Fiona and I celebrated her birthday on Tuesday night with dinner at Coco's Cantina (free-range veal Milanese ftw!) and then Lawrence Arabia's show at Golden Dawn. We literally walked into the venue just as he started playing, and gee, it was a lovely evening.
I'm struck by the way James Milne can reshape his catalogue to the occasion, whether it be a 10-piece ensemble (with string section) at Laneway or, as it was on Tuesday, a charmingly self-aware ("I feel awkward -- it's like you're all watching me ... It's a delightful experience, but also terrifying") solo show. He offered up Reduction Agents songs, Lawrence Arabia songs, even a little Fabulous Arabia. Where there was call for a horn section, he made the noises himself.
When he finished with 'I've Smoked Too Much', it seemed that was it. But no. Without telling anyone what he was doing, he stepped down off the stage, strolled into the bar, sat down at the old piano there and began playing that perennial encore, 'Waiting For Your Love'. And everybody came inside and joined in and it was pure magic. I caught the end of it on video:
James flew out to Europe the next day -- in the first instance to play several shows in Britain with the Phoenix Foundation. I hope he does well. And as I said to him when we left: "There will be an audience for those songs for as long as you want to play them."
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I'd have been at the GD on Sunday night for the Phoenix Foundation too, had not Toby Manhire rather thoughtlessly failed to telepathically read my intentions from several streets away and picked me up on his way there. Apart from anything else, I'd have been interested to see how they all fit on that stage. I gather it was a grand show.
Actual record reviews are a bit beyond me at the moment, but after letting the new album Fandango swoosh, swoop and swoon by me a few times, I can say this: it's greater than the sum of its parts. The Phoenix Foundation are keeping the album format relevant, which I'm sure is their intention.
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The first hour of Afrika Bambaataa's show at The Studio last night was sensational -- an expertly-mixed selection of hip hop, electro, soul and even Florida rave (DJ Icey's 'This Is How My Drummer Drums') -- and then the MC had a rest and he rolled out his disco set, which was perfectly genial if not quite the same thing.
The audience could have been bigger -- it was a busy night in town and if you hadn't bought your ticket in advance you were looking at $60 on the door -- but it was a nice crowd, including a few greybeards and some b-boys and b-girls who were clearly some years from being born when 'Planet Rock' first came out. Good turnout from the nerdcore community. Respect.
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In a nice little nod to New Zealand Music Month, Design Assmbly asked a bunch of people (including ) to talk about their favourite New Zealand album covers. This was mine:
Explanations had to be trimmed a bit to fit, but here's mine in full:
The Clean
Boodle Boodle Boodle
Flying Nun (1981)
This sleeve is a fine line drawing by Chris Knox based on (and thoroughly transcending) a promo photograph of the band in a bath. It doesn't really have design elements as such -- it's an illustration incorporating the title. But it conjures the atmosphere of the time -- one where records could be made in halls and houses (Boodle itself was captured to four-track tape in the ramshackle Oddfellows Hall on Auckland's Bond Street) and sleeves, posters and videos were the work of friends or of the band members themselves. Chris Knox has long insisted that those early Flying Nun records shouldn't be characterised as "low-fi", but "low-tech" -- and that's what we see here. It's a virtuoso drawing with a pen. It's also worth noting that the original 12" came with a similarly low-fi comic drawn by the band -- and a few lucky journalists got Knox's incredible pop-up press kit, which might actually be the best press kit ever.
Although, it could also easily have been this one:
That image was reproduced on possibly my favourite t-shirt ever. I wore the shirt to the film studios at Wroclaw, Poland, when I flew there once to do a story on Yello for Select magazine, and was stopped in the hallway by a couple of very excited artisan film-makers. The language barrier prevented me from finding out whether they were fans of the band or just loved the image, but boy did they love it.
Peter McLennan has some more faves.
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It's an 80s celebration tomorrow night at the King's Arms, as Danse Macabre and Penknife Glides get together play a reunion show at the King's Arms. (They're saying it's 31 years since they played, but Danse Macabre did have a little get-together several years ago.) Penknife Glifes even have a new record! I'm tempted to go if only to catch up with that lovely man Stefan Morris, who I haven't seen since we both worked at Rip It Up in the early 1980s.
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Over at TheAudience, Motocade frontman Eden Mulholland has this catchy little solo number (free download if you click the "Fan" button):
Also, atmospheric indie pop from The Leers (another free download):
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