The electricity gods have been angry today, so I'll get straight to the point: Lawrence Arabia is playing at Mt Eden's Crystal Palace theatre this evening, with a string section – and a (solo) SJD in support. There's no way this ain't gonna be great. It's also your last chance to see them before they head off for dates in the UK and France.
And I have a double pass to give away. Just click the email link at the bottom of this post and mail me with "Lawrence Arabia" as the subject line. I'll do a draw at 4pm today, which will leave all the non-winners time to buy a ticket here.
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Moana Maniapoto has written a wonderful column remembering Dalvanius Prime. And the comments are really good too. With Tearepa Kahi's Poi E: The Story of Our Song poised for general release, it seems we're paying some overdue atention to a proper legend.
Here's Dalvanius and the Fascinations from 1977. Awww yeah.
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Shaft have released their first track in decade and it's everything you'd expect and hope for – just madly, madly tuneful. I was singing along to the chorus the first time I played it.
They're playing with Minisnap, Nakey and others tonight at the Darkroom in Christchurch.
I've been following trippy West Auckland hip hop crew Third3ye for a while now and I think they've gone up a level with their new album 3P. It's conscious and funky like this:
The whole album's only $6 on Bandcamp.
Shayne Carter and Don McGlashan are reprising their Auckland Arts Festival team-up and hitting the road for a tour together in October. Their new website – donandshayne.com – has the info, including the news that a live-in-studio CD, recorded at The Lab the day of their arts festival show, will be exclusively on sale at the gigs.
Impressive electronic producer-artist Peach Milk launches her EP Finally tonight at Whammy. Under the Radar has the exclusive on the Soundcloud stream, along with an interview.
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Turns out, there's a lost William Burroughs album and it's seeing the light of day now, nearly 20 years after he died. It's Burroughs reading from The Naked Lunch, backed by Bill Frisell and others. You can listen to and read about here.
And if you like that, you'll probably be interested in staring at this one-of-a-kind Sun Ra record that for sale on eBay at the moment.
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Thanks to Stuart Page for the heads-up on this YouTube channel of conncerts from New Jersey's Capitol Theatre from 1973 to 1987. Let's be clear: some of them are in very murky black and white and rather a lot of them are Grateful Dead shows – but there are some gems, including Prince, Parliament, Elvis Costello and this 1984 show by REM, which opens with a country-stye cover of 'Pale Blue Eyes':
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Tunes!
Aussie two-steppers Cup & String have a new EP out, but I'll do that when it's available more widely and not just on Traxsource. But for now, they've made their remix of the Nightcrawlers 90s club hit 'Push the Feeling On' a free download. I like this.
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