The Tuis are like NZ's version of The Grammys meets the MTV Music Awards minus about 90% of the spectacle and with a somewhat more raw aesthetic feel. Still, the prime minister and most of our local celebs turn up in force and many of them make dicks of themselves for the entertainment of all and sundry (though they are not necessarily aware of it at the time!)
My flatmate gets in free whilst I merely get a half price ticket. BUT I still get a seat at the tables with the judges, artists and industry peeps plus we get to go to the before and after parties if we choose; nice ;-) Should be a good night (Wed 8 Oct)...
On that note I feel like I should give my own personal selection of favoured NZ music for those who may lack some local knowledge, or whose guidance thus far has been received from less than trustworthy sources! ;-P
The following are 5 of my picks for the best NZ artists/bands from the last 5 years or so (in no particular order and realising that I will have inadvertantly left out some that I love):
A bunch of lads from Wellington who play a mix of alt-rock-folktronica* stock full of sonic interest. Their latest album, Happy Ending, is utterly brilliant, all wry lyrics and musical madness. Check out this for a great earthy-kiwi style opening metaphor in their song Bleaching Sun:
"Well I'm a waking up, to your crazy shit
And I'm a leaving now, yes I'm a jumping ship
Because your heart is cold, like a box of beer
And I just can't cope, with you my dear"
Other favourites from the album are the opening track Bright Grey, a driving song entitled 40 Years with my favourite little line about birds, and a quirky little number called A Day in the Sun which muses about the desire for fame and fortune that lurks somewhere in all of us (musicians in particular)
The offspring of NZ's most famous musical son, Neil Finn (cornerstone of 70s-80s alt-rock outfit Split Enz, and of 80s-90s pop-folk-rock trio Crowded House) Liam went from juvenile rock band Betchadupa to an indie-pop solo career. His debut solo album I'll Be Lightning is both critically and publically acclaimed and it seems that he has inherited his father's talent for melody and lyrical depth. My favourite track is the wistful Gather to the Chapel though it was Second Chance that won him a Tui last year.
Angular art-rock, The Mint Chicks is not everyone's cup of tea. Hailing a few years back from the Elam School of Fine Arts (where I now work) these boys create such a kineticism in their music that it just picks you up and throws you around - like in Opium for the People and Fuck the Golden Youth - which is something that I appreciate. One of their more popular songs, unsurprisingly, is the more approachable Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! from their album of the same name, which I also really like.
A Maori girl with a great voice and a subtley cutting way with words, Anika rose to local fame with her first album Thinking Room - including singles like Good in my Head - but later somewhat repented of it feeling like she had sold her soul to the record company 'man'. Her sophomore release Stolen Hill remains one of my favourite female singer-songwriter albums, in particular the track In the Morning (addressing the often unspoken emotional aftermath of abortion) with its preceding te reo Maori (the Maori language) refrain Ka whakahuia ano. Incidentally, Anika also recorded a version of The Mint Chicks' Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! which is also way cool!
Now these guys, some of the coolest cats in NZ music, did the hard work to record, release, and distribute a totally independent album that created a groundswell in the NZ music scene. Their debut full length album Based on a True Story, though released in 2005, was the culmination of many years work (they were big in Europe long before they made headlines here in NZ). Hailing from Wellington, they are part of a thriving collaborative dub-roots scene and to see them live is an almost transcendent experience. Unfortunately, when the rest of the country picked up on their musical largesse, almost every trying-to-be-decent cafe in NZ played their album almost constantly for over a year meaning that their music suffered from thrash-complex. Still, I like to point out to people that I first caught them live at an impromptu outdoor gig at the Wellington at the fringe-fest in 2001 - well before the masses knew what was coming - how sad of me! My fave track remains the version of Hope released on the Conscious Roots II compilation album but Cay's Crays, Wandering Eye and almost every track on Based on a True Story is gold.
*Folktronica: I use this term c/o Rhett Snell.
2 comments:
I have so much to learn.... I am like clay in the potter's hands.... (Freaked out yet?)
Who are you and why are you stalking me?!
;-P
I don't mind being your NZ musical 'potter' my young padawan...
Listened to any of the tracks yet? Anything you like or don't like?
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