A broken heart - Hear
HEAR is the enema your iTunes needs. Bringing you the most thought-provoking and up-to-date music reviews this side of Lester Bangs, HEAR sifts through the ever growing mountain of press releases and promos to only feature albums, EPs, LPs and mixes that we want to, not that we have to. Also, we try and make things make sense in 200 words or less so that you can just listen to the music.
Have One On Me
Everybody has their One. Mine used to be Zooey Deschanel, before the malicious bitch decided that her One was Ben Gibbard. A single listening of Have One on Me was all it took to put thoughts of Zooey well and truly to bed (unfortunately not mine). The album, Newsom's third, sprawls across three CDs and showcases Newsom's constantly developing range as a songstress.
Houlette, 'Bless Bless'
Houlette is the sugar cube in your Stockholm Blend tea. Their French-pop, country-esque folk minimalism reminds you of better times, of simpler times when salt came iodised and men rode horses.
Bless Bless (which translates to ‘farewell' in Icelandic) is the band's debut album, following the successes of their precursor releases.
Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox
The history of punk and DIY music is super inspiring, and songwriting is fucking tough.
These are just two reasons why Chris Knox is revered not only in his native New Zealand, but worldwide. In 1979 he formed Tall Dwarfs with Alec Bathgate, helping to pioneer a lo-fi, DIY aesthetic that combined punk's simplicity and disdain for musical virtuosity with home-recording experiments, cryptic lyrics, introspection, and the ultimate rebellion in counter-culture circles - admitting to love pop songs and hooks.
RIP Jay Reatard
"I tend to think it's that I'm out of time, I'm racing against time. A lot of it's the fear of death too. I know I'm not going to be able to make records when I'm dead. I'm not dead right now so I want to make records, it's that simple really."
If punk wasn't already dead, then it definitely is now.
WING interview
Wing touches down in BNE in just a few days now, so we thought we'd get some of the get-to-know you stuff out of the way so she can concentrate on her performance come Monday. Here's the tell-all, follow-your-dreams email interview with the voice, the wonder, Wing Han Tsang.
Rachel Surgeoner: What have you been up to this fine morning in Auckland?
Wing Han Tsang: a) I did simple warm up - both physical and vocal exercises - for one hour as soon as I woke up.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, 'Higher Than the Stars' EP
Let's just set the record straight. No matter what might have been said about the Pains sounding like the Vivian Girls... it was all lies. They don't. At all. Teaches all of you bloggers out there to not smoke that Mexican brick weed and then listen to records. You never know what's in that shit.
Songs
Where their EP showcased an off-the-cuff looseness and a near-enough-is-good-enough attitude, Songs' self-titled debut album is a study in (relative) discipline, with thoroughly explored song structures and deftly crafted soundscapes.
These are songs that have been broken down and rebuilt numerous times.
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