Florian Habicht’s Pulp film is warm, funny, satisfying and true. And its first few minutes are just brilliantly, awesomely exuberant. They're why people buy records and go to gigs and obsess over bands, and why people play in bands in the first place.
By the time we'd seen the whole film and had Jarvis Cocker himself join us by Skype for a Q&A afterwards, the audience for last night's first New Zealand screening of Pulp: A Film About Life, Death, And Supermarkets didn't so much leave by the exits as float out of them. This is a life-affirming film and you should try and see it at the Film Festival.
I knew a little of the territory, having seen Eve Wood's 2009 Sheffield music documentary The Beat is the Law, which you can watch online here. Sheffield people have an idea of themselves that is borne out in both films. They're funny buggers and it was a pleasure to meet them.
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I have previously mentioned here a forthcoming Shayne Carter "piano album", for which Shayne deliberately took himself out of his comfort zone by putting down the guitar and writing on the piano, an instrument he'd never played before. Well, it's still forthcoming, but near, and Shayne is doing a little crowdfunding to get him over the line with mixing, mastering and manufacturing. You can read more and make a contribution here. There's also a video ...
And there's that book of Chris Knox's art and graphics still being crowdfunded too. In that case, you can have the satisfaction of pre-ordering the product.
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You know there are ways in which a dreamy rap about getting it on with a Greek god could go wrong, but Coco Solid's new (here on iTunes) single 'Oh My Zeus' gets it really right. It's meta-clever and funky.
Bristol-based New Zealander Sammy Senior has posted this thumping ghetto funk take on The Fatback Band's 'I Found Lovin'':
A dazzling bit of Latin dancehall reggae from the Auckland-based Chilean vocalist Jah Red Lion, produced by New Zealand's Dub Terminator and released on the local label Soul Island.
You can buy the 100% Aotearoa-produced EP (which also includes the cracking 'Never Leave Me Alone') here on iTunes.
Also on out today and on iTunes, ‘This Love’, by Dave Dobbyn with the Orpheus Choir of Wellington, is a tribute to the Pike River 29. Not at all what I usually post here, but I'm a sucker for Dave's big, wide, essentially civic tunes. Is there an emotional equivalent to "public intellectual"? Poet, I guess:
Aaaand ... something comes out of that Lorde-and-Diplo partners-in-crime thing. A terrific remix of 'Tennis Court' that has "feelgood anthem" written all over it. Release or download please.
Artist of the week at TheAudience: Kaine Harrington, aka American French Fries, a solo project born in a bach. His guitar sounds sweet:
Thanks to Paddy Buckley for the tip on this post about Ibiza's Glitterbox club night (where the roster includes Hercules & Love Affair, Kenny Dope, Joey Negro, Late Nite Tuff Guy, David Morales, Todd Terry and Dimitri From Paris), which features a free download of Late Night Tuff Guy's disco-delightful 'Do You Wanna Get Down'.
And finally ... I'm not going to shit you, if the name Fonzi Thornton came up in a pub quiz, I'd be guessing. But he turns out to have an incredible career as the "vocal contractor" on a string of classic records from Chic's 'Good Times' to Roxy Music's Avalon to every gold or platinum album Luther Vandross ever made. My curiousity was triggered by this joyous rework posted this week by Yam Hoo?:
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