He’s going back to the roots with an up close and personal acoustic journey. He brings with him his latest CD titled “Brown-eyed Handsome Man”, released in March 2019.
Greg pays his dues to the originals and forefathers of the Blues from deep down South, channelling the spirit into his own material and style. You’ll hear warm embraces with Sister Soul and a tip of the hat to Brother Funk.
On his side will be Steve ‘Guitar’ Gilles, playing acoustic and resonator steel guitar, while wailing on the Blues Harp, also known as the ‘Mississippi saxophone’.
Steve Gunn returns to New Zealand for six shows this November. His first tour since the release of critically acclaimed fourth album The Unseen In Between
For over a decade, guitarist/vocalist Steve Gunn has been one of American music’s most pivotal figures – conjuring immersive and psychedelic sonic landscapes both live and on record, releasing revered solo albums ranking high on in-the-know end of year lists, alongside exploratory collaborations with artists as diverse as Mike Cooper, Kurt Vile, and Michael Chapman (whose most recent studio album he produced).
Gunn is known for telling other people’s stories, but on his breakthrough fourth album, The Unseen In Between, he explores his own emotional landscapes with his most complex, fully realized songs to date. The lyrics evoke voyages, tempests (actual and emotional), and a rich cast of characters met along the way—the work of an artist finding a place of calm in the midst of a storm. Produced by frequent collaborator James Elkington and engineered by Daniel Schlett, the immaculately recorded Unseen forces a reassessment of Gunn’s standing in the pantheon of the era’s great songwriters.
Jordy Maxwell heads to New Zealand for the first time as part of his Hello, Goodbye New Zealand Headline tour.
Jordy Maxwell is a talented photographer, who brightly emerged into the Perth music scene. Since 2017, has proven how important music is for people to express their stories and to experience an emotion through his heartfelt, honest lyrics and his soulful,raw voice. Though mostly a sunny and lively personality, Jordy can hold an audience with his mix of raw emotion and light-hearted humour to accompany his endearing performances.
Jordy released his debut single, ‘Blue Eyes’ in October 2017 which has since reached a large audience all around the world, including being a feature track for surf brand O’Neil and USA cinematographer, Connor Guest, where the song featured in a beautiful short film called “Never Coming Home”. His debut EP, “Honest” was released a few months later with the EP now reaching over 2 million streams on Spotify. Jordy released his latest single, Long Road Home in June and will be touring New Zealand for the first time this October and November!
2018 was the breakout year for The Beths, beginning with a signing to Carpark Records and Dew Process. Their debut album, Future Me Hates Me, was heralded as one of the year’s stand-out music releases, receiving praise from a myriad of respected publications and earning worldwide radio airplay. Pitchfork named it “one of the most impressive indie-rock debuts of the year” while Bandcamp hailed Future Me Hates Me “album of the summer”. Rolling Stone called Happy Unhappy ”Song of the Summer” and named The Beths their “Hot Band of 2018”. To date, the album has amassed over 3M streams and been included on a number of “best of 2018” lists, including Paste Magazine, NPR, Stereogum, UPROXX, ABC, PopMatters, the AV Club and the NZ Herald. The Beths were also named a finalist in the prestigious Taite Music Prize, nominated for New Zealand’s Best Album of the Year.
The Beths have toured relentlessly on the back of Future Me Hates Me, getting audiences hooked on their ebullient sound. After selling out shows across Australia, New Zealand, North America, the UK and Europe in 2018, the band are proving to be one of the most in-demand live acts on the planet. The Beths kicked off their 2019 supporting Death Cab For Cutie on their UK/European tour, following in quick succession with a North American co-headline tour with Bad Bad Hats and an appearance at SXSW. The Beths will soon embark on two more headline UK/European tours, another headline North American run and an Australian headline tour before the year is out. They will also appear at major international festivals including The Great Escape, Pukkelpop, Green Man, Primavera Sound, Best Kept Secret, Pickathon, Ottawa Bluesfest and Splendour In The Grass.
These special headline shows in NZ will be the last chance to witness The Beths on their Future Me Hates Me album cycle.
As New Zealand’s representative of street music culture, Reuben plays his well-oiled live-looping show to ravenous crowds. Hand-delivering his record ‘Mountain Climber’ to the masses, one hundred and twenty shows in three months over summer in Europe and the UK is the norm for Reuben Stone.
As an artist that finds his roots in dub, inspirational encounters with musicians from all over the world unlocks new pathways and ideas every year.
Reuben’s set has taken on a fresh, more progressive vibe with much more electronic, gypsy jazz and blues influence.
Vocals, trombone, guitar, synth and drum samples still make up the physical structure of the music of Reuben’s well renowned, high-energy, live show.
Homebass is a tour of New Zealand over Labour Weekend that gives Reuben a platform to express the stories gained over this time, as well as new arrangements, songs and wisdom that can only be gained from street shows.
David Kilgour And The Heavy Eights have announced the release of their album Bobbie’s A Girl, and have shared the first track ‘Smoke You Right Out Of Here’.
It’s been a couple of years since the co-helmsman of The Clean and The Great Unwashed gave fans anything new to fawn over, and the latest song from his eleventh solo album is a total charmer.
Kilgour and band have got a tour lined up for October / November to celebrate the LP release.
Songs, stories and suburban philosophy from New Zealand singer/songwriter and positivity personified, Jan Hellriegel.
After 7 years pondering and 2 years in production, Jan Hellriegel has released Sportsman Of The Year – A Suburban Philosophy, her 4th studio album, with a unique twist: Sportsman Of The Year is also available as a beautifully produced book with photos and 12 chapters based on the stunning new collection of songs. Taking advantage of all multimedia platforms, Jan also released a podcast series which was produced by Radio NZ and is now available on all digital streaming sites.
At one stage in her ambitious new album and book project, Jan joked about calling it ‘A Loser’s Guide To Winning’. Only she wasn’t joking.
“Sportsman of the Year is about finally arriving at a place where she can look back at failures, disappointments, and rejections with a sense of accomplishment and pride, knowing that without them she wouldn’t be doing what she is today. It is about following your dreams and never giving up” commented Jan.
From being the next big thing in her early 20’s, to giving music away altogether at 30; raising a family, starting businesses and returning to music with fresh enthusiasm, a newfound wellbeing and a sense of purpose- those are the stories in the songs and the book and they are what Jan will be sharing on this very special tour.
Sportsman of the Year will be an entertaining and inspirational evening and is not to be missed – because as her fans will know, with Jan it can be a long, long time between shows.
Extraordinary New York musician Joan As Police Woman (Joan Wasser) will perform three solo concerts in New Zealand this October, coinciding with this years release of her career-retrospective Joanthology.
Joans recent solo tour throughout Europe has had the press raving. The Metro UKs David Bennum proclaimed: Countless acts have pondered loves mysteries but few have surpassed Wasser in exploring its mystique.
For this rare solo incarnation, Joan strips her sound down to its true essence, performing her songbook on piano and guitar. This intimate solo concert format is something music fans have longed to hear.
Since the release of debut album Real Life in 2006, Joans sound has naturally evolved through six breath-taking studio albums, hundreds of collaborations and over a thousand live concert performances. Her 2018 release Damned Devotion is a testament to her insight and the ruminative reflection that demarcates her oeuvre.
She has collaborated and performed with a host of incredible artists including John Cale, Lou Reed, David Sylvian, Antony & The Johnsons and Rufus Wainwright.
On this New Zealand tour, fans can look forward to hearing live much of the material off JOANTHOLOGY, her first ever career retrospective. This deluxe triple CD set spans the first 15 years of Joans remarkable musical output and includes new, rare and unreleased material alongside more than thirty of her most loved songs.
The Times – The coolest woman in pop
Uncut – This is breathtakingly good music
Mojo – full of meditative beauty…ravishing and lovelorn
Sunday Times – Sensational
The Guardian -a voice so wondrous and moving that it makes everyone elses seem ordinary and mundane
Scottish folk fusion stars Shooglenifty will be performing tunes and songs old and new when they head back New Zealand in October.
Fresh from a sell-out gig at the world’s most prestigious arts event, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Shoogles are on sparkling form.
Audiences in NZ will be the first to sample some of the band’s new tunes currently being prepared for their ninth studio album, slated for release in their 30th Anniversary year 2020.
They will, of course, be also showcasing many old favourites from their massive back catalogue, and are looking forward to introducing audiences to their effervescent new fiddler Eilidh Shaw (The Poozies).
“We have always loved to play in the land of the long cloud and have enjoyed a great reception from enthusiastic and friendly Kiwi audiences. We are looking forward to seeing more of the country on this tour and meeting new people” – Quee MacArthur, Shooglenifty
“Shooglenifty, self-styled as “Acid Croft”, have the musical wanderlust as well as the rocking electric bottom end to summon their audience to a world ceilidh. ****” (Celtic Connections 2019) Fiona Shepherd The Scotsman
“It was wonderful to feature Shooglenifty in the Auckland Arts Festival of 2016. The energetic and dynamic musical offering that the band generously gave to our Auckland audiences was full of joy and delight” Carla van Zon Auckland Arts Festival
“Rhythm is a special feature of dance music and Shooglenifty infuses heart-stirring rhythms into traditional Scottish-Celtic music in a way that stirs the soul and makes people clap and dance. Shooglenifty has a special musical talent that also fuses Scottish, African and Asian music producing a magical beat that made me clap and dance again and again. Don’t miss a chance to see and hear this exciting band…great music”
Professor Sir Geoff Palmer Chairman, Edinburgh Mela 2018
Shooglenifty was formed in 1990 by musicians from the Scottish Highlands, Orkney and Edinburgh, its bright spark was the idea of fusing traditional and traditional-sounding melodies with the beats and basslines of a mixed bag of more contemporary influences. As happy playing a small highland village hall as they are on an outdoor festival stage playing to tens of thousands, the Shoogles (as they’re known to their fans) have promoted Scottish music all over the world for more nearly three decades.
An award-winning singer-songwriter, Reb Fountain teamed up with Dave Khan to produce a profoundly iconic record showcasing Fountain’s noir punk-folk songwriting style. In a prelude to what is to come, Reb offers us a chance to experience the new material full-spectrum with her stellar band featuring, Dave Khan, Earl Robertson and Karin Canzek this October.
Reb won the Tui for Best Country Album/Artist 2018 for her EP Hopeful & Hopeless, APRA Best Country Song 2018 for the title track ‘Hopeful & Hopeless’ and her album Little Arrows was nominated for Best Folk Album of 2018. A pre-eminent singer and performer, Reb has for years been the musicians’ secret. She’s performed and recorded with Neil Finn, Marlon Williams, Don McGlashan, The Eastern, The Warratahs, Finn Andrews, Tami Neilson and Julia Deans. If you were lucky enough to catch her at the recent Neil Young’s ‘Live Rust’ tribute concert series or 2019’s ‘The Others Way’ performance that commanded two standing ovations, you know Reb Fountain is a performer not to be missed.
Ōtautahi pop-bop songwriter and 2019 Silver Scroll shortlister Mousey (Serena Close) has crept up out of nowhere with three stunner singles all in a row, and a debut album Lemon Law in the works – and now her very first New Zealand tour.
The list of shows is a doozy too, with nine local dates, three in Australia, and a six-piece band in tow. The first three Lemon Law singles have almost felt like Close proving her chops, each one tackling and nailing a different vibe, from the upbeat twee-pop of ‘Extreme Highs’ to the bubbling anger in ‘If You Really Loved Me’.
Catch Mousey and band in the flesh on tour this October.
Hot off the back of sold out gigs in the North Island, The Fleetwoods are coming to the South Island this October.
The Fleetwoods will perform their show, ‘A Night of Fleetwood Mac’, at The Yard Bar in Blenheim on October 4 and at Cassels Blue Smoke in Christchurch on October 5.
The Fleetwoods is a collective of top musicians who have a mutual appreciation of the vanguards of music – Fleetwood Mac.
The show features two high intensity sets from the Peter Green era through to the 80s favourites – including all the hits from Landslide, The Chain and Rhiannon; played by passionate and talented musicians.
Tom Irvine leads the band.
“I grew up listening to Fleetwood Mac on my parents’ record collection,” he says. “It has been amazing to experience the love New Zealanders have for this music.”
The Fleetwoods honour the unique tunes and play 100% true to the authenticity of Fleetwood Mac’s music.
With sold out shows across the North and South Island, Fleetwood Mac’s unforgettable songs are played with energy and soul, leaving audiences wanting more. Tickets are limited – get in quick!
Rock ‘n’ roll raconteur Jon Toogood unplugs the Marshall stacks and picks up his acoustic guitar for two shows in Christchurch this October.
2018 was a loud one for Toogood, between recording, releasing and touring critic and fan-favourite album “HAJA” with The Adults and celebrating thirty years of Shihad by touring Australasia with the boys.
In early 2019 the man toured the North Island of Aotearoa as well as Australia with his one-man show, before launching into his latest project – a series of concerts celebrating 40 years of Neil Young’s iconic “LIVE RUST” album alongside the likes of Liam Finn, Delaney Davidson, The Bads and more.
Next on the agenda are two special solo shows in Christchurch, first up at Cassels Blue Smoke on Friday 4th October, then at Prebbleton Tavern on Saturday 5th October.
Armed with yarns and tunes both young and old (spanning two Adults albums, three decades of Shihad and an undisclosed duration on this Planet of Sound), this is Toogood unplugged, unaccompanied and unmasked.
James Reid – the man behind some of New Zealand’s most beloved songs – announces a nationwide solo tour of 14 intimate venues across Aotearoa. From Whangarei in the north, to Invercargill in the south, James Reid will perform Feelers classics and new solo material.
Between 18 September and 6 October, fans can look forward to hearing stripped back, acoustic versions of classic kiwi gems like ‘Venus’, ‘Stand Up’, ‘Larger Than Life’, ‘Pressure Man’, ‘As Good As It Gets’ – just some of the amazing twelve Top 20 charting singles. The set will include favourites from all six Feelers albums and his acclaimed solo album Saint.
A new solo single ‘Planet Nowhere’ will be released to coincide with the tour, with a new album to follow in 2020.
James is looking forward to hitting the road for these more intimate shows. “I can’t wait to tour in early Spring and play in some of my favourite places around the country,” he says. “This is a chance to strip a lot of these songs right back to the way they were written, acoustic guitar and vocal, and spin a few yarns too.”
Troy Kingi will be taking his critically acclaimed, politically charged deep roots album ‘Holy Colony Buring Acres’ to three major cities this September!
The new record is the third instalment of Troy Kingi’s aspirational 10|10|10 Series (ten albums in ten genres in ten years) and delves into the dark corners of worldly Indigenous politics, namely colonisation and its (c)rippling effects on today’s social climate.
A stark contrast to the space psychedelia of Kingi’s sophomore offering ‘Shake Your Skinny Ass All The Way To Zygertron’, Holy Colony Burning Acres is a motivated commentary on Indigeneity wrapped in an electrifyingly 70s-styled deep roots/reggae offering reminiscent of such bands as The Abyssinians, The Upsetters and The Congos.
A hard-hitting exploration of major issues facing Indigenous peoples all around the world through Troy Kingi’s distinctive sonic quality, vocal style and poetry, all underscored with empathic Marley-inspired political consciousness.
Praise for Holy Colony Burning Acres
“Troy Kingi is quickly turning into a national treasure of Aotearoa”. – Radio13
“From the short opening karanga/address of The Tower of Babel (a sound collage with multiple voices cutting across each other) to the simple acoustic ballad Truganini at the end, this is impressive on every level”. – Elsewhere.co.nz
“He’s got some studio chops, he’s got music chops, he’s really, really, really good. It sounds like he knows everything there is to know about reggae. He’s eloquent and this is righteous stuff. If you like reggae at all, even if you don’t I think you’ll love it” – The AM Show.
Needing little introduction on these shores, award-winning singer songwriter Mel Parsons is hitting the road with her new album ‘Glass Heart’ for an intimate solo tour of some her favourite New Zealand venues.
Parsons has been a well-loved fixture on the national touring circuit for the past ten years, with a beguiling voice and a disarming line of humour that has won her a very dedicated fan base.
Parsons’ new album was recorded in Los Angeles with legendary American producer Mitchell Froom (Crowded House, Suzanne Vega, Elvis Costello, Missy Higgins, Randy Newman, Lindsay Buckingham/Christine McVie) and while showcasing new material on her spring tour, she will also revisit material from her three previous records.
‘Glass Heart’ was a finalist for the 2019 Taite Music Prize, and a top 20 finalist for the coveted APRA Silver Scroll Award.The record follows 2015’s award-winning ‘Drylands’, which spent 51 weeks in the (IMNZ Album) charts.
Parsons is also a cast member of Kiwi musical supergroup ‘Fly My Pretties‘, with sell out tours and festival performances throughout Australasia.
Due to popular demand – new Christchurch show added! And it’s nice and early since it’s on a school night!
Zed are celebrating 20-years since their debut studio album ‘Silencer’ and are kicking off celebrations with three exclusive shows in Christchurch and Auckland.
The most loyal of Zed fans will not want to miss this opportunity to see Zed for the first time at these intimate venues – so get in quick as tickets will sell out!
“It’s nice to get back together, have a barbecue or two, reminisce a bit, and play some of the old songs,” says bassist Ben Campbell. “It reaffirms how strong those relationships are and what the experiences we went through mean to all of us.”
NZ MUSIC LEGENDS ZED ANNOUNCE 20-YEAR CELEBRATION SHOWS
Zed have announced today they will be celebrating 20-years since their debut studio album ‘Silencer’ by giving fans the opportunity to see them live this September.
Zed is reuniting to celebrate two decades of number one hits, arena tours, and loyal fans. Zed will be playing two intimate shows, one in Auckland at Galatos and one at Cassels Blue Smoke in Christchurch.
Their road from fledgling high school rock band, to multi-platinum success story, began inauspiciously in the basement of a quiet suburban home, during the winter of 1996. Nathan King (guitar/vocals), Ben Campbell (bass) and Adrian Palmer (drums) started crafting the songs that would form the foundation of their debut album in the lower levels of Campbell’s family home, during their final years at high school.
“Our first single, ‘Oh! Daisy’ was actually written as a sixth form music assignment. When that went on to become a Top 20 hit, we could feel things begin to change for us, even then,” recalls frontman Nathan King.
‘Oh! Daisy,’ an ode to unrequited love, was followed up by ‘I’m Cold’. After three years performing regularly at the legendary Dux De Lux in Christchurch and Wunderbar in Lyttelton, Zed got their first bona-fide hit. ‘Glorafilia’ crept slowly into New Zealand’s consciousness through the summer of ’99, becoming the soundtrack to beach holidays up and down the country, and stretching to a remarkable 36-week run in the Top 50.
Signing to Universal Records early the following year, Zed called on guitarist Andy Lynch, who had been living in Brazil, to complete the musical picture. With mounting pressure from their fanbase to produce a full-length album, Zed went into the studio in May of 2000 for a six-week stint with producer David Nicholas (INXS, Midnight Oil, Pulp, Ash).
Zed sent fans into a frenzy in 2000 when their album debuted at number one on the Official New Zealand Top 40 Albums chart, knocking Robbie Williams from the top spot, (an artist the band would subsequently tour with), quickly achieving triple platinum status, and creating six hit singles. One of their most celebrated singles ‘Renegade Fighter’ was also the number one song in New Zealand for the year 2000. In 2001, ‘Silencer’ earned the band three wins at the New Zealand Music Awards including ‘Album of the Year’, ‘Top Group’, and ‘Top Male Vocalist’.
Two arena tours through Australasia supporting Coldplay and Robbie Williams helped establish Zed across the Tasman; with Zed’s fourth single, ‘Renegade Fighter’, hitting the top spot on Australia’s Triple J, as well as back home in NZ.
Finally, in 2005, Zed decided to take an extended break – drawing to a close what had been for the band the adventure of a lifetime. Bassist Ben Campbell recalls it was a challenging time. His father had become ill and then passed away while they were working on the release.
“We’d been together for 8 or 9 years, working on it full time for six years,” explains Campbell. “I think we felt like we’d given it a really good push. It just got to a point where we were ready for a change as individuals and as a band.”
Now in 2019, all four members of Zed are excited to announce their return – to celebrate the upcoming 20th anniversary of their debut album ‘Silencer’, and to reconnect with their loyal fans who’ve shown such ardent support.
“It’s nice to get back together, have a barbecue or two, reminisce a bit, and play some of the old songs,” says Campbell. “It reaffirms how strong those relationships are and what the experiences we went through mean to all of us.”
JessB means business with her EP New Views, a fully-fledged flaunt of her range and hip hop prowess.
Single ‘Mood’ has already had massive Aotearoa alt-radio success, and New Views is a cool, calm and collected continuation of the same bumping sounds with addictive, buzzy bass.
JessB made the New Zealand hip hop scene take notice in 2017 when she delivered a compelling performance as the first female MC to perform on David Dallas’ Red Bull 64 Bars, and backed it up with a string of tracks that showed the newcomer was here to stay.
Now, with the release of her second EP New Views, JessB, hits the road to launch her new body of work with a 3-date NZ headline tour in September
To celebrate the release of ‘Yin & Yang’ Bootleg Rascal will once again hit the road in Australia and New Zealand.
Since their mid-2013 inception, Bootleg Rascal have released a slew of singles, an EP and two albums, all warmly received by critics and fans around the world. Multiple tracks have been added to Spotify and Apple Music playlists, high rotation on triple j and they’ve performed on the stations esteemed ‘Like a Version’ segment.
The band have continually traversed the globe playing multiple sold out headline shows in France, UK, Holland, Germany, New Zealand and Australia, and performed sold out shows in the USA. They’ve also regularly appeared on major Australian festivals including Falls Festival, The Big Pineapple Festival, Lost Paradise, Hills are Alive, Festival of the Sun and Party in the Paddock.
Tiny Ruins return to home ground this spring, in the wake of their sonic dream of a record, Olympic Girls. Having toured overseas for the better part of 2019, and returning from a run of summer festivals throughout Europe, September sees them embark on twelve special dates around Aotearoa. What’s more, a formidable talent from across the ditch – legendary songwriter & Milk! Records co-founder Jen Cloher (solo) – will be joining them for all dates.
“I’ve heard Olympic Girls, and I had to pick my jaw up off the floor”, wrote Grant Smithies. “Clustered around more introspective passages typical of confessional singer-songwriters are gnarlier phrases that give her work its buzzy voltage: arresting visual images, weird associations, daisy-chains of telling detail.”
A group renowned for their electric dynamic live on stage, Tiny Ruins have played stages in solo and varied group formations with Sharon van Etten, Calexico, the Handsome Family and more over the past decade. Led by songwriter Hollie Fullbrook, the band have made steady and consistently surprising waves in the underground music scene blossoming out of New Zealand, including collaborations with filmmaker David Lynch and drummer Hamish Kilgour [The Clean].
MOJO – ★★★★
UNCUT – 8/10
“Part of the charm of Olympic Girls lies in the layers of mystery in each song. Inspired by literature, science, nature and human experience, these mysteries lie waiting to be carefully unfolded…” – God Is In the TV – 9/10
“An album confident in its vulnerability and luxuriating in a bigger sound.” – Loud & Quiet – 8/10
“… songs that change sound and mood during their duration, never meandering and always captivating.” BUST – 5/5
“… a deeper listen to these eleven tracks exposes a breadth of influences that spans decades.” – The Wire
“She is always looking uneasily toward the next line, or moving toward mysticism. In sentimental contexts, she generates lines of wicked ambition.” — The New York Times
“You Should Be Dancing” is a night of exceedingly danceable Disco Hits. A GREAT BIG DANCING DISCO CELEBRATION! We sold out out every room on our last nationwide tour. Due to the amazing demand we are very excited to announce these seven follow up shows!
We play classics that you would have to be a robot not to move to. A literal Boogie Wonderland! If you’re sick of needing or feeling like you need a good reason to shake your thang, or perhaps you are worried your friends will judge your over enthusiastic extravagance, come on down to “You Should Be Dancing” and meet your newest friends on the dance floor in front of the biggest, crispiest, bassiest sound system in town. All kinds of nice people welcome. Dress up or down. Good times, great drinks, a grooving dance floor and glamoroustunes plus a few special surprises. What have you got to lose?!
If you like…Earth, Wind & Fire, The Bee Gees, ABBA, Giorgio Moroder, Diana Ross, Cher, Boney M, 5th Dimension, Donna Summer, Kool and the Gang, Chic, Gloria Gaynor, KC & The Sunshine Band, The Trammps, Sylvester, O’ Jays, S.O.S. Band, The Brothers Johnson, Divine, The Village People, Sister Sledge, Cerrone, The Jackson 5, Shalamar, The Whispers, Womack & Womack, Midnight Star, The Commodores, Chaka Khan, First Choice, Evelyn “Champagne” King, Patrice Rushen, Silver Convention, Pointer Sisters, Patrick Cowley, Bobby Orlando, Evelyn Thomas, Gwen Guthrie, Luther Vandross, The Weather Girls, Shannon, Amanda Lear, etc…….Then you will love this night!
“You Should Be Dancing” has a love of all things musical and danceable. We take great pleasure in getting together on our nights off, playing the best tunes, forgetting about work for a while and grooving the night away. We keep high standards when it comes to filling up our record bags then hitting the night club and so should you! Conceived and driven by the ever present Bernard Gruschow aka DJ St Bernard from Wellington we look forward to hosting our third tour of 2019 after the wild success of the first two. We will be pulling out all the stops to keep the dance floor moving and the music fresh. Our previous events have been amazingly fun, so why not come down and get into it so we can keep doing it with more and more outrageousness and extravagance!
Melbourne four-piece Jade Imagine offer a stunningly seamless blend of synthwave and art-rock. Before founding Jade Imagine, front-person and key songwriter Jade McInally had been a stalwart of the indie scene for more than a decade. After winding her way to Melbourne from somewhere consistently sunny, McInally cut her live-performer teeth with her own electro project Tantrums, before playing in the bands of local favourites Jess Cornelius (Teeth and Tongue) and Jess Ribeiro.
After signing with local tastemakers Milk! Records, Jade Imagine’s debut EP ‘What the Fuck Was I Thinking’ was released in April 2017. Steered by her management team at Our Golden Friend, led by Lorrae McKenna, the release was beloved by both audiences and critics: Rolling Stone Australia described the lo-fi gem ‘Stay Awake’, one of the EP’s singles, as “a shimmering summer-invite track”, its lowkey, lethargic, insomniac energy perfect for an impossibly hot afternoon.
Wild and wondrous Australian treasure, Kirin J Callinan announces a four-date New Zealand tour this August to celebrate the release of his triumphant new record Return To Sender. Joined on the road by Dunedin’s psychedelic pop quartet Marlin’s Dreaming, Callinan returns to Aotearoa to take on both of its major islands. The Dunedin lineup also features very special guests, iconic pop group The Chills.
Return To Center is Kirin J Callinan’s reconnection with what made him fall in love with music over and over throughout the years, and a very personal exploration of the timeless songwriting tradition passed down and reinterpreted from one generation to the next. Following two albums of inimitable, challenging pop music that garnered global acclaim and marked Callinan as entirely unique, a singular talent, nominations for the Australian Music Prize, support slots for everyone from Crowded House to Tame Impala, a role acting in Jane Campion’s Top Of The Lake and an ARIA Award Nomination, ironically it was singing other peoples’ songs that felt like the most truthful next step for the swashbuckling Sydney artist. On Return To Center Callinan’s trademark flamboyance is cut with a newfound fragility that comes curled up in an attempt to do justice to the songs he holds nearest and dearest.
The Tuning Fork are proud to announce that Nashville-based Americana heavyweight, Justin Townes Earle, will return to New Zealand for a 3-date tour this August. Last here in 2017 for the Southern Fork Americana Fest, Justin Townes Earle will visit again for three headline solo shows in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, August 23 – 25.
Best known for his award-winning ‘Harlem River Blues’ Justin Townes Earle brings his latest effort, The Saint of Lost Causes, released worldwide on Friday, May 24th.
Justin Townes Earle has done a lot of living in 37 years. Born in Nashville on January 4th, 1982, he grew up as the son of country-rock iconoclast Steve Earle, who gave him his middle name in honour of his mentor, the brilliant songwriterTownes Van Zandt. For years he struggled with addiction with numerous stints in rehab; long stretches of itinerancy and general juvenile delinquency; a youth he once said he was “lucky to have gotten out of alive.” These days Earle is focused as a married father to a baby girl and is creating the best art of his career. While he describes Kids In The Street as “one of the more personal records I’ve ever made,” he chose to focus his gaze outward for this new set of songs.
For The Saint of Lost Causes, Earle is focused on a different America – the disenfranchised and the downtrodden, the oppressed and the oppressors, the hopeful and the hopeless, as well as their geography. There’s the drugstore-cowboy-turned-cop-killer praying for forgiveness (‘Appalachian Nightmare’) and the Michiganders persevering through economic and industrial devastation (‘Flint City Shake It’); the stuck mother dreaming of a better life on the right side of the California tracks (‘Over Alameda’) and the Cuban man in New York City weighed down by a world of regret (‘Ahi Esta Mi Nina’); the “used up” soul desperate to get to New Orleans (‘Ain’t Got No Money’) and the “sons of bitches” in West Virginia poisoning the land and sea (‘Don’t Drink The Water’).
These are individuals and communities in every corner of the country, struggling through the ordinary – and sometimes extraordinary – circumstances of everyday life. “I was trying to look through the eyes of America,” Earle says. “Because I believe in the idea of America – that everybody’s welcome here and has a right to be here.” Earle tells these American stories in detail and without judgement. While some songs cite historical events, other tracks present fictionalised narratives that are no less harrowing or true-to-life.
Kiwi hip-hop ‘man of the moment’ Kings will be embarking on his first-ever nationwide tour of New Zealand to celebrate the release of his new single ‘Flex’.
Kings will be joined on the tour by The Katayanagi Twins who will be opening at the shows. The Kiwi DJ duo – Rain and China (who are identical twins) – are fast making a name for themselves on both sides of the Tasman in the music and fashion scenes. They’re guaranteed to get the party started!
Kings has been making waves across Australasia since bursting onto the scene in 2016 with his smash hit ‘Don’t Worry ‘Bout It’. It was one of the biggest local releases that year, surpassing the record for the longest #1 on the NZ Singles Chart, and spending a whopping 33 consecutive weeks at the top.
The prolific producer, rapper, singer and songwriter continued to smash the local scene, going on to win countless awards and releasing a string of critically acclaimed albums, including his debut CHAPTER ONE, which has clocked more than 4 million streams on Spotify, and features the hit singles ‘We’ll Never Know’, ‘Domino’ and ‘In The Sun’.
The Auckland-based artist continued his triumphant reign, following it up with two more albums in 2018, TWO (featuring ‘You Do’ and ‘Temporary Me’ and LOVE3 & 3GO (featuring ALIV3 and 6 Figures, which hit gold status just three just three months after being independently released and has now been certified platinum!
Not one to rest on his laurels, Kings is now back with the single ‘Flex’ from his forthcoming new project. An upbeat hype track that celebrates personal wins and a positive mental attitude, it’s only fitting that the track’s title lends itself also to the name of his tour.
Although no stranger to the stage, having performed at countless New Zealand festivals and having supported the likes of Six60, Broods and Drax Project, the Flex Tour will be the first time Kings has officially taken his live show, with full band, to the regions. And he’s looking forward to celebrating his whirlwind journey and taking his music back to where it all began – the people of New Zealand.
Kings says: “I’ve been trying to get a tour together for a while now. To see it come to fruition is pretty sick. I’m behind everything on this show … the visuals, the live show, EVERYTHING. It’s time to FLEX.”
Kings is hot property and with international shores beckoning, this is one local tour this year, you will not want to miss.
Much-loved kiwi singer-songwriter Louis Baker will release his debut album Open, featuring his powerful new single ‘The People’ along with fan favourites ‘Black Crow’ and ‘Addict’.
Fresh off supporting US R&B/Soul artist Allen Stone across New Zealand and Australia last month, Baker announces a long-awaited New Zealand album tour, alongside upcoming UK dates in June.
“Each song on the album is a conversation. On this record, I try to put life into perspective, battle between the light and the dark, and seek to make sense of the world around me. The song ‘Open’ was inspired, ironically, from a strong disconnect between me and my creativity. I would often be over critical of my ideas, and would stop myself from creating something before I even started writing a song. Open is an album that says, ‘take me as I am,” Bakerreflects over his debut record. An album formulated around letting go of the past, accepting the present and feeling open to the future, this feeling threads itself around the project from beginning to end, hence the record’s suitable title, Open.
Coming to life in studios across London, Los Angeles, and Sydney, to his humble home studio setup in Pōneke/Wellington, New Zealand, Open has seen the world and taken it in. The record was created with the input of friends and familiar faces from around the world, including Grammy-nominated Engineer and Producer, Steve Rusch (Kendrick Lamar, Solange, Raphael Saadiq), Brad Ellis (Jorja Smith, James Arthur, Wilkinson), Jordan Rakei(Tom Misch, Disclosure) co-produced the title track with Louis, multi-platinum selling songwriter Lindy Robbins (Andra Day, Chromeo), Josh Fountain (Bene, LEISURE, MAALA), and Laura Bettinson (FEMME).
Over the last 5 years, the world has watched in growing appreciation of the young singer-songwriter as he released a prolific volume of singles, which included ‘Rainbow’ (over 5 million streams on Spotify), ‘Fade’, ‘Gave It All Away’ (premiered on MTV), ‘Addict’, and APRA AMCOS Silver Scroll-nominated ‘Black Crow’.
After returning home from touring throughout Europe, Mild Orange invites you to experience a first taste of the next chapter that follows our debut album, Foreplay.
Join us in celebrating the familiar sounds that had their origins in Dunedin, and discover new melting melodies born from experiences since.
Come groove with us before we head for our next OE – See ya there!
Christchurch winters are designed to bite you where it hurts, it’s their intrinsic nature, their essential reason for existence. It’s your job to face them down, heat pumps a ‘blazing, fires a ’roaring, layers a ’wrapping and if you dig music then with your ass a ’shakin’. We gotta keep it warm out there! The music of Bruce Springsteen seems custom built for the later, especially when in true Boss fashion him and his E-Street alumni put it four to the floor and indulge the soul influences so prevalent in theirs and the greater sound of the Jersey Shore.
With this in mind, a heavyweight thundercrack band of chch musicians have decided to face down winter using the force of Bruuuuuuuuccccceeee. Featuring members of The Eastern, The Black Velvet Band, The Soulmates, The Haunters and a zillion more, they have devoted all their off time to harness the power hour after cold dark hour this July in order to warm you ass up!
But also to hustle you for some canned food to donate to the thinning shelves of CHCH foodbanks who are doing it more than tough this winter. It’s a warmth for warmth kinda deal. Something in keeping with the spirit of the boss, this bunch of shivering singers and players reckon; freeing your feet for the bar floor but also your generosity for the greater good.
The show will quake at the large and in charge Blue Smoke in Woolston, where hot soul food and bottled happiness will keep the fires burning!
This July indie sludge-pop rockers Soaked Oats return to cities across New Zealand in celebration of the release of their new EP ‘Sludge Pop’, out June 14th via Australian indie label Dot Dash Records. This show comes hot on the heels of the band touring in the UK (including an appearance well-renowned UK festival ‘The Great Escape’) and Australia.
Soaked Oats are a young four-piece band hailing from Dunedin, New Zealand who have been described as “a southern stew of Kurt Vile with a good shake of Kevin Morby and Mac DeMarco”. Since forming in 2017, Soaked Oats have come to notoriety for writing songs about stoned fruit (‘Avocado Aficionado’, ‘I’m a Peach’), and have have become known for endearing live performances showcasing the bands penchant for joyous songwriting and high energy shows.
There’s something infectious about their sound; it’s happy, it’s relaxed and a little bit cheeky.” – Pilerats
Hot on the heels of a triumphant performance to a capacity crowd at Homegrown, rockers Villainy have just announced a nationwide tour, which will coincide with the release of their highly-anticipated third album, RAISED IN THE DARK.
This announcement follows the release of Villainy’s new single ‘Dreams’ – an uplifting slacker anthem, wrapped around the generational catch-cry “No-one gives a f*** about your dreams’ the track is a bluntly direct anthem to inspire and provoke.
A shift into new territory, ‘Dreams’ gives fans a taste of what’s to come on the band’s third full-length album, RAISED IN THE DARK – released on July 12.
“We went all in on this record and over 12 months wrote literally 107 songs before picking the ones that made the grade. Beneath all the smashing, screaming and noise there is a real honesty and vulnerability to this album which we’re really proud of.” says frontman Neill Fraser.
Full of passion and pace, it also captures the frenetic high-energy of Villainy’s renowned live performances, as witnessed at Homegrown in Wellington. Playing to an overcapacity crowd at Homegrown’s new outdoor stage just as the sun went down, saw the band hold the audience in the palm of their hands with unison jumps, multiple singalongs and an inflatable boat harbouring Fraser surfing across a sea of hands.
“We were really humbled that so many people knew the songs word for word, it was a privilege playing to such an engaged and connected crowd,” says Fraser.
Since arriving in 2011 with game-changing single ‘Alligator Skin’; Villainy (James Dylan, Neill Fraser, Dave Johnston and Thom Watts) have been redefining what’s possible with rock in New Zealand.
Their first two albums – MODE.SET.CLEAR and DEAD SIGHT – debuted at #1 and won NZ Music Awards for Best Rock Album. Villainy have also appeared at countless festivals as well as being hand-picked to open for AC/DC during their New Zealand stadium tour, most recently toured with iconic Kiwi rock stars, Shihad, and opened for the legendary Incubus on their New Zealand tour.
Now, with RAISED IN THE DARK promising to be Villainy’s most ambitious and adventurous release yet, this is your chance to see one of New Zealand’s best rock bands live at the peak of their powers!
Hot on the heels of a triumphant performance to a capacity crowd at Homegrown, rockers Villainy have just announced a nationwide tour, which will coincide with the release of their highly-anticipated third album, RAISED IN THE DARK.
This announcement follows the release of Villainy’s new single ‘Dreams’ – an uplifting slacker anthem, wrapped around the generational catch-cry “No-one gives a f*** about your dreams’ the track is a bluntly direct anthem to inspire and provoke.
A shift into new territory, ‘Dreams’ gives fans a taste of what’s to come on the band’s third full-length album, RAISED IN THE DARK – released on July 12.
“We went all in on this record and over 12 months wrote literally 107 songs before picking the ones that made the grade. Beneath all the smashing, screaming and noise there is a real honesty and vulnerability to this album which we’re really proud of.” says frontman Neill Fraser.
Full of passion and pace, it also captures the frenetic high-energy of Villainy’s renowned live performances, as witnessed at Homegrown in Wellington. Playing to an overcapacity crowd at Homegrown’s new outdoor stage just as the sun went down, saw the band hold the audience in the palm of their hands with unison jumps, multiple singalongs and an inflatable boat harbouring Fraser surfing across a sea of hands.
“We were really humbled that so many people knew the songs word for word, it was a privilege playing to such an engaged and connected crowd,” says Fraser.
Since arriving in 2011 with game-changing single ‘Alligator Skin’; Villainy (James Dylan, Neill Fraser, Dave Johnston and Thom Watts) have been redefining what’s possible with rock in New Zealand.
Their first two albums – MODE.SET.CLEAR and DEAD SIGHT – debuted at #1 and won NZ Music Awards for Best Rock Album. Villainy have also appeared at countless festivals as well as being hand-picked to open for AC/DC during their New Zealand stadium tour, most recently toured with iconic Kiwi rock stars, Shihad, and opened for the legendary Incubus on their New Zealand tour.
Now, with RAISED IN THE DARK promising to be Villainy’s most ambitious and adventurous release yet, this is your chance to see one of New Zealand’s best rock bands live at the peak of their powers!
“The fear of death is enough to make you want to live.”
New Zealand’s legendary Stoner Metal band Beastwars are returning to the world with a new lease on life, literally. Vocalist Matt Hyde underwent over 6 months of treatment for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in 2016, he is now in remission. They are today announcing their new album “IV” which was shaped by Hyde’s recent experiences. It will be released on Friday June 28 through Destroy Records. Merch bundles can be pre-ordered now at http://www.beastwars.bigcartel.com and digital pre-orders at will be live soon.
Along with the announcement of the new album, the band have come roaring back from a three year hiatus with new single “Omens”.
Vocalist Matt Hyde said that through his diagnosis and subsequent treatment, he was given an opportunity to look into the abyss beyond life as we know it. “Throughout the treatment – I was numb – and it’s interesting to have the ability to confront that, to confront the void, to confront the idea of mortality. I didn’t make peace with it either.”
That experience – the loneliness and isolation of the long treatment time – gave Hyde plenty to consider. Life, friendships and relationships in his 40’s, his then-10-year-old daughter and his band and experiences. What resulted was a record that leaves nothing unsaid. A howling, raw and powerful voice. Hyde says, “I was lucky that I had music to express what had happened to me – a lot of people don’t have that. I was very lucky that we could make a record. I took the time to process it and turned it into something else.”
To celebrate the album release Beastwars are touring New Zealand and Australia in June/July – presented by Panhead Custom Ales. They are hitting Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin in New Zealand and then jumping over the Tasman to play Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne shows. All shows minus Christchurch, Dunedin and Brisbane will feature Australia’s Witchskull.
Beastwars formed in Wellington in 2006. Their 2011 self-titled debut was nominated for Best New Zealand Rock Album at the New Zealand Music Awards, as were their second and third albums 2014’s Blood Becomes Fire and 2016’s The Death Of All Things. Beastwars and Blood Becomes Fire were also nominated for the Taite Music Prize.
Beastwars’ new album IV will be released on Friday June 28 and can be pre-ordered now at all good digital stores and streaming platforms soon and Limited Edition Vinyl, Cassette and T-Shirt Bundles are available at http://www.beastwars.bigcartel.com. Single Omens is available for streaming and purchase now.
Following a Sold Out Winter Tour in 2018, Kiwi icon’s The Jordan Luck Band announce the 19 date New Zealand Winter(ish) Tour of 2019, trekking all across the country from Saturday April 27th to June 22nd.
Jordan Luck is the lead singer and songwriter for the New Zealand rock band The Exponents. The Exponents, had a staggering 18 Top 40 singles over the years, and Victoria was recently voted by public as the 8th greatest New Zealand song of all time. At the 2007 APRA Silver Scroll Awards on 18 September, Jordan Luck was named as the first inductee to the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame.
The Jordan Luck Band NZ Winter(ish) Tour 2019 will feature all the crowd favourites; from Why Does Love Do This To Me? to I’ll Say Goodbye Even Though Im Blue, Who Loves Who The Most? to Victoria, Sink Like A Stone to Whatever Happened to Tracey….and many more kiwi classics.
Tour support comes from Ekko Park. Following notable European success, the Auckland foursome are about to release their highly anticipated 3rd album.
Following a Sold Out Winter Tour in 2018, Kiwi icon’s The Jordan Luck Band announce the 19 date New Zealand Winter(ish) Tour of 2019, trekking all across the country from Saturday April 27th to June 22nd.
Jordan Luck is the lead singer and songwriter for the New Zealand rock band The Exponents. The Exponents, had a staggering 18 Top 40 singles over the years, and Victoria was recently voted by public as the 8th greatest New Zealand song of all time. At the 2007 APRA Silver Scroll Awards on 18 September, Jordan Luck was named as the first inductee to the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame.
The Jordan Luck Band NZ Winter(ish) Tour 2019 will feature all the crowd favourites; from Why Does Love Do This To Me? to I’ll Say Goodbye Even Though Im Blue, Who Loves Who The Most? to Victoria, Sink Like A Stone to Whatever Happened to Tracey….and many more kiwi classics.
Tour support comes from Ekko Park. Following notable European success, the Auckland foursome are about to release their highly anticipated 3rd album.
After the release of his self titled debut album over a year ago, Matthew Smith returns to the stage with his new band of talented musicians – aptly named ‘Deep Water Creek’.
They will be playing songs from his first album and also new and unreleased material. His new direction encompasses both the old and the new Matthew Smith. A mix of his early rock influences with his love of alt-country and folk give way for a dynamic live show and a sophomore album in the pipeline. Someone recently called Deep Water Creek ‘Sonic Country’.
They have had a busy summer with shows in Hagley Park supporting The Jordan Luck Band, playing at Lazy Sunday in the Botanic gardens and topping it off with an appearance at Nostalgia Festival. Deep Water Creek are on the move and will release their debut EP at their own Headline show at Blue Smoke on June 7th.
Deep Water Creek are Matthew Smith, Josh Braden, Shaun Burke, Thomas Isbister and Tom Harris.
ASTRAL PEOPLE and Handsome Tours are excited to announce Injury Reserve for their first ever Australia and New Zealand tour this June 2019.
Injury Reserve play Christchurch’s Blue Smoke on Thursday 6 June.
The rap trio from Phoenix have started the year off with a bang, dropping track ‘Jawbreaker’ in January and now they’re back with new single ‘Jailbreak The Tesla feat. Amine’.
Injury Reserve, who recorded their debut mixtape in a dentist’s office (and titled it ‘Live from the Dentist Office’), have had an interesting journey from the USA suburbs to a coveted “A MINUS” from Robert Christgau, the “Dean of American rock critics,” in his column for Noisey. From playing house shows to being played on Beats 1 Radio by Ebro. How did it all happen? What makes producer Parker Corey and rappers Stepa J. Groggs and Ritchie With a T special?
For Complex, it’s their boundary-pushing, “DIY weirdness.” For Billboard, their fashion sense and fearless honesty. Pigeons and Planes admires their group dynamic, calling them “one of the best new groups in hip-hop,” while Mass Appeal nods to their cinematic vision. Anthony Fantano’s interest in their ability to balance tradition with innovation is well-documented on the Needle Drop, where he published 8/10 reviews of ‘Live from the Dentist Office’ and last year’s ‘Floss’. The latter, a major breakthrough for the group with features from Cakes da Killa and Vic Mensa, is energetic, refined, and in Christgau’s words, “the most unpretentious hip-hop you ever heard.”
They moved their studio from the Phoenix dental office where Corey’s grandfather practices to a house in Altadena, California. Following a sold out world tour, they inked a new deal with legendary A&R Hip-Hop as part of Loma Vista Recordings.
Fresh off the back of a huge SXSW show, Injury Reserve will be bringing their unique sound with their trademark energy to our antipodean shores.
The festival goes out on a great note with Axolotl taking you on a delightful adventure performing world jazz from South America to Eastern Europe with some stops in between. After, they’ll invite musicians from the festival line-up (and others) to join them on stage throughout the evening to participate in the jazz jam.
Tamara Smith (flutes, percussion)
Chris Burke (sax)
Chris Dabinett (guitar)
Doug Brush (world percussion)
Mike Story (bass)
Jonty O’Connor (drums)
The Cavell Leitch New Zealand International Jazz & Blues Festival is the largest combined jazz and blues event in the country. Staged in Christchurch, the festival is an annual event, which celebrates its twenty fourth year in 2019.
Embrace the Eastern-European-meets-dubby-roots sound of Yurt Party! Clap hands to seething Romani and Balkan rhythms, sigh to haunting violin melodies, and cheer along the fiery horn players. This Christchurch-proud band gets people dancing at festivals, under trees, on top of tables and generally in an up and down direction.
Lorenz Weston-Salzer (violin)
Tom Harris (keyboards)
Thomas Isbister (drums)
Kiefer Wilton (trumpet)
Doug Brush (percussion)
Charlotte Crone (trombone)
The Cavell Leitch New Zealand International Jazz & Blues Festival is the largest combined jazz and blues event in the country. Staged in Christchurch, the festival is an annual event, which celebrates its twenty fourth year in 2019.
Chanteuse ‘La Luna’ & her amazing Gadjos descend from afar to bring you an irreverent brew of French chanson, gypsy jazz and swing or Manouche! This traditional French music of the 30s is played with authentic feel and passion led by the multilingual talents of La Luna (Fr: the mad one) who sings vintage Piaf and gypsy classics with verve and nerve!
Poised for unimaginable feats of dexterity La Luna & the Gadjos recreate the steamy hot clubs of Paris with a twist of gypsy mayhem and the colours of New Orleans.
La Luna (chanteuse)
Zhames le Prof (burning violin)
Roger Manins (tenor man)
Phillipe les Doigts (gypsy guitar)
Sam Swindels – la dodgy pompe (rhythm guitar)
Michael Story (contrabass)
The Cavell Leitch New Zealand International Jazz & Blues Festival is the largest combined jazz and blues event in the country. Staged in Christchurch, the festival is an annual event, which celebrates its twenty fourth year in 2019.
Following the trail of pioneers with colourful names like BB King, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf and Hound Dog Taylor, Mike Frost & the Icemen have refined the original blues of Memphis, Chicago, Houston and L.A. The result is a dynamic blend of new and old. Original tunes and old favourites, played and sung with respect for the past, but with the drive and enthusiasm needed to entertain a contemporary audience.
When you hear the real blues, you know it is the personal expression of true soul, and real emotion. Mike Frost & the Icemen play the REAL blues.
The Cavell Leitch New Zealand International Jazz & Blues Festival is the largest combined jazz and blues event in the country. Staged in Christchurch, the festival is an annual event, which celebrates its twenty fourth year in 2019.
Solid Cream pays tribute to the 60s power trio Cream (Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce). Using their music as a launching pad Solid Cream put their own mark on the well-known tunes, yet staying true to the original version and the things that made the very band so great, improvisation and the evergreen sound of the blues.
The Cavell Leitch New Zealand International Jazz & Blues Festival is the largest combined jazz and blues event in the country. Staged in Christchurch, the festival is an annual event, which celebrates its twenty fourth year in 2019.
“You Should Be Dancing” is a night of Disco Hits from the 70’s and 80’s and we are very pleased to announce our second nationwide tour.
A GREAT BIG DANCING DISCO CELEBRATION!
We play classics that you would have to be a robot not to move to. A literal Boogie Wonderland! If you’re sick of needing or feeling like you need a good reason to shake your thang, or perhaps you are worried your friends will judge your over enthusiastic extravagance; come on down to You Should Be Dancing and meet your newest friends on the dance floor in front of the biggest, crispiest, bassiest sound system in town. All kinds of nice people welcome. Dress up or down. Good times, great drinks, a grooving dance floor and glamorous tunes plus a few special surprises. What have you got to lose!
If you like…Earth, Wind & Fire, The Bee Gees, ABBA, Giorgio Moroder, Diana Ross, Cher, Boney M, 5th Dimension, Donna Summer, Kool and the Gang, Chic, Gloria Gaynor, KC & The Sunshine Band, The Trammps, Sylvester, O’ Jays, S.O.S. Band, The Brothers Johnson, Divine, The Village People, Sister Sledge, Cerrone, The Jackson 5, Shalamar, The Whispers, Womack & Womack, Midnight Star, The Commodores, Chaka Khan, First Choice, Evelyn “Champagne” King, Patrice Rushen, Silver Convention, Pointer Sisters, Patrick Cowley, Bobby Orlando, Evelyn Thomas, Gwen Guthrie, Luther Vandross, The Weather Girls, Shannon, Amanda Lear, etc…….Then you will love this night!
“You Should Be Dancing” has a love of all things musical and danceable. Conceived by a group of like minded individuals from Wellington we take great pleasure in getting together on our nights off, playing the best tunes, forgetting about work for a while and grooving the night away.
We keep high standards when it comes to filling up our record bags then hitting the night club and so should you! Driven and founded by the ever present Bernard Gruschow aka DJ St Bernard we look forward to hosting our second tour of 2019 after a wildly successful first tour. We will be pulling out all the stops to keep the dancing going and the music fresh. Our previous events have been amazing. Why not come down and get into it so we can keep doing it with more and more outrageousness and extravagance
“One of WA’s premier upcoming bands; their music is simple yet layered so cleverly that it punches you in the throat whilst still holding your hand.” – Xpress Magazine
Great Gable (Alex Whiteman, Matt Preen, Callum Guy & Chris Bye) are a Perth based band originally from the South-West of Western Australia, combining a wide range of influences to bring a subtle twist on the alternative-indie sound.
The band have had a stellar year in 2018, selling out two national tours in support of their recent singles Pillars and Golden Slums. They’re kicking off 2019 with a new single Cool Mind Blue, as well as their first ever national tour of New Zealand
As part of ‘Blue smokes’ series of fundraising shows under the ‘How Can I Keep From Singing?’ banner the venue is proud to announce a special one off performance this May.
The return and reunion of three of the mid 90’s Christchurch music scene’s most familiar faces.
From CINEMATIC, Jeremy Taylor, from THE PUFFINS Lindon Puffin, and from THE HOLY TOLEDOS Brendan Gregg.
Frontmen from three of the well known and cherished bands of the time, the boys remember fondly long nights at the Dux De Lux and other iconic local venues.
Cinematic were the loved face of the thinking person’s indie, The Puffins became an art pop riot of glam and hooks and The Holy Toledos were one of Christchurch’s most celebrated and popular bands, signed to Sony, touring with Crowded House and a huge video hit with the song ‘Loves Not Fair’.
The three will alternate sets and then join each other in an 90’s indie pop masterclass of melody and rickenbacker influenced indie pop.
This will be a night to commune with the selves you thought had been lost to time and the music that soundtracked the city over those years, way back when, all for a good strong cause.
After a breakthrough year of international shows, one of New Zealand’s most streamed indie artists Graeme James returns to NZ to tour his Nettwerk label debut album The Long Way Home.
The Long Way Home is an album that explores time and space through the motif of the journey. In keeping with the album title 2018 was a year of intense international travel for Graeme, relocating to Europe and racking up over 25,000kms on a highly successful 3 month North American tour. With over 20 million total streams on Spotify, his songs have travelled around the world before him helping sell out concerts around the globe.
His captivating live show features Graeme playing electric violin, guitar, bass, baritone ukulele, mandolin, harmonica and percussion as he recreates his foot stomping tunes in real time with his famous loop pedal.
He’s finally home- but not for long! With his last NZ tour completely selling out you won’t want to miss the chance to see this award-winning artist live in Aotearoa.
“one of the most interesting songwriters on the current scene.” -Il Fatto Quotidiano (Italy)
“a positively masterful array of instrumental expertise coupled with knee-weakening velveteen vocals…” – Indie Shuffle (USA)
“Graeme James is a name that should be remembered”
Two of New Zealand’s most distinguished songwriters, Lyttelton musical troubadour Delaney Davidson and Barry Saunders of The Warratahs have teamed up for a special collaborative record named Word Gets Around, releasing in conjunction with a record release tour happening across the nation in this May.
The offbeat new project was sparked when the pair were simultaneously sound-checking in a church for an event with Marlon Williams and Tami Neilson, and quickly gathered steam as both artists recognised the creative synergy of their intergenerational collaboration. The fruits of their recorded labour can be enjoyed with the album’s title track, a foot-stomping, tumbling tumbleweed of raw-edged rock’n’roll guitars and smokey vocals you can listen to below.
Delaney Davidson and Barry Saunders met in a church. They were soundchecking for the Churches Tour with Marlon Williams and Tami Neilson. Barry playing old gospel songs and Delaney chugging out his signature blues trance thump.
The connection was immediate.
Barry joked about being fused together by lightning in a deal made in blood forever. Davidsons ears pricked up.
Since then they have toured NZ a few times together and produced an album of songs.
“It felt like something that just needed to happen. It felt right.” Says Saunders about the songwriting push these two have wrought into being. “I was just throwing these words and ideas at Delaney and watching them bounce off his head.”
Davidson agrees, “Yes it was all pretty quick, these songs just started appearing out of the kitchen air and we were grabbing them as fast as we could. It has a realness and truth to it. An immediacy that is hard to find in music. Real songs about real things.”
Saunders is a master of localizing the subject, and you can relate to the songs. Guitars in hallways, people on the street, dark smoky parties. These aren’t about some lofty ideal or rooted in glossy production. It’s blood on the floor. Davidsons production brings his trademark immediacy to the game, and gives these songs a sparkle and grain.
The result? “ It’s a manic and barnstorming balance , at times when we were singing we couldn’t tell whose voice was whose, it all just melded together, I’d be singing in Barry’s voice and he in mine..” Says Delaney. “it must be that deal in blood we made.. “
This balance is a constant on the album both artists strongly represented by their work and values. It has the rocking strength and dark power of Davidson previous work naturally paired with the heartfelt, straight dealing and traditionalism of Barry’s past. The fact that we are both heavily into songwriting provides a classic feel and a thread throughout these 9 songs.
CLAP CLAP RIOT TO RETURN TO CHRISTCHURCH FOR ONE-OFF SHOW
April 18, 2019: Auckland-by-way-of-Christchurch band Clap Clap Riot celebrated the tenth anniversary of their first physical release, TV Knows Better in March with a number of shows around Aotearoa.
In response to the horrific terror attack on March 15, the band made the decision to cancel their scheduled Christchurch performance. On Friday 10 May, Clap Clap Riot will return to Blue Smoke for a special one-off show.
A percentage of the profits from the event will go to an approved charity supporting the victims of the Christchurch terror attack.
Started in Canterbury by a group of high school friends, the dynamic five-piece solidified their place as a kiwi staple over a last decade with one EP, three full-length albums, a string of NZ music award nominations, and countless live shows with the who’s who of local and international acts.
Fans will be taken on a journey through all the hits and lesser known delights, plus hear new material from a forthcoming release which is currently being recorded with Tom Healy at Auckland’s The Lab studio.
Dolphin Friendly, now commonly known as “Dolph” are built on the mutual motivation to promote movements centralised around environmentalism, and anti-conventionalism. The four-piece group have found themselves creating a mixture of sounds, platformed on a no-bullshit, anti-pop, hard-pysch, and rock etiquette. One would describe Dolph to be influenced from the likes of rock gods Nirvana and The Doors from their rock n’ roll stage performance and comparable ability to engage a crowd with often debaucherous mannerisms and “loose” behaviour.
Corduroy.
The Wellington based band Corduroy are renowned for their vibrant electrifying live show, composed of melodic guitar licks, atmospheric synths, intricate percussion and powerful, passionate vocals. The 5-piece neo-soul, indie-rock group is excited to be traveling to CHCH for their debut performance as part of their first NZ tour. With a rich and unique sound, Corduroy. will be sure to get you to your feet and greet you with an experience you don’t want to miss.
Support – The Kennel
Three-piece Surf Rock band ‘The Kennel’ are locals to the Christchurch area and back again to infuse you with a blend of smooth, melodic ambient tunes.
Built on the foundations of Punk, Psych, Rock and Reggae, these lads are ready to provide some beautiful beats to your
Boy wonder Adam Hattaway; Songwriter and frontman of ‘The Haunters’ and player of guitar in Wurld Series, The Eastern and 1001 other bands too numerous to mention, has united some of Christchurch’s finest independent artists for another show in our ‘How Can I Keep From Singing’ fundraising and solidarity growing concert series.
Joining their show with artists such as Marlon Williams, Dark Tower, Holly Arrowsmith, Lindon Puffin and The Eastern, who amongst others performed at the very first of the ‘How Can I keep From Singing’ series on the 30th of March and raised over $10,000 in funds for victims and families affected by the events on March 15th 2019.
This show will be an exchange of music for funds but also an almighty throwdown of bedroom downer fuzz pop, alt country, noisenik indie shambles.
Please note we have three ticket prices on offer, please pay what you can afford and make sure get yourself along to Blue Smoke on Friday 3rd May.
Blue Smoke is proud to present Larkin Poe, the American Blues-Rock band who will be performing their gritty, soulful, southern heritage in Woolston, Christchurch this April.
“These women are seriously badass. Don’t mess with them.”
– Paste Magazine
Rebecca and Megan Lovell, the multi-instrumentalist sister duo are descendants of tortured artist and creative genius Edgar Alan Poe and ‘Larkin Poe’ was the name of the sisters’ great-great-great grandfather.
The Lovell sisters are known for blending Haim-esque vocals with guitar riffs and their viral videos, now over 500k views, of their skilled covers of Robert Johnson, The Allman Brothers, Blind Willie Johnson and Chuck Berry amongst many others have added to their notoriety. As a result they have played backing musician slots for artists such as Elvis Costello, Don Henley, Jackson Browne and Conor Oberst. As Larkin Poe they have performed at the 2014 and 2016 Glastonbury Festival, Bonaroo, and Lollapalooza.
Originally from Atlanta, the now Nashville based sister duo are poised to make a mark all their own with the release of their fourth album Venom & Faith’ was released on Friday November 9, 2018. According to Rebecca Lovell “It’s a celebration of American roots music as translated by two sisters who are playing the blues in a modern age”. Rebecca, whose powerhouse vocals pair perfectly with sister Megan’s slinky lap steel to create an outlaw sound entirely unique to the two.
The new album Venom & Faith only includes two covers— “Sometimes” by Bessie Jones and “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues” by Skip James. Otherwise it is all original material from the Lovell sisters. Two singles, the no-nonsense “Bleach Blonde Bottle Blues” and the hip-hop-influenced “Ain’t Gonna Cry” are below for you to check out!
Creating their own brand of Roots Rock ‘n’ Roll: gritty, soulful, and flavoured by their southern heritage, Larkin Poe are on the rise and rise
The Iconic Paul Ubana Jones, Auckland’s Brendan and Alison Turner and The Eastern’s own Jess Shanks, unite under the ‘How Can I Keep From Singing’ banner to perform a fundraising and solidarity growing concert at Woolston’s Blue Smoke this April.
Joining their show with artists such as Marlon Williams, Dark Tower, Holly Arrowsmith, Lindon Puffin and The Eastern, who amongst others performed at the very first of the ‘How Can I keep From Singing’ series on the 30th of March and raised over $10,000 in funds for families and victims affected by the events on March 15th 2019.
This show will be an exchange of music for funds but also a continued chance to share company and solidarity with the acts an attendees alike, this will be an intimate and powerful evening of song.
Winner of three New Zealand Music awards Paul Ubana Jones, born in London to a Yorkshire mother and a Nigerian father, Paul was playing guitar by the age of 11. Three decades and nine albums later, he continues to perform throughout New Zealand, Australia, Europe and the USA.
¨Trying to describe just how good Paul Ubana Jones is, is like trying to define why the Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world – words pale in comparison.¨ – Evening Post
With rich harmonies reminiscent of misted Appalachian mountains, outstanding finger-style / bottle neck guitar, songs of down-trodden cowboys, dusty hearts and heartbreak – Brendan & Alison Turner’s blues-driven country folk will appeal to fans of Neil Young, Townes Van Zandt and John Prine.
Having traversed the countryside for the last ten years in New Zealand’s hardest working band The Eastern, Jess Shanks is a renown guitar picking, banjo frailing, foot stomper with a sweet southern voice and a raft of songs built from years on the road.
Performing haunting contemporary folk tunes steeped in time and place and woven from her countless travels, Jess has cultivated an unique approach to New Zealand roots music, she has created something entirely her own, spellbinding and quintessentially kiwi.
Returning to Christchurch on the back of an extensive sold out ‘Partly Cloudy’ Australian tour and 4 sold out shows in New Zealand, Michael Dunstan has made strong headway into 2019 with the release of the first two intricate pieces of the ‘New Normal’ EP; ‘The Unknown’ and ‘Two Weeks’.
On the back of Michael’s largest Australian tour to date in February 2019, late this March and April 2019 Dunstan returns back to beautiful New Zealand with a powerful third chapter. ‘New Normal’ is a stirring and dynamic journey, tugging at emotion and taking you elsewhere through pensive lyrics and delicate ambience. ‘New Normal’ is out everywhere February 8th 2019.
The last New Zealand shows sold out very quickly; be sure not to miss out this time.
“Sublime harp and heartfelt vocals leave the listener wanting more”
Blues matters magazine (UK)
“Li’l Chuck combines almost every element of pure joy”.
4 1/2 stars (out of 5) NZ Listener
“A true multi-instrumentalist & multi-tasker
in addition to a talented artist”. No Depression Magazine USA.
Good time music with old time style.
Li’l Chuck’s 3rd album Release show – MONO was recorded at Sugar Ray’s Vintage Recording Studio in Essex England, This show will feature a live performance of the album, favourites for his successful back catalogue and a healthy dose of Roots, Boogie and Blues one man band style.
When music is pared back to its very bones, there’s nowhere to hide, yet it’s exactly when multi-instrumentalist Li’l Chuck, The One Man Skiffle Machine performs at his very best.
For his third studio album, MONO, Li’l Chuck was determined to go back to basics to record all 14 tracks in a one-day session, capturing single takes with no overdubs, and using entirely 1950’s mono recording equipment, direct to tape.
MONO’s dynamic, lively, foot-stomping vibe that may have its origins in New Zealand’s South Island, but instantly transports you across the globe, between genres, and throughout decades.
Li’l Chuck’s music is a nostalgic melting pot of influences – driven by his harmonica, resonator guitar and vocals, and underpinned by kick drum, and hi hat – it pays homage to the artists who have graced the stage before him. Yet, the result is a sound that’s entirely his own.
Li’l Chuck recently supported American legend Jimmy Buffett, Bluesman Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton, and, The Topp Twins, and has helped audiences get in the party spirit at events such as, The Hokitika Wildfoods Festival, Kaikoura Seafest, New Zealand Cup and Show Week, The New Zealand World Buskers’ Festival, and The Great Kiwi Beer Festival.
His second album, Utility Blues (2017) hit Number 6 on the official New Zealand albums chart, and he appeared as a feature artist on Jesse Mulligan’s Radio New Zealand show.
New Zealand’s “foremost chronicler of 21st Century bourgeois dilemmas,” Lawrence Arabia, is back with a tour to celebrate the soon to be released album version of his audacious twelve month long project, “Lawrence Arabia’s Singles Club.”
The album is released on March 29th and includes offerings from The Ruby Suns’ Ryan McPhun, Hollie Fullbrook of Tiny Ruins, Heather Mansfield from The Brunettes (singing alongside Liam Finn’s drums on ‘A Little Hate’) and a dream collaboration with psychedelic hero, Van Dyke Parks.
.. Singing the songs of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie.
This show sees local and upcoming singers and songwriters shoulder to shoulder with nationally and internationally known performers as well as a reunion of local legends.
This Show will be the first in a series under the banner ‘How Can I keep From Singing?’.
These shows will take place over the next few months in chch and will feature local and national acts. All shows will have a fundraising component.
The best tool is the one you already know how to use. Pete Seeger said How can I keep from singing?.
Woody Guthrie said This machine kills fascists.
Joe Strummer sang Yalla Yalla
Joe Hill asked us to organise in his memory
Mother Jones said Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living
Chuck D Said If you ain’t in the battle, don’t comment on the war.
These people ask us to action, they are heroes to many, you probably have your own, you have your own powers, your own tools, your own calls to action…in fact not probably we know you do…
Builders build, singers sing, translators translate, bakers bake, sewers sew, writers write…you get it…and you’ve got it, right now whatever it is you’ve got it, whatever it is its necessary and important. You can’t do anything? not true, your built with love, go get loving. It’s degrees upon degrees and shoulders upon shoulders.
We’re singers, that means we have to sing. We join in solidarity to offer an excuse for anyone to join us in song and story but most importantly togetherness. A push against despair, we want you to push with us and hopefully in the process we can raise a little money.
This spirit is tempered by the times and the events of the 15th, thus we choose to offer the songs of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, rather than our own, because those songs speak to our highest ideals, our deepest truths and the idea that from the smallest to the biggest we are all important, equal and bound together.
The Paper Kites last toured New Zealand in 2015 and are looking forward to crossing the Tasman once again, capping off a phenomenal 12 months in which they released two critically acclaimed albums – ON THE TRAIN RIDE HOME and ON THE CORNER WHERE YOU LIVE.
“After spending so much time touring and recording overseas over the past few years we are so happy to finally bring these new songs to New Zealand. We can’t wait to head back to some of our favourite cities around the country and share this new album with our home crowd!”
The Paper Kites have earned a loyal, organic fan base all across the world. With monumental streaming numbers, 200 shows across the world in just under three years and recent Gold accreditation in the US with nearly 700,000 copies of their track ‘Bloom’ being sold in the country, The Paper Kites are Australia’s quiet achievers. And their world class songwriting prowess shines on their most recent album ON THE CORNER WHERE YOU LIVE.
ON THE CORNER WHERE YOU LIVE was co-produced with Grammy-winner Peter Katis (Interpol, The National) at his studio in Connecticut – a 120-year old Victorian era home that the band lived and recorded in for 5 weeks.
“It’s a collection of stories about these characters all living in an apartment building; I wanted to capture moments, feelings, it’s about people and their stories,” says lead vocalist, Sam.
Best listened to from start to finish, as each story seeps into the next; meditative yet complex, ON THE CORNER WHERE YOU LIVE is an album for loyal fans of The Paper Kites but also one that’s guaranteed to draw new audiences too.
Don’t miss The Paper Kites live in concert this March.
Irish dynamite Wallis Bird announces her debut New Zealand tour in March 2019!
Wallis Bird’s expressive vocals and driving guitar rhythms have been taking audiences by storm in the UK, Australia, Japan and Europe. For the first time in March 2019 she will be bringing her thrilling stage show to New Zealand – performing in Auckland, Wellington & Christchurch.
Every performance is characterised by a startling passion and commitment that frequently leaves Bird breathless. Simultaneously honest and raw, powerful and gracious, humble and hilarious, her concerts are like no other. After seeing her performance at Woodford Folk Festival, Amanda Palmer cited Bird as her “discovery of the year …. Wallis Bird at Woodford folk festival f*&$ing destroying it”.
Wallis Bird burst onto the trans-Tasman scene with her first ever appearance in Australia in the summer of 2017, which included a standout performance at the iconic Woodford Folk Festival. She returned in November 2017 for a national tour, which was praised by audiences and critics alike. Bird will return to our shores in March 2019, stopping off in NZ for three concerts.
The Irish born artist cut her teeth as a teenager playing cover gigs in pubs, dealing with drunken hecklers by way of cheeky comebacks and good-natured banter. Bird moved to Germany in 2005 and self-released the single “Blossoms in the Street”, which spent 20 weeks in the airplay charts. It grabbed the attention of Island Records who signed her almost on the spot.
Her debut album hit the Top 5 UK digital album charts. Over her next three records she continued to chart in various European countries and toured constantly, headlining over 700 shows in the past 8 years, with over 30,000 people attending her last album release tour.
Bird prides herself on an energetic, dynamic and always-musical live performance. Her startling passion and energy levels are unmatched by any other artist. Moving from delicate whispers to explosive cries in a heartbeat, Bird weaves her magic around audiences of every kind. Whether she’s dancing, laughing, screaming or crying, anyone who has experienced one of Bird’s live concerts knows that music is her lifeblood.
When she hit a roadblock during the writing of her fifth studio album Home, she decided to do something that would be precisely un-thinkable to most artists. “I figured a twelve hour free concert would fix all the issues I had,” she chuckles breezily. Bird stepped onto the stage of Berlin’s Auster Club at 1:30pm one cold January afternoon and stayed there until the early hours. During her performance she also raised money for refugee charities. Afterwards she even found the energy to play two encores; “It was terrifying, demanding, but ultimately beautiful… I was okay after that, I learned a lot!”
Born left handed, Bird lost all the fingers on her left hand in a bizarre lawnmower accident as a baby. Though most of her fingers were saved through surgery, one was lost for good. Luckily it didn’t stop her picking up a guitar, flipping it upside down to strum with her damaged hand, and carrying on as if nothing had ever happened. Today she’s a veritable virtuoso on the instrument, and she credits that fateful lawnmower incident with having given her “her mojo”.
That mojo carried her to record deals with Island Records and Columbia Records, several high profile awards and nominations, and tours across the world with the likes of Gossip, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Billy Bragg and Emiliana Torrini.
Now based in Berlin, Bird’s 2014 album Architect celebrated her relocation to the creative capital and laid a foundation for her most recent album Home. As Bird describes, “Architect was the blueprint to this great life and musical plan I was hatching: girl meets girl, girl falls in love, and happy ending ensues. Home is the happy ending!” In fact, Home is such a celebration of the love Bird now enjoys with her partner that she not only refers to it as a ‘thank you letter’, but its cover also features the two of them locked in an affectionate embrace.
CHRISTCHURCH – the young virtuoso recently described as ‘the finest guitar player of this generation’ brings his world tour to Blue Smoke for one intimate concert on March 21! Tix just $20 but very limited, don’t miss this – these shows have been selling out around the world!
WHAT THE PRESS SAY..
“The word Prodigy seems to entirely fall short of this soft-spoken young man’s skills, he coaxes sounds and melodies out of his instrument that literally drop jaws.” – The Calgary Herald, CANADA
“Today I saw the future of Folk – Festival goers flocking in their thousands towards the main stage to witness a young musical phenomenon from Australia dish out an absolute show-stopper.” – The Firefly Column, USA
“Daniel Champagne is a crossroads. Fusing the strong traditions of Blues, Folk and other roots art with pop showmanship and admirable lyrical ability. I firmly believe that he will become an ambassador for roots music in a time where it desperately needs representation.” – The Indie Blender, CANADA
“reinventing roots guitar” – Rhythms Magazine, AUSTRALIA
“Watching Daniel Champagne perform is a once in a lifetime experience. He is a true prodigy that plays like no one else could possibly play unless they spent at least two lifetimes studying the art.” – BW Review, NEW ZEALAND
‘Daniel Champagne exudes a natural ease on stage, as he sings poignant lyrics and beautifully crafted melodies that invariably whisk the heart up with grand romanticism. Coupled with an exhilarating guitar talent that transcends mere acoustic playing to replicate a whole band, Champagne is just magical’ – Themusic.com.au, AUSTRALIA
Recipient of the AMERICANA MUSIC ASSOCIATION’S LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD and the AUSTIN MUSIC AWARD’S TOWNES VAN ZANDT SONGWRITER AWARD, and NO DEPRESSION magazine’s ARTIST OF THE DECADE, the legendary Mexican-American singer-songwriter will tour on the back of his acclaimed new immigration-themed album The Crossing.
DRW Entertainment is proud to present, for the first time in New Zealand, much loved Mexican-American singer-songwriter Alejandro (pronounced Al-e-han-dro) Escovedo.
Beloved Christchurch singer-songwriter Adam McGrath, of The Eastern, as been announced as opener for his March shows in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
Adam has this to say about opening for Alejandro:
“Songwriters will try and fool you that it’s all kumbaya around the campfire, but at heart we’re competitive beasts, not maliciously so thankfully, but we wanna anti-up and get the songs heard and stand up for the ideas inside ’em. However, it is with great pleasure that I am indeed looking forward to getting my songwriting ass handed to me sharing a stage with Alejandro. He’s a songwriting boss (Just ask ‘Boss’ Springsteen who covers his songs), but more than that he’s a voice and a heart that the world needs, especially right now. His songs speak to the big stuff, the big skys, the big land, the big hearts but most importantly the big picture. I’ll be lucky to be standing with the audience after I walk off the stage to take his songs all in. If you’re around I’d compel you to join us!”
Alejandro Escovedo is a seminal figure in Texan music and one of the most acclaimed American songwriters of his generation. He’s a recipient of the Americana Music Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and, as has been recently announced, he will be honored with the Townes Van Zandt Songwriter Award at next year’s Austin Music Awards. He’ll be only the third recipient of that honor in the Awards’ 37-year history, in a town that he helped put on the musical map.
Alejandro has released 11 solo albums and contributed to numerous others, as both band member and guest. His songs have been recorded by the likes of Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Ryan Adams, Cowboy Junkies, and Calexico, and he’s shared stages with everyone from Bruce Springsteen to John Prine to Mott The Hoople’s Ian Hunter. REM’s Peter Buck and the Velvet Underground’s John Cale have both served as Alejandro’s sidemen in addition to being his producers, a role also filled by legendary Bowie and T.Rex producer Tony Visconti, who produced a run of three albums for Alejandro spanning 2008-2012.
A troubadour-like figure with an ever-expanding clutch of classic and evocative songs, Alejandro Escovedo’s past is nothing if not chequered. His trailblazing career began with The Nuns, San Francisco’s famed punk innovators who opened the Sex Pistols’ final show in 1978, and continued into Austin-based-based alt-country rock pioneers, Rank & File, whose Slash Records debut Sundown found a home in many Australian record collections in the early ’80s cowpunk days. Austin’s blazing ’80s guitar army True Believers set Alejandro up as a true local hero, and by the time he released his first solo album in 1992, he was a key player on the national scene.
Alejandro’s rise as a solo artist was adjacent to that of the alt-country-slash-Americana movement, and as the scene’s pioneer he was named “Artist of the Decade” in 1998 (they named him early because he was the only front-runner) by the movement’s influential journal No Depression. His annual performances at Austin’s SXSWfestival, the patronage of key international media including Rolling Stone and Uncut, and the support of influential Chicago label Bloodshot Records all conspired to push Alejandro to the forefront of the Americana scene by the turn of the century.
Alejandro’s latest album, The Crossing, released in September 2018 on Yep Roc and one of the most acclaimed of his career, looks at matters of immigration and the broken Promised Land that is America through the focused and unflinching poetry Alejandro is known for. Recorded with Italian musician Antonio Gramentieri, the album tells a story of a pair of young Mexican and Italian musicians trying to find a home in today’s America. It includes cameos from underground rock royalty in the personages of MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, Stooges guitarist James Williamson and Peter Perrett and John Perry of The Only Ones (recording together for the first time in over 40 years), as well as Texan country great Joe Ely and acclaimed novelist and Richmond Fontaine/Delines songwriter Willy Vlautin.
American Songwriter has called the album “one of the most passionate, relevant, politically charged and personal projects he has released in a career pushing 40 years.”
The subject of a strong demand to tour Australia for decades now, the now-Dallas based Alejandro will finally head down under in March. He’ll be performing completely solo – just one of the many configurations in which he works – enabling fans down here to hear something akin to what early fans heard in the small clubs and holes in the wall in Austin and elsewhere when he was starting his solo career.
The first visit by such a long established and indeed truly iconic artist is a rare thing these days, and these landmark shows by Alejandro Escovedo – are not to be missed by any fans of great songwriting and passionate performance.
Indie rock darlings Clap Clap Riot are pumped to announce their ​10 Year Anniversary Tour​, which will cover top to tail of New Zealand this March.
Started in Canterbury by a group of high school friends, the dynamic five-piece solidified their place as a kiwi staple over a last decade with one EP, three full-length albums, a string of NZ music award nominations, and countless live shows with the who’s who of local and international acts.
To mark their decade’s long existence, Clap Clap Riot will play four dates, taking their energetic live show to Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland.
As part of the tour, fans will be taken on a journey through all the hits and lesser known delights, plus hear new material from a forthcoming release which is currently being recorded with Tom Healy at Auckland’s The Lab studio.
Pussy Riot have one of the most important voices of the last 10 years.
Gaining worldwide notoriety in 2012 after being imprisoned for ‘hooliganism motivated by religious hatred’ for their performance inside a Moscow church. They are the epitome of modern protest music, brash, unrelenting and challenging.
Featuring three key members, the iconic feminist punk rock performance band play Christchurch for one night only.
Riot Days is their story, presented in a truly iconic and inimitable way. Riot Days is a gig, Riot Days is a show, Riot Days is an experience.
“New revolutionary electronic punk opera”
– SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
“powerful and exhilarating…
Alyokhina’s collaboration with music producer Alexander Cheparukhin and director Yury Muravitsky was
full of fierce, rousing joy, free of scripted cues…
…poetic, razor-sharp and disarmingly witty…
Riot Days was a generous document to defiance, a kinetic invitation to dissent. I left blazing with hope…
Riot Days convinced me that gigs still have the power to move the masses”
– THE GUARDIAN (London show – Islington Assembly Hall)
“…it’s anger that powers this
swaggering, throbbing gig by Pussy Riot Theatre. A ragged mix of performance art, poetry and bone-crunching trash-can tunes, it’s based on Riot Days, the memoir by Maria Alyokhina, the leading member of the Russian post-punk, feminist political-protest collective. It’s cartoonish, poundingly emphatic, blackly funny and furious…
…hectic, brutal force.”- THE TIMES (London show – Islington Assembly Hall)
…stunning audio-visual experience
…dark droning electronica that perfectly matches the mood and power of the story
…this unique event is more than just a gig but a theatrical experience
… It’s like watching
the best punk rock show of 2017
– if punk rock was actually in tune to modern sounds
…powerful direct messages, dashes of humour, moments of seething emotional honesty and a simple plea for freedom in a one hour show that is one of the best live experiences out there.
Inventive, passionate, darkly funny in parts, twitching with energy and intelligent defiance and anger and yet full of compassion this is a moral tale for our times delivered with an intense brilliance
– LOUDER THAN WAR – a blog review of John Robb, and English punk legend, writer and TV host (Manchester show – Gorilla)
This looks perfect, but you mentioned wrong sources.
Oh, I probably understand why – since in my collection of press quotes I started with mix of the most impessive sentences – from DIFFERENT reviews, without mention of exact media.
Ok, I think the good collection of quotes might be the following:
“New revolutionary electronic punk opera”
– SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
“powerful and exhilarating…
Alyokhina’s collaboration with music producer Alexander Cheparukhin and director Yury Muravitsky was full of fierce, rousing joy, free of scripted cues…
…poetic, razor-sharp and disarmingly witty…
Riot Days was a generous document to defiance, a kinetic invitation to dissent. I left blazing with hope…
Riot Days convinced me that gigs still have the power to move the masses”
– THE GUARDIAN (London show – Islington Assembly Hall)
“…it’s anger that powers this swaggering, throbbing gig by Pussy Riot Theatre. A ragged mix of performance art, poetry and bone-crunching trash-can tunes, it’s based on Riot Days, the memoir by Maria Alyokhina, the leading member of the Russian post-punk, feminist political-protest collective. It’s cartoonish, poundingly emphatic, blackly funny and furious…
…hectic, brutal force.”
– THE TIMES (London show – Islington Assembly Hall)
…stunning audio-visual experience
…dark droning electronica that perfectly matches the mood and power of the story
…this unique event is more than just a gig but a theatrical experience
… It’s like watching the best punk rock show of 2017 – if punk rock was actually in tune to modern sounds
…powerful direct messages, dashes of humour, moments of seething emotional honesty and a simple plea for freedom in a one hour show that is one of the best live experiences out there.
Inventive, passionate, darkly funny in parts, twitching with energy and intelligent defiance and anger and yet full of compassion this is a moral tale for our times delivered with an intense brilliance
– LOUDER THAN WAR – a blog review of John Robb, and English punk legend, writer and TV host (Manchester show – Gorilla)
Eccles Entertainment & Chugg Music Present: Avalanche City – My Babylon Album Release Tour
New Zealand singer and songwriter, Avalanche City, will release his highly-anticipated third album, MY BABYLON on February 22.
To mark the milestone, Avalanche City (AKA Dave Baxter) is taking to the road on a four-date New Zealand tour, playing in small and intimate venues.
Avalanche City emerged in 2011 with his breakout hit song ‘Love, Love, Love’. It established Baxter as one of the country’s most talented songwriters – winning the prestigious Silver Scroll in 2011 – and preceded the release of his debut full-length album OUR NEW LIFE ABOVE THE GROUND.
Avalanche City returned in 2015 with WE ARE FOR THE WILD PLACES – another critically acclaimed album, which peaked at #3 on the NZ album charts and #1 on iTunes. The record’s lead single ‘Inside Out’ was certified Platinum in New Zealand achieving #1 spot on the NZ single charts, and #1 position at radio in NZ for five consecutive weeks. The single also won Best Music Video at the 2016 NZ Music Awards.
The success of the first two records saw Avalanche City tour the world. Now he’s taking his new album MY BABYLON back to where it all began – the towns and cities of New Zealand.
Due to the intimate nature of the venue, tickets are extremely limited and fans are urged to purchase early to avoid missing out.
Dana Sipos is a songwriter’s songwriter and her hypnotic, nuanced songs are filled with a wild wind. She tours extensively, occasionally by bicycle, tall ship, canoe and train. Her last album garnered her a Canadian Folk Music Award Nod in the Pushing the Boundaries category. A stunning follow-up, Trick of the Light, featuring a stellar cast of Canadian musicians including Mary Margaret O’Hara, released on Toronto’s Roaring Girl Records in spring 2018 to critical acclaim.
Often drawing comparisons to Natalie Merchant, Gillian Welch and Nick Drake, Sipos’ rhythmic fingerstyle guitar playing is textured and immersive, and her true strength lies as a songwriter. She shines a tenderly skewed light into the darkness and draws the listener in to the strange and mystical space occupied by the shadows..
Originally hailing from the industrial landscape of Hamilton, Ontario, Dana Sipos inhabited the far Canadian north – Yellowknife, Northwest Territories – for many years before going nomad. Her captivatingly nuanced songs continue to be infused with a wild wind and a haunting, slightly hypnotic surrealism, akin to the mysteries of the north.
The ten songs that make up her new album, Trick of the Light, travel extensively as well; to the Blue Ridge mountains of Appalachia, the Kentucky foothills, the wilds of Tennessee, the rolling hills of Virginia. It is partly by chance and partly by choice that rural, mountainous regions of the U.S.A inform so much of of the music, along with the pull of the tides, amateur palm readers, guiding lighthouses and hurricane season. These are tenuous times and there are gentle, tenuous threads that tie this evocative collection of sonic stories together. In making Trick of the Light, Sipos employed the help of experimental Toronto producer Sandro Perri and features Mary Margaret O’Hara, Jesse Zubot and Doug Tielli.
Legendary Wellington Proto Shoegazer/Dreampop/postpunk pioneers Beat Rhythm Fashion return from a 35 year hiatus to pick up exactly where they left off with their groundbreaking atmospheric alternative rock pieces like ‘Turn of the Century’ & ‘Beings Rest Finally’ with a new album of material. Nino Birch(guitar & vocals) & Caroline Easther (ex Chills drums & vocals) team up with Rob Mayes (ex Throw, dolphin, Kimo – bass) to deliver a new album Tenterhook, and back it up with a nationwide tour.
There are a lot of things you’d be reasonably expected not to hold your breath for in 2019, but you can cross a BRF tour and album off that list and catch them live & on record. The Band play 4 concerts in the 4 main centers in mid March.
The band released the first single from the album Hard as Hell on 21st January accompanied by a Video Shot in Tokyo where the band played two warm up shows recently. The video was filmed by cinematographer Ivan Kovak on Cinema Red Helium cameras. The single entered the student radio charts at number 3 first week in.
One night, Three cities, Four venues, Over twenty artists, in celebration of International Women’s Day on Friday March 8th 2019.
To celebrate International Women’s Day in 2019, over twenty of Aotearoa’s finest female artists are gathering across three cities to perform a series of shows on Friday March 8th.
MILK & HONEY CHRISTCHURCH – BLUE SMOKE – BIC RUNGA & FRENCH CONCESSION
Since the release of her first single Drive in 1996 – a top ten hit when she was just twenty – Bic has been awarded almost every musical honour in New Zealand, including the prestigious APRA Silver Scroll songwriting award. Bic has won the most Tuis (New Zealand Music Awards) by any individual, ever (twenty). She has won Best Female Vocalist four times and Best Producer three times. Bic’s debut album Drive was certified seven times platinum and featured the enormous hit Sway. The follow up in Beautiful Collision in 2002 was certified an incredible eleven times platinum and featured the hits Get Some Sleep, Something Good and Listening For The Weather.
Beautiful Collision was followed by an album recorded live with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. This album included beautiful orchestral versions of all her hits and a recording of the classic Jacque Brel song Ne Me Quitte Pas, which was an early indicator of Bic’s next move to relocate to Paris. Paris life resulted in the more cinematic Birds album in 2005 which also won Album Of The Year and featured the hit Winning Arrow.
Her songs have featured in film soundtracks (American Pie), her records have been released around the world, and she has won loyal followings in Europe, Asia and North America.
In January 2006, The Queen made Runga a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Zealand New Year’s Honours List.
In 2016 she was the recipient of the Legacy award at the New Zealand music awards and inducted in to New Zealand Music hall of fame.
The second full-length album from Australian singer/songwriter Julia Jacklin, Crushing embodies every possible meaning of its title word. It’s an album formed from sheer intensity of feeling, an in-the-moment narrative of heartbreak and infatuation. And with her storytelling centered on bodies and crossed boundaries and smothering closeness, Crushing reveals how our physical experience of the world shapes and sometimes distorts our inner lives.
“This album came from spending two years touring and being in a relationship, and feeling like I never had any space of my own,” says the Melbourne-based artist. “For a long time I felt like my head was full of fear and my body was just this functional thing that carried me from point A to B, and writing these songs was like rejoining the two.”
The follow-up to her 2016 debut Don’t Let the Kids Win, Crushing finds Jacklin continually acknowledging what’s expected of her, then gracefully rejecting those expectations. As a result, the album invites self-examination and a possible shift in the listener’s way of getting around the world—an effect that has everything to do with Jacklin’s openness about her own experience.
“I used to be so worried about seeming demanding that I’d put up with anything, which I think is common—you want to be chill and cool, but it ends up taking so much of your emotional energy,” says Jacklin. “Now I’ve gotten used to calling out things I’m not okay with, instead of just burying my feelings to make it easier on everyone. I’ve realized that in order to keep the peace, you have to speak up for yourself and say what you really want.”
Produced by Burke Reid (Courtney Barnett, The Drones) and recorded at The Grove Studios (a bushland hideaway built by INXS’ Garry Gary Beers), Crushing sets Jacklin’s understated defiance against a raw yet luminous sonic backdrop. “In all the songs, you can hear every sound from every instrument; you can hear my throat and hear me breathing,” she says. “It was really important to me that you can hear everything for the whole record, without any studio tricks getting in the way.”
In a mid-November Pitchfork article, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy singled out Cate Le Bon as one of the ten artists that have meant the most to him, during his life. Tweedy says that Cate is “one of the best out there making music now. It’s really rare for people to have a specific sound anymore, but I can always tell when it’s her playing guitar.”
In mid-February, Cate Le Bon will tour New Zealand for a special pre-album release celebration – her fifth studio album, due out on Mexican Summer (Conan Moccasin, Ariel Pink) in April, 2019. These performances will feature Cate on piano, accompanied by John Thomas (Cate Le Bon/Islet) on synth and sampler, for a captivating and intimate rework of Cate’s diverse musical catalogue.
They will be joined at Blue Smoke by by everybody’s favorite bedroom pop artist, Pickle Darling.
Cate will arrive in New Zealand following a sold-out piano tour of the UK, in gorgeous, seated, historic surrounds; she is excited to shape that performance for audiences across a wide range of venues for her New Zealand run of shows.
Cate is amazing. Her vocals are rich and warm, a delicious aural treat, enveloping you within a shell of intoxicating melody. Her multi-instrumental mastery simultaneously shreds and quells. The takeaway from Cate Le Bon’s shows? A euphoric sonic experience – psychedelic, entrancing, quirky, poignant, dynamic and moving.
2018 saw the 2nd release of her weirdo-automatic-folk-ballad-krautrock side project, Drinks, with long-time partner in rhyme Tim Presley (White Fence) to much critical acclaim. In April of this year she traveled to Marfa, TX to work on a collaboration with Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox during the prestigious Marfa Myths Festival. This musical kinship and mutual admiration for one another led to Cox to ask her to produce their new album.
In addition to all the above, Cate also undertook furniture-making study in the Lake District, performing at various festivals in the UK, continued with pottery, and many other pursuits. And she said this was her year off!
File under maxi-minimal deconstructionist: for fans of architecture, night flights and the sea.
Entry free with an official Nostalgia Festival Wristband OR limited ‘after party only’ tickets available. Bargain student prices and a free bus back to the Uni at the end of the night.
Students: $20 – General Admission: $25
Let the good times roll!
Come along to Blue Smoke for the official Nostalgia Festival After Party and enjoy the sludge-pop melodies of Soaked Oats, once described as “a southern stew of Kurt Vile and Mac DeMarco with a good shake of Kevin Morby “.
Soul food, high licks and cool kicks available all night long.
Soaked Oats are a young four-piece band hailing from Dunedin, New Zealand. They write songs with thoughtful lyricism and guitar-driven pop sounds.
The band has been making waves across their homeland. After forming at the beginning of 2017, the band racked up 70 shows culminating in an appearance at Rhythm and Vines. In this time they released their debut EP ‘Stone Fruit Melodies’, followed later in the year by a second EP titled ‘No Slip Ups’.
In January 2018 Soaked Oats have completed a Summer tour (aka Soirée de Sludge) which saw them playing to expanding audiences at sold out venues across New Zealand. Since then the band has begun putting the finishing touches on a third release that they look to put out in the coming months.
“With a name like Soaked Oats, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that the audio produced by these boys is real cheery! It’s music to wake up to, music to listen to in the sunshine, music to warm your insides.” – (Pilerats)
“Bold colours and dancing beats cut nicely through the grizzly cold of the NZ winter, warming the bones with relevant words and pop/rock’n’roll rhythms.” – (NZ Musician)
“They have an edge of course but they’re so talented and hard working and approachable that they’re able to make it feel like home, even if they’re playing to an away crowd. Even our security have commented on the lack of trouble at these gigs.” – (The Spinoff)
A showcase to celebrate the release of ‘Better Already’ – The songs of Al Park.
Buy a copy of the new album and get free entry to the show.
Featuring guest performances from some of NZ’s finest musicians; who sang, interpreted and recorded Al Parks songs for his album ‘Better Already’
Jordan Luck, Adam McGrath, Barry Saunders, Janice Grey, Adam Hattaway, Anthea Struthers, Helen Mulholland. (Also on the record but not at the show, Marlon Williams, Delaney Davidson, Anita Clark).
With the backing of an all star band throughout: Elemore Jones, Ryan Fisherman, Mike Kime and Adam Hattaway.
Support from Katie Thompson.
Who the f**k is Al Park?
Why are all these people on this record singing his songs?
Why do they care?
Because they owe him.
Influence is a funny thing. We get giddy over records, over heroes, over ideas, over history. The problem with that is the distance; the safe, impenetrable distance. Distance keeps the influence vague. We will never have coffee with Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie would never have dropped round to listen to your new songs, Patti Smith won’t help you with the low rent poetry you think might make some lyrics, and Chuck Berry would’ve never kicked your ass for sucking. They don’t or didn’t know you, so you’re safe. Their influence is distant and thus a comfort. What do you do however when the influence is just down the road, at the back of the pub watching the gig, or down at the coffee shop buying you a long black?
You anti up and acknowledge it and appreciate it and honor it. You say thanks.
That’s what ‘Better Already’ is. It’s a thank you, a very loud and appreciative tip o’ the cap to someone who has had a shoulder to many wheels, a hand in many helpings, a voice of wisdom in many thinkings and wonderings.
It’s a record that says,
“Who the f**k is Al Park?
He’s our friend, our brother, our anchor, our father, our loadstone, our voice of reason, our bullshit detector, our what to do and our what not do to, our supporter. He’s a deep real influence and we are grateful and this is our tribute”
In Christchurch, if you’ve been around music, as a fan, as a player, or as a business then you know Al Park. If you spend 10 minutes in public with him, you’ll have ten different hellos coming his way, from head nods to hour long debates everyone knows him to say hi to. Those close to him know his influence as well.
There’s probably (and thankfully) an Al in most towns and cities but for those of us in Christchurch we know him from everywhere:
From his early punk days in Vapour and the Trails and the founder of seminal (first and initially only) Punk venue ‘Mollet St.’,
To playing the pimp in The Exponents video for ‘Victoria’,
To packing every venue in town with the Latino Rock’n’Soul of Louie and the Hotsticks,
Standing behind the counter and dispensing (sometimes unwelcome!) opinions on everyone’s buying habits at Chch’s greatest record store Echo,
To being one of the meanest bar band leaders in The Latter Day Sinners,
To running one of the most popular touring circuit venues in Al’s Bar,
To being a father figure to the disparate friends who made up the ‘Lyttelton Sound’ (Marlon Williams, Aldous Harding, Delaney Davidson, The Eastern, Lindon Puffin),
And finally but not at all the end of things, as an integral part of the city’s post-quake musical recovery.
Al has simply been there for everything and everyone.
Through it all he’s been on his porch in Lyttelton and corners of bars everywhere around town writing and singing his own songs. Never really looking for the ‘big time’ and calling the idea of such out for the bullshit it so often is. For Al, it really has been to quote Townes all “for the sake of the song”.
That’s why Marlon Williams goes over for a curry and a beer in between conquering the world, that’s why Delaney Davidson and renowned poet Ben Brown want to write with him, that’s why Barry Saunders from The Warratahs will crash at Al’s on the way through to anywhere, why a fatherless Adam McGrath from The Eastern asked Al how to show him how to string his guitar when he was just a kid.
They do this because they know Al is a believer just like them and like Al will say, believers gotta stick together.
Al has influenced them all in many ways, as peer and as friend.
A life in music in a small town with city pretensions could be a tragic ‘could’ve/should’ve been kinda story, but Al has made it look like glorious, fun, adventurous and meaningful.
What a thing to show everyone who’s ever floated into his orbit.
Confused about a show? Need a show? Stuck on a song? Stuck in life? Need to know whether you should buy ‘Exile on Main St’ or ‘Let it Bleed’? Need to borrow money for lunch? Need a bed? A beer? A hopeful word?
You can call Al for all the above and more. That’s why all the people who sung these songs on ‘Better Already’ did it. Because they count on Al and they wanted to show him that he could count on him too.
It wasn’t a thing to do to make Al famous, or sell a million records, or any of that nonsense, it was just a fun idea and it turned out to be more, and to mean more, it was the right thing to do, by people who have always been done right by Al. Because he’s an influencer, not in a weak Instagram way, but in a deep wheel of faith giving kinda way. That’s why he counts and hopefully why this record will also.
Irish band The Young Folk are returning to New Zealand, in response to the success of their 2018 NZ tour.
Hailing from Dublin, The Young Folk marry traditional acoustic instrumentation and vocal harmonies with contemporary production techniques resulting in a sound which has been compared with Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver and Crosby Stills & Nash. “One of the most promising young bands to come out of Ireland in several decades” (Maverick Magazine)
Amiria Grenell, Bryony Matthews and Josh Holmes have created an Alt Folk, Electronic sound with an undeniable hit of pop. Bringing an enchanting collection of sounds together, this band are bringing a beautiful, fresh, new sound to the stages of Aotearoa.
The Young Folk consists of Anthony Furey (vocals/guitar) and Paul Butler (vocals/piano/synth), both songwriters of exceptional talent. The duo are joined by New Zealander Alex Borwick (trombone/synth/percussion/banjo/vocals) and Marc Aubele (bass/mandolin/vocals) for their live shows, enabling The Young Folk to fully flex their musical muscle.
Alex has been based in Dublin for 6 years where he works as a producer/recording engineer at the world renowned Grouse Lodge Recording Studios, as well as playing in a variety of touring bands.
The Young Folk are signed to UK’s Pixie Pace Records, through which they released their debut album, The Little Battle, in 2014, which went straight to #2 in the Dutch charts and Top 10 in the Irish album charts. Their second album, First Sign Of Morning, was released in 2016. They are currently working on their third album, for release in 2019. The band have toured extensively all over the USA, Europe, and Australia, and are continually winning over new audiences.
“Intoxicating voices, punctuating, warm harmonies that illuminate the horizon of a fiery energy, a show not to be missed” – Pause Musicale, France
“This is an accomplished musical aggregate that join the microdots between Noah & The Whale and old Greenwich Village Kweskin Jug Band. This is folk in Cuban heels.” – The Evening Herald.
“First-rate alternative folk meets indie pop… First Sign of Morning is a rare and beautiful album… There is a bright future for The Young Folk ahead.” – Soundz Magazine
Adam McGrath & Jess Shanks sing songs solo, together.
Adam McGrath is a folk singer stationed wherever he lands. He travels the state highways and byways of New Zealand, Australia, Europe and parts beyond, slinging songs and offering up low rent barroom philosophy with his band of misfits and chancers, The Eastern.
His songs have gathered a clutch of good reviews in NZ and overseas, he’s been nominated for a couple of serious music awards (including the Apra Silver Scroll), Graham Reid from the NZ herald called him ‘NZ’s toughest minded songwriter’ and Barry Saunders from The Warratahs simply described him as “The Truth”.
Having traversed the countryside for the last ten years in New Zealand’s hardest working band The Eastern, Jess Shanks is a renown guitar picking, banjo frailing, foot stomper with a sweet southern voice and a raft of songs built from years on the road.
Performing haunting contemporary folk tunes steeped in time and place and woven from her countless travels, Jess has cultivated an unique approach to New Zealand roots music, she has created something entirely her own, spellbinding and quintessentially kiwi.
“His is an age-old sound reminiscent of the kind of earthy blues, soul and folk that held sway during the mid-1960s. His rampaging slide stings, utilizing tried’n’true blues progressions but adding a modern sheen to the whole shebang…a dynamite new roots-reverent newcomer to the American blues scene.” – Classicalite Music Magazine
Australian based Isaiah B Brunt has always known where his hearts lies since he first heard his father strum the ukulele, blow his harmonica and unleash on the lap steel. Named 2010 Sydney Blues Society Performer of the Year, Isaiah went on to perform in the 2011 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee where he was one of the best dressed cats there and good enough musically to be one of the very few to be reviewed in the Memphis Daily News.
Isaiah’s latest album recorded in New Orleans, Just The Way That It Goes, was released to much acclaim and showcases the electric side of what he does. The album was voted best Australian Blues album for 2015 by the North American Underground Blues Network and mentioned amongst legendary icons Buddy Guy (US), John Mayall (UK) and Blues Hall of Fame Pinetop Perkins.
Isaiah will be accompanied by Bassist Mark Hornibrook, a seasoned performer who has worked with Blues Diva Sally King, Queen of Country music Anne Kirkpatrick and the infallible Jazz Icon Billy Field. And also by Drummer & Percussionist D Bruce Aitken, who has spent some time in Canada performing with award winning and Internationally Renowned Canadian Blues artists such as John Campbelljohn, Fred Eaglesmith and Matt MInglewood
Isaiah has been a production guy and former studio owner of Darling Harbour studios who has worked alongside some of Australia’s top groups including projects by Rob Hirst, Midnight Oil, Steve Prestwich and Cold Chisel. He has also worked with Julio Iglesias orchestra, hosted the Goo Goo Dolls and rehearsed American Idol’s Randy Jackson and his band for their Australian tour.
Aotearoa’s first and finest New Orleans brass band, Richter City Rebels are hitting the road again for their annual summer tour around the beautiful South Island! Returning to the one and only Blue Smoke to deliver their signature explosive beats and feel-good vibe. Get your tickets and prepare yourself for a joyful and juicy plate of strong, rich New Orleans fire.
The Richter City Rebels’ music is heavy and soulful. Blending RnB, soul, hip-hop, jazz and funk, it grooves deeply and pulsates with pounding bass and searing brass. Catchy vocals and chants draw the crowd into the party and the rolling, infectious sound is punctuated by the fierce crack of drums and percussion. The music has the soul and charisma of James Brown, mixed with the effortless swagger of Big Daddy Kane. When it hits you, you can’t help but dance and feel good!
Trumpets, trombones, saxes, sousaphone, and percussion bring the ultimate Mardi Gras party to any venue or festival. Incorporating stylish original melodies and shouts, funked-up pop tunes and bouncing hip-hop, the Rebels’ sound embodies the musical melting pot of Louisiana.
Their energetic show has recently headlined at events including the Wellington Jazz Festival, Tora Tora Tora, Taranaki Arts Festival, National Jazz Festival, CubaDupa, and Meridian Gardens Magic. Crowds line up for their monthly residency at popular Wellington venues Havana and The Rogue and Vagabond, and they also tour New Zealand regularly.
Energy, entertainment, and musicianship of the highest quality: the Richter City Rebels guarantee a rousing New Orleans experience.
Canada’s legendary Jane Siberry finally returns to New Zealand for a string of solo shows.
Iconic and enigmatic, Jane Siberry is one of music’s most unique and gifted singer-songwriters. Blessed with a sincere integrity and emotional depth, she has released 14 studio albums, including her much loved signature song Calling All Angels.
Jane’s songs have been covered by numerous artists, including K.D. Lang with her stunning renditions of Love is Everything and the 23rd Psalm-inspired The Valley.
She is on tour from November 2018 until June 2019 in her home country Canada as well as the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the USA performing with equal enthusiasm at Carnegie Hall and living rooms around the world.
Siberry’s shows have a reputation for becoming a story on their own. Expect to be stimulated, entertained, temporarily worried and ultimately glad to be alive. She will be performing favourites such as ‘The Taxi Ride’, ‘Calling All Angels’ and her exciting new songs.
The Frank Burkitt Band are delighted to be returning to Blue Smoke as part of their 30 date ‘Lost but Alive’ NZ Tour. It was a great night the last time they were in town so don’t miss out.
Frank is a storyteller, songwriter, singer and guitarist. In that order. His rambling anecdotes aim to give the audience more of a connection with his songs. A folk songwriter at his core, American roots music with hints of jazz, blues and swing very much shape his music.
When he relocated to Wellington from Edinburgh with his partner and backing vocalist Kara Filbey, he formed The Frank Burkitt Band, with blues and country mandolin player Cameron Burnell and jazz double bassist James Geluk. This mix of styles and genres gives their show unique variety, alongside tight knit harmonies and well crafted arrangements.
2019 will see The Frank Burkitt Band embark on the longest tour of their lives. From January – June, they intend to take their music all around New Zealand, Australia and the UK. Yes, they are quite ambitious and slightly unhinged. They will be releasing a new live EP to coincide with their touring adventures.
HYPNOTIC TRANCE-POP group MY BABY, will be hitting our shores for a nationwide tour between Dec-March! This will be their fourth return after their Prehistoric Rhythm album pre-release tour in 2017. This time they delight us with recent release Mounaiki ~ By the Bright of Night a shamanic album laced with deep-bass driven grooves, gospel and blues singing, cultural inflections and a touch of EDM… try name a better combo.
This year, MY BABY begin their 13-date tour at New Year’s Eve festivals AUM (Auckland) and Rhythm & Alps (Wanaka). They will play a string of headline shows all over the country and finish up at WOMAD 2019! An incredibly hypnotising live act everyone has a chance to see so DON’T MISS OUT!
In the almost decade long tradition of near Christmas shows and fundraisers, “National Treasures” (RNZ) The Eastern will perform on Dec. 22nd at their favourite local venue Blue Smoke. They will be joined by NZ country Icon, Warratah and gentleman of the road Barry Saunders.
The Eastern are known nationwide and internationally as a hard driving, hard working, hard hoping, huge hearted, country/folk/string/rock n roll powerhouse. They were described by ‘No Depression’ as “one of the best modern roots acts from any country”.
Barry Saunders both solo and with The Warratahs has carved in stone his name in New Zealand music history. Responsible for such classics as ‘Hands of My Heart” and “Maureen”, Barry just celebrated his 30th year on the road with The Warratahs performing sold out shows nationwide on the neverending ‘Drivin’ Wheel Tour’.
Both acts will offer their performance in a bucket rattling endeavor to raise money for the chronically underfunded Lyttelton Seafarers Centre.
Read on to get the full story..
The Seafarers Centre:
Benji Sator is a seafarer from the Philippines. He arrives in Lyttelton every 6 weeks on a container ship. The first thing Benji wants to do when he arrives in port is call his wife Maria. He knows she and the kids will be at home at dinnertime, about 9pm NZ time. So, upon arrival, if our Centre is not open, he will head up to the library and stand in freezing wind and tell his wife he is fine and his daughter that he loves her, as his hands turn blue from the cold.
While in port, Benji likes to stock up on few personal items. There is no bank in Lyttelton, but local businesses will happily exchange the US dollars he is paid for NZ dollars at a rate of US$1 for every NZ$1. Everyone knows there is usually at least 30-35% difference in the exchange rate in favour of the NZ dollar. For every US$100 he breaks, Beni is $40 out of pocket on the exchange rate alone. That is $40 dollars loss for a man who earns in a month what some CEOs of port companies earn in an hour. Last month, he wanted to go to the city, so called a taxi. The taxi driver charged him US$100 for a lift into town That is 10% of what Benji earns in a month. A fare to town should cost about NZ$45 dollars.
The Lyttelton Seafarers Centre is a place set up for Benji and his fellow workers. To provide assistance, amenities, care, support and most importantly a brief homelike respite.
While it still only opens for three hours each evening, in the 3 years since, we have had over 10,000 visits from seafarers docking in Lyttelton. Five nights a week, a volunteer opens the Centre, switches on the heat pump, and gives an inquiring seafarer our password so they can access our free wi-fi. During those hours, they don’t need to stand out in the dark and freezing cold anymore. The most common sound you hear in the Centre these nights is not the voices of the seamen, but the voices of their wives and children talking from overseas and laughing and chatting on Skype to a husband, a parent, a sibling.
The volunteers who work at the centre recognise seafarers, the poorly paid and often exploited international workforce who leave home and families to transport goods by ship to our shores. These are a group of people we often ignore, sometimes don’t even see. A seafarer can be endangered from shipwreck, piracy, dangerous work, industrial accidents and exploitation by employment agents, officers and shipping companies. Safety and fair wages are worldwide issues.
International Ports are a highly profitable industry. In 2017, NZ ports made a total post-tax profit of $260 million, paying millions of dollars in dividends to the City Councils that own them. Possibly this is because our ports are well managed? But more probably, it is because shipping companies are charged huge fees to tie up at NZ wharves, fees they can afford to pay, because they use cheap labour – from the Philippines, India, China, South Korea and other countries to crew their ships.
Every year, thousands of poorly paid seafarers come to our shores on merchant ships to bring goods and much needed materials that help make the infra-structure of New Zealand better for all of us. Yet we provide them little hospitality when they disembark from their boats. This is unlike passengers who come on cruise ships and spend millions of dollars in our shops. They get the red carpet laid out before them, for their comfort and wellbeing. We have a different standard for the workers, the seafarers. Most ports have virtually nothing to offer by way of hospitality. A seafarers’ centre, run on a volunteer basis with huge time and financial constraints, may or may not be located in port. If one is, maybe it is open for only a few hours, while a vessel could be in port for up to a week.
New Zealand is a signatory to the Maritime Labour Convention, an International Labour Organisation (ILO) Treaty signed in 2006. It covers almost every aspect of seafarer life and work on board ship, including the provision of shore-based welfare facilities for seafarers when in port. The Convention came into force in New Zealand in March 2017. Among many other provisions, the Convention recommends that members should take measures to ensure that ‘adequate welfare facilities and services are provided for seafarers in designated ports of call.’ However, it makes no mandatory designation as to who should fund such services, instead recommending they come ‘from grants from public funds, or levies or other special dues from shipping.’
At this point, none of this is happening in NZ. Instead, voluntary groupings like the Apostleship of the Sea (AoS) and the Mission to Seafarers (MtS) are having sausage sizzles, dance nights and raffles to raise funding to try and keep centres open for seafarers when they call. Secondary students volunteer their evenings to help with money transfers, purchases of food items, organise internet access for seafarers and strum the occasional guitar. Let’s be clear. It is long past time for City Councils, who own the ports and make millions of dollars from them annually, to step up and put some solid regular finance towards providing seafarers safe, hospitable and just conditions on shore. After all, port companies made a total post-tax profit of $260 million in 2017. Also, there is absolutely no reason why a small levy (eg $50 – 100) shouldn’t be charged from every ship that comes into port to help towards funding such a resource. This dollar amount collected would be peanuts compared to the more than $20 000 ship owners can pay to tie up dockside for a 24-hour stay.
This is an issue primarily about the decent treatment of seafarers. It’s a human rights issue. A matter of justice – and hospitality.
In the meantime it’s up to us to help where we can, ‘Light House’ is one small show with its shoulder to the wheel we ask you to join us in the pushing!
The Tannery are having a Christmas Market Day so we thought we’d get in on the festivities and throw Blue Smoke’s doors wide open from mid-morning til late in the evening.
There will be an outdoor food market in our riverside courtyard, craft stalls, fine food offerings and good home cooked music on the airwaves; both inside and out.
This will be a great opportunity to grab a unique handcrafted Christmas pressie or or two whilst enjoying a leisurely time with family and friends. The Cassels & Sons beer bus will roll up for the occasion and we’ll be selling gift packs of all shapes and sizes for your craft beer loving whanau.
Our chef will have the grill going first thing so expect breakfast sarnies and fresh coffee if you’re an early bird.
Here is a full list of craft stalls and food vendors that will be in our corner of The Tannery!
December 2018 sees Auckland born, Nashville based Tattletale Saints return home, performing 13 intimate acoustic duo concerts around the country in support of the release of two new singles.
This tour marks a return to the acoustic duo sound that first introduced the Saints’ music to New Zealand audiences in 2012, earning them the Tui for Folk Album of The Year in 2014.
Cy Winstanley (guitar/vocals and APRA Silver Scroll nominee) and Vanessa McGowan (bass/vocals) have been based Stateside for the last 5 years, living and working alongside Nashville’s best. This time in Music City USA has brought a new depth of artistry and polish to their performances and songwriting.
Audiences can look forward to a mix of old and new songs, along with the band’s takes on classic country, pop and American songbook hits.
“..elements of folk, good old Appalachia style music, and a splash of country…well-written songs with stirring vocals.” No Depression Magazine
In celebration of the new album Laps Around The Sun, Ziggy Alberts is embarking on his Laps Around The Sun World Tour. Kicking off his first shows this December, Ziggy will be headlining rooms of all shapes and sizes across Australia, New Zealand, UK, Europe, North America, South Africa and South America.
Support from: BEXY
No stranger to life on the road, the world tour celebrates the next chapter in Ziggy’s growing career and will take him to both foreign and familiar lands. With over 100 dates to be announced, be sure to keep a close eye as the shows start to roll out.
For first time Ziggy enthusiasts, we will give this away – Ziggy is an energetic performer with songs that carry powerful messages about his passion for the ocean & environment, love stories and memories of being on the road as a touring musician. Somehow Ziggy continues to truly connect with his audience, despite the growing room sizes at every show. Expect your night to be a musical journey of dancing, sing-a-longs, and unplugged favourites, with Ziggy having the crowd bouncing one moment to silently swaying the next.
Stories of love, harvest, death and transcendence, featuring powerful, hypnotic vocals, tampura drone instruments and acoustic/electric guitars. With music as a meeting place, TUi’s music also becomes a playground for the phenomenal and poetic percussionist DOUG BRUSH.
TUi MAMAKi (formerly of The Mamaku Project) disappeared to Bulgaria in 2014… Where is Bulgaria!? It is in her childhood record collection, in her impossible dreams, as far east in Europe as you can go, and now, deeply woven into her voice & being, as TUi trained for the last 3 years in the techniques and repertoire of that obscurely-famous Bulgarian folklore.
Through this kind of exile/immersion TUi has uncovered a new sound for herself – a super intimate kind of Neo-Folk, underpinned by hypnotic odd-meter Bulgarian rhythms, and clothed in delicate and dreamy, eastern-tainted melodies. The English language lyrics soften the distance and make for a strangely familiar exoticism.
DOUG BRUSH is an extraordinarily versatile percussionist, bringing a world of experience and some fascinating percussion instruments to the stage. Trained in America, Cuba, Spain, North India, South India, North and West Africa, and after performing, teaching and recording all over the world, Doug has put down roots in NZ since 2010.
“New Zealand’s Accidental Dream Pop Hero” – Noisey
“Chelsea Jade’s presence is ethereal” – DAZED
“Chelsea Jade is a master of awkward, weirdo intelligence” – i-D
Captivating performance artist and singer songwriter, Chelsea Jade, returns to New Zealand this November for three shows to celebrate the release of her debut project, Personal Best.
Off the heels of her latest single “Laugh It Off”, a sold-out performance at New York City’s Mercury Lounge, and her second APRA Silver Scroll Nomination in as many years, Personal Best was released on July 20th.
“Personal Best represents the ability to measure yourself only against yourself,” says Chelsea of the 11 track project. “It’s becoming an athlete in accepting, for better or worse, all of the parts of yourself.”
Continuing to raise the bar visually, Personal Best includes Chelsea’s previous releases of “Low Brow”,”Life of the Party”, “Ride or Cry”, “High Beam” and “Laugh it Off” – as well as producer credits from Pilbrow, Big Taste (Justin Bieber), Sam McCarthy (BOYBOY) and Brad Hale (Now Now). To date, Chelsea has garnered the attention of i-D, Noisey, Harper’s Bazaar, Nylon, DAZED, The FADER and more.
With a focus on literate lyricism, Chelsea Jade harnesses an art school approach through her low impact, high drama vocal performance and lateral visual sensibilities. In short, Chelsea immediately captivates. Born in Cape Town, South Africa and raised in New Zealand, she began as a dancer and gravitated towards music early on, falling in love with the conversation between the ballet pianist and her own movement. Eventually being caught between the high concept world of art school and a romance with the immediacy of pop music, Chelsea abandoned her studies in the middle of exams and fled to New York for a series of writing sessions with Justyn Pilbrow (The Neighbourhood). A fan-girl encounter with producer Dre Skull in a Tokyo elevator lead Chelsea to realize that the US was the pop mecca she had been dreaming of and in late 2015, she relocated to the east-side of Los Angeles. A two year writing intensive followed, working with producers like Pilbrow, Big Taste [Justin Bieber], Sam McCarthy [BOYBOY], and Brad Hale [Now Now]. From these sessions, Chelsea executive produced the full-length debut, Personal Best.
This show has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. Please contact with any queries.
The Loneliest Girl NZ tour will be the first time Princess Chelsea has performed to New Zealand audiences in three years. It sees Chelsea and her band return home after an extensive “Planet Earth” circuit of the U.K, Europe and Korea.
“I’ve got some new band members, which is pretty cool,” she says “and we have spent the last three months tightening our live set before touring the album ..
Back in June, Princess Chelsea gave us a glimpse into her latest musical outing in the form of new song ‘I Love My Boyfriend’. A deceptively clever 60s garage rock song discussing an internal struggle with monogamy.
“a DIY pop song that subverts the rules” – NOISEY UK
The video was self – directed and edited by Chelsea.
The Loneliest Girl was recorded by Chelsea between 2016 and 2017 in her home studio in West Auckland, New Zealand with production assistance from label-mate Jonathan Bree. Chelsea’s trademark arrangements featuring classic 80s Synths (Yamaha DX7, Roland D-50), ambient guitars, and orchestral instruments are all here but are presented in a more refined and simple manner than on her previous releases.
A classically trained pianist, Nikkel lent her talents to self-professed “circus punk” act Teen Wolf in the mid-2000s, and later in the touring lineup of indie pop outfit the Brunettes. When she wasn’t performing, she worked as a composer for a local recording studio, all the while refining her songwriting and production skills. Her full-length debut as Princess Chelsea, Lil’ Golden Book, was released in late 2011 by New Zealand label Lil’ Chief, and included the viral YouTube hit “Cigarette Duet” (nearly 41 million views and counting).
This show has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. Please contact with any queries.
November Sleepwalking tour will see “The Master of Misery” perform in New Zealand for the first time since 2017s’ Others Way Festival. Joined by his faceless band, audiences will get the chance to hear album singles ‘Fuck It’ which topped the 95bFM charts in June 2018, ‘You’re So Cool’ – Time Out New Yorks, best music video of 2017 as well as ‘ Valentine’ and ‘Say You Love Me Too’.
Jonathan Bree’s third solo album, Sleepwalking was released in June 2018 via the artist / producer’s own label, Lil’ Chief Records. It saw the emergence of the mysterious masked band. They first appeared in his music video for ‘Weird Hardcore’ (from second album A Little Night Music) but who suddenly caught everyone’s attention with Jonathan’s self-directed music video for the release of ‘You’re So Cool’.
“Sleepwalking is a record of sublime and sophisticated classic pop that conspires to lead you, willingly, into its dark night… You won’t want to wake from this beautiful nightmare” – NZ Herald
“…Jonathan Bree has chosen a darker path, scattered with minor keys, darkly intoned, gloomy lyrics, and music as sparse and intricate as the Brunettes’ music was stuffed full of light…. Refined and classy — with no sweat or blood spilled, but plenty of hearts bruised and broken — the record is a subtle and sophisticated listen made by a master craftsman whose beating heart is laid bare for all to see just below the glossy surfaces.” – AllMusic.com
“listening to his new album is like imagining the masked artist sneaking up behind you and whispering his sophisticated pop tunes into your ear – it’s gently hypnotic and ever so slightly disquieting.” – undertheradar.co.nz
“Doubts, disappointment, despair and dejection. They’re all there, but wrapped up in such an ironically gorgeous package, you’d hardly know it.” – Radio NZ National
A Strange Caravan travels its way around New Zealand this spring
A collective of renowned kiwi songwriters and solo artists, tracing lineage to many of NZ’s most loved bands, join forces this spring to bring you The Strange Caravan Tour.
The tour features Bret McKenzie, Age Pryor, Justin Firefly, Nigel Collins and Ben Lemi, whose musical projects include Fly My Pretties, Trinity Roots and Flight of the Conchords to name but a few. This five piece ensemble now congregate to showcase new original songs in intimate live settings across the country this November and December.
Starting as a series of jam sessions between old friends, the group of songsmiths has blossomed from an ad hoc hangout to full musical partnership over the last eighteen months.
Age Pryor explains;”Justin, Nigel and Bret were getting together to try out tunes, and I joined when I happened to be in Wellington – Justin and I had done the same thing before, in jams that became the Woolshed Sessions album. The multi-talented Ben Lemi was the last to join the group, and turned out to be the missing piece of the evolving jigsaw.”
These 5 musicians will be hitching their wagon and travelling the length and breadth of New Zealand for the very special Strange Caravan tour.
Congress of Animals and Under The Radar presents
The STRANGE CARAVAN Tour
Featuring:
Bret McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords)
Age Pryor (Fly My Pretties, Woolshed Sessions, Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra)
Justin Firefly (Fly My Pretties, Woolshed Sessions)
Nigel Collins (Flight of the Conchords, Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra)
This is a one off performance by psych-pop outfit Glass Vaults and their only headline Christchurch show of 2018. A rare chance to catch this force majeure of alternative art-pop in the garden city.
Joined on the night by low-fi fuzz-pop virtuoso Ben Woods.
wonky sun-soaked rhythms and effortlessly cool vocals” – Wonderland Magazine
“…absorbing and richly crafted pop…” – GOLD FLAKE PAINT
Enthralling New Zealand psych-folk” – CLASH Music
“…lush, vibrant, and utterly cool… – THE REVUE
Since their conception in 2010, merchants of bliss Glass Vaults have produced a stream of releases and transcendental live performances which have developed into a unique brand of psychedelic pop.
Conceived in Wellington, New Zealand by Performance Design graduates, Richard Larsen and Rowan Pierce, the band continues to work closely with producer Bevan Smith (Carpark Records) who has become an integral part of the band and sound.
During this time they have released two acclaimed LPs and three EPs, played to capacity crowds inside drained swimming pools and humid forests, toured throughout New Zealand, Australia, U.S.A and taken up residence in New York while maintaining strong critical praise. Their early collection of EP’s, written and recorded in rooms and studios throughout New Zealand, are atmosphere driven, hazy and slower paced.
With the release of Sojourn (2015, Flying Out) and The New Happy (2017, Melodic Records) the band has begun to peel away the hazy veneer to reveal precision crafted pop songs with groove, immediacy and striking clarity.
Iconic kiwi rock group, Elemeno P are excited to hit the road on their upcoming 7-date New Zealand Spring tour – their most extensive run of regional dates in over a decade!
As one of Aotearoa’s quintessential rock groups, the much-loved five piece will ring in the warmer climates with fans from all across the country as they revisit the classics (and the deep cuts) for a special set of shows not to be missed.
David Roy Williams Entertainment Presents: Wreckless Eric
Talk about Wreckless Eric and what immediately comes to mind is his enduring hit Whole Wide World – covered in stadiums and sheds from Aberdeen to Alabama – but there’s a whole lot more to the story than just that.
With over 40 years of recording and touring behind him he shuns the dictates of nostalgia and doesn’t do comebacks for the simple reason that he never went away.
Except maybe where the Antipodes are concerned.
An original Stiff Records artist in 1977 alongside Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, the Damned and Ian Dury, Wreckless Eric is one of England’s great underground songwriters. His classic “Whole Wide World” has been covered by the Monkees, Green Day, the Replacements, the Proclaimers, Will Ferrell (in Stranger Than Fiction) and even Marilyn Manson. Mental as Anything, whose Reg Mombassa & Peter O’Doherty are special guests for one of Eric’s Sydney shows, had a hit with the song themselves in the ’90s. It stands alongside the Only Ones’ Another Girl Another Planet and the Undertones’ Teenage Kicks as one of the evergreens of the punk era. His other hits from that time include Semaphore Signals,Reconnez Cherie, Hit & Miss Judy, Broken Doll and A Pop Song.
For his early work alone he deserves his place alongside Ray Davies, Robyn Hitchcock, Kevin Ayers and Squeeze’s Difford & Tilbrook as one of England’s great iconic songwriters, though comparisons are beside the point because, like all great artists, he has something entirely unique.
In 1981 Wreckless Eric / Eric Goulden left Stiff Records, turned his back on mainstream success and went underground. He formed a fiercely independent garage band, The Len Bright Combo, with two ex-members of The Milkshakes and released a couple of DIY albums. A string of completely homemade albums followed – Le Beat Group Electrique, The Donovan Of Trash, 12 O’Clock Stereo,Karaoke, Bungalow Hi, each with a unique character. Though his work was often derided and frequently misunderstood he toured relentlessly, playing to small audiences across the UK, mainland Europe and the United States.
In 2006 he formed a band with his wife, the American songwriter and musician Amy Rigby. They made three albums together as Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby and carried on the non-stop touring until 2015 when Fire Records reissued Eric’s post-Stiff Records output and a new Wreckless Eric album, ‘amERICa’, to critical acclaim.
Eric’s post-Stiff work has had an impact on a younger generation of artists, including bands such as the Pink Tiles, Dick Diver, Scott & Charlene’s Wedding and the Girlatones, members of whom will be opening shows for Eric on his Antipodean tour this November.
Wreckless Eric has not toured in Australia and New Zealand since 1980. He says he was busy, it was a long way, and nobody ever asked him.
Eric will perform completely solo with acoustic and electric guitars – he has no need of a band, so please don’t ask – his shows are loud, dissonant, lyrical, gently melodic, uplifting and strangely moving. He plays material spanning his whole career, including tracks from his acclaimed new album Construction Time & Demolition, a musically complex trawl through the psyche of a man with plenty to say and nothing to lose.
“He sets his seared vistas to the most uplifting, glorious, celestial seismic lurch” – Goldmine
“Amid all the bleakness and despair, Goulden emerges as a true shining light” – Mojo
“Gut-wrenching, heart-rending and brilliant.” – Q Magazine
“Sardonic and soulful… hilariously outraged and superbly tuneful.” – Dusted
The Nukes from West Auckland are far more than a ukulele band. Part vaudeville, part rat-pack, part musical car crash, this talented trio deliver an engaging mix of humour and originality that audiences of all ages will love.
The innocent little uke is the instrument of choice and people will be staggered by what the Nukes are able to achieve with it. Great songwriting, musicianship and 3-part harmony combine to create a truly memorable, entertaining experience.
Aotearoa’s favourite original ukulele trio began life in a humble but spectacular fashion way back in the heady days of 2008. Founded by Dave Parker, Ben Collier and Dave ‘Snapper’ Thiele, The Nukes promptly set about carving themselves a cozy niche in the cutthroat world of the New Zealand ukulele scene. Many roads have been travelled in the decade since, many songs have been sung and many challenges overcome.
Now, with the soul wrenching retirement of the inimitable Snapper Thiele, The Nukes face a turn in the road and a fresh set of possibilities.
Dave and Ben have recruited multi-instrumentalist Mike Burrows to help ease their aching hearts, kiss their boo boos and make it all better. What will this mysterious stranger bring to the party? Only time will tell.
Luckily you won’t have to wait too long because the lads are coming back down to Canterbury with Public shows and workshops at Balcairn, Lincoln, Lyttleton, Timaru and Christchurch
Powerful forces have somehow aligned, and against all the odds, the Universe has provided us with one more session of…….
Excellent Soul Therapy!
EST, as they were known, were a Christchurch band in the early to mid 90’s. A core four piece of Sly Boy, Willy J, Kane and Brother C, created a huge, dynamic sound encompassing many genres including Reggae, Dub, Funk, Soul, Psych-rock, just to name a few.
Many later shows also included Pete and Conan on horns, both before and as they became part of the fast growing Salmonella Dub.
Due to various reasons EST stopped playing in the latter 90’s, but after a long hiatus have decided to get back together for one more fun and groovy show in their spiritual home of Christchurch.
On Saturday 3rd November 2018, they will light up the stage at Blue Smoke, well supported by DJ Skid Mark
So, you Awesome Tribe, if you remember them, and the fun you had back in the day, come down and reconnect, they’d all love to see you there!
If Anika Moa was feeling ready to kick back for the remainder of 2018, then things haven’t really run to plan. In fact it’s about to get a whole lot busier for the multi-talented entertainer with a new album release, tv series and live shows all on the way.
Earlier in May, eighteen years after her debut recording on American soil, Moa headed to the vibrant musical hub of New Orleans to record her sixth studio album. The self-titled album, Anika Moa, is set to be released through Universal Music on 5th October.
“This album saw me heading back to America to record in one of my favorite cities in the world – New Orleans. It’s full of life, romance and a touch of crazy which is what I needed for the new songs I was bringing to the table” says Anika.
“Showing this new album off is like having a baby in a way. Your proudest moment with tumultuous moments in-between. I am very proud of this music!”
Producer Brady Blade has enlisted a super-band, with himself as drummer, Doug Pettibone (John Mayer, Lucinda Williams, Marianne Faithfull, Tracy Chapman)playing guitars and pedal steel, and Tony Hall (The Neville Brothers, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Dave Mathews) on bass. Other locals have also popped in to guest; US/Swedish artist Anders Osborne on guitar, Joe Ashlar (Dr. John) on keys and Mike Dillon, percussion. Completing the team was Texas-based engineer, Chris Bell (Destiny’s Child, The Eagles, Erykah Badu, Don Henley).
The result is a 10-track collection of some of Anika’s clearest and most captivating music. Her familiar melodic blueprint journeys through folk, pop and Americana. Led by acoustic guitar, peppered with lazy pedal steel and resonant piano and finessed with slick production Moa’s emotive and intelligent lyricism and engaging storytelling ebbs and flows between love, pain, sadness, joy, and adoration.
To celebrate the album release, Anika is also assembling her band to perform live shows in the main centres.
Following on from a No.1 New Zealand album, Tom Scott is taking his Avantdale Bowling Club project live in October and November. “This record has so much potential for interpretation. It was made to be played live. I can’t wait to move this from the rehearsal room to the stage” says Scott.
The band comprises some of the country’s finest jazz musicians in Julien Dyne (Drums), Tonga Vaea (Keys and Trumpet), Ben Turua (Bass) and JY Lee (Sax) together with special guest vocalists.
“These are some of my heroes. When I turned 18, the first place I went to was the London Bar to watch Ben Turua and Julien Dyne – now they are in my band…crazy”
Avantdale Bowling Club has been three years in the making, primarily at Red Bull Music Studios Auckland, and the release was celebrated by critics and music-lovers alike, delivering the highest-selling local album. Advance orders for the vinyl version (late October release) have sold out and a second run is being pressed to meet demand.
“Avantdale Bowling Club is a powerful, personal, deeply musical piece of work.” – Nick Bollinger, The Sampler RNZ
“Scott has peaked musically on ABC and even if he’s not performing all the instrumentation involved, he’s clearly a phenomenal writer and visionary’. – Mike Alexander, Stuff/Sunday
“As an album, it cements Tom as not just one of New Zealand’s best rappers, but one of the better songwriters working in any genre”. – Dominic Hoey, The Spinoff
“We can marvel in his latest offering which well and truly cements his spot as one of New Zealand’s best ever lyricists.” – Sam Smith – Radio13
We’re over the moon to bring Courtney Marie Andrews to the Blue Smoke stage this October. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see one of country music’s best kept secrets perform an intimate concert on a Sunday evening. Book a table for your family and friends and make a night of it, delicious food on offer throughout.
Support From: Richard Dada
We will have a special concert menu for this evening. Watch this space for details!
Courtney Marie Andrews spent over nine months of 2017 on the road, with multiple trips across the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. That’s nothing new for Andrews, though. She’s been touring relentlessly since leaving her Arizona hometown at 16. It’s a life that inspired much of her 2016 breakthrough album, Honest Life. While that album’s themes spoke to the isolation and rootlessness inherent in a life on the road, most of its songs were actually written during an intentional, extended break. The success that followed its release, however, didn’t afford her the same break to write the material for her new album.
Although May Your Kindness Remain was predominately written on the road — in the van, in hotels, and in the homes of family and friends — it’s not a road record like its predecessor. That is, it’s not so much inspired by her life on the road so much as it is by the people she’s met along the way. It’s an inward reflection on the connectivity of their stories and her own. “More than anything,” she says, “it got me thinking about my childhood, and the people around me that I’ve known, and the stories that come from my family. It became clear how many people are struggling through the same issues.”
Richard Dada makes creamy low-fi psychedelic music. Richard Dada is anti-art, anti-war, anti-nationalism, the rejection of logic, rejection of capitalism and the expression of nonsense. Richard Dada is the solo project of Richard Larsen, creative driving force behind off kilter pop outfit Glass Vaults.
At long last, Sex on Toast are ready to unveil their latest EP… Rough.
The record signals the completion of the double EP project Rough and Ready. 016’s Ready was a light and joyous affair, with horn arrangements, pianos, both electric and acoustic, high falsetto and tight 70’s backbeats.
Rough EP shifts that palate with sparse ballads, slow jams, uptempo, Minneapolis stomp, heavy metal, 12” mixes, drum machines and industrial noise. Think of Rough as Ready’s moodier older cousin.
So tune into this recorded event for surround sound tales of unrequited love, parties, betrayal, break-ups, yearning, burning, limerence and legend.
In celebration of the ‘How Much’ release, Tiny Ruins will be playing Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington as the full band line up late October – early November.
Support from: Ben Woods
“How much would you be willing to give?” Fullbrook asks point-blank in the first offering from their anticipated third album, ahead of woozily discordant strings and a stomping neo-psychedelic rhythm. The lyric brims with imagery of supermarket breakdowns, lilos, snarks and silos while an anthemic guitar hook soars throughout. Not content to leave the song at a stable conclusion, a thumping ‘I am the Walrus’-esque bass outro propels the track boomerang-style back to a space of adroit experimentation.
Prior to these shows, the full band heads to the UK / EU for a month long tour late August through September. On the journey home, Tiny Ruins will tour Australia solo with Milk! Records icon, Jen Cloher preceding supporting The Chills on their nationwide NZ tour.
A group renowned for their electric dynamic live on stage, Tiny Ruins have toured the world many times over in solo and varied group formations. They have played stages across countless cities with Sharon van Etten, Calexico, The Handsome Family and more.
“Fullbrook’s hushed yet forceful songs, packed with obsessives and resilient loners, demand your full attention.”
– Q Magazine
“She is always looking uneasily toward the next line, or moving toward mysticism. In sentimental contexts, she generates lines of wicked ambition.”
– The New York Times
“It’s hard not to be captivated by Fullbrook and her intimate brand of storytelling, as she draws you in with quiet charisma and charm.”
To the Sea is the first solo album for Harry Lyon. Produced by Lyttelton’s music auteur Delaney Davidson the album showcases Harry’s array of styles and influences with classic Kiwi rock, New Orleans vaudeville, Latin, Pasifika, country and a Christmas ballad for good measure. Lyrically subjects range from love songs, a life well lived and Harry’s usual wry political and social observations.
Harry was co-founder, guitar player and songwriter with NZ Hall of Fame band Hello Sailor. His songwriting credits include, Lying in the Sand and Watch Your Back from Sailor’s award- winning first album, Dr I Like Your Medicine, 1981 Single of the Year for Coup D’Etat, and Muscles, that featured on Midge Marsden’s Burning Rain album and was a 1991 APRA Silver Scroll finalist. He also played with The Pink Flamingos, Hammond Gamble and The Legionnaires for whom he wrote the Top 20 single You Bring Out the Worst in Me.
For his To the Sea tour, Harry has assembled a band of music heavyweights, most with a strong connection to the Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand (MAINZ) where he worked until mid-2017. He said he’s “Really honoured these guys all said yes straight up and the feeling at rehearsals is great.”
Harry’s set for the tour will feature some Sailor favourites, songs from Harry’s back catalogue, and of course some from his much-anticipated solo album “To The Sea”. Audiences also can expect some special guest cameo performances.
“To the Sea” will be released October 5th CD/LP/Digital. (Norm Records/ Southbound Distribution)
The Band
Tony Waine, Bass: Tony is an APRA Silver Scroll winner and founder of award winning kiwi band The Narcs. The band’s debut gold album Great Divide earned 5 RIANZ Awards including Single of the Year for their Top Ten hit Heart and Soul. The Narcs were one of the first Kiwi acts to have records released worldwide and they continue to record, recently releasing the single/video Summerhill Stone. Tony has written songs with Shona Laing, Buzz Moller and Authur Baysting. He produced the Best of the Narcs album and Christchurch The Music, the double CD compilation.
Stephen Small, Keys: In twenty years of studio recording and live performances, Stephen has worked alongside many luminaries of popular music, such as Jaz Coleman, Belinda Carlisle, Beth Hart, Graeme Downes (Verlaines), Hammond Gamble, Autozamm, Bonnie Tyler and Leo Sayer. He has arranged and directed music for radio broadcasts, televised studio concerts and large outdoor events in New Zealand. Stephen is Music Director and arranger for legendary Grammy-winning New Age artist Kitaro. He produced the Pop Album of the Year (2012) for New Zealand singer-songwriter Jamie McDell (EMI/Universal) and has accompanied on piano singers such as Dame Malvina Major and the late Sir Howard Morrison.
Josh Sorenson, Drums: Josh is an in-demand drummer and respected music educator. He has played, toured, and/or recorded with a veritable who’s-who of NZ music artist, including; King Kapisi, Sola Rosa, Annie Crummer, Nathan Haines, Joel Haines, Hammond Gamble, Rikki Morris, Debbie Harwood and Hello Sailor. He also composes, arranges and plays for his own original rock band Royal Jackets.
Jimmy Taylor, Guitar: Jimmy’s music career began in Dunedin playing in bar bands but he moved to London in 1989 and became a founding member of ‘Miss World’ that featured musicians that had played in bands like Original Mirrors, The Pretenders and Roger Taylor’s post Queen line-up The Cross. During the 90s Jimmy recorded three further Miss World albums and featured on recordings by The Starlings, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Dave Stewart.
A national treasure Paul Ubana Jones is so much more than one man with a guitar. he is a conjuror of unique and original songs, rooted in primal blues and soul.
Paul Ubana Jones is set to bring his “unique electro acoustic” music to Blue Smoke
Direct from his European Tour: He brings new songs to his live sets, and a creative virtuosic energy that has kept him a busy touring musician since 1973 in Europe and since 1987 here in New Zealand.
Whilst opening for Tuck and Patti in Los Angeles, Tuck Andress was highly moved by Paul’s playing and even more surprised that Paul does not use any pedals to enhance his delivery.” I just demonstrated to him back stage my right hand technique, and both he and his wife, Patti took me out to dinner the next day!
I felt really moved by that, they were glorious to me. Music has and still is very much my passport to many a heart.
For over 30 years The Warratahs have carved a niche into the New Zealand landscape – literally from North Cape to Bluff, becoming legendary for extensively touring both small towns and cities alike.This year New Zealand’s greatest country music band are hitting the road again.
This year New Zealand’s greatest country music band celebrate the 30th Anniversary of their debut album “The Only Game In Town”. Winning the Country Music Album Award for 1988 and receiving a Gold Award for sales, the album included songs that have long become well known favourites – “Hands Of My Heart”,
“Maureen” and “The Only Game In Town”. To honour the occasion, The Warratahs are pleased to announce the release of “Drivin’ Wheel”, a 24 track compilation spanning the years from 1988 to the present day, including the brand new song “Fast Train”.