Hard News by Russell Brown

One of the vexing things about liking new music is that you're supposed to stop doing it after A Certain Age. Or, at least, to transition to something more age-appropriate. Sure, I can throw the bangers at you here, but when the music is live, you get used to being the oldest one in the room.

So I'm always pleased to see Jean Hughes making her way back from the mosh pit. I've known Jean since she helped us with our younger boy's education after the system let us down – she saved us, basically. She's also a Public Address reader, and happened to win our ticket giveaway to the recent John Morales club gig (which, to be fair, was full of people declining to act their age).

I asked her there what her Auckland Laneway picks were and she reeled them off. And I thought, well, she's better versed in this year's lineup than me, so I asked her to jot down her tips for the blog.

For early arrivers, Jean recommends starting off with Leisure: "I like their sound and it's a relaxed, dancey way to start the day – with a 2016 hipster edge."

Then it's over to over to East India Youth: "I like him and it's still nice and mellow to keep the day going in the right direction. And Diiv - I kinda like what I have heard of them, and now we are stepping it up a notch. It can be a bit messy and quite reminiscent of something early 80s  – possibly The Raincoats, but I could be wrong (it is late and a nice wine in) –  or mix this with Scuba Diva, though I'm most probably able to see more of him locally."

Then it's over to "Thundercat: very, very niiiice – voice a bit weak, but hey, everything else is great or even better than that. Followed by Oscar Key Sung. I like this  – nice, with the right bpm for an older girl.

"Most probably then a meal and break, while I gear up and get prime position for Courtney Barnett, a fave rave."

Then, says Jean, "it's on to a very hard evening – hard choosing, that is. Beach House vs Grimes – oh me oh my. Beach House first for a bit  and then scamper over to Grimes – I like her and her feminism appeals to me too." [UPDATE: "I have decided on consultation that Beach House is out and Grimes is in. I think she is a very exciting female artist and will be just perfect for that time of night."]

And then …

"SOPHIE or Churches. I think SOPHIE may win if I can get into  the Thunderdome – so poppy, dancey. And a friend saw him at a Rough Trade gig and highly recommends him as original. I do like Churches too – good beats and a woman with attitude in the forefront,  so maybe a half and half if I can … oooh, the choice."

And after all that …

"To finish off in style, it has to be Flume for me."

I'm not quite decided on my approach for Monday. I want to see Leisure, Lontalius and Nadia Reid, but that makes for a loooooong day until the night-time artists I also want to see. (Jean recommends a nana nap.) I'll be seeing if I can get into the Thunderdome for SOPHIE on Jean's tip (hopefully all the kids will be at Churches).

Anyway, if you happen to spy a woman with fetchingly wavy grey hair giving it heaps down the front at Courtney Barnett, do feel free to bid hello to Jean. We're all in this together, you know ....

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One place I was in no dager of being the oldest guy in the room was last night's show by Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings at The Civic. "It's like the Invasion of the Baby-Boomers," I remarked to Fiona, whose Christmas present going to the show was. It turned out to be a very good Christmas present.

I'd always thought of Welch as a solo artist, but their show really underlined how musically entwined she and Rawlings are. His high harmonies, wrapping behind and around her pure lead vocal; the way she played rhythm or sometimes just banged on the top string of her 1956 Gibson acoustic while he took a lead on his famous, unusual 1935 Epiphone archtop. It's as much about what they do musically for each other as it is what they project out.

They're also very funny. Suffice to say that when they finally left the stage – after two standing ovations and a couple of encores – I think everyone there felt they'd experienced something special.

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A while back a few of us helped out Irene Gardiner at NZ On Screen with suggestions for New Zealand songs whose titles referenced days of the week. The resuting video collection, Any Day of the Week, is up now and features the Suburban Reptiles, Kirsten Morrell and more.

But just as interesting is the list of songs we came up with for which no videos exist:

MONDAY

'She Left On A Monday', Bic Runga:

'Monday', Hogsnort Rupert

TUESDAY

'Ruby Tuesday', Dedikation

'Tuesday Blues' Pacifican Descendents

WEDNESDAY

'Ash Wednesday', Mutton Birds

'Wednesday (She's Coming Round)', Able Tasmans

SATURDAY

'Saturday’s Child;, Larry’s Rebel’s:

' Saturday Sun', Crowded House:

SUNDAY

'Sunday’s Best Clothes', Opshop

'Sunday Driving', Sharon O’Neill

'Mouldy Sunday', John Hanlon

'I Can’t Get Sunday Out Of My Mind', Chapta

'Every Day is Sunday', Rangi Parker

'Sunday News' - The Builders

'On Sunday' - Th' Dudes

'Sunday Boys' - Screaming Mee Mees

‘White Sunday Sermon’ Mareko

Wait ... the Screaming Mee Mees didn't make a video for 'Sunday Boys'?

"I sent the Screaming Meemees to Avalon to make a video for 'Sunday Boys'," explains their then-manager, Simon Grigg, "and they managed to convince Peter Blake to make one for the flip side ['At At'] instead. RTR showed a pic of the band when it went top 10."

Who'd be a manager?

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One of the joys of the much broader access to music in the internet age has been the rediscovery of non-Western interpretations of Western popular music. You've got your psych-rock from Thailand and your Ghanaian disco and ... well, it's still happening. Thanks to Pete Darlington for the tip on this story on the rise of death metal in Africa. Some cool pics there too.

You may have caught the news recently about the content of the Old Friends website being rescued by the National Library's web harvesting programme after Trade Me decided to close it down. It's but one of many stories of cultural rescue conducted via the web harvest. In Audioculture, Sholto Duncan, the web archivist at the Alexander Turnbull Library, surveys some of the lost music websites of New Zealand, from Mysterex to Wildside.

And further to its mission to capture the broader culture around our music, Audioculture also has a profile by Arthur Baysting of the legendary comic artist Barry Linton. 

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I have an unusual DJ gig on Sunday: I'm spinning some tunes before and after Labour leader Andrew Little's State of the Nation speech. The event is a summer family picnic in Albert Park and I'll play a strictly-vinyl selection with an emphasis on New Zealand music. First set, noon-12.30 before Caitlin Smith sings, then for an hour after the speech concludes at 2.30.

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Tunes!

There are several new things on the wires from Laneway artists out this week. Firstly, another beautiful, languid tune from Lontalius, as a taster for his forthcoming debut album, I'll Forget 17.

A brand-new Flume track, with Vince Staples and Kučka. This would seem to bode well for a first-time Vince Staples guest spot in the Flume set on Monday:

And Jordan Arts of Leisure has this woozy-cool new track in his High Hoops guise out this morning on A Label Called Success:

And what's that? You plan to be dancing in your kitchen tonight? Well, you'll be needing this free download then, because it's goddamned irresistible:

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The Hard News Friday Music Post is kindly sponsored by:

As a friend of mine observed yesterday, backdowns are gold for political journalists. The stories write themselves: the government (or indeed, any other party) got it wrong and is now crawling back and hoping no one notices. Therefore: BUSTED!

And yet, he said, John Key's announcement yesterday that the government would finally fall into line with Auckland Council's timeline for construction of the City Rail Link, "a demonstrable backdown", was being sold in the headlines as "a kickstart".

In truth, only the Herald used the k-word:

And that was presumably because Bernard Orsman would spontaneously combust were he to write a report that offered even a hint of credit to Len Brown, who won his long battle to start sooner rather than later on this crucial work of transport infrastructure.

On the other hand, there were few news organisations actively mocking the government's belated reversion to the plan the council has proposed for the past five years (note that rather than bringing forward its share of funding for the CRL, the government actually erased its self-imposed delay on that funding). This isn't the first time Key's government has been offered such a kindness, and it won't be the last. In a way, it's not even the interesting part.

In yesterday's speech, Key said this:

It’s become clear that we need to provide certainty for other planned CBD developments affected by the Rail Link.

This means we see merit in starting the project sooner.

The translation of this is: "Even our Auckland business base is asking what the hell we're doing." The fact that the speech was made to the Chamber of Commerce was no accident. The realities of other CBD developments, principally but not only the demolition and rebuilding of Downtown Mall, meant the delay imposed by the government would increase both the cost and disruption caused by the project. This isn't even news.

Yesterday's announcement might be seen as less of a sudden backdown than the final stage of a long retreat from the remarkable hostility goverment ministers showed to the CRL. In 2012, the Dominion Post quoted then-Transport minister Gerry Brownlee on the council's case:

Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee has slammed Auckland Council's study on traffic solutions for the city and the City Rail Link saying the council "struggles to make the case".

The City Centre Future Access Study, released yesterday, warned of significant delays and congestion in Auckland within 10 years if the City Rail Link was not built.

The study followed a request 18 months ago from former Transport Minister Steven Joyce for Mayor Len Brown to develop a robust and achievable transport programme.

The minister requested Auckland Council specifically investigate alternatives to the City Rail Link.

The study was completed in consultation with central government officials but despite that Brownlee said the tunnel was not viable.

He said the report, while useful, fell some way short of convincing the Government it should provide financial support to any fast tracking of the proposed City Rail Link.

"The Government is not discounting the potential for enhanced rail services to improve central Auckland congestion in the future, be it along the proposed City Rail Link route or another service. 

"But this valiant attempt to make it stack up struggles to make the case."

Brownlee's actual press release was even more hostile. And yet, here we we are. We can only be thankful Mr Brownlee is not tasked with making decisions on the future of any of our other major cities. Oh, wait.

If Steven Joyce is still swinging wildly, Brownlee had no reason to comment yesterday. But some other players were put in a difficult place by the news. Cameron Brewer issued a bizarre press release that declared this to be bad for Phil Goff.

Goff himself responded very smartly by saying the government could and should clear up the matter of the actual sum of its contribution by treating the CRL the way it treats Roads of National Significance, and funding it in full. Key had, after all, almost said the proposed East-West freight road was a RONS when he described it as "a project of national significance" whose consulting process would consequently be streamlined. Who pays for that is an open question, but one would think the council is now in a position to sit back and consider offers from the government. Ratepayers will cover intersection upgrades and the like, but this is really Key's gig now.

That fact seemed lost on Goff's fellow mayoral aspirant Vic Crone, who despite having been at the lunch, took most of the day to get out a statement that said very little apart from this:

 Auckland Mayoral candidate, Vic Crone, is welcoming the Government’s funding announcement to bring forward the construction of the City Rail Link and the East-West connection as a win for Auckland but says strong leadership is now needed to deliver the projects ...

“It’s good to see the Government coming to the table helping bring these projects forward. Public transport passenger and road user numbers are rising and it’s important we’re able to cope with demand,” says Ms Crone.

"Managing the delivery of these major projects without blowouts, delays and disruptions is going to be critical,” says Ms Crone.

Ms Crone believes she has the leadership background needed to ensure responsible spending and reduce council waste with 20 years of business and high level executive experience.

“As Mayor I will safeguard the interests of Auckland ratepayers, making sure significant projects like these are delivered on-time, on-budget, and with minimal disruption to Aucklanders.

But, of course, the East-West Connection will very largely be built and funded via NZTA. Not the council or Auckland Transport.

Key's speech also covered the issue of housing supply. My fellow blogger Ben Ross thinks that there is a subtext to what Key said that signals government commitment to the principles of the Auckland Unitary Plan. And he may well be right: because there is no way to "continue lifting the supply of new houses in Auckland to meet the demands of this growing city" without fitting more dwellings in Auckland, and not simply endlessly expanding the hinterland.

This signal would not come as happy news to Act leader and reborn enemy of market freedoms David Seymour, who was quick out of the blocks yesterday with a really weird statement declaring that the government should have used public money to extort Auckland Council into dumping the core principles of the Unitary Plan.

It will doubtless cause problems for others in Auckland's centre-right establishment too. But it may well gradually become explicit. Yesterday I revisited the 2013 Media3 programme in which Todd Niall, Simon Wilson and Bernard Orsman talked about the media and the Unitary Plan (it's an interesting watch, from about 12:50). In his excellent set-up track, Jose Barbosa notes this quote from Bill English to Tod Niall in an RNZ reporting on the frosty relations between the council and central government:

We cannot let 20 planners sitting in the Auckland City Council offices make decisions that will wreck the macroeconomy.

His beef was the council's preference for housing growth within existing boundaries and near to existing infrastructure. Less than a year later, English gave a speech still defending "growing out", but newly lamenting the loss of focus on intensification as a result of opposition to the Unitary Plan proposals:

"What's actually happened is that the local authorities were keen for a denser city, but the inhabitants weren't, so they've jettisoned a fair bit of the densification aspect," he said.

"So if Auckland wants to grow now, it has to grow out because you don't want it to grow up. Now that's a fair choice, but please don't stop it from growing out as well, otherwise we'll get another few years of 15% house price growth and you get a real mess when it crashes," he said, adding the special housing areas agreed under the Housing Accord with the Auckland Council "do spread the city because the planning rules don't let you do anything else."

"We're indifferent as a government as to whether you grow up or out. But you said don't grow up, so we expect to help you grow out."

That was a sharp smack on the head for the centre-right NIMBYs. Then, last year English actually called on Auckland Council to "loosen the rules" to allow greater housing intensification within existing boundaries.

I think there's more to come on this, and that what is unfolding gives a quite clear picture of the way the current government responds to evidence. Its default lies with familiar political interest groups, but will gradually be wound back if and when stakeholders it needs, or a critical number of the opinion-poll public, have responded in a way that poses a political problem. I suspect this principle applies far more widely than in just the regional planning sphere.

In other words, the key to winning change seems to be to first make not changing a political problem.

I'm still not tired of the continuing flow of interesting Bowie things filling social media, and this is one of the best. Bowie played the annual Bridge School Benefit Concert in 1996. The clip below really comes to life with the lovely accompanying text posted by the organiser Pegi Young with the higher-quality Facebook version of the video:

My first impression of David Bowie as he walked through the front door of our home for the annual BBQ fiesta that traditionally kicks off the Bridge School Benefit Concert weekend was how slight he was. His music and his persona were so large that I was struck by the contrast. As I approached him and his band to welcome them to our home and to thank them for coming to play for our kids, the next thing that stays in my memory is what an absolute gentleman he was. He was an enormously talented yet humble man who was content to just hang out with the kids and other guests who were attending that night’s party. 

I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet him, to welcome him into my home and to have him grace the stage over that weekend in 1996 to offer his unique and innovative talent for our organization. 

He was an original in every senses of the word. On behalf of all of us who have been associated with Bridge School, I offer our sincere and heartfelt sympathies and wishes for peace to his many close and dear loved ones. 

Love and light.

Pegi

There's a YouTube playlist with the audio of 16 songs from Bowie and his band's two performances at the benefit.

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I'm away visiting family this weekend, but if you're in Auckland this Saturday, you might want to swing by the new Real Groovy Records store at 369 Queen Street for their opening fete.

From 11am, the courtyard in front of the shop will host performances from Thomas Oliver, Rackets, LarzRanda, Lydia Cole, Paquin and local DJs. There'll be food, drink and face-painting for the kids.

Further details and set times will be posted on the Facebook event page.

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Here's another nice thing. The people behind The Unofficial Flying Nun Music Vault came into possession of a bunch of vintage New Zealand music videos on VHS, did a really nice job of digitising them and are now sharing them via the Lost New Zealand Music Videos Facebook page.

Those there already include the Freudian Slips' 'Deviance' from 1985, Suburban Reptiles, Scavengers, Let's Planet, The Front Lawn and a great live clip of Toy Love doing 'Sheep' – which comes from a 1980 concert with the Swingers filmed at Rock Theatre, Wellington.

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Ahead of Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings' show at The Civic on Thursday next week, Marty Duda has kindly granted me the use of his interview with Rawlings, about being on the road with Gillian, what he's been doing in the studio (including tidying up Old Crow Medicine Show live recordings) and more. You can listen to it here in two parts:

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Tunes!

You know how I said at the top I've been enjoying all the Bowie ephemera being shared? Well, there's one thing I haven't been digging: all the shithouse remixes of 'Let's Dance' knocked out by no-name DJs last week. It's just a bad idea, guys.

But Peter McLennan did point me to this studio acapella of the song, which adds (or leaves in) little snatches of percussion, keyboard stabs and guitar to underpin the lead vocal and harmonies. It's cool. As Peter says, it would be interesting to hear someone play it out at a bar or club:

This also does not suck: Leftside Wobble has made a pared-back version of a rework he did a while ago of 'Sound and Vision', in tribute to Bowie and "created with love and respect for the source material". It's quite beautiful. Free download:

My new favourite Australians Cup & String have an EP of their housey-garage sound coming soon and they've posted some tracks on Soundcloud. I'm possibly too old to like this sort of bass music, but like it I do:

Perhaps because I've been looking at the Splore lineup, I've been thinking a bit this week about the British dancehall and its vitality. And I think this is an example. East London rapper Frank Gamble, in collaboration with Kojey Radical. He's apparently a bit of a mystery man:

My friend Keegan put me onto that – and also this. It is the Bayan Mongol Variety Group, from 1980, and I might have to find out a bit more about these geezers. From this Soundcloud account of all kinds of Mongolian music, from traditional to reggae.

And finally, another one from the A Label Called Success house of hits. A bit heavier on the kick drum than last week's, but pretty cool:

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The Hard News Friday Music Post is kindly sponsored by:

It wasn't television, it was radio being made. And that is a virtue. The debut episode of Checkpoint with John Campbell went out yesterday and while there are still a few moving parts to be bedded in, it seems clear this is going to work.

I watched it sitting at my computer, ducking away occasionally to look at other things and see what my social media friends thought, while staying engaged with the audio. So it passes the ADD test nicely.

Many other people seemed to be doing the same and there was a notably positive response on social media to seeing "real people" on screen. In contrast to television news, which is controlled and inviolable, seeing reporters and a newsreader who hadn't been corporate dress-coded made the programme seem accessible and engaging. There's so much of the theatre of television that can be dispensed with at no real loss to anyone.

There are, on the other hand, some different skills to be learned. Katrina Batten, a fine newsreader, struggled a little with her autocue (it gets easier, believe me) and there was the odd bit of awkward body language. But, you know, it's day one.

One thing is clear: the lapel mics don't cut it. Speaking on radio is about being (or at least sounding) close to the mic and the voices without the pictures weren't quite up to scratch for radio. I don't think bringing in proper microphones would really detract from the programme. Indeed, it might contribute to that sense of radio being made.

Similarly, I don't mind seeing Katrina get up and leave after her bulletin (although could someone please install a hook for her to hang her cans on?). If you've sat in the control room for a programme like this, you'll know how in-motion it is. That's something the show should be happy to convey.

The video links went off quite well (I thought the medical cannabis interview was particularly effective, sync issues notwithstanding) and the switches to simple audio were smooth enough. The one part that felt odd was the Nadene Lomu interview, which felt like a chunk of Campbell Live dropped into Checkpoint. The human-interest orientation of 7pm TV current affairs and the imperatives of a 5pm daily news roundup on radio are quite different things.

Apart from that, the host was excellent. He dialled it back a bit for radio, but it was good to see him walk around a bit at the end. I think there's no reason he can't venture out into the control room again, if that's where the action is. Again, they can do things TV wouldn't.

If you tried to watch it on Freeview Channel 50 and couldn't find the channel, you'll need to do a quick retune of your set – easy enough, but perhaps off-putting for RNZ's older listeners. But the potential for RNZ to expand on Freeview – where as a full Freeview partner it has rights to the Freeview Plus real estate for catch-up programming – is considerable.

This really is the toe in the water for a more comprehensive move to illustrated radio. And, as Lizzie Marvelly observed on Twitter, the wairua was good. It felt right. Bravo.

There is, of course, already a discussion thread here devoted to David Bowie and his passing – and I had intended to lead with something different for the regular Friday Music post. But then I noticed this post on Dangerous Minds. It basically explains that David Bowie is cooler than you will ever be because he recorded the first Velvet Underground cover – before the first Velvet Underground album was even released.

In 1966, Bowie's manager Ken Pitt returned from New York with an acetate of the album that would be released as The Velvet Underground and Nico. Pitt didn't much fancy the record, so he gave it to the young singer, who liked it very much and had The Riot Squad, the band for whom he was briefly lead singer, play it. It was never officially recorded, but there was a rehearsal tape which was released on an album of Riot Squad oddities in 2012:

Bowie didn't stop there. He also lifted lyrics from 'Venus in Furs' for the Riot Squad song 'Toy Soldier'. It is, to be honest, a pretty bad song, albeit hardly one where you'd expect to hear the words "Taste the whip and bleed for me".

But there's more!

In a piece Bowie wrote for New York magazine on being a New Yorker, republished this week by Vulture, Bowie gives his account of discovering the Velvet Underground. And he says the first Velvet Underground cover was in fact performed by his other band at the time, Buzz (aka The Buzz), when he insisted it be done as an encore at the band's final gig.

"It was the first time a Velvet song had been covered by anyone, anywhere in the world," he writes. "Lucky me."

I think it's worth quoting at length Bowie's account of hearing the Velvet Underground for the first time:

The second, a test pressing with the signature warhol scrawled on it, was shattering. Everything I both felt and didn’t know about rock music was opened to me on one unreleased disc. It was The Velvet Underground and Nico.

The first track glided by innocuously enough and didn’t register. However, from that point on, with the opening, throbbing, sarcastic bass and guitar of “I’m Waiting For the Man,” the linchpin, the keystone of my ambition was driven home. This music was so savagely indifferent to my feelings. It didn’t care if I liked it or not. It could give a fuck. It was completely preoccupied with a world unseen by my suburban eyes.

Actually, though only 19, I had seen rather a lot but had accepted it quite enthusiastically as all a bit of a laugh. Apparently, the laughing was now over. I was hearing a degree of cool that I had no idea was humanly sustainable. Ravishing. One after another, tracks squirmed and slid their tentacles around my mind. Evil and sexual, the violin of “Venus in Furs,” like some pre-Christian pagan-revival music. The distant, icy, “Fuck me if you want, I really don’t give a damn” voice of Nico’s “Femme Fatale.” What an extraordinary one-two knockout punch this affair was. By the time “European Son” was done, I was so excited I couldn’t move. It was late in the evening and I couldn’t think of anyone to call, so I played it again and again and again.

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There is a little more to this. While the Velvets were totally out of step with the West Coast love vibe stateside, a kind of secret musical history unfolded in London. The Yardbirds got hold of a copy of the album – perhaps because JimmyPage had played guitar on Nico's debut single in 1965 – and added 'Waiting for the Man' to their live set:

The song was also performed by Mick Farren's MC5-like London band of freaks The Deviants. Which brings us to another connection. After being kicked out of Hawkwind, the late, great Lemmy went on to form a band with Deviants guitarist Larry Wallis. That band was called Motorhead.

And that, boys and girls, is the end of today's lesson in how everything is connected.

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Audioculture has a second installment of the punk-era pictures of Sara Leigh Lewis.

There's also a whole new trove of Auckland punk and thereafter photographs, from the private collection of an unnamed donor, who has stipulated that they're copyright-free. They include this remarkable pic of Doug Hood onstage with Chris Knox in The Enemy in 1978:

And this pic of Kath Webster from Look Blue Go Purple, wearing the frock that became the EP cover ...

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Me and my crew are excited and set to dance at Sunday's Shipshape with John Morales. If you like disco, funk and soul, you might want to get along. And you might want to bend an ear towards Nick Collings' interesting interview with Morales for Radio Hauraki's In It for the Kicks show before the DJ's first New Zealand show last year:

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Tunes!

100% for the dancefloor this week.

I've mentioned the Australian UK-garage DJ duo Cup & String before (notably for their great bootleg remix of 'Say My Name' by Destiny's Child). Three months ago, they posted an amazing remix of The Streets' 'Has It Come to This', promising to take it down if anyone objected. Never mind that, said a hundred people in the comments, can we please god have a download of this? And you know what? They've done it. Click through and get in and get yours while it's still there:

Connor Nestor and his buddies at A Label called Success have been trickling out nu disco niceness for a few months now, but have chosen only to put it out on the streaming services. Being elderly, I asked Connor this week whether there was any way of buying an old-fashioned download. There isn't (although it appears there will be in future) but Connor was kind enough to switch on the download for this, their latest release. It features Jordan Arts of High Hoops and Leisure on vocals and it's sweeeeeeet:

George Darroch put me onto this rework of a techno classic. Free download:

This swooning deep house remix of Tula's cover of 'Wicked Game' is also a free download, but requires an irritating Spotify follow (I just clicked the "I'm already following" link and that worked fine):

And finally, London-based Aucklanders Chaos in the CBD on the remix. Free download.  Pretty gorgeous, no? 

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The Hard News Friday Music Post is kindly sponsored by: