dolly Parton and more at Lucha Lounge… Horace Andy stopped in at Conch recently and checked out a book with pics of him as a 20-year-old – and big ups to Shapeshifter and the Muchmore Music crew for making the tour happen… Captain Sensible may do a DJ set the night before The Damned play their first New Zealand show in 25 years next week... Cockney Rejects also looking good for an Auckland show... Chris Stapp’s VOLUME cover this week is totally on the money.

Throwback ’90s rockers Regurgitator play San Francisco Bath House on 19 January – tickets available via undertheradar.co.nz... Electric Wire Hustle drummer Myele Manzanza’s weekly NYC-style jazz jam night The Session returns to the Matterhorn on Wednesday night… Rumours of a puppet show adaption of Pulp Fiction in the upcoming Wellington fringe festival – Puppet Fiction, anyone?… Sebastian Hesp of The Supperclub Shakedown, Wellington’s fabulous rap karaoke band, has made it back from Brazil in one piece – look out for more mayhem on the gig circuit soon… LIPS and Little Bark play Mighty Mighty on Saturday 20 January… Sandwiches celebrates Wellington Anniversary Weekend with three rounds of entertainment, DJ Yoda and Fried Chicken on Saturday, Andy C on Sunday night, and most bizarrely, a Monday afternoon daytime rave with Matthew Dear… The Dresden Dolls hit The Opera House on 28 January… Word has it that former Island Bay beatmaker Si Res has been recording with both Home Brew and King Kapisi – look out for some collaborations on the horizon… Kitty, Daisy & Lewis play Bar Bodega on 1 February. This is very, very essential… For aromatherapy nuts, Aromaflex on Cuba St has the best details in town, very potent… Epic goddess/beastess girl rock band Fantasing have almost finished recording their debut EP with The Phoenix Foundation’s Luke Buda … Local new wyrd folkster Seth Frightening has two new EPs available for download. Check them out at sethfrightening.bandcamp.com.

The Buskers Festival starts 19 January and goes through till 29 January. Promoters say this is the biggest ever with over 500 shows. The Music Pitch part of the festival in Cashel Mall features Dr Rythym, Mel Parsons, Dr Sanchez, Maui and The Eastern… Sleeping Dogs, the band fronted by Thomas Reid (he of recently built Quicksand studio), tour the North Island with Supermodel this month… The Bedford is moving back close to

its original site in the central city. The word is a large marquee and opening around March… Lots of talk regarding new venues opening. Current locations being suggested are under the supermarket in Lyttelton, the continued development of The Brewery in Woolston, the old flour mill in Addington. Meanwhile, Dux Live continues to be the only source of regular live music.

Great Jali EP tour going strong... Sonic Smith releasing some new tunes complete with trippy vids… Jo Little has a new EP pit on Bandcamp… MANTHYNG made the cover of Express magazine and feature in a new Australian-produced travel doco… Mark McGuire’s alt act Innertube to play Dunedin early February… Louis Smith’s alter ego Thunderc*nt now touring with Alizarin Lizard – do not miss this guy – coming to a town near you.

Got some news for More Volume? Email us at morevolume@volumemagazine.co.nz.

Mel Parsons

Beastwars

REGURGITATORWednesday 18 January – San Francisco Bath House, Wellington

ST JEROME’S LANEWAY FESTIVAL Anna Calvi, Feist, The Horrors, Gotye, Laura Marling, Pajama Club, SBTRKT Live, Shayne P. Carter, Washed Out, Twin Shadow, M83, Cults, Girls, EMA, Yuck, Toro Y Moi, Glasser, Opossom, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Austra, Transistors and moreMonday 30 January – Silo Park, Wynyard Quarter, Auckland

KITTY, DAISY & LEWISTuesday 31 January – The Powerstation, Auckland Wednesday 1 February – Bodega, Wellington

CAMP A LOW HUM 201210–12 February – Camp Wainui, Homedale, Wainuiomata

THE SISTERS OF MERCY Wednesday 22 February – The Powerstation, Auckland

NEW ORDERMonday 27 February – Vector Arena, Auckland

THE BLACK LIPS Tuesday 28 February – The Powerstation, Auckland

URGE OVERKILLTuesday 6 March – The Powerstation

RYAN ADAMSTuesday 6 March – The Regent Theatre, DunedinThursday 8 March – The Civic Theatre, Auckland

ROKY ERICKSONWednesday 7 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

ARIEL PINK’S HAUNTED GRAFITTI Tuesday 13 March – Kings Arms, Auckland Wednesday 14 March – Bodega, Wellington

DIRTY THREEWednesday 14 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

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

NICK LOWE March 31 – The Powerstation, Auckland

PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT PLAYING CLOSER – A JOY DIVISION CELEBRATIONFriday 20 April – Studio, AucklandWellington show TBC

THE DRESDEN DOLLSFriday 27 January – The Powerstation, AucklandSaturday 28 January – Opera House, Wellington

THE DAMNED Wednesday 25 January – The Powerstation, Auckland

BIG DAY OUT 2012 Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Das Racist, Parkway Drive, Regurgitator, Cavalera Conspiracy, The Vaccines, Nero, Soundgarden, Kasabian, Röyksopp, Mariachi el Bronx, Battles, Beastwars, Best Coast, My Chemical Romance and moreFriday 20 January – Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland

SPLORE 2012Erykah Badu, Hudson Mohawke, DJ Qbert and Reeps One, Soul II Soul, Africa Hitech, Gappy Ranks, Shortee Blitz, The Yoots, @Peace, Scratch 22, Disasteradio, Alphabethead, Earl Gateshead, The Nudge, AHoriBuzz, The SmokeEaters, Hermitude and more17–19 February – Tapapakanga Regional Park, Auckland

WOODEN SHJIPSSunday 1 April – Kings Arms, Auckland Monday 2 April – Bodega, Wellington

ODD FUTUREThursday 19 January – The Powerstation, Auckland

THE DATSUNSWednesday 18 January – Waihi Beach Hotel, Waihi BeachThursday 19 January – Bacco Room, AucklandFriday 27 January – Mangawhai Tavern, MangawhaiThursday 2 February – San Francisco Bath House, Wellington

THERE ARE GIGS where you know you are seeing an artist in a more intimate setting than you’ll ever see them again; next time they pass this way they will have outgrown the venue in fame and scale. Last Thursday at the Kings Arms felt like one of those gigs, with Tune-Yards’ first show in the Southern Hemisphere.

Tune-Yards is the performing name used by Massachusetts-born, Oakland-based Merrill Garbus; initially for her lo-fi solo recordings, now for the sophisticated four-piece band she leads.

With her lopsided haircut, white stripe of war paint across her cheek and some extraordinary fluffy thing adorning her shoulders, Garbus greeted the crowd warmly and, banging time on a pair of tom-toms, launched into a passionate ‘Do You Wanna Live?’ which set the life-affirming tone of the evening. And her generosity as a performer was returned by a crowd that – to her apparent surprise – were familiar with the great songs from her two albums, Bird Brain and who kill.

After the solo intro she was joined by her tight combo of electric bass and two saxophonists, and the temperature of the music and the room just kept building through an 80-minute set that defied you to keep still.

Though Tune-Yards comes via indie-rock channels (they are signed to iconic indie label 4AD), they clear draw much inspiration from African music. Horn riffs reminiscent of Fela Kuti match the political and social undertone of Garbus’ songwriting. Even her hardest songs escape the tyranny of the traditional rock backbeat with intricate polyrhythms.

Live, as on disc, Garbus builds her arrangements with the aid of a sampler. She starts with a simple figure, which she creates either with drums, ukulele, voice, or (in one instance) the audience’s handclaps, looping it electronically into a continuous rhythm before stacking on more parts. It’s a technical feat, yet rather than feeling we are watching a boffin in her studio, I was reminded of James Brown dancing

the rhythm, making sure the groove is right before launching into the body of the song. Using samplers in real time is not uncommon – locals like Andrew Keoghan and Liam Finn do it to great effect – but I have never seen sampling used onstage to create quite the funky momentum of Tune-Yards. Nor did the technology constrain the

music. Several songs – such as the anthemic ‘Bisness’ – were effortlessly stretched beyond the tight structure you will find on the record.

There was a strong physicality to the whole thing, from Nate Brenner’s muscular basslines to the sax section’s sudden John Zorn-esque outbursts of controlled frenzy. But most of all it was Garbus’ voice that communicated so powerfully; leaping intervals like some exotic birdcall, effortlessly negotiating her strong, unpredictable melodies, it pulled everything into focus. The technology might be modern, her music innovative and fresh, but the singing tapped something ancient.

TUNE-YARDS KINGS ARMS, AUCKLAND THURSDAY 12 JANUARY Review Nick Bollinger Photography Milana Radojcic

“It was Garbus’ voice that communicated so powerfully; leaping intervals like some exotic birdcall.”

BEIRUT W/ TONO AND THE FINANCE COMPANYOpera House, WellingtonSaturday 14 JanuaryReview Leslie Henkel Photography Don Fierro

INSIDE THE BUZZING lobby of the Opera House, where the body heat warms and the overpriced beer quenches, as ecstatic Beirut fans rush all around me, all I can think is, ‘Thank God they changed the venue!’

At the smaller, less opulent San Francisco Bath House, tonight would’ve been an orgy of craning necks and clawing paws fighting to get a look at the bands. There would have never been, for example, the spectacle of kids dancing up to the foot of the stage, as occurs for opener Tono and The Finance Company. With frontman Anthonie Tonnon’s uncanny Morrissey-esque croon and weirdo swagger, The Finance Company enlivens the crowd with sharp

pop ballads and could-be dance hits that call to mind the best of turn-of-the-century Britpop. By the end of their set, more butts have left their seats to join the wriggling posse up front.

On this charged note, Beirut’s set begins with the sweeping favourite ‘Scenic World’ off their 2006 album, Gulag Orkestra, followed by the gypsy-dervish masterpiece ‘The Shrew’ off the 2009 EP, March of the Zapotec, and the epic ‘Elephant Gun’ off Beirut’s second album from 2007, The Flying Club Cup. Other than some faltering trumpet play early on, the set is off to a glorious start. Zach Condon’s sonorous voice is as moving as ever, and the accordion, bass, drums, flugelhorn, trumpet and a rotating cast of brass conspire with the crowd’s own percussive contributions. The joyous clamour that fills the Opera House prompts Condon to remark that tonight has made the last few shows seem “sleepy by comparison.”

The roar of the crowd for the swarthy, full-bodied, brass-heaving classics is unmistakable throughout the show, which is perhaps why Beirut choose their older songs to bookend the performance. Perhaps a more retrained, more personal album, the material from The Rip Tide gets less of the whoop and holler that Beirut’s older work elicits, yet the sunnier gems, ‘Vagabond’ and ‘Sante Fe’ – charmingly recreated with staccato accordion replacing the album’s synth backbeat – clearly ignite the dancing kids. Meanwhile, lovers move closer to the ukulele-led, klezmer waltz of ‘Port of Call”, and swoon to introspective ballads ‘Goshen’ and ‘East Harlem’. None of these receive the applause that meets ‘Gulag Orkestra’ during the encore, but clamour isn’t the only measure of a performance; I can say with confidence that few left the show feeling less than greatly rewarded.

Anthonie Tonnon

Zac Condon

FIRST NZ SHOW IN 25 YEARS!

WED 25 JANPOWERSTATION

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Kitty, Daisy & Lewiswith Delaney DavidsonPowerstation Tuesday 31st January Tickets from Ticketmaster

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