21 FEBRUARY 2012 #023

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WARREN ELLIS ViolinMICK TURNER GuitarJIM WHITE Drums

‘UNCONQUERABLEON THE MAP OF AUSTRALIAN MUSIC’

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THAT’S WHY THE last line of an email from Sony when they were lining up the most recent round of Ryan Adams interviews didn’t come as too much of a surprise: “One point to make, absolutely no questions about Neil Finn please.”

Old news now, but the request related to the column inches generated by an episode of the BBC’s Songwriters’ Circle where Adams took exception to the playing from fellow guests Finn and American folk-singer Janis Ian on his tunes. Adams took to a fan website after the recording with a lengthy missive, reporting: “I was respectful to both Neil and Janis by way of listening and enjoying their tunes. They played over almost every song I played. I found that odd and it nearly derailed ‘Invisible Riverside’.”

Finn stayed out of the fracas – with the exception of a wee jab in the form of this tweet: “Well Songwriters’ Circle on BBC will be interesting, watch out for lovely backing vocals on Fall at Your Feet from Ryan.” Suffice to say that Adams, noted for his wide-ranging appetite for cover versions, won’t be turning his attention to anything in the Crowded House catalogue at his shows in Dunedin and Auckland next month.

VOLUME’s Anthonie Tonnon took on the task of sparring with Adams for this week’s cover story, and survived to tell the tale. Of course there were absolutely no questions about Neil Finn, but Tonnon sounded just a little bit bruised after the encounter when he reported back: “Just chatted to Ryan Adams. Tough customer, for sure.”

When Marty Duda interviewed Ryan Adams a few years back, I took the opportunity to sit in to hear how he fared against a musician notoriously prickly in conversation. Truth be known, Duda fared pretty good, coming into it versed in the prodigious amount of music Adams was fl ooding his fanbase with at the time, while bobbing and weaving out of the range of Adams’ fi ghting words.

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DESIGN: Xanthe Williams

WRITERS: Gavin Bertram, David Carroll, Roy Colbert, Marty Duda, Duncan Greive, Alexander Hallag, Jessica Hansell, Warren Maxwell, Ewen McDonald, Joe Nunweek, Hugh Sundae, Anthonie Tonnon, Aaron Yap

ILLUSTRATION: Mitch Marks

PHOTOGRAPHERS: Jason Moon, Dallas Pickering, Milana Radojcic

AN APN PUBLICATION

You last played New Zealand in 2009, and the paddy wagons were out in force. How does it feel to be returning to play Vector Arena?Feels good, man. I’m a vet now. I’m just starting to work on my fifth album, so I’m bringing a lot of new material.

Kendrick Lamar, Blu, Cali Swag District, Odd Future, Nipsey Hussle – a new generation of West Coast hip hop is on the rise. Who’s on your radar?Odd Future, without a doubt. The West Coast was dead for a while, but Tyler’s one of the dopest rappers from LA in a long time. He’s talented, he has crazy fans, and he’s crazier than them. His whole Odd Future clique are great kids.

Haven’t heard you yell “G-Unot” in a minute. Any recent rap battles caught your attention?The Common and Drake thing had some good shots. I felt that Drake had the last word, but I also think Common had some pretty interesting things to say. The first thing that people say when people are beefing is, ‘Oh, that’s just to sell records’. Number one: duh, that’s our job to sell records. Two: you might actually have a problem with somebody, and the only way we should address that is to beef on record. It’s good for music and, as long as it doesn’t turn violent, it’s cool.

Game plays Vector Arena in Auckland on Saturday 25 February.

CHRIS O’CONNOR – DRUM TUTORI’ve had loads of drum teachers, and they all informed my teaching because you learn a lot about what to do and what not to do by observing them. You need to be open to following a tangent in a lesson and not just stick to the book and just do exercises – that way you can lead the exercise and follow something that comes from the student. I think that means the student has more ownership of what happens in the lesson and they’re integral to the process of discovery as opposed to being a bystander. A drum teacher can’t be too caught up in an agenda or obsessed with one kind of music. I’d rather find the music that a student really loves and try to engage with that. The trick is to know when

to step in and when to pull back so you’re not imposing too much of yourself into a lesson.

Find Chris O’Connor online at musicworkings.weebly.com.

Heartbreaker, prolific songwriter and “difficult interviewee” Ryan Adams plays the Regent Theatre in Dunedin on Tuesday 6 March and the Civic Theatre in Auckland on Thursday 8 March, and we’ve got a double-pass to each show up for grabs. For a chance to get the loot, email loot@volumemagazine.co.nz and let us know your favourite cover from Ryan Adams – Black Flag’s ‘Nervous Breakdown’, Ratt’s ‘Round and Round’, Backstreet Boys’ ‘I Want It That Way’?...

GAME

SEND ME A POSTCARDWarren Maxwell and Little Bushman play Auckland’s Kings Arms with Electric Wire Hustle on Saturday 25 February.

LIKE MOST OTHER domestic destinations I’ve descended on, my 40 or so trips to Wellington over the years have pretty much always been for work. Filing a story on one interesting individual or another.

There was the retired civil servant who passed the time by researching place names before petitioning the Geographic Board to correct spelling errors. Another time was to meet two women in their 20s who were learning how to embalm bodies. Years ago I even went to Parliament and interviewed Nandor Tanczos, before returning home to edit the story with every cannabis

cliché you could forget to think of. Including giving the footage a green tint, using “da” instead of “the” in the

voiceover, and setting it all to Musical Youth’s ‘Pass the Dutchie’.

But none of my trips to Wellington had ever fallen on the weekend of the Sevens before. Holy shitballs.

I had gone down to meet the winning Make My Movie team and

attempt to get some good drama for our behind-the-scenes webseries. But the drama was all on the streets. I’d seen the drunken louts wearing women’s briefs on the TV before, but I had no idea how ubiquitous the behaviour was. It was like a tsunami, but with fuckwits instead of water.

Every bar was full of cavemen, schoolgirls, smurfs, pirates and slappers all sitting around not watching the event on TV they were all meant to be excited about. It was like being in the media area of a music festival.

None of this will be particularly new to Wellington readers, of course. The locals we spoke to had a battle-weary demeanour about them and advised us to stay south of Vivian Street – which is where we met up for a celebratory drink with the team behind How to Meet Girls from a Distance.

Making the feature on $100,000 means calling in favours and using any soapboxes you have at your disposal. Luckily I have a page right here.

They’d love to hear from any unsigned and unpublished bands who would like to contribute music, anyone who wants to sign up as an extra and anyone with potential locations like houses or office space. Oh, they also would like a collection of mature muff magazines, but I’m not sure if that’s for the movie.

Go like them on Facebook and stay up to date with the process, or sign up to help at howtomeetgirlsfromadistance.co.nz.

“It was like a tsunami, but with fuckwits instead of water.”

I WISH I WAS IN WELLINGTON...I’ve always had a soft spot for Wellington. For a while I thought it was the only other place in New Zealand aside from Auckland where I could see myself living. That was before I went to Lyttelton. I must have a thing about compact towns shaped a bit like an amphitheatre. Although that doesn’t explain my current obsession with National Park. Which is much flatter.

Guitarist, producer and beat maker Jeremy Toy is something of a musical shapeshifter, having played with artists like Sommerset, Opensouls, the Sami Sisters and Liam Finn over the years. For She’s So Rad, Toy teamed with his partner Anji Sami, and the duo’s debut In Circles gets a vinyl release next month. She’s So Rad talked shoegaze, androgynous vocals and Ed Cake’s “freedom takes” for Talking Heads.Photography Milana Radojcic

ANJII SAMI: Describe the ‘freedom take’, Jeremy.JEREMY TOY: Say, the process with the Samis, if I was just playing guitar and not recording it, I’d be recording bits of Madeline [Sami] who would sing me heaps of guitar parts and then, Anji, you would sing me guitar parts, and so would Priya [Sami].

Play this, monkey!Play this, do this – and say, ‘Can you play this like Michael Jackson?’ – oh,

not like Michael Jackson, like.. who’s the guitarist?

‘Can you play some Caribbean street

guitar?’Yeah, and then I could play some faux Caribbean street guitar,

and then after about half-an-hour of

trying out everything, Ed [Cake] would say, ‘Now do

a freedom take’, and you could just play whatever you wanted.

Get loose.Be a dick.

It was more like, you’ve been sitting here for the last hour playing the same thing over and over, now have

fun – do some shredding. Free pass.

Did you do some shredding on the Sami Sisters record?I did do some shredding but it got edited. There’s a little bit in there still – but I did some serious shredding.

Did you ever bleed during the making of…I did not bleed during the making of it, but I did see Madeline’s finger bleed at a show once.

So, She’s So Rad – is that name because I am so rad?Yeah, you are quite rad – yeah.

So actually, I know that I am so rad, but how did the name come about? You’re from the North Shore…I’m from the North Shore, and my dad was a skater/surfer, and he was into

“I’m from the North Shore, and my dad was a skater/surfer, and he was into words like ‘cowabunga’.” – JEREMY TOY

To listen to the full audio of She’s So Rad’s

Jeremy Toy and Anji Sami in conversation, head

to nzherald.co.nz/volume – live from 2pm Tuesday.

She’s So Rad’s In Circles will be released on vinyl in March on From the Crate Records.

She’s So Rad supports Ladyhawke’s UK tour from 23 April–11 May – details at ladyhawkemusic.com

words like ‘cowabunga’, and ‘radical’ was probably in there somewhere.

‘Mint’?‘Mint’ – no, that’s a fresh new word – that’s a late-’90s word. You wouldn’t have heard it ’cause you’re from Onehunga.

Currently the set-up is you and me and the MPC – why the MPC and not a computer?It’s more exciting to me to have actual hardware onstage like an MPC ’cause it has its own feel and rhythm that you can’t get off a computer.

Why the MPC over other drum machines?’Cause the MPC you can sample drum sounds into, and the sampling engine sounds better than any other thing. If I could afford an 808, I’d just have an 808.

How much do they cost?Heaps – like, over two grand.

Did you want my vocals to go on there and make it sort of like this one voice that was fatter? Did you want to make it two distinctive voices or…A bit of both – on the ones where I’d done heaps of layers, it was hard to tell who was doing what.

Yeah, I have an issue…You have an issue with that?

Yeah, yeah – I can’t tell a lot of the time. ‘Is that me or is that Jeremy?’ Normally I get that with my sisters because we’re related.Yeah, I can’t tell onstage when you guys are playing who’s singing which bits sometimes – I have to listen really hard, and then I give up.

Neither – I mean, I can always tell Priya ’cause she’s our diva.She’s always the high one, right, and

then there’s you and Madeline.

But sometimes when we are together in a track, ’cause a lot of it is washy, it does sound like it could be either a girl or a boy – was that intentional?I guess – I like things like Slowdive when you can’t tell if it’s a guy or a girl, and things like Drive Like Jehu, and the singer sounds like Courtney Love but it’s a dude, and then you forget about whether the song’s written by a guy or a girl.

Do you think that matters, whether a song’s written by a guy or a girl?No, but I think that the perspective can change if you don’t know – it makes it a bit more interesting, a bit more ambiguous.

Bit more depth.I quite like it to be ambiguous.

Since going into hiatus in 1997, Throwing Muses have released just one album. Now they’re back together to record their ninth album, and have released a compilation spanning their 30-year career.Text Gavin BertramAFTER THROWING MUSES split indefinitely in 1997, founder Kristin Hersh retreated to the Californian desert and became a ghost.

That time was a nightmare that continues to haunt her, she says.

“I just thought I was a dead person and couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t dead,” Hersh remembers. “Because we weren’t done; we were getting better and better. And there was so much music to play, the songs never stopped. They didn’t care if there was a band or not.”

That’s how it’s been for the songwriter who formed Throwing Muses in Newport, Rhode Island, as a 14-year-old in 1981. In her 2010 memoir Rat Girl, Hersh writes of being possessed by music while living at what was known as the “Doghouse”.

While she’s been diagnosed as bipolar and has suffered from synaesthesia, and has at times tried to escape whatever cosmic force forgers the music, it still possesses her.

“I’m still as obsessed as I was then,” Hersh says. “Now I know it is music; it’s not a panic, it’s not a monster. I hear a sound and I serve that, and it’s often the best part of my day. And having spent the last 25 years of trying to learn to serve it, I’m very comfortable with my craft.”

In Throwing Muses’ earliest incarnation, before the year chronicled in Rat Girl, and before they were signed to iconic UK independent label 4AD, they were allowed to play in clubs in Newport.

At that time, the band also included Hersh’s half-sister Tanya Donelly, Elaine Adamedes, and Becca Blumen. It was a magical time, she recalls, even if it wasn’t easy.

“We were so enamoured with the rock scene in our town that we just forced

ourselves into it,” Hersh says. “We tried not to stay at home ever, we would work every night. We were going to school in the daytime, and sometimes we were loading out at three in the morning. We were treated like crap pretty much.”

However, the inventive and distinctive aspect of Throwing Muses music that would fully emerge later was already in evidence. Hersh explains that the older members of the Rhode Island scene thought they played as they did because they couldn’t play the way other people did. Whereas what they were already doing was “much more diffi cult than what anyone else was doing,” she notes.

That statement would generally apply to Throwing Muses presence in the alternative music landscape of the late 1980s and early 1990s, as it was gradually assimilated into the mainstream.

In what became a sea of sameness, the band remained a unique proposition, musically, lyrically, and how they were represented on record.

As Hersh reflects, she was never

comfortable with the recording process then.“I didn’t understand how you could

possibly capture something that felt like an explosion,” she elaborates. “I had to learn how to create a musical photograph that was timeless. There’s a lot about production that is style, and you want to avoid almost all of it. Beauty with a little bit of mystery.”

That admirable aesthetic permeated the band’s best works, which include 1991’s The Real Ramona and the following year’s Red Heaven, the first without Donelly.

While some of the band’s early work is so embarrassing to Hersh that she can’t listen to it, she appreciates the early to mid-1990s trio of albums.

“We were still obsessed and yet we were absolutely in control,” she says of that period. “But there are still moments where that can trip you up, where I think ‘Oh God, what a dumb idea’. But even when we were making mistakes and sounding goofy, we weren’t trying to be cool, we weren’t trying to impress anyone, and we weren’t imitating anyone.”

No doubt that’ll still be the case on the ninth Throwing Muses album, a listener-funded release which is currently being mixed. Hersh says at last count there were 38 songs to be included.

Throwing Muses double album retrospective Anthology is available through 4AD.

“I just thought I was a dead person and couldn’t fi gure out why I wasn’t dead.”– Kristin Hersh

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

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

2 David Guetta ft. Nicki Minaj – ‘Turn Me On’

3 Train – ‘Drive By’

4 Annah Mac – ‘Girl in Stilettos’

5 David Guetta ft. Sia – ‘Titanium’

6 Labrinth ft. Tinie Tempah – ‘Earthquake’

7 Ed Sheeran – ‘Lego House’

8 The Black Keys – ‘Lonely Boy’

9 Ed Sheeran – ‘The A Team’

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

11 Christina Perri – ‘A Thousand Years’

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

13 Hilltop Hoods ft. Sia – ‘I Love It’

14 Avicii – ‘Levels’

15 Pitbull ft. Chris Brown – ‘International Love’

16 LMFAO – ‘Sexy and I Know It’

17 Timomatic – ‘Set it Off’

18 Flo Rida – ‘Good Feeling’

19 Jessie J ft. David Guetta – ‘LaserLight’

20 Six60 – ‘Only to Be’

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.

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

The bad news: Flo Rida has his sixth week at number one. The worse news: Hilltop Hoods have a hit single – i.e. We have allowed an Australian hip hop artist into our top 20. This should have you all deeply troubled, because as all young children are taught at school, Australian hip hop is comfortably the worst genre in the world. And it’s not even close.

ESPN played ‘I Love It’ ft. Sia (the same artist supporting Flo Rida at number one – surely she couldn’t bring them up there? Could she?!) constantly during the Super Bowl, but that alone can’t get you a hit, right? Whatever – it’s comically awful. And now it’s top 20.

Further down there’s Lil Wayne’s ‘Mirror’, with one of my favourite productions of recent times (reminds me a bit of Xzibit’s ‘Paparazzi’ – if you know that song, you’re officially really old), but goes and spoils it by having professional trilby Bruno Mars warbling the hook. Next week either Guetta or Train will be at number one. The crisis shows no signs of abating.

USHER – ‘Climax’Usher has always been incredibly potent when he’s singing into the abyss – think ‘U Remind Me’ or ‘Burn’ or ‘Moving Mountains’. So after a period of pretty av bumping uptempo stuff like ‘DJ Got Us Falling in

Love’ it’s brilliant to hear him back to heartbreak on ‘Climax’. (Side note: did you know he released four straight singles starting with “U” in the early ’00s? Well, he did.) The song was produced and leaked by Diplo, who has taken cues from Usher’s children Drake and The Weeknd to create an airless room for the singer to suffer in – it’s the ghost of the day-glo Guetta production, the stray bits of digital scree left when the party’s moved on.

Lyrically this ‘Climax’ is noted as the beginning of the end, rather than a culmination, and while you might consider that a strangely melancholic way to look at the world, it seems the most natural expression in the world for Usher.

TAYLOR SWIFT – ‘Safe & Sound’From the soundtrack to The Hunger Games, which if my daughter is any guide will be bigger than anything this side of Twilight when the movie drops, Taylor

does a classic ’90s move with her contribution – i.e. capitalising on the new audience opportunities a project like this represents with an unreleased song, while simultaneously not giving us anything she hasn’t done better before. The rest of the soundtrack is like Kid Cudi and Arcade Fire, so maybe it’s good that she’s toned down the pop dynamism and is sounding all grown up. But that doesn’t make the slightly dirgey ‘Safe & Sound’ feel like anything more than a castoff from the Speak Now sessions – nice, but slight.

CASSIE – ‘King of Hearts’Since debuting with the slow-mo perfection of ‘Me & U’ a few years back Cassie seems to have carved out a niche as a true r’n’b fan’s fave. Which is to say

she hasn’t sacrificed her sound and vision to the contemporary sonic commandments, and has as a result stayed not quite famous. ‘King of Hearts’ has a beat which recalls dancehall genius Lenky (most famous for his ‘Diwali’ rhythm, the bed for Lumidee’s ‘Uh Oh’, Wayne Wonder’s ‘No Letting Go’ and Sean Paul’s ‘Get Busy’), while her vocal has an almost English pop purity. Great song.

SUNKEN SEAS – ‘High Rise’This is not pop by any means, but it is the first song that’s been “submitted” to SOTOG for review, and I’m going to use a much broader definition of pop for local

stuff – which will basically be taken to mean anything involving drums and/or vocals. That being said, if you’re going to call a hazy, throbbing instrumental ‘High Rise’, it better be a tribute to the phenomenal Japanese band which operated under that name. This might be, but either way it certainly doesn’t disgrace the name by any means. It’s maybe a little clean and precise for my tastes, but the guitars honk and wail while the beat just pounds ever more furiously, so that by the close you’re locked in tight.

MARTIN SOLVEIG & DRAGONETTE FT. IDOLING!!! – ‘Big in Japan’Dragonette totally blew my mind a few years back with ‘I Get Around’, which was effortlessly slutty

party pop. They remain on the same topic now, years later, with ‘Big in Japan’, which manages to be both very similar to ‘Give Me All Your Luvin’’ (which Solveig also produced) and heaps better at the same time. Smart, dumb, chanty synth pop, man. You can’t beat it.

WHEN I GET older, losing my hair, will you still be sending me a Valentine? Sir Paul McCartney (knocking 70) and Ringo Starr (nudging 72) answer their 1967 question by releasing LPs – these codgers cling to the format – in the same week. Coincidence, or as stage-managed as Arnie and Sly turning up in adjoining hospital beds for running repairs while they script their new movie?

It was McCartney’s question on Sgt Pepper’s, so we’ll start with him. The Beatle whom any teenage girl’s mum wouldn’t have minded her daughter bringing home seems to have realised that most of those mums are in nursing-homes by now and makes a record to suit: he flirts with Diana Krall, her band and producer, Tommy LiPuma, on 12 classics from the great American songwriters of the ’30s and ’40s, plus a couple of his own. It’s no coincidence one is ‘My Valentine’, for new wife Nancy.

You may know the titles; if not, ask your grandmother. ‘I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter’, signature of Fats Waller (John Lennon called him “the greatest songwriter of all time”); ‘Paper Moon’; ‘Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive’; ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ (hat-tipped by, err, some band in the ’70s).

For the fi rst time, the multi-instrumentalist appears here as a Crosby-eque crooner, strumming an acoustic on three tracks, one beside Eric Clapton. Which reveals that if the hair

isn’t getting thin, the voice is. Always the Beatle who owed most to these songs, fi rst heard in the lounge at his father’s piano, and the one who derived much of his appeal from English music-hall artists like George Formby, McCartney delivers tinkling cocktail lounge music with a blinking airport lounge feel. There’s a great record in here: it was called A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night and it came out in 1973.

Ringo 2012 references his 1973 effort: ‘Step Lightly’ is a reprise from that album, beat for beat; he recorded ‘Wings’ in 1977; there’s Buddy Holly‘s ‘Think It Over’, here’s the skiffle (ask your grandad) classic ‘Rock Island Line’. Starr is a man who’s safe in his own skins, and his band of brothers – Joe Walsh, Benmont Tench, Dave Stewart, Van Dyke Parks, Edgard Winter et al – march to the beat of the same drums.

While Cohen, Dylan, Simon, Waits and Richard Thompson are still making potent, vibrant, inspired songs, two of the men who opened the door for the all-writing, all-singing musician have chosen to turn out records that could have been made anytime in the past four decades. Last weekend, our digitised household emotionally parted with a vinyl pressing of The White Album. I doubt either of these CDs will see the light of another play, much less earn shelf-space for 44 years.

Reviews Ewan McDonald

LIL BWhite Flame(Self-released)Pitchfork reviewed this as I was writing about it, and natch their review reads like a Star

Trek nerd having to watch Futurama: “This show is taking liberties! What are all these joke songs?” All of this prolific rapper’s Flame mixtapes are pretty enjoyable – the heights on this (‘Surrender to Me’, ‘Watch Yo Bitch’) recall his amazing work with Clams Casino; the throwaways are funny and sonically of a piece.

FIELD MUSICPlumb(Memphis Industries)So many baroque-pop revivalists end up micromanaging the three-minute

pop song to within an inch of its life – Field Music should be held in pretty good esteem if only because they often reduce this to two minutes or less. The more proggy moments leave me cold, but crowded in here are some exceptional moments of intricate white-boy funk – ‘A New Town’ is a must-listen, one of the finest songs of the year so far.

808 MAFIA808 Mafia(Self-released)A collation of instrumentals from producers affiliated with Gucci Mane’s 1017 Brick

Squad, serving as a sort of interesting divining stick for what makes a fresh track in 2012. Be-Bop’s ‘Mission’ and ‘Gold 2’ are great, heady

numbers that put a gloss of arpeggiated ’90s techno across a tough low-end; the execrable Bobby Beats makes seven-minute jams that function as interminable climactic numbers (oh yay, MIDI bells).

BEACH FOSSILS‘Shallow’/‘Lessons’ seven-inch(Captured Tracks)No one does jangly, spooked post-punk like this better at the moment, with the possible exception of Real

Estate. ‘Shallow’ continues their trick of leaving their pastoral, sunny melodies unresolved and unnerving – ‘Lessons’ is that little bit less special, but it’s still exactly what you want and expect from this Brookyn combo.

PERFUME GENIUSPut Your Back N 2 It(Matador)Maddeningly dull piano and broken-string dirges from a Seattle guy named Mike Andreas

– the stabs at gospel (‘Take Me Home’) are aggravatingly thin, while elsewhere he comes across like a chopped’n’screwed Five for Fighting (‘No Tear’) – this as not as entertaining as it sounds.

THE AMAZINGGentle Stream(Subliminal Sounds)If this lovingly restored Swedish psych-pop model reminds you of Dungen, then you’re on the money

– at least two members of that project are aboard. The soft vowels of their vocalist are more likely to invoke fellow Swede Jens Lekman or Belle &

Sebastian – the music moves along at the sort of gentle, amiable lope the title conjures up.

SSALIVARZA(Vlek Records)Belgian Francois Boulanger makes lo-fi headtrip stuff reminiscent of a warped

cassette of Tangerine Dream. If that sounds like a familiar refrain from leftfi eld music in the past 18 months, I don’t care – this is really great, with some weird half-speed excursions into trance (‘B Adventures’) and Sun Araw’s midnight-rite woodblock funk (‘Night Landing’).

GANG COLOURSThe Keychain Collection(Brownswood Recordings)Post-James Blake Coldplay dubstep, all immaculately assembled and with poignant

piano and stuff. Pretty insubstantial, though there’s obviously a bit of craft put into the collages that make it up – if it happened a vaguely uptempo rhythm and a melody once in a while we’d be talking.

THE AGGROLITESUnleashed Live (Vol 1)(Brixton Records)Oh man – ageing ska bands doing their authentic roots reggae supergroup thing.

There’s nothing hideous about the formula, but look how much of this stuff exists. Look at it all! Argh. Fuck. You have plenty of better stuff to listen to first, some of it made right here.

Reviews Joe Nunweek

Kisses on the Bottom(Hear Music)

Ringo 2012(HIP-O Records/UMe)

Adams is touring now, continues this tradition. It relies on an acoustic guitar and masterful, simple lyrics. It’s full of swooping refrains and images that are like hearing new clichés for the first time.

Adams is now reaping the rewards of his prolific output, and performing solo acoustic, the way he started, is a fitting way to deliver it.

“It’s been the best tour I’ve ever done,” he says. “The older songs, as well as the newer songs, they all sound better solo than they ever do with a band. There’s an intimacy and

I’VE HAD TWO Ryan Adams periods in my life. When I was 17 and heartbroken for the first time, I went to the library and chose three CDs, solely on the cover art and the photocopies of reviews that had been stuck onto the CDs. They were The Strokes’ Is This It?, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ No More Shall We Part, and Ryan Adams’ Heartbreaker. That pretty much ensured that I would spend the next decade trying to be a musician.

When I opened the interview with Adams himself by mentioning this, I got a warm response. He seemed

They say you should never meet your idols, particularly if they are as notoriously prickly in conversation as Ryan Adams. But, ahead of Adams’ shows in Dunedin and Auckland, one of VOLUME’s writers took the challenge. Text Anthonie Tonnon

keen to talk about Is This It?. “That Strokes album is actually

a lot sadder than people probably realise because there’s obviously that thrill of the record, but it is a really morose record,” he mused.

While some artists refuse to write their breakthrough albums again, Adams has put out a solid attempt at a better Heartbreaker or Gold just about every 18 months. Even with his break from music, his productivity in the last decade puts contemporaries like The Strokes to shame.

Ashes and Fire, the album

a level there that you just can’t get any other way.”

But now is too good a time to be an Adams fan for me to have wanted to dwell on Ashes and Fire.

It’s good because Adams has completed his relationship with Lost Highway, the label that insisted Love is Hell be released as two separate EPs and flat-out rejected much of his material. As part of this break-up, he has the rights to release his unreleased material on his PAX-AM label, including the Cardinals album III/IV, and, in a short vinyl run, his “fully-realised sci-fi metal concept album album” Orion.

My Adams renaissance came when a friend gave me a compilation taken from the half-a-dozen albums Adams released in 2006 under the

name The Shit, not long before his break from music. I found it as refreshing as Heartbreaker once had been. It’s a kind of hip hop mixtape that alternated between explosive punk songs and Casiotone drollery, introducing an absurd world of characters like Andy Fiddlesticks the Alligator and Jimmy Hackysack, along with stories like Trent Reznor getting tube socks for Xmas.

I didn’t dare ask about The Shit, but I thought I might get away with asking about Orion. But when I seemed to be referring to it as a Ryan Adams release proper, he took it to mean that I didn’t know the story of his last five years. Suddenly he sounded exasperated: “This sort of information is readily available, but I’ll explain it to you…”

What I love about Adams is that while most people will be drawn first to his mainstream façade, there are further worlds to delve into. The PAX-AM website is an arcade game-themed site where messages are signed off by Bongo the Snowman. On Twitter, Adams more often than not talks about obscure metal bands, and recently recorded a cover ‘Round and Round’ by ’80s hair metal band Ratt for NPR. What I wanted to know was how these diverse versions of Ryan Adams fed into each other. To make a strong traditional album like Ashes and Fire, did it take letting you record a metal album? But Adams wasn’t impressed.

“The best way I can explain this is this – wouldn’t it be odd if you were interviewing a new interesting chef making French food, but if you talked to the guy and said, ‘Have you ever cut up a potato and made French fries or have you ever made a pizza?’”

Well, at least I prompted him to turn a metaphor.

“Part of the joy of music is listening to lots of different kinds of music and learning from it. Specifi cally for me, I like writing songs that move me, and what moves me are beautiful songs on the piano or the guitar and really, really heavy music.”

In a good interview, like a good conversation, you usually have to abandon the script and let things go where they will. Perhaps if we’d kept talking about The Strokes I wouldn’t be hanging up the phone in a cold sweat. But would that be a real Ryan Adams interview? I’m not sure it would.

Ryan Adams plays the Regent Theatre in Dunedin on Tuesday 6 March and the Civic Theatre in Auckland on Thursday 8 March.

“What moves me are beautiful songs on the piano or the guitar and really, really heavy music.”

THE OTHER ELITE

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 Oscar-winner Rebecca is being remade by Dreamworks. Steve Knight (Eastern Promises) has been hired to pen this new adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel.

Legendary Pictures have offi cially scrapped plans to make Alex Proyas’ adaptation of John Milton’s Paradise Lost where Bradley Cooper was to star as Lucifer. The budgeted $120 million wasn’t enough to cover the costly effects work.

Machete Kills, the sequel to Machete, Robert Rodriguez’s faux-grindhouse flick is on the way, with shooting to start in April.

If Stephanie Meyer wants to write another Twilight book, Lionsgate say they’re ready to make it, either for film or television.

It might be worth nothing that Killer Elite has nothing to do with Sam Peckinpah’s 1975 spy thriller The Killer Elite, which stars James Caan and Robert Duvall as shadowy agents for the CIA. Not one of Peckinpah’s best, but kinda fun, and it has ninjas.

Eureka (Shock) isn’t even my favourite Nicolas Roeg movie, but it’s the one I’ve returned to more than any other. Made in ’81 but shelved for two years, it was a debacle upon release and subsequently derailed Roeg’s career. The studio, critics and audiences alike couldn’t connect with this baroque, madly overwrought melodrama of greed and obsession starring Gene Hackman as a gold prospector who discovers his riches can’t buy happiness later in life. Narratively straighter than most of Roeg’s fi lms, Eureka is still uniquely his, rich in intoxicating imagery that never fails to pull me back for another hit.

EVEN THOUGH RANULPH Fiennes’ 1991 supposedly fact-based book The Feather Men outraged the British government when it came

out, it’s unlikely Gary McKendry’s adaptation Killer Elite will do the same. No one’s going to see this as anything more than another Jason Statham actioner where a character’s testicles are placed in the unfortunate position of being at the receiving end of his piston-like punches.

When Statham’s old mercenary pal De Niro is captured by an Omani oil sheik, he’s forced back from retirement to kill three British SAS agents responsible for the deaths of the sheik’s sons. The catch: the hits have to be made to look like accidents and a fi lmed confession must be obtained from all three agents. Rounding out Statham’s

crack team is Prison Break’s Dominic Purcell (sporting some meaty mutton chops) and Aden Young. Clive Owen plays the one-eyed, moustachioed ex-SAS who’s onto Statham and co.

McKendry’s debut holds few surprises – its retro threaded-assassins-on-a-mission premise recalls Munich – but it ticks over with clean, workmanlike efficiency, and there’s something enjoyably old-fashioned about its perfunctory nature. Expect much macho posturing from the cast, the highlight being a rather bruising mano-a-mano moment between Owen and Statham. Plus De Niro gets to prove there’s still a bit of life left in him yet – pretty sure that was a flash of Jake LaMotta I spotted as he was beating the shit out of some poor heavy in the third act.

Review Aaron Yap

Director Gary McKendry

Starring Jason Statham, Robert De Niro, Clive Owen, Dominic Purcell

KILLER ELITE

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Led Zeppelin at Western Springs

WESTERN SPRINGS, AUCKLANDFRIDAY 25 FEBRUARY 1972Photo courtesy of Jed Town

In 1972, Roy Colbert was writing a column for The Evening Star in Dunedin, earning $4 a week less tax, and spending $150 going up to Auckland to see rock concerts. And he fl ew north to see Led Zeppelin play Western Springs on Friday 25 February 1972.

WHEN LED ZEPPELIN came to Auckland they had already been denied entry to Singapore because of local laws banning males from wearing long hair.

The good thing about coming up for concerts was that I got to talk to the bands. The promoters knew me, and that I’d spent all this money coming a long way, so they made sure I got interviews.

I was playing cards when the promoter Barry Coburn called up and invited me to co-promoter Robert Raymond’s Remuera house. I thought he was just making conversation, and I realise now they needed pot.

All the band and Peter Grant were there. Robert Plant opened the door – he had a woman in each hand; he literally was balancing a girl in each arm. “I’m Robert Plant and I’m the greatest rock’n’roll singer in the world,” was his greeting.

Peter looked evil, just a huge man in a huge chair. John Bonham was very big as well and making a lot of noise. I spoke to Jimmy Page a lot. I was a record geek so I had millions of anal questions about recordings he played on, obscure bands like Cartoone. They were all pretty shattered – they were at the bottom of the world. I didn’t know about the whips in the guitar cases.

These were the drug years – me and my mates constructed the concert around drugs, and I thought we should have some nitrous oxide because they didn’t do it in Auckland. We did it in Dunedin all the time. So I remember we had to drive some distance to get a huge cylinder of

NO2. We were seated on the bank and got a good seat halfway up the hill, and passed the blue cylinder backwards and forwards along the row until it was empty.

An MC introduced Led Zeppelin. They opened with ‘Immigrant Song’ – I can’t think of a better song to open. Breaking into the opening rumble when

the opening vocal started up, it was like a lion roaring in a jungle.

Not too many years earlier The Rolling Stones and The Beatles played 25-minute shows and now a near three-hour show was like a whole life experience. I like all types of music. I liked folk music, and they did folk as well. At the show Plant thanked the crowd for “makin’ this the biggest thing that’s ever happened in New Zealand”.

There were sound effects for ‘Dazed and Confused’, and ‘Rock and Roll’ was much better live. The finale medley in ‘Whole Lotta Love’ included an extended ‘Boogie Chillun’’, an excellent ‘Hello Mary Lou’, and a riotous rendition

of Elvis Presley’s ‘Let’s Have a Party’.It was an enormously long

experience, way longer than anything I had seen before. It was all Page and Plant really – totally complimentary, their two bodies slinky and curving like snakes. Page held the guitar really low and Plant was strutting. They bent into each other.

I was about 22. I’d like to think I was 18 because then I wrote about it for Rolling Stone and I thought I was just like Cameron Crowe, but he was like 16 and I was a grown-up.

I wasn’t a huge Led Zeppelin fan – I liked them, but I didn’t love them, but it may be the best concert I’ve ever seen.

“‘I’m Robert Plant and I’m the greatest rock’n’roll Singer in the world,’ was his greeting.”

ROGER WATERS BROUGHT one of the most spectacular, eye-popping shows ever to grace Vector Arena’s stage. His live performance of the 1979 Pink Floyd album, The Wall, has been on the road for almost a year and a half, so by the time Waters and his huge entourage arrived in Auckland for the first of four sold-out show, the technically complex multi-media extravaganza was firing on all cylinders. There were explosions, there

were aircraft, there were jackbooted stormtroopers, there was even a flying pig. The only thing missing was exband mate David Gilmour’s distinctive guitar playing. Waters made up for that by bringing on three guitarists: Snowy White (who performed with Pink Floyd back in 1980), G.E. Smith (known for his work with Hall & Oates and Bob Dylan) and Dave Kilminster (who performed most of Gilmour’s solos including the showstopping climax to ‘Comfortably Numb’). Robbie Wyckoff was on hand to sing Gilmour’s parts.

The two-part show got under way with a sound clip from the 1960 Stanley Kubrick film Spartacus and then a Waters’ mournful trumpet solo emerged from the darkness. The band came on

with literally a flash, playing ‘In the Flesh’ while banks of pyrotechnics lit up the stage. It was clear this was not going to be your run-of-the-mill rock concert. And it wasn’t. In fact, it was more like a Broadway musical with its huge, ever-changing props, dazzling lighting, giant, infl atable puppets, and a dive bomber that crashed into The Wall at the end of the first number.

Throughout the show, slogans such as “Trust Us”, “Should I Trust the Government?” and “Them Not Us” were flashed on the stage. During ‘Another Brick in the Wall’, a small army of schoolchildren came out wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Fear Builds Walls”.

When Waters fi rst conceived The

VECTOR ARENA, AUCKLANDSATURDAY 18 FEBRUARY Review Marty DudaPhotography Dallas Pickering

Wall, its focus was on his own alienation and anti-war feelings. Thirty years later he has expanded the scope of his vision

to include an anti-government and anti-corporate message. His anti-war message has been updated to include images of 9/11, the US war in Iraq and

terrorism in general. In fact, the only time Waters strayed from the original words and music of the album was to add lyrics to ‘Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)’ about the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian who, mistaken for a terrorist, was killed by London police in 2005.

Waters filled the show with a dizzying array of iconic images and references, from Kafka to Welles, Hitler to Hussein. Hammers and sickles were displayed alongside corporate logos. Waters was taking a scatter-shot at everything, which was emphasised late in the show when he took aim at the audience with his machine gun.

The audience itself was extremely enthusiastic, and Waters seemed

genuinely appreciative. Ironic, considering part of the reason for writing The Wall originally was Waters’ increasing disdain for Pink Floyd’s audience back in the ’70s. But that was when he was a self-confessed “grumpy young man”. At age 68 and newly-married, Waters clearly enjoyed his time on the stage and the feedback from the audience.

Even so, it was a little unnerving to watch the fans as they dutifully followed Waters’ lead, chanting “tear down The Wall”. Did they miss the point being hammered at them the entire evening, or were they being ironic? My guess is they were simply out to have a good evening of entertainment and sing along to some old songs.

“Huge, ever-changing props, dazzling lighting, giant, infl atable puppets, and a dive bomber that crasheD into The Wall.”

NORTHLANDFRIDAY 24Urban Country – Aratapu Tavern, Dargaville, 7pm, FreeThe Hewson Project – 35 Degrees South Aquarium Restaurant and Bar, Paihia, 6pm, FreeCoda EP Release Gig w/ Localize, OBC and DJ Hemz – Butterbank, Whangarei, 9pmSATURDAY 25De Sotos – Old Library Building Arts Centre, Whangarei, 7:30pm, $17Glenn Shorrock – Original voice of The Little River Band – The Duke of Marlborough Tavern, Russell, 7:30pm, $40Hipstamatics – Mangawhai Tavern, Mangawhai, 8pm, $10SUNDAY 26Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – The Funky Fish Restaurant, Dargaville, 9pm, FreeUrban Country – Main Street, Hokianga, 10pm, FreeJan Preston’s ‘Beat Out the Boogie’ – Lighthouse Function Centre, Dargaville, 1pm, $15

AUCKLANDTUESDAY 21Florries Irish Music Jam Sessions – Florrie McGreals Irish Pub, Takapuna, 7:30pm, FreePink Floyd – Double Feature – Stardome Observatory & Planetarium, Royal Oak, 8pm, $35WEDNESDAY 22Roger Waters – The Wall – Vector Arena, Auckland CBD, 8pmFeeding Habits No.1 – Audio Foundation, Auckland CBD, 6pmFire For Glory & Guests – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pm, $10Creative Jazz Club: Tim Hopkins – Seven Album Release – 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, FreePetra Rijnbeek & Paul Voight – Sugar Bar, Newmarket, 7pm, FreeSystem Of A Down w/ The Dillinger Escape Plan – The Trusts Stadium Arena, Henderson, 7:30pm, $95The Sisters of Mercy – Powerstation, Eden Terrace, 8pm, $72.50THURSDAY 23Mayer Hawthorne – Powerstation, Eden Terrace, 8pm, $60.50Roger Waters – The Wall – Vector Arena, Auckland CBD, 8pmGerry Rooderkerk Alive & Acoustic – The Fiddler Bar, Auckland CBD, 10pm, FreeOld Growth Cola (Brisbane) – Audio Foundation, Auckland CBD, 7pm, $10Seeds of Orbit & Hypnic Jerk – The Lucha Lounge, Newmarket, 8pmSugarcraft and Guests – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pmMyele Manzanza Album Release Party w Onny Kaulima – Ponsonby Social Club, Ponsonby, 9pm, FreeJennifer Zea – 1885 Basement, Auckland CBD, 10pm, FreeA Day to Remember, Antagonist AD, Snakes Of Iron + More – Logan Campbell Centre, Epsom, 6:30pm, $69Jimmy Hopper One Heart’s Journey Tour 2012 – Auckland Town Hall, THE EDGE, Auckland CBD, 7:30pmPetra Rijnbeek & Paul Voight – The Lumsden, Newmarket, 6:30pm, FreeFRIDAY 24This Flight Tonight (Final Auckland Show) & Guests – UFO Live Music

Venue, New Lynn, 8pm, $5-$10Mile High, Valedictions & Here Come – Juice Bar at The Windsor Castle, Parnell, 8:30pm, $10Shotgun Alley – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pm, $15Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – Cassette Number Nine, Auckland CBD, 9pmTech Support ft. Bugsy, Merge, Shift + More – InkCoherent, Newton, 10pm, $10Shankar Ehsaan Loy – TelstraClear Pacifi c Events Centre, Manukau City CBD, 7pm, $55-$100DJ Murry Sweetpants & Percussionist John Ellis – The Deck, Auckland CBD, 8pm, FreeLa Noche Perfecta w/ Cuban Accent – Havana Club, Auckland CBD, 10pm, $5Live Latin Music – Besos Latinos Restaurant, Auckland CBD, 7:30pm, FreeJimmy Hopper One Heart’s Journey Tour 2012 – Auckland Town Hall, THE EDGE, Auckland CBD, 7:30pmThe Icons Cover Series #1: Dead Kennedys – The Lucha Lounge, Newmarket, 9pm, $5-$10Harvey Knows a Killer, STKS Rhythm & Hipstamatics – Khuja Lounge, Auckland CBD, 9pm, $5SATURDAY 25Game w/ Special Guest Savage – Vector Arena, Auckland CBD, 7pm, $64.95A Twilight Occasion Jazz & Blues Fest – Divas in The Park – Puhoi Valley Cafe and Cheese Store, Puhoi, 4pm, $30Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – The Rocks, Waiheke Island, 9pmGirls Pissing On Girls Pissing | Igor | Anthony Drent – Wine Cellar, Newton, 8pm, $5Mark Laurent & Brenda Liddiard – The Llama Lounge, 7:30pm, $20DJ Chris Cox & Percussionist Partido, DJ Sophia Nash – The Deck, Auckland CBD, 8pm, FreeEddie Numbers w Junior & Zane Tee – Ponsonby Social Club, Ponsonby, 9pm, FreeContagious – Cock & Bull, Newmarket, 9:30pm, FreeMark Armstrong Acoustic – De Fontein, Mission Bay, 8:30pm, FreeFrench Resonance – Auckland Fish Market, Auckland CBD, 5:30pm, FreeJason Mohi – Malt Bar, Grey Lynn, 8pm, FreeUnknown Peace – Wellsford Inn, Wellsford, 9pm, FreeLittle Bushman and Electric Wire Hustle – Kings Arms, Newton, 8pm, $30-$35The Riff Raff Raise the Roof – The Brownzy Tavern, Browns Bay, 7:30pm, $15Sick Disco – Cassette Number Nine, Auckland CBD, 10pmThe UP FM Solar Series 2012 – Phase 2 – Western Springs Stadium, Western Springs, 12pm, FreeSUNDAY 26Music in Parks 2012 – The Culture Garden – Auckland Domain Wintergardens, Parnell, 6pm, FreeGlenn Shorrock & Give it a Girl: Rock In the Vines – Ascension Wine Estate, Matakana, 3pm, $59.50Elvis in the Gardens – Auckland Botanic Gardens, Manurewa, 1pm, FreeFrancis Jakeman – Goode Brothers, Botany Downs, 3pm, FreeKaiaua Country Music Festival – Bayview Hotel, Kaiaua, 11am, $20Southern Fried Sunday ft. Bernie Griffi n & The Grifters – Kings Arms, Newton, 5pm, $10DJ Nyntee & Saxophonist Lewis

McCallum – The Deck, Auckland CBD, 5pm, FreeCharlie Couch Love Songs With a Hint of Jazz – Bays Club, Browns Bay, 5:30pm, FreeChicane 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, FreeThe Calm – Huapai Tavern, Huapai, 3:30pm, FreeMONDAY 27New Order – Vector Arena, Auckland CBD, 7pm, $95VIVA Jazz Quartet – The Windsor Castle, Parnell, 6pm, FreeJonathan Butler – Bruce Mason Centre, Takapuna, 8pm, $59-$99

THE COROMANDELTHURSDAY 23Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – Eggsentric Cafe And Restaurant, Cooks Beach, 9pm

HAWKE’S BAY / GISBORNEFRIDAY 24Maori Motown – Napier Soundshell, Napier, 6pm, FreeSATURDAY 25Mission Estate Concert – Starring Rod Stewart: SOLD OUT – Mission Estate Winery, Napier, 4pmSUNDAY 26HBS Bank Summer in the Parks – Cornwall Park, Hastings, 3pm, Free

WAIKATOTUESDAY 21Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra – I Love You Tour – Clarence St Theatre, Hamilton, 7:30pm, $38THURSDAY 23Honeybadger Tour – FLOW, Hamilton, 9pmWellington International Ukulele Orchestra – I Love You Tour – Great Lake Centre, Taupo, 7:30pm, $38FRIDAY 24Hamilton Acoustics (Euromission Fundraiser Show) – Vision Church Eastside, Hamilton, 7pm, $5Proton Beast 2000 And Blood Tour – Static Bar, Hamilton, 9pm, $10Glenn Shorrock, Mark Williams and Jason Kerrison – Rhododendron Lawn, Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton, 7:30pm, $40Dark Side of the Uke – Tudor Garden, Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton, 6pm, $10-$15Bulletbelt – Writhe And Ascend NZ Tour – Biddy Mulligan’s Irish Pub, Hamilton, 8pm, $10Tempist Fujit – Diggers Bar, Hamilton, 10pm, FreeSATURDAY 25Fosters Jazz in the Roses – Waikato Times Food and Wine Fest – Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton, 10amBulletbelt – Writhe And Ascend NZ Tour – Spa Hotel Taupo, Taupo, 8pm, $10NZ Tattoo & Art Expo – Offi cial After Party – Axces Bar, Hamilton, 9pm, $10World War Four – Axces Bar, Hamilton, 9pm, $10Labretta Suede and The Motel 6 + The Beggars’ Way – Static Bar, Hamilton, 9pm, $10SUNDAY 26NZ Tattoo & Art Expo – Artists Offi cial After Party – FLOW,

Hamilton, 9pm, $5Fosters Jazz in the Roses – Waikato Times Food and Wine Fest – Hamilton Gardens, Hamilton, 10amJazz on a Sunday Evening – Double Star Bill – Te Rapa Racecourse, Hamilton, 5:30pm, $8-$15Little Bushman and Electric Wire Hustle – YOT Club, Raglan, 4pm, $20-$25

BAY OF PLENTYWEDNESDAY 22Alizarin Lizard – The Weekend Went Without You Album Tour – Waihi Beach Hotel, Waihi Beach, 9pmHoneybadger Tour – Major Toms, Mt Maunganui, 8pmWellington International Ukulele Orchestra – I Love You Tour – Whakatane Little Theatre, Whakatane, 7:30pm, $38FRIDAY 24Little Bushman and Electric Wire Hustle – Brewers Bar, Mt Maunganui, 8pm, $25-$30SATURDAY 25Shotgun Alley – Brewers Bar, Mt Maunganui, 8pm, $15Tauranga Katikati Acoustic Music Festival – 156 Work Road, Katikati, 10am, $25MONDAY 27Jimmy & Perry – The Pheasant Plucker, Rotorua, 7pm, Free

TARANAKISATURDAY 25NZ Blues Brothers Tribute Show – Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, 2pm, $15SUNDAY 26Classic Hits Winery Tour : Gin, Mutton Birds, Avalanche City – Sentry Hill Winery, New Plymouth, 5pm, $59-$69

MANAWATU / WHANGANUITHURSDAY 23Proton Beast 2000 And Blood Tour – The ARC Theatre, Whanganui, 9pm, $10Bulletbelt – Writhe And Ascend NZ Tour – The Royal, Palmerston North, 8pm, $10SUNDAY 26Slick Nickel – Rangitikei Club, Feilding, 3pm, $10

WELLINGTON REGIONTUESDAY 21Richter City Rebels Album Release – Havana Bar, 7:30pm, FreeHave Voice; Will Sing – Meow, 7pm, $10-$18Live Music – The Library, 5pm, FreeWEDNESDAY 22Mayer Hawthorne – San Francisco Bath House, 8pm, $57.50Old Growth Cola, Terror of the Deep & Big Flip the Massive – Mighty Mighty, 9:30pmDarren Hanlon – Happy, 7pmTHURSDAY 23In Like Flynn – Molly Malones, 9pmWallace Gollan – Farewell Show – Mighty Mighty, 8:30pm, $5FRIDAY 24New Telepathics and Friends – Mighty Mighty, 9:30pmOrchestra of Spheres w/ Thought Creature & Badd Energy – San Francisco Bath House, 8pm, $10Mtown – Horse & Hound Bar & Cafe, Lower Hutt, 9pm, FreeSATURDAY 25Honeybadger Tour – Bar Medusa, 9pm

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Street Chant and No Aloha – Mighty Mighty, 9:30pmThe Barons of Tang – NZIAF – TelstraClear Festival Club, 10:15pm, $48-$440Darren Watson & The Real Deal Blues Band – The Lido Cafe, 8:30pm, FreeNewtown Top Ranking – Baobab Cafe, 1pm, Free@Peace w/ Guests All Ages Party – San Francisco Bath House, 7pm, $15@Peace w/Guests The ARC – San Francisco Bath House, 10:30pm, $20Classic Hits Winery Tour : Gin, Mutton Birds, Avalanche City – Alana Estate, Martinborough, 5pm, $59-$69Mtown – Monteiths Brewery Bar, Paraparaumu, 9:00pm, FreeSUNDAY 26The Topp Twins – NZIAF – TelstraClear Festival Club, 7:30pm, $58-$520Alphabet Street – Capital E, 2pm, $12The Boptet – The Lido Cafe, 7pm, FreeThe Sunday Jazz Club – Public Bar & Eatery, 7:30pm, FreeBulletbelt – Writhe And Ascend NZ Tour – Bar Medusa, 1:30pm, $5MONDAY 27Bon Iver – NZIAF – Wellington Town Hall, 8pm, $38-$88The Topp Twins – NZIAF – Masterton Town Hall, Masterton, 7:30pm, $44

NELSON / TASMANFRIDAY 24Uni and Her Ukulele w/ the Nelson Ukulele Orchestra – The Boathouse, Nelson, 8pm, $15SATURDAY 25Jimmy Hopper – One Heart’s Journey Tour 2012 – Nelson School of Music, Nelson, 7:30pm, $59.90-$79.90The Johnnys – The Free House, Nelson, 8pm, $10SUNDAY 26Jimmy Hopper – One Heart’s Journey Tour 2012 – Nelson School of Music, Nelson, 7:30pm, $59.90-$79.90

MARLBOROUGHTHURSDAY 23Classic Hits Winery Tour : Gin, Mutton Birds, Avalanche City – Villa Maria Marlborough Winery, Blenheim, 5pm, $59-$69

CANTERBURYTUESDAY 21Jackie Bristow – Coming Home Tour – Naval Point Yacht Club, Lyttelton, 8pm, $15WEDNESDAY 22Open To Public – Dux Live, 8pm, FreeJackie Bristow – Coming Home Tour – Ashburton Trust Event Centre, Ashburton, 8pm, $20THURSDAY 23The Black Velvet Band – Becks Southern Alehouse, 8pm, FreeDarren Hanlon – darkroom, 7pmSalsa On Thursdays – Salsa Latina Dance Studio, 8:45pm, FreeGappy Ranks (UK) – Dux Live, 8pm, $15FRIDAY 24Fuse 2012 – Indie Rock Night – CPIT, 9pm, $10-$50Lincoln Drive w/ djDmand – Pierside Cafe and Bar, 8:30pm, FreeAoraki Polytechnic Orientation – The Black Seeds – Aoraki Polytechnic, Timaru, 3pm, Free

The Tiny Lies + Marlon Williams – darkroom, 8pm, FreeRockGas Jazz and Blues Festival – Amuri Ave, Hanmer Springs, 11am, FreeRetrosonic – Becks Southern Alehouse, 9pm, FreeAshei (NZ) and Monte (AUS) w/ guests Come What May – Dux Live, 9pm, FreeCaptain Jack – Ferrymead Speights Ale House, 9:30pm, FreeSATURDAY 25RockGas Jazz and Blues Concert – Queen Mary Centre, Hanmer Springs, 5:30pm, $46Fuse 2012 – Dub Night – CPIT, 10pm, $10-$50Bang! Bang! Eche! – Dux Live, 8pm, FreeRockGas Jazz and Blues Festival – Amuri Ave, Hanmer Springs, 10am, FreeAshei (NZ) and Monte (AUS) w/ Come What May – All Ages – Zebedees, 8pm, $5SUNDAY 26RockGas Jazz and Blues Festival – Amuri Ave, Hanmer Springs, 10am, FreeChristine Eva – Dux Live, 6pm, Free

OTAGOTUESDAY 21Dub my Toga – Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin, 8pm, $20Classic Hits Winery Tour : Gin, Mutton Birds, Avalanche City – Olssens, Cromwell, 5pm, $59-$69THURSDAY 23Hip Hop Night – Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin, 8pm, $20-$25Jackie Bristow – Coming Home Tour – Loan and Merc, Oamaru, 8pm, FreeNairobi Trio – Criffel Station, Wanaka, 7pm, $60-$65FRIDAY 24Jackie Bristow – Coming Home Tour – The Church, Dunedin, 8pm, $10Shenandoah Davis (USA) w/ The Carpet Floor & John White – Chicks Hotel, Dunedin, 8pmDick Johnson – O Week Gig – 10 Bar, Dunedin, 10pm, FreeShihad – Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin, 8pm, $30-$40SATURDAY 25Shapeshifter – Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin, 8pm, $45-$55SUNDAY 26Shenandoah Davis (USA) w/ The Carpet Floor – Harbour St Theatrette, Oamaru, 8pmJackie Bristow – Coming Home Tour – Desert Heart Winery, Cromwell, 4pm, $15Jo Little & Jared Smith – Inch Bar, Dunedin, 5pm, Free

SOUTHLANDTHURSDAY 23Shihad – Tillermans, Invercargill, 6pmSATURDAY 25Jackie Bristow – Coming Home Tour – Moonshiners Whiskey Festival, Gore, 2pm, $20MONDAY 27Daniel O’Donnell – Civic Theatre, Invercargill, 7pm, $78.90-$89.90

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WEDS22 FEB

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SAT31 MARCH

FRI13 APRIL

NICK LOWE

WED18 APRIL MARK LANEGAN

SIX60SAT

14 APRIL SIX60

THE SISTERS OF MERCYTHURS23 FEB MAYER HAWTHORNE

THE BLACK LIPSWITH RACKETS AND THE TRANSISTORS

THURS1 MARCH ROOTS MANUVA

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POWERSTATION

ROKY ERICKSONWITH SHAFT

WED14 MARCH THE DIRTY THREE

SAT17 MARCH EILEN JEWELL

THURS22 MARCH ALABAMA 3

WED28 MARCH ELBOW

JUST ANNOUNCED: EILEN JEWELL 17 MARCH

Le Tigre’s JD Samson leads MEN, a Brooklyn-based band and art/performance act who perform one show only in Auckland on 23 February at 4:20… Dr Graeme Downes, Head of the Music Department at the University of Otago, is giving a lecture on songwriting in New Zealand at The Loft in Q Theatre this Thursday at 6pm – no cover charge… The next Silo Sessions in Wynyard Quarter is this Saturday with music from The Cosbys, Doug Jerebine, DJ John Baker and DJ Mr Crawley… Also on Saturday you can get a one-way round-the-world music ticket at Britomart Country Club courtesy of Andrea Balency (Mexico), The Ruby Suns, Nick D presents The

Yewala Soundsystem, MayaVanya & MC Silva, and Aroha… Herbs played a splendid and summery set at Greg Hammerdown’s 50th… Craig Radford performed a gritty solo set with a show-stopping version of ‘Weep Woman Weep’. Radford has secured the opening slot for The Sisters Of Mercy… Poor You Poor Me impressed at Camp A Low Hum and will open for Ariel Pink next month... Marty Duda’s piece on The Clash for Radio New Zealand National’s Music 101 is streaming now on their website – his next feature for RNZ is about the adventures of the Modfather in the US… Otara PIC Choir has been laying down an album at Stebbings… New stoner rock duo Circus Meat impressed at Lucha Lounge… Watch out for a visit by Endless Boogie who will perform shows with the X-Ray Fiends in mid-March.

Former VOLUME cover star Mayer Hawthorne plays San Francisco Bath House on Wednesday night – support from recent VOLUME Talking Head Scratch 22…Also on Wednesday, Dr Graeme Downes delivers a lecture on songwriting – 6pm at the James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor on The Terrace, and it’s free… The next night at San Francisco Bath House, it’s Africa Music Day. Kicking off early at 4pm, expect cheap drinks and a great range of live African music ranging from afrobeat to kwaito, highlife and beyond… Friday Night, The New Telepathics bring their avant-garde indie pop to Mighty Mighty – $5 on the door… Saturday night, Street Chant and friends invade Mighty Mighty, also $5 on the door… Also on Saturday, down at Bar Medusa, the Wellington leg of The Honey Badger Tour kicks into gear. The Glory Sea, Dusty Doves, Shadow Feet and Mt Pleasant. $10 entry… According to punter accounts The All-Seeing Hand and The Shocking and The Stunning were two of the standout acts at this year’s Camp A Low Hum. Check out the-all-seeing-hand.bandcamp.com and theshockingandstunning statement.bandcamp.com for further proof. Other Camp highlights included Australian Kirin J. Callinan who was described as “Rowland Howard meets Bauhaus with a tinge of Pink Floyd”. Rackets also impressed – organiser Blink apparently knew the words to all their songs. And Dan Deacon took live honours as well… Legendary UK rapper Roots Manuva hits The Frontroom on Wednesday 29 February… The same night, folksters Emily Fairlight, Seth Frightening and friends play Mighty Mighty… Thursday 1 March Badd Energy, The Golden Awesome and Terror of the Deep play San Francisco Bath House, brought to you by the Victoria Broadcasting Club. $10 on the door… The next night, Electric Wire Hustle play San Francisco Bath House, sharing new material before they depart for yet another US/Europe Tour. Don’t sleep on legends in the making… Saturday 3 March Shenandoah Davis (USA) returns to Wellington to play a show at Happy with support from Timothy Blackman and Seth Frightening. $10 entry and a whole bunch of excellent classically (and not so classically) tinged folk music…

“The Blastmater” KRS-One, one of the greatest living hip hop artists, has announced that he will be playing a show in Wellington in April. His medium of choice to make this known? YouTube!

Rumour has it that Emily Blunt has confirmed she is the patron of the “new” Loons. Huge coup for Mike Friend who has fought tooth and nail to get funding to restore the iconic Lyttelton venue… Check out the Heart Strings guitar auction that begins on TradeMe 24 February… CPIT Orientation begins 24 February and Canterbury University Orientation 17 February. Lineups can be accessed through christchurchmusic.org.nz… The Eastern have confirmed the Lyttelton Top Club for their album release on 2 March. The album is a double called Hope and Wire… Little Bushman and Electric Wire Hustle play Riccarton House Sunday 4 March… Suede Arcade played their first gig in quite a while at the Dux last Saturday. Support from Killshot Medics and Sex and Addiction made for a night of old school rock’n’roll attitude!... Dylan Hawes now fronting Lupas Luna as they have added another guitar player. Good to see the ex-Orkid man playing a few solo shows on the side.

ReFuel reopens Friday 2 March with The Threads, Two Cartoons and Jared Smith bringing the love.... “O” week is upon the city with Shapeshifter, Shihad, Home Brew, David Dallas and more all meeting their next generation of fans... Two Cartoons due to make a video soon... Manthyng debuted their future runaway hit in collaboration with Levi “Nek Minnit” Hawken at Auckland’s Big Gay Out – video also in the works... Delgirl off to Christchurch to share some love... Musicians and other artists voicing their displeasure to council over lack of arts and culture vision in the city’s spatial planning – 200+ submissions received and over 50 from arts and culture sector... TLA new album due to drop… For the Quail reform amid demand for more prog post-rock, rock.... Fringe Festival launched with strongest programme yet.

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

Nick D

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

ROKY ERICKSONWednesday 7 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

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

FIESTA DE CASAAndrea Balency (Mexico), The Ruby Suns, Nick D presents The Yewala Soundsystem, MayaVanya & MC Silva and Aroha.Saturday 25 February – Britomart Country Club

NEW ORDERMonday 27 February – Vector Arena, Auckland

BLACK LIPS Tuesday 28 February – The Powerstation, Auckland

ROOTS MANUVAWednesday 29 February – The Front Room, WellingtonThursday 1 March – The Powerstation, AucklandFriday 2 March – The Colombo, Christchurch

URGE OVERKILLTuesday 6 March – The Powerstation

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

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

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

DIRTY THREEWednesday 14 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

EILEN JEWELLFriday 16 March – Bodega, WellingtonSaturday 17 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

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

JOHN COOPER CLARKEWednesday 21 March – Dunedin Fringe FestivalThursday 22 March – Kings Arms, AucklandFriday 23 March – Bodega, WellingtonSaturday 24 March – Marchfest, Nelson

JOE SATRIANI, STEVE VAI AND STEVE LUKATHER – G3 JOE SATRIANI, STEVE VAI AND STEVE LUKATHER – G3 JOE SATRIANI, STEVE VAI Sunday 25 March – Logan Campbell Centre, AucklandMonday 26 March – Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington

ELBOWWednesday 28/Thursday 29 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

NICK LOWE Saturday 13 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

WOODEN SHJIPSSunday 1 April – Kings Arms, AucklandMonday 2 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

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

MARK LANEGAN BANDWednesday 18 April – The Powerstation, Auckland

THE SONICSWednesday 18 April – Kings Arms, Auckland

LADY GAGAThursday 7 June – Vector Arena, Auckland

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

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLEThursday 19 April – Dux Live, ChristchurchFriday 20 April – Bar Bodega, WellingtonSatuday 21 April – Kings Arms, AucklandSunday 22 April – Sawmill Café, Leigh

THE 5.6.7.8’SFriday 27 April – Kings Arms, AucklandSaturday 28 April – Bodega, Wellington

KAISER CHIEFSThursday 10 May – The Powerstation, Auckland

ALABAMA 3Thursday 22 March – The Powerstation, Auckland

CITY AND COLOURSunday 29 April – Town Hall, Auckland

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

Erykah Badu

THE SIZE OF the first drop suggested this was real rural rain. Sure enough, within seconds it’d arrived, water

cascading down the hill to the main stage where Erykah Badu was holding court. Minutes later thousands of people were desperately seeking cover in the bar, under trees, flags, awnings or marquees. A few punters discarded clothing and danced in togs, while others began the trek home to sodden sleeping quarters. In the glorious Saturday sunshine, there were tales of collapsed tents, mud-caked sleeping bags and broken

legs on the goat track, but that’s the rough and smooth of buying into the festival experience, I guess.

There were a handful of logistical issues (the portaloos and queues at peak times), but they’re minor and didn’t diminish the overall experience. An experience which saw any desire to stick to a timetable cast aside. Not only was this incredibly freeing, it meant I saw the Cuban Brothers, easily one of the funnest acts of the weekend, leading

TAPAPAKANGA REGIONAL PARK, AUCKLANDFRIDAY 17–SUNDAY 19 FEBRUARY Review David CarrollPhotography Jason Moon

Funkommunity

Soul II Soul Sound System

@Peace

the main stage audience in a sing-a-long tribute to Whitney Houston. It also meant when the brostep and glitch hop got tiresome I could embrace the fruity-fun of the Living Lounge, where acts like Labretta Suede and The Motel 6 or the In Flagrante dancers (which, despite being NSFW, are worth googling) encouraged folks to unleash their inner freaks. Aside from the generally positive and accepting atmosphere, it was this

“second and third tier” of performers, artists and extroverts who added the flavour engaging punters beyond the main stage; though the big names didn’t

disappoint. Mostly. While Erykah Badu pleased the

heads by playing songs from Mama’s Gun and Baduizm, hers was a set in which she captivated much, though not all, of the crowd. Around 10 minutes before the rains came, Badu had launched into a monologue about oppression and occupation and the people of Mexico, something which seemed to confuse a great number of younger audience members, who liked her set but were eager for more.

Hudson Mohawke had more – of almost everything except soul. His blunt trauma assemblage of sounds created walls of noise which saw a significant number of punters seriously lose their shit. Speaking of which, I heard the grassy bank above the main stage on Friday night described as “Magic Cardboard Hill”.

The quite remarkable Earl Gateshead showed the Serato-toting

DJ youngsters how it’s done, spinning seven-inch vinyl records while getting on the microphone to chat, encouraging us to join him celebrating the “Heroes! Legends and heroes who smuggled weed across borders, and through customs!” Both his sets were among the finest of the weekend, alongside those by Hudge, Mo’ Horizon, Spikey Tee and the Soul II Soul Sound System, with Jazzie B and Caron Wheeler throwing down.

There are many other moments which stand out, like swimming in the ocean with friends and watching Barons of Tang work a sweltering mid-afternoon crowd into a dancing frenzy. From the heavily-pregnant to the SuperGold Card-eligible, from tourists who’d built Splore into their New Zealand holiday to girls in bikinis and gumboots – even those privileged few on yachts in the harbour – it was the people who ensured Splore 2012 was a proper party.

“There were tales of collapsed tents, mud-caked sleeping bags and broken legs on the goat track.”

POWERSTATIONWED 22 FEB

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