24 JANUARY 2012 #019

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AUCKLAND MONDAY 30 JANAUCKLAND MONDAY 30 JAN SILO PARKBEAUMONT STREET

FEIST . THE HORRORS . GOTYE . LAURA MARLING . EMAPAJAMACLUB . AUSTRA . SBTRKTLIVE . SHAYNEP.CARTERTOROY MOI . YUCK . TWIN SHADOW . GIRLS . ANNA CALVICULTS . WASHED OUT . SHERPA . GLASSER . OPOSSOMTHEPAINSOF BEING PUREATHEART . M83 . TRANSISTORSFOR ALL THE LATEST NEWS & TIX INFO GO TO: LANEWAYFESTIVAL.CO.NZ

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EDITOR: Sam Wickssam.wicks@volumemagazine.co.nzWEB EDITOR: Hugh Sundaehugh.sundae@nzherald.co.nzDEPARTMENT OF VOLUME SALES: John Bakerjohn.baker@volumemagazine.co.nzDESIGN: Xanthe WilliamsWRITERS: Gavin Bertram, Steph Brown, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Duncan Greive, Jessica Hansell, Joe Nunweek, Henry Oliver, Hugh Sundae, Dan Trevarthen, Sam Valentine, Aaron YapILLUSTRATION: Hej GaniasPHOTOGRAPHERS: John Needham, Milana RadojcicAN APN PUBLICATION

Was it that it got too big, the scale unwieldly, or that the lineups – designed to unite the tribes and engineered for Australian tastes – were too damn catch-all? Was Metallica’s headlining slot the beginning of the end for Big Day Out, as a rawk behemoth took the place of what should have been a well-considered set from Radiohead, Kanye or Prince?WHILE LAST FRIDAY’S Big Day Out wasn’t the send-off that this 18-year institution deserved, we’re offering a firm “no” to all the above. The festival was the Trojan horse that delived us artists like The Flaming Lips, MIA, Aphex Twin, and Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros, and the great enabler that allowed locals like Bailter Space and Shihad to have their sound writ large on the main stage. And we’re going to miss it.

But days after punters chucked their deuces up to BDO (and months out from a local Lollapalooza or Auckland City Limits Festival announcement) we’re out with the old and in with the new in VOLUME, as we prepare for the return of the small, perfectly formed St Jerome’s Laneway Festival, tailor-made for an age of specialisation. In three years, Laneway’s had three homes, migrating from Britomart to Aotea Square and now to Silo Park in the retooled surrounds of Wynyard Quarter. Auckland doesn’t always get civic space right, but the city’s knocked it out the park with this one.

St Jerome’s Laneway Festival 2012 is shaping up to be the best yet, and issue #019 of VOLUME is your insider’s guide to this boutique destination festival, with stories on Feist, Twin Shadow and Austra, survival tips, a word with one of the co-directors, plus a timetable and map.

And if you spot rich-lister Graeme Hart pulling a working bee on his superyacht, Weta, at the end of Tank Farm on Auckland Anniversary Day, maybe mention the gap in the local superfestival market. Could be an investment option for a Glendowie One Percent-er, right?

You’ve been kicking about your original stomping ground of Raglan this summer. How does it feel to be heading out on tour?Feels great. I love touring. I kill myself getting all the details sorted so that when it actually rolls round we can just have fun. Hopefully this weather rights itself by the time we start! I’m indignant, along with the rest of the country. Consecutive rainy days in late January are an outrage.

Does your old man still run Raglan’s Yot Club?Yup, Dad still runs it and my brother is the manager there. Sometimes Mum helps clear glasses if it’s real busy. She’s a lawyer, but she’s cruisy as. Also, my boyfriend Ned Ngatae is world-famous in Raglan for his monthly Yot Club KillaManRaro DJ sets. I think Rags likes him better than me. So, yeah – it’s a family vibe.

What’s the ratio of Coddingtons to “civilians” going to be when you play there Friday?My sister is over from England, so that’s all five of my immediate family and some of my aunties and cousins are coming over from Turangi. They’re on my Mum’s side, so technically they’re Kingis, not Cods, but it’ll be a strong family contingent. Ratio of maybe one whanau: 10 civs.

Musician, second-dan karate black belt, Masters in linguistics, surfer… what boxes are you planning to tick in 2012? Ha! Surfer. My surfing peak was standing up for two seconds at age 17. I got into music instead of surfing, I reckon. Boxes for 2012: making new music, travel, practising hard-out with Anika and Julia for our new band, Alluzzionz. I play drums. It’s awesome. Time to make another record too, I guess.

Anna Coddington begins her Little Islands Tour at Auckland’s Kings Arms this Thursday with She’s So Rad. Check out annacoddington.com for all the tour dates.

ANNA CODDINGTONVOLUME readers, this week’s issue is your insider’s guide to St Jerome’s Laneway Festival, making its way to Auckland’s Silo Park in Wynyard Quarter next Monday. Here are the essential Laneway details you need to know:• There are three stages this year – Cherry Lane, Penny Lane and

Park Lane – rammed with 23 bands• St Jerome’s Laneway Festival is R18 – no exceptions. There will be

three separate bars, plus water stations, coat check, market stalls and band merchandise stands

• The show goes ahead rain or shine and there are passouts from later in the day

• Expect boutique food stalls, vegetarian and vegan options, as well as the festival food staples

• You can bring your own food, umbrellas and camera (no professional camera equipment), but no water, drinks/alcohol, chairs or pets

BEN HOWE – LANEWAY CO-DIRECTORWe have several partners involved in Laneway, and we all have different roles. My main role is to do with the artists and the lineup. The busiest time for me is shortly after the previous festival when we’re talking about lineups for the following year. We start by rattling off long lists of bands that we think would be awesome to have, and approaching

them to see whether the timing works. There are a certain amount of slots available, and it’s a bit of a juggling act – it is like putting a big jigsaw puzzle together and getting the right balance of artists and genres. Because we’ve had a different site every year, there’s a fair amount of figuring out where the stages should go, the fencing, figuring out a map – all the nuts and bolts. And the third part is the marketing and promotion side of it – that kicks in once we’ve announced the festival. At that time, my job is working out the timetable and the schedule. I look after the food stalls at the moment and the gate on the day, so we divide up all those jobs as well.

LANEWAY SURVIVAL GUIDE

SEND ME A POSTCARDFormer Opensouls’ keys player Steph Brown – LIPS – is back home from New York for the summer, and plays Auckland’s Golden Dawn this Friday.

TICKETDIRECT.CO.NZ

0800 4 TICKET

IT MUST HAVE been like some sort of an Amazing Race challenge for those who got the news and had nothing else on. Get home, fi nd the bloody ticket stub, get to Mt Smart before 8pm. I don’t think I’ve ever bought a festival T-shirt in my life – I don’t really get them. Clearly I’m in a minority of sorts because on the day the merchandise tent drew bigger crowds than some of the stages.

There had been chitter-chatter all day about what might happen in the evening. Would they release cheap evening tickets? I didn’t think they’d do anything like that for fear of the effect that it would have on next year’s event. I guess I was wrong about that too. And as someone reminded me in the afternoon, what next year?

I guess I can understand the annoyance of those who forked out a decent whack of cash, but I don’t get pissed off when people score cheap bread at the supermarket when they go late-night shopping.

There is no denying it was an odd day. As mid-afternoon approached, the crowd was still only slightly creeping up in size, the atmosphere tinged with sadness and disbelief. Most people I bumped into thought a “Keep Calm and Carry On” atmosphere would make the

evening a you-had-to-be there moment, and to a certain extent it did, especially after the free entry call was made.

If the same lineup had been put on in a different venue with a different name, there wouldn’t have been half the reaction that this year’s Big Day Out received. I guess it’s like kids’ parties. You have to outdo yourself every year

or there will be trouble. I was in a sorry state on Saturday while preparing for my son’s birthday party, so I know what I’m talking about.

I saw some great sets last Friday. Wilberforces and Junica came out firing – it was as though they weren’t up first. David Dallas, Cairo Knife Fight, Beastwars and, of course, Soundgarden. As I said on this page the other week, the Big Day Out was always more than just the lineup, and I’m glad to have been part of it.

“I guess it’s like kids’ parties. You have to outdo yourself every year or there will be trouble.”

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From one festival to the next, it’s all about Laneway this week. Check nzherald.co.nz/music for our coverage leading up to Monday, including an onsite video with a bloody flash animation showing how the site will look. On the day we’re going to get a bit crazy an attempt to webcast live from the event.

DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER…Who knew that last week’s special Big Day Out issue of VOLUME would turn out to be such a souvenir? And as we found out last Friday at 6:15pm, it turns out keeping those mementos does come in handy after all.

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BEFORE FINDING INDIE rock acclaim with Austra, Katie Stelmanis had a childhood start in choir and opera. Although she’s adapted her style, her training still shines through.

“I started singing in choirs and I’ve been performing since I was 10 years old, so I’ve been singing pretty consistently since that age,” the Canadian vocalist says. “I did choir, then I studied opera privately for my later teenage years, and I guess that kind of infl uenced the way I sing now a lot.”

Her voice is the first thing you notice, soaring wraith-like over bubbling synthesiser lines. Sounding something like a more conventional Björk singing along to B-sides from The Knife, there’s a gothic, stately quality to Austra’s music. While Stelmanis’ voice has retained a lot of its cultured nature, to get to this point she had to stir in some other ingredients. Discovering punk at age 18, she initially rebelled against her roots with current Austra drummer Maya Postepski in the Riot Grrrl-influenced act Galaxy.

“It took a long time to find a voice that wasn’t an opera singing voice for me. I think that Galaxy was a really good transition because it was the complete opposite of what I was doing, and it forced me to learn how to sing in a different way that wasn’t opera. I think that through just playing shows, I eventually developed a style that was my own.”

Then there was the matter of learning new instruments. Initially she set herself up with a computer and MIDI controller to write orchestral music. Soon she started learning different set of instruments, a steep learning curve for someone from her background.

“I wanted to be able to trigger violins and pianos, but eventually got more into the synthetic instruments,

and started using drums and bass instead of violins and cellos and stuff like that. At the time when I was making MIDI music I wasn’t listening to any electronic music at all, so I didn’t really have any influences. I think that’s why it took me a long time to learn how to use bass and drums. I was using a lot of synthesisers, but it didn’t have much bottom-end. My biggest influence at that time was Nine Inch Nails – I loved that harsh distorted industrial stuff – and Björk was a big influence.”

Discovered at South by Southwest in 2010 when Domino Records “accidentally” saw them play, they found themselves signed four months later, enjoying the fruits of some label muscle.

“I think it helps so much to put out a record and have a push from a label like Domino. It was crazy – we played shows in January, February, March, and some of the shows we played were to 50 people, and then we put the record out and suddenly we were selling out 600-seat arenas.”

And while things are looking bright for her band, Austra’s songs will continue to walk in the shadows for now.

“I pretty much only write in minor keys. Not even just minor keys; I just never write in major keys, I don’t know why. I can’t really write music in a major key – happy music just doesn’t really work for me. I guess it’s just the music that I always listened to. I

listened to a lot of Puccini and a lot of Debussy, and all of his music was in weird key signatures and he has really weird chords. I’m much more interested in that than writing basic B-major happy music.”

Austra plays St Jerome’s Laneway Festival on Monday 30 January at Silo Park, Wynyard Quarter, Auckland with 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 more.

“I can’t really write music in a major key – happy music just doesn’t really work for me.”– Katie Stelmanis

There’s a lot of darkness in Austra’s music, but it’s somehow fitting that the group shares a name with a Latvian goddess of light. While their debut record Feel It Break is a minor key affair, the siren voice of frontwoman Katie Stelmanis is pretty near mythical.Text Dan Trevarthen

As Twin Shadow, George Lewis Jr’s music may conjure up the spectre of fey ’80s pop and lovelorn ’50s crooning alike, but its preoccupations with memory and experience are more interesting still. Text Joe Nunweek

THERE’S A FEW hairy minutes before I get hold of George Lewis Jr, missed calls going to the neutral tone of his answering machine message. Then, on a last-ditch effort, he picks up. “I was like, where the fuck is this coming from?” he laughs. It turns out the stretch of interviews he has to complete today has slipped his mind. His debut album, Forget, belies its title by evoking the “sweat of bedsheets”, the way winter “crystallises the bad times”, old school friends driving into oblivion. You get the feeling that if Lewis is a forgetful person, he hangs onto the right details.

Lewis was Dominican Republic-born, Florida-raised, and fairly well travelled by his mid-20s – it was shortly after writing music for a travelling dance and theatre company in Northern Europe that he reached the epiphany about what he wanted Twin Shadow to be.

“The theatre company work was strictly a day job. I’d like to say that I was immersed in performing arts and drama, but it was really more of an anonymous thing. Stuff like assembling Velvet Underground and older rock covers that paid the bills and kept me moving.”

By Berlin, he felt confident enough to cut out on his own: “I’d been in punk bands and stuff since my teens, and I felt like the seeds of what was on Forget had been there germinating for a little while. You get a few years into your 20s and maybe feel a bit more concrete about what you want to make, and don’t necessarily need to start out with a band to do it.”

With the 11 songs that would form Regret, Lewis went into the studio with Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear. The beautiful but slightly arch and stuffy sound of the Grizzly Bear records Taylor had a hand in producing may seem at odds with Forget’s synth anthems, more indebted to Prince and late-era Roxy Music than most mannered indie. But Taylor has also presided over the mixing and restoration of posthumous releases by disco producer Arthur Russell, and that meticulous eye for detail creeps into the work.

“I think when you go into the details and touches in the work, like those little stabs of violin in ‘Shooting Holes’ or the synth flute on ‘I Can’t Wait’, that’s part of

what Chris brings to it. But that interest in creating something with r’n’b elements, to craft it around those lines, had been with me a while.”

Somewhat of a perfectionist, Lewis admits that he’ll go back to Forget at times and feel frustration. “I guess you’re never your best critic.”

Though Twin Shadow is now an honest-to-God seasoned live outfit with multiple players, the project remains Lewis’ – in a stretch of downtime at 2011’s end, he worked on the material that will form the basis of his second album.

“I did a lot of the writing on Forget in isolation, in hotel rooms or in my place in Brooklyn at the time. I think there’ll probably be other players on the album, and I’m interested to see what they add after the songwriting’s done.”

There’s a paradox in talking to Lewis – he avowedly rejects the shyness and emotional distance of indie rock, but he’s also not a big fan of discussing the direct events, people or inspirations behind Forget’s songs. Parallel to that classic croon of his, he adopts a gentleman’s distance from the emotional heft of the work.

“I guess the songs do a bit better at capturing those experiences. There are definitely a few different vignettes, ranging from really vivid teenage experiences I had, to some interactions in my early 20s, and then the experience of returning and seeing old friends again from that teenage time and seeing a lot of ways in which things had really deteriorated for them.”

Forget highlights ‘When We’re Dancing’ and ‘Shooting Holes’ are the most vivid evocation of that Florida teen-hood, but there’s also something to be said for his ambiguity around it at a time when so many new artists get dwarfed under a biography’s worth of press-kitting.

Lewis has already taken to remixing the work of others under the Twin Shadow moniker – he tells me that he intends to turn his hand to producing next.

“I’m definitely interested in how a producer plays that role in shaping the sound of another artist, and what they contribute to that process.”

Which means we may yet get a sense of what truly makes Twin Shadow tick – albeit on another musician’s record.

Twin Shadow plays St Jerome’s Laneway Festival on Monday 30 January at Silo Park, Wynyard Quarter, Auckland with Anna Calvi, Feist, The Horrors, Gotye, Laura Marling, Pajama Club, SBTRKT Live, Shayne P. Carter, Washed Out, Austra, M83, Cults, Girls, EMA, Yuck, Toro Y Moi, Glasser, Opossom, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Austra, Transistors and more.

“I’d been in punk bands and stuff since my teens, and I felt like the seeds of what was on Forget had been there germinating for a little while.” – George Lewis Jr

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.

SLEIGH BELLS – ‘Comeback Kid’This sounds like the kind of music they’d have imagined kids in the future listening to

in 2012 in post-apocalyptic movies made in the early ’80s. The soundtrack would’ve been done on the cheap by some Italian or East German guy, and would probably now be reissued by Soul Jazz or whatever and be some sort of cult classic. The fact that it is now 2012 doesn’t diminish the fun of the fi rst single from Sleigh Bells’ second album one bit. It’s a full-blown Sugababes vocal battling for space next to ultra-processed thrash guitars, like a cleaner Atari Teenage Riot. Can’t argue with that.

SKRILLEX – ‘Bangarang’ ft. SirahIt seems so strange that dubstep is now breaking

charts. Skrillex has taken all those funny aggro sounds and placed them at a tempo which blends seamlessly with Pitbull, along with a few vocal samples. I guess it’s a 2012 version of Fat Boy Slim, taking an element of what was once an underground (read: messageboard) thing and packaging it for the masses. I don’t have a problem with it, but a lot of men will.

LMFAO – ‘Sorry for Party Rocking’‘Party Rocking’ is a great thing to be apologising for.

But using my immense critical skills to decode hidden meanings and subtexts I detect a slight air of disingenuousness from LMFAO. As if they’re not really sorry for party rocking at all, and are, in fact, rather proud of party rocking. It’s a good dumb day-glo song, its irrational exuberance matched only by the surliness with which it’s greeted by people who should know better. Lighten up, people. They said they’re sorry!

SANTIGOLD – ‘Big Mouth’‘Big Mouth’ is all energy, mad drums and chanting, and contorted vocal samples

– it’s exhilarating in terms of its general approach. But there’s the strong sense that it might not actually be a song. Classic old white dude line, I know, but I wouldn’t worry except that on ‘L.E.S. Artistes’ Santi showed that she is one of the best songwriters on the planet when she wants to be. Leave this stuff to MIA – it’s good, but there’s much more in you, kid.

Flo Rida remains at number one. This is a bit of a worry. Last time he spent a whole month there, which was fine (even though early ’08 was a great time for ballady r’n’b – ‘No Air’, ‘Bleeding Love’ and ‘With You’, all at the same time), except that this time there’s no dreadlocked robot voice lusting after “apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur – the furrr”. So it’s a lot less fun.

The big mover is Annah Mac’s ‘Girl in Stilettos’, which is now officially a big shiny hit, sitting at number three just behind Snoop and Flo (surely no one calls him that).

While the lyrics are fairly trite, and the title is just awful, if you don’t listen super hard it’s pretty enjoyable. Plus she won Gore’s Golden Guitar three times! Coming mere months after Ria’s superb ‘Over You’, it has me hoping that we might see a little spate of poppy r’n’b from our out-of-time isles. Not gonna happen, but dreams are free, right?

All the new release action is at the bottom of the chart. Pieter T has a slowie with an ‘Always on My Mind’ (the rubbish Tiki Taane song, not the great Elvis/PSB’s one) feel to it, only slicker. Guetta stole three minutes of Nicki Minaj’s life and had her deliver a song which truly could have been anyone. It might not even be her. Maybe she just banked the cheque. I certainly hope so. LMFAO and Skrillex’s entries are discussed to the right.

So still fairly action-free, but that’ll change shortly, starting with Ladyhawke’s ‘Black White & Blue’, out any second now. High hopes for that one.

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

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

3 Annah Mac – ‘Girl in Stilettos’

4 Coldplay – ‘Paradise’

5 Ed Sheeran – ‘The A Team’

6 David Guetta ft. Sia – ‘Titanium’

7 LMFAO – ‘Sexy and I Know It’

8 Six60 – ‘Only To Be’

9 Labrinth ft. Tinie Tempah – ‘Earthquake’

10 One Direction – ‘What Makes You Beautiful’

11 Pitbull ft. Chris Brown – ‘International Love’

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

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

14 Christina Perri – ‘A Thousand Years’

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

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

17 Kelly Clarkson – ‘What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger)’

18 Timomatic – ‘Set It Off’

19 Avicii – ‘Levels’

20 Flo Rida – ‘Good Feeling’

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SINGLE OF THE WEEK

IT’S REFRESHING, GIVEN popular culture’s penchant for constant change that a band like The Fall remains constant. The Fall meaning Mark E Smith of course, as this is a band with a revolving door that usurps even The Chills. Ironically, even that’s changed, as Ersatz GB is the third consecutive album to feature the same supporting cast to Smith’s inimitably pithy Manc delivery and coded lyrics. That’s largely irrelevant though, as what The Fall represents musically hasn’t really altered since they began recording in the late 1970s. That disinclination or inability to evolve has recently been viewed as a weakness by critics, but surely that’s more emblematic

of the acceleration of culture than The Fall suddenly becoming irrelevant.

In a sense Ersatz GB is as relevant as anything Smith has ever done, as the clanging, uncontained racket within is as singular and impossible to duplicate as it’s ever been. And certain cuts here – the lengthy, repetitive ‘Monocard’, the peculiarly influenced by Greek heavy metal of ‘Greenway’, the Krautrock influenced ‘Taking Off ’ – are among the best things The Fall has done. As ever, Smith looms over proceedings, as Notre Dame’s gargoyles have borne witness to the changing fortunes of Paris.

Review Gavin Bertram

1: Callum O’Brien vs Kashif Shuja: New Zealand National Final 2006 – After four months of heavy drinking and light training, Callum O’Brien pulled one out of the bag.2: Ross Norman vs Jahangir Kahn: World Men’s Championships – Good on ya, Ross. Stopped the legend’s 500-plus winning streak.3: Aileen Buscke vs Teresa Laws: Waikato Open Final 1969 – Even after knocking herself out, being told to stop and being down two sets to nil, Aileen still won.4: Leilani Joyce vs Carol Owens: National Women’s Champs – One of the best Women’s finals to watch apparently, though I never saw it5: Susan Devoy vs Lisa Opie: World Champs 1985 – Our Susan’s a lege, ain’t she?

THE DATSUNS

PHIL SOMERVELL’S TOP FIVE SQUASH MATCHES OF ALL TIME

VARIOUS ARTISTSVoguing and the House Ballroom Scene of New York City 1976-96

(Soul Jazz)Another fantastic Soul Jazz compilation, covering the music that soundtracked the gay and predominantly African-American/Latin NYC dance scene in the ’80s. Its spread allows it to take in ground-zero disco (Diana Ross), Arthur Russell (via Loose Joints’ ‘Is it All Over My Face’), Malcolm McLaren curios, and overlooked Detroit-edged house tracks. Essential – they’re also offering a glossy coffeetable book alongside it.

BIOHAZARDReborn in Defiance(Roadrunner)Biohazard is acknowledged as one of the first

groups to fuse hardcore punk and heavy metal with hip hop, a scourge I think we can agree we’re all still paying dearly for. The circa-2011 reformation downplays this disastrous mix but just feels tedious rather than embarassing – at least seeing a band like Korn go dubstep has a certain car-crash appeal.

GRASS CANNONSVet Dream(Self-released)Amazing and self-assured EP from

Auckland band blends ambient roar with a nervous, cryptic post-punk jangle. Opener ‘Antarctica #3’ seems to operate as a number of anthemic shoegaze suites – more and more restless the more you go back to it – while the chilly pop of ‘Cat Hair’ is at once bludgeoning and nimble, all deafening chords alongside a wiry guitar line. It shouldn’t be free, but it is.

TODD TERJEIt’s the Arps(Olsen/Smalltown Supersound)Norwegian space-disco producer

(think tensile, immersive tracks with glissades of burbling antique synth – Lindstrom or even LCD’s ‘Someone Great’ in its various cosmic forms) returns with a brief but very satisfying EP. The perfect dose of this sound – the two-part ‘Swing Star’ is alternately eerie and dreamily lush.

VARIOUS ARTISTSHell is Now Love Label Sampler(Hell is Now Love)Samplers are usually

a quick’n’dirty label ploy, but they’re a bit more auspicious when they’re one the first statements of intent from a label – think Dischord’s Flex Your Head or Xpressway’s Pile Up cassette. Hell is Now Love’s sampler highlights a good portion of the thornier, darker side of Auckland punk rock

circa 2011. Mason Clinic and The Postures should be on any self-respecting person’s must-watch list.

FUTURE Astronaut Status(Self-released)Atlanta rapper is being heralded as the next to inherit

Gucci Mane’s crown; this mixtape defi nitely has its moments, but he’s buried under Auto-Tune a third of the time, some good productions (by the brilliantly-named Zaytoven on three tracks) and more striking or charismatic guest rappers (Cooley, Gucci himself) the rest. Though, boy oh boy, I am sick of dramatic bells on rap mixtapes.

NIUSEILAHNiuSeiLAH(Self-released)Even if it’s not the most sonically restless genre,

two clear streams of dub and reggae have set up camp in New Zealand: barbecue-dub meandering mindless dDub bullshit vs stuff like this. These Polynesian Cantabrians make hearty, poignant and political reggae that takes us from the Mururoa Atoll to the teenage suburbs. Solid.

THE LITTLE WILLIESFor The Good Times(EMI)Museum-piece, Norah Jones-

fronted outfit makes replica

country’n’western (Cash, Nelson, Kristofferson covers). Relentless, aggravating affability – I assume this group counts as her downtime, so why is is it so tame and mannered?

FIRST AID KITThe Lion’s Roar(Witchita/Liberation)Swedish sister act

have been picked up and primed as a sort of Fleet Fox-y, Newsom-y Scandanavian forest-spirit folk discovery (they started as a YouTube viral, covering the former ‘Tiger Mountain Peasant Song’. Produced by Mike Mogis who did all Bright Eyes’ stuff, the result is kind of a lush mulch – obviously pretty, but pretty obvious.

STEVE SMYTHRelease(TeenAgeRiot Music)Gravelly Australian

singer-songwriter is actually okay if you like that sort of thing. Wearing a lot of hats (the Tim Buckley hat, the Tom Waits hat, maybe a Beirut hat briefly) makes for a bit more sonic variety then when you just have to listen to someone try and fail to do Springsteen for 35 minutes. His balladry (‘Endless Nowdays’) is way better than his dad-ish attempts to rock out.

Reviews Joe Nunweek

Ersatz GB (Cherry Red Records)

IF THIS IS how hard it is to get hold of Leslie Feist these days, you’d hate to be waiting to interview her when she was blowing up in 2007. After burning through five promises of a phone interview with the Canadian singer, VOLUME finally got to talk to her a month later than planned. But as she talks about the schedule grind which led her to take time out from music, it’s hard to be mad.

“I’d been on tour for two albums in a row, which added up to about six or seven years, and I wanted to go home.”

That’s a lot of mileage. To recap, following an eventful 16 years playing music in Canada, including opening for The Ramones with her high school band, touring with By Divine Right, opening for The Tragically Hip, flatting/recording/touring with Peaches and joining eventual indie rock institution Broken Social Scene, the ride only got crazier when she started making solo records. The high point came in 2007 with the release of The Reminder, which hit number 16 on the mainstream US Billboard chart, yet seemed to reside smack bang in the middle of the zeitgeist, soundtracking summer holidays and

delighting advertising creatives looking for their next TV commercial soundtrack. As you can imagine, once that kind of momentum starts it’s hard to stop.

“I had to draw a brick wall in the calendar and say I was going to stop after this line in the sand, because it could have gone on forever. I started to really get the impression that it could have gone on forever – unless we stopped. When we hit the seven-year mark of touring, at that point you can’t really remember life before touring. I like to call it my sabbatical; it makes it sound a bit more official and professor-ly.”

But stop she did, taking a year off, then another year. She talks about “growing tomatoes and learning how to make apple cider”. Enjoying that sabbatical away from her music, she went largely cold turkey from her guitar.

“I really didn’t have any interest in picking up a guitar, and it took a while before I wanted to again. And then, whenever I would want to, it would feel like hiding in the stairwell and kissing someone that you’ve known for a really long time, then sneaking back into your real life. It took a while before I could re-romance the guitar.”

Growing tomatoes and learning to make apple cider – Feist has been enjoying the fruits of a well-earned break. Back with new album Metals, the elusive songstress talks to VOLUME about getting back together with her guitar.Text Dan Trevarthen

But when the romance happened, she was able to get to writing Metals.

“One day it dawned on me that I kind of had the frame back – you know, the lens that you look at things through and the curiosity about the whole thing. I made a little space behind my apartment in this sort of shed, where I put a desk and some speakers and a piano, one guitar, one amp and one tambourine and one floor tom, and started to write. Once I got the motivation for it, it all happened relatively quickly.”

The record she ended up making isn’t as accessible as The Reminder, or even Let It Die, but it’s carried over some molecules. Feist talks about saving a small piece of her older stuff and blending it with the new.

“There’s this idea of grandfathering dough – there’s some places where when they’re making dough they keep a tiny little piece aside, and then when they make a new batch they knead the old piece into the new. Some bakeries have some that’s 100 years old. At that point it’s just molecules that are from 100 years ago. It’s that idea of things being brought forward. Some songs are brought forward and they become the ancestors of the new songs.”

Even after years of intense touring and an equal number of interviews, she remains pleasant and charming throughout, never seeming jaded or content. But she’s in the midst of her next point when our conversation’s interrupted. It could just be coincidence or an over-zealous phone operator, but after all the trouble getting hold of her, it’s pretty fitting that we’re only 10 minutes into our call when the line goes abruptly dead.

Keep rolling on, Feist.

Feist plays St Jerome’s Laneway Festival on Monday 30 January at Silo Park, Wynyard Quarter, Auckland with Anna Calvi, Twin Shadow, The Horrors, Gotye, Laura Marling, Pajama Club, SBTRKT Live, Shayne P. Carter, Washed Out, Austra, M83, Cults, Girls, EMA, Yuck, Toro Y Moi, Glasser, Opossom, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Austra, Transistors and more.

“it would feel like hiding in the stairwell and kissing someone that you’ve known for a really long time.”

UNASSUMING AND DELICATE in its emotional efficacy, Cindy Meehl’s Buck not only emerges as a fine, fascinating portrait, but also a moving look at the transformation of a broken soul into a nurturing, inspiring role model. Its subject is Buck Brannaman, a soft-spoken cowboy who travels across America for nine straight months a year taming wild colts.

Most notably, Brannaman served as the technical adviser on Robert Redford’s 1998 film The Horse Whisperer, and was one of the inspirations for the Nicholas Evans novel it was based on. But Buck isn’t singularly concerned about the act of “horse whispering”, which perhaps implies some sort of fanciful, magical circus trick; it’s what Redford says of Brannaman’s character – “a kind of humanity and gentleness of spirit” – that is communicated throughout as we watch him patiently and effortlessly rein these animals in with grace and sensitivity.

Gleaned from mentors Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt, his non-aggressive approach makes for a stark contrast to the brutal old-fashioned methods of horse “breaking” and, for Brannaman himself, his past as a victim of unspeakable child abuse.

Occasionally Meehl belabours her points with talking heads when the footage speaks for itself, but we rarely get tired of listening to Brannaman; he’s a calming, good-natured presence onscreen as he is to his spectators and horses, and it’s this universal notion of human empathy that gives the doco a broad, engaging appeal beyond the niche of horse-lovers.

Review Aaron Yap

Few details have been confirmed for the long-rumoured Jurassic Park 4, but one thing is certain: Steven Spielberg will not direct, only produce. There’s talk of Joe Johnston, who did number three, jumping into the director’s chair.

The movie version of 24 is finally set to start shooting later this year. Star Kiefer Sutherland has said that it will take place six months after season eight’s finale and will be a “relatively direct continuation”.

Quentin Tarantino has revealed his best and worst films of 2011. Top picks include Midnight in Paris, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Moneyball. For a complete list visit tarantino.info.

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FRIDAY 27TH JANUARY POWERSTATION - AUCKLAND - T ICKETS FROM TICKETMASTER

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Mark de Clive-Lowe witnessed D’Angelo play London’s Brixton Academy on Wednesday 19 July 2000.

I WAS LIVING in London at the time and I hadn’t been there that long. There was a huge buzz behind the show because D’Angelo’s album Voodoo already had this mystique around it – it was unlike anything else that had been out. Then you had the Jill Scott record, [Erykah Badu’s] Mama’s Gun, [Common’s] Like Water for Chocolate – that whole scene was the hottest thing there was. So when I heard D’Angelo was coming to London, I got tickets straight away.

The anticipation at the show was palpable. He is one of those cats who is unlike any other. It reminded me a little of the first time I went to a Lakers game in LA. I grew up in New Zealand watching a lot of NBA, and there I am at a Lakers game and the starting five are coming out, and there’s Kobe Bryant. There was that kind of buzz – it was so special and so real.

Voodoo was very much a studio record and, as a musician, that kind of thing makes me very curious to see how it will be performed live. He had this huge set-up on stage and an incredible group of musicians – Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson on percussion, James Poyser on keys, Pino Palladino

on bass, Anthony Hamilton on backing vocals… a true supergroup.

I’ll never forget the start of the show. The whole stage went to black and they were playing a loop off tape, a twisted out-of-space break or something, and then the whole band was onstage walking around in a circle, all in dark hooded robes. The anticipation at that moment was incredible.

When they launched into the first joint, the lights came up, D’Angelo threw off his hood and the crowd went

crazy. The band just shredded the record – they turned it inside-out from beginning to end; the arrangements were ridiculous. The whole show had so much energy. I remember when they got to ‘Shit, Damn, Motherfucker’, and the aggression and the anger. I was like, ‘Wow, that shit actually happened to him’. My friend Bluey from Incognito was at that show, and he was working on the new Incog album. He left the show and chucked most of it out. It was that kind of show.

D’Angelo is definitely head and shoulders above the rest – there’s no one touching him. He’s a consummate musician and a visionary artist. He’s the whole package, and that was all on display at the Brixton Academy.

For four years after that show, every show I went to I was so unimpressed by. I came out of a Prince show and a Chaka Khan show, and everyone’s like, ‘Man, that was amazing’. I was like, ‘That was okay. The Voodoo show, now that was amazing’.

D’Angelo plays London’s Brixton Academy on Friday 3 and Saturday 4 February.

Mark de Clive-Lowe’s new album Renegades is out now on Tru Thoughts/Rhythmethod.

BRIXTON ACADEMY, LONDONWEDNESDAY 19 JULY 2000

“D’Angelo threw off his hood and the crowd went crazy.”

HISTORY MADE...

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THE AUCKLAND BIG Day Out, which has died aged 18 after suffering from a short illness, was many things during its short lifespan: pyrotechnic rock festival; subaltern sanctuary; alleged corrupter of youth and virtue; avant-garde forum; and finally, an antiquarian revivalist. If some great leaders can be called renaissance men, this was truly a renaissance faire. Apart from the all the stupid jester-costume nerd shit. Most of the time.

Born to Ken West and Vivian Lees’ Australian Big Day Out, the Auckland BDO triumphed in spite of, or perhaps because of, its young parentage. Industry veterans recall a young and hungry debutante which struck paydirt with Soundgarden and the Smashing Pumpkins at the height of grunge, and flouted the codes of

the day by booking and backing the likes of Marilyn Manson and The Prodigy in spite of moral outrage. The claims that Auckland, let alone New Zealand, couldn’t sustain its ambitious girth died quickly – to the point that its infamous lost weekend in 1998, only served to heighten its fame and mystique. It returned to its biggest acts and biggest crowds – a democratic ideal where the dance fiends, the bogans, and the sullen goths could exist in harmony.

But in its autumn years, onlookers grew uneasy as its behaviour became more erratic. Endearing quirks – the occasionally dire sound, its endless timetable clashes, Powderfinger – became pathological. It recoiled from criticism, turning away its would-be biographers at the first sign of

dissent. It second-guessed itself in a way that even seemed alien to its closest friends and allies – cancelling rappers at the first sign of moral panic, dropping its own headliners in a strange and self-defeating move that only shored up its most extremist base. Indeed, at its deathbed, those loyal supporters turned out, garbed in “I’m Here to See Kanye: Yeah Right” Tui parodies, and “Hitler Was a Sensitive Man” singlets. Ultimately, Das Racist will have disappointed these punters.

At the death, there was a sense of revelry. True, the Big Day Out’s appearance shocked on first sight – its mighty Boiler Room a cheap’n’dirty stage, a tiny crowd for David Dallas. But the smaller turnout, the unusual verdant greenness of both Mt Smart

... AND IN THE MAKING

OBITUARY

THE AUCKLAND BIG DAY OUT: FEBRUARY 1994–JANUARY 2012 Eulogy Joe NunweekPhotography Milana Radojcic

fields, made this a pleasant wake in the park, a reminder of much younger and more innocent days.

The best eulogies came from Battles, who recalled the BDO’s propensity for forward-thinking, ambitious musical acts; My Chemical Romance, who reminded attendees that it excelled when it balanced an ultra-slick stage show with a tongue firmly in its cheek; and Röyksopp, who channeled previous guests The Flaming Lips and reminded one of the best crowds of the night that, most of all, the BDO could be gloriously, batshit insane. Sadly, the likes of

Kasabian chose an inopportune time to remind the mourners of the deceased’s frailties – bewilderingly shitty and lazy band selections, predictable moves, horrible sonics, while Soundgarden reminded us of its late-in-life tendency to look back, not forward. Happily, it wasn’t enough to detract from the celebration of a life.

Ironically, the Big Day Out is survived by the very progeny that killed it – St Jerome’s Laneway Festival, Rhythm and Vines, Splore, Camp A Low Hum, and others. Its trailblazing success meant many others could follow its path and specialise – by genre, by experience. Its legacy of being all things to all people having become a flaw and not its greatest asset, it chose to leave this realm at, and possibly “@” peace.

Imperfect sound forever.

“At its deathbed, those loyal supporters turned out, garbed in ‘I’m Here to See Kanye: Yeah Right’ Tui parodies.”

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AUCKLANDTUESDAY 24Auckland Jazz & Blues Club – Equinox – Pt Chevalier RSA, Pt Chevalier, 7:30pm, $5Led Zeppelin & Space Park – Double Feature – Stardome Observatory & Planetarium, Royal Oak, 8pm, $35WEDNESDAY 25Chicane Duo – Sugar Bar, Newmarket, 7pm, FreeCreative Jazz Club: Steve Barry/PJ Koopman Quartet – 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, FreeLife FM’s Summer Tour – Bar Tabac, Auckland CBD, 7pm, $10The Damned – Powerstation, Eden Terrace, 8pm, $65Acoustic Wednesdays with Eli – Neighbourhood, Kingsland, 7:30pm, FreeFire At Will w/ Crimson Rain & Silence The City – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pm, FreeTHURSDAY 26Anna Coddington – Little Islands Tour – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pm, $20Mark Cunningham – Union Post Brewbar, Ellerslie, 9pm, FreeDavin McCoy (USA) New Zealand Tour – The Windsor Castle, Parnell, 9pm, FreeThe Chaps – Wine Cellar, Newton, 8:30pmMandy Pickering – The Heart Strings Tour – The Wharf, Northcote, 7:30pm, $49New Dub City 2012 Aotearoa Tour – Khuja Lounge, Auckland CBD, 8pmFRIDAY 27The Dresden Dolls – Powerstation, Eden Terrace, 8pmMUM Club ft. Drop Dead Redhead, Headspins and DJs – Cassette Number Nine, Auckland CBD, 10pm, $10

Stetson Club: Kiwi Express – Dairy Flat Community Hall, Dairy Flat, 8pm, $5-$10Davin McCoy (USA) New Zealand Tour Jan / Feb 2012 – O’Hagans Irish Pub, Highland Park, 9pm, FreeParadise – James, Parnell, 9pm, $25-$30Sam Hill, Wade Marriner & Guests – Trench Bar, Auckland CBD, 9pm, FreeSnakes of Iron, Mothra, Fictional Response and Old Kingdom – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pm, $10Subtract, Jackal, MTE, Resporn & Jurassic Penguin – The Basement, Auckland CBD, 8pmBella Kalolo Live w support from TDK – Ponsonby Social Club, Ponsonby, 8pmSATURDAY 28Red Bull Music Academy Presents The Do Over – The Bay at Matiatia, Waiheke Island, 2pm, FreeKerretta & Guests Cobra Khan – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pm, $15Pairs – Summer Sweat NZ Tour 2012 – The Lucha Lounge, Newmarket, 9pmRegrooved NZ Presents J Star (UK) – Sawmill Cafe, Leigh, 9pm, $10-$202 Wheel Drive – Pt Chevalier RSA, Pt Chevalier, 5:30pm, FreeChicago Disco w DJs Philippa, Jason Kyle, Tom McGuinness – InkCoherent, Newton, 10pm, $10Pure Trench Bar – Trench Bar, Auckland CBD, 9pm, FreeHabana Noches – Tropical Flavour – QF Tavern, Auckland CBD, 9pm, Free101 Proof Pantera Tribute – The Goddamn Electric Summer Tour – The Coda Lounge, New Lynn, 8pm, $10Metal At Dusk – The Blacklight Confi guration + Guests – The Basement, Auckland CBD, 7pm, $10Aotea-Raw – The Thirsty Dog, Newton, 9pm, $5Sagans Eye, Feral Breed, Wild Cougar – Masonic Tavern, Devonport, 8pmSUNDAY 29Blues in The Boat House – Black

Dog Band – 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, FreeJeffree Clarkson: Ambient Music – Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Auckland CBD, 2pm, FreeDavin McCoy (USA) New Zealand Tour – Deep Creek Brewing Co, Browns Bay, 3pm, FreeThe Nukes – Sawmill Cafe, Leigh, 9:30pm, $15Chicane Duo – Bill Fish Cafe, St Marys Bay, 1pmCoopers Creek Summer Sunday Jazz – Coopers Creek Vineyard, Huapai, 1pm, FreeMusic in Parks 2012 – Jazz at the Rotunda – Auckland Domain Band Rotunda, Parnell, 2pm, FreeLatin Moods – TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre in Pah Homestead, Hillsborough, 5:30pm, $15-$20Music in Parks 2012 – The Culture Garden – Jellicoe Park, Onehunga, 4pm, FreeMusic in Parks 2012 – The Culture Garden – Cockle Bay Reserve, Howick, 4pm, FreeTha Latin Explosion! – Dos Amigos Cantina, Mission Bay, 9pm, FreeTuborg Summer Sunday – Music Mountain Matakana, Matakana, 12pm, $30-$99Daryl Hall & John Oates with Ice House – Villa Maria Estate Winery, Mangere, 4pmCat Tunks & BlackSandDiva – Rawahi Album Release Preview – Piha Surf Club, Piha, 7:30pm, $15Dairy Flat Live presents Heartbeat and Indigo Blue – Dairy Flat Community Hall, Dairy Flat, 4pm, $10-$12Rockbox – Huapai Tavern, Huapai, 3pm, FreeMONDAY 30St Jerome’s Laneway Festival – Silo Park, Auckland CBD, 12:30pmCreedence Clearwater Revisited Summer Tour – Ellerslie Racecourse, Ellerslie, 5:30pm, $89

NORTHLANDFRIDAY 27Nocturnal Habitz – 35 Degrees South Aquarium Restaurant and Bar, Paihia, 6pm, FreeConcord Dawn – Salut Bar, Whangarei, 10pm, $20The Datsuns with The Checks – Mangawhai Tavern, Mangawhai, 8pm, $28SATURDAY 28The Feelers Hope Nature Forgives Summer Tour – Mangawhai Tavern, Mangawhai, 7:30pm, $40I Am Giant – Let It Go Summer Tour with Cairo Knife Fight – The Duke of Marlborough Hotel, Russell, 8pm, $32.85SUNDAY 29Makareta Umbers and Daniel Hewson – Food at Wharepuke, Kerikeri, 12pm, Free

THE COROMANDELSATURDAY 28Concord Dawn, State Of Mind, Bulletproof and Incognito – Coroglen Tavern, Coroglen, 7pm, $48Essential Coromandel Summer Tour – Punters Bar, Tairua, 9pm, $20SUNDAY 29The Feelers Hope Nature Forgives Summer Tour – Coroglen Tavern, Coroglen, 7:30pm, $40

WAIKATOWEDNESDAY 25Pairs – Summer Sweat NZ Tour 2012 – Static Bar, Hamilton, 9pmTHURSDAY 26Life FM’s Summer Tour – Raleigh Street Christian Centre, Cambridge, 7pm, $10FRIDAY 27Parachute 2012 – Mystery Creek Events Centre, Hamilton, 11amDose – FLOW, Hamilton, 9pm, $10SATURDAY 28Parachute 2012 – Mystery Creek Events Centre, Hamilton, 8amThe Drab Doo-Riffs and the Hollow Grinders – YOT Club, Raglan, 8pm, $10

Bernard SumnerStephen MorrisGillian GilbertPhil CunninghamTom Chapman

27th FebruaryVector Arena Auckland

www.ticketmaster.co.nz0800 111 999

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SUNDAY 29Parachute 2012 – Mystery Creek Events Centre, Hamilton, 8amJazz on a Sunday Evening – New Year Special – Te Rapa Racecourse, Hamilton, 5:30pm, $8-$15MONDAY 30Parachute 2012 – Mystery Creek Events Centre, Hamilton, 8am

HAWKE’S BAY / GISBORNEFRIDAY 27Cape Estate – Cape Estate, Hastings, 6pmSATURDAY 28Cape Estate – Cape Estate, Hastings, 12pmDaryl Hall & John Oates with Ice House – Church Road Winery, Napier, 4pm

BAY OF PLENTYWEDNESDAY 25Mandy Pickering – The Heart Strings Tour – Bella Vista Lodge, Tauranga, 7pm, $50THURSDAY 26LSG Group – The Pheasant Plucker, Rotorua, 9pm, FreeFRIDAY 27Raggamuffi n Mai FM Party – Rotorua International Stadium, Rotorua, 6pm, $40-$139Raggamuffi n Music Festival 2012 – Rotorua International Stadium, Rotorua, 5pm, $30-$280101 Proof Pantera Tribute – The Goddamn Electric Summer Tour – Krazy Jacks Bar, Tauranga, 8pm, $10SATURDAY 28Raggamuffi n Music Festival 2012 – Rotorua International Stadium, Rotorua, 10am, $30-$280Creedence Clearwater Revisited Summer Tour – Mills Reef Winery, Tauranga, 6:30pm, $89SUNDAY 29Katikati Twilight Concerts – Suzanne Lynch & The ConRays – Katikati Haiku Pathway, Katikati, 6pm, $15Creedence Clearwater Revisited Summer Tour – Mills Reef Winery, Tauranga, 6:30pm, $89

MONDAY 30Jimmy & Perry – The Pheasant Plucker, Rotorua, 7pm, Free

TARANAKISATURDAY 28WinchFest – WinchFest, New Plymouth, 9:30am, $20-$119Down The Gravel Road Road Show – The New Plymouth Club, New Plymouth, 8pm, $15-$20SUNDAY 29WinchFest – WinchFest, New Plymouth, 9:30am, $20-$119

MANAWATU / WHANGANUITHURSDAY 26Pairs – Summer Sweat NZ Tour 2012 – The ARC Theatre, Whanganui, 9pm

WELLINGTON REGIONTUESDAY 24The Chaps – Meow, 7:30pm, $20Live Music – The Library, 5pm, FreeWEDNESDAY 25Kobosh, The Outsiders & Killing Bear – Mighty Mighty, 9:30pmTHURSDAY 2620 Meter Breit (Berlin), Force Fields – Mighty Mighty, 9:30pmThe Dave Feehan Band and the Lamhunters – Hotel Bristol, 8:30pm, FreeFRIDAY 27Pairs – Summer Sweat NZ Tour 2012 – Mighty Mighty, 9pmHurricane vs The Blues – Lembas Cafe, Raumati, 7:30pm, $10Bloodspray for Politics & Rising Force – Bar Medusa, 9pm, $10New Dub City 2012 Aotearoa Tour – Havana Bar, 8pm, FreeSATURDAY 28The Red Eyes (Melb) NZ Homecoming Tour – Bodega, 9pm, $18The Dresden Dolls – The Opera House, 8pmChow Dwn – Chow Tory, 10pmThee Oh Sees (USA), Mr Slackjaw

The Spunks, The Grand Chance – Mighty Mighty, 9:30pmDarren Watson & The Real Deal Blues Band – The Lido Cafe, 8:30pm, FreeMulled Wine Concert – Paekakariki Memorial Hall, Paekakariki, 7pmRoger Tibbs and Robertus Scharrenborg. – Paekakariki Memorial Hall, Paekakariki, 7pm, $20Newtown Top Ranking – Baobab Cafe, 1pm, FreePlump DJs (UK) – Exclusive NZ Show – Sandwiches, 11pm, $15New Dub City 2012 Aotearoa Tour – Baobab Cafe, 1pm, FreeSUNDAY 29The Boptet – The Lido Cafe, 7pm, FreeThe Sunday Jazz Club – Public Bar & Eatery, 7:30pm, Free

NELSON / TASMANFRIDAY 27Nick Charles – The Boathouse, Nelson, 8pm, $15

WEST COASTTUESDAY 24Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – Cooks Saddle Cafe, Fox Glacier Township, 9pm, FreeWEDNESDAY 25Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – Blue Ice Cafe, Franz Josef, 9pm, FreeTHURSDAY 26Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – Barrytown Hall, Greymouth, 9pm, $10FRIDAY 27Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – Frank’s, Greymouth, 9pm, FreeSATURDAY 28Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – Star Tavern, Westport, 9pm, FreeMr Dingus – Wilsons Hotel, Reefton, 9pm, FreeSUNDAY 29Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend

Went Without You Album Tour – Karamea Village Hotel, Karamea, 9pm, FreeMONDAY 30Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – Radio Bedrock, Granity, 9pm, $10

CANTERBURYWEDNESDAY 25Flip Grater’s fi nal NZ show for 2012 – Nor’Wester Cafe, Amberley, 8pm, $25THURSDAY 26The Black Velvet Band – Becks Southern Alehouse, 8pm, FreeSalsa On Thursdays – Salsa Latina Dance Studio, 8:45pm, FreeFRIDAY 27Captain Jack – Ferrymead Speights Ale House, 9:30pm, FreeD’sendantz – Becks Southern Alehouse, 9pm, FreeSATURDAY 28Stomping Nick & His Blues Grenade – The Brewery, 10:30pm, FreeTom Rodwell & Storehouse – Adam in the Garden Single Release – Naval Point Yacht Club, Lyttelton, 8pmThe Nomad – Winnie Bagoes, 10pm, $10

OTAGOTHURSDAY 26The Red Eyes (Melb) NZ Homecoming Tour – Mint Bar, Wanaka, 8pm, $10FRIDAY 27The Red Eyes (Melb) NZ Homecoming Tour – 12 Below – XIIB, Dunedin, 8pm, $18SUNDAY 29Barry Saunders / Lindon Puffi n – Summer Playground Series – The Winehouse, Gibbston, 3pm, $45

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Goodbye Big Day Out – after 18 years, it was a good run. Interesting to hear all the theories and postulations in the last week, not to mention journalists grasping at threads. Let it go… Now, in important matters, Grind On High – no, not a scream ’80s-wardrobed band, but a great little café on High St. Their Breakfast Boradillas at under $5 are a small breakfast and oh so tasty… The Datsuns blasted the cobwebs out of the Bacco Room last week with new material… Odd Future took their audience through a hardcore-styled aerobics class at The Powerstation… Noel Gallagher took home some tasty New Zealand rhythm’n’blues tunes from the ’60s… Speaking of which, The Fourmyula will play Auckland on Saturday at the Auckland Seafood Festival – it will be their first Auckland

show since their reunion in early 2010… Nick Mason is in town soon – we’re wondering if he’ll pop in and see The Damned at The Powerstation on Wednesday (Mason produced their second album back in 1977)… Labretta Suede and The Motel 6 play Auckland soon after spending time stateside, pushing their new album reviewed in last week’s VOLUME… Orchestra of Spheres head to Auckland soon… Missing Teeth are reforming for a national tour and a double-CD retrospective… AUSA Outdoor Summer Shakespeare presents the University of Auckland’s 49th Outdoor Summer Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Sam Pascoe and produced by

Oliver Rosser at the beautiful University Clock Tower from 3 March… And it’s a busy week in Auckland with Dresden Dolls, Imploder, The Sadnuts and The Dirty Sweets at Whammy Bar, Kitty Daisy & Lewis, The Transistors, Rackets and Thee Rum Coves at Golden Dawn on Sunday night. The spectacular Oh Sees are VOLUME’s pick – they play at Whammy this weekend and are a must-see.

DJ Sweep has just hosted some new electro dancehall tunes for free download on his Soundcloud page – soundcloud.com/sweep... Soul futurist Ria Hall will release her first music video early in February – look for it on YouTube and Vimeo… Ancestral Bar and restaurant on Courtney Place and the New Zealand Summer of Riesling present The Shanghai Dirty Dozen, a showcase of 12 wineries and 12 rieslings running until 29 February... Batacuda Sound Machine hit San Francisco Bath House on 27 January… Saturday 28 January, Nadia Reid and French for Rabbits make a special evening performance at Evil Genius Records and café in Berhampore. On a side note, the Sunday singer-songwriter sessions at Evil Genius are going off… Fast Eddie’s Pool Bar recently celebrated their second birthday with a DJ set from UK drum’n’bass icon Digital… Berlin noise rockers 20 Meter Breit play Mighty Mighty on Thursday night. And the next night, lo-fi kids Pairs touch down at Mighty Mighty as well… Due to popular demand, Memphis Belle Coffee House has added a takeaway-only outlet onto their business, just around the corner near Arty Bees bookshop… Saturday 4 February, Dan Deacon Ensemble play San Francisco Bath House... Captain Imon Star and family are moving up the line from Wellington – all the best in your new adventures, Mahal family!

Dance Asthmatics (the current Christchurch supergroup featuring members of T54, Magic Eye and Bits and Pieces) got the big-ups from James Milne and are off to play Camp a Low Hum… Great gig last Saturday at Dux Live. Sleepy

Age, who are off to France soon, laid down some great dance grooves. The Guest, now playing as a three-piece, gave the PA a good workout. Could Max Russell be a future guitar god? Tom Lark and Marlon Williams both turned in melodic sets that suggested there is still life out there for the singer/songwriter… Christchurch musicians continue to be creative, with gigs being played in houses, sleep-outs and, last Friday at the Lyttelton Coffee Company’s roastery, where Grand Saloon turned in a fine set for the 100 people who showed up… On 4 February, Dux Live features a reunion of ’80s Christchurch bands including The Axemen, Ritchie Venus, Desperate Measures, Toerag, Funhouse, Angel Rock, Angel Rock, a couple of 25Cents and 3Guesses… The Eastern are close to finishing their new album. Rumour has it that there will be 20 songs for your listening pleasure. Recorded by Ben Edwards from the Sitting Room in a house in earthquake-ravaged Darlington. The release will be followed by tours in New Zealand and Australia. Definitely worth checking out when they hit your town.

New music video out for Alizarin Lizard, and their tour blog is a crack-up... Was Idiot Prayer’s show on Saturday really their last? New venue The National opens end of February... The Suds’ new album Live on Compact Disc is out now on Bandcamp – thesuds.bandcamp.com. Shapeshifter Orientation week tickets selling like hotcakes.

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

Idiot Prayer

Missing Teeth

ST JEROME’SLANEWAY FESTIVALAnna 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 Painsof Being Pure at Heart, Austra,Transistors and moreMonday 30 January –Silo Park, Wynyard Quarter, Auckland

KITTY, DAISY & LEWISTuesday 31 January –

,,The Powerstation, AucklandWednesday 1 February – Bodega, Wellington

RIPPON FESTIVALDisasteradio, Katchafire, Kora, Orchestra of Spheres, Street Chant, Sunshine Sound System, The Datsuns and Trinity RootsSaturday 4 February – Rippon Vineyard, Lake Wanaka

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, EarlGateshead, The Nudge, AHoriBuzz,The SmokeEaters, Hermitude and more17–19 February – Tapapakanga Regional Park, Auckland

MAYER HAWTHORNEAND THE COUNTYWednesday 22 February –San Francisco Bath House, WellingtonThursday 23 February – The Powerstation, Auckland

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

ROKY ERICKSONWednesday 7 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

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

DIRTY THREEWednesday 14 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

ST VINCENTSunday 18 March – Kings Arms, AucklandMonday 19 March – San Francisco Bath House, Wellington

JOE SATRIANI, STEVEVAI AND STEVELUKATHER – G3Sunday 25 March – Logan Campbell Centre, AucklandMonday 26 March –Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington

BORISWednesday 28 March – Bodega, WellingtonThursday 29 March –Kings Arms, Auckland

NICK LOWESaturday 13 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

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

THE DAMNED Wednesday 25 January –The Powerstation, Auckland

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

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

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

PETER HOOK & THE LIGHTPLAYING CLOSER – A JOYRDIVISION CELEBRATIONWednesday 18/Thursday 19 April –Bodega, WellingtonFriday 20 April – Studio, Auckland

STEVE EARLEWednesday 11 April – Kings Arms, AucklandThursday 12 April – Bodega, Wellington

HENRY ROLLINSWednesday 11 April –Clarence St Theatre, HamiltonThursday 12 April – Dux Live, ChristchurchFriday 13 April –The Opera House, WellingtonSaturday 14 April – SkyCity Theatre, Auckland

BEING BANNED FROM Auckland’s Big Day Out for what some consider offensive lyrical content was the best thing that could have happened to fans of Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, who played The Powerstation last Thursday night in lieu of their planned performance at Friday’s BDO. What would have likely been a BDO afternoon oddity became a night of teenage mayhem that may not have survived a festival’s unique ability to smooth the edges off what would otherwise be an inciting performance

Odd Future is a young rap collective from Los Angeles whose controversial lyrics and online ubiquity has won them scores of fans (and critics) wherever you can find an ADSL cable. More of a sub-cultural force than a music act, Odd Future’s currency is the energy and rebellion of youth. Youngness pervades both the form and content of their work. Their songs are about hating school, hating parents, and smoking weed (oh, and sexual violence). Their online marketing – Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube – is so seemlessly connected to their musical output that it could only be the product of kids who have never known a world without modems.

And so it makes sense that the show itself was so alive with teenage aggression. The kids in attendance – mostly 16-20 year-olds – were so well versed in the aesthetics of Odd Future (they’d all seen this show before – on their parents’ laptops and on their iPhones during Engineering 101) that there was a conspicuous lack of the usual polite physical appreciation of music. The audience didn’t just bounce up and down with the beat – they threw themselves against one another and against the pounding, distorted, Wu-Tang Clan-inspired productions.

The crowd’s energy was more than matched by the raw skateboard athleticism of the group. Watching Odd Future jump and twist their way around (and off) the stage, it was impossible to know whether this is a group that was still near

ODD FUTURE WOLF GANG KILL THEM ALL

The Powerstation, Auckland Thursday 19 January 2012 Review Henry OliverPhotography Milana Radojcic

the start of a great ascent, or at the pinnacle of their short prominence.

As Odd Future dived into the their last song of the night – Tyler’s ‘Radicals’ – the support beams holding the all-ages mezzanine above our heads ominously pulsed, bending with the

weight of youth. As hundreds of adolescents screamed along to the chorus – “Kill people, burn shit, fuck school!” – it was obvious that it didn’t matter at all whether this was the start of a legacy or the bright-burn of a brief explosion.

Either way, if there’s more ahead – if the music output catches up with the cultural output – I’m all in. But if what we have now is all there is and all there will be, that’s fine with me too. At least I got to see them on Thursday when they burned bright.

“More of a sub-cultural force than a music act, Odd Future’s currency is the energy and rebellion of youth.”

“THAT’S US. CHEERS.”Three years, one punishing EP and

45 shows later, the Idiot Prayer faithful gathered to bid a sad farewell on the now hallowed ground of the 12 Below stage.

However, before the eulogies and thank-yous began to flow, promising newcomers Scattered Brains of the Lovely Union and Ipswich were both equally impressive.

Like their idols, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, the seven-piece Scattered Brains strong together the best elements of ’60s psychedelia, folk and ramshackle idiosyncratic pop to form the simplest of song structures layered in beautiful melody. With Opposite Sex bassist Lucy Hunter shining on trumpet duties, keep your eyes peeled for a forthcoming Scattered Brains strong recording with Fishrider Records.

Playing their first Dunedin show, Christchurch trio Ipswich’s driving rhythm section and swirling shoegaze guitar brought a joyous wall of noise to the small venue. Heavily rooted in post-punk and a loud-quiet-loud dynamic, frontman Steven Marr’s raw delivery saw the searing new single ‘Alien vs Sexual Predator’ fired off as a cathartic, brute-force statement of intent.

Despite Idiot Prayer’s short lifespan, the last three years have seen the trio turn themselves into one of Dunedin’s most compelling acts. Slowly evolving from embryonic HDU/Bailterspace style instrumentals to hypnotic math-minded rock, their last outing was an expansive exploration of the group’s back catalogue, Tim Smith showing the breadth of his talents as a passionate, intelligent and satirical songwriter. The soul of Idiot Prayer’s live performance,

the charismatic frontman spat out his screeching, intense and often bizarre one-liners, tearing at his vocals chords through every breath, his musings staining the mind.

Backed by one of the country’s best rhythm sections, the astonishingly heavy pair of drummer Sam Brookland and bassist David Ager give Smith’s

songs an earth-shattering precision. With Brookland’s reputation as a force already well established in Dunedin, he gloriously showed no restraint, destroying sticks, fl irting with time signatures and pounding the audience in submission on live favourite ‘Sausage Spectrum’ from their Falconer EP.

An exhausting, sentimental experience that may never be repeated. Rest in peace, Idiot Prayer.

“The charismatic frontman spat out his screeching, intense and often bizarre one-liners.”

IDIOT PRAYER W/ SCATTERED BRAINS AND IPSWICH12 Below – XIIB, Dunedin Saturday 21 JanuaryReviewer Sam ValentinePhotography John Needham

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